A/N: Another of my extra chapters. I was actually really fond of the way this one went.
What If?
Chapter 8: The Storm Hits
The helicopter was filled with monsters. Young men, all of them, who led normal lives and were normal people. They were everyday respectable citizens, but inside, sometimes unknown to even them, they were monsters. They looked the part too, dressed in bulky clothing with too many pockets, war paint smeared across their faces. Each wore a pair of goggles that allowed them to see in the dark like a vampire, the world painted in alien green.
Leading the monsters was an old man. He was dressed in normal clothes and looked like a normal person, but he was the most hideous monster on the aircraft. Physically, he was rather benign-looking. His clothing couldn't disguise the beginnings of a beer-belly and the earpieces of his rimless glasses nestled in his salt-and-pepper hair. Inside though, his soul had twisted and shrivelled. He had committed more atrocities in his lifetime than the upstanding young gentlemen sharing the helicopter could ever dream of.
The chopper set down in the middle of a wide lawn when they reached the target. A confident gesture, assuring the soldiers that the stealth they were undertaking to enter the old mansion was just a precaution.
The gesture worked for at least one soldier. He skulked along a richly decorated corridor, fairly bursting with the need to follow his leader's orders. He fully believed that he was doing The Right Thing. As instructed, he cleared every room leading off the hall, leading with his gun. It was loaded with tranquillizer darts, much to his distaste. He would have felt safer with real bullets. So far, the rooms were empty, and the soldier wasn't sure what he felt about that. On one hand, he despised the freaks and wanted to down as many of them as he could, but on the other they frightened him. Who knew what they were capable of?
His hallway cleared, he jogged up the stairs, taking care to keep his footsteps muffled. At the top, he eased open the first door to find four of the freaks sound asleep. He quickly darted all four of them but before he moved on to the next room he took a look around. It looked eerily similar to his little sister's bedroom, right down to the posters on the wall. The thought shook him before he harshly reprimanded himself. This is what made them such freaks, that they could just blend in with society and skulk along in the shadows without being detected. This is why the soldiers had needed to come in at night, when they would be asleep and off-guard.
Still a little disturbed, he moved on to the next room. Again, when he opened the door it was to find four sleeping freaks. As he darted the first one, a faint beam of light seeping in from the hallway highlighted a rainbow of ink tattooed across her back. Wings, he thought, what a waste of ink.
He trained his gun on the next freak, but before he could pull the trigger a sound like the snap of a whip coming from the middle of the room startled him. As trained, he whipped his gun around in the direction of the noise but could see nothing. The darkness didn't seem to matter though, for the 'nothing' seemed to be able to see him. Sooner than he could fire off a shot it was on him, and before it sent him into the oblivion of unconsciousness one thought streaked through his mind. Oh shit, they've woken up . . .
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Kurt was breathing hard as he watched the soldier crumple to the ground. He had heard them coming and knocked two unconscious as they crept down the hall by the boy's dorm before teleporting to wake the girls. He'd nearly had a heart attack when he saw the soldier standing in their room, gun drawn. Now that he was down for the count, Kurt hastened to wake the girls.
Pixie was the closest so he rushed to her side first, but as he bent down to gently shake her awake he saw the three small darts embedded in her neck. He quickly pulled them out and tossed them aside, then worriedly tried to wake her, but to no avail. She was still breathing, which was good, but she seemed to be unconscious.
He had just gotten up to wake the other three girls when Siryn's scream split the still night air. Hissing in pain, Kurt covered his sensitive ears, which did little to block out the sound. The other three mutants were instantly awake, and they clapped their hands over their ears as well. As the scream went on, the mirror on the vanity and hanging on the closet door shattered, raining glass shards onto the floor. The sound finally stopped, cut off in mid scream. This could only mean that one of the soldiers had shot her.
Siryn had, however, succeeded in waking the rest of the students, and Kurt could hear yelling and running feet from down the hall, presumably rushing toward one of the secret passageways that every student had been shown upon their arrival. Kurt himself had their location revealed to him only a week earlier.
"Kurt? What's going on?" Sarah was half out of bed, shaking her head to clear it of the ringing aftermath of Siryn's scream. When she saw the fallen man by Pixie's bed she snapped awake, her hands flaming up with their eery blue blaze. The extra light provided by her mutation illuminated the camouflage paint on his face and the gun laying by his hand. "Who is that?"
"I don't know, a soldier. Come on, we have to go." He moved as if to hustle them out the door, but the girls balked at stepping over the downed fighter.
Elizabeth grabbed the blue-skinned mutant's arm. "Kurt," she said, voice calm but dilated pupils showing fear, "What is going on?" She finally registered that Pixie wasn't moving. "And what's wrong with Pix? Why isn't she up?"
Kurt stopped trying to shoo them out and took a deep breath. It was obvious that the girls weren't going to move until they had some idea what was going on, but time was of the essence. "I'm not sure what's going on. All I know is that there are men with guns in the school. There were two by my room, and the one in yours. I knocked him out, but he'd done something to Pixie, shot her with some dart things, and now she won't wake up. One of the soldiers must have woken up Siryn, and now she's woken up everyone else. Everybody is running for the tunnels and I suggest we join them."
"Good idea," Kerrie said. She moved to step over the soldier's prone form but paused, a new thought occurring to her. "What about Pix?"
"I've got her, now get moving." His words were underscored by the sound of gunfire from the boy's dorms, followed by a crash. The sound was so loud the girls knew it had to have been something going through a wall. Living at Mutant High taught you these things. The sound galvanized the girls into motion, and Kurt gently scooped up the unconscious girl before following them into the hall.
In the halls pandemonium reigned. Kids were running and screaming, though the younger ones seemed to calm down a fraction when they saw the older students. Of the five of them, Sarah led the way, as hers was the most offensive power in the group. Her hands were still ablaze, the flames licking her forearm. She was careful to keep them away from her clothing, as they could easily be set alight.
The group went with the flow of students toward the nearest secret passage, hurrying as much as they could with Kurt burdened by Pixie's dead weight. They still managed to reach it quickly, only to find a bunch of younger students grouped around the wall, pushing futilely. Kerrie managed to wade through them and shoved the wall open, waiting as the kids rushed through. Their little group was the last in, checking for other students before they pulled the section of wall down to its original position.
Kurt had only seen the tunnels once before, and they were just as cold and damp as he remembered. The lighting was dim at best, but his sensitive golden eyes had no trouble making things out.
The other students, however, were having a bit more trouble. They stumbled occasionally and one young boy fell flat, crying out in pain. He had started to sob in earnest when Kerrie scooped him up. She quickly shushed him, though not unkindly, and they continued on, the three girls and Kurt working to keep everyone together and headed in the right direction.
The group of fleeing students came to a point where three tunnels merged into one. As the kids flowed into the large tunnel Kurt stopped. He heard something from one of the other passageways, coming toward the group. It sounded like footsteps, a lot of them. However, he didn't have long to ponder the thought because a moment later the sounds revealed themselves to be Peter leading his own band of scared children.
The two groups stopped for a moment, the kids urgently searching out friends they thought left behind. Peter stepped up to Kurt and the girls, a sleeping boy in his arms. "Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah," Kerrie nodded, shifting the still-sniffling boy on her hip. "How 'bout you? We heard a crash and some gunfire coming from the boys dorms."
"I am fine. The gunfire was at me, but I was armoured. The crash was from two of the soldiers going through a wall. We should keep moving." He turned to the group of children and raised his voice. "Let's go, come on."
As the group started down the tunnel Elizabeth and Sarah moved to the head of the group to lead the younger students while Kerrie and Kurt stayed at the back with Peter. Kerrie motioned toward the boy in Peter's arms. "Is he okay, did one of the soldiers shoot him?"
Peter shrugged his massive shoulders. "I don't know, Logan passed him to me and he was already out. What about Pixie, is that what happened to her?"
Kurt shifted her in his arms as they hurried down the tunnel. "Yes, one of the soldiers shot her with darts." A hint of worry seeped into his voice as he looked down at her peaceful face. "She won't wake up."
The students hurried down the dank tunnel, bare feet hitting the stone floor the loudest sound. The younger children had calmed down at the presence of the five older students who seemed to know what they were doing and gratefully followed the two in the lead. Sarah still had her hands lit up, and was using them to illuminate the tunnel as they jogged along.
A few minutes later it became a bit easier to see, and soon they came upon a large metal grille. Peter moved to the front of the group and merely shoved with his shoulder to force the grille open. He stepped through into the dense ferns and the others followed, Kerrie and Kurt carrying Pixie coming last.
Once the group had moved out of the ferns into the denser foliage they stopped, unsure of what to do. They knew they had to get away from the school, but other than that they were lost. There were five awake teenagers to take care of about fifteen or twenty younger students, ages ranging from seven to about twelve. They were all in their pajamas, which were doing little to ward off the chill wind. It may have only been the beginning of September, but the night was still unpleasantly cold.
After a brief discussion among the teenagers they decided to move deeper into the forest and then try and camp out for the rest of the night. Some of the younger students were almost asleep on their feet as it was. Sarah was voted to walk in the front as the moon shed little light to see by. She also helped by creating several small fireballs that she directed to hover above the ground at strategic intervals.
They had hiked for about an hour before it was decided that they had gone far enough. Kurt was very thankful, as his arms were starting to hurt from carrying Pixie. He set her down in the little clearing they had found and walked a few paces to where the other older students had gathered.
A discussion was running about what to do. Through a yawn Sarah declared, "We can't all sleep; some of us should stay awake in case the soldiers come out here." A round of nods greeted this statement. "The only issue is who's going to stay up and who gets to sleep?"
Peter immediately volunteered, as did Kerrie and Kurt. Peter shook his head and clapped a hand on Kerrie's shoulder. "You should sleep, Kurt and I can take care of it. Besides, our mutations are better suited for guarding than yours; I can armour myself and Kurt can see in the dark as well as teleport."
Reluctantly, Kerrie agreed, and the girls walked off to find a spot to bed down. Kurt and Peter took up positions on either side of the little clearing and settled themselves in for the remainder of what had already been a long night.
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Pixie was exhausted. All she wanted was to sleep for about the next million years, but an insistent pressure on the small of her back and a chill wind were slowly dragging her from her state of blissful unconsciousness. With a low groan she opened her eyes, rubbing a sleep-heavy hand over the lids.
She reached behind her, intending to smooth the knot of blankets she was laying on that was irritating her so, only to come up holding – a rock? Why was there a rock in her bed? A good-sized one too, not just a piece of pea-gravel that made its way in the house inside someone's shoe.
Her rock-musing was cut short by the arrival of Kurt, who came out of nowhere, landing in a heap beside her. His eyes were wide as he asked if she was okay, and his hand stroked down one arm as if to reassure her, which was strange. Why did she need to be reassured?
"Yeah, I'm okay," she mumbled. She held up the rock that had been digging into her back. "Why is there a rock in my bed?"
He laughed then, and hugged her around the shoulders. As he did though, his arm brushed against the side of her neck and she winced from the sudden pain. Once he let go she reached a hand to explore the sore spot, a hushed "ow" coming from her lips.
As the sleep-fog started to clear from her head, she realised that Kurt was acting strangely and that there was absolutely no plausible reason for there to be a rock in her bed. She squinted, trying to see Kurt better, but the darkness and her lack of glasses made that impossible.
She stretched out a hand toward her bedside table where her glasses lay, hoping to get at least some manner of sight back but her hand encountered pine needles and dirt instead of the smooth wood she expected. She sat up on her elbows, peering around uselessly. Turning to the dark blur that was Kurt, she asked "What's going on, why are we out in the woods?" A hint of fear seeped into her words.
Kurt sighed and shifted so that he was sitting beside Pixie, with his back braced against what she assumed was a tree. As he recited what had happened she grew more and more frightened. Soldiers were attacking Mutant High?
She went to sit up, fully intending to march back to the school and wreak havoc but as she did a wave of dizziness washed over her. She flung her arms out, trying to regain some balance (and accidentally smacking Kurt in the leg as she did so). It appeared that whatever she had been shot with still hadn't totally worn off yet.
As the world spun beneath her a warm hand landed on her shoulder, gently propelling her back into a prone position. "Easy there," came Kurt's soft voice. As she lay back down her eyes started to get heavy again, despite her best efforts. Damn it, she didn't want to sleep again! There were more important things than rest right now! Against her will, she felt her body relaxing, her eyes closing.
The last thing she heard was a murmured "goodnight" and the quick press of lips against her forehead before she drifted back to dreamland.
