Chapter 2

“Excuse the intrusion, Elisabeth,” a deep voice said, “but would you happen to know the current whereabouts of Ororo, Logan, and Jean?”

Betsy Braddock opened her eyes and sharply answered, “They’re all in the Danger Room, Hank. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Of course. My sincerest apologies, dear lady,” Beast said as he bounded out of the room.

Clearing her mind again, Betsy begin to think about the events of the past few months, specifically the one that bothered her the most. “Nate,” she asked with a sigh, “where are you hiding?” For the third time, she said, “Computer, locate Nathan Grey, designate: X-Man.”

The computer hummed for a few seconds before replying, “Designate: X-Man, not found.”

Betsy sighed again and said, “Last known whereabouts?”

The computer responded, “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Snow Valley, Massachusetts, approximately two months ago.”

Betsy thought for a few moments before asking, “Known allies?” “Searching.....found. Allies of X-Man include Capt. Alex Summers, designate: Sabre; Nathan Dayspring, designate: Cable; Peter Parker, designate: Spiderman; David Grey, designate: X-treme; Rose, designate: Lyte; and Angel, designate: N/A.”

“Still searching for your boy toy, Betsy?”

“Hello, Warren,” she answered with frustration. “Don’t you have anything better to do than to bother me?”

“Actually, yes, but I enjoy this so much more,” he said with a smug smile on his face.

Shaking her head, Betsy rose from her seat at the computer console. “You know, if you’re jealous of the friendship I have with Nate, that’s your problem. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t even be a problem if you and I had stayed together.”

“Then why didn’t we, Betsy?” he asked.

“Well, Warren, it’s hard for me to love a man I can’t even stand to look at anymore.”

Before he could reply, a familiar voice penetrated both their minds. “Psylocke and Angel, please report to the War Room at once.”

They both took their seats in the War Room a few moments later, and were shortly joined by the rest of the X-Men.

Prof. Xavier had summoned them all for some unknown purpose. “My X-Men,” he began, looking at each one of them, “a most dire situation has come up.”

Closing his eyes, Xavier concentrated for a moment. The War Room table, designed to respond visually to his thoughts, displayed a large image of a young man. He was 5’9” in height, had blue eyes and reddish-brown hair, with a white tuft in front. He wore a dark violet uniform with gold trim. Xavier cleared his throat and went on. “This situation involves Nathan Grey, the X-Man. As you all know, Nathan has been missing for the past two months. He has also been out of telepathic contact for almost twice as long, even to those with whom he shared psychic links. I have already asked his extended family and close friends, as well as my associates, to keep an eye out for him. His former teammates in Generation X have already begun a search for him, though they have found nothing as of yet. Psylocke?”

Psylocke slowly stood up and the image changed to show several people, all of which were mutants. “I’ve been attempting to track Nate down for the past few days, and while I haven’t had much luck locating him, I have narrowed down several people he might be in contact with at the moment.” Gesturing to the image with her hand, she went on. “Nate shared psychic links with all of these people, though the strength of each link varies greatly from person to person. The weaker links were shared with friends, while the stronger links were shared with family and a select group of friends.

“The most probable suspect on this list would be Sabre,” she said, “but a recent call between himself and Prof. Xavier has proven he isn’t connected with Nate’s disappearance. That narrows the list down to two suspects: the twin sisters, Lyte and Angel. Because Nate was especially close to Lyte, she’s our best lead at the moment. If she doesn’t know where Nate is, we can only hope that someone else does.”

An hour later, with the meeting finally over, all Betsy wanted to do was get some rest. Unfortunately for her, Xavier wanted her to find the twins as soon as possible. Her skill as a telepath, as well as her strong psychic link to Nate, would be needed in order to locate Lyte and or Angel. She was to be accompanied by Jean Grey and Wolverine. After a second meeting with them, Betsy went to her room to prepare for the journey.

The last thing she packed was a picture of Nate and herself. It was only two or so years ago; she could still remember the day they took the photo. In the picture, Nate was playfully kissing her cheek. To say the least, she had been very surprised, and had only had time to blush before the picture had been snapped. Nate had kept one copy and given the other to her. He had written on the bottom, “To Betsy, My First Love,” and signed his name. She stared at the photo for a few moments before finally whispering, “ I miss you, Nate.”