Traitor

About an hour later, a truck was pulling away from the gates of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, a bloodied and broken body lay in front of the gates in plain sight and on the wall next to the gate was spray painted in red, “This is the fate of all race traitors.”

The only sound, though faint, was a harsh, difficult, intake of breath.

The introduction plot for Tommy Jones, Traitor was broken into four parts: This Love, This Hate, A Fair To Remember, Traitor and No Way Out.

Cast

Tommy Jones, Theresa Cassidy, Jay Guthrie, Nathan Dayspring, Bobby Drake, Jean Grey, Manuel de la Rocha, Kyle Gibney

Josh Foley, Duncan, Karen

Timing

This Love, This Hate - April 28, 2005

A Fair To Remember - August 20, 2005

Traitor - August 27, 2005

No Way Out - November 28, 2005 - December 4, 2005

Plot Summary

This Love, This Hate

Things began when Terry brought her new boyfriend Tommy to hear Jay play for the first time in public since he'd left Kentucky. Unknown to Terry and her friends, Tommy was in fact a member of the Friends of Humanity, who hadn't known Terry was a mutant until he'd come to the gig. Disgusted by being surrounded by so many mutants and their friends, Tommy took the opportunity to take revenge in his own way. Letting Jay pick him up and take him out to an alley alongside the club, Tommy then proceeded to beat the other boy nearly to death, shattering his wings. Only Jay's healing factor saved him from permanent injury.

Fresh from the beating, Tommy then took Terry to a pizza restaurant, where he proceeded to break up with her, telling her of his role in the CoffeeQuake fire and his true leanings in respect to mutants. A heartbroken Terry ran back to the mansion. Back at the club, Forge found Jay in the alley and alerted help. Jay, ashamed at how he had been treated, refused to tell anyone but his very closest friends what had happened and was weeks in recovery, both physically and mentally.

A Fair To Remember

Four months after Jay's beating, Nathan took a group of students to the State Fair. It was there that Terry was cornered by Josh. Rescued by Bobby, she was further shaken up by the appearance of Tommy. Fortunately, the appearance of Nathan defused the situation and allowed Bobby to take Terry to a safe place. Nathan then used his telepathy to terrify the two bigots and warn them off ever hurting an Xavier's student again.

Tommy, torn by his protective feelings for Terry and his beliefs, admonished Josh for starting trouble, earning the other boy's ire.

Traitor

Scarcely a week after the State Fair incident, HeliX and the FOH found themselves on opposite ends of a public rally. Things went peacefully enough, neither side willing to be the one blamed for causing trouble. During a heated speech by a more radical member of the FOH however, Tommy found himself growing more and more uncomfortable. Leaning against a tree for support, he tried to calm himself by reciting the chemical composition of the element lead. When his head cleared, he realised that he had turned the tree into lead.

In front of an entire rally of FOH sympathisers.

'Arrested' by some of the mutant-hating police of Salem Center, Tommy was taken to FOH headquarters where he was beaten savagely. He was saved perhaps by the 'genius' of his friends, who had the idea to leave him outside the gates of Xavier's. Found there the next morning, barely alive, he was taken into the school, where he spent a month in a coma. His presence at the school was the source of much debate and anger, especially from Jay and Terry, the latter of whom had her own set of conflicted feelings for the former FOHer.

Upon regaining consciousness, Tommy chose to remain at the school, mainly because he had nowhere else to go. His family and friends had nearly killed him, and wouldn't hesitate to attack him again if they saw him. Being held accountable for his crimes was out of the question as well - as a mutant FOHer, he was doubly at risk in a prison situation. In the end, Xavier's became his sanctuary, although he saw it more as his prison.

No Way Out

Following his recovery, Tommy asked Jean for a favour - to return to the park to see his tree. The trip resulted in a meeting with Josh and Duncan, who made it clear that should he show his face outside the Xavier's gates, he wouldn't survive. Increasingly depressed and isolated with his release from medlab, Tommy found a small amount of hope in a conversation with Terry. But an encounter with the emotionally-wounded Manuel de la Rocha shattered that when the empath stripped away Tommy's hate and self-loathing, leaving him hollow and fearing that all he had left was the hate. Another encounter - this one almost a bloody one - with Kyle pushed him over the edge and he returned to his room, intent on taking the only way out he could see left to him.

Fortunately, Tommy lived in a house of telepaths. Jean Grey caught the despair in his thoughts and stopped him. Tommy, past breaking point, finally admitted that he didn't know how to deal with his life and asked Jean for help. It was the mark of Tommy starting to accept his new life and to try and make something of it. As a result of his near-suicide attempt, he gained a roommate, Shiro Yoshida, and the two boys found themselves forming an often-uncomfortable friendship.

Related Links

Friends Of Humanity

CoffeeQuake

Collateral Damage

X-Men Mission: Haunted House

Penance (plot)

External Links

Traitor

No Way Out

Trivia and Meta

Trivia

As a result of the attack at the State Fair, Terry and Bobby became a couple. They 'accidentally' got married in Vegas in 2006.

Meta

Plotrunner: Amy