Scanning
I was sitting in the infirmary curled up into a ball on one of the beds.
I was worried the entire time we flew back to the mansion. And when we got off the jet the first ones to come up to us was Jean and Scott.
“What happened?” Jean asked as she ran up to me. “The Professor said Sinister did something to you.”
She looked so worried and upset for me…
“It is a telepathic trap” the Professor said as he came over to us. “We are going to call in a specialist to help us get rid of it” he explained.
“You can’t get rid of it, Professor?” Scott asked.
“It is quite powerful” the Professor answered. “As much as I would like to be rid of it immediately, Hank thinks it would be best to have a doctor take care of the problem.”
“What kind of doctor?” Scott asked, and even with his glasses on I could see his brows creasing with concern.
Logan and Rogue had told us all what happened to Jean… I mean Madelyne… at the hospital, and ever since then the word ‘doctor’ made Scott tense and sick all over.
“A very unique one, who I am going to go and contact right now” Hank said as he moved past us to go and call in this Dr. Strange, they were talking about back on the island.
“Are you sure it’s safe for you and Jean to be near them?” Logan asked behind us.
I turned to see that his eyes and jaw looked just as rough as his voice.
“It has been inside Morph’s mind all this time without us knowing about it” the Professor said with a hint of guilt in his voice. “I see no reason to be concerned for Jean or myself” he said dismissively.
“It nearly got you, Professor, whatever it is” I added with my own guilt.
“Well maybe we should quarantine them then” Logan added, talking about me as if I wasn’t there…
“Logan” Jean said, hissing his name under her breath in a warning tone.
“He took you and hurt you once, I’m not letting it happen again” he said to Jean.
That’s when I had it.
I shifted myself into a leopard and went running off past everyone and didn’t change back into my base form until I was up on a bed in the infirmary.
I sat there, curled up into a ball and started crying.
He couldn’t let anything bad happen to Jean, couldn’t let Sinister hurt her again…
I had this thing in my head, and he was more worried about her…
I felt my heart breaking all over again, and as I wiped the tears out of my eyes and off my cheeks I was beginning to wonder if my heart was ever going to recover…
It felt like it was going to stay broken and hurt for the rest of my life…
Just as I was finally calming down and got the tears to stop the infirmary started glowing in this strange light.
I looked off to the side and in the middle of Hank’s workstation, a large gold circle appeared, all of Hank’s beakers and tubes shaking and clanking as the circle spun around faster and faster. One of the devices that Hank or Forge was working on fell to the floor as the circle finally stopped and out of the circle came a pile of books, a few bags, a few other weird looking things and then out floated a man, the circle disappearing behind him as he landed on the ground.
“Good evening, I am Dr. Stephen Strange, I’m here to see Charles Xavier, he has a patient for me” said the man with a strong sure voice.
I looked the man up and down, taking in his blue outfit, his red cape, his gloved hands, his salt-and-pepper hair, his well-trimmed beard, and his eyes… his eyes were unnerving – like they were looking through me and all around me and… and somehow seeing things that I couldn’t even begin to imagine…
“This is the Xavier school for gifted youngsters, is it not?” the man… doctor asked, and as he asked he waved a hand over towards one of Hank’s work tables, all of the things moving around in the air to land wherever there was space for them before he waved his other hand and made all of the floating things he had brought with him land down on the empty table.
I sat there blinking at him, not at all believing what I was seeing.
“And I’m guessing that since this is the infirmary and you are the only one here, that you must be my patient” he said as he came walking over towards me.
My eyes bulged at his words, and I swallowed a huge lump down my throat.
The door opened and I turned to see the Professor and Hank coming in.
“I do wish you would meet us at the front door doctor” Hank said as he used the bars and pipes on the wall to swing his way over to the doctor…
“You said it was urgent; I saw no need to waste time with doors and elevators” the doctor said to Hank.
I saw that Hank and the Professor were staring at the doctor, so I very slowly and quietly but one foot down on the floor and tried to decide which animal to turn into so I could make a quick escape.
“Morph…” the Professor said in that tone that made me cringe and freeze where I was.
I turned to see him looking at me with a disapproving look that was warning me not to try anything…
I sighed and sat back up on the bed.
Just then the rest of the team came walking into the infirmary, all of them looking at the stranger in the middle of the room with looks on their faces that ranged from curious like Kurt and Jubilee, to flat out suspicious like Logan.
“Everyone, this is Doctor Strange” the Professor said waving to him in introductions. “Doctor, these are my X-Men” he said turning back to him.
The Doctor gave everyone a nod, and they all looked at him with even more curiosity.
“What kind of a doctor are you exactly?” Jubilee asked as she looked over his outfit before tilting her head to the side.
“I am a master of the mystic arts” he said… Which caused a very tense silence to fall over the room.
“Master of the what now?” Roberto asked.
“Mystic arts” he repeated in a begrudging tone.
“And this is going to help out Morph how?” Scott asked skeptically.
The mention of my name sent a shiver down my spine.
The doctor turned to look at me just then and my blood pressure sank down to nearly non-existent numbers.
“Ah, Morph here is the one we called you about” Hank said as he came over to me. “They are the one with the telepathic trap in their mind” he said.
The severe looking doctor turned to me, and I froze like a deer caught in the headlights of the scariest looking monster truck on the planet.
“They?” the doctor asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.
“Morph is a shapeshifter” the Professor said, moving his chair over closer to my bed.
“A shapeshifter?” the doctor said coming closer to me now with a curious look on his face.
“Yes, they are non-binary and prefer they/them pronouns” the Professor explained, as the doctor looked me up and down with this scientific fascination that made me feel like I was under a microscope.
“I had a run in with a mutant with the ability to change their shape” the doctor said as he waved his hand over my body…and I began to glow in this yellow light!
I bent my legs, and the glowing light followed them. Then I looked down at my hands, the light moving with my fingers as I flexed and relaxed my fingers.
“Of course, the one I ran into was a hundred years old, if not older, and they had blue skin and red hair” he said as the glow around me faded from a bright light to a soft outline.
“Mystique” the Professor said in a tense tone. “She has been quite the thorn in my side for a long time” he said before turning to Erik.
Erik gave him this subtle smile that was all mischief and not a bit of shame.
“Are you any relation to her?” the doctor asked, and it took me a moment to figure out he was talking to me.
“We are” Kurt said as everyone turned to him as he put his hand on Rogue’s shoulder.
“You two are related to her?” the doctor asked looking between them skeptically.
“I was adopted, Kurt here’s her son by birth” Rogue explained.
“They are related to her, and you are not?” he said turning back to me.
I gave him a shrug of my shoulders, not really knowing what to tell him.
“The X-gene is a wonderfully varied and mysterious phenomena” the Professor said looking at us with a father’s pride that helped me to feel a little more at ease.
“And you say this Mr. Sinister, put a telepathic trap in their mind?” the doctor asked as he waved his hand in front of me, causing me to glow green now. “Do you know where in their mind it’s been placed?”
“I’m afraid not” the Professor said with a sad shake of his head.
“I could go in and try to find it” Jean offered.
“No!” resounded though the room – The Professor, Scott, Logan and me all saying it at the same time.
“This Mr. Sinister, is he a telepath?” he asked the Professor after a few moments of awkward silence.
“He is not” the Professor answered.
“Do you know how he implanted a telepathic trap?” the doctor asked him, looking curious and concerned.
“There was someone working with him called Sauron, he would have had the ability to plant such a thing in someone’s mind” he said.
“Was he a telepath?” the doctor asked.
“More of a hypnotist,” the Professor replied. “A very powerful one, and if anyone could find a way to give him the ability to telepathically implant a terrible trap like this one, it would most certainly be Sinister.”
The doctor nodded and then turned back to me.
“Why don’t I perform a quick scan?” the doctor said as he waved his hand over my head.
Suddenly, a pink glow shown through the room and I moved to look up and around at the ceiling.
“Hold still please” the doctor said, and I quickly went back to sitting straight up and didn’t move again.
There was a long silence as he did… whatever it was he was doing back there.
I looked over at the others, the lot of them looking at what was going on transfixed as they were bathed in the pink light… Except for Logan… he looked on with his arms crossed and a look on his face that reminded me of a soldier keeping guard over his men as they slept.
“You have an absolutely amazing mind” the doctor said behind me as the pink light faded away and everything was back to normal again. “I will have to run some more scans; do you use your mind with your shifting abilities?” he asked.
“Yeah” I said as I watched him come to stand in front of me at the end of the bed.
“May I see?” he asked as he caused two circles to form at his palms as he held his hands up to face me.
I tensed up for a moment, feeling like he was pointing a weapon at me.
I turned to the Professor, and he gave me a small reassuring smile and a nod to go ahead, so I did what I was told…
I shifted into the Professor, and then into Hank, and then… I was going to do Jean, but thought better of it, thinking it would set Logan off, so I changed into Scott, and then Storm…
“Impressive” he said, but his eyes were up towards the ceiling like he was looking at something else. “Is it possible to see you shift into someone you haven’t shifted into before?”
I looked up at him and then changed myself into him.
“Very impressive” he said approvingly. “Is it possible to shift into someone else you have never done before? That last one was rather fast” he said as his fingers moved around like he was working a computer or a machine that only he could see.
I looked around the room until I found the only person I had never changed into…
“Kurt, do you mind?” I asked.
“Oh, this is exciting” he said before he popped over to land at the foot of the bed. “Go ahead my friend” he said.
“Wait!” the doctor said as he put his glowing hands between me and Kurt. “I need to scan the two of you at once” he said in a calmer voice. “Just give me a moment…” he said as he put one hand up to me and the other he pointed towards Kurt. “Okay, now I’m ready, begin” he said.
I looked at Kurt and then I changed into him on the bed.
“Amazing” the doctor said causing the two of us to turn to him. “Do you have the same powers as your friend too?” he asked.
“Not really” I said as Kurt before I changed back into my base form. “Some powers like telepathy and telekinesis I can’t copy at all” I said waving toward the Professor. “Some physical powers I can copy, but they’re much weaker” I said as I changed into Storm and caused electricity to crackle and pop at my fingers before causing a few snow flurries to float around the room.
Then I changed into Scott and blasted one of Hank’s beakers until it was shattered in pieces, my blasts more like a deadly laser point than Scott’s that could practically be seen from space.
“What’s your teleportation range?” I asked turning to Kurt.
“Two or three miles, sometimes further if I can see a spot to land and I concentrate really hard” he answered.
“That probably makes my range about two or three feet” I said as I shifted into him.
I looked at the table that was just behind the professor, which was five or six feet away from me and tried to pop myself over to land on the edge of it…
But I landed on my stomach in front of the Professor instead.
“Ya, about three feet” I said with Kurt’s voice before I shifted back into my form.
I felt myself lifting off the ground, being flipped over and being placed back on the bed very carefully before being released.
“Thanks Jean” I said, causing her to smile fondly at me. “You see Doc, jack of all trades, master of none” I said turning back to him.
“You said some powers; are there others you can copy and perform differently?” he asked.
“Yeah, some powers I can completely copy” I said as I changed into Quicksilver and darted around the room a few times before stopping in the middle where there was the most space.
I changed into the Hulk and then shifted into Juggernaut, and then I shifted into Deadpool before ending with Omega Red, the metal whips at my hands flying out and back in with a crack in each direction… and a few more of Hank’s test tubes fell down to the floor…
“I believe a trip to my equipment supplier is in order” Hank said as he looked down at all the broken glass as I changed back into myself.
“Sorry Hank” I said with a sheepish smile.
“Tell me about your language center” the doctor asked as he waved one of his hands in front of me.
“My language center?” I asked confused.
“You are capable of copying and retaining languages, yes?” he said as he looked up at the ceiling again, still seeing something that we couldn’t.
“Oh, yeah, that” I said with a dismissive shrug.
“I thought you said you couldn’t copy a whole language” Roberto said from behind the doctor.
“I can, but it takes me longer. I usually don’t bother with it unless I have to” I explained.
“Could I see a demonstration?” the doctor asked.
“Kurt, could I borrow you again?” I asked as I went to sit on the bed.
He came over and stood by the side of the bed again.
I stared at him.
“How long do you need?” he asked after about five seconds.
I didn’t answer him, which was no doubt making him a little edgy, but I only needed five more seconds…
“Done” I said.
“Done what?” Rogue asked to the side of me.
“I know German now” I explained.
“Just like that?” Kurt asked me in German.
“Just like that” I said in German.
“I don’t know if this is possible, but could you demonstrate that again?” the doctor asked.
“Sure. Roberto, can you come here for a moment?” I asked.
He came over and stood in front of me, and I stared at him for about ten seconds.
“Done” I said again.
“You know Portuguese?” he asked in his native tongue.
“I do now pal” I answered in Portuguese.
“As neat a trick as that is” Logan said, causing us all to turn to him. “What does this have to do with getting that thing out of their head?” he asked.
“Ah, yes, let me explain” the doctor said as the circles disappeared from his hands and he turned to face everyone.
“Morph here has a very unique composition to their mind and powers. This is an example of how Professor Xavier here reads minds…” he said.
Then he held his hands out and a picture of a brain appeared over each palm, both of them the same yellow glow that was around me earlier, both of them floating like a hologram before he started talking again…
“The Professor’s brain, along with other telepathic brains, works something like this…”
A small shining dot, about the size of a marble, began floating around in one of the brains.
“It’s a fairly speedy, yet methodical reading of the mind, moving from one section to the next before the information is passed on to the reader” he said.
Then the little marble floated out of the picture of the one brain and over into the other brain.
“Where the telepath processes the information, it has read” he said as the little marble moved all around the other brain. “Now this is about the normal speed of a telepath reading a mind” he said as we saw the same thing happen again, only the marble moved inside the one brain and then moved to the other brain in a matter of about three seconds, from the whole of one brain into the other brain. “Now this is Morph’s brain” he said.
One brain shifted from yellow to green while the other one stayed yellow.
Then there didn’t seem to be anything happening.
I looked at the doctor and then looked around the room to see if I had missed something, but everyone else was looking around confused at everyone else…
“Not very easy to see is it” the doctor said, causing us to be even more confused. “That is why I needed quite a few scans. This is what Morph mind does…” he said.
And then the holographic pictures of the brains grew until they were about the size of one of the wheels on the Professor’s chair and the little shining dot in the green brain grew from the size of a marble to about the size of a tennis ball.
“They function in quite an amazing way. They go to the prefrontal cortex first” he said as the ball moved from the green brain to the yellow brain and started going around all the pathways that were in the front of the brain. “That is the area of the brain that not only contains the working memory, or short-term memory as its most commonly known as, but that is also where a person’s personality traits are contained” he explained before the ball moved to a different part of the brain. “Then they move on to the motor cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum, where we keep all of our muscle memory” he explained.
All of us watched the glowing ball as he went on.
“Morph copies all that down and then their brain not only reads this information but stores it in their brain where their own body can access the information and use it as their own. The personality traits and the short-term memory are interesting, but what is really impressive is that they can store and use the muscle memory as if they had learned all of it themselves. And it all happens for them in a single second, two or three at the most. Even I, with my magic, took a moment to actually scan what they were doing. And their ability to learn language is astonishing” he said, sounding about as excited as Hank did when he made a scientific breakthrough.
The two brains grew even larger and the tennis ball changed to the size of a baseball.
“Most people learn a language by memorizing the letters, the spelling and then work on speaking the words. Morph here is the opposite, they go in through the muscle memory” he said pointing to that section as the ball moved around the pathways, “What the throat, cheeks and tongue need to know and do in order to speak any language, they copy and use that muscle memory to learn and speak an entire language in a matter of seconds. If I was still practicing medicine, I could write a few dozen books on their ability to copy muscle memory alone” he said sounding almost breathless by now.
“Marvelous” the Professor said in that way he did when he was proud of one of his students.
“Amazing” Hank said, looking at the brains the way he did his experiments.
“What does any of this have to do with getting that trap out?” Logan asked impatiently.
“We were rather hoping to get the trap removed sometime today, if at all possible, doctor” Hank said getting back on topic.
“Well, you see… yes…?” he said pausing in his speech and turning to me when I raised my hand.
“Can we go back to the part where you said you aren’t practicing medicine anymore, because I would really like you to elaborate on that” I said nervously.
“I practice on the mystical level rather than the physical level” he said, which made me even more confused. “As I was saying” he went on before I could ask him any more questions. “This trap that this Mr. Sinister set is somewhere in Morph’s memories that is our biggest problem.”
“Why can’t you just go in there and cut it out?” Logan asked.
I turned to stare daggers at him – not only did this guy just say he didn’t practice medicine but now Logan wanted to hand him a scalpel and start cutting into my head!
“I believe further explanation is required doctor” Hank said, encouraging him to go on.
“Don’t worry Morph, you are in safe capable hands, we won’t let anything happen to you” the Professor said in my mind.
“Professor, you shouldn’t be in here” I said to him before I put up the mental barrier that he taught me to use so long ago.
It wouldn’t help against really advanced telepaths, but it would help to keep him (and maybe even Jean) out while I was stuck with this thing in my head…for a little while anyway…
“How do I explain this…?” the doctor said as he moved to the center of the infirmary, causing me to come back to the outside world.
Suddenly a wooden bookshelf, just a little taller than him, appeared next to him from out of nowhere.
“This represents an average person’s mind, with some books being filled with experiences and memories, and others filled with muscle memory, with a few blank ones to be filled in later as time passes” he said pointing to the top two rows of the shelves as the filled with one book after the other in different sizes and shapes until the two rows were filled up. “Now there are some exceptions, the Professor here, along with other telepaths” he said waving over to Jean. “Have extra books,” he said as the whole bookcase filled up with books clear to the bottom row. “They are blank, but they are available to be filled with information because of their abilities and mutations” he said letting a row or two of the books float up in the air and flip open to show that they were filled with blank pages. “And then there are a select few that have the same amount of space, but the books are constantly being filled with information, like Hank, his mind looks a bit like this…”
Then the books that were floating were filled up with writing and figures and numbers and chemical symbols, until they were put back on the shelf and a second shelf appeared next to the first one and filled up halfway with even more books.
“You flatter me doctor” Hank said in that modest way that made him so likable.
“Can we speed this up” Logan said impatiently.
“Logan,” Jean said turning to him with a deadly look” she said, causing Logan to shrink back like a scolded house pet before she turned back to Dr. Strange. “Go on doctor” she said, her voice pleasant all over again as she gave him a small smile.
“Well, thanks to quite a few magic spells, this is my mind” he said, and suddenly the two bookcases became five, all of them filled with books. “Some of them are filled, most of them are blank, so that if I ever need to learn new spells or incantations, I have the space for them and the ability to access them” he explained. “This, from what I’ve gathered from my scans, is what Morph’s mind is like” he said as he stepped in front of the cases.
“Like those bookshelves there?” Scott asked, but the doctor didn’t answer…
He floated up into the air, his cape moving around him like it was caught in a breeze before the room around us disappeared, the only things in the space the bed I was sitting on and the five bookcases.
Then one bookcase filled with books landed close by, then another… and another… and another… Bookcase after bookcase filled with books surrounded all of us, everyone looking around as the cases formed a circle around us. And then more bookcases filled with books landed on top of those bookcases, circling around us, up and up and up, until it looked like we were standing in a huge library.
“This is Morph’s mind?” Hank asked as he moved closer to Dr. Strange, even though his eyes were roaming around looking at all the books.
“Morph has an impressive photographic memory, and I can see no shortage of space in their mind” Dr. Strange said as he floated down to stand with all of us again. “In fact, if I had to guess, based on my scans, Morph could in fact be capable of filling up all these books and still create more space as they grow older” he said.
Then he snapped his fingers and all of the cases around us moved down and formed rows. And once those were done making rows even more rows of bookcases appeared behind them… And then even more bookcases appeared, with stairs leading up to some and halls and different floors appearing for even more bookcases to stand on…
It looked like the inside of the national library of congress when it was all finished…
“Oh my stars and garters” Hank said in disbelief as he looked around at everything.
“I agree” the Professor said as he moved up to sit next to Hank. “I knew you had a photographic memory Morph, but I never imagined anything like this” the Professor said looking at me the way he did the first time I came to the school and shifted for him.
(He was the first person other than my parents I had ever shifted for, and instead of shrinking back in fear he smiled at me, with that amazing and comforting smile he was wearing now).
“You didn’t know about any of this Professor?” Scott asked in disbelief of his own.
“You and Hank know everything about your students” Jean said looking surprised herself.
“I don’t believe there is any sort of scanning device that would be capable of discovering this” Hank said still looking around amazed.
“And I do not dive this deep into a person’s mind, nor do I have the mystic arts to aid me” the Professor said turning back to Dr. Strange.
“At the risk of getting myself twisted up into a pretzel” Logan said as he glanced over at Jean and then looked over to the Professor and doctor. “What. Does this. Have to do. With. The. Trap?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“We did rather digress from our original intentions didn’t we” Hank said in that bashful tone that made him sound so gentle compared to Logan’s rough impatient voice…
“Yes,” Dr. Strange said as he turned back to all of us. “This is what Morph’s mind has the potential of being” he said waving around to all the bookcases. “This is Morph’s mind now” he said snapping his fingers and turning everything back into the little round library we had started with. “My scans show that the telepathic trap that was put in Morph’s mind is something like this…” he said.
Then a book came off the shelf and landed in his hands, he opened the book and inside was this ink stain… and then the ink stain started moving, moving and twisting and curling like a snake, red marks surrounding it. And then the thing moved off the page, wrapped around the corner of the page and moved to the next page. And then it grew, bigger and darker until it was spreading out, turning from a snake into something of an octopus, the tentacles moving and sticking to the pages while the red marks around it started to grow thick and drip around it like blood staining the pages.
“Can you remove it?” Ororo asked as she went over to me and laid her hands protectively over both my shoulders.
“This Mr. Sinister, who was aptly named” Dr. Strange said as he unstuck himself from one of the tentacles and slammed the book shut before going on. “Or Sauron as the case could be, has placed this trap somewhere in one of Morph’s memories. Essentially it is inside one of these books” he said lifting his hands to indicate the shelves around us.
“Do you know which memory, or book as it were?” Hank asked.
“There in lies our problem” Dr. Strange said as he put the book back on one of the shelves and put his hands up in the air. “I can see that most of these places are blank, ready to be filled in, but with nothing for this thing to latch onto it would be impossible for it to take root there” he said as about half the bookcases around us vanished. “Now there are two different kinds of memory for Morph, there’s the muscle memory and both the short- and long-term memory” he said as he waved his hands, and half the bookcases stacked up to one side and the other half stacked up on the other side. “It’s figuring out which one of these memories he placed the trap that is the trouble.” He said, sounding concerned for the first time since he came here.
“Morph” the Professor said as he came over to sit in front of me. “I know this is hard for you, but you know Sinister better than any of us, do you know where he would have placed it, or where he would have told Sauron to put it?” he asked in a tone mixed with sickness and concern.
I shook a little – he was asking me to think like that sick, sadistic walking nightmare…
I felt Ororo squeeze my shoulders behind me.
I took in a deep breath and let my shoulders relax into her hands.
“If he put it in the muscle memory, he put it somewhere that’s crucial, like walking or breathing, something I would need” I said trying to think back to my time with Sinister without shaking or panicking.
“Good, that gives us a smaller area of concentration” Dr. Strange said as he pulled out a few books from the one side of shelves and waved his hand to make the others on that side vanish.
“And if he put it in my memories, he’d put it somewhere important to me, some memory I would never give up” I said trying to keep myself from getting sick to my stomach.
“A long-term memory, that would make sense” he said as he took half the books from the shelves on the other side. “Can you think of anything else?” he asked
“He’d attach it to something I’d have kept no matter how many times he twisted my mind around” I said, trying my best to sound steady and calm.
“Something comforting and pleasant?” he asked, his tone sounding a little gentle compared to the severe and stern one he had come here with.
I nodded, the lump in my throat keeping me from talking now.
“That would reduce our options to a much more manageable number” he said as he made most of the books disappear and only a row of them were left.
He stood there looking at the books for quite a while before the Professor turned and moved towards him.
“What are you thinking Doctor” he asked concerned.
“If this Sinister character put the trap in the memories of walking or breathing, I could cause irreparable damage, possibly even killing them” he said as he rubbed the small beard he had on his chin thoughtfully.
“That’s okay” I said, everyone turning to me at once.
“You find death something to be okay about?” Dr. Strange asked looking at me with an incredulous look.
“I have a healing factor; I can survive just about anything” I explained.
“Really?” he said looking at me intrigued now. “What’s the worst thing you have survived to date?” he asked.
“You don’t have to answer that Morph” the Professor said to me before turning back to Dr. Strange. “A little sensitivity if you please doctor” he said in a dangerous tone.
“I was recently shot in the head by one of the prime sentinels if that helps you any” I said.
I know that the Professor was trying to protect me, especially with my PTSD, but I wanted this thing out, and if all I suffered was a little brain damage for a few hours or even a few days, then I was doing it.
“Well, that would make the trap sitting in the muscle memory our easiest option than” the Dr. Strange said. “Of course, from what I have learned of this Mr. Sinister, he will not have made this an easy task” he added in a dark tone.
“That sounds like him” I said dryly.
“From what little I could scan, if we need to go into the long-term memories, we will have our work cut out for us” Dr. Strange said looking edgy now.
“What do you mean?” the Professor asked worriedly.
“The fact that you were able to form a telepathic connection and be attacked so violently, it could mean that this trap has spread” he said as he waved his hand in front of the books. “If it is in the memories, and has been there for, when do you suspect it was implanted?” he asked turning to the Professor.
“Anywhere from four to five years ago” he said, his voice tight and strained with a guilt that wasn’t his fault.
“It has had a great deal of time to grow and spread then” he said.
Then the black inky tentacles came out of one of the books, blood red ink dripping from each and every tentacle as the red ink pooled on the ground.
“It could very well have tangled itself to other memories” Dr. Strange said as the tentacles spread and wrapped themselves in the other books around it. “Spreading along until it was able to latch on to anyone who made a telepathic connection in nearly any section of Morph’s mind.”
“I usually try to put my students at ease by placing them somewhere familiar or comfortable” the Professor said, his head falling in defeat into his hand.
“And I told him that” I said, my own guilt taking a hold of me now.
I tried so hard to bury every memory of my time with Sinister, keeping them away so that I could live my life and not have him control me. But the day I told him how the Professor worked his telepathy – I was so tired, and thirsty, and he had taken so much blood from me for his experiments.
I just wanted him to go away and forget about me…
I just broke down and told him about the times the Professor read my mind, told him how he was so kind and gentle when he put himself in my mind, how he would try to be more of a guest than an intruder, always doing his best to respect my privacy, always doing his best to protect me…
I just told Sinister everything…
I answered every question he asked me…
I just… I didn’t think he could do anything with it…
“If we have to go through the memories, we will have to destroy all of this… virus, for lack of a better word for it, and then destroy the source” Dr. Strange said insistently. “If we miss any it, it could have the potential to grow back and start all over again” he explained, causing me to feel even sicker than I was a moment ago.
“When can you start?” the Professor asked anxiously.
“I can start right away” he answered, causing a collective sigh of relief to fall over the whole room. “However, with a situation as rigorous and complicated we will have to perform this operation at my Sanctus Sanctorum on Bleecker Street” he said.
“Where?” Jean asked.
Just then he waved his hands, the room returned back into the infirmary we had started in, he caused his things he came with to float next to him. He turned around and spun his arm in a large circle, and a glowing, sparking circle started following his hand, the inside of the circle changing into something of a doorway to some other place as his arm stopped and came to rest down by his side.
“If you will follow me Morph” Dr. Strange said as he turned and waited for me.
“Can we go too?” Jubilee asked.
“No, the less of you in the Sanctorum the better” he answered.
“Professor?” Jubilee asked, turning to him now.
“No, I want you all to stay here” he said calmly
“But Professor…” Rogue tried to protest, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“Hank and I will accompany Morph; I want the rest of you to stay here and mind the manor and students while we’re gone” he said in that teacher tone he used when the students groaned about their homework, letting them know what their assignment was and not hearing anything else about it.
“You will be okay Morph” Ororo said as she wrapped her arms around me to hug me.
Jean came over and hugged me.
“You’ll be fine” she said out loud.
She tried to say something to me through my mind, but I quickly pushed her out. I pulled back and shook my head as I forced her to step back to away from her as fast as I could.
“You’re in charge of being the troublemaker while I’m gone” I said to Jubilee as I gave her a hug.
“Get back soon, okay?” she said as she hugged me back.
“Not a thing in the world that could keep me away from you guys” I said.
My eyes flashed over to Logan for a brief moment, the way he turned away from me hurting almost worse than a slap.
I plastered on a reassuring smile and turned to everyone one last time.
“You all behave while I’m gone” I said as I turned to follow Hank and the Professor.
“Everyone will behave better with you gone” Scott said behind me.
“I’m going to miss you too Scotty” I said, using the nick name that he hated the most in the world.
(Luckily for him I was nice enough to only use it on rare occasions).
“Y’all give us a holler if you need us” Rogue said as I made my way to the large spinning… portal I guess it was…
“We shall return before you know it” Hank said as he went through the portal.
“Stay safe and take care of each other” the Professor said as he went through the portal next.
“After you” Dr. Strange said as he stood aside to let me go in first.
I stepped through the portal, Dr. Strange just behind me and I stepped into one of the most bizarre places I had ever see in my life…