(Author's Note: Any dialogue in brackets in this fic is translated from Japanese.)
 
 

Stepping out of the heavy rain and into the meager shelter provided by the dilapidated barn, Gambit searched around the area for the telltale clue he had been told about.

There.

Mystique had done well. He likely wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking for it. A crate lay at one end of the barn. It still looked worn-down, but compared to the state of the rest of the junk in the barn it looked just a bit too new.

Gambit tried to move it by pushing it aside with his foot, but it was heavier than that—definitely weighted so that even if a heavy wind blew through the barn, the crate wouldn't budge.

Planting his staff in the ground for a minute, Gambit leaned down and pushed his entire body weight against the crate. Slowly but surely it gave way. Even though he was expecting it, he almost tripped as the entry to stairwell was revealed below the crate.

Planting one foot down on the dry stairs so that he could finish pushing the crate aside, Gambit brushed the mud off of his gloves and yanked his staff out of the mushy soil before making his way down the short stairway.

Huh. And so close to where the X-Men had done battle with that Rockslide character… No wonder Rogue had told me the Brotherhood had been there.

As expected, Gambit found the keypad next to the entry door. Leaning against one side of the stairwell, he quickly entered the passcode, pressing his staff horizontally across the middle of the door and sticking one of his feet against the opposite as he did so.

What happened next happened in a mere fraction of a second, but Gambit had been expecting it.

Pietro had been right on the other side of the door, and even though one of his legs had been wrapped in a makeshift splint, he was still fast, even on crutches.

Which is what the staff and the outstretched foot had been for.

Not having enough time to take in the scenery, Pietro immediately tried to speed out the doorway as it slid open, only to strike his head against Gambit's staff and trip over the outstretched leg, cursing as he went down.

"Nice," Gambit smirked, grabbing the back of Pietro's shirt firmly as he lifted his former teammate up. "But treachery gets predictable after 'a while, Quicksilver. Think that's maybe why your dad disowned you?"

"Look, you let me out of there, I'm grateful!" Pietro said, trying unsuccessfully to get free of Gambit's grasp as he did so. "But I wanted you to get me out, and you did, so our business is over with!"

"How stupid do you think I am?" Gambit said, getting a little indignant. "That I would trust you, of all people, to wire me the money for getting you out of here after the fact? No. Give me the money now, or I throw you back in and seal the door."

"Oh, come on!" Pietro said, his tone getting panicky. "Mystique's due back here from Japan any day now—in fact, I'm surprised she isn't here already- and you know what she'll do if she sees that I escaped from my cell! I've—we've—gotta get out of here!"

"And we will," Gambit replied. "After you give me the payment we agreed on over the phone."

"Fine. FINE!" Pietro said, flustered as he fumbled through his pockets and finally threw a debit card at Gambit, who deftly caught it and slid it into one of his trenchcoat's many pockets. "Look, the PIN number is written on the piece of paper taped to it, alright? Take it to any ATM and take out your money. Anything left from when I ran that underground racing ring is yours. There's gotta be at least ten thousand left in there, I was supposed to hold it for my father. Now let me GO!"

"Hold on now," Gambit said, holding Pietro back as the white-haired Mutant tried to run away again. "Since you were holding it for your father, and then you both had a, shall we say, falling out, who's to say Magneto didn't already take all the money from the account?"

"Look, like I already told you, Blink said they didn't need me anymore," Pietro said. "That includes my money. Whatever he's doing now—and I swear I don't know—the money I collected doesn't matter."

Gambit stared at Pietro for a second. "An' I'm just supposed to trust your word on this."

"Look, c'mon, we're in this together!" Pietro protested. "Well... kind of. We both were former Acolytes who left Magneto!"

"If I recall, this isn't the first time you've sworn up and down that you weren't affiliated with your father."

"Well, that was before he screwed me over!" Pietro said. "Look, fine, don't trust me, but see the splint? See all the bruises? Those sure as heck are real!"

"Hrmph," Gambit said, looking Pietro over. "You have a point. And you certainly sounded desperate when you were trying to strike a deal with me over the phone."

"Right, so can I… OW!" Pietro cried as Gambit kicked him lightly in the knee that was presumably broken.

"Injury seems real enough," Gambit said. "Alright, fine, you'll go."

"And you won't ever tell anybody?"

"Please. Who exactly am I affiliated with now?"

"…Fine, we've already spent enough time yapping here. Now let me go!"

"Have a good life," Gambit smirked, finally letting go of Pietro.

Immediately the speedster made his way up the stairway and out of site—certainly far faster than a human could have ascended, but much slower than usual, given how he had to rely on crutches to get around.

A' course, Gambit thought to himself, letting a piece of paper fall out of his sleeve and into his hand as he opened it up and read it, A thief never lets somebody like you leave without taking a little something extra… Some insurance, in this case, on the off chance you're still pulling my leg.

"Gambit had pickpocketed Quicksilver while they had been busy talking," Rogue explained. "He had taken a piece of paper that seemed to have been quickly stuffed in Pietro's other back pocket. On it were details of the hotel where Pietro would be staying, along with some basic info like the cost per night. They were hastily scribbled down, so I guess Pietro had already made a long-term reservation by the time Gambit had arrived to let him out of the Brotherhood HQ."

Rogue was standing in the hallway outside Gambit's cell in one of the X-Mansion's lower levels, with Xavier, Hank, and Christoph present. It was very early in the morning, so most of the other students and instructors were sleeping after a rather eventful night.

"So for the past ten days you've had all of this information and you've never even told us?" Hank said incredulously to Gambit, who was slumped against one of the walls of his cell, the bullet wound in the former Acolyte's shoulder patched up.

"Look, just because I'm not on Magneto's side anymore doesn't mean I want to start a crusade against him," Gambit mumbled. "'Specially with the forces he's got, I figured it was better to leave well enough alone and not probe Pietro about wherever his father's army was hiding."

"Particularly since you had already been paid to keep your mouth shut," Rogue sneered.

"Hey, Quicksilver had been right—there was a ton 'a money left in that account," Gambit protested. "So I felt it best to honor our agreement and not go and pester him at his new address. And if there's one thing a thief understands over everything else, it's money."

"Well, I'd say it's high time to start thinking less like a thief and more like a decent human being," Christoph said.

"You start insulting me and I guar-an-tee you won't get anything else outta me."

"Then maybe we'll just keep you in there and any time I need another dose of info I'll just grab you for a few moments then, huh?" Rogue spat back.

Despite his predicament, Gambit smirked. "Now who needs the lecture on being a decent human being?"

"You smarmy little—" Rogue began, taking off her glove and getting ready to deactivate the cell's electrified bars when Xavier reached out, catching her arm.

"I think we've learned about all we can from Gambit regardless, Rogue," Xavier said. "Besides, none of this explains what Deadpool and Domino had wanted with Gambit's laptop."

"Well, from what I gathered from his memories, the laptop's where Gambit has stored a lot of the personal information he had gained from Pietro—stuff that he himself hadn't memorized. PIN number to Pietro's account, info that will help us track him down, things like that."

"I thought as much," Christoph said. "Once she gets back later today with the others, I'm going to ask Moonstar to give the laptop a once-over with her powers. Any security ol' Remy here has on that thing will be useless once she's taken a look at it.

"And FYI," Christoph continued, turning back to Gambit, "Yes, we'll be deleting any illegal information you have stored on that thing."

Gambit let out a curse under his breath, but otherwise stayed silent.

"If I were you, I'd be grateful we haven't already turned you over to the authorities," Xavier said. "Given what Rogue's told me about your… connections… whatever other information you have stored on that laptop would land you in quite a bit of legal trouble. However, given our predicament, we'll likely need you in the near future."

"Oh?" Gambit said, his interest piqued. "And what use would such good-natured folk like yourselves have for a thief like me, hrm?"

"It depends on how events today play out," Xavier said, before turning his wheelchair and motioning for the others to follow him as he started to wheel down the hallway and out of the holding room.

"Are you sure Gambit won't be able to break outta there?" Rogue asked as she hesitantly followed the others out of the room, the door sealing shut behind her.

"The bars are electrified, so Gambit can't touch them without being knocked out," Hank explained as they walked down the hallway towards the elevator. "As for the other three walls of the cell, we designed them a while back to withstand any sort of destructive energy, including Gambit's kinetic energy charges. It simply disperses that kind of energy to the point where it's effectively negated. Forge helped us design it. Anyways, Remy's staying put until we decide otherwise."

"Well, that's good, at least," Rogue replied.

After a couple moments of silence, Hank said, "Charles, I have to say I have reservations about working with Gambit, if events play out like we think they will. Even though he's worked with us at times, he's taken advantage of us almost as often. We could very well be looking at a double-cross here."

Xavier shook his head. "I don't think so, Hank. Gambit may have a code of ethics quite different from ours, but it's still a code nonetheless. After all, recall that not too long ago he returned Rogue to us unharmed after she had been abducted by Mesmero, when he just as easily could have held her for ransom if he so desired. Besides, I've scanned his mind—he has indeed broken off all contact with Magneto, as he has said."

"Wait, am I missing something? Why do you guys think we'll have to work with Gambit?" Rogue asked.

"Well, as you've said, Mystique was apparently behind hiring Domino and Deadpool to steal Gambit's laptop," Christoph said.

"Yeah, and it was to get the info as to where Pietro had gone, since he had escaped while she and the rest of the Brotherhood were in Japan," Rogue said, searching the memories she had absorbed from Domino. "She wanted to get him back, and she was willing to pay a lot to do so, even if it…. Ohhhhh, I get it now. So when do we leave?"

"You're getting some much-needed sleep," Xavier said. "You've been up all night, and we might need you again later in the day. No, we'll get all the relevant information from Gambit's laptop once Danielle gets back, and then we'll assemble a small team to deal with the matter. With Jean, Scott, and Paige also all scheduled to come back today from their summer vacations, we'll have more than enough X-Men to deal with whatever is thrown our way."

"Alright, now come at me," Fred said, assuming a ready stance.

"Come… at… you?" Hisako said slowly in a heavy Japanese accent, looking questioningly at Noriko, who was off to the side of the Brotherhood's training room.

[Think about the words individually,] Noriko said back to her younger cousin in Japanese. [It's slang, but it still kind of makes sense if you work it out. 'Come at you' means to basically approach Freddy, and in this context it means to attack him. He wants to see how you handle direct combat against another Mutant with super strength.]

[But I don't want to hurt him!] Hisako protested.

[Blob's a… sturdy guy, he'll be able to handle it,] Noriko replied. [Look, you've recovered well enough, it's time to uncage the beast, at least a little. Don't be nervous—we just want to see how much you've got your powers under control now.]

"Okay," Hisako nodded, switching back to her heavily-accented English as she looked at Blob. "Here… I.. .go!"

Hisako closed her eyes, concentrating, and within a few seconds a pink energy emerged from he,r enclosing her in it as it took a humanoid shape, almost like an exo-suit. She ran forward, yelling, even though her eyes were closed—for all intents and purposes now, she was the "exo-suit".

Blob easily caught a pink fist as Hisako thrust it at him, then used the force from the thrust to pivot Hisako over his head, slamming her on the ground behind him.

"This is gonna take forever," Lance whispered from his position next to Noriko. "Not only can she barely understand English, she just ran at Freddy! And not only that, but look how easily he overpowered her! When we fought her back in Japan, she tossed him aside like he was almost nothing!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you mastered YOUR powers in a few weeks," Noriko replied back sarcastically. "Give her a break, will you? She did all that stuff to you when she was asleep, i.e., not conscious. It's gonna take her a while to get as powerful as she was before."

"Yeah, okay, it took me a while to get my powers under control, but I didn't whine about it," Lance said, motioning to where Hisako was sitting on the floor behind Blob, her pink armor no longer surrounding her. "I don't understand Japanese, but I'm pretty sure the meaning of crying is universal."

Noriko elbowed Lance in his side before she strode up to Hisako and put her metal-plated arm over her cousin's shoulders. [Hisako! What's wrong? Are you hurt?]

[No, no, it's not that,] Hisako said, her face flushing as a few more tears fell down her cheeks. [I'm just… I'm tired of this! Why do I have to do this?]

"What's wrong?" Blob asked, scratching his head. "I'm pretty sure I went easy on her."

"It's… nothing," Noriko said, turning briefly towards Blob. "She's just dealing with a lot. Look, take Lance and go, okay? We'll resume in a little bit."

Blob shrugged and motioned for Lance to follow him as he began to leave the room. Lance muttered something under his breath, but reluctantly followed Fred out of the training room.

[Alright, we're alone,] Noriko said. [I can tell you've been uneasy since we rescued you. I get that it's a lot to take in—I wasn't exactly at my best after my powers activated, either. But it's been a few weeks now! You've got to get your anxiety under control. Mystique isn't going to let you skate by like this forever.]

[You and Mystique are the only ones who even speak my language here!] Hisako sobbed. [And no offense, but I barely knew you even before we were both Mutants! I want to see my parents again, and I want to go back to Osaka!]

Noriko visibly soured a bit after that comment, and spun Hisako around to face her. [Look, you don't want Mystique to catch you talking like that. Heck, I don't want to catch you talking like that, you hear? We risked our necks to save you. We took you in when the police- once they figured out what had been going on- would've eventually found a way to either kill you or knock you out and drag you to some maximum security prison.]

[And I appreciate that, I do!] Hisako replied. [But I've seen you guys on television. You're… we're… outlaws! I don't want to-]

[You think we have a choice?] Noriko interrupted. [You think everybody else will just let us live our lives? You have no idea what Mystique did to help me, Hisako! She used her contacts to delete my criminal record, she provided me with these gauntlets that help to regulate my powers… she may not show it at times, but she cares about our future, Hisako! If we were to take you back to your parents, even IF they were to accept you as you are now, it wouldn't be long before the police came for you! You destroyed part of a national monument and injured several people in the process!]

[Even if I didn't do it on purpose, I should still… still face justice…] Hisako said softly.

[You think they'd give you a fair trial? We're Mutants, Hisako. Whether we like it or not. And all those people out there, the ones that try to push us around? They're jealous of us. Of our powers, of our ability to actually do something about the situations we find ourselves in.]

[I wish I could do something about the situation I'm in…]

Noriko sighed angrily before continuing. [Alright, I admit I walked right into that one. But you know what I mean! We turn the conventional power structure on its head— those in charge can't control us like they used to, and that makes people—it makes governments—uneasy. So they're trying to register and cage us. Mystique's working to help us fight back against this system—but she needs your help, Hisako. We need your help.]

Hisako sat there for a few moments, wiping her tears off her face before she responded. [I don't… I don't know, Noriko. It doesn't feel right. I don't want to be an outlaw.]

[You're a Mutant. The way things are right now, being outlaws means being true to ourselves,] Noriko responded, a bit more softly. [Look, I know we only saw each other about once every year or so before… before my powers went nuclear and I ran away, but we've got a stronger bond now than just being cousins. We're Mutants, Hisako. We're part of a new species—and one that will become an endangered one, if we don't fight for it. So look, I know you. I know you're not somebody who likes to pick fights. But the fight's been picked. And you need to fight back, or you'll be crushed underneath humanity.]

Another couple of moments went by silently, Hisako obviously deep in thought, before she replied again. [Then what makes us different from Magneto, wherever he is? Why are we fighting him, too? And the X-Men?]

[Well, the X-Men, that's easy,] Noriko huffed. [They're traitors. They want us to be pushed around by the government, by humans. They think there's some chance we'll eventually be able to get along. Why, I've never been able to figure out. I don't think I want to. As for Magneto… from what Mystique has told me, he's too power-hungry. He wants to replace humanity's power structure with his own—and he doesn't really care about who he has to step over to do it, even if it's his own followers. Believe it or not, Mystique used to work for Magneto—and he betrayed her, so she took the Brotherhood and struck out on her own.]

[And you're sure this is the right way… to fight back,] Hisako said, looking Noriko in the eyes.

[Absolutely,] Noriko said, her gaze unwavering.

[…Alright, then,] Hisako sighed. [I just… I'm not sure about all this. But I'll… trust you on this. Mystique hadn't convinced me, as she isn't very… approachable. But if you think this is the right way, I guess… I guess it's good enough for me.]

[I get it,] Noriko said, [But you'll see eventually, it's for the best. Once you learn more English and get your powers under control, we'll get out of this place, I'll show you some of the cooler places in Bayville, okay?]

[…Yeah, okay…] Hisako said.

*Noriko? Hisako? I saw Avalanche and Blob walking around in the lounge,* came Mystique's voice over the base's intercom system. *They informed me that there's been another problem? Please come to my office. Now.*

[She sounds awfully mad…] Hisako said, a little fear creeping into her voice.

[Look, Mystique is sometimes tough, but it's for our own good,] Noriko said, helping her cousin up. [She just wants to know what's going on, that's all. I'll cover for you—but you need to start really putting some work into honing your powers, you got it?]

[…Right,] Hisako said hesitantly as Noriko led her out of the room.

Mystique was livid.

She had put all that work in, spent weeks away in Japan to recruit a Mutant whose potential power scale was almost off the charts, and what did she get in return?

A missing captive, all of her important information (and its backups) gone, and a new member who barely had the courage and ability to do much of anything with her powers—certainly nothing she couldn't have counted on Blob to do, at the very least.

She had first discovered something was off a few days after they had all taken Hisako to Shiro's safe house on the outskirts of Osaka. She had used her secured laptop to access one of the drives located here, in their base—only it wasn't coming up. She had tried multiple times, using several different computers, and despite inputting all the correct passwords, she wasn't getting anything.

Which meant one of two things; either the power at the base was out or somehow, her computer's drives were disconnected—for all intents and purposes, gone.

Given that Quicksilver had been kept in an electrified cell, neither possibility was minor enough that she was willing to wait until they could secure a ride home to find out what, exactly, was going on.

It had taken quite a bit of effort—one of Shiro's contacts knew another contact, who knew another, who knew another, who had Deadpool and Domino's information—but eventually she was able to get those two mercenaries to enter her base and figure out what had gone wrong.

By going back through the security camera feeds—the only sophisticated electronic equipment left at their headquarters, interestingly enough—the mercs had uncovered that Quicksilver had escaped from his cell shortly after the Brotherhood had left for Osaka. Not only that, but the little traitor had tried to use their communications equipment to contact Magneto.

He had succeeded, she had found, but not in the way he had intended.

Instead of getting rescued, the footage told them, one of Magneto's new lackeys—some purple-skinned teleporter—had 'ported in. Apparently, Magneto had known where they had been this whole time.

Even amidst this whole mess, that was probably the most unsettling information of all.

The teleporter, codenamed 'Blink', had let that slip—obviously willingly—along with the fact that the Acolytes didn't want Pietro anymore. He was too incompetent, and his father was tired of expending resources saving his hide. Pietro had only been told a small portion of what their plans were—apparently enough where Magneto didn't consider any of his knowledge a real threat—and so Blink had left him there.

That, by itself, would have actually been a net positive for Mystique. Sure, she would've known Magneto had their location, but she would've had a shaken, crippled Quicksilver to beat up on once they had gotten back.

Magneto—and Blink—weren't finished, however. Blink had teleported out all of the Brotherhood's—all of HER- computer records. To hack? To destroy? Mystique had no clue. Regardless, all the hard work she had put into setting up a global network of Mutants on her side, and now it was all gone. She was working remotely with Shiro to rebuild it all, but purchasing all that new equipment, inputting all that info into the databases again… it would take time. And, of course, there was always the possibility that that infernal purple-skinned Acolyte could pop back in in the middle of the night and steal it all again before they could do anything about it.

Quicksilver, of course, hadn't exactly had plans to stick around for Mystique to take out her anger on him. It had taken him a while, but he had found a hidden cell phone and, after several of his so-called "friends" had turned him down, he called Gambit with it. To her surprise, Gambit had actually acquiesced to his request and let him out—in exchange for a large sum of money, of course.

And that, Deadpool and Domino had told her, had been that. The security cameras showed no further activity.

So Mystique had upped their promised pay substantially and sent Deadpool and Domino to find out where Gambit had stored the information on Quicksilver's new whereabouts—Remy had to have it somewhere, surely, as he was a professional thief after all—and track down and capture the white-haired Mutant.

And now here she was, face-to-virtual-face with one of the mercs, who had just told her that they had failed to even get THAT much done.

"You said you were the best of the best!" Mystique growled. "Your required pay rate certainly implied that you were!"

"That was hyperbole!" Deadpool said, his masked face and little else visible on the small watch-sized communication device they had left at the base for Mystique to contact them on. "I mean, if we were seriously the best of the best, we'd be, what…. God? At least Apocalypse, I think. And I don't imagine either of them are for hire."

"How hard it is for the TWO of you to steal something from ONE thief?" Mystique roared. "I was hardly giving you two dolts Mission Impossible!"

"..Though that WOULD be an awesome comic series," Deadpool mumbled to himself. "God for Hire! Ooo, I wonder how people would pay him… I guess you'd have to scale things down to the ancient Greek-type of God, so that He wasn't omnipresent and thus every comic ended in like two pages…"

"…Are you even LISTENING to me?" Mystique seethed, her blue head now turning purple from all the blood flowing into it.

"Am I listening… of course I'm listening! You just have a rather cliché archvillain way of talking and I prefer to think about happier, more awesome things than whatever you're yammering on about!"

"Can I talk…" Mystique managed to eke out the words through her clenched lips… "to the other one?"

"Domino? Nah, she's recovering from, ah… injuries from last night," Deadpool said. "What, you need a gal-pal to chat about shoes or something with? She actually collects guns, I think she only has two pairs of—"

Mystique roared and yanked off the communicator, throwing it against the wall where the glass screen shattered upon impact.

Mystique stood there for a few moments, breathing heavily as she tried to calm herself.

A staticky-sounding voice broke the near-silence from the partially broken communicator.

"Soooo…. I take it we aren't getting paid then?"

Mystique stepped on the communicator in response, grinding it into the floor several times until there was no way anything within it still functioned.

She just stood there for a couple of minutes, trying to quiet her mind, breathe in deeply…

Remember what Agatha Harkness taught you about control…

Finally, when she felt she was calm enough to go and deal with the rest of the Brotherhood, she opened up the door to her office and walked out into the hallway, almost bumping into Avalanche and Blob in the process.

"You two," Mystique said, her eyebrows narrowing again, "What are you doing out here? You're supposed to be helping Hisako with training!"

"She was having more problems," Lance said, shrugging. "Big surprise."

"She just needed some time alone," Blob interjected. "Y'know, just her and Noriko. It's no big deal, Mystique, rea—"

"It IS a big deal!" Mystique said, turning right around and slamming her office door closed again. I put so much investment into a Mutant who turns out to be nearly WORTHLESS…

Pressing a button on the intercom speaker, she said in a rather stern tone, "Noriko? Hisako? I saw Avalanche and Blob walking around in the lounge. They informed me that there's been another problem? Please come to my office. Now."

Given the urgency in her voice, she wasn't surprised that it was less than a minute before there was a brief knock on her door, and Noriko and Hisako came in—the latter looking particularly nervous.

"Noriko?" Mystique asked, trying to keep herself calm. "What is the problem now?"

"Look, she's got a lot of new stuff to deal with," Noriko said. "Just cut her some slack."

"I've cut her plenty of slack," Mystique said, amping up her tone a little. "It's been weeks now, and despite being immersed in it the girl barely understands basic English and she's hardly made any progress on her powers. I'm starting to think she's holding back on us."

"Holding out?" Noriko said. "Are you freaking kidding me? You think, as scared as she is, she wouldn't use every power at her disposal if she could? She just needs to understand our point of view, Mystique, and she's having… trouble with it here and there. But she's beginning to get it."

"I don't have time for her to begin to get it, Noriko. We needed her as a full-fledged member of the team yesterday."

"Well, I'm sorry but she's a thirteen-year-old girl, not a weapon that you can just program and let loose!" Noriko said, her tone getting progressively louder as well. "I'm sorry, but what is up lately? You were never this pushy with me!"

Hisako just stood there meekly in one corner of the room, watching the two considerably taller females hash it out.

"As soon as YOU had the gauntlets on, you were fine!" Mystique said. "I didn't have to… to babysit you! Hisako's problem though, it's different. As far as I can tell, it's in her mind, which means she just needs to get over whatever she's dealing with and become a member of our team! From all the evidence I've seen, I doubt it will be much longer until Magneto shows his face publicly, and when he does you know it will be with a supremely impressive show of force! I don't need to tell you that he already knows where we are, Noriko."

"Well, I don't think that's Hisako's biggest concern right now, given everything else that's happened to her in the past few weeks!"

"That's the problem, it should be!"

Noriko's gauntlet's crackled to life for a moment, a sneer on her lips, until a few seconds later she finally sighed, the electricity sparking around her hands re-absorbing into her body.

"Look," Noriko said, her tone calm again, "I've known you long enough where I respect you, Mystique. And I know… I know I owe you a lot. I'll push Hisako, I will, but… you have to understand what's realistic for one person isn't realistic for another."

Mystique stood there for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest, before she responded. "She has one more week to find a way to overpower Blob in the training room. That's what I'm giving you."

"And if not…?" Noriko said, her expression souring again.

"One. More. Week," Mystique repeated slowly. "Now get out of my office and get Hisako's nose back in that English book."

"…Yes, ma'am," Noriko mumbled before opening the door and motioning for Hisako to follow her out.

[What… what was that all about?] Hisako asked meekly after they had shut the office door behind them. [I mean, I get that she was mad about my powers… but I didn't understand much of the conversation.]

[She's just… stressed,] Noriko replied, though her gaze refused to meet Hisako's. [From everything that's been happening, with Magneto and the X-Men and Pietro getting away and just… don't worry about it, okay? As long as you try your best, everything's gonna be fine. Now go ahead and get back to your quarters, she wants you studying that English book some more.]

Hisako glanced at Noriko for a moment before turning and running down the hallway towards her quarters, closing the door behind her.

Pietro sighed as he slid further into the hot tub on the luxury hotel's roof, letting the bubbles nearly flow over his face, leaving only his legs sticking out above one end of the jacuzzi.

His broken (though mending) leg and ankle excepted, this… this was heaven.

And after all the crud he had been through in the past several months, he felt pretty assured that he deserved it.

Not that he didn't have things to worry about, mind you. He changed hotel rooms on a near-daily basis, and switched between different hotels entirely every five or six days. That should be enough to keep Gambit from keeping track of him, but still…

Nah, he thought to himself. Quit getting so paranoid. I doubt even your father knows where you are. All the security measures you've taken, all the…

Pietro's thoughts were interrupted as he felt himself being slowly lifted out of the hot tub—not by physical hands, but rather by a force that seemed to push evenly on his entire lower body, until he was suspended in mid-air a few feet above the water.

Then again…

"That is completely unfair!" Pietro cried out, exasperated, as Jean Grey floated up from below the building and landed softly on the roof deck in front of him. With a gesture, Mercury, Cyclops, and Husk floated up after her, landing on the deck in a similar manner, smug smiles on all of their faces.

"What's not fair?" Jean asked. "Us outnumbering you, catching you unawares, or you living off of money that isn't yours in a world-class hotel such as this?"

"All of the above!" Pietro protested. "Well, I mean… except the last one!"

Husk just snickered.

"I mean, you're almost always the one sent after me!" Pietro whined. "You know your powers almost completely nullify mine… at least make it a fight! Send Cyclops there after me first."

"Yeah, but see, we're trying not to break stuff when we fight, unlike you," Cyclops smiled. "Plus, if I recall your powers pretty much make mine useless, so…."

"Oh come on, that was like once!" Pietro protested. "At least pit me against, I dunno… Silver Girl there!"

"Mercury," Cessily responded back.

"Yeah, whatever!"

"So are you gonna tell us the information we wanna know, or what?" Husk asked.

"Why don't you just have your red-headed telepath rip it from my mind?" Pietro harrumped.

"You know exactly why," Jean said, "Someone—I'm guessing Mastermind—installed a mental block in you quite a while ago, to keep us from doing that exact same thing. So, I'll ask again nicely…"

Pietro let out a sigh of exasperation before continuing. "Fine. The Brotherhood base is twenty minutes past where—"

"No no no, not that," Jean interrupted. "Tell us where Magneto's located."

"Wait, you guys know where the Brotherhood base is?"

"Yes, via Gambit. How do you think we tracked you down?"

Pietro cursed under his breath.

"I'm not in a very patient mood," Jean replied. "If you don't tell us, we're turning you in."

"Fine, fine, FINE!" Pietro said, wiggling in mid-air in frustration. Jean gently put him down on the ground, though he still felt a force holding him in place to prevent him from running away. "You wanna know where he is? That's alright by me, I don't owe that traitor anything anymore. Magneto's on that island where we fought Nimrod."

"Wait, what?" Cyclops asked. "We saw him leave!"

"Yeah, and it was a façade!" Pietro said. "He came back. C'mon, an island that no one knows about out in the middle of the Pacific that was an old abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. facility? How would that NOT make the perfect base?"

"Then how come no one's showing up around there when we have Cerebro do global scans?" Jean asked.

"How should I know? That mind-tech stuff you guys have is way over my head!" Pietro admitted. "Short answer—he has his own. Run by five psychics. That, plus whatever tech he's been using for years now, has kept them hidden from your scanners."

"Hrrrm," Jean murmured to Cyclops. "Makes sense. If he has his own psychics with powers similar mine or the Professor's, he could test out his own cloaking technology against them to make sure it checks out."

"Alright, how come satellites or planes flying over that general area have never reported back anything?" Cyclops asked.

"Ever since he started beefing up his ranks, the whole island's been cloaked visually," Pietro replied. "Something put together by some super-genius recruit of his. I honestly don't know who!"

"Do you know what they're planning on doing?" Jean asked. "They're clearly building up to something."

"I don't know—and I swear on everything and anything that is holy, that is the honest truth!" Pietro said. "My father cut me out of the picture months ago! We were gonna build a new nation for Mutants on that island—Genosha. I was gonna fund a lot of it with money coming in from an underground racing ring that Magneto had given me control of, and that's about as far as the plan got when they cut me loose."

"You swear," Jean said, looking Pietro in the eyes.

"Yes!"

"Alright, let's see if you're telling the truth," Jean said, motioning Pietro into the air. Telekinetically grabbing hold of the other X-Men, she levitated them all over the edge of the roof and down below to the street, where Pietro could see the X-Van and Xavier's limousine parked out in front of the hotel.

"Wait, if you can tell for certain if I'm telling the truth, then what the heck was all this just about?" Pietro asked. "You just said you can't read my mind!"

"I can't yet," Jean said. "But Professor Xavier can—after he gets rid of the mental block. You better hope for your sake that you're telling the truth. A jail sentence—probably a lifetime sentence, given what you've done and who you've worked with—doesn't sound fun, particularly for someone with your powers."

"So all of that questioning—up there—you were just toying with me?" Pietro asked.

"After all the pressure you and the Acolytes have put us through?" Cyclops smiled. "I think it's more than justified."

As they landed softly on the street below—Quicksilver being caught by Storm and Beast, so that he wouldn't put weight on his broken ankle and knee—Pietro was silently grateful that, for one of the first times in his life, he actually had told them the complete truth.

Hisako hadn't told the others the complete truth.

She was supposed to be concentrating on the English learning book in her quarters, trying to figure out all the intricacies of the language—but, truth be told, she already knew a lot of them.

As such, she was simply just sitting there with the book on her desk, the words in front of her face but her mind elsewhere, thinking about what to do.

She had done a lot of that lately.

She was scared out of her mind—that, at least, wasn't a lie, so it wasn't hard to fake. In fact, most of what the others—even Noriko—knew about her was the truth.

She truthfully didn't have that good of handle on her powers, she actually didn't understand what "come at me" meant until a short time ago, she had a bit of a difficulty speaking the language without a heavy accent, she was grateful for Noriko and the others risking their lives to save hers…

But—and it was certainly a big but—she knew English fairly thoroughly.

As Noriko had said, even before they were both Mutants they had only visited each other sparingly. Soon after Noriko had inadvertently killed her parents and gone missing, Hisako had gone to study abroad with a few of her friends in Australia for a year—she had picked up a good deal of English then.

After getting her head together after her… incident… and seeing that she had been essentially kidnapped by Noriko along with a band of outlaws she had seen on television, she had realized the severity of the situation. So, because she had only exchanged a few words in Japanese with Noriko and Shiro up to that point, she had decided to continue to play the "can't speak English" card. Buy some time—see if she couldn't find some way out of here before they required her to do something she really, really didn't want to. And see if what they were saying to her in Japanese matched up with what they were saying when they thought she couldn't understand them.

Unfortunately she didn't see a way out yet, but she could definitely tell that Mystique's patience was wearing thin. Soon enough she was going to have to "show progress" or terrible things were going to happen to her. What, exactly, she didn't know, but with a person like Mystique, she could guess, and those guesses terrified her. And seeing Noriko on Mystique's side—even if at times hesitantly—didn't assure Hisako that she was with the right people.

Before they were Mutants, neither of them had been social butterflies, but unlike Hisako, Noriko wasn't shy. Noriko had always wanted to be an outcast, and Hisako had never particularly liked her condescending attitude towards other people. So, given the circumstances, she had lied to Noriko about not being convinced of the Brotherhood's cause. She already knew she didn't believe in what Noriko and Mystique believed in. The reason she was so uptight was- that she felt completely and utterly helpless, despite her powers. And she had about a week to get better at using said powers, or… or something really bad would happen.

Hisako didn't feel superior to other people—she felt like a freak. And furthermore, she didn't feel she needed help with her powers right now. She could "hone her powers" when she was darn well fine with the fact that she was a Mutant- one who could project a psychic pink avatar around herself, one who had taken up residence in a historical Japanese landmark, and one who had destroyed a decent amount of that landmark and hurt a fair number of people while she was in that dream-like state.

Yeah, right now she just wanted to forget all about her powers, not be driven to use them over and over and over again to get more powerful.

And this was something she was pretty sure this "Brotherhood" could never give her, especially given how differently Mystique talked about her in English.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a fairly loud klaxon sounded throughout the base, a red flashing light in one corner of her room coming on.

"INCOMING MUTANT SIGNATURES DETECTED," the alarm blared.

"What the heck's going on?" Toad asked, hopping up to the Brotherhood members that had gathered just behind the base's entrance door.

"Did the 'incoming Mutant signatures detected' alarm not tip you off?" Wanda asked as Blob and Hisako, the last two members still unaccounted for, entered the area.

[What should I do?] Hisako asked nervously.

[Just… stay back for now,] Noriko said. [Let's see what we're dealing with first.]

[Activate your powers, just in case,] Mystique added. Hisako obediently did so, a pink shimmering transparent avatar of herself quickly encasing her actual body.

"Well, I got THAT part," Toad said to Wanda, "But WHAT Mutants, exactly?"

"We don't have Cerebro, or any psychics here, last time I checked," Mystique said. "So I don't know. But the perimeter sensors detected multiple Mutant signatures, so get ready."

They waited for a few seconds with bated breath, the alarms still blaring—until, suddenly, the door started to slump downwards, turning red as it did so from extreme heat on the other side.

"Aw, crud," Toad mumbled. "Looks like they finally found us. I knew it was only a matter 'a time, I KNEW it…"

"Well, I've got some electricity that's about to find them, right where it hurts," Surge said, her gauntlets crackling with power as she gathered together enough for a lightning blast.

As soon as Mystique saw the head of Magma on the other side of the melting door, she quickly yelled for the others to fire everything they had at the X-Man, while the blue-skinned Mutant herself dived out of the way to avoid the lightning bolts, hex bolts, tectonic shockwaves, and plumes of flame that were no doubt going to occupy the area she had been standing in any second now.

Mystique covered her hands with her head, expecting absolute chaos to break loose as the projectile-based X-Men and Brotherhood members had at it.

Only nothing happened.

"Attack, NOW—" Mystique yelled, interrupting herself as she looked up—only to see the rest of the Brotherhood standing there, completely still except for their eyes, which apparently could still move freely. Their muscles were very tense, though, so they clearly were struggling against an unseen force.

"Wonderful," Mystique grumbled, getting up as she turned towards the melted doorway which several X-Men were stepping through, Iceman having rapidly cooled down the hot slag. "Jean is here. Of COURSE Jean is here."

"Relax, Mystique," Xavier said as he rolled through the entryway, Jean entering behind him, both of her arms up towards the Brotherhood members in concentration, sweat starting to run down her brow. "All of your members are perfectly safe, and awake—but Jean is restricting their movement, for the moment."

"So you want to talk," Mystique said, spitting out the last word with utter disgust. "This just gets better and better. What do you want? Because we're not going in without a fight."

"That's what I thought, too… but with this many of them, here, together, we don't stand a chance, Mystique. Just let 'em talk."

Mystique found her teeth were starting to grind together at the sound of that voice. It just got even worse.

Quicksilver limped into the room behind the other X-Men, on crutches.

"You—you—" Mystique sputtered for a second before finally being able to mentally string together a sentence through her rage. "You've joined the X-MEN now? Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower, you weasely piece of—"

Mystique took a step towards Pietro, but she soon bumped into a huge steel chest.

"You are staying away from him for now," Colossus said after he had intercepted her.

Mystique growled, but reluctantly backed up.

"Alright, then. Talk."

"Mystique," Xavier said, "To make a long story short… you and I both know that Magnus is up to something, and something quite significant. Neither of us, by ourselves, has a chance of defeating him alone. Even together, the odds are against us. But, by combining our knowledge—"

Mystique laughed bitterly. "Oh, please. You wish to combine our forces? I find this a stupid move even for you, Charles. Especially considering that when our roles were reversed, it was all merely a trap which nearly resulted in you losing everyone you cared about."

"And therein lies the difference between you and I," Xavier said, his voice taking on a sterner tone. "I lay out my plans to you completely, at the beginning, before any agreements are made. There are no secrets I am hiding from you here."

"Alright, then how did you find us? I assume that the traitor told you?"

"They….kinda already knew where you were, Mystique. They've got Gambit now," Quicksilver said uneasily. "I'm mostly along because of the info I've got on my father. Which, admittedly, isn't a whole lot anymore."

"Liar," Mystique spat.

"The young man is telling the truth," Xavier said. "I scanned his memories a short while ago after taking out Mastermind's mind block. Pietro has told us everything he knows—that Magneto is building a Mutant country on the very same island that we all defeated Nimrod on those months ago. That's where all the new Mutants have been disappearing to—Pietro was supposed to raise money to help the effort, until you caught him. And now Magnus has disowned him—Pietro is legitimately done with working for his father. As for the island—Genosha- it's cloaked from being detected via either Cerebro or more traditional, visual, means."

"And how do I know you're not lying?" Mystique said.

"I would invite you to scan my mind, had you any psychic powers," Xavier said, smiling slightly. "However, I suppose you'll just have to trust me. I think you know me well enough to at least know I wouldn't side with Magneto in a situation like this."

"So then if you have so much figured out, why do you need my help?" Mystique replied, crossing her arms.

"You've worked with Magnus in the past, Mystique," Xavier said. "Not only that, but one of your members used to be an Acolyte, and another member has a personal score to settle with her father. Given the kind of… exploratory mission we're planning, both would be invaluable."

"Wait… you're planning on infiltrating Genosha?" Mystique laughed. "Are you insane? Magneto's probably got a Mutant of nearly every type by now. I don't even think I could blend in among them."

"It's not so much an outright infiltration mission as it is a scouting mission," Xavier said. "We're still working out the team make-up, but the focus will be on gathering information on what Magneto is planning, not so much 'blending in' with his populace. And the assistance of the Brotherhood would prove most beneficial in this endeavor."

Mystique stared at Xavier for a moment before replying. "Alright, let's assume for the moment I'm in, and that, against all odds, Magneto is dealt with. Beyond getting rid of him, what's in it for us?"

"For one, we don't haul all your butts back to prison," Cyclops said, his hand hovering near his visor ever since the X-Men had entered the Brotherhood base.

"How wonderful," Mystique seethed.

"You have my word that if we do indeed defeat Magneto, you are free to go," Xavier said. "And, given how much media attention has been on us lately, this really is a significant risk we're taking."

"But better the devil you know than the one you don't, I presume," Mystique replied.

"Precisely."

Mystique stood there for a moment, her arms crossed. "Alright, fine. I accept your terms. Provided at least two members of this little scouting patrol idea you're putting together are from my team. And that you surrender custody of Quicksilver to me."

"What?" Pietro yelped.

"Given how you've treated him, I must decline on the last point," Xavier said. "However, he will not be free. He'll be kept in our secure cells so he can provide us with useful information. After the scouting mission… well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Mystique glared daggers at Pietro, but bowed her head slightly. "I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Fine, so long as he doesn't get away scot free."

"Good," Xavier said, nodding to Jean, who finally released her telekinetic hold on the other Brotherhood members, allowing them to move once again.

"Foot's asleep, foot's asleeeep," Toad whined, near-collapsing as soon as Jean released her hold on him. He leaned on Wanda and tried to shake his left foot to get the circulation going again, but the Scarlet Witch merely shoved him down onto the floor.

"Are we seriously doing this?" Avalanche sneered. "It seems like we team up the X-Men almost as much as we fight them lately."

"Yes, we are—and you're a fine one to talk," Mystique said with an expression meant to silence any further discussion amongst her team on the matter. "If it gets us Magneto's head on a platter, it'll be worth it. Now, Charles, let's discuss what exactly this scouting mission is going to be all about."

As Xavier and Mystique started to get into a discussion of the mission's details, Jean's mind was suddenly bombarded with someone else's thoughts.

Hello? Hello, can you hear me? a voice in her head intoned—a voice she had never heard before.

Which narrowed down whom it could be quite a bit.

Jean looked casually over to the short Japanese girl encased in pink psychic armor—a member of the Brotherhood she had never seen before, who was looking right back at her.

Yes, I can, Jean replied back mentally. I've never seen you before. What do you want?

Oh, good, you can… I heard you were… what is word, psychic….and was not sure if this was the right way to contact you without others noticing.

You've got the right idea, Jean thought back. Just turn down the volume a bit…. Why? Why did you need to talk to me without anyone else noticing?

Oh, sorry about volume… it is just—I am very scared. Although Noriko—Surge—is my cousin, this Brotherhood... they saved my life, but they also have… kidnapped me. I am not performing up to Mystique's expectations, I do not want to be here, but am too scared to speak up.

Wait, what? You've been held here against your will? Hold on, I'll tell the Professor, we'll get this sorted out—

NO! came Hisako's voice again in her head, so loud that Jean just managed to catch herself from instinctively recoiling back from the "noise". No… I—they know where my family lives. Even with all you here… if Mystique were to find out, they would be in much danger. I just want—want to see my family again. To get out of here—but not by hurting the others!

That's awful… Jean thought for a moment before responding. Look, as you can see here, we're in a bit of a… delicate situation. I realize it's a lot to ask, but can you hold out here for just a bit longer, try your best to do what they tell you to do? I'll talk to the Professor later, when he's not occupied… see if he can come up with any ideas.

I… I think I can… Hisako thought, though the sorrow evident in her eyes definitely deepened a bit upon "hearing" Jean's remark. I do not know for how long. How soon will you be able to talk to me again?

With Cerebro—that's a machine we use back at our Mansion to expand our psychic powers—I promise it won't be long.

…Okay, then. I will try my best…

Gambit looked up as he heard the door to the cell block slide open, and two sets of footsteps enter—though from the sound of it, one of them was apparently limping.

"Alright, it's time for a trade," Hank said as he came up to the front of the cell, his tone indicating he was none too enthused with the idea as he deactivated the electrified wall. "Gambit, you're out. Pietro, you're in."

"Ah, Pietro," Gambit smiled, stepping out and clapping a hand on the white-haired Mutant's shoulder. "So I see they found you. No surprise there."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Pietro grumbled, limping past Gambit into the cell.

"So," Gambit said to Hank as the cell wall was re-electrified, "You found Pietro, and you're letting me out. I assume that can only mean one thing."

Grinning widely, Gambit continued, "So, when does our little trip to Genosha begin?"

The End
 

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