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1X00 – The X-Men – Act II
The motley looking group sat in the far corner of the diner so they could view all exits. Pietro and Dom had their backs to the crowd but with Quicksilver’s speed and Avalanche’s thick skin they were more apt to take on any surprises. Rogue sat in the far back corner where the waitress, or any random person, couldn’t accidentally brush against her. It wasn’t a likely occurrence, but she would rather be safe than sorry.
Wearing a pair of lace gloves which were cut mid-finger, she ate her breakfast with maximum dexterity but minimal risk to those around her. Listening intently to Pietro go over what they knew, she squashed some eggs onto her fork. “We might try a day-time grab.”
“Oh?” he looked up at her.
“Yeah,” she said, food stuck half way to her mouth, “if Donovan is to be believed, they changed the security after our second heist. I won’t be able to steal the codes from a director or section chief. Only the security chief on duty has access to what we want, and unlike the last place, this is private, not government subsidized. They have decent perimeter security, electric grids on the entry points, you name it. Ain’t gonna be a cake walk like the last place.”
“You know,” St John interrupted, “as you’re the only one here who’s actually been in a cake walk, we can only take your word for that.”
Rogue looked over at her friend and tried to hide the bemusement on her face, “You walk around in a circle… literally.”
“Daylight is riskier,” Pietro said thoughtfully, “they’ll still be looking for us and I’d prefer to avoid dealing with idiotic bystanders.”
“They’ll be expecting us to attempt after-hours,” Dom pointed out.
“I can absorb some guards before hand,” she offered after downing a fork of ketchup dripping hash browns, “but they get one whiff of me information gathering and they’ll go into lockdown.”
“We don’t have a deadline, exactly,” Pietro tapped his finger on the table, a little faster than would be considered normal but thankfully no one was in a position to see it but them, “however, as far as Magneto’s concerned, it’s always the sooner the better.”
“But is there cake involved?” Pyro asked in all seriousness.
“Yes,” Rogue answered, attempting not to laugh.
“We start with surveillance,” Pietro came to a decision, “find out for ourselves what kind of security is involved, then we can determine the best course of action. And before you ask,” Pietro looked at Pyro, “no, you do not walk a cake. You walk around in a circle to music and when it stops, if you happen to be on a marked spot, you win a cake.”
Pyro seemed to think about that for a second, “Americans are weird.”
…
“Alright,” Scott started tapping at the laptop to bring up the projector in the conference room, “I figure first thing we should do is let you know what you’ll be going up against.”
The new team sat around the desk with their breakfast plates, they didn’t really have extra time before they had to go teach classes. Storm, as she already had up close experience with the Brotherhood, was off doing her headmistress duties. Logan had come to help fill in any details Scott missed.
“It’s unlikely we’ll be going up against Magneto himself any time soon,” he brought up an image of the man from a few years ago, “he usually sends his Acolytes on missions, rarely himself. He also knows how to keep himself hidden from Cerebro.”
“Brotherhood, Acolytes,” Bobby said between gulps of a heavily laden plate, “what’s with the funny names? I mean, isn’t that one chick with the, ah,” he pointed vaguely to his hair, “white streak. She’s a… um… a girl?”
“Brotherhood of Mutants is just a name,” Scott shrugged as Jean rolled her eyes at the Iceman, “it’s what Magneto started to call this loose coalition of mutants around the world who support his cause. His Acolytes are a core group who do most of his dirty work.”
“Acolyte,” Jean-Paul tossed the word out, “denotes some kind of religious fervor, is that the type of people we’re looking at?”
“A few,” he thought back to the various Acolytes he had the ‘pleasure’ of making acquaintances with, “but no, most Acolytes are those simply more willing and able to do the fighting.”
“Some just like the chance for violence,” Logan said distastefully over his glass of funky looking homemade breakfast shake with what looked like a raw egg floating on the bottom.
“Yeah, that brings me to Victor Creed,” Scott hit the slideshow to the next image, a black and white surveillance camera of a man with shaggy hair, bloody bodies laying around him, “code name Sabretooth, Magneto’s head enforcer. He has a healing factor not unlike Logan’s and his fingers turn into sharp, animal-like claws, his teeth get pointy too.”
“Creed,” Jean-Paul was sipping at his orange juice, “why does that name sound familiar?”
“Victor and I were part of Department H,” Logan said the words sourly, “long before it was Department H and you were even born,” Logan growled, sniffing the air. “He’s brutal, strong, and as hard to kill as I am. JP, your invulnerability will give you an edge, but the rest of you should not attempt to take him on single handedly. If I’m around, leave him to me.”
“Noted,” Bobby agreed whole heartedly.
“Moving on,” Scott flicked to the next image which was a collage, “Magneto’s other head enforcer is a woman named Raven Darkholme, code name Mystique. She’s a shape shifter.”
“Molecular? Metamorphic?” Jean-Paul asked, “Illusionary?”
“She’s naturally blue,” Jean spoke up, “and scaly. I saw her shift once, all those scales flipped around and rearranged themselves, even forming clothing.”
“So some kind of metamorphosis then?” Jean-Paul mused.
“That is a good enough guess,” Scott was inclined to accept the science teacher’s take on the subject. “What we do know is that while Sabretooth is vicious, Mystique is downright cold blooded.”
“Creed will play with you,” Logan butted in, “like a cat with a mouse, and it will give you an opportunity to get away. Mystique won’t give you that chance, if she wants you dead, she’ll go right for the kill.”
Bobby looked a little green at that statement, Jean-Paul didn’t seem bothered, but Jean had to relive the memory.
“Since she can look like any one of us,” Scott continued, “if we know we’re going up against her, you have to be vigilant. She can’t change her unique scent so Logan has an advantage, and Jean, like that time at the Pentagon, a simple surface scan will alert you to her presence.”
“Right,” Jean nodded, taking a breath.
“What happened at the Pentagon?” Jean-Paul asked.
Scott met Jean’s eyes and she gave him a nod that it was okay, he could tell the story, “Professor Xavier was meeting with some high level officials in the military regarding mutants and Magneto. This was several years ago, when we still students. Jean and I went with the Professor as his ‘star pupils’. Mystique was there and we accidently blew a cover she had going. A fight broke out, this was also the first time we ran into Rogue who managed to absorb the Professor and I,” he winced at the memory. “Jean seriously stunned Mystique with a telekinetic burst before she had a chance to kill either of us. Rogue got Mystique away and the two managed to escape once Mystique recovered.”
“Go Jean,” Bobby said appreciatively.
“It was reactive,” the red head admitted, “instinctive, really. It was the first time I ever used my telekinesis, didn’t even know I was capable until that moment.”
“How handy,” Bobby grinned.
“Well, for the rest of us,” Scott continued, knowing Jean didn’t like to dwell too much on what happened that day, “stay alert, look for the little things, word choice, wrong color socks, anything. Shape shifters can rarely get every detail right. Also, staying together in at least groups of two will help.”
“Magneto tends to use her for assassin missions or long term covert ops,” Logan added, “so odds are we won’t deal with her too often, it’s the kids that are going to give us the most trouble.”
“The kids?” Jean-Paul asked.
“That’s what Logan likes to call the Brotherhood’s Elite Acolyte Team,” he flipped to the next slide, an image taken at distance of a group of four individuals: three me and one woman, “we fought them last night. They perform the missions for Magneto that don’t involve extreme stealth or whole-sale slaughter, which he has Mystique and Sabretooth for.”
“I see why Logan calls them kids,” the Canadian said wryly, all of them younger than himself as he was getting way too close to thirty, though nowhere near the Wolverine’s 100-something-ish.
“Don’t underestimate them,” Logan said pointedly. “They tend not to kill as that means a heavier response by law enforcement, but each of them are capable of it.”
“He’s right,” Scott looked at each one of them through his ruby quartz glasses, “and to start off, we’re going to learn how to specifically fight these four.”
…
“The group leader is Pietro Maximoff, code name Quicksilver, he’s a speed mutant like you JP.”
“So I take it you’ll want me to handle him then.”
“Yes, he’s fast but not invulnerable, moreso, he has a glass jaw. If you can get a hit in on him, you’ll likely take him down.”
“It’s getting that hit in.”
“Exactly, and frankly, I want us all to get some experience in fighting each Acolyte, we don’t know who we’ll end up against at any given moment.”
Jean-Paul was running Bobby in circles, literally, whipping up a bit of a wind storm as the Iceman attempted to throw up walls made of ice to stop or capture him, but the quick footed mutant evaded every obstacle.
“Slow down!” Bobby shouted, getting frustrated.
Jean-Paul stopped on a dime in front of the Iceman, “I haven’t even broken the sound barrier yet, you got to work on your timing, lead the target.”
“I’ll show you leading the target!” Bobby shouted as the Canadian rushed off again.
Concentrating very hard, Bobby began to create a relative hedge maze of ice walls at least two feet thick and seven feet tall. While it was impressive, he started to get tired quickly, his breathing becoming heavy.
“Nice,” he heard Scott behind him, “though you might want to stick with the simple but effective, you don’t want to wear yourself out.”
“Yeah,” Bobby took a few more breaths, leaning on his knees, “ran out of air moisture too.”
“I know,” Scott pointed off in the direction of the garden, “you drew moisture from Ororo’s plants.”
It took a moment for this to click, “I’m a dead man.”
“ROBERT DRAKE!” Storm’s booming voice could be heard echoing off the stone of the mansion followed by a clap of thunder. The kids who had been watching from the patio quickly scattered.
“Hide me!” he pleaded with terror in his eyes.
“Oh,” Scott chuckled, “you’re on your own.”
…
“His second in command is code named Rogue, we don’t have a given name for her, not sure anyone does.”
“Isn’t she Mystiques daughter?”
“Yes, adopted, when she was twelve or thirteen, though it probably wasn’t a legal adoption. Anyway, her mutation is in her skin, if she touches you directly three things happen, you pass out as she drains your life force, she gains your memories, and she gains the temporary use of your mutant powers. It’s also uncontrollable, she can’t turn it off, so you can’t even sneak up on her, you touch her, you’re absorbed.”
“Damn.”
“This is exactly why I also want us to learn how to fight each other’s powers, what our weaknesses are, in case they get used against us.”
“I’m not sure about this,” Scott frowned as he stood fifty feet from Jean Grey out on the lawn.
“My telepathy doesn’t work on Rogue and she’s absorbed you before,” the red head pointed out, “I want to make sure I can handle it if she does again. I’ve been successful in testing this.”
“I understand that, but,” he really didn’t like the idea of shooting his optic beam directly at the woman, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’re not going to hurt me, Scott,” she smiled at him, one full of faith, “you could never hurt me, trust me.”
And he did trust her, more than he’d ever admit aloud though he didn’t have to say such words for her to know them to be true, “Alright, you ready?”
“Ready,” she nodded, putting her hands up in front of her, palms out, “my telekinetic push should act like a shield against your concussion blast but give me a five second burst to start.”
“Should?” he lifted his eyebrows.
“Will,” she corrected and left no room for argument.
“Okay,” he lifted his hand to his visor and took a deep breath, “on three… one… two… three.”
Turning the control on his visor, the ruby shield moved and his optic blast was set free, straight at the woman in front of him. He counted to five in his head quickly but he could see from the way the red beam became broken and splayed that Jean had succeeded in shielding herself.
He closed the quartz shield and was overjoyed to see Jean standing unhurt, smiling brightly at him as she was pleased with the outcome. Those who had gathered to watch clapped loudly, among them Kitty, Doug, Jubilee and Meg.
“Go Teach!” Jubilee shouted above the others.
…
“Pietro and Rogue received their combat training under Mystique, along with St John Allderdyce, code name Pyro.”
“Let me guess, pyrokinetic?”
“He can control fire but he can’t create it. He has a compact flame thrower on his back he uses as a main ignition source, he also carries several back up lighters.”
“And he’s crazier than an outhouse rat.”
“That too.”
“Ew!”
“Just ‘cause I’m a cryokinetic,” Bobby was standing in front of a row of Roman Candle fireworks, each one lit at a different time and shooting out the little balls of fire at random intervals, “why do I have to deal with the crazy pyrokinetic?”
“He’s crazy, not stupid,” Logan shouted at the kid several candles shot off at once, Bobby getting one but missing the other, “don’t confuse the two, it makes him very dangerous.”
“I only have to ice his flamethrower,” Bobby caught another one that shot up from a Candle, “problem solved.”
“I thought you graduated, Iceboy,” Logan took a gulp of the beer in his hand, “what’s the freezing point of gasoline?”
“I dunno,” he caught one and lost a second and third, “something like negative hundred, hundred and fifty… oh.”
“Oh’s right,” the short feral man took another sip of his beer, “what’s the lowest you’ve been able to get?”
“So far? Negative seventy-five,” Bobby grumbled, “Fahrenheit.”
“Not bad,” Wolverine admitted, “but not good enough.”
“Logan,” Summers came up beside him, “you know the Professor does not approve of you drinking in front of the students,” he gestured to the crowd of kids who had taken it upon themselves to watch their training sessions for the past three days.
“They’re watching their teachers train for what is essentially a war,” he gruffed, “and you’re worried about a little Canadian brew?”
The Boy Scout looked like he was about to say something then thought better of it. A moment passed and he asked, “How’s he doing?”
“Not bad,” Logan shrugged, “but I don’t think he’s taking this seriously enough.”
“He’s never had to fight the Acolytes,” Summers pointed out, “it’s hard to gauge how someone will react until they are put in that position.”
“True,” he glanced down at his beer, still mostly full, and a thought came to mind.
“Hey, Pop Rocks,” Logan shouted over at Jubilation Lee, better known as Jubilee or Jubes, “come here a second.”
The girl quickly hopped off the stone fence she was perched on and jotted over, “What you need, Wolvie?”
“That scarf,” he pointed to the one wrapped decoratively in her hair, “you attached to that at all?”
“Nope,” Jubes pulled the yellow bandana from her head and handed it over, “but it’s not your color.”
He gave her an unamused look and stuffed the end of the fabric down into the bottle and shook it to let the beer soak the rag. He’d prefer something with a higher alcohol content but this would work for what he wanted and not be as dangerous should things go unexpectedly.
“Logan,” Summers warned, “you’re not doing what I think you’re doing, are you?”
“Gotta test the kid’s metal,” he shrugged and pulled out his lighter, striking it to catch the bandana on fire.
“Woah!” Jubes shouted and backed up.
“Hey, Drake!” Logan shouted for Bobby’s attention, “CATCH!”
Bobby turned just in time to see the improvised Molotov Cocktail, his eyes going wide. Summers reached up to touch his visor’s controls but Logan grabbed his arm to stop him, giving enough pause for the younger man to react.
The Iceman threw his hands up and just as the bottle burst the shards were captured in an icy ball which fell to the Earth with a dull thud.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Summers practically shouted at Logan.
“I can,” Jubes laughed, grinning ear to ear, “that was cool.”
Logan ignored both and addressed Bobby, “You okay, kid?”
“Yeah,” he was a tad bit shaken, but understandably so, and Logan had seen far worse reactions for far less trauma.
“Need a change of underwear?” he asked in all seriousness.
“No,” Bobby seemed to have to think about that for a second, “no, I’m good.”
Logan turned to Scott, “The kid’ll do fine.”
…
“The last member is Dominikos Petrakis, code name Avalanche, joined a couple years ago. He can control seismic waves, vibrations, that kind of thing, he’s also fairly strong, not super-strong, but he has ‘thick skin’ and is the muscle of the group.”
“Is his power touch based?”
“He seems to have better control when he can touch whatever it is he’s attempting to crumble but we have seen him effect smaller objects by looking at them. Also, he can only affect rock, clay, glass, concrete, similar substances. We’ve never seen him use his ability on water, plastic or organics.”
“Then why do we have to worry about him?”
“He can and will drop the floor out from under you, trust me on this.”
The team watched as Storm generated winds which lifted her up into the air, the special cape she was wearing creating almost a balloon effect. Beside her, Jean concentrated on her telekinesis and instead of moving an object, she moved herself, gaining altitude.
The four Earth-bound men stared up at them, a mix of envy on their faces.
“You know,” Jean-Paul said, “if I run really fast and launch myself, I can fly for a distance.”
“That’s more like a really long leap,” Bobby pointed out.
“It counts,” he was adamant.
“Jeanne-Marie was the one born with super strength, right?” Scott asked from the other side of Jean-Paul, referring to JP’s twin sister, “She can fly.”
“Never let me live it down,” he involuntarily smiled at the memory, “teases me about it to no end… well, teased me about it,” he frowned, “she hasn’t quite been the same lately.”
Scott gave him a sympathetic nod as the girls came back down, unable to hide their well deserved smug grins from their faces.
“Ice bridge,” Bobby said randomly, “Avalanche drops the floor, I fill it up with ice.”
“Good plan,” Logan admitted.
“Of course,” Bobby was now lost in thought, “the bridge doesn’t have to be at ground level… I could raise it and turn it into a slide like I do during our 4th of July parties…” his eyes went a little cross-eyed as his mind working out the math of such a feat.
“Excuse me,” a voice said behind them and they turned around to see the thin wisp of a figure that was Katherine Pryde, otherwise known as Kitty, standing with her hands on her hips. “I want in.”
“I’m sorry?” Scott blinked, not that anyone would notice behind his visor.
“We all know why you’re doing this,” she said in her Chicagoan accent, “to fight the Brotherhood and Magneto’s Acolytes. I want to help.”
“I’m sorry, Kitty,” Storm was the first to speak up, “but you’re still a student here, you’re here to learn, not to be put in harm’s way.”
“She’s right, half-pint,” Logan agreed with the headmistress.
“I’m seventeen,” Kitty pointed in some random direction, “and in three months I’ll be eighteen. I can go down to the recruitment office and join the Marines.”
“The Marines?” Logan raised an eyebrow.
“The Navy…” she tried and that earned her a snicker from Jean-Paul, “alright, the Air Force, doesn’t matter, I can still apply and try to prove myself. Give me the same chance here?”
“I don’t think your parents would approve,” Ororo frowned.
“Dad’s got his new family he’s all tied up in,” she tried to say the words like they didn’t upset her but everyone knew better, “and mom’s off somewhere with her flavor of the month, trust me, they won’t care.”
“We care,” the headmistress walked up and placed her hands on Kitty’s shoulders, “about you and your safety.”
“And what happens after I graduate?” she asked seriously, “We all know what’s coming, Magneto intends to start a war and it’s my generation who are going to be the ones fighting it.”
“Not if we can help that,” Scott assured her.
“But you don’t know, do you,” she looked past Storm at them, “you don’t know if you’ll be able to make a difference. I don’t know if I’ll make a difference, but I want to try.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Scott shook his head.
“The world is a dangerous place,” she put her hands on her hips again, “this way I can at least try to do something about it.”
The group went silent as they considered her words, knowing she was right, that if they failed then it would fall on the shoulders of those they were teaching.
“Ah, hell, give the pip-squeak a chance,” Logan was the first to give in and come to her defense, “we could use someone with her skills on the team.”
“She could be useful against Rogue,” Jean-Paul offered, “but she’d need a lot of training.”
“Training I can do,” she piped in, then frowned, “wait, what kind of rogue, are we talking D&D or WoW?”
Scott sighed and rubbed his forehead, “I suppose it would be advantageous of us to have a computer hacker on the team, but,” he quickly added before she got too excited, “the Professor has to sign off on this. You’re still a student and not quite eighteen yet.”
She smiled, “I can live with that.”
…
“You really want to do this?” Charles sighed, rubbing his temple after the long impassioned speech the girl had given him about letting her join, the team standing behind her.
“Yes,” she held her usual exuberance in check, “I understand it could be dangerous but with my mutation I’m almost as safe as JP with his invulnerability.”
“It’s not the same thing,” the man pointed out.
“I know,” she frowned, “but if things get heady, well, it’s not like I can get trapped.”
“You can if you get knocked out,” Scott pointed out.
“And how is that different from the rest of you?” Kitty countered.
“Katherine,” Charles interrupted, “you are a student of this school, your parents entrusted me with your care, but,” she kept her from speaking before he could finish, “you graduate this year and as you said, you will be eighteen in three months.”
There was a pause and Kitty asked, “Is that a yes?”
“It’s a tentative yes,” he sighed, “as long as you promise not to take any unnecessary risks until you’ve had some proper self defense training.”
The girl’s face lit up, “Oh, thank you, Professor!”
“Well,” he gave her a smile, “I could hardly say no to you, could I?”
X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 
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