A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been uber busy with school, so hopefully this chapter is worth the wait for those of you who like my story.
"Kitty? Kitty wake up!"
The brunette is awakened by someone spazztically shaking her shoulder. She rolls over and comes face to face with a fuzzy blue elf. Her eyes bug open and she recoils back into her blankets and pillows. "Like, what are you doing in my room?" she asks, pulling the covers around her.
"You overslept," the German youth explains. Kitty's eyes bulge as she throws the covers off of her and jumps off of her mattress, landing in front of her closet. "Where's my stupid suit?" she growls, sliding hangers frantically while Kurt opens the drawers of her dresser. "Found it!" he cries. She turns to grab the black and purple suit, only to have it thrown in her face. "Oof," she says, falling back onto the floor.
Not wanting to be late to the Danger Room session, or irritate Logan, Kitty frantically yanks off her pajama shirt, and only the feeling of eyes on her back reminds her that Kurt is still in the room. She turns around, her bare back exposed to him, and shouts at him to get out. Kurt teleports out of the room, and Kitty quickly strips off her ink pajamas and pulls on her training suit.
Tying her hair up in a messy ponytail, she phases through her bedroom door, Kurt standing in the hallway, and into the bathroom down the hall. She splashes some water on her face before running through the door and back into the hallway. "Please don't move through me," Kurt says. "It freaks me out." Agitated, she puts her face to his. "Yeah? Well it freaks me out when you teleport into my room," Kitty jeers before running down the hall and down to the Danger Room.
An elevator ride later, Kitty yawns and joins the rest of her group, comprised of Scott, Jean, Kurt, Rogue and Ray. "Nice of you to show up," Rogue says, her Southern accent failing to mask her sarcasm. Kitty purses her lips, narrowing her eyes at her former roommate. Scott clears his throat, as well as some tension, to give one of his famous "teamwork" speeches; teamwork this, teamwork that, work together, help your fallen comrades. Some of the young mutants groan, others roll their eyes and ignore Scott. The large metal doors slide open, inviting the trainees inside.
Upon entering the Danger Room, the teens assess the program's layout. The room is dark, the only light appearing from red light bulbs in the ceiling. Mighty stalagmites penetrate the fake floor, while stalactites hold tight to the ceiling, above the virtual cliffs. Warm lava covers the floor, flowing between the rocks. Kurt is stunned, frozen in place. "Wow," Ray says, taking it all in. "What is this place?" "My own version of hell," Nightcrawler says, taking a deep breath and cursing in his native tongue.
Logan's voice growls over the intercom, explaining that this training would be a capture the flag one. Though nobody can see his face, they guess that he is grinning, proud of himself. He instructs his students to begin, and a buzzer sounds. "Spread out," Scott commands. Kurt teleports away, Jean levitates upward, and the others climb over the rocks. "Anybody see the flag?" Scott asks over the uniform com-link. Heads turns, spot no flag.
"If I were Logan," Kitty tells her teammates, "I would put it someplace hard to reach." "So what? Should we look under every rock?" Rogue asks, "Cuz there's a lotta rocks in this place." Kitty scowls. "Kurt, you've been here before, what do you think?" Jean asks. Kitty looks up to see Kurt clinging to a stalactite, trying to hide the fear from his blue face as he thinks. "Look under anything that looks like a bridge, or anything that looks like a cave," he suggests, teleporting away.
Kitty weaves between rocks, skipping over lava-filled cracks in the ground. She turns around stalagmites, fazes through rocks, making sure nothing went unsearched. Through the red and some smoke floating above the lava, she hears quiet growling and hissing. Must just be the "lava", she tells herself, and continues her search.
This new program makes the Danger Room seem larger, and it feels as though Kitty is pulling further and further from her group members as she searches for the flag. "Um, does anyone else hear hissing?" Ray radios his group members. "It's just the lava," Scott says, "Keep searching". Obeying her leader's command, Kitty continues to weave between and through rocks, hoping to find the flag and be done the simulation.
"I'm starting to hear the hissing too," Rogue says, her voice tinged with a nervousness equaling that of her brother. "And I don't think it's the lava." Jean suggests regrouping by the doors. "That way we can come up with a plan of attack. And if there's something more than lava hissing, we can watch each others' backs." The group members retrace their steps, which is difficult for Kitty since she cannot remember which rocks she fazed through and which she walked around. All these rocks, look the same, she pouts to herself, wandering.
"Kitty, where are you?" Scott barks. Kitty tells him that she's trying to retrace her steps, that she cannot remember her way back. Scott tells her to give them a sign so they can find her. "Like, what kind of sign can I give you?" Kitty hisses, "You're the one with the laser eyes." Scott, choosing to ignore Kitty's comment, tells her that they'll all come find her, and that she should stay put. "Ay ay sir," Kitty says, saluting the rock in front of her.
Seconds pass and Kitty feels as though she's been waiting for hours. Normally she wouldn't be this crabby, so she rationalizes that she woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning; the side with Kurt's blue face in hers. She contemplates moving, that her bath would somehow converge with that of her teammates, and then they would be able to finish their training sooner. Not wanting to take the risk, she sits down on the ground with her back resting against a rock; sitting and waiting. She hears a long hiss coming from behind her. Like, it's just the stupid simulated steam, she rationalizes.
The hissing stops, and Kitty feels the ground vibrating underneath her. "Like, it's just the simulation," she says aloud; she sits, waits, and wishes that it were just the program, and then a shadow casts over her. Turning slowly, Kitty comes face to face with a giant red raptor, its mandibles wide open, expecting food. It crouches and pounces, phasing through a stunned Shadowcat. "Like, we got a problem," Kitty says via the team microphone. The raptor doubles back to charge Kitty, and she takes this as her cue to run. "What's wrong?" Jean asks over the microphone. "Big…red…raptor" Kitty says in between breaths and running around rocks.
Scott gives orders, something about spreading out to find Kitty sooner, and for her to wait for back up, though it's hard to wait with a carnivorous creature from other dimension trying to claim you as his breakfast. Running forward, Kitty glimpses over her shoulder to see the distance between her and the reptile. It's gone.
Kitty takes time to catch her breath, tells her teammates that she lost it. Then she hears a growl, and then she is pinned under the weight of the hungry raptor. She feels her spine and ribcage hit the ground, her breath shortening. The raptor pins her forearms down with its powerful hind legs, lowers its open jaw to Kitty's face.
Kitty turns her head to the side just as glistening teeth snap beside her. Feeling helpless, Kitty squirms under the weight of the reptile, pain spreading down to the nape of her neck. The pain in her neck is warm, and Kitty no longer feels helpless. Like, I hope this thing's male. She faces the creature head on, tucks her legs under the raptor's stomach, and gives a powerful kick. The raptor is taken aback, and Kitty notices a black triangle on its soft underbelly. "Is that the flag?" Kitty asks as she rises from the ground. The raptor whips its powerful tail around at Kitty, slamming her into a rock. Her face scrapes against the rock, and Kitty feels the sting of open cuts and the warmth of blood rushing to her right cheek and temple.
Fight-or-flight response kicking in, Kitty rises once more to face the red being. Before the two have a chance to face off, a red beam of light blasts the reptile, sending him hurtling through the rocks. "Are you alright?" Scott asks as Kurt and Rogue rush to Kitty's side. "I'm fine," Kitty says, touching the scrapes on her cheek tenderly before snapping and asking what took them so long. "Relax Kitty," Rogue says. "You did get yourself pretty lost in here."
"Alright, well, now that we're all back together, and for the most part unharmed, we can start looking for that flag," Ray says, trying to refocus the team. "I already found it," an agitated Kitty points out. "Where?" Scott asks. The others crowd around Kitty as she tells them about the black triangle on the raptor's belly. "Logan would do something like that," Kurt scoffs. "He just loves to torture us," Rogue adds dryly. "And Scott just blasted the thing, so who knows where it went?" Ray points out. "Nice going."
Scott defends his actions, rationalizes that it would have charged Kitty had he not blasted it. "Not that I could phase through it or anything," Kitty says sarcastically, shooting Scott a glare. "I was doing you a favor," Scott says through gritted teeth. Though Kitty can't see through his visor, she knows Scott is glaring back at her. "Let's come up with something," Jean interjects, "I don't want to be training all morning."
"We could send Kurt to look for it," Rogue suggests, though Kurt refuses. "Not on your life, and certainly not on mine." "Maybe we won't have to worry about looking for it," Jean points to the top of a rock where the raptor crouches, its angry eyes focused on the group. Ray places his hand on the rock, sending an electric current up. The raptor jumps off the rock before the current reaches it, and Jean immediately encases it in a telekinetic field. It growls and squirms, clearly not liking not being able to touch the ground, or being held at bay from the tasty mutants beneath it.
"Someone grab the flag!" Jean shouts, her mind straining with the squirming raptor. Kurt musters up the courage to teleport in front of the creature, which nips at him as he reaches a gloved hand towards the flag. He teleports back down, and whisks Kitty away with no explanation. The two reappear on the top of the rock where the red menace once stood. "What the heck Kurt?" Kitty asks, yanking her wrist from his grasp. "Grab the flag," he tells her. "It won't bite you. It can't bite you."
"Just grab it and let's go!" Ray shouts up at her. Kitty tries to reach for the raptor, but falls short. She tries again, falling shorter still. "Drop her on it!" Scott shouts. "Like, are you nuts?" Kitty shouts back, withholding venomous comments about Scott's leadership. "You can just phase through the thing and grab the flag on your way down," he points out. Kitty wants to tell her leader that his plan is easier said than done, though it really isn't. Kitty nods at Kurt, and the two teleport off the rock.
Kitty rematerializes above the raptor, and before she knows anything, Kurt teleports himself away, dropping Kitty on the red monster. The shock of being dropped ruins her focus, and a solidified Kitty Pryde lands on its back. The raptor whirls its head around, its thick skull knocking against the brunette's. The sudden movement breaks the raptor from Jean's field, sending the two crashing to the ground. Thankfully Kitty landed on top, though the fall sent a jolt of pain through her body, which nestles itself at the top of her spine.
The raptor doesn't move underneath her, and the others rush to Kitty's side. "Are you alright?" Ray and Rogue ask, hoisting Kitty by her elbows. Kitty nods as Jean mentally rolls it over and Scott pulls the flag off of its stomach. The lighting in the Danger Room returns to normal, and one by one the holographic rocks disappear, the smell of sulfur disappearing with them. The unconscious raptor is the last to vanish, and Kitty breaks away from her companions to deliver it a swift kick to the neck. The others look at Kitty with expressions of shock and awe.
The giant metal doors to the Danger Room slide open, and Logan stomps through them. "What was that?" he asks the students. "You need to work on your ability to keep your team under control," he says to Scott. He tells Kurt that he needs to work on his fear of holograms, and to work on his communication skills. "You just dropped Half-Pint and then things just got worse from there." His eyes land on Kitty, "How's your head?" Kitty mumbles that it feels fine, and then Logan says he's going to need to patch up the side of her face after she changes.
The group walks out of the giant sliding doors with the head hung low, dreading the rest of the day.