The X-Project

A trip down to Harry's to talk to a couple of people who really do not want to play the hero game.



Harry's was somber for an afternoon. The televisions were off the normal sports event, instead tuned into either CNN or other network news, showing the same horrible pictures of the mushroom cloud climbing into the skies over Northern India, or the footage of what was believed to be the mutant responsible. The grainy digital video of him clasping glowing hands together moments before a white light destroyed the camera and cut the satellite uplink abruptly, shown over and over. For the first time in Harry's, Morgan's blue skin had earned a glance which had a touch of fear in it.

Garrison Kane walked through the doors, looking much in match of the bar around him. His normally amused expression was wiped away, and the tightness of his jaw and lines around his eyes bespoke a world of worry. Neither Adrienne or Morgan had seen him like this during their short time at the school, and the expression on his face was accentuated by the dark suit he wore, his FBI identification still clipped to his breast pocket, forgotten. He took a look at the television as he sat down, and scowled.

"Fuck me. Briar, can I get a beer please?"

"The office that fun, huh?" Where normally her voice would have been light, teasing, joking Morgan's voice was rather quietly serious. She understood it was not the time nor the place for joking. She wasn't half as fussed over what had happened in India as others were but there were some things you just couldn't joke about in good taste, loathe as she was to admit even her bad taste veered closer to good taste. She'd noticed the glances easily and she'd made a mental note that anywhere outside of Xavier's grounds was going to be cause for her gun to be on her hip. She didn't care how reassuring it wouldn't be for people already looking at her like she'd blow herself up. People did stupid things when they were scared and unfortunately for Morgan she wasn't naturally a weapon in and of herself as some mutants were.

Adrienne entered the bar in what her assistant would have termed one of her 'Moods,' a term that came complete with a look of horror and exaggerated finger-gesture quotation marks. The sort of 'Mood' that led her to fire Ivie five times in one day, or throw a chair across a meeting room. This 'Mood' had nothing to do with work, however, and everything to do with her encounter at an NYPD interrogation room earlier in the day. She'd been kindly informed that the cops had brought Guerero in for questioning twice this week, and though the killer-for-hire hadn't given Adrienne's name up yet, the psychometrist wasn't sure how much longer he would stay silent. Her personal accounts had all been frozen, so she couldn't make the deposit she'd promised him she would if he was questioned. She wanted nothing more than to lose herself in baseball for a couple of hours, so when she saw what was playing on the tvs instead she nearly screamed.

"How many fucking times do people need to watch this?" she growled as she approached Garrison and Morgan, standing next to them and stabbing a finger towards the footage on the screens. "It's not like it gets better the thirtieth time! And if you haven't seen it yet where the fuck have you been all fucking day?! I'm going to watch baseball," she announced irritably, and turned on her heel to go.

"Games have been cancelled." Kane said from his seat. "And I'm flying to India tomorrow."

Morgan gave Adrienne a look which suggested she might smack the woman for her fit. It had nothing on the look she gave Garrison that wasn't surprised but thought he was possibly an idiot. "So you're saying I should have the beer and all ready for when you land in the medlab with half your limbs blown off? That's not exactly a place to be a civilian, love, and a badge doesn't make you not one."

"It's exactly the place for a civilian right now. The UN Security Council has approved sending weapons inspectors into Pakistan and Northern India in order to try and find out exactly what's happened before Pakistan comes apart or India tosses a nuke at Islamabad. The FBI is providing a team to support the investigation. Duncan tagged me on to that team."

Morgan didn't like it and it showed on her face. "They should be sending in soldiers, not cops. No matter what you say or think, there's a huge difference between the two. Maybe the more diplomatic version of soldier is called for, but still. Why's this even the FBI's business? The UN I can see, but what're we sticking our nose into it so far as sending FBI for?"

"The last thing this situation needs is more soldiers, Morgan. Soldiers only have one job, and if that happens, we'll have both countries flipping nukes at each other." Kane pointed out. "The FBI is supporting the UN inspectors because it is the finest investigatory agency on the planet. It happens occasionally, where you'll have the Bureau supporting other agencies in investigations where you need the best skill sets involved. Like the news keeps showing, both countries are on a hair trigger right now, the issue of a mutant being involved has all the traditional agencies poleaxed, and the only thing that is going to make anyone back off and calm down is information about what's really happened."

She disagreed but she was also fairly certain Garrison would be immovably stubborn on the topic so Morgan didn't argue it. There was no point and it looked like he'd had a shit day anyway. "So you're riding in to save the day with the FBI?" She shook her head and went over that list she'd been given as her sacred duty mentally. People would kill you for no reason at all in those kinda of situations. She didn't like it. "When do you leave?" Speaking of leaving, Morgan had hooked her arm around Adrienne's to stop her from going when she'd turned and pulled her a bit closer now in an effort to shove her into the conversation or at least distract her from her mood.

Absorbed in thoughts about her own problems, Adrienne couldn't seem to focus on what Garrison and Morgan were talking about. "I've had quite enough shittiness for one day," she announced, squirming to try and escape Morgan's hold. "If there's no baseball on I'm going to the mall to look at puppies or something." And buy a new package of cigarettes since she'd smoked an entire pack already today. "Don't get yourself killed in India," she told Garrison wryly. "Since your team has a new coach I'm looking forward to the season getting a little more interesting and it would be too bad if you weren't around."

"Tomorrow morning." Kane leaned forward. "Look, the FBI has been trying for a couple of years to catch up on the mutant question in their procedures and forensic work, and even though they're better than anyone else at it, Duncan admits that it's still new, inexperienced and weak at best. This situation is going to develop fast, and if it's possible to stop it from getting out of control, we need to put the pieces together just as fast."

Kane stopped and took a breath, pausing. "Fred's decided to pretty much lay his career on the line, and asked me to put together a team of mutant specialists; people familiar with both mutations and the region. I've got a couple of the team already on board, and Wisdom is getting some of his people together to help. But I still need more people with contacts on the ground in the region, and ones who can put together some answers from the bomb site fast."

"Oi, have a drink, you'll calm down. You're more likely to kill the puppies anyway," she told Adrienne as she made her hold on the older woman more secure. She'd figure out what was up with her after decided if she wanted to smack Garrison about a bit. "Wait, so you're going into India, which is a shit storm right now and you're taking...untrained people? Non-cops and all that, I mean. Have fun with that."

"No, I'm taking trained people, or at worst, specialists." Kane said. Morgan seemed to often deal with things in the military sense, and her focus appeared to be on the idea that Kane was going into a warzone looking for a fight. "I need people who can get the answers quickly so this doesn't turn into a war between two nuclear powers that could on the conservative side kill tens of millions of people. That's one of the reasons I'm here right now."

Morgan was a soldier, she couldn't help it. She'd never served in a military but her training, her job, her life for the past years was that of a soldier who took orders, fell in line in rank and did the job. It wasn't going to get turned off and from what the images on the tv showed she thought she had every right to think Garrison was walking into a war zone. And she didn't think he, as a person, was equipped for war. "Funny, usually people come to a bar for a drink."

Being held when she wanted to go led to Adrienne fighting Morgan more vehemently, clawing at the blue woman's arm with one gloved hand. "Lemme go!" she cried, panicked, seeing stars dancing across her vision.

Morgan released her with a disgruntled sound. "What the fuck is your self-absorbed issue?"

Taking a few deep breaths, Adrienne wiped imaginary dust from her clothes and took a step back from Morgan. "Nothing I want to discuss," she snapped, realizing how much she didn't want to talk about it. In a pathetic attempt at normalcy she forced herself to focus on Garrison and what was going on in the bar instead. Feign interest for a few moments to prove she was fine, then flee to the mall. "So you're here to persuade people with contacts in India to join your team of specialists?" She gave Morgan a pointed look.

"And people with the power to get answers fast." He said. "Look, I know neither of you are interested in hero stuff. That's not what we're talking about. Fred can get us in with the rest of the UN Weapon Inspection team to survey the site, dig around for whatever information we can find, and confirm exactly what happened. India is ready to make this a full blown war, and the only thing stopping them is that Pakistan hasn't reacted aggressively. Yet. One border incident without any answers to who's responsible, and this whole situation goes up, taking a lot of lives with it."

"What're you looking at me for?" Morgan's tone to Adrienne was defensive. "I fucked one Indian guy a decade ago, that doesn't constitute 'contacts.'" She managed to resist the urge to hiss at the other woman.

"So?" Now there could have been a more apathetic reaction to give Garrison, but Morgan was failing to come up with it. "That isn't a war zone yet, but that could change very quickly, Garrison. You want two people with seemingly are no use to you at all over there to walk into that? Why the fuck would we want to do that exactly?"

"Paige Guthrie thinks that she's come up with a way to collect fragments from the bomb site itself, and make them safe to handle. As I said, we need information fast, and I can't think of a faster way."

"If the person was attached to a terrorist group, they will need certain contacts to support their efforts; weapons dealers, smugglers, forgers, people who can move you in and out of an area quickly and quietly." Kane said, looking at Morgan. "Do you think you might know some people who fit that description?" His meaning was clear enough for Morgan, and he was pushing the line closely with her.

An eyebrow arched at him. He knew a lot more about her professional life than she'd ever told him. She wasn't going to bring it up in front of Adri, or near a number of strangers who could listen in so she had to assume that Xavier had decided Kane was on the need to know list, though she couldn't imagine why. "Possibly." Though, after a moment she nodded. "Definitely. Complicated, though."

Adrienne raised her own eyebrow. She was still mired in thoughts about her own problems, but even distracted she was still able to read between the lines on what Garrison was saying to Morgan, and the blue woman's response. It didn't really surprise her that Morgan had connections to weapons dealers and smugglers. A stereotypical light bulb went off in her head and she nearly opened her mouth to ask Morgan something that had been preying on her mind since she'd left the police station but she held back for the moment and resolved to ask Morgan later, when Garrison and his FBI ID badge weren't around. "And I'm guessing you want me to 'handle' your fragments?" she muttered to Garrison tiredly, still refusing to sit down. She was too emotionally drained to show her usual degree of spirit in asking the question.

"In an entirely non-euphemistic way, yes." Kane scrubbed his hands through his short brown hair. "Look, I know neither of you are interested in playing hero, and that's not what I'm asking. I need the people who can get the right answers quickly, and that includes the both of you. It's a bad situation over there, and we just might be able to stop it getting worse before a lot more people get killed. There's a plane tomorrow morning. What will it take to get either of you on it?"

"Sexual favors?" It was hard to stop the impulse and honestly everything was just a bit too serious for her. Though Morgan did quickly amend, "No, not really. I don't know. Garrison, you're taking people into something that is very likely going to get them killed. What is with you people and your death wishes?" She shook her head. That same could be said of her in a way considering her occupation but to her it wasn't the same. "A different body, for one. I'm not walking into hostile territory in that part of the world being a blue chick, no fucking way in hell." It was as good as an agreement.

"I know you think mine's weak," Adrienne said to Morgan with a wan smirk, "but you can take mine. Do my powers thing for me, too. I can't go, Garrison." She nearly said she was sorry, but bit her tongue. Going actually wouldn't be a terrible idea, since a humanitarian endeavor might make for some good press in the eyes of the men investigating her case, but there was also the whole issue of radioactivity and terrorists... "Even if I wanted to, which I'm not saying I do, I can't go. Unless you want to explain to the nice NYPD Lieutenant investigating my murder charge why I've suddenly gone to India in a hurry. He's told me that any travel at this point would be as good as an admission of guilt." She shrugged, as if it didn't matter.

Garrison finally had a reason to smile. "You know, we'll all be working for the Deputy Assistant Director of Investigations for the FBI. Which is about twenty steps above an NYPD Lieutenant. I'll get Duncan to put a bug in his ear. In fact, I'll even see if he can eyeball your case in the process. Fred is one of the best field investigators in the Bureau. Can't hurt to get his opinion."

He turned back to Morgan. "We can grab you an agent to copy at the airport. So you don't have to worry about being outed as a mutant. And you just missed your chance. Considering what's going on, I would have provided sexual favours for your help on this."

Morgan nodded along with the plan of her copying an agent at the airport. "Just figure out who it is and get me clothing sizes, yeah? It becomes an issue quickly." Suddenly she grinned and Morgan was all mischief. "Trust me, love, we ever sleep together it'll have nothing to do with favors."

"You two have fun flirting," Adrienne muttered, turning to go. "I'm going to hide under my covers for a while. Please don't get your boss to look at my case, Kane," she added over her shoulder. "I can handle it. I don't need any help. Just let me know if and when I'm supposed to be at the airport."