Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or our special guest that I won't give away. They are all property of Marvel. I do own Sergeant Michael Masi, but since I just used my uncle's name, no harm done.
The rest of the Brotherhood followed Lance and Kitty outside. An officer stood by his car, watching them warily as the back up had their hands ready with their guns. "Is there a problem, sir?" Lance asked, attempting to keep the smugness out of his voice.
"I'm Sergeant Michael Masi. We're here to arrest the Brotherhood of Bayville for the attack on City Hall yesterday," the tall man said.
"But they didn't do it!" Kitty couldn't help but say.
"And who are you, young lady?"
"Katherine Pryde, sir," she whispered, but didn't fail to meet his stern gaze.
"Well, Miss Pryde, I don't believe you belong here. Why don't you run on home?" He suggested, though it was more like a command.
"That's a good idea!" Lance agreed, much to everyone else's surprise. "I'll talk to you later, Kitty."
Shadowcat glared at her boyfriend. "I'm not leaving you, Lance Alvers."
"Then you'll have to come with us, ma'am. As will you all," Masi opened the back door, ushering Lance, Kitty and Pietro in. "You two go with Officer Johnson," he told Fred and Todd, pointing to another man who was waiting with the backseat open. "Alvers, why are you holding a doll?"
"School project," Avalanche muttered, loosening his hold on Callie.
Kitty rolled her eyes and took the child from him. "God, I'll take her."
"Alright, everyone in the car!" Sergeant Masi ordered. Pietro slid in, followed by Lance and Kitty. Blob and Toad climbed into another car, while the rest of the cars were dismissed. The Sergeant sat in the driver's seat and started reading them their rights, which no one listened to anyway.
Shadowcat stared frostily out the window. Unfortunately, Lance wasn't sure who she was mad at: him or the cops. He hesitantly reached over and squeezed her hand. "Sorry, Mrs. Alvers," he said softly, giving her the patented eager puppy look. "Forgive me?"
She sighed and smiled softly. "Of course."
On his side of the backseat, Pietro snorted. "Man, you are so whipped."
"At least some girl likes me. Your own sister hates your guts half the time," Lance smirked as Pietro twitched.
Luckily, the officer shot them a look before Pietro could retort, which would inevitably lead to a huge fight between all of them. From there, the drive was silent all the way to the station, where they were then put in a large cell.
"Don't I get my one phone call?" Kitty asked.
One of the guards shot her a look. "After we gather all the information, you can then use the phone. Now, sit down, young lady."
She scowled and leaned against the wall until a few minutes later, she was called out. Kitty quickly dialed the number at the Institute, almost screaming with frustration as she heard the busy tone in her ear. "It's busy, can I try again?" She asked the officer, who just sighed and nodded.
Once more she tried, and once again it was busy. Finally, she just pushed the 0 button. "Operator? I need to arrange an emergency breakthrough." Giving them the number, she waited until someone picked up.
"Hello?" Kurt's heavy accent came through the phone.
"Kurt, how long have you been on the phone!" Kitty demanded angrily, planning to phase through everything electrical he had when she got home.
"I'm talking to Amanda. Can I call you back later?" He asked exasperatedly.
"People don't arrange an emergency breakthrough when you can call them back later. Now, like, put the Professor on." He started to argue with her, but she cut him off, "If you don't put the Professor on, I'm spending the night in jail and it'll be all your fault. I'd hate to see what kind of training Mr. Logan puts you through for that."
"Jail? What? I'll go get him!" She could hear the BAMF! as he teleported somewhere else in the house. "Professor, Kitty's on the phone! It's an emergency!"
"Kitty?" Charles Xavier's concerned voice filtered through the earpiece of the phone. "Is everything alright?"
"Not exactly…you see…Could you come pick me up?" She asked quietly.
"Of course I can send someone to get you. Where are you?"
Kitty hesitated for a second before whispering, "Jail…"
"What? Dear, what happened?" he asked in an alarmed tone.
"Well, you saw on the news that the Brotherhood supposedly like, messed up City Hall and then Scott totally freaked out, so I went over there to see if Lance was ok," she explained.
"I thought you were going to the mall."
"…I took a little detour?" she offered.
Xavier sighed. "I'll be down at the jailhouse in a minute. Just sit tight and tell the Brotherhood not to do anything to get them in more trouble."
"Thanks, Professor," Kitty hung up the phone and walked back to her cell. "He's on his way."
"Lucky you," Toad scoffed. "But who're we supposed to call, yo? I doubt Magneto or Mystique is going to come bail us out of jail."
There was nothing to say to the cold hard fact. Lance wrapped an arm around Kitty's shoulder, knowing this whole deal was probably tearing her apart more than them. The mess had nothing to do with her, but she was now going to have a police record and probably get grounded on top of it. Man, what a day…
"Hey, you think maybe my love will come save us?" Todd suddenly quipped excitedly.
"Yeah, and then Summers and I will elope and open a Bed and Breakfast on the North Pole," Lance snorted.
Fred noticed Pietro tense up at the mention of his sister. Lightly, he patted his friends back, which only served to push him over. "Whoops. Sorry." Quicksilver said nothing (which could be seen as a bad sign in itself), and stood up again, leaning against the wall.
It was then Sergeant Masi came to their cell, and opened the door, nodding to Kitty. "C'mon, out."
She hugged Lance tightly, then walked out of the cell with her head trained towards the ground. Her boyfriend watched her leave, a sinking pit in his stomach. It was suddenly very lonely.
Masi raised an eyebrow at the boys. "You too, let's go."
They all blinked in unison. "Huh?"
Professor Xavier wheeled back to the cell. "Hello, everyone. I merely explained to Sergeant Masi here that because your guardians Ms. Darkholme and Mr. Lensherr were out of town that you were staying with me."
"Uh…right, right," Fred said, leaving the cell and dragging Pietro with him.
The Brotherhood and Kitty walked out towards the car, with the Sergeant and Professor in tow. "Now, you keep these kids out of trouble, Mr. Xavier."
"Will do. Thank you, my good man," the Professor shook Masi's hand and everyone piled into the car.
The drive to the Brotherhood house was perfectly silent. No one had anything to say, or if they did, they didn't dare voice it aloud. They pulled up in front of the run down boarding house and they all got out. "I guess I'll see you at school on Monday," Lance whispered to Kitty.
"Monday, fourth period," she told him encouragingly, blowing a light kiss to him when the Professor wasn't looking.
He stood there and watched the van drive away, Todd patting his back comfortingly. "Hey, look on the bright side. At least the robot didn't cry the whole time."
And, as if on cue, Callie started to cry.
Lance shoved the key into the baby's back, fixing Toad with a glare that could scare Logan. "I hate you."
"Did you tell anyone?" Kitty questioned slowly as they pulled up the driveway of the Institute.
"I did not. But then, you told Kurt, so everyone within five miles of Bayville should know," Xavier answered with a twinkle in his eye.
Kitty giggled, but still dreaded walking through the door of the mansion. When she finally got up the courage to go inside, Kurt practically attacked her.
"Katzchen!" He called in relief of seeing her all in one part. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"
"Kurt, I'm fine," she said, sighing with contentment as he hugged her.
"Are you sure?" The German prodded, yellow eyes worried.
"Positive," Kitty assured him, grinning in spite of herself.
Scott approached her carefully. "Kit-"
"Please, Scott. Not right now. I'm not up to hearing it," She begged of him, the stress of the day finally falling on her shoulders.
"Why don't you go lay down," Xavier suggested. "You look exhausted."
"That's, like, a totally good idea. Thanks," She waved to the men, then walked slowly up the stairs to her bedroom.
"Scott, I'm expecting a visitor soon," the Professor said as wheeled towards his office. "Will you show them to the study when they arrive?"
"Sure."
"Thank you." Charles Xavier closed the door behind himself as he sat behind the desk in his office. He desperately didn't want to tell Kitty that she couldn't see Lance, because this wasn't the Brotherhood's fault. He could see that, even if the rest of the house didn't.
Unfortunately, it seemed that whenever the two of them got together, something bad happened. The first time they met, he destroyed their old school almost killing Kitty, Jean and Mr. and Mrs. Pryde in the process.
When he came to join the X-men, it caused a great riff between him and Scott, creating slight tension between the older boys and the New Mutants, who had accepted Lance quiet easily. Truthfully, he believed that if they had been kept separate, Avalanche would have got on quite well in the mansion.
He wasn't sure all of the details of their school dance, and it certainly wasn't either of their faults that demons from another dimension had attacked, but at the end of the dance, he saw how disappointed Kitty had been that their first real date had gotten cut short.
Then there was the fight they had had at the school board meeting. From the accounts he'd heard from other students, they'd never seen Kitty more crushed then that one line from Lance: "Right. I'll never be good enough for you!" Though he had not seen it personally, he did hear her crying that night in the room she shared with the other girls as they tried to comfort her, tell her that everything was going to be ok.
Xavier loved all of the students of the Institute like his own children and would never want to see any of them hurt. The question was, which was more detrimental? To let them play it out, with the large possibility of more pain than either of them imagined? Or to stop it where it was, hurting both now and perhaps sparing both of them a world of hurt?
He didn't know.
There was a knock on the door and a very red Scott stuck his head in. "Uh, hey, Professor. You're uh…guest is here."
The door opened to reveal a tall woman. She was beautiful, no older than very early twenties, with pale blond hair and icy blue eyes. She had an air of money about her, and if you couldn't tell from that, you could definitely figure she was rich; the best body money could buy was barely covered by a small white shirt and skintight white pants. There was one thing that kept her from being the most beautiful woman alive: her face. There was a sharp intensity about it that could only be described as scary.
"Good day, Miss Frost," Xavier greeted the woman.
"It's great to see you, Charles," She greeted in return, her cool voice coated in honey as she kissed his cheek.
"That will be all, Scott," The Professor told his gaping student, then quickly checked his reflection to make sure no silver lipstick was on his face.
"Oh, uh, right. See you later," the student left, leaving to the two colleagues alone to talk.
"You know, I really must visit more often," the woman mused, making herself comfortable in a chair. "It's less than an hour plane ride."
"I assume you know why I asked you to come," Xavier said.
"Not a clue."
Apparently this was going to be harder than he thought, though he shouldn't have been surprised with the stubborn woman. "You've heard of the attack on our City Hall?"
"I did hear brief snippets of the story on the news. Those Brotherhood boys committed the crime," Emma said lightly, examining her perfectly sculpted finger nails.
"No, they did not."
"You don't say. Any ideas who did, then?"
He sighed deeply. "Emma, I know you did it."
"Charles, how on Earth would I get the Brotherhood to do that all the way from Massachusetts, hmm?" She smirked.
"Don't lie to me. You may be a telepath, Miss Frost, but I'm a better one."
Neither of them said anything for a while, just stared at each other, trying to gain the upper hand. "Fine!" she snapped. "I did it. I hired goons to dress like them, had others alter the tapes and fixed everyone's minds myself. But I suppose the great Charles Xavier didn't have to read my mind to figure that out, did he?"
"Why did you do it, Emma?" He asked exasperatedly.
"Bayville is the worst place for mutants. Trying to ban them from schools and now a mutant registration act? I wanted to show them that we weren't going to take it lying down!" She told him forcefully, banging her fist on his desk.
"There are plenty of ways to prove your point without violence and hostility," Xavier pointed out. "Haven't you ever heard of Gandhi?"
"Yes, and he's dead, what's your point?"
"My point is that because of your antics four innocent boys and one of my students were arrested today. Now, I agree with you that we shouldn't be sitting ducks and let this happen to us, but force can not be our only option. In fact, it shouldn't be an option at all." He rested his chin in a cupped hand for a second. "Emma, I'd like to offer you a proposition. I know you're working on opening the Massachusetts' Academy for mutants in your area. But if you could fly here maybe once a week, if not more, I can help you with your school and we can work together on the problems Bayville and the rest of the world has with mutants."
The young woman thought about this for a moment. "Professor Xavier, I believe we have a deal."
They shook on it. "Very good. Now, why don't you stay for dinner and we can open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the partnership."
"That sounds lovely. If you'll excuse me for just one moment, I need to go outside to make a call," she brandished her cell phone from her purse. "No reception in here."
"I understand. Though please feel free to use our phone," He gestured to one sitting on his desk.
"Oh, thanks alright. I'm getting used to not having a landline. Hopefully I'll soon be sharing one with a bunch of mutant teenagers myself." She stood up and walked towards the door of the office. "By the way, who was that charming young man who showed me in earlier?"
"…Scott Summers," he replied warily.
"Scott Summers," Emma Frost repeated, a smile forming over her lips. "Interesting."
A/N: Please forgive me from updating so long! I've been busy and sick and all kinds of other stuff. But, to make up for it, we have some semblance of a plot besides all the Lancitty goodness we can muster up!
Now, comic book readers might be familiar with one Emma Frost. I've read the Phoenix Saga, but I'm mostly working off the Emma from Astonishing X-men and Phoenix: Endsong. And while it is my policy not to bash characters, I will make an exception for her. Seriously, I know I can't be the only one waiting for Jean to come back from the dead and rip her head off for stealing her husband, the little home wrecker. So if you see some bashing, I can't help myself. It's fun and she deserves it.
And if Pietro seems OOC, trust me, it's for a reason. I get to do character exploration, whee!
I think I've finally settled on a time frame for the story now. It's anywhere between the end of Self Possessed (which was a stupid episode, IMO) and Dark Horizons, since Scott and Jean haven't graduated yet.
Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.
Review Responses:
Heartsyhawk: I'm glad you like the story, and trust me, it's gonna be getting really good soon.
Iamhollywood: Well, our teacher gipped us. We had to do the baby thing, but no marriages. But Health class is OVER and I no longer have to go ever ever ever again. I'm really happy you read, thank you.
DOJ: Lance is the ultimate eager puppy. There are just those few scenes that ultimately prove that. The pool scene from Joyride and when Kitty asks him to go with her in Shadowdance. It's a good thing Kitty's smart and Xavier has a contact list of all the major telepaths in the world.
El Diablo: Unless you're a Romy fan, you didn't miss much from Cajun Spice. It was totally predictable too. In my opinion, most of Season 4 was a total bust, besides the really good ones like Target X, No Good Deed and Ascension 1 and 2. There's some hope that maybe with X-3 coming out next summer (I doubt even the movie's gonna come out though) they might bring back XME. Aah, we can dream…
Half-n-Half: Kitty's perfectly able to stand up to anyone and I love writing that. She's not a ditz people, really! She's a genius! And I love the Lancitty. Love it love it love it. I'm gonna put more in the next chapter just because this one is lacking. Thanks for reading.
Bant: Well, as of now I've read the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine comic mini-series and all of I have to say about Piotr is: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DUMPED KITTY YOU JERK! And then five years later he comes in during Excalibur and gets into a fight with her new boyfriend? What's up with that! grumbles You'd better redeem yourself in Astonishing X-men, buddy…But, on the bright side, Health class is OVER. Finito! DONE! Heh, thanks for reading.
Shadyk: I think having a plot and a couple that actually makes sense in at least a random lunatic's mind is important. Apparently, most of the XME fanfiction community doesn't agree with me. I'm so happy you like it though, I hope you keep reading.
Xmengirlzrule: Of course the Brotherhood is innocent. I don't think Lance would do anything right now to jeopardize their relationship. Thanks for reading.
Sagistar: Well, I love Scotty, but he's a jerk when it comes to Lance. I'm so glad you read my story, I really hope you keep reading!