I OWN NOTHING OF X-MEN, MARVEL, OR ANY OTHER AFFILIATED COMPANIES.
I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the harsh sunlight. I stretched my arms above my head, letting a yawn escape my lips. My short curly hair was messy and matted down in places from the nights sleep. My bright yellow shirt and khaki shorts were wrinkled, and my grey sneakers were scuffed and dirty, but all-in-all I felt good.
As I sat upright, I noticed the group of people I had met the night before looking my way. The lone female of the group began to walk toward me and kneeled down to my level. The shorter boy sat down next to her, and the taller one stood just to her right.
"Good morning," she said, "Sleep well?"
"As well as I could hope to on this heap of rubble." I replied, with a yawn.
"I'm sorry we couldn't give you the presidential suite," said the shortest boy "but it's the best we could do."
"I don't mean to be ungrateful," I replied, stretching my arms upward, "I thank you for welcoming me."
"Well," intoned the taller boy, "seeing as we're all here for the same reason, it wouldn't have made sense to turn you away."
"Where exactly are we?" I asked, turning my head to take in my surroundings more fully in the light of day.
"The Taj Mahal." replied the shortest boy again, his voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Now, now, be kind." said the woman in her soothingly cool voice. "We're in the ruins of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters; a school for mutants that was destroyed a few years ago. This is where the X-Men were first formed, and this is where, rumor has it, a new group of mutants has been living, training, and recruiting. We arrived here just a day before you, but so far we haven't seen a sign of anyone.
"That's alright," I replied, looking at the group of people before me, "I'm a very patient person."
Seeing them in daylight gave me my first good look at them. Kneeling in front of me was the woman with the soothing voice. She had beautiful chocolate brown hair, with bright, round eyes to match. Her face had soft delicate features, and her beautifully tan skin gave me the impression that she was of American Indian decent. She wore light brown Capri pants, with a forest green sleeveless top over her well toned body. She was barefoot, though I could see her sandals lying a few feet behind her.
Standing to her right was the taller boy. I guessed he was around eighteen, and stood a little over six feet tall. His face was strong, but had boyish qualities to it. His feathery blonde hair shined in the sun, while his clear blue eyes seemed to sparkle in the light. Over his well built frame he wore a black shirt with and orange design across the front, with black basketball shorts and old black tennis shoes. He had all the signs of an All-American teenager raised in a typical middle-class White family.
The final member of the group, the short and sarcastic man, sat to the right of the woman, with his arms folded in front of him. He had short dark brown hair, a slightly chubby frame, and was the palest of the bunch, but not by much. He wore plain blue shirt, with jeans and light brown flip flops. His one distinguishing characteristic was his piercing green eyes. They seemed to shimmer with a brilliance that instantly drew me to him, despite is rather blunt manner.
"So, what are all of your names?" I asked, eager to get to know them.
"My name is Lily." replied the beautifully tan woman, her soothing voice putting me further at ease with every word she spoke.
"Marcus." the short boy said quickly, his arms still folded.
"And I'm Shon." finished the tall blonde boy with a flash of his bright white smile.
"And you are?" Mark asked quickly.
"Dominique." I said simply.
"Nice to meet you." said Lily, offering me her hand in welcome.
"Likewise" I replied, shaking her very soft hand.
"Dominique is a girl's name, you're not a girl." Marcus piped up.
"No, really? I had no idea." I replied, sending waves of sarcasm right back at him. Shon laughed, and Lily smiled as Marcus scowled. "Dominique can also be a boys name, as it clearly is in my case."
"Yeah… well…" Marcus trailed off.
"Right. Well, Marcus, if you're all done being rude," said lily, getting to her feet, "I think we should begin today's training."
"Sounds like a plan." Shon agreed.
"Fine" replied Marcus, quickly getting to his feet and disappearing into the ruins.
"Oh, umm…" I said, caught off guard by the sudden shift into action, but standing up all the same, though a little slowly.
"We don't expect you to take part in training today," Lily said in response to my hesitation "but I would like it if you at least came and watched.
"Oh, sure." I said, relieved.
"But," Shon said, standing up, "If you do feel like giving us a little display power, I think I speak for all of us when I say we'd love to see what you can do."
His casual tone put me at ease, but I still wasn't sure if I was ready to perform for these people.
"Maybe," I replied, trailing behind Lily and Shon, "if I'm up to it"
As we walked further into the destroyed building, I began to wonder what kind of training they had in store. I didn't see anything they could train their powers with as I walked, but then I realized I had no idea what their powers were. Just as I was about to ask them what they all could do, we walked around a large pile of brick and wood, and into a beautiful clearing. The field must have been the length of two football fields, but was impossible to see from the front because of the trees that had grown up around the remnants of the X-Mansion. I could see a large lake on the other side of the field, and I immediately longed for a bath, but Marcus stood in the field with his arms above his head, waving us over to him.
As we reached Marcus, Lily told me to go and sit off to the side and watch, and that if at any time I wanted to join in, all I had to do was say so. I said "Ok", and found a nice spot underneath a tree about twenty feet away from the others.
As I sat down, I saw Lily talk briefly to, as he nodded in understanding. No more than a second passed before Shon had run to the other end of the field, some fifty yards away. "Super Speed." I thought "Interesting".
"Alright," Lily called out, "The same game as yesterday. I create the obstacle course that you have to get through, and at the end of it you have to fight Marcus. Knock him to the ground, and you've won." she finished grandly. "Now, give me one second to get the course set up."
Lily closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held her hands out, palms down. The earth began to shake slightly, and parts of the ground began to shift. Ten foot high walls of solid earth were raised from the ground in various places, deep pits were scattered throughout the course, swinging pillars of stone stood in a row and hung from large stone archway, and many rocks the size of footballs were floating high in the air all around the course.
"Ready?" said Lily, who looked as if the action of making an obstacle course out of the earth itself caused her no effort at all. I knew that she must be the powerhouse of the group.
"Ready!" Shon called back.
"Yeah, let's just go already!" Marcus said from beside Lily, clearly bored.
"Alright. 3," Lily began, and Shon readied himself.
"2," Lily called, and Marcus seemed as if he couldn't care less about the fight that was coming his way.
"1," she said, and she raised her hand higher in the air, and the football sized rocks in the sky began to spin.
"GO!" she shouted, and Shon took of like a shot.
Shon's first obstacle was ten foot tall wall made out of solid stone. He ran at the wall, not slowing down for a second, and jumped right over the wall. "Wow," I thought, "I guess his super speed allows him to jump higher than normal". He cleared the wall with room to spare, and kept on running, never losing his pace. Out of nowhere, Lily raised spinning fans with sharp edges from the ground to and began to move them through the air at Shon. He dodged the first two with ease, but the third one made him fall to the ground to avoid it, and the fourth one sailed just over his head. After each of the fans missed, the fell to the ground and moved no more. Once he was aware that the threat was gone, he immediately jumped to his feet and began running again. He came upon a second wall, taller than the first, but still low enough for him to attempt a jump. He leapt from the ground, almost clearing the top of the wall, but his foot caught on the very top, and he toppled over the other side. What he didn't know was that there was a deep pit on the other side of the wall, and he fell into it's depths.
"No!" I shouted, getting to my feet and running toward the pit that he fell into, but before I could get more than a few steps, the earth below my feet climbed up my legs and solidified, holding me in place. Lily had immobilized me.
"He's fine." Lily called out to me, "The bottom of the pits is filled with the softest sand you can imagine. It's a safety precaution that I take. Look!" She exclaimed, pointing at the pit.
As I turned my head from Lily to the pit, I saw the Shon jumping from one wall-to-wall in the pit, eventually reaching the top and jumping out. He took a moment to rest, looking extremely tired, but other than that her looked fine. As soon as he caught his breath, he began running again at top speed. He jumped over the next pit, and weaved his way through the swinging pillars, and was finally at the home stretch. Lily put her hands higher in the air, and pulled them down with a grunt. Thirty or forty football sized rocks began to fall to the earth at a high speed, digging deep trenches when the landed. Shon managed to dodge almost all of them, begin hit with a few, but still kept moving. His last obstacle before the end of the course and his fight with Marcus was a third and final wall, the tallest yet. As he approached the wall, he stopped and stared at it for a moment, clearly thinking of how to get over it. Then, he smiled and ran back about twenty feet. He took a calming breath, and ran at the wall at full speed. He couldn't be think of running through the wall, his bones would be crushed when they collided with the solid stone structure at such a high speed. I gasped when I saw what happened next: He was running up the side of the wall, defying the laws of gravity. When he reached the top, he slid down the other side, jumping from the wall when he neared the ground. He hit the ground hard, but rolled to avoid doing any real damage to himself. When he stood up, having finished the obstacle course, he looked exhausted, but he knew he still had one battle left on his hands. He and Marcus looked and each other, sizing each other up, before Shon ran at him full speed. Marcus did nothing but stand there. When Shon was mere feet from him, Marcus uttered a single word: "Sleep". The word went forth with a great deal of power, and it gave me goose bumps. Shon stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and he fell to the ground with a snore.
"That was easy" Marcus said, still sounding bored.
I stood there in shock at what I had just witnessed. The most powerful terrakinetic mutant I had ever met, and a mutant with the ability to cause whatever he wanted with a single word.
"So, Dominique," Lily said, a half-smile on her face, "Are you up to the challenge?"
This my first fanfic ever. PLEASE R&R
If I don't get reviews I probably won't continue. I really want to get everybody's input because I think this story has potential.
I already have ideas of where I want this to go, but I honestly want to hear your ideas as well.