It was a hour after fitting the pieces together that Generation X came up with a plan. It wasn't easy, and there were no promises that everybody would make it out alive, but it was the best plan they could come up with.

Paige started to balk at the key point of the plan. "Ah can't ask my bubba to do that! He doesn't know the gals. Ah'll take his place." Her accent was very strong, showing the level of stress she was under.

Angelo vetoed that. "Chica, you don't have the experience to do what needs to be done. One wrong move and you're dead meat."

Paige shook her head. "And that's what will happen to Sam. Ah can't let him do this."

Sam walked over at that moment. "Do what?" Paige shook her head.

Jubilee started to explain. "Here's our plan. M goes and starts a gas leak that causes the electricity to be shut off and everybody is moved out. Everybody, including the dudes in the cars and the guards. That way we can move without worrying about the innocent people. Then we move in, dressed like the emergency crew and get inside that building."

"What about the field?" Sam asked.

Paige pipped up, "Ah'll take on that guy and disable the field. Ah done worse in the biosphere."

"No!" Sam said very firmly, "Ah'll do that." Paige started to protest, "Ah've been trained by Cable and Wolverine, ya haven't." Paige knew that she couldn't argue with Sam when he was using that tone of voice.

M looked at the plans and started to calculate how long it would take to take care of the gas lines. "I think it'll take two hours for me to rupture the mains. We want enough gas so that the area is blocked off, but not enough to affect that building. I'm going to have to take this carefully or, this "Network," as Angelo called them, would get suspicious. We don't want them to even remotely connect Celeste and Ariel to a group of mutants."

Sam agreed to the plan, and they started to get ready.

Ariel was looking out the window in her room. Where were her best friends? They should have gotten them out by now. Jubilee was four hours late, and the men were getting nervous.

Celeste had decided to lay down in her bed. After the New Year's Eve that her life had changed, she had slipped into an emotional state focusing on nothing but basic survival for those she cared about. She had completely detached herself from her emotions in order to make important decisions. She was doing it again now.

Matt had agreed to take Ariel to the doctor's today so Celeste could have some work done on her car. He was due in an hour, and he would be walking into a death trap. While Tony didn't leave witnesses, he also had told her that he might take her with him. If Celeste was a hostage, then there was no way that Ariel would talk. Maybe, if she offered the right bribe, Tony would let Ariel and Matt go. There was nothing as valuable as her sister's and boyfriend's lives.

Celeste sat up and turned toward her sister. With a plan of action, anything was possible. "Ariel, I want you to close the curtains. Then go in my study and stay there until I tell you to leave."

Ariel turned at the near Vulcan tone of voice her sister used. Every trace of emotion had been erased from her sister's face. If Julie thought Emma Frost was an ice princess, then Celeste was an ice queen. It was useless to disagree with that tone of voice. For once, Ariel did exactly as she was told and walked into the soundproof study.

After using a chair to lock her sister in the study, Celeste got out all her jewelry and money. To save her sister's life, she would do what she had to. Carefully she laid it next to her on her bed. Calling Tony in, she started to negotiate.