Erik Lehnsherr strode calmly through the halls of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. He made his way to the elevator that would take him to the sub basement where his old friend was patiently awaiting his arrival. Well, probably not so patiently at this point, as Erik purposely took his time to meet him. Charles' excited message of 'Erik, meet me inside Cerebro immediately, please' had been received well over ten minutes ago.
'I don't particularly enjoy being summoned,' Erik thought to himself. As he pressed the button to summon the elevator, the sound of nervous murmurs reached his ears. Turning, he watched as a couple of the newer mutants skittered out of the hallway. A slow smirk made its way to his face.
He found it incredibly amusing that he had been living at the Institute for over a month now, had even taken up training the New Mutants and X-Men alike, and yet many of the residents were still skittish around him.
At least he didn't have to fight to keep control of the remote.
The elevator door opened and Erik stepped inside, pressing the button for the sub basement. His mind wandered to Charles' annoyingly vague message. 'He certainly seemed excited about something' he thought. He didn't have time to ponder it any longer, as the elevator jerked and came to a stop. He stepped out and walked down the hall to where Cerebro sat in all its glory. The door was open.
Inside sat Erik's closest friend. Charles held Cerebro's headpiece in his lap, a faraway look on his face and a slight smile on his lips. He glanced over as Erik entered, his smile quickly changing into an expression of playful irritation.
"I was unaware the trek from your room to the sub basement was so lengthy, Erik." Erik smirked.
"I got lost," he replied sarcastically. Xavier actually laughed aloud at that. "Charles, what on Earth has you in such high spirits?"
"I thought you would be interested in witnessing Cerebro's newest update in action."
That piqued Erik's curiosity.
"Oh, and what does this update do?"
"Instead of only showing when a new mutant's powers emerge, Cerebro will now to alert me to a possible heightened X-gene in an individual. Furthermore, I have it set to inform me if the emergence of said individual's powers would be detrimental to his or her mental health." As Charles explained all of this, his eyes lit up and it was quite obvious to Erik that he couldn't wait to begin.
"You've certainly kept yourself busy," he muttered as Cerebro's doors slid shut. Charles laughed again as he placed the headset on his head.
"Yes, well, that is if it works, of course."
Suddenly, the machine came to life. The screen shifted to a map of their current location.
"I am checking if we even have a –"
Right then, Cerebro let out two soft beeps.
"Ah, it appears we actually have two. Both reside in…California."
Erik glanced away from the map, which had once again shifted, (this time to show southern California) and locked eyes with Charles. The man had a huge smile on his face, his eyes bright. It was obvious the possibility of helping these soon-to-be mutants truly excited him. Erik couldn't help but return his friend's smile.
"We should probably set up a –"
Charles was cut off by a series of loud beeps emanating from Cerebro. The screen flickered on and off in a manner he had never seen before. As he reached up to remove the headpiece, he was hit by a sudden, intense pain in his skull. It felt like an attack, but the culprit would have to be an incredibly powerful telepath. Someone of his caliber. The pain was blinding.
He heard a surprised exclamation off to the side and turned to face Cerebro's other occupant. Erik dropped to one knee, his hand held to his head. He had an expression of pain etched on his face.
As abruptly as this phantom attack began, however, it ended. Neither man moved a muscle, both attempting to even out their haggard breathing.
Charles turned back to Cerebro's screen as Erik stood back up. Both noticed the absence of the strange beeping and screen-flickering. Cerebro merely displayed a detailed map of southern California, exactly as before. Erik turned to face his friend.
"Charles, what the hell was that?" He hissed. He was enraged. It had been years, decades possibly, since he had suffered a mental attack. He almost forgot how painful they were.
"I haven't the slightest idea," Xavier responded, shakily. "I will certainly look into it after we have taken care of this." He waved at the map on the screen, indicating the two green dots that had since appeared. They were rather close to each other.
"After?" He asked, incredulously. What did he mean, after? They had just –
"Yes, Erik, after." Charles cut off his line of thinking strongly. "The purpose of this endeavor is to potentially stop someone, in this case," he checked over the information Cerebro provided for the two green dots, "two young ladies, from being hurt by the emergence of their powers. Cerebro doesn't tell me when this will happen, so time is of the essence."
Xavier gathered all of his information on these two young ladies and removed the headset. Immediately, Cerebro began to power down.
Turning to leave, he looked up at Erik, who was still watching him, an unreadable expression on his face. Charles spoke.
"I suggest you get some sleep, Erik. We need to be ready to move when the time comes."
With that, Charles left. Erik, unmoving, thought back on what had just happened. Of course he wanted to help these new mutants, especially with something as possibly traumatic as the emergence of their powers. And he understood that that took precedence. But the engineer, the strategist, the part of him that thrived on knowledge couldn't get the how out of his head. Had it been a faulty update? Was Cerebro simply malfunctioning in general? Could it have come from outside Cerebro's doors?
He shook his head in an attempt to clear these thoughts. Leaving the machine behind, he made his way to his bedroom, knowing full well that he would not be getting much sleep.
Three thousand miles away, two girls attempted to fall back asleep after being jolted awake by the worst headache either had ever experienced.
