She wasn't there. They'd been looking for the stupid girl for two days and the snow was just falling thicker and heavier. John pulled his coat closer around him, trying to cut out the wind that was slowly building into a blizzard.
"Hey Logan!" he yelled, trying to be heard above the wind.
"What?"
"We're not going to find her in this. Why don't we go back to school and ask the professor to get a better location on her?"
"Because I don't want to be the one to tell him we gave up. What's the matter sparky, can't hack the cold?"
John narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. When the professor told them that a new student expected to be arriving from Toronto had gone missing, there hadn't exactly been a lot of volunteers to form a search party in the minus-five weather. In the end it was just Kurt, Logan and John. Logan because if anyone could find someone in 3 feet of snow it was him and John because the professor had decided that a little responsibility might straighten him out. Not that John was happy about this. Kurt, on the other hand, had actually volunteered.
John slipped on an ice-covered rock, landing face down in a snow bank. Muttering under his breath, he got to his feet, suddenly realising that the rock had blonde hair. He called out to the others.
"Hey guys! I've found her. And she doesn't look too good."
"I think she has frostbite."
"Jesus, Kurt! Do you have to appear right behind me?" Kurt ignored him, crouching to dust off the layer of snow that covered the girl.
If John hadn't tripped over her, they probably would never have found her. Unlike Kurt, who was impossible to miss in the snowy landscape, the girl blended almost perfectly into the white powder covering the ground.
"Do you think she's always that pale?" asked John in awe as Logan made his way over.
"It is hard to say. You see, she is very cold." John cursed himself at how stupid he must sound to elicit that response. But in his defence, it was hard to believe her colouring. Her skin was deathly pale and her hair was platinum. And her white coat didn't help her visibility. Finally Logan was with them.
"Are we just going to look at her or should we take her back?"
When they got her back Ororo immediately put her in intensive care, monitoring her progress every hour. For the first day anyway. Three days later, she showed no signs of improvement. But like Storm said, at least she wasn't getting any worse. And on the morning of the fourth day, the school was plunged into darkness.
"Hey, Scooter, go check the power."
"It's not the power, Logan, everything else electric is still working."
"Well, Scooter, the lights work on a different circuit."
"If you know so much about it, Logan, why don't you check the power?"
"Will you two cool the testosterone for one second and remember where we are? Any chance this is the work of one of the kids?" Storm came between them, encouraging Kurt's reply.
"How about the new girl? Does anyone know of her powers?"
The group went down to the hospital like some bizarre parade. At the door, Kurt stopped them.
"Do you think perhaps just one of us should go? So she is not scared?" They all looked at him. "Well, yes, perhaps not me…"
"Not that you're scary or anything."
"Logan!" Ororo cut in, "Look, I'll just check if she's awake. We don't know that she's behind this."
She opened the door, and was nearly blinded. A beam of white light cut into the dark hallway.
"Hey Scooter, maybe you should go."
Scott entered the room, eyes squinting in the glare even behind his ruby lenses. The ward was empty except for the bed where they had left the new girl four days before. She was now sitting up and looking terrified. And glowing.
"Hi there. Don't be afraid," he added quickly, as when he sat down on the chair beside her bed she pulled back, flinching as if he'd threatened her with a baseball bat. "I'm Scott Summers. What's your name?"
"Tevreden, mijnheer, wilde ik niet voor het gebeuren. Ik ben zeer droevig! Het gebeurt waneer ik zenuwachtig ben. Gelieve te kwetsen me niet," she finished, cowering, her pale blue eyes wide with fear. Scott leaned back, his eyebrows higher than they'd ever been before. Without moving his eyes from the luminous figure, he called out
"Kurt! Could you give me a hand?"
The navy-skinned mutant entered the room slowly. This, surprisingly, didn't seem to scare the girl. Admittedly, it was hard to see how she could get any more scared.
"Was is the problem? Will she not talk to you?"
"She's talking alright, I just can't understand her. I think she's speaking German," said Scott, rising and letting Kurt have his chair. Kurt ignored the bright light emanating from the girl and looked at her. She started speaking again.
"Ik ben droevig, ik ben een mutant als u, wilde ik niet het licht nemen." Kurt turned to Scott.
"It is not German, but Dutch. Sprichst du Deutsches?"
"Ja. Wenig."
"Gut. Ik ben-"
"Die unglaubliche Nachtgleiskette?"
"Ja!"
"Ich sah dich am München Zirkus! Ich liebe dich!" Kurt smiled at the look of joy on the girl's face.
"What? What did she say?"
"She recognises me from the Munich Circus," he said briefly, before returning his attention to the girl " Ik ben Kurt Wagner. Was ist dein Name?"
"Mein Name ist Elisabeth. Aber…" she leaned closer to him, smiling, "Leute rufen mich 'Lumina' an."
"Her name is Elisabeth. But they call her Lumina."
"Who's 'they'?"