Professor Charles Xavier had been anxious lately.
Ever since Kraft and the Ancient One had parted ways with the X-Men over their conflicting ideals, Magneto, who had always been scheming in the shadows, had suddenly vanished.
But Professor Charles did not believe his old friend Erik had abandoned his radical ambition to have mutants enslave humanity. Instead, he suspected their silence meant they were gathering strength in secret, preparing for a major move.
Yet Charles had no clues about what exactly Magneto was planning or how far along his plans were.
He did, however, suspect that Magneto might be improving his mutant conversion machine.
Although their last stakeout had turned up nothing after they discovered Magneto's plan, that might simply have been because Magneto had discovered a flaw in his machine and had been forced to abandon the operation.
Considering all the black technology Kraft had demonstrated, Professor Charles thought this theory was fairly plausible. Most likely, Kraft had discovered the machine's problems and was helping Magneto improve it.
But just thinking about Kraft and his companions joining Magneto's side gave Professor Charles a headache.
Even setting aside troublesome mutants like Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike, both Kraft and the Ancient One could open portals at will. That meant monitoring their movements would have been difficult even if Charles knew where they were, let alone when he could not find them at all.
If Professor Charles had not already gone bald years ago, he would have been losing his hair by the handful.
Unable to determine where Kraft and Magneto were, Charles could only dispatch the X-Men to provide close protection for America's senior officials, while Rogue remained at the school under Professor X's personal protection.
The files Kraft and his companions had retrieved from Stryker's base had helped considerably, too.