Shades of Gray
By Skye Dragon
Disclaimer: Yes! I own Kurt Wagner and Darien Fawks! They are mine! You can not use them! Oh wait, no, someone else owns them. Never mind.
Author's note: Um...Hi. I have no idea why I wrote this. It was just one of those ideas that just refused to leave me alone. Anyway, this was really just an excuse to play with two of my favorite characters in one story. Kurt Wagner and Darien Fawks. For those who don't know, Darien is from a TV series on SciFi called The Invisible Man (a.k.a. I-man). You don't need to know anything about him or the show to understand this fic, though. As a matter of fact, if you DO happen to know what that show is about (OMG, You mean I'm NOT alone in my freaky TV tastes?) then I had better tell you to forget everything you know. I stole Darien, erased his past and turned him in to a teenager to use in this fic. So nothing that happens in the show applies here. I'm just going along with making Darien have the gland as a mutation, instead of it being implanted,(meaning there is no madness) if that makes sense. And I can do all this with the use of fanfiction magic. Wonderful stuff that is. Anyway, there are no other I-man characters in this one, and nothing else related to I-man. That's why I didn't put this in cross-overs. Okay, I think that's all I had to say. Oh no wait, I also... ::Nightcrawler suddenly bamfs right behind her and smacks her upside the head. Skye Dragon collapses and Nightcrawler catches her. He then drags her out of view muttering the whole time about stupid female authors who talk too much::
Chapter 1: It starts.
Sirens wailed. Red lights flashed. Tires screeched.
People everywhere dove out of the way of the police motorcycles as they careened wildly, their drivers intent on only one thing:
The boy.
Panting heavily, his chest heaving, starving for breath, the teenager ran on. Every muscle ached, every fiber of his being screamed protest against this harsh treatment, but the boy didn't dare stop. He wouldn't even look back. He didn't NEED to look back. The ear-splitting wail of the sirens told him all he needed to know.
They were still following.
He was running blindly now. He'd been trying to lose them in all the back-streets and alleyways, but when ever he thought he had lost them, they would appear again, always one step behind. He'd since given up trying to lose them. He now just ran. He was exhausted, but he couldn't stop. He couldn't let them catch him. He'd seen what they did to mutants, and he wasn't about to let THAT happen to him.
It was in this blind state of absolute panic that the teen suddenly found himself facing a dead end.
"Crap!"
Panicking, the so-called 'mutant' whirled around. The motorcycles were quickly closing the gap he'd managed to create. Time was running out, and he was trapped.
As he searched frantically for an escape rote, the young boy was vaguely aware of a cool trickle on his forehead. In the back of his fear-fogged brain, he realized it was the same feeling that he'd recently become familiar with. Instinctively, he stood still and let the silver liquid flow from his pores, covering his body like a comforting blanket.
The police men were there suddenly, bringing their 'cycles to a stop. There were five of them, four men and a woman. They stared around in confusion.
"What happened?! Where'd he go?" The youngest cop exclaimed in disbelief.
"He was here a second ago. I saw him!!" The woman cried.
All five peered around intently before the biggest (and apparently oldest) man sighed. "Well, he's not here now. But we'll keep looking. We gotta real good look at 'em. We'll send wanted posters to the other nearby cities. He'll turn up sooner or later." Another man nodded in agreement as all five turned their motorcycles around and prepared to take off again.
"Dang mutants," the last man commented sourly, "They'll be the death of us all. I say 'good riddance'."
There were murmurs of agreement all around as the five drove away.
As soon as the alleyway was quiet again, there was a soft tinkling sound. Silver flakes of . . . something . . . fell to the ground and in their place stood the teen.
A dark scowl crossed his youthful face. " 'Death of us all,' huh? We'll just see about that..." The boy turned to go, but before he did he stopped and looked back. "And I have a name! I'm Darien! Darien Fawks!!!"
"And our hero grabs the ball. With only five and a half seconds left on the clock, he'll have to make a long shot. Can he do it?!?"
Evan stopped at half court dribbling the worn basketball. He squinted at the basket, then aimed...
"And our hero aims, ... he shoots,... he-"
"BLOCK!!!" A puff of smoke, and a certain 'fuzzy blue elf' appeared right in front of the basket. Catching the orange ball in his three-fingered hands, the fuzzy 'demon' fell to the ground, easily catching himself on his oddly shaped feet.
"KURT! No fair! I was actually gonna score that time!" Evan yelled at the German mutant.
Kurt just laughed. "Sure you vere!" His words were heavily accented. He whirled suddenly, throwing the basketball. It hit the backboard and bounced off. Evan smirked at his room mate.
"Nice one!"
Kurt opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by another voice.
"Evan! Kurt!"
Both teens turned to see a lovely young woman with white hair standing on a balcony of the mansion that overlooked the make-shift basketball court.
"Come on you two! Dinner!" Ororo called. She then turned and went back inside the mansion that served as 'Xavier's school for gifted children'.
No sooner had she gone than Kurt vanished himself in a puff of sulfur, accompanied by a sound that could only be described as 'bamf'.
Evan grabbed up the old basketball and ran inside.
Everyone was already in the dinning room when Evan arrived. He hurriedly flopped down in his seat and helped himself, just like everyone else.
Dinner went as usual, with the usual fussing and Logan's gripping and, of course, Kitty trying to inform everyone about her latest crush at school ('trying' being the key word). The only thing really of any importance was when Xavier told them of his latest find.
"Cerebro located another teen whose powers are begging to manifest." He announced.
"Cool, vere is this one?" Kurt asked around a mouthful of food.
"California." Xavier answered, ignoring the fuzzy one's rudeness.
"Do you know the kid's name?"
"It's a he, Darien Fawks. About sixteen, I believe. I also believe he was running from someone or something."
"What do you want to bet I know what?" Scott muttered.
Jean gave him one of her looks, and Scott hushed.
"Logan will accompany me to find this boy. Ororo will stay here with you all." Xavier finished.
"Man, how come WE never get to go on these trips?" Evan complained, his brow wrinkled in what might have been disgust.
"Because you have school to attend." His aunt answered.
"How long will it take you?" Jean questioned, looking at the professor.
"I don't know. A few days I would think." He answered. There were murmurs all around and then the meal continued as usual.
Dark brown eyes stared out from under shaggy brown hair. They were framed by a thin, deathly pale face. The look in the eyes was one of loneliness, despair, and hate.
This was the face that looked back at Darien from a broken piece of a mirror. With a grunt, the teen threw the thing down. It broke on impact, shattering into millions of tiny pieces. Darien regarded the tiny silvers of light with disgust. But it wasn't the broken mirror that disgusted him, it was himself.
Ever since his mutation came out, his life had been a nightmare. It wasn't that his mutation made him ugly or anything, actually, it was quite the opposite. It made him invisible. No, that wasn't what bothered him. It was because he had no control. His mutation came out whenever it felt like it. And it ALWAYS came at the worst possible time.
When he was trying to swindle some food, a suddenly disappearing limb would alert the store keeper. When he tried to stay at a homeless shelter, it happened and caused people to panic and try to kill him. Even when he simply tired to walk down the street and look causal, the bloody mutation ruined everything.
When ever he tried to do anything important, at the critical moment, the accursed liquid that came from his pores and made him invisible would come forth unwanted and unwelcomed. And whenever it did, it would be met with screams and cries of "Mutant!!" or "Monster!!" or even "Ghost!!". And always after that he would be chased away, forced back onto the streets that were quickly becoming his home.
Of course, his mutation did help him several times. When he was cornered by anti-mutant gangs that wanted to kill him, his invisibility allowed for escape. Or like last night with the police, he managed to throw them off his trail.
'But the cons still grossly out-weigh the pros...' Darien thought sadly. 'Crap! If it wasn't for this bloody mutation I wouldn't be on the streets in the first place!'
That was true, but even in his home, Darien had been a rebel. His younger brother, Kevin, was always the one in the spotlight. For his intelligence, his grades, just about anything he did. Darien on the other hand, was doing good just to get a B-. It wasn't that he was dumb, Darien was actually very smart, but he was sick and tired of being compared to Kevin. Consequently, Darien had stopped caring about his work. And lately, he'd even found a mentor, a older girl named Liz, who had agreed to teach him to pick locks, break in to houses, how to tell which houses were worth breaking in to, that sort of thing. She was going to teach him to be a cat-burglar. And Darien had been more than willing to learn. But she'd been repulsed when she found out about his mutation.
That had been when he first found out about his mutation. She'd taken him to a house to actually break in to. He was mostly just going to watch her to see how it was done, but he'd been so nervous!! Imagine his surprise when his world suddenly turned into shades of gray and Liz started talking like she couldn't see him!!!
Darien was still lost in these past thoughts when he suddenly heard a voice calling his name.
"Darien!"
Darien started and then whirled to see who it was that knew his name. He hadn't told anyone his name, and no one that DID know him would be looking for him, certainly not this far from home.
Upon turning, the teen found himself facing a small, balding man in a wheelchair. The man watched him with sharp, intelligent eyes. Behind the wheelchair was another man, this one was tall and VERY muscular. His short hair was done in some style Darien had never seen before.
His first reaction was to run, but as Darien looked at the man in the wheelchair, he found himself captivated by those eyes. He felt as if the man could read his every thought. It was a creepy feeling. Finally he shook himself free of the emotion.
"Who are you?" Darien demanded.
"My name is Charles Xavier. I know who you are, and I want to help you." The man answered calmly.
Darien puzzled a moment over this. 'I know who you are...' This guy knew he was a mutant?! But how?? He must be a cop. This was a trap! Darien scowled at the man in a sudden burst of anger. How dare this man come and expect Darien to go with him just because he said he would 'help'! How dare he think he could calmly lead Darien to his death! Like a lamb to the slaughter! "Help me?! Yea, I bet you want to 'help' me. Help me die!" Darien snarled. The man looked surprised at this sudden outburst. "You want to kill me, just because I'm different, but I won't let you!" Out of the corner of his eyes Darien saw the larger man tense, preparing to spring into action, but Darien reacted quicker.
Lunging to the side, Darien just barely slid past the larger man. But fast as he was, the other man was much, much stronger. He grabbed Darien's poor excuse for a shirt and lifted him off his feet by the collar. Darien, stunned, just stayed there, dangling about a foot off the ground in the grip of the huge man.
Darien suddenly felt the familiar tickle of liquid on his back and this time, he didn't fight it. Darien vanished in the blink of an eye. The man who was holding him was temporally stunned, but only for a second. Still that second was all Darien needed to slip out of the man's grip and scrabble hand over heels up a fire escape.
The large man started to follow, but was stopped by the smaller man. "Logan! Stop. Let him go."
Logan halted, and growled softly. "Why?" He demanded turning back to the professor.
"You know why. Chasing him isn't going to help us." Xavier looked at the Canadian mutant solemnly. "He's been kicked around too much. He won't trust us unless we can give him a reason to." Pausing, Xavier seemed to think quickly before sighing and adding, "But perhaps we should keep an eye on him. He's very unstable and-"
Xavier didn't even finish his sentence before Logan was gone, his foot disappearing over the top of the building in the direction the boy had gone. Xavier sighed.
Darien leapt from roof top to roof top, before he slid back down into an alley. He was exhausted, his sides heaving. Work like this required nourishment, and it'd been a couple of days since Darien had last eaten, and even longer than that since he had had REAL food.
But he kept going, though at a much slower pace now. He started to feel dizzy. Darien cursed himself, but kept going. He'd find a safe place to sleep now and then see if he couldn't snatch some food later.
Stumbling on now, Darien was taken completely by surprise when he suddenly found himself laying flat on the ground, the trash he'd tripped on at his feet. Stunned, he felt the liquid silver pour out over him. He began to push it away and get up when a boot suddenly came down on his back.
"Well, well, well. What've we got here?" A thick, hard voice sounded over Darien's head. "Looks like one of 'em freaks to me. What da ya boys think?"
"Yea, it's a freak." Another harsh voice confirmed.
"I say we kill it." A violent shudder ran down Darien's spine. This was an anti-mutant gang. He was going to die. And he was far too weak to fight back.
"Now, now. Where's ya manners, Brunei? I say let's roll out the red carpet for it."
Darien couldn't help but moan. He knew what that meant. The street would run red with his blood. The man with his foot on Darien's back, moved and then bent down next to him. A sharp tug on his wild, brown hair brought Darien's head up and he found himself face to face with the leader of this gang.
The darkness of the alley concealed most of the boy's features, but Darien could tell that this WAS a boy. Not much older then himself. A ugly scar ran down the side of his face and he scowled darkly at Darien. "You got somein' ta say, freak?" He demanded.
Darien closed his eyes, saying nothing. The boy released him and he fell flat on his face, before two of the other boys hauled him up and pinned back his arms. They held him up as the other three began pounding him with fists that quickly grew bloody. He fell again to the ground soon and they began to kick him, leaving him breathless with stars dancing in his eyes. Pain consumed Darien, defining every part of his being, and he soon retreated into unconsciousness.
Logan followed the scent trail that the youth had unknowingly left behind. It wasn't long until he heard the shouts and cries that he had come to identify as a fight. Following his keen hearing, Logan quickly came upon the scene.
There were five teenagers gathered around something. The scent in the air readily identified their pray as the young mutant he was suppose to be stalking. Logan knew immediately what was happening. This was an anti-mutant gang, and they had found their victim.
A low growl escaped his throat unbidden. One by one, the gang members became aware of his presence. The look of superiority left their eyes. Obviously this group had only come across younger mutants and had always been able to bully them around by outnumbering them. But not now.
After a brief hesitation, the apparent leader stepped forward. "Who're you?" He demanded.
The only response he got was the sudden appearance of three long blades popping out of each of Logan's fists.
The boy faltered, eyeing the blades.
"Get out of here." Logan growled, barely stopping himself from ripping out the boy's throat.
At first the teen looked like he was going to obey, but the other boys urged him on with their eyes. This was what they were all about. Why should their leader back down just because they came across a freak bigger and scarier (and lets face it, stronger) than the rest? "Oh yea? And who's gonna make me?" The boy taunted bravely (or should I say, dumbly?).
Logan didn't waste his breath but suddenly he had the boy pinned against a brick wall, the tender skin of his throat caught between the two outermost claws on Logan's right fist. "I told you to get out of here." Logan's voice was deadly clam.
The teen, now trembling, nodded weakly (and carefully due to the claws that still held his neck). Logan, after staring intimidatingly into his eyes, released him. The boy fell to his knees, still trembling. Hurriedly, he scrambled to his feet and took off running. The rest of his gang stood still in confusion, still staring at Logan. A glare from the aforementioned mutant found them all scrambling after their cowardly leader.
Logan watched them go, a look of total disgust in his eyes, before turning to look at the beaten and bloody mess called Darien.
The kid was a wreak. His shirt had been ripped from him, revealing that the child was all skin and bones. Logan was positive that if there hadn't been so much blood, he'd been able to see every last bone the kid owned. As it was, there were many, many bruises and many would-be bruises. There were various cuts and scratches everywhere. There was one partially deep gash across his chest. A black eye and a bloody nose adorned the too-thin face.
Still surveying the damage, Logan pulled out a cell phone he'd had in his pocket. "Yea Chuck, the kid's a mess. He'll need medical help...sure, whatever." Hanging up. Logan sighed. He kneeled down next to the shattered form of the teenager. "You sure you don't want that help? Looks like you need it to me."
There was no answer from the unconscious teen.
"Yea, that's what I thought." Logan lifted the broken body unto his shoulder and disappeared down the alley, heading in the direction in which he would find Xavier, as well as a jet prepared to take them back home.
End Chapter 1
By Skye Dragon
Disclaimer: Yes! I own Kurt Wagner and Darien Fawks! They are mine! You can not use them! Oh wait, no, someone else owns them. Never mind.
Author's note: Um...Hi. I have no idea why I wrote this. It was just one of those ideas that just refused to leave me alone. Anyway, this was really just an excuse to play with two of my favorite characters in one story. Kurt Wagner and Darien Fawks. For those who don't know, Darien is from a TV series on SciFi called The Invisible Man (a.k.a. I-man). You don't need to know anything about him or the show to understand this fic, though. As a matter of fact, if you DO happen to know what that show is about (OMG, You mean I'm NOT alone in my freaky TV tastes?) then I had better tell you to forget everything you know. I stole Darien, erased his past and turned him in to a teenager to use in this fic. So nothing that happens in the show applies here. I'm just going along with making Darien have the gland as a mutation, instead of it being implanted,(meaning there is no madness) if that makes sense. And I can do all this with the use of fanfiction magic. Wonderful stuff that is. Anyway, there are no other I-man characters in this one, and nothing else related to I-man. That's why I didn't put this in cross-overs. Okay, I think that's all I had to say. Oh no wait, I also... ::Nightcrawler suddenly bamfs right behind her and smacks her upside the head. Skye Dragon collapses and Nightcrawler catches her. He then drags her out of view muttering the whole time about stupid female authors who talk too much::
Chapter 1: It starts.
Sirens wailed. Red lights flashed. Tires screeched.
People everywhere dove out of the way of the police motorcycles as they careened wildly, their drivers intent on only one thing:
The boy.
Panting heavily, his chest heaving, starving for breath, the teenager ran on. Every muscle ached, every fiber of his being screamed protest against this harsh treatment, but the boy didn't dare stop. He wouldn't even look back. He didn't NEED to look back. The ear-splitting wail of the sirens told him all he needed to know.
They were still following.
He was running blindly now. He'd been trying to lose them in all the back-streets and alleyways, but when ever he thought he had lost them, they would appear again, always one step behind. He'd since given up trying to lose them. He now just ran. He was exhausted, but he couldn't stop. He couldn't let them catch him. He'd seen what they did to mutants, and he wasn't about to let THAT happen to him.
It was in this blind state of absolute panic that the teen suddenly found himself facing a dead end.
"Crap!"
Panicking, the so-called 'mutant' whirled around. The motorcycles were quickly closing the gap he'd managed to create. Time was running out, and he was trapped.
As he searched frantically for an escape rote, the young boy was vaguely aware of a cool trickle on his forehead. In the back of his fear-fogged brain, he realized it was the same feeling that he'd recently become familiar with. Instinctively, he stood still and let the silver liquid flow from his pores, covering his body like a comforting blanket.
The police men were there suddenly, bringing their 'cycles to a stop. There were five of them, four men and a woman. They stared around in confusion.
"What happened?! Where'd he go?" The youngest cop exclaimed in disbelief.
"He was here a second ago. I saw him!!" The woman cried.
All five peered around intently before the biggest (and apparently oldest) man sighed. "Well, he's not here now. But we'll keep looking. We gotta real good look at 'em. We'll send wanted posters to the other nearby cities. He'll turn up sooner or later." Another man nodded in agreement as all five turned their motorcycles around and prepared to take off again.
"Dang mutants," the last man commented sourly, "They'll be the death of us all. I say 'good riddance'."
There were murmurs of agreement all around as the five drove away.
As soon as the alleyway was quiet again, there was a soft tinkling sound. Silver flakes of . . . something . . . fell to the ground and in their place stood the teen.
A dark scowl crossed his youthful face. " 'Death of us all,' huh? We'll just see about that..." The boy turned to go, but before he did he stopped and looked back. "And I have a name! I'm Darien! Darien Fawks!!!"
"And our hero grabs the ball. With only five and a half seconds left on the clock, he'll have to make a long shot. Can he do it?!?"
Evan stopped at half court dribbling the worn basketball. He squinted at the basket, then aimed...
"And our hero aims, ... he shoots,... he-"
"BLOCK!!!" A puff of smoke, and a certain 'fuzzy blue elf' appeared right in front of the basket. Catching the orange ball in his three-fingered hands, the fuzzy 'demon' fell to the ground, easily catching himself on his oddly shaped feet.
"KURT! No fair! I was actually gonna score that time!" Evan yelled at the German mutant.
Kurt just laughed. "Sure you vere!" His words were heavily accented. He whirled suddenly, throwing the basketball. It hit the backboard and bounced off. Evan smirked at his room mate.
"Nice one!"
Kurt opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by another voice.
"Evan! Kurt!"
Both teens turned to see a lovely young woman with white hair standing on a balcony of the mansion that overlooked the make-shift basketball court.
"Come on you two! Dinner!" Ororo called. She then turned and went back inside the mansion that served as 'Xavier's school for gifted children'.
No sooner had she gone than Kurt vanished himself in a puff of sulfur, accompanied by a sound that could only be described as 'bamf'.
Evan grabbed up the old basketball and ran inside.
Everyone was already in the dinning room when Evan arrived. He hurriedly flopped down in his seat and helped himself, just like everyone else.
Dinner went as usual, with the usual fussing and Logan's gripping and, of course, Kitty trying to inform everyone about her latest crush at school ('trying' being the key word). The only thing really of any importance was when Xavier told them of his latest find.
"Cerebro located another teen whose powers are begging to manifest." He announced.
"Cool, vere is this one?" Kurt asked around a mouthful of food.
"California." Xavier answered, ignoring the fuzzy one's rudeness.
"Do you know the kid's name?"
"It's a he, Darien Fawks. About sixteen, I believe. I also believe he was running from someone or something."
"What do you want to bet I know what?" Scott muttered.
Jean gave him one of her looks, and Scott hushed.
"Logan will accompany me to find this boy. Ororo will stay here with you all." Xavier finished.
"Man, how come WE never get to go on these trips?" Evan complained, his brow wrinkled in what might have been disgust.
"Because you have school to attend." His aunt answered.
"How long will it take you?" Jean questioned, looking at the professor.
"I don't know. A few days I would think." He answered. There were murmurs all around and then the meal continued as usual.
Dark brown eyes stared out from under shaggy brown hair. They were framed by a thin, deathly pale face. The look in the eyes was one of loneliness, despair, and hate.
This was the face that looked back at Darien from a broken piece of a mirror. With a grunt, the teen threw the thing down. It broke on impact, shattering into millions of tiny pieces. Darien regarded the tiny silvers of light with disgust. But it wasn't the broken mirror that disgusted him, it was himself.
Ever since his mutation came out, his life had been a nightmare. It wasn't that his mutation made him ugly or anything, actually, it was quite the opposite. It made him invisible. No, that wasn't what bothered him. It was because he had no control. His mutation came out whenever it felt like it. And it ALWAYS came at the worst possible time.
When he was trying to swindle some food, a suddenly disappearing limb would alert the store keeper. When he tried to stay at a homeless shelter, it happened and caused people to panic and try to kill him. Even when he simply tired to walk down the street and look causal, the bloody mutation ruined everything.
When ever he tried to do anything important, at the critical moment, the accursed liquid that came from his pores and made him invisible would come forth unwanted and unwelcomed. And whenever it did, it would be met with screams and cries of "Mutant!!" or "Monster!!" or even "Ghost!!". And always after that he would be chased away, forced back onto the streets that were quickly becoming his home.
Of course, his mutation did help him several times. When he was cornered by anti-mutant gangs that wanted to kill him, his invisibility allowed for escape. Or like last night with the police, he managed to throw them off his trail.
'But the cons still grossly out-weigh the pros...' Darien thought sadly. 'Crap! If it wasn't for this bloody mutation I wouldn't be on the streets in the first place!'
That was true, but even in his home, Darien had been a rebel. His younger brother, Kevin, was always the one in the spotlight. For his intelligence, his grades, just about anything he did. Darien on the other hand, was doing good just to get a B-. It wasn't that he was dumb, Darien was actually very smart, but he was sick and tired of being compared to Kevin. Consequently, Darien had stopped caring about his work. And lately, he'd even found a mentor, a older girl named Liz, who had agreed to teach him to pick locks, break in to houses, how to tell which houses were worth breaking in to, that sort of thing. She was going to teach him to be a cat-burglar. And Darien had been more than willing to learn. But she'd been repulsed when she found out about his mutation.
That had been when he first found out about his mutation. She'd taken him to a house to actually break in to. He was mostly just going to watch her to see how it was done, but he'd been so nervous!! Imagine his surprise when his world suddenly turned into shades of gray and Liz started talking like she couldn't see him!!!
Darien was still lost in these past thoughts when he suddenly heard a voice calling his name.
"Darien!"
Darien started and then whirled to see who it was that knew his name. He hadn't told anyone his name, and no one that DID know him would be looking for him, certainly not this far from home.
Upon turning, the teen found himself facing a small, balding man in a wheelchair. The man watched him with sharp, intelligent eyes. Behind the wheelchair was another man, this one was tall and VERY muscular. His short hair was done in some style Darien had never seen before.
His first reaction was to run, but as Darien looked at the man in the wheelchair, he found himself captivated by those eyes. He felt as if the man could read his every thought. It was a creepy feeling. Finally he shook himself free of the emotion.
"Who are you?" Darien demanded.
"My name is Charles Xavier. I know who you are, and I want to help you." The man answered calmly.
Darien puzzled a moment over this. 'I know who you are...' This guy knew he was a mutant?! But how?? He must be a cop. This was a trap! Darien scowled at the man in a sudden burst of anger. How dare this man come and expect Darien to go with him just because he said he would 'help'! How dare he think he could calmly lead Darien to his death! Like a lamb to the slaughter! "Help me?! Yea, I bet you want to 'help' me. Help me die!" Darien snarled. The man looked surprised at this sudden outburst. "You want to kill me, just because I'm different, but I won't let you!" Out of the corner of his eyes Darien saw the larger man tense, preparing to spring into action, but Darien reacted quicker.
Lunging to the side, Darien just barely slid past the larger man. But fast as he was, the other man was much, much stronger. He grabbed Darien's poor excuse for a shirt and lifted him off his feet by the collar. Darien, stunned, just stayed there, dangling about a foot off the ground in the grip of the huge man.
Darien suddenly felt the familiar tickle of liquid on his back and this time, he didn't fight it. Darien vanished in the blink of an eye. The man who was holding him was temporally stunned, but only for a second. Still that second was all Darien needed to slip out of the man's grip and scrabble hand over heels up a fire escape.
The large man started to follow, but was stopped by the smaller man. "Logan! Stop. Let him go."
Logan halted, and growled softly. "Why?" He demanded turning back to the professor.
"You know why. Chasing him isn't going to help us." Xavier looked at the Canadian mutant solemnly. "He's been kicked around too much. He won't trust us unless we can give him a reason to." Pausing, Xavier seemed to think quickly before sighing and adding, "But perhaps we should keep an eye on him. He's very unstable and-"
Xavier didn't even finish his sentence before Logan was gone, his foot disappearing over the top of the building in the direction the boy had gone. Xavier sighed.
Darien leapt from roof top to roof top, before he slid back down into an alley. He was exhausted, his sides heaving. Work like this required nourishment, and it'd been a couple of days since Darien had last eaten, and even longer than that since he had had REAL food.
But he kept going, though at a much slower pace now. He started to feel dizzy. Darien cursed himself, but kept going. He'd find a safe place to sleep now and then see if he couldn't snatch some food later.
Stumbling on now, Darien was taken completely by surprise when he suddenly found himself laying flat on the ground, the trash he'd tripped on at his feet. Stunned, he felt the liquid silver pour out over him. He began to push it away and get up when a boot suddenly came down on his back.
"Well, well, well. What've we got here?" A thick, hard voice sounded over Darien's head. "Looks like one of 'em freaks to me. What da ya boys think?"
"Yea, it's a freak." Another harsh voice confirmed.
"I say we kill it." A violent shudder ran down Darien's spine. This was an anti-mutant gang. He was going to die. And he was far too weak to fight back.
"Now, now. Where's ya manners, Brunei? I say let's roll out the red carpet for it."
Darien couldn't help but moan. He knew what that meant. The street would run red with his blood. The man with his foot on Darien's back, moved and then bent down next to him. A sharp tug on his wild, brown hair brought Darien's head up and he found himself face to face with the leader of this gang.
The darkness of the alley concealed most of the boy's features, but Darien could tell that this WAS a boy. Not much older then himself. A ugly scar ran down the side of his face and he scowled darkly at Darien. "You got somein' ta say, freak?" He demanded.
Darien closed his eyes, saying nothing. The boy released him and he fell flat on his face, before two of the other boys hauled him up and pinned back his arms. They held him up as the other three began pounding him with fists that quickly grew bloody. He fell again to the ground soon and they began to kick him, leaving him breathless with stars dancing in his eyes. Pain consumed Darien, defining every part of his being, and he soon retreated into unconsciousness.
Logan followed the scent trail that the youth had unknowingly left behind. It wasn't long until he heard the shouts and cries that he had come to identify as a fight. Following his keen hearing, Logan quickly came upon the scene.
There were five teenagers gathered around something. The scent in the air readily identified their pray as the young mutant he was suppose to be stalking. Logan knew immediately what was happening. This was an anti-mutant gang, and they had found their victim.
A low growl escaped his throat unbidden. One by one, the gang members became aware of his presence. The look of superiority left their eyes. Obviously this group had only come across younger mutants and had always been able to bully them around by outnumbering them. But not now.
After a brief hesitation, the apparent leader stepped forward. "Who're you?" He demanded.
The only response he got was the sudden appearance of three long blades popping out of each of Logan's fists.
The boy faltered, eyeing the blades.
"Get out of here." Logan growled, barely stopping himself from ripping out the boy's throat.
At first the teen looked like he was going to obey, but the other boys urged him on with their eyes. This was what they were all about. Why should their leader back down just because they came across a freak bigger and scarier (and lets face it, stronger) than the rest? "Oh yea? And who's gonna make me?" The boy taunted bravely (or should I say, dumbly?).
Logan didn't waste his breath but suddenly he had the boy pinned against a brick wall, the tender skin of his throat caught between the two outermost claws on Logan's right fist. "I told you to get out of here." Logan's voice was deadly clam.
The teen, now trembling, nodded weakly (and carefully due to the claws that still held his neck). Logan, after staring intimidatingly into his eyes, released him. The boy fell to his knees, still trembling. Hurriedly, he scrambled to his feet and took off running. The rest of his gang stood still in confusion, still staring at Logan. A glare from the aforementioned mutant found them all scrambling after their cowardly leader.
Logan watched them go, a look of total disgust in his eyes, before turning to look at the beaten and bloody mess called Darien.
The kid was a wreak. His shirt had been ripped from him, revealing that the child was all skin and bones. Logan was positive that if there hadn't been so much blood, he'd been able to see every last bone the kid owned. As it was, there were many, many bruises and many would-be bruises. There were various cuts and scratches everywhere. There was one partially deep gash across his chest. A black eye and a bloody nose adorned the too-thin face.
Still surveying the damage, Logan pulled out a cell phone he'd had in his pocket. "Yea Chuck, the kid's a mess. He'll need medical help...sure, whatever." Hanging up. Logan sighed. He kneeled down next to the shattered form of the teenager. "You sure you don't want that help? Looks like you need it to me."
There was no answer from the unconscious teen.
"Yea, that's what I thought." Logan lifted the broken body unto his shoulder and disappeared down the alley, heading in the direction in which he would find Xavier, as well as a jet prepared to take them back home.
End Chapter 1
