As always thank you very much for the reviews. I did plan on Beast being the first to leave as well, but I wanted to throw Warren in as an option, but this won't take place for a while. Also Kitty and Kurt will both come very soon, but Colossus later on. This is going to be a 12 chapter "Season", hopefully another will follow, and chapters six and 11/12 will both be big. But, first wee need to get through chapter three, enjoy.
Vanishing Act
"Our father, who art in heaven, hallow be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, but deliver us from evil. Amen."
The minister just stepped down from the alter after delivering the Our Father, to the assembled church-goers in the pews. The alter boys picked up their baskets and went around to collect donations from the families around him. One of the younger boys went to the back row where there was a person clad from head to toe in a long cloak with a hood over his head. He held out the donation basket to the person in the cloak who made no move to put any money into it.
"Please sir it's for the church." The young boy said hopefully.
"Tim. Leave the man alone," An older boy had walked over and put a hand on Tim's shoulder.
The younger boy shrugged and walked away. The older boy smiled at the man in the cloak, "I'm sorry sir, he does not realize that all are not equally fortunate."
"It is ok." The man said somberly.
Before the man could react the boy quickly grabbed his hand to shake it. The second the two touched the boy gasped and pulled off the man's sleeve to find a blue furred hand with three fingers.
"What are you?!" The boy grabbed the cloak off of the man. Beneath the cloak wasn't a man, but a boy of no more than fifteen. He was not an ordinary boy, but one that was covered from head to toe in blue fur, with three fingers and two toes, and a pointed tail.
"Oh my goodness. Father! Father?!" The boy yelled without taking his eyes off of the blue boy.
"No, please don't!" The boy pleaded.
"John? What's going-oh my...", the Priest began.
"He's a devil!" One woman shouted.
"Begone spawn of Satan!" Another yelled.
"Please! I just came to pray."
"Those who are born from Hell cannot pray!" The Priest yelled and went to jump onto the boy, who ran and jumped onto the wall, and surprisingly did not fall.
"He defies gravity! A power of the devil!"
"Of the Angels as vell!" The boy shouted.
"You are no Angel you demon, how dare you compare yourself to Them!" The Priest shouted.
A man pulled a Swiss Army knife out of his pocket and threw it at the boy. Right before the knife hit, the boy disappeared with a BAMF in a puff of smoke and brimstone.
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Down the street from the church a few young boys walk into a drug-store. There are three boys, one is a taller bald boy with glasses on who looks to be the mastermind of the trouble these boys are about to cause.
"Yo T.P.! What are we gonna lift man, I could go for a few Coronas." One of the boys yelled.
The boy called T.P looked back at him, "Yeah man, you know my policy, as long as you pay for my services, no questions asked."
The boys nodded and walked up and down the rows. They grabbed candy bars, Playboy Magazines, bottles of beer and wine. Finally they walked over to T.P and handed him all of the things they "collected". He stuffed the bottles into his sweatshirt and nodded to the boys. They walked over to the only cashier and pretended to be interested in one of the items behind the desk. T.P walked over to the door, and stood in front of the theft-preventing-device. All of a sudden there was a small pop and he disappeared, and with another small pop, he reappeared on the other side of the device. He gave a small cough so his friends could hear him, and they left. Outside of the store, the boys handed him some money, and he gave them the goods that they had picked out. Before they were about to leave, one of the boys pulled a flyer out of his pocket.
"Check this T.P." The boy said, "The church down the road is doing some huge charity benefit tomorrow. Why don't you try to pick a little something up?"
T.P. looked at they flyer and smiled, "That's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all."
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Two days later at the X-Mansion Beast, Iceman, and Angel were running a Danger Room exercise. They were currently fighting an army of robots, and all three were doing relatively well. Beast was using his immense strength and agility to leap over and kick robots. Angel was dive-bombing all the robots in sight. Iceman, who easily won the award for most creative use of powers, had iced his arm over in the shape of an axe and was slicing heads. Although all three were relatively equal, Wolverine, who was running the exercise, definitely had his favorites, and one of them was not Angel.
"Wings your moves are sloppy. If these 'bots were people you would have died about six times by now." He yelled at Warren.
"I'm TRYING man."
"It's Mr. Logan or Wolverine."
Meanwhile Bobby had just toppled six robots by ramming into them with his iceslide. He looked up to the observation deck and said, "How was that dude?"
"Looks good Ice cube, keep it up."
"Why don't you yell at him when he calls you dude?" Warren asked.
"'Cause he's not a cocky little upstart" Logan snarled.
Hank looked up at the observation deck with a confused expression, "While I am inclined to agree with you, I'm leaning towards Warren on this particular issue. 'Cocky little upstart' describes Iceman in a nutshell." Moments after saying this, he received a snowball in the face.
"Ok Bobby, calm down" Logan said.
"Sorry."
Beast had just ripped the arms off of a robot and jumped onto another. Warren and Bobby stopped for a moment as they watched him rip through robot after robot and then finally crouch over one.
Bobby walked up to Hank and put his hand on his shoulder, "Hey furball, you ok?"
Hank turned to Bobby with an evil look in his eye and snarled, "Mine!" He jumped on top of Iceman and barred his teeth. Warren attempted to hold him back but Hank easily brushed him off. Logan began to run down from the observation deck, but before he could reach Hank there was a loud HENRY, bellowed into their minds, which snapped Hank out of his trance.
Hank picked his head up, shook it, and looked around. He turned to Bobby and pulled him up, "Bobby, I'm so sorry.."
"It's cool man, you were caught up in the moment."
"Robert, Warren, let's give Mr. McCoy some time alone." The Professor said ushering the two out of the room.
After the three had left, Logan walked over to Hank. "How're you holdin' up there blue?"
Hank sighed, "Not great Mr. Logan. Ever since I turned into this, the animal instincts keep getting stronger and stronger. You saw what I did to those robots and to Bobby."
Logan nodded.
Hank then looked at Wolverine, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way. The Professor told us that ever since you're Weapon X days, you have a hard time sometimes with your rage."
"That's right kid, but even before that the people who kept me at Weapon X told me I was no Dudley Do-right either."
"But I was still wondering...if maybe you can teach me how to control the beast inside of me."
"I prolly can't teach you to control it completely. But I can teach you how to keep it in check."
"That works."
Logan nodded, "Ok...let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"To teach your beast who's boss."
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Warren, Bobby, and the Professor had just entered into the kitchen.
Bobby walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a soda. He pulled the tap and took a sip. He asked, "Do you think Hank is gonna be ok Professor?"
The Professor smiled, "Henry is one of the strongest minded, resilient people I've ever met. I have no doubt that he will work through his difficulty."
Warren called to the two, "Professor, Bobby, come look at this."
Bobby pushed the Professor's wheel chair in front of the television that Warren was watching.
"What is it Warren?"
"These reporters are saying that there have been major thefts in the Westchester area...one of them at St. Matt's Church's annual charity drive." Warren said.
"Point?" Bobby asked.
"Just watch the T.V. pipsqueak."
At that moment the minister of the church came on. "This theft was the work of the devil. Just recently our own church was attacked by one of Satan's own. It was a blue demon with a tail and pointed ears, in the image of Satan himself. When we tried to capture him he disappeared in a puff of brimstone!" The man said. He then began to cry hysterically.
Iceman looked at the Professor who then looked very deeply concerned. "Is something wrong sir?" He asked.
"Yes Bobby. Normally I would dismiss this as possibly a person with radical religious beliefs. But I have actually been in the process of tracking a young man, Kurt Wagner, who has blue fur and the ability to teleport. However, there are many teleporters across the country, and after he immigrated here from Germany, I lost his signal."
"But how many blue teleporters can be out there?" Warren asked.
"I have no doubt that the boy in the church, if there was such a boy, was Kurt Wagner, but as to the thefts, I am not so sure. Teleportation is one of the mutant abilities that seem to be prone to petty crime, and I am not sure if this boy is the culprit."
"It couldn't hurt to look." Warren said.
"Yes but with Cyclops and Jean both visiting their respective families for the long weekend, and Hank dealing with his personal issues, I doubt if it's best to send such a small group."
"It's not that small sir. Me, you, Warren, and Storm. We can handle it" Bobby said enthusiastically.
The Professor looked at Warren and Bobby who were both practically pleading, "Fine let's go."
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Moments later, Storm, Iceman, Angel, and the Professor were strapping into the X-Van.
"Professor, why aren't we taking the Blackbird?" Bobby whined.
The Professor sighed, "Because we are only going twenty minutes down the road into Westchester Bobby."
Angel smirked, "And the Professor doesn't want to be subjected to you're flight skills."
"Shut up."
The Professor smiled at Ororo, "Did you bring the ear plugs?"
Ororo smiled back, "Yes I did Charles, but I did assume that we wouldn't need them until at least half way through the trip."
"Ah yes. Unfortunately we must be very unlucky people."
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Logan and Hank were currently walking out to the grounds of the mansion. Once they were in the fields, Logan sat in a typical meditation pose.
"What are we doing?" Beast asked.
"Sit". Hank sat.
"First things first. You can't control the Beast if ya don't understand it. Ya need to find where inside of you the Beast is."
Beast looked at Logan surprised, "Where is this coming from?"
"I toured Japan for a few years after Weapon X."
"How old are you?!"
"Pretty damn old."
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Bobby, Ororo, Warren, and Xavier had just arrived on the same street as the Church.
"Now they said that aside from the church, the CVS down the road was reporting theft as well. I would like one of us to go into the store and check the security tapes."
Ororo said, "I will do it Charles."
"Excellent Ororo."
Warren asked, "Aren't those tapes confidential sir? How are we going to get in?"
The Professor smiled and tapped his temple. "Impossible is only a matter of perspective my boy."
The Professor wheeled into CVS with the others in tow. He approached one of the cashiers and said, "I need to speak with the manager." The four walked over to what looked like an office where a fat bald man sat in a chair.
"The hell do you want?" The man asked.
Ororo leaned in and whispered to Bobby, "This man seems very pleasant." She said.
Bobby smiled at her and nodded.
The Professor smiled pleasantly but narrowed his eyes at the man, "I am with the NYPD, my colleague detective Monroe who specializes in petty crime would like to examine your security tapes."
The man nodded to Ororo, "Come with me Ms. Monroe, the tapes are in the back, and thank you very much for your time." The two walked away.
Bobby pumped his fist. "You just mind whammied him!"
Professor Xavier looked sternly at Iceman, "Only because I had to. You know my feeling on the unethical use of my abilities."
Iceman looked at the ground, "Of course sir. I was just saying that what you did was pretty impressive."
The Professor smiled at Bobby, "It's ok Iceman. Now, before I left I did check Cerebro and there is a specific signal of a teleporter in the church when I left. This was about twenty-five minutes ago, so hopefully our friend will be there."
"Teleporters have different signals?" Warren asked.
"Yes. Different types of mutants do give off different types of signals. Being that teleporters move at a very rapid rate, their signals are very strong, while being very sporadic. However, the young teleporter in question has settled in the church, at least for now."
The three walked down the street and into the church. The Professor projected a mental image around the Church for no one to enter.
Bobby called out, "Helloooooooo? Mr. Teleporter man? Come out come out wherever you are!"
"Shut up Bobby." Warren snapped.
"It's ok Angel. We need whoever is in here to realize we mean them no harm." The Professor wheeled past the two. Bobby began to stick his tongue out but Xavier said, "Don't do it Bobby."
"Hey no fair! Unethical employment of powers!"
"I didn't need my powers to see that one coming." He then called out, "Young man? Are you in here."
A voice with a heavy German accent called out, "Please! Leave me be. I stole nothing. I have just come to pray."
Bobby called, "We really aren't here to hurt you man, we just wanna talk."
Suddenly, Warren saw a shadow creeping behind the group out of the corner of his eye. He spun around so his whipped the man into the wall and then dove on top of him. He looked down at the face below him. It was blue and elfish, but surprisingly not scary. The boy had pointy ears, yellow eyes, and what looked to be sharp teeth. Warren had no time to examine him further when an ice blast knocked him off.
"Are you frickin crazy Warren." Bobby yelled. He walked over to the boy and extended his hand. The blue kid looked at it uncertainly and then allowed Bobby to pull him up.
"I'm Bobby."
The boy looked suspiciously at Bobby, but after realizing that he did not intend to attack he said, "My name is Kurt."
Bobby looked over at Warren, "Sorry for my associate. He's...what's the word I'm looking for...an idiot."
Kurt smiled at Bobby. Warren meanwhile was brushing the snow off of him and looked ready to retaliate when the Professor stopped him.
"Professor did you see what he did?!"
"Yes Warren but they are connecting. Leave them be for now."
Kurt was telling Bobby, "I do not blame your friend for attacking me. The vay I look must be very surprising to all of you. Even though you seem to have special abilities as vell."
"You're right we do have special abilities. But we are used to blue furred people. At our school we have this guy Hank, who is one of my best friends, who recently underwent a change where he turned blue and furry. But he's really muscular and not as agile as you. His power is mainly super-strength."
"You said you live at a school for people vith abilities?" Kurt asked.
"Yeah. Right now there are five students and four teachers. There's me, Iceman, I make ice, blondie over there's Warren aka the Angel, and our friend Hank is called the Beast. The other two kids are my best friend Jean who can move stuff with her mind and is telepathic and her new boyfriend Scott who can shoot beams out of his eyes, we call him Cyclops. The Professor is one of our teachers and he is telepathic, he's the one who has been tracking you."
Kurt looked overwhelmed by this information but managed to ask, "Vait. You said he vas tracking me? Vhy?"
The Professor decided at this point to wheel over with Angel who was still looking disgruntled, "I was going to invite you to join me at my school. You would have the opportunity to be with people who are not afraid of you, and if one of my new devices work, even to go to school and further your education."
Kurt smiled, "Really? I have never been to a school. I vas born furry, and vas never able to attend."
"What's this device Professor?" Angel asked.
The Professor pulled a small watch out of his pocket. "I'm calling it an image inducer. It projects a holographic image of what you would look like as a base human. I offered it to Hank to see if he would like to finish school, but he decided that he would rather continue his studies at the institute. Would you like to try it Kurt?"
"Sure!" Kurt put on the watch. All of a sudden, Kurt had normal skin and ears, and his hair had changed from a deep blue to a very dark brown. He was wearing normal clothes and his tail had disappeared.
"Whoa" Angel said.
"Too cool" Bobby agreed.
"Vhat?" Kurt asked, "Did it vork?"
"See for yourself son." The Professor said.
Kurt walked over to a mirror and looked at himself, "Professor. This is incredible. I do not know how to thank you."
The Professor smiled, "There is no need to thank me my boy. Even if you do not join our school I'm going to allow you to keep it. But would you like to?"
"Of course. Do you really need to ask? To be in a place vhere I am accepted for who I am, and am still able to enjoy the pleasures of normal life? Of course I will join."
Warren smiled, "There is one more thing."
Kurt looked confused, "Vhat?"
Bobby said simply, "You need a name."
Kurt asked, "Vhat?"
Bobby said, "Like when I'm in the field, they call me Iceman, Warren is Angel, we have Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, you need a name."
Kurt thought, "I do not know vhat I would like to be called."
Bobby snapped his fingers, "Night-creeper!"
Warren shook his head, "Creeper has a bad connotation...Nightcrawler?"
Bobby looked at Warren, "Isn't that a worm?"
The Professor nodded, "It does fit though."
Kurt smiled, "I like it!"
"Well then Nightcrawler, welcome to the X-men."
"Hope you survive the experience."
"Hold on." The Professor said. "I just received a mental message from Storm. She has a new development in these thefts. X-men, to CVS."
As they walked out of the church Nightcrawler grabbed Iceman and asked, "What are the X-men?"
"I'll explain later."
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"Look," Storm said. "You can see that two nights ago, these three teenagers walked in. Now the security camera is focused on the two at the checkout stand. But look at the other one in the corner." The tape showed T.P. teleporting out of the store with the stolen goods and then signaling to his friends.
"Wow," said Iceman. "Either this case actually got no recognition, or the police are really dumb."
The Professor looked over the tape. "This looks like another young man who I was thinking about recruiting a while back. However, he is known for being a thief and his record in school is not the cleanest. I believe his name is Telford Porter."
Iceman snorted, but the straightened up after Storm glared at him.
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After finding Porter's address in the phonebook, the group headed over to the house that the book had listed and waited. After a while the young boy with glasses exited the house and called over his shoulder, "I'll be back whenever I damn well please."
He stopped when he saw the Professor flanked by Bobby, Warren, Kurt and Ororo.
"The hell is this?" he asked.
"Telford Porter?" The Professor asked.
Bobby snorted again.
Porter glared at Iceman and then looked back at the Professor, "T.P."
"T.P., we're here to discuss with you why exactly you stole from a Church."
"And a drugstore that had a security camera." Bobby added.
"I'm pretty sure that's none of your business" TP snarled.
"I'm pretty sure stealing is against the law," Warren replied.
"Well since none of you are cops, I'll just be leaving." T.P. roundhouse kicked Warren and the teleported to a nearby roof.
"'Crawler!" Bobby shouted.
"On it." Kurt disappeared with a BAMF.
Bobby laughed, "Ha-ha...BAMF...that's such a sweet noise. BAMF, BAMF, BAMF--"
Storm said sternly, "Bobby."
"Sorry."
Up on the roof T.P. was walking along after he had teleported away, when there was a BAMF, and he was tackled to the ground. He looked up to see Kurt Wagner's face glaring down at him.
"I vas blamed for the crimes you commited."
"Sucks to be you freak."
Kurt drew back a fist and punched Porter in the face, knocking him out, "I am not a freak."
Kurt grabbed Porter's body and teleported back down to street level where the others were waiting. Bobby patted Kurt on the back while Storm who was helping Warren up smiled encouragingly.
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A few hours later, Kurt and the other X-men had successfully made it back to the Xavier Institute. Kurt had just been introduced to Beast and Wolverine, who he was happy to find were both very accepting of his appearance. The Professor did note that Kurt, once he dropped his shields, was a surprisingly funny young man, and his personality instantly clicked with Bobby's, something Hank had noticed as well and looked a little hurt, but shrugged it off. A few days later, Jean and Scott came back home to the institute. Right when the walked in they were approached by Bobby who hugged Jean and gave Scott a light punch in the arm.
"What did we miss little brother?" Jean asked.
Suddenly a BAMF was heard and Kurt screamed, "BOO!" in Jeans ear causing her to scream loudly, and made Bobby and Kurt fall on the floor hysterically laughing. Bobby wiped a tear from his eye and manage to get out, "Oh nothing much."
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Meanwhile in the Westchester County Correctional Facility, T.P. was sitting in his jail cell. After the guard passed by he peaked out of his cell and looked both ways.
When he saw no one was coming, he smiled, and disappeared with a pop.
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So that's it for chpt 3. Hope you like it. Sorry it took so long...I just had the SATs and didn't have much time to write. I'm gonna try and get chapter 4 up by the end of this weekend but if not then definetly by the weekend after. Thanks for the reviews...keep them coming.