Years since Rogue's powers returned: 8-10

Chapter 14: Mutant Town

Kitty growled under her breath and snatched up the ringing phone quickly before it could disturb Nadia's slumber. She'd just gotten her new daughter to bed.

"Hello?" Kitty said tersely into the phone.

"Good afternoon, is this Mrs Rasputin?" inquired a male voice.

"Yes?"

"Well, first of all I'd like to congratulate you on your newborn baby girl," the man said. "And secondly, I'd like to inquire if you've thought about mutant insurance at all?"

"Mutant insurance?" Kitty repeated, feeling both annoyed at having been bothered by a telemarketer and somewhat perturbed by the idea of 'mutant insurance'.

"Yes. I understand that young...Nadia...has tested out as being a mutant. You might not be aware, but mutants can often be quite volatile and dangerous not only when their extra abilities manifest, but also after manifestation when they're still attempting to acquire control. Depending on what abilities they get you could be up for all sorts of expensive repair bills, and even legal costs. We here at..."

Kitty listened, clenching her free hand so tight her knuckles went white. She heard just enough to identify the company and get a general understanding of what exactly they were offering, and then all hell broke loose:

"I think I've heard quite enough of your racist scaremongering for one day. You can take your policy and you can shove it up your ass," Kitty snapped at him, keeping her voice just low enough not to disturb Nadia. "And you can take my details off your list. I do not want your money-grubbing, fear-peddling company calling me ever again. Got it?"

She didn't bother to wait for a response, but hung up in her rage. Still annoyed, and despite the fact that she had a stack of things she needed to do before any of her kids started demanding her attention, Kitty hit the internet and pulled up the company's website. It didn't take her long to find their new mutant insurance policies and she was quick to make screenshots and send those and the links to the Department of Mutant Affairs, the Mutant Lobby, Storm, Hank, and everyone else she thought should know about it.

But simply sending off angry emails wasn't really enough for Kitty to vent her rage.

"Just... just... just the nerve of those people!" she ranted to Rogue while pacing through the visitor's lounge, occasionally phasing herself through the chessboard Magneto was sitting in front of. "How dare they talk to me about my child like that? Stupid, patronising, insipid bastards. Talking down to me like that, making it sound like my baby's going to grow up to be some financially draining monster. I ought to wring his little neck!"

"Absolutely, they should be ashamed of themselves," Rogue agreed. "Ashamed. How'd they even get your number?"

"Probably the Mutant Registry," Kitty replied. "It's the only place outside of Xavier's I can think of that could possibly know Nadia's name or mutant status, and if I ever find the little pipsqueak whose selling off that information to insurance companies—"

"You'll kick their ass so hard, they'll be pooping out their mouths for a week," Rogue declared with an empathic smack to the table with her fist.

"Exactly! That damn Register is nothing but a massive invasion of privacy and racist and just... just... Oooh!" Kitty fumed. "The sooner we get that little piece of shite declared unconstitutional the better! It never should have passed in the first place!"

"I couldn't agree more," Rogue said. "You wanna go punch stuff?"

"Yes!"

"Alright then," Rogue turned to Magneto. "If you don't mind me cutting our game short today?"

Magneto inclined his head. "We can pick this up again later."

As it happened, a mere three weeks later, the Avengers called up the X-Men for backup; the Brotherhood was in the middle of a full-on attack of the Mutant Registry. The Brothered had arrived in force with possibly every single member (if it wasn't, then they had severely underestimated just how many of them there were). As formidable as the Avengers were, there were times when teaming up with the X-Men was essential.

Rogue listened into the battle from her home, trying to keep track of everything that happened. She would have like to have been there, but she realised that even with the freedom her new hazmat suit gave her and despite the fact that she had quite a few additional mutant abilities up her sleeve, her air requirement was a drawback. And as Tony also pointed out, although the hazmat suit was quite durable and capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, it was hardly bulletproof. Although no discussion of a combat suit came up, (Rogue suspected that different ones weren't entirely convinced she was done trying to kill herself), Rogue had taken the liberty of making one of her own, just in case. There were definite benefits to being able to manipulate metal.

It was hard to say for certain who won the intense battle. The Brotherhood succeeded in not only destroying all the computers and murdering every human they found inside, but they also razed the entire Mutant Registry offices to the ground. On the other hand, few managed to escape, and the X-Men and the Avengers sustained fewer injuries and took in a lot more prisoners.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was ecstatic. There were many amongst the Brotherhood they'd been trying to take into custody for years and had long since build custom cells in their prison just for them. Processing so many at once was a long, tedious job, with numerous attempts to escape, but they were all secured in the end.

For all of two days.

Every prisoner escaped, Brotherhood or not, and every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on duty was killed in action. All security systems had been taken down completely, with no way for them to find out exactly how the escape was conducted. Regardless of the lack of evidence—or perhaps because of it—all fingers pointed to Mystique. They all knew she was a master infiltrator, and they all thought they had accommodated for even her extensive shapeshifting abilities.

S.H.I.E.L.D. would have loved to have been able to cover up the whole thing, and although they did succeed in keeping the worst of it from the general public certain people in authority found out all about it. There was much screaming and yelling and finger pointing. Nick Fury barely managed to hang onto his job. There were people insisting that the Brotherhood should have just been killed then and there on the battlefield. There were those who thought that all mutant criminals should be shot, or perhaps just all mutants in general. There were cries that this was exactly why they needed a Mutant Registry, and others who pointed out that the registry didn't stop mutant criminals at all. Others still latched onto the complete destruction of the Mutant Registry (for all off site backups had also been destroyed) as their chance to get rid of a useless financial drain.

In the midst of all this going on, Rogue gave them a lifeline, although she didn't realise it at the time, not being privy to these 'discussions'; she had a breakthrough on her artificial gravity generator. It was such a small detail, a minor alteration she kicked herself for not thinking of earlier, but it made all the difference. She reported with much delight to Tony that not only was her weight machine working perfectly—better than expected—but the one intended for space use was ready for some real testing.

"Obviously I can't test it properly here, because we already have earth gravity on Earth," Rogue told him. "I know, shocking, right?"

"Right," Tony replied with a grin. "This is great news, Rogue. I need to make some phone calls, but we'll get this baby tested, all right."

Rogue was quite shocked at how fast Tony managed to organise field tests. Barely a day went by and she found herself talking to engineers from NASA who had been trying to build feasible gravity machines for years, decades even, with little success. And to top things off, she was suddenly asked to do interviews for various scientific journals and Tony had roped her into doing a press conference. Rogue really wasn't sure what to do with all the attention, especially as she didn't think she deserved it, but she put her best face on and tried to be a good representative of Stark Industries and mutants.

Still, she did enjoy showing off her weight machine. She was quite proud of that.

Rogue was just taking some time to relax when she got an alert from her computer, indicating that there was some activity at the school fence. She sighed and checked the cameras for the area, and noted that there were a couple of men peering through the fence at the school, one armed with binoculars. She listened and at the same time checked the previous footage, but they hadn't said anything. Rogue watched them for a few minutes, and then rang up the police to tell them that there were a couple of grown men spying on school kids. She told them exactly where the men were, and alerted Storm and Logan so that they were aware.

She watched and listened with interest as the police found and confronted the men.

"It's not like that!" one objected. "We're not paedophiles. We're just checking to see if 'gifted' is really code for 'mutant'."

"Yeah," the other said earnestly. "Do you have any idea how many baby mutants have been registered at this address?"

Rogue made sure to make a copy of that particular conversation to share with the others. Apparently the Brotherhood hadn't completely destroyed all traces of the Register, but then they already knew that: Kitty still had a copy of the data her spyware had acquired, and if that illegal copy still existed, who knew how many more did?

Gambit looked up at the sound of the bedroom door opening and grinned slyly when he saw the expression on Candra's face. He could practically feel her eyes running down his completely naked body lounging on her bed. The only thing in between her and his genitalia was a bouquet of flowers.

"How'd you get in here?" she asked and Gambit smirked. There was no way he was going to answer that question. "No, never mind. I need to freshen up."

"Want some help?" Gambit asked slyly.

Candra smiled saucily at him as she lifted the bouquet. "That was implied."

Rogue looked around the church with interest as she carried in two large crates with a mix of super-strength and telekinesis. Bobby was close behind, struggling with a crate about the same size and weight as the ones Rogue was managing effortlessly. The room was filled with people; teenagers, adults, families, all of them clearly down on their luck. Kurt spotted them from the front and hurried down to join them.

"Rogue, Bobby," he greeted. "I'm glad you could make it. Please, this way."

He headed off and with a grunt Bobby followed behind him and Rogue. They headed into the back, where there were more people, and Kurt showed them to a corner where they could put the crates down.

"I see you've got your hands full," Rogue said with a glance at some of the other people there.

"More and more are being driven out of their homes, their towns," Kurt replied regretfully. "And many are being deliberately driven here. There's a very organised, armed gang calling themselves the Friends of Humanity who are going out of their way to do it."

"I see," Rogue said with a frown.

"I'm doing what I can to house them," Kurt went on, and patted the crates. "Your help is very much appreciated."

"No problem," Bobby said, flexing his hands now that he was free of his burden. "Clothes in that one, and the other two have food."

"Thank you, my friends," Kurt replied.

"Just what is the housing situation like, if you don't mind my asking?" Rogue asked while a couple of volunteers came over to go through the crates. "If these...Friends of Humanity are driving so many people here..."

"It's not as bad as it could be," Kurt said. "We've got all the right zoning, but most of the original buildings were—or are—fairly run down. We've also got a lot of people who are skilled in all sorts of different industries, including architecture and construction. Really, the only delays we're dealing with at the moment is getting building approval from council and the actual time it takes for construction. We're actually becoming pretty self-sufficient here, it's just the continual increase in population we're struggling with."

"Yeah, Rogue," Bobby said. "We need to take you on a tour of this place before we leave. District X is not a place for losers and bums any more. It's really is a mutant town, in every sense."

"If I still have enough air by the time we're done here, sure," Rogue agreed.

"Many hands make light work," Kurt replied cheerfully.

"Super-strong hands make even lighter work," Bobby said with a teasing glare at Rogue.

Rogue poked her tongue out at him.

"Oh," Kurt said, snapping his fingers. "The local fitness centre has one of your weight machines."

Rogue's face lit up. "Really? 'Cause we've only made four of them thus far. The X-Men have one. The Avengers have one. And I have no idea where the other two went. Well, I know where one of them went now."

Kurt chuckled. "I'm told it's quite popular."

"Cool."

Rogue and Bobby unloaded the rest of the supplies they had brought, and then Kurt took Rogue on a brief tour of the church he presided over. Rogue hadn't been there before and thought it was great. After that point it was clear that they'd be more in the way than helpful, so Rogue and Bobby took their leave. As Rogue had plenty of air left, Bobby took her on the scenic tour of "Mutant Town".

As they drove down the many streets, Rogue could understand what Bobby and Kurt meant by it being mostly self-sufficient and a mutant town in every sense of the word. All the buildings they passed by were one of three types: rundown, modern, or under construction. They even passed by one that had a construction crew on it and at least one of the crew was using their powers to build.

People who were obviously mutant were often seen on the streets. There were clothing stores that specialised in "all body types" with many advertising the services of tailors or dressmakers. There was a jewellery store that advertised custom pieces "while you wait" and a local theatre that was advertising that they really do fly in their current production of Peter Pan.

Bobby pulled up in the fitness centre's parking lot and they headed inside. Rogue got a few curious looks, but for the most part no one looked at her in any particular way, and she noticed exactly because of that. It was nice to go out in public and not have people stare at her like she was some kind of freak.

They were in the midst of talking to the receptionist about a tour when a manager came out of his nearby office. At first the manager didn't seem to notice them, and they didn't really notice him, being engrossed in their conversation. Then the manager stopped as if doing a double take, and headed to the desk.

"Excuse me," he said, his eyes on Rogue, "I don't mean to interrupt, but are you Rogue? The one who designed the super-strength weight machine?"

Rogue smiled shyly. She hadn't expected to be recognised. "Umm, yeah, I am actually."

"It is so great to meet you!" he exclaimed, and he held his hand out to her. "I have super-strength! That weight machine is my new best friend, I am telling you. And it's really popular with the rest of our clientele. It's so popular, in fact, anyone interested has to book time in advance. Definitely getting another one when we're done paying this one off, that's for sure."

"Well, I'm really glad you're getting so much use out of it," Rogue replied, grinning. "Can't ask for a higher compliment than that."

The manager beamed, and then seemed to realise he hadn't introduced himself, which he amended, and offered to show them around. They accepted, and he took them on a tour of the fitness centre. The last stop was to the weight machine, which was in use when they arrived. Rogue thought it was pretty cool to actually see her weight machine in a commercial setting with someone other than herself actually using it.

"Oh rats," Rogue said when the computer in her helmet flashed up with an alert. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short. I'm starting to get low on air."

The manager was disappointed but understanding.

"Would there be a chance for a photo first?" he asked, fishing out his smart phone.

"Sure, we have time for that," Rogue replied with a slight smile. "Bobby?"

"Sure, sure," Bobby agreed. He had found the whole thing rather amusing.

Bobby stood back and the manager stood beside Rogue with a big cheesy grin on his face. He chuckled to himself and took the photo, then handed the phone back to the manager.

"Alright, well, we should be going, but thank you for the tour," Rogue said.

"You're welcome. Come back any time," the manager replied as he walked with them to the door.

A few minutes later they were back in the car. Rogue got into the back seat (which was more comfortable than the front seat with her need for air) and as Bobby drove off, she plugged in the last of her air cylinders.

"Well, that was unexpected," Rogue said.

"Heh," Bobby chuckled. "You have a fan. You're famous."

"I'd hardly call myself famous. You heard the man," Rogue replied tolerantly. "I'd made something he'd been after for ages. Previously he used to do his weight training by lifting empty train carriages. Specialist knowledge, Bobby."

"Hey, however you wanna dismiss it," Bobby said, grinning at her through the rear view mirror. "Nevermind the fact that your gravity generator's gonna revolutionise living in space."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Don't you start. Look, all I did was come up with a theory that was proven correct through my weight machine. But this thing we're working on for space? This is a group effort. I just got things started. I'm not in any position to refine it or finalise it. That'll be up to other people."

"Blah, blah, blah," Bobby replied. "All I'm hearing is 'I don't want to brag, but yes I really am that awesome'."

"If only I had something to throw at you."

"Not while I'm driving."

Magneto's eyes ran over the printouts of the design of the space station he and Rogue had been working on, with some recent modifications made to account for the gravity generator. Rogue had ecstatically reported that there had been some success on the International Space Station with testing the gravity generator. As with all things there were still kinks to work out, but on the whole the testing had been considered a success.

He would have liked to have had a better look at the current schematics for the actual machine, but he understood the theory, and he knew how the weight machine worked. He knew enough for his purposes.

Magneto glanced at the calendar hanging up on the wall. It was only a matter of time now.

It was kept quiet at first, but it was only a matter of time before it started to spread, and more and more mutants came forward. Even then those in power chose to dismiss individual problems until their patients started comparing notes and realised there was far more going on than what they'd been led to believe. Soon all of Mutant Town was talking, with suspicious glances at the government funded hospital, and in the end Kurt decided to call Hank and inquire if he would mind lending them his expertise.

Although initially reluctant, for playing doctor to a whole town wasn't really what he wanted to spend time doing, Hank was very glad he agreed. He'd only gotten through a third of the afflicted, and only saw a handful of test results when he started making frantic phone calls to the CDC. In short order, Hank's findings were confirmed, and Mutant Town was put under quarantine.

"It gets worse," Hank said during a hurried report to Storm. "Half of the hospital staff have been murdered, gunned down military style. More to the point, these are the ones who had the most contact with the infected patients. We're trying to track down the rest of the staff; most have been accounted for, but there's a handful we haven't located yet. And all the patient records for known infected ones have been destroyed."

"It is a manufactured virus," Storm said slowly, "isn't it?"

"It certainly looks that way. And whoever is bankrolling it doesn't want us to figure out how to cure it any time soon," Hank replied gravely. "I need to go."

"Of course. I am sure you have quite enough on your plate at the moment," Storm said sympathetically. "Thank you for keeping us in the loop."

"I wish I could say it was my pleasure."

"...and if any of you have any symptoms at all, I want you to go to the med lab immediately," Storm informed the staff and entirety of the student body, crammed together in the assembly hall. "I would far rather you go and only have a minor cold, than for you not to go, and it turn out you have been infected by this Legacy Virus. Fortunately, so far it has been restricted to Mutant Town, but I know that many of us pay visits there. Better to be safe than sorry."

It went without saying that there would be no more visiting Mutant Town. Not that there was much choice in the matter, since it was under quarantine. So far the only good news was that baseline humans appeared to be immune, although the investigators hadn't ruled out the possibility that they could still be carriers.

"Excuse me, Ms Monroe," spoke up one of the older students. "But didn't you say one of the symptoms was loss of control over our gifts? Some of us can't even control them now."

"There is also a myriad of other symptoms," Storm replied firmly. "And the loss of control we are talking about here is significant. I am certain you will notice if you have much less control than normal. Not that any of this is an excuse not to continue trying your best."

Hank didn't even look up from his work as Tony stepped into the hospital laboratory room, dressed in his Iron Man suit.

"You're breaking quarantine," Hank said dispassionately as he studied what was under the microscope.

"I'm in airtight mode," Tony replied cheerfully. "Sure it means I can't hang around long, limited air supply and all that, but I should be—"

"For all we know the virus could end up on your suit."

"I'll go straight home and run through decontamination," Tony replied solemnly. "Heck, maybe I'll invite Rogue over and she can lift her helmet for a second and kill all the bugs that way. Say...is that possible? Could we have her absorb Mutant Town and—"

"There are a number of flaws in that proposition," Hank said, finally lifting his head from the microscope to look at Tony. "First and foremost, although initially we suspected Rogue may be able to absorb viruses, viruses are not technically alive and we are now aware that she has a healing factor. Logan's, as a matter of fact, which is the fastest, most efficient known healing factor on the planet."

Hank took off his glasses and began inspecting and polishing the lenses.

"Secondly," he went on. "Even assuming that she can absorb man-made viruses, Rogue would have to absorb all the people in Mutant Town. Now, while we could break it down section by section based on her area of effect—whatever her range may be now—there are still a lot of people within a 150 yard radius in any part of Mutant Town. Based on her prior experience absorbing those 87 people almost ten years ago now, I do not believe she would survive the mental damage even one such attempt would cause."

"Right," Tony said thoughtfully, having forgotten all about that.

"Thirdly," Hank continued, "in addition to the micro-organisms and humans, Rogue would also absorb all of the animal and plants here. Now, while I'm sure that many people would be happy to be rid of cockroach infestations, I am certain they would be less than pleased to lose their pets. Not to mention upsetting the general ecological balance."

Tony gave a shrug.

"Fourthly—"

"How many more flaws have you got here?"

"—while such an attempt may kill any of the Legacy Virus in the air, it would not help anyone already infected. I could not guarantee that they would be cured even if they had prolonged exposure to Rogue's powers, which would have the side-effects of coma or even death. Additionally, if we cannot cure the infected, then the virus will simply spread again, rendering Rogue's effort moot, and leaving Mutant Town with an unbalanced eco-system and Rogue possibly permanently brain damaged with every single power of every single mutant resident of Mutant Town at her disposal."

Tony blanched. "Right. Plan was not only a complete dud, but a total disaster. I'll get out of your hair."

Hank put his glasses back on. "That would be appreciated."

Although he opted not to interrupt Hank any further, Tony wasn't inclined to leave right away. He looked idly around the lab and was about to leave when the sensors on his suit noticed a curious heat signature behind one of the walls. He wandered over, but couldn't find a source or a door. Tony left the lab and glanced around at the neighbouring rooms and walls but couldn't locate a way into the room with the heat signature. He went upstairs and down just in case it happened to be part of a room with its own staircase, but again, found nothing.

He was sure it was nothing important, but it was bothering him, and he asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to locate blueprints of the hospital for him. The blueprints were not enlightening at all; just depicted a big blank space where the heat signature was.

Tony went back to the walls that made up the room he was trying to get into and looked again, trying to find some sort of explanation before he had to leave. Just as he was about to give into his lowered air supply, he happened to spy in the wall in the lab a series of marks on the wall in a vertical line between two sets of shelves. Upon further examination, he realised the marks were shallow dents that had cracked the paint and in some places chipped pieces off completely. The marks also matched up exactly with the outer corners of the set of shelves on the left.

He examined the shelves carefully and with a smile found a switch in one of the boxes on the shelf. He flicked it and moved out of the way as the door opened. Hank, the only other person in the lab at that time, started and looked up.

"Tony?" he inquired. "What are you... I say."

"Hey Hank," Tony replied peering into the room past the hidden door. "You want to see this."

Hank stood and made his way over. His eyes widened when he realised the significance of the room Tony had found.

"Oh my stars and garters," he breathed. "A lab."

"A lab within a lab," Tony mused as Hank began investigating the equipment. "And if my information is correct—I'll confirm later—I'd say this has been here since the place was built."

Hank gingerly picked up a vial. "Tony, if this is what I think it is, I would say that the whole point of building this hospital was to disguise its true purpose: developing the Legacy Virus."

Gambit gave Lydia a nod as he approached her in the airport, a bag slung over his shoulder. She gave him a slight smile as he closed the distance, and then turned towards the way out.

"How was your flight?" she inquired as they walked together.

"It was a flight," Gambit replied with a shrug. "Thanks for picking me up. I was just going to take a hire car."

"We had to catch up anyway," Lydia replied in dismissal. "I know you're only here overnight, and I have a little something from Stark for you."

Gambit's face lit up. "Got to the top of the list?"

"Yes, you did."

"Oh goody."

Lydia chuckled. "Just what are you planning on doing with that hazmat suit, Remy?"

"Told you," Gambit replied loftily as they made their way through the crowds to the parking lot. "It's so I can visit Rogue."

"She already has one."

"Oui, but it's not fair to make her wear the hazmat suit all the time. Variety is the spice of life and all that," Gambit said.

"Mmhmm, so Remy," Lydia said with a hint of mischief in her voice. "What are you planning on doing with that hazmat suit?"

"It's all about Rogue," Gambit replied solemnly.

"Rogue might be the main reason, but she sure isn't the only reason."

"I don't know what you're implying."

"Uh huh."

"You besmirching my character?" Gambit asked teasingly.

"Don't have to. You to that all by yourself," Lydia replied, flicking out the keys to her car.

"Well, if you need a job done right..." he said as Lydia's car unlocked.

"Hire someone to do it for you?" Lydia smirked at him.

Gambit chuckled and they got in the car. Before too long they were out of the parking lot and headed to the hotel where Gambit would be staying that night.

"Which reminds me," she said. "I'm planning on retiring in the next few years."

"Retiring?" Gambit repeated. "You're not that old."

"I will be in a few years," Lydia said solemnly. "I think it's about time I started training up a successor, don't you think?"

Gambit grumbled. "Guess so."

"So, did you want to pick someone, or shall I?" Lydia inquired.

Gambit was silent for a moment as he pondered the situation. Lydia was one of the few trusted associates of the Thieves Guild. Although she had some thief skills under her belt, she never really had any talent or interest in the trade. She knew about the longevity of the Thieves Guild's Full Members, and enjoyed the perks that came with knowing one of the Guild's biggest secrets; that being she got a lot of work through the Guild that couldn't be risked with just anyone. Honest work at that.

"How about Diana?" Gambit asked.

Lydia smiled at the mention of her daughter's name. "The very person I had in mind."

"She's not too busy with the kids?"

"No, they're all in school now. She's been planning to get back into the workforce," Lydia replied. "Now, I will need a letter of authorisation from you—"

"Write something up, and I'll sign it next time I'm in LA," Gambit replied. "Well, if you can meet me at the airport. After I'm done in New Orleans I'm headed to Australia, so I'll be back here in a couple of weeks."

"You really rack up those frequent flier miles, don't you?"

Rogue looked at Magneto in surprise through the screen as he finished packing up his chessboard.

"What do you mean, you're leaving?" she asked.

"I believe I made myself quite clear," Magneto replied patiently. "I handed my two weeks notice to Storm just this morning."

"But why?"

Rogue wasn't sure how to deal with this. The part of her that couldn't understand how she and Magneto became friends in the first place couldn't even figure out why she was so upset. The rest of her had just always assumed that Magneto would stay at Xavier's.

"I have things that need attending elsewhere," Magneto said, unaware of her inner turmoil. "Besides, the school is well-stocked with teachers now. I am not needed here any more."

"I wouldn't say that," Rogue muttered, packing up her own chessboard.

"Kind of you to say."

Rogue grunted. "So, one or two more chess games left?"

Magneto smiled. "I think I can manage two." He stood with his chessboard under his arm. "Until next time."

"Yeah, see ya."

Magneto gave her a nod and departed. No sooner than the door closed behind him, than his phone rang. He huffed under his breath, but pulled it out of his pocket.

"Yes?" he said and listened intently to what the woman on the other end had to say. "Good. That was the last thing we needed. I'm assuming everything else is ready? ... Excellent. I have a few final things to wrap up here and then I shall meet you. Has Destiny had a chance to re-evaluate? ... I see... And the Legacy Virus?"

Magneto paused in his stride, not wanting to get any closer to the main populace of the school and be overheard. There were quite enough people with super-hearing around this place as it was without adding everyone else with normal hearing levels as well.

"That is rather vague, but I suppose that's normal for Destiny. As long as she's certain about Dr McCoy finding the cure in time... Good. That's the main thing. The rest does not concern us."

Magneto hung up, knowing that last part wasn't completely true. There was something in the future that was coming. Something that concerned him a lot more now than it had when Destiny first advised him. He had considered inviting Rogue along with him. Of all the people here, she was the one he felt should be there...

But Destiny had made it very clear. Although she couldn't see the exact outcome, she knew Rogue needed to be here when the time came. Without Rogue, the end result would be far, far worse.

AN: Okay, I just have to share this 'cause it amuses me:

My original plan with the Legacy Virus was for Gambit to help Rogue break into the lab where it was being developed so she could absorb it. However, when I began analysing the idea I realised there were all sorts of flaws in it, ones I couldn't work around. While I was rather disappointed in having to drop that plan, I did get a great deal of joy out of writing the scene between Tony and Hank where Hank points out all the reasons why attempting to have Rogue absorb the Legacy Virus isn't going to work! :D