More Than the X Can See

Chapter 9

The group at Warren’s table had gotten up shortly after he had finished eating and gone inside the Institute building. Angel was concerned, but she had no idea what was wrong and she’d learned early not to put her nose into other people’s business. She enjoyed her time in the sun and eating and drinking whenever she felt like it, although Annie warned her off alcohol until she was finished with her medication. She seemed hungrier than normal, but Annie told her it was to be expected in her condition. She hadn’t eaten solid foods for four days and her body was trying to right that wrong, getting it’s energy stores back. When she decided to just vegetate on a lounge chair, there was no shortage of men who were willing to help put the sunscreen Jean gave her onto her back and hard to reach areas.

Jean-Paul met her poolside just as she was turning back onto her front for the second time. “Sorry it took me so long,” he apologized. “Since I brought up the entertainment program she wanted to go over it and then discuss the menu and then …”

Angel smiled and held up a hand to stop him, “Don’t worry! No need to apologize! I’ve been involved in planning a benefit or two also and there’s no end of questions and then trying to get people organized. Ugh! It’s a nightmare!” She sat up, “I should probably get out of the sun now. I don’t want to burn to a crisp. No one told me New York could get just as hot as California.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Jean-Paul said, holding out a hand to help her up. “Canadian summers are more mild.”

She took his hand and stood up, “Can you come up to my room and let me snap some pictures?”

He nodded, “Anything for my adoring fans. What does Ty look like?”

They went up to her room and she got out her digital camera. After snapping several photographs of Jean-Paul alone and together, she showed him pictures of her dance troupe that were on her laptop. She pointed out Ty, who was a tall well built, brown haired man with dark blue eyes. Looking at Ty’s pictures, Jean-Paul said he’d like to meet him if for some reason he had to travel to San Francisco. Angel gave him Ty’s email address and left it up to Jean-Paul to contact Ty if he was really interested. They talked and realized they had several similar interests; the homosexual community and the raising of sexually transmitted diseases awareness both inside and outside the community, they had similar political views both considered themselves Democratic or Liberal, they were interested in the future of mutant kind and how it interacted with the human race, and their common employment as teachers. They were well on their way to becoming good friends.

Belly Dance music was coming from Angel’s room as Charles and Logan walked down the hallway. They exchanged glances as they stopped at her door. Before Logan could knock, Angel opened the door. Charles’ eyebrows rose and they both got appreciative smiles on their faces as they took in her midnight blue Belly Dance costume. It was the more flamboyant traditional sequin and coin costume with the flowing skirts and skimpy bikini top. They could see Jean-Paul sitting Indian style on the foot of her bed.

“Hello,” Jean-Paul waved. Her bed was made and he was still wearing his swimsuit so it seemed nothing sexual had been going on.

“Is this performance private?” Charles asked, hesitant to interrupt. He wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Not anymore,” Logan told him as he entered the room and lay down on her bed, stacking the pillows behind his head. “I want to see this.”

Angel smiled and turned to watch Logan with her hands on her hips, “We were just talking, going over some moves to start working up a routine for the AIDS Benefit.”

“Start shakin’ it, Darlin’,” Logan ordered, still smiling. He settled down on the pillows and put his hands behind his head.

Angel turned to Charles with a condescending smile, “Do you want to watch, too, or was there some other reason you’re here?”

Charles pulled a small partially crushed paper cup from his pocket, “Annie reminded me that you haven’t had your medication and that you should take it soon.” He handed the package to her and continued, “I was also going to ask, if you didn’t have other plans, if now would be a good time to search your memory of the Lobos building. I’d like to do it before Cable arrives, you may have some important information that he may need.”

“When’s he supposed to be here?” she asked apprehensively, the smile disappearing from her face.

Charles looked at his watch, “He should be arriving at JFK within the hour and then a limo will pick him up and drive him here.”

“Oh,” she looked at the men on her bed, “Um. I guess we’ll have to continue this later, Jean-Paul.”

Jean-Paul nodded, “It’s more important, what you do with Charles.” He unfolded his legs and stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said and walked towards the door.

“See you then,” she smiled as he passed her. Charles moved into the room to let him out the doorway.

Logan sighed heavily and got off her bed, “Ya know, Chuck. It could’ve waited another five or ten minutes.”

Charles just stared blandly at him for a moment before shifting his gaze back to Angel. “We will be conducting my investigation into your mind in the Infirmary.”

“Do you know how long we’ll take?” she asked him as she walked over to her computer and turned off the music it was playing. The coins on her outfit chiming with each step she took.

“It will depend upon many factors. This will be my first time going through your mind and you have already told me you receive a great deal of information every second. Most likely that will make it more difficult for me to sift through the data stored in your mind. You have also requested to be conscious and aware. That will add to the time we take. I would estimate several hours. I suggest you put on more comfortable attire.”

She nodded, “Do you want to wait for me or meet me there? It’ll take me less than five minutes to change.”

“I need to get an inhibitor,” Charles said walking back into the doorway. “I’ll meet you in the Infirmary.”

“Chuck,” Logan asked. “If it’s gonna be that difficult, you want me to monitor the two of you?”

“Yes, thank you, Logan. I would appreciate that,” he replied. “When Angel gets to the Infirmary, please have her lay down on one of the beds and connect her up to the computer system. I’ll join you shortly.” He turned and headed down the hallway.

“Close the door, please,” Angel said as she reached behind her to disconnect her top. Logan headed over to the door. “You can stay in here if you want to,” she said. He closed the door, shutting the two of them in her room. “Thanks, Kurt and Bobby are coming up the stairs.” She took off her top revealing her naked breasts and walked towards her closet. Standing in front of it, she opened it and singled out a set of hangars. She placed the top on a hangar and reattached the clasps. He walked over and sat down on the corner of her bed, watching her. “Can you tell me what’s going on with this Cable guy and Warren?” she asked as she reached behind her and unzipped her skirt.

“You’ll probably hear about it soon enough,” Logan replied. His eyes followed her hands as she peeled the skirt off her hips and stepped out of it. Beneath her skirt she was wearing her thong bikini bottom. She hung up the dance skirt while he continued, “Some terrorist organization out of the Middle East seems to have decided that Worthington Enterprises is a good American target. Cable thinks they may have chosen Worthington not only because it’s an American company that has passed through generations, but also because Warren’s a mutant.”

“That’s horrible,” she said turning to look at him and taking off her thong. “Have you told the F. B. I.?”

Logan shook his head, his eyes locking onto the strip of honey colored fur and the cleft below it. His cock twitched and he could feel the blood starting to infuse it. Angel walked up to him and pushed him back on the bed. She put a knee on either side of his hips, “Why not?”

“Internal affair,” he responded, his voice going soft. “Worthington belongs to the X-Corporation.”

She leaned forward, her breast grazing his mouth and she whispered, “Then how is the information I have in my brain important?”

“They may be related,” he whispered before engulfing her breast into his mouth.

“The werewolves and this terrorist organization?” she mused. Logan nodded his head slightly, his tongue moving over her nipple teasing it erect. “Hmmm. Ah, Logan, you do that so well. God, I’m horny! Do you think Charles would mind if we …?”

Logan let go of her nipple with an audible pop, “Definitely.”

“Aw, shit,” she said disappointedly. She sat up on her knees and reached between her legs to touch his almost full erection through his jean cutoffs. “I guess third times the charm,” she told his cock rubbing it with her knuckles through the denim. She got off of Logan and the bed and walked to her dresser. Logan’s eyes followed her as she pulled on her discarded shorts. She turned to look at him as she zipped and buttoned the clasp, “You better stop staring at me or it’ll never go down.”

Logan sighed heavily and sat up. “Damn!” he said adjusting his cock in his shorts as he stood up. “Aren’t you gonna wear underwear with that?” he asked as she picked up her matching top.

“Nope,” she replied, putting on the shirt without a bra, her erect nipples projecting against the fabric.

“Teasin’ bitch,” he said under his breath. He was going to have a hard time of it, literally, knowing that he’d come close twice to having sex with her. Put on top of it seeing her in that sexy dance outfit and now knowing she wouldn’t be wearing any underwear while he monitored her and Chuck for a few hours. Her feminine scent was more pronounced than when he’d entered the room. She’d gotten wet while she’d kneeled over him. He decided she wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight.

Angel smiled knowingly as she reached for her sandals. She put them on and wiped the smile from her face before she straightened and said, “Let’s go.”

Logan nearly growled as he walked over to the door and jerked it open. Her scent teased him all the way to the Infirmary. His cock had relaxed when he knew he wasn’t going to get fucked, but smelling her scent kept it thick and heavy, reminding him to keep his promise to himself to bury it in her later.

Angel knew exactly what state Logan was in and it just made her hornier. If she could, she would have shoved him down onto the elevator floor and started bouncing up and down on his pole, but knowing it was more important for Charles to search her mind stopped her from sating her lust. Barely.

Inside the Infirmary, Angel waited as Logan moved two of the beds within four feet of each other before she got up on one of them. It was torture returning to where she’d first thought about having sex with him and in the exact same bed. He pulled two sets of monitoring towers into place and plugged them into the nearby wall sockets. “Don’t break these, okay?” he said jokingly. This time he took out two little pads, which attached to her forehead and connected back to the machine through a wire. When he finished taping the finger monitor to her hand she reached up and grabbed his hair, pulling him down so she could kiss him.

What she had initially meant to be a brief kiss, just enough to satisfy her need to feel his lips on her skin again, turned into a ravaging attack. His gasp of surprise opened his mouth leaving him vulnerable to her probing tongue. The strange taste of his Canadian beer gave him an interesting flavor. He fell forward, his hands landing on either side of her. Her tongue stroked against his, dueling for dominance. She smelled so good, so ready. Aggressively his tongue forced hers back into her mouth. She tasted like fruit and meat from the barbeque, delicious. He growled low in his throat, his left hand moving into her hair to hold her in place as his right moved to her chest seeking and finding her breast, the nipple still raised in a hard nub.

He heard a small metallic squeak and the displacement of air as Charles pushed open the Infirmary door. Surprised to see them kissing, Charles began to clear his throat, but upon hearing the low rumbling coming from Logan’s throat, he knew a more drastic measure should be taken. *Logan!* he exclaimed sternly in Logan’s mind.

Logan froze while Angel’s tongue, finding no resistance, made its way back into his mouth. Angel moaned, her left hand dropping from his head to press his hand into her breast. Encouraging him to squeeze it.

*What do you think you’re doing?* Charles asked him, angrily, still talking mentally. *If you can’t control yourself, go get Hank. He’s in his lab.*

Logan pulled away from Angel and stepped back, disengaging himself physically and mentally. He took a long shuddering breath and then shook himself. “I can control it,” he said calmly. He wasn’t going to accuse Angel of starting it, that would be childish and he’d been a willing participant. He bent down and picked up the roll of medical tape he had dropped when Angel had grabbed him.

Charles had been so concerned with what Logan had been doing that he didn’t notice Angel’s reaction. She was trying to get a hold of herself, breathing deeply and straightening out her shirt. She realized Charles must have said something to Logan mentally because he hadn’t said a word yet. “I’m sorry, Charles,” she said shakily. “It was my fault. I’ve been messing with him. I didn’t realize … I’m sorry,” she repeated apologetically.

Charles glanced from her and back to Logan and he sighed. Placing the inhibitor, a thick circlet with red plastic accents, on the foot of her bed, he chastised her, “We’re all adults, but I strongly advise that you avoid baiting any of the men here at the Institute. You might have been able to do that with humans, but you haven’t been in the mutant community long enough to realize how dangerous it could be.” He turned and walked to the cabinets against the wall. He unlocked one cabinet and pulled out a small medicine bottle. “Logan is she ready?” In a drawer he got out a syringe and opened it’s tamper proof plastic. Inserting the needle of the syringe into the bottle, he drew out a dosage.

Logan walked over to the monitors and stared at the readouts. “Yes, she’s coming up on the computers.”

“Good,” Charles replied. “Angel, because this is your first time, I’m going to give you a very mild sedative.” Logan joined him near the cabinets and got out a bottle of cleansing alcohol and cotton balls. “You will remain conscious during our interaction, but the drug will keep you from going into shock or having a seizure when you revisit the sewers in White Plains.” He pushed the air out of the syringe and they both approached her. Charles waited as Logan cleaned her arm and then picked up the inhibitor from the foot of the bed. He slipped the ring under the wires that lead to her forehead and placed it on her head.

She heard a small ‘click’ and a red light bathed her face as the Inhibitor glowed. She gasped and her eyes grew wide as she went scan blind. “Oh, God,” she moaned.

“Shhh,” Charles shushed her as he picked up her arm and inserted the needle, giving her the dose of sedative. “I can feel your mind now, so I know the inhibitor is working.” Angel felt as if someone had run a feather gently across the top of her head. “Did you feel that?” When she nodded, he said, “That’s me. I haven’t entered your thoughts or memories, but I’m feeling for any mental defenses you may have. You can close your eyes and rest while Logan gets me hooked up to the monitors.” Angel closed her eyes.

Charles motioned for Logan to follow him and they walked back to the cabinets. “She’s very susceptible to suggestion right now,” he informed Logan in a very low voice. “Don’t let anyone into the room because we don’t need them to say anything that will become a subliminal suggestion.”

“I know,” Logan whispered.

“For the record, I have to make sure,” Charles replied. Mentally, Charles asked, *Logan, when I walked in, did you know you were growling?*

Logan’s eyes widened, *Shit. No, I didn’t even realize—*

*Logan, you of all people … ,* Charles chided.

Logan rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, *Yeah, I know. I want her, Chuck, and she’s givin’ me all the right signals. I can smell she wants it. She’s teasin’ me. She’s not even wearin’ underwear right now.*

*How do you know?* Charles asked still maintaining mental contact.

*I stayed in her room while she was changin’,* Logan explained. *We would’ve fucked right then, but you were expectin’ us.*

*Are you sure it wasn’t part of her teasing?* Charles inquired. He new Angel was bisexual because she’d been quite open in telling Jean-Paul. He would need to know if he needed to keep an eye on her and those she befriended of both sexes. He could just search her mind for the information, but at the moment it would be a breach of faith.

*I’d swear it wasn’t,* Logan thought vehemently. *I can smell she isn’t.*

Charles nodded and turned around to look at Angel, her eyes were still closed. Logan wasn’t the most handsome man on campus, but that didn’t always stop the women. He exuded a masculinity that sometimes seemed irresistible to some and completely annoying to others. Unfortunately, most of the relationships never lasted and Logan always blamed himself or his job, never the women. It was a character flaw. Charles sighed, life at the Institute was more of a soap opera than the afternoon television shows. He got onto the other bed and Logan hooked him up to the monitoring computer. He got comfortable and when Logan gave him the thumbs up sign, he entered Angel’s mind.

Initially, Charles only contacted Angel to make sure she understood what he was going to do by bringing her into his traditional mindscape of a living room with beige leather overstuffed chairs and sofas facing each other in a circle. *Angel, this is my mind,* he said gently. His projected body standing in the middle of the room. *This is where I bring people to talk to them. I try to make it look comfortable.*

*It looks comfortable,* she said looking around. The walls, ceiling and floor seemed to be shifting shades of blue which illuminated the ‘room’ although the colors didn’t change quickly enough to be distracting. She couldn’t scan the furniture so she reached out and touched one of the sofas. It felt solid. *Why the sofa’s?*

*I can bring multiple people here to talk to them. A sort of mental conference call if you will. Because of your scanning ability, you may never come here again, but sometimes the staff may talk about it. Now, we need to go into your mind.*

*Is it going to hurt?* she asked, slightly afraid of the unknown.

Charles smiled, *No, not unless you fight me.* He held out his hand, *Give me your hand.* She put her hand into his. *I want you to think about Lobo Tech. Do you remember what it looked like when you first saw it?* She nodded her head. *Good,* he squeezed her hand. *Hold on tight. We’re going to enter your mind now.* His other hand came up and touched her head.

He knew entering her mind wouldn’t be difficult. It was viewing how she perceived her environment that made him apprehensive. He looked around in her vision of Lobo Tech and he blinked several times. He looked down and the ground fell away as if he stood on glass. He looked up and a bat flew within inches of his face although his eyes told him it was a speck in the sky. He felt Warren and Logan standing nearby as if they were pressed against his body, but he knew they were steps away. He looked at them and they seemed like ghosts, insubstantial. He could see right through them, past them and into the ruined building, which was also insubstantial, and across the street into the building beyond. He closed his eyes and groaned. This was going to give him a migraine.

*Charles?* Angel asked placing a hand on his arm. *Are you okay?*

*Your perception of your environment is slightly overwhelming,* he told her, opening his eyes and focusing directly on her.

*Maybe I need to focus differently,* she suggested. *What’s making it difficult?*

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shortly before six o’clock, Cable arrived at the Institute. Scott and Alex “Havok” Summers, Scott’s brother, had been standing near the entryway talking and waiting for the limo to arrive. They went down the stairs to help him get his luggage.

“Charles has been waiting for you to arrive. He wants to include you in a conference about what happened at Warren’s White Plains facility,” Scott said.

Cable looked down at him and nodded then turned to Alex, “I’m glad to see you’re alive and kicking.” Alex had been thought Missing In Action until nurse Annie had recognized a picture of him during his days as agent Havok from an article on mutants that showed him standing next to Cyclops in front of the Institute for Higher Learning.

“So am I,” Alex smiled. “I’m sorry that you won’t be here for the bachelor party or my wedding.”

“My ‘returned from the grave’ Uncle Havok’s wedding to Polaris? The only mutant left on Genosha after the fall?” Cable laughed. “The guest list’s probably a mile long. What a media circus that’s going to be!” More seriously, he said, “I’ll see if we can fly back for a couple of hours and be here for the ceremony before returning to San Fran.”

“If you’re able to, that’d be great.”

The limo driver had just opened the trunk, “Sir, you didn’t want me to touch your belongings earlier. I assume you want to retrieve them?”

“Yeah,” Cable said and went to the trunk to get his gear. Scott and Alex offered to help him, “Nah, I got it. Let’s get to the conference room. I want to leave for SFO as soon as possible.”

Scott and Alex led him to the conference room. Alex turned at the doorway, “I hope to see you later.”

“So do I,” Cable said.

Scott held the door open as Cable entered the room. There were several people sitting around the electronic conference table who turned to look at him when he walked in. Jean, Hank, Bobby, and Warren. Kurt was setting up a cot in the far corner. Scott sat down in a chair next to Jean. When Kurt was done with the cot, he sat in the chair between Warren and Bobby. In a row, there were three empty chairs left and he sat down in the one next to Jean.

He pointed towards the cot in the corner, “Who’s the cot for?”

The door opened and everyone turned to look as Logan walked into the room with a pretty blonde woman Cable didn’t know. Both of them wore shorts, Logan in jeans without a shirt, the woman wearing matching blue shirt and shorts. An inhibitor topped her long blonde hair. By the way she was lolling in Logan’s arms, it was obvious she was unconscious or nearly. Logan walked over to the cot and gently deposited the woman onto it, straightening her arms and legs out, making her comfortable. Then he sat down next to Cable.

“Who’s that?” Cable asked.

“Doctor Angelique Green,” Warren informed him. “Nine days ago, mutant werewolves began a killing spree on humans up north and the police determined that they were from my Lobo Tech facility in White Plains. Because mutants and my own facility were involved, Logan, Husk, Northstar and I were invited to join the investigation by a local detective. Two days later, we encountered these werewolves inside the Lobo Tech building and after some serious combat they destroyed the facility.

“Five days ago, on Monday, Doctor Green, Angel, arrived. She was hired by Charles to be a teacher here at the Institute. She has an incredible spatial awareness ability as one of her mutations. We asked her to come out to the Lobo Tech building and see if she could find any evidence of the illegal activities we found there during the battle and possibly information on the werewolves that were terrorizing the area. More werewolves attacked us while we were there and then they set off a bomb and destroyed the building even further plus the nearby sewer system. We were caught in the blast and Charles informed me today that we would have died if Angel hadn’t used her ability to create a kinetic shield to protect us from the initial firestorm of the explosion. If she hadn’t crashed into me and merged into my body and started absorbing some of my regenerative blood when her shield went down, she would have died.”

There was silence in the room for a moment as everyone absorbed the information Warren had imparted. Several glances went to Angel lying on the cot.

“You two look healthy,” Cable stated. “How about her?” his finger jerked towards the cot.

“Completely healed,” Hank replied. He added, “In the explosion that should have killed her, she landed on Warren or I should say in Warren. Like Warren said, she merged with him. She broke several of his bones and there’s a possibility she still has some bone fragments or bone marrow in her system. I believe, and Charles agrees with me, it is because of this and the large amount of blood Warren bled into her that she survived. I need to run a CAT scan on her to verify my theory. Her blood tests are still showing high counts of a healing factor similar to Warren’s. There’s a possibility it may become permanent.”

“If she’s just a teacher, why is she at this meeting? Why is she unconscious? And why does she have an inhibitor on her head?” Cable asked the questions rapid fire looking around tableable for answers.

“Chuck told me to bring her here,” Logan answered, leaning forward to rest his arms on the table. “She’s not unconscious, just relaxed. Chuck gave her a sedative to keep her calm when he decided to go into her mind for the first time. It should be wearing off soon. The inhibitor is stopping her ability to scan, otherwise Chuck wouldn’t be able to get into her mind.”

“Why does he want her here?” Bobby asked.

“Something about keeping us all together,” Logan replied.

“Where is Charles?” Cable asked, looking at the door expectantly.

“In Cerebra,” Jean replied and then got a distracted look as she mentally communicated with Charles. “He wants us all to get comfortable and turn down the lights. He said he’s going to bring us into a mindscape and it may take a while to go through the information we’ll be receiving from Angel.” Jean looked at Cable and pointed briefly towards the cot, clarifying, “Doctor Green.”

“We’re going to go into Angel’s mind?” Hank asked, smiling. “Fascinating.”

Logan got up, dimmed the lights and then checked on Angel. Bending over her he asked, “How ya doin’, Angel?” Logan made her name sound like an endearment.

She murmured something the rest of the people in the room couldn’t hear and Logan chuckled. “Later,” he promised softly and then he stood up and returned to his seat.

“What did she want?” Warren asked.

Logan smiled and shook his head slightly before turning to look at Jean. “When did Chuck want to start?” he asked her. He wasn’t going to answer Warren’s question, they didn’t need to know that Angel had just propositioned him.

“He wants to bring us all in together so he’s waiting for us to get comfortable,” Jean replied pointedly.

Everyone began to sit back in their seats and relax. Shortly, they felt a slight feather touch sensation in their minds before Charles brought them into a mindscape.