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It's later. . . .
The X-Men, now back at the Mansion, are watching the event at the Mutant Halfway House being broadcast on the evening news:
Newscaster: "Some are questioning if the entire transfer of the criminal mutants from local law enforcement into custody of the Department of Mutant Affairs wasn't a ploy, with the real transfer intended all along for the one called Magneto."
Jubilee: "That questioning doesn't make any sense! Not all of the arrested mutants even went with Magneto. Man! I wish I'd thought to blow out the camera!"
Beast: "Magneto ensuring the recording device remained functional at an ideal vantage point, even while its operator was detained," his tone grows more disgruntled, "as 2/3rds of us were."
Storm, however, has been watching the newscast with a different view. Turning it off now, she speaks her mind: "Magneto's words were not wrong. The direction the idea of mutants is taking in the minds of non-mutants is unsettling."
Jubilee: "Even bad guys say things that sound good! And it's not everyone's idea of us."
Storm: "No, but it doesn't have to be. Only the idea of those with power."
Beast: "Indeed. 'All struggles are power struggles. Who will define, refine, confine? Who will dominate?'"
. . . .Back with Jean Grey.
Whatever Jean had been perceiving, navigating by, has long since eluded her. She looks a mix of unsettled and tired, the latter namely from the time spent searching so far. One hand is on the opposite arm, the injured one, but she moves it now to hold her head.
"Can I help you, miss?"
Jean answers ahead of turning to the speaker: "I'm looking for someone."
"You're not welcome here!"
In alarm Jean turns now, but notices by the direction of their gaze, that bit wasn't directed at her. She turns her gaze in the direction of theirs just in time to see a couple other people, obviously mutants, dashing away behind a building.
The non-mutant shakes their head with an ugly expression: "I swear, we're being taken over. Where do they keep comin' from?" Another head shake. "Anyway, you're the only one I've seen come down this way. Why don't you ask those muties? Who knows what they see us as," he starts walking away.
Jean decides to take his "advice", though clearly not from the same pool of thought.
It doesn't take her long to find the mutants.
Mutant # 1: "Please, we didn't mean harm. We just wanted to cross to the other alley."
Jean, of course, is sympathetic: "He should be gone in a minute. I'm sorry when any of us have to share our neighborhoods with such prejudice."
They peer at her. "You're a mutant then, as we are?"
"Yes, and I'm looking for another. Have you seen a man wearing a visor over his eyes? He also has a suit on like mine." She and Scott had been going to don their long coats over their suits to look less conspicuous, but had planned to after landing the X-Jet.
The two other mutants shake their heads, and Mutant # 1, the older of the two, speaks again: "If you find him it will be a first."
Jean's brows knit together.
"I know others missing loved ones here. You already saw how the regular sorts are about seeing us," she gestures in the direction the man was, "when we're no where to be found is how they like it. I'm sorry for you."
"You mean no one has helped you?"
Both shake their heads. "Any report a mutant brings to the police, they might as well have not bothered. They don't."
Mutant #2 supplies: "Not for long, anyway. Like they do enough just to say they responded. It's no more than we could do on our own."
"It's less."
Jean: "Tell me about your loved ones. Maybe I can come across something while I'm looking for mine."
Flashes
A family in a cockpit,
Cyclops and Jean Grey in one.
The mother instructs her sons: "Hold onto each other!"
Cyclops: "Hold tight!"
The parachute fails, young Scott slows their descent surprisingly, by blasting for the first time in his life.
Jean's telekinesis having failed, adult Cyclops blasts measuredly to slow their descent.
But the landing doesn't go as planned.... if the plane's destruction hadn't lit the parachute....
If the jet's destruction hadn't knocked them apart....
"ALEX!" A brother lost.
"JEAN!"
...."Scott...."
"Scott. . . ?"
We now see that Cyclops was hauled away; though we can't see by whom. He's not conscious enough to respond to the call.
'Jean....' --'Jean!' He's awake, in some room dimly lit in such a way that the steely walls take on a green tint. Looking around, it appears he's alone. He tries to move and the rest of his senses get through to his mind: the jacket of his combat suit has been removed along with his undershirt, both tossed aside; he's kneeling in the corner of a room with his hands shackled behind him, each cuff also connected to the wall just where it goes out from the corner, via individual chains which cross over; the chain of his left-hand cuff running to the right wall and vice-versa.
He's able to stand but can't take even one full stride forward. A door opens across the room letting in more light. A figure stands shadowed in the threshold.
Cyclops fixes them with a stare: "Where's Jean?!"
The figure doesn't answer. They only walk up to him, followed by another, and force him onto his knees by applying downward force to one of his shoulders. Then there's a voice, not from either of the ones near him, but beyond the room: "Best not try to seek her while your eyes must hide." Cyclops visor is removed.
He keeps his eyes shut -for all he knows the person outside has her. If he tries to see...
Instead he listens. Something sounds like it's sliding open near him. His attention is shifted as one beside him begins setting something else in place of his visor. It feels strange; thin metal, something slipping over his eyelid. His head is pushed down, then---KKZK-ZHOOOOOM!!!! The contraption has forced his eyes open -he's blasting down through a trap door that has opened in the floor. After a minute the contraption works in reverse -forcing his eyes to stay closed.
The outer voice speaks again: "A baseline established. Now we prepare for Test #1. Perish?"
Another figure steps forward, a mutant. They concentrate on Cyclops in some way. He utters an "uhn!" responding to some force.
Outer Voice: "Inject."
The near figure now grabs one of Cyclops' back-turned arms, locates his vein, accepts a syringe from the other near figure, and injects.
Outer Voice: "Now open."
The near figure works the contraption again after once more forcing Cyclops' head to bow. KKZK-ZHOOOOOM!!!!
The Outer Voice speaks over the sound: "Increase rate of assimilation."
The mutant called Perish steps forward again.
After another minute of forced blasting, the contraption is reversed again.
Outer Voice: "Reestablish his proper functioning and that will do for this session. You may return to him the 'freedom' of his eyes."
Another injection, another moment of concentration from Perish. One of the close figures keeps Cyclops head controlled while the contraption is removed and his visor replaced.
Then everyone departs, closing him in the eerily dim-lit room once again; leaving him to catch his breath. .
. .and collect his bearings.