Stumbling Along the Path

"Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night?" Erik asked, "The feeling that one day, they'll come for you? And your children?"

Xavier wheeled around, "I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble."

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or universe. They belong to Marvel and FOX Studio.

Scott, Jean, Ororo, and Kurt stood around a large round table in their uniform. It had only been hours since they had returned to the mansion and there was still no sign of Peter, and Jubilee was still being held captive by the Mutant Response Division.

"There's only four of us." Scott said to the Professor as he wheeled into the room.

"That does not matter, Scott. If you work as a team, together you can find and rescue Jubilee. And we can perhaps find Peter. The last I sensed him was shortly before you all got back. I can only assume, that wherever he is, he is not awake or able to be reached by me." The Professor pressed a button on the table and a holographic map appeared.

"This is the MRD's facilities in New York, it is not as heavily guarded as our simulations, I wanted you to be over prepared. The biggest threat is that it seems their holding cells can somehow deactivate the mutant gene as it seems that once in the cells, they lose their abilities. It also seems I cannot breach them from out here. Though I can sense Jubilee's thought, I cannot reach them. I assume a keycard off one of the guards will be needed to unlock the cells." He continued, pointing out specific parts on the map.

Jean took a mental picture to remind her when they got there, though her mind was still wondering after all her dreams last night. It was as if she had seen herself in a mirror but older. She couldn't shake it. And then there was the fact that she knew Logan wasn't really Logan's real name, but there was no way she could tell him. He didn't trust any of them, even the Professor, who he had vaguely remembered.

The Professor had pinpointed the wing that he had felt Jubilee was most likely in, though there was no way to confirm.

Scott took every word the Professor said to heart, this was the moment he had to prove himself to be a leader.

"And remember, once you get out there, codenames only, it's best not to let anyone know your real names, it would only make it easier for them to find you." The Professor made sure to point out.

Jean made a face, she had yet to pick out a codename because the only two that had been proposed seemed cliché or just reminded her of her own lack of control. She figured that they would just pick one out in the heat of the moment and go with it, then it would be like a bad nickname in middle school and would just stick.

"Nightfall will be approaching soon. I figure it will be the easiest then; they won't see you guys coming." The Professor said, motioning for them to go ahead and leave.

"Scott, you will be great, just relax, you will know what to do when you get out there." He gave Scott a pat on the shoulder.

Scott nodded and walked to the hanger where everyone was sitting in the waiting. They all were quiet, fidgeting, and staring off into space. Scott wished he knew what to say to rally them or make them feel more confident, but he wasn't feeling so confident himself.

Ororo felt static running through her like anxiety, she was almost finding herself angry at the feeling. She remembered what it was like to feel helpless before, the feeling seemed almost the same. It wasn't that she didn't trust in her team, more so that she didn't trust herself. When it came down to starring down the barrel of a gun, she felt like she might freeze up.

They all began to load into the Blackbird. The silence still hushed, the only sound came from Scott as he fiddled with buttons on the dash. Thanks to Hank he had known the jet's inside and outsides better than the back of his hand, it was the only thing he really felt confident about in that moment.

"Where are we going to land?" Kurt asked, his voice much calmer than Scott had anticipated.

"I guess on the roof?" Scott shrugged as he started to take off.

Meanwhile, at the MRD headquarters, Peter's eyes fluttered open, feeling as if he had been hit by a truck. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion around him. His eyes moved, dazed, towards the cuffs on his hands holding them together. His head turned slowly to look towards his left, it looked like a bleak cell. He saw white walls, white floors, and that was it. He lifted his head to look for a door, but at first glance it just looked like another white wall.

His eyes fluttered again, straining to focus when he noticed a small dot on the wall, it looked like a light. He tried to think what that might be for, but even his mind seemed to be running in slow motion. He thought back to breaking into rescuing Magneto, but his memory seemed a bit foggy. Everything seemed to be a blur.

It then occurred to him that he didn't really know where he was or why he was there. He tried to think back to the last thing he remembered but it was all a blur and made his head hurt. He tried to sit up but it felt like he was weighted down and gave up with a sigh.

The blackbird circled the top of the building a couple times. Scott wondered if the surface was large enough but went down to land anyway. The land was a bit rocky but better than he expected for his first try. Everyone unbuckled and looked at each other.

"Ready?" Cyclops asked, switching out his glasses for the visors that Hank had made specially for missions.

Everyone nodded in agreement before stepping out of the jet into the cold night air.

"We need to be here. Should we go through the front door or Kurt could take us in one at time but that would put us at risk of being separated." Jean said pointing at a hallway on a small map.

"Unless I know where I am going I do not know if I will be able to just by looking at a dot on the map, I do not even know where we are now." Nightcrawler pointed out, looking at the map and then back to the roof.

"Good point…" Jean noted with a sigh.

"So front doors?" Storm asked, looking over the edge of the roof.

"I guess so. How's it look down there, Storm?" Cyclops questioned coming to the edge as well.

"Looks like a long drop, but I do not see any guards outside." Storm said, and with a gust of wind she was off the roof and overlooking the entrance was above.

"Well let's get down there." Cyclops said, mustering up a good tone of a leader before realizing he was the only one who wouldn't be able to get down there on his own.

Jean walked off the roof and gently levitated herself next to Storm. They looked back at the boys for a sign to go on or to see if they were going to follow.

"Need a hand, mein friend?" Nightcrawler asked, picking up Cyclops and vanishing in a cloud of blue smoke.

"Guess we should follow them." Jean motioned as Nightcrawler and Cyclops appeared on the ground.

Jean and Storm followed down and in behind the boys. Cyclops moved forward and advanced towards the door, almost expecting it to be unlocked, or maybe he was just hopeful. He noticed then the whirring of cameras watching the entrance and realized he had made a mistake not looking for cameras sooner. He quickly zapped the cameras, startling the rest of the team. He shrugged and motioned to the locked door.

Nightcrawler gave a thumbs up and wrapped his arms around everyone before transporting them into the facility, being greeted with an alarm and three armed guards.

Storm conjured up a gust of wind fast enough to rival a tornado, pushing the guards back, but the traction on their boots seemed to be military grade. Jean lifted a hand, her eyebrows furrowed as she swiped the guns from the guards, levitating them close to the ceiling where Cyclops was able to blast them into pieces. Jean swiped a hand to the right and to the left, knocking the guards into the walls and unconscious, but being met with a headache almost bad enough to knock her to her knees.

Cyclops supported Jean til she got her footing back and then ran forward, she pulled the small map out of her jacket and pointed them in the direction. Storm quickly ran back and grabbed the name tag and key card off of one of the guards.

"It is best to be safe, no?" She dangled the card.

And it was well worth it as they approached another set of locked doors. Storm swiped the keycard and the door swung open, only to hear more guards coming from behind and in front of them.

"How many workers do you think they have?" Nightcrawler joked.

Soon a handful of guards appeared in front and behind them. Cyclops gave a look to Jean and Storm. Storm's eyes glazed over and she looked up to the sky, being met with thunder and lightning, which took out the power of the entire building. Jean closed her eyes and tuned in to the guard's mind.

"You all need to get to the generators. Your boss will not be happy if you aren't down there, right now." She communicated telepathically.

All the guards lowered their weapons and began to run off somewhere else.

It was much harder to navigate in the dark but the alarms were no longer going off and with the cameras shut off it gave them much more time to find Peter and Jubilee uninterrupted.

Cyclops led the group with the help of Jean telepathically pointing out directions to make it into the prison hallway. There must have been a hundred cells in the hallway.

"We don't know which cell holds them, so just start unlocking all of them." Cyclops suggested, now wishing they had all grabbed a key card.

Storm began to run the keycard over the doors, not even waiting for them to fully open before going to the next one. Mutants began to pile out of cells, a lot more than expected.

"Who are you?" One of them asked.

"Uh We're the X-Men. We're here to get you all out of here." Cyclops spoke with his best confident tone.

"I found Jubilee!" Storm shouted from halfway down the hallway. Jubilee emerged from a cell, looking exhausted a mess, her hands bound with large white metal handcuffs. Cyclops noticed that some had them on their hands while others had them around their neck.

"Hey! 'Bout time you guys got here." She joked, lifting her joined hands up.

"What are those?" Jean asked, pointing to the manacles on her hands and on the necks of other mutants.

"They keep us from using our powers." Another one spoke up.

Jean went over to Jubilee's and closed her eyes so she could focus, she put her hands on it, trying to find out if she could disable it but she couldn't see anything.

"S-Cyclops…" She corrected herself, "Think you have a light setting on those things?"

Cyclops adjusted his visors and came over to Jean and Jubilee. "Don't move." He said, blasting a small laser cutting through the center of the handcuffs and them dropping to the ground.

"Line up and we will get these things off you. Storm, any luck finding Peter?" Cyclops asked, as he began to break free the mutants.

"Found him, but we have a problem." Storm shouted again.

"What is it?" Jean and Cyclops asked.

"His feet are stuck in those things." She shouted back.

Nightcrawler vanished and appeared in Peter's room and grabbed him before reappearing out in the hallway. He tried to form words but the drugs were still fresh in his system and so his words came out in an incomprehensive slur.

Cyclops quickly cut through Peter's holding block before turning back to the other mutants. The lights then flickered before turning back on. The team looked around to each other.

"Some of these will have to wait, stick with us and we will get you out of here." Cyclops said, changing the settings back on his visor.

"X-Men, it's time to move out."