(Author’s Note: I’ve gotten a couple of comments about this regarding my last fic, “Acolytes Part Deux,” so I thought I’d just nip this notion in the bud right here—Kitty and Piotr are NOT in a romantic relationship, they’re just good friends, like Kitty and Moonstar. Although I don’t believe he was ever given an official age in the series, Piotr seems to be in his late 20s to me, so that’s his age in my fics—thus, he’s a bit too old for Kitty.)
 

     “No! Wait! Don’t drop zat, zat’s frag—“

     CRASH!

     Kurt sighed as a picture of his family fell to the floor of his room, the glass frame cracking in two. “Never mind…”

     “Just making sure there is nothing hidden behind the picture,” the police officer said unapologetically as he slipped the picture out of the broken glass frame. After a quick glance to ensure that the broken frame was indeed empty now, the officer laid the picture on Kurt’s dresser and then proceeded to open up the top drawer and begin rummaging through it.

     “What could possibly be hidden in a picture frame?” Kurt said, exasperated.

     “Oh, you know… drugs,” the officer said off-handedly.

     “Drugs? You’ve got to be kidding me! And zat’s not what you’re supposed to be searching for here anyway!” Kurt said, growing more and more aggravated.

     “Might as well cover all the bases,” the officer sneered as he started to throw out Kurt’s boxers one by one into a messy pile. “And I would watch my tone if I were you. If I perceive that you’re becoming hostile in any way, I do have authority from Mayor Kelly to detain you.”

     Kurt stifled back a scream of frustration and teleported out of his room, leaving the officer to his task of tearing the room apart.

     “So you couldn’t take any more of their ‘investigation’ either, huh?” Rogue asked as soon as Kurt teleported into the middle of the Mansion’s front room, where most of the other X-Men were gathered. All were visibly uncomfortable as police officers and FBI officials came back and forth through the front room. Most of the officials were either talking with each other about their incriminating finds—or, rather, the “suspicious” lack of them—or taking pieces of “evidence” in little plastic bags out to the myriad police and armored cars in the driveway outside, to take back to HQ to “examine further.”

     “I swear, if they break one more of my things…” Ray threatened.

     “Zis isn’t right!” Kurt said, taking a seat on one of the front room recliners. “Zey can’t just go through our rooms, we haven’t done anything wrong!”

     “Hate to tell you this, Kurt, but they’ve got a warrant, they can do pretty much anything they want,” Rogue sneered in disgust. “And our wonderful new Mayor Kelly certainly isn’t going to look into any abuses of power that go on during all this. Not even a week into his new term, and he’s already putting us through hell.”

     “He’s just looking to bust us anyway he can, even if it’s for nothing,” Jubilee muttered. “And poor Amara’s still in the infirmary, recovering from those really bad burns she got the last time the Brotherhood attacked us. I can’t imagine they’re treating her all that carefully as they search the place.”

     “Y-yeah, they’re not above d-doing body searches, e-either,” Cessily said softly. “T-they actually had me flatten m-myself out against the wall—I m-mean, REALLY flatten myself out—a-and then remove my clothes so they could m-make sure I wasn’t c-carrying anything in my body.”

     “I’m so sorry that had to happen, Cessily,” Rahne said, putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “At least you were just a puddle by the time your clothes were taken off, but still….”

     “Oh, someone is going to pay for this sooner or later, I can tell you that,” Rogue said, punching her fist into her open palm for emphasis.

     “I don’t like it any more than you,” Hank interjected, “But we’re just got grin and bear it, unfortunately. When this search for conspiratorial plans and whatnot inevitably turns out to be fruitless, we’ll have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’re not planning a secret war with mankind. There will still be a few diehards, granted, but hopefully this will silence many of the conspiracy allegations.”

     “You have more faith in the people of this town than I do,” Rogue grumbled.

     “Optimism—realistic optimism—can always help us through tough times like these, Rogue,” Hank replied. “I wish you’d understand that.”

     “Yeah, yeah…”

     “Good thing Logan is out on the open road, or he might not be able to contain himself,” Rahne said. “I mean, I barely can.”

     “Yeah, and Piotr is s-still in Russia… Of c-course, I w-wouldn’t really want to trade places with him, either,” Cessily interjected.

     “Piotr is going through some tough times as well, that’s for sure,” Hank confirmed. “And I still think he indirectly blames Xavier for his father’s death. He’s been rather… terse lately when speaking to Charles over the phone. As far as we can figure, Mastermind must have been hiding somewhere nearby when Wolverine and X23 were attacked by Sabretooth and Omega Red—the only recent contact we’ve had with the Acolytes before the incident two weeks ago—and he must have stolen the information about the Rasputins’ whereabouts then. And with addition of Legion to his ranks, Magneto was able to get his new recruit to block Jean’s telepathic abilities and Logan’s enhanced senses from detecting them before they were ready to reveal themselves. I’m glad Piotr is moving his family here next month, because it’s becoming apparent that no one targeted by the Acolytes is safe if they aren’t within a close proximity of Bayville.”

     Kurt looked around, Beast’s comments making him notice someone else missing. “Hey, where’s Kitty?”

     “She’s staying at Black Eagle’s house with Danielle,” Hank explained. “She didn’t want to be around here tonight.”

     “Now zat is a good idea,” Kurt said, standing up out of his recliner. “I’m going to call Forge and see if I can’t spend the night over at his place. It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with him, anyway.”

     “Just don’t get caught up in any crazy experiment of his,” Hank chuckled. “You know how Forge gets.”

     “Oh, trust me—I think I learned my lesson from his last two projects,” Kurt said.

     “Kurt! Buddy! Long time, no see!”

     “Hey, Forge,” Kurt said, high-fiving his friend as he entered though the doorway into Forge’s parents’ house. “Wow, you’ve got a pretty nice setup here!”

     Indeed, the house was rather upscale—not quite in the range of a million-dollar home, but pretty close.

     “Oh, yeah, that’s right! This is the first time you’ve been to my house,” Forge remarked. “Yeah, my folks did pretty well investing in the stock market. My dad’s an expert in that kinda stuff. How else did you think I could afford the materials for all the stuff I tinker with, eh?”

     “Yeah, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Kurt grinned. “Hey, where are your parents?”

     “Out,” Forge said, “Having a romantic evening together or something like that. Considering they’re almost in their eighties now, I… don’t like to think about that kinda stuff. …Yeah.”

     “Ah,” Kurt said, grinning. “My foster parents are pretty old now, too. Say, how did your parents react when…?”

     “Oh, they were pretty freaked out, as you can imagine,” Forge replied. “They were more happy to have me back than anything else, though, so the extreme age discrepancy doesn’t affect things as much as you’d think it would.”

     “So,” Forge continued, changing the subject, “You get the guest bedroom, up the stairs, second door on your left. But, if you don’t mind me asking… why were you so insistent on spending tonight of all nights here, instead of at the X-Mansion? I mean, yeah my house is a bit plush, but it’s nothing compared to your digs.”

     “Thanks,” Kurt said, following Forge up the stairs. “It’s a disaster back at ze X-Mansion. The police are going through—and breaking—everyzing.”

     “It’s times like this that I’m glad I never made it public that I’m a Mutant,” Forge said, “And since I haven’t been involved in any big battles like you guys have, and am just making my living as an inventor-for-hire, no one’s ever suspected a thing anyways.”

     “Can’t say I blame you,” Kurt said. “If I could go back in time somehow and make it so that we’d never have been made public knowledge, I swear I wouldn’t think twice about it. I mean, I don’t have to worry so much about my image inducer malfunctioning anymore, but… I’ve really grown to hate school. I’m so glad I only have half a year of it left.”

     “Y’know…” Forge said, a grin on his face as he opened the door to Kurt’s temporary bedroom. “I think you might want to see something I’ve been working on in the basement…”

     “Vhat? Vhat is it?” Kurt said, quirking an eyebrow as he plunked his suitcase down on the guest bed. “It’s… not another dimension gate machine, is it? Because that hasn’t worked so well…”

     “No, I know how you feel about that,” Forge replied, raising his hands defensively. “It’s… well, I think you should see it for yourself…”

     “Alright, I’ve seen it,” Kurt said, scratching his head. “So what exactly am I looking at?”

     “It’s a time machine!” Forge exclaimed proudly. “It’s been my own pet project for a while, and I only got it working a few days ago.”

     “A time machine!? Are you serious?” Kurt said excitedly, going over to the contraption and examining it more closely. It consisted of a glass tube big enough for a human to stand in comfortably, surrounded by myriad wires all leading to a large mainframe computer a few feet away. In front of the mainframe was a chair with a bowl-shaped headpiece, all connected to the time machine apparatus.

     “Of course!”

     “And you just… made one, just like that?”

     “After I created a trans-dimensional projector, you’re surprised?” Forge smirked. “You know my Mutant power is the ability to create anything I can dream up, Kurt.”

     “I thought you were a Mutant because of your whole hand-morphing ability.”

     “That’s just one part of it,” Forge explained. “I’ve had several MRIs done on my brain since I made it out of Middleverse, Kurt. There’s a small extra part of my brain dedicated to stuff like this—a part that no one else has, apparently.”

     “Okay, I get it, you’re a genius,” Kurt said, waving Forge’s explanation away. “Are you sure this thing really works?”

     “Oh yeah, I’ve already tested it a few times,” Forge said. “Here, see, let me give you a bit of a demonstration.”

     “Zis… won’t end with a bunch of extra-dimensional monsters showing up in zis room, will it?” Kurt said.

     “Kurt, you really do worry too much,” Forge grinned. “Just because the past two inventions you were involved with had unexpected consequences doesn’t mean this one will. As I said, I’ve already tested it. And you know that whole theory about how if you change just one little thing in the past, it affects the future in some weird unforeseen way, like if you accidentally step on a beetle a million years ago, come back, and suddenly everyone today has twelve fingers or something?”

     “Zat vas going to be my next question, actually,” Kurt said, growing increasingly nervous as Forge powered up the time machine.

     “Well, it’s a farce,” Forge said as he set something on the machine and stepped through a curved door built into the side of the glass tube. “I purposely stepped on a bug in the past when I tried it out the first time. I came back to the present, and nothing was different.”

     “Nothing that you know of, anyvay…” Kurt muttered.

     “Kurt, seriously, relax! Watch, this is what this demonstration is for. Now, quickly, before the machine gets fully activated and sends me three hours into the past, see that big red book sitting in the corner?”

     “Yeah…”

     “Well, just… watch it. Now come over here and sit down in that chair facing the mainframe, and put on that little helmet. As long as you have that on, it will protect your memory from the timeline switch—in other words, you’ll remember both this timeline and the ‘different’ timeline I’m going to create. Otherwise, as soon as I altered something in the past, you’d forget anything was ever changed.”

     “Uh… okay,” Kurt said, obeying Forge’s instructions. “But what about you? Will you remember what you changed in the past when you come back to the present?”

     “Yup, but only for a few minutes, I found,” Forge said, shrugging his shoulders. “Apparently, after a short while your brain gets ‘accustomed,’ so to speak, to the new, slightly altered timeline, and although you remember you went back in time, you forget all of the details of your journey. It’s rather odd, I’ll admit—I’ve used this machine three times now, and the only reason I remember any of the changes I made is because I wrote them down in a notebook before using the machine. Alright—now, get ready to witness something really cool!”

     As Kurt watched, the time machine started humming louder and louder until a large jolt of electricity surged from the mainframe to the glass tube. As soon as the jolt surged over the glass tube, Forge disappeared from view in a split-second. Amazed, Kurt turned back towards the book in the corner—only to find it wasn’t there anymore! Turning back towards the glass tube, hearing the machine power up again, another large jolt of electricity surged back into the glass tube again and Forge reappeared, grinning in satisfaction. After the machine’s hum died down enough, Forge re-opened the door to the glass tube and stepped out.

     “Vhat happened to the book?” Kurt asked.

     “Simple—I went back in time three hours and moved it,” Forge said. “Look at the bottom of the basement steps.”

     Kurt looked, and sure enough, there was the same red book—a book Kurt was sure hadn’t been there when they had first entered the basement.

     “Wow! It really DOES work!” Kurt exclaimed.

     “You dare doubt my powers?” Forge grinned, crossing his arms.

     “Have you shared this with anyone else?” Kurt asked.

     “Nope, like I said, I just finished it,” Forge said. “And again, this is just a pet project of mine. I… highly doubt it’d be good for the world if something like this became public knowledge, much less a commercially available product.”

     “But how does it vork?” Kurt asked eagerly. “How do you know how far back in time you’re going? Is there a certain limit to how long you can be in the past? Can it travel to the future as well? Have you ever… you know, run into yourself?”

     “To answer your questions in order—it’s too complicated to explain; about fifteen minutes; no; and no. I don’t want to push my luck with the time stream, as I still haven’t studied it quite enough to my liking, so that’s why I’ve limited myself to spending only a certain amount of time in the past, and why I’ve also been careful not to run into myself. I doubt the universe would implode or anything if that were to happen, but… well, you never know.”

     “Okay, your explanations are good enough for me… I guess,” Kurt said, clutching his head. “Thinking about all this time travel stuff is starting to make my head hurt. I guess my question is, can you send me back in time to right before Mutants were discovered—right before our big battle with ze Sentinel?”

     “I understand your motives, Kurt, but are you sure you really want to bother with that?” Forge asked. “I mean, it would only be a matter of time before Mutants were discovered anyway.”

     “I know that,” Kurt said, exasperated, “But I want to prevent us from being revealed to the world in such a… bad way. Maybe if we X-Men just revealed ourselves publicly, hiding nothing, then we vould get a better reception. Anything has got to be better than the public’s attitude towards us now, or Kelly getting elected as Mayor.”

     “Well, I’m just saying, all I’ve done so far with this thing is small stuff. Y’know, get my lab cleaned up before my mom yells at me, that sorta thing. What you’re thinking of doing would alter quite a bit, Kurt. You sure you’re up for it?”

     Kurt thought for a moment before answering. “Absolutely. I’m tired of seeing my friends suffer through moments like tonight. I miss the times when all we had to deal with vas the Brotherhood.”

     “And you’ve got a plan for how to prevent all this?” Forge asked. “Remember, you’ve only got fifteen minutes. After that, the machine’s programmed to automatically bring you back no matter what.”

     “Yes, I think so,” Kurt said. “I’m not going to prevent the whole fight we had with the Acolytes, since we pretty much won that anyway. I’m just going to stop Magneto from unleashing the Sentinel upon downtown. Vill you be… you know… aware of what I’m doing while you stay here in the present, running this thing?”

     “As long as you keep this with you,” Forge said, tossing Kurt a high-quality walkie-talkie and a head-mounted miniature camera. “I’ve modified them to broadcast through time as well as distance. And as long as I stay in that chair and man the controls with that helmet on, my memory should stay as it is, so I’ll remember this current timeline and whatever you’re going to change about it, instead of just forgetting everything the moment you change the outcome of that battle. So, then…. should we get started?”

     Kurt took a deep breath and let it out. “All of this is rather sudden, but… yeah. I can’t pass up an opportunity to make the present a lot better than it is.”

     “Alright, then,” Forge said, walking over to the mainframe computer console. “Kurt, go ahead and step into the glass tube…”

     Kurt popped into existence on the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse right in the middle of the complex where the X-Men and the Brotherhood had fought—or, rather, were going to fight—the Acolytes and then the Sentinel itself. Looking around, Kurt spotted the X-Jet a few buildings away, and the X-Men—including himself—off in the distance, inspecting Magneto’s empty metal orbs.

     “Kurt, can you hear me?” Forge’s voice came in through Kurt’s communicator. Forge sounded rather warbly, but he was otherwise being heard loud and clear.

     “I hear you,” Kurt whispered into the communicator. “I’m in the right place, at the right time, it looks like. Can you see what I’m seeing?”

     “Yup, everything’s working mine on my end too. Alright Kurt, get to it. Remember, you’ve got less than fifteen minutes now.”

     “Don’t worry, I know exactly what to do,” Kurt whispered, crawling up the edge of the rooftop to gaze downwards as Avalanche and Blob walked out of the warehouse Kurt was currently perched on top of.

     “Man, I am getting creeped out here. Where ARE they?” Avalanche asked, looking around before heading off towards where the X-Men were gathered. Blob just shrugged and followed Avalanche as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch came out of the same building as well. Wanda was busy scanning for her father, so none of the three Brotherhood members noticed Quicksilver’s smirk as he started to follow Avalanche and Blob towards where the rest of the X-Men were.

     It’s now or never… Kurt thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, he teleported down right in front of where Quicksilver is, and before Pietro even had time to react (even with his lightning-quick reflexes), Kurt grabbed him and teleported them away again to another warehouse in the area, this one completely abandoned, and pinned Pietro against the wall.

     “Hey! What the—“ Pietro uttered, confused. “Kurt, what the heck are you doing?! We’re on the same side right now! …And why aren’t you in your uniform?”

     “I know all about the plan you and your father have cooked up,” Kurt growled, putting more pressure on Pietro’s arms for emphasis.

     “W-what are you talking about?” Pietro asked, quirking an eyebrow. “I don’t know where Magneto is or what he’s—“

     “Drop the act already!” Kurt interjected. “I know Magneto’s new recruits are hiding somewhere around here, and I also know he plans to release the Sentinel upon us and expose Mutants to the world!”

     Pietro’s eyes widened in surprise. “What? So—so you DO know… Not sure how you’d know about his plans or why you haven’t told the other X-Men yet, but hey, congrats. Now let me go, or you’ll have another problem to deal with.”

     “No way!” Kurt growled, kneeing Pietro in the groin. Pietro groaned, but kept his composure surprisingly well. “Now, you’re going to call off this little ambush or you’ll REALLY be hurting!”

     “Threatening me, huh?” Pietro wheezed, though he still had a grin on his face. “That’s rather unlike you, Blue Boy. But hey, you obviously want this bad, so maybe I’llSUCKERPUNCH!”

     Before Kurt could react, Pietro slipped an arm out of Kurt’s grasp and punched the X-Man in the face. Kurt stepped backwards, reeling.

     Just then, an explosion sounded off in the distance—Magneto’s surprise attack was apparently beginning now.

     “See ya later, buddy!” Pietro laughed as he took off out of the warehouse.

     “You’re not getting away that easily!” Kurt said, teleporting on top of Quicksilver’s fast-moving form as the Brotherhood member exited the warehouse and then teleporting them back right to where they were in the first place.

     “You just don’t give UP, do you!?” Pietro said angrily, trying to pry Kurt off of his shoulders.

     “Not when our future is at stake!” Kurt said, grabbing a tuft of Pietro’s hair and pulling.

     “YOW! Owowow! Okay, that’s IT!” Pietro growled, punching his chest with the side of his fist. A low beep sounded as a comlink apparently hidden under his uniform opened up a channel. “Dad, I need help here, quickly! Warehouse A-14!”

     “Uh-oh…” Kurt trailed off as a chunk of one of the walls shook itself loose and flew towards him. Forced into doing so, Kurt reluctantly teleported to another end of the warehouse. No sooner had he finished the teleport than he saw a split-second glimpse of Quicksilver’s backside as he exited the warehouse, laughing. The floating piece of wall, however, reoriented itself to face Kurt’s new position and came at him again.

     Kurt sighed and teleported back to the rooftop he had been on earlier before the chunk of wall could crush him.

     “Well, so much for that plan,” Forge said through Kurt’s communicator. “Guess Pietro was more prepared than you thought, what with a direct communication line to his father and all. So, what now? Even ignoring the fact that you’ve got about ten minutes before the machine forcibly brings you back, you haven’t got much time.”

     Surveying the scene, Kurt saw that Forge was right. The battle with the Acolytes was already well underway—only a few more minutes and Magneto would decide that it was time to move events along.

     “I do have a Plan B, fortunately,” Kurt muttered, teleporting away.

     Kurt ported right into a bland, white restroom. The blue-furred Mutant then walked over to the restroom door and cracked it open, taking a peek down the hallway.

     Good, no one’s there…Kurt thought to himself.

     “Uh… excuse me, Kurt, but what are you doing?” Forge’s voice whispered through the communicator. “Where are you?”

     “I’m inside Trask’s facility below the warehouses,” Kurt whispered back. “I’m going to try to free Wolverine—if we can create enough chaos down here, Trask won’t be able to activate the Sentinel because too much of his equipment will be damaged. And no one can create chaos better than Wolverine.”

     “Risky, but doable,” Forge admitted. “Alright, go ahead. I’ll keep quiet.”

     Kurt crept out into the hallway and hopped onto the ceiling, sticking to it. Crawling on his hands and knees, Kurt crept down the hallway, making a few turns here and there until he came to the room where Wolverine was being held and monitored. A few of Trask’s personnel had passed him in the hallway, but they were so engrossed in their work that they didn’t notice him moving along the ceiling.

     Peeking his head down low enough to see through the clear windows surrounding Wolverine’s holding room, Kurt noticed that only one scientist was in there, monitoring Wolverine’s life signs as the X-Man healed.

     Good, only one person. Shouldn’t be a problem… Kurt smirked.

     Kurt was just about to teleport into the room when he felt something hard hit him in the back of the neck. Groaning, Kurt dropped to the floor, unconscious from the hard hit.

     “Gotcha,” Trask grinned, holding up a cement block. “So, think you can sneak around my facility, that I’m dumb enough not to have hidden security cameras in every hallway? You’re even less intelligent than Logan. My Sentinels really will be able to cleanse the Earth of you scum.”

     Picking up Kurt by the tail, Trask opened up the door to Wolverine’s holding room and dragged the furry Mutant into it.

     “Oh, great!” Forge said, his fingers dancing over the keys on the time machine’s console. “Kurt’s got less than five minutes until he’s sent back here, and he doesn’t look like he’ll even last that long! I’ve gotta go get him… but two of us in the past at the same time? I’ve never used this machine to do that before…”

     Forge rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. “I guess I’ll have to risk it—there’s no way I’m leaving him to die, and in the past of all places—er, times!”

     Quickly setting up a few things up on the time machine, Forge pressed a button that started to activate the connected glass tube. Taking a deep breath, Forge stood up and pulled the memory helmet off of his head. He immediately forgot everything about Kurt’s mission in the past—all he knew was that he was supposed to go in the machine for some urgent reason—a reason that involved Kurt, as the monitor on the time machine console, which was showing the feed from Kurt’s head cam, showed Trask taking several needles and knives out of a drawer. Running over to the glass tube, Forge opened the door and stepped inside.

     Forge appeared right behind Dr. Trask, who was having a few other doctors examine Kurt’s physical anatomy as he readied some scalpels for a “closer” examination of the Mutant. Forge reconfigured his left hand into an electrically charged mechanical device, but before he could aim and fire a bolt at Trask, a huge rumble traveled through the facility, knocking all of the people in the room off of their feet.

     It was right at this time that one of Trask’s subordinates noticed Forge and shouted something about a Mutant, but it was mostly muffled by the sounds coming from outside the room. A loud creak and groan sounded far above, and then a thunderous cracking sound shook the facility. Visible through a window on the far side from where Forge had stumbled, which overlooked the huge main shaft that was at the heart of Trask’s facility, the entire ceiling of the shaft caved in, most of the various X-Men and Brotherhood members falling with it. A few seconds later, Forge saw Wanda fall down the shaft as well.

     “What’s going on!?” Dr. Trask shouted as all this was happening.

     “The Mutants, sir!” One of the doctors said. “They must be mounting some kind of surprise attack!”

     “Is the Sentinel back online!?” Trask asked angrily.

     “No, sir!”

     “Well then GET it back online!” Trask growled. “And let them face their future!”

     “Sir, there’s still the matter of—“

     The doctor was cut short as Forge finally recovered from the mini-earthquake and fired an electric bolt at Trask’s minion, who was forced to stop mid-sentence and crouch behind Kurt’s examination table.

     “You three, hold off that Mutant!” Trask addressed his subordinates, ducking down behind the same table. “I’m going out there to help prep the Sentinel—I’ll get reinforcements in here ASAP. We’ll deal with Wolverine and that blue furry one later—just don’t harm them yet!”

     “Ah, great,” Forge muttered, ducking as the three scientists each pulled out their own handguns. “And there’s not much time left to get this done, either…”

     Forge ducked as the scientists each started firing blindly, laying down cover fire until actual soldiers got to the room more than anything else.

     “If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna have to do this quick…” Forge said to himself.

     Poking his head up from behind the table quickly, Forge ducked again as a hail of bullets flew through the air where his head had been a millisecond ago. Immediately after the bullets flew by, Forge reached over the table with his electric-shooter arm, hooked Kurt by the shirt with one of his arm’s claws and dragged the blue-furred Mutant off the table and next to him. Forge’s arm took a couple of bullet hits, but considering that it was currently made of high-density metal, Forge only felt a few slight stings.

     Forge morphed his left arm back to normal, letting the bullets drop to the floor without harm, then morphed it into another electrically charged device with a long pad on its front end.

     “Kurt, wake up!” Forge said, pressing his device-arm against Kurt’s body and letting loose a low-voltage jolt.

     Kurt immediately jerked awake, sitting up frantically. “Vhat!? Vhat’s going on!? Vhat happened!?”

     “We’ve got less than a minute until my machine pulls us back to the pres—er, future!” Forge said, pausing to reconfigure his arm into the previous bolt-shooter and firing off another one above the table at the scientists, who dodged the blast. “They were ready to dissect you, the shaft ceiling outside caved in, Trask left, I came here, and now they want to kill both of us! There, you’re up to speed!”

     “So now vhat!?” Kurt asked.

     “We hold them off until we can get out of here, that’s what!” Forge said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the scientists slowly sneaking around the corner of the examination table, hoping to catch them by surprise and nail them.

     “Kurt, on your left!” Forge yelled.

     Kurt immediately saw what Forge saw and grabbed Forge’s hand, teleporting them both to other side of the room. Forge let loose an electric bolt on one of the scientists, who screamed in agony and fell into unconsciousness, twitching. The other scientist turned around and fired his gun, but Kurt ported them both to another corner of the room, where Forge let off another bolt. The scientist had been expecting this, however, and rolled out of the way.

     Forge and Kurt’s attention had been drawn away from the third scientist, however, who leveled his gun at Forge and fired. Forge reacted by trying to move out of the way in time, but it still knicked his shoulder. Forge cried out in pain, grasping his shoulder with his other arm.

     “Kurt, we’ve got to… get out of… here!” Forge grunted. “It’s… too late!”

     Indeed, even as Forge talked, they heard giant footsteps below. The Sentinel was already descending on the X-Men and Brotherhood members dispersed among the rubble in the main shaft far below.

     “Darn it!” Kurt spat. “And we were so close!”

     The scientists fired at Kurt and Forge again, but Kurt teleported them both back to the surface of the warehouse complex before the bullets hit them. Two seconds later, they both fizzled back out of existence.

     They both appeared back inside the electric tube in Forge’s basement, but something was horribly wrong. The machine was sparking heavily, and the glass tube was only large enough for one person—as they both materialized inside it, the glass cracked and burst, showering Kurt and Forge with small shards.

     “Gah!” Kurt said, brushing the shards away from his face. “Forge, what’s going on?”

     “The machine wasn’t built… to handle two people at once!” Forge said, the pain in his shoulder still strong. “I came back for you because I had no choice, but… it’s overloading! Quick, to the other side of the room! Get… urgh… the fire extinguisher!”

     Kurt quickly ported them both to the other side of the room, just as the console exploded. Kurt and Forge shielded themselves from the blast, and when they looked back up, all that was left of the machine was a ruined monitor shell, a blackened crater, and a few small fires breaking out at the edges of the basement. Kurt quickly got the fire extinguisher Forge had mentioned and put out the small fires before they became a problem.

     “Kurt! Forge! What is going on down here!?”

     Kurt gulped as he turned towards the familiar voice coming from the bottom of the stairwell.

     “Storm! Vhat… Vhat are you doing here?!”

     “The police are asking everyone at the Institute several questions, and they need everyone back there ASAP. I came here and knocked on the door, but after there was no answer, I grew worried and let myself in. Shortly afterwards, I heard a loud explosion and came down here. What were you two doing!?”

     “Well, Kurt had wanted to keep Mutants secret again, and I… ugh… had this time machine, see…” Forge started.

     “Forge!” Kurt hissed.

     “Kurt! You were… you traveled back in time!?” Ororo said in disbelief. “To try to change the present!? Kurt, I thought you were smarter than that! To try to change the past… who knows what damage you might have inflicted on the timestream, not to mention the immorality of it all!”

     “I was trying to make things better! For all of us!” Kurt said. “How is that immoral?”

     “Things happen the way they do for a reason, Kurt! To try to play God like you were doing…” Ororo clutched her head, restraining herself mentally. “We may not have been introduced to the public under the most… pleasant circumstances, but no matter what we would have had to work to get the public to understand us. And we’ve made some progress since we were first discovered, even if we still have a long way to go. Did you change anything? Anything at all?”

     “No,” Kurt sighed, “At least not anything that mattered, anyway. I’m already starting to forget the specifics, but I know the outcome of the Sentinel battle was still the same.”

     “And look at Forge!” Ororo said, noticing Kurt’s wincing friend. “He’s hurt! What happened?”

     “No… no biggie,” Forge grunted. “Just a bullet… in the shoulder. Nothing to… worry about.”

     “We’re getting you to the hospital ASAP,” Ororo said. “Is this what you wanted, Kurt? One of your best friends shot, an explosion that could have seriously harmed if not killed you both, and all because you wanted to try to change the way things were?!”

     “No… no, I guess you’re right…” Kurt admitted. “But I’m just so tired of all this! The police investigations, the nasty looks at school, everything! I want it all to end already!”

     “And it will, one day,” Ororo said, her tone a bit softer now. “But giving up and trying to change things the way you did is not the answer, Kurt. Now, come on. Teleport Forge and myself to the hospital so we can get that bullet removed from his shoulder.”

     “You know, they’re going to ask questions…” Kurt said as he and Ororo gathered around Forge.

     “And you will be in charge of answering them,” Ororo said, a stern look on her face. “All of them.”

     “Yes, ma’am…” Kurt said sullenly, putting his hands on both Ororo’s and Forge’s shoulders.

     “Oh, and Kurt?”

     “…Yes?”

     “Consider yourself on probation until further notice. And you are prohibited from seeing Forge for the next month. You should know better by now than to get involved with his inventions—they always lead to trouble.”

     “Hey!” Forge protested indignantly as Kurt ported them all out of the basement.

The End
 

Back to Beastbot's Fanfiction Index