X-Phoenix
A/N: I hate Valentines Day. I really do. What's the point of it?! Oh well, Andromeda's on tonight, and my dad bought me a bunch of cinnamon hearts, so, *shrugs* I decided to write this. Voila.
Disclaimer: I have two words for you. Meep. Meep.
*^*^*^*^
Chapter Five
"I don't hear anything," Chandra said after a moment of listening.
"Me neither," agreed William. "You're probably just imagining things, Mi."
Mia glared icily at William. "It sounded like a plane, or a jet."
"I heard it, too." Sanina rolled down the window.
The sound was faint, but they could all hear it now. "It sounds like it's getting pretty close to the ground," observed Joseph.
"Wonder what it's up to." Daniela reached over to unroll the other window.
"Let's see if we can flag it down! We can get a ride out of here!" Chandra was already undoing her seatbelt and pulling on her jacket. The rest of the group hurriedly scrambled out of the car onto the snow-covered ground.
"Could it possibly get *any* colder?" William shivered.
"It's not cold!" Chandra left her jacket unzipped, leaving only the thin cotton of her tee shirt between the chilly air and her white skin.
"C'mon! We've gotta hurry if we're going to catch it!" Mia took off at a run across the snowy landscape, the others close behind. They hadn't gotten far, however, when there was a powerful crash, the sound reverberating like thunder across the emptiness.
"What the hell?!" Mia halted, eyes darting around, attempting to find the point from which the blast had originated.
"I don't hear the jet anymore," commented Joseph.
"I can't bloody hear *anything* after that thing. What was it?" Chandra demanded.
"What if it crashed?!" Sanina exclaimed. "There's probably people hurt! Come on!"
"We have a first-aid kit in the car?" Daniela asked.
"Uh... I think so." Joseph shrugged.
"Let's go find out, shall we?" Chandra lead the way back to the car.
Back at the car, the teens began pulling everything they could get their hands on out. Joseph listed each item as it was tossed out onto the snow. "Blanket: useful. Discman: not. Candy wrapper: not. Flashlight: useful. Laptop: Channy? You might wanna rescue that! Headphones: not. Pop: not. Water: useful. Notebook: not. CD case: not. Blanket: useful, again. Shoe: uh, no. Paper bag: not. Straws: not. Deformed piece of plastic and wiring: I doubt it. Book: not. Tic-Tacs: nope. Uh...Jumbo box of paperclips: do I *want* to know what those were for? Ha! There! I see the first=-aid kit!"
"Excellent! Let's go!" And with that, the group set off once again towards the location of the jet.
*^*^*^*^
"I don't believe this!" Scott's frustrated voice came floating to Storm from the hatch of the jet.
"What is it?" she called back, not looking up from the fried computers, which she was trying to fix.
"We're locked in! The door's been melted shut! Whatever did this to us really wanted us dead." He came back up to the front to sit beside her.
"We do not know for sure that someone did this to us intentionally, Scott. It could have just as easily been a simple malfunction." Though Ororo didn't believe her own words for a moment, she nevertheless attempted to reassure Scott.
He glanced over at her in annoyance. "I already told you, the jet *doesn't* malfunction. And besides, think about it for a second. We're both members of a Mutant team out to basically save the world, stress the word Mutant, riding around in a state-of-the-art jet with backup quite a ways off. What are the chances that it was just a random malfunction?"
She blinked. "Not that good."
"Exactly. Now, do you think that with your lightning and my eye beams we can blast a whole in the side of the jet so we can get out?"
"We can always try," she rose to her feet, giving the computer one last disgusted look.
"I doubt Professor Xavier'll be happy we blew a hole in his jet, but it's been through worse," Scott lead the way to the back hatch. The metal was warped and twisted, melded together so much, that one had to struggle to even tell that there had once been a door there. Ororo reflected that if the rest of the jet was as bad as this, they would hardly have to worry about blasting a hole in the side.
"I think we'll have a better chance of getting out this way," observed Scott. "If there's any of the hatch left, it might be easier to blast loose."
Ororo nodded her agreement, and the two Mutants prepared to blast the hatch. However, before they could let loose, there was the sound of voices approaching the jet. They couldn't make out what the apparent teens were saying, but they sounded panicked.
"Damn it!" Scott glared at the hatch. "I was hoping no one noticed us go down!"
"This might be rather difficult to explain," Ororo frowned in thought. The two of them stood in silence, sharing the same hope that the people outside the jet would just go away. However luck, it seemed, was not on their side, for a moment later, there was a pounding on the hatch.
"Hey! Anyone in there?!" a girl's voice came to them.
They held their breath, standing perfectly still. There was a moment of hushed whispering outside, then, to Scott and Ororo's shock and horror, something large and heavy slammed into the hatch. The action was repeated until, finally, the metal began to bend inwards. Finally, with a screech of twisting metal, and a shower of sparks, the hatch burst open. When the debris had settled, the two in the jet looked out to see a tall being, made entirely of some kind of rock-like substance. He stepped back, and slowly morphed into a blond haired boy of about sixteen.
"Good job, Amethyst," a brown-haired girl told him. She turned to them and her eyebrows shot up. "Are you two ok? We thought, when nobody answered, that you were hurt."
"We're both fine, but...who are you?" Ororo asked curiously, her eyes darting to the blond boy, who grinned at her.
"My name's Mia," the girl introduced herself, "This is William," (the blond boy) "Chandra," (a black-haired, gray-eyed girl) "Sanina," (a redhead) "Joseph," (a tall, dark boy) "and Daniela." (An elf-like girl with blondy-brown hair). "And you would be?..."
"My name is Scott Summers, and this is Ororo Munroe. Now, I don't quite know how to put this without being terribly blunt, so I won't try. Are you all Mutants?" Scott stared directly at Mia.
She glanced at her friends, then back at Scott and Ororo, her gaze calculating. Finally, she nodded. "Sure, we're Mutants of a sort. Are you?"
Scott nodded. "Yeah, we are. Can I ask what your powers are?"
"That depends," Mia smirked. "Can we ask *you*?"
Ororo nodded, anxious to put the group at ease. "I control the weather," a gust of wind lifted her a few cms off the floor of the jet.
"Sweet!" William's exclamation was filled with delight.
"And I shoot beams out of my eyes." Scott aimed carefully, and twisted a knob on his visor. A red bolt of energy shot out, striking a nearby tree.
"Hmmm," Sanina watched in fascination. "That would explain the visor, at least."
"Now, to answer your question about our powers," Mia lifted a hand, and a jet of water doused the smoldering remains of the tree.
"Interesting," commented Ororo. "Do you pull water molecules directly from the air?"
Mia shrugged. "Not exactly, but..."
"Hey! Fearless Leader! Somebody's coming!" Chandra cut in. Immediately, the whole group went still, and very quiet. A large truck thundered towards them across the snow, approaching rapidly.
"Looks like we weren't the only ones to notice you go down," observed Daniela.
"Apparently not," agreed Scott. "Now we're just going to hope they're Mutant friendly."
"What are the chances of that happening?" Chandra rolled her eyes. Joseph glared at her.
The truck crunched to a stop, and a man in a heavy jacket and cap hopped out.
"Hey! You folks ok?" he called, crunching over to them through the snow.
"We're fine, thanks!" Scott yelled back. The man arrived and frowned at them.
Turning to Ororo, he asked, "What're you and all these kids doin' out here with this banged up chopper?"
"Jet," Chandra muttered under her breath.
"We are on a school camping trip," Ororo informed him, hoping desperately that he'd buy the blatant lie. He didn't.
"Seems kinda cold out for a campin' trip, don't it? And what're yall doin' with this new-fangled chopper?"
"It's our transportation," Scott continued with the lie. "I'm a student-teacher. It's a private school, lots of money to buy stuff like this."
"Reallllyyy..." the man did *not* look impressed. "Well, I'd be guessin' you're missin' one of your student-teacher people then. Found him up a ways back on the road with a broken down car. You folks don't have the best a luck with yer stuff, do ya?"
"Um..." Scott looked at Ororo. Ororo returned the gaze helplessly.
Meanwhile the man turned back to his truck and yelled in through the open window. "Hey kid! I found some a yer friends!"
The door opened, and a tall, auburn-haired man leapt gracefully down. He wore a beat-up trench coat, and moved with the grace of a cat.
"You say you find my friends, Monsieur Brown?"
"That's right, Mr. Laba."
"I don't think these be da people I was lookin' for, but tanks for da ride, anyway. And it's Lebeau, by da way."
"Well, I guess I'd better be goin'," Mr. Brown said cheerfully. "Hope you kids enjoy the rest a yer campin' trip!" And with that, the old man jumped into his truck and motored off.
"Well, that was interesting," commented Daniela dryly.
"To say the least," agreed Scott. He glanced over at Ororo, but found her eyes fixed on the young man whom Brown had dropped off.
"Rem?" she gasped out finally.
His head shot up, and Scott guessed that his eyes behind the sunglasses had fixed on the windrider. "Stormy?"
*^*^*^
A/N: There! Have fun with that! Mwhahahahah! Cliffhangers are sooo fun! Now, if I get reviews, I'll write the next chapter soon!
Review Responses:
Fred: Wow! Thanks! I just might do the Scott/Ororo thing, because that seems to be where this is going. We'll see.
S.Q: Mwhahahaha! It's soo fun to torture you, though! And get working on 'Life Among The Stars'! I command you!
A/N: I hate Valentines Day. I really do. What's the point of it?! Oh well, Andromeda's on tonight, and my dad bought me a bunch of cinnamon hearts, so, *shrugs* I decided to write this. Voila.
Disclaimer: I have two words for you. Meep. Meep.
*^*^*^*^
Chapter Five
"I don't hear anything," Chandra said after a moment of listening.
"Me neither," agreed William. "You're probably just imagining things, Mi."
Mia glared icily at William. "It sounded like a plane, or a jet."
"I heard it, too." Sanina rolled down the window.
The sound was faint, but they could all hear it now. "It sounds like it's getting pretty close to the ground," observed Joseph.
"Wonder what it's up to." Daniela reached over to unroll the other window.
"Let's see if we can flag it down! We can get a ride out of here!" Chandra was already undoing her seatbelt and pulling on her jacket. The rest of the group hurriedly scrambled out of the car onto the snow-covered ground.
"Could it possibly get *any* colder?" William shivered.
"It's not cold!" Chandra left her jacket unzipped, leaving only the thin cotton of her tee shirt between the chilly air and her white skin.
"C'mon! We've gotta hurry if we're going to catch it!" Mia took off at a run across the snowy landscape, the others close behind. They hadn't gotten far, however, when there was a powerful crash, the sound reverberating like thunder across the emptiness.
"What the hell?!" Mia halted, eyes darting around, attempting to find the point from which the blast had originated.
"I don't hear the jet anymore," commented Joseph.
"I can't bloody hear *anything* after that thing. What was it?" Chandra demanded.
"What if it crashed?!" Sanina exclaimed. "There's probably people hurt! Come on!"
"We have a first-aid kit in the car?" Daniela asked.
"Uh... I think so." Joseph shrugged.
"Let's go find out, shall we?" Chandra lead the way back to the car.
Back at the car, the teens began pulling everything they could get their hands on out. Joseph listed each item as it was tossed out onto the snow. "Blanket: useful. Discman: not. Candy wrapper: not. Flashlight: useful. Laptop: Channy? You might wanna rescue that! Headphones: not. Pop: not. Water: useful. Notebook: not. CD case: not. Blanket: useful, again. Shoe: uh, no. Paper bag: not. Straws: not. Deformed piece of plastic and wiring: I doubt it. Book: not. Tic-Tacs: nope. Uh...Jumbo box of paperclips: do I *want* to know what those were for? Ha! There! I see the first=-aid kit!"
"Excellent! Let's go!" And with that, the group set off once again towards the location of the jet.
*^*^*^*^
"I don't believe this!" Scott's frustrated voice came floating to Storm from the hatch of the jet.
"What is it?" she called back, not looking up from the fried computers, which she was trying to fix.
"We're locked in! The door's been melted shut! Whatever did this to us really wanted us dead." He came back up to the front to sit beside her.
"We do not know for sure that someone did this to us intentionally, Scott. It could have just as easily been a simple malfunction." Though Ororo didn't believe her own words for a moment, she nevertheless attempted to reassure Scott.
He glanced over at her in annoyance. "I already told you, the jet *doesn't* malfunction. And besides, think about it for a second. We're both members of a Mutant team out to basically save the world, stress the word Mutant, riding around in a state-of-the-art jet with backup quite a ways off. What are the chances that it was just a random malfunction?"
She blinked. "Not that good."
"Exactly. Now, do you think that with your lightning and my eye beams we can blast a whole in the side of the jet so we can get out?"
"We can always try," she rose to her feet, giving the computer one last disgusted look.
"I doubt Professor Xavier'll be happy we blew a hole in his jet, but it's been through worse," Scott lead the way to the back hatch. The metal was warped and twisted, melded together so much, that one had to struggle to even tell that there had once been a door there. Ororo reflected that if the rest of the jet was as bad as this, they would hardly have to worry about blasting a hole in the side.
"I think we'll have a better chance of getting out this way," observed Scott. "If there's any of the hatch left, it might be easier to blast loose."
Ororo nodded her agreement, and the two Mutants prepared to blast the hatch. However, before they could let loose, there was the sound of voices approaching the jet. They couldn't make out what the apparent teens were saying, but they sounded panicked.
"Damn it!" Scott glared at the hatch. "I was hoping no one noticed us go down!"
"This might be rather difficult to explain," Ororo frowned in thought. The two of them stood in silence, sharing the same hope that the people outside the jet would just go away. However luck, it seemed, was not on their side, for a moment later, there was a pounding on the hatch.
"Hey! Anyone in there?!" a girl's voice came to them.
They held their breath, standing perfectly still. There was a moment of hushed whispering outside, then, to Scott and Ororo's shock and horror, something large and heavy slammed into the hatch. The action was repeated until, finally, the metal began to bend inwards. Finally, with a screech of twisting metal, and a shower of sparks, the hatch burst open. When the debris had settled, the two in the jet looked out to see a tall being, made entirely of some kind of rock-like substance. He stepped back, and slowly morphed into a blond haired boy of about sixteen.
"Good job, Amethyst," a brown-haired girl told him. She turned to them and her eyebrows shot up. "Are you two ok? We thought, when nobody answered, that you were hurt."
"We're both fine, but...who are you?" Ororo asked curiously, her eyes darting to the blond boy, who grinned at her.
"My name's Mia," the girl introduced herself, "This is William," (the blond boy) "Chandra," (a black-haired, gray-eyed girl) "Sanina," (a redhead) "Joseph," (a tall, dark boy) "and Daniela." (An elf-like girl with blondy-brown hair). "And you would be?..."
"My name is Scott Summers, and this is Ororo Munroe. Now, I don't quite know how to put this without being terribly blunt, so I won't try. Are you all Mutants?" Scott stared directly at Mia.
She glanced at her friends, then back at Scott and Ororo, her gaze calculating. Finally, she nodded. "Sure, we're Mutants of a sort. Are you?"
Scott nodded. "Yeah, we are. Can I ask what your powers are?"
"That depends," Mia smirked. "Can we ask *you*?"
Ororo nodded, anxious to put the group at ease. "I control the weather," a gust of wind lifted her a few cms off the floor of the jet.
"Sweet!" William's exclamation was filled with delight.
"And I shoot beams out of my eyes." Scott aimed carefully, and twisted a knob on his visor. A red bolt of energy shot out, striking a nearby tree.
"Hmmm," Sanina watched in fascination. "That would explain the visor, at least."
"Now, to answer your question about our powers," Mia lifted a hand, and a jet of water doused the smoldering remains of the tree.
"Interesting," commented Ororo. "Do you pull water molecules directly from the air?"
Mia shrugged. "Not exactly, but..."
"Hey! Fearless Leader! Somebody's coming!" Chandra cut in. Immediately, the whole group went still, and very quiet. A large truck thundered towards them across the snow, approaching rapidly.
"Looks like we weren't the only ones to notice you go down," observed Daniela.
"Apparently not," agreed Scott. "Now we're just going to hope they're Mutant friendly."
"What are the chances of that happening?" Chandra rolled her eyes. Joseph glared at her.
The truck crunched to a stop, and a man in a heavy jacket and cap hopped out.
"Hey! You folks ok?" he called, crunching over to them through the snow.
"We're fine, thanks!" Scott yelled back. The man arrived and frowned at them.
Turning to Ororo, he asked, "What're you and all these kids doin' out here with this banged up chopper?"
"Jet," Chandra muttered under her breath.
"We are on a school camping trip," Ororo informed him, hoping desperately that he'd buy the blatant lie. He didn't.
"Seems kinda cold out for a campin' trip, don't it? And what're yall doin' with this new-fangled chopper?"
"It's our transportation," Scott continued with the lie. "I'm a student-teacher. It's a private school, lots of money to buy stuff like this."
"Reallllyyy..." the man did *not* look impressed. "Well, I'd be guessin' you're missin' one of your student-teacher people then. Found him up a ways back on the road with a broken down car. You folks don't have the best a luck with yer stuff, do ya?"
"Um..." Scott looked at Ororo. Ororo returned the gaze helplessly.
Meanwhile the man turned back to his truck and yelled in through the open window. "Hey kid! I found some a yer friends!"
The door opened, and a tall, auburn-haired man leapt gracefully down. He wore a beat-up trench coat, and moved with the grace of a cat.
"You say you find my friends, Monsieur Brown?"
"That's right, Mr. Laba."
"I don't think these be da people I was lookin' for, but tanks for da ride, anyway. And it's Lebeau, by da way."
"Well, I guess I'd better be goin'," Mr. Brown said cheerfully. "Hope you kids enjoy the rest a yer campin' trip!" And with that, the old man jumped into his truck and motored off.
"Well, that was interesting," commented Daniela dryly.
"To say the least," agreed Scott. He glanced over at Ororo, but found her eyes fixed on the young man whom Brown had dropped off.
"Rem?" she gasped out finally.
His head shot up, and Scott guessed that his eyes behind the sunglasses had fixed on the windrider. "Stormy?"
*^*^*^
A/N: There! Have fun with that! Mwhahahahah! Cliffhangers are sooo fun! Now, if I get reviews, I'll write the next chapter soon!
Review Responses:
Fred: Wow! Thanks! I just might do the Scott/Ororo thing, because that seems to be where this is going. We'll see.
S.Q: Mwhahahaha! It's soo fun to torture you, though! And get working on 'Life Among The Stars'! I command you!