A/N: Okay, I just want to thank everyone for all the nice reviews, and also I thought I'd mention that no, Toddy is NOT having PMS! LOL! It's just, you know, normal girly hormones he's not used to dealing with! ;-) Anyway, here's the rundown for chapter . . . what chapter is this? Oh, yeah, seven. I'll just give you the people who show up in this chapter. Everything is still status quo. For the moment. *evil laugh* Whoa, where did *that* come from?! Okay, well, here we go. SCOTT is still in Jean; JEAN is still in Rogue; ROGUE is still in Scott; and KITTY is still in Evan. Okay, have fun!

*******

Chapter 7: "Hide And Seek"

"There she is!" Scott pointed out the window.

"No, that's not her," Jean said.

"Really? It sure looks like her." Scott squinted at the girl in question. "I can't really tell. Maybe you need glasses."

"My eyes are fine. You're just used to looking at everything through a red tint."

"Are you sure? Things seem kind of blurry."

"Uh, guys?" Kitty asked from the backseat.

"I'm sure, Scott. I had an eye exam last month. Twenty-twenty vision."

"Guys?"

"Are you sure the doctor knew what he was doing? Things really do look a little fuzzy to me."

"Guys!"

"What?" Scott and Jean turned to the backseat.

"Pull over," Kitty instructed.

"Why?"

"Just do it and I'll show you!"

Scott hit the brakes and pulled his car into the city park they were about to pass by. A few car-lengths behind them, the X-van did the same. Shielding his eyes from the setting sun, Scott turned to face Kitty and Rogue in the backseat. "We didn't stop so that you could play on the swings, did we?"

Kitty made a face. "No. Amanda's been here."

"How can you tell?"

Rogue pointed up. "When was the last time you saw a chipmunk chase a cat up a tree?"

They got out of the car and watched as the fluffy calico tried to scamper into a hole in the tree trunk. Realizing the hole was too small, the cat backed up on the branch as the chipmunk advanced. The little rodent emitted a high-pitched growling noise that seemed completely foreign to chipmunk vocal cords. Similarly, the feline was letting out very un-catlike squeaks of terror. She cowered on the tree limb as the chipmunk stalked up and began batting her in the face.

"There's something you don't get to see every day," Scott commented.

Storm and Xavier came up behind the kids. "Why did you stop here? Did you find her?" Storm asked.

"No, but she's been here." Jean pointed up the tree.

"This girl must have a really strange sense of humor," Rogue said, watching the cat try to back away from the chipmunk.

Professor Xavier wheeled himself forward and thoughtfully stared up the tree. "No, Rogue, I don't think she's doing it all on purpose. I simply don't believe she has much control over her ability."

"No kidding." Kitty started to roll her eyes, then stopped suddenly. "Oh, no! If she can't control it, like, how can she switch us back? If she can't change us back, I'll totally pound her!"

Jean frowned. "Is it just my imagination, or are you feeling a bit more violent than usual, Kitty?"

"I've been expecting something like this," the professor said. "Kitty is dealing with much higher testosterone levels than she ever has before. It's not surprising that she's feeling a bit more aggressive than usual. In fact, the same thing could happen to Rogue."

"Wonderful." Scott glanced at Rogue. "Just don't blast anyone, okay?"

"I'll try to control myself."

"All right, so Amanda was here. Where is she now?" Scott asked.

The professor concentrated for a moment, then turned his wheelchair toward the van. "She's not far. This time, Storm and I will take the lead."

Everyone piled back into their respective vehicles. Scott followed the X-van out of the parking lot and continued down the street. They drove in silence for half a mile before Kitty leaned into the front seat and timidly asked, "Guys? What if we can't find her?"

Jean reached around and patted her hand. "Don't worry, Kitty. Professor Xavier will find her. You heard what he said. We're close."

"Yeah. Besides, finding Amanda isn't really the problem. Grabbing her without getting all switched around is what we seem to be having trouble with," Rogue added.

"Maybe the grabbing part is why," Jean said. "Perhaps we should be trying to reason with her instead of chasing and grabbing her."

"Well, you heard what Kurt and Evan said. They were trying to talk to her calmly and rationally, and she was hostile with them from the very beginning," Scott pointed out.

Rogue snorted. "Right. Calmly and rationally, with Lance and Toad standing right behind them. I'm sure."

"Look, when we find her, forget talking! I just wanna, like, lay her out and drag her back to the Institute, because I want back in my own body and I definitely want that creepy little slime-ball out of my body!"

Scott frowned. "Calm down, Kitty. Nobody is happy about this situation, and I guarantee nobody wants it to go on much longer."

"Really. Toad didn't seem to mind too much," Kitty grumbled.

"Yeah, well, he's Toad. Pretty much anybody would be an improvement over that," Scott replied.

"Gee, thanks."

Before anyone could respond, the X-van suddenly slowed and swerved into another parking lot. Scott slammed on the brakes and twisted the wheel to the right, pulling into the lot a split second behind the van. The two vehicles circled around the lot until they found two vacant parking spaces next to each other. Scott turned the engine off and stared up at the building in front of which they'd stopped. As he watched through the gathering twilight, the pink and blue lights of the marquee came on.

"Oh, don't tell me," Kitty said. "Storm and Professor Xavier got sick of searching and decided to go to the movies instead."

"Somehow I doubt it." Scott stepped out of the car and leaned against the hood.

The doors of the van opened and the professor and Storm exited. Xavier paused and looked around the parking lot. A few small groups of people were walking toward the theater. He waited for a teenage couple to pass by, then wheeled himself over to Scott's car. Pointing to the theater, he said, "Amanda is in there."

Kitty jumped out of the car. "So what are we waiting for?"

"No, Kitty." Xavier held up a hand. "We must wait until she comes out."

"Why?" Kitty demanded.

Storm placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't rush into a crowded theater and drag her out. That would be dangerous and irresponsible. Imagine what would happen if she let her power loose in a theater full of people, Kitty. Do you still want to run in there and try to force her out?"

Kitty scuffed her feet along the concrete and shrugged. "I guess not," she muttered.

"Excuse me." Rogue raised her hand. "You're not suggesting we sit out here and wait for the movie to let out, are you? Because that could take a while."

"No, that's not what I'm suggesting, Rogue." Xavier rubbed his forehead and turned to look up at the theater. "I can send Amanda a telepathic suggestion to leave the theater, and we will approach her then."

"And then Rogue will drop her and we'll take her back to the Institute, right?" Kitty asked hopefully.

Jean stripped off her gloves. "Well, it won't be Rogue, but the principle is the same. That way, Amanda won't have the opportunity to switch us again."

"Yes. Very good, Jean." The professor closed his eyes. He opened them after a moment and began rolling toward the building. "She's in the auditorium at the very back. That's good in a way. From there, nobody will notice us."

"Nobody will notice us knocking her out and abducting her. That's always a plus," Rogue commented.

The professor smiled slightly. "Scott, bring the van around to the back of the theater."

"Sure thing, Professor."

The three girls and Storm hurried to keep up with the professor's motorized trek across the parking lot. They circled around the building and stopped while Xavier surveyed the exit doors. After a moment of consideration, he pointed to the third door down from them. "She's in that auditorium."

"Here comes Scott." Storm nodded toward the side parking lot, where the X-van had just claimed an empty space. The headlights darkened and Scott hopped out. The others arrived at the theater door a moment before him, and stopped to wait.

"Hey," Scott called, running up to them. When he reached their position, he stopped and leaned against the building. He jerked his thumb toward the door. "Is this the one she's in?"

The professor nodded. "Yes. You all know what to do, correct?"

"Sure. As soon as she comes out, Rogue lays her out and we load her into the X-van and take her back to the Institute where she'll straighten this mess out," Kitty replied.

Xavier sighed. "I suppose that's close enough."

"Except it'll be Jean, not me, doing the honors," Rogue reminded Kitty.

"Okay, whatever."

The kids fell silent while Xavier closed his eyes and focused on contacting Amanda telepathically. His brow furrowed slightly, then relaxed. "She's on her way out. Jean, be prepared."

Jean took a stance to the side of the door. The others spread out behind her, with Storm and Xavier falling back to give the kids enough space to work on their own.

Just then, they heard voices and footsteps coming from around the corner of the building. The owners of the voices and footsteps turned the corner and continued their conversation, having not yet spotted the X-Men.

"But which door is it?"

"It'll be the one that's propped open, Fred. You couldn't figure that out on your own?"

"Yeah, but it's dark back here. I can't see which one is open. Hey, why'd we have Tabby prop it open, anyway? You could've done it, and you wouldn't even have needed a ticket to get in." Fred stopped in his tracks and nudged his companion, just spotting the X-Men. "Hey, what're they doing here?"

Pietro glared through the thickening dusk. "They're ruining our recreational activities, as usual."

Rogue sighed. "Look, Pietro, I know you may find this hard to believe, but our being here really has nothing to do with you. Just move on, sneak into your movie, whatever."

"Whatta ya mean it has nothing to do with us? Why not?"

"Professor!" Kitty exclaimed in panic. "Make them go away!"

Pietro zeroed in on her with predatory swiftness. "Ooh, what's the matter, Daniels? Not man enough to fight your own battles? I knew it! You always were a wimp!"

Kitty stomped her foot and said in a rush, "Okay, you're right, I'm definitely not man enough to fight you right now, now why don't you go away and we'll settle this tomorrow?"

"Ha!"

Fred scratched his head. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

Before anyone could think of a response, the theater door flew open and Amanda stepped onto the sidewalk, nearly colliding with Pietro. He grinned and slid an arm around her shoulder. "Hey, I haven't seen you around here before. Play your cards right and you could become my newest love interest. Well, for a while, anyway."

"Excuse me?" Amanda raised an eyebrow and lifted his arm off her shoulder.

Kitty hopped up and down and frantically pointed. "Rogue - Jean - whoever! Get her, quick!"

"What's going on here?" Fred asked as Jean moved toward Amanda.

Amanda began backing up. "Oh, no, not you guys again. You just don't give up, do you?"

"Not after what you did to us!" Kitty exclaimed.

"What'd you do to them?" Pietro asked. His eyes lit up. "Was it really good? Did you really get them? I think I love you! Wanna hang out with us?"

"Get lost, Maximoff," Scott growled. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"It does now!"

Amanda was still backing up, apparently unimpressed by Pietro's charm. She was barely visible behind Fred as Jean continued to advance. Pietro zipped over to block Jean and was intercepted by Scott and Rogue, who had anticipated his move. "Why on Earth are you trying to help her?" Scott demanded.

"She's trying to get away from you. That's reason enough for me."

As Jean passed him, Fred tried to grab her. She ducked under his arm and tackled Amanda. As they hit the concrete, she took Amanda's hand. A small flash of light illuminated the immediate area as Jean began absorbing her life-force. Amanda struggled for a moment, then went limp.

"Jean, let go of her now, before you kill her!" Rogue shouted.

"Jean?!" Pietro exclaimed. "What the - hey, are you wearing nametags? Why're you losers wearing nametags?"

Xavier rubbed his head and looked at Storm. "It seems I have a couple of memories to alter."

Jean sat up and pulled her gloves on again. As she climbed to her feet, Amanda suddenly raised up and grabbed her. Jean fell back to the ground. An iridescent bubble grew around Amanda. When it was appropriately big, she sent it flying at the group. That done, she collapsed back on the concrete, unconscious.

The bubble spread around the group of teenagers, knocking them all to the ground. The weird blurring sensation overcame them as the bubble dissipated and fizzled out of existence completely.

"Oh, no," Rogue moaned when she came to her senses. She kept her eyes closed, not quite brave enough to find out who she now was.

"Hey, what's going on here? What just happened? What - ack!" Scott's voice shrieked. "There're two of me! Oh, my - Hey, there are two of me! Cool! Wait, why is everything red? Is that some trick of the light or something? It is, right?"

"Oh, shut up," Rogue heard her own voice moan.

"Ew, ew, ew!" Fred's voice screamed. "I'm the Blob?! Ew, this is, like, totally icksome! Gross!"

Pandemonium.

Rogue finally opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She couldn't tell much of anything except that she was still one of the boys. Turning to the person closest to her, she tapped him on the shoulder. "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling me who I am now?"

Whoever was in Scott's body stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. "Whatta you mean, who you are? You're me; who do think you are?"

Without a word, Rogue lifted the nametag from around his neck and slipped it over the head of her new host body.

"Rogue? You mean there aren't two of me? You're not me? Wait, does that mean I'm not me, either? Who am I? What did you do to me, huh?"

She shook her head and glanced around wearily. It was as if she were watching a replay of the night before, only with a slightly different cast of characters. As she watched, Fred jumped up and whipped around, frantically trying to locate Xavier. "Professor! Please tell me you're still you! You and Storm didn't get switched too, did you?"

"No, we didn't," the professor paused to perform a quick telepathic scan, "Kitty. The displacement bubble seems to have missed Storm and myself."

By process of elimination, Rogue figured she must be in Pietro. She sighed, wondering if they would ever get this mess straightened out.

Professor Xavier wheeled himself closer. He held his hands up. "I understand this is a very stressful situation, but I would like everyone to remain calm. For those of you who have nametags, now would be the time to take rightful ownership of them."

Since Rogue had already taken "rightful ownership" of her nametag, she sat back and watched everyone else. Kitty, who she already knew was in Fred's body, took possession of her nametag, then sat down, shuddering. The person now in Evan's body carefully stepped over the unconscious Amanda and claimed Jean's nametag. Finally, whoever was now in Rogue's own body stood up and took the nametag off of Jean's body.

Scott.

Rogue cringed. For reasons she would never dare put into words, Scott was about the last person she wanted to be her. She frantically tried to remember when she'd last shaved her legs.

"Excuse me. Excuse me!" The person in Scott's body jumped up and waved his hand in the air. "We don't have nametags! Me and Fred, I mean. Wherever he is. And would somebody explain what just happened here? Cuz if you're trying to turn this into 'torture Quicksilver by turning him into an X-geek' day, you've done a wonderful job. Really. But the thing is, I don't want to be anybody but myself -"

"Mr. Maximoff," the professor tried to break in.

"- I mean, why would I want to be anyone else? I love myself! I love being me! I'm just about perfect, no, scratch that, I am perfect! And listen, I don't want to -"

"Pietro?"

"- walk a mile in anyone else's shoes, either. That's a ridiculous touchy-feely notion that I don't buy into. I don't really care about understanding -"

"Pietro!"

"- anyone else. Why should I? I'm the only person I really need to understand, and I already do that quite well, thank you very much, so -"

"Yo, Maximoff!" Scott shouted.

"- I don't think I'll be taking any lessons on working well with others, and I don't need to get in touch with my inner child or anything like that, and I'm certainly not about to break down and let myself get brainwashed by you losers, even though you managed to do it to Lance, just for a little while, though, and even though you did -"

"I give up." Scott threw his hands in the air.

"- turn me into Cyclops, I'm not getting brainwashed into joining you! I would rather be me! I'm being the best me I can be, even though you -" he stopped mid-sentence and looked at Scott. "Did you just say you give up? Okay, you made a smart move there; the first in your life, I'm sure. Hey, which one of you is Fred now, anyway?"

"I am." Jean's hand raised.

"Oh." Pietro thought about that for a couple of seconds, then shrugged. "Well, you look much better now than you usually do, at any rate. So what's going on here? What just happened?"

Professor Xavier looked at him evenly. "What has happened here will take some time to explain. Time which it is ill-advised to spend here. If you will come back to the Institute with us, I can reverse this situation."

"Yeah, sure. I know how this goes. We follow you back to the Institute and you brainwash us into being two more of your little goody-good X drones! No thanks!" Pietro said.

"Nobody's going to do any brainwashing," Rogue said. "That's stupid. We really don't want you that bad, anyway. Besides, Lance and Toad are at the Institute. They had a little run-in with Amanda earlier, too. So, unless the Brotherhood wants to spend the rest of its life as the X-Men, you should come with us."

Pietro considered her words, trying to determine if she was lying about Lance and Toad. He couldn't remember when he'd last seen them, but he thought it might be true. He nodded. "Okay. You switch us back, then you let us outta there, no strings attached. Deal, Xavier?"

The professor nodded. "Of course."

Pietro pointed at Rogue. "And you better not do any damage to the temple that is my body!"

Rogue ignored him and helped Jean pick up Amanda. With the unconscious girl supported between them, they led the way toward the parking lot. A few feet away from the X-van, Rogue peered over Amanda's head at Jean. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"What?"

"Wolverine gets to make two more nametags."







to be continued . . .