4/1
Story currently being revised, please be patient. If you have already read this chapter, you don't have to read it again. I'm not changing anything big in this one.
This chapter is revised though.
Lizzy
'Keep running, don't stop' Lizzy said to herself over and over again. She felt if she stopped saying it, the fear might sink in. She had to get as far away from the lab as possible. She was at least a mile away now. She would be enjoying her escape like usual if her back didn't hurt, and wasn't bleeding so bad. How did she hurt her back, you may be asking yourself? Well, she refused to do one of the scientist experiments and jerked around so they couldn't get anything done with her. The head scientist whipped her for being a 'bad little mutant girl' as he called her.
It was beautiful out tonight for her though. Not freezing, but not hot either, just wonderful autumn air. She remembered the last time she had escaped.
It was summer then. She was free for at least half a year before they found her and her family. The sky was clear and you could see the stars every night, including the one where she escaped.
The moon was full now. Its silver light shone down on her and, made the grass look blue instead of its natural green.
Suddenly the alarms went off. Every light inside the lab lit up, making the once dark building look like a bug zapper lantern. The distant shouts of men sounded just as commanding and scary as they always have been for mutants like her.
There was no way she could get away now. They would be able to spot her easily in this wide open plane where the lab sat. There were no trees or anything to hide behind for miles. This was why this lab was the one that was considered inescapable, because there was no way to hide out here, and the guards shifted places every five minutes so they would notice if you were gone right away.
Today, she decided immediately, was the day she would die, because there was no way she was going back in that lab or any other. She only hoped that Maddie wouldn't know about this for a long time.
Her blood froze when she heard the howls of the wolf-men, as they were released from their cages and sent after her. They have always chilled her blood. Their instincts were completely animal, as well as their minds and bodies. They weren't like her in any way. She could still think for herself unlike them.
There was no way she could out run them in her state, or any state actually. They were made for their power and speed, she wasn't. She was made only for destruction.
This wasn't the way she wanted to die though. Being torn to piece by the once human, but now wolf men. She knew from experience it was a painful and bloody death. She had seen others like her being fed alive to them. Thinking about this, she let the fear into her mind. She had never thought of how she wanted to die, but this was definitely at the bottom now.
A minute later she heard the thumps of their feet as they ran behind her. She pushed the fear from her mind and invited her fighting instincts in. She jumped around, so that she was running backwards now. There were three of them. In the moonlight she could see their wolf-like jaws/teeth, and their human like body. She could see their claws shining in the moonlight, and their eyes…the worst part was their eyes. All of them were a ghostly white, no sign of conscience or humanity left in their heads.
She launched two fire balls at them. Two got hit and tripped over their paws. She tried to summon more fire, but her body was just too exhausted. The scientist had made her do so many experiments each day; two had become her limit in these labs. Apparently, that was good for them. They got to test her fire even more then. Too bad it didn't get her any more food, or even a blanket to sleep with at night.
We were forced to live in cages like the ones they kept animals in, in the real world. The cages were bare, never any blankets or a pillow or even food or water. Food and water were blessings in the lab. A lot of kids died from starvation or dehydration. They gave it to you sometimes if you were good.
The third jumped at her and latched its teeth onto her shoulder. She fell backwards. A red light hit the wolf-man and shot him backwards. Her shoulder was heavily bleeding and she soon blacked out from the blood loss. The last thing she saw was the moon up in the sky, mocking her by rubbing his freedom in her face.
X-Men
Scot blasted the huge wolf off of the girl that they had seen running across the field. Cerebro first sensed her a week ago, but her signal disappeared. They kept careful watch for her since it was impossible for Cerebro to lose a mutant's single. When they went to where her signal was last sensed they had found a building that was built like a fortress. Cerebro had sensed her again half and hour so the X-Men suited up and hurried here. Her single had been brief, like a flash, but still they hurried there, hoping to find something.
"Nightcrawler get her out of here." Logan yelled. He was fighting off two of the wolf things. Their skin was singed and looked burned, but they fought like the wounds weren't even there. Anyone could see that they weren't completely animal, but it was obvious that their minds weren't as human as their torsos looked.
Kurt teleported to the girl and teleported her to the inside of the jet, Scot blasted one of the creatures away and ran into the jet, Logan followed. The creatures tried to follow, but they were already in the air. Their mission was to retrieve the mutant, and they did. All of them could tell that they didn't have the man power to help those creatures without killing them or one of them getting killed.
Kurt looked down at the girl in his arms. She had short brownish-red hair that stuck to her face and looked like it had never been washed or properly brushed. Her skin was an undistinguishable color since it was coated with a thick coat of grim. It was like it had been years since she'd had a bath or shower. She was so skinny, that she looked more like bones than anything else. It was like she hadn't had a decent meal in months or maybe even years. Her clothes were dirty, like they've never been washed. They were way too big on her that they hung on her tiny frame like they were hanging on a hanger in a closet. He could feel the cuts on her back on his hands, and blood was starting to soak into his own clothes. He could plainly see the huge bite mark that engulfed her shoulder. At least she was still breathing at the moment.
"Jean, hurry, I don't know if that girl will make it." Scot said sitting in the passenger seat, next to Jean. She nodded her head and increased their speed to what would be considered dangerous speeds on any other occasion.
Meanwhile in the back, Logan was kneeling down next to the girl and putting pressure on her shoulder to stop the bleeding. Kurt stood like a stone, unable to do anything, but watch the girl in his arms fade away.
Later at the institute
'Logan, bring the girl down to the medical bay. Quickly!' The professor said inside Logan's head. He carefully picked the girl up out of Kurt's arms, and brought her to the medical bay as fast as he could without making her wounds bleed more. The professor was waiting down there already when he arrived. He set the girl on one of the beds and watched him dress the girls' wounds, helping only when asked.
Lizzy
Lizzy opened her eyes. She was amazingly alive, and in a strange room. It was too clean, and too comfortable to be the lab. This must be His doing. They must have caught her, and somehow he got there, and played hero.
She was lying on her left side her shoulder and her back were heavily bandaged, but didn't hurt. That was a strange thing since the labs or even He believed in pain medication.
A man in a wheelchair came into her view. She bolted up in the bed, her mind and nerves ready to fight automatically.
"Do not be afraid. You are safe here." The man said. That's what every scientist said before they sent you to another experiment or strapped you down in a bed. "I am Charles Xavier, and you are at my school for mutants, like yourself." The man said to her. She didn't show any sign of relaxing. There was no way she could know if this man was telling the truth. The wheelchair could be a prop to trick her into calming down so he could experiment on her.
"I am a telepath, which means I can read minds." He said. Well yeah she knew what a telepath was. She'd met a few kids who were created with those powers.
'Except for yours' Charles thought to himself. "What is your name child?" He sounded kind, but that didn't mean he was good like Alen or trustworthy like her family. She sat back on the bed, her muscles relaxing a little. Alen told her he wasn't alone in his work, but it would have helped if her had given her some names.
"Lizzy." She said cautiously. Names weren't important. At the labs they just called you 'girl' or 'boy'.
The professor smiled. He had made some progress. "Do you have a last name Lizzy?" he asked her. If first names weren't important, then last names were non-existent in the labs.
"No." She said. She technically did have one though, but she felt it wasn't hers to say since she wasn't born with it. Alen had given her one, as well as her family. She didn't feel like she had the right to use it, even if he had given her permission to use it.
He nodded, knowing that he shouldn't ask her about too much at a time. She was too tense to push for information. He needed to make her know she is welcome and safe here. "You are not a prisoner. You are among friends."
"I can leave then?" She said standing up, ignoring her back's protests of pain. She could go find Alen, and he would keep her safe. She knew he was trustworthy.
"No. It would be inhuman if I let you leave in your current condition. You will be allowed to leave as soon as you are completely healed, unless of course you have someone who can take care of you." He said.
She didn't have a family or a home to go to. She was alone in the world. That didn't mean she wanted to be here, among strangers whom she knows nothing about. She thought about it, he said until she was healed. That would be a week or two at the most. It would be better if she was at full health than with failing health. Alan would yell if he saw her in this condition. Better to go fins him when she was better.
Alan helped mutants and helped get mutants like her get out of the labs. He had become like a father to her and her family. All over the world he had houses which he opened up to all mutants, secretly. He was a big business man, and she didn't want to bother him while she had a few scrapes from escaping.
"I will stay, but just until my wounds are healed." She said sitting cross-legged back the bed.
"Someone will bring you something to eat and some clothes in a moment then. If you will excuse me, I have some business to attend to. I will come and talk to you more after you have eaten and changed." The professor said and rolled out. The thought crossed her mind that he really might be paralyzed, but she refused to believe it until she was sure.
About ten minutes later a blue creature appeared out of nowhere with a tray of food in one hand a pair of clothes in the other. His sudden entrance startled her a little and caused her to jerk back away from him, and almost sent her falling off the side of the bed. He dropped the clothes on the floor and grabbed her arm before she fell.
On her bare skin, she felt only three fingers. She wondered if he was born with his hand like that. He had a complete physical mutation like the wolf-men or the serpent-women. She wondered if he was born like this or was he the product of an experiment in a lab. Was he like her and her family? A man-made mutant like her family?
He carefully set the tray of food on the nightstand next to the bed, before picking the clothes off the floor where he dropped them.
"Thanks." She said. She never needed manners at the lab, but she figured if she was going to stay here she should use some of the manners that Alan had taught her. He always used to scold her when she didn't use them. In the back of her mind, she missed him. She missed her family more though.
"You're welcome." The blue man said in a heavy accent. Was he German? It sure sounded like it. She had known kids who were German.
"German?" She asked him.
"Yes." He seemed surprised that she had known the accent. She looked at the food. Pancakes, bacon, a glass of orange juice, and fruit! Her mouth watered, she hadn't seen so much food for a year, and fruit! She had only had fruit once in her life, and that was will Alan when she had first met him years ago.
There was way too much food for her to eat by herself. Her stomach had shrunk to the size of a pea, due to food being scares in the labs. She didn't want to let the man in the wheel chair to know she had been starved for years, so she would have to make it all disappear somehow without throwing it out.
"That's a lot of food. Way too much for just me, do you want to share?" She asked the blue man. He looked at the ground. Did she say something wrong? At the lab, everyone had shared food with each other. There was never enough food or water so when someone got some they shared it with everyone. No matter how hungry we were we didn't want to watch each other die of hunger. Also, after Alan had taught her the word, she figured out it was common courtesy or something like that.
Kurt
Kurt looked at the floor. The girl was even prettier than last night, when he had saved her. Her skin was revealed to be a pale white, and her hair was transformed into a bright, fiery red that curled naturally. The thin gown she wore now went only to the top of her thighs and showed mostly everything underneath it.
"Um...Sure." He said. "Would you like to change first?" He suggested casually.
The girl shrugged. "Sure." She started taking off the gown. He quickly turned around when he realized that the girl was starting to striping in front of him. "Why did you turn around?" She asked with a hint of laughter.
"Too give you privacy." He said a little confused. Didn't girls hate when you watched them change?
"Oh…that's right. Sorry. In the labs, many of us didn't have clothes. It didn't matter to us though; we were always focused on just staying alive to see the next day." The girl said, the laughter gone, replaced with a monotone voice.
"It sounds like you've had a difficult life." He said a hint of sadness in his voice. His family wasn't the richest, but he always had clothes to wear. Never had he thought of clothes as a luxury.
"Yeah, but it didn't bug me as much as you think. I wasn't like the other kids. I never had any blood family or ever had a home to dream of going back to. I was born into it, so I'm just used to it." She said and poked him in the arm. He looked at her; she was wearing a long-sleeved dark blue shirt with black jeans. "I'm dressed, let's eat." She sat on the bed and pulled the nightstand out so it was between the bed and a chair which she had dragged from the corner of the room.
He sat in the chair and waited for her to eat first. He was amazed that she was skinner than Kitty, who had offered up the clothes since she had the tiniest frame. The clothes hung off her body, even though everyone else thought they would be too small.
She snatched the bowl of fruit and a fork, and started eating. The look on her face told him that she was trying to savor every bite. She snapped out of that look, and stopped eating.
"You can have everything except for the fruit and the juice." She said reassuringly, and went back to eating her fruit.
"Shouldn't you eat more?" he asked. She was as thin as a twig shouldn't she eat everything that was on the plate? Isn't that what Ororo intended when she put together the tray just few minutes ago?
"No I'm good with fruit and juice for now." She said. He shrugged and started eating what was on the plate. Maybe she wasn't hungry, because of all the medications that the Professor said he pumped into her body. He hadn't had breakfast yet so he didn't mind enjoying the food she wasn't going to eat.
Lizzy
"Want to play the question game?" She asked when she finished her fruit and juice. She decided that was the safest way to ask him about his appearance and maybe learn a little more about this place.
"How do you play?" The blue guy asked.
"Well we ask each other questions, and we have to answer honestly." She said plainly. It was a stupid game that they had thought of in the cages. Lots of times, it went silly. It was fun sometimes.
"Sure. You start." He said.
"Okay. First, what's your name?" She asked him.
"Kurt Wagner. What is yours?" He answered.
"Just call me Lizzy. How come you're blue?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't say lab.
"I was born like this. What are your powers?" he asked. Thank God. She couldn't share her experiences and fears about the labs with him, but at least he hadn't suffered like she and her family have.
"I can create fire and fast healing. Yours?" She was proud of her powers and they definitely came in handy when escaping. The fire was the only thing unique about her. Fast healing was gifted to all of the mutants that were created.
"I can teleport. Have you ever gone to school?" he asked her.
"Cool. In a sense, I have been forced to learn some things. How about you?" she asked.
(I say who is asking and answering so no one gets lost on who is talking. I know it's annoying but I know I always get lost when authors don't put who's talking.)
"Yes, first day is next week. This will be my second year." He said.
"How can you go to school? Won't people make fun of you?" she asked confused. Kurt stood up and pressed a button on his watch. He looked completely normal now. He still had blue hair but his skin was white and he looked normal. He even had five fingers. What an amazing piece of technology.
"The professor made me this image disguiser unit so I can go to school looking normal." He said and sat back down. "Are you going to stay here?"
"Where? Here? I'm forced to stay until I'm better…Why?" She asked temporally confused. Why would anyone want her in this place, whatever this place was?
"Yes here. You seem like a fun person and I think everyone would like you." He said, slightly blushing. Lizzy saw it and suppressed a smile. "Where else would you go?"
"I know a guy who will help me. Can you change back to your blue self?" She asked. She liked his blue self rather than his white self. She didn't believe in disguises. It was like makeup, but worse. If you are able to look like yourself, then why be someone else.
"Sure. Why?" He said pressing the button again.
"Blue is a calming color for me. Plus, you're normal just how you are. You don't need a disguise when you're not in public, so why use it when you aren't." She said. She was serious. She wasn't born with her powers, but she was able to look at herself and everyone else the same way, because in their own way they were born beautiful. She really couldn't think of another question. "Is the guy in the wheelchair really paralyzed?"
"Yes." He responded confused. "Who is the guy who will help you?"
"Right now I don't know, but I know how to find him. Was the wheelchair guy serious about me not being a prisoner here?"
"You're free to leave if you want. You can go to school if you stay here, you might find a home and friends here." He said looking at the ground. He was probably hoping she'd stay.
"I'll think about it…Can we go outside? I hate being stuck inside." She asked almost begging. Being trapped in a cage without sunlight had really sucked; she wanted to spend as much time outside before she was caught again. Kurt grabbed her hand and teleported them outside.
Revised, checked, and reviewed.
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