A/N: Hey I'm so sorry about the late update! I have a really hard workload this semester so updates will be late but I know they'll get through! Eventually, that is…
Disclaimer: Okay… while I recover from a severe electrocution- OUCH!- Let me remind you that I don't own X-Men… I think I'll try to be someone next time… -OUCH!- Oh and I also don't own any of the teams mentioned in this chapter… -OUCH!-
"…"- conversation
'…'- thoughts
(…)- extra facts/actions (some)
((…))- author's/my own thoughts
'blah…' -telepathy/what people say mentally
Chapter 25: Using Cerebro
Danger Room, Xavier Institute, Bayville, NY- May 15, 1:10 AM
"Now what?" asked Kitty as she gave the card back to Lance and watched him pocket it.
"Well…" said Lance as he crossed his arms over his chest and screwed his face into a thinking expression, and saw Kitty do the same. After a minute, Lance snapped his fingers, startling Kitty, and ran towards the eastern part of the Danger Room and Cerebro.
"Lance, what are you doing?" asked Kitty as she ran after Lance and arrived in the room to see Lance typing something into the computer, which amazingly was still operating. She watched as he first pulled up all of the profiles on the mutants in Bayville, noting how Lance had become skilled with computers over the years.
He also pulled up ones on enemies that were defeated, like Apocalypse, those of other people they had encountered, including the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Captain Britain Corps., the Teen Titans, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and so on. He typed for a few minutes until he stopped and stared at what he had found. Kitty looked at the screen and was astonished to see that Lance had pulled up the profile of Apocalypse with copies of all the hieroglyphs found under the Sphinx, followed by the profiles of all of the X-Men, X-Factor, X-Sword, Brotherhood, Acolytes', and Morlocks' profiles.
"Lance, what are you doing, and why did you pull up those certain profiles?" asked Kitty curiously as she watched Lance stop typing, and then walk over to the helmet that Xavier normally used to operate Cerebro.
"Well, I just thought of something. Since we both have telepathic powers similar to Xavier's, then maybe we can use them to operate Cerebro, and the rest will be explained," replied Lance as he placed the helmet on his head and then typed something on the keyboard. He then stood back and Kitty watched as the room grew dark and an image of the Earth came into view, with a multitude of red and white lights blinking on every continent. She then glanced away from the picture and noticed a second helmet on the keyboard.
"Lance," she said and Lance turned from the picture and looked at her, "why is there a second helmet on the keyboard? I mean, I think the Professor has only, like, one."
"The reason's that I created it by hacking into Cerebro and making it believe that two helmets are required in order for it to operate to its full potential. Cerebro then took on the duty of creating a second helmet in response to my request," replied Lance as he looked at her and then turned back to the picture. "Put it on. I'm having trouble locating Magneto and everyone else with only my psychic powers. I need yours as well."
"Okay," said Kitty as she slowly walked next to Lance and put on the helmet. She instantly felt a change in the level of the machine, and watched in amazement as the picture of the Earth extended to include not only the Earth's surface, but also spread out to the planet Pluto, and beyond. Her eyes followed all of the lights from the Earth and into the blank nothingness of space. She stared at the number of lights flashing from the two planets furthest from Earth: Neptune and Pluto.
"Lance, look," whispered Kitty in amazement as she turned her head from the picture to look at Lance. "There are mutants living on Neptune and Pluto. There's life on other planets! Lance?"
Kitty looked at Lance who was staring at the moon, and hadn't given the slightest notion that he'd heard her. Kitty turned her attention to the moon, and gasped. There was a group of red and white lights- altogether about fifty of them- in one place: an asteroid circling the moon.
"Lance, is that…" asked Kitty as she continued to stare at the lights,
"Yeah, it's them," replied Lance as he turned his gaze away from the picture and back down to Earth, where they landed on two lights that were neither white nor red; they were dark blue.