Ashlyn is fluent in German, but unfortunately as the writer, I'm not so I've used a translator, so I'm sorry to any German speaking/understanding people who read this and it sounds weird
Saving the Professor
It was nightfall by the time everyone was comfortable, and Ashlyn was sat around a small fire pit, poking at the burning wood with a stick, and she looked up to see Magneto, Storm, Mystique, Wolverine and Jean all huddled around another campfire, talking. At hearing someone join her, she looked around to find a blue ail swishing next to her.
"Guten Tagg, Nightcrawler." Ashlyn told him, not looking at him, but instead at the stars.
Hello, Nightcrawler.
"Guten Tagg." Nightcrawler smiled. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"
Hello, you speak German?
Ashlyn nodded. "Meine Mutter ist eine deutsche Übersetzerin in Brisban International Airport, lehrte sie mich."
My mother was a translator in Brisban International Airport, she taught me.
"Well, she taught you well." Nightcrawler smiled. "Vat is your name?"
"Ashlyn, but people call me Ash." She smiled. "Others call me Shield."
"Vhy is that?"
"Because my power is to protect, though it's not like I did a good job of it back there, huh?" Ashlyn sighed.
"You did a vonderful job." Nightcrawler told her. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
Ashlyn smiled as she stood and she rested a hand on his left shoulder. "Thank you Nightcrawler, but I have a long way to go before I am able to save a number of people." She told him, gently squeezing his shoulder, before she walked over to where John now stood.
When she reached him, he slid his arms around her, his eyes watching the blue creature as he disappeared.
"Don't be so possessive." Ashlyn told him as she pulled away from his grip and walked inside the jet.
John sighed and he followed her. "What's the matter Ash?"
Ashlyn looked at him from where she had sat on a bench. "You could have gotten us all killed, and you didn't seem to care John."
John looked at her, the last thing that he thought was that Ashlyn would be like this, in fact he had wanted to impress her with what he could actually do, and this was the exact opposite.
"Ash...I'm sorry..."
"Are you?" She asked him, looking up at him, before she stood up.
"Of course I am." John told her. "I wasn't thinking, and that was obvious, but please don't be mad at me." He gently put a hand on one side of her face.
Ashlyn rested her head into his hand and she smiled up at him. "I'm not mad; I just wish that you hadn't."
John sighed, and he pulled Ashlyn into a hug, holding her close, and just as Ashlyn hugged him back, they jumped away from each other at hearing a rather gruff voice.
"Well, this looks cosy."
The voice came from Wolverine, and he walked into the jet, followed by Storm, Jean, Magneto, Mystique and Nightcrawler.
Ashlyn gained a rather uncharacteristic blush to her cheeks, especially when Storm rested a hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting smile, before she spoke.
"Where are the others?"
"We're right here, Storm." Bobby told her as he and Rogue walked over to them from where they had gone to get a change of clothes.
"Good, now that we're all here, we have something to tell you." Storm told the young mutants who stood in front of them.
"Thanks to Nightcrawler, we have found the location of the professor, but we need someone to go inside, someone who is able to protect themselves..." Jean told them.
At her words, everyone looked at Ashlyn who had suddenly turned pale at what they were suggesting, but also because she didn't like the look that Magneto and Mystique gave to her, since they obviously knew how much power she had.
"Why me?" Ashlyn asked, looking at Storm. "Storm, I don't even think that I have enough power left to even be able to make a shield around a pebble after the plane incident."
"That wasn't even shield." Jean told her, before she was actually thrown into the far side of the jet by Ashlyn, though Ashlyn didn't seem to realise that she had done it at first.
"She really is amazing." Magneto muttered, walking to stand right in front of Ashlyn, so that she had to tilt her head up to see his face.
"Back off of her, Magneto." Logan warned him.
"You have a metal plate in your head Ashlyn?" Magneto asked, suddenly ignoring Wolverine.
"Yes..." She answered him, her voice wary.
"Interesting." He mused. "Very interesting." He soon walked back to Mystique and they both took a seat at the back of the jet as Storm pulled out some blankets and pillows that had been stashed away, as well as some tents. With the teachers camping outside, and the teens, Magneto, Nightcrawler and Mystique camping inside, everyone fell into an uneasy sleep.
The next morning, Ashlyn was awake before everyone, and she looked around at the clearing that everyone had set up camp in and she walked towards where she could hear water running and she found a small stream. She quickly looked around to make sure that she was alone, before she knelt on the water's edge and she swirled her hands in the water before she moved her hands and water shot out of the river, and as she stood up, more water joined her and they started to swirl around her. However, she didn't realise that someone was watching her.
"Well Kid, looks like you're not just a shield."
Logan's voice caused Ash to freeze and the water all hit the floor around her and she looked at him, her eyes wide, somehow resembling a deer caught in headlights.
"Sorry to spook you kid." Logan told her.
"It's fine." Ashlyn told him. "But it's still my shield; I just use it to move things..."
"Hey kid, I know that you're unsure about your gifts, but you don't have to be." Logan told her, obviously not used to giving prep talks to teenage girls. "You've got more power than you think, and you certainly know how to use it."
Ashlyn looked up at him; she looked like she didn't believe him at all right now. "But I wasn't able to use it on the plane."
"Forget about the plane, your power is your own, yes you couldn't do it then because you weren't prepared, but what about now? If you can move water now imagine what you could do if you were actually prepared?"
Ashlyn looked away from him, back to the water. "You think that I should help, don't you?"
"Well, they sorta can't do this without you kid." Logan told her truthfully, watching her look at him in surprise, before they heard someone calling them. "Come on, let's get back."
Together the two walked back towards the jet, and they found Storm and Jean wearing their suits and Jean held out a folded suit to Logan.
"You're coming too." Jean told him. "So you're going to want to get changed."
As Logan went to change, Ashlyn looked at Storm as she walked over to her; Storm was looking at her warmly.
"I'll help." Ashlyn told her.
"Are you sure, Ashlyn? I mean, you don't have to..." Storm started.
"But now she's said that she will, so let's get a move on." Magneto suddenly spoke up from where he had been stood with Mystique.
"I'll be fine." She told her reassuringly, before she walked over to the jet where John was waiting and after sliding her hand into his, they both walked into the jet. All of them sat through a talk by Storm, about the place that most of them were going to be entering into and then they went over the plan. Mystique and Ashlyn in first, then the rest were to follow them. Eventually, Ashlyn kissed John gently and quickly in goodbye, before she and Mystique left the jet. They moved fast, in an almost sprint towards the exit, and Mystique was surprised that Ashlyn kept up with her as easily as she was, but she didn't question it. However, they soon hid behind two trees as they noticed guards were guarding their entrance.
"You or me?" Ashlyn asked the blue woman, who was only blending in because of her mutation to shift into anyone.
Mystique simply looked at the teenager beside her, before she gave her a coy smile and gestured forward for her to do something. Ashlyn nodded and she suddenly stuck her hand out and a rock suddenly threw itself at the guards, hitting both of them and effectively crushing them together.
When their entrance was now clear, Ashlyn and Mystique both got into the base, they walked down the spillway together as Mystique changed into Logan once they were in the shadows.
"Stryker!" She called out, sounding exactly like Wolverine.
"You have him down to the last octave." Ashlyn told her as they walked down together.
Mystique just looked at her and raised an eyebrow, before the two started walking further and further down the spillway, until they stopped as two large doors suddenly opened and they were suddenly surrounded by a bunch of armed men. The men handcuffed both Ashlyn and Mystique, before they dragged them through the two large doors in front of them onto a platform where Stryker stood below them.
"One thing that I know is my own work, destroy him but bring the girl to me." Stryker told his men. "I'd like to see what she can do."
"Like hell I'm going with you." Ashlyn told him, before Mystique suddenly turned back into her original body and she suddenly started fighting with the guards who had hold of her, and Ashlyn decided to join in, using her gift to throw the men away from her and into the ones who were shooting Mystique. When they had a clear path to what Mystique told her to be the control room, both mutants made a run for it, shutting the door behind them. As they got inside, Ashlyn took care of the man who sat at the computers by knocking him unconscious and she watched Mystique make contact with the others.
"We're in." Mystique spoke into a communicator that was still in her ear, before she set about opening the doors for everyone else to come through.
Meanwhile, in the jet, everyone was listening for the message from either Mystique or Ashlyn to tell them that it was good to go.
"We're in." Mystique's voice crackled through the intercom.
"She's good." Logan muttered.
"You have no idea." Both John and Magneto told him, looking at each other as they spoke, before Storm started to speak.
"Well, let's get a move on, we don't want to leave the children down there for much longer." Storm told them. "Bobby, Rogue, and John you three need to stay here."
"Whoa, no way am I staying here whilst Ashlyn's helping you guys." John told them.
"No John, we're sending Ashlyn back once we get there so that she can protect this place and you three." Jean told them. "It's going to be too much for her to help."
"Shut up Jean, you're always putting her down, just lay off." John told her.
"John, we haven't got time for you to defend your girlfriend's honour." Magneto told them.
John glared at him as he and the others left and he sat on a chair as Bobby and Rogue watched him.
"What's up John?"
"I just don't want Ash hurt." John told them. "I do actually care about her despite what people think."
Bobby looked at him. "I knew it."
Rogue and John looked at him, before John spoke, sounding rather annoyed. "Of course you knew, you walked in on me and her kissing when we were at your parent's place."
Bobby simply shrugged and they all settled back in the seats to wait, before John suddenly stood up. "You know what, fuck this shit, I'm going in there." He told them as he walked to the door.
"John they told us to stay here." Rogue told him.
"You always do as you're told?" John asked, before he walked off, leaving Rogue and Bobby in the jet not knowing what to do.
Meanwhile, Ashlyn was following Logan since when the others had joined her and Mystique; she noticed that Logan had walked off. The fact that she had gone had annoyed both Storm and Jean to no end, but Storm at least knew that she was doing it for the right reasons, and they had too much to do at the moment. So right now, Logan was walking down a corridor, with Ashlyn following.
"You shouldn't have followed me Kid." Logan spoke up as they walked.
"You shouldn't have gone off on your own." She counteracted.
"I think I'm able to handle myself, Kid." He told her, but he let her walk along side him anyway.
Soon they came to a room which looked a lot like a laboratory and Ashlyn walked over to where some x-ray pictures were on a lit up board, whilst Logan walked over to where a large tank was, looking over it, neither of them noticed that they weren't alone."
"Hey Logan..." Ashlyn started before she was suddenly grabbed around the neck from behind and a blade was pressed to her neck.
"Well well, long time no see Logan."
Logan turned around with a snarl at seeing that another female mutant had hold of Ashlyn and the blade was one of her fingernails, and then he saw Stryker smiling menacingly at him.
"Stryker..." It came out as a growl from Wolverine as he unsheathed his claws.
"How lovely of you to bring a friend for me." He told him as he walked over to Ashlyn and he ran a hand down one side of her face, and as she tried to move her head away, she winced as the blade against her throat cut her skin.
"She's not for you Stryker." Logan snarled. "Now let her go."
Stryker laughed as he walked towards Logan. "Not happening Logan, you see all this, this is going to happen to her and anyone else who can handle-"
He cut short as there was a cry of pain and they both looked back at Ashlyn and the other mutant and the other mutant was sporting a rather bloody nose and they watched as Ashlyn suddenly kicked her in the chest and threw her straight into a wall. When the other mutant was unconscious, Ashlyn looked at Stryker.
"Like Logan said, I'm not for you." She told Stryker as she walked towards him and she suddenly picked him up by his neck. Despite her size, she was rather strong, and she suddenly threw him into a wall, knocking him unconscious, before she looked at Logan. "We need to find the others."
Logan nodded, but he was suddenly grabbed by the female mutant and thrown straight back into Ashlyn. As he got up, Logan looked back at the now unconscious Ashlyn to find blood coming from a cut in her head where she had hit the concrete steps. At seeing the blood, Logan snarled and he threw himself at the other mutant, and the two of them started to fight. As they fought, Stryker woke up and at seeing the fight and a bleeding Ashlyn, he decided to get out of there and he scarpered. The fight ended with Logan bleeding heavily, but still healing and he had suddenly stabbed the other mutant in the chest with a large needle type object and she had sunk to the bottom of the tank, a weird silver metal coming from her eyes, nose and mouth. When that was over, Logan quickly slid to where Ashlyn was still lying against the stairs, her wound bleeding, but as he pressed his hand to it, she jolted awake.
"Easy Kid, I've got you." Logan told her, helping her stand up, and he watched as she put a shield over her wound and it automatically closed up and she wiped the dribble of blood away. Logan was impressed as he watched and he smiled slightly. "You're full of surprises kid, now let's go and find the others."
At her nod, they both took off running down the corridors, soon finding everyone, children and the Professor included, running towards a door which was flooding up with water. At seeing the problem it was going to cause, Logan suddenly slashed the controls with his claws, shutting the door on them and they all looked at him in shock and surprise.
"You don't want to go that way, trust us." Logan told him, before he looked at Ashlyn. "Do you think you could find a way out of here?"
As Jean scoffed, Ashlyn nodded, the iris of her eyes shining a mixture of blue, pink and purple as she looked around before she looked at him. "This way." She told them all before she started running through the corridors, everyone following her. They eventually reached the outside world, and that was where Ashlyn's 'sight' failed and she looked at them.
"I don't get it, a helicopter was right here." She told them.
Everyone looked around desperately, before the suddenly heard the sound of an engine and found the jet hurtling towards them, but before it could hit them, Ashlyn's hands shot up and caught the jet, gently resting it on the ground.
"Well done Ashlyn." The Professor praised, before he was given to Nightcrawler and they appeared in the jet in a puff of blue smoke and Nightcrawler put him into a seat before everyone else climbed into the jet.
Maybe now they would all be okay, maybe now they would be able to return home.