Part 52 – On Alert
"Kari, will you hold still?"
"No, I'm fine."
"Kari!"
"I'M FINE!"
"At least just let me —"
"NO. I'm FINE."
"But —"
"Kurt," she said a loud tone. He looked up with defeated eyes. "I AM FINE," she said slowly.
"Okay, okay, I get it."
"Thank you. Jean, how are we doing?"
"No sign of the Brotherhood yet, and we're coming up on the White House."
"Good." Kari stood up and Kurt slumped into her chair. She turned around as he moped. She had been fighting him off for the last ten minutes, trying to get him to stop insisting the need to give her medicine or bandages.
"But you're bleeding," he kept saying. This was true, but Kari didn't feel like they were dire.
"Kurt, I'm not going to die, all right?" she said, half sarcastically. He gave her an expression to match her tone and she rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I get it. I'll never live that down. Understood."
"Just don't try any of your maniac attempts at flying a helicopter from the outside," Logan muttered.
"I heard that," Kari snapped.
"Good for you," Logan shot back. Kari rolled her eyes and stepped over to Kitty, who was leaning her head on her hands, elbows balanced on her knees.
"Kitty? How are you?" she asked quietly.
"How were you when John left?" Kitty muttered, not realizing the extent of hurt that caught Kari at that moment. "Sorry."
"That bad, huh?" was the other girl's reply.
"Worse, if possible."
"I dunno about that," Kari grumbled.
"Have you ever had some one you love die right in front of you?" Kitty snapped suddenly, glaring at her. Kari kept her calm stare and Kitty covered her eyes with her hand and slumped back in her chair.
"Sorry."
"It's all good. I imagine this is odd to talk about, especially when the person your talking to has had the same thing happen. A rare sort of subject for two people to have — I'm rambling."
"No, you're fine. It's just…you never think it'll be you…you know?"
"Yeah."
"And when something like this happens to some one you know, you get that feeling…when you wonder when you'll be next…well in your case, you should be used to it by now."
"That's not funny," Kari grumbled as Kitty started a fit of uncontrollable giggles. She started shaking as she covered her mouth to stop it.
"Kitty," she snapped, starting her own fit of snickering. Soon they were both fighting as hard as they could to simply keep breathing in between laughs. Logan looked over his chair and rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry. In a situation like this, your emotions are sort of random, I guess."
"Oh, they are. Trust me, they get worse," Kari said, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.
"Oh that's helpful."
"That's what I'm here for. Though I always thought I was better at comical relief."
"You'd think that when this happens, one would lose all sense of humor."
"Ah, but I'm strong willed, my friend," Kari said in a dramatic tone, making Kitty snicker, "Come here."
She gave Kitty a hug, and when she released her Kitty took a long breath and let it out slowly.
"Now, in this case, your best option, is to kick everyone's ass for Bobby, and somehow, not get killed," Kari said, nodding her head in sarcastic thought.
"Now you're not helping," Kitty snapped.
"Come on, we all loved him, so let's just kill everyone in his honor." This earned a sharp smack over the top of her head.
"You are so weird."
"I take great pride in that. Just seriously, don't sweat it, okay? When we get home, everything will calm down, and we'll all be good."
With one last smile Kari heading to the front of the jet to check on Jean and Storm.
"Kari?" Kitty asked suddenly. She turned and made a small "hm" noise.
"Is…is John coming back with us?"
After that question, the entire jet remained silent.
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO KEEP LOOKING, WE HEAD OUT NOW!" Magneto yelled fiercely, making all other mutants feel as if a whip had cracked.
"Magneto!"
The elder man turned around with an irritated expression. He looked up and saw John climbing up and over rocks at a jogging pace. Magneto was just about to open his mouth when a flash of something came out of the blue, slamming into John and landing on top of him at the man's feet.
"GET OFF OF ME!" John yelled, flailing for his freedom while Crevan glared at him with that homicidal glint in his eyes.
"What's going on here?" their leader asked, "Where have you two been?"
"I can tell you where he's been," Crevan snarled, wrapping his claws fingers around John's wrists and pinning them to the dirt.
"I was chasing after Kari," John said immediately, making the man above them both raise his eyebrows.
"Were you now?"
"He's a liar," Crevan argued, glaring in John's face.
"We'll see who's a liar," John shot back.
"He was trying to side with them!"
"Who's siding with who? Why don't you tell them who gave me this?" John turned his head, pointing out the bruises all along the wide of his neck and past his shoulders.
"Huh? Why don't you tell them who did that to me?" John shifted so his shirt moved up, showing bloody scrapes and more bruises. Caught off guard, Crevan was pushes onto his back when John kicked him in the stomach and got to his feet in the blink of an eye.
"Or, you know what Crevan? Tell them who did THIS!" He pulled back his sleeve, showing the bandage around his wrist, which was dry with blood. He pulled the bandage off, revealing the cuts from Crevan's claws a few nights before.
The demon lay on his back, staring up with the most malicious intent John had seen yet, and Magneto kept his eyebrows raised at the both of them.
"This from the boy who's siding with the X-MEN," he snapped angrily.
"This from the man who had no intent of helping the Brotherhood in the first place!" John yelled. Magneto shot a glance at Crevan.
"He's a liar!"
"I'm the liar? Oh yeah? 'I don't care how pissed that walking magnet gets'. Remember that Crevan? Oh, I do. Perhaps you remember who it was as well?"
"YOU'RE DEAD, ALLERDYCE!" Crevan screamed, lunging at him. John would have jumped out of the way, if he hadn't reacted in the following way. Once Crevan had yelled that line, John froze, because he found himself on the bleachers at Xavier's school, and Kari had just jumped for him. She was held back though; Kitty had grabbed her waist to keep her from reaching him.
John shook his head for a second and saw Crevan flailing at the hands of Arclight, who had grabbed him before he reached John.
"Liar or not, you two work for me, and the Brotherhood isn't so easy to dismiss as you may think. I'm not a fan of traitors. You two get it together. I don't want any more trouble that might cause a downfall to this plan. We're heading to Washington, that's the end of it. I'll kill you both the first chance I get if you act up again."
With that, Magneto turned and headed down the hills of rock, and Arclight released Crevan. And to John's surprise, he walked past him without another word. John watched him for a second, before heading down the hill himself and catching up with the front, so as to not be near Crevan if he decided to go insane again.
John caught his breath and as he rewrapped the bandage around his wrist, stared at Kari's glove.
("Have I EVER trusted you?")
("There's a first for everything.")
He gave sort of a silent snicker and then sighed. Maybe he was starting to finally make a good choice in his life.
"Okay. We here. Now, the only rule I have, is let me, Logan, and Jean settle this. No one else talks, no one else does anything. If we screw this up, we could be in major trouble here, all right?" Storm had stood up from her seat and given everyone a stern glance. Everyone nodded and Kari moved her head to look out of the window of the jet.
"Storm, are you sure we should have landed here?"
"It was the only choice. Now, chances are security's going to surround us once we get out of the jet."
"Chances are high, I'd say, they're already outside," Kari put in.
"Good point. Well, let's go. Remember, nobody makes any move or says anything. We have to be rational about this."
"Since when was the world ever rational?" Kari muttered as she stepped down the ramp, glancing around and the many security guards who had guns raised to them.
"Identify yourselves now. You are trespassing on federal grounds."
"We need to speak with the president now," Jean said firmly.
"On what terms?"
"We have proof that a band of mutants is on its way here with the intent of assassinating him. We need to get him to safety."
'We will take charge of that if necessary."
"These mutants can't be underestimated, we need to talk to him NOW."
"I'm afraid I can't let you pass," the guard insisted, keeping his gun level at Logan's stomach.
"Hold your fire, stand down," said a voice.
The guards lowered their guns slowly, and a man in a simple suit came forward with a pair of curiously gleaming eyes. He was vaguely familiar, and Kari couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Ah, you must be the ever-esteemed X-Men."
"And you are?" Logan cut in. A quick glance from Jean kept him from extending his claws.
"You must be 'Wolverine'. And 'Storm'…" The man went through each of their mutant aliases until his eyes fell on Kari, and they seemed to gleam with a newfound emotion Kari couldn't pinpoint as well. Whether it was daring, or it was a trickle triumphant.
"Ah, you must be Kari."
"We would appreciate it if you would tell us your name," she interrupted.
"Such manners for a girl your age," he said with raised eyebrows.
"I do my best," she half growled.
"We need to speak with the president," Jean said in a loud tone, drowning out the beginnings of an argument, " The Br —"
"Brotherhood of Mutants is on its way here, yes I know," he said over her voice. Everyone stopped.
"Then — you've sheltered him already?"
"I never said that," the man answered with a straight face. It was right then Kari recognized him.
"Richardson," she said, half to herself in a sort of gasp.
"What?" Logan turned around and looked at her.
"Daren Richardson, the man who created the cure, the one who started the whole conspiracy. You're him!" Kari said with a half-awed expression, pointing at him.
"Took you long enough, to be sure," Richardson said. It was only now Kari also noticed his British accent, which seemed to have made its way past her ears before. "I've taken the liberty of accessing all of your files. You're familiar with the procedure, I take it," he added, giving Kari an accusing glance. She tried to avoid it without suspicion, looking down and then to the side at Kitty, who stared at her out of the corner of her eye.
"And as of now, you are all convicted criminals."
Richardson motioned with one hand and the officers surrounding them raised their guns and moved in slowly. Kari jumped in quickly, moving in front of Logan and Jean.
"On what charges!"
"Trespassing on federal ground, accessing confidential government files without authorization, and attempting an assassination on the president of the United States."
"WHAT!" Logan cried out.
"And once you're in our custody, we will proceed with our motive." Richardson gave a nod and the men with the guns moved forward, the first one to reach them grabbed Kitty by her arm. She gave him a glare and his hand went through her arm.
"What exactly is your motive?" Storm asked, giving a side-glance to one of the men. Daren gave a simple smile and then turned away.
"Sergeant, take them to their new quarters and alert Magneto that we're on schedule."
