Disclaimer: I asked for the X-Men for my birthday, but instead I got soap.
Lance glanced up as he heard the telltale click of the sprinklers about to activate and instinctively put an arm over his head. There was no danger of him getting wet though; Wanda was standing close by and disabled the sprinkler system with a well-aimed hex. It was pure intuition on her part and one that probably stopped the pair of them getting in the same situation as the rest of the room.
The large room was equipped with six separate outlets for the sprinkler system and Wanda took out only one. The other five sprayed the rest of the room with liquid.
Scott, stood in the centre of the room, blasted one as the first drops hit his skin. The sprinkler exploded, the spray becoming a deluge as the pipe leaked into the room. A soaked Bobby shot at the stream and froze it solid, dropping to his knees as soon as he had done so.
"EVERYONE OUT!" bellowed Lance as he realised that there was something amiss with the water. He might have noticed seconds earlier if not for his immediate concern about how the three guys might be connected to the Friends of Humanity or if it was just another random hate crime.
A telekinetic bubble that Jean managed to form stopped the downpour temporarily – but one look at her told Lance she'd been hit by whatever the strange liquid was and seemed on the verge of collapse. Several of the mutants were already staggering, Bobby already on the ground and Amara taking some clumsy steps forward before sinking to the floor.
The Professor's voice sounded in his mind.
…What's going on…
…Turn off the fucking water…
Lance helped Amara to her feet, glancing over his shoulder at Jean. She seemed dazed and he could tell she was running off pure willpower. Much as he wanted to get her the hell out of there, he knew it would be easier to do so if everyone else was safe.
As the sprinklers shut off, a blur indicated Pietro had returned. He began helping Lance and Wanda to get the soaked mutants out of the room, much faster than they could have done without him.
"What the fuck happened?" Pietro snapped as he half-carried Bobby out of the room and dumped him in the hallway, which was unaffected by the liquid thanks to the hi-tec system.
"There's something wrong with the water," said Wanda as she aided Tabby.
Lance let go of Amara and hurried back into the main room, noticing Fred leaning against a wall looking pale and knew he couldn't help him on his own – and that even if he could he wouldn't. Jean was still to one side of the room, swaying on her feet. He made it to her side just in time to catch her as she lost her balance, her head leaning against his shoulder, and carrying her out and to the relative safety of the hallway.
"Where's Pyro and Toad?" he asked urgently.
"Pyro's over here," said Wanda. "He looks like shit."
"Toad's with Logan, trying to get some answers out of the guys in front." Pietro glanced up as Fred lumbered over more slowly than usual. "Blob, sit down or something before you fall down."
"It's Pow-R-8."
Lance glanced down at Jean. "What? Are you sure?"
"Nothing else can affect us through skin contact like this." Jean closed her eyes and Lance set her down on the floor, cradling her head and trying to refrain himself from brushing her hair from her face. Getting the substance on his bare skin would be the stupidest thing he could do.
Betsy, who had been relatively close to the door and managed to duck out before getting too wet, straightened up and widened her eyes. "There are people heading our way!"
"How many?" Wanda asked.
The Professor spoke to them all telepathically.
…There are a number of vehicles entering the grounds – I can see at least seven…
Lance groped for his comm.-link, relieved they hadn't relied solely on the Professor to keep them in touch with each other. "Toad, what can you see?"
"It's a whole gang," replied Toad. "Seven cars, all full. These three are out for the count, but no way that the two of us can hold them all off."
"We're on it." Lance laid Jean down carefully, noting how the Pow-R-8 was drying in sticky trails down her skin.
If she's not OK I'm quitting SHIELD and hunting down the bastards who did this.
"Who's alright to fight?"
"Wait," said Pietro. "We agreed not to get the X-Men involved in any fighting!"
"We have to," replied Lance. "We can't afford to let these guys near the others. Anyone up to it?"
"Try and stop me," said Betsy grimly.
Kitty nodded, having phased when the water started more to protect her outfit than because she was worried about its chemical makeup. Piotr leant against the wall nearby, clearly having received a soaking. Gambit also seemed fine, although Rogue had taken a faceful of the stuff and was looking rather ill herself. The one person Lance would have thought would make a fast escape apparently had not, Kurt hadn't recognised the liquid as a threat and had waited to see what would happen. His fur was glued together in wild clumps but maybe because of the covering, he was still standing.
"Eight of us. Better than nothing." Lance checked Jean one last time before rising. "Kurt, you don't seem too badly affected. Keep an eye on the others. Fred, try to get in touch with Fury and find out what you can about the Pow-R-8 – there's no way some one can have infiltrated the mansion alone. The rest of you, let's go."
Pietro picked up Wanda and disappeared, Lance, Betsy and Gambit running down the corridor toward the main doors, Kitty phasing straight through the walls. Lance thought back to watching Jean in the lab, trying to understand what they were all working on. They never had found the antidote to the toxic eliminators, but he knew that it shouldn't have affected them as rapidly as he had done. Somehow, they'd been set up.
As they burst outside, the sight that greeted them was alarming. The cars had blocked any possible vehicular exit through the gates, skidding to stops just inside. The people travelling within them were both men and women, most of them armed. Some just had knives or pipes, but several had handguns or rifles. The fight had begun without them and for a second Lance was struck by the surrealism of Pietro, Wanda and Toad battling beside Logan and Kitty.
Logan had already sliced through the barrel of a rifle held by a heavyset man and was after another even as the man was staring down at his ruined gun in confusion. Toad shot a glob of slime at a man aiming at Wanda as she hexed a group by the gates, knocking him backwards with a cry of disgust before he could get a shot off. Pietro sped around the gang, swiping weapons before they could do any damage – he had to admit his father had a point about humans and their guns. They relied far too much on them. Kitty phased up through the ground, giving a few people the shock of their lives before they attacked her from all sides, the fact that she was intangible meaning they did more damage to each other. Betsy dived into the midst of the gang, felling people with kicks, her punches backed up by a psi-blade that concentrated all her telepathic powers and scrambled the brains of whomever it made contact with. Gambit fired cards off into the group, sending them running scared they exploded.
Lance held back for a moment, trying to telepathically contact the Professor.
…There any way you can make give up quietly…
…I can try, but there are a lot of them…
(…If the ringleaders give up, the others'll be easier to catch, even if they run. And if you wanna give a few lobotomies, I won't tell…
Lance rolled his eyes back in his head and set off an earth tremor that passed the mutants and knocked those at the edges of the affray off balance. It was his experience that the ringleaders tended to hang back and wait to see how the fight went before either joining in or running off. In spite of the trick with the Pow-R-8, he suspected they would still be hedging their bets and letting the more impulsive amongst them do the fighting.
"Wait!" A man near the gates raised his hand as he stumbled to the floor. "I – I give up!"
"Me too," agreed a woman nearby, trying to keep her feet.
Logan paused for a moment, an adamantium laced fist having just taken out one of the mob. "Is Chuck doing that?"
"Yeah." Lance realised he hadn't thought the plan out. "Where the hell are we supposed to keep the people who gave up?"
Betsy over heard and stopped fighting long enough to smirk at him over her shoulder. "Leave it to the telepaths."
By now, almost half the mob were begging to give themselves up. With an exaggerated motion, Betsy indicated them in the direction of the mansion, leading them inside.
"What the hell?" One of the men who hadn't given himself up backed up in the face of his friends handing themselves over and turned to run, followed by several of his cronies. The others stood their ground for a moment, then realised they were without weapons or backup and decided to flee too.
Pietro zipped up to Lance and gave an admiring look in the direction of Betsy, leading the strangely docile mob inside. "Can we keep her? This team could use a telepath."
"I think Lance wants some one else for the teams telepath," teased Wanda.
"Over my dead body," growled Logan as he walked past. Lance winced, knowing they'd just been found out.
Toad placed a commiserating hand on Lance's shoulder. "That's rough man. You know how hard he is to kill."
"Shut up Toad." Lance shook off the other mans hand and followed the crowd inside, ready in case either the Professor or Betsy lost their mental grip on the mob.
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As soon as the uninfected mutants had run off, Rogue stumbled to her feet and began staggering down the hallway, her hand plastered over her mouth. Kurt glanced after her, debating whether or not to teleport her to the bathroom and leave the rest of the ill behind.
"I'll go after her," said Jean, struggling to her feet. "If she's going to puke, I might even join her."
"Be serious Jean, you can barely stand." Kurt held out an arm to steady the woman.
"And you can't leave the others." Jean glanced at the groaning X-Men, as well as Pyro leaning semi-conscious against a wall and Blob urgently talking on his phone to some one at SHIELD headquarters. "I'm fine. The others will be back soon."
"God willing." Kurt let Jean go after Rogue, against his better judgement. The mob was at the front of the mansion, Jean was a telepath and the Professor was monitoring the cameras including the ones throughout the house. They couldn't come to any harm on the way to the bathroom.
Rogue hurried into the kitchen, threw open the back door and leant out, throwing up. Jean caught up to her and rubbed her back until the heaves subsided.
"Pleasant, huh?" Rogue tried to laugh.
"You might want to keep the door open," said Jean weakly. "I might do the same in a minute. You feel any better?"
"Not really." Rogue straightened up, keeping her hand on the doorframe to brace herself. "You never found an antidote to Pow-R-8, did you?"
"No, but we haven't had a lethal dose. We should be feeling alright in a few hours." Jean hesitated before voicing her suspicion. "The Pow-R-8 shouldn't have affected us this fast or this much through skin contact. I think some one upped the amount of toxic eliminators."
"Great." Rogue closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the cool night air against her overheated skin. "So we might not feel alright in a couple of hours."
"I don't know." Jean's vision doubled momentarily and she blinked a few times until it returned to normal. "Maybe I ought to get in touch with Doc Schwartz, see if she's had any brainwaves on the subject since the lab was closed…" She swallowed, her throat dry. Carefully, she made her way over to the fridge for a can of cola.
"Ah can't hear anything," said Rogue. "Maybe the fight's over."
"Yeah," said Jean, relishing the cold liquid at the same time as she fought her stomach to keep it down. "We ought to go back before Kurt gets worried."
"Ah guess." Rogue sighed and pushed the door gently closed…
A hand shot around the door before it could close fully, grabbing Rogue around the wrist. She gasped, trying to back away and expecting to feel the pull of the other person's memories and powers as she absorbed them, but she'd opted for opera-length gloves with a sleeveless top and the skin of her wrist was covered.
Jean stared in confusion, her senses dulled by the poison in her system. All she saw was Rogue pull backwards and then she was seemingly yanked forward, her head connecting with the door and all the fight going out of her.
What the hell?
Instinctively she moved forward to try to catch her falling teammate, but was struck by a wave of dizziness and when Rogue fell against her, she succeeded only in tumbling over with her.
The door swung all the way open and Jean looked up, her jumbled thoughts expecting to see one of the other X-Men coming in. Instead she saw a tall, dark haired man in dark clothes, some one she didn't recognise.
Belatedly, she decided to call for help. Her powers should have enabled her to summon aid with the speed of thought, but her mind was still working slowly and she barely had time to realise the trouble she was in before the man swung something at her and everything went black.
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The mob were herded into the Danger Room, the only place large enough and solid enough to hold them all until a SHIELD task force could be called in to 'assist local police in their enquiries'. This being Bayville, thought Lance, it's more likely that SHIELD need to make sure they actually press charges and don't just let them all go.
Betsy came out of the Danger Room and Logan closed the door and set the computerised doors to lock them in. With a sigh of relief, Betsy released her mental hold on the mob. "It's really hard to keep a grip on lots of people at once. Good thing the Prof was keeping most of them quiet, I couldn't have done it on my own."
"Let's go check on the others, get them to the med bay," said Lance, already heading in the direction of the hallway they'd left the afflicted in. He was already wondering if he should call some of the scientists that Jean worked with, maybe they had a better idea than him how to treat her. It was just typical that they'd sent Henry McCoy, the person with the best medical knowledge in the Institute, on the field trip with the youngest X-Men.
"We need to flush out the water system and make sure the main room's totally clean before anyone else goes in there," said Wanda, needing to almost run to keep up with Lance.
"Before we do that, we need to find out how the Pow-R-8 got into the system in the first place." Pietro had given up ogling Betsy to mull over the latest problem. "Most systems take their water straight from the mains, the same line that supplies drinking water. Has anyone been to do any repair work on the water pipes?"
"I don't know." Logan looked angry to be making the admission. "That's Chuck's department."
They walked into the corridor where the ill mutants were without passing the kitchen. Tabby and Amara had both managed to get to their feet and Tabby was alternating between muttering threats and trying to assure her friend that she was alright. Bobby was still curled up on the floor. Pyro had emerged from his daze and was attempting to clean his face with his shirt. Fred was talking into his phone, as he saw the others approaching he cut off the call.
"SHIELD's sending over a team to take care of the Friends of Humanity – you did get them?"
"Was there ever any doubt?" Pietro stuck what he thought was a heroic pose and glanced sideways at Betsy. She seemed unimpressed.
"They want you to go over to the water treatment plant and see if it's been messed with. If it has, we've got more people to worry about than the X-Men, especially if Pow-R-8 affects normal humans like Jean says it does."
"Where is Jean?" asked Lance, finishing his appraisal of the group and realising that his girlfriend – no, the woman he'd been sleeping with – wasn't among them.
"She went after Rogue," said Kurt. "She needed to throw up and Jean was making sure she was alright. I had to stay and keep an eye on the others."
"How are you feeling Kurt?" asked Kitty.
"I think the fuzz saved me from much skin contact, but I really need a shower." Kurt grimaced and glanced down at his matted fur. "Can I borrow your conditioner?"
Kitty laughed at the weak joke, but Lance barely noticed the exchange although at one time he would have been seething. "What direction did they go in?"
"That way." Kurt pointed. "There's a bathroom at the end of the hall, three doors down from the kitchen."
"Got it." Lance went in the direction Kurt indicated, realising as he did so that Gambit was following. He shot a glare over his shoulder, but Gambit wasn't put off.
"Shouldn't you be helping the others to the sick bay?"
"Rogue's sick. Shouldn't you be helping de others?"
Lance growled and didn't reply, trying to ignore Remy's chuckles. They passed the kitchen on the way to the bathroom and Gambit kept going, but Lance stopped suddenly and looked into the kitchen. The door leading outside was open a fraction of an inch and there was a can of cola on the floor, a trail of the liquid drying on the floor. Nothing else was disturbed but Lance couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Pietro had made sure there was no other way into the Institute other than the main doors and there was no sign of forced entry which meant that the door had been unlocked from the inside. But why?
"Chere!" He heard Gambit knocking at the bathroom door. "You alright chere?"
Opening the door, he noticed that some one had been ill outside. That explained the open door; it was quicker to get to the outside than to the bathroom, which meant that Rogue had probably been there with Jean close behind. So where were they now? It seemed unlikely that they'd gone out for a breath of air.
Gambit walked into the kitchen. "Dey're not there."
Lance glanced again at the cola can. "Get Logan in here. I want to know if he can pick up any scents. I'm going to see what the security cameras caught." Without waiting to see if Remy did as he said, he ran from the kitchen and headed for the control room.
The Professor was sat at the computer system, monitoring the occupants of the Danger Room. The mob had turned on each other, arguing over who was to blame, accusing each other of quitting. Lance caught a glance of them on the screen before the Professor turned to face him.
"Is something wrong Lance?"
"Jean and Rogue. Where are they?"
The Professor frowned as he did a mental sweep of the mansion. "That's odd, I can't sense them anywhere."
Lance's heart rate accelerated. "Run the video of the kitchen for the last ten minutes or so."
Professor Xavier tapped a few keys and the kitchen appeared on the screen, the time reading some 15 minutes previously, and forwarded the footage until a figure appeared.
"Play it," ordered Lance, leaning against the desk and glaring at the screen. Rogue appeared, opened the door and leaned out. A moment later, Jean walked in and began rubbing her back. There were a few minutes of conversation, silent on the camera. Jean went over to the fridge and grabbed a cola. Both girls looked unsteady on their feet, Rogue not moving from her spot by the door.
Eventually, Rogue took hold of the door and went to close it. The camera angle was blocked partially by Rogue's back, but it looked as if she was suddenly jerked forward, her face hitting the door. Jean tried to catch her and fell over with her.
A man walked through the door and hit Jean with something – Lance couldn't make out what, but it looked like a variation of the old brick-in-a-sock standby – and indicated to some one outside. Four more men walked in, gathering up the two girls and taking them out of the door.
"Are there any cameras outside?" Lance ran a hand through his hair. How had anyone got away from the mob without him noticing?
The Professor changed the view to the outdoor cameras. Lance watched as Jean and Rogue were carried toward the high walls surrounding the mansion and thrown none too gently over the top. Wordlessly, Xavier changed the view to the front of the Institute, where the camera showed the mob being herded inside. A few moments after everyone was within the mansion, the five men hurried out through the still-open gates.
"I had no idea…" The Professor held his head in his hands. "I was so busy trying to keep the majority quiet I didn't notice any stragglers."
Lance was feeling the same way about his own inattention to the stragglers but there wasn't time now for recriminations. Pushing his guilt out of his mind, he let himself slip into military mode. Running for the door, he grabbed his comm.-link and spoke into it. "Where are you?"
"Kitchen," replied Wanda, all business. "Logan's picked up a scent, thinks he can follow it. Doesn't recognise it though, so we don't know what we're up against…"
"I've seen the surveillance tapes," interrupted Lance. "I recognise the guy who knocked them out. Graydon Creed."
Wanda uttered something very unladylike. "He's untraceable for days and then he suddenly shows up out of nowhere and swipes half the X-Men?"
"We're going after him. Getting Jean and Rogue back is our top priority."
"What about SHIELD's orders?"
"Shit!" Lance remembered Fred telling them about the order to check out the water treatment plant. "Right, Pietro and Toad can go there, you come after Creed with me. We'll need Logan to go along too."
"That won't be a problem," said Wanda.
Lance made it to the kitchen and shut off his link-link as he saw the others looking at him. "Logan, can you still trace them if they took a car?"
"No problem," growled Logan. "You just worry about keeping up."
"Gambit's going with you," announced Remy, the look on his face leaving no room for argument.
"Fine," said Lance irritably. "Let's go. Tell Cyclops I took his motorbike. Quicksilver, Toad, go to the water plant. Do what you have to and then come after us."
"On it," said Pietro, grabbing Toad as he zipped out of the door.
"When SHIELD get here, tell them we're on a code 14," said Lance to Betsy as he followed Logan, Remy and Wanda out of the door.
There were only three motorcycles, so Wanda had to ride pillion on Lance's bike. They rode out to the front gate, avoiding the cars that had brought the mob to the mansion. Logan paused outside the gates and sniffed the air.
"This way." He took off down the road and the others followed.