Story Title: Checkmate
Chapter Rating: PG13
Warning labels: X-over/AU
Disclaimer: I do not own Superman or the X-men. I make no money off of this and I promise to put the characters back where I found them when I finish.
Chapter Summary: Kitty and Rogue do some sleuthing. Jason works up his nerve.

Chapter 2

"And you are sure Zhivago will be able to work around the limitations that will be placed on him by working with our illustrious friends?" Shaw asked in a low voice.

"Don't wo- Kitty!" Lex's voices went from harsh whisper to a normal range as he turned to greet Katherine when she slid up beside him.

"I'm so sorry to bother you," Katherine was apologetic. "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important between you gentlemen."

"My dear Miss Kowalski, you grace us with your luminescent presence," Sebastian Shaw lightly kissed the back of Kitty's gloved hand. Kitty found herself staring at the violet satin bow that held his graying black hair tied back longingly. It was too bad Lex was bald; she rather wished he had Lord Shaw's thick locks. The man straightened from his elegant bow, tugging his lapels until his clothes fell back into place across his broad shoulders. The deep blue jacket he wore trailed down in the back, but opened in the front to reveal his deep purple vest. The black trousers he wore disappeared into the knee high white stockings. White ruffles fell over his hands from beneath his coat sleeves, and flowed down his throat. A single blazing sapphire winked from the frothy material, the only jewelry the older man wore.

Katherine smiled tremulously back at him, intimidated. This was the man who held an even higher rank than Lex Luthor within the organization hosting the party. As near as Kitty could tell, everyone who was connected with the New York branch of the Hellfire Club was in attendance. Not that she kept track of these things, but there seemed to be more people than there had been at previous gatherings. They had to be the members who had never attended the same parties she had, because if they weren't then that meant that some of these Victorian dressed socialites were members from some of the other branches. For some reason that thought frightened her.

"You're too kind, Milord," she demurred, casting her eyes to the floor.

"Not at all, not at all!" he disagreed warmly. His eyes slid along the clinging lines of her dress, and she had to suppress her shiver at being the feeling of being mentally stripped by the man. "We ardently admire your beauty. Of course, you have not been indoctrinated into the Club as yet. One can only imagine how magnificent you will appear in the full regalia of your position once you have been welcomed to the fold."

Rogue chose that moment to snarl menacingly from Kitty's protective clutch.

"Pumpkin! Behave! Oh I'm so sorry, Lord Shaw. She's normally so sweet, but I fear she's becoming rather overexcited by all of… well, everything!" Kitty forced her lips into a winsome smile. "Please, forgive me; this is actually what I came over here for. I was just going to let you know that I'm taking little Pumpkin here away from the crowds for a bit. You gentlemen can laminatent and regaleon without me. I'll be back when she's calmed down okay?" She dropped a quick kiss on Lex's cheek, flashed another brilliant smile at Lord Sebastian Shaw and managed to minnow her way back into the crowd before either man could stop her. She could hear their voices fading behind her.

"Laminatent?"

"Just try not to think about it, Lord."

The thick oak paneled door cut off the end of their conversation and Kitty was by herself in a long hallway. She strolled down the hallway, staring at the statues lining the walls. Some of them were okay, others were seriously ugly. The fact that most, if not all, of the pieces were probably worth more than she spent in a month seemed so unfair. Taking the stairs on the right she made her way down toward where Lex had painstakingly drilled into her head that Shaw's office would be.

A credit card later and she was past the flimsy lock. You'd figure a millionaire would be willing to shell out for better locks, but then again, he liked to keep things as old school as possible, and a lot of extra security would 'disrupt the integrity of the manor', or some crap like that. As soon as she slipped inside, the ginger colored fluff leapt from her arms. Rogue's feet hit the ground with a solid thud and she carried through with a spinning step that brought her about-face. Kitty flicked the lock on the door behind her so that no one could walk in on them.

"So what, in pahticular, are we looking for?" Rogue demanded.

"I have to hook this up to the computer," Katherine waved the small metal box she fished from her purse, "so the guys can hack the computer. While they are doing that, we are going to go through his file cabinets for anything that might be important, and/or incriminating."

While she spoke she booted up the computer and plugged in the box. A small green light flashed. Then a red light flashed. Finally a soft blue light came on and stayed. As soon as the password screen came up, the cursor started to move around on its own, and little dots appeared in the password box. She turned her attention back to what she was saying.

"If it's really important, then we take pictures."

This time she pulled a small hard case from her purse. She flicked the latches open but high powered digital camera from inside the little bag. Rogue snatched the camera from her hands.

"Ah'll get started ahn that."

Before Katherine managed to get out her 'Ok' Rogue was blurring through the files, rifling the papers the way a strong breeze would. Each draw opened and slid shut in quick succession. A few papers got pulled and pictures snapped. Then Rogue put everything back in order. The whole process took less the five minutes.

"How are they doin' ahn cracking that?"

A quick peek at the glowing LCD screen showed her what was going on. "The files are just starting to get downloaded."

"So we got time. Ahlright, Ah'll be right back," Rogue announced.

"Where are you planning on going?" Kitty demanded, casting an uneasy glance at the still loading files.

"Ah'm just gonna go take a few more pictures. Trust me, Ah'll be right back." With a saucy grin she flowed into a stranger with blonde hair, big brown eyes in a serving wench outfit.

"Be-" The next second she was gone. "-careful."

Katherine turned to stare at the slowly filling bar, silently urging it to go faster. The quicker it got done, the less chance there was of getting busted. She pressed a microphone to the underside of the desk and then got up to put one on the thick drapes behind the desk. Almost distantly she took note of the fine trembling in her hand. Later. She could worry later. She glanced at the door hoping that Rogue knew what she was doing. What if she got caught? What if Lex found out about her powers? This wasn't even her problem, why was she getting involved anyway? Katherine silently berated herself for letting the southern girl join her.

The computer started to shut itself down, the blue light disappearing from the black metal box Buck had handed her while they were in the limo. She pulled the USB cord free and shoved the box into her purse. Rogue snapped the latches on the camera case closed and handed it to her to put in also.

Katherine blinked.

"Huh. Just in time."

Rogue just grinned at her and flowed into a Pomeranian who stared up at her with an imperious expectancy. Katherine bent down to pick her up. She made sure to flick the lock on the handle so that the door would be locked behind her when she left. A quick glance back to make sure everything was left the way it was, and then she slipped out into the hallway. Rogue was tucked into one elbow and her purse was stuffed under her armpit so her hand would be free to pet Rogue's head. Soon they were swept up into the glittering throng.

It was going to be a long night.

"Rogue!" Her head snapped up at the sound of her name and she stared around for the source. She's working on finding the names to go with the faces she got at the party last night, but she can't find anything with her computer. She doesn't know where to look. She simply raises her brows in question. "Hey."

She trailed her eyes over the form striding toward her. He had broad shoulders if the way he filled out the leather jacket he was wearing was any indication. His red shirt stretched tight over his chest but fell free over his stomach. His fitted jeans wrapped around his legs, showing off the lean outline of his thighs. There was a definite stir of interest. She jerked her gaze back up to his face now that he was close enough to actually get a good glimpse of. High sweeping cheekbones, a softly cleft chin, strong nose and jaw. He came to a stop as he reached her. Messy black hair fell in soft spikes around his… incredibly blue eyes.

She felt her mouth go dry. He was absolutely gorgeous.

"Hi," he grins at her shyly.

How can you even consider thinking about anyone like that? You have absolutely no right, girl. Realization that she had forgotten, even for a brief second, about her powers washes over her in a glacial wave. Hers was a power that she could never forget even for a moment how very lethal she was to the simple humans around her. And stop that! Stop right there! There was no way, no how, and that sort of thing wasn't going anywhere so there was no point even thinking about it. If you think he's gorgeous now, just imagine what he'll look like six months from now when he's still in a coma.Rogue wants to smile at him, and invite him to have a seat. She wants to know what made him come over and start talking to her when everyone else was afraid. She wants to say something, but the jagged shards of icy regret cut at her throat. She feels sure the frost in her veins had seeped into her skin and freezing the lines of her face. The boy can feel it too because his grin falters, fades away.

She doesn't say a word. He clears his throat nervously.

"Sorry, I wasn't- I didn't mean to-I mean…" he gave a sigh as he dropped that line of conversation. "So, hi. My name is Jason."

She stares at him.

"Jason White. We have Math together… and Social Studies… and Biology." Nope, there's nothing. He tries again, "I sit right behind you in English?"

"Oh, oh yeeaaah. Jason," she says as though she recognizes him. Seriously? This boy has been around this entire time and she never even noticed? That's not possible. She still doesn't remember him, but she wants to push him away not drive a stake through his chest. "Ah'm Rogue but Ah guess you already knew that."

"Yeah I guess I do. Anyways, I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"Well, you know you're new to town and I just wanted to say hello, and maybe get to know you." Rogue isn't quite sure how to respond to this so she stays silent. "You're really not going to make this easy are you?"

"Am Ah supposed to? Ah guess Ah never got the instruction manual." Rogue cocks her head and she looks him over again. She doesn't want to be mean, but he's a beautiful boy, and she's too dangerous to get close to. She'd taken a bunch of pictures that she didn't want anyone to know about last night, and she'd brought the chip with her to school so she could work on downloading it. They'd gotten home just in time for her to get ready to go to school this morning. But it's going to be another couple minutes of judicious cutting and pasting before the micro memory chip is Luthor friendly, and surely a table length is safe enough for someone she's not going to get close to.

"Have a sit."

His lips quirk into that same nervous grin he was giving her when he first called out. He positively slinks onto the bench seat across from her, and Rogue finds herself distracted by the animal grace in his movements. He hadn't seemed quite so fluid a second ago. Some sort of a switch had been flipped. It was like now that he knew she wasn't going to drop kick him in the head he was gaining confidence.

"So, yah want tah know about little ol' me. What exactly do yah want to know?"

"Well, for starters, why do you always wear gloves?" Jason asked. He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward, all of his focus on her and her answer. He had such an intense gaze. She averted her own eyes to the glowing screen of her laptop, and shifted some more files onto her hard drive while she considered how she was going to answer him.

"Maybe it's because Ah suck out people's souls when Ah touch them. Hasn't anyone ever taught you anything about Goth chicks?" she mocks.

"You don't seem terribly Goth. I hate to say it but I'm with Tony on this one. You do seem more of an Emo type to me," Jason's grin got even bigger. She glared dangerously at him.

"Do not mahke me eat your face."

"Riiiight then, back to the questions."

"No, it's my turn." Rogue stared at her classmate for a second. "Why do you care? Ah mean where is ahll this curiosity comin' from?"

"Well I guess you could say it's natural. I mean my dad's a reporter; my mom's a reporter. My godfather is the reporter. My uncle was a reporter before he became the editor of the newspaper. All of my friends outside of school are reporters. I practically grew up there. I get curious about people, so naturally when someone seems so unique it catches my attention. Although I have to admit, it took me a long time to work up the nerve to try and approach you. I was really intimidated."

He gives her another shy smile, an embarrassed flush spreading across his cheekbones. Rogue felt something inside herself melt into a gooey pile at the sight. Damn. Then she realized what she was thinking and started searching the ground for a sharp pointed stick. If she stabbed it deeply enough into one of her eyes she'd eventually reach her brain and that would stop these ridiculous responses from happening. Then his words caught up with her. A reporter? An editor? Newspaper? Oh no way was she going to be friends with someone who made their living telling news. Just another reason letting the boy get close was a bad idea, and if she wasn't sure of that before, she was now.

A shrill sound resolved itself into a song and jerked through the air. Rogue looked around, confused for second, until she realized it was coming from her backpack. She dug around for her cell phone and checked the screen. She could feel her eyes crinkle with the really big grin on her face.

"Jordan?"

Rogue couldn't believe Kitty put a Buckethead ringtone on her phone. The woman was a menace, she thought fondly. Always with the stealing of her cell phone to sneak new and random songs onto the ringtone list, and Rogue was never sure what she'd be hearing when she got a call from her.

"Hello?"

"Darling, Darling I need you to come home right away."

Something was wrong. Kitty's voice was breathless and her words almost tumbling over each other. Her smile dropped instantly.

"What's the matter?"

"Look Lex is coming over, and he's going to want those pictures. The memory card needs to be in the camera when he gets here."

Rogue swore softly. She hated that man. If the card wasn't in the camera he'd think that Kitty was holding the card to make copies. He would be right about copies being made, but if he tried to punish Katherine for it then she just might end up killing him. She wouldn't mean to but it would probably happen anyway.

She was too strong to go around beating the crap out of people but she wasn't sure she'd be able to resist if one of the only kind and genuinely accepting people in her life was threatened. And then she'd probably feel guilty, even if Luthor probably deserved to die. She'd never actually killed anyone before. Sure she'd drained someone to the point of near death, but that was an accident. And she was in a coma, so there was still the chance she could wake up. But Katherine was upset right now and she needed to be calmed down. She could contemplate how she didn't want to use her powers later when there wasn't a time limit.

"Do you know where he is right now?"

"Yeah, yeah. He called from his office. I called you as soon as he got off." So a bit less than thirty minutes. It was doable. Rogue glanced over to see the boy was staring at her with an intense look, his head cocked as though he was listening to something.

"Ok, I'll be there as soon as possible." She disconnected. She shoved the cell and closed up the windows on her computer. She had everything she needed and some stuff she never wanted Lex Luthor to get his hands on. Giant freaking killing robots are just what the world needs. Giant freaking killing robots in the hands of Lex Luthor? No, just, no. Another second and she had her laptop closed and everything shoved into her bag.

"So I take it we'll have to continue this discussion later?"

"No. We'll never finish this discussion. Sorry Paperboy, I need to get going." She hefted her bag and was getting ready to make her escape.

"Wait!" he reached out to grab her. Her sleeve had fallen back when she had lifted her back pack and he was latching onto her wrist. She had a second to feel absolute horror before his skin brushed against hers.