xp_logs | Investigation in Michigan (backdated)

Garrison, Adrienne and Kyle arrive to investigate the situation in Michigan.

"I swear to god, if they just lost their phones, I'm going to sink both of them into Lake St.Clair. Under a truck. A big truck." Kane muttered as they pulled into the address that they'd left with the school. Despite his grousing, the reality was that with her training, Laurie not checking in wasn't going to be something as simple as a blonde moment shared with Hope. Since they'd seen a lack of evidence of natural disasters or massive riots, it meant whatever had kept them from checking in was directed at them.

"Lost phones is probably exactly what happened. They probably went out partying, picked up a couple strange men, had a drug-fuelled orgy, got blackout drunk and passed out and then lost their phones," Adrienne elaborated as she climbed out of the vehicle and looked at the house they'd arrived at. She was fine with them staying in a state of denial. It was easier to pretend such things rather than to admit the reality- that this was probably another one of countless attacks on mansionites and that Laurie and Hope were most likely in need of some form of rescue. These things seemed to be happening every other week nowadays. But even if she did admit it, it wouldn't help fix the situation, so what was the point? Better to play along, the self-preservationist decided. "Or maybe they drained their batteries calling a radio station repeatedly trying to win concert tickets to Enrique Iglesias and Pit Bull. Or making prank calls!"

"Who the fuck is Enrique Iglesias?" Kyle asked as he unfolded from the back seat. "Laurie probably decided Hope needed to be dissected for the benefit of humanity to figure out how one teenage girl can be that anal retentive." He slid his phone out of his jeans and tabbed to the text messages, like he had a dozen times in the last day. Still nothing, not that he expected texts back now. "Maybe Hope's mom has her locked in the basement popping out babies for Prince whatshisface in England."

Kane paused as he adjusted the radio. "Kyle, is this one of those psychological things we need to walk you through. Because that was both random and mean, like she killed your favourite cactus."

"Dude, Hope's mom is psycho, and I wouldn't put it past her to lock her kid in her basement." Kyle said. "I'm serious, she's like legit obsessive." He shook himself, and grimaced. "I mean really for real serious if we can't find them, her basement is the first place I'm checking. It's two thousand fourteen, and she like, indoctrinated Hope. I got what, ten students I teach face to face? I only have one who still stares at me like I've got three heads when I'm casual outside class."

"You sure it's not just your personal hygiene? Because I've caught you after a run and had to doublecheck that elephants hadn't wandered through the hall." Kane said, needling Kyle. The young man had a tendency to be quick to anger, and he'd learned that making himself a target usually helped him focus better on the rest of things.

Unconsciously Adrienne moved away from the two men, out of range of a possible physical altercation. "Well, if we don't find anything here you can bet we'll check Hope's mom's place next," she murmured, wondering if Amy's mother was getting nervous about the fact there were three people apparently bickering in her driveway. She rang the doorbell and smoothed out her blouse while she waited for the woman to appear.

Mrs. Wright opened the door, taking in the three people in front of the door. She was not sure what to make of them. The woman and the older of the two men looked like they could be some form of officials, but as took in the slightly different features of the younger man, her red-rimmed eyes widened slightly. He must have been a mutant. "Yes? May I help you?"

"Mrs. Wright? My name is Special Agent Garrison Kane of the FBI. This is Special Agent Adrienne Frost from our Detroit Field Office and this is Mister Gibney, head of security at the Xavier School in Westchester. Can we have a minute of your time, please?" Kane said, flashing the badge and giving her his best official voice.

"Uhm of course. Please come in." Once in the living room, she turned around. "Have you heard anything about my daughter? She went to the coffee shop after an appointment yesterday and was going to return to college afterwards, but she is not answering her phone." Glancing at Mr. Gibney, she added: "Xavier's? Is that not the school Hope is attending?"

"I believe that's correct," Adrienne answered, giving Kyle another moment or two to simmer down. She moved idly around the living room, pretending to be interested in the décor and decorations. "My, this is a lovely shade of... beige, isn't it? Is this a semi-gloss?" she asked, touching two fingers to the paint on the wall to use her powers on it. Once she was sure that Hope (along with two other girls) had been in the house but had gone out again, and were not, in fact, bound and gagged in another room, she gave Kyle and Garrison a slight head shake. Maybe they really had gone back to Hope's place and been locked in the basement by her mother. "Did your daughter tell you the name of the coffee shop?"

"Yes, it's a local place called 'Au lait'. " Mrs. Wright replied almost immediately. "Do you think you might find something there?"

"Well, we hope so, Ma'am." Kyle said, with his best "talking to a parent" face. "Do they go there a lot? Do you know if they were going to meet anyone there?" He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to look a little thoughtful. "I don't suppose you can give us your daughter's phone number? Agent Kane has some contacts, he's helped us find kids who've gotten all het up and decided to go on a summer road trip instead of college before."

"No, it cannot be anything like that. There was a woman here, a Ms. Taylor from the Foundation for Genetic Harmony for a internship opportunity for Amy... Amy and Hope went to the coffee shop with her." Mrs Wright spoke urgently.

"Ms. Taylor? Did she happen to leave a card with you or any literature?" Kane said. Adrienne could easily identify her if she left something behind.

"No, I think she said Amy had all the papers." She glanced around to make sure there was nothing that had been left behind. "I am sorry that I cannot help you there..."

***

"You know, I'm going to just get the police dog training. Seriously. Gar, I want you to like, get that for me." Kyle was laying on his back across the seats with his legs out of the back seat of the car. "I'm serious here. I end up digging through teenagers sock drawers enough, I like, want to make sure I'm doing this right." He finally got out of the car, with a light scarf - not his, far too feminine - peeking out of the pocket of his coat. He pulled the collar of his coat up to shadow his face slightly and took several deep breaths in through his nose.

After a few seconds, he shook his head to clear it, and sneezed. "Okay I know for sure Laurie was here, and I'm about fifty percent sure Hope was. Laurie kind of drowns out everyone else and I have no idea on the other girl. I just - I just don't know her well enough and you know, I wasn't about to ask her mom if I could smell her laundry, because that is fucking creepy." He said, as he shoved both hands - and the scarf - into his pockets.

"Well, you already chase squirrels, so they'd probably accept you into police dog training," Adrienne mumbled, touching the curbs and light poles in the parking lot one by one. "Oh, hey. Lookit that," she muttered when she finally touched one that had information that was relevant. "They were kidnapped." She huffed out a long breath, trying to push away her thoughts and deflect from what she was feeling, knowing she couldn't let herself lose it right now. "Surprise surprise. Does Xavier get a free coffee with every tenth kidnapping?" As had become her custom when she'd started working with Vanessa and Bishop. she scribbled down notes in a notepad with anything that might be relevant. "Hey Kane, remember when we were shipwrecked on Magneto's Mutant Haven Island?"

"In his defense, it was preferable to drowning in the middle of the Pacific." Kane sighed and pulled out his phone. "Any idea of the people responsible, babe?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell you," Adrienne replied, trying not to sound annoyed. "It was one of them. Sarah someone? I don't remember her last name. She would call herself Scanner? Do you remember her? Wait... shit. Does this mean Magneto's behind this?"

"Fuck, it wouldn't be the first time Magneto's kidnapped kids to use their powers on people." Kyle said. "Rogue, and Julio at least, and I think that guy who works with Angelo who makes fire?" He rubbed his nose with his hand and grunted. "Laurie's not dumb. If they got grabbed... you didn't see her like, try to hit her alert button on her phone? Fight back? Anything?"

Adrienne checked her notes, having already deleted the Reading from her mental repository. "They had their phones. Looked like Hope tried to sound the alarm. But I'm guessing she didn't get to it since the mansion didn't get any alert," she muttered, frowning. "And they fought, yeah. But there was another mutant with the Scanner chick. Red dude? Teleporter? Evil Kurt Sefton from an alternate dimension, maybe? Between the two of them, the three girls were overpowered."

"Shit." Kyle grunted. "Cover me?" Garrison knew the drill, covering for Kyle getting down to smell out scent trails on the ground was a usual routine, so he didn't wait for them to respond, or crouch down themselves. He was several yards away when he bent down to reach under a recycling bin and then popped back up , a phone in his hand. "Found your phone!" He passed it over to Garrison, shaking his head. "Bet she kicked it under there, hopefully she got video or something."

"I don't wanna touch it," Adrienne pointed out, glad Kyle had given it to Garrison and not her. "If I get Readings of her sending shots of her vajayjay to Doug or, God forbid, homemade sex videos, my brain's going to go into Safe Mode and I'm going to be too traumatized to ever come out. Wait... it's Laurie's phone, not Hope's, right? Because if it's Hope's and I see those things, it's game over for me."

Kane flipped it open. "Looks like it's Hope's." He pressed a couple of buttons. "I'm not seeing any vaginas or dick shots. But there is a call from an unknown number on here. Take a look, babe?" Kane flipped it over to Adrienne.

"It was Scanner," Adrienne confirmed, Reading the phone. She didn't pause to take any notes this time, though. There was nothing new she could tell them. She tossed it back to Garrison. "You might as well keep this to put traces on it or whatever it is you hero people do."

"I don't know about the hero part, but the FBI lab might be able to give us some clues. Fuck, two lost women and Scanner. I'm going to hazard a guess that this isn't all just a wacky mix-up."