{I do not own the X-Men, I just think they're hot}

Chapter 7: "The War-Room"

5:00am

They filed in solemnly. The first arrival was Dr. McCoy who sat at one side of the large round table in the surgical smelling metallic blue room. He immediately went to the wall, pressed a button and waited impatiently, there was a small synthetic beep and a square portion of the wall opened to reveal a thermos full of steaming coffee.1

Dr. McCoy took the coffee and began sipping it like a shipwreck victim who had been without water for weeks.

5:15am

Scott Summers walked into the War Room, his clothes pressed, his Earl Grey safely in hand, carrying a Gucci Leather case.

He sat down next to beast and proceeded to pull out his laptop, his palm-top, and various hard-copies and flash drives which he plugged into ports on the round tables hard surface. A column of spiraling images appeared suspended between the center of the tables surface and a black disk in the ceiling of matching diameter.

"Beat me again hank."

"It helps when you're slightly nocturnal by nature."

5:24am

A foot came through the ceiling followed by a leg and then the rest of the body of a young woman. Kitty Pryde floated gracefully to the ground and stepped from the air carrying her own shoulder bag (Manolo Blahnik), she followed suit of Cyclops with laptop and flash drives which she plugged in (though no response came from the holographic display, hers were for download versus upload), and yawned before finally deciding on a bit of coffee, lots of cream and sugar from the service partition.

"Kind of early for you Shadow?"

"I haven't been sleeping well."

5:31am

The room became noticeably colder as Bobby Drake walked through the door yawning and stretching, half an hour late so as to throw off any suspicion that he had been in the same bed as the good doctor.

"Um... Bobby." chided scott without looking up as all three drinks began to frost over.

"Oh sorry... I still have trouble with that when I'm tired." replied the Iceman as he yawned again letting out a visibly cold stream of air from his mouth.

"Well keep a handle on it, you'll mess with the display." Scott said going back for a third review of his notes. He did his best to keep himself from sounding too harsh, he admired Bobbies care free spirit, but was constantly reminded by the younger x-person how much control he himself had to maintain. A few nightmares about waking up with your special eye coverings removed and punching a hole through your lovers head will do that to a person. Though now he had managed to condition himself to wake up with his eyes closed pretty consistently.

"Don't worry about it too much... " encouraged Kitty at the sight of Bobbies traditional sad puppy look in Scotts direction "... I've been stepping out of my shoes all morning."

Kitty bonked her coffee cup against the side of the table and listened to the dull thud of the ice inside.

"Well... maybe worry about it a little bit."

6:00am

The X-Women and X-Men sat around the table as Cyclops stood to begin. Present members were only those needed for the missions. Beast, Iceman, Shadowcat, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, Frost, Collosus, Nightcrawler and Proffesor Xavier.

"The attack on the Mansion two nights ago... " began Cyclops "... was unprecedented, and by all accounts shouldn't have happened."

Pausing for effect, he continued.

"I've compiled the data from accounts and surveillance and Kitty helped me reconstruct the system data. Here's how it went down. First the Psychics were hit long range. We believe aided by technology, the attack was methodical and effective, a Psychic feedback was projected across the grounds, all the telepaths who tried to access the aberration or expand their consciousness to sense the intruders were pulled into a loop which used their own mind against them."

"While the psychics went down the rest of us were taken out systematically. Mystique hit me in the hanger bay as I was trying to help the proffesor, storm had to deal with avalanche in the upper levels."

"I've gone over the data 53 times and I had an expert in the field of Security and Espianage review it for me..."

At this both Proffesor Xavier and Emma Frost stifled a giggle which Scott promptly ignored.

"... The system was hacked by an expert, blind spots were taken advantage of in the surveillance, Magneto used electromagnetic fields to cut out the cameras and inferred. We didn't even see them until they reached Cerebro."

"Which brings me to the first order of business, defense. I've printed out files on new mansion security procedures. One major difference is that In the future when a psychic comes under assault, we will not rush to their aide... "

This incited a chorus of murmurs and one very angry look from Orroro.

"I know it's against our feelings, but our feelings were taken advantage of... if a Psychic is under assault there is nothing a non-telepath can do to help them. Sound the alarm, get ready for a fight, because whoever went after them will be coming after you."

Protests started to arise but emma put up her hand. "He's right. Don't waste time watching us squirm, you need to take care of yourselves and the students." at this she placed a hand softly over Orroro's, who returned the touch and calmed down a little.

"A friend of mine is looking into some plastic and photonic based surveylance that won't be easily manipulated by electromagnetics. Also we are going to start a gaurd shift. It will rotate so no one person should loose too much sleep."

"About time." chimed in Logan.

"It will be two-fold, a guard on duty in the Danger Room Surveillance room, and one near the front of the mansion, preferably a power-house who can take a hit. Also we're working on some automated upgrades for Cerebro."

Bobby yawned. "I don't see what this has to do with getting up at 5 in the morning?"

"Thank you Bobby." Scott rebuttled politely "Which brings us to the next order of business. Proffesor?"

Xaviers chair rose slightly as touched a button on the panel of the table and the holographic display changed to project several images including Cerebro, Several profiles of mutants, and a rotating island from an aerial view. "Based on the Data Scott and Kitty could compile we believe that Magneto was after information on various mutant populations and their movements over the last five years."

"What do you think he's going to do with it?" asked storm bluntly.

"We... aren't quite sure... there are a number of..."

"Professor," cut in Rogue "... it's us, you don't have to coddle. If you had to guess, what do you think Magneto will do with it?"

The professor sighed... "You're quite right. If I had to guess... he is gathering the data so he can strategically protect them."

"The Mutants?" asked Rogue.

"Yes."

"From what?" queried Emma Frost.

Professor Xavier folded his hands and looked down.

"From whatever he's going to do to everyone else."