Shake Your Foundations

4. To Speak or Not to Speak

It wasn't until after classes had let out for the day that most of the Bayville High School student body learned about the now-famous (or infamous, depending on whom you asked) press conference held by the cast of a small-time reality TV show cast in Chicago, Illinois. As opinions usually fell in Bayville, the teenagers were either in full support of their brave peers, or immediately dismissed them and added them to their list of people to hate until the end of time. Of course, there was also a small group of hormonal teenage boys who felt that while they disagreed with the opinions presented, the young women on the show were *just* hot enough to still be considered worthy to go out or sleep with. No matter what the opinion, however, it got people talking, especially the mutant portion of the student body.

"I never thought I'd see it." Lance shook his head in disbelief as he and the rest of the Brotherhood walked toward his jeep. "A bunch of strangers willing to stick their necks out for a mutant kid. Wonder what their deal is?"

"Does it matter?" Pietro scoffed. "They're celebrities. Not the A-list kind, but still famous and probably well-paid. Even if they all turn out to be mutants, I don't think there's any way we could convince them to join us."

"Can't we just enjoy the fact that we have actual supporters and leave it at that?" Wanda groaned. This particular debate had been going on since fourth period, and she was growing rather sick of it.

"Yeah, what she said." Fred grumbled. He'd been unusually quiet since hearing about the video. He hadn't had a chance to look at it himself yet, but he already knew who was involved and how much danger they had just put themselves in. The immovable mutant hoped that his younger brothers and the young woman he'd once considered a younger sister would be all right.

"Fine." Pietro rolled his eyes in dramatic fashion. "I'll change the subject. Did you see the size of the knockers on that blonde chick in the pink dress?"

"Pietro…" his twin sister growled. This was not a discussion she wanted to have to put up with on the ride home.

"Wasn't paying that much attention to the background characters." Lance shrugged. "Although it does make me wanna look up episodes of their TV show; it might be something worth watching."

"...I bet you can look it up on the internet." Fred added slowly.

"Great idea, Freddy. We'll have a TV marathon tonight." The rock-tumbler nodded his approval. "It'll be a nice change of pace for us."

Predictably (to the senior team members, at least), Professor Xavier decided to hold a discussion about the press conference video that had made its way through the school computer classroom that day. This was a good thing for most students, since pretty much everyone had questions…even though one of them knew better than to ask his.

"I think it's just a stupid publicity stunt." Tabitha grumbled. "Why else would some local reality tarts want to jump on the mutant rights bandwagon?"

"We don't know that." Jean countered. "In fact, we don't know anything about these people other than the fact that they apparently don't give press conferences."

~Smart move when one of your cast members is a mutant.~ Kurt quietly thought to himself. Xavier didn't make a habit of digging into his student's thoughts unless they were projecting something. That was a good thing, because bringing up the topic in front of his housemates and teachers could get dicey.

Despite how much she'd changed in the last year, he still recognized the face of his younger sister when she stood up and gave her speech in that video clip. He also knew that, from what she'd told him in their brief (and usually extremely edited) email exchanges that she was happy with her gig in Chicago. Where better to hide from Magneto than in plain sight, on a cable TV show? She could pass her unusual hair coloring off as a dye job and, with her ability to change the color and texture of her skin, she could easily look like an average teenager. There was no need to tell anyone she wasn't at this point in time; especially since the network lawyers, if they knew anything, had probably ordered her to keep quiet.

If it would keep her safe, he would keep quiet about it too.

"We cannot jump to conclusions until we have more information." Kurt hid his confusion as the Professor spoke. Apparently the conversation had continued while he was lost in his own thoughts. "While Cerebro has detected activity in Chicago before, that is no guarantee that those young people are mutants. For now, we should all be thankful that someone has stood up for the young man killed on Sunday. I have a feeling this was more about him than mutant rights in general."

Oh, so nobody noticed his little space-out. Good for him.

But he was still going to have to email Andi this evening and gripe at her. She'd worried the crap out of him today.

Andi, however, was currently fielding a phone call from her boss.

"Sorry for not giving you guys more of a heads-up, but we needed to do something about this." She sighed. "The press conference was the lesser of several evils."

"There's nothing to apologize for, kid. You did what needed to be done." Zartan replied.

"Tell that to Spike." She sorted. "I think he was trying to wreck Burn-Out's eardrums over the phone."

"I will deal with the irate producer." He replied. "Right now, however, I need you and the others to stay home this weekend."

Well, that was an odd request. "Why? Is something going down?"

"Potentially, but not something that you kids or our organization needs to become involved in." He sighed. "Leave the other mutants to fight this one out. Now, I have reason to believe that simply condemning people in public isn't the only ace you have up your sleeve, young lady."

"Regan and Virus are digging up their records and picking out tidbits to sell to the major news outlets as we speak." She added. "Eventide's teaching Mimic the finer points of making somebody paranoid at their expense, but all the rest of us can do now is wait and hold off the picket lines."

"You are still dealing with this situation admirably well. I doubt either of the groups here in Bayville would manage such a mature response." He pointed out. She snorted in response.

"Please. The groups in Bayville have nothing on us! But we did get some new information through the mutant grapevine this week, and it's not good." Kudos to Shatter for having the balls to deliver it, though.

"What might that be?"

"Word on the street is that Magneto's recruiting for a new team of Acolytes, separate from his current one and the Brotherhood." Dissatisfaction seeped into her voice. "He's recruited Bolt for it already; don't know who else he has in reserve."

There was a slight pause on the other end. "You're right; that isn't good news." While he hadn't been there to see it first-hand, news of the fight in the cemetery against the older electrokinetic mutant had reached Zartan shortly afterward. He had been less than thrilled with that incident report. "We haven't heard about any recruiting here, but if he wants to keep this new group a secret, as you believe he is, that isn't surprising."

"I'd be willing to bet money that Sabretooth gets promoted into the new group, though." She grumbled. "Wouldn't surprise me if he's being sent here to deal with the cops, come to think of it."

"You would be correct about that, which is why you are all staying on base this weekend." Zartan ordered. "There are more than enough issues for you kids to deal with; the last thing any of us need is for one of you to get killed for jumping into the middle of whatever mess Magneto is trying to create."

Andi unsuccessfully bit back a growl. She didn't like having to step aside and watch while things played out. Although, if her dad had his cell phone on him, she might be able to get a hold of him and tell him that she had this Chicago situation handled just fine without his interference. "So all I can do is sit back and wait for them to screw things up?"

"Yes, that is what you will do unless you receive new orders from one of us here in Bayville." Her employer and mentor responded in the most serious tone he could muster. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." She grumbled, not bothering to hide her ire.

"I know you don't like it, but for the moment it is what you have to do." He sighed. "The Brotherhood is starting to suspect that someone is watching them; confirming that suspicion would be dangerous for all of you kids."

"You sure we can't just kill Magneto and move on?" Andi pleaded hopefully. "I think we could get Kris in close enough to run a wooden stake through his heart. Or just let her rip it out wholesale..." For such a tiny, mostly-harmless-looking creature, Eventide could inflict some truly grisly injuries, many of which could be fatal.

"Much as I would love to do so, it's not my call." He admitted. "For now, we'll have to make do with staying well below his radar. Can you manage that?"

"We've managed for two years; what's a few more weeks?" She shrugged.

"Good girl." He praised. "However, if I hear that you're doing something foolish there in Chicago, I will personally fly out there and deal with you." She knew it was more of a promise than a threat. The blonde mutant also knew that she probably wouldn't like his manner of punishment if he had to fly halfway across the country to deal with her, so she intended to stick with the plan for as long as she could manage.

Intentions, alas, would only last her a week, during which time all hell seemed to have broken loose upon Chicago and her own personal life.