Thorn • Scott Summers

twenty six

"Thank you, Ms. Phimister. We'll let you know if we need any more information about this."

"Sure." Negasonic blew a bubble of gum, popping it.

"Have a good rest of your day, Ellie," Charles said as she stood up. She muttered a polite reply as she walked out. Charles eyed Erik humorously at the teen's attitude, smiling slyly.

"So, Florence was right. De Luca is kind of a useless teacher."

"Erik, I wouldn't go that far. He's a great physical education teacher, but he's not strengthened in his own anger management, that's all."

Erik shook his head in amusement. "You love all of these people too much."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily," Erik answered, but didn't give a further explanation. As he was about to speak again, Hank jumbled into the office. "Charles?" he called out, then nodded at Erik when he saw him. "Erik," he said, and Erik raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hank, hello. What is it?" Charles asked, noticing his urgent tone.

"Charles, there's something happening."

"Is everything alright?" 

"Yeah, the school is alright. But, there's something going on in Athens."

"Greece?"

"No. Athens, Pennsylvania."

Erik and Charles looked at each other quizzically. They turned to Hank, and urgent look on his face. Charles nodded to the door and the men walked out after him.

"So, what could possibly be happening in Pennsylvania?" Charles asked as they made their way to the lab. Hank sighed and scratched his head.

"There's been a huge increase in reports of missing persons in Athens this last week. Too many to keep track of. Police started an investigation, looked around; turns out there's a forest of statues. They thought it was some type of prank or project by some kids. Until,"

"Until?" Charles said as Erik pushed the metal lab doors open. They walked into the vast space, veering around several tables and equipment.

"Until, one of them recognized a friend of theirs. They looked around more and, turns out all of the statues were of the missing people that had been reported. Someone turned them all to stone. Sound familiar?"

Charles's widened his eyes, looking at Hank. "Grey Gargoyle," he said quietly.

"Who?"

The three men all turned to the direction of the voice. Florence sat in a stool by Hank's main lab table, an eyebrow raised at them. They looked at her surprised, like deer caught in headlights. She had heard most of their conversation, especially the last part. The three teachers all eyed each other, not knowing what to say.

"Uh...," Charles started, and Hank interrupted.

"Florence, why are you in here? Is everything alright?

"Yeah, I'm good. Just had some biology questions. Who's Grey Gargoyle?"

"No one you need to worry about."

"Sounds like you guys are, though."

Charles eyed her, sensing her persistence. He sighed before speaking. "Grey Gargoyle is an old friend. Well, his real name is Paul Duval. He has the ability to turn matter to stone. What I'm confused about is why he'd be doing that. Paul never had malicious feelings."

"People change, Charles." Erik said.

"Like you have?" Charles muttered, quiet enough to not be acknowledged by anyone but Erik, who gave him a surprised look.