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1X06 – The Trask at Hand – Act III
“You know,” Jean-Paul was leaning up against the wall in the garage, “I could probably run to Virginia faster than you guys can fly there.”
Scott glanced up from where he was stowing his bag in the back of Storm’s Ford Fusion, and upon thinking about it, frowned.
“I mean, you have to drive to the airport,” JP shrugged, “then fly to an airport in Virginia, then drive to the facility…”
“Fred said that we’ll be met by a member of their team at the airport,” Scott threw another small bag in and closed the trunk, “but yeah. At least it’s a small craft airport, not nearly as much waiting to take off.”
“Still,” the Canadian pushed off the wall, “not exactly rapid response.”
“Well,” Scott gave him a thoughtful frown, “I am looking for a better, faster plane, guess I’ll look into other airports, there might be a few private ones closer.”
“What about building one in the back yard?” JP gestured outside through the opened garage door. It was still dark outside, they knew they had to get a move out early if they were going to be in Virginia in time for the convoy. But the deep blue-black of the sky made a distinct edge against the green-black of the tree line that even Scott could see through his red vision.
Scott tilted his head, “You mean build a private air strip?”
“Sure,” JP pointed to the right, “plenty of acreage, plus you got a terrakinetic who could completely landscape it, flatten it out. Saves on building costs right there.”
“Hhmm,” it sounded like a good idea until Scott realized, “but even if it’s private I’m sure there’s probably a license required by the FFA, maybe a beacon tower. Then we’d have to arrange for a fuel tank to be set up and filled regularly. Not to mention have it reinforced in case someone’s powers go a little off.”
“True,” he frowned a little, as if he hadn’t thought it completely through.
“It’s a good idea,” Scott admitted, “but the practicality is an issue that needs to be looked into, see if it’s worth the cost.”
“It’s not,” they both turned their heads to see Bobby come into the garage wearing his pajamas.
Scott raised one brow, “You’ve already done a cost analysis?”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” the accountant said, “but I’ve already done the budget for next year, so no. Whatever it is: no.”
“We wanted to build a roller coaster,” JP said with a straight face.
Bobby raised his hand to say ‘no’ again, but then paused, as if he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“You two ready?” Jean asked as she walked into the garage with Ororo.
“We’re good,” Scott tossed Storm’s keys back to her, “you?”
“The children’s class schedule will not be interrupted,” ‘Ro assured them, heading over to the driver’s side of her Fusion.
“I’m going to owe Betsy a new pair of Jimmy Choo’s,” Jean smirked, “she’s taken a lot of the class load.”
“Do I get anything for subbing all the math classes?” Bobby turned to Scott.
“Um,” Scott had to think quickly, “the knowledge that you did a job well done and helped out the team?”
Bobby stared at the optic mutant blankly, then he turned to Jean, the red head giving him a pity smile and saying, “I’ll get you that new Batman game.”
“Yay!” the Iceman clapped his hands like a three year old.
“Well,” JP chuckled, “if mom and dad here are done showing off their fantastic parenting skills,” Jean rolled her eyes at him, “then I guess we’re off.”
“Where’s Logan?” Bobby asked as they all started to load into the car.
“Left yesterday on his bike,” Scott told him as he got into the front passenger’s side, “said he’d meet us down there.”
“Oh, okay,” he nodded, “well, ‘Have fun storming the castle!’”
…
The Acolytes were standing in a dingy hotel room, looking over some maps and items laid out on the table.
“We’re going to have a very short window of opportunity,” Quicksilver told them, gesturing to a particular point on the map, “we’ll come in this way, it will be the least guarded.”
“How short of a window?” Pyro asked.
“Fifteen minutes,” their leader answered with a bit of a ‘give or take’ tone to his voice.
“Are you sure we’re not underestimating their response?” Rogue wanted to be absolutely sure before going into the situation.
“Our intel is sound,” he assured her “as long as we stick with the plan I’ve laid out, we should finally catch a break.”
…
A jeep pulled into a large hanger on the military base where Nimrod and all of Sentinel’s components were being held under extreme lockdown before being moved. Several fortified SUV’s lined the side of the building while men in black S.W.A.T. like armor stood around.
As the vehicle parked, Scott could see A.D. Cooper standing between two of the SUV’s, reading something off a clipboard, not even registering that they were there yet.
When they came to a stop, the four mutants slipped out to little fanfare, just a few wary eyes turned towards them.
“Summers,” he heard the familiar voice of Agent Duncan.
“Fred,” Scott offered him half a smile, starting to feel a little overwhelmed at the situation.
“Just in time for the final debrief,” the older man told them, nodding to the rest of the team.
“Any brotherhood activity?” he asked as Duncan led them over to a line of tables with computers and other tactical equipment.
“Only thing we picked up so far is Wolverine snooping around,” Cooper answered as she joined them in the command area.
“He’s doing his job then,” Scott said easily, trying to be civil but not wanting to be treated like the criminals they were there to help defend from.
“I’ve read his file,” she crossed her arms and gave him a quizative tug of her head, “the non-redacted one.”
“Then you know his skills,” Storm said with a small smile, “he is good at what he does.”
“And what he does is not very nice,” Cooper gave the Weather Witch a smirk, “I’m surprised you let him hang around the school.”
“He’s a changed man,” Ororo assured the woman.
“Nobody changes that much.”
…
“Bobby was the best substitute teacher, ever,” Jubilee laughed as she sat on Kitty’s bed, playing with the older girl’s large, stuffed, purple dragon. “We had about ten minutes of actually learning, then Ben got Bobby talking about the Batman video games and it was all over.”
“Scott’s just going to work you twice as hard when he gets back,” Kitty grinned as she finished doing her makeup and hair, adding a few years to her age with the right touches.
“Totally worth it,” Jubilee hugged the dragon, resting her head on it, “so what do you think they’re doing right now? Fighting the Acolytes?”
Kitty looked at Jubilee through her mirror, chewing her lip slightly before giving a shrug, “I dunno, maybe. Jean texted me when they got to Virginia but they were going ‘radio silent’ and I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to update Twitter when that happens.”
Jubilee gave a little snort, “That’s something Bobby would do.”
“You might be right about that,” she chuckled.
“But seriously,” the girl sat the stuffed animal to the side, “they could literally be in a knock-out, drag down fight right now.”
“I guess so,” she hadn’t really thought of it in those terms, “but they’ll be alright.”
“I know,” Jubilee shrugged, then let out a small laugh, “I remember Storm kicking a lot of butt when she and Big G found me at the mall. And you saw how she took out Jeanne-Marie when she was running amuck. No, I ain’t worried.”
“See,” Kitty smiled and went back to fixing her hair, “there you go then.”
“Yeah,” Jubilee tucked her feet under herself, “but this is only the beginning, isn’t it? In ten years, we’re still going to be fighting, if not the Brotherhood, then the government, someone.”
Kitty turned in her chair, never having seen the normally jubilant young woman so down trodden, “That’s why we’re doing this, so there won’t be a Brotherhood or someone to fight in ten years.”
Jubilee gave her a wry frown. “Isn’t that what they thought in World War I?”
The older girl didn’t really know how to respond to that.
…
Rolling down the highway at sixty-five miles an hour was a train of military vehicles, mostly all Humvees, but a few transport trucks as well. The sky was overcast, some might even think it threatened rain, but Storm would keep it in check.
“Five hours in,” Scott mumbled from the back seat of their selected Humvee, “still no sign of the Acolytes, or any Brotherhood.”
“I’m not sensing anything,” next to him sat Jean who was staring out the window, “one second.”
She closed her eyes and he watched how she crinkled her brow, lifting one hand to put pressure on her temple as she strained slightly.
“Just checked in with the others,” the woman blinked then turned to him, “they haven’t seen anything that makes them think the Brotherhood is around.”
“They could be waiting till we get closer to the base,” Fred spoke up from the front passenger seat, “strike when they think we’re tired from the trip.”
“It’s a possibility,” Scott let out a long breath, “I don’t know though, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if they would risk it. They have to know the military would be expecting them.”
“They attacked the fortified facility Cooper took Rogue too,” Fred let out a little snort, “I wouldn’t under estimate the Brotherhood’s cunning.”
“Or insanity,” Jean said wryly.
“True,” he had to give them that one, “I’m just thinking we started this game five rounds behind, no, I know we did, but for the life of me I don’t know how to catch up.”
“You could always cheat,” their driver, Nolan, spoke up for the first time, he was an Army Ranger in his mid-twenties, and from the Southwest if his accent was anything to go by.
“We could,” Scott spoke up, “but where would be the satisfaction in that?”
“Suppose,” the man shrugged, “but if I may be a little Machiavellian, sometimes the end does justify the means. World ain’t that black and white.”
Fred glanced back at Scott and he could also feel Jean’s penetrating gaze, so Scott said, “Well, I think I’d like to leave that as a trump card for situations that truly require it.”
“Fair enough,” Nolan shrugged and lazily turned the wheel as they took a wide curve, “but you know, you don’t have to play White Knight for Cooper. Sure, she’s a hard ass, but only because she cares.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” was all Scott could think to say to that particular comment.
“Personally, I think you guys being mutants is pretty cool,” the driver threw them a grin, “I mean, you’re a telepath right? I’m sure you hear a lot of stuff you don’t wanna, but in general, that’s gotta be pretty wicked.”
Jean gave him a waning smile, “It has its moments.”
“And you,” Nolan turned his attention to Scott but went back to watching the road, “I’m told you shoot laser beams out of your eyes like Superman, that’s… that’s out of this world.”
“Technically I compress the visible red spectrum into dense light,” Scott found his voice got smaller as he talked, “Superman has heat vision.”
“Oh, well, still cool,” the driver shrugged, “and I’ve heard of some amazing abilities. Man, what I wouldn’t give to be a mutant,” Scott and Jean exchanged glasses, “to be special like that.”
Scott frowned, “Everyone has something special about them.”
Nolan snorted, “Tell that to my old man.”
Not sure what he was going to say, Scott opened his mouth anyway to at least reiterate his point, but Jean put her hand on his. The woman gave a slight shake of her head, the universal sign to ‘just let it go’. She must have gleaned something from the man and he trusted her that this perhaps wasn’t an avenue to go down with a little over an hour left to go on their trip.
Turning his attention out the window, Scott realized this was the first time he had met a human who knew about mutants… and wanted to be one not because it would be ‘awesome to be invisible and sneak into the women’s locker room’ but because they thought there was something special, something better, about being a mutant.
…
“Okay,” Bobby said as they pulled down a long dirt road lined with overgrown trees, “this doesn’t scream horror film at all.”
Kitty gave him a bland look, “Really, that’s what you’re going with?”
“It was that or redneck militant crazies,” the SUV road smoothly over the ruts in the mud, “but I thought that was a little culturally insensitive.”
“You think?”
“Oh, here we go,” Bobby said as they approached a fortified gate made of steel bars a few inches thick with razor wire on top. A man wearing a button up and jeans waved them to a stop.
“Name,” the greeter was good natured enough as he held up a clipboard, but it was the two guys with AR’s slung over their shoulder who stood in the background that made Bobby question if ‘militant crazies’ was actually pretty accurate.
“David Baker,” he told the man, “and my fiancé, Marra Noble.”
“ID’s?” he asked as he looked at his clipboard, Bobby noticing a man with a dog come sniffing around the back end of the vehicle.
“Ah,” Bobby wasn’t prepared so he fished the fake ID out of his wallet, so glad Kitty had insisted that he bring it along, while she pulled hers out of her purse, then handed both to the guard, “here you go.”
“Right,” the man seemed satisfied and passed them back, “head straight down, park next to the main building, that’s where the meeting will be held.”
“Thanks,” Bobby smiled and the man turned away, making a hand gesture to someone, then the gate started to open, being pulled to the side by cables.
Easing the Escape through, it wasn’t very long before they pulled into the camp itself. There were several smaller buildings, a couple which looked like dormitories, but at the center was a large concrete meeting hall. Several cars lined up against it.
Parking next in line, the two looked around as they headed towards the entrance, banking that it wouldn’t be unusual for newbies to do so.
“That is probably the command center,” Kitty commented as she gestured with her eyes to a smaller concrete building with few windows and satellites on the roof.
“Doesn’t look guarded,” he replied quietly, “bet it has alarms and stuff.”
“Likely,” she said as if she wasn’t bothered by the idea.
The front doors of the building were left open and they could see that it led into a large, almost gym-like area, with seats all lined towards a stage at the back. People were milling about everywhere.
“Ah, welcome,” William found them, in the same sleeveless sweater get up, only in a different color, “glad you could make it.”
“We’re very interested in learning more,” Bobby smiled, trying to ‘act natural’.
“Good,” the man returned their smile, pointing to the stage, “and you’re in luck, our founder, Simon Trask, will be speaking today.”
Bobby couldn’t keep the look of surprise off his face as he saw the man from the pictures Kitty had showed them, Simon Trask, standing on the stage, speaking to a few gentlemen, “That’s cool.”
“It is indeed,” William was genuinely happy, “he doesn’t come out this way that often, so it’s a real treat.”
“Well,” Kitty giggled like she was apt to do, “can’t wait.”
…
“We’ll be pulling into the base soon,” Nolan told them, “fifteen minutes.”
Scott looked over at Jean, “I guess if the Acolytes are going to do something, it’s now or never.”
The woman nodded, then closed her eyes as she sent a message to the rest of the team.
Scott went back to looking out the window, waiting for the inevitable.
…
“Our humanity is the only thing that separates us from the animals,” Simon Trask spoke with convection as he stood at the podium, “we cannot allow it to be polluted or muddled. Once it congeals into a murky mess then we’re left with a people of no culture, no heritage.”
Several individuals started clapping and Bobby joined in to hold the deception.
“I’m glad to see so many faces here today,” Simon told the group, “I hope to see you again as Humanity’s Last Stand grows in sending its message. Refreshments are available at the back of the room, so please, stick around for a bit and feel free to ask any and all questions or concerns you might have. Thank you.”
With that, the nearly forty minute meeting broke up and people began milling about.
“Think we should talk to Simon?” Bobby asked his ‘fiancée’ as he watched the man step off the stage to speak to some of the HLS members.
“Probably best to keep a low profile right now,” Kitty replied, “that’s what they do in the movies, right?”
“Good point,” and it was also made moot by the fact that Simon Trask looked to be leaving anyway.
“Alright,” she said quietly as she pointed to the restrooms in the back, “I’m going to sneak out through there, head over to the command center and see what I can find.”
“Be careful,” Bobby tried not to frown, “they probably have cameras everywhere.”
“Noted,” she nodded, “and why don’t you mingle, talk to some of the members, see what you can find out about the group that they aren’t telling us?”
Bobby frowned, “And how am I supposed to do that?”
“I dunno,” Kitty shrugged and tried to hide a grin, “fly casual.”
“Oh, you didn’t,” Bobby tried not to laugh when he caught the joke.
With a wink, the girl headed towards the bathroom and Bobby let out a deep breath. How was he supposed to pull this off?
…
The hard part about avoiding cameras is that they are often pointing at areas that you have to go through in order to get from point A to point B. The easy part about avoiding cameras is if you can walk through solid objects this means you can make a route C.
Phasing through a concrete wall that lined around the A/C units, Kitty avoided the cameras and snuck into the side of the command center, making sure to duck low in case anyone might be looking in her direction. She managed to phase through the wall into a filing cabinet, so she poked her head out and saw a typical office with 1960s metal desks, more filing cabinets, and of course, a few computers.
There were also no cameras inside the office area, which she counted as a blessing. Still keeping low, she crept over to a windowed wall which led into the main open area of the complex. The room beyond almost looked like a war room. It had a big table in the middle and more desks lining the wall. There was a huge map hanging on the far end.
Seeing as the building seemed to be empty, Kitty made herself comfortable at one of the computers. It didn’t take her long to bypass the password lock and she was going through the records quickly. Knowing she didn’t have time to read it all, she bundled up what she could and connected to a remote server which would be untraceable thanks to Doug.
A simple drop and download and they could sort through the information later.
Hearing voices outside the main door, Kitty quickly turned off the monitor then ducked under the desk, pulling the chair towards her. She didn’t want to leave just yet, she wanted to make sure to cover her tracks on the download.
Watching through the chair, she saw Simon, or at least the gaudy 70s reject pants he had been wearing, and three others enter the office and head to the door leading into the ‘war room’. They were busy talking to each other and none showed signs of seeing her small figure under the desk.
“Are you sure?” an unfamiliar voice said, “no one knows I’m here?”
“I promise you,” Simon Trask replied.
The group entered the war room and closed the door behind them. Kitty was just trying to figure out what to do next, the download still had another couple of minutes to finish, when the door opened again. This time, she barely heard footfalls at all as someone entered light on their feet.
Kitty saw the figure pass, the man’s arms lifting up their coat to reveal a gun belt around his waist with a hand gun and taser attached. He pulled out the gun and checked the chamber.
The young woman had seen enough movies to know what that meant.
With only seconds to think about what was about to go down, Kitty jumped up, phasing through the chair to run across the room. She went solid long enough to pull the fire alarm, instantly the siren going off.
Going intangible immediately after pulling the alarm, she ran towards the door to get away from the gunman, hoping that the men inside the war room could use this warning to their advantage and disappear out of the back exit.
The front door opened before she even got close and William started to walk in, a confused look on his face. Shots rang out, two bullets passing right through Kitty, hitting the man square in the chest. Kitty stifled a scream as his expression turned blank, his body hunching over and crumbling to the ground.
“I told him,” Jameson’s voice said behind her and Kitty looked over her shoulder to see the man, gun hanging lose in his right hand, his left brandishing the taser at her, sparks of electricity hopping angrily across the prongs, “it was a bad idea to invite you.”
Jameson’s skin began to flip back, blue scales moving in an almost hypnotic motion, until Kitty was face to face with a blue skinned woman with red hair and yellow eyes… Mystique.
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X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 
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