Ok, I know nothing actually happened in the last chapter...but here ya go.
Kitty rolled over in defeat as she switched her alarm clock off. It wasn't set to go off for another half hour yet, but she couldn't fall back asleep and there was no point in waking Rogue until later.
Kitty stumbled across the room and gathered all of her shower stuff, phasing through things so she wouldn't trip over herself and she went. She and Rogue really needed to tidy the room up a bit. There were clothes, magazines, and cosmetics everywhere. Hoping that no one was there yet, she headed toward the bathroom. Showering was a major problem in the mansion. There was only one bathroom for each hall, and when you were trying to get as many as eight teenagers ready to leave early in the morning, it got slightly crazy. Logan had been working on the problem for a few weeks now, but he wasn't exactly a skilled plumber, and his efforts didn't do the students any good for the time being. So for now, the kids all had to rotate wether or not they would shower in the morning or at night, and wether they would take an early shower or a late one. Kitty was on the late morning rotation, but she figured it wouldn't be a big deal if she messed up the schedule this early.
She sighed and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. She could hear the water running from inside the bathroom and considered going back to bed. She shook her head. She was usually late enough, even on the early bathroom schedule, she might as well not risk it. She leaned against the wall and rapped on the door to signal that someone was waiting. A few minutes later she heard the water stop running and someone humming faintly from behind the door. Seconds later, Kurt opened the door, eyes closed and head back, singing full out now. He wrapped his towel tighter around his waist and prepared to start two stepping when he nearly fell on top of Kitty.
"AH! Oh, Keety, I didn't know you ver vaiting," Kurt said in surprise.
Kitty bit back a laugh. "No problem. I woulda just let you phase through me and you wouldn't have had a clue. You were really into that song."
If it had been possible, Kurt would have blushed, but through his blue fur, it was a lot harder to do.
"Anyvay, I'm taking you to school zis morning, so don't be late," Kurt instructed as he began to head to his room.
Kitty's eyes lit up. She was so sick of riding with Jean and Scott. Sure they were her friends and all, but she was really tired of them always flirting and claiming they weren't. It seemed they were never to thrilled about having to take Kitty along with them either.
She looked back at Kurt, who was halfway down the hallway, and grinned. The years he had spent with the circus had been very kind to him. There wasn't a muscle on him that wasn't clearly defined. His image inducer didn't do him any justice, he looked downright scrawny with it. Come to think of it, it was hard to know how buff he actually was with all that fur. It wasn't until the whole mansion had gone swimming the previous summer that it was publically decided that the elf was cut. With his fur all stuck to him, it wasn't difficult to see how strong he was. Scott had been the first to say something. Kitty thought that Scott was actually a little jealous. He had always been thought of as the strongest until then. Kurt seemed more or less confused when Scott asked him when he had gotten to be so cut. He had just shrugged and reminded Scott that he was an acrobat after all.
She sighed and phased through the bathroom door, too lazy to open it. She knew Kurt probably wasn't that thrilled about having to take her to school today either, although he would never show it. He was too nice for his own good sometimes. She had really been being a pain about his cursed inducer. She wondered for a second if the real reason she was so against it was that she'd rather look at the real Kurt instead of his scrawny hologram. Man, she certainly was selfish if that was the case. She considered apologizing on the ride to school if it was just the two of them.
A knock on the door signaled that she needed to hurry and she quickly finished up, knowing that if it was Evan, she'd end up with a spike through the door in a few seconds. He wasn't exactly a morning person. He had been back with them for some time now, but no one had talked to him about his experiences in the tunnels with the morlocks. To her knowledge, the teachers were the only ones who knew what had gone on. He was back to his normal self again for the most part, but he had been really strange at first. The professor and Storm had kept him home for a month before they let him even go back to school.
He had an image inducer now too. His hands now had thick bone covering them, and a row of round, blunt spikes ran all the way down his back. Two plates of bone had formed above his cheek bones and around his eyes too. It was hard to hide the dull protrusions on his back, and he wore a jacket to school most of the time to keep others from noticing the odd shape. 'He may as well ditch his watch too. His isn't as bad as Kurt, he's always got those gloves on anyway.' She turned to the mirror and studied herself for a moment. She had begun to notice that her ears were slightly pointed now, and her eyes looked different as well. 'Nah, it's just my imagination.'
The students all over the mansion were getting up and the real bathroom wars were beginning. Kitty grinned as she realized she would actually be on time for once and phased through her floor to the breakfast table. Her eyes widened with shock as she realized she had landed on someone's lap. Logan growled slightly and she bolted up.
"What are you doing in my spot?" Kitty was more than a little flustered. Everyone knew to leave her seat open for her in the morning.
"You're early today, Half-Pint." Logan said half laughing and half growling.
Kurt and Bobby had also gone into a fit of laughter at the other end of the table. Logan leaned over and extended a claw, spearing an apple as he did. He looked pointedly at the two boys, who suddenly became fascinated with their coco puffs. With another half laugh half growl Logan stood up and handed Kitty the apple before leaving the students to enjoy the rest of their breakfast.
"You might as well bring zat along for the ride." Kurt said standing up. He flipped the top of his holo-watch up and punched a button. The blue version of Kurt flickered and in his place, the pale skinned, scrawny, Kurt took over. He looked sheepishly over at Kitty, who had decided not to comment for once.
~*~*~
Kurt sped along the road singing at the top of his lungs. The radio in the old Buick Skylark that the professor let him drive was not exactly impressive, but with Kurt's singing it wouldn't have mattered. He could drown out anything or anyone.
"I finished crying in za instant zat you left, and I banished every memory you and I had eveer made!" He leaned in close to Kitty for a more dramatic effect. "But ven you touch me like zis, and ven you kiss me like zat. It vos lost long ago but eets all coming back to me..."
Kitty couldn't contain her laughter anymore. She erupted into a fit of giggles and punched Kurt playfully on the shoulder.
"You big goof ball. If Celine Dion ever heard you sing that, the poor woman would die. Plus, your accent is ten times worse when you sing."
Kurt grinned. "Vaht can I say? I'm an arteest! Is it my fault that my voice is so beautiful she'd keel over in shock? Besides, I'm very proud of my German accent."
Kitty laughed again and turned the radio down. "Look Kurt, um, not to like, change the subject or anything, but I gotta tell you something."
Kurt looked over at Kitty and his face fell. They had managed almost the entire ride not to bring up his inducer and now she was going to ruin it. He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed.
"Keety, I'm not going to ditch..."
"I know." Kitty cut him off, "I just wanted to apologize for, well for being a total pain about it. It's your image Kurt, and you should be the one to decide when you're ready to let it out. I still stand by my feelings about it, but it's like, not my decision to make ya know?"
Kurt smiled so wide he could swear his fangs were showing through the thin hologram that surrounded him. He pulled into a parking slot and turned to face Kitty.
"Thanks Keety. I know you don't veally get it, but..." A bright flash of red caught his eye and Kurt stopped mid sentence. "Isn't zat..."
"Scott's eye blast...thing," Kitty finished for him. She reached for Kurt's arm and he teleported the two of them onto the football field.
The two teens looked around nervously. Scott had a lot of self control with his powers. The fact that he would use them on campus for even an instant mean that he had either been tripped and his glasses had slipped, or big trouble was around.
Another flash of red streaked across the sky, ruling out the accident theory. 'Dangit. Why does this have to happen just when me and Kitty are somewhat normal again. But wait, Kitty and I don't need to be normal again because I have Amanda. So...why am I making a big deal out of this?'
He mentally kicked himself and looked down at Kitty who was half dragging him to where the blasts were coming from already.
"It's the locker rooms," she panted, "Get us over there."
Kurt ported the two of them to the back of the gym. It was an odd picture. The usual chaos that surrounded the mutant teens using their powers was replaced by a chanting crowd of students. A few students were hanging back with nervous looks on their faces, but none of them looked entirely petrified.
"Vaht are zey doing!" Kurt could barely process what he was seeing.
"I like, knew they were getting used to us and all, but like, this isn't some kind of football game!"
A dull roar could be heard from within the locker room, followed by the creaking of metal. The roar grew louder and suddenly three lockers broke through the wall of the gym.
The crowd shifted nervously but still didn't move.
"Clear out!" A voice boomed. "This isn't some cafeteria brawl, now move!"
Scott Summers was emerging through the gapping hole in the wall, sending his optic blasts behind him as he went.
"Aww come on Summers. Let 'em watch! It seems they forgot that they need to fear us!" The enormous form of Fred appeared holding a few lockers up above his head. "You don't think mutants are that scary huh? Well I got news for all you losers." He paused and shifted his weight so that he was holding one of the lockers in his right hand and looked at the rows of students who had gathered to watch. "You should be afraid. You should be very afraid. You shouldn't laugh at us! We could squash you and I'm gonna prove it!" His eyes flickered over the crowd and he grinned.
The crowd was clearly not amused anymore. Many had taken off for the main building. The remaining kids were looking at the mountain towering in front of them with lockers balanced in his arms. Scott took off after Fred, lowering his glasses as he went.
"Get them out of here!" he ordered Kitty and Kurt, waving a hand toward the crowd of students.
"You idiots! Don't you realize what kind of power you could have over these poor saps who got the bad end of the gene pool?" Fred flung one of the lockers directly at Kurt and Kitty.
The blur of events that followed seemed to only happen to Kurt and Kitty as everything went into slow motion. Kurt reached over to teleport kitty away from the flying chunk of metal just as Kitty phased herself out. She went straight through his wrist. Their eyes met for one fleeting moment, both filled with shock. The locker went sailing through Kitty and pounded Kurt square in the chest. The metal box and the teen mutant flew across the grass and landed in a mangled heap on the concrete path.
Kitty went completely numb. 'Tell me that didn't happen. Please tell me that didn't happen.' She stood rooted to the ground, her feet refusing to move. She vaguely heard Scott screaming at her to go see if he was ok; vaguely heard Jean show up and freeze Fred's flying lockers psychically; vaguely heard Bobby show up and encase the Blob in ice. The scene was in replay mode in her head. 'I imagined it. I imagined it!" Her feet began to move again. The numbness became a cold chill as she reached the pile of metal.
The crowd of teens now looked horrified rather than entertained. They were forming a large circle around where Kurt had landed. Kitty phased herself through the crowd of gawking teenagers to the center and began flinging sheets of metal off of the ground, not caring if anyone was in their path. A hand appeared from beneath the mass. Kitty looked at the hand and clenched her eyes shut. 'It did happen.'
Three blue, fur covered, fingers clenched into a fist. The plain black wristwatch that was attached to the fur was sparking like a firecracker. Kitty forced her eyes open again and continued clearing away the debris.
A slender blue tail emerged and wrapped itself around Kitty's wrist. She froze and tried to will it away from her. 'My fault, my fault, my fault!' Her head screamed at her.
The other mutants were helping her now. ~He's ok Kitty. He's moving, he's breathing.~
Kitty looked over at Jean and tried to hide her terror. She slowly raised her hand where Kurt's tail was still wrapped. Jean's eyes widened.
Kurt sat up and winced. He could tell something, maybe a lot of somethings, was broken. He looked around and surveyed the group of mutant teens staring at him.
Scott cursed under his breath and looked away. Kurt glanced around, confused. His head was throbbing and he felt the sudden urge to pass out or vomit, whichever would make the throbbing stop. Kitty was at his side, asking him if he could stand. He clenched his eyes shut. 'Please just stop the screaming. Why is there so much screaming?' A mental image of what had just happened flashed through his mind. 'No. No. NO!' He slowly opened his eyes. With a painful turn of his head he looked at his hand. The screaming was becoming clearer to him. Even through the pounding in his head he could make out the phrases.
"What the heck is that?"
"It's so...creepy."
"Is that Kurt? That's sick!"
"It's like an animal or something."
"Come on let's get out of here, what if he like, tries to bite us or something!"
"Man, I thought the other mutant kids were freaks but this is too much!"
"Are they all like that?"
"Holy crap!"
"Doesn't he have a girlfriend? Man, wait till she hears about this! Poor thing will be scarred for life knowing she's kissed that!"
"Wasn't that the German kid from third period?"
"Send it back to hell!"
"BACK OFF!" Scott thundered. He stood up and stared at the kids who hadn't run away in terror yet. He adjusted his glasses and let them see the sparks of energy threatening to escape their red prison.
The screaming and insulting died down for a minute. A few girls whimpered as they tugged at their boyfriends arms, never taking their eyes off of Kurt, as though he would attack them at any given moment.
Scott knelt down next to Kurt again. "Kurt? Kurt can you hear me?"
The blue German swung his eyes over to Scott. His head swirled and he clenched the yellow slits closed again. He ran his tongue over his lips and the distinct taste of blood filled his mouth. Deciding speaking might take too much effort he gave Scott a slight nod.
"Ok listen. We are gonna call an ambulance alright? If you can stand up Bobby and I will get you up to the main office to wait."
Kurt opened his right eye. His left had begun to swell. "No vay." He swallowed, but his words were slurred and the effort they took sent another shock of pain through his head. He looked pleadingly at Jean. She closed her eyes briefly and nodded slowly.
"Scott let's just get him back to the mansion," she whispered, "An ambulance is a bad idea. You and Bobby can help him to the mansion. Kitty and I will let the professor know what happened."
"Umm, if I go I can take you to a shortcut. There's a wall in the way, but like, I can just take you through it." Kitty made her request in a voice so soft that Scott and Jean had barely heard her.
Scott looked at Kitty for a minute then nodded. "Can you stand Kurt?" He gently lifted Kurt's arm over his shoulder. Kurt winced but didn't resist. He let Scott lift him off the ground and gingerly put some weight on his own legs. His right leg shook slightly but it held him. His left however gave away and he nearly ended up back on the ground.
Kitty grabbed Kurt's other arm in an attempt to steady him. He took a sharp breath and shot a pained look at Kitty.
Mortified, she moved her arm to his waist so that his injured arm could drape over her shoulders. She tried to ignore the warm sticky fluid she felt along Kurt's back. She hoped he wasn't cut too deeply; the blood matted to his fur always made bleeding seem more dramatic with Kurt.
Jean cleared her throat. "We'll let the professor know your on the way; and Kurt, I'll let Amanda know what happened. No doubt she'll be scared to death once..." her voice wavered, "Once rumors start to circulate."
Jean gave a half hearted smile to the blue elf. She knew he would be ok physically. He had taken harder hits than this and come out just fine, but the voices of terror that had been around them still echoed in her mind. She wished the brotherhood idiots were still here. She'd never let them forget this, ever. Even if they were on somewhat peaceful terms with most of them for the moment, this was enough to change the small grudge between them into a brick wall.
Scott shifted so that the brunt of Kurt's weight was on him instead of Kitty, and began to make the agonizingly slow walk home.
Kitty rolled over in defeat as she switched her alarm clock off. It wasn't set to go off for another half hour yet, but she couldn't fall back asleep and there was no point in waking Rogue until later.
Kitty stumbled across the room and gathered all of her shower stuff, phasing through things so she wouldn't trip over herself and she went. She and Rogue really needed to tidy the room up a bit. There were clothes, magazines, and cosmetics everywhere. Hoping that no one was there yet, she headed toward the bathroom. Showering was a major problem in the mansion. There was only one bathroom for each hall, and when you were trying to get as many as eight teenagers ready to leave early in the morning, it got slightly crazy. Logan had been working on the problem for a few weeks now, but he wasn't exactly a skilled plumber, and his efforts didn't do the students any good for the time being. So for now, the kids all had to rotate wether or not they would shower in the morning or at night, and wether they would take an early shower or a late one. Kitty was on the late morning rotation, but she figured it wouldn't be a big deal if she messed up the schedule this early.
She sighed and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. She could hear the water running from inside the bathroom and considered going back to bed. She shook her head. She was usually late enough, even on the early bathroom schedule, she might as well not risk it. She leaned against the wall and rapped on the door to signal that someone was waiting. A few minutes later she heard the water stop running and someone humming faintly from behind the door. Seconds later, Kurt opened the door, eyes closed and head back, singing full out now. He wrapped his towel tighter around his waist and prepared to start two stepping when he nearly fell on top of Kitty.
"AH! Oh, Keety, I didn't know you ver vaiting," Kurt said in surprise.
Kitty bit back a laugh. "No problem. I woulda just let you phase through me and you wouldn't have had a clue. You were really into that song."
If it had been possible, Kurt would have blushed, but through his blue fur, it was a lot harder to do.
"Anyvay, I'm taking you to school zis morning, so don't be late," Kurt instructed as he began to head to his room.
Kitty's eyes lit up. She was so sick of riding with Jean and Scott. Sure they were her friends and all, but she was really tired of them always flirting and claiming they weren't. It seemed they were never to thrilled about having to take Kitty along with them either.
She looked back at Kurt, who was halfway down the hallway, and grinned. The years he had spent with the circus had been very kind to him. There wasn't a muscle on him that wasn't clearly defined. His image inducer didn't do him any justice, he looked downright scrawny with it. Come to think of it, it was hard to know how buff he actually was with all that fur. It wasn't until the whole mansion had gone swimming the previous summer that it was publically decided that the elf was cut. With his fur all stuck to him, it wasn't difficult to see how strong he was. Scott had been the first to say something. Kitty thought that Scott was actually a little jealous. He had always been thought of as the strongest until then. Kurt seemed more or less confused when Scott asked him when he had gotten to be so cut. He had just shrugged and reminded Scott that he was an acrobat after all.
She sighed and phased through the bathroom door, too lazy to open it. She knew Kurt probably wasn't that thrilled about having to take her to school today either, although he would never show it. He was too nice for his own good sometimes. She had really been being a pain about his cursed inducer. She wondered for a second if the real reason she was so against it was that she'd rather look at the real Kurt instead of his scrawny hologram. Man, she certainly was selfish if that was the case. She considered apologizing on the ride to school if it was just the two of them.
A knock on the door signaled that she needed to hurry and she quickly finished up, knowing that if it was Evan, she'd end up with a spike through the door in a few seconds. He wasn't exactly a morning person. He had been back with them for some time now, but no one had talked to him about his experiences in the tunnels with the morlocks. To her knowledge, the teachers were the only ones who knew what had gone on. He was back to his normal self again for the most part, but he had been really strange at first. The professor and Storm had kept him home for a month before they let him even go back to school.
He had an image inducer now too. His hands now had thick bone covering them, and a row of round, blunt spikes ran all the way down his back. Two plates of bone had formed above his cheek bones and around his eyes too. It was hard to hide the dull protrusions on his back, and he wore a jacket to school most of the time to keep others from noticing the odd shape. 'He may as well ditch his watch too. His isn't as bad as Kurt, he's always got those gloves on anyway.' She turned to the mirror and studied herself for a moment. She had begun to notice that her ears were slightly pointed now, and her eyes looked different as well. 'Nah, it's just my imagination.'
The students all over the mansion were getting up and the real bathroom wars were beginning. Kitty grinned as she realized she would actually be on time for once and phased through her floor to the breakfast table. Her eyes widened with shock as she realized she had landed on someone's lap. Logan growled slightly and she bolted up.
"What are you doing in my spot?" Kitty was more than a little flustered. Everyone knew to leave her seat open for her in the morning.
"You're early today, Half-Pint." Logan said half laughing and half growling.
Kurt and Bobby had also gone into a fit of laughter at the other end of the table. Logan leaned over and extended a claw, spearing an apple as he did. He looked pointedly at the two boys, who suddenly became fascinated with their coco puffs. With another half laugh half growl Logan stood up and handed Kitty the apple before leaving the students to enjoy the rest of their breakfast.
"You might as well bring zat along for the ride." Kurt said standing up. He flipped the top of his holo-watch up and punched a button. The blue version of Kurt flickered and in his place, the pale skinned, scrawny, Kurt took over. He looked sheepishly over at Kitty, who had decided not to comment for once.
~*~*~
Kurt sped along the road singing at the top of his lungs. The radio in the old Buick Skylark that the professor let him drive was not exactly impressive, but with Kurt's singing it wouldn't have mattered. He could drown out anything or anyone.
"I finished crying in za instant zat you left, and I banished every memory you and I had eveer made!" He leaned in close to Kitty for a more dramatic effect. "But ven you touch me like zis, and ven you kiss me like zat. It vos lost long ago but eets all coming back to me..."
Kitty couldn't contain her laughter anymore. She erupted into a fit of giggles and punched Kurt playfully on the shoulder.
"You big goof ball. If Celine Dion ever heard you sing that, the poor woman would die. Plus, your accent is ten times worse when you sing."
Kurt grinned. "Vaht can I say? I'm an arteest! Is it my fault that my voice is so beautiful she'd keel over in shock? Besides, I'm very proud of my German accent."
Kitty laughed again and turned the radio down. "Look Kurt, um, not to like, change the subject or anything, but I gotta tell you something."
Kurt looked over at Kitty and his face fell. They had managed almost the entire ride not to bring up his inducer and now she was going to ruin it. He raked his fingers through his hair and sighed.
"Keety, I'm not going to ditch..."
"I know." Kitty cut him off, "I just wanted to apologize for, well for being a total pain about it. It's your image Kurt, and you should be the one to decide when you're ready to let it out. I still stand by my feelings about it, but it's like, not my decision to make ya know?"
Kurt smiled so wide he could swear his fangs were showing through the thin hologram that surrounded him. He pulled into a parking slot and turned to face Kitty.
"Thanks Keety. I know you don't veally get it, but..." A bright flash of red caught his eye and Kurt stopped mid sentence. "Isn't zat..."
"Scott's eye blast...thing," Kitty finished for him. She reached for Kurt's arm and he teleported the two of them onto the football field.
The two teens looked around nervously. Scott had a lot of self control with his powers. The fact that he would use them on campus for even an instant mean that he had either been tripped and his glasses had slipped, or big trouble was around.
Another flash of red streaked across the sky, ruling out the accident theory. 'Dangit. Why does this have to happen just when me and Kitty are somewhat normal again. But wait, Kitty and I don't need to be normal again because I have Amanda. So...why am I making a big deal out of this?'
He mentally kicked himself and looked down at Kitty who was half dragging him to where the blasts were coming from already.
"It's the locker rooms," she panted, "Get us over there."
Kurt ported the two of them to the back of the gym. It was an odd picture. The usual chaos that surrounded the mutant teens using their powers was replaced by a chanting crowd of students. A few students were hanging back with nervous looks on their faces, but none of them looked entirely petrified.
"Vaht are zey doing!" Kurt could barely process what he was seeing.
"I like, knew they were getting used to us and all, but like, this isn't some kind of football game!"
A dull roar could be heard from within the locker room, followed by the creaking of metal. The roar grew louder and suddenly three lockers broke through the wall of the gym.
The crowd shifted nervously but still didn't move.
"Clear out!" A voice boomed. "This isn't some cafeteria brawl, now move!"
Scott Summers was emerging through the gapping hole in the wall, sending his optic blasts behind him as he went.
"Aww come on Summers. Let 'em watch! It seems they forgot that they need to fear us!" The enormous form of Fred appeared holding a few lockers up above his head. "You don't think mutants are that scary huh? Well I got news for all you losers." He paused and shifted his weight so that he was holding one of the lockers in his right hand and looked at the rows of students who had gathered to watch. "You should be afraid. You should be very afraid. You shouldn't laugh at us! We could squash you and I'm gonna prove it!" His eyes flickered over the crowd and he grinned.
The crowd was clearly not amused anymore. Many had taken off for the main building. The remaining kids were looking at the mountain towering in front of them with lockers balanced in his arms. Scott took off after Fred, lowering his glasses as he went.
"Get them out of here!" he ordered Kitty and Kurt, waving a hand toward the crowd of students.
"You idiots! Don't you realize what kind of power you could have over these poor saps who got the bad end of the gene pool?" Fred flung one of the lockers directly at Kurt and Kitty.
The blur of events that followed seemed to only happen to Kurt and Kitty as everything went into slow motion. Kurt reached over to teleport kitty away from the flying chunk of metal just as Kitty phased herself out. She went straight through his wrist. Their eyes met for one fleeting moment, both filled with shock. The locker went sailing through Kitty and pounded Kurt square in the chest. The metal box and the teen mutant flew across the grass and landed in a mangled heap on the concrete path.
Kitty went completely numb. 'Tell me that didn't happen. Please tell me that didn't happen.' She stood rooted to the ground, her feet refusing to move. She vaguely heard Scott screaming at her to go see if he was ok; vaguely heard Jean show up and freeze Fred's flying lockers psychically; vaguely heard Bobby show up and encase the Blob in ice. The scene was in replay mode in her head. 'I imagined it. I imagined it!" Her feet began to move again. The numbness became a cold chill as she reached the pile of metal.
The crowd of teens now looked horrified rather than entertained. They were forming a large circle around where Kurt had landed. Kitty phased herself through the crowd of gawking teenagers to the center and began flinging sheets of metal off of the ground, not caring if anyone was in their path. A hand appeared from beneath the mass. Kitty looked at the hand and clenched her eyes shut. 'It did happen.'
Three blue, fur covered, fingers clenched into a fist. The plain black wristwatch that was attached to the fur was sparking like a firecracker. Kitty forced her eyes open again and continued clearing away the debris.
A slender blue tail emerged and wrapped itself around Kitty's wrist. She froze and tried to will it away from her. 'My fault, my fault, my fault!' Her head screamed at her.
The other mutants were helping her now. ~He's ok Kitty. He's moving, he's breathing.~
Kitty looked over at Jean and tried to hide her terror. She slowly raised her hand where Kurt's tail was still wrapped. Jean's eyes widened.
Kurt sat up and winced. He could tell something, maybe a lot of somethings, was broken. He looked around and surveyed the group of mutant teens staring at him.
Scott cursed under his breath and looked away. Kurt glanced around, confused. His head was throbbing and he felt the sudden urge to pass out or vomit, whichever would make the throbbing stop. Kitty was at his side, asking him if he could stand. He clenched his eyes shut. 'Please just stop the screaming. Why is there so much screaming?' A mental image of what had just happened flashed through his mind. 'No. No. NO!' He slowly opened his eyes. With a painful turn of his head he looked at his hand. The screaming was becoming clearer to him. Even through the pounding in his head he could make out the phrases.
"What the heck is that?"
"It's so...creepy."
"Is that Kurt? That's sick!"
"It's like an animal or something."
"Come on let's get out of here, what if he like, tries to bite us or something!"
"Man, I thought the other mutant kids were freaks but this is too much!"
"Are they all like that?"
"Holy crap!"
"Doesn't he have a girlfriend? Man, wait till she hears about this! Poor thing will be scarred for life knowing she's kissed that!"
"Wasn't that the German kid from third period?"
"Send it back to hell!"
"BACK OFF!" Scott thundered. He stood up and stared at the kids who hadn't run away in terror yet. He adjusted his glasses and let them see the sparks of energy threatening to escape their red prison.
The screaming and insulting died down for a minute. A few girls whimpered as they tugged at their boyfriends arms, never taking their eyes off of Kurt, as though he would attack them at any given moment.
Scott knelt down next to Kurt again. "Kurt? Kurt can you hear me?"
The blue German swung his eyes over to Scott. His head swirled and he clenched the yellow slits closed again. He ran his tongue over his lips and the distinct taste of blood filled his mouth. Deciding speaking might take too much effort he gave Scott a slight nod.
"Ok listen. We are gonna call an ambulance alright? If you can stand up Bobby and I will get you up to the main office to wait."
Kurt opened his right eye. His left had begun to swell. "No vay." He swallowed, but his words were slurred and the effort they took sent another shock of pain through his head. He looked pleadingly at Jean. She closed her eyes briefly and nodded slowly.
"Scott let's just get him back to the mansion," she whispered, "An ambulance is a bad idea. You and Bobby can help him to the mansion. Kitty and I will let the professor know what happened."
"Umm, if I go I can take you to a shortcut. There's a wall in the way, but like, I can just take you through it." Kitty made her request in a voice so soft that Scott and Jean had barely heard her.
Scott looked at Kitty for a minute then nodded. "Can you stand Kurt?" He gently lifted Kurt's arm over his shoulder. Kurt winced but didn't resist. He let Scott lift him off the ground and gingerly put some weight on his own legs. His right leg shook slightly but it held him. His left however gave away and he nearly ended up back on the ground.
Kitty grabbed Kurt's other arm in an attempt to steady him. He took a sharp breath and shot a pained look at Kitty.
Mortified, she moved her arm to his waist so that his injured arm could drape over her shoulders. She tried to ignore the warm sticky fluid she felt along Kurt's back. She hoped he wasn't cut too deeply; the blood matted to his fur always made bleeding seem more dramatic with Kurt.
Jean cleared her throat. "We'll let the professor know your on the way; and Kurt, I'll let Amanda know what happened. No doubt she'll be scared to death once..." her voice wavered, "Once rumors start to circulate."
Jean gave a half hearted smile to the blue elf. She knew he would be ok physically. He had taken harder hits than this and come out just fine, but the voices of terror that had been around them still echoed in her mind. She wished the brotherhood idiots were still here. She'd never let them forget this, ever. Even if they were on somewhat peaceful terms with most of them for the moment, this was enough to change the small grudge between them into a brick wall.
Scott shifted so that the brunt of Kurt's weight was on him instead of Kitty, and began to make the agonizingly slow walk home.
