Disclaimers on chapter 1
-*#*-
It was a sombre mood that enshrouded the recently repaired and refurbished mansion this morning. After having discovered that one of their former teammates had set them up in front of a conference hosted by Senator Kelly, the X-men were forced to retreat through the back streets of New York until they reached the mansion.
The only bright side of that day was that they had found Forge, a Native American like Joshua who was gifted in mechanics and technology, along the way. Upon returning to the mansion, Forge immediately set to work on repairing the underground levels. Unfortunately, Forge had a habit of modifying things during construction so Logan kept on shifting him from place to place whenever the technician gave something an extra boost only for it to blow up in someone else's face; usually Logan's.
"Quit with the tapping, Stray" Logan growled at Joshua who was tapping the side of his mug at such a speed it sounded like an endless bag of marbles spilling out onto a hard surface.
"Scusi" Joshua apologised after letting go of his mug. "I am not used to doing nothing"
Logan knew how the guy felt. Had this been the old days, he would have been in the Danger Room by now unleashing his rage and fury at whatever came his way. Instead he was stuck sitting in the lounge with Joshua whilst Forge attempted to repair said room and praying that he was not tinkering about with its programming again.
The door to the lounge suddenly opened revealing Bobby and a platinum blonde haired woman in a white suit. It was obvious from the frown that suddenly bloomed on Logan's face that he knew the woman, Joshua did not but that did not stop the hairs on the back of his neck from bristling as he gazed at the woman as if there was something about her that gave him bad vibes.
"What are you doing here?" Logan growled as he stood up. "What do you want?"
"Right to the point, I like that" The woman said with a British accent. "I've decided to join the X-men"
-*#*-
"So what's in this for you?" Kurt asked the woman after being told about why she was here.
"Now why would you think that my dear fellow?" the woman queried in return.
"You're Emma Frost; former head of a small school for mutants as well as a former member of the Hellfire club where you were known as the White Queen; powers are telepathy and turning your skin into diamond" Kurt replied before raising an eyebrow at her. "Need I continue?"
"My my, there really is more to you than your devilish good looks" Emma admired as stepped in close to him. "Why don't you tell me what you think I am here and what I can give you"
Kurt took a step back from the woman before replying. "You wish to be part of a team; we need a telepath to operate Cerebro"
"Does it need to be her?" Logan asked out loud obviously not liking what he was hearing.
"She is the only other person who is capable of using Cerebro that we know of at this moment" Hank pointed out. "We might never get another chance like this one"
"She'll probably just use it for her own needs then disappear. I say we toss her out" Kitty put in apparently aggravated about something.
"Is that your head or your heart talking Piccina?" Joshua asked causing Kitty to glare at him.
Kurt meanwhile was weighing the options. On one hand, they could take Emma onboard and attempt to locate Xavier and even Jean; on the other, they could be giving Emma the chance she needed to access Cerebro for her own agenda. Clearly something had to be done to allow her to use it but not for herself.
"How about this; we'll allow you use of Cerebro but whenever you wish to use it, either myself or Logan must be present" Kurt suggested.
"Ah, I see. You plan on asking this Forge person to install an identity scanner on the door to Cerebro that can only be accessed by those you're thinking of and to make sure it is not tampered with you'll ask him to rig it up to the main systems circuitry so that if anyone does try to tamper with it it'll lock down the whole lower level" Emma concluded clearly reading Kurt's mind to see what he was planning before stepping closer to him again and stroking his cheek. "Clearly you are more intriguing than I imagined"
"He also is not interested in you!" Kitty added stepping in between them and looking for any excuse to hurt the woman before her.
Emma smirked at the smaller girl as if believing that Kitty was nothing more than a bug under her boot before looking pointedly at Kurt again. "So, when can I move in?"
Several hours later, Hank, Logan, Forge and Emma were in the Cerebro chamber where Forge had just recently put the finishing touches to the control console.
"Remember, you're on holy ground here" Logan warned the telepath.
Emma just chuckled. "If this is how you lead it's no wonder why Mr Wagner is in charge around here"
Logan just growled. Kurt had just recently left to go see if he could talk Scott into joining leaving him in charge.
"Now all you have to do is-" Forge begun explaining to Emma before she cut him off.
"Please, I read your mind on the way in" She scoffed before putting on the head piece and activating Cerebro. Within minutes she had removed the head piece and was breathing heavier than usual clearly not expecting the strain Cerebro took on someone and why only Xavier could operate it.
"Well?" Logan asked hoping that she would say that she could not find Charles and give him an excuse to kick her out.
"He's in Genosha"
-*#*-
Scott Summers may have slowly been wasting away ever since the explosion one year ago where he lost Jean, but his instincts were still sharp. Within a second of noticing someone sneaking into his apartment, he was sitting up in his bed and about to optics-blast whoever was intruding only to see a prehensile tail holding his shades in place.
"Not as rusty as I expected" Kurt noted an easy grin on his face before casually looking round the apartment. "I must say, how do you make your walls so holy? And I love what you've done with the TV, probably saves space that way, although you could've at least made sure it didn't go in at an angle"
"What are you doing here, Kurt?" Scott asked shoving the elf's tail out the way only to be shocked when Kurt suddenly punched him one right in the face sending to the floor. "What the hell!" He hollered as he quickly stood up and prepared to add a new hole to his wall.
"That's for just giving up" Kurt said as he massaged his sore knuckles. "Do you really think Jean would just give up like that if you were in her place?"
Scott just glared at him, whether it was because he was too angry to speak or ashamed at himself for giving up so easily he no one but himself knew.
"Listen" Kurt began softly. "You know that the X-men are regrouping again, that Logan shaped hole in the wall obviously proves it"
"So?" Scott replied sounding like he did not care.
"So come back to us, we have someone who can operate Cerebro and there's a good chance she can find the Professor. If we can find him, then surely Jean must be somewhere as well" Kurt explained. "What do you say?"
-*#*-
"You must be more desperate than I thought, Mr Wagner" Emma said as she entered the hanger and saw Scott and peeked into his mind. "And before you ask Cyclops, I haven't been able to locate Jean yet"
Scott watched the blonde woman as she walked passed before turning to Kurt who was standing beside him.
"Who's she?" He asked jerking his thumb in Emma's direction.
"Emma Frost, our current Cerebro operator until we find the Professor" Kurt answered before gesturing towards Joshua as he walked through the doors. "And this is Joshua 'Tigerhawk' Greenwald our financer and new recruit"
If Scott was surprised by the name then he kept it hidden. Right now he was currently staring at someone who he had butted heads with since the two of them first met many years ago.
"Logan"
"Summers" Logan grunted in acknowledgement but did not stop moving.
"In the words of the legendary Bugs Bunny; what's the hubbub, bub?" Kurt asked Logan curiously seeing the man in his uniform.
"Magneto's got Charles" Logan growled as he continued towards the newly acquired SR78 Blackbird. "And we're going to pay him a little visit"
"Shouldn't we try calling first?" Kurt suggested only to step back when Logan whipped round and snarled at him.
"And let the creep prepare to shoot us out of the sky? It was him that took Charles all along. So we're gonna go take him back" He snarled before turning his back on him and continuing towards the Blackbird.
"Times like this I wonder how thick that adamantium skull of his is" Kurt muttered before teleporting himself and Scott into the locker room so they could quickly get suited up.
-*#*-
Sorry for the short chapter, I'm having trouble trying to rush these things so I made this one short as sort of a build up for the next chapter. Oh, & in case you haven't noticed, Piccina is Joshua's nickname for Kitty (Any ideas on how she'll react when she learns what it means?)
Review if possible & 'til next time
Watch this space & peace out!