Pardon Me
Chapter Three: Pyro's Panty Raid
John walked into the room behind Mystique, there were two twin beds. One with a pink comforter, the other with a white. Two dresser drawers, a desk and a closet on the right wall.
Mystique went right to work, opening the closet and pulling out a duffle bag, she began pulling cloths off the hanger's and stuffing them in it sloppily.
John sat on the bed looking bored, a picture on the nightstand caught his attention. He picked it up carelessly.
It was Audrey standing next to a woman with dark brown hair and strong strait features who was quite a bit taller. Audrey had her head thrown back and was laughing loudly about something, while the woman grinned happily beside the young copper haired teen. They seemed happy, like most people in photos. The tall chick was probably the sister he'd been hearing so much about. The two of them looked very similar, they had the same cupids bow mouth. The high cheek bones. The same happy smile.
Family pictures always made him twinge a little in his stomach.
"Hallmark moment." John commented darkly to himself and dropped the frame on the bed, standing up. He began to click his lighter again. Nosing around Audrey's things without shame.
He opened the top dresser drawer and lifted up a bright yellow bra by the strap, it had big, grinning smiley faces on the front of each cup and John just stared at it, smirking. Until he felt his thumb being burnt.
"Shit!" He dropped the lighter and shook his hand. He had been lost in 'thoughts' which meant his thumb had touched the flame of the Zippo while he wasn't concentrated. He hated burning himself and hadn't done so in years. Damn Bra.
Mystique looked over her shoulder at him.
He picked up his Zippo and did his best to look as though he didn't care what she though.
Mystique walked to his side, snatching the bra out of his grasp and stuffing it in the duffle bag, followed by a handful of undergarments out of the top drawer. She then slammed it shut, nearly taking the tips off of Johns fingers. Then, she headed out of the room, saying something that sounded a lot like. "This isn't a panty raid Pyro."
"That's exactly what this is." John grumbled, shutting the drawer.
Mystique stared at him.
"What? Turning you on?" He asked, smiling.
Meanwhile, back at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters a tall figure in black, with pale skin and charcoal eyes stood her expression darkening. Amelia Harris was now being informed of the serious danger her little sister was in. Audrey had been taken from her school, or rather a block away from it. She was god knows where with some of the most dangerous mutants in the world.
Amelia felt herself being pulled towards her uglier side immediately.
"I don't understand." Scott said, "Why would they take her?"
Xavier looked to Amelia, who stood dangerously still in the back of the room.
Storm sighed with understanding. "They want Amelia."
"Okay, why?" Scott asked.
"Because she's pure destruction." Logan explained gruffly. Glancing to Amelia who was focusing her attention towards the flood, she had yet to utter a single word. Since Xavier had explained the situation to her.
"What could he use her for, her powers are barely under control." Scott said.
"Scott." Storm warned.
"I was just saying." He defended.
"It doesn't matter. Its Magneto, which means whatever he's up to isn't good." Logan interrupted the argument.
"Logan's right." Xavier told them, sighing. "Unfortunately Magneto is aware how powerful Amelia is and he's going to try and persuade her to join his brotherhood."
"Kidnapping her sister, that's persuasion?" Storm asked, crossing her arms.
"I believe its meant to be more of an attention grabber." Xavier replied, sounding somewhat amused. "He won't hurt, not yet."
"Yet." Amelia said softly, raising her chin to survey the others. Her charcoal eyes bore holes through Xavier. "What does that mean?"
"He wont hurt her until you give him a reason to." The professor explained.
"Refusing to work for him is a reason." Scott added.
"So this Magneto guy." Amelia spoke slowly, stepping towards Xavier's desk. "He wants me?"
"What have we been talking about for the past half an hour?" Logan snapped.
Her dilated, grey eyes flickered towards him sharply before returning to Xavier. "Where is she?"
"Now is not the time for that, Amelia." Xavier stated.
"Where?" She insisted, her tone warning.
When John and Mystique returned to the room where 'the prisoner' was being held, they arrived just in time to see a singing and dancing Audrey, and an irate blob. His face was actually pink and a large vein was popping out of his forehead.
"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!"
Audrey had decided to start singing one of her favorite songs, that was twenty minutes ago. She didn't know all of the words so she free styled the lyrics she couldn't remember. But mostly it was the 'should I stay or should I go?' by The Clash.
"This indecision's bugging me.. La indecisión me molesta!.." She sung loudly "If you don't want me, set me free! Si no me quieres, líbrame!" Audrey chose to break out some air guitar at that moment. "Exactly who'm I'm supposed to be?." She paused, then picked up the beat again. "Skipping the Spanish here I don't know... Should I stay or should I go? Come on and let me know! Should I cool it or should I blow?" She then did a very foolish Egyptian walk dance, bobbing her head up and down.
Blob took notice to Mystique first, who still looked like Audrey, that seemed to snap his final straw. He mumbled something and practically ran out of the room, but not before Audrey could shout to him. "Come back and visit!"
Audrey seemed to regain her common sense when Blob was gone and she smiled at John, then at Mystique before laying back on her cot. Even before her back hit the cot though she bolted upright again and looked at herself standing next to John.
"Woah, out of body experience.." Audrey said, gazing at Mystique.
She watched, wide eyed as Mystique transformed into her blue self.
"Holy Hammers." Audrey stood up and walked to the side of the cage. "How did you do that?"
Mystique just handed the duffle bag packed with Audrey's belongings to John and left, without even acknowledging she was asked anything.
Audrey looked to John. "Did you see that?… Of course you saw it you were right there… Who is that, how did she…" Audrey trailed off.
"Mystique, its her mutation." John said casually and sat down in the steel fold out chair once again. He dropped the duffle bag to the floor and kicked it to the side of the cage. "Your stuff."
"Stuff?" Audrey asked, crouching and reaching through the bars of her cage to unzip the bag. Once she found it was packed with her cloths she smiled up at John gratefully. "Thanks."
"Welcome." He said and pulled out his lighter.
"So what can you do?" She asked, tapping her fingers on the bars.
"What?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"You're a mutant too right?" Audrey questioned.
He nodded, looking at his lighter.
"So what's your mutation, what can you do?"
"Why are you so interested?" He asked defensively.
"Well its talk to you, or contract the boredom disease and die…" She said, sitting down on the floor and crossing her legs. "Boredom is a very fatal disease." She added, looking quite serious.
John lifted and eyebrow and opened his lighter, then pulled the flame into a fireball, allowing it to hover above his open palm.
Audrey's eyes actually sparkled as she watched the display.
"That's definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen." She said, grinning.
"Yea, I can't create the fire though." He said, looking at the fireball before he snuffed it out.
"So? You can do that." Audrey told him, still grinning. "creating the fire is what the Zippo's for." She said matter of factly.
John gave her a glance over, nodding. Then he snapped the lighter shut and pocketed it.
There was a moment where John and Audrey just looked at one another.
"I can pick things up with my feet." Audrey said suddenly. Receiving a strange look from John she continued. "And I can hold a pencil between my toes." She stretched a leg out to her side and stared at her foot. "and write stuff… Its barely legible" She looked back up at John, beaming. "But it's something thought, right?"
"Its definitely something." John said, smiling a little. There was something about the prisoner spaz he liked.
Amelia paced up and down the hall, her arms folded over her chest.
"Would you sit down already." Logan snapped, the constant pacing was becoming very annoying.
Amelia stood still long enough to give him a very dangerous glare, then she continued her pacing.
"What is he doing in there?" She demanded, pointing to the entrance doors of cerebro.
"Locating .." Logan started but stopped, thinking.
"Audrey?" Amelia asked.
"That's her name eh?" Due to Amelia's very ridged stance Logan thought it might be best to make conversation, even if he wasn't very good at it.
"Yea." Amelia stated sitting next to him on the bench. She looked over "You don't have to stay with me you know."
"I know, but the Chuck wants me to, just incase you try to do something heroic stupid and heroic ." He told her, trying not to smile at her aggravated expression.
"You think you could stop me if I did?" She snapped and Logan was taken a bit off guard by this.
He thought about it for a moment, "Would you dust me if I tried?"
"Probably." Amelia said simply.
"I'd still try." He told her.
"Your stupid." She replied flatly.
"And you're a destructive pain in the ass." Wolverine replied.
"I am not a pain in the ass." Grim said.
"Yea, you are."
"When have I ever been a pain in your ass?" She asked. "I don't even talk to you if I can help it."
He looked at her and lifted his eyebrows.
"Its not like that." She attempted to clarify. .
"Sure." Wolverine said sarcastically.
"It isn't. I'm just better at avoiding people than having to deal with them."
"I've noticed that." He told her.
"Don't judge me." She replied.
Meanwhile… Inside Cerebro. Professor Xavier sat, positively perplexed. Magneto had that helmet, so Charles couldn't read his thoughts, also he didn't seem to have told anyone his exact plans, not even Mystique...
Something wasn't right, Xavier knew it, something was missing. Even with a power with the destructive force of Amelia's, what would Magneto try to do with it?
There was also that feeling, the distinct emotion that Jean wasn't dead… though Xavier didn't know if it was real, or just part of him grieving for the loss of one of his first students. A part of him sincerely doubted the grieving theory…he could feel her out there, her energy. Still he wouldn't bring himself to say anything to the others yet… not yet.
Then there was Audrey, he'd managed to locate her… and she was with Pyro?
"We went to your school." John informed Audrey, leaning back.
"Yeah?" Audrey asked, leaning back on her elbows.
"Yeah, Ballet huh?" He asked mockingly.
"Hey it's a hard school to get into." She told him, pride in her voice.
"It's not that. It's just, you don't look like a ballerina to me." He said, looking her up and down.
"Oh, well good." She said, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"Good?" John asked.
"Yes, good." She nodded and looked as though she was enjoying his expression, which showed he was a little confused. "I don't want to look like a ballerina, I mean people who look like ballerina's often look like they've just had a stick surgically inserted into their ass."
John grinned, he was thinking the same thing.
"And I don't want to look or be up tight like that." She stated, then sighed in a dreamy way for effect. "I just want to dance."
"Are you any good?" He asked.
"Am I any good." Audrey scoffed. "Yeah, I'm good."
"And modest" John smirked.
"I don't believe in modesty, If you're good at something you should let everybody know it." She told him, sticking her chin out confidently.
"Yea?" He asked quietly, thinking.
"Yeah…" Audrey furrowed her eyebrows. "John?"
"What?" He asked, looking at her expression with curiosity.
"I have to pee." She said standing up and clapping her hands together.
"Then pee." He told her, she gave him a dark look.
"I'm serious." She said, gripping one of the bars of her cage with her hand and doing an antsy little dance.
John just lifted his eyebrows without responding.
"Come on." She whined. "I really have to go."
"What do you want me to do about it?" John asked her, flatly.
"Let me out and show me where the bathroom is." She said impatiently.
"I can't do that." He said, shrugging.
"Why not?" Audrey's awkward dance stopped and she crossed her legs, standing there looking at John with a shocked expression.
"Because I'm not supposed to let you out." He told her unsympathetically.
"Oh, come on.."
"I'm not supposed to."
"Do you always do what your supposed to?" She challenged.
John received her challenging gaze and gave her one right back. "Fine."
"So, where is she?" Amelia prompted, looking nothing less than intense.
"I know what you're planning and it's unnecessary." Xavier was trying to explain, she was refusing to listen.
"Where's my sister." Amelia repeated impatiently.
"You know very well what will happen if you go there." Xavier continued her, trying to reason.
"You said when I came here that I could trust you." Amelia stated darkly. "You promised me you would help me."
Xavier felt a head ache building. If he didn't tell her, she would no longer trust him, he would lose her and he knew it. If he did tell her she would attempt to go obliterate Magneto and may end up taking much of the coast line with her.
He couldn't lose her, she was too unstable.
"She's in an old canning factory on Woodward street on the east side of the city." He said, sounding tired and defeated.
Amelia turned and began to walk down the hall.
Storm looked to Xavier.
Xavier looked to Scott.
Scott looked to Logan.
"Is she doing what I think he's doing?" Scott asked.
"I believe so." Xavier replied.
"Well we can't let her do that." Storm told them.
"Have fun trying to stop her." Logan said as Storm and Scott went after the dark headed destruction zone.
Xavier gave him a look.
"What?" Logan asked, raising his eyebrows. "No."
"She'll believe you." The older man said.
"She doesn't even like me." Wolverine replied.
"No she doesn't."
Logan scowled.
"But she knows you wouldn't lie to her."
"Amelia stop!" Scott shouted after her.
"What do you want Scott?" She asked impatiently and pulled on her large black coat, flipping up the hood. Scott stopped in the sudden realization of why the students had started calling her the Grim Reaper. She really did look like death in that coat when she was being scary.
"Don't do this." Storm said, now joining the conversation. Amelia might have intimidated Scott, but not her.
"Don't do what, go try and find my sister?" She asked and started walking away.
"We will go get her." Scott said a little louder than he had meant to. "But you have to wait, she'll be fine."
"And if she isn't?" Scott understood Amelia's question immediately, what it really meant was. 'If I stay and she ends up hurt I'm going to have you strung up by the--' "Scott?" She prompted.
"She will be." Storm said.
"You really think--"
"That you should take off that damn coat and be patient for once Grim, yea." Logan had just caught up with them.
Amelia glared at him.
His expression remained unimpressed.
"Fine.. " She finally said, her voice holding as much guilt and anxiety she felt about slipping off the coat. She stepped towards Logan. "If she isn't alright at the end of this, I'm blaming you Wolverine."
With that she walked past him and he quirked an eyebrow watching her go.
"I'm not the only one making you stay!" He said loudly.
"I'm blaming you!" She replied, turning to snarl at him.