Full story
One night, the Cheyenne reservation where Danielle Moonstar lives is torn apart by what looks like a tornado. Her father hides her in a tree and disappears. Dani wakes up strapped to a bed in an old, isolated hospital, looked after by Dr. Cecilia Reyes. The doctor explains that Dani is a mutant, that no one else survived and that she will stay there until she learns to control a power she doesn't even know yet.
The hospital has only four other patients, all teenagers. Rahne Sinclair, a devout Scottish girl who turns into a wolf, is the first to welcome Dani, and the two fall for each other. Sam Guthrie flies like a rocket and accidentally killed his father in a mine collapse. Roberto da Costa burns from the inside and killed his girlfriend by touching her. Illyana Rasputin is cruel to everyone, carries a magic sword and a dragon puppet named Lockheed, and hides childhood trauma. Each one carries a heavy secret, and Reyes keeps saying the goal is to become X-Men someday.
Strange things start happening. Each teen is attacked by their worst fear: Sam sees his father in the mine again, Roberto sees his girlfriend on fire, Rahne faces the priest who branded her a witch, and Illyana is hunted by the Smiling Men who tortured her as a child. The teens figure out that Dani is creating these visions without knowing it. They also learn the hospital is not a school: Reyes works for the Essex Corporation, which trains mutants as weapons, and a force field keeps them all inside.
Reyes gets orders to eliminate Dani and tries to kill her. In her panic, Dani unleashes the Demon Bear, the creature that destroyed the reservation and lives inside her fear. The bear tears into the building, kills Reyes and brings the force field down. Illyana, Sam, Roberto and Rahne fight together, each one facing their own trauma.
Unconscious, Dani hears her father's spirit. He tells her that inside every person live two bears, one of fear and one of love, and the one you feed wins. Dani wakes up, faces the Bear without fear and calms it until it fades away. At dawn, the five walk out of the hospital with no barrier holding them and head toward town together. Where they go next is left open.