Banished is the first episode of Season 1 of Exiles: the Animated Series.
Synopsis[]
A barren desert, located absolutely nowhere. And absolutely nowhen. Nothing happens. Ever. Time passes. Realities come and go. But for the first time in the history of this barren, deserted reality, something happens. A portal in the sky opens, and noise of a war comes out of it. The screams of a thousand dying mutants. And then it all stops. The portal remains open. And then, someone comes tumbling out, landing in the barren sand.
Blink, the pink-skinned, teleporting mutant who had landed, stands up and spits sand out of her mouth. She wipes off her outfit, and wonders aloud where she is. As she begins to look around, she turns to see a woman who looks to be in her early twenties. However, she had blue skin, a tail, and was wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. Blink freaks out and backs away, quickly generating two teleportation rods, ready for a fight. The woman reacts in a negative way, teleporting behind Blink, and pushing her to the ground.
"So, you're a teleporter too?" says Blink. "What do you mean 'too?' You teleport?" responds the blue woman. "Of course," says Blink as a portal appears above her and floats down to the ground, making her disappear.
Blink appears behind her and gets her in a choke hold. The blue one then disappears into black-isk yellow energy as she fades into Blink's body. Blink's eyes turn yellow as she falls to the ground, and the blue teleporter exits Blink's body, ready for another attack. Blink gets up, rods ready, but before they can charge at each other, a stretching mutant with pitch white skin jumps in between them, ending the fight.
"I'm not usually one to break up a catfight between two smoking hot colorful women, but I need answers. Who are you two?" he asks. "Morph!" shouts Blink as she tackles Morph with a hug. "I thought you were dead! I saw you die! What happened?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hot stuff. I've never died. I've come close, but I haven't. But still, you seem to know me, but I don't know you. But I'd be willing to get to know you." Morph winks at her, and the blue woman sighs in frustration. Blink gets up off of Morph, shocked he doesn't know her.
"My name's Blink. We were friends, Morph. We fought together, in the X-Men."
"X-Men? Lady, I know my X-Men. My dad was an X-Man, and you were never and X-Man." says the blue one, whose name is still a mystery. "I don't care what you think, I'm more of an X-Man than you'll ever be. But who's your father?" replies Blink. "Nightcrawler. My name's Nocturne, but my friends call me Talia."
The two of them finally shake hands, leaving Morph thoroughly confused.
"I knew your father. We were really good friends before he, well let's not get into that. The point is, we're clearly all on the same side here, and we need to figure something out." says Blink. Morph hops up and puts his arms around the two of them. "I couldn't agree more. Let's start by getting to know each other a little more. I'm Kevin. We're already on a first name basis!" Both Blink and Nocturne are already frustrated and they knock his arms off. He sighs but quickly recovers. "What about you, hot pink? What's your real name?" Both Morph and Talia stare at her expectantly. "I'm Clarice."
The moment is interrupted when they hear the sound of footsteps behind them. They all turn around to see a mountain of a man wearing extremely advanced armor.
"My name is Thunderbird. I suggest you all follow me if you want to find answers. You can trust me."
A moment of silence lingers above the four of them. Morph, Blink, and Nocturne all exchange hesitant looks, but Nocturne shrugs and follows him. Soon the four of them arrive in a more open space in the desert, where Thunderbird rejoins two men who seem to be his colleagues. Nocturne runs after him, leaving Morph and Blink in the dust as they try to keep up. Nocturne runs up to the man with wings and exclaims, "Now you, I know! You're Mimic! You were an X-Man for about 10 minutes before going insane and trying to kill Iceman!"
Mimic looks confused and a little amused at the same time before separating himself from Nocturne.
"Lady, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm the LEADER of the X-Men." says Mimic.
Nocturne, Blink, and Morph all look equally confused before the man wearing a sleek red suit with a streak of white in his hair spoke up.
"I was just as confused as you. My name is Magnus." He holds out his hand, and when Blink takes it, he kisses her hand, making her jerk it away and blush. He grins and straightens his back before speaking up once more. "Before coming across Mimic and Thunderbird here, I saw something that looked vaguely similar to a malt shop from the 50's. Maybe we can find answers there." Without waiting for reactions or objections, Magnus begins walking, and everyone follows. Blink and Nocturne walk with each other.
"What's a 'malt shop?'" asks Blink. "Seriously? Where are you from, Clarice?" Nocturne jokingly replies. "A war zone." says Blink, dead seriously, before walking ahead of Nocturne, who stops, gulps, and continues walking with the group.
After arriving at the Malt Shop, Magnus walks up and holds his hands in the air, and they glow red. The doors crumble and rip themselves off of the entrance. He then spreads out his arms and the doors go flying either way. As Mimic walks ahead of him he sarcastically says, "You know, we could have just opened the doors, right, Mr. Overkill?"
Magnus scowls at Mimic as the six mutants continue on into the Shop. A short, round, old man is waiting for them at the counter. He begins to speak with a voice that does not suit his appearance at all.
"Welcome, Exiles. My name is the Timebroker. You have all become unhinged from time in order to complete a series of missions to restore your realities to their proper state."
After the six of them stare in silence, Mimic steps up and says "You mean to tell me, that we're all from different realities? And now we have to go to other ones just to get home?"
"That is precisely what I am telling you, Calvin Rankin of Earth-6. The multiverse is broken, including all 6 of your home realities. You in particular are greatly affected by these changes, and in order to prevent them, you must fix the tears in other multiple realities. Since you will be working as a team, you must need to get to know each other first."
Before anyone can process what he was saying, or reply, he snaps and several chairs fly over and hit the "Exiles" behind their knees, causing them to fall into the seats. He snaps once more and a TV Screen comes out of the ceiling.
Morph exclaims "Whoa, nice flat-screen. Can we watch the Miss Universe Pageant?"
"No." replies the Timebroker. He presses play, and the origins of every one of them plays before their eyes.
Blink comes from a world where Apocalypse rules the Earth, and Magneto formed the X-Men.
Nocturne is the daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch. She is a member of the New X-Men, led by Professor Howlett, who was crippled by Cyclops.
Magnus is the son of Magneto and Rogue, who is incapable of human contact without turning the other person into metal, forcing him to wear a skin suit.
Morph is one of the most popular superheroes in his reality, becoming a member of both the X-Men and the Avengers. For a short time, he even aided S.H.I.E.L.D., but he eventually returned to his home with the X-Men.
Mimic was originally a member of the Brotherhood, but he eventually betrayed them and joined the X-Men. Eventually, he became their leader and he led them into an age where mutants where accepted by humans.
Thunderbird was kidnapped by Apocalypse and turned into the Horseman of War. He was later freed from his control by Jean Grey, but he was now stuck in his monstrous body.
After the presentation was over, the 6 of them sat silent in their chairs before Thunderbird gained the courage to speak up once more.
"You said our realities in particular had been affected. How so?" The others murmur in agreement.
Timebroker sighs and replies. "John Proudstar of Earth-555542, you were never freed from Apocalypse's control. You remained a slave. Calvin Rankin of Earth-6, in your first mission with the Brotherhood you killed Senator Kelly, along with 12 innocents. You now sit on death row. Talia Wagner of Earth-2704, your father was killed by Mystique before he even learned of your existence. Kevin Sydney of Earth-1215, in your early days as a New Mutant, you were in a grave accident. You now reside comatose, in permanent liquid form in a test tube in Henry McCoy's lab. Erik Lehnsherr, Jr. of Earth-90032, on your 13th birthday, your secondary mutation erupted earlier than planned and you accidentally turned your mother into metal. Your father never forgave you and he became a terrorist. Clarice Ferguson of Earth-62955, you died of starvation in you cell before being freed by Sabretooth and joining the X-Men." He remains silent as he lets it all sink in. He looks around at their shocked faces and smiles. He snaps his fingers and a golden gauntlet with a red orb inside of it appears on Blink's wrist.
"That is the Tallus. It will take you on your adventures and give you your missions. Well, you better be off now. Good luck, and you'll be sure to see me soon again." As all of them try to run towards them, a portal opens behind them, and it moves forward, encasing all of them.
They all then appear in the middle of a deserted road, where they all fall to the ground. They all look around, and have no idea where they are. They soon go to an abandoned shopping mall, where Morph discovers that in this reality something called "The Zero Tolerance Policy" was initiated long ago, and it made having superpowers illegal, so any meta-human or alien was locked up and kept away. After learning this information, Morph and Mimic look expectantly at Blink, who still wears the Tallus. Before she can say anything, Nocturne and Thunderbird return, each wearing suitable clothes, ready for combat. Magnus then walks in, with all of the security systems hovering around him, clearly disabled.
Blink then speaks up and says "The Tallus is saying that we need to free the one that would teach us all." Mimic, Morph, Thunderbird, and Magnus then all say in unison, "Charles Xavier."
Blink seems skeptical, but Mimic says "The Tallus isn't saying no, is it?" Blink hangs her head. "Alright, good. We need to find him. Luckily, I still have a bit of telepathy from Jean Grey. Magnus, do you think you can whip us up a Cerebro?"
"Are you serious? If I couldn't do that, my X-Men would have died a long time ago." He grins and then activates his amazing power, quickly creating a Cerebro for Mimic to use. Within about a minute, Mimic rips off the helmet and exclaims that he is in the closest prison in the state.
Soon, Mimic, Morph, Nocturne, and Thunderbird are standing in front of the high security prison. Through telepathy, Blink says "Remember the plan. Keep the guards occupied while Magnus and I grab Xavier."
"Sure thing. Just give us the word." says Mimic. "Now!" shouts Blink, and the four of them break down the doors as the waves of guards come storming in. Morph smiles and says "This is gonna be fun." "Yes, fun. I haven't had that in a while." says Thunderbird. "Tell me about it." says Nocturne, as she teleports into battle.
Inside the prison, a portal opens and Blink and Magnus hop out. "He's at the very end of the hallway." Says Magnus, reading the layout of the prison. The two of them sprint to the end, and Magnus controls the doors to open. Inside, they see Charles Xavier with many wires inside of his body, and he is wearing a power dampening helmet. Magnus grimaces before ripping all of the wires out, and lifting the helmet off.
"Be careful, he looks very old and fragile." says Blink. "Sorry. Let's just grab him and get out." The two of them walk over to the unconscious telepath and lift him up.
In the midst of the battle, a bullet whizzes right past Mimic's head and bounces off of Thunderbird's back. He turns around and charges at the guard who fired it. He grabs him and begins using him as a weapon against the others. Nocturne teleports behind a guard and snaps their neck with her feet. She shouts in joy as Morph (who has taken the form of a Superman duplicate) flies behind her, taking out guard after guard.
Inside their heads, Blink says "We got him, we're heading out."
As Thunderbird bangs two last guards' heads together, portals begin opening and sweeping away the Exiles. They all appear in a barren road, a couple of miles outside of a small town. Mimic runs over to Xavier, and shakes him awake. As his eyes open Mimic exclaims "Professor! We saved you! It's alright, you're okay now. Let's get you out of here and get you some medic-"
"Shut up, you stupid kid!" interrupts Xavier. "I know who you all are. I'm inside your heads." He continues, breaking free of Mimic's grasp, standing up. "This good, wise old man, you all know me as. I'm not him. You idiots are out of your league. I've got decades of hate built up inside me!" He shouts as he sends a mental attack at all 6 of them, knocking them out. He continues down the road, saying to himself, "Time to eliminate the human race."