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Innocent Of Evil	By : KMac Category: X-Men - Animated Series (all) > General Views: 2974 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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2x1797
Vectors To Nowhere

The mansion was on high alert by dinnertime. For Kurt to miss dinner was unheard of. The residents were so upset that Charles
left the table early to check with Cerebro.
The lack of any trace of him set the X-Men in gear.

Kitty had last seen him near the end of the school day, but
none of them knew where�d he gone after that.
A flurry of phone calls went out as they checked with other classmates
from Bayville High. Only one provided
them with a lead. Todd, �the Toad� had
been seen heckling Kurt just before their friend left campus.

The older students paid the Brotherhood a visit. Todd soon found himself jacked up against a
wall by Scott and Jean. �What did you
say to him?� Scott said sternly, holding him by his coat off the ground.

Todd nervously licked his lips. �What�d I say to who?
C�mon guys� I�m one o� the good guys now, ya know? You and us, against Poccy-lips, tryin� to
save the world?�

�That doesn�t mean that you all of a sudden like Kurt,� Jean
pointed out. �You were seen having
words with him at school.�

�Is that what this is about, blue-boy? I didn�t say nothin� to him, really� just
teasin� him, ya know?� Todd was
unsuccessfully trying to squirm out of Scott�s grip.

�Then what did he say to you?� Scott said. The red shades stared relentlessly at the
smaller boy.

�Put him down!�
Lance had found the tableau by the boarding house. �Why are you doing this?� The ground rumbled ominously.

�Hang on, Lance,� Kitty said, getting between the
earth-shaker and her teammates. �Kurt
is missing, and Todd saw him last.�

�Fuzz-butt? You know
anything about this, Toad?� Lance had
the grace to look somewhat concerned at the news.

Todd pouted at him.
�Geeze, you, too? Look, he said
he was hungry and didn�t have time for me.
He went off humming that stupid Gut Bomb jingle. Dat�s all I know, promise.�

Jean nodded. Scott
let Todd go, and he slid down until his dangling sneakers hit the ground. �Thanks Todd, Lance, we�ll be in touch,�
Scott said.

It was dark by the time the mansion�s van dropped Logan off
at the school gate Kurt used, and shadowed the feral mutant as he tracked Kurt
towards his favorite eatery. The traces
indicated he�d kept up a good pace up until three blocks from the
restaurant. There, mid block, by a low
wall, he found a spot that Kurt lingered at, intertwined with the scent of
another person. Someone who smelled
vaguely� lemony? �Hank, come and get
this.�

Hank came out of the van in his floppy hat and voluminous
coat. �What did you find, my friend?�

�He talked to someone here.
That someone left this water bottle behind. Might be some clues on it.�

Hank pulled on heavy duty protective gloves that mashed his
fur down comically. Reaching into his
kit, he bagged the water bottle, and a candy wrapper near by it. �Did he seem to be all right here?�

�Yeah. No scent of
him being upset or anything. Thought
you might get some prints and DNA offa that.�

�Someone�s been watching CSI,� Hank teased, but Logan only
grunted and continued to track.

Hank was climbing back into the van when Logan called back
to him. �They walked from here together.�

�Understood,� Hank said.

At the burger joint, he talked to Sam, the manager. �Kurt is missing? Wow, he�s one of my best customers� he was just here. Mary, you remember Kurt being here today?�

�Yeah. He was with
this new guy. You know his friend
Scott, right? Well he�s taller than
Scott, and thin. Shoulder length dark hair,
pale eyes, and he had a guitar. They
acted normal, like they were friends.�

Logan looked around.
�You actually record with those cameras? If you do, I�d like a copy of today�s tape.� He put a fifty on the counter. �This outta cover the cost of a blank tape.�

�No problem.� Sam
went into the back, and came back with a tape.
He pushed the fifty back. �I
don�t need the money, sir.�

Logan grunted, and walked out without the bill. In the parking lot they watched the tape in
the van. Kurt looked perfectly at ease
with the young man carrying the guitar case.
At the flash of the credit card, Logan said, �Stop the tape,� and walked
back inside. He came back with a photocopy
of the credit card receipt. �He didn�t
want to do this, but I pointed out Institute kids aren�t exactly �Amber Alert�
material.�

�A Mr. J. MacLean, expiration date in two years,� Hank
read. The tape showed the two carrying
on a lively conversation at the counter, mostly about food and music, from what
Hank was able to lip-read. The angle on
the back corner was of poorer quality, but the easy camaraderie was still
evident, including the toast with the soda glasses. As the taped meal ended, the two started to leave. �I think I saw Mr. MacLean say �bus�,� he
said. �So they may have been going to
the bus station.� Logan nodded, and
continued his tracking in that direction.

He stopped at an alleyway.
�The scents changed here� I smell distress from both of �em.� He went past the alley mouth, and quickly
returned. �They didn�t go on from
here.�

�Could this MacLean guy have turned Kurt in to someone?�
Scott said.

Logan sniffed, and then waded into the alley, coming back
with a dusty blue guitar case. �And he
left this behind?� He opened the case
and they looked at the intricately decorated, brass-bodied dobro.

�Think again, Scott.�
Jean said. �That�s an work of
art, in my opinion. No one would just
throw it away.�

Logan cast about from the mouth of the alley for hours after
that, but he found no other traces.

* * *

This was not his bed.
Kurt cracked his eyes open. Gray
industrial walls, plain military-style bed, paper clothing� Mein Gott! Someone had taken him. He
sat up suddenly, feeling queasy at the sudden movement. He forced himself to stand, and stared hard
at the corridor through the bars. He
had to get out of here! *Bam� He just made it to the stark toilet before
he threw up. If he couldn�t teleport,
he was trapped! He lost it; galloping
in all directions around his cell in a panic, trying to find a way out.

�Kurt, stop it�� a voice said. �Kurt�� He found himself
pulling on the steel bars with all his strength, growling as he tried to get
free.

�KURT! Quit wasting
your energy. That�s what they want.�

He knew that voice.
Jerrin, the guitar player. �Gott,
Jerrin, I�m so sorry. You�re here
because of me, aren�t you?� Kurt could
feel tears prickling in his eyes.

�Not really, freund.
Come up to the front left of your cell.
I know there�s a solid wall between us, but this should work.� Kurt moved to the corner, trying to see his
companion.

�I�m here because I�m different, too.� A hand moved into Kurt�s view. It was strong, graceful, and possessing too
many fingers. The tan and pink of
Caucasian skin tones were altered by a definite blue-gray undertone. The hand flexed and the fingers moved,
proving total control of all six fingers.
�I have six toes on each foot, as well.
So it�s not just you they want to study. They�ve already taken full X-rays and stuff, taken blood, and
given us some heavy drugs.�

Kurt found a few needle marks on his arms. That much was true. �Why didn�t I see this about you before?�

Jerrin chuckled.
�Why didn�t I really see you before?
The blue furry guy I saw getting X-rayed in the lab wasn�t exactly the kid
I treated to lunch. I was in disguise,
same as you, and for the same reasons.�

�But how? You
weren�t wearing a��

�The walls have ears, Kurt.
I will be omitting some truths to you, to prevent them from learning too
much, but I won�t lie to you. I suggest
you exercise the same caution about anything you don�t think they should know
about, particularly about your friends.�

�Ja. That
sounds like a good idea.�

* * *

Hank collected some good prints off the bottle and wrapper,
but was having trouble making sense of them.
The DNA from the saliva he�d encountered kept giving him a problem,
crashing the software time and again.
He�d gotten a full, clear thumbprint and had run it through the various
databases to no avail. The man wasn�t
in any official databases, and there was precious little to be discovered about
a Mr. J. MacLean on the Internet, either.

Kitty sat with him the next day, after finding nothing on
the �Net, and watched him push his preserved prints around, based on a thick
book he had open on the science of fingerprints. �What�s the problem?
You�ve got plenty of prints to work with.�

�Too many, my young friend.
I have more than enough fingers to fill up a hand, and no sign that
anyone but �J� handled these objects.�

�Didn�t Jean say his guitar was metal? Have you dusted it?�

�Ah! I didn�t think
I needed to, with a surfeit of information already. But perhaps some context is needed�� Carefully, he opened the case, and started dusting the exposed
top of the instrument. More prints and
partials, mostly matching others he�d collected before, but the jackpot was at
the base. There his brush revealed a
partial handprint; Upper palm, side of the thumb� and five slender fingers,
ending in clear prints.

He pondered while he collected and scanned the print. �It appears I had a presumption
problem. I expected �J� to have a
normal hand, as the videotape showed, but I was wrong. Maybe that was the problem with the DNA as
well.�

He went to the recalcitrant machine, and changed the field that
said �Human� to �Unknown�. �This
equipment can gene-type plants and animals as well as people, so maybe fewer
assumptions would prove more fruitful here, also.�

Kitty finished dusting the guitar while he altered the
settings on the DNA machine. When he
returned, she�d found a lower palm print, and she was manipulating the images
on the monitor to create a complete hand print.

Turning the instrument over in his hands, he studied the
placement of the marks. �From these
prints, he has full use of them.�

The printer started chugging out a result, the first one
he�d gotten since he took on this project.
�Interesting,� he said, as he read it.
�There�s no sign of an X-Gene, and Mr. MacLean seems to have 30
Chromosome pairs.�
A/N: We mere mortals, mutants included, have only 23 pairs.
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Innocent Of Evil