Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from, the X-Men
characters. Thanks also to my good friend Corrinth for the use of the
character Ilehana Xavier.
A/N: Please don't forget to review...Not that I'm desperate for feedback or anything here!
Scene Thirteen
The charging whir of the black jet made the windowpanes of the mansion shake. As is rose up out of the ground like a demonic creature, children ran to the windows in excitement. Charles Xavier watched through their young and innocent eyes, confined to Cerebro in readiness to help his X- Men. As the great blackbird rose, glinting in the hazy morning light, he hoped beyond hope that by the time these precious children were grown the need for such a tool was long past.
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Mystique strode confidently around the laboratory; she could almost feel at home here. Palmtop computer in hand she tapped away, storing information for reporting to Magneto later. From the moment Jacobi had offered her so much money for information on Gambit, this had been too easy. And now, after only a month she was almost ready to leave Jacobi and his cronies to their pathetic activities, taking both her money and Jacobi's most well guarded secret back to the Brotherhood of Mutants.
She knew she was being watched. There were cameras everywhere in this concrete shell. But there was little Jacobi could do to stop her working, she had made herself too invaluable for that. No one else could have trained Electra and Crush so well that they had little difficulties in getting Gambit out of prison. No one else had been able to come so close to getting the mutation accelerator ready for action. This had started out as a simple cash-making expedition, a hobby of her own devising whilst she had free time on her hands. But now, now she had not only the plans Jacobi's machine, and a long list of possible useful mutant contacts; Electra and Crush were disgruntled employees mere words away from leaving Jacobi for the Brotherhood...
...Now to convince Gambit that he belonged with the Brotherhood of Mutants too...
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Remy stalked his office like a caged tiger. He couldn't settle to anything. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end, his spine tingled. Something was brewing, he could almost hear it. On Jacobi's orders the mercenary troop presence in the building had been doubled. Endlessly ordinary humans pounded around the atrium practicing meaningless drills and giving Remy a headache. There was no peace here.
But he had no place else to go. In limbo, he was waiting for Blaze to betray him, lead the X-Men to him. Running his fingers through his thick mop of red-brown hair he grimaced. Trapped like an animal, between an old enemy he thought he could handle, and an old friend he could no longer trust.
The door handle turned behind him, the catch clicking in the frame. Mystique came in ever so quietly, walked over to Gambit, and wrapped her long blue arms around his neck. Whispering into his ear she told him of another way. No Jacobi. No humans. No mind-games. Fight against Jacobi and all like him, mild-mannered manipulative humans, judging mutants as fools good for nothing but as mindless soldiers. Fight against the X-Men, against their wish to control all mutants. Fight against Xavier and have his revenge against the mutant who has stolen Blaze from him...
Gambit swallowed, eyes wide. Mystique's provocative words, the closeness of her, her breath on his neck, it was all too much. Was she right? Was there another way out of this?
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On board the X-Men jet, Blaze braced herself against the sudden acceleration; she had never been on any vehicle as fast as this one. At the helm Storm took a sideways glance at Cyclops. Was he going to hold up through this? Scott Summers gripped the co-pilot controls gently, concentrating entirely on the read-out displays around him. In the back of his mind, he could almost hear Jean's voice, telling him that he could do this, that she loved him, and that she'd never really leave him...
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Less than an hour later, the jet touched down almost silently at Storm's command. Using the cover of an abandoned warehouse badly damaged and made roofless by a recent fire, they would wait here until Jacobi's compound's helipad was secured. It was fast approaching noon. Ilehana double checked her equipment, and then snapped the large briefcase shut. It was time for action; she had an hour until the most of the office staff would leave for their lunch break. She needed to access the building before then for their cover story to work, and she was a ten-minute walk away.
Standing up in the isle of the jet, she met Wolverine's eyes briefly.
**Be careful. ** She told him tenderly, telepathically.
**You too. ** He replied, well used to mental conversations with her.
"Guess I'll see you all later." She smiled at the team; glad she didn't have to wait much longer before seeing some action. Tugging her smart jacket straight and picking up her briefcase she disembarked thinking **Oh, and Blaze, give this Jacobi a few lumps for me? **
**Absolutely. ** Blaze replied adamantly. The Vixen smiled to herself and was gone.
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Vixen pulled her long hair down over her right ear, hiding the tiny earpiece that allowed her to communicate directly with the jet and Blaze and Rogue. She could use her telepathic abilities, but the others wouldn't be able to reach her if they needed too. No such precautions were needed to talk to her father though.
**You ready Dad? **
**Of course. ** He was already concentrating hard, she could tell.
"**I'm going in.**" Mentally and vocally she warned her father and the waiting X-Men. In front of her the glass fronted A.J. Finance building loomed. Walking up to the building, Vixen didn't flinch as the glass doors slid open just a second too slowly, making her slow down. Take it easy Vixen, relax. A woman at the reception desk looked up and smiled at Ilehana, whilst another spoke on the phone, filing her nails. Ilehana smiled back casually.
"Hi there, I've an appointment with Mr. Mark Smith." Heightened hearing alerted Vixen to the whirl of small motors as security cameras homed in on her position. **Come on Dad! **
The whirl of the cameras continued, the security guard hadn't locked onto her.
**Trust me Ilehana. ** Xavier was smiling despite his efforts.
"Ah yes," The receptionist pointed to a blank computer screen, "Ms Logan, go on through."
**Ms Logan!?! **
**It was the first name that popped into my head. ** Xavier was laughing at his daughter's discomfort. **And I couldn't very well use your real name, could I? **
Ilehana didn't bother to answer, but followed the receptionist's pointing to a door behind the circular reception desk and into a gloomy corridor. Ahead of her, a young man in a dark suit left his office at the end of the corridor. He nodded to her as he walked past her, muttering something about being due a break, and craving a bagel. He hadn't locked the office behind him. The security camera didn't even move as she walked past it and into the abandoned room, locking the door behind her with the key that was still in the inside keyhole.
Looking around briefly Ilehana could see that there were no cameras in the office itself. Obviously dealings went on in here that Jacobi did not want hard evidence of. The grating for the air-con system was quite high up in the wall, and the system wasn't on. Taking a magnetic screwdriver out of her brief case, Ilehana set to taking off the grating, thinking that this was turning out to be a little too easy.
A/N: Please don't forget to review...Not that I'm desperate for feedback or anything here!
Scene Thirteen
The charging whir of the black jet made the windowpanes of the mansion shake. As is rose up out of the ground like a demonic creature, children ran to the windows in excitement. Charles Xavier watched through their young and innocent eyes, confined to Cerebro in readiness to help his X- Men. As the great blackbird rose, glinting in the hazy morning light, he hoped beyond hope that by the time these precious children were grown the need for such a tool was long past.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mystique strode confidently around the laboratory; she could almost feel at home here. Palmtop computer in hand she tapped away, storing information for reporting to Magneto later. From the moment Jacobi had offered her so much money for information on Gambit, this had been too easy. And now, after only a month she was almost ready to leave Jacobi and his cronies to their pathetic activities, taking both her money and Jacobi's most well guarded secret back to the Brotherhood of Mutants.
She knew she was being watched. There were cameras everywhere in this concrete shell. But there was little Jacobi could do to stop her working, she had made herself too invaluable for that. No one else could have trained Electra and Crush so well that they had little difficulties in getting Gambit out of prison. No one else had been able to come so close to getting the mutation accelerator ready for action. This had started out as a simple cash-making expedition, a hobby of her own devising whilst she had free time on her hands. But now, now she had not only the plans Jacobi's machine, and a long list of possible useful mutant contacts; Electra and Crush were disgruntled employees mere words away from leaving Jacobi for the Brotherhood...
...Now to convince Gambit that he belonged with the Brotherhood of Mutants too...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remy stalked his office like a caged tiger. He couldn't settle to anything. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end, his spine tingled. Something was brewing, he could almost hear it. On Jacobi's orders the mercenary troop presence in the building had been doubled. Endlessly ordinary humans pounded around the atrium practicing meaningless drills and giving Remy a headache. There was no peace here.
But he had no place else to go. In limbo, he was waiting for Blaze to betray him, lead the X-Men to him. Running his fingers through his thick mop of red-brown hair he grimaced. Trapped like an animal, between an old enemy he thought he could handle, and an old friend he could no longer trust.
The door handle turned behind him, the catch clicking in the frame. Mystique came in ever so quietly, walked over to Gambit, and wrapped her long blue arms around his neck. Whispering into his ear she told him of another way. No Jacobi. No humans. No mind-games. Fight against Jacobi and all like him, mild-mannered manipulative humans, judging mutants as fools good for nothing but as mindless soldiers. Fight against the X-Men, against their wish to control all mutants. Fight against Xavier and have his revenge against the mutant who has stolen Blaze from him...
Gambit swallowed, eyes wide. Mystique's provocative words, the closeness of her, her breath on his neck, it was all too much. Was she right? Was there another way out of this?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On board the X-Men jet, Blaze braced herself against the sudden acceleration; she had never been on any vehicle as fast as this one. At the helm Storm took a sideways glance at Cyclops. Was he going to hold up through this? Scott Summers gripped the co-pilot controls gently, concentrating entirely on the read-out displays around him. In the back of his mind, he could almost hear Jean's voice, telling him that he could do this, that she loved him, and that she'd never really leave him...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Less than an hour later, the jet touched down almost silently at Storm's command. Using the cover of an abandoned warehouse badly damaged and made roofless by a recent fire, they would wait here until Jacobi's compound's helipad was secured. It was fast approaching noon. Ilehana double checked her equipment, and then snapped the large briefcase shut. It was time for action; she had an hour until the most of the office staff would leave for their lunch break. She needed to access the building before then for their cover story to work, and she was a ten-minute walk away.
Standing up in the isle of the jet, she met Wolverine's eyes briefly.
**Be careful. ** She told him tenderly, telepathically.
**You too. ** He replied, well used to mental conversations with her.
"Guess I'll see you all later." She smiled at the team; glad she didn't have to wait much longer before seeing some action. Tugging her smart jacket straight and picking up her briefcase she disembarked thinking **Oh, and Blaze, give this Jacobi a few lumps for me? **
**Absolutely. ** Blaze replied adamantly. The Vixen smiled to herself and was gone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vixen pulled her long hair down over her right ear, hiding the tiny earpiece that allowed her to communicate directly with the jet and Blaze and Rogue. She could use her telepathic abilities, but the others wouldn't be able to reach her if they needed too. No such precautions were needed to talk to her father though.
**You ready Dad? **
**Of course. ** He was already concentrating hard, she could tell.
"**I'm going in.**" Mentally and vocally she warned her father and the waiting X-Men. In front of her the glass fronted A.J. Finance building loomed. Walking up to the building, Vixen didn't flinch as the glass doors slid open just a second too slowly, making her slow down. Take it easy Vixen, relax. A woman at the reception desk looked up and smiled at Ilehana, whilst another spoke on the phone, filing her nails. Ilehana smiled back casually.
"Hi there, I've an appointment with Mr. Mark Smith." Heightened hearing alerted Vixen to the whirl of small motors as security cameras homed in on her position. **Come on Dad! **
The whirl of the cameras continued, the security guard hadn't locked onto her.
**Trust me Ilehana. ** Xavier was smiling despite his efforts.
"Ah yes," The receptionist pointed to a blank computer screen, "Ms Logan, go on through."
**Ms Logan!?! **
**It was the first name that popped into my head. ** Xavier was laughing at his daughter's discomfort. **And I couldn't very well use your real name, could I? **
Ilehana didn't bother to answer, but followed the receptionist's pointing to a door behind the circular reception desk and into a gloomy corridor. Ahead of her, a young man in a dark suit left his office at the end of the corridor. He nodded to her as he walked past her, muttering something about being due a break, and craving a bagel. He hadn't locked the office behind him. The security camera didn't even move as she walked past it and into the abandoned room, locking the door behind her with the key that was still in the inside keyhole.
Looking around briefly Ilehana could see that there were no cameras in the office itself. Obviously dealings went on in here that Jacobi did not want hard evidence of. The grating for the air-con system was quite high up in the wall, and the system wasn't on. Taking a magnetic screwdriver out of her brief case, Ilehana set to taking off the grating, thinking that this was turning out to be a little too easy.
