Chapter Seven

Raptor glanced around nervously, tugging at the hem of her sleeveless shirt. "We got our cover story right? Me and Kurt are together and we're major pissed at humans. For obvious reasons."

Kurt nodded. "Ja, that sounds right. I just hope we meet one of Damien's people soon, otherwise this'll be for nothing."

Chantelle, who'd turned invisible before getting off the jet, hissed, "act like you don't give a damn who's watching you, Raptor. You're still looking self-conscious. Tori and Zen wouldn't care what some human thought of them, or what some mutant thought of them. You have to act that way."

"Right," Raptor muttered. She and Kurt sauntered through the streets of the small town on Nebraska's border, attracting stares and frightened glances from passersby because of their appearances. Raptor was dressed like a Gothic girl, complete with black clothing, black lipstick, dark eye makeup and a removable tattoo of a snake, while Kurt's holographic inducer gave him the appearance of a dark-haired guy with spiky white-tipped hair, dark, glowering eyes and a tattoo of a bleeding rose on his right shoulder.

Kurt wrapped his arm around Raptor's waist and she tucked her hand into his back pocket, whispering, "I won't tell Kitty if you don't tell Bobby."

"Ja, I don't really want katzchen to know about this," Kurt muttered. Raptor was about to speak again when a quiet voice cut through the air.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Two little mutant lovebirds. Ain't that sweet, Dusk?"

Raptor and Kurt turned and glared at the two guys standing behind them. Lukas and Dusk, doing their best to look like normal thugs but being about as successful as Sabretooth. Raptor asked, "you got a problem, bud? Cause if ya do, I'll be happy to sort it out for you. Course, I can't guarantee you'll like my methods."

"Pretty thing like you couldn't hurt anyone," Lukas hissed.

Kurt took a step forward. "Are you trashing my girl, friend? You wouldn't want to be doing that. I get… angry… when people trash my girl."

"What if we are?" Dusk challenged.

Kurt matched Dusk's glare with one of his own. "Then I'd shove your limbs down your throat without bothering to remove them first. Of course, that's nothing to what Tori'd do to you if she thought you were trashing her."

Lukas and Dusk glanced at Raptor, who was inspecting her fingernails and chewing bubblegum loudly. She looked up and raised her eyebrows. "You heard him. Trash me and you become trash. Got it, bud?"

Lukas grinned. "I like them. They've got spunk, and that's what we need. Damien told us to recruit someone who could handle all the junk we do. You reckon these kids might do?"

"They're the type Damien likes," Dusk replied. He looked at Kurt and Raptor. "What d'you think? You want to get back at all the people who pissed you off?"

"Can't say the thought hasn't crossed our minds," Kurt said. "How do you figure on helping us do that?"

"We work for a guy called Damien, a mutant like us. If you want to work for him as well, he ensures that you get revenge for any wrongs done to you," Lukas said.

Raptor and Kurt exchanged a glance, then Raptor shrugged. "Why the hell not? We may as well check out this guy, Zen. It's not like we were going anywhere else."

"We'll come with you," Kurt said. "But I'm warning you, trash my girl again and you won't live to regret it."

"Good. Follow us."

Dusk and Lukas led them through winding streets until they reached an old, dilapidated church. Chantelle, following them silently and invisibly, shook her head at Damien's sick sense of humour.

((The way to their lair is through a church? How sick is that? A holy place leading to a place of such evil?))

Dusk reached down under one of the pews and tugged a hidden trapdoor. It swung open and he gestured for Kurt and Raptor to follow. Chantelle slipped down the stairway first and hovered above their heads, waiting.

Dusk and Lukas led Raptor and Kurt through the dark corridors until they reached Damien's office, Chantelle following quickly and silently. The dark-haired man was sitting behind his desk, talking to Sabrina. He glanced up as the door opened and asked mildly, "who might these be?"

"We picked them up outside. Thought they might make good recruits," Lukas replied.

Damien nodded. "All right. I'll speak to them. You may leave."

Once the door had closed, Damien gestured for Raptor and Kurt to take a seat. He asked, "what are your names?"

"People call me Tori, and this is my guy Zen," Raptor said, sitting next to Kurt and leaning against his shoulder. He draped his arm around her neck, playing with the huge hoop earrings she'd put in. "We don't do last names. Too easy to trace. We don't got a good past."

"Where are you from?" Sabrina asked.

Kurt replied, "born in Kentucky, fostered off to half a million places before I was ten. You know the basic idea. Not really from anywhere."

"I was born in Georgia. Ran away from home cause my father was a dick. They slapped me into foster care and me and Zen ended up together when we were fourteen," Raptor said. She laughed. "That place sure didn't last long. We cleared off as soon as we got enough cash together and we've been living loose ever since."

She snapped her bubblegum and raised her eyebrows. "Well? We in or not? Cause if not, we got better things to do than sit here and talk to a prissy-looking blonde bimbo and her decade-older boyfriend. Got my drift?"

Chantelle grinned to herself. ((Good old Rap, playing the part perfectly. Kurt's not doing too bad himself. We might just pull this off.))

"I understand perfectly, Tori. And I like your attitude," Damien said. "You and… Zen, was it?… may stay here and work for me for as long as you wish. I think your first duties will be taking blood from a captive I have. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Why should it be?" Kurt asked. "You think we ain't never seen blood before? Just tell us where to get the stuff we need and we'll go get as much blood as you want."

Damien stood up. "Sabrina, if you would show our new recruits where to get the things they need? I have to speak with Essex about our deal."

Sabrina led Raptor and Kurt down more never-ending corridors, talking as she walked.

"You guys heard of Xavier's School for the Gifted?"

"Can't say we have. What sort of a gay name is that, anyway?" Raptor asked derisively.

Sabrina snorted a laugh. "You got that right, Tori. Anyway, you gotta watch yourself with those guys. They try to make you think their way is the only way to go. A bunch of hypocrites."

She stopped in front of a cupboard and pulled out latex gloves, a syringe and a needle. "Here you go. The cell's just across the hall. Have fun."

Raptor pulled on a pair of gloves and grinned evilly. "Oh, believe me, Sabs, we will. C'mon, Zen, let's go get a little blood sample."

They entered the cell, locking the door behind them as soon as Chantelle whispered, "I'm in."

The empath turned her attention to the cell, checking for hidden cameras or microphones. There was no espionage equipment, but one wall was a huge one-way window. She quickly created an image of Raptor and Kurt drawing blood from Scott, then staying and taunting him, and 'pasted' it across the window while the two younger mutants knelt beside their leader.

Scott's uniform was scorched around his chest and abdomen, as if he'd been hit by a low-voltage lightning bolt. There were tiny rivulets of blood from the corners of his mouth and numerous burns and bruises near the scorch marks. His face was cut and bruised, and his right arm was bruised almost all over.

Chantelle knelt and carefully removed his visor. His eyes were closed, but with the karamantium cuffs around his wrists he couldn't hurt them with his optic blasts.

Raptor gently shook his shoulder. "Mr. Summers!"

He didn't wake. Chantelle tried, saying, "Scott, wake up, please. We need you."

Still no response. Chantelle placed her fingers at his jugular and winced. "His heart is racing. Probably as a result of those electric shocks. He should be okay, though. If we can get him to wake up."

"Let me try," Kurt said. "Scott, the team's in danger. We need you to tell us what to do."

Scott's eyes flew open and he struggled into a half-sitting position before groaning and slumping against the wall. He suddenly seemed aware that he wasn't wearing his visor and closed his eyes, cringing. Raptor gently took his hands away from his eyes, saying, "it's okay. You're wearing the cuffs. You can't hurt us."

Scott gingerly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times in the light and, they realised, in reaction to being able to see colours again.

"What are you three doing here?" he asked hoarsely. He didn't remark on Raptor's appearance, but Chantelle could feel the mixed confusion and amusement at the sight of one of his pupils dressed as a Goth.

"We came in to do a little recon," Kurt explained. "Aura, Dreamer, Solitaire, Remy and the Professor were kidnapped yesterday. We thought they might be here, but Jean and Storm thought we should know where they are before charging in, to minimalise the risk. So we volunteered for recon."

Chantelle had gone into the bathroom and returned with a paper cup of cold water. She wet the tail of her oversized shirt and gently began to wash the blood away from Scott's face.

"You got hurt pretty bad here. What on earth did you do to piss them off so much?" she asked jokingly.

Scott replied, "Adam doesn't like me much. I think that's enough reason for him."

Raptor frowned. "Channy, you know that deal where you make an image and 'paste' it somewhere? Can you make an image of Scott so we can get him out of here?"

"I can try, but I don't know how long it'd last," Chantelle replied, her brow furrowed as she calculated the energy she'd need to expend. "It wouldn't be very good, either, not if I had to keep it up long enough for us to get away, let alone at a distance."

"You're here for recon," Scott said. "The others will be coming later, right?"

"That's right," Kurt affirmed.

Scott continued, "I'll get out then. Leave me here for now. I'll be fine. Just do what the others sent you to do. Don't take any stupid risks."

"All right," Raptor said reluctantly. "Damien sent us here to get blood. I'm gonna use your left arm. The right one looks about ready to turn gangrenous."

She quickly took the blood they'd been sent to get. As they turned to go, and as Chantelle became invisible, Kurt said, "we'll be back as soon as we can."

"I know. We're X-Men. And X-Men don't abandon their own."

@ @ @

Jean was walking through the gardens when a shadow passed over her. Her first thought was that it was a bird, but then she realised that no bird could cast a shadow that big. She gazed up into the sky and gasped.

A guy with blue skin and huge white wings was speeding towards her, his wings back like a diving falcon. He swept over her head and landed a few metres away, shaking his blonde hair out of his eyes and folding his wings against his back.

"Doctor Summers-Grey?" he asked.

She nodded and asked, "who are you? And what are you doing here?"

"My name is Warren Worthington III. And I'm here because I'm worried about a girl I know, Kristin Langley. You might know her as Aura."

"You know Aura?"

"You could say that. We've been meeting each other for a while now," Warren replied, settling his wings so they didn't catch on the branches of the trees as he came closer. "She's missing, isn't she?"

"Yes. She and some of the other students, as well as a teacher and the Professor," Jean admitted.

Warren's expression hardened. "Do you know who took them?"

"What makes you think they were kidnapped?" Jean asked evasively.

Warren snorted. "Please, Dr. Summers-Grey, I may be young but I'm not stupid. I know that the X-Men are based here, and if I'm not mistaken you're one of them. I know that this is a school for mutants, and I know that there's a mutant called Damien who has a vendetta against this school. All that adds up to these missing people being kidnapped."

"Let's say you're right. What would you do about it?" Jean asked.

Warren replied, "let me help. I know that you'll find them; from what Aura told me you people are the best at what you do. When you know where they are, let me help get them back."

"I don't know. The Professor wouldn't like us involving someone who isn't one of us."

"She's important to me, Dr. Summers-Grey. If you won't let me help you I'll find my own way to get her back, and you can bet it'll be something that'll get me and likely her killed. If your Professor doesn't like it he can take it up with me."

Jean sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe you're right. Can you fight at all?"

"Oh, I'm sure I can do something to help," Warren replied, smiling. "You going to introduce me to the rest of these X-Men?"

"All right. Logan might not trust you at first, but he gets over it," Jean said. "He usually does. Follow me."

The other X-Men were all in the den, half-heartedly watching a movie on TV. Logan and Storm jumped up when Jean entered with Warren, and Logan asked, "who's the kid?"

"Guys, this is Warren. He's a friend of Aura's. He wants to help us get the others back," Jean said. She explained what Warren had told her. Storm nodded acceptingly.

"If he wants to help and knows what he's getting into I don't see a reason why he can't," she said.

"What's your power?" Cat asked.

Warren replied, "my wings, basically. There're a few other things I can do, but nothing I really want to demonstrate right now."

Cat nodded. "Fair enough. I don't even know what I can do. It's nice to meet you, though. I think if Aura trusts you then you must be an okay person. We all know what Aura's like when it comes to trusting people."

@ @ @

Dreamer yanked at the leather straps around his wrists, dragging them over the roughened metal rivets he'd found on the metal frame of the bed. The leather scraped over his wrist, drawing blood, but he ignored the pain and kept sawing at it.

He was almost halfway through the right strap, thanks to a night spent dragging it back and forth over the rivets. His wrists were scraped raw and bloody, but he figured it was a small enough price to pay if he got out of there.

Adam hadn't been there for hours. Dreamer just hoped his brother would stay away until he'd sawn through the leather and could fight. And once he'd beaten the crap out of the guy who called himself his brother, he could try to find the others.

The door opened suddenly. Dreamer stopped yanking at the restraints and glanced up. Damien and Adam stood over him, both looking a little tired. He quickly hid the torn edge of leather and asked, "what th' hell do y'all want?"

"Professor Xavier is being exceedingly difficult with us. He refuses to comply with our wishes," Damien said simply. "So we've been forced to use… alternate methods of persuasion."

A chill ran up Dreamer's spine. "Meanin'?"

"Meaning perhaps Xavier will do as we require if it will… benefit his students. I'm sure he would hate to see what happens to… say, an arachnaphobiac who was exposed to a large amount of spiders, especially if the victim was a student."

"Why don' ya just say what ya mean, Damien?" Dreamer asked, though he had a sinking suspicion he knew what Damien meant.

The dark-haired man smiled coldly. "You might be interested to know, Sinister told us all about your claustrophobia. And we have some… very small rooms here. So you either convince the Professor to do as we wish, or I'm afraid you'll have to revisit those days with Sinister…"

I don't like Damien at all.

Anyway, TBC. In Chapter Eight, Raptor, Kurt and Chantelle report back. Xavier has been pissing off Damien big time. Scott and Dreamer get big boo-boos…