Issue+12+-+'It+Never+Rains+in+Southern+California'


 * Issue 12 - 'It Never Rains in Southern California' **



**Plot**

After the Sentinel attack on the mansion, Dr. Strange arrives and promises to look after young Will. A few weeks pass and life returns to normal at the school. The damage from the attack has mostly been repaired and students are enjoying a quiet Friday night. David has gone to “see his family” but is actually working on a secret plan. Jessica has discovered that Agape, the new Head Girl now that Meghan has transferred back east, has been in the lab reading her own medical file. Dane asks the east coast school about some redacted sections of her file and learns that Agape was actually created from Ice Man - she houses half of his mutant power (he couldn't deal with being an Omega-level mutant). Later, Ruth mentions that the seniors that fought against the robot need code names. They are granted permission to choose code names. Meanwhile, Dane’s technology class has discovered that the defeated Sentinel was stolen from a SHIELD facility and upgraded. According to its memory banks, the Sentinel was serving a robot known as “The Monitor.” In addition, Lucius has determined that the EMP blast that penetrated the school’s EMP shielding was similar to technology from Cable and Bishop’s timelines; in other words, technology from the future. On Saturday, while the students finish cleaning up from the Sentinel attack, Magneto appears at the school! He tries to convince Academy X students to join Academy M. Billy attempts to attack him, but is stopped. Bast tries to help and gets close to Magneto. During this encounter, she notices that he smells like Samantha, but different from Mystique. Secretly she wonders whether Magneto is Sam’s father. After his speech, Magneto leaves peaceably. The eXalts contact the X-Men about Magneto’s return. The X-Men prepare to travel to the west coast, but they won’t arrive for a few hours. At Academy X, there is a fight between pro- and anti-Magneto students. During the conflict, Dagan receives a phone call from a mysterious caller who claims that Jessica has been kidnapped. The caller says that Dagan must come alone or Jessica will die. Dagan convinces Cameron to take her to where Jessica is being held – a laboratory owned by a company named Benetech. Then Ruth gets a precognitive vision that Jessica, who was supposed to be running errands to re-stock the medical lab, is in danger. During this time Cameron manages to turn on his communicator to warn that he and Dagan are heading to Benetech. The remaining eXalts, along with Agape, hurry to Benetech, but Cameron and Dagan have already been captured. There the eXalts are confronted by Magneto and his new Brotherhood of Mutants: Discord, Pyro (somehow resurrected), Switch, Quill, Leech, Cordelia Frost, and Feral. The eXalts attack the Brotherhood and, during the attack, discovered that Magneto is really Mystique in disguise simulating Magneto’s abilities through MGH. Samantha is unable to use her telepathy on Cordelia and vice-versa, which later helps her realize they are related. Once Sam realizes that Cordelia is her aunt, this leads to the realization that Emma is her mother. During the fight against the Brotherhood, the battle turns against Mystique’s group. The student with Blink’s power teleports the Brotherhood away, since they already got what they needed – knowledge from Dagan’s mind that will lead them to Magneto. They also took samples of Dagan, Cameron, and Jessica to create more MGH. After taking Jessica’s MGH sample, they injected her with Hope, “curing” her of being a mutant. When the Brotherhood teleport away, Dane grabs onto one of the students and goes along. He sees the interior of Mystique’s school, though he can’t figure out exactly where he is before he is teleported away by the student using Blink's powers. He becomes stranded in the middle of a desert. Back at Academy X, the X-Men finally arrive and are filled in on the story. They rush off to follow the Brotherhood, but neither group can find Magneto. Meanwhile, David enacts his secret plan to make a deal with Dr. Doom…

**Next:** Issue 13 - 'The Rock of the Bay' **Previous:** Issue 11 - 'When the Lights Go Down'