xp_logs | Nicobar Reef: Black Flag

Scott and Jennie are having more-or-less-standard ordinary days when Nathan rouses the alarm, turns on his lawyer-fu, and threatens to invade another country if Something Isn't Done.

The door to the Situation Room opened, disturbing what had otherwise been a very quiet coms shift for Jennie. Scott stepped in, looking around and frowning. "He told me it was urgent, and then I beat him down here," he said, sounding a bit disgruntled as he came the rest of the way into the room. "I always worry when Nathan starts talking about urgency. Usually that means imminent explosion. You're not picking up anything unusual on the newsfeeds, are you?"

"Nooo," Jennie said, hiding her English novel in her lap. "Not that I've seen." Her eyes were deeply shadowed, the kind that came with a severe hangover, but with enough caffine and motrin, Jennie was a reasonably functional human being today.

Scott gave her one of those 'I would kick your ass but I'm a little preoccupied right now' looks that he did so very well. Why did people not find watching the newsfeeds as fascinating as he did? He'd never understand it. "Well, that's some consolation. No cities exploding, or continents vanishing, or large objects falling from the sky... I always like to rule out the really appalling possibilities."

"Meow, Fearless Leader, what's got you so riled up?" Jennie said. "Relax, nothing's gone wrong. The feeds are clear, and my infaliable system tells me everything is ok," she tapped her temple, indicating the short-range precognition that accompanied her probability manipulation powers. While never an exact science, it was an incredibly useful early warning system.

Ah, optimism. The privilege of the young. "Everything's okay here," Scott said, or started to.

Before he could finish, the door opened again and Nathan stalked in. His expression was thunderous in the way that generally meant no good for someone. "The mutant kids who were supposed to be happily ensconced in Elpis's DDR centre in Jaffna as of next week got snatched," he said bluntly, with no preamble. "Twelve of them, out of their temporary housing in the middle of the night."

"Well, I could always be wrong," Jennie said cheerfully.

Scott somehow managed to look tired and tense at the same time. He'd figured it had to be something like this; Nathan had a bad habit of getting very bad news out of the blue. "I'm sorry. But you're coming to me why?" Although as soon as he said it, the likely 'why' was obvious.

Nathan's smile was a bit brittle. "Not for the fun of it. Matsuda and Nash were in-country to get the centre opened for business. They found out what happened pretty much right away, and managed to track the kids back to a ship that left harbor this morning, headed for Madripoor."

"Human trafficking."

"Well, we know it's common as can be, in that part of the world. But to get to Madripoor, they have to cross a hell of a lot of open water. Open international water," Nathan stressed.

Jennie sat back, chin propped, and watched the conversation like she was observing a tennis match. There was Nate freaking out about human trafficking, so she checked her watch. Yep, it was Wednesday.

She got a brief, not entirely friendly sidelong look from the telepath before he continued. "Universal jurisdiction, Scott. You catch someone in the act of piracy in international waters, it's absolutely legal to intervene. And if Charles can locate twelve mutant minds afloat in the Indian Ocean while the Blackbird's on the way there, you've got a good chance of getting to them while they are still in international waters."

"If he can," Scott said, and got a glower from the older man. He gestured helplessly. "Look, Nathan, I'm not saying we shouldn't do this, it's just that the timing's a little dicey-"

"If you decide it's not feasible, fine," Nathan said caustically. The look in his gray eyes was moderately baleful. "I'll point out that I'm perfectly capable of collecting Gavin and Isabel, heading to Madripoor, and finding these kids myself." Scott actually winced, and Nathan gave him a very slight smile. "I think we'd all prefer to avoid that. Either way," he said, turning for the door, "I'm going to Jaffna; Moira's loaned me the plane. I'll have my com, so let me know if I need to be making additional travel plans, or whether I can stick to getting the centre ready for them when they get back."

"Nathan-"

"Names and photos of the kids are uploaded to the database. Just in case you might wind up needing them."

He was gone without another word. Scott briefly, wordlessly, flung his hands up into the air. But he stared at the door for only a moment before he turned to Jennie. "So. You up for a mission today?" His tone was almost casual. There really was only one right thing to do here; Nathan might have been peremptory, but that didn't change the facts of the situation.

Jennie tossed her book over her shoulder. "It was boring as hell anyway." And she was so happy for something to think about other than her mother, and a distraction from that sharp ache in her chest that always got worse around this time of year. She clasped her hands together like an eager schoolchild and leaned forward. "What is on the agenda, O Fearless Leader?"

Scott leaned over one of the empty consoles, rapidly typing the start of a request to Forge to get down to the hangar and pre-flight the Blackbird. "Sounds like a race to me," he said, "with some pirates to fight at the end of it... listen to me, pirates. Call up maps and weather data for the Indian Ocean, would you?"

She turned and tapped a few keys into the console, surfing until she located the correct maps. She tapped a few more keys and they appeared on the main screen. 'You know, I never get tired of how cool this looks," Jennie said appreciatively.

"Yes, we have nice toys," Scott said absently, mentally pinging Jean and asking her to go check with Charles even as he ran through the other options for a team that would best fit these circumstances. "Any major disturbances we should know about for the flight plan?"

"Um, looks like windy and rainy where we're going," Jennie said, checking a couple of other feeds.

"Why am I not surprised?" It was very much a rhetorical question. Of course the weather wouldn't cooperate when speed was an issue. "Upload that stuff to the Blackbird's main computer as soon as it's online, and then get into your leathers, okay?"

"Sir, yes sir," Jennie saluted Scott, and finished typing things into the computer. On the outside, her attitude was flip, but once she was in uniform the rules were different. Jennie would always be Jennie, but now she was Roulette too.

If her mother could see her now.