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1X00 – The X-Men – Act III
“Don’t watch the hand,” Logan lightly bopped Kitty on the head, for the umpteenth time, when she failed to block him, “the shoulder and elbow will telegraph the move, give you more time to react.”
“Why can’t I just phase?” she asked, making a point by turning intangible as soon as he threw his next punch.
“You can’t strike back while you’re in phase,” he crossed his arms, they were the only ones in the gym which had a large clear area where individuals could practice dance or martial arts, “and you can only keep that up for so long before you tire out.”
“I’ll tire out faster trying to fight you,” she frowned, turning solid again.
As soon as she was tangible, Logan struck out and extended his two outer claws, the gap just wide enough to keep from cutting her neck so long as she didn’t move. Kitty visibly gulped, knowing that Wolverine had a checkered, dirty past but never having been so aptly reminded of it. She wanted to go intangible but at the same time was too scared to.
“Rogue’s power is touch based, she’s highly skilled at mixed martial arts so she can get inside anyone’s defense,” he talked as if he wasn’t holding her hostage, “Mystique taught her and Raven’s an even better fighter and won’t give you a chance to turn intangible. Creed, he’ll just keep coming after you until he rips your throat out and trust me, he’ll wait for you to tire, it’ll make the kill that much sweeter to him.”
“Point taken,” she almost winced at her lame pun.
Wolverine retracted his claws and looked at her thoughtfully, “You can use your mutation to your advantage, turning it off and on during a fight in order to dodge and to get into a position to strike, but none of that will do a lick of good if you can’t get at least the basics.”
“Right,” Kitty nodded as a way to distract herself from the headiness of the situation, “can’t get Precise Shot without first getting Point Blank Shot, and until then the negative four penalty just isn’t worth it.”
He looked at her a bit dumbly, “Some days I swear you and Doug just make this stuff up.”
Giggling a little, she felt a little better about the situation. This is what she wanted, to learn how to fight and be part of the team, she should have expected not to level up so soon.
“And that makes her immune to telepathy?” she heard JP’s voice and turned to see him enter along with Jean.
“For the most part, yes,” the red head nodded as they headed over to where they practicing, “Rogue’s mind is so loud with the voices of everyone she’s ever absorbed, it’s a literal headache for any kind of telepath to wade through, like trying to pinpoint a single voice in a sports stadium after a goal is scored.”
“I’ve seen telepaths become overcome in situations like that,” he said thoughtfully, Logan getting Kitty attention to start back up with the dodging lessons, “how does she cope?”
“I guess she has to,” Jean shrugged, “but we have seen her struggle, when she’s absorbed more than one mutant at a time. You should have seen her after she drained Scott and the Professor, she looked like she was going to pass out. It’s amazing she managed to get Mystique away after I… stunned her.”
“Probably the adrenaline rush of seeing her mother attacked,” the science teacher offered up and Kitty was once again bopped upside the head by her defense trainer.
“Word is,” Logan butted into the conversation, giving her a second to breathe, “she’s never absorbed more than three mutants at a single time, don’t know if that’s a physical limit or a preference, but she’s more inclined to knock you out with a fist to the face than with her mutation.”
“But she’s absorbed you, like, fifteen times,” Kitty couldn’t help point out, earning her a glare from the feral man.
“Twelve,” he grumbled, “and trust me, she’s tried to K.O. me without using her mutation. She’s good, but she ain’t that good.” He brought his fists back up and Kitty sighed, getting back into position to dodge.
The group got a little chuckle out of that, then JP asked, “If she absorbs memories, then what’s stopped her from just waltzing into this place, surely she must have all the codes, layouts, everything needed for recon. If anything, she must have plenty of blackmail fodder.”
“Dunno,” Logan shrugged, Kitty managing to block him this time.
“We’ve asked ourselves that question before,” Jean explained, “your guess is as good as ours.”
“You also said that the speed mutant, Quicksilver,” JP asked as no one else had anything to add to the conversation about Rogue, “he’s immune too?”
“Well, they all have anti-telepath training,” she frowned, “but as for Quicksilver, his mind works differently than you and I, his thought processes are sped up. I don’t know how he sees the world but I imagine it’s in slowmo. Since his psyche runs so fast, it makes it very difficult to affect him telepathically, but not completely impossible.”
“So, his speed is perception based then,” JP nodded, getting that look in his eye that he got when he was teaching class, trying best to explain a large equation.
“Perception based?” Kitty asked as Logan gave her another break after tapping her chin.
“Yes, he runs fast because, to him, it’s a normal speed,” JP explained, still sussing out the science in his head. “However, if he doesn’t have invulnerability or a healing factor then he’ll never be able to get past Mach Two, his body wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“Because the faster he goes,” Kitty piped up when she realized she understood what he was saying, “the greater the pressure wave he’ll generate and, without invulnerability, a healing factor, or a pressurized vehicle, it would crush his body and internal organs as if he was deep sea diving.”
“Well,” he smiled at her, “and here I thought you were sleeping through my physics class.”
“Oh,” her face lit up, “does that mean you’ll bump up my grade?”
“Ha ha,” JP laughed and then with a straight face said, “no.”
“Ah, come on,” she frowned, “I thought Canadians were supposed to be all nice and personable… and nice.”
“How many Canadians do you actually know?” he asked dryly.
“Well, you…” she had to think for a second, “and Logan.”
Logan had been standing off to the side with this arms crossed, an annoyed look on his face, growling not too subtly.
Kitty sighed, “Stereotypes suck.”
…
Rogue sat watching the video screen which was connected to a high powered sniper scope. Since the facility they wanted to break into had good reason to suspect that they were being watched, the team selected a high-rise building half a mile from the target and elected to do most surveillance from afar.
Dom was studying the geographical layout of the land the building sat on while Pyro was sprawled out on his stomach, scribbling away in a notebook.
The door opened up and they each looked up to see Pietro let himself in, “Any change?”
“No,” Rogue shook her head, holding up her own notepad of notes regarding the guard’s schedules, “the patrols are random but not without their weak points. I think we can exploit them.”
“Good,” he took the offered notes and gave them a quick glance, literally, “then we should prep for tomorrow night.”
The team looked to each other, it wouldn’t be a problem for them, this is what they do.
…
Tapping away on his laptop, Scott sat at his desk in one of the small class rooms in the Institute. The building hadn’t meant to be a school, but classic construction methods left most of the rooms large enough to hold a teacher’s desk and around ten to fifteen student desks.
When he came to Xavier’s, there had been only a handful of students. The class size had grown considerably all things considered, though by most standards Xavier’s boasted a very small student body.
“Scott,” he recognized the voice instantly as Jean’s and lifted his head up to see her walk through the door, “you look busy there.”
“This math test won’t write itself,” he shrugged, sitting back in his chair as Jean took a perch on one of the kid’s desks.
“Yes,” she nodded sagely with a bit of a twinkle in her eye, “nothing like fretting over two trains leaving the station at the same time to make the kids feel like typical, everyday teens.”
“Something like that,” he chuckled softly.
“I came to tell you that I’ve been taking a few extra sessions using Cerebro,” Jean was already a high level telepath but Cerebro would increase her abilities ten-fold, allowing her to search out the world for the tell-tale signatures of a mutant’s powers as they were often psionically or energy based, “and I’ve enlisted Betsy to help, she needs the practice anyway. Between us we’ve noticed Quicksilver and Pryo have been hanging around Bridgeport, Connecticut, for the past two days. Though since Quicksilver is always using his speed to run and Pyro is, well, fire-happy, it may not be related to the break-ins.”
“That’s good work, the both of you,” he smiled at her initiative, “I’m not sure we’re ready to take them on yet, but I’ll talk to Agent Duncan, see if there is connection between Bridgeport, the Brotherhood and Bastion Industries.”
“As far as I could check they have no offices there,” she offered, “but the Acolyte’s first target was a military warehouse so who knows.”
“Exactly,” he nodded, the air going sullen between them.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
He glanced out the window where some of the youngest ones were having a snowball fight in September thanks to Bobby, “You think we’re doing the right thing?”
“I wouldn’t have joined your team if I thought otherwise,” her normal dazzling smile fell a few notches, “are you having second thoughts?”
“No, I…” he adjusted his ruby specs as he tried to put a voice to what he was feeling, “I still believe we need to meet Magneto head on and I know it was my idea, but… when did this become my team?”
Jean paused for a moment, “I don’t remember anyone contesting it, not even Logan.”
“Logan,” he said the word with more than a tinge of annoyance, “he’s not a team player, but he still has more experience in this stuff than me, Ororo and JP as well, they’re more qualified to run the team.”
“Hhhhmmmm, let’s see,” she got that thoughtful look on her face, adjusting herself on the desk, leaning slightly forward, “Logan isn’t a team player, as you said, and JP is a soldier. Both know you have more experience with dealing with Magneto and the Brotherhood, they will follow your lead as long as you don’t screw up,” she gave him a wink, “no pressure.”
“That’s… comforting,” he said dryly, “thank you.”
“They’re not looking for you to fail,” she soothed, “they’ve been through hell and back in their own ways, that makes them wary, but you have their trust. Well, definitely JP’s… Logan’s motivations are questionable even on a good day… but he trusts the Professor’s judgment,” she let him think about that for a moment before continuing, “as for ‘Ro, she’s a strong leader, and a survivor, but she’s needed here, she keeps this school running which is no easy feat.”
He listened to her words but he couldn’t help thinking, “So I get the job by default?”
“No,” she said softly, “you get it because you’re the right man for the job.”
…
The following afternoon at lunchtime, the teachers were sitting at their normal table, sans Scott who had a phone call to make and Logan who wasn’t actually part of the teaching staff and therefore ate when he pleased, wherever he could get away with sneaking a beer.
“So, I was thinking,” Kitty invited herself to the table, scooching between JP and Jean, “we should all have code names.”
“Code names?” JP asked warily.
“Yeah,” she said between shoveling mouthfuls of her salad, “I mean, the Acolyte’s all have one, the military and fighter pilots have them, all the super heroes in the movies do too… it’s like tradition.”
“Right,” Jean scratched at her forehead, “well, we are not Acolytes nor are we super heroes.”
“But we are super heroes, sorta,” Kitty reasoned, “we’re using our powers to fight evil.”
“Oh, lord,” Betsy Braddock spoke out in her London accent, “I think our little Kitty here has confused real life with one of her computer games.”
“Am not,” Kitty frowned at the purple haired English teacher, “I know the difference between the two, but seriously, how can you not make the parallels?”
“Well, if we’re gonna be super heroes,” Bobby held his chin in his hand, tapping one finger thoughtfully, “I want a better origin story. Something with a childhood nemesis… and I want to have been dropped in a vat of something… yeah, or maybe part of some scientist’s diabolical experiment… nah, sounds too painful, I’ll go with a vat.”
“Fine,” the intangible girl frowned, “make fun of me.”
“No one is making fun of you,” Ororo spoke softly to Kitty.
“Actually, I was…” Bobby started to say but a look from the headmistress sent him cowering, “and it was wrong of me to do so.”
“Yes it was,” she replied sternly before turning back to Kitty. “Heroic sounding nicknames are not uncommon amongst our kind, but these are usually given to us, not asked for.”
Kitty thought about this for a moment, “I guess you’re right.”
“Yeah,” Bobby started talking, probably thinking he was helping, “you know, Scott was the first one to call me Iceman, course, I was trying into turn him into a popsicle at the time,” he suddenly sat up straight as a thought occurred to him, “I had the perfect chance to create a comic-book worthy nemesis and I let it slip by, darn it!”
Everyone stared at the Iceman and collectively shook their heads, but it was JP who said, “Well, before anyone gets any ideas about ‘Speedy Gonzales’ jokes, I was given a call sign when I was attached to Department H, you can call me Northstar if JP isn’t fancy enough for you.”
“Northstar,” Kitty smiled as everyone thought about it, “that’s cool, I like it.”
“Well, personally,” Jean chimed in once the murmurs died down, “I’m sick and tired of being called Red. That’s not a name, it’s a color.”
“Here, here,” Betsy defended Jean’s rant, “and while Violet is a legitimate name, it is rather unimaginative.”
“Exactly, Betsy,” Jean nodded to her, “we have real names, why can’t people use them?”
“What now?” Scott said as he joined the table, sitting down with a light plate, the lunch hour almost over.
“We’re talking about nicknames,” Bobby piped in, “who gave you yours, Cyclops?”
“That would be Hank McCoy,” Scott gathered up his sandwich, “when he created the visor for me to use to control my ability. He apologized, said he was afraid it made me look like a Cyclops. Name stuck.”
“You do realize that in mythology,” Betsy said lightly, “the Cyclops, though master blacksmiths, were often portrayed as cruel and brutish.”
Scott thought about this for a moment as he chewed on a bite of his sandwich, “Well,” he said once he swallowed, adjusting his glasses, “beats being called four-eyes.”
“Isn’t that what Logan calls you?” JP asked from the other end of the table.
“Every chance he gets,” the team leader frowned, “that and Boy Scout.”
“The Acolytes call you Boy Scout too, right?” Bobby asked and all Scott could do was frown.
“Logan calls me half-pint,” Kitty also frowned, “no way that’s gonna be my code name.”
“I’m sure we’ll find something fitting for you,” Ororo assured her.
“Yeah,” she tapped her fork against her salad bowl for a second then leaned forward so she could look down at Scott properly, “hey, boss, what about a team name?”
“Team name?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.
“Yeah, we have to have a team name,” she quickly added, “every military group has a name or mascot, even police and fire stations, heck, we’re a school, why don’t we have a school mascot?”
“She has a point there,” Bobby defended her.
“If the Brotherhood have the Acolytes,” Kitty continued, “then who are we?”
“I never… really thought about it,” Scott frowned and looked to the rest of them for help.
“We could be the mutant A-Team,” Bobby suggested and everyone groaned, even Storm.
“I’m pretty sure that’s copy-righted,” JP quickly took all the wind out of Bobby’s sail.
“Ooo! I know,” Kitty sat up straight, “this is the Xavier Institute, right, so we can be X-Men.”
The table sat stunned for a moment.
“I’m sorry, Kitty,” Jean was the first to speak, “but that’s a horrible name.”
“Yeah,” Bobby agreed, “I mean… X… the first thing that is going to pop into people’s mind is X-Rated.”
Betsy laughed, “Maybe into the mind of a twenty-two year old male.”
“Hey,” he pointed to himself, “I can’t change what I am… until my next birthday that is.”
Before that conversation could spiral out of control, JP said, “It’s also a bit sexist, there are women on this team.”
“But X-Person does sound X-Rated,” Kitty argued, “and it’s like G-Man for the FBI, which doesn’t make sense, shouldn’t it be F-Man?” she blinked, “Wow, that sounds so wrong.”
“It stands for Government Man,” Storm informed her.
“Speaking of G-Men,” Scott interrupted, “I spoke with Agent Duncan, he’s looking into Bridgeport for us. Seeing about any recent Brotherhood activity in the area, it could just be where the team is holed up right now.”
“That’s not far from here,” JP pointed out, “should we check it out?”
“No,” Scott shook his head, “if this is one of their bases then we can’t hope to simply stumble over it, and if we did, they’d probably hurt us more than we’d hurt them. If Duncan can give us a target or a search grid then we’ll go, recon first, then make an organized plan before we attempt to contain them.”
“Right,” JP nodded, “good call.”
“So…” Kitty snuck back into the conversation, “X-Men… what you think?”
There were collective groans from the group who proceeded to get up from the table, leaving only Scott who was attempting to finish his lunch.
“I take that as a maybe?”
…
“Hey, Rogue,” Pyro called out across the room at the woman who was leaning against the table, discussing with Pietro and Dom the layout of the facility they were about to rob, “spot me will ya?”
“Kay,” she walked over and Pyro turned his back to her so she could see the fuel compartments and the complicated valve system which were literally sewn into the red colored shirt. He heard her tap against the gauges and give something a little tug. “Good to go, though you’re running low on ethanol.”
He grinned, grabbing his modified fireman’s jacket, “I was in a blue mood yesterday.”
Rogue shook her head and was distracted by Pietro who grabed his own silver jacket from over a folding chair as he said, “Pyro, do remember that burning the place down is contingency plan F and we have to go through A to E first.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he shrugged the coat on, “Plan E is the one where we get more Ethanol, right?”
…
“Okay, Okay,” Kitty spoke with an echo, “this this is is weird weird.”
“You don’t have to talk out loud for the mind link to work,” she heard Jean’s voice in her head, the woman standing twenty feet across the room from her, “all you have to do is trigger the same emotional response you would as if you were to speak and that will send the thought across the link.”
“Does does this this,” JP cleared his throat and tried again, “does this include all thoughts?”
“No,” the red head informed him, “only those with the speech trigger, though this will bring new meaning to the phrase ‘think before you speak’.”
“What’s the range?” Bobby asked, his mouth moving like he was trying to speak, frowning at the action.
“Not sure,” Jean shrugged, “I’ve sent and received telepathic messages from as far as Harry’s Hideaway, but not tried to sustain an actual communications link between more than two people.”
“So so… weird weird,” Kitty giggled.
Scott, who had been standing off to the side on his phone, hung up and approached the group, “Sorry, that was Agent Duncan.”
“What did he have to say?” Jean asked, breaking off the telepathic link, there was really no point in using it when they were all standing there.
“The Brotherhood doesn’t have any long-term safe houses in Bridgeport that the government knows of,” he said, then added, “but, there is a rather large facility for Master Technologies and Moldings.”
“And we care about them why?” JP joined the others in gathering around their leader.
“Duncan says that Bastion Industries is subsidized by M-TAM,” Scott answered, “Bastion is a research firm, M-TAM deals with practical applications.”
“So whatever the geeks at Bastion have been working on,” Kitty piped in, “M-TAM would have the prototypes.”
“Exactly,” he nodded to her.
“Sounds like a prime target for the Acolytes,” JP added.
Scott gave them a smile, “What do you say team, up for a little recon?”
…
The goal was blitzkrieg, or alternatively, shock and awe.
M-TAM’s facility sat inside an industrial complex, a regular fortress with a solid gate, two guards at the entrance and a dozen on patrol. There was also a team of men on the video cameras which were pointed all over the guard house. No way would they would be able to sneak in without setting off the alarms… so they decided to set the alarms off on their own terms.
Quicksilver quickly knocked out the front gate guards but he wouldn’t be able to open the gate without someone authorizing access from the inside. Pyro created an eight foot tall Stay-Puft Marshmallow man and had him attack the loading dock gate which was just as well guarded. Avalanche set off a seismic wave that cracked the thick concrete wall on the opposite side, guards running to cover the area as an opening had started to form. There was also an unfortunate after-affect of random sink holes forming on both sides of the wall, one of the reasons collapsing the wall was not an option.
While everyone was sufficiently distracted, a lone figure slipped over one of the least guarded walls, a pair of pliers taking care of the razor wires. Glancing around, Rogue hoped that no one was noticing her as they had bigger issues to deal with.
Heading across an open area, she stopped in front of the rear entrance, a card reader and keypad barring her entry.
“Halt,” a voice said from behind and she allowed herself a little grin before slowly turning around to face two guards, weapons drawn, “what the hell is going here?”
“Don’t worry,” she smiled, “just a little B&E.”
Striking quickly, her right arm knocked away the guard’s gun while her left leg kicked out at the other man. A few more kicks, some punching, and one of the guards was slammed against the wall, crumbling to the wall in a heap.
Rogue kicked out and struck the knee of the other guard and he started to fall to the ground. Rogue grabbed him by his combat vest and hauled him to her, planting one right on his lips. Surprised, the man didn’t do much in the short time before her powers kicked in and she pulled his mind into hers.
“Thanks, sugar,” she grinned as she let him fall to the ground, pulling his access badge from his belt as he went.
Turning back to the door she used her knew found knowledge to punch in the right code and slip inside. Now all she needed was to find a security console and she could open the gates. Thanks to her new friend Ken she knew exactly where to get to one without running across any patrols. How very helpful of him.
…
“You think we should have waited for Logan?” Kitty asked from her seat in the back of Bobby’s Ford Escape SUV, wedged between Jean and JP, her laptop on her knees, typing away at some not-strictly-speaking-legal programs.
“I tried his phone,” Scott informed from the passenger’s seat, “didn’t answer.”
“Probably in a bar,” Bobby said in a tone somewhere between envy and… envy.
“This is just a recon mission,” the team leader ignored him, “Jean, I want you scanning, if the Brotherhood are watching this place then they can’t be too far. JP, if the Acolytes are planning a heist, let’s see if we can figure out how they might do it. Kitty, you got that sniffer program up and running?”
“Yep,” she continued to tap away, “scanning all radio frequencies and wireless hotspots, looking for key words and phrases.”
“You build that program yourself?” JP asked, looking slightly over her shoulder at the complicated system.
“Well…” Kitty giggled nervously, “I kinda… acquired the program from the NSA, they use it to track terrorist cells. I tweaked it, just a bit.”
“Does the Professor know what you’ve been doing?” he asked, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Helping Doug with his mutation,” she said very seriously, “I mean, he’ll never know the limits of his super-decoding ability if he doesn’t give himself challenges.”
“That sounds awfully rehearsed,” JP looked her suspiciously, that grin still attempting to immerge.
The rest of the team chuckled because that was pretty much the truth of the matter.
A sharp intake of breath from Jean got their attention, “I can sense them, they’re close.”
Scott leaned forward and fiddled with the GPS, “How close? We’re almost to M-TAM, it’s just around the corner.”
The road buckled and Bobby swerved to avoid the sudden sink hole that materialized, driving up onto the sidewalk. Kitty slammed into JP, her laptop crashing down onto their feet which thankfully broke its fall. Hitting the breaks, the Escape came to a halt mere inches in front of another small sinkhole.
“What the…?” Bobby muttered as they all piled out of the SUV, the head of a fiery Stay-Puft Man visible above the side wall of M-TAM.
“There,” Jean pointed and they all looked to see the front gate opening, a silver flash of light disappearing inside.
“What was that about not hoping to trip over them?” Bobby asked Scott who had pulled his visor from his pocket, holding it in his hand as he debated what to do next.
“We do this,” JP said evenly, “we’ll be going in half-blind.”
“But we’ll have surprise on our side,” Jean echoed his own thoughts. “They’ve never seen you, Bobby or Kitty before.”
“What you say, boss?” of all of them, Kitty looked the most nervous, as well as excited. “Get me near a computer and I can find out what they’ve been after.”
Scott took in everyone’s faces, varying degrees of willingness with only a tinge of visible fear. Glancing back at the carnage that was being wrought, he knew in an instance what he had to do. “Alright, here’s the plan.”
X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 
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