Chapter 10 - Caught


It was hard to get back to normal after everything that the fight with Apocalypse had wrought, but they were trying. One of the first things that Rachel wanted to address that seemed less like cleanup and therapy was the fact that Scott had his powers back, and she badly wanted to give him more to do with the team.

Which was why she'd called in backup and asked Captain America to help her convince her dad that he needed to get back in the saddle now, no matter how much he valued his privacy.

Kate and Nate came along, too, because Scott had a hard time saying no to them, especially since Nate was still reeling from being in Apocalypse's mind for so long. He was still having nightmares, and between Nate's nightmares and James's guilt and Rachel's too-fiery moments lately, Scott was powerless against his kids.

But he was also loath to make things too complicated for them, so he just needed an outside opinion. People that weren't part of the family.

Kate was doing an excellent job distracting Scott as they hung out outside Avengers Tower, showing Scott pictures of David on her phone. He was with Annie for the moment, which told Scott that this wasn't quite the social gathering they were trying to pretend it was.

So when Steve showed up, Rachel grinned and waved him over. "Hey, Steve, maybe you can talk to Dad here about how much we could use seasoned heroes to help the new kids."

Scott let out a groan from the back of his throat and shook his head at Rachel before he turned to Steve. "I'm sorry they roped you into this."

"It's fine," Steve said. "I was planning to talk to you anyway, even before what Sinister did." He gestured vaguely toward Scott's eyes. "This, we can deal with later. But you and Natasha were quite the force even when you were in Genosha. You want to fully come out of retirement? You already have; let's just make it official."

Scott couldn't help but smirk. "I'm not joining the Avengers."

"Thought that was a rule to be an X-Man," Nate had to tease.

"I'm already an X-Man," Scott shot back.

"Ah, so you admit it," Kate said, pointing at Scott.

Scott chuckled and shook his head. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, you mean you're an X-Man. Once an X-Man, always an X-Man, right? So you're totally going to jump into team trainings, right?" Kate fluttered her eyelashes.

"I haven't had these back for that long," Scott pointed out, tapping the sunglasses he was now back to wearing, even though there was no red glow behind them. "I'm still having trouble turning them on."

"Which is kind of wild," Rachel said. "I remember what it used to be like when I was little."

"Working on it," Scott promised. He pointed at Kate. "But in the meantime, I'm not jumping into anything until I can at least rely on my powers."

"But you will," Kate said. "It's not a 'no' it's a 'let me get used to my powers again', right?"

Scott gestured wordlessly toward Kate, looking to Steve, but Steve just smirked and held his hands out at his sides.

"I can't help you. You know how they are when they've made their minds up," Steve said.

"Yeah, Dad," Nate teased. "Can't stop us."

Scott chuckled, but with everyone in such a good mood, he couldn't shut them down, especially when good moods like that were vanishingly rare in the wake of everything that Sinister and Apocalypse had done. He was sure that the kids would eventually realize what he knew: that they didn't want their dad looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.

But for now, he couldn't argue with them.

So instead, he said, "Okay, so now that you're done with your ambush…"

"We should celebrate? Yes, agreed," Kate said firmly. "I would very much like to eat someplace nice. I'm starving."

"You pick the place then, Kate," Steve laughed, but Nate wasn't laughing along, and the second Scott realized that, he knew something was wrong.

And he knew what the problem was as soon as he tried to project to Nate to ask him what he'd noticed and couldn't reach him.

"We need to get inside. Now," Rachel said, her eyes wide.

Kate was wordlessly following Nate's lead, easily switching modes with him as if they were still in each other's heads, and Steve, to his credit, didn't hesitate to follow Rachel's lead, even if he did ask, "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure yet, but whoever has the audacity to be right outside Avengers Tower with some kind of telepathic interference is not someone we want to tangle with."

"We're gonna have to," Kate said, flexing her hands with her eyes narrowed. "Already tried my panic button and didn't get the ping that says it's transmitting, and I can see a few moving in."

Kate hadn't even finished speaking before Scott saw them as well: they were surrounded on all sides by men in dark uniforms. And he had a sinking feeling as he realized it, too - especially because in the few seconds it took them to catch on to what was happening, more people were stepping out of nearby buildings and alleys.

And then, at an invisible signal, the soldiers moved in quickly, obviously targeting Rachel and Nate first and foremost; that was where the heaviest contingent of soldiers were. They all had their guns drawn, shouting orders for them to put their hands on their heads and to get on their knees, and with that many guns, at first, the only thing they could do was glance at each other and hold their hands up.

But that just lasted until the soldiers got closer. Once that happened and the cuffs came out, the gathered heroes didn't even have to talk about it. They just went into motion. Steve threw a soldier over his shoulder into two others; Nate tackled the guy who came toward him with cuffs, Rachel kicked the guy giving orders between the legs so that his pitch went up and octave and he doubled over; Scott grabbed the gun from his small-of-the-back holster and immediately shot three soldiers in rapid succession; and Kate waited until the soldiers were close enough to her to go down fast when she activated the Widow Bites she always kept with her, knocking out four different guys around her in seconds.

Kate smirked to herself and readjusted the way she was standing before firing again at the next four guys who came after her. She could hear everyone around them shouting at them to surrender, but it wasn't until gunfire erupted that she instinctively dropped low into a crouch and glanced toward the others, not at all surprised to see them holding their own - except for Steve, of all people. But that might have had something to do with the fact that there were feathered darts, four in a row, all down one arm.

And all at once, Kate felt her mouth go dry.

Darts.

The only thing that hadn't thrown her directly into a panic attack was the fact that these guys weren't Hydra. Hydra announced themselves. Hydra uniforms were different.

She met Nate's gaze and knew that he'd seen what was going on. And she realized instantly that he was fighting to get to her, because she'd stopped shooting at people as soon as she'd seen the darts.

"I got this," she said, but it didn't have any voice to it. But that just had her frustrated with herself, so she spun in place and kicked the nearest soldiers between the legs just to let off some steam.

One of the other soldiers grabbed her hand and yanked it behind her, and she gasped before she twisted into him, something her mom had always told her to try: most attackers don't expect you to move toward them but away from them. Sure enough, his grip went slack just enough that she could bash him in the head and then reverse their positions, sending him stumbling into another soldier who, thankfully, didn't get to shoot her like he wanted to.

She tossed her hair and looked toward the others, glad to see that they were all doing okay - until she realized there was another wave of soldiers taking aim with modified guns.

"Look out!" she called out - just a fraction of a second too late.

As Kate watched in horror, everyone there got at least one dart in their exposed skin; Steve even took another one. The only reason she didn't get hit was that she had thrown herself to the ground, but that just meant that a couple soldiers now had guns pointed at her and seemed to think that they had the upper hand. Which they did, but she didn't want to admit it.

She glanced up at the others and saw that Scott was unconscious a couple yards to her left; his head was bleeding, and he only had one dart in him. Someone must have hit him; his glasses were beside him on the street. Rachel was farthest away from where Kate was; fire was streaming from the ends of her hair, but before she could get the Phoenix involved, two different soldiers acted to get her down. One shot her with a dart, but someone else, closer to her, put a taser in her side, sending her down fast. Another two darts, and she was unconscious and still twitching.

Kate winced and realized that she was crying. God, that was hard to watch from the other side.

To her right, she could see Steve totally unconscious, already tied up and being dragged away. There was blood on the ground, but she couldn't see if he was hurt from where she was; there were boots and idiots in the way. And Nate was closer, also unconscious, but she was pretty sure he'd been headed her way.

She slipped her hand into her pocket and narrowed her eyes as she felt the arrowhead there. She had an emergency escape plan in her head. She could probably even take someone with her.

Her first instinct, obviously, was to grab Nate and run. Whatever these guys had planned, it was bad. They'd come prepared, and they were willing to snatch heroes right in front of Avengers Tower. And Nate meant the world to her, and she'd been trying to help him piece himself back together after he'd ran himself ragged taking down Apocalypse and felt guilty for the part he'd played in Noh's death.

The thing was - Scott was just about as close to her as Nate was, and she'd seen, even if he had tried to hide it, the look on his face when he'd realized that they were surrounded by soldiers. And she knew the stories and she knew how close they'd come to losing him, and by god, it would kill Nate if his dad lost it again.

She only had a couple seconds to make the decision as she grabbed her arrowhead and pressed the button on the end, but she already knew which one she'd take. It was a purely tactical decision: she figured Nate could handle whatever these guys had in mind much better than his dad could, especially since she highly doubted that these people knew Scott had his powers back. Someone powerful like Nate was better alive than dead; Scott was leverage and disposable.

So she tossed the arrowhead out of her pocket, squeezed her eyes shut and plugged her ears just before her flashbang went off. It was enough to disorient the soldiers, and since she knew it was coming, she was already moving in the right direction, seizing her advantage.

The one last bit of emergency gear she had on her was her dad's idea but her mother's design: the grappling arrow compressed into a feature on the Widow's Bites. All she had to do, then, was grab Scott and fire the Widow's Bites with the new keycode, and she felt the hook on the other end lodge high into the tower and yank her hard as the rope pulled her away.

It was hard to keep hold of Scott because she hadn't used that function before, and the force of the grappling rope had surprised her. She felt awkward trying desperately not to drop him with one arm up to guide the rope, one arm under his shoulders, and both legs around his waist just in case. The last thing she needed to do was try to rescue Nate's dad and then drop him from the top of the tower.

The last thing she saw before she got out of the soldiers' reach was Nate being pulled away, and then, she was looking down on the group, gritting her teeth as soon as she heard gunshots ring out. It was awkward, but she tried to maneuver herself and Scott so that he wasn't an unconscious open target for them to shoot at.

And as she did so, she got a good look at the bigger equipment the soldiers had brought. She wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been far above the fight, but now, she recognized some of it. Some of the stuff Tony had been working on to disrupt Hydra weaponry.

And then, she and Scott slammed into the side of the tower, and she saw stars long enough that she wasn't fully cognizant of the next minute or so. She didn't lose consciousness, and she managed to hang onto Scott, but she was stunned enough that by the time she looked down again, the soldiers were already rushing to pack up and leave. The whole fight had taken a matter of minutes - which was good for the bad guys, because it had all happened close enough to Avengers territory that the team was mobilizing.

"Okay," Kate huffed, looking down at the ground and then up at the rest of the tower. The hook had caught onto the tower, yeah, but it hadn't caught the top. So now, she had to figure out how to either get the rest of the way up to the roof or get back to the ground without getting caught.

Her side was killing her, and she was sure she'd torn some muscle or something. She couldn't really check when her arm was still cranked up with a death grip on the grappling line. And - futz - her leg was throbbing. Something must have hit her.

"Okay, so I'm gonna talk to you for a minute," she told Scott, who was still unconscious. "Because I don't want to pass out and drop you. So, first thing's first - alibi. Under no circumstances am I telling you the truth. You were closer than Nate. That's the truth, the end; I'm not dealing with Summers survivor's guilt. Not right now. That's too much for me." She closed her eyes and sucked air in through her teeth. Yeah, she was hurting, and after full-body slamming the side of the building, it was hard to tell what needed the most attention. "Okay, second. Once you're awake, I'm gonna need you to dig deep and figure out how your powers turn on and open a hole in the side of this place so we can just… go inside. That would be very nice, okay? Cut me a nice big circle."

By that time, she could hear vehicles moving below her, and she risked a glance down to see that the soldiers had packed everything up and skedaddled. "Just great. Just great. Do I think this is a coincidence that bad guys showed up while the X-Men were very definitely in recovery from fighting a trauma-inducing madman? No I do not. It's a good move, tactically, obviously. Strike while your enemy is reeling. God, Mom, how do you think like this all the time." She tipped her head back and frowned when her vision swam. "Okay, new plan. I'm going to very slowly lower us to the ground. The bad guys are running away. We're going to gamble that they're not going to be there when we hit the ground. Because something's wrong. I don't know what, but something's wrong and I definitely don't want to pass out while I'm holding you. So down we go."

"That looks like it's going to take too long," Tony said as he came around the corner. "How long have you been talking to yourself, Katie?" He didn't wait once he was there to put an arm around her and finagle his way to getting both of them free of the grappling wire. "And we're going up and away from stupidity."

"Hi, Tony. They freakin' used your tech to jam us," Kate said, though the relief of being rescued had her head spinning, especially once the pressure was off of her arm.

"Excuse me, what?" Tony said, sounding entirely off guard.

"Yeah, what?" Scott said groggily - having literally just started to rouse.

Kate nodded. "Yeah. Saw them from above. Someone stole your designs or something, but so you know? That multi-level tech disruptor thingy?" She made a noise from the back of her throat. "Sorry, Tony. I can't remember what it's called. I saw the blueprints once. But it works really, really well. My panic button didn't even work."

"We'll figure that out once you're both on solid ground," Tony said.

"Okay." Kate held onto Tony by the shoulders. "Hey, I think I got shot."

"Looks like," Tony said. "Sensors show it's not as bad as it could be. Still gonna get you to McCoy ASAP." He paused to look between the two of them. "Both of you."

"I'm fine; where are the others?" Scott said automatically.

"Team's following," Tony said.

"Recognized the uniforms," Scott said, though Tony's problem now was that Kate was losing consciousness and Scott was still groggy and speaking slowly with a slight slur.

"Why does that already sound bad?" Tony said, putting on a little more speed as they rushed toward the landing pad.

"Department H."

"I'll get the word out to anyone else in the wind," Tony replied. "Like right now."

"They were using darts," Kate said, sounding openly upset.

"We'll make them pay, Katie," Tony promised. "Stay awake, alright?"

""M trying," she said, though she was losing steam at about the same pace Scott was regaining consciousness. "I kicked their asses, Tony."

"I'm glad you were there to give it to them," Tony said. "Just like your mother."

"She spotted them before we did," Scott said as Tony touched back down inside - he'd flown them straight to the lab. "They were prepared for my kids - went straight for Rachel and Nate. Damn them."

"AI is already searching through street cams to track," Tony said.

"Tony, Tony, Tony," Kate said tiredly, "your tech fries stuff. Like cameras."

"Kate, I don't have -" Tony paused as he thought it over, then swore outright. "Nothing is being made like that."

"Okay," Kate said as Hank came rushing over. "Hi, Blue. Something's wrong, but it's okay. I saved Scott. It was pretty epic."

"I'm very sure it was," Hank said. "His damsel in distress moments are generally noteworthy."

Kate grinned up at him and then almost immediately passed out.

"Damnit. Hank!" Scott shook his head, stumbling as he tried to get to his feet to help, but he wasn't there yet.

"I am well aware of her condition, fearless," Hank said, though he was already working fast. "Do try to give me room to work before you find yourself in similar straits."

"Give me just a second and I can help-"

"I'll have it well in hand by then," Hank assured him. "Stay seated. Please." As he spoke, Hank was working quickly to stop the bleeding and stabilize Kate. It didn't take very long, either - just a few solid minutes to stop the blood flow, then another minute or so to get an IV started with fluids to get her back to herself so he could get ready to remove the bullet in surgery. And all the while, he told Scott what he was doing simply to keep him informed when he was still a bit groggy.

Scott dragged a hand down his face and took quick stock of himself, then glanced toward Tony, who was talking a mile a minute to the rest of the team, coordinating their response. Tony looked gray, so whatever information he was getting couldn't be good. "Damnit," he muttered under his breath, especially when he heard Tony starting to panic when he couldn't get a hold of anyone other than the few who had already been at the tower. "Damnit, not again."

The core group of X-Men, were obviously, the hardest hit by the mess with Apocalypse - even those that weren't outright part of the battle in person were hit. And one of those that was still a bit shaky was Warren. He'd been off for weeks before Apocalypse started collecting horsemen - a little hold over from his time as Death that never really let go entirely. But seeing as no one in the know had said anything, he'd been all but convinced that he was just … wrong.

And for as off that Warren was, he wasn't alone. It wasn't just old horsemen that had been troubled - Warren had checked in with Bobby. He'd been off balance, too, and being so close to Apocalypse's apparent death, the two of them had quietly decided not to hang out too close. Just in case.

What Warren hadn't expected was young Tyler Creed's sudden sheepish appearance at the school looking for help once again from Betsy. Not necessarily from a telepathic point of view, but as general help accepting all the trauma that he'd undone. The kid was reaching out for help from experienced X-Men that he felt close enough to. People that had made time and space for him in the past. The fact that Angela thought he was kind of cool also helped Tyler's plea.

Which was how Warren's little family found themselves taking the day at the beach with Tyler. They didn't head south for warmer waters - not when Warren had access to a perfectly good, perfectly private place in the northeast. A spot he could stretch his wings, both figuratively and literally.

Warren had stayed back as Betsy walked the shoreline with Angela - searching for sea glass and shells among the tendrils of seaweed. As had become the norm when Tyler came around, he sat back and watched Angela play, smirking to himself at how funny the little girl was turning out to be - right down to her newly inherited british accent that she was picking up from Betsy.

"You know, it's really harsh to listen to that sweet little girl talk like she lives half her life in a cockney pub," Warren told Tyler. "But .. most people don't expect the same out of Betts."

"Yeah," Tyler said quietly. "There's a lot I wasn't expecting about all of this."

Warren nodded, then let the relative quiet rest between them for a long while, giving the young man a chance to say his piece at his own pace, but when that didn't gel, he cleared his throat.

"Which part is giving you the most trouble?" Warren asked. "The team isn't really for everyone."

"I know," Tyler agreed. "And I didn't think I was really part of that team. Not when … I mean … I really only showed up when it was entirely necessary."

"Don't want in on it?"

"No, that's not it - I just … I guess I didn't think that I'd see so much bad stuff so fast," Tyler said. "It always looked like the X-Men dealt with something horrible every now and again. There's been a lot since they got me away from … that group."

"That's not strictly how I remember it," Warren said. "Seemed like we had a world threatening crisis every time we turned around."

"Can we stop turning around?" Tyler joked.

Warren smiled and gestured toward Betsy and Angela. "If we did, what would happen to kids like her?"

"Okay, but that's not … that's a really good argument."

Warren laughed quietly, but didn't offer anything further, and Tyler seemed to relax in the quiet rush of the ocean waves for a long while.

Warren was still staring off at the sea when he felt something bite his neck. He lifted a hand to swat at it only to find a feathered dart.

He couldn't force himself to move or speak to warn anyone - but he could reach out to Betsy. Betts- were under attack. Take Angela and run.

Betsy was already in motion, especially when Warren passed out almost immediately after relaying his warning, but Tyler didn't have the warning Betsy did. All he knew was that Warren was suddenly unconscious and Betsy was panicking as she grabbed Angela.

And then he saw the dart in Warren's neck and spun around just in time to get three similar darts in the chest.

He looked down at them as he stumbled a step. Normally, three darts would be nothing at all - at least, when it came to sedatives - but he was absolutely worn out after all the healing he'd had to do, including putting Remy back together recently. He was only just getting back up to speed, and now this?

He could feel a growl rippling around him even though he hadn't meant to growl - but that growl turned into an outright snarl when he caught sight of some of the people surrounding them. He recognized the uniforms.

And he lost it.

He couldn't have said if what happened after that was fear or anger or both, but he went straight into a snarling, violent attack that honestly would have been something the department wanted out of him when they'd been bossing him around. It wasn't terribly elegant or effective when he was stumbling and drugged, but it was enough to cause a scene - and therefore enough for Betsy to take advantage of the distraction and get Angela out of danger.

I'm coming back to get you, Betsy projected into Tyler's mind, but by that time, he had taken another five darts, and all she could sense telepathically from him was terror and despair.

If she hadn't had a very scared little girl to worry about…

She narrowed her eyes, swore under her breath, and got out with Angela.

Billy had been far enough ahead in his classes before Apocalypse hit to take some extra time at home to try and help his brother cope with the mess that Tommy's head was after all of that. He knew that Tommy wouldn't want to be too coddled, but also that it wasn't exactly a good idea to let him get lost in his attempts to run away from everything.

He just wasn't expecting Tommy to be wholly focused on making sure Mia was okay. It was typical of Tommy, though. He didn't realize how stupid he'd been until he'd lost his shot and nearly lost his friends and everyone his age that he cared about. Even if he hadn't said as much.

The thing was, though, that Tommy knew he was persona non grata for a lot of his old friends - still - and especially when it came to Mia. So he wasn't actually approaching her. It was more that she would find things on her windowsill at random times during the day. She knew it was Tommy, but she hadn't said anything to him either way - to tell him to stop or encourage him - so he kept doing it, with her favorite candies, her favorite music, some plushies from her favorite show growing up. That sort of thing.

It was painfully obvious to Billy that Tommy truly hadn't gotten over Mia - especially since he hadn't actually meant to break up with her, even if he'd been incredibly careless and stupid. And it was hard for Billy to figure out what to even say to his brother. He knew Tommy wasn't sleeping - at all - and the few times he did drift to sleep involuntarily out of pure exhaustion, he'd jerked awake and immediately looked for someone he knew.

Billy wasn't telepathic, but he knew his brother well enough to guess at some of what Apocalypse had dredged up when he tore through Tommy's mind and broke it down to remake him. It seemed like Tommy was desperate not to end up outcast and alone, even though he'd spent so much time trying to be separate from the group that he'd been trending that way anyway.

Billy didn't want to guess at what else Apocalypse might have dredged up, especially considering Mia and Noh had been the other Horsemen. That dynamic… yeah, Billy didn't want to think about how easy it would have been to pull strings there.

So instead, he was trying to help his brother by just making sure Tommy had people around him. On his own time, Tommy was genuinely spending plenty of time with Vision, who was doing his best to try to help Tommy get back on his own feet and to distract him with setting up a track for his physics degree.

But Billy was recruiting the rest of his family too. Wanda obviously didn't need the poke; she was trying to smother Tommy in warmth every chance she got - and was the only person on the planet who could get away with it. Even Billy wasn't allowed to get that close, but with Wanda, Tommy would latch on. She probably knew more than anyone else what he'd been through, and Billy was glad he had someone to open up to.

Lorna and Alex got involved, too. And of course Alex's idea of getting everyone's minds off of things always involved the beach. That wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was when Billy got distracted texting James and then looked up to see that Alex and Tommy were just… walking together and talking.

What Billy didn't realize, because he'd been spending so much time with James and caught up in the Sinister affair, was that Alex had been trying to get Tommy to pull his head out practically from day one after what happened with Mia. And even if Tommy had brushed him off to start, the fact that Alex genuinely did understand what it was like to have a famous brother who always overshadowed him… yeah. Tommy listened to Alex; Billy just hadn't seen it in play before.

"...just don't even look at the headlines, Tommy, c'mon," Alex was saying as they looked for shells to take back to Chris and Suzy. "You know what they're gonna say."

"Something about curiosity killing the cat, right?" Tommy said. He spotted something in the sand, but it was just a rock, and he tossed it aside. "But the tenth or twelfth 'evil twin' joke was just not even close to creative."

"They'll get over it," Alex said. "Most people on Genosha at least know the truth."

"Yeah, I know." Tommy found a shell and tossed it to Alex, who grinned and turned it over a few times. "You gonna keep babysitting me all day?"

"Yeah, pretty sure that's been my job for years now."

"You ever get tired of it?"

"Yep. Every day."

There was a reason the royals used the beach more often than the other private spots that dotted Genosha. It was hard to reach, hard to spot, and hard to set up for if you were a less than welcome visitor.

But it wasn't impossible. Not with as small as the island was. And considering that the island had been infiltrated, not only had David North managed to get a good vantage point, but he had back up waiting in the wings, so to speak.

It still wasn't ideal. While the royal family lounged peacefully on the beach, and his back up crept as close as they could manage to do, the hard flat surface under North and his sniper rifle pitched and rolled gently with the waves of the sea. He was just far enough out that he wouldn't be easily visible from shore, even with the waves as small as they were. But it made making his shot a bit more tricky than he'd like.

Especially when the pitch and roll of the boat - bobbing along not unlike a cork - didn't have a rhythm that was predictable. Still - he didn't have the job he id without being at the top of the game. Still.

He couldn't control the waves, but he could control his own breath and his own heart, so North took extra care to do that as he tried to predict when the best point would be to follow through on the soft, even trigger pull he was already half way through.

At this distance, even what looked like a solid hit could go wide, high, low … it all depended on the waves. And then, before he could try to guess where it would hit exactly, he reached the breaking point on the trigger and a boom rushed out across the water - behind the actual round itself. North didn't bother to chamber another round yet .. not when he had to see if he'd even made the mark.

A bloom of crimson against otherwise clear, pale skin showed that the first shot had at least made it to a non-lethal area. Good, North thought to himself as he racked in another round and put his cheek to the stock. He didn't wait nearly so long for the second shot. It wasn't as precise anyhow. Just had to hit the right mutant.

Bang!

North picked his head up slightly, then took the gun down and shifted to pilot the boat that had carried him so close to Genoshan waters. Now, it was up to the recovery team.

Wanda had been enjoying herself on the beach. She knew that neither of her boys was alright, but with time, they were at least starting to act more like themselves. Billy was an anxious mess, but he had also taken a detour for a good ten minutes trying to get just the right angle on the huge waves Alex had invited them to ride that morning so he could send James a cute picture of himself. And Tommy was talking to Alex - that itself was a good sign.

And then, out of nowhere, Wanda felt like something had exploded across her left side, and she looked down to see that, to her shock, someone had shot her in the shoulder. But this… this didn't feel normal. She'd been shot before, when she went out with the Avengers more often, and that had hurt, yes, but this felt like everything on the left side was on fire.

She cried out and held out her right hand, ready to draw down a spell on whoever had dared to attack her family in their own home… but she couldn't.

"Mom!" Billy shouted for Wanda, scrambling down the beach toward her. She heard Tommy shout her name, too, and he got there well before Billy did, spraying sand every which way in his haste to reach her.

Bang!

A second shot rang out, and Wanda could already feel her eyelids drooping. At least this sensation was more familiar: whatever had happened with the second shot, drugs were involved. That was all Wanda knew before she slipped into a state of fuzzy semi-consciousness, only half-aware of what was going on around her but aware enough to know that her boys were upset.

"Oh, he's dead," Tommy said when he saw his mom's eyelashes fluttering - and without a second thought, he took off at a dash across the water in the direction of the gunshot. He didn't know exactly where the shot had come from, but when he spotted a boat far off, he ran right for it and climbed over the hull, where he saw a man with a sniper setup that told him all he needed to know.

He grabbed the guy and was fully prepared to just run out to sea with him and then drop him in the middle of the ocean somewhere, but somehow, these people had been expecting him to find the boat. He'd only been on board long enough to grab the sniper, but a couple telepaths who had been watching for exactly that to happen dove into his mind before he could get off the boat again.

And yeah, sure, he had taken telepathic self-defense classes at Westchester. But he hadn't slept in days, and his mind was, if he was honest, basically nothing but scar tissue where Apocalypse had scooped him out and put Pestilence in. He wasn't able to put up much of a fight at all, and the next thing he knew, he hit the deck, knocked out telepathically and half curled in on himself.

Of course, when Tommy didn't show up again after rushing off, Billy had a sinking feeling and was already starting to float, keeping close to his mom as Alex closed the distance to join him. "Iwantyoutoshowyourself," Billy demanded, his glowing hands in fists. He wasn't in the mood to play games, and he figured if these people wanted a fight with his family, he'd make sure it was one to remember.

Unfortunately, the very next thing that happened was that someone teleported directly behind him and slapped a collar around his neck.

Billy felt his feet hit the ground, but by the time he spun around, he couldn't see his attacker. He heard Alex cry out and turned again just to catch a glimpse of someone behind Alex before that someone disappeared again, leaving Alex behind wearing a collar as well.

"Oh, no way," Billy said, his eyes narrowed as he saw a half dozen other people starting to crest the hill to head their way now that they were collared. He could feel his chest heaving at the familiar sensation of being caught, but he was more furious than anything else. His mom was hurt and his brother was missing. This was not okay.

The first two men that tried to grab Billy got a quick lesson in how much Billy had learned since the last time he was captured - thanks to James, when they actually did spar.

Before Billy got his bearings fully, he found himself with a soldier holding on to each arm - and he'd seen this move enough in spars and practices and scenarios to know exactly what to do. In fact, he almost surprised himself with how well he started that fight. The first thing he did was to lean toward one and kick the other in the knee nearest him as hard as he could from the side, dropping the guy hard - which freed up his arm to throw a haymaker square into the second soldier's throat. He hadn't hit him as hard as he'd learned to do - mostly because his balance was off kilter, but it was still enough to get the guy to let go.

He took a step away, then remembered something else from practice and took a running start to kick the second soldier hard enough to knock him out.

He turned and saw Alex across the way, doing his best imitation of a bar room brawler. Or at least, that's how Cap had described it in practice when anyone else threw a punch like that. And it seemed like a pretty fair way to keep them back.

But Billy wasn't interested in anything that might break his hands, so he kept to the hits he'd practiced most - palm strikes and elbows. Especially for how close most of these creeps were pushing in.

He was wearing down and losing a little speed when someone hit him from behind hard enough to put stars into his vision a moment before he got tackled into the sand. The first guy that pushed him down was enough all on his own - and felt approximately the same size and weight as a small rhinoceros, but Billy was still able to see out of one eye to watch Alex take a hit that staggered him visibly. He'd never actually seen someone he knew wobble at the knees after a hit - but …

While Alex was still off-kilter, someone grabbed him by the arm, so Alex took a blind swing - and the next thing Billy knew, Alex had let out a piercing scream. Billy hadn't gotten a good look at what happened; he'd been blinking sand out of his eyes. But from the way Alex was practically hyperventilating when a second soldier touched his other arm… something was wrong with that arm.

Alex was still trying to fight them off, but Billy knew it wasn't going to happen. And when he saw more soldiers heading for his mom…

"IwishMomwassomewheresafe," he whispered into the sand, hoping desperately that it would work. And to his relief, he was just scared enough, just desperate enough, that whatever tied him to his godlike powers across the multiverse worked, and Wanda was gone.

Of course, that just meant he got immediately knocked out, because the soldiers weren't going to take chances with that. But he was at least relieved to know they didn't have his mom.

It had been years since Remy had been in a situation like this. In truth, he couldn't remember when he'd been out on the town with a group of teenagers. And playing chaperone to boot. It was almost laughable. Except for the part where it was needed. Not just by the group of young X-men, but his co chaperone as well.

Bobby was still half caught up in recovery from everything that had happened before Scott and his family got into a little tangle with apocalypse. Sinister hadn't been easy to deal with. He never was. But this time felt different to him. Yes, he was the same overbearing ass he always was, but he wasn't nearly as aggressive as Remy had seen in the past. At least, he wasn't aggressive in the same way. And his focus was different than it had always been that remy remembered. He wasn't solely focused on the Summers family. And it wasn't just because of apocalypse and his insane bid to take over the world or galaxy or whatever the hell that psychotic blue faced couyon was after.

Still. Remy was havin' a bit of trouble if he was bein' honest with himself. Going from hopelessly locked away in a prison in Magneto's Genosha to escorting a whole pack of young x-men to be on a shopping trip on some freshly liberated credit cards … it had been too long.

For a moment he half wondered what Rogue would have had to say about all this mess. Probably something not a one of these kids would understand.

But that ship had sailed a good long time ago, and though Remy found himself occasionally drifting in fond memory of days and nights long gone and better spent, the truth was that Rogue hadn't been on his mind since Bobby had stepped in and done all he could to keep Remy from giving up on everything entirely - back in Genoshan prison with its miserable standard of mutant rights and the dirtiest nastiest beard Remy ever had the nightmare of wearing.

"Mr. Gambit," Cassie said, drawing his attention out of his head and back to the rather impressive group of kids around him. "Do you have anywhere you'd like to look? Or is this just …" she dropped her voice lower. "… is this just to help Mia and Mr. Drake?"

"Miss Cassie," Remy said in his best, most polite tones, "how you already know what ol' Remy up to jus' dat quick? Don' you worry none about any of de reasons on why, just you worry about havin' a lil fun wit your friends. You show dem you doin' alright and havin' fun, they not gon' be able to hep dem selves from followin' your lead, petit."

Cassie grinned. "Does that mean you're ready to follow my lead, too?"

"In dis?" Remy asked with a surprised smile. "Any ol' time."

She turned with a flip of her hair and bounced over to Mia, who was still, quite honestly glum. Even in her inducer that left her looking incredibly like Storm … but with Kurt's bump on her nose. James really went all out to let her be herself in that thing. Just minus the fur. It was uncanny, and close enough that for a long moment, Remy had to stare at her. And then swear to himself.

He was trying to cheer her up, not get caught up in the melancholy of what ifs. Maybe it was his mood, or maybe it was because he'd spent so many years wondering what life would have been like for all those kids if they hadn't lost so much when they were far too young.

Then again, truth be told, if they'd have had another hundred years with each and every one of those that they'd lost, it never would have felt like enough.

"Uncle Rem?" Mia said, once again pulling him from his wandering mind. "Are you okay?"

"You worried 'bout ol Remy?"

For the first time that he'd seen, Mia smiled softly as she took a hold of his arm. "Of course I am."

"Dat too bad," remy said, holding his head high. "Waste of good time worryin' bout somet'in dat already too good for most everybody but you an' yours, little Miss Stormcloud."

Mia smiled wider. "You know, if I wasn't going by Nightcrawler, I might have to use Stormcloud."

"Ain't your fault you didn't know you gon be just like your maman." He smirked crookedly. "'Course, if ol Remy'd been 'round, he coulda tole you dere was no chance you could be anyt'ing but a little Stormy."

Mia curled into his side for a moment. "Mama was right about you," she said. "And I'm glad you're home with us."

Remy patted her hand. "Jes' you wait, lil' miss stormy. Ol Remy gon' teach you all de tricks your maman learned when she was little - and a few dat she never got to learn." The two of them watched the group of teenagers share little looks and gather up as they tried to decide how best to help their friend. "Now - go on. You got all dese here young heroes lookin' up to you, wantin' to be more like de lil' goddess an' tryin' dey best to jus' get a lil smile outta you. Go on now. Let them try."

When Mia gave him a raised eyebrow look, he continued. "You 'fraid to have a lil fun?"

"I'm just not-"

"Won' hurt none to try."

Mia clearly didn't want to go - until she saw the anxious expression Cassie was wearing as she glanced toward her friend. Mia was too much of a people person to allow her friends to worry too much, so for the day, she decided to put away her own troubles and heartbreak and try to have some fun with her team.

But that had Bobby giving Remy just a little bit of a hard time. "Who would have thought you'd make such a great role model for the kids?" Bobby said quietly, though his smile didn't entirely reach his eyes. He was incredibly upset for Mia and the others, but he was still shaking off the after effects of Apocalypse being at full power commanding horsemen. Even those that hadn't been in his thrall in years couldn't ignore it entirely once he was out there and building steam.

Remy scoffed. "Ain't you been payin' attention?" he teased. "Ain't nobody like me, and de kids know it."

"Probably a good reason for that," Bobby teased with a bright grin.

"And now dat I got time to be around," Remy said, grinning to match Bobby, "dey gonna see how to have a party, non?"

"I'm still not sure about the right way to answer that."

"You figure it out," Remy said with an easy shrug as he watched the kids. Cassie was definitely taking the lead, and he could see the way she put her own body between Mia and the others when Mia took just a second too long to respond to the others. The slightest sign that Mia wasn't quite herself, and Cassie would step up to make a joke or answer a question.

Either that, or Miles, in his own way, would try to break the tension with the most ridiculous joke - which mostly just had May laughing and flirting with him even more openly than she already was.

Remy elbowed Bobby in the stomach and tipped his head toward Miles and May. "She gon' try to eat dat spider-boy alive," he chuckled.

"Is that strictly legal by spider-rules?" Bobby asked.

Remy laughed outright. "Dunno; we gon' ask Hank later. Prolly jus' point out he'd enjoy it. Boy got a crush you kin see from space since the second he met her, and she jus' like her mama. Trouble."

The two elder X-Men were shaking their heads as they watched the group of kids. Remy was spot on right … May was so much like her mother, especially when it came to flirting and looking just so. She was smiling at something Miles had said and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear when very suddenly, she fell out of her chair backwards with a less than graceful 'augh!' - arms thrown out uselessly before she hit the floor - and Miles did nearly the same thing an instant later - though he caught himself much better than May had.

"O…kay." America gave both of them a serious side-eye. "Did you scare each other getting too hot and heavy or…"

"No!" May defended, though she was wide eyed and looking around her in a very familiar, paranoid move. "Something's wrong."

"That flirting was pretty wrong," Sam said dryly.

"Wrong how?" Kamala asked, cutting across Sam.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be looking," May said.

"I can't teleport," Mia said, sounding suddenly small. She was not ready to jump into another fight; this was supposed to be something fun.

"It's alright, I've got you covered," Amadeus said with an easy, crooked smile.

"My powers are from Pym particle exposure," Cassie told Kamala as she started to grow. "I mean, it's not as easy, but… I can cover."

"I'll call my mom," Lexi said, even as Sam looked like he was going to say something heroic about being able to help too. She grinned over at Sam when he turned her way. "Having backup is helpful, you know."

"Alright, we need to get moving," Bobby said. "Shops are closing up. In the middle of the afternoon. And where the hell is everyone?"

"You hear that, Mom?" Lexi asked, her phone pressed up to her ear with her shoulder - just as they heard the tink, tink of something metal bouncing along the ground, followed by the hiss of gas - and Lexi swore in perfect Russian.

Remy took a couple of quick running steps - his bo staff expanding as he ran - then hit the canisters one after another right back the direction they'd come out of. "Find a way out," he said.

"Follow the bouncing spiders," Kamala said, and when everyone looked at her, she winced both shoulders up. "I mean, they've got spider senses, right? So if we go one direction and they start freaking out, we'll change direction?"

Miles glanced at May and let out a nervous chuckle. "Okay, sure, we'll be mine detectors."

Cassie pulled back and kicked an entire line of soldiers across the mall, big enough that her shoulders were scraping the ceiling. Amadeus ran past her to start punching through the other soldiers, taking advantage of the way their lines had splintered when Remy sent the gas canisters back at them.

"I'll see if I can find the dampener," Sam said, already rushing ahead in the opposite direction to the rest of the kids.

Lexi shook her head as she ran with the others, pocketing her cell phone for the moment. "He's cute, but reckless. Mom thinks I have her bad taste," she confided in Kamala as they ran, and Kamala broke into a giggle she couldn't help even in the intense environment.

The next round of canisters wasn't nearly as nice as the gas - the familiar sound of bouncing metal only rebounded twice before an immense boom filled the space around them. The sound was loud enough to feel, even for those that weren't close by. And if the sound wasn't enough, the flash that went with them was plenty to blind them.

Bobby had shut his eyes just before the flash, so he wasn't entirely blinded - yet. He was still dealing with the other side effects of a flash bang cartridge - temporary deafness, his body was buzzing from the percussive force of the explosion - and even with his eyes closed, the flash was bright enough that he couldn't see right. On grasping and finding no one he'd shown up with, Bobby swore loudly - not that anyone could hear him. He hated fighting blind … and deaf. And powerless.

For Amadeus, being disoriented like that was enough to push him into more outrage rage, but he was also aware, always, in the back of his mind that a blind rage was too dangerous. He shook his head a few times, his ears still ringing, but the upside of being a Hulk was that he bounced back faster than normal. He could see blurry shapes as his sight came back, and he saw a veritable swarm surrounding his friends and allies. He barely thought about it before he bounded back toward where his friends had been retreating and scooped up a blue blur, deciding that, at the very least, he could get Mia (and someone else; he couldn't see who) out of there, since the whole point had been to help her recover and it would be very, very bad if she got caught again.

Lexi, too, had known to close her eyes when she realized what was going on, but she was still fairly blind too. But she felt it when someone grabbed her, and she moved completely on instinct to throw him over her shoulder. This … this felt like the kind of targeted kidnapping attempt that she and Kate and Jimmy had dealt with since they were little, but on a grander scale. And these people weren't Hydra. "We have to get out of here!" she shouted, even though she couldn't hear herself.

Cassie was close to Lexi but couldn't hear her - or see much of anything. She struck out a few times blindly, but when she felt her head hit the ceiling and felt some debris fall on her shoulders, she realized she was a danger to the others and started to shrink. Not too small, but definitely not so big that she was going to bring down the house on the others.

But as soon as she started to shrink, the second she had enough space between her head and the ceiling, she felt some kind of net over her head.

"Are you serious?" she asked through her teeth, but as soon as she started to grow to throw off the net, it sparked.

Wincing, she shrank down, but the soldiers were pushing the net down along with her as she shrank. She was caught in a Catch-22: she could either shrink and do what they wanted her to or she could stay big and end up knocked out. Already, she could feel herself going numb from all the sparks from the net.

She kept shrinking, but she wasn't sure how small she got before she ended up passing out; there was just a little too much electricity, and she had lost track of the size of her own body.

"Bes' get movin'," Remy shouted, though no one could hear him, least of all the two spiders, who were both holding their ears, obviously more deeply affected by the flashbangs than the others. He could see the outlines of their forms, so he pushed Miles forward and then May, then spun around to assess the situation, swearing when as soon as he took his eyes off of the kids, soldiers grabbed them both.

Bobby could feel more than hear the rounds that were being fired - along with the shouting that was going on - he just couldn't make out the words being used, or who it was directed at.

It was incredibly unfortunate that when Bobby could finally make out what was going on around him, he had a few guys shoving guns in his face and doing the same with Miles and May and America - and just like that he was hit with a strong wave of deja vu.

But before Bobby could panic too badly, the three men pointing guns at Bobby dropped - following three rapid gunshots. Which was about when Bobby realized that Remy had stolen one of the soldier's guns and was running their way, tossing a gun to Lexi, who was closest to him and had the training to use it. And while Lexi shot at the soldiers surrounding the spiders and America, Remy had his bo staff out in his left hand and knocked back the soldiers who were dragging an unconscious Cassie away in a net.

Remy shouted something over his shoulder at Bobby, but his ears were still ringing, so he missed it. He didn't miss it, though, when about a dozen soldiers came rushing in from outside and opened fire, catching not just Remy but also America in their sights. Both of them took a few shots before Remy seemed to realize what was happening and shoved America aside, knocking her flat - while she swore at him in multiple languages when he got shot.

Bobby caught about half of her shouting, too: "...invulnerable, you idiot!... Not even…. There's other people… chivalry!"

Bobby found himself ignoring the new soldiers that were falling into place - shouting orders at him even as he rushed toward Remy and America. He was in a panic - he couldn't see Remy getting taken down like this. He was halfway to them when a bullet tore through his left knee and he went down hard.

"Found it!" Sam crowed triumphantly - and once again, Lexi broke into perfect Russian swears when the soldiers turned their attention to him.

"Idiot," Lexi said under her breath before she shot the ten different soldiers who turned their attention toward Sam. Someone grabbed her gun arm and twisted it behind her hard enough that she felt her wrist break, and she screamed in frustration before she kicked him between the legs. They were losing badly: the soldiers were dragging Bobby away in a collar, she didn't know where Cassie was or the spiders-

No, she saw Miles and May being dragged away not far from where the soldiers were moving in on Remy and America.

Which was, of course, when the powers turned back on; Lexi could tell because she could hear some of the rats that frequented the mall freaking out underneath the floor.

"Powers are back on!" Lexi shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Yeah, you're welcome," Sam said, flying back her way. He grabbed her by the arm so he could get them out fast, and she rolled her eyes at him and decided, for the sake of his pride, not to point out she'd had to shoot a platoon of soldiers to get him to his goal.

America took full advantage of having flight back to get away from the soldiers and then dove back down, grabbing Remy - and swearing at him when she realized he was unconscious. She almost high-tailed it out of there with just him, but she saw a flash of light and looked over to see Miles standing sheepishly in the middle of a group of recently-electrocuted soldiers.

"Let's move, Spider-boy!" she called out, flying over to grab his hand, now carrying both him and Remy as the soldiers closed ranks around everyone else they still had.

"Who's still okay?" Kamala asked, wide-eyed as she sat on Amadeus's shoulder as he ran and America and Sam caught up with their respective rescues.

Sam glanced at America, who shook her head. "I think we're it."

"Three down," Lexi said - which was when Sam realized she had called her mom again. She nodded into the phone. "Yeah, Cassie and May and Bobby." She paused. "Yeah, ambush at the mall." She hung up and pocketed the phone with the hand that she wasn't using to hang onto Sam. "So, we weren't the only ones targeted," she called out to the others. "My dad's with my big sister right now, and Mom's headed our way. These guys grabbed Cap and the two Summers kids!"

America almost lost a step. "Rachel?" For just a second, she looked worried - and then she looked furious. "They're dead."

"A lot of them already are," Sam pointed out, and Lexi gave him the driest look she could.

"They were shooting at us, and I got a gun. We'll talk about it later."

"He's a little bit scared of you, chica," America teased, though it didn't have the usual warmth to it, and the joke fell flat into silence until they saw a suit of armor overhead - though not red and gold but almost pure black with red accents.

"Uncle Tony always goes all out," Lexi muttered, shaking her head.

While the X-men and Avengers were trying to bat clean up on everything that was left in Apocalypse and Sinister's wake, James was trying to navigate what he was going to do about his now-dangling college course. Sure, he was the only one out of the group considering the degrees and the education angle in the moment, but it was a reliable method to keep himself distracted, which, was honestly why he'd decided to go for the doctorates. Distraction was far easier for him to process than talking about everything. Besides,he didn't want to talk to anyone about anything that heavy.

He knew his siblings were neck deep in trying to help their dad - which was great. Both of them had powersets that actually needed focus and control to handle things, whereas James knew his powerset was entirely passive - and therefore he had nothing to offer the conversation. So he might as well acknowledge what the college had just informed him of - the gaping hole in his schedule that the genetics lab was now missing. His second year at Harvard was really shaping up to be a whole new kind of mess. Not even halfway through the semester and half his classes were hanging in the wind due to "Dr. Windsor" suddenly disappearing.

Not that he was complaining about not having to deal with Sinister the professor. Not entirely anyhow. The more college level version of the course seemed painfully slow. And behind in research that James had seen in practice already.

He hated that the most. That Sinister had actually taught him far more in a year than the entire genetics department would likely be able to teach in their entire tenure. He hated that in a lot of ways, Sinister was right; as far as genetics were concerned, James wouldn't be able to find anyone close to the same level he was on. He also wouldn't find anyone with ethics as corrupt as that, either, so at least he could see he needed to take it all with a grain of salt. But that was one big grain of salt.

James had yet to drop the classes that focused on genetics, though. He just … hoped that the college would get someone in that would be useful. And while he waited on that, he was allowed access to the labs - even outside of classes. Likely because the faculty had no idea what had been Dr. Windsor's true identity, even after the fact. They'd chalked up his disappearance to being a casualty of Apocalypse … which was also partly true.

James had just stepped away from the lecture hall, fully intending to rearrange his bookbag and leave when a far-too familiar voice called out from behind him.

"I was hoping you weren't going to listen to that mouth-breather for the entire lecture," Sinister said, and James spun to face him. He didn't look the same. Not like Sinister, not like Windsor either. "We've fallen behind on our work, my boy. Especially since you destroyed so much of it."

"We don't have any work," James said, automatically trying to keep distance between them - and to Sinister's delight, his volume stayed low - well under anything that would cause a fuss with others nearby. "Maybe you should consider retiring since you don't have any either."

"We will discuss this in the lab," Sinister scoffed. "I didn't put all that work into you simply to have you give up on all that you've learned. I know you kept my data for yourself as well, James. You'll simply have to retrieve it before we can continue. Besides, you know how dreadfully important some of those theories of yours are. We must put them into practice."

"No," James argued. "I'm not working with you."

"Oh?" Sinister watched him with interest for a long moment, but when James didn't budge as he was used to seeing with some pressure, he shifted to a more determined, dangerous expression. "I see. I've been too lenient with you. I'm surprised your adoptive father hasn't given you the memo, my dear boy, but this is how I ask nicely. I will not do so again."

"Great," James said. "Then this time when I tell you no, you'll understand that it's my final word." With a last glance his way, James snatched up his book bag and skirted around him. It took more than he cared to admit to not look over his shoulder to see if he was being followed at first. But it was obvious very quickly that something was wrong when the entire quad was abandoned and silent. Even the ever present songbirds were missing and still.

He dropped his bag before he realized what he was doing - looking far out into the quad for any sign of why. Sinister usually traveled with Marauders … there should be almost hilariously large men hidden away as inconspicuous as one could hide a rhinoceros. But instead of human pachyderms, he spotted a flash of pitch black and silver dotted all along the quad. James reached for the watch Tony had been insisting he wear only to see that the hands on it were stopped cold. None of the controls worked. With his focus on some of the nearest soldier and taking a step back, James tried for his panic button on his keychain, but nothing. Not even the indicator light.

Sinister waited just long enough for James to see that there was truly no way out before he took it a step further and reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder - and froze James in place, then left his hand on James's shoulder, smirking quietly. "Oh, my dear boy, thrilled though I have been by your progress and prowess, you are not as important to me as you've deluded yourself into believing," he said in James's ear.

But his tone and his words didn't match his scent and James could see him just out of the corner of his eye as he leaned over his shoulder to gloat. "That's a lie," James whispered - and he felt Sinister tense next to him.

"Nevertheless," Sinister said after a moment. "I told you I wouldn't ask nicely twice. You have to pay your dues, young man. Especially when you insist on toying with my work."

James felt him squeeze his shoulder a little tighter before he stepped away - and the soldiers advanced from all sides, guns raised. In public. In broad daylight. And he couldn't so much as twitch a finger of his own accord. He couldn't even growl - and he didn't understand that at all.

Sinister stepped into his line of vision and James never took his eyes off of him from that point on. He looked so smug, but his outward show still wasn't matching his scent. There was a clear measure of anxiety that tainted the antiseptic tones that always hung around Sinister.

Being unable to move his limbs of his own accord meant it wasn't hard to comply when two different soldiers shoved guns in his face while screaming at him to not move. He did, however, close his eyes and try to control the free-falling panic at the thought of getting shot in the head again, though. He couldn't fight back - and to be honest, with the gun inches from his temple, he wasn't sure if he would have.

The watch was the first thing to go, then his keys and phone - though he could hear Sinister picking those up as they hit the ground. But then … the other panic button he had tucked away in his wallet was taken out, and the men holding him started systematically removing every single tracker that had been sewn into James' clothes. Which meant they had a path into Jan's security.

His arm tweaked behind him to the point of breaking as the soldiers put some complicated feeling covers over his hands, and a moment later, what amounted to a muzzle covered the lower half of his face.

Then - and only then - he suddenly found himself able to balance better. Sinister had finally let his hold on him loose - right when he couldn't do anything to help himself. Finally, he glanced over at Sinister just in time to see an entirely too-satisfied smile before a black hood was pulled down over his head and the soldiers around him pushed and prodded him across the quad to the waiting vehicles.

James was so stunned, so numb … and honestly hurt for some reason … he couldn't process all of the repercussions of everything. Until the crashing wave of hopelessness caught up to him with the lurching movement of the transport he was in.