Hi Everyone! Just a quick note/disclaimer. I DO NOT, and probably WILL NEVER own X-Men (although, how cool would that be?) The only person in this fanfiction that i own is Maria. I don't even own her last name, though. J.K Rowling does. :) This is my first fanfiction that i ever ended up doing well on, or at least gotten farther than the first chapter, so bear with me, review, and please don't let MissSparks be the only one that reads this!
Ok, just a note before we start-i WILL butcher everyone's accent! Insert your own accent! I can't type them!
I was just getting ready for breakfast as a four-point throwing star came whirring past my head and impaled itself in a tree, barely missing my head. I jumped to my feet, tensing as I analyzed where the attack had come from. I didn't have to wait long before a second star came out from the bushes, towards my throat. I rolled to the right then charged, effectively dodging more stars as I brought out my two hunting knives, each one as long as my arm. I began blocking stars with my knives as I ran towards the bushed and cut off branches to see my attacker.
It was a young assassin again, always young these days. I sighed as I implanted my knife where his heart is. If he has a heart, I thought grimly. I heard more voices in my head, the way I sometimes did. I recognized this day now that I was wide awake. I turned 14 today.
I sheathed my knives and went back to my breakfast. I never got more than one attack per day, and it was kind of entertaining to listen to the voices I hear inside my head. They were saying things like "She turns 14." "Is today the day" and that voice that replies to it "Yes. In a few hours."
This caught my attention. I had never heard anything about today being 'the day'. Come to think of it, I didn't know what 'the day' even is. I shook the thought out of my mind as I began my daily stretches and stances. My light, long reddish blonde hair glowed in the sunlight, flowing to my waist, and my deeply tanned skin glowed and tightened over my muscles as I prepared for the exercises of today. I always took hours out of my day to make way for practicing. I was raised to practice, so I would show no mercy in a battle. They had trained me well. I began in the motion that I had practiced so many times, and flowed almost effortlessly from one movement to the next in a way that made is seem almost too easy to perform. Yet it wasn't. By the time I finished every day I was covered in sweat, since I never let myself stop until it was physically impossible for me to go on.
I was just finishing for the day when the trees around me faded. I looked around in shock when it was replaced by a circular chamber made out of some kind of…stone? No, that couldn't be it. It looked more like what my knives were made of. I took one out to compare it…or tried. My knives were no longer slung across my back. Where had they gone? I looked around, disoriented, to see a man in a white sort of coat on.
"Maria." He said. My eyes widened. His voice was one of the voices in my head. Without thinking, I snapped out my fist and caught him on the jaw. He looked surprised and kept coming, so I gave him a roundhouse kick to the head and he went down like I did the first time I tried to fight a master at kung fu.
I looked around again, making a 360 sweep, and came to a decision fast—I needed to get out of here. I ran towards a place that didn't look as stable as the other places, jumped against the piece of the wall, and it came free, opening for me. I heard voices behind me shouting, but I didn't care. As soon as I got out of the opening, I found myself in a long, rectangular room. I ran down one side, ran against the wall again, and found myself outside. I blinked, smiling and enjoying the sunlight, thinking I was back, but I realized how wrong I was.
Where am I was the first coherent words my mind was able to form. What was this place? How did I get here? Why did I come here? Who were those guys back in that place? What happened?
I eventually realized that I needed food and water. I couldn't make food for myself, though. I stopped in front of a big building that said Orphanage on it. Whatever that meant. I hope they don't kick me out for being out front. Eventually a woman came outside with a large black sack of some sort that smelled horrible. She put the sack into a black container on the side of the black ground that only went in straight lines. She took one look at me and smiled kindly. "Hello. What are you doing here at this time? Shouldn't a cute girl like you be having dinner with your family?"
Wary as I was, I decided that I could take her if things got rough and I replied, "I have no family."
Her eyes instantly softened and she said, "Well, you came to the right place. We take in orphans like you no matter what." Oh, so that is what an orphan is. "Come on in, dear. What is your name?"
"Maria Kasai Ravenclaw." I knew now that this woman meant me no harm, so I followed her inside. It was a cool place, but I didn't know much about what was here. I mean, the food wasn't hunted. I got two 'sausages', whatever those are, in a little thing called a 'package'. Was it normal for people to eat this easily? Then the woman, named Mrs. White, showed me my room, along with the 5 people I would be sharing the room with. For such a big 'house', it sure was packed.
"Girls." Mrs. White announced, opening the door, "I have you a new roommate. Girls, this is Maria Kasai Ravenclaw. I'll leave you to introduce yourselves and show Maria around the orphanage." She left, and for a moment there was an awkward silence. Then the girl directly in front of me said, "Welcome to the orphanage. I'm Alex, and this is Tessa, Lily, Breanna and Nicki."
Alex had long blonde hair, as did Tessa and Nicki, but Lily and Breanna both had shoulder length dark brown locks. Alex, Lily and Nicki had brown eyes, but Breanna and Tessa had gray eyes. All of them seemed really nice, and they showed me around, as promised, and all of them had loved it when I confirmed to them that I had named myself after a Harry Potter house ( I didn't know what that was ), but we went to bed pretty early. We were all tired. I wondered if anything would ever get better.
I was happy with how great this life was. I didn't have to fight every time I wanted to eat in peace, and I had 3 friends. 6 months had passed, and Breanna and Tessa had both found new homes, but Alex, Lily, Nicki and I still had a great time. One day Mrs. White came into out room and told us that a family was coming for a fourteen or fifteen year old girl. The four of us went out to greet the family, and I wondered which one of us would leave this time.
"These are the Prices." Mrs. White said. Then she turned to the family, "Do you see one in particular?"
"Yes, we do." Said the woman, after consulting with her husband. Then she said, "What are their names?" Mrs. White named us, and the woman said, "Maria, would you like to come live with us?" I was stunned, but I guess I nodded, because I went up to my room with the other three to get packed. I hugged Alex, said good-bye to the other two, and I was off.
I loved their house, and their adopted son, Matthew. He took an immediate liking to me and we played together every day. I was enrolled in a high school, where I excelled academically, and I finally felt like I belonged.
Three more years passed, and my relationship with Matthew did not change. We were as inseparable as paper and glue. I helped him learn to ride a bike, and I took him skating when I got my driver's license. I understood more and more about this strange culture, but I still frequently asked questions. I loved going to school, since it gave me a chance to run around. I am a feisty person, but I can contain myself. One day, at school, I had just dropped off Matthew at school when I started to feel really weird. I thought that it would pass, and went on to school anyway. At school, I was met by lots of people asking me what I did to my hair.
"What? I didn't do anything to my hair." I replied, bewildered. My friends said my skin looked darker too. "I guess it's a trick of the light." I replied, shrugging. By afternoon, I really didn't feel good, so I left school and went home.
The next day came, an off day for Matthew, so I got to school early. I stayed in my car as long as I could, and then I went outside to greet my friends. I tapped Alex, who had come to this school this year, on the shoulder, and as she spun around, laughing, to greet me, her smile froze and slid off her face. "What was so funny?" I asked, smiling. Alex backed away, and as I looked from one person to another, everyone else was backing off too.
"What?" I asked, frowning. "What's up with you?" Alex thrust a mirror on the ground at my feet, and as I picked it up, my arm was black. Startled, I looked into the hand mirror and nearly cried out. My hair was a dark, fiery shade of red that would have been okay, except for the fact that my skin was a mottled black color. This time a cry did escape my lips as I saw my eyes. They had no whites, no pupils—they were just the same shade of red as my hair, but a fraction of a shade lighter. I instantly gasped, shocked at my own reflection, and looked up from where I was kneeling on the grass to see the jerk Rich and his cronies around me in a triangle formation. I stood up, brushed myself off and stared him in the eyes. "What do you want, Rich?" I growled.
"I want to make you sorry you were born." He sneered. His two thugs chuckled. Those dorks.
"Too late, Rich. Been there, done that." I sighed wearily.
That was the wrong thing to say. Without a word, Rich punched me so hard in the face I saw stars. I was going to have a nasty, bruised cheek later. He kept on punching me: stomach, ribs, face, ribs again, and when I threw up my hands in an attempt to ward off his blows, I felt a pulsing heat through my arms and a wave of fire left my hands and shot towards Rich and his buddies. They screamed and ran, while I ran in the opposite direction, mortified. I had to get home to see what was going on.
When I got home, apparently my adopted parents had gotten a phone call of some sort, because once they saw me, they wouldn't come near me. It wasn't just my appearance. It was the story of what happened to Rich getting out. Matthew, on the other hand, ran towards me, obviously not caring that I suddenly had mottled black skin, and cried, "Ria! You're home!" I twirled him around, glad that someone was there for me, even if that someone was only 7 years old. My parents weren't too happy, though.
"Put him down before you hurt him!" My father's voice rumbled across the room. My head snapped up as I replied defiantly, "Why should I? He's my brother! He wants me to hold him!"
"Do as I say!" He roared. Anger seemed to run through my veins instead of blood, and before I could stop it, fire ran out of my hands and, before my horror-struck eyes, my beloved brother caught fire. "Matthew!" I screamed as I tried to stop the flow of fire. Although I put him down, the fire was connected to him, igniting him even more. He was crying and screaming, but putting his arms out to me. Knowing that there was nothing we could do to save him, I gathered him into my arms in a tight hug once more so he could say "I love you, Ria." weakly with his final, dying breath.
As soon as Matthew was gone, my flame was too. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I realized what I had done. I had killed my own brother. I had killed my life and joy. My adopted parents were staring at me in shock, and I said, "Dad…"
"NO!" He roared. "I am NOT your father! You have made it clear how much you love us. LEAVE this house! NOW!" I stumbled out of the house, crying and blurry-eyed. Where would I go? Where could I go? I ended up going to a deserted old alley at dusk to wait for light to come again. There, where no one could see me, I put my face in my hands and I sobbed.
I stopped crying abruptly when I heard footsteps less than 30 feet from where I was. I heard a male voice, accented with something definitely European—German?—say, "Is this her, Storm?"
The replying voice was a woman's, saying softly, "Yes, Kurt. I'll go talk to her." I heard footsteps, and a soft beam of a flashlight fell on me. I screamed, "No! Don't come near me! You'll just run away! They all ran away." My voice broke on the last word, and I fought to keep myself from crying. I felt a smooth, soft hand on my shoulder, and when I looked at it my hair covering my face, it was normal skin. I heard her say to me, "Maria, don't worry. I won't run away. I'm like you."
"You're lying!" I yelled at her, my voice slightly muffled by my hair. "You aren't like me! You don't need to hide your face because people are scared of the way you look! You'll never know how it feels! I'm a freak!" My voice broke again.
"Oh." She said softly, understanding. "Kurt, I think that you would convince her better than I can." She walked away, drawing her hand back, only to be replaced by another hand. The European? Kurt's accented voice replaced the woman's. "Maria, you don't have to be scared of me being afraid of you, I promise. You vant to know vhy?"
"Because you're a guy that thinks that he can take anything?" I said, arousing a small chuckle from Kurt. He replied, "No." Then put his fingers under my chin and gently forced my face up so I can look at him. What I felt, before what I saw, is what made me gasp. His fingers were covered with some sort of fur. The texture was remarkable. Then I saw him. His skin was covered in blue fur, like his fingers. He even had a tail! "Did people ever run away from you?" I asked softly.
"At first." He replied, just as softly, "But I learned to deal with it, and so can you. I think that this helped, though." He added as an afterthought, and pushed a button on his watch. Instantly, his blue fur was replaced by smooth human skin, and his blue hair changed to a darker blue-black. I was alone once again.
"You can be normal too?" I nearly wailed. I thought that this guy, Kurt, was like me. Was anyone like me? "No." He quickly disabled his watch, understanding my distress. "It's just an illusion. I really have blue fur."
"What do you want with me?" I asked. "If you're a scientist, you better stay out of my head or I swear I will break out again." My voice gained an edge. "We aren't scientists." The woman—Storm—walked up to us, but stepped back once again as my eyes filled with tears at the prospect of human skin. Kurt continued talking. "Ve vant you to be safe. Ve vant to bring you to a school in Vestchester county, New York. You vill be safe there, because there is a school there. A school for gifted youngsters, as we call them or as others calls them, freaks." He grimaced as he said the last words.
"There are…others…like me?" I couldn't believe it. "Vell, not exactly like you." Kurt said, crushing my hope. "But ve all have special abilities. Vill you come with us?" He stood, and then held out his hand to help me up. I began to stretch out my hand, but then snatched it back as I remembered what had happened the last time I had let someone touch me, when I lost my temper. "No!" I cried.
Kurt looked confused. "Vhy vould you not vant to be safe?" "Because I don't want to hurt anyone else." I said despairingly. I stared at my hands. "I'm a murderer. I don't want to hurt you. You've been kind, so I don't want to repay you by hurting you."
"You von't hurt me." Kurt said gently. "I von't let you hurt me or yourself." He stretched out his hand once more, and after hesitating for a moment, I took his outstretched hand and he pulled me up. "Are you sure you aren't scared of me?"
He smiled "Yes. I'm sure. Do I scare you?" I replied without thinking. "No, of course not. I trust you." He looked at Storm, then back at me. "Then can I do something?"
"Okay." I replied warily. Kurt grabbed my hand in one of his, and one of Storm's in the other. He said, shrugging "You know, just for the record, teleportation is possible." Then we were off.
BAMF!
Thinking back on it, it's a really good thing that Kurt didn't teleport us into the building directly—suddenly being in an enclosed space probably would have caused me to start hyperventilating. As it was, I was shocked enough. I was holding onto Kurt's hand for dear life, although as soon as I was able, I dropped it. I trusted him, but I was still wary of the two of them. "Welcome to the X mansion." Storm said, pushing the doors open.
As we strode through the entrance hall and hallways, I stayed close to Kurt's side, seeing kids who looked normal on every side. These kids had unusual powers, like me? They had normal looking skin, though! Finally, we came to a room, where we found eight people waiting for me, counting Kurt and Storm, and again, all looked normal. Kurt seemed at complete ease among them, but I still was hovering near the door, making sure I knew where the exit was, and was close to it. An old man smiled at me and said, "Hello Maria. I am Professor Xavier. How are you doing?"
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. The man closest to me was flexing his hand muscles, and something was protruding from them—were those metal claws? They glinted menacingly in the artificial light, and I started to edge away from him. Kurt noticed my line of vision and, apparently, so did the Professor. "Logan, put the claws away, she's had enough of a shock today."
The man—Logan—muttered under his breath and the claws shot back into his skin, which, of course, only added to the shock. Then the Professor returned his attention to me. "Maria, what is your full name?"
I swallowed before replying. "Maria Kasai Ravenclaw." It was an unusual name, but I loved it. It was dark, and yet somehow light. Ravenclaw was a darker name, but Kasai means fire in Japanese. I love Japanese. He nodded. "I see. I want you to tell me everything that has happened to you, today and in your past."
I was able to regain some of my fierce, defiant attitude when I said, "Well, then either introduce me to the people in this room or have them go out. I don't trust people easily." The Professor laughed softly, and then went on to say, "All right. You have already met Storm and Kurt. This is Kitty, or Shadowcat," a girl about my age with brown hair waved, "this is Scott Summers, or Cyclops," a man with awesome shades barely acknowledged his name, "Jean Grey," a auburn-haired woman said hello, "Logan, or Wolverine," the man with the claws said nothing, "Rogue." a girl with brown hair and a white streak just looked at me.
"Better." I said, then went on to tell me story. "I have never known my real parents, and don't expect to. I'm resigned to the fact that my parents are unknown. When I was born, either scientists took us away from my parents, or my parents gave me away, for money or maybe they just didn't want me. I was raised in what I now know was some sort of virtual-reality game. I thought I was in woodlands, in a time where swords, bows and arrows, and knives were chief weapons. They would let me meet others in my world, ones who would teach me in martial arts and weaponry. I bet that if you threw me a piece of rope, I would be able to kill any of you with that within a minute. They trained me to have no mercy. They trained me for reasons I didn't realize until three years ago. I was to be a weapon for someone. They called him a freak, just like me. They called him Magneto. They were going to present me to him on my fourteenth birthday, and if he was pleased I would be used for his purposes. One thing they didn't know about me was that they should have made sure that I was under their control before introducing me to the real world. I may have been shocked, but I knocked out one of the scientists, and escaped the place they had taken me.
"I was so lost when I got out of there. I had lived in dense woodlands for as long as I could remember, and suddenly I was on the streets of New York. I stumbled around all day until I came across an orphanage, where the people there welcomed me and cared for me. I made friends there, and around six months later, a family came and adopted me. I refused to change my name to Price, though. I had always been Maria Ravenclaw and I always would be. I had a loving family, a mom and a dad, and a younger brother, Matthew. I grew close to him, and I grew to love Harry Potter, chocolate, pears and kettle corn. I seriously love kettle corn. I went to school, made more friends, and everything was fine for three years…until now. Two days ago I started feeling really strange, but I brushed off the feeling, thinking it would pass. My friends thought I had dyed my hair darker, and the next day they ran away because I suddenly had black skin, red hair, and no-whites, no-pupils red eyes. Then, when the school jerks came and starting messing with me, when I threw up my hands to ward off the blows, a column of flame shot out of my hands and they were badly burned. I was shocked and needed comfort, so I did the natural thing—I went home, but my parents stopped dead when they saw me. Matthew seemed happy to see me, but my parents told me to put him down, thinking that I would intentionally hurt my brother, and I got mad and I—I—"
I couldn't go on, but I forced myself to find the strength and went on with tears sliding down my cheeks. "He caught fire, but the fire wouldn't stop! I tried everything, but he didn't blame me. He died in my arms, and my parents threw me out then and there. I would have died of misery in that alley I was in that night, but Storm and Kurt came. I wouldn't let Storm near me, though. I couldn't bear the thought of being by someone that looked normal. Kurt talked me into coming. He said that you could teach me to control my powers, even if I don't know the extent of them. Is that true, Professor?" I looked at him pleadingly and gave a sigh of relief as he nodded, eyes troubled.
"You can meet everyone else tomorrow. For tonight, we need to find you a room so you can sleep." The Professor smiled kindly at me, and Kitty spoke up, "Professor, there's an empty room next to mine that Maria can have, if she wants. I'll show her." I quickly nodded, and said goodnight to everyone as I walked after Kitty.
Kitty showed me my room, but we walked there in silence. I just wasn't in a talky mood, and Kitty left me be. I just quietly said goodnight and closed the door behind her. It was a nice room, really. It had beauty in the awesome simplicity of it. Some thoughtful person had shown up before I had arrived—the dresser had clothes my size in it. I changed swiftly into a red tank top and ripped-up denim jeans, and then sat down on my bed. There was no way I'd be able to sleep tonight. I put socks over my freezing toes and laced up some red sneakers. What was I going to do, if I wasn't sleeping? That question was answered when I heard a BAMF and a cloud of smoke appeared in my room. I gagged, but I knew who it was.
"Kurt! What are you doing here? Oh boy, are you lucky you didn't poof in here when I was changing. Haven't you heard of a little courteous thing called knocking?" I demanded in one breath. He smiled mischievously before replying. "Are you going to hurt me?" I replied heatedly, "You can't hurt a dead man, Kurt." His eyes widened, but for such a short time I thought I might have imagined it as he went on, "Vell, you seemed so down before, I thought that you might like a tour of the building, then the town, guided by yours truly. You vould have to vear this image inducer, though. The vatch like thing that made me look normal? The humans don't take too kindly to how ve appear."
I laughed, and then said, "Why not?" and that was that. We set off, and I heard Rogue arguing with someone, and Jean laughing at something another guy had said. Kurt began the tour, but I really didn't listen until he said, "And this is the kitchen." This made me immediately ask "Do they have kettle corn? Or maybe chocolate? Or both? Both would be really nice." In that rapid machine gun way of mine. I could fire out questions faster than I could shoot a bow, which was really fast, by the way, arousing a laugh from Kurt. "Maybe ve should find out." Instead of me going in with him, he teleported in, and then teleported back out with two chocolate bars. "Good enough." I said to him, taking a chocolate bar. "That teleportation really is impressive. Though I could do without the smoke." That pretty much ended the school tour, and we went down to a garage sort of place, where he directed me towards a set of keys n the key rack and walked over to a car.
"Whose car is this?" I asked suspiciously, and he replied "This is Scott's."
This is kind of how our conversation went, starting with my question. "Does he know you have it?" "Nope" "Will he be happy if we take it?" "Nuh-uh." "Is his car fast?" "Insanely." But he sounded unsure, as if I might not want to take it because of that. I contradicted him by smiling impishly and saying happily, "Well, let's go before he catches us, then! You drive." He smiled back and caught the keys I threw him with an expert throw. So it wasn't my car. Big deal. When had any of that law stuff ever applied to my life? If it had, I wouldn't be the trained combat warrior/almost weapon for unknown persona I am today. Then again, I was planning on making the unknown part of that statement known soon. I mean, Magneto? What kind of name was that? Then again, what kind of name was Cyclops?
I would dwell on that later. Now I was having a good time. "Hey, do you even have a license?" I asked. When he shook his head, I laughed and said, "I didn't think so. Carry on, but on the way back, I'm driving." He grumbled a bit, but eventually gave in. We stopped a lot of places, giving me a lot of landmarks, completely aware that I really wasn't listening. I was just enjoying being outside, but I had one question. "Are there any parks around here?" I asked, hope apparent in both my gaze and my voice, "Anywhere where there are lots of trees?" My spirits dropped when he shook his head, "Not that I know of, but ve can still see the stars if ve sit on the car."
I looked at him and said, "I guess that would be ok." As we sat up there, he broke the silence by asking, "Vhy do you vant to be near the trees so much?" I replied by saying, "I was practically born among the trees, and lived in a dense forest all my life. Or at least I had the experience of thinking I lived in trees. It was really just a hologram. Yet, I remember the sight of the trees, and sometimes they put bars in my cage that I thought were trees, so I have experience with climbing trees. I haven't been able to do that for so long now. I just miss it, that's all." I looked straight at him as I went on, "Thank you for bringing me out tonight. I really needed some time enjoying myself. I guess I'm still mourning in my heart, but this helped ease the pain. You know," I added more quietly, "I have never had a real friend before. All of those that I thought were my friends ran as soon as I…changed. Real friends wouldn't do that. I think that you're going to be my first real friend. I wonder if I knew when I was fourteen that my first friend would have pointed ears, blue fur, a tail, and be fuzzy." Kurt pushed me on the shoulder. "Really. I almost forgive you for barging in tonight." I said, my red eyes twinkling with gentle laughter. He smiled, and then stopped, "Vhat? Just almost?" I nodded, and then yawned. "We'd better be heading back now, before I collapse. You can still drive, if you don't disturb me." I smiled and shook my head as he grinned in triumph.
Ok, so like I said-don't let MissSparks be the only one that reads this! Please review!