X-Men Evolution: The Ripple in Man and Mutantkind
Chapter 29: Caught in the Middle
It was an average school day and an average lunch hour, well just about as normal as things could be with the X-Men. We were all sitting at our table talking about this and that, and Evan was drinking so much milk at once I thought he was going to puke. I think he was trying to gain more bone size or something to improve his athletic prowess, or make his bone spikes look more healthier on the outside. Jean then told us about a little party Duncan was throwing at his house, and apparently he was trying to talk Jean and Scott to make peace with them, and Jean was trying to get all of us to go, even though she and Scott were officially dating now and Duncan was Scott's longtime rival of her affections. But quite frankly I wasn't about it at all, especially because Duncan didn't come to me, and not very surprising, Scott wasn't sure about it either.
"Go to Duncan Matthews' party?" He said. "I don't think so."
"You gonna finish that moo juice?" Evan said pointing to Scott's milk carton. Jean handed her milk carton to Evan.
"You can have mine. Come on Scott, it'll be fun." Jean said.
"I bet it would, but you can't not say Mathews is a jerk Jean." I said.
"No he's not. I'd go." Kitty said
"Oh yeah? How about if he said 'no freshmen allowed.'?" I said with a sarcastic smile. Kitty got a disappointed and frustrated look on her face.
"Oh, Matthews is a jerk." She said crossing her arms angrily.
"Besides, you know how he feels about us, and us." Scott said waving a hand between himself and Jean.
"And remember? He broke your heart to pieces girl." I said.
"And also half of the whole school will be there. Suppose if someone gets too close to Kurt? That holowatch won't protect them from feeling his fur." Scott said. Kurt looked at Scott with a little frown.
"Hey, chicks dig the fuzzy dude!" Kurt said looking at Kitty suggestively. "Right?"
"I'm, like, so out of here." She said gathering her stuff hurriedly. "Later." Kurt smiled at Kitty's reaction and I could tell by his goofy smile he was obviously taking it another way.
"Oh yeah, she can't resist." He said. Scott's face suddenly went like Kocoum from Pocahontas right after Kurt's comment.
"Look, I'm trying to be serious here. Suppose we go to Mathews' party, and Dukes and Maximoff try something." He said pointing out the two bad boy mutants, I still can't believe that bastard speedster was enrolled at this school. Sometimes I thought Principal Darkholme's sense of merciful guidance was a real pain in the ass, especially with these ruffians. "We're not the only mutants in school you know."
"Yeah, just the cool ones." Evan said holding a couple hands up for Kurt and me to high-five, which we gladly did.
"Heard that." I said.
"Look Scott, I know Duncan and me split, and I appreciate the concern, but what's wrong with a little socializing?" Jean said.
"I'm sorry, but I just think it's a bad idea." Scott said. Kurt obviously had it with Scott's attitude and he grew that goofy smile on his face again.
"Dude, chill. It's just a party." Kurt said walking on top of the table and beginning to dance. "It's time to shake that tail! Woo-Hoo!" Kurt began dancing like he was at a club or something, and I was kind of getting into it.
"Go Kurt! Go Kurt! Go Kurt!" I shouted, whistling and pumping a fist in the air. Kurt didn't see it, but while he was dancing, his tail was waving around in front of Scott's face.
"Hey! Watch the tail!" Scott said as he jerked Kurt off of the table by his tail.
"Ow!" Kurt shouted in pain.
"Now, see? That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Scott said sternly.
"You pulled my tail, man!" Kurt shouted.
"Grow up, Kurt." Scott said.
"Hey, lighten up, dude!" Kurt replied. I felt like someone had to get involved or else somebody would say something he'll regret, but I felt that everyone, like me, was too scared to get yelled at too.
"You're always goofing around!" Scott said.
"And you're seriously cramping my style!" Kurt said.
"Listen." Scott said.
"No, you listen! There's a sound I want you to hear, and it's-"
Kurt suddenly teleported, leaving Scott coughing in a cloud of brimstone and everyone staring at us. Scott looked at the rest of us at the bench and sighed, putting his face in his hand.
"Blew it, didn't I?" He asked.
"Oh yeah." Jean said.
"Totally." Evan said.
"Like a stick of dynamite." I said, standing up. "I'm gonna go try and find him. I'll see you guys later. And Scott?" Scott looked at me. "I kind of agree with you, on account of Duncan Mathews and most of the other mutants here, but I think a little unwinding would do us some good, particularly you." I walked away from the table and began a telepathic scan for Kurt, he was hard to track, but I found his mind in the back of the school grounds, and a nasty smell of brimstone emitting from the basement. I walked quickly to the back of the school near the parking lot to try and catch up with Kurt, when I saw Rogue walking down a flight of stairs. I ducked to the side so she wouldn't see me.
"Who's there?" She called out to the inside of the doors. According to my mental scans, Kurt was where she was headed and I felt like Kurt was in distress. I slowly and carefully followed behind Rogue down the stairs and walked into what looked like a large storage basement.
"Hey." I said, making Rogue turn around. "Where's Kurt?"
"How should Ah know? Ah heard something coming from in here and Ah..." Suddenly she was interrupted by a loud explosion which rocked the both of us, and from two twin doors a blue blur rocketed through them and crashed into a stack of boxes. I coughed a couple times before looking to see what brushed me. I saw that it was Kurt, but his holowatch was turned off, revealing his fuzzy true blue self. Rogue and I walked up to Kurt, who looked like he was kind of hurt.
"Are you okay?" Rogue asked.
"What happened Kurt?" I asked. Kurt opened his eyes groggily and moaned a bit.
"Ugh, lab... booby-trapped." He said.
"Lab?" Rogue said looking at me. I shrugged at her and we both looked at the smoking room on the other side of the doors. While she went to go check it out, I helped Kurt back on his feet. She coughed on the thick layer of dust inside and looked around inside of the now trashed lab.
"Whoa." She said looking around at the ruined computers and monitors inside. "Whatever this stuff was, it's thrashed now."
"Still, be careful in there. We don't know what went on in there or what all that stuff was used for. There could still be something active and very dangerous in there." I called out walking Kurt to the doors. Rogue looked out towards my voice, but then turned her attention to a strange white device with two handles on the side.
"Everything is wrecked, except for this." She said carefully picking it up.
"What are you doing here?" Kurt said as I helped lead him inside the lab.
"Look who's talkin'. At least Ah didn't blow the place up." She said, admiring the weird techno thing she was holding.
"Hey! What did I say about touching stuff?" I said sternly putting a hand on my hip.
"And who said you were in charge here princess?" Rogue sneered. Kurt growled at her comment and jumped at her, grabbing the device by its handles.
"Let go of that!" Kurt said.
"Back off blue boy!" Rogue shouted. "Who says you're in charge here?"
"Both of you let go of that before someone gets hurt! Dammit, do you hear the words coming out of my mouth?! I said let go!" I shouted as my eyes began to glow. An invisible wave of energy hit the device, pushing Kurt and Rogue away from each other, but it hit a button or something and a light began to come from the front of the device. I widened my eyes and gasped in fear, because that light looked like it was going to shoot Kurt.
"No no no no no!" I said, running to Kurt and jumping in front of him just as a large bubble of light appeared and enveloped the both of us.
"Vas?!" Kurt said loudly. I looked around at the light and at Rogue, who looked positively terrified at what was happening. I felt a weird tingling sensation as I saw Kurt and myself begin to glow in a brilliant golden glow. Freaking out, I held Kurt in a tight embrace and closed my eyes as we both disappeared from the lab. Rogue gasped and screamed silently at what happened before throwing the device at a wall and running a hand through some sparkling effects that were left over from the blast.
"Oh mah god, they're gone." She said.
In another Dimension
After the noises finally settled down, I opened my eyes and looked around at the strange environment I was in. I then looked down to see that I was hugging Kurt before looking around at the environment again. It was white everywhere, like a stream of clouds had dropped right around us, and the building we were in looked very familiar.
"Whoa. Kurt look at this." I said. Kurt opened his eyes and looked around as well.
"What happened?" He said.
"I-I don't know." I said taking a couple steps forward with Kurt following behind me.
"Where are we, the twilight zone?" Kurt said. I looked around and took a few steps forward before I saw my locker through the ominous fog.
"Call me crazy, but I think we're still in the school." I said.
"I was going to say the same thing man. Look." Kurt said. I looked in his direction and saw silhouettes of people walking that quickly turned into actual foggy images of them. Some of them walked right in front of us before disappearing and reappearing someplace else in the halls.
"Man, Scott's gotta lighten up." Evan's voice rang out.
"Yeah, but Kurt's got to know, like, when to quit." Kitty's voice rang next. I turned around and there was an almost completely solid image of Kitty and Evan I could touch.
"Kitty? Wait!" Kurt said trying to touch her shoulder, but his hand went right through her and she didn't even seem to notice it.
"Evan! Can you hear me? Hey Evan!" I tried touching Evan's face, but my hand went right through him as well. The two continued to walk onward and talk, but we couldn't hear what they were saying, except for some of Kitty's laughter.
"No, wait! No!" Kurt shouted.
"Guys we're right here! Stop!" I shouted as the images disappeared. I looked around nervously and walked right next to Kurt. I was panting so much and my mind was racing so fast I couldn't breathe.
"What's happening to us?" Kurt said.
"I wish I knew, otherwise I'd probably not be so freaked." I answered nervously and holding out my arms to him. "Hold me, please?" Kurt raised a brow at me and shrugged before walking up to me and holding me close.
"Let's try teleporting out of here." I said. Kurt nodded his head and with a large poof of smoke and a smell of brimstone we were elsewhere in the school, but everything still looked wonky.
"Oh man." Kurt said.
"Here, I'll try." I said. With a whoosh of wind the both of us were once again elsewhere in the school, but things still looked like Silent Hill on crack which disconcerted me a lot more.
"Maybe there's a limit before we can port out of here." Kurt said.
"Sounds farfetched, but I'll take it." I said as Kurt teleported us away somewhere else.
Regular Dimension
(Author's P.O.V.)
Rogue was exiting the basement with the gizmo, that was hanging on the pole of a broom because she didn't know what else it could do, and frankly she didn't want to know. She carried the device to a dumpster to throw it away and hopefully never see it again. She tried to put it in the trashcan, but it slipped off the broom.
"Ah!" Rogue screamed covering herself from the device, hoping she wouldn't he its next victim. The device instead slid across the grass and stoped right in front Toad.
"Oooh, what's this?" He said reaching for the device.
"Don't touch that!" Rogue shouted.
"Why?"
"It's..." Rogue began, but scoffed and picked up the machine with the broom handle again. "Never you mind, just leave it alone."
"What's the matter, little girl get herself in trouble?" Toad said.
"Trouble? No, but let's just say that there's two less X-Men around." Rogue said, tossing the device in the dumpster. Toad widened his eyes in surprise.
"What? You mean you toasted two of those goody little two shoes with that thing?" Toad said excitedly looking at the machine.
"Hey, just leave it alone, got it?!" Rogue said, sternly pointing at him.
"Jeez, what is this, 'Abuse the Toad day'?" Toad said in annoyance. A few minutes before he was nearly ran over by Principal Darkholme trying to get a big juicy looking bug for a snack, and she didn't even apologize. And then she berated him and told him off with a threat of detention for months, today was obviously off to a bad start for the young man. He eyed the device and reached inside for it. Toad looked all over the device to find out how to make it work, wiggling it a bit to try to get something out of it. He then noticed some buttons where the handles meet the center and pushed one of them. The machine made a loud strange noise which made Toad jump away into a tree. A light blasted from the machine at the dumpster and a bubble made of light enveloped it before it and the light disappeared completely. Toad widened his eyes in amazement of the display.
"Cool." He said reaching down to the device with his tongue.
In the School
"So you think I should apologize to Kurt?" Scott asked Jean.
"You were kind of hard on him." Jean said.
"But I wasn't wrong. You know Kurt plays around too much."
"So? Is being right about that worth losing a friend over?" Scott sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know you mean well Scott, but sometimes you have to just let go."
"Yeah, you're right. I should go find Kurt, Ripley should be with him by now." Right as Scott finished talking, two screams rang from the restroom down the hall and two boys ran out screaming.
"We saw a ghost!" One shouted.
"And a blue hairy demon!" The other shouted. The two boys ran down the halls at a breakneck pace before Scott grew that stern look of his on his face.
"See? This is exactly what I'm talking about." Scott said walking quickly to the restroom with Jean following behind. Scott opened the door to the restroom and looked around.
"Alright Kurt, where are you?" Scott said opening the stalls and looking around the restroom. When he didn't see any signs of Kurt in the restroom , he walked outside to where Jean was.
"Not there?" She asked.
"No. Jean, can you signal him? Tell him to knock it off. And find Ripley, he should have been with him by now." Jean nodded and put her fingers to her temples. She began scanning everywhere on the campus for Kurt and Ripley's minds, everyone else becoming completely invisible to her scan. When she didn't find them anywhere, she went from the school grounds, to the institute, and then to the rest of Bayville.
"Hmm. Scott, I can't find a trace of either of them anywhere. It's like they don't exist." She said.
"That's crazy, they have to be around here somewhere. Are you sure they're not here?" Scott asked as Jean put her fingers on her temples and concentrated on another mental scan.
"They're not anywhere, they're just... gone." She said.
In the other dimension
(Ripley's P.O.V.)
After teleporting for what seemed like forever, Kurt and I were both beginning to lose hope.
"God, is there no way out of here?" I thought as I was trembling.
"I don't know if I can do this for much longer, I'm getting totally wiped out." Kurt said.
"Me too, let's take a break and gather our thoughts. Maybe then we can figure a way out of here by then." I said sitting down and sighing. After a couple seconds of silence and creepy voices Kurt spoke up.
"So... you think of anything yet Ripley?" He said with a smile. I frowned at Kurt's comment.
"No, I just..." I sighed before taking a deep breath. "No Kurt. I'm scared, my adrenaline is kicking in gear, and I'm totally freaking out. We need time, a lot of time, when we have something, we'll talk about it and then..." My voice trailed off as a bright light appeared above Kurt and a large solid object appeared from it and began to fall. "LOOK OUT!" I shouted as I charged at Kurt and knocked us both to the floor a few feet away from the object. We both looked at the object and saw that it was a dumpster. We both sighed in relief as I helped Kurt up. "I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No, I'm okay. Thanks for saving my life mein freund." Kurt said.
"Think nothing of it." I said walking over to the dumpster. "Looks like someone's playing around with a new little toy. Think it's Rogue?"
"I don't think so, she probably thinks she killed us or something. I know I wouldn't mess around with something like that if I thought I did, so I'm not sure she would be messing around with it now." Kurt said.
"Hmm, maybe. We should get moving, obviously sitting around is a bad idea with someone walking around with that doo-hickey." I said.
Regular Dimension
"Try again, they have to be around here somewhere." Scott said.
"I am, I'm not getting anything." Jean said, placing her fingers on her temples again and shaking her head. "They're just completely gone." Scott looked behind him and saw Lance and Fred walking down the halls towards them.
"Or... somebody did something to them." Scott said.
"What're you looking at Summers?" Lance said.
"Where's Kurt? Where's Ripley?" Scott said.
"Hah, yeah like we'd tell you." Fred said as Lance propped himself against him. Scott glared furiously at the two before running right past Jean.
"Scott, no!" She said. Scott grabbed Lance by the collar and slammed him against the lockers.
"I said, where are they?" Scott growled.
"Get off of me!" Lance said loudly.
"What have you done with them?!"
"Get lost slim!" Fred said, grabbing Scott off of Lance.
"Put him down!" Jean shouted.
"Back off Red or I'll rock ya!" Lance said, clenching his fists and making some of the lockers tremble. Students from around the halls took notice of the action going on and sensing a fight about to commence, they gathered around the four like animals to a waterhole in the Serengeti. Jean's hair began to wave as her power readied an attack for Lance, while he clenched his fingers to prepare an earthquake. Scott in the meanwhile touched his shades to unleash the optic blasts hidden behind them. The students continued to rave for a while before Principal Darkholme penetrated the mob.
"What is going on here?!" She said.
"We weren't doin' nothin'." Fred said, putting Scott back down on the floor.
"Yeah." Lance said. "Summers just went completely nuts on us for no reason."
"Oh I've got a reason." Scott said, trying to charge at the boys again.
"Scott." Jean said, holding her boyfriend back.
"Quiet!" Darkholme shouted. "You two, in my office, now." Scott and Jean moaned under their breaths before walking by the Brotherhood Boys. Lance made an "L" on his forehead, mocking the couple and laughing at their punishment. Hiding behind her open locker door, Rogue stared at the couple moving past her with a look of guilt and inner turmoil.
Other Dimension
Kurt and I both teleported for another couple times before we stopped to catch our breaths again.
"Okay, it's really obvious that teleporting is so not working." I said.
"Yeah, man I still can't believe how freaky this is." Kurt said. I pat his back to comfort the frightened blue elf.
"Hey, we'll get out of here somehow. Just keep faith and... uh oh." I said before the familiar light appeared and a desk fell out of it.
"Look out, it's raining furniture!" Kurt said, grabbing me and jumping aside. The desk fell down to the floor and shattered into pieces upon impact.
"Geez, whoever is out there messing around with this thing must really have it out for wooden appliances." I said.
Regular Dimension
Toad was in Darkholme's off in his uniform and was aiming the strange device at her furniture, making her desk disappear first.
"Heh heh, you see the desk, you don't see the desk." He mumbled. He pointed the device toward the spinning chair where Darkholme sat at her now missing desk. "You see the chair." He blasted at the chair and it disappeared just as the previous objects did. "You don't see the chair."
"Alright little miss big shot, let's see how you like my new clean office policy." He thought, pointing the device at the large bookshelf and launching the light at it, causing it to vanish like the other objects.
"You two, my office now." Darkholme's voice rang out.
"Uh-oh." Toad said as he leapt out of the window with the device, just as Principal Darkholme walked in with Scott and Jean.
"I don't care what influence Xavier has with the school board, I am going to..." Darkholme said before taking notice of her missing furniture. "What?"
"Whoa." Scott and Jean said.
"What happened here? Who took my furniture?!" Darkholme shouted, running out the door. Scott and Jean looked around before taking notice of the open window. They both walked over to it and saw Toad laughing outside with a strange device that shot a light at Darkholme's car and made it disappear.
"I bet I know what happened to Ripley and Kurt." Scott said.
Other Dimension
Because of all the furniture and things that kept appearing above our heads, Kurt and I were running for our very lives.
"When is this rain of random stuff gonna let up?" Kurt said.
"Better to run and hide than getting hit in the face with a bookshelf to find out!" I replied. Suddenly another flash appeared and a car emerged from it.
"Whoa!" Kurt shouted, grabbing me and teleporting away before the car hit the floor.
Regular Dimension (Darkholme's Office)
"Scott look!" Jean said. In front of the two teens was a foggy image of Kurt holding Ripley close, the both of them looking frightened and tired.
"It's them." Scott said before the images faded away. "Or their ghosts?"
"No, I got a brief reading from them. It's like their... trapped somewhere." Jean said. Scott looked outside at Toad hopping away into the park nearby.
"I think it's time we have a talk with the Toad." He said.
Other Dimension
After Kurt ported us out if the path of the falling car, I opened my eyes to see that we had appeared in the gymnasium's front door. I looked around for any signs of anything else that could fall on us before I grabbed Kurt's hand and slowly led us into the gym. Behind us, I could have sworn I heard footsteps and Kurt was beginning to tremble.
"Please tell me there isn't something behind us." I said. Kurt and I looked behind us and we both nearly jumped out of our skins at the mysterious figure standing in the doorway.
"Agh!" We both shouted as we teleported in opposite directions of the exit. I ducked and covered behind the bleachers while Kurt was perched on a wall. We both heard coughing and a disgusted noise before a young boy with tan skin and dark hair walked in.
"Whoa, where'd you come from?" The boy said. I tilted my head in confusion before jumping over the side of the bleachers and landing in front of him
"We could ask you the same thing." I said, gesturing for Kurt to come down. Kurt jumped off the wall and landed a few feet behind the young man, startling him.
"Agh!" He shouted.
"Relax."
"What are you man?" He said.
"Don't let my looks fool you, I'm a harmless blue fuzzball." Kurt said.
"Really, he is." I said.
"Hey, I know you. You're the one I saw on the computer screen before it blew." Kurt said, walking up to us.
"Yeah, the name's Forge." The boy, now known as Forge said. "So you've found my lab, huh?" Forge looked at Kurt's outfit with a raised brow before looking at me. "What's with the Halloween getups?"
"They're not costumes, we're humans, but we're mutants." I said, rubbing my neck. "Confusing, I know."
"I know I look strange, but..." Kurt said, teleporting and reappearing next to me.
"There are some fringe benefits." I said, putting an arm over Kurt's shoulder.
"Trippy!" Forge said. "I thought I was the only one!" He flexed his right arm and it transformed into a big shiny swiss army knife type of thing with little drills and small mechanical hands. Kurt and I marveled at the crazy looking arm.
Regular Dimension
Toad was running for his life, for behind him all of the X-Men were chasing him trying to get an answer as to what happened to their two missing teammates.
"There he goes!" Cyclops shouted. Toad hopped on for a while before Cyclops took a shot at him with his optic blasts. Toad dodged the attack and turning around, took aim at a random target.
"Take that!" He shouted as he fired the device at Shadowcat.
"Shadowcat, get down!" Jean shouted. The young and perky girl gasped as she phased down into the ground, with the beam of light striking a fountain behind her and causing water to burst from the ground.
Other Dimension
"Holy crap!" I shouted as a fountain appeared out of no where and crashed onto the floor.
"Man, someone's been giving that gizmo of yours a workout." Kurt said to Forge.
Regular Dimension
"Get him!" Cyclops shouted. Shadowcat emerged from the ground and continued the chase alongside her fellow X-Men. Toad kept on hopping away, making nervous sounds and gasping for breath as the team advanced closer and closer to him.
Other Dimension
"That 'gizmo' is an interdimensional projector." Forge said, welding something to an old-fashioned CD player. "My science fair project of '78. And when I fired it up it created a pocket dimension that I call the Middleverse. I got caught in the ray myself and I've been here ever since."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. 78? Like the year 1978?!" I said in confusion.
"Uh-huh." Forge said.
"But you look..." Kurt said.
"Like I did then? Yeah, I can't explain it."
"Hmm, some major immortality seeker fodder this place." I thought as Kurt leapt down from the table Forge was working on.
"They locked and shut down my lab after the accident, everyone was totally freaked after I disappeared."
"So there's no way back?" Kurt said.
"No, not without help from the other side. And I think you two might be able to help with that, and man I'm so ready to go home." Forge said. "Could I borrow that... thing?"
"Thing?" I said. Forge pointed at my pocket and I looked down to see that he was referring to my phone.
"My cell phone?" I said. "Why?"
"Because I think I think I could use it for my device."
"Why my phone?" I said with a raised brow.
"Dude, just give it to him, we are guests in his little reality you know." Kurt said. I scoffed and rolled my eyes before pulling the phone out of my pocket.
"Alright, alright. Just let me remove the Sim card." I said, pulling out my phone's memory core and handing it to Forge.
"So this is what phones look like now, huh?" Forge said.
"Yeah, pretty cool right?" Kurt said. Suddenly some laughter began to fill the room. Kurt and I looked to where it seemed to be coming from and there there were two girls, seemingly returning from tennis or something, walking right towards us and laughing about some guy. Kurt smiled and fixed his hair before striking a pose for the young girls.
"You're so lucky." One of them said.
"Isn't he cute?" The other replied. I rolled my eyes as Kurt watched the girls disappear behind the closed doors of the girl's locker room.
"So, just how far does this middleverse extend?" Kurt asked.
"Stops just short of the girls locker room, isn't that a burn?" Forge replied, making Kurt sulk like a child.
"Eh." I said walking a few feet before looking out at the boys locker room. "Say uh, what about the guy's locker room?"
"I'm not really sure, why?" Forge asked.
"Well, surely you need to take a leak once in a while, right?" I said walking to the locker room.
"I've never really had to eat, sleep, or use a bathroom since I got here, but I've never gone in to find out. I'm not that adventurous." Forge said.
"Oh good, I am." I said walking over to the locker room door and pushed against it, but it wouldn't budge. I kept pushing hard against the door, hoping it would open up to the sweaty and rippled track team, but to no avail. I kept pushing at the door before stopping and admitting defeat.
"Dammit!" I thought as I kicked the door. Kurt sighed and walked up to me.
"Looks like all locker rooms are where the universe ends, sorry mein pervy freund." Kurt said patting my back.
"Oh shut up, you wanted to do the same thing with the girl's locker room and you know it!" I shouted, making Kurt laugh. "'Mein pervy friend', the nerve." Forge looked really confused at our conversation.
"Um, what's going on?" He said.
"Ripley here is really, really into his fellow men." Kurt said leaning on my shoulder with a smile. I scoffed and stepped away from Kurt and let him fall with a loud "Whoa!" and a thud. I leaned in close to Kurt's ear.
"Kurt, he's from the seventies, people were still trying to get black and white people together in the same room in churches!" I whispered in his ear, making Kurt widen his eyes in spontaneous realization.
"Oh man, me and my big mouth." Kurt said.
"Hey, yo, it's okay. I'm totally down with gay people." Forge said.
"Really?" I said in surprise.
"Yeah, I've done my research and I've come to the conclusion that my time's social bias on a person's sexuality is totally whacked. Pheromones and environment are crucial factors in someone's personality and mental traits, and sometimes those pheromones aim for a certain group of people or makes you feel like a different person, and it's all natural. I mean look at us guys, we're tripping the rip of nature just by being alive." Forge said, holding up his mechanical arm.
"Oh my God, you're officially one of the coolest people ever!" I said as I rushed him in a hug. He laughed as he pat my back.
"Thanks." Forge said as he put a few finishing touches on his device and put his arm away. "Done." I walked next to Kurt to get a full look of the new device.
"What is it?" Kurt asked.
"This little baby should alter the phase-shift frequency of your teleporting powers." Forge said. Kurt and I looked to Kurt with the look that would usually say "Da Fuq?".
"Um... my English is a little limited." Kurt said.
"And I fell asleep in that class a few times." I said.
"One of you can teleport to the real world." Forge said. Kurt and I smiled and gave each other a high-five.
"Yes!" I said.
"Alright!" Kurt said.
"But only for a sec, these batteries don't have that much power." Forge said, putting a couple batteries into the machine. "Still, with luck, you can tell someone to reset the projector to get us back." Kurt grew a bummed out look and put his face in his hands.
"What's up Kurt?" I said.
"You know how everyone thinks I'm always joking, maybe you should try it Ripley."
"Sorry dude, but I think this is on you. If I teleport one more time today, I'm gonna throw up all over the place. And I'd rather not waste our one second on a river of bile." I said, clutching my stomach. Kurt sighed before I touched his shoulder.
"Hey, you may be a big blue goofball, but even a hard ass like Cyclops knows when you're being serious." I said. Kurt smiled at my words before looking at Forge.
"Let's go." Kurt said.
Regular Dimension
The X-Men had finally caught up to Toad and chased him up a tree, literally.
"Get back, I'm warning you!" Toad said. Cyclops opened his visor and shot a thin optic blast at the branch the louse was standing on and destroyed it, causing him to fall and release the device. Jean caught the device with her telekinetic shields while Toad crashed down to the ground.
"Got it." She said as she lowered the device to herself so she could grab it.
"That's it, I'm outta here." Toad said, trying to jump away if Spyke didn't nail him to a tree by the back.
"Why don't you stick around for a while." He said. Cyclops walked next to Toad's face and put his hand on the button to open his visor.
"Now... tell us what you did to Kurt and Ripley." He said.
"I didn't do anything." Toad said, covering his face.
"He didn't." A voice said. Everyone looked to where the voice was coming from and saw Rogue leaning underneath the shade of a tree. "I did, and if ya'll wanna find blue boy and the princess I suggest you let him go."
Later
Rogue led the X-Men down into the basement and stopped right at the entrance to the laboratory inside.
"This is where it happened." Rogue said. Cyclops knelt down and picked up what looked like one of the bracelets Ripley was wearing and the remains of Kurt's holowatch.
"If you've hurt them I'm gonna..." Cyclops said.
"Hey! You threaten me, and you'll never find your little boyfriends." Rogue said. None of them realized it, but from within another dimension, three pairs of eyes were watching them all.
Middleverse
Cyclops and Rogue stared each other deep in the face, with looks that looked ready to kill and it looked like there was going to be some blood in the room.
"Whoa, take it easy Cyclops." Jean said, standing between the two. Kurt walked up to Cyclops and put a hand over his shoulder.
"Yeah Cyclops, just like I always said." Kurt said.
"Hey guys!" Kitty said. The X-Men looked over to Kitty and Evan, who were carrying the device and had it opened up to the circuitry inside. "We've been running a diagnostic on this thing."
"Can you believe it? This thing uses CPM, talk about retro man" Evan said.
"It's putting out, like, some kind of low steady pulse wave that seems to disappear into thin air." Kitty said.
"And that means what exactly?" Scott said impatiently.
"We think that this thing might have trapped the crawler and the Rip in another dimension." Evan said. Forge, Kurt, and I gasped in a feeling of success that we may have had some help at last.
"So let's trash it then." Cyclops said.
"Oh hell no!" I said loudly.
"No, no, no!" Forge said, walking over to Kurt. "They've got it all wrong, if they destroy the projector, we'll be trapped here forever." Forge quickly grabbed his new gizmo and begun to attach various wires and metal shackles to Kurt's wrists and ankles, while also propping the device itself on his chest. Meanwhile Cyclops had propped the projector on a table and begun to aim.
"Everyone stand back, I'm gonna use full power. This is going to be messy." Cyclops said touching his visor.
"Um you know, I could just, like, phase through the gizmo and, like, short it out quietly?" Cyclops and Spyke looked at her with blank expressions. "Oh right, forget I mentioned it."Kitty leaned over to Jean. "Like, what is it with guys and explosions anyway?" Jean laughed at her comment and shrugged. I walked over to Cyclops and went close to his face.
"Attention Cyclops, you are a total freaking dumbass and I hate you!" I shouted, hoping he could hear me.
"Forge, hurry! They're going to nuke the projector any second!" Kurt said as Forge put on the last little adjustment.
"Done! I think it'll give you enough power to teleport back for one second." Forge said, holding his chin. "But I was so rushed in putting it together I..."
"Just tell me what to do!" Kurt said.
"Push that button and teleport." Forge said, pointing to a button. "Tell them not to destroy the machine, they have to reset it instead. But you've only got a second before the battery fries."
"Right, I'm gone." Kurt said, pushing the button and teleporting. It didn't seem like he left the dimension, but he suddenly reappeared a couple inches in front of where he teleported in a blink of light.
"Reset it, don't..." Kurt said before he suddenly reappeared in front of us. "destroy it!" Kurt looked at himself and them back to us. "Oh man."
"Huh?" Scott said. "You guys saw that, right?"
"He's alive, which means..." Rogue said.
"Ripley's still alive too!" Kitty said.
"But what was he saying?" Jean said looking to Kitty, who just shrugged.
"He said 'reset don't', you know, don't reset it. He wants you to blow it up. Do it!" Spyke said.
"Ugh... boys!" I said loudly and holding my temples.
"I swear, these guys are, like, obsessed." Kitty said.
"Thank you!" I said to Kitty
"It sounded more like a warning to me." Scott said, holding his chin.
"Do you think they'll get it?" Forge said.
"I just hope they believe it." Kurt said.
"A warning from the goof man himself? Nah, come on. Blow that sucker!" Spyke said.
"Ah!" Kurt said, holding his face in his hands.
"Man, you do have a rep." Forge said.
"No, Nightcrawler's a joker, but he knows when to be serious." Cyclops said.
"Yes!" Kurt and I said.
"Look, if he wanted us to destroy it, why didn't he say don't and then reset instead of reset and then don't?" Cyclops said.
"Ooh Cyke, you da man!" Kurt said, holding two thumbs up. I smiled and leaned into Cyclops' face and smacked my lips like I kissed him.
"If you could hear me, I'd say I love you again." I said. Cyclops walked to the projector and picked it up.
"I think he wants us to reset this thing." Cyclops said, looking all over the machine.
"Score!" Kurt and Forge said, giving each other high-fives before I wrapped an arm around their shoulders and hugged them both.
"Intensity settings, power regulators, beam width... restart!" Cyclops said, pushing a button on the device. He set it back down on the table and it began to shake a lot before the familiar light appeared and shot right towards us. A big bubble of light appeared and the fog began to clear up quickly. I looked at everyone and saw that by their facial expressions that they could finally see us.
"Come on! Teleport through!" Cyclops shouted. Kurt nodded and grabbed us by our wrists.
"Hang on, let's go!" He said.
"We can't, the battery's tapped out. We need more juice if we want to get back home." Forge said.
"Look!" I said, pointing to the now closing portal.
"The portal won't last long, it's now or never." Forge said.
"What's the matter? Let's go!" Cyclops shouted.
"Another power source, huh?" I said, looking to Kurt who had a smile on his face. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah man, hang on!" Kurt said, teleporting the three of us away.
"What're they doing?" Spyke said.
"I don't know, but I hope they hustle." Cyclops said.
"There they are." A voice said. Everyone turned around and saw that the Brotherhood Boys were walking into the room, with Toad leading them inside. "And they still got that vapo-ray I was telling you about."
"Rogue" Avalanche said. "Mystique sent us to find you, so are you with us or them?"
"Mystique? You're working for her?" Cyclops said.
"Hey Summers, you got your friends, Ah got mine. But this ain't mah fight, Ah'm outta here." Rogue said, walking right out of the room.
"Okay, fork it over losers." Blob said.
"Or this place is gonna rock!" Avalanche said, pounding a foot on the ground and causing the place to shake violently.
"The projector stays with us! X-Men, keep that portal open!" Cyclops said as everyone formed a line. Avalanche smirked at the group and sniffed.
"Your call." He said, stomping his foot once more, causing another violent shaking and pieces of gravel from the ceiling fall. The X-Men wiggled and shifted a bit, but found their level ground and stood strong as the Brotherhood charged in with a battle cry.
Middleverse
In a puff of brimstone, we appeared in the middle of the hallway.
"Groovy ride, but where's this power source?" Forge asked.
"Check it." Kurt said, pointing to the car that almost squished us.
"Far out man!" Forge said, pulling out his robot arm and running towards the car. Kurt and I looked at the guy with weirded out looks.
"I swear, that homie's lingo is so whack." Kurt said.
"I know right?" I replied before my head began to pound. I closed my eyes and focused on the source of my pain and saw ensuing battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood Boys.
"Ugh, those dumb fuckers." I said silently.
"Vas?" Kurt said.
"We need to hurry up. Toad is back for the projector and he's brought friends." I said. "I'll be right with you in a moment."
"Where are you going?" Kurt asked.
"The others need some help if we're going to get out of here, and I'd better do something to help them quick. Call me on your communicator when you're ready." I said.
"I thought you weren't feeling so good." Kurt said.
"I am, but if I do blow chunks, I'll try to aim for the Brotherhood Boys." I said, smiling sadistically.
"Go for it man." Kurt said giving me a thumb up. I nodded my head before teleporting away to the entrance of the portal. When I arrived, I began to feel lightheaded, but I forced myself to remain steady and stand up straight. I looked up and saw Blob fighting with Cyclops and Jean.
"It'll take much more than that to stop me!" Blob shouted.
"Good to know." I said as my eyes glowed. I concentrated on his shoes and melted them together by the heels, causing him to lose his balance am begin to wiggle around trying to gain it back. Cyclops looked back at the portal and saw me looking right at Blob. He smiled before blasting away at the ground beneath the Blob.
"Jean now." Cyclops said. Jean nodded and touched her temples, moving a large chunk of ground from beneath Blob's feet and causing him to trip. Next I saw Toad hopping around Evan trying to annoy him or find a perfect opportunity to strike.
"Whatcha got, huh?" He said as Spyke tried to land some punches on him. "Nuthin', you got nuthin' on me." Toad jumped over Evan and went for the projector. Spyke loaded up some of his spikes and launched them in front of Toad, creating a cage that the idiot slammed into. Toad tried to get up again, but I used my telekinesis to slam him back into the bars and look me straight in the eye.
"Do you know what happens to a toad in the microwave?" I said.
"What?" Toad said nervously. I smiled as my head lit up with my blue flames and darkened my face.
"The same thing that happens to everything else." I said darkly as I unleashed my fire from the portal and formed a large ring around Toad, causing him to levitate.
"AAAHH!" Toad screamed. "Please no, please no, please no!" I smirked as I heard him squeal before looking over to Lance, who was fighting with Kitty.
"Hey Avalanche!" I shouted. He looked back at me with a raised brow and a kind of surprised look. "How about a little game of hot pa-todd-a?!" I gestured my hand and flung Toad at the boy's face. Toad screamed in terror before hitting Lance dead in the face, with their lips touching each other's.
"Hmm, I made a funny." I thought, chuckling to myself. Lance and Toad quickly got off of each other, spitting and gagging on each other's spittle.
"Oh gross!" Lance said.
"Sick, yo!" Toad said. I laughed at their reactions before gesturing again with my hand, causing the floor underneath the boys' feet to sink.
"What is this?" Avalanche shouted.
"It's Ripley bitch!" I shouted as my communicator began to beep.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Ripley, we're ready. Get back here now."
"Roger that, I'm on my way." I said, turning off my communicator and looking to Avalanche and Toad. I clenched my fist and made them stop sinking, but their feet and ankles were buried and they couldn't keep their balance, so they fell over.
"See you later babies." I said, teleporting right in front of where the car should have been, startling Forge and Kurt.
"Ah!" Forge shouted.
"What?" I said, looking around. "What's wrong?"
"Uh... Ripley? Your head is on fire." Kurt said.
"Oops." I said, turning off the fire. "I totally forgot, sorry if I scared you guys."
"It's alright, now get in!" Kurt said. I nodded and jumped right into the backseat of the car before Forge attached a few more wires from the machine and into the car engine.
"Have you done this before?" Kurt asked.
"Nope." Forge said.
"Wunderbah." Kurt said, rolling his eyes before flooring the gas pedal. "Let's go!" Kurt drove us a few feet before teleporting us away somewhere. Meanwhile, the Blob had gotten back on his feet and freed the others from my sandtrap, and now they were on a big group attack.
"Alright, enough with the warmup round, now it's time for the real pounding." Blob said before a loud honking noise filled the basement. Cyclops looked behind him and saw something was about to come through.
"Everyone get out of the way! Move!" Cyclops shouted as a car emerged from the portal.
"Whoo hoo!" Kurt shouted out as the car ran right into the Blob's stomach, forcing it to a complete stop and causing the airbags to explode free.
"Huh, good thing I'm the Blob." He said.
"Yeah, good thing." Toad said as Avalanche looked to where the now destroyed projector laid.
"Aw man, come on guys the party's over." He said, leading the other boys out of the room.
"What're these?" Forge said, bouncing his hands on the airbags.
"Reentry cushions, pretty nice huh?" Kurt said.
"Yeah." I said weakly. "Though it,wouldn't kill anyone besides me to install them in the back seats." I opened the car door and fell down with a thud before shaking it off and standing up.
"Oh Scott?" I said.
"Yeah?" Cyclops asked.
"Come here." I said, leading him over to me.
"You okay?" Cyclops asked.
"Yep." I said, punching him on his shoulder.
"Ow!" He said, rubbing his arm.
"Trash it?!" I shouted. "A strange machine traps us in an alternate dimension and the first thing you think of doing is to trash it?! That's like every single movie where things go wrong you ass!" Scott rubbed the back of his neck before I wrapped him up in a hug. "Though I'm glad you got the message and decided to listen to Kurt, for once." Cyclops returned my hug and wrapped his arms around me, until I felt the strong urge to explode. "Oh my God!" I let go of Cyclops and ran off outside. "Hold!"
"What's the matter with him?" Spyke said.
"He said he felt a little sensitive to his stomach from teleporting so many times." Kurt said. Once I was outside, I unloaded everything from my stomach into a trashcan before wiping my mouth on a tissue and sniffing in deeply.
"Okay, that's just gross." I thought as I glanced up to see Rogue looking at me from behind a tree. When she saw that I was looking at her, she hid back behind the tree. I raised a brow and teleported once more right behind where she was.
"Twice." I said, making Rogue gasp and turn around.
"What?" She said.
"Twice you saved mine and one of my friend's lives. You could've just let us bite the bullet and yet you still don't want anything to do with us. Seriously, I wanna know what the fuck Rogue?" I said.
"Ah owed you the last time, you stopped meh from hurtin' people and mahself. Ah just wanted to return the favor alright?" She said.
"Oh come on, screw that! A favor is usually paid off once, but you've repaid it twice, and I didn't do anything else for you besides help you back up when I knocked you down this Wednesday. Which I am still sorry about by the way, but you just keep on coming to the rescue." I said. Rogue sighed before moving one of her bangs aside.
"Do... you like us? Like me?" I said.
"No, Ah...!" Rogue said before closing her eyes and her fists before huffing. "Look, whatever stupid reasons you think Ah care for you all in your stupid head, just drop them and leave meh alone." Rogue said, walking away from me. I watched her go before I sighed and walked back to the basement door, where the X-Men and Forge were emerging from.
"Hey, you okay man?" Kurt said.
"Yeah. I feel a bit better, just kind of woozy from the heaving. You got a mint on you?" I said.
"None of us do I'm afraid, but I got this." Scott said, emerging from the door and holding up one of my bracelets that was supposed to be on my wrist.
"My bracelet!" I said. "What...?" I looked at my wrist and saw that the golden band encrusted with glass beads was missing. "Huh, I didn't even notice it was gone."
"Yeah well, it's better you keep track of your things, you know?" Scott said, walking up to me and putting my bracelet back on my arm. "No offense Forge."
"Hey, none taken." Forge said. I grabbed my bracelet out of his hand and put it back on my wrist where it belonged.
"Thank you Scotty, but for fuck's sake stop making me like you so much. Otherwise I'll snatch you up and leave Jean in the cold." I said looking to Jean. "No offense Jeannie."
"None taken." Jean said, wrapping her arms around Scott and kissing his cheek, making him smile.
Later
Everyone in the group was in the parking lot and in their regular clothes and huddled around Scott's car ready to head off to wherever, and when we arrived I just noticed that it was nighttime.
"Time sure flies when you're scared to shit I guess." I thought, looking up to the moon.
"You're welcome to crash with us for a while Forge." Scott said. "Xavier's cool, you'd like him."
"Thanks, but I'd better go find my parents." Forge said. "I'm thirty years late for curfew." Forge looked to Kurt and me, who were sitting on the back of the car. "Thanks for bailing me out guys." Forge reached a couple hands towards us, which Kurt and I accepted and laid some skin on them.
"Hey, no problem." Kurt said.
"It was nice meeting you man." I said.
"Hop in, we'll give you a lift." Scott said, opening one of the doors to his car.
"Thanks, but I can make it from here, it's only a few blocks." Forge said.
"Okay, but if you need any help, just call." Scott said, handing a piece of paper with a number and address on it.
"Sure, I'll do that." Forge said, taking the paper, waving goodbye, and walking away.
"See you later. Goodbye!" We all said as he walked away.
"Think he'll be alright? I mean thirty years is a long time." I said to Kurt.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't worry too much, he's a smart guy." Kurt said.
"Yeah, but I still feel like..." I said before shaking my head. "Never mind."
"What?" Kurt said.
"It's nothing, it's crazy." I said walking off a couple inches.
"Dude, what happened today was the definition of crazy, I'm sure it can't get any more crazy." Kurt said. I sighed before looking at Kurt.
"I just feel like I might... know him from somewhere somehow." I said.
"Hey guys, we're heading out!" Evan called out. Kurt and I nodded at him and walked over to the car before finding a seat, with Kurt and I in the back with Evan. Scott looked at his rear view mirror and tilted it to get a better look at Kurt.
"Uh... you're gonna have to duck until we find you a new holowatch." Scott said. Kurt gasped dramatically and held his cheeks in his hands.
"So it's true, you are ashamed of me!" Kurt said, making both him and Scott laugh.
"Yeah right dude." Scott said before looking away and back at Kurt. "Hey, listen. About what happened earlier... my bad." We all grew surprised looks on our faces and stared Scott right in the face.
"Dude..." I said to Kurt.
"No, it was on me too." Kurt said.
"Maybe... maybe you're right, I take things too seriously. I need to lighten up a bit." Jean, Kitty, and I gasped in shock.
"Oh Scott, not you." Jean said.
"Check his temperature!" Kitty said, placing her hand on Scott's forehead. "Mr. Military's going soft!"
"Be careful, he might have the flu!" I said, grabbing Kitty's hand away from Scott's head, making Jean laugh under her breath.
"Yeah, and I could probably turn down the goofing around a little." Kurt said.
"But don't turn it down too much please, I love goofball Kurt." I said, wrapping my arms around Kurt. "In a non-platonic kind of way of course."
"Welcome back guys." Scott said, holding a fist for us. Kurt and I bumped his fist before settling down in the seats.
"Okay, so how about we all go home, suit up and run a level three Danger Room simulation!" Scott said in a joyous tone.
"Scott..." Jean said.
"Give us a break!" Kitty said.
"Haven't we done enough today?" I groaned, holding my head.
"Oh man, see? This is what I mean! Too serious!" Kurt said pointing to Scott's face.
"Psych!" Scott said loudly. Jean, Kitty, and I giggled at his little joke while Kurt and Evan smiled approvingly.
"Very nice! There's hope for you yet!" Kurt said, putting a hand on Scott's shoulder.
"Yeah, well tell me about it on the way to Matthew's party." Scott said. Kitty grumbled and folded her arms in disappointment.
"Aw, but I can't go remember? I'm, like, a freshman." She fumed. Scott placed his arm around her shoulder.
"You're also one of the X-Men." He said. Jean placed her hand on Kitty's shoulder.
"Don't worry, we'll make it happen." Jean said.
"Count on it." I said placing a hand on her shoulder. Kitty smiled before Scott turned on his car, which made me shiver furiously.
"Whoo!" I yelled.
"Whoo!" Everyone else shouted along with me. I sighed in relief before I wiped the sweat off my brow.
"Thank God there's a party." I thought as we drove off to its location.
End of Chapter 29
A/N: Holy crap this one took forever! Thanks for being patient you guys, stay tuned for the next chapter when Ripley and the X-Men tear it up at the party before learning something completely unexpected. Review, favorite, and follow, because if you do, it'll make Ripley and I very happy. Peace!
