What are other people doing here? Betsy asked herself. Her psi-scan had
revealed to her that there were other humans nearby, a puzzling fact since
there did not seem to be any cities or towns around.
She trudged through the snow glad that the harsh wind was at least blowing with her rather than against her, a small favor that had allowed her to move much faster. Of course, the settling darkness made things harder in its own right.
She wondered idly if maybe Scott was not in trouble. It would be a surprise, since it was only her extensive samurai training and her ability to somewhat psionically regulate her body temperature that allowed HER to continue on.
She stepped forward at the end of a stride, naturally expecting for her foot to come down on solid ground. Therefore it was quite a shock when her foot came down upon empty space, throwing her off balance. She fell, now realizing that she had come across a hole of some sort.
It was not a long fall with the hole being only about a meter deep but what surprised Betsy the most was that her fall was cushioned by something. Her arms flailed out and her head hit something. A rock? No, a soft rock? Her eyes widened at the realization that it was a head. Scott's head.
His eyes fluttered open slightly, closed, and then shot back open in surprise.
"Betsy," he started to say.
"Yeah?"
"Could you maybe get off of me?"
He said this politely but Betsy still blushed furiously. In all of her surprise, she hadn't realized that she was practically on top of him or that her face had been quite so close to his.
She jumped off of Scott, her face still a little warm.
Scott yawned and then wriggled into a sitting position in the cramped space. He regarded her silently for a moment, finally asking, "what are you doing here?"
Betsy shrugged maneuvering into a more comfortable position in the cramped space. The hole was not big enough for two people, leaving her and Scott squished up in the small shelter while the raging blizzard howled above. "Uh, I came to get you."
"Why?"
Betsy stared at him as if he were crazy. "What do you mean 'why'? It's freezing, OK. Really really, really cold."
"And you thought you could somehow find me while not freezing to death yourself."
"Yeah."
Scott leaned his head back against the rock, his vision blurry. "I suppose I should be flattered," he said, "although I don't really need your help. About three miles away, I saw something, probably other people. I could be there in about an hour."
Betsy gave a sharp laugh. "If you don't freeze to death first."
"You don't need to worry about me," Scott said. Betsy wished she could do just that- stop worrying about Scott, but it seemed as if there were some part of her that just couldn't help it.
She glanced up. It was much darker now and to venture out would be foolish. It seemed as if she would staying put for the night.
"Can't you just telepathically contact the authorities or something?" Scott asked. "I mean, to tell them what happened?"
"I wish," Betsy told him. "For one, I don't have that much psychic range. Besides, then they would know about my powers."
"And we have to assume that nobody'll know about what happened until morning. Even then, it would take a miracle to find us." Scott stated this as if it were a proven fact.
"Well gee, thanks for the optimism." Sometimes, she thought that Scott's confidence was reassuring, but it was a whole different matter when he was confident that something BAD would happen.
"Sorry." Once again, Scott closed his eyes, images from the last few days popping up into his mind. Betsy as she humiliated the male team in dodgeball, earning the respect she deserved. Kurt as he ranted on and on about his newfound invisibility. Jean as they talked. The last few seconds before the bus had crashed.
He opened his eyes, finding that sleep would not come. In his peripheral vision, he saw Betsy, huddled up. She was shivering now, an odd fact now that he thought about it because before, she had not shown any signs that the cold was affecting her.
Even though Betsy could not penetrate his mental defenses, she seemed to be reading his mind.
"For a limited period of time," she said, "I can trick my body into ignoring external conditions, which is why I didn't appear to be cold before." She shivered as she said each word.
"So I guess time's up, huh? Its not working anymore?"
Betsy nodded wordlessly, wrapping her arms around herself.
Scott lifted his arm and somewhat awkwardly put it around Betsy. She looked up in surprise but didn't pull away.
"To keep warm," Scott told her simply, answering her unspoken question.
"Oh." Betsy reached over and embraced Scott, resting her head on his shoulder and curling up into a ball. She would have been lying if she'd said she had never imagined a similar scenario, but in that, the temperature had been about 70 degrees higher and the accommodations were much more comfortable than a hole in the ground. The present situation would have seemed a bit awkward and even embarrassing before but when you were freezing, cuddling up to someone especially when that someone was Scott, didn't seem so bad.
***
BAMF Kurt teleported out of the way just in time to avoid a sizzling bolt of lightning from one of the Danger Room's many weapons. He backflipped immediately upon touching the ground, landing upon one of the rotating gun turrets.
As if it could sense he were there, the large device began to twist and shake, trying to throw him off. Kurt reached the 'disengage' lever just in time to pull it before he was thrown off.
To his left, Rogue and Evan were busy dealing with a flying sphere that would continually discharge lasers at the pair. It swooped down behind Evan who was on his skateboard, charging up the blaster that was suspended below it. Evan turned around, slightly surprised . He readied a barrage of spikes but even as he did so, knew it would be too late. Then Rogue tackled him, knocking him out of harm's way. The laser sparked against the floor, sending up a puff of smoke.
"Thanks," Evan breathed, popping his spikes. Rogue gave a curt nod and then sprung up, executing a stunning airborne kick that knocked the drone for a loop. It flew around in a strange pattern as if confused before reorienting itself.
Rogue landed gracefully but then the drone fired something at her that she was a little unprepared for. Her eyes narrowed as the spinning cable came at her, then widened when it wrapped itself around her legs, securing them together. Rogue lost her balance and fell backwards. She could see the drone hover in midair, charging up it's lasers.
THUNK From behind her, a spike whistled at the drone at breakneck speed, impaling the spherical robot right through the center. With a loud explosion, the drone was destroyed, sending small bits of shrapnel raining down onto the floor. Rogue turned her head and saw Evan behind her, withdrawing his Spikes. The end of her mouth quirked upward into a semi- smile. "Thanks."
Evan opened his mouth to say 'you're welcome' but Professor Xavier's telepathic summons to the main room cut him off. He hopped off of his skateboard, kicked it up into the air, and caught it, placing it on his back holder.
When Evan Kitty, Kurt, and Rogue reached the expansive living, Xavier, Ororo, and Logan were already there. They had grim looks on their faces and they were watching the television.
Kitty craned her head to see what it was that had their attention. Unfortunately, Logan reached over and turned the set off.
"What's up Prof?" Evan asked in his usual humorous manner.
Xavier wheeled his wheel chair around to face the group, the grave look about him speaking volumes. He sighed, looking each student in the eye. "It would seem," he said, "That Scott's bus is missing."
"Vhat?" Kurt asked.
"They were goin' to Washington D.C. or somethin'," Rogue said. "But Professor, whaddya mean the bus is missin?"
"I mean exactly what I said: the bus is missing. Their communication is not functional and there's a snowstorm over the area right now, making locating it next to impossible."
"So you want us to go rescue Scott," Kitty cut in. It was more of a statement than a question.
"Yes," Ororo said, "if it comes to that. We still aren't sure that they are in need of rescuing, although the non functional communications are increasing the probability that they are."
"Why not just telepathically contact Scott?" Evan asked.
"I'm working on that," Xavier said, "although the mental shields that I taught him how to erect are making the process very difficult." He surveyed the group. "It would be helpful if all of you donned your costumes in the event that we have to mount a rescue."
***
The next morning, Betsy was the first person to awake. At first, she was surprised that the first sight that her eyes beheld was not the Escaflowne poster on her ceiling, but instead the snow-filled sky. She blinked, the situation she was in returning now to her memory. Her left side was much warmer than her right. Slowly, she turned her head and saw Scott there, the only evidence that he was sleeping was the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest.
"Scott, she mumbled through half closed eyes, slightly shaking him with her left hand. He did not awaken.
"Hellooo. Scott." She waved her hand over his sunglasses, disappointed that he still did not awaken. Betsy sighed and reached over for Scott's glasses, taking them off. She figured he'd at least awaken at that given the reaction she'd seen before when his glasses were removed.
Scott muttered something and opened his eyes slightly.
TSEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW. Betsy jumped almost a foot back slamming into the 'wall'. A bright scarlet beam had suddenly erupted from his eyes and high into the sky, nearly blinding Betsy. Scott, in his confusion, moved his head, blasting away even more at the shelter and sending bits of rock flying. There was a loud hissing sound as the eyebeam hit the snow, instantly vaporizing it. Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the beam stopped.
Betsy felt her heart beating rapidly, she was so shocked that she couldn't speak even when she tried to. If any sound had come out, it would have probably been a scream. Scott, to his credit, remained calm even though he was now very much awake and realized what had just happened. He'd had nightmares about this kind of thing before and they weren't pretty. Desperately, he kept his eyes shut while feeling around on the ground for his glasses.
"Betsy," he said almost fearfully, "Betsy, are you OK?"
"Yeah," she squeaked in a quick breath. So many thought and questions were whirling around in her head as her mind desperately tried to make connections.
Scott let out long breath in relief. "Good. Wow, that-that's a good thing. I mean, I have nightmares and stuff about, you know, this." The words came out in a jumble but Betsy still caught it.
She scooted next to him and placed the sunglasses in his palm. Scott had them on in no time.
Betsy shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged. "That's why you where the sunglasses, isn't it?"
Scott said nothing.
"C'mon Scott. You know my secret. Why not tell me more?"
"Good point. OK, basically I've got these beams of energy or something that come from my eyes, the only thing that can hold it back is ruby quartz or my own eyelids."
"The sunglasses, are they made of ruby quartz?"
Scott nodded. "Its weird. All it takes is for me to look at somebody and BANG! they're dead."
Betsy smiled sympathetically. "You know, I used to think that I was the only one with.abilities. I'm wondering now though."
"Betsy, there a tons of people like you and I," Scott said. "We're mutants."
"Mutants?" Betsy wrinkled her nose.
"Sounds kind of negative, but that's the truth of it."
"I don't suppose you know any other mutants."
Scott hesitated at that one. He wasn't sure he wanted to reveal his friends.
"Never mind," Betsy told him after seeing his reaction. She looked up. "Whaddya say we get out of here and find what we came for?"
"Sounds like a plan."
***
"Did you see that?!" Nate exploded. His eyes had gone the size of tennis balls and he was staring at something way past Brice. Slowly, Brice turned around just in time to glimpse a bright red beam of energy piercing the sky before it disappeared. Rille Marion came into the living room of the cabin just then. "Is everything alright?" he asked. "No, Brice said. "No, everything is not alright. There's somebody up here with us, and they just sent a flare up or something." "Pretty doggone weird flare," Nate muttered. Brice ignored him and blew out a breath. "We can't afford to have somebody up here attracting anybody, especially the law."
"You want me to get Karl and Greg?" "Yeah-yeah, why not. We are going to scour this whole area and take whoever it is out before they can contact anyone. No body, no traces, it'll be like they just disappeared."
She trudged through the snow glad that the harsh wind was at least blowing with her rather than against her, a small favor that had allowed her to move much faster. Of course, the settling darkness made things harder in its own right.
She wondered idly if maybe Scott was not in trouble. It would be a surprise, since it was only her extensive samurai training and her ability to somewhat psionically regulate her body temperature that allowed HER to continue on.
She stepped forward at the end of a stride, naturally expecting for her foot to come down on solid ground. Therefore it was quite a shock when her foot came down upon empty space, throwing her off balance. She fell, now realizing that she had come across a hole of some sort.
It was not a long fall with the hole being only about a meter deep but what surprised Betsy the most was that her fall was cushioned by something. Her arms flailed out and her head hit something. A rock? No, a soft rock? Her eyes widened at the realization that it was a head. Scott's head.
His eyes fluttered open slightly, closed, and then shot back open in surprise.
"Betsy," he started to say.
"Yeah?"
"Could you maybe get off of me?"
He said this politely but Betsy still blushed furiously. In all of her surprise, she hadn't realized that she was practically on top of him or that her face had been quite so close to his.
She jumped off of Scott, her face still a little warm.
Scott yawned and then wriggled into a sitting position in the cramped space. He regarded her silently for a moment, finally asking, "what are you doing here?"
Betsy shrugged maneuvering into a more comfortable position in the cramped space. The hole was not big enough for two people, leaving her and Scott squished up in the small shelter while the raging blizzard howled above. "Uh, I came to get you."
"Why?"
Betsy stared at him as if he were crazy. "What do you mean 'why'? It's freezing, OK. Really really, really cold."
"And you thought you could somehow find me while not freezing to death yourself."
"Yeah."
Scott leaned his head back against the rock, his vision blurry. "I suppose I should be flattered," he said, "although I don't really need your help. About three miles away, I saw something, probably other people. I could be there in about an hour."
Betsy gave a sharp laugh. "If you don't freeze to death first."
"You don't need to worry about me," Scott said. Betsy wished she could do just that- stop worrying about Scott, but it seemed as if there were some part of her that just couldn't help it.
She glanced up. It was much darker now and to venture out would be foolish. It seemed as if she would staying put for the night.
"Can't you just telepathically contact the authorities or something?" Scott asked. "I mean, to tell them what happened?"
"I wish," Betsy told him. "For one, I don't have that much psychic range. Besides, then they would know about my powers."
"And we have to assume that nobody'll know about what happened until morning. Even then, it would take a miracle to find us." Scott stated this as if it were a proven fact.
"Well gee, thanks for the optimism." Sometimes, she thought that Scott's confidence was reassuring, but it was a whole different matter when he was confident that something BAD would happen.
"Sorry." Once again, Scott closed his eyes, images from the last few days popping up into his mind. Betsy as she humiliated the male team in dodgeball, earning the respect she deserved. Kurt as he ranted on and on about his newfound invisibility. Jean as they talked. The last few seconds before the bus had crashed.
He opened his eyes, finding that sleep would not come. In his peripheral vision, he saw Betsy, huddled up. She was shivering now, an odd fact now that he thought about it because before, she had not shown any signs that the cold was affecting her.
Even though Betsy could not penetrate his mental defenses, she seemed to be reading his mind.
"For a limited period of time," she said, "I can trick my body into ignoring external conditions, which is why I didn't appear to be cold before." She shivered as she said each word.
"So I guess time's up, huh? Its not working anymore?"
Betsy nodded wordlessly, wrapping her arms around herself.
Scott lifted his arm and somewhat awkwardly put it around Betsy. She looked up in surprise but didn't pull away.
"To keep warm," Scott told her simply, answering her unspoken question.
"Oh." Betsy reached over and embraced Scott, resting her head on his shoulder and curling up into a ball. She would have been lying if she'd said she had never imagined a similar scenario, but in that, the temperature had been about 70 degrees higher and the accommodations were much more comfortable than a hole in the ground. The present situation would have seemed a bit awkward and even embarrassing before but when you were freezing, cuddling up to someone especially when that someone was Scott, didn't seem so bad.
***
BAMF Kurt teleported out of the way just in time to avoid a sizzling bolt of lightning from one of the Danger Room's many weapons. He backflipped immediately upon touching the ground, landing upon one of the rotating gun turrets.
As if it could sense he were there, the large device began to twist and shake, trying to throw him off. Kurt reached the 'disengage' lever just in time to pull it before he was thrown off.
To his left, Rogue and Evan were busy dealing with a flying sphere that would continually discharge lasers at the pair. It swooped down behind Evan who was on his skateboard, charging up the blaster that was suspended below it. Evan turned around, slightly surprised . He readied a barrage of spikes but even as he did so, knew it would be too late. Then Rogue tackled him, knocking him out of harm's way. The laser sparked against the floor, sending up a puff of smoke.
"Thanks," Evan breathed, popping his spikes. Rogue gave a curt nod and then sprung up, executing a stunning airborne kick that knocked the drone for a loop. It flew around in a strange pattern as if confused before reorienting itself.
Rogue landed gracefully but then the drone fired something at her that she was a little unprepared for. Her eyes narrowed as the spinning cable came at her, then widened when it wrapped itself around her legs, securing them together. Rogue lost her balance and fell backwards. She could see the drone hover in midair, charging up it's lasers.
THUNK From behind her, a spike whistled at the drone at breakneck speed, impaling the spherical robot right through the center. With a loud explosion, the drone was destroyed, sending small bits of shrapnel raining down onto the floor. Rogue turned her head and saw Evan behind her, withdrawing his Spikes. The end of her mouth quirked upward into a semi- smile. "Thanks."
Evan opened his mouth to say 'you're welcome' but Professor Xavier's telepathic summons to the main room cut him off. He hopped off of his skateboard, kicked it up into the air, and caught it, placing it on his back holder.
When Evan Kitty, Kurt, and Rogue reached the expansive living, Xavier, Ororo, and Logan were already there. They had grim looks on their faces and they were watching the television.
Kitty craned her head to see what it was that had their attention. Unfortunately, Logan reached over and turned the set off.
"What's up Prof?" Evan asked in his usual humorous manner.
Xavier wheeled his wheel chair around to face the group, the grave look about him speaking volumes. He sighed, looking each student in the eye. "It would seem," he said, "That Scott's bus is missing."
"Vhat?" Kurt asked.
"They were goin' to Washington D.C. or somethin'," Rogue said. "But Professor, whaddya mean the bus is missin?"
"I mean exactly what I said: the bus is missing. Their communication is not functional and there's a snowstorm over the area right now, making locating it next to impossible."
"So you want us to go rescue Scott," Kitty cut in. It was more of a statement than a question.
"Yes," Ororo said, "if it comes to that. We still aren't sure that they are in need of rescuing, although the non functional communications are increasing the probability that they are."
"Why not just telepathically contact Scott?" Evan asked.
"I'm working on that," Xavier said, "although the mental shields that I taught him how to erect are making the process very difficult." He surveyed the group. "It would be helpful if all of you donned your costumes in the event that we have to mount a rescue."
***
The next morning, Betsy was the first person to awake. At first, she was surprised that the first sight that her eyes beheld was not the Escaflowne poster on her ceiling, but instead the snow-filled sky. She blinked, the situation she was in returning now to her memory. Her left side was much warmer than her right. Slowly, she turned her head and saw Scott there, the only evidence that he was sleeping was the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest.
"Scott, she mumbled through half closed eyes, slightly shaking him with her left hand. He did not awaken.
"Hellooo. Scott." She waved her hand over his sunglasses, disappointed that he still did not awaken. Betsy sighed and reached over for Scott's glasses, taking them off. She figured he'd at least awaken at that given the reaction she'd seen before when his glasses were removed.
Scott muttered something and opened his eyes slightly.
TSEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW. Betsy jumped almost a foot back slamming into the 'wall'. A bright scarlet beam had suddenly erupted from his eyes and high into the sky, nearly blinding Betsy. Scott, in his confusion, moved his head, blasting away even more at the shelter and sending bits of rock flying. There was a loud hissing sound as the eyebeam hit the snow, instantly vaporizing it. Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the beam stopped.
Betsy felt her heart beating rapidly, she was so shocked that she couldn't speak even when she tried to. If any sound had come out, it would have probably been a scream. Scott, to his credit, remained calm even though he was now very much awake and realized what had just happened. He'd had nightmares about this kind of thing before and they weren't pretty. Desperately, he kept his eyes shut while feeling around on the ground for his glasses.
"Betsy," he said almost fearfully, "Betsy, are you OK?"
"Yeah," she squeaked in a quick breath. So many thought and questions were whirling around in her head as her mind desperately tried to make connections.
Scott let out long breath in relief. "Good. Wow, that-that's a good thing. I mean, I have nightmares and stuff about, you know, this." The words came out in a jumble but Betsy still caught it.
She scooted next to him and placed the sunglasses in his palm. Scott had them on in no time.
Betsy shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged. "That's why you where the sunglasses, isn't it?"
Scott said nothing.
"C'mon Scott. You know my secret. Why not tell me more?"
"Good point. OK, basically I've got these beams of energy or something that come from my eyes, the only thing that can hold it back is ruby quartz or my own eyelids."
"The sunglasses, are they made of ruby quartz?"
Scott nodded. "Its weird. All it takes is for me to look at somebody and BANG! they're dead."
Betsy smiled sympathetically. "You know, I used to think that I was the only one with.abilities. I'm wondering now though."
"Betsy, there a tons of people like you and I," Scott said. "We're mutants."
"Mutants?" Betsy wrinkled her nose.
"Sounds kind of negative, but that's the truth of it."
"I don't suppose you know any other mutants."
Scott hesitated at that one. He wasn't sure he wanted to reveal his friends.
"Never mind," Betsy told him after seeing his reaction. She looked up. "Whaddya say we get out of here and find what we came for?"
"Sounds like a plan."
***
"Did you see that?!" Nate exploded. His eyes had gone the size of tennis balls and he was staring at something way past Brice. Slowly, Brice turned around just in time to glimpse a bright red beam of energy piercing the sky before it disappeared. Rille Marion came into the living room of the cabin just then. "Is everything alright?" he asked. "No, Brice said. "No, everything is not alright. There's somebody up here with us, and they just sent a flare up or something." "Pretty doggone weird flare," Nate muttered. Brice ignored him and blew out a breath. "We can't afford to have somebody up here attracting anybody, especially the law."
"You want me to get Karl and Greg?" "Yeah-yeah, why not. We are going to scour this whole area and take whoever it is out before they can contact anyone. No body, no traces, it'll be like they just disappeared."