***

Rogue awoke suddenly. She was pinned back against something hard--something cold. Her senses returned quickly, and immediately she noticed her hands and feet were bolted down. Her mind oriented itself to the fact that she must have been pinned down against some sort of metal table. A situation many people had been foolish enough to put her in.
She opened one eye just a sliver and looked sideways. The room was cast in a ghostly orange haze, and she could vaguely sense the smell of smoke and some sort of burning fuel in the room. Torches, as far as she could figure. The walls seemed to be made of large stone bricks--from the darkness, she could only guess that she was underground.
"Good morning."
The voice startled her enough that she opened her eyes accidentally. Looking up, she saw a man standing at the head of the table--now that she had a better view, it seemed to be made of iron, and the man at it's edge was massive. Though she could only make out his basic features in the flickering light, he seemed almost a bodybuilder, wearing a hooded black cloak with the cape draped back away from his shoulders. He wore a golden belt of some sort, and loose black pants obscured the view of his legs. His chest was fully exposed to the dusty air, and his grin seemed to speak of one who was a little too confident. Rogue silently promised herself she'd wipe it off his face.
"Let me go and I won't have to bust that big ol' jaw 'o' yers, puddin'." She spat.
The man seemed to giggle. It was an odd sound coming from such a massive frame. "That wouldn't be very neighborly." His voice was thick and deep, matching with his appearance, unlike the girlish laughter he had just emitted.
"So what's yer story?" the female mutant asked, a scowl present on her face.
"Oh, nothing." he rumbled back. His demeanor seemed unusually casual, as did his choice of words. "I just got LONELY."
Rogue tested the bonds that held her to the table. Surprisingly, her right hand popped free with one good yank and a bang of broken metal. A similar yank freed her left, and with two hard thrusts of her legs she was airborne, the four iron shackles clanking to the floor. This fella obviously hadn't known who he was dealing with.
"You are SO gonna get it." the woman stated as she balled her fists.
"That might not be wise."
"Won't it?" Rogue smiled as she uprooted the table and hurled it at the man, crushing him against the wall. A faint yelp was heard through the din the giant piece of iron furniture had caused.
"Now, sugah, let's talk. Starting with who you are."
The hooded man spoke laboriously from under the massive weight that pressed against his chest. "I am Duamutef."
"Duamutef, huh? Never heard of ya. So what's with kidnappin' innocent southern lasses and chaining them down? There's easier ways to get a date, little man."
Duamutef placed his arms against the iron block and slowly pushed it off of him. Aside from the sudden rasping of his voice, he seemed no worse off than he had been. "You have been brought here for a particular purpose." he said as he slowly stood up.
"Is that so. Seems like everybody's got a plan for little ol' Rogue."
He suddenly lunged at her, fingers outstretched. Rogue reeled back with a yelp and belted him square in the face, knocking him to the floor with a very unpleasant cracking sound. She had been so surprised she hadn't held back--she had felt the bones in his face shatter beneath her knuckles. Hopefully he wasn't dead.
"I don't like fast men, sugah."
She looked at her hand. It had a spatter of blood on it, and it was only then that she realized he had removed her gloves while she was unconcious.
She carefully bent down to see if his brains had been splattered.
His arm shot out like a viper, grabbing her bare hand with his.
"No! Let go!"
Rogue could feel her mutant power kicking in, draining his powers away. Whoever this guy was, he must have been some kind of idiot. She tried to pull away, but he kept her hand clamped onto hers with unnatural strength. Until it just went limp, and his arm slowly dropped.
The mutant looked at his face, now dark and lifeless. Strangely, she didn't feel any different. Suddenly she was worried--it had seemed almost as though he had done that on purpose. She knew she had to escape, though. Seeing a darkened corridor leading out of the chamber, she grabbed one of the torches off of the wall and started running.

***

Cyclops cursed as the sudden winds blew the X-men's powerful jet across the sky. The storm had seemed to rise out of the earth itself, with no warning and unbelievable ferocity. He had to fight with every inch of his training at Professor X's hands just to keep the Blackbird airborne.
"WHAT the flamin'--" Wolverine yelled as the ship got yanked in another direction, "D'jou piss with Thor or somethin', Cyke!?"
"Concentrate on flying, Wolverine!" Cyclops yelled back as he tried to cut his way into the winds. He couldn't help the feeling that this had something to do with Rogue...

***

The trip from the dusty dungeon to the subway she recognized had been a short one--apparently this Duamutef character had been on a bit of a budget. Rogue picked her way through the heavily littered tunnel towards the nearest exit to the surface. It was very dark, but was getting lighter as she approached one of the stations.
She heard something squeak beneath her. It was a rat. An enormous, fat, disgusting rodent. Normally she hated the things.
Like a hawk, her hand shot out and grabbed it. She was immediately shocked by what she did next. Stuffing the rodent in her mouth, from head to tail, she worked her lips over it and swallowed hard. She felt the enormous vermin shove it's way down her throat, and her eyes went wide. What the hell had she just done!? She had swallowed a rat. Whole. Even as she tried to figure out what had happened, she felt the creature reach her stomach, which began groaning and grinding away at it. It felt good somehow, but she was utterly revulsed by what she had done, and was very worried that, again, this may have had something to do with that wierdo. Could it be his personality asserting itself? He certainly hadn't looked like the type that would be above eating rats...but no one who's mind she had absorbed had ever been able to control her before. She felt nothing of his mind, and hadn't noticed any new powers. Her throat was even a little sore from the size of the thing having barged it's way down.
Not knowing what else to do, she continued on her way, feeling mildly nauseous.

***

Psylocke walked through the empty streets, silently scanning for her companion. She had been only a step behind her, when suddenly, her mind seemed to vanish without a trace. Psylocke had flipped around and seen that Rogue was gone, without the slightest evidence as to where or how.
Since then, she had conducted a hurried vigil throughout the city, telepathically calling for Rogue and looking for any mind that may have touched hers. So far she had found nothing. She rarely even saw anyone--it was as though she was walking through a ghost town. She stopped again, calming herself and reaching out with her mind. She had almost given up at this point.
But then she felt something.
It felt like Rogue--she was a short distance away. Must have been the subway tunnel. She could see it from where she was. She broke out into a sprint, bolting for the entrance even as she saw Rogue herself step out.
"Rogue! Are you alright?"
"Betsy, yeah..." There was something odd about Rogue's tone. "...I think."
Psylocke did a quick telepathic scan. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with Rogue, but there was something...different.
"What happened?"
"I..." Rogue's voice trailed off. She looked very pointedly at Psylocke's body. She almost reached for it, but stopped herself.
"Rogue? Rogue!?"
"Get...away!" Rogue managed to stammer, trying to back away from the other woman but only half succeeding--the other half of her body thrust itself towards her. "Run!"
"Rogue, what's wrong!?" Psylocke demanded, suddenly on her guard and scanning for potential enemies.
"I can't explain it, I--" suddenly she seemed to calm down. "I...we need to get out of here."
"Are you alright?"
"We need to have Professor X look at me. Please, help."
"Come on, then. I'll help you."
The raven-haired mutant approached rogue and put her hand on her shoulder. Rogue just looked at it, and suddenly placed one of her hands on Psylocke's. She reeled back as if bitten, immediately afraid of the repercussions of touching Rogue's bare skin. But Rogue reached out and grabbed her hand, and...nothing happened.
"Rogue...what's going on?" Psylocke almost suspected it wasn't really Rogue. But she knew the signs of someone pretending to be someone else, and no one was this good. She almost felt a struggle going on within Rogue's mind, and if something was trying to take control, she would need her help to oust it.
Rogue took her hand and gently placed it in her mouth.
Psylocke, slightly shocked, quickly yanked it back and took a step away from Rogue. Another step put a slightly larger distance between them, as she steadied herself and regarded her partner. She mentally prepared to unleash her psi-blade, in case it came to having to knock Rogue out.
Rogue didn't give her a chance to consider her tactics any further. She leapt at Psylocke, fists held out. The sly telepath flipped herself to one side, easily evading the clumsy but swift attack, and quickly did a flip, bringing her heel hard into Rogue's ribs as she turned around. She knew she would have to hit hard to even faze the powerful woman, so her next attack was well-prepared--she flipped back, threw herself onto her hands, launched high into the air with a complete flip and brought her leg swinging down hard. Unfortunately, Rogue was not there. Instead, she felt a pair of strong hands grab her in mid-air from behind, holding her aloft, and she found herself rising further from the ground.
Rogue, having grabbed her mid-flip, took her a good five stories into the air and dropped her. In spite of herself, Psylocke screamed, even as the trained part of her mind prepared itself for the fall--she elongated her body, pointing her feet towards the ground, her legs tensing in preparation to catch her as she struck.
In the short seconds in which she fell, she saw Rogue dart directly below her. Just a moment before her feet would have struck the other mutant's head, she thought she saw Rogue open her mouth.
What happened next was both confusing and unnerving. Psylocke felt her descent rapidly stop--she had been unable to bend her legs to stop her fall, and had dropped into something tight up to her waist. She could not move her legs. She thought with momentary horror that she might have split her fellow mutant in two and embedded herself in her still-living entrails, but she felt no splintered bone, no guts and no blood. She looked down, and what she saw she scarcely found the will to believe.
She saw Rogue's ruby lips tracing a tight line around her hips, exactly where they disappeared into a moist warmth. She felt Rogue's teeth lightly pressing against her front and back, and everything short of her belly button had become an almost inhuman bulge in Rogue's body. She was momentarily stunned by the sight, and this nearly proved her undoing--Rogue quickly grabbed her shoulders with both hands and pulled downward, hard. To her horror, Psylocke found herself sliding even further into Rogue's body. The fear brought her mind back online, and she placed her hands against rogue's cheeks, trying to hold herself up. Rogue's throat hugged her softly, making it easy to slide free, but the strong pair of hands that were wrapped around her shoulders made it almost impossible to go any direction but down. She lost another few inches in the struggle, and Rogue quickly let go of her shoulders and placed both hands on the top of her head. She resisted with all her might, but her burning muscles were no match for Rogue's mutant strength, and she came closer inch by inch to Rogue's mouth. Seeing it as her last option, she willed her psi-blade into existance and rammed her fist into Rogue's skull.
Her world lurched as Rogue's mind and body reeled from the attack, and she staggered sideways towards the side of the street. Seeing a golden opportunity, Psylocke grabbed onto a lightpost as Rogue stumbled past it and pulled hard, wriggling her legs in an attempt to free herself. Without Rogue's strong arms pinning her inside, her body slid out up to her thighs as she pulled herself up the steel post. Summoning all her strength, she pulled one leg free and, bracing her heel against Rogue's cheek, kicked herself out as Rogue fell against a nearby building. Half of psylocke's body was slick and wet, and everything below the middle of her thighs was dripping with some sort of translucent slime. Tiny blobs of muted color oozed down her bare legs as she watched, and she came to the terrifying conclusion that her legs had actually been inside Rogue's stomach. It was Rogue's vomit that was now running slowly onto the street as Psylocke held childlike onto the lightpost. She had been halfway into Rogue's digestive tract, and only the lightpost had saved her. She thought momentarily about what could have happened--if her psiblade had not worked, if she would now be--she forcefully suppressed the thought. Rogue was getting up. Psylocke knew she would have to knock her out before she recovered fully.
"What...what happened?" Rogue stammered. "I..tried to...eat you?"
Psylocke stood resolute, liquid still oozing down her legs. "I have to render you unconcious, Rogue."
Rogue leaned against the wall, clutching her head. "Wait, I'm...I'm me. I think that blade of yours knocked whatever it was out."
"I'm sorry. I can't take any chances. You'll be alright."
She leapt at Rogue, but the woman was not as hurt as she appeared--she suddenly sent a hard fist into Psylocke's gut, doubling her over.
"Shoulda run when you had the chance, sugah." She bent over, placing her mouth over Psylocke's head and her hands over Psylocke's rear--and flew. She flew as hard as she could and rammed Psylocke's posterior into the lightpost that had saved her just a moment before, simultaneously pulling as hard as she could with her superhuman arms. Psylocke was driven headfirst down her throat, this time only her bellybutton and below dangling free.
Psylocke tried to scream, but could not. Some sort of fleshy band was holding her tight from the nose down, wrapping around her whole body down to her stomach. She could still feel her legs in the cold air outside, but the rest of her head--from her eyes on up--was free of the fleshy tube, immersed in warm, muggy air and her own sweat. She was totally blind in the darkness, but she knew--
Rogue began pulling again. There was a noise, and the whole throat seemed to ripple, and, aided by a yank from Rogue, Psylocke's whole head exited the throat, even as everything short of the tips of her fanny entered Rogue's mouth. She thought furiously--she must have been entering Rogue's stomach. Her arms were pinned to her sides, leaving only her legs. If she could wrap them around the lightpost--
Another swallow. She felt the roof of Rogue's mouth pressing against both of her buttocks now. It was warm and moist, almost comforting, but still Psylocke could barely breathe from her fear--and she didn't want to breathe the rank air in the stomach at all. She was running out of time. Just as she began searching for the lightpost with her legs, there was another swallow. It brought her butt fully into the throat, and her face suddenly pressed into something wet, smooth and almost spongy. A sour taste made it's way into her mouth. Her shoulders had just now exited the throat, and she searched her mind desperately for a plan, some way to escape. She called out to Rogue's mind--You're eating me, Rogue! Stop! Stop! But all she heard was the laughter in Rogue's mind, and the joy at swallowing Psylocke alive and whole. Psylocke wasn't sure what would happen if she was completely swallowed; since she didn't know what new powers Rogue had gained, she may take days to digest or be digested in a matter of minutes. She was hoping that, however long it took, the X-men would reach her in time and rescue her. Would they have to cut Rogue open? Would they even be able to? And would she attempt to eat others?
Another strong swallow curled Psylocke around as she was slurped down into the stomach all the way to her butt. Her legs were still in the throat, her feet the only thing left in Rogue's mouth--no longer was any part of her in the outside world. Whatever happened, she was now going to have to escape--escape rogue's stomach, because there was now no way to keep from being swallowed whole. She was already mostly swallowed. She felt the uvula tickling her feet as the stomach's sphincter held tight against her thighs. Suddenly the whole stomach shifted, and psylocke found herself upright, her legs pressed tightly against her chest in the hot, spongy confines. Rogue must have stood up, deciding to let gravity assist swallowing Psylocke's legs. One last swallow sent Psylocke's feet into the throat, and she felt them being slowly pushed down--pushing the rest of her body deeper into the stomach--by the throat's strong muscles. Within a few short moments, Psylocke found herself completely engulfed.
Now that the swallowing no longer had her fixated, she assessed her surroundings. She was obviously still alive, despite having been eaten. Nearly every part of her skin contacted slick, soft tissue which wrapped around her like a hammock. Liquid pooled up to just below her waist, and she was quickly becoming coated by the wet stomach walls. She didn't know how much air she would have to breathe, and she hadn't felt any serious damage to her body yet--it could well take hours or days for her to be digested. She knew that wouldn't happen--the other X-men would save her, or Rogue would come to her senses and vomit her up, if she could.
Suddenly, something hard pushed against her from under the spongy stomach tissue, quickly followed by another push from a different side. The stomach suddenly squeezed down on her hard, feeling as though she was being crushed underneath a semi truck, taking several pained moments to let up again, and then quickly squeezing her again in a different area while the whole stomach began to shift and push against her. She knew this was the stomach beginning to churn--it was designed to crush food into tiny bits and then dissolve it. As the strong stomach muscles pressed against her so hard she thought her ribs would break, she gritted her teeth and suddenly wondered if she would indeed have several days to be rescued.

***

Rogue's belly was incredibly stretched. She felt Psylocke inside of her, and felt her stomach muscles churning and grinding away at her. She was horrified beyond belief--Psylocke was being digested alive, and Rogue couldn't bring herself to do anything about it. Every time her belly trembled, she almost felt...glad. As though, while she felt sorry for poor Psylocke, it was for the best.
What was she thinking!?
She needed help, and quick.
Not knowing why, she ran to a supermarket. Perhaps she would find help there. But, despite the fact that the aisles were lit and the shelves were stocked, she could not find anyone. She wanted to yell out, but instead she grabbed a box of cookies, stuffed her mouth full of them and started chewing furiously. Her cheeks were so full of cookie that she had a hard time swallowing it all. Still unsure what she was doing, she grabbed a gallon of milk and started guzzling it down. Faster and faster, she started quaffing down everything she could.
Psylocke first noticed the cookies. She didn't exactly know what had happened, but a splurting sound had occurred just above her and suddenly a small wad of chunky sludge had splatted down against her body. Followed soon by several more. Then, a cold stream of some sort of liquid came splashing down on her, shortly followed by another blob of something else. It quickly began raining sludge, and Psylocke surmised that Rogue must have been eating--where she was getting all this food, she had no idea. The barrage became almost a frenzy as Rogue ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate--the chewed up remains of deli sandwiches, boxed cereal, jars of pickles, candy bars, frozen pizzas, orange juice, diet coke and everything else imaginable slowly mixed in Rogue's belly and gradually began to fill the stomach. For almost twenty minutes Psylocke watched in horror as the swamp of partially-digested food continued to rise, and rise, and rise, until it was nearly to her neck--and then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. And the stomach started it's work once again, the stomach churning Psylocke along with the frothy chunks as waves of it washed over her head and across her face, her whole body engulfed in the lumpy mass. She took a quick gasp of air when she could, the few times her mouth contacted air through the tumultuous mess...

***

The Blackbird streaked across the sky at full speed, the storm having finally abated. It had been almost six hours since they had left, and they had not even reached the city. And once there, they would still have to find Psylocke and Rogue...

***

Psylocke's mouth hung open. The stomach's painful and aggressive churning had finally given way to a mild rumbling. The acid had finally gotten the best of her, as her skin peeled away and her costime had been burned to shreds. Her whole body was on fire, as she simply sat in a trance. She had been in Rogue's stomach for hours and hours, the ordeal never having ended. The few times the stomach muscles had given her some reprieve, it had merely given her time to sit in silent agony as the digestive juices stripped her skin away. She now wondered if she would ever escape. She wondered if it would be her fate to be utterly digested--to be passed through the intestines and make her final exit as an unnaturally large brick of feces. At this point, it would be a relief.
Suddenly, the stomach muscles tightened again--but it was different this time. They weren't squeezing, they were...pushing. Psylocke was being forced deeper into the stomach. As her mind came back in a rush, she realized what was happening--the stomach was opening and she was being shoved into the intestines. She did not even know how it was possible, but with one hard shove and another spludging sound she was in a tight, fleshy tube, being shoved headlong down it as though it were a waterslide two sizes too small for her. She felt more of her skin being dissolved away and absorbed, and much more quickly now, but she no longer cared. She was dead. She was food. Food was to be digested. She closed her eyes as she slid up and down and left and right through the intestines as they shoved her around, simply giving way to the slimey trip.

***

The sun rose gently over the horizon. Rogue gradually propped herself up, her muscles still stiff. She wasn't quite sure what she had been doing the previous night--she couldn't remember how she came to be sleeping on a sidewalk in an empty city. Soon, though, she heard a familiar voice.
"Rogue!"
Cyclops ran up to the redheaded mutant, quickly evaluating whether she had been injured. "Where's Psylocke?"
"Psylocke? She...umm...was headed back to headquarters. She told me to wait here for you guys."
Cyke was relieved that Psylocke was alright. "Come on then, the Blackbird is this way."

***

"So, we finally found her." Wolverine said dourly. "Great. Can I go to bed now, Cyke?"
"Go ahead, Logan. I'll fly us home."
Wolverine angrily wandered back to the bunk section, muttering to himself the whole way.
"You go ahead, Cyke. I'll be up in a minute." Rogue said. She waited for him to leave before she added "I gotta take the biggest dump the world has ever seen..."

A good thirty minutes later, Rogue joined Cyclops in the cockpit of the Blackbird. Before she said anything, he spoke himself. "I'm glad we're all finally back, safe and sound."
"You and me both, Sugah..." Rogue replied with a grin. "Say...how does breakfast sound about now?"
A sudden chill ran down Cyclops' spine...