X-nerd - Thanks for the awesome review!! Glad you like the resolution of thier fight. No one should spend Christmas fighting! Afraid I can't kill Ben just yet...he's still useful to me. (insert evil laugh here!)
Webbs - Thanks for betaing this chapter for me and for all the great advice! Couldn't do it without you. Well, I could but we'd be floating in a sea of comma's.
Fallen - Please, don't Explode! I implore you! What a mess that would be to clean up!! lol. I am very flattered you think so highly of my stuff. Thanks!
Yzak - You know how much I LUV cliffies!! Thanks for the continued support. :)
Pyrogasmic - One of the best you've read?? Thank you! Of course I will continue on! Please continue to review! Thanks so much!
In a large conference room amid the tunnels that made up the Xmen's headquarters, Charles Xavier was frowning. On either side of him, Hank and Logan watched the enormous screen with dark anticipation.
"I received this surveillance video from airport security just a few hours ago." Xavier's tone was reserved and grim. The large flat display brought to life a grainy resolution of a man approaching Rachel's Bentley.
"Any way to make that a little less impossible to decipher?" Logan requested sardonically, his arms crossed over his burly chest. Hank leaned in and and worked his magic on the computerized feed. The result was a frighteningly clear resolution of a handsome blond smiling as he loosened the gas cap, pushed a small white sphere into the gas tank and closed the cap back. Then the vandal closed the latch and walked away glancing around as if to make sure no one had seen him. Hank froze on a pane of the blond man's handsome face. His blue eyes were twinkling as if he were participating in some juvenile frat prank.
"Who is that?" Logan asked in a low growl, his eyes narrowing at the potential threat this man presented.
"Ben Gammon. Former chief engineer of Donivan Enterprise's Biochemical Division." Hank answered with a frown that matched the professor's. He'd had run ins with Gammon before, primarily when he'd been investigating Donivan Enterprises.
"And Rachel Wagner's ex-fiancé." Xavier replied through tight lips. "It was rumored he was the mastermind responsible for Cerebro's Alkali dopelganger." He stared at Ben's image frozen on the screen.
His mind drifted back to his first meeting with Rachel when her last name was still Donivan and she was barely two months pregnant with a mutant child. He had presented her with irrefutable evidence of Gammon's underhanded involvement in the Weapon X program. He'd been impressed with her courage and her strength of character. Sadly, he shook his head. Her baby's death had destroyed her; despite her outward appearance, she was a mere shadow of the strong woman she had once been.
They were all silent for a moment. But the wheels were turning in Hank McCoy's mind. Grabbing a pen and notepad out of his lab coat, he wrote out b-e-n-g-a-m-m-o-n. Beneath that he wrote, b-o-m-e-n-m-a-n-g, the name of Rachel's doctor. Then, he made straight, bold, criss crossing lines till all the letters were matched up. He stepped back, taking a deep breath.
"My stars and garters," he whispered.
"Go!"
"Hmm?" Daniel looked up from his club soda to see Rory's dark eyes looking at him admonishingly.
"I said, Go." Rory demanded, taking the drink from his partner's hands. "You're worried sick about Rachel and you're not going to be able to think about anything else till you check on her."
Daniel shook his head. "She's a big girl, Rory." He tried to take his drink back. "I'm not her nurse maid." He twisted his lips into an irritated expression. "We'll be running by to drop off those files after the party anyway."
"Yes, and you're going to be nothing but a wet blanket and worry wart till then," Rory insisted, holding the drink out of reach.
The larger man's shoulders slumped slightly. All around them, party goers happily mingled and chatted as medleys of Christmas tunes played in the background. He lifted his eyes to Rory's. For a long moment the two stared each other down. Daniel cried uncle first. "All right, I admit it! I'm worried about her."
"Then go check on her. Better yet, drag her skinny butt up, put her in something pretty and drag her back here." Rory gave Daniel a smile as they walked to the coat closet. "It'll do her some good!"
"And what are you going to do while I'm gone?" Daniel asked, digging for and retrieving his leather trench coat.
"Me?" the shorter brunette waggled his eyes. "I'm going to be flirting."
Daniel smirked and pulled Rory to him, whispering in his ear. "Just remember who brought you to the dance."
Rory couldn't help but laugh as he shoved his partner out the door into the freezing cold. "I'll save the last dance for you."
"I don't get it." Logan was the first to speak as the three were still staring at Hank's discovery. "Why the games? If he wanted Rachel, surely he's had the chance to snag her by now."
"It's not that simple, Logan." Hank offered in explanation. "Sociopathic predators often find a thrill from manipulating their prey. Controlling their victims, sometimes without the victim even being aware of it. For them, it's a game of domination. That would explain the nanobots in her system Who knows how long he's been controlling her in this manner?"
Xavier made a sound of discontent. "I'm afraid Hank is right." He reached out and turned off the screen. He already knew neither Kurt nor Rachel was on the campus grounds and that worried him greatly in light of this current discovery.
He reached his mind out further, trying to find that distinctive presence that was Kurt Wagner. Xavier had become all too familiar with the German mutant's mind during the time he'd used Cerebro to track him down after the White House assassination attempt. Suddenly, the professor's head snapped up in a rare moment of alarmed shock. "Take the jet and get to the city – now! I'll send you the coordinates." He was already wheeling himself towards the door.
"Professor!" Logan called, a dark frown on his rugged face. "What's wrong?" He gripped his hands in to tight fists.
Hank was already using the computer at his disposal to remotely prep the Blackbird for flight. He had worked with Professor Xavier for many years. "It's Nightcrawler isn't it?" He knew from the older man's body language that this was serious. Deducing with scarcely a whisper of doubt in his voice, he asked "Gammon has them?"
Xavier merely nodded. He kept his face in a tight mask of control as the three hurried out the door.
"Not for long." Logan promised with a predatory scowl, brandishing his claws out of reflex and making for the hangar.
He couldn't believe his luck. When Ben got to Rachel's building, he parked his black Mercedes in its usual spot in the alley behind her building. Coming in through the service entrance, he found Rachel and her mutant freak out cold in the Audi. Judging from the fact that the fumes from the broken window were barely detectable, they had sprung the trap set for Nightcrawler some time ago. Probably right after he'd left his office. Ben knew he had to work quickly to secure them both before they regained consciousness.
As he open the passenger door, Rachel's cell phone rang. He picked it up out of her purse and turned it off, not even bothering to look at the number. "We don't have time for interruptions," he muttered as he shoved it in his pocket, then picked the purse up and slung it over one shoulder.
Then, he quickly lifted Rachel's dead weight and carried her to his car, cradling her against him gently. He thought about the best place to put her, given that he now had two that he had to transport simultaneously. He'd been caught somewhat unprepared for this, but he'd just have to make do. Thank God he'd left the inhibitor collar in that freak's trunk, activated and tuned outward like a wireless fence. Otherwise, Nightcrawler might have gotten a teleport off before going under, and that would have just ruined Ben's Christmas.
Popping his trunk, Ben carefully lowered Rachel into the clean interior of it. He set her purse down beside her and reached into the gym bag he'd packed for this occasion. He took out a roll of duct tape and several zip ties. He set the zip ties aside; he'd save those for the freak.
"Shh...there, there, sweetheart." Ben cooed to an unresponsive Rachel. He leaned over her, stroking her dark hair and kissing her lips as she lay motionless beneath him.
"I'm sorry to have to do this, Rachel. But I can't risk you running away again." Quickly, he ripped off a short length of the silver-gray tape and covered Rachel's mouth with it. Then he bound her wrist and feet, being careful not to make her restraints too tight. He knew how easily she bruised.
"It's going to be all right, now." he promised. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. Not Cornelius, not Nightcrawler. Not anyone." He leaned down and stroked her cheek as she lay comatose. "I'm taking you home. In a few hours, it will be like we were never apart, I promise." With that he stepped back and closed the trunk, casting a sleeping Rachel into total darkness.
Daniel made his pilgrimage to Rachel's apartment, trying her cell and frowning deeply when he was sent straight to voice mail again. He remembered the emptiness in her voice and couldn't help but grip the steering wheel tighter. She never turned her phone off. She might be too drunk to answer it, at times, but he'd never known her to just turn it off. He was quickly going from being afraid he'd find her passed out drunk, to hoping he'd find her passed out drunk. He nudged his sports car to go a little faster.
Daniel pressed his remote to unlock Rachel's garage gate. It slid back obediently and his white Jaguar made a low rumble as it passed under the low ceiling into the underground garage. The red head turned see Rachel's maroon car, then made a disgruntled sound. Kurt's car was also here...with the window busted out. He sighed; even in a locked garage, your car wasn't safe. He couldn't help but wonder why Kurt's car was here at all. What if he'd followed Rachel back here? A knot of worry grew in his stomach as her cell sent him back to voice mail once again. He gave up and shoved the phone in his coat pocket.
What if this Kurt guy was some kind of psycho nut case? Granted, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy when they'd had coffee a couple of nights ago, but Rachel was not known for having the best luck in men she dated. He wasn't sure what her romantic life had been like between the time they'd lost touch several years ago and when she'd called him up four months ago with a job offer. But, he shook his head as he remembered some of the real prize winners she'd gotten tangled up with in college.
He parked his car and got out to inspect the damage to the assaulted Audi. Frowning again he noted the passenger side door was ajar. As he got closer he made a deeper sound of disquiet. The majority of the glass from the driver's side was on the ground, not inside the car. Someone wasn't trying to get in...someone was trying to get out. Chills went up Daniel's spine.
He could smell an odd odor lingering in the air, getting a little stronger the closer he stood to the gold car. "Rachel?" He called out, his voice bouncing around the concrete structure. "Rachel, are you down here?" Daniel drew up, his mouth tightening into a expression of worry as he started towards the elevators. But before he got two steps, his peripheral vision caught the outline of a man in a shadowed corner, hurriedly dragging something to the service exit. His heart jumped to his throat as he noticed the lump being dragged was about the size of a person – maybe Rachel sized. Alarmed, he made a fast jog towards the stranger. Rachel, what have you gotten yourself into?
"Hey!" He called out in a voice that demanded attention. "What the Hell you got there, pal?"
The form looked up, cursing. "Just taking out the trash..." The voice held a faint stab of apprehension. He was lying and Daniel knew it. He easily outpaced the burdened stranger till he drew up on him. What he saw shocked him speechless.
The blond stranger was dragging a creature across the floor. It was bound by its wrists and ankles. It was the kind of thing Daniel had only seen in those cheesy horror movies he'd watched and the comic books he'd pilfered out of his brother's room as a kid. It was dark blue, almost invisible in the shadow, with trifingered hands and bird like feet. It was dressed in street clothes with some shiny high-tech looking dog collar around its neck. And - good God! Was that a tail he saw?? At first, he could only gawk at this thing before he stepped back in alarm as it stirred within its confines.
"Dear God!" He exhaled when he finally got his voice. "What is it??"
"I don't know." The guy was nervous and wouldn't meet Daniel's eyes. "I caught it breaking the window in that car over there. I guess he was trying to steal it." A finger pointed in the direction of the assaulted Audi. "Knocked it out. I'm just gonna lock it up and call the police." He hefted the dead weight of the monster, trying to get a better hand hold.
One of Kurt's first observations about Daniel had been that he was not an idiot. Kurt was right. Even as Daniel's mind reeled at the sight of this-this thing, his clever brain was already pulling apart the story that had just been fed to him.
Caught him breaking into the car? No. There was shattered glass on the outside of the car, not the inside. And why break the glass at all if the passenger door was open?
Knocked it out? Locking it up to call police? No way. You see something this scary, you don't drag it all the way across the garage. You scream and run like Hell. Let it have the damn car!
The obvious lies, combined with this guy's nervous manner and the odd smell coming from the car made it appear that – as unbelievable as it seemed – this demonic looking creature was somehow a victim of foul play. Daniel wagered his next move very carefully.
"Look...I got my cell phone on me. I'll call 911." He reached slowly towards his coat pocket.
"No!" Was the overly quick response. "I got it." The stranger pulled a cell phone out of his pocket with his free hand.
The cell phone he brandished was a black Vertu. That was an expensive phone, Daniel mused. Not a lot of people could afford a techno-toy like that. The one Rachel had put her back about eight grand.
Daniel sat on the fence. Had the creature on the floor been a person, he wouldn't even be hesitating to come to its aid. But, surely something that looked that evil had to be doing something that warranted the situation it was in. Still, his mind knew this nervous man in front of him was lying about something.
"Daniel..."
At first he thought he must have been hallucinating. Maybe the fumes from the car were messing with his head. Then he looked down at the creature tied up on the floor. Bleary yellow eyes looked up at him. It had called his name. Not only had it called his name, it called his name with Kurt Wagner's voice! No, that was impossible...
Before Daniel could rethink his logic, the other man dropped the burdensome creature and the cell phone as he reached in his waist band. Acting solely on instinct, Daniel lunged forward swiftly and grabbed for the other man's wrist. The two tangled for just a moment before Daniel lodged his shoulder against his opponent's chest and shoved him into the nearby wall. A pain filled cry spewed forth from his adversary as he desperately sought to pull his arm up. Daniel could clearly see a sidearm in the blond's grasp. Unsure if this deranged madman sought to shoot him, or the creature - or both, - Daniel grabbed the barrel and winced as the garage exploded with the sound of a gunshot. As the he attempted to fire again, the assailant found himself flipped backwards onto the ground as the bound creature swung its legs out and caught the gunman behind his unguarded knees. He sprawled on the floor; his back landing with a loud 'THUMP'. The gun flew from his fingers and clattered across the floor with a metallic scraping sound.
Scrambling to his feet, the defeated enemy made a desperate attempt to escape. A sucker punch to Daniel's face caught him by surprise. By the time Daniel was able to see again, the stranger was gone and he was left alone with the terrifying monster tied up at his feet. Quickly, Daniel recovered the Beretta left behind by his attacker.
Kurt laid on the floor, breathing deeply, trying to get the noxious gas out of his system. That swipe at Ben Gammon's knees was not the best offensive attack of his career, but under the circumstances, it would have to do. His mind was reeling as it tried to take in the sight of Ben Gammon alive and well. As his vision cleared a little, he saw a look on Daniel's face he'd become all too accustomed to. Terror.
"What are you?" Daniel demanded, training the gun directly between mutant's golden eyes. "Some kind of mutant freak?"
Kurt had no time for Daniel's stupidity or prejudice. "Where is Rachel??" he enjoined fiercely. Despite the wooziness that still plagued him, the blue furred mutant managed to roll up to a sitting position. He eyed the gun aimed at him and met Daniel's wild gaze steadily. "For God's sake Daniel, put that gun away before you shoot one of us!"
The next few moments wore by like hours as Daniel carefully considered all his options. Finally, he lowered the weapon, but made no move to release the mutant from his binds.
"Where is Rachel?" Kurt demanded insistently, craning his neck for any sign of her. The Audi's car door was wide open, but Rachel was not inside. Then he caught sight of the cell phone Ben had left behind. A black Vertu with Donivan Enterprises scripted in elegant and impressive gold lettering along its leather back. He fought the flurry of panic that was threatening to overtake him. Mein Gott, he had her. The pit of his stomach roiled as the certainty fell on him.
Ben had taken Rachel.
Okey dokey! Hope everyone is enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing. Please, hit that review button and let me know what you think so far!! Thanks!