So Ryder's plan seemed very much moment-to-moment, unless she wasn't being entirely truthful. Xavier did eye her typing away, wondering what it was she was doing so intently. 

At the words "and unless you want a repeat of earlier" he calmly expected a threat to follow. Instead it was a warning. This he did not doubt, though he was impressed. He had been keeping a mental watch of the area to the extent of a certain radius, and no one had yet breached it. Ryder's range was remarkable for one so young.

Just as he was about to speak he saw Ryder quiet in what seemed an unusual way. When she next spoke, Xavier knew what she had done based on the radio interruption he had witnessed back at Umbra, and the injury he had sensed in the guards afterward. [color=#7393B3]"It is better practice not to cause injury where it can be avoided. We have the advantage of foresight. Now, as clearly as you know technology, a body is a different thing and yours still requires rest. Stay with us and we will keep you safe until you heal."[/color]

With that, it was Xavier's turn to close his eyes momentarily as he turned attention to telepathically alerting Scott.


He hadn't gone far, just enough that Xavier and Ryder's voices were only just in distant earshot.

If Jean were at the facility by herself, he wouldn't have felt so concerned. They were X-Men; trained for anything, capable of handling insane scenarios. Jean more capable than most. They were never over-protective with each other. Danger was part of the job. Since their later teenaged years they'd grown up doing this. That wasn't to say they were desensitized to something happening, just that this was business as usual.

Except Jean [i]wasn't[/i] by herself, and this reality [i]-skepticism or not, it wasn't judicious not to approach it as such-[/i] of stolen genes, essentially designer mutant "manufacturing" and whatever else, was what had him internally wound up.

Based on how Jean reported feeling after what was now confirmed to have been Ryder's doing with Umbra's technology, it could be surmised Ryder's powers were what had been affecting her. However, what if those weren't the facts? It could be Umbra had something designed to affect psychics, designed specifically to wear down or catch them off guard. That Jean's addition to the staff was a ploy. Ryder's powers, then, may've had nothing to do with it besides the function of that supposed device getting ramped up or messed with along with everything else.

Why such a device hadn't seemed to affect Xavier at all was a question Scott already had multiple answers for.

Again, it just wasn't judicious to proceed as if this [i]wasn't[/i] a possibility. 

So here he was, lowering himself -with a small grimace- to the base of a tree in order to sit against it. Tilting his head back against the rough bark, closing his eyes behind his visor; no idea if he could make this work.

Previously when he'd initiated psychic contact with Jean via their link, he'd been in a desperate place. He couldn't even recall if he'd made the effort consciously the first time. This situation was potentially dire for them both, yet directly on only [i]Jean's[/i] end. Scott himself wasn't in any danger.

That being said, the past times had featured significant distance between them. 
That wasn't the case here. Scott hoped that would offset things.

Drawing a meditative breath, he concentrated in the relative quiet of the dark. . . .By night owl standards it wasn't late, though late enough that someone typically on a "school day" schedule ought to be asleep. Given the events of the day, however, with both finding themselves wrapped up in what constituted a mission, it was just as likely Jean wouldn't be.

Half of him hoped she wasn't -a psychic's mind being most vulnerable when asleep.
Half of him hoped she was -that her mind might be more likely then to catch his wave.

In any case, he visualized the facility...He hadn't seen Jean's room there, but he could certainly visualize her form, awake or asleep...He dialed in to how it felt to speak with Jean in his mind, the different way it did than when any other telepath made themselves known. . .[color=#0096FF][i]'Jean?...I need to fill you in...I need to know you're unharmed...Answer me. Please..

'..Jean.'[/i][/color]

[hr]
[color=#DAA06D]"Scott?"[/color] She spoke the words aloud. Opening her eyes and shifting to look around the room. He wasn't here. Realizing, she closed her eyes again. 
[color=#DAA06D][i]'Scott...?'[/i][/color]

[hr]
He heard it like a whisper but knew he wasn't imagining it. [color=#0096FF][i]'Jean! Are you OK? We haven't heard fro--'[/i][/color]

[color=#7393B3][i]'Scott.'[/i][/color] This time it was Xavier's voice, loud and clear. [color=#7393B3][i]'We must go. Both guards and townspeople are advancing on us as we speak.'[/i][/color]

Scott could feel his connection with Jean hadn't held. [color=#0096FF]"Damnit."[/color] He thought he'd heard something more, beneath Xavier's words. But whatever it'd been was like a pieced-together recording of only every other word spoken: [i]'... don't ... you ...'[/i] What had that been? Not enough to gauge Jean's condition from. A sigh turned into another grimace as he eased himself up.

Best as it was not to have another tangle between Ryder and basically anyone with ill intent, for the sakes of all involved, Cyclops thought back: [color=#0096FF][i]'Should I run interference?'[/i][/color] Further, advanced technology though Xavier's wheelchair may be, a forest wasn't the greatest terrain to have to navigate over.