CHAPTER 4

The Amazing Nightcrawler

'Just great.'

'How many.'

'I counted thirty.'

'Same here.'

'Great six for each of us.'

'Shut up Tabby.'

The Sirens had followed the kidnapper through the Bayville forest to a narrow cliff face that jutted outwards. The girl was tied up near the edge so the only way to reach her was to go through the thirty man strong gang.

'Couldn't you just phase through the ground and Grab her?' Amara asked Kitty.

'Three things Amara,' Kitty replied. 'One it's too far for me to hold my concentration. Two the cliff's too small to hold my body underground, an three even if I could grab her they'd come down here and we'd end up fighting them anyway.'

Amara muttered something under her breath then said 'So we're fighting?'

'Yep' Tabitha replied, 'so let's go kick some ass!'

  As one the Sirens jumped from their hiding place in the trees and took up fighting positions.

'Give us the girl!' Tabitha shouted cockily. 'It's past her curfew!'

The entire gang jumped about a foot in the air.

'Shit it's the fuzz!'

        'Where's my piece!'

        'I surrender!'

The girls could only watch shaking with laughter as the gang floundered around. Surprisingly one man wasn't making an ass of himself; he had a thin and angled body with a sharp face and long snow-white ponytail. Looking around he raised one hand and said in a voice barely above a whisper.

'Enough. They are not the police.'

Immediately the gang simply stopped moving, most barely dared to breath. The man turned slowly facing the Sirens, who had recovered from the spectacle and were now watching him cautiously. 'This has nothing to do with you, leave.' He said in that quiet voice

'No way buddy!' Tabitha grinned, 'we're taking the girl home. Now we can do this two ways, one you can give us the girl or two we can go through you and take her.'

'I can not allow that,' the man breathed. Turning his head he nodded to one of the gang members who pulled out a long knife and ran up to the girl putting it against her throat. 'Leave or she will die!'

'Don't worry,' Jean whispered I'll stop that guy you…' It happened almost too fast to see. Jean broke off from what she was saying as a shadow seemed to fly out from the edge of the cliff itself. Before anyone could react it shot forward at the man with the knife, there was a sickening crack like a gunshot and an agonised scream. The sirens stared as soon as the figure had stopped moving his body had been thrown into sharp relief, or would have been if it weren't covered in what looked to be a monk's habit with the bottom modified to make trouser legs. The reason why was made painfully obvious by the fact that he had torn the man's arm out if its socket by grabbing it, wrenching it away from the girl and shoving his right leg into the man's side in less than a second, something that would have been impossible if the legs had been left as a robe. The guy jumped up and dropkicked the man into the gang, landed on his hands, grabbed the knife and in one movement spun, hacked the ropes holding the girl off, landed on his feet and dived at the group of would-be kidnappers.

The Sirens had just enough time to hear him shout in a German accent 'Get her away from here!' before he was on them.

'That's him' the pony tailed man shouted as the new fighter landed in a blur of fists and feet. 'The one he wants. Get him!'

'Come on' Jean called to the others. 'We can get her now!'

'But what about him?' Kitty asked hurriedly

'Don't worry,' Rogue said 'We can help him when the girl's alright.'

The Sirens rushed forward Amara and Tabitha at the front blasting energy bombs and fireballs at any one who got in their way. They were halfway there when the girl rushed towards them shouting and pointing. Jean looked down and screamed, someone had thrown a grenade at them.

'SCATTER' she shrieked at the top of her lungs using her telekinesis to pick it up and throw it over the cliff, unfortunately she was half a second too late. The grenade exploded throwing the sirens all over the cliff. Tabitha careened into the girl knocking her to the ground. Jean already in the air flew ten feet and smashed her head off a rock knocking her out, Rogue and Amara were tossed head over heel and rolled quite near to the group of trees that they had confronted the gang minutes before. But Kitty was blasted right of the edge the cliff.

Back in the centre the robed figure and the pony tailed kidnapper were fighting with incredible speed their arms and legs blurring as they battled. The remaining members of the gang that were still conscious had long since run from the combined power of the sirens and the person under the robe. The robed fighter did not see in normal terms, instead he viewed the world through the electromagnetic spectrum giving him the ability to feel where people were as well as seeing them. That is why even though it happened behind him he still 'saw' one the girls who was helping his sister get knocked off the cliff face. It took him a split second to decide, feinting a sweep at his opponent's legs he spun into a crouch and leapt fifteen feet forward, landed on all fours and jumped right off the edge after the girl. All in less time than it took for ponytail to recover from his block.

Kitty screamed as she fell to her death. Surprisingly her mind was clearer than it ever had been. She could see the details of her life flash in front of her eyes. Her first birthday, the memorable Chanukah when her dad had set the table on fire. Other memories flooded through, too many to name. Even the stars looked brighter to her tear filled eyes, two in particular, there were no other stars around them and they seemed to be coming closer. As she watched them she could clearly see a form emerging from them, it was the guy who had appeared to save the blonde girl Erika; those bright yellow pinpricks she thought were stars were inside his hood where his eyes should of been. The guy reached her easily and grabbed onto her arm pulling her close to him

        'Hold on.' He shouted and for a fraction of a second she thought she could see his face, then everything disappeared. There was a strange 'bamf' noise and a yellow light covered her body pulling her at supersonic speeds through what seemed to be a tunnel of purplish sulphur smoke. It lasted barely more than a second before Kitty heard a second 'bamf' noise and the real world lurched violently back into view.

 Kitty staggered and dropped to her knees fighting a powerful urge to throw up the fruit salad she'd had for dinner. Groaning she looked around and stared, she was back on the cliff face. Amara was staring at her in shock while nearby Rogue and Tabitha were helping a groggy Jean back to her feet. The guy that had somehow saved her life however had rushed to the blonde apparently forgetting that she and the others existed. Kitty staggered over to the others almost tripping on every other step, luckily Amara grabbed her before she fell on her ass.

'Are you okay?' Amara almost cried 'Thank God, we thought you were dead.'

'I like almost wish I was' Kitty groaned swallowing a fresh upsurge of bile. 'Is Jean okay?' Looking at her friend's blood covered head.

'She'll be fine.' Rogue said quietly, 'the blood makes it look worse than it is.'

'Great.' Kitty said relived. Fighting off the last traces of nausea she pulled herself off Amara turned to face the two Germans who were talking rapidly in their native language and called.

'Hey thanks for saving my butt!'

The two stopped talking and faced the sirens. The robed figure stepped forward and said.

'It was no problem, after all you did try to save my sister.'

'Your sister!' Tabitha exclaimed, 'who are you anyway?'

The figure hesitated then said.

'Call me Nightcrawler.'

Rogue snorted with laughter

'You were named after a worm?'

To their surprise both Nightcrawler and the girl burst out laughing as well

'You'd understand if you knew him.' The girl giggled

'You're a mutant aren't you' Jean said clutching her wound. 'It's okay we're mutants too.' She soothed watching them both move backwards slightly. 'Listen we could take you to our place if you've nowhere to go.'

'Yeah!' Kitty said brightly 'you'd love it there, it's kind of a haven for mutants, where we can learn to control our powers without everyone finding out.'

Strangely the girl smiled and took hold of Nightcrawler's arm.

'Tell Herr Xavier that we expect to see him tomorrow,' she said and then before anyone could say another word they disappeared in a flash of smoke and light leaving the Sirens in stunned silence.

Three miles away a middle aged bald man looked at the giant computer screen in front of him.

Mutant signal recognised matching…

Professor Charles Xavier looked at the holographic body rotating in the air and sighed.

'It can not be him' Charles said to himself. 'He is in Germany with his village, he could not reach here without help.' Turning his wheelchair he left the giant circular room and computer known as cerebro and entered a private elevator that would take him to his study above. 'Perhaps cerebro is malfunctioning.' He thought. 'But I recognised the power and the mind behind it, it was him but it is impossible.' Scowling he exited the elevator and entered his study. As he wheeled past his desk something caught his eye, a leaflet. Picking up he remembered it was the one Evan had shoved into his hand yesterday, the one about a circus that had come into town. Xavier's eyes widened in shock. 'Surely not!' he scanned down and read aloud 'The Flying Amazements and our main attraction The Amazing Nightcrawler.' Charles placed the leaflet back on the desk and turned to the window, his mind full of dark thoughts over what would move an entire village across an ocean.