Green Light to Mission Launch
~~ Betsy, I think you may want to come back down here. ~~
Elizabeth jumped into a sitting position on her bed where she'd been moping for the past hour and looked around, confused for a moment.
~~ Professor? ~~
~~ Yes, Betsy, it's me. Come back to the lab, we all have a surprise for you. ~~
At those words, she leapt from the bed and rushed below as fast as she could to see what was going on.
The lab door seemed to open extra slowly for her and she stood tapping her foot waiting to be let in.
Her foot stopped mid-tap when she saw into the room.
It was…the Twilight Zone.
Everyone was laughing and chattering excitedly.
Scott had his sunglasses off and was looking around the room with chocolate brown eyes.
Kurt was running around without his inducer on and still he looked … normal.
Kitty was laughingly walking into things and jumping back each time to cry out, "I can't phase through it!"
Jean was making the kind of sweeping motions with her hands that she did when she wanted to move something telepathically and then frowning at those hands when nothing happened.
Tabitha was blowing into her cupped hands like she did whenever she wanted to make a little round charge and then opening her hands up to reveal nothing.
"What is going on here?"
"The serum works!" Jean, Kitty and Tabitha all exclaimed together.
"Yeah, for vone hour and counting, it has not vorn off," Kurt announced.
Betsy's eyes turned to Hank who was working furiously over his chemistry vials and Bunsen burner.
He was still all big and blue.
Why - ?
"Brian, Hank and myself all opted out of testing this little concoction," the Professor said as he moved to her side.
"They all…?"
"That they did, luv. The goofballs have been acting like tiny tots almost since you left," Brian said with a smile as he threw an arm across her shoulders and kept his attention on the others' antics.
"Oh….this is perfect!" Betsy moved away from him to exclaim. "Once Rogue sees this she'll be screaming for us to give her the serum!"
"I'm afraid Rogue cannot see this, Elizabeth. All we're doing right now is testing the serum to see how long it's effects actually last. Were Rogue to see them like this now and then see them with their powers again tomorrow, our whole plan would be ruined," the Professor said firmly.
"Then we'll just have to make sure she doesn't see them with their powers again, luv," Betsy argued.
"Whoa, count be out, Betsy, I'm already missing my mutation," Jean said, pouting when she couldn't telekinetically pull a chair over to sit in.
Kitty and Tabitha both spoke up to quickly say that they'd only agreed to see how long the stuff lasted, nothing more.
Betsy sighed then focused on Kurt and Scott who hadn't spoken up yet.
"Ok, luvs, you two will do it," she said to them.
"Do vhat?" Kurt asked.
"Convince Rogue that the serum works."
"How exactly would we do that?" Scott asked her.
Betsy smiled and looked over at Hank as he put the finishing touches on another batch of this serum.
"How much of that stuff have you got, Hank?"
The man turned to look at her curiously.
"How much do you think you'll need?"
"Enough to keep those two mutation free for a few days while we get Rogue to believe this stuff is permanent," Betsy said with a smile.
"Vhoa! I like mein powers. Zhe fuzziness is a bit of a bummer, but zhe teleporting vrules. I don't vant to go vithout zhem for days," Kurt said.
"Sorry, luv, but the way I figure it we've got to have at least two people on this stuff for Rogue to believe it and I'm afraid you've been volunteered."
"Dude, zhis ist zhe last time I help vith vone of your crazy schemes," he said sighing.
"I think it's pretty cool, personally," Scott said to no one in particular.
Brian came to stand beside his sister.
"What's the plan now, luv?" he asked.
"First, we see how long this stuff lasts," she answered.
~*~*~
With the exception of the Professor, who'd retired to his room around midnight, everyone spent the night in the lab.
Scott was the first to wake up in the morning and his blasting the ceiling when he opened his eyes woke the others.
"My power's back," he stated the obvious as squeezed his eyes shut and felt around him for his sunglasses.
"Yes, Scott, I noticed the effects wearing off on Kurt two hours ago," Hank said as he sat at his computer typing something.
"Ugh, mein head. It ist pounding," Kurt said rubbing his aching blue forehead. "Vhat time is it?"
"8:30," Hank replied.
"So this stuff lasted what ... twelve hours," Scott asked as he rubbed his own aching head.
"Approximately, yes. It's hard to tell if the length of time was the same with you all as you were sleeping when the effects most likely wore off, but I'm going to assume that it was in that area for everyone."
Hank finished whatever he was doing and rose to come over to the barely awake teens.
"How do you all feel this morning?"
"I need aspirin stat, man, my head is killing me," Tabitha groaned against Brian's shoulder.
Jean and Kitty also complained of an extreme headache.
"Hmmm," Dr. McCoy went to get some aspirin for them all.
"All things considered, I think that's a pretty common and acceptable side effect," he said after dispensing the pain reliever to those who'd tried the serum.
"Easy for you to say," Kurt groaned, "You're not zhe vone vizh a voodpecker beating at your skull."
Betsy watched this entire scene then rose to stretch out the kinks in her body from the awkward position she'd slept in that night.
"What do you blokes say to grabbing some breakfast then starting our little mission?" she asked Kurt and Scott.
Kurt turned his yellow eyes to glare at her and even through his ruby red shades, she could tell Scott was glaring as well.
~*~*~
With their headaches gone, breakfasts eaten and serums taken again Kurt and Scott went in search of Rogue to carry out their part of the mission.
They found her cursing in the kitchen where the Professor had put her to work washing the breakfast dishes.
Scott entered the room first.
Knowing it would annoy her, he grabbed one of the glasses she'd just washed then went to the fridge to fill the glass with orange juice and drink it down.
"Could you be any ruder?" she snarled as he immediately gave her the glass that he'd just dirtied for her to wash again.
He crossed his arms over his chest, leant back against the counter beside her and just smiled like he had the world's biggest secret.
She threw the washrag into the sudsy water she was working in and reached for a towel to dry her bare hands while she glared at him.
"What are you up to?"
"Why would you think I'm up to something, Rogue?" he countered.
She scowled at him for evading the question and he lifted his sunglasses up to his forehead to wink at her playfully before slowly lowering the ruby shades to cover his eyes again.
It happened pretty quickly, but Rogue was able to catch on to two facts.
There had been no optic blast or glowing red eyes when he lifted those glasses.
"What the - ?"
Kurt entered the room then and she hesitated over asking the question with someone else present.
As his typical image induced self, he walked over to her and did the exact same thing Scott had.
Snagged one of the glasses she'd just washed and used it to get a drink of milk.
"Ahh. Nozhing like a nice healtzee glass of milk for a growing boy, eh, sizter?"
"Kurt, Ah am not your - "
Her automatic reprimand of her adopted younger brother for again misconstruing their relationship as an actual blood tie stilled on her lips as she plainly saw that he wore no inducer on his left wrist like he always did.
And still he looked … normal.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
Scott jumped guiltily as she snarled out the question.
Kurt looked at the wrist she was glaring at before spewing a mouthful of milk and dropping the glass to cover his bare wrist.
"Aw, dude, zhe Profezzor is goink to kill us! Ve veren't supposed to let anyvone know until later," Kurt moaned as he dramatically slapped his forehead.
Scott slumped down to lean even more against the counter.
"Looks like we really let this cat out of the bag, Kurt," he sighed.
Later Rogue would think back and see how phony their actions and reactions were, but in the heat of the moment she was too curious.
"What are you talking about? Weren't supposed ta let anyone know what?"
The duo looked at each other, then the fuming Rogue who glared at them with her hands balled into fists on her hips, then back at each other with weary shrugs.
"We're testing a serum for Hank," Scott confessed.
"You're … What?!"
"Hank has developed a serum zhat can suppress our mutations. Permanently. Ve have volunteered to test it out for him to zee if it vorks," Kurt said as he looked down at his feet, which he was currently shifting nervously.
"Whoa…"
She shifted her stance until she had her left arm wrapped around her waist and the right one propped on it as she tapped her chin thoughtfully with the index finger of her right hand.
"You're telling me," she turned disbelieving green eyes on Scott, "that your eyes ain't like nuclear anymore?"
Scott made a big show of cringing guiltily under her intense stare and dropping his head to stare at the floor for a moment. Then, still looking downward, he lifted his hands to remove his ruby red shades completely before lifting his eyes to lock with Rogue's.
"Oh. Mah. Gawd."
She took in his harmless brown eyes and kind of slumped against the kitchen counter in shock then turned to Kurt.
"And your fur…your tail….gosh, your yellow eyes and pointy ears are all gone?"
"Oh yes, I also have the normal five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot now," he wiggling said fingers in front of her face. "Zhe only drawback is I can no longer teleport."
Rogue moved around the kitchen to pull a chair from the table and flop down into it as she held her head in her hands and wondered if this was some dream she was in.
"No dream, luv," Betsy strolled into the room smiling. "Big blue's figured out just the potion to help with our powers."
"Potion?" Rogue asked her friend, still in shock.
"Yes, luv," Betsy nodded her purple haired head.
"Have you taken it too?"
"Afraid not. The Professor felt that it was a man's job to test out such a new thing and blah blah blah."
"But it's working, right?" Rogue looked up at where Kurt and Scott had been standing at the counter only to see them trying to sneak out of the kitchen unnoticed while she was talking to Betts.
"Hold it rahght there ya yahoos," she ordered.
The duo stopped dead in their tracks and turned to face her.
"Aw, man, zhis is vhy mein mutation ist a good zhing," Kurt moaned.
"If you like your powers so much, why'd ya agree to test this stuff?" Rogue demanded.
The three people in the room with her froze like deer caught in headlights and obviously scrambled to find some answer in their heads.
"There's an antidote!" Betsy cried out and the guys looked at her before nodding furiously.
"Yeah. Vonce ve are sure zhat zhis vorks, I take a little sip of zhe antidote and all fuzzy dude again," Kurt said with a nervous chuckle.
"Ah've got an even better idea," Rogue said with a smile. "How about Ah take over the testing for you and you go ahead and take the antidote. Ah mean, it's the least Ah can do for my little brother if you want your powers back, rahght?"
The trio around her hid triumphant smiles and tried to look serious.
"I don't know, luv, that's really something Hank and the Professor would have to decide," Betsy said biting her lower lip.
"Let's go see them then," Rogue said, grabbing her friend's covered shoulder to drag her from the room.
In the kitchen Kurt and Scott exchanged a series of high fives.
"Aw, man, zhat vas perfect," Kurt crowed.
"Dude, you almost totally blew it with the mourning your mutation," Scott reminded.
"Hey, dude, Betzy totally zaved it. Ve had Vrogue believing every vord of it. Ve rock!" he started doing his happy dance until Scott groaned and left the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mishka Speaking: Um…..this chapter may seem a little….I dunno…off topic or something, but it's what came to me as I was writing so for now, I'm gonna go with it. If it doesn't really fit in with the story when I reread it, I'll rewrite and hopefully come up with something that I find as amusing without cold meds as I found this one while on the meds. :-P
What have I planned next?
Mall mania when the X-Grrls featured in this story (Betsy, Jean, Kitty, and Tabitha) decide that touchable Rogue needs a TOTAL makeover. I'm having a bit of fun writing the chappie, but it may take me another day to get something I feel to be ready for uploading. :)
