Night 43: Sun Room
[from here]Finally, the Sun Room. Unlike the hallways, this one actually had some light in it. Specifically, moonlight coming from the big window on the ceiling. It did help to have some light, but the big, dark room washed in moonlight didn't exactly make the place look too inviting
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As they moved towards the Sun Room, Kurt walked next to Kitty, catching her eye and mouthing 'Schway?' What the heck did that mean? Oh well, Alex seemed nice enough to lead the way, so Kurt didn't have to play scout tonight. It was a little difficult to scout adequately when he couldn't go on all fours, too.
When they entered the Sun Room, Kurt had to whistle softly. "Looks like we missed quite a party..." The bulletin board especially seemed to have taken a rather large hit. He wondered what would happen to it come morning.
Kurt had been looking at the strange stuff that seemed to be strewn everywhere when Alex called attention to whatever wasn't 'good'. Whatever wasn't 'good', it was probably whatever had caused this mess--the fact that it was still in the room terrified him instantly. His eyes swiveled back to Alex, then up.
...oh that looked like a human. A costumed human. And if they were guarding this place, that, most likely, meant:
"Brainwashed patient," Kurt muttered, eyes widening. "We should get out here, fast."
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When Kurt caught her eye, she could only give a confused shrug in response. The word 'schway' didn't really sound familiar to her either; his guess was as good as hers in terms of trying to decide what it was supposed to mean.
When they reached the Sun Room, Kitty glanced around the room slowly, breathing a quiet, "Whoa..." as she did so. What was with that weird stuff scattered around? Actually, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. Whatever had left this mess couldn't be good.
Unfortunately... the soft melody, followed up by both Alex and Kurt's comments proved that the something that had left the mess was still there. And it wasn't a something, but a someone.
Oh yeah, this was bad.
"Let's go, then. Move!" Kitty whispered, keeping her eyes on the costumed person. There probably wasn't a point in trying to keep quiet, but it never hurt to be careful.
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"To the kitchen. You know how it is, right?" Or so Terry guessed. He couldn't see the guy's face, but he sounded young--probably around Terry's age. Messing with kids: another reason to add to the "why this place needed to go down hard" list. "Bunch of hungry teens wanting a snack in the middle of the night. Don't suppose you'd let us through peacefully if we promise to bring you back a piece of cake?"
Of course it wasn't going to be that simple. Which was why Terry was ready to drop his flashlight at the first move this guy made. His landing had been fairly graceful for a crash, and more importantly, he wasn't hurt by it. That meant the guy had more strength than his size would indicate.
And what did Terry have? A strength-and-agility enhancing batsuit with rocket shoes? A few bat-erangs up his sleeve? An old school utility belt. Oh no. Terry had a broken closet rod, and Terry was slagged. With any luck, he could serve as a distraction while the other two actually got out of there.
It just wasn't so easy to tell them that without letting spidey in on the plan too.
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The mutant recognized that voice. And the outfit... well, there was a great big spider emblazoned on the front, wasn't there? It was a little hard to see in the dim light, but the pattern was also web-like. Hadn't Peter said something about being 'Spiderman'? And the voice matched his theory.
"Man, don't scare us like that, Peter!" Kurt said with a laugh, ducking out from behind Kitty and Terry to approach his friend. "What are you doing out here by yourself? I thought you said you were going to stay in tonight?
"Kitty, this is the guy I told you about earlier," Kurt said, looking back towards her and gesturing to Peter. "The friend I made here!"
It didn't occur to him that he'd never seen said friend wearing what he was now. Or that it was odd that Peter hadn't greeted him by name. But Kurt, ever the prankster, didn't realize these things.
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Wait. What?
"Your friend? Peter?" Kurt had mentioned Peter, yes, but he'd somehow failed to mention the fact that Peter liked running around in a red and blue colored costume. With a spider on the chest. Somehow, that part wasn't adding up. Everyone had been dressed the same during the day and, as far as Kitty knew, the same remained true during the night. Kurt, Alex and herself were anyway. Why would Peter be in some colorful costume, then?
"Hang on a second." Something wasn't right, and Kitty didn't like the idea of Kurt trying to approach him. She took a few quick steps forward, enough to where she could reach out and give the back of Kurt's shirt a tug. "You didn't mention a costume. Why didn't you mention a costume?" Her voice lowered to a quiet mumble, "And why didn't you recognize him when we first saw him?" Granted, it had been kind of difficult to see when he was hanging out on the ceiling, but that costume of his didn't seem like it'd be easy to forget.
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"Must be a sad life you live then." Kind of like Xander never having had pizza. Terry just hoped that this guy didn't turn out to be on the same level of crazy. Nightcrawler might be though, since he just lost about 10 points for carelessness.
"You just said yourself he's brainwashed." Terry's voice dropped in pitch, taking on an edge he usually reserved for when he was wearing his own costume. If that was what it took to get through Nightcrawler's optimism though, then he'd use it. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to get hurt. Kitty at least seemed to realize that they were still in danger, and thankfully had grabbed onto blue boy's shirt. It saved Terry from having to pull the guy back himself, and more importantly, it let him keep his eyes on Peter. "It explains why he doesn't recognize you, and why he's got powers when people aren't really supposed to have any. The costume too. And given the theme, all that gunk lying around is probably some sort of spider silk. Right?"
Translation: Peter the amazing spider boy had been the one to cause all the damage, and now? Terry, Kitty, and Nightcrawler were next.
"But one thing we don't want is to fight you." Terry tightened his grip on the rod; he wouldn't attack unless it could be avoided, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be ready. "So how do we convince you to just let us through quietly so you don't wake up with any regrets in the morning?"
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Wasn't he?
"I just... didn't mention it because I never saw him in it..." Kurt said defensively. "And I thought it might have been a brainwashed patient, but people... people sometimes wear different clothes here even when they aren't brainwashed," he said to Alex. But the pieces were already falling into place. The spider silk, the costume, the fact that Peter was blocking their path... all of it pointed to brainwashing. "And that's why I didn't recognize him. He doesn't wear it usually...
"But last night we fought together, remember Peter?" Kurt asked, sounding very scared suddenly. Peter didn't recognize him. It was hard not to remember Kurt--he was not only blue and fuzzy, but had some very distinctive features about him. Namely his glowing eyes, tail, and fawn legs. "Harry was attacking you, remember? It's--" he stopped and glanced sideways at Alex. Some things were too important to choose saving face friendship.
"It's Kurt--Kurt Wagner. Nightcrawler?"
These were most likely futile attempts to snap Peter out of it. He'd seen what the guy who burned him had been like, and he'd seen Harry too. Would Peter try to kill them all like Harry had tried to before?
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She moved her hand to Kurt's shoulder, trying to get him to back up again. If Peter did choose to attack -- and if he was brainwashed that seemed likely -- it wouldn't be good for him to be close. With some luck though, maybe they'd be able to avoid that by talking him out of it. It had worked with Mr. Logan, hadn't it? Of course Peter didn't seem to be remembering Kurt at all right yet, but maybe (hopefully) that would change.
"Listen -- Peter, right? I'm sure you're a really nice guy, so just hear us out, okay?" Kitty did her best to smile and keep her voice as friendly as possible. As long as he wasn't attacking, there was no need to risk provoking him into anything. "Like Alex said, we don't want to fight you. We're not looking to start any trouble; all we want to do is get through here. So just give us... say, ten or so seconds and we'll be out of your hair." Crap, did he even have hair under that mask? "Or, um, web... How does that sound?"
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Everything Peter said only made it clear exactly what scenario they put into his head. Terry could sympathize, having had a few scenes wired into his brain thanks to Spellbinder. But similarities aside, how this whole confrontation was probably going to end was also becoming pretty clear. Given their resources, and not knowing what Kitty or Nightcrawler (aka Kurt Wagner) were capable of, the options for getting out of the room unharmed seemed limited to one that didn't sit well with Terry in the least.
"You really don't recognize him. But I don't think a splice job like that comes cheap. Just how many blue guys have you met, anyway?" Terry didn't let his expression shift when the couch came crashing down. Better for Peter that he not think he'd done so much damage whenever the brainwashing wore off, even in terms of intimidation. He did take a step back, however, enough to where he could lower his voice so hopefully only Kitty and Kurt would hear. There'd be a problem if he could read lips, but Terry wasn't about to turn away from the guy and give him an open shot at his back.
"Okay you two, here's the deal. Peter's sense of reality is gone for the night, and he thinks he's guarding a prison instead. Whatever programming they did must have been pretty thorough, since none of what you're saying is getting through--not even calling out his secret identity in front of a couple of strangers." Guys didn't wear masks when they wanted the world to know who they were, after all, and Terry remembered just how unhappy he'd been when Max let out his real name while he was in costume.
"So like he said, we've got two choices. We either leave, or we stay. But even though he was nice enough to get us a seat, I don't plan on just sitting around quietly." If they headed back out, there was an alternate route--one that hopefully wouldn't be filled with the same obstacles. But if they stuck around, then it wouldn't be for a lecture; Terry got more than enough of those in family studies, thanks. "We probably can't beat him without getting hurt. He's got enhanced agility and strength at the very least, not to mention that web stuff. But maybe we can stop him from hurting someone else, even if it's just by putting up a distraction."
Terry preferred the latter himself. He wasn't exactly the type to stand by and do nothing, not even since before he got the title of Batman. But Kurt and Kitty were in on it too, and Terry wasn't going to force the risk on them if they weren't up for it. Besides, either way, Peter was going to have a lot of guilt to deal with in the morning. It was possible that Kurt especially didn't want to add to it by making himself a target.
"Whatever you guys decide. He's your friend."
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"I don't know..." Kurt said, turning around to face Kitty. "He might hurt someone if we leave him here. If I just, you know, stayed here and talked to him--pretended like I was a felon--" he rolled his eyes a little at that part. "--then I could distract him from attacking other people who might not be as willing to go back. Then you and Alex can head up to the closet, get something to fight with, meet me back down here and we'll go back to our rooms."
It did involve Kurt being left by himself, and he didn't know how much Kitty would approve of that, but it seemed like Peter wasn't being overly violent or threatening. He just wanted people to go back or listen to him lecture them.
"What do you think?" Kurt asked, focusing mostly on Kitty. "He's... he's had a really bad week Kitty, I don't want this to make him feel any worse than he already does."
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Playing up a distraction might really be for the best. They probably wouldn't make it through without getting hurt themselves, as Alex already said, but that wasn't anything new. You didn't become a part of the X-Men if you were afraid of getting hurt. She hadn't counted on Kurt suggesting he stay there alone, but she still responded fairly quickly.
"No, absolutely not. There's no way I'm letting you stay here alone." Kitty shook her head. "Kurt, the guy thinks we belong in a prison and he just hurled a couch across the room. Do you really think he's going to be fine with just talking to you?" He seemed content with using intimidation tactics right now, but who was to say he wouldn't decide on outright attacking at some point? If she and Alex did leave, they wouldn't have any idea how Kurt was until they managed to make it back. Needless to say, Kitty didn't like that particular plan.
"I know he's your friend, but there's no telling what he might do now. If you plan on staying here and acting as a distraction, then so am I."
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Kurt smiled faintly at Kitty's words. He always had known he could count on Kitty, even if their relationship had started out a little rocky. Now they really were a team, working together and staying together, even if Kurt was suggesting otherwise.
He didn't have a chance to answer, though. Kurt looked back over his shoulder when Peter started moving again, tensing slightly. However, he wasn't looking to attack Alex, himself, and Kitty, but some other group. Oh no... Peter would seriously be upset if he managed to cause someone else head trauma while brainwashed.
"Peter, don't!" Kurt shouted, turning around and bounding over to Peter on all fours. He had to stop him before he caused some serious damage. Aiming to restrain Peter's arms, Kurt launched himself at Peter's back, arms ready to wrap around his shoulders.
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