AN: I'm doing that thing where I release suuuuuper short chapters. More of an outline probably I can fluff out later if I feel like it. Right now I'm just trying to force myself to write period and with my very limited spoons this is doing the job and still fun.
"Weird, isn't it?"
"What?" Noni wasn't paying much attention to her best friend next to her, tapping away at her gameboy instead. Amy gently untacked a page from one of the bulletin boards.
"You joining a club?" Noni asked without looking up.
"No. This is the fifth missing student flyer to go up in the last three weeks. Isn't that weird?" Noni paused enough to glance up and Amy turned the page so it could be seen. Her leather clad shoulders shrugged.
"What ever. I'm no scared. Kids run away all the time." back to her game, which earned a pursed frown from Amy and a more irritated tone.
"This doesn't look familiar?" she pushed the page between the gameboy screen and target audience.
"No, why should I-Oh. Oh no." Noni snatched the sheet.
"Is that...Tina?"
"Are you sure?" the bags under her eyes appeared all the darker, framed by her blue hair. June had a stack of flyers and was handing them to anyone who would stop.
"You haven't seen my cousin? You haven't seen Tina? She's too stylish to miss. Are you sure you haven't seen her?" Most people kept walking.
"Hey! I think we go to the same school?" June whirled to see a girl with brunette pony-tail she didn't recognize, and a boy with long dark black hair. She didn't recognize them.
"Dig your style! Blue's a good color." he complimented, but she had no patience for it, thrusting a paper flyer into the other girl's hands.
"Have you seen Tina?" a mood killer for sure, the other teens stopped to look at the missing flyer, the gravity of the situation they had stumbled into quick to register.
"We...uh...don't recognize her..."Kitty admitted.
"But we'd be happy to help look!" Kurt quickly offered, "or...uh, spread flyers or something?" June wasted no time, taking off her backpack and pulling out more to hand the two.
"That would be helpful, thank you."
"Shouldn't you...go to the police? Maybe?" Kurt suggested, getting an eye roll.
"They're insisting she ran away. That's not Tina."
"How long has she been gone?"
"Three days." Kurt and Kitty exchanged a look, June knew what it meant.
"We always walk home and to school together. Always."
"Alright, we'll help spread the word, see if anyone's seen her." Kitty affirmed with a nod.
"You can count on us!" Kurt chimed in, and a tired half-smile answered them.
"Thank you."
"It's no problem." Kitty reassured, and the two spread out to help get the word out. Soon they were out of site. June continued. The sun began to set. She didn't notice the sky paint itself in fading colors, she barely registered the looming shadow that lurked over her with a stop until the voice spoke.
"Hey, where's your cousin?" June whirled around to see Blob and Toad.
"Yeah, I thought you two were, like, tied to the hip?" Toad joined in. An exasperated sigh accompanied June thrusting a missing person's flyer into Blob's hands as she had the other teens earlier. The two looked it over.
"Oh. Missing? Yikes. Downer. Well, good luck!" Toad already started hopping away, not wanting to get involved, but Blob grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.
"We'll help you look."
"We will?" Toad squeaked, quickly realizing, "I mean, yeah! Sure! Of course we will! You can count on us! But babe, these flyers aren't doing any good."
"Where'd you see her last? I always re-trace my steps when I lose something." Blob offered, earning a scrunched face of thought.
"Yeah...that might be a good idea. Lets go!"
"Yeah! Don't you worry your pretty little head, we're gonna find her! Brotherhood to the rescue!" Toad cheered on, "And hey, after this, we can all get pizza to celebrate!"
"Another one?" Ororo sighed and took the fresh flyer from Kurt's hands.
"What's going on?" Kitty prodded.
"We're not sure yet. We're trying to figure it out ourselves."
"Can't the professor just use cerebro to-"
"He's tried. Something is blocking him out." Ororo glanced up at the worried faces of her students.
"We will find them. No one should be going out alone right now. We're going to implement a buddy system until this passes."
"But," Kurt interjected, "we can protect ourselves! You don't think this is something...targeting mutants do you?"
"We're still not sure. But better to be safe than sorry."
"No luck." Toad griped, kicking a rock and watching it skitter across the the cracked pavement that ran along the baseball field.
"We can try again tomorrow." Blob offered, watching June anxiously keep her arms crossed.
"That's okay, I've inconvenienced you enough..."
"No way! We said we're going to help and we are!" Toad shot Blob a thumbs up to let him know he got that was supposed to be the right thing to say, "besides we can't get pizza until she's back!"
"We'll walk you home. Think you can get some sleep tonight and we'll start up in the morning?"
"No. Probably not. But what else am I going to do, stay out all night?" The boys exchanged a look.
"I mean...yeah, if you want to. Who's gonna stop you?" Toad asked.
"Uh...my parents?"
"And what are they doing to find Tina?" Blob asked, earning a sharp glare.
"They're...not doing enough. They're saying to let the police handle it."
"The cops? Man, they're as useless as those x-losers." Blob provided.
"The who?"
"Don't worry about it," Toad, "if you're not going to sleep anyways, lets keep looking. If your dumb parents have a problem with it, they can talk to us!"
"Yeah!" June glanced between the two not sure what to say. Finally she started laughing, a twinkle of sound the bubbled up with the first real smile she had in days.
"Alright. Lets keep looking." She looked up from her laughter to see movement in the trees behind Toad. A swift shadow that she could have sworn might have been person-sized. But it was already gone. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Decided she must be seeing things.