This story is mine. Really, all mine. Well, all the characters belong to Marvel, and I got part of the idea from a story by Mel (thanks, Mel!), but please don't sue me, it wouldn't be worth it. Thanks to Luba, too for the beta read and encouragement!
Just a Couple of Kids, after all… Chapter 5"I just don't understand this- how could anyone get into our computer system?"
Kitty sighed, and began to explain the situation – again – to the assembled X-Men.
"They came in through the firewall. While it's locked up pretty tight, we do have it setup to accommodate the VPN connection from Muir Island, and some RAS connections for X-Men who are elsewhere. As far as I can tell, they inserted a virus that captured the exact settings of the Muir Island security setup, then they duped it. This should not, I might add, have been possible, so we may be dealing with technology we've never encountered before."
"What about the Shi'ar technology? Shouldn't that have kept
them out?"
Bobby saw Kitty take another deep breath before continuing. He felt sorry for her, and part of him wanted to rush to the front of the room, where she was very competently leading a discussion of the current problem, and either tell everyone to shut up or to take her away from it all. "Like she'd appreciate that," he told himself. "No, she made it quite clear that she wanted to handle this herself."
She had, too. While he thought that he may have – possibly – helped her calm down a bit, she'd refused his offer to let the others know what had happened. "I screwed up," she insisted, "not you. I'm the one who has to tell them. Besides – no offense – I don't know that you could explain it. I know I can."
He couldn't, he had to admit. And even if he could have, no one would have believed him, anyway. Not Bobby Drake, practical joker and slacker, extraordinaire. He couldn't believe how competent Kitty appeared, fielding questions from her teammates who, for the most part, barely knew how to send e-mail. The same questions. Over and over again.
"But who was it? Why can't you tell?"
Another deep breath. Despite himself, he had to admire the view when she inhaled like that. He'd lost track, but he thought that had been deep breath number 42.
"I don't know yet, not with any certainty. As I said, we're not dealing with Microsoft technology here. I have a subroutine running even now that is attempting to trace the invader back to its point of origin, but it'll be a few hours before it has any results."
"Will that work? I don't understand how you let this happen," Warren asked bitingly. "I knew we should have brought in some professionals…"
"Well, Warren, if you and your lady-love hadn't taken off on an extended vacation and not let anyone know how to reach you, maybe we'd have had the necessary wherewithal to pay for professionals…or more importantly, repairs to the mansion", replied Kurt.
"Why you…"
"Thank you, Kitty," said Jean, standing up tiredly and addressing the others in the room. "I appreciate your bringing this to our attention. One last question – to your knowledge, has any of the data been lost?"
"That's the interesting thing, Jean. It doesn't appear that anything was damaged. Just copied. It's as if someone wanted to learn as much as possible about us without harming anything."
"Or perhaps they are just trying to prepare themselves for a physical attack. The Xavier protocols were designed for that, correct? I have never understood why the Professor created them, and I don't understand why they weren't destroyed when discovered." This came from Peter Rasputin, who, Bobby noted, had been the principal whiner throughout the meeting.
It was Jean's turn to take a deep breath. "I understand your concerns, Peter, and I share them. However, given the current situation, there are items of greater importance than even the Xavier protocols. Given that they were created to provide information on how to destroy us as mutants, and given that they were not kept up-to-date in any case, and given that none of us now have our mutant abilities, they would be of limited use to anyone. Or at least," she added, holding up her hand as Peter began to object, "of no more use than our accounting records, which contain our names and code-names."
"Ah, so someone finally knows that I was once the swashbuckling Nightcrawler," Kurt inserted in an attempt at levity. "While they may die of jealousy, I don't see how it would really affect me at this time."
"Kurt, everyone in Britain knew you were the swashbuckling Nightcrawler," Rogue teased. She and Remy had pulled into the driveway just as Bobby had been rounding up everyone on repair detail for the meeting. "I'm just glad the Professor never put my real name in the database – if I can't handle mah friends knowing it, I certainly don't want mah enemies to."
"Gonna share it with me, one of these days, chere?" Remy asked, elbowing her in the side.
"Don't hold your breath, Cajun."
Hank cleared his throat loudly, and said, "Returning the meeting to a more serious note, I believe you are mistaken, Kurt, and you as well, Jean. While you are undoubtedly correct in pointing out that the revelation of our identities in view of our now-defunct mutant abilities is of somewhat less urgency than it would have been only months ago, I believe it could be of vital importance in the future. We have no way of knowing, after all, whether or not our mutant powers will be restored at some juncture. If that should occur, the loss of this data to entities unknown could be critical. The Legacy research could also be deadly, if it fell into the wrong hands, as it presumedly has."
"What about e-mail?" Rogue asked abruptly.
"What about it?" Kitty replied, puzzled.
"Whoever broke in – can they read our e-mail?"
"I suppose…"
"Aww, shit."
"Oh no, chere – don't tell me you didn't delete any of them e-mail I sent you?"
"You can delete e-mail?"
Jean cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "As I was saying, a bigger concern is that we might as well consider our private identities public knowledge. Until we know for certain who hacked into our systems, we need to be prepared for anyone with a grudge against the X-Men to take this opportunity for revenge. We also need to be concerned about possible criminal charges for some of our prior activities. The Professor was working with someone in Washington to clear those up, but I don't know for certain how far along he was in the process, and his contacts there aren't answering my calls."
"So what'da we do now?" Rogue asked.
"Kitty, you'll continue to monitor the situation on the computer side, right?" Jean asked.
"Of course," Kitty replied, sounding surprised. Given their earlier discussion, and some of the remarks her teammates had made, Bobby thought she probably was. She'd fully expected them to toss her out of the mansion. As if everyone here hadn't made mistakes of their own. Him especially.
"Hank, would you be willing to give Kitty a hand?" Jean asked, but just as Hank began to reply, Bobby heard his own voice saying, "I will."
Everyone turned to look at him. "Bobby, I know you mean well," said Jean, "but Hank has considerably…"
"Bobster, you're jokin' right?" asked Rogue. "Putting up nude pictures of Betsy on your web site hardly qualifies you for…"
"What?" interjected Betsy. "You remove those immediately!"
"Drake, what are you thinking? You, work on the mansion's security system? It's not bad enough her incompetence got us into this situation, now you're going to 'help'? And what are you doing with nude pictures of Betsy?" asked Warren furiously.
"Hold on a minute," Kitty said angrily, just as a real debate broke out and Bobby felt as if he was going to dissolve into the floor. "I could use another pair of hands. For all Hank's genius," and Hank tipped an imaginary hat, "he's a computer user, not an engineer."
"True, fair Shadowcat. You are as wise as you are lovely and competent," Hank replied, casting a glare at Warren.
"If Bobby's willing, I'd like him to help. The fact that he has put up a web site means he knows more about computers than most of the people here, no offense meant."
"And none taken, Kitty," Jean replied, still looking dazed, Bobby thought, by the idea that Bobby may have actually touched a computer for something other than role playing games. "You and Bobby work on the computer side of things, then. Betsy, you and…"
"Me," Logan inserted, walking into the room. He was looking much the worse for wear, Bobby saw, but he still felt a shiver up his spine at the thought of Logan's reaction to his interest in Kitty.
"That is, darlin'," he directed toward Jean, "assuming you were going to ask her to setup some extra security. Just in case." The whole room fell silent.
"Are you sure you're up to it?" Jean asked, worriedly. Bobby wondered what was wrong with Logan that no one had clued him in on.
"Always ready for a scrap, you know that, Red."
"All right, then. Betsy, you and Logan work out a plan for securing the grounds. Hank, please check the other security equipment to ensure it hasn't been tampered with. The rest of you, consider yourselves on call. And keep me posted with any updates. Meeting adjourned. Logan, come with me for a moment, please." At that, Jean stood up and left the room, Logan following.
Everyone else began to file out, talking amongst themselves. Betsy cast Bobby a dirty look as she walked past, Warren glared, Hank winked at him and grinned but said nothing, but Rogue stopped for a moment, laying her hand on his arm.
"Ah'm sorry, Bobby. That was outta line, but I was just joking. Didn't think the others'd chime in. Come find me later, ok? We'll have us a good catch up talk."
"Sure thing, Rogue," Bobby replied, but his heart wasn't in it. They were right, all of them. This was a critical job. What was he doing volunteering for it? "I'd have been better off," he thought wryly, "offering to bring up coffee and donuts. More my speed, after all."
"Bobby?" He pulled himself out of his self-doubt to see who was addressing him, and was surprised to see it was Kitty.
"Hi, Kit."
"I just wanted to say thank you," she said quietly. "I mean, for your support – I don't think I could have made it through this without you. Every time I looked out at everyone, you were there, and you looked so confident, I felt like I could get through this."
"Hey, anytime," Bobby replied, feeling like a heel, his self-doubts growing by the minute. Him, confident? She'd been so self-assured up there. So confident. Everything that he wasn't. Who was he fooling, thinking she'd be interested in him? "Look, I know you really don't need my help – maybe Hank would be a better…"
"No."
"Huh?" He'd been prepared for her to accept his withdrawal graciously, relieved that she'd get some knowledgeable assistance. He looked at her, and she smiled, though he could see her eyes were clouded.
"I said no, and I meant it. You offered to help, and I need all the help I can get. Besides, no one treats one of my friends like that. Not even my other teammates."
"I don't understand…" Bobby said.
"Look at you," Kitty replied, angrily. He looked at her, instead, and saw that the anger wasn't directed at him. "They do that to me all the time, too. Just a kid, after all. We're not, though, and they've got to accept that. Bobby, when I explained what happened to you, you knew what I meant. Ok, Hank did too, but Hank understands damn near everything. I had to explain it to Jean twice before we even came down to the meeting, and I'm not sure anyone else followed more than half."
"I need you, Bobby. I need your help, but I also need," she paused a moment, as if considering her next words. "I need your support. I need to know that someone thinks I can make this right. They don't," she waved her hand dismissively at the department X-Men. Oh, Kurt does, sure – we've worked together enough that he knows what I can do. The rest? Hardly. But you do. I'm not sure why, but you do."
"I know you can," Bobby replied, a lump in his throat.
"And I know you can, too. So, let's prove it to the rest of them, ok? I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being treated like a kid."
"It's a deal," Bobby said, and draped his arm around her shoulders. "So, where do we start?"