![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Raven didn't think Erika Lehnsherr seemed the kind of person to readily go with two near-strangers. Yet Erika recovered her few belongings - in a small briefcase sealed in metal and buried deep in the sand, it turned out - then let Raven make Charlotte bring them a taxi to get the three of them to the hotel. Miami was the kind of place where no-one batted an eyelash at three damp-haired women in bathing suits and a wetsuit coming up from the beach near midnight. Erika was obviously physically exhausted, and Charlotte wasn't helping by holding on to her arm at all times. Raven couldn't work out what Charlotte was doing - hopefully not hitting on Erika, for all that she was Charlotte's type - until they got to their room. As they walked into the lobby - Raven and Charlotte in sandals, Erika barefoot - Raven realised that Charlotte was being protective. Charlotte stood herself between Erika and the reception desk, then had to steer them around to the elevator at the end of the row so that she was between Erika and the elevator attendant.
Erika must too tired to even shake Charlotte off, but Raven wasn't too tired to remind Charlotte of her manners, and there was yet another reversal for the day.
*Charlotte! Let the poor woman go - you're going to tip her over if you keep dragging on her arm.*
*No, Raven, you didn't see…we were very lucky we didn't find Doctor Shaw first. She's a monster.*
*Really? I thought you were just hitting on Erika. If she finds out you're pitying her, I doubt she's going to stay. And I like her.*
*Of course you do,* Charlotte snapped, but she stopped clinging so close to Erika. *She said you were beautiful. You love compliments.*
Raven blinked in surprise at Charlotte's sudden meanness. *You're the only other person who's ever said that while I was blue. Now shut up and leave Erika alone for a minute, if you can.*
Charlotte flicked her hair - a gesture that didn't work particularly well as it was damp and stiff with salt - and let go of Erika to open the door to their room. "Raven and I will share, Erika, you take the other bed."
"There's no need -" Erika protested, but Charlotte gently shoved her towards it and she sat down gratefully.
"You can't have many clothes in that case," Raven said, rummaging through their overnight bags. "Here, you're closer to my size than Charlotte's." He handed over his spare nightshirt. He preferred not to carry men's clothes with him, but his shoulders were noticeably broader in his male form and he usually shifted into his natural form in his sleep: mannish nightshirts in feminine colours were an easy compromise.
"Thank you. You are both very kind."
Raven threw a warning look at Charlotte, who was extending a hand towards Erika's shoulder. "Not at all - we're thrilled to meet another mutant."
"We'll help you find Doctor Shaw." Charlotte's gaze was intense. "You said she makes people into weapons - she has at least three mutants with her now. We need to protect them."
Raven nodded firmly, though he hadn't thought about the next step before Charlotte decided for them. "They don't deserve to be made to fight the CIA. Or whoever else Doctor Shaw is plotting against."
Erika glared right back at Charlotte. "They're not imprisoned. You don't know Shaw is making them work for her. I'd go right through them to get to Shaw."
"No," Charlotte replied. "There are more ways to imprison someone than with bars and walls, and you know that very well."
Abruptly nodding, Erika turned away. "Yes. Shaw saved my life in order to experiment on me. I should not assume that her hold on the others is any less."
"It doesn't mean they won't hurt us," Raven pointed out. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those hurricanes. "We need to be prepared for that, too."
Erika looked up at him, appraising. "I'm going to have a shower, then we should sleep. I suspect we have much to talk about tomorrow." Without further discussion, she headed for the bathroom.
Raven sat down beside his sister. *If you offer to go help her out of that wetsuit, I am going to strangle you.*
Charlotte flopped down on the bed. *I don't even know if she's a dyke.*
*You usually have a pretty damn good idea.*
*Seriously, no idea. I don't think she's really attracted to anyone, not in that way. She doesn't think about it, anyway. I've never seen a mind quite like hers.*
Raven leaned over her, worried, and, as the shower had started in the bathroom, used his voice. "Don't get hurt, okay? You've only known Erika for a few hours and the first thing you felt about her was hatred."
"Not for us. For Doctor Shaw."
"Yeah, well, someone that angry isn't going to be a magical basket of sunshine the rest of the time, you know?"
The shower switched off. Charlotte jumped up and grabbed a few towels. "I'm next!" *You're worried because you're not sure you can beat her up if she hurts me.*
Raven frowned. *Yeah, that's pretty much true. Don't forget it.*
Erika returned from the bathroom in Raven's nightshirt and Raven observed her closely. She didn't look any less terrifying in a pale blue nightshirt than she did in a wetsuit with an empty knife sheath on her leg. Her hair was about the same length as Raven's in his natural form, tucked behind her ears; her small stud earrings were made of steel. She was tall and athletic rather than elegant, stringy muscles showing in her arms and legs. There was a series of burn scars scattered over one shin and several long, thin scars that looked like they'd been made with a scalpel. Her toenails were oddly misshapen and so were her fingernails, and there was a number tattooed on the inside of her left arm, below a smooth silvery circle of scar tissue from another burn. Raven knew what the number meant - Erika had been in a concentration camp - but couldn't take that line of thought any further.
"If you're looking at my scars," Erika said quietly, "At least do it in your own form. I am not hiding from you."
"It's not hiding. I'm more used to this shape by now." Raven pulled on his nightshirt and let go of his daytime form. It was strange, very strange, to be in a room with someone other than Charlotte and not have that feeling of holding his breath.
"Thank you. Your abilities are amazing, Raven. You use them so easily!"
Raven shrugged, uncomfortable. "It's not the same as Charlotte's power, or yours. I can't hit my enemy with a giant anchor or change their mind. Not that I have enemies."
"You have no enemies but the other shape is your usual one?"
"You know what I mean. Don't twist it. Did - did Doctor Shaw experiment on you in the camp?"
Erika didn't flinch or look away, and Raven was glad of that. Maybe that's why Charlotte had been able to feel Erika's hatred so clearly: Erika had channelled everything that had happened to her into one goal.
"Yes. She saved my life and destroyed it at the same time. Do you have any idea who the other mutants are? Charlotte said three mutants, but I saw only two."
Raven sat on the bed and, after a moment, Erika sat opposite him. "There's a CIA agent named MacTaggert who's been tracking Doctor Shaw because she's been bribing various high-up military officials."
Erika looked confused, but didn't interrupt.
"So MacTaggert caught up with her in Las Vegas and saw the two mutants you met tonight, plus an older woman with brick-red skin and a tail. MacTaggert knew he was out of his league, so he came to recruit Charlotte for her theories about genetics, to see how this could be possible. He took us to Washington and his superiors laughed us out of the room, but Charlotte got a whole lot of information out of their minds first. We could easily go and get more. There must be files and so on as well."
Erika grinned. "Good. This is very good."
"They have a separate facility for what they call 'Paranormal Research'," Charlotte added, emerging from the bathroom wrapped in big white towels. "If they're classifying Doctor Shaw's people with that department, we'll want to start there. Agent Duncan is in charge of it and she was going to take us to her facility - just for discussions, Erika, don't worry, they don't have any prisoners -"
"I wasn't worrying. I was planning."
"Yes, of course. We'll catch a plane to DC tomorrow and get started."
Erika tapped her fingers on the night stand. "Even if we only find details of Shaw's bribery, that will give us a number of leads. I thought she'd been hidden so well, but she was using an American name. She still associated with her old Nazi contacts occasionally, but I had almost run out of those."
Raven opened his mouth to ask how Erika was running out of them, then closed it again. He could tell it was going to be a peaceful night's sleep, three feet away from his sister's new friend, the Nazi-hunter.
When Raven woke up, it was to the sound of Charlotte giggling. He opened his eyes slowly - it must still be early - to see Charlotte sitting in the other bed with Erika. Charlotte had her knees pulled up under the sheet; Erika sat cross-legged, nodding at Charlotte's words.
"I've only really tested it in rats, but that might not be the only reason why more mutants seem to be female - a female foetus is more likely to survive adverse environmental conditions than a male. Which absolutely does not explain the greater chance of twins. But you're entirely right. I do have selection bias."
"You've given me four different and conflicting possibilities in less than five minutes. Is that scientific talk for 'I have no idea?'"
"It's scientific talk for 'this is a new field and a very exciting one, too.'"
Raven propped himself up on one elbow. "If you're really lucky, Erika, she'll read you her thesis."
Charlotte threw a pillow at him. "There's plenty of copies waiting in New York. You can read it yourself, then."
"We're going to New York?" Raven wondered what else he'd missed while sleeping.
"Oh, don't fret, Raven, we're not making secret plans without you. We have to go to the CIA to find more information on Doctor Shaw, as you said, but if there's no immediate leads I thought we could go home. I'm sick of hotels. I can't sleep."
Raven glanced over at the mini-bar, to find it surprisingly intact.
"Erika's dreams woke me, so I didn't try to doze off again. I'll take something for the plane, though. Good idea."
Concern washed over Erika's face. "It's difficult for you to block out other minds?"
"Raven and I had been in one place for several years until now - I was familiar with the patterns of Oxford, and very comfortable there, but I think I'm out of practice for everywhere else. And I hate being on planes."
"Does alcohol dull your power, then? It has little effect on mine, except for slowing my reflexes and ruining my aim." Erika seemed quite eager to share these details with them, which made Raven wonder again what his own life would have been like if he hadn't met Charlotte.
"No, no, I don't think anything dulls my power. It's to make people's thoughts more bearable. Some kinds of men, especially. I used to try to wrap myself up in oversized clothes and go unnoticed, until I realised that they didn't hate me in particular. It was women in general that terrified them, and I happened to be the nearest woman."
"Maybe there's just as many male mutants but the women have more need of the abilities," Erika muttered.
"It's why I don't date many men. Well, none, for years now. Most of them have been so built up by other men to hate and fear women, and I don't want to be around someone who thinks in that way."
"You date women, then?" Erika raised an eyebrow but didn't seem otherwise troubled. Then again, she hadn't been bothered by Raven being between sexes, either: her focus was elsewhere entirely.
"She certainly does," Raven replied. "Which is good, because it leaves the men for me."
Erika smiled at that, an expression which didn't go with the stern shape of her face at all, and Raven felt oddly proud of himself. He got out of bed.
"Erika, do you have any clothes with you? I can go and buy some if you want."
"Pfft, she can wear the wetsuit and I'll make people not look," Charlotte replied breezily.
Raven said, "I don't think that will be very comfortable on a plane," at the same moment as Erika said, "I have clothes. Not many, but I can buy more when I need them."
She climbed out of bed and opened the briefcase she'd brought from the beach, giving Raven a quick glimpse of a folded map and banknotes in at least two different currencies. She pulled out a plain black shift dress, black nylon stockings and flats, plus a pale green cardigan, impressively unwrinkled despite their small storage space. "Artificial fibres are a wonderful invention."
Raven took the shower and by the time he was dressed for the day in a repeat of yesterday's bright print dress, Erika had not only got herself dressed but somehow managed to get slug-a-bed Charlotte up and ready, too.
"I called the desk to make us flight reservations - we'll have plenty of time for breakfast before we have to go," Charlotte said brightly, putting on her make-up at of the dresser. Erika seemed happy with a nothing but a little mascara and a touch of lipstick, but she was painting her fingernails. "Do you want me to do your other hand, Erika?"
Erika smirked slightly and let go of the brush. It stayed poised in the air, held still by the metal band at the end of the handle, and then moved over to paint the nails of her right hand in smooth, even strokes.
Charlotte stared in delight, and Raven grinned. "Now, that's a power second only to mine." She changed the colour of her fingernails to a bright pink with a swish of her hand and went to pack up Charlotte's things.
---
Washington DC was cooler than Miami, but as humid in the early evening. Charlotte had remembered the location of the facility without difficulty - when Frieda Duncan had thought about taking them there, she'd been quite specific about where she meant and how far it was from Langley - and Erika had stolen them a car to go out there.
"We can't hire a car if we're going to infiltrate a CIA facility," she told Charlotte. "Major cities are full of spies and they're all trying to get the jump on each other. Car rental agencies take payments to report on their customers, especially those with foreign accents."
"How do you know that?" Charlotte wondered, not sure if she should simply offer to erase the rental clerk's memory of them.
"I worked in a car rental agency in Zurich for a month or so, for just such a purpose. It was very informative."
Before Charlotte could offer her alternative, Erika had briskly walked away at a speed Charlotte would never match with her short legs and high heels, and Raven ran after her, leaving Charlotte on the kerb with the overnight bags. Erika had taken her briefcase with her, of course.
*Raven? Where is she taking you?*
*The parking lot, I think!*
Charlotte sighed and sat down on her small suitcase, telepathically fending off the men who desired to rush to her assistance. She had been quite looking forward to the flight - at least she'd be able to focus on Erika and her powerful, intent thoughts to help keep everyone else out - but instead Erika's cheerful mood had turned as soon as they'd boarded the plane. Charlotte wasn't sure whether it was because of being trapped in a tube with dozens of other people or if it was the sudden lack of control over her environment in the aluminium aeroplane, but Erika had been nothing but sour and snappish. On top of that, Erika was mildly airsick - the two drinks she'd put away hadn't muted it at all - and suddenly her mind was the last thing Charlotte wanted as an anchor. Instead, she'd swapped seats with Raven and tried to sleep while Raven and Erika bickered over Raven's polite offer to swap one of their sandwiches so that Erika didn't have to eat ham. Erika, it turned out, didn't keep kosher and took offence both at Raven assuming she was a Jew - even though she was - and at Raven touching her lunch.
Still, they seemed to be getting along much better now that they were on solid ground. They returned to Charlotte in a few minutes, in a pretty blue Chevrolet. Raven was grinning widely in the passenger seat and Erika seemed pleased with herself, too. Charlotte felt a weird flash of jealousy that Erika was so comfortable with Raven even after seeing his blue skin - that was Charlotte's role, no-one else's - but shook the thoughts out of her head. It was a wonderful thing to have a friend with whom they could be themselves.
"Hop in, Charlotte!" Raven jumped out and threw the bags into the trunk, throwing open a rear door. "You can have the backseat!"
"I call age privilege!" Charlotte replied and nimbly climbed forward into the front.
Erika smirked at Raven in the mirror and Charlotte felt her heart lift. Erika was treating Raven like a little sibling, not…well, she hadn't even really formed the thought. If Erika was a straight, maybe she would be attracted to Raven, having seen his male form. Or did that not count as something a straight would want? Instead, she seemed to have taken her cue from Charlotte, and Charlotte was most pleased.
"You've had a lot of practice with this," Charlotte smiled at Erika and stroked the dashboard. It was a very new car.
"Of course. I never quite managed a driver's licence, but otherwise I'm very good with cars. Metal locks, metal ignition…"
Charlotte dropped the directions to the facility into Erika's mind. "If you can get us from the airport to I-495, Agent Duncan's directions should apply from there."
"I understand." Erika moved the car confidently through traffic, and Charlotte was not entirely sure whether or not she was using her powers. She caught Charlotte's look, though, and laughed. "I am using my powers, I suppose, to help keep track of vehicles I can't see. That awareness doesn't ever go away."
"You seem more confident with small things, but you move them with incredible accuracy." Charlotte glanced at Erika's oddly shaped but perfectly painted fingernails. Even her index finger, which had barely any nail at all, was glossy and perfect enough to pass at a casual glance, as she had painted neatly over the scar tissue around the nail bed.
"It's easier to practise with a coin or a paperclip than with a car or an anchor-chain. People tend to notice that kind of thing." Erika's thin lips tightened, and Charlotte caught a flicker of an image, the submarine leaping from her grasp and disappearing into the darkness.
Raven leaned forward to put her face between the seats and join the conversation. "But not if Charlotte doesn't let them notice. That's how I got better at controlling my changes - Charlotte was my back-up."
"Obviously, I could use the training." Erika's tone killed the conversation for a few moments, but that was never much of a deterrent to Charlotte.
"When we get there, it will be easy for me to find where the files are. I'll take care of watching eyes, and Erika, I presume you can take care of any physical locks."
"Yes, and closed-circuit cameras, if they have them."
Charlotte nodded. She hadn't thought of that, though she'd seen one in a bank, once.
"I can shift into Agent Duncan," Raven volunteered. "She was the only woman in the room, so I was interested in her and took a good look."
"Do you copy their voices as well?" Erika asked, glancing at Raven in the rear view mirror.
"As long as I've heard them speak, yes. The more I've heard them the easier it is, so Agent Duncan's voice probably isn't going to be perfect. I can always pretend to have a cold, though."
Charlotte reached behind her and patted Raven's hand. "But I'm sure we won't need to talk to anyone."
"It's good to have an emergency plan," Erika argued. "What if you get knocked out?"
"By whom?" Charlotte couldn't think of a way for people to get close enough to do that.
Erika made an exasperated gesture with both hands. She wasn't touching the steering wheel but the car kept its steady course. "I don't know - imagine you fall over and hit your head! Or there's a sniper at a distance! Unless you can predict the future, you should have a back-up plan."
"Did you have one last night?"
Erika snapped her mouth shut again. The rest of the drive was silent.
Duncan's facility was a collection of low buildings out in the Virginia countryside. There was a wire fence, and a white geodesic dome on one of the lawns. It look more like a small college than a research facility, except for the floodlights and the armed guards at the gate. Most of the lights had been left on, giving a perfect view into the buildings, which were largely empty offices.
Erika had hidden the car over a slight hill behind some trees, and the three of them were looking down on the complex from a lightly wooded area nearby. Charlotte was really regretting her choice of footwear now, but she hadn't known they'd be walking around on grass. All her shoes and boots had heels, though she had pairs that would have been more comfortable than these, which kept sinking into the grass.
Erika stretched her hands out towards the buildings. "There's no cameras outside. That dome seems to be a radio antenna of some kind, but it's not active right now. There's a great deal more electricity flowing into the south-west corner of the main building than anywhere else."
"If they're doing research, that could be a lab. They'll need high-quality and constant refrigeration at the very least. That gives me a starting point, thank you."
Charlotte let her mind wander gently across the facility and towards the lab. There were twenty-six people still here in the late evening, either working or on guard duty. Agent Duncan was in her office in the main building, and Charlotte quickly flicked through her thoughts to get the layout of the facility correct, orienting herself by what was indeed a lab. Most people's minds didn't provide nice clear floor plans, but Agent Duncan, as with many people who dealt with large quantities of information, had a very orderly mind that was pleasant to wander through. It was a familiar feeling, after being in Oxford for so long, to see the strata of facts and suppositions, connected with flashes of insight and intuition, filed for further investigation. The facility was not so much concerned with mutants as with anything the CIA classified as "Paranormal", including some perfectly legitimate scientific investigations and engineering research projects that happened to fall outside the specific jurisdictions of other departments. There was pseudo-science, too, attempts to contact the dead and predict the future, and Charlotte saw no way that such abilities could exist, even with her knowledge of the existence of mutants. Frieda Duncan had no more knowledge than anyone else about mutants - she simply a savvy former OSS agent who was building her personal fiefdom out of the scraps that no-one else had considered.
"She's had copies of the files on Doctor Shaw and her people sent over," Charlotte said, her fingers firmly pressed to her temple. "They're in her personal filing cabinet in her office. I've given her a slight headache to encourage her to head home."
"Impressive." Erika looked at Charlotte with admiration and Charlotte had to restrain herself from grinning - this was meant to be a serious mission. Flirting and giggling wasn't going to win her any points with someone who had spent their adult years hunting down Nazis.
"She's finishing the draft of a letter - there - and now she's leaving."
"Can you find a gap in the guards' patrols? I presume that will be easier than blocking out their awareness of us."
Charlotte wanted to boast that either would be a doddle, but Erika had reacted so badly to being questioned about her plans before that it seemed wiser to comply. "They don't actually go to Agent Duncan's office - once we're in the office area, we'll be fine as long as we stay down and avoid being seen through the windows."
"All those lights do provide a good view," Raven added. He'd changed into Capri pants and a shirt, both black, and a pair of white sandshoes that Charlotte had once owned. Charlotte didn't really know what appropriate spy wear would be, but Erika's neat black dress - above the knee, with a slit at the back so she could run - and Raven's pants were a good idea. She'd have to get some when they made it to New York, since she doubted that their espionage adventures were going to end today. Feeling very daring, she took off her shoes and put one into each thigh pocket of her shirt dress.
The wire fence peeled away with a wave of Erika's hand and they walked briskly and calmly down the grassy hill to the compound. Charlotte and Raven were calm, at any rate, confident in Charlotte's telepathy which had got them into all kinds of prohibited places over the years. Erika was far twitchier, but she stayed close and alert. Charlotte had slowed down the guards a little to avoid running into them, and Erika opened the locked door into the building with ease. She took a moment to check for silent alarms or indoor cameras - Charlotte really didn't want to know what kind of places Erika had previously broken into - but apparently the security here was based on the two things that they could easily defeat: personnel and locks.
In the open plan part of the office, Charlotte noticed a hulking machine near a secretary's desk. *That's a Xerox - we don't even have to steal the files. We can copy them.*
*You know how to work one?* Erika returned, enunciating her thoughts carefully.
*Of course - since the Medical Sciences Department got one last year, it was my job to copy everything.*
*Don't they have secretaries for that?* Erika asked.
Raven smirked. *No, just grad students. And only two of them were female.*
*Well, at least it got me out of tea-making duty.* Charlotte was surprised to find how cranky she was about that, still.
*I presume the CIA treated you in the same way?* Erika inquired, carefully unlocking Agent Duncan's office.
*They were less polite about it, which I find rather offensive as they were the ones who invited me here in the first place. MacTaggert apologised, at least.*
The door swung open. *You shouldn't trust him. He's got his own agenda, and it's not ours.*
Charlotte frowned in confusion. *What's our agenda? Women's agenda?*
*No, mutants.*
Raven laughed, quietly. *Erika, you only know two other mutants.*
*And you have proven more trustworthy and more helpful that any human I have ever met.*
Charlotte was going to laugh, but Erika's face was deadly serious, and Charlotte reminded herself of everything Erika had gone through. It was no wonder that she hadn't found people to trust. Instead, she merely replied, *Thank you.*
The lights were on in Agent Duncan's office, but the Venetian blinds were closed, leaving Erika free to pop open the filing cabinet that Charlotte specified. They each grabbed a folder of papers and started reading for anything relevant.
"I've got something!" Raven was first to call a halt to the search. "Starting several years ago, Doctor Shaw was often seen in the company of a blond teenage boy. He turned out to be one Emory Frost - yes, those Frosts, Charlotte - whose family were friends with Shaw. Emory had been expelled from two schools due to conduct difficulties and Doctor Shaw offered to take Emory on as an assistant."
"Conduct difficulties?" Erika knew the words, but not the code.
Charlotte helped. "Either he beats up boys from families richer than his own, or he's a queer. I suppose if he's the telepath, he could have upset someone important…"
Raven put a photograph on the desk. Emory was wearing kohl around his eyes. "Well, he's certainly happy to give the impression of being a queer. His family doesn't seem to know or care what Doctor Shaw is doing with him, as long as nobody knows about it. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
"Does it?" Erika was even more confused.
"Our family was the same: lots of money, lots of problems that had to be hushed up. Drinking, affairs, a family name to keep up, that kind of thing. Only a hundred miles away from Boston." Charlotte grinned, suddenly. "Emory and I might well share an ancestor, sometime in the last few hundred years! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could track down the prevalence of telepathy in those bloodlines?"
"Hey, maybe there's more blue people out there!" Raven was delighted, but Erika turned her back on them to continue reading her files. Her shoulders were tense, but Charlotte didn't dare interrupt her. It was quite uncomfortable being around someone who was so very touchy and gave so little warning as to her moods. With most people, Charlotte could feel them changing direction, but Erika switched from engaged to angry faster than Charlotte could follow - each emotion strong but discrete - and sometimes with no feeling attached to her thoughts at all. Right now, she had pushed a mix of anger and terror aside - the memory of someone talking about bloodlines with great enthusiasm - to focus entirely on the feel of a coin she kept in her bra, near her heart. It didn't so much calm her as make the rage energising rather than draining.
"Here. This file is about Shaw's finances. We need to copy this." Erika handed the file - a list of bank accounts, company names and dates - to Charlotte. Raven added the pages on Emory Frost to the pile and Charlotte hurried out to the main office, trying to concentrate on getting the job done and getting them out of here.
Instead, she opened the door and got a horrible fright as she realised someone was crouching above the lintel. Charlotte froze the person telepathically before she made a sound, and the woman thudded from her hiding place onto the ground.
Erika was there in a second, paperclips and pushpins hovering around her, pinning the limp body of the woman to the floor. She looked up at Charlotte. "Can she hear us?"
Charlotte held the files close to her chest. "No, it's as if time has stopped for her. She definitely saw me and heard you and Raven, but I can erase that."
"Wait," Erika pointed and Charlotte followed her gaze. The young woman - she couldn't be older than 21 - was dressed like a preppy high schooler under her lab coat, in a fawn blouse with an ugly plaid skirt. Her glasses had fallen off when she toppled from the door. The most remarkable thing about her, though, was her feet. She was barefoot, her socks and large, ugly saddle shoes neatly placed to the side of the door, and her feet resembled large hands, right down to the thumb. Each foot was the size of both of Erika's put together.
"She's another mutant!" Charlotte clapped her hands together and quickly rifled through her sleeping mind. "Harriet McCoy, doctorate in electrical engineering and Masters in biochemistry from MIT, recruited by Agent Duncan to work on various projects including, oh dear, a mutant detecting machine."
"Is it working?"
"No - Harriet has theorised the existence of telepathy and an ability she calls 'mechanical-telepathic interfacing'. The machine, Cerebro, would need either of these to work."
"Agent Duncan wanted to bring you here, and you didn't pick why." Erika's mouth was a thin line again.
Raven, leaning against the doorframe, interrupted. "Maybe Agent Duncan has some ideas about telepathic shielding. It's not hard to do, unless Charlotte's actively searching for something. Don't get mad at Charlotte - it was a complicated situation. Hey, look at the size of those shoes! And her feet! That's amazing!"
"We can't leave her," Erika said, though Raven's words had at least stopped her glaring at Charlotte. "She knows too much about mutants, and she can invent the same machine again. They'll find a telepath eventually."
"No, wait! Don't kill her!" Charlotte went to shove Erika away, but Erika didn't budge.
"I'm not going to kill her, you idiot." Her voice was fond, rather than cruel, and Charlotte slowly relaxed again. "She's a mutant. She should come with us. Imagine if we can use her machine to find Shaw's people!"
Raven joined them crouching by the unconscious woman. "What if she doesn't want to come along? Will you make her?"
"Yes," Erika replied, at the same time as Charlotte said, "No, of course not."
"Oh, good to see we've got a plan, then." Raven rolled his eyes.
"You can't leave her here, not if Duncan knows about mutants and wants to get you into that machine," Erika hissed. "It's not safe. And Harriet McCoy deserves to know who she is. That she's not alone."
Charlotte looked across Harriet's prone body at Erika, caught in the determination that shone through her. Erika truly believed what she was saying, and Charlotte couldn't help but luxuriate in that sensation of being absolutely sure of something. Feeling everyone's perspectives, everyone's tiny justifications and angry regrets, often left Charlotte feeling adrift and careless. She could be sure only of her science and mathematics, but those were not what filled her days: other people's minds did, and finding such determination and purpose turned on her was quite stunning.
"Erika. I won't make her come with us, but if she doesn't, I promise I will alter her memories so that her machine won't work with an actual telepath."
"You understand it well enough to do that?"
"Harriet does, so, at least temporarily, I do as well. I'm going to wake her up now."
Erika sat back on her heels, and Charlotte put her hand to Harriet's temple, bringing her to consciousness slowly and calmly.
"Hello, Harriet. I'm Doctor Charlotte Xavier, and I'm a mutant like you."
Harriet blinked several times and felt around for her glasses, which Charlotte put into her hand. "Uh, hello. Doctor Harriet McCoy. I read your paper on rapid adaption in frogs, the one you co-wrote in last March's Nature?"
"Thank you! Actually, I wrote the whole thing, but my department head was determined to put his name on it."
"Yes, I looked at his work and he hadn't had an innovative idea in years!" Harriet laughed nervously, then looked around and remembered where she was and what was happening. "Doctor Xavier, why are you breaking into my boss's office?"
"Harriet - may I call you Harriet? If you've read my work, you know about my theory on mutation in human beings. In fact, I have a very personal stake in that theory, because I myself am a mutant." *I can speak to you in your mind. And please, call me Charlotte.*
"Oh! That's very startling. I thought - "
"You thought you were the only one," Erika interrupted. "So did I. But your boss mustn't think so, if she let you put all that time and money into building a machine to find others of our kind."
Harriet ducked her head. "I didn't think of it that way. Agent Duncan recruited me out of MIT and she's been very kind. She's let me work on all kinds of things. That was my personal project but it turns out it won't work without -" She stared at Charlotte and her face lit up with delight. "You're a telepath."
*Yes, I am.* Charlotte shared the conversation with Raven and Erika, too. *If you and your machine come with us, we should be able to find even more mutants. There's a woman named Doctor Shaw who has recruited at least three more of us. She's very dangerous, and we have reason to believe she may be hurting them in order to shape their powers in the way she wants.*
"All I can do is balance and hang off things," Harriet said, gesturing at her hand-like feet. "Nothing amazing. I don't think she'd want me."
"All I could do was move small pieces of metal. Shaw was interested enough in that," Erika snapped.
Harriet cowered away from her, and Raven waved, distracting Harriet from Erika's snarl. "I'd love to be able to hang off things! Maybe I can copy your feet one day? If you don't mind?" His skin rippled blue and he changed into Agent Duncan, then back again.
"That's amazing! I can't just leave my job and run off with you, though. I mean, I'll share the plans for Cerebro - that's what I called my machine - of course, but I can't."
"Of course you can!" Charlotte played her trump card. "Agent Duncan has strong suspicions about the existence of telepaths. If you want to return to the CIA, I'll remove memories the CIA might use against us, and you can tell her you were brainwashed. It won't be your fault."
Harriet smiled shyly, but with great excitement, as if the prospect of being brainwashed was the most thrilling thing she'd ever heard. "Okay. I'll come with you. But I won't do anything that's harmful to the CIA. Agent Duncan's been good to me."
"Done!" Charlotte clapped her on the shoulder, and Erika helped her to her feet. Harriet folded the thumbs on her feet underneath her arches - which mean she was walking on them in order to look normal, poor thing, and went to put her socks and shoes on, but Erika stopped her.
"You don't need to hurt yourself trying to look normal. Wear those ugly shoes around other people if you wish - we all dress to fit in - but you don't have to wear them around us."
Harriet hesitated, then stuffed her socks into her shoes and carried them instead of putting them on. "Right, then. I suppose I should tell you where all the plans are, then, since we won't be able to take Cerebro with us."
Erika grinned, and Harriet stepped back a little. "Oh, I think we should at least be able to carry your machine."
---
Raven couldn't believe it had all been so easy. Erika had driven away in their stolen car and swapped it for a light truck. They'd simply parked it by the fence, near the big white golf ball that housed Cerebro, and Harriet had directed Erika in taking the machine to pieces. There were only a few parts that were critical - the human interface contained in a half-finished helmet, two computers about as tall as Raven but four times as heavy, a typewriter welded into yet another computer - but the way the computers and helmet were connected to each other and to the radio array was apparently very complex. Raven had to open panels in the floor and disconnect plugs and power in the specific order called out by Harriet; Erika was sweating heavily as she carefully floated each section down onto the truck bed. Charlotte was set on watch, and to distract the guards in the area, but unfortunately this was too little work to keep her occupied, so she passed her time by forming a mutual admiration society with Harriet.
"You graduated at sixteen! Remarkable!"
"Well, your work is revolutionary, Doctor Xavier, and I think as the electron microscope continues to develop, your field is going to explode."
"Call me Charlotte, please, Doctor Xavier sounds like my father."
"If you keep going I'm going to barf!" Raven called out.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Harriet stumbled over her words. "What do you study? And Erika?"
"Fashion," Raven snapped.
"Knives," Erika added, unhelpfully.
Charlotte sighed. "Calm down, everyone. We all bring our own skills to the table. It's been a long day in too many airports."
"At least we don't have to get on a plane again." Raven offered an olive branch.
Erika rolled up a length of cable without touching it. "Can any of you drive a truck?"
"No," Charlotte smiled up at her. "But I can buy you coffee and keep you entertained until we make it to New York."
"Can you show me how to drive it?" Raven had to admit he was fascinated by Erika's competence, even if Harriet and Charlotte might value their educations over that. He'd spent long enough in Oxford to realise that if you missed one genius, another one would come along any moment, but he hadn't met anyone like Erika before.
"Of course. Harriet is about to throw herself over her computers to protect them from you, so perhaps when we get to New York?"
"Thank you. That would be great."
Harriet retrieved a suitcase of her belongings from her quarters near her lab and, once the equipment was strapped down to Erika's satisfaction, they all piled into the cab of the truck. It wasn't exactly roomy, but Raven made herself skinnier, and they all squashed in with enough room to breathe. Raven had meant to sit by Erika to start to learn how to drive the truck, but Charlotte somehow ended up there, with Harriet next to her, and Raven was against the far door.
*Are you making a move on Erika?* he projected in Charlotte's direction.
Charlotte sent an image of herself neatly seated with her knees firmly together. *Raven, I love you, but you've got sex on the brain.*
*I've got…? I'll remind you of that next time I catch you staring into Erika's eyes across an unconscious body.*
*I'm sure you will, my dear.*
Erika put the truck into gear and they lumbered over the grass, turning smoothly onto a bigger road and then onto I-495, heading north.
"Do any of you know the way to New York, or do we need to get a map?" Erika asked.
Raven reached for the glove box, but Harriet's face lit up at being able to help. "Yes, it's an easy drive. I drove myself down from Massachusetts a few months ago because I had to bring all my experiments with me."
"You built Cerebro in a few months?" Raven was astounded, considering how complicated all the equipment had looked.
"Well, I had the theory already worked out, and a basic mutant/non-mutant test."
Erika's hands clenched on the steering wheel. "You can tell that?"
"Uh, maybe? I've only really had one test subject, so I can't really tell if it's an actual difference between mutants and non-mutants, or simply between me and other people I scanned."
Charlotte looked thoughtful. "I don't see why it wouldn't be possible, at least with some kinds of mutants. I suppose that's why you need a telepath, to differentiate when a computer program can't."
"You'd think a machine would be more accurate and reliable, but I think I need the filtering capacity of a human brain," Harriet said, mournfully.
"Oh, I don't think it's only that!" Charlotte was beaming at Harriet, who blushed. "There's so much going on in a human brain that we don't have the technology to detect yet - I'm desperate to find that other telepath and discover if we see things the same way."
Charlotte and Harriet's conversation rapidly devolved into the kind of chat that Raven had learned to tune out, and he looked across them to see that Erika's knuckles were still white.
"Are you okay, Erika?"
She made a conscious effort to release her grip. "Of course. It's what, six or seven hours to New York? We should get some coffee and food soon."
"Definitely! There'll be plenty of roadside places open, at least until midnight." Raven kept an eye on her. "Did you know someone who could tell mutants apart from non-mutants?"
"Shaw said she could do a lot of things. Who knows what was true?"
"Yeah, I'm glad I ended up with Charlotte instead of someone like that. Even if she can't manage to talk in a way that normal people can understand."
Erika almost smiled at that. "Yes, I am glad, also."
Next Chapter
Last Chapter
Master Post