FicWad

Revolution

Chapter 20: Wild Encounter

Potion had met with Kurt and Kitty, who played along with the husband and wife routine. Their shy glances and blushing faces might have made the routine suspicious for most, as they gave a 'new couple' rather than a 'married couple' impression. Yet for Potion it was good because it gave them a touch of sweet innocence that she was fond of. Thus the potion maker agreed to help out after Kurt and Kitty both assured that they had nothing to do with Shield. They felt bad about lying, but how were they supposed to save the world otherwise?

However, Potion needed a few ingredients to mix the vital remedy. Coincidentally, one of those ingredients was a type of flower found in the land near by. While the other X-Men got started on the scavenger hunt for the other ingredients, Kitty and Kurt hunted for the semi-rare fiery colored flower among the violet and blue ones that were all over the grassy field's vastness.

"All of this makes it feel like unreal, doesn't it?" Kitty's voice spoke softly. She and Kurt were alone in an endless field of green with drops of blue and violet, still searching for the elusive red-orange dot.

Truth be told, after putting up a show for Potion and in part for everyone, everything felt like it was play pretend. It felt like they were still just dating and really they were. But they had played along with a lot, accepted even more and signed very real marriage documents. "I guess we could have a long engagement..." Kurt suggested with a blush.

"Yeah," Kitty agreed. "I like don't mind, marrying you I mean. I was afraid you'd be angry at me for the misunderstanding."

"Angry? No way," Kurt assured. "I never thought I'd be married so early, but I'm happy to be married to you."

The wind blew, making petals dance around them and giving their sweet moment an amazing atmosphere as they kissed. Then suddenly, a red-orange petal landed on Kitty's nose making her sneeze. "The flower!" They both exclaimed simultaneously as they try to see where it had come from. They spotted a few in a small patch of fiery colors. At least this part of the mission was easy, but they had a feeling that finding the rest of the ingredients wouldn't be this simple.

xoxox xox xoxox

When Kurt and Kitty had gone to see Potion and deliver the fire colored flower, she greeted them with the same joy she had when she saw them off after their earlier visit. It was almost evening by then and Potion was getting ready to attend the engagement party. She received the flower and put it in water to work on later. "I commend you on your courage in seeking truthfulness at least in some aspects," she told Kurt. "For that I'll forgive your temporary," she emphasized the word, "alliance to Shield."

Then they realized it, she knew, Potion knew everything. She wasn't tricked for a second, she just wanted to see how far they would go for the sake of turning a lie into the truth and apparently this was enough.

The party that evening was a calm celebration with many friends and relatives from Kurt's childhood and his time as a circus performer during his earlier teen years before he joined the X-Men. Overall it was a pleasant activity filled with a joyous and affectionate atmosphere.

xoxox xox xoxox

Later, Hank, Remy and Rogue had traveled to Brazil to find a rare mushroom that only grew in certain areas of the Amazon jungle, which Potion needed to concoct the protection serum. The weather at the rain forest was very humid and not at all easy to deal with, but the trio of X-Men endured it. "I can't complain about the signal since Forge linked our cellphones to the institute's amplifier." Rogue commented as she ducked under a low hanging branch. "I can say with all certainty that I wish I had been there." She held up the phone with a picture from Kitty and Kurt's engagement party.

"At least you can go to their wedding." Remy chuckled, he had already heard the full story behind the marriage.

"As much as we all want to be elsewhere," though no one would believe that from Hank who seemed to be enjoying the hike. He had left Germany as soon as he got the mission to find the mushroom and had been basically in the air since then. He picked up Rogue and Remy at New York and they immediately left for Brazil. "Let's focus on the mission."

Before the conversation could further progress, Hank stopped and signaled for silence. Rogue and Remy froze and waited. Hank's face was serious, his expression focused. "There are many of them and they're all circling in on us." The other two wanted to ask many of what, but not even Beast seemed to know exactly what they were.

The group was surrounded by many beast-like creatures with wolf features and human shaped bodies covered in gray, black and brown fur. "No sudden movements..." Hank cautioned. They remained frozen before the beasts that vastly outnumbered them, until one of them, which was covered in black fur and was taller than the others howled loudly. Interpreting it as a signal to attack, Hank called out, "run!" Immediately the three X-Men began a mad dash through the rain forest.

"I could start some fireworks you know!" Remy offered.

"No!" Hank strongly disagreed with the idea. "Your power isn't safe for the forest!" This was supposed to be a scavenger hunt of sorts, not a war.

Suddenly, the beasts stopped running and Hank looked back in puzzlement. The beasts motioned to a large tree and opened a passage behind a camouflaged sliding door. There was another door behind it made of metal. It was open, with a damaged keypad next to it that looked like it had been ripped apart by claws.

Hank looked analytical. They had all ran so fast that they didn't even have time to think what the beasts were. "I think they're mutants... And the place where they were changed was here." The beasts couldn't speak, but they communicated through expressions and signals. "I think they know who we are, possibly from watching a TV report or reading the newspaper. We have to help them."

This wasn't what they came for, but they might as well help out. The mutant beasts were lucky to have run into the group. However, they were not fortunate enough to elude their pursuers for long. A robot about ten feet tall, controlled by a pilot inside it, arrived, shooting cutting lasers at them.

"Everyone inside," Hank didn't know what kind of place waited beyond the hidden entrance, but they couldn't wait out there until they were turn to pieces. Rogue and Remy jumped in and the beasts reluctantly followed. They had just escaped from that place, but it couldn't be helped, the robot was too large to follow them, so they had to go in.

Strangely, the underground laboratory was unguarded and the automatic defense system had been destroyed. The leader of the beasts lead the X-Men to a control room where he communicated by typing on the keyboard. "Please help us..." he explained that the lab was founded as a Shield research center, but that had been a lie. The scientists that thought they were working for shield were actually working for an anti-mutant group.

"I see, so you were tricked and changed into mutants in hopes of ruining Shield's reputation." Hank reviewed. Suddenly the robot returned, having taken another route to get to them. It began to shoot cutting lasers. Seeing the X-Men as their hope, the beasts protected them. The robot's cutting lasers injured them badly with blood and severed limbs flying.

"Since we're indoors I won't have to worry about the forest now!" Remy threw a flaming card at the robot, but it bounced off a shield of light and exploded without damaging it. "Looks like I still have other things to worry about."

"This is a losing fight; we need to come up with a strategy!" Hank ripped off a metal panel covering a vent on the wall. "For now let's retreat!" In went Rogue, Remy, Hank and the surviving beasts.

They hurried through the vents, listening to the echo of the robot's movements. Finally, they stopped and saw the robot passing below. They saw a box glowing blue on the back of its silver body. Remy readied a card and dropped it. The shield of light activated around the robot but there was a hole in it through which the card entered and exploded against the blue glowing box. It was made that way on purpose to absorb energy. The power from the card was absorbed and the robot became stronger. It started shooting cutting lasers again, making the group in the vents crawl away for their lives as fast as they could.

Once they got away, they got out of the vents and went into a laboratory with many broken glass capsules large enough to hold humans. "I think I can overload it..." Remy suggested.

Hank agreed, "that's our only possibility right now." He looked at the injured beasts now fewer in number. "I want you all to hang back and stay safe. You're not used to your mutant forms yet and can't move fast enough to dodge the lasers. I will provide a distraction and you two," he addressed Rogue and Remy will overload the enemy robot."

"No problem," Remy assured. " You still have my power, cherie?"

"I'm ready!" Rogue declared.

"Here's a recharge, just in case," Remy gave Rogue a kiss. It was quick, but she was caught completely off guard.

Suddenly, the far wall of the laboratory was torn down by the same silver robot from before. The X-Men reacted quickly, putting their plan into action. Hank provided a distraction while Rogue and Remy threw cards after Remy gave her a deck to use. Explosions filled the lab with equipment being blown to pieces as it got caught in the battle. The blue box on the robot's back glowed brighter each time, but the X-Men knew that the enemy was getting desperate to use up all the extra energy before it caused an overload.

Suddenly, the robot's weaponry stopped responding and the pilot was alarmed. Yet there was nothing that could be done as electricity surrounded the machine. The armored vessel was covered in more power than it could handle, until it finally exploded. The X-Men and the beasts ducked for cover, but they were still caught in the blast. The beasts, who wished for nothing more than to recover their human forms and be free of this nightmare, protected the X-Men at the cost of their own lives.

When the smoke cleared out, the survivors were few, but Rogue, Remy and Hank were among them, along with a few of the beasts. Miraculously, the inner armor of the robot prevented the pilot from being blown to pieces, though his injuries were still mortal and there was no way he could be saved with all the blood he was losing so fast. He was a young man of around seventeen, who was the son of one of the scientists who perished earlier on the project. His eyes were unfocused at first, but soon regained some life, "trap..." he stuttered, "beasts... trap..." Then he died.

It sounded like the robot's pilot, the last remaining human of the laboratory's victims, was trying to warn the X-Men of something. The look in his eyes, the way he appeared to be so regretful... "That young man must have been being controlled. Could this all be related to Revolution?" Hank theorized.

Then disaster struck again as the beasts howled in pain and held their heads. They became wild and the last few survivors torn each other apart, much to the X-Men's horror. They tried to stop them but they were pushed away with fresh cuts. Rogue tried to drain their energy to knock them out and stop them from killing each other. It was a desperate move done without time to think of the consequences. She was pushed back, thrown against a wall and then she heard it.

While Hank tried helplessly to save the last two remaining beasts that were once human, Remy hurried to Rogue. He was speaking, but it was not his voice that she heard. There was something else, something loud and infuriating. Her vision blurred, the sound was even louder, as if it was inside her head, it was maddening.

To be Continued

There's trouble all around...