X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

Secrets, Secrets 9.3

The night's dinner seemed primed to be just as ordinary as any other night. Anna sat at Kitty's right who was at the head of the table. Only scraps were left of Kitty's food while Anna still had a near-full plate left before her. To Anna's right were the boys, Kurt and Evan. Both were huddled around a phone sharing a pair of earbuds. Opposite Anna were Scott and Jean.

Typically Scott would talk at Jean about some mundane thing that would make paint peal in an effort just to get away from him. However, tonight Scott was spooning his lintel soup into his mouth with one hand while flipping through some yellowed paged, dog-eared, book that had to have been born before the thought of a computer. Anna eventually caught a glimpse of the sepia-tone cover and saw it had a picture of an old-looking car with wood siding traveling down a mountain pass at what had to be a then a screaming fast 45 miles an hour. The title read "From carburetors to sparkplugs, everything you need to know about car repair." She would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little touched he was taking the car repair so seriously.

As for Jean, her typically bright eyes were overcast with gray, and her hair was clumped and greasy. She rested her head on one hand and scrolled through her phone with the other. Her soup had long gone cold since she last took a spoon full a half hour ago.

The adult's side of the table was typical aside from Logan's absence. No one had mentioned it or even drawn attention to it despite the largest glaring sign was how bland the soup was and how hard the bread had been. Logan was a man born to cook and would never let such sub-par food leave his kitchen... or a meal with so little meat.

A silence had fallen between Ororo and Xavier. Neither of them had produced a book or was scrolling through a phone. Instead, they just sat and politely sipped at their meal, and every once in a while, they might make the occasional hushed comment between them.

Anna looked at Kitty and once she got her attention, she nodded. Kitty nodded back and stood. "Whelp, thanks for dinner!" Kitty collected her dishes and Anna joined her. "Roomie and I got a group project we got to work on that's due tomorrow, so we're going to head to our room." The girls were already dumping their utensils in a bin as Kitty finished explaining.

"Ah, very well." Xavier smiled. "Have a good evening you two. Sleep well."

"You too!" Kitty grabbed Anna's hand and led her through the threshold, into the hallway beyond, then into the main hall.

Anna pulled Kitty close. "Where are we going? His office is the other way."

"Doy!" Kitty looked behind Anna and continued up the stairs. "Don't you think it would look weird if we just started walking down the complete opposite way of our room immediately?" At the top of the stairs, Kitty pulled Anna to the right towards the boy's wing and suddenly stopped. "Okay, this should be about right."

"Right for what?"

"I tried this earlier. If I phase down, we should land right in front of Xavier's office door."

"Wait... if you can just phase us through walls and doors," Anna pointed at her wrist," why are we bothering with Evan's special watches?"

"Because phasing more than just me is a serious pain. Imagine carrying someone up a river filled with logs and rocks and sharks. It's not fun and I could probably only do it once before I totally zonk." Kitty sucked in a breath through her nose and looked at Anna. "You ready?"

Anna clasped her hand tight around Kitty's. "Yeah. Go for it."

Kitty swallowed, looked ahead, and relaxed her shoulders. Anna felt a sudden sensation of getting shorter. She glanced down and saw her feet had disappeared and the floor was working on her knees. A breath later the floor was at her neck and then she was between levels of the mansion. She saw bright pink insulation, wires, and crisscrossing pipes till eventually there was light again. They dropped to the ground in a heap atop one another and Anna could hear Kitty panting. When Anna finally managed to right herself, she saw the other girl's face was covered in sweat.