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The two adults shared a laugh. The place they went to eat didn't have any grape juice or soda, meaning Melody hadn't had her daily 'fix' just yet. With that in mind, Harry went over to the door, looking out at a middle aged man, with brown hair peppered with gray, and wearing a butlers uniform pushing a cart. "I don't suppose you have any grapes or grape juice do you?"
The man blinked then quickly looked in the cart. "Um, yes sir, we do. Would you like anything else?"
Melody had come over to look to see if there were any snacks she could persuade Harry to get her. Harry would be easy, he could barely say no to anything she asked. But Ororo had firm views on the amount of junk food growing children should have, particularly Melody.
However when Melody caught sight of the man, she frowned trying to place the song she saw in him. "Hmmm… Dana Danaaa Danana dananana nanana…"
Harry's eyebrows cocked in question, but Ororo frowned suddenly, having heard that tune in a few movies she had seen when going to college. She looked sharply over at the man pushing the cart, looking for anything that could imply he was something other than what he appeared.
The man felt her sudden searching stare, and very carefully pulled out a badge from his jacket pocket. It had a globe on it, backed by a sword going behind it as well as an old-fashioned set of scales. "Er, I'm from Interpol sir, just want to talk and pass on a message. I would've introduced myself if you had let me in but this is as good so long we can talk inside."
Harry's eyes narrowed, angry at having this family evening disturbed by business and a little leery of the now self-professed spy. "Come in then, quickly. Know that I am watching you sir, and if you threaten me and mine they will never find your body, quite literally."
Something in those jade green eyes made the Interpol vet nod rapidly, believing the man. He pushed the cart into the box, closing the door behind him. "We'll have to be quick, or else some of the other guests may be looking for me. To be brief, Interpol has been twigged to you and some of your deeds worldwide Mr. Wizard."
"Guardian now," Harry interrupted blandly, though he still stood between the man and Melody. "I finally found myself a better handle."
"Er, yes, well anyway, we have also been informed by parties that want to remain nameless of your abilities and a few of your long term goals. Seeing as we do have a few mutants on our roster, we are behind the idea of equality by law." He emphasized their position there deliberately, wanting there to be no doubt they wouldn't support acts of terrorism. "I am also to inform you we would be… willing to look aside at times of distress that we are ill-suited or simply unable to respond to, so long as we have an observer of sorts on the team. We would also be very interested in buying some of your medicines directly from you. To further both those ends, I am to open up a dialogue between you and the Secretary General."
Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise, and some supposition. I wonder if Fury passed on what he could and if so what outcome he wanted. Or if Banshee somehow figured out a way around the spell Ororo had on her. It should have made him unable to remember what they talked about if he tried to share it with anyone else, but its still possible I suppose? Regardless, this is an interesting development. "I am willing to open up a dialogue certainly, though the idea of an observer, that might be a sticking point, which I'll talk to your bosses about in a few days. Let me give you a phone number you can call, then give my daughter her grape juice and please, get out. This is family night."
The agent smiled a little sheepishly, knowing how irritable he got if his family time was interrupted, then quickly jotted down the phone number Harry gave him. Needless to say it was one of the numbers that was routed to the cell phone Reed had given him, making it utterly untraceable by anything Interpol had access to, or even SHIELD for that matter.
With that done, the man moved off quickly, leaving Harry and Ororo to thank Melody for spotting him and the young girl sipping at her grape juice with a smile on her face. Soon however, the show began again, and the two adults put the interruption aside to enjoy the play.
All three of them enjoyed the play, though Melody and Ororo both cried when Cossette's mother died, as well as at the end, while Harry simply sat and felt. Afterwards Ororo leaned over Harry's chair and gave him a long languid kiss. "That," she murmured against his lips. "Was fantastic Harry, even with the interruptions. Thank you for taking me out to see this."
Melody hugged him as well as they stood up, voicing her own thoughts.
"I didn't honestly expect Les Miserable to be that powerful," Harry admitted. "The performance was amazing, and the story is too when you come to think about it."
After that they left still talking about the show, never noticing that a few of the actors/singers had made their way through the crowd to see who had been singing. They just missed Harry and company, as the trio ported out from there once they found a corner that didn't have any security cameras, nor were they the only ones. The AIM android also missed them, and was later recycled for its failure.
Not knowing of their close call Harry and Ororo dropped in to Hogwarts to put Melody to bed, kissing the girl good night before they left to head back down to the Château. There they found a note stating that Jean and Emma had headed out to go clubbing, leaving the two of them alone.
"This has been a fantastic and dare I say a magical, not to overuse the phrase, evening Harry. I loved every bit of it even the horrible food." So saying Ororo drew Harry into a kiss.
Harry broke off the kiss for a moment to nibble at her ear. "The night is still young you know." This won him a gurgle of approval as she began to kiss his neck. His two arms went down her back and Ororo squeaked a little as she felt herself picked up by her rear, her skirt clad legs parting quickly to wrap around his middle as Harry carried her into their bedroom.
OOOOOOO
The next day of their vacation, Emma was able to get away in the morning for her, which was late afternoon to Harry and the others. While Jean was busy teaching Harry to ski, Ororo and Emma sat. Emma would've preferred to go as well but, surprisingly, didn't enjoy actually skiing. She liked snowboarding, but this mountain didn't allow snowboarding. Tomorrow they would transfer to another resort in the morning to go skiing/snowboarding there but until then, Emma would have to simply deal with it, since they hadn't known that before purchasing the tickets. Ororo too would have preferred to go skiing, but this was more important.
At first their conversation was rather stilted, since this was the first the two of them had talked without one of the other two there. After a while however the conversation got going as they compared their childhoods. Ororo's growing up on the streets of Cairo was surprisingly like Emma's in that neither of them had anyone they could truly trust. It was a lesson both had learned early on, and it had stuck with them for quite a while. If Emma had not met Harry that time in Switzerland, she might not have learned that lesson even now, while Ororo had begun to learn it even before Professor Xavier found her on the plains of Africa.
From there the conversation moved on to other things, when they discovered their powers, their first impression of Harry, and eventually their feelings for him. It was a good conversation, and it allowed the two of them to come closer, which ended when the two skiers came back that evening.
Ororo stood up and moved to open the door for them thinking hard about what she wanted to happen here. She still wasn't certain if Emma really loved Harry, or simply was infatuated with him, but that distinction could only be seen by letting Emma spend time with him. Ororo had seen that they could work together well enough in a social function, and that Harry needed Emma's expertise in the business area.
He now had a good grasp of some of the details of business, but Harry wasn't quite as cold-hearted as you needed to be to make some of the decisions a businessman sometimes needed to. While Harry did not suffer fools lightly, he would make more allowances in that direction then Emma would, and he also needed her to offset his excesses when dealing with governments. The distrust Harry had for governments was a holdover, and a understandable one, from his time in his previous dimension, but Ororo could see it making trouble in the future.
Ororo was also very perceptive. Emma was definitely concerned about the fact that she was coming into this much relationship later then Jean and Ororo. She was not a woman who would be second in any way to someone else and Ororo could tell that this was worrying her little. Still, her emotions towards Harry were strong, and could grow deeper over time.
The weather goddess took a moment to look at all of them as Emma helped Jean out of her ski gear laughingly commenting on something or other that Ororo couldn't make out from her place by the wall. Harry sat down on the bench that was part of the foyer of this suite for this very purpose smiling at her faintly, his voice dry. "They're getting along well."
"That was never the question my love," Ororo replied sitting down on the floor and helping his boots off looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes. "The question was, would Emma fit with all three of us."
"That was the question, and have the two of you determined the answer?"
"Say rather, that we working towards the answer. I don't suppose you have anything in your bag of date ideas that all four of us would enjoy? I think we all four need to spend time together, a few weeks of foursome dates perhaps, so that Emma can realize that we're all equals in this relationship. She is worried about that I think."
Harry's hands reached down and stilled Ororo's where she was unbuckling his second boot. He had surprisingly felt the burn of his legs a little today, in odd and unusual places, but it wasn't as if he really needed the help, it was more simply that Ororo wanted to than anything else. "And what do you think of this? Answer as if you didn't know I am attracted to her, or that Jean is. Do you think that's she can work in this relationship, and do you want her to join us?"
Ororo gently kissed the palm of his hand, leaning against his knee for a moment then sat up, moving to sit beside him and nuzzling to his neck, while deeper in the suite Jean yelped about something and Emma's rich laughter reached them. "I respect her Harry, I can see myself attracted to her a little, but I'm not in love with her, not yet. But I don't really have to be in love with her, to allow her into this group relationship of ours. So long as eventually she and I come to care for one another, that is enough. You can't use me to get out of this."
Harry looked at her in a little shock and she laughed. "You mentioned it yourself Harry, you're concerned about how well you will be able to perform as a boyfriend if another girl is added to the relationship." Well the word husband worked better in Ororo's case, and she knew it would soon for Jean's too, whatever their legal status. "Given our hectic lives, we have all done amazingly well in keeping this relationship going without letting it dominate our lives, and I've seen how you look at her at times."
Some of those looks were oddly sad, not wistful, just sad, something Ororo couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't pity or regret, but simple sadness, or possibly the prediction of grief to come? She couldn't decide.
At this point however, Ororo decided to change the direction of the conversation a little. She smiled a little sexily at Harry which caused the blood to start to pump faster through his veins. "On top of that you seem to have more than enough left in the tank physically, as it were."
"Trust me Harry," she murmured leaning in to kiss him gently on the lips before pulling back just enough so that she was speaking almost lip to lip as she looked into his eyes. "So long as we don't rush things, I think Emma will do very well with us, and will fit as well."
She pulled back as Harry moved forward laughing a little. "Now, do you have anything in your bag of tricks that all four of us could enjoy?"
Harry grinned at her and looked over through the foyer into the main suite. "Hey you two, would you like to go for a drive?"
Not twenty minutes later Emma and Harry stood in her mansion's garage, and Emma looked on with barely hidden trepidation as Harry shrunk her car. This was something she would never get used to, magic like that was just too phenomenal for her to really get her mind around. "Are you sure you'll be able to enlarge it again without harming it?"
"Positive," Harry replied patting his pocket. "I already did it to my car after all, and trust me I wouldn't hurt my baby for love or money."
"I suppose," Emma murmured still looking a little worried, but she willingly linked her arm with his before the two once more teleported out of her mansion straight back to the suite where Jean and Ororo were waiting for them.
Harry led the way out to the suite's patio, where he laid out the flying carpet. All four of them got on, facing one another in a circle while Harry activated the carpet, which floated into the air and away, zooming as fast as a fighter jet after it's magics covered them.
"So where exactly are we going?" Emma asked smirking at Jean as she lightly ran one finger up the redhead's side, causing the redhead to shiver and smack her hand away. Jean glared at her, but caught her hand the second time she tried to do it bringing her finger up to lick at it while waggling her eyebrows over to where Harry was watching them causing him to groan aloud.
All three of the girls laughed at that but Harry shook his head and turned to concentrate on controlling the carpet for the moment. "Well, I figure we could drive down to Germany to this place I've heard about called the Nurburgring."
Emma's eyes widened in shocked happiness, showing an openness that would have shocked anyone other than the people who currently surrounded her. "I've always wanted to drive that circuit!"
"What is this Nurburgring you are talking about?" Ororo asked and Jean nodded, seconding the question.
"It's a famous racetrack, where you can pay for a days' drive. It's used to test new cars as they come out, and it's one of the best driving experiences in the world apparently. As I said, I've always wanted to go there, but my father already knew about my predilection towards speed."
"There are worse things to get addicted to." Harry replied from the front smirking a little at the ladies behind him. "Speaking of which, have you decided on the car you wanted to buy?"
Ororo didn't particularly want her own car. While she enjoyed driving around, she didn't actually enjoy driving herself so much. She much preferred flying, and felt the flying carpet was the best magical item Harry had created thus far. Jean on the other hand, had been thinking about one for a while.
"I'm going to wait a while, after all we just cashed those checks from Friday this morning, but yes, eventually I'm going to want to buy my own car, and it will definitely be something racy. But it's a tough decision, like I said. I've looked closer at the Mclaren, and though this might sound strange coming from an engineer, but it's a little too mechanical. But there's another car, the Bugatti Veyron, that is supposed to be even faster in a straight line than yours Harry."
Emma whistled at her top choices but Harry looked at her reaching across and playing with her hair for a moment as it blew in the wind. "I would think that you'd want to find a car you can work on. The Veyron, from what I've heard about it, isn't something you're going to want to tinker with, and I know you'd want to tinker with your car. I had the thought that maybe a high end kit car or something would work better."
"True," Jean replied leaning into his touch for a moment. She was very much looking forward to their one-on-one date tomorrow, very eagerly indeed.
The rest of the time was spent with Emma and Ororo asking questions about the cars, which Jean and Harry fielded them, as well as Harry suggesting some changes he could make to any car Jean chose. After hearing about what Harry could do Emma insisted he put the same enhancement on her fuel tank that he had done to his car, as well as a few other tricks that Harry had added to it. Harry promised to do so, by which time they were over Germany and heading down towards their destination. They were a ways away from the destination anyway, a narrow strip of road which didn't have anyone on it at present.
Moments later, Emma's face broke into a wide, eager smile as she watched her car expand once more under Harry's touch. "So who's driving with who?"
Ororo and Jean exchanged a glance, then Jean smiled and gestured towards Harry. "I'll drive with Harry I think, I actually haven't been in his car when he can go all out after all, should be an experience."
The African woman nodded and moved over to Emma to join her in her car. "We'll switch off after a few laps I suppose, other than that, this is all for you racers, go all out."
"Hah! Don't have to tell me twice!" Emma's smile widened still further as they got in their cars and completed the trip to the Nurburgring. Not fifteen minutes later they were on the grid, having just paid the token amount they had to for a days' drive.
The moment they were allowed out onto the track, Emma floored it. There was just something about going fast like this that appealed to her. Possibly it was the very well hidden adrenaline junkie in her, or perhaps this equated to the feeling of getting the better of an opponent in a business deal or something. Whatever it was she loved to go fast, something she had never been able to do often enough for various reasons.
The group raced on throughout the rest of the late afternoon, occasionally switching side passengers, their conversations dominated by talk about the course. Jean learned that she did indeed enjoy going fast, both as passenger and as driver. She and Ororo actually took turns driving their friend's cars, and Jean decided that Harry she much preferred the interior of his car to Emma's Ferrari 458. Jean simply liked the 'pageantry' of the inside, how everything was setup as if someone from the early 70s had pictured a spaceship and decided to create a car with that theme. The 458 was an amazing technological marvel, and certainly one of the two best cars she'd ever been in, but it didn't have enough character for her.
As the sun went down the four of them went to a nearby restaurant that Emma recommended, a very high-class, glitzy place, prompting Harry, and surprisingly Jean to transfigure their clothing to match, while Ororo had Cory pop her back to Hogwarts to change. The conversation that evening was varied and fun, with Harry having all three girls in stitches about how the bank manager had reacted to his three checks. All in all, it was a very satisfying evening for all four of them, even if Emma only was able the kiss Harry very briefly on the lips before having to transfer back to her mansion for the night.
OOOOOOO
At the same time that Harry and his ladies were having some down time life continued in the castle. Ms. Brown led the children of all ages in their classes, helped at times by Father Garnoff with the older two teens, though he usually spent most of his time interacting with the Big Book of Students. By some means the castle's magic seemed to understand what he was trying to do, and it had somehow altered the spell matrix on the book to allow him to interact and guide it in some fashion, allowing him to find out more information about a few of the students, those within a set range at least. His telepathy was too limited, too weak, to allow him the range Charles or Jean could do with Cerebro.
Shiang-Chi continued to put Nikolai and Piotr through their paces, with Laynia joining them occasionally simply for the exercise along with Kitty taking a break from her work on the runic arrays Harry had set her to. Kitty didn't really need the exercise, but she did like to watch the three young men go about their exercises getting all sweaty. She hadn't seen Lance for a few days, and part of her felt they were moving toward a breakup, whatever they really wanted, simply because their schedules were incompatible.
Of course Nikolai and Piotr also stretched their minds with access to the Internet and some classes Ororo had set up for them. They also did some combat exercises that Harry had set up on the castle's computer network. Nikolai found that Piotr was actually hiding a pretty darn decent mind behind that farm boy exterior of his. He was also a highly moral individual, something Nikolai found out during their talks and which he respected. Indeed, the two Russian natives were fast becoming real friends.
At Ms. Brown's behest Melody joined her classes along with Illyana, getting along quite well with all the children after they got over her odd mutant power. The older two boys had the most trouble with this, simply because the songs Melody professed to see in them weren't exactly pleasing to them. They were after all growing teenagers, and teenage boys and girls routinely did not exactly have organized minds or very deep thoughts. None of them however were about to make fun of Melody for her looks or power, having gone through much worse than that themselves in the past. Ms. Brown quickly found the same thing that Ororo had found in terms of Melody's learning abilities, but thanks to the fact that the class was so small in comparison to what she was normally used to she was able to give all the children, even the teenagers, some one-on-one time.
The two Rasputin grandparents had taken over the position of 'den mother' from her, watching out for the children when they weren't in class, being there for advice, and generally becoming grandparent figures to all and sundry, not just Illyana. Piotr of course had long grown out of the need for such attention, and they were extremely proud of the role he was making himself here.
Dennis and Dr. Druid continued their work, with Dr. Druid finally creating his first few accurately brewed potions. With that under his belt, Harry would put Druid in charge of overseeing the house-elves who would be doing the actual work creating the potions for a time until they got used to it. Then once one of the house-elves stepped up to take over that job like Dilly or Gordon, Druid would switch over to full time pediatric duties for the students. He was already doing that in a way, simply being there to talk to the boys Jesse and James. Sergei and he had also developed a close bond for some reason. Despite Sergei's inability to actually read them he was quite good at crossword puzzles.
Sir Dennis continued to compile his list of agents and informers who were willing to work for him. Thanks to Friday's work, he was also able to guarantee that they would paid. Of course he wasn't the only one doing this. The PR director was doing the same exact thing, and Ms. Brown was going over the list of teachers that Ororo had previously vetted at her behest. Once the leading trio came back more teachers would be brought in and vetted by Kitty's finished lie detecting arrays then asked to move in and start to work.
This was based about the fact the BBoS with father Garnoff's aid was amassing a list of names. Most of these names were not thankfully in danger, though a few of them were going from green to orange slowly. These names were switched to the top of his list, and he and Harry would discuss moving on them when the trio got back. Of course if any name went to red they would have to respond immediately.
However, while Harry had passed on that in such cases they should get in contact with him, the adults had all decided to let him and the girls have some time alone. Unless it was a true emergency none of them will willing to bother them, not after seeing how hard the trio had been working for weeks now.
On Monday morning however that question changed from an academic one to a real-life event. Father Garnoff came back from breakfast to look at the Big Book of Students as it continued to compile names. He then frowned deeply, gulping down the last bite of toast as one name that had been denoted by bright pulsing green suddenly changed to orange then red and orange again. After a moments chewing, he looked around and said calmly. "Could I ask for a house-elf please?"
Dilly, the elderly house-elf that ran Hogwarts, popped in to existence next to him. "Yes?" He said brusquely. Unlike the youngsters who had gotten used to taking orders from people who were not their master, or even magical at all, the oldsters still didn't really approve of anyone but the master the mistress or the two young mistresses giving them orders. Still it was his job, and he had been in the area in any case.
"Could I ask you to bring Piotr, Nikolai, young Kitty, Dr. Druid, Dennis and Shiang-Chi up here please? I think we need to have a little talk." The others arrived quickly, and he waved his hand at the book. "There is a name that was bright green that has changed colors to orange and red and then back again. Now it is pulsing between the two of them, I am not certain what that means but it cannot be good."
The others crowded down at the book and read the name 'Guthrie, Paige, Cumberland County, Kentucky' and a series of coordinates. Kitty frowned a little. "It's in America, I wonder if the professor has heard of her. Cerebro isn't quite online yet, the plans and designs are done from what I understand, but it has to be installed so I don't know."
Nikolai frowned. "I really don't want to bother Harry and the others, I realize we should, but we're all adults here, I think we can handle this ourselves. What do you think Piotr?"
That was the thing that Nikolai remembered later on. When he asked that question, everyone looked at Piotr. Even the father and Dr. Druid looked ready to follow Piotr's suggestions.
The former farm boy frowned rubbing his granite-like chin. "If it was another country, I am afraid we would probably have to call in Harry if only because he would be able to get us there. The house-elves cannot get us anywhere where they have not already been, and this might be too public an area in any case. So we would be forced to take High Note first over it and then go from there down, which only Harry, Jean or Storm can do." The three of them could have floated the team down.
"However," he continued tapping his finger on the name thoughtfully. "Because it is in America that gives us a another option. Don't the X-Men have a plane?"
"A supersonic one, now." Kitty answered promptly. She had spent the night at the castle last night, putting in a full days work the day before and not having any real reason to be back at the mansion until the afternoon local time.
"We went out and picked it up just two days ago to replace the old x-jet. Should've seen Scott's face when he saw it, he looked like a man falling in love." That jet was in fact a sign that the powers that be which were backing Charles' dream had decided to up their ante so to speak. When he heard of it Harry would be of two minds on the new plane, but at this point there was no downside to the generous contribution. "And unlike Cerebro, it's in perfect working condition. Should I call ahead?"
"Do so, ask the professor if he knows the name, tell him what's going on and that we're on our way over." Piotr and Charles hadn't met yet, but what Piotr had heard about the man gave him a good impression at least. He looked over at Nikolai and Shiang-Chi. "While you do that, the rest of us need to get ready to go. Will you be joining us giáo sư?"
Shiang-Chi thought for a moment then nodded reluctantly. "I would not normally be willing to go out into the field, but since we are so understaffed here, especially in terms of experience, I cannot in good conscience let you two go alone."
That made both younger men smile in thanks and Piotr went on. "Sir Dennis, could you get the com units and meet us in the dining hall please?"
After that they all went about their business quickly, not even wondering why, rather than Nikolai who had been trained to be a leader, that Piotr had taken the forefront. In actuality, this was because of two things. One, Piotr had impressed them all with his down to earth nature and grasp of common sense. This coupled with his empathy and understanding had won the respect of everyone there in short order.
Nikolai in contrast didn't really grab peoples attentions unless he was really trying outside of combat situations. He was a decent field commander, or even a logistical officer, but he wasn't really willing to put himself forward outside his comfort zone so to speak.
While the two young men were getting ready, Kitty quickly pulled out her cell phone and called the mansion, thankful that they could now get better signal in the castle than what Ororo had reported a few months ago. On the third ring Charles responded, sounding a little jittery rather than sleepy, as he should have been considering it was only three thirty in the morning in New York.
He actually sounded as if he was in pain for some reason when he spoke. "Kitty, is there something wrong?"
"We think so professor, you know that big book of students thing that Teach made? Well, one of its names is sort of pulsing orange and red, which means the person is in trouble. Do you know a Paige Guthrie?"
"Paige?" Charles's voice was still sounding as if he was in pain but was much more alert. "No, I do not. I know a Sam Guthrie however, and I believe he has a younger sister named Paige. Why, are you saying that she is now a mutant?"
Kitty recited from the memory of what she had seen on the book as well as the notes that father Alexi had prepared. "She activated her powers on Friday professor but until just now her name was green which means she wasn't in danger. A few of the people Teach has gathered are getting ready to go over to the mansion, are you and the others willing to help?"
"Very willing, though we also have had a bit of a crisis ourselves. I'll tell you more when you arrive."
Kitty nodded and raced off. Soon enough they were all there, with Piotr, Nikolai and Kitty surprisingly having changed into their uniforms. "The professor said he knows a Sam Guthrie," she reported quickly. "But didn't know his sister was also a mutant. And there might be something else going on, he was already awake and said something about their own crisis."
Nikolai and Piotr looked at one another shrugged and nodded. "Let's get a move on." Piotr said. Cory and Clare appeared in front of them, both of them ready to transport the four of them to the mansion. The two glared at each other, but Cory eventually backed off. Like Nessy to Ororo and Cory to Harry, Clare had sort of become Kitty's go-to house-elf, and since Harry wasn't here and taking part she took precedent.
Clare nodded self-importantly, then grasped her mistress' hand and moved over to the others thankful that the big one hadn't tried to transform into his metal form. Weight impacted the distance she could pop a lot, and despite her own ego, Cory was simply better at popping than she was.
Still from Scotland's to New York was within her range even with four people. From one second to the next the five of them appeared in the entryway of the mansion, finding the X-Men moving down the stairs towards them, all of them already dressed in their uniforms. Rogue even had her armor on, the red of the metal contrasting sharply to the yellow and green of her uniform.
"Kitty could you introduce your friends?" asked Charles looking at the trio of young men.
Kitty nodded and quickly introduced the trio. "This is Nikolai codenamed Vanguard, Piotr codenamed Colossus, and Shiang-Chi, no codename. He is not actually a field agent really, he's their trainer, but since Harry and the others aren't along he decided to come with them."
Scott nodded cordially, then said briskly. "Pleases to meet you, but we've got a problem. Professor?"
At that nudge the professor simply nodded. "I was woken up this evening by a psychic scream of pain and fear. It is originating somewhere in the China Sea, I have the longitude and latitude coordinates. A telepath is in great and painful agony, one that has crossed a surprising distance, a young one by the feel of the mind that made that scream, and female. While I've tried to give what aid I could mentally, I cannot get through her fear to truly help her, not from here, not without Cerebro. I cannot in good conscience leave her alone. That means that I need to use the new jet to get to her."
Kitty cursed. This proved beyond doubt that the book of students didn't pick up on mutant powers that had already activated. That meant they were missing a lot of older students, along with those mutants whose physical forms were always mutated, maybe even younger mutants whose powers had activated before Harry had finished his work on the book. That was bad.
Scott looked at Nikolai and Piotr. "How good are you two really?"
Most young men would've taken umbrage at that question, but these two simply took it in stride. "I was trained as a Soviet super-soldier Cyclops." Vanguard replied using the team leader's codename now, slipping into his combat mentality. "And Colossus is extremely durable in his other form. We have both been training with Shiang-chi, who is also extremely competent in the martial arts and with any hand to hand weapon."
Scott nodded then looked over his own team, frowning for a moment then nodded. "Nightcrawler, you'll go with the professor. Professor, you can drop us off in Kentucky and then head on to China, the new jet should make that distance easy and there's no time to waste. Let's get going."
The others all nodded, understanding his decision. Kurt was a teleporter after all, and could get the professor from the aircraft to the ship where this telepath was in pain if necessary. On top of that as a solo operative he was very dangerous, especially in close with a possible hostage situation in comparison to Scott or Evan.
They all raced through the mansion and into the hangar Bay in the basement. Nikolai and Piotr stopped and stared for a moment at the jet whistling in approval. It was sleek, it was black, it was dangerous looking, and they shared a grin of sheer boyish enthusiasm for a moment before coming back to the here and now.
Moments later the hangar bay doors opened. With Professor Xavier blanketing the minds of everyone within a two-mile radius who could see them take off, the jet streaked into the sky. A moment later its holographic based technology kicked in, rendering it invisible to both sight and radar.
Or at least so professor Xavier thought. There were in fact several radar systems in the U.S. that could detect it, but that technology was not widespread just yet and at the moment it did not belong to anyone who cared one way or the other about the X-Men taking off. Except the brief hope by SHIELD director Fury, once he was told about it, that it didn't involve any more damn paperwork for him. This hope would be in vain.
The speed of the jet was phenomenal in the air, and not twenty minutes later it was slowing down, banking down toward the ground to land near a very small town in Kentucky. Looking out the window as they slowed down and began to descend Piotr smiled faintly. "Definitely not farm country."
"Coal country," Charles responded crisply. His mind was still reverberating with the screams of the telepath in the China Sea, despite his best attempts to calm her down. Whatever was happening to her, and Charles had a very grim idea of what it was, was ongoing. "Sam Guthrie and his family are a family of coal miners. Their father died two years ago in a mining accident. Be aware the Guthrie's are a well-respected part of the community here, you might have trouble with the locals if it looks as if you're trying to take his younger sister away even if it is for her own good."
"Cyclops, Sam was going to be among the teens coming in later this summer. His powers are based around flight; he creates an explosion behind his body propelling himself forward, along with creating a force field that is extremely powerful to defend his body from impact. As far as I know Sam still lives with his family who all know of his mutation. The rest of the community hadn't formed an opinion one way or another about mutants the last time I was here, but I do not know if that has changed."
"Understood professor." Scott replied moving towards the back of the jet in preparation to exit. He was tempted to ask the telepath to do a sweep for aggressive minds in the area, but judging by the grimace on Charles' face he was still dealing with the pain broadcast by the telepath, and that wasn't a good sign. "Nightcrawler, take care the professor, everyone else, let's go."
Piotr smiled and he and Nikolai exchanged a glance nodding approvingly. Scott had come up in conversation with Jean and Harry had as well as Ororo at one point. They'd been blunt about their opinion of him, as well as the problems he'd had earlier after Harry had arrived, but he had overcome them to become a decent team leader. This certainly was the case right now, and the three newcomers joined with the X-Men quickly, with Colossus changing into his metal form the moment he exited the jet, eliciting a bark of surprise from Evan and Rogue.
Kitty was surprisingly with them. While she wasn't willing to engage in combat any longer, she was willing to be a scout for this kind of mission. This she did so at a nod from Scott, changing into her immaterial form and racing off through the woods, covered still further by a runic array that imitated the Disillusion spell.
The jet had touched down about a quarter mile from the outskirts of the town which was spread out through the woods. It wasn't what any city-dweller would call a town, it had only a few shops, a general store a pharmacies and things like that as well as one large bar set along a single paved road and about 30 or so houses spread through the woods. There was also a single story hotel, more of a motel really, where a vast majority of the singles in the town stayed year-round.
Cyclops and the rest of the team followed Shadowcat as they made their way through the woods. It was around three in the morning here, since Kentucky this had begun in around nine in the morning in Scotland. This, along with everyone's wearing night vision goggles, aided them greatly moving through the woods undetected by the locals, and hopefully the people who are here to threaten or kill Paige, whoever the hell they were. Scott was worrying at that very problem as they moved on, wondering if it was an anti-mutant hate group like the Friends of Humanity, a Brotherhood of Mutants chapter, or someone else altogether.
Soon Shadowcat raced back towards the group, stopping right in front of Cyclops. "Whatever it is going to happen hasn't happened yet." she reported quickly. "I think we might've beaten whoever is coming here. The address the professor gave me, nothing's happening there, they're all in bed I think I wasn't able to hear any noises as I moved through the house."
Scott frowned thoughtfully, wondering how to play this. "All right, here's the plan.…"
OOOOOOO
Sam Guthrie was a 17-year-old young man with a wiry yet powerful build and short cropped blond hair. Around here the jump from boy to man came quickly. Sam had been the man of the house since his father died, which had forced him into the coal mines for a year until his mutant powers activated during a mine collapse, saving his life and that of a friend trapped with him. A few days after that professor Xavier had shown up, and with the checks he sent Sam no longer had to work mines for which he was very thankful for.
He shared a room with his next oldest sister, Paige. This wasn't exactly abnormal around here, but it had elicited a few embarrassing moments over the years. Paige's bed was directly across from his, the difference between her area of the room and his very visible during the daytime muted now.
Sam would be asleep right now too, except something had woken him up. That something was a hand over his mouth. As he began to jolt upright, a female voice whispered into his ear. "Quiet. I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth for a moment, and wake up your sister. We're not here to hurt either of you, but someone else might be coming soon to do that very thing. We're not sure, our method of knowing where mutants are isn't exactly that accurate. I'm Shadowcat, I work with Professor X?"
That name made Sam calm down, though what he could've done stuck in his bed was a mystery. He needed a second to activate his flight power, and with a hand over his mouth already it was clear that this shadow woman had gotten the drop on him.
The hand receded, and he sat up in bed realizing that the woman wasn't alone. Two other figures loomed in the dark of the room, one a full head taller than the other. That one nodded at him and said in heavily accented English "apologies for interrupting evening, issue not waiting."
Sam grunted irritably, but the shock of having been woken up like that had jumpstarted his brain allowing him to operate.
Across the way Paige was woken up in the same manner, though she tried to fight it at first gasping in shock as her hand passed right through the suddenly immaterial girl standing by her head. Paige was a year younger than Sam, and at 16 was growing out nicely, something Sam was unhappily aware of since he'd had to deal with a few other young men who had noticed the same thing.
He most definitely did not want his sister to go the same way as too many girls around here did knocked up before twenty. With her blonde hair, long legs that went on forever, a decent sized chest already, and cute girl next-door face with freckles to match, as well as a vivacious attitude Paige would have been a little heartbreaker if Sam had allowed it. Even so she had a string of admirers, though none of them were brave enough to bear Sam's irritation.
She sat up now looking around in confused worry and anger. "What the hell's going on?"
"Paige Guthrie?" the woman asked. "I just want to make sure." The girl nodded irritably and Shadowcat went on. "This is Cyclops and Colossus, we're sort of the good guys." Two different camps of good guys, she thought to herself, but still on the same side. "Anyway, we have this… device that allows us to see when new mutants activate their powers, and it read you activating yours last Friday, Paige. Up until a few hours ago though that was fine, because your name was in green, that means you were safe, in no danger. But that changed a few hours ago, so we're here to, well, protect you if we can."
Cyclops spoke up at that point. "We were aware that you were a mutant Sam. I understand that you had already accepted Professor X's invitation? I'm Cyclops, team leader. When you arrive at the Institute you'll be working with me and the others on the team in order to learn how to control and use your powers, regardless of whether or not you choose to go out on missions with us.
He held out his hand, and after a moment's hesitation Sam reached out to grasp it surprised with the firmness of that grip and the even stare coming from the man even in the darkness of the room. "You mind if'n I turn on the lights?" Sam asked.
"Will the blinds scream it from the outside?" Cyclops asked seriously.
After a moment Sam shook his head. He looked over at his sister. You never said anythin' 'bout havin' powers. Are they right?"
Paige blushed, invisible in the darkness thankfully, and made to stand up only to trip a little. She was caught by a metal hand around her waist pulling her up right and she stared up and up some more at the large man who had helped her. "First hard step, yes?" The man tried in very heavily accented and garbled English.
The younger Guthrie grinned and moved to stand by herself, looking around at her brother and the others. "Yeah Ah've got a mutant power, it's a weird ass one, but yeah." She looked embarrassed. "Ah have to strip off my skin, literally. It peels away like wrapping I suppose, and underneath I can form a new skin into metal, once I did it with rock, another time wood."
Her brother nodded at that confirmation and looked at Cyclops. "So what's the game plan here, sir?"
"We're hampered there by not knowing who were dealing with." Cyclops shrugged. "The method we used to know if the mutant is danger isn't very accurate in telling us what that danger is." Cyclops didn't think they needed to hear right now about the division between Professor and Harry. The fact of the matter was if push came to shove he and most of the X-Men would follow Harry though. They followed the dream of the professor, but they wanted to take a more proactive stance themselves. Hopefully that would change once Cerebro was working again.
"We think it might be a group called the Brotherhood of Mutants, they're sort of a recruitment branch for a terrorist organization run by a man named Magneto who wants mutants to dominate the world. That's just a guess, it could be a group like the Friends of Humanity, or it could be someone else we don't know. We've got other team members outside on watch. The problem is, we don't know that the danger will pass for your family if you're not here. Do you think…"
He stopped talking as the earbud he was wearing under his mask suddenly came alive. "Cyclops, this is Rogue, there's three people at least moving towards the house, possibly two more behind 'em. No idea where they came from, one moment everythin' was clear, the next they were walking through the woods towards us. They don't look to be threatenin' just yet, and they're dressed normally. At least the three that are moving towards the house. The other two are moving through the woods, don't know where they're going."
Cyclops frowned for a moment. "Shadowcat, do you have any runes in your bag of tricks that can make me and Colossus invisible for a time?"
Both the Guthrie's looked confused at the mention of runes but Shadowcat simply reached into a pouch and jingled the stones there. "Yep," she chirped. "And for some reason, they're lasting longer these days, kind of fun. Might be because I'm spending so much time at Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Paige asked incredulously. "Someone named a place Hogwarts?"
"Don't ask." Shadowcat laughed bumping shoulders with the other girl. "Trust me, the owner, Guardian's, naming sense is really horrible, and it sort of endemic of his people I suppose you could say. If you think Hogwarts is bad, some of the names for their families were worse. Lovegood, Longbottom, Weasley, there were a few others like that."
"Those sound more like those girls from the old Vietnamese movies…" Paige said shaking her head. "The ones who'd bang American soldiers for a pack of cigarettes."
"Can we get back to the point?" Cyclops muttered rubbing his visor irritably. It just wasn't the same though and he stopped after a second. "Make us invisible, you two act as if you've just woken up, if they're going to go for the soft sell. Sam, Paige, I hope you two can act, this is going to rely on you, answer the door if/when they knock act like they woke you up and lets see what they have to say. Once you make us invisible Shadowcat, keep an eye on the parents."
"Parent." Sam interrupted. "My mom and my two younger siblings here. Are they mutants too?"
"Maybe." Shadowcat shrugged. "We can only detect a mutant once their powers activate. Before that, well do you know anything about DNA? Neither Guthrie responded with an affirmative and she shrugged. "Let's just say it's really fracking complicated."
Sam frowned for a moment. "You really think my mom and my siblings are in trouble?"
"Hostages for your good conduct wouldn't exactly be a new idea would it?" Cyclops muttered as he led the way towards the bedroom door. Paige stayed behind to quickly get dressed from her rather childish sleepwear, coming out moments later with really short cropped pair of daisy dukes, and a tight T-shirt. This was visible by the light of the moonlight streaming through from several Windows set into the sitting area that was the main room of the house. When he caught sight of it, Sam groaned while Colossus coughed uncomfortably looking away
In contrast Cyclops ignored it, concentrating on the task at hand. "Colossus, you take position in the doorway here, I'll be by the doorway to the kitchen." He looked over at Shadowcat as they began to hear the sound of footsteps on the gravel path leading up to the house. "Just to be clear, once were invisible light won't give us a way will it, like a shadow or something?"
"Nope no shadow, not certain how that works honestly, but you'll be invisible." With that said, Shadowcat quickly moved over to both young man in turn, placing a small rune inscribed stone into their hands and muttering activate as her fingers brushed the still expanding stone.
The spell activated, and the two began to disappear from their hands backwards throughout their bodies, an interesting experience for Cyclops who hadn't felt this before. Colossus had and took it more in stride. Paige and Sam on the other hand simply stared in shock wondering how the hell that had happened.
Kitty backed away her intangibility activating as she moved through the wall towards the other two bedrooms. She waited in the wall between the rooms for whatever would happen.
Seconds later there was a knock on the door, and a woman's voice muttering a complaint about how the hell can someone be so poor as to not have a doorbell. The knocking grew progressively louder, until finally Sam, waving Paige back into their room, moved forward to answer it.
"What the hell…" he growled, doing a pretty good job of acting like someone just woken up out of the blue. He looked up at the sky, which was still black, without even a hint of the dawn that was two hours away still. "I don't care what the heck you want, come back at a normal hour."
In the doorway stood a young Mexican man, or so Sam thought. Since everyone in town was white and he very rarely saw even a black man he didn't really know anything much about Mexicans, them bein' foreigners and all. Two other people stood with him, both girls. One was tall and lithe looking, sort of like a gymnast in build while the other one was somewhat shorter and more normal looking, with wavy blond hair down to her shoulders and a smile on her face, a sort of wicked look from what Sam could see from the moonlight. The others face was blank, and she seemed to be looking around constantly, though her eyes were bright yellow, gleaming like a cat's in the dark.
The boy who had been knocking was evidently the spokesperson since he said quietly. "Sam Guthrie, we've a bit of a job opportunity for you and your sister. Could we talk to the two of you please, now?"
If Emma had been there, she would've recognized the young man as Empath, the young idiot who had tried to get into her mind during Shaw's attempt at intimidation. However she wasn't there, and she had forgotten to mention his looks to Harry and the others when talking about how Shaw tried to bully her into her mansion. If she had, maybe Cyclops and Colossus could have done something immediately, knowing how dangerous he was.
But now his powers were already working at Sam's mind, or at least, already filling him with artificial feelings of interest, working against his distrust in order to get the younger man to welcome them in. This Sam did so now.
The TV room was dominated by a single sofa and two chairs, with a small TV set between them making a rough triangle shape in the middle. The trio of newcomers, which Cyclops could barely see were wearing suits of dark purple in the faint moonlight, took the sofa. Sam, after retrieving Paige, who was still dressed in a manner to set his brotherly instincts on edge, took the two chairs.
The Mexican boy let his eyes rove up and down Paige's body in the dark, smiling as he now split his mental assault between the two, adding his own little fillip to the suggestions he was implanting in Paige's mind. She was a cute little thing after all, and once these two joined them, well, she would have to have someone around to show her the ropes, right?
For now however, he kept his mind on the task at hand, easily splitting his attention between using his powers and speaking to the two Kentucky natives. "Ahem, I'm Empath, this is Catseye and Roulette. We represent a group of very well off Homo-superiors who have watched the growing issues between normal and Homo-Superiors with some trepidation. We wish to bring all home superiors together to work towards bettering our position."
Paige frowned, the assault on her washing away her paranoia and eating away at her ability to think straight. But Sam was made of slightly sterner stuff, and had been an A student at the local high school before he had to quit to start work in the coal mines. "That sounds nice'n all sah, but you gonna have to be more specific in what you mean. And if this is all above board, why the hell 'ave you come to our door at this ungodly hour?"
"Because there are others who wish to use their powers to prop up the status quo, and still more that will strike out at any Homo-Superior they can. We wanted to reach you before they could realize your sister had awakened her powers. You've been on our radar for a few months Sam, but you've also been circumspect in using your power." Empath replied glibly, then smiled charmingly (or so he thought) over at Paige. "Your lovely sister however hasn't been so much, and has been seen a few times in her alternate form, though no one seems to have put two and two together yet around here."
Actually, the system that Shaw used to find mutants was nowhere near as accurate as even the old Cerebro, but his computers ability to search out odd news reports and other wired and unusual sightings was somewhat better. Shaw, or rather the two people he had placed in charge of finding and recruiting new members to his Hellions, had found Paige, and upon further review found Sam. Two for one was just too good to pass up, even if they might run into someone who had been able to cover up most signs of Sam's power.
"As to how we mean to achieve our goals," Empath went on, his voice smooth, calm, working together with his powers to erode his targets' minds. "We mean to take action against any threat to ourselves before it can get to us. We mean to… influence lawmakers into not passing anti-'mutant' laws, and to control enough of the economy to make us indispensable to normals. Eventually, we will take our place in the world precisely where we should, on the top."
Sam at least would have realized this was an elitist agenda and that Empath was talking about at best open conflict at worst war, but he wasn't in his right mind. Empath had gotten even better at using his power since his humiliation at Emma's hands, so the changes to Sam and Paige's minds were already well on their way.
However Cyclops wasn't under his influence. Empath's power wasn't real telepathy, not nearly as applicable as that power, he had to see his target for it to work, nor could he use it to find minds as Emma or other telepaths could.
Cyclops had been in a combat frame of mind before Empath even knocked, and now, despite not knowing what was going on, Scott could see something was up. Sam had struck him as intelligent at least, and not the sort to jump at a new opportunity after having already signed on with the professor. With that in mind, and having caught the look Empath sent Paige, something Sam should've taken umbrage at, he decided to act.
He stepped forward, his eye beams already shooting out to slam into Empath's chest on his lowest setting, knocking him unconscious. "That's about enough of that! You two, put your hands…"
The two women however had combat training too and despite their surprise they had already ducked and covered, with one of them throwing some kind of black energy disk at Cyclops, which he dodged automatically. He had no idea what it was, but he wasn't about to let it hit him.
The other woman's body suddenly changed, going through a transformation much like Piotr's, only she became some kind of werecat. Her teeth and nails elongated into claws and fangs in an instant. She jumped for the now visible Cyclops, only to be clipped from behind by a punch from Colossus who had moved up behind the sitting trio.
With Empath unconscious, all he had done to Sam and Paige's minds disappeared, coming undone between one second and the next since he hadn't worked on them long enough to make it even semi-permanent. Sam immediately sprang to his feet, his fists clenched as he glared at the two women.
Paige shook her head, standing up a little more slowly since Empath had been turning most of his power on her, wanting Paige to see him as attractive. She growled angrily, moving over to kick the unconscious Empath in the junk for a moment and sighed, feeling a little better after that.
In reaction to the sound of Cyclops' blast and the resultant fight, lights came on in both of the remaining bedrooms of the Guthrie house. A Second later, they could hear their mother shouting. "What in god's name was that! Samuel, what was that?"
Ignoring that shout and Cyclops's attempt to get them to surrender both women moved as one, Catseye surprisingly having been able to take the punch from Cyclops and roll with it to come up with a leap to take her back towards him, her foot lashing out in a kick. That kick however did more damage to her foot then Colossus' face. The metal clad Russian simply turned his head slightly, barely even feeling the blow while she leapt away with a curse wincing as her foot once more took her weight.
By this time however Roulette had thrown out more than a dozen of those black balls at the first attacker that appeared. Cyclops was only able to dodge a few of them before one hit. One moment he was aiming and firing at her, the next second he had tripped and his blast instead caught Colossus in the back throwing him to the ground. "What the hell!?" He muttered shaking his head. "Are you all right Colossus?"
Colossus stood up and was immediately hit by another black sphere as the two women retreated out the doorway. Between one step another he tripped over nothing, slamming into the ground once again. "What are those little things?" he muttered in Russian, then asked in broken English. "What things they are?"
"I don't know?" Cyclops muttered. "They seem to either do something to our balance, or maybe luck? I don't know."
He was interrupted by both the slamming of a door as Sam's mother came out of her room with a loaded shotgun in her hands, and the sound of a rifle going off in the distance. A bullet slammed through the window behind the team leader, catching Cyclops in the upper arm and throwing him to the ground with a grunt of pain. His suit had kept it from penetrating, but ye gods that had hurt, and Scott was certain his arm was broken.
But he still had enough presence of mind to roll as the unseen rifleman opened up again. Two bullets actually ricocheted in an almost improbable manner to impact right where he had been.
"Everyone duck and cover!" He shouted, watching as Sam ducked behind the sofa while Colossus jumped in front of the Guthrie matriarch, causing her to squeak before ducking around and staring out into the darkness behind the broken window. Paige had gone to ground right by the window.
The two younger Guthrie children had been woken up at the same time as their mother, but they had enough presence of mind to stay in their room, crying out at each rifle shot, yet staying out of the way. This was thanks to Shadowcat actually warning them to stay down until their older siblings and friends could chase off the bad-guys.
With the civilians and his friends secure, Cyclops turned his attention to the fight, using the com gear under his mask to get in touch with the team members left outside. "Vanguard, Rogue, Spyke, what the hell is going on out there?"
OOOOOOO
Her name was Domino, and she was a mercenary for hire. She was very damn good at her job, an expert martial artist and with any kind of weapon. Domino was one of the trainers Sebastian Shaw had retained for his Hellions. She was generally speaking in charge of this mission, which should've been a simple one given Empath's powers. Once with the two targets were with them of course he would no longer need to be continually influencing them, and the effects could be made permanent with enough… technological and pharmaceutical aid.
The moment Domino had seen that red flash in the heretofore dark house however she knew something had gone wrong, and using her night scope had circled around, getting into a spot where she could shoot through the window. She cursed however as her first shot hadn't taken her target in the head as she had hoped but in the arm as he moved forward a bit turning at the same time.
Still Domino was a professional, and despite the fact she missed her orders to the rest of her team were crisp. "Beef, Jetstream, Random! I count at least two hostiles in the Guthrie house, and the targets should be considered hostiles as well. Move in on the left side of the house, stick together as much as possible until we know what we're dealing with here! Catseye, Roulette, move in that direction to meet up with your team members. All regular units move in on the right side of the house, I want to take these fuckers from multiple angles. Black Dispatch 1, release air drones!"
It was only a brief violent pulse of light that warned her in time for her to duck away, and she cursed as she heard a fizzing sound from behind her. Something had just slammed at extremely high speeds into the tree that she had just been lying in front of, blowing off a large chunk of its bark and digging in, burning it at the same time. "What the hell was that!?"
She rolled again as another light flashed followed by two more in quick succession. Some kind of laser gun, she thought to herself as she hid behind a rock. Whoever the hell they are, they certainly have some impressive toys. With that she moved off through the woods, intent on getting closer, certain her orders would be obeyed, and wanting to get it stuck in herself.