Disclaimer: I still don't own the original X-Men. And I even offered to buy
Cyclops for five bucks! That's way more than he's worth... Anywho, here's
the chapter I was too lazy to post for a couple weeks.
*************************
"Jingle bells, Logan smells, Scott laid an egg. The cruddy steel forgot his meal, and Bobby took ballet! Yay!" Bear sang at the top of his lungs, as usual.
Everyone burst out laughing, excluding Scott. Jean put her hand over her mouth, hiding the smile on her face.
"Oh, man, I got to remember that one!" Evan said, tears pouring from his eyes as he imagined Bobby in a frilly pink tutu.
"Is it just me, or are we lost?" Jamie asked.
They all looked around them, except for Evan, who was still laughing. Peter lifted Jean up to his shoulders, asking:
"Can you see anything?"
Jean looked around her. There were trees, trees, and more trees. It was one huge collage of greens and browns. She couldn't see anything she had seen before, but it all looked familiar. Jean shook her head, and Peter set her back down on the ground.
"Good job, shades," Paste said, "You got us lost."
"Hey!" Scott said angrily, "You want to-"
Jean cut him off, "Scott, let's not start anything. All we need to do is figure out how to get out of here."
"Easier said than done," Peter said, looking at the foliage all around.
"Why doesn't someone just climb a tree and check out the view?" Evan asked.
"What?" Jean asked, "Oh, right, we could try it."
"Wait!" Jamie exclaimed, "Why is everyone looking at me?"
Peter picked up Jamie, and sat him in the nearest tree, "Start climbing, kid."
"Aw, man," Jamie muttered, and climbed up into the leaves, where he was blocked from view, "I'm at the top," he called after a few minutes.
"See anything?" Scott asked.
"Yeah," Jamie said, "We should go.. What's that?"
"Jamie?" Jean shouted, but Jamie didn't answer, "Jamie!"
She reached out with her mind, and found nothing. It was as if he had never been there.
"Scott," Jean said, anxious, "He's not there..."
"What? But he..." Scott didn't finish what he was saying. He looked confused and worried.
Peter grabbed the tree Jamie had climbed. At the same time, his body became covered in armor. Peter ripped the tree from the dirt, throwing it to the ground. Inspecting the tree, he said, "He's gone, he just disappeared. You can see here where he was climbing up, then he just disappeared, without a struggle."
"Since when can Jamie teleport?" Evan asked.
"Look out!" Pillbug shouted.
A gigantic tree was falling down on them. The group scattered, except Peter. Peter caught the tree, straining under its weight. Then he threw it over to the side.
As he leaned against a tree, Peter's skin resumed its normal hue, instead of chrome.
"Let's not do that again," he said.
**********************
Roberto looked down towards the river below them. He saw a platform still at least ten yards below them.
"We're getting closer!" he shouted up to Toad and the twins.
"You already said that," Toad whined, "I don't like this..."
Aaron and Shawn, dropped closer to the platform. Aaron was obviously weakening from the extended use of his power. When Roberto looked closer, he saw that Aaron was not able to remain in his griffin form, he was morphing back into himself.
"Aaron!" Shawn cried, "Look out!"
A orange burst of light had flown out of nowhere towards the twins. Aaron tried to swerve out of the way, despite the fact that he was now half- human. But it was too late, the sizzling orange laser hit Aaron in the chest. Immediately, Aaron and Shawn fell from the sky, They crashed down onto the rock platform. Shawn slipped off of the edge, and fell down a couple yards, until he came to rest on a much smaller ledge.
Toad let out a scream as he fell down onto Roberto, and they all tumbled down to the platform. Roberto got to his feet before Toad had even hit the ground. He checked to make sure that Rahne was alright, then moved over to the edge where Aaron was laying.
Roberto reached down towards Shawn, his body still aflame. Shawn grabbed the hand offered to him, and Roberto pulled him up. Shawn immediately knelt by Aaron.
"Hello, Shawn," Aaron said weakly, "Nice day for a fly, isn't it?"
"Can you stand up?" Shawn asked.
"Of course!" Aaron said. But when he tried sitting up, his breathing became sharp, and he laid back down, "Or not..." He tried again, but with the same result, "Shawn, I can't do it!"
Shawn could hear in Aaron's voice that he was in pain. Shawn also realized that Aaron was terrified.
"Aaron, calm down," Shawn told his brother.
"What happened? Why can't I get up?" Aaron's pain was blocking out the memory of the event.
Toad was still laying on the ground, groaning. Roberto kicked him, and the flames receded from his body. Seeing Shawn and Aaron, he moved up to them.
"Is he alright?" Roberto asked.
"No," Shawn was worried, Aaron's eyes were half-closed, his breathing ragged.
"What should we do?" Roberto felt Rahne join them as her fur brushed against his arm.
"I don't know..."
"Where am I?" Aaron's voice trembled, "Shawn? What's going on?"
Aaron tried to focus on his brother, but it hurt too much. He closed his eyes. If he just took a rest, he'd feel better. The darkness quickly enveloped him.
"Aaron?" Shawn said, "Aaron! Come on, bro, snap out of it! Please!"
Roberto felt for Aaron's pulse. It was there, although faint.
"He's still alive," Roberto said, unsure of what to do next, "What do we do now?"
"We can't leave him!" Shawn said.
"Of course not!" Roberto said, "Maybe we could carry him."
"Hey, what's up with animal-man?" Toad staggered over.
Shawn looked up at Toad, revealing the tears on his face, "Aaron... he's... not..." Shawn couldn't get the words out, "Aaron..."
"Uh, forget I asked..." Toad said.
Roberto threw Aaron's left arm over his shoulder. Standing up, Roberto carried Aaron over to a door in the rock wall. He pushed on the door, and it swung inward.
"Here we go," he said.
Shawn nodded, Rahne growled, and Toad looked scared.
"We have to go in there?" Toad pointed into the dark doorway.
"Yeah, and since you're our lucky winner, you get to go first!" Shawn told him, with nowhere near the humor he would normally have.
"No, wait, I, help!" Toad sputtered as Shawn pushed him through the doorway.
Roberto tried not to smile, "That's the way to go. If all else fails, pick on Toad."
**********************
Bobby led the group down a long hallway, searching for an unlocked door.
"Okay, if this door doesn't open, I'll make it open!" Sam said.
But as Bobby reached for the handle, the door began to open. Everyone hid behind Blob.
"Who're you?" three men emerged from the door.
"My name's-" Locust poked Blob in the back. Blob picked up two of the men and threw them down the hall.
The last guy stared at him, "I knew we should have gone to the meeting!"
Blob tossed him after the other two, and they all lay in a heap, unconscious.
Bobby walked through the door the men had come through, "The coast is clear."
Rogue and the others followed Bobby into the room. Sam looked into the door next to the one they had just entered.
"Hey guys, look!" Sam pushed the door open, and everyone peered inside.
"Logan?" Rogue said, surprised.
"Hey, kid," Logan said.
"Where's the professor?" Bobby asked.
"He just left with the old geezer."
"Mr. Kamon?" Sam laughed.
"Yeah, we were just discussing what to do next, but now that we have the leader of this 'mission' with us, I guess we can just ask you," Hank grinned.
"Who, me?" Rogue looked surprised, "I don't know what to do!"
Bobby looked at her, "Then how did we get this far?"
"Shut up!" Rogue snapped.
Bobby was hurt, he had just been trying to help.
"I'm sorry, Bobby," Rogue apologized, "It's just... these feelings, floating inside my head, it's all so confusing..."
"Who'd you touch now, kid?" Logan asked.
"John," Rogue responded sadly.
"That explains a lot."
"What do you mean?" Bobby asked, "What does that explain?"
"Just the way she's acting," Logan said, "When Rogue walked in, she looked over the room, the way John does. As if she might need to escape, or attack. Then, Rogue, when you yelled at Bobby, that's because, well, I'm sure you already know. Plus, you're talking with an Australian accent."
"I am?" Rogue said, surprised.
"Hey, he's right!" Sam exclaimed, laughing, "This is funny! I always thought you were Southern, not-"
"Do you want me to touch you, too?" Rogue growled.
Sam stopped laughing.
"Two Johns? This could be painful," Hank muttered.
"Now what?" Nightmare asked, to no one in particular.
"I just remembered, Mr. McCoy," Rogue said, pulling the piece of paper from her pocket, "Can you translate this?"
Hank took the paper, and read it over, "It's Italian. Translated it means: After the injection, the object will be weakened. The object can be transferred to 'the cell of sleep'. The freezing of life and time process then will happen. The notes and the explanation on the freezing will continue to the next pages," Hank looked up, "I'm guessing that 'object' could also mean 'subject' and 'the cell of sleep' probably means 'the sleeping cell'. But beyond that, I'm not completely certain what it means."
Sam spoke up, "Is a Sleeping Cell for insomniacs?"
Bobby rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Sam."
Sam scowled, "Temper, temper."
"Maybe they learned how to freeze clocks," Blob suggested.
"It said 'life', Blob, and clocks haven't ever been alive, if you haven't noticed," Nightmare said.
"I think we should split up again," Rogue said, "Logan you can come with me, and Mr. McCoy can go with the others," Rogue paused, then looked at everyone, "Where's Jess?"
"She said that she had something to do, and went down that hole," Gambit offered, pointing to the tunnel entrance.
Rogue nodded, "Okay, we'll both go separate ways," She tried the handle to one of the three doors in the room, and the door opened, "You guys go this way."
Logan turned the knob to the next door. It was locked. Logan extended one set of claws, and cut off half the door. What was left of it swung open, and Logan retracted his claws.
"Thanks," Rogue said, as if this happened every day, and walked through the doorway.
Locust and Blob stared for a couple seconds, then followed the retreating X-Men.
**********************
Gambit looked around the room they had just entered. Unfortunately, the room was pitch-black. Nightmare turned back to open the door again so they could use the light from the hallway, but the door had locked behind them.
"Good job, you were too busy daydreaming to pay attention to the door!" Wanda snapped.
Nightmare turned to Wanda with a thoughtful look no one saw. Then, Gambit drew a card from an inside pocket in his coat. The card flamed as Gambit kinetically charged it.
Gambit raised his eyebrows at the looks he got from the others, "It won't explode unless I let go of it, mes amis," he explained.
The group looked around the circle of light that the card illuminated. At first, they saw nothing, then Gambit moved forward. When they looked down at the floor, they found that it was far below them. They were standing on a platform that led to the roof's rafters.
Everyone stopped, except Crow, who hadn't realized the danger. Her soft footsteps echoed into the room below. At the edge of the platform, Crow stopped. She felt the ground with her foot, until she found one of the wooden rafters.
"Come on," she urged the others. She slid one foot in front of the other, moving across the beam, just like a circus performer on the high wire.
Nightmare took one glance at the long drop from the wood beam, and shook his head. His body transformed into a blue sparkling mist. The mist entered Gambit's ear.
Gambit shook his head, and muttered, "Coward."
"Shut up," Nightmare's words echoed through his head. Gambit ignored them, and took a step forward onto the beam, still holding the flaming card. Wanda took a deep breath, and put her left foot on the rafter. She wobbled, and fell to the side. As she fell, Wanda grabbed onto the wooden beam by Gambit's feet. Her surprise and fright caused her powers to activate involuntarily.
But Wanda's surprise was nothing compared to Gambit's as the card in his hand exploded, sending him backward, where he crashed into the wall. From there, he fell to the ground below.
The explosion caused the rafter to snap, wooden splinters flying in all directions. Crow had managed to catch hold of another beam as she fell. Wanda, however, was sliding down the demolished rafter, splinters lodging themselves into her hands.
Suddenly, it felt as if a cold fog had draped itself over her. The next thing Wanda knew, she was back onto the platform, Nightmare next to her.
"What happened?" Wanda asked.
"I got you up here," Nightmare said, watching Crow struggle to pull herself onto the rafter. He then turned back into the blue mist, and floated over to Crow. The mist entered Crow's ear.
Crow hung limply for a few moments, and then, dangling by one hand, removed her blindfold. She shoved it into her pocket, and lifted herself up. She then took one look at the ground, and froze, petrified.
The blue mist exited Crow's ear, and she relaxed. Then, realizing that the blindfold was not tied around her eyes, she glared at the blue mist. She retied the blindfold over her eyes, standing up. Crow continued her way to the other side of the room. When she got there she gave the thumbs-up sign to Wanda, and gestured for her to follow.
Wanda glanced at the ground. As her eyes scanned the floor, she caught sight of Gambit's limp form. Wanda closed her eyes, blocking the picture from her mind. Instead, she looked over to where Crow stood, waiting.
Wanda put her right foot on the rafter. Then her left. She only concentrated on getting to the other side. When her feet reached the platform on the other side, she sighed a breath of relief. Suddenly, Nightmare was beside them.
"Don't do that," Wanda muttered, when she jumped.
"Do what?" Nightmare asked innocently.
There was a scraping sound, and Crow pulled a trapdoor that was set in the floor open. A ladder led down into the dark room below. Wanda had just realized how dark it had become since the flames from the explosion had died down. Crow slipped easily onto the ladder, Wanda following her, Nightmare last.
They emerged from the bottom of the ladder quickly. Crow pulled the blindfold up slightly from her eyes, something she didn't do often. She noted where Gambit lay, and replaced the strip of cloth. Nightmare was searching the walls for a light switch. Wanda looked around the room for anything that might serve as a light source.
They were all startled when a brilliant light blinded them all.
*************************
"Jingle bells, Logan smells, Scott laid an egg. The cruddy steel forgot his meal, and Bobby took ballet! Yay!" Bear sang at the top of his lungs, as usual.
Everyone burst out laughing, excluding Scott. Jean put her hand over her mouth, hiding the smile on her face.
"Oh, man, I got to remember that one!" Evan said, tears pouring from his eyes as he imagined Bobby in a frilly pink tutu.
"Is it just me, or are we lost?" Jamie asked.
They all looked around them, except for Evan, who was still laughing. Peter lifted Jean up to his shoulders, asking:
"Can you see anything?"
Jean looked around her. There were trees, trees, and more trees. It was one huge collage of greens and browns. She couldn't see anything she had seen before, but it all looked familiar. Jean shook her head, and Peter set her back down on the ground.
"Good job, shades," Paste said, "You got us lost."
"Hey!" Scott said angrily, "You want to-"
Jean cut him off, "Scott, let's not start anything. All we need to do is figure out how to get out of here."
"Easier said than done," Peter said, looking at the foliage all around.
"Why doesn't someone just climb a tree and check out the view?" Evan asked.
"What?" Jean asked, "Oh, right, we could try it."
"Wait!" Jamie exclaimed, "Why is everyone looking at me?"
Peter picked up Jamie, and sat him in the nearest tree, "Start climbing, kid."
"Aw, man," Jamie muttered, and climbed up into the leaves, where he was blocked from view, "I'm at the top," he called after a few minutes.
"See anything?" Scott asked.
"Yeah," Jamie said, "We should go.. What's that?"
"Jamie?" Jean shouted, but Jamie didn't answer, "Jamie!"
She reached out with her mind, and found nothing. It was as if he had never been there.
"Scott," Jean said, anxious, "He's not there..."
"What? But he..." Scott didn't finish what he was saying. He looked confused and worried.
Peter grabbed the tree Jamie had climbed. At the same time, his body became covered in armor. Peter ripped the tree from the dirt, throwing it to the ground. Inspecting the tree, he said, "He's gone, he just disappeared. You can see here where he was climbing up, then he just disappeared, without a struggle."
"Since when can Jamie teleport?" Evan asked.
"Look out!" Pillbug shouted.
A gigantic tree was falling down on them. The group scattered, except Peter. Peter caught the tree, straining under its weight. Then he threw it over to the side.
As he leaned against a tree, Peter's skin resumed its normal hue, instead of chrome.
"Let's not do that again," he said.
**********************
Roberto looked down towards the river below them. He saw a platform still at least ten yards below them.
"We're getting closer!" he shouted up to Toad and the twins.
"You already said that," Toad whined, "I don't like this..."
Aaron and Shawn, dropped closer to the platform. Aaron was obviously weakening from the extended use of his power. When Roberto looked closer, he saw that Aaron was not able to remain in his griffin form, he was morphing back into himself.
"Aaron!" Shawn cried, "Look out!"
A orange burst of light had flown out of nowhere towards the twins. Aaron tried to swerve out of the way, despite the fact that he was now half- human. But it was too late, the sizzling orange laser hit Aaron in the chest. Immediately, Aaron and Shawn fell from the sky, They crashed down onto the rock platform. Shawn slipped off of the edge, and fell down a couple yards, until he came to rest on a much smaller ledge.
Toad let out a scream as he fell down onto Roberto, and they all tumbled down to the platform. Roberto got to his feet before Toad had even hit the ground. He checked to make sure that Rahne was alright, then moved over to the edge where Aaron was laying.
Roberto reached down towards Shawn, his body still aflame. Shawn grabbed the hand offered to him, and Roberto pulled him up. Shawn immediately knelt by Aaron.
"Hello, Shawn," Aaron said weakly, "Nice day for a fly, isn't it?"
"Can you stand up?" Shawn asked.
"Of course!" Aaron said. But when he tried sitting up, his breathing became sharp, and he laid back down, "Or not..." He tried again, but with the same result, "Shawn, I can't do it!"
Shawn could hear in Aaron's voice that he was in pain. Shawn also realized that Aaron was terrified.
"Aaron, calm down," Shawn told his brother.
"What happened? Why can't I get up?" Aaron's pain was blocking out the memory of the event.
Toad was still laying on the ground, groaning. Roberto kicked him, and the flames receded from his body. Seeing Shawn and Aaron, he moved up to them.
"Is he alright?" Roberto asked.
"No," Shawn was worried, Aaron's eyes were half-closed, his breathing ragged.
"What should we do?" Roberto felt Rahne join them as her fur brushed against his arm.
"I don't know..."
"Where am I?" Aaron's voice trembled, "Shawn? What's going on?"
Aaron tried to focus on his brother, but it hurt too much. He closed his eyes. If he just took a rest, he'd feel better. The darkness quickly enveloped him.
"Aaron?" Shawn said, "Aaron! Come on, bro, snap out of it! Please!"
Roberto felt for Aaron's pulse. It was there, although faint.
"He's still alive," Roberto said, unsure of what to do next, "What do we do now?"
"We can't leave him!" Shawn said.
"Of course not!" Roberto said, "Maybe we could carry him."
"Hey, what's up with animal-man?" Toad staggered over.
Shawn looked up at Toad, revealing the tears on his face, "Aaron... he's... not..." Shawn couldn't get the words out, "Aaron..."
"Uh, forget I asked..." Toad said.
Roberto threw Aaron's left arm over his shoulder. Standing up, Roberto carried Aaron over to a door in the rock wall. He pushed on the door, and it swung inward.
"Here we go," he said.
Shawn nodded, Rahne growled, and Toad looked scared.
"We have to go in there?" Toad pointed into the dark doorway.
"Yeah, and since you're our lucky winner, you get to go first!" Shawn told him, with nowhere near the humor he would normally have.
"No, wait, I, help!" Toad sputtered as Shawn pushed him through the doorway.
Roberto tried not to smile, "That's the way to go. If all else fails, pick on Toad."
**********************
Bobby led the group down a long hallway, searching for an unlocked door.
"Okay, if this door doesn't open, I'll make it open!" Sam said.
But as Bobby reached for the handle, the door began to open. Everyone hid behind Blob.
"Who're you?" three men emerged from the door.
"My name's-" Locust poked Blob in the back. Blob picked up two of the men and threw them down the hall.
The last guy stared at him, "I knew we should have gone to the meeting!"
Blob tossed him after the other two, and they all lay in a heap, unconscious.
Bobby walked through the door the men had come through, "The coast is clear."
Rogue and the others followed Bobby into the room. Sam looked into the door next to the one they had just entered.
"Hey guys, look!" Sam pushed the door open, and everyone peered inside.
"Logan?" Rogue said, surprised.
"Hey, kid," Logan said.
"Where's the professor?" Bobby asked.
"He just left with the old geezer."
"Mr. Kamon?" Sam laughed.
"Yeah, we were just discussing what to do next, but now that we have the leader of this 'mission' with us, I guess we can just ask you," Hank grinned.
"Who, me?" Rogue looked surprised, "I don't know what to do!"
Bobby looked at her, "Then how did we get this far?"
"Shut up!" Rogue snapped.
Bobby was hurt, he had just been trying to help.
"I'm sorry, Bobby," Rogue apologized, "It's just... these feelings, floating inside my head, it's all so confusing..."
"Who'd you touch now, kid?" Logan asked.
"John," Rogue responded sadly.
"That explains a lot."
"What do you mean?" Bobby asked, "What does that explain?"
"Just the way she's acting," Logan said, "When Rogue walked in, she looked over the room, the way John does. As if she might need to escape, or attack. Then, Rogue, when you yelled at Bobby, that's because, well, I'm sure you already know. Plus, you're talking with an Australian accent."
"I am?" Rogue said, surprised.
"Hey, he's right!" Sam exclaimed, laughing, "This is funny! I always thought you were Southern, not-"
"Do you want me to touch you, too?" Rogue growled.
Sam stopped laughing.
"Two Johns? This could be painful," Hank muttered.
"Now what?" Nightmare asked, to no one in particular.
"I just remembered, Mr. McCoy," Rogue said, pulling the piece of paper from her pocket, "Can you translate this?"
Hank took the paper, and read it over, "It's Italian. Translated it means: After the injection, the object will be weakened. The object can be transferred to 'the cell of sleep'. The freezing of life and time process then will happen. The notes and the explanation on the freezing will continue to the next pages," Hank looked up, "I'm guessing that 'object' could also mean 'subject' and 'the cell of sleep' probably means 'the sleeping cell'. But beyond that, I'm not completely certain what it means."
Sam spoke up, "Is a Sleeping Cell for insomniacs?"
Bobby rolled his eyes, "Shut up, Sam."
Sam scowled, "Temper, temper."
"Maybe they learned how to freeze clocks," Blob suggested.
"It said 'life', Blob, and clocks haven't ever been alive, if you haven't noticed," Nightmare said.
"I think we should split up again," Rogue said, "Logan you can come with me, and Mr. McCoy can go with the others," Rogue paused, then looked at everyone, "Where's Jess?"
"She said that she had something to do, and went down that hole," Gambit offered, pointing to the tunnel entrance.
Rogue nodded, "Okay, we'll both go separate ways," She tried the handle to one of the three doors in the room, and the door opened, "You guys go this way."
Logan turned the knob to the next door. It was locked. Logan extended one set of claws, and cut off half the door. What was left of it swung open, and Logan retracted his claws.
"Thanks," Rogue said, as if this happened every day, and walked through the doorway.
Locust and Blob stared for a couple seconds, then followed the retreating X-Men.
**********************
Gambit looked around the room they had just entered. Unfortunately, the room was pitch-black. Nightmare turned back to open the door again so they could use the light from the hallway, but the door had locked behind them.
"Good job, you were too busy daydreaming to pay attention to the door!" Wanda snapped.
Nightmare turned to Wanda with a thoughtful look no one saw. Then, Gambit drew a card from an inside pocket in his coat. The card flamed as Gambit kinetically charged it.
Gambit raised his eyebrows at the looks he got from the others, "It won't explode unless I let go of it, mes amis," he explained.
The group looked around the circle of light that the card illuminated. At first, they saw nothing, then Gambit moved forward. When they looked down at the floor, they found that it was far below them. They were standing on a platform that led to the roof's rafters.
Everyone stopped, except Crow, who hadn't realized the danger. Her soft footsteps echoed into the room below. At the edge of the platform, Crow stopped. She felt the ground with her foot, until she found one of the wooden rafters.
"Come on," she urged the others. She slid one foot in front of the other, moving across the beam, just like a circus performer on the high wire.
Nightmare took one glance at the long drop from the wood beam, and shook his head. His body transformed into a blue sparkling mist. The mist entered Gambit's ear.
Gambit shook his head, and muttered, "Coward."
"Shut up," Nightmare's words echoed through his head. Gambit ignored them, and took a step forward onto the beam, still holding the flaming card. Wanda took a deep breath, and put her left foot on the rafter. She wobbled, and fell to the side. As she fell, Wanda grabbed onto the wooden beam by Gambit's feet. Her surprise and fright caused her powers to activate involuntarily.
But Wanda's surprise was nothing compared to Gambit's as the card in his hand exploded, sending him backward, where he crashed into the wall. From there, he fell to the ground below.
The explosion caused the rafter to snap, wooden splinters flying in all directions. Crow had managed to catch hold of another beam as she fell. Wanda, however, was sliding down the demolished rafter, splinters lodging themselves into her hands.
Suddenly, it felt as if a cold fog had draped itself over her. The next thing Wanda knew, she was back onto the platform, Nightmare next to her.
"What happened?" Wanda asked.
"I got you up here," Nightmare said, watching Crow struggle to pull herself onto the rafter. He then turned back into the blue mist, and floated over to Crow. The mist entered Crow's ear.
Crow hung limply for a few moments, and then, dangling by one hand, removed her blindfold. She shoved it into her pocket, and lifted herself up. She then took one look at the ground, and froze, petrified.
The blue mist exited Crow's ear, and she relaxed. Then, realizing that the blindfold was not tied around her eyes, she glared at the blue mist. She retied the blindfold over her eyes, standing up. Crow continued her way to the other side of the room. When she got there she gave the thumbs-up sign to Wanda, and gestured for her to follow.
Wanda glanced at the ground. As her eyes scanned the floor, she caught sight of Gambit's limp form. Wanda closed her eyes, blocking the picture from her mind. Instead, she looked over to where Crow stood, waiting.
Wanda put her right foot on the rafter. Then her left. She only concentrated on getting to the other side. When her feet reached the platform on the other side, she sighed a breath of relief. Suddenly, Nightmare was beside them.
"Don't do that," Wanda muttered, when she jumped.
"Do what?" Nightmare asked innocently.
There was a scraping sound, and Crow pulled a trapdoor that was set in the floor open. A ladder led down into the dark room below. Wanda had just realized how dark it had become since the flames from the explosion had died down. Crow slipped easily onto the ladder, Wanda following her, Nightmare last.
They emerged from the bottom of the ladder quickly. Crow pulled the blindfold up slightly from her eyes, something she didn't do often. She noted where Gambit lay, and replaced the strip of cloth. Nightmare was searching the walls for a light switch. Wanda looked around the room for anything that might serve as a light source.
They were all startled when a brilliant light blinded them all.