Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men: Evolution, or any other Marvel or WB
property.
Notes: Okay, so I hope no one minds another X-Men: Evolution story coming out of me. I keep getting these ideas and they won't go away. So herein lies a story that is pretty AU, but it involves a cool villain. Or at least, one that I always liked. There's no time frame for this one. Hm. . .should I put a little romance in some later chapters? Read on, and then please read my notes at the end. I might have a question for you.
Oh, yes, and thank you to everyone who read/reviewed "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Those were some great reviews, pals 'o mine!
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He twisted his body in the air, his head whipping around, and his eyes closed. His tail whipped around in the air, and he formed his body into a gentle dive, his back arching into the air. With his eyes still shut, Kurt moved his hands in front of his body, feeling his hair whipping back from his forehead. Opening his eyes, he saw the earth was still far below him. Kurt smiled. He turned over in the air quickly, looking at his legs. They were tied together. Grinning, Kurt executed a series of flips, moving gracefully through the air. Reaching up, he untied his legs, arching his back backwards, folding in on his stomach. Turning over he untied his feet, and fell gracefully on towards the earth. Kurt turned back around, looking for the parachute that he knew would be falling through the air somewhere behind him. It wasn't there. The grin falling from his face, he flipped over on his back, looking for the backpack somewhere in the air. It still wasn't there. Kurt flipped back over, looking at how close the earth was now.
"Oh, no." Kurt thought.
Kurt twisted around in midair, looking everywhere for the parachute that should have been falling right behind him. It was nowhere in sight. He thought quickly, wondering what he was going to do. Could he 'port? No. That wouldn't work at all. He could imagine it now. He could 'port right to the ground and end up splattered all over it. He'd move at the same speed he was moving at now if he teleported straight to the ground. He had nothing on him to slow himself down. There was nothing that he could do!
Kurt really began to panic, looking around for any type of assistance at all. No parachute, no teammates. . .nothing. He swallowed, knowing that he was going to die. The ground was rushing up at him, and there was nothing that he could do. He would be dead in twenty seconds. Then a thought occurred to him. He teleported upward. He appeared a couple of yards upwards from where he had been, and he was still falling, but he could feel the difference in the speed of his falling. He had slowed down, at least a little bit! He teleported upward again. When he reappeared, he realized he had slowed down even more. He teleported over, and over, and over again, until he was about twenty feet above the ground. He knew he was risking a broken leg, but there was nothing else that he could do. Preparing himself for the shock, he teleported to the ground. Once there, he crumpled to the floor, trying to roll over on his side.
His gambit paid off, and he rolled over, relatively uninjured.
He laid there, breathing hard for a couple of moments before opening his eyes. He rolled over, clutching his stomach, and looked at his surroundings. Where was he? This wasn't the mansion. The training session had been a fairly simple one. Jump out of an airplane hundreds upon hundreds of feet over the mansion, completely tied up, escape your bounds, grab the parachute that was thrown after you, use it, and land safely within the targeted drop zone. Simple enough, Kurt had thought. Now he didn't know where he was. It certainly wasn't the mansion. He was in the middle of a clearing, completely surrounded by a forest of dead trees.
Kurt tried to get up, but the pain of impact was still too much for him to bear. So, instead, he chose to stay lying down, hoping that someone would find him soon.
"But. . .how could I haff ended up here?" Kurt wondered aloud. Suddenly, a thought hit him. "Ze teleporting? Could zat haff done it? I did teleport blindly, but it vas zrough open air, straight upvard."
Kurt strained his ears to listen for the other X-Men. He knew that Scott, Kitty, and Bobby were supposed to jump after him. Why hadn't he seen them at all?
"Damn! Vhere am I?" Kurt shouted, hearing his voice echo through the forest.
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Bobby spun around in the air, his feet pointed straight down towards the mansion. He loved this. He felt as if he were flying. Bobby loved what using his powers felt like. It was like a nice, cool chill that moved from his body. Ice didn't just suddenly appear at his fingertips. It. . .it almost felt as if it came from his heart. He would concentrate, and then feel a chill rising from his heart to encircle his body. When he had explained this to Kurt once, Kurt had teased him, calling him "cold- hearted." Bobby had to admit it was a pretty good joke, but he wished that someone knew what he was talking about. Anyhow, even the feeling he got using his powers wasn't like freefalling. That wonderful feeling of wind rushing past you. During training sessions like this, Bobby felt jealous of Storm and Jean. They could fly without having to jump out of an airplane, tied up like some type of experiment. Bobby had gotten out of his rope easy enough. He simply froze it into ice, and then broke it apart.
Flipping over so that he was racing down face first, he saw Kurt. If it had been possible to laugh at that moment, Bobby would have. Kurt must have gotten out of the rope tied around his hands pretty fast. Now the blue elf looked as if he were enjoying himself more than Bobby was. His acrobat training served him well, and Kurt looked as if he were in some type of graceful, beautiful ballet taking place in Heaven. Bobby watched as Kurt bent backward to untie his leg bindings, and then he suddenly disappeared. It was strange though. There was no smoke when Kurt disappeared. Just white light.
"Huh?" Bobby thought.
Bobby watched for Kurt to reappear next to him, on top of him, below him. Anywhere. But he couldn't see Kurt at all. All Bobby could see was his parachute, Kitty, and Scott, all in free-fall above him. He spread his body out, causing himself to slow down, and caught his parachute. After strapping it on, he looked for Kurt again. Kurt was still nowhere to be seen. He looked back at the earth, and saw how frighteningly close it was, and pulled his 'chute cord. He felt his body jerk up, and that wonderful feeling of flying was gone. Now he felt clumsy again, and did his best to land inside the target drop zone. Loosening his knees, he touched the ground and rolled over. Scott touched down next to him as he was untangling himself from the parachute, and Kitty touched down further away, missing the target.
"Uh! I, like, hate this! I'm never gonna be jumping out of an airplane anyway!" Kitty screamed, trying desperately to free herself from the cords that she had become entangled in. She finally gave up and phased her way out.
"You never know, Half Pint." Logan said, walking up to them. "You never know what will come up in a fight. What if you could have done this when you and the Elf got trapped on that plane up to Canada with me?"
"Well, let's see. . .you would have been alone, and become a crazy, psycho killer for that guy to experiment on!" Kitty said, rounding on Logan.
Logan seemed to think it over for a moment.
"Hm. Good point." He said, walking off again. "Training session is over."
Ororo walked up to the teenagers, a smile on her face.
"Well done. All of you. Kitten, you may have to go through this training session again. You landed outside of the target drop zone. When would you. . .?"
"Storm, I'm never doing this again! I almost totally threw up this time!"
Ororo seemed about to say something back to Kitty, but was caught off guard. She counted the number of teens. One, two, three. . .where was Kurt.
"Who was the first to jump?" Ororo asked.
"Kurt." Scott said. "Where is he? Eating?"
"What do you mean? I haven't seen him touch down yet." Ororo said.
Kitty froze, looking around the grounds.
"What do you mean you haven't seen him? Where is he?" Kitty demanded.
"He should be here. He's never missed the targeted zone before." Ororo said, looking into the sky.
"Wait a minute! I saw him! He teleported somewhere!" Bobby said, although he knew that wasn't quite right. He came over to join the group.
"What do you mean he teleported somewhere?" Kitty asked, rounding on him.
Bobby gulped. For a short, goofy valley girl, she sure could look threatening.
"Um, I saw him. After he got his leg bindings off, he teleported away. Or, well, he disappeared." Bobby said, turning once again to face Ororo.
"I think we'd better comb the area." Scott said, looking around in every direction. "I didn't see him land. I had figured that he had already landed by the time I pulled my cord."
"Scott is right. We'd better have a look around." Ororo said. "Or rather, you three look. I'm going to contact the Professor, and ask him for his help."
Kitty was already running off in one direction, calling out Kurt's name. Bobby and Scott also separated, looking for Kurt in different directions. Ororo took to the sky, flying back to the mansion. Once at the front door, she landed, and walked into the front. On her way up to the Professor's office, she ran into Amara and Rahne.
"Have you two seen Kurt?" Ororo asked.
"Nope." Rahne said. "At least, not since breakfast."
"And you?" Ororo asked, turning round as she passed the girls.
"No, I haven't." Amara said.
The two girls went along on their own way, Ororo practically running up the stairs to Xavier's office. Once outside the door, she knocked gently before entering.
"Please, enter." Xavier's voice said.
Ororo entered, striding into the room towards his desk.
"How can I help you, Ororo?" Xavier asked.
"Charles, we seem to be missing Kurt after his training session. Bobby said that he witnessed Kurt teleporting away. We don't seem to know where he is. Can you scan the grounds for him?" Ororo asked.
"Certainly." Xavier said, closing his eyes.
Xavier reached out with his mind, and a very clear picture of the grounds appeared inside of his head. He quickly raced through the mansion, seeing what the other mutants were doing. He saw everyone inside of the mansion, but Kurt wasn't there. Reaching further, Xavier now envisioned the grounds of the Institute. He saw Kitty phasing through trees in the forest, calling for Kurt. Bobby was walking around the gardens, doing much the same. And Scott. . .Scott ended up not being that far from Kitty, also trudging through the forest. Xavier couldn't feel Kurt, couldn't find him. He even extended his reach to most of Bayville while looking for Kurt, yet still couldn't find him.
"Ororo, I'm not sure where Kurt is. He doesn't even seem to be in Bayville." Xavier said, opening his eyes. Ororo saw the look of alarm that had come over him. "I shall continue this search with Cerebro."
With that, Xavier wheeled himself out from under his desk and towards the door, Ororo following him.
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Scott sat down on the ground, tired. He hadn't had a chance to rest since he had woken up this morning, and though he was very worried about Kurt, he needed to sit down for a few moments. He picked up a twig, and began breaking it into little pieces. He could hear Kitty in the distance, calling Kurt's name. She must have had no luck either. Scott was just about to stand back up and start looking for Kurt or call Xavier when it happened. He looked at his hand, and it looked as if it were glowing with a white light.
"What in the hell?" he thought, and then watched as the white light quickly moved up his arm.
Now the light was encircling his shoulders. Scott tried to brush it off, but it just seemed to move over him faster. He stood up, and realized that this white light surrounded his entire body, and it had taken mere seconds. The ground beneath Scott flared brightly, and then he dropped through it, into nothingness. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------
Kurt finally found the strength to stand up. He felt dizzy, and he felt as if someone had hit his face with a sledgehammer, but he was okay. Grunting, he limped to one side of the clearing. He knew that he would have to figure out where he was. He wished that he wasn't so weak, and that he could teleport, but he had used up all of his energy teleporting so many times so that others wouldn't have to scrape him off of the ground with a spatula.
"Let's see. No sign of Kitty. No sign of Bobby. No sign of Scott. Ororo and Logan aren't around. And vhy is it so dark?" Kurt said aloud, and could almost swear he heard laughter in the distance.
He wheeled around, trying to face the direction that he had heard the laughter come from, but it had seemed to come from everywhere. And it had seemed really, very far off. Relaxing, Kurt rested his hand against one of the trees. And then he promptly pulled it away. Kurt turned to face the tree, and reached out to touch it again. There was something horribly wrong with it. It didn't feel. . .real. It felt fake. Looking around, he thought the entire scene looked fake.
"Vait a minute. Somezing is very wrong here." He said, and then heard a noise like many people clapping.
Wheeling around again, he took in every little bit of his surroundings. It was all fake. Everything. It had to be. It looked as if he were on the set of a horror movie. Falling down to the ground, even the grass and leaves felt fake. He clawed the grass away, the sound of clapping becoming louder and louder, until he was left with. . .metal? The grass was growing out of metal? Kurt hit the ground, and a resounding "bong" could be heard, as could what sounded to be tumultuous clapping.
"Who's out zhere?!? Vhere are you? Vhere am I? Vhere are mein friends?" Kurt screamed.
At that moment, a white light appeared in the air above the trees. Kurt looked up at it, fascinated. He slowly moved towards it. It was beautiful. The white light moved like liquid, as it were boiling, or rolling like waves. He had never seen anything like it. Then a solid shape formed inside of it, and a person materialized. That person fell to the ground, and didn't move. The light disappeared, and all that was left was a body on the ground.
Kurt limped over to the body, and found himself looking into the face of Scott Summers.
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Xavier was deeply troubled. As a matter of fact, he was more than deeply troubled. He was scared. More scared than he could remember having been. Ororo was walking next to him, also scared. This was the first time that they had run across any problem like this one. Kurt was nowhere to be found. Cerebro didn't find him. That is to say, Cerebro couldn't find him. Which would mean that Kurt would have to be dead, or somewhere else other than Earth.
"Bobby, please meet me in my office." Xavier said, wheeling into his office and finding Kitty and Bobby there waiting for him.
"Already here, Boss." Bobby said.
"Good. Now, Bobby, tell me exactly what you saw." Xavier said.
"Well, I saw Kurt double over to undo his binds, and then he teleported." Bobby said.
"You're certain that he teleported?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah. Well. . .no." Bobby said, looking confused. "It was kinda weird. There was no smoke. Just a white light, and then he was gone. But it happened fast, so I thought he was teleporting."
"And Kitty. . .you and Bobby found nothing?" Xavier asked.
"No, sir." Kitty said, shaking her head sadly. "What did Cerebro find?"
"It found nothing." Xavier said.
"What do you mean it found nothing?" Kitty asked, panicking again
Bobby began to panic as well..
"Children, please. We're working on it." Ororo said. "Where's Scott?"
"I guess he's, like, still out there somewhere looking for Kurt." Kitty said.
Xavier turned his head to the side for a moment, his brow furrowed. Then, closing his eyes, he sighed.
"No. No he is not." Xavier said, a familiar feeling making his stomach tighten.
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"Scott! Scott! Vake up!" Kurt yelled, cradling Scott's head and slapping him in the face.
Scott hadn't woken up yet, but Kurt could still feel his pulse. It was scaring Kurt pretty badly. He had continued to hear laughter and cheering in the far distance, and it had seemed to double when Scott came. Now Scott wasn't waking up. Slapping him really hard in the face, Kurt screamed his name. And, finally, Scott's eyes fluttered open.
"Have you been beating the shit out of me?" Scott asked.
"Jah." Kurt said, hugging his friend out of happiness of no longer being alone.
Scott sat up, immediately regretting it. He put his hand to his head, and rubbed his temples, trying to fight off the headache that he was sure was coming. Then he looked at Kurt, and his eyes widened. Scott suddenly remembered why he had been out in the woods.
"Hey! Everyone's looking for you!" Scott said. "Where are we?"
"I don't know, Scott, but wherever it is, it's terrible." Kurt said. "Everyzing is fake. Ze grass. Ze trees. Even ze sky looks fake, no? And zhere's laughter and clapping almost all of ze time. It's getting darker, and I'm really scared."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down. We'll figure this out." Scott said, standing up.
"No, Scott. Ve von't. You don't seem to understand somezing." Kurt said.
"What?" Scott asked, turning around. Kurt was silent for a moment, gesturing to the woods. Scott got a good look at them for the first time. It was really creepy. He was in the middle of a clearing, which was in the middle of what looked like a very large, dead forest. It was horror movie material. Darkness was settling in, and they had no light. No light at all.
"Wonderful." Scott said.
"Oh, it gets better." Kurt said, slapping himself in the face.
"What did you do that. . .?" Scott began.
"Listen!" Kurt hissed.
Scott listened, and couldn't hear anything. Looking at Kurt, Kurt pointed to his ears. Now Scott really strained, and this time he heard. . .could that be laughter? It sounded like laughter. It sounded like a lot of laughter.
"Somebody's laughing." Scott said.
"A lot of somebodies." Kurt said, stepping next to his friend.
This time, Scott slapped himself in the face, and listened as laughter came again. This time bigger. Scott strained as hard as he could to try to tell where the sound was coming from, but he couldn't. It seemed to come from all around him.
"Now look at zis." Kurt said, rubbing the ground with his foot. Scott looked down and saw metal after Kurt rubbed the grass away.
"Something's really wrong here." Scott said.
"You're telling me?" Kurt asked.
As they stood there, a shriek came out of the forest. It was like nothing that they had ever heard before, and it froze their blood. Then came the sound of trees cracking, trees falling. Something was coming through the woods, towards them. Whatever it was, it issued another shriek. It sounded. . .hungry. Kurt and Scott moved closer together. Scott's hand moved up to his visor, and Kurt kept his hands on Scott's shoulder, in the vain hope of teleporting if the danger was too much for Scott to handle.
The clapping grew louder and louder.
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Okay, so there's the first chapter. I wrote it in an hour. Nice, huh? Can anyone guess where this is leading? Probably not, but I'm involving one of my favorite villains of all time. Anyhow, I guess that there's not much else to say with the exception of that I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Oh! And what do you guys and gals think? Should I add a little romance in here? I guess that I'll see. Anyhow. . .
Later.
Notes: Okay, so I hope no one minds another X-Men: Evolution story coming out of me. I keep getting these ideas and they won't go away. So herein lies a story that is pretty AU, but it involves a cool villain. Or at least, one that I always liked. There's no time frame for this one. Hm. . .should I put a little romance in some later chapters? Read on, and then please read my notes at the end. I might have a question for you.
Oh, yes, and thank you to everyone who read/reviewed "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Those were some great reviews, pals 'o mine!
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He twisted his body in the air, his head whipping around, and his eyes closed. His tail whipped around in the air, and he formed his body into a gentle dive, his back arching into the air. With his eyes still shut, Kurt moved his hands in front of his body, feeling his hair whipping back from his forehead. Opening his eyes, he saw the earth was still far below him. Kurt smiled. He turned over in the air quickly, looking at his legs. They were tied together. Grinning, Kurt executed a series of flips, moving gracefully through the air. Reaching up, he untied his legs, arching his back backwards, folding in on his stomach. Turning over he untied his feet, and fell gracefully on towards the earth. Kurt turned back around, looking for the parachute that he knew would be falling through the air somewhere behind him. It wasn't there. The grin falling from his face, he flipped over on his back, looking for the backpack somewhere in the air. It still wasn't there. Kurt flipped back over, looking at how close the earth was now.
"Oh, no." Kurt thought.
Kurt twisted around in midair, looking everywhere for the parachute that should have been falling right behind him. It was nowhere in sight. He thought quickly, wondering what he was going to do. Could he 'port? No. That wouldn't work at all. He could imagine it now. He could 'port right to the ground and end up splattered all over it. He'd move at the same speed he was moving at now if he teleported straight to the ground. He had nothing on him to slow himself down. There was nothing that he could do!
Kurt really began to panic, looking around for any type of assistance at all. No parachute, no teammates. . .nothing. He swallowed, knowing that he was going to die. The ground was rushing up at him, and there was nothing that he could do. He would be dead in twenty seconds. Then a thought occurred to him. He teleported upward. He appeared a couple of yards upwards from where he had been, and he was still falling, but he could feel the difference in the speed of his falling. He had slowed down, at least a little bit! He teleported upward again. When he reappeared, he realized he had slowed down even more. He teleported over, and over, and over again, until he was about twenty feet above the ground. He knew he was risking a broken leg, but there was nothing else that he could do. Preparing himself for the shock, he teleported to the ground. Once there, he crumpled to the floor, trying to roll over on his side.
His gambit paid off, and he rolled over, relatively uninjured.
He laid there, breathing hard for a couple of moments before opening his eyes. He rolled over, clutching his stomach, and looked at his surroundings. Where was he? This wasn't the mansion. The training session had been a fairly simple one. Jump out of an airplane hundreds upon hundreds of feet over the mansion, completely tied up, escape your bounds, grab the parachute that was thrown after you, use it, and land safely within the targeted drop zone. Simple enough, Kurt had thought. Now he didn't know where he was. It certainly wasn't the mansion. He was in the middle of a clearing, completely surrounded by a forest of dead trees.
Kurt tried to get up, but the pain of impact was still too much for him to bear. So, instead, he chose to stay lying down, hoping that someone would find him soon.
"But. . .how could I haff ended up here?" Kurt wondered aloud. Suddenly, a thought hit him. "Ze teleporting? Could zat haff done it? I did teleport blindly, but it vas zrough open air, straight upvard."
Kurt strained his ears to listen for the other X-Men. He knew that Scott, Kitty, and Bobby were supposed to jump after him. Why hadn't he seen them at all?
"Damn! Vhere am I?" Kurt shouted, hearing his voice echo through the forest.
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Bobby spun around in the air, his feet pointed straight down towards the mansion. He loved this. He felt as if he were flying. Bobby loved what using his powers felt like. It was like a nice, cool chill that moved from his body. Ice didn't just suddenly appear at his fingertips. It. . .it almost felt as if it came from his heart. He would concentrate, and then feel a chill rising from his heart to encircle his body. When he had explained this to Kurt once, Kurt had teased him, calling him "cold- hearted." Bobby had to admit it was a pretty good joke, but he wished that someone knew what he was talking about. Anyhow, even the feeling he got using his powers wasn't like freefalling. That wonderful feeling of wind rushing past you. During training sessions like this, Bobby felt jealous of Storm and Jean. They could fly without having to jump out of an airplane, tied up like some type of experiment. Bobby had gotten out of his rope easy enough. He simply froze it into ice, and then broke it apart.
Flipping over so that he was racing down face first, he saw Kurt. If it had been possible to laugh at that moment, Bobby would have. Kurt must have gotten out of the rope tied around his hands pretty fast. Now the blue elf looked as if he were enjoying himself more than Bobby was. His acrobat training served him well, and Kurt looked as if he were in some type of graceful, beautiful ballet taking place in Heaven. Bobby watched as Kurt bent backward to untie his leg bindings, and then he suddenly disappeared. It was strange though. There was no smoke when Kurt disappeared. Just white light.
"Huh?" Bobby thought.
Bobby watched for Kurt to reappear next to him, on top of him, below him. Anywhere. But he couldn't see Kurt at all. All Bobby could see was his parachute, Kitty, and Scott, all in free-fall above him. He spread his body out, causing himself to slow down, and caught his parachute. After strapping it on, he looked for Kurt again. Kurt was still nowhere to be seen. He looked back at the earth, and saw how frighteningly close it was, and pulled his 'chute cord. He felt his body jerk up, and that wonderful feeling of flying was gone. Now he felt clumsy again, and did his best to land inside the target drop zone. Loosening his knees, he touched the ground and rolled over. Scott touched down next to him as he was untangling himself from the parachute, and Kitty touched down further away, missing the target.
"Uh! I, like, hate this! I'm never gonna be jumping out of an airplane anyway!" Kitty screamed, trying desperately to free herself from the cords that she had become entangled in. She finally gave up and phased her way out.
"You never know, Half Pint." Logan said, walking up to them. "You never know what will come up in a fight. What if you could have done this when you and the Elf got trapped on that plane up to Canada with me?"
"Well, let's see. . .you would have been alone, and become a crazy, psycho killer for that guy to experiment on!" Kitty said, rounding on Logan.
Logan seemed to think it over for a moment.
"Hm. Good point." He said, walking off again. "Training session is over."
Ororo walked up to the teenagers, a smile on her face.
"Well done. All of you. Kitten, you may have to go through this training session again. You landed outside of the target drop zone. When would you. . .?"
"Storm, I'm never doing this again! I almost totally threw up this time!"
Ororo seemed about to say something back to Kitty, but was caught off guard. She counted the number of teens. One, two, three. . .where was Kurt.
"Who was the first to jump?" Ororo asked.
"Kurt." Scott said. "Where is he? Eating?"
"What do you mean? I haven't seen him touch down yet." Ororo said.
Kitty froze, looking around the grounds.
"What do you mean you haven't seen him? Where is he?" Kitty demanded.
"He should be here. He's never missed the targeted zone before." Ororo said, looking into the sky.
"Wait a minute! I saw him! He teleported somewhere!" Bobby said, although he knew that wasn't quite right. He came over to join the group.
"What do you mean he teleported somewhere?" Kitty asked, rounding on him.
Bobby gulped. For a short, goofy valley girl, she sure could look threatening.
"Um, I saw him. After he got his leg bindings off, he teleported away. Or, well, he disappeared." Bobby said, turning once again to face Ororo.
"I think we'd better comb the area." Scott said, looking around in every direction. "I didn't see him land. I had figured that he had already landed by the time I pulled my cord."
"Scott is right. We'd better have a look around." Ororo said. "Or rather, you three look. I'm going to contact the Professor, and ask him for his help."
Kitty was already running off in one direction, calling out Kurt's name. Bobby and Scott also separated, looking for Kurt in different directions. Ororo took to the sky, flying back to the mansion. Once at the front door, she landed, and walked into the front. On her way up to the Professor's office, she ran into Amara and Rahne.
"Have you two seen Kurt?" Ororo asked.
"Nope." Rahne said. "At least, not since breakfast."
"And you?" Ororo asked, turning round as she passed the girls.
"No, I haven't." Amara said.
The two girls went along on their own way, Ororo practically running up the stairs to Xavier's office. Once outside the door, she knocked gently before entering.
"Please, enter." Xavier's voice said.
Ororo entered, striding into the room towards his desk.
"How can I help you, Ororo?" Xavier asked.
"Charles, we seem to be missing Kurt after his training session. Bobby said that he witnessed Kurt teleporting away. We don't seem to know where he is. Can you scan the grounds for him?" Ororo asked.
"Certainly." Xavier said, closing his eyes.
Xavier reached out with his mind, and a very clear picture of the grounds appeared inside of his head. He quickly raced through the mansion, seeing what the other mutants were doing. He saw everyone inside of the mansion, but Kurt wasn't there. Reaching further, Xavier now envisioned the grounds of the Institute. He saw Kitty phasing through trees in the forest, calling for Kurt. Bobby was walking around the gardens, doing much the same. And Scott. . .Scott ended up not being that far from Kitty, also trudging through the forest. Xavier couldn't feel Kurt, couldn't find him. He even extended his reach to most of Bayville while looking for Kurt, yet still couldn't find him.
"Ororo, I'm not sure where Kurt is. He doesn't even seem to be in Bayville." Xavier said, opening his eyes. Ororo saw the look of alarm that had come over him. "I shall continue this search with Cerebro."
With that, Xavier wheeled himself out from under his desk and towards the door, Ororo following him.
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Scott sat down on the ground, tired. He hadn't had a chance to rest since he had woken up this morning, and though he was very worried about Kurt, he needed to sit down for a few moments. He picked up a twig, and began breaking it into little pieces. He could hear Kitty in the distance, calling Kurt's name. She must have had no luck either. Scott was just about to stand back up and start looking for Kurt or call Xavier when it happened. He looked at his hand, and it looked as if it were glowing with a white light.
"What in the hell?" he thought, and then watched as the white light quickly moved up his arm.
Now the light was encircling his shoulders. Scott tried to brush it off, but it just seemed to move over him faster. He stood up, and realized that this white light surrounded his entire body, and it had taken mere seconds. The ground beneath Scott flared brightly, and then he dropped through it, into nothingness. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------
Kurt finally found the strength to stand up. He felt dizzy, and he felt as if someone had hit his face with a sledgehammer, but he was okay. Grunting, he limped to one side of the clearing. He knew that he would have to figure out where he was. He wished that he wasn't so weak, and that he could teleport, but he had used up all of his energy teleporting so many times so that others wouldn't have to scrape him off of the ground with a spatula.
"Let's see. No sign of Kitty. No sign of Bobby. No sign of Scott. Ororo and Logan aren't around. And vhy is it so dark?" Kurt said aloud, and could almost swear he heard laughter in the distance.
He wheeled around, trying to face the direction that he had heard the laughter come from, but it had seemed to come from everywhere. And it had seemed really, very far off. Relaxing, Kurt rested his hand against one of the trees. And then he promptly pulled it away. Kurt turned to face the tree, and reached out to touch it again. There was something horribly wrong with it. It didn't feel. . .real. It felt fake. Looking around, he thought the entire scene looked fake.
"Vait a minute. Somezing is very wrong here." He said, and then heard a noise like many people clapping.
Wheeling around again, he took in every little bit of his surroundings. It was all fake. Everything. It had to be. It looked as if he were on the set of a horror movie. Falling down to the ground, even the grass and leaves felt fake. He clawed the grass away, the sound of clapping becoming louder and louder, until he was left with. . .metal? The grass was growing out of metal? Kurt hit the ground, and a resounding "bong" could be heard, as could what sounded to be tumultuous clapping.
"Who's out zhere?!? Vhere are you? Vhere am I? Vhere are mein friends?" Kurt screamed.
At that moment, a white light appeared in the air above the trees. Kurt looked up at it, fascinated. He slowly moved towards it. It was beautiful. The white light moved like liquid, as it were boiling, or rolling like waves. He had never seen anything like it. Then a solid shape formed inside of it, and a person materialized. That person fell to the ground, and didn't move. The light disappeared, and all that was left was a body on the ground.
Kurt limped over to the body, and found himself looking into the face of Scott Summers.
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Xavier was deeply troubled. As a matter of fact, he was more than deeply troubled. He was scared. More scared than he could remember having been. Ororo was walking next to him, also scared. This was the first time that they had run across any problem like this one. Kurt was nowhere to be found. Cerebro didn't find him. That is to say, Cerebro couldn't find him. Which would mean that Kurt would have to be dead, or somewhere else other than Earth.
"Bobby, please meet me in my office." Xavier said, wheeling into his office and finding Kitty and Bobby there waiting for him.
"Already here, Boss." Bobby said.
"Good. Now, Bobby, tell me exactly what you saw." Xavier said.
"Well, I saw Kurt double over to undo his binds, and then he teleported." Bobby said.
"You're certain that he teleported?" Xavier asked.
"Yeah. Well. . .no." Bobby said, looking confused. "It was kinda weird. There was no smoke. Just a white light, and then he was gone. But it happened fast, so I thought he was teleporting."
"And Kitty. . .you and Bobby found nothing?" Xavier asked.
"No, sir." Kitty said, shaking her head sadly. "What did Cerebro find?"
"It found nothing." Xavier said.
"What do you mean it found nothing?" Kitty asked, panicking again
Bobby began to panic as well..
"Children, please. We're working on it." Ororo said. "Where's Scott?"
"I guess he's, like, still out there somewhere looking for Kurt." Kitty said.
Xavier turned his head to the side for a moment, his brow furrowed. Then, closing his eyes, he sighed.
"No. No he is not." Xavier said, a familiar feeling making his stomach tighten.
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"Scott! Scott! Vake up!" Kurt yelled, cradling Scott's head and slapping him in the face.
Scott hadn't woken up yet, but Kurt could still feel his pulse. It was scaring Kurt pretty badly. He had continued to hear laughter and cheering in the far distance, and it had seemed to double when Scott came. Now Scott wasn't waking up. Slapping him really hard in the face, Kurt screamed his name. And, finally, Scott's eyes fluttered open.
"Have you been beating the shit out of me?" Scott asked.
"Jah." Kurt said, hugging his friend out of happiness of no longer being alone.
Scott sat up, immediately regretting it. He put his hand to his head, and rubbed his temples, trying to fight off the headache that he was sure was coming. Then he looked at Kurt, and his eyes widened. Scott suddenly remembered why he had been out in the woods.
"Hey! Everyone's looking for you!" Scott said. "Where are we?"
"I don't know, Scott, but wherever it is, it's terrible." Kurt said. "Everyzing is fake. Ze grass. Ze trees. Even ze sky looks fake, no? And zhere's laughter and clapping almost all of ze time. It's getting darker, and I'm really scared."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down. We'll figure this out." Scott said, standing up.
"No, Scott. Ve von't. You don't seem to understand somezing." Kurt said.
"What?" Scott asked, turning around. Kurt was silent for a moment, gesturing to the woods. Scott got a good look at them for the first time. It was really creepy. He was in the middle of a clearing, which was in the middle of what looked like a very large, dead forest. It was horror movie material. Darkness was settling in, and they had no light. No light at all.
"Wonderful." Scott said.
"Oh, it gets better." Kurt said, slapping himself in the face.
"What did you do that. . .?" Scott began.
"Listen!" Kurt hissed.
Scott listened, and couldn't hear anything. Looking at Kurt, Kurt pointed to his ears. Now Scott really strained, and this time he heard. . .could that be laughter? It sounded like laughter. It sounded like a lot of laughter.
"Somebody's laughing." Scott said.
"A lot of somebodies." Kurt said, stepping next to his friend.
This time, Scott slapped himself in the face, and listened as laughter came again. This time bigger. Scott strained as hard as he could to try to tell where the sound was coming from, but he couldn't. It seemed to come from all around him.
"Now look at zis." Kurt said, rubbing the ground with his foot. Scott looked down and saw metal after Kurt rubbed the grass away.
"Something's really wrong here." Scott said.
"You're telling me?" Kurt asked.
As they stood there, a shriek came out of the forest. It was like nothing that they had ever heard before, and it froze their blood. Then came the sound of trees cracking, trees falling. Something was coming through the woods, towards them. Whatever it was, it issued another shriek. It sounded. . .hungry. Kurt and Scott moved closer together. Scott's hand moved up to his visor, and Kurt kept his hands on Scott's shoulder, in the vain hope of teleporting if the danger was too much for Scott to handle.
The clapping grew louder and louder.
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Okay, so there's the first chapter. I wrote it in an hour. Nice, huh? Can anyone guess where this is leading? Probably not, but I'm involving one of my favorite villains of all time. Anyhow, I guess that there's not much else to say with the exception of that I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Oh! And what do you guys and gals think? Should I add a little romance in here? I guess that I'll see. Anyhow. . .
Later.