X-men: The Zen Chronicles (Redheadstemper)

[Hikari_Mamo]

"This is total bull!" John growled grabbing his jacket.

"The adults said to stay here!" Rogue cried running after him. "What if they have Faye with them?" John paused a step, thinking things over in his mind. He turned his head and said in a slightly condescending tone. "Do you always do what the adults tell you?" Then left. He got half way to his destination when pain racked his brain. Seemingly unending pain but then, it was over, he heard a chopper. He smiled and climbed up the hill toward the sound. He made eye contact with the Pilot and the passenger then rushed into the chopper escaping with Mystic and Magneto.  

[redheadstemper]

Kel walked up the ramp of the X-jet, still carrying Jean who thought it utterly undignified, to see Bobby and Marie shouting at each other.

"We've gotta! We're gonna need to get outta here quickly, and they won't be able to push a wheelchair through that much snow, if they even have one! And what about the kids, they won't have any more clothes than we did before we stopped at your parents place!"

"I know, Rogue, but neither of us has had even a single lesson in this thing! We'd crash it, and then instead of getting out of here quickly-"

"Well, there's always the option of the adults thought of that and will be taking care of that issue now. Not the most popular of options with people your age, but give it three years and you'd agree with me, I think." Kel snarked at them as she pushed past to deposit Jean at the controls. "I'm gonna stay in the middle, since I think if I forced myself back to flesh right now I'd pass out." She added as an aside to Jean as she was taking off.

"Good idea, I'd hate to crash because of you moving around."

"Er - Kel? You- you're stone. And moving."

"Yes, useful observations there, I'd never have noticed. Where's Johnny boy?"

"He left, he wanted to help out, but we, well, you wanted us to stay here, and like you said yesterday, not a good idea to piss off the weather goddess."

"Right," Kel said as Jean landed near the dam, "are we nice and visible or will you tell them where we are? I lost my com at some point, so I can't- What the ********?" Kel broke off as she saw a large crack in the dam.

"s**t, I can't block it off, I'd kill everyone still in there!" She added as she started forcing earth from the nearby hills to plaster over the crack. hopefully holding back the flood for a precious few minutes. Thankfully, as she saw the water start to spray out of the cracks despite her work, Scott and Ororo came running out supporting Professor Xavier, followed by Nightcrawler and the children, and finally by Wolverine carrying an unconscious boy.

This is gonna hurt. Kel thought as she started grabbing boulders from the mountainside next to the dam, starting the process of bringing down most of the, admittedly small, mountain down in front of the dam. The first stones landed just as Wolverine rushed into the plane, and as they took off, all that could be heard was a low groan of "fuuuuck" from Kel as she passed out. Charles and Logan looked on curiously as she slowly shifted back to flesh and blood, before Logan asked, "who knew she could do that?"

"Well, we knew it was theoretically possible, since she turns her bones to stone when she isn't careful, but I never thought she'd actually do it, since she isn't interested in expanding her powers."  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Rogue and Bobby hung onto their chairs for dear life. The turbulence making the ride a little bumpy. "Professor!" Rogue cried. "Was Faye with the kids?!"

There was a silence in the cabin as a long uncomfortable silence fell on them. It seemed to take a long time but Xavier smiled softly. "She'll be fine. We'll find her when we get back-"

"What do you mean find her!?" Bobby cried. "She could be all alone out there and scared and confused!"Rogue gave a little pout that he was so worried about Faye but she was also friends with the Aussie tramp so she should be worried too.
"Yeah! If she wasn't with the kids captured then where is she?!" Rogue demanded. All eyes, that could be, turned to the professor who frowned.

"I lost my link to her when Stryker put his contraption on my head. I don't know where she is. I'm sorry. I won't be able to find her until we get back to Cerebro."

The group shared a glance before Storm piped up. "Better not tell sleeping Beauty anything then."  

[redheadstemper]

Kel pushed the headache aside, as her head started pounding when she woke up. "What's going on?" Kel asked when she woke up to find them most of the way back to the mansion.

"Well, we're most of the way home, and the professor thinks he'll be able to find Faye once he's got Cerebro." Storm replied with a smile.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

"Here." Logan said handing Kel some painkillers. "You okay? You had me worried there for a while." He gave her a rare kind smile. He knew the rest of them were trying to not watch them.

"So what are you going to be doing for your Ag project?" Rogue asked Bobby trying to break the tension. Bobby shrugged then thought on it for a moment or two.
"I was thinking strawberry plant. . . or Lima beans." He replied thoughtful.

"But those are too easy." Rogue growled. "I bet Faye would pick something more difficult." She added baiting him.

"Well she can pick what she likes. I don't want to pick something that'll die on me in July." Bobby poked back with a frown. "And hey! She's just a friend!"  

[redheadstemper]

As the Blackbird passed beneath the basketball court, Kel thought of something. "Wait a tic ... Where's Johnny boy? I noticed he wasn't here when I brought Jean back to the 'Bird, but we didn't really have time for me to ask ... "

"He refused to wait with us, it was a bit before the pain hit us, but I think ... well, he's never really been happy here. And he was talking to Magneto quite a bit ..."

"Damn, that sucks. Faye was just trying to start something with him, too. So, Professor, you gonna need a rest before you look for Faye, or can you do that now?"

"I've had enough rest on the journey, so I'll look for her now. You should, perhaps, go and rest, so that you can recover from overuse of your power, but somehow I don't believe you will do that."

"Got that right, X. I could do with some of the good stuff, though, doc, do you reckon my codeine mix'd interfere with that?"

"No, the one I give you works on the body, not the brain, so they shouldn't interfere with each other."



After getting the painkiller injection, Kel got into some clean clothes and out of the spare X-suit. She knew that wasn't what they called it - what they called any of the items she attacked 'X' to - but she couldn't help the reminder of the old Batman comics she used to read. Bat-mobile, X-plane, there were enough parallels to keep her laughing. Now all they needed was some kind of X-signal ... and a trustworthy person in authority to light it up ...  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Once they got to Cerebro, Xavier stopped. "I think it best if you all stop here." He said going in on his own. The doors closed behind him and he went to the end of the platform to look for Faye.

Faye. . . Faye. . . can you hear me?

Faye sat underneath a tree sobbing. She couldn't figure out what Xavier was talking about. . . waking up? Wasn't she awake?

Faye. . . where are you?

"Professor?" She called to her mind. "Help me. . . I don't know where I am. . . I don't know. . . I don't know where I am. . . What do you mean wake up?" She sobbed more. "I feel so cold."  

[redheadstemper]

Kel started in surprise as Professor Xavier telepathically showed her how to find Faye through the tunnels and told her that he would keep trying to get her to wake up. "Right, I'm gonna go pick Faye up, she apparently knocked herself out at the end of one of the tunnels." With that, Kel left Logan in the kitchen and started to make her way through the tunnels.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

"Professor?" Faye cried. "Professor where are you?"

'Calm down, Kel is coming to you now.' Xavier's voice rang out in her mind. 'Stay calm. She'll be there soon.'


Rogue paced the dining hall biting her lip. This was taking so long! She hoped that it was over soon so she could get back to snuggling with Bobby. "Would you stop that?!" Storm growled. "I'm trying to eat!" She frowned pausing in her meal.

"How can I stay still?" Rogue cried. "Faye is out there missing! She could be cold or dying! I can't rest until I know she's safe." And so Bobby can stop obsessing over her. She added in her mind. Though the look on Jean's face said she'd heard it.  

[redheadstemper]

As Kel carried a still-unconscious Faye into the Infirmary, she considered re-starting the conversation with Jean about her sexuality and how not everyone thinks about sex every second of the day. She really wanted to see the telepath's face when Kel told her that some people just don't think about personal stuff when they're near a telepath. From what she'd heard, most people think harder about whatever they're trying to hide when they know someone's reading their mind, just from the effort to not think about it.

But now was not the time for that. Now, Jean and X needed to be able to focus on getting Faye awake again.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye had the strange feeling of flying. Not the usual dream type of flying. Nothing like that. More like the kind that she remembered having whenever she slept on the couch then woke up in her bed. Xavier kept trying to coax her awake in her dream but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't wake.

"I don't know how to wake her." Jean said. "The block on her is too strong."  

[redheadstemper]

"Damnit, X, why can't you wake her? And how did she get a telepathic block on her anyway?"

"Because even I can't wake her without risking damage to her right now. After all that has happened today, I just don't have enough control."

"Fine, maybe you ought to go rest up then, so you can help her in the morning," Kel snapped before storming off.

"What was that about, Professor?"

"I know she doesn't think she's gay, but I just want to be sure she's not deluding herself, or hiding it from us. It's hard to be sure, with how much control she has over her mind. It's quite surprising, actually, that she has that much control without any training from a telepath.



Kel stormed into the kitchen, where Logan was making a sandwich from the cold roast beef. "God, I don't know what to do. That girl's like a little sis to me, and there's nothing I can do to help her wake up. X says he's too exhausted from all the stuff that's gone on today, so hopefully he can help her wake up tomorrow."

"Well, how about I distract you until then, huh?" Logan offered with a smirk.



Jean groaned and covered her ears. Between her husband snoring next to her, and the ... energetic sounds from just down the hall, she couldn't sleep. It was sounding more and more like she'd been completely wrong about Kel's ... deal.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Storm groaned at the noise and made herself a sandwich. All the noises were giving her a headache. Urgh. With Logan and Kel engaging in. . . Risky business, Scott snoring the house down and Faye making strange noises. . . Storm dropped the knife and raced into Faye's room without knocking. "Faye?" Storm asked turning on the light and entering the room. The bed was empty but looked as if it had been used. But the blankets were pulled aside. "Felicity? Are you all right? Are you awake?" Storm checked the whole room but found it empty, until she looked under the bed. There, Felicity was sleeping curled up shaking with cold murmuring in her sleep. "Hey, ssh I'm here come out." She coaxed grabbing the other's foot and dragging her from under the bed and after cleaning off the dust put her back into bed and tucked her in. She pulled a garden chair in from the balcony and sat watch over the girl just for her own piece of mind.  

[redheadstemper]

Kel woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and took it to Faye's room to watch over her while she ate. She was surprised to find Storm already there. "Okay? How come you're here?"

"Well, I was getting a snack when I heard her fall out of bed, so I decided to stay since I wasn't getting any sleep anyway."

"What? Why didn't you come get me?"

"You were ... Busy, with Logan, and then I didn't want to disturb your sleep. Yesterday was the first time you turned fully to stone, you needed that sleep."

"... Good point. Go get some breakfast yourself. Could you see if X is ready to try and wake her for me?"


'Well, Jean, I think we definitely don't have to worry about Kel and Faye. I was across the mansion and she still kept me up, with every thought that crossed her mind. Logan kept her completely distracted, which wouldn't have happened if she was attracted to Faye in the slightest."

"So you can wake her up now?"

"Yes, I'll do so after breakfast."