Chapter 3 - Ready Additional Players?

|S.H.I.E.L.D. Hovercarrier|

"You wanted to see me Director Fury" a red-headed woman in a black body-suit said as she stepped through a silver door to see a bald man with an eye patch and black trench coat sitting behind a desk. He didn't react right away but continued to type away at a glowing keyboard built into the desk.

"Agent Romanov, I have a mission for you that you'll need to leave for immediately." Nick Fury stated as he looked up with his single eye.

"You and Barton will be taking a quinjet to the designated drop point where you will meet up with a local contact to start the investigation. The briefing and necessary files have been uploaded to you. You'll have 8 hours to prep and board the jet." Fury said as he turned to look out the windows at the blue sky and clouds passing by.

"Yes sir, do you need me to notify Clint?" Natasha asked as she took a step back towards the door.

"No, I'll notify him in a few minutes. Dismissed." Fury stated before turning back to the monitor in front of him.

"Yes sir." Natasha said as she opened the door and stepped out. A dozen steps down the walkway she sees her partner walking towards her in his usual black vest and combat pants. Upon seeing her his expression perked up.

"Hey Nat! You get called as well?" Clint said in greeting before stopping before the red-head. The two had known each other since Natasha had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. with Barton being the one to recruit her from her previous employers after she had burned those bridges.

"Yeah, Director Fury is waiting for you." Natasha said with a smile.

"Great! Hopefully this won't be like the Cambodia Incident." Clint said with a mixture of humor and self-deprecation from the memory from the past.

"Yeah, let's hope." Natasha said as the two moved past each other, but as Natasha moved down the walkway she got a feeling that this mission was only the beginning of something bigger.

|Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters; Salem Center, New York|

A large office covered in wood paneling and shelving surrounded a large oak desk and a group of individuals who were waiting for the last two individuals to arrive. Shortly the door to the office opened and in rolled a bald man in a motorized wheelchair wearing a grey suit with a white dress shirt and burgundy tie. Behind him is an African-American woman with white hair wearing an off the shoulder blouse and skinny jeans. As both move into the room the others move out of their way as the man in the wheelchair moved around the desk to where a chair would normally be.

"Thank you everyone for coming." said the bald man as he looked around the gathered people.

"Chuck, what's going on that you called the whole group?" a man in the corner with wild hair and sideburns asked while he stood with his arms folded.

" I have found two new mutants that I am going to send you all to meet and hopefully convince them to comeback to the school Logan." said Xavier as he looked first at Wolverine then the rest of his team.

"The first is a young woman named Jubilation Lee. She lives in Beverly Hills, California and her powers have manifested just recently. Her parents are aware of her powers and have hidden her away out of fear for what they might mean. Scott, Emma, Ororo and myself will go speak with him. Logan you will take Beast, Piotr, and Kurt to look for a young man known as Robert 'Bobby' Drake. He is living in Long Island here in New York. His powers have manifested but not even Bobby himself has realized it. Beast will take lead." Xavier explained while looking at the faculty surrounding him.

"Everyone prepare as fast as possible as we don't know if Magneto will also be looking to recruit these young mutants as well." Xavier says as the others excuse themselves to prepare. Soon only two others besides the Professor are left in the room.

"Professor, why are you sending so many for just two new mutants?" Emma Frost asks as she stands in front of the desk with a hip c.o.c.ked and arms folded, her expression showing a combination of contemplation and mild confusion. Wearing a white, cropped corset top connected to an also white cape, followed by a pair of white leather pants and heeled boots.

"Emma, there was a third hit from Cerebro and this one is troubling." Xavier said with his fingers steepled in a point.

"Is it a powerful mutant Charles?" the woman, Ororo 'Storm' Munroe, asked from the side of the desk where she had moved after everyone was dismissed.

"No Storm. This is something else. Cerebro couldn't pinpoint the source, but it is powerful. I don't know its intentions, but the feeling of it has me not only unsettled, it has me worried severely." Xavier said, causing both women to look at each other with matching worried frowns on their faces.

|Baxter Building; Manhattan, New York|

It was just another day in the thirty-five-story building, whether this could be considered normal is based wholly on the occupants. On one of the floors Steven Richards, along with his roommate and best friend Ben Grimm, are having lunch. Ben was contemplating visiting his girlfriend Alicia Masters while munching on a sandwich and Reed was going over his notes on an ongoing project. Soon a door whooshed open showing a hurried Sue Storm. Looking over the room and spotting the men at the table caused her to run over.

"Reed, we've got a problem!" Sue said as she approached the duo, causing them to stop eating and give her their full attention.

"What is it Sue?" Reed said as both men stood up.

"One of the sensors picked up a high energy reading in a stretch of vacant forest here in New York." Sue said causing both men to become concerned but also confused as high energy readings can mean many things.

"Show me." Reed said as all three moved towards the door and the elevator that would take them to the lab. Soon all three arrived at the lab to see Johnny Storm staring at a monitor.

"Sis, what's going on?" Johnny asked as he turns around and seeing his sister and the others.

"We're about to find out Johnny." Reed and Sue both state as they all step up to the monitor. Tapping on the keyboard while looking at the monitor, Reed proceeds to go through the data. Soon he releases a breath.

"I have good news and bad news." Reed states still looking at the monitor.

"Well, don't leave us hangin' stretch." Ben said with minor frustration.

"The good news is that the energy doesn't match anything we have come into contact with so far. So, we can rule out any of the other sources like Doom." Reed said allowing the other three to breath out a sigh of slight relief before Sue asks a question that raises the tension again.

"What's the bad news Reed?" Sue asked while Ben and Johnny looked at each other with scowls that read 'Why did you have to ask?'.

"The bad news is that the energy is one that I have never seen and I have no idea what the source could be. It also disappeared roughly two minutes ago. Last known location was in a remote stretch of forest and the levels at their peak were equivalent to a large reactor." Reed said causing the others to tense up at the thought of a that much energy just walking around loose.

"What do we do now stretch?" Ben said as he felt this could be something big.

"For now, I'm gonna monitor the situation and keep an eye out for further readings." Reed said as he began to type away at the computer.

"In that case, Me and Johnny are gonna go down and check the last known location to see if we can find anything." Sue said as she turned toward the door causing Johnny to dash over to her side calling dips on driving. Ben being a little lost at the moment decided to do as he was originally planning and turned to the door as well, stomping away as he thought 'Alicia and me are gonna need a movie marathon and a truck sized popcorn for this to relax away'.