And we're back over here! This is the eighteenth volume of the 714 Marvel universe, so if you missed Volume 17, "Legacy," it's over on Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile, since we switch off who posts what. ;)
Chapter 1: "Pretty Lil' Sneak Tief"
Anton Wright had been getting more and more reports of robberies in high-end places around New York, and it was getting to the point of frustration for most of the members of his force.
And it didn't help that his sergeant was riding him to figure it out, because by that point, it was well-known around the force that Anton was the one to go to when it was a mutant "problem." He still wasn't sure how that had gotten started, and he'd tried telling them that he really didn't have any control over anything at all with the school, let alone the rest of mutantkind. But that was like talking to a brick wall.
So when he got another call about a robbery, he just… let out all his breath and called up Scott. It was time to pull in some help.
"You know those thefts I told you about?" he asked his brother-in-law once he had him on the phone. "We've just had another one a few miles north of you. That offer to help still stand?"
"Of course," Scott said, and Anton could already hear in the background that he was moving because the sound of kids got a bit more muffled. "I'll bring Gambit with me. Just tell me where to meet you."
Anton gave him the address and then hung up before he went back to looking over the scene. It was just like the other break-ins that had been happening all across New York. There wasn't a single sign of forced entry, no alarms had been tripped, no fingerprints, no DNA — nothing. There wasn't even anything on the cameras, though there wouldn't be, not when several minutes of footage was missing on every single one of them.
The popular theory was that either this guy was a professional the likes of which the state police were probably better off handing to someone like Interpol ... or a mutant or other powered person who the state police were probably better off handing to the Avengers. Either way, it was clear they were simply being outclassed, and it was frustrating.
The rest of the police had mostly left the scene by the time Scott and Remy arrived — which was how Anton wanted it, anyway, because he knew how some of his fellow officers were about the X-Men. Still, Anton made a point to send his greenie partner home when he saw Scott's car pulling up — the guy was an idiot, and he didn't have time to deal with that crap.
"Thanks for coming out here on short notice," Anton said as he met his brother-in-law in the driveway. "These cases are really giving me a headache. No one can figure out how this guy is getting in, much less how he's not leaving any traces."
"If there's any way we can help, we'll do it," Scott said. "I think we'll take the resident expert in B&E since … well. The ferals are off somewhere. Otherwise, they'd just track them down."
"The dogs haven't had any luck at that," Anton admitted. "We tried that route when it was a former senator's house that got hit."
"You'd be surprised what they can find," Scott replied.
"At this point, I'd be happy for any lead at all," Anton admitted as he motioned for them to follow him into the house. He showed them the opened safe, the list of the missing antiques and jewelry, and took them through the security systems that all failed to catch the intruder.
For the most part, Remy looked mostly uninterested as he looked from afar, not willing to get very close to the open crime scene, though he did look a bit impressed at the security that the thief had gone through. More so when he saw that there was no sign that this person had turned off any of the systems. At least, not in the manner that he would have done it.
"Whoever this guy is, he's a pro. I've been tracking back the pattern, and there's a string of break-ins following his MO across state lines, if you account for people thinking it was insurance fraud," Anton said, shaking his head. "It's just recently he got to New York."
"And there hasn't been anything at all to identify this guy?" Scott asked.
Anton shook his head. "Well, not unless you count the fact that he broke form when he broke into Senator Robbins' place. Smashed the living room to pieces on the way out."
"You'll forgive me if I don't weep for him," Scott said dryly.
"Nobody did," Anton said with a smirk. "At least nobody who matters. But I still gotta investigate it."
"Sounds like it's leaning more toward one of our problems then if they trashed Robbins' house," Scott said, sounding a bit down at the negative press that was bound to follow a mutant thief.
"Yeah, that's why I called you in. The chief is thinking of leaking it to the press that we think it's a mutant just to see if we can get him to back off, but if you can give me a lead before then, I convinced him to hold off."
"All I can do is try," Scott replied.
While Scott and Anton were talking, Remy discreetly pulled out his phone and sent a text half in code to his guild back home to see if there was anyone in the area that he should be aware of. He only frowned that much deeper when the response was that they didn't have anyone with that level of skill anywhere nearby — outside of himself, of course.
"I got nuttin'," Remy said suddenly.
Both Scott and Anton looked up at that. Scott looked surprised, but Anton just looked discouraged. "Nothing, really?"
"Dat's de word from de guild," Remy said, though he was looking harder at the room in general. "Ain't nobody can do dis kinda thing."
"So it's someone new," Scott surmised.
"We find 'em with a lil' bit of time," Remy said with a confident nod. "Just gon' need a list of who been hit."
"Thought you might need that," Anton agreed. "I've got a list in my car, and a list of what was taken." He gave Scott a look. "Officially, I didn't give either of you access to that, though. Some of the places are high-end, high-confidentiality."
"Don't worry 'bout dat none," Remy said. "We don' tell nobody."
"Didn't think you would, but it always bears repeating," Anton replied before he let out a bit of a sigh and scrubbed his hand over his face. "Whoever this guy is, his timing is awful. Midterms are this fall, and you know Robbins won't stay quiet about a breakin like this if it is a mutant. Or even suspected to be one," he added in an undertone to Scott.
"Then we'll try to get this sorted out before it becomes a problem."
Anton nodded as he took the two X-Men back out of the house and made sure they both had the files they needed. "Thanks for lookin' into this. And hey, Chance and Charlie still coming down this weekend for Mary Beth's birthday party?"
"As long as she doesn't mind a few extra party guests," Scott laughed. "A lot of the students are home for the summer, so the kids stick like glue together and don't go anywhere but in one big mob."
"Yeah, Leslie Ann said the kids at the school love spoiling the little tykes," Anton chuckled. "I'll make sure we've got extras for the rest of 'em. I know Chance has gotta be missin' Elin if the Howletts are gone."
"Yeah." Scott shook his head. "That's been going on since the day she was born, really."
"Yeah, I've seen the videos," Anton chuckled. He clapped Scott in a one-armed hug before he waved them both off. "I'll let you know if there's anything else I can find to help you. The sooner we catch this guy, the more time I can spend with my wife," he added with a little smile.
"Then we'll push hard to get this fixed for you," Scott replied with a grin. "Can't have her mad and waiting for you."
"Nope. That's dangerous territory," Anton agreed, laughing. "See ya, Scott. Thanks, Remy. I'll give you a call later."
The men parted ways, but even with as obviously curious as Scott was, Remy waited until they were nearly back at the mansion before he voiced his opinion. "Either dis guy is better'n me — which just can not be so — or dey cheatin' wit' some interestin' powers."
"I'm sure it's the powers," Scott said with a little smirk. "Which makes it our problem."
"I tink fastest way to know for sure might be to ask your lil' girl to take a peek," Remy admitted. "But if she busy, I got some thoughts on where dis tief be hittin' next."
"She won't be back until this weekend. She and Betsy were in Madrid last time she called," Scott admitted. "I think they were going to hit Venice next…"
"Then I guess ol' Remy needs to get to work," he replied.
"Is everything alright with Anton?" Annie asked after Scott had put the twins to sleep. Cody was being a bit of a pain, so Annie had taken him back to their room to snuggle with him, and he was zonked out on the pillow next to her head, one little hand wrapped up in her hair so that she couldn't exactly move.
"He's just got a pretty difficult case," Scott admitted as he slipped into bed next to her and gave her a little smile. "He thinks mutants might be involved."
"And are they?" she asked, one eyebrow quirked up at him.
Scott let out a breath. "Yeah, Remy thinks so. That or it's someone better than him, and you know he doesn't think that's possible," he said with the slightest of smirks.
"You X-Men are all so vain," Annie said with a little twinkle in her eyes.
"You try being the one to tell Remy we should consider the idea that there might be someone out there better than him."
"I wouldn't dare," Annie laughed.
"Exactly." He shook his head with a little chuckle. "Anyway, he's looking into it. He thinks he might have an idea of where this guy might strike next."
"What kind of problem is it, exactly?" Annie asked, sounding a bit concerned, but Scott quickly shook his head.
"Just a rash of break-ins, high end homes — just a few days ago, whoever this guy is hit Senator Robbins' home."
Annie grinned outright. "Oh, I shouldn't be happy about that, but I really, really am," she said as she tried not to laugh and glanced down to make sure that Cody really was asleep so she wasn't being too bad of an example.
"Yeah, whoever it is trashed the place on their way out, which makes us think he's a mutant," Scott nodded. "Not a whole lot of love lost there, honestly. If this guy wasn't going after other homes too, I might not even look into it."
"Of course you would," Annie laughed. "You can't stand the idea of a mutant out there causing trouble that you don't know about."
He shook his head and gave her a bit of a dry look before he leaned over and kissed her. "Yeah, you might be right."
"Might be?" She arched an eyebrow at her.
"Sorry — you're always right," Scott laughed, and she nodded approvingly.
"And don't you forget it, Scott Summers," she told him.
Out of the list that Anton had given him, Remy knew that this house — an old colonial-style one that had been around for centuries and had been passed down through the family — was the most likely target. Whoever this guy was, he wasn't just going after the most lucrative catches but the most obnoxious families or owners. And the owner of this particular house — an old man who lived mostly alone and who had all but cut out his entire family because he was just mean — was practically asking for a visit from Anton's street thief.
He prowled the grounds of the large house under the cover of a moonless night as he watched for any sign of this thief, but thus far, he hadn't seen the slightest sign of movement besides the slight wind that evening.
So he was a bit surprised when he did at last spot movement — this time inside the house. And since the old man was out of town for the week, it had to be the street thief. In a rush, Remy headed over, just getting a glimpse of long blonde curls before she seemed to disappear again.
Still, Remy wasn't too worried. It was going to take a while for her to get through the safe, and when she did, she was bound to be mad — since Remy had already liberated the contents before the thief could get there.
He slipped past the house's defenses the same way he'd come in the first time — silent and stealthy as always — before he made his way to where he knew the safe was and carefully, quietly leaned in the doorway as he watched the young woman work.
She was good — he recognized her technique and knew it was the fastest way to crack this particular brand of safe, so she must have done her homework before she came. And she was careful — even wearing gloves and long black clothing, she made it a point not to touch or brush against anything but the safe she was working on.
And to be frank ... she was easy on the eyes. Long blonde hair in tight curls ... and she was slim and tall enough that she might match his height with a pair of good shoes.
He waited until she opened the safe and had to smile when he heard the whispered curses in French, of all things.
"Oh, now dat ain't no kinda way for a lady to talk," Remy said quietly. "'Specially a pretty lil' sneak tief like you."
The thief spun on her heel to face him, surprise painted over her plump pink lips and brown eyes as she took him in before she let out a light little laugh. "I am no ladee," she said in a heavily accented voice, very French, her accent Parisian.
"Non?" he asked, his head tilted slightly. "I'm afraid we gon' have to disagree on that."
She laughed again and shook her head. "If you say so," she said. She closed the safe and seemed to be studying him as she raked her gaze over his coat. "No, I don't suppose you would keep such trea-zures on your person. You empt-eed ze safe before I arrived ... when? Zis morning?"
"Ol' Gambit don' tell those secrets, petit," he replied with a little smirk.
She waved her hand at him. "Ees no matter. You can keep ze trea-zures if you like."
"Dem baubles ain't the kind of treasures I'm lookin' for," he said, unable to stop the smile.
At that, she quirked one eyebrow at him and laughed. "Then I have no trésors to give you," she said easily.
"You'd be surprised," Remy said.
But she simply laughed and blew him a kiss with one hand as she waved with the other — and in an instant, she seemed to dissipate until she was nothing but a breath of wind.
"Well dat certainly explains it," he mumbled before he lightly headed out again. Anton would find the jewels in the morning on his front seat of his patrol car.