Harry Potter: A New Battlefield (Crossover with Marvel and DC)

The fall wind blew, sending leaves scattering in every direction. The weather was a bit cooler halfway into the month of October. Harry and Kitty walked around the outside of the school, laughing at something. A smile spread across Kitty's face at something that Harry was saying. The brunette mutant leaned in closely, and gripped Harry's hands. She stood on her tiptoes. This action allowed the girl to properly look Harry in his eyes.

"So he really made a big deal about you not being invited to his little party," Kitty remarked. The brunette shook her head. She shifted positions, and only held one of Harry's hands. "I don't know what you did to him."

"Duncan does have many hang ups, and one of them is being a jerk, it seems," Harry said casually. He just threw his hands, like it was not really a big deal at all "It just seems like half of these high school parties with the popular kids are highly political, and just a way to gain some sort of bragging rights."

Kitty nudged Harry, and a smile spread across the young mutant's face. "Are you sure you aren't being overly cynical? That's kind of your thing."

Harry pondered about the matter for a few seconds, before he turned towards Kitty, and addressed her.

"Or, I could be the only sane one," Harry said, blinking rapidly. With these words, Harry placed a hand on the small of Kitty's back. Kitty smiled at him, mischief dancing in her eyes.

"If that's the case, we're in trouble," Kitty retorted. Harry just pushed her back slightly.

Harry's lips met Kitty's in a tender kiss. They were out of the way from prying eyes at this point. Most of the other students had stayed closer to the school. Harry thought that this was the perfect time to steal a moment with his girlfriend. Kitty closed her eyes, and enjoyed the kiss. Harry's tongue invaded the inside of her mouth. Kitty pushed back, and stroked Harry's hair.

Harry slowly backed off, and Kitty cocked an eyebrow at the sudden stoppage.

"Shapeshifting principal at ten o'clock," Harry whispered.

Kitty nodded. Public displays of affection might have gotten them in a bit of trouble. Everyone did them, and few got called out upon them, it seemed, but they were being careful. Yet since Darkholme had it out for Harry, and likely Kitty by extension, it would be best to maintain some level of discretion. The two walked by casually, seeing Darkholme exit her car.

Toad sat there, looking very miffed. He was just inches away from grabbing the juiciest bug that he had ever seen. Granted, one might argue that it was disgusting, and the mutant was living up to his namesake a bit more than he should. However, Toad did a lot of research to live up to his reputation. Certain bugs were high in protein, even more so than most food that people ate and took for granted.

That was his story, and he was sticking to it.

Darkholme exited the car, and stopped halfway out. She peered at Toad, who sat there, trying to act innocent. The act was not something that was bought by Darkholme. Over her glasses, the woman glared at Toad.

"Mr. Tolansky, that car is brand new," Darkholme remarked in a crisp voice. Her gaze burned a hole through Toad, and Toad scooted back, fear dancing in his eyes. "If I see one bit of slime on it, I'll be displeased. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, crystal," Toad said dryly. The slimy mutant crossed his arms, and was rather miffed at the situation. He waited until Darkholme was gone, before the mutant offered one more comment. "Even if you cost me my lunch."

Toad decided to hop up to see if there was any more grub to be held. Harry and Kitty made sure Darkholme was out of sight, before the two of them made their way back towards the school. Kitty checked her watch, and an expression crossed her face. Harry's gaze snapped towards her.

"Bell is about to ring in a couple of minutes," Kitty stated, looking anxious at the moment. "We better get going."

Kitty leaned forward, and gave Harry a parting kiss to the lips. The kiss was nice, and lingered just a few seconds. The two of them broke up all too soon, to the sound of Jean's voice.

"Kurt, wait!"

Harry sensed some kind of impending doom, and normally these sorts of feelings would be spot on. He hated when he was right. Harry and Kitty walked forward, quickening their footsteps, and had been greeted to quite the sight. Scott was sitting there a bit miffed. Jean looked at him like he had done something wrong. Rogue was just standing in the middle, trying to be a neutral party.

"What happened?" Kitty inquired, eyes widened when she looked at the group.

Rogue was all too happy to get Kitty back up to speed.

"Oh, Kurt was just being himself, and he was showing tail," Rogue said, in a crisp and casual tone of voice. Rogue realized what she was saying, shivered, and decided to amend her statement. "The actual physical tail, that is, and Scott grabbed him by it."

"I was just trying to get him to cool down, and not get us exposed," Scott said, throwing his hands into the air.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, and offered a long sigh. He was sure that Scott had meant well. However, there was something about what happened where he could see Kurt had gotten a bit miffed.

"That could have come better," Scott admitted, shoulders slumping.

"Yeah, you think," Rogue responded in a dry voice. Her eyes narrowed at Scott. "Kurt was really upset."

"He'll be back around," Kitty said, voice raising, trying to remain cheerful.

Jean smiled, trying to put a reassuring spin on the situation. "I'm sure he will. He just popped off somewhere. Kurt can't teleport any further than what he see."

Harry had to rain on their parade with his own commentary on the situation. "Well he could have teleported a ways away from here. Several times, in the time that were talking about what happened."

Scott shifted guiltily at this moment. Perhaps he could have exhibited a bit more tact. That was one of the things that the Professor did tell him to work on if he wanted to be a leader. Yet, didn't leaders have to make tough decisions every single day?

"Don't worry about it, everything can be smoothed over later," Harry remarked, waving them off.

"Yeah, for sure," Kitty agreed. She then shifted. "We better get to class. If we don't, we'll be late, and Darkholme might kill us."

Rogue paused, and what they knew that might as well have been literal. So far, Darkholme had not done anything, and had just stepped back. Of course, given the master of deception part of her powers that did not mean anything, she was just waiting for the best moment. Rogue was keeping a close eye on her personally, and if Darkholme did anything suspicious, Rogue would bounce right in.

Harry thought that it was a shame that Kurt and Scott had some kind of row. There would be plenty of time to figure that out later. Right now, he had a test in his first class after lunch. So Harry's focus moved over to take care of them, for better or for worse.

"I can't believe the nerve of that guy sometimes."

Kurt Wagner walked through the school grounds, and had a few bitter thoughts in his head. The truth was that he needed a few moments to calm down, and reassess the situation around him. Time he was offered when teleporting away from the screen. Scott did tend to be wound tight.

At that moment, Kurt had arrived at the door of a basement; curiosity had gotten the better of him. He knocked on the door, but there was no one inside. With a swift movement, Kurt opened the door. A set of steps marked his destination, and Kurt choked on the dust when he walked down the stairs. His eyes watered as well when he moved down the stairs.

'No one has been down here for years,' Kurt thought to himself. The fuzzy mutant's expression was one that was awestruck.

He made his way down to a makeshift lab. Kurt's arms folded over his chest, and walked down the stairs, getting further and further into the basement area. Kurt took a closer look. The equipment had not been touched. He wondered if anyone had even been down here to clean in a while. The dead rats were a telltale sign that he would have to lean towards no one cleaning anything down here in an extremely long time. Kurt's arms folded together. He rocked on the balls of his feet.

There was a brown device on the floor. Kurt tapped it, and a spark flew from it.

"Hey, what are you doing down here, elf boy?"

Kurt turned, and saw Todd Tolansky perched down on the railing of the stairs. The slimy mutant's expression was fixed on Kurt, and time stood still for a minute. Toad hopped down to face Kurt. The mutant took a step back, and braced himself for some kind of confrontation.

"What are you doing down here?" Kurt asked, standing and bracing himself for what was going to happen.

Toad waved his hands. "I asked you first,"

"Oh that's real mature," Kurt retorted.

"It was a simple question," Toad said, throwing up his hands. He took a step back, and stared down Kurt. "Then again, you X-Men think that you are so great, and all that. I don't know what you're problem is half the time."

Todd hopped at Kurt. Kurt teleported out of the way in a cloud of blue smoke, and landed on the other side. Todd dropped down on the other side, and grabbed the device in his hand.

"What's this?" Toad asked.

"Hey, you better put that down," Kurt said.

"Looks like some kind of funky camera," Todd mused, taking a good look. He began to play around with the buttons on the device.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Kurt yelled, nearly grabbing Toad in frantic fury, but the mutant hopped back.

Todd's face just relaxed. "Hey, don't worry, I know exactly what I…"

A zap echoed, and a bright light engulfed Kurt at that moment. Toad watched, dumbstruck, mouth hanging open. Kurt vanished into a bright light. One of the X-Men had vanished before his eyes.

The slimy mutant blinked. He saw that the X-Men had disappeared, and just shrugged his shoulders. He hopped off, with the object in his hands.

"Hey, get back here in and finish this!" Kurt yelled, with his fists clutched in the fury. He tried to reach forward, and grab Toad. His fingers passed through Toad. The blue mutant blinked, and tried to teleport forward. He landed outside of the gym. He realized that his image inducer had failed. Something about that machine had fried it when he passed through.

This was not something that would be considered an ideal situation. Kurt saw a group walk towards him. They were laughing, and barely paid any attention to anything around them. Kurt braced himself for them, and they passed through him.

Confusion was something that passed through his mind. Kurt now had no idea what was going on. He moved forward and towards the school. It was almost like he was there, but at the same time he was not there. Kurt regained his bearings, and blinked several times. Another step forward, and Kurt continued his movements. The doors of the school opened, and Kurt heard the bell.

"Rogue!" Kurt yelled suddenly, and he reached forward, waving his hands frantically.

Rogue walked right by Kurt, like he was not even there. Now Kurt was confused, and pondered what happened.

"None of them can hear you."

Kurt spun around, and saw a young dark skinned man standing before him. He was dressed in a white shirt, and jeans.

"Trust me, I've tried until my voice was hoarse," he said. At this point, he offered a shrug and a shifty smile "The name's Forge."

"Kurt," Kurt replied dully, shaking hands with him. If this Forge was bothered by his unconventional appearance, he did say anything. "What happened? I was in a lab, and got in a fight with someone. The next thing I knew, no one could hear me."

"Oh boy, that's not good," Forge said, shaking his head. "That was my lab, and it looked like the school locked away my inventions after I disappeared."

"That lab didn't look like it had been visited in years," Kurt replied. Forge's expression never left Kurt's face.

"That's because it hasn't," Forge said quietly. He took a step forward, and looked at everyone who passed through him. "It hasn't been visited since the year nineteen seventy eight. That was when I disappeared."

Kurt was caught completely off guard by this new development, and his mouth hung open. Stepping back, Kurt tried to shake his head to gain some situation. For a moment, the fuzzy mutant seemed dumbstruck, and then he spoke.

"You've really been here for this long."

Forge laughed it off. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. Then again, we've got all of the time in the world. I've heard every bit of gossip, who's dating who, who is trying to start trouble behind each other's back. There's really nothing else better to do, then just watch everyone and learn everyone's business."

"How did you not go insane?" Kurt asked, eyes widened with astonishment. He was visited by another question. "How did you eat if you been there for that long?"

Forge paused, and looked at Kurt. That was actually a good question, and one he had thought about. He did not really think that much about it, and paused before the answer was given.

"Well, it wasn't really a problem," Forge said, shrugging his shoulders. Kurt looked at him with a quizzical expression. "Never mind, I've been trying to find a way out of here, and you might be able to help."

"How could I help?" Kurt asked, standing on the balls of his feet, impatiently.

"I saw you out there, teleporting," Forge answered. The young man shook his head. "I didn't think that there were other people like me, well not exactly like me, but you get my point."

"So you're not bothered by my appearance?" Kurt asked, trying to keep his body language relaxed. That might have always been a sticking point.

"Trust me, I've seen weirder," Forge said, dismissively shrugging the question off. He added to try and lighten the mood. "I did live through the seventies."

Kurt's eyes snapped forward, and Forge looked at him. The two walked through the gym doors, and saw a group of girls make their way towards the locker room.

"So how far does this pocket dimension go?" Kurt asked in a casual voice, inclining forward, eyes focused.

Forge paused, thinking about it. "I've run some tests, and it seems to stop just a few inches outside of the girl's locker room."

Kurt's face fell immediately. Forge just shook his head, and cleared his throat.

"With you here, we can both find a way out of here," Forge replied, business as usual. "There have been bits and pieces that were brought here during the accident, and I've been trying to fit everything together. I haven't had something to jump start it. I need your help."

The blue mutant nodded, and leaned in for Forge to tell him what the pair of them needed to do.

The school day had ended, and most of the people were untroubled. Rogue walked outside the building, and her eyes moved forward. Harry and Kitty walked out from behind her, and before they could get a word in edgewise, Jean and Scott walked up. A look of worry and guilt crossed over Scott's face as he stared down Harry. There was a moment before Scott decided to open his mouth, and speak.

"Have any of you seen Kurt after lunch?"

"No," Harry replied, craning his neck to look over the shoulder, in hopes that Kurt would appear. Then again, he did not have any classes with Kurt after lunch. Kitty shook her head. Rogue was the one that decided to pop up.

"No, he wasn't in last period," Rogue informed them, and she turned around where Jean and Scott stood there.

"So that means that he was gone for over two hours," Jean said, before biting down on her lip. She sighed, and tried to regain her bearings, taking a deep breath. "Almost three hours, and…"

"This is all my fault, he ran off," Scott grumbled, slumping in defeat.

Harry shook his head. "He's got to be around here somewhere. I mean, he can't be gone forever. Where would you be if you were Kurt?"

"Somewhere where I wouldn't want to be bothered," Kitty suggested, before she shrugged her shoulders. That's was all she had.

Harry nodded, and he took a step forward. The dark haired wizard saw a door partially ajar. He wondered if anyone noticed anything. Performing a couple of scanning spells, Harry saw there was someone there. Kitty and Rogue walked up behind him. Both girls seemed to wait for Harry to say a word.

"So anything?" Rogue asked, leaning forward to peak at what Harry was peaking at.

Harry paused for a moment, and decided to elaborate. "Someone has been down here."

"Why?" Kitty inquired, impatiently standing on the balls of her feet.

"Yeah, that's a good question, why would anyone be down there?" Rogue asked, wrinkling her nose at the dust. Harry looked at her, and Rogue just shrugged. "No offense, but it doesn't look like anyone has been down there for years. In fact, I could have sworn those doors are normally locked."

"They are," Scott told them, standing alert. The X-Men stood, and all of them had a look around. Jean suddenly remained rigid, and she listened to something.

"Did you hear something?" Jean asked, spinning around, at the sounds that occurred behind them. The members of the group shook their heads, except for Harry, who nodded. Harry carefully took another step forward, and scoped out the situation. His eyes narrowed, his tongue clicked, and the situation was checked out. Harry could sense that there was something that he could not see, and only barely perceive.

Harry spun around towards the rest of the group. They stood rigid, and waited for Harry to give his input.

"Something really weird happened, and I think Kurt might have been transported somewhere," Harry concluded, letting out the breath he was holding. The X-Men all looked at him, pausing for a moment, and Harry elaborated on what he said. "There are other worlds, realms that can exist between dust particles in the air."

Kitty backed off, and her eyes widened in horror, and voice rose a pitch level. "You mean we could be totally be crushing Kurt right now!"

Harry smiled at the similar reaction Kitty had to when he learned that there was sentient life existing between dust particles.

"No, it doesn't work that way," Harry said in a reassuring voice, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Kitty relaxed, and Harry placed his arms around her. Kitty looked at Harry, waiting for an answer. "The universes exist when they shift away from each other. They are on different levels. Whether Kurt is on a level if he can see us, but we can't see him, I don't know. It's highly possible."

"Fine, we have a theory on where he went," Scott said, and Harry invited for Scott to continue. "But, how did he get there?"

Harry picked up a flash of light from the parking lot. A grimace appeared on his face, when he watched the lightshow.

"I have a theory."

Harry walked forward. Someone had tapped into another plane of existence, some kind of world between worlds, a Middleverse with science. And one of the members of the Brotherhood had gotten ahold of it. Toad played with the device like a toy, and several items disappeared into nothing. Including Mystique's brand new car, and good riddance to it as far as he was concerned.

"Hem Hem!"

Toad spun around, nearly falling over in fear. Harry smirked; he always wanted to do that to someone else. Now, the dark haired wizard understood why that woman did that particular cough. It did work wonders in getting the attention of people.

"Um, hey, how are you doing?" Toad asked, shifting around, and looking at the green eyes of someone who could hurt him really bad.

"You're playing with something that is far beyond your comprehension," Harry told him, without missing a beat.

"Nah, I got it to work, see," Toad said, waving the device in his hand when he spoke. As a result, he demonstrated and blasted a bird from the sky.

Harry reached forward, and grabbed Toad.

"Listen, I know what you did to Kurt," Harry responded in an icy voice. He did not yell, he did not scream, he did not shout in full force ballistic intensity. Yet, Toad knew that he was miffed.

Toad backpeddled. "Hey, I didn't do anything to elf boy, he could have got out of the way, you know."

Harry clicked his thumbs, and carefully looked at Toad. He clicked his fingers, and narrowed his eyes. "Give me the device."

"Here!" Toad yelled, shoving the device into Harry's hands, and hopped backwards, nearly landing on his feet.

Harry was glad that he did not have to threaten bodily harm to get him to act. Toad scrambled back, getting as far away from Harry as possible.

'Whoever calls Toad the dumbest member of the Brotherhood really doesn't get it,' Harry thought, a small smile crossing his face. He walked off to join his fellow X-Men.

"We've got it, and it's easy to send there's there, but bring them back might be another thing entirely," Harry informed them, holding the device for all of them to see.

"Let's take it somewhere, and get a look at it," Kitty suggested, also analyzing the device. "We better be careful though. If we press the wrong button, it could send all of us to the fifth dimension or wherever."

Harry turned to Kitty, with a smile crossing his face, and Kitty wondered what was up.

"Well, you're our resident genius, so I think you would figure it out," Harry told her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Kitty looked flushed at this compliment, but shook it off. "Um, I'll do my best."

"That's all we could hope for," Harry replied back with a smile. The expression on Kitty's face was determined, and her fists clutched together. She would not fail, especially with Harry putting so much faith into her.

Kitty would not let him down; Harry just had that effect on people, when he put his faith into a person, they did not want to let the dark haired wizard down.

If there was one thing Kurt could say about his experience today, it was that being nowhere, along with everywhere was just a tiny bit surreal. He stood, and waited for the next moment. There were people passing him. Suddenly, a car had flown into the scene. It slammed down onto the ground, and Kurt's eyes widened when he saw it.

"Did you see that?" Kurt asked, on alert, and his eyes darting around wildly for any more flying options.

Forge grumbled, before he recuperated.

"Someone's messing with my device," Forge said, clutching his fist. He tried to remain calm under fire, but the time displaced mutant failed to do so. His hand was on his head. "That's our only ticket out of here, and if he breaks it…"

"We'll be stuck here forever," Kurt concluded grimly, and Forge nodded.

There were a few instances where Kurt could hear faint voices. There seemed to be a presence.

"I'm pretty sure Kurt is still there, but the question is finding the right frequency to get him out!"

"Harry?" Kurt asked, eyes widened at the sound of his teammate. He paused, and then yelled. "Yeah, I'm here, just hang on and be careful with that thing!"

The yelling fell upon deaf ears, and Kurt deflated when there was no response.

"Kurt, no matter how much you yell, he can't hear you," Forge said, shaking his head. He turned his hand into a machine, which allowed the mutant to fix together a power pack. "In this realm, you still can teleport, but you can't teleport completely out. I'm hoping that with a small adjustment, you'll be able to give your friends a warning, and tell them what to do."

Kurt allowed all of this to sink in, and asked the burning question.

"What do you want me to do?" Kurt asked, impatiently shifting on his feet from the left to the right, and back again.

Forge held his hand, to motion for Kurt to wait a minute. This was delicate work, and Forge did not want it disrupted. Especially given the supplies in this place was not something that were plentiful. The mutant continued to work, and managed to put together something.

"The good thing about these powers, is I can put together anything," Forge said, holding up his arm which had converted into a tool that would allow him to make anything with the proper materials. "I think you'd agree how handy that is. We need anything to get out of here, and I have something that could help us."

Forge took a moment and walked Kurt over. He double checked everything, and relief flooded him when everything appeared to be in order. That was always a plus, and a foundation that he could be built upon. He held the battery packs in his hand, and tried to fasten them to Kurt. Kurt looked at him with a questioning expression.

"Please stand still," Forge told Kurt, and Kurt did as he was told, careful not to fidget. The young mutant tried to adjust everything that was needed to do so. "This is a very delicate process, and I can only allow you thirty seconds at the absolute maximum when going out there."

"That's thirty seconds more than we would have had," Kurt offered, once again trying his best not to move, and Forge responded with a swift nod. He clicked together a few more items, and made sure the battery back was tightened. If it fell off when Kurt teleported, there was no telling what would happen. Although, being the scientific genius, Forge would have to offer a hypothesis that it was nothing good.

Forge took a deep breath, and looked at Kurt.

"Everything is set, and we need to get to the area of my lab, that was the direction they seemed to be heading," Forge stated, resigning himself to what may happen. Kurt followed Forge, passing more leaving teachers and students. The two of them remained together. "We need to have them inverse the fluctuation matrix."

Kurt's confusion was obvious, so Forge decided to elaborate.

"We switch off the yellow switch, and turn on the blue switch," Forge explained.

"Why didn't you just say so?" Kurt asked, confusion flooding his face.

"I just did," Forge said, and he shook his head. They made their way outside the doors. Kurt saw the Brotherhood mobilizing on the outside.

"Oh boy, that can't be good," Kurt said, his eyes focused on them, and cursing his luck mentally.

"Those guys are trouble?" Forge asked.

Kurt suddenly looked exasperated. "More trouble than you could know. We better hurry. They could bust that device if they get into a fight with my team."

Forge suddenly looked a bit nervous, and dread flooded his face. There was no hypothesizing about it at that time, if the device was busted, they would be there forever. Forge had been there for twenty years, and did not want to be there a second longer. He had a feeling that Kurt felt the same way. The two of them hurried, and saw the X-Men down in the lab.

"It's go time," Forge said, resolved to see this through.

"I'm ready," Kurt said firmly. "So I just need to teleport?"

Forge nodded, and Kurt prepared to teleport, with the battery packs fastened on him. It was do, or die time. The fuzzy mutant knew what he had to do. Kurt just hoped that he would not die over it.

"There is a point seven percent chance that you will be ping-ponged between the dimensions, until you cease to exist," Forge added as an afterthought, and at this point, alarm folded Kurt's face. "Relax, relax, that's not good odds, but I'm just putting out the possibility."

Kurt braced himself. It was now or never. His eyes were shut, and at the very least he had to try.

Kitty placed the device down on the table, and tried to slowly piece together what she needed to do. She was no idiot when it came to electronics, but this seemed to be the strangest device the girl had ever come across. The wiring had been all over the board, the switches did not seem to work out well, and there was just something about the entire set up that just looked rather off. Then again, it was likely homemade. Yet, Kitty had to try. The girl took a deep breath, and prepared to figure out what needed to be done.

Jean, Scott, and Rogue all stood guard. While Harry's charm work would have kept the Brotherhood out, and away from interfering from this very delicate operation, the X-Men left nothing to chance. The ground outside rumbled.

"Avalanche," Rogue said, rolling her eyes. "Charms or not, if the ground shakes, we're not going to be able to hold down the fort for much longer."

"They'll hold," Harry told Rogue, firm with his resolve.

"For how long?" Scott asked, a bit nervous.

"Five minutes, ten minutes, but the great thing about magic is that I can always reapply the charms if they weaken somehow," Harry respond. He could feel the ground rumble beneath them. If at all possible, Harry would have liked to avoid a fight. It just would have complicated the delicate situation they were in. "Although we might want to step it up quickly. The longer we're in there, the more people are going to suspect something is up."

"This is completely messed up, whoever did this wiring," Kitty said, frustration mounting. "This is like so messed up. I don't know if I should start randomly pressing buttons, or not, or just smash the entire thing."

"You know, smashing it might reverse everything," Scott suggested.

Jean shook her head, trying to get some sense in this situation "It could free Kurt, or it might be able to trap him in there forever."

The doors continued to rumble, and Harry's shoulders slumped. So far, everything held tight, and he hoped it would stay that way. Spending five years mostly away from any kind of electronics had caused him to be a bit behind the curve of how modern convenience worked. Harry had just re-learned how to type properly. Apparently typing with one finger was not something that was accepted, but Harry shook that thought off.

"This might need a magical touch, but I don't know if I feel safe reaching through dimensions or not," Harry said, closing his eyes, and pondering on the situation. While it was true that he might one day be capable of pulling off such a feat, Doctor Strange cautioned him about not doing anything that daring. "This looks like a job for the Sorcerer Supreme."

"Well do you have him on speed dial or something?" Rogue asked, and Harry thought this was a good idea, he should have thought of it earlier.

Harry decided to give Strange a try. Sure enough, Harry knew that solution would not be that easy. He turned to his fellow X-Men and relayed the bad news to them. "Busy, Strange is in another dimension, he's working on a problem there, and can't be reached at this moment."

"Well don't bother leaving a message," Scott remarked, and Harry moved over to reapply the charm work to keep the Brotherhood out. He was confident that should hold, and allow them to finish up here.

There was a small burst of light. Kitty offered a surprised noise, and grabbed Harry by the wrist. Harry turned around, and both saw Kurt. The other X-Men looked at Kurt, and all noticed that they were faded.

"Listen to me….inverse the…switch off the….switch on…."

"Kurt, you're breaking up!" Kitty yelled, leaning forward to try and listen to him, and Kurt suddenly faded back into nothingness. Kitty placed her hands on her face, and tugged at her hair. "Oh, what I am going to do?"

Harry paused, and listened closely. He could hear something, faint.

"I think he said to inverse the fluctuation matrix," Harry said, slowly and quietly. "Whatever that means."

"Are you sure?" Kitty asked, biting her lip nervously. Harry nodded. "I mean, I guess that would make plenty of sense, yeah it would make total sense. So, let's see on that thing, we turn off this yellow switch, flick on the blue switch, and hope that I didn't just screw up all of reality."

Kitty closed her eyes, and her breath hitched. It was all or nothing. There was a long pause, where Kitty thought for a brief moment that she buggered everything up. However, a bright flash of light erupted from the machine, and filled the lab. Kurt and Forge dropped down from the ceiling, and landed with a solid thud. Both of them seemed to be rather shaken from everything.

"Kurt, it's glad to see you back!" Jean yelled, relieved.

"Yeah, it really is," Rogue said, taking a deep breath.

Kurt offered a smile, and he was glad to have returned to firm ground. "It's good to be back."

Scott turned to Kurt, an apologetic expression on his face. "Kurt…."

"I know," Kurt replied, waving it off.

Kurt and Scott both nodded at each other.

"Well that was direct," Kitty said, and she looked pleased. "Um, do you think we better bust this thing so no one gets zapped by it again?"

It was Forge who had piped up. He had gone pretty much unnoticed by the entire group for the moment, but he had to get his two cents in. "There is truly no harm in breaking it now. We're all back, and hopefully not returning."

Kitty took this as her cue to shift her hands through the device, and bust it apart.

"The name's Forge," Forge said. He shook his head, clearing the cobwebs that accumulated during his time. "As for where I've come from, well that's a long story…."

"He's a mutant just like us," Kurt chimed in. He opened his mouth, but Scott had sidestepped him.

"I'm sure Forge can tell us about his story on our way back," Scott said, and the entire group pause, before they heard a frantic yell coming from within the school.

"WHAT IS MY CAR DOING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCHOOL HALLWAY? Tolansky!"

The X-Men exchanged smiles, seeing the Brotherhood scramble away like thieves in the night, to avoid any more trouble. Someone had been busted, and it was a good feeling that it wasn't them. It was time to walk way, the lessons learned from today filed back to think about at a later time.

Forge had just finished relaying his tale to Professor Xavier. The young mutant waited for the headmaster of the Xavier Institute to offer his final assessment. There was a moment before Xavier did.

"Forge, your story is one that is unconventional," Xavier said with a nod of his head, and Forge responded with a nod of his own. This gave Xavier the cue to continue. "All mutants, even among those who are displace through the annals of time, are welcomed always at the Institute. Such opportunities were not offered during your youth, I have no hesitation in saying."

"No they were not," Forge agreed. He immediately took a moment to ponder what Xavier had told him. "Your offer is very generous Professor, but I'm going to have to pass. I'd like to look up my parents, to see if they are still around. I might have a little explaining to do, and I'm very much past curfew."

The members of the X-Men laughed at this, and even Xavier cracked a slight smile. He looked at the young mutant, before addressing him.

"Very well, it is your decision and I respect that. Allow me be the first to tell you that if you change your mind, or if you need a place to say, room will be offered at the Mansion."

"I thank you for that Professor," Forge said, with a gracious look in his eyes, and he took a step back, before looking at the other X-Men. He really had no idea what to say, so he settled for the absolute obvious. "I'll see you all around, I guess, and I'll stay in touch."

Everyone said their goodbyes to Forge. To him, that was a muddled mess. In many ways, Harry had a great deal of sympathy for the young man's plight. While it was not exactly the same than his, being displaced in a world where you had only a small amount of understanding what was going on and was far different than the one that was known was a challenge.

Kitty offered a smile to Harry, having a shrewd idea what he was thinking.

"I'm sure he'll adapt like you adapted," Kitty remarked, standing next to Harry.

Harry offered a smile towards the brunette mutant, and nudged her slightly. "Stumbling around blindly, and hoping for the best."

"Hey, it worked didn't you," Kitty teased him. A fond smile spread over her face "You're not that hopeless, well no more hopeless than any other teenage boy out there."

"Nice to see you think so highly of me," Harry replied back, and Kitty stood up on her tip-toes to give Harry a light kiss on the lips. She pulled back with a grin.

"Harry, I think the world of you," Kitty told him, before deciding to switch tracks. "So, did you get all of your homework done?"

"Actually, yes, there wasn't too much of that," Harry remarked. He lightly gripped Kitty's hand, and offered her a smile. "The teachers must be slacking; either that or they've been replaced by shape shifting aliens."

Kitty rolled her eyes at the absurdity of shape shifting aliens, but despite that action, an amused glint appeared in her eyes. She grabbed Harry by the arm. "Only you would try and put the most negative spin on it. But they would go in well with the shape-shifting principal"

Harry just smiled, and managed to put a monitoring spell in the woman's office, under the pretext of bringing her a note from one of his teachers. Naturally, so far it did not yield anything worthwhile, but perhaps it would sometime. Mystique might not have been foolish to do anything incriminating in a public building.

"Some might call it negativity, and others might call it realism," Harry replied, looking at her with a stoic expression.

"And I just call it, you being yourself," Kitty fired back. Harry stepped back, smiling. "So, the two of us, you want to head out, and hang out?"

"Yeah, it might be nice to get out," Harry agreed.

Kitty turned, and saw Rogue standing off to the side. On a whim, Kitty asked a question. "Hey, Rogue, do you want to come with us?"

"No, it's okay, I mean it'd be like I was a third wheel on your date," Rogue said. She also hastily amended her statement, nearly tripping over her words to do so. "Besides, I've got work to do, lots of homework."

Kitty frowned. "Well, that's too bad then. It's not really a date-date per say, more like a hanging out between two friends thing. If you're sure…"

"Yeah, Kitty, I'm sure," Rogue told Kitty.

"You wouldn't be a bother," Harry added, in a reassuring tone of voice.

Rogue offered a slight shadow of a smile. She appreciated this sentiment.

"I know, but I really have a lot of homework to do," Rogue answered, which was the truth. It was not an excuse, even if it was a handy explanation.

Kitty and Harry paused for a couple of moments, before they nodded.

"Fair enough, we'll catch you later," Kitty said, shrugging slightly.

"Good bye Rogue, try not to get too stressed out," Harry told her, watching her leave, and looking towards Kitty with a curious expression.

"I won't," Rogue told them.

She wondered if Harry and Kitty had offered to let her tag along out of friendship, or out of pity. Then again, Harry and Kitty were her friends. And Harry was the only one who could touch her, even if was just brief touches, without any complications. Rogue would be lying if she did not think about Harry touching her in more intimate ways, but she shook her head to clear those thoughts.

Right now, she had a huge pile of homework to focus on. The teachers might have been trying to kill her, or at least trying to drive her nuts. Still in some ways, a huge pile of homework was great. Rogue watched Harry and Kitty walk off, laughing and bantering with each other. She buried herself in the History assignment, and it took her mind off of a lot.

It was hard to think about relationship drama when one's entire grade hinged on this assignment.