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.

Chapter 37

Ivy sighed coming up at another of the entrances. The walls were a blur of shadow and not being there at all. She started into the maze immediately, if Rune won the game would become almost impossible, invisible walls that would press down on the person who crossed them by accident. She sighed, "Who's idea was it to let him play?" she said crossly. Up in the control room Hart sneezed.

Naomi moved fluidly out of the way from a blast of pressure. Rune had knocked Ivy back with a hit like that she'd caught herself with vines and had tried to send more at Rune only to be pushed harder against the wall the vines trying to reach him pressed back against the floor and at her sides. Ivy quickly yelled she was done and was taken out leaving just her and Rune.

Naomi's shadow whips were more effective at moving through the changes in gravity and pressure than the plants had. He made himself float just above the ground in attempts to avoid the shadows.

"Just gonna dodge?" he asked with a grin. Then he jumped to avoid the swipe of a shadowy hand. "Apparently not..." He attempted to push away a second sweeping hand, it wavered in its movement for a moment before grabbing hold of one of his wrists.

"Can't apply gravity to something that isn't effected by it." Naomi said and stuck out her tongue at him. She send another hand at him, Rune sent a wave at her of gravity again. The shadow changed direction and curled around Naomi in a spiral, she smiled at him. "Not as strong as you thought?" She asked playfully as her shadow shot out again and restrained his other arm.

Hart watching from above chuckled, "She's a good opponent for Rune, her shadow can be solid or intangible at her choice." He stated.

Logan smirked, "Seems like she's getting excited."

Circuit turned on the speaker, "Five minutes and the game ends, we have other places to be sometime today." He clicked off the mic and turned to the two of them, "From what Rael tells me she's been training a lot more lately. She won't say why, but I'm guessing she doesn't want to be an easy target again for the Shadow Brotherhood."

Hart shook his head, "She wasn't an easy target for them." He looked out at them, Rune had gotten out of the shadow's grasps, he was throwing blasts of pressure at Naomi, from what he could tell Rune was trying to keep Naomi busy with dodging so she couldn't wrap him in darkness again. "I think she wants to be able to keep it from happening again, she wants to protect her friends."

"How Reckless of her." Rael said closing the door behind her, he walked up and looked out at them, "Three more moves and she'll have him restrained."

Hart blinked and looked out to watch.

Naomi jumped over another blast of pressure, it felt cold against her back as she landed on her hands, she pivoted on her palms and landed facing Rune, he blinked in astonishment. "Where'd you learn that?"

Naomi giggled, "Cat's been showing me." She waved out a hand, from her fingertips came her shadow separated into five parts. Rune cursed, he attempted to dodge them, each one latched onto a different part of him. One for each wrist, one for each elbow and one coiled around his mid-section. "Do you surrender?" She asked letting her shadow drift back from her hand to her feet.

"How could you tell what she was going to do?" Hart asked, "What were the three moves?"

"One," Rael began, "She jumped and landed on her hands, two, she bonded her shadow to her hands, and three she surrounded him with the separated parts." He smirked, "She did it on me yesterday."

From the corner of his eye Hart saw Rune move, he ran to the window and banged on it, "Don't you dare Rune!"

He dragged his foot across the ground and sent out a wave of gravity toward Naomi. Unprepared for the attack she pulled up her shadow like a curtain before her, it seemed to hold for a second then burst sending her flying backwards. The shadows holding Rune released immediately and fled to try and catch the thrown girl. Rune was faster.

She slowed to a halt mid-air seconds before slamming into the wall. Rune ran over to her and caught her. "Dammit, dammit... I shouldn't of done it. Damn it! I thought I could control it."

Naomi was somewhat in a daze as he put her gently down. Her lower right arm was throbbing slightly, she flexed her fingers experimentally. Yep, they worked fine. She looked up at him, "What did you do?"

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, "It's easier to control with my hands, but I've been trying to kick out the same power and it just comes out too strong. Are you okay?"

"You broke my shadow." She stated incredulously. "It's shattered."

Wolverine appeared on the top of the hill, "Games over." He muttered then walked over to the two as the walls dissipated. He smacked Rune upside the head, "You tryin' to kill her? Don't do somethin' if you can't control it." He looked down at Naomi, "You alright kid?"

"My arm hurts," she said softly, "It got pulled when my shadow broke." She waved the other hand out then pulled in tightly to her chest. Bits of shadow came toward her from all over the room and pooled around her, it was a sorry sight if she'd ever seen one, it was barely visible beneath her. Naomi turned her attention to her arm. It had already been black from her other skin cracking away, now where it would normally have a faint glimmer it was dark around her wrist and nearly to her elbow. The glimmer in her skin resumed after her elbow and in her palm. She sighed, "I'm pretty sure it isn't broken though."

"Go get it looked at," Logan ordered, she nodded and stood. Rune did as well, Logan grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt, "Nope, you stay here. As the disciplinary... teacher I'm required to deal out your punishment."

"It was an accident!" Rune said immediately, Hart opened the door as Naomi walked out.

Hart sighed watching her holding her arm, "He always plays too rough with others eventually." Sparky nodded in agreement, "You want us to come with you?"

"I don't have a class for a while," Sparky added helpfully. She'd been trying to make up for her rude behavior at their first meeting since Hart had explained everything to her.

"No, I'm fine. I was planning to visit Nightmare after this anyway." Naomi stated, she shrugged. "I'll just stick around a little longer than I expected."

"Yay! I can't wait for more trying to invade your mind!" Emily said to her mentally. Naomi smiled, the others said their goodbyes and headed upstairs. Dragon came out from the training room next.

"You ok?" He asked. Naomi nodded, "Kay, better not do anything stupid with your shadow in such poor condition." He walked toward the stairs.

"Noted." She walked into Emily's room and sat down. "Can you get someone down here to look at this?"

"This being?" Emily asked.

"My wrist," She closed her eyes and let Emily see what had happened through her eyes. "Please?"

"There should be braces for your wrist with the other braces six or seven drawer from the center. If its just sore or sprained that should help it." Emily stated. "I suggest you let it heal on its own."

Naomi went in search of said brace and eventually slid a black wrist brace on. "Thanks." She returned to her seat, "So, shall we begin?"

Rune groaned and rolled his shoulder while walking down the hall, wrestling with Logan was indeed a punishment. He heard giggling, he opened the door to Emily's room and found Naomi sitting with her back against the legs of the bed Emily lay in. He raised an eyebrow as she held the one sided conversation. The other half going on in her mind.

"Is this a private party?" He asked walking in.

Naomi looked up, "Crap what time is it?" She got up from the floor.

"Twenty minutes since the game ended." He looked at the brace on her wrist and gently took her arm in his hands, he rolled it over so her palm was up, and gently kissed her palm. "I'm sorry by the way."

She began to blush. Rune looked up at her and for a moment just stared. Her skin had cracked across her cheeks earlier and now where the blackness was exposed it was glittering brighter than usual. He grinned, "That's cute." She quickly looked away as the glittering began to increase even more. "Sorry," he waved a hand toward the door, "shall we get upstairs to your class you are clearly late for?"

By the time they got upstairs Naomi had the glittering-blushing back under control. "You are forbidden to tell anyone about that." Naomi ordered.

"What? I think that is such a cute quality in a girl, she glistens when she is embarrassed." he said in a sarcastically dreamy voice waving a hand out dramatically.

She pushed him away from her, "I'm serious, I hear even a whisper of anyone else knowing what happens when I'm flustered and I will bury you up to your nose in the," she stopped when she heard sniffling. She looked over the couch they were walking past to see Cat sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, fresh tear marks down her cheeks. "What's wrong Cat?"

The girl looked up at her and jumped up, she flung her arms around Naomi's neck and began to cry in earnest. "I don't want you to go!"

Rune looked at her confused, "She's not going anywhere Kitten-Cat. Who said Naomi was going anywhere?"

She sniffled and wiped at her tears, "I... I was practicing my sneaking down the halls and... and I heard Storm talking to the fuzzy man. He... he said it would be safer for everyone if Naomi went back."

"Back? Back whe-" Naomi went ridged, she looked down the hall then back at Cat. She disentangled herself from the girl and quickly went to the room where she heard Storm talking to her Uncle. She pushed open the door, the two of them fell silent. "He called, didn't he."