Well, here it is. Again, thanks to those who reviewed. Disclaimer as per usual. Don't take my characters.
Chapter Five
Kitty woke up almost an hour before her alarm was set to go off. She sat up in bed and smiled. Kurt had told her that he was hardly ever asleep after five in the morning.
** Kurt? **
** Yes, katzchen? **
** You want to go get breakfast in town or something? **
** Sure. Should I 'port over to your room? **
** Mmm, better not. You might wake up Rogue. I'll meet you by the pool, okay? **
** All right katzchen. See you soon. **
Kitty got up, rubbing her arms to keep warm, and dressed as quickly and quietly as she could. Rogue murmured something in her sleep and turned over, but she didn't wake up.
Kitty headed down to the pool, where Kurt was waiting. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. He smiled down at her. "I thought we were getting breakfast, katzchen."
"We can. I just don't know how we'll get anywhere."
"I can 'port us. Just have to be careful not to 'port in front of people," Kurt said. Kitty smiled. "Well then, let's go get breakfast. Where do you want to go?"
"I really don't mind. Anywhere is fine, as long as it's with you."
@ @ @
When Raptor woke up she didn't know where she was. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in the back of Logan's truck after that attack, sure that she was going to die. Apparently not.
She tried to sit up and gasped with the pain in her stomach. ((That's right, that metal bitch put a sword through me,)) she recalled. A woman with red hair rushed over and smiled at her.
"Good to see you awake. Can you tell me your name?"
"R-raptor. Where am I?"
"You're at Xavier's School for the Gifted for mutants. Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah. Those people attacked us. I thought I was gonna die for sure," Raptor said slowly. "Why do I hurt so much?"
"Is there pain? I'll fix the IV for you," the woman said, fiddling with the drip that entered Raptor's right hand. After a few minutes, the pain lessened a little. And then strange voices entered her head.
** Professor, she's awake. **
** Good. I'll be there soon. Can you have Logan and the other girl there too? **
** All right. See you in a few minutes, Professor. **
"I'm Jean Grey. Professor Xavier is going to be here soon to talk to you. Is that all right?"
Raptor nodded, wondering about those voices in her head. She asked, "could I have some water? My throat is really dry."
"Of course."
Jean handed her a paper cup of water and said, "I have to go get some people. Just wait here, okay? I won't be long."
Raptor nodded and sipped the water. Jean returned a few minutes later with Jubilee and Logan.
Both hugged Raptor, taking care not to jar her broken arm. She ran a hand through her hair and said, "you'd think you people had no faith in Dr. Grey the way you're acting. Besides, I wasn't gonna let a little bitch like that take me out of the game."
Logan chuckled and sat down beside the bed. Jubilee went one further and sat on the side of the bed, careful of Raptor's bandaged leg.
Raptor looked up as a bald man in a wheelchair came into the room. She smiled and said, "you must be Professor Xavier. You'll excuse me if I don't get up and shake hands."
"Welcome, Jubilee, Raptor. Nice to see you again, Logan," the professor said smoothly. "May I ask what brought you here, apart from Raptor's injuries?"
"I was coming back here, and the girls were headed this way," Logan replied. "I convinced them to check this place out, see if they liked it. Them we were attacked and we had no choice but to come here."
Obviously they already knew about the attack. Raptor wondered why the Professor was talking to her and Jubilee. Of course he'd talk to Logan; the two of them knew each other, and Logan had been an X-Man, however briefly. But she and Jubilee were just two girls.
** I'm talking to you because I talk to all the mutants who want to come to my school, ** his voice said in her head. She laughed. "That tickles! Are you telepathic or something?"
** Yes. You can speak like this if you try. **
She concentrated and thought, ** is this right? **
She burst out laughing. "Sorry, it just feels so weird to be talking inside my head. Can we do it the normal way for a while?"
The Professor nodded. "All right. Jubilee told me her powers on Tuesday night; can you tell me what you can do?"
"Tuesday night? How long was I unconscious?" Raptor asked, suddenly aware of Logan's red eyes and unshaved face. Dr. Grey glanced at the Professor, who nodded, and said, "four days, Raptor. It's Saturday morning."
"Shit. Oh, sorry, I'll try not to say that anymore. But… geez! Four days… Logan, have you slept at all since we came here?"
"I slept," Logan protested. Jubilee laughed. "Yeah, when Jean slipped sleeping pills into your coffee. He's been here practically twenty-four-seven, Rap."
"Yikes. Now I feel bad… um… anyway, my powers. I can change the colour of stuff and I… well, I have this thing where if I touch something living I get a little bit of information about it and how to call it if I'm in danger. That's how I called the birds the first time we were attacked. The only problem is, I can't control it. That's why when I accidentally touched Logan in the truck I got the same thing."
She brightened. "Hey, at least now I know how to call him when I'm in trouble."
"How would that be?" Logan asked curiously. Raptor closed her eyes and Logan heard a voice in his head, like telepathy but deeper, more subconsciously.
Something like this. It's different with humans, and when I do it consciously. When I called the birds it was kinda instinctive.
"I'll speak with you further when you're feeling better," Xavier said, leaving the room. Raptor looked at Jubilee. "Was Logan really here the whole time I was unconscious?"
"I think there were about seven hours all together when he was either showering, sleeping because Jean made him, or yelling at anyone who suggested he leave for a few minutes. I'm surprised his yelling didn't wake you up."
Raptor glanced at Logan, her eyebrows raised. He shrugged uncomfortably. "I was worried. I'd do the same for anyone else."
"From what you've told me, if Scott was unconscious you'd be pulling the moves on Jean," Jubilee said, giggling. Logan stood up. "I'm already regretting giving you those candy bars," he told her. Jubilee shrugged. "You give me candy, be prepared to deal with sugar rush. I can't help being hyper."
Raptor shook her head, laughing. "Jubes and sugar. Bad combination," she said. "Though food does sound good. Any chance I might get food any time soon?"
"I'll get something from the kitchen," Logan said, glad to escape the high-school-girl-filled room. Admittedly there were only two of them, but with the way Jubilee was acting there might as well have been twenty.
Raptor chuckled. "Jubes, you scared him off," she scolded. Jubilee shrugged, bouncing around the room and generally being hyper. She picked up Raptor's wallet and said, "Rap, can I see? Can I?"
"Sure, go ahead. Be careful."
Jubilee dumped a stack of cards on the table and went through them one by one. She picked up a plastic-coated card and frowned. "Rap? Why do you still have your primary school ID?"
"What? That thing's still in there?"
Raptor grabbed the card. Yep, there it was. A photo of her as a twelve-year-old, and her real name: Anastasia Hawke.
"God, I look so young. Why did I keep this?"
She shoved the card into the trash. "Hey Jubes, how much cash do I have left?"
Jubilee counted the stack of bills. "Uh… about five hundred. Plus your American Express card. There's gotta be a good twelve thousand on that at least."
Jean returned and started to put away medical equipment. Then a guy walked in. Jubilee hissed, "hot alert! Hot guy at one o'clock!"
"What does that even mean?" Raptor wondered. "Why one o'clock? Why not five o'clock or seven o'clock?"
"Rap, are you hearing yourself? That. Guy. Is. H-O-T. Now is not the time to muse about stupid quotes that stick in your mind, now is the time to take advantage of your injury and hit on this guy!"
"Don't you want him?" Raptor asked. Jubilee shook her head. "Nah, he's not my type. He is, however, your type. Now go for it!"
The guy was talking to Jean. Raptor heard the last sentence: "so then the spider got into Maya's allergy pills and she refuses to take them until she gets new ones that the spider hasn't touched."
"How did a spider get in Maya's room, Bobby?"
"Well, it wasn't meant to be in Maya's room, it was meant to be in Sabrina's room. She was saying she missed her pet tarantula, so we found a spider for her. But it got out of its container."
Raptor smothered a giggle as Jean asked, "where is the spider now?"
"It's dead. Maya freaked and squished it."
"You boys and your pranks. Well, tell Maya to come get some new allergy pills tonight."
"All right. Thanks, Jean," Bobby said. He turned to leave and his eyes caught Raptor's. He smiled and said, "hi, I'm Bobby Drake. Are you new here?"
"No, I just live in the infirmary," Raptor said. Bobby laughed. "You coming to school here?"
"As soon as Jean lets me out of bed," Raptor replied.
"What happened, anyway?"
"I got a foot of metal buried in my gut."
Bobby's eyes widened. "You're the girl who came here with Logan! They were telling us to watch out for the four mutants who attacked you. People were saying you were dead."
"Nope, not dead. About halfway there, but not dead," Raptor said. "And how did people know about me anyway?"
"This is the infirmary. Lots of people come here every day. Some of them saw you, and rumours spread," Bobby said. A slow smile spread across his face. "None of them said how pretty you are."
Raptor chuckled and touched her right eyebrow gingerly, where eleven stitches closed a cut. "Yeah, real pretty. I have stitches in my face and eighty percent of my body is covered with bandages. I must look like the abominable snowman with all these bandages."
Bobby grinned. "Can I sign your cast before I go?" he asked. Raptor shrugged. "If you want to."
He picked up a pen and scrawled something on her cast, then left. Raptor looked at the writing and smiled.
Since we all have the same phone number, how about my room number: fourth from the stairs on the second floor. You want to go get a pizza or something when Jean lets you out of there?
@ @ @
Damien glared at Prowler, Lance and Draconia. The metallic girl had vanished somewhere so these three were stuck with Damien's anger.
"Do I understand correctly? You allowed one man and two teenaged girls to get the better of you? One of whom was weakened from an attack before, one of whom was at the wheel of the truck? Is that what you're telling me?"
"They are stronger than we had anticipated," Lance muttered. Damien raised his eyebrows. "Whether they were strong or not, Lance, there were only three of them and four of you. I would expect that four mutants, hand-picked and trained by Serenade herself, would be perfectly capable of taking down three mutants who don't even know the full extent of their powers! It appears I surround myself with weaklings. Give me one good excuse why I shouldn't just have you executed where you stand."
"Because if you did you'd be out three workers," Prowler, the cat-guy, said. "It's hard to get help that can actually do the job these days. Lose us and your plans will be set back several weeks."
"Ah, but you don't do the job properly, Prowler. If anything you have alerted them to our presence. I'd like to know how you plan to rectify the situation. After all, I have another mission planned."
"We'll take care of it," Lance growled. Damien laughed. "The way you took care of Wolverine and his two girl friends? No, my friend, you three will be sitting this one out. I plan to send some of the others for the next mission. Besides, why should you have all the fun?"
"Who will you send this time?" Draconia wanted to know. Damien replied, "Toad, Dusk and Rebecca. They're less… conspicuous than you three, and for this mission I think subtlety is required. After all, if we run in with cannons blasting all the time, the X-Men are going to be alerted to our presence very quickly. And we don't want that, do we?"
TBC. In the next chapter… wait a sec. ::finds next chapter notes:: okay. In the next chapter, Toad, Dusk and Rebecca go on a Kurt-and-Kitty hunt. Biiig Kurt and Kitty chapter. Plus a new mutant appears, just not for very long…