「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(214) Mutant Extinction

Lynn's POV

The ambience in the meeting room was everything somber as the X-Men and Logan gathered around the long table, with all eyes intently on Jean as she stood at the head with me to her right.

"Did you find him, Jean? Did you find Magneto?" Scott investigated worriedly.

"No... But I found his plan..." Jean answered with an uneasy expression, throwing me several sheepish glances.

"And what's that?" Storm challenged, frowning suspiciously at us as I gave Jean an affirming nod.

"He's going to kill all the mutants," Jean disclosed softly.

"What?!" All the others exclaimed synchronously in absolute astonishment.

"Jean, are you sure?" Storm probed, looking at her teammate with extreme concern.

"That's what I got from Cerebro," Jean replied honestly, shrugging with a helpless face.

"I know Magneto's crazy but this is just insane! There must be some mistake!" Scott denounced, slamming his palms to the varnished surface as he rose agitatedly from his seat.

"This is not as simple as it sounds, Scott. Hear me out, please," Jean appealed, gazing pleadingly to her partner, and her tender voice instantly melted his critical attitude as he willingly sat down again with a warm smile flashed at his fiancee.

"Magneto has built a device. One that is targeted at killing mutants. The only problem is, he doesn't know that," Jean articulated but surely, even the simple words did not add up to much that was comprehensible as evidenced by the perplexed expressions prevailing around the bench.

"What do you mean?" Logan prodded in an utterly confused tone.

"The whole gang has been, sort of, deluded. Purposely misled to think his creation triggers mutations in humans instead," Jean resolved, pacing up and down the front of the desk with her arms crossed as she addressed all the muddled faces.

"He's planning to use his machine to mutate the world leaders at the UN summit on Ellis Island and if he gets his range wide enough, he might just wipe out every mutant in the state of New York," she elaborated in an pensive tone.

"Including himself and all of us," Jean reiterated solemnly.

"But what does he want with Rogue?" Logan grilled, anxiously waving his arms about.

"The machine now draws its power from Magneto to emit radiation specifically designed to destroy any being carrying the mutant X gene but during a trial run, it weakened and nearly killed him even when he was just targeting a single mutant in an enclosed space," Jean elucidated, delicately steering the others towards Erik's ultimate goal.

"He's going to transfer his powers to Rogue and use her to power the machine," Scott deduced rationally and Jean nodded in confirmation.

"I don't understand. It still doesn't make any sense even for Magneto," Storm commented with bafflement plaguing her tanned face and Logan sighed, basically frustrated, as he bit into his cigar, regardlessly lighting it.

"It does... Actually..." I revealed strenuously, choking terribly on the stench of tobacco as all of them shot their stunned gazes in my direction.

"Stop that!" Scott yelled, swiftly leaning over the table to snatch the thick column of weed but Logan agilely dodged and smirked cockily in victory.

"Can't you read? No smoking around the school!" Scott chided, towering over the others as he pointed at the conspicuous 'No Smoking' signage stuck to the adjacent wall.