Scott, Kurt, Jean, and Rogue, and Ororo ran to the computer room as instructed by Charles. Scott and Jean were the first ones to operate the computer.
"Okay. We just need to find out what happened to Lance and Kitty that night." Jean told the group.
A few searches led to surveillance footage from outside the theater, where the group watched a guy approaching the building, but hide somewhere in an alley, and then Lance and Kitty walking up to the theater be attacked by their suspect, and how they were attacked.
"So that's how they were drugged..." Kurt gasped as he saw a syringe in the suspect's hand.
Jean nodded. "I guess so. And he seems to have his face concealed. I don't think we can recognize him that easily."
The group watched on as they saw the suspect carry the two back to Lance's jeep and drive off somewhere.
"Let's see where that guy is driving in Lance's jeep." Scott said.
They watched the jeep drive by several streets through multiple surveillance cameras before they stopped at one narrow street. He parked the van at a blind spot to the cameras.
"What a smartass." Rogue muttered. "It's creepy that he knows where the camera's blind spots are in this town."
The next thing they did was get the addresses of the jeep's last known locations.
Just then, Logan came to the room with the "special guests" behind him, none other than Max and Chloe.
"'Ya know? You could've just asked to join us in the room instead of eavesdrop out there." Logan told the two girls.
"I know. I'm really sorry for being so nosy!" Max sheepishly apologized.
Chloe groaned. "Max. You've been 'sorry'-ing your ass off for the hundredth time now. He hella gets it already!" All Chloe received was a smack in the arm from Max, and a light chuckle from Logan.
Max looked around the computer room. "Damn. Now this is what I call a high-tech lair! Chloe's stepdad would feel right at home here." She thoughtfully remarked.
"So. What you got?" Logan asked the X-Men
"So far, we found our suspect, and we know that he drove off somewhere on Lance's jeep - we got the addresses already - but there's no ID on him yet because he kept concealing his face." Jean told Logan the news.
"Smartass." Logan grumbled, having the same idea as Rogue's. "Now what?"
Everyone in the room paused to think of further ideas.
An idea sparked on Max's head "Hang on. I think I've got something." She walked to Scott, who was in front of the computer, followed by Chloe shortly after.
"I know this is crazy for you to think, but maybe you can... search through the surveillance cameras inside those buildings?" Max suggested.
Everyone in the room turned to Max like she was crazy.
"Yes. It's stupid. But can we go on?" The girl continued.
"Uhm... okay...?" Scott reluctantly insisted and searched through any surveillance footage within the last building. "Just to note, we're not stalkers, alright?"
At first, Scott found the usual surveillance footage of the most common places on the buildings where the cameras are found at that address she collected, but after digging deeper, he found one set of cameras which were odd.
"Weird. Who places surveillance cameras all around their apartment room?" Scott questioned. "And runs it 24/7?"
"Someone who's hella paranoid?" Chloe muttered.
Behind the blue-haired girl, Kurt mouthed to Rogue in confusion. 'Hella?'
"Do you think you can rewind the footage?" Max asked. "If that is our suspect's hideout, then he definitely may have brought Lance and Kitty there."
Scott insisted, and she played through the footage to see if the man appeared, with either of the two mutant teens. She stopped when the suspect stepped in the frame at the time of 4:09 AM. From one camera facing the living room, he was spotted carrying Kitty down the hallway seen behind the couch, input a code on the wall, and bring her inside a room across the other doors. However, he still had his hood up, but the cover on his mouth was now removed and he was was carrying Kitty in the frame.
"There! His face is exposed! I can finally run an ID of him." Jean took a close up of the guy's face, and ran it through the facial recognition scanner.
A few seconds ran by and the facial recognition got a match. It led to a guy named David Wells.
The picture matched the details Lance and Kitty described of the suspect. He was 6'3, had a slender build, and had messy brown hair and beard.
Max, meanwhile, she saw someone different. Someone all too familiar to her. She froze in horror and turned pale as she realized at who the guy in the picture really was.
"No...! It can't fucking be...!" Max thought to herself.
Her heart began racing; panic started kicking in as she tried processing the information.
"Nice... Good... Oh, those eyes..." The memories of Max in the Dark Room played in her head again. "...Your iris... That...dilation like a shutter...the pictures you're taking of me now. Too bad you pissed away your gift..."
Her heart began racing; panic started kicking in as she processed the information.
She looked around to find everyone in the room frozen in place, Chloe being the last of the group, as they made a run towards the exit, seemingly about to go after Kitty's attacker.
She ran ahead of the group, leaving the room to curl up in a corner and panic her heart out.
Max felt time resume as soon as she heard footsteps approaching the corner, and a familiar voice after.
"Max?" It was Chloe, who spotted her through her shadow. "Max! Dude. You totally freaked us earlier when you disappeared like that!" The blue-haired girl helped her up.
"...h-how did you find me?" Max sheepishly asked.
"I was running with the crew to catch the guy when I heard you hyperventilating somewhere so I left to look for you. What's wrong, Max?'
"Chloe..." Max paused, still panicking. "That person... it's Mark Jefferson!" The brunette quivered at the mention of Jefferson's name.
"Urgh! No wonder that shithead felt so familiar!" Chloe's eyes widened as her speculations were true. "I knew something about that name tipped me off"
"How could this bastard escape!? I thought I was over this bullshit from last year! How could this come back to haunt me again!? Why would Jefferson torment like like this-" Max broke down again.
"Max! Come on! Remember when you told Kate Marsh to be strong while you saved her from jumping off that roof in Blackwell? This time, I want you to be strong- no wait. The whole fucking Institute wants you to be strong! I know you can be do better than this! Just... relax. It will be okay." Chloe tried to calm Max down, reminding her of what she did to save Kate at Blackwell last year. She gave Max a hug to cool her down even more.
"Hey!" Logan stepped in the conversation. "Everyone's waiting for you in the van! Still coming or not?"
"We have our own ride, Sergeant. No worries." Chloe told Logan. "What about you, Max?"
Chloe looked at her girlfriend, who reluctantly gave both her and Logan a nod in agreement.
"Let's capture this son of a bitch!" Max said in a determined voice.
"Okay then. Let's move!" The three ran back up to join the others outside the Institute.
Max, who was behind Chloe and Logan, suddenly thought of another plan, and strayed away from the two and ran back to the library.
"Max?" Max could hear Chloe looking for her. "Max. Where the fuck are you this time!?"
She positioned herself near the door and raised her hand, while covering her mouth and nose in the process to prevent any sounds from catching Logan's senses.
/*~~~REWIND~~~*/
She rewound back to when the X-Men were still inside the library, where Lance was explaining his story to the professor. Once Max finished rewinding, she muffled her groans of pain to not get the nearby people's attention, and she looked up to see Chloe, who had her ear pressed up against the door to eavesdrop the conversation.
"Chloe." Max tapped the blue-haired girl's shoulder.
"What!?" Chloe remarked in a not-so-soft whisper.
Max told her to keep her voice down. "I have a plan. Just... follow me."
"Seriously, girl. What are you-" Max placed a finger on Chloe's mouth to silence her, as she gestured her to make her way outside.
The two girls carefully tiptoed their way outside the mansion and into Chloe's car, where Max told her to drive normally and quietly until they were outside the gates.
Once they kept a distance from the Institute grounds, Chloe started driving at her usual speed.
"Okay, Max. Now that we're out of Step-douche 2.0's radar anymore, I demand an explanation. Now!" Chloe demanded, finally breaking the silence.
"Okay! Okay!" Max placed her phone on the dashboard, displaying her GPS. "Just... follow this address, alright?"
"How did you- Max. Did you rewind!?" Chloe knew what Max was up to.
"Yes, I did." Max proceeded to tell Chloe what had happened before the rewind, where she brought up Lance's story to the Professor, the X-Men searching for surveillance footage of the suspect, and the real identity of the attacker.
"Wait. Jefferson? That photography hick? I thought David busted his ass back in Arcadia prison!" Chloe was puzzled at the discovery.
"Well. He busted out, apparently."
"Weird. You usually get hella panicky at the mention of his name. How are you calm now?" Chloe noticed Max's behavior being changed
"I was panicky at first when I saw his face in his ID, so panicky, in fact, that I froze time. And then you told me to be strong, just like the Institute wants me to. So I did, even if you can't fully see it."
"Wowsers. I didn't know I was that good of a pep talker." Chloe was impressed with herself.
"For once, I'm glad you are." Max joked. "One more thing, the name on his fake ID was- get this: David Wells."
"David We- Hold the fuck up. He actually used my stepdad's first name in that fucking ID? You hella serious!?"
"I guess so. I think he's out to torment us here in Bayville!"
"Other than that. How did that fucker even know we're here?" Chloe decided to change the topic. "Anyway. Max. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don't be stupid, Max. You know? Your idea to get a headstart in finding Kitty and that punk boyfriend of hers?"
"You mean Lance?"
"Whatever. You know David 2.0 and his gang are gonna be at our asses soon." Chloe referred to Logan and the X-Men. "And we'll surely be grilled by the Professor once we go back from our mission."
"Yes. I know the risks, Chloe! I just want to find Kitty first before them. With my power."
Sure enough, the X-Men were secretly trailing behind the girls. Charles, Logan, and Ororo were in the X-Van, while Scott used his own car, carrying Jean, Kurt, and Rogue. All of them wore their civilian clothing to keep a low profile.
Some time later, the two girls already reached the address that Max inputted, where Jefferson parked Lance's jeep hours ago. The address led to a street tucked away in downtown New York, with hardly any cars around the area. It was where Max remembered the last place Lance's jeep was spotted last night. The building listed had a reddish-brown brick exterior, placed between other buildings of similarly colored exteriors.
"Damn it!" Max muttered out loud as she exited Chloe's truck.
"What is it?" Chloe asked.
"At this point, Jefferson had dosed Kitty already, again, but we have no idea where he might be now, so let's be careful." Max recalled Charles' conversation with Kitty before she got cut off happening at the same time.
"You think this is the place? It looks just like every other building in this town." Chloe commented. "At least this looks a lot less conspicuous than a fucking barn."
Max and Chloe entered the reddish-brown colored apartment they believed Kitty was held hostage was in. They figured that she was on the ground floor of the building, after Max noticed the windows having a suspiciously white background behind the curtains when she saw outside.
Chloe was about to break in when she found out that the doors were already unlocked. Max quietly closed the door to prevent any suspicions.
"Okay. I think that was a bad sign. Red flag Number 1." Max thought.
Chloe observed the place, which looked like a standard-looking New York City apartment. "This place looks so hella normal. It's creeping me out!"
Max recalled the surveillance footage she uncovered at the Institute, when she watched Jefferson from the living room carry Kitty to one of the rooms at the hallway. It didn't take her long before Max found a door she believed was the room Kitty and Lance were in, before noticing a suspicious blank wall plate. Max pulled out the wall plate to reveal another digital code.
"What the hell...?" Max muttered. "Another digicode!?"
Chloe went up to Max to see what was wrong. "Just like the last Dark Room? I swear this freak's a lot worse than David!"
This time, however, the code required four digits. Fortunately, not unlike the Dark Room in Arcadia Bay, the numbers required were also faded, which were just 1 and 0. Max figured the code was the date the storm hit Arcadia Bay, October 11, or 1011. Max and Chloe quickly unlocked the door and burst inside the room.
"Kitty!" The brunette girl was the very first thing Max saw. As she feared, Kitty was still slumped over and strapped to the chair, clearly Jefferson's doing. Before Max could raise her hand to rewind, she felt a sharp sting on her neck.
"Agh...! No...!" She fell to the ground, quickly losing consciousness.
"MAX-!" Chloe was about to run to Max's aid when she felt a punch in the face, knocking her out immediately.
As her vision also started to fade, Max caught a glimpse of who was coming towards her.
"You..."
Standing right in front of her was the mastermind himself, Mark Jefferson.
Boom! Cliffhanger! What's gonna happen to Max and Chloe now? How will the X-Men react to this? Will the girls be saved in time? Stay tuned for the final chapter of "Kitty In The Dark Room." Please follow and favorite! :)
Sorry this took long to publish, guys. I've had this chapter for a long time, but I kept being sidetracked by other things, so I haven't gotten around to working on this story. Hopefully, I will work on the final chapter for real by the next week. For now, just stay tuned.