Another chapter. Sorry it isn't as long as the others, (I DO have schoolwork to do, after all,) but the story should begin to explain some things as it continues.

For now, I'm going to keep you in suspense.

You know the drill, R&R and then I'll continue

Ch. 5

Damn.

Sabertooth cupped his hands in a stream, rinsing off the layer of grim that had accumulated itself on them.

This was more difficult than he thought.

He sighed, raising his head to gaze upwards at the sky. Why did his life have to be so damn difficult?

Looking back, he now knew that getting involved with Magneto was just plain stupid. That crazed lunatic was out to destroy the world. At first he seemed like he had an admirable cause . . .

Until he used mind control on him.

The cat mutant shook his head to get rid of his dizziness. A bounty on the x-men's heads were pretty good right now though . . .

Enough to drive some insane.

Sabertooth smirked. Magneto obviously hadn't been happy, with what he had already done to "replace" sabertooth's original place with them.

Was it a "team"? He couldn't be sure, but he had always been able to keep logan busy.

Not like Magneto couldn't have taken care of him all of those times he had fought him . . .

"Ugh." He shook his head again to get rid of his persistent headache. He hated his life . . . at least at the moment.

He dipped his hand in the water again, bringing a small handful to his lips. It felt refreshing, especially with all the traveling he had been doing.

Sabertooth drank his fill, then sniffed the air. "Yep. He's been here." With that, the mutant took off. He had a furball to catch.

Kurt and Kitty

Kurt returned, just like he had said. The "spear" that he had originally been carrying now had narrow strips of bark and reeds draped entwined with one another, making a net. This new net was strung across his shoulder like a hitch hiker carries his pack.

A strange hitch hiker he would have been . . .

Kitty sat up again, feeling a little less pain than yesterday, and smiled inwardly at the thought. She was getting better. "What's that for?"

"You'll see." He flashed a grin with his canines showing through, and set the net next to the shallow stream. Making a fist with his three-fingered hand, he smacked the face of the cliff with a grunt. A few large rocks, clouds of dust accompanying them, loosened themselves from their previous home, and had a wild ride falling into the water, landing with a loud splash.

A quizzical expression took Kitty's face as she watched him work. He repeated the procedure several times over, so that the stream shallowed and several rocks poked their tips above the surface of the running water. Kurt smiled for a moment at his work, and set about distributing the rocks over the stream's already rocky bottom. Now, none of the rocks were visible unless you were deliberately looking for them.

Kitty's face stayed, and got even more confused if possible. Kurt now grabbed the net, and lay it across the stream's bottom, laying over the rocks. "What was that whole thing for?"

"Easier way to catch fish." He said simply, and smiled cheekily back at her.

"Huh? How's dropping rocks on their heads gonna make them easier to catch?" An eyebrow raised in question, her hands propping herself up from the ground, and her eyes questioning the blue fuzzball even more than her face was.

She couldn't have been cuter in Kurt's eyes.

"Just vait a vhile, Keety." Kurt said, and began walking over towards the cliff. "I'm going for some berries."

At that, her eyes instantly lit up. Recently, her lack of sticking to her vegetarian diet was really bugging her and giving her some guilt. This would definitely whet her appetite. "Like, definitely!"

Kurt resisted his urge to roll his eyes, and walked back over to her. "Can you valk?"

She pushed herself so that she was sitting on her heels, and slowly rose from the ground. Her joints creaked in protest, but they eventually gave way, and she stood up shakily. Smiling, she slowly walked over to Kurt, who offered her a furry hand.

His smile, combined with his shirtlessness and the contact she was being offered made her blush, but she took his hand nonetheless.

Both of their smiles grew wider, and they disappeared in a puff of sulfur and a light flash of light.

Light of what was growing, and what was meant to be.

At the institute

"What happened?" Many of the kids at the institute were plaguing Ororo, the professor, and Jean for questions. Both of the adults refused to say a word. It wasn't their business too.

Jean, however, wasn't so lucky.

"So what happened, anyway?" Evan asked, trying to get some answers out of the telepath. "You can read minds . . ."

"I may be telepathic," Jean huffed, "but so is the professor. He's put up some psychic barriers, and I can't break through."

Scott raised an eyebrow. Despite his lack of being able to read minds, his connection with Jean allowed him to be able to determine her feelings . . .

And often times whether or not she was lying. But, it's not like he could have come up with something better, anyway.

He said nothing, but continued to read the uninteresting newspaper that had a fantastically unfascinating article on the future of a model's hair.

Evan, Rogue, and the other minor students at the institute continued to plague her with questions, while the Professor and Ororo enjoyed a hot cup of coffee.

There would be some explaining to do if Logan and Beast were unsuccessful.

Logan and Beast

"DARN IT!!" Logan shouted to no one in particular.

Hank just rolled his eyes. His love of the hunt was starting to wane . . .

"How hard can it be to track that stupid . . ." Logan's voice trailed off into indecipherable words that even Beast's keen ears couldn't pick up. Logan continued searching down the slope that they were on, sniffing the air left and right.

"Humph." He kept muttering to himself.

Hank moved over to where Logan was standing, sniffing the air as well. "Hm. That's strange."

The metal boned man turned towards his furry counterpart, a snarl threatening to curl the ends of his lips. "What is?"

"Look here." Beast turned towards the ground on their right, where a large footprint had sunken into the mud while it had still been wet.

"Yeah. That's one of old kit-kat's footprints. What about it?"

"Well, Sabertooth is about as heavy as you are, correct?"

"Yeah, what're you gettin' at?"

"Look at how deep it goes into the mud." Beast put his foot next to the footprint, his weight causing him to sink in a few millimeters. Weighing three hundred pounds of muscle, Beast was far heavier than Sabertooth.

However, this footprint went at least an inch and a half into the ground.

Logan needed no explanation. "So you're sayin' . . ."

"Precisely. We need to find out what did this, and quickly. Kitty and Kurt might be in more trouble than they realize."

End Chapter

Yes, don't kill me for this last cliffhanger. I KNOW I said that this would explain some more, but now I have four viewpoints to cover, so bear with me, okay?

Schoolwork has severely depleted my free time, so I can't really say when I'm going to be able to.

Of course, without reviews, I won't continue at all, so please R&R!!