Needing to get out...

[Ember]

Since the whole battle, Aideen had barely eaten. Which was starting to show because with her normal body temperature being around 107 degrees give or take depending on her environment. Therefore she needed to eat because her body literally burned fat and calories like crazy. Within only two days, Aideen had lost three pounds, and it showed. She hadn't been sleeping, so without the magic of makeup, which Aideen only used when extremely necessary, it would be obvious she wasn't getting any sleep. But she didn't want anyone to know, because that would ruin her facade that everything was alright. She finally decided that she needed food and she wasn't ready to go to the kitchen yet. Logan's presence was too strong there and her memory of him was far too clear for her liking.

After grabbing her tight black leather motorcycle pants, which were a bit looser than they normally should be but it still looked passable, and putting on a high collared fitted sleeveless black leather top, Aideen had her mind set on going to town and to the store so she could get enough food to not lose more weight. She grabbed the leather motorcycle jacket Jumper gave her for Christmas and a large duffel bag to put on her bike. Aideen walked into the garage planning on dropping off her duffel and then going to find Cyclops or Emma for permission. Perhaps she'll be lucky enough to find Cyclops there working on his car.

She needed to get out though. Everywhere she looked in this school, she saw Logan and Nightcrawler and every time she did, it ate her away slowly inside. Aideen was smart enough to know she needed a bit of time away from the school for the sake of her own sanity. Even if it was just an afternoon in town, at least she was away from here for a bit.

Aideen walked over to her gleaming black Kawasaki Ninja, once again not feeling as relaxed as she usually does in its presence. She began strapping the duffel onto her motorcycle, not noticing the area around her yet, but had an intent to find someone to escort her to town so she could get food and her damn rice milk.

[Cyclops]

Cyclops had returned to the garage after dropping Onyx off at his team practice earlier in the day. "Hey Ember how's it going?" he called out as he looked up from ratcheting away on the motor mounts of his Mach1. "How was your first practice session as Team Leader?" he asked her as he pulled himself away from the tedious tear-down of the timeless piece of crap that was soon to be a reborn American sportscar.

[Ember]

Aideen looked up from her strapping her duffel onto the bike to see the Headmaster leaning over the car he was working on the past few times she saw him in the garage. She immediately straightened up and shook her hair away from her face as she turned her blank dark eyes up to him. "Practice was fine sir... with only few minor problems," she said softly thinking about Katana's brat like behavior.

Hmm.... Aideen needed to go into town and knew only with supervision since she was still underage. She looked at Cyclops and wondered just how busy he was working on his car. "Pardon me sir, but are you very busy at the moment?" she asked softly.

[Cyclops]

"No, I'm not busy really just trying to get this engine out of here so I can break it down and build it back up. Oh, and for the record Ember, I will always make time for you. What's on your mind?" Cyclops asked her hoping to get some interesting information on her team's practice and wondering more of the details. "Problems with your squad?" he asked.

[Ember]

Aideen looked up at him straight in the eye as she was taught to be respectful to all her superiors and give them the respect they deserve. He had been extremely kind to her in many ways and she would never refuse anything that he asked of her or show any disrespect to him. At the same time Aideen wanted to keep the respect and kindness that Cyclops had paid to her, which was another reason she was so desperate to keep the secret of what happened in the woods. She doubted he would remain as kind to her if he knew what she was responsible for.

"Thank you sir," she said softly. "My squad was alright for the most part. There were minor problems with lack of following instructions, but they were taken care of. Overall, I feel everyone came out of the practice with something. Jumper learned to increase his speed and both him and Ripple improved greatly on their reflexes. Katana I hope walked away with a lesson on the importance of punctuality and following instructions," she said in her soft quiet voice, giving the Headmaster a short summery of the practice.

Aideen glanced at her duffel bag and looked back at Cyclops, a bit hesitant about what she was going to ask. "If possible sir, I would like some rice milk. And a bit of food from town. If you can accompany me, as I am not quite of age yet," Aideen asked quietly. She was sure he had better things to do, as he was the Headmaster of the school, but at least she had asked. Aideen felt the large wad of cash in her inner jacket pocket that she had taken from her savings box. "I have money sir, so there should be no concern of the cost," she added softly.

[Cyclops]

"Yeah sure! You want to ride your bike I'm assuming, right?" he'd noticed her with all of her gear on and strapping her bag to the back of her bike was surely a dead give away. "I could go for a ride myself, been too long since I had my Fat Boy out on the road. Let me grab a jacket." He said as he went over to a row of lockers on the far wall and rummaged around pulling out a leather jacket and a full face helmet.

"My bike's back here" he said as he walked back to the far end of the garage and pulled the cover off of a thick looking black and chrome Harley Davidson Fatboy, the keys hung in it, on the keychain a faded blue rabbit's foot dangled.

[Ember]

For the first time in awhile, a very small and quick sparkle of interest showed in Aideen's dark chocolate eyes, but it left as suddenly and quickly as it came. She admired the Harley, for she always had a thing for those bikes. This one looked like it was well taken care of, though it had certainly had been ridden well. Aideen wondered how tweaked the engine was, because she was well aware that her Ninja had a little over 1452 cubic centimeters on it, which was above the legal limit back in Boston, but it might be different in New York. James rode a Harley low rider and his engine was insane.

"Impressive," she commented softly on the Fatboy, studying it with her careful and observant eyes. "Thank you very much sir," she added quietly, meaning it fully. She had to get away from the school for awhile, just to be able to look around and not be reminded of Logan and Nightcrawler. Aideen grabbed her helmet from the locker she had chosen when she first arrived. The helmet was a black with a red tiger claw on the back, open face with a shield. She had received it back in her racing days and was one of the only things she owned that reminded her of those long reckless days of living her life on the edge.

Aideen place the helmet on her head and tucked her hair inside the helmet. She slipped on her leather long gloves and took the keys out of her pocket. Unlike Cyclops' blue rabbit foot key ring, hers was a gypsy protective woven cat. It was one of the few things she had found among her mother's items.

She sat on her bike and made herself comfortable before starting the engine. Her Ninja roared to life, the engine sound proving how finely tuned and sound her bike was. Aideen looked over at Cyclops and waited for him. He probably will never know how much of a favor he was doing her.

[Cyclops]

He grinned at her little sounding motorcycle, sure it looked fast but it was probably not the ride he himself would have liked. His motorcycle was from a bygone era.

He closed his eyes tightly and removed his ruby quarts glasses sliding them deftly to hang in the collar of his shirt he donned the helmet and flipped open the face plate. Keeping his eyes shut the whole time he placed his glasses back on and flipped the face shield three quarters of the way down before sliding his jacket on and zipping it up.

"Mine might take a minute to warm up, it's not really the season for a bike ride, so lets be really careful of patches of snow. If you don't mind Ember can we take it a little slower because I'm not naturally a thousand degrees and it's cold out here, but I'm up for it." he said reminding her that he would feel the cold far more than she probably would.

He clicked his key over and flipped the gas switch to the 'on' position. As he twisted his throttle to prime the engine, his foot found the kick start and he cranked it down until it caught. Hopping up on the kick start he slammed it down once...twice..and on the third kick it started. With a loud popping crackle it roared to life erupting from it's slumber and growling at it's rice grinding companion, Ember's Kawasaki Ninja, a fine 'hello'.

[Ember]

Aideen nodded to Cyclops' request. She can maintain a normal speed and though her body temperature dropped when exposed to cold weather, the insulated jacket should keep her warm enough. She checked and made sure she had pushed the starter button all the way, since she didn't quite trust the newest models as much as the ones she rode before, but it worked just fine. The carburetor throttle was opened at about 1/4 inch, give or take. Her brakes she had checked before and knew that both the front brake and the back brake worked fine. Since the dirt road was most likely to be icy or muddy or even both, even on the driest area she would have to squeeze the brake lever gradually, for there was nothing worse that locking the front wheel on an icy or muddy road.

Aideen hoped it wasn't too slippery outside, but she would deal. She knew how to ride in not so great weather though she could easily do without it. The Ninja's engine ran quietly for the most part since the newer engines were designed to be a bit quieter than the older models. She waited patiently for the okay from Cyclops before they would get out of here and off to the store. Perhaps then she will regain some of her sanity.

[Cyclops]

Sliding his hands into his gloves as the Harley warmed up he flexed his fingers to stretch the leather and balled his hands into fists to warm the gloves up. It idled down a bit and he cranked the throttle a little bit before he reached down and pushed in the choke lever. The Fatboy purred and grumbled as it finally found it's rhythm.

"Yeah, I'm good let's head out. You first and pick your way out to the road carefully, I'll be right behind you." He thought hard for a long moment sending a thought to Emma through the psychic rapport that they shared. He had once shared something similar with his former love Jean Grey, but that time had passed, he always felt strange whenever he did this. It was as if he was cheating on the memory of Jean and betraying all they had shared. 'Emma -Goin To Town With Ember- Back Soon !' he thought, knowing she would pick up on it and he nodded to Ember to go ahead.

[Ember]

Once Aideen got the okay from Cyclops, she kicked the kickstand back and began moving slowly, watching as the garage door automatically opened as she approached the door. Once the garage door was opened completely, Aideen went forward low with her arms bent pressing the handlebars as gripped the handlebars keeping her right wrist flat to keep control of the throttle. Aideen locked her knees against the gas tank and kept her feet planted firmly on the footrests as she switched gears.

She pulled out onto the road slowly, sticking to the direst area she could find and sped up a bit on the path, checking her mirrors to be sure Cyclops was behind her. Her dark sharp eyes scanned the road as she steered her Ninja on the road carefully. Once Aideen found the drier path, she sped up to a normal speed, but was extremely cautious. She hated icy roads and usually avoided them but she needed to get out, for the sake of her own sanity.

[Cyclops]

((new thread- in road to town- "A Cold Winter's Ride"))