Beauty and the... Nightcrawler?
Chapter One:
The Fairy meets the Fuzzy Elf
Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler of the X-men, was walking home from one of the local burger joints. He passed a construction site. All the workers had gone home and it was dark.
Normally, Kurt would have simply passed on by if not for the movement in the shadows.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't one of the goody-goodies all out on his own," came a voice from behind Kurt.
He turned to see Toad, in full battle gear, sneering at him. "What do you want?" he asked, suddenly on defense.
Toad unleashed his abnormally long tongue and ripped the holo-watch right off Kurt's arm, revealing his true form: A blue furred creature with three figures on each hand and a long, pointed tail.
Kurt quickly hid himself in the darkness of the abandoned construction site. "Hey, what's the big idea?" he growled angrily.
"Just wanting to invite you to the party," Avalanche, aka Lance Alvers, said, stepping out of the shadows in to some of the light that came from the street. He was also in full battle gear.
Kurt didn't have to turn to know that Fred Dukes, also known as the Blob, was also there.
Kurt braced himself, but knew it was a losing fight. It was three against one.
Kurt teleported himself onto the third floor of the building that was, right now, only a skeleton of what it would be when ready.
Avalanche's eyes rolled to the back of his head, the first sign he was about to use his gift. He lifted his right foot and stomped the ground, which shook and began to crack. The crack went right to the base of the steel beams which Kurt found his safety on. The building began to shake badly and Kurt, giving out a cry, teleported down to the ground, where Toad, quick at lightening, warped his tongue around Kurt's legs and, like a rope, tightened it around him, causing him to fall.
Kurt didn't have time to look up at the steel beams falling toward him, didn't have time to even think about teleporting to safety. He barely registered the dust falling around him or the yawl of pain that came from Toad.
All he knew was that one minute he was lying stuck on the ground and the next he was flying in the air, looking down at the three thugs of the Brotherhood, screaming up at him in anger.
Kurt would later put together that the person who had saved him had sent such a powerful force of energy at the bars above him that they had, literally, turned them to dust and had than flown down to his rescue.
"Wha?" Kurt looked confused.
"You okay, Blue Dude?" as an unfamiliar voice from above him.
He looked up to see a very pretty girl with dark brown hair and blue-green eyes grinning down at him. He noted that she had wings that seemed to be made of... light?
"Fine?" was all Kurt could say as she lowered them from the sky to a deserted road.
She laughed as she stood beside him. She seemed to be about his height, maybe just an inch or two shorter.
She gave a little chuckle as her wings of light disappeared. "Good to hear. Friends of yours?" She questioned, referring to the boys she had saved him from.
"Hardly," Kurt said, rolling his eyes. Before he could say more, he remember that he didn't have his holo-image on, didn't even have his watch anymore. He self consciously looked away from her and held one hand over his wrist.
When she didn't say anything, he chanced to look up at her. She was looking at him as if she saw people like him everyday, there wasn't judgment or rejection or disgust, she was just looking at him like he was... well human! He didn't know what to say to her, which just made the silence more awkward as she smiled at him, almost knowingly.
"You dropped this," she said at least, holding up his holo-watch, which Toad must have just tossed aside.
He reached up and took it from her cautiously, his furry fingers brushing against her hairless ones. He winched as he looked up to see her reaction. He hated being without his hologram on, he felt exposed, vulnerable.
She merely smiled at him and, when he put the watch back on, about to turn it on, she set her hand on his, stopping him from activating it. Shocked, he looked at her in question.
"I think you'll be able to get home by yourself," she said, grinning, as she started walking away. "Stay safe, k?" She looked over her shoulder and gave him a wink. "Cutie." Than, her light wings appearing once more with a whoosh, she flew off before he could ask her anything, even her name.
~*~
The next morning, Kurt poofed down for breakfast and found everyone standing around in the common area. He looked and saw that the Professor was there as well as someone he couldn't quite make out. The person was wearing a hooded cloak which shadowed her face. Except for the cloak being dark blue, the cloak was very much like the one he himself had warn the first day coming to the Institute.
"Oh good, Kurt, you're here," Professor Xavier said, smiling. "Just in time. Now," he said, looking at everyone once more. "I told you all a few days ago that we would have a new member to the team." As the professor spoke, Kurt keep looking at the hooded figure. He remember vaguely the professor had said something about having an old acquaintance come and help the team, some woman he had worked with called Firefly. He brought himself back to reality when Professor Xavier said: "Now, I would like you all to meet Phoebe Donavon."
The woman reached up and removed the cloak. It was the same woman from the night before and, Kurt realized, she wasn't pretty, she was beautiful. Now, he had a better look at her face. Her hair was black, going down to her mid-back and her lips where full, though small, her eyes large, but not too large, almond shaped. Her nose was a button nose, which must have looked cute when she was little and now brought a humanness to her face. She looked to be around his age.
"By the way you talked, I like thought she'd be like older or something," Kitty said smiling.
"So this is Firefly?" Scott questioned, looking at the woman through his ruby-quartz glasses.
Before the Professor could answer, Phoebe grinned. "No," she said in the friendly voice that had already become so familiar to Kurt. "Firefly is my mother. My name is Fairy. I've come in her stead. My mother's abilities consisted of flying and making fire charges. I control energy, I can make it explode, as she did, but I can also freeze people in their places and other things. I can also, if I concentrate, bring out wings in which to fly."
Kurt simply stood shocked that the woman who had saved him was going to be a member of the X-men, going to be working with him.
After the other members of the team had greeted her, she excused herself to go to her room to get settled in.
As she passed him, Kurt came to his senses. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to be an X-man?" he questioned, smiling friendly. He liked that she was seeming him as a human now.
But instead of a recognition, she looked at him in confusion. "Do I know you?" she asked, looking worried that this boy, who sounded familiar to her, she could not place.
"Oh, yeah," Kurt realized that she wouldn't know him when he looked human and, surprising everyone in the room, turned off his holo-watch in front of, to them, a stranger, which they had never seen him do before, showing himself as the blue 'freak', in his mind, he was.
His heart skipped a beat at light entered her eyes, which seemed to come close to joy, at seeing him again. "I knew I'd see you again," she said, her smile a bit brighter than it had been. "Who knew I'd be working with you, too, huh? Well, now you know my name, what's yours?"
"Kurt. Kurt Wagner. They also call me Nightcrawler," he said, thankful that his blue fur hid his blush.
"Well, seems like I'll be seeing a lot more of you, Nightcrawler," she said as she headed up the stairs. Again she turned and winked. "Cutie."
Nightcrawler was sure his blue fur was now red as he looked at the gapping mouths all around him. He gave a nervous laughs and a shrug as he poofed out of there to safety.
Boy, things were certainly going to get interesting around here, well, more so than usual.