Shedenfreude
Chapter Eight
Bobby and Marie darted from one bush to the other across the side lawns of the Xavier mansion, being very careful not to trip the alarms that they knew about. Marie had wanted to kick herself when she remembered who the one student was who knew where all the alarms were. She reminded herself to talk to her as soon as she got the chance.
When they got to the side of the building where Marie’s room was Bobby squeezed her around the waist, and gave her a sly kiss to stop the question from completely forming. Marie’s room was on the fifth floor, and she was really confused on how to get there. If getting to the mansion was difficult, how were they going to get past the newly revamped security inside the mansion, as well as the nose of Wolverine.
Marie looked in her boyfriend’s sparkling blue eyes and saw him raise his hand. Before she knew it the air around her had dropped in temperature. She could feel the goose bumps form on her flesh form, and the prickly sensation of numbing coldness beneath her feet. *What in the blazes was he doing?*
Bobby loved the look of bewilderment on her face. “Hold on tight.” In response her arms around his waist tightened in response. Using the moisture from the air, he created a spiral of ice that lead straight up to Marie’s room. He turned her around so that she could completely stare at the winding glistening ice case.
“Bobby, this looks like something out of a fairytale! How?”
“Believe it or not, I can feel moisture in the air, well, everywhere, and anywhere for that matter. I can do this crazy thing where I can see it in my head too. It wasn’t until recently when I was studying molecular structure with Dr. Reyes and temperature control with Storm, did I realize that I could do something with it.”
“Does that have anything to do with your new move. You know, the one where you turn into ice?”
“Yeah,” he tucked another lock of white behind her ear. He must have looked like a light bulb went on over his head because it did.
“That’s so amazing, I would hate to piss you off. I mean if you got real angry at somebody and you froze them from the inside out...ouch”
“You sure you’re not a mind reader, Rogue, cause um...You know I would never do anything like that, right?” He looked at her for reassurance.
She took his face in between her hands and kissed the bridge of his nose. “Of course. So um, now that I know your really powerful and stuff, um, how do you plan on using this thing. I mean can you defy gravity?”
“Maybe,” He walked up a steep slope of the slide and caught her when he caused a ripple in the slide to pushed them upwards.
“Bobby this is brilliant. Have you thought about using this in the Danger Room? I mean this would come in so handy.”
He pouted at her. “You mean I can’t keep this for my own personal enjoyment.”
“No!”
“What if I used it to pick up girls. I could say something like, ‘Hi, I’m Bobby Drake and an Omega Mutant. I can freeze myself the air around me, and you baby.” He gave her a Leisure Suit Larry look.
“Bobby Drake, you are so lucky I don’t have super strength. If I did I would wack you as hard as I could right now!”
“Oh look, we here.”
He iced up his hands so that the window would stick to him and pushed it up. She grabbed on to his shoulder and gracefully slid into her room then helped him inside.
She gave him a parting hug and told him, “The next time we see a premiere, we don’t have to see the Thursday midnight showing. We actually have a late night Friday curfew. All of this is really not necessary, Bobby”
“BLASPHEMY!”
Marie snorted at him. “Was Superman really worth all of this?”
If Bobby’s eyes had gotten any wider they would have flittered away. “How on earth could you say that. It was the greatest movie ever. A true testament to the franchise.”
“Is your Yankee behind kidding me? I fell asleep four times. I think I missed the few times there was a physical confrontation. Why, oh why, was there a kid in this movie? How did you not know it was Superman’s? I mean he leaves five years ago, then Lois shows up with a five year old son. Please!” She rolled her eyes in frustration.
“Singer is an amazing director. He really knows his characters.”
“Yeah, he knows how to bore his audience with those characters.”
“I’m going to ignore that last statement.”
“Ok then, I’ll ignore the fact that you like the baby-mama drama of the dead beat super-dad, that was really a chick flick in disguise.”
Bobby narrowed his eyes and let her have it. Or so he thought.
Unbeknownst to the arguing couple, several pairs of eyes watched them from the forest outside.
“What do you know so far,” one of the women with a heavy accent asked the man in charge.
“The security is tough to crack. The best way to get in is through the front door.”
Another younger man asked, “The front perimeter is the least guarded. We should wait till most of the trained personnel is out. Who has the schedule?”
The older man spoke again. He looked back at his three person task force. “That does not matter. The last time someone tried an invasion of this mansion, it was ultimately a disaster even though they were fully prepared. It seemed that the best security was inside. We will not make that same mistake.”
The older woman looked down at her hands with a worried expression.
The leader looked at her with near contempt. “Do you have a problem?”
She shook her head, and stared at him. This was hell. She watched as the light reflected of his pale skin, making him look like an animated corpse. Great, more proof that she was in hell. All she wanted was to go back to her island, walk her slightly frigid beach, and bury herself in her lab. Even though she had more motives than the obvious for being her tonight, she still hated it. Just as she was about to tell the man in front of her what she really thought of him, she felt something akin to a warm blanket wrapped around her, as if to calm her. Then she realized it was all in her head, as was the low baritone voice that told her to clear her mind, focus on her task until it was complete. *You are not alone,* the voice said.
The leader looked at the younger girl. “You better be able to do this.”
The young woman took to the shadows and moved within them. She hated that man with a passion. If she didn’t owe him for her life, he would have already been dead.
Logan raced up the attic stairs hoping and praying that he wouldn’t smell what he absolutely dreaded. He needed to talk to Ororo alone, right now. While he was in the kitchen for his midnight beer, he got a whiff of new scents and the literally came of the tail end of Speedy Gonzalas. Did he bring them here, or was he followed. Dammit! No more questions. He needed answers, and he had a feeling that Ororo needed them too, whether she truly wanted them or not.
When he got to her door he listened for something, and heard no signs of anything, at all. Almost as if nobody was there.
He opened the door and for the first time walked into Ororo’s room. The sight that greeted him was amazing. It didn’t look like what he had expected. The entire space was one large room except for the expansive walk in closet. Cata-cornered near a large round window was the largest four poster bed Logan could ever remember seeing. It was made of a dark bark and it looked like it came straight out of a classic fairytale. The silk canopy comprised of different red scarves gave it a Middle Eastern tent look. It was east and west making a beautiful sight. Real ivy with white flowers grew up the winding posters of the bed, and the night stars shone through the silk making the walls glow in a soft pink light. He could picture a naked Ororo rolling her hips on top of his with an arched back and his hands guiding her strokes.
His nostrils flared and tried to find her scent, which was surprising difficult. Her scent was trapped beneath layers of all the ferns, herbs, potted and exotic plants. Who knew she had a green thumb?
He moved towards the closet and the bathroom, and that’s where he could pick up the smell of fresh morning fog. He followed the scent out of her room, down the hall and stairs, down the next hall. By this time it was fainter. She hadn’t been here in a while. Where was she? Logan had a rueful smile on his face. He was beginning to think that more and more. Having never depended on anyone for anything ever, it was a new feeling that he had, and he was on the fence on whether or not he liked it.
He made it to the parlor where the scent was strong but flowed towards the doors, along with the new scent that intertwined with it. She had left after midnight with that Maximoff fucker. The beast inside was mad as hell.
Without thinking all the way, he threw open the doors to follow the scents and trip over an unconscious body of a woman.
“What the hell,” he barked. He sniffed her to see if she had been shot, and smelled no gunpowder, but he did notice that her hand was on top wound that had seeped through her battered clothes. He slipped his right hand under her knees and his left under her torso, “Easy, darlin.” He kept her hand over the wound. When he shifted her weight, her head lolled to the side and her black and purple highlighted hair fell into her face.
He kicked the intercom next to the door to turn it on. He kept kicking at it until he finally got the Dr.’s room. “Cecilia, we got an emergency. Meet me in the lab, pronto.”
She yawned. “Why?”
“Dammit, I just said that it was an emergency.”
“Alright, alright. Is it a student, what’s the problem?”
“Not a student. I found her on our threshold, and it looks like she was beaten and stabbed.”
“What! Um, get her to the lab, and see if you can stop the bleeding, I’ll get Warren. We’ll need him.”
Logan didn’t second guess the saucy doctor. He had no idea what Wingy could do, and he didn’t care.
************
Med lab
An hour later
************
Cecilia took of the plastic gloves and threw them away. She made sure that the mysterious young woman had enough dauladin before she was going to call it a night. Thanks to Logan’s quick moves, and Warren’s healing touch, the girl was able to survive a stab wound in her stomach that had come perilously close to her liver.
Logan watched the kid and the doctor do their thing and was amazed. He had no idea about their abilities, and once again cursed himself for it. He needed to make a conscious effort to learn about the people with whom he shared a home with. Before he had never cared. He didn’t care enough to stay, never cared about other people’s property. That idea nearly made him vomit because he had made so many mistakes.
Cecilia put her arm on Logan’s shoulder. “You saved her life, and done all that you can. Get some rest.”
He stood up and looked at Wingy. “You should probably get some sleep too.”
Warren hadn’t heard a word the man said. He was too busy brushing the sleeping woman’s razor cut uneven fashionably disheveled hair out of her face.
“Kid?”
“Huh. Oh ah, I think I’ll stay here. You know, just for tonight. She might wake up.”
“Good idea. If she does, see what you can get out of her.”
He walked out of the medical lab with his previous thoughts. Where the hell was Ororo?
**************
Meanwhile in
Central Park
**************
“Do you feel wrong doing this,” Pietro asked his smiling companion.
“Of course I do.” Storm snuggled closer to her friend and continued staring at her bare feet. She had taken of her square heeled leather boots to let her feet mush in the soft earth. “I should be there. Leaving them without warning isn’t something that I do.”
“Of course. Good ole dependable doormat Ororo.”
She punched him in the arm. “Not nice, Tro.”
He put his arm around her and had her lean her head on his shoulder. “You up for a little race to the other end of the park?”
“Not against you.”
He batted his pretty eyes at her and gave her a sorry pout.
“Fine!” She ignored his smart ass grin. “Only under these conditions. If I win you have to tell me everything. Ok. If you win, you have to tell me EVERYTHING! Got it.”
He rolled his eyes as he got into a starting position.
“One more thing.”
“Let me guess. No powers, right?”
“Now that we understand each other,” She mimicked his starting position. “On your mark.”
“Get ready.”
Before she said go, she used her winds to hover just a tiny bit. She had every intention of winning this impromptu battle.
Pietro knew that she was going to use his sub-sonic winds to propel her to the finish line. He could let her have it, but where would the fun be in that.
After mere seconds of running, floating, and dodging trees at break neck speed, Pietro’s feet reach the line of trees signaling the end of Central Park.
As soon as he stopped and turned around, he saw Ororo coming at him like a human bullet. She stopped just in time, inches away from his face.
“You cheated!” She had her own serious pout.
He pointed and laughed at her. “Good thing I didn’t do it buy myself, huh.” He cupped her face and pressed his thumb into her lips, and then gave her a kiss on her forehead. “We should probably head back now.”
“You have so ‘splainin’ to do,” she said in her best Ricardo accent.
Pietro sat down with a defeated sigh. “Alright Ro, what do you want to know?”
“First of all, what happened when you found out about Wanda? I know for a fact that you know more than you wrote to me. There is no way that Lucas would volunteer his time unless Wanda was taken. So spill it now!”
“Last week Wanda had told me to meet me at her apartment for dinner. I had asked her why, she didn’t say anything. I kept badgering her about and she broke down. It turned out that the dinner was supposed to be about our father.”
“Did she know where he has been hiding?”
“Oh yeah. That’s not just it Ro, you see when I got there and saw that nobody was home, I was shocked. When I looked around, I didn’t see any evidence of foul play. Nothing was ransacked or taken, nor was anything different. I checked out her medicine cabinet and looked in her weekly pill container, and she had taken her medicine that day. So I knew that she wouldn’t just invite me over and then just leave. I rechecked her loft again, then that’s when I saw it.”
“What?”
“A tweed beret. The kind my father had an affinity for.”
“Wait a minute. What are you saying?”
“I think that my father led Wanda out of there, and he left that hat there to tell me that he did so.”
“Pietro, this makes no sense. I got a letter from you both that said that Wanda was gone. Why would Eric tell me that, knowing full well that she was with him? She wasn’t in some kind of danger, was she?”
“Do you have that letter on you?”
“Of course, Tro. I carry things like that on me all the time. The Goddess knows how I love to be reminded that my life revolves around nasty plots to make my life turbulent and miserable.”
He looked at her while not moving, blinking, or breathing. She was also caught up in the moment. When he leaned in diagonally to match his mouth with her’s she widened her eyes when his hands flexed at her waist.
She didn’t see it coming when he began to tickle her mercilessly.
“Stop it Peitro.”
“Nope.”
“Please *hahahaaa* it’s going to start *haha* hurting *snort*. Why are you *heheheeee* doing this?”
“You said you had the letter on you so, I am going to do this until it appears.”
“You know that I was being sarcastic.” The evil tickling fingers stopped.
“Booooo. Oh well, we really should be getting back then.”
They were walking hand in hand quietly until they reached the parking garage.
Pietro opened her door for her and helped her inside. Before he closed the door, he knelt down at her side and laid his head in her lap. “Rory, I’m scared.”
Ororo smoothed her hands through his hair, and softened her beating heart because it would slow his down too. She had learned this trick a long time ago to calm him down. “Don’t worry, we will find out what’s going on. I promise you that much.”
The ride back to Graymalkin Lane was quiet and full of thought.
***********
Elsewhere
***********
Pale fingers typed on a laptop, opening up files and compiling information. Dead black eyes looked at the video playing on the monitor for the countless time that night.
He watched the boy create the structure out of what seemed to be thin air, quite literally. He turned up the volume so that he could once again hear the explanation. He had already memorized it, but he could never get tired of hearing it.
The boy could manipulate molecules. He could also control their temperature as well as the temperature of any liquid substance anywhere, whether or not in was in an organic or inorganic container. Because of the boy’s unlimited potential his powers could effect everyone on a global scale.
Even though he was not the man’s first choice he definitely could make it work.
He hoped that the boy’s genes would hold out to be stable unlike his first two test subjects. He walked over to morgue refrigerators and pulled out tray 14785E. The body of a woman slid out. Her once fiery red hair had dulled to a lazy burnt sienna. The skin that held a doll like paleness to it cooled even more to an eerie gray and those emerald green eyes no longer shone.
The man glared at her and kicked the tray from the bottom. The body just bounced, and settled back down.
“Stupid whore! Just when I finally find a person who can create and destroy mass, you end up dying. Then when I get tissue and blood samples, I find that I can’t stabilize or duplicate or genes. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
It was almost as if she didn’t answer him out of spite.
He stomped out of the chilled room down the long dark hall until he got to where his prisoner was kept. He unlocked the door and kicked it open.
“Alright, crazy ass. You better be ready to work today!”
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