"Go down the tube there. Take a left." Rogue barked orders from above. She, Jean, and Bobby were going out of their way to help out the others, since they all felt sort of guilty about using their knowledge of the danger room to their advantage. They already had the whole intimidation factor going for them. And, as Jean explained to them during the explanation of the obstacle course, they didn't want to scare off the other contestants by playing up the X-Men connection. It was important for the others to remember them not as the people that got all high and mighty once they were "outed," but just as the people who were friendly and kind, and oh yeah, just happened to also be members of the most well known mutant crime fighting team on earth. So there they were, Jean and Rogue flying above and helping out the others as necessary, and Bobby somewhere inside the labyrinth, doing the same.
"What if I don't want to go down that tube? How do I know it isn't a trap?"
"Because Ah'm telling ya that it ain't a trap, that's how."
"And you expect me to believe you, 'Anna'?"
She sighed. "No, Trey, Ah don't. Ah just expect you to do what you think is necessary. Ah'm tryin' to help you, but if ya don't want help, Ah'll move on. See ya." She flew off, leaving Try to find his own way through the maze. As she passed Jean, she relayed his message.
"Trey don't want help. And Ah don't want to help him."
"Fair enough."
Rogue stopped as she noticed who was working under Jean.
"What's he doing?"
"Not sure. But it's working. He seems to be re-working the programming. Or something. It's the second time he's done it."
"So Danny boy is a mutant too?"
"Seems that way."
"Ah knew it."
"No, you didn't."
"Yeah, well..." She flew on, unable to think of a way to finish the sentence. Heading towards the finish line, she spotted Bobby and Sarah working their way to the end. It looked like Sarah would be the non-mutant that won immunity. She looked around and located the other contestants. Paul was trying to crack the code that was preventing him from entering into another chamber about halfway through the course, Betty was two rooms in front of him, struggling with a weight system trapping her in that room. Malachi was across the way, trying to answer a series of questions that would open the next door. Trey was still lost in the tunnels, and Tallon was opening doors easily, making his way through the maze very steadily. Katie, however, was nowhere to be seen. Rogue looked over the maze once again and decided that Betty would be the easiest to help. She tore a hole in the ceiling and landed next to the other girl.
"Need a hand?"
"Wha... did you already finish the maze?"
"No, Ah didn't start it yet. Frankly, Ah don't need to win this. It ain't fair to y'all. Bobby Jean and Ah know the room too well."
"How noble."
"Is that sarcasm?"
"No, not at all."
"If you say so... How long have ya been working on this door?"
"Fifteen minutes. At least."
"Move. Ah can't have Trey beating you, now can Ah?"
"Is he close?"
"Not really."
"Good."
Rogue hefted the remaining sandbags away from the door effortlessly, ushering Betty into the next chamber.
"Thanks, Anna."
"No problem. See you later." She flew off again and tried to find anyone else who might need help. She still couldn't find Katie, so she stopped at Tallon.
"Hey. Have you seen Katie?"
"Have I ever!" He winked.
"No, I mean today. In this challenge."
"Oh. Yeah, I've seen her." He pointed to the door, which had just swung open. "Care to join?"
"How'd you do that?"
"That, my dear, is a secret."
As they entered the next room, Tallon's "secret" was re-forming herself from what looked like a skin and clothes colored puddle.
"What the... Katie?"
As a mouth formed, Katie corrected her. "Call me Liquid."
"Wow. Where'd ya learn to do that?"
"Back when I was doing porn. Why do you think I got so many jobs? I can bend in ways that you can't." After a brief demonstration, she stepped over to the next door and stretched her arm out, folding it flat and reaching under the door. "You wouldn't happen to know the combination for this one, would you?"
"Uh... try one-three-three-seven. It overrides all of the doors."
"Cool. Excuse me." She slid under the doorway and moments later, the door opened.
"What a woman, huh?" Tallon smiled.
Rogue was stunned. "Yeah. Guess y'all don't need help."
"No, I believe m'lady has it all under control, Anna. But thanks."
"Right."
As she left, she heard a shout from the other side of the course.
"Daniel? You sure you want to do that?"
She sped over and watched on, as Daniel reset the counters on all of the doors within range of his powers. Nearby, Trey had just cracked the last of the codes on his next door. The door re-locked and he kicked it in anger, effectively bruising his foot.
"Ow! Mother—"
"I didn't know that they had that many different types of censor beeps..."
"Man, that guy's an asshole."
"Sean catches on real quick, don't he?"
"Oh, come on. He wasn't that bad." Sarah came to Trey's rescue.
"You're kidding? You hated him worse than the rest of us did."
"No, I didn't..." She tried to deny it, but Bobby was right. "Fine. I just don't like to see people getting ganged up on, that's all."
"Wow. A lawyer wit' a conscience. Remy never t'ought he'd see de day."
"Shut up."
"Yes! I got it!" Katie had finished the obstacle course first and grabbed the shiny brass "X" disk engraved with the word mutant. She did a victory dance and Tallon danced with her until she pointed something out.
"Hey babe... don't you want to go get your disk?"
"My what?"
Katie held up her disk. "The disk that I got you through the maze for, dumbass."
"Oh... that disk. It's right over..."
He looked at the second podium for the disk, and came up with nothing. Slightly embarrassed, he checked the ground around it.
"It's not here!"
"Suits him right. Should have gone for that disk first thing." Logan pointed out the tactical error in Tallon's gameplay.
"Wouldn't have mattered. Sarah got it about ten minutes earlier."
Sean moved in close to the television.
"Down in front!"
"Pizza dude, out of the way!"
Backing up slightly, he nodded and pointed at the screen. "Yeah... I know her."
His finger was aimed directly at Katie. "I don't know where I know her from, but I definitely know her."
"She's a porn star, mon ami. Dat's probably where you know her from."
Sean blushed and moved back to his position on the floor next to the couch.
"Sean's a big fan of Pearl Jam. You want her number? Ah have it up in mah room."
"Really?"
"She's spoken for, though."
"Yeah, now she's Mrs. Dr. Tallon."
"That guy's a doctor?" Kitty exclaimed.
"Dental Surgeon."
"That guy, who is dancing at the finish line? The guy who walked to the second camp without any pants on? HE's a surgeon?"
"He's good, from what I've heard."
"Unbelievable."
"The obstacle complete, the immunities won, our castaways spend one last night in the mansion. Tomorrow morning, they will return to Genosha with two less people than they came with. When we return, it's time for the tribal council."
The segment ended, and a commercial came on. People in the room stretched and left to use the restrooms, and Sean looked over at Rogue expectantly.
"What?"
"Number?"
"Not now."
"It's a commercial!"
"Ah just got comfortable!"
"Please?"
"No, Ah'm not gonna go get you the stupid number!"
"Where is it? I'll get it." Jean was getting tired of listening to them argue.
"On mah desk. Rolodex."
"Ok." She closed her eyes.
Sean looked at her, waiting for her to move. "Well?"
"Hand me the phone please?"
As the cordless phone was tossed over to her, she started to dial. By the time it reached her outstretched hand, not only was it floating, but it was also ringing.
"Hello? Hey, Tal... There's a pizza guy here who wants to talk to Katie. He's a fan. No, he's never seen Survivor. Just today. Yeah? Well, how's that going? You do? Yeah, I'll ask."
She looked around the room and gave up, covering the phone instead. "Betsy!"
"Aye?" Betsy popped out of what seemed like nowhere, a nasty habit she had. She was unable to turn of the ninja instincts for normal life, which made living with her interesting, to say the least.
"Tallon wants to know if you could hook Katie up with some of the agencies that..."
"Say no more. I'll mail it out in the morning."
"Thanks. She'll do it. Yeah, I'll hold." She shook her head as if listening to music, and then her eyebrows arched. "Katie! Hey, It's Jean. Our pizza guy, Sean, thinks he has a chance with you. Yep. Here he is."
She handed the phone over to him, and he scrambled out of the room, trying to find a private place to talk.
"I don't know what he thought he was doing in there but let me tell you, I'm more than a little bit angry. Just because he's genetrash, it doesn't give him the excuse to go messing around with other people. Not only should he be voted off, but he should be beep beep as well. Crazy sonuva beep . I gotta go pack."
Trey was not a happy camper. Or castaway, as it were. He left the confessional and pushed angrily past Daniel, who was next in line.
"I don't know what his problem is, but all of us out there heard that shouting. And I can tell you, none of us are happy about it. Sure, I shut him out in the obstacle course, but that doesn't matter. It's just a game. If he wouldn't flip out so much, maybe he'd make it to the next round. As it is, though, I can tell you right now, he's out."
The camera switched to the tribal council, where they unanimously voted Trey off.
"Fine, I never liked any of you anyways."
The vote for the mutant to go, however, was much closer. In the end, though, Paul was voted off.
"I didn't even know he was a mutant until they told us the options in the vote."
"Yeah, neither did I."
"He's a low level Empath. Not at all developed."
"Ah felt so bad votin' him off... Ah mean, he's a priest..."
"Did you vote for him?"
"Naw, Ah voted for Jean."
"WHAT?"
"Aw, Jeanie, You know Ah love ya, but lets face it. You were mah only real competition."
"Hm... can't argue with that." The redhead nodded at her friend.
"Excuse me? Still sitting right here." Bobby raised his hand.
They all turned as the cordless phone was set back in it's cradle, and Sean sank back to his spot next to the couch.
"She said no."
"Told you so."
"You're lucky she didn't say more than just 'no.'"
A/N: Well, another chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are always welcome, but you knew that.