The Forgotten Past By NightElfCrawler

Chapter Two

A very nervous Kurt Wagner stood outside the Sefton home, in a pair of run down white painter's overalls with a shirt beneath. It was one thing making up your mind to go through with something, but another to actually get your rear in gear and do it. So here he stood, tail twitching nervously back and forth from it's spot in his pants as he made his resolve harden.

Professor Xavier had been very supporting when he'd explained the situation. "Kurt, I think this is a wonderful opportunity." He had said with that infallible smile of his. "I know your last experience did not go well, but one must get up after falling off the horse, as it is."

Kurt blew some hair out of his face as he slowly walked up the pathway to the Sefton's doorstep. He knocked once, and almost instantly the door opened and Amanda hopped out looking anxious. "Great, you're here.. Better come out here with me." She was dressed similarly, in coveralls like he was. She pulled him after her to the front of the house where a ladder and drop cloth were propped up. "My mom's on the rampage."

"Why's that?" Kurt asked, his voice a bit nervous. "Did they find out I was the one who."

"No no, nothing like that." She explained quickly. "She misplaced some item. She's furious."

Kurt breathed a slight sigh of relief, but it was short lived as the door opened and they could hear shouting from inside, before it closed again, and Amanda's dad came out looking a bit frazzled. As he rounded the corner, he looked up. "Oh, here you are Mandy.And your friend is..." He trailed off as recognition hit and a very angry look crossed his face.

Before he could open his mouth, Amanda quickly spoke up. "Before you say anything Daddy, listen. Kurt is a REALLY nice guy! And no matter what you say, I'm not going to stop being friends with him. so you better get used to it!" She said crossing her arms. "He's here to help paint. And you're going to let him help."

Mr. Sefton looked like he wanted to yell and sneeze all at once, the strangest expression on his face. He took several breaths, and opened his mouth to speak up again, but just then, Kurt surprised Amanda by speaking up.

"Mr. Sefton. I know our last meeting wasn't the best circumstances." he started sounding a bit awkward, but grew in strength as he continued. "But I'm really very sorry about everything that happened. And I want to make up for it. I can't make you stop disliking mutants, but I want to try." He held his chin up straight, and Amanda glanced at her fuzzy with admiration at his boldness. "I really want to prove to you that you can trust me with Amanda." He put a hand on her shoulder, and she smiled up at him with a bright smile that lit up her face.

Mr. Sefton seemed to consider Kurt's words a bit, at least he didn't yell at him straight away to get off his property. But he didn't look anywhere near convinced. "I don't want you around her." He finally said. "I've heard stories of the things you people can do."

"Dad." Amanda spoke up. "Kurt wouldn't hurt a fly! His powers aren't dangerous!"

Kurt didn't bother contradicting her, she wasn't completely accurate. His powers could be dangerous if he used them as such, but he was trying to win their trust, not scare them. "Mr. Sefton." He said quickly. "Please give me a chance to make it up to you." He glanced at Amanda then back to him. "Mutants aren't as bad as the papers make us sound."

"Yeah. besides dad." Amanda spoke up. "You know what it's like to be treated differently just because of how you were born."

That seemed to strike a chord in Mr. Sefton's mind, and his face relaxed a bit. "I see there's not much we can do to stop you." He said quietly, then sighed and managed a polite smile, though not overly friendly. "All right, Kurt. you can help out. on one condition." He held up the paintbrush to make a point. Kurt gulped a bit and looked at him expecting something unreasonable. Mr. Sefton pointed his brush at him. "You don't hide behind that image thingy of yours. If you really want to be able to gain our trust, we have to gain it from YOU, not what we think is you."

Kurt exchanged glances with Amanda, and they both smiled a bit. The whole world seemed to be ganging up on him to remove his watch. However, Kurt reached over and removed it, and his image fizzled out, revealing his fuzziness for any passing neighbor to see. Mr. Sefton seemed to be a bit alarmed again, seeing Kurt's real appearance for the second time. He seemed to have briefly forgotten how different he looked. But he got over his initial confusion and merely bent down, picking up a paintbrush, handing it to him, then followed by a bucket. He gave the twitching tail a glance and then Kurt a questioning look. "Can you start on the second floor awnings?"

Kurt gave him a happy salute with the brush, taking the bucket. "Jawhol, mein Herr!" and with a bamf he was suddenly on the roof. He then began to dangle upside down from grasping onto the overhanging tree, and began to cheerily paint the rafters.

Amanda giggled and glanced at her father's baffled expression.

"How does he do that?" Mr. Sefton asked with some awe.

"Very carefully Dad.. Very carefully." Amanda answered with a grin. "He's very agile."

"Apparently." He mused, then shook his head and began to paint the garage door.

Amanda took a seat in the tire swing, and watched as the two went about painting. She would deal with her mother in a minute. she was the more difficult of the two to convince Kurt was harmless. Her father was usually the more relaxed of the two, and he took most of the lead from his wife. If she could convince her mother to trust Kurt, then things would go much smoother.

She smiled as she watched the painting proceed, and listened as her father actually attempted to start a conversation with Kurt.

"So. Kurt." He began awkwardly. "I have to ask. how long have you been like this?"

Kurt dipped the brush into the bucket below him and slopped it onto the side of the house. "All mein life."

"Really?" Mr. Sefton seemed rather taken aback by this. He apparently hadn't considered the fact that he had been born this way. "That must have been.er. rather awkward growing up."

Kurt shrugged a bit from his upside down perch. "Not really. I mean it was a bit, but I can't compare to how it would be otherwise."

Mr. Sefton nodded and continued chatting, getting along more and more as time passed. By the time an hour had passed, the garage door was finished, and the left side of the house was half finished, and Kurt had to change his perch to a lower limb where he stood upright. Amanda was beginning to wonder where her mother was, and had slipped inside to check on her.

Several pairs of eyes watched from a hidden location across the street.

"Pathetic. Your boy has poor choice in dates, Mystique."

The pair of glowing yellow eyes bit sharply back at the demonic ones looking at her. "Shut up. You're just here to do your job."

"Oui, oui, mon ami." Gambit flexed the cards in his hands as he watched the pair outside. "Gambit still dun see wha' he be wantin' the kid for."

"That is not your concern." She growled back. "Just get him."

He shifted in the cramped black van parked across the street. It was bad enough being stuck on some damn fool mission with Mystique in the first place, but having to kidnap the elf kid, who he actually held somewhat of a secret respect for. They had a lot in common, with their mutations anyway. However, he steeled himself for action and prodded his metal companion awake. "Come on."

The two painters unfortunately had no idea what hit them. There was a crackling in the air, and as Mr. Sefton turned around, just in time to have his ladder explode from beneath him.

Kurt whirled around in alarm as he heard the sound, only to find a shiny metal fist aimed at his abdomen. Quick as his reflexes, Kurt ducked down and twisted out of the way, vaulting underneath Colossus' arm, and up the tree behind him. He scrambled up quickly, and then ported to the ground, seeing the explosion and Mr. Sefton fall. He faced Gambit with barred fangs. "What do you want!?"

Gambit merely smiled and held up a card, while holding onto his trademark staff loosely in the other hand. "Gambit don't want nothin' wid you.."

Kurt realized he was being stalled, and quickly threw himself to the side and subsequently felt a woosh as the metal hand missed his head by inches and he dodge the blow. He rolled and came to his feet as the staff whistled towards him, and he jumped aside again as he barely dodged the blow. He felt a tug, and glanced aside as Colossus had grabbed a hold of his tail, and lifted him off his feet. Colossus whisked the elf up and gave him one whirl around his head held by his tail before releasing him, sending him rocketing into the tree.

Kurt groaned and rubbed the back of his head as stars floated around in his vision. But he forced himself up in time to see another card headed his way. He ported again just as it exploded at his feet, and re-appeared on the roof. Kurt made a grab for the nearby paint bucket and lifted it up to hurl.

"Jus' one second." Came the quiet voice from below.

Kurt paused with eyes wide as he saw the scene below. Gambit had Mr. Sefton by the shoulder, and the poor dazed man was charged up with power, much like Todd had been not more than a few weeks before. "Let him go!" Kurt gasped, slowly lowering the paint bucket.

"Gambit'll let 'im go if you come on down here." The demon eyed man beckoned with his free hand.

Kurt swallowed. He had little choice. He had to protect Amanda's father. He wasn't supposed to get involved in this. Kurt ported down to the ground without hesitation, and held his hands up.

Gambit smirked, but true to his word, released Mr. Sefton and shoved him out of the way. "That's better."

Kurt's eyes narrowed. "What do you want with me?"

Gambit shifted his staff to his other hand and eyed the blue youth. "Gambit told you. He don't want nothin' to do wid you."

Kurt blinked confused. "Then who.." He caught a glance of movement to the side and ducked as Colossus swung at him as he was distracted with Gambit. He did a back flip and growled, glancing briefly to the side at Gambit as he powered up his staff. He then tensed and ported directly over to Mr. Sefton, however it was a critical error.

Colossus had been expecting him to do just that, and as soon as the blue youth re-appeared, a metal hand connected with Kurt's left leg, and there was an audible crack and a moment of silence before Kurt screamed in agony and slumping over curling up in a ball as his vision danced with bright colors from the pain shooting up his leg. He remembered vaguely looking up at his two assailants, and wondering why.. Before blackness engulfed him.

Gambit frowned a bit and glared at his Russian companion. "Didn't have ta hit the poor kid so hard.."

Colossus did look a bit distressed, and nudged Kurt's unmoving body with a boot. "I did not mean to hit so hard."

"She's not going to be happy about this." Gambit murmured, glancing back at the van.

Colossus picked up Kurt as gently as he could and glanced down at the clearly broken leg that was bent in a most unnatural shape, some blood beginning to stain the white painter pants beneath. "I explain to her.she understand."

Gambit shook his head, thinking his solid friend was mistaken. "Not when it's her son.."

Mystique was indeed fuming as the two closed the doors behind them upon entering the van. "You FOOLS! I told you not to HURT him!"

Gambit threw his hands up. "He was hard to catch."

Mystique just glared and pointed for them to secure him, and slipped back up to the drivers seat, and started the engine then began to drive, still fuming angry.

The two sat silently, watching Kurt's breathing suck in and out with some flinching as the blood continued to spread on the white pants. "We should try to stop this bleeding." Colossus murmured, reverting back from his metal form.

Gambit glanced around and pulled a strip of cloth from what looked like a dust rag down from a peg and tore it into strips. Colossus pulled the elf's pant leg up and saw that the bone was clearly sticking through the lower half of his leg where it had split from it's right place. He glanced up at his companion, who looked very upset seeing how much damage he had caused. They might have been enemies with the blue youth, but none of them wanted to see the other hurt badly.

Gambit glanced down and saw Kurt's eyes were fluttering open. He leaned over and spoke quietly. "Relax. dis gonna hurt." He didn't wait to see if Kurt was going to respond to that, and gave a quick shove at the broken leg. Another crack sounded loudly as the bone popped back into place, and Kurt's scream ripped through the van, almost causing Mystique to run it off the road as she glanced back at them in alarm.

"You fool! What are you doing to him!?"

Gambit glared up at her with narrowed eyes. "Tryin to stop dis one's bleedin. Unless boss lady wants ta have a dead elf on her hands."

Mystique growled and turned back to the road, still obviously writhing in anger.

Colossus raised an eyebrow at Gambit and then rummaged through Kurt's clothing.

"Wha you looking for?" Gambit asked as he tightened the makeshift bandage on Kurt's leg.

"Communication device." Colossus replied as he found the holowatch and held it up. "They trace him, they find us."

Gambit nodded as Colossus changed once more, and taking the watch in his metal hand, crushed the precious device in it, into a mangled mess, making it impossible for them to be traced..