New chapter... The team is in big troubles, but even though the're going through hell, no one is ready to face the consequences in telling Logan, or any of the teachers actually. They wanna prove that they're able to fend for themselves, and actually survive the challenges ahead...
Now is that smart or just stupid of them? Leave a review and tell me what you think. Would you do the same, or would you be able to come up with a better plan? Do you think you would be able to survive, maybe take the leader role, or would you stay in the back, just praying to not getting killed? Maybe call the grown ups?
This chapter is gonna focus a lot on the new character and her background, since she's kinda important for the plot ahead...
I don't own x-men...
09:35am
Everyone was asleep except the new girl, who was sitting at the auburn campfire looking at nothing in particular.
Kurt was the first one to wake up.
"... Uhm, good morning? How long have you been awake" He asked while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"I haven't been sleeping." Raegan answered plainly.
"Really? How come?"
"I don't sleep much, comes with the powers. I've been guarding, protecting you." She kept her sentences short and fast paced.
"From what exactly?"
"Not important right now."
"Okay?... I'm thirsty, do we have any water left?"
"A little bit, but not much."
"Dammit, why does it have to be so hot out here, I'm sweating like crazy!"
"Were all sweating Kurt." Kitty was the next awake, and had apparently been listening in on their conversation.
"I know, but having a fur isn't helping." Kurt informed as he took off his T-shirt. For some reason this morning started up warmer than the others had.
"So, how is it like, having a fur I mean." The red head asked slightly interested.
"Its a nightmare!" He declared while dramatically throwing his shirt backwards.
"What about the place you come from, how's that?"
"That's a nightmare too" Rogue broke in, still lying down but with her eyes open.
"No it isn't. Well school maybe, but then there's so many other cool things." Jubilee interjected.
"Like what?" She was getting curious.
Like the food. There's ice cream, sodas, Candy, then there's things like sandwiches. Oh, not to forget pizza!" Kurt bubbled, clearly missing the kitchen most of all.
"What's pizza?"
"Oh it's great! It's this thin bread with cheese and tomato. You can put pretty much anything on it! Trust me, you'll love it!"
"Yeah, you're so gonna try it when we like, come back to the Institute!" Kitty squeaked.
"That sound's wonderful! But, are you sure this professor of yours will let me in?"
"Of cause he will, he loves new students, you'll fit in just fine!"
"Yes, you will." Scott promised.
"Yeah, but you'll probably be on our team to begin with. No new mutants get's to be a real x man on their first day." Ray stated. Now everyone was awake, and feeling slightly homesick...
At the Bunker
Two men in military clothes and shotguns hanging behind their backs was standing outside the bunker where Bobby's team had gotten themselves trapped inside.
"So, you said the alarm had gone off inside the extermination chamber?"
"Yes, that's what I was told."
"You do realize that whoever got trapped in there is dead now, right?"
"… Yes, I'm aware of that."
"Good. Then let's get this door opened and get that poor dead fella out of there."
They slowly opened the heavy door. Once it was open, they turned on a flashlight.
"Uhm, not for sounding stupid, but shouldn't it be, I don't know, colder in here?"
"Now that you say it, it isn't as freezing as I thought it would be…"
One of them went inside while the other held the door open.
He slowly looked around, looking for the infiltrator. Instead of finding what he believed would be a grown up man, he found four teens, one of them covered in what could only be a thin layer of ice.
He led his hand on each of their necks to get a pulse. They were alive, even the big ice cube.
"Danny boy, you aren't gonna believe what I just found!"
"What is it?"
" Four unconscious but alive kids. I can't believe how anyone could survive in here! One of them is half frozen though! Stay put, I'll get them out!"
"Great, but what are we gonna do with them?"
"We'll give them to the hunters, then they aren't our problems anymore, and we won't get our asses kicked..."
Back at the camp
Rogue was standing beside Raegan who was sitting by herself, watching and listening to strategies for finding the lost team members.
After a while, Rogue finally sighed and sat down.
"You aren't coming home with us, are you?"
"I'm not sure Rogue, you all seem cool and all but, I fear I might not be ready to leave this place. I have a mission I have to fulfill you know, but maybe, when that's done, I will come and make a visit?"
"And you still won't tell me what this mission is all about, will you?… Whatever it is that is so important, please get it over with, and join the team."
"You really want me on your team?"
"Yeah. You know, there's a lot of things I would like to show you."
"I guess everyone have something they want me to see. Kitty keeps talking about this quicksilver dude. We apparently share some similarities… Your world sounds so peaceful, and quite amazing."
"Sometimes. But you know, not everything is a dance on roses, they sure have a lot of thorns too."
"I guess, but sometimes you just have to focus on all the good things. You know, you won't live forever, so you have to make the best of the time you have left, don't waste it on something stupid, or something you don't like...
Can I tell you something? I wasn't gonna tell anyone, at least not yet, but I feel like I can trust you."
"Sure."
"Well, you know how your heart starts pounding faster when you run or when you release adrenaline?"
"Yeah, I know that feeling."
"Well, me too, in fact, my heart beats faster than any normal humans does. My heart beats 95 times per minute in average, which is normal, but it beats much faster when running. My body was supposed to be made to endure my high speed and heartbeat, which once came all the way up to 258 times per minute. The bad thing is, that I'm not made perfectly. As you said, you have flaws. My heart can't continue working on such a high speed. I love running I really do, and I can run pretty fast without endangering myself, but I can't risk running at full speed anymore, because then I would risk a heart failure.
I couldn't believe it when they told me. I was scared, and for a long period, I didn't wish to ever run again, but I couldn't help it. it's a part of me. The feeling you get when everything around you stands still, ready for you to do with it as you please. It's a feeling of raw, but deadly power.
They began to take DNA samples, hoping to find a way to increase my hearts stability and capacity. Their research showed up a terrible conclusion.
You see, I won't live much longer than the age of thirty, if even I get to live that long. They wanted to make more tests, make me perfect, make my heart stronger, but there were too many risks. I ended up neglecting their experiments, but that didn't stop them. I wasn't anything but a project, I didn't have a saying in anything, I wasn't a human being with human rights, and I tried to escape many times, but it never succeeded.
But one day, one of the only professors I felt close to, a young man, the one I saw as a family member helped me escape, and I've been out here ever since. All this was about a year ago."
"Wait, I don't understand. You said something about being a project?"
"Yes, I was. To be more exact, a weapon. I wasn't the only one growing up as a human made weapon, and that's why I let you trap me Rogue, because I need your help. These people aren't gonna stop their experimenting just because one of their projects escapes, they have many other projects, projects that will destroy our kind.
They are making super humans, super mutants, indestructible weapons. They wish to use mutants against mutants. They aren't good people, some few of them maybe, but then it's on coercion.
This is why I can't leave. Many lives is in danger, and I know the place in and out, if I leaved without ruining their plans, then a lot of human beings would be doomed. I wouldn't be able to live the rest of my tiny life knowing all this people had to suffer. Because of me…"
"Where's this place? Who's the leader of this?"
"The facilities aren't too far from here, about twenty-four kilometers or so.
The man leading the place is called Stryker."
"Stryker? Who does that name sound so familiar?"
"I don't know, I can't remember ever seeing you here."
"But I'm sure that I-"
Rogues thoughts got interrupted by a sudden yell. The bushes to their left began to shake, and out of it came Rahne. Her clothes was ruined, her hair was frizzy, and her eyes yelled out terror. She was holding a weak and sweating Tabby, who was whining about feeling terrible.
"Rogue, t-thank god, I- I need your help." Rahne was panting hardly, looking like someone who was gonna faint anytime now.
"What happened? Where's the others?"
"N-not too far from here, t-they couldn't walk a-any longer. T-they're really sick, I-I need help to get them, I need help to…"
Rahne suddenly fell forward, taking Tabby down with her.
"I'll find them, stay put!" With that Raegan took on her aviator styled goggles ad ran in the direction they came from. Rogue sat down beside the two girls and let a hand on their foreheads.
"Kitty, Kurt, Scott, anybody, come quick!"
…
Raegan was back within seconds, holding all three ill looking students. She let them down on the large blanket beside the other two.
"… What happened to them?" Ray asked as he limped toward the group.
"I've made a fast examination of their bodies: their eyes are red, they're drooling, having a fever.. Besides that their clothes is ripped apart, and I've found a trace of fungus and moisture. If you ask me, I think they've paid the caves a visit, maybe even slept in there. This looks like tick bites, the ticks might have been infected with a Borrelia spirochete. I think we're dealing with tick-borne relapsing fever. Not sure though." Raegan described fast paced as always.
"And that's bad?" Jubilee asked this time.
"If they don't get any treatment with a tetracycline or macrolide antibiotic, it won't be pretty. Hopefully they aren't gonna die. You see, they'll experience 1 to 4 episodes of fever before illness resolves. "
"And you know this because?" Kitty questioned.
"I grew up with scientists all around me, I was a curios kid, and I'm a fast learner."
"Okay so, if what you're saying is true, then what kinda symptoms do we have to look out for? Besides the fever." Scott inquired.
"Headache, confusion, myalgia, rash, chills, jaundice, nausea, hepatomegaly, arthralgia, splenomegaly, vomiting, conjunctival Injection, abdominal pain, eschar, dry cough, meningitis, eye pain, nuchal rigidity, diarrhea, photophobia, and neck pain."
"Nothing else?" Kurt asked, impressed that she was able to remember all that.
"Like that wasn't enough. I hate this place, it gives me the chills." Kitty replied.
"I don't hope so, that was one of the symptoms." The new girl remembered her.
"No way, don't you try scaring me. I promise you I'll get you stuck in a tree If you do!"
"Fear you have to catch me first. And you know, I can get a Kitty cat stuck in tree too."
"I swear you're getting annoying!"
"Guess that's just one of my traits. Can't run away from it. Trust me, I've run away from many things, but there's just some races you can't win. Now let's not get side tracked. We need something we can cool them down with."
"We don't really have anything cold here, Bobby and his team is still missing you know." Kitty reminded her.
"… Then I might know a place…"
Things aren't looking to great, but at least everyone's alive... Leave a review, maybe with an answer on the questions I asked in the beginning of the chapter...
Reviews = A happy author...