The world around Rogue shimmered, twisted, and contorted. She felt disoriented and nauseous, and flew into the ground. Michael followed her on foot, still trying to put on his backpack.
"Rogue, are you alright?" he asked, stooping over her and putting one hand on her back. He gave up on the backpack, dropping it on the ground behind him.
Swallowing back bile, she nodded, and winced at the pain that motion caused. Seeing her discomfort, Michael reassured her. "Don’t worry, the side-effects will go away pretty quickly."
Mike stumbled past the pair, coming to a halt inside the shattered walls of the derelict building. He bent over, hands on knees. "Ooooohhh," he exhaled loudly, "that wasn’t so bad," and squatted down on his haunches.
Rogue glanced up at Michael, then back at the warp he had ripped in space. Christian toppled through, the red aura surrounding him seemingly no protection against the rigours of inter-dimensional travel. Michael went over and moved him to one side, clearing the way for the last two X-Men, Liane and Bobby.
Liane stepped through, then slumped to her knees, holding her stomach. Bobby, on the other hand, was only a little dizzy after walking through the rift, his icy body crackling as he moved. Glancing around at his distraught travelling companions, Bobby smiled in spite of himself. "I guess there’s some advantage to being made out of ice," he thought smugly. "No physical nausea."
Behind him, the heat haze disappeared, shrinking into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
"So, where are we?" he asked no-one in particular. It looked like it was inside Excalibur’s cellar ... if the Lighthouse had been blown up, leaving only a devastated shell, open to the elements. The sky above was a murky grey, and there was a slight breeze.
To his irritation, Michael answered him. "We’re in the Lighthouse in another dimension, which I hope is yours. Challenger, are you alright?"
Christian nodded. "My force fields stopped the worst of it. Just give me a second or two."
"Well, duh," retorted Bobby. "I can see it’s the Lighthouse." What sort of idiot did Michael take him for?
"Bobby ..." cautioned Rogue, getting gingerly to her feet.
"Yeah, yeah, right," he responded, withdrawing back into himself. If they weren’t going to include him, he didn’t care. He didn’t want anything to do with them anyhow, especially Michael. As long as he got back home, he didn’t care what happened to any of them.
Michael glanced at Bobby, then continued to ignore him. Calling out to Mike, he asked, "Windwalker, are you up to anything yet?"
Mike rocked back on his heels, then sprang upright. Turning around to face everyone else, he grinned. "Sure, Haze. I’ve got the metabolism to die for, remember?" His face was a touch pale, but otherwise, Mike seemed as good as new.
Rogue felt both envious and curious. "Ah wonder if the boy has some kinda healing factor. He looks a lot better than Ah feel." Her head still throbbed, but moving it about wasn’t causing sharp, stabbing pain any more.
"Right," responded Michael, walking over to his backpack, which was near Rogue’s feet. He opened it and started looking for something. "Rogue, you and Windwalker are the fastest. Go to Muir Island, see what conditions are like there." He dug out a map and held it out to Rogue. "Here, this should stop you getting lost."
Rogue took the map and gave it a cursory examination. Michael continued to search around in his pack, looking intently for something he couldn’t find. "What are you looking for, sugah?" she asked.
"It’s in here somewhere ... ah!" he exclaimed, holding aloft a glistening black balaclava.
Mike grimaced, and walked over to take it from Michael. "Great. The head-piece."
Rogue persevered with her questions, hoping for a decent answer. "Why do you have a head-piece, Windwalker?"
Mike glared at her, then muttered, "Helps protect my eyes at Mach 3. Makes it easier to breathe, too." He held it so that Rogue could see the face of the mask, with its built-in goggles and a respirator. "Course, I sweat like a pig inside the damn thing," he added sourly.
"That’s tough," Michael said heartlessly. "You may not need it to keep up with Rogue, but if there’s any trouble at the other end, you must be able to--"
Mike interrupted. "Can the lecture, boss. I know." With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face, and pulled the head-piece on with both hands.
As Mike adjusted the mask so it sat right on his face, Bobby snorted loudly. When the others looked over at him, he pointed at Mike, and said with a grin, "Do you know that you look like a bondage freak with that thing on?"
Mike did his best to look aggrieved. "Do you know," he began, sounding as dignified as he could when his voice was muffled by the mask, "that every time I have to put this on, the other Iceman tells me that?" Christian started to laugh softly. "I had hoped," continued Mike, "that this would change when he wasn’t here. But no. Someone has to keep bringing that up."
"Better him than me," snickered Christian, laughing more loudly than before.
Rogue was also smiling, but she could see that Michael was being annoyed by proceedings. Trying to head off another confrontation between Michael and Bobby, she tapped Mike on the shoulder. "Let’s go, Windy. Time’s wasting."
Michael gave her a thankful look as Mike complained, "Windy? Windy?!? What is this, pick on Mike day?"
"Anyone prepared to wear an orange and purple costume in public deserves it," responded Rogue, rising into the air.
"Fine," snapped Mike, stepping up onto thin air. "Keep up if you can, Roguey." He started to run into the sky, over the remnants of the Lighthouse’s outer wall.
With a quick, "See y’all later," Rogue followed him.
Christian, Bobby and Michael watched the two of them fly off to the north. "Good to see we’re managing to keep up to our usual level of team cohesion," commented Christian, still smiling.
Michael’s only response was, "Hmmm." He continued to look upwards, even though Rogue and Windwalker had disappeared from sight.
Impatient to know what the rest of them were going to do, Bobby asked, "So, what now, Fearless Leader?" His tone was tinged with sarcasm. "Do we wait here? Or do something else?"
"Why don’t we go somewhere nearby where we can get a meal?" suggested Christian hopefully.
Michael turned to face the others, saying, "I suppose--" and stopped. He looked past the others to Liane, and they followed his gaze.
Liane was still kneeling where she had stopped after passing through Michael’s dimensional warp. Her left hand was pressed against her right side, arm across her stomach; she was leaning on her right elbow, which rested on her backpack. Her face was drawn and pale, and her eyes were closed.
"Shadowcat?" asked Michael tentatively.
"Liane!" exclaimed Christian, moving towards her. However, Bobby reached her first, de-icing as he crouched before her.
"What’s the matter?" Bobby asked, reaching out to hold her up by her shoulders.
Liane opened her eyes, and sighed. "B-Bobby?" she said tremulously.
"Yeah?"
"I feel ... shredded inside. I think I ... I hit some ripple in between dimensions." She leaned towards him, and rested her head on his left shoulder. "It hurts."
Michael swore. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit." He sounded like he was about to panic.
"Oh, great," exclaimed Christian.
"We should have thought of this," continued Michael.
Christian rounded on him furiously. "We should have thought of this? You should have thought of it! They’re your powers!"
Michael shouted back. "And where were you when we talked about it? You make all the bloody decisions anyway!"
"At least I don’t fuck up constantly!"
"Hey!" interjected Bobby. "Hey!!"
The two men stopped and looked over at him.
"Argue later. She needs a doctor. Now."
Michael blinked, then nodded. "Right." He ran a hand over his beard, thinking of what to do.
Liane shuddered and whimpered in agony. However high her pain threshold, it was evidently not quite high enough. Bobby mentally kicked himself for not noticing her earlier."I am a jerk," he thought. "Too busy being angry and self-righteous to pay attention to someone in pain. Good going, Drake."
"I’ll carry her," declared Christian. "My telekinesis can lift her without causing any further injuries." He glanced across at Michael. "And without maybe going out of control and ripping her in half."
"Fine," snarled Michael. He bent over and snatched up his backpack. "If I remember correctly, the nearest town is that way," he announced, pointing towards the mainland.
"What are we waiting for? Let’s go!" encouraged Bobby. Christian gestured at him and Liane, surrounding the two of them and her backpack in a field of red gloop, then took off into the sky towing them behind him. Michael followed, the air around him distorting and bending as he moved.
Bobby comforted Liane as best he could, holding her as she clung to him. "Hold on," he murmured, using his mutant power to chill her body and slow down her metabolism. "It’ll be all right."
"God," he thought to himself, "I hope this is the right world."