Chapter 10 Sunday
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.
Wanda sat at the restaurant, clearly unhappy about her deal with Laura, but unable to think of another way to help Kurt. Talia sat next to her, using an image inducer to hide her appearance. She was eating her fifth Belgian waffle, and Wanda was nervous that someone would sense that something was amiss. Wanda was only thankful that Sinister's treatments had made Talia mature faster than they had increased her overall metabolism, or she would have been eating twenty or thirty waffles.
Just then, Laura walked in. She had spent the night in an apartment with some of her college-aged friends, who had offered to let her crash there whenever she was in New York. Walking in, she spotted Wanda, and a victorious smile spread over her face as she considered what she was going to say.
"So," she started, sitting down. "We know that Kurt is in the Jasper building. If you'd like, I am certain that I can find a way to get you in there."
"How?"
"I have my ways." To Wanda that sounded like Laura was saying that she would use sex appeal. Oh well, whatever worked.
"And then I suppose we can use Talia to find Kurt - if we can re-establish a link?"
"Exactly."
"And then I use my powers full force to cause chaos, etc. etc. etc.?"
"Yup. And we bust Kurt outta there."
"And then you get to spend the night with him." Wanda was obviously less than thrilled.
"Yup. The whole night."
Talia didn't like where this was going. She still had only the vaguest notion of what sex was, that it was somehow connected to having babies and that it involved nudity - or had Laura suggested that it might not need to? But she knew that Laura was upsetting her mommy. And she knew that she didn't want her poor mommy upset.
"When should we do this?" asked Wanda.
"Tomorrow at 8 am."
"So, what we know is that they will take Jameson to the Bugle at some point," asked Spider-Man to Tandy. This was the second meeting in as many days, or the third if one counted the meeting with his alter ego.
"Yes."
Tyrone explained: "We know that he will be on the top of the building, and that he will probably be killed, but that is all."
"Do you know when?"
"Actually, yes. Around 9 am." Tyrone pulled back his face so that it was once again completely cloaked.
"And so we appear out of nowhere and rescue him."
"Exactly," said both Tandy and Tyrone at once.
Back in Mexico, Rahne Sinclair stepped out of the enhancement device. Surprisingly enough, she looked absolutely normal.
"Now," commanded Sinister, "change."
The alterations were immediate. Rahne grew in stature to ten feet, and grew hair all over her body. Per usual, much of her clothing was absorbed into her skin. She growled low. Lines and circuit-like accoutrements accented her entire frame.
"Excellent," hissed Sinister.
Ms. Dexter smiled at her "father." She then spoke up: "Nathaniel, we have determined that the Wagner embryo implantation was a success. In less than nine months, Talia Josephine Essex will be born."
"Excellent. I already have a codename for her."
"What is it?"
"She is the clone of the daughter of Nightcrawler, who was to be the mother of the Nocturnals. She is a creature of the night, and a supermutant. She will be Ubernacht."
[A/N Rahne is supposed to look like a more Horseman-like version of Maximus Lobo].
"WHAT?" demanded Principal Kelly. "No, no, no. You're lying. All mutants lie..."
"Listen, bub," snorted Logan to the guest at the mansion, "I don't know where your daughter is. She came here, saw Kurt, and then left. I am certain he did nothing with her!"
Kelly's heart sank. He knew exactly what had happened. She had gone off after Kurt. Despite his daughter's brightest attempts, he knew about her proclivities and that she had a thing for unusual guys. In fact, it was part of the reason that he so hated mutants.
"Listen," said Hank, softening a little. "If we hear from her, we'll tell you, okay?"
"Oh, all right! But don't think that I think that you are doing this out of the goodness of your heart! Young Wagner is probably raping her or something!" Kelly turned and began to leave.
At this, Logan grabbed Kelly by the scruff of his neck. "Never, ever accuse Kurt of something like that again, or I will make you into a rug. Got that?"
Kelly gulped and nodded. He then took off as fast as he could.
As he walked down the path, he spotted a very large man and a reddish-haired man in battle armor hiding behind some snow-covered topiary [A/N in case you didn't know, that means shrubs cut to look like things]. The large man put his finger to his lips. "Shhh!"
"What are you hiding from? Decent humans?"
The man in battle armor shook his head. "Somet'ing very, very scary."
Kelly shook his own head in disgust and walked down the path a little further to see two mutants from school, Tabitha Smith and Katherine Pryde, walking around in the snow that had fallen the night before. Each one was holding mistletoe over her forehead.
"Hiya, Prince!" shouted Tabitha.
"Like... Principal Kelly," gulped Katherine.
"Hey, didja see a hunky Cajun or a big brute walk by? 'Cause we're lookin' for them."
For once deciding to show mercy to some mutants, Kelly just shook his head and sprinted the distance to the gate.
"Gosh," scowled Kitty. "Now I know how Kurt felt that Christmas he tried to get me to kiss him."
"Oh, Gambit!" hollered Tabby. "Gambit! Juggy! Oh, Juggy!"
"There you are!" said Kitty suddenly. "Wait!"
Juggernaut had picked up Gambit and had begun running. He quickly met some of the front lawn's shrubbery, but kept plowing through, destroying quite a few old and heretofore-thought indestructible yews and buckthorns.
"I didn't know guys played hard-to-get," commented Tabitha.
"I know!" agreed Kitty. "They'll never get girlfriends at this rate!"
Farmer, Murdock, and Epstein were looking at the mutants before them. Epstein had come from Washington, as Carlton had important business to attend to in Boisei, and it was felt that at least one senior FOH member ought to be here.
"What do you think of Jameson?" asked Epstein of Kurt.
"I hate him and want to kill him!" growled Kurt.
"Rip him limb from limb," answered Clarice.
"And dance on his dead body!" chuckled Pietro.
Farmer nodded in approval. Murdock grinned. Epstein just raised his eyebrows a little.
"Tomorrow then at 8:30 we will leave. We will be in position at 9 am," he stated, and then left.
That night, Wanda spent the night in the apartment with Laura's friends. Apparently they were having a bong party, but Wanda managed to turn in early and had a small room to herself and Talia, free from the bad influences in the living room.
As Wanda looked about, she was surprised at how many tie-dyed tapestries one could fit in such a small room, as well as the amount of grateful Dead memorabilia that was in there. Poor Talia had such a bad headache that she couldn't appreciate any of it, and Wanda was constantly applying a cold compress that she had obtained from the living room, which also served as a kitchen. The compress had long ago stopped actually being cold, but Wanda had no desire to leave her little sanctuary and venture out into the horrors of bongdom that constituted Laura and her friends in the living room. It was only because of the fact that one of the people in the "motel," (and that was a charitable term) in which Wanda was staying had offered money for "services rendered," that she had agreed to leave. Particularly because the man had been eyeing Talia in a way which had suggested to Wanda that she might have been the target of his attentions. She had seen enough victims of pedophiles who had ended up in the mental institution due to post-traumatic stress and the like that she was extremely cautious about such things.
As she finally drifted off into sleep, she consistently saw images of Kurt drowning, and being rescued by a tremendous harpy with a mouth full of fangs, saving him just to bite him as soon as he was in her hands. The face of the harpy was always that of Laura. And so she slept a fitful sleep that night.