"You don't have to accompany me everywhere, Liune," I said.

"Your father asked me to escort you this afternoon, Miss Firefly," Liune said, "But if it makes you feel better, I'll wait outside for your meeting to be finished."

"Liune, you used to babysit me. You can call me Arrow."

Liune chuckled, "Of course Arrow."

The rest of the walk continued in silence, but I didn't mind. I had been so long since I had been the Science Guild. The Science Guild was situated in large building, that hung off the right side of the palace. Built in front of the mountain rather then in it. That meant its interior was much more open and man-made. Rather than the carved out stone tunnels of the palace, they had tall wide hallways. The golden walls and ceiling of which were curved until the point they were just a smooth arch. Waterfalls, lined the halls, but they weren't for just for asthenic. The falls were ridged to flood the entire building just in case of fire. Which was a more common occurrence then most people would think.

The building's purpose was in its name. This was the hub of all exploration, invention, and scientific endeavors on Nexus. All research, investigations, and technological advancements were done here. Only the students with the best scores (or technopaths if they were interested), were offered jobs to work here. I was actually offered a position as a hacker after the marks I made in computer science, however I turned them down. Field work was always my goal.

When we arrived at Mara Jean's door in the technology division, I knew she was in there. Mara Jean and I always shared the same music tastes growing up. I remember that Baba would play the silliest songs for us. Weird Al, Ylvis, and every single Disney soundtrack he could get his hands on. As a result, me and Mara Jean now had what most would consider a horrible taste in music. The fact that I could hear, "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al through the doors to Mara Jean's lab, only proved this.

I nodded thanks to Liune, and entered the lab, only to be swept away by Mara Jean riding a rocket powered office chair.

"Hi Arrow!" Mara Jean shouted.

"Hi!" I said trying not to let the centrifugal force throw me off of the chair.

"What are you doing here!?"

"We have a meeting remember?!"

"We do!?"

"Yeah, I called you yesterday!"

"Oh okay! Quick! Duck and roll!"

"What?!"

Mara Jean suddenly jerked her grip on my shoulders, sending us both tumbling to the floor. Both of us had been trained since toddlers on how to take a fall. Baba and Uncle Nico would pick us up and throw us around, in a padded environment of course. Meaning neither of us were really hurt by the fall from the rocket chair.

There was a large clatter and crash as the chair slammed into a tower of empty gas containers. The wheels on the chair stopped, but the seat part continued to spin thanks to the still one rockets. Though, it also began to slow once the rockets began to sputter a few moments later, just as the final notes of the Weird Al jam played.

Mara Jean began laughing. I just looked at her before joining in the fit.

"You're crazy," I said.

"Yes, I am," Mara Jean declared proudly, before cackling and standing up.

"Why did you even build that thing?" I asked, "We have hover technology."

"You saying that suggest you think I was trying to build a floating chair."

"And I take you saying that suggests you weren't?"

"Oh, hardly."

"Then what were you making?"

"Don't know it just popped in my head," She hopped over a pile of scrap metal and wires, "So, what you'd want me to take about?"

I tried to follow her but that task was easier said then done. Mara Jean's lab could only be described as organized chaos. The lab was large, maybe a little bit bigger than a high-school gymnasium, but with the amount of clutter in here it didn't look nearly as big as it really was. There at least twelve work benches filled with half-finished projects, a welding station, a holoprojector design station, storage cabinets, scrap piles and other types of tech. All of which were covered in a rainbow of sticky notes and somehow still within safety regulations.

In the back of the lab was Mara Jean's main desk top. It was just as messy as the rest of her work space. The only bare spot was around her keyboard and mouse. The rest of it was piled high with papers, pens, small tools, and notebooks. Mara Jean despite her lack of organization skills, actually took great care when it came to her electronics. It was a common trait of a technopath.

"I came so you can look at the pics of the weapons that put me in the hospital. I wanted to see if you could ID manufactures," I said finally reaching her desk, holding a flash drive in my hand.

Mara Jean's purple painted lips twisted into excited grin, as she rubbed her hands together, "You had me at ID weapons. Show me the tech."

I smirked, and handed her the flash drive. She smiled and started to fiddle with the controls on the side of her visor.

Unlike most mutants, Mara Jean wasn't one to wear a traditional mask, preferring a visor instead. It honestly fit her better. Mara Jean had always felt a traditional mask was more of a hassle to wear than an honor. The high worn made it hard to see and the face masks gave her acne, but she'd wear them on holidays if it was necessary. However, she didn't want to walk around barefaced every day. So, she opted for a visor.

Being a technopath, she didn't allow anyone else to build a visor for her. Mara Jean had spent weeks after her masking ceremony designing and crafting her visor. The finished product ended up being a teal tainted re-enforced with tech glass and navy vibranium frames that was link up to her lab systems. The perfect tiny tool for any scientist, not mention fashionable. It also meant she didn't need to wear lab goggles.

Mara Jean opened her computer and closed down a number of files she had been working on. Plugging in the flash drive she began downloading my gathered intelligence.

"Top 10 cool and unusual way to die?" I said reading one her file titles.

"I make lists in my free time, besides who else is going to make a top ten list of that? Nobody! So I did," Mara Jean said.

"What's number one?"

"Spontaneous human combustion. Think about it. At any moment one of us could just blow up. Boom! No reason no explanation, just pow! Of course, you do that all the time, so it's probably not that weird for you. No wait. You don't actually blow yourself up, you just set yourself on fire. So never mind."

"I'm probably going to regret this but what's number 2?"

"Falling into a vat or radioactive waste."

"Is that really a death sentence?"

"Ehhh…it's about a 50/50 chance of death or superpowers, but there still is a possibility of death so I count it."

Her computer beeped and the room was quickly filled with the beautiful sound of her fingers rapidly tapping her computer keys. She was smirking until the witness sketches of the weapons came on screen. Her olive skin paled.

"Mara Jean?" I spoke.

I watched her swallow before searching through her messy stack of notebooks and papers. The technopath grabbed glittery pink notebook from the bottom of its stack, knocking everything else over. She flipped through the pages before she handed it to me, holding it open on specific page with her thumb.

I took the notebook and looked at the page. I felt the blood draining from my face.

"These are your designs?" I said, "Mara you know how Dad feels about designing weapons! I was shot with these!"

"I know! I know! But I never sent out a commission to develop them! I never got passed the random idea stage. I didn't even get a consult about what type of chemical compounds I needed. They were just some random thoughts I jotted down. Those sketches in that book are all I've done with it."

"Then how did they get in to Hydra's hands?"

"I have no idea. The only copies of these rough sketches are in that book…" She trailed off, face paling even further.

"Mara?"

She shrunk down the files I gave her and opened her personal folders. After a few moments an error bar popped up on the screen.

It read, "File not found."

Mara Jean swallowed and looked at me, "When I started working here, I scanned in some of the pages on my notebooks. Logging them in digitally."

"Let me guess, one of them was the acid bullets, and now you can't find it."

She nodded.

"Did someone hack your computer?"

"That seems like the logical explanation. But that shouldn't be possible. Whoever would have to get through not only the Science Guild firewalls, but my personal ones as well. And we both know that those are air tight. Well cyber matter tight. The only person who does that would be…another technopath. That or someone accessed my computer in person."

"Does your set up track login times?"

Mara Jean clacked the keys once more.

"What are your work hours?" I asked.

"Between 9 and 4 if I don't burn the midnight oil why?"

There was an electronic beep as Mara Jean brought up the logs, "There," I pointed at the screen, "Someone logged in at 3:16am."

"Yeah, I was definitely at home sleeping by then."

"Do you lock your lab door at night?"

"I don't need to. The doors auto lock unless they sense my biorhythm either by the door or inside the lab."

"You guys have cctv cameras?"

"Of course, a different lab blows up every other week, we play them back to know what happened."

"You keep copies?"

"You have to go to security to get them."

I started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Mara Jean asked.

"To get copies of the security footage. Right now, you need to go through your files see if anything else is missing and get rid of any digital designs that could be used as a weapon in any context and I mean any context. I don't care if you still have them on paper, just get rid of anything that could be downloaded. You should probably get your co-workers to do the same."

"You think we have a mole?"

"I'm leaning towards it and if there is a mutant who stealing weapon designs and selling them. Then we have a big problem."

Baba looked over the files. Disbelief and shock evident on his face. He sighed and shook his head.

"Are you sure about this?" Uncle Nico asked, scowling.

I nodded, "The dates and times of the logins didn't match up with the times that the technicians were in their labs."

"You check their alibis?" Baba asked.

"All of them were either with someone who could confirm their stories, out on assignment or security footage proved it," I answered.

"We have a traitor in our ranks," Uncle Nico grumbled.

"No, we can't jump to conclusions," Baba said, "Whoever did this could've been…"

"Christin!" Uncle Nico said, "I know you don't want to believe that one of our own turned against us, but one of the two ways to be fooled is refusing to believe what's in front of you."

Baba took a deep breath, "We have any suspects?"

"Not at the moment, but I've narrowed it down to either a technopath or shapeshifter polymorph. They either accessed the computers remotely through hacking, in which only a technopath could do considering the amount of cyber security the Science Guild has, or a shapeshifter could access the lab directly by copying the biorhythms of the employees. That narrows down the search considerably."

"Or this was an inside ploy," Uncle Nico said, "Someone who already had access. What did the security footage show?"

"All the clips at the supposed break in times are missing," I answered.

"That adds further weight to both technopath and inside job theories," Baba said.

"So, what do we do?" I spoke.

"I'll being this to the Counseling, and you keep digging," Baba looked at Uncle Nico, "Nico, pull whatever favors you need to get Row the help she needs, but don't let to much slip. We don't need a panic or worse people taking sides, and causing division."

Uncle Nico nodded.

I walked into the kitchen. Feeling hungry, I grabbed a glass of orange juice, and ripped a piece of the baguette that Taiga had picked up from the nearby Trader Jo's. I sat at the dining table and looked up to see into the living room. Shawnen, Sable, and Black Sheep were playing the old pixelated Nintendo games from the 80s. Baba still had his own console from when he was a kid that amazingly still worked. The thing had even made it through a hurricane and it still could make people smile. Today the little ones were playing Galaga. Well, more like Shawnen and Sable were playing while Black Sheep ran around the room cheering.

I heard the back door open and close. Bucky joined me at the table while I took a bite of my French bread clump.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," He grumbled. By the Lost queen he looked exhausted.

"Are you alright?"

"If I ever get married. I'm going to treat that woman like a fucking queen."

I eyed him strangely, "Okay."

"I mean it," He looked towards the kids, specifically Black Sheep, "Well someone will be sleeping well tonight."

I shook my head also looking at the rambunctious toddler, "No he won't."

"No, he won't." Bucky mournfully sighed and accepted.

A/N:

Well Happy thanksgiving everyone!

I am happily taking this day off! And started the day with an apple pie for breakfast. Have good day everybody!