Chapter 9 - Reindeer Games

On returning to Westchester, Scott had already sent word for Kitty to come and help with whatever this device was on Nolan. They weren't sure how it worked, and if they were being honest, they needed it in one solid, working piece to figure it out.

But there was trouble almost right out of the gate when it was clear that Henry was having an issue digging into it properly. "There's just a little too much miniaturized tech jammed in here," Hank said with a frown. "As much as I'd like to dive in, circuits this small are simply a bit beyond what I'm comfortable working with."

Charlie had been sticking around to check on Michael, but when she overheard Hank and Scott talking, she found her hands drifting to the pendant she was still wearing. She was pretty sure she knew who to talk to.

"James could do it," she said quietly.

"If you could get him to agree to it," Hank pointed out. "He's been avoiding touching anything like this for months."

"I'll talk to him," Charlie said. "I wanted to tell him Amy worked anyway — and suggest a few tweaks for when I do big sweeps like that."

"Hopefully, that won't shut him down," Hank replied.

"I'll lead with the mini muzzle tech," Charlie promised before she rushed off to the garage to grab the car she'd gotten for her sixteenth birthday and head out, with Amy still in the leather pouch in the car.

Banner's lab was far and away a different experience from dealing with Stark's group. For one thing, the music wasn't turned up — not rock, anyhow. Soft classical was drifting through the lab, and there wasn't a large group of unnecessary people wandering around. In fact, it was more or less Banner, James, and Banner's secretary — which kept the whole tone of the place very sedate.

That is, until Charlie came bounding in with a bright smile. "James, there's this thing the Russians are using, and it's miniature tech, and you should take a look at it."

He barely glanced up at her before going back to what he was working on. "Take it to Stark. He's the miniature tech guy."

"I think you should look at it," Charlie insisted.

"Charlie … I'm not doing that stuff anymore. You know that."

"Yeah, but your design works," Charlie pointed out. "I used Amy twice in one day, and I'm still standing — and that's down to you."

"Great. Hank did fine then, didn't he?"

"He didn't make any changes," Charlie said. "He said he just made the tweaks in your notes, and then I took it to Europe. It's all you, James." She grinned. "Told you we make a good team."

But James frowned and shook his head. "Why won't he look at it?"

"He said the tech wasn't his specialty — the miniature stuff… it was wrapped around Nolan's face, and Elin offered to cut it off…"

"And you took it off on purpose?" James asked, frowning deeper.

Charlie smirked. "Well, if there'd been a second one…"

He let out a sigh and frowned at the chemicals in front of him for a moment before again going back to it. "I don't think they want me. Go for the sure thing and get Tony. Or Howard. He'd be good, too."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "You're making assumptions without knowing all the facts. Isn't there some kind of rule about that with you science boys? How 'bout you find out if you're wanted first before you assume."

He frowned and shook his head. "Sorry. Instincts, I guess."

"Well, ignore 'em and come with me," Charlie said. "Try doing the not-instinctive thing for once, just to see how it goes."

"Not if I can avoid it," he said dryly.

"At least come look at it," Charlie said. "And then you can tell me you can't do it. Which you so can. So then you'd have to lie to my face." She leveled a finger his way. "And don't just… lie to get out of it either, because that is wrong."

"Go on," Banner said as he peeked up at the two of them over his glasses. "I've got it for now."

James turned around to look at him with what was clearly an irritated expression. "I don't want to."

"Sure you do," Banner replied, back at his microscope. "And you want to know how I know you want to do it? In part, because I want you to. And it'd be nice to know why psychopaths in third world countries are making muzzles for people, don't you think?"

"Russia's not a third world country," James argued.

"It is if you leave Moscow," Banner said in that same even, easy tone.

"They were going to put one on Sadie," Charlie said. "They were getting the boys first, but… she was there too."

"Pretty sure I'm being kicked out temporarily anyhow," James said as Banner nodded with a clear 'mmhmm'.

Charlie smiled at Bruce as she seized James' arm. "Thanks!"

"Any time," Banner called back.

With that, Charlie took James back to the car and headed back to Westchester, though he was silent for the ride home, staring out the window with his arms crossed. But it didn't bring Charlie down. She was glad to have him with -even if he was being pushed into it. It was still a step in the right direction. By the time they got home, she was grinning with her arm through James' as they went down to the lab and she kissed his cheek. "Thanks for humoring me."

"Knock it off," he grumbled.

"I'm in too good of a mood," she replied.

"Yeah, no means no, Summers."

She kept grinning at him. "I'm going to go check on my brothers. Have fun with Dr. Blue."

James rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. "I see how it is. Drag me here and ditch me," James said before he glared toward Hank, though the fuzzy blue doctor seemed completely unfazed by the glare. "Typical Summers nonsense."

"We know it had some kind of inhibitor function," he explained to James. "But the rest of its inner workings are still a bit of a mystery, I'm afraid."

"I don't wanna do this," James grumbled. "Either Stark would be better."

"Yes, well, Howard is currently occupied elsewhere, and Tony is out of the country," Hank said. "And seeing as you were hand picked by Tony and are here right now, let's just get down to work, shall we?"

James glared harder and made his way over to the device to take a look, absolutely not impressed. He pulled out the smallest tools that Hank had on hand and then sat down at the bench where the device was sitting. "Stupid thing's set to 'on'. Kitty fried it."

"It was the best way to get it off of Nolan so he could be allowed to eat and drink," Hank explained.

James shook his head and turned the muzzle over in his hands a couple of times before he pushed the screwdriver into a slot that was fairly hidden — and it cracked open into two pieces. "Cheap Russian crap," he muttered under his breath.

He frowned at the pieces, still not at all amused with the task at hand, then picked up the half that went over the nose and mouth and held it onto his face to see what it was supposed to do, frowning deeper when he realized how tightly fitted it probably was once the back half was on too. He pulled a light over and tried to get a closer look, but that just resulted in him cracking it open entirely to look at the contents. In under an hour he had it disassembled and expanded out so all the parts were visible. "Okay. All you," he called out to Hank.

Hank looked a bit surprised — though that was overshadowed by the pleased expression as he made his way over. "What can you tell me?" he asked.

"Well, it's tight-fitting. Probably a lot more tight-fitting if you're a fathead like Nolan," James grumbled. He pointed the screwdriver at the more important parts. "Rebreather, looks like it's soundproof, but there is a really crappy mic that I'm 98% sure is modeled after the garbage in drive-thru windows."

"Then they likely didn't expect to use it much if at all," Hank surmised with a deeply set frown.

"Why talk to them?" he asked with a shrug. "Then we have the not-so-surprising detail of a remotely-powered inhibitor that isn't part of the general on/off function. So. There's that. Then … you know. Trackers … and a couple of garbage batteries."

"I'm going to hope that the batteries aren't related to the functionality that allows the wearer to breathe."

"No, the power can go off and the rebreather will work, but they'd have to conserve their energy. The power makes it almost a forced air situation for high output moments like a fight. Running. Power goes out, they're stuck where they are if they like to breathe too."

Hank shook his head as he looked over the various parts spread out in front of James. "And the safest way to disable it? Assuming it is on a subject."

"I don't know. I'd have to put it together and try it out."

Hank shook his head. "No, we'll save that option," he said with a small smile. "Simply a matter of curiosity."

"Fine. I don't want to mess with it more than I have. I'd stick with the hinge. Crappy design and all, though there is room in there for a mini tazer, honestly."

"Of course there is," Hank said in a sigh.

"But … if this is the battery system they're using, they won't be able to power it."

"It seems to be an oversight," Hank agreed.

"Can I go now?"

Hank raised an eyebrow at that but nodded all the same. "I hope you don't need me to suggest you see your sister before you disappear to parts unknown after the most recent hardship she's endured."

"Banner made it pretty clear that I'm out for a while anyhow," James admitted. "I think he's a sucker for girls coming by."

Hank smirked a bt as he nodded. "I've found when a pretty girl asks me to do something, it's best to agree."

James gave him a dry look. "He's volunteered me out twice now."

"Perhaps you should consider what it means that even the noted hermit Dr. Banner thinks you should get out more," Hank teased.

"Yeah, it means he wants me out of his lab," James countered on his way toward the door.

Hank shook his head. "Thank you for your help, James. I hope I'll see you before you leave us again."

James gave him a wave over his shoulder and headed for the stairs, not in the mood to bother with the elevator. When he got upstairs, he headed toward his sister's room, since Sadie had never shown an interest in any of this kind of work, and he was sure she was at least shaken. He didn't quite make it to the suite, though, before Cody spotted him and ran over to give him a huge hug.

"You come in when you heard about all the crazy that happened last night?"

"No, I came in when your sister guilt-tripped Banner into kicking me out."

"Well, either way, it's good to see you," Chance said from around the corner as he joined the two of them.

"Does this mean you'll be around more? Because I'm moving back to Westchester, and I miss my friends," Cody said.

"For a few days anyhow," James said before he frowned and looked down his nose at the two of them. "What happened to hunkering down in Moira's island hideaway?"

"It didn't work," Chance said dully.

"She got in anyway," Cody explained.

"Not exactly surprised," James said with a little growl. "Wonder why she didn't bother me?"

"She might not have known where you were," Cody pointed out.

"I've been coming and going from Banner's lab in broad daylight for months," James pointed out.

"Then I dunno - maybe she's scared of the Hulk?" Cody said. He paused. "She wasn't exactly looking too hard for Charlie either, though. Just… me."

"She's got a thing against girls," James said with a smirk before he turned toward Chance. "... and … you. Ma'am."

"Yeah. I noticed that when she almost killed me, thanks," Chance said dryly.

"So, is everyone abandoning Muir?" James asked, leaning against the wall.

Chance shook his head. "No, I'm headed back on Monday," he said. "Charlie and Cody are staying here, but… I wanted to finish the semester there." He smiled lightly. "Krissy worked so hard to get out there, I'd be stupid to leave."

"Probably better that way anyhow," James said.

"Yeah, I've been really enjoying the flight class and the psychic defense," Chance said.

James watched him for a moment that clearly read how much he couldn't believe Chance's angle. "Right. Sounds amazing."

Cody smirked and put an arm around James' shoulders. "So. If you're back for a while, we should do something. We'll make Chance drive."

"Just because I can heal doesn't mean I want to be scarred mentally," James said.

"Hey, we're not that bad," Cody defended, grinning wider. "At least, I'm not."

"You might be oversellin' that," James said.

"Yeah, we'll see. There's an ice festival this weekend," Cody said. "Let's go and have some fun."

"Oh, I don't know," James said. "I'd need a date for that."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Really? I don't have a date — and no, that was not a proposition."

"You're not pretty enough anyhow," James teased.

Cody smirked. "Great. So we'll go the three of us."

"What, the girls all grounded?" James asked. "Or do you think they all just need to cower until this is over?"

"I mean, we could get dates, but do you really want to be around Chance and Krissy?"

"Or are you trying to tell me something, Cody?" James said, frowning his way.

Cody gave him a dry look. "Uh-huh. We're leaving at eight on Saturday. If you bring a date, that's your business."

"Everyone's taken anyhow," James said with a shrug. "Or severely not interested."

"They really kind of are," Cody agreed before he paused and dropped his voice to a whisper. "But I kinda want to get out of the house with Chance? It was severely crappy with Sinister."

"Same kind of gross as last time?" James asked.

Cody nodded. "He'd be dead if I hadn't gone with her," he said low.

"Then what the hell would you want me around for anyhow?" James asked. "Don't you have like … emotional Summers bonding to do?"

"Because you're kind of hilarious and fun to be around and neither of us is up to snuff right now?" Cody pointed out.

James glanced over at Chance. "Is this a solidarity point?"

Chance shrugged openly. "More the merrier or something."

"As long as we don't discuss your big sister? I'm down," James said. "But I gotta go see my little sister. Baby's first kidnapping, you know."

"Sweet. See you tomorrow," Cody said.

Sying, meanwhile, had woken up still in Russian custody, this time with something stretching across the lower half of his face that had him immediately on alert. It wasn't quite a collar, and that was the only thing keeping him from going straight into a panic, but it wasn't anything good, either.

There were a few men in Russian uniforms who looked like they thought they were in charge, but before they could say a word, Sying yanked hard enough to pull free of the leather straps on his wrists and ankles and was on his feet and ready to fight. He tried to tell the goons across from him exactly what he thought of them, but no sound escaped the muzzle on his face.

Which was a weird sensation — not being able to hear his own words when he knew he was speaking. Especially since he could hear through his skin. Being silent was… off.

He reached up to his face, fully meaning to yank off the muzzle, but he couldn't seem to break it. Which was concerning enough on its own — but worse when one of the men stepped toward him and Sying's intended retreat was painfully slow.

Apparently, this thing had an inhibitor function.

Still, this was the whole point of what his grandfather had been teaching him, right? The second of the Russians tried to grab him, he ducked and put his training to good use, confident he could at least deal out a few black eyes — up until he realized he couldn't get a breath right.

He was breathing heavily just from avoiding two men, but he wasn't getting enough air for how much his chest was heaving. And when he realized it and started to see black coming in at the edges of his vision, he tripped right over anger and went straight into a panic attack, scrambling backward until his back hit a wall and he all but slid down it, hyperventilating and unable to breathe.

It didn't take long at all for him to pass out.

When he did wake up again, he was relieved to find that he could breathe, though he was still in the Russian facility and still muzzled, so his situation hadn't improved at all. He could feel his panic starting to rise in his throat again, but he closed his eyes to force it back down as best he could. He did not want to go through all that again. Whatever this thing was, it controlled his air flow. He could not afford to let them turn it down again.

"You do as you're told, yes?" The Russian military doc said. "If you like to breathe, you do as you're told. Is very simple."

Sying's eyes were wide as he nodded. Yeah, he'd gotten the message pretty loud and clear. Not that the rest of his mind and body were cooperating fully, considering he couldn't keep still and could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

"Good. Is good." The doctor nodded to himself and went about his business for a moment, then paused to turn back to Sying. "Oh. Try stupid moves again, and you won't need to worry about breathing. Yes?"

Sying narrowed his eyes and tipped his head to the side, not sure what the doc meant but sure that it meant something even worse than what he'd just experienced — and not trusting himself to get up or move from where he was, which might be a "stupid move."

He was just… really, really tired of everyone thinking they could just grab him and use him.

The festival ended up being exactly what the boys needed to get out a little and joke around. The local girls had flirted with all three of them, and Chance had talked Cody into asking one of them for her number by the end of the day.

But it had been good to get away from anything related to the X-Men or the labs or any pressure, really. They were grinning and joking around all the way back to the institute in grand moods — mostly at Cody's expense over the girl he'd tried to flirt with who had a girlfriend about twice Cody's size.

The laughter in the car was cut almost immediately when they returned to the Institute to find that the girls were whipping across the snow, racing the horses and steering from behind on downhill skis. "Shut. Up," James said, as they watched the race in progress. "I leave for one day and Mom busts out the skijoring stuff."

"Maybe we can catch a ride before she puts it up," Chance suggested.

"Only if you want to race the winner," James pointed out.

"It would still be a ride," Cody pointed out. "Here — drop us off here, Chance."

"Oh sure. Ditch me."

"Like a ton of bricks."

"I see how it is, Codes," Chance said, shaking his head as he just kept driving to the garage anyway, and all three of them jumped out of the car to go see the girls.

Before they got all the way around the corner, they could hear the laughter echoing up, and even Sadie was playing along, accusing Kari of cheating with her tail as a rudder.

"Hey, it's not cheating if it's a natural resource!"

Sadie was grinning at her, though it was clear she was nearly frozen through. "Such a cheater," she giggled.

"Natural resource," Kari sang back.

As the girls came to a stop, both of them very nearly fell over sideways from the lack of momentum, but they were laughing madly. "So who won?" James called down.

"Me!" Kari called back, grinning.

"In her race," Elin said, chucking a snowball at her. "We didn't run the last two, if you guys really want to lose."

"Not too proud to lose," Chance said with a grin. "Looks like fun anyway."

"That's good, because that's what's gonna happen," she shot back.

"Money where your mouth is," Cody called out.

"Name your price future … fourth place," Elin shouted back to him.

"Twenty bucks and two sincere compliments," Cody called back.

"You're on," Elin replied without pause. "I'll even keep that girl you don't like from kissing you again."

"Wait, when did this happen, Codes?" Chance asked, turning to his younger brother.

"Hush," Elin said, waving a hand at him. "You missed it. It's a thing."

"I was distracted," Cody defended. "She snuck up on me."

"She's very excited that you're back in town," Elin sang. Then started up with the teasing song about them kissing in a tree, only the lyrics were more to the tone of married and in Swedish so that James was outright falling apart.

"Must be something about stalkers and Summerses," Kari said, shaking her head. "But I'm not going to fake date you to fix it," she added, pointing at Cody accusingly.

"Too bad; that's how things happen," James chuckled.

"Nuh-uh." Cody shook his head.

"Besides, me and Harry are kind of a thing," Kari said, almost sheepishly.

"Alright, come on. Enough with the lovesick crap," Elin said. "Who's racing?"

"Me and Cody," Chance said. "James wants a turn too."

"Then get some skis on, boys," Elin told them. "We'll wait; Mom has plenty by the barn."

The boys grinned and rushed off to grab some skis as the girls shook their heads and grinned at each other.

"Which one do you think will fall first?" Elin asked Sadie and Kari.

"Cody, definitely," Kari said.

"James is actually good at this," Elin said. "Watch him on the inside turns."

"Well, you guys grew up with this more than we did," Kari pointed out. "Getaways and stuff."

"Only because you didn't want to get too cold," Sadie said. "We have always done it here when there was enough snow."

"That's usually when Mama wants to go somewhere warm. No fur," Kari said, gesturing at her own blue fuzz.

"James cheats too," Elin told her quietly. "So … just know that."

Kari turned toward Elin with a dramatic look of surprise. "Cheating? In this establishment? Blasphemy."

The boys came out a little while later, though they'd argued over which horse to use. James had picked his favorite — which Elin had expected — but Chance and Cody were going back and forth about their steeds. "Are you ready to lose?" James asked while they strapped into their skis.

"Are you ready to eat those words?" Cody shot back.

"Not from you," James said as he arranged his reins.

Chance smirked at that and grinned. "On your mark."

"Let Kari call it," Elin said. "Seeing as you'd red-light if we were drag racing. Every single time."

Kari grinned as she leaned over to call it out, and as soon as the boys took off, she grinned at Elin. "Place your bets, ladies."

"Oh. James will get it," Elin replied. "I have faith in the big cheater. Unless of course something stupid happens."

It wasn't really easy to see who got the start, though. All three of the boys started off decently, and all of them had pretty good balance, so the only real trick was the matter of balancing one hand to steer and the other to hold on. It wasn't hard for James and Chance, who had, of course, spent a lot more time in the saddle than Cody, but by the second turn, even Cody had a decent handle on things, and with a shared grin, Chance and James kicked up the speed another notch or three.

Cody swore when he saw how the two of them were doing and started genuinely working to get his horse going faster as they headed into the third turn that went around the edge of the lake. There was some ice, but there was a fair amount of open water too, so the option of just running the horses over it was out of the question.

Cody managed to jockey himself between the other two boys, and as they got closer to the lake, he was sure that James was going to fall back rather than go into the water, but instead, James turned his head with a wider grin, whistled shrilly at his horse, and toed out toward the lake as the horse sped up.

The ice wasn't an issue, of course, but the patch of open water looked far more spectacular than it was when he hit it and kept on top — throwing a rooster tail off of each ski before he had to pull his toes up hard to make the bank — leaving Cody swearing up a storm as James passed him by.

Which was all fine and good, except of course for the fact that the wet skis started to pick up more and more snow, and it wasn't long before James was having a lot of trouble keeping his balance right. Once he hit a little jump, it was all over — and the girls could see it before the wipeout happened, too. There were massive chunks of snowy ice on the bottom of James' skis, and once he hit the ground again, there was no recovering with lumps like that — though the tumble was nearly as fun to watch as the waterskiing portion.

But all that really did was leave the avenue wide open for Chance to pour on more speed and zip past their makeshift finish line, with Cody a good three lengths behind him.

Chance laughed as he finally came to a stop and shot Elin a grin. "Ta da."

"That just means you gotta race again," Elin said. "With Kari and me."

"Oh no," Chance deadpanned.

"I know; you're dreading it terribly," she said. "Catch your breath. I don't want you to lose because you're too tired to go on."

Chance grinned even wider at that as he caught his breath, and Cody was just shaking his head. "My money's on you anyway, El. You're the better rider," Chance teased.

She shifted her weight to one foot and looked disappointed. "It's not going to be any fun if you give up before we start. And besides … this is more like waterskiing — as my brother demonstrated so well."

"Oh, I'm still going to smoke you," he said.

"In your dreams, Summers."

Kari leaned over to James with a little smirk as he finally arrived at the group. "You're missing the show," she said even as she started to pat his arms to paff off some of the snow.

"That show is on all the time," he said, shaking his head.

She nodded, though the smile fell a bit. "Yeah. My sister's dating one of them."

"Yeah, I know," James said. "Which is why it'll never be more than a ridiculous show like it is now."

Kari let out a breath. "As long as Krissy doesn't get hurt."

"If she thought Krissy might get hurt, she'd stop talking to him all together," James pointed out. He gestured to the two of them. "This … they don't even know they're doing it, and they'd argue it was just competition."

"I know; that's the only reason I'm not hitting one of them. Or both of them. It's totally unconscious."

He gave her a little smile and leaned forward. "She barely talks to him when it's a full group and there's no communication otherwise. Or did you miss the Halloween showing?"

"You mean the part where Krissy spent all night afterward freaking out?"

"About what?" James asked.

"The Nolan thing, or didn't you notice?"

"Oh, I noticed," he said, nodding. "That was ongoing."

"Krissy tried so hard not to throw a party outright when they broke up."

"I know nobody liked him, but … she got over him on her own."

Kari nodded and then gave him a quick hug. "Wish me luck, troublemaker!" she said as she headed over to the others.

"I am not a troublemaker," James argued before he raised his voice: "Take 'em down, sis!" When Kari looked his way, he shrugged up both shoulders, hands out. "Not sorry."

This time around, James called the start for them, and the three of them headed off a lot faster than the first race with the boys. It was pretty tight for the first half of the race, but as they came out of the second turn, Elin shifted her grip and urged her horse forward with a few kisses and clicks.

Chance was keeping up pretty well — all the way up until Elin started giving the horse the freedom to really run once it was out of the turn, digging in hard to keep her balance and just hold on when she took the turns at speed. This race didn't get anywhere near as close to the lake as the other one did, and none of them were concerned with wet snow when they hit the slalom section of the run, though Elin ended it with a heavy lead.

"You might get better at this with some practice, Cody," she told him as she slid to her stop well before Chance and Kari did the same. "Sorry, Chance; I tried to warn you."

Chance just grinned at her and shook his head. "Hey, good race. Don't think I'm quite brave enough to run it the way you do, though. I don't heal," he teased.

"Yeah, try racing Mom," Elin said. "She doesn't even worry about breaking anything."

"Yeah, no thanks," Chance agreed, still grinning as he sat down to catch his breath.

"Not bad," Elin replied. "I'm gonna put them up now … after all that, they'll need blankets." She whipped a snowball at Cody and pointed his way with one finger as she led the horse the rest of the way to the barn.

"I see how it is," Cody grinned as he stooped down to gather snow up into a ball to lob back at her.

"Sore loser, Fourth Place!" she called out, getting down to her chores. But when she was done, and the animals were all put away, she sidestepped the joking and snowball fighting that was going on to head up to her room and get changed.

She was a little tired, and if she was being honest, though the races were fun, it was just a little distraction from worrying, though she wasn't quite sure what the trouble was yet. She just had this feeling...