Disclaimer: We do not own the X-Men or the X-Men: Evolution TV show, but Felsentaube, Marti, Suzie, Edmund, and Alice are all original characters. Please do not sue us or steal our story!

NOTE: This story takes place in a reality several membranes down from the official Marvel universes. It's something of a combination of the classic Excalibur comic series and the animated TV series X-Men Evolution. The official Marvel X-Men universe is Earth 616. Welcome to Earth 723!

NOTE II: Although neither Earth 723 nor Earth 724 exist in any official Marvel universe, Shagreen's mysterious dimension, its bizarre inhabitants, and Otherworld are part of Marvel comics canon. Also, the language spoken by Tammy's character Felsentaube is based on German but she gave it a number of differences.

NOTE III: This story is different from anything I've done before. It's a collaborative effort between the US and Canada: a cross-dimensional caper complete with pirates and kidnappers and all sorts of adventure featuring Excalibur from Earth 723 and several new and intriguing characters. One of my friends and I created it together - she played her characters and I played mine. It starts with Tammy's Prologue, then we treated it like a back-and-forth conversation, then like one of those spooky camp stories where each person adds a chapter, then I finished up the wacky extra-dimensional stuff at the end. It really was a fun experiment, and we hope you enjoy it. Please let us know what you think! :D


Unexpected Angels
By Rowena and Tammy

Prologue

Stars passed the shuttle's windows, the orderly streaks slowing as slender grey fingers tipped by claws of paler grey danced over the tiny ship's controls. Pupil-less eyes of the same pale color scanned the readouts, then looked to the surrounding star-field as their owner crouched before the console.

Behind the preoccupied pilot something flicked into being. Two bright blue eyes, faint enough to seem transparent, narrowed in concentration.

All right, I'm in, the blue-eyed ghost reported to someone somewhere unseen. Don't know what I'm supposed to do yet, but I can feel a trigger forming. Okay, let's see what this does...

The blue eyes narrowed more - then widened in surprise when something on the console shorted out with a spectacular flash of sparks. Glory!

The ghostly eyes flicked out as they had flicked in, leaving the horrified pilot to reach through the electrical fire raging in front of her, to try to get a response from the damaged console. Her long ears flicked forward when the damaged controller came off in her hand.

"Dit ist nicht gut. Helfen Sie gelieve ons."

The pilot tightened her wings around her middle, her soft grey eyes moving back to the monitors as she fought to smother the flames. But they were too deep inside the console. By time she managed to tear away the overheated access panel, the little ship was already trapped, helpless in the gravity field of the planet that had been its destination.

The pilot braced herself, hands reaching out to grasp the cockpit's fireproof frame as the metal all around her began to smoke and glow.

"Gott, helfen sie gelieve ons."

To Be Continued...


So, what do you think so far?