Somewhere in a wooded clearing, a young girl woke up face down in the grass. Blinking a few times, she registered a pain in her skull, followed by a light ache in her limbs as she sat up. She was lying underneath a large maple tree at the edge of a forest near a great, dark house.
How did she get here? First, what was her full name? She concentrated, trying to force her mind to reveal something, but it remained blank.
She glanced at what she was wearing: a gray denim wrap jacket, blue T-shirt, fingerless gloves made of worn beige leather, blue jeans, and slip-on shoes. Around her neck were two pendants, a slender silver cylinder and an indigo glass circle. Holding the latter in the palm of her hand, the glass almost seemed to glow.
The silver pendant had a small black dot in the middle and one of the circular sides was a button. Pressing the button projected a holographic screen from the middle, displaying a photograph of a brunette, brown-eyed girl that she recognized as herself. Below the photo were the words.
Scout: Biological manipulation
Scout. "So that's my name," she said.
Scout hid behind a group of trees and slipped off her clothes. Inside her jacket was a pair of what she recognized as wooden fighting sticks. "122112" was etched into each of them. Nothing else was revealed, but as she slipped her clothes back on, she noticed a baseball in the grass and decided to keep it for simple entertainment.
A gust rushed by, and an upward glance at the pink clouds in the sky meant that sunset was soon. Scout realized that she was without a place to sleep. She ran out of the forest and to the front door of the dark house. Nobody answered when she rang or knocked. The front door was locked. A quick dash around the house revealed that none of the windows on the first floor were open, but a few on the second were. If only there were a way to get up there.
No sooner had the thought passed through Scout's mind that a spike of bone burst out of her right palm. She yelled at the pain but was not frightened as a familiar sensation ran through her hand and up her arm. "So this is what I can do with my mutation." She flexed the muscles in her palm and concentrated on the spike, pushing her bone cells to divide and grow until a grappling hook was formed in her hand. Aiming her right palm at the open window, she pushed the hook out of her, followed by a thin rope of cartilage. After few throws, Scout managed to get the hook onto the window ledge and retracted the cartilage rope back into her body to get up there.
Scout stumbled through the window into a bedroom. She awed at the deep purple color scheme and the richly textured furniture, and wondered what sort of beautiful woman usually slept here. While the bed looked very inviting, Scout felt it better to find a couch so that she could explain herself as soon as possible when the residents got home.
Down the stairs and into a living room, kicking a few pizza boxes out of the way, she settled on an old, musty couch that was missing cushions. For now, this will do, thought Scout as she closed her eyes.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
"Stop that," a feminine voice said in the darkness. "Don't attract attention, remember?"
Hector stopped kicking the alley wall. "It's been hours, Renée!" he seethed. "How long does Ace plan on making us wait?"
The brunette girl shushed him again and stepped out of the shadows and Hector grimaced. It was always a bit unnerving to see the pale, pretty right half of Renée's followed by the other half scarred by burns.
"Shouldn't you take off your sunglasses?" he asked. "It's getting dark out." A car rushed by the alley entrance and the bright lights made Hector flinch for a moment
Renée chuckled and shook her head. "I don't want to risk being exposed. Besides, I'm used to seeing in the dark."
Hector snorted. "Please. With that outfit and face, you're probably going to get a lot of attention anyway."
"You're one to talk," Renée hissed, brandishing a bo staff at him. "Snow white hair just screams straight and narrow, not to mention your-"
"Hey! Contacts!" Hector spat, pointing to his eyes. "Try some yourself."
"I leave you two alone for just a little while and this happens," a third voice joined the conversation as a pale young man with black hair and icy blue eyes that glowed in the darkness stepped into the alley.
"Ace! Where've you been?" Hector demanded
Ace sighed and waved a stack of twenty-dollar bills in Hector's face. He then lifted his other hand to show a bunch of stuffed plastic bags. "Grocery shopping." Hector dove for the food only to run smack into the wall as Ace stepped out of the way. "I also found a place for us to sleep for the night in a hostel." He assured them that the hostel was safe and that they would likely be able to handle any conflict that occurred.
"Any signs of Nadia?" Hector asked.
Ace shook his head in response. "We'll visit the X-Men tomorrow," he said as he led the other two out. "If anyone knows where to find her or help us, it'll be them."
When Hector wondered out loud whether Forge would be at the X-Mansion to help them home, "We'll see," was Ace's only reply.
Scout was woken from her nap by the sound of a car engine. As she turned her head towards the noise, she could pick up bits of conversation.
"We should do this more often," a deep, bullish voice spoke.
Burglars? Her heart drummed in her chest and she tried to form a spike in her palm, her shaking hands making it difficult.
"Man, Freddy," said a nasally guy. "I thought that guy was gonna piss himself."
"Given how much we spent tonight," a bored girl drawled, "you'd think he'd be grateful."
"Guys, guys," said a young man with authority. "It's just McDonald's."
"Best meal in weeks!" said the nasally one.
When she heard the lock rattle and the door creak open, Scout closed her eyes and braced herself. "Well, considering how much this cost us," said who she guessed to be their leader, "we can do this once a week, tops."
No, they live here. Scout's heart rate lowered and she closed her eyes again as her spike retreated back into her hand, but she still shivered.
"Since when are you so responsible?" It was a new voice, reedy but still masculine.
"I'm in charge here."
"Uh, hello? Whose father sends us the money?"
"Listen, Pietro, I don't-"
"You guys!" The girl whispered.
Caught. There were indecipherable murmurs and Scout could feel their footsteps as they walked into the living room and surrounded the couch. A hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder, and Scout hoped they didn't notice her shaking. She opened her eyes to find an angry brown pair staring back at her.
"Who are you?" he said.
She knew this was going to happen, but that didn't make it any easier. Scout gulped and felt her palms become sweaty as she struggled to keep her bones beneath her skin and find the words. "I- My name is Scout," she croaked.
The young brunette man leaned back a bit but kept a firm grip on her shoulders, "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know," Scout blurted out. "I just woke up outside this house and I can't remember anything. I just- it was getting dark and cold out and I just needed a place to sleep."
"How do you know your own name?"
His grip tightened a bit when Scout's hands moved, but she grasped her silver pendant and pressed the button. He started a bit when the screen came up, but otherwise kept calm. The screen revealed her as a mutant, and he then asked her where the necklace came from.
"I don't know!" said Scout in frustration. "I just woke up in those woods over there with amnesia or whatever. The only clues I have to my identity are this necklace and these Eskrima sticks." She sat up and the young man removed his hand from her shoulder as she took off her jacket and showed him the sticks.
The raven-haired girl in red spoke up. "So you don't remember your past, but you know about martial arts?"
Something flickered in her mind, but it wasn't how she knew martial arts. Releasing a childish giggle, Scout said, "Come to think of it, I also have five hundred digits of pi memorized."
A sickly-looking boy spoke up with the nasally voice, "How can we be sure you're not Mystique in disguise?" A fly buzzed by and a long, green tongue sprang out of his mouth to catch it.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Scout, a grin spreading across her face. "You can do that?"
From this reaction, the residents agreed that she was not Mystique in disguise, and from the warm expressions, Scout took this as a good thing.
"So, since I have nowhere else," Scout asked, looking the leader in the eye, "can I stay here?"
The leader sighed and took off his black fingerless gloves. "Can your powers heal this?" he asked, pointing to a gash across his palm.
Scout took his hand and, concentrating on the wound, ran a finger across it. The bloody stripe quickly gave way to new skin, and the young man sucked in a breath at what was presumably the sting. Within seconds, it was over, and there was no scar on his palm to be found. He looked over at Scout's work, nodding in approval. "All right," he said. "You can stay." He quickly introduced himself as Lance, and then pointed to the other residents one by one. The bullish one was Fred, the sickly one Todd (but everyone called him Toad), the girl Wanda, and the reedy one Pietro.
"Shouldn't I get a say in whether she stays or not?" Pietro protested. "I mean, won't this affect Dad's money?"
"Having a medic around means less money spent at CVS," Lance responded. Wanda nodded in agreement while Toad entertained Scout by flicking his tongue at more flies. Lance gestured for Scout to follow him as he led her upstairs. "You can stay in this one." He opened the door to a sparsely decorated bedroom that also served as a storage area, judging by the mountain of boxes.
Scout nodded. "Thank you, Lance."
Lance grunted and went back downstairs. As soon as he was out of sight, Scout shut the door and made a running leap for the bed. She kicked off her shoes and socks and sank down into the mattress, curling and stretching, marveling at how soft and fluffy and clean it was compared to the ground and to the couch. Within minutes, she fell asleep.
Hector tossed and turned in the bunk bed at the hostel. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see Nadia running from the group. No, running away from him, and striking him for good measure. If she weren't so stupid, they would all be home right now.
The light snoring from the bed above told him that Renée was asleep. Ace had gone out again, and when he returned, he would likely have another stack of twenties. Letting out a deep sigh, Hector reached over into his bag and pulled out a circular metal disk. With the push of a button, the center of the disk turned and a screen projected.
364:15:11:32.16
Hector stared at the countdown clock until his eyelids felt heavy. He turned off the disk and placed it back in his bag and struck the mattress, his head heavy against the pillow.