A/N: Hey! Here's the next installment of Blackmail City; I hope you all enjoy this and Happy Holidays to everyone!!
"…"- conversation
'…'- thoughts
(…)- extra facts/actions (some)
'blah…' -telepathy/what people say mentally
Chapter 5: DiscussionLiving Room, Xavier Institute for the Gifted, Bayville, NY, USA—June 9, 5:00 PM
After those who had found themselves being blackmailed had gone through the Danger Room session with Logan and Ororo—both of whom seemed intent on teaching the young mutants the reasons why they shouldn't go out and get drunk—a general consensus had been reached. Everyone who had suffered earlier that day were to gather in the living room and try to figure out who had pranked and blackmailed them. They had unanimously decided to not include Todd, Fred, Kurt, Amanda, Jamie, Piotr, Roberto, or Rahne as they didn't want them to find out they were being blackmailed by someone who had left a note in their envelopes with the pictures; besides, they weren't blackmailed so why should they be with them?
After everyone was gathered a leader was picked and after much bickering between those who lived at the Institute and the guests Sam and Wanda had been elected co-leaders, each one representing a group of wronged mutants. As Sam and Wanda took their positions as leaders each wronged mutant produced their envelope and each pulled out their picture and something else; a note.
Sam said, "All right, guys, let's get ta tha bottom of this." Wanda nodded in agreement and when Pietro wouldn't stop complaining about how his life was going to be ruined she hexed him into the wall behind the sofa.
"Continue," Wanda said, looking at her nails, ignoring the mixed expression Sam sent her way. Sam shrugged and began to talk to the gathered mutants, asking them for their opinions of whom had been behind the whole ordeal.
"Who do yah'll think did this ta us?" Sam asked, inclining his head towards each person in turn, asking each of them for their opinion.
Bobby spoke first, saying, "I think that Jamie did this; after all, he plays tricks on us all the time."
Ray rolled his eyes and shot back, "Nice guess, Einstein, but guess again. The squirt wasn't with us; hell, he was scared when he saw me this morning with the green and pink hair coloring. If he'd done this to us he'd have been laughing his head off." Ray's hair was back to its normal dark blonde and orange combo, but he still had some small streaks (at least two) near his bangs; that he didn't mind as no one noticed but him.
Bobby opened his mouth to retort when Jubilee seconded Ray's opinion, saying, "Ray's right, Bobby. Jamie wasn't even with us and if he was my question is how did he even get into the nightclubs and bars? Hell, we had to bribe some of the guards just to get into the second dance club we were at so how could Jamie have followed us?"
Bobby turned to Jubilee and, looking at her asked, "Wait a minute… did you say that you 'bribed' the guards? How did you do that, Jubes?"
Jubilee coughed; she still complained that she was cold, even after an intense ninety-minute Danger Room session and so still had on her comforter to warm her up and get rid of the cough she had contracted after her wake-up call. She looked away from Bobby's eyes and responded, "Oh, you know, with, um, money."
Ray caught on to what Bobby was hinting at and whirled on Amara, who had her knees tucked up under her chin, seemingly staring into space. "Did you bribe the guards at the dance club with something other than money, 'Mara?" His teammates stared at Ray in surprise; his voice held a pleading tone to it, almost as if he was pleading with Amara to tell him that what Bobby was implying wasn't true.
Amara stared up at Ray, her eyes possessing a blank look to them. She responded, "Of course we didn't bribe the guards at the dance club with money; we just told them that we'd flash them if they would let all of us in and when they agreed that was what we did." She then returned to looking into space, ignoring the pained expression on Ray's face.
Ray's expression soon turned to anger as he stood up and, dragging Amara to her feet forced her to look at him. "Damn it, Amara, you don't do that! Hell, it's not modest and… and what if the guards had done something to you? How would that make you feel; how would it make me feel?!" Ray noticed that his girlfriend wasn't listening to him; her eyes still held a glazed look to them and, knowing the cause continued, "Listen to me, 'Mara. You're hair isn't what I like about you; I like your personality, your independent streak, your ability to remain optimistic even when everyone else is down and out. Your hair doesn't matter; snap out of it!" He placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to look at him and this time he caught a spark in her eyes.
Amara turned away from Ray's eyes and spoke softly, her voice wavering, "You… you really mean that, Ray?"
Ray brought her face towards him again and forced her to look into his eyes and his heart broke when he saw the doubt in her eyes. Softening his tone he replied, "Of course I mean it, 'Mara. You mean everything to me and I… I don't know what I'd do without you." Amara searched Ray's face, probing for even a sliver of insincerity and on finding none flung herself into Ray's arms, breathing in his scent and relaxing. Ray kissed the top of her head, glad that he had gotten through to her.
Sam cleared his throat and both Ray and Amara looked up, Ray shooting a glare at Bobby, who had his mouth hanging open on hinges. Bobby shut his mouth and as Ray and Amara sat back down Sam looked at Tabby, who looked guilty. "Alrighty, then, now that we've established tha fact that 'bribing' was used ta get inta tha second dance club Ah want ta know who else besides Jubes and 'Mara were involved," Sam said seriously. He knew that he had to find out now in order to prevent the women from getting caught by Logan or Sean when they went to investigate the clubs. This earned him glares from the women and grateful looks from the men.
Wanda rolled her eyes and, taking over from Sam reported, "I'll give you the full report, Sherlock. We walked up to the entrance and while you were all playing some kind of game to determine who'd pay for the drinks we women walked up to the guards. Like Amara said we bribed them to get in and since there were about ten guards (the place had been fairly expensive and high class-oriented) Amara, Jubilee, Kitty, Lorna, Tabby, Danielle, Lexie, Betsy, and myself flashed the guards to get us all into the place. When we told you guys that we were in you just waved at the guards as thanks for letting us into the club." Wanda shrugged, as if the revelation wasn't a huge deal and decided to ignore the glares being sent at her from all directions.
"Kitty, I can't believe that you would do that!" Lance exclaimed, looking at Kitty with betrayal in his eyes. Kitty averted her eyes, trying to think of an excuse but nothing came to mind. After a few minutes had passed she tilted her head towards the closed living room doors and heard whispering coming from beyond them.
'Betsy, tell everyone to shut up; someone's at the door,' Kitty told Betsy, who started and on concentrating found that Kitty was right.
'Would all you bloody idiots shut the hell up? We've got eavesdroppers,' Betsy related and everyone shut their mouths, the women going pale, all hoping that Logan wasn't outside.
Putting a finger to her mouth Betsy made her way over to the door, a psychic knife in her right hand. On the count of three she flung open the doors with her telekinesis and found herself standing over both Todd and Jamie, who had been trying to see what was going on behind closed doors. "Todd… Jamie… what the hell are you doing?" Betsy asked icily, her knife glowing a brighter shade of purple.
Jamie gulped and backed up, running into Todd (who was right behind him), causing the young man to produce three clones who instantly took off running, the one in front of Betsy disappearing, an expression of shock on his face. That just left Todd, who looked scared to death.
Wanda came to the door, hands glowing blue, and surrounding Todd with her magic brought him into the living room, Betsy closing the doors behind her. Dumping Todd on the floor Wanda asked, "Toad, what the hell are you doing here? No wait; more importantly, how much did you hear?"
Todd gulped and looked around the room, hoping to find a sympathetic gaze among those in the room. However, on seeing daggers from everyone's eyes, even the males, Todd got to his feet and said, "Yo, I didn't hear nothin'; I just got here and Jamie was already there!"
Betsy scanned him with her telepathy and reported, "He's telling the truth; now what?"
Tabby and Lorna looked at each other and, getting to their feet, moved towards the door. Tabby turned and said, "We'll go and find the runt; we know exactly where he is." They then left and after some deliberation Betsy and Wanda allowed their fellow Brotherhood member to leave, after making him swear on his life to not reveal a word.
Todd hopped out of the room like hell was on his tail; in fact, he slammed into Jean, knocking her to the ground amidst her screaming as she got some of Todd's slime on her. Todd's eyes widened; "Shit!" he exclaimed before taking off up the stairs to where he knew Piotr was drawing on the balcony of his room, planning to hide with the Russian until Jean had gotten over the ruination of her makeup.
"Toad! I'll kill you!" Jean screamed, leaping to her feet and running up the stairs after Todd, only to run into Fred, who had heard the threat and come out to defend his friend. "Move Blob! I have to kill Toad!"
Fred shook his head and replied, "I'm not letting you kill my best friend, Jean. Now leave before you get hurt." Jean fumed; how dare this mass of fat and… well, fat demand her to leave?! He was a mere guest; this was her mansion!
"Move now, Blob," Jean seethed, preparing to send a mental blast at Fred but Fred lifted a hand and, aiming carefully, hit Jean on her shoulder, only using enough strength to knock her unconscious. Lifting her into his arms he took her to her room and placed her on the bed, hoping against hope that she'd forget her mission of revenge against Todd. Shaking his head Fred decided to go and find Todd and see what he'd done this time.
Living Room, Xavier Institute for the Gifted, Bayville, NY, USA—June 9, 5:30 PM
Meanwhile, while Tabby and Lorna were tracking down Jamie the others were still trying to figure out who was blackmailing them. So far, they had marked Kurt, Amanda, Fred, Todd, Roberto, and Rahne off their list; that only left Jamie (whom they now suspected more than anyone else due to his recent spying actions), Scott, Jean, and Forge. After some deliberation they decided that Forge could be taken off the perpetrator list; he wouldn't do something like that to the mutants who had made it possible for him to live a normal life again.
"I think that it has to be Summers and Grey," Lance commented from his seat next to Kitty, doing his best to not look at his girlfriend, whom he felt had betrayed him but his eyes would glance at her every now and then. At his words everyone got thoughtful looks on their faces; they knew that Scott and Jean would do anything in their power to put the Brotherhood in a bad light and blackmailing them was perfect. There was also the issue of Jean getting revenge for yesterday's actions at their graduation ceremony to consider.
Warren was resting his chin in his hand and opened his mouth to comment when Tabby and Lorna burst through the living room doors, Jamie held aloft between them. Betsy closed the doors and then directed her attention on Jamie, who was looking around nervously. "Well, if it isn't the little snoop," she quipped, her voice containing an icy tone.
Jamie looked around, trying to find support from his teammates but on finding nothing but glares caved. "Fine! I was spying but all I heard was Lance saying something about Kitty doing something or other; I swear, that's all!" Jamie's brown eyes were wide with fear; he didn't know what his teammates were going to do to him and frankly he didn't want to know.
"Betsy?" Sam asked, his brown eyes narrowed dangerously at his younger teammate; even though he and Jamie were close he was not going to tolerate the risk of his girlfriend's indecent action getting around to Logan's ears.
Betsy closed her eyes and after scanning Jamie opened her eyes and responded, "Affirmative. He's telling the truth." She then glared at Jamie, the younger man backing up in fear.
"Fahne then; Jamie, if yah even breathe a word of what yah heard or even that we're here yah'll be in deep trouble; got meh?" Sam asked, his brown eyes glaring into Jamie's. Jamie nodded his head at a speed that even impressed Pietro.
"Done," he responded, getting to his feet. "Can I, umm, go now? I think Mr. Cassidy wants to train with me or something." Sam nodded and Jamie weakly grinned, backing out of the room and then running for his life.
Wanda turned her attention back to the gathered group of mutants and said, "Alright, we all agree that Summers and Miss Know-It-All did this dirty deed; right?" On getting nods Wanda looked at Sam and they shared a look with each other. "Then we should repay them, shouldn't we?"
Everyone digested this question and on realizing its meaning grinned; getting revenge on Scott and Jean would be fun indeed; now, to come up with the right technique of revenge…