8:00AM, Schwartz apartment
"So, fearless leader, what's the weather like today?"
Schuldig swung around the doorframe of his and Crawford's room and walked into the small living room of the Schwartz apartment. Estet, who were not the most generous employers, to say the least, had assigned them to live in it while they were staying in Japan, outside of the organization's German headquarters. The residence had two bedrooms, one room that was like a cell, a small dining room/kitchen and an equally small living room with a torn couch, and two chairs. The only electronic device was a phone, which was equipped with an untappable phone line. If you typed in the right code, you could contact a special Estet operator. (Incidentally, the code was only one number different from a local pizza place's number. Schuldig enjoyed making people in the near vicinity who were ordering pizza dial the wrong number. It was one of the only things he could do at this point in time to get back at Estet for all the things it had done to him.) Crawford just rolled his eyes at this behavior.
"We will be having a visitor today," he said, flapping out his newspaper and looking at the business section. Schuldig leaned forward, interested.
"What kind of visitor? Is it a lackey from Estet?"
"No."
"C'mon, tell me!"
"…No."
"Braaaaad…"
"They will tell you themselves. We will go along with the visitors, it is an Estet mission, to figure out if their school is a threat to Rosenkreuz. I hope you haven't forgotten too much of your English, we might be going to America soon," the clairvoyant said, looking up suddenly, his eyes unfocused. Schuldig gazed at him expectantly.
"Don't go out of the house. They will be here in a few hours, more or less."
Schuldig waited, but that Crawford said no more, and picked up his newspaper again. He tried a mental query, but as always, didn't get past Crawford's mental barrier. He stood up and stretched, resolving to just wait it out, even though he didn't like that course of action. The German ambled over to the kitchen. Nagi came out of his room.
"Hey, Nagikins."
"Hi, Schuldig." The eleven-year old greeted the older teen, joining him at the small table.
"Whatcha doing this morning? Did you hear fearless leader's orders? We can't do anything-"
"He just said ye couldn't go out of the house, Schuldig." Farfarello said, loping out of his cell, which the other three members of the team had left unlocked. Schuldig shrugged.
"Same difference."
Schuldig stood up and went into the living room again, flopping across the couch carelessly. Nagi followed him, and when Schuldig patted the space to the side of him, sat down next to him. Farfarello sat on the floor, playing with the blender.
WHHHHIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRCHUKCHUKCHUKCHUKCHUKCHUKSSSGGLLLUUUSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH
"Farf, remember what we told you about the blender."
"Yeah, yeah, no live animals, no wood, no nails…"
"As long as you know."
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8:00AM, X-men headquarters (Xavier institute)
Professor Xavier closed his eyes as he entered Cerebro. New talents, new talents…
Suddenly four bright spots, concentrated in one place in Japan, flared to life, almost blinding him. He stayed long enough to get their location, then stepped out of the machine and called Logan and Jean Grey.
"Sir?"
"I have four very powerful new mutants. I want you to go and retrieve them."
"You got it."
The mutants left the office.
6777886
Logan looked over the file he'd managed to print out as the two X-men sat in the plane. Jean Grey was piloting, so Wolverine thought out loud.
"Well, it seems that they're living together, sort of like a family, but that's all we've been able to find. These guys are really well defended against any sort of computer hacking. We basically only know what the Professor told us."
"That's helpful."
"I know."
They fell into pensive silence. The sound of the airplane's engine was the only noise.
"There's Japan," said Jean. The plane touched down in a Tokyo airport. The X-men had made arrangements beforehand with the airport, so they disembarked without a hitch.
"Now where do we go?" asked Jean. They stood in the middle of a sidewalk, staring at the cars beeping and honking and roaring past. People jostled them on either side. Wolverine looked at a little sheet of paper in his hand.
"This way."
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One taxi ride later, they stood in front of a narrow apartment building. Wordlessly, they climbed the steep, narrow stairs.
"They must get a workout every day, just going home," Jean commented when they had reached the eighth floor.
"Here we are."
Logan knocked on the door.
It was opened by an eleven year old child with dark blue eyes too big for his thin face.
"May I help you?" the boy said in Japanese.
"Hi. May we come in? We have something to tell you." Jean took over before Wolverine could say anything, stepping in front of the man.
"Please wait a moment." The boy turned around and said something to the people on the other side of the door. After a minute, he came back and opened the door wider.
"Come in."
They walked inside. In a small living room, there was a young black-haired man with glasses, probably in his twenties, sitting on a chair, looking at them indifferently. He looked physically strong, Logan noted, and had an air of natural charisma. Lounging on the couch was a lanky redhead with green eyes who didn't look surprised at all to see them. But what immediately drew their attention was the albino sitting on the floor, staring intensely at a blender that was annihilating something red and chunky and squishy. Jean Grey shuddered. It looked like the remains of a small animal. Red-stuff- was on the scarred teen's hands and arms. He couldn't have been older than fifteen!
"Ja? What did you want to say?" asked the redhead, in Japanese. From his accent and looks, Logan guessed he was German. Jean Grey was still staring at the pale teenager on the floor.
"What is that?" she asked finally, in English. The redhead turned to look at the one with the blender.
"Farf, you didn't refill that with something nasty, did you?" "Farf", as the guy on the floor had been dubbed, shook his head, then snapped out of it. Standing up, he walked to the kitchen and poured some of the red stuff into cups. He held one out to Grey, who shrank back.
"Tomato juice?" The German burst out laughing. Jean frowned, wrinkling her nose.
"What's so funny?" The German sat up straight.
"Nothing, it's just-" he started laughing again. Her thoughts had been so funny!
Logan blinked.
"Hold on, how can you understand her?"
The one on the chair spoke for the first time.
"I'm American. Schuldig over there is German. Farfarello is Irish. Nagi is Japanese. I made them all learn English, and we had to learn German and Japanese."
"Oh. Well, I'll get to the point then. We are from a school for mutants…"
TBC
accolay: This idea has been sitting in the back of my head for AGES! Finally it's out.
Cerebro hasn't detected Schwartz before because Estet was cloaking them.
This is set around the time that Schwartz is a new team, just released from Estet. Crawford is 23, Schuldig is 18, Farf is 15, and Nagi is 11. So young!
chibi-me: Shut up and either
Go to sleep, or
Study for your math test tomorrow.
accolay: 0grumbles0 Fine.
PLEASE REVIEW!