The blast of static energy had knocked Rahne Sinclair unconscious. She was, in effect, dead to the world, and therefore not a threat to Megabyte's plans or of potential assistance to any of his victims.
At least, that accounted for the human part of her...
Seconds after she had been hurled across the room, her body had reverted to its wolf-form, and she now staggered to her (four) feet.
Hunter. Bad hunter, after friends, pack members. Have to stop hunter. Friends down below, one leaving.
Sniffing the console, she whined in memory of pain.
Can't help friends below. Hunter makes lights, lights bring pain. No no no. Can't help. Help one leaving, maybe can help him.
Rahne bounded after the professor, and had almost reached him when he entered he elevator. The doors slammed shut in her face. She scrabbled at the door to no avail; they would not open. Stepping back, she looked at the display of lights above the elevator doors.
Going down...
Running a short distance down the hall, she reached a door marked 'stairs'. By seizing the handle in her teeth and pulling it down with her weight, she was eventually able to open it. Bursting into the stairwell, she began running down the flights of stairs. What little consciousness of her human self remained was frantically praying that, somehow, she could reach the professor in time.
Below, on the floor of the Danger Room, things were looking grim. Ororo, Bobby and Jubilee were already worn out from their previous training session; now, they recognised the sim currently running as the most dangerous available from the computer's files. Even Logan rarely used this sim, and he only ever used it because his healing factor meant that the opponents couldn't actually kill him. No-one in the danger room at that moment had a healing factor, however - meaning that the odds of their survival were getting rather slim.
"Ms. Monroe?" asked Bobby nervously. The trio had put their backs to one another as the opponents circled them, and now they could hear each other clearly. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," came the equally nervous reply. "This has never happened before to my knowledge..."
"You think it's a prank or something?" Jubilee asked, glaring at one of the Danger Room robots as it moved along in front of her.
"With only the Professor and Rahne running this thing?" Bobby snorted. "Even if either of those two ever managed to pull off a prank, they'd make it less dangerous than this..."
"So, what are we gonna do?"
"The only thing we can do," Ororo answered determinedly. "Try and survive..."
Bobby groaned. "Why do I get the feeling that that's a whole lot more difficult than you make it sound?"
As it turned out, Ororo never answered Bobby's question. Because at that moment, the sim opponents launched their first attack.
Up on Asteroid M, Logan was patrolling the barriers of their collective prison, testing for weaknesses in the construction.
"You're wasting your time, Herr Logan," called Kurt from over on the bed. "There is not an escape route available from here."
"Can't hurt to look, elf," Logan replied as he began to inspect the door.
"Ah, actually, it can...'
ZAP
As Logan blinked up from the floor, wondering what had happened, Kurt shrugged. "The door has an electric charge running through it," he explained. "Sorry I was late in telling you."
Scott sighed and walked over to the glass panel. "If you're quite finished?" he asked.
Rogue snorted. "An' what're you gunna do, sunshine?" she asked.
"Get us out of here," Scott answered mildly.
"Oh yeah? And, like, how are you gonna do that?" Kitty scoffed.
Scott didn't answer, just removed a small device from his belt and began fiddling with it.
"What's that?" Jamie asked, curious.
"A miniature sonar jammer. We've got one on the Blackbird, it's what makes us invisible to radar."
Amara snorted. "And how will that help us?" she asked scornfully.
"Well..." Scott answered, raising the sonar jammer to eye level and opening his visor. "Did you know that power dampers operate on radio waves?"
He flicked the switch.
Instantly, a blast of kinetic energy fired from his eyes, reducing the glass barrier to so many slivers of silicone. Scott closed his visor and returned the sonar jammer to his belt, then stepped through the gap. He looked back at the others.
"You coming?"
Evan blinked. "Dude..." he said slowly, "I am impressed."
Logan stepped outside the cell and clapped a hand onto Scott's back. "Knew that Chuck put ya in charge for a reason, Scooterboy."
Scott grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Quit crying on me. Now come on, we've got work to do..."
Moments later, the prison was empty, and the X-Men were once again moving throughout Asteroid M.
The elevator doors slid open at the lowest sub-basement in the labyrinth of levels below the Institute. As Charles' wheelchair moved into the corridor, he was unhurriedly picking at the small metallic panel covering the wiring. It came off easily enough; however, as he began to reach for the wires, the speakers in the corridor crackled to life.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Professor Xavier. You'd be well served to remember how I dealt with Wolfsbane earlier. I'd not like to have to do the same to you..."
A small spark of electricity spat from the exposed wiring, and Charles wisely stopped fiddling with it. Instead, he looked around carefully. "You can see me?" he asked.
"And hear you," acknowledged his as-yet unknown enemy. "Your surveillance systems are quite sufficient for my needs. I can see and hear anything that goes on in almost any area of your Institute."
"So..." Charles swallowed nervously as the chair continued on its way. "Where are you taking me?"
"Cerebro's Chamber."
"Why?"
A sinister-sounding chuckle. "You're going to die, Professor Xavier. It's amusingly ironic that you should meet your end in such a circumstance."
Charles' jaw set in defiance. "You're quite sure of yourself, my friend. Still... might I know the name of my would-be killer?"
"I am Megabyte. And you are the one who is needlessly self-confident, Professor Xavier. I am more powerful than you could comprehend."
At the end of the corridor, the door to Cerebro's chamber opened soundlessly, the enormous egg-shaped room dark and featureless. Charles didn't let it show, but he had hopes – Cerebro was the one thing that might give him a chance to locate and, therefore, combat this mysterious Megabyte. Then he was distracted by a sound behind him. Twisting around in his chair, he saw a door behind him burst open as a red wolf leaped into the corridor.
Rahne.
"Your students are persistent, Professor, I'll give you that."
As Rahne raced toward the Professor, and the Professor continued toward Cerebro's chamber, the lights in the corridor began to flicker. Suddenly, the globes exploded, and showers of sparks and bolts of electricity rained down on the hallway, narrowly missing Rahne, who ran on heedless. Charles reached the door, which began to slide shut behind him – an instant later, Rahne leaped through the remaining gap and landed on the walkway next to him. She looked up at him, and Charles heard her voice in his head.
Do what ye know ye have tae do, Professor. I'll keep this daftie occupied as long as I can.
Running up, she seized one shoe in her teeth and pulled Charles from his chair onto the walkway, then tensed herself for a leap.
"Thank you," Charles whispered to her.
Rahne's jump connected solidly with the chair, knocking both it and her off the walkway and into the curved walls of the room, where they slid to the bottom. Above, Charles dragged himself to Cerebro's console and activated the system. For a moment, he felt the system begin to rebel against him, but with a push of his mind, he regained control.
"What are you doing?" Megabyte demanded. "Why can't I stop you from using that?"
"It's a mentally aware system, Megabyte," Charles answered aloud. "Only a telepath can use it – and when in control of Cerebro's system, I would say that I have become more than a match for you..."
"So you say," came the snarled response. "But can you show your superiority in time to help your friends...?"
Below, at the bottom of Cerebro's egg-shaped chamber, Rahne was lying on her side, panting heavily. Besides having used almost all her energy in reaching Charles and forcing his wheelchair over the edge of the walkway, she'd sustained a nasty knock to the head during her fall – and, of course, being electrocuted before hadn't left her completely unharmed. Now, she was almost totally worn out, and as such couldn't run or jump with her usual agility.
Unfortunately for her.
Her sensitive hearing picked up a whirring sound; clambering to her feet, she bounded to one side as Charles' wheelchair rolled over the place she'd just been lying, missing her by no more than a foot. Having failed to connect, the chair drove a short distance up the curved wall of the chamber, turned, and headed toward her for another pass.
Oh, aye, this is nae good at all...
In the Danger Room, Bobby stepped back from freezing one of the robots to the floor. The opponents were, all of a sudden, getting more vicious; before, it had been as though they were playing with them. Now, the attacks were steady, relentless.
"Guys?" he panted. "I don't know if I can handle much more of this..."
Ororo shook her head. "Keep going, Bobby... if one of us goes down, the other two will probably be next. We can't give up."
Jubilee pushed her hair out of her eyes and paffed a group of dinosaur-like opponents, knocking them back. "Why do you think these guys got so serious all of a sudden?" she gasped.
Bobby shrugged. "At a guess? I'd say that whoever's doing this suddenly got real pissed off for some reason..."
The next wave of attackers moved in, effectively ending the conversation. Now they were just focused on staying alive.
