Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.

Weee! I love the idea I had for these next couple chapters. I hope you enjoy the game! I just had to write it up quickly, so lucky everyone, a second chapter!

To Kali3310: Yeah, those two are pretty cute. Beast shall be hanging around the school a little more often if you catch my drift :p

Chapter 34

Days began to grow warmer, everyone had decided to quickly forgot about the incident at the dance. Except for a few of them.

There was a ticking from a clock somewhere in the room. Naomi stared at the ceiling while trying to sleep. It was four in the morning but she couldn't hold still. She rolled over in bed again then sighed. Finally she got up, pulled a jacket on and went out to see Circuit. The night air was sweet against her skin, she lingered for a few moments looking at the glittering sky. The sun would be up in a few hours and they would all vanish. For now she could see them perfectly in the darkness.

She inhaled and closed her eyes, then opened them again, this time they were white. Everything was more defined as she looked around, darkness was deeper, lights were dimmer in the distance and brighter the closer they were, and none of it was out of focus as far as she could tell. She blinked and let it return to how it had been before. A part of Naomi knew that was how she should always see things. Being able to see the shadows of bats flying over head, the slightest movements in the trees... she didn't think she could handle it all the time. She hurried to the garage.

He answered the door rather groggily, he scratched his bedhead hair and looked at his watch. "Late night run in with Sparky?" he asked through a yawn.

She shook her head, "I just can't sleep. Sorry to wake you though. I thought you'd know if I can get into the simulator room at this hour."

Circuit blinked, his eyes adjusted and re focused again, "Well, yeah. But not alone." he walked back into his room then returned in a black shirt with green matrix designs down the front and jeans rather than boxers and a white shirt. "What do you want to do?" He closed his door while tugging one arm into a jacket.

She shrugged, "I want something challenging."

He walked down the few stairs to the garage floor then turned, "I have just the program." He said with a grin.

Storm had decreed that it was warm enough to open the pool back up and to let students use it. Of course the most important thing to use the pool for was chicken fights and pool parties, but Hart came out in the early morning. A slight curling of steam rolling off the surface of the water, he left a towel on one of the lawn chairs and dove into the water. It wasn't a big enough pool to do full laps in, but two goes around the pool was a full lap. So, he would just have to go fast enough to not be found out by the others.

Hart came in the house after his morning swim, wiping water from his swim in the pool from his face. He looked up and watched a source of agitation, troubled and annoyance coming toward him. He smirked, " It's only seven o'clock Rune what's eating you?"

Said being came into the room and leaned on the wall, he glanced at Hart, "No one knows where Naomi, Sparky, or Dragon are." Rune stated.

Hart sighed, "Sparky went down to the danger room this morning she texted me a while ago. So she's not out eating Naomi or anything. Why are you worried about Dragon?"

"Storm said he missed his training session." Rune stated. "She wanted me to look for him."

Hart sighed, "I'll go ask Sparky if she's seen the two if them. Did you look in her room for her? Or she could be with her Uncle, Beast come down here every other week since she was taken." He paused, "Yesterday she said she hadn't been sleeping well because of it. That was what, almost three weeks ago?" Rune didn't say, "Are you ever gonna tell me what happened?"

"I'm gonna look in her room." he walked away and vanished deeper into the house.

Hart shook his head while walking toward the other stairs, it was quicker way to his room to change and go see what Sparky knew.

Rune knocked on the door, it swung inward. The bed was unmade, the curtains still drawn and the lights out. He flicked them on to get a better idea. He smirked, it defiantly wasn't the room she'd first moved into. She'd hung up a full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door, Beast had gotten her a set of book shelves, Flicker had gotten her a few books for it, to most of their amazement he'd given them to her in person. There was a shoe box filled with various nick-nacks she'd found at the mall or other stores she'd gone to. Rune wandered around the room looking at everything before pulling back the curtains.

There were a few pots with dirt in them sitting on the porch. The chair from the dining room was still sitting out there, along with a fuzzy, blue, uncle with a book in his hands, his glasses perched on his nose. He glanced up at Rune and lowered them slightly. Rune felt a shiver run down his spine as he closed the book and waved a hand for him to join him out in the morning air.

"Good morning, Beast." Rune said calmly.

"Rune," He put the book down on a little side table, his glasses joined the book, "I've been wanting to talk to you, concerning my niece."

He swallowed. "She's an amazing girl." He said simply. He put his hands up behind his head, "And I know she's been through a lot of hard stuff in her life."

Beast nodded, "Yes, on both counts, and if I find out you've been creating more grief in her life, we will be having a more... difficult conversation." He leaned forward, "I do hope you understand."

Rune licked his lips then nodded, "I'm not gonna hurt her. I'm sure she'd beat me senseless before you'd get a chance if I did anything to hurt her." He smiled looking off into the distance. "I think I'd enjoy trying to fight with Naomi." He blinked, coming back to himself and remembering his company, "Anyway, have you seen Naomi this morning, Curse, Ivy, and Siren haven't seen her."

Beast smiled and chuckled, "She went down stairs some time ago with Circuit." He picked up his glasses again and leaned back in the chair, "I'll be watching you Rune. Just so you know." Rune nodded and left the room. Beast's phone went off, he answered. "This is Hank MaCoy, who's speaking?"

"I want to talk to Naomi." The angry, fatherly voice on the other end stated.

Rune opened the door to the simulator room and walked into a hedge. He fumbled and stumbled away from it spitting out leaves. "Rune, I was wondering how long til you got here." He looked down to the left and saw Hart sitting calmly on what looked like a garden park bench.

"What the hell's going on in here?" He asked stumbling over to Hart. The hedge suddenly burst into flames, he jumped away and sat next to the empath. "What's going on?"

"They're playing king of the hill." Hart stated with a smile, "In a labyrinth."

Ivy came up from the floor in front of them, she let spill several colorful words before getting to her feet and running into the maze again. "What the maze is made of shows who's the current 'King'." Hart explained.

"Is Naomi here?"

The maze walls began to fizzle out from the flames as Rune assumed Dragon fought to keep the hill. The last of them drizzled out and the walls turned pitch black. Lights came on over head. "That answer your question?"