------
The entire table was quiet for several minutes after Pietro staggered out of the room as each of the five mutants tried to digest the information. They might have been sitting there until noon, lost in thought, if it weren't for the telephone.
"Xavier Institute," Hank said, answering it on the fifth ring. "Oh! Hi, it's Hank. No, we're fine. Yes, a little empty but the students will be back over the next few weeks. What? I would, but he's not here. I know he was supposed to be back...listen, it's a little complicated at the moment. You are? Great! When will you be - he was?" He put a hand over the receiver and looked the table, where four pairs of eyes were watching him.
"Jean, do you remember Dr. MacTaggart?"
The redhead nodded. "Sure do. She was here last year when Rahne enrolled."
"Good, good. Would you mind picking her up at JFK?"
"No problem," Jean answered, standing up. "When does she get in?"
"About twenty minutes ago. She's at the luggage claim for," the big blue mutant listened to the earpiece for a moment, "British Airways." Another pause. "Uh, take your SUV, Jean. She brought a couple people with her."
"New students?" Bobby asked, but Hank had already turned back to the phone.
"All right then, we'll see you in a couple hours. Looking forward to seeing you, Moira," he finished then hung up the receiver. Well, this was a welcome surprise. Moira MacTaggart and Charles went back a long way, from what Hank had picked up in conversation here and there. She'd had a hand in the foundation of the Institute and was now on her way back - already in New York! - to drop off her ward and look over the books. If nothing else, perhaps he could persuade her to keep an eye on things at the mansion while the rest of them put together and implemented a plan to stop Magneto and rescue their friends.
What's more, she was bringing Rahne, her ward, along with her (Hank knew that Bobby was looking forward to seeing her again; guess the 'Iceman' wasn't as cold a fish as people thought) as well as another mutant.
Great, Hank thought. Two more people. Would the seven of them be enough to handle Magneto and his Acolytes?
"Mr. McCoy?"
He turned around at Kitty's voice, but already his mind was formulating a plan.
Kurt rubbed a hand across his eyes. He wasn't quite sure he believed Pietro's story. There were a couple holes in it, such as how the other teen glossed over his escape from Magneto's hands. He hadn't forgotten for a moment just how devoted the other boy was to his father. And his description of the battle in the hanger...
Kurt folded his hands in his lap, bowing his head. 'Holy Father, if you're listening up there, we could really use some help right about now...'
"Yes?" he heard Herr McCoy as though from a distance.
"What are we going to do about the Professor?" Kitty asked.
Kurt jerked his head up. Yes, just what were they going to do about Professor[1] Xavier?
"What we're going to do is wait until Jean returns from the airport. Logan will arrive this afternoon. We're going to keep attempting to contact the other members of the team, though I doubt we'll get any better response today than yesterday. I'm going back to the lab to find an antidote. Doctor MacTaggart should make that go quicker, if she's not jet- lagged." Beast looked at each of them in turn. "We're going to get everyone back. The Professor and anyone else Magneto is holding hostage." The big blue man paused, the fierce expression on his face softening somewhat. "The X-Men don't leave any of their own behind."
There were nods around the table at this; Kurt let out a breath he wasn't aware of holding. They'd be getting the Professor back. Good. Helping people in need. Also good. And spiking Magneto's wheel.
Kurt grinned, flashing his fangs in a feral expression.
Even better...wait, what was that?
"Vas? Vaht did you say?" he asked suddenly.
"Do you pay this little attention in school, Kurt?" Herr McCoy asked in return. Then he sighed. "I was saying that my analysis of the drug used on Pietro, though rudimentary, has indicated that it seems to have included some sort of toxin or venom which is having a detrimental effect on his X-gene."
Kurt looked at him blankly. Some small corner of his mind cheered that Bobby appeared not to have understood, either.
"Kurt's English is a little sketchy, Mr. McCoy," Kitty piped up.
Sketchy? Drawn? Animated, sometimes, sure, but...
"Sorry. He - and everyone else injected with this...this...X-Venom, we'll call it - has been poisoned."
Kurt blinked. "Poisoned as in sick or poisoned as in...?"
Herr McCoy ran a massive hand through his thick hair.
"If he - they - keeps trying to use his power, yes. Poisoned as in dead."
Kurt wandered around the huge mansion for much of the morning. After Herr McCoy's revelation, he had gone back to his room and tried to relax, but he just couldn't concentrate on anything. A summer squall had blown in off the lake around midmorning, so he wasn't able to go off into the thick woods that ringed the property. That certainly limited his choices for distraction. After fumbling around with the Xbox (he wondered if that had been purchased as a joke or because someone actually played the games) for an hour or so, he'd finally given up and started climbing the stairs toward the greenhouse on the roof of the west wing. Ororo had quite a collection of plants up there, and it was the closest thing he could find to being outdoors.
He opened the door to the greenhouse, making sure to close it behind him. The woman would 'chew him a new one' if he left it open, thinking of one of the many colorful Americanisms he'd learned over the last year or two. He took a deep breath. The air in here was relaxing, he'd found, and since he was up here he might as well do something useful.
Picking up a watering can, he started going from plant to plant. He'd made one complete circuit of the outer ring and was about to start on the inner ring when his ears twitched. Someone was in here with him!
Kurt set the can down and looked around the room. Nothing...but the plants were too high to see the entire room at once. He squatted down, peering underneath the tables.
Ah, there. Kurt crouched down and scuttled under several of the heavy wooden tables toward the central circle Ororo used for meditation. The nice thing about being furry, he thought with a smile, was that the soft hair tended to make him silent while moving. He crawled under the last table and stopped.
Pietro was sitting in the center of the meditation area, directly under the middle of the glass dome that protected the plants from the light storm outside. It was one of those strange 'sun storms,' Kurt saw, and the other boy was bathed in a beam of sunlight; head bowed, apparently ignorant of Kurt's presence. The slender blue mutant sidled around until he could see Pietro a little better.
The speedster was sitting with his head resting on his knees, which were drawn up to his chest. Bony arms were wrapped tightly around his legs and Pietro was rocking slightly back and forth. Kurt's ears picked up a muffled keening sound coming from the middle of the huddled form. What the hell was going on here? This didn't look or sound like the Pietro who taunted them at school, who flaunted his mutation. The self-assured, brazen, arrogant, rude...Kurt shook his head. This was a bad dream, that was it. Just a dream.
Without realizing it he'd settled down on his haunches underneath the table. When he straightened his neck, a sharp [crack!] rang through the room as his head met the oak table rocking a pot over the edge.
Pietro's head snapped up. Were those tears - Kurt didn't have time to finish that thought as the white-haired teen's left arm shot out faster than he could see and caught the pot. Kurt reached out slowly and took the flower pot - lamb's ear, it turned out - and set it on the floor next to him. He edged out from under the table, rubbing his head.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Of-course-I-am. Why-wouldn't-I-be-all-right?" Pietro sneered back at him.
Pietro's left hand went into spasms at that point. Both boys stared as it convulsed several times before settling into a series of erratic twitching.
"Vell, dat to begin vith."
"Thank ye for comin' out t' pick us up," Dr. MacTaggart told Jean as the four of them walked out of the terminal. "'M a li'l surprised that Charles wasn't here, tho'."
"Aye, tha's no' like th' man," added Mr. Cassidy in his lilting voice.
Jean had been hoping that Dr. MacTaggart had found and brought another student for the Institute and was a little disappointed to find this tall stranger instead. It wasn't hard to see that he and the Scotswoman were obviously a couple. Still, he seemed nice enough.
"There was a problem in Denver last weekend," she said to them, glancing around. The airport lot was crowded enough that she didn't want to go into details. 'He's been captured by Magneto,' she thought at the other three mutants. She continued for another moment, sending them what information they had on the whole fiasco.
Rahne audibly gasped as Jean described the battle in the hangar. Dr. MacTaggart and Mr. Cassidy shared a look.
"A'right, then," the older woman said in a crisp voice. She set her luggage down by the back of Jean's Explorer. "What're we goin' t' do 'bout this?" Dr. MacTaggart asked in a practical voice.
"I," Jean started, then stopped and frowned. She wasn't sure. They still couldn't reach Ororo or any of the older students. She had no idea what, if anything, Mr. Cassidy could do. That left Hank and Logan as the only experienced X-Men. "I don't know."
The mansion was quiet.
Too quiet.
Logan shook his head, dismissing that thought. Film noir had always been a love of his, but he had to admit that sometimes it was a little depressing. He pulled up in front of the steps and cut the engine on his shiny new Harley-Davidson V-Rod VRSCB. The insurance company had grudgingly paid him for the loss of his last bike - his lip curled as he remembered that particular fight with Sabretooth - and he'd decided to buy something sportier.
Well, mostly sporty. The sidecar currently attached to it was necessary at the moment, but was coming off at the first opportunity. Ruined the lines of his bike, Logan thought. He removed his helmet and dismounted. Cradling the helm under one arm, he removed his gloves and tipped his head back, sniffing the damp air.
Bobby and Kitty were on the back veranda. There was a faint trace of car exhaust in the air - Jean must have gone out. Hank was unlikely to go out for any reason and Kurt knew that if he got caught driving without a license, Logan would have him for breakfast.
After all, he'd told the little guy just that not a week ago.
The two furrballs must be inside, he thought as he walked up the stairs. As he opened the door, he looked back down at his bike. The sidecar was there for a reason, but his passenger hadn't moved a muscle since they'd hit Long Island.
"Hey, kid. You comin' in or are you sitting out here until it rains again?"
The smaller figure climbed out of the sidecar and picked up the duffle bag he'd been clutching since Chicago. Wrapping both arms around the large bag, the kid staggered up the steps. Logan waited until the boy got to the top and then pulled off the helmet.
Wide blue eyes stared back at him as he expertly flipped the extra helm back into the sidecar.
"What?"
"Where," said the teenager. Then he swallowed with an audible gulp. "Where did you learn to drive one of those things?"
Chuckling, Logan led the way into the building.
"Long story, bub. Welcome to your new home."
On a hilltop thirty miles east of Denver, a lone figure crouched in the dust of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Shifting slightly, the man settled into a more comfortable position and continued his watch. Nothing had come out of the rubble of the airstrip in the last week, but he wouldn't put anything past that monster in the red cape or any of the others that were inside when the ground collapsed over the underground hangar.
Reaching a hand up to his hear, he muttered in a low voice that all was quiet. The headpiece crackled in reply almost immediately.
"Continue surveillance."
Without so much as changing expression, the stranger drew a deck of cards from somewhere on his person and started shuffling them one-handed.
Logan looked around Charles' office with an irritated expression on his face. He didn't like just sitting here while the man needed his help. Xavier had helped him through a rough time - well, several - in his past and Logan wasn't sure there was enough time in the world to repay that debt. He slipped a flask from the inside of his leather jacket and took a swig, wondering why Hank asked him to wait in here. He could have been in Pennsylvania by now, if he'd left the moment he got back.
Damn you, Magneto. What did you have to gain by killing Xavier?
Voices in the hallway brought him out of his sullen reverie and he stopped his pacing. The big double-doors opened, admitting the Beast and...
"...Moira?" he said under his breath. Who was the other guy?
"Hello, Logan," said the woman as Hank closed and locked the office door. "I don' believe ye've met Sean, have ye now?"
Logan looked long and hard at the man, noting that he and Moira were holding hands. So she'd finally gotten over Charles. He wondered how Xavier would react to having a rival for Moira's hand in his house, let alone his own office.
"Howdy. Logan," he said, clasping hands with the guy. Firm grip, anyway.
"Sean Cassidy," the man said in a very Irish accent. From West Meath, if he wasn't mistaken. Oh well, might as well get this out of the way.
"You a mutant too?"
The man laughed, a clear, rich tone. "Aye, lad, tho' my power is no' one fer use indoors." Lad? Logan bristled. He had decades on this upstart. He bared his teeth in what he imagined was a smile and stalked over to a chair.
When everyone was seated, Hank crouched on Charles' desk.
"All right, then." He passed on the events of the last three days to the other three, stressing that Pietro did not seem to be a threat. Logan wasn't comfortable just the same. There was something about that arrogant little brat that made his teeth hurt. He listened to the entire story, nodding and asking questions at the appropriate places. Moira and Cassidy were doing the same.
It boiled down to a simple rescue mission in Logan's mind. He was sure that Moira and Beast could figure out an antidote for whatever it was Magneto had used on his prisoners. He wouldn't be any use in a lab.
"When do I leave?" Logan asked, cutting into the conversation.
The other three looked at him.
"When. Do. I. Leave," he repeated in a tone that usually made the students cringe.
"As soon as possible," Hank told him. "You're the best of us at recon. Just go out to Denver and scout the airstrip. Sean and the students will follow in a day or two once we understand the situation out there."
Logan nodded. No point wasting any more time.
"And Logan," Moira said as he stood up. He stopped at the door. "Be careful. No heroics!"
Logan smirked at her.
"I'm always careful, sweetheart."
'Kurt! Kitty! Bobby! Please come to the second floor rec room,' Jean sent her thought out. The new kid, Doug, was fiddling with a handheld computer over in the sitting area. She'd shown him the grounds, introduced him to the adults, and gotten him stowed away in his room. All that was left was meeting some of his fellow students. She had to wonder how the younger boy could sit after so many hours cramped into a sidecar, though. Probably enjoying the relative quiet. Logan's driving frightened Jean; she imagined that it probably terrified the other kids around here.
Bobby and Kitty arrived within a couple minutes. Both the kids were in swimsuits and bickering. Again. Jean still hadn't figured out how everyone managed to get along during the school year, when the building was packed with four times as many teenagers. She had a pretty good idea what this was about, though. Kitty, dressed in a bright orange one-piece suit, was shivering despite the summer warmth.
Bobby, for his part, was grinning widely.
"Don't tell me," she said to him. "There's another iceberg in the pool, isn't there?"
The grin widened. Kitty smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Bobby yelped.
"Oh, shut up! You weren't the one swimming in that ice-water lagoon, you twit!"
"Enough, both of you!" Jean mentally rolled her eyes. Why couldn't some of the less...active...kids have stayed here over the summer instead? She waved a hand toward the couches. "Have a seat. Say hello to the new kid. Be nice to him, Bobby," she added.
Doug looked up as the two walked over to him and shut off his little computer.
"Hi. Doug Ramsey," he said, offering a hand.
"Bobby Drake."
"Kitty Pryde."
Jean glanced at her watch. Where was Kurt?
[Bamf!]
"Sorry, Jean," Kurt said behind her. She turned around to find Kurt and Pietro standing there. "Ve vere in the little greenhouse on the roof."
"It's a conservatory," she corrected him. Pietro was standing next to the blue guy, absently rubbing his left arm. "Something wrong, Pietro?"
The white-haired teen looked up, startled, and then glanced down at his arm. With a visible effort, he stopped fidgeting and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"No," he muttered, looking away.
Hm. Have to worry about that later, Jean decided.
"Kurt, meet Doug Ramsey," she said instead, gesturing toward the couches. Kurt blinked in surprise and whipped his head around. Belatedly, Jean remembered that the little blue guy didn't like being seen in his true form. By then, however, it was too late.
[Bamf!]
Jean and Pietro exchanged a look. The other three kids looked just as confused, though Kitty stood immediately and went out the door.
"Well, that's Kurt's power. Here's mine," Bobby said, as though that sort of thing happened on a regular basis. Cupping his hands together, he concentrated for a moment. The air, Jean noticed, turned noticeably cooler.
Bobby opened his hands to reveal a little model of a sports car.
"Hey, that's pretty neat," Doug said with a note of surprise. At Bobby's nod, he picked up the little Porsche and examined it closer. "Detailed, too. So you can create ice?"
Bobby smiled. "That's me, the Iceman."
Doug's jaw dropped when the ice model rose up from his hand and started racing along the back of the couch. Bobby laughed in delight, joined quickly by Doug. Good, Jean thought as she made the car do a lap around the library table. Looks like he'll fit right in. She stole a glance at Pietro, who had a very faint smile on his face.
"Are you doing that?" Doug asked Bobby.
'No,' Jean told him mentally, 'that's one of my powers. This is the other one.'
Jean heard Pietro snicker as Doug's eyes widened in surprise. Everyone in the room was laughing, which was a good sign. Sending the car back to Bobby, she took a seat.
"Can everyone here do things like that?"
"Almost, Doug. Kitty can phase through solid objects. Logan has a very rapid healing ability, as well as adamantium claws. Everyone has a unique power."
"Like that blue guy who popped in and out of here?"
Jean sent a tendril of thought toward Kurt and found him coming down the hallway with Kitty. Perhaps there was hope he'd get over his fear of rejection after all.
"Exactly. Pietro," she looked around and found the speedster leaning against the far wall, "well, he's not very sociable, but he has advanced reflexes and speed."
"Hey! I-heard-that-Red!" Pietro snapped.
'I'll explain later,' she thought at Doug, who caught her eye and nodded.
Kurt and Kitty returned before Jean could say anything else. Jean sighed inwardly. Kurt didn't look terribly happy and he was wearing an image inducer again. She heard Pietro snicker behind her and shot him a dirty look; the white-haired boy didn't stop, but she felt better.
"Kurt Wagner, meet Doug Ramsey," Kitty was saying.
"Guten Tag," Kurt mumbled, still looking uncomfortable.
"Hello. So what do you do?"
"Vas?"
"What's your power?" Doug asked Kurt.
"..."
Kitty threw up her hands. "Oh, that is IT! Kurt, get over yourself!" Kurt looked at her in shock as she grabbed his wrist...and phased through the inducer. With a faint crackling and a delicate tendril of smoke, the hologram machine shorted out, leaving a very angry blue mutant standing in the middle of the group.
"Honestly," Kitty grumped at Jean. "How many times have we all told him that none of us care about what he looks like while he's in the mansion? Besides, it's not like he doesn't know your name. Jean tried to, like, introduce you just a couple minutes ago!" Jean had to admit that the younger girl was right, though her method needed a bit of work. If looks could kill...
Jean giggled involuntarily. After all, Kitty did have a point. Kurt went beyond anal-retentive into the realm of downright neurotic about how he looked sometimes, especially when interacting with people outside the Institute.
She looked over Kurt's bowed head at Doug, who looked more intrigued than disgusted. As she watched, he reached out a tentative hand and twirled some of Kurt's fur between his fingers.
"That is really cool, man," he said in a quiet voice. Then he yelped and jerked back as Kurt's tail slapped his hand away. The little blue guy always called himself a demon, but Jean was always thought he looked like a stuffed animal she'd had when she was growing up. Sort of like Grover with a tail, actually. Jean laughed out loud without thinking.
Kurt rounded on her, and the look on his face was priceless. Jean covered her mouth, trying to stifle the laughter but it just wasn't working. She could feel Kitty beside her, shaking with silent laughter.
"Jean! Kitty! Ich dachte, daß Sie auf meiner Seite waren! Bitte lachen Sie nicht an mir![2]" Oh, no.
Jean tried, really she did, but the look was just too much to handle. He'd lapsed into German again and he just sounded and looked so ridiculous at the moment. 'I mean, really, couldn't he have chosen a better t-shirt this morning?' Jean thought to herself. 'He has so many to choose from - why wear the one that says 'It's Big, It's Blue, and You're Gonna Love it!' today of all days?' Bobby had joined in the laughter, too, and Pietro sounded like he was going to choke on his own behind her. She couldn't get her breath and stood there in front of a very irate ball of fur gasping for air.
"Wartezeit! Kurt, stoppen bitte. Ich entschuldige mich. Ich bedeutete nicht, Sie zu beleidigen.[3]" Doug had edged between Kurt and herself an apologetic look at the other boy, but Kurt bared his fangs at him.
"You speak German?" Bobby grinned at Doug, who returned the look with a slight frown. "That's so cool! Now we can ask you what he really means when he mutters under his breath at us."
"Betrachten Sie mich nicht wie das! Ich bin nicht ein Dämon![4]" Kurt interrupted, fairly spitting the words at the new boy.
"Ich bedeutete es nicht so. [5]"
[Bamf!]
Jean sighed. Kurt could be so prickly about his looks some days.
"So, um, what's your power?" Kitty said in the silence.
"Would you believe language?"
------
Wow, holy broken-action sequences, Batman! This was more or less a filler chapter, as a way of introducing Moira, Banshee and Cypher into the fic. Beginning next chapter, I'm probably going to start posting chapters with a single scene from the viewpoint of each of our main characters (Jean, Kurt, and Hank) with little cutscenes from Logan's point of view. I have to use him.he's been around the block more times than a Cleveland hooker. Lord knows, if this bunch has any chance at success they'll need someone with experience on their side.
Read and review, folks. I'm going to try and get the next one out quickly. After another chapter or two of everyone trying to figure out how they all fit together, the action will begin in earnest.
Jack
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Translations: (Apologies for any miscues in this chapter. My walking dictionary is out of town for the weekend and my own German is not only rusty, but leans toward the obscene as well.)
[1] Incidentally, the English and German words for 'Professor' (as a title) are precisely the same.
[2] "Jean! Kitty! I thought you were on my side! Please stop laughing at me!"
[3] "Wait! Kurt, please stop! I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you."
[4] "Don't look at me like that! I'm not some sort of demon!"
[5] "I didn't mean it like that."
The entire table was quiet for several minutes after Pietro staggered out of the room as each of the five mutants tried to digest the information. They might have been sitting there until noon, lost in thought, if it weren't for the telephone.
"Xavier Institute," Hank said, answering it on the fifth ring. "Oh! Hi, it's Hank. No, we're fine. Yes, a little empty but the students will be back over the next few weeks. What? I would, but he's not here. I know he was supposed to be back...listen, it's a little complicated at the moment. You are? Great! When will you be - he was?" He put a hand over the receiver and looked the table, where four pairs of eyes were watching him.
"Jean, do you remember Dr. MacTaggart?"
The redhead nodded. "Sure do. She was here last year when Rahne enrolled."
"Good, good. Would you mind picking her up at JFK?"
"No problem," Jean answered, standing up. "When does she get in?"
"About twenty minutes ago. She's at the luggage claim for," the big blue mutant listened to the earpiece for a moment, "British Airways." Another pause. "Uh, take your SUV, Jean. She brought a couple people with her."
"New students?" Bobby asked, but Hank had already turned back to the phone.
"All right then, we'll see you in a couple hours. Looking forward to seeing you, Moira," he finished then hung up the receiver. Well, this was a welcome surprise. Moira MacTaggart and Charles went back a long way, from what Hank had picked up in conversation here and there. She'd had a hand in the foundation of the Institute and was now on her way back - already in New York! - to drop off her ward and look over the books. If nothing else, perhaps he could persuade her to keep an eye on things at the mansion while the rest of them put together and implemented a plan to stop Magneto and rescue their friends.
What's more, she was bringing Rahne, her ward, along with her (Hank knew that Bobby was looking forward to seeing her again; guess the 'Iceman' wasn't as cold a fish as people thought) as well as another mutant.
Great, Hank thought. Two more people. Would the seven of them be enough to handle Magneto and his Acolytes?
"Mr. McCoy?"
He turned around at Kitty's voice, but already his mind was formulating a plan.
Kurt rubbed a hand across his eyes. He wasn't quite sure he believed Pietro's story. There were a couple holes in it, such as how the other teen glossed over his escape from Magneto's hands. He hadn't forgotten for a moment just how devoted the other boy was to his father. And his description of the battle in the hanger...
Kurt folded his hands in his lap, bowing his head. 'Holy Father, if you're listening up there, we could really use some help right about now...'
"Yes?" he heard Herr McCoy as though from a distance.
"What are we going to do about the Professor?" Kitty asked.
Kurt jerked his head up. Yes, just what were they going to do about Professor[1] Xavier?
"What we're going to do is wait until Jean returns from the airport. Logan will arrive this afternoon. We're going to keep attempting to contact the other members of the team, though I doubt we'll get any better response today than yesterday. I'm going back to the lab to find an antidote. Doctor MacTaggart should make that go quicker, if she's not jet- lagged." Beast looked at each of them in turn. "We're going to get everyone back. The Professor and anyone else Magneto is holding hostage." The big blue man paused, the fierce expression on his face softening somewhat. "The X-Men don't leave any of their own behind."
There were nods around the table at this; Kurt let out a breath he wasn't aware of holding. They'd be getting the Professor back. Good. Helping people in need. Also good. And spiking Magneto's wheel.
Kurt grinned, flashing his fangs in a feral expression.
Even better...wait, what was that?
"Vas? Vaht did you say?" he asked suddenly.
"Do you pay this little attention in school, Kurt?" Herr McCoy asked in return. Then he sighed. "I was saying that my analysis of the drug used on Pietro, though rudimentary, has indicated that it seems to have included some sort of toxin or venom which is having a detrimental effect on his X-gene."
Kurt looked at him blankly. Some small corner of his mind cheered that Bobby appeared not to have understood, either.
"Kurt's English is a little sketchy, Mr. McCoy," Kitty piped up.
Sketchy? Drawn? Animated, sometimes, sure, but...
"Sorry. He - and everyone else injected with this...this...X-Venom, we'll call it - has been poisoned."
Kurt blinked. "Poisoned as in sick or poisoned as in...?"
Herr McCoy ran a massive hand through his thick hair.
"If he - they - keeps trying to use his power, yes. Poisoned as in dead."
Kurt wandered around the huge mansion for much of the morning. After Herr McCoy's revelation, he had gone back to his room and tried to relax, but he just couldn't concentrate on anything. A summer squall had blown in off the lake around midmorning, so he wasn't able to go off into the thick woods that ringed the property. That certainly limited his choices for distraction. After fumbling around with the Xbox (he wondered if that had been purchased as a joke or because someone actually played the games) for an hour or so, he'd finally given up and started climbing the stairs toward the greenhouse on the roof of the west wing. Ororo had quite a collection of plants up there, and it was the closest thing he could find to being outdoors.
He opened the door to the greenhouse, making sure to close it behind him. The woman would 'chew him a new one' if he left it open, thinking of one of the many colorful Americanisms he'd learned over the last year or two. He took a deep breath. The air in here was relaxing, he'd found, and since he was up here he might as well do something useful.
Picking up a watering can, he started going from plant to plant. He'd made one complete circuit of the outer ring and was about to start on the inner ring when his ears twitched. Someone was in here with him!
Kurt set the can down and looked around the room. Nothing...but the plants were too high to see the entire room at once. He squatted down, peering underneath the tables.
Ah, there. Kurt crouched down and scuttled under several of the heavy wooden tables toward the central circle Ororo used for meditation. The nice thing about being furry, he thought with a smile, was that the soft hair tended to make him silent while moving. He crawled under the last table and stopped.
Pietro was sitting in the center of the meditation area, directly under the middle of the glass dome that protected the plants from the light storm outside. It was one of those strange 'sun storms,' Kurt saw, and the other boy was bathed in a beam of sunlight; head bowed, apparently ignorant of Kurt's presence. The slender blue mutant sidled around until he could see Pietro a little better.
The speedster was sitting with his head resting on his knees, which were drawn up to his chest. Bony arms were wrapped tightly around his legs and Pietro was rocking slightly back and forth. Kurt's ears picked up a muffled keening sound coming from the middle of the huddled form. What the hell was going on here? This didn't look or sound like the Pietro who taunted them at school, who flaunted his mutation. The self-assured, brazen, arrogant, rude...Kurt shook his head. This was a bad dream, that was it. Just a dream.
Without realizing it he'd settled down on his haunches underneath the table. When he straightened his neck, a sharp [crack!] rang through the room as his head met the oak table rocking a pot over the edge.
Pietro's head snapped up. Were those tears - Kurt didn't have time to finish that thought as the white-haired teen's left arm shot out faster than he could see and caught the pot. Kurt reached out slowly and took the flower pot - lamb's ear, it turned out - and set it on the floor next to him. He edged out from under the table, rubbing his head.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Of-course-I-am. Why-wouldn't-I-be-all-right?" Pietro sneered back at him.
Pietro's left hand went into spasms at that point. Both boys stared as it convulsed several times before settling into a series of erratic twitching.
"Vell, dat to begin vith."
"Thank ye for comin' out t' pick us up," Dr. MacTaggart told Jean as the four of them walked out of the terminal. "'M a li'l surprised that Charles wasn't here, tho'."
"Aye, tha's no' like th' man," added Mr. Cassidy in his lilting voice.
Jean had been hoping that Dr. MacTaggart had found and brought another student for the Institute and was a little disappointed to find this tall stranger instead. It wasn't hard to see that he and the Scotswoman were obviously a couple. Still, he seemed nice enough.
"There was a problem in Denver last weekend," she said to them, glancing around. The airport lot was crowded enough that she didn't want to go into details. 'He's been captured by Magneto,' she thought at the other three mutants. She continued for another moment, sending them what information they had on the whole fiasco.
Rahne audibly gasped as Jean described the battle in the hangar. Dr. MacTaggart and Mr. Cassidy shared a look.
"A'right, then," the older woman said in a crisp voice. She set her luggage down by the back of Jean's Explorer. "What're we goin' t' do 'bout this?" Dr. MacTaggart asked in a practical voice.
"I," Jean started, then stopped and frowned. She wasn't sure. They still couldn't reach Ororo or any of the older students. She had no idea what, if anything, Mr. Cassidy could do. That left Hank and Logan as the only experienced X-Men. "I don't know."
The mansion was quiet.
Too quiet.
Logan shook his head, dismissing that thought. Film noir had always been a love of his, but he had to admit that sometimes it was a little depressing. He pulled up in front of the steps and cut the engine on his shiny new Harley-Davidson V-Rod VRSCB. The insurance company had grudgingly paid him for the loss of his last bike - his lip curled as he remembered that particular fight with Sabretooth - and he'd decided to buy something sportier.
Well, mostly sporty. The sidecar currently attached to it was necessary at the moment, but was coming off at the first opportunity. Ruined the lines of his bike, Logan thought. He removed his helmet and dismounted. Cradling the helm under one arm, he removed his gloves and tipped his head back, sniffing the damp air.
Bobby and Kitty were on the back veranda. There was a faint trace of car exhaust in the air - Jean must have gone out. Hank was unlikely to go out for any reason and Kurt knew that if he got caught driving without a license, Logan would have him for breakfast.
After all, he'd told the little guy just that not a week ago.
The two furrballs must be inside, he thought as he walked up the stairs. As he opened the door, he looked back down at his bike. The sidecar was there for a reason, but his passenger hadn't moved a muscle since they'd hit Long Island.
"Hey, kid. You comin' in or are you sitting out here until it rains again?"
The smaller figure climbed out of the sidecar and picked up the duffle bag he'd been clutching since Chicago. Wrapping both arms around the large bag, the kid staggered up the steps. Logan waited until the boy got to the top and then pulled off the helmet.
Wide blue eyes stared back at him as he expertly flipped the extra helm back into the sidecar.
"What?"
"Where," said the teenager. Then he swallowed with an audible gulp. "Where did you learn to drive one of those things?"
Chuckling, Logan led the way into the building.
"Long story, bub. Welcome to your new home."
On a hilltop thirty miles east of Denver, a lone figure crouched in the dust of the Rocky Mountain foothills. Shifting slightly, the man settled into a more comfortable position and continued his watch. Nothing had come out of the rubble of the airstrip in the last week, but he wouldn't put anything past that monster in the red cape or any of the others that were inside when the ground collapsed over the underground hangar.
Reaching a hand up to his hear, he muttered in a low voice that all was quiet. The headpiece crackled in reply almost immediately.
"Continue surveillance."
Without so much as changing expression, the stranger drew a deck of cards from somewhere on his person and started shuffling them one-handed.
Logan looked around Charles' office with an irritated expression on his face. He didn't like just sitting here while the man needed his help. Xavier had helped him through a rough time - well, several - in his past and Logan wasn't sure there was enough time in the world to repay that debt. He slipped a flask from the inside of his leather jacket and took a swig, wondering why Hank asked him to wait in here. He could have been in Pennsylvania by now, if he'd left the moment he got back.
Damn you, Magneto. What did you have to gain by killing Xavier?
Voices in the hallway brought him out of his sullen reverie and he stopped his pacing. The big double-doors opened, admitting the Beast and...
"...Moira?" he said under his breath. Who was the other guy?
"Hello, Logan," said the woman as Hank closed and locked the office door. "I don' believe ye've met Sean, have ye now?"
Logan looked long and hard at the man, noting that he and Moira were holding hands. So she'd finally gotten over Charles. He wondered how Xavier would react to having a rival for Moira's hand in his house, let alone his own office.
"Howdy. Logan," he said, clasping hands with the guy. Firm grip, anyway.
"Sean Cassidy," the man said in a very Irish accent. From West Meath, if he wasn't mistaken. Oh well, might as well get this out of the way.
"You a mutant too?"
The man laughed, a clear, rich tone. "Aye, lad, tho' my power is no' one fer use indoors." Lad? Logan bristled. He had decades on this upstart. He bared his teeth in what he imagined was a smile and stalked over to a chair.
When everyone was seated, Hank crouched on Charles' desk.
"All right, then." He passed on the events of the last three days to the other three, stressing that Pietro did not seem to be a threat. Logan wasn't comfortable just the same. There was something about that arrogant little brat that made his teeth hurt. He listened to the entire story, nodding and asking questions at the appropriate places. Moira and Cassidy were doing the same.
It boiled down to a simple rescue mission in Logan's mind. He was sure that Moira and Beast could figure out an antidote for whatever it was Magneto had used on his prisoners. He wouldn't be any use in a lab.
"When do I leave?" Logan asked, cutting into the conversation.
The other three looked at him.
"When. Do. I. Leave," he repeated in a tone that usually made the students cringe.
"As soon as possible," Hank told him. "You're the best of us at recon. Just go out to Denver and scout the airstrip. Sean and the students will follow in a day or two once we understand the situation out there."
Logan nodded. No point wasting any more time.
"And Logan," Moira said as he stood up. He stopped at the door. "Be careful. No heroics!"
Logan smirked at her.
"I'm always careful, sweetheart."
'Kurt! Kitty! Bobby! Please come to the second floor rec room,' Jean sent her thought out. The new kid, Doug, was fiddling with a handheld computer over in the sitting area. She'd shown him the grounds, introduced him to the adults, and gotten him stowed away in his room. All that was left was meeting some of his fellow students. She had to wonder how the younger boy could sit after so many hours cramped into a sidecar, though. Probably enjoying the relative quiet. Logan's driving frightened Jean; she imagined that it probably terrified the other kids around here.
Bobby and Kitty arrived within a couple minutes. Both the kids were in swimsuits and bickering. Again. Jean still hadn't figured out how everyone managed to get along during the school year, when the building was packed with four times as many teenagers. She had a pretty good idea what this was about, though. Kitty, dressed in a bright orange one-piece suit, was shivering despite the summer warmth.
Bobby, for his part, was grinning widely.
"Don't tell me," she said to him. "There's another iceberg in the pool, isn't there?"
The grin widened. Kitty smacked him in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Bobby yelped.
"Oh, shut up! You weren't the one swimming in that ice-water lagoon, you twit!"
"Enough, both of you!" Jean mentally rolled her eyes. Why couldn't some of the less...active...kids have stayed here over the summer instead? She waved a hand toward the couches. "Have a seat. Say hello to the new kid. Be nice to him, Bobby," she added.
Doug looked up as the two walked over to him and shut off his little computer.
"Hi. Doug Ramsey," he said, offering a hand.
"Bobby Drake."
"Kitty Pryde."
Jean glanced at her watch. Where was Kurt?
[Bamf!]
"Sorry, Jean," Kurt said behind her. She turned around to find Kurt and Pietro standing there. "Ve vere in the little greenhouse on the roof."
"It's a conservatory," she corrected him. Pietro was standing next to the blue guy, absently rubbing his left arm. "Something wrong, Pietro?"
The white-haired teen looked up, startled, and then glanced down at his arm. With a visible effort, he stopped fidgeting and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"No," he muttered, looking away.
Hm. Have to worry about that later, Jean decided.
"Kurt, meet Doug Ramsey," she said instead, gesturing toward the couches. Kurt blinked in surprise and whipped his head around. Belatedly, Jean remembered that the little blue guy didn't like being seen in his true form. By then, however, it was too late.
[Bamf!]
Jean and Pietro exchanged a look. The other three kids looked just as confused, though Kitty stood immediately and went out the door.
"Well, that's Kurt's power. Here's mine," Bobby said, as though that sort of thing happened on a regular basis. Cupping his hands together, he concentrated for a moment. The air, Jean noticed, turned noticeably cooler.
Bobby opened his hands to reveal a little model of a sports car.
"Hey, that's pretty neat," Doug said with a note of surprise. At Bobby's nod, he picked up the little Porsche and examined it closer. "Detailed, too. So you can create ice?"
Bobby smiled. "That's me, the Iceman."
Doug's jaw dropped when the ice model rose up from his hand and started racing along the back of the couch. Bobby laughed in delight, joined quickly by Doug. Good, Jean thought as she made the car do a lap around the library table. Looks like he'll fit right in. She stole a glance at Pietro, who had a very faint smile on his face.
"Are you doing that?" Doug asked Bobby.
'No,' Jean told him mentally, 'that's one of my powers. This is the other one.'
Jean heard Pietro snicker as Doug's eyes widened in surprise. Everyone in the room was laughing, which was a good sign. Sending the car back to Bobby, she took a seat.
"Can everyone here do things like that?"
"Almost, Doug. Kitty can phase through solid objects. Logan has a very rapid healing ability, as well as adamantium claws. Everyone has a unique power."
"Like that blue guy who popped in and out of here?"
Jean sent a tendril of thought toward Kurt and found him coming down the hallway with Kitty. Perhaps there was hope he'd get over his fear of rejection after all.
"Exactly. Pietro," she looked around and found the speedster leaning against the far wall, "well, he's not very sociable, but he has advanced reflexes and speed."
"Hey! I-heard-that-Red!" Pietro snapped.
'I'll explain later,' she thought at Doug, who caught her eye and nodded.
Kurt and Kitty returned before Jean could say anything else. Jean sighed inwardly. Kurt didn't look terribly happy and he was wearing an image inducer again. She heard Pietro snicker behind her and shot him a dirty look; the white-haired boy didn't stop, but she felt better.
"Kurt Wagner, meet Doug Ramsey," Kitty was saying.
"Guten Tag," Kurt mumbled, still looking uncomfortable.
"Hello. So what do you do?"
"Vas?"
"What's your power?" Doug asked Kurt.
"..."
Kitty threw up her hands. "Oh, that is IT! Kurt, get over yourself!" Kurt looked at her in shock as she grabbed his wrist...and phased through the inducer. With a faint crackling and a delicate tendril of smoke, the hologram machine shorted out, leaving a very angry blue mutant standing in the middle of the group.
"Honestly," Kitty grumped at Jean. "How many times have we all told him that none of us care about what he looks like while he's in the mansion? Besides, it's not like he doesn't know your name. Jean tried to, like, introduce you just a couple minutes ago!" Jean had to admit that the younger girl was right, though her method needed a bit of work. If looks could kill...
Jean giggled involuntarily. After all, Kitty did have a point. Kurt went beyond anal-retentive into the realm of downright neurotic about how he looked sometimes, especially when interacting with people outside the Institute.
She looked over Kurt's bowed head at Doug, who looked more intrigued than disgusted. As she watched, he reached out a tentative hand and twirled some of Kurt's fur between his fingers.
"That is really cool, man," he said in a quiet voice. Then he yelped and jerked back as Kurt's tail slapped his hand away. The little blue guy always called himself a demon, but Jean was always thought he looked like a stuffed animal she'd had when she was growing up. Sort of like Grover with a tail, actually. Jean laughed out loud without thinking.
Kurt rounded on her, and the look on his face was priceless. Jean covered her mouth, trying to stifle the laughter but it just wasn't working. She could feel Kitty beside her, shaking with silent laughter.
"Jean! Kitty! Ich dachte, daß Sie auf meiner Seite waren! Bitte lachen Sie nicht an mir![2]" Oh, no.
Jean tried, really she did, but the look was just too much to handle. He'd lapsed into German again and he just sounded and looked so ridiculous at the moment. 'I mean, really, couldn't he have chosen a better t-shirt this morning?' Jean thought to herself. 'He has so many to choose from - why wear the one that says 'It's Big, It's Blue, and You're Gonna Love it!' today of all days?' Bobby had joined in the laughter, too, and Pietro sounded like he was going to choke on his own behind her. She couldn't get her breath and stood there in front of a very irate ball of fur gasping for air.
"Wartezeit! Kurt, stoppen bitte. Ich entschuldige mich. Ich bedeutete nicht, Sie zu beleidigen.[3]" Doug had edged between Kurt and herself an apologetic look at the other boy, but Kurt bared his fangs at him.
"You speak German?" Bobby grinned at Doug, who returned the look with a slight frown. "That's so cool! Now we can ask you what he really means when he mutters under his breath at us."
"Betrachten Sie mich nicht wie das! Ich bin nicht ein Dämon![4]" Kurt interrupted, fairly spitting the words at the new boy.
"Ich bedeutete es nicht so. [5]"
[Bamf!]
Jean sighed. Kurt could be so prickly about his looks some days.
"So, um, what's your power?" Kitty said in the silence.
"Would you believe language?"
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Wow, holy broken-action sequences, Batman! This was more or less a filler chapter, as a way of introducing Moira, Banshee and Cypher into the fic. Beginning next chapter, I'm probably going to start posting chapters with a single scene from the viewpoint of each of our main characters (Jean, Kurt, and Hank) with little cutscenes from Logan's point of view. I have to use him.he's been around the block more times than a Cleveland hooker. Lord knows, if this bunch has any chance at success they'll need someone with experience on their side.
Read and review, folks. I'm going to try and get the next one out quickly. After another chapter or two of everyone trying to figure out how they all fit together, the action will begin in earnest.
Jack
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Translations: (Apologies for any miscues in this chapter. My walking dictionary is out of town for the weekend and my own German is not only rusty, but leans toward the obscene as well.)
[1] Incidentally, the English and German words for 'Professor' (as a title) are precisely the same.
[2] "Jean! Kitty! I thought you were on my side! Please stop laughing at me!"
[3] "Wait! Kurt, please stop! I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you."
[4] "Don't look at me like that! I'm not some sort of demon!"
[5] "I didn't mean it like that."