X-men: World of Gray

Chapter 12

Chapter 12…

Day four. At least, that was the best guess Charles could venture. There were no windows in the base. No clocks hung on the walls; Charles could only keep track of day and night with the glimmer of sunlight that crept through the bottom of the door behind Cerebro.

Any televisions or radios had been removed—books as well. It appeared Erik and his band of merry mutants didn't want Charles distracted by such things.

It was evening, and Charles inspected the chain-link fence surrounding Cerebro. The barrier was eight feet high—the heavy-duty type Charles imagined around prison yards. At the bottom, the fence wasn't even connected to the floor; with all that weight, it didn't need to be.

If Charles could walk, he'd just climb the damn fence. He could use Cerebro on his own, searching for Hank, Alex and Sean's minds. He had never telepathically communicated using the machine, but if he could locate mutants, then given practice—

By the fencing, Charles rubbed the bridge of his nose. It wasn't an option. Escaping through the base's door wasn't an option. He was stuck there until Erik came to his senses…

…or decided that building a mutant army was more important than Charles' displeasure.

If he was hooked up to Cerebro, could Charles even prevent himself from locating mutants? The machine broadened his telepathy across the world; trying not to find others like him was like asking someone to open their eyes but not to see.

Rolling his wheelchair beside the fence, Charles reached the edge of the open archway. He examined where the fence met marble. The wires had been jabbed into the stone like someone had hammered them into place. Near the bottom, a single little wire stuck out from the wall as if mocking him.

Dammit, Erik.

It was past one in the morning before Charles got to bed. As the next hour dragged by, however, he lay with his eyes peering upwards, the base suddenly very quiet and very empty. Too quiet—too empty. Only the pipes above the kitchen and the lights in the living area offered any sounds at all, and it was just a continuous soft humming in his ears. With a flash of irritation, Charles snatched up the pillow underneath his head and flattened it against his face.

Not more than twenty feet from the base's entrance, there came a shift. Charles jerked the pillow away; he focused. The teleporter was gone, of course, before Charles had a chance to lock on. But the shift—the presence—remained. A mind.

Charles sat up.

It wasn't Erik. No, this mind sensed his presence the same instant he felt it. It was cold and rigid, but also contained a type of amusement within its core of glistening crystals and intensity.

Emma Frost.

Charles brought his attention to the door. Seconds later, the metal slab opened and the diamond woman stepped inside. Although the spherical room was dark, her crystal body gleamed in the faint lights still illuminating the rest of the base, exhibiting a spectrum of colors.

She approached the fencing and then closed her fingers around the wires.

"He has you caged in here pretty well, doesn't he?" she said and flashed a smile.

Charles didn't smile back.

The woman lifted a hand. She plucked at the wiring close to her head, the metal snapping as she went. Creating an opening just large enough to fit through, she grabbed the top of it. Then, with the ease of a gymnast flipping on a mat, she slid her body through, the jagged wires not leaving a scratch.