Paladin Business (Part Three)

It was weird, seeing Magneto in the flesh, wearing that same goddamn red and purple outfit of his that haunted the simulations we had to run against him in the Danger Room and Danger Cave. The specter of this man had haunted our training to be X-Men

I know. I was the one that asked him to go with us in the first place. But just because it was my idea didn't mean I still wasn't ready for it to go pear-shaped.

Once Magneto was ready, Megan teleported us to a second location that Ruth had put into her head when she'd done the same with Genosha. I couldn't help but smile when we arrived and right in front of us was a massive vessel meant for space travel.

It was Ord's ship; the one he had taken to get to Earth to enact his mission that had set up everything leading to Miss Pryde's disappearance. He had left it behind when we were all more or less abducted by S.W.O.R.D., and seeing as how he had died, it wasn't like anyone from Breakworld was going to come back and retrieve it. That made it property of S.W.O.R.D... and they lent it to us.

Megan shook her head, unable to take her eyes off of the ship as we walked the rest of the way over, "I don't understand how you could have pulled all of this together in, what, three days?"

"Four," I corrected, trying to downplay it all, "I told you, Pix. Lots of moving parts."

I really didn't have to do that much. The plan wasn't particularly elaborate, there were just certain things that needed to come together for it all to work. I just had to procure two things – transportation to get us through space, and Magneto to use as a living, breathing compass, pointing us in the right direction. Maybe he could even reach out and get the bullet to slow down so we could catch up. One could only hope. Beyond that, it was winging it and giving it our best shot.

The transportation part wasn't even handled by me. Mister Rasputin was the one who went and leaned on someone for it. The mean Abigail Brand lady from S.W.O.R.D. owed us a favor from Breakworld, and since we were using that favor to fix a consequence from that godforsaken mission, she had little reason beyond official ones to turn us down. It wasn't like I knew her well, but from what I had experienced, she didn't seem the type who cared very much about red tape.

It wasn't as tense as you would have thought, bringing Magneto onboard. Hisako had already met him, so she roughly shared my sentiments on the man. If Ruth had seen some treachery ahead of time, she hadn't told any of us, so she was cool. Laura never had to deal with Magneto before, nor had she been brought up on X-Men tales of his treachery, so she didn't care beyond the basics of not trusting him.

Eddie and Mister Rasputin were the ones who were most against Magneto's presence. Neither of them trusted him. Though Eddie's was more along the lines of Megan's wariness, Mister Rasputin had a long and checkered relationship. Still, when we boarded with Magneto, Mister Rasputin was quick to approach him, standing face-to-face. There was never any fear of a fight breaking out, but there was enough of an edge to the interaction that we all took notice.

Despite Mister Rasputin towering over him, Magneto simply stared up at him, never looking away, "Piotr."

"Erik," Rasputin replied neutrally. Eventually, his body language relaxed and he lowered his head, "Thank you… for doing this. For helping us search for Katya."

At that, Magneto's eyes widened, "Katherine is the one who was lost in space?"

"You didn't know?"

"Solaris didn't say."

I looked between the two when they turned to glance at me, "I didn't want to bring it up unless he asked. I don't know who all of you have heat with or not," I just thought it better not to name names, just in case Magneto had some kind of blood feud with Miss Pryde. It seemed to be the opposite, in fact.

The two men headed off to speak amongst themselves, which left me to run through a last-minute check before we took off… because I was going to be the one flying, you see. Who else?

"I can't believe we're seriously going back to space," Hisako said while I ran through the checklist, "I know you said you don't expect danger, but we could die out there."

"That doesn't hold a lot of weight considering who we are," I replied.

Eddie quickly agreed with me, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure the odds of us getting killed in space are on par with the odds of us getting killed on a random Friday night in Salem Center."

Hisako smirked, "Speaking from experience, Wing?"

Eddie snorted, "Yeah, Sol's."

"That only happened three times," I counterproductively argued.

"In one year?" Hisako said, catching onto the joke.

"That's still three more than the rest of us," Eddie added.

I pointed over to Ruth, "No, 'cuz Ruthie was there for one of those; when we got kidnapped."

Eddie disagreed, "That doesn't count because Blindfold didn't almost die. You did."

I chuckled, "Maybe it's just me then?"

"Dunno what to tell you, dude," Eddie said.

"Have you ever tried not nearly getting yourself killed?" Hisako suggested.

"What, you mean going all the way and fully getting myself killed?" I offered, "Because I'm pretty sure that would piss a few people off if I went and did that," Having sat on the sidelines for the duration of our inane conversation, Laura let her presence be known with an affirmative grunt, "See?"

Megan shook her head at the banter between us, "I can't believe you guys are about to get shot off into space and can joke about it like this," The way we spoke, we may as well have been getting ready for a road trip to a concert or something, "Is Bel-Bel's crazy infectious?"

"Yes," Hisako stated bluntly, "It might be terminal too. The jury's still out on that one."

Eddie grinned, "I've learned that this crap isn't as scary if you can keep making jokes about it."

I turned to Megan who seemed out of place, what with the rest of us in our uniforms. As far as X-Men stuff went, she was good in the field, but until the action kicked off, she always seemed skittish. A confidence thing, maybe?

"Pix, you can go back to school now," I told her, "We're good. I won't forget I owe you one later."

"If you live that long," She grumbled.

"I mean, yeah," I shrugged, thinking that went without saying.

Megan seemed to be debating with herself, shifting back and forth from one foot to another, "...Do you think it would help if I stayed?" She eventually asked.

The rest of us all looked at each other before I said anything else, "I told you, this isn't an X-Men thing, Megan. This is straight-up Paladin business."

Megan looked around at all of us, then at herself. Likely feeling more than a little out of place, she started to back out of the cockpit, "I... see. Got it. Sorry!"

I felt bad to send her on her way so abruptly, but she really didn't need to be there any longer than necessary. Life as an X-Man was dangerous enough without getting people involved in the little personal things that popped up for from time to time. Plus, it would be kind of hard to work the plausible deniability angle to her benefit to keep her out of trouble if she was around the whole time.

Before long, I finished my pre-flight checks. Not too long after, Colossus and Magneto finished hashing out whatever grown folks' business they needed to see to away from the rest of us. The only thing left to do from there was to take off.

Everyone took their seats, buckling in tight as I brought the engines to life.

"Are you sure you can fly this thing?" Eddie asked, "It isn't exactly the Blackbird."

I had to laugh. It was a little late to be asking that now, "Yeah, for sure. It's got the same interface as the things I flew on Breakworld, it's just got a bit more junk in the trunk. So, we doing this?"

Everyone looked to Colossus, who sat in his seat, eyes glued straight ahead. He didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular, but the focused expression on his face was clear for all of us to see, "It is time, Solaris."

"Right," I gripped the controls tightly, "Last call. If your ass isn't in a seat, life's about to be hard for a little bit."

It wasn't like we were in a rocket, so the takeoff was smooth. Still, the ship had to fly with enough force to break through Earth's atmosphere and gravitational field. Breakworld was a planet about warfare, so they made everything sturdy, ships like ours included. It still wasn't the most pleasant experience. Thankfully, it only lasted a minute or so. That minute would have been a lot worse if we hadn't been in the relative safety of our seats.

Once we were 'safely' within the reaches of space, I set coordinates and let the auto-guidance take over. Sighing, I slumped back in my seat. My head hurt. All we had done was take off. We hadn't even started the search yet and it felt like so much had already happened.

No one was talking. Colossus was still alone with his own thoughts, Magneto didn't seem to be the talkative type these days, Laura was Laura, and everyone else was getting acclimated to being in space. Other than the sound of the engine running, it was very quiet. Quiet enough to hear pained moans and jostling from elsewhere onboard.

"...No..." I muttered, knowing exactly what I was hearing. I didn't even need to check, but was obligated to do so, "Goddamn it."

I got up and headed to the hold of the ship. Being that it had been in S.W.O.R.D. storage prior to them pulling it out for us to use, there was no cargo inside. There were food and water supplies though, along with a stowaway.

Megan seemed to be halfway through changing into her X-Men uniform when we took off, because we found her in a heap in the corner of the hold, upside down, pants halfway down her legs, boots separated across the room.

"Oww..." She complained to her new audience.

"Pixie?" Armor said, "You didn't leave?" She then turned to me, accusation in her tone, "You didn't check?"

"Of course, I checked!" I replied, "I checked the whole fucking time! Literally all I was doing before we took off was checking the ship!"

How did she even avoid me? I wasn't aware there even were hiding places onboard. Even so, I didn't think she would stay! Who wants to go to space? ...Other than us?

The only one who didn't seem surprised or perturbed was Laura, which immediately caught my attention, "...Did you know?"

"Yes," Of course she did, what with her super-sniffer and all. She had probably been aware that Megan had still been around the whole time.

"Laura..." I said, meaning to admonish her.

The girl was unapologetic in her demeanor, "She asked if it would help if she stayed. It would," She reasoned. How pragmatic of her.

"Eh-heh..." Megan chuckled sheepishly, embarrassed by the position we had found her in, "Surprise!"

The thing was, Laura wasn't wrong. Megan had been as good as gold as a member of my X-Men team. Her powers were effective, she could use magic, and she was a lot braver than she thought she was once crunch time set in.

Also, contrary to how she appeared, upside-down in a heap with her uniform half on and her undergarments showing, she was very capable.

All-in-all, things could have been worse than bringing along an extra pair of hands. We could have been found out before we ever even left. At least the mission had gotten underway.