Jean is walking through a creepy carnival. It's raining, and she's in her pajamas. Giant evil clowns pop up and laugh at her.

Then she wakes up in her bed. Or rather, floating above it. She falls. The jack-in-the-box on her night stand starts to play itself. She picks it up, and Mesmero's face pops out.

Roll credits!

Random X-students are walking around, looking for Jean.

Kitty: All the cars are still in the garage.

Scene: Jean's bedroom.

Xavier: And this jack-in-the-box... I wonder if it has any significance.
Scott: What, that? It's nothing. Just a toy Jean won at the carnival last week.
Beast: We've combed the mansion. There's no sign of Jean.
Xavier: Then sometime during the night, she simply... vanished.

Later and downstairs, Beast is scrolling through data on a really big screen. He's watching news and police reports from the entire East Coast. Xavier enters and says he cannot find Jean with Cerebro until she uses her powers.

Beast: Let's hope that if she does use them, it's not because she's in danger.

Scott is out driving. And using his cell phone. He asks Duncan and Taryn if they've seen Jean. No such luck.

Evan is seen leaving the police station.

Rogue checks in the music store.

An earthquake rocks the boarding house.

Kitty: Relax, Lance! It's not like I said *you* did it. Sheesh. As if one of you hadn't tried it before...

Kurt searches the school field.

Scene: Institute downstairs.

Bobby: Clear.
Amara: You know, we really ought to be out looking for Jean with the others.
Ray: Last I heard, we were supposed to have class.
Sam: Yeah, but without an instructor?
Bobby: Why not? Today's lesson... the Danger Room.
Jamie: Hey guys, wait up! *slips, falls, clones, gets up, unclones* You forgot to invite me.
Ray: Oh, what an oversight. Sorry, Multiple. You're just not good enough.
Jamie: But-
Amara: This isn't for you. *closes door*
Jamie: Aww...

At a train station, Logan shows a picture of Jean to a ticket man. He says that she bought a ticket to Boston at four that morning.

Scene: Cerebro.

Xavier confirms that Jean is in Boston.

Scott: Then she's using her powers?
Xavier: Most decidedly.

Scene: Boston.

Jean destroys a gate (why not just fly over it?), opens an upstairs window, and goes into the museum. She uses her powers to pull a ring from a glass case, and drops it in a bag. Police cars pull up as she leaves the building. She uses her telekinesis to throw one in a tree and the other in the fountain.

Scene: Institute downstairs.

Scott: Jet's prepped. Let's go.

Xavier says that Jean is leaving Boston... he detected her powers near the train tracks.

Scott: This doesn't make any sense! What's going on with her?
Xavier: I don't know. But we will find her. I promise. We just have to wait for another lead.

Scene: Danger Room.

A giant four-armed thing has trapped the newbies.

Ray: The other X-Men make this look so easy!
Bobby: Everybody combine your powers on mine first! *is released* Now Berzerker's!

Soon they're all down.

Bobby: See? Cake.
Amara: Are you kidding? I'm totally chafed! I'm outta here.

She pushes the button by the door, but it won't open. Nasty-looking things come out of the walls. Jamie is seen in the control room, hitting buttons and laughing evilly.

Bobby: I think we've got some extra credit coming on!

Later...

The four newbies stagger out of the Danger Room, uniforms torn.

Jamie: So, still think that was cake?
Bobby: That was *you*?
Ray: Get him!
Jamie: Ahh! *runs away*
Amara (too tired to move): We'll get him tomorrow.
Sam: Yeah. Tomorrow is good.

Scene: The mansion, at night.

Jean lets herself in the right way, with the fingerprint-scanner thing.

It's one in the morning, and Scott can't sleep. He sees Jean walk past his room, and follows her. When he catches up, she uses her powers to make him sleep and levitates him back to his bed.

Then she walks in on sleeping Kurt, who wakes up. They stare at each other.

The next morning...

Scott: Professor! *bangs on bedroom door until it opens* Jean was here last night! And now Kurt's gone!

Notes: Woot! Professor in pajamas! ^_^

Now Kitty and Beast are working at the news scroller. Kitty has found Jean and Kurt on an airline surveillance tape. Beast cross-references the time with ticket sales and determines they're going to New York. Scott and Logan take off in the jet.

Scene: New York.

Jean and Kurt levitate and teleport to the safe in the Township Bank. Jean uses her powers to open a safety deposit box, and takes the ring there.

Scott and Logan arrive, smashing the front door and blowing up security cameras.

Logan: They're in the vault.
Scott: I've got the combination right here. *blasts door* Jean, take it easy. It's us.

Jean uses her powers to throw Logan and Scott out of the bank. They hear a bamf, and see the jet take off.

Logan: This is starting to get me seriously upset.

Scene: The Institute.

The jet lands outside.

Downstairs...

Beast: There are three of them. [rings] Tibetan artifacts. Han dynasty, if I'm not mistaken. The second was kept in a safety deposit box.
Xavier: Let me guess... at the Township Bank.
Beast: Until now.
Xavier: Where's the third?
Beast: I don't know yet.

From the plane, Jean controls Evan and Kitty in their bedrooms. Xavier senses her presence, and also gets a flash of Mesmero.

Xavier: Jean! She's here!
Beast (trying the door): We're sealed in.

This may be because of the three bone spikes embedded in the control box on the other side.

The jet takes off.

Rogue walks the downstairs hallway, finding Xavier in Cerebro.

Notes: Er? 'We're sealed in'?

He seems to be psychically transferring his impression of Mesmero to the screen. He plans to run a search for that person's mutant signature.

Rogue: Don't bother! I know that face.

Scene: Jean's bedroom.

Rogue is cranking the jack-in-the-box.

Rogue: The Mindbending Mesmero. He was in town last week with that Circus of Mystery.
Xavier: Then we must attend their next engagement.
Beast (appearing in the doorway): I've found it. The last ring. It's in Washington DC, at the Museum of Eastern Artifacts.

Scene: The Museum of Eastern Artifacts (where else?).

A guard sees the jet land on the roof.

Guard: Code Amber. Something's going down.

Lights flash, guards run.

Jean and Co. exit the jet.

Guard: You can't land that here! Who are you?

Evan pins them to the wall with spikes.

Kurt teleports Evan and Jean inside. Kitty phases through the ceiling, shorting out a camera on the way. Evan destroys another camera with a spike.

Guards come. Kitty phases through a security box, closing some gates and keeping out the guards. Jean closes the door on some others, and Evan seals it with a row of spikes. Kitty phases into a case and takes the third ring, giving it to Jean. Kurt teleports them all back to the jet.

Scene: New York.

The Velocity comes to pick up Scott and Logan.

Logan: About time. We're not exactly dressed to socialize with the general public.
Beast: Don't worry. We'll all fit right in at the circus.

Scene: The carnival.

The X-Jet descends from the clouds, despite the heavy wind. The passengers get out.

The Velocity swoops in.

Scott: There they are!
Xavier: Keep them busy. I have an appointment with a mutant named Mesmero.
Rogue: I don't like this. They're our friends.
Logan: We just have to subdue them. No one has to get hurt.
Scott: Tell that to *them*.

The two sides face each other as it begins to rain. Beast charges. Kurt jumps onto a pole. Beast climbs after him. Kurt jumps at him and starts teleporting them all over the place.

Beast: Kurt, don't fight me!

Evan shoots at Rogue. She flips away, but crashes into a trailer. Scott shoots the spikes out of the air, then knocks Evan off his feet with a blast. Jean catches her teammate, then sends a stream of mud at Scott. She controls him in the air, causing him to shoot all kinds of stuff that he probably shouldn't.

Kurt seems to defeat Beast.

Logan extends his claws. Kitty phases out of the ground near him.

Logan: Ah, twerp, you know I could never hurt you.

He retracts his claws and Kitty kicks him in the shin.

Logan (hopping around): This is why I don't like going easy.

Xavier: Jean, stop! Fight it. I will deal with Mesmero.

Jean telekinetically lifts his chair.

Rogue: This isn't going to be easy on either of us. *absorbs Jean* But mostly you.

Xavier falls. His chair overbalances, and he lands in the mud. While Jean was fighting Rogue, she threw the bag of rings to Mesmero, peeking out of his tent.

Xavier: Mesmero... you may have been able to control their minds, but can you handle mine?

A psychic battle ensues. Xavier appears to win.

Mesmero: You have no idea who you're messing with, Xavier.

The Professor is blasted back through the mud. Mesmero goes inside his tent.

The four mutants are unbrainwashed.

Kitty: Huh? What happened? How'd I get here?
Logan (rubbing his shin): Sure, *now* you're all better.

Scott runs to Jean.

Jean: Scott?
Scott: I'm here. It's okay.

Rogue helps Xavier back into his chair. Then she calls Jean's powers to tear apart Mesmero's tent. There's nothing inside.

Beast: Are you all right? Did he hurt you?
Xavier: Not Mesmero. He was just another puppet. There's someone else pulling the strings. A mind more powerful than anything I've encountered.
Beast: What do they want with the rings?
Xavier: I don't know, but I doubt we'll like the answer.

Scene: Very far away.

Mesmero enters a cave. Inside is an ancient shrine. He pulls a rod from a small alcove and puts the three rings on it, forming a key. He uses the key on a giant door. The door opens, revealing... another door.

Mesmero: I have done as commanded. The first door is open. I await your instruction on the location of the other two keys. *receives psychic information* Understood. I will find them, and the world will once again tremble at the presence of... Apocalypse.

The End

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