Chapter One: Discovery
'Cerebro Online'
Professor Charles Xavier moved his power chair into the large globed shaped room that was Cerebro, his trusted friend, Logan, close at his heels. (Metaphorically speaking) They had both been interrupted and surprise by Cerebro's sudden alert.
"If this is for real, Charles, it'll be the first new mutant that Cerebro's managed to trace since the old mansion was destroyed."
"I'm aware of that, Logan." Xavier scolded, not wanting to be reminded that the newer, upgraded version of Cerebro, while being much more efficient at tracking known and archived mutants, had somehow lost it's capability to identify and locate newly evolved mutants. Without wasting anymore time, Xavier took up the control helmet and set himself into the machine, amplifying his power in an attempt to find the mutant that Cerebro had detected.
"Access: Cerebro."
User and Code
This new feature, which Logan had convinced his old friend that Cerebro needed badly, was both simple and genius. The wrong hands had been able to access Cerebro far too many times in the past, both when the teen Arcade had hacked his way into the mansions security system and when Mystique, posing as Xavier, had set the entire mansion to self destruct.
"User: Charlie Xavier." That had also been Logan's suggestion. Any other impersonator who had used Charles instead would have been automatically locked out of the system. "Passcode: Wheels"
Accepted: Welcome Professor
With preliminaries out of the way, Xavier when to his work.
Mutant signature detected Tracing source of mutation.
….
….
Location Confirmed: Atlanta, Georgia: United States of America.
Identifying new mutation… ….
….
New Mutant Identified, confirmed and Recorded for Archives.
"Yes." Xavier was more than overjoyed as the image of a young, pale girl with long shiny brown hair started to process into Cerebro's visual indicator. It was usually best to find a new mutant just before or as their powers were beginning to surface. It both allowed them to learn that there were others like them out there, and that the X-Men would do all in their power to help them. While the first contact with a mutant was always the hardest, it would be far easier now then it would if they couldn't avoid her having any 'unpleasant experiences' with misunderstanding humans or, worse, with Magneto.
Identity of new mutant confirmed….
Silvia Tossgrove Apartment 2006, East Elm Boulevard Nature of Mutation, Unknown.
"Well, that was easy enough, eh Charles." Logan grunted slightly, turning to leave as Xavier took off and put away the control helmet.
"Yes, Perhaps too easy…" Xavier folded his hands together.
"Okay, that's your 'I'm not so sure about this' tone." Logan stopped and observed. "What is it that I missed right there that has you all concerned."
"No, it's nothing Logan." Xavier turned his chair around with a smile and nodded to the Canadian. "We should prep the jet and set out at once. It's the weekend, so we should assemble the full team."
"Can't." Logan injected, waiting for Xavier before exiting Cerebro, "Scott's with his brother at that surf contest in California and Jean is visiting with her parents this weekend. You cleared that yourself."
"That's right…" Xavier thought for a moment. "And Rogue is still recovering from the incident last week." Xavier reminded himself, referring of course to when Rogue had absorbed Mystique's shape shifting powers and, as a side-effect, lost her identity in a swell of every person that she had ever touched.
That was not the sort of thing that anybody recovered from easily.
"Well, that leaves Kurt, Kitty, Ororo, you, and myself."
"You really need me to be tagging along with you, Charles?" Logan inquired. "Keep in mind that I usually don't do subtly ."
"Hank can handle things here at the mansion, Logan. Besides, if Magneto has been having the same trouble that we've been having acquiring recruits, then he'll be just as anxious to get to Silvia as I am. It'll be helpful if you come along."
"I may not be psychic , Charles." Logan smiled as they approached the elevator. "But I can tell that the real reason is because you don't want to risk having to let the squirt drive the car again."
Xavier shivered and grimaced at the memory of his previous driving experience with Kitty Pride, allowing Logan a lighthearted laugh at his expense as the elevator closed.
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"Are we recording yet."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Alright, then, lets do this." Dr. Archer secured the mask around his face, a mere caution, before he started speaking for the tape. "This is Dr. Julian Archer, at 8:45 a.m. Atlanta Medical. The date is April, 30th, the year…."
A sudden clamor of utensils struck the ground, causing the doctor to jump nearly out of his skin before he realized that it had merely been the tech from before (acting now as an orderly, since Dr. Archer did not want this secret to get out any sooner than it had to.)
" Get a grip on yourself man, you're a professional." Archer scolded for a moment before turning back to the task at hand.
"Excuse me. As I was saying… The subject is a mutant, female, by the surname Silvia Tossgrove. Age is sixteen and seven months. Height is five foot, nine inches, weighing approximately one hundred and fifteen pounds. Subject was admitted to E.R at around two O'clock yesterday. Though initial cause of symptoms is, as of yet, unknown. The subject was soon identified as a mutant, a fact which is most certainly connected to the initial problems. When admitted, subject had several minor rashes, beginning at the front of the throat and then running down the front of the torso. Within the last eighteen and a half hours, said rashes have spread, now covering most all surface space despite multiple attempts of treatment using antibiotics. The original areas, where the rash was first prominent, seem to have smoothed out and lost their red color, reverting to subject's original skin color in most places. However, upon closer examination of these areas, we can see that the deceptively smooth, unblemished skin is, in fact, a very fine, minute set of small, overlapping scales, much like that of a reptile. The area around the front of subject's throat and anterior torso, including breast, belly, and forward pelvic area are instead being covered in long, horizontal yellowish scales that I hypothesize will be the equivalent to a snake's belly scales. It is expected that within a few more hours, subject's rash will vanish entirely, leaving the subject completely covered with these scales.
Other indication's of the subject's mutation include a sudden growth of a pair of black, back-curving horns from the subject's forward cranium. Ears have doubled in size and lost human shape, elongating outward in an fashion often portrayed by anime elf artists. Eyes have likewise changed, once more, taking on a more reptilian appearance, with pupils becoming slit and irises changing to an unnatural amber color. Due to probable complications, sedatives have been used to keep patient unconscious. Whether this is in anyway interfering with mutations is unknown. Preparing for further examination we…"
Dr. Archer stopped, his hand halfway toward the scalpel on the tray before him, as he heard a sudden moan from the young 'woman' on observation table. Looking down at her, he saw that she was stirring, beginning to sway and move her arms like many who came out of sedation following surgery.
This was unacceptable.
"Turn off the recorder!"
"Doctor?"
"DO IT!" Archer scolded, his urgency getting an immediate response. As soon as the recorder was no longer working, Archer tore the mask from his face, anger more than apparent.
"I gave you explicit instructions to keep this thing sedated!"
"But I have doct…" The nurse stopped, suddenly seeing the mutant stirring on the table. "That…. That can't be…" She stammered, "I must have pumped half a drug store into it's arm just an hour ago. At least twice the safe dosage."
"Do it again." The doctor ordered, "We'll get on with this as soon as we can be sure…"
"Dr. Archer to registration desk, please"
"Oh for the love of… Now What?" Dr. Archer looked back to the nurse, "We'll pick this up when I get back. Until then, I want no one in this room. Understood?"
"Yes doctor."
Dr. Archer stormed out of the observation room and past the security guard that had been placed at the door, irritated both by the interruption and the idea that he might miss his only chance to examine this mutant without any outside interference.
The nurse went straight to work, preparing syringes and sedatives for injection, having to do more than the safe amount of guessing due to her patient's obvious complications. She did not consider herself either for or against the recently exposed 'outbreak' of mutant-kind, but she did understand and appreciate the possible contribution this mutant might have to offer the physicians of humanity, who were still very much in the dark when it came to the mutant question.
Just to be safe though, the nurse guessed low on the strength of the injections.
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Olivia Tossgrove opened her door late that evening to find an older, bald, yet handsome man in a wheelchair awaiting her. Olivia could tell right away that this man must have been extremely learned, likely a teacher, perhaps even a college professor.
Behind him stood a rather assorted group, two friendly-looking teens: a boy with dark hair and a lean athletic look, and a smaller, attractive young woman with an innocent face and long brown hair. A larger man, grim set and muscular stood in the back of the troop with a beautiful black woman with stark white hair.
A strange ensemble indeed. Strangely enough, she had the nagging feeling that she had seen these people before.
"Uh, may I help you?"
"Ms. Olivia Tossgrove, I assume?"
"Yes? I'm sorry, am I behind on my cable bills again?"
"Not at all, Ms. Tossgrove. My name is Charles Xavier. I'm here to talk to you about your daughter, Silvia."
"Silvia!" Ms. Tossgrove panicked for an instant. "Is everything alright?"
Xavier was taken back for a moment, struck speechless by Olivia's concern.
"Is there something vrong?" The teen boy asked, an apparent German accent dominating his speech.
"You see, ve thought that Silvia vould be here."
"What, No." Olivia recomposed herself, taking a breath of relief. "Silvia was admitted to South East Medical yesterday. They kept her overnight for observation."
Xavier looked back to the others, a now equal concern coloring his features.
Logan shared it. He knew the risk to any mutant in the hands of outside forces better than any of the others. And with mutants becoming public and anti-mutant factions growing, it was even more dangerous. If the hospital found out what Xavier knew, there was no telling what might happen.
"Logan, If you could…"
"I'm already there, Charles." Logan said without hesitation. "You two coming?" He asked the teens.
"Can I drive?" The young woman asked.
"NOOO!!" Every one of the visitors answered in blunt unison.
"Aww, why not?" She wined.
The three left quickly, heading down the stairs of the apartment building while Xavier and the woman that he introduced as Ororo Monroe.
"Ms. Tossgrove, there is something that we need to discuss about Silvia. May we come in?"
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"You can't do this to me Daniel!"
"What the hell were you thinking, Julian?! That nobody would notice she had vanished from recovery?! That nobody would realize that you had closed off an observation room?! Were you hoping that the rest of us were so incompetent that you could run this scheme for as long as you wished! Give me ONE reason why I shouldn't have your medical license run though a garbage disposal!" The chief physician, Dr. Daniel Worthington, demanded, his tone on the edge of homicidal.
"I should have not only your license rebuked for this breach in ethics, but your entire career should be questioned!"
"This is the chance of a life time, Daniel!!" Dr. Archer tried to get his point across while keeping his voice under control. "This girl is a mutant, Daniel. A living breathing mutant! How can we possibly pass up an opportunity to study this creature, to expand our knowledge of…"
"THAT… " The director of the hospital nearly exploded in rage, "That "creature"… is a patient under my care! And I don't care if you have E.T.'s pregnant hermaphrodite mother in that room! No patient under the care of MY hospital will be subjected to experiments or whatever the hell else you were planning to do to her. I don't care if she is a mutant, Julian, and unlike you, I have respect for the Hippocratic Oath that I took the day I graduated medical school."
"Daniel," Dr. Archer attempted to gain ground in this losing argument. "We have an opportunity to study that thing in detail…."
"DR. ARCHER! You are, as of now, relived of your duties and may consider yourself fired! And if I were you, I would hold off on trying to land another job in medicine, because I will be ordering a complete investigation into this and any other acts of malpractice and disregard for human life that may be spanning your career!"
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, DANIEL!"
"It's done, Julian. And be thankful that the final decision in this is not mine, because, if it were up to me, you would rot in federal prison for what you intended on doing to that girl. Now get out of my hospital before I have security escort you off the premises!!"
His mind fueled by anger, Dr. Julian Archer spun around and stormed off.
He may have lost this round to his blindly altruistic superior.
But he was more than comfortable with the fact that, after a few well placed phone calls, he could get another chance.
"Your orders, doctor?" The new nurse asked Dr. Worthington while he watched the elder doctor stalk away. "About the mutant girl?"
"Cease sedation and get her out of the observation room. Make sure that she is completely covered when you transfer her to a private recovery ward, I don't want a panic. No stimulants, let her come out of the sedation naturally. Anything that we do drug wise to intervene may only hurt her further."
"And after that, Dr. Wothington?"
"After that, we sit back, and see what happens." The doctor said, thinking about how he was going to bring this news to Silvia Tossgrove's mother after that snake, Archer, had told her that she was alright.
"It's all we can do."
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"I'm sorry sir, but I have no registry for a 'Tossgrove, Silvia'. Are you certain that she was checked into this hospital."
"Yeah, I'm certain." Logan sneered in frustration. In the end (and with a little help from Kitty) they had managed to barrel though down-town city traffic and reach the hospital in just under ten minutes.
They had spent the rest of their hour here trying to FIND the girl.
"Sir, I have cross-referenced every check-in, Emergency Room entry, transfers to and from other hospitals, and recovery ward all over the building. There is simply no record of anyone here under that name within the last six months."
"Look, She came in the emergency room yesterday and was supposed to have been put in a recovery room." Logan repeated again for the hundredth time, going over all the facts (which Xavier had 'lifted' from the surface of Ms. Tossgrove's mind over an hour before) with almost a dozen different nurses and technicians. "She was under the care of a Dr. Archer, We're here at her mother's request."
"Archer?" The technician looked at her computer again and shook her head. "I'm sorry sir, but according to this, Dr. Julian Archer was suspended from practice recently and is pending an investigation."
"Suspended from practice? When?"
The technician punched the question into her computer and hesitated for a moment while allowing the answer to load.
"It was…just this morning as a matter of fact."
"Why?"
"I'm sorry sir, but that information is confidential."
"Of course it is!" Logan snapped before turning around and heading back to meet Kitty and Kurt in the waiting room. He knew that she had to be here. But the fact that they couldn't find anyone who was willing to cooperate meant either that everyone was covering something up or that there was a much smaller conspiracy on hand. Logan noticed Kitty Pride and Kurt Wagner immediately as he walked into the waiting room and could tell form their faces that they were just as unsuccessful.
"So, do you think that someone might have taken her?" Kurt asked, his accent punctuating every syllable.
"I doubt it, elf." Logan steamed, "I just found out that the doctor treating her had his M.D. K.O.-ed this morning. And I'm betting that it wasn't for prescribing sugar pills."
"Okkay…" Kitty shook her head, trying to make some sense of what was happening. "So, Silvia comes in here, then disappears, then the doctor is sacked, and… Am I missing something? Why don't Kurt and I just do a little…" She lowered her voice for a moment, "… high-talented snooping?"
"Because we don't need you walking though a wall, stumbling on a nurse changing a bed-pan and set off some sort of national media coverage on 'the mutant menace.'" Logan paused for a second, lifting his chin and taking a quick sniff of the air.
"On the other hand, you might want to keep that option open…" Logan scoped around for a moment, but it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
Military uniforms.
"I think we just got some company."
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"There has to be some mistake…" Olivia Tossgrove stammered, hardly able to keep herself from shaking. "I mean…Silvia can't possibly be… it's just not…"
"Ms. Tossgrove," Xavier said coolly, feeling that this reaction, while not uncommon, was not what they needed right now. "Your daughter is about to undergo a very difficult transition in her life. And, in the end, she is going to need your support to get though it. But, you do not need to take on this task alone. Silvia will need to be in a place where she can be safe to continue to learn and grow…"
"I take it that you are too?" Ms. Tossgrove looked up to Xavier quickly, then to Storm. "And her? You're…" She trailed off.
"Mutants?" Storm answered cautiously. Ms. Tossgrove nodded.
"Yes." Xavier confirmed, hoping that this fact would not damage the conversation. "We understand the trials and hardships that Silvia is about to face, and we wish only to help her. She is gifted, and like any other gifted person, she needs guidance."
"I don't…She can't…" Ms. Tossgrove stopped, "The doctor said that she was going to be fine."
Almost as if on cue, Xavier's cell phone rang. And the professor didn't need to look at the number to tell who it was.
"Logan. What is it?"
"We got some problems, Charles." Logan's lowered voice came over the phone. "At least a dozen of 'em, and their all dressed in green."
"Is she alright?"
"Don't know." Logan replied, "Everyone we've talked to has given us the runaround, and it looks like their doing it to our friends from the military too."
"Understood, we'll get a taxi and be there as soon as we can." Xavier hung up the phone and backed his wheelchair up. "Ms. Tossgrove, we'll do everything that we can to make sure…"
"Will you be taking her away from me?"
Xavier paused.
This was the first time that a parent had asked him that particular question.
"I don't want to take her anywhere without your consent."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Ms. Tossgrove." Xavier knew that he had to thread carefully here. "I fear that, if we don't, then we will not be the last to come to you with this proposition. But, the others have their own agendas and will not have her best interest in mind."
Ms. Tossgrove sighed.
"She can think for herself, Professor Xavier. I've never been able to sway her from anything that she has ever decided to do. And if she agrees to go with you to your 'school', then so be it." Her face turned grim, "But if she does, then don't bring her back here again. I can't bear the thought of my beautiful Silvia being reduced to a hated freak."
"She is not…!" Storm started to protest.
"This is not the time, Storm." Xavier stopped her, turning his wheel chair about. "We have to get a taxi." As an after though, he reached into his wallet and fished out a card. "That is your decision. But, if you change your mind…" He handed Ms. Tossgrove the card, "You can reach me at that number."
With that, Storm and Xavier left Olivia Tossgrove sitting on her couch, pondering all that she had learned with a card in her hand.
'Cerebro Online'
Professor Charles Xavier moved his power chair into the large globed shaped room that was Cerebro, his trusted friend, Logan, close at his heels. (Metaphorically speaking) They had both been interrupted and surprise by Cerebro's sudden alert.
"If this is for real, Charles, it'll be the first new mutant that Cerebro's managed to trace since the old mansion was destroyed."
"I'm aware of that, Logan." Xavier scolded, not wanting to be reminded that the newer, upgraded version of Cerebro, while being much more efficient at tracking known and archived mutants, had somehow lost it's capability to identify and locate newly evolved mutants. Without wasting anymore time, Xavier took up the control helmet and set himself into the machine, amplifying his power in an attempt to find the mutant that Cerebro had detected.
"Access: Cerebro."
User and Code
This new feature, which Logan had convinced his old friend that Cerebro needed badly, was both simple and genius. The wrong hands had been able to access Cerebro far too many times in the past, both when the teen Arcade had hacked his way into the mansions security system and when Mystique, posing as Xavier, had set the entire mansion to self destruct.
"User: Charlie Xavier." That had also been Logan's suggestion. Any other impersonator who had used Charles instead would have been automatically locked out of the system. "Passcode: Wheels"
Accepted: Welcome Professor
With preliminaries out of the way, Xavier when to his work.
Mutant signature detected Tracing source of mutation.
….
….
Location Confirmed: Atlanta, Georgia: United States of America.
Identifying new mutation… ….
….
New Mutant Identified, confirmed and Recorded for Archives.
"Yes." Xavier was more than overjoyed as the image of a young, pale girl with long shiny brown hair started to process into Cerebro's visual indicator. It was usually best to find a new mutant just before or as their powers were beginning to surface. It both allowed them to learn that there were others like them out there, and that the X-Men would do all in their power to help them. While the first contact with a mutant was always the hardest, it would be far easier now then it would if they couldn't avoid her having any 'unpleasant experiences' with misunderstanding humans or, worse, with Magneto.
Identity of new mutant confirmed….
Silvia Tossgrove Apartment 2006, East Elm Boulevard Nature of Mutation, Unknown.
"Well, that was easy enough, eh Charles." Logan grunted slightly, turning to leave as Xavier took off and put away the control helmet.
"Yes, Perhaps too easy…" Xavier folded his hands together.
"Okay, that's your 'I'm not so sure about this' tone." Logan stopped and observed. "What is it that I missed right there that has you all concerned."
"No, it's nothing Logan." Xavier turned his chair around with a smile and nodded to the Canadian. "We should prep the jet and set out at once. It's the weekend, so we should assemble the full team."
"Can't." Logan injected, waiting for Xavier before exiting Cerebro, "Scott's with his brother at that surf contest in California and Jean is visiting with her parents this weekend. You cleared that yourself."
"That's right…" Xavier thought for a moment. "And Rogue is still recovering from the incident last week." Xavier reminded himself, referring of course to when Rogue had absorbed Mystique's shape shifting powers and, as a side-effect, lost her identity in a swell of every person that she had ever touched.
That was not the sort of thing that anybody recovered from easily.
"Well, that leaves Kurt, Kitty, Ororo, you, and myself."
"You really need me to be tagging along with you, Charles?" Logan inquired. "Keep in mind that I usually don't do subtly ."
"Hank can handle things here at the mansion, Logan. Besides, if Magneto has been having the same trouble that we've been having acquiring recruits, then he'll be just as anxious to get to Silvia as I am. It'll be helpful if you come along."
"I may not be psychic , Charles." Logan smiled as they approached the elevator. "But I can tell that the real reason is because you don't want to risk having to let the squirt drive the car again."
Xavier shivered and grimaced at the memory of his previous driving experience with Kitty Pride, allowing Logan a lighthearted laugh at his expense as the elevator closed.
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"Are we recording yet."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Alright, then, lets do this." Dr. Archer secured the mask around his face, a mere caution, before he started speaking for the tape. "This is Dr. Julian Archer, at 8:45 a.m. Atlanta Medical. The date is April, 30th, the year…."
A sudden clamor of utensils struck the ground, causing the doctor to jump nearly out of his skin before he realized that it had merely been the tech from before (acting now as an orderly, since Dr. Archer did not want this secret to get out any sooner than it had to.)
" Get a grip on yourself man, you're a professional." Archer scolded for a moment before turning back to the task at hand.
"Excuse me. As I was saying… The subject is a mutant, female, by the surname Silvia Tossgrove. Age is sixteen and seven months. Height is five foot, nine inches, weighing approximately one hundred and fifteen pounds. Subject was admitted to E.R at around two O'clock yesterday. Though initial cause of symptoms is, as of yet, unknown. The subject was soon identified as a mutant, a fact which is most certainly connected to the initial problems. When admitted, subject had several minor rashes, beginning at the front of the throat and then running down the front of the torso. Within the last eighteen and a half hours, said rashes have spread, now covering most all surface space despite multiple attempts of treatment using antibiotics. The original areas, where the rash was first prominent, seem to have smoothed out and lost their red color, reverting to subject's original skin color in most places. However, upon closer examination of these areas, we can see that the deceptively smooth, unblemished skin is, in fact, a very fine, minute set of small, overlapping scales, much like that of a reptile. The area around the front of subject's throat and anterior torso, including breast, belly, and forward pelvic area are instead being covered in long, horizontal yellowish scales that I hypothesize will be the equivalent to a snake's belly scales. It is expected that within a few more hours, subject's rash will vanish entirely, leaving the subject completely covered with these scales.
Other indication's of the subject's mutation include a sudden growth of a pair of black, back-curving horns from the subject's forward cranium. Ears have doubled in size and lost human shape, elongating outward in an fashion often portrayed by anime elf artists. Eyes have likewise changed, once more, taking on a more reptilian appearance, with pupils becoming slit and irises changing to an unnatural amber color. Due to probable complications, sedatives have been used to keep patient unconscious. Whether this is in anyway interfering with mutations is unknown. Preparing for further examination we…"
Dr. Archer stopped, his hand halfway toward the scalpel on the tray before him, as he heard a sudden moan from the young 'woman' on observation table. Looking down at her, he saw that she was stirring, beginning to sway and move her arms like many who came out of sedation following surgery.
This was unacceptable.
"Turn off the recorder!"
"Doctor?"
"DO IT!" Archer scolded, his urgency getting an immediate response. As soon as the recorder was no longer working, Archer tore the mask from his face, anger more than apparent.
"I gave you explicit instructions to keep this thing sedated!"
"But I have doct…" The nurse stopped, suddenly seeing the mutant stirring on the table. "That…. That can't be…" She stammered, "I must have pumped half a drug store into it's arm just an hour ago. At least twice the safe dosage."
"Do it again." The doctor ordered, "We'll get on with this as soon as we can be sure…"
"Dr. Archer to registration desk, please"
"Oh for the love of… Now What?" Dr. Archer looked back to the nurse, "We'll pick this up when I get back. Until then, I want no one in this room. Understood?"
"Yes doctor."
Dr. Archer stormed out of the observation room and past the security guard that had been placed at the door, irritated both by the interruption and the idea that he might miss his only chance to examine this mutant without any outside interference.
The nurse went straight to work, preparing syringes and sedatives for injection, having to do more than the safe amount of guessing due to her patient's obvious complications. She did not consider herself either for or against the recently exposed 'outbreak' of mutant-kind, but she did understand and appreciate the possible contribution this mutant might have to offer the physicians of humanity, who were still very much in the dark when it came to the mutant question.
Just to be safe though, the nurse guessed low on the strength of the injections.
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Olivia Tossgrove opened her door late that evening to find an older, bald, yet handsome man in a wheelchair awaiting her. Olivia could tell right away that this man must have been extremely learned, likely a teacher, perhaps even a college professor.
Behind him stood a rather assorted group, two friendly-looking teens: a boy with dark hair and a lean athletic look, and a smaller, attractive young woman with an innocent face and long brown hair. A larger man, grim set and muscular stood in the back of the troop with a beautiful black woman with stark white hair.
A strange ensemble indeed. Strangely enough, she had the nagging feeling that she had seen these people before.
"Uh, may I help you?"
"Ms. Olivia Tossgrove, I assume?"
"Yes? I'm sorry, am I behind on my cable bills again?"
"Not at all, Ms. Tossgrove. My name is Charles Xavier. I'm here to talk to you about your daughter, Silvia."
"Silvia!" Ms. Tossgrove panicked for an instant. "Is everything alright?"
Xavier was taken back for a moment, struck speechless by Olivia's concern.
"Is there something vrong?" The teen boy asked, an apparent German accent dominating his speech.
"You see, ve thought that Silvia vould be here."
"What, No." Olivia recomposed herself, taking a breath of relief. "Silvia was admitted to South East Medical yesterday. They kept her overnight for observation."
Xavier looked back to the others, a now equal concern coloring his features.
Logan shared it. He knew the risk to any mutant in the hands of outside forces better than any of the others. And with mutants becoming public and anti-mutant factions growing, it was even more dangerous. If the hospital found out what Xavier knew, there was no telling what might happen.
"Logan, If you could…"
"I'm already there, Charles." Logan said without hesitation. "You two coming?" He asked the teens.
"Can I drive?" The young woman asked.
"NOOO!!" Every one of the visitors answered in blunt unison.
"Aww, why not?" She wined.
The three left quickly, heading down the stairs of the apartment building while Xavier and the woman that he introduced as Ororo Monroe.
"Ms. Tossgrove, there is something that we need to discuss about Silvia. May we come in?"
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"You can't do this to me Daniel!"
"What the hell were you thinking, Julian?! That nobody would notice she had vanished from recovery?! That nobody would realize that you had closed off an observation room?! Were you hoping that the rest of us were so incompetent that you could run this scheme for as long as you wished! Give me ONE reason why I shouldn't have your medical license run though a garbage disposal!" The chief physician, Dr. Daniel Worthington, demanded, his tone on the edge of homicidal.
"I should have not only your license rebuked for this breach in ethics, but your entire career should be questioned!"
"This is the chance of a life time, Daniel!!" Dr. Archer tried to get his point across while keeping his voice under control. "This girl is a mutant, Daniel. A living breathing mutant! How can we possibly pass up an opportunity to study this creature, to expand our knowledge of…"
"THAT… " The director of the hospital nearly exploded in rage, "That "creature"… is a patient under my care! And I don't care if you have E.T.'s pregnant hermaphrodite mother in that room! No patient under the care of MY hospital will be subjected to experiments or whatever the hell else you were planning to do to her. I don't care if she is a mutant, Julian, and unlike you, I have respect for the Hippocratic Oath that I took the day I graduated medical school."
"Daniel," Dr. Archer attempted to gain ground in this losing argument. "We have an opportunity to study that thing in detail…."
"DR. ARCHER! You are, as of now, relived of your duties and may consider yourself fired! And if I were you, I would hold off on trying to land another job in medicine, because I will be ordering a complete investigation into this and any other acts of malpractice and disregard for human life that may be spanning your career!"
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME, DANIEL!"
"It's done, Julian. And be thankful that the final decision in this is not mine, because, if it were up to me, you would rot in federal prison for what you intended on doing to that girl. Now get out of my hospital before I have security escort you off the premises!!"
His mind fueled by anger, Dr. Julian Archer spun around and stormed off.
He may have lost this round to his blindly altruistic superior.
But he was more than comfortable with the fact that, after a few well placed phone calls, he could get another chance.
"Your orders, doctor?" The new nurse asked Dr. Worthington while he watched the elder doctor stalk away. "About the mutant girl?"
"Cease sedation and get her out of the observation room. Make sure that she is completely covered when you transfer her to a private recovery ward, I don't want a panic. No stimulants, let her come out of the sedation naturally. Anything that we do drug wise to intervene may only hurt her further."
"And after that, Dr. Wothington?"
"After that, we sit back, and see what happens." The doctor said, thinking about how he was going to bring this news to Silvia Tossgrove's mother after that snake, Archer, had told her that she was alright.
"It's all we can do."
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"I'm sorry sir, but I have no registry for a 'Tossgrove, Silvia'. Are you certain that she was checked into this hospital."
"Yeah, I'm certain." Logan sneered in frustration. In the end (and with a little help from Kitty) they had managed to barrel though down-town city traffic and reach the hospital in just under ten minutes.
They had spent the rest of their hour here trying to FIND the girl.
"Sir, I have cross-referenced every check-in, Emergency Room entry, transfers to and from other hospitals, and recovery ward all over the building. There is simply no record of anyone here under that name within the last six months."
"Look, She came in the emergency room yesterday and was supposed to have been put in a recovery room." Logan repeated again for the hundredth time, going over all the facts (which Xavier had 'lifted' from the surface of Ms. Tossgrove's mind over an hour before) with almost a dozen different nurses and technicians. "She was under the care of a Dr. Archer, We're here at her mother's request."
"Archer?" The technician looked at her computer again and shook her head. "I'm sorry sir, but according to this, Dr. Julian Archer was suspended from practice recently and is pending an investigation."
"Suspended from practice? When?"
The technician punched the question into her computer and hesitated for a moment while allowing the answer to load.
"It was…just this morning as a matter of fact."
"Why?"
"I'm sorry sir, but that information is confidential."
"Of course it is!" Logan snapped before turning around and heading back to meet Kitty and Kurt in the waiting room. He knew that she had to be here. But the fact that they couldn't find anyone who was willing to cooperate meant either that everyone was covering something up or that there was a much smaller conspiracy on hand. Logan noticed Kitty Pride and Kurt Wagner immediately as he walked into the waiting room and could tell form their faces that they were just as unsuccessful.
"So, do you think that someone might have taken her?" Kurt asked, his accent punctuating every syllable.
"I doubt it, elf." Logan steamed, "I just found out that the doctor treating her had his M.D. K.O.-ed this morning. And I'm betting that it wasn't for prescribing sugar pills."
"Okkay…" Kitty shook her head, trying to make some sense of what was happening. "So, Silvia comes in here, then disappears, then the doctor is sacked, and… Am I missing something? Why don't Kurt and I just do a little…" She lowered her voice for a moment, "… high-talented snooping?"
"Because we don't need you walking though a wall, stumbling on a nurse changing a bed-pan and set off some sort of national media coverage on 'the mutant menace.'" Logan paused for a second, lifting his chin and taking a quick sniff of the air.
"On the other hand, you might want to keep that option open…" Logan scoped around for a moment, but it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
Military uniforms.
"I think we just got some company."
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"There has to be some mistake…" Olivia Tossgrove stammered, hardly able to keep herself from shaking. "I mean…Silvia can't possibly be… it's just not…"
"Ms. Tossgrove," Xavier said coolly, feeling that this reaction, while not uncommon, was not what they needed right now. "Your daughter is about to undergo a very difficult transition in her life. And, in the end, she is going to need your support to get though it. But, you do not need to take on this task alone. Silvia will need to be in a place where she can be safe to continue to learn and grow…"
"I take it that you are too?" Ms. Tossgrove looked up to Xavier quickly, then to Storm. "And her? You're…" She trailed off.
"Mutants?" Storm answered cautiously. Ms. Tossgrove nodded.
"Yes." Xavier confirmed, hoping that this fact would not damage the conversation. "We understand the trials and hardships that Silvia is about to face, and we wish only to help her. She is gifted, and like any other gifted person, she needs guidance."
"I don't…She can't…" Ms. Tossgrove stopped, "The doctor said that she was going to be fine."
Almost as if on cue, Xavier's cell phone rang. And the professor didn't need to look at the number to tell who it was.
"Logan. What is it?"
"We got some problems, Charles." Logan's lowered voice came over the phone. "At least a dozen of 'em, and their all dressed in green."
"Is she alright?"
"Don't know." Logan replied, "Everyone we've talked to has given us the runaround, and it looks like their doing it to our friends from the military too."
"Understood, we'll get a taxi and be there as soon as we can." Xavier hung up the phone and backed his wheelchair up. "Ms. Tossgrove, we'll do everything that we can to make sure…"
"Will you be taking her away from me?"
Xavier paused.
This was the first time that a parent had asked him that particular question.
"I don't want to take her anywhere without your consent."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Ms. Tossgrove." Xavier knew that he had to thread carefully here. "I fear that, if we don't, then we will not be the last to come to you with this proposition. But, the others have their own agendas and will not have her best interest in mind."
Ms. Tossgrove sighed.
"She can think for herself, Professor Xavier. I've never been able to sway her from anything that she has ever decided to do. And if she agrees to go with you to your 'school', then so be it." Her face turned grim, "But if she does, then don't bring her back here again. I can't bear the thought of my beautiful Silvia being reduced to a hated freak."
"She is not…!" Storm started to protest.
"This is not the time, Storm." Xavier stopped her, turning his wheel chair about. "We have to get a taxi." As an after though, he reached into his wallet and fished out a card. "That is your decision. But, if you change your mind…" He handed Ms. Tossgrove the card, "You can reach me at that number."
With that, Storm and Xavier left Olivia Tossgrove sitting on her couch, pondering all that she had learned with a card in her hand.