Mutant Crush

The day after Rogue joined the team...

It was early in the morning beneath the mansion. Rogue, Kitty and Kurt, who were all in uniform dragged themselves out of the Danger Room. Rogue had chosen a black bodysuit with a green plastic-reinforced chest plate as well as yellow boots and yellow gloves on her hands.

'Oh, Gawd,' Rogue thought, 'suddenly gettin' recruited by Mystique is startin' ta look pretty good by now.'

"Mein Gott," Kurt lamented, "zat session vas a killer...even my tail hurts..."

"Why does Logan have these so early in the morning?" Kitty wailed.

"And whah didn't Clark join us?" Rogue asked.

The three walked through the doors and passed Bishop, Gambit and Colossus, who were heading towards the Danger Room to begin their own training session.

"He ran his simulation last night." Bishop informed the three, then stepped through the doors with Colossus and Gambit. The doors shut behind them.

"Not bad, you three." Wolverine said as he walked up to the three.

Within the hour, the three had showered and changed into their regular clothes, and were sitting at the kitchen table for breakfast with the others...except Clark.

"Where's Clark?" Kitty asked.

"In the hangar from what I can hear." Thunderbird answered. "From what I was told, he's working on something in there."

"He's been working on it ever since he got back from his patrol." Jean added, munching on a piece of toast.

"Vat project?" Kurt inquired.

"All he said was that it was a 'family heirloom' that he was repairing." Ororo said, as she sat down.

Rogue arched an eyebrow. It was a fact – although an amazing one – that Clark was actually an alien; what kind of 'family heirloom' could he be fixing up?

After breakfast, Rogue headed up to her room – her and Kitty's room, she corrected with a sigh. The Professor had decided to give her a roommate to help her adjust. 'More lahke drive meh nuts.' she thought. Kitty was a sweet girl, no argument there. Rogue's main beef was that she was so different from her; Kitty listened to upbeat, 'girly-girl' type music...which drove Rogue nearly insane when she was trying to listen to Evanescence. She chewed bubble-gum and read all sorts of 'teen magazines' and was always filling in the magazine quizzes...and always asking for her opinion, most often when she was trying to read her latest Stephen King novel.

And, dear God, with her it was always 'Superman' this, and 'Superman' that. Clark was a hero, Rogue admitted; he used his incredible power for the good of all humanity, while taking zero credit for it. Rogue couldn't help but admire him.

But listening to someone go on and on about it...it got old fast.

As she was about to head out, Rogue saw Kitty and Kurt head in the opposite direction...towards the elevator to the underground floors. "Where are ya goin'?" Rogue asked.

"We're just going to see what Clark's working on!" Kitty said. "I bet it's really cool!"

Rogue rolled her eyes. 'Shoulda known.' she thought."Did it eva occur to ya two that he might want some privacy?"

"Oh, come on, Rogue! Maybe we can help him!" Kitty said.

"Ja!" Kurt agreed. "Aren't you just a little curious about vat he's vorking on?"

Rogue sighed. "You're goin' no matter what Ah say." she muttered.

Kitty and Kurt nodded. "Are you coming?" Kitty asked.

"Fahne." Rogue said. "But only ta keep ya both from pesterin' him ta death." With that, she followed the two to the elevator, and they took it down to the hangar floor.

"So, did you both hear?" Kitty asked. "Logan and Jean went on a recruiting mission, yesterday; they were gonna try to recruit some mutant with super-strength, or something." She sighed. "But Mystique totally got to him first."

"Looks like zhe Brotherhood is trying to match Superman." Kurt said. "It's bad enough zat zhey transferred to Bayville High."

Kitty beamed. "Good luck!" she gushed.

Rogue rolled her eyes. 'Here we go...'

"Superman's the strongest guy in the world!" Kitty squealed. "He can probably chew up and spit out that guy if Mystique and the Brotherhood send him after us!"

By then, the elevator had reached the hangar floor, and the three young mutants stepped out onto the metal floor. There, next to the Blackbird...was a fairly small, sleek, almost torpedo-shaped, silvery-metal craft, with powerful thrusters at its stern, and a cockpit that looked large enough to hold a single person...and it was hovering there, of its own power.

And there, underneath it, with a silvery metallic box of glowing crystals and unrecognizable electronic tools just within his reach, was Clark, in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, tinkering with it.

Smiling, Kitty ran over, stopping a few inches away. "Hi, Clark!" she said.

"Hey, Kit." Clark replied, never stopping from his work.

"Ah'm sorry, Wonder-Boy. Ah tried ta stop 'em." Rogue said.

"No problem, Rogue. I figured someone was going to get curious about my little project, sooner or later."

"Vhoa..." Kurt murmured, his blue face a lighter shade, "...is zat..?"

"Yep." Clark said. "This is the Trans-Warp ship that my father used to send me here. I'd been meaning to try and get it back into flying shape for a while, now."

"You know how to repair it?" Kitty asked, amazed.

"I took a crash course from the Fortress' knowledge-chamber; I drop by there every once in a while." Clark replied, reaching for a small scanning-tool and a glowing gold crystal from his toolbox. "I also picked up the equipment I needed to fix it up."

Rogue blinked.

"'The Fortress'?" she repeated.

"Huh?" Kitty said.

"Oh, sorry; I never told you guys about that, did I?" Clark said, pausing. "I was talking about my second base, the Fortress of Solitude. It was built from a nano-crystal that my father put in the ship, to teach me about where I came from. It contains all the knowledge of Krypton and all the worlds it had contact with; it was where I lived and trained for four years before the Professor found me."