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Mason pushed away the thoughts of Adder and the memory of what happened the only way he knew how. He texted Skye as he ducked silently out of the apartment to avoid Adder. ‘Are you home? Because god I need you.’ was the message he sent. Skye had thankfully gotten to her apartment when she received the text. ‘Just got in from mission. About to shower. And trust me I need you just as much.’ Skye replied. Mason smirked leaving his building. ‘Hold on the shower till I get there then. ’ he replied starting to walk the short blocks from his building to hers. ‘You better hurry then.’, she answered with a smile. She felt terrible for missing their date last night, for spending the last two nights with Jonathan, and for every thought she had about Jonathan. She didn’t know that Mason was feeling just as terrible if not worse. Terrible for taking Adder with him to the movies and dancing, for everything that happened after and for the dreams that had plagued him all night. He hoped that he was hiding the thoughts well enough as he knocked on her door. Skye smiled pulling the door open wearing just a towel and pulled him inside pushing him against the door to close it without any greeting starting to kiss him. Mason blinked for a half a second but smiled returning the kiss letting his arms wrap around her pulling the towel down. They didn’t bother with words as Skye started undressing him as they made their way to her shower followed directly by her bed losing themselves in each other.
It was after as they laid cuddled in her bed that Skye picked up something in his mind. It wasn’t near the surface, no at the surface all his thoughts were about how much he’d missed her, missed just laying like this with her. But she was sensing something under that, guilt. She felt terrible that she was doing this but she looked a little deeper as she laid there with her head against his shoulder and his arms wrapped tight around her. And there she saw it, saw how he’d taken Adder with him last night to the movie and dancing. Worse yet she saw what he was really guilty of. She saw the kiss and everything that happened between that and when he finally stopped himself before he could have gone all the way with Adder. Skye froze her eyes going wide, he’d cheated on her. She forced herself to not lose her temper. Because her anger was starting to boil. She’d known since near the beginning that he loved Adder even though he refused to admit it. She’d also known that Adder was in love with Mason. Could she fault them? Could she really get mad that two people that hide their affections for whatever stupid reasons gave in after an evening that most would call romantic? And sure she hadn’t cheated with Jonathan, nothing physical had happened. But she’d thought about it. She’d slept at Jonathan’s hospital bed, and she’d kept putting aside time with Mason because of Jonathan. Sure she could say it was business, she was supposed to protect him but she knew there was an attraction to the journalist. And she reminded herself that Mason did stop himself with Adder and his first thought in the morning was to come to her. Granted he didn’t confess but he didn’t need to. All that mattered was right now she was his primary thought. So she buried her pain and anger.
The alarms had been sounding at Queen’s facility when it was discovered the mutant experiment 32 had escaped. Guards had been frantically searching the facility and surveillance footage to try and find where she’d gone. But they couldn't find her or any evidence of what happened. The footage showed her in her cage and then suddenly she had disappeared and there was a whole in the glass to her cage. She appeared nowhere on surveillance. They were at a complete lost. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T FIND HER!?”, Queen shouted as she slammed the head of security into a wall. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MONEY WE HAVE PUT INTO THAT EXPERIMENT!? SOMEONE GET ME WEBBER! IF YOU IDIOTS CAN’T FIND HER I’M SURE HE CAN!”, she demanded sitting back down at her desk. “Um … well Miss Queen…”, the man stumbled trying to think of what to tell her about Webber. “Webber...we… he left a letter of resignation citing ‘morality’ as his reason for terminating his employment.”, the man spoke quickly and nervously. “HE WHAT! HE ISN’T ALLOWED TO QUIT! HE KNOWS TOO MUCH! I WANT HIM FOUND! I WANT HIM FOUND NOW!!!”, Queen shouted standing back up slamming her hands on her desk. The man gulped and nodded. “I have sent a team to his flat to try and find him. We will search the entire country if we need to. I’ll notify other locations we have globally to start looking in case he fled the country. Do you think...that maybe he helped the experiment?”, the asked. “If he did he’s a dead man.”, Queen said coldly. “And if you don’t find him you’ll be one too. Now GO!”, she shouted pointing to her office door.
Once the security office had left her office she quickly started to make phone calls. “We have a couple issues.”, she reported speaking on a conference call with Stryker, Pierce, and Trask. “What issues?”, Trask questioned. “First experiment 32 has escaped. She completely disappeared from surveillance footage going from being in her cage to suddenly gone and a there being a hole in her cage. I have teams hunting her down.”, she explained. “Well that is certainly a lost. Trask get started on trying to replicate experiment 32’s success.”, Stryker spoke calmly. “I’ll get them on that immediately in case we can’t find her. Now what is the other issue?”, Trask asked. “Webber, the hacker I had digging into Mason Templeton and Silvercloud. He resigned citing ‘morality’ for his excuse. I’ve got my men looking for him. He knows too much to be let to roam free.”, she explained. “God damn it. Alright we will all get our people looking for him and anyone in our IT departments starting to search for any traces of him online as well. He can’t just dropped out of existence.”, Pierce spoke. “Alright so we pick up on the experiments, continue our hunt for number 32 and Webber. In other news we still have not managed to kill Jonathan Fuller. These vigilantes keep protecting him. And our source that watches his flat stated he never came home and he disappeared from the hospital. His parents have also left the country.”, Trask continued the conversation. “Fuller will have to come out of hiding. And when he does we will end him and anyone protecting him or near him. Keep people posted on his apartment and his office. He’ll show at one of these places. Personally I say we take him at the paper. I want that paper destroyed and anyone inside it.”, Stryker spoke his voice taking a sinister tone. “I’ll make sure that is passed along and we will ensure that Fuller is taken out along with his newspaper that would dare to print against us.”, Trask agreed.
With the hunt on for Myst and Arcade not only were security teams of Trask and Queen hunting for them, members of the the COH were on the lookout as well. This pick up in COH activity didn’t go unnoticed by Excalibur or the Hellfire Club. Xavier was getting more calls into the hotline he’d established having to send out parts of the team to handle the small groups terrorizing people. Jonathan tried to stay out of the way as he worked on writing his article. But he couldn’t help but pay attention. He watched with great interest as Xavier acted as the 9-1-1 dispatcher. “Yes ma’am. Just find someone where in your home to hide and protect your children. I’ve got people in route to you. It will be okay. Please just remain calm and stay in your hiding place until our people give the all clear.”, Xavier spoke on the phone calmly to a woman who Jonathan could faintly hear freaking out at the other end. Xavier was quickly typing on his computer screen getting the woman’s coordinates. “Fury, Seer I’ve got a home invasion Malton. Woman and children hiding in bedroom closet.”, he instructed into the communicator. “On it. We’ll be in touch when mission complete.”, Fury spoke. Jonathan tilted his head carefully observing Xavier’s expression trying to see if he could see any emotions under the mask. How the man could give orders to his own wife to go rush into danger Jonathan would never understand. He knew Skye had her strength and still when he heard Xavier call for Iolar he felt his heart jump into his throat and his stomach knot in fear. “How do you do it, Silver Samurai?”, he finally asked. Xavier turned his head to look at Jonathan from his command post. “How do I do what Mister Fuller?”, he asked.
“Your job here. I’ve been here for two weeks. I never see you go on a mission. You stay here and act as their dispatcher. How do you look so calm and collected? I mean you send your Aunt, you send your in-laws, and worse yet you send your own wife into danger every day. And I haven’t seen your expression change once. You just have this serious but calm look. I’m not even part of this and when I hear you call Skye’s code name Iolar my heart goes into my throat and my stomach knots in fear till she checks in saying mission successful.”, Jonathan explained his question. “I am prohibited from going on missions by Wolverine. Someone needs to run things here for her. And I’m the tech guy so it’s my job. Granted I know that her underlying reasoning is that like yourself I am human so I have no powers to protect me just my own skills. And as her nephew she wishes to protect me and I’m certain my mother and grandfather had their input into if I should be allowed in combat.”, Xavier shrugged. “And I remain calm because I have faith in them. I know the level of training that Wolverine, Fury, Seer and even to an extent Wiccan received during their childhood. I have seen them go against much scarier than these Church of Humanity people and walk out unharmed. I knew when I fell in love with Fury what I would be getting into. That she was born and raised to be a hero. I knew my place in this. So it is illogical to worry. I trust she will return to me.”, Xavier explained. “You do realize that fear you have for Skye’s safety is one you should probably keep in check. She has a boyfriend. And even if she didn’t if you had even an inkling of wanting to be involved with her… you need to understand that she is a hero and it is her job to place herself at risk to save others.”, he sighed before turning back to his monitors.
Jonathan frowned but nodded. Skye was involved with Mason. Though he still felt that there was something off about their relationship. Something that had Skye questioning it. But then Xavier also had the point that if Jonathan ever wanted to maybe have a chance with Skye he’d have to accept that this was her life. This was her calling. The photography editor for GQ was just a cover, that was her Clark Kent disguise and Iolar was her true self. He sighed and went back to typing his article. He knew he couldn’t give their real names, hell other than Skye he didn’t know their real names. But it wasn’t stopping him from writing about them. It wasn’t part of the article. No this was in his private journal he wrote in daily. He hoped that some day he could publish his memories. As he was typing away Skye appeared from thin air dressed like she’d just left her office. Which she had. Jonathan’s eyes quickly looked to her and a smile crossed his lips. Her vivid red hair was pulled to the side hanging down her neck and the front of her shoulder in soft curls and she looked exquisite in her black pencil skirt and navy fitted blouse. “God you are radiant.”, he commented. Skye rolled her eyes but did smile a little. “‘Ello ta ya too Jonathan. Evening Silver Samurai.”, she greeted walking over to lean on Xavier’s shoulder to look at the screens. “Evening Iolar.”, Xavier greeted. “Got anyting pressing fer me?”, she asked. “Not at the moment. Just sent Fury and Seer to Malton.”, Xavier answered. Skye nodded. “Aye. Well Ah gonna suit up and get going on mah patrol of lower England.”, she patted Xavier’s shoulder. “Dinna fash bout Fury. Seer will guard her.”, she smiled walking away.
Xavier sighed shaking his head a little. Jonathan arched an eyebrow. “She pick up something I didn’t?”, Jonathan asked. “She’s a telepath and you aren’t. What do you think.”, Xavier shrugged continuing to monitor the screens. Jonathan nodded, so Silver Samurai was good at hiding his emotions but inside he was worried for his wife. Made him feel a little better and normal in regards to his general concerns about Skye. He closed his laptop and headed to try and speak with Skye. As he reached her bunk he froze seeing the door open and her standing in nothing but a matching set of navy silk thongs and bra, her back to him. “Sweet mother Mary…”, Jonathan breathed out the words just audible. ‘God damn… wonder how hard she’s going to deck me for looking.’, he thought looking at her. “In or out Jonathan cause ya standing dere gawking at me gonna get ya knocked out.”, Skye stated grabbing her uniform starting to step into it pulling it up. Not that it offered much more coverage than her thong but still it offered some. “In...most definitely…”, he said stepping into the room closing the door. Skye shook her head a little, she was smiling, he used the same phrase she did when she saw someone she found extremely attractive. “So wat did ya want?”, she asked reaching behind her starting to pull the zipper up on her uniform. “Um.. I don’t even remember… Kind of forgot all train of thoughts..”, Jonathan admitted stepping closer taking the risk and pulling the zipper the rest of the way up for her. “Tanks…”, Skye said stepping away from him taking her hair down and pulling it up into a high ponytail to keep it out of the way.
“Any time you need help getting dressed...or undressed… I’m at your service.”, Jonathan smiled. Skye sighed shaking her head keeping her back to him as she got her mask on and then grabbed the bands that she wore around her legs slipping them on. Jonathan just smiled tilting his head watching her as she bent pulling the bands onto her legs. “Who designed this? And decided you got the one piece bathing suit while Wolverine and Fury got pants?”, he inquired. “A friend of Wolverine’s family. And Ah canna say ‘ow da decision of pants versus no pants was made. Ah dinna fash it much. Ah like mah uniform even if it a bit cold ta wear in da winter. It certainly gets attention and let's da idiots Ah fig’ting misjudge me.”, she shrugged turning to look at him as she put on her purple sash tying it around her waist. Jonathan gulped a little his eyes drinking her in. “Oh I’m most certain they are caught off guard and well you are gorgeous in anything so you’ll always get attention.”, he smiled. “Yer a flatter Jonathan.”, Skye sighed but was smiling. “Why yes I am. Thank you so much for noticing. You haven’t seemed to mind it all that much as of late.”, he commented. “Ah not against getting compliments. Lassies do enjoy da occasional acknowledgement, w’en tastefully done and from someone dey tink is attractive.”, she shrugged. Jonathan smiled. “Attractive huh? That you telling me you think I’m attractive?”, he inquired. “Aye. But ya already kne yer an attractive bloke. So dinna get yer knickers in a twist or tink too much bout it.”, Skye explained. “Now Ah better get ta mah patrol. Stay outta trouble.”, Skye nodded. “Only if you do.”, Jonathan commented risking it and kissing her cheek before she disappeared.
Skye landed at the first part of her patrol blinking and lightly touching her cheek where Jonathan had kissed her. She wasn’t sure what she should do at this point. She liked Jonathan, he was attractive and interesting. But she reminded herself that she was with Mason even though a tiny voice reminded her of what Mason had already done with Adder. And worse yet the voice reminded her what he still wanted to do. Skye pushed that voice away and focused on her patrol. Skye was far from the only one trying to get their mind righted and figure things out. For the last couple weeks Adder and Mason had been avoiding eye contact. Neither knew what to say to the other after what happened. It’d been put out there that they were attracted to each other and there was no way of taking it back. Adder felt terrible that Mason was a wreck about it. She knew him enough to know that this was eating him up, this guilt. He was too good of a man to be okay with having cheated, even to the small extent that they had. Mason had been trying to spend more time around Skye since the incident, his way of keeping his mind off Adder and what they’d almost done. But of course he couldn't spend every waking moment with Skye. They both had jobs and their masks. So Mason had thrown himself more into training Ian, Garrison and Turner. Tonight he’d sent Turner and Ian up to Manchester to go on patrol with Ashton while Garrison was to patrol with him and Adder in lower England.
“So who made our costumes?”, Garrison whispered over the earpiece communicator. “Or gave us this tech?”, he added crouching in his position on the roof looking down at their targets. Adder rolled her eyes a little. “Don’t worry about it. Now keep silent. We wait for Black King’s go ahead”, Adder was quick to try and get their Black Rook on mission from where she was perched on another building her copper snakes eyes watching the targets. Mason ignored the chatter his eyes focused on the targets. They were tracking a small group of COH who’d been making plenty of noise around town. They were apparently hunting a particular mutant and a human suspected of aiding this wanted mutant. Mason’s tech guy Alan was trying to figure out the details but Mason didn’t need the details. He didn’t need to find the mutant or the human that may have helped her. No he just needed to make sure these men didn’t. He couldn’t kill them but he could certainly rough them up and make them think twice about continuing their harassment of locals in their search for the mutant and human. Once they were in just the right spot he knew it was time. “Move.”, Mason ordered as he raised himself off the roof he was on to land in front of the six men. Garrison and Adder had started to make their ways off their buildings and came out from the alleys. Adder appeared on their left and Garrison came up behind them leaving a solid wall to their right. Mason had chosen the right location to ensure the men would have nowhere to run.
“What the?”, the group asked in confusion looking at the masked man who had floated down to stand in front of them. They’d heard of two groups of mutants running around in masks. But they weren't sure which this man was part of. One generally just tied up and left people for the police mostly unharmed while the other still left them for the police but beaten badly. As the group started to step back from Mason they found themselves facing another masked man. One nodded to an alley on the left and they went to move but found a blonde masked woman blocking that direction. “What do you want?”, one demanded looking to Mason. “Simple mate. We want you and your little band of men to leave the locals alone.”, Mason spoke clearly. “It ain’t your business what we do. We on office business.”, a man spoke up. Adder narrowed her copper eyes hissing spitting some of her venom at the ground near the man’s feet. “Ah suggest ya alter yer attitude and tone when addressing da Black King. Less yer looking ta get bit.”, she warned baring her fangs. The man blinked gulping a little looking down at the venom eating at the cobblestone of the road. Mason’s eyes glanced to Adder, he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his lips. There was a reason she was his bodyguard. She took even small offenses made against him as serious threats. And he hated to admit it but the new uniforms Alan had gotten them, hers was rather form fitting and she looked very attractive in a more dangerous way than her civilian clothes. “We ain’t scared of no woman. And who the hell made him a king of anything other than the asylum you obviously escaped from. Thinking yourself heroes wearing masks.”, another spoke up.
Mason laughed softly shaking his head. “Think what you like sir about our mental status. But I wouldn’t suggest underestimating my Bishop. She’s rather deadly and I don’t always have a tight control on my pet’s leash. And no one said we were heroes mate. We are just here to put you in your place. we don’t care what this mutant or the human did that the church has decided they need to be found no matter the cost. We’ve decided the cost of the lives of people in this town and their property is too high a cost.”, Mason explained. Garrison smiled a little as Mason spoke. Even wearing a mask the man had that regal authoritative stance and tone. And Garrison didn’t doubt how deadly Adder was or that the only person who could keep her in any check was Mason himself. “Yeah well says you. Our superiors think otherwise. Now there’s six of us and only three of you. I suggest you walk away, your ‘highness’.”, one sneered brandishing his gun. Mason simply smiled. “I like our odds. If you won’t give up your terrorizing willingly… we’ll make you. Bishop… Rook let’s show them why their numbers mean nothing.”, Mason instructed as a gust of wind raising the one that had brandished the gun up into the air and slammed him against a wall. Adder grinned and went after the one that and said they didn’t fear her slamming her fit hard into his chest knocking the wind out of him before throwing another punch at his fast followed by a roundhouse kick to the head knocking him down. Garrison followed suit attacking a man closest to him making use of the months of intensive training under Mason and Adder. So the three HellFire members fought the six Church of Humanity members. It hadn’t gone unnoticed though, especially when one of the humans fired a gun at Adder’s back, the bullet being blown off its target by Mason. So the police had been called.
The call was also picked up by Xavier at Muir Island. “Iolar we’ve got a report of shots fired and three masked individuals fighting sex armed men on Paddock in Brockenhurst. Any ideas who that might be?”, Xavier called over the communicator. Skye sighed hearing Xavier say three masked individuals where in a fight against armed men and outnumbered. “Ah’m on it.”, Skye said teleporting away from where she was in Marchwood. Jonathan raised an eyebrow at the wording Xavier used. “There’s another group of mutant vigilante out there?”, he asked. Xavier didn’t answer the question just kept focus on his job. He wasn’t going to tell Jonathan any more than he needed to know. And really Jonathan didn’t need to know anything as far as he was concerned. When Skye arrived on a rooftop of Rosie’s Tea House and Bakery she did a quick assessment of the situation. Based on the powers and how they moved she easily identified Adder and Mason. Though she wasn’t sure who the third was. But that wasn’t her business. They generally kept their masked lives separate anyways. the third was trying to hold his own with help of insects as two men had him cornered. Mason was doing well against his two keeping them on the defensive. Adder had one of her’s down and was focused on the other at the moment. Skye considered not even getting involved tills he saw the gun being pointed at Adder while her back was turn. The man Adder thought she’d downed was getting to his feet ready to try and take her out.
A voice in Skye’s head told her to do nothing, the woman had after all nearly slept with her boyfriend but two weeks prior. But Skye pushed the thought aside, she couldn’t let someone just kill Adder. And certainly not shoot her in the back. So in the chaos Skye flew down and silently landed before the man and tapped his shoulder which startled him. “Oy prick dinna yer mum teac’ ya never play wid guns? Dey dangerous.”, Skye taunted before slamming her fist into the man’s face breaking his jaw as she grabbed the gun with the other hand. The man stumbled back in pain holding his broken jaw. He noticed she wore a different symbol on her uniform but otherwise he was just confused. “Let me make sure ya canna ‘urt yerself or someone else wid dis.”, Skye narrowed her eyes as she bent the barrel of the pistol like it was nothing. The man’s eyes went wide in fear. Adder did a leg sweep knocking her other opponent down and looked over and blinked seeing a redhead bending a gun. She wasn’t sure who all was on Skye’s team or their powers. But smell alone told her this had to be Skye. She shrugged and slugged the man she was fighting his head slamming into the cobblestone knocking him out. “Er tanks…”, Adder said getting up. “Dinna fash. ‘Ow about Ah finis’ dis.”, Skye suggested and closed her eyes and the remaining four men all dropped to the ground unconscious as she sent out a psychic blast. Garrison blinked as the two men suddenly dropped. Mason furrowed his brow having been too occupied with his fight to realize Skye had shown up. He turned when his opponents went limp. “S… Iolar?”, Mason quickly corrected himself as his eyes fell upon his girlfriend. He knew most of those on her team but he would know her body anywhere.
Garrison stepped over the two men that now lay at his feet curious. Mason knew this other masked mutant. “How did you do that?”, Garrison asked. Skye tapped her head lightly. “All clear Silver Samurai. Dere will be six ready fer police pick up.”, she spoke into her communicator before looking to Mason. “Aye. Ah’m Iolar. Ah dinna catch yers handsome.”, she smiled teasing. Honestly she wasn’t sure what to call Mason with his mask on. He only knew her as Iolar because he’d heard her communicator go off one night while staying over. “Black King, Black Bishop, and Black Rook. At your service m’lady.”, Mason teased back with a playful bow nodding to Adder and Garrison when he said their codenames. “King?”, Skye arched an eyebrow walking closer to Mason walking around him inspecting him as it were. She’d never seen him in his uniform. She had to admit she liked it. ‘Tonight come ta mah place and wear dis. Ah wanna get ya out of it, cause damn ya look good.’, she thought to him. Mason smiled shaking his head. ‘Same can be said to you love.’, Mason thought back. Adder tried to ignore the exchange between Skye and Mason while Garrison was intrigued. “So yer highness, wanna tell me wat you and yer merry court are doing bashing skulls in the city streets?”, Skye asked. “Just doing our jobs m’lady. They were disturbing the peace causing unnecessary trouble in their hunt for a mutant and a human who helped her.”, Mason explained. Skye glanced to the men on the ground and snorted. “Aye. Da church is on da hunt all across da country fer deir fugitives.”, Skye nodded. “Iolar? We have a disturbance over in Harwick.”, Xavier called over the communicator. “Aye. Ah’m on it Silver Samurai.”, she nodded. “Stay outta trouble yer highness and members o da court.”, Skye smiled before hitting her watch and disappearing.
“When we do get tech like that?”, Garrison asked. Adder rolled her eyes and went closer to Mason. “Ya alrig’t?”, she asked. This was the first time they’d seen Skye while in masks. Mason nodded. “Oh I’m just fine pet.”, he smiled thinking about getting to Skye’s later and taking that little uniform off her. “What about you?”, he asked placing hands on her shoulders looking her over for injuries. She had a bit of a bruise forming on her cheek that he gently ran his thumb over. “We’ll need to ice that.”, he commented. Adder sighed closing her eyes as his thumb brushed her cheek. She couldn’t help but think of how it felt to have his hands touching other areas of her body. “Ah’m fine.”, Adder insisted opening her eyes coming to her senses. She knew she shouldn’t think about that night, so she pushed it away. “Let’s get out of here before the police arrive. Everyone take their designated paths and head back to base.”, Mason instructed taking his hands away from Adder touching her and being so close just bringing up thoughts and memories he wanted to bury. Garrison nodded and headed in the direction he was told he was to travel to return to base. Adder sighed but nodded. “See ya at base.”, she agreed taking her separate path. Mason headed in another direction. He’d told them that they were to never travel directly to a location or to base as a group. It was best to avoid being followed and going different directions made it harder for anyone to detect where their base was.
Ashley and Atif had finished up their mission, leaving the would be murders tied up in the front yard to a tree for the police and the woman and her two young mutant children safe. Ashley sighed as her and Atif arrived back at Muir Island a hand gently resting over her stomach not even thinking about it. Atif arched an eyebrow looking at his twin. “You okay Fury?”, he asked placing a hand on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and smiled at what he saw. He still couldn’t place a timeline of when it was going to happen. But he kept seeing a little boy with black hair and a little girl with blonde hair chasing after a brown wolf in a yard and he could hear his sister laughing happily as she chased after the trio. He knew the wolf was Faelan, he’d seen the boy in his wolf form to know it. Atif just smiled revealing in the vision of his nephew and niece playing with Merrick’s son. He couldn’t pinpoint a time based on Faelan since when in wolf form it was harder to tell his age given wolves aged different than children. “Yes I’m fine. Just hungry. God what I wouldn’t give for huge helping Aislinn’s shepherd's pie and a big slice of Aunt Alison’s chocolate cream pie with a ton of whipped cream on top.” Ashley smiled thinking about the foods from their childhood. “Shepherd's pie and chocolate cream pie? That sounds fantastic.” Jonathan commented hearing them as he looked up from his laptop. Atif and Xavier both looked at Ashley confused. “Fury are you on something? You’re allergic to chocolate. You’ve never had even a taste of chocolate cream pie because of it.”, Atif questioned. “Right… I don’t know why that even came to my mind. Then a slice of her apple pie fresh from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top melting.”, Ashley changed her answer shaking her head.
Xavier got up from his station and placed an arm around her shoulders. “Come on sweetheart. Let’s go home. I’ll make you some dinner I think we might have a frozen apple pie I could put in the oven for you.”, he offered kissing her cheek. Ashley nodded. “Okay. That sounds great. You got everything covered here Seer?”, she asked looking to her twin. Atif looked to the control station then to Jonathan and then back to his twin and her husband. He smiled nodding. “Yeah I’ve got it. Go home, eat and rest. I’ll see you tomorrow sis.”, Atif hugged her. “Go take care of my sister.”, Atif instructed Xavier. Xavier smiled. “Always Seer.”, Xavier smiled before pressing his watch an arm still around Ashley teleporting them both to their flat in Glasgow. Xavier was a bit concerned that maybe his wife was getting stressed. Since they’d returned from their honeymoon they’d been dealing with more issues from the COH. Having to always use codenames at Muir Island and never not be in their masks while there because of Jonathan. And then she’d been otherwise so busy with the ballet. He just hoped that it wasn’t becoming too much for her to handle. He wished that his aunt would let him go on missions, then not have to call his wife to handle these calls. He tried to not think of it as they got out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes. Xavier drew her a hot bubble bath to go soak in while he made dinner and got that apple pie baking she seemed to want so bad. He had no shepherd's pie to offer her, but there was some leftover mashed potatoes that he heated up adding more butter to and served up with some of the roast chicken they had left over as well. She mused to herself about how lucky she was to have Xavier as she lounged in the warm bath water till he called her to come eat. In the end Ashley didn’t care what she was eating, as long as it was food.
As October faded into November Rose wasn’t liking the increase COH activity, or that they were apparently hunting a specific mutant and human. She had Xavier trying to find out more information about who the mutant and human are and why they were wanted to badly. But so far he’d come up with nothing. She frowned looking at all the papers on her bed. It was a mix of homework for her university classes and information for Excalibur. She thought about calling Landon, maybe get his take on what was happening with this man hunt for the mutant and human. See if he could dig some as well. But she decided against it. She didn’t want to pull him into any of this if she didn’t have to. He had chosen to walk away from this life, to have a peaceful life with her cousin. She needed to let him have that. So instead she decided to distract herself from it all and check in with Merrick. She knew he went out the night before with his friends. He’d been doing that a lot as of late. Which she was happy of. She knew he needed to have friends to have his life not revolve around Faelan and work and waiting for their chances of talking on the phone or skype. She sighed as the phone started ringing.
“Morning little wolf.”, he greeted. “Morning to you too. You guys have a good time last night? Talked to mom last night she said you’d informed her the GTO would be most likely parked overnight at the club to avoid drinking and driving with your baby.”, Rose greeted teasing. “MORNING ROSE!!!”, Malcolm, Tristan and Zoe yelled teasing Merrick. Rose arched an eyebrow hearing all the voices. “Ah so it was a fun night.”, she laughed. Merrick rolled his eyes. “Yeah we had fun. We all ended up crashing at Zoe’s since it’s a shorter walk. Didn’t want to make gimpy walk all the way to the Haven since he didn’t bring his cane. And me and Mal were too drunk to carry him if needed.”, Merrick smiled. “Nice. Boys heading back to their places today?”, Rose asked making conversation. She didn’t want to really put much thought into them crashing at Zoe’s. She knew better than to get jealous over Zoe, even though part of her was. She hoped she’d feel less jealous when Zoe got a boyfriend, if that ever finally happened. “Yeah I think so. Tristan is jonesing for some Jail Bait. He’s been in Bayville the last now five days.”, Merrick teased Tristan. “Damn straight I’m going through withdrawls. How you go months without getting laid I don’t know man. I mean I used to live the skype and phone sex life but god it’s not as good or fun as the real thing.”, Tristan laughed getting up starting to find his clothes getting dressed. “Why’s he been in Bayville for five days?”, Rose asked confused. “Oh he’s started working for Holly. So he comes down every other week, or that’s the plan, crashes at Holly's and helps with the ranch and the riding lessons. My understanding there’s about a dozen twelve year olds wishing for Blaire’s untimely demise to claim him for themselves.”, Merrick explained getting up heading for the bedroom placing her on speaker as he started to get dressed.
“Ah I see. Well glad he’s working and on a ranch again. I’m sure Blaire misses him too. God knows I miss you.”, Rose sighed looking over the pile of papers on her bed which was a combination of homework and information for Excalibur. “I miss you too beautiful more than I know how to describe. But we’ll see each other soon.”, he smiled internally saying ‘than you think’. “I know but April is soo far away. I wish I had the time off to come home for Christmas.”, she frowned. “Hey it’s alright. You were here when Faelan and, probably mostly, I needed you after we lost Nana. I wouldn’t trade having you here when I needed you most just to have you here for opening presents. Though did really like opening my ‘present’ last year. Then again I never get tired of opening that particular gift.”, he smirked walking out having taken her off speaker phone as he buttoned his shirt. Rose laughed shaking her head knowing he was referring to her and how Landon had placed a bow on her forehead last Christmas before she went to his room. Malcolm and Tristan had gotten dressed while Merrick was back in the bedroom and were presently sitting on the couch watching the morning news while Zoe was tucked into her chair watching with them a blanket wrapped around her trying to stay warm. “Today a special U.N meeting is to be held to discuss the global crisis of mutants and how this surge in their number should best be handled.”, the reporter spoke standing outside the U.N building in Manhattan. “Trist turn this up. Landon and alpha team are on a mission there today.”, Malcolm asked nudging Tristan who had the remote.
Merrick raised an eyebrow hearing the words ‘Landon’, ‘alpha team’ and ‘mission’. Rose heard them too. “What about a mission? What’s going on Merrick?”, Rose asked. “Hang on. I don’t know.”, Merrick said moving into the living room nudging Zoe out of the chair. Zoe begrudgingly moved but as soon as he was seated found herself pulled back to his lap his right arm around her while he left held the phone. “We’re watching the morning news. Reporter is talking about a U.N meeting about mutants.”, Merrick explained as Tristan turned up the volume. “Hang on I’ll put you on speaker so you can hear better gimpy just turned up the tv.”, Merrick said switching to speaker setting the phone on the coffee table. Zoe lightly shook her head adjusting the blanket around her getting comfortable again just now on his lap. “Okay so what’s going on Malcolm? What do you mean a mission and Landon’s involved?”, Rose asked. “Um last week Duncan called him. Guilted the poor bastard using the kids on team alpha as leverage to get Landon to agree to take the mission. Guess the FOH and COH on our side of the ocean have the X-men and their student teams spread thin. The FOH plan to bomb the U.N while it’s in session. Duncan had no choice but to send team alpha; Stephan, Marco, Taylor, Ororo, Inola and Nathan.”, Malcolm explained. Merrick’s head turned the instant he heard Inola and Nathan’s names. Those names meant something to him. Nathan being his nephew and Inola was his young volunteer and best worker at the sanctuary.
“That fucking piece of shit. He knows Landon wouldn’t sit by and do nothing when a team of kids, a team of kids he knows so damn well and even as family are sent to try and handle something this big. Oh god if I was there I’d turn Duncan into kebabs. Using those kids just to pull Landon into something he walked away from.”, Rose growled. “Trust me little wolf Duncan’s lucky I’m haven. I don’t like the idea of him sending my nephew and my little squaw on something this big and dangerous.”, Merrick growled too. “Yeah well like it or not these kids did sign up to become X-Men. And the FOH and COH don’t give a shit about age. Hiro and the boys are just as young as Inola and didn’t seem to faze the bastards back in Glasgow.”, Malcolm commented. “Already protesters on both sides have started to form outside.”, the reporter spoke. The camera panned to show police barriers holding back two groups. One side was holding signs demanding equality for all while the other was holding signs saying hateful things about mutants. Merrick furrowed his brow looking at the groups. “Whoa hold it pause.”, Merrick demanded. Tristan quickly paused the live broadcast everyone confused why. “That’s...oh fucking hell.”, Merrick growled. “What is it? Remember I can’t see.”, Rose asked. “Shaw, Adam and Arie are in the crowd of protesters. They are hanging back not holding up signs and they’ve got Gregory’s girlfriend Salena with them.”, Merrick let out a breath. So his cousins were there which means the Academy was getting involved. “Maybe it’s coincidence?”, Zoe and Tristan suggested. “No. That grouping being there today would not be coincidence. Azazel ordered them there. And I doubt it’s to stop the FOH. Azazel isn’t about saving people. He’s about killing them.”, Merrick growled.
Malcolm was pulling his phone out calling Cora Lee. “Hey sparky? How’s the hangover?”, Cora Lee greeted having finally gotten up and was eating some pancakes with the others while her brother and the team where in the MDR running through the training for the mission. “Morning sweetheart. It’s fine. Um Landon right there or one of the alpha kids?”, Malcolm asked. Cora Lee arched a pierced brow. “No. They are in the MDR training. Why?”, Cora Lee asked. This of course getting Lily, Tommy and Rachel to look at her with interest. “Sitting at Zoe’s watching channel 3 news. They are talking about the U.N meeting today and there are protestors on both sides already there. Merrick made us pause the feed. Shaw, Adam, Arie, and Salena from the academy are in the crowd. I figured Landon and the team would want to know that’s who the Academy sent.”, Malcolm explained. “I’ll let them know. Thanks Sparky.”, Cora Lee sighed glancing to the window that looked to the terrace which now had a view of the metal exterior to the MDR. “Thanks babe. And tell them to stay safe.”, Malcolm sighed. “Give me the phone.”, Merrick instructed holding his hand out. Malcolm arched an eyebrow and handed the phone over. “Listen, this is what you tell your brother. Shaw always favors his left and with his powers you never go for a direct attack against him because he’ll turn it against you. Keep all emotions in check with Adam and aim for his jaw it’s like glass and he’s a total wimp when it comes to getting hit in the face. Arie might have her dad’s telepathic and diamond powers but her telepathy isn’t half what her dad or mine can do and her diamond form isn’t up to E’s level either. Salena I can’t give much on she joined after I left, but she’ll be their areal support so someone better keep her grounded.”, Merrick went right into giving what help he could.
Cora Lee blinked as Merrick was giving hints on how to bring down his Frost cousins. “Why are you tell me this?”, Cora Lee asked. “Because Nathan and Inola are on this mission. Nathan is my nephew I want him back unharmed. And Inola’s the best worker I’ve got at the sanctuary, would like her returned in one piece too.”, Merrick explained handing the phone back to Malcolm. “Okay I’ll tell them.”, Cora Lee said still confused at Merrick’s involvement. Zoe just smiled a little of course Merrick was going to make sure his nephew would be given the upperhand in this. “Hey you got me back beautiful. Alright so just give the details to Landon. I’ll be home later. I love you.”, Malcolm smiled at the last sentence. “I will. Love you too.”, Cora Lee smiled hanging up. “Did you really just tell Landon and the team how to take down your Frost cousins?”, Rose asked having heard Merrick. “Yes. I’m haven, that only means I can’t fight. Doesn’t mean I can’t give council on how to fight. I know those kids, well not Salena. And I don’t care if they are my Frost family. Granted I prefer they don’t get hurt too.”, Merrick shrugged. “I don’t think Landon would want to hurt them. And we know Landon will do everything he can to protect team alpha. Nathan is family to him. All those kids are family to him.”, Rose sighed. She knew Landon would go to an extreme to protect people. She’d seen it first hand three times in her life. “Yeah I know he will.”, Merrick nodded though he internalized the ‘I just hope he doesn’t do anything too stupid this time.’. Merrick didn’t want to admit he was worried about Landon too. “Alright well I should go. Have patrol soon. Bye guys. Love you Merrick.”, Rose sighed. “BYE ROSE!”, the others yelled. “Bye little wolf. Love you too.”, Merrick smiled leaning over to grab his phone again ending the call.
Rose changed into her uniform at the cottage before heading to Muir Island her mind distracted by what was happening back home. She couldn’t believe Duncan. That he’d do this, use the students as leverage against Landon. Sure she understood that these kids had signed up for this kind of danger when they chose to enroll. But Landon had chosen to walk away. She was angry that Duncan couldn’t accept that. When she arrived she was growling a little lost in her own anger with Duncan. Jonathan arched an eyebrow looking up over the top of his laptop hearing her growling. He wasn’t sure how afraid he should be at the moment. Donovan turned in the chair having been on monitor duty while Xavier was working his paying job. “Wat got yer dander up Wolvie?”, Donovan teased. Rose narrowed her eyes. “My dad didn’t like being called Wolvie and I don’t either. I’m just...I…”, Rose clenched her fists letting her claws dig into her palms. She glanced to see Jonathan setup at the table. “I can’t talk in mixed company.”, Rose sighed unclenching her fists. Donovan looked to Jonathan then back to Rose with a nod. “No need to hold back for my sake Wolverine. Is it something about the Church or is it actually just personal?”, Jonathan asked. Rose sighed shaking her head.
“It’s both.”, she frowned. “Well if it’s about the Church by all means speak. I can add to my article. Which is going to be ready to go to print next week.”, Jonathan encouraged. “Yer call lassie. Code wat ya gotta.”, Donovan shrugged. “Alright fine. Because I need to get this off my chest. I called…. Changeling…”, Rose started using Merrick’s old Academy code name. Donovan nodded, he’d heard it before so he knew she was talking about her boyfriend. He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Changeling? Lord you all have plenty of code names. But okay carry on.”, Jonathan nodded. “He was with Thunder, Cowboy and…. Medusa…”, she continued struggling to give names to Tristan and Zoe as they had no codenames. Donovan arched an eyebrow for a moment but then nodded. He figured cowboy would be the human friend who’d had the threesome with his cousin Hadyn back at Ashley and Xavier’s wedding. It took him a little longer to figure out who Medusa was supposed to be, but remembered that Merrick’s female ‘friend’ back in America had that kind of power. “Oh he was, rat’er early ta be round Medusa. But keep going.”, Donovan nodded. Rose rolled her eyes. “Apparently they went out drinking last night and ended up crashing at her place. But that’s not the point. The point is they were watching the news. It was a report about a U.N meeting today about mutants.”, Rose said trying to dismiss the idea that Merrick had been around Zoe early in the morning.
“The United Nations meeting? Ugh I’m missing that. I was supposed to go cover that for my paper. I wonder who they sent in my place.”, Jonathan frowned realizing he was missing more than just a personal life being held up in the Excalibur base. “You are lucky you aren’t there. Thunder mentioned that Prime and team Alpha from the school were supposed to be on mission there. The Friends of Humanity, they are the sister organization to the Church, plan to bomb the U.N while in session. Changeling put me on speaker and Cowboy turned up the tv so I could hear what was going on. Thunder explained that despite how Prime walked away from the X-Men after graduating high school…. Sin Eater made him take this mission. Forced him to give up the peaceful life he wanted with his fiance. He leveraged that team alpha are just teenagers and has Umbra who Prime calls cousin because the boy’s father is his godfather. Sin Eater leveraged that Prime is the type of man that can’t look away, that will always protect others. And I just want to rip him apart for doing this. For forcing Prime to do this. If something goes wrong...if Prime gets hurt. I don’t know what I’ll do. He’s my best friend. If he gets hurt or worse if he… I can’t even say it. But I don’t know what I’ll do except fly home and kill Sin Eater for forcing Price into this. For taking him from all of us… and more importantly from my cousin.”, Rose explained growling low as she talked about Duncan. Jonathan was jotting down some notes about what Rose mentioned in regards to the Friends of Humanity and this bombing of the UN.
Donovan sighed, he hated thinking about how much the Bryant men seemed to mean to Rose. Landon he was less annoyed about. Landon was at least just her friend, her best friend and eventually would be related to her via his marriage to Rachel. However his brief knowledge of Landon and just as brief meeting with the man he had a cockyness that annoyed him. Sure the man earned his cockyness. Donovan knew the stories, how Landon stepped in front of a gun to protect his sister and Rose, how he lead his team to rescue Rose’s day, how he took down one of the baddest mutants known, and even recently how he took on a group of COH alongside his sister, cousin and fiancee to defend some of the younger boys including three of his cousins from America. And the man’s power was pretty badass, Donovan would give him that, not to mention the guy was great with tech and knowing things having helped them setup Excalibur. And then there was Merrick. Merrick was cocky but not in the same way. Merrick’s attitude was more of a ‘if you can do it I can and probably better’. Though Donovan doubted Merrick could do things better than him, but it didn’t matter the man had the one thing Donovan wanted and knew he couldn’t… Rose and her love. “Hey…”, Donovan sighed standing up and hugging her. “It’s alrig’t princess. Dis Prime ya talking bout. Da man can ‘andle some FOH scum and a few bombs. Ah tink his record speaks fer itself. Besides he wouldn’t do somethin’ dat he couldn’t ‘andle. He wouldn’t risk not coming back ta yer cousin.”, He tried to assure her.
Jonathan watched a little curious at the exchange between Wolverine and Laoch. Rose nodded. “I know. I know Prime is tough and I know he’s an amazing leader and I know how much he loves my cousin. But I also know that he will do anything to protect others including putting himself between danger and those he wants to protect.”, Rose sighed. “Well tink less bout da latter and focus on da former. No get moving. Ya go patrol of northern England. Ah’ll be here on duty and if someting comes across Ah’ll let ya knew so ya can handle it. Just focus on wat ya gotta do. Prime and w’oever on dis alpha team will be okay. Dinna fash.”, Donovan smiled letting her go. Rose nodded. “As strange as it is to say this you’re right Laoch.”, Rose teased with a sigh. Jonathan laughed. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say his name in reference to being right the whole time I’ve been here.”, Jonathan commented with a smile before quickly looking back to his laptop getting to work. Donovan rolled his eyes. “Ah canna wait fer yer arse ta go back. Ah tire of babysitting ya.”, Donovan glared at Jonathan before sitting back down at the monitors. “You two just try to not kill each other before Iolar shows to take over monitoring duties.”, Rose shook her head before hitting her watch and disappearing to start her patrol.

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Mason pushed away the thoughts of Adder and the memory of what happened the only way he knew how. He texted Skye as he ducked silently out of the apartment to avoid Adder. ‘Are you home? Because god I need you.’ was the message he sent. Skye had thankfully gotten to her apartment when she received the text. ‘Just got in from mission. About to shower. And trust me I need you just as much.’ Skye replied. Mason smirked leaving his building. ‘Hold on the shower till I get there then. ’ he replied starting to walk the short blocks from his building to hers. ‘You better hurry then.’, she answered with a smile. She felt terrible for missing their date last night, for spending the last two nights with Jonathan, and for every thought she had about Jonathan. She didn’t know that Mason was feeling just as terrible if not worse. Terrible for taking Adder with him to the movies and dancing, for everything that happened after and for the dreams that had plagued him all night. He hoped that he was hiding the thoughts well enough as he knocked on her door. Skye smiled pulling the door open wearing just a towel and pulled him inside pushing him against the door to close it without any greeting starting to kiss him. Mason blinked for a half a second but smiled returning the kiss letting his arms wrap around her pulling the towel down. They didn’t bother with words as Skye started undressing him as they made their way to her shower followed directly by her bed losing themselves in each other.
It was after as they laid cuddled in her bed that Skye picked up something in his mind. It wasn’t near the surface, no at the surface all his thoughts were about how much he’d missed her, missed just laying like this with her. But she was sensing something under that, guilt. She felt terrible that she was doing this but she looked a little deeper as she laid there with her head against his shoulder and his arms wrapped tight around her. And there she saw it, saw how he’d taken Adder with him last night to the movie and dancing. Worse yet she saw what he was really guilty of. She saw the kiss and everything that happened between that and when he finally stopped himself before he could have gone all the way with Adder. Skye froze her eyes going wide, he’d cheated on her. She forced herself to not lose her temper. Because her anger was starting to boil. She’d known since near the beginning that he loved Adder even though he refused to admit it. She’d also known that Adder was in love with Mason. Could she fault them? Could she really get mad that two people that hide their affections for whatever stupid reasons gave in after an evening that most would call romantic? And sure she hadn’t cheated with Jonathan, nothing physical had happened. But she’d thought about it. She’d slept at Jonathan’s hospital bed, and she’d kept putting aside time with Mason because of Jonathan. Sure she could say it was business, she was supposed to protect him but she knew there was an attraction to the journalist. And she reminded herself that Mason did stop himself with Adder and his first thought in the morning was to come to her. Granted he didn’t confess but he didn’t need to. All that mattered was right now she was his primary thought. So she buried her pain and anger.
The alarms had been sounding at Queen’s facility when it was discovered the mutant experiment 32 had escaped. Guards had been frantically searching the facility and surveillance footage to try and find where she’d gone. But they couldn't find her or any evidence of what happened. The footage showed her in her cage and then suddenly she had disappeared and there was a whole in the glass to her cage. She appeared nowhere on surveillance. They were at a complete lost. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T FIND HER!?”, Queen shouted as she slammed the head of security into a wall. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MONEY WE HAVE PUT INTO THAT EXPERIMENT!? SOMEONE GET ME WEBBER! IF YOU IDIOTS CAN’T FIND HER I’M SURE HE CAN!”, she demanded sitting back down at her desk. “Um … well Miss Queen…”, the man stumbled trying to think of what to tell her about Webber. “Webber...we… he left a letter of resignation citing ‘morality’ as his reason for terminating his employment.”, the man spoke quickly and nervously. “HE WHAT! HE ISN’T ALLOWED TO QUIT! HE KNOWS TOO MUCH! I WANT HIM FOUND! I WANT HIM FOUND NOW!!!”, Queen shouted standing back up slamming her hands on her desk. The man gulped and nodded. “I have sent a team to his flat to try and find him. We will search the entire country if we need to. I’ll notify other locations we have globally to start looking in case he fled the country. Do you think...that maybe he helped the experiment?”, the asked. “If he did he’s a dead man.”, Queen said coldly. “And if you don’t find him you’ll be one too. Now GO!”, she shouted pointing to her office door.
Once the security office had left her office she quickly started to make phone calls. “We have a couple issues.”, she reported speaking on a conference call with Stryker, Pierce, and Trask. “What issues?”, Trask questioned. “First experiment 32 has escaped. She completely disappeared from surveillance footage going from being in her cage to suddenly gone and a there being a hole in her cage. I have teams hunting her down.”, she explained. “Well that is certainly a lost. Trask get started on trying to replicate experiment 32’s success.”, Stryker spoke calmly. “I’ll get them on that immediately in case we can’t find her. Now what is the other issue?”, Trask asked. “Webber, the hacker I had digging into Mason Templeton and Silvercloud. He resigned citing ‘morality’ for his excuse. I’ve got my men looking for him. He knows too much to be let to roam free.”, she explained. “God damn it. Alright we will all get our people looking for him and anyone in our IT departments starting to search for any traces of him online as well. He can’t just dropped out of existence.”, Pierce spoke. “Alright so we pick up on the experiments, continue our hunt for number 32 and Webber. In other news we still have not managed to kill Jonathan Fuller. These vigilantes keep protecting him. And our source that watches his flat stated he never came home and he disappeared from the hospital. His parents have also left the country.”, Trask continued the conversation. “Fuller will have to come out of hiding. And when he does we will end him and anyone protecting him or near him. Keep people posted on his apartment and his office. He’ll show at one of these places. Personally I say we take him at the paper. I want that paper destroyed and anyone inside it.”, Stryker spoke his voice taking a sinister tone. “I’ll make sure that is passed along and we will ensure that Fuller is taken out along with his newspaper that would dare to print against us.”, Trask agreed.
With the hunt on for Myst and Arcade not only were security teams of Trask and Queen hunting for them, members of the the COH were on the lookout as well. This pick up in COH activity didn’t go unnoticed by Excalibur or the Hellfire Club. Xavier was getting more calls into the hotline he’d established having to send out parts of the team to handle the small groups terrorizing people. Jonathan tried to stay out of the way as he worked on writing his article. But he couldn’t help but pay attention. He watched with great interest as Xavier acted as the 9-1-1 dispatcher. “Yes ma’am. Just find someone where in your home to hide and protect your children. I’ve got people in route to you. It will be okay. Please just remain calm and stay in your hiding place until our people give the all clear.”, Xavier spoke on the phone calmly to a woman who Jonathan could faintly hear freaking out at the other end. Xavier was quickly typing on his computer screen getting the woman’s coordinates. “Fury, Seer I’ve got a home invasion Malton. Woman and children hiding in bedroom closet.”, he instructed into the communicator. “On it. We’ll be in touch when mission complete.”, Fury spoke. Jonathan tilted his head carefully observing Xavier’s expression trying to see if he could see any emotions under the mask. How the man could give orders to his own wife to go rush into danger Jonathan would never understand. He knew Skye had her strength and still when he heard Xavier call for Iolar he felt his heart jump into his throat and his stomach knot in fear. “How do you do it, Silver Samurai?”, he finally asked. Xavier turned his head to look at Jonathan from his command post. “How do I do what Mister Fuller?”, he asked.
“Your job here. I’ve been here for two weeks. I never see you go on a mission. You stay here and act as their dispatcher. How do you look so calm and collected? I mean you send your Aunt, you send your in-laws, and worse yet you send your own wife into danger every day. And I haven’t seen your expression change once. You just have this serious but calm look. I’m not even part of this and when I hear you call Skye’s code name Iolar my heart goes into my throat and my stomach knots in fear till she checks in saying mission successful.”, Jonathan explained his question. “I am prohibited from going on missions by Wolverine. Someone needs to run things here for her. And I’m the tech guy so it’s my job. Granted I know that her underlying reasoning is that like yourself I am human so I have no powers to protect me just my own skills. And as her nephew she wishes to protect me and I’m certain my mother and grandfather had their input into if I should be allowed in combat.”, Xavier shrugged. “And I remain calm because I have faith in them. I know the level of training that Wolverine, Fury, Seer and even to an extent Wiccan received during their childhood. I have seen them go against much scarier than these Church of Humanity people and walk out unharmed. I knew when I fell in love with Fury what I would be getting into. That she was born and raised to be a hero. I knew my place in this. So it is illogical to worry. I trust she will return to me.”, Xavier explained. “You do realize that fear you have for Skye’s safety is one you should probably keep in check. She has a boyfriend. And even if she didn’t if you had even an inkling of wanting to be involved with her… you need to understand that she is a hero and it is her job to place herself at risk to save others.”, he sighed before turning back to his monitors.
Jonathan frowned but nodded. Skye was involved with Mason. Though he still felt that there was something off about their relationship. Something that had Skye questioning it. But then Xavier also had the point that if Jonathan ever wanted to maybe have a chance with Skye he’d have to accept that this was her life. This was her calling. The photography editor for GQ was just a cover, that was her Clark Kent disguise and Iolar was her true self. He sighed and went back to typing his article. He knew he couldn’t give their real names, hell other than Skye he didn’t know their real names. But it wasn’t stopping him from writing about them. It wasn’t part of the article. No this was in his private journal he wrote in daily. He hoped that some day he could publish his memories. As he was typing away Skye appeared from thin air dressed like she’d just left her office. Which she had. Jonathan’s eyes quickly looked to her and a smile crossed his lips. Her vivid red hair was pulled to the side hanging down her neck and the front of her shoulder in soft curls and she looked exquisite in her black pencil skirt and navy fitted blouse. “God you are radiant.”, he commented. Skye rolled her eyes but did smile a little. “‘Ello ta ya too Jonathan. Evening Silver Samurai.”, she greeted walking over to lean on Xavier’s shoulder to look at the screens. “Evening Iolar.”, Xavier greeted. “Got anyting pressing fer me?”, she asked. “Not at the moment. Just sent Fury and Seer to Malton.”, Xavier answered. Skye nodded. “Aye. Well Ah gonna suit up and get going on mah patrol of lower England.”, she patted Xavier’s shoulder. “Dinna fash bout Fury. Seer will guard her.”, she smiled walking away.
Xavier sighed shaking his head a little. Jonathan arched an eyebrow. “She pick up something I didn’t?”, Jonathan asked. “She’s a telepath and you aren’t. What do you think.”, Xavier shrugged continuing to monitor the screens. Jonathan nodded, so Silver Samurai was good at hiding his emotions but inside he was worried for his wife. Made him feel a little better and normal in regards to his general concerns about Skye. He closed his laptop and headed to try and speak with Skye. As he reached her bunk he froze seeing the door open and her standing in nothing but a matching set of navy silk thongs and bra, her back to him. “Sweet mother Mary…”, Jonathan breathed out the words just audible. ‘God damn… wonder how hard she’s going to deck me for looking.’, he thought looking at her. “In or out Jonathan cause ya standing dere gawking at me gonna get ya knocked out.”, Skye stated grabbing her uniform starting to step into it pulling it up. Not that it offered much more coverage than her thong but still it offered some. “In...most definitely…”, he said stepping into the room closing the door. Skye shook her head a little, she was smiling, he used the same phrase she did when she saw someone she found extremely attractive. “So wat did ya want?”, she asked reaching behind her starting to pull the zipper up on her uniform. “Um.. I don’t even remember… Kind of forgot all train of thoughts..”, Jonathan admitted stepping closer taking the risk and pulling the zipper the rest of the way up for her. “Tanks…”, Skye said stepping away from him taking her hair down and pulling it up into a high ponytail to keep it out of the way.
“Any time you need help getting dressed...or undressed… I’m at your service.”, Jonathan smiled. Skye sighed shaking her head keeping her back to him as she got her mask on and then grabbed the bands that she wore around her legs slipping them on. Jonathan just smiled tilting his head watching her as she bent pulling the bands onto her legs. “Who designed this? And decided you got the one piece bathing suit while Wolverine and Fury got pants?”, he inquired. “A friend of Wolverine’s family. And Ah canna say ‘ow da decision of pants versus no pants was made. Ah dinna fash it much. Ah like mah uniform even if it a bit cold ta wear in da winter. It certainly gets attention and let's da idiots Ah fig’ting misjudge me.”, she shrugged turning to look at him as she put on her purple sash tying it around her waist. Jonathan gulped a little his eyes drinking her in. “Oh I’m most certain they are caught off guard and well you are gorgeous in anything so you’ll always get attention.”, he smiled. “Yer a flatter Jonathan.”, Skye sighed but was smiling. “Why yes I am. Thank you so much for noticing. You haven’t seemed to mind it all that much as of late.”, he commented. “Ah not against getting compliments. Lassies do enjoy da occasional acknowledgement, w’en tastefully done and from someone dey tink is attractive.”, she shrugged. Jonathan smiled. “Attractive huh? That you telling me you think I’m attractive?”, he inquired. “Aye. But ya already kne yer an attractive bloke. So dinna get yer knickers in a twist or tink too much bout it.”, Skye explained. “Now Ah better get ta mah patrol. Stay outta trouble.”, Skye nodded. “Only if you do.”, Jonathan commented risking it and kissing her cheek before she disappeared.
Skye landed at the first part of her patrol blinking and lightly touching her cheek where Jonathan had kissed her. She wasn’t sure what she should do at this point. She liked Jonathan, he was attractive and interesting. But she reminded herself that she was with Mason even though a tiny voice reminded her of what Mason had already done with Adder. And worse yet the voice reminded her what he still wanted to do. Skye pushed that voice away and focused on her patrol. Skye was far from the only one trying to get their mind righted and figure things out. For the last couple weeks Adder and Mason had been avoiding eye contact. Neither knew what to say to the other after what happened. It’d been put out there that they were attracted to each other and there was no way of taking it back. Adder felt terrible that Mason was a wreck about it. She knew him enough to know that this was eating him up, this guilt. He was too good of a man to be okay with having cheated, even to the small extent that they had. Mason had been trying to spend more time around Skye since the incident, his way of keeping his mind off Adder and what they’d almost done. But of course he couldn't spend every waking moment with Skye. They both had jobs and their masks. So Mason had thrown himself more into training Ian, Garrison and Turner. Tonight he’d sent Turner and Ian up to Manchester to go on patrol with Ashton while Garrison was to patrol with him and Adder in lower England.
“So who made our costumes?”, Garrison whispered over the earpiece communicator. “Or gave us this tech?”, he added crouching in his position on the roof looking down at their targets. Adder rolled her eyes a little. “Don’t worry about it. Now keep silent. We wait for Black King’s go ahead”, Adder was quick to try and get their Black Rook on mission from where she was perched on another building her copper snakes eyes watching the targets. Mason ignored the chatter his eyes focused on the targets. They were tracking a small group of COH who’d been making plenty of noise around town. They were apparently hunting a particular mutant and a human suspected of aiding this wanted mutant. Mason’s tech guy Alan was trying to figure out the details but Mason didn’t need the details. He didn’t need to find the mutant or the human that may have helped her. No he just needed to make sure these men didn’t. He couldn’t kill them but he could certainly rough them up and make them think twice about continuing their harassment of locals in their search for the mutant and human. Once they were in just the right spot he knew it was time. “Move.”, Mason ordered as he raised himself off the roof he was on to land in front of the six men. Garrison and Adder had started to make their ways off their buildings and came out from the alleys. Adder appeared on their left and Garrison came up behind them leaving a solid wall to their right. Mason had chosen the right location to ensure the men would have nowhere to run.
“What the?”, the group asked in confusion looking at the masked man who had floated down to stand in front of them. They’d heard of two groups of mutants running around in masks. But they weren't sure which this man was part of. One generally just tied up and left people for the police mostly unharmed while the other still left them for the police but beaten badly. As the group started to step back from Mason they found themselves facing another masked man. One nodded to an alley on the left and they went to move but found a blonde masked woman blocking that direction. “What do you want?”, one demanded looking to Mason. “Simple mate. We want you and your little band of men to leave the locals alone.”, Mason spoke clearly. “It ain’t your business what we do. We on office business.”, a man spoke up. Adder narrowed her copper eyes hissing spitting some of her venom at the ground near the man’s feet. “Ah suggest ya alter yer attitude and tone when addressing da Black King. Less yer looking ta get bit.”, she warned baring her fangs. The man blinked gulping a little looking down at the venom eating at the cobblestone of the road. Mason’s eyes glanced to Adder, he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his lips. There was a reason she was his bodyguard. She took even small offenses made against him as serious threats. And he hated to admit it but the new uniforms Alan had gotten them, hers was rather form fitting and she looked very attractive in a more dangerous way than her civilian clothes. “We ain’t scared of no woman. And who the hell made him a king of anything other than the asylum you obviously escaped from. Thinking yourself heroes wearing masks.”, another spoke up.
Mason laughed softly shaking his head. “Think what you like sir about our mental status. But I wouldn’t suggest underestimating my Bishop. She’s rather deadly and I don’t always have a tight control on my pet’s leash. And no one said we were heroes mate. We are just here to put you in your place. we don’t care what this mutant or the human did that the church has decided they need to be found no matter the cost. We’ve decided the cost of the lives of people in this town and their property is too high a cost.”, Mason explained. Garrison smiled a little as Mason spoke. Even wearing a mask the man had that regal authoritative stance and tone. And Garrison didn’t doubt how deadly Adder was or that the only person who could keep her in any check was Mason himself. “Yeah well says you. Our superiors think otherwise. Now there’s six of us and only three of you. I suggest you walk away, your ‘highness’.”, one sneered brandishing his gun. Mason simply smiled. “I like our odds. If you won’t give up your terrorizing willingly… we’ll make you. Bishop… Rook let’s show them why their numbers mean nothing.”, Mason instructed as a gust of wind raising the one that had brandished the gun up into the air and slammed him against a wall. Adder grinned and went after the one that and said they didn’t fear her slamming her fit hard into his chest knocking the wind out of him before throwing another punch at his fast followed by a roundhouse kick to the head knocking him down. Garrison followed suit attacking a man closest to him making use of the months of intensive training under Mason and Adder. So the three HellFire members fought the six Church of Humanity members. It hadn’t gone unnoticed though, especially when one of the humans fired a gun at Adder’s back, the bullet being blown off its target by Mason. So the police had been called.
The call was also picked up by Xavier at Muir Island. “Iolar we’ve got a report of shots fired and three masked individuals fighting sex armed men on Paddock in Brockenhurst. Any ideas who that might be?”, Xavier called over the communicator. Skye sighed hearing Xavier say three masked individuals where in a fight against armed men and outnumbered. “Ah’m on it.”, Skye said teleporting away from where she was in Marchwood. Jonathan raised an eyebrow at the wording Xavier used. “There’s another group of mutant vigilante out there?”, he asked. Xavier didn’t answer the question just kept focus on his job. He wasn’t going to tell Jonathan any more than he needed to know. And really Jonathan didn’t need to know anything as far as he was concerned. When Skye arrived on a rooftop of Rosie’s Tea House and Bakery she did a quick assessment of the situation. Based on the powers and how they moved she easily identified Adder and Mason. Though she wasn’t sure who the third was. But that wasn’t her business. They generally kept their masked lives separate anyways. the third was trying to hold his own with help of insects as two men had him cornered. Mason was doing well against his two keeping them on the defensive. Adder had one of her’s down and was focused on the other at the moment. Skye considered not even getting involved tills he saw the gun being pointed at Adder while her back was turn. The man Adder thought she’d downed was getting to his feet ready to try and take her out.
A voice in Skye’s head told her to do nothing, the woman had after all nearly slept with her boyfriend but two weeks prior. But Skye pushed the thought aside, she couldn’t let someone just kill Adder. And certainly not shoot her in the back. So in the chaos Skye flew down and silently landed before the man and tapped his shoulder which startled him. “Oy prick dinna yer mum teac’ ya never play wid guns? Dey dangerous.”, Skye taunted before slamming her fist into the man’s face breaking his jaw as she grabbed the gun with the other hand. The man stumbled back in pain holding his broken jaw. He noticed she wore a different symbol on her uniform but otherwise he was just confused. “Let me make sure ya canna ‘urt yerself or someone else wid dis.”, Skye narrowed her eyes as she bent the barrel of the pistol like it was nothing. The man’s eyes went wide in fear. Adder did a leg sweep knocking her other opponent down and looked over and blinked seeing a redhead bending a gun. She wasn’t sure who all was on Skye’s team or their powers. But smell alone told her this had to be Skye. She shrugged and slugged the man she was fighting his head slamming into the cobblestone knocking him out. “Er tanks…”, Adder said getting up. “Dinna fash. ‘Ow about Ah finis’ dis.”, Skye suggested and closed her eyes and the remaining four men all dropped to the ground unconscious as she sent out a psychic blast. Garrison blinked as the two men suddenly dropped. Mason furrowed his brow having been too occupied with his fight to realize Skye had shown up. He turned when his opponents went limp. “S… Iolar?”, Mason quickly corrected himself as his eyes fell upon his girlfriend. He knew most of those on her team but he would know her body anywhere.
Garrison stepped over the two men that now lay at his feet curious. Mason knew this other masked mutant. “How did you do that?”, Garrison asked. Skye tapped her head lightly. “All clear Silver Samurai. Dere will be six ready fer police pick up.”, she spoke into her communicator before looking to Mason. “Aye. Ah’m Iolar. Ah dinna catch yers handsome.”, she smiled teasing. Honestly she wasn’t sure what to call Mason with his mask on. He only knew her as Iolar because he’d heard her communicator go off one night while staying over. “Black King, Black Bishop, and Black Rook. At your service m’lady.”, Mason teased back with a playful bow nodding to Adder and Garrison when he said their codenames. “King?”, Skye arched an eyebrow walking closer to Mason walking around him inspecting him as it were. She’d never seen him in his uniform. She had to admit she liked it. ‘Tonight come ta mah place and wear dis. Ah wanna get ya out of it, cause damn ya look good.’, she thought to him. Mason smiled shaking his head. ‘Same can be said to you love.’, Mason thought back. Adder tried to ignore the exchange between Skye and Mason while Garrison was intrigued. “So yer highness, wanna tell me wat you and yer merry court are doing bashing skulls in the city streets?”, Skye asked. “Just doing our jobs m’lady. They were disturbing the peace causing unnecessary trouble in their hunt for a mutant and a human who helped her.”, Mason explained. Skye glanced to the men on the ground and snorted. “Aye. Da church is on da hunt all across da country fer deir fugitives.”, Skye nodded. “Iolar? We have a disturbance over in Harwick.”, Xavier called over the communicator. “Aye. Ah’m on it Silver Samurai.”, she nodded. “Stay outta trouble yer highness and members o da court.”, Skye smiled before hitting her watch and disappearing.
“When we do get tech like that?”, Garrison asked. Adder rolled her eyes and went closer to Mason. “Ya alrig’t?”, she asked. This was the first time they’d seen Skye while in masks. Mason nodded. “Oh I’m just fine pet.”, he smiled thinking about getting to Skye’s later and taking that little uniform off her. “What about you?”, he asked placing hands on her shoulders looking her over for injuries. She had a bit of a bruise forming on her cheek that he gently ran his thumb over. “We’ll need to ice that.”, he commented. Adder sighed closing her eyes as his thumb brushed her cheek. She couldn’t help but think of how it felt to have his hands touching other areas of her body. “Ah’m fine.”, Adder insisted opening her eyes coming to her senses. She knew she shouldn’t think about that night, so she pushed it away. “Let’s get out of here before the police arrive. Everyone take their designated paths and head back to base.”, Mason instructed taking his hands away from Adder touching her and being so close just bringing up thoughts and memories he wanted to bury. Garrison nodded and headed in the direction he was told he was to travel to return to base. Adder sighed but nodded. “See ya at base.”, she agreed taking her separate path. Mason headed in another direction. He’d told them that they were to never travel directly to a location or to base as a group. It was best to avoid being followed and going different directions made it harder for anyone to detect where their base was.
Ashley and Atif had finished up their mission, leaving the would be murders tied up in the front yard to a tree for the police and the woman and her two young mutant children safe. Ashley sighed as her and Atif arrived back at Muir Island a hand gently resting over her stomach not even thinking about it. Atif arched an eyebrow looking at his twin. “You okay Fury?”, he asked placing a hand on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and smiled at what he saw. He still couldn’t place a timeline of when it was going to happen. But he kept seeing a little boy with black hair and a little girl with blonde hair chasing after a brown wolf in a yard and he could hear his sister laughing happily as she chased after the trio. He knew the wolf was Faelan, he’d seen the boy in his wolf form to know it. Atif just smiled revealing in the vision of his nephew and niece playing with Merrick’s son. He couldn’t pinpoint a time based on Faelan since when in wolf form it was harder to tell his age given wolves aged different than children. “Yes I’m fine. Just hungry. God what I wouldn’t give for huge helping Aislinn’s shepherd's pie and a big slice of Aunt Alison’s chocolate cream pie with a ton of whipped cream on top.” Ashley smiled thinking about the foods from their childhood. “Shepherd's pie and chocolate cream pie? That sounds fantastic.” Jonathan commented hearing them as he looked up from his laptop. Atif and Xavier both looked at Ashley confused. “Fury are you on something? You’re allergic to chocolate. You’ve never had even a taste of chocolate cream pie because of it.”, Atif questioned. “Right… I don’t know why that even came to my mind. Then a slice of her apple pie fresh from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top melting.”, Ashley changed her answer shaking her head.
Xavier got up from his station and placed an arm around her shoulders. “Come on sweetheart. Let’s go home. I’ll make you some dinner I think we might have a frozen apple pie I could put in the oven for you.”, he offered kissing her cheek. Ashley nodded. “Okay. That sounds great. You got everything covered here Seer?”, she asked looking to her twin. Atif looked to the control station then to Jonathan and then back to his twin and her husband. He smiled nodding. “Yeah I’ve got it. Go home, eat and rest. I’ll see you tomorrow sis.”, Atif hugged her. “Go take care of my sister.”, Atif instructed Xavier. Xavier smiled. “Always Seer.”, Xavier smiled before pressing his watch an arm still around Ashley teleporting them both to their flat in Glasgow. Xavier was a bit concerned that maybe his wife was getting stressed. Since they’d returned from their honeymoon they’d been dealing with more issues from the COH. Having to always use codenames at Muir Island and never not be in their masks while there because of Jonathan. And then she’d been otherwise so busy with the ballet. He just hoped that it wasn’t becoming too much for her to handle. He wished that his aunt would let him go on missions, then not have to call his wife to handle these calls. He tried to not think of it as they got out of their uniforms and into civilian clothes. Xavier drew her a hot bubble bath to go soak in while he made dinner and got that apple pie baking she seemed to want so bad. He had no shepherd's pie to offer her, but there was some leftover mashed potatoes that he heated up adding more butter to and served up with some of the roast chicken they had left over as well. She mused to herself about how lucky she was to have Xavier as she lounged in the warm bath water till he called her to come eat. In the end Ashley didn’t care what she was eating, as long as it was food.
As October faded into November Rose wasn’t liking the increase COH activity, or that they were apparently hunting a specific mutant and human. She had Xavier trying to find out more information about who the mutant and human are and why they were wanted to badly. But so far he’d come up with nothing. She frowned looking at all the papers on her bed. It was a mix of homework for her university classes and information for Excalibur. She thought about calling Landon, maybe get his take on what was happening with this man hunt for the mutant and human. See if he could dig some as well. But she decided against it. She didn’t want to pull him into any of this if she didn’t have to. He had chosen to walk away from this life, to have a peaceful life with her cousin. She needed to let him have that. So instead she decided to distract herself from it all and check in with Merrick. She knew he went out the night before with his friends. He’d been doing that a lot as of late. Which she was happy of. She knew he needed to have friends to have his life not revolve around Faelan and work and waiting for their chances of talking on the phone or skype. She sighed as the phone started ringing.
“Morning little wolf.”, he greeted. “Morning to you too. You guys have a good time last night? Talked to mom last night she said you’d informed her the GTO would be most likely parked overnight at the club to avoid drinking and driving with your baby.”, Rose greeted teasing. “MORNING ROSE!!!”, Malcolm, Tristan and Zoe yelled teasing Merrick. Rose arched an eyebrow hearing all the voices. “Ah so it was a fun night.”, she laughed. Merrick rolled his eyes. “Yeah we had fun. We all ended up crashing at Zoe’s since it’s a shorter walk. Didn’t want to make gimpy walk all the way to the Haven since he didn’t bring his cane. And me and Mal were too drunk to carry him if needed.”, Merrick smiled. “Nice. Boys heading back to their places today?”, Rose asked making conversation. She didn’t want to really put much thought into them crashing at Zoe’s. She knew better than to get jealous over Zoe, even though part of her was. She hoped she’d feel less jealous when Zoe got a boyfriend, if that ever finally happened. “Yeah I think so. Tristan is jonesing for some Jail Bait. He’s been in Bayville the last now five days.”, Merrick teased Tristan. “Damn straight I’m going through withdrawls. How you go months without getting laid I don’t know man. I mean I used to live the skype and phone sex life but god it’s not as good or fun as the real thing.”, Tristan laughed getting up starting to find his clothes getting dressed. “Why’s he been in Bayville for five days?”, Rose asked confused. “Oh he’s started working for Holly. So he comes down every other week, or that’s the plan, crashes at Holly's and helps with the ranch and the riding lessons. My understanding there’s about a dozen twelve year olds wishing for Blaire’s untimely demise to claim him for themselves.”, Merrick explained getting up heading for the bedroom placing her on speaker as he started to get dressed.
“Ah I see. Well glad he’s working and on a ranch again. I’m sure Blaire misses him too. God knows I miss you.”, Rose sighed looking over the pile of papers on her bed which was a combination of homework and information for Excalibur. “I miss you too beautiful more than I know how to describe. But we’ll see each other soon.”, he smiled internally saying ‘than you think’. “I know but April is soo far away. I wish I had the time off to come home for Christmas.”, she frowned. “Hey it’s alright. You were here when Faelan and, probably mostly, I needed you after we lost Nana. I wouldn’t trade having you here when I needed you most just to have you here for opening presents. Though did really like opening my ‘present’ last year. Then again I never get tired of opening that particular gift.”, he smirked walking out having taken her off speaker phone as he buttoned his shirt. Rose laughed shaking her head knowing he was referring to her and how Landon had placed a bow on her forehead last Christmas before she went to his room. Malcolm and Tristan had gotten dressed while Merrick was back in the bedroom and were presently sitting on the couch watching the morning news while Zoe was tucked into her chair watching with them a blanket wrapped around her trying to stay warm. “Today a special U.N meeting is to be held to discuss the global crisis of mutants and how this surge in their number should best be handled.”, the reporter spoke standing outside the U.N building in Manhattan. “Trist turn this up. Landon and alpha team are on a mission there today.”, Malcolm asked nudging Tristan who had the remote.
Merrick raised an eyebrow hearing the words ‘Landon’, ‘alpha team’ and ‘mission’. Rose heard them too. “What about a mission? What’s going on Merrick?”, Rose asked. “Hang on. I don’t know.”, Merrick said moving into the living room nudging Zoe out of the chair. Zoe begrudgingly moved but as soon as he was seated found herself pulled back to his lap his right arm around her while he left held the phone. “We’re watching the morning news. Reporter is talking about a U.N meeting about mutants.”, Merrick explained as Tristan turned up the volume. “Hang on I’ll put you on speaker so you can hear better gimpy just turned up the tv.”, Merrick said switching to speaker setting the phone on the coffee table. Zoe lightly shook her head adjusting the blanket around her getting comfortable again just now on his lap. “Okay so what’s going on Malcolm? What do you mean a mission and Landon’s involved?”, Rose asked. “Um last week Duncan called him. Guilted the poor bastard using the kids on team alpha as leverage to get Landon to agree to take the mission. Guess the FOH and COH on our side of the ocean have the X-men and their student teams spread thin. The FOH plan to bomb the U.N while it’s in session. Duncan had no choice but to send team alpha; Stephan, Marco, Taylor, Ororo, Inola and Nathan.”, Malcolm explained. Merrick’s head turned the instant he heard Inola and Nathan’s names. Those names meant something to him. Nathan being his nephew and Inola was his young volunteer and best worker at the sanctuary.
“That fucking piece of shit. He knows Landon wouldn’t sit by and do nothing when a team of kids, a team of kids he knows so damn well and even as family are sent to try and handle something this big. Oh god if I was there I’d turn Duncan into kebabs. Using those kids just to pull Landon into something he walked away from.”, Rose growled. “Trust me little wolf Duncan’s lucky I’m haven. I don’t like the idea of him sending my nephew and my little squaw on something this big and dangerous.”, Merrick growled too. “Yeah well like it or not these kids did sign up to become X-Men. And the FOH and COH don’t give a shit about age. Hiro and the boys are just as young as Inola and didn’t seem to faze the bastards back in Glasgow.”, Malcolm commented. “Already protesters on both sides have started to form outside.”, the reporter spoke. The camera panned to show police barriers holding back two groups. One side was holding signs demanding equality for all while the other was holding signs saying hateful things about mutants. Merrick furrowed his brow looking at the groups. “Whoa hold it pause.”, Merrick demanded. Tristan quickly paused the live broadcast everyone confused why. “That’s...oh fucking hell.”, Merrick growled. “What is it? Remember I can’t see.”, Rose asked. “Shaw, Adam and Arie are in the crowd of protesters. They are hanging back not holding up signs and they’ve got Gregory’s girlfriend Salena with them.”, Merrick let out a breath. So his cousins were there which means the Academy was getting involved. “Maybe it’s coincidence?”, Zoe and Tristan suggested. “No. That grouping being there today would not be coincidence. Azazel ordered them there. And I doubt it’s to stop the FOH. Azazel isn’t about saving people. He’s about killing them.”, Merrick growled.
Malcolm was pulling his phone out calling Cora Lee. “Hey sparky? How’s the hangover?”, Cora Lee greeted having finally gotten up and was eating some pancakes with the others while her brother and the team where in the MDR running through the training for the mission. “Morning sweetheart. It’s fine. Um Landon right there or one of the alpha kids?”, Malcolm asked. Cora Lee arched a pierced brow. “No. They are in the MDR training. Why?”, Cora Lee asked. This of course getting Lily, Tommy and Rachel to look at her with interest. “Sitting at Zoe’s watching channel 3 news. They are talking about the U.N meeting today and there are protestors on both sides already there. Merrick made us pause the feed. Shaw, Adam, Arie, and Salena from the academy are in the crowd. I figured Landon and the team would want to know that’s who the Academy sent.”, Malcolm explained. “I’ll let them know. Thanks Sparky.”, Cora Lee sighed glancing to the window that looked to the terrace which now had a view of the metal exterior to the MDR. “Thanks babe. And tell them to stay safe.”, Malcolm sighed. “Give me the phone.”, Merrick instructed holding his hand out. Malcolm arched an eyebrow and handed the phone over. “Listen, this is what you tell your brother. Shaw always favors his left and with his powers you never go for a direct attack against him because he’ll turn it against you. Keep all emotions in check with Adam and aim for his jaw it’s like glass and he’s a total wimp when it comes to getting hit in the face. Arie might have her dad’s telepathic and diamond powers but her telepathy isn’t half what her dad or mine can do and her diamond form isn’t up to E’s level either. Salena I can’t give much on she joined after I left, but she’ll be their areal support so someone better keep her grounded.”, Merrick went right into giving what help he could.
Cora Lee blinked as Merrick was giving hints on how to bring down his Frost cousins. “Why are you tell me this?”, Cora Lee asked. “Because Nathan and Inola are on this mission. Nathan is my nephew I want him back unharmed. And Inola’s the best worker I’ve got at the sanctuary, would like her returned in one piece too.”, Merrick explained handing the phone back to Malcolm. “Okay I’ll tell them.”, Cora Lee said still confused at Merrick’s involvement. Zoe just smiled a little of course Merrick was going to make sure his nephew would be given the upperhand in this. “Hey you got me back beautiful. Alright so just give the details to Landon. I’ll be home later. I love you.”, Malcolm smiled at the last sentence. “I will. Love you too.”, Cora Lee smiled hanging up. “Did you really just tell Landon and the team how to take down your Frost cousins?”, Rose asked having heard Merrick. “Yes. I’m haven, that only means I can’t fight. Doesn’t mean I can’t give council on how to fight. I know those kids, well not Salena. And I don’t care if they are my Frost family. Granted I prefer they don’t get hurt too.”, Merrick shrugged. “I don’t think Landon would want to hurt them. And we know Landon will do everything he can to protect team alpha. Nathan is family to him. All those kids are family to him.”, Rose sighed. She knew Landon would go to an extreme to protect people. She’d seen it first hand three times in her life. “Yeah I know he will.”, Merrick nodded though he internalized the ‘I just hope he doesn’t do anything too stupid this time.’. Merrick didn’t want to admit he was worried about Landon too. “Alright well I should go. Have patrol soon. Bye guys. Love you Merrick.”, Rose sighed. “BYE ROSE!”, the others yelled. “Bye little wolf. Love you too.”, Merrick smiled leaning over to grab his phone again ending the call.
Rose changed into her uniform at the cottage before heading to Muir Island her mind distracted by what was happening back home. She couldn’t believe Duncan. That he’d do this, use the students as leverage against Landon. Sure she understood that these kids had signed up for this kind of danger when they chose to enroll. But Landon had chosen to walk away. She was angry that Duncan couldn’t accept that. When she arrived she was growling a little lost in her own anger with Duncan. Jonathan arched an eyebrow looking up over the top of his laptop hearing her growling. He wasn’t sure how afraid he should be at the moment. Donovan turned in the chair having been on monitor duty while Xavier was working his paying job. “Wat got yer dander up Wolvie?”, Donovan teased. Rose narrowed her eyes. “My dad didn’t like being called Wolvie and I don’t either. I’m just...I…”, Rose clenched her fists letting her claws dig into her palms. She glanced to see Jonathan setup at the table. “I can’t talk in mixed company.”, Rose sighed unclenching her fists. Donovan looked to Jonathan then back to Rose with a nod. “No need to hold back for my sake Wolverine. Is it something about the Church or is it actually just personal?”, Jonathan asked. Rose sighed shaking her head.
“It’s both.”, she frowned. “Well if it’s about the Church by all means speak. I can add to my article. Which is going to be ready to go to print next week.”, Jonathan encouraged. “Yer call lassie. Code wat ya gotta.”, Donovan shrugged. “Alright fine. Because I need to get this off my chest. I called…. Changeling…”, Rose started using Merrick’s old Academy code name. Donovan nodded, he’d heard it before so he knew she was talking about her boyfriend. He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Changeling? Lord you all have plenty of code names. But okay carry on.”, Jonathan nodded. “He was with Thunder, Cowboy and…. Medusa…”, she continued struggling to give names to Tristan and Zoe as they had no codenames. Donovan arched an eyebrow for a moment but then nodded. He figured cowboy would be the human friend who’d had the threesome with his cousin Hadyn back at Ashley and Xavier’s wedding. It took him a little longer to figure out who Medusa was supposed to be, but remembered that Merrick’s female ‘friend’ back in America had that kind of power. “Oh he was, rat’er early ta be round Medusa. But keep going.”, Donovan nodded. Rose rolled her eyes. “Apparently they went out drinking last night and ended up crashing at her place. But that’s not the point. The point is they were watching the news. It was a report about a U.N meeting today about mutants.”, Rose said trying to dismiss the idea that Merrick had been around Zoe early in the morning.
“The United Nations meeting? Ugh I’m missing that. I was supposed to go cover that for my paper. I wonder who they sent in my place.”, Jonathan frowned realizing he was missing more than just a personal life being held up in the Excalibur base. “You are lucky you aren’t there. Thunder mentioned that Prime and team Alpha from the school were supposed to be on mission there. The Friends of Humanity, they are the sister organization to the Church, plan to bomb the U.N while in session. Changeling put me on speaker and Cowboy turned up the tv so I could hear what was going on. Thunder explained that despite how Prime walked away from the X-Men after graduating high school…. Sin Eater made him take this mission. Forced him to give up the peaceful life he wanted with his fiance. He leveraged that team alpha are just teenagers and has Umbra who Prime calls cousin because the boy’s father is his godfather. Sin Eater leveraged that Prime is the type of man that can’t look away, that will always protect others. And I just want to rip him apart for doing this. For forcing Prime to do this. If something goes wrong...if Prime gets hurt. I don’t know what I’ll do. He’s my best friend. If he gets hurt or worse if he… I can’t even say it. But I don’t know what I’ll do except fly home and kill Sin Eater for forcing Price into this. For taking him from all of us… and more importantly from my cousin.”, Rose explained growling low as she talked about Duncan. Jonathan was jotting down some notes about what Rose mentioned in regards to the Friends of Humanity and this bombing of the UN.
Donovan sighed, he hated thinking about how much the Bryant men seemed to mean to Rose. Landon he was less annoyed about. Landon was at least just her friend, her best friend and eventually would be related to her via his marriage to Rachel. However his brief knowledge of Landon and just as brief meeting with the man he had a cockyness that annoyed him. Sure the man earned his cockyness. Donovan knew the stories, how Landon stepped in front of a gun to protect his sister and Rose, how he lead his team to rescue Rose’s day, how he took down one of the baddest mutants known, and even recently how he took on a group of COH alongside his sister, cousin and fiancee to defend some of the younger boys including three of his cousins from America. And the man’s power was pretty badass, Donovan would give him that, not to mention the guy was great with tech and knowing things having helped them setup Excalibur. And then there was Merrick. Merrick was cocky but not in the same way. Merrick’s attitude was more of a ‘if you can do it I can and probably better’. Though Donovan doubted Merrick could do things better than him, but it didn’t matter the man had the one thing Donovan wanted and knew he couldn’t… Rose and her love. “Hey…”, Donovan sighed standing up and hugging her. “It’s alrig’t princess. Dis Prime ya talking bout. Da man can ‘andle some FOH scum and a few bombs. Ah tink his record speaks fer itself. Besides he wouldn’t do somethin’ dat he couldn’t ‘andle. He wouldn’t risk not coming back ta yer cousin.”, He tried to assure her.
Jonathan watched a little curious at the exchange between Wolverine and Laoch. Rose nodded. “I know. I know Prime is tough and I know he’s an amazing leader and I know how much he loves my cousin. But I also know that he will do anything to protect others including putting himself between danger and those he wants to protect.”, Rose sighed. “Well tink less bout da latter and focus on da former. No get moving. Ya go patrol of northern England. Ah’ll be here on duty and if someting comes across Ah’ll let ya knew so ya can handle it. Just focus on wat ya gotta do. Prime and w’oever on dis alpha team will be okay. Dinna fash.”, Donovan smiled letting her go. Rose nodded. “As strange as it is to say this you’re right Laoch.”, Rose teased with a sigh. Jonathan laughed. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say his name in reference to being right the whole time I’ve been here.”, Jonathan commented with a smile before quickly looking back to his laptop getting to work. Donovan rolled his eyes. “Ah canna wait fer yer arse ta go back. Ah tire of babysitting ya.”, Donovan glared at Jonathan before sitting back down at the monitors. “You two just try to not kill each other before Iolar shows to take over monitoring duties.”, Rose shook her head before hitting her watch and disappearing to start her patrol.