Disclaimer: Okay… I believe that Berzerker gave me a well-deserved electrocution for my attempts to be exactly like him but I believe I'm still feeling small shocks… -OUCH!- Like that. Therefore I believe I have learned my lesson that I don't own the X-Men… at least for now… OUCH!-

"…"- conversation

'…'- thoughts

(…)- extra facts/actions (some)

((…))- author's/my own thoughts

'blah…' -telepathy/what people say mentally

Chapter 26: Evolved Mutants, Instructions, and Resurfaced Fears

Cerebro, Eastern Portion of the Danger Room, Xavier Institute, Bayville, NY- May 15, 1:25 AM

"What's that?" asked Lance as he looked at the lights, and the question caught Kitty's attention and as she turned to look at what had caught Lance's attention, she heard a voice say, "Alert, Alert! Two Evolved Mutants Have Been Detected in the town of Bayville, New York. Mutants Identified as Lance Alvers and Katherine Pryde. Powers are thus…"

As the machine rambled on about Lance and Kitty's full arsenal of new powers, both of whom already knew them, Lance and Kitty stared at the lights, one for each of them, and were shocked to realize that they were indeed evolved mutants. As the computer finished telling them about the evolved mutants, it finished by saying, "What is your next request?"

"Well…" began Lance as he quickly thought of what to do next, when Kitty interrupted him and said "Cerebro, please print out a map from the Xavier Institute for the Gifted to Asteroid Evolution, including the distance and shortest way there."

As Lance and Kitty watched, Cerebro began to hum even louder than it had been previously, and they then saw a piece of paper come out of the machine. The machine then asked, "Is that all that is required?"

"No, I need you to print out all of the information and profiles I pulled up earlier please, and as quickly as possible," replied Lance as he took the paper out of the computer, looked at it, and saw a very complicated map. After a minute, he handed it to Kitty.

"Here, you take it," Lance said, "I think you'll be able to make more sense of it than me."

As Kitty took the map off Lance, they heard Cerebro say, "Task completed. Do you need anything else?"

"No, we're fine. Cerebro, begin shut down process," said Kitty as she took all of the printouts of the information Lance had brought up earlier, and motioned Lance to wait. A few minutes, they heard "Shutdown complete," come from Cerebro, and Kitty motioned to Lance to remove his helmet as she did.

As they walked out of Cerebro, Kitty exclaimed "Man, that was so, like, awesome! I mean, I feel completely fine! When Xavier and especially Jean use Cerebro, they say that it drains them of a lot of their energy, but I feel fine, like nothing happened. What about you, Lance?"

"I'm fine," replied Lance as he looked around once more at the destroyed Danger Room. "Kitty, take a look at that map and tell me how far it is to Asteroid Evolution and the shortest way to get there, will you?"

"Yeah, give me a minute," said Kitty as she stopped walking and took out the map, with Lance looking over her shoulder to look at the complicated map, and after studying it, said, "Alright, here's the plan. We need to take a plane of some kind to get to Asteroid Evolution quickly. From Earth to the moon it's about 240,000 miles or so. " ((go w/ me, ok, b/c I have no clue how far it is from Bayville to the moon, but this is my estimate)).

Kitty looked back at Lance and continued, "We're going to have to take the Blackbird," as she looked ahead and folded the map. She then started to walk foreword again, but stopped when she didn't hear Lance's footsteps behind her.

"Lance? Like, what's wrong?" asked Kitty as she turned to find Lance had stopped dead in his tracks, and a look appeared on his face that scared Kitty a bit. "Lance, are you, like, okay?" asked Kitty as she walked back to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Did you say we have to take the Blackbird?" asked Lance in a soft, high-pitched voice that sounded more like a mouse's squeak.

"Yeah, why?" asked Kitty curiously, and then she realized what was wrong. "Oh Lance, do you still get, like, airsick?" she softly asked.

"Yeah, and that's why I hate flying," replied Lance as he shook his head to rid himself of the memory of the incident that occurred the last time he had been in the Blackbird without a good pilot in control.

FLASHBACK

This had been when he had tried to join the X-Men about 9 ½ years earlier, and he and Kitty had to save Bobby, Jubilee, and Sam when they had taken the Blackbird, the fastest plane in existence, out by themselves.

Jubilee had accidentally fried the controls with her powers and Lance and Kitty had phased into the plane. The small group then had gotten themselves targeted by the military. Kitty had used her powers to phase the whole plane through a mountain. After the plane had been set on course for the Institute, Lance had gotten airsick and had thrown up on one of the seats.

When they had gotten back to the Institute Lance had hastily cleaned up his mess before confronting Logan, Scott and Xavier. After he took the blame for the 3 teenagers, with the 3 of them then confessing to prevent Lance from getting punished, Lance had left, leaving behind a sad and confused Kitty, not to mention the fact that he was confused as well.

END FLASHBACK

'Yeah, well, get over it, bud,' thought Lance to himself, 'you need to be able to fly in a plane without getting sick so that you'll be able to help everyone out and redeem yourself.'

"Yeah, I'm still afraid of flying, but I'll be fine, don't worry," said Lance as he flashed Kitty a reassuring smile, and moved foreword a few steps, then stopped and turned around. "Uh, Kitty?" asked Lance.

"Yeah?" asked Kitty in reply, as she looked at him a bit strangely.

"Where exactly is the Blackbird?" asked Lance a bit sheepishly, and on hearing Kitty give an exasperated sigh, berated himself for not asking sooner.

"Follow me," replied Kitty as she walked past Lance and towards a door at the far end of the Danger Room, which had somehow remained untouched.