You're not going to believe me, but I actually started this straight after I uploaded chapter 4! It took a lot longer than I expected, and wow, is this a loooong chapter! Hrm, exams this week, I've tried really hard to get this out before I have to get down to my slave labour. Exciting stuff happens! Hehehehe ;) Anyway, do enjoy and review, do you hear me? Please? (Evil vibes to all reading this thinking, 'well she'll get lots of reviews since she wrote that, I don't need to!' You do I tell you! You dooooooo!)
Ahem, cough cough, ANYWAY!
Weeble Wobble Chic: Don't worry, it starts soon!
UnknownSource: I completely agree about the young boys thing. Maybe we could start up a 'hitting young boys over the head' business! I'm glad you like the Rogue/Kitty friendship too, I do try! I've always liked the idea of those two being friends, but I can't imagine it being a sharing-clothes-and-secrets kind of friendship, myself! And yay! You're still laughing!
Ishandahalf: No bunny, no crack, just slow ol' me with writers' block to boot. Sorry ;) I like Rogue/Lance friends too! Yay!
Kosumi: I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I understand what you mean, the romancey stuff gets a bit repetitive sometimes! And about the Rogue/Remy relationship suggestion, that's exactly what I was thinking! Great minds think alike! Thankyou for all the enthusiasm, it's so exciting! Weeeee!
Kagii: Haven't seen you in a couple of chapters! And I tried to hurry, really!
Now, on with the show:)
She didn't stop to think. She snatched up her books, leapt to her feet, and by the time the teacher had finished saying,"Rogue, just where do you think you're going?"…she was nowhere to be seen. Ms. Elliot mentally booked the Goth a detention for the next day.
Rogue pelted along the corridor, her mind racing ten times faster than her feet. The only thought she could grasp that actually made sense was: 'Find Kurt, find Kurt, find Kurt, find Kurt…' Her heavily made-up eyes darted back and forth, but there was no sign of the blue-haired German boy. As the girl burst through the front doors, she noticed two things. First, the carpark was still, and there was no red convertible in it as far as she could see. Second, she was alone at the entrance to the highschool. Hadn't Professor Xavier said to wait at the front entrance? Don't say she'd gotten it wrong…
"Rogue!"
"Kurt! There you are!"
"Mensch, sis, how fast must you have run out of class?"
"Faster than either of you snails are capable of! Damn it, where is Kitty? She can't dawdle now, please tell me she's not dawdling now!"
"Calm down, schwester. She'll be here, and it's barely been 2 minutes since Professor Xavier contacted us. Nothing will happen in time it takes us to get to the institute."
"Whatever. You're gonna port us, right?"
"Port you?"
At that moment Kitty appeared through the wall, distracting Rogue from her incredulous brother.
"Hey, nice of you to join us! Do you think we're about ready, or do we need to wait till your nails dry?"
Kitty gave her as dirty a look as she dared.
"For your information, Mr Riley was fully trying to have, like, a negotiation with me! He wasn't going to just let me walk out."
Rogue stared at her in disbelief. "You were making arrangements with your teacher? For god's sake, you just leave!"
"Not all of us enjoy detention as much as you, Rogue," Kitty told her defiantly, her chin in the air. Rogue fixed the agitated girl with her fiercest death glare. Kitty's flushed cheeks paled slightly, and her eyes stared firmly at a spot just above Rogue's head. Kurt waved his hands to stop the word war.
"Listen, fighting isn't going to get us anywhere. We all just need to calm down."
"Who cares, just port us," said Kitty impatiently.
Rogue raised her eyebrows in a you-better-not-say-anything-I-don't-want-to-hear sort of way. Kurt took the tiniest step backwards.
"I can't port you!" he exclaimed. "Ze professor would barely let me port myself here, let alone you two!"
"Kurt, you're not seriously suggesting that we wait for Scott or Jean to pick us up are you? Don't you want to find those kids, I mean, you, like, saw them get taken and everything!"
"Of course I do, but it could be dangerous, I've never teleported 2 people before, I think it vould be better if we just…"
"KURT!"
He held up his holographic hands reluctantly to show he gave in. Kurt could handle a lot of things, but angry, frantic teenage girls was not one of them. He held out his hands for each of them, and the girls took them with vicious triumph.
"I'm not taking the blame for this," he told them firmly, and they were gone.
"What are we waiting for? Shouldn't we be leaving now? No time to waste!"
"We have to wait for Stripes, Half Pint, and Elf. In case you hadn't noticed, they're not here."
Scott folded his arms and stared fixedly down the drive, as if it was going to make the three younger X-men come through the iron gates, ready to go.
"How long does it take to get out of class and port back here?"
"Look, nothings going to happen in the time it does take them to get here, so just cool your heels for a bit, alright?"
Jean stepped in to stop the testosterone-driven males from leaping down each other's throats.
"Hey guys, arguing isn't going to help anyone. We've all been worrying and it's making us touchy, but the others will be here soon and until then, all we can do is wait. There's no point in getting agitated over something that, for the moment, we can do nothing about."
Logan rolled his eyes and went inside. Scott smiled at Jean.
"Sorry. You're right, I just want to get going, we've already waited almost 3 days, and the professor can't be absolutely sure that Magneto won't hurt the kids."
"I know Scott, trust me I'm as concerned as you are."
Scott put his arm around the peacekeeping redhead. At that moment, there was a BAMF, and with a cloud of smoke and stench of sulfur, three scowling highschool students appeared.
"Wow, what an effort that took."
"Listen, I never said it would take an effort, I said that the Professor probably wouldn't allow it. Not that you'd know what effort it could take!"
"Ooh yeah, I'm sure it's really exhausting being in one place then appearing in another!"
"Just shut up, the both of ya!"
Jean and Scott stared as Rogue yelled at her companions, then stormed inside. Kitty and Kurt followed, still arguing in low voices.
"Ok, what was that about?" Jean asked, bewildered. She hadn't known exactly how right she'd been about the tempers-running-high thing. Rogue getting mad and yelling was nothing unusual, but yelling at Kitty and Kurt to stop arguing was something entirely different.
"I don't know, but I guess we can tell the others that we about ready to leave."
"Right. I'll tell the professor, then meet you by the blackbird?"
"Sure, we've got to get it ready. Make sure Rogue, Kitty and Kurt are getting their uniforms on."
Scott dashed off to the jet. Jean concentrated on Professor Xavier.
Kitty, Rogue and Kurt are back, professor. You can tell the others we're ready.
Thankyou, Jean.
Jean didn't bother contacting Kitty or anyone, the three knew the situation and the rush they were in, why would they be doing anything else but getting ready? Ok, Scott just wanted to do his 'team leader' thing-she could forgive him for that. She smiled to herself as she took to the air and floated lazily over to the jet. She hadn't yet found something she couldn't forgive him for.
'Snap out of it, Jean. Let's think priorities here.'
"Man I hate these uniforms. You'd think we could at least put some money into making our team look presentable. We show up to a battle, wearing these totally ugly, mismatched things, you just know no-one's going to be intimidated!"
"Just put the bloody thing on girl, we've wasted enough time already."
Rogue knew Kitty was babbling because of nerves, but that didn't mean it was the time or place for it. There was plenty of opportunities to complain about their admittedly ugly uniforms at a danger room session, or something like that. Right now, they were about to go out on a most likely dangerous mission to rescue a couple of kids. The whole lot of them had been anxious to save the poor things, but now the time had come, they were all faced with the reality of what they were about to do. Ok, so they had the numbers, but it was 6 teenagers, plus 4 adults, 1 of which was invalid, versus the Acolytes, possibly Magneto too. All in all, the odds weren't good. Angry and determined though she was, Rogue couldn't suppress her own nervousness. She would be the only one to whom she'd admit it.
"Hello? Anybody in there?"
Rogue jumped. "What?"
"I've been saying let's go for like a minute! Are you ready or what?"
"Oh, yeah. Come on."
She got off the bed and led the way to the jet, with Kitty shaking her head disbelievingly.
"Geez, who were you daydreaming about?"
Rogue's hand reached out for her so fast, Kitty didn't realise what was happening until it had happened.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
The Goth let go of her friend's ponytail with grim satisfaction.
"To make ya shut up and remind ya that we are about to go up against one of the world's most powerful mutants or whatever, and his lackies to boot. So, sorry sugah, but now is definitely not the time."
Kitty stuck out her tongue and phased through the floor. Rogue rolled her eyes, and headed to the jet the old-fashioned way, for once wishing she had access to her numerous psyches so that she could beat the brunette down there.
"About time," Scott muttered inaudibly as Kitty phased into the jet. He pushed a couple of buttons and put on his seat belt. He turned to look at the Professor, who was staring absently out of the window, then at Kitty again.
"Where's Rogue?" he asked, as an afterthought.
"Still inside, she'll be out soon though."
Scott frowned. "Why wasn't she with you?"
Kitty opened her mouth, waiting for her brain to supply her with an acceptable excuse, but a less-than-happy Southern drawl saved her the trouble.
"Because Little Miss Perky decided it would be fun to phase her way here without me. Not that bringing me with her would've saved time or anything, cos obviously I have my own perfectly bloody useful power to help me, now don't I?"
Kitty shrank back guiltily as Rogue walked past and found herself a seat, fuming. Jean and Scott exchanged glances, wondering why Rogue was so angry and snappish all of a sudden. Jean looked at her with concern.
Quit staring, I'm not a goddamn freak show.
Jean started. Rogue had her back to them, how did she…?
She shrugged the thought away. The girl was incredibly strong mentally; no doubt she had some extra capabilities up her sleeve. Obedient to her teammate's wishes, Jean walked to the front of the jet to Scott and the Professor.
"All clear, Scott, you can proceed."
Scott nodded and did, uh, whatever you do to make a jet go ;).
"You're good at this," Jean said admiringly. The endless buttons and knobs were Greek to her.
Scot smiled at her, but concentrated on the taking off. Jean took a seat beside him, not wanting to be jolted off her feet, like had happened on previous occasions. Down the other end, Rogue was curled up in her own seat, also bracing herself for the jolt of leaving the ground.
BAMF.
Rogue didn't turn, but acknowledged her brother's presence all the same.
"You could just walk ya know, it's only two rows."
"Ah, why bother? Porting is so much easier, and I admit it doesn't take any effort."
Rogue smiled.
"Hey, sis?"
Rogue turned her head ever so slightly, so that the blue, furry teen was within her line of vision.
"I'm, uh, well a bit nervous. Magneto is really, big time powerful dude, and he wouldn't have chosen much less for his men. They probably know a lot more about us than we know about them, and, I'm just scared."
He was looking down now, fiddling with his tail. Rogue turned properly around to face him.
"Don't worry, you're not the only one. I bet everyone is, and there's no use pretending that bucket head isn't more than a match for us, but the Prof. wouldn't send us into a battle where we were in serious danger; sure we'll most likely get hurt, but does a day go by when we don't? You wait, we'll rescue those kids, and have Acolyte ass on our trophy shelf by tomorrow."
Kurt grinned. "Thanks, sis. I knew you'd know what to say."
"Anytime. And don't call me sis."
Kurt grinned all the more, and bounded away. Rogue turned over again, secretly glad her brother had felt the urge to share that with her. Now she wasn't the only one to be nervous.
The jet shuddered.
"What was that?" Kitty asked anxiously.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves. We are about ready to land, entering Magneto's territory. The magnetic energy in this area is probably the reason for the shudder you just felt. I know this mission is a big step up from others we have done, but you have all been trained well and I have great faith in you. Work together, support each other, and I know you can handle this."
The jet was flying in circles above a rocky precipice. Below it was a dense, luscious forest. Kurt ported out onto the cliff and Xavier took the controls from Scott, Kurt helping him to alight safely. They filed out, not speaking to each other. It was all suddenly scarily real. Kitty found Rogue's gloved hand and squeezed it. Rogue looked a little surprised, but didn't pull away.
"I'm totally freaked," Kitty muttered.
"Don't worry, I'll watch out for ya," Rogue told her reassuringly, her momentary grudge forgotten. Kitty gave her a shaky smile. Once they were all assembled on the cliff, the adults stood apart from the students, talking amongst themselves.
"What are they talking about?" Kitty wondered aloud.
"Probably if we should stick together, or if we should do groups, the best way to approach, stuff like that," Kurt suggested, appearing on Rogue's other side and grabbing her free hand. Rogue couldn't help but roll her eyes.
'What is this, 'lets all grab Rogue's hand for comfort' day?' she thought sarcastically, but didn't protest. She rested her eyes on the adults again. Logan was looking crabby; Storm was all motherly concern. Hank McCoy looked very pressured and Xavier was, as usual, sitting calmly with his hands clasped in his lap.
Finally, Logan nodded, Storm did too and Hank looked relieved. Xavier turned his wheelchair around and headed towards them. The other three followed.
"X-men."
The awkward chatter that had floating around by means of distraction stopped immediately and all eyes were on the professor.
"Kurt, Kitty, Jean you three and Storm will get everyone else down the cliff edge safely. Then we will all proceed through the forest until we reach Magneto's base. Upon arriving, we will divide into groups and take different sides. Kitty, Evan and Jean, you are one group, Scott, Kurt and Rogue, you are the other. Logan, Storm, Hank and myself will aid you whenever necessary."
"So we're doing this on our own? How does that work?" Evan asked bluntly.
"Of course not Evan. We will simply not be in any particular group so we can be of assistance to anyone who needs it."
"Oh."
"Now, Kurt, Kitty Jean, Storm-if you please."
Jean telekinetically lifted the professor down the cliff. Kurt grabbed Mr McCoy and they were gone. Kitty took a tiny step towards Logan, but he growled throatily and scaled down himself with surprising agility. Kitty looked rather relieved and grabbed Rogue's arm as Ororo lifted Scott off his feet and flew down to the ground. Her arm linked tightly with Rogue's, Kitty took a cautious step off the edge, then air-walked the rest of the way down. Rogue's stomach leapt unpleasantly - she hadn't done this before.
Their feet reached the forest floor quickly. Rogue hurriedly withdrew her arm, then smirked at a red-faced Scott, who was embarrassed at being carried by Storm. Flustered, he dusted himself off unnecessarily and hurried to the front of the line that had begun to trudge through the forest.
"You three go that side, we'll take this side."
"So what, do we have to try and get in?" Kitty asked.
Rogue rolled her eyes again. "No Kitty, we just wait out here for the Acolytes to attack us."
Kitty reddened slightly. Jean led the way to the other side of a big, metal dome, half buried in soil and leaves.
"What's ze point in having teams for this?" questioned Kurt. "It'd be just as easy to do it together."
"Who knows?" said Rogue carelessly.
"Probably to spread out our work, to try and find any weak points, or so we're not all making a big noise in one spot that would be noticeable," Scott said, more helpfully. So saying, he twisted his visor, and a red beam shot out at the dome. Nothing happened.
"Leave this to the fuzzy man," Kurt said, and ported. Scott attempted to wave the smoke away. They waited in silence for about 30 seconds, then there was a crash above them.
"Help!"
Rogue and Scott looked up, and saw Kurt clinging for dear life from one of the higher branches of one of the higher trees. Rogue shook her head.
"How does he propose we do that?" she asked.
"Kurt, just port down here!" Scott yelled. Kurt looked thoughtful for a moment, then appeared next to them again, looking sheepish.
"Yer an idiot," Rogue told him.
"Rogue, you try," Scott ordered. Rogue narrowed her eyes at him.
"And just what am I supposed to do? Huff and puff and blow the house down?"
"You could try touching it."
"Yeah, and turn into a giant metal ball," said Rogue, but walked forward nonetheless. She removed her glove, and placed first a finger, then her whole palm on the metal. It had absolutely no effect. She was about to pull her glove back on, when there was a huge crash. She just about leapt out of her skin, whirled round and adopted a fighting stance, only to find Logan there.
"Need a hand Stripes?"
"Do ya have to be so loud about it?"
"Probably not," the older man said indifferently. Kurt and Scott came over.
"Had any luck?" Scott asked him.
"No, but I had an inkling. Port me to the roof, would ya elf?"
Kurt grabbed his arm and did so. Rogue and Scott waited. Scott's head was fixed skywards, but Rogue stared out into the trees. She could hear something apart from the faint voices from the top of the dome. It was kind of a crackling sound, she couldn't quite pinpoint the direction it was coming from. She turned her head different ways, trying to place it. Scott laughed. She turned to look at him crossly.
"What's so funny?" she demanded. He looked at her with confusion.
"I didn't laugh."
She frowned, then turned back toward the trees behind them. Kurt's smoke was irritating her nostrils, though it didn't usually linger this long. She could still hear voices, but they seemed to be coming from all around her. Were the psyches coming to the surface again? Laughter rang out again, this time it clearly came from a few meters into the forest. She once more spun around to look at Scott.
"Did ya hear that?" she asked, quietly this time. Scott nodded. He made a gesture for her to move backwards, and he himself started shuffling towards the dome. Rogue's heart was speeding up considerably. She backed away from the forest slowly. She heard feet hit the ground, and turned around again, fists clenched, but it was only Kurt and Logan.
"No different up there," Logan said gruffly. "I don't know what we're supposed to do, no one can find a way in."
"Was it you laughing?" asked Scott hurriedly. Logan and Kurt looked surprised.
"No…"
"We heard someone laugh. I think we've got a fight coming."
Logan growled softly and looked around. Kurt bent his knees slightly, looking anxious. Rogue knew he was preparing to teleport if he needed to. The tension was unbearable, Rogue just wanted something to happen so that they could get into the adrenaline of a fight instead of just waiting, knowing that at any minute they could be attacked…
"Well, I'm dying of suspense," she said finally. Scott gave her a stern look, but both Logan and Kurt smiled slightly. Satisfied, she leaned against the dome and surveyed the forest again. She could definitely hear something crackling now, and the smell of smoke was getting stronger.
"Oh, shit…"
Suddenly a burst of flame in the form of a charging rhino appeared out of the trees, coming straight for them. Logan let out a roar of fury and pulled Rogue out of its path. Kurt ported, and Scott was left to roll away himself. Within seconds, they were all three on their feet again, and Kurt reappeared next to Rogue. Predictably, Pyro came swaggering out of the bush, laughing hysterically. He shrieked with delight when he spotted Rogue.
"G'day, sheila, fancy seeing you here!"
His eyes rested on Kurt scowling beside her.
"You here too! Wow, what a happy little reunion! I see you've got your furry blue demon thing going on, very scary."
He gave Kurt the thumbs up. Kurt, on the other hand, looked like he couldn't decide whether he was more incredulous or furious.
"Well, fun as this has been, I'm thinking you lot are trying to break inta the bosses' quarters, and that just ain't on. So I'm afraid we're gonna have to kill you."
He grinned dementedly. Several wild horses burst out of the ends of his flame-throwers and galloped towards them. Logan leapt out of the way, and Kurt looked like he was about to grab Rogue and port, but she dodged him.
"No, grab Scott! I've gotta warn Kitty!"
She did a backflip to avoid a very small horse. Kurt obediently ported over to Scott, grabbed him by the arm and ported away. Pyro looked extremely disappointed.
"Aaw, sheila, you're the only one stayin for the fun! Oh well, I can work with that!"
He sent more flames towards her, not in any particular shape, but demonstrating his power all the same by causing them to encircle her faster than Blob could consume a hamburger. She looked around her, trying to find some way of escape. Pyro laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. Rogue normally would've glared at him, but since her eyes were tearing like crazy, she guessed it wouldn't have quite the effect she was going for. She knew she had to get out, but the how part was beyond her. The flames danced higher and higher, aided either by the wind or Pyro. She could hardly even see the Australian anymore. The heat was rapidly becoming overwhelming and she was coughing uncontrollably due to the smoke.
'Oh man,' she thought blankly. 'This ain't good.'
She wanted to do something, she wanted to help, hey, she at least wanted to escape with her life. But the pain in her eyes and throat was overwhelming,her skin was searing and her head felt like it was going to explode from the heat. She couldn't concentrate, any thoughts of how to get out of this had abandoned her. Just wanting it to stop, she shut her eyes and sat on the floor of the clearing. She buried her face in her arms, trying to block out the smoke.
'Well, this is dramatic.'
She could hear voices again, crashing and scuffling too. She vaguely thought of everyone fighting against the Acolytes. Silently she wished them luck.
"Oh no you don't!"
Rogue lifted her head to try and locate the voice, but didn't open her eyes. They were probably fighting Pyro now. She put her head down again and turned over.
"Stop it! Get up now!"
Rogue groaned. Couldn't they do it quietly?
"Rogue, I am not like leaving you here! Get off your butt right now!"
Suddenly Rogue was tugged onto her back and into a slouched sitting position. Reluctantly, she turned to see who was disturbing her. The frantic face of Kitty Pryde swam into view.
"Kitty?"
"Rogue, we have totally got to get out of here! C'mon, hurry up! On your feet!"
The girl yanked at Rogue's arms again. Rogue screwed up her stinging eyes, and blindly pulled herself up.
"That's it! OK, now like, hold on to me!"
They stumbled forward. Rogue put her hand out in front of her, though there was nothing to guide her except the arm of her friend.
"Take a breath!"
Rogue did, and inhaled a mouthful of smoke. She coughed and spluttered.
"No!" Kitty screeched desperately. "Just hold it!"
Rogue took another breath, her mouth not open as wide, then determinedly shut it. She felt the slightly familiar sensation of Kitty's power wash over her. As they continued to walk forwards, the smoke was lessening and so was the telltale heat and crackling of the flames. She opened her eyes. Kitty was leading her further into the forest, away from the fire she had been trapped by seconds before. Her knees weakened and she dropped to the forest floor.
"Kitty?" she said again.
"Rogue?"
"Did you just save me?"
"Uh-huh."
"Oh."
They sat in silence for a bit. Rogue wiped her streaming eyes repeatedly. Finally she squinted at Kitty again.
"Thanks."
"Well I wasn't going to just like, let you burn."
She smiled weakly. Rogue smiled back. She got to her feet, having had a chance to recover.
"We have got to help."
"Yeah, I just, you know, needed to find you."
"I know. But the others can't do it on their own."
Kitty nodded. "Yeah. Lets go."
Her face was set, but Rogue could see past it. She'd hidden her own emotions practically all her life, she figured she could at least recognise the signs of an amateur.
"I know haven't been a lot of help so far, but listen, I promise I'm not gonna let them do it to you as well."
Kitty smiled again, gratefully. Rogue was satisfied with that, and led the way out of the trees.
When they got back into the clearing, things looked a lot worse from when she had last seen it properly. The fire that had surrounded her had spread and reduced some bushes by the dome to ashes. A tree was lying on its side and there were scorch marks everywhere. It was eerily quiet. The girls looked around, unable to suppress slight paranoia.
Suddenly, Kurt appeared, running straight towards them.
"Kurt, look out!" Rogue cried urgently. He skidded to a halt.
"What's the matter?" Kitty asked, at the same time as Kurt said, "Rogue! Keety! You're OK!"
Before anyone could say anything else, someone landed a few meters in front of them with a handful of charged cards in answer to Kitty's question. Rogue barely had time to gasp, before her brother grabbed the both of them and ported to avoid the card that had just been thrown at them.
They appeared on a cliff, different to the one they had landed on.
"No problem porting us that time," Kitty noted triumphantly. Kurt scowled at her.
"Where the hell are we?" Rogue demanded of him.
"I don't know. A cliff?" Kurt suggested uselessly. At that moment he was pushed backwards towards the edge. He teleported immediately, and the girls looked around again, both ready in a fighting stance. Evan tore panting down the hillside onto the clifftop.
"Don't try to hide, you coward!" he yelled, stopping in his tracks and taking in his surroundings. Rogue and Kitty were on the verge of expressing concern for his sanity when Pietro Maximoff made himself visible by standing still. With the wind on the cliff, they hadn't even noticed him.
"GiveitupDaniels,you'repathetic,you'renotevenclosetobeingamatchforme!"
Evan cracked his knuckles furiously.
"If you had the guts to face me, I'd prove you wrong!" he seethed.
"Ooh,stopit,you'llgivemenightmares!" Quicksilver taunted. Rogue looked at Kitty again, and she nodded. They took each other's hands, and quietly phased into the ground, hoping that Evan had noticed and would keep Pietro busy. Sure enough, when they resurfaced, the teenage boys were still hurling insults at each other.
Pietro watched Evan's eyes with amusement; seeing the anger and frustration in them was the best part. Then he saw them flicker down to just past his feet. He remembered who else was on the cliff, and quickly put two and two together. He darted a couple of meters backwards, and sure enough, Rogue and Kitty had been phasing through the ground behind them.
"Nice try Roguey!"
In a flash he was gone again. Evan yelled in rage and took off aswell.
"This is bloody ridiculous," Rogue muttered distractedly.
"Why did Kurt have to port us up here, now we really are waiting around for them to attack us, cos we've got no way down."
"I know."
Rogue looked over the edge just in case there was something she'd missed, but it was an absolute precipice.
"I wonder if Fuzzy is plannin' on coming back for us anytime soon," she remarked.
Then, out of nowhere, two figures came pelting out of the bush covering the hillside, and one hurled themselves on Rogue. Kitty screamed.
Rogue struggled against the huge weight that had suddenly materialised on top of her. Her first thought was Kurt, as she certainly hadn't seen it coming, but she was pretty sure Kurt wouldn't be trying to strangle her. With a suffocated grunt, she thrust her knee up as hard as she could, and rolled whoever it was off her as their attention was drawn away. She got to an upright position as fast as possible, then her eyes flicked to where Kitty had been. She had just phased her way through the huge metal man who had had almost his whole hand wrapped around her petite frame. She quickly got away from her attacker. Rogue just realised she should probably do the same at the same time as a fist flew out, catching her in the chest. She stumbled backwards, gasping. She looked up, and recognised the face of Sabertooth, advancing on her twisted in hatred.
'Has he mistaken me for Logan?' she wondered stupidly, before he swiped her in the face, breaking deep into her skin. He promptly keeled over backwards.
Holding a hand to her cheek, Rogue looked at him in disbelief.
'Did that just happen?' was her first thought.
'What an idiot,' was her second.
She got up and just had time to look at Sabertooth before she was lifted off her feet and thrown aside as easily as if she were an old jacket.
Kitty ran over to her friend's side as Colossus picked up Sabertooth and draped him over one arm like a waiter would a tea towel. He ran up the hill again without looking back.
"Omigosh, are you, like, OK?" Kitty panted.
"What the hell was that?" said Rogue as an answer. Kitty shrugged and plonked herself on the ground too. Both girls were panting.
"What did he do to you?" stormed Rogue angrily.
"I don't know, I was like, running towards you, and he just grabbed me and lifted. What a total crusher."
Rogue frowned in an almost suspicious way. That had definitely been weird, Sabertooth had been completely off his head, then Colossus just taking off like that…it didn't make sense. It was almost like they weren't on the same team.
"You're hurt," Kitty pointed out, interrupting Rogue's musings.
"I know," she said again, wiping blood off her face. Kitty pulled a hankie out of her pocket and handed it to Rogue.
"You carry a hankie in your uniform?" said Rogue wonderingly, holding it on the scrape nevertheless.
"You never know," Kitty defended herself, albeit not very well. She looked around her for about the fiftieth time that day. "Shall we just, like, catch our breath, then try and find Jean and everyone?"
"Yeah."
Neither of them liked to address the problem of how they were going to get off the cliff. Up the hill seemed to be the way everyone was going, so it was probably a good place to start. They sat in silence once more, running this over. There was a gust of wind and they both looked up, wary of Pietro coming back. When no one appeared, they were free to go back to their troublesome thoughts.
Rogue wondered if Magneto was somewhere out there, against the Professor, or maybe even one of their teammates. She also wondered how they had been aware of their presence. It seemed so easy, unfair if you would. She thought of her encounter with Pyro. Had he really wanted to kill her? She always knew that Magneto was a crazy, evil old man, so anyone he recruited must be pretty damn evil too, especially when judged by Sabertooth. But she'd never really thought they'd be willing to kill. Maybe Pyro was as insane as his employer. And by what had just happened, the madness seemed to be spreading.
Whoosh.
Another huge gust of wind went between the two, ruffling Rogue's auburn and white hair. She looked up, annoyed, but saw nothing. She looked at Kitty…and saw nothing.
Rogue leapt up.
"Kitty!" she yelled urgently.
"SorryRoguey.It'sallbusiness.Nothingpersonal,infactIquitelikethegirl!"
Rogue lunged at Pietro's grinning face, boiling over with fury. He was gone in an instant.
"Kitty!" she screamed again.
"Rogue…"
The voice was faint, and snatched away by the wind before Rogue could locate it. So she went with instinct, and headed for the cliff edge. She hoped like hell that her instinct was wrong. But when she looked over, to her horror, Kitty was clinging desperately to the side.
"That bastard!" Rogue growled through her teeth. "I'll pull you up Kit, gimme your hand."
"Rogue, I don't want to die," Kitty whimpered.
"You are bloody well not going to die!" shouted Rogue. "Let me pull you up here, I won't let you fall!"
"I can't let go…" Kitty wailed. "I'll fall!"
"NO!"
Rogue grabbed the brunette's arm and pulled with all her strength.
"Use your feet, push yourself, it doesn't matter what with. I won't let you go Kitty!"
Kitty scrabbled against the side of the cliff. Rogue pulled as hard as she could. Kitty got her elbows on the clifftop.
"That's it!"
Kitty was just ready to push herself up when the thing she was gripping for safety was suddenly pulled away.
"Rogue, what are you…?"
Rogue felt Kitty's hand wrenched from her grasp. She was rolled over and slammed into the ground. Something hard met her stomach and knocked the wind she was about to use for abuse out of her. As fingers wrapped once more around her throat, she made a mental note to opt for a lower collar on her uniform if she ever made it out of this alive. She looked up at Sabertooth's face. He grinned at her, a horrible, evil, unhinged grin. It repulsed her. He was determined to be the cause of her death and she had no idea why. She couldn't hold him off long enough to figure it out. He was deranged, ferociously so, and she was in his way. He was going to shift her, no matter what it took.'I'm not going to let them do it to you too.'
Rogue's own words echoed in her head. Kitty. She had promised to watch out for her, and twice had completely failed to do so. Now she was dangling off a cliff, and here was Rogue with a large unhinged cat on top of her, about to give up? She was quite willing to forget the whole thing and save herself some trouble, but at her own stake, and her own stake alone.
Rogue thrust her fist into Sabertooth's jugular. He choked, and she elbowed his arm joints with as much strength as she could muster. His hold on her loosened, and she wriggled down out of easy reach. The fiery tempered Southerner then took advantage of this new position by head-butting him in the chest. All that was now required was a blow to the groin, he rolled off her in pain and she was up and running towards the cliff boundary. The brunette was still struggling resolutely to get back up, using her arms as leverage. The problem was she had nothing to hold onto and secure her from plummeting. Rogue bolted towards her as fast as she could. Kitty looked up, hearing her approach.
"Rogue!"
'She's not going to fall,' Rogue told herself, hearing the panic in her friend's voice. Then her own feet were snatched out from under her.
Grabbed by the back of her neck after being pulled over, Rogue was caught by surprise. She moved her hips to the side as she was dragged to her feet and attempted to reattack that sensitive spot, but he was ready this time. He whirled her around to face him. She twisted her arm, fast and hard enough for him to let go. Opportunity beckoned, she did what came naturally and tried to reach his bare arm. With fury matching her own, the cat-like man let out a roar and threw her hard enough to be dangerous for anyone in her path. Upon impact, darkness immediately crept from the corners of her eyes and spread. She suddenly felt very light, and sleepy. Her pain was gone. She slumped to the ground…
"Rogue!"
She misunderstood. She looked terrified, and ran faster.
'No, it's not me, behind you!'
Kitty could've sworn she screamed the words, but the gothic girl didn't notice the attack until it was upon her. Kitty scraped the side of the cliff with her feet, trying desperately to get back up…
"Rogue!"
Sabertooth had absolutely lost it. He wrenched Rogue around with brute force. She reached out to touch him.
"That's it!"
But it wasn't. Enraged, he threw her so hard she flew through the air in an almost perfect straight line. She slammed against a tree and Kitty was sure she saw it shudder. Sabertooth stood over her unconscious form with a sick smile on his face. The big metal guy walked over, pushed Sabertooth away and muttered something to him. Then, to Kitty's horror, he picked the unconscious girl up, slung her over his shoulder and once more walked away. Sabertooth stood still for a moment. He turned and looked right at Kitty. A sneer crept onto his lips, and he slunk after his teammate. A heart-stopping wail followed them away.
"ROGUE!"
Oh no! How dramatic! Wait! What's am I reading? Nooooo! Not another cliffhanger! We'll all be like Kitty now! Arg! (Everyone runs to hide from bad pun). I'm going crazy, it's past my bedtime! I've overlooked a few things here, I know, like Kurt being able to port into the other lair-thing of Magneto's in Operation: Rebirth, but it's just so necessary for the storyline that you can pretend you didn't notice;). Also, I'm really, really bad at writing action scenes, I know that much! So if you like, if you loathe, if you think I'm mean and horrible, if you have suggestions or words of encouragement, there's only one thing to do! You know what I'm talking about, you can get it, c'mon, thas a good reader! You can do it! Ok, ok here it is, all spelt out for ya: Review! Thanky anyway for reading!