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xp_logsInside, Gabe and Wanda find a unique way to evade the guards.
“Bypass all of your guards without raising an alarm or even being seen?” Emma smiled. "Not that it was hard to tell they were bored. Did you get them from Guards R Us or Guardapalooza?"
***
Gabriel, more nervous about this job than he expected, cracked his knuckles idly, then immediately looked to Wanda with an apologetic smile. The two had not worked too closely together before, and his interest in maintaining a good impression left him painfully aware of his tics.
"Sorry," he whispered. "I'm just — I mean, I know we've practiced this, but I'm still... nervous. And I don't really understand how it works, which doesn't entirely help."
Wanda gave him a quick smile, though her words were warmer than her expression. "There is no need to apologize - nerves keep you from getting ahead of yourself or being cocky." Her smile in the dark widened. "A lesson another speedster I know used to forget all the time growing up."
She was crouched next to him, arms loosely slung over her knees. Wanda looked to be perfectly relaxed but her eyes, when they weren't focused on Gabriel, were sharp and focused, taking in every movement around them. "No matter what happens, I'll be right behind you."
"Sure." Gabriel nodded. "Worst comes to worse, we blow this entire plan and end up having to improvise." A beat. "What could possibly go wrong?"
There were so, so many variables to this plan that could throw them off: the guards had to be in the right positions, their timing had to be more or less perfect and Gabriel's powers needed to fire in the right way. It was this last bit that he was particularly concerned about, but all he could do was hope for the best and count on Wanda to make whatever adjustments were necessary.
"Okay." He said, watching as four beefy-looking guards with guns holstered at their belts made a pass around the room. At scheduled intervals, the men rotated places, ostensibly to keep them from the boredom that might lead them to stare off into space and ignore their duties. "It's time." With little fanfare, he channeled his energy into slowing down the movement of time around him and building a quickly-moving bubble around himself. Then he took confident strides toward the security team.
As Gabriel took his first steps towards the guards, Wanda's world turned red with strings. As always, they ebbed and flowed in and through everything in various shades and widths. This had been her other sight for nearly as long as she could now remember and so, she'd been delighted when she'd realized the impact Gabriel's powers had on the world around him. To her powers and chaos in general.
The lines of chaos reacted not only to where Gabriel was but, also, to where he was going to be, shimmering and changing in advance in a way Wanda had never seen before.
And they were learning to take advantage of that. The future strings of chaos were mercurial and harder to hold but Wanda gathered them to her as best she could, coaxing them to stabilize to their advantage. At the same time, she was gathering the current strings of chaos around Gabriel, spreading them as wide as they could go.
Gabriel, for his part, did his best not to overthink things. It was hard for him to have blind faith in anything, much less a process he could barely understand, but he and Wanda had tried this in the Danger Room enough times that he had grown comfortable with her. And the alternate reality in which they'd found themselves however many months ago had made him realize his mutation had powers he had never explored, even though they might come at a physical cost.
He couldn't feel Wanda's pull, but he knew she was playing her part as he played his: racing around the guards, sowing chaos with each step as he focused his mental energy toward manipulating time. He sensed the field around him growing bigger, changing shape while the guards seemed not to register his presence.
Wanda's body shook slightly with the mental strain but she breathed in to calm herself. She spread the strings from the guards out and away from Gabriel's, asking in her own way that they not cross paths, at least not just yet. They obeyed for the moment, content to curl in different directions as the guards turned away. The slight smell of ozone touched her nose as they pushed the boundaries of their powers ever slightly.
And then, after another second, Gabriel stopped. They were done, he knew (without knowing how). "Frozen time," he murmured, afraid to speak too loudly in case it would rupture the space that he and Wanda created.
It wasn't, exactly, a bubble of frozen time. Gabriel's comprehension of physics was too low to really explain it, but he knew it was a space outside the tick-tick-tock of the universe. A way that would allow them, sort of, to step outside of time, without actually stepping outside of it. The guards were in a separate temporal field: one where they couldn't see Gabriel or Wanda or the rest.
"Okay," he said, nodding at her with a smile. "We can tell the others we're good to go."
North and Felicia confront the safe.
“And finally, ‘cracking’, is that the right term?” Doug nodded to her. “Yes, ‘cracking’ a safe on a time lock, which is impossible, without leaving a mark on it and then after switching the book, simply relock it and walk away?”
***
The maintenance panel slid aside with a satisfying hiss, and any other time Felicia would have smiled but for that keypad staring her down accusingly. A keypad she didn't have the code to, just everything riding on her and the last person she wanted to be in a room with right now.
"Three tries, seven digits. No pressure," she said, cracking her neck. "Do I have to jump start you?"
Her companion was glaring at the keypad, forehead creased in between his eyes. He tried to focus on a particular point in his mind, prodding at it in another attempt to activate his powers. But North's precognition had apparently chosen today to take the day off to sleep in and, as far as he could tell, her version of 'jump starting' was not going to cut it.
"No," he finally sighed, quietly resigned as he pulled a slim black case, no bigger than the size of her palm, from a hidden pocket in his inner shirt. He cracked it open to reveal the pre-loaded injector that he had not had cause to use for a while. "I just need a minute."
Felicia watched him in the vault reflections, making a noncommittal noise. The hiss of the shot - his chest as the site, she noted in habit - filled the otherwise silent room. "I probably shouldn't just use up the first two tries to mess with the math even further," she not asked after a moment, like the sensation of leaning against a railing and feeling deep how easy it would be to just go over.
North hummed in acknowledgement, neither agreeing not disagreeing as he put away the case, rubbing at the injection site to dispell the slight sting. It only took a few more moments before he felt his heart rate climb, and he knelt before the safe, close enough to feel her body heat but careful not to touch. "Give me a lucky number."
“Thirteen,” she answered easily, giving him a casual lopsided smile. “Might as well stick to the classics.”
The corners of North's lips ticked up upwards in response, almost in reflex, as a familiar film of white built up across his eyes. He sifted through flashes of images for a minute, eyes shifting restlessly. "Maybe not 13," he said, standing and making room for her in front of the safe. "31 looks like a good bet. Give me another for the second."
"Eight," she hit again, quick, going with instincts against the rapid noise in her chest. She punched in three, one, staring him down, her finger poised.
He nodded, fingers tracing the air. "The luckiest number in Chinese. Give it a whirl."
Felicia did as prompted, the beep of the safe over her reply, "Fifty four."
North cocked his head to the side, considering. "Nine," he offered instead, the number of probabilities lowering as they progressed. "Then fifty four."
"Last one," she said quietly when she finished, turning to North. "Last... huh. I don't know if my luck is that good, though."
There were only nine possibilities left. North whirled through them in milliseconds, the milky film across cornflower blue irises fading as quickly as it came to reveal a storm of something hidden beneath the stoic facade. He regarded Felicia, slowly easing his breathing. "So far so good," he said, somewhat inanely. "You should give it a shot."
"Well," Felicia said, giving him a slow look, hitting the final number. "Anything once, after all."
Prior to the party, Kevin and Darcy use the obvious way of distracting Harkness to plant the book.
“Or is it more likely that the only other person who had access to it and is a self professed Master of Magical Arts, used them to make the switch when you first gave him access to view the book. I would not be surprised, with his arrogance, if he has it in his hotel safe or something equally ridiculous.” Emma let her bosom heave conspicuously beneath her gala outfit. "Mr Harkness does seem... particularly ridiculous."
***
"You sure you don't want me to do this?" Kevin said as they entered the hotel bar. "I mean, I just need to brush his hand and we're good." Nick Harkness was sitting at the bar, enjoying an expensive cocktail, no doubt head filled with dreams of money and power certain to be on their way. What he didn't know was the two members of X-Force regarding him from the entrance, looking to get his fingerprint to access the rather high quality safe located in his hotel room after he left tomorrow for the gala. Kevin had planned to do it himself, but Darcy insisted on going along with him.
Darcy smiled at the question. "If you'd rather I just observe tonight that's fine, but you'll have to make sure I'm up to it at some point. This is high enough stakes that I'll let you make that call, Boss." She was pretty sure she could flirt her way into a drink and a number on a napkin, but she wasn't as confident about risking it on just pretty sure.
Kevin thought for a minute and nodded. After all, it was straightforward and if Darcy bombed it, he could manage some kind of accidental contact.
"OK, kid. You're on. I'll be in the background if you need assistance."
Darcy smoothed her top, strolling to the bar and taking one of the few open seats left. That it was next to Harkness was more luck than planning, and soon enough she was flagging down the bartender. "Martinez, please," she asked, freezing when a muffled laugh came from her left. She turned to face him, voice frosty as she asked "Can I help you?" She raised an eyebrow imperiously, daring the man to comment on her drink choice.
"For a woman as pretty as you?" Nick waved over the bartender. "Make sure you use premium, not bar rail for it."
"Presumptuous of you." Her lips curved up. "Have a name, stranger who is now buying my drink?"
"Harkness. Nicholas Harkness." He had a slight accent; patrician although certainly American. "I'm in town on business, and you're currently the most impressive sight I've seen in New York City this visit, Ms?"
"Lia Davis," she replied. "Haven't seen much of the city if I'm the most impressive part, Mr. Harkness. Too much business, not enough pleasure makes a boy dull."
"Oh my business is never dull." He obviously thought he was being charming and mysterious. Kevin settled in down the bar from them, almost tripping her up from the face he made at the comment. "And what do you do, Ms Davis? Something appallingly dull? Or is your.... calling exciting as well."
She waved a hand, voice airy. "Oh, I'm mostly an executive assistant. Reports, schedule wrangling, sitting in on double-booked meetings." She thanked the bartender as her drink arrived, tipping it slightly at Nick with a wink before taking a sip. "It's not terribly exciting, but I get to travel a fair bit. And you?"
"Consultant. Rare antiquities and art. I help very wealthy people acquire things to their taste." He smiled. "You could say I have a unique eye for beauty."
Down the bar, Kevin coughed on his drink for a second, covering it with a wave to the bartender.
"That's-" The insistent buzzing of her phone interrupted what she was going to say, and she frowned before typing something back. "Apologies, apparently something at work blew up and we've got to do some immediate travel." She set her glass down before standing, leaning in and giving Harkness a view down her blouse as she kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for the drink, handsome, but duty calls." She ran her fingers lightly over the back of his neck as she turned, striding out the door and around the block until Kevin caught up.
"I know, I know... but fuck... 'I have a unique eye for beauty?' Even the lounge lizards in the 60s wouldn't have tried that bad a line." He said as he finally caught up to her.
"Every man that thinks talking exclusively to my breasts will get them somewhere uses a line like that," Darcy scoffed. "Worth it, though. Our boy sheds." She dangled a sandwich bag with a few hairs in it at him, grinning. "Your DNA as requested, Boss."
"Good job, kid. Another test passed." He said. "As a reward, I'll take you for some decent drinks. Tomorrow, we drop by the hotel after he leaves and as him, open the 'fancy' biometric lock on his safe and place our fake."
"You going to have me watching from a distance for that in case he comes back, or close by?" Since there was no way for her to replicate and use the safe, she didn't see any reason to take that risk. "And I'll take you up on the drinks, or on a dance during the gala if we've got time."
"We'll see. I think I'm a waiter for a lot of the gala." He said, taking the bag and pocketing it. "Now for proper drinking. We'll see what we can find for you that isn't out of a TGIF menu."
Her lips twitched as she huffed out a breath of laughter, a hand on her hip in mock offense. "I have better taste than spending ten bucks on a mudslide that barely has a shot's worth of watered-down bottom shelf in it! I'd at least make a chocolate milkshake and stick my own middle shelf in it." She tucked her hand into his elbow as they walked, giving him a nudge. "Educate me in your worldly ways, old man."
Amanda and Clea put the final touches on their forgeries.
“That is obviously a forgery. It’s a plant!” Harkness said desperately. Amanda smirked at him.
***
"All right, let's get this going. Do you have everything you need?" Amanda looked to Clea, feeling a little odd. Instead of being the teacher, today she was the assistant, and it was her former student who was doing the driving.
Clea looked back into her oversized bag before answering, "Yes. I believe I have everything I need. The Ancient One's methods of enchanting should be easy to replicate." Clea looked up at Amanda with a tiny smirk, feeling very confident in her magical abilities." Now the question is, are you ready for this?"
"Stop enjoying yourself so much," Amanda retorted, but with a grin. "Ready when you are, boss."
"Okay let’s begin." Clea took the books that were going to be enchanted and handed Amanda four candles, white with complex runes on them to place to represent the elements. Then she pulled out a bag of magic laced gems. "The candles will call upon the elements, the gems will be the anchors."
Amanda nodded, and began circling the table where the books were set, murmuring the Invocation to the Elements and hoping New York didn’t get too involved. Getting the contents of a sewer when you called upon Water wasn’t fun. At each compass point, she paused and set down a candle, lighting each with her cigarette lighter.
Clea laid out the books on the table and placed a gem on each of them. Taking out the salt, she circled around the entire ritual site and came back to the center. "That should keep out unwanted pests, last time someone forgot to do that and it caught the books on fire." Looking around and nodded, "Okay, stand on the other side of the table and hold my hand and repeat these words: Terra, Aqua, Ignis, Aer. Ecce vox nostra processit. Praebe nobis potentiam tuam. Cum gemmis, incantamus te libris, Virtute intus. Da eis potestatem."
The older witch took her appointed position, taking Clea's hands in her own and repeating the words. Strangely enough, when Amanda spoke Latin, her usual accent disappeared. She felt Clea's power churning through her grip on the girl's hands and added her own to the mix. A slight tugging at the skin on her back where the channelling spell was reminded her physically of her role as power source.
As the two chanted, the candles around the room stopped flickering and became still. It was a few beats before they grew and the gems started to glow, a slight hum could be heard in the air as they chanted. Clea held her focus as she felt the power between Amanda and herself. The gems started to lose their glow as they were drained and were taken in by the books. The candles died down after another minute and resumed to their normal flickering.
Amanda was breathing slightly heavily as the ritual ended and they dropped hands. Clea, on the other hand, was as serene as ever. "Must be getting old," Amanda said with a wry expression. "Did it work all right?"
Clea gave a hard look at her teacher, "You aren't old." She picked up one of the books and cast a little 'detect magic' on the book and it started to glow. "Yup. All books are enchanted and ready to use." She grinned brightly at Amanda. "These will fool even the masters of the arts."
"Then they'll definitely work for what we need. Nick Harkness is most definitely not a master of the art."
Finally, under telepathic question, the White Court convinces Shaw that Harkness was the actual thief, to the other man's obvious peril.
“There’s an easy way to tell. The folio is enchanted. An easy spell will show which has actual power. I can-”
“Ah, this is the trick! She’s going to create an illusion of one being enchanted and one not being. It’s such a simple spell!”
“The kind of spell that could easily hide switching one book for another?” Shaw said quietly and Harkness writhed under his look. “On the other hand, how can I trust one of your allies, Emma?”
“You have your pet telepath. I’m sure Ms. Sefton would be willing to allow her access long enough to verify if she is being honest when she uses her abilities. And I will keep an eye on her to make sure her telepathic link doesn’t happen to… wander.”
“Scarlett. Please provide a telepathic bridge with Ms. Sefton… under our Queen’s guidelines, of course.” Shaw said.
With a put-upon sigh, Amanda turned and handed the drink she was holding to Scarlett. “Here, love, hold this for a sec,” she said, her accent almost as broad as the day she walked into the school and giving a flirty wink to the outraged telepath. “And hand me the books once the spell’s up, one at a time,” she continued, before closing her eyes. Her lips moved silently as she cast the spell, a faint blue glow enveloping her hands.
At a gesture, the books were handed to her. The first two buzzed lightly, almost nothing happening beyond a frizzle of energy. The third, however, glowed brighter under the spell, the text on the cover flaring almost neon. At that, Amanda opened her eyes. “Ah, there we are.” The spell snapped off, the book in her hands still retaining a faint light.
Shaw was furious, already seeing his victory turning to ashes. “Ms. Sefton-” He said. “In your honest and… expert opinion, are the two copies you tested fake?”
“Yeah. Just cheap cantrips on them. Faker than most of the boob jobs in this place.”
“And is the book in your hands-” Shaw paused, making a circular gesture with one hand. “-is it magical?”
“That it is.” He looked at Scarlett as Amanda spoke and the woman nodded.
“Ms. Maximoff. You said you could tell they were forgeries earlier. Can you explain why?”
Wanda laid her hands on both covers. "A few things, Mr. Shaw, that Nicholas in his hubris either forgot or never knew in the first place." She could almost hear his blood boiling at this point. "The forgeries were made by different sources and one of them, while wonderfully good at their craft, missed adding a small mark found in the artwork that started to be added after a certain point in time." Her expression turned wry. "In order to prevent copies, I might add. It's one of the first items appraisers look for with the 'Janua linguarum reserata' after a certain publication date. And while the other one does have it, the binding technique used simply does not match the edition year. It is off by about a decade, give or take."
Once again, Scarlett created her bridge, and Wanda could feel the telepath acting as a lie detector.
“Ms. Maximoff…” Shaw shot a poisonous look at Harkness. “In your professional opinion, are the other two books forgeries?”
“Absolutely.” Scarlett nodded again as the link shut down. All of the expense of the gala, all of the influence and statue he’d gained, all of it was ruined by the false accusation. It was all he could do to avoid screaming in frustration and throwing his chair through a window. Instead, the Black King forced a smile on his face.
“It seems I owe the White Court sincere apologies. It is clear that we trusted poor information.” He snapped his fingers and two guards grabbed Harkness. “Take Mister Harkness down to a holding cell. I have further questions for him. Pointed ones.” He promised the trembling man who kept protesting his innocence.
“In light of this… incident, my Queen, may I request you to provide the final words of the night to our guests?” Giving up the final speech was a tremendous concession; the White Court would assume equal fame and status for hosting the gala without costing them a thing.
“Sebastian, darling,” purred Emma. “I’d be honoured. I mean you’ve done a wonderful job putting together this marvellous party, but it’s best that it finishes with a rather dazzling shimmer. Far more memorable than dull black. Don’t you agree, my Knight?”
Doug had definitely learned a lot about keeping his reactions off his face by his long experience with the Hellfire Club, but there was definitely a satisfied smirk lurking somewhere inside of him. "I certainly do, my Queen," he replied with a measured nod.
“Well, with that settled-” Shaw said, trying to at least keep a little dignity in his loss. “Put the real book back in our vaults. If it’s a valuable magical artifact, it should be protected. Considering the quality of the forgeries, it won’t impact the historical value by sending one of them to the University in its stead. As for the other… Ms. Maximoff, consider it a token of thanks. A… party favor from the night. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an interview to conduct.” He said, bitter menace radiating from him as he walked off.
“I do rather pity Mr Harkness,” said Emma, watching Shaw stalk away. “No doubt he’s going to wear the brunt of Sebastian’s wrath. Still,” she said, her smile brightening, “I doubt Sebastian will ever stop under-estimating the power of the White Court. And it’s Queen. You’d think he’d learn and yet here we are again, breaking him into tiny pieces. Well done, everyone. Now, let’s go and dazzle the crowd.”
“Bypass all of your guards without raising an alarm or even being seen?” Emma smiled. "Not that it was hard to tell they were bored. Did you get them from Guards R Us or Guardapalooza?"
***
Gabriel, more nervous about this job than he expected, cracked his knuckles idly, then immediately looked to Wanda with an apologetic smile. The two had not worked too closely together before, and his interest in maintaining a good impression left him painfully aware of his tics.
"Sorry," he whispered. "I'm just — I mean, I know we've practiced this, but I'm still... nervous. And I don't really understand how it works, which doesn't entirely help."
Wanda gave him a quick smile, though her words were warmer than her expression. "There is no need to apologize - nerves keep you from getting ahead of yourself or being cocky." Her smile in the dark widened. "A lesson another speedster I know used to forget all the time growing up."
She was crouched next to him, arms loosely slung over her knees. Wanda looked to be perfectly relaxed but her eyes, when they weren't focused on Gabriel, were sharp and focused, taking in every movement around them. "No matter what happens, I'll be right behind you."
"Sure." Gabriel nodded. "Worst comes to worse, we blow this entire plan and end up having to improvise." A beat. "What could possibly go wrong?"
There were so, so many variables to this plan that could throw them off: the guards had to be in the right positions, their timing had to be more or less perfect and Gabriel's powers needed to fire in the right way. It was this last bit that he was particularly concerned about, but all he could do was hope for the best and count on Wanda to make whatever adjustments were necessary.
"Okay." He said, watching as four beefy-looking guards with guns holstered at their belts made a pass around the room. At scheduled intervals, the men rotated places, ostensibly to keep them from the boredom that might lead them to stare off into space and ignore their duties. "It's time." With little fanfare, he channeled his energy into slowing down the movement of time around him and building a quickly-moving bubble around himself. Then he took confident strides toward the security team.
As Gabriel took his first steps towards the guards, Wanda's world turned red with strings. As always, they ebbed and flowed in and through everything in various shades and widths. This had been her other sight for nearly as long as she could now remember and so, she'd been delighted when she'd realized the impact Gabriel's powers had on the world around him. To her powers and chaos in general.
The lines of chaos reacted not only to where Gabriel was but, also, to where he was going to be, shimmering and changing in advance in a way Wanda had never seen before.
And they were learning to take advantage of that. The future strings of chaos were mercurial and harder to hold but Wanda gathered them to her as best she could, coaxing them to stabilize to their advantage. At the same time, she was gathering the current strings of chaos around Gabriel, spreading them as wide as they could go.
Gabriel, for his part, did his best not to overthink things. It was hard for him to have blind faith in anything, much less a process he could barely understand, but he and Wanda had tried this in the Danger Room enough times that he had grown comfortable with her. And the alternate reality in which they'd found themselves however many months ago had made him realize his mutation had powers he had never explored, even though they might come at a physical cost.
He couldn't feel Wanda's pull, but he knew she was playing her part as he played his: racing around the guards, sowing chaos with each step as he focused his mental energy toward manipulating time. He sensed the field around him growing bigger, changing shape while the guards seemed not to register his presence.
Wanda's body shook slightly with the mental strain but she breathed in to calm herself. She spread the strings from the guards out and away from Gabriel's, asking in her own way that they not cross paths, at least not just yet. They obeyed for the moment, content to curl in different directions as the guards turned away. The slight smell of ozone touched her nose as they pushed the boundaries of their powers ever slightly.
And then, after another second, Gabriel stopped. They were done, he knew (without knowing how). "Frozen time," he murmured, afraid to speak too loudly in case it would rupture the space that he and Wanda created.
It wasn't, exactly, a bubble of frozen time. Gabriel's comprehension of physics was too low to really explain it, but he knew it was a space outside the tick-tick-tock of the universe. A way that would allow them, sort of, to step outside of time, without actually stepping outside of it. The guards were in a separate temporal field: one where they couldn't see Gabriel or Wanda or the rest.
"Okay," he said, nodding at her with a smile. "We can tell the others we're good to go."
North and Felicia confront the safe.
“And finally, ‘cracking’, is that the right term?” Doug nodded to her. “Yes, ‘cracking’ a safe on a time lock, which is impossible, without leaving a mark on it and then after switching the book, simply relock it and walk away?”
***
The maintenance panel slid aside with a satisfying hiss, and any other time Felicia would have smiled but for that keypad staring her down accusingly. A keypad she didn't have the code to, just everything riding on her and the last person she wanted to be in a room with right now.
"Three tries, seven digits. No pressure," she said, cracking her neck. "Do I have to jump start you?"
Her companion was glaring at the keypad, forehead creased in between his eyes. He tried to focus on a particular point in his mind, prodding at it in another attempt to activate his powers. But North's precognition had apparently chosen today to take the day off to sleep in and, as far as he could tell, her version of 'jump starting' was not going to cut it.
"No," he finally sighed, quietly resigned as he pulled a slim black case, no bigger than the size of her palm, from a hidden pocket in his inner shirt. He cracked it open to reveal the pre-loaded injector that he had not had cause to use for a while. "I just need a minute."
Felicia watched him in the vault reflections, making a noncommittal noise. The hiss of the shot - his chest as the site, she noted in habit - filled the otherwise silent room. "I probably shouldn't just use up the first two tries to mess with the math even further," she not asked after a moment, like the sensation of leaning against a railing and feeling deep how easy it would be to just go over.
North hummed in acknowledgement, neither agreeing not disagreeing as he put away the case, rubbing at the injection site to dispell the slight sting. It only took a few more moments before he felt his heart rate climb, and he knelt before the safe, close enough to feel her body heat but careful not to touch. "Give me a lucky number."
“Thirteen,” she answered easily, giving him a casual lopsided smile. “Might as well stick to the classics.”
The corners of North's lips ticked up upwards in response, almost in reflex, as a familiar film of white built up across his eyes. He sifted through flashes of images for a minute, eyes shifting restlessly. "Maybe not 13," he said, standing and making room for her in front of the safe. "31 looks like a good bet. Give me another for the second."
"Eight," she hit again, quick, going with instincts against the rapid noise in her chest. She punched in three, one, staring him down, her finger poised.
He nodded, fingers tracing the air. "The luckiest number in Chinese. Give it a whirl."
Felicia did as prompted, the beep of the safe over her reply, "Fifty four."
North cocked his head to the side, considering. "Nine," he offered instead, the number of probabilities lowering as they progressed. "Then fifty four."
"Last one," she said quietly when she finished, turning to North. "Last... huh. I don't know if my luck is that good, though."
There were only nine possibilities left. North whirled through them in milliseconds, the milky film across cornflower blue irises fading as quickly as it came to reveal a storm of something hidden beneath the stoic facade. He regarded Felicia, slowly easing his breathing. "So far so good," he said, somewhat inanely. "You should give it a shot."
"Well," Felicia said, giving him a slow look, hitting the final number. "Anything once, after all."
Prior to the party, Kevin and Darcy use the obvious way of distracting Harkness to plant the book.
“Or is it more likely that the only other person who had access to it and is a self professed Master of Magical Arts, used them to make the switch when you first gave him access to view the book. I would not be surprised, with his arrogance, if he has it in his hotel safe or something equally ridiculous.” Emma let her bosom heave conspicuously beneath her gala outfit. "Mr Harkness does seem... particularly ridiculous."
***
"You sure you don't want me to do this?" Kevin said as they entered the hotel bar. "I mean, I just need to brush his hand and we're good." Nick Harkness was sitting at the bar, enjoying an expensive cocktail, no doubt head filled with dreams of money and power certain to be on their way. What he didn't know was the two members of X-Force regarding him from the entrance, looking to get his fingerprint to access the rather high quality safe located in his hotel room after he left tomorrow for the gala. Kevin had planned to do it himself, but Darcy insisted on going along with him.
Darcy smiled at the question. "If you'd rather I just observe tonight that's fine, but you'll have to make sure I'm up to it at some point. This is high enough stakes that I'll let you make that call, Boss." She was pretty sure she could flirt her way into a drink and a number on a napkin, but she wasn't as confident about risking it on just pretty sure.
Kevin thought for a minute and nodded. After all, it was straightforward and if Darcy bombed it, he could manage some kind of accidental contact.
"OK, kid. You're on. I'll be in the background if you need assistance."
Darcy smoothed her top, strolling to the bar and taking one of the few open seats left. That it was next to Harkness was more luck than planning, and soon enough she was flagging down the bartender. "Martinez, please," she asked, freezing when a muffled laugh came from her left. She turned to face him, voice frosty as she asked "Can I help you?" She raised an eyebrow imperiously, daring the man to comment on her drink choice.
"For a woman as pretty as you?" Nick waved over the bartender. "Make sure you use premium, not bar rail for it."
"Presumptuous of you." Her lips curved up. "Have a name, stranger who is now buying my drink?"
"Harkness. Nicholas Harkness." He had a slight accent; patrician although certainly American. "I'm in town on business, and you're currently the most impressive sight I've seen in New York City this visit, Ms?"
"Lia Davis," she replied. "Haven't seen much of the city if I'm the most impressive part, Mr. Harkness. Too much business, not enough pleasure makes a boy dull."
"Oh my business is never dull." He obviously thought he was being charming and mysterious. Kevin settled in down the bar from them, almost tripping her up from the face he made at the comment. "And what do you do, Ms Davis? Something appallingly dull? Or is your.... calling exciting as well."
She waved a hand, voice airy. "Oh, I'm mostly an executive assistant. Reports, schedule wrangling, sitting in on double-booked meetings." She thanked the bartender as her drink arrived, tipping it slightly at Nick with a wink before taking a sip. "It's not terribly exciting, but I get to travel a fair bit. And you?"
"Consultant. Rare antiquities and art. I help very wealthy people acquire things to their taste." He smiled. "You could say I have a unique eye for beauty."
Down the bar, Kevin coughed on his drink for a second, covering it with a wave to the bartender.
"That's-" The insistent buzzing of her phone interrupted what she was going to say, and she frowned before typing something back. "Apologies, apparently something at work blew up and we've got to do some immediate travel." She set her glass down before standing, leaning in and giving Harkness a view down her blouse as she kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for the drink, handsome, but duty calls." She ran her fingers lightly over the back of his neck as she turned, striding out the door and around the block until Kevin caught up.
"I know, I know... but fuck... 'I have a unique eye for beauty?' Even the lounge lizards in the 60s wouldn't have tried that bad a line." He said as he finally caught up to her.
"Every man that thinks talking exclusively to my breasts will get them somewhere uses a line like that," Darcy scoffed. "Worth it, though. Our boy sheds." She dangled a sandwich bag with a few hairs in it at him, grinning. "Your DNA as requested, Boss."
"Good job, kid. Another test passed." He said. "As a reward, I'll take you for some decent drinks. Tomorrow, we drop by the hotel after he leaves and as him, open the 'fancy' biometric lock on his safe and place our fake."
"You going to have me watching from a distance for that in case he comes back, or close by?" Since there was no way for her to replicate and use the safe, she didn't see any reason to take that risk. "And I'll take you up on the drinks, or on a dance during the gala if we've got time."
"We'll see. I think I'm a waiter for a lot of the gala." He said, taking the bag and pocketing it. "Now for proper drinking. We'll see what we can find for you that isn't out of a TGIF menu."
Her lips twitched as she huffed out a breath of laughter, a hand on her hip in mock offense. "I have better taste than spending ten bucks on a mudslide that barely has a shot's worth of watered-down bottom shelf in it! I'd at least make a chocolate milkshake and stick my own middle shelf in it." She tucked her hand into his elbow as they walked, giving him a nudge. "Educate me in your worldly ways, old man."
Amanda and Clea put the final touches on their forgeries.
“That is obviously a forgery. It’s a plant!” Harkness said desperately. Amanda smirked at him.
***
"All right, let's get this going. Do you have everything you need?" Amanda looked to Clea, feeling a little odd. Instead of being the teacher, today she was the assistant, and it was her former student who was doing the driving.
Clea looked back into her oversized bag before answering, "Yes. I believe I have everything I need. The Ancient One's methods of enchanting should be easy to replicate." Clea looked up at Amanda with a tiny smirk, feeling very confident in her magical abilities." Now the question is, are you ready for this?"
"Stop enjoying yourself so much," Amanda retorted, but with a grin. "Ready when you are, boss."
"Okay let’s begin." Clea took the books that were going to be enchanted and handed Amanda four candles, white with complex runes on them to place to represent the elements. Then she pulled out a bag of magic laced gems. "The candles will call upon the elements, the gems will be the anchors."
Amanda nodded, and began circling the table where the books were set, murmuring the Invocation to the Elements and hoping New York didn’t get too involved. Getting the contents of a sewer when you called upon Water wasn’t fun. At each compass point, she paused and set down a candle, lighting each with her cigarette lighter.
Clea laid out the books on the table and placed a gem on each of them. Taking out the salt, she circled around the entire ritual site and came back to the center. "That should keep out unwanted pests, last time someone forgot to do that and it caught the books on fire." Looking around and nodded, "Okay, stand on the other side of the table and hold my hand and repeat these words: Terra, Aqua, Ignis, Aer. Ecce vox nostra processit. Praebe nobis potentiam tuam. Cum gemmis, incantamus te libris, Virtute intus. Da eis potestatem."
The older witch took her appointed position, taking Clea's hands in her own and repeating the words. Strangely enough, when Amanda spoke Latin, her usual accent disappeared. She felt Clea's power churning through her grip on the girl's hands and added her own to the mix. A slight tugging at the skin on her back where the channelling spell was reminded her physically of her role as power source.
As the two chanted, the candles around the room stopped flickering and became still. It was a few beats before they grew and the gems started to glow, a slight hum could be heard in the air as they chanted. Clea held her focus as she felt the power between Amanda and herself. The gems started to lose their glow as they were drained and were taken in by the books. The candles died down after another minute and resumed to their normal flickering.
Amanda was breathing slightly heavily as the ritual ended and they dropped hands. Clea, on the other hand, was as serene as ever. "Must be getting old," Amanda said with a wry expression. "Did it work all right?"
Clea gave a hard look at her teacher, "You aren't old." She picked up one of the books and cast a little 'detect magic' on the book and it started to glow. "Yup. All books are enchanted and ready to use." She grinned brightly at Amanda. "These will fool even the masters of the arts."
"Then they'll definitely work for what we need. Nick Harkness is most definitely not a master of the art."
Finally, under telepathic question, the White Court convinces Shaw that Harkness was the actual thief, to the other man's obvious peril.
“There’s an easy way to tell. The folio is enchanted. An easy spell will show which has actual power. I can-”
“Ah, this is the trick! She’s going to create an illusion of one being enchanted and one not being. It’s such a simple spell!”
“The kind of spell that could easily hide switching one book for another?” Shaw said quietly and Harkness writhed under his look. “On the other hand, how can I trust one of your allies, Emma?”
“You have your pet telepath. I’m sure Ms. Sefton would be willing to allow her access long enough to verify if she is being honest when she uses her abilities. And I will keep an eye on her to make sure her telepathic link doesn’t happen to… wander.”
“Scarlett. Please provide a telepathic bridge with Ms. Sefton… under our Queen’s guidelines, of course.” Shaw said.
With a put-upon sigh, Amanda turned and handed the drink she was holding to Scarlett. “Here, love, hold this for a sec,” she said, her accent almost as broad as the day she walked into the school and giving a flirty wink to the outraged telepath. “And hand me the books once the spell’s up, one at a time,” she continued, before closing her eyes. Her lips moved silently as she cast the spell, a faint blue glow enveloping her hands.
At a gesture, the books were handed to her. The first two buzzed lightly, almost nothing happening beyond a frizzle of energy. The third, however, glowed brighter under the spell, the text on the cover flaring almost neon. At that, Amanda opened her eyes. “Ah, there we are.” The spell snapped off, the book in her hands still retaining a faint light.
Shaw was furious, already seeing his victory turning to ashes. “Ms. Sefton-” He said. “In your honest and… expert opinion, are the two copies you tested fake?”
“Yeah. Just cheap cantrips on them. Faker than most of the boob jobs in this place.”
“And is the book in your hands-” Shaw paused, making a circular gesture with one hand. “-is it magical?”
“That it is.” He looked at Scarlett as Amanda spoke and the woman nodded.
“Ms. Maximoff. You said you could tell they were forgeries earlier. Can you explain why?”
Wanda laid her hands on both covers. "A few things, Mr. Shaw, that Nicholas in his hubris either forgot or never knew in the first place." She could almost hear his blood boiling at this point. "The forgeries were made by different sources and one of them, while wonderfully good at their craft, missed adding a small mark found in the artwork that started to be added after a certain point in time." Her expression turned wry. "In order to prevent copies, I might add. It's one of the first items appraisers look for with the 'Janua linguarum reserata' after a certain publication date. And while the other one does have it, the binding technique used simply does not match the edition year. It is off by about a decade, give or take."
Once again, Scarlett created her bridge, and Wanda could feel the telepath acting as a lie detector.
“Ms. Maximoff…” Shaw shot a poisonous look at Harkness. “In your professional opinion, are the other two books forgeries?”
“Absolutely.” Scarlett nodded again as the link shut down. All of the expense of the gala, all of the influence and statue he’d gained, all of it was ruined by the false accusation. It was all he could do to avoid screaming in frustration and throwing his chair through a window. Instead, the Black King forced a smile on his face.
“It seems I owe the White Court sincere apologies. It is clear that we trusted poor information.” He snapped his fingers and two guards grabbed Harkness. “Take Mister Harkness down to a holding cell. I have further questions for him. Pointed ones.” He promised the trembling man who kept protesting his innocence.
“In light of this… incident, my Queen, may I request you to provide the final words of the night to our guests?” Giving up the final speech was a tremendous concession; the White Court would assume equal fame and status for hosting the gala without costing them a thing.
“Sebastian, darling,” purred Emma. “I’d be honoured. I mean you’ve done a wonderful job putting together this marvellous party, but it’s best that it finishes with a rather dazzling shimmer. Far more memorable than dull black. Don’t you agree, my Knight?”
Doug had definitely learned a lot about keeping his reactions off his face by his long experience with the Hellfire Club, but there was definitely a satisfied smirk lurking somewhere inside of him. "I certainly do, my Queen," he replied with a measured nod.
“Well, with that settled-” Shaw said, trying to at least keep a little dignity in his loss. “Put the real book back in our vaults. If it’s a valuable magical artifact, it should be protected. Considering the quality of the forgeries, it won’t impact the historical value by sending one of them to the University in its stead. As for the other… Ms. Maximoff, consider it a token of thanks. A… party favor from the night. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an interview to conduct.” He said, bitter menace radiating from him as he walked off.
“I do rather pity Mr Harkness,” said Emma, watching Shaw stalk away. “No doubt he’s going to wear the brunt of Sebastian’s wrath. Still,” she said, her smile brightening, “I doubt Sebastian will ever stop under-estimating the power of the White Court. And it’s Queen. You’d think he’d learn and yet here we are again, breaking him into tiny pieces. Well done, everyone. Now, let’s go and dazzle the crowd.”
