This is the first real fic (my other one doesn't count. I don't know what possessed me to send that garbage in). I doubt I did a good job with characterization, since I've only liked X-Men since seeing the movie about three weeks ago. Thus, I only have characters from the movie in this fic. I've learned of other ones since I started reading X-Men fan fic, but I don't think I "know" them good enough to write about them. Please give me feedback, no matter what. I'll appreciate all of it. :)
Of Snow and Ebony
By CKWan (nicki91@excite.com)
"Get out of here, freak!" he yelled as he shoved her out into the snow. He threw her bag after her. "And don't even think about coming back!" With a last angry glance, he slammed the door to the only bar in the small, one horse town, leaving her in the cold.
She sat in the snow, staring at the door, on the verge of either breaking into tears of frustration and sadness or tearing the door off the hinges in rage. Deciding neither would do her any good, she stood up, brushed the snow off of her black cloak and flare legged jeans. She picked up her backpack, with her few possessions, and positioned it comfortably on her back after wiping the snow off it. With a shudder, she pulled the cloak tighter around her thin body, and pulled the hood over her head, brushing her long hair from her eyes. Glancing up and down the dimly lit street, she turned right, head down, but thin shoulders held up with what was left of her battered dignity.
Slowly, she made her way down the road, glancing around for a place to stay for the night. She remembered when she didn't have to worry about finding a place to sleep at night, knowing she was warm with a roof over her head. She cringed and forced herself to think about the present, not the past.
Her gaze fell upon an old building that looked empty. The windows were broken and it looked to have survived at least one fire. It'll do, she thought tiredly.
She opened the door, what was left of it, slowly. She poked her head in and glanced around. There were a few remains of desks and chairs, all burnt. Battered stairs that looked to be untrustworthy led to what had been an executive's office. She slowly closed the door behind her. She found what looked to be the most comfortable spot, in front of what had been a desk, dropped her backpack and, using it as her pillow, curled up into a ball and fell asleep almost instantly.
~`~`~`~
"What're ya doin' here?" a gruff voice asked.
"Huh?" she said tiredly. She raised her head to see a man with a bad hair style and messy beard, if one could call it a beard, with a frown on his face standing over her, looking at her with a mixture of anger and bafflement on his face. She was on her feet in an instant. "Ah'm sorry mistah," she started, staring at the ground. "Ah 's just looking fer a place ta stay the nahght. Ah di'en't mean no harm. Honest." She paused. "Please don' hurt me," she added fearfully, her voice trembling slightly.
He studied her for a minute. She was from the south. Her accent wasn't unlike Rogue's, just had more of a drawl to it, he thought, comparing this girl to one of his new found friends. It hinted some place like Louisiana. She waited silently for him to call her a freak and tell her to be on her way.
"I won't hurt 'cha," he said at last. "I was just wonderin' what ya were doin' here. I don't own this place, so I can't kick ya out."
She looked up at him, and saw him jump instinctively. Ashamed, she immediately looked back to the ground. She berated herself. She should have known she was going to scare him, she scared everyone she met.
"Don't worry, Ah'll get outta yer way," she said quietly. "Ah have ta get outta this town anyways."
"Where ya plannin' on goin'?" he asked.
She looked up in surprise, her caution thrown to the wind. She wasn't used to anyone caring about her as of late. When she remembered his surprise at her gaze, she looked back down.
"Nowhere," she said. "Anywhere. It don't matter. All towns and cities're the same."
"That so?" he asked, crossing his muscular arms across his just as muscular chest. His frown deepened a notch.
"Yeah," she said in a quiet voice.
"What's yer name, kid?" he asked.
Now she was very startled. She looked him in the eye, and tried to ignore his jump.
"Ebony," she said. "Mah name is Ebony."
"Ebony, huh?" he said. Where do these kids get these names?, he thought. First Rogue, now Ebony. What's next? Wings? "My name is Logan. What kinda name is Ebony?"
"Sumon called me that in one of the towns Ah 'as in, and it kinda stuck with me," she said with a shrug.
He studied her closer. Her waist length hair and eyebrows were jet black, her nails black - not by nail polish either, he guessed - and her eyes were black, pure black. She had no iris, no pupil, just black over her whole eye. Her skin was pale though, nearly white. It did fit her, he guessed.
"Yer a mutant," he stated, not asked. By the way she flinched, he took that as a yes. "What's yer gift?"
"Which one?" she asked. "Ah have so many."
"Like what?"
She flexed her hand and with a shinkt-like sound, three claws came out. He jumped. His jaw dropped. He stared. He paled.
"What?" she asked, scared. Her skin paled even more. She looked to be a ghost.
He didn't answer, but flexed his hand to reveal his own three claws. She jumped as he had. He tested her claws with a swipe of his. He jumped again at the clank of metal against metal. To his surprise, his didn't cut through hers as he'd expected.
"Adamantium," he whispered. "You were one too?"
"Tested on?" she asked. He nodded. "Ah 'as created there. Ah heard 'em braggin' one day about all mah talents. They said sumthin' about me being able to rival any mutant in the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants."
"I have to see somethin', kid," he said. He grabbed her wrist with his hand that still had his claws sheathed and scratched her with his claws, not too deep, but deep enough to bleed. She gasped and tried to jerk away. He held onto her wrist, and to his shock, the wound healed in a matter of seconds. When he'd recovered his voice, he said he was sorry. "What else can you do?"
She turned away from him and narrowed her eyes. One short laser beam shot from her eyes and destroyed one of the desks that had survived the fire.
"Just like Cyke," he muttered, speaking of the leader of the X-Men. When she turned back to him, he flinched, but realized that, unlike Cyclopes, she could control the beams. "Lemme guess. Ya can control the weather, yer telepathic an' telekinetic, ya can steal people's energy and mutant's powers by touchin' them flesh to flesh, ya can control metal, ya can become anyone or anythin', ya have the strength of an animal, an' you have a thirty foot tongue?"
"How'd cha know?" she whispered, eyes so wide he found it comical.
"I'm an X-Man," he said, trying to stifle a smile. "Sort of."
"Ya mean, Ah have yer powers?" she asked, confused.
"Ya heal yourself 'bout as fast as I can heal myself," he said in answer. "An' ya have my claws." He thought for a minute. He couldn't believe what he was about to do. He was becoming a big softie. Oh well, what else was he to do? Leave her on her own? Hell no. "Why don't cha come with me? Back to New York? Where the X-Men live. I'm sure they'd take ya. The school that is."
She seemed uncertain.
"I gotta bike outside," he said.
"Ah, Ah, dunno," she said, suddenly nervous. "Ah never did have much luck with them institution tahpes."
He nodded in understanding. "I was the same way," he said. "This ain't an institution though. It's more ova school fer mutants. Ya know. Teachin' 'em how to control their powers, and not bein' a threat ta others?" He could tell she was still undecided. "It can't be much worse then this, can it?" he said softly.
She was silent for a moment. She glanced up at him briefly to see if he was sincere. "Aiight. Ah mean if yer sure," she added hastily, hurriedly looking back to the ground.
"Wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it." She went silent again. "Well, let's go. That the only bag you got?" he asked, nodding to her backpack on the floor.
She nodded. He grabbed it, raised a brow at the lightness of it, but decided not to comment.
One day later
Rogue stood in the middle of the rec room. She was bored and didn't know what to do to change that. She didn't want to go find Bobby Drake, who, besides Logan, was her closest friend at the school, and there was nothing on TV. After spending two hours watching infomercials, she decided there was definitely nothing on TV. One could only watch the same watch go on sale so many times in an hour before deciding there was indeed, nothing on TV.
Absent mindedly, she scratched her gloved hand. She still wasn't used to wearing the elbow length gloves all the time. While it was for others' safety, she was always sorely tempted to rip them off when her hands started sweating. Leather itches dammit!, she thought.
The sound of an engine brought her out of her thoughts. Her first thought was one of the other X-Men had returned from a trip to town for something or another. But when she stopped and listened to the engine for a minute, she realized it wasn't a car. It was a motorcycle. That left one person. LOGAN!, she thought excitedly. She ran from the room, nearly knocking Scott Summers over.
"Woah!" Scott exclaimed. "What the? Rogue? What's the big rush?"
"He's back!" was her only reply as she sped down the hall to the rush to the door.
"What? Who's back?" he asked in confusion. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, great. Logan's back."
~`~`~`~
Logan had just gotten off his bike, or rather, Scott's bike, when he was nearly knocked over by a big black streak.
"Yer back!"
"Uh, hey darlin'," he said after he recognized the accent. "Rogue, yer cuttin' off my oxygen supply."
Rogue released his neck and stepped back with a big smile. "Ah missed ya, Logan!"
"I noticed," Logan said with a small smile of amusement.
It was then that Rogue noticed the other person lingering behind Logan.
"Who's that?" Rogue asked.
"Rogue, darlin', meet Ebony," Logan said, stepping aside so the two could see each other. "Ebony, this is Rogue."
"Hah," Ebony said quietly.
"Hello," Rogue said as she stepped over to shake the girl's hand. Instead, Ebony stepped back, cowering. "Ah won' hurt ya."
"Thank you for returning my bike in one piece, Logan," Scott said as he walked over.
"No problem," Logan said, his voice ice personified.
"And who's this?" he asked as he glanced at the visitor.
"Let's get inside first," Logan said. He walked back, took Ebony's arm, being sure to touch her cloak, and led her inside.
Rogue and Scott exchanged a curious glance. Rogue shrugged. "He said her name 'as Ebony, but she just said 'hah' to mah. Her accent sounded like mahne."
"Another southerner? Just what we need," Scott said with a small smile on his lips.
Rogue glared at him playfully, and walked back into the mansion.
~`~`~`~
"Hey Logan," Jean Grey said from the couch in the great hall. Noticing the girl behind him, she smiled. "Hello, I'm Jean."
The girl just nodded, not taking Jean's extended hand. Jean threw Logan a questioning glance, but Logan just shrugged.
"Nice to see you, darlin,'" Logan said. "This is Ebony. I met her in Canada."
"I see," Jean said, smiling again at the girl, Ebony. "Welcome to Xavior's School for the Gifted."
The girl nodded, but refused to look up at Jean.
After an uncomfortable silence, Logan asked Jean if there was a guestroom Ebony could use.
"Right this way, Ebony," she said, reaching out to take the girl's arm. Ebony yelped in surprise and jumped back, right into Scott. Her bare arm brushed against Scott's hand, and though the contact only lasted a few seconds, it was enough to make Scott fall back onto the floor with a groan. Jean cried out in fear, rushing to her fiancé's side. Rogue jumped back so that neither of them would accidentally touch her.
Ebony stood completely still with fear. "Ah, Ah'm sorry," she whispered and turned to go out the entrance, rushing by Scott, Jean, and Rogue, careful not to touch them. Logan watched her back as she ran for a second, then ran after her.
~`~`~`~
She had no idea where she was going. She knew that going down the hall would only lead to her being trapped, so she headed out the front door. She saw a bald man in a wheelchair heading up the pathway, so she bolted to the right, towards the woods.
"Stop!" the man yelled. She ignored him and ran as fast as she could. She could sense Logan coming after her. She sped up a notch, amazed that she had enough energy to maintain this speed. It must be 'causa that guy, she thought hurriedly.
Once she reached the woods, she slowed, unfamiliar with the terrain. She gave a frightened scream when someone came crashing into her from behind. She released her claws before she fell and reached back attempting to claw the person taking her down.
She landed hard on her chest, her breath knocked out of her with an "umph." She could tell her claws had stabbed someone. She guessed it was Logan because she didn't hear any cries of pain.
"Retract yer damned claws!" Logan demanded with the slightest hint of pain in his voice. She did as she was told, and was relieved to have him climb from atop of her. She rolled to her side, legs bent at a right angle, and propped herself up with her arms to see someone she didn't know standing behind him. She hid her face so that her eyes wouldn't frighten them. "It's okay, darlin'. Stand up."
Cautiously, she stood, careful to keep her face down. She turned towards Logan.
"Ah'm sorry," she whispered again. "Ah di'en't mean to. It 'as an accident."
"I know," Logan said softly. "Scott's gonna be okay."
"Scott?" she said questioningly.
"Yeah, that's 'is name," Logan said. "He's also called Cyclops."
"Oh," she said. She didn't look at either of them.
"I'm Ororo Monroe," the woman said, as she walked up. "Also known as Storm."
"Ebony," the girl said as she cowered away from Ororo.
"Why don't we get back to the mansion?" Logan suggested in an attempt to break the silence.
"I'll meet you two there," Ororo said, heading towards the mansion after shooting Logan a dubious glance. Again Logan just shrugged.
After Ororo had left, Ebony spoke. "Maybe Ah should jest leave. That ain't the best first impression ta make."
"And where would cha go?" Logan asked.
"We been through this," she said with a slight smile, though she still didn't look at him.
"And I'm still right, ain't I?" he asked.
"I dunno," she said.
"Yeah, ya do, darlin'," Logan said softly. She finally looked up at him, and he managed to not jump at her gaze. She noticed and her smile grew a little.
"It's cold ou' here," she said. "Let's go back where it's warm, aiight?"
~`~`~`~
"Logan," the professor called. With a cringe, Logan went into the professor's office where he was waiting. Logan had just come from making sure Ebony was settled into her room. "Do you happen to know who the girl that came running out of the house was?"
"Yeah, it 'as my friend I found in Canada," he replied. "Interesting story. I'm sure you'll think so too."
"How's that, Logan?"
"Well, fer starters, she was experimented on like I was. She doesn't remember much of anythin', like I don't remember anythin' from my past," he said. "And she's got all our powers."
"Our powers?" Ororo asked as she walked into the office, having caught the end of Logan's statement.
"Yeah," Logan said. "She's got my claws, healing power, the professor's telepathy, Jean's telekinesis, and yer weather control."
"What about Scott's power?" the professor asked.
"That too, but she's got control. She showed me. All she does is narrow her eyes." He paused. "Speaking of our fearless leader, how's he doin'?"
"He'll be okay with a days rest. Jean's with him now," the professor said. "Tomorrow, I want her to under go some tests to find out all of her powers and see if we can find something about her past."
To be continued if I can get past writer's block and you peoples want more. :)
Of Snow and Ebony
By CKWan (nicki91@excite.com)
"Get out of here, freak!" he yelled as he shoved her out into the snow. He threw her bag after her. "And don't even think about coming back!" With a last angry glance, he slammed the door to the only bar in the small, one horse town, leaving her in the cold.
She sat in the snow, staring at the door, on the verge of either breaking into tears of frustration and sadness or tearing the door off the hinges in rage. Deciding neither would do her any good, she stood up, brushed the snow off of her black cloak and flare legged jeans. She picked up her backpack, with her few possessions, and positioned it comfortably on her back after wiping the snow off it. With a shudder, she pulled the cloak tighter around her thin body, and pulled the hood over her head, brushing her long hair from her eyes. Glancing up and down the dimly lit street, she turned right, head down, but thin shoulders held up with what was left of her battered dignity.
Slowly, she made her way down the road, glancing around for a place to stay for the night. She remembered when she didn't have to worry about finding a place to sleep at night, knowing she was warm with a roof over her head. She cringed and forced herself to think about the present, not the past.
Her gaze fell upon an old building that looked empty. The windows were broken and it looked to have survived at least one fire. It'll do, she thought tiredly.
She opened the door, what was left of it, slowly. She poked her head in and glanced around. There were a few remains of desks and chairs, all burnt. Battered stairs that looked to be untrustworthy led to what had been an executive's office. She slowly closed the door behind her. She found what looked to be the most comfortable spot, in front of what had been a desk, dropped her backpack and, using it as her pillow, curled up into a ball and fell asleep almost instantly.
~`~`~`~
"What're ya doin' here?" a gruff voice asked.
"Huh?" she said tiredly. She raised her head to see a man with a bad hair style and messy beard, if one could call it a beard, with a frown on his face standing over her, looking at her with a mixture of anger and bafflement on his face. She was on her feet in an instant. "Ah'm sorry mistah," she started, staring at the ground. "Ah 's just looking fer a place ta stay the nahght. Ah di'en't mean no harm. Honest." She paused. "Please don' hurt me," she added fearfully, her voice trembling slightly.
He studied her for a minute. She was from the south. Her accent wasn't unlike Rogue's, just had more of a drawl to it, he thought, comparing this girl to one of his new found friends. It hinted some place like Louisiana. She waited silently for him to call her a freak and tell her to be on her way.
"I won't hurt 'cha," he said at last. "I was just wonderin' what ya were doin' here. I don't own this place, so I can't kick ya out."
She looked up at him, and saw him jump instinctively. Ashamed, she immediately looked back to the ground. She berated herself. She should have known she was going to scare him, she scared everyone she met.
"Don't worry, Ah'll get outta yer way," she said quietly. "Ah have ta get outta this town anyways."
"Where ya plannin' on goin'?" he asked.
She looked up in surprise, her caution thrown to the wind. She wasn't used to anyone caring about her as of late. When she remembered his surprise at her gaze, she looked back down.
"Nowhere," she said. "Anywhere. It don't matter. All towns and cities're the same."
"That so?" he asked, crossing his muscular arms across his just as muscular chest. His frown deepened a notch.
"Yeah," she said in a quiet voice.
"What's yer name, kid?" he asked.
Now she was very startled. She looked him in the eye, and tried to ignore his jump.
"Ebony," she said. "Mah name is Ebony."
"Ebony, huh?" he said. Where do these kids get these names?, he thought. First Rogue, now Ebony. What's next? Wings? "My name is Logan. What kinda name is Ebony?"
"Sumon called me that in one of the towns Ah 'as in, and it kinda stuck with me," she said with a shrug.
He studied her closer. Her waist length hair and eyebrows were jet black, her nails black - not by nail polish either, he guessed - and her eyes were black, pure black. She had no iris, no pupil, just black over her whole eye. Her skin was pale though, nearly white. It did fit her, he guessed.
"Yer a mutant," he stated, not asked. By the way she flinched, he took that as a yes. "What's yer gift?"
"Which one?" she asked. "Ah have so many."
"Like what?"
She flexed her hand and with a shinkt-like sound, three claws came out. He jumped. His jaw dropped. He stared. He paled.
"What?" she asked, scared. Her skin paled even more. She looked to be a ghost.
He didn't answer, but flexed his hand to reveal his own three claws. She jumped as he had. He tested her claws with a swipe of his. He jumped again at the clank of metal against metal. To his surprise, his didn't cut through hers as he'd expected.
"Adamantium," he whispered. "You were one too?"
"Tested on?" she asked. He nodded. "Ah 'as created there. Ah heard 'em braggin' one day about all mah talents. They said sumthin' about me being able to rival any mutant in the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants."
"I have to see somethin', kid," he said. He grabbed her wrist with his hand that still had his claws sheathed and scratched her with his claws, not too deep, but deep enough to bleed. She gasped and tried to jerk away. He held onto her wrist, and to his shock, the wound healed in a matter of seconds. When he'd recovered his voice, he said he was sorry. "What else can you do?"
She turned away from him and narrowed her eyes. One short laser beam shot from her eyes and destroyed one of the desks that had survived the fire.
"Just like Cyke," he muttered, speaking of the leader of the X-Men. When she turned back to him, he flinched, but realized that, unlike Cyclopes, she could control the beams. "Lemme guess. Ya can control the weather, yer telepathic an' telekinetic, ya can steal people's energy and mutant's powers by touchin' them flesh to flesh, ya can control metal, ya can become anyone or anythin', ya have the strength of an animal, an' you have a thirty foot tongue?"
"How'd cha know?" she whispered, eyes so wide he found it comical.
"I'm an X-Man," he said, trying to stifle a smile. "Sort of."
"Ya mean, Ah have yer powers?" she asked, confused.
"Ya heal yourself 'bout as fast as I can heal myself," he said in answer. "An' ya have my claws." He thought for a minute. He couldn't believe what he was about to do. He was becoming a big softie. Oh well, what else was he to do? Leave her on her own? Hell no. "Why don't cha come with me? Back to New York? Where the X-Men live. I'm sure they'd take ya. The school that is."
She seemed uncertain.
"I gotta bike outside," he said.
"Ah, Ah, dunno," she said, suddenly nervous. "Ah never did have much luck with them institution tahpes."
He nodded in understanding. "I was the same way," he said. "This ain't an institution though. It's more ova school fer mutants. Ya know. Teachin' 'em how to control their powers, and not bein' a threat ta others?" He could tell she was still undecided. "It can't be much worse then this, can it?" he said softly.
She was silent for a moment. She glanced up at him briefly to see if he was sincere. "Aiight. Ah mean if yer sure," she added hastily, hurriedly looking back to the ground.
"Wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it." She went silent again. "Well, let's go. That the only bag you got?" he asked, nodding to her backpack on the floor.
She nodded. He grabbed it, raised a brow at the lightness of it, but decided not to comment.
One day later
Rogue stood in the middle of the rec room. She was bored and didn't know what to do to change that. She didn't want to go find Bobby Drake, who, besides Logan, was her closest friend at the school, and there was nothing on TV. After spending two hours watching infomercials, she decided there was definitely nothing on TV. One could only watch the same watch go on sale so many times in an hour before deciding there was indeed, nothing on TV.
Absent mindedly, she scratched her gloved hand. She still wasn't used to wearing the elbow length gloves all the time. While it was for others' safety, she was always sorely tempted to rip them off when her hands started sweating. Leather itches dammit!, she thought.
The sound of an engine brought her out of her thoughts. Her first thought was one of the other X-Men had returned from a trip to town for something or another. But when she stopped and listened to the engine for a minute, she realized it wasn't a car. It was a motorcycle. That left one person. LOGAN!, she thought excitedly. She ran from the room, nearly knocking Scott Summers over.
"Woah!" Scott exclaimed. "What the? Rogue? What's the big rush?"
"He's back!" was her only reply as she sped down the hall to the rush to the door.
"What? Who's back?" he asked in confusion. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, great. Logan's back."
~`~`~`~
Logan had just gotten off his bike, or rather, Scott's bike, when he was nearly knocked over by a big black streak.
"Yer back!"
"Uh, hey darlin'," he said after he recognized the accent. "Rogue, yer cuttin' off my oxygen supply."
Rogue released his neck and stepped back with a big smile. "Ah missed ya, Logan!"
"I noticed," Logan said with a small smile of amusement.
It was then that Rogue noticed the other person lingering behind Logan.
"Who's that?" Rogue asked.
"Rogue, darlin', meet Ebony," Logan said, stepping aside so the two could see each other. "Ebony, this is Rogue."
"Hah," Ebony said quietly.
"Hello," Rogue said as she stepped over to shake the girl's hand. Instead, Ebony stepped back, cowering. "Ah won' hurt ya."
"Thank you for returning my bike in one piece, Logan," Scott said as he walked over.
"No problem," Logan said, his voice ice personified.
"And who's this?" he asked as he glanced at the visitor.
"Let's get inside first," Logan said. He walked back, took Ebony's arm, being sure to touch her cloak, and led her inside.
Rogue and Scott exchanged a curious glance. Rogue shrugged. "He said her name 'as Ebony, but she just said 'hah' to mah. Her accent sounded like mahne."
"Another southerner? Just what we need," Scott said with a small smile on his lips.
Rogue glared at him playfully, and walked back into the mansion.
~`~`~`~
"Hey Logan," Jean Grey said from the couch in the great hall. Noticing the girl behind him, she smiled. "Hello, I'm Jean."
The girl just nodded, not taking Jean's extended hand. Jean threw Logan a questioning glance, but Logan just shrugged.
"Nice to see you, darlin,'" Logan said. "This is Ebony. I met her in Canada."
"I see," Jean said, smiling again at the girl, Ebony. "Welcome to Xavior's School for the Gifted."
The girl nodded, but refused to look up at Jean.
After an uncomfortable silence, Logan asked Jean if there was a guestroom Ebony could use.
"Right this way, Ebony," she said, reaching out to take the girl's arm. Ebony yelped in surprise and jumped back, right into Scott. Her bare arm brushed against Scott's hand, and though the contact only lasted a few seconds, it was enough to make Scott fall back onto the floor with a groan. Jean cried out in fear, rushing to her fiancé's side. Rogue jumped back so that neither of them would accidentally touch her.
Ebony stood completely still with fear. "Ah, Ah'm sorry," she whispered and turned to go out the entrance, rushing by Scott, Jean, and Rogue, careful not to touch them. Logan watched her back as she ran for a second, then ran after her.
~`~`~`~
She had no idea where she was going. She knew that going down the hall would only lead to her being trapped, so she headed out the front door. She saw a bald man in a wheelchair heading up the pathway, so she bolted to the right, towards the woods.
"Stop!" the man yelled. She ignored him and ran as fast as she could. She could sense Logan coming after her. She sped up a notch, amazed that she had enough energy to maintain this speed. It must be 'causa that guy, she thought hurriedly.
Once she reached the woods, she slowed, unfamiliar with the terrain. She gave a frightened scream when someone came crashing into her from behind. She released her claws before she fell and reached back attempting to claw the person taking her down.
She landed hard on her chest, her breath knocked out of her with an "umph." She could tell her claws had stabbed someone. She guessed it was Logan because she didn't hear any cries of pain.
"Retract yer damned claws!" Logan demanded with the slightest hint of pain in his voice. She did as she was told, and was relieved to have him climb from atop of her. She rolled to her side, legs bent at a right angle, and propped herself up with her arms to see someone she didn't know standing behind him. She hid her face so that her eyes wouldn't frighten them. "It's okay, darlin'. Stand up."
Cautiously, she stood, careful to keep her face down. She turned towards Logan.
"Ah'm sorry," she whispered again. "Ah di'en't mean to. It 'as an accident."
"I know," Logan said softly. "Scott's gonna be okay."
"Scott?" she said questioningly.
"Yeah, that's 'is name," Logan said. "He's also called Cyclops."
"Oh," she said. She didn't look at either of them.
"I'm Ororo Monroe," the woman said, as she walked up. "Also known as Storm."
"Ebony," the girl said as she cowered away from Ororo.
"Why don't we get back to the mansion?" Logan suggested in an attempt to break the silence.
"I'll meet you two there," Ororo said, heading towards the mansion after shooting Logan a dubious glance. Again Logan just shrugged.
After Ororo had left, Ebony spoke. "Maybe Ah should jest leave. That ain't the best first impression ta make."
"And where would cha go?" Logan asked.
"We been through this," she said with a slight smile, though she still didn't look at him.
"And I'm still right, ain't I?" he asked.
"I dunno," she said.
"Yeah, ya do, darlin'," Logan said softly. She finally looked up at him, and he managed to not jump at her gaze. She noticed and her smile grew a little.
"It's cold ou' here," she said. "Let's go back where it's warm, aiight?"
~`~`~`~
"Logan," the professor called. With a cringe, Logan went into the professor's office where he was waiting. Logan had just come from making sure Ebony was settled into her room. "Do you happen to know who the girl that came running out of the house was?"
"Yeah, it 'as my friend I found in Canada," he replied. "Interesting story. I'm sure you'll think so too."
"How's that, Logan?"
"Well, fer starters, she was experimented on like I was. She doesn't remember much of anythin', like I don't remember anythin' from my past," he said. "And she's got all our powers."
"Our powers?" Ororo asked as she walked into the office, having caught the end of Logan's statement.
"Yeah," Logan said. "She's got my claws, healing power, the professor's telepathy, Jean's telekinesis, and yer weather control."
"What about Scott's power?" the professor asked.
"That too, but she's got control. She showed me. All she does is narrow her eyes." He paused. "Speaking of our fearless leader, how's he doin'?"
"He'll be okay with a days rest. Jean's with him now," the professor said. "Tomorrow, I want her to under go some tests to find out all of her powers and see if we can find something about her past."
To be continued if I can get past writer's block and you peoples want more. :)