Chapter 26

Bayville Streets

After climbing over the first car Ellie realized what she was doing. She was being reckless by diving into this mess without thinking. Smoke rolled around her body as rain started to fall from the sky. She covered her mouth and nose with one hand as she found the second car, an SUV.

It was raised up against the bus in an impossible position. Ellie wasn't going to be able to climb over this one. Seeing an obstacle of defeat in front of her played with her mind. She wasn't able to do anything about this accident. All she was doing was making a fool of herself. A small voice caught her attention.

"Help! Please help us!" a little girl yelled from one of the bus windows. Ellie stared up into her frightened face and her courage began to return.

Ellie looked at the SUV in front of her once more. If she wasn't going to be able to climb over it, she was going to crawl under it. Ellie dropped to her stomach and began to combat crawl the way she had seen the X-Men do in the training session a few days earlier. She could feel the smoke scratching her throat and stinging her eyes as she shimmied beneath the car. She stopped and tried to figure out where she could exit from below the car when she heard the creaking.

Her heart began to race as she heard the steel bending above her. The heat from the car's undercarriage was warming her body as it began to slide down from its original position. With her vision impaired and her body wedged against the ground, Ellie felt a fear she hadn't felt since escaping from HYDRA.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she waited for the weight of the car to crush her body. She heard the car fall to the ground and opened her eyes. She was surprised to see Kitty next to her on the ground between the cars.

"You okay?" Kitty asked.

"Thanks to you I am," Ellie pointed out as she tried to calm herself down. She used her inhaler to try and clear her lungs.

"We're not in the clear yet. Those people are still trapped."

"I'll take care of that!" Fred yelled as he ran past the two girls, slamming his body against the SUV in front of them with a force great enough to move it away from the bus. Kitty gave Ellie a confused look.

"What's the Brotherhood doing here?" Kurt asked after teleporting himself beside Kitty and Ellie.

"The Brotherhood?" Ellie asked. "You mean they all came?"

"No sign of Quicksilver yet," Evan interrupted as he ran up to the side of the bus. "Let's get these people out of there."

Ellie watched as Evan used a spike to bust open a window on the bus. The opening was big enough for young children to be passed through, but the adults and teenagers were still trapped. She watched as Kurt teleported in and out of the bus retrieving people each time. These were real heroes.

Unsure of how she was going to help her friends, Ellie got off the ground. A second explosion occurred, catching her attention. The SUV Blob had moved seconds earlier was now in flames, and Ellie knew what was going to happen next. The car exploded, sending pieces of tire and glass flying everywhere. Ellie covered her face with her arm as a flaming piece of tire came flying her way.

"I've got you!" Eli yelled as he placed his body between his sister and the tire. Ellie looked up just as Eli turned his hand to water and caught the tire, extinguishing the flame almost instantly.

"Nice catch," Ellie said. Eli threw the debris to the side and turned toward her.

"I am so mad at you right now, but the lecture can wait until those people are safe."

"What do we do?"

"I'm not really sure."

"I thought they were teaching you how to be a hero at that school?"

"You can't teach someone that. You either are a hero or you're not."

Ellie stopped for a moment and took that in. Eli seemed to have matured a bit more than she expected. They were wasting time by talking, though. Ellie ran to the bus doors and went to pull them apart.

"Careful!" Scott yelled. "The doors are extremely hot!" Ellie gave him a smirk before looking at her hands.

Flames covered her palms and she tried to ignore the burning sensation she felt. She grabbed onto the doors and pulled as hard as she could, the seal melting and making it easier to open the doors. When the burning became too much for her, Ellie released the doors and her hands returned to normal.

"Well you got it open a little bit," Scott pointed out. "We need someone small to get inside."

"Got it," Ellie said as she pushed her body into the small space. The heat from the doors seeped through her shirt before she tumbled into the bus. She picked herself up and looked at the many frightened faces in front of her.

"Everyone listen up!" she yelled. "I need you all to help me out a bit. Kids get out first, then adults. We're gonna kick out that back door."

"It's wedged closed!" one man yelled back. "When the SUV rear ended us it warped the door seal somehow."

"Well it also cracked the glass. Everyone move to the front of the bus!"

Ellie ran to the back as the passengers scrambled to the front. She leaned her head out of the window Evan had broke earlier and yelled to Lance.

"Lance, we gotta bust out the back window!" she called. He nodded and ran to the back of the bus.

Ellie stood in the aisle way, facing the door. She took a few deep breaths as her heartbeat flooded her ears and waited. She felt the ground rumbling, and the glass shattered. Ellie placed her hands out in front of her body and sent a powerful burst of air toward the door, sending the shards out of the bus to protect the people inside.

"Kids, let's go!" Ellie yelled, waving them forward. She stood back as they fled out of the back of the bus and into the arms of the Brotherhood and the X-Men. When the last adult had left the bus Ellie started down the aisle way.

With only a few steps left, the bus lurched forward, making her fall back. Ellie quickly sat up in watched in horror as the sides of the bus began moving closer to one another, the seats breaking and cracking in the process.

"No, this is impossible!" she yelled to herself. The sides were now touching, closing off the back door entirely.

Ellie could feel herself hyperventilating. She grabbed onto her chest with both hands as her eyes started to water. Her mind was racing with horrible thoughts as she ignored the alternate exit on the bus. Luckily for her, someone was already on their way to remind her.

Ellie felt herself being scooped up into someone's arms and taken out of the bus just as it was completely crushed against the building. The X-Men and Brotherhood watched the giant bus fold up into itself without explanation. Ellie was set back on the ground and she looked to Pietro.

"Y-you showed up," she said, shaking. Pietro shrugged.

"Whatever," he replied.

"And the lady of the Brotherhood lives!" Toad happily exclaimed as he grabbed Ellie. Eli pulled him off her with one hand.

"Ahh!" Toad yelled. "Blob, hit him! Hit him in his handsome face!" Eli put Toad down and gabbed his sister.

"You could have died," he said as he hugged her close to his body.

"Could have," Ellie pointed out.

Eli looked over at Pietro who was staring at the twins. The boys locked eyes and Eli exhaled heavily. He mouthed "thank you" to Pietro. Pietro furrowed his brow at the large boy before regrouping with his housemates.

"Did you see that?" Kitty asked Kurt nearby. "The whole thing just crushed itself like a soda can!"

"I know, how strange," Kurt replied.

Pietro looked to the dark sky and squinted. He looked around for a few seconds before his eyes landed on the person who caused the whole incident. Standing on top of the building that the bus was now crushed against was his father, Magneto.