BACK TO SCHOOL
CHAPTER 16: ACTIONS
In the sub basement complex of the mansion Kitty was in the large computer room that they had built with the new reconstruction of the mansion. It was an upgraded facility with state of the art Cray computer system. The room was large about ten meters by ten meters and of course it had to be kept cool. There was a work station in the center with a few work stations build into it as well as the walls lined with computers banks and other equipment.
The opposite end of the door, which required a pass code to enter of course, was a large monitor with a control station. After recent events Xavier felt they needed to be more prepared for the future so with Hank, Forge and Kitty helping to set it up it was finally working.
Kitty loved computers and spending the last of summer hooking this up had been amazing. They just now managed to get this place up and running and right now she was putting it to work. Hank was using the extra processing power to help him in the lab but right now she was doing something not exactly legal.
But then neither is what Spears was doing.
That was why she was down here anyway, she was trying to hack into the Spears database for any evidence and she couldn't with her own computer. This of course was done with Xavier knowing, he needed to know what was going on and if it had to be from covert means then it looked like he was being pushed in that direction.
Kitty was a bit surprised but then again after everything that had happened maybe they needed to take a step up. They had more enemies then ever it seemed and they needed to keep ahead of them. So with this computer system they were going to be able to get linked to many different things that could help them out. News feeds that would be red flagged by certain words, abnormal things like in the weather or magnetic fields.
Right now she was at one of the work stations beating her head against the wall. Well she was close to actually doing it, this was proving to be a lot tougher then it should have been. But she could do this, computers were her specialty after all and she was determined to start picking up the slack a bit on the team. Ever since Rogue got those new powers she now felt like the weak link on the team, not that she wasn't happy for Rogue but she felt like being left behind.
Well now she was going to prove her new usefulness with her computer skills, after all it was a high tech world now and they had to move with the times. The door opened and she saw Vincent walk in with a tray of snack food. He was helping out since he had some experience with computers as well.
"Here you go Kitty," He smiled and handed her a small bag of chips and a soda, he pretty much had the same with him and he sat across from her at the other station. "So anything new while I was gone?"
Kitty sighed and rested her head against the table. "Oh, that bad huh?" He said seeing her like that.
"God this guy must be like the most totally paranoid person on the planet," Kitty groaned, "I just wish we had better access to his systems."
"Yeah that would help," Vince was working on the background of Spears' company, seeing if there were any new contracts or business ventures that seemed fishy for a sports company. But so far it was all coming up dry. He sighed and pick as the bag of chips, Xavier was trying to find any help with his own connections who they were no one really knew.
He then noticed that Kitty seemed to be spacing out a little. "So I said that we should maybe just go all paramilitary and load up with an armory."
"Uh huh," Kitty nodded not paying attention.
"Oh and did you know that Rogue's pregnant? We just found out and we're eloping," He added with a smirk.
"That's nice," Then Kitty shook her head, "Wait-what?"
"Okay what's up? You're usually one of the more focused ones on the team," Vincent asked her leaning forward a bit.
Kitty bit her lip a bit not sure what to tell him. She had been thinking about Piotr and his brother, it seemed like he really admired the guy but something had happened. Also it was strange to learn that he even had a brother, either him or Illyana had said anything about that.
"It's…nothing really…" She trailed off.
Vince frowned at her, "Kitty…How come we never talk anymore?"
"What do you mean? We talk all the time."
"No not like that…I mean when we were just on-line chatters we talked all the time about everything but now…not that much. I miss that, I mean I still remember how you told me about what happened on that date with that Mike characters-"
"Don't you dare tell anyone about that!" Kitty said shocked as he brought up that nightmare. Mike had been a boy she had this huge crush on and when she had finally got the nerve to tell him at lunch she tripped and spilled hr food all over him. She had been so mortified that she couldn't face him again, so then by the time she got over it he was out with some blond. Kitty had been so depressed after that had happened.
"I'm not, you know me I'm a vault with this kind of stuff and that's what I mean. We used to talk all the time so why the change?" He honestly asked her.
Kitty thought about it, she did used to talk on-line to her friends all the time to help escape her life and to talk to those that could give her honest opinions. "I have no idea…I mean maybe it was because you were like this faceless guy that I could just go to and not have to worry about anything I said having consequences in my life."
Vince had to admit that did make some sense, "So…What then? I mean I kind of miss those talks."
Kitty also missed those talks Vince was a guy who listened to you and tried to help you out. "Yeah…I guess it's just that with you actually here I guess you might not have been as objective…"
"Well you don't have to worry about that with me," He smiled at her, "Come on talk to me, you're my friend Kitty and if you ever want to talk just let me know okay?"
She thought about it and nodded and smiled at him, "Sure I like think maybe you can help with this." She knew that dealing with people who didn't open up like with Rogue or dealing with painful things from the past he knew all about those. So she explained everything to him and he listened in not interrupting her.
"So that's where I'm as," She sighed finishing up, "I want to help and to understand but I like don't want to push him if he's not ready."
Vince nodded, "Yeah that's a very good idea for not pushing. Personally I think if you really want him to open up just go to him about this, and tell him that if he ever wants to talk to you then he can. But stress that only when he's ready. I think that's the only thing you can do is just listen to when they are ready and that you'll be there for them."
To Kitty that made sense she hoped that Piotr would open up to her she didn't want this relationship to deteriorate like it did with Lance. They hadn't been too open and they paid for it, so now she wanted to try something else and hoped she didn't push him away. "You know…I was wrong, talking to friends do help. Sorry about you know, just the whole distancing myself thing."
Vince shrugged, "We've both been kind of busy lately but I don't want to lose your friendship Kitty."
She smiled at him reassuringly, "Same here, now let's see if we can nail Spears' hide to the wall shall we?"
"Totally," Vince grinned as they got back to work on the computer systems.
-New York-
Spears was in his office waiting for a new investor to show up. He had been a little on edge lately and even though there was supposed to be someone watching out for him he didn't see anyone yet. He hoped that whoever this person was arrived soon. But now he had a business meeting for a new investor, so he pushed all this aside and went on with business.
His intercom buzzed as his secretary told him that the person for his meeting was here, "Very well send them in please."
He waited at the door opened and he was surprised to see a young woman come in, she was in a business suit, stockings and heels. She wore slim glasses and her blond hair was in a high bun, "Ah Mr. Spears thank you for meeting me."
He stood up from his desk to walk around it to meet her and shake her hand, "The pleasure is all mine miss…"
"December," She told him shaking his hand politely. "I represent my clients who are expressing an interest in your company."
"Well then please let's sit down and you can fill me in on everything," Spears smiled and led her to a couch with a table on it. Miss December placed her suitcase on the table and pulled out several files. Spears noticed her legs that looked very nice but he put that aside. She was a bit too young for his taste most likely early twenties and probably an intern or something while in college.
"Well Mr. Spears my clients have seen how much profit you made so far and we are interested in getting on board," She told him handing him a folder. As he opened it he saw the usually stuff, business projections, business plans and other such things to help show the research they did into his company and the projected possibilities of what the investing could do.
He looked through it briefly as she talked about her company and it's interests, "We are also aware of how you dealt with that little…Problem in Bayville last year as well."
That got his attention as he had hoped that little incident had been forgotten about but he planned to put a nice spin on things, "Well that was an unfortunate incident with some people."
"Yes if I recall it was a bunch of mutants that attacked your factory there," December said in a calm tone of voice. "So tell me what is your stance on mutants?"
"Do you want my honest or public view on things?"
She gave him a thoughtful look for a moment, "Oh why bore ourselves with the PC bull?" She waved her hand dismissing it.
"Very well then, personally I don't feel one way or the other off them. If I can make money off of them then I don't see the difference." He smiled as it sounded like he valued them as customers…well if they wanted that cure he had then he supposed then that was true. "After all in business you can't ignore any way to make money."
"No…I suppose you can't," She seemed a little put off by that but not much. They then went into a nice meeting. The usual stuff was said and he had to admit she was very intelligent girl he can see why someone so young managed to get such a position.
They talked for about and hour and so far it looked like he might get some new investors, which was nice since he had a few plans on expanding his business with that now. By the end of it she packed up her stuff into her briefcase, "Well Mr. Spears thank you for seeing me, it has been most…informative." She smiled at him.
He smiled back, "The pleasure was all mine miss December. Will I hear back from your associates later?"
"Oh believe me I doubt we are done here and you can expect my associates to get in contact with you again later," She grinned at him. He showed her out the door it had been a very good meeting.
"Damn I thought she'd never leave!"
Spears jumped and turned to see a man there in a red and black full body suit with more weapons then a person needed strapped to him. "Who the hell are you, how did you get in here?"
He just waved his hand to him to calm down, "Relax, Creed sent me."
"…You're the protection?"
"Yep call me Deadpool," The man grinned behind his mask and put and arm around the man, "Oh we're going to be real good friends, hell we'll go everywhere together. I can crash at your place, you got a big screen TV right? Well anyway I got paid a lot of money to baby sit your ass and I hope this is a nice soft gig. I could use the relaxation being a full time mercenary you would not believe the stress."
"Better then the last one, oh sure hanging that guy upside down over that cage filled with vicious attack dogs to get him to spill his guts was fun. But man when they piss themselves that's just nasty I mean blood I can handle since it's easy for it to match the red on my suit after all."
Spears listened in on the man ramble on about stuff that just seemed to come out of his mouth and he quickly got the idea that this man was quit insane. He talked about killing like it was a hobby and he never seemed to shut up.
"But seriously I was looking through this office for over an hour across the other building and boy was that boring." Deadpool sighed to himself. It had been pretty boring across the street watching 'Mr. fancy pants' here talking to the cute young blond. "Although I did keep myself busy, did you know from over there I got a nice view of her skirt? It took me fifteen minutes for her to cross her legs so I can tell what she was wearing under that."
He sighed remembering that, "You got to love a woman who likes to wear a white thong."
Spears was suddenly wondering if he was better off with the mutants after him then with this nut job protecting him, he made a mental note to give Creed a good talking to about his choices for hiring people.
Down at street level the woman who had seen Spears walked to a black limo and got in. She wasn't alone in the seats there were Selene and Shinobi Shaw. "Well Emma what did you find out?"
Emma Frost started to get out of her 'December' persona, loosening her hair, taking off the glasses and unbuttoned a couple of the top buttons on her blouse. "Just as we thought, he was hired by the FOH to make this little toxin of his."
Shinobi grinned at her skill, "You always were good at getting into a person's mind."
Emma ignored the comment, "He's got a cure for it and he's willing to sell it to the highest bidder locked in his safe. I also got his private passwords, the location of where he's making it and a few other skeletons in his closet we can use against him."
"Excellent," Selene grinned at Emma she may not like the young woman but she did have skills. "Now we can just take what we want and deal with this pathetic little man."
"We may not need to be so…ruthless," Emma told her sitting back and relaxing, "He's only in this for the money we can make an offer and he'll go for it."
"So he's going to double cross the FOH then," Shinobi stated thinking about this. And idea hit him and he grinned, those that knew him well enough knew he had a plan forming in his mind. "Well then I say we do make an offer…but we make sure that we can keep him under our thumb. He could be more useful to us alive and especially if he's with us to keep him safe."
Selene raised an eyebrow as she was getting where this was going, "A man like this would have a lot of enemies if certain information got out wouldn't it?"
Now Emma got where this was going, "If the population knew the mutants would not be pleased with him and if any FOH involvement was shown then that group would also be after him. He'd have mutants after him, the FOH, the government since biological weapons like his are illegal…He'd have no one to turn to."
"Except us," Shinobi smiled as he crossed his arms. "He'd get it all, only offering him protection and when he'd out lived his usefulness to us…" He turned to Selene who got a gleam in her eye at that possibility.
-Sewer System-
Callisto was in the meeting room with the most trusted and influential Morlocks there, since they had stopped the dumping of the chemicals they had slowly had been getting better but a few were still too weak for even the healers to help. With all the dead there was a lot of anger among her people and she was one of them.
Her people had suffered and even though they stopped Spears this time there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be back or others would take his place. They had been long and very heated arguments on what to do about all of this. One faction wanted to move to New York system, since they constantly sent out scouts to look for other locations as well as mutants in hiding, last month they had discovered a new lair there that would be of great use to them.
This faction felt that moving to a new secret location would be safer then staying in an area where people knew where they roughly were.
Another faction didn't want to move and to bolster their defences to make their home a safer place but this group however was in the minority. With what happened to them many of them didn't feel 'safe' anymore in this place.
The other major group were the ones that wanted to take this fight to Spears and punish him, the logic being that destroying the last facility had an effect so if they attacked him again then it would cause another effect in stopping Spears.
Callisto had to play to each group in certain ways, since being leader of a people meant that you had to seem like you were doing your job. She could only defend her right to lead so many times and if enough of them thought she wasn't up to it then they would remove her by force in overwhelming numbers. That wasn't likely to happen but that was the difference with how things worked down here. It was more brutal living in many different ways.
Two of the members there were a young woman in her early twenties named Feral, she was like her name suggested a feral type of mutant but with brown fur over her body, large orange hair with two white streaks in it, long claw-like nails and tail with her cat-like appearance. She was one of more vocal about taking the fight to Spears, close to her was her younger seventeen year old sister Thornn. She looked a lot like her older sister since they shared the same mutation.
Her sister wasn't actually for that plan to attack but she was loyal to her sister even if she didn't believe in what she talked about. But this plan to attack Spears was gaining momentum as many of those that recovered wanted revenge and those that lost friends or loved ones.
"We can't let this go on Callisto!" Feral said angrily slamming her hand down onto the table. "How many more of us have to die before something is done?"
There were a few agreements to that sentiment among those there. Next Spyke spoke up, "Well as I hate to agree with her but she does have a point." Evan and Feral never really got along, mainly due that Feral had her sites on leadership of the Morlocks and since Evan was close to both Marrow and Callisto that made him an enemy in he eyes.
"I too think something has to be done before the next time we're attacked," Marrow said in a cold voice. She had watched too many people die from humans and she wanted to send a message up to them, that you don't mess with the Morlocks.
Callisto knew that if things got bad that it might isolate her people even more from the topside but damn it her people were poisoned. Even she had to agree that something had to be done, she sighed as she stood up and everyone took notice of her as she looked around the room.
"I have to agree that something has to be done…Too many lives have been taken for us to let this go. They killed our people with poison and nothing gets done. Xavier promised us action and where is it? Has there been any news about this, any justice done?"
"What do you expect from the humans? It was a human who did this to us do you really think they'd punish him for it?" A voice in the back called out and that got the others talking again. Callisto held up her hand as the room fell silent again.
"We have been patience but our patience is gone, there needs to be a price to be paid and Spears will pay for it." Callisto said to them all and all saw the anger and the rage in her eye. "We will strike at Spears again but this time we'll do more then just scrap a factory…we'll take his company apart bit by bit until we find him and make him suffer!"
There were a chorus of shouts as everyone worked up into a frenzy. Callisto knew that there would be a reaction to this from the top side but damn it she had waited too long. Xavier moved too slow and they needed to show the world that you can't just kill mutants when you feel like it. She would send teams to attack different facilities, she would make sure that they would not kill.
They would have vengeance but she wanted to do this smart, killing more humans would only have them send in troops into the sewers but if just the factories were taken out of commission then it would hurt Spears where is hurt him the most, in his wallet. Then when he was isolated they would strike and take him down as an example. She knew that the X-Men might get involved well then she wouldn't let that stop her, she didn't like mutants against mutants but in this case she would make an exception.
No one would get in their way and the Morlocks will have their revenge for the monstrous atrocities committed against them, because she doubted the surface world would give them justice so they would just have to do it themselves.
NEXT UP CHAPTER 17: WHEN THINGS GO WRONG