"Where's Quicksilver?" asked Logan, raising a fist threateningly.

Toad shrugged in an attempt at nonchalance. "I really don't know. He's around. Here and there. It's hard to keep track, you know?" Logan growled and grabbed the boy's shirt, triggering an involuntary yelp from Todd. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you, already. He's messing with that big computer of yours. Planning on shorting it out. Probably already has."

"What big computer?"

"You know," said Todd, "Cerebro."

Jean paled. "If he destroys Cerebro..."

"We have to stop him," said Scott.

Logan released Todd and sulked away. "You don't say, bub? Restrain them. We've got to deal with their mess."

"Re-re-restrain us? You don't really mean that, do you, Wolverine? You wouldn't do that-"

Bobby, an eager volunteer, iced each of them up to the neck. "We would," he said cheerily. "Come on, let's go!" He took off running, but Logan planted a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What about guarding the prisoners?"

The recruit looked dejected. "But they're not going anywhere, Logan. They're restrained."

"Yeah, and we'd like to keep it that way. I'll take the older recruits. You younger ones stay here." He shot them each a steely eyed glare. "And don't do anything stupid."

With that last parting piece of wisdom; he, Scott, Jean, Kurt, Rogue, and Kitty ran off down the hall as Jean contacted Evan, Beast and Storm through her telepathic powers. The hallways in the mansion seemed even longer than usual with all the rushing about to reach the end of them.

Beast ran out in front of them, big, hairy, and blue as ever. Storm followed close behind, along with Evan, Who had several spikes sticking out of a night shirt he hadn't bothered to change out of.

Storm glanced at Logan. "The Professor told us Haddy has escaped. You haven't happened to run into her, have you?"

"No. We were hoping you'd have found her."

"I guess she's still out there, running around somewhere in the mansion," said Evan.

"Or..." Storm trailed off, and Logan finished her sentence.

"Or Pietro has her."

All of her upper body muscles burned from having to support her weight. She pulled up as hard as she could, and managed to get an elbow onto the platform. Using that shred of stability, she managed to get up onto the platform, slowly but surely. Pietro didn't seem to care what she did, clearly already certain that he could handle whatever she threw at him.

"Good job," he said. "I'd push you off again, but I'm far too busy. Can't be in two places at once you know, though I'm pretty close."

"Once I'm through with you, you'll be even closer," came a voice from the doorway. Logan. Thank goodness. Finally, someone who could get something accomplished.

Pietro pressed a circular icon on the monitor of Cerebro and shut the door in Logan's shocked face. "Boring," he said, as Logan began bashing on the door, making a lot of noise, but ultimately accomplishing nothing.

Hadrianne.

Haddy clutched her head and dropped to the floor. "Stop it!" she sobbed. "I can't hold on. It hurts."

I'm not asking you to hold on. I'm asking you to stop. Let go.

"I can't," she said.

"If you're talking about how you're going to beat me, do so quietly. I'm trying to work here."

Hadrianne, let me help you.

I can't control it.

I know. Which is why you didn't use it. There was nothing hplding you back but yourself. You were forcing it back into the darkest recesses of your mind because you were afraid of it. We all have to accept who we are. You are a mutant. You are not alone. You can trust me. Let go. Don't fight it anymore.

Haddy looked up at Pietro, his fingers moving in a pale blur. Sparks shot out at random and the screen flickered.

Haddy, said the Professor, Listen to me.

The Professor's brow furled and thought lines deepened on his forehead. The others were locked out of Cerebro, they'd never get inside in time to stop Pietro. All the same, he wasn't certain whether or not he could coax a scared teenager to use a gift she had been repressing for years. He wasn't even sure if she would be able to access her gift.

The silence was thick. He heard the sounds of the machines whirring, the sound of the air moving through the ventilation shaft above him; all of the noises that seem to come along with overwhelming silence. Finally, the girl replied.

Okay.

Her mind opened to him and he could see through her eyes. She was in the Cerebro Room with Pietro who was typing furiously. With the amount of information being poured into the computer, he could see that it wasn't going to last long. His head ached with the amount of psychic energy shared, and realized that it was going both ways.

There was Lance, pounding a small kid with glasses. There was Toad, grimacing at the lunch on his tray and snatching at flies. There was Scott in Hawaii, surfing with his brother Alex. There was Rogue at her first dance. Kurt in Germany. Kitty's first time using her powers. Evan making the winning shot at a game. Miscellaneous memories from different people, all that she had accidentally gotten in her head for some unknown reason.

I'm here to help you, he said, but I can't do this for you. You need to use your power on your own. I will guide you in whatever way I can, but you have to trust me.

I trust you, she said, in one of the most unconvincing tones the Professor had ever heard. There wasn't time to win the girl's undivided loyalty, though, she just had to trust him long enough to commit to channeling her powers.

I'm right here.

Logan pounded on the door. "We have to get through," he said, slashing at it with his claws. "He can't destroy that computer."

He backed up and glared at the door, as if it might possibly just open up of its own accord if he stared long enough. Scott supposed, if he was the door, he would have opened up immediately and gotten out of Wolverine's way. The death glare Logan was giving the door was enough to make most grown men quiver in fear.

"Cyclops, hit it again."

"We've tried this, Logan," Scott said. "It hasn't been working. We need a new method."

The Wolverine snarled.

"Or we could keep doing it the same way," said Scott, compliantly blasting it with a laser beam, to no avail.

The Professor had engineered the room to be able to withstand anything, and he had taken each of the mutants powers at the school into consideration, thinking of how to block other powers like them. As a result, Kurt couldn't manage to lock onto a location, Logan couldn't tear the door apart, Scott couldn't blast through, Kitty couldn't walk through, and they were stuck.

"This whole setup was a great idea of the Professor's,"Kurt said, a hint of a whine evident in his voice. "Sometimes, I wish the Professor would have a few less great ideas and a couple more half decent ones."

Logan grumbled something under his breath, but it was pretty clear that he felt the same way. In nearly any other situation, the setup of the room would have been ideal. However, for breaking in, it didn't work so well.

"Jean," said Scott. "Is the Professor making any progress with the girl?"

"I don't know. I can't just ask him though. He's completely focused right now, I'd wreck his concentration."

"So we hope," said Evan. "Hope and wait."

"No," said Logan, brandishing his claws and slashing at the door again. "Hope, and try to get through the door."