X-Men Mission: Who You Gonna Call?

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men attend a briefing about their newest mission.



"Good morning." Garrison Kane said, as he yawned over his Tim Horton's mug of coffee. The noon call to assemble had come as a surprise, but it wasn't entirely uncommon for the X-Men. On the overhead screens, scans of newspapers were cycling slowly, closer inspection revealing them to be Chicago area dailies, and the headlines about arson. Not the most welcoming news in the morning, and why it fell into the scope of the X-Men was undoubtedly the topic of the briefing.

The Canadian was already in his leathers, sipping from the mug as he scrolled through the screen in front of him. "I hope everyone's free today, because we're taking a little trip to Chicago."

Piotr walked into the room still zipping up his leathers. It felt odd being back in them after his four and a half year break from the X-Men. He was actually a bit surprised when they came out of mothballs and still fit, though they did smell of cleaning products and lavender for some reason. He lowered himself into one of the chairs looking at the headlines on the screen in front of him and finding they were all about arson he looked back up at the others in the room quizzically.

“What has this arson got to do with us?” he asked.

"Good question. According to the Professor, the main suspect is a mutant; a young pyrokinetic that Cerebro picked up in the area."

"Is this a rescue, or a pick up?" Laurie asked, looking up from the notes she'd been taking on her phone, she preferred to keep a record of the points of any meeting in order to help her memory.

"A little bit of both. If the mutant is the one responsible, the Professor wants us to determine whether or not he's in control of his powers and the arsons are actually accidental. That's why it's us." Kane motioned with his mug. "My badge will let us get him out of the area if we need to. Yvette, Piotr, and Paige, you guys are our fireproof brigade. If the kid is out of control, your job will be to contain him long enough for Laurie's powers to calm him down or put him out. Jan, you're on recon once we get close. We don't want to spook him."

"So, we are to be talking, rather than fighting," Yvette said. She sounded relieved - she preferred the less violent scenarios. "I can be managing that."

Paige nodded along with Yvette. "I'll try and come up with something a little less shocking than sharp and metallic for a fireproof husk on the flight over," she commented, trying not to fiddle with the hem of her running shorts; it seemed silly to damage a perfectly good pair of regular leathers. The belt with pods of repairing uniforms sat slanted on her hips. She offered a reassuring but somewhat wry smile.

"We never get lucky enough for the ‘you're not monsters’ new recruits. And by we I mean you, Mountie. Murphy only puts you in charge for a pessimist reason."

Being put on recon duty didn't surprise Jan; given her ability to get into places unnoticed, it was her usual role on missions and made perfect sense. She definitely liked her powers and how useful they could be. The fly on the wall; that was Jan. "I can find out if this firestarter's a kid who needs our help or if he's some fire-happy nutcase who just likes making things burn," Jan said. "Either way, this arson stuff stops." Jan thought the team was a good one and they wouldn't have a problem stopping the pyrokinetic's blazing destruction.

"Now, as usual, there's a bit of a complication." Kane touched the screen in front of him, and a commercial began to play. "Local authorities talked to SHIELD, but due to the lack of evidence, they've refused to send in a team at this point. Because of that, the Chicago police have retained M-Squad as specialists on the scene. If you haven't seen their commercial yet, find time to. I nosed around, and it's a company of supposed mutant experts, who offer private sector support on mutant related crimes and disasters. Most of them are former professors from MIT, CalTech, and Yale. They're working with the police, so they aren't vigilantes or FoH trash. I don't know if they have an angle or there's just some money to be made, but I'd really like to avoid them if possible."

"You mean the people with the very corny advertisement?" Yvette asked, surprised. "They did not seem to be the concern on the television."

"I'm surprised the police took them seriously enough to retain their services, they seemed more likely to get themselves hurt then actually help. Have they actually been successful at all?" Laurie asked, nodding at Yvette's assessment.

"Apparently. The guys I talked to said they were pretty goofy, but they got the job done." Kane said. "It's a private company, so we don't really know much about them or their methods, but the Chicago PD wouldn't hire them if they were just con-artists. Better safe than sorry, eh? Our ride for Chicago leaves in a half hour."