bobtheheadlesschicken: Glad you can keep up with the characters, my evil reviewer known as bobtheheadlesschicken!
lypebsaby: You'll find out about Triss in this chapter. As for Joel, you'll have to figure that out later.
Tao's Girl: Yo punk drummer! Hope you like this chapter, and thanks for always reviewing.
paprika90: I'm glad you liked the chapter, hope you like this one too!
DemonRogue13: Thanks for the compliments and always reviewing.
Rhapsodyblue15: Yay! A new reviewer, glad you like the story.
Dracula'sgurl: I'm sorry it took me so long, my ferrety friend!
To everybody: Sorry it took me so long to update, but this was a longer chapter and my schedule was packed these last few weeks. I'll try to update quicker this time, but it's not guaranteed.
Chapter 12-Come you, come out wherever you are.
Looking the old fashioned way was not working well for the worried parents of the Institute. They had driven about thee hour into the woods, after which they decided to go on foot. The whole mansion had emptied to look for the missing children. All the adults had split up in small groups, but were still within ear shot of one another. However no one was making much progress.
"Do you really think you should be out here Kätzchen?" Kurt asked his wife worriedly.
"I'm fine Kurt," Kitty answered stubbornly, after which she stumbled on something.
"Watch it, half pint!" Logan said, remarking on her slight blunder.
"Like you were gonna convince her to stay home anyway," Rogue commented in her usual southern accent. "Just let it go Kurt."
"Look at this!" Kitty exclaimed, ignoring the others. She had pointed down at some massive paw prints, which were obviously the source of her loss of footing. Wolverine glanced down at them as he smelled the air lightly. He frowned slightly before bellowing, "Rahne, c'mere!"
The wolf trotted over from a patch of ivy she had been inspecting.
"Does this smell familiar to you?" Logan asked, nodding at the prints. Wolfsbane examined them, and surprisingly turned to sniff Rogue's black boots. Everyone looked at Rahne with a puzzled expression as she turned back into her human form and replied, "Smells familiar. Rogue, are you wearing anything that might belong to Kaye?"
"Yeah, I stole these boots from her not too long ago. She never found out I took 'em." Rogue laughed.
"Well, these paw prints smell exactly like her." Rahne continued.
"How?" Rogue asked, looking around at everyone who had slowly come back from where they had been searching.
Rahne shrugged in disbelief as Jean asked, "Should we follow them, Professor?"
Xavier sat for a moment, thinking. Suddenly a voice was heard out of no where. "Gambit 'tinks that would be a good idea."
The large group spun around to see Remy strolling through the trees towards them. Rogue immediately ran up and gave him a fiery kiss, though it had to be quick due to her powers. Remy was a bit taken aback by this, and responded by saying, "Remy is glad to see you too."
The others stood, mouths agape at their teammate's actions, and were brought out of their trance when Rogue snapped. "What are you starin' at?"
Most turned their heads quickly, slightly embarrassed at being caught staring, a few still looked on in disbelief, while Jubilee gave Rogue a high five.
"You know somethin', Cajun," Rogue added, noticing a certain look on his face, "so spill."
"Um, Remy knows were de children are," he explained. Gambit was suddenly bombarded with questions,
"Where are they?"
"Can you take us there?"
"Are they ok?"
Beast had to speak up for everyone to calm down, "Ok every one, we're all worried, but we won't get anywhere if you don't let the man speak."
"Thank you, Hank." Xavier said before Remy continued speaking.
"Dey are being held in a, well, about two miles away." He stated uncertainly. "We could get dere in about vingt minutes by car," the Cajun finished.
"What minutes?" Bobby asked.
"Twenty." Rogue translated.
"It took a little longer for Remy, 'cause he was walking." Gambit explained.
"So you know exactly where they are?" Rahne asked.
"Gambit knows the general direction, louve.(1)" He answered. "We may do a bit of searching before we find something."
"Let's go then!" Jubilee cried eagerly.
Everyone else seemed to share this enthusiasm and quickly piled into the many vehicles that were parked not too far away. The van Gambit was in was driven by Jamie, whom he was giving directions to.
"So you have a five year old out there?" Jamie asked Jean and Scott sympathetically.
"Yeah." Jean answered in worry.
"Yikes." He stated, keeping an eye on the other vans, jeeps, and other forms of transportation that were following him.
"So, when do we get out and start looking?" Sam asked curiously.
"In a moment." He replied, looking for landmarks.
"Ici!(2)" Remy stated, spotting one of the many landmarks. Jamie stopped the van, to see that the Cajun was lightly pleased that someone actually understood what he said. The others followed in suit.
"So, what now?" Amara asked impatiently.
"We just look, I guess." Roberto answered.
The large congregation split up once again, hoping to find anything unusual. They searched for a good fifteen minutes before Jean thought she saw something move in the distance. She ignored it until it happened again.
"Rahne?" she asked, after seeing what she thought might have been someone's red hair. No one answered and Jean started to get suspicious. She remained quiet for a moment, until she heard a small voice ask, "Mommy?"
The culprit peeked out of the bush, to be quickly scooped up by her mother. Jean sobbed tears of joy and relief to have Rosie back in her arms. Scott rushed over to his daughter as soon as he saw her.
"Rose April Summers, don't ever scare Mommy and Daddy like that again!" Jean reprimanded in a tearful mixture of anger and happiness.
"Daddy!" the redhead squealed in glee at seeing her father. Scott held his little girl so tightly that some were afraid he might crush her. The others had gathered around them when they saw little Rosie was back.
"Mommy! I know where Joel is!" Rosie told her mother proudly, realizing her parents would want to know where her big brother was.
"Show Daddy where, Rosie," instructed Scott.
Rosie pointed to a slight gap in the trees and replied, "There."
The others decided it was worth a shot, and continued in the direction Rosie had indicated. A small narrow cave appeared from the trees, and Rosie said, "In there."
The adults started to walk in the cave, when Gambit said, "Not through there, this way."
Remy led them around the back of the cave, to a thickly wooded area, where the top branches of two trees intertwined to form a doorway. Remy pulled out his infamous deck of cards, and selected one. He charged the card and placed it in a hairline crack in the stone. The Queen of Hearts erupted, causing the stone door to swing inwards on squeaky metal hinges. They all filed in the dark, dank place to find an elevator in front of them.
"Dere are trois(3) floors." Remy explained. "We need to split up, preferably in groups of deux(4). We each go down one of de many hallways."
The rest agreed, and crammed them selves into the elevator. A good many were afraid the elevator wouldn't move, or it would drop, or some other malfunction would occur. Jubilee was especially uncomfortable, and Bobby didn't help, for he kept making comments referring The Tower of Terror, and singing the Twilight Zone song. They reached the third floor, and Jubilee left her husband in the elevator, and teamed up with Jamie to make him jealous. The remaining pairs listened to Bobby's muttering as the elevator traveled slowly down to level two. Most of the others disbanded after exiting the elevator, leaving only Rogue, Kurt, Kitty, and Remy in the elevator.
"Ok, so maybe we didn't divide the teams evenly, huh?" Kitty remarked.
"Dat, ma copine(6), is because we need to be extra quiet on this next level." Remy explained.
The others looked at Remy nervously and were quiet on the rest of their short ride down the elevator. The doors opened slowly and the four filed out into the poorly lit and narrow hallway.
"Ok, why don't you and Kurt split up and go with one of us, Kitty," Rogue commented, "cause if Remy or I get stuck somewhere, you can get us out."
Kurt nodded and gestured to Rogue and Remy before saying, "And you can come save the day if we're suddenly defenseless."
"Exactly," Rogue agreed.
Kitty automatically stepped toward Rogue as Kurt shrugged and started down the hallway to the left along with Remy.
"So now what?" Kitty asked once she and Rogue had started walking down the right hallway.
"It's not rocket science, Kitty dearest." She answered sarcastically. "We just look for anything unusual."
Kitty rolled her eyes as they tried to walk quietly down the pathway, which was hard for Kitty due to her talkative nature.
"Do you hear something?" Kitty asked, frowning a bit.
"Yes, it's the voices in my head asking why I agreed to come down here with you. Be quiet, please." Rogue pleaded in frustration.
"No, really, I'm serious," Rogue's companion replied, looking around to try and find the source of the noise.
Rogue only had to look at Kitty's face to realize there was something wrong.
"What?" Kitty's sister in-law asked curiously.
"I don't know." She answered somewhat distantly. Kitty suddenly phased right through the wall, obviously on purpose, and left Rogue standing alone in the hallway.
"Hey wait, come back you moron!" Rogue yelled at the wall, not caring if anyone heard her. "Where are you going? You just left me here! Thanks a lot!"
But Kitty wasn't at all concerned about whether Rogue was ok with her disappearance or not. She appeared on the other side of the wall, where the sound was much louder. There was much scuffling and angry voices coming from down the hallway. Kitty looked around the corner just long enough to see Toad and Pyro struggling with something when the writhing figure flickered for a moment and disappeared. A frightened cry was heard from the space where the men's victim was a moment ago, and Kitty knew at once who it was.
"Trissy." She whispered franticly as a girl with very odd looking eyes stepped out of a door, holding a soft ball and a baseball bat, most likely to go outside with them. Tao looked at Kitty with mild surprise. Kitty didn't blame her; it must be weird to see some complete stranger standing outside your room. Kitty looked at the bat for a moment before an idea struck her.
"May I borrow this?" she whispered to Tao, gesturing to the bat. Tao nodded and handed it over. Tao's strange eyes peeked around at her cousin and Toad to see that they seemed to be struggling with nothing. Triss appeared for a moment with a petrified, confused look on her face, and once again disappeared. Tao's eyes hardened as she pulled a lighter out of her back pocket. She looked to Kitty briefly before speaking.
"You get him." Tao explained, pointing to her cousin, John. She then nodded towards Toad and hissed, "I'll deal with him."
Kitty just agreed, wondering what the girl had in mind, and was shocked as Tao put a small flame into her mouth and kept it there with no expression. Pyro and Toad neared the corner and Tao punched her left palm lightly with her right fist, indicating that they should act now. Kitty nodded and swung at Pyro as hard as she could, knocking him out cold. The pregnant woman jumped as Tao spit the flames from her mouth, which grew into an enormous bobcat whose ear tips brushed the ceiling. Todd opened his mouth in a silent scream and dashed back down the corridor in fear for his life. Once Todd was gone, the cat was extinguished and Tao went to inspect Kitty's handiwork.
"Nice shot, mate." She commented seeing the large welt on her cousin's head. "I'm Tao Allerdyce, by the way."
Kitty shook hands with the younger girl and replied, "Kitty Wagner."
"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Wagner," Tao said politely. The two heard someone whimper and Kitty's attention was instantly turned toward Triss.
"Triss?" she called, looking for her daughter. "Trissy, where are you?"
"Mom?" Triss's voice called eagerly out of nowhere.
"I'm right here, Trissy, stay where you are and we'll find you." Kitty told a very bemused Triss.
"No need Mom, I'm right here." She said shakily.
"Where?" Kitty questioned, until she felt Triss's hand on her shoulder.
"This may sound weird, Mom, but I'm sorta invisible, and I don't know how to be visible again." Triss whined quietly, hoping her mother knew what to do.
"Ok, all I know to tell you is to concentrate on being visible again." Kitty explained.
"I'll try," she said uncertainly. Tao and Kitty waited for a moment before Triss flickered back into visibility.
"Cool." Triss exclaimed at her new found power. She then rushed up to hug her mother.
Kitty was furious, but also happy to have her Trissy back again.
"You know you're grounded, right?" Kitty asked quietly.
"Uh, yeah," Triss replied happily.
"Nice! I found the keys! Punk drummer strikes again!" Tao said, using a nickname for herself.
Triss grabbed the keys from Tao and said, "Meet you back here in a second!" She promptly was invisible again, and ran off with the keys.
"Is she always like that?" Tao asked.
"Pretty much," Kitty answered with a slightly perturbed expression. Tao and Kitty waited for Triss, not wanting her to come back and not find them, but also hoping Toad had not gone to tell anyone about Triss escaping. Suddenly a massive black cat skidded around the corner, causing Kitty's eyes to widen. Nate ran around the corner just in time to say, "Mom, it's ok. Don't freak."
"Nathaniel Wagner, get over here!" Kitty exclaimed at the site of her son.
Nate walked warily over and Kitty pulled him into a rib crushing embrace.
"Ow, Mom that hurts. Ow, Momma please, you're embarrassing me." Nate hissed irritably.
"I don't care." She replied as Will snickered. Raina swatted him in Nate's defense.
"Can we leave now?" Triss asked impatiently.
"Yes." Kitty answered satisfactorily.
The group started down the hallway when Kitty took a good look at the panther. She then remembered the paw prints in the forest and asked, "Kaye?"
The black leopard winked a yellow eye at her Aunt. Kitty's jaw dropped at seeing an animal wink at her. As she was gawping at Kaye, Kitty forgot to look where she was going and ran smack into Kurt.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, watching her husband hold his right eye in pain.
"That's ok, I didn't need that eye anyway," he answered, as he was knocked over by the twins. He stood up with one hanging from each arm.
Triss and Nate finally let go as Remy spoke, "Kaye!!"
Kaye, who was now a human, had no time to run as Remy practically suffocated her in a heartfelt embrace.
"Dad, let go. Oh c'mon Dad, just let go!!!" She gasped as Rouge rounded the corner.
"Mom, tell him to get off me!" Kaye begged.
"Sorry, he gets to crush you one minute for each year he's been gone." She laughed evilly.
Kaye groaned as Kurt said, "Let's get out of here."
The many people went noisily into the elevator, Remy still clinging onto Kaye and went up to floor two. They had to look around for a bit, before finding the others.
"Will!" Bobby yelled.
"No, no, Dad, no!" Will pleaded to his father, "Not the noogie, please."
Bobby promptly put his son into a headlock and did justice to him.
Ron was being inspected by his mother, who was not at all pleased about his condition.
"What happened to ye?" Rahne asked, slipping into her slight Scottish accent out of worry. "Your neck's all cut up, ye have a black eye, not to mention the bruises!"
"Let him go, Rahne." Roberto chuckled with Raina clutching him around the torso. "You can worry over him all you want once get home."
Rahne desisted, but wasn't entirely satisfied with her examination and promised Ron that he was going to the doctor as soon as she could find one. This time, they had to take the elevator in two loads, due to the amount of people. The Wagners and Ron and Rahne were waiting for the elevator to return when Kurt noticed the bandage wrapped around Triss's tail.
"Would you like to explain to me what this is?" he asked Triss.
"I'd like to know that too, lad." Raina said to Ron.
"Well..." she started to speak, when Kitty cut her off as the elevator came.
"Tell us later, I'm not sure I want to know right now." She spoke, shaking her head.
They went up one floor and found Jubilee holding Will just as Kitty had hugged Nate earlier. Raina deliberately laughed at Will, remarking on his laughing at Nate. Jean and Scott were looking Joel over, and Kaye made no effort not to laugh as Jean kissed him on the forehead, leaving a lipstick mark. Joel scowled and tried furiously to rub it off, but to no avail.
"What happened to your eye?" Jean exclaimed at Joel's discolored eye.
"I honestly don't know." He answered, still not very sure what had happened to his eye, or what it had done to him in that cell.
Once the adults were satiated with investigating their children and generally embarrassing them, they took three trips back to ground level.
"Mom?" Kaye asked, with Remy still wrapped around her. "Thanks for not embarrassing me, like these weirdoes."
Rogue smiled and replied, "You're most welcome."
The throng of people exited the dark cave by twos in certain intervals so as not to attract too much attention. Most were quite surprised that they hadn't been caught by now, for they hadn't been exactly quiet. Once everyone was outside, they made their way around the cave towards the assortment of trucks, jeeps, and the one van. They were walking across the span of gnarled trees in front of the cave, when a fast whirl wind surrounded the large group, causing the children to look around in confusion, while the adults clenched their teeth in anger.
"Pietro." Spyke growled, identifying his old enemy.
"Just-where-do-you-think-you're-going-huh?" He asked, stopping in front of his team, consisting of Blob, Toad, Pyro, Scarlet Witch, Kathleen, Avalanche, and Drake. The X-men's opponents were obviously looking for a fight, and their wish was soon granted.
"Kitty, you go with the kids back to the cars." Scott commanded, going into his leader role, and acting much as he had many years ago.
Kitty nodded, understanding she couldn't do a thing in a fight in her currently pregnant state. She quickly led all the children towards one of the trucks, but not before giving Drake a look of grim disappointment, and shooting Lance an icy glare that could freeze hell. The X-men stood in front of their old opponents in a fighting stance. The other team had always nurtured their children's powers, not the children themselves, and couldn't know that their challengers would fight to the death for the safety of their children.
(1)-Female wolf.
(2)-Here
(3)-three
(4)-two