"Kurt? Kurt? Kurt Wagner?" he woke with a start to a persistent call of his name, looked around the room with fuzzy vision which took a moment to clear.
"Was...?" the young man in front of him sighed.
"Did you black out again, Kurt?" he looked and sounded concerned, which only confused the fuzzy blue mutant more. He glanced down to see he was in dull faded scrubs with a white plastic wristband around one wrist. He looked around the room to see twelve others in similar dress and seated chairs.
"Where...am I?" one girl spoke up quickly.
"You're in a dream. None of this is real." he glanced over to the faded mess of curly dyed hair at the same time as the man in front of him.
"Jenny, please don't encourage a shared delusion." the doctor, that had to be what he was, turned his attention back to Kurt.
"You haven't been well. But that's alright. We're here to help, and eventually get all of you ready to rejoin society."
"That's, uh...nice. But, I don't think it's right. I don't belong here, I have to-"
"Get back to the X-men?" he stood, but paused with the words. The doctor looked tired, but patient.
"You've been doing so well, Kurt. Don't slide back now. The X-men aren't real."
His first response was the sinking sensation of his stomach dropping. How could anyone disregard the existence of his friends, his family, his team, so casually? But he didn't leap into action. He managed to keep his poise, as he had been trained to do in far more distressing situations than this. It was a head game. It had to be. Or perhaps...his yellow eyes drifted back to the girl with rainbow dyed hair. A dream. She was right. This couldn't be real. He smiled and resolved to the comfort of that, pinching himself. He didn't wake up. Well, not to worry, he was a teleporter! No need to stay here. He focused on the world outside the window, behind the doctor, but nothing happened. He tried again, and still nothing happened. The doctor looked increasingly worried, and stepped closer very slowly. Spoke gently.
"Kurt. Would you please sit back down?" There was no cruelty or judgement in it. No force of will or power. No threat of danger to spurn him to run or to fight. He was just in a room of patients, several showing physical traits to reveal their shared mutated traits, and a single doctor. They watched him, the nearest boy curled up and chewing his nails nervously, red and pink scales dotting his skin in thick patches. There was no one to fight. Should he run anyways? He didn't want to scare the others. He looked back at the face of the doctor, those pale eyes getting the hints of crows feet next to them, while the man waited. And Kurt could not bring himself to want to disappoint the doctor, or sense anything but a desire to help.
But why? Why was he here? This wasn't right. It couldn't be right. Could it? What had happened? He sunk back into the chair and earned a soft smile that made him feel worse than ever.
"I know this is hard, but you've all been making a lot of progress. Who would like to share next?" Jenny's hand shot up into the air and she didn't wait to start talking.
"Okay, but, like, you do know this isn't real, right?" and the tired expression was right back on the man's face while the others snickered and giggled.
"Jenny, again, it's very real. If it weren't, then why are you still here?"
"Duh, cause you've got a power-dampener thingy. On all of us. That's how you hold us here, stupid!" Power dampener. Why didn't he think of that? It made sense. Perhaps they were prisoners after all.
"Between that and the medications-"
"Not Jenny. Spark. Are you going to cause the same problems you always do?"
"Oh my God you are so boring! You guys aren't really buying this are you? Here to help us. Help us from what?" She looked to the rest of them, several of the other patients at least sitting up to look interested. Several shrinking away from her in their chairs.
"Spark, I'm not going to force you to leave, but I will request you go if you're not going to participate productively."
"What, you're not going to have me dragged out of here? Kicking and screaming and biting all the way?"
"Not unless you make it absolutely necessary. We don't do that without reason here. Because, as I keep saying, we want to help you. We mean that. I know you're used to being met with hate and fear," the words hate and fear sounded like the voice of Charles Xavier when spoken and made Kurt's fur stand on end alert, "but here we just want to help you adjust. Heal. And eventually go home." her eyes narrowed on the doctor in thought. Contemplation. The other patients anticipated what might happen.
"Fine. Boring. Stupid." she stood up and turned to kick the chair over and out of the way, quickly finding doing so with bare feet wasn't the smartest, but stubborn enough to limp out the door without addressing it further.
"Anyone else?"
"Speaking of dreams, I had one...last night...can I, talk about it?" the older woman across from him spoke up, and got the groups attention.
"Yes, Maria. Please share."
Kurt took that chance to get up, knowing he wasn't stuck there wasn't much relief. But he wasn't stopped, or tackled, or even noticed really as he walked out of the room. Well, surely someone noticed. A bunch of unstable mutants, there was no way they weren't being monitored. Cameras, probably, and his sweep of the walls found them. Just an illusion of privacy. The girl, Jenny? Spark? She wasn't far ahead of him, and he picked up his pace to catch up to her.
"They're going to tell you it isn't real. That your dreams of being a Superhero are all a lie, and this is the reality." she spoke before he could, turned back to him.
"But this is the dream."
"A shared dream? Does that make it my dream or yours?" he asked. She shrugged.
"Who knows. I just live here. For now."
"It feels very real."
"Which is the greatest cruelty of all. I do know one thing that works, but you won't like it."
"What is it?" she turned to him with a smile.
"Close your eyes." he did, though he didn't know why he listened. His body reacted to try to block the instinctive blow he sensed coming, but it was just too slow. He felt something impact against the side of his head, just past the arm that raised to try to block it, and felt himself knock into the wall next to them.
Kurt bolted upright in his bed, sweating and out of breath. He was back, back in the mansion. It had just been a dream after all. He looked across the room, focused, and teleported to the other side. He wasted no time rushing into the halls in his PJs, searching until he found a familiar face.
"Kurt? It's late afternoon, are you just now getting up?" Ororo quizzed with a raised brow. Kurt just smiled, unable to explain why it was such a relief to see his friend.
"I guess I slept harder than usual..."
"Are you alright?"
"Perfect. Alles gut." he smiled, and teleported back to his room to get dressed for the day.
