Toad slid into the dark sedan parked beside the coffee shop, and informed Eric of Shelly’s progress, “She checked in again last night, but it’s nothing we can use, just teen trauma and romantic angst. There was one new student brought in, a MacSomething kid, apparently another feral who got the stuffing beat out of him on the street somewhere. That was about all worth mentioning. Guess it’s been a boring few days for her.”
“Did she have anything to say about her cover there, her own security?” Eric smoothed his fingers over the metal door handle of the car, then stroked the band of his wristwatch. He’d never been able to wear one before without it malfunctioning immediately, but he was starting to adjust to the feeling of it snugly wrapped around his wrist.
“She says she’s right fitting into the routine there, no questions, no suspicious people watching her, nothing. She’s starting to make acquaintances with a few of the staff and students, but not ‘too’ friendly. We can thank our lucky stars that all their telepaths are gone, or she’d be exposed.”
“And that, my brother, is exactly why I chose her - she has the gift we need, the talent to use it, and she is, unfortunately, expendable.”
Toad regarded Magneto with hooded eyes, “You think they’d off her if they knew?”
“Whether they would kill her or not, I cannot say. When Charles was leading the X-Men, my answer would have been ‘absolutely not’. His morals were too high for such a rash act. He would turn her over to the authorities if there were grounds, or he would ‘disappear’ her into the background somewhere, mercifully of course. But now that Charles is gone, along with that young man who hung on his every word, the Summers boy, the moral constitution of the rest of them is questionable. Wolverine would kill her immediately. Not only would it be the simplest and most permanent elimination of an enemy agent, it would also be an act of revenge for him, since she was the one who gave us the information on his location that fateful day,” Eric purred with satisfaction. “Storm and Rogue are unknown factors. The Drake boy likely would allow her to live, but penalized somehow; whatever form of punishment they would dream up though is hard to say.”
Eric turned his head and smiled warmly at Toad who failed to return the warmth, “No, I don’t think our Shelly would be at all safe if she were found out. The few remaining X-Men are too chaotic by nature to predict. What did she have to say about Wolverine, specifically?”
“Not a lot. He’s been healing up, took a few days off, but now he’s back teaching classes.” Eric smirked at the idea of Wolverine teaching anything to a room full of children.
“Did she say if he had returned to the Danger Room yet? If he’s physically back to fighting condition?”
“She didn’t say. There’s a lot there for one person to monitor, but she’s working on it.”
“Good enough, then. Tomorrow we start planning the invasion of the school. I’ll want daily reports from Miss Hanson starting tomorrow. We’ll need every detail to be current if we’re to eliminate as much threat as possible to our own troops. A small strike force should be able to eliminate the mutant Leech, and a second smaller group should be able to delete the vaccine formula from their computers. Never again will that vile potion be used to poison another mutant.”
*
Two days later, Rogue walked Mike MacKenzie through the school, getting him familiar with the rambling mansion’s classrooms and facilities. With one eye swollen shut and multiple bruises showing over most of his exposed skin, she watched him carefully for signs of tiring or pain, but he seemed content to amble through the halls with her beside him.
“Is your sister staying here for a while? There’s plenty of room.”
“Nah, she wants to go back to the city and share an apartment with her friend. They’ll be fine. It’s in a whole different neighborhood where no one’ll know she’s related to a mutant.” Rogue looked discretely at Mike’s steel-gray hair and young, angular face. At a distance, he could almost pass as human until he smiled, revealing the rows of tiny, pointed teeth, or one noticed his totally black eyes.
“Did your mutation manifest all at once?” Rogue hoped he didn’t mind the personal question.
“Not quite - it took a few days to develop. Weird. I got the teeth first. They just started growing out from beneath the other set, hurt like hell, too. The human teeth dropped out within a few moments while these shoved through. The hair took a while longer. It started growing at the same rate, just gray. It looked like I was an old man from behind, like I hadn’t ‘touched up my roots’ for a while. Tried dying it, but this shit won’t take dye for some reason. Dye won’t last more than a few days, and it’s ‘hello Rat Boy’ again.” He stopped and ran a few fingers through his bristling gray hair, shoving it this way and that, pulling a lock down over his forehead. He turned to Rogue and gave her a teasing smile. “You still hangin’ with Ice Man? Or have I got a shot? I’m hearing rumors....”
Rogue laughed at his determination, then answered, “The answer is no, and no. I’m not seeing Bobby, but I am seeing someone else. Sorry, Mike.”
“Damn,” he shook his head. “I’ve only been here two days, and already missed my shot.”
“Come on, I’ll show you the self-defense classroom.”
Logan had just dismissed class as Rogue and Mike entered. Introductions were made, and Logan begged off for a meeting with Storm, but gave Mike an invitation to self-defense classes when he was healed up from the beating. Logan planted a less than subtle hug and light kiss on Rogue on his way out, leaving Mike to regard the other feral’s back as he left.
“So that’s the guy, huh? Lady, I just don’t stand a chance with you.”
“What makes you say that? Other than the fact that I’m head over heels for Logan?”
“NO WAY could I compete with HIM!”
Rogue patted Mike on the shoulder as they walked out, “I’m also not the only girl in this school. Bide your time. With your charm, you’ll make friends fast. I’ll personally introduce you to the twins, Ciji and Niji. They’re a hoot.”
“Twins? Twins, as in sisters? As in two whole, separate but identical girls? I think I’m supposed to fantasize about that, right?”
“Down, boy.”
“How’s my hair? You got a comb?”
*
Storm leaned back in the leather chair in Xavier’s former office, waiting for the last of her administrative assistants to close the door so she could talk privately with Logan who lazed in the chair opposite her.
“How are you feeling?”
“Just dandy. Moving right along.... what ya got?”
“Liar. I’ve been pondering the attack on you. I’ve talked to Rogue and Piotr, and took down a list of everyone who they talked to, or who might have overheard the planning to make that run into town. I’m trying to pin down how the trap could have been set for you, but so far I don’t have any answers. It was obviously a premeditated attack, so someone must have leaked the information, intentionally or accidentally. Now the challenge remains: figure out where the leak is, and who the information goes to.”
“Rogue thinks it was Toad bounding off through the trees, or at least a green-skinned mutant. There seem to be plenty of blueskins around, but not that many greenskins. I was upwind so I heard him coming, but the scent was tricky. It could have been Toad, or any other greenskin that smelled like a swamp and could jump over trees, but no, I didn’t actually ‘see’ him. Not that it would stop me from killing him, just for shits and giggles. So that makes the source Magneto.”
“Are you confident of that?”
“Yep. I’m the one who distracted him while Hank nailed him with the cure injections. Leave it to Buckethead to turn the trick back on me. And Toad would be the perfect delivery boy.”
“I can’t argue with those deductions, even if we don’t have a confident eye witness.”
“You got a confident target, Storm - me. How much more do you need to feel ‘good’ about yourself and the possibility of taking down Magneto and Toad?”
“Far less than my predecessor behind this desk,” Logan raised his eyebrows in surprise at her confession. Storm continued, “I know you questioned both Charles’ and Scott’s devotion to seeking the truth, acting on rational thought, and treating every mutant fairly with hopes of some future degree of peace among all of us, human and mutant.” Storm rose from her chair and walked to Logan’s side, resting her hand on his shoulder for a moment, then she leaned against the desk and faced him, “I did support those views at first. I did have hopes for a peaceful future. I’ve also seen what I pray is the worst of mutant-versus-mutant prejudice. I’ve learned my lesson: there are some people whom we can never trust.”
“Are you saying we’re going after the Brotherhood? ‘Cause I’ll line up for that - I’m ready yesterday,” Logan’s enthusiasm showed in his eyes until he looked at his hands, and his expression fell.
“Not quite yet, you’re not. But I will say this: when the time comes, when we have the right opportunity, the right intelligence, the right people, I won’t stop it. But things have changed. We have to be ready this time, take as few chances as possible, especially with the younger ones.”
*
Rogue met up with Logan that night in the TV room. “I’ve been needing to talk to you.”
“Plant yourself here and have at it, darlin’,” he patted a spot beside him on the sofa. Rogue settled against him and enjoyed the privacy of the otherwise unoccupied room.
“I’m going out on a mission with Piotr tomorrow,” and she braced herself for the expected outburst.
Logan didn’t fail to deliver, “The hell you are! You’re not ready for 2-man missions, especially without your fuckin’ mutation! You know this is the wrong....” Rogue gently leaned in and kissed him to shut him up. Pulling back, she spoke softly to lower the tension level between them.
“This is not a confrontational mission. This is a meet-n-greet in Canada, at some safe-houses. After Stryker’s raid, the professor started establishing a network of connections where we could run if needed. Pete and I are going up there, meet some of the Canadian team and the safe-house staffers, get acquainted in person, and compare notes on how we can help each other.” She patted Logan’s arm which circled her waist, “They’re lacking training and organization, and we’re lacking facilities outside this country. That’s all. It’s just a business trip.”
“I don’t like it. I’m going with you.”
“You are no diplomat, and you are on leave, remember?”
“Fuck that. I’m going.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Exactly. I’ve got the administrative details and I know what questions to ask, who to talk to, all the boring administrative stuff. I’ve been working on all that behind the scenes for a few months. Pete is my bodyguard on this trip, and you’re needed here.”
“Thought I was on leave?” Rogue noted the flinty gleam in Logan’s eyes, but he was taking it better than she had expected. She began wondering just how much of his fireball temper and anger issues were contained within the Wolverine, and how much of that had been tamped down by the cure vaccine.
“Piotr and I are just two tourists going into Canada. No weapons, no identifiable visible mutations, just hiding in plain sight. If you went along, too, that would leave Storm and Bobby to defend this place. Just how effectively secure does that seem to you?”
“Damn you and your logic, kid.”
“Besides, it’ll give us a little breathing time before I come home to find you without your stitches, and I can jump you the minute I get out of the car. Or better yet, you can be waiting naked in my bed. Pick one.”
“How long are you gonna be gone? This is sounding like days, maybe a week?”
“About a week. Promise me you won’t axe-murder Bobby while I’m in Canada.”
“Hey, if him being a dickweed ends up putting you in my bed, he’ll be on my Christmas list this year.”
“You don’t have a Christmas list.”
“I’ll start one,” Logan’s fingers threaded along her neck and brought forth the magnolia blossom necklace from beneath her blouse. “Why you coverin’ this up? Ashamed of me?” he teased her.
“No, sugar. It just slipped under. You wanna keep fishing around in there? Never can tell what else you might find.”
Logan’s hand slid down and cupped her breast in his warmth as their lips met. Lost in each other’s heat, they were caught off guard by footsteps and giggles entering the room. Mike and the twins Ciji and Niji, intent on watching television, put forth a burst of embarrassed babbling and apologies as they witnessed the two lovers tangled together on the sofa.
Standing quickly, Logan and Rogue excused themselves and went into the gardens for a better shot at privacy. Strolling along a graveled path, Rogue slid one hand around the small of his back as his arm draped around her shoulders.
“Promise me something, Logan. Promise me you’ll take care of yourself while I’m gone, ya know? Finish the antibiotics, go to Hank if anything is wrong, lay off the hard liquor a little. I want to come home and find you healthy, ready, and willing. Is that selfish?” She turned to him at the end of the path and looked him squarely in the eyes, waiting.
“It’s not selfish. It’s sensible. I have trouble with ‘sensible’ sometimes. But yeah, I’ll behave myself, because if anything goes wrong up north, I’ll come up there and kick some ass, and kick yours while I’m at it.” He stepped closer to her, towering over her and looking down into her eyes, “I still don’t like this mission thing, without me.”
“We’re both making adjustments, remember? This is one of those adjustments.” She did one of the things that she always ached to do, and found herself still thrilling at the simple gesture: she laid her hands on either side of his jaw, touching his bare skin above the muttonchops, and pulled him down to kiss her.
“You gonna wait for me to come home? Keep your hands off other women while I’m gone?”
“Yep. You gonna wait for me, or are you plannin’ some hot action with a tin-plated Russian?”
“He’s not my type: too big, stoic, and manly.”
“Now, that hurt.”
“You are so easy,” her fingers slid beneath his t-shirt to lace through the silky hair on his flat belly. “I like everything you’ve got, and I’m not gonna ‘shop around’. I want you,” she kissed Logan deeply again, and eased herself back from him before it became too heated. “I have to get up very early tomorrow, so I’m going to bed now. My bed. Alone. I’ll call you every chance I get, okay?”
“Okay. Remember the ass-kicking promise.”
“I remember every promise you’ve ever made me, sugar.”
“And you remember your promise about the Pop Culture class. I’m serious about that, Marie.”
“You’re enrolled. Goodnight, Logan.”
“Night, babe.”
She left him standing in the moonlight, the night-born sounds from the forest echoing beyond the chirruping of the garden’s crickets.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Magneto and Toad debate Shelly. Rogue and Mike debate socializing at the mansion. Storm and Logan debate the stool pigeon. Rogue suggests that Logan not axe-murder Bobby.