Disclaimer: WIO

Blitz and Blut

As the White Gloves landed at a private airstrip in Guantanamo Bay, Jean had put a fix on Kitty's jaw using telekinesis to –painfully –fuse the shattered jawbone back together. They took a disguised car to the motel, the temporary CC so shabby that nobody would think to find such high-class criminals as the White Gloves there. However, as they filed into the room and started pulling out their equipment for the robbery, Jean caught sight of something in the shadows.

There was a slight motion in the corner of the room near where Kitty was setting up the radio transductor. Glowing golden eyes flicked open, unnoticed by the 15-year-old.

"Kitty, get back!" Jean shouted. Kitty leaped backwards from the transductor as Kurt appeared from the shadows, tail lashing.

"Ve begin." He didn't ask it, he stated it flatly. Scott glared at him, but nodded stiffly, almost imperceptibly.

Five minutes later, the Gloves were standing to attention, facing Jean in the center of the room.

"Kitty and Kurt will run surveillance inside the fence. Get as far in as you can. Stay unnoticed. If you're found, alert me. Rogue, Scott, you patrol the outside fence; get a hands-on feel for where the guards are. Evan, come with me. We'll be running oversight." Jean stated crisply. "Don't kill each other."

"Hold on." Kurt pulled Blitz and Blut out of their case, sliding them smoothly into their crossed scabbards strapped to his back with a hiss. He held out a hand and Kitty took it grudgingly before it felt like her body was being forced into a tiny tube, then pulled in all different directions before she landed, grasping Kurt's arm tightly, just inside the security perimeter of GITMO.

While Kitty put herself into a semi-substantial state Kurt leapt up onto the wall, clinging to the shadows between the wall and the ceiling, invisible.

"Keep moving. I can feel a current down zis hall to ze outside." Kurt whispered from the shadows. She heard a soft padding noise, like cats' paws on a smooth metal surface. The tip of his tail hung down, so she could follow him. As he led her deeper into the maze of corridors and hallways, Kitty's mind went into overdrive as it settled on a sickening thought: could he be leading her into a trap. He could really be a GITMO authority undercover. He could be a for-hire assassin. He could just be a hateful person. He could be leading her to turn her into GITMO. He could be doing a lot of things.

Even worse: he could be a pedophile, or a rapist, or a molester. He was so old. Suddenly, Kitty realized she was drawing her pistol out of its holster. Kurt's ears pricked as he heard the click of Kitty disabling the safety. He turned around, dropping easily to the floor and straightening.

"Vat are you doing?" He hissed. Kitty cocked the gun.

"Kazerine! Stop zat!" Kurt snapped quietly. He could hear footsteps coming nearer. Kitty's finger tightened on the trigger. Kurt's mind whirled and he teleported in rapid succession. Just before the gun fired, it was gone. It was too late, though. The guards had heard the sharp cracks of Kurt's teleportation, which reverberated like quick gunshots. They were immediately running through the corridors, finding nothing when they got to the scene.

Kurt had let go of the loaded gun in the split second that he hovered in the other dimension of his teleportation. It fired.

Kitty came to her senses and fell through the floor, finding herself in a large, oblong room filled with computers.

Kurt homed in on Kitty, teleporting into the computer room with her, hand clasped over the hole in his thigh.

"Get ze info and get out." He growled, trying to stem the bleeding. Kitty quickly hacked the nearest computer, diving into prototype information.

The network alarms went off.

Moments later, guards stormed into the room to find it empty, not even a drip of blood on the floor, the only evidence the slight warmth on the mouse of the computer.

In a whirl, the two teleported back to the motel. Kurt sent out the mental red-alert through Jean, who called the recon teams back. They arrived at the motel minutes later. Evan was the first to notice Kurt's wound.

"What happened? You got nailed by a guard?" he asked smugly. Kurt bared his teeth at the boy.

"Kazerine decided it vould be fun to shoot me." He growled, shooting a pointed, angry look at Kitty.

Jean cocked her head at Kitty.

"What made you think that was a good idea, Katherine?" Jean made a point of using her full name, like Kitty's mother used to when she was in trouble.

"I—just, scared- I thought—a trap—could've been a—argh!" Kitty stuttered, trying to form coherent sentences, but stuttered out gibberish. Jean watched with narrowed, suspicious eyes as Kitty grappled for words. Even though she didn't like the German at all, he was crucial in the plans.

Breathing deeply in frustration at her own incompetence, Kitty ground out her sentence.

"I thought—irrationally—that Kurt was leading me into a trap and reacted on instinct and pulled my gun."

"Mm-hm." Jean muttered, crossing her arms. "No firearms for you."

"That's not fair! You can't do that! I'm the best shot on the team!" Kitty protested shrilly.

"Why don't we see how good Kurt is with a gun?" Jean said slyly, just to annoy the young girl.

"After I heal, danke for your conzideration." Kurt grunted from the shadowy-est part of the room. He drew one of his daggers and pressed the flat of the blade to each side of his leg—the bullet had gone clean through his thigh. When he pulled the dagger away, the flesh was stitching itself together rapidly healing, though it looked painful by the grimace on the German's face.

Kitty didn't bother to ask how he performed the unholy feat of witchcraft and devilry, she just wrinkled her nose and shook her head. Kurt growled softly at her, sending shivers down her spine.

"Give me a gun and target." Kurt demanded. Rogue handed him her gun resentfully. She pointed to a broken old TV on the roof across from the motel that was about 300 yards away and less than 2 feet square. Kurt weighed and balanced the weapon carefully with his tail, then passed it to his hand, cocked, aimed, and hit the TV dead in the middle of the cracked screen. He collected the cartridge and handed the gun, handle-side, to Rogue in one swift movement.

"It's settled. Kurt's the new sharpshooter." Jean said. Nobody objected. Even Kitty, the famously steady and accurate shot, would have trouble with that.

"No. That was a fluke. Three times in a row proves him." Kitty balked. Rogue kept her weapon on her belt.

"Waste of ammo. We're on limited supplahs, Kit. We can't go shootin' evr'ythin' that catches yer fancy." Rogue said, clicking the strap of the holster over the top of the gun.

"Now that you guys have had your pissing match, what did we actually learn from that recon?" Scott interrupted.

"Kitty's trigger happy," Kurt grumbled.

"Shut up, man. Deal with it. You know, you're healed, you're the new sharpshooter. What more do ya want?" Evan snapped.

"Mein Gott, somevone's pissy," Kurt muttered. Evan formed a sharp spike out of his palm, but had the self-restraint not to impale the antagonistic German on it.

"What did we learn?" Scott bellowed. Rogue glared at him and crossed her arms before reporting her recon.

"The guards move on two-hour shifts thayt hayve a twenny-minute break in between. The network security's goin' down for ten minutes fer system maint'nence t'morra. Perfect tahme t' strike."

"Security's quick to answer to any noise, no matter how small. Any red alerts and they'll be all over us like flies on a carcass in August. If they do get us, there's no way to evade them. We'd have to fight our way out." Kitty said flatly. Scott nodded.

"Zere's a computer room zat appears to be zeir CC under ze first floor at about ze midvay point of ze souz corridor. Ve could access ze information from zere." Kurt said.

"The chain-link fence outside is rigged with sensors. We cut it, they find us. Prisoners are also quick to alert to an outsider. We've got to go when there are no prisoners out." Evan said. Scott nodded again.

"So what everyone's saying is that we need to strike at night when the guards change and when the network security's offline. We have to be dead quiet and very careful about sensors, right?" Scott formulated the plan.

"Wrong. Tha network security's gonna be off at one o'clock pm t'morra when the guards aren't changin'." Rogue corrected.

"So we get in at the guard change closest before one o'clock. The prisoners'll be out from ten to twelve in the exercise courtyard, which runs the length of the west side of the base which is its weakest spot, meaning we'll have to go in though a more heavily guarded area. The north gate isn't as protected as the south gate or the east side, we could have Kurt teleport us in." Jean reasoned.

"No. I can't teleport zat many people in. Ve'll go in zrough ze souz gate at a guard change and hide out in an auxiliary hallvay zat I teleported into today until vone o'clock, zen Kazerine vill phase us down into ze computer room under ze corridor, get ze information, and ve'll be out viz our secrets." Kurt said.

"Wha can't we go in thra the east side then just work our ways ova to tha south corrid'r?" Rogue asked.

"It's more likely ve'll be found, and ve vant to reduce our risks as much as ve can." Kurt stated.

"Then it's set. We go in through the south entrance at eleven hundred hours on the guard change, hide out in the aux hallway, strike at thirteen hundred hours, and have Kitty and Kurt phase and teleport us back to the motel." Scott stated. Neither Kitty nor Kurt objected.

~*X*~

At ten thirty am, the Gloves were set up a few hundred yards from the south entrance under the cover of the palm "forest", as it were. Kurt had scaled the thickest palm and was watching from a vantage point with binocs. As the guards in the tower by the south entrance raised their radios to their lips, Kurt slid down the trunk of the tree and galloped over to the rest of the gang on all fours.

"Zey're beginning to move." He reported, standing up and checking to see Blitz and Blut were in their scabbards securely.

"There's cloud cover and it's dark now. Kurt, you lead us in." Jean stated, then motioned for the invasion to begin. Kurt crept to the edge of the trees, looking between the guards and the Gloves lined silently behind him. He galloped across the hundred yards of open grass on four legs to the edge of the fence, in the shadow of the guard tower, holding up his hand in the "stay there" sign. He glanced at the guards. They hadn't seen him. They were now turning their backs, in the stairwell of the tower, out of sight. He put two fingers to his other palm and Jean and Scott raced across, Evan was about to run when the guards emerged at the bottom of the tower.

Kurt made the "back up" symbol and Evan disappeared into the forest again. The guards had their backs turned, but that didn't mean they wouldn't turn around if they heard something or saw it in their peripheral vision. Once they were in the doorway of the south entrance, Kurt motioned for the other three to come across.

Silent and fleet as a shadow, Kurt moved to the access road of the south entrance. The White Gloves filed along behind him as the sky darkened several shades with an approaching storm.

Perfekt. Kurt thought, a dark grin spreading across his face. An unexpected variable, a Hummer coming down the road, was suddenly thrown into the equation. Kitty grabbed their hands quickly and phased them down into the ground, disappearing from sight of the Hummer. There was a noise like prolonged thunder overhead, then Kitty let them up, gasping for air. The Hummer had just passed them, and Kurt leapt after it, staying in its blind spot and gaining access to the door. Three minutes were down until the guards came back. Putting his foot in the sensor of the door to keep it open, Kurt motioned for the Gloves to follow, spying a security camera. He pointed to it and Evan shot a spike neatly through the lens. The door closed and Kurt led them into the nearest auxiliary hallway. There was a room at the end of the hallway with an open door. Scott requested permission to investigate using hand signals. Kurt nodded and Scott tiptoed down the hall, clinging to the wall. As he reached the end of the hall, Kurt could see his eyes widen through the visor almost imperceptibly. There was something at the end of that hallway. He turned to come back to the group, but his boot hit the doorjamb, a viciously loud sound.

Scott made the silent sign for "run!" and the Gloves started to sprint before Kitty got a hold of them and pulled them through the floor while the sound of boots rang overhead.

"It was a guards' room," Scott whispered. Kurt nodded. Kurt pricked his ears as he heard a new sound: static on a radio. There was a bleep, and a voice came through.

"Intruders . . . ground floor . . . high alert . . ." the sound faded away as the guard with the radio started walking away them.

"Zey know ve're here," Kurt breathed. Nobody else had heard the radio. There was a camera in the corner of the hallway, and it was focused on them, the lens dilating and contracting to get a sharp image. Both Kurt, Evan, and Scott noticed it at the same time. Kurt whipped out a knife as Evan pulled a spike and Scott opened his visors. There was a small screeching noise and the camera was demolished, but the guards had alerted.

"Get vat you need now," Kurt hissed to Kitty, who shot off down the hall with the rest of the Gloves coming behind. She felt along the walls, then came to a panel that slid away to reveal the computer room. Kurt didn't pause to ask how she knew, he just let her do her thing.

Kitty's hands flew over the keyboard, her eyes glued to the screen, blueprints and codecs and encrypted files coming up. Rogue manned the mouse and hit print on every document that popped up, all the printers in the room working at the same time, top-secret info pouring into the telekinetic grasp of Jean.

As the printers stopped the thundering racket, though, a sound reached the Gloves' ears.

The cocking of guns.

Muahaha, cliffie! I want to have 15 reviews (15 shall be the number on the top of the page!) before I give you chapter 5. I wanted 10 reviews before posting this, but I was feeling nice and put it up when you only gave me 9. 15! Remember that!