AN: Well finally I manage an update once again, I apologize for taking so long. My health however has taken an unfortunate turn for the worse, I haven't been feeling well lately. I will attempt to update much sooner this time, but until my health improves it may be a couple of weeks before the next update. Be sure to review and I hope this chapter is up to my usual standards.
Brandon and Alan stood there leaning up against the wall of the Danger Room as Logan attempted to persuade Kincaid to talk. The fact was that Kincaid had maintained his composure and so far had said absolutely nothing that was even close to useful. For the past thirty minutes they had taken turns talking to the man, and now Logan had recently just started to interrogate the man. Logan paced back and forth as the two watched him interrogate the man.
"Alright listen here bub; you are going to tell me where the Master and the Brotherhood are right now?" Logan threatened as his claws popped out trying to intimidate Kincaid further.
"Kincaid, Thomas serial number…." Kincaid muttered as he continued to recite the usual POW training that the military had instituted.
"Great another hour of this and I'll want to shoot myself." Alan muttered joking halfheartedly as he and Brandon leaned against the wall neither one of them moving.
Brandon sat down on the floor before whispering, "We have plenty of time, and it won't be much longer before Kincaid cracks. Hey there is something that has been bothering me though, why did you bring Kincaid here? You normally consider all the angles but you rushed here with him for some reason, I just want to know why."
"In normal circumstances I would have had you guys meet me at some secluded and isolated spot, but this is far from normal. I brought him here because there are some very unhappy people out there, and they wouldn't have hesitated to kill Kincaid where ever I took him. However, no one in their right mind would attack this place with you and all of your friends here. It was just a practical move that I made making sure that you all had enough time with our favorite little mutant hating traitor." Alan whispered the two staying as quiet as possible to keep Kincaid from hearing them.
"I understand I really wish you didn't bring him here though. His presence is very unsettling to a few of us and well it threatens the safety of this place," Brandon started as he looked at his friend, "this is just getting to complicated for my taste, it was so much easier following orders."
"Yeah it's a pain in the ass, but trust me I didn't bring him here without thinking it through. No one in their right mind would attack this place, and if Kincaid dies before he talks than my efforts would have been for nothing. I don't like working for my bosses, in fact they aren't too thrilled about this situation right now. Bah but who cares about those stiff bastards, they couldn't scratch their asses without approval from the Secretary of Defense." Alan softly said as the two nodded to each other in understanding as Logan worked Kincaid over with threats.
Brandon and Alan both watched as Logan literally embedded his claws right through the chair that Kincaid was sitting in for the time being. The claws had barely missed Kincaid's shoulders the two just shrugging as Logan continued to try his best to intimidate the man. Alan walked over to the man laughing a little as some urine ran down Kincaid's pants leg.
"Well I'll be damned old timer; you got him to piss himself. Not a bad job, but he still doesn't want to talk it seems, guess we are going to have to try something a bit more drastic. I was so hoping I would get a chance to chat with you Kincaid before well you know what I have to do." Alan bellowed as he withdrew his side arm, the MEU pistol clearly pointed at Kincaid.
"Humph, don't make me laugh, if I wouldn't talk to you when you captured me, what makes you think I will now." Kincaid mocked as Alan shook his head in distaste.
"Well, you see that was then and now well I intend to shatter your knee cap." Alan spoke eerily as he pushed the pistol down hard onto Kincaid's right knee.
"You wouldn't dare," Kincaid bragged as he watched their reaction, "I'm an army general if you don't let me go, the US army will burn this place to the ground."
Alan kicked the chair down forcing Kincaid to the floor before answering, "I'm so sorry to disappoint you moron, but no one will be coming here for you. In fact they wouldn't dare come here without something big occurring because it would incur the wrath of a lot of powerful individuals including the ones I work for at least for the moment any way. So how about I adjust my aim and neuter your ass?"
"Kincaid we could just as easily have the Professor rip into your piss ant mind and tear the information out. I mean that would be excruciatingly painful, and then there would also be the fact you would probably think you were five or maybe I could convince the Professor to make you think you are a chicken or something." Brandon interjected as Alan holstered his weapon before picking Kincaid and the chair up.
"You don't have the balls for that Brandon and neither does Xavier. You are both weak and so are all of your so called friends…" Kincaid stated as he stopped when Alan kicked him in the gut, forcing Kincaid back on the ground again.
"They might be weak Kincaid but I can promise you that I'm your worst nightmare. I got no problem doing whatever it takes to get things done, even if it means putting a few bullets in you that aren't life threatening. You don't want to push me Kincaid that much I can promise; I'm rather fond of the people here so you might want to watch your mouth." Alan threatened as he pulled Kincaid up again and withdrew his pistol once more.
The three looked at each other trying to figure out what they would do next, when the doors to the Danger Room opened. Professor Xavier wheeled into the room, stopping just in front of Kincaid and looking cautiously at the African American general. Brandon and Alan looked at each cautiously, neither one knew exactly why the Professor had chosen this time to enter.
"I am Charles Xavier, General Kincaid; I must admit that we have more than a few questions for you. While I would like to know more about this Master individual, I must know where he is keeping the Brotherhood. I would much rather you talk to me rather than letting Logan and the other three continue." Professor Xavier spoke attempting to rationally convince Kincaid to cooperate.
Kincaid merely leaned forward a little spitting at the Professor before responding, "I'll never help you freaks, you're all going to burn in hell. I can't wait to see all of you freaks get what you deserve."
"Hey Kincaid, you do know that the Master guy and Reaper are both mutants right?" Brandon asked curious to see the man's response.
"I will not believe the lies of the enemy, I have met both on many occasions they are humans who believe in a pure world without you mutant bastards. They are going to kill all of you mutant bastards." Kincaid remarked a dark laugh escaping from his mouth as the Professor and everyone else looked at him curiously.
"Hey Brandon, is it just me or does this guy make no sense whatsoever. He claims to hate mutants and he clearly does, but why would you work for them then. Damn this is just crazy; you would think a mutant hating bastard like him would be able to see the truth." Alan spoke the Professor suddenly turning pale at a thought that had just entered his mind.
Brandon looked over at the Professor before asking, "Hey Professor, are you okay? You don't look so good; maybe you should let us handle this."
"I'll be fine; there is no need for concern. I believe I know a way to get Kincaid to answer our questions. Why don't the two of you go get some food, I know that the two of you are hungry and must have a lot to catch up on." Professor Xavier stated kindly both of them knowing that the Professor wanted them to leave.
"Of course Professor, we'll be back after we take a small break." Brandon replied as he and Alan slowly left the room both unsure of what the Professor was planning.
Brandon and Alan disappeared from the Danger Room quickly, the Professor bowing his head slightly after they had left. Logan growled some, he wasn't sure what Charles was planning, but he didn't want any of the younger students around. He retracted his claws, staring menacingly at Kincaid, the army general remaining very still.
"General Kincaid," Professor Xavier started, "there is something I would like to show you, and while I don't know if this will convince you to cooperate you should know that it is the truth."
Kincaid started at the Professor before replying with, "Dirty mutant bastard don't you dare do anything to me."
"Charles, what are you up to?" Logan growled as Kincaid seemed to struggle slightly and then stop, it was clear that the Professor was using his telepathy to show him various images.
"It's not possible, its not…get out of my head." Kincaid screamed as he thrashed about in his chair finally getting the Professor to stop showing him the images in his mind.
"If it were any other situation I would not consider this except for the direst of emergencies," Charles Xavier spoke as he looked over at Kincaid who was sweating profusely, "however, I had to show you the truth. I'm asking you to please help me find the captured Brotherhood members?"
"I cant, I won't betray the Master. He is a human, I've seen him and he has no powers he is as human as I am." Kincaid yelled as he struggled against the ropes that held him in place.
"Well I have done everything that I'm willing to do, I could rip the information out of your mind like Brandon said, but that isn't something that I am willing to do. Logan, please try to get the location out of him as soon as possible." Professor Xavier spoke as he rolled off leaving Logan and Kincaid alone for the moment, at least until the Professor went back up to the control room of the Danger Room.
Logan grinned as Kincaid starred down the feral mutant, the two knew that the situation would really heat up since Logan knew how to get information that no one else knew. It only took a minute for Logan to start his mind games, trying to get the information out of Kincaid. He smiled as he started to try his usual techniques to get the man to talk, he had been saving these techniques until he was alone and now was his best chance to get the man to talk.
Back in the main part of the mansion Lean walked briskly through a hallway before opening a door that lead to a classroom. Shutting the door, she walked away turning into the living room and running into a few occupants of the institute. She bowed her head slightly before turning around to leave the room.
"Hey, you don t have to leave, this is a room for any one including visitors. Unless you don't want to talk with us, and then you can go back on your way." Jubilee commented as Amara and Tabby looked over at the person she was talking to, their backs had been turned to her until that very moment.
"That is not necessary; I just wouldn't know how to address you that is all. If you would excuse me, I should probably find Major Fitzgerald and request a new assignment." Leah started as she was about to walk away, her shirt's sleeve moving up and showing her tattoo, "It was very nice meeting all of you, and my name is Leah Carlson."
"Whoa, hey wait a minute." Tabby yelled as she got up running over to Leah and then pulling her over to Amara and Jubilee. "That is so cool; you got to tell me where you got such an interesting tattoo. I've never seen one quite like that, it's definitely something."
Leah hadn't struggled before but now she yanked her arm away before responding, "I'm sorry Miss, but that is something you do not need to know. I do not care to talk about past events with people that I do not know."
"Hmm well that's okay, but it's still a very cool tattoo. I'll never get one though; I just can't picture me with one." Jubilee replied as Leah looked over the three stopping once she got a close look at Amara.
"That's fine, you must be Ms. Aquilla. It is a pleasure to meet you; I have to admit that what Major Fitzgerald said about you does not do you justice. You are quite infamous in the corp for being the one to land Lance Corporal Ayers. Many female marines and daughters of high ranking officers failed were you succeeded." Leah stated coolly as she looked Amara over quickly.
"What do you mean exactly?" Amara asked a little concerned about what the visitor meant and figured that asking for clarification was the best way to understand the situation.
"In all honesty many women saw Lance Corporal Ayers as a way to advance their careers. Being the grandson of a powerful marine general has that affect; so many women sought him out. More than a few women were upset that you managed to land him, he is very picky about who he spends time with after all." Leah answered as Amara nodded in understanding.
"Brandon is picky about who he hangs around with? No offense, but he pretty much talks with everyone around here with the exception of Bobby." Jubilee interrupted as Leah smiled in response.
"That is not what I meant; I meant that in the time I've known Lance Corporal Ayers, Ms. Aquilla is the only person that I am aware of that Brandon made an overt attempt to date. He is very picky when it comes to women so when word got out he had a girlfriend it was very shocking and interesting information." Leah retorted as she closed her eyes slightly hoping that someone would come get her.
Amara smiled upon hearing that, but then frown before asking her next question, "Now that I think about it Brandon has never mentioned you, why is that? He better not have…"
"I can assure you that nothing ever happened between the two of us," Leah began as she secretly wished something had happened, "he was never interested in me in that manner. His reason for not mentioning me is probably due to the fact that he did not consider it important and also because I was scheduled for a long term deep infiltration assignment before Major Fitzgerald pulled some strings and had me reassigned to his team."
"That isn't much of an excuse, sounds like Brandon is going to be in trouble." Tabby said a small smirk on her face as Leah's eyes narrowed immediately.
"I did not mean to cause any problems for Lance Corporal Ayers; perhaps it would be best if you asked him for the answer to that question Ms. Aquilla. I can assure you that he meant no harm to you for not telling you about me, but his reason may revolve around the fact that he does not like to talk about what he did in the Marine Corp. Even among other members of the corp, he did not like talking about his duties and assignments." Leah replied her face actually showing some concern on it because she didn't want to cause any trouble for him.
"Yeah that sounds like Brandon, so how did you two meet and how long have you known each other?" Amara questioned as the others looked on in surprise, Amara had launched a mini interrogation into finding out about Leah and her relationship with Brandon.
Leah was taken aback a little by the upfront question before answering, "I have known him for about a year and a half, and I met him during a bet so to speak. You should know that I owe him more than any one else due to all of the help that he has given me. If not for him, Alan, and Johnson, I would have never made it into Force Reconnaissance."
"Well I'm going to find my boyfriend and find out what exactly is going on. You are supposed to tell your girlfriend about things like this." Amara barked storming out of the room while her two friends started to giggle.
"Mara doesn't seem very happy, I think Brandon's in big trouble. She has been a little moody lately now that I think about it; you wanna go watch the fireworks?" Tabby asked as Jubilee shook her head no.
"Well if you would excuse me, I should probably locate the major." Leah spoke walking away quickly from the two.
Meanwhile in the kitchen to friends were scouring the fridge for food. Alan opened a small container of food, taking a sniff and then tossing the container on the floor. He didn't know what the food was, but it smelt worse than the Tuesday surprise that Navy cooks would make on occasion. Opening another container Alan crossed his arms, this was even worse than being stuck in the desert with only a few emergency rations to eat.
"Hey Brandon, how come all you got in the fridge is this vegetarian shit?" Alan asked as he rummaged through the fridge, smelling a container of green food, "sweet mother of God, what the hell is this stuff. Somebody get me the number of a pizza joint before they try to poison me."
Brandon chuckled slightly before answering, "Stop over reacting and being such a baby, Kitty's a vegetarian and her cooking is well you know, and since Ms. Munroe was supervising the trip to Nova Roma, the cooking isn't up to its usual standards."
"Oh yeah you should have warned me about that girls cooking. I thought the Navy cooks were bad, but you don't see any of their food that could possibly be classified as a biological weapon. I buried that cookie she made, everything in a 50 foot radius died. So do we order a pizza or make a sub sandwich." Alan commented joking mostly as he pulled out the food he needed for a large sub sandwich.
"Sub sandwich because I don't have much money on me right now and I'm not surprised about the radius. You know that dead place out back, it seems a lot of people have buried her food and well nature suffers." Brandon answered as he reached up into a secret spot pulling out two cokes he had hidden in the kitchen.
"Whatever little brother, so how have things been going between you and the princess?" Alan asked as he started to make the sandwiches with a nice helping of ham and American cheese.
"Just fine and that's all I have to say about it. Oh yeah that reminds me though, I'm kind of engaged to the princess now." Brandon said conveniently slipping that last little detail into his statement.
Alan dropped the butter knife he was using on the mayo before responding, "No way are you kidding me, isn't it a little soon for that?"
"Look we aren't getting married any time soon; it's just a ritual I went through in Nova Roma that's all. It had to be done that way so her parents would approve, after all they are very important to her. I think I'm a long way away from being ready for a commitment of that nature." Brandon said justifying his reasons to the man he considered his best friend.
"Really, well I got two words for you," Alan replied a huge smile on his face, "bachelor party. I'm gonna throw you the biggest kick ass party know to man. Hell I better find a place that we can burn down because that might happen."
"Oh damn, come on Alan cant we just do things…"Brandon started to plead as Alan shook his head no in response.
Alan slammed a sharp clean knife through the sandwich cutting it in half while he talked, "Absolutely no way you are getting out of this one, and you might as well mark it down on your calendar. Don't worry it will be fun I promise."
"That is what I'm worried about," Brandon commented as Alan handed him half of the sandwich the two taking seats in the kitchen.
"You need to relax Brandon with all of the plans I have this is going to be a blast," Alan said a smirk appearing on his face as the two finally took a moment to eat the food.
"Exactly the reason why I am worried," Brandon started as Alan had a maniacal grin on his face, "the last time you said something was going to be a blast, it really involved explosions. It's not official yet any way, we both want to take our time because we aren't ready for that step yet. Well its more I'm not ready for that step; I just have a few things I need to handle first."
Alan carefully looked at his friend before responding, "Huh, what's up with you? No offense but you got a hot looking princess of a foreign country wanting to marry you and you claim to not be ready. Not to mention the two of you are all over each other, sounds like a good recipe for success if you ask me. So what's the problem?"
"It's just that I don't have a clue what I'm going to do in the future and I don't want to just sponge off of her parents and her title. I never really made a back up plan to being a marine, its all I ever knew so there was never really any question that I was going to be a marine. There is also the little fact that I have no idea how to be a prince or a king."
"Huh if that isn't a load of bullshit if I've ever heard it," Alan started taking a bite of his sandwich, "you already know what you are doing after being a marine. You are working here duh, I realize you don't get paid like a marine would but still this is your work. All considering what you can do, the only work you could get outside of here would either be as a mercenary or working for a shadow operation of the government."
"You know I would never consider doing either one of those. Even if this is a career as you call it, what about the fact I don't know anything about being a prince." Brandon retorted his friend merely dismissing his comment with a lackadaisical wave of his hand.
"Again your bullshitting, you grew up as a marine no doubt there, but there are a lot of similarities between the two. You may not know how to be a prince but you know how to lead people and that is much more important than some kind of rule they have. You also have the princess to help you out, so what's the real issue?" Alan barked he could see through his friend's usually strong smokescreens.
Brandon put his sandwich down pieces of lettuce and meat hitting his plate before responding, "I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Okay, but just remember that you can't make a whole life around the idea of beating that bastard Reaper. What you said may be partially true, and it probably is but I can tell there is something you are hiding. That's all I have to say about the matter, so when do you think the other bastard is going to talk." Alan stated as the two sat there eating their food.
They had only managed to eat a couple of bites before Amara burst into the room, causing both of the marines to look at each and then at her. The two looked at her and then back at each other and her again. She clearly wasn't happy and both of them seemed to realize it. Alan smiled as he bent over to whisper a few last encouraging words.
"I don't know what you did to piss her off little brother, but you better fix it fast before you end up single or worse a pile of ashes. You know what they say about women, I'm willing to bet it's even worse when said woman can literally burn you in the flames of hell." Alan whispered grabbing his food and running towards the exit.
"Brandon, why didn't you tell me about Leah? If nothing happened between you like she said then why didn't you tell me about her?" Amara questioned as Brandon gulped hard, he was definitely in trouble.
'Based on what I know about women, which is absolutely nothing, I'm so screwed. I have no clue what to do about this situation.' Brandon thought as he just looked at Amara, as she slowly approached him.
"Hello, I want an answer to my question; don't think for a minute that I'm just going to let this drop." Amara commented as she placed her hands on her hips as Brandon merely nodded in response.
'Oh yeah I'm in trouble, so I guess that leaves begging and pleading as the only options. I don't think I have a good answer for this kind of question any way.' Brandon thought as he finally decided on something to answer.
Brandon cleared his throat before responding, "I'm sorry Mara, nothing ever happened and believe me if I ever thought I would see Leah again I would have told you. I honestly expected to never see any of my marine friends again after my discharge. I swear I would have told you if I knew that we would be meeting her down the road. Besides she was supposed to be going on a long term infiltration mission, so I figured that she would be gone for a year or two."
"Well I guess I can forgive you then, but you better not ever do something like this again. You'll regret it if it does, understand? Now get over here for your punishment," Amara said viciously part of it teasing and part of it being a real threat.
"Yes ma'am," Brandon replied as he saluted her, "it will not happen again. I am aware that the consequences will be less than pleasant."
Amara laughed as she considered her options of what she could do to him for not telling about Leah. She crossed her arms seemingly in deep thought about what to do while Brandon waited impatiently for her decision. An idea crossed her mind, but she decided to wait until later.
"I've decided that I won't punish you right now, maybe later." Amara teased as Brandon merely nodded in response.
"This means you aren't angry at me right because I wouldn't know what to do if you were mad." Brandon commented as he pushed some of her stray strands of hair out of her face.
"Hmm well I guess its okay then, but you owe me one. I'll be sure to collect later on, you can count on that." Amara said as she moved in closer the two starting to kiss, it was very passionate considering they had been keeping things under wraps while they were in Nova Roma.
"Now that I think about this is the first time we have been alone in a while, maybe we should take advantage of it. We were almost always around others in Nova Roma; I wouldn't mind spending some time alone with you." Brandon said as he broke off the kiss, giving her a chance to respond.
Amara pouted a little before answering him, "You know what, you are so right. We should make the most of this before…"
Both of them grunted in frustration they could hear the Professor calling for everyone to assemble in the Danger Room. Brandon slumped his shoulders, his smile disappeared since this had to mean they had gotten the information out of Kincaid. Amara too was disappointed as they made their way to the elevator, being joined by most of the institute occupants including two visitors.
"Kincaid better have said something damn good to ruin such a moment, it was starting to get good." Alan barked as Brandon smacked his right hand against his head.
"Damn even my best friend is spying on me, don't you have something better to do Alan like blowing up some dictator or something." Brandon said teasingly as the others looked at Alan as the elevator descended into the depths of the mansion.
Leah interrupted them all loudly saying, "Sirs, I believe this is not the time or the place to talk about this. We should focus more on what our objectives might be since it is clear by this summons that things have preceded as plan."
"You know I'm starting to think he is right and you are all business and no fun. Remind me to order you to take a weeks vacation in the beautiful and sunny Bahamas." Alan said as they all stepped off of the elevator and made their way into the Danger Room.
"Sir, I beg your pardon but I do know how to have fun. I'm working however and that leaves little room for fun, and if you would please not mention the perverted moron when I was just starting to forget about him." Leah replied as everyone listened to their banter in the elevator.
Brandon coughed a little getting the two marines attention before speaking, "Maybe you two should talk about this some other time. I would prefer if you didn't call one of my friends that so why don't we just change the subject."
"Fine by me," Leah started before Alan laughed a little, "you sure have an interesting choice for a friend in that man though, and he's such a pain in the ass."
"So does any one have an idea of what this is about?" Scott asked as the two marines looked at each and nodded quickly.
"You'll see here soon soldier boy," Alan quipped as they entered the room, "Hey there Kincaid, did you miss me. I sure hope not because if you brought me down here for no reason, I'm going to have a lot of fun finishing the job, very slowly I might add."
The Professor smiled as all of the occupants of the institute seemed to be there together; even the guests had shown up. Everyone was staring at Kincaid, trying to figure out what exactly was going on with few exceptions. Alan looked at the Professor, the man was secretly hoping the Professor had received the information he wanted before he had to end the little question and answer session.
"I'll kill that bastard for what he did to us." X-23 barked as she charged forward only to be stopped by Alan, grabbing her arm forcing her to stop.
"Now, now kiddo, no need to get your hands dirty with this bastard's blood. Besides you don't want to waste your time hurting this idiot, he'll get what's coming to him I promise. Guess you and the old timer share more than a few blood cells; you both got a nasty temper and an even worse death glare." Alan stated calmly as X-23 glared at him and then at Kincaid.
"Fine," X-23 started as Alan let go of her arm, "but if he so much as moves I'm going to gut him."
Three people in particular glared at Kincaid, who was tied to a chair in the middle of the danger room. Dani, Noriko, and X-23 hated Kincaid for kidnapping them and were less than pleased with his presence. Noriko had moved behind Paige, she really didn't want to see the man at all. Dani was content to just stare at him, his eyes narrowing at the sight of her before Alan walked over to him and slipped a gag over his mouth.
"This is for your own good Kincaid, you say something stupid and they might want to kill you and in all honesty I would be more than happy to let Wolverine Junior there finish the job. Besides your final moment is going to be at my convenience, I haven't forgotten our little run in at your little playground when I tried to rescue those kids." Alan whispered as he tightened the gag and stood behind Kincaid with a rather large and sloppy grin on his face.
"I would like to start off by apologizing for my behavior lately," Professor Xavier started as everyone gave him their undivided attention, "the reason is that I recently found out that the Brotherhood members fighting with the Master are being controlled through drugs. I was desperately searching for them in order to launch a rescue attempt."
"That definitely explains some things Professor, but why didn't you tell us?" Scott asked, he had hoped the Professor would have come forward with such information sooner.
"I wanted all of you that were going to Nova Roma to go without worrying about this. I also didn't want to worry the rest of you until I had a plan of action to deal with the situation. However, I now know exactly where the Brotherhood members are, and we must make preparations to rescue them immediately. The Master has a training facility in South Africa that is currently holding the Brotherhood, which is our target." Professor Xavier spoke as everyone seemed to nod in agreement with three exceptions.
Logan stepped forward to add something to what was already stated, "You all got five days to be ready for the rescue attempt, our goal will be to grab all four of the Brotherhood members. Now all of you better go grab some rest or I'll be training you until its time to go."
"Our goal is to capture them correct; I'll make adjustments to my next few lessons. Tomorrow you'll be learning how to use tear gas, flash bangs, and sting grenades if there are any in all of those weapons Alan left on his last visit. Based upon what has been said knocking out or hindering the targets with non lethal weapons would be a huge advantage to us." Brandon barked as he immediately made plans to prepare the New Mutants.
"Don't worry those items are among the stuff I left here," Alan stated as he looked at his friend, "and don't you guys worry either, you'll have professional marines watching your six. I can't exactly let you guys have all the fun; I have some unfinished business with these piss ants any way. Leah make a note that we are going to blow their little hell hole of a base sky high if we get the chance." Alan said as he started to make plans of his own.
"I appreciate the offer Alan, but I don't think it would be…" Professor Xavier started as Leah quickly walked over to him, whispering something into his ear.
Leah bowed slightly to the man as a sign of respect before talking, "With all due respect sir, we are the best of the best, and now that Major Fitzgerald has made a decision you won't be able to talk him out of it. However, I'll try to change his mind later on; right now you're more than likely going to provoke him into wanting to fight even more."
"Very well, I'll let you handle it, as for the rest of you make good use of the time we have until we attempt the rescue. Logan, Hank, Scott, Ororo, and Jean if you could please come with me so we can start making the plans for a rescue attempt." Professor Xavier spoke as he motioned for Scott, Hank, Ororo, Jean and Logan to join him.
"Professor, I should probably go along to offer you my expertise in the area. Alan and Leah could also be useful since Recon marines are specifically training to rescue hostages." Brandon said calmly as the Professor looked over at him.
"I appreciate the offer Brandon, but for the time being I want you to prepare the New Mutants. This will be the hardest and most difficult mission that they have ever gone on and with your help they can be better prepared for the situation." Professor Xavier replied as the young man looked at him slightly disappointed about the response.
"The rest of you can go Leah and I have to transport Kincaid here somewhere else, don't want to leave him unguarded you know. Not to mention he isn't exactly welcome here to begin with considering what he has done." Alan stated interrupting his friend as he stared at Kincaid knowing exactly what he had to do.
Alan grabbed Kincaid leading the man away; he had remained eerily silent during the entire conversation. Leah accompanied him as the two lead Kincaid up the elevator, the man said absolutely nothing as they headed back outside to a Blackhawk helicopter they had borrowed from the army. It took a while for them to get there before Alan motioned for Leah to come closer.
"Return to the institute, I'll be back later. Your orders are to access the satellite network and check out the photos of our target. Be certain to check out all the footage we have on the area for the past 72 hours or so, pay particular attention to who leaves and arrives at the base. Check out all the intelligence we have on that area, just ask them to borrow a computer, it wont be a problem now get out of here. I'll take care of the rest of this mission." Alan barked, he didn't mean to sound so mean but he didn't want Leah to have any part of what he had to do.
Leah saluted before speaking, "Yes sir, I understand would you like me to check with any of our usual sources about the base and its personnel?"
"No, I don't want to tip them off about the situation. If they find out about it, then we might really have a problem because the Enterprise Battle Group is in the area doing exercises or so they say and they would then force the Joint Chiefs to attack the base. That would be a disaster attempting to rescue some people with the entire group of 15 or so ships launching an assault on the area. We can't fight an aircraft carrier and its escorts at the same time; some times you have to pick and choose your targets. That's why we can't because it places Brandon in jeopardy, I like a few of the people here but he remains my top priority." Alan answered as Leah moved to leave the area.
"I understand what you want, I'll start right away sir. Are you certain that this is the right course of action by not telling our superiors the truth about the situation, if you say it is I will of course follow your orders without any further question?" Leah commented as she moved away, only stopping when Alan cleared his throat.
"In my opinion it is because of what I said before about the situation. Remember this statement Leah; because it is the only real truth that I know," Alan started as he looked over at a silent and unmoving Kincaid, "I have very few friends left in this world, and Brandon is the best friend I have possibly ever had. You never abandon your true friends, and you never ever abandon someone you consider family."
Leah saluted before leaving; she had actually been surprised by what he had said. She walked away slowly as her commanding officer just glared at Kincaid. He didn't move for a moment, just taking in the moment or lost in deep thought.
'The only lesson I learned in the past was that you never abandon family and Brandon is family to me. I don't care where I end up be it heaven or hell but I will not end up there by abandoning him. Well enough of this shit, I guess it is time, I don't like the fact that I have to do this but it has to be done. My hands are tied and my options are limited for the moment.' Alan thought as he watched Leah leaving turning to face Kincaid.
"I would consider apologizing to you Kincaid but you are a bastard any way. If any one deserves to die it is you, so if you got any last words or some shit now would be a good time." Alan spoke as he pulled out his pistol screwing on a silencer so no one could hear the final shot.
"No, just make it quick." Kincaid barked as the weapon was leveled at his forehead.
Next Chapter: Pieces
Brandon starts training the New Mutants in the use of non lethal weapons to help capture the Brotherhood members. While the X-men and New Mutants prepare to rescue the Brotherhood, the Master and Reaper are making their own plans.