*******************
Fifth Fragment ~ 'Deliverence'
*******************
"All wrapped up warm?" said Logan.
Daisy nodded.
"Awright, sit tight, I'll be back in a moment."
Daisy snuggled into the blanket Logan had wrapped around her. This dark room was full of chairs and one big silverish sheet stretched taut up front. And curtains, too, but they were drawn to the side.
There was a light on the screen, then a purring noise. And numbers counted down on the screen.
"Ten," read Daisy. "Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."
{Bip!}
There were cartoons on the screen. And they were moving. And singing.
"Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby," they sang. "Let's all go to the lo-obby! And buy ourselves a treat."
Then there was a woman running in slow motion down a street and someone was whispering about someone else called Calvin Klein.
And then Logan was there, snuggling against her.
"What *is* this?" she asked.
"When the ads are over?" he said. "Jackie Chan. The man's a genius. Pay attention, you could learn something."
Daisy hugged his arm and paid attention. She'd do anything for her Fairy Godfather.
*******************
Robyn's head jerked up, and she scrambled to her feet suddenly, startling everyone. The expression on her face did little to alleviate the feeling of trepidation pervading the atmosphere. Neither did the abrupt appearance of her claws, which dug nervously into the back of the leather waiting-couch.
"Kurti," she whispered, staring out of the window.
{ZWIP} Pietro was at her side in nanoseconds. "What is it, kid?"
"It's Kurti," the little cat-girl murmured, not taking her eyes from the pane of glass. "Something's happened to him. Something *bad*."
The albino glanced outside, then back at her. Robyn's young face was a mask of certainty and fear, and - though he didn't know how or why - he knew that she was telling the truth.
"Aw, hell!" he muttered, turning and dashing to the door. Sliding it open, he threw back over his shoulder; "Earthquake boy!"
"The name's Lance," Lance replied testily. He was seated next to Kitty, holding her hand against the terrible news of the hellhole they'd somehow managed to end up in, and glowered at the speed-demon as if it was his fault they were stuck here.
"Whatever. Look after these two and the zonked guy. I'll be back in a jiff," and then he was gone, a faint whoosh and splash of silver the only indication he'd been there at all.
Robyn hunched back into the lee of the couch, huddling into the corner and wrapping her tufted tail around her knees. First Kurti, then Pie-Pie. Both her big brothers were gone now, leaving her all alone with these strangers. She was more frightened then she'd ever been in her life, and, unbeknownst to the whispering couple, she buried her face and began to cry silently.
_Please, come back safe. Oh please, *please*, come back safe._
*******************
"Well, m'dears," cooed Alice, matriarch of the Pig Brothers. "We got ourselves a good pelt. An' a halfway decent 'mount of fun in the byways."
"An' pig fodder," said Bubba. He was busy binding Kurt's arms and legs with wire.
Kurt prayed he'd forget the tail. Most forgot the tail.
"This'un's lead us a hell of a chase, Maw," said Shemp. "Why can't we take it *outta* his hide instead o' takin' his hide *offa* him?"
"You idjit! It's gettin' near winter!" Moe slapped his youngest brother on the head. "Maw needs t' keep warm."
"An' mebbe we kin trade it fer a woman inna spring."
Insanity hit Kurt square in the mouth. "You'll want me in my winter coat, then," he said. "I'm really spectacular in the winter. Nothing gets the ladies like a winter coat. They love it." He smiled artistically. "I'm an unearthly pale blue. Like shadows in the snow. And so lovely and thick... and soft, too."
Alice pinched his cheeks, testing his nap. "Mighty short, now," she mused. "Can't say I've never seen 'im any other colour'n'e is..."
"Yah, but - we never seen 'im in winter, Maw."
"We never see nobody in the winter." Alice thought about it. "Yeah. What the hell. Bail him up like a fattening hog an' get 'im nice an' plush afore we tan 'im an' feed 'im t' th' pigs."
Kurt tried not to let his relief show. Any extra time he had was time to escape.
*******************
"fuZZMan!" Pietro's calls dopplered around the empty streets.
Garbage, dead body, evil-looking cat, more garbage... the remains of Bayville blurred past. Pietro's senses, like every other bodily system, ran at many times the speed of an average person. He therefore was not worried about missing his blue friend as he sped past.
By his personal estimates, he could cover every street in the town in three minutes or less. Kurt could be in a building... there was a possibility that if the furry mutant moved in exactly the right direction, they would miss each other.
Pietro never even considered that he might be too late.
*******************
_Nightcrawler?!_
Mystique had, in fact, spent zero time as a cockroach. In her entire life. Of late, she had been spending most of her time as a black cat, lurking around alleys and trashcans.
By chance, she had not run into her son during any of his nightly excursions. She had been completely unaware that he was still living.
In the present moment, Mystique was peering around a corner at five large men and one equally large woman hovering over Kurt's prone form. Between them, they had quite a collection of firearms.
She assessed the situation, made a rapid decision, and assumed Kurt's form.
"Hey! Over here!"
The tallest looked up, a dazed expression etching his features. "Whut the-"
"There's two of 'em!" a second deduced.
"Get 'em!" shouted a third, small and round like something from an old Pilsbury advert.
"What about this 'un?" said Gun Man.
"He's not going anywhere. We can come back later. It's getting away!" The last was in reference to Mystique, who had taken off in the opposite direction.
Curly slung Old Greta back over his shoulder and pursued his cohorts, who were already pursuing the second demon.
"Get back here, freak!" Moe shouted.
Shemp, though youngest, was also the quickest of the gang, and was closing on their quarry.
Something silver shot past all six of them.
"Move it, Fuzzy!" Mystique heard.
A furrow of wind exploded down the narrow street, turned a sharp hook, and streaked back towards the Pig Brothers and their very irate matriarch.
It passed close to Shemp, who suddenly found himself behind Bubba.
The wind circled again, and the new leader was returned to the back of the pack.
This rotation went through several cycles before Alice got the idea and forced the Pig Brothers to run the other direction.
The silver blur zipped past them and disappeared into the dark.
Mystique ducked inside a building that was barely still standing, wondering what had just happened. Her brain was rather fogged up by adrenaline, inhibiting her ability to make several key connections. So she crouched, waiting for her breath to come back, and, possibly, an answer to appear and explain what the hell was going on.
*******************
Pietro had intended to head off the Pig Brothers and harass them some more, but he found something that completely disrupted that train of thought.
"Fuzzy?!"
"...unh..."
"How'd you get back here so fast?" Pietro dropped into a kneel, hands a blur as he untied the elf. "And what happened to you on the way?"
"Huh?" Kurt rubbed his forehead, trying to clear his vision. "Been here...der Schweinbruderen[1]...they just left..."
"You've been hit on the head," Pietro informed his companion. "C'mon, let's get outta here."
"Can't get up," Kurt mumbled.
"Ah jeez." Pietro glanced around. "What did you *do*?"
"Nng..." Kurt opened an eye. "Hear them."
"Aagh," Pietro lifted Kurt by his arms. "Here we go. Run now, live another day."
The Pig Brothers pattered into the alley.
"Whar'd he go?"
Eddies of dust settled as they stared all around.
*******************
Mystique hunkered amongst the trashcans, searching for her answers with a slightly clearer head and the re-acquired body of a feline.
"Goddamn stinkin' muties!"
"That fuckin' blue sonovabitch..."
"He got away, Maw."
"Damnit. Winter coat or not, I'm gonna skin that sum'bitch next time I lay eyes on 'im."
"Sorry, Maw."
"Other one got away, too, Maw."
A slap, and a cry of pain as Alice banged heads together. Mystique crouched away, not daring to move lest the spot the movement. Cat was a delicacy in these dangerous times, after all.
Her son. Her son was alive. In the middle of a turf war between a bunch of hicks that'd love to be inbred the second they got the chance.
Pig Boys and Vanguards and Chains. Oh my...
She waited until the brothers porcine had wandered off, then followed her son's scent. There was another with him. And blood. Three kinds. And -- a newborn?
What *had* her boy been up to, these four years?
*******************
{VIP}
Pietro was suddenly standing in the waiting room, draping Kurt over a chair.
"What was that?" Kitty asked, feeling the speedster's accompanying breeze.
"Pietro's back," said Lance, "With the other one."
"The idiot musta teleported," Pietro said. "He's way out of it."
"Not," Kurt protested. "Didn't."
"Don't talk." Pietro scrounged up another bowl of soup. "Eat."
The bowl rested in Kurt's palm. He stared, apparently not really registering its presence.
Robyn pattered across the room, took the bowl, and lifted the spoon to his lips. Kurt's mouth flopped open, permitted the food to enter, and shut, detaining the soup as the utensil withdrew.
Lance watched the proceedings. "He disabled or something?"
"Only for the moment." Robyn continued in her task. "He's all out of energy. Happens sometimes. He... gives all his food to me. Makes him all tired n' stuff."
Alvin was watching in great interest. "Love is the food of angels, a demon rises, with five hands he shall hold the world."
"He's starting to really creep me out," Pietro confided to Lance.
"Tell me about it," Lance sighed.
As Robyn spooned food into Kurt's mouth with a practised hand, light gradually began to sparkle back into his eyes. His gaze became focused once more, and it was with a happy sigh that his muscles relaxed and he leaned back in his chair.
"YOW!" he yelled loudly, promptly jumping back up again.
Robyn dropped the bowl and scuttled backwards, connecting with Pietro's legs where he stood behind her, watching.
At the sudden noise, Hope started grizzling, and Lance picked the newborn up and handed her to Kitty.
"What happened?" she asked, hugging the baby possessively to her.
Lance, instead of answering, turned to Pietro and said accusingly; "Yeah, what's up with the fuzz-ball?"
"Dunno," the albino replied, bending down to stroke the top of Robyn's head.
The little girl looked up at him with huge brown eyes and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a frightened hug. For a moment, Pietro only goggled, not knowing what to do. Then, tentatively, he returned the gesture. Despite his previous reputation, he was very gentle, and acted as if at any given moment she might snap in two.
Robyn was warm, and her fur was very soft. The individual hairs tickled his hands, and Pietro felt something curl around his back, resisting the urge to leap clear when he realised it was only her tail.
"What's wrong with Kurti?" she asked, looking back at the elf. Kurt was currently wobbling on his feet, and it seemed that he would topple over any second.
Pietro noted it, and ordered; "Siddown, Fuzzy, before you *fall* down. Y'ain't got enough food in you to be jumping around, just yet."
The spaded tip of Kurt's tail found his hands, and he played with it, something akin to embarrassment playing about his face. A muffled; "Can't", greeted Pietro's words, though it could have been mistaken for a meaningless grunt.
"What? Why not?"
"Gurrabubuckshar."
"Excuse me?"
Kurt sighed, and said; "Got a butt full of buckshot. Can't sit down properly. Too painful."
Lance's eyes widened. "You got shot in the *butt*!? Some 'Blessed Student'."
At this, Kurt just looked blank. Alvin, however, was much more verbal.
"How *dare* you!" he said, catching Kurt's attention for the first time. "He is one deemed worthy by the Great Teacher *himself*! Taught by the Goddess and her brethren to unite us all in the Dream of Peace with his compeers! Take back your words immediately, young sir!"
Lance wasn't exactly in the mood to take orders - especially from some nutso old coot with dead plants on his head - and rounded on the strange man with tongue sharp as a knife. "Listen, bub, I don't think you got no place to be tellin' me what to do. I've had one *helluva* day, and I'm fast reaching the end of my tether without you on my back as well. As far as I'm concerned, Kurt's a plain old mutant, just like the rest of us. He saved your life, which was brave, but stupid, since all you've done since you got here is spout garbage about Goddesses, plants and the faculty! Now I think you'd better just *shuddup*, before I get *really* ticked off!"
Alvin boggled at him, apparently only having really listened to half the irate teen's words. "Mutants," he breathed reverently, and looked around at the assembled people. "All of you are... are..."
"Mutants, yes." Lance put his hands on his hips. "You wanna make something of it? 'Cause I'm sure those Pig dudes are still around here somewhere."
But instead of being cowed, or even answering back, Alvin did the last thing any of them thought he would.
He began to weep.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, tracking rivers through the grime and filling the creases with salt water. He cried silently, and beamed through it all.
Robyn twitched, unfurling her tail, and Pietro let her go. The little girl dropped to all fours like a true feline and snuck forwards on her belly. Less than a foot away from the robed man she stopped, sitting down and cocking her head to one side.
"Why're you crying? You sad?"
Alvin shook his head, sending droplets shimmering into the air. "No, child. I'm the happiest man in the universe. I have found a treasure trove in the garden of Transgression. The Goddess was right. Faith was the key, and hope the threshold. Now I step through the doorway into the arms of her kindred."
"What are you *on*?" Lance groaned.
"Cloud Nine, apparently," said Pietro. Then; "Whoops!" He caught Kurt just as his inverted knees buckled, looping his arms around the elf's thin chest and hauling him upright again.
Kurt's breathing was harsh, and his movements slow. He needed more food, and quickly.
Pietro looked across the room. Lance seemed about to pop the half-laughing, half-crying zealot one right on the nose, and probably would've done had it not been for Kitty's steadying fingers laced through his own, holding him back. Robyn was watching Alvin with fascination, but kept one eye fixed on her 'big brothers' and what they were up to. Baby Hope grizzled, mouthing for more milk, which Kitty couldn't give her because of her preoccupation with Lance. And as for the elf - his weight dragged down on Pietro's arm, but he wheezed not to be sat down, *please*.
_Aw, Jeez, Maximoff, how'd you get yourself *into* these things?_
"If I may ask," Alvin said through his tears, "Who are you, good sirs and lady?"
"I'm not listening to this anymore." Lance turned his back on the strange man.
"Then go see if there are any clean beds around," Pietro instructed.
Lance disappeared down a dim corridor.
Pietro sighed, shifting Kurt's weight in his arms. "I'm Pietro Maximoff," he said. "My power is super speed."
Alvin cast into his memories of what the Goddess' texts had told him. "Windswift messenger man purifies world," he said after a moment. "I...I forget the rest." He looked ashamed.
Pietro inclined his head towards the doorway. "Er...Lance Alvers. Makes earthquakes."
"Angry man finds centre," Alvin quoted, "Shakes sense from chaos."
"And this is...ugh, forgot again," Pietro sighed.
"Kitty Pryde," the blind girl extended her right hand. "I phase."
Alvin shook with her reverentially. "Ghost woman brings life to world, a new hope is born."
"What?!" Pietro stared, wide-eyed.
"Mygosh!" Kitty retracted her hand and stroked her daughter's head. "It's like, *true*."
"What is?" Lance rejoined them in the waiting area.
Kitty repeated the last prophecy for his benefit.
"Coincidence," he scoffed. "Hope is a perfectly normal name for a girl. Third door on the left," he said to Pietro.
Robyn followed the pale boy as he carry-dragged Kurti to the other room and lay him on his stomach, pausing in the mouth of the corridor as Alvin's fervent mumbling twitched at her sensitive ears.
"...in her hands, I am guided. In her way, I am strong. The Goddess provides. The Goddess loves us all..." Alvin wrestled himself upright, wiping his wet cheeks and mindful of his wounded leg. "A stout staff would be nice, though," he mused. Limping, he made his way to his cart, and almost collapsed when he got there. He reached over, ignoring the pain. A sacrifice for the Blessed was a noble one. A pure one. He was doing the work of the Divine.
He worked a hidden catch, and a compartment opened, revealing his cache of foodstuffs. Tinned things and an array of 'add hot water' comestables.
"Here," he said. "Take all you need."
The catlike girl-child boggled. "That's a lotta food..."
"The Goddess provides," he said. "She would not send her servants out with nothing. She *loves* us."
"I'm starting to think she loves you when you're very far away," muttered the earth-shaker.
"*Lance*..." the ghost-woman warned. "Play nice? He's friendly."
"He's feedin' us," added the girl. In another room, Windswift remarked, "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow *ow*... This is *not* gonna be pretty..." and she blinked, eyes growing as she hurried off in search of her adoptive siblings.
Alvin reached into another compartment and took out a dried leaf, then he laboured along to the room where the Blessed Student lay.
He was facedown on a gurney, hips supported by a lot of pillows and his pants around his knees.
Legends never came to life like *this* in the scriptures.
Alvin had to spend time wondering if Christ Himself had fallen and, for example, scraped his knee when he was a child. Things like that *happened* to people. But - legends and people didn't get along. It was an epiphany of sorts. _When they get around to writing it down,_ he mused, _I'll probably be The Great Prophet. Oh my..._
"Here, Blessed One," he murmured, "Chew this. Don't swallow."
"Mnh," said the Blessed Student. He did as he was bade. In a moment, he was asleep.
Alvin carefully retrieved the leaf. A holy relic? A spare patch of cloth made it so, carefully inserted into his belt-pouch. "I can stand," he offered. "I can help."
Windswift pointed to the wound. "Then start shaving. Or washing. Or both."
"Watch his tail?" Robyn implored from her position in the corner.
"Why don't you hold it out of the way for us?" Pietro invited.
"Oh, no," Robyn shook her head vigorously. "I don't touch his and he doesn't touch mine. Without permission. It's a rule." Her cheek fur darkened. "But... sometimes I forget..."
"I don't think he'd mind right now," Pietro said. "Somebody has to, and I bet he'd rather you than me."
Robyn considered. "Kay." She padded to Kurti's side, hooked her fingers around the bottom of his tail's spade, and drew the serpentine appendage up towards his elbow.
"Good," Pietro nodded. "Just stay right like that."
Alvin glanced at the side-table. Windswift had managed to procure an electric razor, a washbasin, a trash bin, and a pair of tweezers.
He found a plug for the razor and skimmed the whirring device over the Blessed Student's buttocks. The cat-girl cringed and turned her face away.
"Well whaddya know," Windswift said. "He's blue underneath."
The pale boy dabbled the tweezers in the water, then targeted a single foreign body, loosening it slowly.
*******************
To Be Continued...
*******************
[1] The Pig Brothers.
Fifth Fragment ~ 'Deliverence'
*******************
"All wrapped up warm?" said Logan.
Daisy nodded.
"Awright, sit tight, I'll be back in a moment."
Daisy snuggled into the blanket Logan had wrapped around her. This dark room was full of chairs and one big silverish sheet stretched taut up front. And curtains, too, but they were drawn to the side.
There was a light on the screen, then a purring noise. And numbers counted down on the screen.
"Ten," read Daisy. "Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."
{Bip!}
There were cartoons on the screen. And they were moving. And singing.
"Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby," they sang. "Let's all go to the lo-obby! And buy ourselves a treat."
Then there was a woman running in slow motion down a street and someone was whispering about someone else called Calvin Klein.
And then Logan was there, snuggling against her.
"What *is* this?" she asked.
"When the ads are over?" he said. "Jackie Chan. The man's a genius. Pay attention, you could learn something."
Daisy hugged his arm and paid attention. She'd do anything for her Fairy Godfather.
*******************
Robyn's head jerked up, and she scrambled to her feet suddenly, startling everyone. The expression on her face did little to alleviate the feeling of trepidation pervading the atmosphere. Neither did the abrupt appearance of her claws, which dug nervously into the back of the leather waiting-couch.
"Kurti," she whispered, staring out of the window.
{ZWIP} Pietro was at her side in nanoseconds. "What is it, kid?"
"It's Kurti," the little cat-girl murmured, not taking her eyes from the pane of glass. "Something's happened to him. Something *bad*."
The albino glanced outside, then back at her. Robyn's young face was a mask of certainty and fear, and - though he didn't know how or why - he knew that she was telling the truth.
"Aw, hell!" he muttered, turning and dashing to the door. Sliding it open, he threw back over his shoulder; "Earthquake boy!"
"The name's Lance," Lance replied testily. He was seated next to Kitty, holding her hand against the terrible news of the hellhole they'd somehow managed to end up in, and glowered at the speed-demon as if it was his fault they were stuck here.
"Whatever. Look after these two and the zonked guy. I'll be back in a jiff," and then he was gone, a faint whoosh and splash of silver the only indication he'd been there at all.
Robyn hunched back into the lee of the couch, huddling into the corner and wrapping her tufted tail around her knees. First Kurti, then Pie-Pie. Both her big brothers were gone now, leaving her all alone with these strangers. She was more frightened then she'd ever been in her life, and, unbeknownst to the whispering couple, she buried her face and began to cry silently.
_Please, come back safe. Oh please, *please*, come back safe._
*******************
"Well, m'dears," cooed Alice, matriarch of the Pig Brothers. "We got ourselves a good pelt. An' a halfway decent 'mount of fun in the byways."
"An' pig fodder," said Bubba. He was busy binding Kurt's arms and legs with wire.
Kurt prayed he'd forget the tail. Most forgot the tail.
"This'un's lead us a hell of a chase, Maw," said Shemp. "Why can't we take it *outta* his hide instead o' takin' his hide *offa* him?"
"You idjit! It's gettin' near winter!" Moe slapped his youngest brother on the head. "Maw needs t' keep warm."
"An' mebbe we kin trade it fer a woman inna spring."
Insanity hit Kurt square in the mouth. "You'll want me in my winter coat, then," he said. "I'm really spectacular in the winter. Nothing gets the ladies like a winter coat. They love it." He smiled artistically. "I'm an unearthly pale blue. Like shadows in the snow. And so lovely and thick... and soft, too."
Alice pinched his cheeks, testing his nap. "Mighty short, now," she mused. "Can't say I've never seen 'im any other colour'n'e is..."
"Yah, but - we never seen 'im in winter, Maw."
"We never see nobody in the winter." Alice thought about it. "Yeah. What the hell. Bail him up like a fattening hog an' get 'im nice an' plush afore we tan 'im an' feed 'im t' th' pigs."
Kurt tried not to let his relief show. Any extra time he had was time to escape.
*******************
"fuZZMan!" Pietro's calls dopplered around the empty streets.
Garbage, dead body, evil-looking cat, more garbage... the remains of Bayville blurred past. Pietro's senses, like every other bodily system, ran at many times the speed of an average person. He therefore was not worried about missing his blue friend as he sped past.
By his personal estimates, he could cover every street in the town in three minutes or less. Kurt could be in a building... there was a possibility that if the furry mutant moved in exactly the right direction, they would miss each other.
Pietro never even considered that he might be too late.
*******************
_Nightcrawler?!_
Mystique had, in fact, spent zero time as a cockroach. In her entire life. Of late, she had been spending most of her time as a black cat, lurking around alleys and trashcans.
By chance, she had not run into her son during any of his nightly excursions. She had been completely unaware that he was still living.
In the present moment, Mystique was peering around a corner at five large men and one equally large woman hovering over Kurt's prone form. Between them, they had quite a collection of firearms.
She assessed the situation, made a rapid decision, and assumed Kurt's form.
"Hey! Over here!"
The tallest looked up, a dazed expression etching his features. "Whut the-"
"There's two of 'em!" a second deduced.
"Get 'em!" shouted a third, small and round like something from an old Pilsbury advert.
"What about this 'un?" said Gun Man.
"He's not going anywhere. We can come back later. It's getting away!" The last was in reference to Mystique, who had taken off in the opposite direction.
Curly slung Old Greta back over his shoulder and pursued his cohorts, who were already pursuing the second demon.
"Get back here, freak!" Moe shouted.
Shemp, though youngest, was also the quickest of the gang, and was closing on their quarry.
Something silver shot past all six of them.
"Move it, Fuzzy!" Mystique heard.
A furrow of wind exploded down the narrow street, turned a sharp hook, and streaked back towards the Pig Brothers and their very irate matriarch.
It passed close to Shemp, who suddenly found himself behind Bubba.
The wind circled again, and the new leader was returned to the back of the pack.
This rotation went through several cycles before Alice got the idea and forced the Pig Brothers to run the other direction.
The silver blur zipped past them and disappeared into the dark.
Mystique ducked inside a building that was barely still standing, wondering what had just happened. Her brain was rather fogged up by adrenaline, inhibiting her ability to make several key connections. So she crouched, waiting for her breath to come back, and, possibly, an answer to appear and explain what the hell was going on.
*******************
Pietro had intended to head off the Pig Brothers and harass them some more, but he found something that completely disrupted that train of thought.
"Fuzzy?!"
"...unh..."
"How'd you get back here so fast?" Pietro dropped into a kneel, hands a blur as he untied the elf. "And what happened to you on the way?"
"Huh?" Kurt rubbed his forehead, trying to clear his vision. "Been here...der Schweinbruderen[1]...they just left..."
"You've been hit on the head," Pietro informed his companion. "C'mon, let's get outta here."
"Can't get up," Kurt mumbled.
"Ah jeez." Pietro glanced around. "What did you *do*?"
"Nng..." Kurt opened an eye. "Hear them."
"Aagh," Pietro lifted Kurt by his arms. "Here we go. Run now, live another day."
The Pig Brothers pattered into the alley.
"Whar'd he go?"
Eddies of dust settled as they stared all around.
*******************
Mystique hunkered amongst the trashcans, searching for her answers with a slightly clearer head and the re-acquired body of a feline.
"Goddamn stinkin' muties!"
"That fuckin' blue sonovabitch..."
"He got away, Maw."
"Damnit. Winter coat or not, I'm gonna skin that sum'bitch next time I lay eyes on 'im."
"Sorry, Maw."
"Other one got away, too, Maw."
A slap, and a cry of pain as Alice banged heads together. Mystique crouched away, not daring to move lest the spot the movement. Cat was a delicacy in these dangerous times, after all.
Her son. Her son was alive. In the middle of a turf war between a bunch of hicks that'd love to be inbred the second they got the chance.
Pig Boys and Vanguards and Chains. Oh my...
She waited until the brothers porcine had wandered off, then followed her son's scent. There was another with him. And blood. Three kinds. And -- a newborn?
What *had* her boy been up to, these four years?
*******************
{VIP}
Pietro was suddenly standing in the waiting room, draping Kurt over a chair.
"What was that?" Kitty asked, feeling the speedster's accompanying breeze.
"Pietro's back," said Lance, "With the other one."
"The idiot musta teleported," Pietro said. "He's way out of it."
"Not," Kurt protested. "Didn't."
"Don't talk." Pietro scrounged up another bowl of soup. "Eat."
The bowl rested in Kurt's palm. He stared, apparently not really registering its presence.
Robyn pattered across the room, took the bowl, and lifted the spoon to his lips. Kurt's mouth flopped open, permitted the food to enter, and shut, detaining the soup as the utensil withdrew.
Lance watched the proceedings. "He disabled or something?"
"Only for the moment." Robyn continued in her task. "He's all out of energy. Happens sometimes. He... gives all his food to me. Makes him all tired n' stuff."
Alvin was watching in great interest. "Love is the food of angels, a demon rises, with five hands he shall hold the world."
"He's starting to really creep me out," Pietro confided to Lance.
"Tell me about it," Lance sighed.
As Robyn spooned food into Kurt's mouth with a practised hand, light gradually began to sparkle back into his eyes. His gaze became focused once more, and it was with a happy sigh that his muscles relaxed and he leaned back in his chair.
"YOW!" he yelled loudly, promptly jumping back up again.
Robyn dropped the bowl and scuttled backwards, connecting with Pietro's legs where he stood behind her, watching.
At the sudden noise, Hope started grizzling, and Lance picked the newborn up and handed her to Kitty.
"What happened?" she asked, hugging the baby possessively to her.
Lance, instead of answering, turned to Pietro and said accusingly; "Yeah, what's up with the fuzz-ball?"
"Dunno," the albino replied, bending down to stroke the top of Robyn's head.
The little girl looked up at him with huge brown eyes and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a frightened hug. For a moment, Pietro only goggled, not knowing what to do. Then, tentatively, he returned the gesture. Despite his previous reputation, he was very gentle, and acted as if at any given moment she might snap in two.
Robyn was warm, and her fur was very soft. The individual hairs tickled his hands, and Pietro felt something curl around his back, resisting the urge to leap clear when he realised it was only her tail.
"What's wrong with Kurti?" she asked, looking back at the elf. Kurt was currently wobbling on his feet, and it seemed that he would topple over any second.
Pietro noted it, and ordered; "Siddown, Fuzzy, before you *fall* down. Y'ain't got enough food in you to be jumping around, just yet."
The spaded tip of Kurt's tail found his hands, and he played with it, something akin to embarrassment playing about his face. A muffled; "Can't", greeted Pietro's words, though it could have been mistaken for a meaningless grunt.
"What? Why not?"
"Gurrabubuckshar."
"Excuse me?"
Kurt sighed, and said; "Got a butt full of buckshot. Can't sit down properly. Too painful."
Lance's eyes widened. "You got shot in the *butt*!? Some 'Blessed Student'."
At this, Kurt just looked blank. Alvin, however, was much more verbal.
"How *dare* you!" he said, catching Kurt's attention for the first time. "He is one deemed worthy by the Great Teacher *himself*! Taught by the Goddess and her brethren to unite us all in the Dream of Peace with his compeers! Take back your words immediately, young sir!"
Lance wasn't exactly in the mood to take orders - especially from some nutso old coot with dead plants on his head - and rounded on the strange man with tongue sharp as a knife. "Listen, bub, I don't think you got no place to be tellin' me what to do. I've had one *helluva* day, and I'm fast reaching the end of my tether without you on my back as well. As far as I'm concerned, Kurt's a plain old mutant, just like the rest of us. He saved your life, which was brave, but stupid, since all you've done since you got here is spout garbage about Goddesses, plants and the faculty! Now I think you'd better just *shuddup*, before I get *really* ticked off!"
Alvin boggled at him, apparently only having really listened to half the irate teen's words. "Mutants," he breathed reverently, and looked around at the assembled people. "All of you are... are..."
"Mutants, yes." Lance put his hands on his hips. "You wanna make something of it? 'Cause I'm sure those Pig dudes are still around here somewhere."
But instead of being cowed, or even answering back, Alvin did the last thing any of them thought he would.
He began to weep.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, tracking rivers through the grime and filling the creases with salt water. He cried silently, and beamed through it all.
Robyn twitched, unfurling her tail, and Pietro let her go. The little girl dropped to all fours like a true feline and snuck forwards on her belly. Less than a foot away from the robed man she stopped, sitting down and cocking her head to one side.
"Why're you crying? You sad?"
Alvin shook his head, sending droplets shimmering into the air. "No, child. I'm the happiest man in the universe. I have found a treasure trove in the garden of Transgression. The Goddess was right. Faith was the key, and hope the threshold. Now I step through the doorway into the arms of her kindred."
"What are you *on*?" Lance groaned.
"Cloud Nine, apparently," said Pietro. Then; "Whoops!" He caught Kurt just as his inverted knees buckled, looping his arms around the elf's thin chest and hauling him upright again.
Kurt's breathing was harsh, and his movements slow. He needed more food, and quickly.
Pietro looked across the room. Lance seemed about to pop the half-laughing, half-crying zealot one right on the nose, and probably would've done had it not been for Kitty's steadying fingers laced through his own, holding him back. Robyn was watching Alvin with fascination, but kept one eye fixed on her 'big brothers' and what they were up to. Baby Hope grizzled, mouthing for more milk, which Kitty couldn't give her because of her preoccupation with Lance. And as for the elf - his weight dragged down on Pietro's arm, but he wheezed not to be sat down, *please*.
_Aw, Jeez, Maximoff, how'd you get yourself *into* these things?_
"If I may ask," Alvin said through his tears, "Who are you, good sirs and lady?"
"I'm not listening to this anymore." Lance turned his back on the strange man.
"Then go see if there are any clean beds around," Pietro instructed.
Lance disappeared down a dim corridor.
Pietro sighed, shifting Kurt's weight in his arms. "I'm Pietro Maximoff," he said. "My power is super speed."
Alvin cast into his memories of what the Goddess' texts had told him. "Windswift messenger man purifies world," he said after a moment. "I...I forget the rest." He looked ashamed.
Pietro inclined his head towards the doorway. "Er...Lance Alvers. Makes earthquakes."
"Angry man finds centre," Alvin quoted, "Shakes sense from chaos."
"And this is...ugh, forgot again," Pietro sighed.
"Kitty Pryde," the blind girl extended her right hand. "I phase."
Alvin shook with her reverentially. "Ghost woman brings life to world, a new hope is born."
"What?!" Pietro stared, wide-eyed.
"Mygosh!" Kitty retracted her hand and stroked her daughter's head. "It's like, *true*."
"What is?" Lance rejoined them in the waiting area.
Kitty repeated the last prophecy for his benefit.
"Coincidence," he scoffed. "Hope is a perfectly normal name for a girl. Third door on the left," he said to Pietro.
Robyn followed the pale boy as he carry-dragged Kurti to the other room and lay him on his stomach, pausing in the mouth of the corridor as Alvin's fervent mumbling twitched at her sensitive ears.
"...in her hands, I am guided. In her way, I am strong. The Goddess provides. The Goddess loves us all..." Alvin wrestled himself upright, wiping his wet cheeks and mindful of his wounded leg. "A stout staff would be nice, though," he mused. Limping, he made his way to his cart, and almost collapsed when he got there. He reached over, ignoring the pain. A sacrifice for the Blessed was a noble one. A pure one. He was doing the work of the Divine.
He worked a hidden catch, and a compartment opened, revealing his cache of foodstuffs. Tinned things and an array of 'add hot water' comestables.
"Here," he said. "Take all you need."
The catlike girl-child boggled. "That's a lotta food..."
"The Goddess provides," he said. "She would not send her servants out with nothing. She *loves* us."
"I'm starting to think she loves you when you're very far away," muttered the earth-shaker.
"*Lance*..." the ghost-woman warned. "Play nice? He's friendly."
"He's feedin' us," added the girl. In another room, Windswift remarked, "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow *ow*... This is *not* gonna be pretty..." and she blinked, eyes growing as she hurried off in search of her adoptive siblings.
Alvin reached into another compartment and took out a dried leaf, then he laboured along to the room where the Blessed Student lay.
He was facedown on a gurney, hips supported by a lot of pillows and his pants around his knees.
Legends never came to life like *this* in the scriptures.
Alvin had to spend time wondering if Christ Himself had fallen and, for example, scraped his knee when he was a child. Things like that *happened* to people. But - legends and people didn't get along. It was an epiphany of sorts. _When they get around to writing it down,_ he mused, _I'll probably be The Great Prophet. Oh my..._
"Here, Blessed One," he murmured, "Chew this. Don't swallow."
"Mnh," said the Blessed Student. He did as he was bade. In a moment, he was asleep.
Alvin carefully retrieved the leaf. A holy relic? A spare patch of cloth made it so, carefully inserted into his belt-pouch. "I can stand," he offered. "I can help."
Windswift pointed to the wound. "Then start shaving. Or washing. Or both."
"Watch his tail?" Robyn implored from her position in the corner.
"Why don't you hold it out of the way for us?" Pietro invited.
"Oh, no," Robyn shook her head vigorously. "I don't touch his and he doesn't touch mine. Without permission. It's a rule." Her cheek fur darkened. "But... sometimes I forget..."
"I don't think he'd mind right now," Pietro said. "Somebody has to, and I bet he'd rather you than me."
Robyn considered. "Kay." She padded to Kurti's side, hooked her fingers around the bottom of his tail's spade, and drew the serpentine appendage up towards his elbow.
"Good," Pietro nodded. "Just stay right like that."
Alvin glanced at the side-table. Windswift had managed to procure an electric razor, a washbasin, a trash bin, and a pair of tweezers.
He found a plug for the razor and skimmed the whirring device over the Blessed Student's buttocks. The cat-girl cringed and turned her face away.
"Well whaddya know," Windswift said. "He's blue underneath."
The pale boy dabbled the tweezers in the water, then targeted a single foreign body, loosening it slowly.
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To Be Continued...
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[1] The Pig Brothers.