Chapter 4      

After Daphne left the school without telling anyone she was able to catch a bus into town and then took a train back to Coolsville Ohio. Daphne had no idea how worried everyone was about her. She felt that this sickness she had was incurable and trying to believe that she was a mutant was too much for her.

But, there were others who were tracking her movement as well. Mystique had seen Daphne sneak out of the school, followed her, and had even sat next to Daphne trying to find out where she was heading.

When Mystique found out were Daphne was heading, she contacted Magneto.

"I am with her now and it will be pretty easy to bring her in, we need to move quickly before the X-men locate her and come after her." Magneto agreed.

"I will send Pyro and Saber-tooth to the last station before it leaves New York" Magneto replied. "And whatever you do don't lose her Mystique."

As Daphne sat in the seat looking out the window, she was deep in thought about what she was going to do next. Would her parents understand and would Fred still love her, if, she really was a mutant?

The middle-aged lady sitting across from her had been watching her for some time now and she was wondering why. The speaker on the train PA came on and announced that they would be stopping at the last station before leaving the state of New York.

When the train came to a stop Daphne saw to odd characters come on board, both were male, one was about six foot six and looked very scruffy   and the other was of normal height and average looking and appeared to be younger than the taller one. They both stopped to talk to the lady sitting across from her.

The younger of the two left and went to other side of the train; a few seconds later smoke was coming from where young man had gone. Suddenly the train alarm went off and the PA came on instructing everyone to exit the train.

Daphne got up and followed the young lady who had been sitting across from her as they headed towards the exit. As soon as she stepped off the train everything went blank. The young man who Daphne had seen disappear had come from behind Daphne and had quickly injected her on her leg that rendered her immediately unconscious. "Good work Pyro": Mystique said.

"Saber-tooth carry her, and if any body ask, she is your sister and the smoke made her faint", Mystique said.

They headed for the parking lot and got into a black van. Mystique directed them to a field outside of town where behind a tree line there sat a helicopter. They quickly entered and Mystique had the rotor turning before the door was closed. Mystique then radioed Magneto and told him that they had Daphne, and would be there in about three hours.

Meanwhile, the professor had gotten the X-men together to form a plan on finding Daphne and bringing her back to the school. Wolverine, Beast, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue and Storm were all present. "Have you been able to locate her with Cerebro," asked Jean. "No I have not, she is either unconscious, dead or somehow she is blocking Cerebro or someone else is blocking Cerebro." replied the professor.

Cyclops asked Wolverine, Gambit and Rogue to head into town and see if anybody recognizes her picture.  Beast and Storm would stay back at the school monitoring airwaves, and Cyclops, Jean and Jubilee would take the Black Bird and fly to Coolsville to see if the could find some information from her family and friends.

Spiderman was very upset and thought perhaps he was the cause of Daphne's running away.  Especially since MaryJane had disappeared months ago with Goblin in a Vortex that was believed to be a black hole. He could not bear the thought that again he would be responsible for losing another friend. And even though he had known Daphne for a short time, he felt as though he had known her all his life and even more so when she had read his mind.

Spiderman was closer to finding Daphne through his quick thinking. He had surmised that Daphne would head home and use the train to get there. He was hot on her trail and was had seen a black van racing out of the station parking lot. Upon seeing the van racing off his spider senses were tingling. Since there weren't many skyscrapers Spider Man had to run along the road keeping the van within sight. He saw the van stop and watched the small group runs from the van into the tree line. As he got to the van he saw the last person disappear into the tree line. He was nearing exhaustion and with the strength he had left he ran for the tree line. When he broke the tree line he saw a helicopter starting to lift off a hundred yards away he sprinted towards the helicopter knowing he was not going to be able to catch it. But, he needed to get close enough to attach a spider tracer he had only one shot. He took it and shot a web with the tracer attached to it and heard the sound of metal on metal. He did it. The tracer was attached to the helicopter.

Spiderman ran back to the van and saw the keys still in it, He got in and removed his Spider outfit and then drove it back into town. As soon as he got into town he parked the van and got out. Peter then went off to look for a phone, regretting that he had not taken the time to charge his cell phone. He finally found one and reached to his pocket and found it empty, "Rats no money either" he said to himself. Well I guess I will have to see if that commercial is really true. Let see 1 800 ATT Collect. Hey it is ringing; he then dialed in the number to the X-men. He was able to get a hold of Beast and told him what he knew. Beast told him to stay put. Jean and Cyclops would pick him up. "Rats I got put the suit back on."  Spiderman said to himself.

Beast contacted Cyclops, Cyclops then turned the plane around and headed to where Spiderman was waiting.

"Where am I, what happened?" Daphne asked as she opened her eyes still groggy from the injection and saw that she was in a helicopter. She shouted, "Where am I and why am I here?" Sabertooth looked over at her and growled at her tying to scare her. Although she new she should be scared she was more angry then anything else. "Who are you?" she shouted. Mystique looked at Pyro who was sitting in the co-pilot seat. She needs another injection. Go give it to her. Pyro got out of his seat, pulled out a syringe, and started walking toward Daphne.  "You need some rest and this will help." Pyro said as he walked over to Daphne.

Daphne was not about to let this happen again as her mind became clearer. "STOP" Daphne shouted. Pyro found himself unable to move. "Mystique I cannot move." Pyro yelled out.

I want to go back home, I want to get back on the train. All of sudden Mystique found herself turning the helicopter around heading back to where they had just come from. She could not believe what was happening it was as if someone was inside her making her fly back to the field. She was powerless to do anything else. Now she understood why Magneto wanted Daphne. Spiderman saw the black bird landing in a large parking lot that was empty. "Hurry get in." Cyclops said. Beast just notified us that he was able to pick up the frequency of your tracer and it is heading back this way. Storm and Rogue are flying out and will be meeting us at the field where you saw the helicopter take off.

Cyclops landed the jet behind the trees and could see the lights from the approaching helicopter, the sun had gone down and the night provided a good cover. They watched as the helicopter landed and watched as the door open and saw Daphne get out, she looked at her would be captors and told them to leave. Again Mystique found herself doing what she was told against her will.

"Daphne" Jean called out using her telepathic powers, "can you hear me?" "Yes I can and I can feel you as if you were right here" she replied telepathically. We are Jean spoke as she stepped out of the darkness. "How did you find me?" Daphne asked. "It was Spiderman, he was behind you but the helicopter was taking off, but he was able to shoot a tracer on to the helicopter." Cyclops said.

"The bigger question is why did they bring you back." Jean asked

"I told them to." Daphne replied. "What do you mean?" Spiderman asked as he stepped out of the cover of night. " I mean I just told them to bring me back."

" Just like that "Jubilee asked.

However, unknown to all, there was a greater force at work here. There was power that none of them, not even Spiderman had sensed. It was a force that only Jean Gray would know, and even she did know that the Phoenix force had returned and had from afar sensed the power that Daphne could not even imagine.  It was the phoenix that had caused Mystique to return to the field where they had just shortly taken off.