Cerebro

"This is the Cerebro…"

We were in a huge metallic spherical building. It was in the same underground complex as the training room.

The level of sophistication the Xavier mansion had was insane. Professor Xavier had me and Storm follow him to the Cerebro. He wanted me there when he located Theo. As a show of goodwill.

The others have classes they have to attend and Moe went back home. He delivered on his promise to introduce me to the X-Men and once he did that, he didn’t see a reason to stay.

"This will help us locate your friend." The professor reassured me as we walked on the suspended ramp.

"Still...shouldn’t the others be here?" I asked. After all, the literal fate of humanity was riding on this.

"Work is worship, young peter. One must make sure to not neglect his or her duties while in pursuit of greater goals. They are our friends and teammates! They trust us to do our diligent work." The professor hovered near the edge and grabbed the wired helmet from the table.

"Did Moe tell you my abilities?" He asked with a gentle smile.

"Yes. You can read and control people's minds. You’re also one of the greatest minds on planet Earth."

"You flatter me."

Storm was smiling from the side and said, "Yeah but it’s still the truth."

We shared a hearty laugh. The professor palmed the helmet hesitantly, as if he were afraid of it.

"Let’s not waste any more time."

He took a deep breath and put it on his head.

The lights went off for a second. Then a million lights appeared like stars! Most of them were red but there were some blue ones sprinkled in between.

Before I could fully take in the sight, the red lights started disappearing. After a few more seconds there were only the blue lights left.

Eventually even the blue lights started disappearing one by one, until only a dozen remained. It was like an auditorium light show.

"There he is!" The professor pointed to one particular blue light.

The particular blue dot started to take the shape of a human. Its facial features and body slightly resembled those of my friend.

"Theo!" I shouted

"Is he alive, professor?" Storm asked him with a stoic look. My heart started beating loudly with anticipation,

‘If they found a way to use his powers without needing him alive….’

I remembered the look his sister had when I promised to rescue her brother. I can’t imagine facing her if I failed. Then I remembered that should I fail, she wouldn’t even be alive!

The hairs behind my neck stood still.

"Fear not, he’s alive...but….they haven’t fed him anything in days…he won’t last long if we don’t save him soon."

"WHAT!" I yelled out.

It’s been almost three days since they abducted him and they didn’t even have the decency to feed him. My fist curled into a ball and my molars grinded.

"This is unlike Magnus... he might be cruel at times but even he’s not for torture of this nature. Especially torturing one of our kind."

"Do you have his location?" Storm asked from the side, not forgetting the objective.

The professor sighed.

‘That can’t be good.’ I thought.

"His men have no idea where they are….it seems that Magnus is the only person who knows exactly. He’s playing it safe."

"He’s never been that careful… I guess he must see this as the answer!" Storm added.

The professor replied back, "Yes…he’s desperate and that makes him even more dangerous. I don’t like this Ro...I have a bad feeling about this."

His grim words had an unsettling effect on me and Storm.

"Do you have no idea where they are?" I asked, trying to shake off the bad feeling.

"They’re definitely not in the States. They're probably somewhere in South America. My guess would be…Mexico and one of the memories of their henchmen indicated they were in a city but that’s all I can see. To be fair, with the right gifts they could be in Antarctica right now and we would be none the wiser."

I took a moment to consider the next part of our plan.

"So you’re telling me that you can locate them and read their minds, but since they don't know where they are, neither can you. Is that right?" I asked

"Yes...I could try to control one of his henchmen and free your friend but I'm sure Magnus is keeping a watchful eye."

"No, I'm sure he’s personally watching Theo in some capacity. If you try to free him now, Magneto will definitely know. He’ll make sure to ramp up security."

The professor agreed with a nod. I continued,

I’m guessing he’s assuming that you already know. He’ll take the necessary precautions. But it’s one thing to pretend and another to really know. If we stay quiet, he’s much more likely to make a mistake. Our greatest strength right now is his ambiguity. He’ll be careful of course but not nearly as much as he would be if we carelessly reveal ourselves to him."

Both the professor and Storm took in what I was saying. I continued,

"In my fight with him one thing became very clear…he’s smart…no that would be an understatement...he’s extremely smart. So smart that he had the foresight to plant metal shavings in Theo’s body just in case. While his greatest strength is very clearly his magnetic powers. It’s his intellect that truly scares me. He knows that he can’t rely on his powers always, so he didn't rest on his laurels. Instead he developed his mind to the point where one could say he was one of the smartest people to ever exist." I looked at the professor towards the end.

The professor lamented this fact,

"You're absolutely right...most who face Magnus fear his powers when they should really be afraid of his cunning! If only he chose to use his gifts towards the right cause."

"But that will be his downfall." I announced loudly catching both of them in surprise.

"He knows that he’s smart and he’s proud of that. So proud that he can’t and won’t admit when he’s outmatched intellectually. He’s like an overzealous kid in the debate club. Eager to prove his opposition wrong and brag about it to the world. He can’t wait to tell you how smart he is! In fact he wants attention so badly that he’ll monologue for minutes. He also underestimates his opponents because of his pride!"

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That’s how I escaped from certain death. He should have killed me at the first opportunity but he didn’t and he’s going to regret that for the rest of his life.

Professor X agreed with my assessment of Magneto,

"It is surprising you gleaned so much about his personality with one meeting. Yes...hubris is one of his flaws."

"It is a fatal one for him unfortunately. For all of his intellectual prowess he’s clearly lacking in the wisdom department." I say jokingly, trying to bring light back to the room.

Storm laughed and said, "You can say that again!"

His pride is the reason why he fails time and time again. It’s the reason why he never truly learns from his mistakes.

"That is true, but I can’t see how his character flaws help us find your friend and save the world." The professor asked, concerned that I was losing sight of the goal.

"If I were him…I would probably create some kind of anti Psychic room or barrier of some kind before I kidnapped Theo. It would take some time and money but it would be more than worth it. I would then place Theo in that room and ensure that only my trusted lieutenants are in that room. I would probably watch them both using a CCTV camera."

Charles Xavier looked impressed,

"Yes…a psychic barrier would be a great deterrent against me. However, I think you’re assuming that he has all the time in the world."

This intrigued me, "You think he has a time limit? The way I see it he doesn’t have to rush, he could just take his time preparing and then kidnap Theo when he was ready! He could end humanity in an hour that way. Do you think he had some kind of restriction preventing him from acting more freely?"

"Yes and No. I have known Magnus for decades by now and trust me when I say this: He is not the kind of person to pull that stunt he did in the gymnasium."

His reasoning irritated me a little to be honest,

"That’s assuming he’s the same person you knew...wasn’t he imprisoned for like two years. Two years is a long time…enough for a person to change. Maybe he’s more desperate than before, maybe he sees this as his final opportunity. The ultimate checkmate to end humanity!"

He replied back,

"Perhaps you are right but I didn’t get that impression when I talked to him right after he escaped his prison."

I scratched my chin. "So what you’re saying is…that under different conditions he would have done exactly as I mentioned. That is, create an anti-psychic barrier before abducting Theo."

"Yes…in fact I’m sure of it. It is like you said he has his trusted men watching your friend and is probably watching them with CCTV. It's just the anti-psychic room that he’s missing."

Wow…that was insane.

The professor smiled when he saw the realization on my face and said, "You both think very similarly."

Let's hope that’s where the similarity ends.

Storm looked confused, so she asked me, "But…i don’t understand? Why does it matter that he doesn’t have an anti-psychic barrier? We still can’t locate him or your friend."

I explained myself,

"I was under the wrong impression, Miss Munroe. I thought that he was arrogant enough to think he could win without a barrier. That he thought, simple precautions like keeping his henchmen in the dark would stop us from finding Theo. But as the professor explained, I hadn't considered that he had some kind of time restriction."

"Yes..I understand that but why does an anti-psychic barrier matter so much?"

"Because if he had one, then the plan in my mind wouldn’t work."

Both of them looked surprised when I said that.

I smiled at their reaction and said, "Let me explain."

"Professor, you can read their minds, can’t you?"

"Yes?"

"Can we triangulate their position with respect to other civilian mutants? We could start with a wide net and slowly zoom in on their location."

The professor asked,

"Hmmm…you mean to say, to search for the nearest mutants and look for them from there?"

"Exactly. We don’t have to know exactly where they are. If we can search for nearby mutants, then we could get a good estimate of their location."

Storm turned to the professor and asked him, "Do you think it will work?"

"It should! ..I don’t know why I didn’t think of that!" He said it excitedly. He put on the helmet again and tried searching for them,

"Let me check…"

After a few minutes the familiar blue light which represented Theo came back. But then the entire display zoomed out looking for another mutant.

After a few seconds, it finally found three separate blue dots that surrounded Theo’s blue dot. The three dots connected with each other to form a triangle with Theo’s blue light in the center.

I asked curiously,

"They’re all in Mexico…so it means that Theo is in Mexico. Now where exactly are they?"

"The first dot is in Tequila, Jalisco..the second one is in Cocula, Jalisco and the final one is Zapotlanejo, Jalisco. They’re somewhere within the state of Jalisco."

"Guadalajara. They’re probably in the city of Guadalajara!" I said excitedly,

"Possibly...yes. That also explains the glimpse of a city I saw from one of his henchmen." The professor agreed.

"But still I don’t understand how they crossed the border so easily and so quickly. Magneto doesn’t have anywhere near the personnel required to do that. Unless…" Storm stopped ominously.

I completed her sentence for her, "Unless he has an ally that we don’t know."

"That….is a troubling thought." I heard Charles say,

"....it also explains how he escaped imprisonment….Wait a minute…Professor did you know about Theo’s powers before I told you." I suddenly realized the obvious.

"No..of course not…….." The professor went silent as soon as he finished saying that.

"Right, so how could Magneto, who, according to you, just got out of jail, know about his powers? Not to mention having a fully realized plan for ending humanity."

"The possibility of someone working with Magnus went from improbable to most likely. This isn’t good Ro…call the others to my office immediately. I have a very nasty feeling about all of this!"

Storm looked alarmed but reeled it in. She went back inside the main building.

‘What happened to his, ‘Work is worship’ philosophy’ I thought to myself silently.

"Will you accompany me for a stroll, Peter?"

"Of course, professor."

He looked troubled by the implications of everything. I had to calm him down,

"We’ll win, Professor... The element of surprise is with us—we almost know where they’re hiding already. It’ll only be a matter of time before we rescue Theo."

"I’m sorry Peter...if only I could distinguish between humans and mutants at the same time while using the cerebro. I'm sorry about all of this."

"It’s not your fault professor…we just have to make the best out of the situation we’re handed."

"I’m not sure we have a good hand to be honest… the location we discovered now could be a complete fake. It could be that he has some means to deceive us and that the real Theo is located elsewhere. This could be a trap. Maybe a wild goose chase, to buy him more time."

‘Damn I didn’t even think of that! I could totally see Magneto trying something like that.’

"Let’s hope that Magneto isn’t that smart." I say anxiously, afraid of that possibility.

POV - Magneto

He touched his wounds on his throat once more. He hated changing the bandages, but it was necessary to make sure there was no infection. He could remember the face of the boy who was responsible for the pain he was suffering right now. His teeth grinded, though it hurt his throat.

‘If it weren’t for Charles’ pesky students, that insect would have been crushed!’

He offered him a place within his brotherhood and the dishonorable runt took a cheap shot. The projectile would have certainly killed him if it wasn’t for his last second intervention.

‘Peter Parker…I won’t forget about you…Oh no I won’t.’

He thought about having him killed along with humanity but he figured that was too kind.

‘No…once the world is mine. I will hunt you and put you down in the worst imaginable way! I promise you Peter Parker, the next time we meet you’ll understand the true meaning of pain.’

One of his subordinates entered his private quarters. Probably to give him the status check on the boy.

"How is he?" He asked John.

"Damn you still sound weird...are you sure those metallic vocal cords work right?"

The runts cheap shot destroyed his vocal cords. It would have stopped a lesser individual but he was Magneto and so he found the solution within seconds. Metallic cords completely replaced his organic ones. It was a split second decision when he realized he couldn't speak anymore. Frankly speaking he preferred the way he sounded now. It seemed to inspire fear in his enemies.

"It will get better. Now answer the question, how is the boy?"

"Oh him? He’s unconscious most of the time…He doesn't have the energy to even talk anymore. I don’t think he will be a problem."

He gave a blank nod to his subordinate.

If the stakes weren’t so high then he would have objected to the inhumane treatment. He did not like starving humans let alone mutants but….this was apparently a necessary part of the plan. At least according to the voice, which advised him not to feed his prisoner anything. It said that he needed the prisoner to be delirious for the process to work.

He didn’t trust the voice completely…but it helped him when it mattered the most.

Even when the X-Men attacked, the voice helped him escape. Even ensured that he and his men were allowed into Mexico with relative ease.

The voice seemed to have powerful government contacts! If not then fleeing to another country when the entire world was looking for him would not be possible.

"What’s Mystique’s status?"

"She’s doing well. Her arm is recovering nicely…that Peter Parker kid almost killed her…I can’t wait to burn him." He said as his eyes blazed.

He understood the sentiment very well. After all It was not a moment ago that he had the exact same thought, but now was not the time to get tied up in revenge. They had important work to do.

"Very well…how goes the search for the materials."

"Toad and Juggernaut have obtained half of the materials. It’ll take some more time. Frankly speaking I don’t think the kid will last that long. If we don’t feed him anything he really might just starve to death!" John said with a little bit of amusement.

"Very well..you can return to watching him. Let me know if there are any developments."

"Got it boss." Pyro saluted him and went back to watching the prisoner.

He saw the terrible state of the prisoner on the TV, the black and white of the CCTV made him look even worse.

He could hear the voice of his dead mother say,

‘At least they fed us before killing. You….you’re worse than them. A monster that’s all you are!’

He started breathing heavily, and his fist clenched tightly.