We watch the scene we just witnessed, only now from the perspective of those in the helicopter.
Copter Personnel: "Worse then a cult the way they can mind control."
Copter Pilot: "There they are."
We see Jean notice them, followed by her gasp.
Copter Personnel: "Mutie wasn't expecting this psi-dampening tech. We got 'em both, now."
He's aiming some sort of weapon their way.
Copter Pilot: "Wish those kids had some. Who knows how many others--wait! What?"
They see Cyclops and Jean fall from the suddenly broken floor of the bridge and watch as they disappear into the mist below.
Copter Personnel: "I would've liked 'em alive, but I guess that's that." They set down their weapon.
Copter Co-Pilot: "Shouldn't we check?"
Copter Personnel: "I'm sure not even mutants can survive that fall."
Copter Pilot: "We'll do a sweep of the area past the bridge. The kids weren't at the facility, maybe the mutants locked on where they went."
Back to our heroes, it's hard to catch sight of Cyclops amidst everything.
Jean makes use of the "psychic compass" element of their link --there!
She puts all her concentration into slowing both their falls -it's harder to do with their distance so she takes the chance of losing time to pull closer together --slowing, slowing, the surface of the water still nearing fast--
--CRASHSHHHHH!!!!
Jean succeeded.
Their breaking through the water didn't break them.
Now she fights through her injured arm to bring them to shore --fortunately, the last collection of seconds has got Scott's adrenaline up and, though struggling himself, he's overcome whatever was getting to him on the bridge enough to assist with the swim.
Finally they're on a rocky shore, spluttering and catching their breath --Scott especially.
Jean looks to him: "I'm so sorry."
"What was that?" It's not accusational, he honestly doesn't know what just went on; rather why.
"The people in the helicopter were essentially hunting us," she's turned her gaze upwards; she can't clearly see the sky which means those in it can't readily see them. Her attention drops back to Scott, "it was the best way I could think of, if I'd been able to channel my powers correctly."
Scott notices her holding her arm. He gets it.
Jean: "Just inside the forest we'll be completely obscured. We can rest for a little while."
Scott nods and they get up as immediately as they can.
The first few paces Scott's gaze is on the ground he's walking on; gravely coast shifting to grass. Once he looks up, there's trouble. Scott stops abruptly with a catch of breath.
Jean looks to him and Scott's already turned in the direction they started from but still doesn't proceed; looking trapped. His attention then turns determinedly to the rock face to one side of them, his hand rising to the side of his visor. "Get back!" he directs Jean to go behind him.
Jean doesn't move: "Your blast could be noticed!"
Scott hesitates, shifting his hand away, considering the options. "The mist is all around us. We don't know if exposure level affects the rate." His hand returns to the side of his visor, his other making to shift Jean back so rocky shrapnel doesn't hit her --at first Jean was confused, but now-- "It's not!" She takes the arm he's outstretched towards her. "Scott it's normal* mist!"
*as opposed to the dangerous-to-mutants kind they -and we!- experienced in Vol.#1! Check it out if you were late to the show --after you read on, of course! ~Tra
Scott stares at her before taking their surroundings in again.
Of course it is. . .
After a moment, they proceed just beyond the edge of the forest, settling down against the base of a large, obscuring tree.
Taken over by sleep, Scott soon seems challenged by something else in his mind; aspects of the recent experiments flash through -but intermixed are different visuals. Different experiments. There's an ebb and flow of them. Something's been stirred in his mind....a voice begins to speak. That altered one from the recording. . . . Scott startles awake. Shifting his head he looks around as though disoriented; all he sees at first is the mist, red through his POV.
Feeling a hand on his shoulder he looks that way; Jean.
Reality comes back to him.
He brings his hand to hers briefly before they get up to start making their way through the heavily misted forest.
Normal though it may be in composition, it's eerily abnormal in volume; no wonder the locals tell stories about this place.
Traversing the uneven ground is a trick in this fog; so thick they can't even see down to their boots. Keeping close together, even the nearest parts of each of their bodies -when they can see any of each other at all- seem to exist in a space out of no where.
Scott brings his hand up to engage the new prescription slider* on his visor, shifting it to close-vision, not that it changes much. He coughs a bit from all the damp air.
*As introduced in Part 1 of this Volume; made necessary by the events of Volume 1! ~Tra
Jean: "I've never experienced fog this thick outside of Storm's cover."
Scott remains quiet, as he has been the whole span of time they've been trekking; not that he isn't a quiet sort generally, but there's something different about his disposition now.
After another minute, Jean broaches the subject: "What happened was understandable. It's nothing to dwell on."
"I haven't said anything."
She turns at the same time she brings a hand up to pause him.
"And I don't need to be telepathic, sometimes, to know what someone is thinking."
They're standing just close enough now to see each other's face.
". .I'm past that moment. But what if when it happens again is when I'm needed? I could miss what's going on right in front of me seeing things that aren't there."
"You're always where we need you to be."
"I haven't been anywhere these past days."
Jean's hand moves from his chest to his neck. "You were some place I could find you." Her other hand finds his through the mist.
Scott brings his free arm up to take her in a careful embrace.
Their moment is interrupted when Jean has a sense. "Something else is here."
Her tone implies something not non-threatening.
And the fog begins to lessen....
Cyclops suddenly reacts to something ahead; putting one hand on the back/side of Jean's head to shield and keep her from shifting a moment while with his other hand he discharges an optic blast.
Releasing his hold on Jean right after, she turns to face the same way. "What was that?"
"A...a tree...." Talk about potentially seeing things.
The fog closes in again as Jean seems to get another sense. But it, too, isn't clear.
It belongs to a young mutant with a haunting appearance; greyish skin, dark veined, glowing green irises, their hands in a permanently incorporeal state. And they use this to reach -similar to Shadowcat's phasing- inside of Jean's body, specifically her lower legs. Though incorporeal, they can interact with matter; they clench Jean's leg muscles causing her to fall to her knees.
Before he can properly react, a tree branch whomps Cyclops into the trunk of another some yards away. At the same time thick roots raise up out of the ground under Jean, tipping her balance the rest of the way and rolling her towards a part of the forest that's oddly, suddenly, more open.
The fog then fills the distance that's now between Jean Grey and Cyclops.
"Scott-!-" the call comes out in a strange, choked way.
Over where he is, Cyclops is recovering from the blow.
He doesn't hear her -then he does in his head: 'Help-!-'
'Jean?!'
There's nothing more from her but he feels a heavier mental disturbance.
Working on the mental magnetism of their psychic link, Cyclops moves confidently -if not unsteadily- through the mist, realizing his footsteps are strangely loud in his ears. His breathing, too. Is he losing it? He gets past the thickest bit, and Jean's form gradually comes into view -still on the ground.
What is he seeing...?
He gets down with her in part to see better -and sees the haunting mutant: their hand completely through Jean's back. Unseen is what they're doing to her this time: messing with the beat of her heart.
Cyclops is horrified but hesitant. What will happen if he blasts this mutant while part of them is still inside Jean?!
Jean: "S-s-st-op th-em."
Green eyes meet red visor as Cyclops -blast dialed down for proximity- goes for it, but wait- -where'd they go?
Cyclops' attention shifts to those green eyes now glowing through the mist about 10 feet away. He never saw the mutant move, just one second they were directly in front of him, then they were there.
He dials up and blasts --to his surprise losing some balance from doing so.
No idea if the blast connected, he no longer sees those glowing eyes, at least.
He hastily reverts attention to Jean who has collapsed.
"Oh my God.." turning her over Cyclops places one hand along her neck feeling for a pulse, with his other on her wrist checking for the same thing. He hears her breath, suddenly eerily loud....
While it's a relief, it's also what tips him off-
-Cyclops turns in time to avoid his own heart being grabbed through his back and this time undoubtedly blasts the haunting mutant away.
Attention returns once more to Jean; alive but unconscious. He holds her protectively should that mutant come back; they won't be able to reach Jean's vital spots having to go through part of Cyclops, too. 'What is going on here?'
Another unsettlingly apparent sound...The trees!
Now he knows he wasn't seeing things -they're attacking.
The fog had waned just before, and now just as Cyclops realizes where the trees are coming from, it closes in thick again.
Cyclops shoots through to where he knows he saw them -his blast affecting his stability again, he nearly overbalances with Jean. By the sound, however, this time he knows he at least made contact with his target. The fog lets up some again, enough for more trees to aim their strikes before it closes in again; and so the formula repeats. Another strike narrowly averted, splintering wood cuts them both. Having just come to, Jean reacts to the pain.
Cyclops has foregone holding her so he can keep steady; one knee up so he can press that foot into the ground. Still, he's struggling, his blast power waning from the fight; using up more than he's been able to stockpile since his depletion. But where his physical strength is faltering, his mind is still strong; he's realized something....Anticipating the fog thinning, this time he looks around, past the trees, through the trees, searching for something else...His visor readjusted for distance-viewing.
His hand kept -somewhat shakily- near the blast button all the while, Cyclops just manages to get his eye on what he was searching for --trees are closing in again, the fog thickening
-just before it does he notices the figure's noticed him and is moving aside.
It could be now or never -it is a gamble.
In one movement he goes down on his free hand to make a bridge over Jean, tilts his head back to keep the sight angle, and ---VZHOOOOM!!
*MOAAAAN*
"AHhh!"
To make sure he didn't miss his chance to hit the mutant controlling things, Cyclops ignored the trees, banking on them arresting -unfortunately the fog controller was not one and the same as the tree commander.
While his ducking actually saved him a couple blows, another connects. He collapses over Jean's lower body.
The now fog dissipating, we see the other figure, long, grey-haired, on the ground some metres away.
And another, an adult though younger, standing some distance just off to the side of them, looking angry.
Nevermind the lack of cover -they start ramping up the trees again.
Jean has pushed herself up with her good arm, laying her injured one on Cyclops as she turns first to the tree commander, then to the trees --though suddenly they pause. Looking back to the commander, Jean sees their attention on the haunting mutant who's appeared by the fallen fog controller.
The youngest mutant shakes their head worriedly, attempting to dissuade the tree commander from continuing the attack. The tree commander shifts, then continues -the trees closing in again. Yet this time differently, not to attack. They're literally closing the two X-Men in.
Surprised, Jean hastily erects a forcefield around her and Cyclops as the trees begin winding together around them, but her force field is nictitating; keeping steady with her good arm she's having to channel her psychic energy through her injured one. If she can't keep this up, they'll be crushed within the trees!!