Disclaimer: I do not own x-men or any related characters. It's been a while since I've updated, but I just haven't been able to feel the writing juices. It's like everything that I write annoys me. That's why I'm a little hesitant to even put up this chapter. I don't know when I'll get around to the next. Oh, well. I have more distractions, too, like working on a couple originals, working on some art, and starting the long search for colleges so I'm prepared when it comes time to start applying. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. I made a few (minor) changes in the last chapter so that it could fit in with the story a little more. Slightly shorter than normal, but oh well.

Chapter Seven

Rogue was being pulled every way, people were shoving and pushing and all that she could think about was not touching anyone else with her skin. At one point, she was aware that Johnny had grabbed onto her arm and tried to lead her out of the crowd, but they got separated. She saw glimpses of blonde hair that could only belong to Sue, and the face of Reed a few times, but she was never able to get to them.

The power went out. Finally she escaped the mad crowd of people and sat on the ground of the room, merely watching the people trying to escape. Slowly her eyes adjusted to the darkness. A few other people seemed to realize, too, that there was little hope for escape in this and that it was far better to wait until the doors cleared. What were the chances of the mutants even coming near this building, anyway?

Sue and Reed were trying to break up the crowd. Their voices could almost be heard over the crowd, trying to calm people down. This almost seemed to frighten them more into a complete panic.

Picking herself off of the ground, she made her way to one of the windows, looking into the streets below. There were many people running, more than likely trying to get into the 'safety' of their homes. Not that their homes would actually provided safety.

"Panic is an interesting thing, is it not," a cold voice asked.

Rogue looked over to the source of the voice. It was the same man who she had seen earlier in the crowd, the one with the cold eyes.

"It's horrible," she whispered.

"Humanity is horrible."

She replied, "And yet we're all human."

"No, not all of us," his eyes were glinting. "Some of us are more than that. We all have the ability to be great. That is, all of the mutants in the world have the ability to be great."

"I take it that you're a mutant?"

Rouge made sure that she had no fear in her eyes. After all, what was there to fear? She too was a mutant and a powerful one at that. If this man made one wrong move, then she would do what she had to do to take him down. Kitty said that there wouldn't always be someone to protect her. This may have been one of those times. Slowly, she pushed back the feeling that she wanted Johnny to be there. He always seemed to be a good protector, even if he didn't realize it.

The man was silent. Then he spoke, "No, no I am not a mutant. I'm just a wide supporter of them."

"So you agree with the people who are trying to invade the city with intentions of violence?"

"My name is Bentley Wittman. Before we get into my views on matters as important as these, I think that we should at least introduce ourselves."

"Rogue."

"Now that's an interesting name," Bentley said, his eyes twinkling. "A codename, I presume?"

Her jaw was tight, "No. That's my name."

He nodded, apparently fine with her answer, "Well, my dear, I must leave you. It appears that our way has been cleared." He motioned to the door and Rouge saw that the entry way was now empty. Johnny was entering through the door and headed towards them. "It appears that your boyfriend is quite jealous."

"He's not my-"

But the man was gone, already halfway out of the room. Where he walked past Johnny, there was some sort of little stare-off before they broke contact.

"Who was that," Johnny asked, sounding extremely annoyed.

"Bentley Wittman."

A frown crossed Johnny's features, "I've never heard of him."

Apparently there was no need to think anymore of it and they headed out of the door and into the night, "I wonder what's taking Ben so long?"

---

To: whitestripes

From: KitKat

Subject: F Subjects

Rogue, get out of there now.

---

When they finally exited to the streets, everything was strangely quiet. People were looking out of their windows, wondering who would venture into the streets when the alarm against violent mutants had been raised. Rogue couldn't help but think that it was more or less alarm against mutants in general.

"Ben, come on, answer," Sue was shouting into her phone. Her composure had been lost long ago, the first thirty times that Ben hadn't answered his cell phone.

Rogue fell into step along side Reed, "There's not even a mutant entering the city yet. For all they know, this is just a false alarm."

"For them, it's better to be safe than sorry." He paused and looked up into the sky, "If there is no attack tonight, people will be trying to get out of the city tomorrow. It won't be pretty."

There was a chill in the air. Despite the fact that everyone had cleared the streets of New York from fear, there was this air of peacefulness surrounding her. It was almost as if she were just out walking the grounds of the mansion.

Sue caught up to them and shook her head, "I can't contact him."

Johnny, who had been walking a bit ahead of them, turned around, "He's probably all right. What sort of genius would mess around with that many tons of pure orange?"

"Groups that hate mutants," Rogue told him. "Other mutants. Just to name a few."

Everyone went silent and suddenly she realized that maybe that wasn't the right thing to say at the moment.

"He could have decided that he didn't want to go to the ceremony and just went back home."

"I doubt it," Sue said, trying to make the southern girl feel a little better, "But thanks."

Rogue was silent, scanning the streets, "We could split up and look for him." That would be the X-men thing to do. But, she kept forgetting, at the moment she was no longer with the X-men. Right now she was with the Fantastic Four. And, quite frankly, she didn't know how they operated.

"No," Reed said, "I don't think that we should completely split up. We'll split into pairs and search for him. Don't go too far. At the moment, it's better to be safe and sorry."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Reed would be going with Sue. Johnny was looking at her out of the corner of his eye, "Are we going to get going, granny, or what?"

"Yeah, let's go."

---

To: whitestripes

From: KitKat

Subject: F The World

Get out of there now, damn it!

---

The walk was mostly silent. This was a surprise, seeing as Johnny usually had something to say. Right now he was strangely serious. Finally he said, "How did I get stuck with you?"

"I think that it's the other way around. You should feel lucky to be stuck with me. On the other hand, you are like a thorn in my side."

"A fly that won't go away."

"The mole that insists on digging up the yard."

"The prank caller."

"A stalker that can't even be stopped with a restraining order," Rogue finished.

"Hey." Johnny gave her a look, "Are you calling me a stalker?"

"I'm merely stating a fact."

"I have never stalked you!"

Rogue shrugged, barely resisting her urge to grin, "Not yet."

"Not ever!"

"That's what they all say."

He raised one of his eyebrows, "Who are they now?"

"Those who have been caught under my southern charm," Rogue smiled at him.

The overall effect of the smile seemed to be more overwhelming than she thought it would be. The flame boy just stood there staring at her, as though the strangest thing in the world had just happened. Then, whatever had fallen over him was shook off and he followed her again, ignoring the strange looks she was casting on him.

"Southern charm my ass," she heard him mumble as he passed her, as if uncomfortable with the thought of walking beside her.

"Your ass has no southern charm."

"It's just looking for a charmer." Johnny shrugged, but was unable to keep the perverted grin off of his face. Rouge twisted her face in disgust, but finally let out a little giggle.

"That's disgusting."

"Not as disgusting as your mom was last night."

Suddenly any air of joking that had been around them evaporated into a puff of smoke. Rogue knew that Johnny was confused, but she wasn't about to clue him in on her life. The last thing that she needed was his pity, for anything in her life.

"So…" Johnny started, "What's your power anyway."

She was silent. Reed knew what her power was. So far she hadn't gotten around to telling the others exactly what was so bad about it. For some reason, it felt like if she told them what her power was, it'd be like taking the easy way out. But her power wasn't exactly the easiest thing to handle.

"I mean, it can't be anything too stupid. Not if you're going to get the cure."

No, she supposed. It wasn't exactly what she would call stupid.

"Are you getting the cure?"

His interest in her life took Rogue by surprise. Where was all of this coming from? Sometimes he would ask her random questions about her life, but they seemed like the teasing sort of things that she really didn't consider answering. Now, there was an extremely apparent interest in her.

Finally, she told him, "It'd be for the best. My power makes things extremely… hard for my boyfriend. He's cool about it and all, but most of the time he doesn't want to deal with it."

"So what is your power?" He skipped around asking about her boyfriend. Rogue studied him. Out of all things, that seemed to be a center of interest for him. The fact that he was ignoring it made it seem as though all those times her laptop went missing… was he reading her mail?

"Have you been rifting through my stuff?"

A confused look crossed over his features, "No. What are you talking about?"

"My laptop has mysteriously gone missing, then you say you'll help me find it and it magically turns up? You've been reading my mail!"

"What are you talking about?" Either he was an excellent actor or he really didn't know.

"Never mind. It's not important."

"You think someone has been reading your e-mails?"

Rouge nodded.

"It's probably Sue. She has this curious side to her," he said nonchalantly. Something told her that he was acting. He knew exactly what she was talking about and was trying to avoid the subject. Right now he was even blaming others!

As she was about to argue with him more, something hit her. One of the people whom was slowly becoming important to her was laying out somewhere injured. And all she could think about was her laptop. Suddenly, Rogue was disgusted with herself.

Footsteps came quickly behind them. Johnny seemed too lost in his own thoughts to notice. Unconsciously, she started to peel her gloves from her fingers, dreading the feeling of air on her skin. At the moment she was dangerous.

Spinning, she met the man behind her head on.

The man was bald and wearing strange glasses on his head. He was grinning maliciously, as if waiting for something to happen. Instead of flying at him, Rogue waited, giving him a glare. She was daring him on. But, she couldn't help but notice that he had the same aura as the man… Bentley… whom she had met earlier. Although he lacked the facial hair, their eyes were the same, as were their skin tones.

The patter of Johnny's feet moving further and further away came to a stop. Finally he seemed to realize that something was going on. He spun around, "Hey, who are you?"

The man grinned and shook his head, "Are you looking for something… or someone?"

Rouge could feel her fingers tighten into a fist. She asked, "How would you know that?"

"Just a guess." There seemed to be a lot of guesswork going on that night.

Johnny edged closer, "What do want?"

"Me? Oh, nothing. Wait… seeing you dead would be a nice one."

"I don't even know you."

The man didn't seem to care, "I'd be careful, Human Torch. What happened to your friend may happen to you."

"What happened to my friend," Rogue heard Johnny whisper. "Where's Ben? Where's Ben Grimm?"

Again, the man didn't seem to be paying attention. She could have sworn that she heard him giggling slightly. Clearly he didn't know that Johnny wasn't the type to let someone walk away. Especially not after the information he just revealed.