The All-American Rejects
Chapter One
Burning Up
A.N.: All characters with the exception of Elektra, Sub-Zero, Songbird, Silver, Flare, Tidal, Breeze, Verity, and anymore obvious ones are copyrighted to Marvel. I do not claim ownership. Of course, if you wanted, you could give me a Nightcrawler.
~~~~
The figures, clothed and black and creeping as quietly as they could, walked up to the edges of the house. They knew what dwelled within, and despite the lack of hostility, they didn't like it. The house looked normal enough, painted a modest white with light beige trim, but the people that lived inside were far from normal. Granted, there weren't that many, but it was only two stories.
Silently now, they drenched as much of the bottom story of the house as they could. One of them, presumably the leader because he was giving out the orders, motioned for them to step away. Despite the thick gloves on his hands, he lit a match on his first try. He threw I, with considerable ease, onto the house. The group of about ten gathered, then turned a
Inside the mansion, Cassandra awoke with a start. She was sweating heavily- but that was no shock, in the summer, that was normal- but she was sweating too much and it was too late to be this hot. Then she smelled the thick smoke and heard the crackling of flames.
"Fire!" Cassie creamed, rolling out of her bed quickly. She moved with practiced ease, grabbing her bag of clothes, money, and a false I.D. She then shrugged her roommate, Emily, awake. Emily did the same as she did, only quicker. The two ran down a hall, pounding on already-hot doors and screaming the alert. People ran out of their rooms and screamed louder, though most ran off in the interest of self-perseverance.
Vincent and Jennifer stayed behind to help them; Vincent's complete control over fire was failing even, which he couldn't understand.
"Leave!" he yelled at them, and Jennifer looked surprise and stopped her singing- which was failing to stop the flames as well- but did as he commanded. She didn't have tome to be noble; leave that to the people who weren't about to die. Picking up a new song, she flew out of a window and landed softly behind Allan, who was working to douse the flames with water. It wasn't working. She walked over to Kelly, who stood silently off to a side, white with fury and tension.
"Who's in there, Kel?" she asked her, using the nickname she knew Kelly didn't really like,
"Vincent, Kenneth, Yume, and John," she asked, and then sighed. "Oh, Jennifer, it doesn't look like they're coming out.
And so the group of outcast mutants stood as long as they dared, watching their house burn and waiting for their companions to come out. When they finally heard the sirens, they fled.
~~~~~
"Students, please assemble yourselves downstairs," Xavier's voice rang out. Despite the incredibly late hour, they all hurried to oblige. Gathered in front of him in their pajamas and yawning, they looked very little like formidable fighters. But Xavier knew they were and could be.
"I was watching the news," he said, and looking at the confused faces, he sighed. "Insomnia. Or, rather, a sense of foreboding." They listened patiently for his next words. "As it turns out, a house in Florida has just burned down." He said, looking around expectantly at the X-Men.
"Well, why did it burn down? Couldn't they stop the fire?" Jean Grey asked the obvious question in a rude voice that was quite unbecoming to her. Xavier sighed.
"It was no accident. The firemen were not alerted until over an hour after the fire started. As it turns out, it was a home where a group of mutants lived. Had one of them not woken up, they all would have died." He said.
"Were their any deaths?" Kitty Pryde, a.k.a. Shadowcat asked him timidly.
"Four," he replied. "But what's important is that it was intended that all of them die. This was not a random act of daring or aggression. This was planned violence against mutants, and police will purposely fail to point out that this was intended murder." Kurt, also commonly called Nightcrawler, sighed.
"They will say we are not humans, so human rights do not extend to us, correct?" he asked. There was no need for an answer.
"I was going to send Logan after them, but I think that seeing people their age happy and accepted will convince them better. Any volunteers?" he asked.
"What are their names? Do they have codenames like us?" Jean Grey asked. Xavier looked up.
"Well, the few that I've been able to receive extensive information on are Emily, codename Elektra, Kelly, codename Flare, Jennifer, codename Songbird, Vincent, codename Flame, Pierre, codename Tidal, and Spike, codename Draconis." He told them.
"Why were you able to get extensive information on them?" Rogue asked, curious.
"Criminal records." He said simply. "Flare has kleptomaniac tendencies, Elektra has been known to re-route electricity, causing mass mayhem and a distraction for her friends, Draconis, Tidal, and Songbird have been known to commit random acts of vandalism- nothing too bad, mostly just graffiti- and Flame set a building on fire once, though I have reasons to believe that was an accident." Xavier replied, seemingly calm.
"Do you feel safe about letting a kleptomaniac in our home?" Scott, or Cyclops, asked.
Xavier nodded. "I have reasons to believe their violent and rebellious behavior will cease once they are accepted rather than shunned. I know there are more with them; please try to find them all. I still need to know if any of you are willing to go. It may take a few days, to warn you." Kurt, Kitty, and Rogue's ears perked up when they realized they might miss school.
"We'll go," they said simultaneously after sharing a brief glance. Xavier simply nodded and told them to pack light.
~~~~~
"C'mon," Kelly, or Flare, as you now know, whined. "We need money. I won't get caught this time. I swear!" she continued, glancing at the wealthy woman's purse.
"No way," Amy, codename Silver, said almost instantly. "We've still got money. Besides, do you really think you won't get caught?" she asked. "We've got to lie low. Live like humans," she whispered. Flare pouted.
"Who said I was going to use my powers?" she sulked. "I want something to steal…" she whined again. Elektra slapped her, then mock-sighed.
"Oh, the life of having a kleptomaniac for a friend," she said in a playfully woeful tone. Flare clenched her fist threateningly.
"Don't make me flare you," she said, "'Cause you know I can!" she continued, her sulking forgotten. Pierre or Tidus as he liked to be called, stepped between them as the train rocked steadily.
"No fighting," he said firmly. "That's what got Vincent killed," he added as an after note to Flare, who immediately put her fist down and flopped miserably into a plush seat. She slouched and her dark hair fell in a curtain, hiding her face.
"We all miss him," Spike, or Draco as he wanted to be called because it was short for "Draconis", which as you might know means dragon in Latin, told her. "But what about the others? Yume's dead, too, and you don't see me acting like the world's over," he continued. Flare looked up and spoke softly.
"Vince was my world," Flare said. "And now he's gone." She whispered and hugged herself.
"Oh, come on," Elektra said. "He would have wanted you to be happy. He died trying to save Yume. Destiny knew they were going to die. She told us, remember? We thought she was playing."
Cassie walked into the room. Despite the cold temperatures, she wore a tank top and denim skirt that ended right above her knees. She did, however, wear navy blue silk gloves that reached to her elbows.
"Yo, Subby!" Flare said cheerfully. Cassie glared.
"Hey, Frosty!" Tidal said. "We're roasting over here. Come sit here." He said playfully.
"It's Sub-Zero." She pointed out. Elektra snorted.
"That's the name of a character in Mortal Kombat," she pointed out. Sub-Zero ignored her.
Magneto watched the teenagers inside the train, though he couldn't hear them. He knew who they were anyways. The tan girl with blonde hair and shocking purple eyes was Emily, or Elektra. The one with dark hair- it looked black, but when the light hit it, the highlights were red, and he knew it was dyed anyways- and pale skin and angry crimson eyes was Kelly, or Flare. The boy with an average skin tone and light brown hair was Pierre, or Tidal. The girl with long, black hair but an icy-blue streak on the right side could only be Cassie, or Sub-Zero. The black boy with black hair was obviously Draconis, whose 'real' name was Spike. But where was Vincent? And where was Yume? He had been counting on them being there. More of the teenage mutants huddled in different compartments, spread out so as to not attract attention.
He couldn't recruit them; they had blasted morals. He flew away, vowing to try later.
~~~~~~~~
Kurt, Rogue, and Kitty waited at the train station patiently. They knew whom to look for, but they were nervous. If the teenagers resisted them, then they might have problems. Finally, they saw tow of the people they were looking for. It was hard to miss them, considering their shocking blonde hair and black hair with an icy-blue streak. Not exactly normal. Then Kurt saw Flare. Some guy was shaking her shoulders, telling her to 'snap out of it'.
She was beautiful in a sort of sorrowful way. Seeing Kitty heading towards Elektra and Sub-Zero, he said he'd go get Flare and Flame. But as he got closer, he saw that the boy was not Flame; nor was the boy behind Flare. Both were mutants, though, he could tell.
"Where's Flame?" he asked Flare before introducing himself. She looked startled.
"Who… are you?" she asked quietly.
"Someone like you," he said grimly.
"Like what?" she asked him, avoiding admitting the truth. He held out his hand.
"See for yourself." He told her blandly. She reached out and softly touched his hand. He expected her to recoil from the feel of fur instead of skin under her fingertips, but instead she stroked it lightly and nodded at her companions.
"He's for real." She said then, looking at Kurt, she spoke in a flat voice.
"Flame's dead. He died in the fire."
The reason for the look of instant increased melancholy in her eyes was not lost upon Kurt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whew, it's short, but my fingers are killing me. The All-American Rejects are good inspiration. I love my characters, especially Flare. She cheers up eventually, and you meet the rest. There's a fricking lot of them, but not all of them join the X-Men.
-Knife thrower