DANGEROUS GAMES

Part II: Chutes & Ladders

By Dino Pollard

“Who’s there?”

No answer.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

Kitty Pryde is a freshman at Empire State University. She graduated from Niles West High School in her hometown of Niles, Illinois. She’s currently majoring in computer programming and web development. Her dream is to create a revolutionary computer program or device of some sort and become the next Bill Gates.

But not one of those things will matter if Kitty doesn’t survive this day.

Kitty knows something. She knows who the hacker calling himself Arcade is. Not too long ago, Arcade launched the largest computer crime wave in history. What’s even worse is that he told Kitty he was going to do it. Not in those exact words, but he warned her not to doubt him. She did. He found out her address. A few minutes after he told Kitty this, he signed off the Internet and she heard a knock at her door. It seems he was just a little ticked off at her lack of confidence in his abilities.

She slowly walked to the door and looked through the peephole. She couldn’t see anyone there. She opened the lock and slowly turned the knob. She stuck her head out and looked around. Nothing. The hall was empty.

“Christ Kitty, you’re getting paranoid…” she muttered. “I think I just need some sleep…”

“Oh, that can be arranged.”

She stuck her head back in the dorm room and saw a man with sandy blonde hair, a bad goatee, and blue-tinted glasses sitting on her bed. He held a gun in his hand. She froze at the sight of him.

“Hello Kitty-cat.”

The Yashida compound is almost like a military base. Armed guards patrol every possible entrance and exit. It’s lined with motion sensors and surveillance cameras. If a fly enters the house, the surveillance team knows about it. They work around the clock, 24/7. The only chance for infiltration is during the shift change. Unfortunately, not all the guards end their shifts at the same time. There’s at least an hour separation between each shift change. Shingen is the paranoid type. He doesn’t believe in taking any chances.

That’s why he’s the best.

And that’s why Wolverine was chosen to infiltrate his compound. His task isn’t a simple one. He has to get into Shingen’s organization and, when the time is right, eliminate him from the game. But Shingen is not a man easily swayed, not even by a former hitman for the Yakuza. You need to prove yourself to him to be worthy of employment. Which is exactly what Logan intends to do.

The best time to sneak in is when the surveillance team changes shifts. When that happens, Logan knows he can take out the two guards at the rear entrance. The cameras will see him, but if he acts during the surveillance team switch, then he should be able to take out the guards without anyone seeing him on camera. By the time the surveillance team realizes there’s an intruder, Logan will have half the complex mapped out in his mind, including all possible escape routes. Of course, this is all based on assumption, but what’s life without a few surprises?

He looked down at his watch.

7:23 PM.

The next change would come at 7:26. That meant he had three minutes to get into position. He glanced around with his eyes, but at the same time, he was also listening for any movement, feeling the air for any shift in the wind, and sniffing for any extra scents. He was getting the lay of the land. Everything was being mapped out in his head perfectly. One of the benefits of having heightened senses is that it makes you the best candidate for a secret agent.

Once he was positive it was clear, he moved. He darted past trees and through brushes. Branches and thorns cut at his skin, but he ignored them. The scratches would heal instantly. They weren’t enough to slow him down.

He crouched down low behind the wall, and looked down at his watch.

7:25 PM.

One minute.

He started to scale the wall he was standing by. It was right under the camera’s blindspot, so he could get into position without being seen. He looked down at the two guards. One of them was smoking a cigarette, and the other looked like he was about to fall asleep. They were speaking in Japanese, and Logan could make out every word. Nothing big, just small talk. Sports, movies, anything to keep them awake until the next shift.

Logan released his grip on the ledge and fell to the ground right in front of the guards. Before they had a chance to react, he knocked them both out with simple elbow strikes. He should probably kill them, but that would jeopardize the mission. He opened the doors, and dragged them inside, away from the camera’s field of vision. Then, he darted into the house. He looked down at his watch.

7:28 PM.

The game was afoot.

“You’re a what?”

“I’m a mutant,” replied Scott.

‘That’s not funny, Scott,” said Maggie. “That is so not funny.”

“I’m not joking,” said Scott.

“How can you not be joking?” asked Maggie. “You… I mean…”

“Come here,” said Scott. He took her gently by the hand and pulled her aside to the exit of the student union. He glanced around to make sure they were alone, and then removed his sunglasses. He opened his eye a quarter of an inch, and a beam of concussive energy protruded from his eye, striking the pavement and leaving a crack. He closed his eye instantly and replaced his glasses.

“Now do you believe me?” he asked.

“This… this…”

“It gets better,” said Scott.

“Let me guess, you’re a secret agent who works for the CIA,” said Maggie with a little giggle.

“Close,” said Scott. “I’m a secret agent who works for SHIELD.”

Maggie almost collapsed when she heard this. She put her hand up against the wall for support as if she were about to pass out. Scott instantly moved to her side and held her hand. She began squeezing it as hard as she possibly could, while at the same time breathing deeply.

“Maggie, you okay?” he asked. She gave no reply. “C’mon, let’s go sit down.”

Still holding her hand, he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. She moved in without respite and rested her head on his chest as he led them over to a bench.

“Are you okay? You’re shaking.”

“I… I’ll be fine…” she muttered. “I just… it’s a lot… Just gimme a minute to… to process it…”

“Okay…” he said.

“Okay… I’m okay…” she said.

“You sure?”

“I think so.”

“Want me to go on?”

“You mean there’s more?!”

Scott grinned at this and looked up at her.

“Oh yeah… a lot more.”

“Didn’t think I could do it, did you?” asked Arcade.

“I-I’m sorry…” replied Kitty. “I didn’t mean to doubt you. Really, I didn’t.”

“Too late for apologies now,” said Arcade. He lifted up the gun and aimed it at her. “See you in hell, Kitty-cat.”

He pulled the trigger and the bullet released from the chamber. It soard through the air at incredible speeds. Yet, for Kitty Pryde, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. She kept flashing from the bullet and Arcade in her dorm room to her childhood. To her school years. Hanging out with friends. Graduation. First day of college. Meeting her roommate, Madelyne Pryor. All these things and more were flashing in her mind’s eye just as the bullet struck her.

But she felt nothing. No pain. Not even as the bullet exited her body and struck her computer monitor. She looked down at the point where the bullet entered her body, but she saw no blood, not even a wound. Her clothes had no holes in them. And then, she noticed something else. Her hand was going through her body.

Arcade looked at her with shock. He took aim again and fired a few more shots. Like the first bullet, they all passed through Kitty’s body without harm or consequence. He tried again, but with no luck.

“What the hell are you?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know…” she replied. She backed away from him and walked through her computer. Sparks flew as the system overloaded. Shocked at this, she lost her footing and fell through the wall.

Arcade looked around in shock. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Kitty was supposed to die. But somehow, she got away. And now he had to rethink his strategy. He dropped the gun and ran out.

“I see you’ve returned.”

“Not that simple.”

“Is it ever?”

“I need your help.”

“Of course you do.”

“It’s important.”

“I know, your student. I’ve been expecting you.”

“Why doesn’t dat surprise me?”

“Not much should surprise you, Remy.”

“Y’ already know th’ situation,” said Gambit. “So can you help her?”

“Of course I can. But you know that for every favor you ask of the Guild, that gives the Guild the right to ask a favor of you.”

“I know the routine.”

“Very comforting.”

“What now?”

“Have Gris Gris bring her to me. I will handle the rest.”

“Strange, I’m givin’ you fair warnin’,” said Remy. “If she doesn’t make it, I’m comin’ after you. An’ I don’t care if you used t’ be the Sorcerer Supreme, I will kill you.”

“Better than you have tried, LeBeau,” Strange replied. “And failed.”

“So… let me get this straight…” began John. “O was in a coma, lying in the infirmary. And now, she’s gone.”

“That’s the gist of it,” said Hank.

Thunderbird slammed his fist on the table with such force that it left a dent in the metal. His face was a mask of rage.

“Then why the fuck are we just sitting here?!” he demanded. “We need to be out there looking for her!”

“Where will we look?” asked Nightcrawler. “We have no idea where she might be.”

“Did I ask for your opinion, assbag?”

“John…” muttered Ali.

“Who you callin’ an assbag, musclehead?!” exclaimed Rogue.

“You shut the fuck up,” warned Thunderbird as he pointed an accusatory finger at Rogue. “It’s your fault O was in the coma in the first place. If it wasn’t for you guys and your crazy-ass mom, we wouldn’t be missing the Professor and Storm.”

In a flash of light and smoke, John suddenly discovered a black tail wrapped around his throat, as well as a pair of three-toed feet perched on his shoulders. A three-fingered hand gripped the top of his head, and the demonic head which controlled this leaned in close to his face, his glowing yellow eyes a stark contrast against his jet-black skin.

“You may be my teammate, and I may be forced to come to your aid in battle,” said Nightcrawler. “But if you ever threaten my sister again, what I did to Toad will seem like a scratch compared to what I’ll do to you.”

“Yeah, right.”

The tail around John’s neck tightened, and Kurt narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t fuck with me, Proudstar.”

Kurt suddenly felt an invisible force of some sort pulling him from John’s body and throwing him across the room. Before John had the chance to smirk at his good fortune, he was thrown against the opposite wall by the same force.

“Let’s put a stop to the testosterone convention, shall we?”

The telepathic voice of Psyche rang through the minds of all present. Monet watched her with curiosity. It appeared that her extra training with Wolverine had really helped her in the development in her powers.

“Although you don’t want to hear it John, Kurt’s right,” said Hank. “We can’t search for Ororo, because we have no clue where to begin. And with Wolverine on another assignment and the Professor wonked out, we have to wait until Fury returns before we can make any moves.”

“Fucking bullshit…” muttered John. Ali put a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him, but he just pulled away and stormed out of the room. She looked back to the rest of the team, and then ran after him. Hank breathed a sigh of relief once he left.

“He didn’t mean what he said. He’s just angry about Storm is all.”

“I understand,” said Nightcrawler. “I apologize for the outburst, though. It wasn’t…”

“Don’t apologize, Kurt,” interjected Rogue. “We both suspected that we weren’t welcome here. This just proves it.”

“That has nothing to do with it,” said Jean.

“Whatever,” replied Rogue. She turned and walked out of the room as well. Nightcrawler shook his head.

“She’s always been headstrong,” he said. “Ever since we were children. She takes after our mother.”

“Pay no attention to John,” said Jean. “Hank’s right, he just needs to blow off some steam right now. Once things calm down, he’ll be a bit more open.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have some things I’d like to take care of,” said Nightcrawler. With that, he vanished in a flash of light and smoke. Only Jean, Monet, and Hank were left in the war room. Hank slumped into a chair and Monet rested her hand on his shoulder. Hank smiled and patted it with his own massive hand.

“We need the Professor to get back here soon,” said Jean. “We can’t do this on our own.”

“Tell me about it…” muttered Hank.

“We’re doing fine so far,” said Monet. “It’s just a stressful time. We’ll pull through. We always do.”

“Wish it was that simple,” said Jean. “But I keep getting a weird feeling… something I can’t really explain… I just have this… I dunno, this instinct that tells me something really bad’s about to happen.”

The surveillance room is the next target. If the people watching the cameras are out of commission, then they can’t see him sneaking around, and thus, they can’t inform the rest of the guards to his presence.

Logan walked up to the door and opened it. The guards on surveillance duty turned to see who had entered. They moved for their guns, but Logan was quicker. He drove his foot into one of them, the impact shattering the man’s nose and knocking him unconscious. For the other, Logan simply slammed his fist into the man’s face. The adamantium-laced skeleton he possessed made his punch all the more stronger. It was the equivalent of being struck with a crowbar.

Logan moved to the surveillance equipment and reviewed the screens. He discovered that Shingen was in a dojo of some sort, performing a kata. Logan checked the location of it on the map and then began to shut off the cameras one by one. One of the monitors caught his notice. It was a young Asian woman, couldn’t have been more than 23 or 24 years of age. She was possessed of extremely attractive features. Logan was puzzled and intrigued by her presence. He didn’t remember anything about Shingen having a wife or daughter or neice or sister.

Logan shook his head. He had a mission to complete, and he would complete it no matter the cost. Gabe needed to be avenged. And it was up to Logan to perform that task. He shut off all the cameras, double-checked the location on the map, and then proceeded to the area.

“When those other mutants were fighting Magneto in Times Square… well, I was one of those mutants,” said Scott. “We’re called the X-Men, and we work for a government organization called SHIELD. We also took out the Brotherhood. And those two mutants that were fighting in the nigthclub? One of them was our leader. Also, just after the time I last saw you, my brother called me from Alaska and told me to come home. It turned out that some mad scientist was trying to use him for… something.”

“Your brother… is he a… a…?”

“Mutant? Yeah.”

“Wow…” said Maggie. “Do you, like, have codenames?”

“Yeah,” said Scott.

“What’s yours?”

“You’re gonna laugh.”

“C’mon, tell me.”

“Cyclops.”

“Heh, that’s cute.”

“Cute?”

“Yeah, cute.”

“It’s not supposed to be cute. It’s supposed to be dangerous and ultra-sexy.”

“Well… maybe a little sexy,” said Maggie with a grin. “But it’s not dangerous.”

“Think I should call myself 00eyebeam instead?”

“No, Cyclops is fine. Did you pick it out?”

“No, it was given to me.”

“Do you guys like, wear costumes and stuff?”

“Yeah, we gotta wear these leather spy suits with Xs on them and we’ve got jackets to go over them.”

“Can you show me sometime?”

“Maggie, I want you to listen to me,” said Scott. “Because this next part is very important. You can’t tell anybody about this. And I mean no one. Not even Jen. This is big. This is bigger than big. This is huge. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you about this.”

“So why did you tell me then?”

“Because I trust you to keep this a secret,” replied Scott. “And because… I think I love you.”

Maggie’s eyes lit up at this comment.

“Are you serious?”

Scott nodded.

“Awww…”

“Hey hey… c’mon. You’re gonna make me blush.”

“Sorry,” said Maggie. “Wow… I can’t believe this. I’m dating a secret agent. This is so… so… cool!”

“Just remember, you—”

“Can’t tell anyone, I know,” said Maggie. “I understand. Wow… everything is so clear now. I jus—oh my god…”

“What?” asked Scott. Maggie pointed over his shoulder towards the dorms. Scott did a double-take. He thought it was a trick of the light at first. But no, there was a girl falling from one of the floors of the dorm. She fell to the ground. Scott and Maggie ran over to her as soon as they saw her fall.

Kitty got up and dusted herself off just as Scott and Maggie came running up to her. She found that she was solid again.

“You… you’re okay?” asked Scott.

“I… I think so,” replied Kitty. “Hi Maggie.”

“H-hi… Kitty?”

“Yeah…” said Kitty. “This the guy Jen told me you were seeing?”

“Y-yeah, sorry… this is Scott.”

“Hi…” said Scott.

“Hey, Kitty Pryde.”

“Umm… this may seem like a stupid question…” began Scott. “But did you just fall out of one of the dorms?”

“No,” replied Kitty. Scott and Maggie released exasperated breaths at this response.

“I fell through my dorm room.”

“…oh,” said Maggie. She turned to Scott. “I guess this is your area of expertise.”

“What’s she talking about?” asked Kitty.

“Umm…” said Scott. “How did you fall through?”

“I dunno… I just sort of… did,” said Kitty. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, but there’s a guy with a gun who’s out to get me.”

“A guy with a gun?”

“Have you heard about that Arcade guy who’s causing havoc with the stock market?” asked Kitty. Scott and Maggie both shook their heads. They were talking when the broadcast first aired in the student union.

“Well, I know who he is.”

“…I think I need to make a phone call…” said Scott.

“Who are you?” asked Shingen. His back was to Wolverine when he entered the door, but he turned to face him. “Why have you broken into my home? And why should I let you live? You have thirty seconds to answer.”

<“My apologies, Lord Shingen,”> replied Logan in perfect Japanese. <“My name is Logan. I once worked as a hitman for the Yakuza in Japan many years ago. I desire a position within your organization. I braved your security in order to prove to you that I am worty enough to serve you. You will also notice that I have not severely injured nor killed any of your men out of respect for you.”>

Shingen stopped and approached Logan. He looked the SHIELD agent over a few times before reaching for the small cell phone attached to his belt. He spoke something in it and then replaced it on his belt.

<“Very impressive, Logan-san,”> said Shingen. <“And your Japanese is very good for a Westerner.”>

<“As I said, I was once an employee for the Yakuza.”>

<“I know. I remember hearing your name in Japan. You were feared.”>

<“Am I still?”>

<“It was many years ago, I can’t be certain.”>

The door opened, and a young, Japanese man stepped into the room. He had a sword hanging from his belt. Shingen motioned for him to come closer, and he did so. The man was tall for an Asian. He was also young. His eyes were extremely intimidating.

<“Logan, I would like you to meet the best among my entourage. You have proven yourself, but to further prove your worth, you must take him on in battle. I would like to introduce you to Kenuchio Harada. Or, as he has taken to calling himself, the Silver Samurai.”>