Disclaimer: I don't own this.
Chapter Six – Mindbender
May 1996
As previously mentioned, Saturday mornings were cherished in the Xavier Institute, because it was the only morning no one had to wake up for an early morning training session.
There was something wonderful about Saturdays, Kitty thought to herself sleepily. As always, her internal alarm clock woke her up at the stroke of six, she sat bolt upright in bed, then realised, with a soft smile and a yawn that she didn't have to get up for at least a couple more hours.
Sinking back into her pillow, she rolled over, burying her face into cool blankets, blocking out the faint sunlight streaming in through the curtains.
Then, with all the subtlety of a train wreck, the PA system crackled into life.
"X-MEN, UP AND AT 'EM!"
With a startled scream, Kitty jolted awake again and found herself phasing through her bed and falling at high-speed through the room beneath her.
Luckily for her, her room was directly above the entrance hall and Scott, for it was he who had sent out the call in the first place, was able to sprint over, just in time for her to land heavily in his arms, sending them both crashing to the floor.
Awkwardly, Scott stood up and helped Kitty to her feet. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Thanks." Kitty brushed herself down, glancing up as Kurt teleported in with Evan and Rogue. "What's…?"
"Watch yourselves!" Bobby called from the landing, and the five moved back as the stairs turned into an ice slide and the New Recruits slid down, coming to a neat stop in front of them, apart from Jamie, who overshot and hit the wall, multiplying as he did.
Seeing the annoyed expression on Scott's face and the imminent grounding that would follow if Storm and Wolverine arrived, which they undoubtedly would, Amara conjured a flame and melted the ice, before drying it up completely.
"Thank you, Amara." Scott cleared his throat. "Sorry to get you all up and out of bed but we have a situation."
"Which is?" Kurt prompted wearily. "Come on, Cyke; we're all exhausted; that was the week from hell!"
"Jean's missing." Ororo called, hurrying in. "I can't find her anywhere!"
"I know." Scott sighed. "She had a nightmare last night; I heard her call out. When I went to see if she was okay, she said she'd be fine and to go back to bed. When I went to check on her this morning, I couldn't find her."
Once they had searched the Institute and grounds from top to bottom, the X-Men branched out into the rest of Bayville. Kurt teleported to isolated places the others couldn't get to, Evan boarded down to the hospital, fire station and police station, Rogue took a photograph to the mall and Scott drove around, searching for any sign of red hair and phoning school-friends to see if Jean was with them.
Kitty, however, had another idea. Upon leaving the Institute grounds, as Jean had invariably done, there was a choice of two directions. As I have also previously mentioned, the Institute was separated from the town of Bayville by a dense area of trees; Jean could have chosen to walk that way.
Or, alternatively, she could have chosen to turn right onto the narrow lane that served as the nearest road, which would have taken her straight past the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House.
And it was this train of thought that led Kitty to their front door mid-morning, hammering on the wood urgently. "Lance!"
After five minutes of this, there was still no answer, which wasn't really surprising when considering the strains of music clearly audible through the walls.
Sighing wearily, Kitty resorted to walking straight through the front door and following the sound of music and voices and the smell of frying bacon to the kitchen.
At first, her presence went unnoticed, and Kitty took that time to observe the rival team, a fond smile gracing her face; their 'hard' reputation would be gone forever if anyone else saw the picture in front of her.
To the backdrop of heavy metal, Fred was standing at the stove wearing a curiously frilly apron, surrounded by several frying pans. As she watched, he picked one up and flipped a pancake once, before flicking it over his shoulder.
Without glancing up, Tabby lifted her plate and caught it perfectly, before leaning over and snagging the maple syrup from Pietro.
"Oy!" He protested weakly, making a grab for it again.
"You don't need anymore." Tabby told him firmly, almost maternally. "You know what you're like on a sugar-high!"
"Yeah, Pietro." Todd agreed from where he was partly hidden by a cereal box. "You're hyper enough as it is."
"Lance!" Pietro whined.
"They're right, Pietro." Lance said wearily, turning another page of the paper. "Huh. Carnival's left town."
"The carnival was in town?" Pietro asked. "Why didn't we go?"
Lance glanced over at him. "You remember what happened last time I took you lot to the carnival?"
"Yeah." Pietro answered slowly.
"That's why." Lance told him.
"Good morning." Kitty greeted.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Pietro demanded through pancake.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Kitty chided, taking the chair Tabby pulled out for her. "I wanted to ask you if Jean's walked past this morning."
"No." Lance answered.
"Yeah, she has." Pietro corrected. "About five-thirty. You lot were all still asleep."
"What in God's name were you doing up at five-thirty?!" Tabby demanded.
Pietro shrugged. "Once I'm up, I'm up."
"I don't suppose you noticed what kind of mood she was in?" Kitty asked tentatively.
"Now that you mention it," Pietro said slowly, "she didn't seem like herself. I went out there; tried to get a rise out of her…"
"Pietro!" Lance sighed. "What did we decide about not trying to start fights?"
"Hey, I was bored!" Pietro defended. "Didn't work anyway; she just looked straight through me. Like I wasn't even there."
"Why all the questions, Kitty?" Lance asked lightly. "Lost her?"
Only Kitty and Tabby picked up on the worry underlining the question. "Yes." Kitty admitted reluctantly. "She vanished after a nightmare; we can't find her anywhere. Which way was she going?"
Pietro frowned in concentration. "I don't know…I think she turned right at the fork down the road."
Kitty winced; the only places that road led to were the train station and the abandoned quarry.
"Looks like she's skipped town." Todd commented casually.
Kitty pulled her phone from her pocket and hit speed-dial.
"Jean?"
"Bloody hell, Scott; get Caller ID." Kitty rolled her eyes. "Or a life, either way. She was headed towards the train station and the quarry at about half five this morning."
"How do you know that?"
Kitty sighed; this would be the hard part. "She walked past the Boarding House this morning."
"What?! Come on, Kitty; like they're going to tell us the truth; they probably kidnapped her or something…"
"Scott!" Kitty snapped. "Look, would it kill you to take a photo to the train station and ask if they've seen her?"
"No, I suppose not." Scott admitted. "But if she hasn't been there…"
Kitty sighed tiredly. "If she hasn't been there, we're all right behind you. Good luck." She hung up before he could respond and sighed wearily. "I swear, one of these days…"
"Let me guess," Tabby helped herself from the pile of bacon Fred had just dropped onto the table, "he's convinced that we've kidnapped her and are sending you lot on a wild goose chase."
"Yup." Kitty slipped her phone away.
"Why would we want to kidnap her?" Pietro asked. "I mean, what's the point? Sounds like too much work to me."
"Because you're the incarnation of all that is evil." Kitty deadpanned.
"Oh yeah." Pietro nodded. "I'd forgotten about that."
"Speaking of the incarnation of all evil," Kitty continued, "I was under the impression that you all thought I was."
"No, as a group you are," Pietro corrected. "And I'm fairly sure Summers is. Besides, Lance is always talking about you; you can't be that bad."
Kitty glanced at Lance, who flushed slightly. "I'm not always talking about her."
"Yeah, you are." Tabby disagreed. "If you were in playground, you'd be pulling her ponytail and pushing her down by now."
"Eh, we were best friends for two years." Kitty shrugged. "I'd like to think we're past all that."
"That's a good point." Tabby nodded. "Join us for breakfast?"
"If it's not too much trouble." Kitty smiled sheepishly. "I kinda skipped this morning."
"What's wrong?" Lance asked. "You haven't skipped breakfast since Northbrook."
Kitty could see the concern in his eyes and knew what he was thinking. "Nothing like that."
Fred handed her a plate. "Help yourself."
Kitty did. "Thanks."
"Now when were you and Lance best friends?" Pietro asked.
Again, Kitty glanced at Lance, who shrugged. "Never came up."
Kitty sighed. "I can tell this is going to be a long day."
That afternoon, the New Recruits reported to the Danger Room for a training session. This was a very important milestone, since it was the first DR session Iceman had run by himself.
It wasn't supposed to be, but it was.
Unfortunately, the entire team underestimated Multiple, who snuck into the control room and added a few…extras to the session.
Needless to say, he was hiding until Kitty got home, while the others began a search for him and gave up after a few feet, collapsing where they stood.
Bobby and Jubilee were a bit luckier; they had managed to at least reach the couch.
"I am never doing that again!" Bobby groaned, falling to the side, his head landing in his best friend's lap.
"I thought it went quite well." Jubilee commented. "For our first time, I mean. We probably should have waited until we had someone there."
"I guess." Bobby sighed. "But they think I can't handle it. Now I know how Batman made Robin feel."
Jubilee stifled a giggle; trust Bobby to make that kind of link. "You were great, Bobby. I know I was impressed."
"You were?" Bobby asked. "Awesome!" He coloured under her curious gaze. "I mean…you know…you're my best friend; why wouldn't I want you to be impressed?"
"Right." Oddly enough, Jubilee found this answer less comforting than she'd expected. "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we grab a couple sodas and play some video games?"
Bobby shrugged. "Sounds good, but shouldn't we help the others look for Jean?"
"In this state?" Jubilee asked, shoving him from her lap to the floor so she could get up.
"Good point." Bobby stretched and stood up. "Okay, which game?"
"Whichever." Jubilee shrugged. "I'll grab us some sodas."
Luckily for her, the rec room had a mini-fridge, so she didn't have to drag herself to the kitchen to get them drinks.
Under the pretence of flipping through the games, Bobby watched her walk over to it, his gaze falling to her lower back, marvelling how she could move like that subconsciously. She is so beautiful…whoa, snap out of it, Iceman! You're not supposed to think things like that about her; she's your best friend!
Jubilee closed the fridge, balancing two cans in one hand, and turned around, missing Bobby quickly shifting his gaze from her to the games. God, he's hot…whoa, where did that come from?
"Jubes, you okay?" Bobby asked, tossing her a controller. "You look a little out of it."
"Fine." Jubilee answered automatically, settling down next to him, but she wasn't. Every time his hand brushed against hers, it sent a jolt through her.
It was highly distracting.
"Damn, Jubes." Bobby commented after three games. "I just beat you three times in a row; you're normally better than that."
"Just having an off-day, I guess." Jubilee responded softly.
Bobby paused in the motion of changing the game and looked her in the eye. "Jubes, are you sure you're alright?"
"Hmm?" Since when are his eyes that hypnotising?
"Jubes? Jubilee, are you alright?"
Jubilee shook herself from her thought. "Pardon?"
"Are you alright?" Bobby repeated slowly. "You're acting a little weird today."
How do you tell your best friend that you like them?
No, that's ridiculous; I don't 'like' him. It's just a crush.
Just a harmless little crush.
Jubilee smiled. "I'm fine."
The next night, Kitty went to bed as usual, but lay awake, unable to fall asleep. Jean had been found, but she was possessed by an unknown entity and had since disappeared again with Nightcrawler. Between the two, they had managed to steal two rings; valuable Tibetan artefacts.
Not even Professor Xavier could figure out who or what had abducted – was it abduction if they went willingly, Kitty wondered sleepily – their two missing team-mates, so there was no telling when the mess would be resolved. Cyclops and Wolverine were stuck in Washington DC, because the two errant members had 'borrowed' the Velocity from them. And, if all that weren't bad enough, Sara had phoned that day, asking for her daughter.
Once Evan had passed the phone to Rogue, who had passed it to Bobby, who had passed it to Jubilee, who had passed it to Amara, it finally reached Kitty, who faked 'girl troubles' and Sara kindly talked to her about it for over an hour, before having to hang up to leave for an appointment, apparently never realising that Jean wasn't even there.
In hindsight, Kitty realised, it would probably have been better to lie and say she was on a date or something, but – she stretched wearily – it was too late now.
As she drifted off to sleep, she was vaguely aware of getting up again and pulling her Shadowcat uniform from her closet. Something in her mind whispered that this wasn't right, but, before she could heed its call, everything went totally, blissfully black…
The next time she opened her eyes, she was lying in mud, soaked to the skin as thunder clouds gathered overhead. Turning her head to the side with a groan, she realised she was in what looked like abandoned carnival grounds. As she sat up slowly, she could see Scott kneeling beside Jean, Storm helping Evan and Rogue leaning over Kurt; all three of the fallen seemed to be in the same state she was.
Professor Xavier was examining the shell of a circus tent and Wolverine was perched on a couple of crates, watching her closely.
Or maybe…
Kitty glanced to her other side, noticing that Logan's eyes weren't entirely on her. Sure enough, Lance was crouched next to her, concern etched into his face. "Are you alright?"
"What the hell happened?" Kitty asked in response.
"Oh, sure!" Logan snorted, rubbing his shin. "Now you remember!"
Kitty looked over again at Jean and Kurt and a horrible thought struck her. "Oh God…it happened to me too, didn't it?"
Lance sighed. "Yeah, it did, Kitten. Guy called 'Mesmero' apparently. He got away with the three rings; Professor X is still trying to get a mental trace on him."
"But why?!" Kitty asked. "What's so special about those rings?"
"No one knows." Lance's face darkened. "At least not yet."
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Kitty whispered. She pushed herself to her feet, feeling him catch her arm to steady her. "My leg hurts."
"Can you stand on it?" Lance asked, sounding more guilty than he did worried. "I think that may have been me. If it had been anyone else, I'd have just made a small tremor to knock you off-balance, but your powers don't exactly make it easy."
"No, it's fine." Kitty assured him. "I think it's just a bruise. What are you doing here anyway?"
"Rogue came to get me." Lance answered. "Seemed to think I might have been able to get through to you easier. And I guess Summers must really love Jeannie, because he didn't say a thing about it."
Now it was Kitty's turn to feel guilty. "And you did, right? Get through to me, I mean. I didn't hurt you, did I?"
Lance sighed. "Kitten, I'd love to say that you didn't. But the Brotherhood will never let me forget it."
Kitty looked around. "Are they here?"
"No, it was earlier today in NYC." Lance told her. "At a museum."
Kitty raised an eyebrow. "Was it really a good idea to take them to a museum?"
Lance chuckled. "Okay, it was on the roof of the museum. We saw the Velocity and Pietro ran me and Tabby up to see what was going on. I tried to talk you round."
"And it didn't work." Kitty concluded with a sigh.
"Not as well as I'd hoped." Lance admitted, cutting off her next question. "You've got one hell of a right hook."
AN: In the cartoon, I think the second ring was in NYC and the third ring was in Washington DC, but it works better this way; it doesn't really matter. Review please!