The words 'giant golf ball' came to Liesel's mind as she finally caught sight of the structure that they were all walking towards. She tilted her head to the side and looked it over. It seemed she wasn't alone in scrutinising it, Raven seemed a little dubious too. Liesel was glad she wasn't alone! Everyone else just seemed so casual about this...thing. Letting out a sigh she clasped her hands behind her back and simply trailed after the blonde in front of her as they all walked up the set of stairs which led into the place. Admittedly it was a lot bigger than it appeared.

The ceiling was high, and domed naturally, the light of the bright sunny day could still be seen through the triangular pattern of the walls. A rail ran around the whole inside of the room, yet to one side was a small collection of machines. Large computer consoles and a few screens, with levers and buttons and all other manner of things on them. Above all of this, there was bright lights, some of which blinked on and off with a steady rhythm. In the middle of the room was a small platform like structure, and above that suspended on a metallic arm was some sort of cap with all sorts of leads and wires running out of it. The cap caused Liesel a small ounce of discomfort as she looked at it, she even took a step back and moved away. She took back her earlier thoughts, Liesel whistled with some small appreciation. This place was pretty darn interesting. It was even more so considering Hank seemed to be the person who built it. How and where he even started with this was beyond her, but she found herself giving credit to his genius.

"Please don't," Hank quickly stopped by Liesel's side. The blinking lights of the consoles were too much, they were beckoning her closer. Who was she to ignore the call? She had moved away from Raven and went for a closer inspection. Sure, she didn't understand what any of them did. But they must do something or else Hank wouldn't have come over.

"Will it blow up if I push this shiny red button?" Liesel tilted her head to the side and grinned at him as she hovered a finger above said button.

Hank being his natural awkward self did not understand the concept of her joke and frowned instead. "No. It will not." He replied somewhat bluntly, Liesel raised an eyebrow. Well he was just fun to joke with! She made a mental note never to try again after this failure. With a sigh she merely strolled off to one side as him and Charles seemed to have some sort of moment over the name of this whole machine. Having a name which meant brain in Spanish was clearly amazing!

Liesel rolled her eyes, "Someone's bored." Erik leaned beside her against the railing. Truth be told, as interesting as this all was, he did not quite understand the mechanics of it like Charles clearly did. Face it, the only other person here who understood this on the same level as Hank was Charles. It seemed Raven too felt the same and left them to their little moment.

"Yeah...about that." Liesel replied quietly while frowning at the machinery. "I don't think I should be in here."

"What? Why?" He looked at her confused. Moments ago she seemed all up for being in here, to seeing what all the fuss about this machine was. And now here she was looking quite uncomfortable and shooting wary looks around. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Liar. I know that look, what is it?"

"It's nothing!" Liesel exclaimed quietly and frowned at him. "Just...that...it looks too much like something I wish not to remember." She said while watching as Charles seemed more than eager to step onto the platform and place the cap on his head. With a hard look she looked away and shook her head. With a sigh she moved forwards and finished listening to the explanation that Hank gave.

"So the electrodes connect Charles to the transmitter on the roof. When he picks up a mutant, his brain sends a signal through a relay." Hank said while pointing to the now wired up telepath before moving to the consoles. "And then the coordinates of their location is printed out here." He looked to the machines in front of him and smiled lightly.

"You designed this?" Raven asked in a rather shocked tone.

"Yeah." Hank admitted quietly with a sigh.

"You know how to accessorise." Liesel stopped and leaned against the railing of the small platform again. She looked at it sceptically before shaking her head.

"You sound somewhat jealous." Charles smiled down at her and stood preparing for this moment.

Tilting her head she frowned. "I have been rigged to something similar...I am so far from jealous." Liesel moved away then and went to see what Hank and Raven were doing.

"Perhaps, if that is the case she should not be here." Charles looked from Liesel to Erik.

"She said something similar, yet still hasn't left. I do believe she wants to know what happens." Erik replied, though be fair Liesel's words were a mystery to him. He made a mental note to get her to explain later. Smiling suddenly he nodded at Charles. "What an adorable lab rat you make though, Charles." Erik said deciding to get the conversation off of Liesel and her apparent problem.

"Don't spoil this for me, Erik."

"I am one of two speaking, so trust me when I say: I know a lab rat when I see one." He smiled and placed his hands against the railing, he briefly looked at Hank as he tinkered about with the last preparations.

"Are you sure we can't shave your head?" Hank peered around Charles to look at him before he moved fully off of the platform and took up his station at the consoles.

"Don't touch my hair." Charles frowned and clasped his hands behind his back as he shot the younger male a look. He just laughed and gave a nod before moving away from him.

The lights within the room dimmed slightly as the machinery kick started into life. All present naturally looked curiously around before looking to the bright illumination of the cap resting on Charles's head. All of this and then some caused Raven to look rather concerned, she briefly flicked her eyes to Liesel as she reached up to place an arm around her shoulders, in an attempt to comfort her. Yet even she looked concerned when a sudden gasp came from Charles and he reached forwards to grip onto the railing.

"It's working!" Hank exclaimed with as much joy as possible as the steady typing echoed dimly in the room, the coordinates which Charles was finding were being jotted down. No sooner had one coordinate be typed, did another follow suit.

----

Biting rather viciously into an apple, Liesel frowned and looked from the corner of her eyes at the person who'd just sat down beside her. "Thought you were gone?"

"What part of preparing for travels did you not understand?" Erik replied and frowned at her. Since leaving Cerebro she hadn't exactly been...content. Which was bizarre really, her earlier words needed to be explained, so what better time than now, at the present?

"Take it Charles is being briefed then?" She scoffed and took another bite of her apple. "Shouldn't you be there too...seems you're both going mutant hunting?"

"Searching, not hunting." Erik said sternly while she mused and shrugged before biting the apple again. "I think I am owed an explanation, no?" He shifted on the stairs and looked to her. She had stayed outside while everyone else returned inside, she must've ventured in though to collect the apple she was currently eating.

She remained sitting on the stairs though staring intently at the spherical structure on the lawn a little ways before them. "As a way to see if I could handle power, as well as hand power out, I was rigged to something like that. Only, it was a chair...with a whole lot more machinery attached. I took all they gave me and when giving it back, I blew every electrical circuit around. The generators were down for weeks, no one died for so long, it was..." She left her sentence to hang in the air, she didn't know how to finish it. So she didn't. Instead she finished her apple with a shrug.

"I didn't know."

"I don't know half the stuff that was done to you either. So we're even." Liesel replied stoically while flicking her eyes to him. "Just know I am never going in there again, or something similar. I can't." She stood slowly and turned to walk back into the building.

With one last look sent in Cerebro's direction, Erik stood and followed after her quickly. She found a bin and dumped the apple core in it with more force than what was needed. "Say, if you knew what you were about to walk into; would you still go in?"

"I wanted to know what was going on."

"So stop having a tantrum over it."

"Hm, some of us aren't as good at handling past traumas, like you." Liesel narrowed her eyes at him before nodding forwards. "Your cars waiting."

Erik looked down at her with a blank expression, his eyes hardened as he looked at her. "You have no idea what you're talking about." Since having Emma briefly muddle around in his mind, he had had all sorts of things come back to him that he'd rather never remember. But he didn't go around making it obvious that he was troubled. He stayed silent and dealt with his problems in his own way. It just so happened that Liesel did not deal with things in a similar manner, this moment was evidence enough.

"We're both broken, Erik. Trust me, I think out of everyone; I do have some idea about what I'm talking about."

"Ah! There you are-!" Charles stopped suddenly and looked between them. "Am I interrupting something?" He asked somewhat awkwardly. The looks they were sending each other was deadly at best, and not even mentioning the tense air around them. Charles had definitely interrupted an argument, and he felt extremely awkward for it.

"No. Nothing." Was Erik's simply spoken response in an emotionless sounding tone. 

Charles looked somewhat worried seems he appeared fine earlier on. Looking to Liesel, Charles was not wholly surprised to see a rather irritated look on her face. She was a bit more open with showing emotions it seemed, something else he'd have to remember about her; unlike Erik. Who for all purposes wore a distant, emotionless mask as his gaze zeroed down at her. Whereas most would shrink away from such a look, Liesel merely narrowed her eyes. This must have been some argument for them to seemingly have turned on each other. Charles sighed and ran a hand through his hair, as similar as they were, it seemed they also clashed quite badly when moments like this appeared. Charles perked up though and tried to look less awkward when Liesel suddenly turned and looked at him.

"Be careful." Was all she said before turning on her heels and walking away.

"I'm going to regret asking, but are you okay?" Charles asked as he pulled on his jacket as the two of them walked along the corridor to the exit. Even as the double doors loomed he could spy the vehicle waiting for them.

"Ever have those moments where you think you just shouldn't have bothered?" Erik asked while pushing open the doors and walking briskly down the steps and towards the car.

"What happened?" Charles ventured to ask in a hesitant tone. If he could help resolve the problem between them, then he would. But he'd need to know the problem, and the reason for the argument first.

"It isn't really my place to say in detail." He was irritated at Liesel, but he wasn't going to share what she shared with him to Charles. "Just, I sometimes find myself thinking we are too alike at times. She does not show it, but there are moments. I have to admit I do find myself sometimes forgetting that we have so much in common, too much that it'll make us clash when we disagree over something." Erik basically spoke Charles's earlier thoughts in a simple, yet hard and thoughtful tone.

"I think that is perhaps the problem when you spend so much time with someone." Charles replied at length while they entered the car.

"I couldn't leave her behind." Erik replied without a second thought, Charles raised an eyebrow at him and his choice of words. With a sigh, Erik rolled his eyes and looked out of the window instead of the man by his side. "Shaw purposely put us together, that much is clear. Through his actions, we are with each other, and through my actions we seem to remain together."

"May I make a suggestion for when we get back?" Charles asked after a few moments of silence. Erik turned away from the window and looked to him. He merely gave a nod at him to continue. "Talk to her. Whatever just happened between you two, I am rather sure it can be resolved with a simple talk."

"Apology. You want me to apologise to her?" Erik asked with a raised an eyebrow. That was the general gist of Charles's words. "What makes you think I am at fault? How did you come to the decision that I am the cause of the argument?"

Charles looked away slowly and slouched in his chair somewhat. "You two are too alike, you are right." He commented, they both seemed rather quick off the mark when it came to defence.

----

Edited: 10/June/2019

Reedited: 16/August/2021