Chapter 12: The Approach.

The day after Jean and Scott finally came into the open with the relationship everyone knew about, Professor Xavier decided to try to find Beast using Cerebro.

Also that day, Alex's parents called Scott, wondering if he knew the location of his brother.  Scott asked why, and the response chilled him to the bone. They informed him that he never came home last night, and no one had seen him since yesterday.  At the end of the call, Scott informed the Professor of this information.

The Professor, even having two minds he knew as targets, was having no luck finding either Alex or Beast.

Kyle was not a happy camper.  After finding that Mystique had taken his father, for no apparent reason, he had every right to be unhappy.  After all, Sensei had no mutant powers, was no threat to the metamorphic mutant.  Really, he was only important to those in the institute.

When Kyle was angry, he normally vented it in the safest method possible.  In this case, that involved a trip to the institute's gymnasium, some tape, and a punching bag.

That was where Amara found him, almost an hour after he had entered.  He was presently pounding a punching bag with force she honestly didn't think a 15 year old could produce.  As she watched, he landed a quick one-two, an uppercut into the bag, a backhand as it swung back towards him, a palm strike with the same hand, a reverse roundhouse, a high kick, and then, pausing only to let the bag swing back towards him, he preformed an impressive maneuver in which he kicked it with one leg, kicked higher up the bag with the other, and then flipped off the bag.  It was obvious that, had it been a human, both his feet would have caught him in the chin on the way off.

"Nice, but what did the bag do to you?" Amara said, her voice light and teasing, but slightly questioning. 

Kyle simply glared at his teammate, "My father was just kidnapped yesterday, I'm letting off a little bit of anger.  The best way to do that is with something inanimate."

Amara watched him, as he turned back to the bag, and began a long, complicated sequence of punches and kicks.  She was impressed that a blind man could perform the movements so smoothly.  Yet one more reason that I like him…Wait, did I just think that?  One of the disadvantages all of Xavier's students learned about very quickly was that telepaths catch thoughts easily if you aren't careful.

"You know, talking about it might help more than pounding a punching bag to dust."  Amara said, as she could see the materiel of the bag starting to stretch, Kyle was either so deep into his zone he didn't hear her, or just ignored her, and, with a final roundhouse, the bottom part of the bag tore, sending sand every-which-way.

"Guten Tag," came Kurt's voice, following Kyle's busting of the bag.

"Vow, vhat's hiz problem?" Kurt asked Amara.

Amara simply shot Kurt a 'don't be stupid' look.  Kurt, realizing what he'd just asked, covered his mouth with both hands.  Amara shook her head, and walked towards the young martial artist.

"You okay now?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.

Kyle nodded, and began to sweep up the sand.  Kurt, realizing that, considering the amount, and how far it had gone, it would take him at least two hours, decided to help.

Bamf! Bamf!

Kurt reappeared with two brooms, and handed one to Amara.  Surprisingly, she didn't launch into a round of 'I'm a princess!' but rather, simply took the broom, and began to sweep.

Kyle tried to protest, but was cut off by Amara, who said simply, "We're helping."

And, with the help of his friends, Kyle found that, a job that would have taken him two hours took twenty minutes.  They found that they had finished up just in time, for the Professor had finally been able to track down Beast and Havok.  He had traced their mental signals to the Alps, where, looking through Mystique's file in Cerebro, he found that she owned an old monastery, under an alias of course.

This of course, led to the inevitable question.  Who do we send?  While the X-Men were more experienced, and diversified in their powers, the New Mutants had the kind of raw firepower that this mission called for, and their control over their powers was quickly improving.  Therefore, Xavier took the best course of action… He sent both teams.

Since Mystique was no fool, and had probably installed anti-air defenses quite capable of knocking even the X-Jet out, the plan called for them to land a good ten miles away, and then hike towards the Monastery, From there, they would proceed to find a way in, and attempt to free Mystique's hostages, then go after the metamorph.

Simple, elegant, and far easier said than done.

For the mission, the X-Men and the New Mutants had been merged into one unit.  The original X-Men were Gold Team, and the New Mutants were re-designated, as X-Men: Blue Team.

The Gold team would take the X-Jet, as the Blue team, with Beast at the helm, took the Velocity.  While Cyclops was normally the tactical leader, he had surrendered the post to Storm for the mission, his closeness to the situation a danger to them all.  Wolverine was in charge of Blue team in the case that the two teams had to separate during the mission, a scenario that, considering the disposition of the man, they were all fervently hoping to avoid until it was necessary.

As the two aircraft left the school, Xavier could only watch his students depart, for what could be the largest battle they would yet face, wish them god speed, and pray for their safety.

The two aircraft began their journey over the ocean in silence.  Mystique's Monastery was well into the Alps, and it was going to be difficult to get in, forget what they might face inside the building.

Jean, who had little else to do during the trip, simply spread her mind out, and 'felt' for the feelings of her teammates.  While she wasn't listening in, precisely, she was getting an idea of their feelings, which would be important to know in the fight to come.

From the X-Jet, she was getting the expected, Kurt was partly anxious, it was his mother, after all, but mostly resolute on what had to be done.  Scott was concerned over those whom Mystique had taken hostage, as was Storm.  Kitty was focusing on how they might be able to get the captives out. That was a little surprising to Jean, who had never realized Kitty's intellect, falling for the same Valley Girl act everyone else did.  Rogue was such a maelstrom of feelings, from the twenty plus different people's personalities that she had absorbed, that Jean's head hurt trying to figure out who was Rogue in that mess.

From the Velocity, however, she was getting a range of feelings that she had never expected from the New Mutan… Blue Team.

From Kyle, she was getting an understandable sense of anger, but, also, a sense of attraction to someone, whom she couldn't tell without probing, and on Kyle, that was no easy task, his constant meditation making him almost tougher to break, mentally, than a telepath.  From Amara, she sensed anger at Mystique, why, god only knew, although that same attraction was present in her as well. Tabby was happy that she would be able to pay the metamorph back for kicking her out of the BoM.  Roberto was slightly unsure of himself, his powers being null and void in a building, especially one like a Monastery.  Ray was eager for the chance to fight, and Jubilee was eager as well, but for the chance to prove herself.  Bobby was concerned for the others, something Jean would never of expected of the young prankster. Look's like making him Tactical Leader for Blue Team did him some good, thought Jean, as she continued. Wolverine was looking forward to the fight, and slightly annoyed that Icicle was in charge of this group.  Jamie was nervous, expectable at his age. Rahne seemed to be sad, probably because of what happened with Muir Center, reasoned Jean, and Sam seemed concerned for his depressed teammate and friend.

All in all, the scan from the Blue Team gave Jean quite a bit of thinking to do on the way to the Monastery.

The X-Men, both Blue and Gold Teams, found out why they should bone up on Murphy's Law when they arrived at the Alps.  It turned out that there was no single, stable area that could land both craft, forcing the two groups to start off split up.

The distance between stable ground and the Monastery was another problem, as the distance from the second area would require of the team who landed there to make a day's hike on the way to the Monastery, and possibly more on the way back. To make it worse, half of the hike was through avalanche zones.  The Gold team took this site.

(AN: Now we're going to follow Blue team. Bye-bye Gold, for now.)

As the Blue Team piled off of the Velocity, they realized that, while their uniform's were normally sufficient warmth, they were not capable of standing up to the cold of the Alps, a situation that the Velocity was, luckily, provisioned for.  As they climbed back onto the VTOL, Wolverine began to hand out the snow gear packed in the Velocity's hold.  Wolverine also grabbed some food, as they would all fight better the next day on full stomachs, and would have to wait for the other team to finish their day long hike to the Monastery. He also grabbed the canteen's of water, which he then distributed, reminding the kids in his own way that that was all the water the would get.  To prevent the water from freezing, the canteens were well insulated.  He also grabbed a GPS, knowing from experience that finding a location you've never been to in a mountain range can take weeks.

The snow gear consisted of a parka and a pair of thick snow pants, along with well-insulated boots.  The parka, pants, and boots were fitted for a specific student, but, for some reason, not all were the same color.  Magma, Sage (Kyle) and Iceman were in a bright red. Wolverine, Berzerker, Sunspot, and Boom-Boom were in yellow.  Multiple (Jamie), Wolfsbane, Cannonball and Jubilee were all in teal.  As the Blue team piled out of the Velocity, this time equipped for the cold, they began searching for a way to get from their present position, to the Monastery.

After scouring the area, they finally found a narrow path that would lead them in the proper direction.  While Wolverine didn't like the fact that they would have to walk single file, it was their only choice.  Therefore, they began to walk.

*9 hours, and 26 checks of the GPS later*

Wolverine had to admit, as young as they may be, and as inexperienced, these kids could be disciplined when needed.

The Blue team was walking quietly through the canyon that their chosen path had quickly become, none wanting to bury themselves in an avalanche.  Considering that the oldest of them was in the 14 range, the fact that they hadn't complained since the hike began was impressive to the older mutant, who was walking point.  He saw ahead of him that the canyon was beginning to open out into a small, clear area, with one really deep gorge on the far side.  On the far side of the ten feet the gorge occupied was another small clearing, this one at the base of a mountain, with a natural cave in the side of said mountain.  And at the top of the mountain stood, tall and imposing…

Mystique's Monastery.

The Monastery was impressive, even to Wolverine.  It was solid stone, with seven towers.  Three of the towers faced away from the mountain, towards the main pass through the range, situated to the north.  Two more faced to the east, towards a smaller pass.  One faced to the south, towards the pass coming from that direction.  And the final tower was situated in the center of the Monastery.  The builders had obviously counted on the gorge and the highly difficult terrain to keep people from trying to enter from the west.  Much of the Monastery was built into the mountain, and it was probably considered impenetrable during its time.

Normally, that gorge would be quite an obstacle to a small invasion force, and the terrain an obstacle to a larger force.  But to the X-men, who worked best in a small group, the terrain was no difficulty.  And the gorge…

"Icicle, mind makin' us a bridge?"

Bobby grinned, "No problem."   He then raised his hands, and began crafting a pathway over the gorge.  The bridge he constructed was no more than a simple walkway, about five feet wide, and a foot thick.

"There," said Bobby, less tired that Wolverine expected, obviously the kid's powers were growing, as was his control. "Since none of us are quite Mr. McCoy's size, as long as we step lightly, we should be able to cross that without me having to re-build it. Be careful though, ice is slippery."  With that stated, Bobby crossed the bridge, not willing to let other's fall because he fouled up.  He reached the other side alright, and, remembering Wolverine's lesson's in the Danger room, did not turn to face the others, but kept his eyes on the one place that a threat could come from, the tunnel.

Jubilee crossed next, her arms out to the side to help maintain her balance.  For once, she was grateful for her parents making her take gymnastics.  She reached the other side with little difficulty, and turned to watch her friends, in case one of them needed a hand.

At about this point in time, the sun decided to make a brief appearance from behind the cloudbanks it hid behind, during which, Roberto flew across the gorge, and powered up as much as he could in the brief burst of light.  During the sun's appearance, Amara made her bid to cross the path.  She walked, slowly but surely across the path, reaching the far side with little difficulty.

And so it continued until only Rahne, Wolverine and Kyle had yet to cross, as Kyle crossed the bridge, he heard a disturbing amount of creaking coming from it.  Upon reaching the other side, he turned.  Wolverine then began to cross, Rahne having insisted upon it.  As Wolverine hit the middle of the bridge…

CRACK!!! "DAMN IT!"

The cracking noise was the middle of the bridge giving way; the damnation is self-explanatory, (Read, Wolvie).  However, with reflexes honed by years of experience in terrain that often crumbled, Wolverine leaped forward and rolled, just as the middle section gave way, leaving a three-foot gap in the bridge.

Rahne appeared unconcerned, and began to cross.  As the others watched, she transformed, breaking into a run, and leapt.

(Should I end it here?



NAHHH!!!!)

Landing on the far side, Rahne loped over to the others, whom were all glaring at her.  As she transformed back, she asked them, "What be th' problem with all ye's? Ye' act laeken' I shauld be dead."

Bobby spoke before Wolverine could chew her out. "You could have waited for me to fix the bridge, instead of giving us heart failure."

Rahne had the grace to look embarrassed, as she realized that indeed, Bobby probably could have fixed it with ease.

Wolverine shook his head, and lead the group to the cave, muttering something about 'needing a f*ckin' army to keep 'em in line.'  They entered the cave, and, after some recon, found that it did indeed lead into the bottom of the Monastery.  Wolverine decided that they would make camp near enough the entrance to avoid detection from the Monastery, but far enough to keep the worst of the wind and cold out.

Once camp was made, the kids began to quietly talk, mostly on normal teenage things, school, cars, how tough the Danger Room sessions were… well, maybe not all normal teenage things.  Kyle however, sat slightly removed from the group, meditating.  Logan, seeing his isolation from the team, walked over.

"Hey, grasshopper." Said Wolverine, crouching down next to the young blind man.

"Hello, Wolverine," Kyle said, his voice even, "Might I ask what you want?"

Wolverine chuckled, "Observant, ain't ye?"

Kyle's turn to chuckle, "You normally do not start a conversation, unless you want to know something."

Wolverine shook his head, and then spoke, "Yah know, isolating yourself ain't doing ya any good. We'll get your dad back, and Mystique will pay if she has hurt him.  But, ya're starting to worry your teammates."

Kyle nodded sagely. "I know that, but I was just thinking that, if there is a part of the Monastery that connects to this cave, which we know there is, than consider just how large it must be.  Imagine how long it took to build, and the amount of labor."

Wolverine nodded, "And now, we get to break in and trash it."

Kyle nodded, and suddenly, making a decision, stood.  "I think I will join my teammates, I have worried them recently, as you said, and have been to absorbed in grief to acknowledge it."

As Kyle walked over to the group of teenagers who had gathered around the small fire they had gotten going, using wood from the Monastery, Wolverine smiled.

As Kyle reached the group of teenagers, he stopped.  Even though they were his friends, it had been so long since he had dealt with something like a social life, he was no longer sure of himself.  The group silenced as he stopped, and then, to their surprise, Amara stood, walked to Kyle, grasped his hand, and led him to the group.  The group made room for Kyle to sit down, and then the conversation continued.

Much later, as they were eating some of the rations Wolverine had grabbed, Roberto asked the question that Wolverine had been dreading.

"Anyone know any good campfire songs?"

The group traded looks, no one sure if any of the classics were appropriate for the situation.

Kyle smiled, and began to sing, his voice better than they had expected.

I've paid my dues

Time after time

I've done my sentence,

But committed no crime

The rest of the team recognized the song, and picked up with the next verse.

And bad Mistakes,

I've made a few

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face,

But I've come through

The Wolverine found that the song fit the situation, but had to applaud the kid's choice come the chorus.  Ray shook his head, and left the group, to sit by the cave entrance.

We are the champions-my friends

And we'll keep on fighting, till the end

We are the champions,

We are the champions,

No time for losers

Cause we are the champions-of the world

Kyle shook his head, obviously not fond of the last lines in the chorus. And, as Wolverine looked around the group, found that none of them liked the last lines much, but they were part of the song.

I've taken my bows,

And my curtain calls,

You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it,

I thank you all

But it's been no bed of roses,

No pleasure cruise

I consider it a challenge before the whole human race,

And I ain't gonna lose

At that, the X-Men Blue team nodded, and placed arms tentatively around the shoulders of their teammates, and began to rock to the rhythm.

We are the champions-my friends

And we'll keep on fighting, till the end

We are the champions,

We are the champions,

No time for losers

Cause we are the champions-of the world

~Will the newly designated X-Men: Blue Team, be able to live up to the name of their group, and prove to Xavier, Storm, Wolverine, Beast, and the older, more experienced members of the X-Men: Gold Team, that they have what it takes to be X-Men.  Will the X-Men be able to break their captured teachers and friends free of Mystique's hold.  Will they be able to finally defeat Mystique, one of their greatest foes since the beginning.  What challenges will they have to face on their way through the Monastery, and most of all… Will they be able to keep their group together long enough to make it through.~

~Find out in Chapter 13: The Entrance and Monastery Security.~