Forge walked slowly up the path from where the plan had landed. He was carrying both duffels.
She's wilder than I thought. Untrusting or something… He shrugged. This might be tougher than I thought…
He felt the energy of the place as he approached. Wow… I wonder…
And he let his eyes unfocus as the old Shaman had taught him. Instead of slowly finding his astral vision, the spirits leapt in to full focus.
"Wow." He said out loud, dropping the bags.
Everywhere around him walked spirits. Some were of the past and some of the future, and he could discern them by what color they seemed to radiate. But there were others too that seemed to glow all the colors yet only white at the same time.
"Let's see…" Forge allowed one group of spirits to emerge from the sea of movement and become clear.
It was Kurt… Sort of.
He had long dread-locked hair and a floppy knit hat in the Jamaican colors.
-"I and I want to smoke dey spliff today with all my little monkeys!"- The ghost Kurt smiled and Forge could see people moving around him: A red headed girl, another version of Kitty – this one dressed in leather with jet-black hair and lipstick.
Whoa! Forge shook. He's huge!
A metal man walked by, and slowly transformed in to a large, smiling man as he passed Kitty and kissed her on the cheek.
Forge's attention wandered for a moment towards the water.
-"Move!"- Another version of Kurt was screaming, while glowing softly in unearthly light. He dove away from what appeared to be a firing space ship.
"Far out." Forge smiled wide, lost in his visions. It's like the world's overlap here or something.
"Um, yeah…" Kitty eyed him suspiciously. "Are you like… on something?" She asked, trying to meet his eyes.
"Hunh? What?" He snapped out of it and realized he was face to face with Kitty.
"Where's X23?" She asked.
"She went off down towards the water." He pointed over his shoulder.
"You didn't upset her anymore, did you?"
"I… Honestly… I don't know." He said. "But we left things with respect between us."
Kitty seemed taken aback. "Oh… o-okay." She got a shiver. "You seem… different." She told him.
He smiled slightly. "I am. I had a lot to learn about the world. And myself since I got out of that pocket universe. I had too much time on my hands and not enough reasons to grow up at all." He shrugged. "And I've done some now that I've had the chance again."
She nodded. "And just now…" She looked at him curiously.
"I was opening myself to visions." He smiled. "My parents, they're Native Americans …when I got back… They believed it was magic that caused my disappearance, not science. I really… couldn't explain it to them. They were afraid of me…" He grimaced slightly and dropped his eyes. "I hated that…" He said absently. "But they sent me to some relatives who still lived as a part of a tribe. To have it sorted out by people who understood 'magic'."
"I'm sorry…" She said softly. "That must have been hard."
"It was." He agreed. "But it was also… wonderful." He sighed. "They really do know things, the people who study magic." He nodded. "I never believed that, but now I know better."
"Oh." She shivered for a minute. "Well, lets change the subject. It's creeping me out."
He smiled. You'll get used to it.
"Tell me about the lighthouse." He pointed. "Where should I start?"
She laughed. "On another piece of land?" She ventured and he laughed.
But then he cast his eyes around to the other islands, and he made a note to himself. No way. He let his astral eyes fall on the energy of the surroundings. This lighthouse is here, on this spot, on purpose!
And indeed, to him it did seem that way. As all the smaller rocks and islands barely glowed at all in his vision. But when he looked up to the lighthouse…
The astral energy formed a round river of spiritual energy that flowed up in to space and down in to the earth. It was larger than the lighthouse was round and crackled like the rush of a river.
The glow was so vibrant that his skin began to prickle as though he were getting a sunburn.
Unreal. He thought to himself. Kurt, what have you gotten yourself in to?
Alistaire swallowed as he stared at the falling girl.
A noise exploded from behind him: BAMF!
And then he heard it again, in the distance… Bamf!
Bamf.
Bamf.
Bamf.
There! Alistaire spied him. He appeared on a roof just opposite the girl and he was running towards her.
Go Mister Kurt, Go! He thought. Please!
The city moved beneath Kurt as he flew along the outer ledge.
All else had faded from his mind. His image enhancer, his appearance, his speech, the lighthouse, X23… It was all gone.
His heart beat slowly in his ears. He felt like he was moving in slow motion. But it allowed him to catch up with the falling girl.
He dove just as she passed him on the way down.
"I've got you." He said, pulling her to his chest.
She was so scared that she dug her little fingers in to his clothes and buried her face in his neck.
"It's okay." He told her.
And he reached out with one hand and caught a passing flagpole that was hanging off the side of the building. He let them go all the way around and stood on that arm for just a moment on top of the pole to let their inertia die down.
"Just hold on." He whispered.
And he teleported to a ledge across the street, leapt to the top of a light-post and rode it down in a spiral to the street below.
"AWW! YEAHS!" A man whooped. "Greatness!"
And Kurt suddenly noticed the crowd. The street was full of people who had witnessed the event.
A police officer pushed his way up to him. When Kurt met his eyes he saw that the man had been crying. The officer clamped Kurt's hand and pumped it twice. "Way to go." He said with a raspy voice and a sniff. "I thought for sure…" He looked at the little girl. "I got one at home 'bout that age." He sniffed again.
"Can you find her parents?" Kurt asked, handing the child to the cop.
"Sure. Sure." The man took the little girl.
She looked sheepishly at Kurt.
"Say thank you to the nice man." The officer told her.
"Teddy!" She pointed at Kurt with a big grin.
"Close enough." Kurt laughed along with the officer.
And then he turned his attention to the crowd. He didn't even notice the camera's until he looked.
"Way to go!" Someone was calling out again.
"God bless you!" Called an elderly voice from the crowd.
"Beautiful!" Someone else called out.
"Call me!" A girl rushed him, crushed her number in to his hand and kissed him before he knew what had happened.
He looked at her as two of her friends were dragging her back.
Kurt ran for one of the cars and did a back-flip off it on to the top of the light post.
The crowd cheered and whooped as he did his acrobatics.
He leapt for the flagpole, vaulted around it and teleported – just out of sight, to the fire escape.
The crowd below burst in to applause.
Kurt listened in awe. They were chanting "Yes, yes, yes!" Over and over again in celebration.
Kurt looked at his reflection in the windows of the building he hung from.
He was dark and sleek, like a living gargoyle. If he didn't look like this, and he were to meet himself - he would scare himself, every time.
He opened his hand. It held an English phone number.
I can't believe it. He smiled wide. I just can't believe it!
