Flight of the Rogue
Chapter One: Events Derailed
Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.
Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit"
Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from teh comics. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources. Also, this is set in the same universe as my story "To be a Hero: Family"
A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.
Three days ago
Rogue ran to her home, or at least tried to, before realizing that this was the way to Cody's house.
'Oh, Gawd, what is happening to me?' she thought as a torrent of memories that felt like her own tried to drown her. Memories from Cody, the boy who she had kissed... and nearly killed with that kiss. Somehow she managed to push them away as she ran to her home, to Irene, the woman who had been like a mother to her. She was about to ring the doorbell when Irene opened the door.
"Come in, Rogue. We have to talk." Irene said, looking at her with her sightless eyes.
Rogue gulped but she nodded, before crossing the doorstep and as Irene closed the door, she grabbed her hand, to Rogue's surprise.
"Irene!? No!" Rogue said, feeling how she was starting to drain the older woman.
"Sorry Rogue... but this... is the... only... way..." Irene said, fainting as she said the last word, and Rogue started to scream as she started to get assaulted by the memories of Irene, as well as a number of strange images.
She let go of the older woman hand as she fell down on her knees. If Cody's memories had been difficult to put aside, Irene's were almost overwhelming. As she stood the assault of memories from the older woman, she came to realize a few things about Irene and herself, pieced together from what Irene knew. Although it wasn't until the images started to vanish, when she could start to think on those realizations.
She was a mutant, with the power to absorb memories and powers of other mutants by mere touch. And what was more important right now, she had to get out of town post-haste. She hadn't got all what Irene knew, but she had learned that people were coming for her, and she didn't want to deal with other mutants or with anti-mutant terrorists until she got a hold on her powers and herself.
Looking around, she noticed a backpack on the dining room table. When she went to examine it, she saw that most of her clothes were there, as well as enough money to last her for a while. Silently she thanked Irene, as she took some clothes to cover almost every expanse of exposed skin and took the backpack with her.
She moved Irene, slowly as the older woman was a bit taller than her, and left her sitting in her favorite armchair, still unconscious. She knelt beside the armchair, looking at Irene, thinking of something to say, but nothing came to mind.
"See yah, Irene... Ah hope" she simply said, getting out of the house in silence and going to the nearby bus stop. A bus stopped shortly afterwards and Rogue boarded it, lost in thought. As the bus left the town, she didn't notice the car that entered town, going directly toward Irene's home.
/\
Mystique, in the guise she always used when she visited this town, parked her rental car in front of the home of her old friend, Irene Adler. She was worried; Irene had called her half an hour ago, telling her to come to talk to her before trying to recruit Marie. She had left Sabretooth, Toad and Avalanche with instructions to distract the X-Men... and now Irene wasn't answering the phone.
She stood before the door, steeling herself for whatever could she find and then opened the door with her key. To her relief, Irene was there, trying to stand up.
"Irene, what happened? Why did you call me?" Mystique asked "Where is Marie?"
"We must go, Raven. We are not safe here." Irene said, still wobbly on her feet, "I'll tell you everything on the way."
"Irene, Where... is... Marie?" Mystique repeated, fearing that her friend and former lover's wits had been addled.
"I send her away." Irene said, looking at her with a grim expression, "I'll explain later, we must go! NOW!"
They quickly got into the car, just in time as two black vans appeared on both sides of the street. As she started the car, the vans maneuvered to block her way in front and behind.
"Fuck it!" Mystique said under her breath as she put the car in the highest gear, pushed the gas pedal to the max and turned the wheel to cross the garden of the house, just as the side doors of the vans slide open and men in black commando gear carrying submachine guns jumped out of it.
Mystique and Irene put their heads down as the car was peppered with bullets. Fortunately none of them hit the two women as Mystique steered the car, blindly trying to get away until the car fell into the Mississippi.
The head of the commando force took his radio and opened a channel.
"Sir, two of the targets fell into the river." The man said.
"Who?" answered their boss.
"The seer and the shapeshifter. Their ward seems to have disappeared after draining a local teen to an inch of his life." The man explained.
"Search on the riverside. The shapeshifter have survived worse." The boss said, "And remember, I want that bitch alive!"
"Yes, sir!" the man said, adding as a farewell, "Humanity forever!"
/\
Mystique got Irene out of the water and practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her. Soon, she was coughing out the water she had swallowed escaping the car, and it was no long before she could stand.
"We are not safe yet. They are probably patrolling the riverside to see if they can spot..." Mystique started to say.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, smurfette." A voice said, as several men clad in black appeared around them, aiming their weapons at them. He then stepped into view, revealing a well-built blonde man in his late thirties, clad in the same commando gear than the rest of his fellows. He looked at them and smirked.
"You know, the boss has said that he wants the blue bitch alive, but he said nothing of the old bat." He said, aiming his sub-machinegun to Irene. "For the matter he didn't say the blueberry had to be unharmed." He added, before pulling the trigger in his weapon.
The bullet exited the cannon and stopped in mid air, the commandos stood there dumbfounded for a moment before their weapons were jerked away from their hands by some invisible force. The weapons floated over then, their shape twisting until they reformed into manacles, which put themselves on their arms. They only had a moment to look at them before they, except for the man who had fired, were removed from the scene by that same invisible force.
Then, a man clad in a red and black bodysuit, wearing a purple cape and wearing a strange helmet that obscured his face descended from high.
"Hello, Magneto." Mystique said "Don't tell me, Sabretooth called as soon as I was gone."
"Yes." Magneto said bluntly, before explaining, "You can be erratic on occasions, Mystique, especially when family is involved." He then turned to the man. "Do you know who I am, human?"
"Just another abomination against God's plan. And a kike, to boot." And he spit on his face "We'll clean your filth from the face of the Earth."
Magneto cleaned the spittle from his face and looked at the man with a bemused expression.
"Some things never change." He said, before his expression become hard. "Who do you work for?"
To his surprise the man laughed.
"Do your worst, mutie." The man said "You'll never make me talk!"
"Useless." Magneto said, flicking his wrist and throwing him toward the others. He then turned to face Mystique.
"Mystique, you were supposed to recruit your adopted daughter for the Brotherhood, now that he has discovered her mutant powers." He said, "What has changed?"
"Everything, Erik." Irene said, before Mystique could say anything, "I saw a new timeline, shortly after I saw the original one." she paused for a moment, before adding, "Believe me, letting her go will do a lot more good than recruit her."
"Hmmph... We'll see." Magneto said, hovering there for a moment before reaching a decision, "I'll let her go away... for the moment." He added before he flew away.
"But what did you see in her future, Destiny." Mystique asked, once Magneto was well out of earshot.
"Thunder and lightning." Irene answered cryptically.
A bus going North, somewhere in Mississippi
Marie, or Rogue, that was the name she liked more, anyway, waited until they had left the town well behind to check the backpack that Irene had left her. She had already noticed the clothes and the money, now she found a few bags of her favorite snacks and a letter.
She took the letter gingerly and looked it over. It was written by Irene, no doubt, her precise and elegant handwriting was impossible to mistake with anyone else. She had asked once how did she manage to write so well being blind, Irene had smiled mysteriously and answered 'Practice.' Of course now she knew the truth, she was using her powers to cheat.
Sighing, she started to read the letter. After a greeting Irene launched into a condensed description of mutants and the X-Gene, as well as talking about herself and her own powers.
"...and that's how we came to this situation. I knew that you were a mutant, but I really didn't expect that your power would manifest when you kissed that boy, or myself having in that same moment two visions of your possible future back to back.
I won't say what would have happened to you in the other future, only that it wasn't pretty for you. I warn you, though, that I'm not infallible, so it may still come to pass. I hope that it doesn't, and I can say to you that I saw you finding happiness, as well as a point in the future where your choice of words will tip the balance on one side or another.
More immediately, though, you are being chased by people wanting to kill you by the 'crime' of being a mutant. That's why I did what I did, taking this decision for you. If we had more time, I would have explained what was going on, but we hadn't. I'm sending you to people that will protect you from them, but the path that you have to follow it's unclear, except for the first step."
According to the letter she had to get to Central City tomorrow, and look in a post office box, the key was in one of the pockets of the backpack, to get another letter with more instructions. She was torn between following Irene's instructions or not, but in the end she decided to follow this first step at least, and from there, she'll see what to do.
The rest of the letter contained a few instructions and a post-script.
"P.S.: Marie, or Rogue, as you probably have already come to call yourself, there is something else. Every power you absorb will linger in you, fading over time. That means that you may receive some visions in the next days. In that case write them down, and, please, give it to me next we'll meet in person.
P.P.S.: Check that it's me in that case!"
'As if.' She thought. She had a few hours until the bus arrived to its destination, and the events of the day had taken a toll in her. She secured the backpack, so that they'd had to wake her to steal it, and set the alarm on her Smartphone. She bundled herself and closed her eyes, soon she felt herself slipping into dreamland.
...Blood, blood everywhere. He was bleeding out, in her arms, as champions were being pushed back by an unrelenting tide of dead flesh and living metal...
...She was in another place, a city bordering a river and saw an explosion from downtown, which prompted the clouds to unleash a storm over the city. A lightning fell in a close building...
...She was elsewhere again... space? She was seeing Earth against a backdrop of stars, and a dark figure holding the world in its right hand, a hand covered by a golden gauntlet with six glowing gems...
...She was with a group, but she could only see the others dimly. A man in a dark armor stood before her. And behind him, giant robots decorated similarly to the armor...
...A blonde girl fighting creatures out of a nightmare as the ground cracked open and skeletal hands appeared on the cracks...
...A blonde girl with a cape was floating in the air before her. The vision wasn't clear enough to allow her to distinguish her features or what she was wearing. She found herself nodding and lifting herself from the ground...
She awoke. Checking the hour, it had been less than two hours since she had set the alarm. And frankly, she didn't want to fall asleep again. Instead, she started to write in her phone what she had seen.
Elsewhere
"You failed." The head of the anti-mutant group said.
"Yes, sir." The head of the commandos answered. "We didn't anticipate that the magnokinetic could be close."
The shapeshifter had escaped his grasp once again, and in his opinion it was the fault of the man in front of him. He forced himself to take a deep breath and sit back on the chair.
"Did you at least get the samples?" he said.
"Yes, sir." Said the man "We brought them to Doctor Trask, as we were ordered."
"At least it wasn't a complete waste." The boss commented "Get out of here, Trent."
TO BE CONTINUED...
