After All This Time...
Summary: After 16 years, Mystique decides to pay attention to her son, but Xavier and Kurt are both opposed to her actions. Wolverine and the X-men, pre-show, and with some twists of my own. You have been warned!
Author's Note: Aggghhh I haven't done anything in like, a millennia. Time to get back in the saddle. This story is for my fans, who requested another story, and for myself, because I'm stressed out with school and this is a most excellent form of therapy. Seriously, this stuff is better than yoga, and I know it's true, because I do yoga every day. Yoga is beautiful! Sorry that was probably totally boring. I need to rant every now and then, jeeze. Don't judge...
Chapter 1:
"Come on, Forge. Who wrote 'Eye of the Tiger'?" Kitty, Kurt, Angel, Bobby, Forge, and Rogue were sitting around a board game. Kitty was stretched out on her stomach, a flimsy trivia card in one hand. She kept a constant gaze on Forge, hoping to intimidate him and keep him from guessing the right answer. Forge whispered to himself, trying to remember the answer. Everyone else, save Rogue, was either grinning or stifling a laugh.
"Come on, Forge," Bobby teased. "This is basic American trivia here." Forge replied with a death glare.
After ten more seconds, he gave up. "I dunno. Journey?"
Everyone laughed. "Um, no," Kitty chuckled. "That would be Survivor. And here I mistook you for a genius."
"Intelligence and trivia knowledge have little correlation," Forge sulked.
Since he was next to Kitty, it was Bobby's turn to read a question. "K, so, Angel—for three points—can you tell me what the capital of Spain is?"
"Uh, jeeze, I slept through most of Geography. Ummmm…" Angel ruffled his wings anxiously and stared at the floor, as if he would see the answer there.
"Madrid," Kurt hissed discreetly, as he was right next to him. Angel nodded.
"Ooooh, Kurt, no cheating," Bobby hooted, catching the exchange. "But you happen to be right, so I won't penalize you—much."
"Darn," Kurt grinned.
Bobby fiddled with the tiny plastic playing pieces until he had the points straight. Rogue crossed and uncrossed her arms and sighed dramatically. "No wonder they call these things bored games."
"Now, Rogue, I don't think you're really appreciating the delicate art of gaming," Bobby interjected. "If you actually participate, you might have fun, and even win. Right, now, Angel, it's your turn to ask the question."
Angel picked a bright red card and read from the backside. "So, who stars as the main character in Scarface? Kitty, you get to answer."
Kitty groaned. "Aw crap, I never get these stupid movie ones."
"Well, give me your best guess."
Just then, the Professor's voice was inside all of their heads. Students, I need you all to gear up and meet Logan in the plane hangar. We've got a situation.
Cards tossed on the ground, the game quickly abandoned without a second glance, the students all ran to their rooms to get their uniforms. In less than five minutes, they assembled in the plane hangar, awaiting further instruction. They hoped Logan would be pleased, but when they arrived, he was in a volatile mood.
"No fooling around, any of yeh. Get in the jet and I'll explain the mission. Move."
There wasn't a single hesitation as the students ran for the jet and scrambled into their seats quickly. Angel sat with Kurt. Kitty with Bobby. Forge—well—Forge sat alone. The other alternative was trying to sit next to Rogue, which was basically a death sentence. Logan sat in the pilot chair and swiveled around to address his X-men. "The prof sensed some activity from some of Magneto's henchmen. We're going to check it out. I know some of you have never dealt with Magneto's soldiers before, so this'll be a learning experience, of sorts. But I'm very serious when I say I want no fooling around. We could be in for one helluvah fight. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded.
oOo
The plane flight was relatively long—about two hours. The students fretted around, anxiously awaiting their arrival….wherever it was they were going. Logan had never specified, but then again it was his way to be cryptic. Kurt and Angel quietly joked around, taking turns breathing on the glass window and drawing in the film before it dissipated. Kitty and Bobby flirted, at least until Bobby decided to power nap, which made the inside of the jet quiet cold. Forge played around with one of his gadgets, and Rogue brooded to herself, enjoying the silence for once.
The plan landed somewhere in the mountains, from what the students could tell by peeking through their foggy windows. Logan said nothing about the location except "Everyone grab a coat, unless you want t'freeze to death." Conveniently piled in the back of the jet was a heap of thin yet fluffy jackets and gloves to match. Everyone shrugged on some extra layers and slipped out of the jet into the rough crunchy snow.
"Holy crap it's cold," Angel remarked.
"An' deep," Rogue added. She sunk almost thigh-deep into the thick ice crystals.
Bobby ran around in a circle, forgetting the seriousness of the mission for a moment. "So…..much snow," he cried. Kitty slapped him back into reality.
"Cut it out, popsicle. And Kurt, where's your coat?" Kurt was wading around in the snow, seemingly content even though he was only wearing a skin-tight suit. He looked at Kitty and tugged at a ridge of fur along his arm.
"I already have a coat, Keety. I'm fine." Kitty glared at him skeptically but said nothing. If Kurt and Bobby were nuts enough to run around in artic weather without protection, then that was their problem, not hers.
Kitty waddled over to Logan, who was surveying the area, and asked, "So, uh exactly where are we, Mr. Logan?" Logan showed no sign he'd heard her. He continued to peer through his binoculars and twitch every now and then.
Finally, he replied. "Canada. This is Mount Assiniboine, near Alberta."
Kitty nodded and looked around too. Wherever they'd landed seemed to be pretty rough—there were lots of jagged rocks and peaks, and a stretch of harsh white snow as far as the eye could see—but she guessed it was a pretty mountain from another location. "So, is there some secret base up here or something?"
"Yeah," Logan said, glancing down at her. "Sumthin' like that." He turned to face the other students, who were stumbling around in the snow as best they could. "X-men follow me. We're going fer a bit of a walk."
The students obeyed, following Logan down a shallow snow bank to a flatter area. From there, they trudged through the snow, which had suddenly dipped from thigh-deep to waist deep. Kitty, the shortest member of the team, climbed onto Kurt's back before he could protest and wrapped her arms around his warm throat. "Sorry fuzzy. I need a ride. No way I can walk through that snow."
"Can't you just phase through ze snow or something?" Kurt grumbled. "I don't see vhy I have to carry you."
Kitty grinned. "I'm saving my strength for other stuff. Besides, you're strong. And you're the tallest person in the group, except for Logan, but I can't exactly crawl on his back, now can I?" Kurt sighed and leaned back, causing Kitty to let go and fall into the snow. She spat a mouthful of snow out of her mouth and glared at Kurt. "That was NOT nice, Kurt."
"Nor vas jumping on my back vithout asking. I am not your pack animal."
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. There was a strained silence between Kitty and Kurt, but everyone else seemed to like the quiet. They were all starting to tense up anyhow. In the hazy distance, they could see a forest, and not deep inside of it was something large and shiny. Logan explained that it was a plane that belonged to Magneto's men. "What's so special about a plane?" one of the students asked curiously.
"It's got Magneto's henchman in it, and that's enough," was Logan's slow reply. "His soldiers don't leave that stupid island of theirs unless they're up to sumthing."
"Genoshia?" Bobby asked. "What does Magneto do there anyway?"
Logan shrugged. "I dunno. And I don't wanna know." The forest was much closer now, only a few hundred feet away. The tall trees were clearly visible, and through the thin vegetation, there was the plane, lightly covered in snow and ice. Logan warned everyone to be cautious. He didn't smell anyone in the plane or the immediate vicinity, but they couldn't have gone far. Once inside the forest, Logan has everyone fan out, but stay within everyone else's visual field. He didn't want a student to disappear or be isolated if someone decided to attack them. Slowly, cautiously, everyone approached the plane. The doors were wide open, and—as only Logan with his super-fine senses detected—swinging slightly, as if they'd recently been pushed open and left that way. Just then, the breeze shifted directions and he caught scent of some unfamiliar scents.
Before he could give warning, it was too late. Four adult mutants jumped out of the trees and descended upon the students like spiders on a web. Logan glanced around quickly, trying to assess the whole situation in one micro-second. He could see a tall, slender woman with burgundy hair, deep blue skin, and piercing yellow eyes. There was another woman, shorter and squatter, with green-ish skin and bright blue eyes. She had a pretty face, but an unnaturally flexible mouth that hinged open up to her ears. Logan found it disturbing. Then there were two men—one with fiery hair and actual fire pouring from his mouth and hands, and the other was a young black man with a feline face and tail.
The students took on the adversaries as best they could. Forge pulled out a stun gun he'd been working on and started shooting at visible targets. Bobby took advantage of the ample amounts of snow at his disposal and whipped up a tiny snow tornado. Unfortunately, his first victim was the fiery haired man, on whom the attacks had little effect. Rouge was knocked out before she could touch anyone with her bare skin, but she managed to give the wide-mouthed woman a sound kick in the ribs. Kitty fought with the fiery man for a while after Bobby gave up trying to fight him, and managed to knock him out with a blow to the head. Angel took on the wide-mouthed woman and had little trouble with her, since Rogue had softened her up with a damaging blow.
That left Kurt with the blue skinned woman. She was the one who got close to Rogue by pretending to be Bobby and then caught her off guard and easily beat her down. She approached Kurt from behind also, in the form of Angel this time. She drew one of her wings back and shot it out like a whip, striking Kurt across the back of his ribs. He fell and turned to look at his opponent as she shifted back into her natural state. Their eyes met for a moment, and the blue skinned woman hesitated to attack. She stared at the boy lying crumpled in the snow and for a split second, she couldn't find it in herself to hurt him. But then the confusion wore off, and launched herself at him, but at the last second, he vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving her alone with a very odd feeling of regret that she couldn't explain.
By this time, the wide-mouthed woman had regained consciousness, taken the fiery man and the cat man and vanished with them into thin air. The blue skinned woman fled, seeing she was far outnumbered. That left the Xavier students, who were scattered across the snow, either high-strung from the fight or half-dazed from being beaten up. Logan, who's been fighting the cat man and had seen the whole fight, helped Kitty to her feet.
"Oww, Logan my head hurts," Kitty complained as she rubbed her temples gingerly.
"Logan!" Angel cried. He was standing near Forge, who was lying in a pool of his own blood. Logan rushed over to see how bad things were. Forge was totally unconscious, eagle-spread in the snow. His eyes were half-open and blank, and his breathing was ragged. Logan couldn't keep himself from gasping as he approached-most of Forge's right arm was mangled, the bone exposed in a few places.
"Oh god," Kitty choked, turning away and burying her face in Logan's side.
"Oh boy," Logan muttered, remembering that he had to keep his calm. "Uh, Angel, Kurt, get Forge into the X-jet. Now. And be gentle."
Angel bent down to pick up Forge under his arms. Logan looked around and saw Kurt standing alone, staring off into space. "Kurt!" he yelled. "Get over here, now."
Kurt remained frozen for another moment. He was staring vacantly towards where the blue skinned woman had fled. He was confused, though he didn't know why. It bothered him. Something about the woman made him uneasy. But Logan's sharp words drew him back to reality, and after another moment he turned and ran towards the huddle of students nearby.
oOo
Soooo chapter one is done (that was not supposed to rhyme….) and chapter two is coming soon, hopefully. If there's anyone out there still reading my stuff, please review! You have no idea how much reviews boost my self-confidence and make me feel good about my stuff. Plus, feedback—I love it, and it's good for my writing. And if you want to burn my story, that's ok too. :D
-The Ember Raven