Principle Darkholme's finger stabbed viciously at the monitor screen as Todd quickly froze the screen on a blurred image of a figure leaping through the window, clutching a bag to him. There wasn't much to see. A lean figure in a black body suit, face mostly concealed by some kind of half mask. The cameras watching the building weren't exactly digital quality.
"Sooo ... what'd he take?" He looked up at the still fuming woman from his perch on the chair, nervously throwing the remote from hand to hand.
Her voice was an unholy purr when she turned to face him, and he suddenly wondered whether drawing her attention had been such a good idea. She was just looking for a target.
"You. And all the other little mutants in my care. The files were on you." She stalked closer to him as she continued; he slunk slower on his haunches, wishing he could sink through the chair like Kitty. "So, you and the others will just have to go and retrieve them, if you value your privacy"
"But..."
"NOW"
He fled bounding from the room, throwing the remote control behind him in a panic and only redoubling his speed when he heard the snarl a slavering beast might well make if, say, hit on the head by a flying television accessory.
Mystique held the slimy remote in her hand and watched his haphazard escape without a smile, then turned to stare at the figure on the screen with every ounce of venom she could muster.
When the gentle slide of her paper clips across the desk in her temporary office was caught out of the corner of her eye, she spoke in a level tone without turning.
"Do you know who he is?"
A whisper of a deep timbred voice answered her. "Your thief was young, inexperienced, but trained well. He should not be hard to identify with my resources. But Charles will know more, and more quickly. Cerebro will have picked up on his mutant signature, no doubt."
When she turned, he was gone. With a slight frown she took her seat behind her desk, steepling her fingers and staring over them at the door, seeing nothing but her own thoughts.
Obviously the thief was indeed a professional, he had to have watched her for some time, seen that she ferried those files between the office and home, rarely letting them out of her sight except for those daily meetings with the faculty.
But he hadn't counted on her security measures, plainly. To go to that much effort to get in undetected and then leave in such a spectacular manner suggested he had simply panicked. A sign of youth most certainly. But not so much panic, the files were gone and the job was done. But who would want those files in the first place?
Oh, there were many names that came to mind, but none who would contract out in such a fashion. No, it seemed a new player was on the board. Her lips finally curled into a humourless smile. And if a new player was on the board, it was unlikely they would be interested in just her files.
She hit the intercom switch on her desk. "Abigail, could you please have Pietro Maximoff sent to my office immediately?" It was time for the Brotherhood to earn their keep and while scaring Toad had been satisfying, she didn't expect him to do a great deal more than run around like a headless chicken after her orders.
Without waiting for a reply, she sat back, listening to the sounds of the workmen rebuilding the corner of the school, those unfortunate propane leaks really did give them more work these days.
A quick knock gave her a touch of warning, but little else before the young man known as Quicksilver stood before her, shifting in place as if the effort of keeping still was just too much. She stared at him icily until the cocky smirk faded and the fidgeting stopped, then spoke.
"As Toad will have no doubt badly explained to you, some files were stolen in the explosion yesterday."
He gave a nod, but didn't interrupt her. He knew better than to try anything while she had that particular expression. The expression he had labelled '#8 - I will eat you alive if you give me the slightest reason. Go on, give me a reason'.
"I believe the thief's next target may well be Xavier's school, and I suspect he will strike soon. No sense in allowing them to reach the same conclusion and take precautions, after all. So I wish you to gather the Brotherhood and watch their building. You are not, I repeat not, to interfere with the thief until he is leaving with the files. Then you will catch him and bring him and whatever he is carrying to me, understood?"
Another nod greeted her words and she went on.
"The X-Men are not, and I really cannot stress this enough, not, to be allowed to see you there. Are we clear? You are in charge of this operation, I expect nothing but perfection from you."
Finally he felt the need to speak, but the questions died sub vocally at her look. That was subtly different '#8a - I will eat you alive, I do not require a reason'.
"Yes Ms Darkholme, we'll be leaving right now."
He hit the corridor at a fraction of his potential speed, but still breaking the long standing school 100 meter sprinting records without breaking a sweat, heading for the lunch hall. Sliding to a stop at the table currently holding the members of the Brotherhood and what could only be called a mountain of food, he sat.
"We got a job."
Todd began to scale the east side of the food, sneaking closer to the remaining cheeseburger while Fred's attention was distracted.
"Yeah? Wot?" Blob chewed methodically on the pizza slice, more interested in his lunch than their new assignment.
Pietro leaned closer, lowering his voice, Lance dragged his chair up to listen to the muttered words, hastily saving his sandwich from Blob's merciless onslaught upon every edible thing on the table.
"Right, we gotta watch the X-Freak's place. Mystique thinks they're going to be hit next by whoever the guy was that made her office go boom. When he hits, we get him and whatever he's taken. But the catch is, we gotta do all this without them noticing we were there."
A round of silence greeted him from the other three at the table, accompanied by dubious stares.
"Oh c'mon, how hard can it be? They're all gonna be here and we just have to watch. It's not like we have to camp out on the front lawn."
Lance was the first to see the bonus. "You saying we just got a 'get out of wood-shop free' card? Why are we still here?"
From their table at the other side of the hall, the gathered students of Xavier watched bemusedly as the Brotherhood jumped up from their seats and fled the room almost as one.
They looked at each other; Rogue just shrugged as all glances eventually turned askance to her. "Ah don' know, why you lookin' at me? They're just weird."
Kurt grinned and finished the last of his shake with gusto and the nasty drainpipe sound of a straw pushed too far in search of the last drops of the sugary milk "Because you're nicer to look at than Scot fraulein."
Scot ignored the comment, still staring at the swinging doors the Brotherhood had just vacated through. "Bets this has something to do with that explosion yesterday?"
Evan shook his head, speaking around a full mouth. "No takers".
"Sil vous plait …" Kitty looked up from the French book she had been pouring over all lunch time. "Uh … did I miss something?"
