Chapter 1: In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle The Vampyre Eats Tonight
Disclaimer: I don't X-men, Evolution or otherwise, and if I did, there would be a whole lot more love for the Fuzzy Dude =3. I do, however, own my OC, so please don't use without permission.
A/N: I love reviews and constructive critizism that actually helps me do a better job, while flames are fed to my pet Chimera, Snuffly, while I laugh maniacally on my giant floating chocolate chip cookie. My chapters, unless I'm hit with a major case of writer's block, will be between 2,000 and 2,500 words. It's not really revelant, but I'm just putting it out there.
A light breeze blew through the misty forest of Motuo county in China as a small group of tall blonde men in long white cloaks gathered around a Monban tribal men dressed in thick wool robes. Little did they know...they were being watched.
Crouched against a thick branch above them was a thin creature, the silhouette human except for the long tail swishing left and right as dark molten silver eyes scanned over the scene, lingering on the needles reflecting bright flashes of light for a moment before standing and jumping away.
As the figure landed in a small oasis, its large, cat-like ears flicked at the distant sound of the Monbans whispering to the outsiders, "The Huli Jing hides here, in the forest,"
In the bright light pouring through, it was apparent that, for the most part, this figure was a teenaged girl, but instead of smooth human skin, she was covered in a thick black pelt of fur flecked with white stripes, and sharp fangs and claws protruded from her small mouth and paw-like hands and feet. To the natives, she was known as 'Huli Jing', one of the many Fox Spirits known for their mischievous nature and ability to shape shift. At least they got the shape shifting part right, though she was no mythical creature, just a mutant.
Her eyes flashed bright yellow as her pupils thinned to small slits at the sudden closeness of a small group of white-cloaked men. She gathered up her strength in her legs before springing up to a tall tree and making her way back into the forest.
But just as she jumped across a bare area, she saw, from the corner of her eye, the pale, fake colors of the Monba robes, and heard their yell of victory.
They had seen her, a shiver rippled through her fur as she began leaping through the trees for her life. Behind her, she heard the whizzing of sharp knives flying past her and *thunk*ing against thick trees. A high-pitched, monkey-like laugh escaped from the Huli Jing's fanged mouth as the humans struggled to keep up with her.
Once the men's noises were out of her ear-shot, she let herself fall to the forest floor, looking behind her with a devilish smile. Not matter how smart humans are, they are impossibly slow when outside their true habitat; cities.
Just as she decided to find herself a good hiding place, her acute hearing picked up an all-too familiar and threatening noise; the cocking of a gun. Looking forward, her large eyes picked out the outline of a man kneeling a good twenty feet away from her, hidden in the bushes, with a large rifle between his hands.
Quickly, the Huli Jing jumped up, flapping her arms as they grew midnight black feathers, and then turned into large wings so she could escape above his line of sight. When she looked down, she was high above the tops of the forest canopy, but she saw the metallic glint of guns staring up at her.
Her eyes bled coal black as she saw beads of metal zooming towards her before everything went dark.
When she awoke, her sensitive ears heard a circus of noises; murmurs, click, beeps, all sorts of things. Opening her eyes slightly, they were blinded by flashes of bright lights, so she shut them quickly. There was an escalation of sounds at her movement that started hurting her ears, but she managed to decipher a few words of Tibetan and another language, the one she heard when the natives spoke to tourists…English?
Above all of the murmurs, a singular man's voice boomed over the rest in strong English, explaining…something. She heard the words "Fox Spirit", and knew that he was talking about her.
Hours passed…or minutes just moving very slowly, before silence slowly took over, and she finally decided to open her eyes, finding herself in a large metal room with none of the see-through covers those humans called 'windows'. Looking at herself, she was tied down to a metal bed perpendicular to the floor by metal bars around her chest, her privates, both hands, and both feet.
Sighing, she did an experimental squirm only to feel a shock reverberate through her shoulder, forearm, and thigh; shot wounds, she reasoned. Blinking away bright, rainbow-colored lights, she almost didn't hear the whispering behind her.
Tilting her head as much as she could, she saw a tall, thin boy with pure white hair hiding in the corner behind her. "Psst!" He called, and looked around quickly once she saw him before walking up to her.
Instantly, instincts kicked in as her eyes turned dark silver and she started growling. She was sick of being a human's play-thing. But instead of being scared, angry, or any normal reaction, the boy actually brought a finger up to his lips in a commonly accepted "be quiet" gesture.
"Shh, we don't want the people outside to hear you." He whispered, slinking towards her, stopping for a moment and giving her a strange look. "Can you understand me?"
She paused, giving him a look she knew he would recognize as 'of course I can, stupid', which made him shrug. "Well, I wouldn't know, now, would I? From what I've been told, you've spent your whole life in China, so why would you know English?" the boy replied as he made his way over to a large metal contraption with blinking lights and buttons. "Now, I'm going to free you, but you can't just run away. My…friend and I are going to help you."
Seconds later, with a long series of beeps, the metal bands contracted into the bed, releasing the bloody, furry girl from her confinement. Stepping down from the metal bed, she looked long and hard at the holes in her body. "Come here," She rasped in her rough, unused voice, and the boy obeyed.
"Ouch, look, we gotta go, are you gonna be able to make-" He started, but the girl quickly grabbed him by the wrist, and suddenly a burst of rainbow lights sparked from her large eyes. Once she was done, the boy looked at her with astonishment, which made her smirk. "You're healed."
But before she could reply, a thin, dark skinned boy with long dark brown hair burst into the door behind them; gunshots and yells could suddenly be heard. "What are you waiting for Pietro? You got her, so come on! Mystique can't wait forever!" He yelled, and the white-haired boy nodded quickly before turning to the girl.
"Come here, I can get us out really fast," He told her, and she smiled before whizzing over to the door held open by the other boy.
"I realize," She replied, reveling in his shocked face.
"You stole my powers!" He yelled, but she just shook her head.
"Borrowed, you still have them," She assured him, though he had to take a quick run to make sure.
"This'll be easier than I thought," Pietro commented as he motioned for her to follow him before rushing off at extreme speed.
Soon the duo was outside the building next to a beaten up black car. Behind them, they watched the tall metallic building that they had left crumble to the ground, as the boy from before walked out through the smoke.
"You did that?" She asked the boy, who smirked in response.
"Name's Lance Alvers, but everyone calls me Avalanche," He said, and Pietro knocked his hand against his forehead.
"Sorry, with the whole sneaking around thing, I forgot to properly introduce myself. I'm Quicksilver, but the public knows me as Pietro Maximof." Pietro offered, but Zarya just nodded. She knew that already.
"You have a name?" Lance asked, and the girl paused.
"Zarya, my mother called me Zarya Lin." She replied quietly.
"Well Zarya, how would you like to join us?" A tall woman with short brown hair wearing a dress suit asked as she climbed out of the driver's side of the car.
"Why?" She asked simply, and the woman chuckled.
"Because, we're like you," She responded, and Zarya gasped as she watched the woman sprout long red hair and her skin turn dark blue. "And I can teach you to control this miraculous power of yours."
Zarya nodded. "Okay…Where are we going?"
"A small little town called Bayville in New York, America." She answered.
"But first, don't you think that you should, probably get some clothes on?" Pietro asked, and Zarya glanced down at her furry, naked self.
"Why?" She asked innocently, and both boys suddenly burst out laughing.
"Umm, normal people don't run around nude," Pietro offered. "For one."
"It's okay, I planned for such an occasion." The woman, probably Mystique, replied as she popped the trunk and rummaged through. "As I am a shape-shifter myself, I can understand how clothes tend to be a bit of a bother." She pulled out a pair of jeans and a button-down white tee.
Zarya took the clothes, though she didn't look too comfortable once she put them on, and climbed into the car in next to Lance and Pietro in the back seat.
"So you can shape-shift and steal other powers?" Pietro asked after a few moments of silence as Mystique drove them towards the nearest airport.
Zarya shook her head. "I don't 'steal' anything. I absorb energy through people, plants, and animals. If I don't, I get sick," She replied slowly. "With mutants, I absorb powers too, but it only lasts as long as the touch."
"A psionic vampire," Mystique offered. "You live off of the energy of others. Can you do anything else?"
"I can actually 'feel' the energy, especially through humans. I can read their emotions." She answered, "And, if I focus, I can collect that energy."
"Cool." Lance said with awe, but Zarya didn't seem up to talking much longer; her eyes started dropping and she yawned loudly a few times.
Within minutes, she was out, curled up next to the passenger window, and the two boys noticed something strange afterwards.
"Dude, look, she's normal." Pietro pointed out, and Lance leaned over, smirking.
Now that Zarya was unconscious, her thick black pelt had melted away, along with her other feline features. Now she was just a normal girl with dark olive skin, bow-shaped lips, and tangled long black hair.
"Of course she does, boys. It's not like that was her true form, just the most convenient." Mystique replied, shrugging. "When unconscious, however, we shape shifters generally return to what you would call normal."
"Weird," Lance said, which Pietro totally agreed.
A/N: Read and review please! You know you want to click the button!