Chapter 20:
Awareness hit Rogue like a sledgehammer. One moment she was in a magical land of her, Remy and touchable skin. The next, she was laying on the carpet in her room in a school filled with terrified screaming and someone furiously banging on her bedroom door. She pushed herself up onto her arms and blinked her heavy eyes into focus, her hand coming up to rub her aching forehead. Although all she could hear was screaming and running footsteps, it never really computed that something not right was happening until her door burst open with the sound of splintering wood.
Rogue's head snapped up to see her door had been kicked in by two men in black army uniforms, armed with fairly big guns. Acting on her first instinct to run away, she scrambled to her feet and went to dodge past the two men. Unsurprisingly one grabbed her as she tried to run past and pinned her up against one of the bedroom walls. She hit the wall with an annoyed grunt and turned her head to the side so she could look over her shoulder at the man who held her.
"What the Hell is goin' on?" Rogue demanded as she began to try and free herself.
"Under the new Mutant Terror Laws, you are under arrest." The man informed her.
"Ah'm what?" Rogue gasped. Seconds later, she felt something being clipped aorund her neck. Having a bad feeling about where this was going, she teleported out of the soldier or policeman's hold and re-entered on the other side of the room.
The two men seemed really shocked by this and instantly raised their guns. Rogue simply raised her arm and forced the guns out of their hands with her borrowed magnetism and sent them flying over to the other side of the room. Then, she ran over to the one closest to her and, intent on finding out what was going on, pressed her bare hand to one of the solders face's.
But nothing! No pull, no memories, no sudden burst of energy. She was touching him skin-on-skin and nothing was happening. At any other time, Rogue would've jumped for joy, but at that moment, her body froze from fear and her eyes widened in terrified dread. Once again acting on the instinct to run, Rogue once again teleported, only this time, it was far away from her bedroom.
In fact, it was the middle of the kitchen she re-appeared in and her jaw instantly dropped at what she saw. The whole room was in disaray. The glass doors that led to the conservatory had been smashed in and looking past them she could see the conservatory was a mess as well. Huge spires of ice were dotted around and the floor was littered with shards of broken plates.
Rogue could only stand there dumbly as her brain tried to catch up and make some sort of sense of these sudden events.
"Maybe standin' in dhe open isn' dhe bes' t'ing to do righ' now chere." Head Remy's voice suddenly came.
"Oh yeah, raht." Rogue agreed silently before teleporting back upstairs to an empty corridor.
There were no sounds or signs to suggest anyone was dangerously close in her new surroundings so Rogue decided to continue on foot as her head was starting to ache in an all too familiar way. After a brief glance to her left, she quickly took off in a run to her right, but had taken no more than a few strides when she bashed into someone.
The once silent corridor was suddenly filled with screams as Rogue and the one she bashed into flinched away fearfully and got ready to fight. It was only when they both opened their eyes that they realised who the other was. Rogue opened her eyes to see a very happy, pyjamas wearing Jubilee in front of her.
"Rogue!" Jubilee cried joyfully as she threw herself into the other girl's arms.
"Are ya okay?" Rogue demanded urgently, hugging her friend back tightly in relief.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
"Fahne as well. Where's Kitty?"
"I'm here." Kitty's voice grunted moments before she trudged around a corner, irritably pulling on a metal band around her neck. "I see they got you as well." She noted upon spotting the same band around Rogue's neck. As Jubilee moved away, Rogue saw that she had one around her neck as well.
"What are these things?" Rogue asked quietly.
"Not sure, but they don't let us use our powers." Kitty answered. "Almost knocked myself out trying to run through a wall."
"Ya'll 'kay though raht?" Rogue checked.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Kitty assured, waving her hand dismissively. "No thanks to the school's stupid security system though. Supposedly state of the art and this is the second raid in three months!" Kitty sounded like she was about to continue her rant when the sound of nearby shattering glass reached them.
The three girls didn't even bother to turn and look before they bolted the opposite way.
"Who are these guys!" Rogue panted as the three girls unconsciously headed to the nearest hidden passage-way.
"God knows!" Kitty answered. "They've gotta be connected with the police though 'cause they told us we were under arrest."
"Same here." Rogue told her as they rounded a corner and came to the stairs.
They sprinted down them quickly and jumped the last few steps before swinging sharply to the left and continuing to run. Soon they were in the corridor with the entrance to the passage-way in it. Realising where they were, Jubilee started to bang on the wooden panelling on the walls. Trying to find the fake one. Rogue and Kitty started to help her but it was still Jubilee who found it in the end. She ushered Kitty in before ducking in after her and waiting for Rogue.
However, when Jubilee looked up, she saw Rogue staring off in the direction they had just come.
"Rogue?" She said quietly, but was instantly shushed by Rogue. Unknown to her, Rogue was using Logan's enhanced hearing and she could hear that heavy footsteps were approaching them.
"Go on ahead." Rogue ordered.
"What?" Jubilee hissed.
"Don't worry, Ah'll catch ya up." Rogue assured. There was no way they could make it out if the those footsteps belonged to those soldiers, which they probably were.
And if it wasn't them, and there was other students and they needed to be brought along. Either way, they needed to be investigated and Rogue was the only one who was currently not completely defenseless. She had been able to teleport and use Logan's advanced senses with the collar aorund her neck so it obviously wasn't blocking her un-natural powers.
"I am not gonna leave you to..." Jubilee began to protest. She stopped speaking though when she saw the glare that Rogue was giving her. "Kitty's gonna kill you if you get hurt." She grumbled as she reluctantly slunk into the tunnel and pulled the panel back across. Rogue smiled gently after her friend before dashing back down the corridor.
"Haven' yo' ever heard dhat little sayin' "be as dhe frog in dhe pond"?" Head Remy suddenly spoke up.
"Yeah, but the frahg never had to worry abaht the flah huntin' it dahn and killin' it." Rogue pointed out as she slowed to a stop by a corner. She carefully peered around it and saw three armed men. "What d'ya reckon Ah should do?" She asked silently.
"Ge' dhe guns away from dhem before any'ting." Head Remy advised. "Dhen make sure dhey're not able to follow yo'."
"Well Ah know that much. Ah meant what should Ah do exactly." She grumbled.
"Improvise." Head Remy instructed, knowing full well he wasn't being very helpful. Rogue couldn't be bothered asking him again. She took in a deep, preparing breath before moving around the corner.
Slowly, not wanting to be seen unitl the very last moment so she could get away from them. She concentrated intently on the three guns in the mens' hands and, using her hand to guide them, quickly flung them to the side and into the shadows. The three men were immediately on their guard and looked aorund themselves suspiciously. Then, before you could say "dumb move Rogue", Rogue was out of the shadows, standing in full view of the men and bringing Head Scott forward. Her eyes began to tingle, then itch, then burn and then everything was red.
The wide, red beam which shot from Rogue's eyes hit all three men square in their stomach's sides and a bit in the back. They were sent flying back into a wall. Unfortunately, Rogue had been unaware of the back-lash effect of the power. So, the moment the lasers left her eyes, she was pushed back herself. As she was totally unprepared, ended up falling to the floorboards, banging her head badly when she hit the ground.
She allowed herself all of five seconds to recover and get back on her feet before running off while the men were still trying to gather their senses.
"Whah did that happen?" Rogue asked Head Remy, annoyed at something but not sure what.
"Yo' can' expect somet'ing that powerful not to cause a back-lash effec' chere." Head Remy pointed out.
"Whah don't it ever happen to Scott then?"
"'Cause Cyclops knows to brace himself for it." He told her as Rogue swung around a corner, holding onto the wall to steady herself.
She was now back in the corridor where the entrance to the passage-way was again. She kicked the right panel loose then slid it back with her foot as she pressed her hand flat against the wall and copied the trick Bobby had used last time; using his borrowed ice to form a thick wall. Once she was satisfied it was thick enough to cause the men sufficiant trouble in breaking it down, she removed her hand and slipped into the tunnel, pulling the panel back as she did.
Rogue hurried down the dim, concrete passage and it wasn't long before she found Kitty and Jubilee leaning against a wall each. Rogue glared at them both, silently scolding them for waiting for her. They both just looked back with raised eyebrows and a look that said....
"you didn't seriously expect us to actually go without you". No words were said but the matter was resolved none the less.
Rogue shook her head as she reached her two friends and they took a hand of hers each so they ran down the corridor in a chain. Soon, they had reached the end of the tunnel and had climbled up into the garage above.
"Which one should we take?" Jubilee panted as they hurried through the rows of vehicles.
"This one'll do." Rogue replied, coming to stop by the black Mercedies.
"Ooo, can I drive?" Jubilee asked, reaching for the door handle.
"I am not getting into this car if she's driving." Kitty insisted, hesitating as she began to open the door of the front passenger seat.
"That settles that then." Rogue said simply, gently batting Jubilee's hand away so she could open the door to the driver's seat. Jubilee pouted a little but didn't argue as she moved back and got into the back seat as Kitty and Rogue got in the front. They all pulled their seat belts on and then paused...
"We don't have the key." Kitty stated tiredly. Rogue gave a groan and let her head fall back against the chair. The key was back in the school.
"Don't suppose either of you know how to hot-wire a car." Jubilee joked, trying to lighten the mood and inadvertantly giving Rogue an idea. Remy knew how to hot-wire cars, he could hot-wire anything. Hell, he could probably even hot-wire a plane. So, if Remy knew how to, Head Remy knew how to and therefore, Rogue knew how to. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned forward to get to work.
"What are you doing?" Kitty asked as Rogue managed to find the right wires with Head Remy's help.
"What does it look lahke Ah'm doin'?" Rogue murmured distractedly, trying to concentrate on what she was doing while listening to Head Remy's instructions and paying attention to anything Kitty and Jubilee might say.
"Where did you learn to hot-wire a car?" Jubilee inquired in awe.
"Remy taht me." Rogue replied quietly. An awkward silence took over as the memory of Kitty and Jubilee's phone call from earlier came back. The silence was only broken when the sound of the engine starting came.
"Rogue...About earlier..." Jubilee started.
"Both buckled up?" Rogue interrupted, her tone distrubingly neutral. Jubilee let out her breath in a small puff and gave Kitty a sad look when she turned to look at her.
Rogue didn't wait for Kitty or Jubilee to answer. She pressed her foot down on the exceleration pedal.