Remy and Danial sighed as they finished outlining their plan, looking hopefully at the adults.
"Question," Logan grunted, looking at the map the boys had used to help show the plan. "Where's Steph?" Danial looked at his feet and Remy's eyes drifted back to the map, while Hank, standing near the door, only shook his head at them in disappointment.
"We, uh," Remy said. "She ain't too happy wit us right now, de petite is in her room." Logan growled.
"What did yeh do?" he demanded. "Steph doesn't get mad that easily, n' she's not one t' miss important meetin's jus' cause she feels a lil' upset."
"Yeah," Remy Sr. said, standing up. "What did you do?"
"Um," Danial said, then fell silent until his father's stare made him open his mouth again. "We, we kind of made fun of her about something, and got her real mad."
"The boys took their usual male habits of teasing a bit too far," Hank said. "I know not what the issue was, but they know what they did wrong, correct?" Both boys nodded, heads hung, and the professor cleared his throat and looked at Rogue, who was sitting with the other Junior X Men, holding Bobby's hand.
"Perhaps it's a time for a sister to counsel her?" he said. Rogue nodded at once and jumped up.
"Ah'll go right away," she said, walking to the door.
"Oh," Hank said, remembering Steph's nunchuks in his pocket. "If you would be so kind as to return these to Stephanie, I think she will be missing them."
"Did she throw those at someone?" Ororo asked, looking worried.
"It has been solved, fair goddess of weather," Hank assured her. "I merely hung on to them for safe keeping." Rogue took them and stared hard at Remy and Danial.
"If ya think you got away with hurtin' my lil' sister," she said. The professor cleared his throat and Rogue nodded, mouthing the words "Yoh dead" as she turned and left.
- Oops, - Danial thought.
- Yes, oops, - Xavier replied, surprising him. - I would have thought better of you and Remy, Danial. -
"Steph?" Rogue knocked on the door and then slowly went inside, to find her sister laying facedown on her bed, lying still. Rogue slowly walked over and sat on the bed, pulling Steph up into a hug. "Boys ah jerks," she murmured into Steph's flaming hair.
"Yeah," Steph mumbled, not pulling away from Rogue but not returning the hug either. Rogue noticed the twin now-dry streaks on Steph's cheeks.
"Ya want me ta kill'em?" she asked, pretending to be hopeful. Steph shook her head and hiccupped.
"I wanna be the one to do it," she growled. Rogue laughed and handed her the nunchuks.
"Then yoh'll need these," she said. Steph looked at them and sighed, pulling herself up until she was sitting next to Rogue, leaning on her shoulder and holding her weapons in her hands. A sword with a black scabbard and silver metal handle, a recent gift from her father, lay in the middle of the floor, gleaming in the afternoon light filtering through the window.
"An' when did dad decide it was safe ta let ya go aroun' with that?" Rogue asked. Steph smiled.
"Last week," she said. "Cause I'm so much better with the staffs than you. But if he catches me with it anywhere but on missions or the Danger Room with it... yeah." Rogue smiled and hugged Steph again.
"So, ya gonna tell me what th' boys were teasin' yoh lil' sword weildin' person about?" Steph shook her head and buried it into Rogue's shoulder again, grunting. "Fahne, keep yoh secret," Rogue laughed.
"I will," Steph murmured. "Forever."
------
Ken looked at the mansion through the front bars, sighing and leaning on them with both hands gripping the bars high above his head.
"They aren't coming," Ink said from behind him, his arms crossed as he paced. "We should have begun the attack hours ago, when that jet lifted off. We're only giving them time to make their plans and raise their defenses."
"Something's not right," Ken said, sniffing the air, a white lock of hair drifted in the breeze across his face. "Something about this place, I don't like it."
"Then let's destroy it," Ink said, leaning his back on the gates and looking Ken straight in the eye, a glint of hunger in both pairs of eyes. "It's what we were made to do, even if the others don't know it."
"Quiet," Ken snapped, banging his fist on the gates and pulling away. "If the others knew, how many more will leave? They were mad enough when Ellen escaped, what will the Labs do if they even find out what we know? What Ellen knows?"
"They won't find out," Ink said. "The scientists or the other mutants. We're the only ones smart enough to find out, Ken, who else would be capable of getting in? Salla? She's a savage. Mattel? Stupid oaf, he just bashes things into dust. Alora wouldn't want to find it out, and Hype's just a silly little girl. She can't even get near computers without blowing them up."
"Yeah," Ken grunted, pushing his hair back. "Still, I've been tampered with enough. You and I might need to take a leaf out of Ellen's book if anything happens in there, unless you want to be a lab rat again." Ink didn't show it, but inside he shuddered.
"No way," he said. "I'll be a turncoat if I need to be, I don't really care."
"You know come of us could die up there, these guys are that strong," Ken said. Ink nodded.
"But we'll all die if we don't do our jobs," Ink said. "Besides, it's already been too long. You can feel it, I know, even if you try and hide it. And Salla, man, she's going nuts. If she doesn't taste blood soon she'll attack the Labs for the hell of it."
"Yeah," Ken grunted again. "C'mon let's go get the others. Twilight, they won't expect us then. Twilight tonight."