Fall Down Go Boom

• Writer - Chuck Austen
• Artist - Sean Phillips
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Saida Temofonte
• Colorist - Hi-Fi Design
• Cover Art - Steve Uy
• Ass't Editor - Mike Raicht
• Ass't Editor - Nova Suma
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Near Port Albany, Ontario, a father smacks his young son for crying over some girl; the boy's eyes glow; the farmhouse explodes.

  In Montreal Xavier meets with Jean-Paul, now a corporate executive, and asks him to teach as the Institute. Jean-Paul is his usual haughty self, and when Xavier explains he wants him to teach econ and gay tolerance, he agrees to consider it but still plans to decline. Xavier shakes hands and leaves, but asks him to assist the team he sent to Port Albany.

  Warren's team approaches the farmhouse; he takes lead even though he's wounded, but finds Jean-Paul ahead of him and immediately taking charge. Warren tells Stacy he's a former member of Alpha Flight, and when she mentions their kiss (iss. 412), he says they should forget it.

  Jean-Paul is glad Kurt is no longer a somber priest; they find children barely conscious in the next room; one thinks Warren is an angel come to take her to heaven, another apologizes for not being able to control his power and refuses to go on the X-jet. Just then he explodes, and Jean-Paul fails to use his superspeed to avoid the blast. Angry, he grabs the boy by the shirt, till Warren calms him down; Jean-Paul then insists on flying the boy to the mansion, since Warren couldn't survive such a blast.

  The boy explains his dad was hitting him; Jean-Paul says he had a worse time telling his dad he was gay; the boy freaks, calls him names, and explodes, making Jean-Paul drop him. He catches him inches from the ground, explains he doesn't like little boys but hairy men, and gets him to laugh.

  Aboard the X-jet, Stacy's still trying to apologize to Warren for her crush; then her ear sloughs off.

  The boy's name is Peter; he apologizes for name-calling. He says he'd been crying because a girl who didn't even know he existed loves someone else; Jean-Paul says affairs of the heart are never trivial. Another explosion, strong enough to knock them both to the ground. Xavier contacts them telepathically, saying Peter needs to be rushed to the Avengers, who have a siphoning chamber, but another explosion is building up, and even Xavier has no way to help. Peter knows this one will kill him and warns Jean-Paul to get away, but he stays to the end.

  He wakes in the mansion's infirmary; Peter didn't make it, but Stacy is wrapped up in the next bed. Jean-Paul decides to accept Xavier's job offer.

  Note: Xavier and his science, Jean-Paul and his God all agree that homosexuality is right and proper, and above all reproach.