Calandra: No, I didn't really have anyone in mind, just tried to make it James Bond/Johnny English style really. Without the humour, of course. And that about enslaving students, I meant it's not as bad cos he didn't really succeed, and it failed pretty easily, whereas Roxanne had a heck of a lot done to her. Hell, she was shot in the neck before being incinerated and then thrown off a cliff! That's how I mean when it's got darker, not as mild.
Omala: Haha, yup, fried. I love that line, "This is Storm," PWOOOZH! Hehe. I'm glad you liked it, read on!
Xc00lcomic: Get over the "other chick"? If that were to happen there wouldn't much point in writing this story would there? Come on, she is supposed to be Logan's deepest love; he can't just get over her like that. Be rational.
Chapter 8Scott shook his head gently as he glared out of the large windows of the Professor's office. His face was troubled, seen even though his eyes were hidden, "There's no sign of breaking and entering.." he murmured softly, shaking his head again, "I don't understand it. "
The X-Men had gathered in the Professor's office that morning, including a weary looking Storm. The outdoors was covered in a new layer of snow. The trees and other plant life were dotted by the sparkling snow, which reflected the luminous sun that sat above in the beautifully clear blue sky. It was this view that Scott had his eyes on.
"He may have been a mutant.." suggested Aurora quietly, glancing towards Charles.
Charles was sat at his desk, his fingers poised together as he thoughtfully stared at them. He remained in silence before speaking quietly to Aurora, "That is possible.."
"No, he was most certainly a human," murmured Storm, her tongue licking slowly over her bruised lips.
"And he entered without wanting to cause a bloodbath?" snorted Scott indignantly. He tore his eyes from the luminous view of the grounds, turning upon the team, "He was in the Underground level, Storm, what did he want?"
Storm gently raised her eyes upon Scott, her hand delicately running fingers over the crown of her head in a bid to remove strands from her face, "He wanted access to Cerebro's database."
This instantly alerted Charles whose eyes sharpened upon Storm with burning curiosity, "That's it.." he muttered, his hands falling to the desk where they rested on the newspaper from the night before. Charles eyes followed down to where his hands lay, viewing the nearest sentence, "Funds go to operations of a newly trained team of specialists to seek out those who control the human attacks.." he read out aloud in a soft voice, his frown furrowing over his eyes.
"A newly trained team of specialists?" repeated Siren all of a sudden, speaking up, "Trained to do what?"
"To stop those who are different," said Scott with clear wrath of anger in his tone as he answered Siren's question. Charles nodded his head slowly as Scott spoke.
"Do you think he was one of them?" persisted Siren, asking about the human. Her fists had curled up tightly around the arms of her chair whilst her eyes stared angrily at Charles.
Charles looked slowly to Siren, bowing his head once, "I fear he wanted to infiltrate the Cerebro's database for our mutant records. If the new scheme and Government got hold of our documentations.."
"..it'll be a mutant shopping list to the assassins," suddenly finished Logan, who had not said a word during his time there. A few looked to him in surprise as his low voice rumbled through the tense atmosphere. But those surprised faces quickly dawned with worry at how true Logan's description could possibly be.
Charles sighed quietly as he rubbed his forehead wearily, "I will stabilise the database with mental repercussions to those who try to gain entry without the vocal password. Keep an eye out for anyone who looks suspicious on the grounds.. and if your fears are confirmed.. immobilise them," answered Charles with a determined glint in his usually warm eyes, "This briefing is adjourned, X-Men."
Scott immediately rose to his feet, turning from the room with a tightly expression of a grimace . His exit through the door was followed by the remaining solemn, but angry looking X-Men. Charles watched them leave, his eyes slowly happening upon the last exit, Logan. "Logan," requested Charles politely, "I'd like to talk to you."
Logan paused in the doorway slowly, ultimately turning his head to glance curiously at the Professor before he nodded with a quiet sigh, shutting the door behind the retreated X-Men. He stepped slowly across the room, lingering in front of Charles desk with a small glimmer of impatience in his eyes, "What?" he answered abruptly.
Typically, Charles pressed on courteously to Logan's unrefined approach. "I'm pleased you have not yet subjected to your natural wishes and proceeded to fetch your daughter." Logan merely grunted disdainfully as if pointing out he would like to be doing so now. However, Charles placidly continued, "By no means am I trying to keep Madeline and yourself apart for any longer than necessary, I can wholeheartedly understand and stress that her arrival would do you a lot of good.. that's only if you are indeed prepared."
Logan sensed he was going to be in for a long lecture of some sort, and he swivelled a chair round to sit down in a slouch, staring across at Charles expectantly with a glower from under his frown, "Hit me.."
For some reason, Charles adopted a small smile to Logan's obvious pessimism, "It won't be long and tiring, I assure you," he said gently as he watched the mutant glare still. Charles's hands dropped to the arms of his wheelchair as he directed himself out of the desk and around it to join Logan. Logan still scrutinised the man heavily, eyes following slowly, "I just want you to relax Logan."
"Huh, you're going digging. I didn't know you were the green fingered type, Charles," muttered Logan sarcastically.
Charles's lips twitched in amusement to Logan. His raised his palms to Logan's temples slowly, "Not digging, Logan. Just sorting. Call it.. arranging your files back in order."
"Oh, so now I'm a filing cabinet," muttered Logan as he leant back in the chair with Charles hands at his head.
But Charles shushed him quietly, "Relax," he insisted before his eyes closed gently. Logan appeared to flinch as if he were uncomfortable. He continued to shuffle like this for a good few minutes whilst Charles concentrated with firmly closed eyes.
The sunlight blindingly filtered through the large glass windows of the classroom. The rows of desks stretched neatly across the room, at each one a student sat either waiting patiently for the lesson to continue or amusing themselves by other methods. Two of the students were fighting a pair of rulers across the room via telekinesis, they clashed together like swords, prodding and slicing. At the front of the class Scott was, arranging his lesson notes. An impatient gleam was in his hidden eyes. He lifted the needed notes before looking over to the current sword-fighting rulers that hovered across the room. He made an irritated cough. But the two boys causing the ruler display didn't appear to notice and now they were laughing quite loudly.
"That's enough!" shouted Scott intolerantly. His hand had snapped to his visor and a beam of red laser whooshed forth and exploded the fighting rulers to smouldering pieces of white plastic that fluttered down to the floor with a faint sizzling noise.
The two students both gasped and stared at their teacher, as did the rest of the class at the sudden outburst. Scott glowered across at the room, "When you've quite finished.." he said lowly, glaring upon the class, "..turn to page 232." He paused before continuing his order in a warningly soft tone, "Read it." The class had fell under a silent hush, the only sound was movement, which buzzed through the room as students fought to the correct page of their text books before falling deadly still and reading. Scott sighed softly and rubbed at his forehead, he felt really quite tired since last night's disruption. Thank goodness this was the only lesson he had today.
After a number of minutes the class was watching him once more, Scott took this as indication that they had all finished reading and he turned to the board, driving a piece of chalk down the black coated surface, "Copy these questions and answer them accordingly, please. Any questions, put your hand up and I'll come over."
Outside Scott's classroom, in the softly lighted corridor was Siren. She leant idly on the wall as she twirled a ring around her thumb slowly. She knew Scott's lesson would be finishing soon. She glanced inside the classroom watching him talking to the students. She then turned away, walking down the corridor. She'd come back soon.
A little while later the lesson was drawing to a close, Scott was administering homework for that weekend, despite the chorus of groans and sighs. "I want this handed in next Wednesday," he called throughout the class over the negative noise, "And NOT later, remember that, Steven!"
The loud shuffle of footsteps and scraping chairs signalled the end of class and the barrage of students traipsed on out of the classroom, talking voices buzzing loudly as the crowd exited. The recently returned Siren stepped back from the door to let them exit; she received a few polite waves from the students who greeted her as they passed. But soon enough the throng of students had left the corridor and now the silence had returned.
Inside the classroom, Scott was sat at his desk, a pile of sheets before him as he marked work. The afternoon rays of the sunshine spilled it softly through the windows, casting a comfortable glow around the room as it began to lower in the startlingly blue sky. The snow still rested on the school's grounds, twinkling like clusters of diamonds in the wintry sunlight. Scott ran a hand through his short hair slowly, exhaling a sigh as he proceeded to slash a heavily mark 'X' next to one of the questions with his pen. The next thing he noticed was that he could hear the repetitive sounds of echoing heels on the wooden floor of his classroom.
Siren had entered at last, and she walked slowly across the room with her usual walk of pristine feminine balance. By the time Scott looked up she was right in front of his desk, and she bent gently to lower a warm mug of steaming coffee in front of him, "Bonjour," she greeted warmly.
Scott's eyes travelled from the mug to the hand that held it, right up till he reached her smiling face, "Hey.." he said softly, returning the smile, "Thanks," he murmured as he lifted the mug of coffee, proceeding to take a sip. Siren's eyebrows lifted gently as she waited for him to speak, mouth parting gently as she watched him sip the coffee. "Huh.." said Scott softly as he placed the mug back down, licking his lips gently, "Freshly grounded, my favourite. How did you know?" he then asked, passing Siren a mischievous glance.
"I observe, monsieur," replied Siren softly in her usual accented tone. She grinned to him, taking a few steps back with her arms gently swinging until she lightly jumped back to sit on one of the desks. Her hands clasped the rim of the table as she sat there, her feet off the floor. Her right thigh lifted slowly as she crossed it over her left, remaining perched there and watching Scott. Scott had proceeded to continue marking as she stepped away, but when she sat on the table his eyes had rose steadily.
She wore a fitting red sweater due to the oncoming of colder days, it's neck rolled once to produce a comfortably rounded collar around her slim neck. Scott admired the choice, it's colour contrasted irresistibly with her bottle green eyes. But the thing he noticed most, and what was catching his eye right now, was the long black skirt she wore. Yes, it was long, past her knees infact, but there was an alluringly placed slit that ran up the left side and went right up to her mid-thigh. Siren appeared to notice his gaze; no matter if his eyes were covered - because now she was smirking coyly at him. Scott's brow relaxed worriedly as he looked down at the student's work with a quiet cough.
"So.. er.. how's Remy?" he asked, not wanting to appear impolite.
Siren ran a hand through her stylishly tousled blonde hair gently, brushing her curls over a shoulder. Her hung booted foot swayed gently, her legs still crossed by the thighs, that running split in the material luring Scott's eyes, "Oh.." she said softly, eyes drifting back upon him, "Remy is well." Scott immediately snapped his eyes off her legs and more appropriately on her eyes instead. Siren continued nonetheless, smiling knowingly at her blatant positioning, "I think he is beginning to settle in here.." Scott politely nodded his head as he listened, trying not to let his eyes wander, but he was failing, "You know.." Siren went on, "He does admire the X-Men, Scott, I can tell.. Men like him are very fine cut about their loyalties. He's either on your side or not." Her lips spread to a promising smile in Scott's direction, the glossed crimson glinting from the sunlight, "..and, he is."
"Oh.. well.." muttered Scott, clearing his throat gently before taking a large gulp of the coffee. That didn't help; he could smell her feminine scent on it from where she held it. He also spluttered on the drink, it was still quite hot. He blew on his lips hurriedly at the stinging sensation, quickly lowering the mug. He coughed gently, before blinking to her and trying to look composed, "It's, er.. it's nice to feel wanted." He smiled sheepishly to her, "Men like me are rather carefree about how much we're like.. just as long as we are."
Siren's eyes glinted gently in the weak wintry rays of the sun, at the same time her brow tilted gently, raising her darkly lined eyes coyly, "Men like you, huh?" she said lowly. She pushed herself off the desk gently; her boots hitting the floor resoundingly before she took a few echoing steps towards Scott. Scott nervously looked down at his papers, writing a comment on the bottom of the student's work as she came closer. Siren came to the front of his desk; she rested her palms on the smooth wood as she leaned forward, back gently bent as she brought her face closer to Scott's.
His hand slowly ceased on a halt in his writing, before ultimately freezing in its movements as Scott slowly raised his head, his hidden eyes happening back upon hers. He didn't say anything, nor did Siren. They both remained quietly, eyes upon each other. There was no lure of her mutation necessary as she pushed her head forth a little further. But it was Scott who completed the move, his arms still resting by the papers as he pressed his lips ever so softly to hers without any hesitations, but done tenderly slow. There was neither heat nor burn from her skin. Their lips closed around each other's once in a delicate motion before Siren lifted her head with such a beautiful smile on her smooth scarlet lips, "Merci.." she whispered softly.
With lingering lips Scott drifted his face from hers, eyes watching her carefully. "You're welcome.." he answered quietly, his voice too only just a whisper.
With a fresh smirk on her face Siren turned to leave the classroom, but she paused just as she reached the doorframe, back arched against it as she softly spoke, "Men like you are exactly what a girl like me wants.." and with that she drifted from the doorway, hands brushing off the doorframe as she slipped away into the corridor and out of sight.
Thanks for reading. Please review for me so I know if you liked it or not!