Rated T for language.
All X-men material belongs to Marvel; some of it also belongs to Fox (I think?).
All original material, plot, characters, that sort of thing, belongs to me.
Note: This is the beginning of what will hopefully be a long story.. I have an extended plot worked out. I'm just letting you know ahead of time there will not be regular updates, as I have a real life which interferes with me often. .
Please read and review:-)
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12 Nov 2006.
Boston, MA.
Drake house.
"Ronny?"
The walls were spinning, or something, because his posters should've had straight edges. 'Mutants suck' was starting to look like a whirlpool, and Ronny wondered if he was becoming a delinquent.
"Ronny?"
Bile was rising in his throat, and Ronny Drake coughed. Violently.
He heard someone else, not his mother, calling him, and he lurched from his bed to the window that looked at the house next door. Ronny locked stares with his neighbors' older daughter, the one who was Bobby's age.
"Jenny," Ronny croaked. He fumbled to open the latch.
Jenny Abrams smiled at him and rested her chin in her hands. "Oh, Rawny. Ah yuh sick?" Her voice was sickly sweet. She raised her hand and snapped, and he couldn't stop himself from retching.
He stared at her and she smirked before slamming shut her bedroom window. Ronny stumbled back onto his bed just as his mother knocked on his door.
"Ronny?"
He retched again, and his mother opened the door as he collapsed, head lolling.
"Ronny! Will! William, get up here!"
His father pounded up the stairs. "What, Maddy?" He stopped when he saw Ronny. "Ronny? What happened?"
"Jenny Abrams," Ronny spat. He fainted.
-.-.-.-
Next door...
Jenny Abrams rubbed her head.
Maybe making Ronny hadn't been such a great idea.
Now she was sick, too; she still didn't know how to do it to someone else without getting sick herself. But Ronny deserved everything she could throw at him and more, so she decided it was worth the queasiness.
And she was so angry with Ronny it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
"Jenny?"
"Yeah?"
"Mum wants ta talk ta ya."
"Okay, Dani. Teller I'll be right down."
Little feet padded down the stairs past Jenny's door. Danielle was quieter than usual, but maybe that was because their parents had been sick for the past two weeks.
She shouldn't notice stuff like that. She's just seven.
Jenny had to concentrate hard to keep Danielle healthy, but it was more than worth it. Danielle wouldn't care about Jenny being special, being different.
Being advanced.
Jenny sighed and pulled the shades across her window. For a moment, she saw Ronny Drake's parents looking across at her, and she shivered.
But she looked away and bounded downstairs to her mother.
"Yeah, Ma?"
"Jenny, come in the den." Jenny went in the den to see her mother at the window, looking across at the Drake's house. "Close the door, would you?" Jenny shut the door and stood in front of it, suddenly wary.
"Wazzup?"
Her mother sighed and turned to look at her daughter. "We realized what you've been up to, Jenny." Jenny frowned.
"Whaddya mean—"
"You've been making us sick," her mother said. "We realized, after what happened with Bobby next door a few weeks ago..." Her mother looked back out the window. Jenny didn't say anything. "And I got a very interesting phone call the other day. From Madeline next door."
"I know who Madeline is, Ma." Jenny crossed her arms.
"Apparently Ronny's been sick, too. Just like your father and I."
"So what? It's probly a bug."
"Oh, no. I don't think so, dear."
Jenny clenched her fists. "So ya get sick and ya call me a mutant?"
"It's not just me. It's your father; and it's Ronny Drake, who happens to have called the police so nothing'd happen to his family with Bobby's friends there—"
"Ronny lied! He said people were keeping them there and wouldn't let them out!"
"Well, look what happened to their house!"
"The police were the ones who shot the man! That started that fire-breathing kid up, not anything else." Jenny's fingernails bit into her palm. "I'm sick a this, Ma."
"Jenny, stop!"
But Jenny was already lost, her hands unclenching and her pale eyes flashing. "You had ta start, didn't you?" She couldn't focus on the floor or the walls or the ceiling. "Ya had to be so close-minded that doing the right thing didn't mattah. I thought you wanted me ta do the right thing."
"Jenny—" Her mother clamped her mouth shut, and Jenny took some small satisfaction when her mother groaned even as bile rose in her own throat.
"I'm sick and tired of this!"
The door banged open. "Get out."
Jenny spun to see her father, his face pinched and green. "What?"
"Get out of my house. You're not welcome here."
Jenny opened and closed her mouth a few times before brushing past him and snapping again. He stumbled forward, clutching his head and moaning.
She stopped when she saw Danielle at the top of the stairs. She felt, rather than heard, her parents straighten up, slightly recovered, as she clambered upstairs.
"Are you really a mutant, Jenny?" Jenny didn't know what to say. "Are ya going ta go away?"
She set her shoulders and went into her room, Danielle trailing behind in her seven-year old way. "I'm a mutant, yeah." Danielle's yes widened. "And I'm going away. Thank our parents for that."
"Are they making ya leave?"
Jenny hesitated. "No, Dani. I just think it'll be bettah if I go. I don't wanna hurt you." She dumped her books out of her backpack and went over to her closet.
"I know you wouldn't hurt me," Danielle said. Jenny laughed.
"I know you know. But I don't." Jenny pulled off her sweats and shimmied her way into jeans. "I need to learn how to control it."
"What can you do? Are you like Bobby? Can you make things ice?"
"No, I make people dizzy."
"That's not fun. Is that why Mummy and Daddy are always dizzy?"
Jenny stopped stuffing clothes into her backpack to stare at her sister for a moment. "Yeah." She turned back to packing her things. "Dani, can yuh do me a favor?"
"Yeah."
"Can you promise not to tell anybody?"
"I pinky promise I won't tell nobody."
"Anybody," Jenny corrected.
"Anybody," Danielle agreed. She frowned. "When will you come back?" Jenny shrugged as she zipped up her sweater and pulled out a wad of bills from her socks drawer. "Will I see you ever again?"
Jenny turned back to her sister. "Of course," she whispered. She pulled Danielle into her arms and felt her eyes dampen. "I'm going to come back and visit yuh. Don't worry, babes."
"I loff you."
"I love you more. Ya know that, right?" Danielle nodded. Jenny glanced at her doorway where her father was standing and then kissed her sister. "You be good, okay? Study for yuh spelling test next Tuesday. I beddanot hear you've been bad."
Jenny stood and hefted her backpack onto her shoulder. She stared at her father until she was out of her room. She pounded down the stairs and went out the front door. Before she closed it, she grabbed her mother's car keys. She left the door open and ran down the lawn to the car.
She slid inside, put the keys in the ignition, and hit the gas.
"It was worth it," she said to herself, "helping Bobby." She pulled out from the driveway and glanced up to see her baby sister in her window, waving. She honked the horn, twice.
Bip-bip.
"Loves," she whispered.
-.-.-.-
Two days later.
Lac-Frontière, Quebec.
Mystique was working on a computer, probably hacking some Swiss bank account of a human supremacist. Magneto was off somewhere, probably making a new helmet. And Pyro? Pyro was flicking his lighter, on-off-on-off.
Click.
Fwoosh.
Snap.
Click.
Fwoosh.
Snap.
They were in a cabin on the Maine-Canada border that Mystique had bought in the guise of a middle-aged man. The whole thing was made out of wood, so Pyro had to amuse himself with his fire outside. Just in case.
He pulled the flame from his lighter and made a little dragon that flapped around his head as he wandered into the woods around the cabin. Snow piled on the ground from a recent snowfall and wet leaves stuck to the bottom of Pyro's boots.
Pyro glanced behind him, making sure the cabin was still in sight. Magneto had warned him not to get lost, but Pyro knew enough about woods to know it wasn't easy to get lost. If all else failed, he could just send up a flare. Someone would notice.
And if the someone wasn't Magneto or Mystique...
Well, he'd deal with that when it happened. If all else failed, he could always fry them to a crisp. Not very eloquent, but no one would ever think anything of it. People get burnt to a crisp all the time, right?
He snorted and kicked at a rock in his path. It skipped through a puddle and landed behind a tree. Pyro went to kick it again, but stopped short.
A girl was kneeling behind the tree, holding the rock in her hand. She looked up at him and leapt to her feet, the rock dropping to the ground.
"You're that fire-breathing kid," she said. Pyro's eyes narrowed.
"Who're you?" He flicked on his lighter and the flame grew into a fireball in his hand. She flinched and backed away.
"Jenny. I'm looking for Magneto."
"Jenny what?"
"Jenny Atrium. I live next door ta Bobby. Yuh wuh there with him, two weeks ago."
"And you're looking for Magneto? Here? You won't find him." Pyro kept his eyes on hers, remembering what Bobby had told him about successful lying.
"I will find him, and I'm not gunna be stopped by you." Jenny Atrium stepped forward and Pyro let his fireball fly. She shrieked and dove out of the way; the fire caught on her backpack and she shimmied her arms from the straps. She slammed the bag on the ground and rolled it around to smother the flames.
Pyro readied another blast, but Jenny Atrium made a gesture at him and he suddenly lost his footing. Everything spun around his head as he landed on his back in a puddle. The fire sputtered out in the water, and Jenny leaned over him and grabbed his lighter. She closed it.
Snap.
"Next time ya wanna lie t'me, fire boy, rememba I'll know if you're not telling the truth." She snapped under his nose and pulled her hand away just as he felt his lunch churning up his throat.
Pyro squeezed his eyes shut but heard her grunt all of a sudden, and the queasiness went away. He scrambled up from the ground to see her tackled by Mystique. She was struggling, but then she looked at Mystique, really looked at her, and then she stared at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.
With a swish, Mystique turned into Magneto and tossed Pyro his lighter. She cocked an eyebrow at Jenny Atrium and the girl's mouth closed and she swallowed. Mystique stood and offered her a hand up.
"Now," Mystique said, in Magneto's voice. "Why might you be looking for me, my dear?"
Jenny Atrium gave Mystique a look of withering scorn and crossed her arms. "You aren't Magneto."
"Deal with it. Now, why are you looking for me?"
"No 'my dear' this time?" Pyro lit up his lighter, and she snarled at him before she turned back to Mystique. "Well, my parents kicked me out and I need a place t'stay. And I'll help you. With whatever you need help with."
"And what can you do besides make Pyro writhe on the ground like an earthworm?"
"I can make people ill. Really ill. And I can tell when people're lying."
"Are you a telepath?"
"I think so." At Mystique's frown, she added, "Probably, if I work hard at it. I used ta not be able to control making people ill, but I learned. It takes time, though."
"And why didn't you go off where Bobby is?" Pyro broke in. Mystique glared at him as Jenny shot him a confused look.
"Bobby's at prep school. Why would I go there?"
"Oh, my dear, there's no reason at all for you to be anywhere but here."
Pyro, Mystique, and Jenny Atrium turned to see the real Magneto coming from the direction of the cabin. Mystique swished back into her normal blue self, and she squared her shoulders.
"So can I stay? I'll do whatevah you need me to." Her gaze was earnest, and Pyro stared at her hopeful expression. How had the Professor not known about her?
Magneto smiled at her and placed an arm around her shoulders as he steered her towards the cabin. "My dear, I am glad to have you here."
Pyro and Mystique glanced at each other as Magneto worked his charm on Jenny Atrium. Mystique picked up Jenny's bag and opened it. She pulled out a wad of bills after a minute and tossed it at Pyro.
"Count it," she said. "And come on."
He followed her to the cabin as he counted the bills. "I wonder why the Professor didn't bring her to his school."
"Your professor's not perfect," Mystique said. "She might be able to block others from sensing her."
"Lucky us, then."
"If she's a telepath, we're damned lucky. If she could find more mutants to bring to our cause..."
Pyro nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Shit, she's got a ton of money."
"How much?"
"Like, three hundred."
"That's not a ton of money, Pyro."
"Whatever. How's she gonna get better at doing her thing?"
Mystique smirked at him. "I have a feeling she'll get to practice on lucky you."
"Fuck."