Chapter 12: Memories are a tricky business
A couple weeks had passed since the Juggernaut attack and everyone was really starting to get into a rhythm. Well, most of them.
One such person was Kitty, who was currently writing an email to her parents about the Institute so far. Right now, she was writing the parts about Rogue and Gavin.
"First there's my roommate Rogue, and she's not exactly the most friendly in the Institute. Which makes it hard to get close to her, though if we're being honest that's probably more healthy." The valley girl typed as her roommate combed her hair, which was starting to get longer as of late ever since the Sabertooth incident.
"Then there's Gavin, that guy's a total vampire fanatic, and really into horror stuff. Not to mention he's a car junkie, he's always asking Scott or the Professor to let him do work on their cars, and usually when he does it usually either goes horribly wrong or works a little too well." Kitty continued to type as she walked by Gavin's room and saw the pseudo vampire feeding Brownie from the palm of his hand. The sight caused her to smile a bit.
"I won't lie, though. He does know how to look after his pet bat, Brownie. It took a bit to get used to in regards to having that little guy around, but I like seeing him hanging about the place now. It's actually hard to be scared of something so small and cute." She typed as she went on her way.
She kept trying to find a place to find some privacy, but always kept running into the others everywhere she went. This was temporarily remedied when she went into the kitchen where Wolverine was.
"Then there's mister Logan, he's cool and all but, he isn't exactly the most talkative of the teachers. He's really leaning into the whole 'lone wolf' vibe he gives off all the time." She wrote as she looked at the man as he read the newspaper, causing him to look back at her.
"What's the matter half pint, am I readin' too loud for ya?" He asked her while drinking from his mug of black coffee..
Kitty immediately turned her attention back to her laptop. Sadly, it was at this moment that everyone else came into the kitchen for breakfast. It got slightly worse when Logan decided to turn on the TV.
As the story played on the TV, Logan turned up the volume and then suddenly started clutching his head, as if he was being struck by some sort of sudden unseen migraine..
As he clutched his head, he started stumbling his way out of the kitchen. Everyone else looked on with faces of concern, not knowing what was going on.
"Logan, is something wrong?" Scott asked, but got no answer as the scraggly man left.
Gavin watched the man leave and looked at Kitty who was also rather confused. "What's up with him?" The boy asked.
The girl shrugged as she left the room. After breakfast, everyone was getting ready for school, so Kurt went to go get Kitty so she wouldn't be late.
(Later…)
Though he never did come back, and neither did the intangible girl, which kinda worried the rest of the others.
"Okay, something's happened." Gavin declared, having not seen a single hair of Kurt nir Kitty all day.
"Why are you so worried? They could've just gotten lost or something." Rogue shrugged.
"I'd always worry if any of my friends went missing, I mean who knows what could happen to them." The boy told her. "I mean, I lost track of you for one minute and the next thing I know you're in the Brotherhood." He added ruefully.
Rogue sighed as she looked at Gavin. "That wasn't your fault and you know it." She stated.
"I know, but I can't stop myself from worrying." The horror fan replied. The two then went to their lockers and grabbed their things for their next class.
(Elsewhere)
-Airspace halfway between Bayville and Mt. McKenna-
Chelsea was flying in the direction of where she assumed was Bayville, however she wasn't entirely sure because she didn't exactly have the best sense of direction, and the directions she got from people along the way weren't exactly what you'd call 'helpful'.
As she flew in her dragon form, she then suddenly had to barrel roll out of the way as a huge black jet blasted past her, the dragoness just barely managing to avoid a full on collision.
She growled at the audacity of the pilot and chased after the aircraft, intent on giving them a piece of her mind.
(Meanwhile)
-Bayville High-
"Wait, so they've seen a what in the Rockies?" Rouge asked Gavin as everyone was eating lunch together, and oddly enough, Devin decided to join them.
"Yeah, I don't really believe the claims myself, either." Gavin replied as he ate his lunch. "I mean an actual medieval dragon, straight out of Arthurian legend in the Rockies? Yeah right." He laughed.
"I don't know, word is it's already claimed the lives of eight people already." Devin noted, recalling seeing a story about it on Fox News the previous week.
"At least there's evidence of its existence. What are they gonna do about the dragon, though?" Evan asked.
"Honestly? I don't know, I just hope they don't kill it. I mean, for all we know it could be the last of its kind." Gavin shrugged.
"Ah second that." Rogue nodded.
"You guys do realize that there's a possibility of this dragon being some kind of experiment, right?" Scott asked.
"How do you figure, Summers?" Devin inquired.
"Recognize this symbol?" Scott asked as he showed everyone a picture he had gotten from the same article about the Dragon, it was of a badly melted metal chest plate sitting in what looked like a giant reptilian footprint. The chest plate having the image of a green skull with tentacles.
"No… Can't say I have." Gavin said, shaking his head.
"Me neither." Added Rogue.
"I have." Devin nodded grimly, causing everyone to focus their attention on him.
"Really? What's the group using this symbol called?" Scott asked curiously.
"HYDRA. The Yakuza sect my grandparents are a part of have had run-ins with them from time to time." The boy explained. "They're an old Remnant of the Nazi regime that's hell bent on world domination. And recently, they've shown interest in mutants, more specifically for experimentation and breeding in order to create the perfect weapon or soldier. They abduct mutant kids and keep them in labs as personal guinea pigs." He finished.
"Tch. Even in death, Hitler somehow finds ways to screw with the world." Gavin muttered bitterly with a scowl.
"Well if this dragon really is a mutant who's being hunted by these HYDRA goons, then I think it's in our best interest to lend a helping hand, right guys?" Jean asked the group.
"Right." The rest nodded in agreement.
(Elsewhere)
-Mt. McKenna-
Chelsea landed just a couple yards from where the jet that almost blew her out of the sky had landed, and after inspecting it, she concluded that whoever was in there, wasn't anymore. Sniffing around, she noted that three people were in previously in it, one that smelled of girly perfume, one that had a furry musk to it, and the third was a rugged, manly smell that had clear tones of alcohol and cigar smoke in it.
These, though, were all things Chelsea liked for a guy to smell like. Licking her lips and now elongated teeth, she then started to follow the three new scents to their sources.
"Whoever these people are, something tells me one of them is probably gonna be the real studdly type." The woman said to herself as she trudged through the snow.
-With Kurt and Kitty-
Things were not going well for the two. They had unwittingly stowed away on the X-Jet with Logan, who was going through some mental problems apparently, and now whatever was going on had caused him to join up with Sabertooth. Currently, they were on the run from the two animal themed mutants who were determined to rip them apart.
Both ended up having to split up to avoid getting caught, Kurt easily evading the larger mutant with relative ease by teleporting to the tops of trees, only for said larger mutant to start climbing up after him.
"Oh great, I forgot vat cats could climb!" The blue mutant yelped as he teleported again to a lower branch, but was then lunged at by Sabertooth from above.
Kurt braced himself to teleport again, but found that he didn't have to when Sabertooth was swatted out of the air like a fly and slammed into a tree. He then teleported to the ground to see what caused his pursuer to go flying.
The thing that caused this chain of events to occur was soon revealed to be a massive red Arthurian Dragon, straight out of a D&D monster manual. It looked down at both the boy and his attacker, and snarled at the latter, it's pearly white teeth gleaming in the daylight.
Kurt looked at the dragon with wide eyes full of fear, which was justified given it was obviously angry. Granted, the anger wasn't being directed at him, but his self preservation instinct made him fearful of the giant creature in front of him, regardless.
Sabertooth recovered and, upon seeing the angry dragon glaring missiles at him, froze. He looked at the massive beast with a fearful look of his own, not expecting something like this to happen today. Then again, no one expects to see a dragon in real life at any given time. Therefore, he did the one thing any sane person would do.
"Forget this, I'm outta here!" The blonde man exclaimed before running off. "No kid is worth getting my ass eaten over!"
Kurt looked up at the dragon and smiled nervously. "Guten Tag, my name is Kurt Vagner, vhat's yours?" He asked the giant fire breathing lizard.
The dragon looked down at him before it slowly started to change size and shape and become none other than Chelsea. Kurt looked at the dragon turned human with an understandably surprised look on his face.
"Hi, name's Chelsea Marks. You look like you could use a hand with something big." She introduced and observed with the blue skinned boy in front of her nodding dumbly.
(Elsewhere)
Elsewhere with Kitty, she was currently being chased by Wolverine and was nearing a very steep cliff. Her desire to both not die and not harm her mentor kicking in, she turned to face the man as he backed her up to the very edge of the cliff, claws deployed.
"Mister Logan, wait!" She yelled, causing the man to stop right in front of her, his clawed hands at either side of her head, and shaking rather frequently.
This moment of hesitation allowed the girl to slowly start to remove his mask, making him look at her in the eyes so she could try and talk him down.
"Look at me, mister Logan. It's me, Kitty. Half-pint, remember?" She asked, hoping to get through to him. "This isn't you, whatever happened, you're fighting it right? Come on, would you really wanna hurt me?"
The man, who was trying very hard not to give the girl a lobotomy, struggled to slowly retract his claws as he fell to his knees in what appeared to be mental exhaustion. Kurt chose this moment to appear along with Chelsea.
"Kitty, are you alright?" He asked, checking his friend over for injuries.
"Relax, I'm alright." She assured him before noticing Chelsea. "Like, who's that, Kurt?" Kitty asked as she gestured to the new arrival, not knowing that she had saved Kurt from Sabretooth.
"Oh, this is Chelsea, she saved me from Sabertooth, and get this, she's a mutant too!" The boy told her, pointing at the Draconic shapeshifter.
Kitty looked at Chelsea with a quizzical expression. "Are you really a mutant?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
Chelsea smirked before taking a few steps back and turning into her dragon form. She then looked down at Kitty, who looked up at her with her mouth agape. Logan, despite his mental exhaustion, managed to look up at Chelsea with a shocked expression of his own.
"... Okay, I, like, have one question right now, and that is: ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" Kitty started before shouting her question.
Chelsea turned back to her normal form while smirking. "Oh this is real kiddo, you can be sure of that." She then turned her attention to Logan before licking her lips. "Say blue, who's tall, dark and handsome over there?" She questioned, pointing at the feral mutant.
Kurt blinked at what the she-dragon asked before shrugging it off. "Oh, vat's Logan. He's the main reason we're out here." He introduced the scraggly man.
"Ya know I kin hear ya, right elf?" Logan growled as he got up. "Anyway, come on, there's one more thing we need to do." He told them as he looked at the lab in the distance.
(Elsewhere)
-Xavier Institute-
"... And that's basically the gist of our theory, Professor." Scott said as he just finished explaining what he and the others had discussed at school that day.
"Hm… Yes, I can see why you think this is a possibility. If this dragon is a mutant, we must extend our hand to him, or her." Charles declared after thinking it over.
"Most eye witness reports say it looked female, so I'd say we're dealing with a girl." Jean noted.
"Great, just what this place needs, more estrogen." Gavin groaned as he sat in his usual upside down position, arms crossed.
"Regardless, if this woman was subjected to the kinds of horrors that HYDRA is capable of, we are to be her sanctuary." The bald telepath said with his fingers intertwined.
"No arguments here." The pseudo vampire shrugged as everyone nodded in agreement.
(Meanwhile)
-Mt. McKenna-
The group of four had just made it to the Weapon X lab with Logan using his claws to open the door. After that, they walked right in and were greeted by Sabertooth and an old scientist in a black coat.
"You!" Wolverine growled as he deployed his adamantium claws.
Chelsea meanwhile turned her own arms into claws and scales covered her face as her eyes narrowed. "So, you were a lab experiment too, huh? I thought there was a reason I liked you." She said while hissing at the dark cloaked man, fire puffing out of her mouth as she spoke.
Logan decided to ignore Chelswa's flirting for the moment. "I have a question for you, and that is: Who ordered it?!" He asked, referring to the experiments he was subjected to.
"That's not my area to say, but I will say this. Don't do this Logan, you're too valuable." The man told him, which made Chelsea roll her eyes in annoyance.
"If I had a buck for every time I heard that..." She said before breathing fire at Sabertooth, who had at that moment decided to lunge at her. "Why don't you just shut the fuck up already? No one cares."
"Why you…!" The blond man growled before he had to dodge another stream of fire.
The man took advantage of the fighting to set a meter to maximum, which resulted in Logan experiencing a roaring pain in his head. Kitty saw what had happened and decided to do something about it.
"I see what's going on!" She exclaimed before phasing through the console, causing everything to short circuit.
"No! What have you done?!" The man yelled in dismay.
"She fried that mother fucker, that's what!" Chelsea laughed as she joined in and started setting the place on fire.
Kurt immediately grabbed Kitty and teleported away, leaving Logan and Chelsea alone with the mad scientist since Sabertooth had taken the moment to flee the exploding lab.
Logan walked up to the man and threw him into the damaged control panels. "The weapon X program is terminated." He growled.
Chelsea smirked as she grabbed the man by the arms and locked him into place with some broken metal. "And you're going down with it, douchebag." She smirked as both then took this moment to flee, the woman turning into her dragon form.
(Elsewhere)
Kurt and Kitty saw the lab explode and leave a smokescreen behind. The two were hoping Logan and Chelsea made it out in time.
After a few minutes of waiting, they heard footsteps coming towards them and looked to see Logan making his way to them, his costume torn in several places. For some reason, Chelsea was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Chelsea?" Kitty asked.
Logan collapsed to his knees in exhaustion. "She's… Headed to Bayville, apparently she was headed there before we almost crashed into her with the X-Jet, and now she's finally gonna get there." He then let the kids help him get into the jet. "She was also trying to find the Institute, so I gave her directions to get there." He finished as the kids set him in a passenger seat.
"Vell then, I guess ve'll have to say hi to her the next time ve see her, huh?" Kurt chuckled as he set the autopilot to home.
"Yeah, I guess so elf, I guess so." Logan nodded.
(The next day)
Chelsea walked out of a motel she had stayed in after she got to Bayville, and was now going to go to her final destination, the Xavier Institute.
"Alright X-men, hope you're ready, cuz imma coming." She smirked as she started walking towards the mansion that was in the distance, her duffel bag slung over her shoulder.