Kurt and Toad appeared inside the den to find the whole Institute gathered.
Toad saw several of the mutants eyeing him suspiciously.
"What's he doing here?" Amara asked.
"Todd is here to help is," said Xavier. "He has vital information on the situation that's come up. Todd, please tell us about what you saw this morning,"
Toad glanced back at Amara, and then began to speak. "It's like this. Me and the rest of the brothers come back from camping out and we find Gambit, Pietro and Wanda packing things up. They told us they were going off to see Magneto and that we weren't invited,"
"Weren't invited?" asked Scott. "Sounds like Magneto got tired of waiting for you,"
"Watch it, Summers!" Toad said angrily. "I'd like to see you have to put up with following pretty boy Pietro's orders all the time. You wanna figure out what's going on here or not?"
"I think we can figure this one out just fine on our own," Scott retorted.
"Enough!" Xavier said, a touch of anger in his voice. "Scott, whether you like it or not, we are going to need Todd's help in this affair," He turned to Toad. "Please, continue,"
Toad glared at Scott but continued his tale. "As I was saying, Gambit said they were going to see some new mutant Magneto had found. First I heard of it, but then again he and Pietro haven't really bothered to tell us much of anything that Magneto does,"
"Did they say where they were going?" asked Jean.
"No, but I followed them,"
"What made you decide to get all heroic all of a sudden?" asked Scott.
"For your information, Summers, I didn't want to let Wanda go without saying goodbye!" Toad said angrily. "Now, they're sittin' at the airport waitin' for the storm to clear up. I figured I could ask blue boy here for help, seein' as how we made such a good team the last time we worked together,"
"I don't know if it's such a good idea to let them just go off by themselves, Professor," Scott warned. "Who knows where Gambit and the others could be headed?"
"As a matter of fact, we do know where they are going," said Xavier. He pressed a combination of buttons on the remote control, and the TV turned on. It was connected directly to Cerebro's mainframe. It displayed a map of the world, with a section of Germany highlited.
"This is the explanation for the visions I've been having," Xavier said. "Cerebro picked this up this morning," He pressed a button and the screen changed. "This is Electra King,"
"Wasn't she the girl that was kidnapped a few days ago?" asked Jean.
"Yes, she is. We're just now detecting her because her mutant abilities have been dormant until very recently," said Xavier.
"Her information says that her X-gene is recessive," said Hank. "Why would her powers suddenly manifest themselves now?"
"We don't know," said Xavier. "But if Magneto is involved than anything could have happened. He must have known about her recessive gene and found a way to activate it,"
"So what are we waiting for?" asked Scott. "Let's load up and see what's going on over there,"
"Not so fast, Scott. We have absolutely no idea what we could be facing," said Xavier, and then turned to Toad.
"Todd, you said you were going to try and get on board the plane. Would you still be willing to try?"
Toad thought about what Xavier was asking. "Are you askin' me to spy for you or somethin'?"
"If you're willing, yes, we would like you to follow Gambit and try to gather reconnaissance on Magneto's precise whereabouts and activities. Now, you won't be going alone. Kurt can help you get onto the plane and he can be your partner while you are over there," Xavier offered.
efore Toad could answer, there was a loud knock at the door. Xavier switched feeds on the TV, which showed Agent Simons standing on the front porch.
"Who's that?" asked Toad.
"FBI," said Scott.
"Great. Now what'd you guys do?" asked Toad sarcastically as Xavier wheeled to the door and opened it.
X
"Good morning, Agent Simons," Xavier said cordially. "What can I do for you today?"
"Good morning, Professor," Simons said. "I'm here because I believe you have some information that I need about this missing girl Electra King,"
"I assure you, Agent, you probably know much more than I do regarding the girl's whereabouts," said Xavier.
"Maybe," said Simons. "But I'm willing to bet you know quite a bit about the men we think kidnapped her," He showed Xavier prints of Gambit and Sabertooth, and also of the picture they had acquired of Mindbender from the airport garage.
"Hmm, yes. Of course," Xavier said as he examined the pictures. "Well, Gambit and Sabertooth are certainly well known to us, and to you as well, I would imagine. This last one, though, I really don't know who he is,"
Simons sensed that Xavier wasn't being entirely forthcoming. "You know a lot about these men, Professor. Why do you think a couple of mutants would kidnap a girl, in broad daylight no less?"
Xavier shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps they have the same criminal impulses that ordinary humans do," he said.
"Well if you ask me, I think it's much more complicated than that," said Simons. "We traced these guys to the airport, and we know the older one took the girl on a plane that was heading for Germany. To me that says they were going to see somebody pretty important. I think you know who I'm talking about,"
"You mean Magneto, of course," said Xavier.
"That's right. Now I got to thinking, why would Magneto want some ordinary girl? And why would he have her kidnapped and flown half way around the world? Then it hit me, she's not so ordinary as she seems. Now I know you two have been in a recruiting race to find mutants and get them on your side. Why was he able to get this one before you did?"
"Magneto and I have not been in any kind of race, as you are suggesting," said Xavier. "I take in mutants as they come to me, or as I find them. Magneto has been much more active in 'recruiting', as you put it. He may have just been lucky with this girl,"
"Or maybe he's just got better means of finding mutants than you do. How do you find your mutants, anyway?"
"I'd rather not discuss that right now," said Xavier. "That information is highly sensitive,"
"Listen, Professor, I need answers and you're not being very forthcoming. Now if I have to, I'll go to a judge and come back here with a. hey, what's that?" Simons asked suddenly, gazing past Xavier's shoulders and into the den.
Scott and Jean had switched the feed back to Cerebro and were making notes. The information on the big screen was clearly visible to Simons. Scott quickly switched off the TV but it was too late.
"What the, hey! You DO know about this!" said Simons angrily. "Professor, I demand that you let me in and give me access to your records, or I will have you arrested for conspiracy and obstruction of justice!"
Xavier looked back at Scott, then slowly wheeled backwards to let Simons into the house.
X
A while later, Simons left the Institute, taking a large amount of Cerebro's information with him. Xavier had convinced him not to take his records on the students and other inhabitants of the Institute, but had to take that as a small victory as Simons had taken nearly everything else, including schematics for the machine. Scott now sat glumly in the den, angry at himself for nearly compromising the secrets of everybody in the Institute.
"Scott, don't worry about this. They were bound to find out one day, anyway," said Xavier. "Right now we have more important matters. We cannot trust Simons' agency to handle this properly. If they try and apprehend Magneto, they will surely bring harm upon themselves. We must handle this ourselves,"
He looked back at Toad. "Well, Todd, can you help us?"
Toad considered for a moment. "Alright," he finally said. "But don't think this means I'm joinin' you guys or anything. I'm just doing this 'cause I want to see Wanda again,"
"Thank you, Todd," said Xavier. "I can give you a satellite phone so you and Kurt can contact us directly from Germany. For now, we just want you to pinpoint Magneto's whereabouts. Don't take any unnecessary risks, and keep in mind that if you get into trouble, you will be by yourselves for quite a while,"
"I understand, Professor," said Kurt.
"Then you'd better get going now," said Xavier. "It looks like the storm is starting to clear up. Good luck to both of you,"
X
Twenty minutes later, Kurt and Toad parked the X-Van on the hill next to the airport. They were relieved to see that Gambit's plane was still sitting on the ground. Just then, the sun broke through the clouds.
"Looks like we'd better hurry up, yo," said Toad.
"Right," said Kurt. He and Toad joined hands, and they disappeared with a BAMF!
They reappeared in a very dark room. Toad couldn't see a thing. 'Hey, where'd you take us?"
"We're in the plane's cargo hold," said Kurt. "You'd better get comfortable. We're going to be here for a long time,"
X
"About time," said Pietro, looking up at the sun. "Let's get going already!" He dashed up onto the plane, not waiting for Gambit and Wanda.
"Such an impatient boy," said Gambit. "He's lucky he's Magneto's son,"
He and Wanda walked onto the plane and waited for it to take off.
X
Down in the hold, Toad screamed as he heard a loud rumbling noise. "What was that?" he asked.
"That's the engine starting up," said Kurt. "Haven't you ever been on a plane before?"
"Um, no," Toad said sheepishly.
"What!?" Kurt shouted. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier!?"
"Sorry, yo," said Toad. "I didn't think it would be like this,"
"Oh, this is gonna be a bad day," Kurt moaned and tried to settle in for takeoff. He covered his ears as the plane rushed down the runway to drown out Toad's screams.
X
Kurt and Toad were not the only mutants heading for Germany that day. At a secluded airstrip in the Tibetan mountains, Mesmero strapped himself in to the pilot's seat of a small plane and prepared for takeoff. He stared at the information that he had been provided on Magneto's new mutant, and how important she was, and then he started up the plane and roared down the runway.
X
In Germany, Magneto was satisfied with how Electra's training was progressing. In addition to being able to activate electrical devices, she was also able to overload them and destroy small objects with electrical bolts. Magneto also found out that she could use her energy to blind scanning equipment and other sensors. Magneto was very impressed with these abilities, and looked forward to possessing them himself soon.
"I think we've done enough for one day," said Magneto. "How do you feel, Electra?"
"Fine," she asked. She was slowly getting used to her powers, even though she still didn't want to think about what she was doing.
"Well then," said Magneto. "We'll just put you back in your capacitor for a while then, shall we?"
Electra immediately stepped back. "No, please. Don't put me back in that thing!" she said, remembering how unpleasant it had felt being confined as pure energy.
"Ah, I see," said Magneto. "You still value your corporeal form, don't you? Why can't you just accept it, and let yourself simply be?"
"I DON'T want to go back in that thing!" she insisted.
"Very well," said Magneto. "You've done very well today. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let you stay out for a while. Colossus will come shortly and take you back to your room,"
"Thank you," Electra said softly, grateful for being allowed this bit of freedom. She was also glad because she would be able to investigate her powers a bit more without being observed. During her training, she had been using her knowledge of physics and electricity, and had some strong theories about exactly what she would be able to do. She was hesitant to let Magneto find out about these, for she already suspected that he planned to use her for something bad.
A moment later, Colossus walked into the room. "Follow me," he said gruffly. Electra followed him back to her room, which was essentially a cell, minus the bars on the doors. Colossus shut the door and left her alone.
Electra walked over to the wall and examined a panel. She grabbed it and pulled it loose from the wall, and was rewarded to find a path of circuitry inside. She grabbed it and began to absorb power, completely recharging herself. When she was done, she was glowing brightly. Next, she began to examine the door, looking for some kind of locking mechanism.
She had seen that the door had a coded panel on the outside, which she assumed was connected to the circuitry in the wall. She walked back to the exposed panel and grabbed the circuits, trying to sense which ones ran to the door lock. After a moment, she found the circuit she was looking for. She sent a surge of electricity through the circuits. There was a flash and a shower of sparks emerged from the door, which slid open.
Yes, Electra thought. She walked over to the door and poked her head out into the hallway. Seeing that the hall was clear, she stepped through the door and took a few tentative steps out into the hall.
She looked nervously down at the collar still around her neck, expecting it to light up at any time. Nothing happened. She breathed a sigh of relief, and kept moving down the hallway. She decided to try and make it to the lab and find a computer. If she could, maybe she could get a message out and try and let somebody know where she was and what had happened to her.
X
"What's he doing here?" Amara asked.
"Todd is here to help is," said Xavier. "He has vital information on the situation that's come up. Todd, please tell us about what you saw this morning,"
Toad glanced back at Amara, and then began to speak. "It's like this. Me and the rest of the brothers come back from camping out and we find Gambit, Pietro and Wanda packing things up. They told us they were going off to see Magneto and that we weren't invited,"
"Weren't invited?" asked Scott. "Sounds like Magneto got tired of waiting for you,"
"Watch it, Summers!" Toad said angrily. "I'd like to see you have to put up with following pretty boy Pietro's orders all the time. You wanna figure out what's going on here or not?"
"I think we can figure this one out just fine on our own," Scott retorted.
"Enough!" Xavier said, a touch of anger in his voice. "Scott, whether you like it or not, we are going to need Todd's help in this affair," He turned to Toad. "Please, continue,"
Toad glared at Scott but continued his tale. "As I was saying, Gambit said they were going to see some new mutant Magneto had found. First I heard of it, but then again he and Pietro haven't really bothered to tell us much of anything that Magneto does,"
"Did they say where they were going?" asked Jean.
"No, but I followed them,"
"What made you decide to get all heroic all of a sudden?" asked Scott.
"For your information, Summers, I didn't want to let Wanda go without saying goodbye!" Toad said angrily. "Now, they're sittin' at the airport waitin' for the storm to clear up. I figured I could ask blue boy here for help, seein' as how we made such a good team the last time we worked together,"
"I don't know if it's such a good idea to let them just go off by themselves, Professor," Scott warned. "Who knows where Gambit and the others could be headed?"
"As a matter of fact, we do know where they are going," said Xavier. He pressed a combination of buttons on the remote control, and the TV turned on. It was connected directly to Cerebro's mainframe. It displayed a map of the world, with a section of Germany highlited.
"This is the explanation for the visions I've been having," Xavier said. "Cerebro picked this up this morning," He pressed a button and the screen changed. "This is Electra King,"
"Wasn't she the girl that was kidnapped a few days ago?" asked Jean.
"Yes, she is. We're just now detecting her because her mutant abilities have been dormant until very recently," said Xavier.
"Her information says that her X-gene is recessive," said Hank. "Why would her powers suddenly manifest themselves now?"
"We don't know," said Xavier. "But if Magneto is involved than anything could have happened. He must have known about her recessive gene and found a way to activate it,"
"So what are we waiting for?" asked Scott. "Let's load up and see what's going on over there,"
"Not so fast, Scott. We have absolutely no idea what we could be facing," said Xavier, and then turned to Toad.
"Todd, you said you were going to try and get on board the plane. Would you still be willing to try?"
Toad thought about what Xavier was asking. "Are you askin' me to spy for you or somethin'?"
"If you're willing, yes, we would like you to follow Gambit and try to gather reconnaissance on Magneto's precise whereabouts and activities. Now, you won't be going alone. Kurt can help you get onto the plane and he can be your partner while you are over there," Xavier offered.
efore Toad could answer, there was a loud knock at the door. Xavier switched feeds on the TV, which showed Agent Simons standing on the front porch.
"Who's that?" asked Toad.
"FBI," said Scott.
"Great. Now what'd you guys do?" asked Toad sarcastically as Xavier wheeled to the door and opened it.
X
"Good morning, Agent Simons," Xavier said cordially. "What can I do for you today?"
"Good morning, Professor," Simons said. "I'm here because I believe you have some information that I need about this missing girl Electra King,"
"I assure you, Agent, you probably know much more than I do regarding the girl's whereabouts," said Xavier.
"Maybe," said Simons. "But I'm willing to bet you know quite a bit about the men we think kidnapped her," He showed Xavier prints of Gambit and Sabertooth, and also of the picture they had acquired of Mindbender from the airport garage.
"Hmm, yes. Of course," Xavier said as he examined the pictures. "Well, Gambit and Sabertooth are certainly well known to us, and to you as well, I would imagine. This last one, though, I really don't know who he is,"
Simons sensed that Xavier wasn't being entirely forthcoming. "You know a lot about these men, Professor. Why do you think a couple of mutants would kidnap a girl, in broad daylight no less?"
Xavier shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps they have the same criminal impulses that ordinary humans do," he said.
"Well if you ask me, I think it's much more complicated than that," said Simons. "We traced these guys to the airport, and we know the older one took the girl on a plane that was heading for Germany. To me that says they were going to see somebody pretty important. I think you know who I'm talking about,"
"You mean Magneto, of course," said Xavier.
"That's right. Now I got to thinking, why would Magneto want some ordinary girl? And why would he have her kidnapped and flown half way around the world? Then it hit me, she's not so ordinary as she seems. Now I know you two have been in a recruiting race to find mutants and get them on your side. Why was he able to get this one before you did?"
"Magneto and I have not been in any kind of race, as you are suggesting," said Xavier. "I take in mutants as they come to me, or as I find them. Magneto has been much more active in 'recruiting', as you put it. He may have just been lucky with this girl,"
"Or maybe he's just got better means of finding mutants than you do. How do you find your mutants, anyway?"
"I'd rather not discuss that right now," said Xavier. "That information is highly sensitive,"
"Listen, Professor, I need answers and you're not being very forthcoming. Now if I have to, I'll go to a judge and come back here with a. hey, what's that?" Simons asked suddenly, gazing past Xavier's shoulders and into the den.
Scott and Jean had switched the feed back to Cerebro and were making notes. The information on the big screen was clearly visible to Simons. Scott quickly switched off the TV but it was too late.
"What the, hey! You DO know about this!" said Simons angrily. "Professor, I demand that you let me in and give me access to your records, or I will have you arrested for conspiracy and obstruction of justice!"
Xavier looked back at Scott, then slowly wheeled backwards to let Simons into the house.
X
A while later, Simons left the Institute, taking a large amount of Cerebro's information with him. Xavier had convinced him not to take his records on the students and other inhabitants of the Institute, but had to take that as a small victory as Simons had taken nearly everything else, including schematics for the machine. Scott now sat glumly in the den, angry at himself for nearly compromising the secrets of everybody in the Institute.
"Scott, don't worry about this. They were bound to find out one day, anyway," said Xavier. "Right now we have more important matters. We cannot trust Simons' agency to handle this properly. If they try and apprehend Magneto, they will surely bring harm upon themselves. We must handle this ourselves,"
He looked back at Toad. "Well, Todd, can you help us?"
Toad considered for a moment. "Alright," he finally said. "But don't think this means I'm joinin' you guys or anything. I'm just doing this 'cause I want to see Wanda again,"
"Thank you, Todd," said Xavier. "I can give you a satellite phone so you and Kurt can contact us directly from Germany. For now, we just want you to pinpoint Magneto's whereabouts. Don't take any unnecessary risks, and keep in mind that if you get into trouble, you will be by yourselves for quite a while,"
"I understand, Professor," said Kurt.
"Then you'd better get going now," said Xavier. "It looks like the storm is starting to clear up. Good luck to both of you,"
X
Twenty minutes later, Kurt and Toad parked the X-Van on the hill next to the airport. They were relieved to see that Gambit's plane was still sitting on the ground. Just then, the sun broke through the clouds.
"Looks like we'd better hurry up, yo," said Toad.
"Right," said Kurt. He and Toad joined hands, and they disappeared with a BAMF!
They reappeared in a very dark room. Toad couldn't see a thing. 'Hey, where'd you take us?"
"We're in the plane's cargo hold," said Kurt. "You'd better get comfortable. We're going to be here for a long time,"
X
"About time," said Pietro, looking up at the sun. "Let's get going already!" He dashed up onto the plane, not waiting for Gambit and Wanda.
"Such an impatient boy," said Gambit. "He's lucky he's Magneto's son,"
He and Wanda walked onto the plane and waited for it to take off.
X
Down in the hold, Toad screamed as he heard a loud rumbling noise. "What was that?" he asked.
"That's the engine starting up," said Kurt. "Haven't you ever been on a plane before?"
"Um, no," Toad said sheepishly.
"What!?" Kurt shouted. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier!?"
"Sorry, yo," said Toad. "I didn't think it would be like this,"
"Oh, this is gonna be a bad day," Kurt moaned and tried to settle in for takeoff. He covered his ears as the plane rushed down the runway to drown out Toad's screams.
X
Kurt and Toad were not the only mutants heading for Germany that day. At a secluded airstrip in the Tibetan mountains, Mesmero strapped himself in to the pilot's seat of a small plane and prepared for takeoff. He stared at the information that he had been provided on Magneto's new mutant, and how important she was, and then he started up the plane and roared down the runway.
X
In Germany, Magneto was satisfied with how Electra's training was progressing. In addition to being able to activate electrical devices, she was also able to overload them and destroy small objects with electrical bolts. Magneto also found out that she could use her energy to blind scanning equipment and other sensors. Magneto was very impressed with these abilities, and looked forward to possessing them himself soon.
"I think we've done enough for one day," said Magneto. "How do you feel, Electra?"
"Fine," she asked. She was slowly getting used to her powers, even though she still didn't want to think about what she was doing.
"Well then," said Magneto. "We'll just put you back in your capacitor for a while then, shall we?"
Electra immediately stepped back. "No, please. Don't put me back in that thing!" she said, remembering how unpleasant it had felt being confined as pure energy.
"Ah, I see," said Magneto. "You still value your corporeal form, don't you? Why can't you just accept it, and let yourself simply be?"
"I DON'T want to go back in that thing!" she insisted.
"Very well," said Magneto. "You've done very well today. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let you stay out for a while. Colossus will come shortly and take you back to your room,"
"Thank you," Electra said softly, grateful for being allowed this bit of freedom. She was also glad because she would be able to investigate her powers a bit more without being observed. During her training, she had been using her knowledge of physics and electricity, and had some strong theories about exactly what she would be able to do. She was hesitant to let Magneto find out about these, for she already suspected that he planned to use her for something bad.
A moment later, Colossus walked into the room. "Follow me," he said gruffly. Electra followed him back to her room, which was essentially a cell, minus the bars on the doors. Colossus shut the door and left her alone.
Electra walked over to the wall and examined a panel. She grabbed it and pulled it loose from the wall, and was rewarded to find a path of circuitry inside. She grabbed it and began to absorb power, completely recharging herself. When she was done, she was glowing brightly. Next, she began to examine the door, looking for some kind of locking mechanism.
She had seen that the door had a coded panel on the outside, which she assumed was connected to the circuitry in the wall. She walked back to the exposed panel and grabbed the circuits, trying to sense which ones ran to the door lock. After a moment, she found the circuit she was looking for. She sent a surge of electricity through the circuits. There was a flash and a shower of sparks emerged from the door, which slid open.
Yes, Electra thought. She walked over to the door and poked her head out into the hallway. Seeing that the hall was clear, she stepped through the door and took a few tentative steps out into the hall.
She looked nervously down at the collar still around her neck, expecting it to light up at any time. Nothing happened. She breathed a sigh of relief, and kept moving down the hallway. She decided to try and make it to the lab and find a computer. If she could, maybe she could get a message out and try and let somebody know where she was and what had happened to her.
X