Shadowcat: Read or Die! (part 17 of 21)

a Crossovers fanfiction by Shanejayell

Back to Part 16
"Eeep," Yomiko managed as she was bodily hauled out of
the school buildings towards the unmarked van. "But I
was reading to the class," the black haired young
woman protested, her square framed glasses gleaming.

"It's an emergency," Wendy said firmly, the smaller
woman tugging her forward firmly. "You've got extra
paper in your suitcase?" the blonde asked as she slid
the van door open, Yomiko climbing into the back seat.

"Hai." Yomiko agreed, belting herself into a seat
nervously. "What's going on?" she asked curiously even
as Wendy revved the engine and pulled out into the
street.

In almost the opposite of her usual clumsy style Wendy
drove quite well, weaving them through traffic easily.
"Kitty and Drake had a brainstorm," she explained,
"and came up with a plan to track a Ijin back home to
their base."

"And find this Sinister-san," Yomiko nodded, her
expression serious.

"Exactly," Wendy agreed as they pulled in front of a
office building at least partially owned by the
Library. Hopping out she lead Yomiko inside and to the
elevators, the two reaching the top floor in a few
moments then taking the stairs to the roof.

The black helicopter waited there on the pad, rotors
spinning rapidly. Kitty Pryde waited by the open door,
the brow haired girl grinning as she said, "What took
you so long?"

Yomiko smiled back, pushing up her glasses as she said
cheerfully, "I wanted to finish reading the chapter to
my class."

Drake laughed as he checked over the 'copter's
controls, a headset relaying information from the
Library to him. "Why am I not surprised," the burly
blonde haired man murmured, tapping a monitor on the
main panel, a blip glowing from where the tracking
device had stopped.

"Good hunting, all of you," Wendy said, stepping back
even as Kitty helped Yomiko climb on board. "We'll
have a tactical team ready to move out on your
signal," she added, "but you'll be our primary team."

"Got it," Kitty slid the door shut and with barely a
lurch the 'copter rose into the sky.

Without seemingly thinking about it Yomiko got out a
paperback and began to read, a happy smile on her
face. "She doesn't change," Drake murmured to Kitty
fondly.

"No, I guess not," Kitty said as they rose above the
city, moving towards where the signaling device sent
out it's beacon. "This almost reminds me of an X-Men
caper," she added, "but we usually have more people on
our side."

"The Library likes quiet ops whenever possible," Drake
said, "smaller teams tend to help us pull that off."
He flashed a grin, "And we like quality, not
quantity."

"Why did I know you were going to add that?" Kitty
joked. She peered out as they swept across the city,
"So what do we do once we get to the base?"

Drake shrugged, "We really don't know what we're
getting into, Pryde. I figure we're going to have to
drop in them improvise."

"Really sounds like the X-Men," Kitty muttered.

"Really, Kitty-san?" Yomiko asked, peering at her over
her book.

Drake tapped the monitor then looked out the window at
the surroundings. "It looks like we're here," he said
quietly.

"Just a regular office building?" Kitty blinked,
looking at the smaller, older building. Only six
floors tall, a bit shabby looking, it almost looked
like it had bee abandoned by it's landlords.

"Appearances can be deceiving," Yomiko gently reminded
her, "you remember the ''Purloined Letter?"

"Think we can sneak in?" Drake asked, looking around
for a place to land nearby.

"Worth a try," Kitty said, "but I sort of doubt it."

They finally descended to a nearby street, Drake
bringing the 'copter down on to the thankfully mostly
deserted road. Ignoring horn honks he helped the two
women out as he asked, "You figure this place to have
good security?"

"Considering the sort of technology Sinister has, I'd
bet on it," Kitty said. They ran towards a nearby
building, peering at the offices then headed to a
alley running behind it.

"So how do you want to get inside?" Yomiko asked,
calmly dragging her suitcase behind her on it's
wheeled carrier.

"Well, a shaped plastique charge might do it," Drake
murmured, laying a hand on the brick wall
thoughtfully.

"I think I have a quieter idea," Kitty said to them
quickly. She offered one hand to Yomiko and the other
to Drake, "Just hold on."

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Drake
blinked, taking her hand trustingly.

Yomiko took Kitty's hand, a faint blush coloring her
cheeks. "I'm ready," she said softly.

Kitty focused her concentration, a faint tingling
sensation washed over all three of them. Together they
walked through the wall, passing through brick,
plaster then metal and allow before emerging into a
internal hallway.

"Well," Kitty blinked as she looked around them, "this
doesn't look like an office building."

The hall was dim, pipes and conduits running along the
roof and walls. Cables hummed with power, digital
readouts mounted on junction points spaced out in the
hall. A odd scent of ozone and chemicals, iron and
alloy hung in the air, along with a disquieting sense
of something dangerous hanging in the still air.

Drake shook off his surprise, always a professional.
He pulled a portable version of the tracer and noted,
"Amelia is above us, according to this."

"But do we go after her or...?" Yomiko asked.

Kitty stalked over to one of the junctions,. studying
it intently for a few moments then softly asked Drake,
"Did you bring that laptop I asked for along?"

Drake pulled a laptop from his backpack, passing the
slim computer over to Kitty. "It's configured as you
asked," he added.

"Thanks," Kitty took the computer and pulled a
connection cable, plugging in and accessing internal
systems. "I've had a bit of experience with similar
systems," she noted absentmindedly, "I should be able
to..."

Yomiko was careful not to interrupt, having seen
people like Nenene and others work with that same sort
of intensity. Instead she covertly studied Kitty's
face, surprised to see yet another side to this
attractive young woman.

"Mind on the job," Drake reminded Yomiko gently, "you
can drool over her later."

"Drake-san!" Yomiko protested softly, but Drake just
smiled impishly.

"All right," Kitty said, "I've got internal
schematics." She brought the map up on her monitor,
pointing out details, "The living quarters are up top,
there's only two people there apparently." Her hand
slid to several red highlighted sections down below
street level, "As you can guess all the cloning labs
are down there."

"So where do we go first?" Yomiko asked.

"The Ijin can wait," Drake said firmly, "we need to
hit the cloning labs first. That was we stop more Ijin
from even being made."

"Not to mention stopping them from creating 'Ogun
clones," Kitty added. She smiled wryly, "I was going
to suggest the labs anyway, but I have a more personal
bias."

"You want to know if Nancy-san came from here," Yomiko
observed.

Kitty disconnected, rolling up the cable but keeping
the laptop out, map prominently displayed. "That and
have a little talk with Sinister," Kitty said as they
headed towards where an elevator was on the map,
"about why he did it."

"Talk as in punch someone in the head?" Drake asked.
When Kitty nodded grimly he added, "Be glad to help
out with that."

"Me, too," Yomiko agreed, reaching out to take Kitty's
free hand again.

Onwards to Part 18


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