Characters I wrote for: everyone that LisaOak didn't write for.
Characters LisaOak wrote for: (OC)Lisa, all the pokemon, Scott, Ororo, and Pyro
Thoughts
'Telepathy'
[Mewtwo's telepathy]
Lisa, at the moment, was having her two totodile gently spray Bipin with water, since the large pokemon appeared to be slightly dehydrated.
Raikou was resting quietly and Kaiyou and Sade were now playfully fighting with one another, as they boxed at each other with their paws and bit on each other's tails and ears.
"Dere you are," Gambit said, walking up to the group of pokemon and students. "One o' your pokemon was runnin' through de halls. Looked guilty of stealing somet'in' if you ask me."
"Stealing something?" Lisa said, seeming puzzled, before it dawned on her. "Oh, crap; Kitsu got out!" she said, taking off at a fast sprint.
"Dese pokemon are jus' full of surprises," Gambit sighed, ignoring the other students, who were looking extremely confused. He noticed the twins, though. "I see you found Lisa," he stated, walking up to the two of them and Bipin.
The Two totodiles both squealed and leapt into the air. Bipin shook off the extra water before lying down.
Mew floated by, giggling. 'It's a good thing you told Lisa about Kitsu.'
"What trouble has the raccoon gotten into?" Gambit asked, turning to face Mew.
Astin, for once in his life, quiet; and Piotr, quiet as usual, sat up from relaxing. They watched Mew floating around, wanting an explanation.
'Well, like you humans, us pokemon have bad habits, too. Kitsu is a compulsive thief. Some pokemon learn attacks to steal items from other pokemon, and sometimes they use these on humans, too. Kitsu knows two of these attacks, and has an ability known as Pick Up. Pokemon with this ability are well known for randomly picking up things off the ground,' Mew explained. 'So, in a way, Kitsu is a triple threat, if you don't count the fact that she usually buries everything she finds or steals.'
"As long as she don' steal from me, I t'ink it'd be fun t' have anot'er t'ief around," Gambit said with a sly smile.
Astin made a mental note to watch out with this guy around.
'If Lisa heard you say that, she'd scold you,' Mew said, hanging up-side-down. 'She's been trying to make Kitsu stop stealing from everyone. One time we dug up one of her burrows and found a lot of spare change, some jewelry, half a box of silver ware, 4 soda cans, and half a hub cap.'
"It don' seem t' be working, den," Gambit said.
'It would probably be easier on Lisa if Kitsu didn't have an obsession with shiny objects,' Mew pointed out. 'Though, on the bright side, Kitsu is starting to wind down and instead of stashing most of what she steals, she offers it to Lisa first.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gambit was bored out of his mind. By now, the students have gotten used to him hanging around the mansion, so he sat in the living room of sorts that the mansion had, watching the students play their games. It didn't look like he'd be going back home anytime soon. Somehow, he'd gotten dragged into helping the X-Men look for Lisa's pokemon and he felt obligated to stay until they were all found.
Finally giving up on finding anything in the living room to occupy his time, he got up out of the chair to find someone to play cards with him. He was especially looking for Scott, who still owed him a game.
Scott was walking down the hall with another box as he went to put them up in his classroom for the night, before heading to bed most likely.
"Hey, Cyclops," Gambit called out, currently leaning against a wall in the direction Scott was heading. He shuffled a new, full deck of cards. "I still haven' forgotten 'bout dat game dat was interrupted when you and de others showed up at de casino. You still owe me."
"Owe you?" Scott said, seeming puzzled. He opened the door to his class and brought the box inside, taking it to the back room.
"Owe me a game," Gambit clarified, following him. "I was about t' win before de power cut out."
Scott frowned at this. "I don't gamble," he said as he left the classroom, waiting for Gambit to exit so he could lock the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, about 15 minutes later, Scott was sitting a small table in the now empty living room because it was past curfew for those who cared. He also appeared to be sulking somewhat, as if wondering how in the hell he got dragged into this.
Gambit was currently dealing out the first hand, also having convinced Logan and Kurt to play. He can already tell, this was going to be a fun game.
Jean wasn't one for gambling, either, but she sat behind Scott to watch the game. Even she was clueless as to why her husband was playing poker.
Scott sighed and picked up his hand, giving it a look over. He put the cards that he was giving up for new ones face-down.
"Always play de hand you're dealt," Gambit advised while taking Scott's cards and giving him a new set. "Anyone else?" Logan and Kurt shook their heads, happy with the cards they got. (Either that, or they didn't really care.)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"How can we play poker when you're constantly cheating?" Logan growled, resisting the urge to attack the Cajun.
"I do not know what you're talking about," Gambit calmly stated. He had won that last game with a royal flush, and currently had a considerably sized pile of money next to his seat.
"Admit it, you cheat," Logan growled again. He placed his extended claws close enough to Gambit's throat so that he could feel the metal. Gambit seemed un-phased, however, and only smirked up at the mutant.
Scott, after the first two games, kept folding rather then betting, feeling that would have been a wise choice rather then playing against the Cajun.
"Am I interrupting something, senseis?" Lisa said with a blink, holding a pokemon in her arms. The pokemon seemed a little uncomfortable for some reason.
"What are you still doing up?" Logan asked, spinning around from threatening Gambit. He retracted his claws. "It's past curfew, and you do have your telepathy lessons tomorrow."
"I asked Mr. Xavier if it was alright. I can't sleep, especially when I'm not clear-headed, and Kitsu was hungry," she said, holding up the Zigazagoon.
"Vell, if Xavier said it's alright," Kurt said, shrugging. "Did you find food for your friend alright?" he asked, teleporting over to Lisa. He was done playing poker, even if the others weren't. He had already lost too much money - more than the others, at least.
Lisa shook her head. "I wanted to ask permission before heading to the kitchen."
"I'll come with. I'm done here, anyways," he said, leading Lisa out the door.
"One down," Gambit sighed. "Don' tell me you two are done playing, too." He put on his best pleading look.
"If you stop cheating, maybe more people will play with you longer," Logan replied. None-the-less, he sat back down in his seat.
"Sounds like Gambit would get along with Ramiel. Is this poker?" Lisa asked, looking at Scott's folded hand.
"Yeah, it is," Gambit said, sounding kinda surprised. He was about to say something else, that is, until Logan shot him a warning glare. Instead, he asked a different question. "So, Ramiel likes to play poker?"
"Ramiel plays any kind of card game. I usually get drafted as a player because I'm the only one keeping him from getting mauled later," she said with a sheepish expression.
"Sounds like my kind of opponent," Gambit stated, handing out cards to himself and the two other remaining players. "You're up, Cyclops."
Scott frowned. "I'm done too," he said, standing and starting to leave. Lisa looked over to Kurt and smiled. "So which way?" she asked, though she frowned slightly and tugged gently on Kitsu's ear as she attempted to grab a quarter from Remy's Winnings.
"Over here," Kurt said, going off in the direction of the kitchen.
"But it's no fun with jus' two people," Gambit pleaded to Scott.
Scott shook his head, not letting himself be dragged into this one, and he left the room.
Jean followed behind Scott, looking pretty drowsy. In fact, she had fallen asleep for a bit, but the sound of Logan's claws had woken her up.
"Looks like game's over," Gambit sighed, picking up his cards and winnings. Logan seemed relieved as he left to go to his room.
Lisa came back to the living room after grabbing a carrot for herself and an apple for Kitsu. For some reason, the girl seemed tired, yet unwilling to sleep, which wasn't exactly the best thing for a student.
"You really should get to bed," Kurt advised, teleporting himself onto the couch, laying across it. He looked over to the table, where Gambit was still trying to figure out how he was going to carry the money back to his room. "Looks like I wasn't ze only one to stop playing."
"I slept... a little," she said with a sheepish expression. She frowned slightly and rubbed at her eyes. She looked down as Kitsu made a whine-like noise and looked at her with her ears laid back in a hurt puppy-like expression. Lisa frowned more at this and spoke in Japanese to the pokemon, which didn't seem to appease it any.
"Vat's wrong?" Kurt asked, noticing the pokemon's sad look. He caught that Lisa was speaking Japanese, but he couldn't catch any of the few words he'd picked up from Logan or Hank in what she was saying.
Lisa frowned. "Kitsu is worried cause I won't sleep, but I know something's wrong. As long as I sense that, there is no way I'm sleeping. Especially since Mew and Mewtwo are displaying the same symptoms"
Kurt, noticing he was about to drift off to sleep right there, called a quick "Guten nacht!" as he teleported off to his own room.
Gambit eventually decided that his trench coat pockets would be big enough, as long as he put a little bit in all of them. He sighed when he saw the pokemon, and purposely dropped a quarter for her to find.
"Do what you t'ink is best. But, I'm not letting you stay up all night alone. We both know what happened las' time, even wit' Alyssa and Logan dere."
"Thanks, but I couldn't really impose," she said with a frown. "This is going to be fun to explain later, though," she said with a yawn, releasing Kitsu. As she stretched, the small pokemon leapt down and sniffed around. She growled loudly, her fur bristling as she stared in the distance, despite nothing being there.
"Well, glad to know I'm not imagining it," Lisa said with a frown, picking up Kitsu and backing away. "Can we go some place else?" she said seeming a little scared. "Preferably someplace with a lot of light."
"Alright," Gambit said, seeming pretty confused. "On de third floor, de walls are painted white, and dey always have some light on up dere," he suggested. "As long as you don' mind hangin' out in de hallway."
Lisa nodded and she took off for the stairs. Kitsu followed at first, though she lagged behind and snarled at the shadows as something slowly shifted through them. It headed towards the other telepaths and psychics in the mansion.
"What's wit' her?" Gambit asked, stopping when he noticed Kitsu lag behind her trainer.
"She'll catch up. Come on!" Lisa said, grabbing his wrist and starting to drag him afterwards.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Jean's and Scott's room ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jean tossed and turned in her bed, seeming scared. When she woke up from her nightmare, her back was arched as if someone had stabbed her, mouth open in a silent scream. She sat up as quickly as she could, breathing hard. Whoever had said that dreams couldn't hurt, hadn't had a dream like hers.
Scott woke in a hurry. He turned on the light after putting on his glasses and he looked over to Jean, seeming worried. "Jean, are you alright?" he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I had a nightmare," Jean simply stated, looking up at Scott after she finished the statement. "It seemed so real, though." She felt her spine, where she can almost still feel the metal of the knife. Truth be told, she wouldn't have been very surprised if the wound was real. Luckily, though, she didn't feel any blood.
"It's okay," he said, carefully pulling her into a hug. "Do you think it was related to your powers? Did you sense anything?" he asked, wondering if there was something amiss.
Jean returned the hug, glad to have someone there. "I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't an ordinary dream," she stated. "But now that you mention it, something does seem kinda off."
"Do you think the others are alright?" Scott said, looking towards the door. In the meanwhile, the shadow creature was slipping into Xavier's room, having already gone after the others with high mental defenses.
"I don't know," Jean stated. She focused on some of the other minds in the mansion. Most seemed normal, however, it was impossible to go into the minds of the other telepaths. "I can't check on the other telepaths, but everyone else is having normal dreams, as far as I can tell," she told Scott. "Lisa's still awake, although, I don't think it has anything to do with any nightmares. She hasn't really slept tonight."
Scott nodded and he seemed a little tired, but he didn't really want to sleep unless Jean was sure that there wasn't anything going on.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Hallway ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hey!" Gambit protested. Unlike most people who are unwillingly being dragged somewhere, he didn't loose balance. "Would you mind tellin' me what's goin' on?"
"Look, I dunno, but Kitsu and I both sense something wrong, and I'm pretty sure you can't fight what you don't see, so follow me and don't argue, please!" Lisa said, dragging him all the way up to the third floor before she found a place that was mostly devoid of shadows. She collapsed into a sitting position, sighing. Kitsu came in about five minutes later, though she was limping.
"Kitsu? You're hurt!" Lisa said with a frown, picking her up.
"Want me to get somet'in' for her?" Gambit asked, currently leaning on a wall next to Lisa. He was currently thinking, wondering if whatever that was is pokemon-related or a mutant.
"Yeah, but I'm not sure if it's safe to leave this floor," she said with a frown.
"De medical lab is up here," he stated, pointing in the general direction of the lab. "Just tell me what you need."
Lisa took a look at the wound. "I need some gauze and antiseptic," she said, looking over to him.
"I'll be right back," Gambit stated, heading off towards the medical room. Once there, he turned on the light, although the medical equipment gave off enough light for him to go by. With Lisa acting so scared, he wasn't taking any chances. He quickly found what he was looking for and headed back to where Lisa was, turning off the medical room light behind him.
Lisa was speaking softly in Japanese in a soothing tone as she stroked Kitsu's fur. The pokemon was lying in her lap, and in general seemed uncomfortable, though it was hard to tell if this was caused from pain or the general mood and chaos of the night.
"Here you go," Gambit said, kneeling down by Lisa and handing the medical supplies out to her.
Lisa smiled at him, and she took them with a thank you. She dabbed away a little bit of blood from Kitsu before treating the wound carefully and bandaging it. The pokemon squeaked when the antiseptic was used, presumably because it stung.
Gambit sighed and sat down, wondering how long Lisa was going to keep him up on the third floor.