Don't Close Your Eyes: Search

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Amara, Jubilee, and Meggan make it to the Box and find not one, but two Professor Xaviers.


The trio was now making their way through the corridors. There was no time for creeping carefully along now, just a full-on run, no matter if any of them were aching or not. Meggan understood that if something were to go wrong for them before they could reach the Professor, and they were grabbed, it would be a far worse outcome for everyone than being forced to go through the motions with Selene in that warped scenario.

Breathlessly, without slowing her pace, Meggan wondered, “It’s a few more left turns once we’re closer down there, isn’t it?” She knew The Box was just beyond the infirmary, but that was all.

"Yes," Amara replied, not quite as breathless. Her morning runs hadn't halted because she'd stopped being on the team, and she was glad for it now. "Right just up ahead, then three lefts. We're not too far from it now."

Jubilee for her part looked fresh, the speed of their movements not bothering her in the slightest. She supposed all that moving through the city and parkour training had paid off. Not that she hadn't been at prime fitness beforehand, but every little bit helped.

She took the first corner, and then the second, keeping an eye and an ear out for any possible danger. While both Meggan and Amara were well able to take care of themselves, she still felt like she should protect them somehow.

"Watch yourself, Jubes," Doug said shortly over the phone line. "Kurt already tried to go in, and got knocked out somehow." He was concerned for all of them, but especially Jubilee. He knew she was the most capable of the group, but she was also the most important to him. "Stay sharp."

"Frosty, dude. I'm totally frosty," Jubilee replied, slowing down a little with Doug's warning but still moving at a fast pace. "Everyone, eyes wide open, yeah? Doug says Kurt got knocked out after coming in here."

Amara nodded, though she didn't entirely need the warning. Nothing about this situation had been easy so far, and she wasn't expecting things to get any easier. A couple of more corners and they were there at the Box, Amara moving to the control panel on the door to open it. Initially it didn't work, though a few moments later the door slid open, allowing them access. Amara moved carefully in, eyes scanning the room quickly.

The crumpled figure of Charles Xavier lay again in the middle of the room and he weakly began to move as the girls started to enter. He tried to push himself up by his hands but slipped back down to the floor almost immediately.

Meggan was just behind Amara, having nodded once at Jubilee’s instructions. Once she saw him on the floor, she wanted to go straight over to help the Professor, only to catch herself. If her brother had been knocked out after trying something similar, then that wasn’t a safe response. There was a good chance it was a trap, and if it was she didn’t want to fall into it and get everyone hurt. Just because she couldn’t see someone else in the room, that didn’t mean there wasn’t, or that they were in the clear to grab the man on the ground. Instead, warily, Meggan said, “Sir?”

"Hold on," Amara said softly to Meggan, lifting hands wreathed in flame to properly light the room, her eyes going to the far corners to double check if there was someone else in the room. There was - two figures, both of them the Professor. Amara froze in place, not at all sure which one was which.

"So is this the point where you're like, one of us totally always tells the truth, and one of us always lies?" Jubilee asked, moving around the other two women to get a better field of vision. "Cause dude, the eighties called, they want their movie cliches back."

The Professor in the middle of the room hesitated, looking uncertainly at the girls as if he were still confused - but what he was doing, though, was simply figuring out the odds. The man suddenly cursed and he rippled, the image coating his own body changing even as he lunged for the real Charles Xavier on the other side of the room. The women were being too cautious and he couldn't keep up pretenses under that much scrutiny. He figured, though, if he got a hold of the real deal, he could even the odds again .

Jubilee had been watching for it, and she threw several plasma sparks right in his path, taking off toward who she now knew was the real Professor in order to put herself between him and this fake one. "Wrong move, dude."

Facing a shape shifter in hand to hand was not going to be fun, but showing even a small amount of hesitation or doubt would give whoever this was an advantage she wasn't willing to give. So brazen mocking and attitude it was, hopefully she'd be able to keep the shifter's focus on herself and allow Amara and Meggan time to get the Professor out.

"Shit!" Turning, Corvus scrambled to get away from the searing lights. Slightly dazzled, he twisted the other way even as his concentration shattered and what remained of the image he'd created around himself dissolved into nothing. This wasn't what he'd signed up for - all things considered, maybe he should have just let the police arrest him instead of getting caught up in this mess.

***

While he was distracted by Jubilee, Meggan waved a quick ‘come on’ to Amara to follow her, as she dashed just out of the shapeshifter’s currently impaired field of vision, to the real Professor's side. Between the two of them, they should be able to get him out of this room. At least, she fervently hoped so.

Amara shot a quick look at Jubilee, whom didn't seem to need any help with the fake Professor - who was now very much not looking like the Professor. She hurried to Xavier's side, kneeling down next to him and carefully resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Professor?" She whispered, not wanting to catch the attention of the bad guy in the room.

He groaned slightly under her touch, eyelids fluttering as he began to regain consciousness. "Who..." he choked out, groping as if he was blind. Without his telepathy, he was.

Meggan touched his other shoulder gently. “Professor, we're getting you out of here,” she whispered. She wasn’t sure how much more time the distraction could buy them before the guy got sick of being blinded and turned their way. Meggan nodded for Amara to get his other elbow so they could maneuver him enough to get him to safety…or just somewhere that wasn’t quite as bad for him.

Amara nodded to Meggan, sliding an arm around the Professor so she could start to help him up. He was heavy, a lot heavier than Amara expected him to be.

***

Jubilee could see the shapeshifter wavering, she'd trained with Doug for long enough to be able to read basic body language these days even if the whole shapeshifter biology meant they moved differently. "I figure you've got two choices here, dude. Either you run, now, and keep running till you hit the coast or I beat the utter crap out of you, just for the shit you've put us through. After I'm done with that, I drag you out back and blow your head off. I figure you know which choice is gonna work out better for you."

It was true that both Xavier and the girls would disagree with her tactics but after what had happened to Remy, Jubilee was not in the mood to be benevolent toward anyone who threatened her people.

Corvus warily kept side-stepping, his attention torn between the woman who was threatening to blow his head off and the two rescuing the telepath. The problem was if they got him out of the box, that was pretty much it. They'd been warned about how strong Xavier was and that the room they'd put him in was one of the only ways, outside of outright killing him, to keep him down. Some of the others had wanted to kill him but it seemed to Corvus that it kept the game more 'entertaining' that way.

Not to him, though. All he wanted was a stiff drink with people who couldn't do freaky things with their heads, hands or other body parts - unless they got paid for it, anyway.

He frowned and tried to gather his shredded concentration but the images he was trying to make around his own body kept flickering and disappearing - his concentration was fucking shot. Maybe the others busy enough to not notice if he took the girl up on her offer ...

Jubilee formed a ball of plasma in her hands, her eyes never leaving the man's as she set it loose, moving it slowly across the room toward him. As it moved, it grew larger, taking on the form of a human shape, just large enough to encompass him. "Last chance, dude. Run or I fry you where you stand."

"Fuck this and fuck them," Corvus said, throwing up his hands in surrender. "I'll take my chances on the outside, away from you and that - that light show. Just ..." His back was almost to the wall, now. "Could you kind of make it go away, please? I will never, ever come back if you just make it go away." It hurt to look at and he was afraid if he moved, he was going to be engulfed by it.

Jubilee closed her hands, popping the lights out of existance one by one with small cracking sounds as she rolled her shoulders, and gestured toward the open doorway with a mocking flourish. "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, dude."

He looked around, taking in the groggy telepath and the gaggle of young women and then he bolted, keeping a wide berth between himself and anyone else. With a bit of luck, he could make the gates and beyond before they even noticed he'd left his post.

While Jubilee had rid them of the impersonator, Meggan and Amara had managed - though barely - to get the Professor up.

"We should get back to the Danger Room," she said to Jubilee. "Everyone else is there, and hopefully the Professor will be able to figure out what is going on."

"Come on, I'll stay out front and deal with any resistance on the way," Jubilee replied, taking lead as they headed out of the box.

Amara nodded, glancing over to Meggan to make sure she had a firm hold on the Professor.

"You okay to go?"

Meggan had a firm enough grip that she wouldn’t send him crashing to the floor when they started off, but she checked once more before nodding. “Yeah, I’ve got him on this side. I'm good. Let’s get him out of here.”

"We'll switch up as we go, just let me know when you guys get tired," Jubilee noted, already moving quickly ahead of the other two, hands covered by shifting, popping sparks.

"Let's go." Amara started to move, carefully matching Meggan's pace as they followed Jubilee. Hopefully they wouldn't run into any problems between here and the Danger Room.