Disclaimer: AU to X3! Not making any money from this. Corrinth owns Stifle and Vixen, Blaze and Shockwave are mine, Marvel retains all rights to all other characters, all knowledge of US military comes from watching Stargate SG1!
Above and Beyond: Scene 11Curled up in an office chair that dwarfed her teenage form, clutching a mug of hot chocolate and whipped cream, Sam Hawley was half asleep. It was an improvement for the pretty brunette, who wore her hair in a sleek ponytail with red bangs around her face. She sported a straight nose just like she'd asked the surgeon for, along with a truculent pout. She'd been an insomniac ever since her dad, Senator Michael Hawley, had first appeared in Court with the President. It was on all the channels, not just the news ones, and as a fugitive herself it was all getting a little overpowering for the usually optimistic Shockwave.
She was hiding out at mutant hacker Studd's mini-mansion, after Forge had rescued her and her friends from Kincaid's GRSO troops. Since then their numbers had swelled as Studd and Forge worked to track down as many of Xavier's school pupils as they could. Not all of them had been captured, and every day Forge brought back more, with the help of Sam's Dad's assistant Matthew Cooper.
Right now Sam was in Studd's secret lair, his cave of wonders. Actually a windowless room full of banks of computers, Studd too was working in here. That was why she'd come down here in the dead of night whilst everyone else was sleeping. Studd was good company, as he didn't talk to Sam like she was still a child. He involved her in what he was doing, telling her interesting anecdotes about his admittedly illegal enterprises. Stories that occasionally involved the X-Men Gambit and Blaze.
Partially asleep as she was, Sam's eyes were only half-open. Studd had his back to her, his wheelchair facing the radio frequency scanner he was tinkering with. In the corner of Sam's eye, something flickered on a monitor screen. Sam blinked, yawning without bothering to cover her mouth. Squinting, her tired eyes could make out two words written on the black screen in green typeface. They hadn't been there before. Putting her feet to the floor, Sam scooted her chair over to the monitor.
"Whoa," Sam exclaimed, "Now I know how Neo felt…"
"What's up Kiddo?" Studd asked without turning round.
"Um, this computer says ': Knock knock'," Shockwave glanced over her shoulder to the cat-eyed mutant. "Its it supposed to be talking to itself?"
"Ask for the password," Studd replied with only a flicker of interest. Sam obligingly typed in ': Password' and hit enter. Not two seconds later a third line of text appeared from nowhere.
"It says ': Bite me'," Sam told Studd. The man in the wheelchair spun round on one wheel, suddenly alert. Shockwave obligingly moved out of the way as Studd came over to see for himself. "No way," he breathed, his face breaking into a grin adorned with silver piercings. He pushed his thick black-framed glassed up his nose with a finger, rubbed his sweaty palms clean on his 65daysofstatic band t-shirt, then started typing a reply.
: Hey Hot Stuff! Long time no see. Take it those bad boys found you ok?
For a few seconds there was a delay where nothing happened. Sam tried to think of a way to politely ask whom it was Studd was talking to. She couldn't think of one before the screen flickered again.
: Keep up Cats-Eyes, that was so…yesterday. Or the day before, it's hard to tell. You got time on your paws?
Manners are overrated, Shockwave decided as Studd laughed aloud and started typing his reply. If this were a private conversation, he would have asked her to leave already. Sam took a breath, and asked, "Who is it?"
"It's Blaze," Studd replied with a chuckle. "Gambit and Wolverine must have tracked her down. Sounds like she's back where she belongs, in the thick of it." Looking at Sam sideways his fingers paused over the keyboard. "You wanna help her? She's got info she wants to send over. If I show you how to organise it so my search program can blitz it for things we actually need, can you do it?"
"I'll try," Shockwave replied hesitantly. "If Blaze doesn't mind. She and I aren't known for getting along famously." In reply Studd deleted what he was typing and started again, before hitting enter.
: Got an assistant all lined up and online. What we looking for? And where are you anyway?
: On the Titanic. Sending info now, see what you think. What assistant?
"All yours," Studd told Sam, rolling away again having set up what he wanted the teenager to do in the time it took Blaze to reply to his message. Within seconds Studd was engrossed in his radio again, pulling wires out of the casing like spaghetti with his fingers.
"You didn't answer her question," Sam pointed out.
"Introduce yourself," Studd suggested. "Use a nickname she'll know is you. We don't use real names or mutant aliases on this type of communication. The system's safe, but not that safe." Sam nodded and started to type.
: Hiya Firefly it's Politician Jr, aka Ringleader. Gang all safe. Hit me with what you got.
In Kincaid's office, Blaze leaned back in the chair and heaved a sigh of relief. Shockwave and her friends were all right and with Studd. That was the first piece of really good news she'd had since this whole thing began. Sitting upright again, Blaze started the process of opening and uploading zip file after zip file of Kincaid's work. She worked rapidly with key commands that typed out a rhythmic beat over the keyboard.
Back at Studd's, Shockwave also worked frantically to sort all the files that were suddenly appearing from who knows where. Not as adept at key controls, she sometimes faltered and got left behind. Frustration bit at the teenage mutant, making her scowl and grind her teeth, until finally she typed in : Slow down! To her credit the X-Man did exactly that, giving Sam a chance to get back on equal footing.
: That better? asked Blaze
: Much. replied Sam
"What's happening?" asked a male voice behind Sam. She looked up to see the human Matthew Cooper leaning over the back of her chair. With his classic American good looks hidden behind the mask of a frown, Matthew looked hard at what was flickering over the screen.
"It's Blaze, she's sending us information," Shockwave filled in.
"We should have enough now to do a keyword search Sam," instructed Studd. Sam obligingly started the search engine program running.
"Mind if I take a look?" Matthew enquired, dropping into a seat next to Sam.
"It's in this directory," Sam reached over to the adjacent computer and typed in the commands to open up the right portion of the network. Her hands brushed against Matthew's as she made her father's aide back off while she finished. Both of then pretended not to notice the contact. When she had done, Sam backed away to her own monitor. "Thanks," offered Matthew, but he didn't look over and she didn't reply.
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#Its alright One-Eye, you're with pack.#
#Thanks Claws, but will you tell that man of yours to lean off me. Either adimantium weighs a tonne, or he's been overdoing it on the burgers.#
In the holding bay, Wolverine did as Vixen instructed and let go of Cyclops. Stifle had finished relocating his fingers and had dressed his wounds in cold bandages to reduce the pain and swelling. Cyclops opened his eyes and let Logan help him sit up. His back creased with the pain, but Ilehana was sure that it was nothing more serious than bruising, and movement would be best for healing. The world swam and his head felt heavy and clumsy. There didn't seem to be a part of him that didn't hurt like Hell.
"Cheer up Cyke," Logan grunted, patting his teammate's shoulder gruffly. "Worse things happen at sea."
"Thanks," drawled Scott round a tongue that was swollen and lips that were lacerated. "Is my visor about? And can someone please get this contraption off my head?"
No sooner had he spoken than Logan's claws slit through the metal device that had been welded to Scott's head in a way that made it impossible to be removed any other way. The pieces clattered to the floor as Scott closed his eyes tightly. He felt gentle fingers guide his own visor on carefully. He opened his eyes to see Stifle frowning at him.
"Danielle? What are you doing here?"
"Just helping out," Dell replied, "You X-Men were getting a little thin on the ground."
As Scott blinked the world into some kind of focus, he eased his sore neck by slowly turning his head from left to right. Despite the bruising around his face, he still went white to see the endless benches and comatose mutants surrounding him. He licked his split and bloodied lips with a pale, dry tongue, wishing his head would stop spinning and everything else would stop hurting. It was as he asked, "Where are we?" that his gaze fell on a familiar figure, "Alex!"
"Who?" Stifle asked, turning to get a look at the blond twenty-something–year-old lying flat out three rows away.
"Cyclops' kid brother," Logan explained, putting a hand across Scott's body to stop him getting up. "Stay there and rest, Stifle an' me will wake as many as we can. You're ugly mug will only terrify people as they're waking up, alright?"
"Alright," Cyclops agreed, his eyes never leaving Havok's still form. "Alright, just wake Alex first okay?"
"No problem," Wolverine announced, indicating with a flick of his head to Dell that they get started on the next Summers brother.