A/N - The Side Story "Adventures With Cable" Isn't quite over yet - just a few more chapters to go, but we're not slowing this train down either. The rest of Kate and K's journey will continue, but for those uninterested in time travel ... here! Have another chapter!
Chapter 7: A Proposed Trade
Classes had ended for the day, and most of the kids were going out for the weekend, but Jana was curled up in a corner in one of the window seats of the living room, far from the rest of the students as she looked through the pictures on her phone.
They were pretty personal, she was realizing now. Jubilee and Noh dancing in the hallway and sharing his headphones. Tyler and Tammy sitting with their hands just resting on the same arm of a chair. Elin snuggling Chance and giving him a little kiss after he fell over trying to run too fast. Krissy hiding behind Scott's legs and glaring at Sying after the little boy had accidentally broken one of her toys because he was still learning to control his strength.
And then there was the one from this morning. Kate and Kurt wrapped up in each other, as usual, and teasing their friends. Logan had his arm around K's shoulders, and James was sound asleep, and both Elin and Krissy were sitting in their highchairs giggling at each other and being silly. It was a sweet sort of family portrait that belonged in a family photography book, not at Bannerman Castle.
These people had invited them into their home, and Jana couldn't help but feel guilty for spying on them. They were so nice. Cyclops helped her with her math homework. Hawkeye praised her in front of the entire class on how fast she was on the uptake learning about alien tech. Annie and Storm never made fun of the fact that she struggled with her English homework more than the other kids; she'd never done well with "themes" and other abstract stuff she couldn't just… see and set down and declare as truth.
But all her teachers were patient with her, except maybe Logan, who shouted at her — but she could hear Scott's encouragement from breakfast in her head, echoing around all day as she thought it over.
She had stopped on the picture of Logan and K with their family and the Wagners, only she wasn't looking at the picture anymore but at the little 'trash' icon that would let her delete it. She should delete it. No one would know that she ever got the picture, and the boys hadn't been able to get anything like it. They wouldn't think twice about her saying that she hadn't gotten it yet.
But… Essex had promised her that she could get powers like Scott. And he'd said she could be a good leader, that she was a natural. She could be just like Cyclops. Blast anybody that crossed her and … She needed this picture to do that.
And there was a part of her that was proud, too. She was the one who managed what the other two couldn't. And she didn't just get a half-captured, quick thing, either. This was a whole group shot, the whole nine yards, and she did it.
Jana was so wrapped up in thinking it over that she didn't notice Ozzie until he was leaning over her shoulder. "Get anything good?" he asked — and before she could hide the picture, he'd seen it. He broke into a huge grin and made a grab for the phone. "Did you send it yet?" he asked as he snatched the phone from her hand and looked over the message history, shaking his head when he saw it was empty. "What's the holdup, Scaredy Scanner?" he sneered at her before he sent the picture off himself.
She glared at him and elbowed him to get her phone back, pulling up the message to see that he'd sent it and took credit for her hard work. With a cry of frustration, she kneed him in the stomach and sent him crashing down before she stalked out of the room, positively livid, but not before she tossed over her shoulder, "You'll regret that, cheater."
But the damage had been done. The picture was sent. So … now what was she supposed to do?
They were only supposed to have enrolled until they got what they were sent for. And then Essex would give them their new powers when he came to the school. So ... she was probably supposed to go to that castle, right? Get somewhere safe while he did his thing…
Only… she didn't want to. She'd been wanting to have better powers since she first discovered hers, and she'd been hoping for super powers since she was old enough to know what they were. But now, she just wanted to go to school and take the tactics class Scott had suggested she sign up for.
But Ozzie was probably headed there right now, taking credit for her good work. She had done everything. She had been the one to find Essex in the first place, and she was the one who figured out how to sneak onto the grounds. And it was stupid, but she hated the idea that Ozzie got credit for anything she did, even if she didn't want the credit.
She just let out a long, loud, frustrated sigh that she didn't care who overheard before she went to go grab her coat and head out. Cam was the only one of them old enough to drive, but she could figure out a way to get there faster than either of them, she was sure.
It took her two hitched rides and several bus rides, but she got there fast enough, though she was frustrated to see that Cam's car was already there, and she all but stormed into the place to immediately go to Ozzie and kick him in the shins before she decked him and he fell right on his stupid butt. She didn't even care that Essex was watching the whole thing.
"You try ditching me and taking credit for my hard work again, and I'll aim lower next time," she promised him with a hard glare before she kicked him again for good measure.
Essex smirked at the little display, seemingly content to watch as the girl corrected Ozzie's bad behavior for herself. "Is that true, young man? Trying to take credit where it is not due?"
"She's crazy," Ozzie said, trying to block her from kicking him again.
"Then why did it come through from her number?" Essex asked with a bit of a glare.
Ozzie fell a bit quiet at that as Jana looked triumphant, her hands on her hips and her chin thrust out. "Didn't think of that, did you, stupid?"
"Though I would like to know why you didn't send it sooner," Essex said her way. "When was that taken?"
"There's a really strict no cell phone rule at the school," Jana said quickly.
"Yes, to avoid this photograph from being taken," Essex told her. "You have no idea what this snapshot is worth, do you?" He was smirking at her in a very unsettling way.
She squared her shoulders and kept her hands in fists at her sides, ready to put them up in defense of her actions in a second. "Must be worth a lot," she reasoned. "So pay up: you said we'd get powers. Better ones. That's worth a lot too." She looked like she was ready to fight as she added, "Unless you're backing out — then I'll be taking that phone."
"Quite the opposite," Essex replied before he waved a hand and, in a flash, the three kids were off the ground — restrained by three massive Marauders. "You'll wait in the lab for your turn." He turned his head, the relaxed, easy tone now a thing of the past as he barked out his orders to the Marauders on what he expected of them, and what Jana heard of their orders had her horrified.
Back at the mansion, K and Logan were just putting the kids down for their naps, the two little girls cuddled up comfortably together and James in his crib, sound asleep, when Chance and Charlie came in to see if they could 'help'.
K squatted down to look Chance in the eyes as he asked, peeking in the room with wide eyes. "All you could do right now is snuggle up, sweetie. There's room if that's what you want to do."
Chance tried to peer around her to the little girls and then nodded very seriously. "I help. I snuggle," he said with a little smile. Charlie grinned and headed over to cuddle with him.
K followed them over to where the girls were very sleepily trying to get comfortable and let him cuddle up — the twins giggling as she covered all four of them up with the blanket and the two near sleeping girls smiled tiredly.
Chance very carefully and delicately gave both girls a kiss before he snuggled into Elin mostly — though he didn't want to leave Krissy out and was half holding her hand as well. "Night night," he told both of them, clearly content where he was as Charlie curled up on the other side of Elin — she didn't want to snuggle with Krissy and her tail.
"You shouldn't encourage them," Logan told her as he pulled her closer to him.
"They're being sweet. Leave them alone," she countered.
The kids were all starting to drift off as a call of alarm echoed up to them from downstairs. Logan and K had enough time to share a look and part company, with K intending to stand guard with the kids as Logan headed off at a run to find out what the problem was. She hadn't quite gotten to them, softly singing in Swedish when K found herself entirely unable to move or speak.
A moment or two later, she was livid as she watched Sinister himself walk into the room and look over the group of sleeping or half-asleep children. "It certainly makes it more convenient when you gather them up for me," he drawled out as he looked them all over one by one.
Charlie was the most awake of the group as she glared at Sinister openly. "Futzy creep," she all but growled at him, and the anger in her voice had her brother sitting up straighter next to her and taking better notice of what was happening instead of focusing on snuggling.
Chance glanced at his sister and tipped his head at her. "Futzy creep?" he repeated, and when she nodded, he very carefully climbed out from between the two others with his little hands in fists.
Sinister glared down at the little ones and turned toward the Mauraders behind him. "Take them all," he said as he reached down to pick up James. "I have a lot of catching up to do, apparently."
But Chance didn't seem to agree at all with Sinister going to James' crib, and he ran right up to the tall, creepy doctor to start wailing and pounding on him from the knees down with everything that an almost-three-year-old boy could muster — fists, feet, and loud shouting.
Sinister simply ignored him for a moment before he tipped his head toward the boy, and one of his assistants slipped in and restrained him with one arm before he snatched up Elin with the other. In the space of a few minutes, all of the kids were on their way out the door with Sinister — and K was in a state of panic as she could hear the kids yelling the whole time.
One of the Marauders pitched a canister into the room and closed the door behind him, ensuring that they'd get a head start — even though K knew exactly who had taken the kids.
Jana was furious as she kicked at the bars of the cell Essex had locked her in - ineffectually, of course, but it made her feel at least a little better. "After everything we did for him," she was muttering under her breath for the tenth time in the past half an hour.
"Give it a rest, Scanner," Cam called out from the cell he and Ozzie were locked in.
"No!" she shouted back. "Does it look like he's going to give us what he promised?"
"So why are you beating up the bars? That's not helping anybody!" Cam shouted back.
"Because I can't reach you yet!"
Cam quieted down at that and went back to sitting with his arms around his knees, though Ozzie still looked hopeful. "He said we'd get a turn in the labs," he pointed out.
"Right," she said, arms crossed over her chest as she gave the bars a final kick. "Then why do I have the feeling that what he said isn't what you think it means?"
"Because you're, like, thirteen, and suspicious, and you can't admit when you're wrong!" Ozzie said, glaring her way.
"And you're too stupid to figure out this whole thing was a terrible mistake! Even when we're locked up in a cage!"
Ozzie had taken a deep breath and looked like he was ready to give her a piece of his mind again when the doors opened to admit more of Essex's Marauders and the man himself — and even Ozzie had to stare, wide-eyed, as the caged kids realized that every single one of the little kids from the mansion had come back with Essex.
"Put all the small ones in one cell," Essex ordered, looking overly pleased as he looked down at James in his arms. "I'll keep the littlest myself."
The three teens watched in abject horror as the Marauders locked up all of the kids — with Charlie shouting something about a "futzy creep" and all four of the others demanding to go home the whole time. Sying actually managed a swing that left an angry red mark on one Marauder's face before they were locked in, and Krissy ran over to him to give him a little squeeze of her hand, almost hiding behind him too. Elin was glaring up at Sinister and growling low and quiet, though she was at least smart enough to know she couldn't do anything more than that. Chance was still trying to defend her, though, and was standing in front of her and Charlie, shaking and crying but refusing to sit down or take his eyes off of Sinister.
"You never said — you said you wanted to study the X-Men!" Jana spluttered out, positively livid. "This wasn't part of the deal!"
"You act as though you're in control of the situation," Sinister said slowly.
"You wouldn't know anything without me!" she half-shouted.
"I know that if you continue to shout, I'll rescind my part of the deal," he said evenly.
That got the kids' attention again as Ozzie jumped to his feet. "See, I told you," he said Jana's way. "We're still getting cool powers."
"Nothing is free, of course," Sinister replied. "You'll have to give me something in return — samples, of course."
"Sure," Ozzie agreed quickly as both Cam and Jana shot him a look.
"We held up our end of the deal — you can't change it," Jana said.
"Then you won't get what you wanted," he replied. "I require permission before I can do a thing, and that permission extends to samples."
Cam had his knees underneath his chin and was sullenly glaring, so Jana took it on herself to thrust out her chin at Essex. "All you've done so far is change the deal and kidnap kids. How do we know you'll give us powers if we say yes?"
"If you don't want them, it's of no concern to me. It would save me time, frankly, not to have to bother with following through. I'll not continue to entertain your childish behavior."
"Don't listen to her — I'm still in," Ozzie said quickly.
Jana looked torn as she glanced between the kids, the two boys, and Sinister. "I don't…"
"Make your choice," he snapped as James began to make squeaky little sounds of displeasure. "You are wasting my time."
"Okay, okay," she said, glaring at the ground. "Fine. You just… okay." With that, she kicked the edges of the bars again and sat down in what was pretty much a pout, glaring at him over the tops of her knees.
"Blood samples to start, then," he said with a little smirk as he laid James down in what amounted to a very old-looking crib and headed right for Jana.
The first people in the mansion to wake up from the gas were the ferals and Noh, and when the K — who had already seen what happened for herself— got downstairs, she found Noh in a similar state of panic. He wasn't as calm as he usually was; instead, he was nearly hyperventilating as he tried to rouse the rest of the people in the house, gently pulling Jubilee up to a sitting position, clearly on the verge of crying — which was not something he usually did.
He glanced up when he saw the K and Logan enter from opposite sides of the room and saw their similarly panicked looks and rushed to meet them in the middle of the room. "I cannot find my son," he breathed out, eyes wide. "Please. Please tell me the others are alright," he added, and it was clear from his expression that he already suspected what the answer was but couldn't stop himself from hoping all the same. Behind him, some of the others were starting to rouse on their own, and the sharp gasp from Annie told them that she had jumped right into panic as she recognized how familiar this situation felt.
"He had a stasis field," K told the two men. Logan had a hold on K to keep her from flat running off to get them back. "I couldn't do anything about it."
Noh gaped at the two of them for a moment before he simply seemed to deflate. "Who… who did he take?" he asked very softly.
"All the little ones," she said, though it was clear looking at K that if Logan were to let her go, she'd have found them and done God only knows what once she got there.
Noh watched K's building panic and seemed to steady himself watching her before he turned his focus subtly to Logan. "I'll help you find them," he half-whispered out.
"Just let me go," K said very quietly. "I don't need help for this one."
As they were talking, some of the others were waking up as well. Annie was in a near-panic as Scott went into action to try and find anything, and it was clear exactly when he had found something when he simply went still.
"Whatcha got, Slim," Logan asked, still not letting K go.
Scott grabbed up the paper with the calligraphy-like handwriting on it. "He's using the kids — he's using them as leverage," he hissed out. "He wants a trade," he added, waving the paper under Logan's nose. "And he hasn't given us much time to decide."
"What does he want?"
"Who," Scott said. "Who does he want, you mean." The edges of his eyes were red as he was all but shaking with rage.
"Noh, take that note," Logan said, unwilling to let his very angry little wife go even for that. "Tell me who so Scott can breathe."
Noh plucked the note from Scott's hands but almost immediately fell into a rage of his own, a low hiss torn from his throat. "No," he said. "No, he can't have them." He looked like he was only just keeping himself from tearing the note to shreds. "He wants you," he said to Logan. "He wants Scott. He wants my Jubilee. And he wants some of our younger members — Tyler and Tammy."
"I'll go," Logan said, nodding already.
"And me," Scott said through his teeth.
"But the others?" Noh had to set the note down to keep from destroying it. "He can not have my Jubilee."
"Noh, he has Sying," Jubilee said softly before she looked up at Logan with pure fury in her gaze. "I'm coming with you."
"Jubilee," Noh started to argue, but she cut him off.
"How long do we have? Gimmie that note," she said, plucking it out of his hands before he could do anything about it and just glaring as she glanced at the clock — there really wasn't much time.
"We have to move fast," Scott said quietly. "He'll start killing the kids he doesn't care about if we're late. Chance and Sying..." He was almost shaking in rage. "Extras, he called them," he muttered through his teeth.
"Noh, you're gonna have to hold her for me," Logan said as he tipped his head toward K.
"Why stop her?" Noh said even as he did just that and took hold of K's arm. "It's time to end this man."
"Tell you what: if we don't get back with the kids in a couple hours, let her go. She'll find him," Logan advised. "He won't be able to run from her."
"Fine," Noh said at last. "But no longer than a couple of hours."
The others were awake now and clearly in a state of fury and panic. Tyler had woken up faster than the others and was watching the entire thing half holding his breath as Tammy leaned against him, still half waking up — though she was the first one of the two of them to speak up.
"We'll go," she said in her usual soft whisper, though even those without enhanced hearing could hear that she was shaking.
"Where are we headed?" Tyler asked, not even bothering to discuss it further. "You might need me anyhow if it comes to a fight."
"Bannerman Castle," Scott said. He looked at the two teenagers with a frown before he added, "We'll try to keep him from the two of you."
"You're kidding, right?" Tyler asked in a flat tone. "Why don't you let us just help you clean this guy's clock?"
"I'll pick him up and dangle him in front of you," Tammy said, still in soft, tired tones, but it was clear she was ticked off.
"We need to get moving," Jubilee said, on her feet with sparks flying from her fingertips.
"Great. Load up — I'm drivin'," Logan said.