A/N

I'm still kicking! And still writing. Hope you liked the chapter!


There were twenty that I could see, and more pouring out. Each one misshapen and impossible, but still dangerous.

Humans, I have discovered in the big scheme of things, are not exactly the unhurtable, unstoppable beings that we lend ourselves to thinking. For example, a small group of humans, even the mutant division with superpowers, find themselves hard pressed against a mob of monsters, especially semi intelligent ones.

The original dog monkey was glaring at Ray, growling menacingly. The others followed its lead and snarled at the rest of us, forcing us back with sheer aggression back down the crumbling walkway.

"Crepuscule, can you take these guys?" Jean asked, keeping her eyes on a particularly aggressive brindle dog monkey.

"I doubt I could fight them all. I have a feeling there are more than these two score."

There were more than forty. Lots more. I caught sight of a few up on the castle ramparts when a dog monkey jumped over the group daringly.

"Make them go away!" Kitty squeaked at me.

"I'm not some magician; I can't just magic them away!" I hissed back.

"Can't you convince them somehow?!"

"I can't if I can't even understand them!"

"Work some emotion mojo or something!"

I turned to stare at her. "What?"

I lost whatever Kitty was trying to say to me in the squawks and screams of the dog monkeys as Ray set off a warning when three got within a foot of him. I was having a difficult time trying to sort out what I was hearing to the screaming voices in my head.

The creatures were working themselves into a frenzy. Unless some sort of miracle happened, we would end up being lunch or in some other undesirable state.

Jean grabbed my shoulder.

"What!?" I yelled. She looked shocked and surprised. I was surprised as well by the reaction and took a step back, realizing that the outside noise had cut out. The mouths of the dog monkeys open and shut, but no sound came out.

But that didn't stop the voices in my head. They weren't linked to any vocal system, so they weren't affected by whatever shut them up. But they quickly grew disoriented at not hearing each other and the voices ceased to a sharp growling mutter as the animals pawed the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?!" A nasally voice demanded. The dog monkeys froze, pricking their ears, and then scattered to the wind. They were gone so fast I almost had to wonder if they weren't teleported, even though I could feel their presence just out of sight.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my home?" The speaker was a short, bald man with stringy hair ringing the sides of his head like a crown. His features were hooked, and his eyes were a watery gray. He was shorter than me, and I could see by the slightly inclined look to his head that he was quite used to peering up at people.

No one said anything, too dumbstruck to respond. Luckily, we didn't have to.

"Hey! Hey you guys! Hey!" Rogue burst out from behind a large pillar, followed by Sam, and then Ms. Monroe.

"Rogue!" Kitty squealed. "We've been looking for you guys!"

"Where have you been?" Rogue ran in and hugged Kitty, careful not to touch skin. Sam hugged Jubilee and Ms. Monroe was talking with Mr. McCoy, trying to get up to speed with what happened with the respective groups.

"Excuse me! This is not a meeting place or a recreational park! This is my home, now leave!" The man squawked.

"Who is that?" Jean asked Ms. Monroe. Ms. Monroe just rolled her eyes.

"That's Alistair Gemry Callisair. He owns this place and made those animals."

"They are my greatest works! Perfect in every way!" Alistair exclaimed, pulling himself up to his full five feet.

I snorted before I could stop myself, and then quickly turned away, acting innocent.

"You would dare mock me?!" He snarled at me.

"No. Not at all." I said, straight faced.

He turned purple and looked like he was going to set some of his monsters on me.

"Perhaps we should make ourselves scarce. All of us." Mr. McCoy said, noticing the color of Alistair.

"Yes. Leave! All of you!" His face was changing from purple to almost black. "Never come back! Not until you acknowledge their excellence!" He pointed to one of the dog monkeys that had ventured back into sight.

I winced and kept my tongue in check. They were still dangerous, even if they weren't as close to perfect as their creator believed.

We all started to move towards the edge of the ruined castle land, back to where Crepuscule had flown us up. I was glad to leave. Things felt unnatural here.

I quickly realized a problem with our departure when we reached the edge.

"It might take awhile for us all to get down." I pointed out. Crepuscule laid his ears back and contemplated how many he could take on a down trip.

"I'll make sure we can all get down at once." Ms. Monroe informed me. I glanced at her and wondered how that would happen. A wind gust, maybe?

Actually, it was a tornado. While Ms. Monroe made it, Alistair kept ranting on and on about monsters and his own genius and why we should all leave.

I could add on a few reasons to the last one. He struck me as an idiot that knew a lot.

"Everyone jump!" Ms. Monroe ordered. "The wind will take you to the bottom when I start slowing the gusts down."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." I whispered to Kitty. Kitty looked as if she agreed.

"Would you like me to fly you down?"

I almost jumped a half foot into the air. I didn't even realize Crepuscule ad snuck around behind me. I turned and looked back at him.

"You almost gave me a heart attack."

"I apologize. Would you like me to fly you down?"

I looked around and saw everyone lining up to jump into the tornado. Mr. McCoy was looking doubtful, just like everyone else.

"Yeah, I think I'd rather fly. Swirling cyclones tend to make me sick."

"You know this from experience?"

"Not really. But it's been hinted to me many times."

I used his leg to boost myself up onto his back. He took a flying leap straight off the side of the castle's lands, slamming his wings straight down causing wind gusts that were immediately sucked into the tornado, but not before they knocked Alistair over.

"How dare you!"

Crepuscule snorted at the outburst and used one of the stray winds off the tornado to shoot himself up into the air circling slowly over the top of the castle. "Odd how a man stays in a castle trying to perfect monsters when he doesn't know what he's doing."

"Everyone has something for a hobby, I guess. Can't help that. Shouldn't we be going towards the ground?"

"I was hoping they'd get to the ground before we do. Seeing people get sick tends to make me feel ill."

"Oh." I know how that is sometimes, though hanging around my sibling for most of my younger years has greatly desensitized towards that sort of thing.

A loud keening scream burst out of the top of the castle and a swaying, lumbering, black shape flew out of the highest ruined tower.

It looked like some strange cross between a monstrously ugly, leprous looking elephant and a pterodactyl. And it looked like it was going to fall straight out of the air.

But that didn't stop it from struggling to fly after Crepuscule.

"Should I be amused or perturbed?" Crepuscule wondered half to himself.

Then the elephant monster spat what looked like a big wad of jelly like spit at him. Halfway through the air, it caught fire.

Crepuscule snorted in panic and rolled out of the way. "What was that?"

"I think he spat a loogie at you." I said, watching the monster. I could hear it muttering in the same language as the dog monkeys.

"I dislike being spat at. It's very ungentlemanly." He took a deep breath.

"What are you doing?!" I grabbed the ropes and held on.

Lightning, in a steady, vicious stream, exploded out of his mouth and slammed the elephant monster back into the castle, not quite the highest tower. More like the courtyard below.

"Whoa. Did I know you could do that?!"

He shrugged and dove down below the castle to alight upon the ground about a hundred yards away from our group, who (with the exception of Ms. Monroe) all had a nasty green look about them.

This was why they didn't ask us about the miniature lightning storm. I've never been so glad that people were sick.

When everyone felt better and were up to walking again, there were questions all around about what happened to everyone. So, on the way of walking as quickly away from the floating castle as possible, we exchanged stories.

Ms. Monroe, immediately knowing something was wrong when she came too, fried her captors and immediately set off to look for the others. She found Sam quite by accident when he fell from the sky and let a crater in the ground. He had 'cannon balled' away from his own captors, which had tried to drag him North. He had said that it was a climate that didn't suit him. The third group of robed gremlins had found themselves in the floating castle and made the mistake of trying to fight their way through the monsters there. Rogue had a better chance, because she managed to absorb a few ad that frightened the dog monkeys and they stayed away. Later, she met Alistair and they got into a fight (which she ultimately won) and later was joined by Ms. Monroe and Sam, who had gotten lost and were on the verge of dying from thirst.

What a pleasant story. I think I'm going to have to start editing this one if I ever tell it to Julian.

"So, who's still missing?" Sam asked.

"Scott." Jean said mournfully. Rogue rolled her eyes and looked sad at the same time. I'm not sure how she pulls that off.

"So where do we go then?"

"We go North. That's where the gremlins dragged you, so that must be where Scott is going, if he hasn't gotten away. He'll come to the same conclusion we have, and we'll be able to kill two birds with one stone. We stop this Soul King and we find Scott." Jean said triumphantly.

"But how do we get home?" Kitty asked.

"That's…a good question." Jean faltered. "Well, we might as well do first things first. We can't worry about the latter now. Let's go."


Of course, that is an important question…

Anon(girl)88:I'm glad you liked it. I'll try to update as frequently as I can. Hope you like this chapter too!

PrincessOfWildfire: I think they'd be great too, and you can put it in any location (except over airports). I'm glad you liked it!

asp: Glad you thought it was intriguing. I hope you liked this chapter too!

Raliena: Yeah, holidays are busy for me too. Oh well. Hope you like the chapter!

Herman will take the reviews! He would give you eledactly cookies, but for some reason they got fried….