I don't own the X-Men. They, and any major characters in his story, belong to Marvel, though they don't deserve them. I'm making no money off of this, either - blah, blah, blah, standard disclaimer stuff.
Thanks go out to Luba for the beta read and encouragement and to everyone who's been so great about providing feedback! Those who aren't reviewing, please do!
Just a Couple of Kids, after all… Chapter 14Kitty picked her way down the debris-stridden hallway, silently cursing their would-be captors for not having either cleaned the floors or left her her shoes. She glanced at Bobby in front of her, who seemed fairly oblivious to what he stepped on, and wished her feet were as tough. She could, she knew, just invoke her ninja training and ignore the pain completely, but it seemed like overkill. After all, she could just avoid the larger pieces or those that looked as if they might be sharp.
So far the hallway had been completely empty, aside from the garbage on the floor. They'd tried a few doors, but they'd been locked. But now they were coming up to a split in the hall, and she bent down to see if there were any footprints in the dirt.
"What's the verdict?" Bobby asked, stopping next to her.
"Not sure," she replied. "It looks like there's traffic both ways – maybe a little less to the right, but no obvious difference. No open doors in sight, either way."
O-kay," he said. "Which way, then?"
"Right, I'd say. We've got as good a chance of finding a phone, and maybe less of one of running into somebody. We really do need to contact Kurt – we don't know how long we've been out of touch, and he may be getting ready to call in the cavalry."
Bobby grimaced, and she laughed. "Yeah, I'd prefer to at least find some clothes before they all show up – I can hear Warren now, 'Talk about a failure, Bobby even lost his clothes this time.'"
"A failure?" Kitty said, shocked, and flipped around. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her knees, and glared at him, her arms crossed over her chest. "We got ambushed, yeah, and captured, but we escaped by ourselves, which is a lot more than most of the X-Men can say, even when they had their powers, and we don't. The only reason we're still here is because we chose to be, so we can find out what's going on. Why would we look like failures?" She saw he was laughing, and, realizing he'd been joking, she felt herself blush. "Sorry – I guess you struck a little too close to home. I really, really would hate having to be bailed out, especially since we kind of took this one on ourselves…"
"Calm down, Kit," Bobby said, reaching out to stroke her face with his hand. "I know how you feel. We'll get hold of Kurt, and call off the troops. But you know, there are worse things than admitting when you're in over your head."
"Do you think we are?" she asked, bristling. "I don't think we've done so bad this far."
"Cool it, hey? I agree, and I'd like to do this ourselves just as much as you would. I'm just saying, don't be so dead-set on us proving ourselves that if things do deteriorate you don't call for help."
"Who says I'm trying to prove myself?" she grumbled, and Bobby just looked at her, his eyebrow raised. "Oh, ok, I guess I am. Jean's comments really bugged me, especially after the ones at the meeting the other day. I promise if things go downhill and we have any way to call for reinforcements, I will. Fair?"
"Fair," he agreed. "Now, we are going to get caught if we stand here arguing. Let's go. Right, you said?"
"Right." He started walking, and she followed, part of her mind admiring the view even as the other kept aware of her surroundings. He had a really great body, she decided. She was still a little disappointed that nothing had happened earlier when he'd pulled her onto his lap. For a moment, she'd felt just like one of the other X-Women, who always seemed to take full advantage of opportunities like that. Somehow, she never seemed to be the one who ended up in a cell with someone she was interested in; it was always someone like Jean or Rogue, which in a perverse way seemed sort of unfair. At least, she reassured herself, she knew Bobby was interested in her – being on his lap for a couple of minutes had made that fairly obvious. But it would have been kind of nice if –"
The sound of footprints other than their own brought Kitty back to reality. Seeing a door up ahead, she ran forward and tried the door knob, which luckily turned in her hand. "Quick – in here," she said as she peered into the room, which was luckily unoccupied. She waved Bobby in, and closed and locked it behind them.
"Are they gone?" Bobby whispered, as Kitty bent to listen at the door.
"I think so," she replied, then turned to look around the room. "Hey, check this out."
"I think we found where our friendly neighborhood hacker hangs out," he said, as she began looking around the room. It was cleaner than any they'd seen thus far, and was mostly filled with computer equipment, some of which was unlike any she'd ever seen. She walked over to what appeared at first glance to be the main console, and typed in a few commands.
"Bobby – take a look," she said, and waited until he walked up behind her. "This is it, all right – look, here's a list of everything they downloaded." She typed some more, and brought up a full directory. "I'm thinking we should return the favor?" she asked, grinning.
"Can you upload everything from here?" Bobby asked, grinning back.
"I think so. Only one way to find out. She began typing frantically, bypassing the security she'd setup earlier, and began copying everything she found back to the Xavier Institute into a special quarantine zone she'd once setup for such purposes. In the meantime, she realized Bobby had located a phone and was using it to call Kurt. She turned a fraction of her attention to listening in on the conversation, while her hands and the rest of her mind continued their work.
"Hey Kurt, Bobby. Yeah, we're ok – it was a setup, but Kit got us out…uh huh, incredible's just about the right word…" and she warmed as she glimpsed him smiling at her out of the corner of her eye, knowing he wasn't referring to them being set up. "What? No, we're still here, actually – Kitty's returning the favor and stealing all their data. No, I don't think we need backup – everything's under control. Yes, I'm sure. Yeah, I'd guess we'll be taking off after this." Kitty turned to look at him, and realized he was waiting for her to agree. She shrugged and nodded. They'd get more information, she knew, by heading home to analyze the data than they would wandering the hallways here.
"Yeah, Kitty agrees. Soon as she's done, and we find some clothes, we'll be out of here." As Kitty stifled a laugh, imagining Kurt's reaction to that comment, she heard Bobby continue abruptly, sounding as if he was cutting Kurt off. "Gotta go. Fill Hank in, will you? I don't want to make any more calls than I have to from here, someone might notice. Yeah, I'll explain about the comment later. Bye."
"Kurt says to tell you that you guys are going to have a long talk when we get back," Bobby informed her, chuckling, after he hung up the receiver.
"Thanks a lot," she replied sarcastically, but inside she smiled. The gossipers would have a field day with this, but for once she didn't mind.
"Almost done?" Bobby asked, leaning over her shoulder. She felt the heat of his body against hers, leaned back into it, and was rewarded by him wrapping his arms around her. Which was a bit distracting, she had to admit, but she wasn't about to complain, either.
"About thirty seconds. I wish I had more time to check this all out," she said, glancing around the room with regret.
"Well, we can always come visit again," Bobby joked. "I mean, they're such good hosts…"
Suddenly, they heard the door open behind them.
"What the hell – what are you doing in here?" Instinct took over, and seconds later Bobby was holding the man, his hand clamped over his captive's mouth, while Kitty looked for something to tie him up with. As Kitty looked closer at their captive, she nearly dropped the cable in her hand in shock.
"Seth?" He turned his head to look at her face more closely, and Kitty saw his eyes go wide.
"You know this guy, Kit?" Bobby asked, as she walked toward them with a collection of network cables.
"Yeah, actually; we go to school together." She didn't add that Seth had asked her out several times. She'd declined, pegging him as one of the most 'normal' humans she'd ever met, though he seemed like a nice guy. Now she wondered just how much she'd misjudged him.
"Oh, class reunion, huh? How nice," Bobby said. "Does that change anything?"
"Not as far as I'm concerned," Kitty replied. She heard Seth try to say something, and saw Bobby tighten his grip over Seth's mouth. "No, I'm doing the talking right now; wait your turn. Let's get him on the chair," she said to Bobby. With no real resistance on the part of their prisoner, they maneuvered him to the chair, and Kitty began tying his legs together, then to it.
"Ok, Seth, or whatever your name really is. I know I locked that door, which means you must have unlocked it. Does anyone else have a key? No, don't try to talk," she said, as Bobby's hand was still over his mouth. "Just nod; I'll stick to yes or no questions for now." He nodded, once. "Are they likely to come looking for you?" She saw the hope fade from his eyes, as he shook his head. She switched places with Bobby, and said, "Good. Bobby, get the key out of his pocket, will you? And see if you can get his shirt off, too." At Bobby's speculative glance, she replied, "We need something to gag him with, and I don't have anything to spare. Besides," she added, feeling her face redden, "I'm getting cold."
Bobby fished his hand into Seth's pocket, and said, "Now, don't take this personally, ok? I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea or anything." Kitty grinned as he pulled out the keys and handed them to her. "The keys to the castle, Milady?"
"Thank you, milord – now if you'd be so kind as to get the royal robes, too?" she replied. She laughed as Bobby shook his head and snapped his fingers, feigning disappointment, but she felt self-conscious; it had been one thing parading around in her underwear when it was just her and Bobby – she'd been a bit embarrassed, granted, but she'd reminded herself that it wasn't much more revealing than a two piece swimsuit, and, after all, she had spent a decent amount of her life in spandex. And, she admitted to herself, Bobby's obvious appreciation of the view had done wonders for her self-esteem. But Seth's presence had unnerved her, and she wanted more between his eyes and her than her underwear. Bobby handed her Seth's shirt minus one sleeve, which he used to gag Seth while she gratefully donned the clothing.
"There, that's better," she said as she buttoned the last button.
"A matter of opinion," Bobby grumbled in reply as he finished tying Seth's arms to the chair with the remaining network cables. Seth, she noticed, was staring at her as if he still couldn't believe she was there.
"What now?" Bobby added, standing up. They walked over to the side of the room where they could talk quietly, raising their voices only when they wanted to be overheard.
Kitty thought about it for a few moments, then answered. "Well, as I see it, we've got two choices; either we leave or we stay and ask Seth some questions. We could leave – we've got all their computer files, after all." She saw Seth's eyes widen and glance toward the console, as if he were trying to will the data back into their computer. "Take that," she thought smugly, remembering how she'd felt when she realized the Institute had been hacked.
"But you think we should stick around, right?" Bobby asked, and as she nodded she realized he was getting better and better at anticipating her. She DID want to stay and interrogate Seth, if for no other reason that to find out what his role was in all of this, but had to grudgingly admit to herself that they should probably leave. Before she could open her mouth to say so, however, Bobby continued.
"Well then, let's get on with it," he said, brushing over some paperwork on the desktop and sitting down on it. "Unless we're planning on taking him with us, and I really do NOT want to try untying those cables, we might as well find out what he knows. Want to do the honors? I'll just sit here and look menacing."
Kitty laughed at the thought of Bobby looking menacing (although the Marvin the Martian on his underwear did look pretty fierce), then turned to face Seth, her mood sobering.
"Ok, Seth, there's a couple of ways we could do this. The easy way, of course, would be for you to give me your parole, at which time I would ungag you and you would answer some questions for us." He glared at her, and she shrugged and continued. "No?" Good, then here's what we'll do. First, you can sit there and watch while I rummage through the more exotic equipment you've got here. Don't get me wrong – I like this choice. I was just saying to Bobby I'd really like to get my hands on it. Of course, if something breaks, it's not mine, so I really don't care." Actually, she didn't like this choice, and was betting Seth wouldn't either; she knew how she felt about people fiddling with her equipment, and threatening to break it would have been nearly unbearable. She saw him slump in his chair, and knew she nearly had him. "Of course, once I was done, we might still have some questions. But that's not really a problem. I know an unscrupulous telepath or two who aren't mutants. We'll just drag you along with us, and see what they can find out before they burn your brain out." A major bluff, here, but she was betting that seeing her here had caught him off guard and made him challenge his assumptions, perhaps enough that he might not realize, even if he'd been reading the archives, that the X-Men didn't operate that way. As she saw him begin to squirm around uncomfortably, she knew she was right. "Changed your mind?" she asked casually, and saw him nod reluctantly. "Too bad," she said, shaking her head sadly. "I really wanted a good look at that technology."
"Well, you did give him a choice, Kit," Bobby said, shrugging. "Look at it this way – if we don't like his answers, you can still go to it."
"True," Kitty said, stifling a laugh as she watched Seth shake his head frantically. Secretly, she was elated; she'd been half afraid Seth would call her bluff, and while she would love to look at some of the equipment around her, she rather doubted she could have brought herself to break any of it. "You agree then – standard terms of parole. We'll ungag you and let you get a little more comfortable, though you stay tied up, and in return you agree to answer our questions and not attempt to get anyone's attention or escape?"
Seth nodded again, and Bobby hopped down from the desk and ungagged him.
"Kitty, I had no idea – you've got to believe me," Seth stammered, but Kitty cut him off.
"Oh, you didn't get through that part of our database yet?" she asked sarcastically, and saw him look embarrassed. "Well, it doesn't really matter," she added. "What matters is that you hacked our network and lured us here so you could knock us out and lock us up. Why? Just who are you, Seth?"
He stared at her for a few moments, until she began moving toward one of the unfamiliar pieces of equipment. "No, don't! I said I'd answer your questions – just leave that alone?"
"Ok, now we're making progress," Kitty said, sitting down on the desktop Bobby had vacated. "Start talking. We've pretty much determined your people are mutants – what group are you with?"
"Spikes?" he asked, laughing. "Sorry, you're way off. The Neo aren't spikes, for whatever good that did us when your enemy attacked."
"The Neo?" Bobby asked, and Kitty was glad he'd decided to take a more active role. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was somewhat thrown off balance by having Seth turn up here, and threatening someone she'd considered dating was making her feel somewhat awkward. She welcomed a short break – maybe she'd be able to pull herself together. Besides, interrogations weren't really her forte; she was doing her best to imitate Wolverine, but wasn't sure she was pulling it off.
"The Neo have been here as long as the flatscans, and far longer than you spikes," Seth answered proudly. "We pretty much kept to ourselves; monitored you from places like this, sent a few like me out to learn more, but we never bothered anyone. Not like you moronic spikes, who seem to be in the news every other night. But that didn't stop that damned High Evolutionary from decimating us right along with you."
"Decimating you?" Bobby asked, glancing at Kitty then back at Seth. "What are you talking about? We lost our powers, yeah, but nobody died."
"Really?" Seth said incredulously. "No water-breathing mutants caught too deep to surface when they lost their ability? You're lucky – our leader's daughter died that way. One of us had the ability to walk through solid matter; he materialized right inside a wall when his abilities suddenly shut off." Kitty winced, realizing that could have been her. "Several of our elders died from the shock alone, and many of the others have just, well, shut down would be most accurate description. They go through the motions – eat, drink, move around - but they're not really there. Domino thought if we could find out who launched this attack, maybe it would bring some of them around – give them some hope, a new purpose."
"We had no idea," Kitty said, shaken. "It wasn't an attack, per se; the High Evolutionary apparently thought that if he removed the cause of mutation he'd equalize the playing field – give humanity one less thing to fight over."
"As if the flatscans have ever needed an excuse," Seth scoffed.
"I wasn't saying I agreed with him," Kitty objected. "But really, many mutants considered it a blessing. You probably know from our records, but there were those who couldn't control their powers, or whose mutations have caused them nothing but pain and rejection. They welcomed the ability to return to a 'normal' life."
"Whereas for us there is nothing normal about this life," Seth commented, shaking his head. "We've had what you call 'powers' throughout most of our history. Their loss has caused our way of life to crumble around us."
"We're getting off the subject here," Bobby said, and Kitty looked at him, surprised. She'd been interested in what Seth had been saying, and would have enjoyed discussing it further. She saw him pointed glance at his wrist where a watch would be, and realized he was right. They couldn't assume they would remain uninterrupted indefinitely.
"Bobby's right," she said, looking at Seth. "Fascinating though this is, we have some other questions. Why hack our network?"
Seth shrugged. "Henry McCoy has been an outspoken proponent of research into mutation. It seemed like a reasonable place to start looking. And once we realized we'd accessed the records of the infamous X-Men – well, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. Given your reputations, if you weren't responsible for the attack, you were probably the ones most likely to do something about it."
Bobby tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a laugh, and Kitty saw Seth look at him quizzically. "They stuck their noses into our business because we have a reputation for sticking our noses into other people's business," he explained, and Kitty just shook her head, smiling.
"Probably accurate," she admitted. "You did the hacking?" she asked Seth, and he nodded. "Hate to admit it, but good work – I'd love to ask you some questions about how you did it," she said, but heard Bobby clear his throat, "but as my partner here points out, there are more important things to discuss. Ok, I understand so far – you wanted info, and we had it. Why lure us here, though?"
"Domina thought you should be tested," Seth answered, as if that explained it all.
"Domina? You mentioned that name before. Who is she?" Kitty asked. "And tested for what?"
"Domina is our leader," Seth answered. "She thought you might be useful allies, but, not knowing you, wanted to test your resourcefulness first."
"Allies?" Bobby asked, confused. "Allies in what?"
Now Seth was the one who seemed confused. "Against the High Evolutionary, of course. We intend to force him to undo the damage he has done."