Emma Frost carefully stepped out of the vehicle, her hands raised. Rosenthorpe got out the other side and moved around the vehicle toward her. He grabbed her arm and put his face in hers.
“You are going to regret what you did!” he hissed.
“Am I?”
The sound of screeching tires rang out. Rosenthorpe and his men looked around to see several black SUVs tearing into the basement parking lot.
Emma smiled at him. “I don’t need a phone to call for help.”
SUV doors flung open, and Maria Hill’s voice rang out. “S.H.I.E.L.D.! Drop your weapons! Now!”
“Take them out!” Rosenthorpe yelled to his men, diving for cover.
Gunfire rang out, and Emma ducked low beside the car as glass rained over her. “You idiot! You think you’re going to get away?” she yelled at Rosenthorpe.
“Yes!” he said, swinging a fist her way.
He screamed in pain as his knuckles cracked against her diamond form. She smiled as he cradled his fist and crawled backward from her as gunfire continued to crack and glass shattered. Emma crawled after him like a lioness in the African savanna, stalking her prey.
“You’re going to regret what you did,” she taunted him. “Sound familiar?”
With that, she thrust her mind into his, taking a firm hold and paralyzing all thoughts. Rosenthorpe tried to fight her, but it was futile. Soon enough his vacant face looked to his men.
“Drop your weapons!” he called to them. “Drop them!”
The men looked at him, confused.
“You just told us to take them out,” a brawny blond said, hiding near a stairwell.
“Drop them!” Rosenthorpe yelled.
The men now shot each other confused glances.
“Now!” Rosenthorpe shouted.
The men relented and did as ordered, laying their weapons on the ground.
And with that, Maria Hill and her S.H.I.E.L.D. agents swooped in.
•••
Dazzler stood alone in the all-white micro-cabin she’d been allocated, staring at the red light above her door that reminded her she was locked inside. Her mutant team had been separated, and she could only assume they were in similar cabins close by. The cell was so small there was barely room for a bunk and a miniscule bathroom. There was no entertainment or comms system, nothing but the plain white walls. What was she supposed to do to while away the hours until they were released? She turned in circles for a moment, her mind toiling, wondering if Rachel would be able to make contact with her in here.
“You rang?” Rachel’s voice popped inside her head with a sense of pressure, startling her.
“God,” Dazzler breathed. “You don’t warn people before you just jump in?”
“You were just thinking you wanted me to connect. I took that as an invitation.”
“Why didn’t I feel any pressure before you jumped in? How could you tell?”
“Because I was projecting, feeling for whatever was out there. I caught my name on your mind. So, what is it?”
“Where are you?”
“In a similar cell to you, as are the others. I was the last one locked away. I guess we should be grateful they gave us nice cushy cells that don’t dampen our mutant abilities, huh?”
“We need to get out,” Dazzler said. “Sage doesn’t have her glasses or weapons. Can Polaris work her magic and get these doors open?”
“You need to know the guard movements before you do that,” Sage’s voice sounded inside her head.
“Welcome to the party, Sage,” Rachel said.
“I thought you said you don’t use your telepathic abilities anymore?” Dazzler said, as that sense of mistrust threatened to creep up and take over her again.
“Well, now seemed a good time, don’t you think?” Sage said. “I use it now only because I have to.”
“Are you here, too, Polaris?” Dazzler asked.
“Polaris isn’t telepathic,” Rachel said.
“Well, can one of you ask her to open our cabin doors?” Dazzler asked.
“Like I said,” Sage answered, “we need to know the guard movements first. The station is set to Earth time and has a twenty-four-hour light progression to align with a standard day on Earth,” she explained. “Just like on Earth, at night they have a skeleton crew working. That’ll be our best shot.”
“How do you know this?” Dazzler asked.
“I told you, I once worked for S.W.O.R.D. in an alternate dimension. So far, my impression is that this station runs in a similar way to the other one.”
“You have a long and mysterious history, Sage,” Rachel said.
“Don’t we all,” Sage replied.
“No,” Dazzler said. “I think you have us all beat.”
“We still need to know the movements of the guards outside to continue our investigation safely,” Sage said, ignoring the comment.
“How do we do that?” Dazzler asked. “Can you mind-read them for that?”
“Rachel is best placed for this,” Sage said.
“Rachel?” Dazzler asked.
“I like how you hate me jumping into your head but constantly insist I jump into everyone else’s,” Rachel said.
“Rachel,” Dazzler said.
“All right, all right, I’m on it.”
•••
Emma Frost watched as S.H.I.E.L.D. bound Rosenthorpe’s men and packed them into their SUVs. Now the immediate threat was over, the news that Magneto and Cyclops were dead had time to resurface. She didn’t want to believe it. Her whole body shook, rejecting the thought from every fiber of her being. But what if it was true? She hadn’t felt so unsure about her next move before, and it bothered her. She preferred to be cool, calm, and collected. Not useless. Not helpless. And that’s how she felt.
“Are you coming?” Maria Hill asked as she approached.
“I need to make a call first,” Emma said, pulling out her phone and calling Sage.
Her call went unanswered. She stared at the phone a moment, then tried Dazzler’s number.
It, too, went unanswered.
She closed her eyes and tried to connect telepathically with Sage, but she found it difficult. All she picked up was static and interference. She knew Sage’s brain was unlike any other. It was complex and harder to manipulate than most, and right now it felt extra difficult, as though she had erected some kind of firewall to stop Emma from knowing what she was up to.
Emma’s concern increased. She enabled the scrambling mechanism on her phone then made a third call.
“I thought you said a call?” Hill said, placing her hands on her hips.
Emma raised a hand to silence her, then turned and walked away.
“How nice of you to use a phone this time,” Logan answered gruffly.
“Do you know where they are?” Emma cut to the chase.
“Who?”
“Who do you think? Sage isn’t answering my calls.”
“She’s your acquaintance, so how would I know?”
“Did Polaris or Rachel check in with you?”
“A while ago. Said they’d been to some warehouse but found nothing.”
“I was told the same thing, but I’m starting to think they’re cutting us out of whatever is going on.”
“So do your mind thing and find out.”
“I tried. I can’t make contact with Sage. I’m just picking up static.”
“Sounds like she’s running interference with you. What about Dazzler?”
“I don’t want to go there yet. She’s been acting cagey, and if I force myself into her mind, I know she’ll definitely cut me out then.”
“So, Sage is blocking you and Dazzler doesn’t trust you,” Logan said. “Why is that?”
Emma ignored the pointed question. “Do you know where they were headed?”
“No.”
“And you’re OK with that?” she asked, suspicious. Was Logan hiding something?
“No. But Polaris asked that I trust her. So, that’s what I’m doing. She and Rachel are good mutants.”
“Why are they hiding their movements from us?”
“If I was to take a guess, I’d say they’re trying to hide their movements from S.H.I.E.L.D. The fewer people know, the less likely that information is to fall into the wrong hands. I’ve already had Maria Hill sniffing around here to offer me assistance should I need it.”
“Hill was at your school?” Emma asked, turning back around and eyeing the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director, who stood in the distance, splitting her attention between watching Emma and checking her phone.
“Yeah. So, I’m thinking they’re just trying to stay hidden.”
“And if they get into trouble and we don’t know where they are?” Emma asked.
“I thought you trusted Sage. Why are you so jumpy to know their exact movements?”
Emma was silent, considering how to answer. She wanted to mention Shaw but wasn’t sure how the volatile Logan would handle that.
“I don’t like it when I can’t see what I need to,” she said. “Listen, do me a favor, see if you can trace Mystique on Cerebro.”
“Mystique? Why?”
“Just do it, Logan. I don’t have time.”
He growled, then she heard him give muffled instructions to someone off the phone.
“We’re on it,” he said. “Why are you being so uptight? What do you know?”
“Nothing. Yet. But I hope to soon. I have the owner of a shipment of MGH in custody, and I’m about to interrogate him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. It depends where S.H.I.E.L.D. takes him.”
“You’re working with S.H.I.E.L.D. now? Well, that’s new.” She heard more muffled voices in the background, before Logan came back. “Mystique’s in some bar in Paris, lifting some guy’s wallet.”
“She is?”
“Yeah. And we couldn’t detect Dazzler or her mutant team in Mystique’s vicinity, so it doesn’t look like they’re on her tail.”
“Right,” Emma said, her mind turning over. “Keep an eye on her and keep me posted.” She hung up the phone, exhaled subtly with frustration, aware of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the vicinity. She didn’t want to tell Logan that Shaw might be involved. Given her history with the mutant and her time at the Hellfire Club, Logan might be fast to mistrust her, and right now she needed an alliance with him.
So where did this leave her?
“You ready?” Hill asked, approaching her again, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Emma nodded, tucking her phone away.
“You better be right about this guy,” Hill warned. “We’ve got nothing on Cassandra Walsh so far, and if we don’t find some evidence soon, we’re going to have to let her go.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is making mutants disappear, so I’m making his people disappear.”
“His? Who are you talking about?” Hill asked, eyes piercing hers. “I assume you don’t mean Rosenthorpe.”
“I’ll tell you when I have concrete evidence.”
“If you know something, you tell me now,” Hill demanded.
Emma stared back but remained silent.
“You contacted me, Frost,” Hill said.
“And I’ll tell you when I have evidence,” Emma said, walking past her toward the SUVs. “That’s what you need, right? Evidence.”