Panther - A Nightcrawler Fanfiction

45) Postulating

[Author's Note {1-11-2014} Posted

X-Men Characters in this Chapter: Beast (Hank McCoy), the Professor (Charles Xavier), Storm (Ororo), Wolverine (Logan), Rogue (Marie), Gambit (Remy), Cyclops (Scott), "Phoenix" (Jean), Iceman (Bobby), Magma (Amara), Shadowcat (Kitty), Multiple (Jamie), Nightcrawler (Kurt)

OCs: Chet, Kenneth, Panther (Emery)

StormFireGirl's Bio-Hazard]

"I commanded him not to use his powers until I tell him otherwise. But, we only have until I fall asleep," Chet mumbled.

"If Kenneth was the one that was hiding her from Cerebo, we can assume two things," Dr. McCoy said. "First, that he's the reason Cerebo did not pick up on her mutant tag before and second, that he had a reason to do that. Now, as far as we know, Kenneth doesn't know about Cerebo. No one's thought about it around him before, nor has anyone mentioned it to him."

"You believe there is another mutant tracking system like Cerebo?" the Professor asked.

"But that's impossible," Jean answered.

"Let's assume that everything is possible, shall we?" Dr. McCoy proffered.

"Okay."

"Now, if we can correctly assume that there is in fact another Cerebo-like machine out there, and that Kenneth knows the person, or people that control it, it is safe to say these are not good people."

"Because he was shielding her from them," Chet concluded.

"Correct."

"Kenneth was in a government facility," Ororo stated.

"Yes! Yes. I postulate that he's trying to protect her from them." Dr. McCoy pulled up a map on the display screen. "Here is where the facility was." He pointed at the red dot in the middle of the map. "Here is where Kenneth is in prison." He pointed at the red dot on the right side of the first dot. "Here," he said poking the screen off to the left, "was where we found Emery. And here," he pointed to the red dot at the right side of the screen, "is where we are.

"If we use the distances and calculate a maximum distance that Kenneth's powers reach, specifically for Emery, this circle is what we get," and he drew a circle with his finger, a large, red shape around the prison that encompassed both the institute and the government facility. "Notice that it does not encompass where we found Emery, because that is the one time Cerebo did pick up on Emery. It was the only time Emery was that far away from Kenneth, even when he wasn't using his powers to shield her. I postulate, their powers are connected, through their shared DNA, and that Kenneth does not actually have to shield her for her to be shielded. Because he wishes it, her powers recognize this wish, when in range, and protect her on their own!"

"But how does this help us find her?" Kurt asked impatiently.

"Okay, okay look," he pointed to the circle. "The Professor just tried Cerebo and didn't find her. If she is still in this world, this realm, then she has to be within this one-hundred twenty mile radius, because Kenneth is back in the prison."

"Oh, I see," Chet said.

"I postulate, that since this wedge of the circle is water, she won't be there. I also postulate that she will either be 20 miles from her house, here," he drew a small blue circle, "20 miles from her school, here," a second, overlapping, blue circle was drawn, "a mile wide from the path from her home to the facility," he drew two lines along said path, "or the path I assume she took from the facility to the place we found her," he drew another two lines along that path.

"That narrows things down a bit," Rogue commented from her seat next to Gambit.

"Excellent theorizing, Hank. Alright, Rogue, Gambit take Bobby, and Amara with you and head to the facility circle. Logan, Chet take Kitty with you and cover the path from the facility to Emery's home and then search in the surrounding area. Beast and Storm can cover the path from the facility to the place we found her. All of you take the jet to the facility; bring the silenced four-wheelers for the path-walkers. That leaves Scott and Jean; you two take A.J. and Jamie to cover the area around her school. I will drop the four of you off in the other jet." Everyone nodded. They understood their parts. They left to find those that were not present for the meeting.

"What about me, Professor?" Kurt asked. "I want to go look for her!"

"You and I will fly over the areas and scan with the mutant-detector in the jet, after we drop them off, to see if we can pick up her signal."

"I thought you couldn't find her on Cerebo."

"This scanner isn't Cerebo. It's a close range scanner. It reacts based off objects affected by mutant powers, not to mutant DNA itself."

"Alright, let's go find her," Logan urged.

Fifteen minutes later, they'd recruited Bobby, Amara, A.J., Jamie, and Kitty and left the X-Mansion via the two jets.

"Hey, Professor," Amara said over the communicator.

"Yes?"

"There's a giant circle of destroyed... land out here that looks awfully like Emery's doing. "

"Do you think that's her?"

"We'll see, Kurt." Towards Amara: "Kurt and I are on our way."

Upon landing, Kurt bolted out of the jet and immediately noticed the large circle of destruction on the ground. It had to be Emery, right?

"I don't see her anywhere."

"She may have moved on already, Kurt."

They found Bobby and Amara sitting on the ground by the jet, looking at the circle.

"Rogue and Gambit decided to head north, since Dr. McCoy and Storm headed west, and the others went east. We were going to head south, but we thought we'd wait until you got here."

"Alright, Kurt and I will wait here, why don't you two head out."

Bobby nodded and the two of them pushed themselves to their feet and then set out southern bound.

"We'll find her, Kurt. We've done it before; we'll do it again."

"I wish there was something I could do to find her."

"I know, but be patient. One of the others will call if they find her."