Sorry for not updating. My parents dragged me away from my beloved computer to our summer cottage (without computer). Now we're heading for Germany (the land of Nightcrawler!) for a week, and then the cottage again.
Thoughts Thoughts
Telepathy Telepathy
Chapter 4: Help is coming
"My friends vill vatch? You mean you vill bring zem here?" Kurt could hardly believe it. Would they really bring the X-Men to Dimension 17? Then they could help him! They could get him away from this place!
"Bring them here?" Varok sneered. "You are not that stupid, are you? If we brought them here, they would certainly try to rescue you or something like that. No, they will be watching the test in BV."
Kurt's heart sank as a rock. Then, he thought of something.
"But... ve live in Dimension 1! Ve don't have anything like BV:s! How can zey vatch it?"
"We will send them one. It will be interesting for them, seeing their own Nightcrawler in a Vodash-test, don't you think?"
Oh my God. Zis guy is crazy. Mad. He's totally lost it. Vhat am I going to do?
The Lord pushed a button on his – of course – purple desk. Something that looked like a mini BV appeared above the desk. It showed another one of the Vrogor. It spoke: "Yes, my Lord?"
Varok answered it in his hoarse voice. "Come and get the Guest."
"Of course, my Lord." The bubble disappeared and Kurt was, once again, alone with the Vrogors' Lord.
"There is nothing you can do but accept it. You will fight the Vodash tomorrow at dawn, and that's it."
Kurt just stared at him. He hardly noticed when the Vrogor from the BV arrived and escorted him back to the mauve room.
Kurt didn't sleep at all that night. All he could think of was the Vodash and the "event" he'd join. My God, I vill be cut into little pieces, he thought. I vill die a slow and painful death. Or, maybe zat monster vill kill me fast. I hope so. I vonder vhat ze ozzers vill zink vhen zey see me on Bubble Vision? Perhaps zey'll scream, or cry. Maybe zey don't even have ze courage to vatch it. Vhat vill Keety do? I know she cares, but how vill she react? Faint, maybe. And ze professor, vhat vill be his reaction? Vhat vould I do if I vere him? I zink zat I vouldn't let ze ozzers watch it. If it vas someone else zat should fight ze Vodash, Scott for example, and I saw him on Bubble Vision... I vould panic. Absolutely. But it's not him, it's me. Oh gosh, how did I get myself into zis mess? I vill never visit Burger King again. Vhat's vrong vith Keety's cooking anyvay? If I hadn't sneaked out for a burger, none of zis vould have happened... Yes, it vould. Zey told me I vas 'chosen'. I guess I'd have ended up here even if I chose to stay at ze Institute. Darn.
Morning. Great... Kurt sighed when one of the Vrogor opened the hole in the wall.
"Come with me, Guest! Hurry up!"
Take it easy, man. It's not you vho's forced to fight zat beast. Kurt didn't talk loud – it seemed pointless. He followed the Vrogor out of the hole and down the hallway.
"Good morning, Kitty."
"Good morning, Rogue."
Wonderful. Another day without Kurt. This is meaningless. Now I'll phase through the floor, eat a silent breakfast with the others, then have a, like, hard Danger Room session which we will fail totally, take a shower, eat a silent lunch, walk around thinking for, like, the whole afternoon, eat a silent dinner, watch Jeopardy and go to bed. Tomorrow I'll wake up for another pointless day that'll be exactly the same as today, without laughs, jokes, pranks or any optimism at all. This is great. Kurt, where are you?
Kitty put on her clothes and phased through the floor. The others were already there, helping themselves to toast, tomatoes, milk, juice and bacon.
Bacon. Kurt's favourite.
They all ate in silence, when suddenly a purple bubble appeared in the air about one meter above the table. Everyone made a little jump on their chairs.
"What the heck is that!" Scott exclaimed.
"I have no idea", said Evan confused.
"Maybe –" Storm was cut off when a purple, hairy face appeared in the bubble.
"Hello there! You're friends of Nightcrawler, right?"
Nightcrawler!
"Who are you?" Logan bellowed. "What have you done to the elf?"
"Elf?" said the purple face. "We have no elf here. We do have your friend, Nightcrawler. The Guest."
"What do you mean, 'guest'?" Jean asked.
The face – which presented itself as Vidish – now explained to the X-Men what had been explained to Kurt – about the Vrogor's suspicions of being attacked, about the Vodash and the 'tests'. Everyone gasped at the sight of the Vodash, except for the professor and Forge, who studied the bubble's structure.
"And, to make a long story short", Vidish went on, "your friend's chosen from Dimension 1. Nightcrawler will be tested with the Vodash in five minutes, and our Lord, Varok, did not want you to miss it. That's why we've sent you this Bubble Vision. You don't have to thank us. Enjoy the event!"
Vidish disappeared and now the bubble showed a big, empty arena. The X-Men sat dumbfounded. Evan was the first one to speak.
"Please tell me this isn't happening."
"Have I understood this right? Kurt's going to fight that monster and all we can do is watch?" Rogue's voice was calm but shaking. The others sat quiet. None said anything 'til a sound – it sounded a bit like a trumpet – could be heard from the mauve bubble.
AN: From now on, normal letters will describe what's happening in Dimension 17. Bold letters describes what happens at the same time at the Institute. I really hope it's not too hard to read.
The Vrogor pushed Kurt through a door and quickly closed it behind him. Kurt looked around. He was in some sort of arena. It was empty, though. Vere am I?
"Look, there he is!"
Kitty looked at Nightcrawler who was pushed out from a little door. He looked rather confused. So close, and still so far away, she thought.
Kurt noticed a big gate at the opposite side of the arena. Is zat ze Vodash's gate? he wondered. Vill my death arrive from zere? I guess it's not vise to walk closer. He decided to not stay too close to the wall, though. He didn't want to give the monster the opportunity to push him up against the wall.
"Why is he walking against the middle? I think he should stay at the wall", said Evan.
"I think he's smart", said Storm. "The Flodash will have a hard time trying to catch him when he has more space around him."
"Vodash, not Flodash", corrected Scott.
"It doesn't matter!" exclaimed Rogue. "Flodash, Vodash, so what! The name isn't important. It'll be just as dangerous if you call it Vodash or if you call it Flodash. Please –"
"Shut up and watch the bubble! That gate's opening!"
The big gate opened slowly and something crawled out. It had hair like tentacles, short legs, blood-red eyes and two heads.
The Vodash.
A voice could be heard from a speaker. "And, dear Vrogor, at last it's time for the next Vodash test. This time, the Guest is from Dimension 1. His name is Nightcrawler. I've been told that he has pretty much experience of fighting, so this test will be extra exciting. But I won't speak any longer. Let the fight begin, and may the Vodash win! Hey, that rhymed..."
Kurt saw the monster coming closer. Vhat to do vhat to do vhat to do, he thought. How about– but he was interrupted in his thoughts by a long tentacle heading for him in a very high speed.
"Holy crap!" He teleported. The tentacle hit the ground where he had been standing one second earlier.
The X-Men gasped.
"Oh my, that was close!" said Jean.
"There must be something we can do! I'm not going to sit here and let that beast torture Kurt", yelled Kitty. "Professor!"
No answer.
"Professor?"
Kurt had teleported to the opposite side of the Vodash, but couldn't decide if it could see him or not – he wasn't even sure if it even had a back. He became aware of it when another tentacle threw itself against him and he teleported again. He now sat crouched four meters up on the wall at the other side of the arena, where he hoped that the Vodash wouldn't locate him. But presumably it will. I can't just retreat and retreat, zere must be something I can do... "AAAAHHHHHH!"
"No! That tentacle got him!"
"Am I wrong, or did it cut him in some way?"
"I don't know... what's that on his shoulder?"
"I'd say it was blood if it wasn't some kind of mix between purple and silver..."
Kitty didn't listen. She had given up her attempts to call the professor (she refused to leave the BV to go look for him, and she was too distracted to remember he was a telepath) and now watched Kurt, pale as snow and more or less paralyzed. Oh my God, he will die. No, he won't! He can't die. He can't...
One of the tentacles had caught the blue mutant while he was distracted. It secreted some kind of purple and silver fluid on his shoulder. It burned.
"Ow! Vhat is zis?"
Kurt tried to brush it away, but he only managed to let the fluid burn his hands too. But he didn't let that bother him – the Vodash had lifted him several meters up in the air and prepared to wolf him down.
"Teleport, fuzzy! Teleport!"
"Oh, look at its teeth! Like a shark's!"
"Oh my goodness...!"
"C'mon, Blue Boy! TELEPORT! Oh, he made it... phew!"
"Thank God he's able to 'port."
"It's not over yet", Jean whined. "He cannot flee forever. He has to do something sooner or later."
"And we will help him!"
Everybody turned around. The professor and Forge entered the room, Forge carrying a strange sort of machine, kinda like the one that'd transported him and Kurt to Middleverse.
"What's that?"
"We took data from that bubble", Forge said. "And if we program this hyper-communicator to send out and take in signals according to the bubble, we may be able to change the sphere in that dimension. (AN: I have no idea of what I wrote in that sentence. Just imagine it as something very smart and scientific but very hard to understand.)
Evan scratched his head. "Ehm... in English?"
"If everything works, we'll be able to travel to Dimension 17 and rescue Kurt."
"You really mean that?" Rogue said, her voice shaking with excitement.
"Of course I do. But only six may go. We can transport seven people at most, and we must bring Kurt back."
"I go!" Kitty volunteered, without taking her eyes off the bubble.
"And me", Rogue and Jean said at the same time.
"Me too", Scott said.
"I'm going", Logan growled. "No one messes with the elf. That beast will be introduced to my claws!"
"And me. I'm going too. I think I may be needed", Xavier said.
"Okay, we have no time to lose. Stand there!" Forge ordered. Kitty, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Logan and professor Xavier lined up against the wall and listened to him. "You'll be there for three hours, at most. If you leave the arena, you must be back there at that time."
"I have something to say too, before we leave", professor Xavier said.
"Well, like, hurry up!" Kitty snapped.
"Our most important task is, of course, to save Kurt", Xavier continued. "But we have more to do than that. Vidish said that the Vrogor captured people from other dimensions. We must stop them from doing that."
"How?" Scott asked.
"I don't know yet."
"Wonderful..."
"Are you ready or not?" Forge interrupted.
"Yes, we're ready", Logan snarled. "Start that thing so we can leave."
"Okay." Forge pushed a few buttons on the machine and it started to glow and shake. "You'll leave in ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one..."
A beam shot out from the machine and the rescuing patrol disappeared in a cloud of purple sparks.
Once again, I hope it wasn't too complicated to read.
Goddess of Idun
