"Kurt. Please come in, Kurt." The Professor tried for what seemed
like the millionth time to call their fuzzy friend on his communicator. And
for what seemed like the millionth time, there was no response.
Kitty sat weeping on a cold metal chair, still in the Danger room, while Jean tried to comfort her by patting her on the back. A half an hour ago she had been waving cheerfully to her friend, simply waiting for the experiment to be over with so she could go to school. What had happened to that? _I'll, like, tell you what happened to it. It, like, vanished in a cloud of, like, sulphur._
Kitty could hardly guess *why* she was crying. It was only Kurt, after all. The ultimate goofball. The kid who decided three minutes after they met to poke her in the ribs at least twenty times a day. Kurt made it a point to either pull some kind of prank or flirt with Kitty every time he saw her. Wiping a tear from her eye, Kitty thought, _Maybe that's why you care about him so much. He's dependable._
"Kitty, do you think you feel well enough to go to school today?" Kitty jumped a little, startled from her (rather surprising) thoughts. Jean had a worried look on her face, and was peering down into her eyes, her hand still on Kitty's back.
Kitty was unsure. "I..."
"I'm sure you'll see Kurt back here by the end of the day," Jean reassured Kitty, looking worried through her warm smile. "Knowing him, this is probably just some kind of ridiculous prank." Kitty tilted her head back towards the floor, wiping at the tears still streaming down her face. "I'll take that as a 'no'," Jean surmised, straightening out.
"No!" Kitty got to her feet sharply, leaving the chair to clatter to the floor. "I'm, like, going to school," she said firmly. "I can handle it." _Or I'll, like, die *trying* to handle it._
Being a mind-reader, Jean was still suspicious. "Are you sure?" Kitty put on a fake smile that didn't touch her eyes.
"Like, totally. Kurt'll probably, like, be there already, like, laughing at us and stuff."
"Okay, Kitty..."
"Really." Kitty watched the red-head walk slowly out of the Danger Room, her footsteps sounding harsh in the nearly empty place. Professor X continued to hail Kurt over his communicator. Kitty paid close attention to the static on the other end of the line as she cleaned her face up by feel, retying her top-knot for good measure. _If it kills me._ Kitty put on a look of grim resolution and headed upstairs to change into her school clothes.
Shoving her way through the mass of teenagers, Kathy called out: "Federal Bureau of Investigation, people!" Kathy flashed the I.D. that she had bought at Chuck E. Cheese (with twenty tickets). The crowd instantly parted. "I'm in charge of handling this situation. Let me through, please." There was now a path through to the center of the group, and Kathy made it her business to carry herself like someone who had a great deal of people under her control. She tried not to look astonished when she got a clear view of the being huddled underneath the letter 'F' in 'Fish.'
Moving more quickly, Kathy soon reached the wall and crouched down beside The Baytown Demon. She brought out her flip-comb, and held it close to the Demon. "When I stick this thing into your side," she muttered, trying to calm him down. "I want you to act like you've been shocked with electricity or something, okay?" Kathy prepared to jab the comb into his side until the Baytown Demon surprised everyone by speaking.
"Kitty?" Kathy tried to conceal her shock and keep up her act. The people gathered around her had started talking again, expressing their surprise to one another. Speaking condescendingly, as if to a child or an animal, she replied.
"No, I'm not a Kitty. Now I want you to calm down, and come with me."
The Demon seemed to be picking up on her little game. He growled menacingly and said, "Don't want to." Taking this as a cue, Kathy jabbed the comb into his side, and prayed silently.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. The creature twitched and cried out in pain, and Kathy made her move. "It's time to go!" She hauled him to his feet and began to drag him out of the semi-circle of people. "Clear aside, please," she called to the crowd. "Important business." _Mindless sheep,_ Kathy thought again as the crowd parted in front of her once more. She dragged the Demon roughly through the gap in the people, and he played up his part, clutching at his arm where she gripped it. "Nothing more to see here, folks! I'm taking it away, now! Go back to what you were doing!" The mass of people slowly drifted apart behind them as they turned the corner, and Kathy continued to drag the Demon down the street. Once they were about a block away, Kathy loosened her hold on his arm.
"You speak, right?" Kathy asked him. He nodded. "I'm going to take you to an empty warehouse, okay? So we can talk."
"All right." It startled her to no end when he replied. Nonetheless, she waved him around another corner, and they traveled down a quiet street lined with houses before they came to the place Kathy had been heading for. Opening the heavy door with one hand, she turned back to look at the Demon. She was beginning to get a little more frightened, now that she wasn't surrounded by hordes of people who could save her. _He's not going to hurt you,_ she reminded herself. But then she wondered if she really knew. _Well, you're just going to have to talk to him, aren't you?_
The Demon stepped inside and Kathy closed the door behind her, never turning her back to her 'new friend.' "You want to sit down?" She gestured at a couple of crates that were lying close to the door. Her voice echoed in the large, empty space that was the warehouse.
"Sure," he said, sitting down. The bulky machine was still strapped to his front. He put down his oxygen mask on the floor beside him.
_Well, better get started._ "My name's Katherine Pryde," she began, looking him in the eye. "You called me 'Kitty' before, didn't you?"
"Ah - Kurt Wagner," he said, holding out his hand. She shook it, then looked down at it for the first time. No wonder it felt so strange - it was covered in fur and had only two fingers and a thumb.
_Talk about out-of-place._
"And, ja, I called you Kitty before. You look…well, from what I can tell, you *are* Kitty. Um…this is going to sound really strange, but…I come from a different…dimension?" Kurt was genuinely surprised when she didn't laugh. The Kitty *he* knew would have cracked up in an instant. "I'm a - gosh, I don't know if I should tell you this…"
"Listen, I just saved you when no one else would, okay? I think you can trust me."
"Yeah, you're right." He paused before he spoke again. "I'm a mutant. Though, you know, now that I think about it, I think that would have been obvious."
"Mutant?" He said that the wrong way. He acted like it was some kind of nationality or something. "You mean like some kind of - some kind of freak of nature?"
*Now* Kurt understood why there had been the amount of confusion there was on the street. Why not *one* person seemed to recognize him, not even his teammate Kitty. "I'm guessing there aren't any mutants here. You see…in *my* universe, Kitty Pryde can walk through walls."
"Well, I definitely can't do that. And nobody calls me 'Kitty' here." She said the name with disdain. "I like to be called 'Kathy,' if you don't mind."
"Not at all." _I needed a way to disassociate, anyway._ "Like I said before, I'm a mutant. That means I have a sort of...special power..."
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Kitty looked up in surprise as the school-bell rang. She had been staring blankly at her math book for an indeterminate amount of time, thinking about her missing friend. With a glance over at Kurt's vacant desk, Kitty scooped up her books and headed towards the door. She was intercepted by her teacher.
"Is something bothering you, Miss Pryde? I noticed that you didn't do a *single* problem today, or do anything to contribute to class at *all.*"
_You noticed that, huh?_ "I'm sorry, Mrs. Riley. I'm just, like, a little out of it today."
"'A little out of it'? Kitty, you didn't even *look* at the board today, when you're usually so - so *enthralled* in what we're doing. I would say that you're more than a 'little out of it.'"
"Look, I'm, like, really sorry Mrs. Riley, but I, like, really have to, like, get to my, like, next class. Which is -" her eyes went out of focus for a few seconds. "- chemistry." Mrs. Riley just looked at her. "The, like, bell's going to ring any second now, so I'm, like, gonna go, okay?" Kitty ducked out of the room before the teacher could say no. Heading towards room 324, she realized that she shared her next class with her quasi-friend Lance. _Hmm. Maybe he'll, like, be able to comfort me about this,_ Kitty thought. _Or maybe not. Just *any* talk would be of, like, help._ She sank into her seat beside Lance, who was in his usual position, draped nonchalantly on a chair that he had obviously turned backwards, at the lab table.
"Like, hi," she whispered as the bell rang.
"What's up, Pretty-Kitty?"
She sighed. "Kurt's missing." Lance changed his position and looked directly into her face, puzzled. "There was some kind of, like, experiment? And he, like, teleported away, and we can't, like, find him."
The scruffy teen opposite Kitty looked grim, obviously thinking about the Brotherhood. "So what if Fuzz-butt's missing?" he said coldly. "I thought you didn't like him, anyway."
"Lance, how can you, like, say that?" Tears were springing to her eyes again. _Oh, dammit. Not *again.*_
"*Mr.* Alvers. *Ms.* Pryde. If you are *quite* finished with your discussion, I'd like to return to teaching you thermodynamics."
There were a number of faces turned back, looking at them. Kitty sniffled and wiped any tears that were by her eyes quickly, and pulled out her chemistry book. After sneaking a glare at Lance while the teacher's back was turned, she proceeded to stare at page 540 in her book, head propped up by a cupped hand.
"It's gonna be, like, a loooooong day," she whispered to herself.
"…and the first time *I* saw you was in my physics class at school," Kathy finished, gesturing. Kurt stared into space for a moment, thinking, then moved suddenly, excited.
"I've figured it out!"
"Figured what out?"
"Why you guys have been seeing me here!" Kurt jumped up and began to pace. "The Professor said that every time I teleport, I go to an alternate dimension for a split-second, right?" Kathy nodded, still confused. "Well, *I* figure is that what I *actually* do is come *here* for a split second in *one* place, and move so fast that I…go through the walls or something, I haven't figured that part out yet…but I appear for a split-second one place – then a split-second in another place. *That* would explain why there have been *two* sightings of me about Bayvi – I'm sorry, Baytown – at the same time!" He turned back to look at her. "Follow?"
"Uh…give me a minute." Laughing, Kurt sat down on his crate again, flicking his tail out behind him. The movement caught Kathy's eye. "Do you move that thing consciously?" She pointed to his fifth limb.
"Huh?" He looked behind him and snagged it, holding the spaded tip close to his face. "Nein, not really. Occasionally I can get it to do something for me, like pick something up or something, but other than that…it's got a mind of its own."
"Huh. Well, uh…what are we going to do to solve this problem? You know, you being stuck here?" Kurt blinked. He had been so involved in his conversation with Kitty – er, Kathy – that he hadn't really thought about that. The last time it had occurred to him that he was stuck here was when he was pressed up against that Fish Market wall. The truth hit him like a ton of bricks. It was quite likely that he would never see the real Kitty – his Kitty – or any of his *real* friends again. "Wow. Guess you weren't really thinking about that, huh? Okay, listen. Maybe you can think of someone from *your* dimension that you would contact in the case of an emergency or something?"
It took Kurt a moment to respond. "Uh, ja, ja." Kurt shook his head to clear it and looked up at her. So different from Kitty…Kathy didn't wear her hair up or *anything,* and…no capris. So different… "Uh, Forge. Yeah, Forge. He made *this* thing," Kurt lifted the machinery that still lay on his chest and let it fall with a whumph. "and got me stuck here." He rolled his eyes. "Remind me to thank him when I get back."
"Forge? I don't know a Forge. Try again."
He smacked his forehead. "Oh, that's right! Forge is probably really old right now…" He got a strange look on his face as he pondered the possibilities. "…or he's still in the Middleverse."
Kathy just looked confused.
Laughing nervously, Kurt made another suggestion: "The Professor. If there's anyone who would know what to do in this situation, it's him. He's helped me out of many a tight spot before, and he's the smartest man *I* know. So, yeah, Professor Xavier."
Kathy raised an eyebrow. "You mean that old kook who lives in that big old mansion all by himself? *That* Xavier?"
"Bald? Scottish accent? In a wheelchair?"
"I wouldn't know. I've never met the guy…although your description pretty much matches my mother's – she used to deliver his groceries until the guy got a maid. You sure you wanna go see *him*?"
"Oh, ja. Trust me. He'll know what to do."
* * *
Joy! Now I feel as if I've accomplished something. It would be great if I got some feedback, but I'm not forcing you on this. Anywho, the next chapter will probably be up within a few days, if I can find the time (state standard testing, you know). I'll be writing soon! :D
Kitty sat weeping on a cold metal chair, still in the Danger room, while Jean tried to comfort her by patting her on the back. A half an hour ago she had been waving cheerfully to her friend, simply waiting for the experiment to be over with so she could go to school. What had happened to that? _I'll, like, tell you what happened to it. It, like, vanished in a cloud of, like, sulphur._
Kitty could hardly guess *why* she was crying. It was only Kurt, after all. The ultimate goofball. The kid who decided three minutes after they met to poke her in the ribs at least twenty times a day. Kurt made it a point to either pull some kind of prank or flirt with Kitty every time he saw her. Wiping a tear from her eye, Kitty thought, _Maybe that's why you care about him so much. He's dependable._
"Kitty, do you think you feel well enough to go to school today?" Kitty jumped a little, startled from her (rather surprising) thoughts. Jean had a worried look on her face, and was peering down into her eyes, her hand still on Kitty's back.
Kitty was unsure. "I..."
"I'm sure you'll see Kurt back here by the end of the day," Jean reassured Kitty, looking worried through her warm smile. "Knowing him, this is probably just some kind of ridiculous prank." Kitty tilted her head back towards the floor, wiping at the tears still streaming down her face. "I'll take that as a 'no'," Jean surmised, straightening out.
"No!" Kitty got to her feet sharply, leaving the chair to clatter to the floor. "I'm, like, going to school," she said firmly. "I can handle it." _Or I'll, like, die *trying* to handle it._
Being a mind-reader, Jean was still suspicious. "Are you sure?" Kitty put on a fake smile that didn't touch her eyes.
"Like, totally. Kurt'll probably, like, be there already, like, laughing at us and stuff."
"Okay, Kitty..."
"Really." Kitty watched the red-head walk slowly out of the Danger Room, her footsteps sounding harsh in the nearly empty place. Professor X continued to hail Kurt over his communicator. Kitty paid close attention to the static on the other end of the line as she cleaned her face up by feel, retying her top-knot for good measure. _If it kills me._ Kitty put on a look of grim resolution and headed upstairs to change into her school clothes.
Shoving her way through the mass of teenagers, Kathy called out: "Federal Bureau of Investigation, people!" Kathy flashed the I.D. that she had bought at Chuck E. Cheese (with twenty tickets). The crowd instantly parted. "I'm in charge of handling this situation. Let me through, please." There was now a path through to the center of the group, and Kathy made it her business to carry herself like someone who had a great deal of people under her control. She tried not to look astonished when she got a clear view of the being huddled underneath the letter 'F' in 'Fish.'
Moving more quickly, Kathy soon reached the wall and crouched down beside The Baytown Demon. She brought out her flip-comb, and held it close to the Demon. "When I stick this thing into your side," she muttered, trying to calm him down. "I want you to act like you've been shocked with electricity or something, okay?" Kathy prepared to jab the comb into his side until the Baytown Demon surprised everyone by speaking.
"Kitty?" Kathy tried to conceal her shock and keep up her act. The people gathered around her had started talking again, expressing their surprise to one another. Speaking condescendingly, as if to a child or an animal, she replied.
"No, I'm not a Kitty. Now I want you to calm down, and come with me."
The Demon seemed to be picking up on her little game. He growled menacingly and said, "Don't want to." Taking this as a cue, Kathy jabbed the comb into his side, and prayed silently.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. The creature twitched and cried out in pain, and Kathy made her move. "It's time to go!" She hauled him to his feet and began to drag him out of the semi-circle of people. "Clear aside, please," she called to the crowd. "Important business." _Mindless sheep,_ Kathy thought again as the crowd parted in front of her once more. She dragged the Demon roughly through the gap in the people, and he played up his part, clutching at his arm where she gripped it. "Nothing more to see here, folks! I'm taking it away, now! Go back to what you were doing!" The mass of people slowly drifted apart behind them as they turned the corner, and Kathy continued to drag the Demon down the street. Once they were about a block away, Kathy loosened her hold on his arm.
"You speak, right?" Kathy asked him. He nodded. "I'm going to take you to an empty warehouse, okay? So we can talk."
"All right." It startled her to no end when he replied. Nonetheless, she waved him around another corner, and they traveled down a quiet street lined with houses before they came to the place Kathy had been heading for. Opening the heavy door with one hand, she turned back to look at the Demon. She was beginning to get a little more frightened, now that she wasn't surrounded by hordes of people who could save her. _He's not going to hurt you,_ she reminded herself. But then she wondered if she really knew. _Well, you're just going to have to talk to him, aren't you?_
The Demon stepped inside and Kathy closed the door behind her, never turning her back to her 'new friend.' "You want to sit down?" She gestured at a couple of crates that were lying close to the door. Her voice echoed in the large, empty space that was the warehouse.
"Sure," he said, sitting down. The bulky machine was still strapped to his front. He put down his oxygen mask on the floor beside him.
_Well, better get started._ "My name's Katherine Pryde," she began, looking him in the eye. "You called me 'Kitty' before, didn't you?"
"Ah - Kurt Wagner," he said, holding out his hand. She shook it, then looked down at it for the first time. No wonder it felt so strange - it was covered in fur and had only two fingers and a thumb.
_Talk about out-of-place._
"And, ja, I called you Kitty before. You look…well, from what I can tell, you *are* Kitty. Um…this is going to sound really strange, but…I come from a different…dimension?" Kurt was genuinely surprised when she didn't laugh. The Kitty *he* knew would have cracked up in an instant. "I'm a - gosh, I don't know if I should tell you this…"
"Listen, I just saved you when no one else would, okay? I think you can trust me."
"Yeah, you're right." He paused before he spoke again. "I'm a mutant. Though, you know, now that I think about it, I think that would have been obvious."
"Mutant?" He said that the wrong way. He acted like it was some kind of nationality or something. "You mean like some kind of - some kind of freak of nature?"
*Now* Kurt understood why there had been the amount of confusion there was on the street. Why not *one* person seemed to recognize him, not even his teammate Kitty. "I'm guessing there aren't any mutants here. You see…in *my* universe, Kitty Pryde can walk through walls."
"Well, I definitely can't do that. And nobody calls me 'Kitty' here." She said the name with disdain. "I like to be called 'Kathy,' if you don't mind."
"Not at all." _I needed a way to disassociate, anyway._ "Like I said before, I'm a mutant. That means I have a sort of...special power..."
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Kitty looked up in surprise as the school-bell rang. She had been staring blankly at her math book for an indeterminate amount of time, thinking about her missing friend. With a glance over at Kurt's vacant desk, Kitty scooped up her books and headed towards the door. She was intercepted by her teacher.
"Is something bothering you, Miss Pryde? I noticed that you didn't do a *single* problem today, or do anything to contribute to class at *all.*"
_You noticed that, huh?_ "I'm sorry, Mrs. Riley. I'm just, like, a little out of it today."
"'A little out of it'? Kitty, you didn't even *look* at the board today, when you're usually so - so *enthralled* in what we're doing. I would say that you're more than a 'little out of it.'"
"Look, I'm, like, really sorry Mrs. Riley, but I, like, really have to, like, get to my, like, next class. Which is -" her eyes went out of focus for a few seconds. "- chemistry." Mrs. Riley just looked at her. "The, like, bell's going to ring any second now, so I'm, like, gonna go, okay?" Kitty ducked out of the room before the teacher could say no. Heading towards room 324, she realized that she shared her next class with her quasi-friend Lance. _Hmm. Maybe he'll, like, be able to comfort me about this,_ Kitty thought. _Or maybe not. Just *any* talk would be of, like, help._ She sank into her seat beside Lance, who was in his usual position, draped nonchalantly on a chair that he had obviously turned backwards, at the lab table.
"Like, hi," she whispered as the bell rang.
"What's up, Pretty-Kitty?"
She sighed. "Kurt's missing." Lance changed his position and looked directly into her face, puzzled. "There was some kind of, like, experiment? And he, like, teleported away, and we can't, like, find him."
The scruffy teen opposite Kitty looked grim, obviously thinking about the Brotherhood. "So what if Fuzz-butt's missing?" he said coldly. "I thought you didn't like him, anyway."
"Lance, how can you, like, say that?" Tears were springing to her eyes again. _Oh, dammit. Not *again.*_
"*Mr.* Alvers. *Ms.* Pryde. If you are *quite* finished with your discussion, I'd like to return to teaching you thermodynamics."
There were a number of faces turned back, looking at them. Kitty sniffled and wiped any tears that were by her eyes quickly, and pulled out her chemistry book. After sneaking a glare at Lance while the teacher's back was turned, she proceeded to stare at page 540 in her book, head propped up by a cupped hand.
"It's gonna be, like, a loooooong day," she whispered to herself.
"…and the first time *I* saw you was in my physics class at school," Kathy finished, gesturing. Kurt stared into space for a moment, thinking, then moved suddenly, excited.
"I've figured it out!"
"Figured what out?"
"Why you guys have been seeing me here!" Kurt jumped up and began to pace. "The Professor said that every time I teleport, I go to an alternate dimension for a split-second, right?" Kathy nodded, still confused. "Well, *I* figure is that what I *actually* do is come *here* for a split second in *one* place, and move so fast that I…go through the walls or something, I haven't figured that part out yet…but I appear for a split-second one place – then a split-second in another place. *That* would explain why there have been *two* sightings of me about Bayvi – I'm sorry, Baytown – at the same time!" He turned back to look at her. "Follow?"
"Uh…give me a minute." Laughing, Kurt sat down on his crate again, flicking his tail out behind him. The movement caught Kathy's eye. "Do you move that thing consciously?" She pointed to his fifth limb.
"Huh?" He looked behind him and snagged it, holding the spaded tip close to his face. "Nein, not really. Occasionally I can get it to do something for me, like pick something up or something, but other than that…it's got a mind of its own."
"Huh. Well, uh…what are we going to do to solve this problem? You know, you being stuck here?" Kurt blinked. He had been so involved in his conversation with Kitty – er, Kathy – that he hadn't really thought about that. The last time it had occurred to him that he was stuck here was when he was pressed up against that Fish Market wall. The truth hit him like a ton of bricks. It was quite likely that he would never see the real Kitty – his Kitty – or any of his *real* friends again. "Wow. Guess you weren't really thinking about that, huh? Okay, listen. Maybe you can think of someone from *your* dimension that you would contact in the case of an emergency or something?"
It took Kurt a moment to respond. "Uh, ja, ja." Kurt shook his head to clear it and looked up at her. So different from Kitty…Kathy didn't wear her hair up or *anything,* and…no capris. So different… "Uh, Forge. Yeah, Forge. He made *this* thing," Kurt lifted the machinery that still lay on his chest and let it fall with a whumph. "and got me stuck here." He rolled his eyes. "Remind me to thank him when I get back."
"Forge? I don't know a Forge. Try again."
He smacked his forehead. "Oh, that's right! Forge is probably really old right now…" He got a strange look on his face as he pondered the possibilities. "…or he's still in the Middleverse."
Kathy just looked confused.
Laughing nervously, Kurt made another suggestion: "The Professor. If there's anyone who would know what to do in this situation, it's him. He's helped me out of many a tight spot before, and he's the smartest man *I* know. So, yeah, Professor Xavier."
Kathy raised an eyebrow. "You mean that old kook who lives in that big old mansion all by himself? *That* Xavier?"
"Bald? Scottish accent? In a wheelchair?"
"I wouldn't know. I've never met the guy…although your description pretty much matches my mother's – she used to deliver his groceries until the guy got a maid. You sure you wanna go see *him*?"
"Oh, ja. Trust me. He'll know what to do."
* * *
Joy! Now I feel as if I've accomplished something. It would be great if I got some feedback, but I'm not forcing you on this. Anywho, the next chapter will probably be up within a few days, if I can find the time (state standard testing, you know). I'll be writing soon! :D