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DISCLAIMER: Don't own X-Men, Don't own Charmed Characters. Wish I did, though.
The
main players of this story are Storm, and the charmed ones, Phoebe, Pru, and Piper. There are some others…mwa ha ha…but mostly
Storm. I am a Storm junkie.
This
is set in the Charmed world before Phoebe told everyone Cole wasn't really
vanquished, and before he visited her.
Also, just pretend that the Triad hasn't been killed yet, either. Some of the X-Man history is a bit
different, but, hey, it's my fic. Deal
with it. It is an AU. Imagine the X-Men as movieverse characters,
though, because, well, they're all a lot more attractive that way. Please, please review because this was my
first fanfic ever (even though it's not the first one I've finished) , I need
feed back, and if you don't, I seriously think that I may cry. Feedback can be sent to
magdalena134@hotmail.com . REVIEW IT.
ON
THE WALL
Part
I
Ororo
sighed, and let a small smile carve it's way into her face. She finally had some free time. Her schedule hadn't allowed time for
anything lately, and she had somehow managed to free up an entire hour, to do
absolutely nothing. Storm had chosen to
do two of her favorite activities; reading, and being cloth-free. Of course, she would have preferred to be
nude outside, but too many people were taking advantage of the nice weather to
take strolls, and Storm had no desire to mortify them with the image of a
naked, flying, weather goddess. So,
instead, here she was, sitting in a large, coffee colored armchair, bathrobe at
her feet, and large book in her lap.
She began reading.
After
a while, Ororo looked up from her thick book, filled with pictures of the
Serenghetti. - feeling a bit of
nostalgia?- a voice whispered into her ear.
Storm turned, her hands grasping the book. Nothing.
"I
must be hearing things," she murmured to herself as she reopened the book and
flipped through a couple pages. It had
been too long since she had been back home to Africa, to visit her tribe and
Mijarobi. Although New York was nice,
it paled in comparison to her native land, where the air could slice through
your lungs as you laughed along with it, letting it play with your hair and
lift your body further and further away from the ground…-oh goddess- Storm
thought with a smile, -the wind is turning me on- -and why shouldn't it???- the
voice was back.
Storm jumped up, out of her overly stuffed
armchair and looked about the attic.
"Who are you? Jean, is that you? Are you playing some sort of game?" she
called out, not too loudly. After all,
if it turned out to be nothing, she didn't want her fellow teammates riding her
of being afraid of the dark, or some other ridiculous idea they would soon
think of. Storm could almost hear
Wolverine laughing and saying, "Aww, the lady can control nature, but wets
herself without her lil' blankee."
Storm
quietly put the book down on the arm of the chair and went to investigate the
partially finished attic. "Hello?" she
called out, as she moved past the wood floors and onto the rickety rafters. Two light gusts of wind helped her keep her
balance as she continued to search.
-over
here-
Storm's
head jerked as she nearly lost her balance.
She looked to where the voice had come from this time. Over by her chair again. "Jean, this is a very childish prank. I am in no mood to deal with this now, so
please desist, or I will be forced to stop you."
-stop
me, how-
Storm
rolled her eyes. Jean's usually not this immature.
Oh well, maybe it's her time of the month and she's just blowing off
some of the steam that is directed at Scott. With that thought, Storm decided to go along with Jean's little
charade, because, hey, Scott was nice and all, but sometimes he could be, to
use some of Wolverine's favorite terminology, a real dick.
-Stop
me how, I ask-
She
turned, hearing the voice from somewhere else now. "Well, Jean, I have a little habit of embodying the powers of our
Mother Earth, and all her natural forces.
I swear, Jean, if you're just doing this because you're bored, you are
in for such a butt kic…"
-you
have powers? That'll make this even
better-
-to
my right- Ororo turned quickly, and caught a glimpse of her assailant before
she fell, banging her head on the rafters, and falling through the weak
ceiling.
***
Piper
Halliwell was in the kitchen of the manor, arranging some roses in a vase. Roses Leo, her fiancee had given her. Phoebe waltzed down the stairs and paused,
admiring the new floral arrangements.
"Nice
flowers. Who're they from?"
"Take
a wild guess, Phebes."
"So
Davy Jones finally did answer all your fanmail."
"Ha
ha. As a matter of fact, I am past the
Davy Jones stage of my life. They're
from Leo. He's such a great guy, I
usually wonder how I ended up with him."
"Me too," Prue called, as she closed the
front door. She had just gotten home
from a photo shoot, but her hair suggested otherwise. Like maybe she had just returned from the Hundred Year War.
"What's with your.." Piper began, while
Phoebe sat down at the table, picking up a magazine.
"Don't ask.
Let's just say photographing monkeys in their natural environment turned
out to be a big no-no. You don't even
want to know what this brown stuff on my shirt is, and I'll give you a hint, it
ain't eye
shadow."
"Oh,
here, let me look at that," Piper said, leaving the roses semi-arranged to
inspect her sister's defiled shirt.
"So do you think maybe some club soda'll take
it out?" Prue asked.
"Hmm. Well…"
Phoebe
flipped a page in the magazine, letting her sisters' conversation float past
her. There was this really great
picture of a sunset, in Africa she guessed, and it was just what she needed for
a project she was doing. Thinking about
Africa caused a fresh, new premonition.
A fresh, new, intense one. A
lady, a beautiful lady with white hair, being surrounded by black, dark, dark
light, falling, falling, falling…
"Uh,
guys?" Phoebe called out, her voice very shaky.
"Just
a minute," both sisters called back.
They had just discovered the possibility of making a certain white
lighter magically remove the stain.
-here it goes again- More falling, she kept
falling. It kept getting hotter, and
the wind wanted to break her body apart, the rain, the rain was raining blood,
so much blood, the blood was laughing at her, and there was blood all over
the..
"Roses!!"
Piper screamed, rushing to the kitchen table.
The vase lay shattered, and the rose petals had all fallen off and
shriveled, while the thorns seemed to have doubled in size.
"Phoebe,
did you do this?"
Phoebe
looked down at the roses. -blood roses- "Maybe, while I was busy having a
premonition." She rubbed her wrist,
where a small bruise was forming.
Before Pru could ask where it came from, Phoebe cut her off. "It was the wind and rain. I saw a woman, and she looked like she was
in a lot of trouble. I think," Phoebe
added, "I think she's in New York."
***
"Gambit
will see your five, and raise you ten," the Cajun said, shoving a few more
chips to the large pile growing in front of him. He loved playing cards with Wolverine and Cyclops. It was entertaining and easy to win at.
"I'm
out," Cyke said, throwing his cards down.
Gambit smiled.
"Hey,
don't look too happy, Gumbo, you still got me to deal with, and unless the
angel of the swamp rats flies down to help you, you ain't gotta prayer."
As
if on cue, a tremendous crash was heard, followed by clouds of plaster dust
flying in the air. Wolverine felt a
very solid thud in the card table, and on his right hand. When the dust had finally settled, the three
mutants looked down to see a very unconscious and very naked Storm. Very naked, and very beautiful, even though
she was covered with a fine coat of dust.
Wolverine grunted, disgusted at his thought, and threw the purple satin
robe that had fallen down with her over her body.
"Stormy?"
Gambit asked, approaching her face and gently lifting up her eyelids. "She look like she knocked out. And she bleeding pretty bad on the back of
her head." Gambit said, noticing her white hair turning a shade redder. Wolverine gently pulled his arm out form
under her, and noticed that it, like her hair, was covered in blood.
"Cyclops,
call Beast. She needs to get some
medical attention now," Wolverine said, putting his hand back to where it had
been. -at least this might stop some of
the bleeding- Wolverine grimaced as
another thought occurred to him. -and
there sure seems to be a lot of it.-
***
"New
York?" Pru asked, sticking a paper towel under the sink. "I thought these premonitions were supposed
to be local." Pru applied the towel to
Phoebe's rather large and purplish bruise.
Phoebe shifted in her chair and let the cool water attempt to heal her
skin.
"Yeah,
well, evil is as evil does. At least
this way we can all have a little vacation, eh?" she asked, her eyes slightly
gleaming. Phoebe had spent a while in
New York, and god help her, but she had fallen for that sparkling city of
lights and hookers, almost as hard as she had fallen for…
Pru
twisted a strand of her hair. "Well, I
still think we should, I don't know, make sure it is New York, because, even
though it'd be great to go, work is just kinda hectic right now…"
"What,"
Piper intervened, sweeping up some of the shards of broken glass, "are you
scheduled to have some more feces thrown at you tomorrow?"
"For
the second time this day, ha ha."
"Welp,
the smart thing to do right now would be to talk to Leo about this. Maybe he and his white lighter buddies know
what we should do," Phoebe said, eyeing for the first time the monkey crap on
her sister's shirt. "And by the way,
god help you if Leo can't get that out."
"I
come home and now I'm living with a bunch of bad comedians. Great, great. Leo, Hey Leo, we need you." Pru called out, tucking a strand of her
raven hair behind her ear. In a few
seconds the kitchen was filled with a blue light and a distant sound of chiming
as Leo orbed in.
"Hey
guys, hey sweetie," he said, putting an arm around his fiancee and giving her a
quick peck on the cheek. "What do you
need?" His eyes caught the remains of
his roses. "What happened?"
"Phoebe
just had a vision. A pretty urgent and
violent vision, which kinda ended up killing your gift to me, but I really
liked them, before they died."
"Anyway,"
Pru continued, "Phoebe said it had to do with New York and, and, wait, Phebes,
what else was in it, you never really said."
"Maybe
that's because I haven't been given the opportunity." -sheesh, it's my vision
for crying out loud, and they're talking about it like it's their own!- She
took a breath to compose her feelings.
"I saw a lady, African American, with white hair. For one second, her eyes were blue, and then
they turned white, and then, black., but the black wasn't just in her eyes, it
was every where. It was, it was,
ubiquitous!! Aha, so ninth grade vocab
class does pay off!" Phoebe put a hand over her bruise and looked at it for a
moment in reverence. She should be
taking this much more seriously. "But
this blackness, it was so cold, so, evil.
And that's when she started falling, with blackness enveloping her, but
the wind and the rain started up, and it was like they were trying to kill her,
to kill me. I mean, I could feel it,
all of it. And then the rain, it turned
from water into blood, deep red blood that ran onto our body, and it seemed to
be laughing. Then she hit the floor,
and," Phoebe paused. All their eyes
were on her intently, with no mention of monkey crap or anything else. "and that's when the premonition
stopped."
There
was a silence after Phoebe finished talking.
Pru looked down at the floor and silently thought to herself a thought
that usually made her feel guilty. -I'm glad I'm not the one who got stuck with
the power of premonition- Piper looked at Leo, who had kept his gaze on
Phoebe.
"Well,
Phoebe, it sounds like your power is growing stronger, and that's a good
thing. The bad thing is, it sounds like
this woman is in trouble. Why do you
think she's in New York?" Phoebe
swallowed as she thought about her answer.
"Well,
I, uh, I forgot to mention to you guys that I saw, in the background before all
the black came, that she was standing by the, ummm" -dammit, phoebe, think
think of monuments, you friggin lived there- "statue of liberty. Ya know, the robed lady holding a
torch?" She tried to laugh it off,
trying to show that nothing was wrong.
"That
seems like a pretty good indicator to me.
And now that you mention it, some
of the elders were mentioning a few things about New York to me. It seems that a few of the upper class
demons, some in direct work with the Triad, are setting up shop in New
York."
Phoebe
perked up. "Which would definitely
explain why my premonition was about New York!" -I just love it when things
work out to my advantages. He he he-
"Ok,
but why New York?" Pru asked, pulling up a chair next to her sister.
"It
looks like the forces of evil have finally found out that a lot of the forces
of good live in California. The Charmed
ones, and the vampire slayer both live here, I guess they figured it might be
safer to not live within a hundred mile radius of the bay area."
"Well,
duh."
***
"How
is she doing?" Jean asked, glancing at some of Storm's monitors.
"Her
vitals have peeked up tremendously in the last half hour, which is a positive
sign, but she still seems to be in a comatose state." Beast said, taking a look
at the same monitor that Jean had been looking at, only to scribble down a few
notes on his clip board. "My question
is, what happened to her. From what
I've gathered, Storm was in the attic reading a book, when she abruptly made an
entrance into the boys' poker game."
Jean
sighed as she looked at Storm's battered body in such a death-like state. "That's all I know, too. The only explanation I can find is that she
simply fell through the part of the attic that hasn't been finished yet, but,"
she looked up at Beast, "I find it hard to believe that she'd be so
careless."
"Perhaps
she was careless. Wolverine rather
pointedly informed me that she was *eh hem* unclad when they found her, and we
all know that interesting habit she has."
Beast
was referring to a fact all the X-Men knew; Storm had many past times, but two
of her favorites, besides reading, were being nude and dancing. Jean had asked her about why she danced once
a few years back, and Storm had replied, "I only do what is natural to me. I was born with the rhythms of my Mother
pulsating through my body, not with clothes upon my back and walking to the beat
of western society."
"Well,
that's a good theory, Beast, but the boys' said they didn't hear any noises
coming from the attic before hand, and you know how she likes to thump her feet
around to keep time."
Beast
blushed, being the prudent one he is, at hearing Jean talk about the subject
that he found, to say, not suited for discussion. "I see. Has the
possibility of an attack been considered?"
"That
thought had occurred to the Professor already.
He's in Cerebro, scanning for abnormal mutant activity in the area. There's also the possibility that this was
an FOH attack, but still, human or mutant caused, our alarms would have gone
off if any unauthorized person had entered the mansion." Beast nodded in agreement with Jean, and he
quietly put his clipboard down on a table by Storm's bed. He moved next to Jean, and copied her
actions by gazing intently on Storm. "I
guess we've done all we can. The only
thing left to do is wait and hope Ororo will use the will power we know she has
and pull herself out of this coma."
Jean looked down at her own hands, capable of such power but useless
when it came to manners like this, and answered Beast in a quiet voice.
"Yeah. I guess that really is all we can do."
***
The
Halliwell sisters had booked a flight from San Francisco to New York a few
minutes after the girls had cleared up their schedules for the next week. Pru took her seat on the left of Piper with
a disgruntled look on her face.
"Pru,
why so happy?" Piper asked, her focus clearly not on her sister, but the minute
bag of deliciously salted peanuts before her that refused to open. -damn
peanuts, but yet, so sweet-
"Why
am I so happy, Piper? I'm so happy
because I just had to cancel two photo shoots with two equally very important
people, all so I could go to New York and chase after some girl with a bad dye
job." Pru whispered angrily, pausing for a brief moment to smile as a stuartess
walked down their isle.
"Um,
miss? Would you care for a
beverage. Y'all know what they say, a
lil' alcohol calms the nerves, and the second glass is only 2.95"
Pru
looked up, startled by the disruption of her venting. "No thanks. I'll stick
with water." -wow, my manifest to Piper came off more bitter then I had
intended it to. Bitter enough to have
beer thrown at me, anyway-
"Pru,
you know I'm not too crazy about our, umm, special duty, but we have to do
it." The bag of peanuts flew open with
a small pop, with its tasty morsels hitting Piper in her face. Piper took a deep breath and tried to count
to ten. -one, I hate flying, two, I hate flying, three, I hate flying, aww,
screw it- "Now, get yourself some damn alcohol," Piper hissed at her sister,
raising her voice for her next statement, "and another bag of peanuts!"
Phoebe
lifted one corner of her sky blue eye mask to take a peek at her now annoyed
sisters. Pru was berating a stuartes
while Piper dismally tried to pick peanuts out of her hair. With the movement of her sly finger, Phoebe
slid the eye mask back into place and turned up the volume on her head
phones. The angry grunts and groans
coming from her sisters were soon replaced with the plethora of vocals from
Lorena McKennit. Phoebe readjusted
herself in her chair, leaning her head against the window of the plane. -he he,
I always get the window seat, even when I have a mask over my eyes-
The
sleek if not past retirement airplane cut through the warm, California skies as
Phoebe remained in her position, motionless, letting her thoughts run wild with
the music she listened to.
-Cole-
It
was the one word that always seemed to be on her mind, etched into her
brain. She thought about him whenever
she breathed, whenever she yawned, even when she was doing purely unromantic
things, like clipping her toenails. He
was always in her mind, and she didn't know if she really minded.
-Cole, Cole, can you here me? Or can Balthazar hear me? I don't know how much longer I can keep this
up…lying to my sisters and Leo about vanquishing you is just too hard, too much
for one person to handle.-
Phoebe
recalled something Cole had once told her, while they were over at his
place. They had just finished making
love, and they lay in his bed in a tight embrace. She had asked him if he was keeping anything from him. Phoebe recalled her exact words.
"When
I'm with you, it just feels like there's another part of you that I'll never
touch, never be able to reach."
"Does
that frighten you?"
"I
hadn't really thought about it. I guess
not really. If it's a part of you, I
guess I love it."
"But
if you don't, I won't hold it against you, Phoebe. Sometimes people are forced into situations they…they don't
exactly like, and at times it seems too hard to go on with."
"Then
how do you? Go on, I mean."
Cole
had looked down at her, his amber eyes devouring her face as he drew her closer
to him. He moved his lips close to her
ear and tentatively whispered, "Because I have you to help me, and you have
me."
-I
wish I had him now- she thought to herself, ripping her eye mask off. She turned away from Piper and stared out
the window, watching the sky and the clouds go by. -but all I have are memories- she looked at a lake, shrouded with
trees, that was reflecting the sunlight. -and hope-
***
Her
mouth was dry. Very dry. Her hair felt sticky against her skin, and
her body felt extremely rigid. Storm
tried to roll over on her side, but her hip hit a cold, metal bar instead. Her
eyes shot open. -I'm not in my room…so where am I- Using her hands, which seemed
unusually slow, she grabbed the two cold rails and pulled herself into a
sitting position. She was in the
infirmary, wearing a paper gown and lying in a bed that wouldn't have
comfortably fitted a fourth grader. She
took that back. It wouldn't have been suitable for a third grader. -how did I end up in here? I was in the attic a moment ago, reading my
book and then I heard a-
"Voice!
The voice!" Ororo called out remembering what happened.
-well,
I'm glad to see that I've got a good memory- the voice was taunting Storm
again.
She craned her neck, trying to see where it
had come from, when the thought hit her hard.
-that's right, sweetie, I'm coming from your
head. Now if you'll just lie back and
enjoy the ride, I'll take over from here-
***
"Did
you hear something?" Cyclops asked
Gambit, who was sprawled, upside down, on the couch with his head almost
touching the floor. The two had
volunteered to watch over Storm while Beast took a much needed nap, but they
couldn't stand just sitting and watching her lie unconscious, and not being
able to do anything. This had led to
Gambit's "novel" idea of hanging out in the nearby rec room, and going in
sporadically to check her vitals.
"Like
what, mon ami?" Gambit pulled out an ace of spades and began running it through
his fingers. He didn't want people to
know how worried he was about Storm. He
had never seen the goddess, his goddess, hurt like this, and that included the
aftermath of battles with Magneto and all his baddies. He and Storm went way back, to when they had
been thieving partners in Louisiana.
She was probably his best friend at the mansion, and he didn't know what
he'd do without her. -eh, probably end
up stealing the TV and leaving-
"There
I heard it again. It sounded like
Storm."
"Stormy?" Gambit tried to sit up, but only succeeded
in slipping off the couch and banging his head on the floor. "C'mon, Cyclops, we gotta go see!"
The
two rushed the few remaining feet to the infirmary door. "I knew Stormy would be feelin' better in no
time. She's a fighter."
Cyclops hit the entry button and the door
slid open with a small mechanical whurr.
"She may be a fighter, Gambit, but I just hope she did make it out. Beast said that if she doesn't wake up in a
few more hours, she'll have brain damage."
"Quite
the contrary," Storm replied as they walked in the door. "I've never felt so alive in my life."
Storm
was floating in the middle of the room, clad in a paper gown, examining her
hands as her hair sparked with lightening. -so that white-haired bitch was
right. She does have powers. I never could have imagined a mortal could
have powers so strong….I believe they even surpass my own -
Both
Gambit's and Cyclops' jaws dropped.
They had hoped for the best, but this was something they hadn't quite pictured.
"Ororo,
you'd better come down now. You're
still very weak after your fall, and Hank really should check you out before
you engage with your powers anymore." Cyclops said, his eyes blinking with each
snapping sound the lightening made.
"My fall?
Oh yes, my fall. It was," she
did a little flip in the air, giving a spectacular view of her butt to a red in
the face Cyclops and startled Remy, and giggled, "quite awful. I probably almost died, judging on how hard
my head hit those rafters."
Gambit
followed her with his eyes, as she flitted about the room like some sort of
pixie. "Listen to da man, Stormy. You might feel good now, but tomorrow you
wake up and say, 'ouch, I'm dead. I
should've listened to that nerdy Cyclops and that handsome Remy.'"
Storm
eyed the man that had just spoken.
"Remy, is it? I suppose you're
right. Yes, yes, I'll come down now,"
she gracefully floated to the floor, letting her two dainty feet hit the smooth
tile. "and you can take me back to my room, so I can get a good night's
sleep."
"Storm,
it's three in the afternoon," Cyclops informed her, pointing at the slowly
ticking clock on the wall.
"Oh,
shut the hell up. I just got out of a
friggin' coma. Give me some
credit. Remy?" She asked, holding out
her arm to be escorted. "I believe I'm
ready to retire now."
***
-master,
it's me. I'm in, and you were right,
she is all you said. Although I know
you would never lie to me, I still found it hard to believe that she could be
so powerful, but she is. Everything is
going fine, but she is putting up some resistance I've never seen with the
others. She's blocked off small parts
of her mind to me; I don't know the names of the people here, or a few other
minor details, but everything else is fabulous. I did, however, manage to break down the wall that she built
surrounding her past, and geez, it sure is an interesting one. I've kept *her* mind busy by bombarding it
with images of airplane crashes and small, tight, confined spaces. I think she's having a hoot-
-very good.
Just remember our deal. If you
follow out with your part, I'll follow out with mine-
-You are too kind, master. Living in this body for the next eighty years or so is going to
be wonderful.-
That's
all for now. Like it? Hate it?
Wanna violently assault me on the street because I've offended you? Well, then leave a review, PLEASE!!!
