I have nothing to say. But the top of my story looked weird without anything here, so I'm putting something here.
Disclaimer: I don't have one, but this looks more official with a disclaimer.
Nein," Lorelei pushed Kurt away, disgusted. "I don't vant your second-hand ice cream."
"But it's chocolate!" Kurt tried to reason with the disinterested griffin, "Chocolate is best." He shoved the cone back underneath her beak, trying to get her to take just a tiny bite.
She turned her head and glared at him out the corner of her eye. "Vanilla is best." She hissed.
"Chocolate!"
"You can put vatever you vant on vanilla. Chocolate tastes disgusting with strawberry jam."
"Pfft." Kurt scoffed. "Who puts jam on their ice cream?"
"ME." Lorelei huffed. She got up from the table they were seated at and walked out the kitchen, but not before the oven spontaneously combusted and Iceman turned into a snowglobe.
"AGH!" Kurt bolted upright, heaved a few breaths and scratched the back of his head. I need to lay off the spicy potato chips before bed.
"Kuuuurt."
Kurt flinched at the sound of someone's incognito whispering, it sounded close.
"Kurt!"
Nightcrawler swung his legs over the side of his bed. "Vat? Who's there?"
"Nonononono- OW!"
Kurt stumbled off of something fluffy and landed back onto his bed. "Kitty?"
"That hurt." Kitty dragged herself up through the floor she had poked her head through and flopped onto his bed.
"How long have you been there?" Kurt mumbled, sneakily kicking some boxers under a chair.
"Dunno, like, five minutes? You were talking about ice cream."
"Yeah…" He yawned and pretended like nothing happened. "So… vhy are you here?"
"Mmmm." Kitty smiled apologetically. "Actually, Piotr and I were just talking-"
"Ja, everyone knows you two like each other. It's not news to me" Kurt grinned wickedly.
"No!" She kicked at his leg and missed. "We were talking about Lorelei. No one's looking for her, we should find her."
"I can think of a few reasons why we shouldn't."
"What?! Lorelei's-"
"Our friend, ja, but if the Professor could think of a good way to get to her he would of told us by now."
"It's taking too long, what if she's in trouble?"
"I doubt it, she's with Magneto." Kurt shoved his feet beneath the covers to warm them again. "Magneto's got no connection with Lorelei no matter vhich way you look at it. The only logical explanation is that he's working with Stillman. She's vith her family."
"But what if she's unhappy! She should be here."
"She's fine! We don't need to look for her!" Kurt tugged at the cover that Kitty was sitting on.
"Why aren't you being helpful?" She hissed and pulled the blankets back away from him, "I thought you liked her."
"I don't like her! She's a nuisance! We need that dru-"
"Drug this drug that." Kitty smacked her knee and jumped up. "Everyone's worried about the drug. What if Lorelei's in trouble? No one thinks about that!"
"Kitty-"
"No." Kitty folded her arms and made to leave the room.
"Waitwaitwait!" Kurt hissed, "Don't use the door!"
"Dammit shut your mouths!" Wolverine pounded on the wall near Kurts' bed.
"If Wolverine was kidnapped we'd look for him" Kitty motioned towards the banging's general direction.
"There's no way he'd ever let himself be kidnapped."
"Damn right." Came a muffled growl from the other side of the wall.
"Logan." Kitty tapped on his wall softly. "You'd look for her right? You could track her."
Silence.
"Logan."
Silence.
"C'mon, please?"
"What?"
Kitty jumped at the sudden loud noise. It sounded like he was right in her ear.
"We should find Lorelei." Kitty lowered her voice, knowing he could hear her just fine. "She could be in trouble."
"Ain't likely."
"But what if."
There was a halfhearted grunt and the creak of a bed.
"Wolverine?"
Nothing.
"Fine."
Kitty phased back down through Kurt's floor, and dropped onto Piotr's bed below.
"Did he say yes?"
Kitty rolled her eyes and mocked Kurt's accent, "Nein. He said nein."
"Aw." Piotr went over and patted Kitty's head in an attempt to console her. "Professor will find a way. Little Bird will be fine."
"You too?" Kitty glared at him. "I thought you said you'd come with me!"
"I- uh, well…"
"Piotr!"
"Aw come on, Kitty. Professor does not hate Lorelei." Piotr squatted to get eye level with her. "If he could save her don't you think he would?"
"I never called that part into question!" Kitty cried, exasperated. "I just said it was taking too long! It's been a month already! All we've done it play with sacks of crack and bottles of-"
Iceman burst through the door. "Did somebody say- OH GOD KITTY WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN PIOTRS ROOM!"
"Wait!" Piotr made a shushing sign and waved his hands and the intruding mutant, "It's not like that!"
"For the love of all things holy Piotr, I thought you knew better!"
"I would never-"
"Bobby!" Kitty shoved him back out the door, "Get out!"
"SHE'S A MINOR COLLOSUS!"
"OUT!"
"SHE'S BUT A SMALL CHILD!"
Kitty grabbed Iceman by the shirt and hurled him back inside his room. She turned to close Piotrs door and growled, "I'm going to bed."
Piotr sat there after she'd slammed the door, still waving. "Good… night?"
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei sat on the steps of the warehouse, staring disinterestedly out to sea. It was a fairly nice day - there wasn't a rain cloud in sight, and the birds were keeping mostly to themselves. Papa and Magneto were inside yelling again, and Papa sounded a bit scared this time. Mama was there too. She scared everyone else, even Angry Biceps.
She flicked a piece of paint off the old railing besides her and watched it flutter away. The other man had showed up as well - the one Papa had originally done his drug things with. He didn't stay long, just showed up for a few seconds and looked menacing, then left. He was the reason Papa and Magneto were yelling now.
Why can't I ever get someone's name down?
Angry Biceps had had a hissy fit earlier and broke some things, and Magneto put him in an impromptu cage. Still no one could figure out what had pissed the big guy off so much, but other than that and the weird guy nothing much had happened over the last month.
This is so boring.
Lorelei leaned back and closed her eyes. This was prime napping time; warm, sunny, slight breeze, sound of the ocean – can't beat that.
Except that I'm bored.
Lorelei groaned and hit the railing in anger, bruising the side of her hand.
"THERE AREN'T EVEN ANY BOARD GAMES HERE!" She howled out loud.
I'd kill for Monopoly right now… or twister. Something. ANYTHING.
Sighing, she pushed herself upright and went to do her rounds. She started with the derelict boats that occasionally bumped into the equally shoddy docks that housed them. She'd then have to pass a giant rusted boat out of water after that and make sure no one was hiding in it. Then she'd go around the back and enter a neatly hidden door that lead to the drugs storeroom and then into the warehouse.
Lorelei paused at the storeroom this time though. The place was piled high with boxes containing either bottles or baggies.
Great. Two drugs now?
I guess we threw discreet out the window when we decided to put our freaking name on these things.
The little family crest etched into the side of one of the wooden boxes stared back at her. It was the box that had the baggies with the powder on them. They came in – from wherever – in twos; the number of bottle boxes always matched up with the bag boxes. Lorelei rearranged a few of the crates; Papa still hadn't told her what type of drugs they were. They'd been selling them little by little over the last few days - some of Papas workers would come in and take a few and disappear again.
No one here ever asks questions. Don't they know what they're even taking?
Lorelei stared at the box, hoping it would grow sentient and spill its secrets. It didn't.
"Vat are you?"
Nothing.
Lorelei stood on her tiptoes and lifted two of the boxes lids, and counted their contents. Four layers of twenty five bottles or baggies. Would they notice one missing?
"No."
She slammed the lids back down and hurried back out the room.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, why would you even think about that?
"Lorelei!"
Lorelei jumped at the sound of her father's voice and squeaked, "Nein! It vas the griffin king! I did nothing!"
Ernest looked at his daughter with contempt and spoke slowly as if she were stupid. "Are you finished vith your rounds?"
"Uh." Lorelei eyed her dad skeptically. They hadn't been on very good terms since he'd told her she had to guard the drugs. They hadn't been on good terms for a very long time, but Lorelei forgave him for it. He was busy after all… it was just stress…
Right? He's just stressed… "Ja, I'm done vith it."
Mr. Stillman squinted and motioned towards Lorelei's jacket, "Turn out your pockets."
"Vat?"
"Turn. Out. Your. Pockets."
Lorelei's heart sank a bit. She didn't have anything, but she turned her pockets out and showed her father how lint-filled and undruggy they were. "See, nothing."
"Good girl." He walked past and patted her head.
Lorelei watched him retreat back into his office, and the banter between him and metal-head kicked up again. She sighed and went back outside to the steps, where she stayed for another thirty minutes before she had to walk around again.
So. Bored.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Beast sat at his lab table and poked at the pile of stuff that came from the Stillmans baggie. Professor X watched it as well, almost expecting it to spontaneously combust.
"I don't get it." Hank scratched his chin and leaned back. "I really don't get it."
Professor X cocked his head. He wasn't much help when it came to these sciency things – maybe if the pile of whatever had a brain he could read it, but he had no idea what all the readings that came out of Beasts machines meant.
"Well…" Charles offered in an attempt to be helpful. "Start at square one."
Hank nodded. "Well, we got this bag of drugs from Mystique who took on your likeness and told Kitty to bring it to me. Mystique just gave it to us."
"Right." Professor X agreed. "She gave it to us when Lorelei had just come back from the danger room with her head lopped off."
"Mmhmm. She'd only been here a few weeks or so."
"Okay…"
The two looked at each other, trying to figure out what happened from there.
"Magneto… kidnaps… Lorelei?" Hank offered.
"Did anything important happen between those two times?"
Hank stared at the Professor. Did something happen? "Lorelei almost died for a second… they went shopping, Kurt went to Germany…"
"Exactly."
"What?" Beast squinted at his telepathic friend. What was Professor X waiting for him to say? "Kurt went to Germany… OH. And the Stillmans moved. Somewhere."
"He's no longer in Germany." Professor helped his blue friend along, hoping that it was helping somehow.
"Stillman disappears, Magneto nabs Lorelei, Lorelei disappears…"
"I think it's safe to say Stillman and Magneto are in cahoots." Professor X offered. "Or maybe Magneto's suddenly interested in granite roof features."
"So Magneto brought Lorelei to Stillman, maybe, which means that Stillman might be over here... or Magneto's gone worldwide with his human domination plan."
"Makes sense." Professor X agreed.
"So, if Magneto is working with Stillman and his drug… why did Mystique give it to us?"
Charles looked back to the pile of stuff that Beast had been prodding for over a month already. All that they were able to know so far was that the stuff was a bunch of chemicals. It did nothing. Beast said it had no effect on the human body at all.
"It appears to just be a placebo at this point." Professor X mused.
Hank folded his hands in his lap and shrugged in defeat. "Maybe it's incomplete. Maybe it needs another ingredient? Maybe it's nothing at all. Maybe Magneto's trying to send a message. Maybe I need more coffee."
"That… bottle?"
Hank poured some more coffee and looked back to the professor.
"That bottle," Professor X repeated, "that was on the man that wolverine hit. Did you ever combine the two?"
"Yes, of course." Hank nodded. "It simply made the powder wet. They didn't interact at all. In fact, the liquid in the bottle seems to be just that – the liquid form of the powder. It's the exact same thing. Almost. The little pill floating inside of it probably does something, but unfortunately…"
"What?" Professor X accepted the cup of bitter drink and tried to keep from tearing up. Should have known it's scalding hot.
"I lost the pill inside, it just disappeared."
"Well. That's anticlimactic."
Beast shrugged. "Meh," he downed his coffee in one gulp and began cleaning up. "Other than the usual perception distortions and general loss of brain cells, these drugs are nothing special. It's just fancy crack."
"It's one more drug that doesn't need to be here, and there has to be more to this." Professor X followed Beast around the room as he cleaned up. "People disappeared where the drug was first being distributed. They were being taken to the Stillmans home; now the Stillmans are missing and the drugs still circulating – but there aren't any mass kidnappings."
"He must have used those men and women as test subjects."
"He's just made fancy crack!" Professor X cried. "There's no need to kidnap people for that. There has to be more to this! We need to leave this drug alone and-"
"FIND LORELEI!" Kitty burst through the door, dragging a very distressed Kurt by the collar. "He finally agreed that it's best we look for her. That's seven votes, I win, let's GO."
"Kitty-"
"Don't 'Kitty' me Professor, It's been over-"
"Miss Pryde, that's a wonderful idea. Of course we'll search for Lorelei."
"You never liste- oh… really?" Kitty let go of Kurt, who teleported behind Beast.
"She's crazyyy." He rasped, gripping his collar.
~~~~~~~~Two Months Later~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei was once again staring at the boxes in the storeroom. Over the last few weeks her father had asked her to actually interact with the people selling the drugs. We must be really short-staffed.
It had been weird at first. She hadn't seen anyone besides her own reflection in the pools of water outside and her father on occasion for a long time. Magneto and his group didn't visit the warehouse as much as before – before he'd had a giant argument with her dad. He'd only visit once every week or so after that.
A crumpled piece of paper floated out from one of the boxes that Lorelei had just shifted and settled on her shoe.
Hello piece of paper.
Hello, Lorelei.
Should I read you?
Only if you know the secret password.
Lorelei huffed a piece of her fringe out her eyes and set the crate down to read the note anyways. I don't need your permission, paper.
…dammit I need friends.
She immediately recognized the handwriting on the paper – it was Garveys. It looked like it had been torn from a notebook; but not before being dumped in water, stomped upon and probably licked. Wait a minute, Garvey's dead. These are newish boxes… they just arrived with the last shipment. Lorelei flipped the paper over. In Garveys slanted scrawl, she could just make out a couple rows of some type of math problem. She mouthed them, as if it would help her see a bit better.
"Dirt plus water plus seed makes… new flower? Dirt plus water minus seed makes… nothing… the hell?" She scratched the back of her head in irritation. Garvey were you high when you wrote this? She stretched the paper further from her face and squinted. Maybe there's invisible ink?
"Dirt alone makes the foundation… water alone makes the foundation… dirt and seed makes nothing… water and seed makes… nah fuck it." She shoved the paper into her back pocket. As much as I loved the old man, I don't have time for this. He died a long time ago.
"ALONG VITH MY HOPES AND DREAMS!" She howled.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Logan looked up from the coordinates on the piece of paper that Magneto had given to the Professor. Well shit, aint this a surprise. He was standing in front of the warehouse he'd been contemplating busting down a few months ago.
Charles is gonna love this.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"Lorelei!"
"Vat now?" She kicked a box unceremoniously out her way and stomped towards the door.
Ernest Stillman stood in the entryway, looking a bit nervous. "Turn out your pockets, Lorelei."
"Not this again."
"Just do it."
"Dad I'm not taking your dumb drugs. Leave me alone."
"Lorelei!"
"Neraler!" Lorelei mocked him. "Neraler tern ert yer perkerts!"
"Dammit child I don't have time for this! What do you have?"
"NOTHING!"
Ernest made an attempt to check her pockets for himself, but Lorelei bolted back inside the storeroom and held one of the boxes in front of her, holding it ransom.
"You do that again and I'll drop this box!"
"Lorelei!" Stillman pleaded. "First off, that box is filled with bags. Second off, I'm just worried your vell-being. Is that so bad?"
"Ja. Coming from you. You're nothing but… butt!"
"Och. Just show me your pockets."
Lorelei groaned, but turned them out anyways. "Vhy all of a sudden are you so worried? You didn't do this back home."
"Hm." Her father waved her off and turned to leave, "Later."
"Later… vat?" she threw a baggie at him. "I said later vat!"
Ernest shook his head and left, ignoring the torrent of questions coming from behind.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Stillman shut the door to his office and rubbed his brow. Lorelei was getting worse. She's always muttering to herself…
He watched her bump the back door open and hand two boxes to one of his distributors. He'd hoped that at least seeing other people would calm her nerves, but she was just getting… stranger.
"It's not good keeping kids locked up like that…" Garvey warned.
Ernest turned to the man sitting in a chair in the far corner of the office. "What do you know about kids?"
The Irishman shrugged. "Your daughters always been… special. Even before her mutation."
Ernest bristled at the man's insult. "There's nothing wrong with my daughter."
"No," Garvey mused, and then smiled to himself. "Not for long."
Ernest turned back towards the window, and Garvey joined him and they watched as Lorelei picked up a stick and poked an unidentified blob of grey mass that was clinging to one of the dumpsters.
"Yup," Garvey slapped Ernest on the back. "Your kids something else."
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei shoved a stick through something grey and squishy on the dumpster. The hell is this?
She stopped after a while and went back inside to straighten the boxes, pulling the piece of paper in her pocket out from time to time in an attempt to decipher it.
Vat do you think these drugs do? She glared at one of the bottles and shook its contents.
Something secret.
She pulled a bag out from a nearby box and held it up too. Vat should ve do?
There was silence from the other end, as if she were contemplating the answer to her own question.
Don't know.
Thanks for reading! :)
AND DONT DO DRUGS! :(