X-Ternals

Shadow Knight

Chapter 1: Lost

Disclaimer: I don't own the show!

MAJOR NOTE: This story relates with author ThreeSpot's story. This is one of the stories related to it. There are more. For more info before reading, go to the story "Writer's Challenge Free for all!" or look at the author Three Spot's stories. You'll see what I mean.

~

"Wh. . . Where am I?"

Her eyes flicked open slowly, her vision blurred in murky swirls. She squinted in pain slightly as liquid fire poured like acid in her eyes. Holding her hands above her eyes to ward off the light, she saw that her black, fingerless gloved hands appear before her in sharpening clarity.

Staring at her hands for a moment, she flexed them carefully, watching as the leather material of her gloves twist and turn. Quietly, she observed her ebony lacquered fingernails contrast darkly with her pale skin. She shook herself out of her stupor.

Reaching upward for her forehead, she stopped abruptly as she looked upward into the sky. She stifled a gasp.

Why was the sky gray. . . and moving?

Propping herself upon her elbows, she stared in wonder around her. Her eyes grew wider and wider with each sight.

A gray sky met her sight. It wasn't your average stormy gray sky. No, it actually seemed. . .alive. It was very bizarre. What kind of place was like this? Her heavy boots scuffed against the ground. Suddenly she noticed that the ground itself where she lie wasn't normal either. She was lying on some kind of strange rock.. She panicked quickly as the brittle edge of the rock lay on inches away. Peering over the edge her paranoia only grew along with her frantic breathing.

There was nothing beneath her. Only a vast. . .empty space.

Her heart was racing inside her. Where the heck _was_ she? This certainly wasn't Bayville. No, she thought, raising a shaky hand to smooth her hair, I have to calm down. If she got scared, she wouldn't think clearly. After all, the Scarlet Witch wasn't scared of anything.

"Where in bloody hell am I?!"

Hearing the irritated voice mingled with fear made Wanda turn quickly on her heels. Her eyes flicked back and forth erratically, searching for the source. Suddenly a head full of crimson locks flashed in her vision. Accompanied with the fiery hair was teen, facial features twisted in odd angles as he span around on a small floating rock like hers. She wasn't sure if he would hear her, but Wanda shouted out.

"Pyro, are you alright?"

Fortunately for Wanda, Pyro turned, his eyes wide. "Wanda girly," he shouted, "Wonderful! I'm not the only one here, thank goodness. Don't know what I'd do if I was by myself. I-"

"St. John," Wanda shouted, irritation of his incessant chatter getting to her, "Shut up! I only asked if you were okay."

The flame lover stared at her with his mouth hanging open. "But-"

Wanda shot him one look and he instantly hushed up. Sighing, she looked away from him and stared through the unending gray sky. It was strange to see such a sight. Sitting down on her haunches, she ran her fingers through her short hair. What were they doing before they landed here?

Closing her eyes, she stretched through the folds of her memory and watched as scenes, painted in erratic colors flickered through her mind. There was something. . . .something about a confrontation. Around her were people. . . .all over. But. . . .

Her mind's eye suddenly turned dark and left her in a cave of shadows where all explanations eluded her grasp. Snapping her eyes open, Wanda snorted in frustration. Where the heck are we? What could have happene-

Suddenly, her thoughts were cut off as something slashed at the air by her left ear. She didn't flinch though as the object passed just above her skin onto the ground. Looking down with faint interest, she found herself staring at a glowing playing card, jammed into the ground as if a sharp blade. Grabbing the card, she felt a small prick of energy slip through her fingertips and flow into the card.

The card was suddenly engulfed in a greenish flame that seemed to sprout from her fingertips. Quickly, the card's king face melted away until there was only a pile of ash in her hand. Tilting her hand, she let it fall away. Without turning, she stared out into the gray sky. "I see that you too are here, eh Gambit?"

"Aw, don't Remy tell cherie that she should call him by his name? You're gonna make Remy think you don't like him."

Standing up, she brushed her hands lightly and looked to the left where she saw the smiling Cajun, his arms draped lightly against his chest as he watched her from his own floating rock.. Seeing that he had grasped her attention, he gave her a suave grin and slid his eyes lankily in her direction. "So. . .my dear aimie (friend), do you know where we would be?"

"No, _Gambit_, I don't know," Wanda sneered at him with her ruby painted lips in a frown, "We'll just have to find out, now wont we?"

Remy simply shrugged his shoulders and reached into his trench coat pocket, pulling out a pack of cards. Idly, he fiddled with them, letting his powers slip into a card before letting it extinguish quickly and going to another card.

Seeing that he was amused, Wanda sighed. If anyone else interrupts me again, I think I'm going to have to just kill the-

"Yo, sugar lumpkins!"

Pulling at her short strands of hair, she clenched her teeth together tightly, trying to tell herself she only imagined the voice. Maybe. . . maybe he wasn't here. . . maybe. . . please?

"Sweet dumpling! Can you here me?"

No luck.

Clenching her nails deeply into her fist, Wanda whirled on her small piece of rock and looked behind her toward the source of the annoying voice. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the one person that would make her turn insane if they were stuck in a room together. His brown, shaggy locks flew up slightly as he bounced up and down on his feet, shouting out to her while trying not to fall of his own piece of rock.

Todd.

"I can hear you just fine, Toad," she muttered out at him with annoyance.

"Why are you all the over there Wanda-kins," Todd mumbled sadly, giving her ogle eyes, "And where are we?"

"I don't freaking know Todd! Just sit down and stop annoying me!" Wanda was growing angrier by the moment. If only she could find out where the heck she was. . .

-YOU ARE IN MY REALM-

Wanda's eyes widened considerably as she heard the voice. No. . it wasn't a voice, rather. . .a force. She felt it in her head, the force and power of it making her teeth rattle together in her jaw. Placing a hand lightly on her forehead to steady herself, she turned toward the others around her. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously when she saw the confused look on their faces also. So they heard it also. . . So what was that?

-IT WAS I, THE TIME BROKER-

"Oh no, I'm going bloody mad."

Hearing St. John's statement, Wanda herself felt a bit of anxiety biting at the back of her neck. What was it that was sending chills up her spine? Turning toward Todd, she saw him actually standing erect for once, his long legs propping him up taller off the ground than she thought possible. For some reason, she always thought he was a bit short. Yet, as he stood there, looking at the sky with curiously quiet eyes, she couldn't help gazing in awe at his height. It was just. . . weird seeing him taller than her.

"Would you shut up, you stupid flamer? Not all of us need your annoying voice grating our nerves," Gambit muttered darkly. He obviously was just as panicked as St. John, but didn't dare show it. He was trying to take control of the situation and waltz about with his known suave calmness.

Wanda knew he could piss his pants now.

After all, it wasn't everyday you found yourself floating around on rocks in an empty, endless sky. Especially not when a voice strong enough to shake you is talking to you.

"What. . .what's that?" Wanda turned at Todd's voice and looked in the direction of his long slender finger.

Everyone's eyes widened as they saw a huge mass of clouds swirling like an indiscreet vortex. Inside though, an occasional flicker of lights twinkled playfully at them, leaving them with a strange, inscrutable feeling. Wanda looked down and saw that the vortex of clouds had no end or beginning. It was just. . . there.

"Qu'est-ce c'est? Je n'ai jamais vu. . . . *"

Wanda ignored Gambit as he muttered to himself in French, his eyes wide. "What is it," she mumbled out loud.

-I AM THE TIME BROKER-

St. John seemed to gather a bit of courage after his frantic panic. Swallowing hardly, he asked, "Are you the cloud thingy?"

-YES-

"But how. . ," Todd started.

Suddenly their questions were answered in a numbing power that seared through their minds. It was all revealed to them. The Time Broker. . .it was an ancient force from before time. It was simply like time its self, watching as new worlds were born in the galaxy, life slowly reaching out. For a while, the Time Broker had great amusement watching the life forms grow, forming new cities and civilizations, but after a while got bored and fell asleep.

Yet, he was awakened when a certain individual decided to interfere with his smoothly running time. It was a man known to them as Mesmero. He had created a time machine that ripped through the Time Broker's intangible body and fled into time, hoping to find a planet to escape too. The only problem was that he dragged his pursuers with him. This included Wanda and the rest.

Blinking, Todd seemed the first to recover from the wooziness of the sight. He looked at the cloud unsteadily. "So how did we get here," he asked with a questioning glance.

-I FOUND YOU DRIFTING THROUGH SPACE. I BROUGHT YOU HERE.-

"Where are the others," Wanda asked. She had to keep an eye on that stupid brother of hers.

-THEY ARE SAFE. THEY WILL BE GIVEN THE SAME MISSION AS YOURS.-

"But where's Magneto. . .And Mystique?" St. John questioned.

-YOUR LEADERS WERE NOT PULLED INTO THE TIME STREAM WITH YOU AND THE OTHERS.-

"Will we be here for a while," Todd wondered out loud.

-I DON'T KNOW. YOU WONT AGE A DAY OUTSIDE THE NORMAL TIME LINE.-

"But. . . why? Why did you bring Remy and the others here?" Remy wasn't satisfied with this "Time Broker's" answers. There seemed to be much more that he was keeping from them than he was telling.

-I NEED YOU TO FIX THE OTHER DIMENSIONS THAT WERE DISRUPTED IN THE RIP THROUGH TIME. IT IS CAUSING ME TO DIE.-

"Um. . .can't you do that yourself, mate?" St. John seemed a little skeptical about the idea. He had forgotten his previous fear now that he knew what was going on.

-I CAN NOT SIMPLY FIX THE WORLDS MYSELF. IT WOULD BE LIKE TRYING TO REACH INTO YOUR SELF AND FIXING A BROKEN ORGAN. IT WOULD BE SUICIDE FOR ME.-

"But how are we supposed to fix these other. . . dimensions?" Todd asked, his face completely serious. Wanda felt herself watching him for a moment, amazed at his sudden boldness. When did he grow so serious? As Wanda realized she was staring, she felt her cheeks burn slightly and looked downward at her boots.

She was hoping no one saw that.

Unfortunately, someone did see it.

A certain thief did.

Remy smirked and watched as Wanda scuffed her boots together. How a girl so tough could fall for someone like Todd, who she declared was awful, was beyond him. But he wasn't going to let her get past this. Oh no. . .he was going to have some fun.

-YOU MUST TAKE THIS.-

Out from the swirling vortex flew a small silver disk. It span around their heads quickly, as if trying to decide until falling to the ground in front of Todd. Bending on his knees, he went to pick up the disk. Suddenly, the disk seemed to come alive. It jumped onto his wrist and clamped down as small, silver wires grew rapidly in a kudzu like fashion. They seemed to trickle over his skin like small spider legs before wrapping tightly around his wrist, yet careful not to squeeze to tightly.

Slowly, as it latched onto his wrist, Todd tried to pull off the silver wires, but they simply continued to spread along his arm like veins, pressing onto his skin as if they were natural engravings in his skin. As he touched them, they were very fine and he only felt his skin. They spread all over his arms and legs until finally it thinned out near the corners of his eyes, leaving only the slightest touches on his cheeks.

"Wh. . . What the heck is this?!" Todd wasn't happy.

-IT IS TALUS. IT WILL BE YOUR GUIDE AND AID YOU IN YOUR TASKS.-

"Did it really have to become attached to poor mate?" St. John was the first one to speak up. -YES. HE WILL BE THE EARS AND EYES FOR THE TALUS. ONLY HE WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR AND COMMUNICATE WITH IT.-

"But why did it chose Froggy Boy?" Remy crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

-IT CHOSE HIM TO BE LEADER.-

"Todd?! As leader?!" All of the other three practically shouted at the swirling vortex.

-YES.-

"Well this is just a fine mess we've gotten into," Wanda muttered angrily, "What are we supposed to do now? Go ask the bad guys to please stop?"

-YOU WILL GO FIX A DIMENSION. THERE YOU WILL RETRIEVE ANOTHER MEMBER TO YOUR GROUP. TALUS WILL TELL YOU WHO.-

"That's just perfect. Remy not like this one bit. How he supposed to flirt when there aren't any hot filles around?"

Wanda simply glared at him. "We don't need you damn sarcasm. Shut your hole and stop bitching."

"So where do we go now," Todd asked, still scratching uneasily at his arms.

-AS I SAID, YOU WILL GO TO ANOTHER DIMENSION AND FIX IT. WHEN YOU ARE DONE, YOU WILL TRAVEL TO ANOTHER AND SO ON UNTIL ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE FIXED. I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK.-

"Wait," cried Wanda, "what's this dimension. . ."

Suddenly a bright light engulfed them in a blinding flash.

A tapestry of melting colors dripped downward like a canvas, each color falling into place. City parts molded around them.

". . . .like?"

All four looked around as they saw the signs around them with odd symbols.

They were in Japan.

~

*What is that? I've never seen. . . - Remy's French bit.

Well, I FINALLY FINISHED! YEA! ^_^ JUMP FOR JOY AND SHOUT! Okay. . . I'm done with my victory dance. Anywho, I hope that you enjoyed it. This is a series linking with other stories. The main story is called Dimension Hopping by the author ThreeSpot, but right now the first chapter of that story is located in "Writers Challenge free for all!" If you want to check another version of the story in which Rogue, Pietro, Scott and Jean are the team, go there and read it. It should be the third chapter.

ThreeSpot has a more detailed chapter than me. Plus I altered some of the ideas. (I hope you don't mind ThreeSpot). ^_^ The other versions should be coming out soon by other authors. They will have different teams with different characters bunched up. My version, as you see, has the characters Wanda (Scarlet Witch), St. John (Pyro), Remy (Gambit), and Todd (Toad). Well, I think that sums it up for me.

I hope the other authors get their stories out soon.

PLEASE REVIEW!

Ciao. ^_~