Chapter Four - Bannerman Castle

Because it was Halloween as well as Sying's birthday, Noh and Jubes were sure to ask everyone to go ahead and wear their costumes all day, which Sying loved.

"Cos-tooms! Cos-tooms!" he declared happily the more people arrived for his birthday party. He wanted to meet everyone as they arrived, and he was certainly faster than most kids his size and age. But he was moving faster than he was quite able to contain himself and skidded and fell a few times, skewing his Marvin the Martian costume slightly.

When the Cage family arrived, Sying all but tackled Dani into a hug — she was one of his favorite kids to play with because she was strong enough that she could play with him. She was all dressed up in Jedi robes with a bright blue light-up lightsaber, and Sying just seemed to think that was the best thing of all time.

"Stab! Fightnin!" he said when he saw the lightsaber, and Dani grinned and nodded.

"It's a lightsaber," she explained, swinging it a bit as he giggled delightedly.

Luke and Jessica grinned as they watched their little girl proudly present Sying with his wrapped present, and he grabbed her by the hand to pull her toward the other kids.

As soon as they arrived, the Summers twins, who were dressed as Woody and Jesse from Toy Story 2, rushed over to pull Dani into their games. Krissy, dressed as Sleeping Beauty, ran over as soon as the older kids were playing, since she seemed to have decided it was her mission to make sure Sying was having a great birthday. She grabbed Sying by the hand to offer him another one of Annie's Halloween cookies — trying to return the favor of all the sweets he was always offering her. Elin, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, seemed to be doing what she could to keep Krissy in good supply of things to give Sying, too.

When the next guests arrived, Kate and Kurt — as Maleficent and Prince Phillip — greeted them at the door. Natasha had Gerry, who was wearing his X-Men uniform, on her hip as he was chatting over her shoulder with Jess, who was dressed as a vampire, though she wasn't amused at all when someone pointed out that she almost looked like she'd raided Viper's closet. Clint and Natasha seemed to be dressed as each other — with Clint in all black and Natasha wearing a purple tee shirt and jeans, which looked like a very comfortable costume considering that she was very pregnant and fairly miserable.

But those four weren't the only ones to come — Wade and little Eleanor appeared around Clint's shoulder with wide grins. Wade was in a full Gambit costume, and Eleanor had a spray-painted white streak in her hair as Rogue.

"Heya, Wade," Kate laughed as both Eleanor and Gerry pushed past into the mansion to rush over and go present their gifts and their 'happy birthday' wishes to Sying — though Gerry paused on his way past Kate to get compliments on his costume.

"Look, look — I'm an X-Man, Aunt Katie!" he called out, and she grinned.

"Just like me," she agreed, and he nodded.

"Can you guess which one I am?" he asked, bouncing slightly on his feet as he puffed his chest out and tried to look as big as he could.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Are you… Kitty?"

He giggled and shook his head. "No! I'm Lifeguard!" he said, grinning. "You can't tell because I'm so little, but Dad wouldn't let me pad my costume!"

Kate positively beamed at the little boy as she crouched down to be at his level and tweaked his cheek. "You look just like him," she said, and he looked terrifically proud before he ran over to go join Sying.

"That boy is too sweet for words," Kate told Clint and Jess before she tipped her head at Natasha. "Logan and K are in the back room watching movies and making fun of them. If you want a little quiet. He's already spoiling her rotten so you know ..."

"That sounds perfect," Natasha said, the relief obvious all over her expression. She had absolutely no poker face as the pregnancy went on, and she spent most of her time half hiding from people. She gave Clint a quick kiss on the cheek before she slipped off to go find the two ferals.

Bobby, who was giving out candy with the bamfs, grinned at the newcomers as they passed and made sure to give Gerry and Eleanor candy and compliments on their costumes.

"Daddy did my hair," Eleanor told him proudly, and Bobby looked past her to Wade, who struck his best Gambit pose, complete with a bo staff.

"I can see that," Bobby said, chuckling a little bit as Natasha's favorite bamf teleported over to help her get past the small group with candy, grabbing her hand with a smile.

Eleanor leaned forward with a smile. "You should say hi to him. He's been practicing his accent!"

"I'll bet he has," Bobby agreed before Gerry pulled her of to go play.

Of course, once Sying had said hi to all the kids who came to the party, the little guy also made it a point to toddle over to the adults to say hi as well, opening and closing both hands with enthusiastic waves hello. "Cos-tooms," he giggled.

Elin grinned at him and gave him a quick little kiss on the cheek. "Happy day," she said before she headed off toward Kurt to try to give him her little Snickers bar.

Kurt crouched down beside her. "Thank you very much, Elin," he told her with a warm smile. "Would you like to split your chocolate with me?"

"Nein," she replied, pushing it his way. "No, nyet, nej, iie."

"Well then," Kurt said as he took the Snickers bar. "Danke, Elin. You are very sweet," he said before he swept her up and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.

She simply giggled and snuggled in for a moment — not quite having perfected her response for him.

"Ellie!" Krissy called out to her best friend. "Ellie! Yummy!" Annie had brought out a cake for Sying, and the other little kids were already gathering to see what the little boy would do with his cake — as he was the last of their group to do this little tradition.

Sying sized up the flying-saucer cake for a long moment, seeming to study it before he very carefully shoved both of his hands into the cake and came back with handfuls of it — which he brought to Krissy and Elin. "You too?" he asked, offering them both the handfuls of cake.

Elin raised an eyebrow and reached out to take his hand, squishing the cake with him with a little giggle. "Silly," she said with a smile.

Krissy looked at the outstretched hand that Sying was still holding out to her and then at Elin before she reached out to do the same thing her best friend had done and fell into little giggles. "Ja! Des!" she giggled.

Sying grinned delightedly and dashed back to the cake, pulling out handfuls to offer to everyone — even the adults. He did the whole thing so precisely, too, pulling out just enough to squish in his hands, and Peter caught the whole thing with a delighted grin.

"Grammy K?" Sying asked as he pulled out two last handfuls of cake. "Grampa Wolvie?"

Noh swept up his little boy in his arms. "Yes, we should find them," he agreed with a smile as they headed down to the room where Logan and K were watching movies with Natasha. When he came in, Natasha was already half asleep on Logan's shoulder and looking still miserable, but all three looked happy to see the adorable little boy as Noh set him down.

"Happy Birthday, sparkling angel boy," K muttered as she reached out to muss up his hair. "Are you having fun with your friends?"

Sying giggled and nodded before he held out his little handfuls of carefully-preserved cake. "You too," he said with a little smile.

"That's so thoughtful," K told him. "Logan and I can share — but I think Natasha needs some too. She looks a little sad, doesn't she?"

Sying looked over at Natasha and nodded. He held out one fist between Logan and K to smash first and very carefully tucked the second behind his back.

"I'll bet she'd love a kiss too," Logan said with a little smirk as he and K both held out their hands for Sying.

He nodded very thoughtfully before he squished the cake between both of them, giggling delightedly. Then, he carefully and one-handedly climbed up to where Natasha was to hold out his second hand. "You too?"

Natasha picked her head up from Logan's shoulder and took in a breath as she struggled to keep her emotions off her face — an act that used to be so much easier. "Of course, sweet boy," she agreed as she reached over to squish the cake with him, and then he climbed up to kiss her gently before he tried to feed her some of the squished up cake still in his hands.

When Natasha playfully pretended to bite his fingers with a little laugh, Sying giggled and pulled his hands back. "No sad?" he asked, sounding very proud, and when Natasha laughed, he gave her another kiss and then looked at K and Logan. "No sad, Grammy K. No sad, Grampa Wolvie," he reported.

"That's right; we're good for now, sweetie," K promised.

He beamed at them before he slipped out of Natasha's lap to go back to Noh, who was shining with pride. "You are such a sweet little boy," Noh told his son as he scooped him up and kissed his forehead. "Say goodbye."

"Bye bye Grammy K!" Sying called out. "Bye bye Wolvie! Bye bye Nat!" With that, Noh and his little boy went back to the rest of the party, where everyone had cleaned up the cake and had moved on to Halloween cookies and laughter — while Peter was playing hide and seek with all of the kids at once.

Krissy ran over when she spotted Sying and grabbed him by his cake-covered hand. "Play!" she said as she pulled him along, though Jubilee managed to snag them both and get them un-caked before they got too far. And Krissy giggled all the way through Jubilee cleaning her up and tried to pull away. "No!"

But Jubilee had barely gotten her cleaned up and even managed to kiss her cheek before she did the same to Sying, who patted Krissy consolingly on the shoulder. "Play?" he offered, gesturing at where the other kids were, and when she nodded, he pulled her along, very gently, until they both climbed into a cabinet to hide from Spidey together — with much giggling and shushing.

The adults in the room watched the whole thing with wide smiles as Noh and Jubilee joined them. "Your kid is made of everything sweet," Kate told them with a grin.

"Of course he is," Noh said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I mean, look at the material we had to work with," Jubilee agreed before she popped up on her toes to kiss Noh.

A couple weeks after Halloween, when Kate found Kurt, he was stretched out on the roof with his hands behind his head, just staring up at the sky, and she climbed up with a grappling arrow and dropped down beside him with a quiet smile.

"You look a little down, sweetheart," she said as she settled onto her side and gently played her hand through his curls. "Are you just feeling particularly old? You did turn fifty-two yesterday." She started to do a bit more than play with his curls as she pretended to search through his hair. "Did you find a gray?"

He laughed at that and shook his head. "No, nothing like that," he said before he let out his breath. "I was simply hoping that K and Logan's little boy would have come yesterday."

"Wanted a birthday buddy, I see," Kate said, smirking the slightest bit before she leaned down to kiss him very gently. When this kiss broke, she kept her face very close to his, letting her hair fall down around them both. "You know, if we get started now, I bet we could get you a birthday buddy another way," she teased. "Might take a bit."

Kurt grinned at her outright as he pulled her down to him to kiss her. "I thought you said you didn't know when our other little one was coming from that other timeline," he teased her gently.

"I don't," she replied. "But maybe ... maybe it wouldn't be horrible if our little elf was earlier." She bit her lip and smiled softly.

"That would certainly mess with the timeline," he teased. "Not that I would complain about it."

"Well, I don't really care about that timeline getting messed up," she pointed out as she very gently kissed him again. "We're already looking for Mystique, calling in Strange and Billy… I say screw the future and do what we want."

"That sounds like the best plan you've come up with so far," he agreed. "Still … perhaps we should wait … in case you change your mind."

"No, no," Kate said. "I've been thinking about it, and I think… Well, anyway, we'll see what happens. When we weren't trying, it took no time. Maybe it'll be the opposite when we try. We'll see," she teased.

"Or stop trying to not have another, you mean," he asked with his brow wrinkled up a bit.

She kissed the tip of his nose. "Well, the trying is the fun part," she whispered low as she lowered herself to kiss the tip of his ears and hook her fingers in the collar of his uniform to pull him that much closer.

One of the bamfs' head snapped up at a bit of muffled cursing coming from the trees. He stuck his lip out and narrowed his eyes with a little growl as Kurt disentangled himself from Kate. "Back in a moment," he said before he and the bamf both teleported to the source of the noise.

"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked before the smoke had cleared entirely, allowing the indigo to swirl around him so he could make a properly dramatic entrance.

The group of three teenagers nearly startled out of the branches they were trying to scramble down. "We — we weren't—" stuttered out one of the two boys.

"Just ... climbing trees," the girl in their group offered.

"This is not open to the public," Kurt told them, though he didn't buy their story even slightly. "And that's common knowledge. So why are you really here?"

"Just…. Just wanted to see the X-Men," one of the boys muttered, though the girl was nervously shoving her hands deeper in her pockets, her body turned away from him.

"Why?"

"See your powers," the other boy muttered. "Not on TV. In person."

He narrowed his eyes a bit and watched them all in turn, his tail swaying slowly, but the very end of it twitching irritably. "Are you mutants or …"

The kids looked at each other before one of the boys raised a hand so Kurt could better see the slightly sticky suction cups at the end of each finger. "Mutants," he said.

"Just want to see the place," the other boy muttered.

"If you were thinking of attending the school, you'd be much wiser to come back during daylight. I assume you are locals?" Kurt asked, trying to find a lie among them.

The kids glanced at each other again and shook their heads quickly. "I'm from Queens," the girl said.

"Besides," the suction-cupped boy said quickly. "We don't have cool powers. We just want to see the X-Men and the real powers."

"Cool powers are not a necessity to enroll," he told them with as stern of a tone as he was able. "And I'm afraid if you're simply looking for a show, you'll have to leave."

"We just—" one of the boys started to say, but the girl grabbed his arm.

"We'll go," she said quickly.

"I'll escort you out," Kurt told her as he gestured toward the open lawn and the front gate.

Once more, the kids glanced at each other, though Kurt noticed that they seemed to take their cues from the girl; the boys waited for her to nod before they nodded as well.

Once they were at the gate, Kurt reached out to take a hold of the girl's arm — since clearly she was the one calling the shots. "If you find yourselves in trouble or reconsider enrollment, just call," Kurt told them before he made a point to hand the girl a card with the phone number for the school on it. "We don't turn mutants in need away."

The girl glanced over at her companions before she pocketed the card and nodded. "Alright. We'll think about it. Thanks," she said.

She and the other two boys all but ran down the street after that and didn't speak to each other until they felt like they were far enough away.

"We shouldn't have stopped to spy on Nightcrawler," the girl said as she panted and shook her head. "We didn't get enough pictures — not nearly as many as the first time."

The boy with the suction cups shook his head. "Yeah, but — but he said we could choose what we wanted, and we already got yours." He gave the girl a hard look, and she whirled to face him.

"Because he's on the list. Don't screw this up, or we'll get fired," she said, pointing her finger in his face. "It's your fault for getting all starry-eyed."

"I was just … trying to get the pictures," he defended. "We needed all of them, and we're not … having the luck that we did last time. That's all. Don't try to pin this on me."

"Yeah, well, next time, sign me up for not peeping on the X-Men… doing… things," the other boy muttered at the ground.

"Didn't know you had a potty mouth, Cam," the girl said with a smirk. "Can't handle a hot makeout?"

"That — no." The other boy, Cam, shook his head as he and the others made it to the car hidden away on the road.

As they drove, the girl, who insisted on being called Scanner, flipped through the pictures on the phone that she'd been keeping in her pocket. They had a few pictures of Cyclops — there was one that Scanner was really proud of that a photographer would be pleased with of him tossing that cute little boy that looked just like him in the air. There were some of the junior members of the team, and a few shots of Jubilee and the Kree… plenty of shots of students and the cute little kids playing… Nothing of Wolverine and K, though. Which was frustrating, because they were high on the list they'd been given of X-Men to photograph.

There really wasn't much that they could use, which had the kids a little nervous as they headed back to the city. The shots were pretty, and they found some really great action pictures ... but… the whole point was to get pictures of everyone on the team, with emphasis on the ones on the priority list, and they still hadn't found Kitty, or Logan, or K ... and Cam had overheard someone saying Forge and Storm were gone again…

"We can't get caught next time," Scanner muttered. "If we screw this up, we'll be D-list for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah, we know, shut up," the other boy, Ozzie, muttered.

It took another little while to get to Bannerman Castle, though the kids didn't much talk to each other. When they reached the room where their employer, Dr. Essex, was waiting for them in, the wicked doctor didn't even bother turning around to speak to them. "Did you bring me what I asked for?" he asked in a slow, even drawl.

The boys glanced at Scanner, who took a deep breath and swallowed hard against her dry mouth. "We brought more pictures," she said. "We … we still can't find Wolverine or K. They don't really… come out." She pulled the phone out of her pocket nervously.

"They are more cautious than the rest," he muttered, mostly to himself. "But it's not like them to simply remain out of sight for so long." He looked through the phone, though he sneered a bit at the picture of Scott and Chance. "Unless they're not there."

"We can keep trying," Scanner said quickly. "I think they're there. I mean ... look at some of the pictures. What about that little girl with black hair?"

"She was with the little purple Nightcrawler baby," Cam piped up. "They're together all the time."

"And — and we would've had more, but Nightcrawler's little bamfs spotted us," Ozzie added.

He turned their way at that, eyes narrowed. "You were caught?"

Scanner glared at Ozzie for a moment. "We didn't ... it's not like he got mad or anything; he just… thought we were snooping and escorted us out," she tried to explain.

He looked positively furious as he rose to his full height and looked ready to tear them each into tiny pieces. "I entrusted you with one job," he half snarled, his eyes glowing red. "Perhaps I should find more competent assistants that will earn their pay."

"Wait, wait!" Cam said quickly as all three of the kids shrank back from the angry doctor. "No, we can still — Scanner talked to him!"

"Yeah, Scanner got his business card," Ozzie added.

Scanner glanced at the boys on either side of her and nodded, digging in her pocket for the card with the mansion's phone number on it to hold it out to Sinister, not quite meeting his gaze while the other two looked petrified.

He considered her for a moment before he took the card and glared at it hard for a few long, painfully drawn-out moments. Finally, he seemed to relax all at once, and a slow smirk began to light his face up. "This would work," he said, nodding slowly. "You will enroll. Get me what I asked for, perhaps more."

"You want us inside the school?" Ozzie asked, and Scanner kicked him to get him to shut up.

"Thus far, you have failed to get me what I had asked for. If the ferals are there, then they are purposefully keeping out of sight," Sinister replied as if he was explaining it to the slowest of his Marauders. "You may have to go inside to confirm that they have returned for more than a simple visit."

"We'll call them tomorrow," Scanner promised quickly before either of the boys could say anything. "We'll get your proof."