The X-Project

Vanessa hunts down Hank for information on Natalie Gleason's whereabouts only to find him conducting suspicious, mad scientist sorts of experiments before having her intentions questioned.

Hank wasn't a guy that Vanessa hung out with or went searching for often, which is why one of the last places it occurred to her to look was probably the most obvious place to anyone else: the labs. Thinking about it, it was more obvious than the medlab. Hank was, after all, a geneticist and scientist more than just a doctor. Sure, Vanessa was pretty sure he could stitch people up just fine but he was more the microscope and bloodwork kind of guy than the stethoscope sort, wasn't he?

Peering through the window near where she spotted him, Vanessa tried to make sure he wasn't in the middle of something that commanded all his focus. She waited until it seemed like she wouldn't end up causing him to mess something up before rapping gently on the glass to get his attention. Knowing nothing about science or labwork, Vanessa didn't want to just walk in and potentially botch whatever the guy was working on.

Of course what Vanessa didn't know was that Hank had installed pressure sensors in the viewing area outside his lab, rigged to send a message to his homemade touch-pad. The blue doctor did not care to have people watching him while he was unaware and it gave him a chance to try out the acting skills he'd earned while in his first bout of higher education. The experiment he'd been working on wasn't working anyway, and sometimes it helped to step away and to clear one's head before continuing. With a sigh, Hank stepped back from the microscope and pulled a modified taser from his lab coat, pulling the trigger quickly and sending an arc of electricity at the slide. Putting it away, he turned and nodded for Vanessa to enter.

She'd been planning to smile when he'd looked at her, but instead Hank got an arched eyebrow and a wary look. "From one blue person to another," she began as she came through the door, "breaking out the taser isn't really helping subdue that mad scientist motif at all. I'm just saying, it's great if you want to scare the kids straight but not so useful in encouraging kids to go the way of science unless they are hell bent on becoming evil overlords."

Hank smiled in return, "You mean this isn't the Xavier Institute for Mad Sciences? Darn, I'm in the wrong building." The doctor chuckled and patted his pocket, "An unfortunate necessity for the experiments I'm conducting at present. I wouldn't want the nanites to cause some sort of disaster simply because I was not as careful as I could have been in the lab. The taser itself actually sends out an electromagnetic pulse with the arc of micronized lightning, frying their circuits and rendering them inert. But something tells me that you didn't come all the way down here for a science lecture, what can I do for you Miss Lennox...or is it Carlysle these days? It's a bit hard to keep track."

The comment about it being hard to keep track of her name got a grin out of Vanessa, and a somewhat cheeky one at that. "Carlysle, and bonus points for the catch. Also, pretty much none of that made any sort of sense to me. I can understand low level bio and anatomy but that's about it. Consider me the poster child for why you should stay in school." That comment came with her very best imitation of a Vanna White smile. "I'm here for Natalie Gleason, actually. Kurt's hired X-Factor to try to find Nick since his own efforts haven't gotten him anywhere. I went to the professor hoping he could find her with his big, giant brain of glory but he said you'd actually shoved a tracker in her and you could give me her location from that. Bonus points for the tracker and the slightly shady nature of shoving a tracker in someone, by the way."

After a long moment, Hank sighed and shook his head for a moment before shoving his touch-pad into the front pockets of his coat. Somewhat reluctantly he motioned for her to follow him. "It wasn't so much shoving as injecting. I placed a small, but effective radio transmitter inside Miss Gleason's underarm while I was treating some minor injuries from her rescue. It's actually encased in a plastic shell and is inactive at the moment, so if they've swept her for bugs, they shouldn't have found it. The fact of the matter remains, however, that you'll be walking into a Purifier picnic wherever she is. Who will be backing you up?"

"Well, I'm going to scout the place first but if I really need the back up I have Bishop, Jean-Paul and Laura I can call in. If I'm desperate I can ask Laurie to work her mojo on them to help make them complacent or call some lovely mercenary friends of mine." She probably shouldn't have sounded so happy about that last bit. Vanessa was family which meant mutant haters like the Purifiers were seen as direct threats to her. That meant her boys would shoot first, dispose of bodies second, disappear from the country third and maybe consider asking questions twenty pints from then.

"Alright, I just wanted to ensure you weren't heading in half-cocked, without a plan, looking for leads to Nicholas' where-abouts. I would hate to see you get hurt because I sent you off without ensuring you had your bases covered." They arrived at an unassuming computer at the back of the laboratory, "It will just take a moment to activate the tracer, relay the radio signal and pinpoint her location. I'll also tune a homer for you to use when you get closer so you can track your position in relation to hers. I'll go ahead and assume you'll need it to be silent, so it will take a few minutes to put together."

"I've got time, no worries. And thanks." A homer was far more useful than she was expecting to get. Vanessa figured on coordinates and a lot of surveillance, period. The homing device wouldn't get rid of the need for surveillance, Vanessa had to be sure of what she would be walking into and who she would need to bring as a result, but it would help nonetheless. "And for the record, I always go in fully cocked and with a plan. You don't survive being a mercenary for as long as I did at the age I was and with the lack of formal training by luck. You survive by learning to plan ahead and having reliable people who have brains watching your back. I haven't been out of the business long enough to have forgotten my lessons yet."

"Having never been a mercenary I can't disagree with you on any reasonable level, so I'll go the unreasonable route and simply state that one Miss Sidarova may disagree with your comment about luck not being involved." Hank chuckled to himself as a map pulled up on the screen and began to zoom in from a high orbital view. "Hmmm, curious. She would appear to be in Long Island, I would have thought the Purifiers would have moved her further away." The doctor slid over to his work bench and began to rummage through some drawers.

Vanessa passed up the comment about Domino for a moment so she could stare at the map. "I wonder what's there. Guess that's why you've got Google Earth and shite like that, aye? But that's pretty damn close considering there's a boat load of people who'd like to bitchslap her into a coma for what she helped pull at graduation, no doubt."

"Have I just made myself an accomplice to murder?" Hank inquired, setting a small rectangular object on the work bench.

Head coking to the side, Vanessa wore an amused expression. "Why, Dr. McCoy, are you saying that you believe me capable of cold blooded in retaliation for acts of which I had no direct part in?"

Hank gave her a serious look and waited a beat before replying, "You said it yourself, you were a mercenary once and given the situation, no one would at all blame you for wanting revenge. The fact of the matter is though, that we are ultimately X-Men, despite how you may delineate the title. And the truth of the matter is that X-Men do not kill. So, even though she played an abhorrent part in her brother's death, can you assure me that you'll only be going there to ask her some questions and turn her into the police? Or are you looking for something more?"

That response caused Vanessa to instantly grow serious. "First of all, we don't know that Nick's dead. His dad asked me to find him and if he's dead then his body hasn't been found because he hasn't turned up in any hospitals or morgues in the tri-state area. Second, other than Nick no one was irreparably injured. I care about the kids but I'm not going off on some vendetta for no reason. Now, if you question my motives then you can talk to the guy who signs your paycheck because he didn't seem to have any problem with me looking for Natalie so I can try to find her brother, which I am being paid to do."

Hank smiled and nodded, "What kind of cellular do you have?"

"The kind that's smarter than most of the people that own it, why?" Vanessa was clearly still a little peeved at his comment and that came through clearly both in her tone and in her body language.

Hank simply held out his abnormally large hand, seemingly ignoring her indignation at his earlier statements, "Your phone please."

"Missed the bit where I asked 'why,' didn't you?

Hank simply cocked his head to the side, "Red does not mix with blue very well, Vanessa- I should know." Getting up, the doctor thrust his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "Instead of using a bulky and rather conspicuous piece of machinery to track down the Gleason girl, the thought struck me that it would probably be more within your interest to have the tracking software installed on your phone. That way you, in whatever disguise you'd have on, would be able to blend with the crowd and track at the same time by simply checking your cellphone. As for my earlier statements, I do apologize. I know that you and Kurt are only looking out for Nicholas' best interests, and despite my pessimistic, some would even say nihilistic, attitude about the situation, I do hold out hope that the boy is alive. The fact is, I had to be sure that your intentions were what you claimed they were and given your reaction to my challenge, both in verbal and non-verbals, I am assured and will be fully willing to help you find Natalie Gleason."

"Red mixes just fine if you like purple," she told him as she handed over her mobile. Vanessa was no more pleased with him than she'd been a few moments before, but she toned down the hostility a little. She didn't appreciate his little test and thought it was unwarranted. The fact that he was well-intentioned was understood, but it didn't help. Once you stuffed something up you've stuffed it, it no longer matters why. "Besides, some of us can't help mixing blue and red," she pointed toward the solid red of her eyes. "We're all red inside anyhow. Strip off our skin and we all look the same."

"A truer statement there never was," Hank said as he plugged the phone into his computer with a micro-USB cable. "The software is fairly easy to use. It wasn't tested until that jailbreak at the Vault in Colorado a while back, but it worked well enough there. The program has nine bars, three red, three yellow and three green. The more bars you have, the stronger the signal- the ninth bar won't light up until you're right on-top of her." Hank unplugged the phone and held it out to her, "You're all set, please don't hesitate to let me know if you need any medical or scientific assistance from the field."

"Don't take it personally if I don't call you for stitches," she said, a small smirk creeping onto her lips. Vanessa slid her phone into her back pocket. "My boyfriend might not be a doctor, but he can still stitch me up just fine and I like the eye candy while being stabbed with tiny, sharp objects. It's a lifestyle choice, what can I say?"

Hank chuckled and nodded, "Then good hunting, Vanessa. I truly hope you find him."

"Aye, me too. And thanks for the help." Then she headed for the door. Time to track a fanatical anti-mutant crazy bitch. Why did she get all the fun?