Disclaimer: All recognizeable characters belong to Marvel comics. I am making nothing off them.

Author's Notes: Set some time after New X-Men #9.

Shan came in today and told me that they'd found Kevin. He'd been sighted at 2:00 PM outside of Langston, Georgia, attacking an afternoon jogger. A witness called the police, and Kevin fled to the outskirts of town and taken refuge in an old warehouse. Two officers, seeing him enter, called for backup and kicked open the door.

When the backup arrived, they found the two policemen on the floor, bodies already almost totally decomposed. Kevin had apparently made good his escape.

Shan told me all this, and then looked at me for the longest time, like she was trying to probe my mind without her powers and determine what I was going to do. Even if she had used her powers, it wouldn't have helped. I had no idea what to say, do, think. I just sat there, staring at everything and nothing. Finally, she sighed, said I knew were to find her if I wanted to talk, and left my office.

I know what I have to do. I'm an X-man; it's our job to stop dangerous mutants who abuse their gifts. Not that Kevin would call what he has a gift, but still. He must be stopped, no matter if he is a former student and someone I once might have called friend. It's not like this has never happened before; I've long ago perfected the art of separating Magneto the dangerous villain from Magneto my headmaster. Scott will no doubt be calling a meeting in a few minuets, once he's conferred with Emma to make sure it really is Kevin. He'll expect me to be there, to offer advice and suggestions on how to handle Wither. As is his right. He's my leader, and deserves my support. It's my duty, and I will do it to the best of my ability.

If only I could erase from my mind the picture of a skinny, terrified boy squatting in a Georgia junkyard, who knew that life as he had known it was over.

-------

Scott glanced up as Dani walked in the door. He offered her a strained smile before returning to the reports and paperwork piled in front of him. "Dani. I'm glad you could come. Please take a seat? I'd like to get through with this as soon as possible." Nodding, Dani dropped into a chair next to Kitty, leaning over to ask her "So, when did you get the news?

Kitty, frowning, whispered "Just this morning. The Langston police called Scott, and discussed it with Emma before telling the rest of us." Her snort told Dani just what she thought of handing any problem over to Emma. "Shan wanted to tell you personally. Dani, do you..."

"Ahem."

They both turned to face Cyclops, who had put down the last of the paperwork and turned to face his assembled team. Logan was frowning at the table, no doubt wishing he could be out chasing Wither instead of discussing it in committee. Across from him, Hank was scribbling away in his notebook and muttering to himself. Northstar sat rigidly at attention, while Emma lounged, seemingly unconcerned with the goings on. "At nine thirty A.M, I received a call from the chief of police of Langston, Georgia." He walked over to the screen hanging behind him and pressed a button. A map of Georgia appeared, with Langston marked by a red dot. "They had received calls describing a mutant matching Kevin's description, who apparently attacked a jogger before fleeing. Two officers pursued him to a warehouse, where he killed them before making his escape. This is all the police know so far, and they haven't given us any other updates so far. It looks like we're going to have to find him ourselves, and to do that we have to figure out where he might have gone after all this." He scanned the room before him."Anyone have any ideas?"

Logan snorted."Emma can use the Cerebro, can't she? Why not just have her find the kid, and we come in on the Blackbird?"

"Because, Logan," came a somewhat sharp reply from Hank,"we need to keep this out of the public eye as much as possible. The public's perception of mutants is at a dangerously low ebb, what with Magneto's recent...depredations, and finding Wither and containing him as expediently as possible is essential."

Kitty spoke up. "But if we keep this from the public, won't it just worsen our image? And if we let everyone know that we brought Wither in, it would do the X-men a world of good."

A delicate snort from Emma came in answer. " Pryde, if your brain hasn't become as intangible as the rest of you, kindly think on what you are saying. Kevin can disintegrate organic matter. Relations between mutants and homo sapiens are going poorly enough as it is. Can you imagine the effect on public opinion were this to become well known? I've been working with some contacts at CNN to try and keep this story from the media, which ought to buy us enough time to handle Kevin. Understand?"

"I suppose so. You're the expert on secret plans, after all." Kitty's teeth showed, but her expression could hardly be called a smile. Emma drew herself up and was preparing to reply when Scott sighed and said "Emma. Kitty. Enough. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Northstar spoke up. "It seems to me that Kitty has a point. We could use the positive PR from capturing such a menace."

Dani bit back the instinctive That "menace" is my student. Aloud, she said "We can't be sure Kevin is acting on his own. We've got a long enough history of mind control that we at least have to consider it, and be sure to take Kevin alive. Do you really think the police or FBI would be willing to cut him any slack if he were being controlled?"

That got a derisive reply from Jean-Paul. "You seem assured, Danielle, that we can just scoop Wither up as easily as you'd grab a penny off the street. The boy has the unfortunate advantage of being trained by the X-men, and being able to eliminate witnesses before they can reveal his whereabouts. If Emma is not exaggerating her difficulties, than how exactly do you propose to find him without the aid of conventional law enforcement?"

"We user our training, and do our job. Do you really have that little faith in your teammates?"

"Dani..." Scott rubbed his eyes, then looked up and said "We need to make a choice, people. Do we cooperate with the authorities, or go after Kevin ourselves?

It took a while, but it was eventually decided that they should go after Kevin themselves, and turn him over to the proper authorities after they caught him. Dani sighed with relief.

Scott pressed another button beside the viewing screen, and it changed to a more detailed map of Georgia. "The next thing we have to decide is where to look. Emma, Dani, you two had the most contact with him before he left. Do you have any idea where he could have gone?"

Emma glanced over and Dani and sent Well, dear? Do you want to spill the beans, or shall I ?

Dani could think of many, many reasons why she should be the one to tell and not Emma. They were all, however, fairly petty. And personal.

She said "It think Emma knows more about this than I do. She could probably tell you more."

Rising, Emma glanced around her and said "I cannot say for certain when the idea entered young Kevin's mind, but I am fairly certain it began during last week's...incident."