In the regular Marvel Universe, Scott Summers and his brother Alex were orphaned after their parents were abducted by an alien spaceship.

This is the story of what would happen had their parents managed to evade the spaceship and raise Scott and Alex in Alaska. Narrated from Alex's point of view, the younger sibling deals with jealousy over his supposedly perfect brother, who becomes more and more paranoid as he begins to realize he's not like other children.

Scott discovers he can fire laser beams from his eyes, and Alex makes a friend in the form of Hank McCoy, a.k.a. the Dark Beast. Scott's fear of being discovered grows as the days go on, and Alex's insecurities leave him easy prey for the Beast's subtle manipulations...