Time in the arcade came and went for the mutants, and before long, they were all back in the van, just a few miles out from the Russian border. Unlike before, the commute was lively as all five mutants were passing the time joking around and answering hypotheticals.

"Alright, who is the strongest superhero you guys think you can take out?" Pietro asked everyone, sitting backward in his seat to look at the team. There were plenty of people with special abilities in the world who were not mutants. Whether it be due to spider bites, advanced armor, or being born a god, they did in fact exist.

As for why they didn't help mutants, it was a complicated matter.

"I'm not saying I'll win, but I'd like to fight the Human Torch for the fun of it." Bobby sounded a little unsure of himself, but he thought the idea of ice against fire was interesting and a good way to test his limits.

"What do you think though? Give an answer. You or him." Pietro was very into this discussion. He thought the concept of super-powered people fighting super-powered people was interesting.

"Agh..." Bobby groaned, hesitating because he didn't want to sound cocky, but also not like someone who had zero confidence in himself. "I think I'll win."

"Damn, you think the Human Torch is weak?" Ky spoke with a teasing tone, gaslighting Bobby.

"Huh? I didn't say that." Bobby tried to defend himself, but Xiao adding to Ky's words only made the situation worse for him.

"No, he does. I just heard him think it." Xiao's headband was set to zero, therefore she couldn't hear a single thought coming from his head and was purely messing with him. She was catching on pretty quickly to the whole concept of joking around.

"Okay, now you're just lying." Bobby rebutted.

"Wouldn't he just melt you?" Pietro asked, looking at the fight from a surface level and not taking into account the intricacies of it.

"Bobby could put out his fire though, right?" Tom added, thinking it was possible but there were far too many variables to be sure.

"Wouldn't the fire just put out his ice attacks though?" Pietro asked.

"Yeah, Bobby is getting cooked." Ky didn't even have an opinion on the matter, he just liked riling Bobby up for no real reason other than the fact that it was funny.

"No! Where does he even get his energy from? I bet I could tire him out and win since I can just use the moisture around me to help conserve energy." Bobby crossed his arms confidently as if he'd actually won the made-up battle in his head.

"Oh, so you do think you can kick his ass?" Ky continued gaslighting Bobby for fun, holding back his own laughter, as was everyone else once they caught on to what he was doing.

"I'm not even-" Realizing everyone was just trying to mess with him, Bobby stopped himself and redirected the conversation toward Tom. "What about you, who do you wanna fight?"

"I'll copy you and choose someone who I just want to fight for the fun of it. Iron Man. We have the same ability if you really think about it, we both make things. If given the tools, I think I could make a better suit than him and win in the end. There are too many variables to be sure. What about you, Ky?"

"I'd wanna fight Spider-Man. I heard he has the ability to sense attacks before they come out. If that's true, we're kinda similar. Fighting Xiao who could read my mind was annoying, but it forced me to come up with new strategies, so it was fun in the long run." Ky was ready to toss his turn over to Xiao, but Pietro stopped him.

"Hold it. Spider-Man can literally lift buildings, dude. He could punch your jaw off in a single punch. There's no way you can beat him."

"I never said anything about winning. Besides, I probably won't die instantly so I could just reverse time if he hits me... I think. Who cares, Xiao you go." Ky turned the stage over to Xiao, who then put her hand on her chin and really thought about it. She didn't know of many superheroes, only a handful of the popular ones.

"I can beat the Invisible Woman I think." She admitted. "Like Ky, I believe it could be entertaining. Perhaps I could read her mind and find where she is despite her being invisible." Xiao of course wasn't aware of her other powers, but Pietro was prepared to tell her exactly how he thought she'd lose.

"Aren't you forgetting she can create force fields? She can just throw you a million miles away or something."

"I never said I'd win. I just said it would be interesting." Pietro groaned after hearing her also back down from giving what he thought was a true answer.

"You guys are so lame. It's no like they're gonna get made and come beat your ass because you said you can beat them. You wanna know who I think I can beat? Thor." Pietro spoke proudly, though everyone else looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Are you an idiot?" Xiao told him bluntly. Even she knew that Thor was far too powerful to be beaten by Quicksilver of all people.

"Think about it, I can just steal his hammer." Pietro, for some reason, believed the fight to be that simple.

"I heard you can't even lift his hammer unless you're a god or something." Bobby added.

"That is a myth. He probably made it up just to look cool." Of course, the secret to how Thor's Mjolnir hammer worked wasn't really public knowledge. Many believed it to be nothing more than a story. "What? Do you think Spider-Man also got his powers from being bitten by a spider? That would be stupid."

The five mutants started going back and forth about different myths and rumors going around about certain superheroes until the sixth member of the team spoke for the first time since they had left the arcade.

"Hey. We're getting close to the border." Eagle interrupted, looking down at his own feet with a contrite expression on his face. "Before we get there, I just want to talk to you guys about something..."

For once, it seemed Eagle was speaking with sincerity, and the mutants were unsure if that was a bad or good thing. "Sure, what's up?" Ky asked him.

"I... I want to apologize. You know, I never really spent time with any mutants or anything you know? I come from a time when mutants weren't even a thing... or at least, they weren't called mutants back then. What I'm saying is that I was raised to look at you all a certain way, but I realize now that it's all bullshit."

Eagle couldn't stand to look at them as he admitted that he was wrong. It was hard enough to speak on it, especially for someone as stubborn as him. "You guys are just kids. You shouldn't even be on this mission. It's just like..." Eagle stopped for a second. He wasn't sure if he was ready to open up about his past. After his time in the military, Eagle never opened up to anyone.

He had no family.

He had no lover.

His friends were all dead.

The only thing that kept him company was the bottle and his thoughts.

"When I was around your age, I didn't know where else to go. I wasn't going to college, I didn't have a job. I was going to end up on the streets...

But then I got an offer. They told me to join the military, flashing all of the benefits in my face, telling me that it would change my life.

Like the fool I am, I listened.

And I became a killer. A damn good one too. At first, it was hard, but once the body count got higher, it all started to become numb."

For all five of the mutants, they could understand that sentiment perfectly. Though some put on the facade of being fine with all of the killings they had to do, it took a toll on them initially. However, after the first couple of kills, they too felt empty after each kill.

"When I saw you guys at that arcade, I saw myself. I saw that eighteen-year-old boy who was turned into a murderer, into a monster. I realized we're the same. The only difference is that I did this to myself. You guys... you were forced into this. And for that I am sorry. I'm also sorry for all the things I've said."

Eagle exhaled, putting a sort of solemn grin on his face before continuing. "Even after all I've said, you all still tried to save me. Ky did save me. I didn't quite get it at first, I couldn't comprehend why a mutant would save me, but then it hit me.

'I am human.' That's what Ky told me the other night. It made me realize that at that moment, you and I weren't any different at all.

We were comrades.

We were teammates.

We are human." Eagle, pushing aside his own embarrassment, looked up at Ky, staring him right in the eyes. "I believe that you can change the world, Ky. There's something about you that creates change in people. Xiao and I are two examples of that, aren't we?"

Ky was shocked. He never saw himself as that kind of person, someone who could change people, someone who could be a leader. The more he thought about it, however, the more he considered that maybe he could make that dream he confessed to Xiao come true. He thought if he could change Eagle, perhaps he could change others like him.

"Again, I am sorry. For everything. I truly am." Eagle said quietly, looking back down at his own feet.

Out of the five mutants, only one of them was able to say anything. Pietro and Tom had no interest in forgiving a man who was spewing genoist remarks at them not too long prior to that very day. Xiao and Bobby didn't know what to think, though for their own reasons.

The only one who was able to say anything was Ky Thatcher.

"We don't want your apology, Eagle. I'll be honest with you, after all the things you've said, we can't just forgive you all of a sudden. I'm a forgiving person, naturally, I believe no one on this Earth was born good or evil. I do believe that it's in human nature to find someone to blame, which leads to humans acting in evil ways. It leads to them becoming monsters, which in turn creates more monsters, like us.

I never once thought you were an evil person for hating me, I just thought you were a complete idiot, to put it bluntly. An ignorant fool who listens to his master's orders.

But that's just me. I can't read minds, but everyone else may not be as forgiving as I am. I think they'd prefer to see you change. Isn't that right, guys?" Ky looked back at everyone else, urging them to at least give Eagle a shot despite them not really wanting to.

"Yes. You're right, Ky." Xiao, of course, was the first to agree, followed by Bobby.

"I guess. You're already doing better than my old man, so." the Iceman elbowed Tom in the ribs lightly, urging him to at least say something.

"We'll see." Tom said reluctantly. He had no intentions of forgiving him. The only thing that made him even consider it in the slightest was what Ky said about good and evil. He never quite thought of the world in such a grey light before. He only ever saw things as black or white.

Ky looked at Pietro, who immediately looked away and outside the window on his left side. "Depending on your answer to this question, maybe I will consider acknowledging your apologies." Pietro told Eagle, still looking away from him.

"Sure, what's the question?" Eagle was ready to give an honest answer, though the question wasn't something he expected.

"Who is the strongest superhero you think you can take out?" Pietro didn't look at him when he asked this. The question was truly meaningless, but he was tired of everyone being Debbie Downer. There was also another meaning behind asking this question, a meaning that only a few were able to pick up on.

Eagle paused briefly. He was confused, but he started to understand the secret purpose of the question and played along. "I think I could take Hawkeye in a one-on-one." Eagle spoke with confidence.

"You both have no powers and like to shoot stuff. That makes sense. Good answer." Pietro admitted. The conversation had been perfectly shifted away from such a depressing topic, however, they were immediately pulled back in by Xiao's next question.

"Why don't they help us? The heroes, I mean. They're like us, right? Why don't they defend us?" Xiao couldn't help but bring the mood down once again, despite Pietro's best efforts. Only one person had an answer for her, and of course, that one person was Ky.

"I don't blame them for not helping us. What can they do? The government controls everything, even them. If someone like Spider-Man were to try to help us, everyone would turn on them. They call people like him mutates, right? If you were a mutate, would you sacrifice your freedom to help fight in a losing battle? I wouldn't."

Before anyone else could say a word, the driver spoke. "We're approaching the border. Everyone stay quiet and stick to the plan."

The six members of the Dark Angels exchanged glances, knowing that the moment of truth was finally upon them. Outside of infiltrating the facility where the supposed secret weapon was kept, this was the most crucial part of the entire mission.

A single hiccup could mean life or death for all of them.

Feeling the weight on her shoulders, practically being the queen of this hypothetical board of chess, Xiao took a deep breath. Everything would be riding on her and her unique ability.

She could feel her heart racing, only for it to be calmed once she felt Ky's hand caress hers. "You got it." He told her, speaking with pure confidence. Ky's infectious confidence rubbed off on her, as the van continued toward the Russian border.

With a fiery look in her eyes, Xiao looked forward with a calm mind and a calm body.

'I got this.'