Persistence of Memory
folder
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,468
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,468
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own X-Men Evolution, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.
46
Persistence of Memory Chapter Forty Six (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…I named the pig
HenWen. *g * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are nifty because they
archive. Hey, TC—survive the weather
last week? ProPhile isn’t here so he
doesn’t get any musecookies. ;) But Morgan gets Remy-muses. Readers/Reviewers: *kicks computer * This is the third time tonight I’ve written
this chapter. Let’s hope it doesn’t get
eaten again… I really appreciate all
your reviews and comments, y’all. Makes
me feel all warm and squishy inside.
;)
The usually
bellicose Magneto nearly choked on his coffee as he watched the afternoon
news. A benign-looking Professor
Xavier, flanked by a cool and calm Storm and a very uncomfortable, slicked-down
looking Logan, stared back at him from the afternoon news program. Over the still picture, the newscaster
intoned, “Professor Charles Xavier of the Xavier Institute has graciously
granted Channel Four Action News an interview and tour of the school to put to
rest these notions of mutants in Bayville.
The interview will be aired on Monday’s eleven o’clock news.” The picture shifted back to the newscaster,
who smiled broadly and seemed, Magneto felt, to stare directly at him. “I know I’m looking forward to it…”
“What the Hell
is he doing?” He slammed his mug down
on the table, ignoring the slosh of coffee over the side. “Incubus has lost his mind.”
Mesmero,
silent until then, said delicately, “If Incubus is indeed still in control.”
“Why wouldn’t
he be?” Magneto demanded. “Xavier is in
a weakened state; even if Incubus was at half his strength, taking over that
mind should be no problem, even for a longer period than a few days.”
Mesmero
shrugged negligently. “His eyes… I know
eyes, Magneto. Professor Xavier’s eyes
did not move like a…possessed….person’s would.”
“I am not
going to scrap my plan because you didn’t like the way his eyes moved,” Magneto
snapped, rising to his feet. “Get me
Mystique!”
“She’s gone
to Bayville with Firestar.”
“Get me
Psylocke!”
“She is…unavailable…”
Magneto
ground his teeth together in frustration he would not otherwise show. “In that case, get me Sabretooth and tell
him to bring the car around. We’re
going on a trip.”
“We are?”
“We being
me. You’re staying here with
Scatterbrain and Psylocke. Do not let him near the girl, understand?”
Mesmero’s
eyebrows crept upwards. “I thought that
was in your plan for her…”
“Not,” he
bit out, “yet. If I return to find her
in worse condition than when I left, I will have your head!”
Mesmero had
the distinct feeling that might not have been a simple turn of phrase.
“Back up…what
are we gonna do?”
Logan
rubbed the bridge of his nose in mute irritation. “We’re gonna dress up and play nice for an interview. You kids ain’t talkin’, got it?” He spared Jamie and Rahne a glare.
“Who is
then?” Jubilee asked, only mildly interested.
She was seated awkwardly between Remy and Skin, the two males glaring at
each other around her. Remy’s hand lay possessively
on her knee and Skin’s arm was slung casually across the back of her
chair. She was seriously considering
screaming.
“Professor
Xavier’s givin’ the interview. You kids
are just gonna sit there and look like some mutant Von Trapp family, got
it? Best clothes, no obvious piercings,
Jubilee, your hair will be all one color, at least for the day…”
“You’re not
gonna make Rogue dye her hair,” she sulked.
“Rogue’s
not gonna be part of this. She’s got
some stuff she needs to do.” Logan made
it clear in his tone that the matter should drop at that.
Tentatively,
Theresa asked, “Do I have to be there?”
“No,” Logan
began, only to be cut off by Banshee.
“But I’d
like for you to be.”
Theresa
rolled her eyes. “Right. Whatever.”
“Anyway,” Storm said a little
too loudly to be casual. “You are all
dismissed except Tabby, Wanda, Scott, Jean, Kurt, Amara, Lance, Todd, Jubilee,
Remy and Leech.”
Eyeing the
stay-behinds somewhat warily, the rest of the students filtered out. Quickly, before Storm could start in on
whatever lecture she had prepared, Jean sent to Remy and Jubilee, Kitty
wants to see both of you in the infirmary ASAP. And no, she didn’t say why.
Remy did
not betray outwardly that he heard her, but Jubilee gave a slight upwards jerk
of her chin. “Storm, can we hustle on
this? I got an hour of gym time
scheduled and I really want to make sure I’m not losing my touch on the balance
beam.”
Storm
raised an eyebrow. “It’s been less than
a week…”
Kurt put
in, “Practice is important…even a little slacking can throw you off.”
Jubilee
shot him a grateful smile. “Exactly.”
“Hmmm…”
Storm glanced at Remy, who shrugged blandly.
“Right. What we wanted to talk
to you all about is this… The Professor
is going to invite Magneto to join the interview tomorrow morning.”
“What?” Scott exploded,
surging to his feet. “That’s
regoddamneddiculous!”
“Language,”
Jean and Logan said at the same time.
“No,” Scott
made a violent slashing motion with his hand.
“Why is he going to let Magneto…”
Kurt’s
voice pitched over Scott’s. “He’s not
letting him in here is he? I won’t
let him anywhere near Kitty!”
Logan flexed
his fingers threateningly, silencing the outbursts. “Think about this one, knuckleheads…do you honestly believe
Magneto will show up and sit down with Professor Xavier and a camera crew, much
less play nice about it?”
Scott sat
down slowly. “I suppose not…”
“And that,”
Storm said with a tired sigh, “is the point.”
With a sideways glance at Logan for reassurance, she gave them a brief
outline of what the Professor had told the older mutants in regards to Magneto’s
plan. Over the murmurs of panicky
disbelief, she said, “We plan to draw him out, call his bluff…make him seem
like a fool in front of everyone.”
“Buy us
some more time,” Logan added gruffly.
“How?” Amara was frowning deeply. “Point at him and say neener neener
neener? How is asking him to join the
interview going to do anything?”
Logan
smiled thinly. “We’ve got a plan.”
“There’s
always a plan,” Kurt groaned. “And I
always get hurt…”
“Well, at
least it’s not Kitty this time,” Jubilee pointed out. “She’s in the infirmary.
And Rogue can’t zap anyone…she’s in bed. Ow! Todd, why’d you kick me?”
“Leave Rogue
alone!”
“Children!”
Storm said calmly. “This is going to be
a carefully orchestrated event. Think of
it as a ballet of lies, if it helps you any.”
Logan
shifted uncomfortably before picking up the thread. “I hate to get you kids involved in something like this… Wanda, Leech, we’re going to be asking a lot
of you two, especially…”
“Why?”
Wanda demanded suspiciously. “I want
nothing to do with my father!”
“Think of
this as a cosmic screw-you,” Jean said dryly.
“If it works.”
“We don’t
even know what ‘it’ is!” Wanda replied.
“What is ‘it’ anyway?”
“Force
Magneto to show his hand, force him to try and expose us or himself as a
mutant. Force him to do it away from his Cerebro, where he can’t do it
wide-spread.”
Scott
looked assessingly at Wanda and Leech. “Then
when he can’t show them the mutants…”
“Whoa…you
want me to bind us all?” Wanda asked skeptically. “What if there’s too many?”
“You’ll
have help,” Storm said softly, looking at Leech.
The young
boy looked scared. “I won’t get hurt,
will I?”
Kurt
sighed. “I won’t let you get hurt. I promise.
I’ll stand right next to you the whole time.”
“Okay,”
Leech nodded. “I’ll help.”
“Good…now,
here’s what we’re going to do…”
Kitty was
propped up with some difficulty on the cot, several pillows supporting her back
and more supporting her lap top. She
looked, Jubilee thought, disturbingly like a mad scientist plotting something
evil. “Hey…”
“Jubes,”
Kitty said thinly, her voice tired. “Where’s
Remy?”
“Probably harassing Skin.”
“Who?”
“Long story,” the Asian girl
sighed, sinking into the chair by Kitty’s bed.
“You doing okay?”
“Well, I’m
not seeing Hindu deities…”
“That’s a
plus.”
Kitty fell
silent for a moment as she tapped some numbers into the formula on the
screen. “Damn. Not that either…”
“What’re
you doing?”
“Trying to
figure out what made me sick. Jubilee,”
she asked suddenly, changing tacks, “I have a huge tremendous ginormous favor
to ask you…”
“What’s that?”
“Well, you
and Remy, actually…”
“Okay…”
“I need for
you to break into somewhere for me and do a thief thingy.”
“A thief thingy? You mean commit a crime?”
“Um…”
“For?”
“Me?”
“Why?”
“I need
something from Magneto.”
“What’s
that?”
“Skin,
hair, cells…”
“Whoa…you
want me to break into his house and steal something? Kitty, I don’t even know where he lives!”
“Not just
him, either… Pietro and Wanda, too. And
Mystique!”
“You can
just ask Wanda. And why the…bits?”
“I’m on the
trail of something but I need Beast to look at some things I can’t. We’d need biological material from them in
order to look at it…”
Jubilee
sighed harshly and rolled her neck, popping it, as she thought. “Okay.
I can’t vouch for Remy, but I’ll do it.
I’ll break into the Boardinghouse and get you some Pietro-bits. Everything else, give me an address.”
“I’ll see
what I can do.”
“You’d
better be glad I like you, chica.” She
stood and patted Kitty absently on the head.
“You’re a strange kid sometimes, you know that?”
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…I named the pig
HenWen. *g * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are nifty because they
archive. Hey, TC—survive the weather
last week? ProPhile isn’t here so he
doesn’t get any musecookies. ;) But Morgan gets Remy-muses. Readers/Reviewers: *kicks computer * This is the third time tonight I’ve written
this chapter. Let’s hope it doesn’t get
eaten again… I really appreciate all
your reviews and comments, y’all. Makes
me feel all warm and squishy inside.
;)
The usually
bellicose Magneto nearly choked on his coffee as he watched the afternoon
news. A benign-looking Professor
Xavier, flanked by a cool and calm Storm and a very uncomfortable, slicked-down
looking Logan, stared back at him from the afternoon news program. Over the still picture, the newscaster
intoned, “Professor Charles Xavier of the Xavier Institute has graciously
granted Channel Four Action News an interview and tour of the school to put to
rest these notions of mutants in Bayville.
The interview will be aired on Monday’s eleven o’clock news.” The picture shifted back to the newscaster,
who smiled broadly and seemed, Magneto felt, to stare directly at him. “I know I’m looking forward to it…”
“What the Hell
is he doing?” He slammed his mug down
on the table, ignoring the slosh of coffee over the side. “Incubus has lost his mind.”
Mesmero,
silent until then, said delicately, “If Incubus is indeed still in control.”
“Why wouldn’t
he be?” Magneto demanded. “Xavier is in
a weakened state; even if Incubus was at half his strength, taking over that
mind should be no problem, even for a longer period than a few days.”
Mesmero
shrugged negligently. “His eyes… I know
eyes, Magneto. Professor Xavier’s eyes
did not move like a…possessed….person’s would.”
“I am not
going to scrap my plan because you didn’t like the way his eyes moved,” Magneto
snapped, rising to his feet. “Get me
Mystique!”
“She’s gone
to Bayville with Firestar.”
“Get me
Psylocke!”
“She is…unavailable…”
Magneto
ground his teeth together in frustration he would not otherwise show. “In that case, get me Sabretooth and tell
him to bring the car around. We’re
going on a trip.”
“We are?”
“We being
me. You’re staying here with
Scatterbrain and Psylocke. Do not let him near the girl, understand?”
Mesmero’s
eyebrows crept upwards. “I thought that
was in your plan for her…”
“Not,” he
bit out, “yet. If I return to find her
in worse condition than when I left, I will have your head!”
Mesmero had
the distinct feeling that might not have been a simple turn of phrase.
“Back up…what
are we gonna do?”
Logan
rubbed the bridge of his nose in mute irritation. “We’re gonna dress up and play nice for an interview. You kids ain’t talkin’, got it?” He spared Jamie and Rahne a glare.
“Who is
then?” Jubilee asked, only mildly interested.
She was seated awkwardly between Remy and Skin, the two males glaring at
each other around her. Remy’s hand lay possessively
on her knee and Skin’s arm was slung casually across the back of her
chair. She was seriously considering
screaming.
“Professor
Xavier’s givin’ the interview. You kids
are just gonna sit there and look like some mutant Von Trapp family, got
it? Best clothes, no obvious piercings,
Jubilee, your hair will be all one color, at least for the day…”
“You’re not
gonna make Rogue dye her hair,” she sulked.
“Rogue’s
not gonna be part of this. She’s got
some stuff she needs to do.” Logan made
it clear in his tone that the matter should drop at that.
Tentatively,
Theresa asked, “Do I have to be there?”
“No,” Logan
began, only to be cut off by Banshee.
“But I’d
like for you to be.”
Theresa
rolled her eyes. “Right. Whatever.”
“Anyway,” Storm said a little
too loudly to be casual. “You are all
dismissed except Tabby, Wanda, Scott, Jean, Kurt, Amara, Lance, Todd, Jubilee,
Remy and Leech.”
Eyeing the
stay-behinds somewhat warily, the rest of the students filtered out. Quickly, before Storm could start in on
whatever lecture she had prepared, Jean sent to Remy and Jubilee, Kitty
wants to see both of you in the infirmary ASAP. And no, she didn’t say why.
Remy did
not betray outwardly that he heard her, but Jubilee gave a slight upwards jerk
of her chin. “Storm, can we hustle on
this? I got an hour of gym time
scheduled and I really want to make sure I’m not losing my touch on the balance
beam.”
Storm
raised an eyebrow. “It’s been less than
a week…”
Kurt put
in, “Practice is important…even a little slacking can throw you off.”
Jubilee
shot him a grateful smile. “Exactly.”
“Hmmm…”
Storm glanced at Remy, who shrugged blandly.
“Right. What we wanted to talk
to you all about is this… The Professor
is going to invite Magneto to join the interview tomorrow morning.”
“What?” Scott exploded,
surging to his feet. “That’s
regoddamneddiculous!”
“Language,”
Jean and Logan said at the same time.
“No,” Scott
made a violent slashing motion with his hand.
“Why is he going to let Magneto…”
Kurt’s
voice pitched over Scott’s. “He’s not
letting him in here is he? I won’t
let him anywhere near Kitty!”
Logan flexed
his fingers threateningly, silencing the outbursts. “Think about this one, knuckleheads…do you honestly believe
Magneto will show up and sit down with Professor Xavier and a camera crew, much
less play nice about it?”
Scott sat
down slowly. “I suppose not…”
“And that,”
Storm said with a tired sigh, “is the point.”
With a sideways glance at Logan for reassurance, she gave them a brief
outline of what the Professor had told the older mutants in regards to Magneto’s
plan. Over the murmurs of panicky
disbelief, she said, “We plan to draw him out, call his bluff…make him seem
like a fool in front of everyone.”
“Buy us
some more time,” Logan added gruffly.
“How?” Amara was frowning deeply. “Point at him and say neener neener
neener? How is asking him to join the
interview going to do anything?”
Logan
smiled thinly. “We’ve got a plan.”
“There’s
always a plan,” Kurt groaned. “And I
always get hurt…”
“Well, at
least it’s not Kitty this time,” Jubilee pointed out. “She’s in the infirmary.
And Rogue can’t zap anyone…she’s in bed. Ow! Todd, why’d you kick me?”
“Leave Rogue
alone!”
“Children!”
Storm said calmly. “This is going to be
a carefully orchestrated event. Think of
it as a ballet of lies, if it helps you any.”
Logan
shifted uncomfortably before picking up the thread. “I hate to get you kids involved in something like this… Wanda, Leech, we’re going to be asking a lot
of you two, especially…”
“Why?”
Wanda demanded suspiciously. “I want
nothing to do with my father!”
“Think of
this as a cosmic screw-you,” Jean said dryly.
“If it works.”
“We don’t
even know what ‘it’ is!” Wanda replied.
“What is ‘it’ anyway?”
“Force
Magneto to show his hand, force him to try and expose us or himself as a
mutant. Force him to do it away from his Cerebro, where he can’t do it
wide-spread.”
Scott
looked assessingly at Wanda and Leech. “Then
when he can’t show them the mutants…”
“Whoa…you
want me to bind us all?” Wanda asked skeptically. “What if there’s too many?”
“You’ll
have help,” Storm said softly, looking at Leech.
The young
boy looked scared. “I won’t get hurt,
will I?”
Kurt
sighed. “I won’t let you get hurt. I promise.
I’ll stand right next to you the whole time.”
“Okay,”
Leech nodded. “I’ll help.”
“Good…now,
here’s what we’re going to do…”
Kitty was
propped up with some difficulty on the cot, several pillows supporting her back
and more supporting her lap top. She
looked, Jubilee thought, disturbingly like a mad scientist plotting something
evil. “Hey…”
“Jubes,”
Kitty said thinly, her voice tired. “Where’s
Remy?”
“Probably harassing Skin.”
“Who?”
“Long story,” the Asian girl
sighed, sinking into the chair by Kitty’s bed.
“You doing okay?”
“Well, I’m
not seeing Hindu deities…”
“That’s a
plus.”
Kitty fell
silent for a moment as she tapped some numbers into the formula on the
screen. “Damn. Not that either…”
“What’re
you doing?”
“Trying to
figure out what made me sick. Jubilee,”
she asked suddenly, changing tacks, “I have a huge tremendous ginormous favor
to ask you…”
“What’s that?”
“Well, you
and Remy, actually…”
“Okay…”
“I need for
you to break into somewhere for me and do a thief thingy.”
“A thief thingy? You mean commit a crime?”
“Um…”
“For?”
“Me?”
“Why?”
“I need
something from Magneto.”
“What’s
that?”
“Skin,
hair, cells…”
“Whoa…you
want me to break into his house and steal something? Kitty, I don’t even know where he lives!”
“Not just
him, either… Pietro and Wanda, too. And
Mystique!”
“You can
just ask Wanda. And why the…bits?”
“I’m on the
trail of something but I need Beast to look at some things I can’t. We’d need biological material from them in
order to look at it…”
Jubilee
sighed harshly and rolled her neck, popping it, as she thought. “Okay.
I can’t vouch for Remy, but I’ll do it.
I’ll break into the Boardinghouse and get you some Pietro-bits. Everything else, give me an address.”
“I’ll see
what I can do.”
“You’d
better be glad I like you, chica.” She
stood and patted Kitty absently on the head.
“You’re a strange kid sometimes, you know that?”