Note From Author: The end of the chapter has the action. Well, that's it, hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 10

'Overbearing panic attack entrenching my veins'

'In an hour I'll be ok'

'I pray this pain will go away permanently someday'

'I'VE seen more than…'

'I should have to…'

'I'VE seen this on my own'

'This song is a,'

'Poem to myself,'

'It helps me to live... in case of fire,'

'BREAK'

'The glass, and move on into your own…'

-Taproot-Poem-

It has been two months since the X-Men's first encounter with Tigris and Leo. Tigris has laid low, but Leo seems oddly comfortable with the X-Men. The beginning of summer break.

Kurt was sleeping. His tail swished back and forth, he was having a good dream.

Kathy sat next to the bed. She looked at the clock. She could be nice and let poor Kurt sleep, or she could be Raptor. She chose to be Raptor. Kathy waited, but she was getting too antsy. The clock hit 8:30. She leaned over to him. "WAKE UP!!!" She yelled into his face.

"Yahhh!!" He fell off the bed. Kathy looked over the bed and saw that he had a disgruntled look on his face.

"Hey fuzz ball." She smiled.

"You!" Kurt got up and leapt to her, knocking her over to the floor.

"Hey, stop that!" Kathy scooted away and tried to get up, but Kurt grabbed her by the ankle. "Let go!"

"Nein!" He kept a firm hold.

Kathy plucked a hair from his head.

"OW!" He let go of her. "Your mean." He whined.

"You wouldn't let go of me, boxer boy." She pointed out he was wearing his boxers in bed.

"Go avay and let me sleep, it's summer break." He crawled back to bed and covered himself with the blanket.

"Come on blue boy, wake up." She whined, mocking him.

"Leave me be"

"Kurt, oohhhh Kuuuuuurrrrt." She purred. "Get up fuzz ball. Blue boy. Kurt." She pulled the blanket off of him. He curled into the fetal position. "Kurt. Get up."

"Nnnghh." He groaned.

"Fine then. I didn't want to do this, but you made me." Kathy grabbed hold of his tail and yanked hard, dragging him off the bed.

"Alright! Alright! I'll get up!." He yelped. Kathy let go of his tail. "Zat hurt." He nursed his injured tail.

"Get dressed, go down stairs."

"Yes… mom." He said sarcastically.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha." Kathy sneered.

BAMF

Kurt 'ported' downstairs.

"Morning Kurt." Kathy smiled.

"Shut up."

"What's with you?" Scott asked.

"Kathy voke me up, in za most unpleasant of vays. Annoyance."

"Just because I care." She smiled at her furry friend. She poured herself a bowl of cereal.

Leo walked down the stairs to the kitchen. He became used to the X-Men, even though he thought that they were kind of a goody-two-shoes. His tall pale form made him stick out, not that his punk style, and white hair, black eyes, and ability to kill anything and turn into a dragon didn't help him stand out. What he found that was really annoying, was getting to know Kurt. Kurt thought, that since they were half brothers, they should get to know each other. Leo didn't like that idea. Hell, he tried to keep himself away from Kurt, but that was impossible. The little furry guy some how knew where he always was, and would port in front of his face.

Asher sat in a chair, eating a pop-tart. He decided to stay for a while. He said it was easier than living a life on foot and wing, but all the students knew he stayed for Rouge. He tried on an image inducer, but refused. If he didn't fold his wings close enough to his body, they would stand out in the hologram. And he complained about the pains in his wings.

Kathy looked up and saw the Professor wheel in. Now was her chance. "Hey, Professor. I was wondering, if me and Toby could go to Chicago for a bit, and check out Ozzfest in August?" Kathy asked, hopeful.

"No." He replied dryly.

Kathy sunk. "But why?"

"Because, I'm not having the two of you go alone, knowing how you are." He glared at her.

"Damn it!" Tobius said. "I would give my left nut to see Ozzfest." He complained.

"Not like it would matter." Kitty said. "You would, like just grow it back.

"Every time I think I hit rock bottom, someone throws me a shovel." He said, and slumped into a chair. "I'm blaming Monday for this." He said.

"Why do you hate Monday? What is the point?" Kathy asked.

"I need a scapegoat for what happens. So I blame Monday." Tobius gave her a Cheshire smile.

"You think you're a Cheshire cat?" Kitty said.

"No." Tobius said, then morphed into the Alice In Wonderland Cheshire cat. Now I do. He smiled.

"Like, cut that out!"

Okay. He morphed into a little purple dragon.

"That's not funny either." Kitty said.

Oh, c'mon. Something about me has to appeal to you. Look, I'm Locheed.

"Don't either of you know that Locheed was the guy that built Area 51?" Kathy said. (I always wanted to get that off my chest. I was always sooo annoyed that the dragon was called Locheed, after the guy who built Area 51. Did the creators of the X-Men know that?)

Trust Kath to bring your imagination down. Tobius morphed back to himself.

"Actually the only thing active about me is my imagination." Kathy smiled.

"Sometimes Kathy, I zink your afraid to do zings." Kurt said.

"No, you got me all wrong blue boy. I actually have a deep seated fear of success." Kathy smiled at her blue friend.

"Umm, Kat, if your pissed off about Ozzfest, then maybe I shouldn't tell you that Metallica will be at Chicago too." Scott said, knowing Metallica was Kathy's favorite band.

"Excuse me while I find some rope." Kathy said.

"Put us out of our misery." Tobius smiled.

"Bastard." Kathy said.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me." Tobius said.

"Oh yeah? How 'bout a dictionary!?" Kathy threatened.

"Now, words will harm me." Tobius backed away from his sister.

"Ya, you better be afraid."

"Raptor! No killing your brother." Zeke said.

"Why?"

"Because you killed twelve people in your lifetime, do you want to make it thirteen?"

Kathy thought about his words. "Yes." She smiled, then went back to Tobius.

"Hey!" Tobius exclaimed, the turned into a cheetah and ran.

"Easy as killing an ant." Kathy smiled.

"Kat, cut that out." Scott said

"Stop calling me Kat! Or you'll be supporting those shades up you right nostril!"

"Down girl." Scott said.

"I'll calm down as soon as that shit head of a brother drops dead."

"Now wait a minute. I might have a big ego, I like money, big words confuse me, and I have an attention span the size of a gnat, but I'm not a shit head!" Tobius yelled

"Yes you are, shit head." Kathy said.

"That's it! I can't take it any more! You die now!" Tobius leapt at his sister.

"Go away you morphing freak!" Kathy sidestepped and Tobius crashed into the wall.

"Ow, ow, ouch, pain, whimper, cry, moan." Tobius mumbled.

"Are you like, okay Tobius?" Kitty asked.

Tobius looked up. "You care?" He staggered.

"On second thought…" Kitty said.

"I'm going to go and shoot myself." Tobius walked away.

"Doesn't really matter. Now does it?" Kathy said.

"Gahhhh!" Tobius morphed into a tiger and attacked Kathy.

Kathy, again sidestepped, and again, Tobius crashed into the wall.

Not again. Tobius staggered onto his feet, then morphed back to his normal form. "You know what…"

"No I don't." Kathy said before he could finish.

"Again, Monday." Tobius slumped into a chair.

"Again, he acts like a Doofus." Kathy sighed.

"I'm not a Doofus." He grumbled.

"Don't the two of you, like ever bond, or something?" Kitty asked.

Kathy and Tobius looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"Ha, ha, that's a good one, ha." Tobius said.

Kathy stopped, then looked up at Kitty. "Oh, are you serious?"

"Do we bond? Hmmm." Tobius said.

"Are we bonding now?"

"I don't know."

"If so, then it's been two minutes."

"That should be good for the rest of the week."

"Yup." Kathy agreed, then they both walked away.

"I don't get it. They're like, brother and sister, and they like never do stuff together, you know." Kitty said.

"Just be glad zat zey at least fight." Kurt said.

Leo sat out in the sun in his dragon form, sun bathing. He actually kinda grew to like it here. At least here he had control over his dragon soul, the Professor and he had sessions together, and each day he had more control over his powers. But not full control. The dragon would sometimes creep back, and terrible things would happen, but it was usually in his sleep, when his subconscious was off in dream, and the dragon would find a way. Unluckily for the dragon, Leo would wake up, and the dragon would fade.

He felt something on the tip of his snout. Leo opened his right eye, to see Kathy. He grunted. 'What is it?' He moaned.

"Oh nothing, just thought I'd come by and annoy somebody. Your worth the challenge." She said, rubbing the scaled skin around the massive horn on his snout.

'Do you mind? I'm supposed to be an evil, fire breathing dragon, and your degrading me.'

"Oh, but it's just so much fun." Kathy smiled.

Leo stared at her, with his cold black eyes, then dragon grinned.

"Your just a big scaly puppy, you know that, don't you?"

'I rather not answer that.' Leo closed his eyes.

Kathy dug one of her claws into his snout.

'Hey, what the hell?'

Kathy smiled. "Got your attention dragon boy."

Leo glared at her, then lifted his head up. Kathy gripped the end of his snout and held on.

"Leo! Put me down!"

He lowered his head. "What's wrong Raptor? Afraid of heights?'

Kathy glared at him. "I could blind your other eye right now, you know that."

Leo turned into his human form. "Ooo, I'm so scared."

"You better be dragon boy."

"Yeah, yeah. You keep calling me dragon boy, and I'll turn you into chop suey."

"Ooo, I like Asian foods."

Leo glared at her, but soon stopped. He didn't want to hurt her. "Annoying ones behind you."
"What?" Kathy turned around to see Kurt. "Hey blue boy. What's up?"

"Your aliens tracker is beeping like crazy." He handed her the tracker.

"Damn, I was ignoring it." Kathy took it. "Great, the Congo."

"Great, let me count za vays to get killed." Kurt moaned

Leo smirked. "The Congo, well have fun." He began to walk away.

"Where do you think your going? Your coming with us." Kathy grabbed Leo.

"Fuck."

The X-jet took off. Leo sat in a seat next to Kathy. "I could just fly there too." He said

"Yeah, and you wouldn't follow in a heart beat." Kathy said to him.

"Good god, I'm fucking thirty six, and I look and act like a seventeen year old, I truly have no life." Leo said.

Kathy patted him on the shoulder. "I know, you don't."

Leo shot her a mean look. "I'd watch yourself if I were you."

"You wouldn't hurt me Leo, I know you." Kathy said.

Leo turned his head away, and sighed. "I might not be able to resist it for long though." He said almost silently. "The dragon has tried to regain control. I can't help it Kathy, he will come out again." Leo sighed again. "I don't want to hurt you like I did. I don't want to watch myself to that to you."

"Leo, you have will power, you can stop it."

"No." He said sternly, and loader. "I can't. You don't understand Kathy, the dragon is powerful. He's smart and cunning, I can't stop it. The only way to stop it is to kill it."

"But then-" Kathy said, but Leo broke her off.

"Exactly. I die. That's just what will happen, and just the way things have to be Kathy."

"No, I'm not going to let you die."

"Then you'll die."

"So then I will."

"So, where are these aliens Kat?" Scott asked her

"Close by." Kathy said, looking at her tracker.

"I zere anyway to tell vat it is?" Kurt asked, walking over to her.

"Nope, we just have to do it the old fashioned way. Kill, or get killed." Kathy said.

"Great, I'll notify my next of kin." Kurt said.

"You do that blue boy." Kathy said, staring at the tracker. "I looks like there's two…no four…five, their multiplying."

"What?" Scott walked over. "Your right."

"What does that mean?"

"I means we got a shit load of things to kill." Scott said.

"That's not good. Look, more, now there's ten, eleven, twelve. They reproduce like cells."

"So by the time we find these things…"

"There could be over a hundred of them." Kathy said, looking up at the older mutant.

Tobius swung from tree branch to tree branch as a rhesus monkey. Looks like we got a lot of these buggers. He said.

'Thanks Tobius.' Jean said to him in thought. "We got a problem."

"Already knew that when mutants were hated throughout the world." Kathy said.

"Bigger problem Kathy." Jean said.

Hey, wait a second, all the creatures look exactly the same. Tobius jumped down from the tree, and landed on Jean's shoulder. Like a mirror image or illusion like.

"And illusion? Well one of them has to be real." Jean said. "Or the tracker is giving off wrong readings."

"The morpher is right." Said a voice from the trees. Whoever spoke had a clear African accent to them.

"Who's there?" Scott called out.

"No one of your concern." The voice spoke again.

"It is our concern." Scott said back.

"If I must." A man leapt down from the tree. He was African, with the whole tribal garb of a shaman. He must have been in his 40's, and was in lean, muscular shape. "I am Illusionist. Tigris was right, you 'X-Men', do come to any call." He waved his tribal stick, which had a human skull on it, and the illusion of multiple creatures came to one.

"My father sent you? How did he know to send us here?" Leo asked. He didn't want anything to do with this if Tigris was involved.

"That blue whore's orb. She can see many things, and as being a shaman of my tribe, I was paid big American dollars to see to it that you X-men didn't make it out of the Congo alive." He clicked his tongue, and the alien came to him. It looked like a cross between a wolf, and a monitor lizard. It walked on four legs and held it's legs under it's body, and had short fine sparse hair on it's body. It had a long tail, that, near the end, looked like a crocodile tail. It had huge saber teeth, and flangs to protect them. It was cheetah spotted, with stripes on it's hindquarters. It had a long, deep head. "My pet, I have learned, is a very good hunter. Can track you down better that a leopard. The Congo isn't a safe place for such novice people as yourselves. Walking through my peoples territory, as though no one was here. I disgusts me. If my pet doesn't get you, then the Mokle-Mbmembe will." Illusionist waved his tribal stick. An image of a huge sauropod, or long necked dinosaur, appeared. It was different somehow, shorter neck, with a small horn on it's snout. "You see, it may be a plant eater, but it was a brain smaller that fruit, and will attack anyone that comes near."

"That's just a folk legend." Kathy said. "The Mokle-Mbmembe isn't real."

"How sure are you of that? How sure are you of that?" He clicked his tongue again. His "pet" looked up, and eyed the X-Men. It's tail tip twitched. In an unknown language, from the unknown tribe he is from, the creature sprinted toward the X-Men.

"Oh no you don't" Jean stopped it in mid-sprint. It let out a horrible cry, that made everyone, except Illusionist, cup their ears. Jean set it down.

"Don't try to hurt it, our it will cry." The shaman smiled like an imp, is white teeth standing out against his almost black skin. "You see, Tigris wants me to make sure that little blue fella next to you, is not going to come with you." He pointed at Kurt.

"How does he know who I am?" Kurt asked, gritting his teeth.

"Again, the whore's orb. Tigris knows that you are Mystiques son, and not his own, so he hired me to kill you X-Men, and take little blue." He paused. "Then Tigris will do to you as he wishes."

"And what if you say no." Kathy said, her claws twitching, ready to slice.

Illusionist smiled, then clicked his tongue again. His "pet" stood up, it waited for the rest of the commands. "Then my "pet" will kill you."

Logan unsheathed his claws. "You and that thing. Pshaw, I doubt it."

"Very well then." The shaman sighed. He clicked his tongue again, and the beast wwent running. About to leap at Logan, saber fangs ready to cut through his neck, Logan dug his claws into it's chest. It let out a horrible ear piercing cry, louder than the last. Then it went limp, and moaned.

"So this is your "pet"? Nothing more than a lizard." Logan put it to the ground. It still breathed, but barely.

"No." Illusionist stared at his poor beast, then shifted his gaze to the X-Men. "No!" He yelled out, and a huge wall of blue flames appeared between the shaman, and the X-men. Then the flames died, and the shaman, and his "pet" were gone.