Chapter 1
Logan smoked on a cigar as he walked down the path to the Xavier Institute for the Gifted. It was really a school for mutant children, founded and owned by Professor Charles Xavier.
A few minutes earlier, the professor had summoned him telepathically to come to him at once.
Logan looked up at the late evening sky. If it was his choice, he would find a space to sit in quite solitude and stay there all night.
But he owed Professor Xavier everything, so he did as he was told.
When Logan entered the mansion, he went straight to the elevator that went down to the basement which housed Cerebro. Cerebro was the huge computer-like device that the professor used time after time to track down mutants and bring them to the institute.
Logan entered Cerebro, and walked straight up to the professor. Professor Xavier was sitting in his wheelchair with his eyes closed. Logan quietly chewed on his cigar and stood behind the professor waiting, not patiently, but was still quiet.
"Logan; cigar," Professor Xavier reminded him. Since his arrival to the institute, this constant nagging of the non-smoking policy had become a sort of tradition between Logan and the professor. But tradition or not, Logan still unwillingly pulled the cigar out of his mouth.
Logan looked around Cerebro, as if he was trying to find an ash tray. Obviously he did not, so he pressed the cigar onto his hand. It hurt like crazy of course, but as always Logan's healing abilities worked their magic, healing the cigar burn till you would not have known it was there.
"So," Logan said, "Where's Shades and the others?"
"Teaching," Professor Xavier answered. "Now, you are probably wondering why I called you hear."
"Yeah, about that – we really need to have a chat about boundaries and personal space," Logan grumbled, referring to the professor's somewhat irritating telepathic way of communication.
The professor, still with his eyes closed, smiled his little knowing smile, "Another time perhaps."
Professor Xavier opened his eyes then and looked at Logan. "I called you here because it seems that Cerebro has had an evolution of its own."
Suddenly a hologram-like map of the world appeared and spread out of the two men. On it was the silhouettes of millions of people. The humans were coloured white and about a quarter were red - the mutants. Just as they were the first time the professor shown Cerebro to Logan
But this time, something was different. There was also another set of silhouettes. These new ones were purple in colour and doubled the number of red silhouettes.
"What's this," asked Logan, clearly clueless.
"This," the professor said patiently, "Is Cerebro's evolution. For some reason, Cerebro can now detect people who have the mutant gene. But from what I gather, these people have a dormant gene. So we must be careful and watch out for any possible new arrivals."
An alarm suddenly went off. Logan's head snapped around then back to the professor. Professor Xavier had taken off the headset that connected him to Cerebro and turned around to Logan with his hands against his temples, clearly concentrating. He then looked at Logan.
"Get to the surface."