"Whoa!" Jubilee exclaimed! She
was completely dumbfounded by what had just happened and so was
her fellow student, Dani. They didn't know what to say.
Out of the blue, it seemed, Kitty was
falling to her death, too distracted to phase out and float
downward. Then, all of a sudden, a flash of dark smoke and the
smell of brimstone had engulfed her. The next thing they knew,
she, along with the enigmatic Kurt, was settled to the ground,
Kitty still hacking.
"Are you alright, Katzchein?"
Kurt asked Kitty. Kitty was still humped over. She raised her
head a little and saw Jubilee and Dani, their eyes wide in
anxiety.
"Where?" Kitty murmured.
"What just---YEAOW!" Kitty screamed as she leaped from
Kurt's arms to the ground opposite him! She had an expression of
stark fear on her face.
Kurt looked down in dismay. Although he had
saved her life, she, like many others, only saw him as a demon.
"Kitty!" Jubilee exclaimed,
grabbing hold of Kitty's arms. "Kitty, it's okay. You're
alright now."
"She is right, Katherine," Dani
added. "Everything is fine. Kurt saw you fall and saved you
by" Dani stopped and turned to look at Kurt.
"What exactly did you do?"
Kurt looked at the ground still. "I
teleported," his lowly reply response. "I saw the
fraulein fall from the roof, and I tried to save her. I did save
her."
Kitty looked at Kurt. She was less restless
now and able to stare at him with little fear.
"I" she faltered. "Thank you,"
she finally said.
Kurt looked up at her and, for a moment,
smiled. "You're welcome, Katzchein." He then turned
away and looked back to his room, two stories up and across the
courtyard.
"I must be going, now," he then
said.
"Wait!" Kitty shouted as she rose
to her feet.
"Wait, indeed!" A voice demanded
behind them.
"Dr. Grey!" Jubilee exclaimed,
giving herself away that they had done something wrong.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I'm asking the questions here, Ms.
Lee," Jean responded. "Now," she began, "does
anyone mind telling me exactly what is going on here?"
"Ja." Kurt began. "I was in
my room, praying to God for strength and—"
"And, Kurt saw us all out here goofing
off," Kitty interjected. "And then he decided he wanted
to come out and get to know us a little better, so he teleported
out here and it—"
"It scared the living bejeebus out of
us!" Jubilee added. "It was like a big 'POOF' and there
he was!"
Jean looked at the children with a mother's
doubting look.
"What they mean, Dr. Grey," Dani
entered the conversation, "Is that we were out here, Kurt
joined us, and his sudden appearance startled us all."
"Well," Jean started, "if
that is all that happened, Why was Kitty coughing so violently?
And why do I smell smoke?"
The silence from the crowd made Jean more
suspicious. "Dr. Grey," Kurt began again, attempting to
tell the truth, "Whenever I saw them, Kitty was—"
Enter Kitty again "I was coughing
because of the smoke. You see, when Kurt teleports, he makes this
smoke and stuff."
"Yeah!" Jubilee jumped in once
more. "That's why we all smell like smoke and Kitty was
coughing. That's it!"
Jean stood quiet for a moment.
"Anything else you would like to tell me? I promise, Scott
and I will understand."
The gathering of children stood quietly.
Not a single peep from any of them, other than Kurt, who was
fidgeting extremely nervously.
"Very well then," Jean stated.
"Until further notice, you are all grounded. You are not
permitted to leave the school grounds and are to be attendant in
detention every day for the next week."
"WHAT!?!" Jubilee exclaimed!
"That is sooo not right!"
"No?" Jean replied. "What is
not right is lying to your teacher, especially when she is a
psychic. I know exactly what happened out here."
"Alright!" Kitty shouted!
"We confess."
"It's an honorable thing," Scott
said, "but you still lied to us and it will not change your
punishment."
The students all looked down at the ground
in shame. "Are you going to tell the professor?" Dani
asked.
Jean looked them over and then looked at
Scott. "I'll tell you what," Jean began. "If you
promise me that you will not get into anymore trouble, I promise
you this will be our secret."
The students faces lit up with joy!
"Oh! Thank you, Dr. Grey, Mr. Summers!" Kitty
exclaimed.
Jean smiled and she and Scott turned to
enter the School.
"Dr. Grey?" Jubliee asked.
"Yes?" Jean replied.
"Are we still gonna' be able to go to
the concert Friday night?"
Jean looked at them all, hopeful
expressions on their faces. "Afraid not, kids. Rules are
rules."
"I'm gonna get you if it's the last
thing I do, you dirty Cajun!" Rogue exclaimed as she leapt
through the courtyard after Remy. She was bound and determined to
catch hold of him and get her revenge.
"You have to try harder den dat to
catch Gambit!" Remy shouted back as he strategically
maneuvered through the trees on the outer edge of the school. He
of course showed his bravado to Rogue and the other students, but
he was running scared. He heard stories about what that girl
could actually do and he would rather not become an example of
her power.
Rogue, still angered beyond belief, decided
to use her newer talents. "So you wanna' play catch?"
she mocked. "Well, I'll give you the run o' your life!"
In an instant, Rogue begins to get charged from the magnetic
field in the air and rose to the skies. She took off with the
speed of a rocket towards Gambit and disappeared behind some
trees.
Gambit, slowly starting to get weared down,
almost 5 miles from where he had began, stopped to catch his
breath. No one knew what Gambit did before he came to Xavier's
really, but apparently, it was something that took amazing
endurance and agility. He turns around and sees that Rogue has
disappeared. He starts to laugh hysterically. He reaches into his
pocket and pulls out a silver chain with a locket on it, engraved
with the name "Marie."
"Dis be my souvenir," he stated
to himself.
"No, 'Dis be your souvenir' you swamp
rat!" Rogue shouted as she came out of the sky towards him!
-POW-
Gambit flies up and back into the grounds,
wincing at the hot feeling on his eye. "What did you do,
chere?" He demanded as he realized she had just knocked him
back with her fist.
"I showed you that Ah'm the last
person to steal from!" Rogue reassured. "Now," she
said with a start, walking over to where he lay, "you gon'
give me my locket back?"
"Why you need it so bad?" Remy
asked her.
"Cause it's mine, stupid!" Rogue
answered. "Now give it back!"
"Non," Remy replied. "I need
it to remember you by."
Rogue pulled back and looked at him
confused. "What the hell you talking 'bout?" she asked
him.
"I'm goin' home, Rogue," he said
solemnly. "I wanted to stay, really I did. But I can't do
dis. I'm not a hero, I'm a t'ief. And I wanna' go home."
Rogue stopped completely in her tracks and
just looked at him. "You mean..."
Remy's subtle charm had taken grasp of
Rogue and she couldn't hit him again. His eyes were different
now. Not that same black and red spark to them. They were
more...human like then before. He showed a genuine amount of
caring in them. For his family...for Rogue.
That innocent and remarkable moment doesn't
last long.
"I do not know exactly what you think
you are doing here, students," a charming voice rained from
the sky, "but I highly doubt Charles would be happy to know
that not only have two students wondered off ground but also
engaged in a fight."
"Stormy!" Remy called.
"T'aint like dat, really."
"Yeah, Ms. Munroe," Rogue added
in, "honestly, we didn't mean for this to happen. We were
just goofing off and ended up out here and started to wrastle, I
promise. Gambit here didn't think a gal like me could
fight."
"An' den she punched me by accident
and dat's how I got dis swollen eye," Remy finished.
Storm gives the children a look of
compassion. "That may be true, but folly such as this must
be handled as such. I shall not tell Charles what has
happened."
Remy and Rogue both let out a sigh of
relief.
"But do not get to hasty," Storm
added. "You will be punished by my account. You still
disobeyed the rules of this establishment, and as such, you will
be restricted to the school for a week. And also, you shall be in
Detention for the next week."
"But Stormy!" Remy shouted in
defiance. "What we did wasn't dat bad!"
"You may not think so, but there are
many dangers outside the security of the school," Storm
affirmed. "You may have been seriously injured. Not to
mention the 'wrestling' incident."
After a moment of silence, Storm continues,
" Come now, children." Storm gracefully returns to the
ground. "I shall escort you personally to the detention
hall."
"I'm gonna have to shake her so I can
get outta dis place," Remy thinks to himself.
Rogue then has her own short thought.
"I guess this means no Dazzler for me."