Crusaders from Hallucinatory Citadels
X-Men: Evolution Fanfiction by twiggilala
The title "Crusaders from Hallucinatory Citadels" is from a line of Mina Loy's poem "Lunar Baedeker."
As green faded into colors of flame, and the once wafting breeze of the summer snapped more with the chill of the season to come, Arlie Jones moved into Bayville. Like a thief stowing away, she appeared on the steps of the Xavier Institute well past midnight, when the sky was purple and bruised. A footnote to the new batch of arrivals, she was met only by the Professor, who escorted her and the two bags she carried, to her new room.
The shrill shriek of her alarm clock was new and provoked her heart into a rapid pound. Long, unsteady fingers (still knotted and numb with sleep) reached over and pushed down on a button. Still the sound came, ringing her ears, forcing her eyes to open. Blurred by Morpheus' sand, Arlie could only make out the rectangle and glowing letters, but could not discern one button from the next. Then came the pounding on her door, and her room was suddenly a symphony of the most unpleasant sounds.
By some chance of providence, Arlie pressed upon the proper place, and both sounds were gone (the knocking moved further down the hall). "Why?"
Eyes fully cleared of sleep, the girl stared at the high ceiling above her. Her muscles ached from the new mattress, and her legs tingled from the strange position she had managed to place herself in. Shucking off the top sheet, Arlie tensed as the cool morning air poured over her body. The window just to the left of her bed opened a crack, autumn breeze and golden light pouring in plentifully.
"Why, why, why?"
The knock came again, this time followed by a voice. "Arlie?" It was not one the girl recognized, but the only voice she knew in the hollowed halls belonged to the Professor. This voice was female.
"I'm up."
The door opened a crack to reveal a tall woman with hair the color of snow. "Breakfast begins in five minutes."
"Um, okay. Thanks?" Time constraints, when to get up, alarm clocks all the trappings of a new existence, Arlie told herself. Not awful, but still they felt alien, unusual and not entirely pleasant.
"How are you settling in?"
The girl cracked a smile (quite literally, lips dry). "Alright, I mean, I haven't really been here that long, but dandy, y'know?"
"I'm glad to hear that." The door began to close, but the woman paused once more, peering over her shoulder. "I would recommend that you hustle downstairs before the boys eat everything in sight."
There was no grand introduction to the group, and of that Arlie was happy. She slid into the dining room, noticed but not focused upon. New students came and went, the real concern and interest was over those who stayed, who dug out a niche for themselves amongst the others.
She sat down next to a brunette who turned a perky smile (some strange thing Arlie had taken for an impossibility this early in the morning). "Hi, I'm Kitty. You're new here, right?"
"Um, yeah. I am." Arlie returned the smile as best she could, using it to imprison the yawn she felt building. "I'm Arlie."
"Awesome, nice to meet you Arlie." If anything the smile on the other girl's face had been magnified. "Now, for the important question."
It wasn't that Arlie didn't want to talk about her powers. They weren't anything particularly impressive. However, she was too tired to talk about them, to field any questions (though she was curious as to what Kitty's powers were—perhaps some sort of empathy, judging by the warm feeling spreading through her body).
"Cornflakes or Cheerios?" Kitty pulled two boxes from the center of the table and positioned them in front of the other girl.
Without warning the yawn that had threatened to break through earlier, morphed into laughter, and Arlie's face warmed. Kitty offered her a befuddled look, but gave her a small giggle. "By the by," the girl added. "I love your hair. Pink is a great color."
Reining in the wayward chuckles, Arlie nodded. "Thanks, and I'll have some Cheerios, please."
However alien the Xavier house seemed, it was far more pleasant an idea than school. It had been alarming development in Arlie's eyes that she had to go back. Now, she had never been bullied, had never faced prejudice for her mutant abilities; however, she'd been homeschooled for the last three years of her life (and had become quite comfortable with the freedom it had allowed her). The social aspect of school was clearly a plus (perhaps the only one), or at least she had assumed it would be.
Stepping through the front doors of Bayville's local high school seemed a surreal experience. Everyone was staring at her and those around her as if they had grown multiple heads, or perhaps had sprouted wings. "What's wrong?"
Kitty shook her head. "Some people are still a tad freaked by us, y'know? Mutants and all, we're a scary bunch." She growled like a monster would in the dark of night, before breaking down into giggles.
"Oh. Oh!" Arlie pointed at herself, nail scratching the plastic-face of Hello Kitty on her tee-shirt. "They know I'm?"
"Well, duh, you're rolling in with the Mutant squad, kid." The final word Arlie could tell Kitty took with great pride, no longer at the bottom of the totem pole in the institute. "Don't worry about it. There are a lot of people here to be friends with, and you don't want to be friends with the others anyway."
"Come on, Kitty," a Southern accent (or at least that's what Arlie guessed it was). "We've got to get to our first class."
By the time Arlie pulled out her schedule, wanting to seek one last question from the brunette, the perky girl was already half-way down the hall. Beside her a dark haired girl, entirely her foil in dress and demeanor, was practically pulling her along. "Bye, Arlie! See you at lunch, or after school, or something!"
"Here, let me help you with that." Another girl, the car had seemed packed full of different girls and guys, plucked the sheet from Arlie's fingers. "Letsee… Oh, we have our first class together. I can show you the way then."
The piece of paper back in hand, Arlie nodded, a half-crescent of a smile on her lips. "Uh, thanks. I'm not really used to all of this yet."
"Neither am I, but hey that's what being an X is all about, helping each other out, no matter what—even if it is just something as simple as getting to class. I'm Amara."
"Arlie. Nice to meet you."
"So, when did you arrive? I didn't see you at dinner last night." The girl was leading her off down the hall, past the huddle of football players around a locker (laughing at some obscene joke), around the tittering frosh and the sullen juniors (of which Arlie was now one).
"I arrived sometime after midnight, I think. I had to go home-home before I, um, well, before I moved down here." Arlie blinked thrice, and scrunched her nose. "That's awfully boring and convoluted, sorry. I'm working on like six hours of sleep here."
The day rolled to an end, slowly but surely. As the day progressed, the white leafs of handouts began to pack the empty backpack Arlie had carried with her into school. Add in the smooth new textbooks for the year, and quickly what had been a light weight on her shoulders had turned into a burden to carry.
"You're not bringing home all you're books, are yah?" The sullen dark haired girl met Arlie just outside of the door. Both were early, arriving before the rest of the group.
"I thought, I mean, I figured I should. Shouldn't I?"
"Not if yah like your spine, yah don't."
"I…" Arlie stares at the late afternoon sky, white puffs of clouds rolling over the cool blue. "I didn't want to go back to my locker, get lost, and then miss the ride…"
White fringe fell into the other girl's eyes, and she broke a smile, coughing with a rasp of laughter. "You're a real girl scout, ain't yah? I'm Rogue."
"Arlie."
Raucous laughter and voices flooded out the doors as the large group from the morning joined the pair on the concrete steps. "I'm going to drive home!"
"No, yah ain't, Kitty." Rogue shook her head. "We ain't killin' the new recruits, not this early."
"Come on, Rogue; I totally got better this summer."
"I'm with Rogue, Kitty. I don't want to die." Arlie recognized the heavy German accent from the silly boy at breakfast who had been teleporting in and out of the kitchen, messing with Kitty (shortly after their short conversation).
"No faith, guys. No faith." Kitty threw her arms into the air.
Training was to begin directly after school.
"Training?" Reese (her guardian and friend, she already missed him) had mentioned something about Professor Xavier training her, but she was not so sure about the stretchy uniform in her grasp.
The redheaded female standing far taller than she, shrugged in response to the horrified look on Arlie's face as she fiddled with the fabric of the outfit. "It's the reason people come to Xavier's. These training sessions exist to help you hone your skills, and learn to work with those abilities in a group setting."
"No, I mean, I understand. Yeah, good, training. Okay." Arlie dropped onto the bench, fingers moving down her legs to the knots on her sneakers.
"Meet you on the lawn in fifteen, alright?" The older woman exited the room, leaving Arlie with the black and gold uniform on her lap.
Arlie was paired with another new student (who turned out to be formerly an old student, who had returned after her parents had pulled her out) and Amara.
"Your objective today is to reach the end of the course, all of you. You cannot leave any of your teammates behind." Jean (the redhead from earlier) explained. "There will, of course, be obstacles along the way, which you will have to use your abilities and wit to get through and around. Ready?"
"You know, I never asked what you're powers were." Amara leaned over her knee, one leg extended to push off.
"Set."
"No, you didn't." Arlie cracked her wrists, bouncing back and fourth on her heels.
"Go!"
The new-old student took off first, long black hair floating behind her as she delved into the wooded area that was their course. Arlie bounced after her a second after. Amara followed last, quickly gaining on Arlie. "So, what are they?"
"What about yours?" They rounded a tree, the ground suddenly hard and slick beneath their feet. "AH!" Arlie's nails caught on the tree's bark, lessening her fall, but she still landed on her behind with an undignified 'umph.
Somehow Amara was still on her feet, and Arlie noticed the melted puddle around her feet, but did not have time to comment. "Come on." Amara heaved the berry-haired female off the ground, sending her reeling forward.
"Jubilee, watch out!" Just ahead of them the ebony haired girl turned back, missing the blue-alien-creature that had just popped into the atmosphere above her, grabbing her by a shoulder.
"Hostage!" The blue elfin-alien cried out (the same accent as before, the silly boy?).
Amara's hands shot out, a stream of some hot red liquid (lava?) flowing out aimed for the boy. However the attack came a moment too late, Jubilee and blue boy disappeared into the air, reappearing in the treetops above. The girl struggled in her captor's arms, flares of colorful lights burning into his flesh until he released her.
"Oh, no." Amara's eyes widened as Jubilee came tumbling through the branches and leaves, shrieking as the ground rushed closer and closer.
Arlie's hands shot out (to catch her? To do what?). Eyes closed, she gulped at air that seemed impossibly thick and heavy. Eyes shot back open a second later as the captor disappeared into the air, reappearing just before Jubilee hit the ground. In the confusion, Amara sprayed him with a flare of lava, sending him reeling back as Jubilee hit the ground from an acceptable distance.
"Let's go!" Jubilee was shaking, but ran ahead. The fiery mutant followed.
Arlie stared at the air for a second longer, before Amara's command came and jolted her legs back into motion. "Come on!"
"Let's stick together this time." Jubilee slowed down, her long legs matching pace with Arlie and Amara. "So far Bobby and Kurt, who do you think is next?"
"Kitty, maybe," Amara hazarded. "Sam?"
The further they walked, the colder the air became, until there seemed to be a frosting of snow and ice all around them. "Bobby, again." Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Come on, I don't think we're that far from the finish."
The moment their feet began to slap against the hard ground, a barrier shot up all around them. Slick ice walls bore down on the three, trapping them.
"Very funny, Bobby!" Jubilee called out, flicking her wrists she tossed out a handful of colorful lights that flashed and burst against the ice.
A few cracks, but nothing more. "Let me do it." Amara stepped in front of Jubilee, her body going from that of a normal fifteen year old girl to a flaming beacon. The walls danced red and orange, a light show.
Lava spewed forth, cracking out of the ground at her feet, flowing around her hands. Before Arlie could offer any help, she felt her body slipping through the ice, cold, cold, cold. "Hostage number two!" A voice called out from behind her, and heard the frustrated exclamations of Amara and Jubilee.
Kitty was standing behind her; as far as she could tell (her body was half-phased into the ice structure). "Hey." Kitty grinned, and Arlie offered a pained smile back.
Her hands were free, Arlie realized after a moment. All she had to do was—fingers tapping along the ice, she closed her eyes (as if bored, waiting). It was like penetrating flesh, and she could hear Kitty squeak behind her. Thoughts, thoughts, there!
"Thanks!" The word was a whisper in Kitty's skull, and Arlie slid like butter back through the ice. Stumbling forward, she reached to catch hold of Jubilee's arm, but fell right through the other girl.
"What the—New kid? Hey, she's back." Standing, unsteady, Arlie smiled at Jubilee's introduction to her. The ice wall shifted and creaked, tumbling down.
"Let's go, before Kitty comes back." They started off running again, the brightly colored yellow tape of the finish line just before them. Arlie reached it first, phasing through the physical object that tore in half when Jubilee ran through it.
"Arlie and Kitty have the same powers, weird." Amara noted between labored breaths, collapsing onto her thighs to catch her breath.
As exhaustion ran through Arlie's body, she felt herself sinking into the ground. "Um… Guys."
"What? Oh, hey—Here," Jubilee wrapped an arm around Arlie's upper body, or rather attempted to. However, the ebony haired girl tumbled through the new student. "Hey, give me a break here; I can't do anything if you're like that."
"Um, how do you work this power?" Arlie flapped her arms, trying to fly out of the ground, lifting her seemingly insubstantial body from its trap.
Jean was striding towards them. "Good job, you gu—Arlie?"
Rather than lifting herself from the ground, she'd sunk another two inches into it. "I, um, could someone get Kitty?"
A moment later, as if by some unheard call, Kitty appeared on the scene, head tipped curiously as she saw the predicament that Arlie had found herself in. "He-ey, what happened to you, Miss suddenly I can slide away?"
"When you phase through things, how do you think about going up and getting out—how do you make yourself solid again?"
"I just do it, I mean, usually. It's one of those things that's become second nature, y'know?"
"Could you try to think about it? Please?"
"Yeah, of course. Like, okay. So, I think about what it feels like to stand on the ground, how it feels beneath my feet, what it feels like to touch something—" With each passing phrase, Arlie phased out of the dirt, until she was kneeling, solid once more. "Hey, there you go!"
"You really do need training if that's your power, 'cause I haven't seen Kitty here get stuck in the ground in forever. Or ever." Jubilee commented, arms crossed.
"It's not her power." Kitty mused out loud. "Is it?"
"No, sorry about that by the way. I didn't mean to go in so fast and sharp."
"No problem! It was weird, but hey, gotta complete the course, right?" Kitty tugged Arlie off the ground.
"Dinner's almost ready, and you four still have homework," Jean was walking off, and the four trailed after her.
"So, what is your power?" Amara took up walking alongside Arlie, Jubilee and Kitty discussing something about Kurt.
"I, uh, I—it's a sort of telepathy as far as I understand it." Arlie bit her lip. "I'm like a computer person. Except in this case, your brain is the computer. Are you following? So, I can read codes, diagnose problems with your computer, and I can copy codes from your computer."
"Um," Amara frowned. "I think I'm following."
"Like just now, I copied the code for Kitty's powers. I can't copy all of the natural instincts and training that goes along with them, but I copied the basic program pretty much. And then I can use the power I copied, for better or worse. I can't really copy more than one or two powers at a time, and of course, I can make mistakes in copying over the power—it can be glitchy, sort of like Kitty's just was."
"Oh, weird." Amara tapped a finger under her chin.
"Not as cool or flashy as your power," Arlie said after a moment, offering the dark haired girl a bright smile. "So you can create… fire? Lava?"
"Well…"
It was after dinner when the trouble begins, the shadow that will cover Arlie's first year (and darken the lives of the Xavier Institute). However, when the radio announced the introduction of a Mutant Registration act, none of the students believed that it would ever come to fruition. Nor did they worry that the headache that caused Jean to excuse herself from the table was the portent of bigger things.
A new year at the Xavier Institute was underway.