MEANWHILE!!!
"YAY!!" cheered the Red Team as they ran into the checkpoint area. "WE FOUND THE CHECKPOINT!!!" We're not telling you how they got there. They just did.
"Congratulations, Red Team!" said Storm. "I will be your Checkpoint Advisor person. Now, I realize that your last checkpoint was quite the physical one but this Checkpoint tests your minds. I will ask you a question about one of your teammates and you must all come together and answer them except for the person who the question is about. When you answer the question right, I will give you the location of one of the keys to your handcuffs. Ah! I see you only have one! So you will only have to answer one question correctly."
"All right!" said Scott. "We've got this in the bag! The other teams aren't even here yet! We've been bonding great, right guys? We're great. We're tight."
"Okay," said Storm. "Your question is this, and you can't answer St. John."
"Yay!" cheered St. John. "The question is about me!!"
"What is St. John's last name?" Storm asked. "You have three guesses."
The other three paused.
"You guys don't know?" St. John said in a hurt tone.
"We never asked!" said Todd. "And you never told us!"
"But we're a team!" St. John said. "You should have just known! I know all of YOUR last names!"
"Do you really?" asked Scott.
"…No…" said St. John. "I was hoping that you wouldn't call my bluff."
"Three guesses?" said Wanda. "How about…Smith?"
"I'm sorry, that's incorrect." Said Storm.
"Guys, my last name isn't exactly one that you can just pull out of the air and expect to get right." St. John warned them.
All of a sudden, the Blue Team teleported out of nowhere and looked around.
"Hey!" said Evan. "Is this the checkpoint?"
"It is!" said Storm. Then Storm began explaining the rules to the Blue Team.
"Quick, St. John, give us a hint!" Todd whispered.
"That's cheating!" said St. John.
"But the Blue Team's here! We can't let them get ahead of us!" Scott agreed.
"Oh fine…" said St. John just as Storm turned around. "It rhymes with Ballerdyce!"
"I'm sorry, that's cheating." Said Storm since St. John wasn't exactly whispering or anything. "So I'm going to give you a five minute penalty and a new question. Your five minute penalty starts now while I ask the questions to the Blue Team." She then turned to the Blue Team.
"Aw man!" said Todd.
"Don't worry guys, they have three pairs of handcuffs so they have to answer three questions." Said Scott. "And if the questions are THIS obscure then this won't be too much of a penalty."
"Ready Blue Team?" said Storm. "Evan, you cannot answer this question. What is Evan's favorite rock band?"
"Oh I know this one!" said Kitty immediately. "It's the Festering Boils."
"Right!" said Storm as she handed Evan a ripped piece of paper. "Here is the location of the first key. Now for the second question. Kitty, you cannot answer this question. What is Kitty's real name?"
"Katherine," said the rest of the team almost at the same time.
"Right again!" said Storm as she handed Kitty a piece of paper. "Here's the location of your second key!"
"I think our five minute penalty is up now!" said Todd suddenly.
"No," said Storm, looking at her watch. "You still have three and a half more minutes." She looked back at the Blue Team. "Kurt, you cannot answer this. What does 'Mannschaft' mean in English?"
"Come on guys!" said Kurt. "YAY!!"
"Oh!" said Kitty. "It's um…oh…it's either blue or team…"
"Well, it's gotta be team because blue sounded like blue." Said Evan.
Storm stood there.
"Team." Said Lance since she obviously wasn't processing that that was their answer.
"CORRECT!!" cheered Storm as she pressed a button and confetti and streamers dropped on them.
"YAY!!" cheered the Blue Team. "Blaue Mannschaft!!" Of course, they pronounced it completely wrong but just be surprised that they even remembered it for the most part.
So, they received their locations and teleported off.
"It's not fair that they're allowed to teleport!" said Scott. They turned around and faced Storm who was looking at her watch intently. After standing there in silence for a little over a minute, Storm looked up.
"All right!" she said. "You ready for your question?"
Just then, the Green Team came flying over.
"Wait, they can fly?!" Scott said.
"Welcome!" said Storm as she began explaining the rules again.
"Hey!" said Todd. "This is wasting all our time! They're getting further ahead! What's our question?!"
"Fine…Green Team, give me one minute." Said Storm. "Red Team, your question is this. Todd, you cannot answer this question. How long is Todd's tongue?"
"Hey, I don't even know that!" said Todd. "It's not like I've ever measured it and even if I did, I wouldn't go around sharing it with my teammates!"
"While you discuss it, I will ask questions to the Green Team." Said Storm, turning to the Green Team. At that moment, Pietro woke up.
"Welcome back." Said Remy.
"What?" said Pietro.
"All right, here is your first question." Said Storm. "What nationality is Pietro's name?"
"It's Italian!" said Pietro immediately.
"Pietro!" said the Green Team.
"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you missed the rules." Said Storm solemnly. "You are not allowed to answer questions about yourself so I cannot include that answer so you will have to answer a different one."
Then she turned back to the Red Team.
"Have you come up with an answer?" she asked.
"Um…ten feet?" said Scott.
"Sorry, that is incorrect." Said Storm, going back to the Green Team. "Here is your question."
FIVE MINUTES LATER!!!
"All right, Green Team, good luck!" said Storm as the Green Team flew off. Then she turned around to the Red Team. "All right, Red Team. I've dumbed down the questions a little so you might have a chance of answering this one. Wanda, you can't answer this one."
"Finally!" said Todd. "A question about Wanda! I'll be able to get this one."
"What is Wanda's natural hair color?" Storm asked. Wanda slapped her forehead.
"Obviously black!" said Todd. "Because that red is just way too red to be natural!"
"I'm sorry, that's the incorrect answer." Said Storm.
"WHAT?!" yelled the whole Red Team except for Wanda.
"I dyed my hair so that I wouldn't look like my father or Pietro." Said Wanda, crossing her arms. "It used to be white."
"HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" St. John yelled dramatically.
"Because Pietro is my twin and he has white hair!" said Wanda. "My whole family has white hair!"
MEANWHILE!!!
"All right!" said Kurt as the Blue Team suddenly stopped teleporting in the midst of some market place in the middle of France where the little map that Storm drew for them told them to go. "Now it's someplace in this marketplace and we just have to find it."
"As long as we don't have to teleport anymore, I'm fine." Said Lance as he nearly held back throwing up all over Evan.
"Hey! Watch it, man!" said Evan nervously. "Puke on someone else!"
"So, like, what do we do?" asked Kitty. "Just ask around for the key or something?"
"Storm's little note says that three people are each holding a key." Said Kurt. "I guess the easiest way to get them is to ask."
Kurt then turned around to a random vendor. "Do you happen to have a handcuff key?" he asked that random vendor.
"Je fais l'aucun parle anglais." Said the French guy with a shrug.
"What?" asked Lance louder than he should have.
"I'm assuming that he doesn't speak English." Said Kurt. Then he shrugged happily.
"Is French one of those MANY languages that you said you spoke?" asked Kitty.
"Nope." Said Kurt.
"Then which ones DO you speak?" asked Evan.
"German, Italian, English, Portuguese and Swedish." Said Kurt as he counted on his fingers. Of course, he had to use TWO hands to count out such a large number.
"None of which can help us right now." Sighed Evan. Kurt shrugged happily again.
MEANWHILE!!!
"Merci monsieur." Said Remy as some random vendor handed him a key. He, of course, unlocked himself from Pietro.
"Oh, so free yourself!" said Pietro with an annoyed groan.
"Well, I freed you as well, mon ami." Said Remy. "You take deux keys to be unlocked." Then he held up two fingers and grinned creepily at Pietro.
"Why did I have to be in the middle?" whined Pietro.
"Why did I have to be handcuffed to YOU?" asked Rogue as she went to dope slap Pietro but since Pietro is THE FASTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, he had quick enough reflexes to grab Rogue's wrists. Unfortunately for Pietro, Rogue was wearing short sleeves to in grabbing her WRIST, he also grabbed her SKIN and…well…you know the drill.
"Now he's unconscious again!" said Jean as she flew over from hovering in the corner by herself.
"Now I know more about PIETRO than I know about myself!" sighed Rogue.
MEANWHILE!!
"All right…" sighed Storm as she ran her fingers through her hair in a frustrated manner. "There is NO way you can get this next one wrong."
"We're ready Storm!" said Scott getting all determined.
"Okay…this question is about St. John." Said Storm. "And as an added bonus, I'm allowing him to answer as well."
"Yay!" cheered St. John.
"The question is…what does St. John enjoy playing with?"
"HIS LIGHTER!!" blurted out Todd before the team could confirm with each other.
"That is incorrect!" Storm groaned. "The card says that he likes to play with FIRE."
"I like to play with them both." Said St. John.
"Exactly!" said Scott. "Does it HAVE to be what it says on the card? Isn't our answer right as well?"
"Uh…just go!" said Storm as she thrust a slip of paper in Wanda's hand.
"We did it!" cheered the red team as they ran out the door in search of the single key that they thought they'd NEVER get.
MEANWHILE!!
"Hey look!" Kitty pointed out. Every looked at where she was pointing to see that some random vendor had three keys with the X-Men symbol on them hanging behind him.
"We don't even HAVE to learn how to ask for a key in French!" Lance cheered as he tossed the French/English dictionary that they were reading into a puddle of mud. Then he elbowed Kurt. "Go and get it."
"But what if we get punished for cheating?" asked Kurt.
"Well, we were working together to get the keys!" said Lance excitedly. "Evan bought the dictionary, I tossed it in the mud, Kitty pointed out the keys and YOU got them!"
"Sniff…" sniffled Evan as he picked the muddy dictionary out of the puddle but it was already far too ruined to be salvaged.
"Mein gott…" sighed Kurt. "I feel as though my teleportation powers are being abused."
"They are." Admitted Lance.
"Wait!" said Kitty. "Kurt can't teleport when he's stuck to us!"
"Then we'll either all have to go, or Kurt can just teleport OUT of the handcuffs." Said Lance as he smiled deviously.
"Um…" thought Kurt but then he suddenly had a burst of SOME sort of bodily chemical as he ran up, grabbed the keys from under the guy's nose and teleported away while the vendor swore in French.
They appeared in some sort of alleyway and unlocked themselves. "Do we have to go back to Storm now?" asked Evan as he swung his arms around simply because he could now.
"I think Storm will like tell us where to go next." Said Kitty. "She never like said that we had to go back but maybe she like just forgot."
"OKAY!!" said the entire blaue Mannschaft as they teleported to Storm.
MEANWHILE!!
"I'M FREE!!" cheered Pietro as he ran around in circles really really fast. Then to prove that he was REALLY free, he ran far away.
"We have been pulling through with AWESOME teamwork!" said Jean as flew around the rest of her group who were huddled in a bunch.
"Could you please stop doing that." Said Rogue. "We're in the middle of a public place and most people CAN'T fly."
"But I must use my powers as much as possible!" said Jean. "So said Professor Xavier!"
"But he also said to make sure that no one saw!" said Rogue.
"Oh." Said Jean as she landed. "Then I shall NEVER use my powers in public but use them as much as possible when there are not other people around."
"Very good, Jean." Said Rogue. "That's what we've been doing this whole time."
As she said that, Pietro ran back to the group at the speed of light and stopped on a dime.
"Except for Pietro." Rogue corrected.
"What do we do now, équipe verte?" asked Remy.
"Did you only speak French because I came back?" asked Pietro.
"No." said Remy. "We're in France, mon ami."
"Don't call me that!" Pietro yelled.
MEANWHILE!!
"Does anyone know any French?" asked Wanda as she held up the paper that Storm had given them.
"I know some Australian lingo that I just haven't been using at the risk that I may confuse you all." Said St. John as he flipped his light open and shut casually.
"Well, Australian is English so that doesn't exactly help us." Said Scott. "Hey! When'd you get that back?!"
"It was easy considering we're forced to be so close!" St. John said. "And you're not getting it back!"
"So does anyone know any French?" Wanda asked again. Every shook their heads and bowed them in shame.
"Maybe we could just look up the word 'key' in a French/English dictionary and walk around while just repeating that word over and over." Suggested Todd.
"That idea is SO stupid that it just might work!" Scott said as he went to run into the convenient store that they just so happened to be standing in front of but the fact that he was handcuffed to St. John who was not ready to start running into the store caused them both to topple over in a heap of goodness.
So Todd, to save them further humiliation, hopped into the store and bought the dictionary. It was easy because why shouldn't it be?
"Key…key…key…" said Todd as he flipped through the dictionary.
"It starts with a 'K' you idiot." Said Wanda.
"I knew that but thanks anyway Shnookums!" said Toad as he opened to the right page. "Here it is! Clef? That seems too weird to be right."
"So we have to walk around town saying 'clef' over and over until someone gives us the keys to the handcuffs that we are most unfortunately stuck in?" asked Scott with a sigh. "And to think we used to be in first…"
"Yeah…" sighed St. John.
