Warnings: Cussing. I cuss. Too bad, so sad.
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Retrieval of Self: Chapter 10
Evan twiddled with the pillow's tassels idly in his hand as Captain Picard commanded something or other in his definitive voice. He wasn't really paying attention, distracted by a Kurt, who was sprawled out listlessly on the couch. It had been two days since the daring escape; and with no cure from Hank, Kurt was beginning to look worse for wear. His eyes, despite now holding a golden glow, had lost their spark, and he was now having coughing fits which Kurt said tasted like ash. Still, Hank claimed the collar was dampening the effects of the serum, giving them precious time to discover a way to reverse Kurt's condition. Evan had gotten used to Kurt having a little extra bling around his neck, and thought that whenever they found said cure, he'd get him a necklace that read, "I survived imminent death and all I got was this stupid necklace."
Evan sighed to himself. Avoiding these depressing thoughts was the exact reason he dragged Kurt out of his room. He couldn't stand the constant tip-toeing around Kurt and hastily wiped eyes anymore. So, he took matters into his own hands. If worse came to worse, he'd rather his friend have some fun in his last days. His plan wasn't doing so hot so far. Here he was, miserably stroking a pillow while Kurt had his hands clenched tight to his chest, eyes staring past the TV. Evan focused back on the TV, trying to wrack his brain for some brilliant idea to liven the mood. A commercial was on, something about a mime trying to buy a Honda. Evan suddenly sat up straight, an idea hitting him like lightning. He just hoped it didn't backfire.
"Hey, Kurt!"
Kurt continued to stare ahead, eyes far away.
Frowning, but not deterred, Evan tried again, but this time his shout was accompanied by a flying pillow across the room.
Bullseye.
"W-What?" Startled by a pillow suddenly nailing him in the face, Kurt quickly sat up, glancing over at Evan before focusing on the TV. "Oh, sorry. Must've zoned out." Kurt began searching the cushions for the remote to fast forward through the commercials.
"No, no, man." Evan sprung off the chair, vitalized by his plan. "Don't worry about the commercials. I want to play a game."
Kurt looked at him skeptically as he stopped digging in the couch. Nestling back down, he began playing with the tassels on the pillow.
"It'll be fun. Trust me!"
"Your idea of fun and mine aren't precisely the same."
"Oh, come on. Stop fondling the pillow and play!"
Kurt rolled his eyes before giving the tassel one last twirl then clutched the pillow to his chest. "Ok, thrill me, gamemaster."
"Great. All you gotta do is guess who I am."
"You're Evan. What do I win?"
"Come on! Just play along. See, I'm gonna choose a character from Star Trek and you gotta guess who I am!"
"Alright," Kurt gave in, a little wary of Evan's crazed state. "So just TNG or all the Star Treks?"
"Can't make this too easy, so all of them." Evan stood in front of the TV and shook his arms, preparing himself. "Ok, here I go." He put a hand up to his forehead while scrunching up his face.
"I didn't realize Jean was on Star Trek."
Evan laughed before warily checking around to see if Jean was lurking behind him. Relieved, he turned back to Kurt. "Man, she'd have my head if she thought I was mimicking her."
"You forgot to throw your hand out dramatically in front of you." Kurt demonstrated in a perfect imitation of Jean using her powers. "Scott, oh Scott!"
Evan burst out laughing. "Oh man, that was the -" He broke off, a scared look on his face as he pointed behind Kurt.
Kurt slowly lifted himself slightly off the couch and turned to see what Evan was gesturing to, dreading the look on Jean's face. No one was there.
Evan cackled behind him before getting hit in the face with a pillow followed by laughter. Smiling, he picked up the pillow and tossed it back to Kurt. His plan was working so far. He'd succeeded in distracting Kurt and was feeling pretty good about himself. "Okay, for real this time." He once again put a hand to his forehead and -
"Troi."
"What! Come on. At least pretend and let me have a chance at demonstrating my mad charade skills."
"What can I say, I'm a genius."
Evan sat huffily back in his chair. "Alright, Mr. Genius, it's your turn then."
"K, hang on. Let me think."
"I know!" Evan sat eagerly forward in his chair, barely suppressing the smirk threatening to take over his face.
"I haven't even-"
"Spock! You're Spock, right?"
"What? I-"
"No, I'm right." Evan flashed Kurt the Vulcan salute, grinning tentatively as he awaited Kurt's reaction. Evan knew Kurt was a little, ok a lot sensitive about his looks but hopefully Kurt would take the light teasing and would lighten up.
"Evan," Kurt seriously toned, leaving a pregnant pause and watched unblinkingly as Evan fidgeted nervously. Once Kurt had decided Evan had squirmed enough, he let a grin break out over his face.
"That was terrible. Leave the jokes to the master," he said pointing to himself.
Evan laughed. "Well, I thought it was funny!"
"Of course you would. You still think 'that's what she said' jokes are funny."
"Hey, what's wrong with them? They're still funny. I still laugh at them!" Evan crossed his arms in indignation.
"Oh, nothing." Kurt suddenly became very interested in studying his tail. He fiddled with the end of it as he tried very hard not to burst out laughing at Evan's righteous anger.
"No, what. Just tell –" Evan broke off, a look of utter fear passing his face before he rushed over to Kurt and knelt down low by the couch.
"Wha-" Evan cut Kurt off with a hand over his mouth.
"They're here!" Evan whispered in a frantic voice. "The men who attacked us!"
Kurt's eyes widened, cold fear washing over his whole body. Barely resisting the urge to sit up and see for himself, he removed Evan's hand and mouthed, "How many?"
"I saw one in the kitchen." He cautiously peeked his head over the couch before quickly ducking down again. "There's two in there now."
Anger boiled up in Evan. First they were attacked in the forest and now in their own home. Evan clenched his fists, ready to give the two intruders what they justly deserved. He was about ready to spring over the couch when he caught Kurt's strangely glowing eyes. Perhaps he could take out at least one of the men, but that'd leave Kurt particularly vulnerable in his weakened state.
Releasing his tensed muscles, Evan settled back down on his haunches. He had already screwed up once at the cost of his friend. He wasn't about to commit the same mistake.
"Evan," Kurt whispered as he slid off the couch to settle beside him. "We should go before they come in here."
Nodding, Evan took one last quick glance over the sofa to ascertain the intruders' locations before gesturing towards the hallway to their left.
They cautiously crouched low to the ground and crawled across the living room floor, one eye towards the kitchen. What seemed like an eternity later, Evan crawled past the archway separating the living room and hallway, and sat next to Kurt just outside the opening. He unnecessarily motioned Kurt for silence and then carefully leaned against the wall. Holding his breath, he listened for any sounds that they were heard, but it seemed they were unnoticed.
Suddenly a siren started sounding, and Evan felt his soul leave his body before he realized it was just the TV. The Enterprise was on Red Alert. How fitting, Evan thought.
Letting out a breath of relief, Evan turned around and sat against the wall, at a loss of what to do next. As he turned to look at Kurt, hoping he had some guidance on where to go, he noticed that Kurt was clutching his hands close to his chest. Leaning forward, Evan worriedly put a questioning hand on Kurt's shoulder.
It took a few intense moments, but Kurt finally turned towards Evan. "I'm okay," Kurt whispered hoarsely.
Not reassured in the least, but not being able to do anything about it, Evan turned back to the situation at hand. Knowing that they couldn't stay here unnoticed, they only had two options: the front grand entryway with the staircase leading up, or the back hall with the wide panel of glass doors and windows leading to the expansive backyard. Evan, hoping Kurt would understand his crude signals, pointed to himself and to the left and then to Kurt and to the right. Kurt nodded in understanding and proceeded to carefully check the living room before crawling past the archway towards the front of the mansion. After making sure Kurt had made it across undetected, Evan turned toward his own course to scout.
He had just proceeded a few steps before he felt a tug on his foot. He almost let out a panicked scream, but was able to hold it in. Kurt had grabbed his ankle and was shaking his head as he creeped back towards their spot.
"I saw three guards in the mirror near the front. Looked like two of them were headed upstairs."
"Dammit," Evan cursed. Having no other choice, they moved towards the back of the mansion. Thankfully, their luck seemed to hold out. There were a few men they could see through the long glass windows out on the grounds, but none in the back hallway. Sneaking forward, Evan led them down the hall, though he had no idea where he was even headed. Where would be safe? In front of all the glass windows, he felt exposed.
For the umpteenth time that day, Evan jumped a mile in his skin. The sound of fighting upstairs followed by Professor X's instructions resounding in his head almost had him running down the hall, but he was pulled back harshly by Kurt.
"The Professor said to get to the subbasement. We can use the elevator here." Kurt whispered as he pointed to the back entrance of the elevator.
"What if someone's already in there? Or trying to come in from the front side?" Evan quickly pulled back Kurt's hand from the elevator call button.
"Do you have a better idea?"
Evan grimaced and reluctantly shook his head as he released Kurt's hand. Positioning themselves on one side of the elevator, Kurt pressed the button. The elevator must've already been on the ground floor as the doors opened immediately. Peeking his head around the corner, Evan nodded once before walking inside. At that moment, their luck ran out.
The front doors of the elevator dinged open, revealed two armed men standing in the grand entryway. Surprise briefly flitted across their faces, but they recovered fast. Evan stood there dazed, and if not for Kurt's quick reaction to jerk him down and out the back of the elevator, he would've been pumped full of tranqs.
Fleeing down the hall, Evan could hear the sound of their discovery reverberating after them. More familiar with the mansion, Evan and Kurt were soon able to outpace the men, and ducked into the first room they came across without being seen.
The library was dark and empty, but they still moved silently towards the back and crouched down behind a long aisle of bookcases. Taking a moment to slow his racing heart, Evan breathed out deeply. How were they supposed to get to the subbasement now? No plan was formulating in his mind and his panic scale was teetering towards 10.
Meagerly suppressed coughing caught Evan's ear, distracting him from his frantic thoughts. Looking over at Kurt, Evan saw him trying to hold back his coughs while muffling any that escaped into his sleeve. All the running had only taxed Kurt's abused body.
"You gonna be okay, man?"
Kurt let out one last weak cough before trying to wave off Evan's concern. The second he sat back, it was obvious any reply would be ignored. His sleeve was wet with blood.
Evan's eyes widened in shock. "Shit. We need to get you to Hank and the subbasement now." Evan was trying his best to stay calm, but the situation was degrading out of control.
"I-" Voice scratchy, Kurt swallowed hard before trying again. "I can teleport us out," Kurt said as he reached for the collar.
"Are you crazy?" Evan's voice rose as he roughly pushed Kurt's hand away from his neck. They both sat there a moment in fear that someone had heard Evan's shout. After a moment of silence, Evan continued in a harsh whisper. "You're coughing up blood and you want to teleport! We'll find another way. In fact, why don't we try to get to the back stairway. Hopefully the men will be looking elsewhere for us now and we can make a break for it."
Kurt nodded in acquiescence, seemingly too tired to argue. Standing up and helping Kurt to his feet, Evan pointed in the direction they should go. Right into the faces of two armed men. The men must've taken advantage of their distraction and snuck up on them during their hurried conversation.
Evan realized there was no way for them to escape. They'd never reach the other end of the aisle before being taken out. The men smirked and pulled the triggers. As the darts sped towards Evan, he felt the familiar, sickening sensation that always accompanied side-along teleports.
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Professor X clenched the armrests of his wheelchair as he watched Hank worry over a recently awakened Kurt. This was not how things were supposed to go. He supposed he should be thankful that everyone had made it to the subbasement, but his heart had stopped a brief moment when Kurt appeared in a cloud of teleportation, unmoving. And then when Hank had discovered blood on Kurt's sleeve and Evan's recount of their flight, Professor X made an impromptu decision.
They had been luckyso far, and he could only hope that their luck would hold out the rest of the night for what he had planned. As soon as everyone had gathered, Professor X had ushered everyone into the X-jet, only telling Ororo their location as she took the pilot seat.
They still had a ways to go, and he was finding the building tension in the jet to be stifling and distracting to his thoughts.
Hank straightened up, having finished his examination of Kurt. "You absolutely must not teleport again until we acquire the antidote."
"Ja," Kurt replied tiredly, staring morosely at the floor.
"He means it, Elf." Logan stood up to loom over Kurt. "No joking around."
"I know," Kurt said irritably, finally looking up. "I just said yes. No wait, I said Ja. That means yes in German."
Not waiting for things to escalate, Professor Xavier rolled forward. "Now, Kurt, no need to take an attitude with Logan. I believe an apology is in order."
Feeling sheepish, Kurt ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. I'm just feeling…" He trailed off, before shrugging his shoulders. There was too much to put into words.
"Understandable. And Logan, I think Kurt understands more than anyone the importance of Hank's orders."
Nodding, Logan took the seat next to Kurt. Sighing, he leaned over and quietly said, "Sorry, Elf. I just don't take to worrying well."
"So I can tell."
"Yeah, not a very auspicious start to my resolution."
"Nor to mine either."
Seeing Kurt's despondent face, Logan nudged Kurt's shoulder. "We're new to this. We'll figure it out."
Kurt returned his optimism with a skeptic look.
"Eventually." Logan grinned in determination.
Professor X, meanwhile, was trying to restructure his strategies he had previously laid out to accommodate these exigent circumstances. He had no choice now but to move up his attack plans on Falk's labs and take everyone on the mission while the mercenaries were preoccupied at the mansion.
After awhile with only whispered conversation as background noise, he was satisfied with his quick reworking. Charles called for everyone's attention. "X-men." Waiting until all side chatter had stopped, he began the tense debriefing. "Not all of you know that I originally planned to attack Falk's facility in a few days time."
Rogue raised her eyebrows at Kitty in surprise who shrugged in confusion. Obviously they were not part of the original plan.
"Unfortunately, the circumstances have changed, and there is no better opportunity than now for my plan to come to fruition. Forces at the facility will be low due to the attack on the mansion."
Faces full of anger looked back at him at the mention of the assault on the X-mansion. "Let me emphasize that this is not a revenge mission. There are two primary goals that must be accomplished, and I need everyone focused on these goals."
Seeing nods of understanding all around, he continued. "The first and primary goal is to find the lab where Kurt was taken to and given the injections must be found. If anyone finds this lab, do not destroy it. Hank will be using anything he finds to create a so-called antidote for Kurt."
"The second goal is to destroy the facility. We cannot have an operation like this continue to threaten mutant kind. Destroy any equipment, computers - anything useful that you can find.'
"And what of Falk?" Logan growled.
Staring for a moment at Logan before his eyes drifted briefly over to Kurt's exhausted form than back to Logan, the Professor stated, "He'll be your responsibility."
Logan grinned to himself while cracking his knuckles. That was exactly what he wanted to hear.
"We will be split into three different teams. Everyone is to follow all instructions from the team leaders. If they say run, do it. Hank, Jean, Kurt and I will be heading to the lab as fast as possible, using their memory of the layout of the facility. Hopefully, there Hank'll be able to find the decoction Falk used on Kurt and reverse it. We will be Team 1, and Hank and I shall be the team leaders."
"Everyone else, you're to cause as much destruction to the facility while distracting anyone that may interfere with Team 1. Team 2 will be Logan, Evan and Rogue with Logan as leader. Team 3: Ororo, Kitty and Scott, Ororo's the leader. Keep a lookout for the lab. I'll maintain an open telepath channel for everyone to communicate on."
"We will be landing near the back entrance where you all made your escape. The minute we land, it's absolute silence until we enter the facility. We'll be splitting up into our respective teams when we get further in. Maintain cover until then."
The X-jet engines began to hum as Ororo announced their descent.
Looking at the grim determination around him, the Professor nodded in approval. "Let's go."
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