Part 7 - Magneto
Over the next few hours, Rogue watched over Bobby, repeatedly soaking the towels now and then. Kitty stayed by to comfort her, and Kari went back to her computer scanning. It seemed to be all she could do now.
"What else are you going to look for?" Kitty had asked.
"Anything I can," was Kari's answer. She typed and clicked, typed and clicked, scrolled over pages, opened new windows, and still found nothing. It was almost four o' clock, and she leaned back in her chair with a sigh.
"Getting tired?"
Logan came into the room. Him and Scott had changed into some of her dad's clothes, so he almost looked like her dad, which made her laugh a little in her head.
"Yeah," she answered with a sigh, "I can't find any other information, all of it's just crap about how mutants are evil." Logan snickered.
"Your mom tells me you're quit the computer freak," he said.
"I suppose. I mean, as for stealing software, good god no. But I just like to hack into other files and stuff. It's kind of interesting." Kari shrugged and took a drink of her water she had by the monitor.
"Computer hacker, huh?" Logan repeated.
"Yeah. It's really easy once you get the hang of it." Kari closed a few windows and scanned some links on a website. "Do you think the government might have anything to do with this?" she asked, still staring at the screen. The light was starting to hurt her eyes, but she just blinked it off.
"I guess it could be possible," Logan said, nodding a bit to himself.
"Maybe the president has some whacked out conspiracy against us now." Kari leaned back in her chair again.
"Logan, we need your help, could you come here for a second?" Storm popped her head into the room.
"Yeah sure." Logan left Kari to her cyber search. She held her head in her hands and set her elbows on the desk.
"Maybe the president has some whacked out conspiracy against us now."
"Wait a minute…" Kari sat there, staring blankly at the screen.
"THAT'S IT!" Kari flew from her chair and sped down the hallway.
"WAIT! STORM, COME BACK!" she yelled, running out the back door. Kitty and Rogue cocked their eyebrows as she ran into the backyard. Storm and Logan turned around, staring at her. They seemed confused from her frantic yells.
"A conspiracy, that's it! What if some one convinced the government to exterminate all of the mutants!" she said.
"It wouldn't be surprising," Logan replied with a casual look, "With all of the riots and crap going around."
"No, no, no." Kari waved her hands.
"Then what are you talking about?"
"The president has always turned down riots and stuff because by eliminating mutants, it could cost him a serious reputation. Not EVERYONE is afraid of mutants, and they have rights just as normal people do, so by just saying 'Hey, let's kill them all' he'd be violating their rights as the public!"
"What are you getting at?" Storm asked, completely confused.
"What if some one managed to convince him that by killing all of the mutants, he would be making a good choice? What if they got authorization to begin an extermination?"
"But what could possibly push the president over like that?"
"The threat of a war?" Kari said slowly. Logan and Storm stared at her, and then exchanged glances.
"You're a genius," Storm said finally. Kari was taken aback at the comment, but shrugged.
"Process of elimination, I guess. Everyone knows that any threat of war, the president will act on. Some one must have got him to believe the mutants were planning a war against the humans, or something."
"I'll talk to Jean." Storm turned and headed for the jet. Kari ran back inside with Logan behind her saying, "You're a genius," over and over again.
"Why, what happened?" Kitty asked. Rogue shrugged and looked at Bobby. He had stopped shaking, but he was still extremely warm.
"We have to find a list, or something, of all of the anti-mutant protestors known. One of them has to be the one who talked to the president." Kari sat down in her chair and started an online search.
"But there could be millions, how are we going to find one little protestor?"
"They have reputations for the intensity of their riots," Kari explained.
"What happened, I heard yelling." John came in, scratching the top of his head and messing up his hair. He had fallen asleep on Kari's bedroom floor two hours prior. She had apparently woken him up when she ran down the hallway. His hair was now sticking up in funny places. It made Kari crack a small smile.
"I might have figured out why our school was attacked," she said in a rushed voice, her eyes scanning over website links, her hand clicking the mouse here and there.
"How?" he asked, walking over to one of the chairs and flopping lazily into it, blinking and rubbing his eyes.
"Some one might have a conspiracy against mutants," Kari explained.
"Duh," John said, with raised eyebrows, but with half lidded eyes from fatigue. He obviously wasn't fully awake yet.
"No, I mean a BIG conspiracy, with a plan complex enough to convince the president to authorize a mutant extermination — AHA! Got one!" She opened a web page, with links to over fifteen others. It was all a list of mutant protestors, listed by popularity.
"I can tell this is going to take a while," Logan said mostly himself.
"Hey, I got a theory, didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah, you got credit for that." He looked at John, who was still giving Kari a "What the freaking hell" stare that she still didn't notice.
"But wouldn't the president deny them? Wouldn't he be violating the rights of the mutants?" John asked.
"Not if they told him the mutants might be planning a war," Kari answered.
"But who could do that?" John asked.
"Daren Richardson," Kari replied, opening a new window of a man's profile. There was a long silent pause in the room.
"And who's Daren Richardson?" Logan question with raised eyebrows.
"He's this protestor I always hear about on the news. I read over a few articles about him today. God, WHY didn't I make a connection?" she growled to herself.
"Hey, don't beat yourself up, we never would have figured out anything without you mentioning the president being involved." Logan shrugged.
"Daren Richardson has a history with mutant riots. He's led forty-seven of them, in eight different states, within the past ten years. He's been arrested a few times, AND — look at this! He's been known to speak with the president about authorizing mutants arrests and/or obstruction of rights!"
"He sounds like the guy we're looking for," Logan said.
"Go tell Storm and Jean, I'll get more information." Kari right clicked and started printing the pages of Richardson's information.
"You're fast," John commented.
"I'm not as stupid as you think," Kari said with a sideways glance.
"I never thought you were stupid," he said honestly. Kari turned and looked at him.
"Then what was with the whole 'quit being such a know-it-all?" she asked.
"I meant when it wasn't necessary," he corrected. Kari rolled her eyes.
"Forgive me for not specifying that in my head," she sneered.
"See, like right then! Uncalled for." John pointed at her.
"Not in my view," Kari replied, turning back to her computer.
"The maybe we shouldn't see things so differently," John suggested.
"I think my view is fine where it is. Opposite of an egotistical show off." Kari grabbed the papers from the printer and set them on the desk.
"Okay, now what was that for? I didn't even do anything!"
"Will you go away? I'm busy." Kari scrolled down the page and read some more. John stared at her, completely confused about her change of attitude.
"Hey," he started.
"I said beat it, Allerdyce," Kari growled, turning and glaring at him. John widened his eyes and stood up to leave the room. He raised his hands and backed away. Her eyes had changed again, to the same they had been that day on the bleachers.
"Okay, sorry," he said quickly, leaving. Kari followed him with her eyes, then turned back to the computer.
John slowly stepped down the hallway and passed Kitty and Rogue. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cup from the cabinet behind him, filling it with some water. He stared at the glass. Why did she keep changing like that? And why didn't anyone believe him about when he saw it?
And he noticed a pattern, that it only happened when she got angry. Did she hate him or something? He shook his head and sighed, taking a drink from his glass. He headed back down the hallway, deciding whether to talk to her, or to stay away from her. Logan came back into the house and followed him down the hallway, pretty much forcing him to go back towards Kari.
"What have you found out?" he asked.
"I have these printouts you can take to the others, I've found some jail records, but that's about it."
"Jail records? How'd you get those?" Logan asked, taking the papers from her.
"Computer hacker, hello," Kari said with a sly grin. John looked around the side of Logan and saw Kari was completely back to normal. He almost felt disappointed, but thankful at the same time.
"Okay, I'll take these to Jean, and we can — what's that noise?" Logan said suddenly.
Kari turned her head and saw the lights on her computer flickering on and off. Then it went out completely.
"What the hell?" she clicked the "Esc" button and nothing happened. Logan handed her the papers back and walked down the hallway.
"Don't tell me," he begged quietly.
"What?" Rogue asked. He went out the backdoor and stood there. Of course, none other than the one he didn't want to see.
"Hello, Wolverine."
