The bell announced the arrival of new customers. The old store owner looked up and found three teenagers, one boy and two girls, walking into his store. His first thought was that they oughta be in school. Then he really looked at them for the first time. Their clothes were ripped to shreds and their bodies were pretty bruised up. There was dried blood on their clothes and they looked hungry.
"Are you kids alright?" he asked.
"We're fine. We're looking for some clothes and food though. Can you help us out?" said the boy. The man looked at him closer and realized that what he had thought were sunglasses were in fact some strange sort of visor.
"These trends nowadays," he chuckled to himself. "Yeah, I can help you. There's clothes over there in the corner and I can make you some fresh sandwiches right here in the store."
"Thanks. That'd be great," said the boy.
The man began fixing 3 sandwiches as the kids went and started looking at the clothes. He debated if he should say anything, but his curiosity finally prevailed.
"What happened to you kids? You're in pretty bad shape."
The three figures looked at each other. After a moment, the boy answered. "We were in a car wreck last night in the woods. We're okay, but we're just still a little rattled I guess."
"Oh," said the old man. "Have you seen a doctor or anything? How's your car? Do you need my phone to call your folks?"
"No, thank you. We'll be okay if we just get some new clothes and some food in our stomachs," replied the boy.
"What about you girls? Do you need anything?" asked the man, now growing suspicious. Their story just wasn't fitting together quite right.
"Nah," replied one of the girls. She had dark hair, but it was almost white in the very front. "We'll be fine as long as we get some food, like he said."
"Yeah, like she said," insisted the other girl.
"Okay, if you insist," said the man, still not convinced but not wishing to pry. They brought their new clothes to the counter and he rang up the total.
"Let's see now, that'll be $35 for the three sandwiches and four changes of clothing." The man looked up at the teenagers and counted them again. Yes, there were definitely only three of them. "Did you kids grab more clothes than you meant to?"
"No," said the boy again. "We have a friend outside watching our stuff. We'll need one more sandwich for him too."
"Oh, okay. That's $37 then."
The boy produced a wallet and pulled out the money. As the teenagers left the store, the old man watched and wondered what the truth about them was. He could tell they had lied to him the whole time.
"Kids!" thought the man. "No respect for their elders anymore."
*****
Scott, Kitty, and Rogue emerged from the store and walked back down the road for a little bit, then turned off into the woods. They went through the trees until they got to the spot where they had left Kurt. The blue boy was sitting on a fallen tree waiting for them.
"Finally! Vas took zo long?" asked Kurt.
Scott tossed him a sandwich. "Sorry, the guy in there was asking a lot of questions that are kinda hard to answer."
"Yeah, like who we are and why our clothes are destroyed!" exclaimed Kitty.
"Vell, you could 'ave been a little fazter. I'm ztarving!" Kurt ripped open the sandwich and devoured it in 4 bites.
"I swear, Kurt, can't ya slow down an eat like a normal person just once?"
"Zorry, but I 'ave a high metabolizm. Zo vat elze did ja bring me?"
"Here's some new pants and a shirt for you, although it doesn't really matter if you try to blend in or not since your image inducer is broken. I doubt a blue devil is gonna be accepted by people whether he's wearing pants or not!" laughed Scott.
"Ha, very vunny," said Kurt sarcastically as he took the clothes. His inducer had stopped working when the Sentinel hit him during the fight.
"Maybe if we, like, took you to visit Duke University. They might like you there!" giggled Kitty.
Scott and Kurt both stared at Kitty blankly, then groaned when they finally got it.
"Kitty, that's got to be the worst joke I've ever heard," said Kurt. "I'm officially revoking your speaking privileges for the day!" he joked.
"Hey! That's totally not fair!" said Kitty, now fully laughing.
Rogue stared blankly at her three friends. "Huh? Duke University? I don't get it."
Kurt stifled a laugh.
"Don't worry about it," said Scott. "It wasn't funny."
"Fine, but I still don't get it," said Rogue, glaring at Kurt.
Once everyone had finished eating and changing clothes, they all sat down in the small campsite they had rigged up to make plans for what to do next.
"Okay, so does anyone, like, have any idea where we need to be going?" asked Kitty.
"Nope," said Kurt quickly.
"Well," started Scott, "maybe. The question to ask is where would the professor and Logan go? I think it's safe to assume that they escaped the mansion when the soldiers arrived there. They probably took the Blackbird. So the question is, where would they go? Wherever they are, that's where we should head."
"Those two could be anywhere!" said Rogue.
"What about Storm and Jean? We know they went to Atlanta, right? Why don't we, like, try to get there?" proposed Kitty.
Rogue and Kurt stared at her in amazement. Scott suddenly began studying the ground in front of his feet.
"Are you zeriouz? How do you intend to get to Atlanta?!" asked Kurt. He loved being around Kitty and she certainly was very smart but she had her moments when all common sense just flew out the window.
"Oh, well, uh, I guess I didn't think of that!" said Kitty, laughing. "Oh well, nevermind!"
Rogue shook her head. That was probably the dumbest thing she had ever heard. She looked over at Scott, who was clearly deep in thought. She instantly realized what he was thinking about and looked back at Kitty and Kurt who were having a great laugh at Kitty's expense. Rogue hated to see Scott like this. She hated to see him sad, but more specifically, she hated to see him longing for Jean. She had wondered many nights why Jean had to always be between her and Scott. She sighed. That would probably never change.
Scott looked up at his friends and smiled. "Okay guys, here's how I see it. There's a town 5 miles west of here that the professor has always told me would be a good spot to land the Blackbird if, for some reason, I wasn't able to come back to the mansion. It's a small town, but the reason the professor liked it so much is because there's a huge empty area just outside of town. The Blackbird could touch down there without being seen and then we could leave it there while we went into town to get supplies and contact the mansion. I vote we head for that town. Maybe Logan and the professor will be there."
"Okay, zoundz great!" said Kurt. Kitty and Rogue also nodded their approval and the decision was made.
"Well then, we might as well get on," said Scott as he stood up slowly. His legs were sore from all the walking they had done combined with the lack of sleep. Everyone else groaned as they stood up, clearly feeling the same sore muscles that Scott was.
"Ah think Ah'll listen next time Logan starts tellin' me how I need to exercise more. Ah can't hardly move!" said an exasperated Rogue.
"Yeah, like, me too!" exclaimed Kitty.
"Alright guys, let's go!" Scott said in a failed attempt at energy.
The four mutants began slowly marching through the forest towards their new destination, hoping to meet Logan and the professor. At this point though, the way things were going, none of them truly expected to meet anyone once they got there.
