For the sake of this story, I'm going to assume that Cerebro has limited
range.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, all five of you =P Almost everyone seems to be including their favorite characters in their reviews, so I think I'll start a contest. Which LH character is your favorite? Lol, I think Wen is winning.
By the way, since I forgot to disclaim this in the first chapter, I hereby disclaim this work of fiction, nothing is mine, except for the stuff I made up.
Earlier
Kurt flopped down onto his bed and buried his head in his pillow. It had been a hard day. Now everyone knew that he was with the mutants. They didn't know that he was covered in blue fur, he planned to keep that to himself for as long as possible, but just knowing that he went to the Institute was enough to get him ostracized by most of the other students.
No one knowing who he really was, what he really was, had been one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Now that was all gone and everyone knew, not just about him, but about them.
And now Amanda wanted him to stop wearing the image inducer. She just didn't understand why he couldn't do that.
The professor said that this would be one of the greatest tests of their integrity and self-control. They had to make themselves into a model so that the rest of the country, no, the world would learn that there was nothing to fear from mutants.
Which wasn't entirely true, they would, should learn that there was nothing to fear from /them/, Magneto and his sidekicks were another matter entirely.
Kurt rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. He had a feeling it was going to get a lot worse before it got better, but they would hold through, they had to. But... but now Evan was gone, after the incident with the Power-8, and Rahne and Jubilee had gone back home after everything blew up, figuratively and literally, and Rogue wasn't in good shape. Sometimes it felt as if they were falling apart.
At least they'd almost finished rebuilding. That was a meager improvement, but at least he was back in his own room. Or rather one identical to his old one. Except now there was no Evan, and for some reason that made all the difference. He wondered how long it would take him to get a new roommate.
At least it was Friday.
He yanked off his watch and plopped it on the bedside table. He lay there for a while, examining one three-fingered, fur covered, paw, until a mental message from the professor disturbed him.
/Scott, Jean, Kurt, please come down to the library. There is something I need to talk to you about./
"Vonder vhat thiz iz about," he mumbled to himself.
Kurt pulled himself up from his bed. He looked around the room for a long moment, particularly at the empty second bed. He shook his head, trying to clear it and than arranged his face into his normal carefree grin, and teleported.
When he reappeared in the library, he found that the Professor was there, along with Wolverine and Storm, who were in costume. Before Kurt could ask what this was all about, Scott and Jean walked through the library doors, holding hands. The moment they noticed everyone was looking at them, they quickly let go. The corner of Storm's mouth went up for a moment. Kurt made a mental note to tease them about it later.
"Yeah, Professor?" Scott said as he and Jean sat down on the couch. Kurt jumped up and perched himself on one of the chairs.
"There is a matter I wish to discuss with you all," the Professor began. "Earlier today, while I was making final repairs to Cerebro, I received an unusual reading. Cerebro's range is somewhat limited, and it cannot get overly detailed readings at very great distances. I did however pick up a very brief reading of a mutant powers being used somewhere in Washington state.
"At first I discounted this as a systems glitch, but within the next few minutes, Cerebro picked up two more."
"Two more readings? From the same mutant?" Scott asked, looking interested.
"No, two more mutants. The readings were quite different."
"Do you think it could be Magneto?" Kurt asked.
"Yes, it is a possibility, however, I don't think Magneto and his new recruits would allow themselves to be detected so easily. You must recall that they have manged to avoid detection for an extended period of time. It would be very much unlike Magneto to allow himself to be so easily discovered." The Professor looked pensive for a while.
"Unless they think that Cerebro is still off-line," Jean pointed out, reasonably.
"Once again, it is a possibility, but I do not think it is likely. It seems to me that we have some other gathering of mutants on our hands. Which is why I called you here. I would like to send a representative group of X-Men to investigate."
"Vonderbar! Vhen do ve leave?" Kurt exclaimed jumping up.
"Actually Kurt, that wasn't why I called /you/ here. Storm, Wolverine, Scott, and Jean will be going," the Professor told him, turning to look at Kurt.
"Oh, bummer," was all Kurt could say. That seriously wasn't fair. He wanted to go along on the trip, but of course sending the Fuzzy One, probably wasn't the best tactic if you're looking for more recruits. /Better not scare them away,/ he though angrily to himself, and than stopped, hoping the Professor wasn't reading his thoughts.
If he was, the Professor didn't show any outward signs. "As I will be working on Cerebro, and Rogue is still recovering from her ordeal, you will be the oldest remaining X-Man. I am asking you, Kurt, to help Mr. McCoy with the students. We are all going through a rough period, and I would like to know that I can trust you with this." After he finished talking, the Professor watched Kurt for a few moments, expectedly. Scott was trying to hide amusement, Wolverine just shook his head.
Kurt blinked a few times. He hadn't expected that at all. At his apparent surprise, Jean developed a small smile. He knew what this meant, the Professor was not only asking him to behave, but also putting him in a position of authority. He'd love a chance to rub this into Kitty's face. He grinned. "Yes sir!"
The Professor nodded, "Scott, Jean, suit up, you'll be taking the Velocity."
^~^~^~^~^~^
"According to the coordinates the Professor gave us, we should be nearing the location now," Storm said, glancing towards Wolverine, who was doing the piloting.
"I'll start looking for a place to set down," he growled as he began to lower their altitude.
Jean sat in the back next to Scott. She was leaning comfortably against his shoulder. Night had already begun to fall in the time it had taken them to get this far, and since they were heading towards an earlier time zone, it meant that it was very late in New York already. The news that they were nearing their destination was welcome.
"Do you sense anything yet, Jean?" Storm asked from the front.
Jean put her hands to the sides of her head and tried to concentrate, he movement disturbing Scott from his nap. "No, nothing yet. I'll try again after we land."
Storm nodded to her and and settled back into her seat.
Scott stretched and looked out the window. "Wow, check out the view, amazing,"he said to Jean.
She leaned over to have a look. Below them thick forest stretched out in every direction. In the darkening twilight the whole scene was bathed in bluish light, giving it an eerie ambiance.
"Yeah, it's beautiful," she said, wistfully.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders as they watched the sun finish setting. Jean sighed. It felt nice, sitting here for a short time at least, peaceful. The old 'calm before the storm' cliché came to mind, which took on a distinctly weird meaning with Storm sitting in the front seat.
"That looks promising," Wolverine said as he guided the craft downwards towards a small clearing.
Jean sighed and pulled herself away from Scott as Wolverine completed the landing sequence and lowered the exit ramp. /So much for that./
They stepped into the cooler air of early fall in Washington. In Bayville it had still been as warm as summer, here the leave were already changing color. As Jean stepped out of the Velocity, she attempted to sense the mutants that were suppose to be here.
"Anything?" Storm asked.
"I'm getting a vague sense from off in that direction," she said, pointing to the East. "But I can't tell you much more than that.
"What do you think? Split up?" Scott asked. "We'll cover more ground that way."
Wolverine sniffed at the air a second. "Better not, if it /is/ Magneto and his cronies. Lets not make this easy for them." He kept sniffing at the air for a while. "Besides, something doesn't smell right."
^~^~^~^~^~^
"Please let me go with you!" Dorian pleaded to Kale's retreating back.
Kale groaned to himself. The kid didn't know when to give up. He turned to look back at Dorian. Everyone else was ready to go, except for Nena, who was crouching miserably by the fire. Dorian was looking at Kale with big blue puppy-dog eyes. Strands of wet hair falling over that expression made him look particularly dejected. Kale steeled himself.
"No, and that's final," Kale winced at that. He'd sounded just like one of the foster parents that had taken care of him before he'd met Wen. He tried to soften his voice. "Look, we need you to stay here and take care of Nena. She's the youngest and she needs someone to look after her. That's important, okay?"
Dorian nodded, still looking dejected. Kale could tell Dorian knew exactly what he had been trying to do, and as such, hadn't been particularly cheered, but he also knew when he couldn't win.
Kale turned to follow the older kids. Laurie was leading, she seemed to know the way. She had said earlier that they'd have to go quite a ways. Kale didn't mind so much. Just visiting town was a three day affair, a short walk didn't bother him.
"Come on, Kale!" Wen called out to him, while tucking his flute into the back of his belt. "Lets go kick some mutant hunting ass!"
Kale reflected on how silly that sounded coming from Wen as he joined his friends. Wen, at a boyish 5' 5", was one of the least intimidating people he knew. Of course appearances could be deceiving, but even knowing that Wen could probably knock him on his butt with a gust of wind, didn't make it any less funny.
Wen noticed Kale smirking and frowned. "Are you laughing at me? Are you laughing at me?" he asked in a perfect accent, playing the lines for all they were worth. "Am I here for your amusement? Do you think I was placed here to make you laugh?"
Kale laughed, unable to stop himself at the false serious look on Wen's face, earning him a reproving look from Nick. If there was one thing he really missed about living in the city, it was watching movies with Wen.
"Maybe we can just talk to them, get them to leave us alone," Athena suggested. She didn't sound too convinced that it was a possibility, but she hated violence, they all knew that.
"What are we going to tell them?" Kale asked, his thoughts turning serious again. "You heard what Laurie said, they're looking for us. That means they've got to know. What would they possibly listen to from us?"
"'I am not an animal! I am a human being!'" Wen quoted, grinning.
"How about, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna to take it anymore.'" Kale suggested seriously.
"You two watch way too many movies," Athena said, carefully stepping down a slope.
"Well what else were we suppose to do with our time?"
"How about read a book?" That was greeted with silence and Athena sighed. "Never mind."
Ahead of them Laurie came to a ribbon of water. While too small to be a river, it was too big to be a stream. She stopped and looked backwards toward the rest of them, waiting for them to catch up.
"Too bad we left Dorian behind," Wen said jokingly. "He could have parted the waters for us, like mini-Moses or something."
Spiny just bounded through the stream, and Athena had to jump out of the way to avoid being splashed.
Nick brushed passed the them, walking to Laurie's side.
"Dude," Wen said, as Nick walked passed Athena. "Yin and Yang."
He was right, Nick seemed to be darkness to Athena's light.
Kale watched Nick carefully. Upon reaching the water's edge, he put out an hand to Laurie who accepted. He wrapped his arms around her. The two of them seemed to become engulfed by some sort of black shadow-like mist. They disappeared downwards into the shadows at their feet, and then reappeared, rising out of the darkness on the other side of stream.
"Showoff," Kale mumbled.
Wen grinned. "I'll show you showoff."
The burst of wind that caught the three of them and yanked them across the water wasn't entirely unexpected, but that didn't make it any less disconcerting, or the landing any less rough.
"You have got to work on your reentry, and I thought you said you thought you could use that to fly? That was a little rough for flying," Kale grumbled.
"'Fly yes, land no,'" came Wen's muffled voice from within a bush.
"Please, both of you, this is important, try to be more serious," Athena said, standing up and brushing dead leaves off the tattered edges of her dress.
"Being serious will get you nothing but unsightly nose hair," Wen declared, fighting free of the foliage. Athena gave him a look that was probably a glare, but it was hard to tell with her eyes.
"I think, that you should all know that we are very close, and perhaps you should all be a little more quiet," Laurie said from a bit farther ahead.
"Great, lets get this over with," Kale began and then stopped, eyes widening with shock.
"Where's Spiny?"
The movie quotes came from Goodfellas, Network, Elephant Man, and Indiana Jones.
That was fun. Um yeah, I'll see you next time, and don't forget to write a review and tell me who your favorite character is. Or something.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, all five of you =P Almost everyone seems to be including their favorite characters in their reviews, so I think I'll start a contest. Which LH character is your favorite? Lol, I think Wen is winning.
By the way, since I forgot to disclaim this in the first chapter, I hereby disclaim this work of fiction, nothing is mine, except for the stuff I made up.
Earlier
Kurt flopped down onto his bed and buried his head in his pillow. It had been a hard day. Now everyone knew that he was with the mutants. They didn't know that he was covered in blue fur, he planned to keep that to himself for as long as possible, but just knowing that he went to the Institute was enough to get him ostracized by most of the other students.
No one knowing who he really was, what he really was, had been one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Now that was all gone and everyone knew, not just about him, but about them.
And now Amanda wanted him to stop wearing the image inducer. She just didn't understand why he couldn't do that.
The professor said that this would be one of the greatest tests of their integrity and self-control. They had to make themselves into a model so that the rest of the country, no, the world would learn that there was nothing to fear from mutants.
Which wasn't entirely true, they would, should learn that there was nothing to fear from /them/, Magneto and his sidekicks were another matter entirely.
Kurt rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. He had a feeling it was going to get a lot worse before it got better, but they would hold through, they had to. But... but now Evan was gone, after the incident with the Power-8, and Rahne and Jubilee had gone back home after everything blew up, figuratively and literally, and Rogue wasn't in good shape. Sometimes it felt as if they were falling apart.
At least they'd almost finished rebuilding. That was a meager improvement, but at least he was back in his own room. Or rather one identical to his old one. Except now there was no Evan, and for some reason that made all the difference. He wondered how long it would take him to get a new roommate.
At least it was Friday.
He yanked off his watch and plopped it on the bedside table. He lay there for a while, examining one three-fingered, fur covered, paw, until a mental message from the professor disturbed him.
/Scott, Jean, Kurt, please come down to the library. There is something I need to talk to you about./
"Vonder vhat thiz iz about," he mumbled to himself.
Kurt pulled himself up from his bed. He looked around the room for a long moment, particularly at the empty second bed. He shook his head, trying to clear it and than arranged his face into his normal carefree grin, and teleported.
When he reappeared in the library, he found that the Professor was there, along with Wolverine and Storm, who were in costume. Before Kurt could ask what this was all about, Scott and Jean walked through the library doors, holding hands. The moment they noticed everyone was looking at them, they quickly let go. The corner of Storm's mouth went up for a moment. Kurt made a mental note to tease them about it later.
"Yeah, Professor?" Scott said as he and Jean sat down on the couch. Kurt jumped up and perched himself on one of the chairs.
"There is a matter I wish to discuss with you all," the Professor began. "Earlier today, while I was making final repairs to Cerebro, I received an unusual reading. Cerebro's range is somewhat limited, and it cannot get overly detailed readings at very great distances. I did however pick up a very brief reading of a mutant powers being used somewhere in Washington state.
"At first I discounted this as a systems glitch, but within the next few minutes, Cerebro picked up two more."
"Two more readings? From the same mutant?" Scott asked, looking interested.
"No, two more mutants. The readings were quite different."
"Do you think it could be Magneto?" Kurt asked.
"Yes, it is a possibility, however, I don't think Magneto and his new recruits would allow themselves to be detected so easily. You must recall that they have manged to avoid detection for an extended period of time. It would be very much unlike Magneto to allow himself to be so easily discovered." The Professor looked pensive for a while.
"Unless they think that Cerebro is still off-line," Jean pointed out, reasonably.
"Once again, it is a possibility, but I do not think it is likely. It seems to me that we have some other gathering of mutants on our hands. Which is why I called you here. I would like to send a representative group of X-Men to investigate."
"Vonderbar! Vhen do ve leave?" Kurt exclaimed jumping up.
"Actually Kurt, that wasn't why I called /you/ here. Storm, Wolverine, Scott, and Jean will be going," the Professor told him, turning to look at Kurt.
"Oh, bummer," was all Kurt could say. That seriously wasn't fair. He wanted to go along on the trip, but of course sending the Fuzzy One, probably wasn't the best tactic if you're looking for more recruits. /Better not scare them away,/ he though angrily to himself, and than stopped, hoping the Professor wasn't reading his thoughts.
If he was, the Professor didn't show any outward signs. "As I will be working on Cerebro, and Rogue is still recovering from her ordeal, you will be the oldest remaining X-Man. I am asking you, Kurt, to help Mr. McCoy with the students. We are all going through a rough period, and I would like to know that I can trust you with this." After he finished talking, the Professor watched Kurt for a few moments, expectedly. Scott was trying to hide amusement, Wolverine just shook his head.
Kurt blinked a few times. He hadn't expected that at all. At his apparent surprise, Jean developed a small smile. He knew what this meant, the Professor was not only asking him to behave, but also putting him in a position of authority. He'd love a chance to rub this into Kitty's face. He grinned. "Yes sir!"
The Professor nodded, "Scott, Jean, suit up, you'll be taking the Velocity."
^~^~^~^~^~^
"According to the coordinates the Professor gave us, we should be nearing the location now," Storm said, glancing towards Wolverine, who was doing the piloting.
"I'll start looking for a place to set down," he growled as he began to lower their altitude.
Jean sat in the back next to Scott. She was leaning comfortably against his shoulder. Night had already begun to fall in the time it had taken them to get this far, and since they were heading towards an earlier time zone, it meant that it was very late in New York already. The news that they were nearing their destination was welcome.
"Do you sense anything yet, Jean?" Storm asked from the front.
Jean put her hands to the sides of her head and tried to concentrate, he movement disturbing Scott from his nap. "No, nothing yet. I'll try again after we land."
Storm nodded to her and and settled back into her seat.
Scott stretched and looked out the window. "Wow, check out the view, amazing,"he said to Jean.
She leaned over to have a look. Below them thick forest stretched out in every direction. In the darkening twilight the whole scene was bathed in bluish light, giving it an eerie ambiance.
"Yeah, it's beautiful," she said, wistfully.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders as they watched the sun finish setting. Jean sighed. It felt nice, sitting here for a short time at least, peaceful. The old 'calm before the storm' cliché came to mind, which took on a distinctly weird meaning with Storm sitting in the front seat.
"That looks promising," Wolverine said as he guided the craft downwards towards a small clearing.
Jean sighed and pulled herself away from Scott as Wolverine completed the landing sequence and lowered the exit ramp. /So much for that./
They stepped into the cooler air of early fall in Washington. In Bayville it had still been as warm as summer, here the leave were already changing color. As Jean stepped out of the Velocity, she attempted to sense the mutants that were suppose to be here.
"Anything?" Storm asked.
"I'm getting a vague sense from off in that direction," she said, pointing to the East. "But I can't tell you much more than that.
"What do you think? Split up?" Scott asked. "We'll cover more ground that way."
Wolverine sniffed at the air a second. "Better not, if it /is/ Magneto and his cronies. Lets not make this easy for them." He kept sniffing at the air for a while. "Besides, something doesn't smell right."
^~^~^~^~^~^
"Please let me go with you!" Dorian pleaded to Kale's retreating back.
Kale groaned to himself. The kid didn't know when to give up. He turned to look back at Dorian. Everyone else was ready to go, except for Nena, who was crouching miserably by the fire. Dorian was looking at Kale with big blue puppy-dog eyes. Strands of wet hair falling over that expression made him look particularly dejected. Kale steeled himself.
"No, and that's final," Kale winced at that. He'd sounded just like one of the foster parents that had taken care of him before he'd met Wen. He tried to soften his voice. "Look, we need you to stay here and take care of Nena. She's the youngest and she needs someone to look after her. That's important, okay?"
Dorian nodded, still looking dejected. Kale could tell Dorian knew exactly what he had been trying to do, and as such, hadn't been particularly cheered, but he also knew when he couldn't win.
Kale turned to follow the older kids. Laurie was leading, she seemed to know the way. She had said earlier that they'd have to go quite a ways. Kale didn't mind so much. Just visiting town was a three day affair, a short walk didn't bother him.
"Come on, Kale!" Wen called out to him, while tucking his flute into the back of his belt. "Lets go kick some mutant hunting ass!"
Kale reflected on how silly that sounded coming from Wen as he joined his friends. Wen, at a boyish 5' 5", was one of the least intimidating people he knew. Of course appearances could be deceiving, but even knowing that Wen could probably knock him on his butt with a gust of wind, didn't make it any less funny.
Wen noticed Kale smirking and frowned. "Are you laughing at me? Are you laughing at me?" he asked in a perfect accent, playing the lines for all they were worth. "Am I here for your amusement? Do you think I was placed here to make you laugh?"
Kale laughed, unable to stop himself at the false serious look on Wen's face, earning him a reproving look from Nick. If there was one thing he really missed about living in the city, it was watching movies with Wen.
"Maybe we can just talk to them, get them to leave us alone," Athena suggested. She didn't sound too convinced that it was a possibility, but she hated violence, they all knew that.
"What are we going to tell them?" Kale asked, his thoughts turning serious again. "You heard what Laurie said, they're looking for us. That means they've got to know. What would they possibly listen to from us?"
"'I am not an animal! I am a human being!'" Wen quoted, grinning.
"How about, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna to take it anymore.'" Kale suggested seriously.
"You two watch way too many movies," Athena said, carefully stepping down a slope.
"Well what else were we suppose to do with our time?"
"How about read a book?" That was greeted with silence and Athena sighed. "Never mind."
Ahead of them Laurie came to a ribbon of water. While too small to be a river, it was too big to be a stream. She stopped and looked backwards toward the rest of them, waiting for them to catch up.
"Too bad we left Dorian behind," Wen said jokingly. "He could have parted the waters for us, like mini-Moses or something."
Spiny just bounded through the stream, and Athena had to jump out of the way to avoid being splashed.
Nick brushed passed the them, walking to Laurie's side.
"Dude," Wen said, as Nick walked passed Athena. "Yin and Yang."
He was right, Nick seemed to be darkness to Athena's light.
Kale watched Nick carefully. Upon reaching the water's edge, he put out an hand to Laurie who accepted. He wrapped his arms around her. The two of them seemed to become engulfed by some sort of black shadow-like mist. They disappeared downwards into the shadows at their feet, and then reappeared, rising out of the darkness on the other side of stream.
"Showoff," Kale mumbled.
Wen grinned. "I'll show you showoff."
The burst of wind that caught the three of them and yanked them across the water wasn't entirely unexpected, but that didn't make it any less disconcerting, or the landing any less rough.
"You have got to work on your reentry, and I thought you said you thought you could use that to fly? That was a little rough for flying," Kale grumbled.
"'Fly yes, land no,'" came Wen's muffled voice from within a bush.
"Please, both of you, this is important, try to be more serious," Athena said, standing up and brushing dead leaves off the tattered edges of her dress.
"Being serious will get you nothing but unsightly nose hair," Wen declared, fighting free of the foliage. Athena gave him a look that was probably a glare, but it was hard to tell with her eyes.
"I think, that you should all know that we are very close, and perhaps you should all be a little more quiet," Laurie said from a bit farther ahead.
"Great, lets get this over with," Kale began and then stopped, eyes widening with shock.
"Where's Spiny?"
The movie quotes came from Goodfellas, Network, Elephant Man, and Indiana Jones.
That was fun. Um yeah, I'll see you next time, and don't forget to write a review and tell me who your favorite character is. Or something.