This one is short guys. I know I promised a chapter as soon as I hit the magic number, but we had a slight bump that has hindered my writing capabilities for now.
As most of you know, it hasn't been a great month for me. My cousin died on 8/19, then we've had home buying/moving troubles, I broke my toe and now, low and behold my little baby girl, my puppy Faye, died last Wednesday. Ironically, it was the 19th. Exactly one month after my cousin Sammy.
We brought Faye to her new home on Saturday night and spent three wonderful days with her when she escaped from our backyard and ran away. She was found on the freeway, four miles from our house, late that night and we found out on Thursday morning.
So yeah, it hasn't been the best month. I'm beginning to think this story is jinxing my life because I didn't have any problems until I started writing it again.
Guess that means I need to finish it faster, huh?
Anyhow, many thanks to Freak and Psylock for both the great reviews/emails and the words of encouragement.
Thanks to all those of you who reviewed – I'm so sorry I didn't keep up my end of the bargain. Oh and a big merci to thegambit23 for pushing me past 100 reviews!
I created a very sparse myspace page, so if you'd like to see the dress from the story, go to and view my pics (my dog is there too).
It seems there were a few things in the last chapter that were a little unclear, so let me elaborate –
Rogue is not really all together and collected when she wakes up. She's at her most vulnerable moment as she is very disoriented, groggy and only knows that the guy who just knocked her unconscious and left her in said state now wants to make her his Queen. It shows Gambit that she's not an ice B&$ all the time and that's also very important to the story later.
Apocalypse doesn't intend to kill Rogue, but he doesn't care about torture. Heck, he probably likes it. Plus, it shows Rogue that he means business and not to disobey him. And, if you've ever read the comics, Apocalypse uses torture devices to convert his victims into horsemen.
Hope that helps clear things up. I promise that even though there are parts of the story that may not make sense immediately, they will later on. BUT, it always helps me to know where there are confusing parts so I can elaborate on them more fully in the later chapters so please keep reviewing and sending me your comments.
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"So," Shadowcat asked timidly, "Colossus huh? I guess it fits, doesn't it?"
He nodded solemnly as he stared down at his metallic hands.
She was seated cross-legged with her hands in her lap across from hulking metal mutant who mirrored her position. Their knees were touching lightly and the minimal contact made them both a tad nervous.
Shadowcat bit her bottom lip and looked downward as well. They were silent for a moment when she finally blew her hair up away from her face and glanced at him shyly through her bangs.
"So, like, what's your real name Colossus?" she asked and bit her lip again.
His gaze slowly wandered up to her face and he was silent for a moment as he stared at her intently.
He was struck by the angelic way she watched at him with those beautiful blue eyes. Her expression was innocent and childlike despite her experiences with the X-Men, and he found himself smiling at the girlish way she nibbled nervously on her lip and hid behind her silky brown hair.
She caught his smile and returned it with one of her own – a sweet, kind upturning of the mouth that made her bottom lip more full and hid her teeth.
Colossus caught himself grinning stupidly at the young girl and tried to remember what she had just asked.
"I am Piotr Rasputin of Russia," he announced finally and with a slight blush, he turned back to his lap as he tried to ignore the inappropriate thoughts he was having.
But then, she giggled and all was lost.
His head shot up as he stared at her once more, but this time her shy smile was replaced with a wider one that lit up her face and showed off her perfectly straight, white teeth.
He looked at her blankly and blinked once before asking, "Vhat is so funny?"
"You," she stated simply before giggling a second time.
Colossus couldn't help himself and found one corner of his mouth turning up.
"And vhy am I so funny?" he questioned, trying to sound stern yet failing horribly.
"Because, you're like, so big and intimidating, but you're also, like, totally shy and quiet - it's, it's kinda cute," she replied before her face and ears went red and she glanced downward.
"Are you not also shy and quiet?" he prodded as he tried to bend his head to meet her gaze.
"Me? No. Not usually. Most people would say I'm too perky," she replied from under her bangs.
"Pah!" Colossus scoffed, "there is no such thing as too perky. It means only that you are a happy, beautiful person."
Oops. He hadn't meant for that "beautiful" part to slip out.
But, instead of the evil glare he was expecting, she looked up at him with another bright smile.
"You really think so Pi-Pio…"
"Piotr," he coached.
"Pee-oh-ter."
"Yes, I do …" he left off, waiting for her to supply her name.
"Oh. Right, my name," Kitty blushed again. Still, she stuck her hand out brazenly as she met his eyes and he took her petite palm in his own.
"Kitty, Kitty Pryde," she said confidently despite the red tint to her cheeks.
"Keety. That is a strange name. Does it not mean a small cat? A, how do you say it…? Kee-t-en…?"
"Uh, yeah, that's right, kitten. My dad sometimes calls me that," she stuck out her tongue and Colossus's eyes were instantly drawn to it.
"But, it makes me feel like a little kid, ya know?"
"Hmm," he murmured, but was still preoccupied by the reappearing pink bud.
He coughed loudly as he cleared his throat and managed to tear his eyes away from her face for a moment.
"Is that - ahem - is that your given name, Keety?" he blushed again and tried desperately not to look at her while he composed himself.
"What? Oh, no. It's Katherine actually," she responded and absently began to play with a lock of her hair.
"Ah, yes. Katherine is a vonderful name. Are you not named after Saint Catherine of Alexandria?" He asked and all signs of his prior bashfulness disappeared.
"Um. I don't, like, think so," she looked bewildered and was a bit taken back by his sudden outburst, "I'm Jewish so I, like, doubt it."
"Hmm," Piotr lost himself in thought for a moment before continuing, "then you must not know the story of Saint Catherine."
Kitty shook her head.
"Vould you like to hear it?" he asked quietly.
She nodded eagerly and leaned in as he began the tale.
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"DUDE YOU'RE FREAKIN' CRAZY!!!" Iceman screamed from inside the metallic bubble prison.
The young X-Man had been forced to endure two hours of Pyro's maniacal and slightly homicidal antics and the poor X-Boy was about at his sanity's end.
They had tussled around in the giant snow globe at least three times now as Bobby tried valiantly to wrench Pyro's Zippo away. Pyro had encouraged Bobby to "play" (as he liked to call it) Jedi/Sith with "sabers" of fire and ice, as well as a very skewed version of "tag" where Pyro continuously tried to touch Bobby with the flames. He had also tried to initiate something he called "Barb-ie," but, as Bobby had quickly iced the flamethrowers over he sadly never discovered exactly what the "game" entailed.
Currently, Pyro was making little "fire animals" and cackling while Bobby erected a wall of ice to separate himself from the lunatic.
Unfortunately, it didn't appear to be helping much.
"Oh, I know mate, let's play cave man rescue! You be the cave man entombed in ice and snow, and I'll burn ya out!" Pyro cackled again.
"Oh Jesus Christ," Iceman muttered as he buried his head in his hands and iced himself up again.
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Meanwhile…
Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, was not known for being a patient person – good natured and fun loving, yes – patient… not so much.
At the moment, his patience was being tested well beyond its natural limits.
Kurt sat with his legs drawn up to his chest and his face buried in his knees while his tattered uniform provided some barrier from the horrible stench emanating from his traveling partner, Toad.
"Yo, man," the green tinted mutant asked, "you, like, gonna just hide there all day or what?"
Toad popped his gum yet again and Kurt's ear twitched slightly as he gripped his legs tighter and sighed.
"Hehehe," Toad chuckled and popped the gum again, "what're ya doin' anyhow, cryin'? Hehehe. I bet you're cryin' huh, cryin' like a little baby 'cause you got beat. Heeheheh."
Kurt's ear twitched again and his tail flicked angrily in the air. His head raised ever so slowly from his knees and he glared at Toad over his shirt, which was pulled up over his nose.
"Ja, my eyes are watering from the horrible smell. When was the last time you bathed? You smell like Wolverine's gym bag," he retorted.
"What! I'll show you, you furry blue overcoat!" Toad lunged for Nightcrawler, but the blue X-Man simply leaned back and kicked his feet up to knock the other boy back.
Toad hit the side of the cramped dome with a thud.
"Ow man, that hurt," he stated and rubbed his head gently.
Nightcrawler stared at him cautiously as Toad just slumped down against the side and was silent.
"Vhat? No comebacks? No retaliation, just … nothing?" Nightcrawler frowned over at Toad who sat with his legs up and his arms resting on his knees.
"Nah man, guess I'm just not in the mood for it," the boy sighed and stared down at his old sneakers.
"But… vhy?" Nightcrawler quizzed. The X-Man gawked at the Brotherhood boy as if he had just showered, changed, and brushed his teeth.
"Guess I'm just as bummed as you are dude," came the soft reply.
"Oh."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Kurt finally cleared his throat.
"Do you really know all that stuff about my sister?" he asked gingerly.
Todd sighed and looked up at him with surprisingly sad eyes, "Not all that much, really. Just stuff we noticed. It's not like we have all the cool stuff to do like you. Messing with each other was pretty much all the fun we had."
He snorted suddenly as he recalled another amusing occurrence, "There was the one time, yo, that Pietro went WAY too far and started poking Rogue and crap. She kept yelling at him to leave her alone and trying to hit him, but he's like, totally fast yo."
"Ja, and…" Kurt urged him on.
"And so she says," he raised the pitch of his voice and tried to take on a southern accent, "she says 'if ya don't leave me alone Pietro ah'm gonna drain ya and tell everyone all yer little secrets.' Hehehe." He chuckled again, "But you know Pietro dude, he just couldn't quit."
Kurt shifted excitedly, "so vhat did she do?!" he asked, secretly hoping she had walloped the boy.
"She like, faked him out and grabbed him by the finger. He tried to get away, but she had him really tight and would've broke something. So he had to just sit and watch while she took her glove off reeeaaaallly slowly. Hehehe," he sniggered again, "she kept dancing her bare hand in front of his face and would, like, tap him every so often. Not enough to make him pass out or nothin' like that, but he was like, real dazed and quiet."
Toad rubbed his chin with his hand, and thought for a moment. "You know, she never did tell us what kind of dirt she got off him."
Kurt smiled a little and the boys fell into a peaceful silence. Of course, it still reeked inside the metallic dome, but the smell was a little less noticeable now.
"Didn't you say something about pixie sticks back there?" Kurt solicited after a few minutes.
"Oh man, yo, you're gonna laugh your butt off when you hear this…" Toad began.
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Time passed quietly as the three metal orbs, led by Magneto, skimmed through the now darkened sky.
Occasionally, the Master of Magnetism would peer over his shoulder to stare back at one of the orbs curiously as he heard varying shouts of protests, cackling, or peals of laughter emanating from them.
Shrugging his shoulders after a particularly loud shout from either Pyro or Iceman, Magneto simply went back to humming the theme song from "I Dream of Genie."
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Amara, Jubilee, Rahne, Roberto, Ray, Sam and Jaime waited rather impatiently in the hanger of the Xavier Institute. They had gotten a call from Storm just minutes ago warning the group of teens about a few extra arrivals.
Amara stood with her eyes to the sky as she waited calmly for the X-Jet.
"Hey!" she shouted and whirled around to face Ray, who had tapped her on the shoulder and "accidentally" shocked her.
"Oops. Sorry Princess," he apologized with his hands in the air and a smirk on his face.
"Oh I'll 'sorry princess' you, Raymond," she countered as she produced a ball of molten lava. The ends of her hair were tinged with fire and her eyes glazed over in the same color.
"Hey look!" Jamie called from the front of the hanger, "It's the X-Jet!"
The teens could barely make out the lights from the jet in the late afternoon sky (time zones), but they quickly scampered out of the landing area as it loomed closer.
After the jet had landed, the seven students approached the jet cautiously. The loading ramp lowered and the first person to step out was a dazed and drooling Wolverine followed by Sabertooth, Scott and Lance who were all in similar states.
"Uh, Mr. Logan?" Sam stepped forward and quickly waved his hand in front of the teacher's face as Jean, Storm and Blob exited the jet next. They were followed by Pietro who was floating along strapped to a chair and gagged.
Finally, the Professor wheeled down the ramp as he rubbed his temples.
The students had gathered in awe and fear in front of Wolverine and Cyclops and were trying everything to get a reaction.
"What in the sam hill did Apocalypse do to them!" Cannonball exclaimed.
Jean grimaced as she stepped toward the four men and the group of kids.
"It, uh, it wasn't Apocalypse," she supplied as she turned back to look at the Professor.
The kids' eyes went wide as they stared first at Xavier then at each other.
They were startled out of their reverie by a low growl.
"That," Wolverine bit out as he shook his head and wiped the drool from his mouth, "wasn't very nice Chuck."
Xavier sighed and offered an apologetic smile.
"Every man has his limits Logan," he offered, "and I DID warn you."
This time Sabertooth growled and flexed his claws and the kids took a giant leap back.
"Ahem," Magneto's voice cut through the silence, "Creed."
He growled again, but relaxed and walked to Magneto's side.
The three orbs opened up in tandem to reveal three sets of very different scenes.
In the first orb, Kitty and Piotr leaned very close together as they talked quietly. As the dome opened, they looked around the hanger surprised.
"Are we like, there already?" Kitty asked with a hint of reluctance.
She grabbed Piotr's hand and dragged him through the bubble. "Come on Petey, let me introduce you to the rest of the gang."
The second orb's occupants could barely be seen amidst the smoke and steam that arose from within. Within seconds, however, Bobby came shooting out of the orb on his ice sled coughing and cursing as he came to a halt behind Wolverine and hid himself.
"That. Guy. Is. Crazy," he stammered as he trembled. Scott and Jean exchanged a look as Pyro leaped out and pouted.
"Ah, are we there already? It was just getting fun."
Bobby squeaked incoherently.
In the third bubble Kurt and Toad were practically busting a gut as they chortled together.
"And then she…?" Kurt asked as they stood together and exited the dome.
"Oh yeah," Toad finished and began laughing even harder. One look from Magneto though and the boy quickly recovered while Kurt continued to chuckle.
Xavier sighed again as Beast exited the plane with the still-stoned Mystique in tow.
"Alright, now that we are all here, let's tend to the wounded first. Hank, if you would?"
Beast nodded and ushered the others over to the elevators.
"Magnus, perhaps you would like to join me in the war room. We need to locate Apocalypse and Rogue as soon as possible.
"Rogue?" Sam questioned and pushed through the crowd suddenly. "What about Rogue? Where is she? Is she okay?" The other teens began whispering excitedly.
"Guys, GUYS!" Scott yelled over the din, "If you'll all follow me to the rec room, I'll fill you in there. The Brotherhood gang can stay here tonight if you'd like, we have some guest rooms, if not, one of us will drive you home in a bit."
"Yeah right, like we'd stay here with you, Summers," Lance began.
Ororo cleared her throat. "If not, perhaps you would like a bite to eat? It is getting late and I'm sure many of you are hungry."
She was answered by many grumbling stomachs and a resounding "HECK YEAH!" from Freddy.
Storm led the pack of ravenous teens downstairs while Scott and Jean herded the younger kids up to the rec room.
Wolverine turned to Sabertooth, "Wanna go one-on-one in the Danger Room?"
Creed smirked, "Bring it on, runt."
The respective groups all left the hanger together and as the X-Men and Brotherhood followed Storm to the kitchen, Toad called out to Nightcrawler.
"Hey blue boy!"
Kurt turned, "Ja?" he started when he was suddenly hit in the face by a large ball of slime.
"That's for earlier," he explained as Kurt wiped the sludge from his face and tried not to gag.
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Yeah, yeah, I know, this chapter sucked major, but like I said above, I'm not really in my element right now. I will try to get another BETTER chapter up as soon as I can this week, but we'll just have to see how it goes.
It hasn't been a good month, and I just found out from my husband that we have a small lake pooling at the side of our new house from this giant rainstorm that just hit us.
Plus, if that weren't enough, I also have a cold AND I'm on my period. Call it the Trifecta times two if you will.
Until next time!
Love and light,
Wiccamage
YEKATERINA Katya – pet name