No Time Like NOW

[Glitch]

Not even bothering to answer Jax, Dante wasted no time between peeking in both the cafeteria and the kitchen to look for the older Corsair before heading for the garage. He had seen his leave his room this morning at the same time he was getting out half asleep and grumpy for having to wake up so early. In the week that Dante had been at the school, he knew that the guy spent a lot of time in the garage, particularly in the morning.

With Jax following, Dante burst into the door of the garage to see Mason working on a beat up car. The door to the garage door slammed open while Dante walked right up to Mason without fear and with determination. "That fire chick, Ember. You guys are close right?" His turquoise eyes were steely as he looked at the older Corsair Captain. "You're gonna wanna see the video they're playing in the rec room right now. Then we're leaving. I got my own pain-in-the-ass hellcat to get, and I have a feeling after you see that you ain't gonna wait anymore than I do."

Dante took a deep breath and held Mason's stare for a minute, getting frustrated. "Go see it, cause I can't get her back on my own, and I know you want your girl back. Look for yourself, then come back here and tell me that you don't wanna take action now and not wait around for everyone else to get their shit together and get to it. We need to act now, and I ain't gonna risk the time." He stared at Mason right in the face, unwavering so the guy could see just how serious he was about it and that he was seriously not playing around.

[Ironclad]

"What the hell?" Mason threw down the torque he was holding and glared at the kid that nearly screwed up the delicate procedure of putting a transmission back together. "Aideen's in trouble? Who got her? %$#@ man what the hell is going on?" He suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Though he wasn't sure about the kid standing in front of him like that, he hadn't survived this long by not learning how to determine whether a situation is serious, and whatever was going on, this kid was serious about.

"If this is some kinda joke, I'll beat your head in, cause that's a %$#@ed up joke ya hear?" Mason spat and threw his jacket on as he rushed out the door. He wasn't going to pass off something that involved one of his friends, especially Aideen after the crap he put her through. His mind was rushing at the possible scenarios that could happen and he couldn't get to the rec room fast enough as his gut twisted up more and more in worry and anticipation as to what he would learn about his friend that had the other kids so worked up.

[-RAM-]

"Honestly man, does it LOOK like we're freakin' joking?" Jax stated bluntly, with an impatient sigh as he watched the big guy run out the Garage and turned around to look at Dante. Dante's plan had partially revealed itself to Jax after his rant towards this big guy who Jax'd seen yesterday, while he'd popped in to have a check on his custom made Bugatti in the morning before Tech Class, and then again during Lunch, while the Goddess in Leather, as Joce called her, had been promoted to the X-Men. Jax didn't know too much about this guy- but he was trustin' Dante to know what he was doing. Dante seemed hell determined about this whole thing, and it took Jax shorter than most to put the peices together.

The fire he'd seen in Dante's eyes clicked the peices into place almost immidiately. Jax was pretty damn sure it was the exactly look that he'd have in his eyes if it was Ana on that goddamn tape- and Jax had no idea how it'd happened, or what'd happened, but he wasn't gonna bother questioning him just yet. Instead, his brain switched to game mode. Jax hadn't ever really been exposed to the world in this way before- but he'd seen enough movies and shit to know roughly how this thing went. "Right, we're gonna have to take my car." Jax said, looking at Dante with an obvious look. "It's the fastest in the garage. It's custom made so it'll fit all three of us in there, and I got a lot of shit we could use on the road stacked in there, so that's all good... uh, except..." Jax paused, a chain of growls comin' out his throat. "Cyclops has every single copy of my keys. Damn it!"

Jax inhaled sharply, his fingers runnin' through his hair and he turned to look at Dante with a game face. "I bet one's definitely in his office." A slow smirk spread itself on his face, as he started to follow in the older Corsair's footsteps. "Cyclops and Frost ain't anywhere near their offices... C'mon!"

[Glitch]

Looking up from his phone, Dante stared at Jax for a minute and let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and just assume your ass don't know how to pick a basic lock right?" he snarled and finished his text to his boys to get a callback. He marked it with the universal code for urgent so he'd get a response quick. Dante was planning on getting in touch with his gang and his prison contacts as quickly as possible. They would know the information he needed to know about human trafficking, they would know probably more than anyone else would know. Chi-WEST didn't deal with any of that stuff, they had the drugs and stolen items that they sold right on the black market in constant competition with the Chinese, but that didn't mean they didn't have contact with other 'businesses.'

Dante pocketed the phone and gave Jax a glare as he started for the door. "Let's go Preppy, we'll get the damn keys and we better beat back that Corsair in the garage, cause I wasn't playing when I said we don't got much time. Move it!" He snarled and pushed past him walking out the door and back to the mansion in a fast pace. "Ain't even smart enough to hide an extra key," Dante muttered under his breath as he walked toward the mansion, not slowing down as he got closer to the mansion.

He was already on the edge of hitting something just for the hell of it, and if he had to go out of his way one more damn time, he had full intentions of causing some serious damage on whoever or whatever was responsible for it. As it was he was trying to control his own anger and wait to let it out on the right people, cause right then he couldn't afford to let anything slow him down.

[-RAM-]

Dante's pessimsm was bouncing right off Jax's head, as he ran his way up to Cyclops's office, with Dante close behind. "You can stay standin' out on that limb," he said with a casual roll of his eyes as he ran up three steps at a time to get to the Headmaster's office. "'Cause I can pick a lock." Kinda had to learn, when I used to break into Priya's room at night to wreck her stuff and shred her homework. The thought bought back a vague smirk on Jax's face, but he was in far too much of a hurry to concentrate on smug memories right now. Instead, he came to an abrupt halt outside Cyclops' office, and pulled a hair pin out of his pocket which he kept for 'emergencies' such as these.

He knelt down on a knee, twisting the hair pin into the lock, picking it until... "Gottit!" A victorious smirk flew onto his face, as he pushed the door open to Cyclops' office, beckoning Dante in with him as he headed straight for the headmaster's desk. "Right... have a look around- each copy'll have three keys, with the same 'JAX' keychain." he said out loud, opening the drawers of the desk carelessly, considering he was in such a hurry. His luck musta been sky high today, 'cause the first drawer on the left consisted of a bunch of keys, and his silver expensive customized keychain was distinctly visible.

"Got one!" Jax pulled the keys out of the drawer hastily, shutting the drawer with a slight thud. "Ain't that useless, afterall, am I?" he said with a slight smug smirk, waving Dante out of the room so that the two could run back down to the garage in time for the Big guy's return.

[Glitch]

"Oh yea, you got serious skills. If you had any brains though, you woulda used a damn knife to pop the lock open, and we woulda been back downstairs ten minutes ago," Dante growled, looking up at the rich preppy boy with his phone open in his hand. Had he not been waiting for his boys to get back to him with the Intel he needed to find out what the hell was going on, he would have pushed him aside within the first minute and gotten out his blade to give the lock a quick pop. So far all he got was affirmation that they were on it and that they were calling up all their allies on the East Coast and the West Coast, and that was far less than he wanted at the moment.

"You better get all your shit together, and that means if you need a computer or whatever to do your shit, you better go and get it," Dante spat as they walked through the hallway, trying not to draw too much attention to them. As much as he was on a hurry to get outta here and go find her, the last thing he needed was some additional tag alongs and anyone else to slow them down. The main reason Dante didn't go on his own and went to the Corsair gunslinger was because he didn't know the East Coast well enough and he knew the guy had something or other to do with the racing underground. He'd seen cars like the one the guy had enough times to know when a car was supped up for racing.

That was the thing about the whole criminal circle, whether it was the illegal underground racing, hijacking of cars and car-parts, drug dealing, weapons dealing, gang activity, and prostitution; they all ran in the same circuit. Allof them had a connection to the other and each individual ring had connections to other rings outside of that particular circuit. Dante knew that if he was to press hard enough, he could get his contacts to connect him to the right people to get him the information they need.

His pace slowed down as he saw people piling out of the rec room, the somber looks on some of their faces and the determined look others had told him that something or other was happening that had to do with the video. It didn't concern him though, Dante did things his way even if they weren't always the right way. At that moment, the only things that he was focused on was getting the damn pain-in-the ass hellcat that got deep under his skin from the second he met her, and getting his hands on anyone that had anything to do with it.

[-RAM-]

"I'll see you back at the Garage." Jax said, half rolling his eyes at Mohawk's less than approving attitude. He knew he got the job done, and that was pretty much all that mattered for now. Either way, that was sort of besides the point for the time being. Jax didn't need telling twice- he didn't like taking orders, but Mohawk really did look like he knew what he was doing and it didn't look like it'd do him any good to mess with the Hood. With a quick nod at Dante and a backward glance at the group coming out of the rec room, Jax carried on towards the Boys Dormitory, trying to avoid Ana at all costs. He hadn't yet spotted her in the group that'd come out of the rec room, and he wasn't going to stick around to try to spot her either. He wanted to see his girl before the bailed- but here was the deal, despite only knowing her for a couple of days- he knew for a damned fact that he wouldn't let him go quietly.

She wasn't one to be left behind, and she'd make a right little nuisance of herself if she managed to catch him. She'd want to come along; and that was not happening. He didn't care. Jax pushed her out of his mind for the moment- it was stupid but he felt as if the less he thought of her, the less likely he was of having to deal with her at this given time. He was tall, and atheltic, hence he was at the Boys Dorm pretty damn fast, and was glad to find his room empty. Without thinking twice on it, he grabbed his backpack, chucking in his laptop and most other hi-tech gadgets that he'd picked up on his road trip from Alaska to the Academy.

His clothes weren't completely unpacked, but he left them in there- who knew where they might come in handy. Jax could process things quicker than the average person seeing his brain worked a lot like a computer, hence he was pretty damn confident that he'd taken everything he owned that they could possibly need and shoved it in this life-saving backpack of his, and with a last quick glance over at his now-practically-empty side of the room, he broke into a sprint back to the Garage.

[Ironclad]

He couldn't have hightailed it out of the rec room faster after he got wind that Logan had his own ideas. One thing Mason was sure of, he certainly didn't envy anyone that stood in the feral mutant's way to getting his girl back. It wasn't like Mason was feeling much less murderous about the whole thing. He didn't care about the surrounding events, or the why question as to them being taken; all he knew was that they had so little time to do this that it would be sheer luck if they got to them at this point before they were handed off. He knew how these things worked, hell he heard stories about them spoken in hushed whispers in the underground circuit since he was a kid. Once these people were sold, there would be little to no hope in getting them back. Kids had the worst end of the rope, because once they grew to a certain age, they would either be sold again or disposed of in a way that they would never be found.

Mason couldn't think about it too much, he needed to keep his emotions in check. Knowing Aideen as he did, the only reason she had gotten captured was probably for the sake of Chopper and Liv. He needed to keep his emotions in check if he wanted to find them, but he was coming prepared like nothing else. He had gone to the Weapons Room in the basement, punching his personal code to open the door to what many would call an extremely impressive weapon's arsenal. There were just about every kind of gun that could be found on the market, both legal and illegal, and even some custom made guns that were used to combat particular kinds of threats. Other than the guns, the room was full of knives, swords, shields, chains, nun-chucks, anything that could be named, chances are it was there.

Not bothering to study the weapons, Mason grabbed a large black duffel from one of the cabinets and began stuffing it with guns and several knives that could always come in handy. A tightening occurred in his throat when he grabbed some of the knives he used to spar with Aideen. He need to take a deep breath before he continued, tossing boxes of bullets into the bag along with whatever gun he felt he could use. They may not have any idea what they were up against, but he would be damn sure that they were prepared. It led him to think on the duo that signed themselves up to go with him. He could easily leave them behind, but Mason knew that he couldn't do this in one day on his own. If those tattoos said anything, the gang kid had connections, and they needed connections in this thing. The rich kid had the money they could need, and one hell of a ride Mason was itching to drive. No way was he gonna ride bitch, and he knew for a fact that neither of these guys were East Coast, so better him anyways.

Zipping up the practically full duffel bag, Mason hurried out of the room, making sure to lock the door securely behind him. He went straight to the garage, knowing he could change his greasy shirt there anyways since he made a point to always keep a fresh set of clothes in the garage. He practically ran right into the rich kid as they both walked briskly to the garage. "We ain't lingering, and whether you got your keys or not, we're taking your car. Mine's a two seater and still needs repairs. Once we get on the road you're gonna tell me what you guys got in mind and I'll tell you what we're doin'," Mason said in the gruff stern tone he adapted after acting as Captain for several years. When he got to the garage, he placed the bag on the floor by the car and wet to change, no action wasted on his part to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

[Glitch]

Snapping his phone shut while he leaned against the car, his eyes snapped up to the two when they entered the room. "Got word that there are several places on the East Coast that could possibly be a locale for sex trafficking, but they aren't sure which ones are doing runs anytime soon. The closest one's in Spanish Harlem in Manhattan, one of my boy's cousin part of the Almighty King and Queen Nation, they got a big hand in prostitution rings and sex trafficking, so they might work with the higher ups. It's all I got on the lead," Dante said looking at the two of them before pocketing his phone in his jacket.

"Preppy, toss me the keys." His hand held out for the keys and he caught them easily, opening the car door and popping open the trunk. It didn't take him long to pack a small bag with a couple of things he thought might come in handy, and it was light enough to barely weigh them down. Dante tossed it into the trunk before turning to the Corsair gunslinger with a pointed glare skimming across his face. "I'm assuming you know where we gotta go for that? Best bet is the underground rings, and no way that these do-gooder X-Men are gonna go there. I'll stoop to wherever we gotta go, but I'm getting them back."

Dante looked between Mason and Jax, scowling slightly. "We ain't gonna get them back the longer we stand around, now MOVE!" he growled, his hands forming fists.

[Ironclad]

"If we don't got the right stuff, don't matter how much we move we're still not gonna get 'em. Calm your fire kid," Mason growled and tossed his things in the trunk of the car, waiting for Jax to do the same before he slammed it shut. Without another word or comment, the gunslinger grabbed the keys from Dante and went right in the passenger seat of the car. "Get in guys, we're outta here and the only time we're stopping is for gas. We'll figure shit out in the car." He shut the driver's door and buckled himself in, waiting for the other two to get in as he started the engine.

Mason never drove a Bugatti Veyron, hell he had never even been near one. He wasn't one for foreign cars in general, but from the purr of the engine and the how smoothly the car moved from the second he put it into drive, he had to admit it was pretty nice. Pulling out of the driveway, Mason hit the gas and accelerated down the road, still getting used to the car but being enough of a skilled driver to easily be able to maneuver such a powerful car.

"Alright listen up, first place we gotta go is in the underground scene. I been in the circle for almost about a decade now, and I know my way around there pretty damn well. I got contacts and I have people that owe me favors, so hopefully we'll run into someone that works in the sex trade ring," Mason said turning in the direction toward the town so they could get on the highway. "Closest one is in the city, and I got a lot of contacts there. That's where we start, but if you guys got any ideas that make sense, share them now while we can still change our course." He looked over at the two boys for a moment before turning his eyes back to the road, speeding down the streets to begin their journey of getting back those that are important to them.