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Title: The New Mutants, Volume IX: Double Trouble
Author: kanedax
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and situations
Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Pairings: Bobby/Kitty
Spoilers: X3, The New Mutants volumes I-VIII
Summary: The X-Men travel to Moscow. As usual, things aren't quite what they appear to be.
Notes: This is part 9 of a continuing series about the exploits of the X-Men and Xavier Academy following the events of X3. As usual, I do not own the X-Men, Marvel comics, 20th Century Fox, or a complete set of Transformers G1 Technobots. Computron is so underrated.
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Oh, my God.
Emma Frost's mind whirled at the sight outside of the cockpit. The X-Jet was surrounded by darkness. Yet, off in the distance, she saw the bright yellow and red light of flames.
Is that a town? she thought as she squinted at the shining beacon. She was about ready to turn and wake up Ororo, but something else quickly caught her eye.
A ball of fire rising from the apocalyptic scene.
A familiar shadow, with skeletal wings and a sword at its side.
The armored figure from her nightmares.
She tried to scream, but it seemed locked in her throat as the figure leaned over and flew towards the jet.
Emma attempted basic maneuvers, but her arms were useless. Immovable.
The figure flew ever closer.
She closed her eyes tight, bracing for impact.
And waiting.
She opened her eyes.
The figure was gone. The flames were gone. The jet was surrounded by the darkness of Russian night. Emma's head whirled around to look at her passengers. Ororo and Bobby were both passed out, having fallen asleep in their chairs hours ago. Peter was sketching in his book, as usual. Kitty sat staring dully out the front, her chin cupped in her hand, her elbow leaning on the armrest. As their eyes connected, she sat up.
"What's up, Professor?" she asked. "Are we almost there?"
Emma's mouth dropped open.
What's going on?
"I thought I saw something."
Kitty became more alert. "What is it? Something on radar?"
"No, I..." Emma looked down at the sensors, looking at the display in night vision. There was a town ahead, but the buildings appeared to be undamaged. No sign of a fire.
"I must have fallen asleep," she said. "Bad dream."
Kitty sighed. "I don't blame you," she said. "I've never been any further from my house than Disney World before this. Someone should have warned me it would be so long and dull, I would have brought some sudoku or something."
"Couldn't sleep?"
"Nerves," Kitty shrugged. "I get wired up before a battle. You should have seen me before Alcatraz, I was wound up pretty bad."
Emma nodded. "How's it going over there, Peter?"
Peter shrugged. "I've been nodding in and out," he said.
"Good to be going home again?"
"My family moved when I was three," he replied, his eyes never leaving his drawing. "I learned the language at home, but I haven't really been back since then.
"Besides, Russia's big," he said as his pencil scratched away. "The odds of us even going somewhere with the same dialect are fairly slim."
"Well, if one of you would wake up the sleeping beauties," Emma said, "we should be hitting Moscow fairly soon."
A few minutes later, Ororo flopped sleepily into the co-pilot's seat.
"Good morning," Emma said.
"A little too dark to be morning," Ororo yawned, "but I'll take it."
"I think I can find a clearing to land in," Emma said, pulling the night vision display to cover the cockpit window.
"Sheremetyevo Airport," Ororo said, typing the coordinates into the computer.
Emma's head turned sharply. "The international airport? Are you sure?"
"We already have clearance."
Emma's eyes narrowed. "There's something you haven't told me."
"You're right, there is," Ororo replied simply.
Emma looked back out the cockpit as the jet banked towards the airport. "This trip is the result of more than just watching CNN International."
Ororo sighed. "This trip is the result of the bargain we had to make with S.H.I.E.L.D."
"What?"
"Fly into Moscow," Ororo muttered. "Find the two mutant criminals. Subdue them, capture them, hand them over to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody."
"Ororo," Emma said darkly, "why would you do something like that?"
"Because it's the only thing that will keep them from blasting into the Academy," Ororo said sharply. "I don't know if you noticed, but we're currently harboring a mass murderer in our facility. Hank's been working his ass off to keep the situation cooled down at the UN, and this was the deal he came up with. Take these two in, or lose Alex before he's ready."
"Why?" Emma replied. "Why these two? I mean, it seems like a fairly uneven trade, two glorified jewel thieves in exchange for Blanding."
"I know," Ororo said, turning around to look back at the young X-Men, who were in the rear of the jet putting on their uniforms. "It smells. I wish I could have brought some more of the faculty, but I couldn't leave the Academy unguarded.
"Besides," she said, smiling, "These kids are good. We'll just have to keep on our toes."
An hour later, the X-Men were driving through the streets of Moscow in a minivan.
"The glamorous life of a superhero," Bobby muttered, staring out the window at the passing streetlights. Kitty, who was sitting next to him, giggled and squeezed his hand.
"It's called incognito," Ororo said from the shotgun seat. "Hence the civvies over the uniforms."
"Hey, look on the bright side," Kitty whispered into his ear, "you got to watch me change."
Bobby turned to her, his eyebrow arched. "And how's that different than other nights?"
Kitty laughed. "This time you got to share the experience with Pete."
"Okay," Peter mumbled from the middle of the vehicle, "I only caught the tail end of that, but why is my name being brought up in your flirting?"
"Because you have nice arms to have, Mr. Rasputin," Kitty yelled from the back, laying her head on Bobby's shoulder.
"Code names," Emma said sharply from the drivers seat.
Peter shook his head at Kitty. "One of these days, Alice..."
"See?" she said to Bobby. "Nice arms and Jackie Gleason quotes. What girl wouldn't swoon?"
"No swooning," Bobby muttered, his face turning red.
Kitty kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry," she said, "I have my not-quite-so-nicely armed guy right here. I'll let Alison and Jubilee fight over him."
"Really?" Peter said, perking up for what Bobby calculated was the first time in his life.
"Later, stud," Ororo said from the front. "We're getting close to the package."
Kitty giggled.
Jesus, Emma muttered mentally to Ororo, Are all X-Men this hormonal? Is it the skin-tight leather?
It comes and goes with the changing teams, Ororo replied. Forge and I kept it fairly subdued when we were dating, but it depends. Sunspot and Darkstar couldn't keep their hands off each other. Hank and Rahne were both fairly PDA when we weren't in battle. And you should have seen Scott's reaction when Northstar invited his boyfriend out to dinner with us one night...
It has to be the leather, Emma repeated.
I wouldn't complain if I were you, Ororo thought teasingly. First time we fought, you were practically hanging off of the Black King.
"I..." Emma said aloud. "That was different. I was evil then."
"Uh huh," Ororo replied, her lip curling into a smirk.
Emma's face turned red. "I'm doing much better now."
"Subject dropped, White Queen," Ororo said.
"So what's the plan?" Peter asked.
"Plan is simple," Ororo replied. "S.H.I.E.L.D. intel traced the two to an abandoned warehouse about a mile from here. We go in, and, best case scenario, we intimidate them into surrendering."
"Worst case?" Kitty asked.
"Worst case," Ororo said, "we convince them to surrender through hitting. Weaken them enough to activate the two mental inhibitors that S.H.I.E.L.D. provided, then call in the recovery team."
"I don't like this," Bobby muttered. "Working with the government? How can we trust them?"
"We don't," Ororo said. "But Forge already checked out the inhibitors, and they're safe, they do exactly what we're told they can do. Beyond that, just keep your guard up. Hopefully this will keep them off our ass and off Hank's ass until we're finished with Alex.
"Pull over here, Frost. We walk from here."
Emma pulled the van to the side of the street. The five piled out, and faced the industrial park across the street.
"Anything?" Storm asked Frost, who nodded.
"I'm picking up a few thoughts so far," she responded. "Luckily, most of the late shift work is in the buildings on the other side of the street, so we won't have to worry about hurting anyone who shouldn't get hurt. I'm feeling about a half-dozen people in the park, and only two with any patterns that you would call hostile."
She pointed off to the left. "The other four are some drifters, huddled over in that corner."
"Can you get them out?"
Frost nodded and closed her eyes. A few minutes later the group saw four bodies wandering onto the sidewalk.
"What did you do?" Shadowcat asked.
"Just gave them all a case of the heebie jeebies," Frost said, smiling her cold smile. "They all decided that it was a little too creepy to sleep there tonight, and it would be better to find a nice warm homeless shelter instead."
Storm nodded. "Let's go."
The X-Men walked across the street and into the park. After a few minutes, they approached a darkened warehouse building.
"They still in there?" Storm asked.
"Yes," Frost replied. "But we should still have the drop on them."
"Can you coax them out?"
Frost shook her head. "I can read minds, but can only influence the weak or unfocused ones. The two in there are fairly focused on not coming out."
"Alright," Storm replied. "Everyone suit up."
The group pulled off their civilian clothes, revealing the X-Men uniforms beneath, all black except for Frost's white attire.
She turned to Iceman and Colossus. "Wanna show them what you got?"
The two nodded, and seconds later they were covered in new skin, Bobby shielded by ice armor and Peter in organic steel.
Storm turned to the warehouse, her eyes turning white, and yelled inside.
"Attention!" she yelled. "We know you're in there. You're surrounded and outgunned. Surrender now, and no one gets hurt!"
Silence responded.
"That wasn't very intimidating," Frost muttered.
"Maybe they don't speak English," Shadowcat said.
Storm turned to Colossus. "Ready for some theatrics?"
The metal giant nodded and took two steps forward.
"Comrades!" he yelled. As he did, Storm raised her hand into the air, and lightning flashed to add an exclamation point.
Colossus continued to yell into the warehouse in Russian, while Storm put on an intimidating show of thunder and lightning.
"What's he saying?" Shadowcat yelled over the din.
"I don't know," Iceman yelled back, "but it's probably a lot cooler than what Storm came up with."
"Is it working?" she asked.
She was answered seconds later by Colossus being thrown backwards, flying twenty feet and landing on the cement.
The four looked to where he had stood. In his place stood a young man, in his mid-twenties. He was dressed in jeans and a light blue t-shirt, with shocking white hair.
His head turned to face Storm. He smiled darkly, then disappeared. A split second later, Storm felt a sharp blow to her back, knocking her forward.
Teleporter? Frost asked quickly.
No, Ororo replied as she landed. Super speed. I've faced someone with it before.
How do we-- Frost asked, but was cut off as she was knocked down as well. Her head collided with the cement as the man stood over her, laughing.
"Kitty, phase up!" Bobby yelled, and Kitty nodded. The man had turned to the two of them, and launched forward faster than any of them could track. Bobby was barely able to register a blur passing through Kitty before the man appeared behind them, his eyes showing a hint of frustration. He turned to Bobby, who instinctively threw up a wall of ice just as he leaped forward. Bobby jumped out of the way, and the man crashed through the ice and tumbled to the ground.
He looked up, a trail of blood dribbling from his lip, to see the other X-Men slowly coming to their feet.
He yelled something in Russian, and seconds later Peter was lifted into the air and thrown against the far wall.
Metal junk floated off the ground and tossed at the group.
"What the fuck?" Bobby yelled, jumping out of the way of a flying hubcap. He turned to look at Peter who, after being smashed against the wall, continued to float in mid-air. His face was twisted in agony, and Bobby could see dents appearing in his metal skin.
"Colossus!" Storm yelled, "Power down!"
Peter screamed, too in pain to reply.
"Emma!" Storm yelled, and Frost, who was slowly getting to her knees, nodded, focusing on Peter's mind. Peter's steel skin turned to flesh, and he crumpled to the ground.
Bobby stared in shock into the dark building, barely registering the pieces of metal bouncing of his ice-covered body.
"It can't be," he breathed. "I thought we cured him..."
Bobby felt a breeze pass by his left shoulder, and whirled to see the man fly past him, leaving black skid marks as he stopped twenty feet away.
Keep your guard up, Frost said into his mind. I convinced him you were six inches to the right, but I wouldn't give him a second chance.
Bobby nodded, and faced the man. He focused, and this time was able to register the man, barely a blur.
He reacted quickly, shooting his hands out and coating the ground with ice. As the blur passed by him, Bobby swung with it, covering the entire trail. The man came tried to stop, but with no traction he slid at full speed into the wall of the warehouse.
"Shadowcat," Ororo said from the ground, pulling the two headband-like devices from her belt.
Kitty ran over to her, taking the inhibitors. Storm momentarily felt a sense of disorientation as the bands passed through her hands, joining Shadowcat in her phased state.
"If he still has that damn helmet," she muttered, "you'll need to get it off him before you can put this on him."
"Well," Kitty said, her voice shaking, "I guess there's not many X-Men who can say they've taken down Magneto."
"I'll give you some light," Storm breathed. She lifted her hand, and a bright globe of ball lightning appeared before the two. The ball floated through an open window, and Kitty followed seconds later, passing through the wall next to the unconscious man.
Tense moments passed by in which Bobby, the only X-Man still standing, could do nothing but dodge the flying shrapnel, shooting walls of ice in front of his three downed teammates.
After what felt like hours to Iceman, whose mind not on his girlfriend as well as his comrades, the metal junk hung in mid-air for a second, then dropped to the ground.
Bobby looked hopefully to the warehouse, and seconds later Shadowcat passed through the wall, stopping long enough to put the second inhibitor on the young, white-haired mutant.
"Kitty!" he yelled, and ran to her. They met in the middle, and he enclosed her in a deep hug.
"You're okay," he whispered.
"You're cold," she replied.
Bobby looked down at himself, realizing he was stilled covered in ice. He stepped back, and a second later the ice had melted off him.
"I can't believe you got him," Frost said, staring towards the dark warehouse.
"Well..." Kitty said, but before she could say more the industrial park was lit from above.
"Pietro and Lorna Maximoff!" A voice boomed from the hovering helicopter. "By order of the UN Security Council and the the Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate, you are hereby under arrest for crimes against the Russian and international communities."
"But what about...?" Bobby said as a dozen soldiers, in full body armor, ran past the two into the warehouse. Seconds later, they dragged out the body of an unconscious woman. She appeared to be no more than a year or two younger than her brother, and had a similar hairstyle, with her hair being bright green.
"It wasn't Magneto," Kitty said quietly as the helicopter landed nearby.
"How's Colossus?" Emma asked Storm, who had bent down next to Peter.
"I'm fine," he groaned, pulling himself into a sitting position. "I haven't had that happen before, it hurt like hell."
"Miss Munroe," a voice said from behind them. Ororo stood to face the S.H.I.E.L.D. officer.
"Storm, if you would, officer," she replied shortly.
"Yes, ma'am," the officer (Brevlov, his tag named him) replied. "On behalf of the international community, we would like to thank your team for..."
"Cram it," Storm replied. "We did your dirty work and nearly got killed for it. I think we're even."
Brevlov's mouth hung open, clearly showing that he wasn't used to being spoken to in that manner.
"We deal with Blanding in our own way," she continued, "and will turn him over when we deem him fit. In the meantime, Henry McCoy's name is to be no longer connected to the Blanding case, he shall no longer be penalized or harassed for what is our decision to keep Blanding, and none of your soldiers come to my facility to take Blanding out.
"Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Brevlov growled.
"Thank you, commander," she said coldly, helping Peter to his feet.
As the officers hauled the man, Pietro onto the helicopter, he mumbled something in Russian.
"What was that?" Storm said.
"The inhibitors are constructed to stop any retaliation, either physical or mutation," Brevlov responded. "But the vocal chords can still function for interrogative purposes."
Maximoff continued to mumble.
"'You may have destroyed our father,'" Peter said quietly, translating, "'but you will never destroy us.'"
"Father?" Storm said as Lorna was brought past them.
Lorna slowly lifted her head her head and looked into Storm's eyes.
"Lehnsherr," she whispered.
Storm's body went cold. "What?"
Lorna laughed as she was hauled onto the helicopter.
"Lehnsherr!" she screamed as the door slammed closed and the helicopter lifted off.
"Their father..." Peter mumbled.
"Erik Lehnsherr?" Storm said.
"My God," Emma said.
"Scott Summers' brother," Bobby muttered. "Magneto's children.
"Is it just me, or does everyone suddenly seem to be related to everyone else?"
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