Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you, lawyer people? I don't
own anything!!!
Tao's Girl: Thanks! You're in this one! Enjoy! PS: Luv da' kitty, Stroke da' kitty, Be da' kitty! (sorry, inside joke)
ldyepebsaby: Lots of thanks to you, my faithful reviewer!! Peace Out (
DemonRogue13: Thank you, also a faithful reviewer.
psyco88: Thanks, I'm glad you like the characters. It's also nice to have a new reviewer.
Dracula'sgurl: Hope you like this chapter, e-mail me or whatever and tell me what you think!
Ch 10- Betrayal
Two teen age girls perched in a tree, watching the sleepy and slightly battle scarred camp below. One, a blonde haired, blue eyed seventeen year old named Hannah Maximoff put binoculars to her eyes to get a closer look. The other, Kathleen Tolensky was dozing slightly. Hannah biffed the ebony haired, green eyed fifteen year old with a rolled up magazine and whispered, "Look, the cat's waking up."
The cousins had been watching the whole panther episode last night, and had kept a mental note to report it. The two were being as quiet as possible, as they were not to far away from the little camp. They were out of earshot of most, making an exception for Ron and Kaye. Kathleen blinked sleepily as Kaye stirred. The panther stood unsteadily and then, realizing she wasn't exactly in human form, started to panic. Hannah and Kathleen watched as Raina comforted the animal and slowly explained to her how to get back to a human form again. Kaye finally figured out how to switch forms and was standing shakily with her back against a tree. Hannah put the binoculars back on her eyes and spoke, "Kathleen you have to see her eyes. They're all different."
Kathleen took the binoculars from the slightly ditzy Hannah and looked at Kaye's dark eyes that were now flecked with gold. Suddenly, the binoculars were snatched from Kathleen by an unknown source in the upper branches.
"Not nearly as weird as mine, mates." A younger voice answered somewhat proudly.
Both sighed in annoyance and groaned, "Tao."(1)
A brown haired fourteen year old dropped nimbly from a higher branch. Tao Allerdyce was a blunt, opinionated girl whose eyes were very interesting. They were red, blue, and a little orange with other flame shades mixed in, but the most curious thing was she had no pupils.
"So, why haven't their parents come to the rescue?" Tao asked for about the third time in her Australian accent.
Kathleen rolled her eyes and said through gritted teeth, "Because we're about half a mile from the cave right?"
Tao nodded
"And headquarters has my grandfather's mind block thing around it for a three mile radius, meaning baldy can't find us." Kathleen explained.
"Oh yeah." Tao grinned sheepishly.
"So, why do you have to grace us with your lovely presence for the next week anyway?" Hannah muttered sarcastically.
"Well, ya see, when I showed up with me second cousin John's powers, my parents thought it'd be good for me to come visit 'im. But all he's done so far is try to send me on beer runs, forgetting that I'm not twenty one yet, and can't buy beer, or vodka, or wine." Tao growled, listing all the drinks John and all the other men had been requesting.
"When you live with 'em twenty-four-seven, you sorta get used to it." Kathleen spoke in a bored, monotone voice.
Tao muttered something about lousy drunks, and conjured up a fire bobcat from a lighter, and was making it jump from branch to branch. Bobcats were Tao's favorite animal, and she loved nothing more than to make a fire bobcat and watch it walk, jump, play, and do other things she commanded it to.
"So what else can you do with fire?" Kathleen asked, who was a bit nicer than Hannah, but not by much.
"Watch this." Tao said, heartened that someone actually was interested in any talents she had. She took the lighter and put it lit into her mouth. She left the flame in her mouth for about a minute, and then spit it like a dragon.
"Not one burn, either." She stated, sticking out her unscathed tongue.
Hannah and Kathleen tried not to look amazed at this, until Hannah heard a message on a walkie talkie she held. She listened for a moment and said, "Pack up girls, my Dad says we're due back to headquarters."
Drake was furious. Everyone was fawning over Kaye because she had just hunted down an enormous stag. Though he would never admit it, Drake was an attention hog and always had been.
"Don't see what's such a big deal, anyway." Drake growled as Kaye sat the deer by the fire, releasing its antlers from her powerful jaws.
Drake suddenly heard a rustling in the bushes not five yards away from his tent, which he was seated by. He frowned as Nate exclaimed, "How did you catch that thing?"
"Well, the condition its throat is in should tell you." A now human Kaye said, gesturing to the stag's mangled neck.
Drake heard the same noise again, and went to check it out, angered by the fact that no one noticed him walking off. He disappeared into the thick foliage where the sound was coming from. He got to a place where the bushes were thick with briars and sharp twigs and he saw a middle aged man looking through a gap in the leaves, and fiddling with a deck of cards. His countenance was slightly worried, but he looked up when Drake entered the area. Remy LeBeau shook his head in slight bewilderment at Drake, but put the thought aside and said, "Ton pere would like a word with you."
Drake looked farther into the space, surprised to find his father sitting expectantly on a large rock.
"What are you doing here?" Drake asked rudely. Even though the two were a team, they had a surprising disrespect for each other.
"I've come to ask you a favor." Lance retorted with the same insolence his son had used.
"What do you want?" Drake asked suspiciously. His father threw him a map, showing Drake where his boss's new headquarters was.
"I need you to lure the others to this location." He said, pointing to a circled place on the small map.
"So, where are we now?" Drake asked.
"Here." Lance answered, putting a box around the spot with a pen.
"Before I do this, what's in it for me?" Drake inquired discourteously.
"I'm paying you to do this, Drake." Lance snarled. "So keep a civil tongue in your head."
"Paying me? How much?" he asked his father greedily.
"How much do you want?" Drake's father asked, hoping his son wouldn't ask for too much, but knowing he most likely would.
"How much do you have?"
Lance growled at this comment. "How's fifty?" He sighed.
Drake thought for a moment, and then shook his head.
"Seventy five?"
"No."
Lance realized that Drake was trying to figure out how far he could go with out his father denying his request.
"Don't tell me you want one hundred." Lance groaned.
Drake grinned in a cocky manner, telling his father that, yes, he wanted one hundred dollars. Lance cursed under his breath before pulling out two fifties and handing them to his son.
"Don't you have a hundred instead of two fifties?" Drake smirked.
"Don't push it, buddy. I could just not pay you and make you do this with the threat of taking away television privileges." Lance hissed victoriously.
"I could just leave you to do this yourself, knowing that those three brats wouldn't trust you if their lives depended on it." Drake retorted, jabbing a thumb at Triss, Nate, and Kaye. Lance let Drake go, knowing he needed him to do his new boss's bidding.
"What are you staring at, swamp rat?" he asked Remy, who was still staring at something through the bushes.
"Remy thinks he knows one of the children, mon ami." The Cajun replied, speaking in third person as he always did.
"Whatever." Lance muttered.
"Remy thinks it is chere's adopted daughter, but Remy has only seen the back of her head so far." He spoke to himself.
"Who?" Lance asked in confusion.
"Rogue's adopted daughter." Remy explained.
"Oh, you mean Kaye? Probably is." Lance shrugged. Remy looked even more concerned at this and kept watching her.
"So, how do you know Kaye?" Lance asked curiously.
"Remy was almost engaged to Rogue once." Remy spoke sadly. "Remy thinks he made her more unhappy being in a relationship than not, he thinks it reminded her that she could never be close to anyone. Remy was sort of a father to Kaye before he and Rogue went separate ways. But she doesn't remember Remy, I'm sure. He left when she was young."
"How old was she when you left?" Lance inquired, trying not to sound interested in the subject.
"Well, Remy started dating Rogue when Kaye was a newborn, and left when she was four. It was not Remy's decision for him to leave, it was Rogue's." He added, seeing the look on Lance's face, "Sorry, Remy hopes he does not depress you."
"Why would I be depressed?" Lance asked a little more forcefully than he meant to.
"Remy knows your relationship with Drake's mother." Remy said, trying to sound casual.
"Worry about your own love life, Cajun." Lance snapped, as this was a touchy subject for him.
But the Cajun was not listening; his attention was on Kaye, who had finally turned her face towards him. He sat realizing that if Drake lured the children to this cave, Kaye would be along with them. Lance also realized this and knew that Remy might be tempted to squeal to the X-Men. Though Lance had thought correctly, he had thought too late. He and Remy, thankfully, had walked from the cave, so Remy would also be walking to go find the X-Men. He tried to run after the Cajun, but Gambit had once been a thief, and knew exactly how to blend in with his surroundings and cause Lance to lose track of him. Lance knew he needed to report this to his boss, Pietro, as quickly as possible.
When Drake appeared back in the camp, everyone else had tried to figure out how to cook the stag, but had only had a bloody mess on their hands. The deer was even more bloody and mangled than before, and it was starting to make the others queasy.
"Stupid kids," Drake muttered as Kaye tried to size up the situation.
Rosie had started to whine out of hunger and was saying, "Eeeew, we can't eat that!"
Triss was in hysterics at seeing the dead deer and squeaked, "It's Bambi! I can't believe you, Kaye, you killed Bambi!"
"Oh, get a grip Triss." Kaye snapped.
Rosie ran over to the deer Triss had christened "Bambi", kicked its antler and pouted, "Cook, you stupid deer!"
Suddenly, as if by magic, the edible part of the stag was on a stick over the rekindled fire, and the rest had been discarded in a pile at the edge of the clearing.
"What did she do?" Kaye asked Joel in utter shock at this happening.
"I don't know!" he answered as the rest of the group looked to him for an answer.
Everyone looked flabbergasted except Rosie, who wondered why everyone was staring at her. The others decided not to confuse the little redhead by asking questions, and watched the remainder of "Bambi" cook slowly. It was then when Drake decided to persuade the others to come to the cave where he was told to bring them.
"Guys?" he asked, bringing their attention to him. "After this is cooked and we eat, I think we should get going."
"Why?" Tom asked, "We have a perfectly good campsite right here."
"Because it says on this map-" Drake was cut off by Kaye.
"You mean you have a map?" she asked, her piercing gold flecked eyes narrowing.
"Yeah." He said, not knowing what was wrong.
"You had it the whole time?" she asked.
Drake was forced to answer yes.
"THE ONLY REASON I FOLLOWED YOU MORONS WAS BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW THE WAY BACK!!!" Kaye shrieked.
"Um, Kaye, everyone can hear you." Triss commented, forgetting that they were in the woods.
"TRISS, THE ONLY THING AROUND HERE IS WOODS!!!! SQUIRRELS, BIRDS, CUTE LITTLE BUNNIES!!!!"
"Kaye, breathe." Raina said to her friend. Raina finally got Kaye to settle down as Drake explained the rest of the plan, mildly surprised by Kaye's outburst.
"There's a cave nearby and I thought it would be better shelter than tents." He finished, hoping Kaye approved of this.
"Sounds good to me," Will answered promptly.
"Sure." Nate answered as everyone else gave their opinion, which proved to accept this offer.
"Good." Drake answered, looking at the deer which was at least half cooked by now, "We'll go after, um, lunch?"
The slightly more energetic kids had now set off, after packing everything including a good supply of deer meat. Drake was relieved that no one had objected to his plan and were now well on their way to the cave. He was just hoping he could loose the others in the cave without them noticing. But when he and the others got to the damp and narrow cave, his fears were forgotten. The cave was dark enough that he could slip away at the last moment.
"Are you sure we should go in there?" Ron asked.
"Why not?" Drake inquired, hoping Ron would think himself a chicken and go in. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Ron didn't answer and, blushing, stepped into the shadowy, dank cave. The others followed immediately. Everyone walked down the narrow tunnel, complaining of having no light source. No one could see except Kaye, who was now a panther so she could see. Sooner or later, the group started to get uneasy, but said nothing in fear of being declared a coward.
After tromping down the narrow space for quite some time, with no light, Raina said, "This is stupid, there's no way we can stay here. We can't start a fire, it's too wet, and we don't have a flashlight. Let's turn back Drake."
But Drake didn't answer.
"Drake?" asked Triss, wondering where he was.
"Just like Gollum." Kaye growled who had turned back to a human just to comment on this before turning back into a panther, for she couldn't see.
Suddenly a white smoke appeared from the cracks in the walls.
"What is that?" Rosie asked, a bit suspicious of the whole happening.
The unfortunate bunch figured out that this was knockout gas as Rosie collapsed in front of them. The others didn't have time to run in horror as each, one by one, fell unconscious to the damp, hard ground.
(1): Pronounced TAY-oh
Tao's Girl: Thanks! You're in this one! Enjoy! PS: Luv da' kitty, Stroke da' kitty, Be da' kitty! (sorry, inside joke)
ldyepebsaby: Lots of thanks to you, my faithful reviewer!! Peace Out (
DemonRogue13: Thank you, also a faithful reviewer.
psyco88: Thanks, I'm glad you like the characters. It's also nice to have a new reviewer.
Dracula'sgurl: Hope you like this chapter, e-mail me or whatever and tell me what you think!
Ch 10- Betrayal
Two teen age girls perched in a tree, watching the sleepy and slightly battle scarred camp below. One, a blonde haired, blue eyed seventeen year old named Hannah Maximoff put binoculars to her eyes to get a closer look. The other, Kathleen Tolensky was dozing slightly. Hannah biffed the ebony haired, green eyed fifteen year old with a rolled up magazine and whispered, "Look, the cat's waking up."
The cousins had been watching the whole panther episode last night, and had kept a mental note to report it. The two were being as quiet as possible, as they were not to far away from the little camp. They were out of earshot of most, making an exception for Ron and Kaye. Kathleen blinked sleepily as Kaye stirred. The panther stood unsteadily and then, realizing she wasn't exactly in human form, started to panic. Hannah and Kathleen watched as Raina comforted the animal and slowly explained to her how to get back to a human form again. Kaye finally figured out how to switch forms and was standing shakily with her back against a tree. Hannah put the binoculars back on her eyes and spoke, "Kathleen you have to see her eyes. They're all different."
Kathleen took the binoculars from the slightly ditzy Hannah and looked at Kaye's dark eyes that were now flecked with gold. Suddenly, the binoculars were snatched from Kathleen by an unknown source in the upper branches.
"Not nearly as weird as mine, mates." A younger voice answered somewhat proudly.
Both sighed in annoyance and groaned, "Tao."(1)
A brown haired fourteen year old dropped nimbly from a higher branch. Tao Allerdyce was a blunt, opinionated girl whose eyes were very interesting. They were red, blue, and a little orange with other flame shades mixed in, but the most curious thing was she had no pupils.
"So, why haven't their parents come to the rescue?" Tao asked for about the third time in her Australian accent.
Kathleen rolled her eyes and said through gritted teeth, "Because we're about half a mile from the cave right?"
Tao nodded
"And headquarters has my grandfather's mind block thing around it for a three mile radius, meaning baldy can't find us." Kathleen explained.
"Oh yeah." Tao grinned sheepishly.
"So, why do you have to grace us with your lovely presence for the next week anyway?" Hannah muttered sarcastically.
"Well, ya see, when I showed up with me second cousin John's powers, my parents thought it'd be good for me to come visit 'im. But all he's done so far is try to send me on beer runs, forgetting that I'm not twenty one yet, and can't buy beer, or vodka, or wine." Tao growled, listing all the drinks John and all the other men had been requesting.
"When you live with 'em twenty-four-seven, you sorta get used to it." Kathleen spoke in a bored, monotone voice.
Tao muttered something about lousy drunks, and conjured up a fire bobcat from a lighter, and was making it jump from branch to branch. Bobcats were Tao's favorite animal, and she loved nothing more than to make a fire bobcat and watch it walk, jump, play, and do other things she commanded it to.
"So what else can you do with fire?" Kathleen asked, who was a bit nicer than Hannah, but not by much.
"Watch this." Tao said, heartened that someone actually was interested in any talents she had. She took the lighter and put it lit into her mouth. She left the flame in her mouth for about a minute, and then spit it like a dragon.
"Not one burn, either." She stated, sticking out her unscathed tongue.
Hannah and Kathleen tried not to look amazed at this, until Hannah heard a message on a walkie talkie she held. She listened for a moment and said, "Pack up girls, my Dad says we're due back to headquarters."
Drake was furious. Everyone was fawning over Kaye because she had just hunted down an enormous stag. Though he would never admit it, Drake was an attention hog and always had been.
"Don't see what's such a big deal, anyway." Drake growled as Kaye sat the deer by the fire, releasing its antlers from her powerful jaws.
Drake suddenly heard a rustling in the bushes not five yards away from his tent, which he was seated by. He frowned as Nate exclaimed, "How did you catch that thing?"
"Well, the condition its throat is in should tell you." A now human Kaye said, gesturing to the stag's mangled neck.
Drake heard the same noise again, and went to check it out, angered by the fact that no one noticed him walking off. He disappeared into the thick foliage where the sound was coming from. He got to a place where the bushes were thick with briars and sharp twigs and he saw a middle aged man looking through a gap in the leaves, and fiddling with a deck of cards. His countenance was slightly worried, but he looked up when Drake entered the area. Remy LeBeau shook his head in slight bewilderment at Drake, but put the thought aside and said, "Ton pere would like a word with you."
Drake looked farther into the space, surprised to find his father sitting expectantly on a large rock.
"What are you doing here?" Drake asked rudely. Even though the two were a team, they had a surprising disrespect for each other.
"I've come to ask you a favor." Lance retorted with the same insolence his son had used.
"What do you want?" Drake asked suspiciously. His father threw him a map, showing Drake where his boss's new headquarters was.
"I need you to lure the others to this location." He said, pointing to a circled place on the small map.
"So, where are we now?" Drake asked.
"Here." Lance answered, putting a box around the spot with a pen.
"Before I do this, what's in it for me?" Drake inquired discourteously.
"I'm paying you to do this, Drake." Lance snarled. "So keep a civil tongue in your head."
"Paying me? How much?" he asked his father greedily.
"How much do you want?" Drake's father asked, hoping his son wouldn't ask for too much, but knowing he most likely would.
"How much do you have?"
Lance growled at this comment. "How's fifty?" He sighed.
Drake thought for a moment, and then shook his head.
"Seventy five?"
"No."
Lance realized that Drake was trying to figure out how far he could go with out his father denying his request.
"Don't tell me you want one hundred." Lance groaned.
Drake grinned in a cocky manner, telling his father that, yes, he wanted one hundred dollars. Lance cursed under his breath before pulling out two fifties and handing them to his son.
"Don't you have a hundred instead of two fifties?" Drake smirked.
"Don't push it, buddy. I could just not pay you and make you do this with the threat of taking away television privileges." Lance hissed victoriously.
"I could just leave you to do this yourself, knowing that those three brats wouldn't trust you if their lives depended on it." Drake retorted, jabbing a thumb at Triss, Nate, and Kaye. Lance let Drake go, knowing he needed him to do his new boss's bidding.
"What are you staring at, swamp rat?" he asked Remy, who was still staring at something through the bushes.
"Remy thinks he knows one of the children, mon ami." The Cajun replied, speaking in third person as he always did.
"Whatever." Lance muttered.
"Remy thinks it is chere's adopted daughter, but Remy has only seen the back of her head so far." He spoke to himself.
"Who?" Lance asked in confusion.
"Rogue's adopted daughter." Remy explained.
"Oh, you mean Kaye? Probably is." Lance shrugged. Remy looked even more concerned at this and kept watching her.
"So, how do you know Kaye?" Lance asked curiously.
"Remy was almost engaged to Rogue once." Remy spoke sadly. "Remy thinks he made her more unhappy being in a relationship than not, he thinks it reminded her that she could never be close to anyone. Remy was sort of a father to Kaye before he and Rogue went separate ways. But she doesn't remember Remy, I'm sure. He left when she was young."
"How old was she when you left?" Lance inquired, trying not to sound interested in the subject.
"Well, Remy started dating Rogue when Kaye was a newborn, and left when she was four. It was not Remy's decision for him to leave, it was Rogue's." He added, seeing the look on Lance's face, "Sorry, Remy hopes he does not depress you."
"Why would I be depressed?" Lance asked a little more forcefully than he meant to.
"Remy knows your relationship with Drake's mother." Remy said, trying to sound casual.
"Worry about your own love life, Cajun." Lance snapped, as this was a touchy subject for him.
But the Cajun was not listening; his attention was on Kaye, who had finally turned her face towards him. He sat realizing that if Drake lured the children to this cave, Kaye would be along with them. Lance also realized this and knew that Remy might be tempted to squeal to the X-Men. Though Lance had thought correctly, he had thought too late. He and Remy, thankfully, had walked from the cave, so Remy would also be walking to go find the X-Men. He tried to run after the Cajun, but Gambit had once been a thief, and knew exactly how to blend in with his surroundings and cause Lance to lose track of him. Lance knew he needed to report this to his boss, Pietro, as quickly as possible.
When Drake appeared back in the camp, everyone else had tried to figure out how to cook the stag, but had only had a bloody mess on their hands. The deer was even more bloody and mangled than before, and it was starting to make the others queasy.
"Stupid kids," Drake muttered as Kaye tried to size up the situation.
Rosie had started to whine out of hunger and was saying, "Eeeew, we can't eat that!"
Triss was in hysterics at seeing the dead deer and squeaked, "It's Bambi! I can't believe you, Kaye, you killed Bambi!"
"Oh, get a grip Triss." Kaye snapped.
Rosie ran over to the deer Triss had christened "Bambi", kicked its antler and pouted, "Cook, you stupid deer!"
Suddenly, as if by magic, the edible part of the stag was on a stick over the rekindled fire, and the rest had been discarded in a pile at the edge of the clearing.
"What did she do?" Kaye asked Joel in utter shock at this happening.
"I don't know!" he answered as the rest of the group looked to him for an answer.
Everyone looked flabbergasted except Rosie, who wondered why everyone was staring at her. The others decided not to confuse the little redhead by asking questions, and watched the remainder of "Bambi" cook slowly. It was then when Drake decided to persuade the others to come to the cave where he was told to bring them.
"Guys?" he asked, bringing their attention to him. "After this is cooked and we eat, I think we should get going."
"Why?" Tom asked, "We have a perfectly good campsite right here."
"Because it says on this map-" Drake was cut off by Kaye.
"You mean you have a map?" she asked, her piercing gold flecked eyes narrowing.
"Yeah." He said, not knowing what was wrong.
"You had it the whole time?" she asked.
Drake was forced to answer yes.
"THE ONLY REASON I FOLLOWED YOU MORONS WAS BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW THE WAY BACK!!!" Kaye shrieked.
"Um, Kaye, everyone can hear you." Triss commented, forgetting that they were in the woods.
"TRISS, THE ONLY THING AROUND HERE IS WOODS!!!! SQUIRRELS, BIRDS, CUTE LITTLE BUNNIES!!!!"
"Kaye, breathe." Raina said to her friend. Raina finally got Kaye to settle down as Drake explained the rest of the plan, mildly surprised by Kaye's outburst.
"There's a cave nearby and I thought it would be better shelter than tents." He finished, hoping Kaye approved of this.
"Sounds good to me," Will answered promptly.
"Sure." Nate answered as everyone else gave their opinion, which proved to accept this offer.
"Good." Drake answered, looking at the deer which was at least half cooked by now, "We'll go after, um, lunch?"
The slightly more energetic kids had now set off, after packing everything including a good supply of deer meat. Drake was relieved that no one had objected to his plan and were now well on their way to the cave. He was just hoping he could loose the others in the cave without them noticing. But when he and the others got to the damp and narrow cave, his fears were forgotten. The cave was dark enough that he could slip away at the last moment.
"Are you sure we should go in there?" Ron asked.
"Why not?" Drake inquired, hoping Ron would think himself a chicken and go in. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Ron didn't answer and, blushing, stepped into the shadowy, dank cave. The others followed immediately. Everyone walked down the narrow tunnel, complaining of having no light source. No one could see except Kaye, who was now a panther so she could see. Sooner or later, the group started to get uneasy, but said nothing in fear of being declared a coward.
After tromping down the narrow space for quite some time, with no light, Raina said, "This is stupid, there's no way we can stay here. We can't start a fire, it's too wet, and we don't have a flashlight. Let's turn back Drake."
But Drake didn't answer.
"Drake?" asked Triss, wondering where he was.
"Just like Gollum." Kaye growled who had turned back to a human just to comment on this before turning back into a panther, for she couldn't see.
Suddenly a white smoke appeared from the cracks in the walls.
"What is that?" Rosie asked, a bit suspicious of the whole happening.
The unfortunate bunch figured out that this was knockout gas as Rosie collapsed in front of them. The others didn't have time to run in horror as each, one by one, fell unconscious to the damp, hard ground.
(1): Pronounced TAY-oh