I'm Nova part 1: The Dawson Mutant
Anyone you recognize is obviously Marvel's property, but I'm using them shamelessly for my own evil purposes, but I'm still not making any money by doing this.
This is my attempt at putting myself into one of my stories, for the self-insertion challenge, but….
A) I don't have the cool mutant powers I gave myself (big tears of disappointment welling up in my eyes as I write) believe me I'd love to have them if I could.
B) I knocked seven now eight years off my age; yes I'm that old, but everyone tells me I'm still very immature (kooky grin) and lucky because I only look 19.
C) My name really is Kim Novak, and yes I get teased about it, especially when people learn that I have vertigo so I don't like high places, now you can understand why I'm called Kobold at school and Del Creed here on the net.
D) Nova is mine, all mine, because she is 'ME". So if you want to use 'ME' please ask nicely, submit a blood sample and write a 1,000,000 word explanation on what you want to do with 'ME' and then I might let you barrow 'ME'.
I'm Nova
By: DelCreed
(griffincreed@hotmail.com)
Monday Sept. 11 Dawson College Atwater St. Montreal, Canada, mid morning:
I'm standing there in profound disbelief, just like everyone else, with smoke burning my eyes and a crowd of displaced students pressing against me trying to get a better view of the tragedy, how could this be happening? Fire drills at Dawson collage have always been just that…drills, sure notorious for their bad timing because they always happened on the wettest or coldest day of the year. Now after attending creative arts classes here for the last two years, it isn't a drill anymore, it's the real thing. My school is burning, and burning quickly because the sprinkler system never kicked in. Smoke has engulfed the entire building and flames are shooting from the third and fourth floor windows and the sound of far off sirens reaches my ears as I hear someone saying something that makes my heart plunge into my stomach.
"Man dude, there are like still people in there, I heard some teachers talkin' and one said that some of the Sci-fi club didn't leave because they didn't believe this was for real, now they can't get them out." The Sci-fi club, my friends, the only people who'd ever accepted me as I am, a dyslexic, introverted, left handed, mismatched eyed and older then anyone else in the group. They'd worked hard to crack the protective shell I'd hidden behind most of my life when I'd first joined them, they where the ones who'd made me more human then I'd ever felt before, I was no longer a withdrawn thing that didn't know how to talk to people, never had any friends. I was more open now and able to joke around with others. True they weren't aware of what I 'really' was, but they soon would, because no matter what their reaction to my biggest secret will be I'm not going to let them die in there, not when I can help them get out… I'm going to save them no matter what.
'Awe gees I sound just like a comic book superhero, where's my spandex and a phone booth?' I brake through the crowd and rush for the front doors. Jeff my consoler in the 'students with special needs' department tries to hold me back but I shake him off with an apologetic look, I have to get to my friends. As soon as I'm inside I remember why I've always been afraid of fire…it burns. I can feel the heat drying my eyes and the smoke coiling in my lungs, 'what was I thinking I'm allergic to cigarette smoke this stuff has to be ten times worse', I quickly bring up my hands to form a large water ball in them that I throw at the fire in my path, I kept tossing them till I realise 'This is like spitting on a camp fire.' And I've only made it across the upper atrium, I'm still faced with a solid wall of fire cutting me off from the C corridor where the Sci-fi club is located. Having always hidden my abilities I've never really had a chance to use them in such a big way before, the occasional water ball here and there in privet hasn't prepare me for this kind of thing, I need to think bigger then a water ball…wetter. Taking a deep breath I realise I shouldn't have, the smoke burns all the way down my throat and I start coughing. 'O.k. so we don't do that again' with a thought I form a water bubble on my back, under the backpack ('I probably should have left this outside with Jeff') right over the gill slits hidden under my shoulder blades, breathing through them will ward off passing out from smoke inhalation, that takes care of the having to breath part, now for the fire that is blocking my path. I call up the image of a cresting wave that is just folding in on itself, and I'm happy to see forming before me a tube of water now cutting through the wall of flames, like a surfer shooting the curl I quickly run through it up the C hallway to the door of the club, it is closed and they'd thought of stuffing something under it to keep the smoke out, 'looks like 'Lonnie's loud plad shirt.', but the suspended ceiling is letting the smoke into the little room anyway, I hammer on the door and my best friend Liz comes to the window coughing. "Come on, I'm here to save you guys!" 'I really have read too many comic books.' Still stunned to see me Liz opens the door and is even more stunned to see my waterworks as her boyfriend Rownan, our friends Jeek, Scott, Lonnie and Julie stumble out after her into my tunnel of water.
"You are a-" Julie squeaks, but I cut her off, there is no time for questions.
"Yes, now lets go!" I extend my waterworks through the flames that seal off the way to the back stairs, it actually feels really good to just let my powers go like this, kind of like a long awaited mental stretch, but I don't know how long I can keep this up so I hurry to pull the door to the stairs open. That is a mistake because the handle is hot… Burning hot and I singe my hand real good. For a second my water tunnel starts to collapse drenching everyone as the only thought shooting through my brain is PAIN, but I quickly stabilize the water and with a renewed vigorous swirl I try the door again, this time I wrap my trench coat (yes I wear a long black trench coat, I'm in Sci-fi we do that, it is expected of us) around the knob first before I pull the door open. By now my friends are all coughing from the smoke and leaning on each other, but we manage to get up the stairs to the back door and out of the building just as I hear an ominous crash behind us, I know without having to look that the ceiling has just caved in. The police and some teachers who are there and see us stumble out come running over to us and start asking questions as they lead us over to some ambulances to give us a shot of oxygen, as we try to answer them I disperse the water bubble from over my gills and start coughing too, so I'll blend in better.
"Was there any one else in there?"
"we don't know, we don't think there is."
"How did you get out?" I cast a pleading look at my friends but its too late, Jeek who is standing behind me didn't catch it, and he starts telling everyone what I'd done.
"Kobold saved us, she had all this water coming out of nowhere, and she walked us through the flames to get out." I can literally hear the door to the closet of 'Mutant Secret hood' slamming shut behind me and the key grating in the lock to make it final. Around me the police and teachers all take a quick step back and I even see one policewoman put her hand down onto her gun.
'Boy, don't I feel like a hero?' Some of the students who've overheard what Jeek said start to whisper, others point and gawk; surprised that there was a mutant in school with them;
"Figures she's a member of Sci-fi." I hear one voice in the crowd saying.
"She was in my English class two terms back, I knew there was a reason she was so good a understanding poetry, being a mutant she must have cheated, probably read the teacher's mind. I failed that class." And others were beginning to murmur, as the crowd suddenly spit out a woman with a microphone, perfect hairdo and a cameraman, I quickly pull up my trench's hood to hide my face, this isn't how I want my parents to learn that I'm a "Gene Joke" I stumble back, away from the ambulance, the oxygen mask falls to the ground but the medic doesn't touch it, 'because it had been breathed on by a mutant' I think bitterly to myself.
"France Leclair with channel seven news, we heard there where survivors here." I want to yell that the survivors are on an island in Madagascar, go look for them there, but I can't speak or I'll draw her attention my way. "Is it true? I've just heard, that they where saved by a mutant? Which one of you is the mutant?" she waves her micro in Jeek's face eyeing the orange streaks in his black hair, "Are you the mutant? What are your powers?" I know I should stand up and say that I'm the mutant not Jeek, but I take advantage of the distraction to runaway just as the woman asks, "Did you set the fire to show off your powers?" I hear a woman call out 'Stop' and I'm sure its the woman cop who'd put her hand on her gun as she'd looked at me before, so I just run faster. I know they can find me if they want to, this is school they'd have addresses on everyone, course I might be lucky and my address has burnt right along with everything else (I found my happy thought maybe I can fly now… nope not one of my powers). I can't run fast enough, this stocky 5.8' 155 pound body of mine wasn't built for speed so I have to think of a way to go faster. Its funny how memory works because a picture of the skateboarder who'd almost run me down yesterday suddenly flashed before my eyes…
'Could I?' Crossing my fingers I picture a flat-water bubble under my running feet, it worked I'm suddenly flowing forward. I brace my legs apart for balance as I'm carried along by the water, like a water skimming bug skimming the surface of a pond 'This is so cool!' I quickly look back, yes still being followed but with this waterslipping trick I've gained more distance between them and me. I decide to duck down an ally on St. Catherine St to shake them off only to find that the end is blocked off and I'm trapped with no wear to go, so I duck behind a dumpster and use my other power to shrink myself down till I can fit under it, it smelled like hell and looks even worse (because you have to realize that no one ever cleans under a dumpster). Footsteps run past me, pause as they look for me behind the dumpster and continue on, I'm safe for now, then I jump and hit my head on the underside of that trash bin, as my pager goes off, sure its on the vibrate mode and doesn't give me away but I'm always surprised whenever that thing starts to buzz in my pocket. I check and see its someone at home who wants me to call in A.S.A.P. thankfully when the alarm went off I'd slung my backpack on in stead of leaving it in the classroom, it has all my money and stuff in it (To think I might have left it behind with Jeff). When I shrink down anything I'm wearing shrinks too. I quickly fish out a quarter and a bus ticket, then taking off my trench coat I stuff it into my pack, step out from under the dumpster and put the pack on the ground then return to my normal size. I pick up my mini sized pack and quickly stuff it into one of the pockets on my loose jeans and sneak out of the alleyway and hope that the police won't recognize me without the black trench and yellow and black backpack. I walk quickly down St. Catherine Street and into a restaurant to use a payphone to call home. The phone only rings twice before my mom picks it up.
"Hello?" I love the way she dose that, no matter what's happened, if she's mad, happy or has just finished telling you to clean your room for the ninth time, my mom can answer the phone in a nice, even, calm, pleasant voice (hey maybe she's a mutant too).
"Mom, you paged me, I guess you heard about the school hu?" I ask her.
"No, I was calling to remind you that Serge (Serge may be my step-father, but to me he is my dad. That other guy, the one mom was married to when I was conceived, but was divorced from when she was five months pregnant, well he is just a genetic downer who sends me and my older sister Nancy an email from time to time, for my last birthday he sent me an email with a whole sentence in it, asking how my sister was.) and I are going out this afternoon and I might not be here when you get home. What happen at school?" I swallow.
"It… well it burnt mom, there was this really big fire and it went, well it went … Whoosh!" There's silence "Mom?"
"It went Whoosh! Are you okay? Where are you me calling from? You left the cellular here again and you know Serge wants you to have it with you at all times-" I cut her off quickly."
"Mom I'm fine, well I swallowed some smoke and burnt my hand, but its' my right hand so I'm fine, honest, but mom… we'll need to talk when I get home… I… I have to tell you something." She pauses then speaks in 'that' voice again, calm and even, I hope she still sound like that after I tell her what I have to.
"Where are you now? Can you come home?"
"I'm at a payphone, don't worry I'm on my way home right now, and mom if you hear anything on the news wait till I get home before you freak or get up set about what you hear, like you said I forgot to bring the cellular again." I hang up and hurry down the street to the bus terminal where I catch the 45 just as its about to leave the door. I'm really not looking forward to this talk.
********
High noon, time to confront your fears
I make it home without any trouble and quickly enlarge my backpack as I walk down the pathway that passes behind the bank near my house and pull on my trench coat as I run up our front walkway, I notice that my dad's car isn't here yet, and as I guessed my mother is there waiting for me by the door, she's dressed up ready to join my dad the moment he arrives home. My dog, a black pug named Raven, is also waiting for me. So after Raven's usual welcome home lick, her welcome home hug, and her show-me-you-are-sorry-you-left-me-to-go-to-school scratch on the belly, I look up at my mom but stay sprawled on the carpet with Raven sniffing me to see if I've done her wrong by seeing any other dogs while I was out.
"Hi." 'What can I say to her?' She is standing there looking me over before she speaks.
"I saw the news, about the fire, they said that some people from that club of yours were trapped inside and that a mutant… a mutant rescued them, I- I'm thankful you're safe, that you made it out okay, but should the school be letting mutants in with the regular students?" She asks me and my heart falls. "They're said to be very dangerous, in the states the government wants to lock them away… for their own good."
"I was in my watercolour class, I got out before the fire reached the front of the school." She looked at my hand with its angry red burns that I'm keeping away from Raven and I swallow. "I wasn't trapped in the club with my friends." I take a deep breath, stand and lift my hands up in front of me to create a small waterfall from my right hand into my left palm. "Mom… I was the mutant that went in and got them out." She staggers slightly and I reach out to help her, but I'm afraid she'll pull away from me, hate me for what I truly am. She must see my fear because she takes my unburnt hand and we walk slowly into the living room and sit on one of the couches, when she hugs me I know she can still love me, even like this. It all comes out, after seven years of hiding who I really am from her, what I really am, I tell her everything about me. How I'd discovered my sizing power on Halloween when I was thirteen, when I was holding a mini chocolate bar wishing it could be a bigger, regular sized one and that it had started to get bigger till I'd dropped it. I'd picked it up again and tried making it bigger again, then had made it smaller then it had been to begin with, and how I'd realised I had to touch what I wanted to size, that I couldn't just think the thing bigger or smaller. I can see that she didn't really understand so I call Raven over. "I can't change part of an object's size," I explain "I need to increase or decrease the whole object." I put my hand on Raven and for a moment she shrinks back to the size she was when she was a puppy, then I make her as big as a Doberman. Mom sits back her eyes wide.
"You can do that to anything?" I nod and pick up a little, red, scented candle from one of the end tables and increase it too. Then I decrease Raven because she's trying to sit on my lap. I continue telling her how it had taken longer to discover my second power. 'Waterworks' as I call my ability to conger up water from nowhere and control it, everything from making water balls to just filling my mouth with water when I'm thirsty and want a quick drink (Very useful when you are eating crackers, or don't want to drink from a public fountains). As I tell her about this I create a little water bird and let it fly around us. I'd discovered this ability the summer I was fourteen, mainly because we don't have a pool… and people who do have pools surround our backyard on all sides. We don't have one because:
A) On account that my dad, Serge, had a daughter who'd drowned when she was three, so if he never sees another pool it won't never be too soon, and
B) We don't have the place for a pool, because of the city codes that say it had to be five feet from the fence and ten feet from the house…yada, yada, yada.
So there it was one of the hottest summers on record and I was sitting there staring at our little bit of not-enough-room-for-a-pool grass listening to everyone around me doing cannonballs into their pools, it was a twisted kind of Chinese water torture as far as I was concerned. All I could do was just imagine jumping into a pool with all that cool water all around me, I'd shot the grass another evil look as I'd wiped the sweat from my face, when I noticed that the ground was slowly sinking down and that there was water coming up, making the yard a soggy mush as the ground sank lower and the water came up higher and higher, but the grass really looked bad and I knew that a hole full of muddy water wasn't going to go unnoticed by anyone around the house, so I'd panicked as I tried to think the water away, thankfully the grass had come back up, well most of the way and the water had all gone, I'd sighed waving a hand in the air in relief and had dropped my first water ball on my head... and yes the water was cold. I tell her how I'd been able to really use my power for the first time today and that without it I never could have saved my friends.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" she finally asked.
"I'd heard about mutants when I was in elementary school before I knew I was one, the older kids would whisper about then, about how everyone hated them, how people where afraid of them, I didn't want you or anyone to be afraid of me." She asks many more questions and I answer them the best I can and then tell her about the less them pleasant reaction of the teachers, police and other students back at school after I'd saved my friends. "Mom I think anything that had our addressed on it burnt and no one from school has a clue where I really live (My dad isn't a really social guy with people my age, so I hang out with my friends at school or in town, never at home) anyone who has my phone number can be told that they have the wrong number, no one will know." She nods and hugs me once more and says that things will work out, but she doesn't look too confident.
"I guess everything they were saying on the news and everywhere else about mutants all being evil and out to take over the world, isn't true. Well not all of it anyway, your one and there is no way you could be evil (unless I;m fighting with my sister)." She sits back and looks me in the eye then says hesitantly "Kim." I look up at her.
"Yes mom?"
"Don't tell Serge, until you really have to." I nod and think it's a good thing I didn't tell her about the gills on my back just yet. I'd discovered those in Florida when I was fifteen and caught in the undertow of a wave unable to come up for air. My dad's car pulls up and I wave the water bird into one of the potted plants by the window, as my mom watches me. "So that's why I never have to water the plants." And she smiles.
********
Monday Sept. 11 Greymalkin Lane Westchester New York
12:00 pm
The shrill sound of Creibro's alarm startled the young man who was sitting alone in the war room, in a chair precariously balanced on it's two hind legs, he promptly fell over backwards and lay there for a moment catching his breath before creating an ice block to rub on the back of his head as he stood up.
"Ouch, that smarts." He grumbled as he tapped the keyboard to call up the report that would tell him why the alarm had just sounded. Scott Summers, known as Cyclops leader of the X-men walked into the room followed by a big, blue furred man and a colourful, bubbly teenager.
"Robert you're injured," Beast observed. "Where you perhaps attempting to recreate you're infamous 'one legged chair lean over'?" Hank inquired seeing the ice cradled to his friend's cranium. Sighing he looked into the blue eyes and pulling out a pen light from his lab coat's pocket and quickly shown it right into Bobby's eyes. "It would seem that you have forgotten the concussion you suffered the last time you attempted that particular manoeuvre, so I'll repeat myself, do not do it again."
"Chairs have four legs for a reason Bobby, use them." Scott added as he looked at the screen. Bobby seeing that Scott was gearing up for a lecture quickly pointed at the screen in hopes of distracting Scott's attention, and it worked.
"Ceribro has picked up a strong sign of mutant activity in Montreal, Quebec Canada." He informed the frowning leader of the X-men, his best friend and his fellow prankster Jubilee (who was up from Snow valley visiting for a long weekend). "Hay sparks flip on the news for that area would ya?" he asked Jubilee. Soon they where all watching a broadcast on CNN about the largest English CEGEP in Canada burning down (Funny that the largest English CEGEP is in the province known worldwide for its 'Speak French or leave' demonstrations), they where about to change the channel to check another news program when the news anchorman said the magic word that had Scott rushing to press the record button on the computer counsel.
"…And eyewitnesses report that the trapped students, members of the Dawson Science fiction and Fantasy association, where saved by a mutant, a mutant who fled from police shortly after the rescue and is still at large somewhere in the city." (Ha! I live off the island on the south shore) For a moment on the screen appeared footage of a large building with smoke and flames rolling out of it's windows (hey I burnt my school down for you, so I'm milking it for all its worth) and then the camera cut suddenly to a group of people who where standing by some ambulances, they where being given oxygen, then the camera was zooming in on them just as many of the people in the group quickly took several large steps back from the black coated youths, many with sudden looks of shock on their faces. The film then showed a woman reporter running and shouting questions at the group.
"France Leclair with channel seven news, we heard there were survivors here." She said loudly "Is it true?"
"Shows what she knows the survivors are on an island in Madagascar." Bobby commented. Scott shot him a 'look' as Jubilee sniggered and Hank rolled his eyes and turned back to the broadcast.
"I've just heard, that they where saved by a mutant? Which one of you is the mutant?" she asked waving her micro in a young man's face eyeing the orange streaks in his black hair, "Are you the mutant? What are your powers?" the young man looked stunned as he tried to stammer and shake his head at the same time. The woman then asked, "Did you set the fire to show off your powers?" As soon as she ask this the tall, hooded figure at the back of the group turned away quickly from the searching camera's eye and was then running away from the reporter. The camera quickly followed, zooming in on the running figure in the billowing, black trench coat, who was now being chased by a female police officer who had drawn her gun and looked ready to use it.
"They're going to shoot the person who saved people from dieing in the fire?" Jubilee looked shocked. "Gosh ya got ta love this world, different place, same face. Its always the mutant's fault so shoot to kill." She muttered sitting down in one of the many chairs around the table. Scott just watched shaking his head as the news anchor reappeared on the screen.
"No doubt by again using mutant powers the individual was able to avoid capture and has not been found. The authorities ask anyone who has information to contact them. Further more when she questioned the students our reporter was surprised to find that no one had any comment on the identity of the alleged 'Dawson mutant'. One student even said simply 'If being a mutant means that you can save people who would have died, then I can't really see what is so bad about being one.' We will keep you posted on any further developments concerning this story. Till farther notice all classes at Dawson College are cancelled, students are urged to contact the school, via this number, and bring in proof of registration so that all their lost records can be refiled promptly." Scott pressed the summoning button and sat down in his usual chair to wait for the rest of the X-Men to arrive. Within moments People started pouring in, some in uniform Bishop (who come to think of it is never out of uniform), Storm (who could call up her uniform, using what power I have no idea but she can) and Rogue (because hers covers her from head to toe). Some not in uniform, Logan, and Remy (all sweaty from trying to kill each other by playing one on one basketball) Marrow (sauntered in like a queen), Joseph and Jean (one in a pink frilly apron covered in flour the other blushing a apologizing).
"Joseph, I'm sorry about the flour, if you really want to bake cookies to send to Luna I'd be happy to help, with out powers." Jean offered. Professor Xaiver was still away visiting Mure Island and Scott didn't think he needed to be contacted yet about this situation, and the professor had told Scott that he was quite capable of making any decisions that needed to be made, even choosing new students he thought would benefit from training.
"Gumbo here doesn't know it Slim but ya just saved his life, I was about to wipe the court with him." Logan shot Remy a satisfied look, that the Cajun just rolled his eyes at as he shook his head and mumbled.
"Dan tes reve cher." [In you're dreams dear]
"I want you all to see this and tell me what you think." Scott played the part of the interview he'd caught and watched their expressions, which ranged from rapped attention from most of the viewers to disinterest and chair spinning from Marrow. The recording finished just as Bobby and Jubilee join in the camp of the chair spinners. Clearing his through and staring at the three spinners Scott asked "I think four of us will be enough to handle this one, so who wants to come and check this new mutant out with me?" Everyone looked at someone else.
"Montreal is in Quebec and that's Canada, don't that like make it Alpha Flights call Cyclops?" Rogue asked. Logan huffed in his chair and shook his head.
"They've been disbanded." He said rubbing his head.
"AGAIN!" Everyone at the table shouted.
"How many times has that happened now?" Storm asked.
"Too damn many, but I got a real bad feeling it's for good this time." Logan scowled, he'd been on that Canadian team before joining the X-Men, and he wondered how the Canadian government could keep doing this to it's people, Alpha Flight was all Canadians had for protection against super powered evilness. "I don't mind a trip North of the border, I'm in if we can stop on the way back for some beer." Scott thought it over and nodded. Jean smiled at Scott and everyone knew they where talking mind to mind.
"I shall join you too." Storm decided, secretly she was wondering if she'd catch a glance of singer Celine Dion, her plants where big fans of her music. So in the end it was Scott, Jean, Storm and Logan who would track down the 'Dawson mutant' and it was also decided that Gambit would fly a pouting Jubilee ("But I want to meet the new kid") back to school, because she had class tomorrow (ya, her school hadn't been burnt down for plot reasons Snigger maybe later).
*******************
In Montreal;
They decided to checkout the school first to see if Wolverine could pick up the mutant's trail.
"Ho sure, tons of water, smoke, burnt out building, and over 10, 000 kids and I'm suppose to sniff out one mutant." He snarled sarcastically. Raising his voice to a falsetto. "Let's get Wolverine to sniff through the dirty, charred mess maybe he can find the Lindburg baby." Storm soothed him and said,
"Just do your best, Logan" The Blackbird hovered over the back courtyard of the burnt out school, cloaked in stealth mode, and Storm flew out as with her T.K. powers Jean lifted Logan and Scott down. They landed away from the eyes of the people who where still walking around the sight. They where all dressed in civilian cloths trying not to draw anyone's attention to themselves and Logan soon spotted the place the ambulances had been parked on the news report. But as he'd said too many kids, too much smoke and burnt smells had covered any sent that might have been there. He shook his head then held up his hand for silence, he heard…voices…talking about mutants, he turned and jogged quickly towards where they where coming from. What he found was a group of young people, most of them dressed in black trench coats, sitting on the ground and sprawled over each other, kinda like a basket of puppies. He signalled the others to follow him as he crept over to kneel beside a hedge that kept them out of the puppies' sight.
*********
On the other side of the hedge sat some of the Sci-Fi club members, Liz (Of the magic pencil, who can draw like an angel) and her boyfriend Rownan (Theatre student, who has to wear tights for class), Julie (A.K.A. Little Julie, with a persona so sweet she'll rot your teeth), John (At one time president of Sci-Fi), Frank (A.K.A. Cameraman, known to ambush the unsuspecting and shoot with video), Jesus (Called so because of his long hair and beard), Satin (because He'd walked in to the club years ago and been asked "who the hell are you?" and had promptly replied "I'm Satin" and the name had stuck, also a theatre student, but he likes wearing the tights, and will show them upon request, most likely a mutant with the power of charisma), Ian (The ruling G.M of many a Sci-Fi roll-playing game) and Patric (A total, Tina Turner fan, diva and self proclaimed bitch, but he was the first who took me under his wing and had no trouble saying many times "Kim you are being stupid," or "Look you are twenty years old you can stay out later then ten o'clock, you suck, get a life").
"…Kobold's a mutant, I'd never guessed. She was just… well okay I guess being twenty and only looking sixteen is strange but what you guys say she did with the water, I wish I'd seen it." Ian said wishfully. Julie raised an eyebrow at him.
"Ian, we where trapped in a burning building and choking on smoke, you didn't want to be there, trust me." The others who where there agreed with her. "I just don't know how she knew we were in there."
"I think I know," Everyone looked at Frank. "I was going to the hookah store with Kin when the alarm went off and you guys said it was just a drill, that you were staying inside, you told me to close the door so no one would see you. When we got back and saw the fire we asked around if you'd come out, some teachers asked us more questions and I guess maybe Kobold heard about you guys." They where silent till Rownan spoke up.
"So then she comes charging into a burning building after us and had to reveal to everyone what she 'is' to save us." Rownan stated in awe. There where murmurs of agreement. "What did she think she was? A comic book superhero, she could have died coming in to get us out." Liz held him tighter.
"I knew she was out of touch when I found her, remember John you thought she was a hopeless cause and would never fit in, but she wasn't doing too bad once I shook her world up a bit and dusted off the cobwebs." Patric huffed "I looked out for her and she was happy to just simply Roll-play being a Gangrel in our Vampire LARP, and a Bonenawer in Rosie's Werewolf game, when here she was able to do all these cool things for real. I wonder what she can really do?" Visions of how he could use Kobold's powers danced in his head. "I tried calling her home but her mom, and I know her mom's voice, said I had the wrong number." Then he tapped him self in the head. "I even spent Christmas Eve at her house, but I can't remember how to get there, because I never caught that second bus, her dad picked me up at the south shore bus park."
*********
That was all Jean needed to hear, it wasn't one of her favourite means of getting information, actually it was an out and out violation of privacy, but they needed to find this girl… Kobold, (what kind of name was that?) as soon as possible, so she slipped into Patric's mind, and blushed bright red, her eyes going wide. Scott through their mind link wasn't spared either; his jaw unhinged and hit the ground as he gasped for air. It took but a moment for Jean to find the memory of last Christmas eve tucked away in the young man's sorted mind, he likes to wear dresses and… ho my. Jean was tempted to look at Patric's memories of Kobold, to see just how he had helped her, but decided that the less time spent in this man's mind the better. So now with the route to Kobold the Dawson mutant's house firmly clutched in her mental grasp Jean slipped out of the man's head, but had to return a moment later to reach in and drag Scott out.
"I didn't know you could do that with a banana." Scott said gently rocking back and fourth, still in shock as Jean refused to tell Logan what she'd seen, and she made a note to wash their minds out later, well she would after she'd tried that thing with the whipped-cream, that had looked like fun. Once back on the Blackbird Jean guided Storm to the girl's house, Scott being still a little too shaken up to fly anything bigger then a kite. "Jean did you see what he did with the Banana?" Jean decided to do a little mind cleaning early, it wouldn't do to go into an unknown situation with Scott traumatized like this.
**********
I have to admit that I'm feeling very edgy, I've been sitting here on the couch for hours, true… expecting fleets of police cars to pull up at your house at any moment can do that to you. Okay I have to relax and think positive thoughts.
'….'
Nope not working. A sound at the front door has me on my feet and quickly glancing out the window to see who's there. Now who would have ever guessed that I'd be relieved to see my sister Nancy standing there with her usual look of 'Well-open-the-door-already-stupid!' I undo the lock and relax for real now, her boyfriend Mike is with her, so she'll be nice to me.
"Where is mom?" Nancy asks once they are inside. 'And hello to you to sis.'
"Dad came and got her I think they went to see Denis'." She shrugs and walks off into the kitchen as Mike smiles at me and asks.
"Hey Kim how's it going?" What should I answer him 'Ho fine I just revealed to the world I'm a mutant, and the cops are going to come arrest me soon.' So I shrug and tell him.
"Ho I'm fine, my school burnt down this morning and I'm expecting company, everything is perfectly human- I mean normal." I mutter and start to slink off towards the stairs to hide in my room, no one would think of looking for me there, even if they do I could just hide in one of my messy piles that my mom is always yelling at me to pick up.
"Ya right, your school burnt down, you shouldn't joke about those kinds of things." He says as he goes off to join Nancy in the kitchen. I've just reached the middle of the stairs when Raven starts to bark in the kitchen, and I watch as she comes rocketing through the entrance to slam her whole body into the storm door (and people wonder why pugs have flat faces), with such force that the man and two women on the other side of it step back, as if there wasn't a sheet of glass between them and my little snarling Tasmanian devil. I guess that Nancy and Mike are on the porch out back by now; I know she won't answer the door, and in this situation I don't want her too. I walk slowly back down the stairs to the door and tell Raven to hush; she ignores me, and keeps barking and clawing at the door. I push her back with my foot as I open the door and ask nervously in French.
"Can I help you?" (Yes I can speak French, but I'm writing it like this because I don't want to have you scrolling all the way to the end of the story to figure out what I wrote, aren't I thoughtful).
#Scott that is Kobold, she is the one we're looking for.# Jean tells her husband when she sees the girl who answers the door. Kobold stands about 5.8', has dark blond hair and for a minute her eyes look green, but then she shifts and suddenly they are grey… no they are blue well one of them is blue and the other is green now. Jean wonders if Remy is going be happy that another 'Strange eyes' might be joining the school. The man looks down at Raven, clears his through and asks in English.
"Do you speak English? Is she dangerous?" #We should have brought Gambit, he could talk to her.# Scott thinks to his wife. I smile as I look at Raven too, and then shake my head.
"Yes, I can speak English and French, Quebec is suppose to be bilingual, but a lot of French people have forgotten that over the years. And her, " I point at Raven "this dog is a lamb in wolf's clothing, but she'll keep doing that till you say hello and pat her. Can I help you?" I ask again with the muscles in my stomach clenching. Do they send plane cloths officers to arrest you for being a mutant?
"Yes, My name is Scott Summers and this is my wife Jean and our friend Ororo, we are from Xaiver's School of higher learning in Westchester New York." Colour me I'm surprised, Dawson only went Whoosh this morning and already other schools are trying to pick me up. "We are here to speak to you and you family about what happened today at your school." I can feel my face go white as he speaks, they know it was me.
"Look I don't know what you are talking about, I… I'm not a-" (And the cock crowed a third time and Peter realized what he'd done) Just then Nancy comes to stand behind me, she is smiling as she asks them.
"What happen at my sister's school? Would you like to come in?" My eyes go wide 'No' my mind shouts but being well raised I automatically step back and Raven, the little traitor, starts to wag her tail and coo up at them (to understand this you have to own or know a pug, they can coo like pidgins when they are happy). The tall black woman with white hair reaches down and pets her.
"Why, she is just adorable. What breed is she?"
"Raven is a pug, they are native to Tibet. They were used to predict earthquakes, 'course she's slept through the two we had here." I answer automatically; my mind is on what Nancy is asking the man with the funky red glasses. Scott having assumed that all sisters are 'close' and tell each other everything that happens in their lives was unaware that this did not apply to Nancy's relationship with her younger sister.
"We detected your sister's power signal with our computer this morning, when she used her powers to save some of her fellow students that had been trapped inside her burning school." Nancy looked shocked as she levelled her eyes on me. "We are here to offer her help with her mutant powers and offer her a place at our school."
"Power signal? Mutant powers… School? Kim? Kim you… you're one of those freaks they talk about on T.V.? A mutant like on Jerry Springer's show? I always knew there was something wrong with you, but to be one of those mutant monsters." She looks at me, "You wait mom and Serge find out, and they'll kick you out for sure." The three people at the door stared in shock at the woman who had seamed so nice only a moment ago, and then Mike comes up to Nancy and puts his hand on her shoulder.
"Nancy, Kim isn't a freak, she just needs help." He said quietly looking at me. Ho, I know what being given "Help" means, I grew up being helped with my learning disability, ya helped right into the dumb class and left there my whole life to rot, where all you ever learned from teachers was "Sit down, shut up, and don't bother me." I never wanted that kind of help again thank you very much.
"We are here to help your sister, but not the kind of help you are thinking of," The red haired woman, Jean, stepped over to me. 'Funny I'm really bad at remembering names but these people just seamed so familiar to me that I had no trouble at all remembering their names.' "We want you to learn to use your powers to help humans and mutants, like us." She said as she telekinetically changed her cloths into her costume, and seeing this Storm did too, as Scott wished he could do the same, but asking to use the bathroom to change wasn't an option right now. "We are mutants too, not monsters." She shot Nancy a look. "With your act of courage this morning, we are hopeful that you will want to join us at our school and learn to use your powers wisely and help us to work for better mutant human relations." (Suddenly I'm having flashes of becoming a Jedi like my…) I'm shocked to say the least, until this morning I was the only mutant I knew, now I'd just met three more. I was about to ask them some questions when my dad's car pulled up into the driveway. 'Things are really about to get interesting once mom and dad met these people.'
**********
Twenty minutes later, Living room, my house.
It is incredible but here we are, my parents, three mutants and me, all sitting down in the living room talking over tea (that all rhymed J) and coffee about this school of theirs for mutants in New York and I'm being asked to join it. It sounds really good too, small classes, all the help that I need with my studies there at my finger tips (a Dyslexic's dream come true), and the chance to flex my powers without the fear of being hunted down if someone sees me. My mother is still very hesitant to let me go and is asking Mr. Summers ("please call me Scott.") some very pointed questions.
"What will you do with her? Are you going to exploit her… her powers at this 'school'? Will you be able to protect her from people who don't understand her? We've always kept her close to home." Jean remembered Patric's words about how Kobold, 'no it's Kim her real name is Kim, how Kim had been when he'd first met her, introverted and unable to communicate with other people near her own age and Jean guessed that she'd been kept a little too sheltered at times, but she understood that this often happened with children who had learning or physical disabilities, and she sent this thought to Scott (who had finally fully recovered from his earlier trauma J).
"Mrs. Belair we'll teach her to live in a world that fears our kind." He answered her sincerely as he held his wife's hand. Till now my father sat there in silence, since his earlier outburst of 'why me' and,
"This is Jack Novak's fault, he did this, he gave her screwy gene, this never would have happened to her if she was my child." It hadn't been pretty sight. You see my dad is a very controlled man; he tries to provide and protect his family with all that he is and if something happens to one of us he feels responsible for it. Once I broke my kneecap and had to be in a cast for a month, he'd been very mad… at first I thought he was mad at me the way he shouted and slammed around, but as time passed I realized he was mad at himself because he hadn't been there to keep me safe. I know it's a weird way of thinking, but it also shows that he really loves us a lot. Mom eventually got him to calm down and relax. As I listen to them talk I glance over at the living room window and gasp, there is a short man in a flanelshirt looking in at us. He sees me looking at him and smiles at me; I don't think he smiles a lot because it looks more like a sneer.
"Um... Sir…Scott, sorry to interrupt but is he with you?" I ask looking back at the short man at the window. Scott looks up and nods then looks at his wife.
"Logan just wants you to know that the place is safe and that there is a corner-store just one street over and that he's going off to buy his… um …to make a perches." #He found his beer# Jean told Scott, then Scott told me.
"Kim you're observant, not many people would have noticed Logan at the window."
"I've watched people, for a time it was how I learned how people act together." (This just shows you I didn't have many friends before Sci-Fi took me in) Now my dad decides to ask a few questions about the cost of the school, what kind of things would I need to go there and just what would I be learning.
"Your school is too expensive for us right now, because we'd have to pay for it in American money, our Canadian money is only worth half of what yours is." When Scott told him about Professor Xavier's scholarship fund dad looked doubtful. "Why would he pay for Kim to go to his school?"
"The Professor wants mutants to learn to control their powers and help set an example for mutant/human relations, we have a sister schools in Massachusetts for younger mutants, and one in Scotland with a home like environment for those who need more help with their powers then we can offer." Scott explained and I thought about asking to go to the school in Scotland for a moment, my friend Colin was from Scotland, and even if he was living in England right now maybe I'd get to see him again if I went there (He wears a kilt!J), but it was really too far away and I knew dad wouldn't agree to having me that far from home. During all this Raven had been spending her time flirting with Scott, who'd been ignoring her, well she wasn't going to take it anymore. With a leap she landed on the couch between him and Jean and rolled over to show him her belly as her lips fell back in a toothy grin, her tail wagging happily. Scott looked down at her in surprise and Jean smiled as he reluctantly gave Raven's belly a small pat.
"Well looks like Raven is ready to go to New York." I said brightly. Suddenly all our attention was drawn to the window where the short man, Logan, looked like he was dieing of hysterics at the sight of Scott and my dog. The laughter caught Raven's attention and she looked at the window, and was quickly jumping off the couch and slamming face first into the bow window and barking obstinacies at the man who'd dared invade her territory. My mom looked at Scott, got up and asked the man to come in.
"Thanks, name's Logan." He said offering one of his big paws. "Quite a guard dog you have here." Raven was dancing around him and he scooped her up into his arms and she started to lick his face happily till she decided she'd had enough and had a little snarling fit to be let down. "Has a temper too." He said as he quickly put Raven down (If he hadn't she'd have nipped his nose) and he followed my mom into the living room to join us.
********
I can't believe it, they said yes. I'm going to the "Xavier's School of Higher Learning" in Westchester New York, hey I'll be able to see all my friends that I met when I was working as a production assistant one summer. Wait till Scooter and Mike find out that after years of trying to get me to come to New York for a visit, that I'm going to be living near them now. Then I stop myself, better ask if I can see them first. Right now I have to concentrate on packing because they are waiting for me down stairs. Everyone except Logan who went back outside after muttering something about marauders and looking out for any other people who might have picked up on my power signal and try to take me away too. The first thing I pack is my laptop and all it's bells and whistles, if I have to go away I'm taking my 'Sims' (The Sims is an evil, nasty game that will suck away all your free time and even some of your not free time and give you nothing but a god/goddess complex in return) with me. My Rocket eBook (Have to remember to pack the cradle and charging cord for it), palm pad, Zip and all the disk and Cd ROMs that I need. I grab all my socks and underwear, and then sort out my favourite T-shirts, pj's, jeans, sweaters and shoes (I'll wear my trench coat and hiking boots to leave). I know I don't have to bring my comic book collection and I look longingly at my stereo cupboard, can I bring my music? I poke my head out the door and call out to my mom.
"Mom, what should I bring?" She comes to the stairs and gives me the 'you should have picked up your room look.'
"Pack the cloths you'll need, the things you can't live without and if you think of something you want we'll send it to you." Mom is a wise woman. Two large suitcases of cloths, a backpack full of knitting, needle work, my Tarot cards and runes, a large box of computer gizmos and a packed up sound system (dad gave me new speaker cord because I had to leave the originals tacked to the wall) later I think I'm ready to go. Jean picks up Logan, a pile of boxes that look like cases of beer, my stuff and flies them up into the air to their plane that is 'Cloaked' in the baseball field of a nearby park. Scott turns to me and asks.
"Do you have everything you want?" I smile.
"I just need to pack one last thing… Raven come on lets go get your toys, bed and chow boxed up." He looks stunned for a moment and stammers.
"You are bringing your dog?" I look at him; he wants me to leave Raven. Ororo puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Scott the dog is charming and friendly, long have I thought that we at the mansion have needed some four legged companionship, and this one is already house broken." She pointed out gently. Raven chose that moment to sprawl at Scott's feet and show her belly again, I always knew she was a smart dog. Now I'm almost ready to go but I need to say good-bye to my family, so I start by calling my big brothers. Derek, the first-born, lives in Toronto and I'll call him at work.
"Hello."
"Hi, Day its Kim, I'm calling to say good-bye I won't be home for a while so I wanted to let you know what's happened to me." I tell him about my powers, how I'm leaving to go to a school that will help me use them for the good of humanity, and ask him to say good-bye to his wife Michelle and my nephew Noah for me. After a long stunned he says calmly,
"Kim, God blessed you with powers and I know he knew what he was doing, you'll be in our prayers." He took that well; so then I dial up my other big brother, Warren, who is also at work.
"Warren Wegerek please." I wait a moment for him to come to the phone; he works at a car dealership as the head mechanic.
"Yellow."
"War, its Kim, I'm fleeing the country and wanted to say good-bye to you and Dominique."
"Kim, what are you talking about?" I tell him about the school burning, my powers, being asked to attend a special school in New York and that mom and dad are letting me go. "They're letting you go… You're a mutant, for real, this isn't one of you're stories you're writing is it? (I have a habit of telling people things to see how they'll react and I then write their response into my stories Eg: Telling Mike that my school burnt down) What can you do?" I smile at Scott, Ororo, and Jean who has just came back to get us.
"Well Warren, I can make things bigger or smaller, make lots of water come out of nowhere, control it and I… " I want to tell him I have gills, because I know it will weird him out to know I can breath under water but I still want to keep it to myself for now. "I can make things out of water like birds that really fly." He wishes me luck and to come home soon because he wants to see me make water fly. Jean is looking at Scott.
#Water and size control, Scott we don't have anyone who can do that on the team, with unlimited water Bobby could really cut loose with her around.#
#Hope he isn't allergic to dog hair.# Scott grumbled.
#Why? Oh how cute, it will be nice to have a dog around the house, and no one is allergic to Hank, so I don't think there'll be any problems.# Scott choked back a laugh.
#I'll tell Hank you said that.# Nancy and Mike came out of the den where they where watching a movie, he hugs me and tells me to be careful, then Nancy looks at me and says.
"I over reacted, I was surprised, and everything I've ever heard about mutants made me forget it's still you, even if you can do strange things. Do well in school." Mike must have been talking to her. She hugs me too and I look up at the door to my room and create a water hand to test and make sure I locked it properly, my things have a way of walking off on their own sometimes and mom had put a key lock on my door some years back.
"I'll do fine, you be careful to, if I was given powers this world must really be messed up." I joke as I turn to dad. "Dad you remember to relax sometimes okay, you are too serious." I'm about the only person who can actually get away talking to him like that without him getting his feathers ruffled.
"Kim if you want to come home, at anytime, you call me and I'll come get you. I love you." I always get choked up when he says that to me, he always had a 'thing' about saying the words, he'd rather buy you stuff then come out and say the 'L' word, so each time he dose I keep it in my heart like gold.
"I'll miss you too dad, you know the botanical gardens is still open, you and mom should take the time to go see it soon." I say as I hug him tightly (and I'll miss you most of all scarecrow) then turn to say good-bye to my mom. As mom hugs me she says.
"Guess this means I'll have to start watering the plants now." Everyone laughs, as I return her hug I try to reassure her.
"Mom I'll be fine, you'll see I'll get so good Alpha Flight will be begging me to join someday." Scot cleared his through and told us,
"They have been disbanded." Stunned Mike, Nancy, Dad, mom and I all say together.
"Again!" As I'm about to pick up Raven I look over at my mom who is bent over patting her, mom looks sad. When I think about it I maybe her youngest kid but Raven is her baby, so I walk over to Scott and take the box of dog things out of his hands and put it down.
"We won't need this, Raven wants to stay with mom and dad. She insists only dad knows what she wants to eat from the table and that she is too old to start over in a new place." My parents watch as I hug my blackbird good bye and put her into my dad's arms. "Don't feed her too much from the table." I tell him. "I'd never be able to give her all the attention she is use to, go to classes and study too." One last hug to everyone and we walk down the front steps and in a moment I know I have to tell Jean that I have a thing about heights. She put me down and looks at me. "Sorry, I know it sounds funny but you see… The actress Kim Novak was in the movie 'Vertigo" and this Kim Novak-" I point at myself "has vertigo." They are very understanding and were ready to walk to their plane but I tell Jean to fly them out I'd be able to keep up. "Because I learned an new trick today." I form the water bubble under my feet and start to waterslip down the street keeping an eye on those who are being flown to the waiting plane. I make the bubble thicker, about three feet high and find that I can ride it like a surfer.
"That looks like fun, and she's really moving on that thin'" Logan commented "She's going to be a quick learner, too bad Jubie is going to be disappointed that she is still going to be the youngest member on the team.
**************
The X-Men's Blackbird, somewhere over New York State
Flying doesn't scare me; I've been flying (in an airplane) since I was two, on trips to Michigan to visit my Bio. Dad (back when he acted like he wanted to see me), but this plane was amazing. It was able to land and take off without a runway, had a hospital type area in the back and a hole in the floor that was used by 'The Fliers' on the team. Scott had called ahead when we'd taken off and I'd heard him ask someone named Rogue to ready a room in the 'Lady's side' of the mansion, and a voice had come back,
"It's a girl! Bout time we got us some reinforcements around here. We had some excitement down here ourselves we'll fill you in as soon as you get home, um… in privet" She sounded distracted… very distracted.
"When we arrive you'll meet the others," Jean was telling me "and we'll get you settled into your room in the woman's wing."
'Others, wow more mutants, wonder if they'll mind my strange looking eyes.' I ask myself remembering once when I'd been in a library and a woman had actually warded me off with a sign to protect her from the evil eye. "Will I have to share a room?" Visions of people taking my things like my sister did made me squirm. (Nether a barrower nor a lender be, for neither side is happy with the interest -Shakespeare)
"Naw, everyone has their own space, that's what keeps us from tryin' to kill each other everyday. So, how ya get from a nice name like Kim to a name like Kobold? What is Kobold from?" Logan called over from his seat. I can't help but smile.
"I was sick of hearing 'Kim this' 'Kim do that' Kim, Kim, Kim so I named myself Kobold about five years ago, found it in a dictionary; its a mischievous, house dwelling, German fairy. Perfect name for me 'cause at the time I didn't get out of the house much, 2/8 of my ancestry is German, and I wanted to be mischievous, but I never got up the nerve to do anything. When I went back to school I was told to stay away from the Sci-Fi club during the tour, so I went and joined the next day, thus fulfilling my mischievous quota. When I walked into the club the first time they asked my name, I said it's Kim, and they said 'Sorry got one of those, choose another name.' So I said Kobold and they looked shocked and asked if I really wanted to be known as a 'dog faced gremlin' and we've argued about it ever since, I loved the controversy, so even if I'm the only Kim in Sci-Fi now I keep using Kobold." I wonder what my friends where doing… now that I'm gone.
"So do you want us to call you Kobold or Kim?" Scott asked. I guess Kim would do, and Kobold was for another life, but there was something I'd been thinking about.
"Mutants… some mutants, like the ones I've seen on American TV, give themselves new names, to go with their powers right?" They all nodded "Well I think I want a new name too, would that be okay? I mean I could use Kim in public but when I'm me I could use a name I want? There is this mutant team and they have cool names, Cyclops 'cause he wears this eye band and shoots beams out his eyes, Wolverine a mutant with claws, Iceman is an obvious choice for one of them, and then there is the doctor guy who was with the Avengers who calls himself Beast, but he looks like a big, furry, blue, pumped up Grover." Jean and Ororo Smiled as Logan choked on a laugh and Scott nodded.
"You can have any name you want, but from the way you are asking I think you've already given your mutant self a name." This guy is smart.
"Ya I did, I want to avoid being called something lame like Squirt, Splash or Starfish, So I played around with my Name 'Kim Novak' and remembered how once an automatic writer, said that there where no K's in heaven's alphabet, so I wrote my name down and crossed out the K's and that is how I discovered my Mutant name." There was silence and then Ororo raised an eyebrow.
"Kim Novak… Im Nova… that is… so simple yet it is brilliant, it is you in a new light." I'd told my mom this morning about Im Nova, and she had thought it was a cool way of making a name too.
"Well Nova, if you look out the window to our left you'll get you're first look at the school." I followed the direction he was pointing in and gasped. The mansion was big, the lawn was big, there was a lake and…
"Are those woods part of the school?"
"Yup, they go around the whole place." Logan said looking happily at the woods then at me.
"Scott quick turn around please, I need my camping gear, why didn't you say there where trees here… is that lake okay for swimming?" By then they where laughing and promised that I'd find all the camping gear I'd ever want in the mansion. "I can't help it, I love the woods, and with my Bio. dad ignoring me for the last two years I have no way of seeing them anymore, he… he lives in the Adirondacks… Lake Placid." Logan was curious.
"That is a real beautiful aria, you learned to camp up there?" I nodded "You ever been to the top of a mountain and seen the Ski Jumps?" I smile.
" Logan, my bio dad… he built those ski jumps. I went on a class camping trip for gym early this spring and got 94% but I think it was because I stuffed the teacher with food." As we talked Scott and Ororo landed the plane in the hidden hanger that I later learned was under the school.
Go to part two