#kwagner

Kevin was being kept in the loop with the Professor’s telepathic invasion with Mystique, all the while hurrying down from Pembroke. He heard students whimpering and spewing panic as Kurt ushered them quickly through one of the old passageways embedded inconspicuously within the walls of Lykos and MacTaggert Hall. He heard more commotion in passing both floors of the library and even more when he reached the ground floor. Kevin wanted to help but he knew he had a job to do—slow Mystique down and stop her if possible. While he didn’t know all of the fine details to Cerebro, he did know that it was one of a kind and if Magneto succeeded in recreating it on any level, he could ignite a third world war or worse, if such a thing existed.

He got to the door that led down to the wide, chromatic halls for Cerebro and the Danger Room.  His steps grew quiet as the professor informed him, “Be careful, Kevin. She’s already down there.”

“Got it,” he replied while his face grew stony. He thought about Professor X’s physique and mannerism while his own form reduced by two inches. His brunette hairline receded entirely while the planes of his face rippled and smoothed out again seconds later, save the age lines at the corners of his eyes and across his forehead. His brows were ashen and less kept than his usual, more groomed brunette pair. He donned a more prominent nose and the lines running from the outside of his nostrils down to the corners of his thin lips were deep. As his body from the neck down became encased in a well-tailored chocolate brown suit, Kevin’s piercing blue eyes became eclipsed by a dark, blue-green pair that tended to change color often.

“Raven,” he spoke, imitating Professor X’s voice deep baritone perfectly.

Mystique, who had been standing in front of Cerebro’s heavy vault-like door turned and froze, momentarily startled by her old friend’s statuesque state. But she recovered almost as quickly and glowered, “Get outta my head, Charles,” and began to face the vault again.

“You know the cost if Erik succeeds in this. Don’t hand him the key to this destruction.”

“That hasn’t worked in the past. It isn’t going to stop me now so quit preaching.”

Kevin clenched his jaws and forced himself to remain in control of his walking pace. “And if he doesn’t make this second Cerebro, you’ll have only hindered us here in helping others like us.”

Mystique’s blue skin rippled as she reformed herself to also look like the Professor. But as she knelt down to access the retinal scanner, Kevin charged at her, transforming himself mid-stride to an exact replica of Logan. He tackled her hard to the floor with his now burly arms locked around her upper arms, but her forearms spread out and she punched her fists hard against his locked fists, causing him to lose his grip. Immediately after, she tucked her chin to her chest, only to rear it back like a mouse trap fresh off the spring. Her head butted directly into his chin and as he groaned and covered the afflicted space, she quickly sprang to her feet while her naked blue form fled back over her from toe to head.

Kevin had yet to reveal his own true form as he rolled onto his feet, trying to ignore the pain that was pulsing across his chin and up his jaw. Instead, he morphed into a mirrored image of her, knowing that her body moved more nimbly than Logan did. His new appearance only aggravated her further as she pursued him but Kevin ducked and applied his own strength to shoved her hard at the shoulders, pinning her against the cold, steely wall. But with her hands free, she’d quickly retaliated by wrapping her arms around his neck. She seemed determined to crush his windpipe and his now yellow eyes had gone wide, but Kevin hadn’t relinquished her from the wall. This time, Mystique was the first to shift forms and took on that of a behemoth Kevin had never seen before . He would have begun losing consciousness had his hand not finally surrendered its grip and he’d morphed that limb only, long enough to wad it into a fist and strike  Mystique across the face.

His hit drew blood and caused her to let him go, and Kevin immediately gasped for air. She hadn’t left him much time to recover, however, and the two had come to blows. Kevin forced himself to focus and went hand-to-hand with her while trying to tap into her mind to anticipate her next move. The two had gone back and forth exchanging blows and shifting appearances until the two ended up in their true forms.

Telepathy hadn’t aided Kevin against Mystique; while he’d gotten several hits against her, her stamina exceeded his enough for her to still be standing while he now required support from the wall.

The anger of being deceived by her former friend, combined with the persistence of Kevin in attempting to stop her gave her the push to keep on fighting, eventually gaining her the upper hand. Her attacks turned impossibly more relentless than before. She made sure Kevin took a foot to the side of his face and later threw her weight into a direct punch to his left eye. The impact caused his head to bounce against the steely wall behind him and he staggered to one side, earning double vision while holding his head. Growing weary again but knowing that she wanted him on the ground, she morphed into Logan to take advantage of the clawed man’s superior height while arresting one of his wrists, relishing  in the cry Kevin omitted throughout the hall. Mystique gave a merciless twist and drove one muscular thigh, hard and fast into the middle of hhis back.

Kevin’s eyes went wide as the air left his lungs. He was certain something in his chest had cracked at the very least as he was slammed face first against the nearby wall again. His wrist ached terribly and his vision had yet to clear from his head being bounced against the wall the first time. The second time, however, was too much for him to hang onto his consciousness. As Mystique finally released his limb and removed the burrowed knee from his back, Kevin felt himself falling but could do nothing to stop it. His throbbing head felt heavy but hollowed out, as did the rest of his body when it collapsed to the floor.

Scott sprinted down the hall, already exhausted from his, Joanna and The Cuckoo sister’s altercation with Blob and  Mist Mistress. He’d been running purely on adrenaline and knew he’d his body would catch up to how he truly felt at some point but for the time being he’d he had to check on his friend. It seemed like all of the Brotherhood had vacated the premises but he hadn’t seen Kevin emerge from the halls beneath the school’s ground floor. He saw the door near the end of the hall sitting open and heard the grunts and groans that unmistakably translated to fighting; the sounds were what sent him bolting through the door and down the stairs.

Standing at the mouth of the hall, he saw Kevin’s crumpled body at the opposite end of the relatively short, T-shaped hall—one way leading to Hanger’s Bay while the other way led to the Danger Room and at its apex stood the large, circular, chrome-colored door that led to a sealed Cerebro. Scott was prompted to make haste again when he saw Kevin crumpled on the floor, unmoving with his back to him. Scott’s ruby-covered eyes quickly darted to Mystique who was mid-transition from appearing like Logan to looking like a kneeling Professor X. Not caring about the setting on his lenses, his hand flew up to just below his temple as he hollered, “It’s over, Mystique!”

She turned in time to be met with a flat, wide, hot beam of red directly to her chest. The blast slammed her flush against Cerebro’s door as she yelped and reverted back to her blue physique.

Scott charged at her, prepared to go hand-to-hand with her  as he said, “They’re all gone! It’s just you and I’ve still got plenty of fight in me.”

Mystique knew her body was exhausted and if she wanted to make it out even more unscathed, she would have to accept defeat and take off. Though fury and betrayal over the abandonment was bubbling in her, outwardly, she smirked, revealing teeth colored with blood, “Count your blessings tonight, Red Eye.” With that, she sprang up, shoved him out of her way and ran, disappearing up the narrow stairs.

Scott waited only a few seconds to make sure that she wasn’t planning to double back before he hurried over to Kevin. “Kevin!” he sternly called out a few times but when he crouched and touched a hand to the other man’s shoulder, he froze in horror. The left side of Kevin’s face was undeniably puffy; his left eye was swollen shut and reddening and blood was smeared across his lips and continued to trickle from the corner of his mouth like a leaky faucet. His right arm was splayed unnaturally on the chrome floor and his wrist was as almost as red as his eye. And his now disheveled chestnut mane was almost covering a knot above his right eyebrow. Scott couldn’t tell where else he was hurt. He knew enough about Mystique to know that she was a good fighter—dangerous enough against most of the students regardless of their experience or excellence in Danger Room. Against any of the professors, she was plenty formidable, evident by Kevin’s current state. Scott knew he could usually hold his own when they’d practice but he also knew that he hadn’t been all that versed in hand-to-hand. Part of him wanted to question Professor X for putting him up against Mystique. Did he really think Kevin could do this on his own? but the feeling of doubting his friends—both Kevin and the Professor—only angered and distracted him. Unlocking his tightly clenched jaw, Scott called out to the professor. “I need Kurt down here! It’s Kevin…”

The elevator doors parted to the segregated floor of theInstitute—Pembroke Hall. When the elevator had been installed, its location hadbeen specifically chosen to elevate and descend nearest the headmaster’s bedroom. With the start of the weekend combined with multitude of students still abuzz from the evening’s performance of Grease earlier, he hadn’t troubled himself much with the enforcement of lights out tonight. Instead, as he guided himself out of the lift and to the locked double doors of his room. After fishing out the card key and swiping it beside the pin pad beside the doors’ frame, he heard the automatic lock give, followed by one of the doors opening on its own for him.

The room at first glance was mahogany furniture and fine navy and goldenrod bed linen; the ceiling was high and donned an intricate light fixture at its center. As the room’s door shut, the professor guided his chair to the bathroom—the only bedroom in the mansion to include a restroom. His body felt ready to retire for the evening but he intended to wash his face first. When he leaned forward and turned on the faucet, his hand stayed on the water knob while his head slowly turned to one side.

There had been a security breech. Without any invasive procedures—rather it had been unique mental training and coding designed by Hank—the campus’s security equipment had been intentionally linked to the telepaths on staff.

Pushing past his own thoughts was the intense, determined mind of his former friend, Raven, or Mystique as she now preferred. He locked his thoughts on hers and listened intently while assessing her closeness; his telepathy reached great distances but it did have its limits and she was within them. Without completely taking over her mind, he eaves dropped on the exchange she was having with his old friend, Erik Lensherr, who was reminding her of her objective: She was to get inside of Cerebro and steal one of its key combonents, the helmet, so that he could fine tune it to track non-mutants with the replica machine he’d been working on.

A stroke of panic crossed Charles but he forced himself to listen on as Erik was letting her know that he’d destroyed the “hidden” security—the air quotes dripping heavy with a condescending tone—and for all of them to move quickly.

His awareness expanded beyond Mystique as he realized Erik’s closest faction to his Brotherhood of Mutants had traveled with Mystique. Wasting no more time, Charles began backing out of his bathroom while projecting his stern, deep voice into the minds of his colleagues. “<i>The Brotherhood’s infiltrating. Our security’s been compromised by Magneto. Mystique’s goal is Cerebro. Kevin, head off Mystique to the hall. I’ll do what I can to aid you. Kurt, get the students in their dorms to safety. The rest of you--wherever you’re at in the mansion, do the same. Now!</i>