xp_logs | With Malice Aforethought

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With Friends Like These

LAX has a way of making the world smaller. Lorna runs into an old high school friend and isn't pleased about it.

Lorna looked up from her magazine and checked the time. They should be boarding soon and in the intervening time between bidding her parents farewell at the security terminal, no more waving good bye at the gate these days, and now she'd developed a craving. She glanced over at Alex, playing peek-a-boo with a little girl sitting further down the row of seats and smiled. "I'm going to go get a Cinnabon," she told him, grabbing her wallet out of her purse and wandered off when he gave a distracted nod and a wave.

A high pitched squeal of excitement cut across the crowd as a confection of pink business attire and blonde curls descended upon Lorna, cutting rudely across one of the waiting lines to do so. "Ohmigod! Like, Lorna? Is that really you?" Another squeal followed as identity was apparently ascertained, air kisses dropped on either side of Lorna's face with calculated preciousness. "Kiss kiss! And look at you! Your hair's green now, isn't that so modern of you! And did you gain weight? Oh, never mind that, it's been just so long!"

Lorna staggered back from the tall blonde, trying to extricate herself from the dagger-like acrylics digging into her arms and smiled automatically back the woman, her brain frantically trying to place the face. High school, obviously but which irritating blonde was this one? "Four years, just about. How have you been? You went off to…Princeton, was it? Are you still dating what's his name?" Safe guesses all of them. Fully half the irritating blondes had ended up at one Ivy League or another and they were all ohmigosoinlove! with the boyfriend of the time.

"Oh of course not, he was such a loser beach bum, why would I still be with him? I'm dating a doctor now!" The blonde smiled smugly, one arm showing off a diamond encrusted bracelet in a wide sweeping gesture. "And oh, who's that? One of your little cousins or something?" She eyed Alex, obviously having noticed Lorna wandering away from him. "Aw, my little sister would absolutely flip over that kid." Looping one arm through Lorna's, she then beamed at her, clearly not about to let her newfound 'friend' go just yet. "Oh, we have so much to catch up on!" The last words ended on a high squeak, the blonde bouncing once on her frighteningly high heels. "This'll be, like, so cool!"

The bounce made it click into place. "He's my boyfriend. Kristen, I really don't have time to chat." Particularly since it would make quite a scene if she strangled the girl with her own 14kt gold plated necklace. The bracelet was fake too. Typical. Still, something seemed off, though it could just be that it had been a long time since she'd been around anyone this patently false. Kristen would have usually gotten to the point by now… "I have a plane to catch in fifteen minutes. They'll call boarding any second now." Lorna suddenly really wanted to be nowhere near this woman.

"Of course you have time, Lorna!" Giggling, Kristen stepped closer, in that way women do when confiding deep and important secrets in public. "Because if you don't, my friends and I are going to kill every single person within sight, starting with your precious little Alex," she purred the words out with saccharine sweetness, eyes glinting from clear blue to a lurid shade of yellow, and then back to blue in a split second. She continued, in a flat, sibilant voice which utterly clashed with the happy dippy expression on her face. "You wouldn't want these people all to die just because you wouldn't be a good girl and didn't do as you were told now, would you?"

Well, that explained the affection, faked or no. "I did think it was weird that Kristen D'Aquino was giving me the time of day. Particularly with the scandal." Lorna made no attempt to keep her expression civil but didn't dare give any sign of distress. "What do you want? Your boss scared of the competition?" Her communicator was in her purse and had been designed so that her EM pulses couldn't set it off, she couldn't risk it anyway.

"Oh c'mon, girlfriend." The smile this time was small and dangerous. "Like, we read the Evil Overlord guidelines on the net just like everyone else, y'know?" Beaming cheerfully at Lorna, the valley accent never failing once, Mystique tugged her alone back in the direction of Alex, the two of them looking for all the world like two young women catching up on things. "Smile now! That's better, if you don't your face will be all frowny and wrinkly and we know how bad that is. Now go give your things to Alex, yes, you know what I mean, and off we'll go to... catch up on things. Mm? And I think you want to make really really sure he gets on that plane no matter what. We've got someone here dying to sink his claws in a new chew toy." Laughed tinkled out at that, bright and overly affected.

Fear made Lorna's smile falter and she paused in her tracks while she recovered. She knew she was going to have to play this off perfectly in order to get Alex out of here safely, not to mention the thousands of others in the busy terminal. "Give me a sec…I just…I can do it." Shoving away her emotions, funny how now Nathan's lessons on detachment were paying off, she drew herself up, shifted to grip the other woman in a more familiarly friendly fashion and plastered on an excited expression.

~*~

Trust and Be Deceived

Lorna does some fast talking and promises to be right back.

Alex looked up when he saw Lorna returning, minus one Cinnabon and plus one perky blonde. Turning back to his young playmate, he gave the little girl a friendly wink and wave then turned to look up at his girlfriend. "So, Cinnabon have a new promotion or something?" He was jittery and excited so he was all smiles at his attempt at humor.

Lorna would usually have laughed but she was too keyed up to do so. Instead she shook her head in feigned amusement. "No. You'll never guess who I ran into! This is Kristen, we went to school together. Isn't it just too funny that we happened to be in the airport at the same time? Such a small world." Nails digging into her arm warned her not to get too creative. "Anyway, we were just going to grab a cup of coffee."

"Like, it so totally won't be long!" Giggling as though she were schoolgirl, said perky blonde winked at him cheerfully. "But meeting up like this is just so lucky, I couldn't not try to take advantage of it!"

Cocking his head to the side at Lorna's reactions, Alex then just shook his head. She had been on nerves edge all week and the shock of meeting her friend probably spilled her over the top. "Hey, you too go catch up. I'll wait here and make sure the plane doesn't lean without us." As he spoke, he leaned over to his bag got dig for his CD player so he could hunker down and wait.

Lorna tugged him back up impatiently and gave him a kiss, quick enough that it wasn't suspicious but breaking her heart nonetheless. "If they start boarding, get me an extra blanket would you? They always keep everything so cold." She smiled at him, even as "Kristen" began to yank her away, "Bye, hon. I love you."

Confused, Alex ran the few steps toward them, gently grabbing on to Lorna's other arm. "Are you sure you don't want me to wait out here for you? It'll be easier for me to delay the plane out here..."

Lorna shook her head, "I'm counting on you to get me my blanket. They give them out really quickly." She grinned, "Don't worry, I won't be late. You've got my purse after all. Can't live without that."

Alex glanced over his shoulder where the small bag was sitting beside her bag and his backpack. He hadn't even seen her put it down, most likely when she had pulled him up for that odd, desperate kiss. "All right, I'll wait for you on the plane." The hand holding her arm went up to cup her cheek so he could give her a proper kiss. "Don't be too long."

She resisted the urge to tell him to run. She couldn't keep him safe by herself, and there were too many others to consider even if she could. "I won't. Miss me while I'm gone." She smiled and darted away again.

"Always." Alex sighed as she darted away with the blonde girl and after putting his hands in his pockets, walked back over to the seats to gather their stuff and wait for the boarding call.

~*~

The Dark Side of M&Ms

Lorna meets a man who is the best there is at what he does. It's a bad idea to cross a magnekinetic with a plan.

Lorna started shaking as soon as Alex was out of sight. "Now tell me what the hell you want," she demanded in a low voice, pulling away from the woman's clutching grip. No phone, no communicator, no wallet even. Oh God, what am I going to do.

"Tell you? Don't be stupid, you think I want to ruin the surprise?" Giving Lorna a cold smile, the formerly bubbly blonde tightened her grip on her arm just a shade too much and gave her a warning look. "There's still people around, pretty thing. Watch yourself." Marching off intently, Mystique led her through the throngs of people, a goal clearly in mind.

"You only have about fifteen minutes before Alex starts asking questions and if you hurt him, all bets are off." Lorna reminded her in a low tone, stumbling a bit as she had to keep up with Mystique's rapid pace. She didn't think it was at all likely that Mystique wouldn't have planned for that but getting any information out of her right now was good. And talking meant she wasn't screaming, which is what she felt like doing.

The smile which suddenly split Kristen face, a shade too wide to be humanly possible, was Mystique's only response before she turned suddenly, dragging Lorna with her through a door which opened on its own. "That's okay, pretty. You're not doing anything to anyone now"

Appeared to open on its own anyway. The shift of magnetic fields told a totally different story and Lorna didn't need the sight of the elegantly dressed man standing at the window to know exactly how bad things really were. She bit her lip hard and took a deep breath. "I see you left the silly hat at home. Finally realized it didn't flatter your skintone?"

Magneto turned, regarding Lorna with a raised eyebrow and a faint expression of distaste. "Ah, Miss Dane. I had hoped that for once we might dispense with the witless banter, but I see that Charles' students remain as disappointing as ever."

Mystique let her go and Lorna rubbed at her arm. "We get extra credit for snappy dialogue. It's the Buffy system of rewards." Christ almighty, the man was powerful. She could feel the effect he had on the EM fields just standing there. Her best would be child's play to him. "But since I'm in a hurry, I'll keep it simple. What do you want? I have a plane to catch."

"I'm afraid you're going to have to change your flight, Miss Dane. We have a great deal to talk about. But first, a gift." Magneto smiled, his eyes glimmering with a chilly, secretive humor. "A token of my esteem, if you will; I devoutly hope it will incline you to listen to what I have to say."

He made no move, but a steel box floated effortlessly from a side table to hover in front of Lorna. The lid swung open, soundlessly; inside, on a purple velvet cushion, rested a choker necklace.

She stared at it wordlessly, studying the design. It really wasn't that unfamiliar, the basics tended to stay the same whether bracelet or collar and after all, there were only so many ways to disguise an inhibitor and it didn't look as though they'd really tried. She took an involuntary step back as her mind frantically pointed out that at least this indicated they didn't intend to kill her. Yet, suggested another more cynical side. She swallowed hard. "Sorry, but I don't take jewelry from strange men. Particularly not tacky jewelry."

Magneto sighed, his expression disappointed. "How Charles continues to maintain his certification . . . please think, Miss Dane. Why on earth would I want to deny you your gifts? You're of no use to me without them, and I am hardly in need of artificial aids to keep them under control. I'm offering you freedom. Freedom from conscience, from sentiment, from all the inconvenient ties that keep you imprisoned in Charles' little fairytale. The freedom to take your rightful place among the brotherhood of mutants." He chuckled warmly. "To tell you the truth, I rather wish I'd had this option with the Madrox boy; instead, I was forced to use . . . cruder methods, and they left him regrettably volatile."

"Freedom to be a disgusting bigot, gee, I can't even believe that I'm thinking about refusing…oh, wait, yes I can." Mentioning Jamie and Skippy was a good way to not convince her to cooperate. She tested the EM fields warily and found that, yes, he did have them all locked down. "You don't need me. You're about a million times better at this than me. So forget your really bad philosophy--I've read your manifesto and it sucks--what the hell do you want, really?" The clock on the wall said about ten minutes had passed. Alex was going to be frantic.

"To begin with, I'd like what's in that head of yours. I'm sure Charles has changed his security measures significantly since the last time Mystique was able to infiltrate the school, and I know that his X-Men have a number of new recruits. You're going to give me that information." The choker floated free of the box, dangling in front of Lorna's eyes; the box closed soundlessly and returned to the table. "Believe me, Miss Dane, I'm well aware of the irony . . . but I am giving you your freedom whether you want it or not. And I think this device will give you a different perspective on my 'really bad' philosophy."

If she refused--actually refused, not this bravado--they'd kill as many people in this airport as they could. They'd kill Alex. Lorna closed her eyes, briefly. Not even the slightest stray field to try to destroy the choker. No choice really. And it wasn't like the mansion wouldn't change their security as soon as they realized she was gone. She nodded faintly and didn't object when he settled the choker around her neck. She felt it lock behind her neck then lost entirely that extra sense. She shuddered. "Now what?" she said quietly.

"Now?" Magneto stepped closer, within arm's reach. His voice and his smile were warm, almost affectionate, but his eyes were cold, cold. "Now, my dear . . . we see what happens."

He brushed her hair back over her shoulders, and his fingers were dry and gentle against her throat as they traced the line of the choker. They tightened for a moment with a soft click, and the necklace almost seemed to shiver.

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