You have a lot of time to think when you're stranded in the middle of an empty forest for three miles straight. Your mind wanders off, plays in the trees, ponders the streaking missiles in the sky.

I couldn't risk another tremor while I was driving. I was forced to leave the red Pinto in a patch of grass beside the road and come back for it. I didn't mind though. I needed the trees, the stable life forces. I needed the static of the whispering leaves, telling me everything was okay. I kicked a stone ahead of me as I went.

I wonder what Peter's doing right now.

I focused my mind on his face instead of the odd, dark energy still vibrating in the earth beneath me. I focused on where I was going, if I was gonna grow old in Bo's old record shop or if he was right—that I was destined for more than that. But I didn't want more. I wanted safe. And that's exactly what I had.

My feet followed the scuff marks left on the asphalt by Peter's sneakers. He was probably due for a new pair by now, despite only getting them this week. This week is important for him, and the restless feeling I knew all too well from the way it presented itself in the pit of his stomach ever since Peter met Magneto that day. I thought about my own dad for a bit, but it ran out with the asphalt, my feet now greeted by the grass of the front lawn.

I perked my head up.

Nothing but rubble. Wooden beams stabbing into the sky and crumbs of stone scattered. Smoke lined the scene. A helicopter waited near the tree-line.

I ran as fast as I could, disregarding oxygen. I stopped a few feet away when I saw everyone lying unconscious in the grass. The students. Charles. Raven. Hank. Peter.

Their energies were frozen, dormant in their unmoving state. A couple soldiers descended from the helicopter.

"Peter!" I yelled about to wake him up, to zap some energy back into his body. I just needed my skin to brush his, a little touch to transfer something. But my arm was pulled back behind me, the person dragging me behind a remnant of a stone wall.

A hand clamped over my mouth,

"Shh. They're collecting mutants. They can knock you out even with your powers."

A boy, a bit younger than Peter and I, stared at me through sunglasses with red lenses, refracting like rubies. In his fingertips I could sense fear and mourning. Like he had lost someone or something only seconds earlier.

Another boy his age, his wide eyes shielded by obsidian hair, had blue skin and claws. His long arrow-pointed tail wrapped around himself like a safety blanket.

Then my eyes darted to the girl beside him, her hair a fiery orange and her eyes a pale green. I could sense something within her festering, something I couldn't put my finger on. It was a foreign energy signature. Something strong. Something anarchic.

I touched a finger to the boy's hand still placed over my mouth, zapping him lightly. He quickly drew it back.

"Ouch. What the hell?"

I shrugged my shoulders,

"Sorry. But I can't just let them get taken."

I lifted off the ground to run out into the open, but my nerves froze in their place, my body physically paralyzed. I dropped to the ground with a hard thud. A female voice seeped into my head,

"You know the Professor and Mr. McCoy. Do you know who the people taking our friends are or where they're going?"

I looked to the girl. Her lips remained still. I replied to her, my muscles glued in place,

"No. But my guess would be a mutant experiment facility. Let me go, we need to save them."

She sent another message inside my head,

"I know you're looking for Peter. I need to sneak us on the helicopter so those soldiers don't knock us out."

A rough voice polluted out into the air,

"Scan the perimeter!"

The girl quickly pulled me back toward her, my body still limp. She drew two fingers to her temple as a soldier passed by. He glared at us, staring for what seemed to be an infinity until his head turned back ahead of him.

"Clear!"

The boy with the red glasses sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead,

"Thanks, Jean."

My eyes roll and flutter up toward her,

"Yeah, thanks. Do me a favor and stop paralyzing me now. We kind of have a helicopter to stop."

She remained unmoving, but I felt the numbness in my body drain away. I sat up in the grass, rising to my feet and ducking beneath the security of the crumpled wall.

"Kurt, do you think you can get us in there?" glasses-boy inquired, pointing to the helicopter.

The boy with the blue skin nodded drawing us all toward him and wrapping his long tail around the four of us. There was a snap, like static, and a cloud of black smoke. I was blinded at first, then my vision cleared to reveal metal walls. We were inside of the helicopter.

But something was wrong. My hands were weak and my head was trapped inside of a thick fog. I couldn't sense anything outside of the helicopter.

The four of us struggled around the cramped space, searching for a way out. The walls around us buzzed with energy. The entire vehicle began to shake as the spinning blades cut through the air. We were lifting off.

"Jean, make them land them land the helicopter," glasses-boy said with worry, pressing against the walls frantically.

"I can't. I can't get to the pilot. Something's blocking me."

Kurt added in an accented voice,

"Yeah I can't teleport either. Something's not right."

I gave up looking for an exit and took a seat on the cold steel floor,

"The walls are creating an energy forcefield. They're suppressing our powers."

I stared out the window, at the ground now miles away and the rubble of the mansion a gray blur. I wished I could feel Peter's energy through the walls. I wished we would have stayed in bed that morning instead. But now I was in a metal box with three strangers, flying toward the last place on earth that I could ever want to be.

The three of them were scared, trembling and praying like five-year old kids being taken to the dentist. I saw myself in them. I saw who I was ten years ago, consumed by fear and insecurity. So I place my hands reassuringly on their forearms, transferring what little energy I could to calm them a bit. I told them, despite not knowing if it was the truth,

"Hey. We're gonna be fine. Don't worry, guys."

Their lips stayed shut, still too anxious to say anything. I took a deep breath,

"Let me tell you guys a story. A while ago I was in a similar situation. I was with Peter, the doofus with the silver hair you saw on the lawn back there, and we were going to save a friend. We ran into a couple snags, and needed to toughen up a bit to get through them."

The three of them looked at me attentively, still a bit confused. I added,

"What I'm saying is, I know you're scared. But in a couple hours we're going to have to put our fear aside so we can get our friends back. So take a breath, slow down, and we're going to be just fine."

"What's..." glasses-boy began, "What's your name?"

I smiled a bit, staring out at the sky consuming the glass and feeling oddly calm. I told him as I made the tips of my fingers faintly glow,

"You can call me Firefly."

A/N: hey guys, so sorry about the slow updates, lately. I've been pretty sick and have been trying to make up a lot of work too. Thanks for your patience and support, I hope to update a couple times this week. Please be on the lookout. <3

-thecatgurl =^._.^=