7/12

7/12 X-Factor #23 shows how much preparation is behind all of this. The captives have power-dampening equipment. Hodge uses traps and a hologram, and the armored opponent the team fights is protected with ruby quartz to counter Cyclops. Even when they get through that armor, they discover they've been fighting a robot stand-in. Hodge has arranged the confrontation so other people take the physical risk while he keeps himself out of reach. His explanation also gets right down to the resentment behind it. He sees mutants as a threat to the position he thinks humans like him should occupy. Warren having advantages he doesn't have becomes part of something he directs at an entire group of people. The children get out, and the base is destroyed, but Hodge himself escapes that confrontation. Losing the facility doesn't undo what happened to the captives, and it doesn't mean the person directing it has stopped.