"Tapes are in!"

Scott opened the package Storm handed him. Jean was in class so Storm, Xavier, and himself opened the box and watched the video footage from the New Year's party. St. John was a genius. They did well putting the faces with the names on the guest list. They wrote down everyone the lady in red meet that evening. The list got to be over fifty long.

"She sure gets around doesn't she," Storm commented. Fifty was easier then over three hundred, that was for sure.

As classes wound down for the day, the X-Men gathered in the basement for a rundown on where they stood in this fight so far. Scott led the meeting and before they started Logan checked the room for their friendly shadow man. He was gone. Logan didn't think he would be back but he didn't drop his guard, either. He nodded for Scott to begin and that all was clear. Rogue, Bobby, and St. John joined them as well. They were a valuable help to the X-Men the last time and each day they grew more a part of the team.

"The list is down to about fifty -- the easiest thing to do would be to start with more local companies. I doubt he'd look to those international executives halfway across the world since he's still here in the northeast."

"I'd have to agree, we should focus there," Xavier added.

"So we pay a few visits to these people and see what we can do to stop him."

Jean also added, "We should also notify the authorities on this and see if we can get their help in any way."

It sounded logical to Storm, "If they knew Erik had escaped and is after some these people, they will definitely help us out to catch him."

"I will make a few calls." Since Xavier had all the connections.

Logan was skeptical. "So how do we watch all these people or get them to listen to us? 'Hey, watch your back, a psycho is cloning you and is going to replace you with a mutant version of yourself'? Sounds like something out of an old 1970's movie. I wouldn't believe it."

"We can hope they will listen, nothing more," Rogue added.

Storm said. "All we can do is try and check in every now and then with those most likely to be the first targets."

Scott divided up the list. Xavier called the respective officials, and that weekend the group went with officers to explain the situation of what was going on. Some did think they were crazy; with those they could only hope they'd come to their senses. Others knew Xavier or Professor Parks very well and took their warning to heart, hiring more personal security. Xavier pulled strings to get even more officers to monitor and do drive-bys of the suspected targets.

The team tried to figure out what Magneto's next move would be before he struck. If Shadow went running back to the lair, Erik would know everything up until the tapes came in. Hopefully they now had an advantage for a change. Xavier felt they needed to get a break somewhere.

Jean and Xavier even tried to follow Shadow after he left, searching for him to see if he would lead them to Magneto, but unfortunately he'd dispersed all over the place, leaving the two to guess on a dozen or so different directions he was even heading in.

The team was set up again for another round of the waiting game...it was hard not knowing what stage of completion Erik's project was in but hoping to be able to stop him in time.