Hey all! Once again, I'm going to be lazy. Go watch the episode: "X-Treme Measures" if you want to see ALL of the scenes from the show. This chapter takes place during it and will include some of the scenes, but not all. Thought I would tell you guys now, rather than ruin the flow of the chapter with Author notes mid-chapter (I hate when writers do that!)
On that note, please enjoy:
Taunting Repartee
Chapter Seventy- Five:
The next week flew by rather quickly for Rogue, and the next thing she knew it was Saturday again. The week had been uneventful so far, thankfully. She had spent most of her time studying, as she was expected to. And she hadn't heard a word from Irene or Agatha. Right now, she was laying in Magneto's bed in Jericho. Her laptop was sitting in her lap. It was a little past eleven am and she was working on more of the language lessons.
Magneto was laying beside her, passed out. They had been experiment with how her thoughts and intentions affected the absorption processed. About an hour ago, while touching him, she had focused on knocking him unconscious and down he had gone in three seconds. The one to sixty ratio of her powers had held true, even with the added intent, and Magneto's powers had faded after only three minutes. Now she was just waiting for him to wake up.
Rogue turned her head as she heard her cell phone ring. She quickly reach over and picked it up.
"Hey Prof, what's going on?" she asked into the phone.
"Rogue, how soon could you come home?" the Professor asked her.
"I need to wait for Magneto to wake up," Rogue told him uneasy. "We're experimenting with my powers and I can't leave him here defenseless. Why? What's going on? Is everyone okay?" Rogue asked.
"Evan has gone missing," the Professor told her.
"Oh no," Rogue said.
"We're putting together a search party," he told her.
"Okay, as soon as we get off the phone, I'm gonna call Pietro. I'm gonna tell him to help out with the search till I can come home," Rogue said.
"Are you sure the boy wouldn't let his rivalry with-" the Professor started to say.
"Pietro will follow orders like he's always does," Rogue said strongly. "He won't let that stand in the way and he's cover more ground then I could've," Rogue added.
"That would be very helpful then, thank you," the Professor said.
"Call me back, or have someone else call me back and fill me on everything else you know? Maybe they're some other way I can help from here," Rogue said.
"Alright," the Professor said.
"Talk to you soon," Rogue said before she hung up the phone. She quickly dialed Pietro's number.
"Hey, Rogue," Pietro said.
"I need a favor. I know Spike ain't your favorite person on the planet, but he's gone missing and I'm held up doing something with your dad. I need you go, report to the Professor and help with the search party in any way you can until I can go myself," Rogue ordered
"Yeah, sure," Pietro said.
"Thanks. Do you have enough pull with any of the other brotherhood members to have them tag along?" she asked.
"Blob won't be any help and Toad will ask too many questions. Wanda's in town but we're not supposed to be getting along," Pietro told her.
"Right," Rogue sighed. They could really use her good luck today. "There's gotta be something we can do so you two can seen together in public in Bayville," Rogue said.
"That would be a nice change," Pietro said.
"I'll talk to Max, we'll figure something out. For today, take Lance with you. Tell Prof, I said to put him on the same search party as Kitty and he'll be willing to help. I'll be there as soon as I can," Rogue said.
"Okay, on it," Pietro said.
"Thanks," Rogue said before she hung up the phone. Rogue took a deep breath, and turned back to her lesson. There was nothing else she could do until the Professor-
Rogue quickly picked up her phone again the second she heard it ring.
"Hey," Rogue said into the phone.
"Rogue," she heard Irene say. Rogue's eyes widened.
"Irene," Rogue said uneasy: she could feel her body shaking slightly in fear. She never knew what to expect from this woman. Did she have Evan?
"I hope you realize that finding the boy himself is of little concern. Evan Daniels is walking his own path: one that will lead him to a leadership position of his own. Your actions today will not and should not deter that. What actions you must take should be more than obvious. Fail this test, Anna Marie, and I'll have to question whether or not I'll allow your training to continue in Bayville." Irene threatened before the line went dead. Rogue took a deep breath: her hand shaking as she closed the phone.
"What the fuck is going on?" Rogue asked exclaimed. She hated being uninformed. Rogue took the laptop off of her lap and turned towards Magneto. She placed her hand on his shoulder and shook him. "Max," she yelled at him. "Max, wake up," she yelled as she shook his shoulders. There was no change. "Fuck," Rogue exclaimed as she sat back against the bed. She took another deep breath as she picked up her phone and dialed Pietro's number again.
Charles sat in the medical lab as Hank fulled him in on his testing of the POW-R8 beverage. He had just gotten back from Cerebro. Unfortunately, Evan had not used his powers since he had gone missing. And he was left with having his students search a one mile radius of Evan's last known location. So, far that search had not been fruitful. Charles moved up to the two test tubes Hank had prepared for him: one with Mutant DNA and the other with Homo sapient. DNA. He then, picked up the ear dropper filled with POW-R8 and released a few drops into both tubes. The test tube with Mutant DNA turned an alarming shade of green, while the homo sapient DNA was unaffected.
"Odd, how I'm not getting the same adverse reaction with non-mutant cells," Charles said as Ororo walked into the room.
"What does that mean?" she asked. "Is it poison? Was Evan poisoned?" she asked both alarmed and terrified for her nephew. Him and Hank shared a concerned look before he turned back to Ororo.
"Though it would appear POW-R8 is harmless to others, the so-called toxic eliminators are hazardous to mutants," he started to say as he made his way into the hallway: Ororo followed after him. "Even through skin contact," he added: highly concerned.
"Charles, we have got to find him," Ororo said strongly making eye contact with him.
"Of course," Charles said as Quicksilver ran up to them both.
"Pietro?" Ororo asked surprised.
"Hey, Miss Munroe," he said quickly. "Rogue said to tell you Irene called her about Evan," Quicksilver said.
"Oh no," Charles said concerned as Ororo's eyes widened.
"Does Irene have Evan?" Ororo asked alarmed.
"Rogue didn't say," Quicksilver told her. "But I think she would have told me if she knew where Evan was. Lance is on his way here too," Quicksilver informed him. "He should be here in about fifteen minutes. Rogue said to put him on whatever team Kitty's with. Where do you want me to look?" he asked.
"Scott is about to head out with his team. Follow them. Wolverine will direct you," Charles told him. Quicksilver nodded at him before he glanced up at Ororo.
"Miss Munroe," he said putting his hand on her shoulder, "we're gonna find him," Quicksilver said strongly.
"Thank you, Pietro," Ororo said. "I know and you Evan do not exactly get-"
"I was given orders by my father's second in command. That's all I need to know," Pietro said as he took his hand off her shoulder.
"Thank you," Charles said. Pietro nodded before he raced out of the room.
"If Evan's even still in Bayville," Ororo said alarmed.
"I'm calling Rogue now," Charles said as he headed back into the medical lab: he quickly grabbed the phone and dialed Rogue's cell phone number.
"Prof," Rogue said into the phone as Charles put it on speaker phone. "What happened to Evan? Does it have anything to do with POW-R8 or that skate contest he was supposed to be at this morning?" she asked.
"Yes, Evan was participating in the skate contest when he drank POW-R8. It's hazardous to Mutants," Charles told her.
"Hazardous, how?" Rogue asked.
"Through injection or skin contact," Hank answered.
"...Yeah- yeah that's pretty fucking obvious," he heard Rogue mutter.
"What is?" Charles asked alarmed.
"What did Irene say to you? Does she have Evan?" Ororo asked alarmed.
"She said," Rogue began: "Evan Daniels is walking his own path: one that will lead him to a leadership position of his own," Rogue said as Charles eyes widened. All three of them looked at one another. "Your actions today will not and should not deter that. What actions you must take should be more than obvious. Fail this test, Anna Marie, and I'll have to question whether or not I'll allow your training to continue in Bayville,"Rogue quoted.
"My god," Charles said as he made eye contact with Ororo. "Rogue, if Irene doesn't want you to interfere," Charles started to say.
"Yes, fuck that," Rogue said interrupting him. "I'm not trading my freedom, which I don't even really have, for anyone else's. Defiantly, not Evan's. If she takes me from Bayville for trying to help ya all find him, fine. I'll deal with it. Whatever she does ain't gonna kill me and that's what matters. I ain't gonna sit back and do nothing when I could help instead. That ain't who I am," Rogue finished strongly. "Besides, it's gonna take fucking weeks to search for him where you need to," Rogue said.
"Rogue, what does mean?" the Professor asked: before he could stop himself.
"There's a small group of mutants in New York. They're called the Morlocks. They live in the sewer systems throughout New York State. But mostly they keep to four out of five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. I looked it up online: Spear Sports has a head quarters and bottling warehouse in downtown Brooklyn. It fits. If POW-R8 is being released into the sewers from that location, then the Morlocks way of life is in danger. It makes sense that they would send someone to the skate contest to keep other mutants form drinking the stuff, but my guess is they didn't stop Evan in time and they took him to their current location to treat him whatever way they can," Rogue said.
"That's assuming, I'm right about the Morlocks having Evan," Rogue continued. "But it only makes sense that if he's supposed to become a leader of mutants and they're the only mutant only groups aside from us and Magneto's people in New York," Rogue said. "I'm sorry, if I'm wrong, or if Irene is just screwing with us with false information. But assuming, what she said is true then I think our best bet of finding him is to start searching the sewers like crazy. But there's no telling what Borough they could be in. My best guess would be either the Bronx or Brooklyn. It depends on what the Morlocks are planning to do: keep as far way from the warehouse as possible or try to take it down themselves," Rogue said.
"Rogue, thank you so much. I don't know- Thank you," Ororo said strongly: tears in her eyes. "I'm going to go give out the orders. We'll search in Brooklyn," she said strongly. Charles nodded.
"Rogue, whatever you do, stay with Magneto," the Professor said strongly as Ororo left the hallway, heading into the lift. "You're done more than enough. Let him protect you," he said.
"As soon as he wakes up we'll be joining the search together. I've already started to help. If I'm gonna be punished for it, I might as well give you all I got," Rogue said. "I'm sending Victor, Gambit and Colossus to the Bronx to start looking there," Rogue said. "Prof, you got pen and paper?" Rogue asked. Hank quickly handed him one.
"Yes, go ahead," the Professor said.
"Caliban, he can sense other mutants with his mind. Callisto: enhanced senses of slight, hearing, taste, and smell. Cybelle: Acidic Touch. Facade: camouflage. Lucid: x-ray vision. Scaleface: ability to turn into a large reptilian beast. Torpid: Paralyzing touch. There might be more of them, but these are the Morlocks we know about. Hopefully, at least one of them will use their powers and Cerebro will give us a smaller area to search," Rogue said. Charles let out a happy sigh as he finished writing.
"Thank you," was all Charles could think of to say.
"I'll be there as soon as I can to help look for him myself," Rogue said before she hung up the phone.
"I'll go join the search," Hank said.
"I'll be at Cerebro," Charles said. "I want updates every hour," he said. Hank nodded before he headed out of the room.
Charles sat in front of the doors to Cerebro, as he waited for them to open. In his lap was the notepad with the list of Morlocks on it. The second the doors open, he knew something was wrong. On Cerebro, he noticed his headset was missing and there was a piece of paper resting where his headset should be. He made his way up to the Cerebro, took the note in his hand and read:.
"You will NEVER find me with this, and today you will not locate Evan Daniels. The headset will be returned when I find it appropriate to do so. Irene."
"Damn it," Charles exclaimed as he crushed the note in his hand in anger. It would take him hours to complete a new headset: and even more time to calibrate it to Cerebro: time they didn't have to spare. He was going to have to search with the others throughout New York City, at least now he knew who else he was looking for.
Magneto's eye slowly fluttered opened.
"Finally," he heard Rogue exclaim beside him. He turned to look at her. "You okay?" she asked.
"I feel like I have a hang over," Magneto commented.
"Good to know," Rogue muttered. "You want some aspirin?" she asked.
"Please," he said in response.
"I'll be right back," she said as he closed his eyes again.
"Max," Magneto heard Rogue say to him as he felt her gloved hand on his face. He quickly opened his eyes and stared up at her. "Here," she said as handed him two aspirin. He watched her grab a glass of water from the nightstand and hand it to him.
"Thank you," he uttered before took the pills and water. He closed his eyes for a few more moments and waited for the slight dizziness he was feeling to subside.
"Are you okay?" Rogue asked again.
"I'll be fine, I'm sure," he commented. "I just need a few minutes," he said.
"Okay," Rogue said.
"What are the results of the test?" he asked.
"It took three seconds to knock you out. The one to sixty ratio was accurate and you were asleep for exactly three hours," Rogue told him. "So, right now we're looking at one to three-thousand-six-hundred knock-out ratio," she said.
"We'll have to do this again. See if we have the same results," he said.
"Not today. I need your help with Irene's next test," Rogue told him before his eyes snapped open. He turned to look at his girl. "You got a couple of millions dollars to spare to buy a company that produces a drink that's poisonous to mutants?" Rogue asked.
"What?" he asked as he sat up. "Of course, I do," he said. "What the hell did I sleep through?" he asked. He watched Rogue let out a sigh.
"Well..." she started to explain.
Charles sat in the X-Jet, some hours later. It was a little passed 8:00pm. He had been flying above Manhattan all day: and his students were searching Brooklyn. It was getting dark out and they still had not found Evan. There was simply too many miles of sewer to search through.. He was going to have his students search for another hour, than call it a night and allow them to get some rest.
"Prof," he heard Rogue's voice call out from his communicator on his lap. He quickly picked it up.
"Yes, Rogue," he said into it.
"Send whoever you can to Spear Sports Industries. I put Gambit there to keep an eye out for the Morlocks and now he ain't picking up his phone. Mr. McCoy's taking me, and Kurt there right now," she said.
"Where's Magneto?" he asked.
"Max flew ahead of us to makes sure Gambit's okay," Rogue told him. "I got a dose of Max's powers. I'll be fine," Rogue told him strongly. "Let's find Evan," she said.
"Alright, thank you, Rogue," Charles said before he put the communicator down. 'Storm,' he called out telepathically as he placed his hands on his temples. From where he was calling out to Storm was pushing his powers to their limits, but it needed to be done.
'Charles,' she said: her voice was thick with worry.
'Get to the Spear Sports Industries Headquarters. We believe that's where Evan is,' Charles told her.
'We're only a few blocks away from there. We're on our way,' Storm told him. Charles took his hands off of his face and moved back to the controllers of the plane: when he heard his own cell phone ring. He quickly picked it up.
"Professor," he heard Bezerker's voice call out, "I know where Evan is. He's with the Morlocks, they're attacking POW-R8's headquarters,"he said out of breath.
"Ray, are you alright?" Charles asked.
"I found Evan earlier today, but Torpid stopped me from leaving. I'm running from them right now," he said.
"Where are you?" he asked concerned as he held the phone to his ear: his hands went to the plane's controls.
"Queens," he said before Charles turned the plane towards Queens. They hadn't even started to search there yet. "Greenport and twenty-ninth street," he told him.
"Run towards Calvary Cemetery. I'm on my way to pick you up," Charles told him.
"Okay, Professor," Ray said. "Thanks," he said before he hung up the phone.
Storm flew down from the sky, and landed next to Scott ans Jean after she had just finished diluting the POW-R8 in the sewer system with rain water.
"Where's Evan?" she asked alarmed. He had been here just a minute ago. She had seen him.
"They all disappeared," Scott told her as the XM-Velocity flew into their line of sight. Ororo could see Rogue and Kurt ready to help.
"Please, help me find him," Ororo asked.
"We're not giving up Storm, don't worry," Scott said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.
Rogue and the others continued to search for Evan throughout most of the night: at least she, Ororo Logan, Scott, Jean, Magneto and the Professor had. The Professor had sent most of the students home to go get some rest, and Mr. McCoy with them so there was an adult in the mansion. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning and those who were still looking were exhausted.
"Storm," she heard Magneto start to say, "I don't know if this will bring you any comfort, but the Morlocks do look after their own. They distrust outsiders, but are extremely protective of their own ranks and it seems your nephew's been excepting among them. You've diluted the toxic water within the sewers," he reminder her. "I don't believe the boy is any immediate danger. They're most likely resting," Magneto told her as Ororo let out a sigh.
"We could start again, first thing in the morning, or keep going if you want?" Rogue asked her.
"... We'll start again in the morning," Ororo said reluctantly. "Thank you all of you for help," Ororo said.
"Anytime, Ororo," Rogue said as they started to head towards the exit.
"You'd do the same for us," Jean pointed out.
"Of course, I would," Ororo said with a sigh.
"We need to discus this," Magneto said in Russian as he made his way to his side. Rogue let out a sigh as she watched all of the others walking in front of them. She was wondering how long it would take for them to have this argument. "You cannot resume the search tomorrow. Irene gave you a direct order and you have blatantly disregarded it," Magneto commented as they walked on.
"Evan was in danger," Rogue told him in Russian. "I wasn't going to sit back and do nothing. That's not who I am," Rogue told him strongly.
"I know and I love that about you, Anna, but now the boy is not in danger," he said.
"What if we're wrong?" Rogue asked as got to the stairs leading out to the street.
"The Morlocks do not have a telepath. The boy had to have left of his own accord," Magneto pointed out as they watched the other use the stairs. Rogue towards to face him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Max, I've already helped," Rogue pointed out as Magneto lifted them both into the air. "If Irene's gonna hold that against me, it's too late. So, why should I stop?" Rogue asked as Magneto landed them on the street next to the man-cover hole. Rogue took her arms away from his neck as they started to walk towards the X-Jet. "If this is going to be the last thing I do in Bayville, I'd rather it be helping my family than cowarding in fear of Irene," Rogue told him as they walked up and onto the X-Jet.
"I'm a fighter, Max," Rogue told him in English. "I'm gonna go out swinging," she told him as he let out a long sigh. Rogue let out her own sigh as she made her way to one of the seats. Magneto took a seat next to her: far too tired to fly them back to the mansion himself. "We do need to talk about getting a telepath in Bayville," Rogue told him in Russian.
"To deal with the POW-R8 situation?" Magneto asked: continuing to speak in Russian.
"In general," Rogue answered. "Things like this are going to keep happening," Rogue said. "Do you think the Professor's going to be willing to take control over Spear's mind and force him to consent to selling the POW-R8 formula?" Rogue asked.
"No, I think he would be disgusted by the thought," he said. "I'll get someone," Magneto told her. "We'll make the deal sometime this week," Magneto told her.
"Want to go over what angle we're going to use to make it plausible?"
"I have a few ideas already. I'm going to have Shaw make the deal as an anti-mutant crusader, who wants exclusive rights to the newest weapon against mutants. Once we have the rights to the formula we'll have Spear's memory of the formula slightly altered. So, even if he does not to honor the patten, he'll never be able to recreate it," Magneto said.
"Good plan," Rogue said.
"I thought so," Magneto said with a smile.
"Also, we need to talk about Wanda," she said.
"What about her?" Magneto asked with a raise eyebrow.
"We could have used her help today, and Pietro misses his sister," she added. "There's gotta be some way we can let them be in the same room together in Bayville," she said.
"We could tell him the truth," Magneto thought out loud.
"You want to tell the Professor that you had two years worth of false memory of visiting Wanda in hospital implanted in his memory to create the facade?" Rogue asked dryly. Magneto eyes widened.
"Forgive me, my girl, I'm exhausted. No, we can't tell him that, can we?" Magneto asked.
"No," Rogue said. "We really can't," Rogue said.
"I'll think of something," he said as he leaned his head back again the chair's headrest. "Give me a week," he said.
"Let me know if you want help," Rogue said as she rested her head on his shoulder: she took his hand in his: their fingers intertwined. "I said I would," she reminded him.
"Thank you," he said as he closed his eyes.
Hey all! Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading, and lets see how long I can keep up with once a week updating :)