This story is mine. Really, all mine. Well, all the characters belong to Marvel, 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 7"Well, the party's over, I guess we'd better get back on track," Kitty said regretfully, as she and Bobby drove back to the mansion.
"Now?" he asked, surprised. It was nearly one in the morning, their 'short break' having lasted far longer than either of them had planned. Not that he was complaining, he mused. In the last couple of hours he'd really gotten to know Kitty Pryde, and he liked what he'd learned.
Not only was she gorgeous and brilliant – a combination that still amazed him – but she was one of the most, well, caring people he'd ever met. They'd talked more about Illyana and Kitty's early years with the X-Men, but gradually she'd gotten him talking as well; about his father and their relationship, about how he'd felt when Cloud changed gender and then was revealed to be a sentient nebula, about the whole thing with Emma Frost and his underutilized powers. She'd asked him questions about college, and his accounting business, and all those normal things that most people took for granted unless they'd grown up with the X-Men. He'd talked, and she'd listened, asking questions now and then, as if she'd really cared about what he was saying. It was an odd feeling; he rarely opened up to anyone except Hank. Everyone else expected Bobby the joker, so that was who he provided.
"Yes, now," she answered, stretching out in the passenger's seat as much as room allowed. "You said 'a break'. A break implies that you go back to work after you're done."
"Ok, ok – you're a real slave driver, you know it?" he replied, yawning. "What's first?"
"Hmmm…well, first we look at your results on which systems have been accessed. It'd be interesting to know what whoever it was was looking for."
"I've been thinking about that. I'll have to double check the print-outs, but it looked as if they'd accessed about the last six months worth of mission files and accounting records. And, of course, Hank's legacy info. Rogue should be happy; it didn't look as if anyone's been hacking the e-mail system."
"Probably because it's on a different subnet," Kitty mused. "Let's assume they're looking for something in particular; if they were just looking for how to destroy the X-Men, they'd presumably either have downloaded everything, or just gone after the Xavier protocols.
"It pretty much rules out the government, too; they'd have wanted as much information as they could get if they were going after evidence," Bobby inserted.
"Going back six month takes us back to just before the show down with Apocalypse. That was all covered in the mission logs, so it's probably not that, or they'd have stopped there."
"The accounting records contain everyone's personal information in addition to the usual payables/ receivables," Bobby added, getting into the spirit of things. "If you know what you're looking for, you can learn a lot from accounting records."
"Like what?" Kitty asked. "The going rate for mansion restoration?"
"Well, yeah, that too, but how people spend money can tell you a lot about them. Let's see, in the last six months I would guess the food and utility bills have gone down."
"Because there aren't as many people living at the mansion?"
"Bingo. The phone bill's probably down, too, unless Betsy's been calling England again – no, she and Warren were on vacation, right? Add airline tickets to the list. Probably a lot of them, from what Hank's told me it sounds as if everyone went somewhere recently."
"I didn't," Kitty replied, "I've been too busy with classes – hey, tuition bills for me and Kurt!"
"Now you're getting it," Bobby said, confidently. "So, so far we've got fewer people living at the mansion, at least two of whom are suddenly full time students. Lots of vacations. No major expenditures since the showdown with Apocalypse, until you hit the mansion repairs. Pretty atypical for us, wouldn't you say?"
"Definitely. So, whoever it is, they know that things are not in their usual state at the Xavier Institute. What about the Legacy virus info?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah, that was definitely accessed, along with the rest of the research files," Bobby answered, searching his memory. "But the Legacy virus is in remission since the High Evolutionary meddled with everyone's DNA. I mean, Hank's still researching it, because he's hoping to find a cure in case things revert to normal, but if someone was just interested in the virus data they'd have probably just gone after that and left the rest. Let's table this for now, we need more info" he said, as they pulled up to the mansion. He parked the car, and got out to open the door for Kitty, grinning as she looked surprised. "Ok, I admit it - you've got me hooked. Let's go check the printouts – maybe we're on to something here."
As they walked quietly up to the mansion, Bobby heard Kitty giggle. "What's so funny?" he asked.
"Oh, I just feel like we're sneaking in. You know, I half expect Logan to be standing just inside the door, ready to ask where we've been," she said, fiddling with her keys.
"God, I hope not," Bobby said, rubbing his forehead. "I'm not sure I'm awake enough to deal with that."
Kitty said, opened the door and feigned looking around nervously. "No, the coast is clear," she said in a whisper. They tiptoed in, laughing as they pretended to peer around corners and under furniture.
"Ah hate to interrupt, but what ARE the two of ya doin'?"
Bobby and Kitty both jumped, and turned to see Rogue standing behind them, laughing. She was wearing an oversized tee-shirt and holding a container of ice cream in one hand, a spoon in the other, so it was pretty obvious what she'd been up to.
"Would you believe, checking for ghosts?" Bobby asked, relaxing, and Kitty giggled.
"Only if you've been watchin' Scooby Doo again," she countered.
"Well…" Bobby answered, grinning, as Rogue covered her ears.
"Neva mind, I don't want to know. Hey, Kit – Logan was lookin' for ya earlier. Hank told him you were out with the snowball, here, and he made a few comments I'm way too much a lady to repeat, so ya better watch out," Rogue said with a conspiratorial smile, and turned to go.
"Thanks for the warning!" Kitty called to her back, and she and Bobby both dissolved in laughter.
"Oh my god, I thought…"
"Did you ever jump!"
"So did you!"
Finally, Kitty said, "Ok, that was enough excitement for one morning. Let's get back to computer central, Snowball," and glanced to see Bobby's reaction.
"Be nice to me, or I won't share my Scooby snacks," Bobby replied with a smirk.
"Oh, I'll be nice, I'll be nice…hey, you don't have any Scooby Snacks!"
They bantered their way back to the computer room, where Bobby pulled rummaged until he found the report he'd been looking at earlier.
"Yeah, I was right – all the research data was accessed. Someone was interested in what Hank was into; not just the Legacy stuff, but all his research on mutancy."
Kitty pulled up a chair next to him, and leaned over to see the printout. "You're right. Now – hey, that's interesting!"
"What is?" Bobby asked.
"The Xavier protocols weren't accessed."
"What?" Bobby said, surprised.
"Not at all, despite the fact they could have been easily hacked, given that Invader X got into the Legacy data. They shared the same security settings. Now, why would someone have gone to all the trouble of hacking our system and not downloaded the ultimate info on how to defeat us?"
"Uninterested? Apparently it's someone who knows the Xavier protocols are fairly useless at this point," Bobby replied, pondering the situation. This was getting more and more confusing. He could have understood if someone was trying to gain information on how to defeat the X-Men; it was almost inevitable that their powers would return, someday, and someone would have had a nice ace in the hole. But it looked more as if someone was interested in what they were doing now…"
"I've got it!" he said suddenly, jumping up from his chair and rushing over to the computer terminal, where he frantically typed in the routine that checked access on the system.
"What if they're not done? I mean, could you tell when the invasion took place?"
"Just two days ago" Kitty answered excitedly, grabbing another keyboard off the desk in front of her. "That was a lot of data to download, and they just took down the security system two days ago. I didn't put it back up, just took the sensitive systems offline, so it wouldn't interfere with my scans. If we assume they were only accessing when they thought it was least likely to be detected…" She began typing frantically, pausing to ask if he'd had any luck.
"Just a second – hey, I was right!" he replied, squinting at the readout on the screen.
"Where?" Kitty asked, her hands poised over the keyboard
"E-mail. Poor Rogue. You know, I don't think this is a traditional enemy at all. It looks more like someone trying to profile us, and find out what we're up to. Where better than e-mail?"
"Let's get the trace running; if we can get a lock while they're still in, we should be able to trace them all the way back to point of origin." Kitty said, her hands flying over the keys. "Hey, that's strange…"
"What?" Bobby asked, coming over to look over her shoulder.
"The signal makes a lot of hops; that's not surprising, if they don't want it traced – but it originates in New York. I should have more specifics in a few minutes."
"Here's something else – they're not just downloading all the mail," Bobby said, squinting at the terminal. "It looks like they're running a search."
"So they are looking for something specific! Can you tell what their parameters are?" Kitty asked, getting up from her seat and coming over to look.
"No, but I set the system to flag whatever they download, so we should be able to wade through them and find a common denominator," Bobby answered, draping his arm around Kitty's shoulders as she leaned over to watch the screen.
"That might be harder than you'd think, if Rogue isn't the only one who doesn't know you can delete e-mail," she replied, and Bobby had to chuckle to himself.
"You know, when this is all over, you should sponsor computer literacy classes," he told Kitty, as they watched the data stream by.
"Not enough patience to deal with that many stupid questions – why don't you do it? You could even bill the Institute," she countered.
"Oh sure – who'd come?" he asked, with only a trace of bitterness. Kitty stepped back and glared at him.
"You know, you do some of this to yourself," she said irritably.
"Some of what?" Bobby asked, puzzled.
"Bobby, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but if you assume no one will take you seriously, they won't," she replied. "Look at you; you haven't just been 'helping'; you've put as much input and work into this as I have. And a lot of your ideas have been better, simply because you have a different perspective. Granted, you don't know the systems as well as I do, but then that's my main interest, not yours. I assembled a lot of this; if I didn't know them better than you, I'd resign as chief systems manager. But if you want the X-Men to take you seriously, you have to take yourself seriously, first."
"That's not something I'm used to doing," Bobby said, abashed. "I guess I'm just used to playing the role everyone expects. Maybe I've bought into it a bit too much myself." He knew he had, in fact. He'd realized it when Emma had first used his powers in ways he'd never imagined, and come to terms with it when he set up his own business and had to be the one to make the final decisions. For some reason, though, he had more difficulty stepping out of that role when he was with his friends than when he was dealing with his clients.
"Well, think about it," Kitty said, laying her hand gently on his shoulder. "You have a lot of potential, Bobby. And if there's anything I hate to see, it's wasted potential." She turned back to the monitor, and Bobby thought about what she'd said.
She had so much self confidence, he thought enviously, watching her type commands at the console. He tried to remember a time when he'd been so sure of himself, and came up blank. It certainly wasn't during any of his stints with the X-Men, or the Champions, or the Defenders. He'd cast himself in the role of class clown, probably as much as a defense mechanism as by personality, as soon as he'd arrived at the Mansion, he admitted to himself. He hadn't really come by choice, like most of the others; there had simply been no where else to go, and an angry mob at his heels.
He knew that he hadn't really fit in with the first group of the X-Men. Barely into his teens, all he'd wanted was to be normal, to be able to go back home as if nothing had ever happened. He'd felt as if he was the only one who had any doubts about himself or his abilities, the only one who would have rather been back home leading a normal life than fighting Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Thinking back, he realized they'd probably been as unsure of themselves as he had; they'd just been a couple of years older, and better able to hide it.
But that was ten years ago, he told himself. I'm not that scared kid any more. Or am I?
Part of him was, he knew. While he and his father had come to terms, he was still uncomfortably afraid of rejection and prone to a lot of self-doubt. That was probably the key, he thought suddenly. He was afraid that if he let people close, let them know the real Bobby Drake, they wouldn't like him. Far easier to keep up the same class clown defense they'd always known and hide behind it. It wasn't as if he hadn't perfected the role. And, truth be told, he enjoyed it. But it would be nice to let it go occasionally.
Like he had with Kitty tonight, he realized. A few jokes here and there, true, but she'd seen more of the real Bobby Drake in the last few hours than anyone except Hank or Rogue had in years. And, amazingly enough, she seemed to have liked him anyway.
It was definitely something to think about, Bobby decided, and pulled his attention back to the matters at hand.
"So, what've we got?" he asked finally, and was rewarded by Kitty reaching out to hold his hand.
"I think we've got some answers," she replied. "And they're not the ones anyone is going to expect."