I want to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, and put me and this story on your assorted lists. Since this is the last night of Chanuka, I would like to offer potato latkes with both applesauce and sour cream, and alcohol-free eggnog.

I recognize that this chapter is one many have been waiting for: the chance to see which other X-Men characters will join the story. I hope you enjoy what I've done.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Danny Phantom or The X-Men.

Chapter 6

Professor Charles Xavier took off his helmet, ending his session with Cerebro. "A more timely tip-off would be hard to find."

Ororo and Scott looked at each other. The professor had mentioned that using Cerebro was imperative, so they were asked to cover his classes in the afternoon. Now that Charles was finished, the teachers still didn't know what was driving the professor so urgently.

Storm asked, "What tip-off was that, Professor?"

"Danny Fenton, whose secret identity was exposed on live television, now has much bigger problems. Once the children who have opted to go home for the summer are securely on their way, and the children who are staying are involved in their evening recreation, please direct all other personnel and adults to my office. We have a rescue mission to plan."

By 5:00pm, Dr. McCoy saw the children who were going home off to their various forms of transportation. Forge did last-minute maintenance on the X-Jet, preparing for the upcoming rescue mission. Piotr Rasputin, otherwise known as Colossus, minded the kids in the game room. Charles, Scott, Ororo, Logan, and Kurt Wagner had a strategy meeting.

The professor began. "At about 4:15pm, our time, shortly after Danny Fenton's unfortunate revelation and… Magneto's handling of his Guys in White problem, Danny called me, letting me know of his concern for his family."

Storm narrowed her eyes. "Why is it unfortunate? He should be proud of who and what he is."

Kurt had gotten over his shyness because of his appearance and the initial reaction of the X-Men who met him. Remembering the feeling of being in a goldfish bowl for being thought of as a freak as Nightcrawler, he announced, "It is unfortunate because he is hunted. President McKenna gave us a new chance for freedom… despite what I…" He gulped as he painfully remembered his unwilling but almost successful assassination attempt on the President.

Logan cut over him, "Look, Bub, don't blame yourself for what Stryker forced you to do. I know responsibility is a big part of your faith, but don't borrow guilt that ain't yours."

Kurt looked up sheepishly. "Alright, I suppose. But while we, as Mutants, were given a new lease on freedom, the anti-ghost law is their excuse to tag him." He shuddered, as he knew that an anti-ghost law didn't sound too different than an anti-demon law. The fact that such a thing was never made didn't take it out of the realm of possibility.

Cyclops cleared his throat. "Can we get back to Danny's call?"

Charles nodded. "Thank you, Scott. Danny called to inform me of his concern for the safety of his family. After using Cerebro to track them down, I discovered that Danny was right to be concerned. The evil ringmaster Danny and his friends fought kidnapped the boy's family."

Logan groaned. "Typical." His snarky remark made the others of the group scowl at him. Logan smirked; it was better that they were annoyed with him for being an insensitive jerk than it was to watch them wring their hands in useless despair.

Storm glared at him again before turning to the professor. "So where are they being held?"

Charles frowned. "Danny's family and the parents of his two friends are being held in circus bear cages by Frederich Showenhower and his friend Lydia in a fallow field in Wisconsin, west of Oshkosh. He is holding them for the ransom of three gemstones which seem to have powers of their own. Together, he intends to use them in a gauntlet for whatever further nefarious purpose. Further, he's set for them a time limit of three days."

Scott furrowed his brow. "And where are Danny and his friends through all of this?"

The professor sighed. "Last I checked, the three of them, accompanied by Magneto, Mystique, and Pyro, were headed to the helicopter they took. They mentioned going cross-country to retrieve the gems."

Logan pounded the table. "Good! As I see it, we need a slower group to get the kids' parents. We need a quicker group to help the kids. I don't trust Magneto with them."

Scott grinned at him. "Oddly enough, I like your plan. When Hank and Forge come back, we can decide which of us is taking our bus to save the parents, which of us is taking the X-Jet to save (or at least further assist) the kids, and which of us is staying here."

Charles was proud when his X-Men worked as a team. "Now, we need to hear back from Danny to match his itinerary. If he doesn't call back in ten minutes, I'll call him."

Magneto raised his hand and lowered the helicopter the Brotherhood co-opted in Alaska from the roof of Casper High.

Danny gulped as the lot of them clambered in. "You know, as soon as their initial shock wears off, the Guys in White will be after us."

Sam fastened her seatbelt and held Danny's hand. "Totally valid concern."

Magneto tipped his head in acknowledgement. "And they shall be dealt with."

Mystique took off and asked, "So, where to, first?"

Erik looked over the three friends and nodded when he came to his decision. "Daniel, where did you send your gem?"

"To the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral."

"Then that is where we shall go first."

Tucker grumped, "It's not fair. How come we get to go to Danny's place first?"

Magneto smirked. "Because I like him better. That's reason enough."

As soon as this decision was made, in a weird bout of synchronicity, the Guys in White regrouped with a vengeance. The radio crackled to life as two white, federally owned planes kept level with the helicopter.

"Daniel Fenton, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Subsection A, you are under arrest. We can come up with quite a few other charges involving taking up harborage with the murderer of two federal agents." The pilot of one plane pointed at Mystique and then pointed down.

John shouted, "It was a clear case of self-defense, as well as the defense of a kid!"

Magneto said flatly, "Pay them no mind, Pyro. This is no different than Stryker's attack on Charles' school. The only difference is the scope of who the said federal agents are interested in capturing and torturing. Note: I am the one who killed the agents, yet these morons still clamor for Daniel." He nodded his head and the motors of one of the planes stopped running. The plane fell from the sky.

Horrified at watching more deaths in the process, Danny called out shakily, "Magneto…"

Erik cleared his throat. "My dear Daniel, while I simply disagree with your general value for human life, and we can discuss that later, I will not be idle while you are arrested simply for existing. I carefully read the Anti-Ecto Control Act after you mentioned it a month ago." He narrowed his eyes as he felt a piece of metal attach itself to the outside of the helicopter. He pointed a finger in its direction and it fell off immediately.

Magneto sighed. "Regardless, we will discuss this in more depth later. I promise."

Danny growled as he unfastened his seatbelt and put his hands on the wall inside the helicopter. He closed his eyes and concentrated intensely.

Pyro looked to Sam and Tucker. "What's Danny doing?"

Magneto's head snapped up as the metal in the helicopter fell away from his special sensory perception. "He's turned the helicopter intangible." He never felt the second tracking device that attached itself to the helicopter as its metal turned intangible, too.

Tucker noticed the lack of chase from the remaining plane and shivered – Danny was going to be exhausted later. "And also invisible. It's hard to chase what you can't see."

John narrowed his eyes. "That's what Cyclops said about the X-Jet."

Tucker pursed his lips and nodded in appreciation. "Nice."

Sam said, "Sure, the X-Jet can't be seen by human eyes, and it can't be detected by radar, electronics, and a whole lot of other stuff. But that's not because of anyone's specific power. Danny's doing this all by himself."

Mystique reflected on the fact that Sam was correct. Between Hank and Forge, the X-Men had the technological know-how to put together some of the X-Jet's more salient features. The X-Jet was undetectable by radar, heat seekers, and infra-red, and the technology that made it so was no longer part of a conscious effort of any one Mutant. Hank souped up the original jet, and Forge lent his specialty to create permanent cloaking devices.

Danny turned the helicopter intangible and it and its occupants invisible to any and all from the outside, but not to each other. Mystique had never doubted when Magneto proclaimed Danny to be a powerful Mutant, but it was one thing to believe something intellectually and another thing entirely to witness it with one's own eyes.

Danny's phone rang, which surprised the people in the helicopter. Sam rolled her eyes, unhooked it from Danny's ghostly utility belt, and answered. "Danny's phone."

A warm, calming voice answered. "Sam? This is Professor Xavier. Are you alright?"

Sam blinked. "Yeah, Professor. A little shaken 'cause of the Guys in White, but we're okay. Danny's a little busy at the moment."

The professor was sure there was a story to be told, but now was not the time. "That is fine. Where are you headed?"

Sam answered simply, "The Space Center in Florida."

"Very good. We'll send someone to meet you there, as back-up is always useful. I also called to tell you that help for all of your parents will be on the way shortly."

Sam's eyes widened. "That was quick."

"We do try to take care of all of our students, my dear. And occasionally, that includes securing the safety of family."

The idea of adults being so blatantly useful in a crisis situation was foreign to Sam, so she said cautiously, "Wow. Thanks, Professor."

"My pleasure to help. We'll be in touch."

"Bye." Sam looked at the phone after she hung up. "The last time I remember adults being as helpful as you guys and the X-Men, my Grandma Ida covered for me so I could help rescue Danny from Circus Gothica."

Magneto smirked again. "I'm pleased to see you find us useful and effective. The last time I remember average humans as helpful as you, Tucker, and Daniel's immediate family, Charles still had hair. Moira was infinitely useful at the time."

Tucker gaped. "The professor had hair?" Sam slugged him.

After watching the broadcast of that evil Mutant Magneto killing those two federal agents, Warren Worthington II shook his head in muted fury. He was the head of Worthington Labs, and he knew he had to step up his work on the Mutant Cure. That way, he could cure his son who had wings, of all odd mutations. But if he could cure Mutants like those he saw on television, the world would be a lot safer.

As of now, his project to find this cure was working well. The Mutant Jimmy, or Leech, as he sometimes called himself, had a special power, or rather an anti-power that reversed the effects of any other Mutant's abnormality in his vicinity. This was a fact that made Jimmy's DNA a critical ingredient to any serum they created for the purpose of permanently removing the effects of the X-gene that made any normal person into a Mutant. The boy in question was rather subdued and usefully submissive.

Warren put in a call to Graydon Creed, the person who was elected to replace Senator Robert Kelly. The new Senator was even more anti-Mutant than Kelly. He was elected mostly by members of the special interest group, the Friends of Humanity, an organization that Creed started. This group was a grass-roots anti-Mutant movement that was interested in keeping Mutants disenfranchised, among other things.

Senator Creed had not yet written any bills, as the Mutant Registration Act was vetoed by the President, who deemed it unconstitutional, and the concept had to be reworked to be effective.

As a wealthy campaign contributor, Warren had no problem getting through directly to the Senator. "Mr. Worthington, how can I help you?"

"I don't know what should be done, but surely something must be done to stop the Mutants who kidnapped those innocent children from Amity Park, Illinois. They killed two federal agents."

Graydon was glad to see a citizen particularly interested in his agenda. The deaths of those federal agents was committed by Magneto, his favorite poster-boy for Mutant violence against humans, done while "protecting" another, newly discovered Mutant.

Creed drummed his fingers in thought. "I'll have to pull a few strings. Right now, the President is against any anti-Mutant action in a gesture of misplaced amnesty. Senator Kelly was a patriot who understood the needs of our country. However, the Friends of Humanity aren't as big a group as I would like. People on both sides of the aisle are perfectly fine with giving these abominations to humanity 'a chance.' They had a chance, and two federal agents are down.

"One of the news cameras caught someone saying that the Mutant called Danny Phantom's mutation makes him part ghost. As such, the Guys in White are tracking his movements, along with the Mutants he's with. Once we know what they're up to, I'll make a few calls to the Friends of Humanity leaders local to wherever they're headed."

Warren nodded. "It's good to know that someone's doing something useful."

Graydon agreed. "I hear you are also working on something."

"Indeed. With the DNA of one useful Mutant I have in captivity, we are on the verge of finding a cure. Imagine what we could do if we could cure the Mutants of their sickness, and make them normal human beings again."

Creed nodded in satisfaction. "I like the way you think, Mr. Worthington. Keep up the good work, and as I said, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks again, Senator."