(AN: To those of you asking about Kurt's teleportation powers... the short answer is that he doesn't really know about them. It'll come, don't worry. :) )
Everyone in the Boarding House leapt forward and crowded around the TV screen, shoving against one another to see. Kurt, still hanging from the light fixtured could barely see it through Lance's hair.
The video replayed, once again showing the hulk that was Fred lumbering across the screen. If one squinted, one could see something dark thrown over his shoulder.
The woman in the jacket reappeared on the screen and said gravely, "The local authorities have been given descriptions of this mysterious thief and are working on identifying..."
The screen fuzzed over completely. Lance immediately reached out and whacked the set. The picture flickered back into focus.
"In the meantime, all citizens of Bayville are warned to be vigilant for the escaped animal. If they encounter it, they are encouraged to keep calm, keep their distance, and contact the authorities immediately."
The image changed again, and this time, Master's dark features appeared on the screen. Kurt's hackles went up.
"I just ask that, whatever happens, he not come to any harm," said Master. "I just want him back safely. You know how pets are… he's like a child to me."
The woman returned. "While its trainer assures us it is not naturally aggressive, animal control has announced that it will be searching for the animal, just to be safe. Once again, average, untrained citizens are advised to keep their distance and contact help if they spot the animal. We'll be keeping you updated as the story unfolds. Until then, this is Emily Hawthorne, Bayville News."
The image changed again, this time to a sharply-dressed man, who started talking about some sort of cooking competition. However, the Boarding House stopped listening.
"Shit!" Lance shouted, slamming a hand into the set. The screen fuzzed out, but no one was paying attention. They were too busy bracing themselves as the floor started shaking ominously. "I can't believe they saw you! We're gonna be in deep shit now!"
Kurt's light fixture cracked and broke loose, and he toppled down onto Fred's lap. The big guy casually dusted Kurt off and set him on the ground.
"Lance-calm-down-before-you-kill-us-please!" Pietro zipped over to Lance's side and tried to make soothing sounds. Lance shoved him away, but the shaking stopped.
"S'like the lady said, yo. They ain't IDed Freddy yet."
"And it's not like you boys haven't tumbled a couple cop cars before," Boom Boom added. "Since when do you care?"
"I'm not worried about the cops," Lance said irritably.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Everyone froze where they hunkered around the malfunctioning TV set. As one, all six turned their faces toward the door.
The doorbell rang again.
Lance sighed the sigh of one about to begin a chore to end all chores. Then, he pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the door. Everyone else stayed seated in the TV room, leaning back slightly so they could still see Lance through the doorway.
Lance sent a last glance over at them, then opened the door and crossed his arms.
"Summers," he greeted coldly. "What the hell do you want?"
"Don't play dumb, Alvers," said a new voice from the other side of the door. "You know exactly why I'm here."
Lance scratched casually at his chin. "No, don't think I do. If this is about that Boom Boom chick last night, I've already given Toad the riot act, so you don't need to butt your ugly face in."
"This isn't about Tabitha—although now that you mention it, you all deserve a good kick in the tail for that. I'm here because the Blob is all over the news for stealing something rather suspicious."
"What, a freak show freak? Yeah, I saw the news too. But what the hell would we want with some blue-dyed monkey?"
"I don't know… but I'm going to find out."
"You do that, Summers. The rest of us will just be minding our own business while you spend another day in paranoia-ville." Without waiting for a reply, Lance slammed the door in the other guy's face. He glared at the wood for a while, even as a vehicle could be heard starting up and driving away outside.
After a while of sitting in tense silence, Kurt finally broke it. "So zhat's a Summers."
Tabitha and Todd both burst out laughing, and the tension broke.
"Yeah, foo'. That's a Summers."
"Believe it or not," Tabitha added, "there are two of them. But the younger one doesn't have a stick up his ass."
"Yeah-but-everyone-knows-Summers-the-elder-wants-Jeanny-to-be-a-Summers, if-you-know-what-I-mean."
Todd laughed again as Tabitha catcalled. Fred grumbled something under his breath.
Lance walked back into the room. "Hey, shut up, morons. He'll be back, and he'll have his whole dweeby crew next time."
"So what?" Tabitha sang, settling lazily back on the couch. "You boys can handle all those boy and girl scouts just fine, from what I hear. And with me and Blue here, those tight-asses don't stand a chance."
"Who-said-you-were-on-the-team?"
"I did, Speedy." She closed her hands together, and produced one of her exploding balls, tossing it up and down casually. "You got a problem with that?"
"Meep."
"Awesome." Tabitha tossed the ball at Todd, and it smoothly flew into his over-shirt.
Todd looked down on it with sudden horror, but before he could react, Lance had grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and booted him into another room. There was a popping explosion and a "YIPE!" and Todd reemerged a moment later with his hair askew and a smoking hole in his shirt.
"So," Tabitha said, kicking up her feet. "It's Saturday. You guys got anything planned?"
"We need to go 'shopping'." Lance said with a sigh. "Badly."
"You guys have money?"
"Nope. But the way we shop, we don't really need it."
"Ahaha. I get what you're saying." Tabitha sat up again. "Sure, let's go 'shop'. I've been wanting to hit the mall."
With that, everyone starting picking themselves up, dusting fallen plaster off their clothes. Kurt rose into a crouch and padded after the others as they headed into the front hall to gather wallets and bags.
"One question, yo."
Lance groaned and turned to Todd. "What?"
"We ain't just leavin' him here alone, are we?" Todd's thumb jerked toward Kurt, and Lance's brow furrowed.
"Yeah-we-can't-exactly-bring-him-into-the-open-can-we?"
"An' if we keep 'im here," Todd finished, "with the X-men an' stuff lookin' for 'im…? He'd be one fried furball, yo."
Lance rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then suddenly slanted a glance over at Fred. "Blob, you still have your duffel bag from Ironback Survival Camp?"
"Uh… yeah. I still got it."
"Great." Lance grinned down at Kurt, whose tail started twitching nervously. "It's time to see just how flexible Nightcrawler really is."
Tabitha grinned. "Yummy."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Contrary to Pietro's expectations (and probably most laws of physics), the furball actually did somehow manage to contort himself enough to squeeze into the Blob's duffel bag without any suspicious lumps or fur sticking out. Despite himself, the speedster was impressed.
They hit up the mall, committing random acts of vandalism and having a rowdy good time. It was just like old times, +2.
Tabby, psycho that she was, was actually pretty fun, providing an exciting counterpoint to Lance's standard macho leader routine. Pietro had rarely laughed harder than when she casually blew apart a hotdog cart, leaving everything within twenty feet covered in nasty mall hotdogs. Or when she and Toad had rigged the elevator to jerk up and down like some sort of theme park ride. They had all been stifling giddy laughter when the mall cops had finally showed up to help the "trapped" teens off the malfunctioning elevator. The Brotherhood rounded a corner and burst into laughter just as the cops were pulling out the yellow tape.
The furball spent most of the time curled up in the duffel bag around Fred's shoulder, but Pietro occasionally spied a yellow eye peeking out curiously. Every half hour or so, they found a quiet spot where they could let Kurt out to stretch and look around, at which point the furball volleyed off question after question. What were those ladies doing standing in the store windows? How did money work? How did someone know what size clothes to buy?
The best part was when they snuck into some high-budget action movie and sat in back with their legs thrown up on the seats in front of them. They all took turns harassing the couples making out in the seats below, even Tabby, and Todd amused himself by stealing candy and popcorn with his tongue while people weren't looking. Kurt stayed relatively quiet, crouched on the floor in front of them and peering up at the screen with wide, awed eyes. He was entirely absorbed in what was on the screen, and it occurred to Pietro that the fuzzball had never seen a movie before.
Pietro wondered idly what it would be like to have that sort of isolation, that some lame mall was so fascinating. He felt a pang of distant guilt, but violently shoved it aside. She was gone, dammit,
They all ate their share of half-eaten pizza, discarded cinnabons, and exploded hot-dogs. Pietro was rather surprised by how much Kurt ate… while perhaps not up to Freddy's standards, he could definitely out-scarf the rest of them, easily. When Pietro pointed this out, the furball just smiled sheepishly and said something like, "Vell, you'd eat a lot too, if your caretakers starved you as a form of punishment."
That shut Pietro up pretty quick.
Their outing was cut short, however, when they had a run-in with the X-geeks.
It was afternoon, and the Brotherhood was casing the food court for easy meals. Then, they spotted familiar forms around a two-piece table, a feast of fast food spread out in front of them. Summers was sitting forward, talking animatedly, his burger untouched. Jean Grey sat next to him, poking at her fries and rolling her eyes at intervals. Across the table from them was Kitty-Cat, who was munching on a salad and occasionally responding to Summers. Next to her was Rogue, who sat back and glared darkly at her chicken wing basket. At the end of the table between Jeanny and Rogue, stuffing his face with greasy pizza, was Evan Daniels.
Pietro could feel that twitchy, adrenaline-filled rush coming over him… the one he always got when Daniels was around. Shredhimhurthimmakehimcry…
All Lance had to do was send the rest of them a smirk, and they all nodded. With that, their leader strode forward casually, the rest of them trailing behind.
"Heya, Pretty Kitty," Lance said, dropping himself into the open seat at the end between Kitty and Summers. He took a baby tomato from Kitty's salad and popped it in his mouth. "What you staring at, Summers?"
"L-Lance!" Kitty said, a smile tugging at her features, and her hand reaching up to fluff her ponytail. "Like, what are you doing here?"
Pietro was sure there was going to be more to that conversation, but he stopped caring. Target locked. You may fire when ready.
"Well-well, how's-it-going-Daniels? Gotten-kicked-out-of-your-fancy-Institute-yet?"
Just as Pietro had known he would, Daniels flew off the handle right away. His rival turned to glare at him, raising an arm menacingly. "Lay off, Pietro! I'm eating!"
"Oooh, snappy-comeback-as-usual."
("Ack. Toad, please don't slime my fries. I'm trying to eat them."
"Yeh, I know. So am I.")
"Like I need to be snappy to match you."
"You-could-never-hope-to-match-me-Daniels. In-anything."
("Ooh, chicken wings! Yoink!"
"Tabby, yeh joined them? What are yeh thinkin', girl? Don't make the same mistake Ah did.")
"You talk big, but I'm part of the team that keeps winning. You're nothing but hot air, man."
"Not-as-hot-as-the-air-that-blows-out-your-'bad-boy'-ass-every-time-you-scarf-yourself-full-of-this-crap."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Let's-put-it-this-way… Toad-smells-better-than-you-do."
("So what do you say to you, me, and a movie, Kitty-Cat?"
A giggle. "Lance! I'm, like, totally supposed to be watching you for anything suspicious right now!"
"Aw, don't hate me just because Summers is a paranoid pansy."
"Take a hint and leave, Alvers."
"Was I talking to you, boy scout?")
"Also, your-jump-shot-is-slipping."
Daniels's chair scraped as he jumped out of it and got himself in Pietro's face. "That's it! You, me, right now!"
And it went as usual from there.
Five minutes later, the Brotherhood was embroiled in a no-powers battle in the middle of the mall food court. Blob had Summers in a headlock while Kitty tried to pummel him from behind. Rogue was keeping Lance busy while Jean tried to talk a bored-looking Tabitha into returning to the Institute. Pietro was, of course, focused on Daniels, which left Todd free to kick whoever got in range.
Ten minutes after that, all ten teens were being escorted off the premises by mall security. Once outside, the two groups spent a long minute glaring at one another, then turned and pointedly headed off in different directions.
It wasn't until the Brotherhood had been walking for a couple minutes that Fred suddenly stopped. The others paused when they noticed (but not before Toad had run into Lance's back and gone sprawling onto the pavement).
"What's up, big guy?" Tabitha asked curiously.
"The bag… I took it off during the fight. I don't think I picked it up again."
Everyone stared at Fred in silence, slow horror creeping over them.
"You left the furball," Lance said slowly, "who half the city is looking for, and who has no chance of blending in, alone in the middle of the busy mall on a Saturday?"
"Yeah."
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then, Toad swore colorfully.
"Well, let's go back for him," Lance decided.
"Forget-him. I'm-sick-of-the-mall."
Lance threw Pietro a hard look, which made the speedster bristle. "No way! We gave him a codename: that means he's Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood sticks together."
"'Sides," Fred added. "I like 'im."
"Me too," Tabitha added. "If Blue's staying, I'm definitely staying."
Pietro crossed his arms stubbornly and pointed out, "They're-not-exactly-going-to-let-us-in-through-the-front-door-after-the-fight-we-just-had."
That made everyone pause. Pietro didn't bother to hide his smug grin.
Lance finally made an executive decision. "Then we're not going in through the front."
"Yeah!" Toad whooped. "I love doin' it the back way, yo!"
Tabitha coughed to hide a laugh, while Pietro gave Toad a speculative look.
"You-know-I-always-suspected."
Toad realized what he'd said and went an odd mix of green and red. "'Ey, shut up."
Lance gave everyone involved a shove. "Come on. Let's go suit up. Something tells me this day isn't over yet."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Kurt, for his part, was starting to get worried. Fred had set him under the table when things had exploded with the other group (the "X-men" or "X-geeks" the guys kept referring to, if he'd heard right), and he'd been content to watch and try to understand what they were fighting about. He couldn't really figure it out… both sides seemed to get riled up over little things.
But then, security had shown up and walked everyone out of Kurt's hearing range. He'd been in enough carnivals and fairs to know what security did to people who fought on the fairgrounds… they were escorted off and usually banned.
The Brotherhood wouldn't be coming back for him.
He fought not to fidget in the bag, since he was still in a very public place. Certain muscles were beginning to ache from being bent in odd positions, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. If he so much as twitched, he might be discovered.
After about five minutes sitting alone under the table, two pairs of tennis shoes walked right up to him.
"Huh," a male voice said. "Someone left a bag here… do you see anyone, Millie?"
"No," said a female voice. "Should we, like, call the mall cops or something?"
"Um… nah. There's a lost and found down by the information desk. We can just take it there."
"Ooooh, you're so thoughtful, Jason."
The bag was hefted off the ground, with some staggering from the person carrying it.
"Oof."
"Do you need any help?"
"Nah." The boy's voice was strained, but full of bravado. "I can handle it."
"Okay…" the girl sounded unsure, but nonetheless headed off through the mall. The boy followed, and Kurt was afforded a rather impressive view of the girl's wiggling miniskirt through his little zipper eyehole.
Two minutes later, he was dropped rather roughly on a desk, and a woman wearing a vest and nametag tugged the bag towards herself.
The boy was breathing heavily. "Someone left this in the food court."
"Thank you," said the vested woman. "I'll put it in the lost and found."
The young couple walked off, leaving Kurt with the woman.
She tried to tug the bag toward her again. "Jesus. What's in this thing?"
Kurt's hackles went up as the woman's hand went for the zipper. Scheisse.
The tell-tale zzzzzzzzzzip sound was a death knell, and Kurt tensed, everything coiled and ready. A moment later, the woman screamed, "OH MY GOD!" and Kurt burst into motion.
He tore out of the bag, landing in a crouch on a marble desk attached to a circular kiosk in the middle of the mall. The mall extended off in two directions, lined with outlets and shops. In one direction, he could see the umbrellas and tables of the food court. There was another story above him, the balconies accessible by a staircase a hundred feet away.
Gasps and screams arose in all directions as mallgoers saw him, and the lost-and-found woman stumbled back and fell behind the desk.
"Oh my god! What is that thing?"
"Stay behind me, Anna."
"It's that animal from the carnival! I saw it on the news!"
"Someone call the cops!"
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!"
Scared, staring faces all around… it was something he was far too familiar with. Some were pulling out cell phones, while others were running in the opposite direction or hiding in the nearby stores. Most, however, just stared.
Kurt fell into the performance automatically, growling and baring his fangs for the crowd. He paced a circle on the desk, looking for an escape route… but he was entirely surrounded. And now he could see mall security coming for him from both directions. No escape…
…except up.
He leapt up and climbed to the highest point of the kiosk, to much flinching and gasping from the crowd. Master had always taken advantage of the way he climbed—like he was crawling across walls and ceilings—to help disconcert audiences. It was just one of many things about him that freaked people out.
He paused at the top of the kiosk to look below him. The security officers had reached the desk, and some were climbing over it. The lost-and-found lady continued to cower under it.
Then Kurt looked up and did some quick judging. There was no way he could reach the high, arched ceiling… but the second-floor balconies were within easy jumping distance.
He coiled his legs and exploded forward, latching onto the balcony and climbing easily over the guard rail. The security patrols shouted from below.
A new series of gasps and shouts rose around him as he landed on the second floor, but Kurt ignored them. He scampered on all fours through the crowd, dodging around most people before they had even registered his presence, trying to put distance between himself and the nearest staircase.
A speaker buzzed on overhead, but instead of introducing him like he was used to from the fair, this announcer had a different message for the crowd:
"Please remain calm, but by order of the Bayville police department, all customers and personnel are required to evacuate the building. Everyone, please file toward the nearest exit in a calm and orderly manner."
Everything burst into panicked motion around him, and the mall became anything but 'calm and orderly.' Kurt suddenly had the challenge of dodging through stampeding crowds. He got kicked several times and nearly run over by a stroller before he decided to take to the walls.
And that's what he did, hopping up to scamper sideways along the wall… which of course evoked more screams. (He wasn't doing anything! Why was everyone so scared?) He could see mall cops heading toward him in front of him, and swiftly changed direction to crawl across the arched ceiling. Security was left standing against the guard rail as Kurt dropped down on the balcony on the other side of the mall. Then, he was off again, dodging and weaving like a dog through traffic.
The mall was emptying. This meant he had fewer obstacles to deal with as he dodged through the building, but it also meant that the guards too had an easier path toward him. Suddenly, he turned a corner into a service hallway, and saw a new set of uniforms heading toward him.
Animal control.
He skidded to a stop halfway down the hallway and bared his fangs with a growl, just as they noticed his presence. They raised their various props—nets, electric prods, and a large wire cage—but Kurt refused to be afraid. These were things for capturing an animal, and Kurt was no animal.
The animal control people carefully stepped toward him, and the guards were closing in behind him at a run. He made a quick decision and charged toward the animal control ops. They fell into ready positions and prepared their various props for an animal attack.
Except that Kurt wasn't attacking.
At the last minute before he would have run into the animal control wall-of-pain, he coiled his haunches and leapt, bouncing off the wall above them and sailing clear over them. In the moment they took to recover, the security staff collided into them, catching both groups in a painful, vaguely electric tangle. By the time the two groups had recovered, Kurt was long gone.
Kurt found himself in a small, cold maintenance hallway, full of crannies and malfunctioning fluorescent lights. In short: it was the perfect place for him. He crept along the ceiling, flitting into closets and side hallways whenever a mall staff member happened to run through. Everyone was certainly in a rush: whether to find him or to escape him, he wasn't sure. Either way, each patter of running footsteps was a reminder of why he couldn't go out in public, and why he was so lucky the Brotherhood had found him.
His goal was to escape this mess and somehow return to the boarding house. If he could evade capture. And if they still wanted him, after a mess like this. There were quite a few "ifs" in the situation, but he really couldn't afford to dwell on them right now.
He paused at a fork in the corridor. The left path went on straight a ways, and had a janitor's cart in the middle of the way, equipped with mops, vacuums, and rows of chemicals, just like the carts at the fair. The right path, however, had all of its lights out, and turned about twenty feet ahead. It was an obvious choice which one would be easier to hide in, so he headed down the right corridor.
However, something didn't feel right. His stomach started tying itself in knots, his heartbeat speeding into an irregular rhythm. Had he heard something? No, there was a scent. Something… no, it was gone. Maybe he was imagining it?
He stopped halfway down the darkened hallway and turned partially around to look behind him, back the way he'd come. His only movement was the ponderous swishing of his tail, and the only thing visible in the shadowed corridor was the glow of his eyes.
Everything was still. Even the sounds of footfalls had faded away. The only thing Kurt could hear was his own shallow breathing.
Carefully, Kurt turned back and continued down the hallway. He had just turned the corner at the other end when he thought he heard a squeeaaak. He automatically leapt up onto the wall and clung close to it, peering behind him again.
Nothing.
Was?
He was imagining things; he'd lost the pursuers. He needed to relax and get out.
He let himself drop from the wall and scampered swiftly around the corner. His heartbeat was speeding up all on its own, and Kurt raised his pace to match. Soon enough, he was sprinting down the darkened hallway at full tilt.
There was a scent. He was sure there was.
He ran under a single flickering light: the only light in the hallway. Then, just as fast as he'd begun, Kurt pulled up, skidding across the cement floor, his eyes wide with fear.
A dead end. There were doors on either side of him, but he didn't need to try them to know they were locked, because that scent was getting a lot stronger, and this time he recognized it.
Corn dogs. Hay. A hint of musk.
Nein… NEIN!
"You didn't think I'd let you go that easily… did you, my rebellious demon?"
Kurt whirled. There, a burly silhouette to anyone but the mutant, was his master. He carried a snare pole—a leash loop on a long metal pole—and wore the self-satisfied smirk of a cat who had just caught its mouse and had every intention of playing with its food.
Kurt's hackles rose as high as they could under Todd's shirt, and he backed away unconsciously. He could hear a high-pitched whimpering sound filling the hallway, and Master certainly wasn't the one making it.
"Now come here like a good little monster, and I'll take you back where you belong."