X-men: The Zen Chronicles (Redheadstemper)

[redheadstemper]

"Well, I'd say you hang onto knowledge, sis. Unless you were just responding to him whispering anything? Anyway, I think we're gonna land soon."

"Well, yes actually, we are." Everyone but Logan turned, having not noticed Professor Xavier enter from the front of the plane. "Now, Storm told me there was a bit of a fight back here?"

Logan was the one to answer. "Not so much a fight, more a disagreement on the use of powers."

"Yeah, Rogue decided to use hers, so Faye used, well, mine. And a nice right hook. By the by, did you hear that bit about keeping knowledge?"

"No, I didn't. Shall I assume Collossus spoke in Russian and Faye understood? Also, Storm informed me that you seemed to be affected by the geyser, and it seemed to make you angry. In fact, she didn't have to tell me, we all heard you yelling. Did you really have to yell that at Rogue?"

"Yes, actually. It needed to be said, and I wasn't able to not yell. Besides, she deserved the yelling, after what she said. It's one thing, having my little sis rib me, it's another for someone who's been less than friendly to pay out someone who's airsick. And like Storm told Bobby, she was going to use a potentially fatal power on me. So she deserved the punch, too."

Logan was silent, since he thought of Rogue as a younger sister, but he couldn't help thinking 'she really did deserve it, didn't she?'

'You really do need to watch your thoughts, Logan. You were projecting quite strongly.'  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye looked away with a mild blush of embarrassment and snuggled closer to Piotr having calmed down significantly. "Sorry uncle Charlie."

"I'd like to weigh in on this conversation!" Rogue said weakly raising her hand from the other side of the space.

"You don't have an opinion!" Faye snapped, her head whipping to look at the other and snarled. "So Shut up!"

Rogue paled and put her hand down. "I'd like to withdraw my weigh from this conversation. . ." She mewed deciding to stay in her spot holding her injured side.

Faye gave a sniff and returned to snuggling Piotr who just sighed and stroked her back. "She was a meanie head." Faye mewed to Piotr.  

[redheadstemper]

"Right, reckon we'd best leave it at that, hm? What's gonna happen when we've landed?"

"I'd like you and Logan to protect Storm, as she checks education facilities, Kel, while Bobby and Rogue stay with Doctor Gey as she offers medical care. I had intended for Faye and Piotr to join them there, but that is obviously no longer an option, so they shall come with me and Cyclops as we speak with Erik." Charles seemed troubled at the thought.

"How about I go with you and Scott, and Faye and Piotr stay with Logan. I don't think it would be a good idea for a man who's trick is controlling metal to meet the young man whose ability is to turn to metal." Kel was pretty sure Xavier hadn't thought it through, especially since he'd come up with it on the spot.

"That would work out well, actually, as they can relate more to the people Storm will be speaking to most."  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye nodded. Now that she thought about it. She seemed a bit nervous. Would he be there? She wondered. She didn't want to seem too distressed or Kel would know something was wrong. She already knew Xavier knew. But she didn't want everyone else knowing.

"It'll be fine." Piotr whispered in Russian. "I'll be with you the whole time so he won't be able to affect you. Not if you stay with me." Faye nodded but stayed close anyway. Her face hidden from her sister.  

[redheadstemper]

As they disembarked the plane, Kel started reaching into the ground of the island, feeling the mountains and boulders. It seemed that her range was increasing, after she pushed it to the limit at Alkali lake. 'Do you know why that is, Professor?'

'Yes, actually. You never reached your full strength, and until you returned to the mansion, you hadn't stretched your abilities at all. It isn't just your endurance that suffered from atrophy, Kel.'

"Now," Xavier continued aloud, "we should head off to our respective tasks. Does everyone have their earbugs? And their communicators, just in case?"  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye followed Storm her eyes looking out for any hostile mutants but she kept close to Piotr a mildly shy look on her face. She noticed a woman who was all blue with red hair who gave a sick grin and gestured to her left turning and heading back to her right. Storm followed with a frown and began to offer schooling to any children or adults that needed it when Faye saw him. Her heart flew into her throat and her stomach dropped into her shoes. She felt sick and trapped. It was then he turned to them. Their eyes met and then adrenaline kicked into gear. She gave a pathetic cry and turned on her heel, tears rolled down her cheeks, and bolted back to the hanger.  

[redheadstemper]

Kel followed Charles to the government building, where they expected the leader - Erik Lensherr - to have set up. He was supposedly setting up a legitimate government, after all.

Entering the building, Kel saw Magneto in the lobby.

"I was expecting you sooner or later, old friend, but you could have waited until I'd had a chance to get the island in order."

"Well, Erik, you must admit that your method of taking over the island was rather ... forceful. While those you, ah, deported are being taken care of in their new homes, I am aware that you do not boast doctors or teachers in the Brotherhood. While education is not urgent enough to rush you, medical care is."

"And, you know, checking that everyone knows they've got choices."

Charles and Erik both shot Kel a look, obviously not appreciating the interruption.

Scott chose to back her up, however. "She's right, it's something we need to be honest about. And he already knew, anyway."

~~~~~~

Piotr looked at the direction his girlfriend had run in, confused. Then he noticed what she had. "You. You left her. She has only just moved on."

Pyro was angry and confused. "Moved on to you, you mean?"

Collossus continued as if Pyro hadn't spoken. "Now you have made her run away in tears." Suddenly, he drew back his arm, formed a fist and turned it into metal. His punch hit Pyro painfully in his temple, before Piotr ran, following his girlfriend to the plane.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye bolted for her life, well, bolted as fast as she could through the crowd, back to the plane. tears of pain blurred her vision. Her jacket. . . why wasn't she wearing her jacket? Her pain receptors were acting hypersensitive as she touched everyone she passed. She couldn't keep her bolting pace any longer, but she had to keep running had to-

"Sorry." She said running into someone and after taking ten more running steps fell to the ground and blacked out.  

[redheadstemper]

Storm saw first Faye, then Piotr run off, and called out to Xavier mentally. ' Professor! There's something wrong here. Faye ran off...' Storm, realising that Xavier was too busy to hear her, switched to her earbug.
"Professor, we have a situation here."


<"Professor, we have a situation here."> Charles' conversation with Erik was interrupted. 'What is wrong, Ororo?'

'Faye ran off, in the direction of the plane.'

'Tell me when you know more, we will start back now.'

Seeing that the Professor was once more attending to the physical plane, Kel demanded, "What's happening?"

"We must head back to the plane, there's something wrong with Faye."

"I'll carry you, Kel can clear the way and One-Eye can carry your wheelchair."

"Or, I could carry him, you can clear the way, and, well, Scott can still carry the wheelchair. That way, none of us will be exhausted when we get there." With that, Kel, still a stone figure, picked up Charles. "Where is there, anyway?"

"The plane."

'Faye ran off. I'm not sure why, but Piotr followed her soon after. That's what drew my attention to it, actually. They both ran in the direction of the plane, though, and we are only twenty or so minutes walk from it, so they must be quite close."'  

[Hikari_Mamo]

"Oh my god what do we do?" People kept saying as they saw the stranger seize on the ground. Her body seemed to shimmer with different powers. "Should we do something?" Another asked looking around. They kept a little bit of distance but still not far enough away to be safe. Attacks of sort shot from the girl on the ground that made the crowd move back a little. "What do we do?" They said again as someone tried to push passed them. "Oi watch it dude!" They growled as the strange metal man tried to get through.  

[redheadstemper]

Piotr saw Faye's head disappear, apparantly as she fell, and rushed as well as he could through the crowd to get to her. After he pushed his way through one last bunch of people, he saw Faye shaking on the ground, her skin a riot of colours. He could identify his organic metal, Kel's living stone, and the orange skin of a boy he'd just passed among the mess of colours, fur, and scales. Just as he reached her, what seemed to be a tiny volcano erupted from Faye. The spectators backed off, in fear of the magma, and he suddenly noticed that they had been trying their best to help her. The powers racing across her skin probably meant they were making it worse instead. Piotr started taking off his jacket as he yelled at them to stay away. It seemed to be in vain, as it only slowed their return as he wrapped his jacket around Faye's bare arms and tried to hold her still.


Pyro slowly got up, shaking his head and rubbing his temple where Collossus hit him. "Where did they go?" He enquired of the mutants around him. They pointed in the direction Faye had come from, and he started to push his way through the crowd.

Suddenly, he shook his head and flicked his lighter, calling flames in large fireballs to his hands. "Alright, out of the way or you get burned!"

The crowd parted before him as he ran forward, until he came upon a ring of people gawking at a kneeling figure. Seeing the metallic form, John called on the fire around his hands, forming it into a thin ring, slowly edging the rubberneckers out until there was a sizeable gap. Then, he made it a wall, and made to step through, but ... she ran from me, she won't want to see me. But, I can't control the fire from here, not properly. I can't adjust for winds and flares properly... ******** it, I need to grow some balls, already.

Pyro stepped through the wall, and made it a dome.


Wolverine ran ahead, baring his claws and snarling at the crowd, making them part as the three mutants, one of them carrying a fourth, ran through. After several yards, Logan noticed walls of earth alongside him, and growled at no one in particular as he saw them speed up. He fell back a bit, thinking to pull the Professor from Kel, before he noticed that his woman was running on instinct. He turned and ran faster, hoping to reach Faye sooner.

As he caught up with and then passed Kel's earthen walls, Wolverine deliberately kept his claws out to clear his own way through, rushing to see what was happening. As he approached the plane, he saw a dome of fire. That's got to be it. He reached the dome and yelled out. "Let me in, Pyro!" A gap opened up just as the others caught up, and they all ran through to see Pyro with his arms stretched out, and Piotr cradling a jacket wrapped Faye.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye was vaguely aware of her surroundings. Pain stabbed, throbbed, shot and pulsed through her. Some parts were in such agony she couldn't feel them any more. She felt something, something cool blanket her sensitive skin. "Piotr." She mewed weakly as she felt the tremours slow to the occasional throbbing twitch. She turned her head a little and opened her eyes. The veins were bursting and healing over and over. "Kel." She tried to say but no sound emerged from her mouth. Her body shivered as she fought the shock. It wasn't working as well as it could have. At first she thought it was blood she was coughing up. But she looked down and saw it was magma. "Piotr." She whimpered again before her body went back into shock.  

[redheadstemper]

Jean Summers knew she'd never get to the plane at the same time as the others unless she forced the crowd apart either telepathically or telekinetically, and she wasn't sure she had enough control to do that without hurting someone. "Bobby, can you form ice walls to part the crowd and get us through?"

"I don't think I can hold it, not like Professor Leifsson can, and we'll have to keep together. If I don't have something to brace it against, and if we're in a rush, it's going to be brittle. So they'll be able to break it quickly."

"What's going on?"

"There's trouble back towards the plane, we've got to hurry. Get atarted on that wall, Bobby, while I finish packing up my equipment."


Kel looked at her little sister, worried. "It looks like she's healing as she gets hurt. X, d'ya reckon it'd help if Logan touched her?"

"I ... don't know. I think we should wait until Jean gets here." As he spoke, Charles noticed that Kel was starting to turn to flesh again. "Perhaps you should set me in my wheelchair, Kel. Scott has it set up, and you seem very tired."

Kel put the Professor down and almost immediately turned fully to flesh. "s**t! Johnny, you'd best help us back to the plane. I'm exhausted, been running on adrenaline, gotta get back before I collapse."

John looked at the sagging woman, and nodded. "I'll turn this into a coridor, but I can't hold it too much longer, either." As he spoke, Pyro started forming the corridor, releasing the top of the dome and narrowing it to a hall.

They all started down the corridor of fire, as quiqkly as they could manage, and Wolverine, seeing Kel sag, picked her up and continued on, just behind Scott pushing the Professor.

Just before they reached the plane, a hissing sound heralded small ice corridor meeting their one made of fire. They heard Bobby yelling "let us in, John!" and Pyro opened up the corridor for Bobby, Rogue, and Jean in. They all continued on, shortly reaching the plane, where John let go of his fire and hesitated before following everyone onto the plane.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

"Is everyone on?" Storm asked as she started up the plane.


"Someone get a trough!" Jean barked as Faye coughed up more Magma. "If it hits the metal we'll have a haul breach and we'll loose air compression!" She turned to Piotr. "Try and keep her still, I need to draw blood."

"But she's coughing up magma." Rogue commented. "Won't that mean her blood would have turned to that too?"

Jean frowned feeling helpless. She didn't know what was going on. "She's boiling!" Rogue commented. "Should we cool her down?"  

[redheadstemper]

Jean stared at Rogue for a second, brain racing, before she started barking orders. "Bobby, start icing her down, be careful not to do too much, it might send her into shock, and Don't Touch Her. Rogue, go up front, the last thing we need is you two accidentally touching. Logan, do you want to see if a bit of your healing power would help her more? I'm not sure, but I think it's the only reson she's alive, and that touch was short and hours ago. Storm, Cyclops, get the plane in the air, I'm going to need my full lab for this. Kel, I've got a pair of syringes in a blue box, get Charles to inject them." Jean focused on Faye's vital signs for a moment, seeing that the continuous thin coat of icce was helping her to not be pulled apart by the heat. Then she looked up and said "I think you'll want to catch Kel, before she gets a bump on her head."

Logan's head swiveled, then he turned to catch her and put her down.

"Now, were you going to try this or not, Logan? I don't know if I can keep her stable 'til we get home, otherwise."