The Scott and Jean Archives
Having escaped from the Hulkster Base, the five X-Men cross the southwestern deserts and chance upon a cluster of trailers. They meet a blind man sitting by a fire. The blind man, who calls himself Mustang, barely survived a plane crash, and has acquired metal parts to reconstruct his body. Unfortunately, the crash has also cost him his sight. Many like Mustang have gathered at this trailer park to be treated by the “doc” in his “clinic”.
Suddenly, Storm collapses due to exhaustion. Cyclops asks Mustang if they can rest for the night. After a light mindprobe by Phoenix to confirm that Mustang isn’t a treat to them, they settle down, feeling at ease. With a touch of wind, she erases their footprints in the sand.
Having observed them for awhile, Mustang concludes that these five are “the mutants [they]’ve been hearing about”. He is aware of an “old army base” not far from the trailer park, and the X-Men must be trying to avoid “the radar”. Mustang goes into his story of the plane crash during a flying stunt. Then, they all go to sleep under the stars.
In the middle of the night, Wolverine sneaks off to take a peek in “the clinic”. Mustang hears him sneak off.
The next morning, the X-Men talk to Mustang regarding “the clinic”. Using her telepathy, Phoenix lets Mustang see what Wolverine found out. The “Dr. Prospero” was going to fix these people with “robot eyes”. Mustang is ecstatic at the possibility of being able to see again, but the X-Men think they’ve uncovered the secret behind the origin of the Prime Sentinels, “human beings enhanced with cybernetic technology”, also known as “Sleeper Units”.
Suddenly, Cannonball alerts the rest of his teammates to the approaching aircrafts and Sentinels from the base. Mustang quickly uncovers a hiding spot under the campfire.
Bastion is in the aircraft flying over the trailer park. He is advised that the X-Men would not be hiding in the trailer park, which is their “holding area for Sleeper Units”. They head south, in the direction of the X-Men’s jet set on auto-pilot and what seems to be an atmospheric disturbance in the weather.
A bus approaches with more patients for conversion into Prime Sentinels. Mustang rushes out to warn the patients of their impending fate, and tells them to “ask the mutants” if they didn’t believe him.
In the aircraft, Bastion wants to send out “Active Sentinels”, even if only three are “complete enough to have weapon systems installed”.
Senator Kelly stands over his wife, Sharon’s grave. He had been so involved in fighting mutants that Sharon had been taken from him in the war against mutants. Kelly intends to shut down Operation: Zero Tolerance.
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