[OP: "Hurts Like Hell"-- Fleurie]

Morph thought he was dead for sure when he fell--

But just when he thought he was going to melt, Kurt somehow darted in and out, collapsing on the catwalk a little higher up.

He was so close to it, they couldn't be heard hitting it over the steam and it was so hot here that he fell over at once.

"Kurt..." Morph shook him. "Talk to me."

"Too...hot..." Kurt muttered. "Feel faint.... Sorry...tried...but maybe buy a little time."

Morph realized that Kurt's clothes were burning right then, and frantically he put it out.

"Whew, that was close..."

Actually Kurt looked like he had a few scorches on him.

Morph dragged him farther from the furnace...but everywhere in this room was hot.

Looking down, he saw Mystique was still in the same place--wait...what was Selene doing there!

Oh...now this all made sense.

Morph suddenly had complete clarity. He knew exactly what happened. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And it was such a relief, he almost wasn't angry--almost. But not quite.

"I'll be back, Kurt. Gotta save your mom from that crazy witch," he said.

Kurt didn't respond. He was pretty much unconscious now. [🤕😟😨]

Morph looked and saw his gun was still lying on the other catwalk.

Turning into Angel again, he flew that way.

Selene never noticed him, or if she did, she assumed it was the one working for her.

Mystique was fading out now.

"Almost there..." Selene muttered. "Just die already, you b----."

Suddenly, a blast hit her in the side and knocked her into the rail of the catwalk.

She looked up in surprise.

Morph, who was pissed off now, landed on the catwalk and just gave her a look that said: You're dead.

Selene, not being really a brave person, gasped, and jumped off the catwalk.

The other Angel flew and caught her and then flew downward.

Mystique, not really processing what just happened, turned to look at Morph in astonishment.

Before she really had time to react, Morph had run up to her, and, taking her in his arms like a movie star in an old film, he kissed her while kind of holding her up...good thing, she was about ready to fall over from pure exhaustion.

Mystique was pretty sure she'd lost her mind and was hallucinating things again...but this was far less unpleasant a sensation, and she didn't want to break it.

Morph stopped for a moment. "Sorry, just got a little... Are you okay?"

"I..." Mystique sputtered.

Morph pulled her closer. "You're out of it, right? I could tell before...but...please just tell me?"

"Morph...?" Mystique sputtered, looking up at him blankly.

Morph looked down and kissed her again. The sort of fast but tender kind of kiss that shows relief.

Mystique began to think this was real after all. She couldn't be imagining this...right?

At least she didn't think so...

[Makes me realize a lot of their moments happen with her thinking this way. Guess that's just how surreal a healthy dynamic is to her.]

"Hang on, we have to get away from this fire..." Morph said, suddenly remembering it.

♨️♨️🔥🔥

Scooping her up, he flew up and grabbed Kurt, and then flew to the door.

The heat rising up was almost unbearable, but Morph fought it enough to go through the doorway.

The next room was the one with the broken boiler, so it was full of wrecked parts, but it wasn't hot. At least, compared to the last one it felt cool.

Morph flopped down on the floor. "That was close..." he said.

Mystique suddenly grabbed his shoulders. "I don't understand," she said.

"I should wring your neck!" Morph said. "What were you thinking? Going off alone."

But instead of strangling her, he was grabbing her face and looked at it closely. 

Then he barreled on, but punctuated each exclamation with kissing a different part of her face, first her forehead, then her cheeks and her eyes, like he wanted to make sure she was real.

"We thought you were dead for sure! Were you out of your mind? You can't just turn yourself in like that.... We've been trying to get in here since yesterday, and I was starting to think we were never going to find you, and then I do, and you're half out of your mind, and then Selene just tries to juice up? That's so wrong. You know, you really put me through a lot of trouble."

Mystique couldn't keep up with the discrepancy between his words and his actions, so she finally just pulled a little free.

"I..." She hesitated.

But her mind was clearing just a little.

Then she started crying. "But I...thought...I...killed you... You're okay? How?"

"Oh...Kurt..." Morph glanced nervously at him. "Yeah, he's not okay, but...I just needed to make sure you were okay."

Mystique shook her head. "I'm not okay, Morph... They broke me.... I...I couldn't help it.... I knew it would...but I..." She was shaking still. "It..."

She looked down.

"Hey, wait a moment." Morph pulled her chin up, gently. "You can't start blaming yourself for that. That wasn't you. That was Sinister." He looked a little angry there.

"I couldn't fight him..." Mystique said miserably.

"You fought..." Morph said. "I saw, just before--you remembered.... You were going to pull me back. Selene pushed me, not you."

"What?" Mystique said, a choke in her voice.

"Really, I knew it as soon as I saw her," Morph said. "She must have been watching...that viper. She's really the worst person I've ever met, I think...other than Sinister... I know you didn't do it. You were trying not to."

"But--" Mystique paused. Then she remembered. "It was like something else pushed my hand.... Did she get  control of me again?"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Morph said. "She's just creepy. It's not your fault... Listen, Raven, I already know what Sinister is like...remember? He's really hard to resist...but you were trying... You broke out of it... That's still good. It doesn't matter if it was in time or not. It's not like they were fighting fair... I'm just glad that you're back."

Mystique stared at him. Then she started crying harder. And leaned on his chest. "I don't deserve you..." she said, heavily.

Morph just let her cry for a bit.

He heard metal popping in the other room... They couldn't stay here for long...

Kurt seemed to be waking up a little, thankfully. His tail was twitching...

Mystique slowly realized that there was a crisis at hand, and abruptly she stopped crying and straightened, wiping her face.

"But where are the others?" she said.

"Here somewhere," Morph said. "We had to split up though... Long story. Some of them are looking for prisoners, some were going to find Sinister... If they did, they're probably fighting him now."

"But he's ready for them," Mystique said seriously. "He was ready for us. Apocalypse also... They intend to hurt us badly... I was just the beginning...and I saw things in those hallucinations... I'm...not sure all of it was made up. Maybe it was taunting me in a way."

"Maybe not talk about that." Morph frowned. "I'm so mad about that I could just..." He looked dark. "Well, they'd better not give me an excuse."

"Wow." Mystique finally managed some irony. "Coming from you? Dark."

"One thing I've never handled well is people I care about being put through all kinds of torment because of me," Morph said.

"Not because of you," Mystique said. "I did this one to myself."

"Mystique, you beautiful idiot, you turned yourself in to protect me!" Morph said. "Which by the way, was really stupid."

Mystique finally smiled. "Well...I suppose. I guess I was thinking of someone else for once. I hear that people do things like that, when they're in love, so..."

Morph stared at her.

"What?" she said.

"Uh...that's just...the first time you've used that word..." Morph said. "First time anyone has, actually."

https://youtu.be/FrSUgaAHIPQ

Mystique realized it was true.

But if the strain of the last 24 hours had done anything for her--it had removed her filter, both bad and good.

She shrugged, and, leaning in, she kissed him instead, then she put her arms around his neck. "Well, I guess it's out now.... Stupid of me, right...? Should have been more careful."

Morph hugged her back. "I love you... There, technically I said it first, ha."

"You stole that," Mystique said. "Doesn't count."

"Sure it does," Morph said. "You just implied it, you didn't actually say it, so I still got in the first word."

"Is this a male ego thing?" Mystique said.

"Uh...maybe?" Morph said. "I mean, I don't get that many man points anyway, so..."

"Oh, shut up." Mystique kissed him again. "I love you too, you idiot. Can we stop talking about it now?"

"You know...if it took the literal apocalypse for this moment," Morph said, "totally worth it, just saying...I mean...as long as we win."

"Yeah, with that..." Mystique suddenly looked at Kurt and gasped. "Kurt! Oh my--what happened to him?!"

"He got slightly singed," Morph said. "I'm not sure what to for him without medical supplies."

Mystique moved over to Kurt and put his head in her lap. "Kurt? Can you hear me?"

Kurt blinked and looked up. "Mother?" he said. "Are you all vright now?"

"I'm as well as can be expected after having someone try to consume my soul and mind for hours on end," Mystique said. "What about you?"

"As vell as can be expected for someone who nearly got crushed and then set on fire, I suppose," Kurt said. "Takes me back to my earlier circus days...before I already knew how to dodge... Also the pain is just as bad now as it vas then...but if you're all vright, I vill count it as a sacrifice to the cause."

"You both are way too noble for me," Mystique said. "It's all right to say that hurt like hell. I think Gott would forgive you."

"Gott might, but it seems a little overdramatic..." Kurt mumbled.

"What can we do with him?" Mystique asked Morph. "He's in no shape to walk... We can't leave him."

"No... Maybe we can carry him?" Morph said. "I could, probably."

Kurt moaned in protest when he was moved.

Morph also discovered that he was kind of still hurt. He'd gotten knocked around a little and shot.

Mystique noticed.

"I'm sorry," she said meekly. "To both of you."

"You didn't know what you were doing," Morph dismissed it. "Not your fault... What did you see?"

"You really don't want to know." Mystique put a hand to her head. "It's not fully gone yet. I still feel it, at the edge of my mind."

"That's how I remember it," Morph said. "Don't worry." He took her hand. "It'll go away eventually. We just have to get out of here. Shine could help too."

Mystique knew it was true.

It was hard to be optimistic at such a time, but for once she figured, if she didn't try, she was already dead. "Yeah," she said, without much energy.

"Now...how exactly do we find everyone else?" Morph wondered.

"If I may, Herr Morph," Kurt said. "I have become concerned about the kids...in the Arena. I do not know if ve can vait to rescue them after all."

Mystique winced. "I heard about that. My other self was so nice as to tell me more... You...haven't seen her, have you?"

They both looked at her sheepishly.

"Oh, my gosh! What did she do?" Mystique was horrified.

"Impersonated you," Kurt said. "Very convincingly, at first... She slipped up later, though."

"She was too mean." Morph was already carrying Kurt out of the room.

Mystique followed. "Too mean? Really? That's what tipped you off?"

"That and she called Wolverine James instead of Logan--don't get it," Morph said.

Mystique had some memories in her head that might explain it.

She shuddered. "They knew each other once. Fairly well, I think."

"How well?" Morph said.

Mystique shrugged and gave him a meaningful look.

"I don't understand," Kurt said.

"Oh...weird," Morph said. "But be honest, you have a secret thing for Logan, right?"

Mystique gave him a look. "No. I don't."

"Well, that's a relief," Morph said. "All the girls go crazy for him. What do you think they see in him?"

"I don't know, what do all the men see in Jean?" Mystique said. "Do you have a secret thing for her?"

"Nah, Jean was really never my type," Morph said. "I always liked the...spunky ones? I guess. Also, weird question."

"It was weird to ask me that," Mystique said.

"Touche, but I really wouldn't judge that much. Logan is pretty cool," Morph said.

"This is veird," Kurt said. "And not helpful."

"Right, the kids," Morph said. "I was thinking about it while we were talking about crap, and...well, I'm not sure we could get there in time, and you're in no shape to fight... Is there an infirmary in this crazy fortress?"

"There has to be, but it's probably just another lab," Mystique said. "Where's Hank?"

"Oh..." Morph said. "Well...here's the thing..."

* * *

The kids at the Arena had been having about as good a time as before.

About the time the others got arrested, Ryan was shoved into the ring for his match.

Kitty at the same time was frantically searching for a way to bust the others out. She figured there had to be a control room for the wall, and she just needed to find it.

But it wasn't the work of 2 minutes to do that, and Ryan's fight started, naturally.

He'd gone in a different order from the Elites because he was some kind of halftime entertainment, and the crowd was all riled up by now, and restless.

His opponent?

Roach.

There weren't any other mutants at their level available, except Bolts, but Roach was already more in favor with the crowd...since he finished his matches.

Ryan knew already what had gone down. He'd heard the guy taking on earlier.

"Hey, man, I'm sorry about your sister," he said.

Roach lifted a sword.

"Yeah, well, I'm not that sorry about having to kill you," he said.

"Uh...what?" Ryan said. "But...we're...on the same side."

"It's do or die, Grunt," Roach said. "And I intend to get out of here so I can kill that b---h, so, sorry, but you're in my way."

He looked serious.

"What?" Ryan said.

Roach charged him.

Ryan had picked a shield for his tool--since he had no clue how to use anything else.

He frantically blocked Roach's blows.

"Dude!" he cried. "You're better than this! You can't just be a killer for them! Come on, this is messed up."

"When will you learn that this is just the way it is?" Roach sounded bitter. "And we can't do anything about it. People freaking die every day because they're weak. That's how life is here."

The crowd, who were actually listening to this, after Trinity's fight had ended so weirdly and Kitty had vanished, muttered some agreements.

"Well, it's not how it should be!" Ryan squeaked, ducking so that Roach hit the wall.

If Roach had known how to really use a sword, Ryan would have been a goner, but since neither of them had any formal training...it was basically just reflexes and timing.

Roach did have fighting experience though. And Ryan has some training...so it wasn't exactly like too complete rookies fighting.

And that made it kind of worse.

Ryan couldn't believe this guy was willing to go through with this.

"You know, it's not making it right to play along with this," he said.

"They'll kill us both if we don't fight," Roach said. "And I also blame you and your whole team for what happened to Spray. So there's that." He glared murderously at Ryan.

This guy had a dark side, Ryan thought. Like the Anakin Skywalker of the Grunt members of their group.

Yikes.

"And is this what she would have wanted?" He ran for it. "More of this? Isn't that the same way she died? And you want to do that to someone else?"

"Your point?" Roach chased him.

"I just think if you really thought it was wrong, you'd never want to be part of this again," Ryan said. "Even if they killed us."

Some of the crowd booed.

Ryan looked up there nervously.

Then he looked down, and Roach was on him.

Ryan yelped and fell backward, tripping.

Roach tried to bring the sword down on him.

Ryan put his shield up just in time, and the sword glanced off it.

Ryan kicked at Roach frantically--at least he was taller than him.

He actually managed to kick him in the arm.

Roach yelped and dropped the sword.

Something a professional probably wouldn't have done.

Ryan moved to cover it with his shield before the guy could get it back.

Roach just tackled him instead.

Molding his hands to get a better grip so that Ryan couldn't throw him off, he put them around his throat.

"Sorry, kid," Roach said. "Nothing personal. Just surviving."

Ryan was choking.

Uh oh...

He tried to pry him off, but Roach was pretty strong for such a thin, underfed guy.

[Dark]

Ryan, with nothing else to try, suddenly spit at him.

He was hoping to distract him or blind him for a moment.

Which was gross, but...

"Was that really necessary?" Roach grunted. "Die with a little dignity--" Suddenly he stopped. "What the...?"

Then he fell over.

The crowd all gasped or became puzzled.

Up in the Overseer's box, one of the Monitors asked, "Did he have a heart attack? Faint?"

"That was his second match. Maybe he was too tired for it."

"No." The Overseer was frowning. "No...give me the stats on the lizard-tongued kid."

They pulled them up.

"As far as we could tell, his mutation is just having a blue, forked tongue," one of them said.

The Overseer frowned. "You know what else has a forked tongue? Cobras. Ones who spit venom."

"We didn't find any signs of that," the Monitor said.

"And we all know that mutations never evolve in moments of duress," The Overseer said sarcastically. "I want that Roach tested immediately. The match is over."

Ryan was shaking Roach. "Hey...what's wrong?"

Roach was out cold. His face also had blue markings appearing on it.

Ryan suddenly looked at his hands. "What...?"

They were hauled out.

The Overseer announced, "And now, Exalted Mutants, the moment you've all been waiting for. An Omega Level mutant goes up against one of our top fighters."

Cheers.

Ryan was taken to the medical room, and they looked in his mouth.

"What do you know?" the medic, Juice, said. "You do have little fangs in there...retractable, looks like."

"What? I don't!" Ryan said.

"Hey, you should be proud of it, kid. That might make you an Elite," Juice said. "Also, frick, how are we supposed to restrain you now? Well, we'll need a sample to see if it's deadly or not."

"You mean I could have just..." Ryan sputtered.

"It happened in the games," Juice said.

"But I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I could do that!" Ryan said.

"Oh, keep your shirt on, kid. We don't know anything yet." Juice took a sample...which was really weird.

Negative, the nurse...whose mutation seemed to have something to do with temperature changes, came in.

"Well, the Grunt's been paralyzed," she said.

"Paralyzed?" Ryan said.

"Wow," Juice said. "Lethal?"

"Undetermined. They think maybe not. No sign of vitals dropping," Negative said. "But he's done for the day...probably forever. Might as well just put him out of his misery ourselves. He won't be good for a fight after everyone saw him get KO-ed by spit, of all things."

"But...you can't kill him!" Ryan stood up.

"He was going to kill you. Why do you care?" Negative said.

Ryan glared at her. "What if we want a rematch or something?"

"You weren't supposed to make it out of this match, rebel," Negative said.

Ryan took a step toward her. "But I did, and the rules say I don't have to fight again for a day or two, right? So you can keep him alive that long, and see if he recovers."

"Why bother?" Negative said. "And what are you going to do about it, twerp?"

Ryan hissed at her.

He didn't plan to do this...it just came out.

But Negative backed up, suddenly looking scared. 😨😰

"All right." She held up her hands. "Let's not get crazy.... I'll ask them...okay?"

She walked out of the room.

"What was that?" Ryan said.

"That was pretty scary, kid." Juice was backing up. "Look, we don't want any trouble.... We even believe your story? Right? So let's just put you back in your room, and we'll sort this out."

Ryan was puzzled.

Then he realized...they were afraid of his power.... His? Really?

But it was never anything special...

Juice didn't come anywhere close to him even to restrain him, he just led him out and back to the room.

"Ryan!" Jubilee yelled. She was in her cell. "I totally won! I just buzzed my opponent really hard into the wall, KO-ed! Did you win?"

"Uh, yeah..." Ryan stopped. No one tried to prevent him. "I...Jewels, I think I paralyzed him."

"What? How?" Jubilee said.

"I spit venom," Ryan said.

"I...didn't know you could do that," Jubilee said.

"Neither did I." Ryan was spooked.

"Whoa..." Jubilee said. "But, like...that's kind of cool...but also whoa.... Wait...so are they okay?"

"They don't know," Ryan said. "What if I killed someone?"

"Well...it's not like you did it on purpose," Jubilee said. "Accidents happen, right? Besides he'd have killed you if you didn't.... Who were you fighting?"

"Roach."

"Oh...crud..." Jubilee said.

"Uh...look, you really shouldn't just stand there..." Juice said nervously.

"Hey, watch it, or he might poison you!" Jubilee said.

Juice flinched.

"These people are so jumpy," Jubilee said. "Anyone with a cooler power than them.... Do you know if Kitty went yet?"

"Yeah, before me...but she disappeared into the ground," Ryan said. "So...I don't know what happened. If she didn't get out..."

"Uh, no..." Jubilee leaned on the door. "That would be bad."

It would be.

Ryan was put back in his cell.

Maximus came up. 

"I heard you got a new power," he said. "The Game Master has officially changed your code name to Cobra, just in case they decide to use you again. Not likely, but...big money came in, so.... And your status was changed to Elite."

"But I don't really want a nickname--" Ran began.

"Shut it, Cobra," Maximus said, walking away like he had better things to do.

Ryan sighed and sat down in the least dirty part of the cell.

He hoped someone was planning a rescue.

[But am I the only one who kind of felt like it served Roach right?

I mean, I don't want him dead, but he really should have lost with his attitude. Losing someone is no excuse to kill innocent people.]

* * *

Kitty somehow evaded capture, despite having a lot of the guards looking for her.

She was glad for all the training in the Danger Room, where she'd practiced hiding and dodging a lot.

She was getting pretty tired, and her ankle was throbbing still.

Where was the control room?

Suddenly, she heard the announcement about the Omega Level mutant.

It had to be Kevin, right...? Did that mean everyone else had gone already? Were they okay?

She paused--and that's when it hit her.

The Overseer's observation booth!

Where else would make sense to have the controls to the Arena's tech? Where they could easily watch the results from.

Hoping this hunch was right, Kitty bee-lined back that direction, phasing through walls and stalls.

https://youtu.be/GVBHFbJGdpE

Unfortunately, someone finally spotted her.

"Hey! Wait!" they cried.

They tried to use a remote to turn her tracker back on--of course it didn't work.

"What the--?" they said.

Kitty dashed into another wall, heart pounding.

But now she was right below the Arena, and the tower was right there.

Setting her jaw, she stumbled over to it, wincing, and, looking up, she grabbed onto the back wall and started phasing herself up it.

She reached the top and peered out the wall, unnoticed for the moment.

The Monitors and Overseer were watching the ring.

"He's just making a shell for himself out of the ground," one said. "That's not a fight. He could stay there till next week."

"Then block his powers," the Overseer said. "Send him a message."

"All right." They moved something.

The crowds roared, so Kitty assumed it had worked.

But she had her eye on that control panel.

Suddenly one of the Monitors looked up and saw her.

"What--?" they began.

Kitty lost no time; she lunged out of the wall and phased through them.

The others turned, not sure what was going on.

"It's that phaser," one said. "Shadowcat, she's here."

"Turn her power off!" Overseer yelled.

"I can't!" the Monitor cried.

Kitty held up her arm. "Maybe it's because I'm missing something?" she said smugly.

They all stared at her.

Was that fear?

"Well, stop her!" The Overseer said.

"How?" one Monitor said.

Annoyed, The Overseer made some kind of explosive energy in his hand and shot it at that person, sending them into the wall.

Kitty dodged it and dropped, trying to not phased through the floor.

They grabbed their cattle prods, and she dodged those also.

Crawling toward the controls, she moved suddenly, and they hit the panel instead, frying part of it.

The lights in the room flickered.

"Careful, you fools!" The Overseer said. "She's after the Wall!"

He backed up.

Kitty suddenly, on instinct, lunged forward and grabbed his ankle, making him phase.

"Ah, let go!" He tried to shoot her, but it had no effect.

Kitty yanked him through the floor, stopping herself from going down with him with one hand solidifying.

Now that she knew this trick, it was pretty useful, she thought.

The Overseer yelped, and then he was stuck in the floor.

Kitty sat up.

The Monitors all looked at her, then they dropped their prods and backed up.

"Okay, we're not soldiers," one said. "This ain't worth it."

"Did she just bury him?"

Kitty stood up and brushed herself off. "So which of these turns off the Wall?" She pointed to the panels.

"We can't tell you that," they said.

Kitty frowned and thought, You know, I can do this. If Shine can, and Mystique can, and Wolverine can, why not me?

So she struck an angry pose and spoke in a much more threatening voice. "So you want to join your boss, then?"

One of them just opened the door to get out and ran for it.

The others turned to follow.

Kitty chased them and slammed the door shut just before the last one got out.

They backed up. "Okay, okay..."

Kitty put a hand on her hip.

"So...I'm not gonna tell you," the Monitor said weakly, "that it's that big switch right there with the caution tape over the top...and if you turn it off, the walls will all turn off. But all hell will break loose in that Arena if you do that. But I can't tell you."

"Well, thanks for nothing, then." Kitty walked up to it.

The Monitor tried to take one of the prods and hit her with it, but Kitty saw it out of the corner of her eye and ducked just in time.

He hit one of the desks instead.

Kitty shoved him forward and phased, leaving his arms stuck in the desk itself.

"Upstart," she said, smugly.

Then she flipped the switch.

A peer out the window told her that Kevin was making a bunch of animals and things out of the Arena floor to distract his opponent, whose power was...it looked like just straight telekinesis.... Well, that would be overpowered in an Arena with nowhere to hide in.

Kitty looked and found the intercom button. She pressed it.

"Hey, Proteus," she said.

The crowd all looked up at her.

Kevin and the other fellow both stopped.

"Just so you know, the Wall is down now," Kitty said. "So feel free to go nuts. Kick their butts. Get rid of that net over the ring."

Something blew up the floor under her.

She looked down.

The Overseer had blasted their way out of the floor.

Kitty was going to pull them up anyway, but--not till she was done.

"Ah!" She took her hand off the intercom.

The Overseer grabbed her leg and yanked her into the ground.

Then he reached for the intercom. "Pay no attention to that. Technical difficulty."

"That's Kitty's voice," Kevin said, down in the ring. "I believe her."

"I don't know," the telekinetic guy said. "Look, this was a rigged match--everyone knows it. Why don't you just pretend to finish it, and we'll call it fair? Trap me in dirt or something."

"No, I'm not fighting!" Kevin insisted. "We're getting out of here!"

He looked at the net over the Arena and focused.

The net turned into birds and flew away.

The crowd gasped.

Then Kevin made a fist, and all the walls turned into water, and a hole in the ground opened, and they drained away.

"Whoa..." the telekinetic said.

The crowd, now exposed, all started to stand up.

"Don't you all let that rebel get away with that!" The Overseer yelled. "You have powers, use them. The effects of his only last as long as he's close."

Kitty pushed herself up.

The Overseer turned to turn the Wall back on--unclear if that would work now. Maybe it would.

Kitty kicked him with her good foot, and he looked down. "Why, you little--!" He blasted.

Kitty phased, and he took out a huge chunk of the floor instead. He almost fell into it.

Kitty lunged and yanked him forward before he could fire again, then she phased through him, and, turning, she shoved him the rest of the way down.

Then she phased his feet so that they were stuck.

He struggled to get his arms to where he could blast them free.

Kitty grabbed his arm and stuck it into the floor so that it pointed up, then she did the same with the other arm.

He was now in a very uncomfortable position.

"There," Kitty said. "Blast, and you'll just blow the roof down on us. Ha!"

She pressed the intercom again. "I got him, Kevin. Just get the heck out of here. And anyone who tries to stop us, we'll take you down the same way!"

Some of the crowd protested. "Hey, even if you've got the Wall off, you're just a bunch of rookies. We're fighters!"

Kevin's answer to that was to make the ground rise up and turn into a giant dinosaur, which roared at them.

The crowd blinked at it.

Then some of them ran for it, while others geared up to fight it. They charged.

Kevin turned orange and phased through them and towards the barracks.

The telekinetic he'd been fighting decided to just follow him rather than face the angry mob.

"You think you'll get out, little girl?" The Overseer gritted his teeth. "Even if you got the drop on us, there's hundreds of guards and onlookers here who'll crush you. No one is lucky enough to avoid that many foes."

"Well, we have a Proteus," Kitty said. "And you know, after earlier, we're all just a little pissed off, so I wouldn't mess with us!" She walked to the door, stepping on him in the process. "We're the freaking X-men!" she added, tossing it over her shoulder.

Then she dropped to the ground level again.

[That was top drawer.]