[Sam, Kurt] Plant Life: You're one of God's wonders.

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The Plant Life mission; Kurt and Sam are off to find Colleen. They find her and do a good job of convincing her to go home.


Kurt clung to the lowest branches of a hickory tree and looked down at Sam who was almost lost in the wild greenery below. "The only question is, where do we look?" he asked the other man. "She's not a big child and this is an enormous area. The vegetation is making it impossible to search."

Sam considered the question for a minute, listening to the river. He had flown over the property once, but hadn't been able to see much through the jungle and hadn't wanted to chance drawing too much attention to himself.

"Yeah, it's pretty thick," he said, a statement of the obvious that probably would have earned him an eye-roll from Meltdown. Kurt merely watched him, waiting patiently for him to finish this thought. "I don't think any kind of methodical search is even a possibility here. We need to try and figure out what she might be thinking, where she might go."

"She's probably afraid," Kurt said, stating the obvious as succinctly as Sam had done. "If I were her, I'd be looking for somewhere to hide, somewhere safe. But she's not in her home or with friends, so that leaves us right back here." He leapt lightly into the higher branches of the tree. "There are a number of large trees down here in the bottomland area by the river. I can see a fair distance from here."

Sam shook his head slowly, trying to put himself in the girl's place. "Somewhere safe," he said slowly. "Back home in Kentucky, me and the other kids had a spot we always ran off to if we were trying to get away from things. It was an old shack, out back."

The tree that Kurt had climbed was at least sixty feet tall and he was two-thirds of the way up it now but he could still hear Sam clearly. "A hiding place, yes? I understand that many children have them. I know I did when I was small." The air was thick with the smell of growing things, fresh and moist, so different from New York.

"A safe place," Sam amended. "Someplace that'd be just hers." A place she could go to figure out what was going on? he wondered, and then looked up at Kurt. "You said the trees down in the bottomland looked older. Like they were here before this jungle appeared?"

"Like this one," Kurt said. "There are a number of groves of these very large trees that I can see. They follow the riverline and seem to be established. The new growth is mostly low-lying, as in not exceeding the height of a man."

"Not new, then," Sam said. The shack back home had been about as far from the house as it was possible to get, and he wondered if the same would hold true for this girl. "We ought to take a look down there," he said.

Kurt teleported down to where Sam stood waiting. "How should we go? There is a grove at the bend in the river a quarter mile from here that looks like it might hide anything at all. However, getting there is going to be difficult."

Sam eyed the tangled vegetation in front of them, then looked upwards. "Heck of a situation," he said with a frown. "I could fly us, but there's not enough room for a proper landing..."

"Unless one were aiming for a water landing," Kurt suggested.

Sam blinked, then couldn't help a laugh. "Trust me that much, do you?"

Kurt flashed him a toothy grin. "If we are aimed for anything that looks too painful, I can always make adjustments."

"All right then. I'll do my best not to drown us," Sam said, managing to sound a little more confident than he actually felt.

It didn't turn out that badly, in the end. He managed to land them in the shallows, where neither of them got particularly well, and there was no bouncing. Avoiding bouncing was always a good thing.

Kurt shook a little water out of his hair and pointed back at the stand of trees. "You missed," he noted, his smile a sure sign that he was teasing. "Let's see what we can see."

He led the way through the tangled undergrowth, having a far easier time of it than Sam. When they were closer to the trees, he gestured to Sam. "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants," he quoted. "Or those of a willing friend. What do you say?"

"Knock yourself out," Sam said with some amusement.

Kurt leapt lightly to land on Sam's broad shoulders and Sam took the extra weight easily enough, hardly swaying at all. Balance was everything in these matters and Kurt had that to spare. "Would you say that a distinguishing feature of a hiding place might be a rope swing?"

Sam grinned. "Well, I sure had one," he said, his mood abruptly brightening. "We got a treehouse here or something?"

"Something like it, yes. It looks like there are some very closely set trees and there is something built between the trunks, not too far off the ground but it has a few platforms," Kurt reported. "Easy enough to see from here. Part is enclosed, the rest is not. It's makeshift, but it seems sturdy."

"Can you get up there?" Sam asked. "Don't think I want to try flying up." With close quarters like this, he couldn't vouch for his control. "Or maybe we ought to try calling her name?"

"I can see it, I can get us there," Kurt assured him, hopping down. "Let's go." He reached out and when Sam nodded, put a hand on Sam's shoulder and they were on the upper platform of the treehouse the next second.

"Yeah," Sam said softly, looking around at the treehouse with a faint smile. "This looks about right." He looked at the enclosed section, taking a careful few steps in that direction. "Colleen?" he called, keeping his voice friendly. "Honey, you in there?"

Kurt pricked his ears at the sound of a stifled sob. "She is," he told Sam in a whisper. "She's crying. You should go ahead, so I don't frighten her."

The enclosed portion of the tree-fort - obviously constructed over a number of years by more than one generation of children - was small and had neither door nor windows but rather gaps in the boards where one could enter or exit easily, if one were small. The whole fort and the trees that supported it were wrapped in great strands of honeysuckle and grave vines.

Sam nodded, going over and kneeling down in front of one of the larger gaps in the boards. Inside, huddled in a corner and weeping quietly, was the girl. "Hey, Colleen," Sam said gently, smiling at the thin redhead. He noted that her skin had a distinct greenish tint - part of her manifestation, he'd be willing to bet. "I'm Sam, sweetheart. Been looking for you all over - you okay?"

"Go away," she raised her head and rubbed her arm across her eyes. She was a mess, hair in tangles and filthy from several days living out here alone. There were empty water bottles and food wrappers neatly stashed in a bag hanging from a rusty nail, but no sign of any food stores remaining.

"We cannot go away just now," Kurt said, peering in from where he was perched on the roof. "We need to talk to you."

Colleen looked up, catching a glimpse of blue through the cracks in the boards. "You're a mutant," she exclaimed, then looked over at Sam. "Are you?"

"Sure am," Sam said easily, resting his hands on his knees. "I know my friend Kurt here looks the part a little more than I do, but that wasn't thunder you heard a couple of minutes ago, that was me. It's the noise I make when I fly." He looked around the treehouse, smiling. "Nice place you got here," he said. "Back on my family's farm in Kentucky, my brothers and sisters and I had a little shack. Wasn't nearly as nice as this."

"It was the only place I could think of to come..." Colleen said, her voice trembling. "When all of... this happened..."

"It was not a bad choice," Kurt said reassuringly. "It is safe and you have had time to think. We saw the news and thought that you might be a mutant like us and maybe you would feel better if we came and talked to you." He peered in one of the larger cracks. "You can ask us questions instead of everyone asking you questions, if you like."

Colleen blinked up at him, and then at Sam. "Is this.. did I do this?" she asked shakily, waving a hand around as if to indicate the jungle. "Did I... did I hurt anyone?"

Her voice cracked on the second question and Sam leapt to reassure her. "No one's hurt," he said soothingly. "No one at all, Colleen, you've got my word on that. And they're more worried about where you are than where the jungle came from." He grinned at her, his best Kentucky-farmboy grin. "And yeah, we think you probably made the jungle. That's amazing, you know that? Being able to make things grow... that's got to be one of the best mutant powers I've ever seen."

"I like plants," Colleen said shyly, fumbling for her glasses on the floor beside her. She put them on and focussed on Sam. "I really didn't hurt anyone?"

Kurt, who had moved to look over Sam's shoulder, shook his head. "No one has been hurt, Colleen. Though people are confused and worried. Sam is right, too, your power is quite amazing. That is the best word for it. Are you hungry?" She looked too thin to miss even one meal, much less several.

"Yeah... I guess..." She looked over at the makeshift garbage bag. "I brought some stuff, but it's all gone now."

"I bet you'd like a real, hot meal right about now," Sam said. "And there's a lot of people out there who're going trample each other in the rush to feed you, you know?" Colleen peered at him, and Sam smiled, wistfully this time. "Come on, honey," he encouraged her, reaching out his hand, palm-up. "They're going to be so glad to see you. Heck, your mayor's been telling the Daily Bugle and all that getting you home is the only thing that matters."

"But they don't know I'm a mutant," Colleen said, voice breaking. "They think I'm me."

Kurt gave Sam a sad look. There was no guarantee that she'd get a good reception. He had hope, but no promises that he could make. "You won't be going alone," he offered.

"We'll be right there with you," Sam confirmed, not letting his hand fall. "I've been there for other people in this very same situation, Colleen. I know it's not going to be easy to come out of this treehouse, but it's something you've got to do."

"You have nothing to lose," Kurt pointed out. "And nothing bad will happen to you. We'll make sure of it. The reason we're here is to make sure that all this works out."

Colleen looked from Kurt to Sam and back again, then reached for Sam's hand. "I'm not dangerous, then?"

"No, you're not," Sam said firmly, taking her hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "You're one of God's own wonders. And what's important, you're Colleen Drew. Nothing that's happened here changes that."

Kurt nodded approvingly, setting his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Sam is right again. You are who you are, and people care for you very much. I am sure that will not have changed. Are you ready to go home?"

Colleen's eyes widened a little as she got a clear look at Kurt and she looked to Sam for some reassurance.

Sam grinned. "Pretty shade of blue, ain't he?" he said, deliberately letting his accent thicken, and was delighted when Colleen gave a tentative smile. Her eyes were very green, he noticed. "Leaves an awful stink when he teleports, though."

"I resemble that remark," Kurt said dryly, tapping Sam lightly on the head with his tail. "Still, no one complains at not having to walk," he told Colleen. "And I think it would take us another week to get back to your house if we did. If you'll let me, I'll take us all right there now."

"Now..." Colleen swallowed hard, looking at her skin and then back at Kurt's. "It'll be an awful shock for Mama and Daddy. But I want to go home..."

"Then that's what we'll do," Sam said firmly, tugging lightly at her hand. She came forward, and he held his breath until it was clear she was on her way out of the treehouse. "We'll do anything we can to help," he said, backing up to give her room to get out.

Colleen stood there blinking in the sunlight angling down through the foliage. She looked around her in disbelief, clinging to Sam's hand. "I did all this?"

"We think you did," Kurt said. Colleen smelled like green things, like the air he'd breathed from high up in the tree above the river.

"Like I said," Sam said quietly. "Pretty amazing."

"Ready to go home?" Kurt asked her.

Colleen nodded, still stunned by the full realization that she'd created the jungle around them. "I think so." She squeezed Sam's hand and gave Kurt a little smile. "I'm ready."

Kurt reached out for Colleen's other hand and when her tentative fingers closed on his, he brought up the image of the little brick farmhouse in his mind and took her home.