Panting breaths; pouring rain. A brilliant flash of white lightning in the air, illuminating the sky and the earth for less than a moment of clarity before the renewal of darkness and the splitting thunderclap that followed.
CRASH
Two sets of running footsteps, squelching loudly in the mud and grass that tried to bog them down. Over the sounds of the shrieking wind, and rumbling thunder, fragments of harried, frantic conversation between two children could be dimly heard going back and forth.
"—are you sure this is what we—"
CRASH
"—choice do we have? You saw what he did to y—"
CRASH
"B-But we'll never make out of—"
"Yes, we will! Just trust me!"
CRASH. KKKRACKKKSSHHH
"—scared! How on earth are we supposed to—"
"We'll find Logan! He'll help us! Or find someone who—"
CRASH
"He'll n-never let us escape! He'll find us! His powers are much too stro—"
CRASH
"We won't know unless we try! Come on!"
KKKRAAAAAAAAAA—
A blinding flash of light and a clap of thunder seemed to shake the foundations of the earth itself. The argument between the two children broke and died in an instant. Frightened, they stopped dead in their tracks for a moment before realizing that it was a hesitation they couldn't afford. They started moving again almost immediately, but that didn't stop one of them from letting out a ragged sob.
"I w-want to go home! I didn't want any of this! H-He was supposed to help us!"
CRASH
"I know. I'm sorry. We'll call your parents as soon as it's safe. They should've known it was too good to be true. I should have known..."
CRASH
CRASH
CRASH
CRASH
Kitty was beside herself.
"We're stuck here!" she screamed, slamming her fist down on the handheld device as though enough force might be the catalyst to send them back. "We're stuck here trapped in the stupid past, all because Forge thought it'd be a great idea to go around messing around with things he couldn't control! How could he be so selfish?"
Paling beneath his fur, Kurt seized her outstretched wrist with one three-fingered hand before it could come down on the device again. "Kitty, stop!" he said emphatically, fear and stress worsening his accent. "Please, I know you're upset, but destroying zat device will do nothing except make sure Forge can't bring us back again! It's our only hope!"
Kitty wavered, then relented, lowering her arm in a fit of tantrum. "It's all his fault!" she shouted over the pounding rain, stamping her feet on the muddy ground. "I get that the guy wants to get his time back that he lost, but it's not fair that WE'RE the ones who end up stranded here twenty years in the past! Especially when it's cold and it's dark and it's raining—"
Kurt personally thought Kitty didn't have much to complain about, given he was the one who had to deal with the soaked fur, but he let her vent it out while he waited. Glancing around, he squinted against a bright flash of lightning and was startled to realize that their surroundings were very familiar.
"Vait a second...are we at ze Institute?" he asked, eyes widening.
Kitty paused in her rant, startled. "That can't be," she exclaimed, glancing about wildly at trees and grass all around them. "That machine was supposed to send Forge back by twenty years, to when he was a teenager! I mean, the Institute hasn't even been open that long...has it?"
Before Kurt could answer, another flash of lightning and clap of thunder distracted them both. Shielding his eyes from the bright light, Kurt caught a flash of movement in the sky that made him gasp.
"Somehow, I'm getting ze feeling Forge missed ze mark on that one," Kurt said, nudging Kitty and pointing her to look at a spot over the treetops. "Look!"
It was Storm. The older mutant was flying through the sky above, silver hair whipping freely about her face as she hovered in the air. For whatever reason, her uniform was missing its signature cape, but there was no mistaking her Ororo despite the darkness and the pouring rain: lightning crackled in her gloved fingertips, bathing the grounds in harsh light every few seconds. It seemed almost as though she were looking for something...or someone. Maybe it was the change in her costume, but it seemed to both Kitty and Kurt that something was a bit off about her appearance that neither of them could place—was it because she was younger? Had the time-travel device actually worked?
"Vell, ve are definitely not twenty years in the past," Kurt said with obvious relief, his thin tail twitching excitedly to life behind him. "Otherwise, Storm would be even younger zan us! Come on, Kitty, let's catch up! She'll help us. I know she vill."
An moment later he was off and running, trying to follow the woman soaring a trail through the sky. This time it was Kitty's turn to be the voice of caution, calling after in alarm, "Kurt, wait! We can't let her see us! Won't that cause a huge paradox or somet—hey! Wait up!"
He was already too far away to hear her calling over the sounds of the storm. With a noise of frustration, Kitty followed after, her sloshing footsteps splashing up rainwater from the muddy grounds.