"How is it, Hank?"

"I'm not sure how much more I can improve it, Charles. Maybe you could see if that Stark kid, Iron man or whatever, could take a look? I'm sorry, but this is getting beyond me at the moment."

Cerebro, once meant to locate and aid mutant-kind all over the world has been undergoing recent modification to help track a certain person. Ironically enough the one in question was a young boy who wasn't even a mutant in the first place, but all the same, he was family to the Mutant Superhero team, the X-men.

If he was still with them he would've been 16 already, going to high school, having fun, and being an average kid. Unfortunately, he was taken from them all little over two years ago, and ever since things had never been the same. Faced with the all too real possibility of their own mortality he had been pushing the X-men hard, and his would-be enemies even harder.

It was a wonder what you could accomplish in negotiation after turning a couple of people in vegetative states. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was starting to see that maybe Erik did have a point. He had been too soft and naive, his kindness and passive approach had been taken for submission and mistaken for weaknesses. Something people were all but too willing to take advantage of.

For Co-existence one must have the necessary power to stand on equal footing, there was something to be said about Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy after all.

His changed attitude and concessions had seemed to help ease the tension between the old friends, and while their relationship was still shaky they have agreed to a slight compromise. As long as Magneto kept the casualty to a minimum and stayed out of his city than he was more willing to... Turn a blind eye to some of the man's less than legal activities.

Of course, there was a limit to said willful ignorance, but Xavier always considered himself a persuasive man and hopefully with this strengthened connection they could manage to see eye to eye one day. In turn, the man toned his activities down a little and sent the occasional troubled young mutant his way.

Frederick Dukes, or the Blob, had been a surprising latest addition to his team. A troubled youth with far too much power and far too little self-control, yet nothing that acceptance and the occasional therapy session wouldn't fix. The most surprising fact and proof of their possible renewed friendship in his mind was that Erik had asked the Professor to help his daughter whom he wouldn't see himself for some reason.

A young girl whose destructive and uncontrollable power had caused her own father to lock her away as he didn't have the time for her. Charles felt bitter when he heard about it and had promised himself he wouldn't give up on or fail any of his students no matter the cost. Once was more than enough. He couldn't believe the Master of Magnetism when he first heard about it and it only served to hammer in the point that they had drifted apart. The man could be as hardheaded as the steel he so casually bends.

Suddenly the blue-furred man which he had the honor of calling his friend finished tightening the last bolt on the electronic helmet and gave a sigh as he cracked his back. Charles brief wondered why the man kept insisting on working while upside and hanging from his feet. He was pretty certain that the other's habit of working in strange positions and his terrible posture was half the reason why he had constant back problems, besides his mutation.

He doubted having your blood constantly rushing to your head was as good for helping the thinking process as the man swore up and down it was. Still, Hank was a grown man and if he wanted to have a hunched back before his 50s, well it just wasn't Xavier's place to question it.

"Well, I've done all I can. Let me know if you need anything else, I'm going to grab lunch."

The gorilla-like man bid the telepath goodbye as he left through the series of doors, each requiring an incredibly complicated password and retina scan to pass after the last time someone tried to sneak in and make use of the power device.

"Thank you as always, Hank. Enjoy your lunch."

The world's most powerful telepath placed the helmet on his head with a single practiced motion. He rolled to the designated monitor and quickly typed in the code. The green light on the helmet soon shifted into a light blue as the floor under his wheelchair lowered until he found himself in a blue spherical room. It was an omnidirectional display that would both record and display what he senses with his mind in a physically visible manner.

He closed his eyes in concentration as he sought out his wayward student.

Xavier didn't want to admit that it was an effort full of resignation. 232. That was how many times he had donned the helmet. In the beginning, he had frantically used it every day for more than half the day, only leaving the control room when Storm or Wolverine had forced him too after seeing his health rapidly deteriorate. Even then he was determined to use it at least once a week after the 3rd month of the fruitless endeavor.

Such a powerful tool simply wasn't meant to be used by the human mind long term, even if his was vastly more powerful than the average. At the end of the day, his body was still human. It took him collapsing and waking up in the medical hall until he begrudgingly submitted himself to their rules and limitation.

It was quite a trying task on his old heart, especially seeing how distraught the other telepath of the mansion was, even more so when he could literally feel hers and everyone else's anguish and every day he felt as if it was a brick to the face.

As the professor continued his systematic search of the world something caught his attention, causing his body to freeze, it was faint, and but the man had sensed Andrew's presence within the psychic realm. He had to take a deep breath to calm himself. He carefully focused but even as minutes turned into hours it never showed up again.

A glance at the monitor showed that it had not registered anything. Another false alarm? A hallucination from anxiety?

He wasn't sure but he held onto the hope regardless of if it was false or not. He knew that one day he'd find the boy, no matter if he had to search the ends of this world or the next. He may not have had a child out of his failed marriage, but he liked to think of the X-men as his family and the younger ones his children.

He wasn't going to abandon a single one of them, come hell or fire.

"What's wrong, Peter?"

"...It's nothing, go back to sleep, MJ."

"Peter, please. I thought we got over this whole hiding things and bottling stuff up?"

"It's nothing, just something stupid."

"Tell me, I want to know."

"I... Dreamt of a boy. It was rather weird, to be honest. He looked like- like a Kid-Tarzan or something. Animalistic, wild, and angry."

"...? A.. Boy? Oh my, tiger don't tell me you're starting to swing for the other team? My my~"

"What? No, don't be silly, how could I when I have someone like you-" His hand slipped underneath the covers and cupped a rather heavy and full breast, giving it a light squeeze and earning a soft appreciative moan in return. "in my life?"

Leaning over, the web-slinging hero managed to deflect any further questions as he gave his long-time girlfriend Mary Jane Watson a deep kiss. Nothing like a late-night tumble beneath the sheets to avoid touching uncomfortable topics.

Still, the brown-haired man couldn't help but wonder who that kid was, and more importantly, why did he suddenly get visions of him?

"Like, I said sorry! Geeze, it's just a stupid cheap plastic toy, what're you so worked up about?"

Katherine Anne Pryde, or "Kitty" to her friends and Shadow Cat to the rest of the world, just didn't see what Cyclops was so mad about! Sure, maybe she had sneaked into his room without permission, and maybe she had entered in the first place to play a prank on him. That didn't mean he had to yell at her for it!

"Get out of my room. Now."

Apparently the other boy didn't find the humor of having a fake mustache superglued onto his iconic visor, but then again she wasn't sure if the stiff walking laser gun had a sense of the humor in the first place. Ironically enough, for a guy with literal rose-tinted glasses, he was quite the strict party pooper. Nearby in a corner of the room, almost hiding was her teammate in pranks and heroics, Kurt Wagner, who seemed to be keeping uncharacteristically silent as if trying to hide and avoid getting any attention on himself. The traitor! He was the one who helped her get into the room in the first place with his teleportation, but then again she guesses she couldn't fault him that much. Nobody on the team liked having their unofficial leader's ire directed at them after all. The german mutant merely watched the exchange between the two X-men.

She made a mental note to get back at him later, but for now though it was time to deal with her current predicament. Make no mistake though, she was definitely getting payback for him being so ready to throw her under the bus and leaving her out to dry. The nerve of that boy!

"Seriously? Like, you're seriously going to be like this? Cmon, don't be mad, it was just a prank! I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean to step on the thing, and I'll get you another toy car. Heck, if you want I'll even get you an entire Hot Wheels set, alright?"

It seemed she had stepped on a verbal landmine as Scott slammed his fist into his bed frame, causing a large crack to grow on the wood. Kitty had to bite back a curse, an endeavor Kurt had obviously failed as she could faintly hear his not-so-quietly muffled "Oh shit..." from behind his blue furry hands. The brown-haired boy standing in front of her wasn't even breathing hard. There was hardly a change in the volume of his voice, but she could hear the steel in them regardless.

"I said. Get. Out."

Pissed probably didn't even begin to describe how he felt, so she she booked a hasty retreat. She made sure to close the door behind her, while the other X-men was too terrified to even think or dare to use his powers as he followed her closely form behind.

"All this over a prank and a broken cheap toy? What the heck? I know he has a thing for cars, but that was, like, wayyy overboard."

She must've gone on a 5-10 minute tangent and rant about Scott's unbelievable behavior and overreaction before the other teen spoke up.

"... Maybe... Maybe it was special to him?"

It would take three days before she realized the truth behind those words and how utterly inconsiderate she was. Kitty had always considered herself as a nice person, she was even an honest to God superhero for Pete's sake, but apparently not as much as she thought.

She had just broken one of the memento of Scott's best friend and one of the original X-men.

She had heard the story from Ororo, the toy was from their first meeting and the first time the X-men had gathered to share a meal. Sure, it was just a stupid happy meal toy to anyone else, not worth even 50 cents, but to Scott, it was an invaluable treasure full of memories. Even Jean was still broken up about it and apparently she and the Professor had been using Cerebro looking for the kid ever since he went missing.

God if she didn't just feel like the biggest ass in the world right then. Being a hero was fun and all, but Kitty knew she was quite lazy and usually skipped out on training and drills if she could get away with it. She was the type to sleep in during the weekend until noon, after all. Still, that week she trained as she had never trained before with her powers.

It would take a month before she managed to fix it, carefully using her powers to fuse every single fragment of glass and learned from Professor Hank on using tools to fix the dented roof. It was both hard and rewarding as she found herself eventually having fun with it.

Surprisingly enough not only did he forgive her, but their relationship actually improved afterward when he realized how much effort she had put in.

It was quite... Fulfilling she realized to be recognized for her time and effort. It was a different type of validation from the cheering of people she saved or being on the news with the rest of the team. This time it was all her, and it came from someone important to her thanks to her own efforts.

Not just another member of the X-men, not her leader or a grown-up, but from Scott. Her friend.

Yes, these people were her friends not just people she was stuck with to learn how to control her powers. Not because she was a freak like the others thought.

It was quite warming and she was glad that it brought them closer together.

That being said, it didn't stop her from using her powers to phrase out Kurt's clothes besides his underwear and making sure to take blackmail photos. Hero or not, she also had a vindictive streak in her.