Sam happily waited at the bus stop, listening to random techno and dub step music. He liked it because it felt like he had a sound track to his every day menial tasks. He looked down the street and saw his bus coming and reached into his back pocket to grab his bus pass. Suddenly someone grabbed his wrist and forced him to twisted it causing Sam to cry out in pain.
"WHAT THE HELL DUDE?!" Sam yelled and looked behind him to see a familiar face looking back at him. "Bobby? What the hell man?" Sam groaned in pain as Bobby dragged him away from the bus stop and pushed him towards a girl who was standing nearby. "Hello there good looking." Sam said with his charming deep voice and the girl giggled.
"Knock it off Sam. You know why I'm here." Bobby stepped over to the girl and protectively put an arm around her shoulder as if to tell Sam that she was off limits. Sam took the hint and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, what of it Bobby?" Sam was clearly not looking forward to even hearing what Bobby was going to say.
"We want to take you back to a school...for people...like us..." Bobby was trying to be as none descriptive as possible since normal people were walking passed them. To everyone they looked just like three teenagers hanging out, but they were different. They were mutants. The lowest creature on the totem pole with the greatest gifts.
"Like us?" Sam looked at Bobby with a strange look before his eyes traveled to the girl.
"Yeah, like us." Bobby was very adamant about it but Sam was still iffy about it. "This is Rogue." When Sam heard her name he scoffed.
"Rogue? Nice to meet you, my name is Shadow." He said sarcastically and Bobby glared at him. Rogue chuckled nervously and looked to Bobby who just kept staring at him. The boys were having a stare down until Sam smiled widely. "Fine. I'll go with you, but I need your help to find someone." Sam shifted his weight from one foot to another. Bobby, being his friend from childhood, knew exactly who he was looking for. He agreed to help him and the three of them headed back to the academy after gathering up Sam's personal belongings. "So this is the school for freaks?" Sam said out loud as he walked to the front doors of the academy, earning a few weird looks from the other students.
"Come on Sam, don't be a prick." Bobby nudged his childhood friend earning a knowing nod from him.
"Sorry dude, I'm just a bit jumpy." Sam instantly froze when an elderly man in a wheel chair and a gorgeous woman with silvery white hair walked over towards them.
"Hello Bobby...Rogue...Sam..." The man said, being sure to keep his eyes locked onto Sam who was undoubtedly anxious. "I am professor Xavier and this is Storm." He motioned towards the woman who smiled kindly at the three teenagers. "Bobby has told me so much about you Sam." The professor started to head off in a strange direction and the group followed him, Sam seemed to be the only one who thought it was weird that in a house full of mutants, that everything seemed strangely calm. "He told me you need to find someone. Care to explain?" They all gathered into an elevator and headed down into the depths of the academy. What was once mahogany and classy then became metal and cold. Sam didn't like it. It was too bright.
"Her name is Jill Anders. I've been looking for her for about five years." Talking about her made Sam smile. Hell. Even just thinking about her made him smile. Rogue and Bobby hung to the back of the group as the other three talked about Jill.
"Why does he need to find this girl?" Rogue didn't understand why finding this person was so important to Sam who seemed so carefree and reckless.
"About six years ago Sam and Jill started dating. They were inseparable and spent every second of every day together but then...there was an incident...and Jill was taken from Sam. I guess he has been searching for her ever since. " Bobby looked at his friends back, wondering if under that goofy exterior was a man suffering every day from knowing that the love of his life was out there somewhere, waiting for him.
"What incident?" Rogue asked but before Bobby could answer they were stopped by Storm. Professor Xavier went into cerebro leaving the four waiting for him in the hallway.
"So Sam...what's your gift?" Storm asked as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded across her chest. Sam lifted his head, clearly deep in thought, and then flashed his signature grin.
"I can manipulate shadows. Cool right? I mean...not as cool as being able to control ice...or take other peoples life force...or control the weather...you know what, my power isn't that cool when comparing it to other mutants." Sam pouted earning a laugh from the other people.
"It sounds amazing Sam. Don't let anyone tell you any different." Storm smiled and Sam nodded his head. A few minutes of light chatting later, the professor came out and Sam instantly became rigid.
"I found her. She is in New York. Storm, go get Logan and Kitty and take these three with you. We need her here as soon as possible." Xavier then nodded and headed off somewhere leaving the three of them.
"Come on children, time for a field trip." Storm said with a big smile and headed off into a giant closet of uniforms, weapons and forgotten memento's of mutants past.
"Matching pyjama's? Awesome." Sam chuckled when he was handed an X-Men uniform, not totally aware of the privilege he was just given to be a part of the team temporarily. The three, now in their uniforms headed upstairs where Wolverine and Kitty were waiting for them. "Hello beautiful." Sam instantly went to Kitty's side making her giggle. Logan rolled his eyes and the group of them headed to the jet and took off to New York.
"So what's up with this girl exactly?" Logan asked with a cigar hanging out of his mouth.
"She's just a girl I've been looking for." Sam shrugged, not really willing to open up about how he felt about Jill. Logan understood and nodded his head.
"So is she dangerous?" Kitty asked making Sam and Bobby laugh which made the others confused.
"Logan...you don't have any problem hitting girls do you, cause you might be the only one who can stop her." Bobby adjusted his seat belt making Kitty laugh but he stared at her, dead serious. "It wasn't a trick question."
"Jill can have a bit of a...short fuse..." Sam admitted, feeling terrible about saying one single bad word about her. Logan chuckled as if he understood. The topic was then dropped when Storm announced that they were there. They landed and an hour later Sam froze while they walked down the street. They all looked around and Bobby pointed out a petite girl with a short pixie cut. Her eyes were electric blue and were framed by thick lashes.
"That's her...that's Jill." Sam was almost in a trance. He wanted to walk right over to her and wrap his arms around her, but that wasn't going to be possible. Jill felt people staring at her and she turned her head, only to see Sam staring back at her. She dropped her coffee that she was holding and took off sprinting down the street. "JILL! WAIT!" Sam took off running after her.
"Damn it Sam!" Logan muttered only to chance after the two.
"Well come on then." Storm said, clearly not impressed. Kitty, Bobby and Rogue took off after them. Sam got tired of chasing after Jill and used his power to disappear into his shadow and reaper through the shadow of a street lamp. He grabbed a hold of her and forced her to look at him.
"Jill...it really is you...Jill..." Sam sounded like he was losing his mind, but Jill felt the same way. They had been separated for five years but it only felt like five minutes with him in front of her. But she couldn't see him. Not yet anyways.
"Let go Sam!" She shoved him away from her and stumbled backwards. She wanted to run away but when she turned around she saw the other people that were with Sam. "Just leave me alone. Don't you get that we can't be together anymore?" Jill was starting to panic and Bobby could tell that something bad was going to happen so he moved Rogue and Kitty to stand behind Logan.
"Just come with us Jill..." Sam wasn't asking, he was begging.
"NO!" And just like that, Jill glowed a bright, fiery red and before their eyes, an explosion erupted from within her and she literally exploded, sending Sam, Bobby and Storm flying backwards.