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Through the grainy, green hued, monitor Shaw watched his so valued guests. They had settled to sitting on the bare floor of the holding room, facing each other, disheartened no doubt by their fruitless efforts at discovering a manner to escape. Their conversation came through the speakers, but he had long since stopped paying them any heed. After a while, bravado and threats of retaliation from voices not yet broken lost it's amusement, and both were diligently avoiding any mention of compatriots or who might come looking for them. Very noble, and of course quite pointless.
His gaze turned to the folders before him. Dr. Ohn's research had been extraordinary, and Stark Enterprises had been short sighted indeed not to ensure that the good doctor's research assistant had been as adamant as the head of the corporation that all work on his project be discontinued. It had taken time, and considerable funding, but the portable inter-dimensional technology that had once almost sucked the city into black hole was proving invaluable.
It was probably just as well he hadn't told the thief the bag he was carrying was in fact a small worm hole leading directly to it's twin in the vault of the Hellfire Club of course. His fees had been extortionate enough as it was, but when it was necessary to acquire skills outside those of the Inner Sanctum, the skills must be the best. And there was no better than a member of the Thieves Guild, even one considered ronin.
A tint of sulphur in the air stilled his hand from its progress flipping through the files for just a moment, and then he continued as if he had noted nothing amiss. Only his eyes moved, rising to the window, the soft light and the darkness beyond making it a mirror. His reflection stared back at him with snapping eyes and behind it was the silhouette of another standing before a door that had not been opened.
"Mr Shaw, I presume? I see you're finding my files of interest. How marvellous. I suggest we discuss them. In detail."
The silhouette stepped forward, seeming less of a man as it did and more of a monster. A massive build, some sort of metallic blades jutting from the shoulders then bending at an angle down. The fire gave colour to the reflection, turning the black body into a dark grey sheen, the almost spider like extensions of the suit into dark purple. And in the centre of a forehead the colour of coroner's chalk, a red diamond nearly glowed in contrast. He was smiling, pointed teeth glinting.
Shaw stood without haste and turned to face his guest, his smile showing just a hint of tooth. "Mr Sinister, yes? Or should I call you Dr Essex? Your files were most informative."
"Well, I do my utmost to keep proper records. I am not, however, a library. I gave a selection of my files to your thief on the understanding I would be dealt into whatever game it is you are playing. As he is currently unable to deliver my ... request ... I decided it only proper to do so in person"
The deep, English accented, voice was smooth, even congenial. And Shaw replied in kind.
"My thief has been compromised? How unfortunate. Naturally I am willing to consider any proposition you have to make"
"Your thief has been re-apprehended by the X-Men who are doubtless questioning him closely as we speak. And please do not lie to me Shaw, it's most tiresome. You are willing to consider nothing, you are simply buying time until the rather pathetic mental alert you just sent to your White Queen has the result of bringing in your soldiers. Needless to say, I intend for this to be a private meeting, so let us be gentlemen and speak plainly."
For the first time Shaw began to worry. He knew little of Mr Sinister, certainly not that the man was a telepath capable of not only reading his thoughts, but also effectively cutting away his Queen. He schooled his expression into something more solemn and retook his seat, gesturing to its partner and replying as his guest sat easily on the chair offered.
"Then speak plainly Dr Essex, but speak quickly. If my pawn has been taken as you say, I have measures to introduce to insure my game is not interrupted."
He was cold, he was hungry, and he was pissed. But mostly, he was in no mood to listen to Tolensky any more. Half an hour on his own, half an hour waiting for Toad to get conscious once he was thrown in like some boneless piece of meat, half an hour of searching for any kind of way out of the room. And then the last two hours listening to him talk non-stop.
"Quit moaning already! You've started repeating the people you're blaming for this, and I'm pretty sure Mary-Sue Patterson, who ever she is, had nothing to do with it!"
Toad eyeballed his cellmate for a moment with suspicion. "How you know that? You know who'd got us here? "
Evan just sounded tired as he replied to paranoia with a shrug and a shake of his head. "No, I still don't. But I'm figuring they're pretty heavy duty." He paused, looking around the barren room. No window, no beds or chairs, nothing but a locked door and a vent they'd already discovered was way too small to be making an escape through. "We'll make it out okay though."
"Yeah, yeah, I know that." Todd stood and paced to the door, yelling as loud as he could. "And when we get out, we're gonna make you wish your parents never met that one time they did!"
The same quiet that had met everything they'd hurled at the grey steel door so far was the only response. But Spyke had to grin as his temporary roomie retook his seat and resumed his rant.
"It's probably them Friends of Humanity freaks ... yeah. They'd pull this. Or it's Mary-Sue Patterson."
Toad was staring straight at him, then moving his gaze down to his own hands as he talked on.
"I say you throw those things outta your arms at the first guy that comes through that door, then we high tail it out and get to taking some names. Maybe a bit of salting the earth on the side."
Todd's hands moved, slowly, as low as he could get them. It took a moment, but their seemingly random flicking of fingers began to make sense. ASL alphabet, they'd had the class on it a month back. Who knew school would actually come in useful. For that matter, who knew Tolensky was even paying attention. He replied absently as he fixed on the letters being signed. C ... O ... M
"I'm down with taking some names and light salting, but I ain't gonna spike no one to do it. They haven't hurt us any really."
M ... U ...N ... I ... C ... A
He looked up, guessing at the word and shook his head. His communicator had been gone when he'd woken. Toad scowled and threw another glance at the door, at last falling silent. Evan closed his eyes and tried to sleep, when something went down at least he could try and be rested for it.
Lying on a comfortable mattress like surface, check. Restrained, check. Water held against lips, check. Any second now...
"You're awake kid, I know it. Drink the water, it's bottled and if we wanted you dead trust me you would be."
Angry guy with claws and a dislike of people playing possum, check. He sipped a small amount of the water before he turned his head to look at the man leaning against the wall, rolling an unlit cigar around his fingers.
"Dis is startin' t' be a habit."
He looked back to see the eyes of Rogue staring down at him, equal measures of anger, concern and guilt easy to see in the grey depths. Mind still foggy, he smiled.
"Course, th' part of wakin' up t' the sight of a belle fille not a habit Remy in any rush t' break."
She actually blushed, then pulled back from his restricted line of sight as she replied almost gruffly. "Ah'm bettin' you've got a lot of habits you should be breakin', swamp rat, guess yuh just don't know where to start."
Another face, this one far less attractive, replaced Rogue's and Gambit's smile died on his lips, taking with it his retort. Wolverine, looking less than happy. Slowly fragments of his last conscious moments began to piece together, faster and faster until the last image imprinted on his mind was that of Rogue, wide eyed and pale with terror, burning with his powers and mouthing a name she shouldn't have known. How much more had she taken from his mind?
"Mon Dieu ... "
Wolverine shook his head. "Nope, not even close. How're you feelin'? Managed to get froze pretty good there." His tone seemed perfunctory rather than actually concerned, but Gambit attempted a shrug with what little movement he was allowed. It felt like they'd doubled up on what ever was holding him down, or maybe they'd just tucked in the comforter real tight.
"Comme ci comme ca. Laissez les bon temps roulet."
Logan smirked at the thief's sardonic tone. He had to hand it to the guy, it just hadn't been his weekend all told and still the smart ass was trying to brazen his way through.
A voice piped up enthusiastically from the corner, a girl had been sitting so still Gambit hadn't even noticed her as a blip on his kinetic radar. "Can you, like, say that again and slower? And tell me which the verb is?"
Craning his head up as far as he could, Remy looked over at the figure sitting on a chair about ready to collapse in the corner, some kind of open textbook balanced on her knee. The girl from the French class whose vent he had been a guest of. He laughed, he had to really, then threw his head back on the pillow.
"Desolet petite, Remy got no time t' be teachin' y' French. Mebee later, neh?"
"Wrong bub" Wolverine settled back next to the open window and lit a cigar. "You got all the time in the world, 'least until you decide to tell us exactly who you were working for."
"I t'ink we did dis dance already mon ami, not tellin' you anythin'."
"Kitty, Rogue, you go find Storm and the others and tell them he's awake and'll soon enough be talkin'. I'll let you know if we need anything."
He heard the door open and shut, tracked the girl's motion as they left, but he was watching Logan. Angry he was used to, but the expressionless mask that had fallen over his current watcher's features was unsettling. "You can try anythin' y' want homme, Gambit can't tell y' no more'n he already has."
Silence at the statement. A silence just begging to be filled as Logan dragged the chair closer to the bed and slowly took a seat. A cop's silence, and he knew better than to speak into it. Eventually the other man would, or they'd just sit staring at each other for a while. Maybe they could watch some paint dry while they were at it.
"If you can't tell us anymore, you best start thinking of ways you can help. Whoever hired you has taken one of the kids and trust me, I will go through whoever I gotta to get him back. Right now, I'm willin' to deal. You help us find Evan and shut down whoever took him, we'll put in a good word for you with the cops."
"That's your best deal? No go mon ami" Remy smirked, but he knew it didn't have the entirely confident edge to it that it usually held. And from Logan's expression, he knew that too. Suddenly he did feel the need to explain, the words coming out before he could stop them. "I didn't know 'bout no kidnappin' of chil'ren ..."
Now the anger was back again as the X-Man stood, knocking the chair over unheeding behind him. "What the hell did you think was gonna be done with those files? You handed over those kids lives and you didn't even think about who to?"
For the first time, Wolverine saw the young man flinch. It looked like there was some kind of conscience in there after all. Sometimes kind words and a 2' by 4' will get you further than just kind words. He was all out of kind words and the 2' by 4' was getting appealing as the thief just looked at him mutely for a moment.
"Well, you just gonna stare at me, or you gonna do maybe the one good thing you've ever done and help us?"
Betray a client, or betray one of the few morals he still abided by. Don't harm children. If he betrayed his client, word would get around and he might as well go to jail, he'd never be hired in the country again. Betray his morals ... and however much money he earned, he'd never buy back the part of his soul he'd bargained away. And the worse thing, the absolute worse thing, was that he had no one to blame but himself.
"Got t' love dese lose - lose situations ... I help y'. But you so much as mention th' cops, and I'm gone, comprenez-vous?"
Wolverine grinned as his claws came out with the wet sound of metal on flesh. After a moment to savour the uncertainty in the Cajun's eyes, he sliced through the ties.
"And if you run out on us, you won't need to worry about the cops none at all, 'cause I'll beat them to you."
Storm listened, staring abstractly at the cooling tea before her, as Rogue miserably tried to recall anything of importance from the hazy images and memories she had taken from her victim's mind. The diner was all but deserted, the hour was late, or as the clock on the wall informed her, very early. Only Scott still looked alert, but there was nowhere for the others to rest as Remy was occupying the hotel room. Kurt at least was conscious, if quiet.
"Ah know he's real scared of somethin' tuh do with his powers and ah'm pretty sure he's tellin' the truth when he said he didn't know who hired him." The girl frowned and paused for a moment. "He didn't know what he was stealin' for, ah don't think he understands why we're so upset 'bout a buncha files. Like he ain't put two 'n two together that it'd be more dangerous for us than just havin' some data stolen. He just wanted the money. Ah kept seein' kids, little kids ah mean, and they look kinda hungry. And there's a girl fallin' off a tower or somethin'. He was real sad 'bout that, but I don't know why exactly. And a different girl with blonde hair he thinks of real well … and … a sword fight against some guy …"
Her voice trailed away, then continued even more softly than it had. "Then his powers started goin' haywire in me, like yours did that time in the cemetery. It was like tryin' to hold back a piece of the sea."
Ororo took a sip of her tepid tea. "I think that gives us something to go on Rogue, thank you. I know it's hard for you to touch on the memories you have absorbed."
Rogue nodded and looked around the table, fidgeting with the paper napkin on the table before her. Scott spoke into the quiet.
"If he was good enough to take all those files and be hired in the first place, he has to be good enough to trace it back and take us to Spyke, right?"
For the first time Storm gave a slight smile. "I believe he is, convincing him to betray a client is the first problem however. Hopefully Logan is making some headway, our other avenues are rapidly closing. Even Raven and the Brotherhood have been unable to find any traces."
She had been debating telling them of Raven's news, that Toad had also been kidnapped. It could do more harm than good at this point, to raise any fears that any one of them could be the next. But as they had said themselves after finding out Raven and Mystique were one and the same, they should be told the truth.
"Todd Tolensky has also gone missing."
Kurt spoke up this time, frowning slightly. "So this means they are after all of us, perhaps?"
"It may do."
"So, why not wait until they come to us, and ambush them?"
Jean grinned and nodded, enlivening at a possible ray of hope that had been forced from a bad situation. "It's not like we don't have bait to come to us anyway, I bet they will want their thief and his bag back even if they don't want any more of us."
This was something that Storm would not normally even entertain the idea of. But now it warranted at least consideration and she was doing so when the low buzz from her jacket pocket signalled Wolverine's communication.
"Yes, Logan?"
"We just got a break."
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Notes
1) Comme ci comme ca = "so - so"
2) Laissez les bon temps roulet = "Let the good times roll"
3) Desolet = sorry
4) Petite = Lit. "small" (female), also a good natured endearment. (Think "hon")
5) comprenez-vous? = you understand?
