An unwelcome visitor in their hive mind

Their new little proto-Hellfire Club was off to a good start. Fighting back, taking charge; actually acting rather than reacting. Sentinel Services was scared.

Three teams, each led by one of the three, Esme, Sophie and Phoebe. And then they'd reunited, with a captured hound, before returning to the mansion they kept as a base.

"It's hard to get in one's-"

"Head, but all together we'll-"

"Hopefully get some information," they said, the words carrying smoothly on from one of the sisters to the other.

They barely realised they were doing it any more; when they all worked as one they were quite literally of one mind. It wasn't worth the hassle of focusing it all in one body.

"We'll report back what-"

"We find," they said, leaving the mutants that had joined their team awaiting their return.

And then they went into an adjacent room. Lorna had bent metal to restrain the captured hound. Now, with a bit of quiet, they could focus.

The room was empty, save for the door back to the other mutants, the three of them, and the table. Esme, Sophie and Phoebe joined hands, their eyes coming alight with blue.

The hound had been going after a mutant safehouse. They barely had to use their powers to read that; its mind basically screamed it. 'Get rid of outer layer.' 'Tear down defences.' 'Expose mutants.'

They'd kept the safehouse, well, safe. Now they just had to figure out what they could about the hound; the more they learned, the better. In their shared mind, thoughts and phrases were traded almost instantaneously.

Think of where you came from. Do we know that landmark?

We do. Do we know what its power is? If it was strong enough to be made a hound, there's the chance it has family we could use.

Some kind of telekinetic, Andy was an even match. If it does have-

Get rid of defences.

That wasn't us was it? Who-

Tear. Expose mutants. Destroy outer walls. Get

MIMIC STOP CONTACT

Esme stumbled back, forcefully breaking both physical and telepathic contact. Damn mimic; mutants that could copy the powers of whoever they faced. They were always unpredictable. It had managed to slip into their hive mind, its single-minded thoughts creeping in without any need to bypass their defences.

Thanks to copying them, it might as well have been one of them, welcomed into their shared consciousness. That was never good; it had basically been able to implant commands and ideas in their minds.

"Ahh!" Three identical voices shouted suddenly.

The three Frost Sisters prided themselves on being, for want of a better word, interchangeable. Theoretically two of them could switch places, even in the middle of a mission, with no effects and no one even noticing.

They were identical, not just in how they looked, but in how they dressed, and they suddenly found themselves urgently tearing at their matched outfits.

"What's-" Esme said, panicked.

"You heard it, the voice it put-"

"In our head," Sophie finished. "There's no building for us to tear down, that must have translated to-"

"Outer layer. Our clothes?!" Esme said, pulling her now-unbuttoned top off her pale shoulders, in the same moment her sisters did.

"It shared its command with-" Phoebe said.

"Us, and the only way we can obey is-"

"Can we stop it?" Esme said nervously, interrupting the otherwise fluid speech. It wasn't like she didn't know what they'd have said.

Three identical white tops were dropped onto the ground, leaving each sister in matching black skirts, tights, heels, and red bras that were far closer to lingerie than conventional underwear. They always liked to look good, even if no one was meant to see them in so little.

Three skirts were pushed to the ground in the same second, their cheeks flushing identically.

"Maybe it'll wear-"

"Off? It was only in there for-"

"A few seconds. But if it doesn't-"

"We still need to talk to the-"

"We can't go out there like this!"

Tear. Their tights were fragile; even in action, they never needed to brawl. They could afford to look exquisite, content in their mental powers.

Though they were now tugging and pulling on the material of their tights, the garment quickly being ruined and left in shreds beside their otherwise immaculate skirts and tops.

Leaving the three sisters in identical red and gold lingerie, almost regal in their exposure, identical flushed faces looking at each other. Bra, panties and heels.