The Caves were almost always open to the public, and they extended throughout the entirety of the local mountain range, so it was never very hard to get in. It was, however, required that all groups of no less than twelve, no more than twenty, were escorted by an experienced guide to prevent any accidents or disorientation once inside. Avoiding such precautions was considerably more difficult, but not impossible. Especially if one avoids the main entrance altogether.
The explosive BAMPH that always fallowed a reentry echoed eerily in and out of the dozen or so tunnels that branched off of the main cavern, while at the same time was swallowed by a continuous stream of chatter swirling around the cavern in quick high-pitched bursts. The walls were high, almost cathedral-like and wet with condensation. The floor was unnaturally warm, and soft, and squishy, sucking down at Kurt's feet like quicksand, and he mentally cursed his oddly shaped paw-like feet, that made any sort of footwear impossible, in every language he could think of. The lingering scent of sulfur had been instantly overpowered by the pungent fumes expelled from the cave floor. This was because the ceiling, impossibly high above their heads, was wriggling and moving, alive with bats.
"Why'd you bring us here, Kurt?" Kitty demanded, her platform sandals not fairing much better than his own bare feet.
He shrugged and tried to smile as he gripped her upper arm just above her elbow in an effort to keep her from toppling over into the sludge, but it turned out as more of a grimace, "I remembered it from the Bio field trip."
Evan nodded in recollection, trying to pull his own feet out of the odorous goop without losing his shoes and covering his nose with the front of his shirt against the distinctive sour reek of waste and detritus, "Gotta love Doc. Oliver and those visual aids."
"I remember that one," Rogue commented thoughtfully, much more at ease than the rest of them, the greedy muck not standing a chance against her high-laced, heavy combat boots. "It was actually pretty cool."
"Yeah, well," Pietro muttered disgustedly, shooting Kurt a sidelong glare as his feet were swallowed by the mud, "It's a lot more interesting when you have the proper equipment. Like…waders or something." His petulant tone went charitably unnoticed, Kurt understanding that slick or soft surfaces, anything that made running difficult or impossible, put Quicksilver on edge. And it certainly didn't help that he knew exactly what made up the ooze that was currently making an admirable attempt to eat his shoes.
Kurt breathed through his mouth and tried not to think about the fact that his own feet didn't even have shoes to lose. "Grab on everyone, I can see a ledge from here."
The ledge was just inside an adjacent tunnel, mercifully dry, but deceptively colder, the heat seeping the up through the decaying waste and remains, as well as given off by the bats themselves due to their sheer numbers, suddenly lost. A quick glance around revealed the tunnel to be reasonably bare, vacant of even the odd and beautiful natural stone structures littered throughout the majority of the cavern systems. Kurt assumed it had probably been fairly empty to begin with and had later been further cleared for use as a hallway between the main cavern and its branching tunnels. He uselessly scraped his feet against the floor anyway, relieved when he noticed he was not alone in his efforts.
A closer inspection revealed that it was also, by a fortunate coincidence, exactly where they needed to be.
The fissure was small, barely a gap in the side of the drop-off, just under the floor of the ledge. There was perhaps enough space for a small person to squeeze into, and even then movement would severely restricted, the odd almost cup-like shape of the break in the rock preventing all but the most miniscule of motions. It wasn't particularly deep, certainly no more so than the deep-end of the public pool, but the eerie half-light of the cave was swallowed not far from the lip, and Kitty couldn't see the bottom.
"Wow," Pietro murmured, clearly unnerved by the short-cut unexpectedly offered to them. They had anticipated wandering through the tunnels for some time before stumbling onto a hole with the required properties for Kurt's turn. "You're good."
Kurt snorted at his comment striking yellow eyes now alight with amusement as well as apprehension, as he turned to address his sister, "So you'll start the timer what, when I get in, when I hit the bottom…"
She didn't respond immediately. She was chewing on her lip and watching Kurt thoughtfully. Kitty recognized that look; it was the same sisterly, concerned expression the other girl had pinned her with while insisting she examine the scratches the rat left on her neck. "Are we…sure this is a good idea?"
Kurt cocked his head slightly in an adorable visual of confusion, but Kitty understood exactly what her friend meant. Just a short time ago this had seemed like such a simple, obvious solution, but now that they were here…
"Second thoughts, man," Evan echoed, giving the steadily growing feelings of tension and doubt a voice. "I mean, just how stable is that thing?"
Kurt hadn't really given much thought to any possible hazards that might rear their ugly heads during his test against his fear. In retrospect he supposed he probably should have; the Caves kept their strict visitor regulations for a reason after all. At the same time, however, he didn't really believe the city could keep the tourist attraction afloat if it wasn't, for the most part, safe. He said as much, the calm, persuasive tones in his voice overlaying his own anxiousness concerning the situation.
"Yeah," Kitty replied, her grip on his arm tightening slightly, "It's the 'for the most part' line that's, like, worrying us."
"This is different than tossin' Pietro in the Danger Room, or letting' a snake loose in the house," Rogue stated, anxious authority seeping into her voice, "Or even Pietro slicin' his hand open with pocket knife. Those were all controlled situations, nothin' we couldn't maintain or change if we needed to."
"We don't have that level of control here, Kurt," Evan, oddly enough took over as the Voice of Reason, "Don't know why, but that didn't really hit anyone till just now. It's makin' us all a little…nervous."
Kurt smiled widely, his fangs catching even the almost-nonexistent cave light, and glanced around the half-circle that had formed around the little cavity. "C'mon guys, the odds of anything other than getting dripped on with the condensation from on the walls are not high. And on the off-chance something does happen, I can teleport."
Kitty shot him a weary look and shook her head slightly, all too aware of how panic and terror can affect actions, how little impact thought may have against the baser survival instincts.
"Why can't we just do this in the Danger Room?" Pietro asked, glancing uncertainly at the crack in the rock, "Ya know, like I did. I mean we just need supervision, right?"
Kurt sighed, not sure whether to be touched or annoyed by the air of concerned reluctance permeating the group. "Because mein senses are set to a much higher frequency than yours," he explained in the patient, weary tones of one who had variations this conversation a thousand times before. "An illusion would fool mein eyes just fine, but everything would still smell, still feel like metal and electronics. It wouldn't be the same, and I would know it. It's not a real test."
He straightened up and turned to face all of his friends, and Pietro currently being mentally filed as miscellaneous, at once, flashing his best Nightcrawler grin. "Now look, you asked me if I wanted to play, and I accepted. The first game is always the same, yes? One minute with your greatest fear; this is the only way we can really test it. I'm saying it's okay, and if it's not, then I trust you guys to get me out, alright?"
A chorus of reluctant consent and muffled sounds of shifted weight that met his ears, and he knew the argument had ended in his favor; though, clearly no one was particularly happy about the conclusion. But there wasn't really a counterpoint for his reasoning; he knew the rules when he consented to playing, and they applied to all the players. There couldn't be exceptions.
Satisfied with the decision, he smiled again, "It'll be like a group test," he laughed, "We'll all see how long we can last, ja?" That wrangled a little subdued laughter from his unsettled companions, and he mentally raised his fist in triumph, pleased that he had managed to ease their spirits somewhat. He started toward the lip of the fissure, but halted when Kitty's hand failed to release his own.
"I-I've changed my mind," she said looking up at him nervousness and distress evident on her face, "I don't wanna play anymore."
The desperate notes in her voice and her pleading blue eyes almost did it. He almost nodded and whispered sweetly that it was alright, that they could just go home now. But then he remembered those same blue eyes, wide and wild with fright as she scrambled away from her own fear. Rogue still as death as her own personal nightmare curled itself around her shoulders. Pietro's legs giving out from beneath him as panic overcame reason before their eyes. Evan's body fallowing the most basic of human reactions to terror.
Whether they had beaten their fears or not, each of them had at least faced them, stood alone with the cause of their nightmares and screams. He couldn't walk away without doing the same.
It was ironic because, to perfectly honest even with himself alone, he knew he had only joined the game because Kitty had said she wanted him to, actually playing didn't really mean anything to him at all. But at the same time it wasn't about anyone else either; it was about him and his own piece of mind. He knew he'd never be able to face his own reflection if he didn't at least try.
He smiled warmly, eyes soft and comforting, and squeezed her hand. "I have to do this, Kitty," he murmured, looking into her eyes, trying to convey with a look what he could not put into words. "I have to."
He watched her pull her lip between her teeth and duck her head, an argument evident on her tongue, but she let go of his hand.
-The Bat Cave; I based it more or less on pretty much any cave of bats you see in the movies. But I did look up a particular species common in New York that tends to roost in large colonies as I described commonly called the Little Brown bat. I have the cycle a little messed up, the roost I described is more akin to a hibernation roost rather than simply a day time one, but in the spirit of willingly suspended disbelief, let's just call it an odd colony.
-More On Bats; as I understand it, bats themselves actually tend to be pretty clean creatures, bat caves on the other hand, which tend to house hundreds to thousands of them at once, not so much. If it's an old cave, the floor tends be submerged under a layer, sometimes several feet deep, of bat waste and the remains of anything that happens to get stuck in the stuff and can't get back out. I hear it makes exceptional fertilizer.
