Disclaimer: I just got back from my plans to take over X-Men: Evolution; what can I say? I failed shamefully and I have to go now and brood; come up with a new plan…
"…"- conversation
'…'- thoughts
(…)- extra facts/actions (some)
((…))- author's/my own thoughts
'blah…' -telepathy/what people say mentally
Chapter 34: Meeting with Wanda and John, Part 1: Random Incidents
Hallways, Asteroid Evolution, Orbit of the Moon, Milky Way Galaxy- May 16, 4:00 PM
As Lance and Kitty raced through the hallways of Asteroid Evolution, they used their super-speed, x-ray vision, and periodically their wings to move through the complex more quickly, but at the same time using their x-ray vision to look through the walls of and search the numerous hallways they raced through. After about an hour of searching, Kitty was about to give up when she ran into Lance, who had suddenly stopped. She fell to the ground in a heap, and asked, 'Lance, why did you, like, stop?'
'I stopped because Wanda and John are dead ahead. Look,' replied Lance as he looked ahead, and Kitty, once she had gotten back on her feet, looked over his shoulder, hovering a bit in the air with her wings. Indeed, Wanda and John were ahead of them.
'Wait, something's not right…' said Kitty as looked at their backs.
'What do you mean?' asked Lance as he looked at them walking towards a metal door at the end of the hallway. 'I don't see anything wrong.'
'It's not how they look that's wrong; it's how Wanda is acting. She's acting… well, almost like she is flirting with John,' said Kitty as she silently landed next to him, folding her wings across her chest in the process.
'You're serious?' asked Lance incredulously as his head swiveled back to get confirmation of what Kitty had just said. He then turned to face his two teammates. 'Wanda is…flirting! Is that even possible?'
'Obviously, it is,' responded Kitty as she watched Wanda and John chat amiably together, unaware they had an audience. 'I think Wanda likes him. Otherwise, she would probably be hexing him into the wall right now,' added Kitty as an afterthought.
'I think you're right,' said Lance as he watched Wanda laugh at something John had said. 'She must be head over heels for him, because she's laughing,' said Lance as he folded his arms across his chest in thought. He then grinned and asked Kitty, 'Kitty, feel like doing some spying?'
Kitty smiled at this, and responded, 'Most definitely; let's go!' With this thought, the two of them followed Wanda and John at a safe distance, making sure to not get too close to them in case Wanda was able to sense them. They watched as Wanda and John went through a door at the end of the hallway, and Kitty grabbed Lance's hand and phased them through.
Once through, they were shocked to find it was another hallway, but instead of its just having the wall and one door at either end, it was a hallway with 2 fairly large cells, 1 on each side. In each cell was one of the captured mutants, all of which were screaming in pain. Kitty's face went pale beneath her purple skin, and she gasped in shock at hearing her friends' and teammates' screams fill the air.
"Oh my god…" whispered Kitty as she listened to the screams, forgetting entirely about keeping quiet to make sure she and Lance weren't caught. Wanda suddenly whipped around and Kitty covered her mouth to keep herself from gasping again.
"Wot's wrong, shiela?" asked John as he watched Wanda's actions, confusion etched on his face.
"I thought I heard something," responded Wanda as she looked around her, looking for the source of the noise she'd heard. Her hands were glowing blue, and for one of the few times in her life she felt fear.
"Oy didn't hear anythin'," said John as he glanced around a bit uneasily, hoping that Erik wasn't nearby, knowing that he would probably be beheaded by Wanda's father rather then be allowed to date Wanda.
"Something, or someone, is here. I'm sure of it," said Wanda as she slowly backed away from the door that she and John had entered a few moments before. As she was backing up, her hands started to shake with fear at the noise she had heard. She unknowingly backed right into Kitty, who had moved behind her in an attempt to escape the reach of Wanda's hands and powers. Kitty gave a yelp, leapt back, and landed on Lance's foot, causing him to swear. Wanda swung around and fired two hex bolts at the presence she suddenly felt behind her, and was shocked to see that it didn't have any effect.
"What the hell…" muttered Wanda as she stared from her hands to the air before her. She didn't feel or hear John come up behind her until he put a hand on her shoulder.
"Let me handle this, sheila," said John as he positioned himself so that he was in front of Wanda. He pulled his goggles down over his eyes and fired a flame at the space. He manipulated it to form a circle around the space that coincidentally held Lance and Kitty. After a few minutes, he cut the flame and stared at the space, expecting to see something, but was shocked to see nothing there.
"I agree with you, Wanda. Wot in the hell is goin' on…" muttered a shocked John as he pushed his goggles back onto his hair and stared at the blank space. On turning to look at Wanda, he saw that she was just as confused as he was at the situation.
'Kitty, I think we'd better reveal ourselves,' said Lance as he looked from the confused look on John's face to the equally puzzled one of Wanda's.
'Let's,' said Kitty, and she and Lance concentrated on shutting off their invisibility. A few moments later, they materialized in front of John and Wanda, whose faces changed from confusion to fear to shock to recognition and finally to disbelief.
"Kitty… is that you?" asked Wanda softly as she stepped forward and stopped, too shocked at the gargoyle whom she knew as Kitty Pryde and her friend in front of her.
Kitty gave a sigh, knowing Wanda's cautiousness was due to her look, and said, "Yeah, Wanda, it's me."
"What happened?" asked Wanda as she looked at Kitty's folded wings and her tail, which was flicking back and forth behind her.
"Lance, mate, is that you?" asked John in shock as he looked from Lance's scaly green skin to his uniform, which was basically the same in most respects to his Brotherhood uniform except for the fact that he recognized the symbol of the X-Men.
"Yeah, John, it's me," said Lance as calmly as he could, trying to hide his frustration. His tail, however, didn't hide what he felt as it was going back and forth like crazy, but Lance paid it no heed. He was listening to Kitty tell Wanda and John what had happened to make them both the way they were at the moment, and at the same time thinking about how to tell Wanda and John that they were two of the eight keys needed to defeat Apocalypse once and for all.
He was brought out of his thoughts by John, who said, "Ah, mate, your, uh, tail is swishin' back an' forth like the foyre when Oy pass it back and forth between moy hands."
"Huh?" asked Lance as he stared at John, wondering if he was crazy, but knowing that he was. He was surprised, however, when Wanda covered her face with her hands, sighed, took her hands off her face and smacked John across the head, causing him to swear.
"Ow, sheila, wot was that for?" John asked Wanda, glaring at her as he rubbed his head, and on seeing her glare right back whimpered a bit.
Wanda merely rolled her eyes, crossed her arms across her chest, and said, "John, you idiot, it was because you were acting stupid and idiotic again."
"But sheila, I thought that was wot you liked 'bout me," said John as he stopped rubbing his head and looked at Wanda with his blue eyes.
"Well, I… I mean, that… well…" stuttered Wanda as she uncrossed her arms as she tried to regain her composure and stop herself from blushing at the same time.
"Yeah, Wanda, what is with you and John?" asked Kitty wickedly as she grinned like the cat that ate the canary. Lance saw the look on his girlfriend's face and sighed, knowing what was next. He slowly backed up, and, racing behind John pulled him away from Wanda.
"Nothing is going on between me and John!" screamed Wanda as she threw a hex bolt at Kitty, but stared in open-mouthed shock as Kitty moved at a speed that equaled Pietro's and stopped to Wanda's right.
"Kitty, how did you do that?" asked Wanda, as she shut her mouth, put her hand back at her side, and turned to face Kitty, disbelief etched on her face.
"Well, super speed's one of the many new powers that Lance and I have now," said Kitty as her grin faded a bit at having to think how she and Lance were stuck permanently in their gargoyle forms.
John turned to look at Lance, realizing that he had just been saved from possibly getting hit from one of Wanda's hex bolts. He grinned at Lance, walked to stand beside a still shocked Wanda, and turned to face Lance and Kitty.
"You mean that both you and Lance have these super-awesome powers now, sheila?" asked John as he looked back and forth from Kitty to Lance, and noticing Lance's face darken yelped and hid behind Wanda. She sighed and stepped to the left, leaving John open for attack in case Lance decided to attack him for something he had said or done.
"Yeah, that's right," said Lance as he stared at John and sent him a thought: 'John, if you ever call my girlfriend "sheila" again, you will be in for a hell of a lot of hurt.'
John yelped as he held his head, nodded quickly at Lance, and tried once more to hide behind Wanda, who sighed again but this time just stayed in front of him.
'Lance, relax. "Sheila" just means "girl" in Australian; nothing more,' said Kitty as she relayed what Lance had said to John to Wanda, who was looking highly amused now that she understood the situation at hand.
"Sorry 'bout that, John. Guess I got jealous," said Lance as he sheepishly stuck his hands in his pockets.
"That's okay, mate. Just remind me to not get on your bad side again, 'kay?" John replied with a grin that to some may have looked a bit psychotic on his face as he came out from behind Wanda and stepped towards Lance, holding out his hand in both apology for his words and friendship. Lance took it, careful to make sure his claws were dull, and the men shook hands. Lance caught John staring at his hand, and quickly pulled it back and hid it in his pocket. He ignored the surprised looks of both Wanda and John, but Kitty flashed him a sympathetic look.
"Now Wanda, what is with you and John?" Kitty asked as she turned her attention to her gothic friend and grinned her "Cheshire Cat" grin once more, looking at Wanda expectantly.
Wanda sighed, knowing that she could not escape Kitty's interrogation anymore, and said, "All right, listen to what I say, because I swear that I'm only telling this one time, got it?" At Kitty's eager nod, and a reluctant one from Lance, Wanda sighed and began to explain how she and John had hooked up.