xp_logs | during all the fuss...

The call had come into the shelter that a pair of parents was looking for their children - two girls, six and eight years old, and they hadn't checked in yet. Supposedly, according to their mother, they knew to go into the basement when the wind started, but this wasn't just wind, and she was worried. She'd have been more worried if she'd been with the team when they got to what was left of the house.

"I'll go look," Kitty told Rogue, making her way into the rubble.

Kitty was still relatively dry because she'd been unphased for most of the day, the rain falling through her in a way that seemed to greatly unsettle the other, normal, rescue workers. They'd decided not to care after she'd pulled the first trapped victim out of the room that would have otherwise been a coffin.

Now Kitty let herself 'drop' through the piles of rubble and what was left of the first floor. "Hello!" she called out, flipping on the flashlight. "Is anyone in here? Girls!" Moving quickly through walls and past a collapsed set of stairs, Kitty soon heard crying.

"Hello! Girls?"

"Mommy... I want my mommy!" A child's voice sounded from the other room and Kitty dashed through the wall to get to the girl.

A second voice screamed as she stepped through the wall. "A ghost! An angel! Mommy!" The elder girl began to cry as Kitty glanced around the room.

"No, no sweetheart, I swear, it's ok." She quickly phased back in, dropping down onto the ground, and was startled by the sound of a splash. Looking down she realized that the rain was pouring into the basement and the two girls were soaked and shivering. "Here, come here girls. I'm going to get you out of here."

The younger girl was simply sniffling now, and started to make her way over to where Kitty was standing, but the elder cried out. "No! Shelly, no!" Grabbing at her sister, she stared wild eyed up at Kitty. "It's an ghost! If you touch her you'll die!"

Kitty looked startled. "No, I promise, I'm not a ghost. I'm here to help."

"If you're not a ghost what are you?"

"I'm a..." Saying she was a mutant might scare the girls even more. "I'm a super hero."

"Really?" the little one, Shelly, sniffled.

"Yes, really. And I can get you out of here, only you have to come with me." She reached a hand out towards the girls. "Don't be scared." A sudden inspiration came to her. "You're mother sent me down here. She's worried about you."

"Mommy?" Both girls seemed to perk up at the mention of their mother. "Where is she?" the elder asked.

"She's at the shelter, where I'm going to take you."

"Ok..." Shifting her hold on her sister, the elder girl carefully made her way over to where Kitty was standing. "How're we going to get out though."

"Well, come here." Kitty knelt down, and reached out her arms for the little one. "Shelly? I'm going to carry you, ok?"

Shelly looked scared, but nodded, and stepped closer to Kitty, half way climbing up into the her arms.

"And what's your name?" Kitty asked the other girl as she carefully stood, adjusting her grip on Shelly.

"Amanda."

"Ok Amanda." With Shelly holding on to Kitty's neck she could support the smaller girl with just one arm. Reaching out with her other hand she said, "Amanda, I need you to take my hand, and hold on. No matter what happens, you need to hold onto me until I tell you it's safe to let go."

The older girl looked nervous, but nodded and reached out to take Kitty's hand.

Kitty quickly phased out, squeezing Amanda's hand to reassure her. "Ok, come with me." She made her way over to the wall she'd passed through, then turned back and looked at Amanda again. "Remember, don't let go." Turning back she bit her lip and stepped through the wall, gripping tightly as she heard Amanda gasp.

"Are we dead?" Amanda asked quietly. "Is that why we can walk through the walls?"

"No, I promise sweetie, you're not dead, and you're not going to be. I'm just going to take you out of this."

Kitty knew she didn't have the strength to pick up both girls, so instead she made her way over to the collapsed stairs. "Here, I want you to pretend you're climbing Amanda. Just act like the stairs are ok."

"Ok..." Her voice was small and uncertain.

"You've played pretend before, right?" When Amanda nodded Kitty smiled. "It's just like that."

So saying, Kitty gave a tug on the girls hand to make sure her grip was safe, then began to 'climb' the stairs, making her way up through the rubble.

Carefully, moving slowly so as not to dislodge the girl clinging to her hand, and pausing every now and then to reassure her, Kitty made her way out of the building and onto the lawn.

Wanting to be certain it was safe when she did it, Kitty phased back in a few inches above the ground so that she and Amanda dropped onto the grass with a thump. "It's ok to let go now," she told the girl, smiling back at her. "Now we can just go to the shelter normally."

Amanda looked up at her, and then clutched at her hand tighter than ever.

"Or we can go there like this," Kitty amended, squeezing her hand. "But can I put down your sister? She's kind of heavy..."

"No!" Shelly cried out, also clutching onto Kitty.

"Ok..." Sighing, Kitty shifted her grip on the younger girl so she wasn't about to drop her, and then sent a message to the Professor about where she was going. "Come on then," Kitty said, and phased out again so the rain wouldn't soak any of them, and if anything collapsed they'd be safe. Holding tightly to the two little girls she headed back to her team's stageing area.