xp_logs | Early Sunday Morning, and maybe things aren't quite so bad.

Some things don't always work as well on everyone as might be hoped.

Meggan, Kurt and Warren.

Meggan shook her head, feeling as though a fog were gradually lifting from her mind. This wasn’t right. This whole situation was wrong, Meggan was gradually beginning to understand, but she didn’t think she could explain that feeling without the highly likely possibility of being put back under the whammy. Now that she could think clearly for the first time since their decision to enter the tunnels, and could feel how close they were, she understood that they shouldn’t be fighting the X-Men.

She had to find help, before anyone was hurt. Everyone else was distracted as they prepared for a huge fight, so they wouldn’t notice her starting to sneak away. She took a few more steps, and looked back. Once she was positive she wouldn’t be missed in all the chaos, she fled into the tunnels.

Meggan was trying to be as careful as she could be, and not fall into any sewage or trip over a rat or any other unidentifiable matter as she made progress through the sewer tunnels—only slipping on slick spots three times as she hastened her pace. She wouldn’t call out, though, not yet. There was still a slim chance she would be heard, and she didn’t want any fighting.

As she rounded another corner, she stumbled backwards as she almost collided with exactly the person she was searching for.

Kurt had leapt back automatically as someone almost ran into him, putting some distance between himself and the potential threat, but it took him only a second to realize who it was. The next moment, his arms were tightly wrapped around Meggan.

"Thank God, you are safe."

Meggan nodded against Kurt’s shoulder, reluctantly pulling back after one last squeeze. She was grimy right now, but she needed that hug. “Yeah, I am now…but everyone else isn’t,” she said quietly. She wasn’t sure if their voices would carry, but she didn’t want to take the chance that an echo would give them away. “Annalee’s messed with everyone’s heads, and they’re still with her,” she hurriedly explained. “They’re getting ready to fight you because she made them want to protect…home. What she made us think was our home.”

Kurt nodded, peering into the dimness the way she'd come. "We will bring all of you home, I promise. Do you know where the others are?"

Meggan shook her head. “Not exactly. I know where they were, and how to get back to there. Where we all started out, but they were planning to split up in pairs, along the tunnels surrounding there.” The planning of that was the last she heard from them. She didn’t know if a group would head this way or not, but she could easily show Kurt back to that lair.

It was during Kurt's question that Warren came within earshot, and he soon joined the pair. He so far hadn't come across any of the kids, but it was good to hear - and see - that at least one of them was safe.

"Let's see who we can find," Warren replied, wings tightening against his back. Thanks to an image inducer he'd acquired, they were darker than usual and almost unseen in this light. "The sooner we can find them and get you all out of here, the better."

"It is not just Warren and I", Kurt assured his sister. "Kyle is here too, and Sarah and Callisto. Given a starting point, Kyle alone could tell us which way they went."

That went a long way towards easing Meggan’s mind, even if they weren’t quite out of the figurative woods just yet. “That’s great. I think I know enough of the twists and turns…and places to duck…to get him back to where I started,” she said with some relief. Even if it was dim down here, she had tried to pay attention to anything that could be of use. If the others were all gearing up for a fight, then they probably weren’t doing anything magical or normal to mask their scents from Kyle.

Kurt nodded. "And if you find you have lost the way, I am sure he could track the way you came to get here as well. One way or another, we will find them."

“I know we will.” Meggan thought for a moment, trying to remember something that could be considered unique amidst all the muck. “When you almost get there, a couple turns away…there’s a really pungent smell of rotten tomatoes, garlic, and some kind of old meat coming in from another spot. I feel bad for Kyle’s nose, but maybe it could help with finding the way to them, if I think I've lost the path,” she offered with an apologetic smile.

"It might very well help", he said with a smile in return, then looked at Warren. "Time to regroup, then, to fetch our tracker?"