DemonRogue13: Thanks.
Karakin: Glad you like it. There will be some Romy, though the whole story isn't around it.
ldypebsaby: Thanks. Yeah, Drake needs to be slapped right now, I realize this.
paprika90: Yeah I updated, I'll try to update sooner on chapter 12.
Tao's Girl: Thanks for reviewing. I will keep checking on your fic.
Dracula'sgurl: Soon enough for you, my ferrety friend?
Chapter 11- Riddles in the Dark
Kaye awoke in utter darkness, her head pounding. She thought for a moment she was back in her house, in Mississippi, until she felt the clammy, hard floor underneath her. Kaye tried to lift her head, only to find a weight sitting on top of it. She sat wondering what it was; when she tried to yawn, something stopped her jaws from moving more than an inch or two. Kaye opened her eyes wider to find she was looking through strong metal mesh. The girl decided to stand up to get a better sense of where she was when she found that her hands and feet were actually paws. That was when the panther called Kaye realized that she was being harnessed by a huge metal muzzle. The cat tried to walk forward when she was jerked back by something, which turned out to be a thick chain attaching the muzzle to the wall.
"I wonder who could have done this," Kaye thought, marveling over how the muzzle seemed to fit her perfectly, though it was uncomfortable. She sat, thinking about how she could get out of these restraints. She soon found the answer.
"I'll just turn myself into a human and voila!" She thought as she switched bodies. But her head did not slip out of the muzzle as she expected -- her head was stuck in her human form too. In fact the metal around her neck was choking her now, so Kaye had no choice but to turn back into her mutant form. She sat for a moment before looking around the small, narrow cell. Her eyes had quickly become accustomed to the darkness by now, revealing all her teammates chained to the wall as well, with manacles on each arm, flanked by a heavy chain. They were restrained along the wall, starting with Tom, then Ron, Raina, Nate, Triss, Will, Joel, Rosie, and then ending with Kaye, who was trapped in a corner. The colossal cat looked to her left to find Rosie shivering in her sleep.
"Oh no." Kaye thought, seeing Rosie next to her. Kaye had never liked children, their crying, screaming, and whining, their sticky hands. Small children were annoying to Kaye, and she was constantly afraid she was accidentally going to hurt them somehow. Kaye watched Rosie shiver in the cold, her arms held unnaturally high above her. The black leopard moved over as far as her chains would allow, gently put a paw around the little girl and pulled Rosie next to her. Kaye sat down as the small five year old put her head on the panther's chest, right next to her heart. Rosie's shivering abated as Kaye thought, "She's not that bad, for a little nuisance."
Hannah walked away from the cell door to tell her father that the panther could not get out of her muzzle, just as he had hoped. She came into a large room, to find all the adults conversing over how they had finally put the X-Men in their place. Also, they were discussing how their own children would win in fights against their old rivals' kids.
"So?" A blonde haired blue eyed woman asked Hannah.
"The panther is successfully restrained." She sighed as she rolled her eyes. The woman was Alexa Maximoff, Pietro's wife, and Hannah's mother. The unusual thing was Alexa and Hannah both had no mutant gene, which was very surprising for Hannah, though not so much for Alexa.
"Yeah! We finally got those goodie goodies." Todd exclaimed, punching the air.
"I-told-you-we-would." Pietro said in his usual speedy dialect.
"So, who did we get?" asked the slow witted Blob.
"We-got-Rogue's-adopted-kid," Pietro spoke, starting to list the children he had captured. "We-got-Kitty-and-Kurt's-twins."
Pietro was cut off as Toad stated his approval because of his long rivalry with Nightcrawler.
"Rahne-and-Roberto's-two-Bobby-and-Jubilee's-one-and-best-of-all-we-got-the- Summers-kids."
Everyone cheered here, for there wasn't one of the adults who didn't hate Scott Summers. The children, though, were very bored, and were looking for any form of entertainment. Kathleen was levitating a metal ball using her powers she had inherited from her grandfather, Magneto, who had finally died not too long ago. Tao was playing with yet another fire bobcat, even petting its fiery head. Hannah was flirting with Drake, who was definitely enjoying the attention. Kathleen watched in disgust as she asked her mother Wanda, "Mom, can I sign on Uncle Pietro's computer?"
She had forgotten, however that Pietro was in the room, "No, you can't." he replied to his niece. As soon as he left the room, Wanda answered, "Yes, go." Kathleen ran off to her uncle's room, to get on his private computer, that wasn't at all related to his work. Tao had gotten tired of playing with the bobcat, and was now heading off to the cell to find someone to talk to. She looked through the few bars on the door, to find the only one awake apart from Kaye, was Joel.
"Hey, could you please tell me why we're here?" He asked politely to the stranger.
"Sure, mate." She answered sadly, realizing that he wouldn't like her answer. "What I've heard, is this guy Pietro is trying to continue his old dad's work."
"On what?" Joel inquired hoarsely.
"You sure you want to hear this?" Tao asked grimly.
"Yes." He answered surely.
"Work on mutant experimentation." She spoke miserably.
Joel's eyes grew wide in horror. He sat for a moment before saying, "Is there any way you can get us out of here?"
"Fraid not, mate. Who knows where speedy keeps the key to this door and your chains? Even if I knew where it was, I'd never get away with stealing it. I'm sorry, really." She whimpered in fear for everyone who was locked in this cruel place. Tao couldn't bear to watch Joel's desperate face anymore, and left the cell door.
Joel sat waiting for everyone else to wake up. Kaye couldn't talk, only responding with mews, growls, and purrs. Soon, Rosie awoke slowly to find her arms chained to the walls. The little girl didn't take kindly to this and immediately spoke, "Let go of me."
Rosie's chains disappeared like smoke, and she leaped up to run out the door, despite her brother's attempts to get Rosie to help the others. The red head was out the door before Joel could warn her about the danger she was in. Rosie's brother sat miserably, worried for his little sister. Kaye couldn't say anything to comfort him, unless Raina was awake. The next to awaken was Nate, who jumped upon awakening, making his chains rattle.
"What's wrong?" asked Joel, wondering why Nate had jumped like that.
"We were just in that cave two minutes ago." He answered as if this was obvious.
"Nate, it's been at least three hours since that happened." Joel explained to his confused friend. Nate shook his head in bewilderment and asked, "Kaye, do you still have that watch?"
Kaye turned to her human form just long enough to toss Joel the watch, before going back to her panther form, due to the choking metal.
"Watch this." Nate said after Joel threw him the small silver watch. Joel sat for at least two minutes before Nate said anything.
"Did something happen?" Nate asked.
"No," replied Joel, who was very confused.
Nate thought for a moment before saying, "Reach your hand over here as far as you can."
Joel obeyed and Nate wrapped the tip of his tail around Joel's index finger.
"Now watch the clock face carefully." Nate commanded. Nate concentrated on the clock for a moment, before Joel noticed the minute hand skip three minutes.
"Woah." Joel exclaimed in surprise at what Nate had done, while Kaye sat looking clueless.
"That's why I've been so tired lately. Every time I fall asleep, I accidentally speed up time. Sorry I can't show you too, Kaye, but I could barely reach Joel. I guess I have to be touching someone for them to come through time with me" Nate explained.
Raina stirred at the sound of Nate's talking, and moaned holding her head. She opened one eye, saw Nate, and asked, "Where are we?"
"No idea." Nate responded looking around the small cell himself. Raina looked down the row of children, and noticed Rosie was gone.
"Where's your sister?" she inquired to Joel.
"She just ran off." He answered worriedly. "You know what she did to that deer? Well, she just made her chains disappear, and the door opened and she ran off."
"So why's the door closed now?" Raina asked.
"It shut behind her." Joel whispered through an immense headache, as everyone else had too, due to the knockout gas.
Most woke up soon after this, except for Ron, but Raina said he once slept through the smoke detector and she wasn't surprised he was asleep now. The subject had moved to code names, as the children had found out their parents had had code names with the X-Men.
"What about Kaye?" Triss asked.
"Well something to do with black or dark colors." answered Tom.
"Midnight? I dunno." Raina suggested.
"No, that's bad luck." Will stated. "Cause I had a pure black kitten once and her name was Midnight. She got run over by a bulldozer near a construction site."
"Well, I heard my mom's name was Shadowcat, but you probably want something original." Triss commented.
"I've got it!" Nate exclaimed, "Nightmare!"
Kaye purred an approval.
"How 'bout me?" Ron asked, just waking up.
"Fluffy." Raina teased.
"Werewolf?" Joel asked.
"Yeah!" Ron accepted.
"Tom's going to be hard." Triss commented.
"I know." Tom replied. "I've thought about codenames before, and never came up with anything."
Kaye growled something to Raina, who laughed for a full minute before gasping, "E.T."
A roar of laughter followed Kaye's comment. Even Tom was in hysterics at this.
"I think you will forever be E.T" Nate laughed.
Everyone nodded in agreement and moved on, still laughing every now and then.
"How 'bout Will?" Triss asked.
"Snowflake." Nate snickered.
"Glacier?" Tom guessed.
"No, Iceberg. It sounds more powerful than Glacier, you know, cause of the whole Titanic thing." Ron commented.
"I think you're crazy." Triss said at Ron's strange remark.
"Wait, he's got a point." Will stated.
Triss rolled her eyes as Joel winced over something.
"What's wrong?" Will asked.
"Nothing, it's just, my left eye is hurting a little." Joel answered.
"No wonder, it's gone all silvery." Triss said, looking at Joel.
"What do you think did that?" Tom asked, looking at the eye.
"Maybe you fell on it in that cave?" Nate suggested.
"I have no idea." Joel sighed over his aching eye.
Kaye hissed something and Raina interpreted it.
"She says she's mad at Drake for getting us in this mess in the first place." Raina finished.
"I don't blame her," Joel spoke quietly, "No offense, Triss, Nate, but I think he's a traitor."
"I know," Triss whispered. "But I still worry about him sometimes."
"At this point, Trissy, I don't know why you still care about him." Raina said.
Nate studied the ceiling while Triss replied, "We don't know where he is at this point, but Drake is the outcast of both teams. It's always hard to tell which side he's on, though at this point I'd say his dad's. I'm hoping he isn't permanently on this side though. Every thing he does, I'm guessing, is bribed or blackmailed. "
"You have a lot of patience, Triss." Tom remarked. "At this point I'm afraid I wouldn't care much anymore."
Suddenly, Kaye's hearing caught something from outside the cell. Raina asked her what was wrong before speaking fearfully, "She says she hears someone. They've come to get one of us."
Voices were heard outside the door, after which two men came in.
"Which one?" Todd Tolensky asked.
Pyro showed Toad a file and Todd nodded.
The one called Toad produced a key out of his pocket and walked to Triss, unlocking the first manacle from her arm. A volley of protests was heard from around the cell as Triss struggled against her assailants. Toad unlocked another manacle as Triss sent a powerful kick right into his unprotected stomach. He growled and allowed Pyro to stand her up roughly by the arm. Triss bit John sharply with her sharp teeth, sending him into fits of rage. Others around her fought to get at the attackers, and Kaye was trying to break through her chain. The panther had her back paws against the wall and was pushing against the chain with all her might. Kaye's restraints groaned as the two dragged Triss, who wasscratching, kicking , biting, and putting up a good fight against two anger driven men. Joel looked at Kaye, who was still fighting against the muzzle and chain, when suddenly his one eye throbbed with a most unusual pain. A panther appeared in Joel's place for just a moment, but long enough for Joel's chains to break clean off the wall. The second panther fell hard on the stone floor, and Joel suddenly was himself again. He stood up and ran toward the door hoping to catch up with Triss and the enemy, but failed, and watched the heavy metal door slam against its frame and lock. Joel watched helplessly as his friend was wrestled up the hall way, around a corner, and out of sight.
Karakin: Glad you like it. There will be some Romy, though the whole story isn't around it.
ldypebsaby: Thanks. Yeah, Drake needs to be slapped right now, I realize this.
paprika90: Yeah I updated, I'll try to update sooner on chapter 12.
Tao's Girl: Thanks for reviewing. I will keep checking on your fic.
Dracula'sgurl: Soon enough for you, my ferrety friend?
Chapter 11- Riddles in the Dark
Kaye awoke in utter darkness, her head pounding. She thought for a moment she was back in her house, in Mississippi, until she felt the clammy, hard floor underneath her. Kaye tried to lift her head, only to find a weight sitting on top of it. She sat wondering what it was; when she tried to yawn, something stopped her jaws from moving more than an inch or two. Kaye opened her eyes wider to find she was looking through strong metal mesh. The girl decided to stand up to get a better sense of where she was when she found that her hands and feet were actually paws. That was when the panther called Kaye realized that she was being harnessed by a huge metal muzzle. The cat tried to walk forward when she was jerked back by something, which turned out to be a thick chain attaching the muzzle to the wall.
"I wonder who could have done this," Kaye thought, marveling over how the muzzle seemed to fit her perfectly, though it was uncomfortable. She sat, thinking about how she could get out of these restraints. She soon found the answer.
"I'll just turn myself into a human and voila!" She thought as she switched bodies. But her head did not slip out of the muzzle as she expected -- her head was stuck in her human form too. In fact the metal around her neck was choking her now, so Kaye had no choice but to turn back into her mutant form. She sat for a moment before looking around the small, narrow cell. Her eyes had quickly become accustomed to the darkness by now, revealing all her teammates chained to the wall as well, with manacles on each arm, flanked by a heavy chain. They were restrained along the wall, starting with Tom, then Ron, Raina, Nate, Triss, Will, Joel, Rosie, and then ending with Kaye, who was trapped in a corner. The colossal cat looked to her left to find Rosie shivering in her sleep.
"Oh no." Kaye thought, seeing Rosie next to her. Kaye had never liked children, their crying, screaming, and whining, their sticky hands. Small children were annoying to Kaye, and she was constantly afraid she was accidentally going to hurt them somehow. Kaye watched Rosie shiver in the cold, her arms held unnaturally high above her. The black leopard moved over as far as her chains would allow, gently put a paw around the little girl and pulled Rosie next to her. Kaye sat down as the small five year old put her head on the panther's chest, right next to her heart. Rosie's shivering abated as Kaye thought, "She's not that bad, for a little nuisance."
Hannah walked away from the cell door to tell her father that the panther could not get out of her muzzle, just as he had hoped. She came into a large room, to find all the adults conversing over how they had finally put the X-Men in their place. Also, they were discussing how their own children would win in fights against their old rivals' kids.
"So?" A blonde haired blue eyed woman asked Hannah.
"The panther is successfully restrained." She sighed as she rolled her eyes. The woman was Alexa Maximoff, Pietro's wife, and Hannah's mother. The unusual thing was Alexa and Hannah both had no mutant gene, which was very surprising for Hannah, though not so much for Alexa.
"Yeah! We finally got those goodie goodies." Todd exclaimed, punching the air.
"I-told-you-we-would." Pietro said in his usual speedy dialect.
"So, who did we get?" asked the slow witted Blob.
"We-got-Rogue's-adopted-kid," Pietro spoke, starting to list the children he had captured. "We-got-Kitty-and-Kurt's-twins."
Pietro was cut off as Toad stated his approval because of his long rivalry with Nightcrawler.
"Rahne-and-Roberto's-two-Bobby-and-Jubilee's-one-and-best-of-all-we-got-the- Summers-kids."
Everyone cheered here, for there wasn't one of the adults who didn't hate Scott Summers. The children, though, were very bored, and were looking for any form of entertainment. Kathleen was levitating a metal ball using her powers she had inherited from her grandfather, Magneto, who had finally died not too long ago. Tao was playing with yet another fire bobcat, even petting its fiery head. Hannah was flirting with Drake, who was definitely enjoying the attention. Kathleen watched in disgust as she asked her mother Wanda, "Mom, can I sign on Uncle Pietro's computer?"
She had forgotten, however that Pietro was in the room, "No, you can't." he replied to his niece. As soon as he left the room, Wanda answered, "Yes, go." Kathleen ran off to her uncle's room, to get on his private computer, that wasn't at all related to his work. Tao had gotten tired of playing with the bobcat, and was now heading off to the cell to find someone to talk to. She looked through the few bars on the door, to find the only one awake apart from Kaye, was Joel.
"Hey, could you please tell me why we're here?" He asked politely to the stranger.
"Sure, mate." She answered sadly, realizing that he wouldn't like her answer. "What I've heard, is this guy Pietro is trying to continue his old dad's work."
"On what?" Joel inquired hoarsely.
"You sure you want to hear this?" Tao asked grimly.
"Yes." He answered surely.
"Work on mutant experimentation." She spoke miserably.
Joel's eyes grew wide in horror. He sat for a moment before saying, "Is there any way you can get us out of here?"
"Fraid not, mate. Who knows where speedy keeps the key to this door and your chains? Even if I knew where it was, I'd never get away with stealing it. I'm sorry, really." She whimpered in fear for everyone who was locked in this cruel place. Tao couldn't bear to watch Joel's desperate face anymore, and left the cell door.
Joel sat waiting for everyone else to wake up. Kaye couldn't talk, only responding with mews, growls, and purrs. Soon, Rosie awoke slowly to find her arms chained to the walls. The little girl didn't take kindly to this and immediately spoke, "Let go of me."
Rosie's chains disappeared like smoke, and she leaped up to run out the door, despite her brother's attempts to get Rosie to help the others. The red head was out the door before Joel could warn her about the danger she was in. Rosie's brother sat miserably, worried for his little sister. Kaye couldn't say anything to comfort him, unless Raina was awake. The next to awaken was Nate, who jumped upon awakening, making his chains rattle.
"What's wrong?" asked Joel, wondering why Nate had jumped like that.
"We were just in that cave two minutes ago." He answered as if this was obvious.
"Nate, it's been at least three hours since that happened." Joel explained to his confused friend. Nate shook his head in bewilderment and asked, "Kaye, do you still have that watch?"
Kaye turned to her human form just long enough to toss Joel the watch, before going back to her panther form, due to the choking metal.
"Watch this." Nate said after Joel threw him the small silver watch. Joel sat for at least two minutes before Nate said anything.
"Did something happen?" Nate asked.
"No," replied Joel, who was very confused.
Nate thought for a moment before saying, "Reach your hand over here as far as you can."
Joel obeyed and Nate wrapped the tip of his tail around Joel's index finger.
"Now watch the clock face carefully." Nate commanded. Nate concentrated on the clock for a moment, before Joel noticed the minute hand skip three minutes.
"Woah." Joel exclaimed in surprise at what Nate had done, while Kaye sat looking clueless.
"That's why I've been so tired lately. Every time I fall asleep, I accidentally speed up time. Sorry I can't show you too, Kaye, but I could barely reach Joel. I guess I have to be touching someone for them to come through time with me" Nate explained.
Raina stirred at the sound of Nate's talking, and moaned holding her head. She opened one eye, saw Nate, and asked, "Where are we?"
"No idea." Nate responded looking around the small cell himself. Raina looked down the row of children, and noticed Rosie was gone.
"Where's your sister?" she inquired to Joel.
"She just ran off." He answered worriedly. "You know what she did to that deer? Well, she just made her chains disappear, and the door opened and she ran off."
"So why's the door closed now?" Raina asked.
"It shut behind her." Joel whispered through an immense headache, as everyone else had too, due to the knockout gas.
Most woke up soon after this, except for Ron, but Raina said he once slept through the smoke detector and she wasn't surprised he was asleep now. The subject had moved to code names, as the children had found out their parents had had code names with the X-Men.
"What about Kaye?" Triss asked.
"Well something to do with black or dark colors." answered Tom.
"Midnight? I dunno." Raina suggested.
"No, that's bad luck." Will stated. "Cause I had a pure black kitten once and her name was Midnight. She got run over by a bulldozer near a construction site."
"Well, I heard my mom's name was Shadowcat, but you probably want something original." Triss commented.
"I've got it!" Nate exclaimed, "Nightmare!"
Kaye purred an approval.
"How 'bout me?" Ron asked, just waking up.
"Fluffy." Raina teased.
"Werewolf?" Joel asked.
"Yeah!" Ron accepted.
"Tom's going to be hard." Triss commented.
"I know." Tom replied. "I've thought about codenames before, and never came up with anything."
Kaye growled something to Raina, who laughed for a full minute before gasping, "E.T."
A roar of laughter followed Kaye's comment. Even Tom was in hysterics at this.
"I think you will forever be E.T" Nate laughed.
Everyone nodded in agreement and moved on, still laughing every now and then.
"How 'bout Will?" Triss asked.
"Snowflake." Nate snickered.
"Glacier?" Tom guessed.
"No, Iceberg. It sounds more powerful than Glacier, you know, cause of the whole Titanic thing." Ron commented.
"I think you're crazy." Triss said at Ron's strange remark.
"Wait, he's got a point." Will stated.
Triss rolled her eyes as Joel winced over something.
"What's wrong?" Will asked.
"Nothing, it's just, my left eye is hurting a little." Joel answered.
"No wonder, it's gone all silvery." Triss said, looking at Joel.
"What do you think did that?" Tom asked, looking at the eye.
"Maybe you fell on it in that cave?" Nate suggested.
"I have no idea." Joel sighed over his aching eye.
Kaye hissed something and Raina interpreted it.
"She says she's mad at Drake for getting us in this mess in the first place." Raina finished.
"I don't blame her," Joel spoke quietly, "No offense, Triss, Nate, but I think he's a traitor."
"I know," Triss whispered. "But I still worry about him sometimes."
"At this point, Trissy, I don't know why you still care about him." Raina said.
Nate studied the ceiling while Triss replied, "We don't know where he is at this point, but Drake is the outcast of both teams. It's always hard to tell which side he's on, though at this point I'd say his dad's. I'm hoping he isn't permanently on this side though. Every thing he does, I'm guessing, is bribed or blackmailed. "
"You have a lot of patience, Triss." Tom remarked. "At this point I'm afraid I wouldn't care much anymore."
Suddenly, Kaye's hearing caught something from outside the cell. Raina asked her what was wrong before speaking fearfully, "She says she hears someone. They've come to get one of us."
Voices were heard outside the door, after which two men came in.
"Which one?" Todd Tolensky asked.
Pyro showed Toad a file and Todd nodded.
The one called Toad produced a key out of his pocket and walked to Triss, unlocking the first manacle from her arm. A volley of protests was heard from around the cell as Triss struggled against her assailants. Toad unlocked another manacle as Triss sent a powerful kick right into his unprotected stomach. He growled and allowed Pyro to stand her up roughly by the arm. Triss bit John sharply with her sharp teeth, sending him into fits of rage. Others around her fought to get at the attackers, and Kaye was trying to break through her chain. The panther had her back paws against the wall and was pushing against the chain with all her might. Kaye's restraints groaned as the two dragged Triss, who wasscratching, kicking , biting, and putting up a good fight against two anger driven men. Joel looked at Kaye, who was still fighting against the muzzle and chain, when suddenly his one eye throbbed with a most unusual pain. A panther appeared in Joel's place for just a moment, but long enough for Joel's chains to break clean off the wall. The second panther fell hard on the stone floor, and Joel suddenly was himself again. He stood up and ran toward the door hoping to catch up with Triss and the enemy, but failed, and watched the heavy metal door slam against its frame and lock. Joel watched helplessly as his friend was wrestled up the hall way, around a corner, and out of sight.