A/N - Hello everyone. Here's the newest chapter of Lighning, Part 3. I have nothing to say this week so let's get to it.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
"Normal Speech"
"Telepathy"
29) HOUSE ELF EXPRESS
With a sudden intake of breath Iceman woke up.
"What the hell – ?" he cried out as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around wildly, "where am I?"
"Easy" said Lightning reaching out and steadying him.
"Lightning?" asked Iceman focusing on his teammate.
"It's me" said Lightning, "you're safe."
"What happened?" asked Iceman.
"You're in the hospital" said Lightning, "you fell unconscious on the way here but the doctors said it was nothing serious and you would wake up again either late today or tonight. How are you feeling?"
"I don't know yet" said Iceman, "are the others okay?"
"Everyone's fine" said Lightning, "they went back to the school but I stayed behind since someone had to be here with you. And I'm not alone." Lightning gestured and Iceman followed the gesture.
"Juggernaut?" he asked seeing the large man, "Wolverine? You're both here?"
"Call me Logan, kid" said Logan, "Wolverine's a military name."
"Logan wasn't about to leave his grandson" said Juggernaut, "and there's no real reason for me to go to my brother's school at the moment so I decided to keep Logan and Lightning company."
"Now that you're awake let's get you checked out" said Logan ringing the call button to summon help. It didn't take long for a doctor to arrive and examine Iceman. Much to the doctor's amazement Iceman was recovered and good to go, if still a little weak.
"I don't know what it is about you mutants" said the doctor with some humor, "Beast came to us with a broken foot but was fully healed in two hours. Now you're awake and apparently okay."
"I guess some of us are just lucky" said Iceman, "but thanks for your help doc. I appreciate it."
"We all appreciate it" added Lightning, "is Iceman okay to leave?"
"Yes" said the doctor, "although I'd urge him to take things easy for a day or two."
"I'll do my best" said Iceman with a slight smirk, "but you never know what can happen in our line of work."
Soon the two X-Men and their companions left the hospital. At a gesture from Lightning they went back to the arbor where they'd been before. It was night now but there were some lights illuminating the garden. No one was around as visiting hours were over and most people had either gone home or gone back into the hospital. The area was private.
"I'm actually concerned about what's going on at the school" said Lightning to the other three, "I haven't heard from any of the others since they left and I can't reach either the professor or Marvel Girl."
"That is a bit weird" said Iceman, "what happened while I was out?" Lightning explained to him about how Angel hadn't been able to get any of the newer students on the phone so the professor had sent him back to the school to check up on them. Later on Mage had apparated back, then the professor and Cyclops had gone back using the professor's car, and finally Beast and Marvel Girl had gone back to the mansion.
"And we haven't heard from any of them since" finished Lightning, "the professor was worried that something was wrong at the school and more and more I'm thinking he's right."
"Then we need to get back there ourselves as quickly as possible" said Iceman.
"Don't be so hasty" said Logan putting up a hand, "you don't know what you're getting into. It's foolish to rush into danger without as much advance information as you can get."
"But how do we get that?" asked Iceman.
"Consider the facts you have bub" said Logan, "if someone is at the mansion attacking your teammates then he or she has been able to pick them off one or two at time as they got back. Under those circumstances the more people you have with you when you go the better."
"Are you coming with us grandpa?" asked Lightning,
"Oh yeah" said Logan, "I'm not letting you go into this danger without me and I've got nowhere else to go right now anyway."
"I'll come too" said Juggernaut, "my van's not far from here. It can get all of us to the school fairly quickly."
"Actually I'm not sure that's the best idea" said Logan, "if we drive up openly our foe will see us coming. At the very least we should ditch the van some distance from the school so we can have a chance to sneak in unseen."
"Wait a minute" said Iceman, "who says we need Juggernaut's van at all? Can't Dobby get us into the school?" Lightning slapped his forehead.
"Of course!" he exclaimed, "I must be spending too much time in the mundane world to not think about him sooner. If Dobby hasn't been caught by our foe too then he's our best shot at getting back to the mansion."
"Dobby?" asked Juggernaut, "you mean that weird elf guy who threw all the kitchen stuff at me?"
"That's right" said Iceman.
"I hope he'll be okay with me" said Juggernaut, "I kind of hurt him last time we met."
"I'm sure he'll understand that you're on our side now" said Lightning, "he's a great guy. Let me call him. Dobby?"
There was a silence as the four of them waited but Dobby didn't pop in.
"That's odd" said Iceman, "he always answers when you call him."
"I know" said Lightning sounding concerned, "let me try again. Dobby?" The house elf still didn't appear. Lightning and Iceman both stared at each other, worried looks on both of their faces. Lightning decided to try one more time. This time he summoned up as much magic as he safely could and put it into his summons.
"Dobby" he said sounding a lot more urgent and commanding this time, "please come here now."
CRACK!
"Master Lightning calls, Dobby comes" said Dobby as he appeared and immediately collapsed at Lightning's feet before adding in a broken, wheezing voice, "what can – Dobby – do for – Master Lightning Sir?"
"Dobby!" said Lightning as he knelt down to get closer to the house elf, "what's wrong? What happened to you? Are you okay?" That was almost a silly question as all of them could see the nasty bump on Dobby's head as if he'd been struck with a heavy instrument and knocked unconscious.
"Danger Master Lightning and Master Iceman" said Dobby, "bad magnetic man broke into school and did something to other students. He knocked Dobby out before Dobby could stop him."
"Bad magnetic – Magneto?!" exclaimed Lightning, "he's back?"
"Do you know of anyone else who matches that description?" snarked Iceman, "I guess even the Stranger couldn't keep him prisoner."
"Please tell us everything you can Dobby" said Lightning. Dobby did. It seemed that some time after the X-Men left the mansion to go fight the Sentinels Magneto had shown up at the school and taken control of it. The other students had been caught by surprise as they'd never met Magneto before. None of them had the combat training and experience to fight him and they were all beaten pretty quickly. When Dobby tried to intervene Magneto knocked him out. It had taken Lightning's extra magic in his summons to wake Dobby up again. He'd managed to pop to the hospital but was nowhere near full strength.
"Are you strong enough to get us to the school?" Iceman asked. Dobby's ears drooped as he shook his head.
"It's not your fault" said Lightning firmly, "these things can happen to anyone."
"He's right" said Juggernaut, "and if you tried to protect your charges as much as you did the X-Men when we first met you have nothing to be ashamed of." Dobby's eyes got even bigger than usual when he saw Juggernaut.
"Bad magical is here?" Dobby blurted out, "and says nice things to Dobby?" Juggernaut gave a rueful chuckle.
"I understand why you think that about me" he said, "but I'm not your enemy anymore and I apologize for what happened to you the last time we met." Dobby gave Juggernaut a hard look and apparently saw what he was looking for because he nodded his head.
"Dobby accepts big magical's apology" he said.
"Hey" said Iceman, "he called you big magical instead of bad magical. That's quite an improvement."
"I'll take whatever I can get" said Juggernaut.
"That's all well and good" said Logan, "but what do we do now?"
"Whatever you do" came a voice inside all of their heads that they all recognized as belonging to Professor Xavier, "I'd urge you to decide soon as we're all going to need your help."
"Professor?" asked Lightning for the whole group, "what happened? Where are you?"
"Right now" said the professor, "I, Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Mage, and Marvel Girl have all been sealed by Magneto in an airtight gondola that he sent flying up to about 100,000 feet so we can't break out of here without losing all of our air."
"Crap!" said Iceman, "how did he catch you?"
"He picked us off one by one as we arrived at the mansion" said the professor, "he tied me up and put a device on my head that stopped my telepathic powers. I would have called you sooner but I've only just freed myself from the thing. Marvel Girl has stopped the gondola from rising any higher but we're too high to safely force the door. I'm working on a way to get us back down to the ground but it will be dangerous."
"What about Mage?" asked Lightning, "can't he help with his magic? A portkey could bring you all back."
"Unfortunately no" said the professor, "Magneto put a magic suppressing collar around Mage's neck after knocking him out and we can't get it off of him. He needs another magical to release him."
"But Magneto's not magical" said Lightning, "how could he get something like that on Mage in the first place?"
"I don't know" said the professor, "I didn't exactly get a chance to ask him."
"I see" said Lightning thinking for a moment.
"Maybe we can help" he said as he turned to Dobby, "I have an idea."
"Dobby" he asked the house elf, "can you find where the professor and the X-Men are?" Dobby concentrated for a moment.
"Yes Master Lightning sir" said Dobby, "but Dobby isn't strong enough right now to go there."
"That's okay" said Lightning, "I don't want you to hurt yourself. If you were at full strength would you be able to get there?"
"Yes, easily" said Dobby.
"And would you be able to rescue any of them?"
"Dobby could rescue all of them, but it would take a few trips."
"That's not a problem" said Lightning, "if you can do it am I right in assuming that other House Elves can do it too?"
"Oh yes Master Lightning sir" said Dobby.
"Thank you Dobby" said Lightning, "you've been very helpful. Slappy!" With a much softer pop the head Potter elf appeared in front of them.
"Master Lightning" said Slappy, "I'm glad to see you're all right. We've all been worried about you since the Sentinels appeared."
"Were you following what was going on?" asked Lightning.
"Yes" affirmed Slappy, "we all watched the news and were very relieved when the Sentinels were destroyed." Slappy looked around at the others and gasped upon seeing Logan.
"Master Logan" she said in amazement, "you're alive! How is this possible? Mistress Lily was very distraught when she heard you'd been killed."
"Fortunately I wasn't actually dead" said Logan, "unfortunately I lost my memory for years and only just got them back. I'm glad to see you're good."
"And this is our friend Juggernaut" said Lightning introducing Slappy to Juggernaut who looked at Lightning.
"Does she know everyone's real names?" Juggernaut asked Lightning.
"She does, and so do the other elves" said Lightning, "and they're bound not to reveal any secrets to outsiders."
"In that case, call me Cain" said Juggernaut turning back to Slappy who gave him a bow.
"Now Slappy" said Lightning calling the elf's attention back to him, "I have a favor to ask of you, and you'll probably need the other elves at Potter Castle to help. Actually I should have called all of you here together. Let me just do that." Lightning gave the call and the other three elves from Potter Castle all popped in and joined the gathering. All of the them were surprised to see Logan alive as they remembered him from before. It took a few minutes to get everyone properly introduced but finally Lightning called them all to attention.
"I have a favor to ask of the four of you" he said, "it might be dangerous so I'm not going to order any of you to do this. Once you hear what it is you can say no and I won't think any less of you." The elves conferred among themselves for a moment before Slappy told Lightning that they all wanted to help him, regardless of what the favor was.
"Thank you" said Lightning, "you all remember my fellow X-Men from when they've been at the castle, yes?" The elves all nodded, "good. They're the ones who need your help.
"Understood" said Slappy with the other elves making noises of agreement.
"Professor, have you been following along?" asked Lightning.
"I have" said the professor.
"Good" said Lightning, "then prepare to go home by house elf express." Lightning instructed the elves to answer Professor Xavier's call after which the professor spoke to the elves telepathically and explained the situation to them. Once they all understood what to do they all popped out one by one until they were all gone except for Dobby. It was only a minute or two later that the professor contacted Lightning again to tell him that he and the other X-Men had been safely removed from the gondola and set down in the wooded area behind the mansion so that Magneto wouldn't see them coming just yet.
"I have to make a very important and difficult thought projection" said the professor, "quite possibly the most difficult one I've ever attempted in my life so the rest of the team will be going forward without me for the moment. I've told them to be very careful so as not to let Magneto know we escaped his trap. The same goes for you and Iceman when you get back to the mansion."
"Got it" said Lightning, "Please tell the house elves they can return to the castle now and get some rest. I think I've figured out how to get us inside the mansion without Magneto seeing us and without taxing the elves even more."
"Done" said the professor and he broke the connection with Lightning's group.
"That takes care of them" said Logan, "what about us?" Lightning looked at Dobby.
"Dobby" he said, "are you strong enough to get my Ilvermorny portkey?"
"Dobby can!" said the house elf showing some of his usual excitement. He snapped his fingers and a small figurine of a thunderbird popped into his hands. He promptly gave it to Lightning.
"This can get us into the mansion" said Lightning holding out the portkey.
"How will that get us anywhere?" asked Juggernaut sounding dubious. Lightning quickly explained to Juggernaut what a portkey was and how it worked. Logan already knew from a couple of trips to Potter Castle before Harry was born.
"This one is spelled to go between two places" said Lightning, "the front of Ilvermorny or my room at the mansion. All you have to do is touch it with one finger and you'll be pulled along for the ride. This one was made for me but I've used it to bring other people to the mansion before so I know it will work. It will carry all of us directly into my room so we'll be well inside the mansion without Magneto knowing we're there."
"Just don't fall down when we get there" said Iceman.
"That's the one drawback" conceded Lightning, "if you don't have much experience with these things it's very easy to lose your footing when you land. It took me forever to use one without falling on my face. My room is big enough to hold all of us but if any of us fall over he'll likely pull over the rest of us. With your permission I'm going to hold us all upright with my telekinesis. That's a trick I wish I'd learned a lot sooner than I did. Okay?"
Everyone agreed and soon Iceman, Logan, and Juggernaut were all touching the portkey in Lightning's hand.
"You too Dobby" said Lightning holding out his other hand to the house elf, "I don't want you straining yourself to get back to the mansion when you're still not at full strength."
"Thank you Master Lightning Sir" said Dobby reaching up and taking Lightning's hand.
"Are we ready?" asked Lightning who got nods all around, "then let's go. Xavier's New York."
There was the familiar sensation (to Lightning at least and somewhat less to Iceman and Logan) of a hook behind their navels pulling them and they disappeared from the hospital garden with a small pop.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's all for this chapter. See you next week. Meanwhile, as always, please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. Stay safe and well everyone.