X-Men Mission: Roller Derby Queen

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The other X-Men head for the meeting before the start of the match.



“No cell phones, guys. No cell phones.” The biker at the door held out a sack for them, nodding for them to toss in their phones. Kane shrugged and tossed his in – they were all carrying new ones that had been set up by the FBI. As they all finished, the man put a tag on the bag and stashed it behind the bar before waving them through.

The meeting was taking place across a large circular table, and a railing separated them from the people watching. The room was full of monitors broadcasting the match, as Tiboldt warmed up the crowd with his usual mess of nonsense. They drifted towards one of the four bars lashed up around the space, as minor representatives and local VIPs from the various gangs relaxed during the negotiations. As they shifted into the space at the bar, Kane motioned them close and palmed over a double finger ring to Marius.

“There’s a pin camera built into it. Take Jan around, see if you can get good shots of some of them on the fringes. We need to be gone before the match ends. Kurt and I will see if we can get closer to the big boys in the middle.”

Marius slipped on the ring with an expression of deep distaste, only partially due to its design. "Hope I don't see a bill should I 'lose' it once a fight break out. It is undoubtedly an expensive piece of equipment, but I like it less than my finger not comin' away with some bloke's nose-ring."

"No fighting," Jan said, half-joking and half-serious. "That's for on the track, and I've had my fill of that for the day, thanks." She motioned to her bandaged leg and foot. "And if we really do wind getting up into that sort of a thing, I can zap them. No mess, no fuss. Clean, and no missing body parts or rings."

"I think we can all get behind a lack of missing body parts", Kurt agreed dryly, then looked to Garrison. "Time for us all to move, then?"

"Be careful. Most of the people here have power of some level with the biker gangs. They didn't get it by being soft or stupid." Kane said in a final word of caution. This was a dangerous gamble; if even one person got suspicious, they'd end up having to answer a lot of questions very quickly or fight their way out, if possible. The Canadian took a breath and nodded at Kurt. "Right, we're off to bother the big table. Froggy, Tink, one circuit and then leave with whatever you've got. Understood?"

"Fine by me." The sooner this was over, the better. Marius offered his arm to Jan. "Shall I help bear some of the weight for your injured appendage? -- Wait, I am meant to be a Bad Man. Be sure you hang upon me like a woman with the fervent urge to disappoint her father whilst I treat you with total indifference."

"Bad Men can still care for their ladies!" Jan took the offered arm. Without crutches, she needed the assistance. "And, dude, I disappointed my father years ago when I grew wings and turned out to be a mutant. I think he would have liked the dating-a-bad-man option much better!" With that, they headed off towards the bikers.

They watched the pair walk off, and then Kane nodded towards the main table.



"Not sure how to position this ring for the best photos," Marius murmured in Jan's ear as they drifted towards a clot of gang members. His arm around her waist not only allowed him to take most of her weight, it aided the illusion that the whisper was in fact a nuzzle. "Advance apologies -- if I happen to fondle you, be assured it is for the greater good."

Jan let out a short laugh at that. "Whose greater good, exactly? But sure, you feel the need to do that, go right ahead." Two could play at that game.

"Well, if my arm is to be twisted--" The rejoinder was abruptly cut off as a number of bikers noticed their approach. Several of them were individuals he had noticed in close orbit around Eddie the Outlaw. Marius immediately let his expression go flat.

"Shit, who let in the surrender-monkey?" said one man with a mustache that would not have been out of place on a walrus, or at least one heavily in favour of bandannas. "No fuckin' standards."

Marius gave a languid shrug and slipped back into a heavy French accent. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but bullets are more harmful than names ." He glanced at Jan. "Or is that not how the saying goes?"

What are they talking about? "Never heard that one before, but it sounds about right," Jan replied, clinging to Marius. "Whatever you say, baby."

The non-mustachioed of the pair, who made up for the lack of facial hair in piercings, immediately zeroed in on Jan. "Holy shit, thought that was Tinkerhell," he said, devoting only slightly less attention to the girl's face than he gave her breasts. "Didn't recognize her with her wings folded in like that. Fuck man, who'd you get her off?"

"A consideration from the Secret Empire." Marius disengaged his hand from Jan's waist and slid it up to her shoulder, slipping his thumb against the ring's trigger stud as he did so. There was one down.

"My kinda party favor." The pierced man leered at Jan, then looked at his mustachioed friend. "Maybe Secret Empire isn't such shit after all."

The mustached man didn't respond. After a cursory glance at Jan, he'd resumed staring at Marius with undisguised distaste and a hint of suspicion.

Jan eyed Mr. Mustache Man. He didn't seem to be too fond of Marius, and unlike his buddy, wasn't paying much attention to Jan. "I love your mustache," she practically cooed at him. "I adore men with facial hair, it's sooo sexy!"

The man looked away from Marius, giving the X-Man a chance to get a shot of the group behind him under the pretext of brushing back his hair.

"I'm not into muties," the more suspicious of the two said, though the direction of his gaze indicated he was giving this stance further consideration.

Marius needed to get Jan's attention. And, because there were a very limited number of means available to ensure she realized this, he waited until the mustached man's eyes had moved on to take in her legs and squeezed her butt.

Maybe the guy wasn't 'into muties,' but that didn't mean he'd shown a complete lack of interest. "You know, I totally get that, usually I'm only into mutants," Jan lied, "but, you know, your mustache is just so wow. And this guy here" she dipped her head towards Marius "wouldn't mind a bit 'cause he really likes watching me do stuff with other guys, even just little things. He's already getting all excited over here 'cause I think you're hot. Hey, what if I just, like, touched your mustache?"

In one fell swoop, Jan had demonstrated both an inherent grasp of the situation and rendered his grope completely superfluous. Well, technically. Marius generously allowed that the latter had served as a bit of a morale booster on his part.

"I should let her," Marius instructed the man. "She can do remarkable things indeed with her hands." He leveled his yellow eyes on the biker. "Secret Empire want it known they specialize in women with talents in and out of the ring."

The formerly reluctant man gave a grunt, but there was a distinct tone of consent -- possibly due to the look of seething envy his tattooed companion was giving him. "Shit, why not," he said, giving Jan one last up-and-down.

"Ooh, thank you so much!" Jan grinned at the guy and hopped forward to him. Still smiling, she reached out and did indeed actually touch the guy's mustache as she had asked to do. Blech! "Wanna see what I can do with my hands?" she asked in a half-whisper. "Guys find it really stimulating."

The man smiled. It was filled with yellow teeth. "Sure," he said, "stimulate me."

And then gasped, as Jan let the tinniest bit of bioelectricity flow through the man's face.

"Excuse me, I believe I see someone I have been looking for," Marius said. This was the best opening he could ask for. Jan had once delivered a school report whilst naked; Marius was entirely unsurprised by what she was capable of when she was being intentionally distracting. He gave Jan a leer. "Stay here, and keep yourself . . . amused."

Leaving Jan to her admirers, Marius did a quick circuit of the room and snapped a few quick photos under the pretext of scratching his forehead or brushing back his hair. One or two of the bikers shot him a look of distaste, but none bothered to engage him. It was a favour he was only too happy to return.

He wasn't sure what Jan had been doing, but by the time he returned Mustache looked much less married to his anti-mutant prejudices.

Noting the return of Marius, Jan hopped a step away from the mustached man and smiled at Marius. "Baby, let's go find ourselves a room or a wall or something, OK? I'm just so turned on right now." She hoped he had the pictures he needed because she really didn't want to stick around and give the biker any ideas about things going any further than they already had.

Marius gave her a small nod of confirmation, already pondering flowers of apology for the evening. "Indeed," he said, taking Jan's arm with a proprietary air. "I was mistaken -- the fucker is not here. I feel the need to vent my . . ." he leered, mostly to cover the expression his face was trying to make at the look the now-frustrated biker was giving Jan, "frustrations. Let us go." Without waiting for a reply, he slipped an arm around her waist and propelled her back to where they'd last seen Garrison and Kurt.

When they were definitely out of earshot, Jan shuddered. "EW! That was so totally gross! I can't believe I just did that! That is going right on the list with being swallowed and climbing around in a guy's ear. Uch! Can you get diseases from mustaches? I'll bet that mustache was carrying all sorts of diseases! And did you see his teeth? Gross! Hasn't the guy ever heard of a toothbrush? Or floss? How do I get myself into these situations?"

"Oh, one more thing." Jan grabbed his butt and smirked. He grabbed hers, she grabbed his. Besides, it was actually a pretty good butt.

Marius jumped, then feigned a sigh. "Ah, the things we do for the team . . ."



Negotiations had been ongoing, although paused at points to watch a play or to work on a side issue. From his seat, Eddie waved over Kane and motioned for Kurt to follow.

"After the match, you're going to talk to Bill Streetman. He's got the right to negotiate for the chapters. If you fuckin' impress him, we can make deal with the Secret Empire as our main connection for girls." Eddie said quietly. "But not until after the meeting. Shit's going down, so keep your mouths shut."

Kane nodded and settled into the chair beside Kurt. "I recognize a couple of these guys. Biker leadership. Shit..." He whispered to Kurt. "I don't know the guys on the far end. You think that you can get some names?"

"I can try", Kurt answered with a nod. "Very carefully, of course."

"Take a shot. I'll handle this end of the table."

Another nod, and Kurt got up and made his casual way over to the other men, acting like just one of them who'd come to introduce himself to less than familiar faces.

Kane gave a quick look over, but otherwise left Kurt on his own. The older man had handled tougher situations, and he had his own part to worry about. As he looked over the men at the table, little file cards flashed through his brain, attaching names to faces. Most of them had a colourful history, and a few had wrap sheets that read like the resume for the Anti-Christ: drug trafficking, extortion, murder; name the crime and most of the table had been suspected of being involved with it.

Kurt arrived at the far end of the table and dropped into an empty seat, glancing over as if to see if this gave him a better view of the track. Satisfied with what he found, he nodded a guarded greeting to the other men.

"I don't see why we should be covering all the squeeze across the Mississippi corridor." One of the men said, acknowledging Kurt only barely.

"You want the Lords paying off cops on your turf, Howard?"

"No, but the costs should come out of the price."

"We're not setting it. It's the Bandidos who pass it off after the border, and they're already paying off police there. Ask them to cut you a fucking deal, Jay-Bird."

"Look, tell me if I'm wrong-" He suddenly said to Kurt, drawing him in. "At eight-five a key, we're going to have to add at least, what, five grand a shipment to cover police protection. That's just to move it up from Texas. All you guys are doing is moving it, what, across the 10 from Cuidad Juarez. We're stuck with the entire length of the 55. What I'm saying is that it should be worth a discount, since we're going to have to make bigger shipments anyways. Am I right?"

Kurt gave this due and serious consideration, eyes flickering between the men to judge who would be the best to back on this, and decided on Jay-Bird. No one else seemed to be and since to him it was a theoretical argument, it might get him points with the other man. "I would say some discount, yes, at least for selling to them in bulk."

"See! I told you! Empire. You're Empire, right? Jay-Bird Haskell, of the Warlocks."

"Howard Haskell." The other man said with a smile, and earned a middle figure from Jay-Bird.

"Fuck you, Mary." It was without much rancor though.

"Marion Sykes, Pagans. I didn't think Secret Empire had a set at the table for Kick?"

"Kurt Sefton", he introduced himself as soon as the others had finished, then shrugged. "Mostly we are here for other business."

"Yeah, I don't remember you guys on the list." Sykes nodded. At the other end of the table, Kane was covertly making mental notes on the last of the players at the table, before shifting back over towards Kurt. He'd had enough time to get whatever names he was going to get. Another man came up to join the table, and Garrison froze for a second. The man's name was Gary Duero, and Kane had interrogated him for hours less than a year ago in the field office. He knew Kane was a cop.

"Kurt," he said quietly. "Get ready to get out fast."

Kurt didn't look at him, but his relaxed slouch changed to something that - if you were looking for it - was a posture ready for action. He glanced casually around the table then back to Sykes. "You never know what opportunities might present themselves, yes?"

"Never know. I once-" He started, but was interrupted as Garrison grabbed a beer bottle and suddenly launched himself at Duero. The Canadian's action caught everyone off guard as he smashed the bottle across the man's head, and catch him with a punch going the other way.

"Motherfucker!" He yelled, slamming Duero's face into the table and knocking him cold. Three men threw themselves on Kane, and he let himself get dragged away from the now unconscious biker. Kane could have easily tossed all three men off him like ragdolls, but instead stayed in their grip, taking the knocks from them. "He's a fucking cop, man! He's a fed snitch!"

"What the fuck is going on here?" One of the men from the table, a huge older man with a graying beard, stepped forward. He grabbed Kurt by the shoulder. "Is that your boy?"

Kurt had shot to his feet when Garrison attacked the other man, but he hoped it looked like anger at the accusations his team-mate was making. "Kane is Secret Empire, and if he says that one is a cop, I would believe him."

"Bullshit! Gary's as much of a fucking cop as I am!" A man across the table said angrily, and the older man shook his head.

"Calm down, Frankie. You guys, throw this fucker out. I know Gary and I don’t know you, so you can cool it while we figure this out." He said, indicating Kane, who was unceremoniously shoved through the open door. "Eddie said that we should talk to Secret Empire about a deal. Right now, if you can't control your boys, I don't know if I want to trust you with nothing. Get out of here. If we change our minds, we'll find you."

Kurt, still firmly in character, glared at the older man and twisted out of his grip - but a look at the size of the group who'd be arrayed against him if he did fight back changed both his and his character's mind. "We are going", he said coldly, and stalked out of the door after Garrison.