Kurt poked his head around the corner; quickly looking both ways to make sure the main corridor that led to the room he shared with Storm was empty of anyone who might hogtie and drag him to Xavier's office. Yeah, he did have the ability to poof his way around the mansion, but that was way flashier and more attention grabbing than sneaking. Plus, everyone was on the smellout for his sulferish poofy scent because Xavier had issued a royal decree that he needed to be brought in, at least mostly alive. He was in the doghouse for sure for not obeying this summons, but he couldn't take the chance of getting sent out. Hank still hadn't emerged from his lab and it had been three days since he'd gotten back, evidently having enough of a Twinkie stash built up that he had yet to starve. If Kurt could just make it to his room, he'd quickly pack a bag, grab his girl and be gone before anyone could force him into accepting whatever job had been dreamt up.
Yes! Coast clear. He kept to the wall, not that his dark blue coloring would help him blend with the cream paint, but it still made him feel less obvious. Passing Bobby's door made him wince. The poor kid was still horribly upset from his ordeal, so much so that Kurt could hear sniffling and smell the burning feathers. Bobby had kept the Big Bird costume and was burning a feather a day, to keep the children away. Or so he said. They weren't so sure it wasn't in some misguided attempt to cause suffering to an inanimate object. Bobby did seem to think that the costume had a soul. Kurt had been requited to rescue Bobby from Rogue's "protective imprisonment" on the roof and Bobby had been so shattered that day that there was no way Kurt was getting taken in without a fight.
Finally, leaving that part of the hallway, and the noises, behind, he slipped into his room. He grabbed a duffle bag out from under the bed and started throwing things into it. A few changes of clothes for each of them, toiletries, cell phone chargers and Storm's pink baby blanket filled the bag nicely. Only the truly necessary things could be taken if one was to be on the run. Now, to find his lovely lady. He carefully composed a text message, having to make sure he didn't stab through the tiny letters with his claws, because wandering around right now wasn't going to be good for the escape attempt.
He waited, petting his own tail for comfort while sitting on the bed and wondering how long they would have to stay away. Leaving just couldn't be helped. Anyway, Xavier was bound to miss them, or at least Storm who had been with him for 15 years, and would allow them to return without having to do these stupid jobs. It wouldn't take long at all. His phone vibrated and he jumped, clocking his head on the headboard. Rubbing the bump he picked up the phone and saw that Storm was in the medlab, trying to convince Hank that he needed to come out for a bit. That would be perfect! They could leave out of the Blackbird hanger without anyone being the wiser.
He left the room, slinking to the back staircase that no one ever used because it was so out of the way. Also, an added benefit over the elevator was that there were no cameras installed in this stairwell.
He got to the subbasement and followed the gentle murmurings of Storm, not being able to make out individual words, but the tone permeated the hallway. She sounded so concerned right now, voice wavering slightly while, no doubt, trying to convince Hank that he needed to resocialize himself. Kurt stood in front of the door to the lab and watched it open, revealing a black blob huddled in the far corner. He staggered a few steps into the room, disbelieving that this could be his normally like hued friend.
"H-Hank? Are you okay? Where's Storm?" He asked, unable to look away from the man until he pointed to Kurt's left. He started turning when the door slid shut and the lights went out, leaving the lab lit only buy a few indicator lights on various machines. He heard murmurings in the darkness, circling him. Fuck this, he thought, Stormy's on her own now. He was about to poof his way out of the school when something was slapped around his ankle. Not caring enough to check the heavy anklet before leaving, he summoned his power thinking of a beautiful pastor about 30 miles from the mansion. But, at the second when he body should feel that curious weightlessness that he could never describe correctly, he felt an electric shock travel up his leg to his core. He smelled Storm's calming cottony fragrance and could swear he heard her chuckle before he was down for the count.
Rogue was in her room researching- um, looking into- no... fine. She was caught. She was totally digging through Remy's porn stash, stolen earlier when everyone (terrified of Xavier's wrath) was looking for Kurt, trying to find something super embarrassing that she could use as future blackmail material, to be passed on to Kitty if Logan actually did kill her. She started throwing the DVD cases back into the box as she rejected them. Big Boobed Babes in Baltmore. Damn. Too normal. Cougar's on the Move. Hm. No, too predictable. Hotties for Hire. Maybe she could get Logan a job? No, stupid idea. Xavier had already had it.
Fuck, this was not working as planned. Fed up with the idea and knowing that Remy would be coming back soon, the triumphant shout just a minute ago had to have been someone locating and detaining Kurt, she picked up half the pile and dropped it back in the box.
OH MY GOD!!! Pay dirt! She grabbed the matching magazine and DVD, now on the top of the remaining pile and held them up in front of her face, sure that her smile had to rival the Grinch's in that cartoon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6bWkIWJw4w, if you don't know what I'm talking about). Xavier chose this time to knock on her brain door.
Rogue? I have your first assignment Not even being whored out like this could spoil her good mood.
I'll be there in a minute or two professor. Have to put something away first.
She grabbed everything but the DVD and magazine that she was keeping, which she had to pull his fingerprints from in order to prove that it was his if she ever did need it for blackmail, and threw it back in the box. She tucked the box under her arm before walking down the hallway back to Remy's room, putting it back in its place under his bed. Too bad for him he always slept so deeply. She wouldn't have been able to get a touch in and find the box's location if he didn't essentially die every night only to be somehow resurrected every morning. Probably thoughts of his fetish got him up. Pun intended. Oh god.
She barely made it into the professor's office, laughing so hard that she had to clutch the back of the couch when she walked through the hole in the wall (When the hell where they gonna fix that anyway? The little fix-it gremlins that no one ever saw around the mansion were normally faster than this.). Looking down at the couch didn't help her mirth at all. Kurt was curled up in a ball, sucking on his tail in his sleep, guess that's what happens when you don't really have thumbs. He had a big chunky black bracelet on his ankle that did not look comfortable. She looked up at the assortment of X-men ranged around the room, reining in her laughing enough to shoot Jubes a quick "Still have that crush on Remy, Jubie? Didn't know your tastes ran to the more 'wild' side. And I thought Logan was bad"
Remy looked dazed and Jubilee just confused as all get out when Rogue, who had apparently finally lost the rest of her marbles, fell to the floor, mumbling to herself and laughing until she was sobbing. She looked at the professor and waved a hand in his direction, telling him to take over the attention of the room.
There were days he was glad Rogue's brain wasn't easily accessed by his powers. This was for sure one of them. He looked around the room, taking stock of who had helped capture Kurt and who was absent. He wouldn't necessarily do anything with the knowledge, but it was good to know who was still on his side enough to listen to his commands.
"Everyone, save Kurt and Rogue, can please go about your days. I just wanted to see who would be a help in our current cause and who would need more, persuasion, to come to terms with it." Everyone started filing out of the room leaving Rogue, Kurt and Storm watching Xavier behind the desk.
"I wanted to stay, professor. Firstly, I want to be here when Kurt wakes because I need to explain why I have betrayed him in this way. Secondly, I needed to tell you that Hank played a part in his capture as well; he is just unable to leave the lab at the moment. And lastly, I'm pretty much just a nosy bitch and think I've been around long enough to have some perks thrown my way." Storm tried one of her usual serine faces but it was impossible after that sentence. She just looked stuck up.
"Fine, Storm, do as you will. It is good to know that Hank has recovered enough to actually assist fellow X-men, even if he is still not comfortable leaving the safety of his lab. Rogue, do you at last have control of yourself?" He was met with gasps and a 'one minute' gesture from the woman in question. She pulled herself back to her feet and took a deep breath before falling silent and meeting his eyes.
"Alright. Your first job for the Mutant for Hire group is tomorrow night. There is a newly wealthy man, Paul Johnson, who is throwing a party. You are going to be putting that refined control of yours to the test. He wants you to come to the party and mingle among the guests, dancing with whoever wants you too and generally being your wonderful self. The whole time though, you need to slowly seep energy from everyone so they will want to go home earlier. The last party he threw, he evidently had people there for over 14 hours mooching his food and expensive liquor and, while wealthy, it put too much of a dent in his pocketbook. Your stealing of their energy will make people leave on their own because they will become tired but it will not seem like their host is rushing them out at all. Also, he wants a full written report afterwards on what each person thinks about him personally and his business sense. So you need to steal energy and top-layer thoughts from around one hundred people without getting overwhelmed and confused, while wearing heals and a slinky dress which offers up a lot of skin for people to come in contact with." He braced himself for the blowup that he knew was coming. The Rogue didn't wear dresses. She didn't wear heals. And she sure as shit didn't want to have that many people's thoughts running through her head in the same day.
"Sure professor," she agreed, stopping his planned pleading/begging speech. He'd had note cards prepared and everything.
"Really? No objections?"
"None professor. Can I use the company credit card to purchase an appropriate dress?" she asked, almost sounding like she would actually listen to his answer if he said no.
"That's fine, Rogue. May I ask, why are you so willing to do this?"
"Well, I don't want you to put a shock collar on me like you did the wannabe smurf on the couch. And, I'm going to die as soon as Logan gets back and figures out that I not only took that picture, but gave it to you to post in a public, world wide accessible place. I might as well go to one fancy ass party before hand. Also, you can bury me in the dress that I buy." Well, that was calmly stated. Whatever worked, as long as she did what he needed of her.
"Whatever your reasoning, whether I think it's valid or not, is irrelevant. Thank you for doing this. That is all I need of you. I will give you the time and the location of the party when he sends them to me in the morning."
"Ok. I'm going back to my room. Night." She turned to go, stopped just short of the hallway and turned back to them. "By the way professor, you might want to check on Remy later. He looked dog-tired to me earlier. Something might be wrong. You should tell him I'm concerned." And she was gone, leaving him with Kurt, who was just starting to wake and wipe the drool off of his tail, and Storm, sitting in the chair in front of his desk.
That bitch! Were the first words to enter Kurt's mind as he woke up in Xavier's office and saw his so called girlfriend looking at him with so called concern. Yeah right. She had brought him here.
"Why?" he rasped, getting up to grab a bottle off water out of the mini fridge built into the back of the professor's wheelchair. He took a swig of it before glaring at the silent Storm.
She sighed. "I didn't want to betray you love, but don't you see? This really is the only way. We need to pay our dues, just as everyone else does. What happened to Hank and Bobby could have happened to any one of us. We are all in this boat. And we don't abandon our friends, even if the ship is sinking. Even if it looks hopeless and we have the last life raft and there's only room for two. Even if we have to take turns laying on a piece of a door until one of us freezes to death, we will know that our friends are all in the same frigid waters. Even-"
"Storm!" he yelled. "What have I told you about watching Titanic? You get sucked into that world and that's what everything becomes to you. We are not on a sinking ship. It's an okay metaphor, but it doesn't need to be carried that far, okay? I don't have the 'Part of the Ocean' or whatever the name of the jewel is to give you."
"Really?" she interrupted, eyes glazed over in her 'I'm hearing the music and seeing the bubbles now' look. "But it's so shiny."
"Professor, please!" he begged, knowing that Xavier was the only one who could pull her out of this.
The man's brow furrowed in concentration and he grunted a couple of times before Storm fell over in a faint in her chair. His face cleared and Kurt could breath again.
"She hasn't had an episode in at least a month. We were doing so good. She must have found the DVD or soundtrack again somewhere."
"It's quite all right Kurt. She'll be right as rain in a few hours and she won't remember anything about the movie until she sees it again. I tried to tell them that that Celine Dion was a mutant with spell-singing capabilities but no one ever listens." Xavier ran a finger over his eyebrow for a minute before seeming to remember the reason Kurt was even in the office.
"You, have an assignment. And it isn't even that horrible so I don't know why you freaked out. You have been hired to transport one of the Google CEO's, Jim, for the week. If it works out between the two of you, the time may be extended. You have to be available on an on call basis, at all times but rarely will you have to remain with him. He is aware that he needs a picture of the place were you are going and a general direction with distance before each jump. That anklet is to make sure you don't try to escape again. It's tied to your abilities. If you try to go anywhere without Jim pushing this button in this remote." He held up a small black clicker that looked like it belonged to a garage instead of a mutant. "Then you will get a nasty shock, just like before. So I suggest you start thinking before acting."
"You put a collar on me. A shock collar. Like a dog. Then you electrocuted me when I tried to use my powers. Are you sure you were on the right side of the war, professor?" Kurt asked, pissed as hell that his next escape plan, to just drop the guy off the first time and leave once he was out of the mansion, was no longer an option. Why did Xavier always know what they were going to do before they even did?
"Yes I was Kurt. But that war had some results that I hadn't considered before they became reality. This is reality now. Oh, did I mention that I had a second remote made? One with this nifty little red button. Here, let me show you what it does. You, say something against me or out of line. I, push the button." He pushed it and Kurt felt the shocking/burning sensation again before passing out and crumpling to the floor. "You, get to take a nap."
"Sweet dreams. I know you'll be just excellent at your job." He wheeled out of the office, taking the remotes with him, and down the hallway to his room, deciding a nap was in order if everyone else seemed to be taking one as well.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Okay, just typing the title “Mutant for Hire 4” to save the document to my computer makes me laugh manically, before I’ve even written anything. I think that this is a very bad sign for our poor characters… Not that anyone really cares. All for the good of society, right? And people do say that laughter is the best medicine. I’m hopefully medicating you all!
Thanks for all the reviews!
Thanks for all the reviews!
Chapter End Notes:
Reviews for the crazy woman? Please? Kiss Kiss