xp_logs | When It All Goes Wrong Again

What do you do when your friend's in jail? Why, what any good friend would do. Bust him out, of course.

"Right, so here's the plan. You two take the kiddies indoors, they're a gonna be 'scared straight' this weekend, see? We had Valley Girl here call ahead so they're expecting you. Princess here is going to have it out with Lorna, and start a nice little distraction. You other three go find your missing comrade, somewhere in the solitary confinement. I'll do what I can." Although, what he could do might not be much. The seagull dubbed "Bob" was perched on the passenger-side headrest addressing the rest of the people in the van. "Now, getting out is hard. Nobody trip the damn alarm, okay? You'll know it when you see it. Sneak your hairy friend out and meet up with us back at the van, where we skeedadle. Okay?" He tilted his head in a very bird-like gesture. "Any questions?"

Julio politely raised his hand. "Yes. Why do I look so ridiculous?" He hitched up the seat of his very tight pants. They'd also thought it'd be funny to stick him in a long-sleeved mesh shirt under his black t-shirt, comb his hair into his eyes and put eyeliner on him. He argued against the eyeliner vehemently until Angel talked him into it. He was so whipped. "I thought I was supposed to look tough?"

"You look absolutely unique. Just like all the other Hot Topic shoppers," Forge offered, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "I'll keep the engine running, and if any cops show up out here, I'm just the delivery driver waiting for our guy to get back with the loading dolly, right?"

"I am not really supposed to be a princess," Crystal informed Bob. "This place is wrong. Very wrong." Screaming, using foul language... that was not really her. Glancing at the "club kid" outfits she, Angel, and Julio were wearing, Crystal whispered, "It's better than neck to toe black leather with X's." Looking between Bob and Forge, Crystal queried, "Since when do delivery drivers wait in their cars with seagulls, or is this another part of this crazy place we now find ourselves inhabiting?"

"I think the fact that it's a seagull in the middle of this godforsaken wilderness is going to be strange enough." Lorna responded as she climbed out of the van, having finished taking her appearance from 'future politician's wife' to 'tired and jaded school teacher who doesn't actually think this program is going to make any kind of difference.' Same clothes, worse makeup and hair. "So basically...yeah, let's hope that's the case. Are we ready for exciting crime?"

Angel, who may or may not have had more fun than absolutely necessary at making her 'disguise', gave Lorna a double thumbs up. "Ready when you are, Ms. D," she responded, checking to make sure her butt wasn't falling out of the pants. "Man, why are these things so tight? I think the circulation in my ankles is being cut off."

"I have no idea," Julio said slowly, entranced by Angel's tight jeans. He tore himself away from staring and shook his head to clear it. "I am ready. Crystal? Shiro?"

Crystal nodded. Her butt was the only thing that was covered by her micro mini, and even then... "Yes, I am ready to embark upon our criminal endeavor."

"Let's go," said Shiro, cranky as ever. "And quickly. I do not trust anything in a state with less people than my home."

Lorna suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and picked up the clipboard with their forged paperwork. "Try to look sullen, guys," she said with a sigh and led their little party across the parking lot to the heavy barred door that surrounded the detention center. A bored looking guard at the door glanced over their paperwork and didn't even look up at Lorna's face when she gave him her ID. She knew exactly how he felt. She wondered if she should offer him some of her Prozac.

"Reception's the first door on the left," he told Lorna and Shiro, glancing over the little group briefly. "I'll call through, let them know to expect you."

Just for good measure, Angel made a horrible face at the guard. He probably had seen it all a hundred times before but it wasn't often she got to be horrible to adults. She felt like a giant poser but, well, that was the point. She feigned being bored and irritated, grudgingly following behind Ms. Dane. 'Act bad! Grr, bad! Scary, tough! Grr!...tee hee.'

Acting bad and being bored and irritated wasn't a far stretch from this reality's version of Crystal... in fact, it was the other version currently at war with the memories Crystal knew were really true. It wasn't yet time to have it out with Lorna again, but Crystal was already able to manage a look of resentment when she looked at the teacher, and she didn't have to do very much acting at all.

Julio finger-combed his hair into his eyes nervously. Not so much for the 'emo-kid I'm too cool to get a proper haircut' look as to hide the fact that he was wearing eyeliner. He hitched up his pants again and tried to look sullen and full of angst and woe. He also noted that if this were a normal circumstance any emo-kid behind bars would probably be beaten within an inch of his life within the first thirty minutes.

They trudged across the quad and into the main building, where they were buzzed in through several sets of doors before entering another larger room which seemed to be used as a multi-purpose/cafeteria area. Three guards along with another tired-looking man in a business suit was waiting for them.

"So, these would be the new arrivals?" the man in the suit said, obviously making an effort to sound anything other than bored, but not managing it very well. "Got the paperwork there?"

Lorna handed over her papers with an expression only slightly less bored than the suit's. "Scared Straight. You'll probably see these three again in another year for all it'll work. But there's some bleeding heart out there who thinks we've got to save the unsavable so here we are."

"Heart's bleeding all over my shoes," Shiro amended, nodding. While Lorna would play the bored one, he'd take the surly role. Not much of a stretch for him. He turned to the kids and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look intimidating. Never mind the fact that he's barely taller than any of them. "You all are going to shut the hell up and just listen, understood?"

"You never know, it might work. At the very least we'll have them on the books for next time." The suited man flicked through the papers, apparently finding all in order. "All right, let's get them squared away. Kelly, you take the girls to get their uniforms and show them their dorm." One of the guards, a large, solid-looking woman, came forward.

"All right, you two. Follow me," she told the two girls, her expression brooking no refusal.

Polite Crystal was pushed aside, making way for the brash Crystal of this world. "Go to hell, you fat pig!" Crystal snorted derisively, hands on her hips defiantly, as she glared at the female guard.

There was the barest flicker of expression on the woman's face, and she moved forward, reaching to take Crystal's arm. "Enough of that, missy. We're not your crack-head parents who let you get away with that kind of disrespect."

Crystal jerked her arm away, discreetly moving closer to Lorna. "My parents are dead, you ugly twit!" she shouted. "And I got stuck with uncaring teachers like these!" With that, Crystal flung herself at Lorna. "I hate you!" she shouted as they fell toward the ground.

Lorna had a moment to be completely startled by the amount Crystal was investing herself in this little play before the younger girl tackled her to the ground. "You little bitch!" she gasped, the breath knocked out of her, only half acting. She rolled and reversed their positions, trying to pin Crystal to the ground and lamented that this reality's body had never endured anything more strenuous than cardio kick at the gym.

Success. Crystal believed in giving her all and doing the best she could at any given task. The current task at hand was to have it out with Lorna in order to create a distraction, and that was exactly what Crystal intended to do. It had to look convincing to the guards, and therefore Lorna had needed to be truly taken by surprise despite her previous knowledge of the impending "attack."

Crystal went with the roll, but she was not about to let Lorna pin her down. What sort of distraction would this be if one of them "won" so quickly? "Ugly slut!" she shrieked as she slammed her left leg and knee into Lorna's side, simultaneously grabbing and yanking a handful of Lorna's hair in her right hand.

Ow and ow. She hadn't planned on hurting Crystal in this distraction. Crystal, apparently, had no such qualms. Fine then. "You've been a pain in my ass since the day you walked into class." An elbow caught Crystal on the side of the head as Lorna tried to shove her off. "Can I get some fucking HELP here?"

The guards were already springing to action, moving forward to haul the girl bodily off Lorna, a task made difficult by the grip she had on Lorna's hair. "Get those two out of here for now!" the man in the suit barked at Shiro, as he headed towards the safety of another door. His contract didn't cover actual manhandling of juvenile delinquents.

"Hey, no fair!" Angel protested, sulking. "I want to watch!" Which was the best thing to say to get her out of there any faster, she thought with a grin.

"Oy, don't touch me puto," Julio spat at Shiro, yanking his arm out of Shiro's grip. He made eye contact and jerked his head at the corridor to the left of where they came in. Good place to start as any. As long as they left. Quickly.

"You hated me even before then!" Crystal shouted as the guards attempted to pull her away, grabbing the shoulder of Lorna's shirt with her free hand. "Sorry," she mouthed to Lorna as she began kicking out at the guards.

The shirt ripped, of course, taking the sleeve with it and Lorna swore even as she dug her nails into Crystal's right wrist, forcing her to let go of her hair, not without taking out a truly impressive handful of blond strands with it. She really liked this shirt. "You never gave it a chance. None of you brats ever do," she spat as she climbed to her feet, watching the girl struggling in the grips of the guards.

"You never gave me a chance." Crystal looked at Lorna plaintively for a moment, then her eyes rolled back and her body went limp in the arms of the guards.

Kelly and the other guard were caught by surprise by the sudden dead weight, and set about laying her on the ground. "What the hell? Does she do this often?" Kelly asked Lorna.

"You wouldn't even believe what a complete cunt this little princess is." Lorna stalked over to where Crystal was lying on the ground. She made as if to kick Crystal then lashed out at the guards when they moved to stop her, catching one full in the face with an elbow.

At the guard's cry, Crystal's eyes flew open and one foot lashed out at the other guard, tripping him. "That was an unnecessary statement!" she said, glancing at Lorna as she leapt to her feet. Poor guards. They were just doing their job, Crystal thought, wincing slightly as her fist shot toward the guard.

***

Angel kept quiet until they were a safe distance away from the shrieking behind them and then desperately pulled her shirt down to cover her butt. "My camera for a jacket," she whined before turning to Shiro and Julio. "Okay! Time for Operation: Getting Kyle's Monkey Butt Out of Prison." She wrinkled her nose. "Though, honestly, we need to find a better name for it. That's a mouthful. Maybe GKMBOP?...nah, it sounds like a boy band name. So, forward?"

Julio raked his hair out of his eyes. "Forward," he agreed. He looked around, the badly lit hallway was off-white with red arrows painted on the wall pointing towards the cafeteria and then to C and D barracks. A series in blue was pointing towards A and B barracks, and solitary confinement. "What was it they said when we asked about visiting hours on the phone? That he had no visiting privileges? So we check solitary first?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," replied Shiro, and led his two "charges" down the blue-arrowed hall. "Was Kyle so violent that he was put in protective custody as a minor? That seems a little excessive even for motor vehicle theft."

"Uh, probably not, dude. Knowing Kyle? He was probably all Mouthy McMouthenstein, but that's just a guess." Angel shrugged. Despite everything that was going on, she was still angry at him. But that was second to getting him out of this place and getting everything back to normal.

The younger boy muttered in Spanish under his breath. He was also still angry at Kyle, and highly resented all the trouble they had to go to to rescue his stupid ass. Still, they couldn't leave him to rot, as much as he probably deserved it. They all had to get out of this thing. It was the same as the feeling that drove him to the U.S., that they all had to meet somehow, and the answers would come as they met up.

"Oy, this way!" he waved the other two down a second hallway, where there was a series of blue doors with tiny glass windows serving as peepholes.

"HEY! YOU FUCKERS COULD GIVE ME MY SHOES BACK!" Hearing muffled voices, and thinking they were the guards, Kyle stood on tiptoe, trying to look through the glass window and yelled at the top of his lungs. "Or maybe you SHOULD take them so I can't RAM THEM UP YOUR ASSES!" This place sucked, the food sucked, the people sucked. The whole thing just sucked a great big -suck-. And they'd taken his shoes.

Angel blinked. "Whoa. Where's my bar of soap when I need one?" Leaning closer to the door, she hissed, "Shut up, Gibney, we're here to get you out but not if you're making enough noise for them to hear you in England!" She glanced over her shoulder at Shiro. "You're the older one, what do we do to get him out?"

"Does that phonebook have tips for sneaking tools in cakes?" Shiro mused, eyeing the door. Of course it was locked and the only available key belonged to the lone guard walking down the hallway who spotted them. "Perfect." In a burst of speed that belied his lack of powers, Shiro sprinted the few meters to the policeman and tackled him to the ground, knocking the wind out of both of them before anyone else could be alerted. A quick rap to the side of the head knocked him out, and Shiro got back to his feet, holding the ring of keys triumphantly. "At least I am relatively in shape in this reality."

Julio held out his hands and grabbed the keys as Shiro tossed them to him. After a couple of tries they found the right one, and the lock turned with a loud clack. He looked back up at Angel and Shiro through his hair. "Stay back, we do not know just how he will react to us." He swung open the door cautiously, hand clenched into a fist in case anything went wrong.

Kyle had no idea what was going on. He didn't know any girls, none that called him by his last name like they knew him. All the ones he had known had called him Kyle-the-bile or something similar. And he definitely didn't know anyone who could kick ass like whoever the 'older one' was. "Who the fuck are you people? What the fuck do you want?" He asked, arms crossed over his chest. He stared at Julio first, and then Angel. "Oh fuck. I'm being busted out by the emo fag brigade."

"Oh my god, Kyle, if you weren't probably allergic to most soaps being shoved in your mouth--at least back home--you'd so be eating one right now." Angel rolled her eyes. "Okay, one of you boys can make Mr. Potty Mouth over there remember."

"How the hell do you know my name? What the fuck is with you people?" Kyle backed up towards the wall, hands already in fists. "I'm not eating anything! I don't know who the hell you assholes are but I'm not getting fucked up by the guards again so you can just go back to wherever the fuck you came from!" He'd been in one too many fights already, bruises and scrapes still visible on his lower arms and hands. "Man, I'll scream for the guards myself. I fucking swear."

Julio rolled his eyes. He was torn between laughing and pointing at the fact that in this world, he was the tall one, and convincing Kyle to shake his hand. Oh well, time to be responsible. He looked Kyle in the eye, and punched him in the face as hard as he could. Who said he couldn't let out some pent-up agression as well?

"You deserve that in so many ways, pendejo."

He wasn't fast enough to duck the punch. Julio's fist caught Kyle solidly on the cheek, and he stumbled back, barely missing the chrome toilet, and landing flat on his butt. For a few moments, Kyle sat, staring into space, and shaking his head. "Ow. Ow, fuck you, that hurt. Why'd you..." and then he slowly stood up, and looked down at himself. "Aw, shit." He held his hands up in front of his face and frowned. "I'm in jail. Again. This sucks. And I'm short. This totally sucks."

It was a mighty display of restraint that had kept Shiro from being the one to punch Kyle. As it was, there was a little surge of jealousy when Julio socked him. "You are such a fuck-up," he muttered not so quietly. "Come on. We need to go before Lorna and Crystal are arrested."

"Okay, quick run down for the break out crew," Angel started and then stopped when a loud noise cut through her words. "Hey! What..." She turned and stared. There was a button down the hallway and it was flashing bright red and it said Alarm on it. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. ...FLEE!"

"What the hell?" Kyle stared at the button, blinking. "I swear, that wasn't... " He broke into a run, bare feet slapping against the concrete floor. "This way, before the guards show up. They're all steroid rage freaks, aw crap." His warning was cut off by the appearance of two guards at the end of the hall , brandishing sparking tazers.

"Stop right there!" one of them yelled. Another two guards appeared at the other end of the hall, cutting them off.

"Chingate tu madre" Julio hissed. He backed up protectively near Angel. Now what?

Shiro couldn't keep the smirk off his face. Powers or not, he still remembered all his X-Men training and was sure that his body was capable of pulling it off. Tazers meant nothing. "Pincer attack," he said softly, "But I am sure that I can take one side. The other two will rush, but if you run then I can take them, too." Or get electrocuted. Whatever.

"I.. uh.." Kyle frowned, shaking his head. He knew how to fight, as much as he 'knew' it normally, but... "Dude, I'm a foot too short for this. At least." But these were his friends, and he'd already been a giant ass to them. He remembered that much. It wouldn't be right to be an ass -and- a chicken. "I can try..." He bent, as if to drop into a crouch, and then straightened. "Aw, screw it." He muttered, and ran for the guards, yelling incoherently as he ran. Maybe he could make them think he'd gone insane.

The guards exchanged looks before running full tilt toward the screaming boy. It may have been a correctional facility in Montana, but the guards had seen their fair share of fights. The two guards bore Kyle to the ground, neither of them wanting to tazer him unless it was necessary. A third guard rounded the corner and joined the fray, trying to keep the blonde kid from struggling out from under his companions.

Meanwhile, the guards on the other end of the hall advanced on Julio and Angel.

The weight of the first two guards pressing him down made it hard to breathe. The third adding to it had him gasping and struggling to get air, fingers clawing against the concrete of the floor, and kicking wildly to try to get them off him. He'd been in this position before, he remembered it, even if it hadn't been real. Struggling to get air, restrained. Only this time, he had to worry about more than himself. He had to get loose, had to get the guards off him. There wasn't any other option.

He flailed, limbs going in all directions trying to get loose, and for his troubles, got a beefy hand clamped over his face. "Stay still and we won't lock you in solitary for another year, Gibney." The guard snapped, and then bellowed in pain as Kyle's teeth sank into his palm.

"Stupid fucking kid," the guard snarled, reaching for his tazer. "Say g'night, Mr. Gibney..."

He wasn't getting tazered. Not again. He remembered how much those hurt, and then stung and itched for hours. His skin itched just remembering it, all over, and then his jaw hurt, and then teeth and sinuses, and then every limb at once felt like it was being pulled out of the sockets. Two months of the aches and pains of his manifestation compressed into less than a second. It almost felt -good-. Kyle growled, deep in his chest, and pulled his feet under him. The guards felt lighter, and he pushed against the ground with a snarl. "G'night -this-, jerkface." He kicked out, pushing one guard off him and towards the wall. Then it was just a matter of getting his feet firmly underneath him and shoving as hard as he could with both arms.

It only got the one guard off him, and they'd be back on him again in a few seconds, but he was free. No more guards pressing him to the ground and trying to nearly smother him. Kyle stood, clawed fingers bent and fangs bared, glaring at the men who had never been anything less than abusive towards him. "Please. Try to tackle me again. I'd enjoy fucking all three of you up."

Connection

The instant he saw Kyle emerge from the pile of guards as Big Hairy Mutant Kyle, the familiar buzz of Julio's power flooded him. Fucking hell. He held his hands out in front of him, and looked at the two guards coming towards him. Without even really thinking about it, he sent a wave of power at them. The air rippled and the guards went flying back, hitting the wall and falling to the ground, unconscious.

Shiro felt like someone had doused him with gasoline and then dropped a match on him. But the pain of the sudden self-immolation lasted barely a second, replaced by the familiar refreshing warmness he hadn't felt in who knows how long. "I'd ask, but I'm afraid it will wear off. Come on."

***

The moment her power returned, Crystal knew. She knew it, felt it in every fiber of her being. The air was no longer a seemingly empty void of nothing; it was there, tangible and hers to alter and control. This is how things are supposed to be. A grin spread across her face as she prepared to show those silly guards just who they were dealing with. Wait? What? I am attacking guards? Shit. Wait… did I just think… oh, this is not good. Crystal shoved the false memories to the back of her mind. There was no time to dwell on them now; she'd deal with them later. Her power was back, she was back, and that was all that mattered. All right. Control. As little damage as possible. Crystal pointed at one of the guards and sent out a blast of air that knocked him into the guard running behind him. Two down. A lot more to go.

Lorna looked from the returning rescuers--fire, fangs, powers...they were still mutants?--to Crystal and caught the edge of the girl's wild grin. The sudden crush and buzz of the EM fields slammed down around her, like New Orleans humidity right before the rain. With a terrible suspicion, Lorna grabbed a chunk of her hair and dragged it around in front of her, swearing creatively when she saw it green as ever. With a strangled scream, she flung out a hand and sent the guard who'd cornered her flying, slamming him against the wall with enough force to knock him out but not to seriously hurt him. So much for normal. "Crystal, I want you to set up a wind wall between us and the guards. If that alarm is any indication, we should be seeing more of them soon."

Crystal's eyes widened slightly. Wow. And here she'd thought that her curses had been bad! What had happened to make Ms. Dane scream and curse? Everything was better now. They were still stuck in this crazy world, but their powers had been returned! They were mutants! With a small shrug, Crystal eyed the space between where they were standing and the angry guards and a wall of wind sprang into existence, blocking the guards from continuing toward them.

By now the flashing red alarm had been joined by the wail of a siren, alerting everyone for miles around there was an issue. More guards were arriving, the sound of their booted feet echoing in the halls.

"Excuse me, coming through! Ow, no grabbing hair!" There was the sound of a shriek as Angel came skidding around a hall, grinning like an idiot. "Hot foot is so the win. Ms. D, Crystal, we've got him!" She glared at the alarm. "Obviously. Now can we flee like mad fleeing things?"

Kyle followed only a few seconds after Angel, glancing over his shoulder. "Yeah. We need to go before any more guards decide I'm someone's punching bag again. Or I get short again, because that sucked." He stopped, rather suddenly clawing at the dull grey-blue uniform shirt that was torn, and several sizes too small, pulling it off over his head and throwing it into a heap. "First stop when we get out of here, I get some real clothes."

Shiro came rocketing down the hall behind them, leading a trail of fire. His smile was barely visible beneath the coat of flames. The front doors exploded under the pressure of his plasma blasts. He landed, deactivating his fire form and turned to face the group following him. "Forge is in the car!" he called, tossing a fireball upwards to knock the gun out of the hands of a guard who was patrolling a tower not too far from them.

"Run! Don't kill anyone!" Lorna replied and turned to Crystal. "How good are you with that shield? Can you cover us all to the gates?"

At Shiro's actions, Crystal rolled her eyes. Oh, wow. Impressive. So unnecessary. Too many people mistook control for "letting loose and blasting everything in sight." Crystal gave Lorna a brief nod. "I can do it. I suggest adding a bit of a distraction, though. Everyone, stay close!" Lifting herself into the air, Crystal floated above the others, matching their pace as her air wall surrounded the group and moved with them. At the same time, a whirlwind erupted close to the guards and danced around them threateningly.

The group sprinted down the hallway until they came to the doors that they had entered, the very big steel doors. "Stay back!" Julio yelled, and then flung another wave of power at the doors. They dented, but did not move. He swore, and then aimed for the wall next to the doors, and prayed that he wouldn't accidentally bring the roof down over their heads. The air rippled again as another seismic blast hit the concrete wall, tearing open a decent-sized hole. Outside they could see the quad they had just crossed, and beyond that, a chain-link fence.

"FREEDOM!" Angel bounded out the hole in the wall and made a beeline for the fence, running as fast as she could. It occurred to her, about five seconds in that she didn't have to run. She could fly. "Woo hah!" she bellowed, crouching down as her powers surged to life. In a second she was airborne, just like Mr. Guthrie had taught her. It was a bit touch and go but finally she was over the fence.

As soon as she crossed it, she realized blankly that landing had been the one that they were still working on. With a muffled shriek, she promptly faceplanted into the ground, creating a nice divot in the ground.

Lorna veered over to the smoking ruin of Angel's aborted flight and helped her back to her feet with a sigh, pushing the girl to run again in the proper direction. "Just run. Christ."

Forge glanced out the window of the van, arching an eyebrow at the little flaming mini-meteor that turfed right next to where he was parked. "The Texas judge gives you a two point nothing on the landing," he quipped before pausing. "Hey, you flew. That means..."

He placed his hands on the dashboard of the van and closed his eyes. "Oh yes," he murmured, curling his fingers slightly and stretching. "Oh this is perfect. Here we go, here we go, here we go."

The key turned in the ignition, and the roar of the engine sounded like a choir. "Watch yourself!" Forge bellowed, slamming the gearshift into reverse and backing right through the chain link fence at top speed, jerking the emergency brake and yanking on the steering wheel to spin the van around and let the side door slam open all in one motion. "What're you all waiting for?" he yelled to the advancing group of young mutants. "Don't you know a getaway plan when you see one?"

Crystal landed behind the group, dropping the air shield around them. "They can still follow us! I could keep a whirlwind behind the van, but that would just call more attention to us!"

"Wait, I want to try something," Julio said. He looked at the road in front of him. It was something he'd been practicing back at the school, but hadn't quite mastered yet. However, now was the perfect time to test it out. He raised his hands and closed his eyes, and the ground began to rumble. If he was careful and liquidated the ground just so... His eyes snapped open. "Stand back!" he yelled, as the road and part of the surrounding area behind the van collapsed into a newly opened sinkhole. "Holy -shit-." Kyle whistled in admiration from the open door of the van. "Where were you when I was trying to steal sports cars?"

As soon as she was sure everyone was inside Lorna turned and threw a stray pretzel at Bob, "All right, featherhead, where to next?"

"The airport," the bird replied. "And step on it. We have a date in the big apple, and we don't wanna miss it."

And finally, some answers.

"You ever have a dream, where you're so sure that it's real? It doesn't matter if your lawn is sprouting vampiric lawn flamingoes and you've just won Ms. USA even though you know you're nearing your 40th birthday and you ain't ever gotten near the far side of beautiful? I wasn't sure till the more of you met up, because apart we're all useless and stuck. However, the more of you there were. The more I remembered."

Forge looked at the seagull in the rearview mirror. "I'm following, but I'm not following. You're saying we can accept these inconsistencies so long as nothing reminds us of them, but the more of us we get together, the more grounding we have in reality, and we reject this false universe we're in. Memories come back, powers come back. So, what next?"

"Well, it's what we've been doing, find more of you. What have you noticed about yourselves? Anything specific?" The bird tilted its head.

"What do you mean noticed? I know that here I was actually normal. No powers, life like it should have been." There was bitterness in Lorna's tone. She'd scraped her now green hair back from her face so that not a single strand could escape. "Now we're criminals, freaks and screw-ups and we still don't have any idea of how to fix this."

Kyle snorted from his seat in the back of the van, where he was shredding the bottom half of his uniform pants into rags. "Says you. I -was- a criminal here, and I know darn well that I'm not supposed to be one. Freak or not, I'll take tall and hairy and not in jail over short, scrawny and stupid." He balled up more shredded material and tossed it on the floor. "I want my unscrew-up life back, kay thanks."

"I don't know, you screwed up pretty hard there back home," Julio said, rubbing an eye. He pulled away a hand that was streaked with black. "I do not know about the rest of you, but I was home, safe, and a city was un-blowed up. But nothing has felt right until my powers came back." He looked at the bird. "It doesn't matter if this world is better for us or worse, it is still all wrong."

"Give the boy a cookie, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, this world is wrong. But you all have completely missed my point. Why you and only you?" The bird puffed up and shook out its wings in irritation.

"Oh..." Julio said slowly. "It is. The field trip, to the museum. It is only us from the field trip!"

"Ding ding ding! Bingo. All of you are tied together. And it ain't me, by any means. No, you're all here because of a specific person, and so am I. This ain't me, I am living my own life had I never manifested either. So who do you think is responsible for this lovely little disaster?" Bob looked at the people surrounding him.

"And who are you, Bob. If that is your real name," Lorna muttered and threw another pretzel at the bird's head. He knew the most therefore she blamed him anyway.

This one he caught and chewed on for second before answering. "Me? I'm just a simple man who makes a simple living, workin' the streets of New York shilling the schlubs and tourists. Then I had the misfortune of runnin' into you. Unfortunately that me doesn't remember a damn thing, like the resta you. And unfortunately none of you can snap me out of it. The only one who can is the one responsible for this whole mess."

Of course this world was wrong. Crystal had been well aware of that since the moment she'd stopped Lorna's fist from connecting with her face. Lorna wanted to be normal? Normal for Lorna was supposed to be having green hair and being a mutant and having powers. If she couldn't accept that…

"We still have not met up with everyone who accompanied us on the field trip," Crystal pointed out. "Tommy, Laurie, Mr. Haller, Amanda… they are still somewhere in this crazy world. Poor Amanda… I believe that we have just officially reset field trips at Xavier's to 'something is bound to go wrong'." They were never going on a field trip again, were they?

"Ahhh, the 64,000 dollar question. That my friends, is being taken care off. You just need to get yourselves to New York, you think you guys were the only ones grouping up? No. You'll find them when you get there. But when you do I need you to find me and the guy who screwed up everything in the first place."

"The guy who...you...," Lorna's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Who exactly is the guy who screwed everything up in the first place?" She had her suspicions and if they were right, she'd just gone from Not Amused to downright hostile of the winged rat.

"Well..."

*****

Every day just the same.

"Grab me some coffee, will you?"

No. I spent the last two hours talking down the guy I found trying to make a noose out of his sheets during the three AM bedcheck that you were supposed to do. Close Minesweeper, get off the receptionist's computer and get your own fucking coffee.

You say: "Okay. Just a minute."

Be helpful. Be calm. They need calm here, and you are very good at that. You go through your whole 11pm-7am shift without once raising your voice, and the only thing that stops you from setting a fire in the men's restroom with the disconnected smoke alarm is the fact that the patients are more likely to burn than your coworkers.

But even though you don't smoke you keep matches from the bar you walk past every day but could swear you've never actually been to in your locker, and you can't stop wondering whether rubbing alcohol is a good accelerant.

"I went ahead and put you down for my shift tomorrow night. My girlfriend's gonna kill me if I don't make date-night. Hope that's okay."

Oh yeah, it's no problem. Just go behind my back and shove another shift on me anytime you want. What do I care? I'm only going to be here for 14 hours so you can get laid.

You say: "No, it's okay. Sure."

From there, catch the bus and go back to the townhouse you still share with your grandparents, who by now will be having a breakfast you are rarely included in. Your grandmother likes to talk about what a failure you are right after your shift. Your grandfather doesn't acknowledge you at all.

"What kind of person wastes his parents' money to get a degree in medicine and doesn't even become a doctor? You couldn't at least work somewhere that pays something decent? All those years of your grandfather stretching his pension and you can't repay us even a little?"

Yeah, a degree in psychiatric nursing is pointless because you're can't really be in pain unless you're spurting blood. Because the girl who slit her wrists from palm to elbow to get away from the stepfather who's been molesting her since she was twelve just wants attention. Because it's not worth helping people too poor for private care unless the paycheck's big enough.

You say: "Sorry, grandma. Maybe I can pick something up at a clinic."

Something's wrong with you, but there's nothing you can do about it. You can't afford it in any of the ways that count. Instead you try to tell yourself everybody's got voices that want to beat people to death in the back of their heads, and that it can't be everything you've been trained to spot tells you it could. Even if that weren't true it's not as if any treatment would have a fix for you. You are weak, and you are worthless, and all you've got going for you is that you can pull up a polite smile, do as you're told, and walk on through the world with no one knowing they see only what you made to be seen.

You are David Haller, and this is your life.