TITLE: Rain
STARRING: Hellion and X-23
UNIVERSE: 616 Mainstream/AU
RATING: M
SUMMARY: An alternate take on Childhood's End. Times are changing and life is getting a lot harder for the New X-men...and Julian isn't ready, but maybe Laura can help him through it.
SONG: "Rain (featuring Sarah Kay)" by Klaypex
A/N: Please be aware that this story features an alternate universe Laura. This means I have made some alterations to her history and behavior, and am well aware this is not the Laura of the comics. That is on purpose. If you don't like it, don't read-look for my mainstream Laura fics. I have one called Fall Silently coming out shortly. If you are intrigued, however, I promise everything will be explained throughout the story.
|| RAIN ||
"Oh, things change | There's no use holding on | Because nothing stays the same
Oh, things change |Time passes by so fast | Keep out of the rain."
-Prologue-
The man looks down at the still form on the stretcher, still dripping cold water from its place of death. His eyes—a pale shade of blue—look tired and distant, and his haggard features are set in a grim line. He rubs his sideburn absently, notes he hasn't shaved in a day and now sports what is the equivalent of a three-day beard for most men. Beyond the sideburns, his dark hair is swooped back haphazardly. It's always had a mind of its own, somewhat like him.
But he's not thinking about himself.
He's thinking about something he will have to do, and soon.
"Shit," he murmurs, to no one.
…
Brrring, brrring.
Brrring, brrring.
Brrring, brrring.
Brrring, brrring.
Brrring, brrring.
Brrring, brrring.
Ca-clink!
BLAMMO! BONK! KA-POW!
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?"
The girl's voice comes out in a snarl amidst the sounds of a noisy struggle, distorting the sound of the phone and causing an odd crackling sound for a moment. Unbeknownst to her, the man on the other end is holding the phone away from his ear, his teeth gritted. When the yelling stops, he moves the receiver back to his ear, to find that the scuffle is still going on.
"It's me, half-pint," he says into the phone, uncertainly.
"I've got caller ID!" the girl snaps.
"Calm down. I'm callin' to make sure yer okay."
"Of course I'm okay. I'm always okay. Don't I fucking sound OKAY to you, Logan?" BAM! "Your timing sucks though…I'm kinda busy at the moment. Barfight. Can I—" BONK! SCUFFLE! "—put you on speaker phone?"
"Sure."
Silence for a few moments. The man closes his eyes as he leans his haggard face against the wall. Why does she have to be so difficult? Nothing—nothing—is ever simple, with the girl. She's piss, vinegar and salt wrapped up in a snarky package of venom. He wonders what he's done to deserve this.
ZZZT!
SNIKT! SHLTT! SHLUNK!
"Laura?" Logan almost sounds tentative.
"WHAT? I was giving you an opportunity to talk!" she snaps.
He sighs. "You need to come back."
SMASH!
"I don't need to come back." WACK! "Actually, I need to stay as far away as humanely possible from that basket of snakes." SHLIT!
"It's bad," Logan says. "Laura, the world just got a whole lot scarier and the kids at this school need you. And you need them. The only chance you have is here."
BOMF!
"I think I stand a pretty good chance out here, on my own. Thanks for the loving concern, though, Logan. Eight months go by without so much as a howdy-do, and then—" BAM!
"Bitch has knives in her hand!"
"-you decide I'm going to die out here by myself? You didn't even ask how things were going!" BLAMMO!
"AHHHHHGGG!" In the background, on Laura's end.
"That satisfy your curiosity, jackass?" she snarls at someone else.
Logan raises his eyebrows. "How are things going?"
A pause. "I just lost my job at the titty bar because some clowns busted in and—URRRFF!—tried to take me. Boy, are they surprised, let me tell you!" SHLUNK!
"What—titty bar?" Logan asks.
KRACK-OWWWW!
"YEOWCH! Yeah…I assume you know what that is." A pause. SHLUNK! "Fucker tried to hit me with a chair. But yeah, I got fired just before this fight broke out." SNAP! " Apparently, my manager didn't like girls that can kick ass. Something about threatening his masculinity."
Logan guffaws, in laughter, both at what she has said, and what she is doing: apparently fighting, having set the phone on a table nearby. "What'd you do to him?"
"That's not the question to ask."
"SON OF A BITCH!" a random guy shouts. "My FINGERS! YOU—"
"Okay, what should I be askin'?" Logan asks.
SHLUNK! BANG!
"Ask about what I did to his car." Laura says finally, huffing for breath.
"Jesus." Logan smirks. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Wait a minute—titty bar—you were strippin'? What the fuck—"
"I'm fairly certain you know what that entails."
"But yer just a kid, Laura!"
"GRR! Two minutes into this call and I want to kill you. I am not a kid! When will you get that?"
"Never, I guess. God. That makes me sick. Laura, you get your ass here right now, you hear? And, jeez, if you need money, ask!"
BANG! In the distance. "Get the fuck outta my bar, you sick freak!"
"I earn my own way." The voice on the other end of the line pauses. "Thanks, though. And I'm not coming."
"Laura, please, just come and—"
"Sorry, pops. I gotta run."
Click!
"Fucking hell!" Logan throws his cell phone against the wall, paces back and forth, then sinks in a chair on the other side of the room. He puts his face in his hands and rubs it, tired.
…
On the other end, the girl stares at her phone, with unusually vibrant eyes: a brilliant green. The screen is flashing the message missed call. Her vision fixes on the words as though entranced. She looks to be around fourteen or fifteen, with pale skin, long, dark hair, and full lips that makes it seem like she is eternally pouting. Her long lashes sink down eventually, and she tosses the phone towards the end of the small mattress.
She's tired. Her clothes are torn and bloodstained-what is left of them, anyways, since she seems to have been in a large scale fight. Her hands are stained red.
Eventually she sleeps.
-1-
ONE DAY EARLIER:
"Man, you're still doing that?" the boy asks his roommate, his eyebrows raised. He's just left the bathroom, after performing his morning grooming rituals: shaving, showering, brushing his teeth, and combing his hair into order with his fingers and a bit of styling wax. Usually the other boy will be waiting at the door, with his garments rolled into a ball under his arm.
Instead, he's still kneeling on the ground, looking in confusion at his hands.
"I…I don't understand…" comes a mumble.
"Brian…you okay?" He reaches out with his hand. A green glow seeps out of his fingers, and the ball of laundry floats from his arms to the hamper across the room. Finished with this task, he approaches his roommate.
"Something's wrong," Brian says. As he looks up, several dreadlocks shift, and his dark skin is made even darker where the shadows of the blinds fall on his bare back. "Something's wrong!"
"Could you define 'something'?" the first boy asks, folding his arms.
"I dunno. I feel…really weird. Can I tag you?"
"What? Why?"
"Relax, Julian."
"I don't feel like spending my entire morning trying to stop myself from running away from you. We've got squad practice, remember?"
"That's just it," Brian says. "I need to test something."
Julian considers, doubt evident in his eyes and face. "Okay."
Brian reaches out and wraps his hand around the other boy's ankle.
"So?"
"Oh my god," the second boy whispers. "Oh my god…"
"What?" Julian can't help the edge of impatience that creeps into his voice. He's hungry, and this is going to make him miss breakfast. He shakes his leg free of Brian's hold, and again notes how strange the boy is acting. "Wait…why didn't I run off? What's going on?"
…
NOW:
Laura's head snaps up from where she'd been dosing. The rail car she's in has stopped moving, and there's a man holding out his hand expectantly. He's dressed in a very official looking, navy-blue rail uniform, and has a hat to match.
He looks like he means business.
"Ticket and ID, ma'am," he says, sounding frustrated. Probably because he's asked her about three times now. Embarrassed, Laura digs into her jacket pocket, withdraws the requested items, and hands them over.
"Hmm." The man eyes the passport, eyes her, then the passport again. Laura gives him a small, fake smile. He scowls, examines the ticket. Finding nothing amiss, he thrusts it back at her and stalks over to the next person being targeted.
Laura's eyes follow him, and she watches as he begins to harass an old lady reading a newspaper. Her eyebrows arch upwards, and she suddenly looks serious, but the ticketer isn't what is bothering her.
Rather, it is the headline on the newspaper:
MUTANTS NOW AN ENDANGERED SPECIES: IS THIS THE END OF THE MENACE?
Laura's lips form a round "O" as she zooms in on the newspaper, the tiny print becoming extremely magnified with a twitch of her eye muscles.
By Christina Rourke
Two days ago, no one could have dreamed that such a miracle would be possible. Then it happened—two days ago, Tuesday. On what authorities are referring to as M-day, almost 99% of the world's mutant population were suddenly depowered in what seems to be an act of God. Of the almost two million mutants that had previously been estimated to exist, only 198 powered individuals remain.
"It has to be a miracle," Keith S. said, when questioned on how he felt to have lost his mutant power: the ability to release a Helium-based gas. "No one understands unless it happens to them. No one gets how alone you really are."
When asked how it happened, Keith S. elaborated: "I went to bed a mutant, and woke up a normal kid. I can go to school again…I can work again…it's really a miracle for me."
The old lady lowers her newspaper and looks out the window, breaking Laura's scrutiny of the article. The girl slumps in her seat and stares straight ahead, her eyes wide. This is bad, just like Logan had said. Really bad. Because she—like him—knows what is coming next. Registration acts…concentration camps…an attempt to eradicate the remaining mutants.
She in particular knows what humans are capable of.
I could have died, she realizes suddenly. She'd been in another attack on the strip club on early Wednesday morning, before Logan had called. If she had been depowered…she wouldn't have healed from the wounds she'd received.
I wonder how many people did.
Laura closes her eyes.
…
ONE DAY EARLIER:
"Okay—guys—settle down," Julian orders his group, amidst the panic and confusion filling the main entry hallway. "We're not helping by adding to all the chaos. We need to handle this—"
"WHY NOT ME?" a girl bursts, coming down the staircase he and his team are huddled beside. Looking up, Julian sees his red-haired, metal skinned friend-Cessily. The girl made entirely of organic mercury. He feels instantaneous relief. He'd been worried that she would be amongst the depowered.
"Cess—" he starts.
"What did I do to deserve this?" Cessily demands. "Why did all of them lose their powers? Why can't I have that?"
"Calm down!" He says. "We're trying to figure out what happened right now. Get over here and help us."
After a few moments, the girl joins the group, and Julian runs a hand through his hair. "Okay. So…what do you remember, from last night?"
"Sleeping," Brian says.
"Any dreams?"
"I know I dreamed about something, but I can't remember it now," Cessily says. "I just remember thinking how crazy it was when I woke up."
"Huh." Julian thinks back. "Yeah, I'm drawing a blank here, too."
"I do not remember anything, either," another female voice offers, timidly. Julian looks over to the girl leaning on the staircase. Sooraya. She is dressed, head-to-toe, in a black set of robes which he knows to be an abaya and a niqāb. They cover her tanned skin so that only her hands and a strip of skin around her golden-brown eyes are left bare.
"Are you sure you can still use your powers?" Julian asks.
"Yes." The girl looks at Cessily. "Do not be hard on yourself. Allah has a plan…and we are part of it. There is a reason we are still mutants."
"Mmm." Cessily doesn't look convinced, and Brian looks down unhappily. Sooraya has unintentionally told him that he is not a part of her god's plan. Julian sees this and shifts uneasily. He's unhappy, too, that his friend won't be one of them anymore.
But amongst the mixture of emotions he's dealing with right now, one reigns supreme: the extreme, secret relief that he has not lost his powers. The thing that makes him special. He couldn't ever go back to just being a regular human...he just couldn't.
"Where's Kevin?" Cessily asks suddenly.
"I think I saw him earlier," Julian says. "In the hallway. He looked happy."
"Oh." Cessily appears crestfallen. The boy puts a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. That doesn't mean anything. If he really likes you—"
"THERE YOU ARE!" comes a loud, obnoxious voice. Several students are shoved out of the way, and a familiar being—shaped somewhat like a rock golem—barrels through the resulting gap. "What the hell is goin' on? A whole bunch of kids lost their powers!"
Julian grins. Santo wouldn't be Santo if he wasn't a big dumb rock-and if he had been depowered too, he doesn't know what he would have done. Cessily, Brian and him are his best friends in the world.
"We don't know," Cessily says.
"Aw, Cess, you're still metal," he says. "I figured you woulda got picked for whatever it is that's happening!"
"Yeah." Cessily stares off into space. "I hear that Kevin did."
"Wha—no way! So what happens with you two now?"
"I don't know." The girl looks unhappy. "I guess I'll find out."
"Damn." The boy looks at Julian. "What do we do?"
"Wait, I guess," he replies. "The teachers will talk to us at some point and explain. Hey, Santo…do you remember anything from your dreams?"
"Nada." Santo looks over at the other corner of the room, towards a boy with long brown hair and pale skin. "Hey, there's Kevin now. Why doncha—" he starts to say, but Cessily is already heading in that direction, her expression tense.
"Kevin—" she begins, but the boy she is speaking to is looking away. She stops, seeing the target of his gaze: a fair-haired girl, just emerging from the doorway.
"Laurie!" Kevin shouts enthusiastically. "It's the most wonderful thing. Our powers are gone!" He's reaching for the other girls' hand; Cessily lunges forward.
"Kevin, don't!" she shouts, coming in between their fingers with barely a moment to spare. His touch catches her cotton tank top instead.
"Oh my god!" the boy says, drawing back in horror. Cessily looks down at the hole in her sleepwear, and then up at him. "Kevin, you didn't—"
"I could have killed her!" he says, not seeming to hear her response. "I could have killed Laurie! I—"
"Come on," Cessily says, reaching out and touching his shoulder. "You need to get out of here, get some gloves or something."
Kevin starts, realizing that he's wearing a t-shirt and shorts in a crowded, chaotic room. "Oh my god."
"Come on. I'll make sure no one touches you." Cessily steers him towards the staircase. Behind them, the girl named Laurie speaks with her companions: a tall girl with long, silky brown hair; and a boy with enormous red wings.
"What was that all about?" The tall girl asks, her words heavily touched by an accent that seems to be South American in origin. Her slightly tanned skin and large brown eyes support this conjecture.
"I have no idea," Laurie says. "Kevin…has issues. I think."
"He could have killed you," the boy with wings says, his expression serious. "Let's get out of here. We should find—"
Back across the room, Julian looks at his depowered friend. "Well…you seem to be the only one of us. Don't worry…I won't let anything happen to you. You can still be on the team."
"As what? Towel boy?" Santo grunts.
"Santo, shut the fuck up," Julian says, with an annoyed expression. "Have some sensitivity, man. This is Brian we're talking about."
"Yeah, and if I lost my powers, I'd understand not bein' on the team no more," Santo counters. "Wouldn't want to drag you guys down with me."
"Guys, I'm going to go," Brian says. "Maybe take a nap. I'm getting a headache from all this—"
SLEEP! Comes a thundering command through all of their brains simultaneously. SLEEP! SLEEP! SLEEEP!
