X-Men: Evolution

Geomancy

StormesJay

chapter o n e

"Mr. Alvers?" A nurse's soft voice called out into the waiting room of the high school infirmary office. Lance stood wearily, rubbing his temple gently. He entered without a word and sat on the exam bed, "Another headache?" She walked over to the file cabinet. Even the sound of the drawer opening seemed to make Lance's head pound. She pulled out his file and opened it, clipping the papers to her metal clipboard. She walked back over to the side of the examination table. Lance didn't seem to be faking, which he rarely did. Even though many thought the young man was a trouble maker, Ms. Walker rarely found him in her nurse's office for no reason. He was a good kid.

Lance nodded, keeping his head down in pain, "Yeah." He spoke softly, "Ms. Walker? Can you build a tolerance to aspirin?" He glanced up, keeping his head down and looking like a kicked puppy.

The nurse looked up from her clipboard, tapping her pen against the paper in thought, "Well, you can develop a tolorence to anything. But aspirin isn't right for all headaches. If it's near your eyebrow and it hurts when you see light or hear a sound, then it's probably a migraine, and aspirin doesn't work on migraines. In fact, it makes them worse. Is that what this is?"

"I think so..." Lance rubbed his forehead near his eyebrow, "I thought it was from the heat, or maybe something I ate. I-... I tried to message it away. That usually works, but this time it just won't let up. Is it because of the cafeteria food? That stuff's anything but natural."

Ms. Walker gave a laugh, "Well, that might well be the case. I know someone going through these headaches too, and it turned out to be something else. I need to ask you - and I have no prejudice against anyone, so don't worry - are you a mutant?" She leaned down and put her hand on his shoulder. She really didn't, but Lance didn't look liek he believed her, "That person having the headaches happened to be my boyfriend. Trust me, we're engaged, so I don't have a problem with mutants."

He shrunk a bit, his shoulders slumping as he let out a small sigh. Lance gave a small nod, "Don't tell any of the other students though. I mean, they know, but if they found out I was getting headaches they'd probably use it to their advantage somehow..."

"I won't. I'm going to call your parents to pick you up and take you to the hospital to get these headaches checked out, okay?"

"I don't have parents. Mrs. Darkholme took me in at her boy's home. She's always around the school somewhere. I'll go and tell her."

She knew she probably shouldn't have, but she trusted him, "Alright, go on, then." She smiled and stood up straight, helping him off of the table and to the door, "Here." She held up a pair of thick, dark sunglasses, "These should help with the light."

Lance furrowed an eyebrow and gave half a smirk as he took the glasses in his hand gently, "Um, thanks. I give these back tomorrow."

"Don't worry. Keep them. They don't fit me and their men's sunglasses." Ms. Walker giggled, "Now go on and find her." She pushed Lance playfully out the door and closed it.

Lance, of course, went straight home. His friends were there anyway. Though he found that it didn't help that much, because no later did he open a door than Toad flew into the wall next to him. He peered to the side behind his sunglasses, "Toad, what's going on?" The house was even more messy than usual, things having been slammed about in what seemed to be the midst of a fight.

"I swear I make one joke about that boy's mousse collection and he goes crazy on me!" Toad stood up and rubbed his head.

Pietro glared at Toad madly, "I don't have any, you jerk!" Toad stood, puffing up his chest to make himself look bigger. Pietro sneered at him as the two began to bicker back and forth so much that Lance couldn't even understand what they were saying, though Pietro seemed to have an advantage with his natural speed-talking.

He waved his hands in the air and sighed, hanging his head, "Whatever..." He couldn't deal with this until he had some pain relievers on board. He entered the kitchen in a search — any kind of drug would do. He opened the cabinet filled with bottles and boxes of all different shapes and sizes, "Great..." he said in a rather disgruntled manner as he began to dig swiftly through the miniature plastic and paper jungle. He picked up a prescription bottle with the word "MIDRIN" on the front. He knew it was for migraines, which he knew he had, "Take two once a day as needed for migraines... two..." he poured two pills out by shaking the bottle. He opened another cabinet, which was entirely void of dishes other than one glass and a plate. All the other dinnerware had been broken and chipped during arguments and fights. He pulled out the glass, putting it under the faucet to fill with water. He popped the pills in his mouth and put the glass to his lips, taking a drank.

He walked past his arguing roommates and straight into the living room, flopping onto the couch and turning on the television. He hated the news. He always had. It was always some new headline about how a mutant messed up and broke something on accident and no matter what, mutants were shown in a bad light. He pressed the channel up button continuously until he found a channel he liked, a nice music video channel with plenty of his favorite songs. He put the remote on the floor by the couch and watched quietly.

"What do you mean I'm the one who's not cleaning around here?! You're the toad, Toad! You HATE soap!!" Lance rolled his eyes and picked up the remote, turning up the volume as much as he could without it causing his head to throb.

Burning... Lance looked around the room quickly for the voice he could swear he just heard. He stayed silent, noticing that Pietro and Toad were still arguing, and watched the television again. In about an hour the midrin began to take full effect, and Lance began to feel too drowsy to stay awake. He practically dragged himself up the stairs and closed the door behind him. He flopped down on his bed, almost immediately falling to sleep.

His mind was clouded with gentle, echoing, hissing whispers and images of burning trees. The voices would say lightly, Burning... We are dying... His body began to sweat. His head gaining back it's migraine. His muscles tightened, his brething quickened. He was terrified, and he couldn't tell why. It was only dream. He hoped to God it was just a dream. The cold sweat had drentched his hair before he sat up quickly, "Ah!" he gasped, his abdoment gripping and his eyes darting around ashe looked around his room. He relaxed. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Suddenly, his bed rumbled. Roots and vines grew up from under his bed's frame and grabbed his arms and legs trying to pull them flat against the mattress, "What?! Ahhh!" he screamed as he was pulled against the bed tightly.

"Guah!!" Lance sat up in his bead, drenched in even more sweat than he had been in his dream, "... I'm... okay?!" he looked all over his body, then under his bed; there were no roots in sight. He looked at the clock by his bed, "Ah, hell... Guess I'm staying home..." It read 11:45 AM.

He slowly walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Pietro sat at the table, hunched over a crossword puzzle with a bowl of cereal by his side. Pietro looked up from the puzzle, "'Bout time, sleepy head." he took a bite of his cereal, "You've been asleep since yesterday afternoon. Don't take that much midrin next time." Toad sat on top of the counter, catching flies and bugs that flew near the trash can as he did every morning.

"Shouldn't you guys be at school?" Lance tilted his head.

"What're you talkin' about, man? It's saturday." Toad raised an eyebrow, "Look at the calendar once in a while."

"I'm just.. tired." Lance looked down as he opened the fridge and pulled out the carton of milk and a mini box of cereal, "That midrin kicked my ass."

"Like I said, don't take so much of it..." Pietro repeated, rater distracted by the puzzle.

Lance looked back over his shoulder, "I had a bad headache, alright? Ugh... And I still do... Where's Blob?"

"Eh, he's around somewhere." Pietro looked back to his crossword puzzle intently.

Toad smirked and hopped off of the counter, "Ah, a full day's supply of protein!"

Lance sighed and put the carton of milk down, taking a sniff, "I'm gonna go watch tv." he walked to the doorway, "By the way, that milk's gone bad." Pietro spat out the spoonful of cereal with milk he had, making a rather disgusted face.

Lance turned on the television and sat down. He liked what was on — one of his favorite music videos — but he couldn't help but think about his dream. Instinctively, he reached for the remote and changed the channel to the news. He froze when he saw the images of a burning forest appear on the screen, "No way..."

"Fear strikes west Bayville as our local forest is set aflame by what police believe might be a case of arson." the reporter chirped before Lance turned the tv off.

Pietro rubbed his mouth clean from having freshly rinsed it out with mouthwash as he walked into the living room, "We need to go shopping today-.. What's wrong?"

"... Did you hear the news?"

"Yeah, so? Some trees are on fire, whatever."

"No... I saw it in my dream last night..." Lance stared straight ahead at the tv.

Pietro tilted his head in doubt, "What? Are you saying you're a psychic?"

"I don't know... It was kind of like I was... Like I was the forest. I could feel it's pain. I felt the fear of the animals... and the heat of the fire... I was like we were connected somehow."

"Okay, first of all, the planet isn't a person, it's a rock, and second, You can cause earthquakes, how the hell are you able to read the feeling of wood and animals? Stop pulling my leg." Pietro snorted, wrinkling his nose and crossing his arms.

"I'm dead serious, Pietro! I wouldn't lie about something like this." Lance insisted. Pietro picked up on the serious tone in his voice.

"We need to get a hold of Mystique." He lowered his head a bit, keeping his eyes directly on Pietro.