By Saturnian Blonde
Standard Questionably Useful Disclaimer: Marvel owns all rights to characters, names, etc. No profit is being made from use of anything. Yet.
Rating: PG-13
Comments: Thanks, guys, for all the comments and reviews! Well… four… but that's a lot to me! *poor depraved author…* Well, like I promised, I'm giving out the next chapter…. See what feedback can do?
So anyways, we finally meet the thief…. And for those who ask, yes, it is going to be a Rogue/Remy. Although I am introducing … well, I won't give it away…. Read on!
Chapter ONELogan and Remy had returned late, reporting immediately after their arrival to Professor Xavier's office to debrief what they had found.
"She keep changin' names, but when Remy knew her, she was goin' by some Russian name Remy can't pr'nonce right… Larissa… D'micknikov… somet'in like dat.."
"When did you meet her?"
"When Remy was workin' in N'awlens, he was hired by her throu' de Guilds. Sort of a mutual contract. Remy was t' teach her t'ievin, and she taught me how t' crack computers. De woman's damn good at dem, too."
"You taught her how to break into Moira's, then?" Logan asked.
"Hey, mind y', dis be quatre ans passés."
"How good was she?" Xavier asked.
"Meh, She be not bad, but she wouldn't join de t'ieves guild. When it all over, she up and left. Told Remy dat she be workin' up near Montréal, Canada."
"She still there?"
"Non, she left f' Toronto. Remy's sure she still be dere. A friend been keepin' tabs on her." He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his chin.
"Alright. In a couple days we'll send a team to go retrieve her."
****************
Logan slowly approached the med lab, knowing that someone was down here. On his rounds, after being debriefed with Chuck and the Cajun, he had immediately smelled that someone had broken through the security, coming in from the kitchen and making their way down to the lower levels.
That girl, the one who had broken into Moira's, it was her, too. He kept the lights off; no use in alerting her to his presence. Chuck, you better know that we have company…
As he slipped through the silent sliding doors, he could see a figure crouched beside the computer, typing quickly at the keys. As she shut off the computer and turned, he ducked behind a corner. She got up and dissolved into the shadows, disappearing from view. Fuck me, since when can she do that?
He let his claws loose with a snikt, and jumped at the first shadow that moved. A sudden gasp and the smell of blood assured him that he had hit something. He lunged at the shadow, grabbing her and shoving her against the wall, trapping her. He could feel that she was small, and with a well aimed kick to his knee, she startled him enough to push him away and duck under his grasp.
He heard the elevator door open at the far end of the hall, groaning at the perfect timing of the others. Kurt and Hank ran down the hall, flipping on the lights. Logan swept across the air with another fist, catching the rip of her clothing. The smell of blood was stronger now, and in the lights he could see the droplets of blood on the floor. The shadows, now only a slight blur, ducked under whatever he threw, before a bedpan managed to catch him off guard, knocking him down.
She materialized behind Kurt, a small girl with dark hair and pale skin. Dressed in baggy pants and a black top, long grazes could be seen on her thigh and across her abdomen. She took hold of Kurt's face, her eyes closed in concentration. Before Kurt could move, or Beast grab her, she teleported out of the room in a wisp of brimstone smoke.
"Kurt, you okay?" Logan asked, getting up and rubbing his head. Kurt blinked.
"Man, dat vas veird."
"What did she do?"
"She just touched me… but then she borrowed my powers? De fuzzy dude is sooo convused…"
"Did it feel like Rogue's powers? Pulling? Dizzy at all?"
"No, not like Rogue's at all… it kinda tickled, but then it was gone. I feel fine."
"SO where did she go?"
She has left the premises.
"Bout time he showed up."
****************
"She tripped only one alarm on the way out, which means she knew what she was doing… again." Scott sighed.
"She managed to access all my research, plus most of my information on all of the student's medical files." Beast spoke up.
"So she knows…"
"That you are all mutants, your powers, your weaknesses, your medical history. My computer has been purged of everything, I cannot access it. Remy has even looked at it and cannot find any trace of the information." He sighed and put down his glasses, rubbing his eyes.
"While you were trying to capture her, I finally got a good reading of her on Cerebro." Xavier spoke up. "It turns out she's a mutant I've been trying to pinpoint for many months now. Her powers enable her to copy the powers of other mutants, but exactly how she does this I am not sure."
"And dat's how she got out of ze mansion?" Kurt asked.
"When she touched you, something in her changed. Cerebro picked up an entirely new mutant. Whenever she switches powers, I assume Cerebro's readings of her change as well, which must be why I keep getting only glimpses of her." Kurt looked at Rogue, who was silent. She had been told first of what had happened to Kurt, and as she sat here listening, her expression grew more and more unreadable. Was this new mutant with an ability similar to her own? If so, how had she touched Kurt with seemingly no side effects, while her touch was deadly? Something in her warned her of this girl, but another part of her wanted desperately to talk to her. Xavier wasn't looking too pleased, either.
"Send a team immediately. Remy, Logan, Jean, Bobby, and Kurt. Find out what she's using that information for."
****************
Remy entered the club first, eyeing the people in it. It had been a while since he'd been to a club, much less one like this. Through the multicoloured lights and loud music, there were probably a hundred people crammed into the small room and it's outlying areas. Some song was being played in another language, and the people in the club were as diverse as the music.
It was still a nice place, though. He could sure see why she would prefer living here. He had to admit, Canada was a lot more mutant friendly than the States, especially in Toronto. Had he not been here on business, he would have loved to explore a little, see the nightlife; it seemed that every tenth person in this club was a mutant, and weren't that afraid of showing it. He remembered the huge bouncers that clearly had some kind of superior strength.
He looked to the bar, hoping to catch a glance of his contact. Through the pounding of some new techno piece, he saw him sitting at a table just off the dance floor, watching the singers and DJ's on the elevated stage in the middle of the room.
"Piotr, glad t'see you."
The Russian turned to him, nodding, and ordered drinks for the people of age. Remy and the others took a seat around the table, Logan remaining standing. Summers had deemed that the team to bring her in should be larger, especially since she had managed to break into the institute herself and managed to escape; that in itself served as a blow to the man's ego. Why such a diverse team had been picked was odd. Jean had been tagged along because, hey, someone had to convince the bouncers to let them all into the club, seeing as half of the group were still underage, even by Canadian standards. The others, Kurt and Bobby… who knew.
"How long you been in town?
"Magneto has me doing small tasks around here. One of which is watching her." The last bit he said quietly, and Remy nodded. Xavier had told the group that she was being watched by Magneto, but he had only told Remy, because he knew her, and Scott, because he was the leader, that Magneto had given him most of the known information on her, as well as her location. How Erik knew, or why he was sharing, Xavier didn't say. That is, if he even knew.
"Over there. Is going by Annika around here. Her real name's London, though." He said, pointing to the dance floor.
"Yeah, and there would be which one of the hundred people dancing?" Bobby said, noticing the large group.
"No, there." He gestured to the stage, where two girls were starting a new song, some fast paced techno beat to it. Bobby and Kurt both whistled; they were dressed both in white shirts and ties, and plaid miniskirts. A blonde and brunette.
"Think they're Catholic?" Kurt asked.
"They're Russian." Piotr said, grinning a little at the two boys drooling over themselves.
"The one on the left is her." The girl in reference was the shorter of the two, about 5 feet 5, and had long brown hair in soft waves, cascading to the middle of her back. She wasn't model thin by any means; instead she had curves in all the right places. Her face was thin, and her eyes seemed to glow in the bright lights. She had tattoos along her neck that disappeared under her shirt, patterns of lines and crescents. Something that was weird in itself, but seemed appropriate for her.
« Menja polnost'ju net, Absoljutno vser'ez.
Situacija help. Situacija S.O.S.
Ja sebja ne pojmu ty otkuda vzjalas'
Pochemu, pochemu? Na tebja povelas'
Vykljuchaetsja svet ja kuda-to lechu
Bez tebja menja net nichego ne hochu… »
Jean felt the pull from the two girls, that mental tug that enticed the people to listen to them. Like a small voice, quiet at the back of her head, that said 'Listen. We have something to tell you.'
Piotr heard Kurt sputter over his drink as he listened to the song the two girls both sang, and turned to him.
"Piotr, mein freund…"
"Da?"
"Is she saying vhat I think she's saying?"
"Da."
"What?" Bobby, turned away from the stage to look at them both. "What are they saying?"
"Only in Canada." Remy laughed, returning from the bar with another drink.
"Shouldn't we be going to get her?" Jean asked.
"And cause a scene? Nah, we'll have to wait till she's done."
"Don't start seein' t'ings dat aren't dere, hein?" Remy said, looking to them. "She's not a bad femme."
"What is she singing? Tell me!" Bobby whined.
"Just watch. It will get more interesting." Piotr said, leaning back. He had been watching her for a while; he knew what was coming.
« Bez tebja ja ne ja, Bez tebja menja net
A oni govorjat, Govorjat eto bred
Eto solnechnyj jad zolotye luchi
A oni govorjat nado srochno lechit'
Ja hotela zabyt' do upora i vniz
Ja schitaja stolby i rasterjannych ptic
Bez tebja menja net, otpusti. otpusti.
Do ugla po stene, mama, papa prosti.. »
The two girls danced around the stage, singing to themselves more than anyone else around them. Their own little intimate world.
"They're lesbians???" Bobby cried as the blonde pulled their target into a kiss on the stage; the crown erupted in cheers. Their song continued, and Piotr inwardly chuckled at Bobby's shocked expression. He leaned over to him.
"Plot: She loves her, she can't live without her; she knows how she feels, but everyone around her thinks she's crazy, that she's mentally ill because she loves a girl. She's apologizing to her parents." Bobby, looked at him. "They like to put little moral and political messages into their songs."
"Oooohhhh." Now I get it. Bobby looked back to the stage, as the two girls finished and the DJ took over again, the crowd still cheering. Damn, she was somewhat cute, too…
"They use their powers that openly?" Jean asked, indignant at the abuse of their powers.
"This isn't that big a deal…they're performers. The more attention they grab, the more they get paid. Besides, only the blonde has that power."
"Now I know where I've met her before." Logan piped up taking a sip of his beer. "She was captured by Trask, too. Didn't get a chance to talk to her before. When we were escaping, she sang all the guards to sleep."
Logan knew her now. Her scent had changed, but he could tell it was still the same girl. She had been captured after him and the others, and she had put up one hell of a fight when they threw her in the same cell block as him. He didn't think they knew right away what her power was, so he didn't see much of her the first week, but when she returned, it was with a collar.
She didn't say anything after that, not for the rest of the time she was in the same block as him and Rogue. Rogue had started calling her Echo, just so she had a name to respond to. She always seemed to be in pain, clutching her heart and stomach. And she still had those tattoos on her neck.
But when the guards came in one day, she started to sing. And he felt that strange pull on him, until something told him, and the other mutants, to cover their ears. Guards had tried to pull her out of her cell, tried to get her to shut up, but she wouldn't. The stronger ones pulled her away as the weaker simply fell to the floor in a coma. 20 minutes after they had last seen her being dragged out, she came back, stumbling, and let them out of their cages. They had all fought free after that, with probably half the guards out cold, and somewhere in the middle of it she had disappeared.
Still inside the club, the two girls got down from the stage and walked towards the group. Logan moved closer to his target, watching, as the two of them went through the crowd towards the bar. The blonde whispered some question to the bartender, and he pointed to a small corner. The blonde went over, while Annika stayed at the bar, asking for and downing two shots of what smelt to be vodka, straight. Guess we don't have to worry about the good girl outfit, Logan thought as he watched her. The blonde came back with two envelopes, one of which she kept for herself, the other she gave to Annika.
"How much is it this time?" She asked the girl, Logan now close enough to hear her over the loud music. He was surprised when she spoke; her Russian song had led him to believe she only spoke it, but her English, while having Canadian undertones, was perfect.
"Two grand each. Plus a meeting with some big shot next week for a possible record deal."
"You're fucking with me?" she said, breathless. Her eyes had gone wide, unbelieving, but the other nodded, and the two hugged, Annika clearly excited. "No shit! That's great! Ohmygod, I can hardly believe it!" She looked over at him, her smile dissipating away. She must have seen me. He walked away back towards the others, who had been watching her as well.
"She knows we're here, now's the time to move."
****************