The Gifted doesn't belong to me
The Baton Rouge
John Proudstar, Thunderbird, made his way slowly down the stairs to the ballroom. He couldn't believe that he had let himself be talked into attending a party. When Reed Strucker, one of the newest refugees at the mutant underground had identified The Baton Rouge as the building which Dreamer had pulled out the Sentinel Services' agent's memories as the place where mutants were 'disappeared' and more importantly the place where they could get more information about what had happened to Pulse, he'd had no choice but to agree to do this, although he hated parties.
The others had been especially excited that there was a party being held at The Baton Rouge, it meant that they could sneak in easier especially since it was a masque. Still, John wasn't quite sure he had needed to be there but as Marcos pointed out to him they needed him as their ears which is how he'd ended up with Marcos and Reed on this mission.
The music was playing and there were a handful of couples swaying on the dance floor, most of the guests were standing in groups eating and drinking. John had just left Marcos and Reed in the office and he was on lookout duty although the guards had been knocked out and would not regain consciousness for a few hours.
And then he saw her. It was as if the dance floor had cleared to make room for her to walk.
She was a petite woman with the most amazing green, make that jade, eyes he'd ever seen, wearing a simple black gown that left him breathless. He was sure that most people in the room assumed that the green eyes were part of her costume but he would bet everything he had that those were her real eyes.
He must have stared a bit too long because she looked up at him, smiled knowingly, and then walked of the ballroom in the direction of the bathrooms.
Without thinking about it, he followed her. She was faster that he'd thought she'd be but then he was very good at what he did and he found her in a short while.
"I know you're there," he called to her. She was hiding behind a curtain in the library.
"What do you want?" she asked him, stepping from behind the curtain.
"Why are you hiding behind the curtain?"
"Do I have to have a reason?" she countered, "maybe I just like curtains, oh, and not being followed by strange men."
"Sorry," he had the grace to look ashamed.
"I guess I'll just be on my way then," she said,
"Right."
John stared at her, smiling slowly, he had never met anyone like her in his life. He wanted to get to know her better. "I'm John Proudstar."
"Really?" she smiled at him, sizing him up. "Nice to meet you John."
"Aren't you going to tell me your name?"
She shook her head saying, "See you around, John, I hope you get what you came here for." She pulled out her hands and ripped apart the space between them widening it slowly by slowly and then jumped through and disappeared.
000
"Where have you been?" Marcos asked him. "We finished a long time ago."
"I've only been gone for ten minutes," John told him, "and it was you who told me to go and enjoy the party."
Marcos shook his head and started the car; the mission had been a success, they'd gotten the files and no one had died. It had been a good day. He would find out what was making John smile like that later.
000