"Ellen?!" Steph cried, running into the cafeteria with Ruhko bouncing on her shoulders and squealing in delight. Ellen was sitting at a table, head resting on one fist. She was surrounded by the adult X Men, especially Hank and Jean, and Remy and Danial, all of whom were looking quite shocked, which was not surprising.
"Hello... Steph? And a midget too," Ellen said. Steph stared at her.
"Man, las' time I saw ya, ya looked like hamburger! What happened?" Steph said.
"Precisely what we are trying to discover, Stephanie," Hank said.
"It is a miracle," Kurt said in a low voice, rubbing his Angelic Beads and beaming. "In von afternoon she sleeps and vakes fully healed, it must be a miracle."
"Or a healing mutation," Logan suggested.
"No, I'd have to say neither of those fit from the scientific perspective," Scott said, looking at his wife. "You said she didn't have a healing mutation?" Jean shook her head.
"No, she didn't," Jean said thoughtfully. "Though perhaps it has just recently manifestered."
"Maybe it's invulnerability," Rogue suggested.
"I fear not," Hank replied. "For then the bullets should have never-"
"Again, it's like I'm not even here," Ellen whispered loudly to Remy, who snorted in laughter. His father looked down and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Do ya have anyt'ing t' say?" he asked. Remy Jr. shook his head.
"No pa, jus' t'inking, maybe ya could ask Ellen, she might know," the teen shrugged and Logan chuckled.
"It may work," he said.
"Well, do you?" Jean asked Ellen, who looked at her plate of food.
"Do I what?" she asked. Jean sighed.
"Do you know how this happened?" she said. Ellen nodded.
"Yes," she replied. This shocked everybody.
"My grandfather," Ellen said, shrugging. "Also mutant, able to heal people, and I've gotten help from him, but only when I've really, really needed it. I must have died before he interfered."
"You're grandfather?" Kurt replied, looked awed. "He heals you?"
"Well, mostly he lets me screw up and get out of things myself, but I've gotten help from him before," Ellen said.
"So these are the grounds," Danial said, gesturing around, Ellen trotted past him calmly, sniffing the clear air.
"I could see that," she muttered, her eyes narrowing. "Is this place rigged with any alarms or anything?" she asked.
"Oh man, yeah," Steph said, nudging Remy. "Remember the time we were out late and they turned the alarms on before we got home?" Remy groaned.
"Ah! Dat was de wors' trip up t' de school I ever had!" he said. Ellen nodded and then sat thoughtfully. Remy looked at her. "What's wrong chere?" he asked.
"The mutants we defeated, and their masters, they are not happy that you destroyed their forces and got into their base, breaking Hank and I out," Ellen said, her eyes glinting. "They know by now you're from this school, and they'll want their revenge." That wiped the smiles off of Danial, Steph, and Remy's faces.
"What?" they said. Ellen looked around.
"I talked with the professor earlier, he said your fathers would re-check all of the school defenses, but that won't be enough. Ken's group is as powerful as the entire X Men bunch, and have never been beaten in combat," she said gravely. "They'll come, and between sooner or later I'd put my money on sooner."
"But we beat them!" Danial said in a higher voice than usual. "At their base, we beat them!"
"No," Steph said, thinking. "We did a little bit'f damage when we had the element of surprise, but all we could do was run after one hit."
"And their full team wasn't even there," Ellen said, shrinking into Ellen. "There's hardly a chance we could even find their new base, let alone take them on with the other soldiers there or not."
"New base?" Remy repeated, eyes narrowing.
"They left a trail for you to follow deliberately," Ellen said. "They thought they'd be able to eliminate you, they were not counting on me showing up and ruining their plans, but now that we've escaped they will not risk the X Men going to their base and causing even more damage, they'll have moved an hour after we escaped."
"Which means-?" Steph said.
"It means we need to build our defenses and then, before they strike, find their new base and destroy it," Ellen said, looking around. "Otherwise they'll get here and the mansion will be razed, any and all mutants spotted will be killed immediately, without mercy or possible escape. The X Men have dealt with armies in the past, so I've heard, and other groups of mutants, but none this powerful, and working together. Anyone and everyone would fall, anyone and everyone would die before the end, on both sides probably."
"STEPHY!!!" Ruhko suddenly appeared out of nowhere, jumping on her older sister's back and yelling gleefully. Steph tripped and Remy caught Ruhko as both girls toppled over, but immediately dropped the little one as she snarled at him, her claws appearing.
"Whoa, chere, get 'er!" he said. Steph growled and grabbed Ruhko's ankle as the small one tried to charge at Ellen, who was looking at her calmly.
"If only you had about twenty of her," Ellen said. "You might be able to destroy the Lab's small army without also being eliminated in the process." Steph stood up and held Ruhko close.
"She's just a baby," the black girl said. "She can't- won't ever fight these people, I won't let her and neither will my father or mom or Rogue. You know about these Labs?" Ellen's face got hard.
"I know enough to never want anything to do with them," she said.
"How do we know you're not with the Labs?" Danial suddenly asked. Ellen's head jerked and she glared at him.
"What?" Remy said. Danial shrugged.
"How do we know she isn't with them and trying to trick us?" he asked.
"I would stop there, Danial," Ellen growled. "Before you say anything else, you're walking on a thin edge there, and if you fall it won't be the Labs who get to you."
"Don't threaten him," Steph said coldly, holding Ruhko closer. Ellen glared at the three teenagers and then turned and walked away, speaking as she went.
"If I were working for the Labs I would simply kill you, they are very direct and don't believe in spies or infiltrating places, they destroy the place first and ask questions later."
"Dat was kinda over de line," Remy said, looking at Danial, who shrugged, though he seemed slightly paler.
"Just wondering," he said, shrugging.
"Beesha," Ruhko said. "Not talk Labs, bad!" Steph looked at Ruhko and smiled.
"Yeh picked that up fast," she said gruffly, half imitating Logan's rusty speech. "But yer right kid." Ruhko looked angry and snarled, jumping from Steph's arms and then falling over, her claws shooting out as she snarled.
"Kill'em! Kill'em all dead!" she said, swiping out with her claws.
"Whoa, I'm afraid," Steph whistled, then picked Ruhko up by the back of her Levi overalls. "Now you'll stop talkin' like that or I'll tell daddy, got it?"
"KILL'EM ALL!!!" Ruhko screamed as she swung around fiercely. Remy looked at Steph and grinned.
"De petite was wrong," he said. "I t'ink ya would only need ten o' Ruhko t' beat anyone r' anyt'in."
"Grr!" Ruhko said as she slowly twirled around, fists hanging down and claws catching the sunlight.
"I was thinking five," Steph said.