We're nearing the end! Two more chapters then we hit the Brotherhood Arc! When writing this chapter, on Feb. 6th, Nightcrawler was trending on Twitter. So, I thought 'What better time to start this chapter than now?' and here we are. And we've hit another landmark, chapter 20! Here's to another countless chapters!
One quick thing I'd like to add, this chapter's title is a reference, hell pretty much every title after the Sinister Arc has been a reference to something. By the way, my DC story The Vitruvian Man is now online! Go check it out. You can find it in the Justice League category.
That's enough from me. On with the story!
German Mutations are Ze Best in Ze Wurld
"Alright everyone," Scott begins the landing process. "We are now nearing Germany. There will be another car waiting for us, it'll take us to the hotel. From there we can properly coordinate what to do about Kurt Wagner."
"Hey, Nolan, I've been wondering about something for a while now." Bobby says.
I turn to him as the Blackbird touches ground. "What's up?"
"You've run into Quicksilver a couple of times, right? So, wouldn't you have his powers now?" Bobby asks.
I sigh in annoyance. "No, I don't. I think it's because I haven't seen him go from stationary to super speed. Every time I've seen Quicksilver it's when he's running, meaning I don't really get a good look at him."
Bobby rubs his chin and nods, humming. "Makes sense, I guess," We all get up as the ramp lowers, we then head to the car. "Man, how big are these cars? And how is Xavier finding all of them?"
"They're custom made. That's why they work so well with Forge's hologram system." Jean explains.
"How much money does the Professor have?" Piotr asks in awe.
I shrug. "Don't know. Learned to stop questioning it. Well, off to the hotel for us."
We end up at a five-star hotel, while waiting in a private room, specifically rented out for us, Logan is reading a newspaper. "Wow, you're reading a newspaper. How old are you, dude?" Jubilee asks.
"A little over a hundred." Logan answers nonchalantly.
The others stare at him in shock. "Oh, right. Logan's healing factor gives him an extended lifespan. Thanks to Forge (One of our teammates) we were able to find out that he's about 132 to 129 years old." Scott says.
"So, you were born between 1882 and 1885 then?" Kitty asks.
"Would seem so," He turns the page and hums. "Slim, this Kurt kid was a part of a circus, right?"
"Yeah, is there something about the circus he's with?"
Logan places the newspaper down on the table. "Herr Getmann's Travelling Menagerie is coming to Berlin next week. They're really promoting the kid."
Bobby picks up the newspaper. "You got that right. 'Come! See the Amazing Nightcrawler in action! You don't want to miss it!' So, we gonna go to the circus?"
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm feeling a little tired, what with these back to back battles we've been having, I guess Scott notices it too. "Yeah, thankfully it's coming along in a week. Let's take a much-needed break, yeah guys?"
Everyone but Shiro, Piotr, and Logan cheer, well, Logan sighs in relief. "Finally," He mutters. "I'm headed to a bar, don't wait for me."
Shiro gets up. "I will go with you." Logan says nothing as Shiro follows him out of the hotel.
"I've never travelled this far from home. I will be travelling, hopefully the sights can give me insight on my art." Piotr gets up and leaves.
"What time is it?" Jubilee asks.
"It's almost five," Jean turns to Scott. "So, got anything planned, handsome?"
Scott smirks as he grabs Jean by the waist. "I can think of something," Scott turns to me. "Nolan, you're in charge, make sure these guys don't cause an international incident."
I give the two of them a salute. "You can count on me. Enjoy your date you two."
Scott gives me a pat on the shoulder as the two of them leave.
Bobby pouts as he folds his arms, he glares at me. "'YoU cAn CoUNt on mE'," He mocks. "Why are you in charge? I've been on the team longer than you have."
I give him a deadpan stare. "Bobby, I'm more mature than you are."
The others sound their agreement. Bobby's angry look quickly becomes a smile. "You aren't wrong about that one. So, what do we do now, oh fearless leader?"
My plan's a simple one. "Let's go enjoy Germany! If you guys want to you can go off in your own little groups, or we could all stick together, it's your choice, really. Just, don't start an international incident, yeah?"
"Don't worry mon ami, you can count on us." Remy reassures.
"Remy's right, we ain't gonna cause any problems," Rogue pointedly looks at Jubilee and Bobby. "These two on the other hand…"
"Hey! We happen to take offense to that." Jubilee says indignantly.
Rogue laughs. "Ah'm just messin' with the two of you. C'mon, let's go explore Germany."
Our first stop was a restaurant, because according to Bobby and Jubilee: 'Hotel food just ain't enough to really get a feel of the place'. So, our group ends up at a nice little restaurant, our food had just arrived once Remy began a conversation.
"Remy's been wondering about something for a while now: will we get costumes?" He asks.
"They're not costumes, they're suits." I correct.
"Eh, more like lightweight but still effective armor, all reverse engineered from Nolan's." Bobby adds.
"Do we get to choose what we want to wear?" Kitty asks.
Bobby nods. "Yeah, lucky you. When the X-Men first began the five of us had to wear a uniform, we got our individualized suits around the time the others joined the team."
"How'd you get your suit, Nol?" Kitty turns to me.
I sigh deeply. "My Grandfather gave it to me. I mean, to be completely honest, it's been working so far, why change, y'know?"
"Got that right," Jubilee lets out a squeal of excitement as she thinks about her suit. "Oooh, I know exactly what my suit's gonna look like!" She stops.
We just stare at her, waiting for her to continue. She doesn't, instead she looks at us expectantly. Kitty sighs. "What's your suit gonna look like, Jubilee?"
"Thank you for asking, Kitty! Picture this: The top will be pink with black sides, a yellow X in the center of my chest. I'll have pink shoulders as well with black sleeves, and pink gloves. The pants will be blue, like my jeans, with black boots that go up to my knees. I'll wear my glasses 'cause they're a part of me at this point, as well as my jacket," She pauses and looks up. "Awesome, right?"
Remy gives her an impressed look. "That doesn't sound half bad," He leans back and looks up as well. "Got it. It'll be a purple top, wit' some silver designs here and dere. The pants will be completely black, a red belt buckle with the black X. Remy'll have silver boots and wear his trench coat over it. It's a part of him, too. And Remy'll have the same cowl as Scott and Jean."
Rogue taps her chin as she rests her elbows on the table. "Yellow on the inside with green on the outside all throughout. Ah'll have knee high yellow boots and a green bandana," She looks at the shoulders of her bomber jacket. "Maybe Ah could get the team symbol stitched onto here and wear this as a part of mah costume, too."
We all turn to Kitty. "I do like the black and yellow, not gonna lie. Yellow insides and black outsides, maybe the inner thighs could be yellow too, with some golden knee-high boots. I could have yellow shoulders and gloves, with a black X on the chest." She explains.
Jubilee then turns to me and Bobby, the rest following suit. "What?" I question. "We already have suits, no need to think of dream ones."
"Well yeah, but your suits aren't as well known as Logan's, or Scott's." Jubilee counters.
Bobby and I look at each other. "Alright," I sigh. "My suit's mainly black, with an orange belt that stops at the center, an orange circle broken up so that the black of my suit makes an X, two X's on my shoulders, and orange knuckles. Happy?"
Bobby gets right into it. "My suit's black pretty much all the way up to the chest, once there it becomes blue, but there's still a black X among the blue. It's sleeveless and I have arm bracers. Guess icing up really does make it hard to see my costume, huh?"
"Ya think?" Jubilee says.
Bobby lightly punches her in the shoulder.
Once we finish our food Rogue stretches. "Anyone know any good places to check out nearby?"
"Well, there's the Brandenburg Gate-" I begin.
"-The Berlin Wall Memorial-" Kitty says.
"-Charlottenburg Palace and Park-" I continue.
"-and the Jewish Museum Berlin. Among others" Kitty finishes. She touches her Star of David necklace fondly as she says this last one.
Jubilee slams her palm into the table, startling us all. "Well, we've all got our missions," We stare at her, confused. "Remy and Rogue can go on their date, you two can go on yours," Kitty and I avoid eye contact. "And Bobby and I will-"
"Go on a date?" The rest of us interrupt. Jubilee and Bobby blush in embarrassment.
"Not so funny when it happens to you, huh, Jubilee?" I say, a large smirk on my face.
"What I was gonna say was that Bobby and I are gonna add some graffiti to the Berlin wall." Jubilee finishes.
My eyes widen. "Woah, no, no, no. No. Remember, no international incidents."
"Come on, Nolan. Pleeease?" She begs. She puts her hands over the lower part of her face and gives me puppy dog eyes.
Must. Resist. I tear my eyes away. "No. That's final."
She deflates and sighs in defeat. "Fine."
Rogue and Remy share a look before getting up. "She is right doe. It's been a minute since chere and Remy have been alone. We'll see you in a bit." Remy gives us a mock salute as Rogue waves goodbye, the two exit the restaurant.
Jubilee gasps as she jumps up in her seat. "Isn't Oktoberfest going on right now?"
"It's tomorrow, actually." Kitty corrects.
"You aren't going, you're underage." I counter.
Jubilee groans. "C'mon, Nolan, let me have some fun."
"When you're older, go ahead, right now I'd much rather we don't get separated in a giant crowd in a foreign place. Especially with the Brotherhood out there." I tell her.
She sighs again, but this time I can see in her eyes that she understands my position. "Fine," She relents. "But next time we come here I get to do whatever I want. Got it?"
I chuckle. "Yeah, got it."
She gets up. "C'mon Bobby, let's go."
Bobby looks at her incredulously. "Why me?"
"Because if I want to go alone Nolan's gonna be like, 'No way, you gotta have a partner'." She deepens her voice as she mocks me. I don't sound like that. Do I? Great, now I'm self-conscious about my voice, that'll take a while to get over.
Bobby looks at me. I just smirk. He sighs and gets up. The two leave the restaurant, leaving Kitty and I alone. "I would've left her alone," I say. I pull out my phone, specially made by Forge. I then go to the map, which shows the location of our current travelling companions. "This would've told me where she is the entire time."
"What if she were kidnapped?" Kitty asks.
"If the phone doesn't sense the body heat of the owner for an extended period of time it sends out an automated distress signal. Before we go to sleep, we just tell the phone, avoids a lot of trouble when we do that." I answer.
Kitty pulls something out of her bag. Wait, is that? Holy shit, it is. "Uh, Kit? Did you really take that from Japan? Even after everything Shingen did?" I ask.
"Don't worry about it. My phasing tends to mess with electronics, don't know why. Also, I'm pretty good with computers," She says. She opens the laptop and logs on, after doing whatever she opens a video calling app. Eventually her parents pick up. "Hey Mom and Dad!"
"Kitten! How are you." Her mom replies.
Kitty shrugs. "Oh, you know, just kicking butt all over the world."
Her dad raises an eyebrow in intrigue. "Really now? And where have you been?"
Kitty holds up a finger. "California, Japan, Russia. We're in Germany right now, eventually we're going to London, then Ireland, then we're headed back to New York."
Her dad lets out a hum. "Impressive," He then notices me. "Nolan, how are you?"
"I'm fine, Mr. Pryde." I smile and nod.
A sound can be heard on the other end of the call, Kitty's mom looks down then looks back up, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry, but we have an important meeting soon. Thank you for calling, Kitten. I love you."
"I love you guys too. Bye." Kitty and I wave.
"Keep an eye on her, alright, Nolan?" Her dad says.
I give him a mock salute. "You can count on me sir."
He nods before the call ends. I turn to Kitty. "Now what?"
She thinks for a moment before looking at me. "I've got some ideas."
For the rest of the week the eleven of us take in the sites of Berlin, Germany. Scott and Jean go on a few more dates, Logan begrudgingly becomes our chaperone for a day, Shiro and Piotr begin to bond, and Kitty and I continue to see the sites as well. The others constantly tease us about it.
Eventually the circus finally arrived.
The next day
"Where the hell is my toothbrush?" I ask. We are currently in three rooms, the girls all in one, Shiro, Scott, Piotr, and Bobby in one, Remy, Logan, and I in another.
Remy throws it my way. Looking carefully at the bristles I see they were previously used. "Remy used it, sorry."
I blink before giving him a pointed glare. "Ex-fucking-scuse me? You used my toothbrush? What the hell, man!"
"He said he was sorry, just accept it." Logan says as he places his hat atop his head.
"Would you accept his apology if he used your toothbrush?" I ask.
"No." Logan simply replies.
"Then why should I!?" I shout.
"You can clean it, can't you?" Logan counters.
Oh, right. I tap into Shinji's powers and reverse time around my toothbrush, bringing it back to its pristine, pre-Cajun form. Remy just shrugs as he has a victorious smirk on his face. I flip him off before going into the bathroom.
After a few minutes of brushing my teeth and fixing my hair the three of us exit our hotel room, where we find the girls waiting for us. I stand next to Kitty and Rogue as we wait. "What was that shouting?" Rogue asks.
"Someone," I pointedly glare at Remy. He does the same action from earlier. "Decided to use my toothbrush."
Rogue turns to him. "Gross."
"What can Remy say? It was do or die." Remy says.
"You have a toothbrush!" I whisper-shout.
"Where're Slim and the others, Red?" Logan asks.
Jean looks at the door for a moment, she then turns to Logan. "They're still getting ready. Bobby may have accidentally iced up the bathroom."
The door opens. First comes Piotr and Scott, both looking miffed at the whole thing. Bobby comes out next, a sheepish smile on his face. Shiro comes out last, his hands still glowing from melting the ice in the bathroom. Looking into the room I can see steam rising from the carpet.
"The hell did you do?" I ask.
"He placed an ice bomb in the bathroom. Once Piotr opened the door it blew up, I happened to be nearby. We were trapped for almost half an hour." Scott answers.
"It was great." Bobby immediately shrinks due to the glares directed to him by the three.
Jean just shakes her head as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Let's go, the circus should be here soon."
"Circus! Circus! Circus!" Bobby begins to chant. Jubilee, Remy, and I join in as we exit the hotel.
Outside we see a large crowd heading around the hotel, once going around the building we find the circus. Outside we see people on giant stilts, elephants balancing chairs with people on them, someone juggling fire, and other circus activities.
"The main event's starting in about an hour, meet back here ten minutes before, alright?" Scott calls out.
We all separate and do our own things. Bobby, Jubilee, Remy, and Rogue go to check out the snake whisperer, and considering the world we live in, I wouldn't doubt she could actually talk to the snakes. Jean and Scott go to check out the sword swallower. Logan, Piotr, and Shiro go do…something, not sure what, to be completely honest.
Kitty grabs my arm in an iron grip and drags me through the crowd. "Nolan! Look at that!"
We fit our way through a crowd to find a man eating sticks of fire, he then breaths out large balls of flame. To his left we see his twin eating blocks of dry ice, he then breaths out a gout of ice.
Kitty leans towards me as they toss a stick to each other, repeating the process. "So, actual powers or…"
I look at the two with a critical eye. "Not powers. Has to be skill. One hell of a skill, too. I'm impressed."
"Hey, there's Logan, Shiro, and Piotr." Kitty points to the group.
We go to them to find them watching the person on the chair balance on one leg on the trunk of an elephant. Wish I could do that. I turn to see Piotr staring in awe at the display. "I take it you like this one?"
Piotr shakes his head before looking at me, he smiles as he rubs the back of his head. "Da. The skill and care needed for something of this magnitude is…awe inspiring. And to see an elephant doing this perfectly is amazing," He pulls out his sketchbook and a pencil. "I know what my next art piece will be."
I turn to Shiro. "What do you think?"
For a moment he's quiet. "It's okay. I have seen more impressive though."
Kitty leans close to me. "He really doesn't talk much."
"You got that right," I smell a smell I love to smell. "Popcorn. C'mon, Kitty, let's leave the Boring Patrol behind."
Kitty pumps her fists and jumps around a bit. "Let's fucking go! Popcorn! Popcorn!"
"Forgot how much you loved popcorn," I chuckle. In the distance I can see some of the people of the circus coming in from the back. "Main attraction's here."
"Really?" She jumps around, trying to look over the crowd. She fails miserably. She turns to me and gives me puppy dog eyes. Dammit, why are those so damn effective? Sighing, I pick her up, once she sees the main attraction, she pats me on the shoulder, telling me to put her down. "Thanks, Nol."
"So, did you see him?" I ask.
"Yeah, he looks cool, and that suit of his works great." She replies.
"It does. C'mon, popcorn, remember?" I continue our little quest, Kitty following close behind.
The two of us get our own bags of popcorn. As we continue around the outside, we run into the others every now and again, we see Bobby getting a caricature painting done, Jubilee with an apple on her head, one of the circus people throwing axes at the apple perfectly. Eventually we see the time, we head to the center, where everyone else is waiting.
"Well, let's go check out the show." Scott hands us all our tickets.
Once she gets hers Jubilee looks at the massive line, which is still growing. "Uh, Scott, it's gonna take a while for us to get in."
"Look at your ticket."
We look to see special VIP access on our tickets. Rogue and I fist bump. We enter the tent and find ourselves in a special area, with a full view of the entire circus, oooooh this is dope as fuck.
As we take our seats the lights dim, as we sit in near total darkness a spotlight activates, illuminating a middle-aged man standing in the center of the circus. He has a tall, black top hat on, as well as polished black shoes. He wears white dress pants and has a red suit jacket on, with golden trimming. He has a thick black mustache and is holding a brown cane with a golden head.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls of all ages! Welcome, to Herr Getmann's Travelling Menagerie! I am Herr Max Getmann, and I welcome you! Today, you will see feats of nigh impossibility, completed! Sword jugglers, mages, toad men, and teleporters, oh my! Please, enjoy ze show!"
Firework cannons go off, illuminating everything. From the back of the tent comes three elephants, with people balancing on the chairs on their trunks, a lion tamer and a tiger tamer come rushing out with meat on sticks, their animals doing tricks as they follow them. A group of three follow, a man with a hint of a stubble, he reminds me of a pirate, honestly. A blue loose shirt and khaki pants, a white do-rag over his hair. To his left is an attractive girl with light brown hair, she wears red pants, she also has a red shirt with white designs on it and is wearing a blue cape. In between them is an older woman who shares similarities between the two, probably their mother, her hair is dark like the young man's while her face looks like the young woman's. She wears a white dress with a golden corset, and golden necklaces all over her neck, as well as a golden headpiece.
After them comes a short guy, instead of running out or walking out of the back like everyone else he leaps out, like a frog. His skin's green and he has a bowl cut. He wears mainly orange, while everything from the chest up is blue, as well as the shoulders.
The next person's appearance causes everyone to cheer wildly, pretty sure my eardrums just ruptured from the volume of the cheering. Doing acrobatic flips comes Kurt Wagner, otherwise known as the Amazing Nightcrawler. He has white boots with a red line on top of the boots, his pants and the sides of the upper half of his costume are black, the center of his costume is a vibrant red, and the shoulders extend out, like Vegeta's armor during the Saiyan Saga. The gloves are like his boots, white with a red line separating the black sleeves and the white gloves. Oh, right, he also has three toes each-two in front and one on the back-and three fingers. He also has a long blue tail coming from out of his back, which brings me to his most important feature, he has fine dark blue fur instead of skin, and his eyes are pure yellow.
"He's popular, isn't he?" Jean rhetorically questions.
"The green boy doesn't like it." Logan chimes in.
True enough, Green Dude has an angry look on his face. Guess he's jealous of Kurt's popularity. The look of anger increases once Kurt and the girl wearing red bow, their arms around each other. Rival in love, scandalous.
A large show is first, using all of the people here. The men on the chairs jump between each other and sit on each other's chairs, the dude in blue juggles swords and such, he does some acrobatic flips as well, while juggling the swords. The two women do some insane magic tricks, such as manipulating the fireworks or creating constructs of lions and tigers. The lion and tiger tamers have their beasts running through obstacle courses.
Then come the next two. The green guy leaps around, his tongue shoots out of his mouth and grabs a hold of some of the sword guys swords. But then Kurt does some acrobatic flips, he then points to an empty seat amongst the crowd, a spotlight goes to the seat. Two puffs of smoke later we see Kurt sitting amongst the crowd, everyone else goes wild at that display.
"Looks like a teleporter." Logan comments.
The people of the circus get in a final position, with a spot open. Another two bursts of smoke later and Kurt is among them, completing the opening show. The crowd gets up in a standing ovation.
"Say hello to our beast tamers, Heinrich and Franz Muller! Our acrobats, Abraham, Adalia, and Adal! Our family of swords und magic, Margali Szardos, and her children Jimaine and Stephan! Mortimer Toynbee, The Terrible Toad! And last but not least, Kurt Vagner! THE AMAZING NIGHTCRAWLER!" Getmann holds his arms out, an explosion goes off.
Logan and I leap forward, he brings out his claws as he does. The others look at us confused. "Guys?"
"That wasn't the fireworks." I say.
The lights go out, bringing us into almost complete darkness. Screams can be heard as well as combat. As we jump out of our booth Shiro and Jubilee activate their powers, giving us light. We see most of the circus people knocked out, the only ones up are Kurt, Toad, and the Szardos family.
Across from them we see a group of people, all of them look to be average, well, except for the Friends of Humanity armbands on their arms. Yay. Among their numbers stands their leader, Graydon Creed. The hell's he doing here?
"Max Getmann, you've been known for harboring mutant trash amongst your numbers," He holds his hand out. "Don't be stupid, give the two of them to us and we won't harm anyone else."
Oh, that's why he's here.
Getmann defiantly stands in front of the two. "No. I do not take kindly to threats, against me or my people. Leave."
Creed smirks as he raises his hand, the crowd parts to show a young woman held hostage by the FOH. Getmann's defiant look quickly gives way to fear. "No! Please! Don't hurt her, she's just a girl."
"You know what I want."
Getmann turns around and looks at the two, a shadow falls over his face. He then steps aside, shocking them. Creed nods to the person holding the woman hostage, he throws her at Getmann.
Creed then turns to the two and smirks as he and his group slowly move in on the two. Before they could take another step, an earthquake appears form out of nowhere, Kitty and I share an annoyed look.
From the same hole the FOH came from comes Mystique, followed closely behind by Lance. Now he's wearing a black suit, and he has a silver chest piece and shoulder pads, as well as silver gloves that reach up to his elbows and a dome helmet over the top half of his head.
A blue and silver blur runs through the FOH, taking out a good amount of them. Once it stops, I finally get a good look at Quicksilver. He has silver hair, his suit is primarily blue, with silver boots and gloves and a silver belt that connects to a similarly colored lighting bolt that goes from his left shoulder to the right side of his belt.
Quicksilver smirks at an annoyed Creed before he looks at us. "Look who's here: The X-Men. Who're your new friends? Doesn't matter."
He takes off running. I smirk and do the same, shoulder checking him while we run at each other in high speed. He skids on the ground a fair distance, once he stops, he looks at me in shock. "That's what you get for letting me get a good look at you, asshole." I taunt.
A gunshot goes off. Everything slows down enough for me to see a bullet fired towards me by one of the FOH, I walk towards it, pick it up, and toss it to the side. Quicksilver punches me in the face.
I quickly recover and hit him in the gut with my knee, followed by an uppercut that sends him flying towards Bobby. Once we exit our little speed zone Bobby quickly puts up an ice wall, which Quicksilver slams into headfirst. Shiro fires just over my shoulders, turning around I see two FOH dudes laying on the ground.
Eventually a fight breaks out between the three groups. Scott makes his way to me, even with Lance constantly using his powers. "Nolan, get to Kurt and…Mortimer? Yeah, Mortimer. Get to the two of them and help get the circus people out."
I swap to my Storm powers and fly, seeing as superspeed and an unreliably ground isn't a good match. "Hey! I can get the rest of them outta here, you two help get them to me, yeah?"
They both get out of their shocked positions and look at me. Kurt's face becomes serious before he starts teleporting, bringing the people to me. The smell of his teleporting is horrible, kind of regretting this plan. Mortimer, on the other hand, glares at a currently escaping Getmann. Before I could say anything, he leaps away, most likely to get revenge.
Goddammit. Jean throws some rocks in his way thankfully, but they get destroyed by some bombs thrown by Mystique. She then dodges a punch from Creed himself. She smirks victoriously as his angry look becomes even angrier. Wonder if there's a history between those two.
Kurt's teleporting catches Creed's attention, so while he's getting his friends Creed aims his gun at Kurt, hoping to hit him. Before I could do anything, Mystique acts first, and ferociously. She hits the gun away, the stray shot bouncing off of Piotr, and then hits Creed in the chest with her palm, winding him. As he stumbles away, she kicks him in the leg, once he's down she headbutts him.
A scream grabs my attention, turning to my left I see Mortimer standing over Getmann and the woman, a sword held high, ready to strike Getmann down. Did I just sound like Palpatine? Eh, whatever. A brown and green blur slams into him, once it stops, I see Rogue. When'd she get Quicksilver's powers? Eh, works for us.
"Hey! Asshole!" A fist connects with the side of my beautiful face, again.
Shaking my head, I look up to see Lance glaring down at me. He cracks his fists. "I've got a bone to pick with you."
"Who the hell says that anymore?" I ask. He glares at me. What? It's a genuine question.
I punch him in the head, yeah, wasn't my brightest moment, once my fist connects with his helmet I lurch back in pain, holding my fist and blowing on it. Lance grabs me by the back of my shirt and the collar and hefts me up. "Man, you are light!"
He throws me towards some of the few FOH guys left. I create a gust of wind that blows them back and keeps me aloft, I then fly towards him at high speeds, he plants his feet down and prepares for me. I smirk as I raise my right arm up before swinging it down, hitting him with a lightning bolt.
Surprisingly enough, he stays standing, not for long though. His helmet phases through his head, turning around he sees Kitty standing behind him. She punches him in the face, oooooh, sounds like she broke his nose, especially considering the blood that's everywhere now.
A pellet drops between the two of us. One bright flash of light later and everyone on the Brotherhood side of things are gone, as well as Mortimer. Yay. Wait a minute. "Shiro, how'd she get past you?"
I turn around to see him currently supported by Piotr, a streak of blood running down his face. "Oh, shit, you okay man?"
He holds a hand up. "It is fine, thank you for your concern," He looks around at the FOH. "Now what?"
"Let me come vith you."
We all turn to see Kurt standing across from us, the Szardos family-who had yet to be taken out of the battle zone-standing with him. The girl, Jimaine, softly places her hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure, Kurt?"
"You didn't see it, Jimaine, Getmann vas villing to sell Mortimer and I out, even with the X-Men here, vho easily could've saved his daughter. I don't vant to vork for a man like zat again." Kurt says.
"Funny thing: We actually came here hoping you'd join us. I guess now you've just gotta say your goodbyes and grab your things, then we can go." Scott replies.
"Zat soon?" Stephan asks.
"We're kind of on a timetable here," Jean chimes in. "Don't worry though! You can visit whenever you want, just be sure to call us so we can pay for the plane tickets, hotel, and all that other good stuff."
The mother, Margali, grabs Kurt by the shoulders and turns him around to face her. "Are you sure about zis, Kurt?"
Kurt nods. "Ja."
Margali backs up, her hands glow green as she does some motions, eventually some suitcases appear from a magic circle on the ground. "Go. Enjoy your new life, and be sure to call us, okay?"
She and Kurt hug. "Of course."
Jimaine steps forward and kisses him on the cheek. It doesn't show, what with his deep blue fur and all, but we can tell he's blushing. "You'd better have fun, got it?" Kurt just nods.
Next up is her brother, the two have a bro hug. They just look at each other before nodding, Stephan's mother and sister just roll their eyes.
Kurt turns to us. "Vell, let's go."
"We gotta go to the hotel first, to get our stuff, ya know?" Jubilee says.
Margali does the same thing, our luggage all appears before us. "Magic is so fucking cool." Bobby whispers in awe.
"Yeah." I whisper as well. Bobby then turns to me; I know exactly what he's gonna ask. I feel my powers shift, turning to my right I begin to think about fire, my hands glow with a red energy, followed quickly by a bolt of magical fire.
"DUDE!" Bobby and I shout.
Margali looks at the two of us as we excitedly jump around, joined by Jubilee and Remy. She then turns to Scott. "You live in New York, correct?"
"Yeah."
"Look for Stephen Strange, he can help your friend learn more about his magic." She says.
"Thank you." Scott nods his head.
Margali does the same. "Alright! All of you, get together."
Once we do her hands glow again, a magic circle appears below us, as it rises, we feel ourselves slowly disappear from the circus. Before the circle completely floats over us, we wave goodbye to the Szardos family, eventually we return to the airport.
Teleporting's weird, my skin feels tingly. Looks like Kitty's worse off then all of us, she falls to her knees and almost pukes, if the noises she's making are of any indication. "Are you okay, Katya?" Piotr asks.
'Katya'? The hell is that? Whatever, I'm not jealous. You can't prove anything!
"Suuure you aren't." Jean cheekily says telepathically.
Jean! Get out! I feel her presence leave my mind.
"Yeah, I'm fine. No, I'm not. Ugh, maybe. I don't know." Kitty gets up with Piotr's help.
No. Not jealous at all. I feel Jean's presence in my mind. Leave. The presence leaves.
"Maybe it's your powers?" I speculate. Everyone looks at me. "I mean, think about it: your molecules work differently than anyone else's, so maybe by moving your molecules from one place to another outside of your control your body has a violent reaction."
"Is there a way to stop it?" Kitty wonders.
"Best guess? Keep teleporting until it doesn't happen anymore." I offer.
Kitty groans as she weakly punches me in the shoulder. "Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Belmont."
"Your last name is Belmont?" Kurt asks.
Shit, right. We never got to introduce ourselves. "Name's Nolan Belmont. And my patient here is Katherine Pryde, she goes by Kitty."
"My name is Jean Grey."
"Name's Bobby, I'm the cool guy."
We groan at his pun. "Ignore him, the name's Anna Marie, call me Rogue. Oh, and don't touch, trust me."
Kurt has a questioning look on his face. Jubilee then gets into his face. "Names Jubilee. You've got really soft fur." She runs her hands across his face.
Noticing his immense discomfort Logan picks up Jubilee, ignoring her protests. "Logan."
"Yoshida Shiro."
"Piotr Rasputin."
"Name's Remy LeBeau, don't forget it."
"And I'm Scott Summers, the leader of the X-Men." Scott offers his hand to shake.
"Kurt. Kurt Vagner." He introduces himself formally.
"Vagner?" Jubilee questions.
"No, Vagner." Kurt corrects.
"That's what I said." Jubilee says, tiling her head in confusion.
"No, you said 'Vagner' not 'Vagner'." Kurt explains.
"They're the same thing." Jubilee further tilts her head.
"Without a German accent his name's 'Wagner', with one it's 'Vagner'." I interrupt. Don't want this conversation to continue longer than it should.
Guess Scott's a telepath too. "C'mon you guys, two more stops."
Hell yeah, next stop London…London! Hah! I get to go home! Man, it's been a while since I've been there. Man, I can't wait.
Shortly after the battle
"W-why did you let me come with you?" Mortimer asks on edge.
Mystique turns to him and pats him on the head. "Because, you show a strength that the X-Men would only waste," Now, Mortimer knows nothing about Mystique, but he did know that she was a serious, intense person, so seeing the look of uncertainty and fear that crossed across her face was a great surprise. "The blue boy, how is he?"
Mortimer looks at her confused. "Kurt? Why do you care? He's nothing but a spot hogging shit. Don't see what Jimaine sees in him."
Mystique's hand, which happens to be atop his head, tightly grasps his hair. Mortimer shouts in pain and fear as Mystique jerks his head back, exposing his neck, she then places a blade on it, Mortimer stops moving entirely.
"What are his powers? Was he treated well? How skilled is he? Who is Jimaine?" She interrogates.
Due to the situation and the way she asked the questions, professional followed by personal, Mortimer didn't really look too deeply into the personal questions. "H-h-he can teleport! A-and yeah! Before today he was Getmann's money maker. He's, uh, he's pretty damn skilled with swords, Stephan taught him a lot-"
"Who's Stephan?" The knife goes in a little deeper, drawing some blood.
"J-Jimaine's older brother! He and Kurt were best buds!"
"And Jimaine?"
"She and Kurt are c-c-close! Maybe they were dating! I don't know!" Mortimer's breathing slowly calms down, slightly impressing Mystique. "Please, let me go." Aaand there goes the respect.
Mystique raises the knife from his throat and throws him forward. Mortimer trips over Quicksilver and Avalanche, waking them up. "Who the hell are you?"
"Toad. The newest member of the Brotherhood." Mystique answers for him.
"What?" They both ask.
"Toad's abilities will have their uses, so he will join." Mystique firmly states.
Quicksilver and Avalanche share a glance before turning to Mortimer, now known as Toad.
Toad began to regret his decision.
Nightcrawler's joined the battle! We're nearing the end of the arc and heading into the next! Some quick notes about the timeline of the story: there's gonna be time skips, especially after the Brotherhood arc. See, the Graduation Arc is actually a lot closer than I anticipated and considering the fact that most of these guys are around thirteen-fourteen I realized we gotta skip through time a bit.
One thing I'm intimidated about with writing this story is balancing the characters, after all, the X-Men are the biggest superhero team in comics, especially in current years. We'll see as the story goes on.
One cool thing I noticed: when the previous chapter was posted the word count was at 113,113, pretty cool, huh? And again, my story The Vitruvian Man is finally up! You can find it in the Justice League section.
That's all from me. Please leave constructive criticism and remember to stay awesome! See you next week.
