The young girl waited in the shadows. The sun glinted over her narrowed eyes as well as the edge of her blade.

Across the street opposite her was a man with a machine gun on top of a building.

That must be where they're keeping him. She thought. I'm coming Bro…

When the man turned his back she bolted out in to the sun and ran for the edge of the roof.

She leapt from the edge of her building toward the roof of his. Her muscle memory carried her through the motion and she rolled when she hit, rising up behind the man and letting her sword lash out and knock the gun from his hand.

Her blade came up and caught him under the throat and she held it there.

"How many of you are inside?" She asked.

"…four…" He whispered.

"And my brother?" She narrowed her eyes again and the man could see that she was as ready to slit his throat as she was to glance idly about. He began to shake.

"Unharmed." He told her. "… please…"

She smiled. "Sure." She whipped the blade away and with a flash, brought it back to club him in the head with the blunt edge.

The man crumpled to the ground.

She took three stealthy steps toward the rooftop doorway that would lead inside.

Just hold on. She thought. I'm coming.

Kurt and Alistaire slipped in to his car. It was a long drive to get Tabitha and they all had to be back by the time of Alistaire's scheduled interviews with his reporter friend.

Kurt smiled at Forge out the passenger side window. "You did a great job on the car. Thanks man." He

"No problem." Forge told him. "But we're gonna need something bigger soon." He eyed the little car. "I can't imagine what would happen if we all tried to go out for burgers."

Kurt waved arbitrarily. "Half of us could ride on the outside. No problem."

Forge smirked. "Tell that to the cops."

Kurt laughed. "That's all I need. Jail time. They'd fire me in a heart beat after that."

Forge smiled at him. "Dude, people with jobs get paid. You don't have a job. You've got a calling."

Kurt looked surprised. "I … do, don't I?"

And Forge nodded. "Don't sweat it though. I've got a few simple things I can build that sell real well on eBay. Should keep food on the table most nights."

Kurt looked almost forlorn. "You shouldn't have to do that."

Forge smiled and shook his head. "I'd have to do it no matter where I was." He said softly. "And this way… I'm helping my people…" He sighed and looked down almost dejectedly. "We can't all dive off buildings and live, you know?"

Kurt went to protest but Forge stopped him.

"So… You have to let us do what we can when we can. And for now, I can do this."

Kurt let out a reluctant smile. Some people never failed to amaze him.

"Thank you Forge." He said softly. "We'll be back tonight."

Forge smiled. "See you then."

Alistaire had a look of permanent surprise etched on his face. It didn't manage to leave him when he sat down in the car.

"There's no holes in the floorboards!" He said with a head-shake.

"Let's go Alistaire." Kurt motioned forward.

"And…" Alistaire looked up with a start. "We've got a sunroof!"

Kurt smiled. "Alistaire…"

Alistaire looked down at the dashboard. "And there's a gas needle now!" He looked at Kurt. "We've got half a tank!"

Kurt looked hopelessly lost for a moment. "Alistaire, Please."

Alistaire turned the key and the engine roared to life. He checked the mirror and saw no exhaust. He revved the engine heavily and still saw none.

He began shifting the gears and stopped. The car went slowly backwards.

"We've got REVERSE NOW!" Alistaire lit up like a Christmas tree. "I can parallel park again!"

"Alistaire!" Kurt snapped him back to the moment. "Can we please go pick up Tabitha now?"

"Who… Oh, right, Miss Smith. My apologies." He said as he threw the car in to gear and it leapt forward away from the lighthouse.

Forge watched them go. When the car pulled away he could see X23 sitting on the lighthouse stairs.

He smiled at her.

And then something occurred to him.

She could see it in his face – that something was wrong.

"What is it?" She demanded.

"Oh, nothing…" He furrowed his brow, clearly indicating that it was not 'nothing'. "I just hope they don't press that large red button on the dashboard. I didn't tell them what it does."

She shook her head. "Is it dangerous?" She asked.

"Well, yeah." He shrugged.

She cocked her head and looked at him. "Well…" She looked at a loss. "At least you're not boring!" She said throwing her hands up in the air.

He smiled sheepishly. She was right.

"Wait!" He realized "I can call them if Kurt has his phone." And he whipped out his phone and called Kurts.

The lighthouse rang behind them.

"Uh, ho." Forge turned and looked. From the lighthouse you could see the car as it wound it's way down the coast.

He watched, knowing there was nothing he could do, as it ambled away.

Kitty hugged herself closely as she watched the car slip away. Her bedroom gave her quite a view of the surrounding countryside.

Although she wouldn't say so, she had her reservations about Tabitha Smith. The last time she and Kurt had been together she got Kurt in trouble and left him holding the bag to face up to his punishment alone.

And Kitty was afraid that something similar was going to happen this time.

So help me… She thought. If she hurts him again… And she shivered at the thought of what she'd do.

Alistaire looked down at the dashboard.

"Humph." He said softly.

"What?" Kurt asked.

"There's a new button on the dashboard." Alistaire said, pointing at it. "It's red."

Kurt looked over. "I wonder what it does." Kurt lifted his hand experimentally. "Think we should test it?" He smiled as he extended his finger.

"Umm… Do you really think that's a good…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Alistaire tried to reason with him but Kurt had already done it. And once done they screamed in unison.

He pushed the button, which triggered the injection system to begin pumping Nitrous Oxide in to the fuel lines. And the car took off like a rocket down the winding, twisting road at a breakneck speed, frequently riding on just two tires just to stay on the road.

Finally, it slowed and returned to a normal speed.

Kurt turned his head slowly to face Alistaire.

Alistaire was sure that he could suddenly see gray hair mixed in with Kurt's blue fur.

"It needs to be a shorter burst." Kurt said at last, knowing that they never should have fired that large a dose in to the system on such a winding road.

"Definitely." Alistaire agreed, slowly looking to his watch. "Oh…look…" He swallowed and looked up. "We're running ahead of schedule."