|
 |
Issue #26 |
"Business as Usual" Written By Doug Bookey and Tom Moses |
|||||||
|
||||||||
Each of the people that called themselves the X-Men these days huddled around the laptop that Kitty Pryde worked feverishly over. One would think she took typing lessons from Quicksilver the way she went over the keyboard and kept clicking through menu after menu of some program that she devised with the help and funding of Charles Xavier some years earlier.
"C'mon, come on." She kept saying to herself, there were waning expressions that appeared and disappeared over her face with every success and failure that she happened across. With the latest phone call threat Warren received playing in a continuous loop starting to get annoying to everyone else, the room was starting to clear out with any sort of excuse the individual could think of, only leaving Bobby and Kitty the only ones waiting for the computer to pinpoint whatever it was Kitty was searching. "Come on!"
She punched through the table, "Sorry, Drake, this is taking a lot longer than I thought."
"It's okay Kitty, we still have time."
Bobby's words of comfort had no effect on Kitty as she opened yet another client, "Drake can you put this antenna outside, I might be able to get a better signal that way."
"Sure thing," he said picking up and placing the white plastic fixture outside on the window sill. "What the hell is that for?"
"GPS for starters, with a few more tweaks I might be able to start using Skype as a Satellite phone, we'll see."
"Huh, nifty."
"No clue what I said?"
"Not a one."
Kitty thought as much, "Oh no worries, the last time you went on and on about double line depreciation and amortization I thought my brain was going to explode."
"You should've been there in school; I think half my class was going to explode in tax class."
"Not interested," Kitty cut him off and tapped the keyboard of her laptop, "I think I'm getting somewhere though. Ah yeah, looks like I found a face to go with that voice."
"And how did you do that?"
"Hacked the NSA database, how else?"
Bobby stood back as Kitty turned the computer around to show him the face of someone he never met before, but also stood aghast at the things she was doing at the whim of a request. "You know, Pryde, I'm thinking about taking back at least half of the mean things I've ever said about you."
"Well won't that give me a warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart when I sleep tonight." She said without missing a beat in the conversation, "Drake, seriously I know you're supposed to be the big boss here and all, but could you stop pretending to be amazed and get some food or something, I'm starving."
"Sure, what do you want?"
"I'm sure you will get something fine, you're probably the only other person I could trust for that sort of thing."
Bobby crooked his left eyebrow and before he could say anything about being confused she interrupted him, "The whole kosher thing, you know? Since we're both Jewish?"
"Ah, no, my dad's Jewish; I don't buy into that sort of thing. I just eat whatever."
"Awesome, you're even more useless." She rolled her eyes and cracked open a new bottle of water, "Oh, hold on a minute, yes!"
Bobby walked in on the laptop just as she pressed the pause button on the loop of Warren's latest threat. "Whatcha got?"
"Got 'em", Kitty laughed. "God these amateurs should get a clue before going after one of the richest mutants on the planet, you know?"
"Uh yeah, right. So what's going on, then?"
Kitty paused, "Wait one."
She took a few minutes to gather all the data she'd spent the last several hours pulling from various illegal resources and spoke up again, "This is both troublesome and wonderful all at the same time. It seems our threat maker is some low level enforcer around the LA area, someone with a good reason to hate anyone with wings and tolerance for mutants."
"Purity," Bobby whispered before she could finish her sentence.
"Yeah, way to read the file, bobbo. So why don't you do the leader thing and get the other people in here so we can put the fear of god into them before they take some sort of action against Warren. Surely a mutant in Congress is the last thing they want and they'll be pulling out all the stops for this one."
Moment after moment passed and the rest of the crew Bobby brought with him walked into the room. Kurt was the last one to walk in and he closed the door behind him, and just before the talking began he placed a bag of food at Kitty's left hand, "I wasn't sure what you liked, but I found a nice deli that should be alright with your newfound closeness to your faith."
"Thank you, Kurt." She said and passed Bobby an evil glare, "nice to know someone gives a damn."
Bobby Drake cleared his throat and though his voice was coming together with a sort of command presence it still had a little bit of a shake to it, something Kurt promised would fade. "Alright guys, Kitty's found the most reasonable people responsible for the death threats but against Warren and everyone close to him, and through Kitty's magical computer thingies, we also have an address. But the ball is still in their court, we have no idea what they have in that building or what they plan to do."
"What the hell is Purity?"
Stacy was the newest among them, and still learning the different groups the X-Men have either faced or put down in the past, it took Kurt placing a hand on her shoulder to keep her quiet, ever the peacemaker. "Do you recall the "Friends of Humanity"?"
"Yeah, hate mongers."
"Essentially the same thing with their religion beliefs to back them. It's a little complex if you want to get into the specifics, but they use religion to base their hatred of anything "Impure" by their definition. Black, white, protestant, non-Anglo-Saxon essentially. They're the sort of guys that you hear about in the Middle East, but we've managed to keep these people a little quieter through the years."
"Oh great, religious zealot hate mongers."
Kurt nodded, "Essentially, yes."
Bobby thanked Kurt and went on with the task at hand, "We have an address," he said, turning Kitty's laptop and showcasing it on Google Earth, "but if we've seen anything in the past before typical tactics aren't going to work against this group."
"What's the plan then?" Kitty spoke up. "Snatch and grab and get one of them to talk?"
"Nah, that wouldn't work anyway, the last time we did that he somehow got a hold of some cyanide pill or whatever and killed himself." He turned his head and looked to Stacy, "No, I think we need a more subtle approach."
Stacy smiled, "I get to do something?"
"Looks like you do," Bobby returned, "but that's only one part of the task. We really need to know what sort of things they have stockpiled and what they're planning to do. Stacy should be able to get the plans out of one of their guys if she works her special magic in that right way, but Kitty and Kurt I'm going to need to know what's inside that building before I bring it to the ground."
"Robert, did I hear you right?"
He took in a deep breath, "Yeah, I know, not the usual style which we talked about, but we need to hurt Purity in the sort of way we would if Xavier were still around. We have their West Coast headquarters in our sights and we can't miss this opportunity."
Kurt paused for a moment and thought about the alternatives and found none that were really suitable for their situation and time frame, "You're right of course,” He said, "but allow us the option to not hurt anyone despite their level of guilt?"
"Of course, Kurt, best case scenario we bring down the house, embarrass them, and show the world what they were going to do to the employees at Worthington International. Worst case scenario we're mutant terrorists."
"What's new, right?" Kitty laughed, with half a mouthful of sandwich in her mouth. "Is that all you want us to do, bossman?"
Bobby stared at the real time picture of the building that Purity had established in a low income neighborhood, "they surely have their PR game in full swing, but if anything, we need to counter that and get them out of the game for a while in this area while we're here."
"Indeed," Kurt spoke up. "I imagine Warren wants an update?"
Bobby shook his head in the negative, "That'd be a no; he doesn't want to know what's going on. He'd rather call ignorance bliss. It's dangerous enough for him with us in town on his dime; if the reporters make the connection he can kiss his candidacy goodbye."
The remnants of the X-Men that were left over from the last stain on their public record stood in relative silence for a few minutes, most lost in thought with the options in front of them, one eating a sandwich and closing several connections of federal databases before the Feds found them. "So we're off then?"
The building was nearly a forty-five minute commute from their hotel, and taking the command decision to send the group out in waves was not something Drake liked, but necessity played its trump. In the sort of neighborhood they were headed to, they would all stand out as sore thumbs but there was no time for cover IDs, time was more of the essence after the plan of attack was devised. Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner stepped out of their cap first, nearly a block away from the target building and found an adjacent building Kitty researched to give them a good rally point. Both moved with a purpose, taking in the sights all around them if only to take a bigger picture of the area for a rough idea of intelligence of their future battlefield. Their rally point was near and they took to the roof and unloaded the gear they brought with them. Kurt took a sprawling look at the skyline, peering through the borrowed set of binoculars and ensuring no one was going to be staring them down in the near future, with the all clear signal that he and Kitty decided upon, he allowed Kitty the time to set up her surveillance equipment. If all went well they could record what they needed and wouldn't have to take this to a physical confrontation, but as optimistic as he was, Kurt knew plans rarely worked out as they wanted. "All set?"
"Ten minutes," Kitty replied as she made the last few connections. She handed him several boxed electronics, "These are wireless cameras, and I need them placed so we can get a good view of their building."
Kurt smiled a devious expression, "Consider it done." As he remembered the good old days when the X-Men weren't always about shooting first and asking questions later, Bobby brought back the days of subterfuge and cunning, something that made him respect the Iceman that much more. He didn't use his powers, not overtly, keeping to the shadows that the midday sun provided him on the roof of their empty building, Kurt leapt and flipped his body as would any graceful acrobat and positioned the cameras in the places he thought would give them the greatest advantage, even scaling several walls to find the best angles into windows. "We're good here." He heard Kitty say through the Bluetooth device in his ear. "Okay, I'm coming back to you."
More wires were strewn across the ground and moving toward the corners of the building and it perplexed Kurt, "what is all this, I thought all your equipment was considerably wireless?"
Her mouth moved almost curling into a smirk but she quickly second guessed the sarcasm considering Kurt's disapproval. "Scorched Earth, Kurt. We get caught here and we're fried. These charges will set the roof up in a brilliant flash and fry all the equipment."
"What will it do to the building?"
"Probably burn it to the ground, these are aircraft grade chaff and flares." She shrugged it off as she booted up the necessary programs. "I know you wouldn't really approve, but this is an empty storage building and I don't plan on getting caught, but as they say, we should be prepared either way."
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, almost an extended sigh, "I don't like this new attitude you're taking, Katherine. Perhaps later we should talk about a few things."
She was completely absorbed in her work and she dismissed him: "There's nothing to talk about, just work to get done."
"Yes, of course." He said and stepped off to the side dialing in Bobby's cell number. "We're good to go here, how're you doing?"
Bobby answered, "We're just about ready here."
Bobby hung up the phone and looked over to Stacy. "This isn't anything new, nothing you're not used to, but you have to stay focused here."
"Yeah, yeah, I play superhero skank and get one of them to talk, no big thing, right?"
He shook his head, Stacy was good at the sort of thing she did back in New York but sometimes it was irritating to get her to understand the subtleties and differences with the different sort of enemy, an organized crime organization was one thing, but organized anti-mutant religious nut bags were something else entirely. "No, this isn't the same thing, like I keep saying. You can't go in with your feminine wiles and expect results. These guys make the snake charmers of India and the snake handlers of Hickville West Virginia look like boy scouts, some of them have been known to castrate their testicles just to prove their faith to their god. These guys are certified insane."
The last statement seemed to smack Stacy with a bit of reality. "So sex is out then?"
"Oh yeah. You're going to have to go full on Jehovah’s Witness with these guys to get into their fold. And usually this is something we'd work at for weeks, but you've got three hours to get inside and get someone talking, or Kurt is coming to get you."
"Nice to know there's an exit strategy." She smiled until Bobby's face told her to simmer down. "This isn't exciting, Stacy, this is totally dangerous and you need to keep your mind in the game."
She peered at his with disapproval in her eyes, "Well then stop trying to freak me out and let me do this!"
"Alright, alright. Just like we discussed, just stick to the plan."
Stacy started toward the door and felt a little tightness in her stomach, "You owe me for this, you know that?"
"Nope, I don't. You wanted to come along, so here you are, doing the work of the big boys and girls. Get to it."
"Just as they discussed it," Stacy internalized, she kept her breathing regular but couldn't help to feel the excitement that Drake warned her against.
She strolled down the street coming from the opposite direction so that Kurt and Kitty would be able to see her from their perch and still maintain sight with Drake. The bench for the bus stop came right into view and taking a seat she knew the game was set and it the next few moves were about to be the next longest and boring hour of her life. She flipped out the bus schedule and looked for one written to come within the hour that she needed just in case someone asked, and while sitting there she looked about taking in the sights and hoped that K squared (as she liked to called them) were getting everything that she was seeing.
The building was something of a converted storage warehouse, a giant cross adorned the facade just above the double doors at the front of the building, and it was in well kept condition but definitely not left to die like many of the building in this block in the downtown area. People of all types moved to and fro, busses came and went and still maybe half of the foot traffic went into and out of the Purity Unitarian Church. Which seemed something of an oxymoron in her mind.
Stacy's watch alarm went off at the prescribed time and she dialed the number in her phone that Drake asked her to do. "Anything unusual?" Drake's voice came in over the cell.
"Nothing out of the ordinary I guess. I mean this 'church' looks more like a crack house than it does a church. Last time I was in the pews, the whole thing was empty. This must be a good night for them."
"Not likely," Kitty's voice interrupted. "Satellite images suggest this is pretty normal traffic for them."
Stacy was taken aback for a second, "How did you find satellite images?"
"From the satellites, of course. NASA doesn't dump their hard drives as often as you'd think."
"Okay," Bobby tried to re-take control of the conversation. "We're going to need to go ahead with the next phase of the plan. Is everything set?"
"Yes." Kitty replied, "Kurt and I have all the cameras in place and we're recording in real time with some decent resolution."
"Perfect. Let's get this party rolling, shall we?"
The phone connection died before Stacy could reply with any sort of clever catch phrase that might make her fit in with the rest of the group, so instead all she could do was roll her eyes at the habits that refused to die hard within her new friends. "Here we go," she said to herself and without words audible for anyone to hear.
Pushing herself out of the bus stop bench she walked up the street and to the traffic light that was at the nearest intersection and crossed as soon as the "walk" sigh presented itself. Taking the long way wasn't really her idea of the quickest route, but she was supposed to give the people that might be watching her the best show that she could, because if Purity had stepped up its game they would likely deduce her affiliation with the mutant population within minutes of getting into the house. And as she stood in front of two giant red doors, she took a deep breath. "You wanted this, now get to it."
The doors crept open with a typical sound one might've heard in some bad horror movie, and the sound echoed throughout the atrium. She stood in the center of the atrium and gawked at the marble floors and the utterly complete transition the building took from its outside appearance. Stacy stood back and took in the beauty of the interior. The marble floors where polished to a wonderful shine, and she couldn't tell if the red and gold painted walls had honest to god gold foil or just paint in the introduction to the church. The very sight of it all made her feel warm inside, the bright colors the well lit interior, and with a halogen bulb buzzing just above her and pouring light down on her as though the heavens showered down up on her. "Damn, these guys are good at getting their point across." Her mind echoed almost as would the mostly hallow atrium.
"Welcome, Newcomer!" An over eager boy came rushing up to her, taking the look on her face as though she were definitely new to the church. With excitement he hugged Stacy and started shoving a pamphlet into her hand. "Come, let me get you something to eat and maybe answer some of the questions you might have!"
She tried not to feel too oddly about the overly excited boy, but couldn't help some of the expressions that painted over her face. "It's okay, I promise, most people feel overwhelmed the first time they walk inside, it's like the hand of God Himself has guided you here and don't you feel at home?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's it." She stopped herself as she started to roll her eyes. "I'm sorry but I just heard about this place and had to see it for myself."
"Yes, so many people come and go and so many more stay away and listen to the Word! It's moving, it’s wonderful, and it's fulfilling! You'll see!"
Stacy stopped the kid as they passed by several doors on their journey to the end of the hall, "Look, kid, I don't have a lot of success with the religion thing, please don't be offended but I'd really like it if you could tone down the volume a little bit."
"I'm sorry, I came on too strong. I'm so sorry."
They walked in mostly silence for the next few minutes and walked through a doorway that latched behind them as they walked into the room that the door kept closed off from the rest of the church. "What, no friends?"
The young man smiled and crossed his arms. "I don't need friends to take care of you." He spoke in a deliberate tone that made her stomach fall. Inside the lion’s den and she's been figured out already? How? "Besides, you're a newcomer, the statistics say you'll have to come here two more times on average to truly understand the Word."
She sighed a little in relief, "I'm a statistic now, am I?"
"Oh, don't take it like that; everyone is a statistic in their own right, of course. But the average female takes a little more convincing before she commits herself to the ideal of the Purity Church, you understand."
"Uh huh," was all that Stacy could reply. "But why don't you tell me a little more of this place. I read about it on my campus newsletter and heard some people talk about it."
"Oh you read my column at UCLA?"
"I don't think it was your column, but it talked about how true faith would purify the worthy of their sins, and I'm studying comparative religion at USC and thought it would be worth checking out."
He frowned slightly, but the smile returned to his face very quickly, "That was one of my older articles though, I wrote that something like six months ago, but that's awesome that I'm finding readers at USC, completely awesome!"
Stacy took another deep breath and walked a little closer to him and touched his arm. "Your article was moving in its own special way, I can't tell you the last time I was moved like that." She said as she ran a finger up and down his bare arm.
He smiled, but it was slightly larger than the smile he wore when she first saw him. Just a moment later his eyes glassed over and they nearly rolled back into his head. "You're a pretty little boy, you know that?" She said to him, "Are you like those weirdoes that emasculate their bodies for the whim of their leaders?"
"No." His voice was suddenly flat. "I have yet to purge the impurities out of my body, but I work hard to make it to the next step, to be a true warrior of my Lord."
"That's an interesting, if not a little creepy." She laughed a little, "I'm going to call you Billy for right now, is that okay?"
His reply came with the sound of some hyperventilation as her pheromones overtook him entirely, "Yes. I will be Billy for you."
"Good, good." Stacy smiled, "I need you to tell me something about your church if that's alright."
"Anything."
"Such a good little solider Billy, I think I really am starting to like you." Stacy spoke in a hypnotic tone and his smile grew larger. "Could you tell me what you know about Warren Worthington?"
A minute or two passed as "Billy" was trying to think but at the same time overtaken by Stacy's control of his hormone responses. "He is the mutant owner of Worthington International. Sources say he plans to run for Federal Office and the Lord says he must be stopped."
"Does the lord say how you're to stop him?"
Billy tries to fight the urge to tell Stacy everything he knows, but she just pours on the juice slightly more. "Car bomb. We will make Oklahoma City look like a small blip on the Government's radar and the whole world shall know of the mutant threat trying to infiltrate our government."
"Very good, Roger." A deeply male voice came in over the PA. "You held out much longer than you were expected. Stacy X I presume?"
Bars fell down over the door and cut off the access to the window, "who are you!"
"I'm The Word. And I've found you impure, mutie freak. We shall deal with you accordingly, but as for your friends, I had no idea Worthington was going to get the former X-Men to come crawling out of the wood work, even the trash they seemed to pick up along the way."
Stacy's heart rate increased what felt like a hundred fold and her mind exploded with thoughts of doom and ways to escape. "You're thoughts are open to us here, Stacy. We had you the moment you walked into the building, and thanks to you we now have all the evidence to file away to show the X-Men are still very much active even though they've been declared illegal vigilantes. Thank you."
Something sweet smelling filled the air, and within moments her breathing and heart began to slow. "I hope you'll find that we're not as forward as your friends in the mob were in New York." The PA voice came overhead once more, "though I must say your psychic shields are immense, but The Lord has ways of getting what we want out of you."
Just as he finished talking the words started to move through her brain in slow motion, just as the rest of the world had begun to do moments earlier. "Good night, Miss Stacy, enjoy your slumber because I promise you'll wake up much worse for the wear." And just as he promised, Stacy hit the floor entirely unconscious before her impact.
NEXT: Will Stacy get out alive and will Purity succeed in taking Warren out before be makes the biggest announcement of his life?
