Short A/N: Again, thank you for your great support, everyone, and I swear all will be explained... in time. It wouldn't be a very interesting story if I just spoon fed it to you, right? And sorry about the delay, I just finished school and have been working my butt off at home. I'll try to be more regular with updates in the future.
"What the hell is this?" Bobby asked, tilting the picture to another angle as if that was the key that would suddenly unlock whatever sort of secret it was hiding.
"As I told Logan before we found you three, I don't know what it is." Storm explained for the umpteenth time, leaning forward onto the metal table in the meeting room. Behind her, projected a little in front of the silver and blue walls, was a larger, floating version of the image Bobby had just put on the table.
"It's a sentinel, right? Well, I mean, sort of...a little?" Bobby pressed, passing the photo over to Kitty who was sitting next to him at the table. She eyed it, looked back up at the screen, and nodded her agreement with Bobby.
"No, it's not." Logan answered, nodding to the main screen, "Storm, could you focus in on that part right there, the head?"
She picked up a small controller form the table and clicked a button. A little box appeared over the blurry head of the robot-like creature in the photograph and zoomed in, focusing a little as it got closer. Not much, but enough for Logan to point out exactly what he was talking about. Standing, he got closer, circling the bit of the machine, where the 'eyes' would be if it were human.
"See how it's made out of that blackish material there. They usually use stuff like that as sort of a safety shield on planes to protect the pilot."
"So?" Kitty asked, unsure of exactly what he was trying to get at.
"So I've been up close and personal with these things and there definitely wasn't anyone up there driving it. And why should they, when the government has the technology to control them by remote signal?" Logan muttered, scratching his chin and then turning to Storm, "Can you zoom back out again?" The screen went back out to the full body version of the robot, "There's something else about it... I just can't figure it out. But it isn't a sentinel, whatever it is."
"It's too small, for one." Piotr remarked, shifting a little in his chair, "Look at the background. Those are standard issue crates, they probably aren't more than teen feet high a piece and he's less than one of them."
"I noticed that too," Storm agreed, taking a seat, "We don't have much information on the sentinels, but the ones we've seen so far have been bigger. It also seems to be attached to some sort of box at the bottom instead of having legs. I don't think it's supposed to move."
The room was silent as everyone stared at the picture. There was just something about it, something Logan couldn't place his finger on, that just seemed familiar. More so than the obvious comparison they'd been talking about. It was like he'd seen it somewhere before. Maybe before the surgery?
Or you're just making connections out of nowhere. Just because you can't remember your past doesn't mean every little feeling is a clue.
Shaking his head, he turned to Bobby as he began to speak again.
"Well, whatever it is, who's is it? I mean, it can't be the governments. The president said-"
"The president says a lot of things. We've seen before just how little he actually knows about what happens around him." Storm interrupted, a hint of bitterness in her tone. Logan couldn't blame her. If it was the government, it would mean they'd been let down yet again, and just when they were starting to get a real foothold too. The room went silent again, as all the members mulled the possibility in their minds and Storm turned off the screen.
"Kitty, can you be ready to leave in half an hour?" She asked the startled girl before turning back to the rest of the group, "I have a contact in Chicago who might know more. He specializes in the current mutant-related projects the government tries to keep from the public. The rest of you," She began, her steel blue eyes resting on each of them in turn, "Are going to stay here and watch out for the school. The last thing we can handle right now is to have the rest of the team running around in a thousand different directions. Is that clear?" As she finished, her eyes specifically fell on Logan who stared right back at her, narrowing his own.
"Crystal." He responded unperturbedly, hiding his annoyance. Why had she singled him out? Yeah, so he could be a little head strong sometimes, so what? It didn't mean he was stupid.
"Super." She said with a smile and then stood, "Dismissed. Everyone make sure you have a communicator before you leave. In case anything comes up I want all of us to be able to contact everyone else. Oh, and Logan, I need to talk to you for a minute."
The communicators disappeared off the table one by one as the group dispersed, leaving the room empty save for Storm and Logan. He shifted uncomfortably from where he was standing and shoved his hands deeper in his pockets, unsure of what to expect.
"Any word from Kurt yet?" Storm asked in a lowered voice as the door closed behind Piotr. She sounded concerned. Not that it was anything new coming from her, but it did put him at ease knowing he wasn't the only one troubled. It made him feel more justified in his worrying.
"No, he hasn't called yet. But I didn't think he would until he found Rogue, unless," He paused, as a new possibility surfaced in his mind, "Unless she didn't get to Canada, which would explain why he can't find her." That thought put him very ill at ease. Rogue, at least the one he'd known, rarely lied. She'd withheld information at times, but if it was something like that...he was confident she would have told him the truth. Or so he assumed. As he continued to think about it, though, he really didn't know her much at all. He didn't know what her family was like, why she'd left them- hell, he didn't even know her favorite color. Even so, there was a gut feeling he got around her that she could be believed.
"I'm sure she's fine. He's probably just being thorough. Canada is a pretty big country, after all." Storm pointed out, trying to inflict a little humor in the last bit, but failing somewhat miserably.
"Yeah, but how many trains get there from New York, even when you consider connections?" He rebutted.
Storm sighed and shook her head, as if at a loss of what to do, "Look, it's only been a day-"
"And a half." Logan interjected, as if the extra half day was all the difference in the world.
"Fine, a day and a half. We need to give him more time and he'll find her, I know he will."
"What if he doesn't?"
She hesitated, stuck between a rock and a hard spot. He knew what she was deliberating over. If she told him to wait it out until Kurt called-however long that would take- he'd bolt in the next view days after she left, which he agreed was probably true. If she let him go too early, however, the school would be left without a guardian, something neither of them wanted. He knew it was callous to put her in that position to have to decide, but he didn't see any other way around it. The best case scenario was that she'd give him some free reign so he could at least convince himself her had some control in the situation. Worst case meant choosing loyalties. When it came down to it, if he had to choose between keeping the trust of the school or protecting his friend, he would choose the latter. He'd promised her that he'd watch out for her, after all, and considering everything that had happened recently, his pledge had become increasingly more important.
"Four days." She finally conceded, almost regretfully, "If Kurt doesn't call by Thursday, then you can do what you want." He nodded his agreement, slowly, knowing it was the best she could do but still unsatisfied with the answer. She headed for the door and then paused, "Whatever you do, Logan, be careful. The last thing these kids need right now is to loose someone else."
He nodded, she left, and he could tell she was equally discontented by their arrangement. It wasn't fair, but that was the way the world worked, all the same. Most of the time there weren't clear cut winners and losers, everyone had to made sacrifices sometimes. But he was delving too far into philosophy for his already crowded, drained mind to wrap around. So now all he had to do was last the next four days and hope they'd get a call, and sitting around and waiting was not his favorite option. He wondered if those kids were playing poker again...
-----
Rogue had always been good at staying out of the way. There was nothing particularly striking about her appearance, minus the white streaks in her hair, of course. Those, however, were not currently an issue as they were hidden by the semi-permanent brown hair dye she'd picked up at a nearby drug store and used at a gas station bathroom. Silly as it was, she sort of missed her trademark hair color, but she reminded herself that the dye wouldn't last forever and having all brown hair was better than being dead. As for the rest of her makeover, it had been relatively simple thanks to the baggy jean jacket and hooded sweatshirt she'd packed along with the rest of her clothing. In fact, her duffle bag had served as a relative chest of disguises with all the mismatched, ill-fitting pieces she'd packed along with her normal school clothes.
On the opposite end of the difficulty spectrum, though, had been finding a place to stay for the night. To her knowledge she didn't know anyone in Syracuse and she was very nearly flat broke, so a hotel was out of the option. There really weren't any other options that she could think of as she surveyed the area around the station from a map in the lobby. There was a hardware store about a block and a half away from the station, one of the bigger ones. That could be promising, she mused, and at least it was a plan. So it was there she'd headed, and waited until the store finally closed its doors for the night. As the last few employees trickled out and into their various cars and drove away for the night, Rogue slowly and carefully made her way forward, ducking into one of the unlocked storage sheds on display in front of the building and closing the door almost all the way behind her. It hadn't been much of a shelter, but it'd been better then sleeping on the streets. She still hadn't decided what to do about the next day, as the train too was now not a possibility, but when she settled down she realized just how exhausted she was. Tomorrow's worries could wait for tomorrow, she decided, and curled into a ball of clothes and duffle bag, dropping off into sleep.
It wasn't until the voices were almost right on top of her that she woke up. One groggy glance out the small crack of the door and she knew it still had to be nighttime or early morning, as light was bending its way in. Curious, she sat up and scooted closer to the entrance to listen, assuming it was just a couple of the employees coming to open up. For a moment she was worried they'd find her, but as she listened she began to get the impression they were deeply involved in whatever they were talking about.
"You have all of the supplies, then? Because I remember a very similar conversation no less than two months ago where I received a similar promise, but no delivery." She caught the first voice, definitely male, slightly accented. Italian, maybe? It was hard to tell from what she could hear, but there was one thing that she could clearly make out; whoever voice number one belonged to, they were not in a forgiving mood.
"That was a fluke. We had all the supplies then too, but one of the cargo busses was intercepted. It was just lucky for you it wasn't another one of the busses; those were the most easily replaced materials." Hissed voice two, but it wasn't particularly menacing. Mostly it seemed nervy, although Rogue guessed male number two was trying to hide it.
"Lucky for me? I wouldn't be so sure that I would have been the one to suffer the consequences of a more unfortunate loss." He stated flatly, almost completely emotionless, and suddenly Rogue understood why the other man was so frightened. There was nothing there. He'd just been talking about what she guessed was a man's life as though he traded them by the dozens on a whim. She didn't even know him and she felt the hair on the nape of her neck prickle in fear with what he'd said.
"Now," He continued, "I need the disk."
Rogue leaned in closer, putting her eye as close to the whole as she dared when suddenly there was a noise behind her that sounded like a muffled pop in the atmosphere. Swinging around, she froze as she felt an arm grab her shoulder. There were two choices: fight the intruder or shut up and hope the men outside hadn't heard anything.
"Shh, Rogue, it'z me."
She would have recognized that heavily accented voice anywhere. Slumping slightly in relief and taking a few deep breaths, she turned her attention back to the talking outside to make sure they hadn't heard. Apparently, as they didn't seem to be making a beeline to the shed to kill them both, things were alright. With one problem out of the way, she turned to face the other, pressing the door closed slowly as she did so.
"Kurt?" She said in a low tone, "What're you doing here?"
"I don't think that ist a problem, at zhe moment." Was all he replied.
Not a problem? Well, maybe it wasn't to him because he actually knew what the hell was going on. Rogue, on the other hand, was completely in the dark as to why he even would have bothered to-
"They put you up to this, didn't they?" She hissed with annoyance, suddenly seeing some pieces of the puzzle fit together. Peachy, they'd sent someone after her. Did they think she was twelve or something? She could take care of herself, what did she have to do to make people understand that? Sure, maybe she didn't have the experience they had, but big deal. That didn't make her incompetent.
"Look," She went on, a bit more collected this time, "You can just go back to the school and tell them-"
But before she could tell Kurt exactly what she was thinking, there was a huge crunching noise that split the air and shook the flimsy plastic walls of the storage building. Rogue flew face first into her bag and there was a thud next to her she guessed must have been Kurt.
Then there was nothing. Just silence.
"What was that?" Rogue muttered, suddenly a little grateful she wasn't alone anymore.
Kurt opened his mouth to speak just as the door opened. Trying to move was useless, whatever had opened the door was on them in a second. Some sort of cloth bag went over Rogue's head before she could even see what had attacked them and she was knocked to her stomach on the ground and bound before she got a chance to try to fight back. Her head was pounding and the rest of her body felt like it was on fire. She could still make out the sound of the movements around her, although it was becoming fuzzier the longer she tried to focus.
"Quick, get them out of here before Quicksilver's backup comes." One voice commanded and seemed to float from somewhere nearby.
"How do you know this is the right one? Doesn't even match the physical description-" Another one argued back.
"I know. People can't disguise what they are."
As more hands started to grab and pull her up again, she stopped struggling and blacked out, figuring she was as good as dead.