They stood around the briefing table, faces drawn and clearly showing their exhaustion. Professor Xavier sat at the head of the table, fingers woven together, calm exuding from him. Rogue wondered how the hell he could be so calm at a time like this, after what they'd been through. She felt herself twitch with excess energy, anger building within her as time went on.
"Report," said Xavier.
"They ransacked the lab," Cyclops said.
Yay for Captain Obvious, Rogue thought darkly.
"They targeted the office computers, uploading information from their mainframe," said Jean. "I took the liberty of taking one of their hard drives. Kitty is going through it now, breaking the codes and gathering as much information from their computers as she can before they change them."
Xavier frowned, eyes soft and sad. "I assume there was a good reason for you to take it..."
"Yes sir," Jean said, wilting a little under his admonishing gaze. "While we were in the basement labs I found this..." She pulled a wad of printed papers from her jumpsuit, handing them to Cyclops to hand along to the Professor.
His wise blue eyes skimmed over the paper, and looking up to Jean his frown deepened. "This is data pertaining to mapping a human DNA string."
"Not just any string sir," Jean said. "On the second page there's a paragraph mentioning a certain point in the string where the mutant gene is located. It goes on to describe its attributes and the specifics in mapping it... I believe that this document is about mapping that genome."
Storm's brows tilted, her arms crossed and her lips taught. "What are you saying?"
"I believe what our dear Jean is saying," said Hank, "Is that the purpose of this government funded laboratory was to map the mutant DNA string, specifically seeking which strand causes one to be a mutant."
The alarm in the Professor's eyes was evident. At that moment there was a bleep from a console on the table. Xavier pressed a button. "Yes?"
"Hi Professor, it's Kitty." The voice was nervous and lacked the cool authority of his older X-Men. "Uhm - I've hacked my way into the government server... I think there's some stuff here you guys would like to see."
The Professor pressed his lips together darkly. "I'm on my way."
Kitty typed away furiously on the keyboard, and as the X-Men entered the computer lab behind her, she waved a hand absently in greeting. The team, still in their battered uniforms, gathered around her, gazing at the large flat screen that the cube was plugged into. Kitty's fingers flew, stopping occasionally to shift the mouse about on the pad. She glanced to her friends behind her and her jaw dropped.
"Wow... you guys look like shit."
"Feel like it too," Rogue said.
Kitty glanced to the Professor next to her before getting back to the computer. "Swear to God, Professor, if you came up to me and just gave me this information without telling me what it was, I'd swear it was some freaky-deaky sci-fi conspiracy theory crap."
Logan lifted a brow. "You're in a school that secretly harbours a group of mutant vigilantes," he said. "Dunno if you noticed, but you're living this freaky-deaky sci-fi conspiracy crap."
Kitty eyed Logan then got back to typing. "That's what worries me, dude."
The Professor frowned thoughtfully. "Can you somehow download this information onto our computers?"
"Already ten steps ahead of you, Professor," Kitty said, "I've been downloading since I broke in. I've also been saving information on their security protocols, in case I ever want to break in again." She blinked then looked to the Professor. "Er... that is... if *you* ever want to... er... hehe." She looked back to the screen, cheeks red. The Professor just gazed at her sternly.
"Is there any way they can trace this breach back to us?" asked Jean.
Kitty cocked an eyebrow, snorting. "Please! This is Kitty Pryde you got workin' here. I'm far too good at this to get caught out like that."
Cyclops gazed at the screen. "I'd think about how much time you're spending with Jubilee there, Kitty," he said smoothly. "You're sounding more like her every day."
Kitty stopped, eyes narrowing, and she turned her head at Cyclops, glaring at him coldly. "If you were a decent human being, you'd take that back."
Rogue nudged her friend gently, and Kitty went back to her work.
"Here we are again!" she said, "Legacy, Legacy... this word is everywhere!"
Jean frowned, pointing to the files. "Legacy01.doc, Legacy03.doc... spreadsheets... image files..."
"Keep downloading," the Professor said. "Normally I would not approve of this course of action but under the current circumstances-"
"You can't afford not to," Jean finished.
The Professor nodded.
Jean's back ached as she stepped from the shower. She didn't remember hurting it, but with all the rolling around in agony she'd done that night, she wasn't surprised that she'd pulled a muscle or two. Wrapping herself in a heavy fluffy nightgown, she plodded from the bathroom, sipping at a glass of water. She looked at the clock on the nightstand.
6:37 am.
It felt more like noon. The hours had crawled along, and she'd been kept up giving the team members the once over in the infirmary, to make sure they'd not suffered any serious injury. She looked to her fiance snoozing on the bed. Poor Scott. She sank down onto the bed next to him, running her fingers through his hair. He groaned, not quite asleep as he'd only just turned in.
"Nice..." he mumbled.
She smiled, drawing circles on his scalp with her fingertips. "How are you feeling?"
"Considering my body looks like a patchwork quilt from the beating that green guy gave me-"
"Rogue said his name was Quicksilver."
Scott looked to Jean, cocking a brow. "He named himself after a surfing label?"
Jean looked to the ceiling and smiled. "I think he's named for the more traditional meaning, honey."
Scott blew a sigh through his cheeks. "I feel okay." After a moment, "Better, since you started giving me the head rubs."
She sighed back at him. "Well, I'm afraid they're going to have to stop for the moment."
Scott's mouth dropped open. "Huh?"
Jean shook her head. "I can't get my mind off of these government files, and..." A crease of effort touched her brow lightly, "Hank is up looking at them too."
He stroked her arm, "Hon, you should probably get some sleep after tonight..."
Jean closed her eyes. The psychic bombardment she'd gone through had drained her, but something inside her couldn't let her rest, not on what they'd discovered tonight. "I will," she said, leaning over and kissing Scott tenderly, "After I read a few of these files."
She moved to leave, but Scott's hands grabbed hers. She looked to him.
"I was scared for you tonight," he said.
She nodded.
"I love you."
She smiled. "I love you too, Scott." She bent over, kissing him again, this time letting her lips sink deeper to his and pulling away slowly, she cradled his face. She mouthed, "Love you," one more time, then dragged herself away from the bed. Warm Scott and a soft bed was very tempting, but the possible future of mutantkind needed to be determined.
She was tired as she entered the private office that came off of the bedroom. It was the kind of tired that wouldn't let you sleep. It was the kind of tired that was past sleep. Every limb hurt, but her mind wouldn't sit still for a moment, therefore weariness evaded her. Her eyeballs even hurt. She rubbed them as she sat down and turned on her laptop and the lamp with her plodding mind. She sank down into the soft self-adjusting chair, the creak filling the room. As she waited for the computer to start up, she could hear the soft snoring of Scott from the other room. Her mind floated to him, adored him. It gave her peace to do that.
She sighed, pulling herself away from such luxuries and brought her attention to the computer in front of her that awaited her command. The drive whirred as she accessed the school's server, and in turn, the files that contained what Kitty was able to swipe from the government computers. The file that contained their stolen information was easy to spot.
It was called Legacy.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000