Homefront,+Part+2+of+4


 * Age of X: Homefront, Part 2 of 4 **




 * Plot**

(Takes place at the same time as Academy X Issue 53) Phantasma plummets to the ground after being hit by a Purifier biosentinel’s Hope round. Without her powers she is unable to use her telekinesis to stay airborne. Billy is able to use his super speed to race under her and cushion her fall. Nightwind uses her darkforce sword to knock out the last conscious Purifier. Medic hurries over to heal Phantasma, but something’s wrong; his powers won’t work on her! Even worse, the Hope round that hit her was a cocktail of Hope and some other drug. Phantasma is dying! Icegirl tells Panzer that Phantasma will receive quicker treatment from Jessica than at the hospital. Nightwind teleports Glimmer and Phantasma back to Academy X immediately. Panzer, Medic, Blur, and Icegirl stay on the scene to help the downed mutants and assist with cleanup. Back at Academy X, Bastienne, Matt, and Jessica meet the eXalts in the medical lab. Jessica puts her medical training to use and quickly determines that Samantha was injected with a powerful sedative. She administers treatment quickly and is able to save Samantha’s life. Blood tests reveal that there is Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH) in Sam’s system. Jess theorizes that the Hope was also laced with power-dampening MGH, which is what prevented Medic from healing Sam. Another result of the blood tests is even more surprising: Samantha is pregnant again! At the halfway house, Dane has an argument with Agent Owen of S.H.I.E.L.D. once the scene is secure. The Academy X headmaster wants to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. always shows up a minute or two after the conflict is over. Agent Owen gives a rambling answer about logistics, response times, and so on. When pressed, he admits that it’s better for the eXalts to be seen fighting in the streets with anti-mutant forces than have S.H.I.E.L.D. routinely engaging in urban warfare, especially after the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently caused so much death and destruction in San Francisco. Mac chooses to go forward with his Unity Campaign events on Saturday. He organizes protests at all ten mutant registration sites in San Francisco. Hundreds of mutants and mutant allies show up at every site. All told, almost three thousand protestors attend in total! Thrilled by the growing success of the movement, Mac moves forward with the next stage of the plan: organizing a boycott of businesses that supported Proposition X. Unfortunately, due to the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, many pro-Prop X backers are anonymous. Mac asks Dane for help in getting information on the financial backers of the pro-Prop X organizations. Once Samantha is better on Sunday, she asks Lucius if he can give her the Hope cure he developed using vampire blood. Lucius does some testing and determines that it should work even with the power-dampening MGH in her system. He gives her the Hope cure and her powers return! But now Lucius is out of the Hope cure. He needs more vampire blood to create additional doses. Samantha agrees to ask Jubilee for blood samples. When Sam approaches Jubilee, she feels oddly drawn to the vampire… A new week begins at school. Combat Club is once again well-attended. Julian gives another introductory speech. He speaks out against mutant registration and urges all mutants to be ready to defend themselves if necessary. Mac, who always attends in case a student needs healing, is a bit worried about the incendiary nature of Julian’s speech. He is not an advocate of violence in advancing the mutant cause. Dagan, who is in attendance to support her boyfriend, tells Mac not to worry. Julian is only talking about self-defense, not using violence. Later on Monday, Dane does some investigation and is able to uncover the financial backers of the some of the pro-Prop X groups. The financial backers are a mixture of conservative groups, like Focus on the Family, the Concerned Women for America, and anti-mutant groups, as well as religious groups like the Mormon church, the Catholic Knights, and the Church of Humanity (as well as the Humanity Now! coalition members). There are also several businesses that supported the ballot measure. Dane shares the information with Mac. Curious, Dane decides to look into who is funding the Peaceful Coexistence Party. Beyond a wide range of liberal groups (and recent funding from conservative groups!), Dane recognizes one odd backer: Trion, the holding company owned by Hellfire Club: Tokyo! It seems Hellfire Club: Tokyo is funding Sangrey – as well as many other political candidates… Tuesday brings David’s bail hearing. Despite being defended by Academy X’s lawyer, Evangeline Whedon, his bail is revoked. And without a trial date until at least January, David will be in custody on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion for the foreseeable future! Later in the week David has a surprise visitor. It’s Honoka, new teacher at Academy X. Honoka says that she knows David doesn’t trust her, but he is a coworker and Honoka agrees with his stand against registration. She pledges to keep him updated about what’s happening in the outside world. Bastienne also visits David. While she’s on the Triskelion, she visits the former Guardians as well. Late in the week Academy X receives a new student: junior Stephanie Lub! She is a dark-skinned girl from the Mideast or the Mediterranean that has the ability to increase her density, giving her increased strength and toughness. Since Academy X had an opening for a junior, X-Corporation: Amsterdam asked if they would take Stephanie. She had been a ward of the group since her parents had died. Since X-Corporation had done Academy X a favor by taking troubled mutants like Nicholas and Zach, Dane and Bastienne agreed. Friday night is Bastienne’s roller derby match. She does well, but her team loses. They may not make the finals, depending on their last few games. Saturday is another round of the Unity Campaign’s protests. The protests at registration sites have spread statewide! This time James Sangrey makes an appearance at a protest in San Francisco. Nearly ten thousand mutants and mutant allies attend protests throughout the state. The movement is gaining a lot of human support, and protestors (including mutants) are even arriving from out of state to support the Unity Campaign. Sangrey comes out in opposition to Prop X and mutant registration. It’s a bit of a risky declaration as it’s a hot topic politically, but most voters already assumed the mutant candidate was against mutant registration. Plus the latest polls have shown the state evenly divided when it comes to mutant rights (and registration). If the Prop X vote was held today, it’s likely it wouldn’t pass. Sangrey has been highlighting a socially liberal, fiscally conservative platform that seems to be doing well. In recent polls, he’s only eight percentage points behind the Democratic candidate. It’s amazing because only a month ago he was down by nearly twenty. Either the endorsement from the Republican candidate helped, or he’s gained a lot of sympathy from the convention center attack. Over the weekend Matt visits his Morlock family. When he returns he has some interesting news. The Morlocks are considering moving their colony. There’s been some rumbling among local law enforcement that having a group of mutants living deep under the city might not be safe. Now that mutant registration has begun, it could be used as a tool to get rid of the “vagrants.” If the Morlocks don’t register, the authorities could use that violation of the law as a way to get rid of them. Valerie and the other runners have been scouting out new possibilities in case the Morlocks have to leave. On Sunday Bastienne gets an e-mail from her Unity of the Holy Cross contact, Bishop George Hinton. He asks if they can meet Saturday. She says yes. Then there’s screams at the pool. Bastienne runs outside to see that new student, Kenji Uedo, has lost control of his mutant ability! He tried to use his mutant power to create something out of organic technology, and now it won’t stop! Tentacles made of flesh and metal burst forth, spreading across the basketball court, into the pool, and nearing Academy X! Bastienne gets the nearby kids to safety while the rest of the staff springs into action. Panzer grabs Kenji and moves him farther from the school. The tentacles are still growing! Blur and Jubilee grab the last few kids. Nightwind uses her sword to chop off a large tentacle, but Kenji screams in pain. It’s gushing blood! Medic heals the wound. Jess uses the water from the pool to create an ice wall, blocking the tentacles from damaging the school. Phantasma finally arrives on the scene. She uses her mental powers to knock Kenji out, stopping the uncontrolled attack. After everything is cleaned up, the staff wakes Kenji up in the woods away from the school. He’s back under control. At a staff meeting, there is concern about Kenji losing control again. The group also discusses other students. Wicked has been talking to ghosts of dead students once more. Evan, the clone of Apocalypse, is shy and withdrawn. Is that a problem? Dane also says that all their efforts to track the Purifiers have been fruitless. When they’re not in biosentinel form, they seem like normal humans! How can they be traced? On Monday the entire school shows up for Combat Club. The kids are making progress in their self-defense efforts. Unlike the “normal” self-defense and powers classes the school offers, Julian pushes the kids more. There are more injuries, but the increased stakes has forced more kids to improve. But Julian’s organizing and speeches seem to have an unexpected effect. On Wednesday the staff plans to bring the kids to a mutant registration site in San Jose – and the kids refuse to go! Julian speaks for the group when he says that this is their moment. They want to follow David’s advice and take a stand. And the staff said they wouldn’t be forced to register. The staff of Academy X is worried what this might mean for the school, but they agree to abide by the kids’ wishes… Saturday arrives and it’s a busy day. Mac’s Unity Campaign protests continue. This time businesses that supported Prop X are protested. Once again thousands attend throughout the state. By now the events are getting a lot of press attention. Agape is working at the hospital, and she calls with some information: a friend of hers in the intensive care unit was able to get a blood sample of the mutants in comas! Maybe Jess or Lucius can figure out what’s odd about them? Meanwhile, Billy, Dane, Jessica, Samantha, and Dagan accompany the seniors to the Capitola Mall in San Jose. The seniors are using their senior privilege to go out for the day, but considering they’ve refused to register and the deadline has passed, the teachers want to accompany them just in case. Honoka, Matt, Lucius, and Jubilee remain at the school. Bastienne plans to meet her contact, George Hinton at the food court of the mall. The kids are excited about the outing. Some, like Dagan and Julian, go to see a movie. Some summer blockbusters, like Inception and The Expendables, are still playing. Others see comedies like Easy A. Still others go shopping. At dinner time everyone is in the food court. Bastienne spots George at one end of the food court near the fountain. The flowing water drowns out their conversation so others can’t overhear. He says he has news for her. In one of his meetings with Church of Humanity officials a few months ago, he overheard a Church of Humanity priest talking on the phone. The priest said something about a squad, and mentioned weapons. The man he was talking to was named Robitaille… <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">At that moment Bastienne’s phone rings. It’s Ruth! She talking quickly, but Bastienne makes out her message – Billy is in danger! She seems him across the food court near the other staff and seniors. Suddenly a large number of people rise from their seats around the mutants. It seems like a coordinated activity, like a flash mob. But Bastienne can see their feet turning into thrusters and their arms becoming blasters. They’re biosentinels! She quickly shadow steps over to Billy and knocks him to the ground. The fighting begins! Laurie is blasted, but her physiological enhancement helps her survive the blast. The seniors rise, ready to defend themselves. Julian extends his hands to blast away the nearest Purifiers – when suddenly an explosion throws him backwards. His hands have been blown off! Billy gets ready to run to Julian’s side, but he pauses… and collapses! What is going on? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Next (Issue):** Issue 54 - 'Tinderbox' <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Next (Storyline):** Age of X: Homefront, Part 3 of 4 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Previous (Issue):** Issue 53 - 'Six' <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Previous (Storyline):** Age of X: Homefront, Part 1 of 4