X-Men: The (fan fic) Series

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1X06 – The Trask at Hand – Act IV

“Mystique,” the word fell off Kitty’s lips as she was slightly frozen in her spot. Even though she was still phased, she did not like the look of the taser at all.
The woman smirked slightly, as if she was amused that this little girl knew her name, “Intangibility, very useful ability, but wrecks havoc on electronics, am I right?”

Kitty didn’t answer, trying to get up the courage to run even with Mystique in lunging distance.

“But that’s a light, controlled, current,” the woman continued to talk and Kitty remembered what Logan said, the woman wasn’t apt to give you a chance to escape if she wanted you dead, “what happens when your molecules come in contact with a high powered electrical discharge?” Mystique didn’t even bother letting Kitty answer, not that she would, “You don’t even know, do you?”

Keeping her eyes on the taser, Kitty tried to keep a straight face but knew she was failing miserably.

“Honestly,” Mystique gave something of a laugh, “what does he even teach at that school? How to be normal? How to fit in with humans?” she spat out her words, “You have an incredible gift but you stand here like a weakling because you don’t even know the limitations of your own powers.”

Kitty honestly didn’t know if the taser would do nothing to her or perhaps destabilize her structure. If she was honest with herself, she had always been too afraid to find out.

There were noises and two men brandishing weapons started to come through the door that led from the war room. Mystique didn’t even blink, she lifted her gun and shot them both with point blank precision.

Using that as a distraction, Kitty ran for the nearest outside wall and once she passed through it, kept on running.

…

Mystique put the taser back on her belt, she wasn’t going to be using it as unfortunately her plans seemed to have unraveled. It happens though, she only needed to salvage what she could.

First off, she could see the look in the young one’s eyes when she pointed out her lack of knowledge, and that brought a little smile to Mystique’s lips.

Secondly, she was a strong believer in ‘when in doubt, just blow everything up’.

Pulling the last item from her belt which was a small black box with a toggle on the end, she hit the switch.

That done, she casually walked outside into the fray, changing shape once again.

…

Kitty was turned around, she came out of the building on a different side than she went in and people were starting to run everywhere thanks to the alarm she set off and the gun shots. She started to book it towards the meeting hall when the first explosion went off.

A plume of smoke rose above the meeting hall.
“Bobby!” she shouted into the air.

Another explosion went off to her left, the motor pool now becoming in dire need of a new roof.

“Crap, crap, crap,” she ran towards the meeting hall, smoke billowing out of the open front doors.

She was just about to run in when she heard, “Kitty!”

Turning her head, she saw the Iceman jogging towards her, “Bobby!”

“You’re okay,” he seemed relieved when he saw her, completely out of breath as he came to a stop in front of her, “what just happened?”

“It’s Mystique, she…” Kitty trailed off, taking a step back as she realized, “how do I know you’re really Bobby?”

“Huh?” his jaw gapped a little and his eyebrows did that weird thing.

“Oh thank goddness, it’s you,” she took a breath she had unconsciously held, “Mystique, she’s here, I think she came to kill or kidnap Trask.”

“Wait, what?” she could see him do a mental double take, definitely Bobby, “Did she get him?”

“I pulled the fire alarm,” Kitty shook her head, then suddenly it hit her and a lump entered her throat making it was hard to breath, “she… she shot William. She shot right through me and hit William.”

Her extremities went cold and she knew, in a little part in the back of her brain, that this was shock settling in, but there was nothing she could do about it. William was dead, he died right in front of her.

“Kitty,” Bobby put his hands on her shoulder, “it’ll be okay, but if Mystique is here, we need to leave, now.”

“The people,” her brain was listening to him, “in the meeting hall, did everyone get out?”

“Yes,” he started leading her towards the side of the building where the vehicles were parked, “I threw up an ice wall and blocked the brunt of it.”

“Good,” that made her feel better, knowing that so far no one else had been hurt.

“There, them!” a voice shouted out and they looked up to see Jameson, well, Mystique in Jameson’s skin, and several guards blocking their path, “they’re spies, they killed William!”

The guards brought their AR’s to bare and all Kitty heard was Bobby’s lamented, “Ah, crap…”

…

“Do another sweep,” Scott asked Jean as they stood around in another hanger, this one on at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“Sure,” Jean closed her eyes and put her hand to her temple, and as she scanned everyone on the base, she turned slightly. When she was done, she looked straight at Scott, “I’m telling you, nothing. No Brotherhood sympathizers, no one with telepath blocking,” she sighed, “there is no sign of the Acolytes.”

“Why would they have passed this opportunity up?” he frowned, shaking his head.

“I don’t know,” she told him with a shrug, “but, well, at least Bobby didn’t end up coming after all, he’d have been bored to tears.”

“True,” he admitted, “but listening to some old guys ramble on about thinly veiled racial supremacy, can’t be much more exciting.”

…

“Ah, crap…” the guardsmen did not look like they were going to ask questions first and any ice wall he could throw up quick enough would not block high velocity rounds.

He started to push Kitty away, to get her out of the line of fire, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him with her. The next thing he knew, he felt funny.

His entire body’s density had been reduced to near zero as Kitty transferred her ability to go intangible to include him. He knew she could do it but he had never experienced it before. Clutching her wrist he was irrationally afraid to lose contact, not because then he might get shot, but because he didn’t know what that would mean for his body.

The pair quickly ran around the side of the building, dodging some vehicles which had parked on the other side of the currently on fire meeting hall.

Suddenly he was solid again, breathing deeply as they leaned against someone’s truck.

“Did…” Kitty was also out of breath, “did you just try to chivalrously push me out of the way?”

“Um,” he actually had to think about that, his brain was so chaotic, “yeah?”

“Hello,” she waved her hand in the air, “intangible girl.”

“Yeah, my bad,” he frowned.

“No,” she gave him a small smile, “the thought was nice, thanks.”

“Thanks,” he tried to smile back, but he felt a bit like an idiot, after all, Kitty didn’t need to be saved thanks to her mutation, he was the one who needed saving. But he tried to push her out of the way anyway, “so why does being the hero kinda make me feel stupid?”

Kitty gave him a blank look, like she was trying to come up with a legit answer but was failing miserably.

“They’re over here,” someone shouted and Bobby dared to look over his shoulder and through the windows of the truck to see the men spread out, looking for them.

“We’ll take a short cut,” Kitty held out her hand and gestured her head toward the ablazed meeting hall.

“You’re not wearing yourself out,” he said as he took her hand, he had no idea how long Kitty could keep up being intangible.

“I’m good,” she assured him and once again he felt funny.

Letting her take the lead, they ran into the wall, phasing through it easily. Bobby nearly recoiled when he saw the flames which were dropping from the timbered ceiling and eating at the stage. Kitty dutifully kept hold, nearly dragging him through the hall.

Once they passed through the other end and realized no one was there, they went solid again.

“This way,” Bobby ran down the line of cars, using his fob to remote start the Ford Escape and unlock the doors. Thankfully, he found his SUV nearly untouched, only some light ash laying on it from the fire.

Hopping inside, he wasted no time in throwing it into reverse. Peeling out he made a wide turn to get free of the other vehicles. As he went to put the SUV in drive, the automatic rear-view camera showed one of the guards bringing his rifle up.

“Down,” he shouted, ducking as he grabbed Kitty by the shoulder, pushing her farther into the seat.

Glass shattered as Bobby put the gear into drive, hitting the gas and speeding forward. He swung around into the main throughway and headed straight for the gate.

“I may not have thought this through,” he said as he realized even his SUV wouldn’t be able to plough down the solid barrier he was fast approaching, let alone the fact that he was now an obvious target for the guardsmen.

“Kill the engine,” Kitty shouted as she put her hands on the dash.

“Huh?” it took him a second to realize what she was going to do, but once it clicked, he threw the Escape into neutral and used the push button igniter system to turn it off.

Kitty closed her eyes and took a breath, the whole vehicle going intangible but still rolling forward thanks to momentum and the fact they were luckily going downhill. A few shots rang through their intangible form but then quickly stopped as the guards were completely clueless as to what was going on.

Easily the Escape passed through the gate, Bobby looking one wide-eyed guard straight in the eye, even giving him a little wave as they went by. But the SUV was slowing down and hit a dip in the road.
“Bobby,” Kitty said, “get ready.”

Grabbing the wheel, which was odd since it was also intangible therefore tangible to him, he was ready as he was ever going to be. Kitty returned them to a solid state and he hit the push button ignition, though nothing happened. Going intangible had messed with its electronics, but how badly?

“Come on,” he dared not look in the review, keeping his head low, “start, you can do it baby, start for me.”

The internal lights came back on the engine roared to life.

“Oh yeah,” Bobby put the SUV in drive and hit the gas, “always buy American.”

Kitty laughed, somewhere between relieved and amazed as she was turned in her seat, watching the HLS camp disappear into the background.

…

“If you’ll follow Sergeant Nolan,” Copper told the group of four mutants as Wolverine was still out and about, somewhere, “he’ll take you to Hanger 19, you’ll get a lift back to Virginia.”

“Did your team pick up on the Brotherhood at all?” Scott asked her as she looked to be turning away to leave them with that.

“No,” she said with a little reservation, “yours?”

“No,” he admitted with a light shake of his head, “I thought they would be all over this.”

“I’d like to think we were just that good at keeping this quiet,” the Homeland Assistant Director crossed her arms, “but I’m sure it’s not as simple as that.”

“It rarely is,” commented Ororo.

…

Deep inside a secured facility, a man with a black bag slung over his shoulder walked down a hallway, stopping at a particular door. He swiped an ID badge and made his way through several doors and check points, the last door being labeled ‘Security’.

“You IT?” another man asked, standing up from his computer station in front of several monitors.

“Got a service ticket that you were having some problems?” Pyro said in his best American accent which was just a shade Midwestern due to the fact the American he spent the most time around was Rogue.

“Computer is being slow, locking up for no reason,” the man gestured to the offending article.

“Been visiting places you shouldn’t,” Pyro asked as he sat down in the chair.

“Of course not,” the security guard defending a little too quickly.

“Dude,” the Australian looked at him over the rim of the fake glasses he was wearing, black frames to compliment the dark brown dye job on his hair, “I’m gonna check your browser history.”

The other guy tried to hide a frown and worry lines.

“Why don’t you get me a coffee, milk and one sugar,” Pyro turned back to the system, “and I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything.”

“Sounds fair,” the guard said, reaching over to hit the mic, “Section 12, I have IT here, going to transfer to you guys for a few minutes.”

“Roger that,” came a reply.

“Milk, one sugar,” he reminded the guard as he tapped at a few buttons.

“Gotcha,” the guard headed out the door.

Once the guard was gone, Pyro started the anti-virus to clean up whatever was bothering the computer. This security hut was actually on the complete other side of the building but it was the only one with a legit IT ticket on it he could use to his advantage.

Thankfully, Pyro knew how to get into the other security feeds from across the building and bring up the ones that he needed to.

Slipping a Bluetooth onto his ear, he said, “It’s a go.”

…

“Even if the sky is falling down,” Jubilee was singing as she had her earbuds in, working on her homework, “I know that we’ll be safe and sound.”

A pillow hit her in the back of the head.

“Even in a hurricane of frowns,” Jubilee sang louder, “We’ll be safe and sound.”

“I’m trying to do my homework too!” Meg decried from the other side of the room, laughing.

“Saaaaaafe and soooooound…” she cracked herself up and started laughing.

“Hey,” Meg got up and went to the window, “someone’s back.”

Jubilee pulled the earbuds out and joined her. Their room was situation where when vehicles came around to park in the garage, they would get the headlights flashing through their window.

“I think that’s Bobby’s,” Jubilee was pretty sure, the lights sat higher on the Escape than the Focus, “I wonder how their super secret spy thing went.”

“If it’s super secret,” Meg frowned at her, “then how do you know about it?”

“Cause I’m awesome,” there was an unspoken ‘duh’ in there, “come on.”

The two girls headed out of the room, skipping down the stairs and nearly hitting Doug who was about to head up.

“Bobby and Kitty are back,” Jubilee told him without breaking her stride, she could hear him follow though at a more reasonable pace.

It wasn’t long before they reached the garage, barreling through the door with a laugh. Bobby and Kitty were getting out of the Escape just as the girls rounded around Jean’s Focus. Jubilee came to a halt, not believing what she was seeing.

“Are those…” she blinked, studying the side of the SUV and its missing window, “bullet holes.”

“Ah,” Bobby ran his hand over a couple of them, “yes?”

“Oh my god,” Meg gasped, pointing at Kitty, “is that blood on your shirt?”

Kitty glanced down and pulled her shirt from her chest, seeing the faint brown-ish red specks which too many episodes of Dexter told Jubilee they were from high-velocity blood spatter, like from standing near a person who was shot. The older girl looked at the garment as if she had only just noticed they were there.

“William,” Kitty said sadly.

“Who’s William?” Doug asked, having appeared behind Jubilee and Kitty.

The girl looked up and frowned, a cleared voice turning all their attention to the open door of the garage. The Professor has his wheelchair just over the threshold, “Robert, Katherine, freshen up and I would like to see you in my office.”

“Of course, Professor,” Bobby nodded, gently putting his hand on Kitty’s back and leading her forward.

“Perhaps you should go through the service entrance,” the Professor added with a frown, “so as not to upset the younger children.”

“Good idea,” Kitty turned away from Bobby and headed down the other end of the garage, Bobby following behind.

“It’ll be curfew soon,” the Professor addressed the three of them, “you should head back to your rooms.”

“Yes, Professor,” Doug took one last look at Kitty and Bobby’s retreating figures then headed towards the Professor who had backed up and was leaving, presumably to go to his office.

“What happened,” Meg asked her, staring at the bullet riddled Escape.

For once, Jubilee didn’t have an answer for her, not even a sarcastic one.

…

Two figures walked through a security station, having their badges checked and going through the metal detector. Everything checked out and they headed to the elevators. Selecting the first one that became available, riding it up to the third floor.

Upon exiting, they walked down the hall with muted purpose, as if they had done this a thousand times.

“Fifteen minutes,” the man with the dark brown hair said.

“Done in ten,” the woman with the long black hair replied.

Quicksilver and Rogue had changed their appearance so as not to be immediately noticeable with their distinctive hair colors. Rogue had even forgone her gloves, her nails dressed up with a gold tipped manicure. She kept unconsciously sticking her hands in her pockets, as if it was just natural.

Pulling a bluetooth out of her pocket, she slipped it on her ear to connect to her phone and the other man on the end of the connection.

“All clear?” she asked.

“Security is cleared out, cameras are taken care of,” Pyro replied, “the office is empty, every one who was left at the office are on break. Now or never.”

“Clear,” she told Quicksilver just as they rounded the corner to come across an empty reception desk, “Pyro, door.”

There was a pop as Pyro remotely unlocked the door and buzzed them through to the next room. Several desks lined the room, facing each other, and frosted glass doors to offices dotted the walls.

“I’ve got the offices,” Quicksilver said and then disappeared in a flash.

Rogue sat down at the first desk, sticking a USB drive from her purse into the computer and let it run the program.

…

“Milk, one sugar,” the guard had returned, putting the coffee down in front of him.

“Brilliant,” he nearly slipped out of his fake accent.

“You fixed it?” the man asked.

“You had malware, which is amazing since these are supposed to be secure,” Pyro shook his head, “I swear, one day the world governments will fall and it will all be because someone visits the wrong triple-X site.”

“You…” he cleared his throat, “aren’t going to say anything, right?”

“Are you kidding?” Pyro laughed, “this shit right here keeps me in a job.”

…

“That’s the last of them,” Rogue checked her watch, still plenty of time.

“And they’ll never know we were here,” the speedster managed a smile.

With that, the two mutants headed out the way they came, quietly exiting the offices of Homeland Security, Special Projects, Assistant Director Valerie Cooper.

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