Chapter Four: A bolt from the blue
Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.
Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1 and Thor
Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.
A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.
Central City Station Parking Lot. An inconspicuous van.
Stephen Lang had been sitting in the passenger's seat of the van, waiting for Trent to come back, while employing his time in dealing with some of the backlog on some of the projects he had been working with Doctor Trask, thanks to his prevision in bringing his laptop. He looked up as Trent opened the door to the van
"HQ called, they examined the videos and the little bitch didn't appear anywhere here or in the bus station." Trent said without preamble as he sat in the driver's seat, "So, we got new orders."
"And those are..." Lang said, rolling his eyes. Since the visit to the old bat, he had been convinced that this was a whole waste of time, better employed in more interesting things, like working on Doctor Trask's Sentinel project.
"Jackson, Ashford and me will continue looking for the little bitch, and you and Sanderson go back to HQ." He said, "Trask wants you for something."
'Finally!' he thought, happy of getting rid of the bastard, but, wisely, he didn't let any of his relief show in his face. "How do we go? Or...?"
"Whatever way you want, maybe with you out, I can get shit done." Trent said.
A bar just outside Bayville
Logan walked in and looked around. Unsurprisingly, given the early hour, it was almost empty, the barman and a middle-aged woman with sunglasses sitting on a table were the only people inside.
"Hey, Logan." Rob, the barman said.
"Rob." he acknowledged, sitting on a stool.
"The usual?" Rob said, already getting down picking a Canadian beer.
"Yeah." he said, sitting on a stool.
"It isn't a bit early for you to come here?" the barman asked as he opened the bottle.
"Somebody sent a note asking me to come here." he answered as he took the bottle.
"Well, nobody has come asking for you." Rob answered, "In fact, other than the blind lady, you are my first client of the morning."
"Actually, Logan, I was waiting for you." he heard her say, "I was the one who sent the note."
He looked back and saw the woman looking at him, the white baton that had been hidden by the table prominently in display. Taking a sip from his beer, he shrugged and went to sit with the woman.
"Do I know you? Because your note was addressed to a name that I haven't used in many years." Logan said in a low voice.
"No, but we have common acquaintances, like Mystique or Creed." she said, as Logan started to take another sip from the bottle.
Upon hearing those names, Logan did a spit-take.
"Do you work for...?" he started to say, narrowing his eyes.
"Occasionally." she said, as if it was the more normal thing in the world, "Don't get it wrong, I do it because I owe Mystique my life, I don't agree with either Magneto or Xavier's vision." she said, "And before you ask, no, I'm not working with them right now."
"Are you..?" Logan asked.
"A mutant? Yes, precognitive, I see how events may develop." she said, "And that comes back to the reason I asked you to come here."
"Let me guess, you came to warn me of something bad that is going to happen." Logan said, his voice full of skepticism.
"Hardly." the woman said with a snort, "I was the legal guardian of the girl that you and Xavier's people tried to recruit two nights ago."
"Oh, that's how she disappeared." Logan said, realizing what had happened, "By the time we got rid of Creed, she was gone, and her home..."
"Yes, I was the one who sent her away, just in time before... something unpleasant happened." the woman said, "My power told me that if she was not there when any of you arrived, she could have a much better future. And before you ask, the people who wrecked our home, had no bearing on this, although you're probably are going to know about them soon enough."
"How do I know you are telling me the truth?" Logan said, still skeptical, "You haven't even told me your name."
"You don't, and my name is Irene, by the way. Irene Adler." she said.
"Seriously?" Logan answered.
"Yeah, I have heard all the Sherlock Holmes jokes already." Irene said.
Logan sat back and looked at her thoughtfully.
"Why are you telling me all of this?" he said, finally.
"Mystique wanted to recruit her, that's why you found Sabertooth and the others there." she explained.
"And you agreed with her working for Magneto?" Logan said.
"Even if I had said no, Mystique would have tried to recruit her anyway. And anyway, at the time, the best future that I saw for her, passed for her recruitment into Magneto's group, not that she would have lasted long there." Irene said, "But that night, I had a vision that showed me a much better outcome if I sent her... elsewhere. A much better outcome for her, and for everybody, human and mutant alike."
Logan waited, his face impassive, sensing an incoming 'but'. And the woman didn't disappoint him in that regard.
"...But even that is dependent on you, and you alone, without the rest of the X-Men, going for her." Irene said, "And there is something else for you, in this. Exactly what it is, I don't know, only that whatever it is relates to Nick Fury."
Logan didn't answer immediately thinking about what he had just been told. His augmented senses hadn't picked any sign she was lying, but she was friendly with an expert dissembler, so he didn't really have any motive to believe her. On the other hand, Nick Fury. If he was somehow involved on this, he needed to see it and pronto, and have the X-Men on speed dial.
"Where do I have to go?" he asked, and Irene promptly answered, "Kansas, eh?"
Ma Hunkle safehouse, noon
Ma Hunkle put the groceries in the table, and a package in the fridge. She had just bought enough for the two of them, and she had also go to collect a couple items she had asked Rex send her last night, and then she would sent her underway, after a bit of preparation of the disguise. It wouldn't be good if some of those people who were after her recognized her at the bus station.
Rogue was reading at the table, still immersed in "Under the Hood". John would be proud of being able to attract the attention of younger generations, although she still thought Jonathan was right on decking him for what he told about the fictionalized versions of Libby and him. Why he had invented that incident was beyond her, as if their relationship hadn't been rocky enough, (if she was not wrong, they were on their third attempt at marriage already, and that didn't count the times they had been separated without divorce and reconciled later), to have plenty of real incidents to draw on.
She started to prepare the vegetables for a lentil stew, and while the stew was over the fire, she prepared a light salad.
"Rogue, I brought Ice Cream. Vanilla, Cream or Chocolate?" she asked, as she started to set the table.
"Vanilla." Rogue said, as she went to help her.
Some time later, after they had eaten, and cleaned everything, she broached the matter to her.
"Marie, I doubt that they had stopped looking for you. If you are going to take that bus, you will need to disguise your appearance." Ma said.
"I know, I'm pretty distinctive, aren't I?" Rogue said with an ironic smile, "What do you have in mind?"
"Makeup, clothes and either hair dye or a wig." Ma said.
STAR Labs
He saw as the security personnel carried away Henry Rathaway, or as he had known him, the Pied Piper. He had tracked a few of the future Rogues, and he had subtly encouraged them to be away from Central City for the next two years, he calculated. Enough time to enact his plan without undue interference, and in case some of them came earlier... well, as much as it irked him, the Flash would be here to stop them.
Now, about other possible interferences... most of them were too young or too far. Even Stark was focused mostly in cleaning the messes his family had left behind right now. And while Rogue had managed to escape...
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a message warning from his phone. He frowned, the few people who knew this number, knew better than to send a message. He took the phone and looked at the message, and a chill ran down his spine.
'You have been a naughty boy, Eobard, sending the Friends Of Humanity after Rogue.'
The sender was hidden, and his attempts to identify whoever had sent him were met with failure. He was about to start a heuristic search on Gideon's files when he received another message.
'Don't worry about your little scheme about Flash, I have no interest in foiling that. But X-Men and Brotherhood members, present and future, are off-limits for the Reverse Flash. After all, you are not the only time traveler with plans.'
Just after he stopped reading the message, he received a call from a hidden number. With trepidation, he answered the call.
"Harrison Wells speaking, who is it?" he said, with the more normal voice he could muster.
"I hope that you received my message, Doctor Wells, or should I call you Eobard Thawne?" a digitized voice said.
"What do you want?" he said.
"Many things, but what is important right now is that I have plans for some of the mutants in the X-Men and the Brotherhood, and your little stunt would have cost me one of my pawns if I hadn't reacted quickly." the voice said, "On the other hand, Flash may prove a nuisance in a few months, so I have a..."
Somewhere in the Midwest
"...little proposal for you." the voice in the computer said, "I'll try to steer any mutants clear from Central City or Keystone City, and in exchange..."
"I keep Flash focused in Central City for the time being." Wells answered, "That may be a bit difficult since he seems to have befriended Oliver Queen."
"Let me worry about that." the voice said, a sneer evident in its voice.
"No skin off my nose, but I agree to your terms. I intended to do so anyway." and Wells cut the call.
"Do you think he has bought it?" another voice, belonging to an old man wearing a hooded robe, answered.
"Probably, Eobard Thawne can be highly predictable. His two main instincts are self-preservation and a deep hate for the Flash. Everything else is secondary to him." the voice in the computer said.
"Very well, but my time grows short, Adrian." the robed man said, "And we'll need the three of them when my greatest failure returns."
Ma Hunkle Safehouse.
"Are you sure about this?" Rogue said, looking at herself on the mirror, "I look..."
"Absolutely unlike you." Ma said, "People see what they expect to see, so a young redhead dressed like a hippy won't attract the attention like a Goth teenager, or a preppy blonde."
"Still..." Rogue drifted off, not having a counter for that, "I suppose that I can change back later." she said with a sigh.
"Not until you have reached Topeka." Ma cautioned, "In the meantime, I can give you the two-dollar tour of Keystone City and Central City."
"Are you sure we'll have time?" Rogue said, "The ticket is for the last bus of the day, but still..."
"Before the inn took off, I worked part time as a tour guide." Ma said with a smile, "Believe me, I know what I'm doing."
STAR Labs. Gideon's room. A few hours later
Harrison Wells had managed to get his nerves under control. To hear that, despite his precautions, he had been observed the whole time, had been unnerving, to say the least. But nonetheless, the show must go on.
He then noticed a pop-up appearing on the screen, showing a shooting star crossing the darkening sky. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. Just in time. Nonetheless, he checked the weather. And as the history books said, an enormous storm front was starting to form following the path of the shooting star, covering the entire coast. One of the biggest storms of the Century.
'A fitting welcome for the arrival of the God of Thunder.' he thought.
He had considered for a long time when to set the opening of the Accelerator, but in the end, he had pushed for the opening being tonight. There had been... would have been other storms that would affect Central City and could have been used to ensure that Barry Allen would become the Flash, but he ended choosing this, as it didn't depend on fickle weather patterns that could be easily disrupted by a careless time traveler, but on events that could not be easily disrupted.
Not too long afterwards. Central City.
"Okay, I forgot that tonight was the inauguration of STAR Labs particle accelerator." Ma said, having finally parked some distance from the CCPD headquarters, after having driven around the block more than a few times, "I'll talk with Joe about the incident and then we'll be going back to Keystone City."
"Hopefully before the rain starts to get worse." Rogue said, looking at the cloudy sky and the drizzle that was starting to fall.
Rogue looked down at the city, finding the view strangely familiar, and then it hit her. One of her first visions. She started to look for the phone where she had been noting the visions and saw the description, as the image came back to her:
She was in another place, a city bordering a river and saw an... explosion from downtown, which prompted the clouds to unleash a storm over the city. A lightning fell in a close building...
She realized now that the explosion of her vision... came from STAR Labs.
'The particle accelerator.' she thought, as she started to run toward the police building. But it was too late, she could already see the events of her vision unfolding, as the wave of whatever it was started to expand from the lab, reaching the clouds and unleashing the storm that had been brewing for the last half an hour.
She turned to run toward the police building, as she had realized that it was the one from her vision, where the lightning...
"Crap!" she said as the lightning struck the top floor, exactly like in her vision, and exactly like in her vision she saw a flash from the upper floor.
She ran toward the building, only to find Ma and a young woman exiting it.
"What the Hell has happened?" Ma asked, alarmed by Rogue's expression.
"Lightning struck the top floor and STAR labs..." Rogue started to say.
"Oh, God, Barry!" the woman said, running back to the building.
"...exploded." Rogue finished, and then turned to Ma "Should we go to help?"
"Yes, we still have time to go to the station." Ma said after looking at her watch.
TO BE CONTINUED...