The weather in Canada in November and December was the most vexing.
Sunny skies, freezing rain, strong winds, and gloomy overcast days made it impossible to predict what was coming. The huge temperature swings between morning and evening had also long since trained the people here to withstand the cold.
Charles Xavier sat in a sitting room of the old Howlett mansion. A fire had been lit in the fireplace beside him. Compared with his own old home in Westchester, this castle-like estate was more ancient and imposing, its walls steeped in the legends of a storied past.
An IV stand stood beside him, with a needle inserted into the back of his hand.
The highly concentrated nerve-control drug had only recently been developed and had yet to undergo sufficient clinical testing. It had left Charles unconscious for three days before he came to.
Emma's telepathic abilities weren't suited to regulation or healing, but both Dr. Erskine and Arnim Zola of the Howlett Family had conducted extensive research into the brain structures behind mental and psychic mutations.
It was the field of mutant mutation that interested them most.
With the help of carefully formulated medication and psychic treatment, Professor Charles had suffered almost no lasting effects. The strength of his mind and brain was truly extraordinary.
The reason he could only say "almost" was that over the past two days, Charles had gradually begun to notice something.
He was starting to lose his hair.
"Execution by hanging is about to be carried out. We can see that Edgar Hoover has been escorted out of the Supreme Court."
Some color had returned to Charles's face. He no longer looked as haggard as he had when he first arrived.
He wore an off-white sweater that belonged to someone else, and watched the