All in all, the place was a dump.

The plastic was faded. Glass surfaces were scratched. The metal deck had dents, bulges, and even holes in it. Here and there were suspicious stains that were either very bad coffee stains or … blood.

Sharing this information with the X-Men proved to be a problem. Adepts at Astral travel can communicate telepathically with practically any mind that is not psychically protected. The competent can share their thoughts with those they are closest too.

Me … well, not so much.

Try as I might, I couldn't communicate anything to Rogue. Remy heard nothing. (I devoutly hoped he wasn't doing something embarrassing to my body.) I tried Hank without much hope… and got the results I expected.

Zilch.

It's sort of embarrassing to be a scout when you can't communicate your results back to the troops…

I was debating heading back to the others to report what I had seen so far—confident that my connection to my body would surely bring me back "home"—when I saw something that made me pause.

A … robot?

It was easily eight foot tall. With purple and blue body armor and a face that was a mechanical parody of a human one. It moved slowly … and was miss an arm. It didn't look like a recent "wound" because it appeared to have had sort of repair attempt made – wires were taped off, metal edges were rounded …

Like the Helicarrier, he had obviously seen better days.

After a few minutes, I saw another one. This one was whole in body, but his face was half torn off. He had a peculiar half-lurch, half hopping gait.

And then another who was carrying his head…

Within the span of about ten minutes I had seen at least a dozen of these semi-wrecked robots.

But not one human being.

This was important.

I didn't quite know why, but this was important. I could feel it in my bones.

Of course how was I supposed to tell the X-Men that?

Returning back to my body seemed like a good idea but I wasn't sure that I wouldn't find out something else if I kept on.

Damn.

Indecisive me.

This was why I clearly wasn't cut out to be a hero. Can you imagine Captain America or Iron Man having this problem?

I had to talk to the X-Men!

Okay. I couldn't communicate telepathically. But my astral form and physical body were still connected. Perhaps I could speak through my body while still remaining outside it … of course it wouldn't do any good if I weren't able to hear …

I decided to go for hearing first …

After a moment or two, I seemed to hear something. It was as faint as a lover's whisper in the dark, but I could make out words…

"You sure you don't want Remy to carry him, Cherie?"

"Ah've got him, Remy. Kyle needs to be looked after while he's doing this."

"You think that Remy wouldn't look after him?"

"No, sugah. Ah know you and Kyle are friends. Ah just … Ah wouldn't feel right about it." I heard a faint sigh. "He's doing this for me. If anything happens to him …"

"Kyle, he a grown man, Cherie. He makes his own choices just like we all do."

"We've trained for this, Remy. This is how we live. This isn't what Kyle wants. It's not what he came here for."

"We don't know what he came here for," Remy observed. "But life has a way of sending us where we should be, no?"

"I don't suppose the two of you remember that we're trying to be stealthy…"

"Sorry, Henry. Remy will try to be more quiet …"

"That'll be a first, Cajun," I whispered.

"Kyle! Are you back with us, mon ami?"

"Not yet. Just checking in to let you know what I've found out so far. No people yet but the ship seems full of purple and gunmetal blue robots."

"Sentinels!" Rogue whispered.

"Mutant hunting robots," Hank explained to me. "Be very careful, Kyle. They are quite formidable."

"These look like they should be hanging out at a junkyard. In fact, the whole ship looks like it's about 500 miles from a breakdown."

"I had noticed the same thing though we have not yet encountered any of the mechanical mutant hunters," Hank said. I still couldn't see what was going on where they were, but I could hear his gear making beeping noises as he fiddled with it. "In fact with the power readings I am detecting it's a wonder that the Helicarrier is able to remain in the air, much less hide itself from conventional detection."

"That's good, right? Means that they'll have a harder time stopping us?"

"I distrust a mystery, Kyle. I recommend that you not head for the normal prisoner cells. Go to the engineering deck."

I had a feeling that I knew why Hank was making that suggestion, but I didn't bother to spell it out. And it also made me rather nervous about the potential outcome of our little quest. "On it. Be back soon."

"Be careful, sugah."

"I'll do my best. I've counted my cash, Remy, so don't get any ideas!"

"Bah. Remy never stoops to stealing anything under four figures, mon ami."

And I snapped my mind back to my astral body.

Whoa. That felt …weird

Since we had started at the bottom of the Helicarrier, it didn't take me too long at all to find the engineering deck.

Nothing beats being able to float through doors, walls, and up elevator shafts.

I could see the … engines? Reactors? Batteries? … that connected to the rotors and antigravity units that kept the Helicarrier in the air. Most of them were offline—they were dark, their monitor screens shattered, disconnected from the rest of the Helicarrier.

In the center of the deck, though, was a large … cage. Thick cables were attached to the cage which fed back to the engines that were still active. The cables pulsed with light.

And in the center of the cage was a girl. A girl wearing a helmet that also had a cable attached to it—a cable that led to the other cables attached to the cage.

Blythe.

The girl we had come to rescue.

She was the power source.

She was powering the entire Helicarrier all by herself.

Assuming the X-Men could get past the Sentinels that stood between them and the engineering deck we just had one more problem.

Having found her, how on Earth could we remove Blythe from her cage without sending the whole Helicarrier crashing to earth?!

.