To Jean's relief, the trees cease after pressing in on her forcefield.
She eyes the bark now almost entirely enclosed around them, dubious of it's stillness, and is just able to make out the voice of the Tree Commander outside: "He's too weak to get them out of there, and I'd like to see her try. This forest is my hive mind. We needn't worry of them any more than the others."
Now that she has the walls of the trees as support, Jean uses her good arm to extricate her legs from underneath Cyclops, who she then checks on in the gloom.
He's unconscious, but his breathing and heartrate are stable enough.
Jean shifts her mind back to the literal nature of their confinement. . .
Time goes by, and Cyclops drifts between deeper and lighter sleep. At one point talking to himself, rationalizing: "It's not the mist. . . . weak. . . it's not the mist. . ."
Jean regards him empathetically before reverting attention, spreading her hand against the bark of their enclosure as though to gain a feel for something beyond the physical; she closes her eyes.
Later still, Cyclops begins to wake. He takes in the view above him: the interwoven top branches of the trees. "W-where..are we?"
"That one mutant used the trees to enclose us. After that they all left, believing we won't get out of here, ."
Cyclops' gaze drifts back to the top of their organic cell, where only tiny spaces between the branches allow the filtered daylight through. It's going to take a while for him to charge back up with that.
"If I can just blast us a gap to climb out of. But I'm not recharged enough."
Jean: "I have a less disruptive way. One that could get us out of here completely," by her tone of voice she's meaning not only out of these trees.
Scott eyes her with interest.
"Something that was said...I think I can tap into the mycorrhizal network. It works like the forest's brain." Having been speaking as though the plan's still locking into hers, Jean now looks at Scott and says more definitively: "The treeline ends a manageable distance north of here. Once I start we'll have to sprint."
Scott nods. He's going to need more time for that, too. "You'd mentioned other missing mutants. Can you tell if they're here?"
Jean shakes her head. "I've gotten a trace of two others, not mutants; the missing locals. I can release them at the same time. It's us the other mutants will want."
So the time to go sets in....
Jean has both hands on the trees, eyes closed once more, concentrating. "Once we're out, you set the pace. Even if the fog closes in I won't lose you."
Scott waits; ready.
Using the mycorrhizal network, Jean gets through to the Tree Commander's mind, and using it as a conduit, begins to tap into the trees. . .First she unwinds the ones acting as prisons.
In another part of the forest we see the local missing youths, bewildered to suddenly be set free. They waste no time making a weary retreat; adrenaline overcoming fatique.
Jean and Cyclops are free now as well, but Jean isn't finished, yet.
Cyclops stands by, on guard, while Jean commences with the trickier part -- at the edge of the forest, above which stands the satellite dish she'd glimpsed before, Jean has the tallest trees uproot to stand ever taller, their branches stretching skywards, until they're at height, blocking the signal enough that she can feel a flicker in the field blocking any incoming/outgoing psychic power.
She has the branches swing blind, crashing the satellite down.
At this point, Jean opens her eyes from the mycorrhizal world to the physical. "Go."
At once she and Cyclops start off; Jean knows the Tree Commander is aware of what she's just done.
But somebody else is, too.
We see Xavier in Cerebro. He's been here most of the day. His hope and persistence now paying off. 'I have a read! You're close. Adjust coordinates as I instruct.'
We don't know to whom he's speaking.
Back in the forest, the fog remains low enough that visibility isn't too restricted -- but they still couldn't see what was coming.
In an instant, Jean and Cyclops are tripped --ensnared by tree roots; bound by their arms and legs, unable to get up from a spread eagle position.
Jean tries to connect through the trees to their Commander again so she can take control. She's unable to.
All of a sudden, Jean hears Cyclops make a sound like the wind's been knocked out of him.
Shifting as best she can she sees --it's worse, The Haunting mutant is squeezing his lungs through his chest!
Cyclops gasps --struggles soundlessly --Then his head abruptly shifts to look straight at -to target- the small mutant, and Jean further uses her telekinesis to depress the button on his visor, blasting his assaulter away.
Cyclops desperately catches his breath.
Concentrating hard, Jean creates forcefields beneath first her arm bindings, then her legs, pressuring them off, then does the same for Cyclops.
As soon as he's free -still catching his breath- he rolls over, preparing to get up.
Jean helps him -they stumble together before finding their shared footing.
The trees are getting geared up to assault them in some way again.
Cyclops keeps any more binding roots at bay with short blasts each time he sees the ground lifting and cracking.
Jean manages with some well-timed force fields to keep branches from making harsh contact --it seems the Tree Commander is less proficient fighting moving targets.
The fog is rolling in thick again. Their sight of the treeline clouds over --it sounds like the trees are being coordinated in some new way...
Jean and Cyclops are surprised as they come up against a literal wall.
Cyclops: "I don't have enough to blast it wide! We'll have to rush it!"
Dialing up, he blasts as much away as he can and they just manage to scrape through the opening before it closes --narrowly missing cutting them to ribbons.
Then the roots pull back, fog pervading the clearing.
The Forest Fiends aren't done yet. . .
. . .and they may not be the only trouble.
Helicopter blades are heard.
Jean and Cyclops have paused, attention taken skywards as the fog is whooshed aside. The former then shifts hers in gauge of where their pursuers are, while the latter, still catching his breath, brings a shaking hand to the side of his visor, facing the descending threat. But as the fog is fully swept away, it's a familiar voice that speaks, from a crimson clad figure leaning out the side of a Blackhawk: "You can keep your eyes down there." "Charles collected on a debt*," Magneto adds, as we see Mystique beside him.
*A reference to Vol.#1. In case you needed to know! ~Tra
It seems more than the fog has retreated; the Forest Fiends having no intent on tangling with these additions. The "foreigners" are leaving their forest, that's enough for them. As Jean and Cyclops embark, Magneto makes another quip to the latter: "You should take an iron supplement, son. You're terribly anemic." Cyclops all but ignores this. Mystique takes in the look of them as they get settled and secured: combat jackets torn along the shoulders, scratches on their faces, Jean wincing as she moves her arm while Scott's respective shoulder seems to be bothering him now, too.
"Coordinated injuries. I never took you two for cutesy." Mystique goes to join Magneto with a smile, while Jean looks from her to Scott. Scott keeps his eye on the female of the Brotherhood, albeit tiredly.
Magneto is in the cockpit, where the modifications he'd been making earlier become apparent as he holds his hands out towards where the control panels should be: Magneto has made it so only somebody with his powers can fly this, by working all the interior switches etc. magnetically.
He speaks now to Mystique: "At least it's given us a chance to test our new acquisition." Then lowers his voice, "and speaking of acquisitions, it seems someone down there gave these two X-Men a run for their money. We'd do well to remember this place." With a nod, Mystique seats herself in the other front seat.
As they ascend, we see something else -- at an edge of the forest, the local youths are being picked up by the helicopter that had previously been hunting Cyclops and Jean Grey.
All well, for now. . .
But with the combative fights over, Cyclops contends with one inside himself as they travel on. If he had it his way, he would remain vigilant for this entire "truce trip", but fatigue is proving a match for vigilance; he goes in and out of wakefulness. His unease increasing the second time he realizes this.
To combat the noise of the copter, Jean speaks to him telepathically: 'You can relax. I trust they're bringing us home.' She eyes Mystique and Magneto in the cockpit.
Cyclops tiredly thinks back: 'How can you be sure? Magneto's put his helmet on, and you said..Mystique is a challenge...to read. You don't know what they're thinking.'
'No. But I know how they think.'
Putting his trust in the one he knows he can, and unable to resist much more besides, Cyclops surrenders to the exhaustion; his head lolling down.
Nearing the end of their journey, Cyclops wakes.
He turns his head to check on the cockpit, but as Jean is beside him in that direction, his attention is instantly diverted. Her eyes are closed but not in a restful way. Her entire expression conveys something is challenging her.
Cyclops brings his hand to her arm, her uninjured one, and squeezes it gently.
Jean's eyes open halfway, her head inclining slightly towards him.
This is enough to assume she'll pick up his thought: 'Are you okay?'
'...I'm fine..' her mental answer is vague.
'Is your telepathy off from being under an affected space as long as you were?'
'No. I'm extending it consciously..'
Scott looks at her more closely.
'..picking up the minds in all the places we pass over...When I was looking for you where we crashed down, the mutants there made it clear nobody cares when "we" go missing.' She comes to what her telepathic net has her realizing: 'There are families of missing mutants everywhere. And none on the minds of local law enforcement.'
She fixes Scott with a pained yet determined look: 'We can't forget this.'
Scott meets her look with a compassionate, resolute one of his own.
The modified blackhawk descends with the sun. . . Arriving on Mansion grounds, Xavier is there to meet them, with Beast.
Magneto: "The debt has now been reversed, Charles. After all, this life-saving excursion involved two of yours."
"Thank you, Erik."
Both Brotherhood members smiling smugly, Magneto uses his powers to smoothly raise the Blackhawk back into the skies. Unsurprised by this turn of events, Cyclops watches them go only a moment before an exhausted breath escapes him. Now finally back on safe ground, the reality of being able to rest and recover properly sinks into his body and mind -Jean being brought down into a kneeling position with him; it's hard to say at this point if not by her own fatigue.
Xavier (gravely, now he's seen the state of Scott): "Hank, take Scott down to Medical at once. Jean, can you manage on your own? Or shall I call someone else?"
Jean gives Scott over to Hank, visually following them with concerned eyes as she answers, "I can manage." One hand then set to the ground in prep for getting up, while the other comes to her head.
Xavier wheels closer, offering assistance. "The degree to which you've mentally exerted yourself is acutely palpable. I'll refrain from asking for a detailed account of what went on."