X-Men: Evolution

Blood Magics

18. Icy Encounters

Dragon listened to Mrs. O's footsteps disappear, then jumped down from the desk and headed to the door. It was earlier than she normally left her room, considering the rest of the students hadn't left for school yet, but then… well, it wasn't really like she was afraid of them anymore, now was it?

Leaving through the gap underneath the door, she headed down the hall and then the stairs. Halfway down, her right wing flopped open partway, and began dragging on the ground. She nearly tripped over it when she got to the bottom, and gave a snarl; looking at it for a moment, the only thing she could think of to get it back into position while it still wasn't moving to her will was to roll on the ground until she got it to fold again.

Trying to do so, she couldn't quite get it properly aligned; every time she moved, it dragged on the ground and slid away. Her irritation deepened.

"What are you doing?" A voice interrupted.

Rolling back to her feet, Dragon fixed Bobby with a glare.

"I can't get my wing to fold up." She growled.

Bobby paused, the amused disbelief falling from his face immediately. "Oh… uh… um. Here."

He knelt down, gently pulled her wing out to a partially open position, looked carefully at her other wing for a moment, then folded her right one back into its proper position.

Dragon blinked, a little surprised; it wasn't that Bobby was unkind, but he generally had an attitude a bit too… loud for her to expect a gentle gesture like that.

"Oh… thank you."

"No problem." Bobby stood up and turned away, heading towards the door to the garage while stretching his arms into the air. "Man, I can not believe that the adults are going off on some mission and not taking any of us with them. There hasn't been any good action since last month. I didn't even get to take part in calming down that brawl. Can't believe they're all just like, "no, go to school, blah blah blah." Such a bore."

Dragon blinked at his back, deciding not to respond to his complaints; she didn't think he was talking to her, anyway. Turning away herself, she continued heading towards the kitchen.

When she got there, she found that, as promised, a chair sat next to the counter, giving her a pathway up onto the counter. Jumping up, she located the fruit bowl in the same place as always, took a pear, and used the chair to jump back down, a bit of resentment that she had to use the chair at all burning in her belly as if the scale- less line on her underside was red- hot. Her teeth sank a little harder into the pear than necessary, and part of the fruit fell off.

Resentment and envy began burning a little hotter, even as Dragon's bones felt as though they were starting to freeze. Feeling odd, she started to grab the part of the pear that dropped, but by the time her paw actually reached it and rested on it, she no longer held any desire to pick it up. In fact, she was barely aware it was there any more; she chewed and swallowed what was in her mouth, but the last thought she was aware of going through her head, echoing in a different voice from her own, was "I can't believe they're going without us… no way. They need someone watching their back."

Xavier carefully monitored the students leaving for school, particularly the ones that would be most likely to think about skipping class and instead trying to hide away to come with them. He knew that many of them, if not all of them, wanted to be of help to find Kurt, but given that the laboratory they were going to check should be destroyed and abandoned, there was no reason at all to bring them. If they got there and found that things were different, then they would certainly retreat and return with more reinforcements, but as of right now, taking them out of school for this was nonsensical.

His biggest concern was Bobby, but though the boy seemed in a bad mood about it, he was leaving, his backpack on, irritated but getting ready to drive the car first to the middle school, to drop off Jamie as he usually did, and then to the high school with the rest of the group that normally piled into the car they allowed Bobby to drive.

And yet…

Somehow, Bobby was also in the jet hangar, Xavier suddenly realized. Some anger and resentment seethed through him, and he had every intention of sneaking onto the X- Jet-

And then he vanished. The only Bobby Xavier could sense now was the one impatiently growling under his breath for Jamie to hurry up, waiting in the garage for the younger boy to get in.

Xavier blinked and carefully scanned the hangar. No one was there; the hangar was empty.

Xavier kept the odd incident in mind, but turned his attention back to making sure his students were leaving for school as ordered; with Jamie finally climbing into the car Bobby was grumbling in, the car started up, and was the last to leave the garage. They were all on their way. Satisfied, he made his way to the entrance hall; he could sense Forge making his way up the walk, carrying a bag of his own. No doubt full of whatever he thought he might need to try to salvage whatever he could from blown- up equipment.

He was just passing the doorway into the kitchen in time to hear Logan grumbling.

"-kids need to be more careful to clean up after- what the hell?"

"In a bad mood already, Logan? Should you not save that language for when we're sorting through destroyed computers looking for a microchip in a haystack?" Ororo sounded a little amused.

"This pear is frozen to the floor."

Xavier stopped at that, glancing in. Logan had bent over a pear with a chunk missing from one side; with a grunt, he pulled on it hard, and it came off the floor with, as he had said, a few pieces of ice falling from the fruit.

"Bobby." Ororo sighed. "Odd, though… doesn't he usually have cereal or toast? I've never noticed him eat much fruit."

"Well, if it wasn't him, 'Ro, then it was you, 'cause you're the only two that can wield ice around here."

"I can assure you it's not mine."

Bringing it up to his nose, Logan sniffed, then frowned. "Smells like Dragon. That tracks with the pear, but she can't freeze anything to the ground."

"Then perhaps she had a run- in with Bobby while she took the pear… they startled each other, perhaps? We can determine what happened later, Logan. Just put it in the sink and let it thaw there before we throw it out."

Xavier was starting to worry, remembering what he'd felt earlier- that somehow Bobby had been in two different places at once. Something strange was going on. Before he was able to go into the kitchen and discuss it, however, the door buzzer went off; Forge had arrived.

Xavier hesitated, weighing the urgency of the disappearance of one student against the urgency of another student having some extremely odd occurrences happen with them… and for the moment, the missing student who might be injured or even being experimented on right now had to take precedence.

If only there were two of him, so he could look into both… Jamie's power sounded nice right about now. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening, so Xavier continued on towards the entrance hall, meeting with Forge there and allowing him in.

"Thank you for coming. I presume you've brought everything that you need with you?"

"Yep! Let's check this place out and see if we can find any clues as to what might have happened at this lab! If there's anything that can be found to help find Kurt, I'm all over it!"

Xavier smiled at the man. "And that's something that we'll all be thankful for. Come this way; I believe everyone else is just finishing getting ready."

Leading Forge past the kitchen on their way to the hangar, they collected Storm and Wolverine, both already in their uniforms. Jean, Scott, and Piotr met them along the way as well, though they were dressed in regular clothing and not coming; still, they went with them to the hangar to see them off, and they were finally joined by Beast in the hangar itself as he hurried to catch up. Xavier repressed a sigh when he noticed that he bore signs of having pulled an all- nighter; still, the man seemed alert and ready, so Xavier didn't comment.

"I really hope you find something, professor." Scott said. His expression gave away his concern. "Who knows what's happened to Kurt by now…"

"We'll let you know if we find anything." Xavier assured him. He, too, hoped they would find something, for everyone's sake. Scott and Kurt were close, despite the fact that Kurt was the resident prankster and Scott took everything far more seriously. Kitty, as well, was losing her mind; it had only been a few days, but he knew her homework was slipping. And they were far from the only ones who were worried.

Entering the X- jet, Xavier noticed a patch of ice on the floor of it; not a large patch at all, perhaps the size of a tennis ball, and he frowned. It was off in a corner, almost under a seat but not quite.

Bobby would be the only culprit for that… but he had left. Xavier was certain of it; he'd driven his usual group to school.

So why the ice?

"Good luck!" called Jean; Xavier wheeled himself into the area set aside for his wheelchair, set the brakes on it, and strapped himself in. Wolverine took the pilot's seat; Storm sat in the co pilot's chair. Beast and Forge buckled themselves into the closest chairs to the front, and once Wolverine got the X- Jet started off and the way was clear, they started off and pushed the jet to maximum speed. As long as they kept pushing it at that, it would only take them a couple hours to get there, and if they matched the same speed on the way back, they could all hope that they would return no later than the usual dinnertime at the mansion; earlier, if they were lucky and were able to find something useful quickly.

The flight started off quite smoothly. In fact, they had nearly reached their destination- were about twenty minutes away- when a call came in from the mansion. Storm answered it, putting it up on a screen where they could all see.

"Jean? Is everything all right?"

Jean, in the foreground, hesitated. They could see Scott behind her; he, too, looked reluctant, but they exchanged a glance, and then Jean spoke.

"Did any of you… see Dragon anywhere before you left? Scott and I thought we'd start up her classes again, since she's healed… but we've looked all over the mansion, and there's no sign of her. I checked for her mentally, too, but couldn't pick up any trace of her. I know that she's not detectable when she hides in a shadow, but… I can't imagine why she would be hiding right now."

"We… didn't know if we should call or not, but… we're out of ideas." Scott added.

"Dragon? I spoke with her in her room not too long after the breakfast rush started. After that, no."

"Hmm… well, she's definitely not in there, unless she'd hiding in a shadow. I checked the grounds, too, using telepathy. I'm not finding her at all."

"I smelled her scent in the kitchen this morning. Fresh, like, five minutes fresh. But I never saw her." Grunted Wolverine.

"The frozen pear." Xavier said suddenly. He was starting to see how the dots that morning were connecting… but… it was impossible.

"Yeah, exactly. She must have tripped Bobby, or something."

"She did encounter Bobby this morning, but not in the kitchen. She ran into him in the hallway. Bobby couldn't have frozen the pear. Somehow…" Xavier trailed off, then looked at the corner where he'd seen the patch of ice on the floor of the jet. The ice had since melted, and Xavier didn't even see any water left behind, now, but the spot where it had been… was right in front of a chair. Almost underneath it. And directly underneath it was… of course, in shadow.

"Dragon!" Xavier said sharply. "You're here, aren't you? Come out, right now!"

"What?" Storm muttered. Wolverine growled.

"I didn't smell her on the way into the jet, but if you think she's here…"

"Undoubtedly. Dragon, show yourself now. There's no use in hiding any longer."

Hesitantly, a small head emerged from the shadow under the chair, followed by the rest of Dragon's body as she crept out, keeping herself low.

"Oh, man!" Forge's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"What have you got to say for yourself? What were you thinking?" Xavier demanded. And indeed, he wanted to know just that; while he had technically not told Dragon herself not to come, she still knew that he didn't want any of the younger students on this mission, and surely even at her age had the common sense to realize that would include her even if she wasn't going to school.

She had to know that this stunt was going to get her in big trouble. Particularly since the last time she'd gotten into trouble had been yesterday.

"I, I don't know." Dragon whimpered.

"Well, there's a novel idea. She doesn't know." Wolverine grumbled. "Obviously, she wasn't thinking at all if she decided it was fine for her to just come with us!"

"I swear, I don't even know how I got here!" Dragon wailed. "I didn't know where "here" even was! One moment I was trying to eat my pear, and then I was in a dark place. I didn't know where I was or how I got there! So I hid in the first shadow I found… then when all of you came on, I started realizing where I was, and I figured if I came out you would all be really mad!"

"That's what you're going with? You don't remember how you got here?"

"It's the truth! I really don't know!" Dragon was in tears at Wolverine's furious, growling tone.

"In most cases I would say that that is a very unlikely story, Dragon… but there is one thing that is giving me pause." Storm murmured. "Charles, if I can confirm something… what made you realize Dragon was here? Simply because she was not found by Jean and Scott didn't mean she wasn't hiding in a shadow at the mansion. What gave her away?"

"The ice and the pear." Xavier murmured. "Wolverine, you found a frozen pear in the kitchen, yes? One that belonged to Dragon? I also noticed a patch of ice inside the jet, right next to the chair Dragon was hiding under. But that does beg the question… Dragon, when did you gain the ability to freeze things or make ice?"

Dragon blinked at him. "What? I haven't! I can't do that!"

Xavier frowned. "Then why was your pear and the floor frozen?"

"I'm telling you, I don't know! I'm not lying!"

"Hmm…" Xavier steepled his hands together. "Well… nevertheless, thank you, Jean. It appears that Dragon is here with us. You no longer need to worry; we'll deal with her. We'll sort this out when we get back."

"I… right, professor. Um… again, good luck."

Xavier had glanced back at the screen when he spoke; Scott and Jean gave each other uncomfortable glances, then ended the call. He looked back at Dragon.

"You, on the other hand, had better start worrying. We're going to take this very seriously; you knew full well that only the four of us and Forge were to go. You've already broken one rule, and just yesterday, too."

"Charles, as I said, I think something else may be going on." Storm interrupted. "There has been another incident in which Dragon has displayed strange behavior with no memory of it. Given that this is the case, I'm not so sure that Dragon's claim that she can't remember what happened this time is to be dismissed."

Xavier paused; he'd forgotten about that. "That's… true." He stared at Dragon, hard; she squirmed, but was obviously still upset.

He let her squirm for a moment before he spoke again. "Very well. We'll look through the laboratory, first; we're nearly there. Dragon, you will remain on the jet. Storm, I must ask you to stay here and keep an eye on our stowaway. Once we have looked through everything and taken whatever we're able to find, we'll contact the mansion to let them know we're on our way back, and ask them to see if they can find footage from the hangar of Dragon coming in. We'll see if we can determine just what happened- I'll look into your mind if I need to." Xavier added to the little girl. "Since this seems to be the second incident, we're taking this very seriously. If we find that you are lying, you will be punished. If you're telling the truth, then we need to get to the bottom of what's going on, and quickly. I don't like this at all."

"I don't, either." Dragon responded. She was still crying.

A/N: Mysterious behavior... what, exactly, is happening? And why?