Chapter 47: Aftershocks and Fluff-shocks

Green? Asked Jean telepathically.

Please. Responded Betsy.

As Jean prepared the tea telekinetically, she watched the girl whom they had just freed from her mental imprisonment.

"I know you probably still think of me as an enemy." Said Betsy.

Before Jean could protest, Kyle spoke from the door, Brian having been taken to the med lab by Dr. McCoy.

"No, we do not see you as a foe. We see the ones who did that to you as foes. We see you only as someone who was manipulated."

Betsy turned to look at Kyle, and was amazed when he said to Jean, "Would you mind making me a cup as well? I believe I'm going to need it. Knowing Sensei, he'll want some too."

Jean laughed, as she finished pouring the fourth cup of tea "Already ahead of you."

Kyle shook his head, and sat at the bar in the kitchen.  Soon, the other X-Men filtered in, seating themselves on counters and chairs.  Finally, the Professor entered the room.

"Betsy...  I would never have suspected that you were Psylocke… Honestly, I never thought that Magneto would sink to that."

"What do you mean?" Asked Roberto.

"He knows Betsy's past, and what she went through. I would never have thought that he would put her through something so traumatic as this."

Kyle nodded, "Such is proof that Magneto is willing to go to any lengths to get his war."

"Oui, mon amis. That hombre is crazy."

Marrow was sitting next to Betsy, not quite sure of her fate at this point in time.  Psy… Betsy, had been Magneto's servant by force, she had gone willingly.

"Well… This discussion can wait until later… I need to call the Braddock's.  Right now, I think that these two young ladies need to rest."

As Betsy and Sarah stared at the Professor, Roberto spoke up.

"I think me and Sam can suffer our room being taken for a few hours. Right, Sammie boy?"

The Southern Missile chuckled, as Rahne leaned against his tall, lanky frame.

"Oh yeah."

The Professor nodded, and said "Evan, would you show them to Roberto and Sam's room."

The bone-shooting mutant nodded, and, hopping off the counter, motioned for them to follow him.

As they walked down the hallway, Evan was lost in thought.  He normally wasn't one to be too into girls.  Sure, he'd had his crushes, but mostly he was to heavily into skating to care much.  However, when she'd been here, this girl Sarah had caught his attention in a big way. Now that she was back, he wasn't sure what would happen between them.

"Well, here you are; the room of Roberto and Sam… If you hear any noises from next door, don't ask.  No one really wants to know what happens between Peter and Tabby."

With that, the two stepped into the room, and Evan, after having stared at Marrow for a few seconds, left.

(AN: FLUFFINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The rest of this chapter is soooooooooo fluffy, that it makes the 'International Convention of Fluffy and Cute Animals' look like a PTA meeting of Porcupines! It's fluffy fun for all the couples. And Romy fans… HERE WE GO!)

The X-Men were to hyped on Adrenalin to bother going back to sleep, so they decided to amuse themselves in other ways.

Kyle sat in the med lab, looking down at Amara.  Knowing no one else was around; he began speaking to her.

"It's all my fault that your in here.  If I had just been willing to fight at the beginning of the battle, you wouldn't have gotten hurt.  But no, I let my emotions get in the way of fighting. I let my fear stop me from stopping Betsy."

"True." Came a voice from behind him. Turning around, he saw Captain Britain leaning against the door.

"But your emotions are also what gave you the strength to beat her.  Betsy only knocked my nervous system out with her blade, I could still see.  Your fear of failure may have been what kept you from fighting off the bat, but your love of her, and your unwillingness to let her be harmed gave you the power to hold Betsy off."

Kyle shook his head, and turned back, a muttered "maybe" reaching Brian's ears.

Shaking his head, he left the blind mutant alone. He knew from experience that his mutation set only made him a challenge of sorts to good martial artists.

Kyle stared down at Amara for a while, and finally, kissing her forehead, left the room.

Bobby and Jubilee were sitting in the living room, simply taking pleasure in each other's presence.  Jubilee leaned against the slightly older mutant, and sighed.

"What was that for?" Asked Bobby, who'd gotten fairly good at interpreting Jubilee's multitudinous wordless noises.

"I'm just bored."

Bobby raised an eyebrow, and looked down at her. "We've just finished breaking Betsy's mind shell, had a break-in to the mansion, had Rogue nearly killed, and your bored?"

"Yeah, gotta burn off the adrenalin."

"Well…" Came Tabby's voice from the door.

"Well what?"

"We could play a bit of a game."

Jubilee looked out the window; the sky was dark.

"It's pitch-black outside."

"So?  All the more fun."

"What game?" Jubilee finally sighed.

"Mutant Dodgeball."

The majority of the X-Men were agreeable, the only decliner being Kyle.

The game was a free-for-all, and the game rules were simple. No powers of any kind.

Balls were scattered all over the institute, and the game began in earnest.  Roberto smirked as he unloaded the ball at Scott, who barely dodged. Kurt grabbed it up, and flung it at Jubilee. The Asian mutant rolled out of the way, grabbing another of the many balls lying on the ground, and flung it at her boyfriend.

Bobby saw the ball at the last second, and leaned back, barely evading the ball.  Grabbing up a ball, he went after his girlfriend.

Rahne and Sam had already withdrawn from the main field, stalking each other through the forest. Rahne came up on Sam from behind.

*He knows you're here, pup*

'Your just being over anxious again.'

She jumped out, throwing the ball, Sam spun to the right, dodging the ball and throwing his in one fluid motion.

Rahne was caught in the arm by the ball.

*Told you.*

'Quiet'

"Got ya." Said Sam, as he walked up to his girlfriend.  She grinned.

'He got us, he says.'

*Let us show him who has who, pup*

Rahne grabbed her boyfriend, and locked her lips to his.

Sam's eyes widened, but he didn't even bother fighting his girlfriend.  He had learned the hard way when his family was here that there was no possible way to fight off Rahne when she and the Wolf agreed, and the wolf most definitely agreed from the ferocity of this kiss.

He pulled back for a second, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"Tha' was fun." Said Sam. "But Ah thaink ya'll's technique need work."

"Oh raielly?  So know ye bein a kissen mastar?"

" 'nd bingo was 'er name, oh." With that, he drew her into another lip-lock.

Paige and Jonothan were presently in the middle of a field just behind the institute, each holding a ball.  The younger Guthrie smirked at the boy who had insulted her when she had first arrived.  She had worked at it, however, and the two had become fairly good friends.

Finally, Jonothan broke the staring match by unloading a ball at the younger Guthrie.  Paige dodged it by juking right, and then threw her own ball.  Jonothan rolled, grabbing another ball, as Paige swooped to the ground, grabbing another ball as she kept running to the right.

Jonothan smirked as he flung a ball at the younger girl.  She grinned as she used the one in her hands to block his, and flung hers at him.

He grinned as he spun right, and he finally spoke. "Yer goin to have to do bettar than that, Hayseed."

She laughed. "Ah'm just get'n started, Yorkie."  With that, she flung a ball at him.

He dodged it, only to be pegged by the second ball that Paige had thrown a half second later.

With that, she smirked at him, and walked away.  The Professor had seen the battle, however, and knew that the three newest students were ready, all they needed was a final test.  He began to mentally draw up the plan for it as the game continued.

Lorna and Alex stood on opposite ends of the field, each holding a ball.  The surfer grinned at the girl, as he ran to the left. She mirrored the move to the left, and threw the ball. He rolled forward, throwing as he came up.  She jumped over it, grabbing a ball as her hands hit the ground in a flip. Alex grabbed another ball when he stooped down to dodge hers, and threw it.

The two continued their game for several minutes until, finally, each of them was pegged at the same moment by the other.

The two smirked, and both were grateful that it was dark, so the other wouldn't see their blushing.

Jubilee and Bobby had finally found a small clearing to settle their differences in.  The two stood, each holding a ball, and ready to fire.

Bobby opened the game up with a ball flung just slightly to the right, the side Jubilee tended to dodge towards, then began to run.  Jubilee dodged to the right, alright, but did so in a roll, evading the ball.  She flung one in front of Bobby, who slid under it, and grabbed another one. He threw the ball from the ground, then rolled to his feet. Jubilee dodged the ball easily, grabbing another ball and unloading at the other mutant.  The two continued their deadly dance, each throwing balls at the other. Finally, Bobby caught one in the shoulder a split second before Jubilee took one to the thigh.

"That was fun." Said Bobby, as he walked over, and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend.

"Yes it was." She agreed, as she leaned back into him.

Forming an ice-chair, he sat down, bringing her down into his lap.  She spun around suddenly, sitting across his lap.  She gave him a peck on the nose, and smiled at him devilishly.

"There is no way your getting away with just that." Said Bobby, who began to trade notes with his girlfriend on proper kissing technique.

Jean and Scott grinned at each other. The others had dispatched both of them fairly early, and now they were just sitting on the roof, watching their friends.  Jean finally leaned over, kissed her boyfriend on the cheek, and leaned her head against him.

"You know, they're really having fun."  Scott said

"Yeah, they get to work off all that adrenalin… And some of them are doing more than that."

"Do I want to know?" Asked Scott.

"Nothing worse than we are right now."

Scott nodded, and turned his attention back to the sky.

Tabby and Peter smirked at each other, the game long forgotten.  The two of them were presently out of breath, and were both drenched.

"I admit it, Russkie, you wore me out."

"I told you, little one, I am better than you think."

"Yeah, I know, but still, I didn't think you could swim that fast." With that, she kissed him, hard.

Remy and Rogue sat on the sidelines. Rogue wasn't quite in the mood to play at the moment, and Remy was deep in thought.

"What ya'll thinkin' bout, Swamp Rat?"

"Dat Remy almo't lose you t'night. An' dat' get Remy thinkin' 'What Remy do if Monseur Logan hadn't found ye?' Well, den Remy' jus 'ave to follow ye, chere." With that, he surprised the hell out of her by bringing a silk scarf up, and kissing her cheek.

She went ram-rod straight for several seconds.  "Chere," he continued, "Woul it be to much trouble if Remy ask if ye wan' ta go out tomorrow?"

She shook her head, and, bringing the cloth up between them again, gave him a REAL kiss.

"Remy take that as a oui?"

Rogue laughed, and nodded her ascent.

Roberto smiled as he flew in front of his window, looking in on the ninja girl who slept within.  He didn't know what this feeling in his chest was… It was almost like what he'd felt when Rahne and Amara had flirted with him before they had gotten together with their respective boyfriends, but it was so much more powerful… he just didn't know.

Kyle's head came up from where he sat next to Amara.  The tickling sensation in his head had become very annoying at this point.  I really need to talk to the professor, thought Kyle.

Jamie had a blast with the game, his ability to clone himself making him the eventual winner.