FYI:

~Personal Thoughts~

ESP

%The Written Word%

[Flashback]

"Normal Conversation (Duh)"

* Com Link or Telephone *

*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)

{Background noise--music, crowds, etc.}

HYDRA

I sat outside on the ballroom balcony enjoying the sun as I researched for my up coming persuasive speech. ~I swear this teacher's just loading the stuff on. You'd think the class was ending next week, not in June.~ I sighed though as I continued to read over the scientific information. ~At least we got to pick our topics. Who wouldn't find it fun to prove the existence of ghosts?~ I'd been tempted to do one on why mutants should be treated as equals, but I wasn't prepared to stop playing it low key quite yet. Of course people had seen me hanging around the Xavier mutants, but they figured I was simply naïve and didn't know any better.

"What are you reading?"

"'The Scientific Proof of Survival After Death'."

"Fascinating. Wanna play some B-Ball?" I detected a hint of sarcasm and looked up from my stack of papers that I'd piled on my lap as I propped my feet up on a deck table.

"I've really gotta work on this, Sam."

"You've been working on that for the past three hours." I sighed as I leaned back in my seat and shaded my eyes as I looked up at him. "Come on, we need another person. Just a half an hour."

"This is a big part of my marking period grade."

"When's it due?" ~This is going to sound really dumb.~

"Wednesday."

"What's today?"

"Saturday."

"How many days do you have to work on it yet?"

"Four."

"That wasn't so hard was it?"

"Reverse psychology isn't going to work on me." I looked back down into my lap and kept reading.

"Do I have to freeze her and personally drag her down to the court myself?" I could hear Bobby's voice from below the balcony and groaned. ~He wouldn't dare on penalty of death.~ I glared up at Sam who just shrugged mischievously. "Well?"

"No. I don't have time."

"Sure you do. You can make it." He gave me his best puppy dog eyes, which would normally have melted my heart but I was in a stubborn mood.

"No, Sam." He was being equally stubborn though and grabbed me from behind yanking me up outta my chair and spilling my research into the wind. He shot us both up into the air as I cursed at him. "Damn it, Sam…look what you did…All my work--gone."

I forgot my anger though as we flew through the air and I actually found myself enjoying the feeling of weightlessness. Of course, Sam was still working on those landings, but for him it didn't matter, he was practically invulnerable once going. I crash landed on my butt and skidded to a stop bruising my tailbone. I sat there for a few moments allowing my glare to return at the rude interruption to my work. "Sam, you better start running, 'cause I'm going to kill you if I ever get my hands on you."

"Yeah, yeah, when hell freezes over. You know you want to play." Bobby was standing behind me a basketball spinning on his fingertips. I glared at him too for good measure as I slowly stood up and brushed off my jeans. "And you, once I figure out how to choke you to death, you're as good as gone, Drake."

"Sure…prove it on the court. First to ten wins." He tossed the ball at me and I caught it. "You and Ray, versus me and Sam."

"All right." I stepped onto the smooth pavement of the driveway beneath the hoop and checked the ball with Bobby. I passed to Ray quickly who shot for an easy point before Sam and Bobby had so much as moved to block. The game continued on for a good half an hour and Ray and I won in the end--ten to eight. "Now, I need to find my research which has gone to all corners of the institute, and get back to work." I shot a glare at Sam who smiled sheepishly.

"No way, I want a rematch."

"Forget it Drake, we won." Ray walked off tossing the ball over his shoulder and with a sweet swish it sunk through the hoop. Sam retrieved the ball as Bobby frowned at Ray's retreating form then turned to me. "Alright, one on one then."

"There's two of you, that's not exactly one on one." Bobby grinned as he ran and jumped up onto Sam's back. "You're completely insane. Are you sure you haven't frozen your own brain, yet?"

"Scared we'll beat you?" Sam flicked the ball up so that Bobby now held it and he checked with me. I rolled my eyes.

"No. You're going to be pretty klutzy up there, this'll be too easy."

"Hey, is that a shot at me?" Sam frowned slightly as Bobby continued grinning broadly.

I drove in and made an easy lay up. "Like I said, easy." I tossed the ball back to Bobby who immediately took a shot and made it without Sam having to even move 'im closer. ~Okay, so this suddenly became somewhat of a challenge.~ I went to drive past again but found myself brought to a dead halt as my arm was grabbed. Bobby jumped down off Sam's back and grabbed the ball up and shot scoring.

"Holding!" I looked down at where Sam was pinning my arms to my sides playfully grinning. "You mind?"

"Not at all." If anything he continued to grip me more tightly but not enough to hurt as I struggled to free myself.

"Boys…" I rolled my eyes as Bobby made shot after shot with no one to stop him.

"That's ten."

"You cheated," I spat out as Sam continued to hold my arms down. I didn't know if he was trying to keep me from killing Bobby or if he was just flirting. ~I'll go with option number one.~

He leaned over and spoke into my ear causing me to change my mind. "Aren't you glad you chose to play with us?"

"Ugh, you practically kidnapped me, what choice did I have?" I continued squirming in his hold and finally managed to spin myself around and found myself facing him in an even more awkward position now that Sam had my arms pinned behind me and he himself looked slightly awkward as he had to reach around to keep his hold. I blinked a few times trying not to stare directly into his eyes but found it difficult not to since we were the exact same height.

Both he and I were breathing heavily from the exertion of my struggling against him. "Game's over hon." It took a few moments for it to register and he then let my arms go stepping back.

"Sorry, I didn't hurt you, did I?" He wasn't looking at me anymore but anywhere but me. I cocked my head to the side slightly curious as to how this guy did one-eighties so quickly.

"No, what hurt most was that crash landing of yours. You really need to work on that." I smiled warmly at him hoping he'd decide to do another one-eighty but saw no sign of one coming. I scratched my head and sighed in defeat as I turned to go. "Well, I'm back to square one. At least I saved my research on the computer."

CANNONBALL

I heaved a huge sigh as I tried to calm my nerves but found that to be nearly impossible. I knocked on the door and almost hoped there wouldn't be an answer. "Come in."

"Hey, Al."

"Oh, hey Sam." She was sitting on her bed Indian style bent over a laptop. "Did you need something?"

"Um…well…I was wondering…do you remember the deal I made you?"

She stopped typing and looked up slightly confused. "And what one's that, hon?"

"I told you when you woke up that if you got moving around in the next three days…"

"You'd take me to a movie? Sure."

"You wanna go?" She quickly shut her computer and grinned.

"You bet. I could use a break."

"So how come you fought one earlier?" She stuck her tongue out as she reached into her closet and came back out with a hoodie.

"Oh just be quiet, I was in a stubborn mood then. So who's driving?" She picked her keys up off the dresser as she spoke and tossed them at me. ~Guess that was a rhetorical question.~

"Guess I am."

"Give the boy a prize." She was all smiles at the thought of leaving the mansion for a night. "Hey hon, I'm not angry at you for that whole homework fiasco this afternoon. I was a li'l peeved at the time, and I just needed to cool off. I did have fun though, playing you guys."

"Okay…"

"You're a sweetheart. I'm practically jealous how you're so forgiving all the time."

"I didn't think you were really mad to begin with."

"Guess I'm loosing my edge." She laughed as we hit the bottom of the stairs.

While I bought tickets for the latest Jim Carey comedy she stood in line buying snacks. She joined me loaded down with popcorn, sodas, and candy. "What happened to the diet?"

"You only live once. Sometimes you just realize some things are pointless--like diets. Live for today, right?" She grinned as she handed me my share of the junk food and we went inside the theatre.

Two hours and several hearty laughs later we had left the theater and were walking back into the institute. "You guys better get down to the planning room, now!" I stopped and stared after Roberto as he ran past.

"What's that all about?"

"I dunno." She shrugged as she started running after him. I quickly followed in confusion.

"I have some unfortunate news. Juggernaut has been freed and is currently attacking a military base. We must act quickly because at any point he may destroy a nearby dam." Everyone exchanged looks as we wondered how we were going to stop him. Last time we'd only been able to do so because Rogue had absorbed him and had been able to become an equal match.

As we all got into the Velocity Al turned to me in confusion. "What's the big deal?" Juggernaut wasn't called unstoppable for nothing. The only way to bring him down was to remove his helmet and attack him with psychic blasts. Luckily we had four psychics on the team, but still, how to get the helmet off?

"Juggernaut's practically unstoppable is what," Bobby sneered as he got on behind us. "The guy just doesn't stop, for anything."

"So how do we stop him?" She looked around at everyone who were all looking grim. "Well?"

"We have to remove his helmet, so someone can use psychic attacks on him."

"That's it?" She almost started laughing but didn't when she saw that everyone was still down and out. "Okay, now what?"

"It's nearly impossible to get that close to him." She sat back in her seat and stared out the window in thought and didn't stir for the rest of the trip. Everyone was there except for Sarah, Rogue, and Beast who'd all stayed back at the institute. Gambit sat across from me and looked to be asleep except for the fact that he was continuously shuffling cards. Bobby sat next to him and was leaning forward between the seats to talk to Jubilee and Amara. Roberto and Ray sat in front of us and talked in hushed tones. For the most part, everyone was talking, trying to keep their minds off the task ahead.

HYDRA

"It looks as if the only place to land is beneath the dam." Ororo was simply stating the obvious because ev'rywhere else was in a state of ruin.

"I'd rather not, but there ain't any other choices." Logan brought the Velocity down gently beneath the massive dam and I could now see the destruction caused by the powerful mutant. Buildings lay in heaps of rubble and soldiers were in ev'ry direction trying to escape the destructive path.

Juggernaut, or whatever his name was, definitely did not know how to keep a low profile. He came bursting through a solid brick wall and stepped out onto the top of the dam. I watched from several hundred feet below in horror as he brought his fists crashing down and cracked the top open. Water began to spill over as I watched and without even thinking about it I raised my hand and pushed the water back. Bobby took his cue and filled in the gaping hole with an ice wall.

Of course Juggernaut was more brawn then brain, but he wasn't too stupid to realize that someone had just spoiled his fun. He looked down at us collective X-Men standing at the bottom and I think he was most likely smirking beneath the enormous red helmet he wore. "Going up!" Sam grabbed me from beneath the arms and shot us both up to the top of the dam. He dropped me so that I could make a slightly more graceful landing on my feet rather than my butt. I landed in a crouching position allowing the shock to be spread out rather than be absorbed solely by my knees.

"Looks like Xavier got himself a new kid." I turned to face the enormous behemoth and smirked confidently.

"Yeah, and hon, you don't stand a chance."

"What's a puny little girl like you going to do?" I sensed the rest of the team's arrival behind me and my smirk only widened. I stepped forward and he immediately went to throw a bone crunching punch. It was funny to see the shock in his eyes as the blow went straight through me as I disappeared into thin air. I pulled myself back together among the rest of the team where Gambit was tossing charged cards, Beserker was sending out electric bolts, and Cyclops was blasting him full force.

"Tell me again how to get the helmet off." I turned to Kurt who nodded then disappeared with a *bamf!

He reappeared on the back of Juggernaut and flipped a small latch but the giant quickly picked him off like a bug and tossed him back towards us. Kurt slammed into me causing me to fall down as well. I gently rolled his unconscious form off of me as I got back to my feet.

Kitty had disappeared from view but she came back up behind Juggernaut and was able to undo a latch as well before she too was tossed aside. I didn't like seeing my friends tossed around like rag dolls and was starting to lose my cool.

Jamie took the next shot and multiplied a dozen times surrounding Juggernaut. This only infuriated the guy even more and all of them got wiped out and the real Jamie was sent flying. Jean caught him with her telepathy and brought the younger boy back down to earth.

"That's it." I stepped forward once more and evaporated. I concentrated on my powers remembering some of the things the professor had been trying to teach me. I felt like I finally understood what Emerson meant in 'Nature' when he said he felt like a transparent eye.

I was staring down at Juggernaut's back and could see the two latches that had already been undone. I focused on my hand and it appeared outta thin air and undid yet another latch. Juggernaut spun around confused to see nobody there as my hand slipped back into mist. ~Way cool.~

"Who's there?" He continued to spin around aimlessly and confused. The rest of the team was staring but went back to attacking him with ev'rything they had.

I bided my time and repeated the process several more times 'til all the latches had been undone. The next blast from Cyclops sent the helmet soaring into the air and dropped off the side of the dam.

I found myself struggling to concentrate any more and dropped from several feet up in the air. Immediately Juggernaut began to charge at me. "You…" He didn't get any further with his threat as the psychic attacks began to take effect on him. He fell to his knees holding his head in his hands as I weakly pushed myself up to kneel on my knees.

"Al…" I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Sam looking worried.

"I'm okay. Just tired." He nodded as he helped me to my feet and I found myself leaning on him heavily. I put an arm around his shoulders as he held me up. Obviously I wasn't ready to go that long in my vapor form. "Is it over?"

"Uh huh. Good going." I nodded slowly as I attempted to straighten up my posture and stand on my own two feet. I managed a weak smile as he helped me back down to the Velocity. I sunk back into my seat and closed my eyes but my ears were ringing with the buzz of noise around me.

I opened my eyes to see what the shrieking from Amara and Jubilee was about and gasped as well when I saw that Bobby's temporary fix was letting go. Logan was struggling to get the Velocity into the air and was cursing openly and Storm wasn't even trying to quiet him anymore.

I slipped up from my seat and went to the closed hatch. Despite the pain in my head I knelt down and placed a hand on the small crack that gave away the door and melted through it so that I was now standing outside.

The roar of the falling water became deafening outside as I ran around to the front of the Velocity to face the crumbling dam. ~Please work. I can't let 'em get hurt. I can't let him get hurt.~

A large crack that had appeared was quickly widening and starting to let go. The water hit the ground and came rushing directly at me and the Velocity as I concentrated all my power into this one single task. ~This is all Juggernaut's fault. If something happens to my friends…~ I could almost feel the electricity behind my eyes as they shone blue with anger. ~"I believe that your powers may be emotionally connected."~ The professor's words swam through my mind aimlessly.

I held both of my hands out in front of me and the water swirled away from me and left the area around the Velocity alone. The ruins of the military base were being swept away on the waves of water around me but I barely noticed. I collapsed to my knees praying they'd hurry and get into the air.

The crack in the dam split open and the entire dam began to collapse. The force of the water was too much for me to handle and I began to panic. ~NO! I'm not going to let him get hurt. I can't let my friends suffer.~

Again the professor's words swam in and out quickly as I felt my emotions switch over to something I'd never really felt before--love for another. ~Good feelings can accomplish more than the bad.~ I had no clue where this philosophy had come from but it seemed to work. ~I'm turning into a regular sap.~ My eyes shone a bright green as I stood back up on my feet and the water spread apart farther than before. ~Come on Logan, I don't know how long I can hold on.~

The engines whined as the Velocity moved into the air and I looked up one last time as it left--me alone. ~I love you, Sam.~ I blinked back my tears as my strength failed and the water came sweeping directly at me.

CANNONBALL

"Like, where's Al?" Kitty's words caused me to spin around realizing that Al had disappeared. I looked in every seat and even glanced into the back but she wasn't to be seen. She wasn't on the Velocity, which meant one thing--we'd left her.

"We have to go back." I ran up to the cockpit not caring how many weeks of house arrest I got from Logan.

"Sit back down bub." ~How can he not turn this thing around? Why's he being stubborn and if I didn't know that he was about ten times stronger than me I'd try and kill him.~

"Al's back there." He turned to look at me and I could see that he already knew. His eyes were glassy in appearance and for once I thought he might actually cry.

"There's nothing we can do." ~What does he mean? Why isn't there anything we can do? We can go back for God's sake. That would be a start.~

"Why? Why can't we go back? She could be hurt." I looked at the professor and Ororo and the professor looked lost in thought and Storm would only shake her head sadly. ~What's going on? What aren't they telling me? Would someone please tell me something?!?!~

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Miss Frost trying to smile warmly at me. "She made the greatest sacrifice."

~What's that supposed to mean? No…~ "But why?" I stared out at the water that now flooded the area where the Velocity had once sat. There wasn't a single sign of any living thing down there as the waters frothed white furiously. ~No, she can't be gone. She's not allowed to go…~

Sam, there's something that she was thinking as she… I could feel myself slowly beginning to break down on the inside as I stared at the angry waters.

She's not dead! She can't be. I continued to stare at the waters hoping to see her laughing at how stupid I was acting.

Her last thought was...'I love you, Sam'. I gritted my teeth angrily as I turned to look back at the professor, the man who'd given me hope for so long was now stealing it away from me.

"No, that's not her last thought." The professor looked slightly taken aback by the way I was acting. "She's not dead. I refuse to believe it."

I went and sat back down in my seat with everyone staring at me curiously. ~She's not dead. She's too strong to die like that.~

AUTHOR'S NOTE

God, I love to kill this girl don't I? Poor Al, always in a life or death situation. She just never gets to be happy for more than a week at a time. Let's see she gets a kiss from Mark, winds up under a pile of rocks, Gets a dance with Sam, winds up nearly dead at her father's hands, rocks a football game, drowns. Life really isn't fair.

Qwerty: You'll see the other's reactions soon enough. Rose will remain loyal.

GiveGodtheglory: Thank the heavens for that sweet girl. Yes, rock on tomboys (seeing as I'm one of 'em, so yeah, rock on!) Yes, I totally believe that if you sleep on your textbook you'll do better on a test. Totally forgot to study and it was too late to start, so I slept on it and bingo! A on test.

Nie Starwhistler: No worries, if that's all that needs to be said, then so be it.