Of Rhodes by Eve-the-Charlotte
Pairings: Mentions Remy/Rogue and St. John/Wanda.
Number twelve in the Witchblood series. I don't think Colossus had enough screen time for such an awesome character. Oh, and Jean Paul wasn't mentioned at all, which I wasn't particularly happy about, either. Oh well, it's not like I own the X-Men or anything associated with it, in any way, shape, or form. Except I do own comics and the XME season DVD's, which does count for something, right? I didn't think so either. So, before I totally bore you all to death with this ridiculously long author's note, let's begin the story now, shall we?
Bobby Drake and Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee were very bored. Very, very bored indeed. So great was their combined boredom that they decided to ask the others at Mutant High, also known as, the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, why exactly they chose their respective codenames.
The first person they asked was Warren Worthington III, who stared at them blankly and then pointed to his wings. Well, that answered that. They then found Remy LeBeau, the Institute's Ragin' Cajun how he got his name. The older man chuckled at the wide eyed curiosity of the two New Mutants and claimed it was simply because he was, and always had been, very good at poker, which was known 'round here as gambling. Rogue, for once, agreed with the "Swamp Rat."
So the list went on. Mr. Allerdyce named himself for his ongoing pyromania. His girlfriend, the lovely Wanda, was coined the "Scarlet Witch" since she loved the color red and people in Romania, at first, thought she was a witch. Rogue was named, well, Rogue, since that was what she was at the beginning, a rogue. Mr. McCoy was Beast after the "beast within," which Bobby, at once, understood and Jubilee didn't really get. The new arrival, Jean Paul Beaubier, was called Northstar, since he was very into astronomy.
Finally, the only other person at the Xavier Institute that day was Piotr N. Rasputin, the muscular Russian that could turn his body to an extremely durable metallic alloy. They found him reading Doevtovsky in the library. The two imps sneaked up upon the tin man quietly, hardly making the merest of sounds. Which is why they nearly jumped out of their skins when the metallic Russian, without even looking up from the volume he was reading said, "Hello, and what do you two youths wish to discuss this fine afternoon?"
Jubilee, being the first to recover, asked the question first: "Mr. Rasputin, why are you called Colossus?" The answer they received was eloquent, and not quite what they were expecting.
"I am Colossus," the Russian said, setting down his book and standing up, showing off his well over six foot frame, "for a very special reason. You see, I am from a village not to far from St. Petersburg. I gained my abilities when I vas ten years old. Vhen I did, and zis vas back in the days of the Soviets, I vas practically vorshipped, for I vas ze savior of ze collective that I vorked on. I could do ze vork of ten men, vhich made me pretty mooch a gift from God, in zeir eyes. Zey called me Colossus, for I vas a vonder of ze vorld to zhem. Also, I kept ze name vhen I came to zis coontry, since, like ze Statue near Ellees Islund, I vas a Colossus."
Piotr then went back to reading The Notes from the Underground, but the two New Mutants did not go back to being bored. Instead, they thought about the Russian's meaning in his words. And they still thought about it many years later, when they reminisced about their teenage years. That would always be one of the first things they thought of, the man of Rhodes.
That was a weird one. I probably asked this question before, but I'll say it again: Why do none of my stories turn out the way I think they will? Anyways, review!