Only You Can Save the World
by awayshegoes

Chapter Three: "Women Drivers"


It was as though the world had been turned off with the flick of a switch.

Everything was black. Kitty scrambled and clawed at the air in a desperate attempt to grasp hold of anything solid. The only thing she could feel was cool air as it brushed against her skin; even the temple floor beneath her feet seemed as though it had fallen away. She felt weightless.

And then, through the darkness, she saw a pinprick of orange light, which she immediately assumed was a Sentinel's glowing eyes moving towards her. Kitty instantaneously snapped out of her panic and sheer instinct caused her to take on a defensive mindset. As the orange glow moved closer to her, for a moment, she swore she felt her heart stop.

Even though the orange light had been so far away when she first spotted it, it was as though the universe had suddenly turned on a vacuum, which pulled it towards her at light-speed.

It was the sun: that monstrous, fiery-orange ball that had been looming at the back of her mind since the days before she began experiencing time-travel. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry and her throat felt as though a tennis ball was lodged within it.

As her body was pulled closer to the massive celestial form, her eyes widened and she attempted to back-peddle: to escape being pulled into the center of the sun.

It was a futile attempt.

Kitty could've sworn that she was screaming, but the only sound that echoed in the void around her was a deafening wind.

Her fingertips were the first thing that touched the intangible surface of the sun: when she attempted to push herself away from the massive star, her palms neglected to find anything solid. As each bit of her body was sucked into the sun, she felt as though her skin, her eyes, the very molecules of her being were set on fire.

Once she had completely phased though the sun's outer barrier, the world went grey: she could see nothing ahead of her, but she could still see.

The air inside the sun felt akin to being underwater: she couldn't breathe. Panic returned as she tried to claw at something, anything, to reach the surface of some unseen ocean.

And that's when she saw it.

A stream of purple smoke, the same substance that had been enclosed within the orb, appeared and wound its way through the ether. She froze on the spot. The smoke twisted around her ankles, her legs, and climbed all the way up to her neck. As the smoke swirled up to her face and within her nostrils, she could suddenly breath.

As soon as she took her first breath, it was as though the universe's vacuum was turned back on: Kitty's body was thrust forward, transitioning from a standstill to light-speed in a millisecond, before being slammed into something so hard that it caused her to immediately black out.


Consciousness returned and Kitty's face was pressed against something that was cold, but warm at the same time. The only sound she could hear was a high-pitched ringing in her ears. As she brought her hands under herself, preparing to push her body up into a seated position, she realized that her muscles and bones and tendons were screaming in agony. When she was eventually able to sit up, it took her eyes quite a long time to bring the world into focus.

The abrupt sound of banging interrupted the ringing in her ears. Kitty whipped her head to the left, in the direction she could tell the banging was coming from (and winced, as the sudden movement caused a painful stabbing sensation in her neck): she saw the red, angry face of a man she didn't recognize. His mouth was moving as though he was yelling something at her, his eyes bulging, his fists banging against the glass that separated them.

Instinct caused Kitty to reach down with her left hand and grasp hold of a crank handle, which she turned and turned until the glass window between her and the man was completely rolled down. She stared at him, confusion evident on her face.

"Fucking women drivers!" the man shouted at her, slamming his hand against the truck's side mirror (which caused Kitty jump and flinch), before he stormed off to a car with a crushed side.

Kitty froze. It took her mind a moment to comprehend what had just been said to her. She hesitantly reached down, grasped the the crank handle again, and rolled the window back up. 'What the hell is happening? Where am I?' Kitty thought as she looked down at the steering wheel in front of her, forehead wrinkling as she momentarily pondered the word 'Ford,' before she suddenly noticed the blood smeared across it. She reached up and touched her forehead; when she pulled her fingers away from her skin and inspected them, they were red. 'Whose truck is this? Where was I even going?'

The sound of door opening and rushing air caused Kitty to again direct her attention to her left. A blonde woman was in the process of opening the truck's door, a look of terror on her face, "Honey, it's alright. I'm a nurse. I saw what happened and my husband went to call the cops," the stranger said, her terrified look settling into something akin to determination as she leaned into the truck and over Kitty's lap to unbuckle the seat-belt. Kitty didn't move a muscle, too dumbfounded to comprehend what was going on. "What hurts?" the woman asked as she placed a handbag on floor beside Kitty's feet, before she reached in and pulled out a small flashlight, which she immediately clicked on. The blonde woman leaned in front of Kitty's face and shined the light in her eyes to inspect her pupils.

"I-I'm fine," Kitty said, leaning away from the stranger. The blond woman looked up and met her eyes for a moment, before they drifted to the blood on her forehead.

"Well, it doesn't look like you have a concussion. I'm have no idea how that's possible..." she trailed off and clicked off the flashlight, "An ambulance will be here soon. They'll get you to the hospital and you can call your parents," she said as she stepped out of Kitty's personal space, "I have some water in my car. I'll be right back. Don't try to stand up, okay hun?" she said, before running off.

Kitty stared at the Ford symbol on the steering wheel as she went over everything in her mind. 'Okay, so, yeah. I guess the ambulance will bring me to the hospital. Then I can call my parents and they can-'

Kitty's eyes widened as a million images simultaneously permeated her mind: images of her parents, of catching fireflies, of discovering her mutation, of the Xavier School, of her friends, her teachers, of the hopeless future that she had been living in for all these years. In a moment of realization, Kitty began to panic: she had momentarily forgotten her entire life. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she grabbed hold of her head, dug her nails into her scalp, and pulled at her hair, 'What's happening? I have to get out of here.'

She looked up and noticed the blond woman was headed towards her with a jug of water.

Kitty's eyes widened like those of a trapped animal: without a second thought, she vaulted out of the truck, her foot tangling in the handles of the women's handbag, which was still on the floor of the truck, which caused her to trip and fall to the pavement. She groaned as she pushed herself back up, before she jumped to her feet, grabbed handbag, and sprinted across the road. 'Run,' was the only thought that repeated over and over in her mind as she jumped a guardrail and phased through trees, underbrush, a chain-link fence, and more trees.


End Note: Thank you everyone for your support. I know this chapter is shorter than the others, but it would end up being unbearable long if not cut off at this scene. Thank you, again, and please review!