Children of the Atom - X-Men

As Kim swiped a punch, Toad instantly came to life, bending back almost parallel from the ground! A second strike attempt was met with the same result, as Toad flipped back, landing on a single hand, balancing his body perfectly.

"Man....you kids are slow! Why'd we need frenchy, again?"

Taking his chance, Cam swept up from behind Toad, diving for a sweep kick! Toad pushed up at the last moment, flipping again and landing in the exact same position on the exact same hand as Cam went by, laughing to himself!

"Ahhh, the snake kid! I don't like ya stealin' my gig, punk! Only room for one reptile on this turf!"

"Toad's are amphibians!"

Toad's eyes widened as Trevor yelled at him, his jaw slacking slightly.

"Well, uhh....yeah, I knew that! I was testin' ya!"

Kim wasn't so sure about Toad knowing reptiles from amphibians, but his slow comment gave her a thought, and while she'd just decided that she would do any and all thinking later, she supposed this sort of thinking was kind of necessary. A necessary evil, perhaps, but necessary all the same. She was faster now that she was full of adrenaline, fast enough to keep up with the others in the merry band, but she still wasn't fast enough to catch the enemy. But she could if she needed to be, so with that in mind, Kim closed her eyes and imagined.

The ground is falling out behind me, coming towards me. I'm running, I'm running as fast as I can away from it, so fast that my feet barely touch the ground and the wind in my ears is deafening and my legs burn like they're on fire, but it's getting closer, crumbling faster, faster and faster and I'm not gonna make it. I'm too slow, I'm not fast enough and I'm going to fall into the endless abyss below and I'm going to-

More heat raced through her veins, and while Kim didn't change externally like she did with most of her transformations, now she knew she was much, much faster. She opened her eyes and ran, and in less than half a heartbeat's time she was beside Toad and aiming a kick at him. This time she would not be too slow.

Except she was.

While the kick did connect, it was not in the means Kim wished it to. Toad deflected the kick with his forearm, aiming one of his own! Cam launched, kicking Toad's leg away! The fly-eater leaped up, landing on a perch on a tree limb.

"Hahahaha! You think a little speed is gunna get me? I fight blue guys who teleport! I BEAT blue guys who teleport! Gotta do a little more with it, brat! Hahaha ACK!"

Toad leaped from the tree as the wood from the branch jutted up in spikes! As he landed on another tree, he looked down to find Rosa with her hand pressed onto the trunk!

"Oh so the whole gaggle of ya want a piece of Toad? fine!"

Resisting the urge to frown at still not being fast enough, Kim looked at each of her friends in turn and tilted her head towards Toad with a questioning gaze. Her voice was still out of commission, probably would be for at least half a day even if she didn't try to use it anymore, so she couldn't outright ask the merry band for ideas on how to take their opponent down. The closest thing she could do was ask with her eyes if they had any, because she couldn't think of one.

Except...

Well, worth a shot.

She dashed and crouched below Toad as if about to jump up and knock the amphibious mutant from his perch in the tree, but instead twisted and slammed her foot into its trunk. A side effect of the speed and adrenaline was superhuman strength, and there was a huge crack through the air and the tree as the latter began to topple over. As it fell, Kim leapt and launched another kick at the hopefully off-balance Toad. With luck maybe it would actually be effective this time, and even if it wasn't it might give the others a chance to come up with a plan.

WHAM!

The kick caught Toad right under the jaw, clacking his teeth together as he stumbled down and off of the branch! As he fell, Cam took his shot, charging ahead with impressive speed himself (though not rivaling Kim's enhanced movement)! He threw a punch at the upside down Toad! His fist swept clean through the air as Toad opened his mouth, his tongue launching out at an incredible length and hooking to another branch, pulling him out of danger at the last second! He flipped through the air, rearing his head back before hacking a ball of slime from his mouth onto Cam's foot! Cam tripped, trying to move his limb now sealed to the ground!

"Noth tho funneh now, huth? Ow!"

Toad's speech was slurred, his jaw injured by the brutal kick thrown to him by Kim. He rubbed it tenderly, ducking as Rosa swung at him from behind with a club made of wood from the tree, bark still attached! Toad bridged his body back before flipping into a crouch, leaping up and kicking Rosa in the back! Rosa placed her hand on the ground as she fell, a pillar of earth rocketing up and crash right between the legs of Toad, whose eyes crossed as he squeaked in a high-pitch!

Toad was in no position to block, move, or even whimper in pain as the second kick rocked him off the column and into the distance! He crashed against a tree as Trevor charged himself, kicking his leg back and extending it as far as it could go before slamming a kick into Toad's chest, actually bending the tree slightly upon impact!

"He's out."

Trevor turned to his allies.

"We should help Gambit out be-"

Trevor was interrupted as his arms tightened to his sides! Toad sprung back to consciousness as his tongue lashed out, wrapping around Trevor multiple times in restraint! Toad chuckled, while still slumped into the seated position, whipping Trevor with his tongue into the base of another tree! He chuckled harder....only to gasp in shock as Trevor's entire body deflated, curling into a small pillar as he slipped through his slimy restraint!

Toad turned to strike again, but screamed in pain as his tongue smacked into the tree once more, pierced through by the blade of a knife! As blood trickled down from the wound and the wounded Toad continued to howl, the rest of the band turned to find their serpent ally, Cam, arm extended down from the end of a throw.

"You have....thirty minutes...."

Toad stopped his screaming for one second before looking up to the knife. Indeed red did leak from the point of impact.....but so did green. The edges around the wound began to blacken.

Poison.

"SABATOOS! SABATOOS!"

An explosion rocked the ground once more as the lion mutant leaped back into sight, followed in tow by Gambit! Gambit tossed his staff up, fanning two hands of cards that illuminated bright magenta! He tossed the cards, all exploding furiously, rocking Sabertooth back once again! As he recovered, he heard the screams of Toad, looking up to see the knife!

"The nerd was right!" he growled, leaping up to remove the blade. Toad recoiled his injured tongue as Sabertooth picked him up on his shoulder. 

"Ith poisoh! Ith poisoh!"

"Oh stop whining like a wimp, we planned for this!"

And with that, Sabertooth shot into the brush, charging away! Gambit caught his staff as it fell, placing it stiffly to the ground and wiping some sweat from his forehead.

Kim let out a sigh at the sight of the animalistic duo retreating, glad for that to be over. She glanced over each of her teammates, looking to see if they were hurt from the fight. Or rather, more hurt than they already were from the last one. They'd all gotten pretty banged up from the bout with Gambit.

Speaking of him...

Once she determined that none of her friends were in immediate danger of dying, Kim turned a curious eye to Gambit. Under the euphoria of having her gift back and not being in pain anymore, she was still angry with him. Some part of her wanted to punch his teeth out for everything, another part wanted more of an explanation for what had happened, and yet another part of her, the largest part, was undecided. She wasn't sure what to do or feel or think.

Well, Kim figured as she waited, I'll leave the thinking to the smart ones. 

Kim wasn't the only one looking for a few answers in a creole accent. The expectations held heavy enough to be felt on the shoulders, more eyes turning to Gambit in the forms of Trevor, Sherrie, and Cam. To his side, though, stepped Rosa, much to the confusion of her allies.

"So you're helping us now?" Trevor asked, motioning to the cajun, "and you're with him?"

Rosa shook her head, "it's a work, Trevor, he's-"

"Pardonne-moi," Gambit adjusted the collar of his purple button-up shirt, then fixed his black vest, "I can explain mahself, cherie."

Gambit hung his staff over both of his shoulders, hooking his hands like a scarecrow.

"First, I must reintroduce mahself. Bonjour, mah name's Remy LeBeau, but y'all can keep callin' me Gambit. I represent da t'ieves guild, but most importantly, I'm a member of de X-Men. Professor Xavier sent me to watch over y'all."

"By kidnapping us?!" The rasp and growl from the serpentine Cam came unexpected from everyone, his calm nature breaking as he took another step forward, the slime on his foot slipping off the more he moved. "By fighting us?! BY TORTURING KIM?!"

"Cam...Cam....calm down...." Rosa held her hands up, trying to ease the bite of the snake.

"Mon ami, I get you bein' upset, but if I was gonna find out anyt'in' 'bout who was trackin' y'all down n' why, dis needed to look real. No offense to any o' y'all but we don' trust nobody right now. Up 'til dis point, dat included you. Included everyone here. I'm sorry I had to do what I did, but Professor Xavier trusts me to keep y'all alive. If I gotta drag you to da Institute unconscious, I will!"

He frowned for a second....before gaining his grin once again.

"However, now's da time for celebratin'! We got ourselves quite da pay day t'anks to Da Brothahood. Who wanna eat real food tonight?"

Cam's outburst surprised Kim as much as any of them, especially that he had mentioned the part with her last and loudest, as if it were the most important. In her eyes it wasn't by any stretch of the imagination — and she had a fantastic imagination — but for whatever reason it was upsetting him and she didn't want her friend to be upset, so she put the confusion aside so she could try and help him.

Slowly and gently, Kim took her friend's hand in her own as it shifted to prevent poisoning. She squeezed Cam's hand and tugged a little, trying to get his attention. When she had it, or enough of it, she caught his eye and smiled at him before pulling him into a hug. She was very, very careful, as careful as she could possibly be not to aggravate his injuries or hurt him worse with her enhanced strength, but still hold him as tight and close as she could. To let him feel her breathe, feel her heart beat, to know that she was okay, because for some reason he seemed so upset in thinking she wasn't. But she was a survivor, and she had promised him that she and the rest of them would survive, and they had, even if Kim hadn't been able to live up to her promise of keeping them safe.

Well, at least she'd kept her promise about screaming to wake them up if she had to. Even if the screaming hadn't exactly been voluntary.

After she felt that Cam had gotten the idea that she was alright, she pulled away, but grabbed his hand again, still wanting to be sure, to remind Cam that she had her codename for a reason. Meeting his eyes with a reassuring smile, Kim mouthed the words her throat wouldn't let her speak, hoping that he would at least get the gist of what she was trying to say. 

It's alright. Everything's alright. We're alive, we survived, just like I said we would. Deep breaths, Cam, deep breaths. We survived, and it's alright now. We got hurt, but we lived, we got through it. Don't be upset, just take deep, calming breaths. It's alright, Cam, it's alright. It's all alright...

Kim ignored Gambit's mention of food, letting the information she'd wanted so much only moments ago file into the back of her mind. In that moment, nothing was more important than making sure Cam was alright.

The hot-blooded burst from Cam was slowly calmed by Kim's intervention, though the knives he stared into Gambit pierced nonetheless. He tensed up slightly from the contact but as she took his hand and looked into his eyes, Cam found a peace he would have to fight to ignore. The cajun understood, his observation on the "ninja" wasn't wrong. In truth he didn't enjoy having to hurt these young mutants, but nobody would believe a capture without struggle.

At yet, all of the emotions fell short as Trevor's stomach rumbled out loud.

"So....that food sounds pretty cool."

Sherrie had taken a seat, still roughed up from her encounters with Gambit. She grimaced in his direction, but it was true that they hadn't eaten a real meal in a very long time. She simply nodded, unable to do much more.

Kim also nodded in agreement for the food thing, more for the others than herself. When she transformed, her sympathetic nervous system was activated as opposed to her parasympathetic nervous system. In laymen's terms, she was in fight-or-flight mode rather than rest-and-digest mode. Eating would be essentially pointless until she changed back, which wouldn't happen for an hour at the very least, and by then it wouldn't be more than a few hours until the sun came up and she could photosynthesize instead. Which might have been for the best, anyway. Kim wasn't sure how much her stomach must have shrunk from not actually eating since Crenshaw. But she nodded anyway, because while she could wait until the sun came up, her friends couldn't and shouldn't.

She didn't let go of Cam's hand.

As the sun hung high in the air, signaling mid-day, the sounds of munching teeth filled the outside deck of a cafe, the scenery a lovely, pristine lake that branched off of where the restaurant was. The song of birds serenaded the customers in this surprisingly warm autumn day.

"And he's green because....."

"We on our way to a Halloween party! Mon ami here is goin' as a snake man! Dat explains the eyes, too. Contacts, mine as well!"

".....Alllllright."

The waitress tenderly stepped off, eyeing the green-skinned Cam as she turned her attention to her other patrons. The food had been set in front of them all in portions they hadn't seen in months. Nothing but the best quality meals had been provided, but it wasn't until the waitress had left that Cam attempted to take a bite out of his chicken sandwich.

Trevor, however, had torn into his pasta like a Christmas present, and Rosa enjoyed her salad. Sherrie had ordered some soup, a wise move as her jaw was still not in the best form from nights before.

"Eat up, mes amis. Enjoy. Only so many times we gonna be able to use dat Halloween excuse."

Kim nibbled on her pizza, swinging her legs under the table absentmindedly. Her stomach was still shrunken from not eating for so long (and boy had it been weird when she'd first eaten again), so she had to be careful not to make herself sick with too much food. Still, it was nice. She'd missed eating and food in general. Especially pizza. Pizza was her favorite.

It was tempting to answer Gambit and fill the silence, but she resisted the urge. Her voice, while much better than it'd been a few nights ago, was still not fully healed. It was very close, now only a bit quieter than usual, but Kim wanted it to be back to normal as soon as possible, and babbling wouldn't help that. Besides, she was eating. Talking with her mouth full would be rude. So Kim enjoyed her pizza, actually not talking for once.

Cam finished half of his sandwich, placing the rest down upon his plate. He took a breath, pivoting in his seat to look over the shimmering lake. This was the first time in years, maybe even in his entire life that he had been able to come to a public place and just...sit. To the others, even to Gambit with his eyes of fire, the act of sitting down for a meal, being among people, it was all something they had enjoyed multiple times in their lives. To Cam, this was a first, and here he sat in a scene straight out of a painting.

He gave a light sigh. If he had tears left, he may have even shed one in joy.

Kim glanced over to Cam after she finished what she could of her pizza, his sigh drawing her attention. She found him staring out at the lake, and he seemed...happy. Really and truly happy, completely serene and at ease. The sight made her smile. Cam usually acted so cautious, reserved and even somewhat stoic with the occasional exception, not at all comfortable with himself, others, or his surroundings. But here, now, and with everyone? He was at peace, he was happy, and that simple fact brought Kim tremendous joy. He deserved to be happy all the time, forever.

She didn't want to ruin the moment, to pull Cam away from his tranquility, but three murmured words passed her lips regardless. 

"You look happy."

As low as the murmurs were, they had caught Cam's attention nonetheless. He didn't crack a smile, that was an act Cam had essentially forgotten throughout his life, but Kim's words were never the less true. He turned his head to her, nodding once. Everything was, at least at this point, very good.

And very short.

"Time we got rollin'" Gambit said, standing from the table. He reached into his pocket and produced a roll of hundred dollar bills, courtesy of the Brotherhood. He placed two bills onto the table, enough to cover the food with a large tip, then returned the money to his trench coat pocket.

Cam turned back to the scene, taking it all in for a moment longer, before standing up as well.

"So where do we go from here? asked Trevor.

"We headin' to da Institute," Gambit said, plainly, "Da Professor wants to meet y'all. Not too much fartha, gotta get somewhere we can send Da Blackbird out to."

The mentioning of the institute washed over the band in waves of excitement. Less for the mutant sanctuary, but for the promise of warm beds and food.

As expected, Kim couldn't keep quiet for very long, especially not when there was something she was curious about. The excitement in the air didn't help either, so as she stood up, she began to badger Gambit for information. "What's the Blackbird? Is it some kind of transportation to get us there? Where is the Institute, anyway? You said it's not much farther, but how much farther does that mean? And what's the place like? The name makes it sound really big and fancy. Is it? Or is it more a humble place with a grand name? And why does the Professor want to meet us? Is it like when I saw him in Crenshaw? Does he want us to join? Or am I totally off?"

There was more she wanted to know, more details she wanted to press, but Kim stopped herself there for the moment.

"You like yaself some question, eh?"

Gambit chuckled as the group followed him onto the street. They walked, bunched together like the band had been accompanied by their chaperone, and Gambit rubbed his chin, thinking about what question to answer first.

"Le's see here. Well, da Blackbird is a big jet, fastest way to get around fo' sure. Woulda come for ya weeks ago but we been tryin' to figure out who was tailin' y'all. Now that we know, we just gotta get somewhere clear for a pick-up. Da Institute is in a big ol' Mansion in da nort'east, but dat's all y'all get to know right now. Beautiful place."

He slipped his hands into his pocket.

"And it's less dat he wanna meet y'all, but more so he want y'all to be safe. Long as dere's people lookin' to get y'all, you ain't safe. At da Insitute we can promise safety, best place to be. Plus, y'all be taken in as students, so you get to learn a little more 'bout y'all's powers."

Being students wasn't something the band had seen in their futures, but the concept of safety in a freaking mansion was hard to turn down. Whisked away in a jet to a mansion full of people just like them sounded like something out of a movie...but this wasn't a movie. This was real.

Kim nodded, biting her lip hard so as to not ask anything more. There was so much she still wanted to know about, her questions and Gambit's answers only scratching the surface of her curiosity. Where in the northeast? Was it like Wyoming northeast, or Maine northeast? Or Canada northeast? Greenland northeast? She hoped it wasn't either of the last two, she didn't have a passport. But any of those could constitute 'not far' in regards to a jet, so she had no way to know. And thinking on that, the Institute must be ridiculously wealthy. A mansion AND a jet? Who had those sort of things? The Professor, apparently. The thought was bizarre. And what was the Institute beyond beautiful and a mansion and a school, anyway? Who would teach them about their gifts, and how would they be taught? Was there a standardized method of teaching regardless of their individual gifts, or did they have people with gifts identical or similar enough to each of their own to teach them one on one? Would they be taught things that weren't about their gift, like math or language? How many people were there at the Institute? How many were teachers? Students? Others? Were all of them mutants, or were there non-mutants too? How safe was the place, and why was it so safe? Was it because of those people fighting the Brotherhood guys, or were there other reasons? Either way it was really nice of the Professor to help them out. But how had he known they were being targeted in the first place? Did he know more about who was targeting them beyond the fact that it seemed to be those Brotherhood people? Did he know why? She wanted to know all that and more.

Kim had to bite her lip harder as the urge to speak became more and more difficult to resist, but she managed. Like the senior mutant said, there was only so much that could be said right now. The rest would have to wait until they actually reached the Institute, wherever it was.

But boy, did she want to know!

Travel from that point on was a bit more comfortable for the band than they had grown accustomed to. Using the money from the deal gone wrong and a few quick words from Gambit, they had swapped out sleeping in the dirt to sleeping in motels, quickly entering and leaving in the dark to avoid being seen. They ate well enough, and with these few small luxuries the morale of the group increased.

They walked down that road at the crack of dawn with a bit more of a pep in their step than usual. Gambit had informed them of the clearing where the Blackbird could arrive, and that soon they would find themselves at the Institute.

"Ain't too far off now. Gonna send da signal to take off soon, should be here in a couple hours."

"This place better be legit, Gambit." Trevor walked next to the Cajun, hands tucked in his pockets. "If this is another trick, we've got a problem."

"Trev, mon ami, if I wanted to stab y'all in da back, I coulda done it ten times ova by now."

"That's.....unsettling."

Sherrie and Rosa followed behind him, not paying much attention to anything. Things were simply....good. Not too overwhelming, they hadn't been so in days. 

Cam hung quietly behind, staring out into nowhere. He hadn't said as much as two words in those same days, which was not out of character for him, but he appeared to have grown further and further away from everyone around him. Everyone, except Kim.

The roar of an engine sent the band to the side of the road, hoping that the car passing by would simply go on their way and pay them no mind, a technique they had used a few times before. This car did just that, a black muscle car straight out of a classic movie. The thunderous engine even sent a jolt though the unsuspecting spine as it went by. As it passed, Rosa examined the vehicle, seeing it as a black flash out of the corner of her eye.

"Wish they'd stop to give us a ride," said Sherrie, jokingly. At that moment, the squeal of tires coming to a halt. The car drifted over horizontally, cutting off a large portion of the road. Trevor turned back to face his sister, giving her a now famous "nice freakin' going" look.

The driver's side door opened, and from it stepped a rather large man. He casually sauntered around his vehicle, adjusting the black aviator sunglasses over his eyes. His ears housed headphones, the sound of his music audible even from where the band stood. He stretched out his muscled body, that of which stunned the group by the amount of black tattoos that spanned over his arms and chest. He ran a strong hand over the scruffy dirty blond beard on his face, brushing some o the same colored hair from his face. The man removed his shades, placing them onto the collar of his gray tank top, and then glanced at the band with matching eyes. Fumbling into his pocket, the man unfolded a photograph.

A photograph of the band taken by some sort of hidden camera.

"Yup, matches up."

The man turned back up to the group, removing his headphones. He said only one thing.

"Where's the red masked guy?"

"The who?" Was Kim's immediate, thoughtless response.

As she spoke, another person exited the car behind the man, a girl about the same age as those in the merry band of mutants. She looked to be of Indian or Arabic descent, with tan skin and dark hair and eyes, standing at a somewhat short height. She leaned back against the vehicle, simply watching the scene with an unreadable expression, making no move to interact with anyone. Despite her interesting and somewhat bright attire, she would quickly fade into the back of everyone's mind before disappearing altogether.

"Haven't seen anyone like that around here." Kim said as she turned her attention back to the man. "A red mask would stand out, so I doubt it's because we missed him. Are you sure you're in the right place? Wait, 'matches up'? What are you talking about? And who are you talking about, for that matter? With either part? And who are you, anyway?"

"Oh, shut up!"

The muscled man groaned, bringing his headphones back up to his ears and letting his music play. The band had tensed just a bit, now realizing they were not in the company of a friend.

"You're the ones he was hired to kill and he's not subtle. Where is he?"

Another one? even Gambit found himself raising an eyebrow at the mentioning of another hired gun. He had not planned on a third, none of them had. The band said nothing, just looking on with expressions of confusion.

"So you haven't seen him yet?" The muscled man frowned like a child that had been told they weren't getting any candy. After a moment, though, his head began to nod as if on its own power.

"That means he's still searching you out. Just need to get his attention...with a little noise."

The tattooed man leaned back against his car right next to the younger girl at his side.

"So....which one of you screams the loudest?"

"Uh...probably me." Kim admitted, bemused, because seriously? Another person was trying to kill them? Really? Now? When they were just a few hours away from the Institute and its supposed safety? And there was another guy looking for that guy and possibly threatening them to get the guy to come out and try to kill them? For real? Could they maybe go a month without some kind of potential threat to their lives? Well, to her friends' lives, really, and Gambit's now too, whatever he was to her, she still hadn't quite figured that out, but that wasn't the point. The point was, someone was seriously out to get them, literally as much as figuratively.

She had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.

The tattooed powerhouse looked over Kim after she had murmured a response. The others had said nothing, but even after he had yelled at her, the girl still spoke. She was either very brave or very stupid. Either way, she had guts. He ran his hand over his chin again, then slipped a hand up, pulling his headphones down around his neck, the music still blaring out from them.

"Alright....scream, then."

The band looked between each other, not exactly sure what the man had in store, or what the silent middle-eastern girl at his side had to do with any of this.

"Cherie, don' do a t'ing he tell ya," Gambit whispered to her. Cam kept his sights on the two, his hand curled around his knife. He tried to keep his eyes fixed on the target, yet...they kept drooping, attempting to close. It made no sense, they had eaten just moments ago and sleep was not something that escaped the band lately. Still, he began to feel as if a day had already gone by out of nowhere.

"You aren't anything worth fighting," the tattooed man said, a bit of a frown on his face as he did so, "I want something at least kind of challenging, and they say this red masked guy can't be killed. I want to test that, so if he's looking for you runts...scream and call him here."

"This guy's frickin' bonkers," Trevor muttered under his breath. Just like the snake ninja, he too felt a fatigue clutch onto him. He couldn't explain it, though he passed it off as a side effect of their travels...but he thought more of it. They were obviously in a stare down, a moment the body would instantly produce adrenaline. Tired was not a feeling he should be having.

Something was wrong.

"Guys, stay on you guard....he's up to something."

"I'm not a patient guy," the tattooed man proclaimed, "so let's to get making noise. I don't want to waste my time with easy meat."