A/N - Hey all, I meant to get this up a lot sooner than I have, but there were some real life things going on with me that dovetailed into being sick for the holidays. Still sick, feeling better, but ... here. If you're still in it, enjoy! - CC
Chapter 5 - Take The Heat
"You ready for take two?" James asked Chloe quietly over her shoulder as they loaded up into the jet. They'd gotten a call about the Friends of Humanity screwing with some homeless shelter that had been opened by mutants trying to make a difference in the world.
Chloe found herself resting her hand on the visor she carried just in case in the pocket of her uniform as she nodded. "I'll try not to lose my temper this time. The headache when I run dry is killer."
"If it's any consolation, firearms are a little more regulated in New York than Texas, soooo …." James shrugged openly. "We'll see. I'm not going to make any promises anymore that hinge on other people not being idiots."
"Probably a good idea," Chloe said with a smirk, crossing one leg over the other to rest her elbow on her knee as she read through some intel. Chance and Elin had her running the mission again, and she wanted to get it right.
As she was really getting into it, James slipped her a small device that looked an awful lot like a cell phone ... but not quite. "Something that might help," he said. "I've got it tapped into the cell of the guy that's running his mouth off on the local news. He's calling himself the leader of this faction. Might be fun to see what's happening in text. Or … you know. Send out texts for him. Maybe."
Chloe couldn't quite stop her crooked smile as she glanced over at Kaleb wrapped up in conversation with Sying, then leaned forward. "Is this, by any chance, why Howard had to run home to help his mom — who was in Sweden at the time?" she whispered.
James kept a perfectly straight face as he watched her for a long moment. "What are you talking about?"
"Absolutely nothing," Chloe said with a sniff.
"That's what I thought," James replied. "Because that would mean I've been poking around in Stark's personal code … and we both know that wouldn't happen."
"Oh, never ever," Chloe said, starting to giggle.
James leaned back in his chair. "Seriously, I don't know where you get these ideas, Pretty Little Summers."
Chloe shook her head. "So it also wasn't you who sent Zoe a text telling her to meet up with my brother at the tattoo parlor?"
"No, that was me," James said with a grin.
Chloe burst out laughing. "Well, it was brilliant, and they have a date on Thursday night, so…" She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks."
"So … yay me," he chuckled.
Chloe shook her head and started to look back over the rest of the intel, and when they got to the site, she turned to Sying and Gerry. "Same as last time, guys — you two are on civilian duty, and Kaleb will 'port anyone critical."
"I'm going to start wearing a red and blue flashing light and calling myself 'Ambulance' at this rate," Kaleb smirked.
"Perfect," James said. "Well get you rollerblades to complete the look."
"Don't encourage him," Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
He leaned closer to her and dropped his voice quiet enough that only Sying and Elin could hear it outside of Chloe. "And all you need is a little smile, and you'd have a follower."
Chloe blushed a brilliant red at that, especially when Sying snerked and Elin was smirking. "Shut up."
James smiled crookedly. "I can't. It's a twitch. You want me to hit people or talk to them?"
"I think with these guys, none of us are going to be able to talk to them. You and me and the married couple are on idiot bashing," she said with a smirk.
"Chloe, you know I like a challenge," James said as he got to his feet.
She just laughed at him and shook her head. "Come on, keep up," she said, leading the way out of the jet — though of course, Sying and Kaleb beat everyone else and immediately started to clear the shelter of everyone but the Friends of Humanity creeps trying to cause trouble.
As any of them could have predicted, the anti-mutant protesters were very nearly livid with the X-Men for interrupting their "fun," and there was a small burst of nastiness when James simply pushed his way into them to break their line. He was hit no less than four times — and every hit resulted in the person that had taken the pot-shot cradling their now-broken hand. But it broke the line, and it shook up the protesters nearest to him and made it so at least that little section of the crowd was easier to disperse.
As soon as there was an opening, Chloe darted in. "Thanks!" she called out, blasting close to the Friends of Humanity protesters to get them to back up without actually blasting them before she simply slipped into the shelter itself. She was usually more than happy to blast through bad guys, but she also wanted to make sure that no one had gotten smart and left behind a "surprise" for the mutants running the place, and she couldn't do that if she escalated the fight, sadly.
Which was a good call, since by the time Chance caught up to her, she had already found a few wicked traps. Acid in particular.
Chance let out a low whistle. "Lemme help. I can heal, and you can't. Don't want you touching that crap."
"Be careful," she called out.
"Yeah, I'm just going to check the kitchens. I'm a lot more poison-proof than you are," he called over his shoulder, leaving her shaking her head. Though, she had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea, and she found herself wandering down toward the supply closets.
As it turned out, James had taken Chloe's offhand remark as a challenge and was honestly trying to talk some of the Friends of Humanity guys down — though that took a wicked turn in front of a local news camera when one guy kept trying to shove James back, with no progress. Except, of course, when they caught it live when James finally let out a sigh and turned toward the angry creep. "I know it's hard for you, but you need to quit groping me," James deadpanned — which of course infuriated the man. He rushed forward and hit James in the jaw with everything he had — and subsequently crumpled, screaming with his hand and wrist obviously broken. "You know," James said over the comm, "this is the slow way around, but I think it might make them think about their stupid before they hit people that they know they should not hit."
"Are you sure they're capable of learning?" Gerry quipped over the comms.
"Well. I mean … no," James replied dully. "But I know Anton was making a point of telling me that if I didn't hit them back, the cops can add assault. I've been assaulted, Sunshine."
"Be prepared to show Anton on the Hawaiian hula girl where the mean man hit you."
"I will," James said. "He groped me first too. Perverts."
"What can I say? Tall, dark, handsome… if I wasn't taken…" Gerry teased.
"Oh," James laughed finally before he almost immediately got irked and punched the next protester that punched him — and with much more effect. "I think you've got the wrong son; you want my brother … the half Japanese one with low standards…"
"No, I like the tall, brunette, and gorgeous girl that I've got," Gerry said.
"Oh good. I was going to have to break it to Charlie. That would have been bad for your health," he called back and then started honestly fighting his way through the group. "They have bats and two-by-fours. I'm not gonna talk to anyone here anymore. I tried."
"Then you can help me and Chlo with the shelter," Chance said over the comms. "She found a few nasty traps in here, and I've found some rough stuff too."
"On my way — and don't touch anything you think might be poisoned … let me scent it out, genius."
"Hey, give me credit. I'm pulling out anything that looks suspicious, and you can take a look. There's a lot of opened packages and broken seals here."
"Don't touch anything if you can," Elin said from the next floor up in the building. "Remember they'll need the evidence to really nail these creeps."
"Gloves only for anything I'm handling. Chlo's doing the same," Chance promised.
James put his hand on the door handle to go in, but before he could push it open, one of the protesters hosed him down with pepper spray. He cursed and tried to turn away from it, but it wasn't the one creep with a canister; he at least got in past the door before he hit his comm. "They soaked me with pepper spray," James said with a clear growl. "I can't do a damn thing to help you with that stuff."
There was a long pause before Chance responded. "Alright. I'll have Elin come sniff out the poison here; you can help Chloe with the rest of it."
"Where is she?" James asked, wincing as he opened his eyes to look around, blinking hard against the pepper as he tried to walk it off, even though his eyes were stinging and his nose felt like it was one fire.
"No idea," Chance said. "She said she was checking supply closets, but she was going to hit the bedrooms after that. And considering she hasn't cut into this conversation, I'm going to go ahead and pull the Worried Big Brother card and ask you to make finding her a priority, please?" he added, his voice tight.
"Alright. On it," James said, then let out an overly colorful expletive that described someone's heritage as he headed down the hall. He paused and checked every door on his way, unsure of where he was going and unable to find a scent trail if it had been handed to him. So, he had to do this the slow way, checking each hall one by one.
The spots that had been rigged, Chloe had marked, so at least he didn't wander into anything that wasn't defused or triggered already. But he was sure that if she was close by, she'd have told him off for his mouth by that time. Every time he breathed in too deeply on accident, he ended up coughing and then swearing. Loudly. He doubted she would have ignored that for so long.
He pushed open one of the supply closets — or tried to, anyhow. He frowned when the door wouldn't open all the way. "Chloe? You in here?" When no answer came, he growled, put his shoulder to the door, and forced it open with a hard shove, then started up a fresh string of curses when he saw she was behind the door and unconscious.
"Alright. Get SHIELD in here, now," James snarled out. "Chloe's down." He picked her up and got her out of the room, but it wasn't until he was partly down the hall that he realized she had a fine coating of some substance covering her from head to toe. "Wait a minute. Something's wrong." James stopped and set her down on a clear area of floor and listened to her breathing. "She's breathing, but she's been hit with some kind of chemical. Wish I could scent it and tell you what the hell it was, though."
"Elin," Chance said over the comms, sounding even more strained than he had before.
"On my way; don't worry," she replied, her heavy breathing giving away how fast she was running. "Kaleb, can you bring in someone substantial from SHIELD?"
"I'll bring the director himself if I can get him," Kaleb swore.
"No," she said, smiling. "There was a convoy of them headed this way already. Six or seven blocks west at most by this time. Pretty sure these guys would just attack the director."
"Yeah, but he'd kick their butts," Kaleb said before he had disappeared and then reappeared with the SHIELD agents, if the sudden uptick in background voices over the comms was any indication. The other junior team members could also hear that Kaleb wasn't exactly joking around as he started teleporting agents in to just get this fight over with now that Chloe was down. He likely didn't even realize he'd gotten as serious as he had, though James was too focused on making sure Chloe was breathing to call him out on it like he would have at any other time.
When Elin got down to where James had Chloe, she paused and wrinkled her nose up, though she turned the comm off while she was talking to her brother. "Oh, crap," she said and met James' gaze. "It's got some of the same notes as Heat."
James let out a growl and hit the comm. "No one open any other doors. Let SHIELD handle this part of it."
"What's going on?" Kaleb asked — about a split second before Chance did.
"Just stay outside," Elin added. "And Chance, you get outside."
"I've already texted Stark for back up," James said. "He's on his way with a couple suits to move us."
"What's going on?" Chance asked.
"It's some kind of liquid, weaponized Heat," she said. "Chloe is covered in it, and James carried her out, so he's got it all over him. I don't know if I'm getting hit or not, but I'm in the area, so just … stay back for now. It'll be fine."
"Isn't that lethal for mutants?" Chance asked, the panic clear in his tone.
"It depends on the formulation," James replied. "This is a newer version; the fact that it didn't crystalize might mean it's not as concentrated."
"Might," Kaleb cut in, sounding just as panicked as Chance. "Might?"
"You want me to lick the wall and see what happens?" James asked.
"Do not lick the wall," Chance said.
"How is she?" Kaleb asked, not at all in the mood to joke around.
James left the others in silence to check before he reported, "No change. She's breathing, heart is a little accelerated, but she's the same as she was when I found her."
The report, while accurate, really didn't do anything to help the worried team members as the SHIELD agents cleared people out and the rest of the group had to wait for Stark and the quarantine suits. Everyone on the team kept asking for updates on Chloe's condition, to the point that James was ready to ignore them entirely if it wasn't for the fact that Kaleb and Chance alike sounded like those updates were the only things keeping them from panic attacks.
But then, finally, Sying signalled that he could see an Iron Man suit. And that broke the tension — if only a little bit.
"Chance, fill them in as best you can," Elin said when Tony arrived on the ground with his form of back up. "I guess we're spending the weekend in the tower."
Chance looked a bit frazzled, so Sying grabbed the team leader and ran him over to where Tony was so he could give Tony the quick version. "Elin says it's some kind of weaponized Heat," Chance explained without any other introduction. "Chloe's covered in it, but she and James were exposed as well."
"Oh, that will go over well with Mom and Dad," Tony said dryly, though he headed in all the same without much more wit. He could see the young heroes panicking and knew time was of the essence, too. "As soon as SHIELD has a handle on things, clear out. I'll take them back and get started or … let … people who know medical things get started. Maybe send McCoy over." He paused. "Or don't. I'll get Richards."
"Yeah, maybe don't get anyone else…" Chance paused and ran a hand through his hair. "We'll stick with you."
"Yeah, I hear you, but this is more about keeping the exposure away from other mutants. Don't worry. Reed'll stay honest."
"I know," Chance said, still with his hand in his hair. "That's just my sister, my brother, and my wife in there, so I'm just kinda… yeah."
"I know," Tony said. "I'm pretty fond of them too."
The sound of the spare suits wrapping around the three junior team members rang over the comms. "Chloe is totally missing her first flight," James whispered in a laugh, clearly to Elin, who started giggling under her breath.
"Um, this isn't funny?" Kaleb muttered, though Sying was already shaking his head.
"They're high. Dad says that family reacts to Heat like a recreational drug," he explained.
Kaleb frowned at that and wrapped his arms around himself, holding onto his elbows as his tail twitched behind him. He didn't like any of this.
A few moments later, the three suits took off, clearly piloted by Stark, who tapped into their comm system. "The suits will monitor them while they're in them," he told the junior team. "They're in good hands."
"Then can you tell me more about what's up with my sister than 'she's breathing'?" Chance asked. "James was giving us updates, but…"
Tony made a little sound and then held his breath. "Well. She's going to medical attention. That's about all I can tell you for sure. On your mark, we can bring your dad into this little chat. I don't want to be accused of keeping him out of the loop."
Chance hit mute on his comm and looked right at Tony. "I'm not bringing Dad in unless I know it's not going to give him a heart attack. So let me know what's going on and then we'll decide if he's coming in on this."
Tony nodded at that. "I'm not going to know until Reed can analyze things," he said. "Unless you want me to live stream it to Hank too."
"No, Reed's alright," Chance said, letting his shoulders drop, though he was distracted when he heard Kaleb's voice over the comms.
"Okay, I'm at the tower," Kaleb said. "I can do things to help."
"Do things like … I don't know … get out of the tower," Stark said before he gave Chance a look and took off. "You know, away from this new drug concoction — which, Chance, it is a version of Heat. Suit says the formula's a little jacked up."
"I'm just on the roof," Kaleb defended. "I can come in after the whatever is done."
"Oh, just the roof. Where the suits are headed. With the contaminated kids inbound. Go by Barton if you need to be there. But stay by Barton and let them know what's going on."
There was a long pause before Kaleb replied. "Okay. Okay, fine."
Tony shook his head to himself. He knew the kids were young, and they were allowed to think with other parts of their bodies besides their heads, but they weren't allowed to make stupid decisions that could get them killed.
He knew, of course, that he had no room to talk. But still, the kids were supposed to be better than the generation that came before them, right? He was just coming in to the tower himself when he decided he was going to talk to Kate after this was over about how her son was making the same kinds of mistakes they had.
By the time Reed got there, Tony already had the three contaminated X-Men out of the suits and washed down — after he got samples, of course. He'd just put the samples in for analysis, and the three of them were on gurneys in the medical floor. Chloe was still unconscious, but Elin and James were clearly and amazingly high and hallucinating. Which, Tony mused to himself, was probably not the best way to test how resilient the restraints were in the medical unit.
The two of them were at work fast, and it didn't take too long to determine that Chloe's condition wasn't permanent or deteriorating. So that was some good news, at least.
"This is definitely an altered formula," Richards said as he looked at the evidence in front of him. "Liquefying it so that it could carry in a light oil base altered it enough that it's nowhere near as damaging as the original. Though it seems a little … um … longer lasting." He was watching the two ferals as he said the last part. Richards cleared his throat and turned away from his patients. "I'd like to see how long it takes to work out of them all the same."
About that time, the rest of the junior squad had arrived, and Chance came rushing up to where Reed and Tony were — without the rest of the team, who all had the X-gene. Technically, he couldn't be sure the Heat wouldn't affect him too now that he was altered, but since healers didn't react the same way other mutants did, he was willing to take the risk to check on his family. "What's new?" he panted.
Richards gestured to the three of them. "Stable. All of them," he said. "But it's not fatal. Not without purposefully swallowing it, anyhow — and in large quantities. The oil base makes it harder to metabolize, though, so it will take time."
Chance looked relieved to hear most of it. "Alright. I'll let my dad know," he said, letting his shoulders drop, though his gaze was on the occupants of the quarantined area in the medical wing. "Hope you don't mind my parents camping out here, because they won't leave Chloe until she's awake…"
"No, of course not," Richards said with a little frown. "They can stay as long as they like. Hopefully by that time, we'll have a better timeline on what's going on." He gestured toward the quarantine. "Give me another few hours to be sure that it's safe and they can go in, too."
"Good, because Mom's not going to stay far," Chance warned, though he was already leaning against the wall and unconsciously parking himself close to Elin - or as close as Reed was willing to let him get — as he started to call up his dad to give him the overview.
Of course, it took next to no time before Scott and Annie were there — and Logan, though he had absolutely not been alright with the idea of K coming until it was perfectly secure, all things considered. But once that was sorted out, Reed okayed visitors — as long as they stayed on one side of the barrier.
Tony was watching over the group of them, though he'd have been lying if he had said he wasn't amused with James and Elin and whatever it was they thought they were seeing. "Well," he said finally as he kept watch alongside Logan. "At least they're not violent right now."
"Yeah, that's not likely going to be a problem if this is Heat," Logan said. "Knocks 'em on their backsides. Hard."
"Elin's talking to someone," Chance said, trying to hide the small smile as he watched his wife have an animated conversation that looked like an argument before she burst out laughing.
James, on the other hand, had gotten very quiet and almost thoughtful as he stared off at a fixed spot on the far side of the room. But Chance had zero way of knowing what James was muttering to himself. It wasn't English, for one thing — and he was clearly slurring his words.
But for as entertaining as it was to watch the two ferals and their reactions to Heat, Chloe was still entirely unresponsive, and Annie wasn't the only one sitting by her. Kaleb wasn't exactly sitting — more sort of pacing and absently pulling on his tail.
"You hangin' in there, big guy?" Tony said quietly as he took the seat nearest Kaleb.
"I'm fine," Kaleb said irritably. "I'm not the one unconscious!"
Tony closed one eye for a moment and tipped his head to the side. "That's a fine point and all, but you're starting to sound like you might have a little blood-glucose imbalance. Electrolytes. Something. Pretty sure it's not terminal, but I don't have a doctorate in that."
Kaleb turned Tony's way with an annoyed, guttural sound. "You're not funny."
"Not trying to be," Tony said as he leaned back in his chair and loosely crossed his arms in front of himself. "But if you're planning on being here for the long haul, you might want to consider trying to relax so you can pounce when she does wake up."
Kaleb pulled on the end of his tail some more and then let out a sort of growling noise. "I want to do something to help. What can I be doing? Do you need me to get something or — or can I set something up?"
Tony thought it over for a long moment. "Richards has medical covered, honestly. But …" He turned and gestured to the others gathered. "They look like they might need looking after too." He let one corner of his mouth draw up tight. "Doubt you'd outpace Mom to get to her when she does open her eyes anyhow. No offense. She just looks like a sprinter."
"She is," Kaleb said. "But I'm faster than anybody."
Tony nodded. "Not arguing that one either," he said before he let a little more time pass. "I just … is it because she's not awake yet? Or …" He narrowed his eyes, watching Kaleb for an instant before he waved one hand. "Nevermind."
Kaleb looked up at Tony and then frowned. "I'm not - I've just - she's never been down like this before."
"Hazards of the job," Tony replied. "Everyone's been down from time to time. Gotta learn to at least function for yourself when one of your teammates goes down." He tipped his head toward Scott. "Or … well. You know how this goes."
Kaleb made a face. "I'm not turning into Scott," he said.
"Not what I meant," Tony said, shaking his head. "You know what? Nevermind. Get a candy bar or something. You're crabby."
Kaleb made another face and then shook his head before he disappeared to get some food — and to his Tony-appointed task of taking care of the others.