Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men Evolution or any of its characters.
Chapter 1:
Smoke. Smoke means fire. That can't be good.
Kiara opened her eyes. The smell had proved itself true. Smoke was everywhere. Choking, she attempted to move out of the corner of the room, where she had been leaning against a wall. Pain throbbed through her head, causing her to collapse on the hard, cold floor…
"What happened…" She looked around, her eyes burning from the thick smoke. She could not even identify the room she was in. Kiara looked over to the door, the sides blackened by the flame that would soon reach her, she was sure. Shadows of the fire slipped through the bottom. "Wha…what happened?" She asked the empty air once again, half expecting an answer.
A pistol lay on the floor nearby. "Now whose could that be…" She said aloud, knowing nobody would be around anymore to hear her talking to herself. As she made her way towards it, she noticed it was broken. Just as her hand reached for the gun, Kiara froze.
Suddenly she remembered where she was and why she was there. Images flashed before her eyes and she drew her hand back, gasping.
That gun belonged to some anti-mutant extremist. Kiara's best friend, Elizabeth, was an honor student and the best on their school's swim team… As well as a mutant. When the persecution got too hard for her, Kiara promised that she would go with Elizabeth if she ran away. It wasn't like either of them were leaving anything behind. The two were stopping in an old abandoned warehouse for the night, when they found out they were being followed…The last thing she remembered was that they burst in and then everything was a blur… They must have taken Elizabeth and left her there to die..
And Kiara knew she would. She would die; it was only a matter of minutes now. The room was in the center of the building, there was no way out. The fire had broken through the door, and now was raging through the tiny room, sparks showering over her. Tears ran down her face in an unstoppable current. "Somebody help me…" She whispered in desperation. Now she almost wished she hadn't woken up. "Somebody help!" Her voice was still a whisper. "Save me…" She sobbed.
Suddenly a scream erupted. The searing heat of the fire had caught her off guard. Her eyes shot from dark brown to a frighteningly bright electric blue before Kiara passed out as flames spread up her arms.
----
"There you are, you little genetic monster!"The cruel voice hissed, bursting through the door.
"There's two of them!" Another voice bellowed, sounding just as evil. Everything seemed to freeze as the first voice molded into a dark shape in the doorway, the pistol pointed at the young brunette that had already leapt to her feet.
"She's human!" The girl screeched, with a distant hope that her dark-haired friend would be spared as her bright green eyes stared at the gun. "Leave her out of it!"
"Whatever, mutie." The second voice muttered as another handgun was brandished.
Pop.
Scream.
Thud.
"ELIZABETH!" Kiara's still-cobalt eyes popped open as she sat straight up. She was alive? The room looked like any old hospital room…just bigger. Much bigger. And more high-tech. "Hello?" She said. "Is anybody here?" it seemed like a good idea to let the doctor or nurse or something know that she was awake. She pulled her legs out of the light cover blanket and put her bare feet down on the icy floor. Walking silently, as she always did, Kiara slid the large doors open. There was a long, white hallway. "What is this place…" She whispered. Suddenly a door glided open beside her.
"Oh, hello. Good to see you're awake." A tall man in a doctor's uniform said. A tall...blue man. Blue. He was tall, looked strong, and was blue. That nearly knocked Kiara off her feet.
"Who are you?" She said, finally able to breathe.
"I am doctor Hank McCoy. But I need to ask who you are, and even more, how we found you in the state we did."
"My name is… Kiara. I... I'm not sure what happened…"
"I see. Well, Kiara, if you'll just go back in there and get your shoes I can take you to meet the Professor." Dr. McCoy turned and started towards the door he came from.
Kiara slipped on her sandals and walked back to him. The door ended up leading to an elevator, which surprised her. Tucking her dark hair behind her ear, she winced at the pain from underneath the bandages. The doors whizzed back, revealing from what she could see, a…school. She was at school. 'Of all the places…' she thought.
Dr. McCoy opened a large door, leading to an office. An aged man, with a bald head and piercing eyes, rolled out from behind the desk on a wheelchair. "Kiara. I am Professor Charles Xavier. Welcome to my school for the gifted." He said warmly. "You have already become acquainted with Doctor McCoy, I see."
"Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but where exactly am I? And why did you help me?" She questioned shakily, fidgeting with the bottoms of her (now much shorter) burnt lavender sleeves absentmindedly; her wide eyes still bright blue.
"First off, you are in no danger here." The Professor said calmly. Kiara nodded hesitantly. "And now for your questions. Exactly, you are in Westchester, New York. And we helped you because you needed our help."
"But you don't even know me..." She said, frowning slightly.
"But you are a mutant, who needed our help."
Kiara nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Charles' voice in her head. Now THAT was unexpected. "N-n-no I'm not!" She stuttered.
"Yes, well... We have reason to believe you are. Now, I need you to just relax a moment."
"Aren't you going to ask questions or something?"
"No. I just need you to relax. Your mind is going a mile a minute." Xavier said, smiling at her. Kiara grinned hesitantly. Xavier's smile faded as he started reading her thoughts. "You're a runaway, then. Well if you want to stay here, you are very welcome. It is a school. All the other students, as well as the teachers, are mutants."
Kiara looked at him wide-eyed. "Are you serious? You'll let me in, just like that? And everybody's a mutant?"
"Even the teachers." He said with a smile.
"Thank you." She said, smiling wide. "You don't know how much this means to me."
----
Kiara walked into another room, this time finding a foosball table, T.V. set, and couches. A tall man was flipping through the channels. The petite girl made her way to the foosball table, spinning the goalie.
"Feelin' better, kid?" The rugged-looking man suddenly spoke up, not taking his brown eyes off the screen.
"Um…yeah, I guess." She didn't really know what to say, much less know who the guy was. Now he glanced over at her.
"Good thing we got there when we did. Y'know you almost died."
"I thought I was dead." Kiara felt a shudder run down her spine. "When those flames hit…"
"I know. Got burned myself, carryin' you out of there."
Kiara gasped. "But…but I don't see any burns."
"I, uh, heal pretty fast."
She nodded. Kiara understood. He was a mutant, then.
"So you're…?"
"Logan." But it wasn't his voice. Kiara turned to see a girl behind her, with long brown hair and a white stripe down the front.
"What's up Rogue?"
"I think Kitty broke something." Rogue said, her eyes wide with a concerned look in them.
"What kind of something?" Logan asked slowly.
"Like, a bone." With that, Logan shot up from the couch and left the room, leaving the TV on. A soft wail was heard in the distance, only making the two walk faster.
"Um…okay…" Kiara said, being left alone in the room.
"Hey." A blonde boy about the same age as Rogue poked his head in the room when he saw her.
"Hi." Kiara sighed, not even bothering to look at him.
"You new?" He walked over to her, tilting his head sideways.
"Yeah."
"What's your name? I'm Bobby." He smiled.
"I'm Kiara. I got here this morning." Now she looked at him. "Who's Kitty?"
"Kitty? She's a student here, why?"
"Rogue said that she broke something."
"Really?" Bobby turned to look down where Rogue and Logan went. "You've met Rogue?"
"Logan said her name."
"Ah. You've met Logan, then."
"He saved my life."
"I see. So," Bobby clasped his hands behind his back. "Where ya from?"
"New Jersey."
"Ah, a Jersey girl…" He said awkwardly, leaning on the back of the couch.
"Everybody here's a mutant, right?" Kiara asked.
"Yep."
"So… If you don't mind me asking, what's your power?"
Bobby just grinned. He gently took her hand, placing his fingers over her palm. When removed his hand, a small ice faerie was standing in its place. Kiara smiled faintly, stroking the edge of the wing.
"It's beautiful… You're lucky."
"Why?"
"'Cause, that's an amazing ability..."
He tilted his head to the side, smiling a thank-you. "What's your power?"
"I, um…" Kiara hesitated, not sure yet whether she's to tell people she's human or not. "I don't know…" She finished in a small voice, looking down. Bobby frowned, watching her closely for a moment.
"So you're not a mutant?"
Her silence told him everything. Bobby shook his head.
"You're human?"
Kiara nodded.
"You're eyes look pretty non-human to me."
Kiara's gaze shot back up to him, scowling. "What's wrong with my eyes? They're brown, how much more human can they get?"
Now Bobby was as confused as she was. "Kiara, your eyes are blue… Didn't you know that?" She shook her head wildly, rushing over to the mirror by the TV. Gasping, stared wide-eyed at her blue-eyed reflection.
"Oh my—No! That's not me!" Kiara closed her eyes, her voice broken into soft sobs. "That's not me! It's not!"
Suddenly the room was silent. Kiara opened her eyes, wondering if Bobby had turned off the TV. But… When she turned around…
Bobby was standing stock-still, staring at her with a confused gaze.
"Bobby?" She walked back over, waving a hand in front of his face. "Bobby!" Looking back to the TV, she found it frozen on the image of one football player smashing into another. A bird hung in the air outside the window, wings spread out. "What's going on?!" She cried, still looking around the room in amazement. "Is this some sort of crazy mutant-thing?"
"Yes, it is, in a way." Kiara scowled as the Professor's voice echoed in her head. "Kiara, this must be your mutant ability. You have frozen time."
"H-how do I get it back to normal?" Kiara questioned the empty air.
"Blink."
Kiara obeyed immediately. Bobby jumped, eyes wide.
"How did you—you were just over—what's going on?!"
"I… I just found out why my eyes are blue." She answered softly, walking back to the dorm she'd been given as if in a daze.
Author's Note: …Yeah. I haven't gotten anything else written yet, so some feedback is kind of necessary. Reviews, please…?