Sorry for the delay, but finally the arrival of the long awaited update. Enjoy!
I'm An Aunt! ch six
"Ms. Summers, too, I'm afraid."
"What!" Oz's outcry caused six heads to swivel around towards the werewolf in the wet suit.
The fact there were two blue haired men in the midst barely registered in his mind as the larger of the two took off his glasses in a totally Giles like manner and spoke, "maybe you should head down and hit the waves like the students. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Rogue, would you mind?" The white banged teen opened her mouth to protest but Oz beat her to it, having no reserves towards the professor.
"I don't know who you are bub, but you're certainly not my father. And I am not about to depend on a much of high school kids running around in spandex to get my Dawn and her nephew back!" He was breathing heavily by the end and Rogue placed a hand on his shoulder. SHe could relate to Oz's outburse, her Scott was missing too, after all.
"It's okay, Oz. We'll get them back, with your help."
"Professor," Jean whined. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I mean, he could get hurt or something."
Xavier seemed to ponder the choices for a moment before replying, "it actually maybe to our benefit if he accompanied the search and rescue team. I have reason to believe we may need his area of expertise."
"Werewolves?"
"Witches?"
"Demons?"
The bald man paid the interruptive voices no mind as he continued, "judging by the unusual pile of dust we discovered near the fountain, we're dealing with something the X-Men have never faced before."
"Vampires," Oz sighed out, knowing that it was what they were up against. It was always vampires. Even by flying to the East Coast, Oz couldn't get away from those pesky blood suckers.
"I'm afraid so," Xavier's confirming statement brought another, heavier sigh from the werewolf as he picked up his clothes and headed for the changing room once more. If there was room in the wetsuit for his wooden stakes and crosses, Oz wouldn't have bothered changing but since there wasn't a pocket to be found, he had to put his jeans and flanel shirt back on.
"Charles, are you sure it would be wise to bring the young man along? I understand he could be of help to us, but he seems so emotionally unstable. Can you be certain he won't go too far? That he won't let his emotions control his judgement?" Ororo asked, knowing if the X-Men doubted even one member on the team, the mission would be a failure.
"Ms Sinclair seems to trust Oz and his abilities with her life, and I see no reason to doubt the young man. His drive at the moment is the same as ours, getting a dear friend back safely."
Much like your current standing with young Scott, Xavier's telepathic message brought a blush to Rogue's face and she turned her head away to survey the students below.
A couple of Jamies were chasing after a laughing Ashley, SIren when she had the uniform on for training. The blonde girl squealed with glee with the copies leapt on top of her. Two of them held her down as a third tickled her unmercifully. Sam was playing Frisbee with Rahne while Roberto sun bathed near by. Ray and Jubilee were competing on the waves as Amara cheered them on from the shoreline. All the youngest students oblivious to the turmoil raging inside of the life sucking mutant. Turmoil only her younger brother seemed to pick up on.
"He'll be back in time for dinner tonight, Rogue, don't you fret." Kurt offered her a smile and a small embrace, knowing her reservations on physical contact, even if she was properly covered.
"So how do we get rid of these umpire things?"
"Vampires Kitty, Vampires! You know those things that fly around as bats and suck your blood." Evan's retorted resulted in a pout on Kitty's face, the scrunched up look suggested a grimance and her response confirmed it.
"You mean those things that get all hairy once a month? Like, eww."
"Actually, you're describing werewolves. Vampires are quite a bit different matter." Oz informed the young girl as he stepped out the changing room area, shifting his shift into place. "With vampires, you only need two, three things max: wooden stakes for offense, crosses for defense, and holy water for torture." Oz showcased each item before the group as he tucked them into his pockets for easy access. "We can break off a branch or two from that oak out front and scrape them down. That should make enough for each of you to have two stakes a piece."
"You can't honestly expect us to break off limbs of that tree, can you?" Ororo flipped out when threats were directed to her plantlife, and this time was no different. "Charles, you can't let him hurt my oak. There's got to be another way, something else we could do."
"Ororo, it'll be fine, don't worry. And you've always been on Logan about pruining some of those more inconvient branches," Xavier's words made sense to the weather goddess and she relented with a nod of her head.
"Okay, do you have any idea where some of the local nests reside, or maybe someone who would?" Oz chalked up the woman's shriek of protest under the loony column and went about the drill as usual.
"I'm afraid we've never handled vampires before so we wouldn't know where to begin," Xavier answered truthfully.
Oz muttered "amateurs" under his breath as he ran his hand through his shaggy hair, growing frustrated more and more by the moment. "Okay, do whatever to the controls to get Rahne up here." The adults stood still, casting glances to each other. WIth a slight growling undertone, Oz inquired, "well, what are you waiting for?"
"Normally we don't allow the New Mutants up here in the control booth. Things tend to get broken if we do," Hank explained. Oz was quickly growing to dislike the man.
"Well, do you normally get attacked by vampires and get innocent bystanders kidnapped? Probably not. And it's just Rahne, not the whole ninth grade, so forget the norms and get her up here if you want any hope of finding Scoot before nightfall. That's when vampires usually feed." Oz said that last bit as if he was speaking to a bunch of little kids, slow and deliberate. Xavier wheeled around and presed a button, the static feed filling the speakers and gettting the attention of the students below.
"Rahne, could you come up here please." Oz watched as she dropped the Frisbee from her mouth and barked before morphing backin to her usual teenager form. She raced towards the elevator and Oz impatiently waited for the bing and the doors to open up to reveal the red headed girl. He seemed to wait too long.
"What do you need Professor?" Rahne inquired as she disembarked from the metal box.
He merely motioned to Oz who took it as his cue. "Do you patrol anymore?"
The question shocked the young mutant and her eyes grew large. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I don't have time for games Rahne, and they already know about vamps so the secrecy thing doesn't apply anymore. Now do you patrol anymore or not?" Oz pressed her, hoping the answer was yes, and yet part of him hoped it was no. No meant she had established life away from things that went bump in the night.
After glancing towards the adults, she turned her head back to Oz and nodded. "Yeah, couple of nights a week. Every night when the adults are gone," she confessed.
Oz paid no mind to the gasp that reached his ears, "so you know where the major nests are right?"
"Yeah, a couple."
"Great, get your clothes on, you're coming along." A string of protest filled the room as Rahne looked confused.
"Professor, she can't, he can't, she's not an X-Man!"
"Charles, Rahne doesn't have the experience"
"She's much too young"
"It's not his call to make"
"Like totally cool"
"Wicked"
"She's not coming Chuck"
The voices were overlapping each other and driving Oz berserk. He, they, didn't have tiem for all this red tape crap. He lifted his index and middle fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly, bringing silence to the room immediately.
"If you all are finished arguing, we've got two people awaiting to be rescued, or did you forget that little detail?" Oz's harsh but truthful words cut deep into the group and looks of shame mirrored many of the faces. "Now, it may not be my call to make, to have Rahne come along, but I've worked with her before in this kind of situation before and I know what she's capable of, which is a lot more than I can say for the lot of you.l SHe also happens to know where Scott and Dawn could be, the only one, I might add. So either she comes with us, or the two of us are going to play vigilantes and I'll personally make sure she breaks curfew." Rahne wanted to squeal and hug the ait out of her friend as he stood up to the professors and the older X-Men.
Maybe finally they would take her serious and give her a little respect.
