Title: 'The Fallen Raven'
Author: Shy FX
Disclaimer: I own Raven/Holly. Marvel characters belong to Marvel. (Ashton County doesn't exist)
Main Character(s): Holly Finch(OriginalCharacter) X-Men enter the story later. Some John too early in the story.
Fandom: strictly X-Men (MOVIEVERSE) Strictly AU
Rating: K? Don't know if it'll change later
Status: in-progress
Timeline: AU, so any time period really.
Summary: In a compact, small-thinking community of Ashton County in rural Australia, it's not easy get yourself shunned from the locals and branded a pariah…unless you happen to be a mutant.
Telling the story of Holly Finch (OC) Some Pyro too.
A/N: OK, I've redone this and I hope you like! Please remeber to review if you made it to the end of the chap, I'd REEEEEELY like to know what you think.
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"Shh! I'm tryin'a listen!" She angrily held up her index finger to he mouth and shushed him. A girl of about 6 years, scraggly shoulder length black hair with fragile bony shoulders sat in an uncomfortable position up against the chipped paint of the white double doors, with her ear pressed intently listening to the murmuring, sometimes shouting voices from within.
"This is boring! It's not like they even know who it is!" the young boy next to her protested. He stamped his foot angrily in the dusty porch step, kicking some dust in to the dirt road a few steps below.
"John, please!"
The young man crossed his arms and stuck out his bottom lip with his eyebrows narrowed. "I don't wanna listen. Them grown up are so boring. They put me ta' sleep." Holly stared at John with frustrated intrigue. She couldn't figure out why he wasn't interested. It was the single, most fascinating thing to happen in the few weeks since school had ended for the summer, without a doubt. John was always in the mood to do something conniving or to run around, doing some infuriating on the locals. And now for some reason he appeared to be bored with this sudden interesting event taking place amongst the arguing adults, parents and farmers of Ashton County, bickering over something inside the town's rundown community hall. She had even told him several times what the conversation going on inside the local run down community centre meant. A mutant was out and about and just happened to be living in their community, and the now locals thought they were on to something, (despite the fact that Holly and one other person knew that the slightly mentally sluggish locals had no clue.) Instead of being excited that such thing would even be discussed about let alone true, would have usually had John in hysterics. But now he just looked nervous and hasty to leave and get Holly away from the voices too. But now as Holly slowly turned to look at John, a new realisation dawned upon her.
"Y-you know what, John? Maybe you should go…cos I cant hear anything with you around."
Instead of looking happy and gleeful that she had expressed a validation to leave, John looked worried and nervous. He immediately looked down and started to fidget with his fingers, something he did when he was being told off or thinking very hard.
"No. I'd wannit better if you came with me…" he looked at her uncertainly.
"Why? Just go away, John. I don't wanna go with you. I wanna stay here. I told you a million times."
Earlier, they had run straight out of Madison's pig den laughing and screaming, whilst being chased out by the enraged farmer at having his pig feed thrown all over his house and feeders refilled with mud for the third time that week. After that debacvle, they had come straight down the dusty main road, expecting to find it busy with market stalls and kids tossing their basketballs in the air and landing into fruit and vegetables stalls. Instead, it was derelict and depraved of any life. When Holly saw trucks and a few cars parked outside the community centre, she knew something was wrong.
She now looked expectantly at her bored 6 year old friend fiddling with the bottom of his t-shirt. If John stuck around to listen to the angry voices, it may come out sooner or later that they did in fact know something more about the mutant issue and who the person in question happened to be. Her eyes filled with fear and anxiety. She wasn't quite sure what her friend's reaction would be if he were to find out…what she was. Part of her wanted to believe that maybe he would be fascinated and excited by the revelation, but some part of her knew that it was very possible that he would just run of to his parents and let them know exactly what Meridian Finch's girl down the road was actually a mutant, just as they had thought all along. After all, it wouldn't be unlike John to rat on someone…he had squealed on the local kids several times, sometimes taking pleasure in seeing them get into trouble. Holly had found it funny how some children got told off for throwing Wendy Blake's rotten apples at each other or taken an swim in Madison's lake out back, but she was aware of what the locals would do if they discovered who the mutants would do. Holly wasn't stupid. No matter how hard her mother tried to keep her away form talks and gossips of lynch mobs and right wing groups that formed in the city, Holly had heard stories of their cruel and torturous punishments for so-called abominations of God's creatures. Holly Finch may have been young, but she knew the repugnance felt for mutants by the neighbours and friends around her.
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Holly watched as a bead of sweat now trickled down his face and on to his dirty t-shirt, but it went unnoticed by frustrated boy. The pair had become used to obliterating heat that came with the summer of '95 in Victoria's Ashton County, so much so that they had come to wonder how they might ever do without it. Of course that was just the children of Ashton County's opinion. An entirely different mindset went for the elder members of the community. Crops were dying and the animals had long since given up trying to digest the dry and stale animal mixes, and with it came accompanied the new-found fiery tempers and grossly lethargic mindsets of the hacked of farmers whose produce and income was slowly going down due to the blistering heat wave.
"I'm telling you, we've gotta do something about it!" Her head snapped directly back to the door the door form where the muffled, rageful voice came from and she immediately pushed her ear up against the door again. That was the first legible thing to heard from within all morning, as Holly and John stood outside trying to listen in on the dispute. It was a raised voice. Hushed silence followed as the pair strained to hear more. Holly could see that John was now clearly interested. An emotion skittered across his face, not one that she could quite identify, Holly never saw a look like that on John's face.
She now looked at his mud stained t-shirt that reminded her of a few hours earlier when they were rolling about in old man Madison's filthy pig den. A terrifying reprimand from the mothers of the two children always ensued after one of the wild adventures in to animal patches and restricted cow grazing areas that farmers forbid the children of Ashton County, not just Holly and John, form ever entering and making quite, literally, a pig sty of it, but that never stopped them from running amok and causing havoc. Holly pressed her damp head so hard against the door in anticipation, the left side of her head and cheek lost feeling.
"Someone in our community is an abomination and we don't even know who it is!" Then followed a brief silence as some murmured comments grunts emitted. "And we just sit here, doing nothing about it!" Holly recognised the voice as Marwick's, the brother of the business man who had his office blown to bits in the city by a mutant he had made fun of, a frightening young man who could shoot plasma beams form his fists with a violent temper to match. Ever since, Marwick had made a point of bringing it up every time the issue of mutants arose, with neighbours and locals sympathising with him.
"For God's sake, Robert, why don't you just put your own personal issues aside? We can't even be entirely sure if there is a mutant here…" Holly mother had now piped up, desperately hoping she was successful in trying to calm down the irrational locals.
"I know what I saw!"
"And funnily enough, there's no proof! Robert, I think this is just another one of your vodka fuelled episodes! I've had just about enough of your antics! It's about time you sorted yourself out!"
What followed was an enraged Madison defending himself against the local sander that he had turned to intoxicants to escape his recent luck what with his wife leaving him for a busboy that worked in the city, something that had Madison the gossip and joke of the town.
"They don't know who it is…" Holly muttered moving her head away from the door whilst still staring at it with wonder. At her side, John remained uncharacteristically quiet. The raised voices and heated comebacks told Holly the subject had been changed and now probably would be for a long while. After a brief silence and the surplus of murmuring voices and grunts from the hall died down, Holly slowly turned to John with an apprehensive look.
"Let's go jump in Madison's lake!"
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"Mom? Why didn't they 'av the meeting in the town 'all? Why inside the community centre?" Holly and John had come back laughing and dripping wet after a carefree hour of splashing in the lake and throwing rock at the town statue deciding to witness the disperse of the disgruntled locals, a sight to behold for the children.
"Oh, for gudness' sake Holly, you're absolutely drenched!" Her mother grabbed hold of her hand and ushered her towards home while Holly turned and gave John a quick wave goodbye. John stuck his tongue out at her as Holly grinned and turned back to her mother.
"Mom? You didn't answer my question…" she looked up at her mother with those razor sharp green eyes, pleading to hear something that would ease her conscience. Those eyes never failed to sway her mother just slightly.
"Because Mayor Carmichael wasn't havin' any of it inside the town hall. He thinks that the very mention of the word 'mutant' shouldn't be uttered in public let alone 'av a meeting about it."
"So…Does that mean…we're alright?"
"For now, sweetie. For now." She turned to look at some the departing men and woman who were now leaving in their trucks, feigning obvious frustration at not having achieved anything in the past few hours of arguments and heated comments.
"Those farmers might be a bit ole slow in the 'ed, but they ain't thick. They'll find out eventually." She bent down to caringly tuck a few strands of wet hair behind Holly ears.
Worriedly, Holly looked up, concern soaked in her voice.
"What will we do then, mom?"
She looked down at her daughter with tired weary eyes. An air of mystery and wisdom always seemed to occupy those two clear pale, blue eyes.
"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll figure something out."
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a/n: A review? …Please? I'll acknowledge and push myslef to put up nex chap?(only with your reviews of course)