SEWER TROLLS AND PSYCHO PENGUINS (part 3)
"Gah bah zah mah!" The sewer trolls were back, and in full force, on Kurt's head.
"Help!" Kurt struggled to get out from under their relentless assault, but the trolls would not back down no matter how much he tried to stop them.
And Mystique was still there, holding that bucket with the fish and slime in it. And the penguins were there too. "Awk awk awwwk!"
"Ach, leave me alone!" Kurt demanded, hitting the trolls with his fists. It had no effect.
"Awk awk awwwk awwk!" The penguins pummeled Kurt with their flippers. Kurt had always liked the penguins at the aquarium. They were cute, not psychotic fiends like the ones that were attacking him now.
Something was holding him down. A big, fat something that helped the penguins smack him around and otherwise abuse him till he was almost unconscious.
Wouldn't this torment ever end?
Just then he heard music playing somewhere in the distance. He couldn't quite make out the tune, though. Nonetheless, it sounded familiar to him . . . and quite pretty, too.
"I hope this works," Kitty said. She stroked Kurt's forehead; he was still so hot as a result of the mystery virus. "Kurt's getting worse, I think."
"I don't like the sound of that," said Storm. She checked Kurt's vital signs and shook her head. "He is getting worse. We'd better get him to the critical care unit on the double."
"Is he . . .?"
"Not yet, but if we don't do something soon, he might."
They put him on a stretcher and brought him to another part of the hospital wing, one with more advanced medical equipment. Including life support, if that became necessary.
Kitty absently started to sing again, a different tune this time.
Kurt seemed to be relaxing a bit. Maybe she should take a rest for a few minutes, while she could. She sat in the chair . . .
. . . and when the music stopped, she saw Kurt begin to stir. She rushed to his side again and told him, "I hope you wake up soon. If you don't get better soon, I don't know what I'm going to do. You have to come back to us, Kurt."
Just then Kurt shuddered violently in his bed. Kitty yelled, "I need some help here now! He's having convulsions or something!"
Kitty watched helplessly as Xavier and the others rushed in and put Kurt in restraints again.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked.
"He's relapsing. His temperature's going through the roof. This isn't your usual illness—I think there's more going on here than we know."
"What are you suggesting, Professor?"
"I'm sensing some sort of mental interference. It's as if someone or something has control of Kurt's mind . . ."
"Like who?"
"I'm not really sure. I'm not aware of any mutants who can control dreams."
"Who would want to do this to Kurt?" Scott asked.
"Someone from his past, maybe?" Rogue suggested. "He said he had enemies before he came here."
"I'll look into that right away. In the meantime, Jean, you stay with him and see if you can reach Kurt somehow."
"I'll do what I can," Jean assured him.
Miles away, a twentysomething mutant watched a young girl in a trance. Her name was Mariel, but she called herself Reverie. She had come to New York to seek her fame and fortune. On her first day, she had met a man who offered to help her become a model. Once she went with him, though, she found the truth startlingly different.
She didn't know his name. He had told her to call him Jack. It seemed he had a problem with mutants in general, and with the X-Men in particular. And he needed her help to even the score.
He had used his weak telepathic power to locate the X-Man known as Nightcrawler. Then he forced Reverie to begin assaulting him in his sleep, turning his dreams to nightmares—and very bizarre nightmares at that. She hadn't wanted to hurt him, but Jack used his talents to brainwash her into submission.
"It's just a matter of time, Wagner, before you snap. I waited till you were weak and vulnerable, then I hit you with my secret weapon. And once you're disposed of—"
"Disposed of?" Reverie interrupted him. "You're not going to kill him, are you?"
"Why not?"
"You can't! He's . . ."
"He's the reason I have to hide like a fugitive instead of proudly walking through the highest levels of society. He's had this coming for a long time . . ."
Reverie tuned out the rest of Jack's rant. She wanted to ask what Kurt had done to him that had made him hate the boy so, but she didn't dare. She knew there had to be a better solution than killing him, but at the moment she was too scared to think straight. Maybe later, an opportunity would present itself, but for now she did as she was told.
Kurt was quieter now, but he still had the occasional fit. Try as she might, Jean couldn't break through the mental interference. Maybe she should ask the professor . . .
"How's it going?" Kitty asked.
Jean shook her head. "Not good. Whoever's doing this is pretty powerful."
"Like, Professor Xavier powerful?"
"I'm not sure.I can almost reach him, but then . . . it's like something keeps getting in my way."
"Do they know you're in there?"
"I wish I knew. I don't think so, but . . . it's possible that whoever's behind this is strong enough to shield their presence."
"Whoa." Scott gasped. "Who's that powerful?"
"Cerebro is trying to locate the source of the mutant power now," Xavier said. "We've narrowed it down to a handful of locales, and I'm sending teams to each one to check it out."
That news did not sit well with Jack, who sensed them coming and planned to move himself and Reverie to a safer location.
But she had other ideas.
"I won't go with you," she told him.
"You what?"
"What you're doing is wrong, Jack! I won't be a part of it any more!"
He pushed her down to the floor. "Listen, you little tramp, you wouldn't even be alive without me! You do what I say—"
"Not any more," she said. "You can't stay awake forever . . ."