Three years before the nuclear bomb, the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men seeks out Michael Langdon, who has been arrested for killing a man who insulted the woman Mead is modeled after. He is put to the test and displays tremendous abilities. Miss Robichaux's Academy is summoned for a meeting and Cordelia scoffs at the Grand Chancellor's suspicion that Michael may be the first male Supreme, known as the Alpha. To prove his power, Michael saves Queenie from eternal damnation at the Hotel Cortez and fetches Madison from her personal hell.
