[center][img]https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/0/2393/96134-128854-xavier-institute-for.jpg[/img][/center] Danny was special. There was nothing else like him in this crazy world. He wasn’t a mutant or a metahuman or whatever else the media was calling the people with powers now. He wasn’t even human. Danny was a brick with a mind of his own; well he started out as a brick, and now he was a whole school with several secret floors underground to house the growth of mutants and metahumans in need. No one, not even him, knew how he came about. The Professor had found him one day years ago when he was looking for a location to build his school. He hadn’t expected to find Danny or have his school built in less than a day. Thanks to Danny’s ability to construct buildings around the singular brick he called his main brick, though, the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children was built ahead of schedule and was soon occupied. It was a strange sensation to have people living inside of you, to say the least, but Danny had gotten used to it. So used to it that he was able to notice an extra pair of footsteps on the drive by the gate. --------- [center][img]https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//universe3zx/images/8/8d/Cerebra.jpg[/img][/center] Deep below the school proper through a secret entrance in Professor Xavier’s office rested Cerebro: a device designed by Hank McCoy and Xavier to significantly increase his telepathic powers and help him to find mutants and metahumans alike. Having this technology would aid them in their goal, but it came with the risk of falling into the hands of people aiming to do harm. In the underground chamber housing the device, Xavier sat with the headset uplink strapped around his head, Max and Hank standing just behind him. Before the trio a holographic globe hung in midair, dotted all over with yellow, blue, and white dots. [color=#ED0378]”Filter out the non-mutated and powered humans.”[/color] At Max’s prompting and with a mental push from Xavier, the blue dots across the globe vanished. [color=#ED0378]”Amazing. How are you able to track the metahumans without mutations?”[/color] [color=00aeef]”Charles actually came across it. Cerebro allows him to expand his powers out and find those with mutations such as ourselves and filter out baseline humans. In filtering out baseline humans, Cerebro wipes those without any sort of alteration to their DNA off the map, but metahumans aren’t quite baseline and are somehow exempted from the filtering system.”[/color] [color=#ED0378]”Impressive. What are the red dots mixed in amongst all this?”[/color] [color=#B90FF9]”Hank and I believe they are non-humans. Look here,”[/color] at his words the globe zoomed into the United States, where several of the red dots were located, [color=#B90FF9]”After filtering out baseline humans not exhibiting mutations, the metahumans still show on the map because of not counting as base humans any longer. Cerebro picks them up as having something off with their genealogy but without a mutation. These red dots appears after all of this, but Cerebro doesn’t even pick them up as human. Look where they’re located.”[/color] [color=#ED0378]”Ah… Metropolis and Gateway City. The Superman and Wonder Woman on the news?”[/color] [color=#B90FF9]”Precisely.”[/color] [color=#ED0378]”Interesting…”[/color] Max trailed off as he looked at Charles for the first time in the midst of his excited questioning, [color=#ED0378]”Charles. You look terrible. I’ve told you, it’s too much of a strain on your abilities and health. You have to train Jean to use Cerebro herself.”[/color] [color=00aeef]”I’m inclined to agree with him, Charles. You’re capable and brilliant, but with your health in such a poor state and with you focusing the majority of your powers on dampening Jean’s telepathic abilities using Cerebro can be too much of a strain on you. I was hoping the headband I constructed for Jean would let you focus less on the dampening process with it doing part of the job for you.”[/color] In that moment Charles looked defeated as he slumped slightly in his chair and set the Cerebro headset back on the console. He rubbed his eyes for a long moment before he spoke. [color=#B90FF9]”You’re both right of course. I will increase the frequency of Jean’s private lessons to control her powers and begin training her to use Cerebro.”[/color] Max reached a hand down and gripped Charles’ shoulder for a moment. It as getting more and more difficult to see his friend look so diminutive. [i][color=#F1BC70]”Uh… fellas. There’s someone at the gate. Someone I don’t recognize.”[/color][/i] At Danny’s words Charles placed the headset back on his head and zoomed further in on the United States to pinpoint the school. Even without filtering out base humans, no one appeared at the gate. [color=#ED0378]”Raven…”[/color] Max had pulled up the security camera footage on a nearby console. There stood a redheaded woman with scaly blue skin adorned in a skin-tight sleeveless white top, ankle-length skirt, and long gloves that ran up past her elbows; her forehead and waist were adorned in small skulls. She stared straight at the camera, her eyes glowing a faint yellow and her mouth creased in a wicked grin. In the next moment before Charles or Hank could reply, the woman’s skin [i]shifted[/i], the scales turning and flipping until a blonde woman in an NYPD uniform stood in her place. She winked at the camera before turning and walking off. The three men stood in stunned silence for a long moment; none of them seemed able to speak. --------- [center][img]https://image.ibb.co/iPXcbo/231238eb279b921344f3a0059bb68e1b.jpg[/img][/center] The explosion rocked the street as debris fell to the street below. People screamed and ran for their lives with their arms covering their heads. The pieces of the building and shattered glass lurched and slowed, some faintly outlined in yellow and other pieces in pink. A silver blur flew under the falling debris and snatched up several individuals. As the last of the pedestrians disappeared into the silver blur, the debris fell to the ground. Pietro skidded to a halt at the end of the street with the little girl in his arms. He set her down and turned back toward the now-in-flames building. [color=silver]”The people outside are safe. We need to get into that building. Beast Boy, Terra, Jubilee make your way up through the hole the explosion tore into the side. Cyclops and Je - Miss Marvel, you’re with me through the ground floor. Move!”[/color] As the words left his mouth, Quicksilver took off toward the burning building, becoming a blur of silver once more. The rest of the team sprang into action. Beast Boy ran up onto a car and then launched himself into the air, shifting in midair into an eagle and flapping up toward the opening surrounded in fire. Terra reached out with her powers and ripped a hefty chunk of earth free from the pavement and used it to shuttle herself and Jubilee up after Beast Boy. Still concentrating on the circle of earth under her, Terra reached out and ripped a small patch of earth from it and moved it toward the fire in the opening and began crumbling it dirt. She moved the dirt around the opening and used it to douse the fire enough for the three of them to clamber through. Inside was chaos; they could eard distant and muffled cries for help, and most of the office floor was engulfed in flame. After she and Jubilee wre safely on the floor, Terra crumbled the remaining patch of earth and began dousing flames with a swarming cloud of dirt. On the ground, Quicksilver zipped toward the front door. Seeing Quicksilver take off from the other end of the street, Cyclops took aim at the doorway and let loose a barrage of controlled eye blasts to clear the doorway. Flames shot out of the open building front and threatened to spread. Miss Marvel reached out with her mind and concentrated on the tongues of flames shooting out of the doorway and pushed. As Quicksilver neared the doorway, he watched this all in slow motion as the flames stopped from a moment and seemed to waver before moving to either side of the door to allow him passage inside. Still holding the flames at bay, Miss Marvel looked over to Scott. [color=ec008c]”Go help Pietro get any survivors out. I’ll hold the flames back best I can.”[/color] With a nod, Cyclops ran for the doorway and inside to help with the rescue. --------- [color=#B90FF9]”Why would she reappear now?”[/color] Charles, Hank, and Max sat in the observation deck situated between the conjoined training rooms as the simulation continued down below. It was a day of more tests for the field team to see how they performed in a simulated stressful environment. Charles sat in his floating chair near the window overlooking the team, and Max paced a bit as Hank watched the monitors as always. [color=#ED0378]”She’s taunting us. She knows the next move for us will be the field team,”[/color] as he spoke he gestured toward the window and the team, [color=#ED0378]”This is her way of telling us she knows and showing us she’s still out there planning God-knows-what. She’ll be less brazen then I was before.”[/color] Hank listened to the two but was ultimately more focused on the monitors and gauging the team’s performance and how their suits were holding up after tweaking them since the last set of tests. [color=#B90FF9]”We will need to be even more cautious then it would seem.”[/color] Max was quiet for a moment, opening his mouth to reply and then shutting it before giving his friend a firm nod. --------- The team sat before their three mentors in Professor Xavier’s office after running their rescue simulation. Their suits had held up, and the results were promising. They had managed to stay focused and collected during the simulation, though it was still a simulation and not the real thing. The three aged mutants were explaining to them the event concerning the rogue mutant, Mystique, and due to that coupled with much thinking on their end they had decided Max would be joining them in the field indefinitely. Pietro was the most affected by this news. His father was stepping on his toes, afraid to let the reigns loose, to let him prove himself a capable leader; though, he kept his thoughts to himself for the time being. The television set had long since become white noise in the background of the meeting until an alert came across the screen and pulled the attention of the whole gathering. “... massive hurricane rapidly onto mainland of Florida. This phenomenon is unprecedented. Not only is it not the season we usually see such massive storms, but the storm itself only just appeared on radar minutes ago out of the blue just off the coast. Authorities say they’re doing what they can to evacuate as many people as possible, but with how close this surprise storm already is they have advised everyone to stay indoors and do all they can to whether this storm. More safety information can be found at the website appearing on the lower half of the screen - “ [color=silver]”This isn’t a natural storm. We have to go. We need to help those people.”[/color] Max and Charles shared a look and then both turned to Hank. [color=00aeef]”I would like to tweak their suits a bit more, but from the results of the tests we’ve already run they are performance-ready, as are they,”[/color] he gestured toward the field team with a blue-furred paw. With a reluctance, Charles nodded to Max and his students. [color=#B90FF9]”Very well. Suit up. Danny, please prepare to transport them where they need to be. Be careful, please,”[/color] though he spoke to the group as a whole, his eyes seemed to linger on Jean for just a fraction of a second more.