Guess Who's Joining The Team?
"Oh I love group meetings," Pyro said cheerfully as the two combined teams entered the War Room.
"Good because you are all gonna love this one!" Todd was there and he pointed to a new figure in the room.
"What the…?" Remy stopped short when he saw who was in the room.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Tabitha shouted.
"Well hello there," Emma Frost stood confidently before them with a smirk. Logan and Ororo stood next to her.
"Emma Freaking Frost!" Alex was stunned as were everyone else.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Kitty pointed at Emma.
"Trying to sell us out or double cross us, most likely," Pyro snorted.
"For once Pyro is the smartest guy in the room!" Bobby shouted. "Why is she here and more importantly why is she not behind bars?"
"Because Wavedancer and I brought her here," Ororo sighed. "She contacted us."
"How did she find you? We're not exactly listed in the phone book!" Alex asked.
"Simple, all I did was listen to police and MRD scanners for any information about a certain clawed Canadian running amok," Emma said. "Once I tracked Wolverine down I thought it was wise to contact Storm and Wavedancer after the MRD incident."
"And you two just thought it would be a good idea to let one of our most dangerous enemies to waltz right here and read our minds and steal our secrets why?" Rogue asked.
"Believe it or not, there are more important things in the world than our past disagreements," Emma glared at them. "Finding your friend Scott Summers is one of them."
"Since when do you care what happens to Cyclops?" Kitty asked.
"Since Jean Grey turned into the almighty Phoenix and could possibly end up destroying the world," Emma glared at her. "That is something we all want to avoid. It makes sense that if we find Cyclops he might have a very good chance of breaking through to her. If he can weaken her barriers enough to contact Jean then I can reseal the Phoenix personality back inside her mind."
"Are you kidding? You couldn't handle her before! What makes you so sure you can now?" Fred asked. "Didn't she knock you out faster than a dose of Nyquil and bourbon?"
"I was unprepared at the time," Emma said. "And I have trained myself and become stronger. I know I can do it."
"And the reason we should trust you is…?" Rogue asked.
"I don't really care if you trust me or not," Emma said. "What I care about is saving the world from your former team mate."
"More like cleaning up after your own mess," Kitty glared at Emma. "Jean never would have been possessed by the Phoenix Force in the first place if you and the friends in the Hellfire Club hadn't kidnapped her and put her in contact with it!"
"I am not denying that I've made mistakes," Emma said.
"Mistakes? Let's count your mistakes," Kitty interrupted. "You've kidnapped the Professor. You've kidnapped several of us on several occasions. You and your Hellions attacked us and nearly killed us several times. You tried to sacrifice half of us to the Phoenix Force. You tried to take over the GRSO and we all know how well that turned out!"
"You can't blame me alone for that fiasco," Emma glared at her. "Blame Cobra, the Baroness and Mystique!"
"Okay as far as Cobra's concerned we'll give you that," Lance snorted. "But you also contributed to it."
"I was trying to protect mutants from humanity," Emma snapped.
"By turning their minds into mush and making them your personal soldiers?" Bobby folded his arms.
"I didn't exactly have to use my powers often in that regard," Emma snorted. "Nine times out of ten they were more than willing to join me. The others were just indecisive. I just gave some a little nudge."
"Frost you even think of nudging any of us and I'll show you that adamantium can cut through diamonds pretty well," Logan growled.
"What about all the other stuff you did?" Bobby growled. "Like Switch?"
"Oh god! I'd forgotten how painful that was!" Kurt moaned.
"I wish I could," Kitty moaned.
"In retrospect that was a rather stupid mistake," Emma groaned. "All right incredibly stupid! I admit it! It's not like I didn't suffer for it! To this day I still can't eat cookies without feeling nauseous! What more do you want from me?"
"You really want the answer to that question?" Pietro said. "Guys why don't we just show her the door? Seriously!"
"Believe me, this was our first reaction too," Logan snorted. "But Frost has given us a few things."
"Like what?" Kitty asked.
"Information," Emma said. "Do you remember Roulette? Well before the rest of the Hellions were massacred I had her transferred to another branch in Hellfire."
"That's right! She wasn't there at the massacre," Sam remembered.
"She's been my secret contact inside the Hellfire Club," Emma said. "That's where I know where all their Jump making plants are outside of Madripoor."
"And that's what she gave us in exchange for a spot with the team?" Kitty snapped. "I don't buy it."
"The point is that I've lost nearly everyone under my command," Emma said. "And I can only do so much on my own. As much as I hate to admit it I need you. And you need me. I mean, you don't exactly have a plentiful supply of telepaths. Oh Psylocke is fine when you can get her, but her attention is divided. She is part of Excalibur in Great Britain after all."
"Our remade Cerebro could use a skilled telepath to run it," Jubilee pointed out. Trinity had been working on making a copy of Cerebro and had just finished it.
"Yeah but how do we know she won't turn it against us?" Kitty asked.
"Monet and her sisters were also kidnapped weren't they?" Emma asked. "Believe it or not, I still care for Monet. I have so very few Hellions that are still alive…I can't just stand by and do nothing."
Emma let out a sigh. "I'm not proud of everything I've done in the past, but I've always tried to do what is best for mutant kind. But that is not how it turned out. Instead of making things better I've helped make them worse. I don't argue that. I just want to save Monet and any other mutant I can."
"In other words you are looking for redemption for yourself," Remy snorted. "Not to help others."
"I would not talk about redemption if I were you," Emma glared at Remy. "Considering your past and what your father did!"
"Before we get into another fist fight Emma tell them the other thing you told us," Althea held up her hand.
"You know your friends from GI Joe?" Emma asked. "They developed these combat suits. They are specifically designed to make the wearer faster, stronger and more resilient in battle."
"I know about them," Xi said. "The Joes have had them for years. What about them?"
"Starting soon these suits are going to be standard issue for MRD soldiers," Emma said. "If you think you had trouble with the MRD before, it's about to get worse!"
"Are you telling us the Joes…?" Alex's jaw dropped.
"No way!" Lance protested. "I don't believe it!"
"General Hawk would never do something like that!" Todd defended.
"You're right. He didn't. From what I understand the General didn't exactly hand over that technology willingly," Emma said. "And he was not thrilled that Eddington gave away some of GI Joe's military secrets."
"Eddington! I should have known!" Lance snarled. "He used his clearance codes to hack into the files and steal those designs didn't he?"
"Pretty much, yes," Emma sighed. "They are developing standard suits as we speak. By the end of the month they'll have the first issue out."
"This is serious," Xi frowned. "The MRD was a nuisance enough. With those suits they will be twice as effective."
"And twice as many mutants will be captured or killed if we don't do something about it," Emma added. "I know none of you like me and quite frankly I don't care. But if we don't work together none of us will have much of a future left. And if I have to work with you lot in order to ensure that happens so be it. You can't be any worse than the Hellfire Club."
"I hate to say this but she's right," Kitty folded her arms.
"We're not exactly in a position to be picky," Alex admitted.
"Fine, Frost. You're here on a trial basis but you don't get access to everything," Althea said. "You can work with the X-Men's team."
"Why them?" Pyro asked.
"You really want her on our team?" Wanda asked. "Besides, something tells me Emma wouldn't like it if she was stuck with us."
"As usual the females of the team are the smart ones," Emma snorted. "I agree to those terms. I must admit I wasn't expecting you to be so reasonable."
"Let's just say there won't be much left of you to leave at the MRD's doorstep if you double cross us," Logan growled.
"How do we know that she won't try to read our minds and stuff?" Jubilee asked.
"We have psychic blockers in this room," Daria spoke up.
"And if anyone needs them we have these little psychic blocker do hickeys," Quinn held up flesh colored bandages. "In all shades."
"Most of us have had training in putting up mental blocks so that it would be harder for telepaths to just bust into our minds," Althea said. "However…"
"Look I gave you my word that I would not enter any of your minds without being invited," Emma said. "And yes even I can understand your doubt, but consider this. If I was really just going after you for information wouldn't I have gotten it by now? It would have been easier for me to find you, slip in and use my powers to sneak in and get what I wanted! Instead I'm willingly walking through hoops knowing that I am going to be watched like a hawk twenty four seven! How can I sneak past that?"
"Unless this is part of some big plan of yours," Kitty gave her a look.
"I'll take that as a compliment, Katherine," Emma folded her arms. "If you believe that I am smarter than all of you to pull of something like that."
"Why you…" Kitty balled her fists.
"Easy Kitty," Bobby stopped her. "I'm sure she's only smarter than half the room."
"Yeah!" Fred nodded. Then thought. "Uh…Which half of the room is that again?"
Emma did a double take at Fred. "Reason number two why I don't want to go into anyone's mind," She pointed at him. "Especially the Misfits."
"Okay that I buy," Kitty shrugged. "You're just lucky we need to find Scott and the others."
"And if she does turn out to be a traitor we can always feed her some of your cookies," Sam smirked at Kitty.
"Oh god no!" Emma said. "Trust me! That is incentive enough for me not to double cross you!"
"Ha. Ha. Ha," Kitty growled.
"I just want to talk to Sharon," Emma said. Sharon had returned to the Japan base in exchange for Trinity a week ago. "Please. I just want to see if she's all right."
"Might as well contact the Japan base," Althea nodded. "Okay Frost but you know right after this you're going to be put to work."
"I understand," Emma nodded. Althea, Ororo and Xi walked with her to the communication room.
"Do you really buy this?" Rogue looked at Logan.
"No, but as Shadowcat pointed out we need to find the others," Logan said. "They've been gone long enough as it is. And I could tell she wasn't lying about wanting to find Monet." He pointed to his nose.
"I'd make a deal with the devil himself to find my sister," Sam nodded.
"I'm not so sure that's what we've already done," Kitty grumbled.
"I know. But if worse comes to worse I could always have a little 'accident' ", Rogue pointed to her gloved hands.
"If Emma does decide to double cross us there are gonna be a lot of accidents," Tabitha growled.
Meanwhile Emma was talking to Catseye on the video communicator. "Are you eating well?" Emma asked her foster daughter. "Keeping up with your studies?"
"Yes Mother," Catseye said proudly. "Catseye is even learning a little Japanese. Sunfire and Sunpyre are good teachers."
"Those are mutants from a friendly clan with powers similar to Angelica," Lina smirked. She was also on the vid phone from Japan. "I have to say, I wasn't expecting so much support. Especially from so called rival Ninja clans."
"Nearly all successful ninja clans have at least a couple mutants in them," Althea said. "It's in their best interests to help us. And by doing that they will help themselves."
"Yes, Catseye works in nursery helping little ones," Catseye said proudly.
"A lot of the kids we rescue from the MRD are orphans or abandoned," Althea explained to Emma. "We take the youngest ones that can't fend for themselves over to Japan where my Dad and the other Misfit handlers look after them. Along with other members of the Arashikage Clan and a few other mutants we met along the way."
"Yes, counting the Misfit kids we have about 25 kids here from infants to age fourteen," Lina nodded. "Most of them were rescued from the MRD or the FOH. There's one or two we found on the streets in Japan but most of them are Americans."
"That's very impressive," Emma was impressed. "I didn't think you were so organized. You are doing very well, Sharon. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you," Catseye smiled. "Mother please be nice to Misfits and X-Men. Catseye knows some of the X-Men are stuck up but please try to be nice. And Misfits care about Catseye so they worry about if you are going to hurt me or something like that. Just show them you won't hurt me. It's important to Catseye."
"All right Sharon," Emma let out a sigh. "If it's that important to you, I'll try."
"Good! Maybe now we can all be friends?" Catseye said cheerfully.
"The things I do for my family…" Emma grumbled.
"Storm why don't you take Frost to Cerebro?" Althea asked. "I've got to talk to Dragonfly on clan matters."
Emma was about to say I doubt it but remembered her promise to Catseye and kept her mouth shut. "Catseye, it was good to talk to you," She said instead and let Ororo show her out.
Catseye waited until they were sure Emma was gone. "Catseye is going to stay here in Japan for a while? Catseye right?" The feline mutant asked sadly.
"I know she's your Mom Catseye but we can't take any chances," Althea sighed. "Especially about you know who."
"Catseye understand," The purple haired feline metamorph nodded. "Need to keep Toad a secret. But what about all of you? Can Mother not read your minds?"
"We threatened to feed her Kitty's cookies if she crossed the line," Xi smirked.
"That'll do it," Lina rolled her eyes. "Wait a minute, didn't she use to work with both Mystique and the Baroness? And they know about…If they told her…"
"I don't think they did," Althea said. "Wolverine asked her earlier if Mystique and the Baroness ever informed her about any secrets about the X-Men and Misfits and she said she didn't know. Wolverine is pretty good at sniffing out lies."
"Yes but Emma is probably better at telling them," Lina frowned. "No offense Catseye."
"None taken," Catseye sighed. "So she could know about Toad?"
"We're just going to have to keep an eye on her to make sure what she does or doesn't know. Back to the mission. If we find Cyclops and or anyone else I'll send a message to you immediately," Althea said. "We might need you and Lifeline as medical backup. Just wait for our signal."
"Understood," Lina nodded. "There's nothing new here, Wavedancer. We're all too busy with the kids. Shipwreck hasn't even had a drink in a week."
"One whole week? The man just broke his own record," Althea snorted. "Tell him I said hi!"
"Will do," Lina nodded. "Dragonfly out."
Althea then shut off the communications and walked down the hallway. She entered the room where the new Cerebro was. Logan and Ororo were there already with Trinity. "Any luck?"
"Too early to tell but with the new upgrades…" Daria began.
"I've found him," Emma let out a breath. "And Madelyne. And a few other of your friends' mutant signatures."
"Where?" Logan asked.
"Genosha," Emma told them.