Something Slender This Way Comes | Don't Trust Small Children

[x-topaz.livejournal.com]

Alison, Rahne, and Tabitha try to do a good deed when they find a lost child. And regret the choice pretty quickly.



There were so many people milling about. It would be so easy. She made her way around the edges, largely invisible. That was the blessing of this body - nobody really noticed it. She was small, she blended into a crowd.

But she needed to find people who were alone. She slipped around the back of the school, where there were less people - but hopefully her next victims.

The relative piece of the back of the school was Alison's haven. Her headaches weren't going away and they were starting to irritate her.

The school nurse had said something about reducing her stress levels. Until she decided what she was going to do about the letters on her desk back at the mansion, that wasn't likely to happen. Still, a break was exactly what she needed just then, sitting under an old tree. She let the sounds of nature take her over, and was at peace.

Of course, Tabitha couldn't leave Alison alone. Silence was *not* her forte. Actually, it wasn't in her skill set at all. "Allie Allie Allie, whatcha dooooooin?"

There was a small flash of blue light by Alison's left ear as her peace was broken. "Hi... Tabby," she said, doing her best to not grind her teeth.

She loved Tabitha, really she did. She could just be more exhausting than a two night showing in NYC sometimes. Nobody had told her having close friends could be so exhausting!

"Sorry for intruding!" came a slightly breathless voice behind Tabitha. Rahne stepped around the other girl and gave a small wave - she'd been trailing after Tabitha when she'd spotted Alison and, really not wanting to be left alone, Rahne had tagged along. "Erm, sorry, but she got really excited when she saw ye!"

It seemed Alison's secret little hide-away wasn't so hidden anymore. Still, it was her best friend and unofficial little sister, so at least it wasn't too bad all of the sudden. And...

...was that a child walking around over there? She looked far too young to be a highschooler.

"Tabby, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" she asked quietly.

Tabitha barely looked up as her phone was making that weird noise again. "Cute kid, but Allie, my phone is doing That Thing again. Why does technology hate me?"

The girls had seen her. Well, that was okay. Most people would assume she was lost - she was so wildly out of place with all the "big kids" around, after all. So she put on the best scared look that she could and made her way toward the group, hoping she looked convincingly scared, and holding out her hand.

Unlike Tabitha, Rahne had looked when Alison had spoken up and had seen the kid. The girl had paused, frozen almost, before heading directly toward them. "Oh! Hello," Rahne called out, blinking and wondering if someone had lost their child? That had to be scary and she was already scanning the crowd for an Adult.

Except ... her nose twitched and Rahne's smile wavered slightly. No, that couldn't be right, she thought, as the girl stopped in front of Alison. She ... she didn't have a smell? Like, at all? How was that possible?

"Because you keep blowing it up," Alison shot back smartly. Still, the girl. Right, they should probably do something about her.

She must have been lost, Alison decided. There wouldn't be any other reason for her to be hanging around the school. "Are you lost?" she asked as the child came closer.

She ignored the feeling something wasn't quite right. "Do you need help finding your parents?" she held out a hand to the child.

As soon as the redhead's hand closed around the girl's, the child stepped closer, making sure all three were in her range...

And then the scenery shifted. The color around them faded away, the landscape becoming twisted and warped, like something out of post-apocalyptic movie.

It wasn't Earth anymore.

Clea reached out to grab ahold of Stephen. "Woah. Magic overload." She whispered and shook her head.

Stephen blinked and exchange a look with Clea, "That definitely wasn't normal," he agreed rubbing his head, "It felt like the first time we met Cata...magic, it has to be magic doesn't it?" The teenager sighed, "I'll call the others, maybe we can track them down before this becomes a big deal." he noted reaching for his phone.

Miles turned the corner mere seconds before Alison and the others vanished, and their sudden disappearance stopped him in his tracks. And it wasn't even their disappearing act that sent a terrified chill down his spine. It was the girl who vanished with him. He had no doubt that she was the same as the one he'd seen in the grainy security video with Ganke. Whoever she was, she'd taken his best friend and now had absconded with more friends. There was no question for what Spider-Man would do next.

After seeing the girls disappear, Clea and Stephen gather any available GenXers, and the group ends up with an unusual ally.



"And they just, disappeared with the girls," Stephen dropped his hands from where he'd been gesticulating as he brought the other up to date, "If we hadn't been watching it I wouldn't believe that it had happened either. I mean I thought I'd seen weird things before but these guys were something else."

"I definitely felt something open. Like..." Clea thought for a moment. "...something not from this world. Hard to explain. Not alien...I don't think." She didn't sound so sure. "I think we should go after them. I mean, no one kidnaps our friends and gets away with it."

"Well yeah, d'uh, we have to go after them," Bobby said, sounding about as confident as he felt. Which wasn't very much, but he knew they had to do something to help. "But if you don't know what it was that opened, or where it was, or what it was even, how are we gonna do that, exactly?" All of this was seriously beyond his ken and he had no idea where to even start.

Nica bit her lip. All of this, the magic, the monsters... it was totally new ground for her. But these were their friends and classmates needing help. "Whatever we do, we can't get the adults to help," she said at last. "They'll just laugh at us and tell us to go play or some bullshit." The bitterness in her voice was palpable.

"Yes, Jupiter forbid we actually use the training they provide us with," Amara chimed in, with a roll of her eyes. She had been quiet during Stephen's story, though her eyes had gotten wider as he told it. It sounded like something out of a story, rather than real life. But then her life had become infinitely more strange in the past several months.

"They are acting like we're china dolls or something," Stephen agreed, "So then we're gonna have to go after them ourselves right? We're all agreed?"

Clea opened her mouth to protest but quickly closed it. Not all adults were useless and there were a few that she knew that would believe them. She turned to Bobby, "Magic or anything supernatural has a lingering presence. I can pinpoint where it was opened and possibly be able to reopen it." She wasn't sure if she could do that but if she could make chocolate sing and cats shrink opening a portal shouldn't be impossible.

"Do you know how many horror movies start out this way? What could possibly go wrong?" The rhetorical questions in a horribly mangled faux-British accent came from a few feet away and a few feet more up. There, hanging upside down from a large tree, a young man clad in a tight black uniform decorated with red webbing across the chest. A small spider insignia adorned the middle. He wore a mask, too, also black but with two big white ovals for eyes. He cocked his head to the side, curiously regarding the group of teenage mutants, and then hopped off the tree, twisting midair with greater agility than a cat to land on his feet, facing them.

"I saw your mates go through the magic doohickey. A little, uh, lass led them through. Super creepy. Can you really reopen it?"

Clea jumped at the voice of a random stranger. "What the..." Clea stepped back and looked at the man in the suit. "Who the bloody hell are you? Were you spying on us? You know it is rude to spy..." Clearly she had no idea who the boy in the suit was. "And is your accent supposed to be insulting or funny?"

"Dude what the hell?" Bobby said, blinking at the newcomer and scratching his head. "And what did you say? I don't have a mate, I'm single, not that it's any of your business."

"The Amazing Spider-Man, at your service, ta." He made a sweeping bow. Behind his mask, he took a close look at the assembly. He knew deep down that he should convince them all to hang back and call the X-Men, that their skill and expertise were needed now . But he knew just as well that time was of the essence and they would never be there in time. Every second that passed was a second that Ganke could be hurt. And he couldn't very well tell this group he knew where they were from and who they lived with, not without revealing his identity. The best he could do was keep an eye on them and make sure they all stayed safe.

Scott would surely keep the inevitable grounding minimal for that.

"Oi, look, I'ma level with you, mates. I saw a creepy little ghost girl go off with your friends. Poof! Gone. Same kind of creepy little ghost kid what went with me own mate who's missing. Been trying to find him for a week now. This is my best lead, savvy? I'm coming with you. We'll bring 'em all back together, wot wot."

Nica grimaced at the accent - it was so bad as to be almost painful - but nodded. "Whatever, 'mate'. We're both looking for friends, so we might as well work together. And I don't know shit about this magic stuff, but we do have people who do." She squared her shoulders and looked around at the rest of the group. "Let's go do this thing."

Clea bit her lower lip as she took out her cell phone and fired off a text. Her gut was telling her to tell someone what they were about to do and it wasn't really an adult, was it?