It was just another night at Stone County Maximum. The guards were doing their regular patrols, and technicians were on standby in case of any mechanical errors that might happen. Yes, no one escaped Stone County Maximum. Except for that one time when a group of inmates broke out. But other than that, this was a prison that no criminal wanted to be sent to.

Despite this being a place that housed such dangerous individuals, guards were still able to relax. One guard, in particular, was reading a magazine when an alarm went off, causing him to fall out of his chair.

"Hello!" He reacted as he got up and saw that they had a situation. "Whoa, whoa." He pulled out his walkie-talkie to notify his superior. "Hey, we've got a problem down here."

Alerted by his subordinates, Captain Stone entered the cell that was the cause of all this ruckus. The one that contained the very prisoner that started the previous breakout.

The Juggernaut.

"Sir, Plexus One is down." A technician told Stone as he entered the room.

"Systems two through seven going down." Another technician added.

"Understood." Stone replied. "We can't correct it down here. You'll have to initiate the override sequence upstairs."

"That's a negative, sir." The first technician told him. "I'm already shut out. We've got a major malfunction."

A tube came out from the center of the room, revealing the unconscious Juggernaut, who was rendered unconscious by the biofluid all around him.

"How shall we proceed, sir?" The technician asked Stone.

"By making a call." Stone simply said.

The X-Men were all having a peaceful sleep when they were woken up by Xavier's telepathic message.

'Students, please gather downstairs immediately.' He required.

Many groans and grumbles later, the seven teenagers found themselves in front of Xavier in the hall.

"I apologize for the late hour." Xavier said. "But I've just received an urgent summons from Captain Stone."

"Stone?" Scott asked. "From the penitentiary?"

"Whoa, whoa." Evan said nervously. "We're not talking another Juggernaut breakout, are we?"

"Wait, we're up this early because of that titanium douchebag?" Danny asked angrily. He had been having nightmares for the past couple of days, and this was the first time in a long while that he had a good dream. It was of him and Rogue gazing at the stars while they stood in a beautiful forest. Irritated that the peaceful scenario was interrupted, he made his hands glow green. "I swear, when I get my hands on him, I'll-"

"No." Xavier cut him off. "He hasn't broken out. At least not yet. But his containment unit has begun to fail."

"We'll be suited up and ready to go in five." Scott said to the professor before addressing his team. "Gang, let's move."

"Actually-" Xavier began, before Danny joined in on the conversation.

"Scott, bringing in the entire team for someone as weak as the Juggernaut is a little overkill, isn't it?" Danny said, making everyone look at him strangely.

"Weak?" Evan said. "We are talking about the same Juggernaut, right?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, the little pipsqueak who's ass we kicked back at the camp."

"Actually, it was you alone who took him out, Danny." Rogue pointed out.

Danny shook his head. He must've forgotten that after being woken up so early. "Alright, fine." He said. "I'll just go alone with the professor and put the meathead in his place."

"No." Xavier said calmly. "I'll be going alone. However, with Ororo away in Africa and Logan on the open road somewhere, I'm faced with a dilemma." He looked at Scott, Jean, and Danny. "Which means Scott, Jean, Danny, I'm placing you three in charge. Can I count on you?"

"Without a doubt, professor." Scott said, secretly happy that Xavier had put him in charge.

"We'll hold down the fort here." Jean said to her teacher. "You just worry about your brother."

"Don't worry, professor." Danny assured him. "We promise the place won't be on fire when you get back."

Xavier raised an eyebrow. "That's an odd way to say it, Danny, but thank you. I'll see you in a few days." He then left through the elevator, leaving the students all alone.

As the X-Men began to head back to bed, Scott decided to take up his role of being in charge.

"Okay." He said. "Since we're already up, how about starting the day with a little Danger Room calisthenics? What do you say?"

"Yeah, fuck that." Danny said as he and the others continued on their way to their rooms. "I'm going to bed."

Jean giggled. "Don't let the power of command go to your head, Professor S."

"More like Professor Ass." Danny called out.

Scott rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Very funny."

"You know, I was having a good dream before we got woken up." Rogue told him as they walked the halls. "You were in it."

"No kidding." Danny replied. "You were in mine as well; we were..."

"Gazing at the stars." Rogue finished before they both widened their eyes at the realization that they had the exact same dream.

Danny was a bit caught off guard at first before shaking his head. "Eh, I've seen weirder. Let's go to bed."

Scott laid down on his bed to get some sleep before looking over at his roommate.

"Night, Danny." Scott said.

"Night, Scott." Danny said sleepily.

As Scott was about to fall asleep, he heard another voice in the room.

"Sweet dreams."

Scott then turned around and saw that Rogue was sleeping in the same bed as Danny.

"Rogue?" He said incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to sleep." Rogue mumbled as she placed her head on Danny's chest, making herself comfortable.

Scott couldn't say he was surprised that Danny would bring her into their room. "The professor is gone for only three minutes, and you already broke a rule." He said to his friend.

"Look, if you're feeling jealous, you can always go over to Jean's room and cuddle with her." Danny responded cheekily, making Scott blush as he turned around, his back facing them as he drifted off to sleep.

"I don't like it." Stone said as he stared into the sleeping face of Cain Marko.

Xavier rolled up to his side. "Shutting down the security grid is the only solution that makes sense." He pointed out. Once it was shut down, they could easily repair the system before turning it back on.

"But what happens during the reboot sequence?" Stone asked, not wanting this behemoth to wake up.

"His paralysis shouldn't wear off that quickly." Xavier said confidently. "It'll be all right."

Stone nodded as he realized this was their only course of action. "Okay." He then called out to the others. "Alert the base to a code 12."

At school, Jean was looking over some flyers on the bulletin board when she heard a nearby voice.

"Come on. Just, like, one peek? Let me see what's behind those shades."

Jean peeked around the board and saw that it was Taryn who was speaking to Scott.

"Blue or brown." She and everyone else at this school never saw Scott without his shades. Word was that he had some kind of eye condition and had to wear them. Whatever the reason, Taryn found herself intrigued by the mystery. "Or maybe hazel?" She moved closer to Scott, who backed away.

"Try beet red." Scott caught her hand as it reached for his glasses. "It was a long night."

Jean watched as Taryn leaned even closer to Scott.

"Oh, come on." Taryn whined cutely. "Just one little peek, please?"

For some reason, Jean felt awfully angry when she saw her friend get closer to Scott. She couldn't fathom why. Perhaps it was because she wanted to look out for Scott, as they were close friends. It wasn't like she was jealous. Nope. She was happy. She had a boyfriend.

"Taryn, no." Scott said. "Really don't."

Taryn finally relented as she turned around. "Well, gotta go." She then glanced at Scott over her shoulder. "But one of these days, I want to know all your little secrets."

"That'll be a day to remember." Scott joked before he walked around the bulletin board and ran into Jean. "Jean!" Scott said in surprise while Jean gasped. "What? How long have you been standing there?"

"I just..." She tried to think of an excuse. "Well..." She put her hand through her hair nervously. "I was not spying on you." She let out accidentally.

"Spying? Who said anything about..." Scott stopped as he saw Jean glare from the corner of her eye at a retreating Taryn. "Wait a second. You were spying on me." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't tell me you're jealous." He joked, although on the inside he was practically leaping for joy.

'I can't believe she was actually jealous of me and Taryn.' He thought. 'I gotta tell Danny about this.'

"What?" Jean said in disbelief. "Yeah, right." She scoffed. "I'm jealous. Of all the nerve." She slapped his hand away. "I am so sure, Scott Summers." She walked away angrily as Scott grinned widely.

'Holy shit, she really is jealous.' He reflected victoriously. 'Wait until Danny hears about this.'

While Jean was getting stuff from her locker, she saw Danny and Rogue come up to her.

"Yo, Jean, Scott told us that you're jealous of him and Taryn." Danny said as the two smiled at her.

"I'm not jealous!" Jean roared before slamming her locker and stomping past them.

"Oh, she is totally jealous." Rogue said to Danny.

At class, Danny was in the computer lab with Kitty as she sat in front of three destroyed computers.

"Kitty Pryde. I am amazed." The teacher said facetiously. "Most people can't program such complicated game protocols without crashing their computer. You, on the other hand, managed to crash three."

The whole class laughed while Danny shook his head at the sight. If Tucker were here, he would've called this a triple homicide.

"Sorry." Kitty apologized. "I didn't get much sleep." She explained innocently, although Danny suspected she spent all night texting Lance.

His musings ended when he saw Kitty looking embarrassed.

"Hey, Kitty, crashing three computers isn't that bad." He comforted. "Kinda impressive, actually. I could've used your help during all those times I fought Technus." He muttered the last sentence to himself, but Kitty heard it.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing." Danny replied as he went back to his computer game. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to gain access to the world wide web." He was currently playing Doomed on his computer and was at the final level. All he had to do was insert the last key, and he would win. Just as he was about to do it, he was blasted as the screen went black, showing the words Game Over.

"Damn it!" Danny cried. "Every time." He crossed his arms in frustration. "Who could've done this?"

Kitty pointed behind him, where he saw Rogue playing the game as well.

"It was you?" He said in shock as he saw Rogue's avatar turn the key and win the game.

Rogue just smirked at him. "Thanks for getting the keys for me, sugar." She kissed him on the cheek. "Spared me all the hard work."

Danny merely sighed.

"So what are your plans for tonight?" Danny asked the group as they were at their lockers, getting their stuff before heading out.

"Nothing." Kitty said disappointedly. "There isn't anything exciting going on, and the party circuit is dry."

"We could throw our own party." Rogue suggested.

"Yeah!" Evan agreed. "While the professor's away..."

"The kids can play!" Kurt finished as he was doing a handstand.

"And play it loud!" Kitty said as she high-fived Kurt.

"Yeah, this will be the best party ever." Kurt said.

"You guys want to throw a party at the institute?" Danny asked, not exactly sounding crazy over the idea.

"Yeah. You in?" Kurt asked him.

"No." Danny replied as he closed his locker. "Why would I want to invite all those jerks over to the one place that I can get away from them?"

"Come on, Danny." Kitty urged. "Like, it'll be totally fun."

Danny narrowed his eyes. "No."

"Please." Kitty begged.

"No."

They all sighed as they couldn't get their friend on board. Evan then got an idea as he turned to Rogue.

"Rogue, work your magic and get him on our side." He said.

Rogue grinned as she started to rub her hand on his chest.

"Well, how about it, sugar?" She said seductively. "Let's throw a party." She knew that Danny wouldn't be able to say no to her. "It might be fun." She then put her lips near his ear. "And it would make me happy." Her voice whispered.

The three X-Men all smiled as they knew Rogue had this in the bag. There was no way Danny could resist her. This party was guaranteed.

"Really?" Danny smirked. He wasn't gonna let Rogue pull one over him. "I mean, if you want to, we can throw a party."

The others cheered.

"Or." Danny then put his arm around her waist. "We could order a pizza and cuddle on the couch while marathoning your favorite horror movies." He then whispered into her ear. "Just you and me."

'Damn.' Rogue thought. He knew just what to do and what to say to wrap her around his finger.

Rogue then turned around to the others. "Who needs a party?"

"Aw!" The three groaned at losing Rogue.

Danny chuckled. "Guys, we don't need to throw a party to have fun. I'm sure you can find something else to do."

"Not likely." Kitty looked down sadly. "Knowing Scott, he'll just have us run some Danger Room exercises tonight."

Danny hummed in thought. That did sound like something Scott would do, and he was sure Jean would back him up on it. He'd have to take them out of the picture. And he knew just the way.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of Scott and Jean." His eyes turned green as he thought of a plan.

Xavier stood over the console that had been damaged. Around him were Stone and several guards who had riot shields and guns pointed at the prisoner. It was time to shut down the security grid so he could repair the system.

"All right, on my mark." Xavier ordered as Stone stood by the switch. "And..." He prepared himself, for there might be a slight chance that Cain could wake up, but he steeled his nerves. "Now."

Stone threw the switch as the system shut down. A timer appeared as it started counting down from twenty seconds. Twenty seconds until the fluid would wear off and Cain would regain consciousness.

Xavier immediately went to work on repairing the damaged circuit board. A spark almost burned him, and an alarm went off as he saw Cain slowly wake up in his tube. The giant of a man quickly took in his surroundings before he raised his arms, preparing to break out.

"Charles?" Stone asked worriedly as Cain broke off his chains.

Xavier hurried as he finally fixed it. "Systems re-initialized." He said as the security grid was turned on and Cain slowly fell back to sleep. In stasis. For now.

"All right, stand down." Stone said to his men. The danger had passed. He then saw Xavier look over at Cain with a thoughtful expression. "Is there another problem?" He asked.

"I'm afraid there is." Xavier informed him. "This malfunction, it wasn't accidental."

"What are you saying?" Stone demanded. Could it be possible that someone sneaked in to try and break him out?

"It was sabotage." Xavier confirmed as he realized that he needed to get back home as fast as possible.

Scott was sitting on the hood of his car on a hill. Danny had told him that Jean wanted to meet him there. He'd been waiting there for ten minutes when he saw Duncan's car pull up and Jean come out.

"See you tomorrow, Duncan." She said.

Scott raised an eyebrow at Duncan, who smirked before driving away.

"Hi." Scott greeted.

"Hi." Jean sat down next to him.

"So, what's up?" Scott asked as the two failed to notice Danny appear behind them and steal the keys to Scott's car while Rogue's head popped out of the hood of the car. Quietly, she phased her hand into Jean's bag and pulled out her phone. The couple then gave each other a thumbs up before vanishing.

"I don't know; you tell me." Scott replied. "Danny said you wanted to meet here."

"What?" Jean said strangely. "That's what Rogue told me."

"I see what's going on." Scott realized.

"Yeah." Jean agreed, seeing that they'd been tricked. "It seems we've been uh-"

"You're being sneaky again, aren't you?" Scott accused.

"Huh, what?" Jean replied in disbelief.

"You wanted to get me up here, but blame it on someone else." Scott said feeling cocky. He couldn't believe that Jean was actually jealous. "You really are jealous of Taryn, aren't you?"

"I..." She couldn't believe the audacity of Scott. Her jealous? As if. "That is so not true."

Seeing that there was no point in arguing further, the two got into Scott's car.

"Take me home, you egomaniac." Jean demanded.

"Fine, but..." Scott was about to start the car when he noticed the keys were missing. "Hey, what's the deal?"

Jean then smiled. "Oh, I get it now." She sniffed. "Lure me out here and then conveniently have car trouble. Hmm, boy, that's original." She rolled her eyes.

"Whoa, hey, this was not my idea." Scott said defensively.

The two simply sat in the car in silence, with the only sound being an owl hooting in the distance.

Deep underground in the Xavier Institute, two ghosts were exploring the corridors. While one simply floated along, the other looked around in amazement.

"What an amazing place this is." One of the ghosts said. "I've never seen tech like this before."

Plasmius sighed. He knew getting Technus involved may be trouble, but who knew how to hack better than he? After all, he went to all this trouble to sabotage Juggernaut's cell. Sadly, it didn't go as planned. Vlad was hoping that Xavier would bring Danny along as security for repairing the circuit board, only to find out he was still here.

A setback it may be, but Vlad wasn't going to call it quits. He just needed to be more careful as he and his associate infiltrated the school.

"Yes, you could take over the world with this." Vlad muttered.

"Hey, that's a great idea." Technus replied, as his devious mind came up with all sorts of possibilities.

The two then phased through the door that led to the computer room, which held Cerebro.

"Now, if we are done with sightseeing, you have a task to accomplish for me." Vlad gestured to the computer. "Come along."

Technus nodded, knowing that when Plasmius wants something from you, you give it to him. "Very well, Plasmius."

"Ugh." Jean muttered in annoyance as she looked through her backpack. "I don't know what happened to my phone."

"Come on, Jean." Scott said as he was walking down the hill. "I said there's one down the hill."

Jean went to join him as she saw that he was almost down the hill. "Oh, wait up!" Using her telekinesis, she brought him right back up to her side before she started moving. "Are you coming or what?" She asked testily as Scott ran his hand through his hair.

It was going to be a long night.

"Very interesting." Technus said as he held the helmet that allowed Xavier to connect with Cerebro. The ghostly mad scientist had never seen anything like this in all of his life or afterlife. "A computer that is activated by a psionic signature." He then started tampering with it as Plasmius watched. "But by reconfiguring this headgear to accept me as the primary user, I think I can get full access."

He placed the helmet on as Cerebro opened up and with it, its many secrets.

"Excellent." Plasmius smiled. "Now download all these files into this." He pulled out a DVD and handed it to the ghost.

Technus inserted it into the computer and burned everything onto it before giving it back to his employer.

"There." Technus said as Vlad disappeared. Smiling that he was now alone and with an advanced computer such as this, he phased into it, taking full control of Cerebro and its systems. "Now." Technus said as his face appeared on the screen. "Let's see what this baby can do." Looking through the many programs he found one that caught his interest. "This one sounds promising." Technus said in excitement as he read the program name. "Danger Room."

Scott and Jean, meanwhile, were riding in a pickup truck. They managed to call a tow truck to give them a ride back to the institute and tow Scott's car.

"Hey, can you slow it down a bit?" Scott said as the car was moving a bit too fast for his liking.

"I'm sorry." The man replied. "Got a schedule to keep."

The car then shook a bit, causing Jean to bump into Scott.

"Sorry." Jean apologized.

At the institute, the students were having fun. Evan, Kurt, Kitty, and the rest of the new mutants were all having fun playing Mario Party in the library with the TV and game system that Danny set up for them, while he and Rogue were on the couch, currently watching The Lawnmower Man.

The couple was enjoying the movie when a beeping sound from Rogue's X-Watch indicated that something was going on with the Danger Room.

Sighing that their evening had been ruined, the two gathered Evan, Kurt, and Kitty and made their way to the entrance to the Danger Room.

"Somebody started the Danger Room." Rogue said. "I can't get the door open." A blue wisp then came out of her mouth as the same happened to Danny.

Danny shook his head as he realized who this could be. "Not him again."

"What was that?" Rogue asked about the blue wisp. That hadn't ever happened to her before.

"It's your ghost sense." Danny explained to her. "It goes off when a ghost is near."

"There's a ghost here?" Kitty asked, looking around, scared.

"Yep." Danny said. "And I'm pretty sure it's in the Danger Room."

"No problem. I'll just shut it down from the inside." Nightcrawler said as he teleported into the room.

"Wait, Kurt, no!" Danny cried before turning to the others. "We gotta go inside."

The hybrid, along with Rogue and Shadowcat, all used their powers to phase through the door, with Shadowcat holding onto Spyke to bring him along.

The group saw that the Danger Room was firing lasers all over the place at random, and Nightcrawler was unconscious, his body lying in the center of the room.

"Kurt! He's been hit!" Shadowcat cried before the four moved away as a laser came towards them.

"Well, well, well." The X-Men saw a panel open up on a wall, and a TV screen popped out with Technus's face on it. "If it isn't the ghost child." He smirked at seeing Danny again.

"Technus!" Danny glared at his old foe.

"You know this guy?" Spyke asked.

"He's an old enemy of mine." Danny answered. "He has the power to control technology." He then hit his head in frustration, knowing that this was going to be a difficult fight. "And now he has full control over the Danger Room."

"You betcha." Technus bragged. "Now prepare to face Technus, the hip master of technology, with my all-powerful..." He stopped his monologue as the computer moved around so he could look around the area before turning back to the X-Men. "Hey, what did you say this place was called again?"

"The Danger Room." Shadowcat answered.

"My all-powerful Danger Room!" Technus shouted as turrets opened up and fired on them.

"Move!" Danny commanded as they all dodged the ghost's attacks. Spyke shot out his spikes at a bunch of buzzsaws that were fired at him. A trio of floating spiked orbs made their way to Rogue, who jumped out of the way.

"I'm going ghost!" She yelled as the rings transformed her into her ghost form.

"What?" Technus was flabbergasted at this. "You have ghost powers too?" The spirit couldn't believe that there was now another hybrid.

"What can I say?" Rogue bantered. "I'm just a very special kind of gal." She shot out a ghost ray at the monitor that displayed Technus's face.

Danny moved over to Nightcrawler, who was still unconscious.

"Kurt!" Danny tried to wake him. "Wake up!" When Nightcrawler still wouldn't wake, Danny threw him over his shoulder.

Shadowcat was grabbed by a tentacle before phasing through it as she dodged the laser blasts. In her path, several walls came up from the ground, but she phased through all of them, except for the last one, as her exhaustion caught up to her as she ran into it and fell down.

Thankfully, Rogue was there to pick her up.

"She's out." She told the others as they tried to think of a plan. They all saw that the floor was lowering them down as two giant iron balls were released, both heading towards the X-Men.

"Hurry!" Danny, thinking quickly, pointed to the wall in front of them. "Let's get out of here!" They phased through the wall, escaping the turret's blasts.

"Where did you go?" Technus shouted as he accessed the computer cameras to find them in another part of the Danger Room. Flowing through the system, he tried to find something—anything—that could finally put Danny Phantom down. "Come on, what else can this Danger Room do?" Just when he was about to shout in anger, he found one particular program. "Defcon Four?" He read its name before smirking. "I like the sound of that."

"Initiating Defcon Four." Cerebro said as it started the program.

Scott and Jean arrived back at the institute.

"Well, we're home." Scott said. "I still don't know what happened to my car."

"Or my phone." Jean said before her eyes widened in realization. She turned to Scott. "I think a certain couple with ghost powers plotted to get rid of us."

"Yeah." Scott agreed, knowing that it was something Danny would do. "Sorry for accusing you."

"Me too." Jean apologized. "I..." Their attention was drawn to the sudden sound of metal doors appearing over the doors and windows of the institute.

As Scott and Jean looked on in shock, the new mutants were unaware of what was going on as they were still playing their video game.

Once every entrance to the mansion was sealed up, the angel statue in the yard rose up and fired a laser. The two mutants jumped out of the way as the laser impacted Scott's car, making it blow up.

"You okay?" Scott asked Jean before another turret popped out of the ground and fired on them.

"Look out!" Scott grabbed Jean, and the two started running. "I've never seen anything like this!" He took off his glasses and put on his visor. The two managed to take cover behind the trees before changing into their uniforms, which they brought with them.

Now suited up, Cyclops and Jean started to head back to break in when another turret appeared behind them. They noticed it in time and dodged its projectiles as Cyclops fired an optic blast at it while Jean used her powers to rip another one out of the ground.

"We'll have to try getting in through the launch bay." Cyclops realized as they started running when another turret locked its target on Cyclops and fired three missiles.

"Jump!" The two jumped off the cliff as the missiles collided with the edge of it, blowing up as the two were about to fall down to the water below when Jean grabbed his hand and used her telekinesis to levitate the two. They floated in front of the door to the launch bay, which was behind the waterfall.

Using his optic blast, Cyclops blasted the door open, granting them entrance to the corridors. A four-legged turret walked in front of them and opened fire. Cyclops used his powers to destroy the legs, but it simply continued moving with the built-in treads it had. It kept firing, forcing Jean to put up a telekinetic shield in front of them to block the shots. Now protected, Cyclops fired one more optic blast at it, finally disabling it.

Cyclops and Jean continued on as they blasted through doors and any other obstacle as they tried to make their way to the Danger Room.

Meanwhile, Technus had finally spotted the other X-Men. The five teenagers were all running through a corridor as they dodged any laser blast that came at them.

"There you are!" Technus observed as they were having trouble avoiding his attacks. "Defcon Four is very effective." But he knew that this wasn't enough, so he decided to make it even more challenging. "Let's see you escape my corridor of doom!"

As the X-Men were reaching the end of the hall, flamethrowers came out of the walls and shot out a torrent of fire that forced them to run back, only to encounter another string of flamethrowers on the other end.

Seeing they were trapped, Nightcrawler grabbed Spyke and teleported him out of the room.

"This way!" Danny grabbed Rogue and Shadowcat and phased them through the wall.

While the X-Men escaped safely, the other two members infiltrated one of the security rooms, with Cyclops destroying a security turret that was in it.

"Who's doing this?" Jean went over to one of the computers.

"It's like the place is locked down for some sort of invasion." Cyclops commented.

Jean tried to gain access, but the computer locked her out. "Uh, I'm shut out. All security has been rerouted to one room: Cerebro."

Cyclops went to a monitor and used it to access the security camera in the computer room. Only to find out that no one was at Cerebro. "There's nobody at the computer."

"How is that possible?" Jean said.

"Cerebro is possessed by Technus, a ghost." Danny answered as he, Shadowcat, and Rogue phased through the floor while Nightcrawler and Spyke teleported in.

"A ghost?" Jean replied in shock.

Cyclops looked back at the camera. "You mean we're dealing with real paranormal activity?"

"How did he get in here?" Jean asked, making Danny glare.

"Plasmius." He snarled.

"We'll worry about that later." Cyclops said. "How do we stop this?"

"I gotta drag him out of Cerebro." Danny said.

"How?" Jean asked.

"I'll phase in, grab him, and pull him out." Danny elaborated.

"I'll go with you too." Rogue said. Danny nodded as Nightcrawler grabbed hold of them and teleported them in front of Cerebro, where the two hybrids phased into the computer.

The two opened their eyes and gasped as they looked at the inside of Cerebro. All around them were ones and zeros floating above them.

"Whoa, talk about cyberspace." Rogue joked.

"There he is!" Danny pointed over to Technus, who was near the sky of binary. His hands were on them, infecting them with his ghostly energy and allowing him to control it.

"You can't stop me! Technus rules over this computer, and soon every machine in the entire world will bend to my will!" Technus proclaimed as all around the floating pieces of computer code started shooting down bolts of green lightning at the two.

"No force on earth can challenge me!" Technus finally managed to land a hit on the two as they screamed in pain from being electrocuted. The ghost then began to laugh as he was about to finish them off, when the lightning struck him as well.

"Ahh!" Technus screamed in pain as he landed next to the hybrids. "What? What happened?"

The three watched as the code around them soon started to flicker on and off as if the computer was starting to short out.

"What kind of being is capable of doing this?" Technus asked aloud.

Danny and Rogue smirked at each other.

"Kitty." They both said. And right they were, as outside in the computer room, Shadowcat, who was teleported into the room thanks to Nightcrawler, was currently doing to Cerebro the same thing she did to the three computers in class.

With his hold over the computer gone, Danny and Rogue grabbed Technus and phased him out of Cerebro.

Danny sighed in relief that it was over. "Man, I wish I had a thermos on me."

"So, what do we do with him?" Rogue asked.

Danny looked at Technus, who was glaring at him. "How did you know about the institute?"

"Plasmius brought me in here to download some files." Technus answered.

"Files?" Danny inquired. "What files?"

"I don't know." Technus replied. He pointed to Cerebro. "I was too busy admiring that sweet mainframe over there. Now that was a computer. Though, I don't know why you'd want to be under the same roof as that monster." He pointed at Shadowcat and narrowed his eyes at her. "You shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a computer, you savage."

"How do we get rid of him?" Rogue asked.

Danny smirked as he phased Technus through the ceiling. They went all the way through the roof of the institute before swinging Technus around and letting go as the ghost was launched into the night sky.

"I'll be back, child!" Technus cried. "Count on it!"

"I'm sorry about all this, professor." Danny apologized to the man in his office.

Xavier had arrived moments later to find the mansion in lockdown and most of his security equipment destroyed. At first, he was extremely worried, believing his students had been hurt, until he saw that no one was injured.

"No one could've known that Masters would try to gain access to Cerebro." Xavier said as he was informed about Plasmius and Technus's infiltration of the school and their theft of his files. "Though I wonder what it was that he was interested in and what he intends to do with it." He wondered.

Back at his mansion, Vlad was at his computer, overlooking all the files that Xavier had and looking for anything that might be of use to him. As he was scrolling down the names of the many students at the institute, he saw one file that interested him.

Looking through the contents, he smiled evilly.

He had found something—or rather, someone—that could be useful to him.