Chapter 1: The Institute
"Artie," Storm said getting my brother's attention after he stuck his tongue out at a little girl, "not here."
"Artie, you can't do that around humans. You can only do that around people like us, Okay?" I said looking down at him. He nodded and we followed Storm and the other students to the next exhibit. We were half way through having Storm explain the exhibit when I noticed that everyone around us had stopped. Turning around I spotted Rogue, Bobby, and John a few yards away from us. There was a boy frozen on the floor with ice crystals on his arm.
"Storm." I called over my shoulder. She automatically walked over to me and I pointed to Rogue and the boys. We all walked over to them and saw the professor. After giving John a little lecture we all left and headed back to the institute.
"What was all that about?" I asked when we got back.
"What else did you guys expect me to do? That asshole took my lighter." John said as he glared at Rogue and Bobby.
"You could have gotten all of us in trouble. You need to think before you act, before you end up getting yourself killed." Bobby yelled.
"Guys stop it. This isn't going to solve anything, Okay? Let's just go to class." I said stepping between them.
"Fine. I don't need to waste my time with him anyway." John said as he turned to walk away.
"What did you just say?" Bobby said through clenched teeth. Getting fed up with their arguing I decided it was time for me to actually step in. I saw Bobby's hand start to coat in ice and I held my hand up in front of him as it burst into flames.
"Don't even think about it, Bobby. You may be able to put his fire out, but you can't extinguish mine." I said firmly. Knowing that I was right he stopped and walked away with Rogue at his side. Drawing the fire back in I quickly followed John to our class. As we listened to the professor talk about the book we read the week before John kept looking over at me. After a few minutes of watching me he took out a notebook and started writing; I thought he had finally decided to take notes. When he handed me the paper I looked at him in confusion and he motioned that I was supposed to unfold it. I slowly unfolded it and read what it said.
John's Note
Hey Alex sorry about Bobby. He doesn't know how to chill out. Actually I wanted to ask you something. See I've liked you since you came here and I wanted to ask you if you'd maybe like to go out with me?
End Note
Smiling I looked over at him and nodded. I could tell just from the expression on his face I could tell that he had been hoping I would say yes. When we left class he walked up beside me and eagerly took my hand.
"You seem happy." I said with a smile. He simply looked over at me and smiled. That night the professor sent Jean and Storm on a mission to find a mutant who had attacked the president while he and Scott went to pay Magneto a visit. After making sure Artie was in bed I walked down stairs to the kitchen and grabbed a soda out of the cabinet.
"Can't sleep?" Bobby asked as I sat on the counter beside him.
"No, I'm just not tired." I said chugging half of my soda in one swig. After a minute I heard someone walk up to the door and turned around to see a guy I'd never met before looking through the fridge.
"Doesn't anybody sleep around here?" He asked as he searched the fridge, no doubt for a beer.
"Nope." I said before downing the rest of my soda. As he continued to search for a beer I couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?" He asked turning around to look at me.
"This is a school, you're not gonna find any beer. If you want something to drink there's sodas in the little cabinet over there." I said pointing to the cabinet I had gotten my soda out of.
"Can you get me one too?" I asked holding up my empty bottle and throwing it into the trash can at the other side of the room. He tossed me another soda before walking over to us and handing Bobby the bottle to cool it off. We sat there for a little while and talked before Logan stopped and told us to be quiet. He quickly walked out of the room and Bobby and I waited for him to come back. I was facing the window and Bobby was leaning against the counter with his back to the door, so neither of us noticed the man walk into the kitchen until we turned around and Logan killed him. As soon as I noticed that the man had a gun and I heard more footsteps throughout the house I jumped off the counter and ran for the door.
"Artie!" I called as I ran into the main hall. As soon as I stepped out of the kitchen I saw more men. There had to be at least fifteen of them just on the bottom floor and all of the students rooms were upstairs.
"Bobby, keep her here." Logan ordered before taking off and killing all of the men on the first floor. As soon as they were all dead I broke out of Bobby's grip and ran up the stairs. As soon as I got to the top I heard a piercing scream and fell to the ground in pain. It only lasted a few seconds before the house suddenly went silent followed by the sound of students frantically trying to find safety. I ran down the hall to Siryn's room just in time to see Colossus throw two guys through a wall.
"Peter, have you seen Artie?" I asked frantically. He shook his head no and I ran out of the room. The halls slowly emptied of students and I made my way to Artie's room. When I saw that he wasn't there I ran around to make sure he wasn't in any of the other rooms and there were no students still inside. On the way I ran into John, Rogue, and Bobby. As we tried to get out the front door more men came in and I thought we were done for. Before they could shoot us Logan jumped down from the top floor and took them out. We all raced to find the exit, but when we ran into more men Logan was too worn out to take care of them.
"Stay back." I told John and the others as I stepped toward the men. Making sure my friends were far enough back I let my powers loose and my body was automatically engulfed in flames. When the men shot at me the needles they were shooting melted before they could even get near me. Getting fed up with them shooting at me I directed all of the fire to my hands and threw it at them. As they tried to get away from it we took off for the secret exit. After having to force Logan to follow us we made it to the garage and took Scotts car.
"Logan, did you see any of the students get out?" I asked as he drove.
"Yeah, Colossus got most of the students out through the tunnels." He said.
"Did you see Artie with them?" I asked hoping he would say yes. Looking back at me in the rear view mirror I knew he hadn't gotten out with the others, so the men had taken him. Sitting back in my seat I tried to stay calm as John hugged my and tried to comfort me. Eventually I fell asleep and woke up when we got to Bobby's parents house in Boston. He managed to find all of us some clothes, but I didn't need any. In my panicked search of all of the rooms I had managed to grab my back pack and fill it with clothes and other things I knew we would all need.
"Here Rogue, you can wear these." I said handing her a pair of blue jeans and I black long sleeved shirt. When she was done getting dressed I handed her a pair of black leather gloves and gave her a pair of sneakers to wear. I had packed two outfits for each of us, so I picked one and quickly changed. I ended up wearing a blood red tank top with a black button up vest over it and black skinny jeans. For shoes I went with my combat boots. As I walked down stairs to the living room I pulled on my fingerless black biker gloves and put my dog collar on. It amazed me that people at the institute didn't think I was weird because of the way I dressed. As I got to the bottom steps I looked to the side and saw Bobby and the others talking to his parents and brother.
"We still love you it's just this mutant problem is complicated." His mom said.
"If you love him then tell him the truth instead of lying to his face." I said stepping up beside John.
"Excuse me?" She said looking up at me.
"You may say that you still love him, but you're fucking terrified of him. You're terrified of all of us. Xavier Institute helps us learn to control our powers and use them for good, but you think he'll be like the mutants on TV. You think he'll end up being a mutant that kills people. We may all be mutants, but how we use our powers is up to us. It's our decision whether we're good or bad, and Bobby wants to be good." I said. I could tell that they didn't like me at all, but I didn't care; if they really loved their son they would accept him no matter what.