Author's Notes: Wow, thanks to all the reviews! Special kudos to Red Witch, asha-man72, Sparky Genocide, Doza, Gothik Strawberry, MCM, and Dante Tigerwolf! And special thanks as well to my friend, Phillipe, who was gracious enough to lend me his Season Seven DVDs of "Buffy" so that I could study and re-watch them to my heart and mind's content for this story! Yes, I'm THAT much of a nerd.
Pietro: And this is new news HOW, exactly?
Quiet you! Anyways, enjoy this chapter!
CHAPTER 2: Kindred Missions
"No! Mom!" screamed the mutant, Jubilation Lee, her cheek scraped and bleeding, as she flattened herself against the wooden wall in a state of fear and petrified horror, her brain frozen against the commands to act. But it was too late and all the Chinese girl could do was feel her heart break as the vampire snapped Jubilee's mother's neck in two ruthlessly. The woman died without a sound, falling limp with her eyes frozen open in their death glaze as she hit the floor, blood starting to dribble out of her mouth and one nostril. And from not too far away, in the living room, Jubilee's father was lying face down in a puddle of his own blood next to the broken front door, the splintered wooden slab dangling haphazardly on one hinge. The Turok-Han had gotten to him first before setting itself on Jubilee and her mother.
Jubilee could barely recall what exactly happened when the creature stormed through the front door while she and her family were watching the news in the living room, and at first, the teenager thought it was more protestors trying to break down the house or another round of attempted harassment and assault from the local thugs of the Friends of Humanity. Yet when the teenager saw, to her grief and rage, the humanoid sink its fangs into her father's neck, Jubilee then knew that this was no simple prank or anti-mutant bigot. It had happened so fast, and Jubilee was too scared and stunned to even use her powers to stop the fiend.
Jubilee fought through the tears as she shakily stood up, using the wall to steady herself as the vampire set its bloodthirsty gaze upon the final member of the household. The vampire hissed with eager glee, its yellow eyes shining while its withered brown skin and wicked claws gave it the look of a pure abomination. There was no time to call for the police, and none of the neighbors would help the Lee family considering that the entire neighborhood treated them like lepers when she was first outed as an ex-student from Xavier's Institute of the Gifted. She was on her own. The Chinese girl then realized that if she didn't act now, she'd die alongside her parents.
And such a thought was enough to besiege the female adolescent with the purest forms of anger, vengeance, and adrenaline.
"If I'm gonna die, then I'm not going to go down easy, jerkface! You want to fight? Come and get me, bee-yotch!" snarled Jubilee with a wail as she grabbed the wooden banister of the foot of the stairs, her fingers digging into the oak wood. Upon the shriek of defiance, the Turok-Han charged with an animalistic roar, leaping at the black-haired gymnast with fangs and claws bared.
Yet thanks to her training as an X-Man and her rigorous gymnastics regimen, Jubilation Lee was anything but helpless.
With a roar, the super-vampire tried to pin its prey to the ground, but pivoting her left foot, Jubilee swiveled to the left at the very last possible second, the claws raking past her sweater and ripping it slightly, but the girl didn't even feel it as she agilely grabbed the stair banister and swung herself onto the wood like the balance beam and the pommel horse she did countless times before in the gym. Enraged, the vampire landed neatly on its feet and it flew past the girl and turned around to try to kill the girl again, but the second of turnabout time gave Jubilee just enough time to swing her feet, lifting her legs over the stairs with her upper body strength and arms, and smartly kicked the vampire across the face. The Turok-Han barely even registered the foot it as its neck cracked smartly to the side without the slightest ounce of pain and discomfort. At first, the vampire felt confident at the apparent weakness of the girl, but then Jubilee let loose a glorious and furious explosion of plasma directly into her opponent's face, delivering the wild surge of energy with a hook-motion of her arm as she flung it dead center into the monster's face. The kick was really to distract the creature long enough to allow Jubilee to get a sure shot.
Ka-paaaaffff!
The creature now felt absolute agony and pain as it screeched and clutched its burned face and eyes with its claws, sinking to its knees. Though Jubilee's power may have looked like fireworks, they were actually much, much stronger, powerful enough to disintegrate reinforced steel down to its very atomic structure. The brown skin bubbled and popped instantly from the first-degree burns and blisters already emerging from its face as Jubilee immediately dashed towards the kitchen and dining room area, away from the vampire. Snarling and now even more eager to deliver some payback for the insult to injury, after a few moments needing to recollect itself, the Turok-Han got up from its kneeling position and tore after the mutant.
As Jubilee rushed into the back part of the dining area, her mind was automatically bursting with the countless facts she learned and took to heart from Wolverine's Danger Room sessions:
Don't ever be hesitant to run…if you feel that you have to run, goddammit, run! If ya' need to think, give yourself some time to plan and think, as much as you can, when you can. Don't fight the battle on your opponent's turf; fight it on yours. Use your surroundings and environment to your advantage; I can't tell you how many times so many bubs screwed up just because they didn't think about using something around them to give an edge in the fight. Don't depend just on your powers, just like how ya' can't just depend on your martial skills and fight head on; there's a right time to use 'em and a wrong time. Strength don't mean everything.
If she lived through this, Jubilee would never complain about Wolverine's training instructions and brutal exercises ever again.
With a demonic howl, the Turok-Han cornered the young Chinese female, but Jubilee was more than ready as she grabbed two carving knives from the wooden knife stand on the white counter and flung them at the charging abomination of evil. The vampire expertly dodged the flying blades, barely making an effort as it joined its clawed hands together and raised them over its head before trying to slam it down on the girl's head in a power-slam move, but adroitly, Jubilee side-flipped and skillfully somersaulted onto the tiled buffet on her rear before rolling through the narrow crevice between the kitchen counter and the cabinets, safely rolling into the dining room and again avoiding the furious swipes of the vampire's claws by a hair's breadth. Enraged and realizing that it was too bulky and clumsy to follow through, the undead creature was forced to double back and try to pursue Jubilee through the hallway that connected the kitchen to the exquisite dining chamber, but those few precious seconds gave the girl ample time to plan how to finish this battle once and for all, especially when her eyes traveled to the gigantic transitional pewter chandelier hanging above her.
Undaunted, the brown-skinned vampire charged again at his remaining kill, but Jubilee then hurriedly placed her foot on the nearby coffee table before pushing it out directly in front of her with a furious kick, sliding the low piece of furniture neatly with the intention to trip the enemy demon. Being no fool, the vampire jumped easily over the sliding furnishing with barely any effort, but by leaping into the air, the monster made himself fully vulnerable with barely any way to dodge any attack at him. This was exactly what Jubilee executed as she blasted the brown vermin again with both hands, a stream of multicolored yet intense globules of plasma and light striking the abomination full in the chest.
The Turok-Han screamed in an ear-splitting tone of inhuman agony as it crashed to its side, one clawed hand clutching its burned and seared upper body, the sweet smell of dead, rotting, charred flesh wafting throughout the dining room. Yet to Jubilee's slight amazement, the monster still shakily managed to rise to its feet, giving the girl a look of pure, frenzied bloodlust and rage. Though certainly smaller than the Juggernaut and Beast, the creature was much, much hardier, almost invincible. Yet just as the vampire awkwardly and erratically advanced towards the mutant teen, Jubilee gave a slight grin of vindictive triumph as her opponent placed itself right where she wanted it.
"Gotcha, bastard," she muttered as she then raised a single finger and sent a concentrated energy stream towards the apex of the ceiling fixture that precariously dangled the large chandelier above. With a creaking groan, the gigantic frame of glass and metal descended down steadily upon the lone intruder below, and like any stupid villain, the curious abomination made the fatal mistake of looking upwards at the commotion before it saw the large, metal pike attached as a decoration at the base of the chandelier spear it fully though its torso and body.
Crash! Tinkle, tinkle!
Jubilee just stood there, panting and quivering slightly, her heart pounding and the blood in her ears roaring. For a blissful moment, it was dead silent, and the only thing she could see was a ruined pile of twisted metal and shattered and cracked glass fragments. The mound was so abundant, it covered the atrocity completely, hiding it from Jubilee's view.
Did she win?
The answer came a split-second later when Jubilee heard the roars of the vampire underneath as the mass as the entire remnants of the ceiling ornament started to shake and sunfish a bit, as if something was struggling underneath to push it aside. There was no question about it. The vampire was still alive and was now attempting to free itself from being pinned down to the floor underneath the swell of metal and glass. Alarmed and fearful, Jubilee rushed to the other side of the chandelier to see the brown, bald and horrific head of the Turok-Han trying to vainly push the weight off him, finding it slightly difficult on the account that the pike at the bottom of the chandelier has successfully gouged entirely through its chest and embedded itself into the floor, making the creature quite stuck. It reminded Jubilee slightly of those insect collection displays with the pins inserted through the abdomens and chests of the tiny organisms. However, Jubilee knew that this wasn't over, and if she didn't do something soon, the vampire would free itself again. And the chandelier wouldn't keep the ogre down for long.
Jubilee then took a final, risky gambit as she wildly grabbed the fire poker from its holder on the fireplace nearby, and with a snarl, the Chinese girl raised the weapon high above her head, the pointy end of the instrument bottom-first, before she leapt onto the head of the vampire.
Spack!
The vampire howled as Jubilee drove the sharp end of the spike though its fanged mouth, actually pushing harder and harder until the mutant could actually feel the end hit the wooden base. She actually managed to stab the fire poker right through the Turok-Han's orifice and throat before chiseling through to the floorboards. Enraged and choking with the rod of metal in it's mouth, the enemy managed to rip one hand free from the mound pressing it to the ground and tried to claw at its attacker. Jubilee, despite the claws raking through her cheek and shoulder, screamed with hate as her hands began to glow and illuminated the fire poker she was holding.
"Die, you son of a bitch!" she screamed as her mutant ability of plasma generation superheated the metal in her hands, the molecules actually beginning to fall apart and turned very unstable, almost exactly like Gambit's power when he charged his playing cards. Gasping and sensing a strange pressure of force building up from the pike, Jubilee instinctively let go and hurriedly scooted back, shielding her eyes with one bleeding arm while the vampire attempted, to no avail, to yank the awkwardly placed javelin out of its chops right before the poker reach critical mass and discharged in a small yet blinding and brutal explosion.
Ka-whooooomm!
There was a small gust of wind and ashes that struck the cowering Jubilee before the light faded, and the mutant girl looked up to see just in time the vampire's head disintegrate messily into dust right before the rest of its body perished alongside with it, dying without a sound as the Turok-Han was finally slain. Without even planning it, Jubilee had caused the fire poker to explode with great force from the plasma building up its kinetic energy, and as it discharged, it took out the Turok-Han's head along in the process. And without the monster's head, the rest of the creature soon followed in its banishment from the mortal coil.
Jubilee just sat then, stunned and frozen with a mixture of exhaustion and grief as it soon came to her that her parents were dead, that they had been ruthlessly and heartlessly killed for no apparent reason. Jubilee's face fell as she scrunched up her face and wept at the images of her dead mother and father, the shock and realization taking its toll, her shoulder shaking. Yet then through her tears and silent sobs, she thought she could hear someone…talking?
Stifling her sorrow, Jubilee's head perked up as she strained her ears. Yes, she could discern it, a girl, no…a woman's voice conversing softly. And it sounded like it was coming from the front yard, near the remains of the broken front door where the vampire once stormed and crashed through. Creeping softly on her hands and knees, Jubilee made her way through the glass and splintered wood until she reached the living room towards the source of the voice and discreetly peeked through the lopsided and torn blinds. Through the cracks and moonlight, Jubilee could see a built, yet stunningly thin and beautiful woman and her early twenties, wearing a white, sleeveless shirt and a beige, billowy skirt to match her leather boots taking calmly on a cell-phone, her face stony and not even bothering to look up, her attention concentrated on the phone call. Jubilee at first thought the stranger had witnessed the attack and was calling the police for help, but then what the woman said chilled Jubilee's body down to her very bone.
"Piper, this is Phoebe," the woman said flatly, "Yeah, just wanted to let you know that the deed's done, and the mutant girl along with her parents has been killed. The vampire run was successful at eliminating all of them."
Vampire? At first, Jubilee wanted to dismiss it as crazy-talk, but then she remembered her life as an X-Man and the fact that she just fought and killed the thing, so the mutant girl knew that she this wasn't a joke. It was deadly serious.
"It should be promising," the woman named Phoebe continued, "If the vampire could do this, then a whole army of Turok-Han should be enough to eliminate the X-Men and the Misfits once we lure them into San Francisco."
Jubilee placed her hands over her mouth in dread. The X-Men? The Misfits? Oh God, they were in trouble. The stranger must have been in on a sophisticated plot to kill Xavier and her friends, and her reasoning then deduced that the sudden appearance of the vampire monster attacking her and killing her parents was no accident. This 'Phoebe' must have sent it on her and her home.
"All right, I'll meet you back at P3 then," Phoebe said with some interest, "Just let me finish cleaning up here first before the police arrive."
Not if I kill you first, you bitch, thought Jubilee angrily to herself as she clenched her hand into a fist.
"Understood," Phoebe said before shutting off her cell phone, and then with a wicked gleam in her eyes, to Jubilee's amazement and shock, the girl held both of her hands in front of her a giant fireball. Without another second, Jubilee tore as fast as she could towards the nearest window towards the side gardens, not needing another precious instant to realize what this Phoebe was attempting to do when she meant be "cleaning up".
The young woman was trying to destroy the evidence. And Jubilee barely had time to process the fact that she was right as Phoebe sent a steady stream into the interior of the house, spreading every nook and cranny of the first story with demonic heat as Jubilee felt the glass painfully crack and shatter around her face and torso as she crashed through the opening.
KAAAAA-BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!
The entire two-story house of Jubilee exploded with a nova of flames and heat, the demon fire and magical attack sweeping through the wood and plaster as easily as dry kindling, incinerating the entire structure within mere seconds. And as the flames ate up at the memories of her happy home, with the inferno went the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Lee as they were unceremoniously cremated. Jubilee shakily propped herself up from her sprawled position on the grass, her right cheek and shoulder bleeding, her black hair littered with glass pebbles. The mutant's vision blurred as she forced herself to turn away from the remains of her once-happy life and towards Phoebe who was watching the flames eat up every inch of the building, satisfied and nodding her approval at her handiwork. With a snap of her fingers, she vanished in a sea of lights, vanishing into thin air as she magically teleported. Due to the brightness of the flames and the thick foliage of the garden obstructing the view, Phoebe did not even notice Jubilee escaping her demise. But Jubilee would always recognize that face, now burned into her memory due to the grief, shock…and the need for vengeance.
"I'll kill her…" Jubilee half-hissed as she wept silently to herself, her lip quivering, "So help me, I'll kill her."
Meanwhile, at the same time, Phoebe Halliwell teleported in a swirl of lights into a dark, undisclosed area in downtown Los Angeles. There, waiting for Phoebe in an abandoned alleys, were two men standing in the shadows. It was Donald Pierce and Harry Leland, the respective White and Black Bishops of the Hellfire Club.
"Well?" Leland asked, though he knew the answer immediately when he saw the Phoebe returned without the vampire. "Phoebe" gave a short cruel laugh as she transformed back into the Cadmus member Tala, her appearance of the beautiful, short-haired brunette instantly melting away and dissolving in a flashing circle of lights to reveal the purple-haired witch in a dazzling robe of dark red and black.
"Ms. Lee surprised me with her skills, but yes, our objective has been achieved," Tala reported, smoothing a lock of her hair, "Her parents are dead and whatever has been left of her futilely-peaceful, secret life has been rendered to ashes…literally, of course. Unfortunately, our lone vampire was destroyed in the fight. Frankly, I'm surprised the mutant was able to destroy it."
"I'm not," Leland grinned, the portly man's jowls jiggling as he chuckled, "Jubilee was trained herself by the X-Men, to endure countless odds and fight with the absolute and persistent grit that can only be shown as a misguided soldier of Charles Xavier. If she couldn't kill the Turok-Han, then she would have been inadequate as our pawn against the Charmed Ones."
"And if she failed?" Tala asked.
"Then we would have simply sought after the other former X-Men such as Rahne Sinclair and Evan Daniels as alternatives, though I have to admit, it would have been much better since killing several Morlocks or mutant patients on Muir Isle would be more rewarding than killing two humans. But as such, we can disregard them now, since it is apparent the young Jubilation is sufficient enough for our additional plans to cause additional trouble for the Charmed Ones and the X-Men once they arrive in San Francisco. And not to worry about that lost Turok-Han. We have many more where that specimen came from."
"Did she hear you?" Pierce asked with sadistic pleasure, and Tala's voice got even smugger at the evident success.
"Every word," the sorceress of the Cadmus group giggled with sick glee, "Ah, how I love manipulating the weak-minded, and with just a simple trick of a glamour-spell! She'll be in San Francisco by the end of the week."
---
Meanwhile, back at the X-Mansion, a different kind of chaos was taking place…
"Trinity, let me go!" Jamie protested in Professor Xavier's office, nearly hysterical as Daria, Quinn, and Brittany giggled as they cuddled him tightly, making sure the young adolescent couldn't escape their clutches and hands as they cuddled and hugged him. Well, add the fact that Multiple was securely snared by three bola missiles from Trinity's respective glovatrixes, so with his arms and legs pinned together, he couldn't run for it and was stuck at the mercy of the Delgado Triplets. Jamie squirmed and wailed in annoyance as Daria, Quinn, and Brittany Delgado kept hugging and kissing him.
"Uh-uh, you're ours now, Tickle-Me-Jamie!" chortled Quinn.
"And we're gonna hold you, and cuddle you, and love you into itty-bitty pieces!" Brittany squealed, doing a very good impression of Elmyra from "Tiny Toon Adventures", only the cartoon version would have probably been less scary and demeaning.
"And don't bother trying to multiply yourself to break out of those bola lassos," Daria cooed as Jamie tried to struggle out of his bonds, "We manufactured those strings out of reinforced, pliable adamantium coils and diamonds beads. Not even the Juggernaut could snap those things easily."
"Kissing time!" yelled Quinn as the three girls pounced.
"Mua, mua, mua, mua, mua!" exclaimed the Triplets, giggling, as they kept giving the X-Man loud, juicy smacks on the cheeks, and despite being kissed fiercely by three girls, Jamie wished he had a one-way ticket to Antarctica right then and there.
"AAAA! Help me! Help me! Of for the love of God, someone help me!" Jamie screamed as he was subjected to the "torture". Unfortunately, it was apparent that no one wanted to stop the Triplets as various members of X-Men and the Misfits were assembling in the Professor's plush office to meet with Batgirl for a private update on recent dealings. Most of the members of both teams were already patiently waiting for everyone to arrive as well as the handlers from G.I. Joe and the staff at the Institute. Even General Hawk and Alfred Pennyworth, the butler, were present, and Alfred was casually dusting the bookshelves with a feather duster and cheerfully humming to himself.
"Um, Alfred," Tabitha asked as she and Amara looked on, "Seriously, take it easy. I'm sure the Professor wouldn't mind if you didn't tidy up his office during the briefing with the Justice League. You can just sit down and leave the chores alone for a while. The world's not going to fall apart because you're taking a breather while we're listening in to the 4-1-1 from Batgirl."
"Oh, it is no trouble at all, Ms. Smith," Alfred replied, though he did smile his thanks when Amara and Tabitha helped the butler ease down a bit on one of the easy chairs nearby once he finished his errand, "It is my sole duty as a butler to help tidy up your home. I appreciate when you young ones help me when you can or if it is too big of a task for me to handle, but I can surprisingly manage quite well by myself."
"Still, we don't want to have you strain yourself, and since we all have chores every day that we have to do to help clean up the place, you shouldn't feel obligated to do our housework duties while we're busy running missions. If anything, you're a guest first, and a butler second here, Mr. Pennyworth," Amara said, smiling as she and Tabitha sat on the sturdy armrests of the easy chair alongside Alfred. It was pretty apparent that in the short time Alfred was visiting the X-Men and the Misfits at the Pit, he had become a much welcome and appreciated grandfather-figure to all the youths, and despite Batman's repeated objections, even the Dark Knight of Gotham could secretly acknowledge that the mutant teenagers and adolescents would care and defend Alfred if anything urgent arose.
"Ow…I hurt…all over. Even my bruises have bruises," groaned Roberto as he, Remy, Bobby, Sam, and Ray limped their respective ways into the office, sporting fresh red and blue bruises from their additional and mandatory "special" Danger Room sessions. All five of the teenage boys collapsed onto the large couch in the assembly room, going as limp as rag dolls.
"I take it Wolverine is really letting you five have it after the 'X-Men TV' fiasco, huh?" Xi asked, his lizard tail wagging slightly back and forth and he leaned over the exhausted X-Men with an expression of faint amusement, "So exactly when did he say you five will get off probation?"
"I believe the actual terms he used was until Magneto turns good and starts teaching at the Institute as Headmaster of the school," groaned Bobby with stressful fatigue, wondering if he could succeed in crawling towards the bathroom and soak in the hot-tub for a good hour or so. But Iceman suddenly found a second wind when Lina and Fred entered the room, and he grinned wholesomely at the insect-mutant who waved back (much to Fred's jealousy). Xi winced good-naturedly.
"Something tells me that you guys would have a better chance of hell freezing over rather than that happening," Xi quipped, "So if you want, I can see if I can get the power of attorney to start making your last wills and testaments before you all die of exhaustion."
"You've been studying up to have a lame sense of humor, I see," shot back Ray, growling at Xi's amusement at their plight. The Misfit's grin grew even wider as Rina stepped in alongside Wolverine into the chambers.
"It's required in this line of work," Xi replied rather smarmily.
"I shall make sure that all of your beds have hot-water bottles along with several tablets of aspirin tonight, Mr. Crisp," Alfred called out, overhearing their complaints and woes.
"Forget the aspirin, just give us morphine!" Sam wearily gasped, his arms tingling and screaming from the strenuous work of trying to block and fight the endless army of metal practice drones he had to spar with in the Level Thirteen simulation earlier this morning and wishing he could just sleep for twenty-four hours straight.
"And don't forget, we still have to clean and wax the Velocity as well as clean up the Danger Room again after this briefing. And Mr. Logan says that this time, we have to floor buffer and polish," Sam continued.
"Did you have to bring that up?" Bobby groaned, "I still did finish my previous probation when I got the entire Mansion drunk when the adults we away when Mr. Logan gave us the additional penalty."
"I hate probation," groaned Roberto, whining, "I really, really, really hate probation."
"And what stinks is that us hommes could have gotten a lot of dough for selling copies of the video footage," grumbled the Cajun X-Man, still bitter at being much poorer after the television experience. It was indeed a bit hard to swallow considering that Bobby and Ray calculated that the amount of calls that got for orders via the 1-800-555-HAHA had a total dollar profit of somewhere in the ten-thousands (and Remy was wise enough to not tell Piotr that Lance ordered several copies of the photos of Kitty in the locker room).
Meanwhile, Toad and Whitelighter noticed Jake was gloomily sulking by himself as he looked on lifelessly at the window overlooking the mansion's front gardens, leaning heavily against the curtains.
"Yo Jake, are you all right?" Todd asked as he and Justin mellifluously approached the instructor. Jake exhaled wearily with some misery, still a bit numb.
"Not really, kitten," he muttered, "Just spent a good portion this morning thinking about Chance again…"
Both Todd and Justin's faces fell a bit in sympathy. Justin gently took one of the instructor's furry paws.
"You still miss him, don't you?" Justin asked softly. The brown kat gave a heavy sigh again, nodding.
Toad then actually offered some rarely helpful advice as he said meaningfully, "Yo, Jake…time don't heal everything. Some days'll always be better than others, yo."
"Yeah, but those days will be the ones that really bite," Jake grunted, crestfallen that he could still feel that pang of grief every once in a while when he least expected it. At the same time, Beast was talking with Spirit and Low Light as Ororo was trying to ignore Shipwreck's persistent advances.
"Dare I ask what happened in this photograph?" Beast asked as he looked on a Polaroid of Emma Frost screaming hysterically, completely drenched and her hair and business suit covered with muck and filth as in the background of the photo, her entire main office of Frost Industries was flooding with raw sewage, the brown, toxic water cascading out of the doors and every single window. Low Light grinned.
The G.I. Joe sniper said, "Well, since we couldn't get a warrant for approval to search through the various businesses and organizations that are owned by the members of the Hellfire Club because General Eddington was staunchly against it, it didn't deter Trinity from sneaking into Frost and Shaw Industries without permission. After they hacked into Emma's computer systems, they decided to investigate the sewage system underneath the building to see if there were any…'possible failures'. And from what we heard, the headquarters of Frost Industries will be under quarantine, sterilization and disinfectant-cleaning for the next two months after Trinity rerouted the pipes to the city's septic tank."
"My, my. They certainly are quite creative. So did they find anything during their escapades?" Hank asked after a good chuckle at the photograph. Spirit's face fell as he shook his head.
"Nothing incriminating or fruitful, and without a warrant, we can't search through the properties as effectively as possible, but I'd doubt that the members of the Inner Circle would be so foolish and short-sighted as to leave any indications for their plans about the Gathering at their workplaces and companies, public places with hundreds of people coming in and going out. If anything, the occurrence with Trigon made the Hellfire Club much, much more careful at hiding their tracks," the Native American Joe solider said.
"Not to mention Eddington is making our investigations on the Joes' sides more difficult," Cooper grumbled, "Hawk was right in suspecting that Eddington may have ties to the Hellfire Club if we have to keep wading through this much crap from him and some of the other Jugglers."
"Hopefully, the meeting with Batgirl might provide us the lead we've been looking for," Hank pointed out hopefully as Shipwreck started yelping while Storm started to wail on him with the sailor's head caught tightly in a headlock, with Pietro, Wanda, and Forge trying to stop her. Xi, however, took no notice of the brawl as his friend Rina then greeted him.
"Hey, Xi."
"Hi, Rina," Xi said as he gave X23 a hug as a friendly gesture, but a very not-so-subtle and annoyed cough from behind caused the two mutants to look up to an incensed Wolverine, on the brink of giving in the temptation to use his adamantium claws on the lizard. Logan just glowed evilly at the two teenagers.
"Um…I'm asexual, remember, Logan?" Xi tried to point out, gulping a bit at the intimidating adult, weakly chuckling, "I'm not planning any unwelcome advances or anything sexual of the sort."
"Still not taking any chances, bub," Logan rumbled, "Now kindly remove your hands off Rina, or I'll be more than happy to remove them for you."
"Dad! We were just hugging! We're friends!" growled an irritated Rina, rolling her eyes, and Logan had to inwardly wince. No matter how many times Rina called him that, he could never get over that nickname of affection, but thanks to Xavier and Psyche-Out's therapy sessions, she was adjusting quite well and being more open to the thought of the X-Men as her family, Wolverine especially.
"Don't argue with me on this, kid," Wolverine growled, "I'm just watchin' out for your safety and benefit."
Rina then snapped, her eyes flashing dangerously, as she said hotly, "Honestly, Xi's the nicest guy here, a lot more understanding and considerate than some of the immature weaklings here at the Institute! Would you rather I go out with Bobby?"
"Hey!" protested said student in the background.
"He would never hurt me! And he understands what it's like to be designed as an experiment and bred in captivity with only to be used as a living weapon! He listens to me, he explains what I should do when I don't know how to act like a normal teenager, he helps me when I feel scared, and he tries to help me go through my bad moments! Stop being so mean to him! If anything, I'm the one making the advances on him!" Rina snapped.
The elder's eyes then went wide and glazed with a mixture of fury and shock.
"What?" the grizzled X-Man hissed in disbelief, his jaw dropping as his right eye twitched at that one sentence. Logan was hoping, praying really, that he heard wrong. Xi gulped.
"Uh…Rina…" he meekly tried to request as a signal for X23 to stop, but the female clone of Wolverine continued on blithely, not noticing how much each and every word of hers was making Logan's blood pressure spike exponentially.
"He's too modest and shy to ever try to take advantage of me! He's been a perfect gentleman to me ever since we've started bonding after the Apokolips! I even welcomed him into my room twice, and all he did was reject the offer and say he wanted cookies instead! He's the oblivious and naive one, so what are you so overprotective about? He likes to cuddle, but it's nothing perverted or deviant-like! If anything, I like it when we cuddle!"
"Oh really?" Logan rumbled from his animal instincts, wondering if the Professor and the Joes would be willing to pardon him for extreme assault and battery. Xi positively withered underneath Logan's fuming and wrathful gaze.
"And I asked him to show me what kissing feels like since I've never experienced it before, so blame me for trying to satisfy my curiosity, not Xi! I requested him to kiss me, and it was only a friendly one on the lips! Xi was only helping me understand human attraction, so he didn't do anything to make me feel uncomfortable!" Rina added.
Logan's fingers then started twitching as he gave Xi the purest form of the evil eye he could, already starting to envision what it would be like to wrap his hands around the Misfit's neck and strangle the life out of him. In his brain, Xi cursed the fact that even if he turned invisible, Logan could still track him by scent.
"Oh boy…" he whimpered to himself, wondering if General Hawk would be disposed to give him temporary refuge in Witness Protection.
"I would probably call this a case of digging one's own grave," remarked Wanda idly as she, Althea, and Rogue looked on, "Except in this case, Rina's doing the digging for Xi."
"Knowing you nutcases, do we have a pool?" Rogue asked, deadpanned. Althea grinned.
"Minimum requirement to join in is ten dollars," Wavedancer replied as she took out a pad of paper and a pencil ready to jot down the information, "And so far, the options are either Wolverine will back down and let Rina and Xi get together, Logan will die of a brain aneurism once the two become official, or we'll have to find Rina a new father figure and potential boyfriend once Logan goes to jail for homicide. And the third one's the most popular vote."
"Put me down for twenty-five bucks for the homicide," chuckled Rogue as she handed Althea a small wad of cash. Yet before Logan could give in to his violent tendency and desires, Professor Xavier suddenly entered in with Batgirl (and at this, Xi started thanking his favorite deity for the good timing).
Logan, not now, the Professor telepathically warned with a hint of exasperation, and Logan gracefully, though with some difficulty, managed to keep a lid on his bubbling ire, but Xi and Rina didn't miss the looks of death he kept shooting at the green Misfit as Wolverine kept glaring daggers. Xi wouldn't put it past Logan to try to make him "disappear" one of these days. Batgirl then began the conference as the Misfits, the X-Men, G.I. Joe, and Alfred listened on her reports and findings. The red-haired protégée of Batman described how Supergirl was underneath some sort of mystical influence, how it caused her to slip into a coma, and how she and the other heroes arrived at the conclusion that it must be an incidence of something supernatural and spiritual origin in nature. The mutants and the Joes listened intently and respectively until they reached Barbara's hypothesis that they explore the city of San Francisco.
"Wait, why San Francisco?" Scott asked, puzzled as he processed and stored everything he could learn into memory, "What lead you to believe that this particular city could contain a lead on Supergirl's plight or be a possible lead to the Hellfire Club?"
"It's not specifically the Hellfire Club that this city may point to, but it may have something to do with this Thirteenth Order," Batgirl explained as she drew up two holographic graphs displaying similar energy readings with her handheld computer, the holograms shining high in the air for everyone to see, "What you're all seeing are two analyses of the same energy signature, one found on Kara and the other found in one of the many wells and pockets of peculiar rips in the space-time continuum on Earth. This is the same energy reading that was affecting Kara, and Hawkgirl and I earlier measured a small sample and compared it to the strange and abnormal energy readings that started appearing on Earth when Dr. Strange brought it to our attention. You may not know this, but Batman and Etrigan discovered that quantities of magical energy have been appearing throughout the entire planet almost immediately after your last battle with Trigon the Terrible when you helped the Teen Titans. If you recall correctly, the Organization along with the Hellfire Club planned to release Trigon into our world in order to bring the Armageddon and doom the world for unknown motives."
"It's kinda hard to forget being attacked by a gnarly, far-out thousand-foot demon with the power to conquer universes whole, Batgirl," Forge commented dryly.
"I know, and we suspect that these sudden sprouts of energy that have occurring all over the world may be a sure sign of things getting worse to come, thus pointing out the severity in the possibility that this Gathering of Twilight that Leomon mentioned may be far more serious than we first thought. It's like the arrival of Raven's father produced some sort of domino effect on the globe, resulting in a steady rate of increases in paranormal activity, but what concerned us is this concentrated amount found solely in San Francisco."
The mutants and the Joes then could view upon a rendition of a three-dimensional map of the United States, and though there were many pinpoints of light scattering across the lands and surrounding bodies of water, it was immediately noticeable that a large, blotted mass was centered right in northern California, specifically the Bay Area.
"We checked, but there isn't a single city all over the globe that has such an uncharacteristic and condensed reading as much as this city. So chances are, if this telltale reading has such a strong presence in this city, and it consists of the same telltale energy that afflicted Supergirl, somebody must be building up something big over there."
"And by common deduction, it's most likely the Hellfire Club since they were the ones behind the Phoenix Force that bonded with you and Supergirl and the Armageddon that Trigon caused," Jean guessed.
"And if that much energy is being built up in San Francisco, then it may be something big, possibly the next step on the Organization's plans to bring in the Gathering," Scott added, catching on and nodding his agreement. It did make sense.
"Still, what if it's a trap?" Rogue pointed out, "I doubt the Hellfire Club's really gonna be doing something like this unless they wanted it to act as some sort of lure to bring us over to the city."
"As much as I hate to admit it, my dear sister does have a point," Wanda grumbled, "But Rogue, we have to keep in mind that we don't have any other possible leads. And if we don't act soon and wait around, Supergirl might get even worse. If this is a trap, we'll just have to deal with it the best we can and see if we can't catch them slightly off-guard. And it's too much of a risk to not take this lead. At least if it is a trap and the Hellfire Club sends out something to fight us, at least it'll force them to play out their strategy, and we'll be able to see what exactly they have against us.
"Remy get it," Gambit nodded, "It's sort of like forcing them to show all their cards in their hand at poker. In order for a homme to anticipate whether to draw or fold, they need to see whether the opponent exchanges any cards or keeps them all with him or show what the highest card they have is. So what the Hellfire Club does with their move once we get to San Francisco should let us know how much we'll be dealing with."
"Exactly," Batgirl nodded, and Bobby's head perked up.
"Hey, San Fran's not too far away from L.A. Maybe we could see Jubilee again as a short visit before we reach the Bay Area! I've been dying to see how she's doing!" Bobby remarked.
"See?" hissed Lina at Fred in a whisper, "I told you Bobby isn't interested in me. We're just friends, so honestly Blob, try not to be so hostile around him. I'm sure he just wants to be friends with you if you let him!"
Blob frowned to himself, grumbling, but neither Lina nor Fred had any idea that Bobby overheard that clandestine remark with a smug, cunning look on his face. To be frankly honest, it wasn't that difficult to throw Lina and Fred off-guard.
"Absolutely not, Iceman," Roadblock shot down none too gently, "This isn't a vacation or a time to be goofing off."
"We can't stop for any detours anyway," Lina provided gently to Bobby, feeling sorry for Iceman, "Since this is a mission, General Hawk isn't going to appreciate it if the Misfits wasted time when we should be trying to investigate. And this is going to take all of us since San Francisco is an enormous area."
"Wait, you're all going?" Kurt asked with slightly widened eyes, and Fred nodded.
"Since this is an investigation that may explain what's going on with this Thirteenth Order and could be a possible lead to the Hellfire Club, it makes sense that all the Misfits and our parents need to tackle this for the Joes' purposes. Not only does General Hawk know that this stuff's urgent, we can't waste away time by only having some of the Misfits go while everyone else just stays and twiddles their thumbs," Fred said.
"It's a number one rule about the Misfits from now ever since Trinity has proven that they can handle themselves in deep battle," Althea explained, "Unless agreed by the Joes and General Hawk, every mission will require all the Misfits and Misfit handlers, minus Claudius and Beak since they're too young. And speaking of which, Alfred, I know this is last minute, but -"
"Of course, Ms. Delgado, I shall start right away to watch the two babies as soon as one of your teammates could be so kind as to teleport me back to Misfit Manor. I just finished picking up and dusting the Institute and the kitchen has been appropriately stocked with the groceries I had ordered, I might add," the butler said with a smile. Althea smiled thankfully for the godsend.
"And I'll go to San Francisco too, albeit separately from all of you and for different reasons," General Hawk added, and the Professor and some of his students looked up in slight surprise.
"Whatever for?" Xavier asked.
"When Batgirl mentioned that this may be some sort of magical occurrence, I thought of some associates in San Francisco who could be of some help," the general of G.I. Joe confessed, and Barbara raised an eyebrow.
"Funny that you should mention that," she said, "Batman left as soon as Supergirl was put into the coma, saying that he also knew of some acquaintances that could help us."
General Hawk raised an eyebrow; he could make a good guess of where the Dark Knight was heading…
"I'll teleport over there via the Mass Device as soon as this meeting is done and see if I can catch up with him then," Hawk replied.
Batgirl then added as she turned to the X-Men and Misfits, "And this time, I'll accompany all of you on this . Since the Justice League can't dedicate all their time on this mission considering that they all have their own agendas, I was accepted to be the liaison for Batman. Not only will I be scouting for the Justice League's behalf, but I'm doing this because I want to help out Kara too. I can't join you during the daytime because of my job under my secret identity, but I will arrive with the teleporter watch Trinity gave me during the night as soon as I can, and I'll watch from the shadows. Like I said, I have a personal stake in this because of Supergirl."
"You know, are you sure you and Supergirl never tried a little experimentation for 'playing on the other team', if you get my drift?" Pietro asked rather rudely and inappropriately, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at the masked girl with a perverted smile on his face. Batgirl's eye twitched ever so slightly.
"So who will go with you to San Francisco?" Jean asked the Joes as Pietro curled into a fetal position on the floor, hugging his groin area where Barbara kneed him swiftly.
"Duh, isn't it obvious?" Forge grinned with much pleasure and excitement, "If all the Misfits are going, then all the X-Men are gonna come along too! San Fran's a big city, so we're all needed! Just like what we did back at Jump City!"
"Absolutely not! Only a designated team of X-Men shall go on this mission this time!" Ororo and Hank said at once sharply, cutting everyone's anticipation down. This, understandably, did not suit well with many, especially the New Mutants.
"WHAT? Why not? That's not fair! I wanna go! We can handle it! We're X-Men too! This bites!" rang some of the protests in the general hubbub, and Logan, now getting incredibly annoyed at the displays of immaturity, drew out his adamantium claws with a curdling shikt. The dissent immediately dropped into a respectful and slightly intimidated silence. Hank then tried to speak to the students in a calm voice.
"Kids, keep in mind that though all of your help could be greatly appreciated to help us scour for the source in San Francisco, we cannot risk that for it would be a greater liability to leave the X-Mansion unguarded, especially with so many of our enemies banding together against us. With our invaluable files of Cerebro and the information we gathered from the Joes and the Justice League for the past months, it would be disastrous and certainly unwanted to allow our foes the opportunity to attack the Institute and raid it. Additionally, it makes sense to not leave our home and base unattended, especially since we would certainly not put it past the Hellfire Club and their associates that they would try to infiltrate the mansion if we all went to San Francisco."
"I agree, and the Professor and I have already discussed it," Storm announced, "The team shall be myself, Logan, Charles, Jean, Scott, Forge, Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, Rina, Bobby, and Roberto."
"YES! Woo-hoo! Hubba-hubba-yes! Hubba-hubba-yes! Hubba-hubba-hubba-hubba-yes-yes-yes!" Roberto cheered, pumping his fist up and down in elation at the prospect of being chosen to participate in some action, instantly forgetting his initial weariness. Ray was none too happy.
"Hey, no fair! How come he gets to go?" Bezerker protested, conveniently forgetting that when Live Wire attacked the X-Mansion, he was chosen over Roberto to pursue after her.
"I am sorry, Raymond, but we cannot take all of you like we did on our last trip to Jump City, and as such you must stay behind to guard the mansion along with Hank and Jake."
"Jake, c'mon! Say somethin'! Let us come too!" Sam begged the kat instructor, partly because being on a mission could excuse him for a day or two from doing probation. All of the kids and the staff knew that if there was ever a teacher of the Institute who would always side with the teens and argue for their case, it would be Jake. So they could imagine the disappointment when the kat shook his head.
"Sorry, I'm with Storm on this one," the kat apologized.
"And before the rest of you whom are staying behind in the Mansion even start planning it, for your information, Jake has already put the Aquain in alpha-lockdown in the hangar, and I have taken the liberty to confiscate every duplicate of the coded keys to my person," Xavier finished in a stern yet slightly smug voice, and to the students' shock, the X-Men leader held up high enough for everyone to view the only seven metallic keys with electronic encrypted codes to the X-Men's tank-submarine in the Professor's hand.
"Merde! He's good," whistled Remy, despite himself, as the rest of the teenagers started sulking.
"Either we're getting lazier, or the Professor's getting smarter," Jamie grumbled, pouting.
"Sorry, kitten, but we can't chance this one again," Jake murmured apologetically, ruffling Multiple's hair brotherly with a paw, "Ever since the fiasco at the Bayville Commons when Live Wire attacked, we're not going to leave any more opportunities for you kids to go sneaking off. And besides, it's not so bad. I'll be staying behind as well."
"Looks like it's me and you teaming up again, huh, Kitty?" Lance offered innocently, a small smile on his face as he looked at the valley girl. Though she was hesitant, Kitty did return the look with a small friendly smile of her own. Lance, despite still feeling depressed that Kitty chose Piotr over him, found some solace at that he and Kitty could hang out for a little while as friends, especially without Colossus there. Not that he would try anything demeaning and underhanded of course; unfortunately, Piotr didn't see that.
"Hey!" Piotr protested, "Professor, please, let me come along as well!"
Xavier was stern but slightly sensitive; he was no fool in exactly why Piotr wanted to come along to the scouting expedition.
"I am sorry Peter, but our decision remains final. If the Mansion is attacked while we are gone, you could be a valuable asset in preventing the intruders from gaining much ground with your abilities, and your previous experience would be a large help in keeping everyone safe."
"But I don't want to leave Kitty alone with the likes of him!" Piotr raged, pointing directly at Lance without any tact or courteous subtlety.
"Peter, like stop it! Don't be so mean!" Kitty hissed, but Lance' eyes immediately turned cold with anger and affront.
"And what's that supposed to mean, Russkie?" Lance growled.
"Exactly what you think it means, Rockhead!" Piotr snapped back, "I'm not going to leave Kitty alone in some strange city where you'll try to take advantage of her or try to convince her to dump me and come back to you again! If you think I'll leave my girlfriend alone with you for even a second, you're a lot stupider than I first thought!"
"That's a low accusation, Metal-Muscles!"
"Well, it's pretty apparent you're capable of anything after what you did to your adopted parents when they - !" Piotr began, but Lance snapped as he let Piotr have it with a flying right hook, and this, unsurprisingly and quite painfully, led to another brawl between the X-Man and Misfit as they wrestled on the floor, swearing and punching each other, while Hank, Spirit, and some of the others tried to break them up.
"There goes my table…and my ceiling," groaned Professor Xavier as one of Lance's tremors shook the X-Mansion, causing noticeable cracks in the foundation and smooth, curved surface of the roof above them.
"I shall call the contractors before I leave for the Pit, Mr. Xavier," Alfred said smoothly as something expensive crashed and shattered in the background. Batgirl turned wearily to Kurt.
"Does every meeting you X-Men have always end up with something breaking, something exploding, or some fight? Green Lantern told me what happened the last time he was here with Flash," Batgirl asked, deadpanned.
Kurt shrugged as he said, "You get used to it eventually. And if you really wanted to see some chaos, Batgirl, you should have been here when the love-triangle was going on strong and when the Misfits came to bug us every day during breakfast and dinner."
"I wish the Misfits never existed," groaned Scott as he held his head, half-sobbing in pain to the ceiling, "I really wish the Misfits never existed! Is that too much to ask for? Really God, is that really such a bad prayer?"
---
At the same time, over at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department in the downtown area, past eleven at night…
Inspector Sheridan wearily rubbed her eyes as she finished looking over one of the numerous files she had on the Halliwells and the cases that had possible links to them in her private office, her blond hair scraggily wafting down her neck and shoulders, offering slight irritation at the hours of toil she spent in preparing her evidence to provide for the agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was arriving first thing in the morning. That was why she was meticulously examining each and every sentence, eyewitness testimony, and factoid in every sheet of paper; Sheridan wanted everything to be as clear as day and perfect when she could make her case and get the approval and permission she needed to take those Halliwell bitches down once and for all.
Damn them, damn each and every one of the three sisters…
Oh, she was no fool, and she knew perfectly well that Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were directly involved with everything she went through, those six weeks in the mental hospital, those periods of having a blank slate of memories, her life being tampered with. Inspector Sheridan knew that those law-breakers would pay dearly for how they violated her and her life, how they tortured her and put her through weeks and weeks of hell all because she was trying to uphold the law and bring the sisters to justice for all the trouble and innocents they damaged in their activities.
Though she had absolutely no proof that they were violent and immoral criminals, Sheridan didn't need any physical evidence to tell her gut feeling that the sisters were a blight on the community and thus, needed to be stopped once and for all. If she only had proof, something credible, something indisputable and that could show those pompous fools who mocked her "paranoia"…
Damn you Morris, she thought immediately of her former partner, Darryl. Oh, it was so obvious he knew more than what he was letting on, that he knew to the precise detail what the sisters were capable of and what they were doing. But did he ever grace her with the truth? No. When Sheridan first met Inspector Darryl, she wanted to build a relationship of trust, of professional friendship. Had he been in danger, Sheridan would have gladly stepped into the line of battle to fight for him and any other honest officer who was trying to make the world a better place. And yet did he defend Sheridan? Did he stand by while she was ridiculed and reprimanded for her screw-ups and wasting time on an insignificant family of sisters? Did he at least tell her the truth under the condition that she keep it a secret?
Hell, no.
Morris didn't trust her, didn't care of what happened to her as long as the Halliwell sisters were safe. She was willingly sacrificed as a scapegoat while the three women were spared from the consequences of their actions, not even caring the slightest bit that she was shoved into the crossfire and took the hits and ill-fated blows. Inspector Sheridan then knew that Piper, Phoebe, and Paige Halliwell had to pay dearly before they could force other innocent people to pay for the sisters' mistakes.
Suddenly, the door to her office opened up, and the blond, athletic woman looked up to see a slightly chubby yet broad man with balding reddish hair cut in a crew-cut and in a suit enter into the office.
"You Inspector Sheridan?" the man asked. Sheridan's suspicion perked a bit, keeping in mind of her spare gun that she kept in her drawer of her desk.
"Yeah. Who are you?" she asked warily. The man took out a badge that identified him as an agent from Homeland Security, the same agency that sent Agent Brody before he "mysteriously" disappeared. Still, despite the agent being from the F.B.I., after what she had been though, Inspector Sheridan was less than reluctant to trust anyone with a badge, not sure if this man was who he claimed to be.
"Agent Keyes, Homeland Security. You called, didn't you?"
"Yes," Sheridan replied, putting away her file, showing some courtesy for the agent who responded to her calls, "Yes, I just was not expecting you until tomorrow."
"Let's just say I was anxious to hear what you had to say," Agent Keyes replied, crossing his arms over his chest, and Inspector Sheridan forced herself to quickly file through her presentation of her files she acquired and tabulated on the Halliwell family. But first things first…
"All right, what do you know about what happened to your Agent Brody?" Sheridan asked coolly, one hand on her hip.
"You tell me," Keyes replied, and the look on his face let the blonde officer know that he was in no mood for debating and bartering.
Going for "quid pro quo", you slick asshole? Sheridan thought to herself, but she decided to make her case and go along for now.
"He disappeared, and I think I know who knows why ... the same people who probably know what happened to three other cops who were either killed or mysteriously disappeared in the past seven years: Inspectors Trudeau, Rodriguez, and Davidson. Then there are all the civilian cases, including one of their own sisters, Prue Halliwell."
She expected Agent Keyes to show some interest in her suspicions, especially since this concerned one of his missing agents, but instead, Inspector Sheridan was slightly taken aback to see that the federal agent was completely unimpressed.
"That's it?" he asked disdainfully, as if being shown nothing more than common gibberish, and the statement was actually very insulting as Sheridan straightened out her back as an angry response. All her hard work, all her planning, all her careful investigations and detective work…dismissed as circumstantial? Who the hell did this guy think he was?
"'That's it?'! Are you kidding me! Do you need more?" the woman snapped, her blue eyes blazing and her cheeks blushing. Agent Keyes just looked at her expectantly. Apparently, yes.
All right, fine, if Keyes was going to play that card…
"Okay, how about I think they tried to make me disappear, too? They put me in a coma, tried to get me to forget what I knew about them," Sheridan stated in a cool tone, though simmering, as she reached for another file on the record of her incarceration, but Agent Keyes next words stunned her.
"Actually, Brody's the one who put you in the coma, on my orders."
The file dropped from her fingers as she immediately thought of the gun in her drawer.
"What?" Sheridan demanded, her anger now bubbling dangerously, multiplying. Agent Keyes, however, didn't show the slightest indication that this little blot from his past bothered him in the slightest.
Agent Keyes explained in a formal voice, "We knew they knew you were onto them. We didn't want you messing up our investigation."
Sheridan immediately jumped at full attention, her eyes now orbs of ice as she raged at the federal agent. As much as she realized that this supported her suspicions about the Halliwells, all she could really process was that Agent Brody acted on the F.B.I.'s orders to shove her aside.
"How dare you? You had no right to do that to me, you bastard!" Sheridan yelled roughly. Agent Keyes held up a hand in a show of appeasement.
"Easy, Inspector. This is bigger than you think, all right? Much bigger. Besides, I am here, aren't I?"
"What, with Brody's tranquilizer gun?" Sheridan retorted maliciously, her muscles ready to do whatever it took if Agent Keyes was going to try to attack her.
"No, with answers, the ones you've been looking for."
Sheridan stopped and looked at the man in front of her. As much as her common sense was screaming against it, her curiosity got the better of her, and this was the windfall she had been praying and working for so long. As much as she now disliked Agent Keyes, Inspector Sheridan wanted the truth even more, and her professional etiquette kicked in.
"Okay, I'm listening," she said, her arms crossed, waiting for the return of quid pro quo.
"Do you believe in the supernatural and the paranormal, Inspector? That there may be forces, powers that exist beyond our own?" Agent Keyes asked in a slightly condescending tone of voice.
As irritated as Inspector Sheridan was at the agent's attitude, she raised an eyebrow in slight confusing and morbid interest. What did that have anything to do with the Halliwell sisters?
Then for the past two hours, Agent Keyes explained everything he and his agency had gathered via intelligence reports on the Halliwell sisters, and despite being past one in the morning, Sheridan listened with rapt attention and increasing interest, the pieces of everything strange she had remembered and witnessed starting to fall into place. She learned how Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were descendants from a long line of witches and Wiccans dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. She learned how they were supposedly "The Power of Three" and had magical abilities to fight demons and ghosts and anything of the like, and San Francisco was apparently filled with such supernatural activity. She also learned of the history, of the scant yet solid evidence Keyes and the Department of Homeland Security had collected on the powers and spells of each sister, on their familiars and guardian angels called Whitelighters, and how that despite popular belief, magic really did exist.
Sheridan was silent, stony, as Keyes finished his story. As much as she was trying to look for another reason or rationale to explain those mysterious occurrences and events all around the city and around the Halliwell sisters…it made sense. It truly made sense. And it made her all the more triumphant and eager to take the Charmed Ones down. Agent Keyes then said that unfortunately, the bureau had no completely incriminating evidence other than scientific findings and lab results and various but unreliable eyewitness testimony. Thus, Keyes planned on organizing a small covert sting to catch the Halliwells in the act of using their powers.
This brought Sheridan to full attention.
"Then let me do it," Sheridan said automatically.
Agent Keyes shook his head vehemently as he said heatedly, "No need, Inspector. I'll just call A.G. and circumvent any legal need to get a warrant. I'll declare the Halliwells as terrorists, as enemies of the state…anything to expose them and prove who they really are. Regardless of them being witches or aliens or mutants, this is a federal case now. I have better trained agents who can handle this…and frankly, ones who do not have a personal vendetta against the Halliwell sisters."
It was then that Sheridan slammed her hand on the desk, frustrated and completely irritated.
"Look when this is all over, you can do whatever you want: lock them up in a lab and study them, dissect them, leave them to rot in a special cell…I don't give a shit. But I've been screwed over and hindered by the Halliwells long enough, and I'll be damned if I don't take part in the chance to take those three down after everything they put me through and after they made a mockery of the San Francisco Police Force, our city's finest honorable men and women. You think I have some sort of personal vendetta against them? Well you're right. I'm sick of how they have been able to infiltrate and coerce the weak-minded like Officer Morris to join in their little vigilante group to undermine our authority. I'm angry of how those little cunts cost the lives of good, honest officers like Inspectors Trudeau, Rodriguez, and Davidson in their escapades with no regards for innocent people. I'm outraged how they have no remorse at all the innocents that have been caught in the crossfire of their games and ruckus! And I'm pissed at how they have made a mockery of the very law we uphold and embarrassed me in front of all my superiors! Those Halliwells started it! So let me be the one to finish it! Let me be the one to expose them for the monsters they really are."
The blond haired woman of steel grit emphasized this last sentence with sharp, cold ice-pricks, indicating that she wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
Agent Keyes just looked at her, his face betraying his better judgment.
---
"Piper! Paige! Leo!" Phoebe called out rather breathlessly as she hurried in through the front door of Halliwell Manor, the short-haired brunette slightly breathless from the nervousness and anxiety swimming around her heart and head as she literally stampeded into the house.
Leo, sporting a nice three o'clock shadow, clambered down the stairs as Piper and Paige emerged from the kitchen, bottling potions.
Leo whispered ferociously, "Phoebe, calm down and be quiet! I just put Chris and Wyatt to sleep!"
Paige, however, noticed Phoebe's agitation, and her heart suddenly sank as she realized that this wasn't good news, as she worriedly brushed aside her brown bangs off her pale forehead, asking, "What happened?"
"Darryl just called me when I got off work from the Bay Mirror."
Piper's forehead crinkled as she asked, "Darryl? I thought he was going on vacation with Sheila."
"He called to warn me before he left. He won't be able to help us because he has to think of protecting his family, but he got wind that Inspector Sheridan had requested the help and assistance of the F.B.I. to investigate us. Darryl's not sure when the agents are supposed to come, but he thinks that we should get a heads up because this could be big trouble. Sheridan's still trying to investigate us, and to make things worse…tonight, I had another premonition while I was working. The premonition…" Phoebe revealed breathlessly.
Leo cursed under his breath while Paige's eyes widened as she nervously clenched the bottom of her shirt, twisting the fabric between her fingers. Piper felt absolutely cold as she recalled past warnings from the other Whitelighters and Phoebe about what would potentially happen if the magical world would ever be exposed. Such a thing caused Prue's death, and she would be damned if she wouldn't do everything above and beyond her power to prevent it. And not to mention that Leo, Piper, and Paige knew exactly what vision of clairvoyance Phoebe was referring to.
Experiment 666…
Piper immediately and wordlessly headed for the stairs and the attic where the Book of Shadows was kept securely and safely in the Halliwell household. Meanwhile, Paige, Leo, and Phoebe were hurriedly and fretfully arguing and discussing in a heated debate.
"Are you sure?" Leo asked.
"Yes, Leo, and this really scares me! You know my powers show acute visions and images of what could come! But I don't see anything except that void of blackness and some disembodied, dead voice that says it is coming! And even if we do deal with that, it's not going to help us deal with Sheridan," Phoebe retorted.
"Maybe we could ask the Elders to allow us to turn back time," Paige suggested hopefully, but Leo shot that down.
"The Elders would never allow that," Leo said, "They are already distrustful of us ever since we helped the Avatars, and Gideon will especially be dead set against us. And without them or their permission to use memory dust or turn back time, we won't be able to do anything. And turning back time won't prevent Sheridan from still having her suspicions and vendettas against us, especially since Darryl said that we've been under her reservations and qualms for quite a while, and the Elders would never grant our request to turn back events just to prevent a woman from having doubts about us. Magic won't solve everything, especially in this case."
"We could make it so that somehow make it so she never existed. Or we could place a spell on her to drop her off the face of the Earth," Paige suggested.
"Absolutely not!" Phoebe and Leo shouted, nearly bellowing, aghast at the youngest sister's coldness and willingness to an act that was almost as horrific as murder, and Paige heatedly argued back.
"Oh, come on! It's not like I'm the only one who thought of that, and it's not like we're killing her or going against the Wiccan code our family blessed us with and - !"
Yet suddenly, the eldest Halliwell sister stopped abruptly in front of them as they entered the attic, and Leo, Paige, and Phoebe unexpectedly collided into the back of Piper, caught off guard.
"Piper, what's going - ?" but Paige's voice died in her throat when she, Leo and Phoebe looked up to see what exactly caused the eldest sister to stop dead in her tracks. There, gathered around their attic, waiting patiently in the snug and cozy room and blocking their way to the Book of Shadows was a trio of familiar men.
It was Batman, General Hawk, and Elder Gideon. A member from the Justice League, G.I. Joe, and the Whitelighters each. All of them were patiently waiting for the Halliwells with solemn expressions of dire need or (in Gideon's case) evident displeasure.
"Batman?" Paige gasped in shock.
"Gideon…" Leo hissed with bitterness as he narrowed his eyes at the Whitelighter elder.
"General Hawk?" Phoebe blurted out.
To any outsider, this would have been excellent fodder for a joke, but Piper was anything but amused. Piper felt the heat rise and dissipated from her body as she gave all of the uninvited guests the evil eye, and it was apparent that she didn't know which one of the three she wanted to see the least.
"What the hell are you three doing here?" she asked with cold brevity and an icy glare, her body still as ice.
Author's Notes: Well, another chapter gone, and in the next chapter, "Biding Consequences of Refusal", we will actually learn some of the back story as to why Piper is especially displeased to see Batman and General Hawk, but events are set into motion as the Slayers, the Misfits, and the X-Men gather in San Francisco, especially with Zankou and the Hellfire Club! Until next Friday, read, enjoy, and review if you'd like! Constructive criticism welcome!