WARNING: The following contains full spoilers for Champions #18, with writing by Mark Waid, art by Humberto Ramos, colors by Edgar Delgado, and inks by Victor Olazaba.
Marvel's current team of Champions was born out of the fallout of Civil War II. Miles Morales' Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Nova (Sam Alexander), Totally Awesome Hulk Amadeus Cho, the young time displaced Cyclops and Viv Vision came together with the goal of trying to be better than the adult superheroes they had worked, and looked up to, with in the past.
The group's mission statement is to "change the world," and it's that statement and their relationships with each other that have kept the six of them together. Until now. As the series prepares to say hello to a new creative team with the next issue, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos give a send off to one of the original six members, even as another gets a new lease on life.
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Champions #18 picks up immediately where last issue left off. Viv 2.0's programming was infected by a virus that turned her homicidal towards her flesh and blood sister, and in an act of desperation, the human Viv had to kill her sister...right as the Champions arrived at the Vision household.
Now, while the Champions try to save the dying synthezoid on the floor, Viv runs away just moments before the Vision shows up and demands Nadia Pym shrink down to Wasp size in order to analyze Viv 2.0's brain functions.
With Viv 2.0 in capable hands, the other Champions set about finding Viv, aided by new recruits Ironheart, Red Locust, Patriot Rayshaun Lucas and the second Falcon, Joaquin Torres. Split into pairs, none of them are able to find her, since they never planned for her to become a human in the first place and can't resort to tracking her online connection like they could when she was a synthezoid. No, the one who finds her hiding in a sewer drain is her father, who remembered how she picked the same spot when the family once played a game of hide and seek.
Vision plainly asks his daughter why she decided to run away, explaining that he had already learned of Viv 2.0's infection and her murderous last words. Viv's answer is appropriately human: She'd never killed anyone before and was afraid that her father would hate her for what she had done.
Taking Viv back to see Viv 2.0, he informs her that while her synthezoid form is technically "alive," she'll never be able regain consciousness thanks to both the virus and Viv's actions. There's no way to bring Viv 2.0 back without the virus, but for Vision, just having his daughters safe and sound is enough. But for Viv, this is not acceptable, and with Wasp's help, she does the only thing she can think of: she transfers herself into the body of her sister, becoming a synthezoid yet again and promising that the other Viv will live through her.
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After Viv is appropriately dressed, the Champions celebrate their friend's rebirth -- but it isn't all laughs and smiles. Cyclops informs Ms. Marvel that he has to leave the Champions. Of course, readers knew he'd always had to leave at some point, as has he. But he's has waited to break the news until they picked up more members. The X-Men Blue team is about to go on what he refers to as a "really huge" mission (It's not referenced by name, but it's probably the X-team's trip to space with Venom), and it's one that he has to be on.
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Earlier in the issue, we had checked in on Cyclops and Ms. Marvel as they're searching for Viv, and the young mutant tells a previously unraveled story about himself. When Scott was only seven years old, the bus driver for his brother Alex's school keeled over while driving. Scott had to drive the bus to keep the kindergarten kids safe, and later had to call the bus department for help. The young hero tried to perform CPR on the driver, to no avail. And as Scott explains it, the first thing his dad Corsaire said when he learned about the incident was that Scott "handled it like a man."
It's those words that have stuck in Scott's head and informed his behavior over the decades. He's always been dinged as a character for being too straight and serious across all his interpretations, and now we have a good idea of why he's like this. Though his father likely meant nothing by it, referring to a child as a "man" forever and not checking in on his son forever changed how Cyclops saw himself. He always had to put on the mask of being a hero throughout his life, which explains why he was so confrontational with the Avengers and Inhumans before his death by Terrigen mists.
Because he was the first X-Man ever recruited, he's viewed as an authority figure to the rest of that team, even when they're constantly ribbing him. While Scott considers it a burden, he knows that this isn't something he can tell anyone else on the X-team, not even Magneto. The Champions are the only ones who can know about his insecurities and more, that when he's with them is the only time he feels he's allowed to just be a teen and relax, and it's something that he'll miss dearly. Though Scott would likely be better off emotionally being around the Champions, he is first and foremost a member of the X-Men, and like his future self, he puts his people first before anything else.
Not wanting to break the news to the others himself, he asks Kamala to do it instead, but not before telling her that convictions and what the Champions stand for is important. He knows that they're going to go far. Though Cyclops has left the team, his departure only spurs the Champions to keep up their work. "Don't worry about where we've been," reminds Amadeus, "where are we going?" To that, Ms. Marvel ends the issue (and the Waid/Ramos run) by reinforcing what the kids have always promised: "To change the world."