Disclaimer: XU to X3! Not making any money from this. Corrinth owns Stifle and Vixen, Blaze is mine, Marvel retain all rights to all other characters, all knowledge of US military comes from watching Stargate SG1!
Above and Beyond: Scene 4Blaze took a crowbar to the lift and somehow wiggled it until it sat in a small gap between the doors. Raising a foot she gave the crowbar an almighty kick, and then another. The doors parted, not by a great deal, but enough for a small and very determined thief to force her way through. It was a long way down. Blaze didn't bother to look down the lift shaft. She concentrated entirely on problems as she was faced with them, be they lack of handholds or a ledge that was too narrow for her feet. She kept her breathing and her movements to the same rhythm, and so made steady progress downwards.
The lift car was at the bottom of the shaft. With relief that the physical exertions were over for now, Blaze stepped onto the roof silently. To her right there was an air vent in the wall. It was a weak spot in the mansion's design, and so protected with extra security. The metal grill was easily removed with a screwdriver. The blinking lights of the alarm system solidified into clear infrared beams as Blaze cupped her hands together, producing smoke but no fire. Adjusting the security then proved a little too easy, something she would have to fix if ever this was all over.
The vent lead along the walls of the subbasement corridor at head height. Blaze knew exactly where she was crawling. She blindly ignored the two GRSO soldiers working with computer consoles on getting through the Cerebro doors. Instead she kicked at the grill at the far end of the vent, and dropped lithely into the Danger Room control room. Blaze smiled callously as she flicked switches to bring up security camera footage of different parts of the lower levels. She laughed aloud as, to their surprise, the GRSO's 'succeeded' in opening not the Cerebro doors, but the ones behind them and to their left, leading them somewhere else.
"Come on boys," Blaze oozed encouragingly, "Come and play."
Foolishly, the soldiers left their post and went to investigate.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Thank you Gambit," Ilehana said with feeling as her collar gave a small hiss and the neurotransmitter died along with the other machine parts. Vixen was suddenly overwhelmed with a colossal broadening of her awareness. Without trying she knew that Gambit was hoping for more than just a verbal thanks for giving her father and herself their powers back. She guessed he'd earned it, and hugged him briefly.
"Hope I'm not interrupting?" Blaze giggled, "Break it up!" An underarm lob tossed a couple of packs of cards tied with elastic bands for Remy to catch two-handed. "Cerebro's all yours until the next guard changeover. I wouldn't go in the Danger Room though, it's a bit of a state in there."
"Don't give the game away mes Amies," Gambit urged them. "They t'ink the collars workin' so long as you don't let dem know otherwise."
"Take care of yourselves," Blaze spoke heartfully, kissing the Professor's cheek.
"Keep us posted?" Gambit asked, lugging some of the equipment Blaze had brought up from the lower levels over his shoulder. The Professor nodded solemnly, Ilehana standing behind his shoulder with a hand on his wheelchair. Then the thieves were gone.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Now what?" Wolverine asked gutturally as Blaze and Gambit dropped silently over the wall that surrounded the mansion's grounds.
"We go rescue the others," Blaze stated the obvious.
"How? We don't know where they are," Stifle pointed out.
"Mystique?" Gambit suggested, "She said she knew."
"Yeah but how the Hell do we get hold of the chameleon?" Logan was full of questions. Blaze and Gambit both shrugged, they didn't have any answers. Stifle pressed her lips together and scowled. Then she replied, "I can reach that mother of all bitches for you."
"You can?" Wolverine was knocked back and he didn't like it, "Why? How?"
"I used to be in the Brotherhood, way back when. Mystique helped train me, if you can call it that. Providing she's still listening to old frequencies we used, which knowing Mystique she will be, I can reach her." Stifle did not sound happy about the idea of being reunited with her former tutor, but none of the others could blame her for that. None of them were keen on this idea either, but they didn't exactly have a whole lot of choices.
"Old frequencies?" Blaze wanted the point clarifying.
"I cut my ties with them a long time ago," Stifle replied. "They are bound to be using new communication codes and frequencies by now. Mystique, I'm hoping, is still pedantic enough to keep an eye on the old methods."
"You guys got radio equipment?" Wolverine demanded. A pair of feral brown eyes, a pair of cold grey ones and a pair of red-on-black eyes fell on Blaze. She pouted and folded her arms, "Of course I did. It was heavy and I had to climb up the lift shaft carrying it because those dratted soldiers had cross-wired the frigging lift. I'm sure Vix can fix it, but I sure as Hell couldn't."
"Where were you?" Stifle raised an eyebrow at Gambit.
"Copping off with Logan's missus," Blaze teased flatly. Gambit looked indignant whilst Logan's face turned thunderous. Sensing an imminent scrap over Ilehana, Blaze clapped her hands together, "C'mon, whatever we do we can't stay here people." Realising the severity of their exposed position, the X-Men fell silent, grabbed the equipment and melted away into the countryside.
Inside the mansion, Xavier chuckled to himself dryly. If he was right, then General William Kincaid, the instigator of the plot to bring down the President and the X-Men in one fell swoop, had a whole lot of trouble heading his way…
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What Stifle said to Mystique when eventually she made contact, the others never found out. Certainly there was no love lost between the former mentor and student. Whatever the conversation, Mystique revealed she was in Seattle, and gave Stifle an address to meet her at, an apartment down a back alley that was as safe as anywhere these days. All scheduled flights were grounded, so instead the team 'borrowed' a private Lear jet and ran the gauntlet of possible military contact as they flew across country. In Cerebro Xavier did all he could to keep the jet unnoticed, and before long they had landed successfully.
Apart from being down an alley swimming in trash, rainwater and no one wanted to know what else, the apartment turned out to be quite splendid. Up what appeared to be a nondescript fire exit around the back of a drugs store, a solid door gave way to a plain corridor, at the end of which was another door. Through this door was a lush, oriental-style pad with beautiful furnishings and succinct mood lighting. It smelt of burning incense and oozed comfort with every soft drape of red silk fabric, every curvaceous reclining chaise longue. It would seem Mystique did not like to 'hide-out' without a generous helping of style. There was no sign of Mystique herself, so the X-Men settled to wait.
Stifle opted to take first watch, clearly on edge at the thought of the upcoming reunion. She went to hover outside in the alleyway where she could keep a clear view of the comings and goings up in the street to the front of the building. After checking the cupboards in the kitchen and finding they were bare, Remy went back out again to get supplies. It was dawn when he made it back. The crimson sash across the horizon was steadily growing, and the wind had picked up to chase the cotton-wool clouds across the sky. Stifle nodded to him as he passed her, Mystique hadn't appeared yet then.
Inside Logan was flaked out on a red sofa, looking ridiculously of place and yet somehow completely at home amidst the Asian furnishings. If Gambit didn't know better, he'd have sworn Logan must have spent time in China or Japan, maybe both. Logan had showered and changed into clothes he'd found in one of the many other rooms. The dark brown t-shirt and black sweatpants could have been made for him, though his feet were bare.
"Beer?" Gambit asked, offering Logan two bottles to uncap. Logan obliged before handing one back. The feral raised an eyebrow at Remy's 'shopping'. The Cajun shrugged, explaining, "Everywhere's shut." Logan reached forward and took a large packet of tortilla chips from the pile of junk Remy dropped on the low table in front of them both.
"So you robbed a convenience store?" Logan pressed, trying to make the unflappable Cajun react.
"If I'd had any cash I would've left it," stated Remy.
"Couldn't you have tapped an ATM?"
"An' dat would have bin so much better because?" Gambit returned.
"Good point," Logan decided, putting his feet on the solid hardwood table and leaning back with his chips and his beer. Gambit left him to it. Going into the master bedroom he stripped off his uniform and went to the en-suite. It was a wet room, fully tiled with shower fittings on the wall and drain in the floor, pretty luxurious if you liked that kind of thing. The door wasn't locked as Gambit went in, but the room was thick with steam. At first Gambit thought Logan must not have turned the extractor fan on. The patter of water told him otherwise.