Misunderstood

Prologue

Disclaimer: I, Sadly, Do Not Own The Mutant Super Hero Idea, X-Men, Or Any Other Aspect Of The 616 Universe. As Much As I'd Like To, I Don't. I Guess I'll Just Have To Come To Terms With The Fact.

Summary: Who Can Truly Understand Speciesisum? A Story Of A Mutant Who Overcomes Ignorance & Helps Others Do The Same… OK, So I Suck At Summaries But It's Good, I Swear! Lots Of OC's And Eventually OCxKurt Wagner. Please Review! I Beg Of You!

This Is Just The Prologue, The Rest Of The Story Is TOTALY Different!!! Also This Is Going To Be A Really, Really Long Story. It May Seem At First As Though It Belongs In The T.V. Shows Category Under X-Men: Evolution And Not Comics Under Just X-Men But Even If It Has The Whole "Everyone's In High School" And "They All Still Go To A Regular School" I Swear This Still Goes So Beyond Just That Show With Stuff From Wolverine And The X-Men, And The X-Men Movies, And The Comics, And Tons Of Stuff Just Out Of My Imagination So I Just Put It Under Comics Since I Figure Fans Of Any Version Of X-Men Would Check Out The Stuff Under Comics As Well As Whatever Their Favorite Version Is.

It was midwinter and a girl of about nine was sitting at the window of her family's average suburban home looking out at their snow covered suburban lawn. Her posture exuded boredom, with her cheek scrunched up in her hand and her short brown hair falling in front of her face. She occupied herself for a moment with blowing it away but then just tucked it behind one ear and resumed staring out the window, fidgeting by curling and un-curling her toes. She was bored because her older brother was being no fun. He had been no fun ever since the weather had gotten cold. As soon as the temperature had dropped he'd been acting lethargic and sleeping all the time and not been any fun at all. She sighed onto the window, leaving a big misty circle in front of her face. She traced a frowny face in it with her finger and sighed again, misting the face over. Suddenly there was a "thump, thump" down the stairs behind her and she turned to see her brother careening down the stairs in nothing but his pajama bottoms. He had started putting on heirs ever since he had turned thirteen that fall and she hoped he wasn't going to start walking around without a shirt on now too. Still, she stood up hopefully, this was the most wakeful she had seen him all winter; perhaps he was going to stop being such a lazy mope and actually play with her.

He came skidding to a stop in front of her and she smiled, but then frowned again when he shoved his hands in her face, wiggling his fingers and exclaiming, "Ellie, look! Look! Look!" She tried to shove him away and he stepped back, still brandishing his fingers at her.

"Hold still would you, I can't see." She said, grabbing his wrists to stop him waving them around

"Look!" he insisted, keeping still at last, and she did look, her eyes widening in amazement. No longer were there grubby little boy fingernails at the end of his fingers, but sharp black claws instead. Her mouth fell open and her face stuck in a dumbfounded expression. "See? Claws! And look!" he said, pulling his hands out of her grip and pointing at his face and then turning around to show her his back "Scales!!" and indeed they were, the grew, apparently, all over his body in thin, olive-green, tiger stripe patches.

"Woah!" Ellie gasped, "You're like, lizard boy!"

"I know! Right? I'm gona' go show mom and dad!" he said and he ran off towards the kitchen. Ellie ran after him and stood behind him as he pounced on their father who was groggily drinking coffee in his morning bathrobe. He quickly perked up, however; once his son showed him his nails and scales.

"This is incredible, Eric! I've never seen a mutation quite like this before" he said, running his fingers along Eric's arm and feeling where skin became scales then became skin again. Eric Beamed and so did Ellie. Their father was a geneticist and knew all about DNA and mutations, though; they weren't strictly his line of work. Just then their mother walked in wearing her nightgown and holding a cup of coffee.

"What's going on?" she asked her husband.

"It appears as though Eric has developed a mutation." He answered her without taking his eyes off of Eric. Eric turned his head and grinned at his mother, revealing a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth. Their mother stood there, stunned, coffee cup frozen halfway to her face and her eyes locked on her son's teeth.

She lowered her coffee cup slowly and, turning to her husband, quietly asked, "What did you say?"

For the first time her husband looked up and saw the look of horror on his wife's face, he stood. "I said; it seems that our son is a mutant."

His wife glared at him and said angrily "Eric, Elinore! Go upstairs to your rooms!" Eric was no longer smiling and Ellie glared at her mother, she hated being called Elinore. Eric, sensing danger, began to scamper out of the kitchen but Elli stood stubbornly, preparing to reiterate to her mother the fact that she didn't like being called Elinore and that she preferred the name Ellie.

Her father stopped her though. He patted her on the shoulder and whispered to her "Go on Ellie, make sure Eric Bundles up nice and warm, he might even be cold blooded now!" She looked up at him and he smiled tiredly back at her until she had scampered upstairs after her brother.

After they went upstairs much passionate but suppressed arguing ensued downstairs between their mother and father. As it turned out, their father was wholly pro-mutant, while their mother was passionately against mutants, a subject that apparently had never come up between the two of them.

This first morning of suppressed arguing, during which Eric discovered that he could lift Ellie over his head with one hand, climb walls and had begun to grow a tail, was followed by an afternoon of not so suppressed arguing. After a few hours had passed Eric and Ellie quietly went to the top of the stairs to listen, unseen, to their parent's argument. After about a minute, Eric felt it his big brotherly duty to shield Ellie from their parent's anger as well as their occasional foul language by locking her in the upstairs bathroom, a simple task now that he could lift her over his head with one hand. She resisted at first but soon stopped and fell into a sulk sitting on the floor with her arms crossed and her back to the door, plotting plans of revenge; perhaps she could overpower him if she turned off all the heat in the house. Meanwhile; Eric had gone back to the top of the stairs and was listening intently to his parent's arguing. He became more and more shocked and horrified as he heard snips of his mother speaking hatefully about mutants, about him. He grew angry, how could she say such things? How could his mother, who had only last night kissed him and told him sweet dreams, be talking about him, about what he was, with such anger and resentment? How could anyone do that? Disgustedly, he got up to go get Ellie and take her to their room, but not before hearing the word "divorce," shouted from downstairs.

Their mother left that night. Eric locked Ellie and himself in their room while she came upstairs and packed. Ellie couldn't get him to tell her anything no matter how much she yelled or battered at him, he didn't talk, he didn't move; he just sat on his bed enshrouded in a black mood. Eventually, she gave up and got into bead, not sleeping, lying there sad and confused. Her parents argued often enough, some times worse than others, and it always made her sad, but they had never argued for so long before, she couldn't even get the gist of what they were arguing about. It seemed to be about Eric and his new superpowers but that didn't make sense to her either, she thought they were great! She wanted superpowers too! But apparently there was something wrong with that, she just didn't understand. She felt a painful lump come into her throat and bit her lip as tears welled up in her eyes. She just wanted everyone to be happy again! She curled into a ball facing the wall and a few repressed gulping sobs escaped her throat. A moment later, she felt the bed sag as her brother sat down next to her cocooned form. He patted her on the shoulder awkwardly and then started stroking her arm.

"It's alright," he murmured absently "everything'll be okay." He repeated that and a bunch of other similarly meaningless words and phrases too but it was soothing and after a bit she finally fell asleep. When Ellie woke up Eric was asleep in a beanbag chair right next to her bed and their mother was gone. She tiptoed downstairs and went to the kitchen where, to her surprise, she found her father sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. He looked up when he heard her come in. He didn't look like he had slept at all. His thin hair stood up in a spiky mess from running his fingers through it and his gaze was unfocused.

"Where's mommy?" Ellie asked quietly. Her father held out his arm and motioned with his hand for her to come to him. She pattered across the cold floor and leaned on his knee. He smiled at her weakly and tucked a puff of bead-head behind her ear. Suddenly he looked past her and she turned to see Eric standing in the doorway. He looked upset, his expression angry. Their father beckoned to him too and he came and stood at the far side of the square table. Satisfied by this, their father sighed and turned back to Ellie.

He smiled tiredly again and stroked her hair as he said, "I'm afraid mommy's a bit upset right now. Eric's turning out to be a mutant was a bit of a shock for her," he looked down at the table "so she's gone to stay somewhere nearby to sort things out." He finished kind of lamely.

"Why'd she have to go away to do that?" asked Eric, he sounded skeptical.

"Well," said their father, not looking at Eric, "Mommy and daddy are having a hard time agreeing on something kind of important so she's gone away somewhere quiet to try and figure out an arrangement that will work out for all of us" he ruffled Ellie's hair again. "Don't worry you'll still see her lots."

Eric was still frowning as he silently walked away to get some things for making toast

It was decided that Eric and Ellie would start being home schooled by there father, and excellent and willing teacher. Neither minded since both were new at their current school and had no close friends. After about a month their parents' divorce was successfully filed and carried out. There was a question about Elaine's custody because her mother wanted Elaine to live with her. Their father; however, managed to convince the judge to leave her in his custody due to the fact that Elaine could also someday develop a mutation. She still visited her mother often, she had moved, eventually, in with her sister a half an hour's drive away and her father would take her there and pick her up. Eric came too, at first, but he never left the car when they got to their aunt's and eventually he stopped coming altogether.

Yay! Prologue Over! Now For The Meat Of The Story! I Swear The Rest Of It Will Be A Lot More Interesting, I Promise!!! Reviews Are MEGA Hearted So Please Review!!!