Lines in the Sand: Chapter 6

An X-Men Evolution Fanfic

Pietro woke to the cacophony of screeching and thundering drums Lance for some reason called “music”. Why he had to play that horrid stuff so loud, Pietro didn’t know. “Turn it off!”

“No.”

That wasn’t Lance’s voice. He sat up, and memories flooded back as he recognized the hotel room around him. After yet another day of wandering around the city, he and Wanda had decided to stay there for the night.

The music seemed to be coming from outside. Considering the lack of light out there, he didn’t think it should be playing at all, and definitely not that loud and close to a hotel.

Apparently his sister disagreed, as she was practically hanging out the window to listen to them.

He shot up. “What are you doing?"

“Listening to the music.” Of course she would like this kind of music. Of course she would.

“You can listen to it in here.” It was certainly loud enough.

“I wanted to watch them play.”

Now that he was paying more attention, he could hear that it was likely musicians outside, not someone’s radio turned up loud. “Can you see them?”

“No.” Oh, he could hear that pout of hers.

“Then can you please come back inside?” If she fell–he was fast, but he didn’t think he was that fast.

“Fine.” She wiggled backwards, out of the window. Pietro didn’t take a full breath until both her feet were planted firmly on the floor. She grabbed the chair in the corner and dragged it over to the window. She sat in it and tucked her legs under her, then leaned forward and propped her elbows up on the windowsill.

He watched her for another moment as she let her eyes fall closed and swayed to the music. Then, satisfied she wouldn’t try to climb out again, he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

“I don’t understand,” Scott said. “Something’s wrong, but you won’t let me help?” This was not what he had been expecting when Logan brought him outside to talk.

“You will be helping,” Logan assured him. “But the fewer people who know what’s going on, the better, and I need the kids out of the mansion for the day. You’re the only one I trust to keep them all out of trouble.”

Okay, that was fair. Roberto and Bobby always managed to drag Sam or Ray into some sort of crazy scheme, and if Jubilee got involved too . . . .

“But what about Jean? And the rest of the senior team? Why is it just me?”

“Jean’s staying here, and the other kids have their own job to do.”

“But I can–”

“I’ve seen you in a fight, Slim. I know you can handle yourself, but right now I need you to take care of these kids. I can’t do what I need to if I’m worrying about them getting into trouble. Understand?”

Scott straightened and reminded himself that this was just as much part of being a leader as leading the charge himself. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Take care of what?”

Scott turned at the sound of Rahne’s voice and saw her and Jamie coming around the corner. He forced a smile. “I was just telling Logan I’m taking you all to the mall. Why don’t you go get the others?”

The pair grinned at each other, then ran back into the mansion. Logan clapped his hand on Scott’s shoulder. “Thanks.”

Mystique just restrained the impulse to slam Charles’s office door behind her. She had been working with Jean for days to use Cerebro, and still the stupid girl couldn’t manage to locate Magneto. Even worse, Storm had interrupted their session early that day, insisting Jean needed the rest. Mystique could hardly argue because their dear professor would never risk his darling students' health.

Her plan, which had seemed so perfect, was falling apart around her. Wanda was gone, and without her, the Brotherhood boys didn’t stand a chance against Magneto. She still believed she could defeat him with the X-Men’s help, but first she had to find him.

“Oh, there you are, Professor,” Kitty said, peeking into the office.

Evan popped up behind her. “You ready to go?”

“Go?”

A strong smell of sulfur announced Kurt’s arrival. What was with these children and the lack of boundaries? “What? Don’t tell me you forgot about Evan’s basketball game!”

She had forgotten. No longer being principal meant she didn’t have to worry about every schedule for every ridiculous extracurricular activity. “Oh, yes, of course. I’m sorry, Evan, I just completely lost track of time–”

“No problem, man, but we gotta hurry to make it in time.”

“He has to be there, like, super early,” Kitty said.

That interrupting again. If she were really their professor, she wouldn’t put up with it. “Children!” They looked surprised, and she cursed Charles’s far-too-gentle nature once again. She forced a sympathetic smile. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to come tonight. I have far too much work to do. I’ll come to the next one.”

“But it’s the last game of the season! And you went to so many of Jean’s games. You said you could come to this one,” Evan complained.

“Besides, Ororo said she would look over the enrollment forms tonight since she gets to go to so many of Evan’s games,” Kitty said.

Rogue poked her head in the room and knocked on the door to get everyone’s attention. “Are you comin'? We’ve gotta hurry or we’ll be late!”

Kitty raised her hand. “I’ll drive!”

“No!” the other three chorused.

“I’ll drive,” Rogue said. “Now let’s go.”

They ushered Mystique out the door, while she silently fumed at how difficult Charles made everything for her, even in his absence.

A knock sounded on Jean’s door, and she sat up. She didn’t really want to get out of bed. She was exhausted by all her lessons with Cerebro on top of the classes she taught, but it might be important.

She groaned and threw back the covers, then opened the door.

Ororo stepped inside and smiled at her. “Were you able to rest?” Jean nodded. She had slept, but it didn’t feel like nearly enough.

“Good. Now I’ve been keeping an eye on your sessions with the professor lately. I understand they’re not going well?”

Jean winced. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can’t seem to make it work for me.”

“Have you tried looking for other people, or just Magneto?”

“Just Magneto.” She could understand the professor’s impatience to find him, but she didn’t understand why he couldn’t just look himself.

Ororo nodded. “That’s what I thought. I want you to try something for me. Charles just went out for a while. I want you to try using Cerebro to find him. Magneto is a very powerful mutant, who likely has practiced blocking psychic attacks before, whereas the professor has a connection to you and will be much more open because of that. If you use Cerebro now and can’t find Charles, I’ll speak to him later and make sure you don’t have to have any more of those lessons. Do you think you can do that for me?”

If it finally got her out of those horrible sessions, Jean was sure she could do anything. “I’ll try.”

Logan checked the address Ororo texted him, then double checked it. He growled as he realized the lengths the imposter would go to get Charles out of the way.

He tucked his phone away, then put his motorcycle helmet back on and sped down the street.

When he arrived at the facility, the guards let him right in. He had come often enough with Charles that they recognized him.

“We’ve never had something like this happen,” one of the soldiers assured him. “I don’t know how this could have happened.” Logan just grunted. He was done with talking. He just wanted to find Charles.

The soldier led him down the long hallway and through the revolving door. He hit some buttons on the computer panel near the door, and slowly the cylindrical chamber rose in front of them.

Sure enough, Charles was there, suspended in the gel.

“I–I really don’t know how this could have happened,” the soldier stammered.

“Just get him out of there.”

“Yes, yes of course.” He hit another couple of buttons, and the gel drained out of the chamber. Then it slid open, and Charles fell onto the floor in front of them.

Logan ran over to him and carefully scooped him into his arms. Charles blinked a couple of times, then tilted his head back to get a better look at his surroundings as he slowly regained control of his body.

“Logan . . .”

“Easy, Chuck. Everything’s okay now, and we’re gonna get you home.”

Ororo understood the practical reasons behind Logan being the one to find Charles, but she couldn’t help but be a little miffed with him for getting the excitement while she was stuck with a weepy teenager.

Of course, his method of handling emotional teens tended to leave something to be desired, so perhaps it was best that she was there instead.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice,” Jean sobbed into her shoulder. “I should have known it wasn’t him. I should have known."

Ororo rubbed Jean’s back. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. None of us realized. But thanks to you, we were able to find him, and Logan will be bringing him home soon.”

Jean sniffed and hugged her tighter.

Erik heard the clack of Victor’s nails on the metal floors of his base. He didn’t understand why the man couldn’t wear shoes. He liked to lean too far into the “feral animal” aspect of his mutation for Erik’s tastes, but he was useful, and only desired vengeance against his old colleague, which was much more convenient than all the money Mr. LeBeau had required, or Piotr’s constant pointed remarks about his sister.

“Since you’re here, I assume you were unable to find him?” Erik asked.

“He ran off again,” Victor growled. “I saw him go, but he didn’t even notice me. It must have been important. I doubt we’ll be able to lure him away for a while.”

Such a shame. Erik had hoped giving Charles’s right-hand man the chance to see first-hand the government’s plans for them would force his old friend to reconsider standing with the humans, but time was running out.

“It seems we’ll have to change our plans.”

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