Sorry I haven't updated in a while. But something was wrong with my internet connection, so I couldn't go on and update. Thank you all for the reviews and I give you all a mental hug!

* * *

"I'm still not sure if this is really real." Rogue muttered. "I mean, this is a lot to take in."

"Well, believe it, you're here now. The best thing to do is accept it." Blaze said.

They were casually walking down the street towards the library. Bobby, John, and Rogue had no problem doing that, but Blaze looked uneasy and nervous.

Rogue accidentally tripped and stopped herself from falling by clinging onto the person in front of her-Blaze's-shoulder. Blaze jumped in the air at Rogue's touch and swung an arm at Rogue's head.

Rogue was caught off guard and didn't have time to react. Luckily, a stream of ice froze Blaze's arm an inch away from Rogue's face.

Blaze realized what she was doing and muttered, "Sorry."

"That's ok." Rogue said shakily.

John sighed and got out his lighter, but Blaze shook her head, ponytail whipping in the wind, and made her arm hot, hot enough to melt the ice.

Rogue looked around with a worried look on her face. "Everybody, block Blaze from anyone else's view."

They did so until all the ice had melted away.

"Thanks Bobby, but I just hope no one saw you or this is over before it began." Rogue said gratefully.

"If they did, we'd be in chains by now." Blaze said. "Sorry about that. I just get really jumpy when I go outside."

"That's understandable." John said.

Bobby felt something stir within him. John usually wasn't this level-headed and quiet. Something was up. Maybe it was because he got beat by a girl, (Bobby smiled at the thought) but most likely it was something else.

Blaze and Pyro continued onwards, but Bobby held Rogue back a second. He tried to kiss her cheek, but she pulled back. "Bobby . . . you know I don't want to hurt you . . . I nearly did last time!" Rogue argued reluctantly.

"I'm just thinking that if we die here . . ." Bobby said with a playful smile on his face.

Rogue frowned. "Bobby . . ."

Too late. Bobby did a millisecond peck on her mouth before Rogue could react. Nothing happened to him. Rogue sighed in relief. Then she pushed him back. "Don't do that!"

Bobby just smiled. "But you liked that, didn't you?"

Rogue grinned and admitted she did.

Suddenly, John's voice could be heard, "HEY! HURRY UP, WILL YA?"

* * *

"Here's the vent. I'll go first, so um . . . either Bobby or Pyr-uh, that guy," Blaze pointed to John, "give me a lift, then Rogue, and then somehow get yourselves up. The other one can be the watch out."

John exploded. "That guy? That guy? You stopped in mid-word when you said my mutant name. If everyone in this stupid place hates me or at least the name 'Pyro' then just call me 'John' for god sakes!"

Blaze looked unfazed. "Fine then, JOHN. You know, you have an Australian accent when you get mad. It's cute, why don't you always sound that way? Maybe some people in this reality would actually like you just cause of your accent." She teased him. For some reason she liked pushing him to the edge. It was just so funny to see him that mad and irritated.

And she didn't usually get to do stuff like that to people or she'll get in trouble. Everyone here pretty much dislikes him anyway, so no one besides him will tell her off.

Bobby chuckled and Rogue put a gloved hand to her mouth, suppressing a smile.

John was outraged. Nobody, no GIRL talks to him like that. Maybe Bobby, but hey, Bobby was his best bud for a long time. But he just met this girl and already she knew how to get under his skin.

"Oh shut up and get your fat butt in that vent!" John snapped.

"Ooh, I'm hurt." Blaze retorted. She was used to worse than that.

"I'll get you up there myself if I have to!" John said, realizing his months of speech therapy to get rid of his Australian accent was all ebbing away as he yelled on.

Blaze was standing on a couch. He grabbed her legs and practically shoved her into the vent. Blaze had just opened it. Good thing her scream was muffled by the vent.

"Rogue next." John said gruffly.

Rogue shook her head. "No way, John. Bobby's helping me up, aren't you Bobby?"

"Yeah, John you keep watch. And don't try anything." Bobby reminded him.

John rolled his eyes and silently cursed Bobby as he helped his girlfriend up. Blaze had her arms out to help Rogue up into the vent.

"Want to go last or should I?" Bobby asked.

"Since you obviously don't trust me, you can go last." John said.

"No, because then you'll be near Rogue-"

"Just make up your mind, Iceman!"

"I go last."

"Thank you. Finally."

"Whatever."

Bobby stood directly in front of the vent, and then pointed at his feet. Ice came from his fingers and grew under his feet. The ice carried him all the way up to the vent, where he climbed in. John rolled his eyes, and tried to climb onto Bobby's ice path. Unfortunally Pyro slipped and fell onto his butt.

"Hey, some help down here!" John hissed up there.

"Burn down my ice path first." Bobby's echoing voice came.

John made a fireball in his hand and slowly melted it and then stood right where Bobby had.

"Ice away."

Ice did not come from the vent. Ice just formed underneath his feet, catching the pyromaniac off guard.

Once Pyro got up there and melted the ice, they closed the vent cage behind them and crawled away.

In short, it was a long, boring crawl in the vent. It was terribly dusty, and each person sneezed at least every two minutes. An occasional spider or rat crawled by, and it was starting to get a little crowded. And it was uncomfortably warm since Blaze had to use her fire to light the way.

"Ow! You just crawled on my hand!"

"Watch it!"

"Shut up!"

"No, YOU shut up!"

"This is going to be a long day."

After what seemed like forever, they reached their destination.

"Hyee-yah!" Blaze kicked the vent open and jumped down to the darkness.

"Go on, it's only a short way!" she shouted.

Rogue followed, then the boys. It was pitch black, so they couldn't see anything. They heard a loud CLICK and a ball of fire was in John's hands. Blaze followed suit by creating two fire balls. They found a couple of old fashion torches hanging on the walls and lit them up. Their location was now revealed.

"This place is dustier than that vent." John said, "Can we burn it?"

They all looked at John.

"What? It was just a suggestion!" John defended himself.

"Ok, everybody, look around and search for anything that looks interesting." Blaze ordered.

They all scattered to the four corners of the rooms and rummaged through newspaper articles and . . .

"Computer disks. Bingo." John whispered. He threw all the paper off the table and found an old computer. Well, new in their time.

Blaze noticed the computer and said, "Hey, isn't that an old computer? Those things are illegal now. All the new computers are censored and are under twenty-four hour surveillance. To look for potential mutants. Of course, we're not as stupid as they think so we modified our computers so we have more freedom. And we even have a chat room for mutants."

John proceeded to turn it on.

"No! Don't do that!

John sighed in an annoyed way. "Now what?"

"Hello! If they would hide this, which meant that the computer was planted there so you'd want to activate the disks here! That could activate a silent alarm. Maybe, I don't know, but we can't take that risk." Blaze explained.

"What if they had hidden cameras here?" John demanded.

"Well, another thing is that the X-Men shut off all the power in the library. So the computer wouldn't work anyway."

"Fine." John said gruffly as he moved his finger away from the switch.

Bobby and Rogue had come over with several article clippings in hand. "Take those with you Pyro," Bobby said, "We'll check them out at the mansion-um, I mean that . . . place where everybody else is."

"Let's go."

So they got back up in the vent and crawled back out again.

"Whoever thought we'd actually need someone to memorize the ventilation map." John said to no one in particular.

"Shut it, John." Rogue ordered.

"Yeah yeah yeah."

Blaze hopped out of the vent. They waited for her "Ok!"

It did not come.

"Blaze?" John called. "Bet she fell and broke a nail or something. All right, I'm going out."

John hopped down and was face to face with a man with an expression of pure hate. John's heart skipped a beat when he saw Blaze on the floor with her eyes closed. Then his heart just stopped when he noticed a badge on the man's chest.

A badge that read, "Mutant Police" . . .