Cassandra Xavier's mental vision, the world, existence, stretched out before her as a plane. As the the device hummed to life, software protocols interpreting, amplifying and repeating her brainwaves, the plane curved in all directions, layers of data coalescing into color-coded maps, indexed with satellite imagery pilfered from various arrays.
The world map glowed roughly, and luminous, flickering dots, each representing a living mutant with an active, expressed X-gene.
Cerebro was a small chamber, sealed off in the sub-basement behind shielding. Inside, Cassandra was alone, but from the observation deck, situated so as to have an elevated view of the user, Tessa watched her, her attention divided between various readouts; vital signs, brainwave activity, electromagnetic output, data flows in and out. Overlaid on the pane of glass that separated them was a graphical approximation of what the older woman was seeing through her magnified psychic vision, here marked with raw numbers as interpreted through Cerebro's processors.
What are the numbers, Tess? Cassandra's voice drifted as an auditory miasma directly into her head.
"Give it a moment to stabilize." she said allowed, knowing that Cassandra would hear her. Internally the software did its work, and after a few seconds the graphforms, fluctuating up and down, came to a stop. "3423."
We're growing, Cassandra said.
"Maybe. I've explained why using Cerebro to take census is deeply inaccurate, Cass." The machine, attuned to the brainwaves emitted by mutants, used Cassandra's own psychic senses to reach out and visualize their kind. Most of their kind.
Cassandra laughed. I know, I know. It's deeply unscientific, all that. That's my brain, though. I like having an idea of how many of us are out there, coming into being, even if it's only a rough guess. That's better than nothing.
Tessa glanced over the outflow of information for herself, letting it seep into her memory for later reference. "Anything interesting?"
Just the usual. The screen in front of Tessa changed as Cassandra shifted and narrowed her senses, floating about the world as easily and quickly as her amplified powers would take her. The map fragmented into static then reformed, the world atlas now and narrower view over the the Indian Ocean. The the middle of her vision was a smattering of lights of various colors, one noticeably brighter than the others.
Say hello to Charles, Cassandra said, dismissively. Almost immediately thereafter the light flickered out of existence. Cassandra laughed. My brother really hates it when I do that.
Tessa smiled to herself. "He seems to hate it when you do anything at all." At that remark, Cassandra laughed again.
Well, look what we have here. Again the scale and scope of her vision changed, now coming to a much smaller scale. A swathe of land, mostly empty, save for the cluster of lights mulling about in various concentrations. The compound in which they sat. Site X.
Cassandra again narrowed her focus onto a rapidly approaching quartet of dots. Jean and her lot are back. Looks like we might have a new friend.
...
"Roxy, this is Cassandra Xavier. Cassandra Xavier, this is Roxy Washington." Jean Grey smiled at the girl cooly as Cassandra approached, a hand extended.
"My pleasure, Ms. Washington," she said. The girl met her hand and shook, her skin catching the light of the late afternoon sun and casting a cascade of prisms about. She smiled, glancing around, the reflective luster on her face beautiful under the intensity of the cloudless sky.
"You can call me Roxy, Mrs. Xavier."
"Thank you, Roxy. And please, I'm no Mrs. To our kind my name is Nova." She looked the girl up and down, trying not to linger on the dazzling glitter of her exposed diamond skin. "I'm hoping Jean has given you at least a little information on our little commune?"
Roxy nodded. "Yeah, she did. I can really stay here?" The three of them stood at the back of the cluster of houses near the entrance of their large garden.
"Of course. You'll be expected to work, of course, and we have some tutors that will help you continue your education if you like. You're what, sixteen, seventeen?"
"Nineteen," she replied.
"Ah, good. There's a collective knowledge here among us that rivals some universities, and we've a digital and physical library that should provide you with whatever information you seek. And of course, we can offer you protection. And perhaps most importantly some degree of peace and quiet."
Roxy nodded. "Jean said you can help me with..." she paused.
"Your powers, yes. If that's what you wish."
Roxy looked around the extent of the compound that could be seen, then glanced briefly at her gem-laced hand. "I took down a Sentinel byself. One of those smaller ones, drones. But I...I could help you, you know. I could be an X-Man."
Cassandra nodded, then met Roxy's eyes. "Ah, yes. We don't really call ourselves that any more. My brother, Charles, is bigger on that branding than I am." Cassandra let a moment pass in silence before continuing. "We're trying something of a different tack these days. Defensive rather than offensive. But security is still important, and if you're interested in that sort of thing there are people here that Jean can introduce you to."
"Josh?" she said, both with her voice and her mind. A moment later, a young man with shining gold skin came running up to them from behind a tented garden bed. He smiled at all of them.
"Josh, this is Roxy. Show her around? We should have an open room over on the north unit. Get her settled in for me?" The boy nodded and gestured to Roxy, who followed him, though her gaze lingered on Cassandra. As they turned the corner around a large shed she could them starting to chatter as teenagers were wont to do.
"Jean," she said. "Take a walk with me, would you? The sentence was finished inside the younger woman's head, and she nodded. The started down the path that lead to a wooded patch on the western end of the property.
We think we've found something, Jean thought. The intel that Kate gave us was real. There's some sort of fabrication complex outside of Cedarville. Telemetry from Forge's drones confirmed massive strains on the grid, too much to account for the population.
Were you able to read anyone?
Nothing on the inside. Handful of bassline brains on the perimeter but there was nothing in there. None of them know what's actually going on inside.
Maybe they have some telepaths.
I doubt it. Only you, Frost, Chuck, and the Cuckoos could block me and they're all accounted for, unless your brother is suddenly helping the feds manufacture Sentinels.
A fucking Master Mold, god damnit.
It's looking that way. It can't be a coincidence that they set up camp so close. Any word from Sage?
She's found some nominal monies being routed to various offshore accounts but nothing that could fund something that huge. Feds seem to be getting better at encryption.
That's what happens when the start hiring mutants.
They both stopped near a small pond that sat under some tall pine trees. I like hiding out here, Jean. I think the kids like it, too. There's something kind of...I don't know...fun about being here, right under their fucking noses.
Well, fine, but..,how long do you think this whole thing could really last?