Rogue and Sunfire search for Scott

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Rogue and Sunfire get assigned to investigate a warehouse in Carrollton, Georgia. They deal with rednecks and drug addicts, but there is no sign of Scott

It was as if every stereotype Shiro held about Americans had come to life all at once. He and Marie had been assigned to Ass-end, Georgia (it had an actual name but at this point Shiro couldn't be bothered to care) to find Scott. So far, all he found were slack-jawed yokels waving flags of the Confederacy, guffawing at the only non-White person in this region of the country. It was almost enough to make one weep.

"Why are they all looking at me like that?" he whispered to Marie, returning glare for glare as they walked down the street.

"Because they are idiots," she murmured. "And they have never seen someone as handsome as you," she quipped, not wanting to say the real reason. While Carrollton, Georgia wasn't quite Meridian, the similarities were close enough that Marie was constantly and unpleasantly reminded of home. Of course, her Southern connection was part of the reason she and Shiro had been sent to check this particular location from the list they had of Stryker's previous connections. She hadn't had the heart to tell them that Mississippi and Georgia were about as different as New York and Pennsylvania.

"Let's just find the building, see if Scott's there and get outta here quick as we can." Hastening her step, she held her head high and did her best to ignore the stares of the locals. While most of the attention was on Shiro, her gloves were also drawing a fair share of stares in the sticky heat. "Just ignore them," she said at the same time an overweight man in a Lynard Skynard t-shirt spat chewing tobacco, barely missing their feet.

When it comes time to do the mission report, Shiro told himself, he'd have to "forget" to include the bit about the spontaneously combusting tobacco wad on the street. "Must be the heat," he said nonchalantly. "The warehouse is a few miles from town, yes?" He glanced around, and then looked up at the clear sky. At least there was one pretty thing in this town. "We need faster transportation than just walking . . ."

"Car would take forever on these roads," Marie said before following his gaze up. She then looked around at the small group who continued to watch them and whisper to one another. "Is it wrong that Ah'm so tempted to just shock 'em all but lifting up right here?" she asked. With a sigh, she pointed to a nearby building (at three stories, it was the tallest one within sight). "But Ah know the responsible thing is to go over there and have at least some cover."

"If it is, then we are both wrong." Shiro followed Marie to the apartment building and up the stairs to the third floor. "Desperate times." He opened a window and, like a gentleman, let Marie jump out first. "They will forgive us," he said as they rose high into the sky. "The team, I mean. Not the rednecks."

Stifling her giggles, Marie's face erupted into a grin as the fat local rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Blowing him a kiss, she set off in the direction of the warehouse. Thankfully, the rest of the crowd didn't seem to have noticed the duo's rather unorthodox departure.

When they reached their target location, she was reluctant to land, instead feeling a deep desire to continue enjoying the cool breeze on her cheeks. "Looks deserted," she said to Shiro as they hovered a short distance away from the building.

It was a good thing that Marie was flying ahead of Shiro, because she couldn't see him blush. "If we are lucky, then it's not," he said, wearing a hint of a vicious grin. He shifted his vision as far into the infrared spectrum as he could, to try to see inside. It's an aspect of his mutation that he'd yet to really work on, but he could at least make out a few red blobs inside, only a few of which were vaguely human-shaped. "And it just so happens to be our lucky day."

Nodding curtly, Marie became all business. "Right then. If Ah remember right, there are two entrances on the main level. No telling if what we got inside are just some squatters or if Scott could be in there." Some small part of her hoped it was the later...she was strangely itching for a fight.

"I will try to look more closely," he said, slowly floating towards the warehouse. As he approached, the blobs started to get more defined, just well enough that he could make out at least four people and some other hot materials. Something started to itch him in the back of his brain, the familiar feeling of weak psionic intrusion. "Do you feel it, too?" he asked Marie when he returned to her.

She frowned, her brow furrowing as she concentrated. "Feel wh...oh," she said as she felt a small amount of pressure on her shields. "Some kinda 'path...so we should assume the others in there might be mutants too. Don't know if that's good news or bad news." She bit her lip as she mulled over their options. It was always hard to pick – divide and conquer or stick together? Her eyes scanned the building as she turned option after option over in her head. "Ah see some windows on the side. Maybe enter through them, try and surprise 'em a bit? Ah don't think the psi is gettin' much from us."

"But they must know that people are here, now." Shiro hrrmed and pondered. The psi seemed to be lightly tapping on his shields. He wasn't the best shielder, though, so if they couldn't break through then they couldn't be much to worry about. "Hard and fast, then?" he suggested.

With a nod, Marie took a final appraising look at the warehouse. "There," she said, pointing at a window close to one of the doors. Approaching the warehouse quickly, she paused only long enough to open the window, not too surprised to find it unlocked. Ladies first she mouthed at Shiro with a wink then flew through. What she saw inside surprised her enough to slow her down. Six people wearing surgical masks working around what looked like a Bunsen burner with beakers was definitely not on the top ten list of things she expected to see.
What the hell?

Shiro had much the same reaction. But before he could say anything, six faces turned to them. Even beneath their masks and goggles, they didn't look very pleased. "Rogue, to the . . . Aah!" Shiro clutched his head and fell to his knees, fighting a sudden wave of disorientation and nausea.

One of the six laughed as they walked away from their set-up towards the two. "Idiot. Not your smartest idea ever, huh?"

Marie gritted her teeth, fighting the nausea to stay upright and slowly floated forward. There was no telling what exactly they had stumbled upon, but it was definitely hostile. Before she had gone more than a foot, she saw a blur and another of the six was standing in front of her. Between the mask, goggles and greasy hair, Marie couldn't even discern whether the person before her was male or female. Hard and fast. She threw a punch and found herself hitting nothing but air as the person was suddenly behind her. That's what you get for wanting a fight.

Two engaged. The other four laughed and stepped up to join their comrades. Even through the vertigo, Shiro could feel the itch of psychic intrusion. He needed to stop that now or risk pulling a Cable and being forced to attack his teammate. Without thinking much, he released a wild blast of plasma, annihilating one of the lab benches and everything on it in a small explosion. It was enough to distract these wannabe chemists, so Shiro lunged forward and tackled the fellow who'd called him an idiot.

"Who's the idiot now, bitch?" he asked, punching the guy in the jaw.

Marie heard the explosion and saw one of the others hold up her hands as water covered the explosion area. Reminding herself to focus, she concentrated on the person running laps around her. Aiming at air, she punched and smiled as she felt her fist impact soft flesh. "Oomph," the speedster said as he doubled over in pain. Another hit to the guy's head and he crumpled to the floor. She began advancing on the next closest person and let out a surprised grunt as she tripped on a crack, barely catching herself before she hit the ground.

Shiro blinked. Marie had tripped over a crack in the floor? So much for grace. Rising up from the fallen psi, he found himself facing a couple. He grinned, and they just laughed under their masks. As he took a step forward, a pipe broke through the floor and sprayed ice-cold water at him with enough force to send him tumbling back to the ground.

Grunting, he called up his powers and surrounded himself with a golden aura. The water boiled against his shield, filling the room with steam. But through it, Shiro could finally see what they'd interrupted: second-rate chemistry sets and half a dozen asthma inhalers.

They'd invaded a Kick lab.

Pushing herself back up, Marie found herself still some distance from a scowling woman. Walking carefully towards her as she wondered if she was ever going to be able to live down tripping, she saw the woman almost imperceptibly flick her wrists before the room filled with steam. Hearing a noise, Marie sidestepped just before a large piece of pipe hit the ground where she had been standing. Adding that bit of bad luck to her tripping moments earlier and she finally realized what she was facing. Pulling off a glove, she dove forward, ignoring the pieces of ceiling that continued to rain down on her until she made contact with the probability manipulator's face. A quick punch added to the absorption and there was one less person to deal with.

But still three more, and if Shiro was right, then they'd all been Kicking. And as the steam began to condense into liquid water and then freeze into spears of ice that flung themselves at Shiro, he realized that he'd need the boost, too. After all, he'd cleanly eliminated the threat in San Diego while he was Kicking, so he could do it here, too. And isn't that what it's for, anyway? he asked himself. He dove underneath a table, grabbing one of the inhalers on the way. There was still enough steam to prevent anyone from seeing him take it.

In San Diego, it had felt like all of Shiro's barriers had broken down so he could take in more energy than he was actually using. He'd felt like he could do anything. It wasn't much different this time, except the head rush was quite disorienting. But he had what he needed. Exploding into his fire form, he welcomed the sun's light and warmth and redirected it at the table holding the other inhalers, reducing it to dust. That felt good.

Marie had been headed over to help Shiro when he exploded out from under the table. Gasping, she took a step back and couldn't stop herself from wincing. The sight of that much fire took her right back to the beach in San Diego and she froze.

The telepath, sensing Marie's distress, began a full assault on her shields. Her hands flew up to hold her head as she felt him try to slide his way into her mind. It felt much more powerful than the innocuous tapping she had felt while outside the building and she wondered how he had suddenly increased his strength. Concentrate. Closing her eyes, she saw pulsing lights and mentally reached out to touch one that led to the stove behind the psi. As she opened her eyes, the stove exploded knocking the man to his knees and his assault on her mind stopped.

Shiro barely spared a glance at the exploding stove. It's a drug lab, full of unstable chemicals. That kind of stuff is bound to happen. Just like Shiro kicking the asses of these two water manipulators who still seemed to think that they could get past his shield. More pipes exploded, sending torrents of icy water at him. But he just smiled. More of the lab exploded in golden flames with every step he took.

"Is that all?" he asked innocently, his accent a little thicker than usual. "I would expect more from people like you." A vicious, toothy grin was barely recognizable beneath his mask of flame. "Come on, show me what you got."

Marie continued to eye the telepath warily, but was becoming increasingly concerned by what she heard and saw in her periphery. "Sunfire, take them out now. Quick and clean," she ordered before advancing on the psi. "Where is Scott?" she asked the man. "Tell me and maybe Ah won't kill you." The blank expression on the man's face gave her the answer she needed even before he started stammering that he didn't know any Scott but he could find her one if she wanted. Praying that one of the other teams had better luck, Marie was anxious to wrap things up and get back to the mansion to see if there was anything else she could do to help.

If she squinted, she didn't have to close her eyes to see the lights and she pushed another. This time, a grate from the ceiling fell squarely on the psi's head knocking him out cold. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flash of movement and advanced towards it instead of going to Shiro. She was surprised to find herself sniffing the air and clenching her hands into fists.

Shiro snorted, taking one step forward for every step his two opponents took back. "Take all my fun away," he sighed, aiming plasma bursts at all the metal pipes to fuse them shut. "How often do we get to play DEA against mutant methamphetamine dealers?" Because that's what it was. There was no Kick.

Wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of burning, Marie couldn't help but agree. Missions usually involved running into some super villain or another and it was actually relaxing to engage in something a bit lower key. Add that to the fact that she really hated drug dealers from her experience on the streets and she couldn't deny that she had felt rather satisfied with every punch she had thrown. "Ah know, but we gotta report back. This doesn't seem to be what we were lookin' for." Collecting the unconscious bodies, she piled them in a corner while she looked for something to secure them with, trusting Shiro to take care of the two remaining goons who were all but cowering in a corner.

"Okay, okay," he conceded. But his fire only increased in intensity, and he leaned forward so he was face-to-face with other two. "I know hat you are doing," he said softly, just barely audible over the hissing and snapping of his fire. "Thanks for the free samples." And before they could react, he kicked one and then punched the other, knocking them out.

"You check this floor, see if there's any sign of Scott, Ah'll check the upstairs." Marie was fairly certain they had hit a dead end in their search, but she would never forgive herself if they didn't look and the building had been serving double duty as a drug lab and a holding cell.

Shiro nodded, vision shifting back to infrared again as he searched through the wreckage and small fires for other signs of life. Not like there was really much place to hide in a warehouse. Any container that wasn't empty contained various chemicals with names Shiro couldn't hope to pronounce, but no Cyclops. Not even a brown strand of hair. "Nothing!" he called, kicking a cardboard box and watching it burn.

"Guess we should call the cops or somethin'," Marie said once they had finished checking the place out. "An' then we should get our tails as far away from here as possible." She didn't expect the police to take too kindly to them, even if they had discovered and taken down a drug lab. "Meth was big back home too. Ah just don't get it," she mused.

"It makes them feel like big boys," Shiro replied, still in fire-form. "These people are going to be even less fond of mutants once this news breaks out. But at least it is just methamphetamine, and nothing more serious. Crack-addicted psis do not fun make."

Marie shrugged. Drug-addicted mutants of any kind didn't seem like a good idea to her. Once they headed back to town, it didn't take long to find a payphone and Marie called the police, pretending to be a concerned citizen who had walked past the smoking warehouse. Getting the number from information, she quickly dialed the Georgia Bureau too and left a tip with their drug hotline just to make sure that the situation got cleaned up. "Ready?" she asked her partner as she glanced around, relieved that no crowd had gathered to watch them yet.

Shiro had been staring very intently at a crack in the pavement. Tiny little ants were pouring out of and into it, like a miniature Beltway. Complete with crashes and fires. Everything was tinged with red in the afternoon heat. How come he hadn't noticed it before? "Hmm?" He tore his eyes off the parade and back to Marie. "Did you say something?"

"You ok?" Marie asked, worrying that Shiro had overextended himself during the fight. After all, he had gone up against two mutants with powers that were opposite his and had to turn up the use of his powers. It had only been a couple weeks since his burn out at the beach and she didn't want him going through that again. "Time for us to get outta here." And hope one of the other teams actually found what we were looking for.

"Peachy," he replied, already lifting himself into the air slowly. He blinked and shook his head, trying to clear it from a sudden haze that had fallen. He tried to focus on his teammate, but was more interested in the shades of red that danced in the infrared. "Race you back to New York?" he challenged, grasping at red light that only he could see.

"Are ya crazy? How 'bout back to Atlanta to catch a flight, same as we got here? An' then Ah think we're gonna get you checked for a concussion," Marie said. Lifting off, she was relieved when Shiro headed in the direction of the nearby city and hurried to catch up with him.

"I'm just high," Shiro said, waving off her worry as he superheated the air around him to push him to Atlanta. "From the fight," he amended. "You know how I get. Sunfire, not Captain Sprains-his-brain."

Accepting his explanation, Marie allowed herself a small smile as she pushed herself to keep up with him. "Ah'm gonna have to remember that one," she said. "Has a nice ring to it." Shiro gained a steady lead that continued growing and Marie was sweating with the exertion of keeping him within her sight.

Even if she couldn't see him, then she could at least see the wide trail of fire he left in his wake. He pushed himself as hard as he could, burning through the sky like a rocket. He touched down before she did, a bit clumsily, and had to steady himself against a telephone pole. He stifled a laugh (not a giggle, because Shiro never giggles) and shook his head to clear it. "Bus to the airport?" he suggested. "I could continue to fly, but you look like you can barely walk anymore." He smirked at her.

Relieved to set down, Marie shook her head at him. "Yeah, bus would be good. Ah don't get it, Ah can usually keep up with you. Ah can't tell if Ah'm movin' slower or you were movin' faster." She was too tired to try and figure out which was which and filed that thought away to process later.

"Maybe you're just getting old," Shiro taunted, fighting another sudden head rush. Something told him that maybe he should be worried, but then he reminded himself how much he'd just exerted, especially so soon after San Diego, and promptly shut up that voice. They'd done good, and he was fine, end of story.

She rolled her eyes at him. "An' Ah'm what? One or two years older than you?" She ran a hand through her short hair and stuck her tongue out at him. "Ah bet Ah could still kick your sorry butt if Ah wanted ta."

"I think your brain melted along with your hair."