A Battle of Conscience

Disclaimer:  I don't own these characters.  Marvel does.

I just read the most recent compilation of New X-Men comics, and it gave me a much better grasp of Emma's character, and made writing this much easier.

Chapter 7

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"Oh mah God! Kitty, that was terrifyin'," Rogue whispered as they knelt down on the floor of Emma's closet. 

Kitty had taken them right through the wall, first into Storm's room, then hooked an immediate right into Emma's closet.  She was thankful that all of the rooms in the institute were laid out in the manner.  It was very dark in the stuffed closet, and the floor was littered with magazines.

"No noise," Kitty reminded.

It was 3:59.  Emma would be receiving a phone call from this Sebastian Shaw in only a minute.  The main door to the room swung open, and Emma strode into the room.  She carefully lay her briefcase down beside her desk, and sat in the black leather, rolling chair.  Quickly, she slammed the pointer finger of right hand down onto the space bar to wake the computer up, and typed her password into the prompt box.  She had no new emails.  In her bag, her cell phone began to ring to the tune of Touch and Go's 'Straight to Number One'.  She fished it out and pressed talk. 

"Sebastian," Emma greeted.  She lay her feet up on the desk.  "Yes, I got your email…No, we're still on course…He's a little harder to persuade than I…Of course, I'll use my more persuasive methods, I was jut establishing what I want…No, they don't suspect a thing…"

In the closet, Kitty and Rogue exchanged grins.

"A few of the students know I'm interested in Cyclops…I'm having great fun making them speculate, and they think I've already gotten him thanks to Wolverine…No, I didn't tell him…He's not in on the plan.  I'm not stupid.  I only slept with him.  That's all…Sebastian, darling, are you jealous?...dear, I just fucked Wolverine to give them the impression…Sebastian, of course I could have just used my telepathy, but I didn't want to start with too much illusion.  It gets very hard to maintain.  So I started with playing on the curiosity of teenagers, simplifying my job ultimately, making it cleaner…No, I told you, I haven't make any progress with Cyclops yet, but…but mark my words, Sebastian, he will be under my spell by the end of the week. We will remain on tract…Right, nothing to worry about…No, I'm not worried about Jean Grey.  She's a mere nuisance.  Her telepathy is nothing compared to mine."

Kitty shook her head.  Rogue's eyes scanned the closet, now that they had become accustomed to the darkness.

"Sebastian, dear, it concerns me that you continue to doubt me…Have I ever let you down in the past?"

Rogue's eyes lit upon a jewelry case.  Inside, lay a white chess piece inscribed with the logo of the Hellfire Club.  Rogue nudged Kitty to look at it.  , but in doing so, knocked a shoe off of the rack, making a noise.  Emma startled in her chair. 

"Hold on Sebastian, I just heard a strange noise."

As soon as she heard the noise, Kitty grabbed Rogue's hand and dropped them through the floor.  They dropped straight through the rec room, eliciting a number of stares, into the locker room in the basement.

"That was close," Kitty whispered.

Rogue nodded, slightly shaken from the trip.

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Emma slid open her closet door to find nothing out of the ordinary.  She saw the shoe on the ground and shook her head.

"Oh, it was nothing, Sebastian…Yes, I'm sure…A shoe falling, that's all.  I'm getting paranoid…Yes, I'll keep you updated…No, do not email me…I'll call you…I have to go now.  Time to go visit Cyclops."

She clicked the end button and threw the phone back into her briefcase.  Standing, she walked over to the closet and removed a slinky white dress.  The front plunged into a low V, and the skirt barely reached mid thigh.  Yes, this would do nicely.

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"What the hell was that?" Jubilee exclaimed.

"People falling from the sky," Jamie laughed. 

"It looked like Rogue and Kitty," Bobby added.

"Well, its obviously Kitty!  She's the only one here who can go through the floor.  But where the hell were they coming from and why were they dropping through the floor?  What's up there?"

"The corridor, I think," Jamie answered.

"Now, this is something we must investigate."

Jubilee scurried over to the door with the boys in close pursuit.

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Rogue and Kitty walked down the basement hallway toward the med lab. 

"So the chess piece said The Hellfire Club?"

"Yeah."

"Have you ever heard of it?"

Rogue shook her head.  "Wait!  Sebastian's email address was at hfc.com."

"That's right.  So this Shaw is involved in The Hellfire Club too."

"We should find out what it is."

"Maybe Dr. Grey knows.  She is going to be so pissed when she finds out what we heard Ms. Frost say."

"Is Ms. Frost really more powerful than Dr. Grey?"

"I don't think so."

"How come Dr. Grey doesn't have a codename?"

"I'm not sure why she doesn't anymore. She had one in the past.  Marvel Girl."

"No wonder she gave it up.  It sounds stupid."

Kitty laughed.  "Are Shadowcat and Rogue any better?"

"Defintely," Rogue smiled. 

"Hey, which chess piece was it?"

"Umm…the queen.  Yeah, it was the queen."

"The White Queen."

"Yeah."

"That's Emma's codename!"

"Oh yeah."

"And her email was WhiteQueen@hfc.com."

"Do you think its like a position?"

"It could be."

"We'll have to look it up on the computers in the lab."

"This is gonna be fun."

"When Dr. Grey find out, Ms. Frost is in for quite a battle."

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