Just in case you weren't aware...The X-men title isn't mine (meaning Cyclops and Nightcrawler). Angela and Peter are. I mean...it's obvious, ain't it? I mean...yeah.
Eventually we came to a road and, luckily, a gas station. The first thing I worried about was food. It took a lot of restraint to just buy a little stuff. Hot dogs and potato chips never tasted so good to either of us. And we nearly cried for joy drinking the huge bottles of water I bought. After our little meal, I went to call mom, even though Peter was completely against it.
"Hello?" came Mom's voice. She sounded strained. Almost as though she'd gotten less sleep in forty-eight hours than we had.
"Hi Mom," I said. I was pretty sure she burst into tears.
"Angela! Oh thank heavens! Where are you? Are you alright? Is Peter with you?" That was her worried tone of voice. Heck, it'd be obvious to anyone. She would have kept going like that if I hadn't interrupted.
"Mom, I'm okay. I'm with Peter, we're both fine." Okay, so that was a little bit of a white lie. We were starving and tired and my twin, well…he had some new and unusual problems that I don't think Mom knew about. I could hear her catching her breath on the other end.
"Sweetie, where are you?" she asked after a moment. I couldn't tell her that. Peter would have been furious with me, and I didn't want to have to track him down again.
"I can't tell you…" I said regretfully, running a dirt-caked hand through my snarled hair, "nobody took us or anything…Peter ran away and I followed him, and Mom," I added, hearing her begin to protest, "we'll be okay. You know I've got my ears and Peter's got the eyes and nose. We'll be careful. I've got some money, so I'll be able to buy food for a while until we…figure things out." She started to talk, and I cut her off again. I was about to start crying myself, but I made my voice remain even. Any longer and I'd probably end up telling her exactly where we were. "Mom, I've got to go, but I'll call you again when I can. We love you." Then I hung up and returned to where Peter waited just out of sight in the woods. I sat beside him and he hugged me tight while I bawled my eyes out. That was probably the hardest phone call I'd ever had to make. I knew she was worried sick, but I couldn't tell her anything. She wanted us to come home. It was obvious in her voice, but Peter couldn't go back, and I couldn't leave him. It was hard enough on Mom that we were mutants. That little detail made her worry about us all the time. It had been obvious since we were ten when our hair changed color, then when we got our powers at fourteen. What would happen to her if she saw Peter's new transformation? She'd lose it! I don't know if Dad could even comfort her. He didn't have as much trouble with our mutation. He was a sci-fi junkie. Mom was a worry wart, and with good reason. Especially with all the anti-mutant propaganda floating around and the whole political debate about mutant registration laws.
Over the next two days, we stayed in the woods near the gas station. In one of our explorations, we came across a lake-shore, surprise, surprise. After all, it can only be expected in Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes. If you look long enough, you're bound to find one somewhere. Peter was getting more used to his new form, which was really good, and I'd bought a small fishing kit to help the money last a little longer.
It was late on the second night when we were sitting at a campfire and eating some slightly torched fish that we got our visitors.
I don't know who sensed them first. They were upwind and none to careful about being quiet. It's possible he smelled them right about when I heard them. We quickly hid behind trees. There was no way we were going to be caught. What if they were mutant-haters?
I thought there were two, and, from the look that crossed my brother's face, I was pretty sure he expected two also. However, only one man entered the little clearing where the campfire still blazed merrily. I looked at him, then turned to Peter. The same thought was going through his head. Who's the weirdo wearing his sunglasses at night? The man looked around him, and a flash of red reflected off the lenses.
"I don't think they've gone very far," he said to someone behind him. His voice was smooth and strong. I logged it into my sound memory.
"Nein," replied a slightly raspy tenor voice, "they left their fire going." Whoever it was had a German accent. I put that one in storage too. I wished he'd step into the light so I could put a face to the voice, but he kept just out of my visual range, and I guess just out of Peter's too. My brother frowned, looking at the shadows. Well…time for me to get to work.
"I'll be back. Don't worry about me," I whispered into his ear softly so only he could hear. Then, with an evil smirk, I ran through the trees to get to another angle.
"You go that way, I'll go this way," said the weirdo with the shades. He pointed in one direction, then another. "Call me on the communicator if you see anything." I had to act. The direction he'd given his unseen friend was the direction Peter was in. I heard him shift nervously, but I think I was the only one.
"Leave this place," I said, using the voice of an old man I'd talked to once. It was a perfect imitation with a little bit of an echo added. The one I could see whipped his head around to look where the voice had come from. I moved on to another spot while he stood motionless. Once there, I chose the voice of a young cousin.
"Please go…leave us in peace…" I echoed that one a bit too and gave it a sound of complaining. Shades stood a little tensely, watching where my voice had come from last. The German guy in the shadows was moving toward me. I could hear it. I ran to another place and used the voice of a former co-worker. She'd been my friend and bought the whole hair-dying bit I gave her. Of course, she'd actually dyed her hair blue not long after that.
"No…" I said with her voice. I tried a slightly faded effect on that one and threw in a bit of panic to the tone. Hey, why not? It was a good opportunity to experiment. "You shouldn't be here…"
"Do you think…?" The faceless wonder in the shadows seemed to be asking for a confirmation about something.
"Yup," replied the other with a nod, "that's one of them." Wait…one of what? I was freaking out a bit. Did they know about us!
"Turn back," I said as I ran, using Shades' voice, then switched to the German's, "Never return!" Big mistake. I saw the one turn to run at where I had been, and I heard the other one running also. Crap! They were going to catch me!
"Peter!" I yelled in my own voice, "get out of here! Hurry!" Big mistake number two. Rather than making his escape, I heard him running toward me on all fours.
"Hold on!" came the smooth strong voice behind me as I continued running, "we're not going to hurt you!"
Yeah. Right. I kept running, but I tripped on the root of a tree. Shades entered my field of vision and I screamed. I covered my head in fear and suddenly I found Peter standing over me in a protective stance. His wings were spread out to their full extent and his tail lashed from side to side behind him.
"Leave her alone!" growled my brother fiercely. That was not a sound I'd heard from him before, and apparently the stranger wasn't expecting it either.
"Nightcrawler, hold back!" he yelled to his companion as he stopped. I heard the other one pause. Shades raised his hands to show he was weaponless. "We mean you no harm. We're here to help you." He took a step forward.
"Stay back!" Peter warned. I slowly got to my feet and stood closer to him. I was frightened and had pretty much no natural defense. The one called Nightcrawler stepped forward in the shadows and I shied away from the sound. Peter's eye flicked that way. He hadn't heard it, but he was aware of my reaction.
"Call off your friend," Peter said, low and dangerous. The footsteps retreated a little, and I relaxed a bit. They ended suddenly with a sort of strange bampf! sound. A faint scent of sulfur wafted over to us. My brother looked like he was about to gag from the odor. Almost as soon as that sound ended, another echoed it from near the guy with the sunglasses. What the heck was that!
"Cyclops, what now?" The whisper from the German reached my ears. How in the world did he get over there? He had been…but now he was… How the crap did he move so fast without me hearing him run! Peter narrowed his eyes at the one now called Cyclops. What did he see? I cursed my eyes, wishing I could see as well as him.
"Come out where I can see you better," he demanded. Cyclops nodded to the shadows.
"If you say so," answered Nightcrawler in resignation, "please do not be frightened by my appearance." He stepped forward into the faint fire-light seeping between the trees. I clung to my brother's arm and gasped. The stranger had the appearance of a blue demon with pale, glowing eyes. A thin, wiry tail with a spaded tip wove from side to side behind him. I couldn't see him very clearly, but I knew my brother could. He was shaking very slightly, but he stood his ground.
"I am a mutant, like yourselves," he explained desperately. I could hear the pleading in his voice. "We have been trying to find you to take you somewhere you will be safe."
