xp_logs | Fires From The Ashes

The Professor reaches out to Paige to help develop a suppressor.

The suddenly change in Jean and the subsequent disintegration of Magneto had been a shock. The Blackbird cameras had caught some of it, including the flare of the firebird before Jean had outdistanced Rogue and Lorna easily to disappear over the horizon. The video and sensor readings had been shared to the West Coast Annex and other specialists that Xavier worked with. Included were his Cerebro readings. They showed a sudden and exponential grown in Jean's power level; a completely new phenomenon. The mansion was mourning its dead and succoring the injured, but there was no time to shutdown. They needed a strategy for Jean, and Charles had decided who would head it at the mansion.

"Paige, thank you for coming so quickly," he said to the young woman entering his office. He seemed to have aged overnight with the news of the Muir tragedy, face haggard and eyes shadowed by loss and grief. "I take it you know what has happened?"

Crossing the room, Paige shifted the tablet in her hand to under her elbow, nodding. "I spoke with Rogue for her impressions, as well as watched the footage in the DR," she replied, taking a seat in front of him and momentarily softening the sharp focus in her features. "I'm sorry... for your loss, sir."

"And I for yours." He couldn't forget that while he had lost students, staff and friends, some of them had lost family members. "But I'm afraid there is no time for grieving, not yet. There is still the matter of Jean. Her sudden power increase, what she did on Muir... she must be returned to the mansion."

Pursing her lips, Paige looked away, blinking rapidly, and then nodded. "Of course. Tell me what you need me to do."

"The power levels Jean is exhibiting are highly unstable. We need to find a way to suppress them if we're going to be able to help her. That's what I need you to do, Paige. Develop a power suppressor we can use on Jean."

"That's..." Paige paused, her mind already starting to turn. "That is going to be quite the feat."

"Of course, I wouldn't expect you to do it all alone. I've taken the liberty of contacting the group known as M-Squad, who I recall you had some dealings with in Chicago several years ago." Charles pressed a button on the telephone on his desk, the distinctive hum of a speaker phone filling his office. "Dr. Wainsborough, thank you for waiting. Are you able to assist with our problem?"

"Thank you Professor. I've taken a look at the numbers you sent me and I'm rather confident I can help provide an approach as long as you can prove an adequate bio-physician on your end to work with." The former M-Squad leader had been collaborating with the mansion for several years now, and while irritating, in the place of Moira MacTaggart, no one had a greater knowledge of mutant suppression technology.

Shooting a look of temporary panic at the Professor, Paige quickly managed to reply. "Oh, I'm sure we'll find you someone."

"Good. Once you do, I'll send along the suppression matrix that we've been working on. You'll need to adapt it to the specific field and then we can work on amplifying it."

Paige rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand, pushing at what was sure to be a tension headache. "Just hurry."