Updating Global Records

[Emma Frost]

Emma Frost walked the corridors of the Sub-Basement of the school. The chrome of the floor, walls, and ceiling lent itself to sending the sound of her stiletto heeled boots reverberating off in eerie echoes.

She walked to the end of the hall and leaned down to have her eye scanned by the retinal verifier. "Welcome Ms.Frost" the synthesized voice said to her as the doors swooshed apart.

[Emma Frost]

Sitting at the CEREBRA console she donned the interface helmet and was instantly absorbed in the vision it displayed to her. Anyone standing in the huge spherical room would have been able to see a portion of what was seen by Emma Frost, but she saw more than what could be illuminated in the ether of the CEREBRA Chamber.

After her daily check of the planet she locked in any anomalous readings for further investigation. Some of those readings would coalesce into solid signals indicating a mutant, some would not. The CEREBRA device was the most advanced mutant designating and scanning system yet to be created, but it was not infallible and it required thorough monitoring in order to follow up on any possible mutant signals.

[Emma Frost]

Hours had passed and Emma had been out to see the practices of two of the teams, The Paragons and The Acolytes, and now she had returned. She had taken Haven out for a stroll around the campus of the Xavier Institute to see some of the damage she had been responsible for bringing here to the school and to see the faces of the children she had nearly caused to meet their doom.

Emma held no hope for the child's rehabilitation, but had resigned herself to the fact that Haven did need to see what was happening. The fact that they were continuing on, without Nightcrawler, without Wolverine, and in the face of all the destruction that had been brought to bear on them would certainly make an indelible mark in the child's mind. She had returned Haven to her cell in the Genetics-Lab and continued her walk with a young Acolyte, Hardlight at her heels. His Team-Leader Colossus had asked her to have a word with him and that was what she intended to do.

Apparently the boy felt still as he did when he first realized his differences from his family. He still felt like an outcast. She would take care of business and speak with the boy as she did so. Emma was still searching for the emanations of the mutant signatures of both Logan and Kurt, she would not allow herself to believe they had perished. "Come in here with me Kevin." she said to Hardlight as she opened the door to the CEREBRA Chamber with the scan of her retina.

As the chamber doors swooshed open Emma stepped inside the huge spherical room. She was sure the boy had never seen anything like this back home in Nebraska. "This is a very special room Hardlight, and you must remain still and quiet as I do some work, but afterward we can talk a little. I would like for you to see something that can only be seen here at this school and in this room. Will you stay still and silent for me?" she asked in a tone that could hardly be interpreted as a question. It was more a thinly veiled threat not to move a muscle and simply watch.

[Emma Frost]

She again donned the helmet which linked her mind to the powerful computer interface of the CEREBRA device. It was itself more than simply a computer, but having a program, and being capable of calculations as well as up-linking to all of the many sub-systems at it's disposal it was most easily and simply described as a computer.

As her mind searched the out who and the what she was looking for the room itself took on a different atmosphere. Inside the chamber there was a swirl of illumination in the center of the spherical room. It began to form a display of the school and within it all of the lifeforms all of the mutants that were there. Emma widened the area of scan and the ether of the chamber showed the town and the surrounding counties of upstate New York, two blips appeared on a road heading to town. Zooming in on them it became apparent that they were Ember and Cyclops.

Out again she spread her search. In ever widening and widening areas the room displayed what Emma looked for within her minds eye and brought home the solid and concrete proof that both Wolverine and Nightcrawler were no longer alive. Their mutant signatures, the very things which would cause them to appear on the scans of the planet, were absent.

Using the power of the CEREBRA interface Emma sent the same message to two very separate spots on the globe 'You are needed back home at the X-Men mansion, hurry.' One she sent to the United Kingdom, to Great Britain to be exact. The other went to the very bottom of the world, the south pole- the Antarctic.

[Emma Frost]

Confident that her message had been sent to the exact locations and to the very minds of the mutants she had targeted Emma Frost removed the headpiece and breathed a heavy sigh. She was an exceptional Telepath and it had been said of her that her abilities were world class, however she was very taxed at the moment.

Not only did it require much concentration to simply use the CEREBRA Device, she had been so bold as to send a message to two entirely different locations and directly into two separate minds, while also having been maintaining a psychic coma on young Puppy~Love, who rested comfortably in her dorm room. The strain was over and she could relax in the knowledge that help was on it's way. Relax somewhat and focus her power solely on the child Puppy~Love, who had been so intensely rebellious the night before.

Turning in her chair she spoke to Hardlight saying "Do you know what is is that you just saw? It has been displayed to very few people young man, and I hope you understand what it was. I will explain, but first I would like to see if you can guess what that was you just witnessed. I want to hear you tell me what you saw. Speak clearly now, and do not stammer."

[Hardlight]

Kevin thought for a moment and said "Well, I, uh-" and then her realized that he was doing exactly what he was not sposed to do and he quik brought his hands up to his mouth. He didn't want to make her mad and then she would fry his brains up to like Riff~Raff's sister. Yes he had heard all about that too and even though he was in the romm when it happened, but not this room a differnt room too. "I"m not sure Ms." he said when he found some courage.

[Emma Frost]

(( please use spell check! especially whenever you write, not so much when you do anything else, but your spelling is atrocious ...also proof read because I've noticed you are a little hard to understand, and have a knack for the 'run-on' sentence...thanks!))

"It's quite alright to be unsure, and you will most probably be incorrect in your assumption-" Emma said to him in a soothing tone. She noticed he, like a lot of the students, held a bit of fear or apprehension around her. "-but I'll ask you what you think and so, that way Kevin there really is no wrong answer. Tell me then, what do you think you just saw." Emma smiled and raised an eyebrow as she cocked her head to the side anticipating his reply.

[Hardlight]

((oops, sorry i guess i just am lazy?))

"Well if it's all fine to just guess, I think it looked like a bunch of 3-D maps and stuff floating there." Kevin shrugged because he wasn't sure. "Oh, and little blips? Yes, little blips of light and some of them had names?" It wasn't so clear and it had moved past too very fast for him to see what was really there.

"Right and then it was like you said something softly and the words went to the southpole and that island, was that maybe Scotland?" he was good with geography, actually alot of his school subjects, he was a good student, but the planet floating there sort of disturbed him. It was neat and similar to his own powers, but only a gas not solid light.

[Emma Frost]

"Very good guess Kevin, yes. I was indeed looking at a map of the world. All of those blips of light that you saw were mutants. There are so many of us, well not as many as there were, but our numbers are growing again." Emma said. "As I understand from your Team Leader you have had a bit of trouble here? Is that so?" She was concerned, and to assume anything of the boy without asking him she felt would be inconsiderate. "Do you feel like you are alone in the world?"

[Hardlight]

"Well, not really alone in the world. I know that there are other mutants and all, but I do feel funny because if you didn't know it Ms.Frost, I'm gay too." Kevin said, confessing what his parents had found out and hated him for before he had to come out as being a mutant too. "I just have like a double whammy, you know, with all the mutant stuff and the being gay stuff too. My dad hates me and Colossus reminds me of him.I think he doesn't like me either you know?"

[Emma Frost]

"Well, you're not the first gay mutant and I'm sure you wont be the last." Emma said with a slight smile. "As I understand it your being gay was not a choice you made for yourself, just as you didn't choose to be a mutant either. This is your life Kevin and you must decide how you will live it. Either boldly pursuing whatever you might want in this world or cowering from life, hiding who and what you are from everyone you encounter."

She reached over to the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer. "I see that you have taken a brave step to tell me, and if you have told others I'm sure you will see that most people will either like you or hate you for whatever reason they might decide on. But Kevin please understand, that liked or hated you are still a person who is worthwhile and that what is really important is what you think about yourself. Just like my question before there is no right or wrong answer, but what do you think about yourself?" Emma asked the boy, looking right into his eyes.

[Hardlight]

"I guess I could always get better, but I do like me. I think I'm a good guy, and I look alright. Maybe I could be a little taller." He smiled. "I know what you are asking Ms. Frost and I know what you're getting at."

Kevin shrugged his shoulders and crinkled his face up and he said "I am worthwhile! I understand that and I will try harder to let things roll off my back. I care what other people think about stuff, but maybe I have put too much stock in others opinions and all so I honestly will do better. Actually I don't really know why Colossus asked you to talk with me, I was just apologizing to everybody on my team and all for being a jerk and stuff." He thought maybe Colossus just wanted him to go away.

He thought maybe he should tell that to Ms. Frost and so he said "I don't know how Colossus think about me, and not that I will care, but I believe he doesn't like me and he will make it hard on me. I'm ready for that challenge if it's gonna be like that and I just want you to know that because I want you to see things how I see them. I'm kinda hungry Ms. Frost, so if it's O.k. with you, um, can I go and have some pancakes with everybody else?"

[Emma Frost]

Emma nodded as she tried to keep up with his talking. For someone from the mid-west he certainly spoke fast "Well, you do have a pretty good sense of self Kevin, and maybe you have a point about Colossus too. I'll tell you what Hardlight, I will keep an eye out for what you said about Colossus, but regardless of whether someone likes you or not you just do your best and that's all they can ask of you."

"As for breakfast, yes run along and get some food. I'm sure you are starving by now. I will see you later. Remember Hardlight, if you do your best and are always true to yourself you will have no regrets. That is the best way to be." Emma stood and walked him back down the skinny catwalk to the door of the CEREBRA Chamber. She let him out and turned to shut the door behind her, making sure it was locked up tight.

[Emma Frost]

LATER THAT EVENING.......


For the third time this day, the day after the Brotherhood attack, Emma had come to use CEREBRA. It was a difficult task she had set before herself. The most she had previously used the device was twice a week at best, but it was hardly possible that she was not able to find at least one of the two X-Men she was searching for.

Wolverine should be out there in the world somewhere. It made no sense to Emma and she couldn't allow herself to believe that he was gone. For so many times she had herself tried to kill him and yet he would always return. When she was allied with the Hellfire club and served as the White Queen of that established den of villainous cut-throats and professional scoundrels, she had wished that he would die. The truth was that Wolverine was for all intents and purposes un-kill-able. He was a fixture of the planet earth and had been, for over a century now, walking the world.

'What could have happened to you?' she thought as she donned the headgear and searched out the globe yet again for his unique mutant signature. She searched for Nightcrawler as well, with far less hope as she knew he had more than likely succumbed to the bombs he had teleported far away from the school with. It had been a long day and she was exhausted. Physically, emotionally, and now mentally. She cut her search short and shut down the interface before she hurt herself. She could do no more here and was going to wind up having an aneurysm or a stroke if she kept at it.

CEREBRA was not a device one used when they were not at their best, not if one wished to remain alive and intact.


Besides she still had to "slop" that "little piggy" Haven, and that meant another trip upstairs to the kitchen and then back down to place her back in her holding cell. It was times like these that she had wished she had retired to a nice tropical island, but no- here she was and here she would do the most good for her students herself and her world.