Xavier Institute For Higher Learning

[Ithica]

Surge

Nori walked up to Kitty and tapped her on the shoulder. She smiled and handed Kitty the note,

"Ms. Pryde, Wizard left this behind. And he didn't blow up half of Germany. I heard he kidnapped Rogue, stole a jet, and went binge drinking in Germany."

 

[dragonrazor]

Tai turned away from his study of the sword to look into the eyes of the young woman asking about Vector. "It is a conglomerate. A big corporation dealing in a little of everything, including military weapons. Weapons like X95, also known as Xeno."

 

[Ithica]

Surge

Nori was about to leave when the strange guy said Xeno. She had heard that word before. Her bio teacher had said that Xeno in latin means alien, but she remembered that there was a philosopher named Xeno that delt with paradoxes and something about infinity. She didn't think that she had been paying attention that day in class. When she thought about it she remembered that the gauntlets that Dr. McCoy had made her to keep her powers in check were acting up that day and she kept on shocking the students around her.

She asked the guy,"Why did they call it Xeno?"

She saw the look that Kitty gave her and shrugged her shoulders and said,

"Ok, I'm going. I was just curious."

She ran ahead into the mansion. Kitty looked like she was on the warpath and giving the note to her seemed to piss her off further, better not get in her way.

 

[Ankara]

Shadowcat

"I'm sure we can help you. Kitty if you could please show them inside and get a room ready. I'll follow in a minute."

"Ms. Pryde, Wizard left this behind. And he didn't blow up half of Germany. I heard he kidnapped Rogue, stole a jet, and went binge drinking in Germany."

"Thank you Nori." Kitty took the paper.

Bullshit, she thought to herself. No one could kidnap Rogue if she didn't want to go, expecially fully awake. She knew Rogue must have done something to that kid, she was probaly behind the whole gassing Havok mess and stealing the jet. She just needed to find some kind of proof.

Kitty opened the paper and read, "I'll Be Back For This." She was going to get the truth out of Rogue, no matter what she had to do.

"I'll show you to your rooms, if you just follow me."

 

[dragonrazor]

Chihiro bowed slightly, then grabbed Tai's arm and dragged him along. "Alright, alright, I'm coming." Tai sighed, knowing that his former boss was the most stubborn woman on the planet.

 

[Ankara]

Shadowcat

Kitty walked the couple through the school to the upstairs floor where the bedrooms were kept. "Ok Ms. Krynn, this is you. I'm going to assume you don't want to share a room, so your friend can stay in the empty room across the hall."

 

[dragonrazor]

Chihiro bowed slightly, then let Tai's arm go and stepped into the room. She had only a bag and a strange looking device with a six fingered fist at the end of it. Tai had even less, just the clothes he was wearing.

 

[Ankara]

Shadowcat

"If you need any help there is an intercom in your room, I have afew things I need to do, so I won't be around for an hour or so."

Kitty left the pair upstairs as she ran to go find Storm to tell her she needed to go to town. She skidded to a stop outside her room. Lockheed! I just about forgot all about him. She phased into her room. "Lockheed wake up we're going to town." Kitty started digging through her closet for Lockheed's image inducer collar. "Aaahaa!" She ran over to a very groggy Lockheed and put the collar on his neck and turned it on, turning Lockheed into a cat.

Lockheed shook his head to wake himself up, and peered over at Kitty as she went back over to her closet and pulled on a pair of jeans. Lockheed stretched and yawned just like a cat, then stared at Kitty waiting for an explaination.

Kitty grabbed her purse and keys, the tried to grab Lockheed, but he dodged her. "Oh come on, I just need to pick somethings up in town,"

Lockheed made a sound that was close to "mmmhummm." but jumped up in her arms anyway. Kitty headed straight for the front door hoping to catch Storm still out front.

When she got there, she flung open the front doors and called for Storm.

 

[dragonrazor]

Tai looked at Chihiro, then sighed. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go to a group of people that are in trouble with the law?"

Chihiro smiled, then tossed the newspaper to him. "I think we can help them, using Xeno's hacking capability. I figure you can blackmail the people who have charges filed against their leader."

 

[IDreamofBunnies]

Babette almost cried as the gates opened, in her agitated state it seemed as if it was taking forever. Once they had opened wide enough for her to walk in she started slowly limping down the long driveway, she had been looking at her feet when Storm approached her and asked if she was okay.

"Oh thank you! Please, we are so tired...our car...notre travailler arrêté par voiture il y a des jours, nous avons été forcés de passer par les bois et nous nous sommes perdus..."

She stopped to catch her breath, but even as Storm could hear her anxious gasps another voice, masculine began to speak using her lips, "My sister's English was never very good, she's practically useless right now. I recognize you from television, you are the rainmaker, Storm? We are Mallory and Babette, mutants like yourself. A stalker tried to kill her several days ago during a telecast, our nature was revealed and since then we have been hunted down by mutant-haters and more than a few of Babette's former fans. They think we are one person and that we have been perpetrating some manner of fraud against them."

 

[GentLi]

Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man

Jamie always enjoyed the drive out of New York. Watching the city fall away, passing through the quiet little town of Salem Center. Passing through the shopping district, he beamed with pride at the small awning emblazoned with the X-Factor Investigations logo. It'd been Monet's idea, and a darn good one at that. The location for their first remote branch just made sense.

Leaving the town behind, Jamie couldn't resist pulling back the canvas roof on the boxy old Land Rover he'd recently purchased. The pleasant monotony of the trees made it easy to get lost in thought. Unfortunately today those thoughts were none too pleasant.

The media had leapt on the incident like a pack of hyenas. They'd been starved for a good mutant scandal as of late and were treating this like the next Genosha. Any accounts of, any speculation on, the "Massacre in Kronach" were being replayed continuously on the major news channels, and the X-Men were suffering horrid PR for it. And poor Rogue... the media seemed to especially enjoy recounting her missteps.

Jamie Madrox might have taken the the nightly news at face value, if he weren't one of them. An X-Man. Sure, it was a bit of a loose affiliation - his humble beginnings on Muir Island, stints with X-Factor, the X-Corp and X-Corporation, and only the rare adventure with the bona fide X-Men - but he was proud of the X. So much so that his latest venture was named in honor of it. X-Factor Investigations.

Everyone at the agency was still cringing over the newscasts. They wore the X and were proud of it. A dozen other teams were represented there, between Strongguy, Rictor, Siryn, Wolfsbane, and Monet. Jamie was always tickled when he thought of the history and talent he'd managed to bring together. Even more amazing was the fact that they all hadn't torn each other apart.

But that would be Guido's problem for a while. Hopefully he had enough muscle to keep the girls from killing each other, because Jamie wasn't going to be there.

A sudden flurry of rain took him from his thoughts. Erratic weather in these parts were almost assuredly Storm's doing. It was also a nice indicator of how things stood at the Institute and that, apparently, wasn't so nice. Focusing on the road, it was only a few minutes before he pulled up to the front gates.

"Singing telegram for a Mr. Alex Summers!" Jamie cheerily sang into the intercom.He'd called ahead, of course. Hopefully he wouldn't be taking them by surprise. And hopefully they'd appreciate his upbeat antics at a time like this.

 

[Ankara]

Shadowcat

Kitty saw that Storm was busy, so she went down to the garage, dropped Lockheed in the passengerside, and drove off.

 

[Ithica]

Storm

When the girl started to talk in french Storm could only catch part of what she was saying. She had learned some french after she had been turned into a child and resumed her life as a thief with Gambit, but not enough to understand the girl. She was relieved but surprised when the masculine voice started explaining what had happened to them.

"You are welcome to stay here. Are you hurt?"

 

[IDreamofBunnies]

Babette's hand went over her face, when she took it down it had changed to a somewhat more masculine (though still fairly effeminate) face.

"Ce qui? Arrêtez, je ne veulent pas que les personnes voient!"

Ils doivent nous connaître pour nous aider.

"We have minor injuries from our trek, malnutrition, slight dehydration...we require more fluids than ordinary people you see. Ah, if I may ask a favor: my sister is...delicate, even though our mutation is becomming common knowledge, she is having difficulty dealing with the scrutiny. I imagine the administration of your school will have to know of us, but if you could refrain from mentioning it around your general population, we prefer to let her be our face."

With another wave to briefly obscure his face, the twins once again transformed to show Babette on the surface.

 

[Jeremy Davis]

::The elevator opened up an they stepped within. Gambit pushed the button to take them up to the ground level and the elevator lifted them up from one floor to the next a soft *ding* being heard as they passed the floors. Finally the doors opened up and he and Rogue headed to the garage.

He happened to look and watched as Kitty put a cat in the front seat of the car then climbed in and drive away. She really has taken to speaking out for that Wizard kid. Someone will have to sit her down and explain what happened while they were in Germany. All he knew was that by the time he had gotten to Germany with Psylocke that Rogue was in a garage fighting the Zombies and Wizard and Deadhand were still in the building fighting on other floors. After that every time he saw the kid the kid was either unconscious or acting irrationally. Regardless, Kitty wanted to pick a fight with someone and was only going to make a fool of herself.

He stepped over the seat of the Harley and balanced it before taking the key from his pocket and slipping it into the ignition. A twist of his wrist and the engine came to life. He then held out his hand to Rogue who took a hold of it and then stepped over the seat herself. Rogue slipped her arms around Gambit's waist and rested her chin on his shoulder as he eased the bike out of the garage and headed down the Mansion's driveway. Once they passed the front gates, Gambit opened the bike up and they headed down the road heading towards the outskirts of the city.::

(Continues In the Limited Series "The Summer's Cabin ")

 

[Ithica]

Surge

Nori had snuck back downstairs and was trying to avoid Kitty. Which wasn't easy seeing how Kitty could walk through walls. She had heard Kitty yell something to Storm and after she left, Nori went to go see who Storm went to meet. Nori could see Storm walking with a woman and then she heard in the intercom beside her,

"Singing telegram for a Mr. Alex Summers!"

She giggled and pushed the intercom to reply,

"I'm sorry but Mr. Summers has no sense of humor and wouldn't appreciate it. You can give the message to me though."

 

[Ankara]

Shadowcat

Kitty reached the building with the X-Factor Investigations logo on the front. She crossed the street to a store that was selling older women’s clothing and went inside. The shopkeeper stared at her a little and really started gawking when she picked up ten items from off a table and purchased them, chuckling to herself.

She took the bag to her car and headed back to the X-Factor Investigations. She walked up to the receptionist and told her that Katherine Pryde was here to see Jamie Madrox.

 

[Ithica]

Storm

"if you could refrain from mentioning it around your general population, we prefer to let her be our face."

Storm was a little confused thinking that they would get along better if Mallory took over seeing how he could speak english better and it would be easier for him to hide if Babette was highly recognizable. Storm ignored Kitty when she called out and told Babette,

"Of course, that shouldn't be a problem. Regardless of the media attention we are now getting, we can be discrete. I'm sure you can understand that things around here are in a bit of an upheaval but a room and some supper can be found for you."

 

[Jeremy Davis]

Heavy Metal

::Thad was sitting on the floor of his bedroom, his headphones on, listening to a CD as he noticed students passing by his door like they were in a hurry to go see something. His curiosity peeked and he pulled the headphones from his ears and set them on the floor before standing and hurtling through his pile of CD cases to get out into the hall.

He looked up the hallway, then down to where everyone was heading trying to see if he knew someone he could ask, but finding noone he walked down the hall and to the main staircase of the mansion. From the second floor balcony he could see everyone as people were scurrying about like ants. Storm and Kitty were seeing to two different couple of kids while Nori and Psicout watched.

He just leaned against the rail and waited for someone to come by to ask what was going on.::

 

[Ithica]

Surge

Nori let go of the button on the intercom and started giggling. She looked up the stairs and noticed Thad standing on the balcony. She smiled at him, waved him over and said,

"You've gotta hear this. I think this guy might sing."

 

[Jeremy Davis]

Heavy Metal

::Thad laughted softly and started to walk over to the steps. He had started down them as he talked to Nori.::

I wonder who it is? And here all this time I thought only Dazzler and I could hold a tune...

::He reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to Nori. In truth he only saw her in a few classes that they shared, but they never really got the chance to talk.::

So what is going on? I keep seeing other students milling about like chickens with their heads removed..

 

[Ithica]

Nori checked out Thad as he walked down the stairs and when he asked about what was going on she said,

"Wow, have you been living under a rock. The senior members were all called to a meeting by Havok, Wizard has gone AWOL and is trying out vandalism, Kitty is royally torqued, and by the looks of the weather Storm's having a great day. There are three new people that just arrived and now this clown at the gate. I don't know who it is."

 

[Jeremy Davis]

::Thad laughed again, then feigned a look of anger, his eyes belying the truth.::

I was not under a rock, I was just listening to music most of the morning. Does anyone know what the senior members talked about? Wizard? Who's that? New people at the Mansion?

::He knew he sounded like a little kid asking so many questions, but this was definatly not the first for him. It seemed like every time he lost himself to his music, something happened at the mansion or he missed something.::

 

[GentLi]

Madrox quirked a brow at the unfamiliar voice. Of course, they had so many kids running around nowadays that he should've been surprised. Who knew what revelations awaited Jamie? He tapped the intercom again.

"I'm afraid this little ditty is of a personal nature..." Racking his brain, he couldn't think of a way to sweettalk himself past the gates without dropping the shtick. Oh well. His smile continued to shine in his voice. "Young lady, this's Jamie Madrox. I think I'm expected, and I'm sure someone there's familiar with the name. If you wouldn't mind checking on that for me, I'd be ever so greatful."

He chuckled to himself. He could see just about any one the X-Men he knew denying any knowledge of a "Jamie Madrox," but that was the price to be paid for being the bit of a jokester he was. Then again, with the way things probably were in there, he couldn't imagine many people had the time to pull pranks like leave him outside, not granting him entry.

Staring at the gates, Jamie offered up a silent prayer. With the Jean, Scott, and Charles all gone and the media circus in town, he'd immediately begun to plot. X-F.I. had been doing relatively well in the public eye. Several times reporters had come to him to comment on this or that local mutant occurance. Out of the closet since joining the government-sanctioned team X-Factor, and dealing so closely with mutant issues, he'd found himself to be a bit of a celebrity for it.

Now he was going to stand with the X-Men. Maybe his legitimacy would rub off, help clot the Public Relations blooding. Probably wouldn't do a lick of good, but he was certainly going to try.

 

[Ithica]

Nori's jaw dropped and she started laughing at Thad.

"Who's Wizard?"

Nori giggled again and when she got herself under control she said,

"He's the guy that knocked out Havok, kidnapped Rogue, stole the Jet, got a hooker in Germany, was busted by Gambit, and the government is involve somehow. Have you seen the news? Rogue attacked some guy and the x-men are somehow involved with a terrorist."

She rolled her eyes at the last comment and continued,

"I don't know who the new people are but they told Kitty that they needed help."

She gave Thad a little jolt and said,

"I'm not psychic so I don't know what the meeting was about."