Bellwether

>
>
> Bellwether Chapter Twenty Four
>
> Disclaimers Apply
>
>
>
> A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *sneaky pre-birthday dance * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: Just realized I forgot to send them last night. Oops. Morgan: *stalkgloke * Readers/Reviewers: Yada yada yada, yahoo worm, yada yada yada, delete emails with attachments.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> “I really hate this.”
>
> “So you’ve said.”
>
> “No, I REALLY hate this,” Kurt reiterated, bracing himself against the cold gale blowing off the North Sea. “The proximity alarm goes off and there’s nothing there, our landing gear is wobbly and now THIS!” He was shouting to be heard above the shrieking wind, fighting his natural urge to gesture wildly with his arms in favor of clinging to the edge of the steel door to the hangar in the dark. “What else could…”
>
> “DON’T!” Todd shouted. “You know what happens when people say that shit!” He had it a bit easier, huddled in the narrow aperture that the steel door would normally slide into. As it was, he was struggling to keep his already numb fingers from sliding off of the edge of the slot. “TIME?”
>
> Kurt darted a quick glance to the glowing face of the watch Logan had shoved onto his wrist and nodded. “TIME!” Taking as deep a breath as he could manage without the wind snatching it away, he lunged for Todd, grabbing onto his friend’s outflung wrist before teleporting just a few feet into the hangar, into the darkest corner that Logan had indicated after the initial surveillance sweep. The absence of wind and rain was disorienting, making them both gasp and stagger for the briefest of moments, Kurt gaining his balance more quickly than Todd. “Now,” he breathed, “what did we learn from that?”
>
> “Don’t,” Todd ground out between clenched teeth, clenched to keep them from chattering, “hop around on the helipad.”
>
> “Ja,” Kurt sighed. “Don’t hop around on the helipad.” He offered his hand to Todd, pulling the other teenager to his feet in one smooth movement. “At least we’re in the hangar now. We can get inside more easily.” He chewed his lower lip in thought as his keen eyes scanned the cavernous space. “How long did they say they would kill the power for?”
>
> “As long as they could,” Todd muttered, edging closer to Kurt. “Why couldn’t they kill it to the whole place?”
>
> “It’s a distraction! Hörst du den Anweisungen denn gar nicht zu[1]?” More like: Don't you ever listen to the briefings? The translation below sound funny re-tranlated into German. It's not how we would say it. And the Babelfish one translates more like "Are you ever part of a briefing?" and it uses the formal SIE which Kurt would never ever say to Todd! *lol* He shook his head and pushed his overlong fringe from his eyes. “Come on.”
>
> “I’m not even going to pretend to know what you said,” Todd hissed, sticking as close to Kurt as he could without feeling awkward. “But I bet it was rude. Twat.”
>
> Kurt rolled his eyes. “I’m not a twat! Whatever that is!” He felt along the wall for the panel Logan had indicated before they split into two groups. There, he remembered, was his safe spot to ‘port. It was a blind spot throughout the entire complex, as far as they could tell. Straight up and straight down, no cameras, no audio pick ups.
>
> Todd’s smirk was practically audible in the hangar. “It’s not an insult… it’s a compliment. In fact, you should tell Kitty that you’re a massive twat and…”
>
> “Klappe,” Kurt spat softly. “We’re not alone.” He felt the movement, some outcropping of his innate powers alerting him to the other being moving in the space. “Scheisse…” He tensed and Todd dropped into a crouch next to him, muttering something under his breath that Kurt did not take the time to figure out. “They’re close.”
>
> “Very.”
>
> The two males leapt, literally, at the low, feminine voice so close to their location. Todd reacted without thinking, launching himself in the direction of the voice, barely contacting the sinewy figure of Mystique before hitting the floor hard, knocking the breath from his lungs with a sick thump.
>
> “It’s just me, you jackasses,” she said quietly. “For the love of anything, don’t go leaping around, Todd.” A small flicker blazed to life and Mystique’s face was illuminated, the dynamo driven flashlight in her hand weak but capable. “What are you doing… oh, screw it. Follow me and you’ll be safe.” She did not turn away, waiting for the two males to obey her strongly voiced command. “We don’t have any time!”
>
> “Neither do we,” Kurt agreed, something in him snapping. A year ago, he would have been likely to follow, if only to get to some semblance of safety. Now, he felt like a fire was searing his belly and heart, his vision blurring with it. He made it to Todd’s side before Mystique could figure what he was doing, grabbing his friend’s arm and teleporting without a second glance at the blue-skinned mutant woman. He teleported blind, belatedly realizing what he had done. This isn’t the safe spot, he thought with a shred of panic that he refused to let take root. “Fuck,” he murmured on a gentle breath. Todd was trying to stifle his coughing fit to little success. “We have to run, Todd. Now.”
>
> “Dude,” he creaked, “I can’t breathe, yo…”
>
> “You can talk, you can breathe. Come on!” He dragged Todd to his feet and started pulling him down the horribly brightly lit hallway. As dark as the hangar had been, the hallway was that much more bright. It was like walking into the sunshine after being in a cave, he thought as Todd’s loping gait smoothed out into something resembling a run.
>
> “Where?” Todd panted, his lungs aching.
>
> “No idea,” Kurt admitted, sliding around a corner into a wide corridor lined with gray metal doors. “Just don’t stop!”
>
>
>
> [1] Do you even listen to the briefings? See above, but you this comes close enough, too