𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

Adventures in Breaking the Law, Part 2

Considering it was the middle of the week, it was surprising just how busy the tour of the Pentagon building was. The freshly cleaned marbled floored corridors where hardly visible under the feet of so many people, either beelining for their offices or wandering from painting to painting, snapping as many photos as possible before the tour guide beckoned them on to the next stop that was only a few feet to the left.

Having just missed the group swarmed with a bunch of young school children, the four to-be-criminals were forced into a later group, filled with elderly concessions that were taking their sweet time to make their way around the building, keeping the pace to not much over a standstill, and effectively making the tour way longer than it needed to be. And then there was the case of the young toddlers, refusing to stick with their exasperated parents and constantly annoying security guards, occasionally trying to steal expensive ornaments from where stood delicately balanced on decorated tables.

Jennifer couldn't help but envy Peter as she slowly trudged along, pretending to be interested in whatever the middle-aged guide was talking about. He hadn't had to suffer through a boring lecture on the founding fathers or whoever the white folks on the were, simply avoiding the tour altogether by rushing through the building to carry out his part of the plan.

Why Charles and Hank had been so hell bent on getting her to join them was a mystery to her, and the only explanation she could find at the time was that they wanted more time with her to find out what had happened in the last ten years. It had taken some time to convince her to get into the car with them, but at the mention of one name she had set aside her issues with Charles, fully committed to the cause.

As much as it pained her to say it, their distracted, turtle paced group provided them cover. The guards were keeping their eyes on the small kids, making sure they didn't run off too far, which meant the security was slightly laxed – not laxed enough for Charles and Logan to take a detour though. Hank had his transmission disruptor at the ready, sitting neatly within his truly hideous fanny pack, but so far there had been no use for it.

They had one opportunity to get to the kitchens where their prisoner would be waiting for them, and with each painstakingly slow step, their doorway was slowly closing, both metaphorically in literally. There was only one door they knew about that would take them down to their destination, and they couldn't circle back to try again, not without seeming highly suspicious, not without making Peter wait in the hallways for half an hour.

If they were going to execute their plan, they had to do it quick, and with the guards still on semi-high alert, they needed a distraction – a big one, and quick. But nothing seemed to be lending itself to their case, and Jennifer could only find one other option. It wasn't a good plan, hell, it was hardly an idea, and it was risky considering she had no idea what she was going to do, but with the staircase almost beside them, she had to take a chance.

Nudging Logan with her elbow, she kept her gaze straight ahead to minimise suspicion, and from beside her, she could see him do the same thing. "I'm gonna do something. Go as soon as you get an opening alright?"

He nodded, trusting the girls quick instincts without even needing to think about it. She just seemed so in control, like everything was a simulation she had ran through multiple times, allowing her to find the best solution. In day to day life it was easy to think that she was just an ordinary teenager, juggling between friends, love and school, but in times like these it was clear as anything that Jennifer Jones knew too much for someone her age. She thrived in on foot thinking, in having an entire room of people fooled, in strategizing what to do next – it was her area without her even have to consciously thinking about what she was doing, which at some point may fair well become her doom.