Chapter 3: Things are not always what they seem

Bloody hell! It's about Fking time o got this out isn't it!

I'm ashamed of myself... I really am...

I here by apoligies to everyone that was waiting for this... I promise to be better at it...

##Review Reply##

Lazerwolf/Phoenix

(() o))' Bloody hell! Almost a year! Shit... I have been neglecting this haven't I... ::looks thurraly ashamed of self:: Would it help to say I've been working on other stuff? ::looks hopeful:: Proberly not... ::laughs nerviously::

Natalienani7

Oh I've been so ban and depriveing you all! I am blaning on finishing this! I't just a case of filling gaps, finish the ending and getting it Betaed...but it will be finished... one day... ::prays:: please let me finish this!"

Sawdust

Are thank you! I'll try! Been working on lots of new stuff... I mean... I put a list of the other stories I'm working on in my bio... you can see how much trouble I have finishing anything with all that lot buzzing in my bonce!

Lina111

You don't care! ARRRR! BIG HUG! ::glomps Lina::

Key

Well this was one of the first things I write... and I think I agree with you on that... but I must be doing something right if your looking foreword to the next bit!

Nienor

Spellings all sorted now... I have Betas to do that for me now! ::hugs Ellen and Elven:: Oh the dream... he he he... the dream is important for later in the story... woun't say to much... coz it'll give it away... Well this isn't really a Lara Croft X-over... I just pinched the name... (Her odd name is explained in the next chappie). No... I'm not German... English actuly... Cuppa tea and what not.... and the German talkings easy! You find an online translator and it dose it for you!

Epona

I am nortorious for not enough updates... and my length... ::giggles:: You like Lara! ::beams with pride:: hopefully you'll like her even more when you find out more about her! I've even drawn her... just waiting to scan her and upload on my fan art page... thanks for the wonderful review!

Yam

Ah. The dream will be resolved... but you'll have to stick around... it's coming up later... and you will get your susspence in the mean time! I promise you! I know my spellings shit... but it's Betaed now... so should be better...

I shall endevor to continue!

Stupidx

Your questions shall be answered now! Though not all of them....

InterNutter

I know... I know... my spelling is poo... but you'll be pleased to know thati have appointed myself a couple of betas to help me out... couple of grate gals!

As to the real lara croft... sorry she's not... but so much like her it a constant sors of torment for her...

An old artefact will be cropping up soon... as well as disgrunteled tresher seekers and old temple in the middle of the Indian jungle...

Hope you all enjoy the next chappie... and that your ready to find out a little more about Miss Croft...

After the grand tour of the mansion was complete and a quick pit stop at the kitchen for a sneaky snack before dinner, Kurt finished up by showing her round the lush green grounds. They hadn't stopped talking since they had left the others. They chatted about the institute, Home, the school, how horrible teachers were, which sandwich meat tastes better (chicken vs. beef) and how tattoos were really cool but hurt like hell - practically anything and everything - and we find the two discussing the current topic... of the X-jet...

"So how often do you get to go out in that monster of a plane of yours?" she asked, taking a sip from her Cherry Coke as she sat down on the cliff's lush green grass.

"Only vhen ve have a mission zhat's prity far avay and zhat requires ve get zhere fast. Ozhervise ve take the X-van.," he said, plopping down next to her, simultaniously taking a shark-size bite out of his sandwich.

"How often do you go on missions then?" Kurt shrugged.

"Depends; sometimes ve go for months and nozhing happens. Ozher times ve don't have 5 minnets between takeoffs."

"Sound great." She smiled.

"But it's ten times better vhen you're zhe one flying!" He grinned, staring of into space at fond memories.

"I bet you're a right Tom Cruise in the cock pit," she smirked.

"Tom's got nozhing on me! I could take him on in a mid-air dogfight any day of zhe veek," Kurt bosted with a heroic puffing out of his chest.

"Well you could certainly take him on in the gorgous looking catagory, if anything." The fuzzy mutant gave her a look that said yeah-right-pull-the-other-one, but she merely smiled. "I'd like to see you at work. You think I'll be able to go with you?"

"I don't see vhy not; how is your control over your povers?"

"First class. Complete control since I was 12." She smirked proudly. Then it struck Kurt with blinding obviousness.

"Vhat is your povers any vay? I don't zhink I asked."

"Energy manipulation," she answered.

"Vow- zhat's really impressive. It vould probably be even more impressive if I actually knew vhat zhat meant..." he said honestly with a shrug. Lara laughed.

"Well let me enlighten you then. I take the decaying energy that things give off and convert it into whatever form I see fit- you know... protective walls, spinning blades, cages, anything I can think of really- get it?" Kurt blinked blankly.

"I knew zhat," he said quickly, taking another bit of his sandwich. "I vas just testing you to see if you knew." He smiled slyly. She grinned back.

"Course you did; you're just keeping the new girl on her toes, Right?" The blue teen nodded.

"As a member of zhe X-men and your assigned chapperone, it's my job." Kurt glanced at her from the corner of his eyes to find the English girl looking at him with an odd intensity. He suddenly became very self conscious... he cleared his throat and carried on the conversation...

"So how long have you had zhem?" he asked, trying to divert her intense blue gaze.

"All my life. When I was younger, nobody could get near me - not that they wanted to of course - it used to be really random outbursts of unfocused energy. It was rather dangerous, and it was especially bad whenever I was angry or upset." She sighed, sounding somewhat sad at the memories. "What about yours?"

"I've been blue and fuzzy since I was born, but I'm a teleporter- you know, instant translocation." Her eyes widened; she seemed truly impressed.

"Now that's handy. But isn't it dangerous?" He nodded.

"Ja, I have to know exactly vhere I'm going or I could materialize in a vall or anozher person." She cringed hissing threw her teeth.

"Ewww... not a nice end then."

"Most people can't stand it vhen I do it right ether." He sighed, leaning back on his hands. She seemed curious.

"Oh, why's that?" His gold eyes sparkled mischeviously for a moment a-

### BAMF!###

Lara jumped out of her skin with fright as there was an inplosion and a puff of purple, smelly smoke- and Kurt was gone. Barely a second later, there was a similar explotion on her other side.

"Zhat's zhe reason," the German said sadly. "Zhe smell puts a lot of people off. I've basically been banned from porting in zhe house..." He looked back at the older girl, prepared for the wrinkled nose and the waving hand trying to disperse the smell, but instead found a triumphant smirk.

"Aaaaah! So that's where the brimstone and sulpher come from! Now I get it; I originally thought that maybe you spent too much time in a chemisty lab or something."

"You mean zhat doesn't bozher you?!" She shook her head.

"Nah! You're talking to someone that likes to sit in petrol stations because she enjoys sniffing the fumes!" Kurt's jaw dropped slightly; Lara shrugged with a small smile. "Aparently it was one of my mother's cravings when she was pregnant and she seems to have passed it on." She frowned. "Not that I'm addicted or anything..." Kurt shook his long-haired head as another delighted smile graced his face, showing off his fangs.

"Could you be any more perfect?" he said with a sly grin as he rested his chin on his knee. He was taken back when she let loose a bitter hollow laugh.

"I'm anything but." The mahogany haired girl mumbled, looking up at the clear sky. Her cheerfulness had faded to bearly nothing as a blank expression now came into its place. That took the Blue mutant by surprise and he became concerned... had he said something wrong?

"Vhat makes you say zhat?" Kurt asked, genuinely concerned at her sudden change of emotions. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them, acting quite different from her confident posture she had a minute ago. They remained quiet for a moment as Lara looked to be thinking.

"You remember when we were in the lobby... and you showed me your inducer?"

"Ja."

"And I said: looks like I'm not the only one." The realization almost instantly clicked in Nightcrawler's mind. He gazed at her in amazement.

"You- you vear an inducer?!" he asked to make sure he was thinking the right thing. She nodded in clarification. "Vhy?" He could have kicked himself for asking such a stupid question! Idiot! There could only be one answer-

"Like you, it's the only way I can go out in public." They fell silent as Kurt took in what he had found out. The girl next to him was hiding her true appearance from the world- just like he did- just to try and fit in... obviously for fear of complete rejection from normal human beings... it was shocking to find out how much they had in common. His curiosity was peaked.

"So vhy haven't you turned it off?"

"Not many people like what they see... I scare them. I find it much easier to live without having people gawking, heckeling or giving me grief," she said quietly. "I'm thinking you know what I'm talking about?" He smiled kindly, completely understanding. On how it feels to look so diffrent- to be made fun of- to be looked upon like you were the scum of the earth- to be shunned and ignored, which was sometimes even worse than being the center of negative attention...

"You know, I'm probably one of zhe few people zhat can truly say that line, 'I know vhat you're going through'."

"Bet you can't say you've been called a hiddeously deformed monster," Lara mumbled.

"HA! Bet I can! But it's mostly Demon for me." The blue-eyed girl glanced at him out the corner of her eye with a pout and a frown.

"You're too cute to be a demon," She said with a slight twitch of her lips. Kurt gazed at her coyly.

"And you are far too charming to be called a monster."

"You don't know that," She said looking back down at the grass.... he tried another tactic.

"Let me share some vords of visdom my muzzer used to say to me, vhen I vas deprest about how my appearance affected people." This seemed to catch her intrest and she watched him from the corner of her eye...

"Even if a person is fat, has crooked teeth, long vankie nose and thick virery hair- if zhey have butiful zhoughts, zhey vill shine through and zherefor no matter however unusual looking zhat person may be, zhey vill be butiful too," he quoted, remembering his mother's words fondly. They always chered him up and therefore he was delighted when he saw a small smile had returned to the young woman's face.

"Your mum sounds like a wonderful person."

"Ja, she is." Silence again fell. Lara appered to be studying the blue mutant.

"Well I- suppose... I have to show myself some time, don't I? But I warn you, I'm not the prettiest flower in the garden- in fact, I'm not even a reasonable-looking weed," she warned. Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"And vhat am I? A prize vinning Rose? You got nozhing to vorry about, I'm not going to go running for zhe hills," he assured her. She sighed and moved her hand to her wrist watch.
"Alright- you asked for it." And she clicked off her inducer.

The girl seemed to shimmer for a moment before the normal human looking Lara melted away to reveal her as she truly was. Kurt's eyes widened; his haert stopped. He was stunned- but in a good way. Her hair was different... he'd never seen anything like it before; it hadn't changed in colour or length but the way it looked- it was hard to describe- it looked like long thin tendrils. Each strand no more then a few millimeters thickness, but still noticably not normal.

It still acted like hair as it was blown gently in the breeze... it was then that the thought occured to him... he realised what it looked like... the way hair looks when you've just washed it, towl-dried it and then combed it while it was still damp... unusual... but kinda cool... Her skin was still the same olive colour too- but with something else added to it that made it unique: scales.

Her skin was adorned with elaborate patterns of deep, shining, bronze smooth reptilian scales. They didn't cover her flesh entirely, but instead ran in trails. He could see that they started with bands running over the bridge of her nose and up to her forehead where they sped out and followed her hairline round, then down her temples and onto her neck, shoulders and collor bone. He also saw the trail of scales running down her arm all the way to her hands.

Now her hands were interesting. Still slim and elagent, the back covered in bronze and each finger ending with- instead of a well manacuerd nail- a long sharp, curving raptor-like talon. Her fingers twitched nervously, still waiting for his reaction; she shifted her weight a little, adjusting her feet. Kurt caught a glimps of them and couldn't help the grin on his face. She wasn't wearing shoes, but it was obvious she didn't need them!

The only way that they could be described were dragon-like. The same sort of shape and structure as his own, but each of her feet ended in three large clawed toes. They looked like they could gut a man in seconds if she chose to. She hadn't look at him even once since turning off the inducer, but kept her gaze steadily ahead of her.

"Well... I did warn you," she said, with a sigh filled with expected rejection.

"You are definately no monster," he said with full sincerity. "And anyone who said so is an idiot and a fool." She finally turned to look at him curiously, Kurt getting his first look at her real face. Her facile features were still the same, elagant and refined- but her eyes were amazing: they were still the same crystel blue rimed with ultramarine, but now had reptilian slit-like pupils, giving her a dangerous, inhuman gaze. He could now see that there were a light dusting of scales highlighting her upper checkbones, under her eyes, bringing out and defining her features wonderfuly. What was he thinking: there was no two ways about it, she was beautiful, plain and simple. He gave her a warm, reasuring smile and slid closer so that their shoulders were touching.

"Aaaaaaand... I still zhink you are one of zhe most sexiest vomen I have ever met!" He grinned slyly. Lara raised an eybrow, snorted, then laughed. A proper one this time.

"Oh I bet you say that to all the freaky girls," she said, sounding more like the Lara he met earlier.

"Only zhe ones I really like."

"You know.." she mused.

"No, what?"

"I think Peter may have really gotten it right this time," she said, her smile back at full force, revealing that she also possesed a set of gleaming white fangs. Kurt was about to respond when they were interrupted.

(( Kurt. Lara. Sorry to disturb you but it's time for dinner.)) Lara jumped a mile out of her skin looking round frantically as the professer's voice entered their conciousnesses. Kurt chuckled at her reaction, remembering that she probably wasn't used to telepathic communication, before answering.

((Danke Professer, we'll be right in.))

((Very well, see you both in a minute.)) And then they were alone again.

"Is he gone?" Lara asked cautiously.

"Ja, he's gone."

"Does he do that often?"

"Ja, I'm afraid so..."

"Oh boy," she said with a cringe. "That was really unnerving when he did that..." She shuddered. "That makes me feel... weird all over..."

"Don't worry- you'll get used to it... eventually." He grinned as he stood up.

"Oh god, I hope so!" She sighed. Kurt held out his hand in an offer to help her up. She took it, soft, downy fur meeting smooth skin and scales. He gently pulled her up and had yet another pleasant surprise.

"As I said before- Could you get any more perfect?" He smiled charmingly up at her. Lara gave him a grateful grin, her long bronze, scaly, whiplike tail swaying round behind her, the split end flicking wildly, making it look like a two-headed serpant. "Can I just ask you somezhing?"

"Of course..."

"Where were you hiding that thing? Those pants are waaaaay too tight to hide a tail!" That made Lara laugh.

"Wrap it round my waist," she informed him. "You know Kurt... You're the first person, apart from Peter... that hasn't judged me from the word go... with or without the inducer...you are truly one in a million, you know. I just want to tell you now. Thank you." And she went to turn the inducer back on but was stopped by a fuzzy hand gently on her wrist. She glanced at him curiously.

"Lara, can I offer some advice?"

"Ummm, yeah, sure."

"Don't turn zhe inducer back on," he said simply.

"Why not?" She obviously wasn't keen on the idea.

"I learnt zhe hard vay zhat hiding behind zhe inducer is not zhe vay to go- as you said zhere going to have to see you sometime, and putting off zhe ineviteble vill only make it more difficult in zhe long run. Trust me on zhis Lara, you don't have hide from zhese guys: if zhey can acccept me, you got nozhing to vorry about."
The Briton studied the German; he could tell she wasn't entirely convinced...

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Only fools are positive," she said with a mock scowl.

"Ask anyvone in here and zhey'll tell you how foolish I am!" He grinned. Lara sighed in defeat.

"Alright, alright- you win. If you say it's okay then I guess I can live with it. But if they start screaming... I'm making you into a nice pair of fur lined gloves," she said, giving him a fake glare and wagging her clawed finger at him. Kurt only smiled as they both started off to the back door of the mansion.

"If zhey do, I'll skin myself to save you zhe trouble."

"Arr... how sweet you are..."

I really need your feed back on this peeps... do you lot out there still like it? It must be because I've read it so much... I think it's become a bit stale in my mind...

Ho hum...

Hope you enjoy it and I really hop you want more...

Thank you to Ellen for Beta-ing this for me!

And thank you all out there for reading...

Luv

Ner'ual

come on... you know you wanna push the blue button...