Yay for all my reviewers! I think I have six or something...I'm impressed!!
Bobby: Disclaimer. BobbyD12 owns nothing and I own quite a bit of the author's affection. (Cheeky smile)
BobbyD12: (Knows better than to try and deny it) I do own Anna though!
Bobby: And I own a bit of her affection as well. (Another cheeky smile)
BobbD12: And I own Kate. Kind of. I own her in partnership with Pyrotic, I suppose.
Bobby: And I own...um, virtually none of Kate or Pyrotic's affections. (Cries)
Kate: PLEASE, Bobby, you're such a whimp! Maybe I'd like you better if you weren't so perfect.
Bobby: Oo?
Kate: Never mind .
John and his companion walked side by side down the alley, knowing that the French police would pick up the Frenchman and fine him for being in a condemned building. The pair would have liked nothing better to see the man go to jail, but such a thing was impossible...it would compromise the plan if either of them had to testify openly in court. The friends walked until the alley opened up into a bigger, nicer street. The girl rubbed her side as they walked along, she having to hurry to keep up the John's long strides.
"You alright, Kate?" John asked carelessly. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
The girl, Kate Karina, flashed her friend a grin. "Oh, I've had worse."
John nodded, but slowed down his pace, a fact that Kate noticed, but didn't comment on. They walked for another twenty minutes through Paris's crowded streets, the air was filled with the jabber of French voices and the honking of car horns. Finally, the pair turned into a small, pleasant looking hotel in which they were staying. Kate said something polite to the receptionist, John grunted, and they both walked upstairs to their rooms. It was a small hotel, but it was quiet, which was what Kate and John needed for the kind of business they were engaging in.
"I guess we'd better contact King Buckethead," John said lazily as he unlocked his room.
Kate giggled. "It's a good thing Magneto isn't telepathic or you'd have been fired ages ago."
John smirked at her and went into his room, saying, "Do you want to come in while I make the call?"
Kate peered in through the open door. The room was messy, but not as messy as her own, so she agreed. She cleared off the laundry on a chair and sat there while John dialed a number on his cell phone. There was a pause, and then John said, "Hello? This is me."
Kate rolled her eyes. John wasn't necessarily noted for his communication skills.
"We went to the place," John continued. "Yeah, the guy was there. Uh huh, he talked. He didn't know much, just the name of his boss. Jean Bapsteist...that's right. Can you track him down?"
Kate idly twirled a strand of curly hair between her fingers as she listened to the conversation.
"I know that's what I'm here for, but Paris is a big city! Yeah, yeah, I know..." Kate expected John was getting another lecture from Magneto, a frequent occurrence. John rolled his eyes at her and spoke again. "All right, I'm sorry. No really, I am." His voice bellied his humble words. "Yes, yes, Kate's fine. She says hi. Okay, goodbye."
John ended the call and groaned. "That guy really annoys me."
"Everyone annoys you, John," Kate reminded.
"This is true," John acknowledged, making Kate laugh. He often made her laugh, though he seldom knew why.
"What are our marching orders?" Kate questioned.
"Find this Jean Bapsteist guy," John said, draping himself across another chair and not bothering to move the stack of newspapers that was already there. "Hopefully he's the leader of this mutant kidnapping mess."
"Sounds so easy when you say it, doesn't it?" Kate said wryly.
"It's going to take forever."
"I'll say."
There was silence for a minute, and the sounds of the streets drifted up into the room. Kate broke the stillness by asking, "John, why on earth am I here?"
John looked at her a bit strangely. "Because I invited you in so that you could hear what I said to Mr. Buckethead."
Kate shook her head. "No, I mean, why am I here in Paris with you instead of back at the professor's school with all my other friends?"
John smirked at her. "Because I called you up and bribed you with promises of adventure, getting to speak French, and being with me."
"Oh, I definitely came for the last reason," Kate teased.
"You'd better believe you did," John replied calm irony. "You heard that you got to be alone in France with me and that settled the question."
Kate's only reply was a pillow flung in his direction. John flung it back at her and demanded, "Now get out of my room."
Kate shook her head. "Your room's comfortable."
"So is yours, now get out!" John walked over and pushed Kate off her chair onto the floor.
She sat there rubbing her side and glaring up at him. "Thanks John; that was my sore side."
"Put ice on it," John said unsympathetically.
Grumbling, Kate got up and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Anna Wallace whipped her dark hair out of her face as she surveyed the situation before her. Three men stood facing her, evil leers on their faces. A little way to the side her friend Robert Drake was fighting with another. He delivered his opponent a blow in the face that rendered him unconscious, got up and sprang towards the other men shouting, "Don't just stand there, do something!"
As one of the men approached her, Anna did do something. She backed up. "Uh, Bobby! What do I do?" she yelled.
"Darn it, Anna! Don't you remember anything Scott taught you?" he shouted at her, his breath coming in gasps.
Anna gulped, and clumsily blocked a punch aimed at her nose. Her attacker tripped her, and stood over her, smiling at her helplessness. He drew a gun from his pocket, aimed—and the lights in the danger room snapped on, dispelling the imaginary men.
Bobby reached out a hand to help his friend off the floor, shaking his head. "There goes your grade," he muttered.
Anna looked dismally at him. "I should just face it, I'm hopeless at self defense!"
"I should say so," a new voice cut in. Both young adults turned to face Scott Summers as he crossed the room rapidly, a frown on his face. "For heaven's sake, Anna. You're eighteen years old and you still can't defend yourself. That's pathetic, you should be ashamed young lady!" His visor glowed brightly with anger.
Anna scuffled her feet on the floor and examined her shoes. She hated getting reprimanded, especially from Scott, who was one of her favorite teachers. "I'm sorry," murmured.
"Being sorry won't save your life in a fight," Scott snapped.
"I really am sorry," Anna said again.
Scott sighed and softened his voice. "It's all right. I know you try your best." He turned to Bobby, who had been standing awkwardly through his friend's reprimand. "You did a good job out there," the teacher congratulated. "You should be proud of yourself."
"Thank you," Bobby said with a small smile.
"Class dismissed," Scott announced. As the two friends began to walk out of the room, he called to Anna. "I want you to see the professor after class."
"Why?" she asked.
"You'll need to explain the D you're getting in my self-defense class."
Anna groaned as the door slid shut and she and Bobby were alone in the hall.
"I got a D! A D!" she wailed.
"You were pretty crummy," Bobby admitted.
She pushed him playfully. "That didn't help. You're supposed to be kind and understanding."
"Mmm," Bobby grunted and they started to walk down the hall of Professor Xavier's school.
"Do you think I'm going to get punished?" Anna asked, nervously twirling a strand of dark hair between her fingers.
"Probably not," Bobby said. His confidence didn't seem to reassure his friend however, so he flung an arm around her shoulders while steering her through the mansion. "Come on," he said, "I'll go with you."
As the pair walked towards the professor's office, Bobby's girlfriend Rogue fell in step beside them. "You two look as if Mr. Summers offered to tutor you in history. What happened?" she asked in her soft southern voice.
"Anna got a D in self-defense," Bobby explained, "so we're going to see the professor."
"Aww, you poor thing," Rogue said sympathetically. "I hate that class myself."
"At least you can use your power to help you," Anna said glumly. "What good is being able to sense people's emotions in a fight?"
"No good at all," Rogue stated with a smile. "I'll join you, I have some papers to drop off to the professor."
When the threesome reached the door to the professor's office, his warm "Come in" sounded before they could even knock. The entered accordingly, and the professor welcomed them with a kind smile.
"I see you have the grade reports from Ororo, thank you Rogue. Anna, we can talk about your grade right now, if that's fine with you."
The three young adults exchanged amused glances. When your teacher can read minds, it saves a lot of time in explanations.
Rogue handed the papers to Professor Xavier and she and Bobby sat down on a sofa, leaving Anna to stand in front of her teacher's desk. She felt as if she would rather face an Orc battalion.
Xavier seemed to know this and his smile grew even kinder, if that was possible. "Every person is different, Anna," he said gently. "That is the beauty of humanity. Some mutant's abilities lend themselves more easily towards combat, like your friend Kate or Robert, or Rogue. Others, like yours, are more conducive to other things."
Anna felt all her anxiety slip away as the professor continued. "What you need is a way to use your power creatively. It is not a crime to break the mold." He tapped his fingers together in thought. "Tell me what you can do."
Anna knew that he already knew, but she told him anyway. "I can feel people's emotions. I can tell that...Rogue is fluttered, for instance."
One glance at Bobby and Rouge sitting next to each other, Rogue's gloved hand firmly clasped in Bobby's, told her the reason for her excitement.
"Is that all?" the professor questioned.
"I...I think so," Anna faltered.
"You think so?"
"I don't know...lately, something weird has been going on. It's like...I don't know."
The professor looked interested. "Do you think your power is changing?"
"I think growing." Anna's voice begged him to understand.
"What do you think it's growing to be?"
Anna started getting nervous again. "I think I might be able to make people feel whatever I want them to feel as well."
"Try," the professor urged her. "Try projecting nervousness into Bobby."
Anna looked at her friend who was completely oblivious to everything in the room except the girl sitting on the couch next to him. She closed her eyes and entered into his consciousness. That was the easy part; she had been able to do that since she was thirteen. For a moment she lost herself in the pleasure of being inside her friend's mind. Bobby's feelings were as familiar to her as her own room and she felt at home in them, safe and comfortable. Then she remembered what the professor had asked her to do. She took a deep breath and thought of being nervous. She remembered the way her breathing grew quick, her hands grew sweaty, her stomach knotted up. She gathered up all those feelings, rolled them into one package, and threw them into Bobby's mind.
She swiftly drew out of Bobby's consciousness and back into the real world. She looked at Bobby. He was twisting his hands in his lap, his cheeks were bright red and he was stuttering. Anna turned towards the professor. He smiled at her. "I think you're right about your power, my dear," he told her. "Now, take the nervousness away."
"Take it away?" Anna echoed blankly.
"You were able to project it into him, you should be able to take it out."
Anna obediently entered Bobby's mind again. This is impossible, she thought.
Try rounding up the feelings, Xavier voice said in her head.
Anna tried. She pretended that she was a sheepdog and the nervous thoughts were the sheep. She urged them all to one corner of Bobby's mind, then, with a massive heave, flung them out.
She looked towards Bobby and smiled with pleasure to see him conversing normally with Rogue again. She looked towards the professor. "I did it!" she said happily.
"Now all you need to do is practice with it," the professor told her. "Whenever possible. Of course," he added, "Respect the mind of the person you're in."
"Of course," Anna said. One of the first thing she had been taught at Xavier's school had been respect.
"And now," the professor said, pitching his voice so that Bobby and Rouge could hear him as well, "I'm afraid you all must get back to class. You have a Spanish lesson soon, I think?"
"Yes sir," Bobby said respectfully.
He and Rogue exited, and Anna followed close behind, mouthing the words "thank you" to Xavier.
That evening, something of a different nature was happening in an abandoned office building located in the gloomy center of Paris. In a dark room barely lit by the naked light bulb that hung from the ceiling, two men sat, wreathed in cigarette smoke. One sat behind a rickety desk and leaned back in his chair while talking into the phone receiver he held to his ear. The other sat still and silent.
"What do you mean?" the man holding the phone grated out harshly. He held his cigar in a pair of pudgy fingers and frowned. "I don't accept this kind of work," he spat.
The person on the other end of the line tried to say something, but the fat man cut him off. "No, no. I will not get Jacques out of jail. He was an idiot to let himself get caught in the first place." He brought his cigar up to his mouth as he listened to the phone. His fat lips turned up in a sneer as he said sarcastically, "Oh, that makes all the difference. You're wasting my time, call back when you have a success to report." With that, he slammed the phone down. For a while he puffed on his cigar in silence, then he burst out, "It has happened again!"
The slim man sitting opposite him pursed his lips. "Another man lost?"
The other man nodded fiercely. "It is the fifth man this month."
"The excuse?" the thin man murmured.
"The same as always," the fat man said despairingly. "Two mutants masquerading as bounty hunter and prisoner. I tell you, I grow weary of it!"
"Do you think they are the same people?" the thin man asked.
"Of course," the other snapped. "It is always the same: a girl who speaks French like a Parisian and an American boy. Sometimes they have blonde hair, sometimes they have red hair, sometimes they pose as adults, sometimes they look like teenagers...but every time they manage to take out one of my agents!" He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's beginning to be a threat to my business."
The thin man stared at his hands languidly. "It seems the only thing to do is to remove the threat."
The fat man smacked his lips with satisfaction. "Exactly."
"I can take care of that," the other man said confidently. "The only problem will be catching them."
"You'll think of something," the other said.
The thin man smiled, but there was no pleasure in it. "I always do." He rose from his chair in a swift motion and exited the smoke filled room. He brushed his sweaty dark hair back from his thin face; summers in Paris were not always comfortable.
He exited the old office building and dug a cell phone out of his black pants. He swiftly dialed a number and waited for the other person to pick up.
"Hello?" came a voice in breathy tones.
"I need you," the thin man said quietly.
"Why?" asked the wheezy voice.
The thin man tapped his foot impatiently. "Two mutants are fouling up the business. The boss is getting impatient."
"Do you require containment or elimination?"
The thin man smiled in spite of himself. "Elimination, naturally. Mutants are too dangerous to be left at large."
Professor Xavier was in his room, relaxing after the cares of the day. Closing his eyes, he let his mind probe around the school, monitoring the status of his students.
Young voices swirled around him in snatches of conversation.
Kurt, stop messing up the bed!
Who are you, Jamie or a multiple?
I, like, miss Lance so bad! Do you think he's okay?
The Professor smiled at that last thought and decided to broaden his range of telepathy. He let his consciousness roam in whatever direction it wanted, lazily. Then, he heard a voice his mind.
Two mutants are fouling up the business. The boss is getting impatient.
The professor immediately honed in on the speaker. He couldn't get in touch with the other speaker, so he assumed the person was on the phone. He heard the words, elimination, naturally, and concern welled up inside him. He wheeled over to the computer that sat in his room and made ready to type down any information.
The thin man detailed where he wanted his associate to meet him along with the rest of the plan and ended the call. His partner had been surprised to learn he was in Paris with the boss, but the plan was getting too big for him to be elsewhere.
He put his hands into his black pants, and stole quietly down the street, making plans on how to get in touch with two certain mutants.
The professor looked at his computer in amazement. He couldn't believe what he had stumbled into.
Scott, he called to friend. Come into my room immediately.
I'll be right there, professor, came Scott's sharp answer.
Moments later, Scott Summers strode into the room, his hand on his visor, ready for trouble.
"Sit down, Scott," the professor said, motioning to a chair. "I have just intercepted a communication that is quite startling."
Scott sat obediently. "What is it?"
Xavier wasn't quite sure how to begin. "The person I was listening in on gave every appearance of being involved in some anti-mutant network."
Scott wasn't impressed. "And..."
"He was giving orders for the tracking down and "elimination" of two mutants who were fouling up his plans."
"And..."
Xavier smiled wanly. "We should do something about it, don't you think?"
"Of course," Scott said immediately. "I'll get Storm and Logan ready. We can leave tonight."
The professor shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not going to be quite that simple."
"Why not?"
"They are located in Paris, France."
Scott wasn't impressed by that either. "So what?"
"Think of who else is working in France." Xavier's voice was patient. When Scott didn't reply, he gave the answer. "Magneto has had agents working there for some time."
Scott still wasn't impressed. "Then let him handle it."
"The two agents happen to be John Allerdyce and Kate Karina."
Scott was impressed. "We've got to help them! Officially, Kate is still a student here."
Xavier nodded. "I wonder if I can contact Eric?" he mused. "As long as he has his helmet off..." He closed his eyes and reached out to his old friend with his mind.
What do you want, Charles? came Magneto's voice, as clearly as if he was in the room. I take off my helmet for one moment, and you're waiting to talk to me. I suppose that could be a compliment.
Xavier smiled. As you will. I have important information for you, my friend. An anti-mutant group has had enough of your agents in Paris. They are planning to seek them out of destroy them.
This is a blow, certainly. John has been in France for months working on this problem. The group is a mutant kidnapping organization that has its headquarters in Paris. John's mission was to find it...but so far he has failed.
I believe I have some information that might help him find it.
Then deliver it to him, not to me, Charles!
Xavier sensed his friend's frustration and was loath to tell him that, I can't do that, Eric. I can't find John's mind in such a crowded city.
Magneto was silent for a while. I would offer to have someone come to your school and take the information to France, but I'm afraid we are being watched. Until I'm certain of that, I cannot make a move.
Let my team take it, Xavier urged.
No! Magneto thought forcefully. It is too noticeable as well. I am sorry, Charles. I cannot allow you to endanger my mission. If you or the X-men make an attempt to fly to Paris in that jet of yours, I will do everything in my power to stop you.
Xavier was shocked. But Eric, two young lives might be at stake!
Magneto's thoughts were cool. John knew the risks. Thank you for your help, Charles, but we must continue to do as we are doing. And then the mental link was abruptly severed.
"Well?" Scott asked.
Xavier sighed. "He refuses to let us take the information to John and Kate."
"What?" Scott exploded.
"I cannot let Kate or John be put into such a dangerous position because of Eric's stubbornness," Xavier said slowly. "But I'm afraid to send it any way that we normally would for fear of it being intercepted."
"Send someone anyway, no matter what Magneto says," Scott urged. "Or better, send some he won't expect.
"Yes, but who?" Xavier asked. "You or Logan or Storm or I leaving the mansion would be too noticeable."
"Send some of the students," Scott suggested. "A few kids going on a vacation wouldn't be anything unusual in the summer."
"It is a good idea," Xavier admitted. "However, I dislike the idea of putting any one of the children in such danger."
Scott smiled. "They'd love it and you know it, sir."
Xavier smiled back. "True."
Scott leaned back in his chair. "I can't see any other option. I think we should go with it."
Xavier sighed. "I suppose you're right. Who should we send?"
Scott's answer was confident. "I know some people who'd love to go."