Stage of Illusions: Ye Olde London

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

During a final dress rehearsal, the New Mutants find themselves in an awkward position, or rather an uncomfortable place.



The stage was set, the lights lit and everyone was dressed in their finely crafted costumes. Were this not a dress rehearsal- the final dress rehearsal- Julian Keller thought he might be a little nervous. As it was, very little was riding on his portrayal of Utterson. It was a bit part, in a one act adaptation to a great story, but he was still envious of Gleason, or as he was now calling the underclassman, the Mutt.

It was almost time for his entrance when he felt something weird, but soft, against the back of his head. It was gone a moment later as he started to examine the scenery. The sets were impossibly realistic, and showed some serious talent from the stage crew. There was something odd though, it looked like the street lamps were flickering and Julian keenly remembered that the flames were only made of paint and paper. Still, they were dancing and as if that wasn't strange enough, a light fog started to cover the stage. He hadn't remembered there being any fog machines, but perhaps they were a last minute addition.

Julian was so entranced by the scenery that he very nearly missed his cue. Grabbing his fake musket, he headed out onto the stage. "Where is he? Where is the beast?"

Nicholas Gleason had already given his opening monologue and had transformed into his monstrous appearance with some help from a ripped up suit coat from the costumers, and a lot of encouragement from Professor Sefton before taking his mark backstage. "I do not hide from the likes of...you" But he could barely finish his line as he stumbled forward onto the set, suddenly taking in the scenery around him. The set designers really had done up the stage for the final dress. If he didn't know any better, he would think that the buildings had been flown in from London early this morning. Even the buildings leading into the audience looked real.

That's when he stopped. Even if he wasn't in his wolf form, he would be flipping out as it looked like he had walked directly into London instead of the red seats that he had expected in the auditorium. He had to check something. As he crouched down to get ready for the upcoming pounce on one of the actors from the local school, he reached his hand down and dragged it across what he thought was the stage floor, but it felt like a cobblestone street instead. What was going on here?

Forgetting for a moment how uncomfortable her bar maid costume was, Catseye's eyes widened when she noticed that the scenery was suddenly... different. When had that happened? She'd been concentrating too hard on the dress, on the upcoming scene and her role in it, she hadn't noticed. Sniffing liberally for new smells, she frowned. She didn't speak, but her eyebrows shot up and she glanced in Yvette's direction to ask a silent 'what's going on?'

Lines forgotten, Yvette was fighting not to drop into a defensive crouch that would ruin her servant's costume. Her eyes flared brightly, however, as she took in the change. "I do not think..." she quavered, not sure what was going on. "Nico, you did not do the magic again, did you?"

The red girl would find Nico blinking several times in disbelief. "What? Hell no!" She didn't even have her staff with her. "Still...as little as I know about magic...this doesn't feel like it." It was hard to explain, but up to some point Nico was sure to be able to tell if they were inside of a magical illusion. "No, this doesn't feel like magic at all." Turning around, there was no mistaking what her senses were telling her, even when it made no sense. "Can a telepathic mutant do something like this?", asked at Yvette as she gave a couple of steps forwards.

"Perhaps. But none of the New Mutants have the telepathy." Yvette glanced over at Meggan - in the absence of Angel, she, apart from Catseye, was the other 'veteran' of the New Mutants team. "Meggan? You are seeing what we are seeing, yes?"

Meggan nodded, as she looked around at the strange scene. She had been more focused on remembering her lines right before things had changed. "Yeah, I see it, too. Cobblestone streets and fog everywhere. It...couldn't be time travel, right?" With a slightly nervous chuckle, she added, "Please tell me it isn't, even if we happen to be dressed for it." She hoped it wasn't anything like that. If it was, she hoped it wasn't London when Jack the Ripper was around.

"It still smells like the auditorium," Catseye pointed out, incredibly confused. "I do not think we traveled anywhere," she said in an attempt to reassure the others. "Do you smell anything funny?" she asked Dori.

Doreen took a deep breath. Then another one. And shook her head, “Nothing at all, unless you count the weird smelling shampoo Monkey Joe got into earlier,” she said. Monkey Joe did his best to look innocent.

The musket in his hand suddenly felt heavier, "Uh, guys, I think we might be in trouble." Nick wasn't looking good. Well, he never looked good to Keller, but less good than usual.

Hunched down in his position Nick's brain was screaming in his ears. The boy had put his hands up to the side of his face and closed his eyes tightly, but something wasn't right. Being in the odd environment wasn't reacting well, and for some strange reason his wolf brain was not telling him to run. Instead it was trying to convince him that the show was real. That his wolf form really was Mr. Hyde. And despite his desperate attempts to drown it out, his inner monologue was winning. He crouched down again before rearing back, letting out a howl into the night.

"Uh oh," Catseye muttered, glancing around at her friends. "That is not his normal Hyde howl, that is Hunting Wolf Howl."

"Hunting Wolf? Like he's going to attack us? I knew there was a reason I didn't like this kid," Julian grumbled, holding the musket like a club. The fog was obscuring the cobble stones now and Nick was no where to be seen. Julian erected a small telekinetic barrier between where his rival had been standing shortly before things changed. "Everyone stay close," he said with grim determination.

Yvette gave up all pretence of standing upright, dropping into a crouch as her fingers and toe visibly lengthened and her hair spiked. "Please, be careful. Nick might not know what he is doing and we do not want to hurt him," she cautioned, even as she moved to stand in front of the small huddle of students with Julian. In the gloom, her eyes shone like small blue headlights.

Despite Julian’s advice, Doreen was fighting the urge to run off. The whole situation was just wrong and the sound had her tail fluffed up about two times its regular size and Monkey Joe was throwing a fit, “Can we get out of here then? I really want to get out of here now.”

"Doreen...I think any sudden movement would be a very bad idea right now." Nico sounded calm, but she was getting more and more anxious by the second; Catseye's words didn't help either. "Does he has any self control on that form, Cats? Last thing I'd want is to engage in a fight with a raging wolf."

"Control in Hunting Wolf Form? Yes," Catseye answered in her most reassuring voice. "Sometimes. Nico is right you should all not move especially Dori and Yvette is right we do not want to hurt Nick." She moved down the stage a little- where the stage was supposed to be, rather- and shifted into BigCat form, completely confident in the knowledge that she could control BigCat's instincts when it came to Nick and her friends, even when Nick was in wolf form. She bounded over to the wolf and roared at it, standing downwind so Nick could catch her scent.

Nick had gotten up to his hind legs. Sniffing in the air several times, Catseye was beginning to calm him, but his mind was still in flight, and without seeing Catseye yet, her smell wasn't quite enough to keep control over his instincts as hard as he was trying. It was at this moment that he caught a look at Meggan and his mind was off to the races again. While his human mind was trying to get him to stop, the wolf half dropped him down on all fours, and he began stalking forward.

Seeing Nick's wolf form in practice and seeing it stalking out of the London fog were two very different things. Julian widened the shield he'd placed between the small group of students and Nick- the fog making it visible as a large bubbled dome. "Speak for yourself Catseye," Julian mumbled as he slowly moved forward to challenge the beast.

As Julian blocked the wolf's progress, Nick pulled back his lips and snarled. His eyes moved back from Meggan to the one thing impeding his progress. The wolf was again in full control as he crouched down and locked eyes with Julian.

Julian, don't be SillyStupid, Catseye thought to herself irritably as she stalked in between the two males. She gave Nick a low-pitched, rumbling growl, tail lashing. Despite the growl, however, her purple eyes were pleading and hopeful rather than angry.

“Julian, let’s get out of here, please?” Dori called after her. She wanted to run, in fact, she was making her way as far back as she could without really leaving the group. “We can’t stay here.”

Yvette was watching her three friends with increasing concern. "Julian, please, do not be making things worse," she said in a low voice. "Catseye knows what she is doing." She glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the girls, taking in Dori's panic. "Slowly and quietly, move back," she instructed. "Make the room between us and them, but do not make the sudden movements, ok?"

Meggan wasn't quite ready to become lunch, so she attempted to slowly edge closer to Yvette, as she nodded, and whispered, "Got it." She wasn't sure if levitating could get her out of range due to the fog, so she opted to save it as a last resort--if he came charging at her. She was trying not to show fear, even though the steady sound of growling was making that difficult.

Pleased that Yvette was taking charge of the situation and looking after their friends, Catseye turned all her attention onto Nick. She turned the low growl into an inquisitive mew, relaxing her aggressive stance slightly and letting her tongue loll out of her mouth, hoping that would have the added effect of letting more of her scent penetrate Nick's consciousness. She could smell Julian's adrenalin and aggression and her tail twitched distractedly as she willed the other boy to heed Yvette and not make things worse, because if she could smell it Nick could too.

Julian noted the widening gap between the group and himself. Part of him wanted to fight, to kick Gleason's ass, but another part of him - the more sane part of him, given that he was facing off against a giant wolf - started edging backwards toward Yvette and the others. "Yvette, where exactly are we going? In case you missed it...we seem to actually be in London." He didn't break eye contact with Nick. "Backstage is totally gone."

"We need to be making space for Catseye to help Nick," Yvette replied carefully, not taking her eyes off the pair. "The one problem at the time, yes?"

Although he was still in a crouched stance, eying Julian, the small of Catseye gave the boy enough control that he didn't follow the group. Not at first at least. As he tried to take a step forward, the flash of purple in front of him was enough to get him to stop his rush for a while. Pulling his ears back, Nick looked at Catseye. Even his wolf-form knew that this cat held some kind of significance for him.

When Nick's ears came back, signalling that he was thinking, Catseye sprang at his chest, knocking him back and giving his face a lick with her tongue. Hopefully that could bring his human mind back into control- if not, she would end up in a wrestling match or even a full-blown fight that she wasn't sure she could win.

The shock was enough for Nick to gain control of his own body for a bit. Using this time, he quickly triggered his reverse transformation. As soon as his back hit the floor, the boy only breathed a few times before he began wriggling, the images of a few seconds quickly settling in. "Meggan? Meggan are you ok?" He screamed from his back hoping that the sound got to his companion past the mass of cat and students between them.

Meggan visibly sagged in relief for a moment, grateful that Catseye's plan had worked. Hopefully they wouldn't have to deal with that again. "I'm fine, don't worry," she called back to him. "Are you okay, Nick?" She was equally concerned about him after everything.

The boy rolled to his side, trying to see everyone in front of him. "I think so. Nothing's broken at least." His eyes suddenly opened wide as he still realized that most of his memories of the last few moments were still fuzzy. "I didn't... actually get to anyone did I?"

"Only your pride, Gleason," Julian sneered, lowering the shields. "Okay, now that the astonishing wolf-boy is back in control," he turned around slowly, "Now what do we do?"

"No, no, no!" came a voice from the side of the street. Slowly walking forward and appearing out of the fog and the shadow of the building next to the group was a small blond girl in a pretty coat. Her blue eyes were blazing with rage masking much of the pretty features of her face as she marched forward towards the group. "He almost just ate one of the children! And you're just going to let him out of this?" The girl rested with her hand on her hips, a sneer appearing on her lips.

Yvette stepped up, meeting the girl's angry gaze. "He is our friend," she explained calmly. "He is needing our help, not the punishment." Then she asked, rather pointedly. "And who are you? I do not remember seeing you before."

"Oh me?" The girl said, throwing her head to the side. "I'm just one of the locals. I was... uh... here working on the set and got locked in." The girl's voice continued to get faster and faster until her eyes shot up to Julian in an instant. Her voice changed to a sweeter tone as she looked towards the boy. "Seriously, do you think that that wolf thing is going to stay down for long? Are you willing to risk it?"

Julian shifted the rifle in his hand, trying to remember if he'd actually seen this girl before or not. "Look kid, I may not like Wolfie, but he at least has some control- provided you're not a fire hydrant. Just...you know, stick with us and you'll be fine." He pulled back the hammer on the musket and heard the tell-tale click of a functional weapon.

Yvette's eyes widened at the sound and she whipped her head around to Julian so fast the spikes of her hair rattled. "That is just the prop!" she protested. Something was deeply wrong here, even discounting the fact they seemed to be stuck in Victorian London. And she didn't like the way the girl talked about Nick, as if he was some kind of animal.

Doreen didn’t like this. On top of everything else, object Doreen didn’t match their scents and Nick had almost eaten all of them and this was why she didn’t want to be in a play. (Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, but it matched her feelings.) “It doesn’t smell like a gun, why does it sound like a gun! This place doesn’t smell like a city it still smells like the stage! What’s going on! Can we get out of here now? Back stage is that way, maybe, at least it should be!”

"It can't hurt to check it out I guess," Julian sighed. "You know Dori, I almost miss our old school. Nothing like this ever happened there."

Doreen gave Julian a look that plainly said he was totally crazy for that sentiment. “I think it’s this way,” she said for amount, after sniffing out the different directions. The battle of eyes versus nose was completely surreal.

Having rolled off Nick when the blonde girl appeared, Catseye's BigCat form growled at the stranger menacingly before she shifted back into girlform, struggling to keep her feet in light of the hunger pangs that hit the pit of her stomach. "Nick did not almost eat anyone," she told the blonde, baring her teeth. "He would not do that and I would not let him do that." She glared at the girl for a moment more before turning to her friends and absorbing what Dori had said. "Dori is right this place does not smell like a city and also this girl does not smell like a girl."

As soon as Catseye rolled off of him, Nick was immediately up on his feet, and at Catseye's side, anticipating the hunger pains before they happened. As he placed his hands on the girl's shoulder, he turned back towards the blonde. "I can assure you miss that no one feels as poorly about what just happened as I do." The boy squinted for a second. "And why don't you look as freaked out as most locals would if they found themselves suddenly in London?"

The girl placed her hands on her hips and let out a long sigh. "You know I had such high hopes that you all would put on more of an entertaining school, but this has been so... damn... boring..." Taking a step back, the girl held her hands out in front of her. "But I guess that doesn't matter, I just have to keep you all preoccupied until that white-haired woman shows up." Cocking her hip to the side, a slender smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. "So tell me, where do you all want to spend your last few hours? Locked up in a prison? Lost in the forest somewhere?" She chuckled at her own joke she was sure none of them would quite get.

She didn't get a chance to hear any response as a blue-furred figure loomed up behind her, his left temple matted with blood, and Kurt hit her over the head with a quite solid prop he'd found.

When the girl's blonde hair flew forward, and her head hit hard on the set, suddenly Nick found himself breathing heavily, but back at the front of the set he had been practicing the play on during the past week. It took him several sweeps before he really believed that he was back in the auditorium and no longer in London as he looked up to find his professor positioned in front of him. "Professor Sefton?"

"Yes, Nick. I am sorry I could not intervene sooner, but she saw to that." He looked carefully over the students. "Are any of you hurt?"

"Aside from being weirded out by spooky, not-so-little, blond girl there," Julian pointed adjusting the prop rifle in his hands, "I think we're all fine." He added, hastily, "Professor." Taking a few steps away from the group, Keller took a seat on the edge of the stage.
"No thanks to me, I think we all made it through." The boy let himself slink down next to Catseye as he still kept looking over the group of students to make sure they were all standing.

Meggan had shot her big brother a grateful smile, before she shook her head at Nick, and crouched down near him. "But you couldn't help that, Nick. Not with how weird everything went."

"Eh, we are fine, right? I mean...just who the hell is she anyway?" Nico was glad she hadn't ended up doing magic, or anything that could only make things worst. Things had solved pretty well without her help, fortunately.

"And you, Mr. Sefton, you are all right also?" Yvette was standing on tip-toe next to the teacher, peering at the bloodied patch on his temple. "You are bleeding. Perhaps we should get the medical help, yes?"


Kurt touched the spot gingerly, looked at his fingers, and nodded. "We certainly should get out of here. And her name is Regan, Nico. Or so she told me..."


Regan's head jerked slightly from the back of the theater. While the teacher had been checking in on his students, she had used the opportunity to limp to the top of the auditorium stairs. She waited for a second as she looked over the group, thinking for a moment about casting another illusion over them. But she let her arms fall to her sides. She would get another chance. Her eyes locked onto the blue mutant before disappearing outside.

"Regan, huh? That's one weird name..." Nico was looking at her friends and teacher, the goth also concerned about Kurt's wound, when her eyes briefly passed over the place the girl was supposed to be... the empty spot. "Aaaaaand, she's gone now, awesome." Already knowing it would be useless, Nico looked around, and just like she thought, there was no Regan around; if the girl could make illusions, she could hide herself pretty well, Nico was sure.

"Well, I might be jinxing it, but let's hope this is the first and last time we hear about her."