"Alright," Kitty announced. "I've got the Magneto and the Acolytes, Sinister and the Marauders, and the Hellfire Club listed as Unlikely. Who else can you think of?"
"How 'bout the Morlocks?" Pietro suggested. "Maybe they got a new mutant who could do something like this."
"Possible, but not likely," one of the Professors noted. "For that matter, your sister Wanda could be responsible for this." He paused. "In fact that's not so unlikely, either. Kitty, if you could put the Morlocks under Unlikely and the Scarlet Witch under Possible, please?"
"Done and done," Kitty answered, scribbling away at a notepad.
"Victor von Doom?" Ororo suggested. "He's more than capable of something like this..."
"Yes, but why would he attack us? The man's obsessed with the Fantastic Four."
"He could be testing a weapon on us before using it against Dr. Richards."
"...fair point. Kitty?"
"Added to the Possible category," she agreed.
"What about those two lunatic women we heard about in Northern Australia?" Scott suggested. Jean shook her head.
"No, this isn't their style. I was going to suggest something from one of the other supervillians running around, for the same reason as Storm suggested... Doctor Octopus, or the Lizard, or Mumbo Jumbo, or someone."
"Who was that last one?" Lance wanted to know.
"Oh, nobody important."

Evan groaned. "What's the point of even doing this?" he asked. "Assuming that we get this list done of everyone who might have screwed up our powers, and that the dude who actually did it is somewhere on the list... what next? We call him up and ask him nicely to change us back?"
The nearest Charles frowned at him. "Well, not exactly, no. But we have to start somewhere, Evan. At the very least, a list of possible suspects is a move in the right direction."
"Maybe Weapon X or the Friends of Humanity," Lance suggested. "Those fuckers probably think this'd be a great experiment. Just another weapon they're working on."
"Suggestion noted and language ignored due to the circumstances," another Charles agreed. "Kitty, if you would?"
"I got it, I got it," Kitty muttered, writing away. "But I gotta say I agree with Evan here... is this, like, actually useful at all, or are we really just wasting time here until Dr. McCoy finishes his tests downstairs?"
"Maybe it's a bit of both," suggested a Charles from the doorway. Two of the other Professors glared at him.
"Who let you back inside?" one demanded.
"I got cold so I came back in," the clone in the door explained. "It's cold outside, you know. There's quite a breeze."
The Professor at the table pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. "Do us all a favour - go and watch some television or something until we're done here. Please."
"Alright."
The unfortunate clone in question wheeled his way toward the Rec Room, and the half-dozen or so Professors remaining sighed in unison.
"I empathise with Jamie on a level I never thought I would," one observed.
"Or wanted to," added another.
"Amen to that," the rest agreed.
Kitty raised her pen. "That's it. You can stay," she announced, pointing at the Professor seated at the table. "The rest of you leave now, or so help me God I will lock you all in the Danger Room until this is done."
Two of the Professors made as if to argue with her.
Kitty brandished the pen at them.
And five of the Professors looked at one another and hurriedly left the room.

----

"Interesting... very interesting... oh yes, that is interesting. It's fascinating, enthralling, enchanting, captivating and most of all it's interesting..."
"Today's list of Synonyms brought to you by Doctor Henry McCoy's neurosis," Logan observed from his position leaning against the doorframe. Hank spun around and flushed.
"Logan! My word. Don't startle me like that, I could have spilled something."
"An' we can't have that, now can we?" Logan asked, walking forward. "Whatcha lookin' at that's so damn interesting, Poindexter?"
"Blood samples." Hank stepped away and gestured at the microscope he'd been peering through a moment ago. "Samples from some of the Brotherhood, some of our own students, and from Ororo and Samuel and Roberto. I've been trying to detect any common factors between those affected by this power exchange which differs from the three who have been unaffected."
"Havin' any luck?"
"Why yes." Hank blinked at him, then picked up his spectacles from the bench and put them on. "I've found something most peculiar."
Strolling forward, Logan examined the Petri dishes. "Which would be?"
"Nanobots."
"What?"
"Nanobots."
"Poindexter, pretend for just a minute that I got no idea what those are. Little help?"
"Oh. Yes." Hank nodded. "Nanobots are, essentially, microscopic robots. That is, microscopic on an atomic level. A concentrated group of several million Nanobots would produce a pile the size of an M&M, you see. They're absolutely tiny."
"Okay." Logan shrugged. "What about 'em?"
"We're riddled with them," the doctor said simply. "You, me, the students, the Brotherhood... our blood is teeming with Nanobots. All of which are active - they seem to be powered by body heat, most clever - and transmitting some kind of signal. The thing is, those who have not been affected by the power switch are clean, not a bot to be found in their blood samples."
"So these Nannybots are causin' everyone's powers to go screwy?"
"It would appear so, yes."
"How? What's this signal they're puttin' out?"
Hank looked pained. "Logan, I'm a physician, not a physicist. Nor, for that matter, a Radio Engineer. I know these Nanobots are here, and that they're the prime candidate for our current difficulty. The how and why of it, however, are beyond me." He paused. "As is, for that matter, how we came to be infected by them..."

----

Upstairs in the kitchen, Sam opened the door of the fridge just as another Charles clone wheeled past him. Kitty glared at the clone suspiciously, and he held up his hands.
"Kitty, please. I'm only here to get some coffee, and you have my word that I'll behave myself."
She glared at him. "You sure you're not Sparky(3) from a minute ago?" she demanded. Charles shuddered.
"Lord, no. He has, at present, commandeered the television and is watching Judge Judy."
Scott blinked. "Professor, it's kind of disturbing to think that he came from you."
"Believe me, Scott, nobody is more disturbed than I by the thought."

Behind the Professor, Sam emerged from the fridge with a Tupperware container in one hand, a fork in the other, and a mouthful of casserole. He swallowed and gestured with his fork.
"Who made this?" he wanted to know. "It's pretty damn good. Kitty, weren't you cookin' last night?"
She shrugged. "Well, yeah, but I didn't make the casserole."
"I know that, didn't ya hear me say it was good? I was wondering who did."
Kitty stuck her tongue out at him. "Meanie. Anyway, I don't know, it was on the counter when I was making dinner. It tasted okay, so I served it up... nobody complained so I figured it was no biggie."
Sam nodded. "Fair enough. I was kinda scared to try it 'cause I thought you made it last night..." Kitty made as if to throw her pen, and Sam grinned at her. "...but I wish I had. This stuff is good."
Ororo raised an eyebrow. "I didn't try it either, Sam. For the same reason. I'll have to try it..."
As Sam opened his mouth to respond to her, the Professor wheeled past him to get to the coffeemaker.
What happened next was a shock to everyone.

A flicker of blue light, visible to everyone, flickered between Sam and Charles like an arc of lightning. Both jolted back as if struck by a physical blow; the Professor vanished. Sam staggered against the fridge, slipped, and fell on his backside.
Three more Sams appeared next to him, sprawled on the kitchen floor.
Over by the table, the remaining Charles gave an exclamation and made as if to move. Instead he shot backwards at an incredible pace, blurring with speed, to smash through the kitchen wall, through the wall of the hallway opposite, and into the bathroom beyond. Inside the bathroom, a screaming Rogue pulled her pants back up, exited the bathroom via the new hole in the wall, and ran off down the hall.
Everyone in the kitchen remained frozen.
"Hello?" came the Professor's voice, feebly floating back in toward them. "Can someone help me, please? I'm not hurt, but... I'm sort of stuck here..."
Scott was the first to snap back to reality. He shook his head. "That... was unexpected."
"Unexpected, hell," Pietro retorted. "That was fucking brilliant. This is way funnier when it happens to someone else."
"Keep talking and I'll slime you," Lance growled. Pietro made a zipping motion over his mouth, and went with Scott to retrieve the Professor.
Kitty, meanwhile, finally managed to blink. "Okay... so..." she clutched her pen until her knuckles went white. "The Professor has Sam's powers now. Okay. And Sam has Jamie's. Okay."
"This is not what I'd call okay," Jean informed her. "This is worse than what we had a second ago and that wasn't okay either."
"I feel really weird," one of the Sams called, staggering to his feet. "Uh, Miss Storm? Maybe you shouldn't try that casserole after all..."
"Duly noted," Ororo agreed.
"I fell on my bottom," one of the other Sams complained loudly. "And I spilt the casserole. It was good casserole and I wasted it. Darn it all."
"Oh God, now I'm doing it," a third Sam growled.

A cough from the doorway caught everyone's attention; Hank stood there, Logan a short distance behind.
"Well," said Hank. "I was going to say that I had some interesting news for us all, but something tells me that whatever is going on here is much more interesting than anything I could tell you."

----

(3) By the wisdom of Morlock, the ORC has been universally named Sparky. Bless you, Morlock! huggles