Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER THIRTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), * hex * to the history "friend." Tim said it was okay for me to do it. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are sparklebunnies for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: First of all, I've noticed that out of all the people who read my fic and live in Canada, three of y'all are nucking futs. But I love ya anyway. ;) Second of all, everyone wave to ProPhile. He's a plotbunny wrangler now. ;) Thirdly, now wave to Foxfeather, who betas herself silly with my fic and has a lovely site of her own (Foxfeather's Fan Fiction). Go read it now please. Thank you. And FYI, I mean Mount Sinai Hospital, not Cedars Sinai.

"Fucking great," Lance sighed, honking at the gates to the property. "What the Hell?"
"Power's gen genius," Sam mumbled from the back seat. The date, needless to say, had not gone well. Rogue and Todd were stiffly stationed on either side of Amara and Sam and Paige sat in the front seat, trying to be as small as possible. Lance's hissed expletives were the first words spoken since the beginning of the evening when Amara had announced that he was a fucking idiot and should perform physically impossible acts with himself. Twice.
"There's a back up system that should open the gates, Opie."1 Lance flipped on the high beams and slid the gear shift to park. "Any of you happen to have some sort of power to open gates?"
Sam snorted. "I could, but you'd have to pay to fix 'em..."
Paige shook her head. "Got nothin'."
Todd unbuckled. "I'll be back..." He got out of the car gratefully, the tension so thick he had been certain that he'd choke on it. It was an easy jump over the high gate for him, the landing on the other side not even jarring his teeth as one should it expect. Instead, he waved at Lance, signaling him to get out of the Jeep. "I'm gonna go look for someone to open it, okay? I can't from here."
Lance let out a harsh sigh. "Whatever. I may kill Sam, though..."
"Paige a cold fish or something?"
"She's not into it and neither am I...you know that." Lance glanced back at the Jeep where Paige sat staring out the window and Amara could be seen leaning over the front seat, adjusting the radio and glaring at the blonde at the same time. "Though Amara seems way too into Sam."
"She's fuckin' with you. Trust me. Rogue said so." Todd nodded confidently, despite Lance's miserable expression.
"Whatever you say, man..."
"Hey, Alvers," Sam called from the open window, "You gonna open the gate or stand there talking to your boyfriend all night?"
Todd rolled his eyes. "Original, ain't he? Be back soon." He blew Sam a kiss, just to annoy him, and disappeared into the dark of the property. The shadows were thicker than he had expected, the preponderance of trees and shrubs seeming to harbor any number of childhood demons, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to revive themselves in his mind. _Stop bein' jumpy man...Heh. Toad. Jumpy. Funny. Okay...it's just that weird bush that the bees like and Storm says is good for the other flowers...it's not going to grab me... _Todd paused, glancing back at the now-dim headlights where they filtered through the landscaping. Lance had turned them down and they were now yellow eyes glaring at him across the lawn. Okay, someone's gotta be out here somewhere... He turned and ran smack into something large and warm and a bit harder than he had expected. "Don't kill me!"
"Way to be brave, kid." Logan sounded a little more amused than was possibly polite for the situation. "Need the gates open?"
"Uh huh," Todd said, his heart rate still higher than he would have liked, all things considered. "What's going on?"
"Get inside and ask one of them. Beast, Rahne and I are patrolling. Don't talk to anyone until you get inside, no matter who you think it is. Got it?"
Todd nodded, now more curious than actually scared, but strong sense nervousness ran through him. "Sure..." He felt Logan's eyes on him as he trotted towards the port cochere over the curving front drive. _What the Hell is going on here? _ "Yo," he called out as he entered the foyerly tly to find himself flat on his back, a pair of glinting red eyes peering into his.
"Sorry, homme. Reflex." Remy stood and pulled him to his feet. "Been on edge this eve, eh?"
Todd opened his mouth to ask Remy what was going on, but remembered Logan's command. Swallowing the question, he asked, "Where's Jean?"
Remy smirked in the dark. "Logan found ya, non? She in de rec room wid de others...c'mon." He walked a few paces and paused, noting that Todd was not following him. "Quoi?"
"Somethin' ain't right..." The air smelled electric, like ozone in a thunderstorm. "Storm pissed?"
"Non, not really...Why?" He gave Todd a deeply assessing look. "What you see?"
"I don't...I smell it..." Todd was not one to brag about his senses but he had quite a good sense of smell. He had told Rogue it was more like ESP, not really smelling or seeing or hearing for that matter, but just sensing something amiss and his brain would process what it was, like the scent of ozone in the foyer. "It's cause toad's got that skin thing goin' on...They get signal through their skin." That comment had led to a rather ribald response from Rogue and the entire afternoon had degraded into a sweaty grope-fest.
Remy nodded slowly, inhaling deeply. "Like lightening."
"A little."
"Stay here."
_Great. Leave me alone in the dark... _ Todd stood stock-still, Remy's retreat into the rec room silent. His low murmur was barely audible as Todd slid his gaze from the stairs to the dark at the top of them, then to the slightly deeper darkness of the study opening to his left. _Was that something moving? Probably Rahne. It was short like Rahne. Rahne or the Tooth Fairy. Fucking hell. Marie would laugh her ass off if she knew the Tooth Fairy freaked me out...Come on, Remy...where are you? _ Sighing softly, Todd took a few tentative steps towards the rec room before a slight scuffling noise near the foot of the stairs caught his attention. _Damn it. Now I have to be brave... _

It seemed to be the evening for people to hit the floor hard. "Get your slimy hands offa me!"
"Wanda! Damn!" Todd scrambled to his feet, fully expecting to be killed in moments. Instead, Wanda grumbled under her breath, dusting off her jeans with an aggressive gesture. He did not even have to look behind him to know that everyone in the mansion had emerged from the rec room.
"How did you get in?" Scott demanded.
"Hex field, baby," Wanda grinned, inordinately proud of herself.
"Do what?" Jubilee pushed forward, fingers faintly sparkling. She had been ready to _paf _ the Hell out of whoever was in the foyer when Remy had tackled Todd and she still had the plasma ready in hand.
"Hex field," Wanda began, but waved it off. "Show you later. I'm here for help, as much as it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to ask for it."
"Jubilee," Jean said, the request in her voice.
"That's me, the human nightlight," the Asian girl sighed. A moment later, a large glowing ball of plasma shone above them, casting the foyer in a yellowish light, barely bright enough to discern features and rather hard on the eyes.
_*Speak for yerself, girl _ *, Jono said from somewhere in the shadows, making everyone twitch.
Wanda blinked in the glow of Jubilee's plasma and said, "I think we're gonna have big problems real soon...Pietro...who the fuck are you?" she asked suddenly, noticing Empath and Sunspot for the first time.
"New recruits," Rogue said shortly, sidling towards Todd. "Keep talkin'."
Wanda did not trust the new ones any more than the current X Men, but she especially did not trust Empath. _Just in case... _ With very little effort of will, she bound them all, the light winking out overhead to the chorus of "Hey!" and "What the...?" Gritting her teeth, Wanda began again. "Not to go into too much detail, Mags is up to no good and I can prove it. Incubus made himself known today. An hour or two ago, in fact. I had to knock out Tabby..."
"She's pregnant!" Jubilee cried. "You can't go knocking out a pregnant woman!"
"I didn't hurt her...just sort of...zapped her a little. She's fine," Wanda said dismissively. "And she's out in the car anyway."
Scott let out a harsh sigh. "Incubus. You're sure?"
"Very."
There was a tiny popping noise and the house was flooded with light, the mechanical sounds of automated locks opening and systems switching out of safe mode filling the mansion. Roulette stood in the midst of them all. "Hey, all."
"Where have you been?" Rogue demanded, seizing her by the arm with one gloved hand.
"Had a date," she said smoothly. Roulette tossed her bangs from her eyes with a careless gesture, seemingly unconcerned with Rogue's strong grip. "What's goin' on?"
"Power went out," Scott said before anyone could offer too much detail. "We just did a headcount and you turned up missing...we got a little worried."
"Glad to know I'm loved," she said dryly. "I'm goin' to bed."
"Just a second," Jean said, stepping forward. She motioned for Rogue to release Roulette's arm, the blonde now being held in place with telekinesis. Roulette tried to fight Jean's scan at first but suddenly relaxed, an image of a tall, Native American looking male flashing to the forefront of her thoughts. Jean knew then that the other girl was manipulating the experience, showing Jean just what she wanted her to see. The images that flashed through Roulette's mind were very specific, very detailed, not the stream-of-consciousness sort of thing Jean was used to seeing when she did random scans. Probing a little deeper, she found...nothing. Her mind was a perfect blank. _Somehow, I'm not exactly surprised. _
"Done?" Roulette drawled. Jean smirked at her as if she had not a care in the world and nodded subtly. "I'm going to bed..."
"Warpath?" Sunspot asked casually, as if they were not in the throes of a semi-crisis.
"You know it," Roulette winked. "My standing Thursday night date..."
Wanda took a deep, calming breath as the blonde sauntered up the stairs. "Slut," she said simply.
Stifling the snicker that threatened to overtake him, Scott said, "We can't go anywhere until we get this situation here resolved. Tabby's in the car, you said?"
"Yeah."
"Go get her. We can put you two in Kitty's room for now. She won't be back until very late tonight if not early tomorrow..."
Jean felt an overwhelming vertigo as voices buzzed around her. As casually as possible, she teetered the few steps to the bench near the front door and sank down quickly, leaning her head back against the cool marble of the wall. This can't be good... Her mind felt like it was full of bees, buzzing and stinging and chaotic, never settling long in one place. Just when she was about to panic, it all stopped. She felt an overwhelming calm wash over her and felt weightless. All the sounds around her faded to silence, though she could see people talking and sensed their emotions. Swallowing hard, she found her gaze drawn to Empath. He was staring steadily at Scott, who's lips were moving silently. The new recruit nodded as if in agreement and shot Jean a smiling glance.
_*Don't worry about Roulette. She was just out for a good time.... _ *
Jean jumped. _*Were you talking to me? _ * she asked tentatively, staring at Emapth.
He twitched. "Jean, you say something?" he said out loud, looking at her from beneath knitted brows.
Sound rushed into Jean's ears in a deafening wave. She gasped at the sensation of reality returning. "No, no I didn't," she lied evenly, despite the nausea rising in her throat. "Roulette had the right idea, I'm going to bed. Tell Logan I didn't feel well and he can brief me in the morning." She accepted Scott's quick kiss on the cheek as she tried to walk evenly towards the stairs. The vertigo overcame her again and she felt compelled to turn and announce to the room at large, "I think we're all just overreacting...this whole thing is some sort of silly mistake and I'm sure that it'll be resolved in the morning." Even as the words came from her mouth, she could not help but think, _What the fuck...? _

Mystique was waiting for her, as Emma knew she would be. "Made it past the border guards did we?"
"Like it's hard," Mystique snorted. "What the fuck are you playing at, Frost?" she said, switching tones rapidly.
"This again?" Emma sighed, sitting primly in the overstuffed chair gracing one corner of her hotel room. "I've heard this tune before...change the station, Mystique."
"Your _Hellions _ are in his ranks...I hold no love for most of those students, but they are _students. _ They don't have the experience your group does."
"It's high time they learn then, isn't it?" Emma asked coolly, reaching for the phone. "I'm ordering room service. Would you like something?"
Mystique blinked. She could not quite believe that she was hearing things correctly. "Emma, as much as I hate to admit it, I know you. This isn't your style. What are you trying to do? Recruiting more Hellions it tht this complex so don't lie to me with that chestnut."
Emma sighed, the phone in her hand and one finger poised to dial. "Mystique, I hate you. I know that you hate me. That's fine. More than fine, actually. I know that you are Magneto's right hand. That's fine, too. But I respect you, for some reason. I'm not sure if it's because you're a woman in this...line of work...and quite high up in the ranks, or if it's because you're as much of a bitch as I am. Either way, take it to heart when I tell you...do not get involved in what I am doing. Stay on your side of the fence and let the big dogs play. You'll only get your blue ass killed if you try to fuck with the Hellions."

A/N Next chapter, Kurt and Kitty are back, more smut, Magneto gets snitty again, Tabby's all pregnant and I'll even throw in some footnotes. :)
1 Random reference to Opie, from The Andy Griffith Show. Sort of a snide commentary that indicates Lance thinks Sam is a bit....naïve. And a bit too...rural.