Chapter Fourteen
"Hey, yo! Magnet-o! Just what is it with all this technobabble stuff? I mean, what's the plan, boss man?"
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr looked up from his soldering to pierce Toad with a cold glare.
"The plan is what it always has been," he said calmly, turning back to his work. "If humans are to learn their place, they must first recognize mutant superiority. And, if I am to teach them this lesson, I need 'intelligent' people to assist me. Hence, my own, magnetic version of Charles' precious Cerebro."
"Hey! You sayin' we're not smart?" Toad exclaimed, his large, pale-green eyes darting about the room as they tracked a fly. As his long, sticky tongue shot out to nab the swift insect in mid-air, Magneto turned to him with a superior glare.
"I believe you have just made my point for me, Mr. Tolanski," he observed coolly. "Now leave me. You have kept me from my work long enough with your pestering questions."
Toad stared at him for a moment, then hopped off, muttering under his breath as he approached the surveillance chamber, the only room in the entire underground base with a television. To his annoyance, Pietro, Lance, and Fred were already there.
"What'cha guys watchin', yo?" Toad asked as he leapt up to crouch on the arm of the battered old sofa someone had somehow snuck into the cramped room.
"Crap," Pietro told him in a bored tone of voice, though he spoke so quickly it was rather difficult to understand him. "Can you believe that with all this crazy technology, Magneto doesn't have cable or satellite TV?!"
"Yeah," Fred added, his own speech slow and deliberate. "There's nothin' on but soap operas and game shows."
"Ugh." Toad made a face.
Lance turned his glazed eyes from the fuzzy screen, acknowledging the Toad's presence for the first time.
"So, what did he say?" the lanky boy asked lethargically.
"Acck," Toad snorted, "he didn't say nothin', yo. He's just workin' to lower my self-esteem."
Pietro laughed. "Man, you been spending too much time at school! How can he work to lower something that isn't even there?"
"Come on, guys, leave the Toad alone," Fred spoke up, his small, piggish eyes narrowed. "It's not that I like the little snot-rag or anything, but it's not nice to laugh at people."
"Yeah, guys. Listen to the Blob. It's not nice to laugh at the Toad," Lance said, snickering himself.
Fred's eyes widened and he turned to face Lance, his teeth clenching as his anger rose. "Are you laughing at me?!" he demanded.
Pietro zipped over to place himself between Lance and Fred.
"Nonononononono!" Quicksilver assured the furious Blob. "He wasn't laughing at you, man! He was laughing at....the TV. Yeah. That game show guy said something funny."
Blob took a few moments to consider this. "Well," he said at last. "All right. I'll believe you. But nobody had better laugh at me! You know I don't like it when people laugh at me!"
"Don't we ever, yo," Toad muttered, shaking his head as Fred slowly calmed down.
"Look, dudes, I'm off to scrounge up some grub," Toad spoke up after a few minutes of watching an overweight housewife try to guess the price of a pound of cheese. "Any of you guys want somethin'?"
"We got any Twinkies?" Fred asked, his dull eyes brightening at the prospect of food.
Toad snorted. "I doubt it, yo," he said. "Magneto's the one stockin' the shelves here. But, I'll see what I can find, OK?"
Fred nodded and turned back to the flickering television screen.
Not one of the members of the Brotherhood were looking at the dozens of tiny surveillance screens that peppered the small room. As a result, the boys were taken completely by surprise by the sound of the Toad's high- pitched screaming some minutes later.
Lance and Pietro were on their feet at once, though it took the aptly named Blob a bit longer to raise himself from the ancient couch.
"Do you see anything, man?" Pietro asked Lance as they quickly scanned the surveillance screens for anything that could have caused the Toad's alarmed screams.
"It's the X-Freaks!" Lance exclaimed angrily. "It's got to be! Who else would know about this place?"
"Yo! Dudes! Sound the alarm!" Toad gasped as he leap back into the room in a state of near panic. "It's the X-Freaks! They've broken into the base, yo! And they've got that crazy Wolverine with them!"
"Told you," Lance said, slapping the alarm button and heading for the door. "Come on, let's get a move on! We've got to head them off before they can mess up the boss's plans!"
*******
"Magneto's lab should be just ahead," Scott said confidently.
"Like, this is way too easy," Kitty commented nervously. "I mean, we've made it this far and, like, there hasn't even been an alarm--"
She was cut off by a loud, repeating HONNK HONNK HONNK as red lights began to flash all down the corridor.
"Oops," Kitty said. "Looks like I, like, spoke too soon!"
"Come on!" Scott called as he started running towards the large cave barely ten feet away. The others followed close at his heels, Kurt taking up the rear. Suddenly, Wolverine burst out at them from an adjacent corridor.
"I met up with the Toad a little ways down the hall," he growled, his flinty eyes sharp. "That means the Brotherhood's here. We're movin' to Plan B, kids, so be on your guard."
Kurt met Wolverine's eyes and nodded once, moving to climb the sheer, metallic wall so he could crawl along the ceiling. As the X-Men charged into Magneto's lab, ready to meet the waiting Brotherhood head on, Nightcrawler kept to the shadows, carefully making his way to where Magneto himself was still bent over his nearly finished machine at the far end of the large cave.
Dropping silently to the floor, Nightcrawler crept up behind him, pressing a button on his holowatch and reaching out with his tail to tap Magneto's caped shoulder.
"Guten Tag, mein Herr," he said lightly as the self-proclaimed Master of Magnetism spun to face him. His eyes widened in shock at the unexpected sight before him.
"What---" His eyes narrowed in anger. "Who are you?"
Nightcrawler raised his eyebrows. "I would have thought that was obvious," he said with a slight smirk, using his tail to pull a long, holographic sword from the scabbard he had just caused to appear at his waist, his golden eyes narrowing into threatening slits. "But, since you cannot guess, at the risk of sounding clichéd I'll give you a hint. You killed my father."
Magneto blinked, stepping back slightly as he took in the sight of the demonic, threatening man standing before him.
"What are you playing at, Mystique," he snapped, a flush crossing his pale face as he struggled to collect himself. "I told you a thousand times that was an accident--"
Nightcrawler interrupted him with a dangerous glare. "Sorry, Magneto, but you guessed wrong. I suppose I should thank you for confirming your role in my father's death. It was a mystery that had haunted me all my life. Although," he said, his cold voice completely devoid of its characteristic humor. "I somehow doubt it was entirely an accident."
Magneto swallowed as Nightcrawler snapped his tail back and forth, the sword flashing as it reflected the florescent lights high above.
"However," he said darkly, "I'm afraid it is not so much my past but my future that concerns me at this moment. For, it is a future that you have put in jeopardy with this machine of yours."
Nightcrawler transferred the sword from his tail to his hand with an expert flip of the hilt, his golden eyes narrowing to deadly slits as he advanced on Magneto, causing the pale man to back into the small tool table behind him, scattering the delicate instruments across the floor.
"You fool," Magneto sneered, regaining something of his former confidence as he noted Nightcrawler's choice of weapon. "You think you can threaten me with a sword?"
The Master of Magnetism stretched out a pale, slender hand, curling his fingers as he attempted to use his formidable powers to wrench the sword from Nightcrawler's grasp. His eyes widened in alarm when nothing happened.
Nightcrawler smirked and advanced closer until the tip of his sharp, holographic sword rested just against Magneto's exposed neck.
"I believe we have much to discuss, mein Herr," he told the distressed Magneto, his voice as low and threatening as he could make it. When Magneto actually cringed, Nightcrawler shot him a wicked grin, his pointed teeth gleaming in the artificial light of the cave. He was actually beginning to enjoy this.
*******
Toad watched from behind a thick support beam as the X-Men attacked the other members of the Brotherhood. Quicksilver was battling it out with Spyke, as usual, while Cyclops took on Avalanche. Kitty and Rogue teamed up against the Blob while Jean used her powers to help out wherever she was needed. Wolverine had tumbled through a thick wall with Sabertooth some time ago and neither had been seen or heard from since. Only one of the X- Freaks was left unaccounted for--the Toad's personal nemesis, the so-called Incredible Nightcrawler.
Toad cast his beady gaze around the cavernous room, searching the shadows and the ceiling for signs of his elusive enemy. Finally, he spotted him...or someone who looked remarkably like him...holding Magneto helpless against the point of his gleaming sword.
Toad hesitated. He didn't exactly feel comfortable dealing with swords. Swords were sharp and they were dangerous and if a person wasn't careful, he could really get hurt playing with those things. If the freakboy was carrying swords, Toad didn't want to aggravate him.
But then, he considered the way Magneto was always brushing him aside, insulting him, or worse, ignoring him as though he wasn't even there. If Toad came to his rescue now, attacking the circus freak unawares and giving Magneto a chance to escape, perhaps he would realize the Toad was worth something after all.
Gathering his nerve, Toad jumped into action, crossing the space between his pole and Magneto's machine in only four leaps.
"Yo, freakboy," he called out, putting on his bravest voice to impress Magneto, "why don't you pick on someone your own size!"
Nightcrawler turned, freezing the Toad in place with his sharp, golden glare. "Were you addressing me, Herr Krote?" he asked coldly.
"Holy..." Toad goggled at the tall, shadowy man who was holding his boss securely by the shirt front with one powerful, tridactal hand and a long, disturbingly sharp sword in the other. He laughed nervously, his bulging eyes unnaturally wide. "Um, I'll just be going now, yo," he said quickly. "Sorry to have bothered you..."
"Not so fast, Toad," Nightcrawler snapped, snatching the Toad's leg with his long, sinewy tail before he could hop away. "The time for fighting is over. Now it's time to talk. I want you to help me gather everyone together, both the X-Men and the Brotherhood." He tilted his head towards the frightened, mortified, furious Magneto. "Magneto here has a little explaining to do."
*******
"I still don't know if I like this plan of yours," Jean said, the corners of her eyes creased with worry. "Rachel is only eleven, and she's never used her powers in this way before."
"I don't like it either," Alice agreed. "What if something goes wrong? What would happen to Kurt? Why does it have to be Kurt, anyway?"
"It will be easier for Rachel to project him into the past because he belongs there," Jean tried to explain. Alice just shook her head, her dark eyes anguished. Jean rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, and Alice shot her a grateful look.
Kurt looked up at his future wife from his crouch at the edge of the highly polished table. Her fear and worry were palpable, and Kurt couldn't blame her. This was a very risky plan they had cooked up, and there were no guarantees that it would work. He longed to be able to give her some comfort, to assure her that her husband would be safely returned to her, but he'd already hurt her once. He didn't want to make the situation worse with false reassurances. So, even though he ached to talk with her, he remained crouched on the table, watching, silent and somber, as Kylun approached his future daughter.
"You're certain that you saw a magnetic disturbance just before your father disappeared," Kylun asked Marti. Marti nodded.
"Yeah. I'd never seen anything like it. I'm sure it was more than powerful enough to knock Dad and Kurt off course. It's like Uncle Alistare said. If they were involved in a simultaneous teleport, Widget's portal could have caught them between dimensions and the magnetic disturbance would have done the rest."
"I still don't get it," Evan sighed tiredly. "But then, I never was very good at physics."
"To tell you the truth," Alistaire admitted, "I'm not all too clear on it either. But it's the only theory we have that seems to make even an iota of sense."
"Maybe to you, Professor," Bobby commented. "But how is Rachel supposed to use Widget's portal to contact Kurt in the past? We don't even know when in the past he is!"
"That is what we have telepaths for," Kylun pointed out. "It will be up to Jean to locate your friend once I ask Widget to open his time-portal. Then Rachel can use her powers to project the 'essence' of this Kurt into the past so he can contact his older self. Then, perhaps we can find a way to fix this temporal mess and get back to the more important issue of saving the world."
"Well said," Bobby nodded approvingly. Once Kylun turned away, however, he rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation and moved off to commiserate with Evan about the nature of gobbledygook.
"Excuse me," Rogue spoke up, "but why bother with all this astral projection mumbo jumbo in the first place? Why not just step through the portal once we find Kurt and contact him that way?"
"Do you really want to risk causing a chain reaction that could disrupt the entire timeline?" Scott asked her. "I don't think even I'm prepared to take on that much responsibility."
"But Kurt's been back there affectin' things for almost five hours now," Rogue pointed out.
"And we don't want to risk making the situation any worse," Scott told her with an air of finality. Then he sighed. "Look, Rogue, I don't like this any more than you do. Rachel is my daughter, after all, and Kurt's my best friend."
"Hey, I thought that was me," Bobby said, taking mock offense.
No one could see it, but Scott rolled his eyes behind his visor. "Anyway," he continued, pointedly ignoring Bobby, "it would kill me to have anything happen to either of them. But something's got to be done about this fast, and we haven't been able to come up with anything better. I'm willing to give the kids' plan a shot. If nothing else, at least we'll be able to pinpoint just when he is."
Rogue nodded, but her eyes were still dark with concern.
"Widget's ready," Kylun announced. "Just say the word and he'll open the portal."
Scott turned to his wife. "You ready, Jean?" he asked softly.
Jean nodded, her green eyes calm and confident. "Open the portal."
With some chipper muttering and a few BEEPs, the spherical robot known as Widget quickly opened a glowing door in mid-air. Jean focused her concentration, projecting a telepathic beam through the portal as she sought out one specific mental signature.
The other X-Men grew restless as the silent search stretched on minute after minute. Kurt sighed in frustration and wandered over to the window, his tail wrapped tightly around his ankle. Alice took in his slight, forlorn form with a small shake of her head, unable to stop her heart from going out to the boy. Slowly, she unwrapped Edmund's tail from her waist and whispered for her children to stay put. Then, she walked over to where Kurt was standing.
"Hello," she said, speaking softly for fear of breaking Jean's concentration.
Kurt jumped slightly and looked up at her, his tail lashing behind him in consternation.
"Oh," he said. "Um, hello...Alice?" He cringed slightly as he realized he'd been fighting back the urge to call her Frau Wagner. Weird. The whole situation was just too, too weird.
Alice seemed to feel the same way. "So," she said. "How are you feeling about this whole scheme?"
Kurt shrugged. "I'm a little nervous, to tell you the truth. But I have a feeling we're on the right track."
Alice nodded, attempting a small smile. "That's good."
Kurt nodded too. "Ja. Sehr gut."
Both he and Alice were relieved when Jean's excited voice broke in on their awkward attempt at a conversation.
"I found him!" she gasped, holding her head with both hands. "God, it's a strain to hold on, but I know it's him." She grunted slightly, then shifted her eyes to Rachel.
"It's now or never, honey," she said with some difficulty. "Link with me now. Kurt, you lie down on the table."
Excusing himself politely, Kurt left Alice and leapt up onto the polished table. Rachel reached out and took his hand in hers.
"I've got a sense of where he is," Rachel told him. "Don't worry, I really think this is going to work."
Kurt nodded quickly. "All right, then," he said, trying to keep the nervousness from his voice. "Let's get this over with."
Rachel released his hand and put her fingers to his temples, her wide eyes seeming to burn with a raging fire as she focused her powers in ways she never had before.
"Hey, yo! Magnet-o! Just what is it with all this technobabble stuff? I mean, what's the plan, boss man?"
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr looked up from his soldering to pierce Toad with a cold glare.
"The plan is what it always has been," he said calmly, turning back to his work. "If humans are to learn their place, they must first recognize mutant superiority. And, if I am to teach them this lesson, I need 'intelligent' people to assist me. Hence, my own, magnetic version of Charles' precious Cerebro."
"Hey! You sayin' we're not smart?" Toad exclaimed, his large, pale-green eyes darting about the room as they tracked a fly. As his long, sticky tongue shot out to nab the swift insect in mid-air, Magneto turned to him with a superior glare.
"I believe you have just made my point for me, Mr. Tolanski," he observed coolly. "Now leave me. You have kept me from my work long enough with your pestering questions."
Toad stared at him for a moment, then hopped off, muttering under his breath as he approached the surveillance chamber, the only room in the entire underground base with a television. To his annoyance, Pietro, Lance, and Fred were already there.
"What'cha guys watchin', yo?" Toad asked as he leapt up to crouch on the arm of the battered old sofa someone had somehow snuck into the cramped room.
"Crap," Pietro told him in a bored tone of voice, though he spoke so quickly it was rather difficult to understand him. "Can you believe that with all this crazy technology, Magneto doesn't have cable or satellite TV?!"
"Yeah," Fred added, his own speech slow and deliberate. "There's nothin' on but soap operas and game shows."
"Ugh." Toad made a face.
Lance turned his glazed eyes from the fuzzy screen, acknowledging the Toad's presence for the first time.
"So, what did he say?" the lanky boy asked lethargically.
"Acck," Toad snorted, "he didn't say nothin', yo. He's just workin' to lower my self-esteem."
Pietro laughed. "Man, you been spending too much time at school! How can he work to lower something that isn't even there?"
"Come on, guys, leave the Toad alone," Fred spoke up, his small, piggish eyes narrowed. "It's not that I like the little snot-rag or anything, but it's not nice to laugh at people."
"Yeah, guys. Listen to the Blob. It's not nice to laugh at the Toad," Lance said, snickering himself.
Fred's eyes widened and he turned to face Lance, his teeth clenching as his anger rose. "Are you laughing at me?!" he demanded.
Pietro zipped over to place himself between Lance and Fred.
"Nonononononono!" Quicksilver assured the furious Blob. "He wasn't laughing at you, man! He was laughing at....the TV. Yeah. That game show guy said something funny."
Blob took a few moments to consider this. "Well," he said at last. "All right. I'll believe you. But nobody had better laugh at me! You know I don't like it when people laugh at me!"
"Don't we ever, yo," Toad muttered, shaking his head as Fred slowly calmed down.
"Look, dudes, I'm off to scrounge up some grub," Toad spoke up after a few minutes of watching an overweight housewife try to guess the price of a pound of cheese. "Any of you guys want somethin'?"
"We got any Twinkies?" Fred asked, his dull eyes brightening at the prospect of food.
Toad snorted. "I doubt it, yo," he said. "Magneto's the one stockin' the shelves here. But, I'll see what I can find, OK?"
Fred nodded and turned back to the flickering television screen.
Not one of the members of the Brotherhood were looking at the dozens of tiny surveillance screens that peppered the small room. As a result, the boys were taken completely by surprise by the sound of the Toad's high- pitched screaming some minutes later.
Lance and Pietro were on their feet at once, though it took the aptly named Blob a bit longer to raise himself from the ancient couch.
"Do you see anything, man?" Pietro asked Lance as they quickly scanned the surveillance screens for anything that could have caused the Toad's alarmed screams.
"It's the X-Freaks!" Lance exclaimed angrily. "It's got to be! Who else would know about this place?"
"Yo! Dudes! Sound the alarm!" Toad gasped as he leap back into the room in a state of near panic. "It's the X-Freaks! They've broken into the base, yo! And they've got that crazy Wolverine with them!"
"Told you," Lance said, slapping the alarm button and heading for the door. "Come on, let's get a move on! We've got to head them off before they can mess up the boss's plans!"
*******
"Magneto's lab should be just ahead," Scott said confidently.
"Like, this is way too easy," Kitty commented nervously. "I mean, we've made it this far and, like, there hasn't even been an alarm--"
She was cut off by a loud, repeating HONNK HONNK HONNK as red lights began to flash all down the corridor.
"Oops," Kitty said. "Looks like I, like, spoke too soon!"
"Come on!" Scott called as he started running towards the large cave barely ten feet away. The others followed close at his heels, Kurt taking up the rear. Suddenly, Wolverine burst out at them from an adjacent corridor.
"I met up with the Toad a little ways down the hall," he growled, his flinty eyes sharp. "That means the Brotherhood's here. We're movin' to Plan B, kids, so be on your guard."
Kurt met Wolverine's eyes and nodded once, moving to climb the sheer, metallic wall so he could crawl along the ceiling. As the X-Men charged into Magneto's lab, ready to meet the waiting Brotherhood head on, Nightcrawler kept to the shadows, carefully making his way to where Magneto himself was still bent over his nearly finished machine at the far end of the large cave.
Dropping silently to the floor, Nightcrawler crept up behind him, pressing a button on his holowatch and reaching out with his tail to tap Magneto's caped shoulder.
"Guten Tag, mein Herr," he said lightly as the self-proclaimed Master of Magnetism spun to face him. His eyes widened in shock at the unexpected sight before him.
"What---" His eyes narrowed in anger. "Who are you?"
Nightcrawler raised his eyebrows. "I would have thought that was obvious," he said with a slight smirk, using his tail to pull a long, holographic sword from the scabbard he had just caused to appear at his waist, his golden eyes narrowing into threatening slits. "But, since you cannot guess, at the risk of sounding clichéd I'll give you a hint. You killed my father."
Magneto blinked, stepping back slightly as he took in the sight of the demonic, threatening man standing before him.
"What are you playing at, Mystique," he snapped, a flush crossing his pale face as he struggled to collect himself. "I told you a thousand times that was an accident--"
Nightcrawler interrupted him with a dangerous glare. "Sorry, Magneto, but you guessed wrong. I suppose I should thank you for confirming your role in my father's death. It was a mystery that had haunted me all my life. Although," he said, his cold voice completely devoid of its characteristic humor. "I somehow doubt it was entirely an accident."
Magneto swallowed as Nightcrawler snapped his tail back and forth, the sword flashing as it reflected the florescent lights high above.
"However," he said darkly, "I'm afraid it is not so much my past but my future that concerns me at this moment. For, it is a future that you have put in jeopardy with this machine of yours."
Nightcrawler transferred the sword from his tail to his hand with an expert flip of the hilt, his golden eyes narrowing to deadly slits as he advanced on Magneto, causing the pale man to back into the small tool table behind him, scattering the delicate instruments across the floor.
"You fool," Magneto sneered, regaining something of his former confidence as he noted Nightcrawler's choice of weapon. "You think you can threaten me with a sword?"
The Master of Magnetism stretched out a pale, slender hand, curling his fingers as he attempted to use his formidable powers to wrench the sword from Nightcrawler's grasp. His eyes widened in alarm when nothing happened.
Nightcrawler smirked and advanced closer until the tip of his sharp, holographic sword rested just against Magneto's exposed neck.
"I believe we have much to discuss, mein Herr," he told the distressed Magneto, his voice as low and threatening as he could make it. When Magneto actually cringed, Nightcrawler shot him a wicked grin, his pointed teeth gleaming in the artificial light of the cave. He was actually beginning to enjoy this.
*******
Toad watched from behind a thick support beam as the X-Men attacked the other members of the Brotherhood. Quicksilver was battling it out with Spyke, as usual, while Cyclops took on Avalanche. Kitty and Rogue teamed up against the Blob while Jean used her powers to help out wherever she was needed. Wolverine had tumbled through a thick wall with Sabertooth some time ago and neither had been seen or heard from since. Only one of the X- Freaks was left unaccounted for--the Toad's personal nemesis, the so-called Incredible Nightcrawler.
Toad cast his beady gaze around the cavernous room, searching the shadows and the ceiling for signs of his elusive enemy. Finally, he spotted him...or someone who looked remarkably like him...holding Magneto helpless against the point of his gleaming sword.
Toad hesitated. He didn't exactly feel comfortable dealing with swords. Swords were sharp and they were dangerous and if a person wasn't careful, he could really get hurt playing with those things. If the freakboy was carrying swords, Toad didn't want to aggravate him.
But then, he considered the way Magneto was always brushing him aside, insulting him, or worse, ignoring him as though he wasn't even there. If Toad came to his rescue now, attacking the circus freak unawares and giving Magneto a chance to escape, perhaps he would realize the Toad was worth something after all.
Gathering his nerve, Toad jumped into action, crossing the space between his pole and Magneto's machine in only four leaps.
"Yo, freakboy," he called out, putting on his bravest voice to impress Magneto, "why don't you pick on someone your own size!"
Nightcrawler turned, freezing the Toad in place with his sharp, golden glare. "Were you addressing me, Herr Krote?" he asked coldly.
"Holy..." Toad goggled at the tall, shadowy man who was holding his boss securely by the shirt front with one powerful, tridactal hand and a long, disturbingly sharp sword in the other. He laughed nervously, his bulging eyes unnaturally wide. "Um, I'll just be going now, yo," he said quickly. "Sorry to have bothered you..."
"Not so fast, Toad," Nightcrawler snapped, snatching the Toad's leg with his long, sinewy tail before he could hop away. "The time for fighting is over. Now it's time to talk. I want you to help me gather everyone together, both the X-Men and the Brotherhood." He tilted his head towards the frightened, mortified, furious Magneto. "Magneto here has a little explaining to do."
*******
"I still don't know if I like this plan of yours," Jean said, the corners of her eyes creased with worry. "Rachel is only eleven, and she's never used her powers in this way before."
"I don't like it either," Alice agreed. "What if something goes wrong? What would happen to Kurt? Why does it have to be Kurt, anyway?"
"It will be easier for Rachel to project him into the past because he belongs there," Jean tried to explain. Alice just shook her head, her dark eyes anguished. Jean rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, and Alice shot her a grateful look.
Kurt looked up at his future wife from his crouch at the edge of the highly polished table. Her fear and worry were palpable, and Kurt couldn't blame her. This was a very risky plan they had cooked up, and there were no guarantees that it would work. He longed to be able to give her some comfort, to assure her that her husband would be safely returned to her, but he'd already hurt her once. He didn't want to make the situation worse with false reassurances. So, even though he ached to talk with her, he remained crouched on the table, watching, silent and somber, as Kylun approached his future daughter.
"You're certain that you saw a magnetic disturbance just before your father disappeared," Kylun asked Marti. Marti nodded.
"Yeah. I'd never seen anything like it. I'm sure it was more than powerful enough to knock Dad and Kurt off course. It's like Uncle Alistare said. If they were involved in a simultaneous teleport, Widget's portal could have caught them between dimensions and the magnetic disturbance would have done the rest."
"I still don't get it," Evan sighed tiredly. "But then, I never was very good at physics."
"To tell you the truth," Alistaire admitted, "I'm not all too clear on it either. But it's the only theory we have that seems to make even an iota of sense."
"Maybe to you, Professor," Bobby commented. "But how is Rachel supposed to use Widget's portal to contact Kurt in the past? We don't even know when in the past he is!"
"That is what we have telepaths for," Kylun pointed out. "It will be up to Jean to locate your friend once I ask Widget to open his time-portal. Then Rachel can use her powers to project the 'essence' of this Kurt into the past so he can contact his older self. Then, perhaps we can find a way to fix this temporal mess and get back to the more important issue of saving the world."
"Well said," Bobby nodded approvingly. Once Kylun turned away, however, he rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation and moved off to commiserate with Evan about the nature of gobbledygook.
"Excuse me," Rogue spoke up, "but why bother with all this astral projection mumbo jumbo in the first place? Why not just step through the portal once we find Kurt and contact him that way?"
"Do you really want to risk causing a chain reaction that could disrupt the entire timeline?" Scott asked her. "I don't think even I'm prepared to take on that much responsibility."
"But Kurt's been back there affectin' things for almost five hours now," Rogue pointed out.
"And we don't want to risk making the situation any worse," Scott told her with an air of finality. Then he sighed. "Look, Rogue, I don't like this any more than you do. Rachel is my daughter, after all, and Kurt's my best friend."
"Hey, I thought that was me," Bobby said, taking mock offense.
No one could see it, but Scott rolled his eyes behind his visor. "Anyway," he continued, pointedly ignoring Bobby, "it would kill me to have anything happen to either of them. But something's got to be done about this fast, and we haven't been able to come up with anything better. I'm willing to give the kids' plan a shot. If nothing else, at least we'll be able to pinpoint just when he is."
Rogue nodded, but her eyes were still dark with concern.
"Widget's ready," Kylun announced. "Just say the word and he'll open the portal."
Scott turned to his wife. "You ready, Jean?" he asked softly.
Jean nodded, her green eyes calm and confident. "Open the portal."
With some chipper muttering and a few BEEPs, the spherical robot known as Widget quickly opened a glowing door in mid-air. Jean focused her concentration, projecting a telepathic beam through the portal as she sought out one specific mental signature.
The other X-Men grew restless as the silent search stretched on minute after minute. Kurt sighed in frustration and wandered over to the window, his tail wrapped tightly around his ankle. Alice took in his slight, forlorn form with a small shake of her head, unable to stop her heart from going out to the boy. Slowly, she unwrapped Edmund's tail from her waist and whispered for her children to stay put. Then, she walked over to where Kurt was standing.
"Hello," she said, speaking softly for fear of breaking Jean's concentration.
Kurt jumped slightly and looked up at her, his tail lashing behind him in consternation.
"Oh," he said. "Um, hello...Alice?" He cringed slightly as he realized he'd been fighting back the urge to call her Frau Wagner. Weird. The whole situation was just too, too weird.
Alice seemed to feel the same way. "So," she said. "How are you feeling about this whole scheme?"
Kurt shrugged. "I'm a little nervous, to tell you the truth. But I have a feeling we're on the right track."
Alice nodded, attempting a small smile. "That's good."
Kurt nodded too. "Ja. Sehr gut."
Both he and Alice were relieved when Jean's excited voice broke in on their awkward attempt at a conversation.
"I found him!" she gasped, holding her head with both hands. "God, it's a strain to hold on, but I know it's him." She grunted slightly, then shifted her eyes to Rachel.
"It's now or never, honey," she said with some difficulty. "Link with me now. Kurt, you lie down on the table."
Excusing himself politely, Kurt left Alice and leapt up onto the polished table. Rachel reached out and took his hand in hers.
"I've got a sense of where he is," Rachel told him. "Don't worry, I really think this is going to work."
Kurt nodded quickly. "All right, then," he said, trying to keep the nervousness from his voice. "Let's get this over with."
Rachel released his hand and put her fingers to his temples, her wide eyes seeming to burn with a raging fire as she focused her powers in ways she never had before.
