Unwilling Weapon

Knight In Shining Armor

A very short time after the little group poofed out of the Danger Room, Jubilee made her way upstairs to find Scott, and she looked beyond irritated when she knocked on the open door at his office and just folded her arms.

"Your little stray just dragged off the three troublemakers," Jubilee said with a deep frown.

"Dragged them off where?" Scott asked quickly, already settling into a frown of his own.

"From the sounds of it, to Kate's — family's — I don't know? They were talking about horseback riding."

Scott settled into a glare and tipped his head Jubilee's way before he stood up and swore under his breath. "I thought it was clear she shouldn't go anywhere until we were sure Sabretooth had given up on her."

"Or we figured out who the heck she even was," Jubilee added.

Scott frowned deeper at that and paused to look her way. "Whose idea was the trip?" he asked.

"Kate offered?" she said with a frown. "But apparently it was after something K had said to her."

"Did any of them have their comms?" Scott asked.

"I ... really don't know," Jubilee said. "I didn't exactly pat them down on the way in."

"Let's find out," Scott suggested. He tried Logan first, not because he thought Logan would pick up but just to get it out of the way so he could say he tried, before he called Kate — who didn't answer either. But he finally got an answer when he called Kurt, and immediately, he heard the shrieks of laughter on the other end at whatever it was those four were up to. "What are you guys doing?" Scott half-shouted into the comm over the noise.

"We thought K could use a little fresh air," Kurt replied over the sound of Kate's delighted laughter. "We're horseback riding ... just a few little games. I've got the bamfs looking out for any sign of trouble, and we'll 'port right back if we see so much as a tracksuit."

"That's not my only concern, Kurt," Scott said almost wearily. "We have no idea who the heck this woman is."

"That's not exactly a unique situation," Kurt pointed out.

"It kind of is," Scott argued. "You haven't seen the lack of any kind of intel on this girl. And I've been digging."

"Well, whoever she is, Kate seems to love her," Kurt said with a laugh as Kate's giggles filled the comms for a moment. "And she's not the only one. She seems to fit in — we can figure the rest out as we go. Have a little faith." With that, the comm went silent just seconds after they could hear Kate declare that it was 'our turn.'

Scott just stared at the comm for a moment after it went dead. "Any luck on either front?" he said finally as he looked up at Jubilee again.

"Not really, no," Jubes said. "Got my computer shut down on both searches. Again. Big Virus warning."

"The same one?" Scott asked thoughtfully. "Both SHIELD viruses, I mean?"

"Yeah, looks like," Jubilee replied easily.

"Well, that's more than we had before. At least for K — we know who's keeping us out anyway," Scott said, then let out a heavy sigh. "If Logan wasn't out... doing whatever he's doing, I'd ask him to talk to Fury about this."

"They are coming back, right?" Jubilee asked. "Because I have words."

Scott smirked her way. "Oh, they're coming back. And I've got words too."

Hours later, there was still no sign of the four of them, and Scott just looked more irritated with every passing hour. He was glaring at the clock. And the comms. And grumbling low to himself every time he thought about what reckless stupid thing they could possibly be doing on horseback — if that was actually what they were doing.