"You OK?" asked Kelly when nobody else did. He had a coffee cup in his trembling hands, and Ororo sat beside him with an interested look on her face.
Ricky smiled, but didn't open his eyes. "I'm better than OK, I'm *kickin'*."
They blinked. "Did he just say 'kickin'?" said Amara, wrinkling up her nose. "How very Eighties."
Ricky raised his head and grinned broadly. "My powers are growing back in. Look." He turned around.
"What? You need a good haircut, if that's what you mean," quipped Bobby, folding his arms in the manner of one who is distinctly unimpressed.
Ricky's smile faltered. "Uh, Nightcrawler, lil' help?"
Kurt obliged, parting the redhead's hair on the back of his skull. A collective gasp went around the group as a second set of blue eyes stared back at them with interest. Another went up as the left one winked.
"I'm not finished yet," Ricky stated to the door. "But aren't they so *cool*?"
"Way cool," Bobby agreed.
"Cooler than cool," Jubilee added.
"We're talking sub-zero temperatures here," Ray threw in his two-pennies worth of a comment.
Pietro frowned. "So how come you have your eyes closed?"
"I didn't wanna spoil the surprise."
"What surprise?"
Ricky turned around again. "Another quirk of my new mutation. I don't know how many I'll get, yet, so this may change." He opened his eyes, which were now a rather fetching shade of gold all over, sans either pupil or iris. It was like the blank stare of a precious metal bust, and half of those assembled nearly swallowed their tongues as they gasped yet again.
"Way, *way* cool," said Bobby.
*
Scott was not a happy bunny.
"Are you guys ready yet?"
"Just about," replied Tabby, fixing her hair through the front aperture the motorcycle helmet afforded her.
"We're recruiting, Boom-Boom, not entering a fashion contest."
Tabby squinted at her once-leader. "And that's why, if you were a girl, you'd be made to sit at the ugly table. Y'know, you could really use some down-time, Cyke."
"It's Cyclops," he growled testily. "I have enough nicknames to contend with since Evan arrived. I don't need you picking up on them too."
Tabby shrugged. "Whatever you say, Cyke."
Behind them, Rogue wheeled down her bike, walking sedately behind it. They'd landed in a field devoid of anything but sheep. Lots and *lots* of sheep. Some of which had scattered to the far end, and the more adventurous of whom were sniffing at Cyclops' leg. He shook them off irritably, and the Goth girl smiled as one 'baa'ed back at him and stamped on his foot.
"Hey, Victoria, come on!" she twisted to call over her shoulder. A tall silhouette appeared in the mouth of the ramp that led directly into the Blackbird's underbelly.
"Ready!" Victoria answered, skittering down the sloped metal and coming to an abrupt stop in the cropped grass. As soon as she was clear Scott dutifully closed the hatch and made sure the jet was secure.
Rogue eyed the Neo-X-Man's hold on her bike as they wheeled them to the country lane outside the gate of the field. "You sure you can handle that thing?" she asked, remembering the dark girl's wonder at riding in the X-Jet. There was a chance that motorbikes hadn't survived into her future for her to ride either.
Victoria smiled as she flung a leg over the seat and slid the helmet on. "Do dogs pee up brick walls?" She gave the shorter female a quick thumbs-up before starting the engine, revving a few times, and speeding off in the direction they'd been given.
Rogue grinned, gunning her own engine and careering after her.
"Hey wait!" shouted Cyclops as he tried desperately to attach his own headgear. "*I'm* the leader here! I should be in front!"
His only answer was a cloud of dust and a giggle from Tabby as she too started after the two girls. This really wasn't Scott's day.
*
"I can't believe I just forged the Professor's signature," Jean said as they walked back towards the institution.
"Not a bad job, either," Logan said, eying the letter critically.
"My life is over," Jean moaned, burying her face in her hands. "I'll get arrested on minor forgery charges, become a counterfeiter, serve some more time, then I'll probably wind up talking to middle school kids about how I quit drugs and somehow wound up with a wonderful life, except that I'll be wearing an orange jumpsuit and lecturing to *middle school kids*."
"Jean?" Kitty touched the older girl's shoulder. "I think you're, like, over-reacting."
"Yeah," Evan said. "*Just* a little."
"Shut up, all of you, and look like you know what you're doing," Logan said as the doors slid open to admit them. "Letter from Charles Xavier." He slapped the fake note onto the desk.
The orderly glanced up at him, then scanned the letter. "Urgent?" she asked.
"Extremely," Logan affirmed.
"Life or death urgent," Fred said.
"Fate of the world urgent," Todd added.
Logan gave them a threatening glare, and they shut up.
The orderly gave them all a skeptical look.
"We're not going away," Logan said, folding his arms.
"We're very patient people," Margretha said, doing likewise.
"Oh?" The orderly smirked, clearly getting some pleasure from impeding them. "Let's find out."
*
"This way!" Rogue called over the roar of the engines.
"Who put you in charge?" Scott shouted back.
"I have the map!" At Scott's pause, Rogue continued, "We go this way, pick up the highway, and cross the river into the city!"
"Over the river and through the woods!" Tabitha sang loudly. "To new recruit's flat we ride! The bikes know the scheme, they carry the team, 'cross the British countryside, hey!"
Victoria was beginning to seriously doubt these people's ability to save the world, but kept her opinions strictly to herself.
*
"I promised you a code name," Logan murmured
as they sat in plastic chairs in the waiting room.
"I think you did," Margretha nodded slightly.
"I *know* I did," Logan said. "I may not tie myself down to much, but when I give my word," he dipped his head to the side, "that means something."
"Ooh, what about Slider?" Kitty leaned over to join the conversation. "'Cause she, like, slides between different times."
"Thank you, Half-pint, for your valuable input," Logan said in a tone that indicated his true meaning was "go away".
"How about Eloi?" Kitty suggested. "After those people in _The Time Machine_." [1]
"No," Logan used the firm voice that meant he'd made a decision. "Kid, your name is Tesser."
"Tesser?" Kitty repeated. "Like, what the heck is that?"
"Your library is incomplete," Margretha smiled. "Tesser was the term for time-jumping in _A Wrinkle in Time_."
Kitty, made to feel completely stupid, shut her mouth and disappeared.
*
No one would notice if she slipped out for a while. No one knew she was there half the time.
She grabbed her jacket and sneaked out the back while the others were talking about something important.
The security sensors were on ... but as long as they recognized her signature, she was okay.
_Downtown, here I come!_
In the shadows, glowing eyes watched.
*
Inside the Institute, the assortment of teenagers were getting bored. They'd all but exhausted the supply of 'I Spy' targets, and were currently engaged in a rousing game of 'Who am I?'
"Am I ... famous?" asked Amara, scratching absently at the post-it stuck to her forehead. Sam swatted her hand away and she glared at him.
"Could be," replied Bobby with an inane grin plastered across his face. The Princess sniffed.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all answers supposed to be either 'yes' or 'no'?"
"She's right, Bobby," Kurt said, at the same time wondering whether the yellowish glue from his fluorescent post-it would come out of his fur. "Play the game properly, or don't play at all."
Bobby folded his arms. "Oh, alright then. Yes, you're famous."
"My turn!" yelled Jamie and pondered the rest of the circle. "I choose ... Roberto. Roberto, am I dead?"
The taller mutant shook his head. "Nuh-uh, still very much alive, I'm afraid."
"Aw, rats!" Jamie pouted. "I was sure that time, too."
Principal Kelly and Ororo looked on, one with a wry smile, the other with a more-than-slightly-bemused expression, although, it has to be said, not quite as bemused as a few hours ago when Kurt had first teleported him into this crazy place.
Behind them, outside of the game, Nicole stood looking out the window. It had started to rain again, after the brief dry spell half an hour ago, and the pane was streaked with water and fallen leaves that clung to the glass like limpets. Her face betrayed nothing as she watched the outside world, hands clasped behind her back in a pose far too mature for her years.
A presence appeared at her shoulder. "You OK?" Pietro asked.
She said nothing, and didn't even break her reverie to look at him. Pietro scuffed his feet, looking at the floor for want of something to say. It wasn't usual for him to be at a loss for words, but neither was it usual for a girl not to fall at his feet when he flashed them his trademark smile and threw them a careless word.
Nicole was a different kettle of fish entirely. She actively avoided contact with the other mutants, and seemed to be someplace else in spirit, even when she was there in body, speaking to them.
The speedster's eye fell on a curious watch-like contraption she wore on her wrist, since he didn't know where else to look. It was not unlike the image inducer Nightcrawler wore to school, if a little more streamlined and encased in smooth black plastic with a small yellow 'x' design emblazoned in one corner.
"What's that?"
At last, Nicole transferred her attention to him, giving a precursory glance to the device he was asking after.
"This is a Nullifier," she said simply. "Forge designed them for us. All we Neo-X-Men wear them out of necessity." She gestured across the room at Ricky, who was currently pointing at Ray and exhibiting the strange bracelet at the same time.
Pietro followed her gaze dutifully. "What do they do?"
"They allow us to exist outside of time, and essentially remain in this period the way we are. Everything we've done here so far has affected the timestream in some form or other. If we didn't wear these, then we'd be affected along with it. If we ever took or turned them off, then we'd be absorbed back into the timestream quicker than you could blink."
He absorbed this information, considering its implications. Behind them, a pair of startling blue eyes turned their way as Ororo listened in with interest.
"Does Smash wear one of these too?" Pietro asked after a few moments. "Maybe, if we destroy it, he'll be sucked back to your time without doing any damage."
But Nicole shook her head. "The Phoenix entity is so powerful that Smash is able to exist in different times in his current incarnation simply by sheer force of his own will."
Pietro's face fell. "Oh."
"Of course, if he ever lost that concentration, or decided to let the timestream heal itself, then he'd be 'sucked back', as you put it, in an instant. If that were to happen, then there's no way he could reverse the process either. That's what Susan's planning to do with this trio she and the others are fetching, I think." It was the first unsure thing she'd said since she got there, and his head whipped up.
"You only think?"
Nicole sighed. "Understand this much, Quicksilver: we're not superhuman. We're only people, just like you and everybody else in this time period. We can't predict the future, as such, only calculate possible outcomes. Some of them involve us winning, and others don't, basically. Nothing's certain. Nothing at all." Her tone was blunt, and it deflated him like a popped balloon.
"Am I Superman?" came Bobby's nasally voice from the other side of the room.
"Yes."
"Woo-hoo! I'm Superman, cool! I can do anything!"
*
Jubilee clung to the deepest recesses of shadows like a pro. She'd had enough practise sneaking out at home to know what to do. The security measures here at the Institute just made the game that little bit more challenging.
"Guess what, guys," she whispered to herself with a grin. "This is one game I'm in charge of."
As soon as she saw Nicole turn away from the window, the oriental girl scampered across the lawn with all the speed of a squirrel on acid. She'd made it all the way across the Institute grounds and to the outer perimeter wall in a few seconds, and congratulated herself on her prowess as a sneak.
Her philosophy was simple. In the future, Forge had obviously been a valuable asset to the Neo-X-Men. So she had decided to bring the Forge of the present into this whole caboodle in the hope that he might be able to come up with some backup plan in case their current venture didn't work out. Forge was a genius, they'd all been told countless times.
_Well, let's just see how much of a genius he really is._
There was a certain amount of glory-chasing involved in her decision to sneak out and go fetch the techno-wizard. Jubilee was sick of certain X-Men getting all the credit whenever they went out on missions. Jeez, a few joyrides and you were tarred for life at this place. Hopefully she could redeem herself that little bit more when the adults recognised her initiative.
The wall was little problem. A well-placed couple of fireworks in the wiring of the laser and she was over it and away as fast as any thief, pattering down the street towards town.
*
In the shadows another watched, its jaws slavering a little at the sight of prey exiting the compound it and its partner had been set to watch. With a silken movement attributed to predators the world over, it detached itself from the gloom and scented the air.
A whine followed after it, but the creature turned a wide, long-snouted head around and snarled at the other to remain where it was. The noise ended abruptly.
Silent pawsteps tracked the street after the yellow-coated girl, while baleful eyes lit their way through the near-impenetrable murk.
*
"Am I Derek Jeter?" Kurt asked.
"Nope," Roberto said. "Am I American?"
"Why don't they play mutant games?" Kelly asked.
"Mutant games?" Ororo raised an eyebrow. "That tends to be something like gym class meets 'Fear Factor'. They hate it."
"Am I over 30?" Jamie asked.
"Yes," Kurt answered. "Am I Mike Piazza?"
"We have a winner!" Sam grinned.
Kurt peeled off the post-it, and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.
*
The Hounds were good trackers. Very good. They were easily as good at tracking as Jubilee was at sneaking. And she was quite a sneaky person.
The two wolfish creatures trotted silently after their quarry. A lesser animal would have had difficulty following scent trails in the rain, but these hunters had been specifically bred for such a purpose, and genetically enhanced to further raise their abilities.
Jubilee, bent on her mission, had not noticed her stalkers.
*
"By the way," Kurt said, "Ricky needs a code name now that his powers have manifested."
"What's a code name?" Kelly asked.
Bobby folded his hands as if in prayer. "A sacred ritual, handed down from one generation of mutants to the next."
"Really?" the principal wondered, wide-eyed.
"Ignore him," Kurt said. "It's just a thing Logan makes us do. He'll take care of it when he gets back."
"Why don't you do it?" Bobby suggested. "You're the senior team member here. Use the power!"
Kurt thought for a moment. "He hasn't fully recovered from the drugs yet anyway. We don't know what his full powers are."
"I can be ... The Eye," Ricky said, staring around at everyone.
"Lame," Amara rolled her eyes. "Now, would *someone* tell me if I'm a singer?"
*
After several hours of waiting, a tall man in a white lab coat exchanged a few hushed words with the receptionist.
"I am Dr. Murry," he said, approaching the group. "Wanda's psychologist. I'm told you want to see her."
"Yes," Logan said. "Now, preferably."
"Why don't we talk a bit in private?" the doctor invited.
"You kids behave yourselves," Logan said as Dr. Murry ushered him into a consultation room.
"Have a seat." Murry indicated a plain, thinly cushioned chair, choosing for himself a large recliner.
Logan sat.
"Wanda has a number of unresolved issues," Murry said. "She is allowed only short visits with certain people, due to her violent nature. The rest of the time she is kept in solitary confinement."
"I know all that," Logan said shortly. "I also know what her main 'issue' is."
Murry raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.
"Let's not beat around the bush, doc," Logan went on. "Wanda Maximoff is a mutant. Her father sent her here when her powers got out of control. I bet he's paying you a lot of money. Now, here's the deal. You will get Wanda from her room, and I will sign her out. Understand?"
Murry steepled his fingers, much as Xavier was in the habit of doing. "I'm sure we can work out something mutually agreeable." He smiled.
"Did you just offer to *sell* me your patient?" Logan asked in a dangerous tone of voice.
"Not sell, as such." Murry leaned back in his seat. "Lend, perhaps."
"You listen," Logan said, rising to his feet. "She may be a psychopath, but she's not a library book. I am taking her right now, and I just might 'forget' to return her."
"*I* am the doctor here!" Murry stood now also, and spoke loudly, using his height and voice to give the impression of authority. "*I* say where Wanda goes, who she sees, what she eats, and how she is handled."
"You're no *doctor*," Logan growled. "You're a *slave-owner*."
"Get off the premises right now or I am calling security," Murry warned.
"Do that, and you'd better hope you have good insurance," Logan shot back.
*
"How would you feel about 'hecto-eyes'?" said Kurt.
"'Hecto-what'?" said Ricky.
Since Beast was absent from the scene, Ororo went into lecture mode in his stead.
"The Hecto-eyes is a creature of the Germanic mythology, famous for its body covered in eyes, thus making it impossible to take it by surprise. Also, the original Hecto-eyes was a Titan in Greek myths, and it is said that none could get past it to the treasure it guarded in Zeus' name...."
Ray folded his arms and leant back. "'Kin hell," he breathed. "Where do you people *get* this stuff?"
Kurt looked coldly at him. "If you actually did any reading, once in a while, you'd know things like that too."
"I *do* read," Ray pouted.
"The back of the cereal box doesn't count," Bobby quipped, grinning.
"Or your dirty magazines," added Amara, who was still fiddling with her post-it. "Argh, this thing *itches*!"
"It wouldn't if you didn't play with it so much," Kurt advised, refraining from rubbing at the small glob of glue he could feel clogging the fur together just below his hairline.
Amara scratched her already red skin and scowled. "I've *had* it with this stupid game," she snapped, yanking the paper off and reading what was printed on the other side. Her expression became angry and she looked up at the rest of the circle. "OK, who wrote this?"
"Wasn't me," chorused the assembled mutants as she brandished the offending sheet.
"I am *not* the Alien!"
"Got the same attitude," Sam mumbled under his breath, eliciting a waspish glance from the princess. "Bad-tempered and prone to random acts of violence."
Bobby leaned forward. "That looks like Jubes' handwriting," he smirked. "Guess you know what she thinks of you, then."
"Where is she?" Amara glowered around at them, searching for the mutant girl who had dared to imply she was bad-tempered. "Jubilee!"
No answer.
Kurt looked around, forehead creasing a little. "Y'know, I haven't seen her in a while."
"She went to the bathroom a little while ago," Jamie suggested. "P'raps she's still there."
Ray whistled. "That is one *looong* piss stop."
"Ororo," Kurt got up, "Principal Kelly, did you see Jubilee come back in?"
The two adults shook their heads. They'd been deep in conversation, and hadn't actually been paying attention to much of anything. Kurt chewed his lower lip. It wasn't usual he'd worry about one of his team wandering off whilst they were still in the mansion, but still, these were dangerous times, so to speak. Going out of sight took on a whole new meaning when there was a time-hopping, all-powerful psychopath that could be hiding around any given corner.
"This is when it'd be really useful to have Jean or the Professor around to do a scan," he murmured to nobody in particular. "D'you think she could've - "
"She's gone outside."
Everyone turned to look at Ricky. "What did you say?"
"I can see her," the golden-eyed boy said levelly, though his gaze was unfocused. "She's... in a street. It's raining, and she's soaking wet. No coat. She's... she's looking for someone. A house. She's looking for a certain house."
Kurt started as Nicole was suddenly at his shoulder. "Clairvoyance," she stated simply. "More of his mutation growing in."
Kurt blinked at her, the implications of
Ricky's words sinking in. "Scheisse!"