Bar Brawl

With a weird haired guest appearance

The shady bar by the highway was exactly what she needed. The neon sign flickered and inside there were clear sounds of a bar fight. It provided perfect cover. She slipped in unnoticed and made her way through the fighting crowd to the bar.

'A beer,' she said as she sat down. The bartender looked up as he heard the particularly young and female voice, but her hood hid her face from view. All he could see was the black cloak and her fine hands come out from under it.

'You sure? You don't seem like the type.'

'Just give me a beer.'

'Are you old enough?'

'Do you care?'

'Can you pay?' Suddenly she grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer.

'I said, Give Me A Beer.' Something sharp was pricking in the bartenders wrist and he didn't hesitate a second longer to comply.

'A beer, straight away.' She let go of his wrist and now you could see the light cuts she had made. She ought to have held back. She ought to have contained herself, but at the moment she couldn't. She was hungry, she was tired and she definitely couldn't afford this beer. She barely had enough to keep herself alive, let alone afford something as expensive as alcohol. Had he asked for ID she would have been in real trouble. And she would have to get out of here quickly anyway, she was drawing too much attention to herself as she was illegally drinking.

But tonight she would indulge and break the law two times. After all, today she had been chased for so long. She had travelled so far to get away from them. It was true that she had not a single scratch, but it still hurt to be thrown against a tree. The bartender put the beer in front of her and she immediately picked it up to take a sip. It wasn't too bad and she sighed after she had downed it.

'So what's a young woman such as yourself doing in this bar at this hour?' The man sitting next to her asked. She looked aside. He had weird hair that seemed to form something like dog ears and seemed rather full of himself. She would kill to be able to afford the cigar he was smoking.

'What's it to you?' she turned her attention back to her beer.

'Hey, I know the beer is bad, but that's no reason to act like that.' That pissed her off.

'I think you're just about enough reason for me to hit you in the face.'

'You may try, but even with your powers that might not leave much of a mark.' That was it for her and she struck hard. Her fist glittered in the dim light as she swung with full force. His head was thrown back and he groaned as he put his head back to normal.

'Should have just listened,' she downed her beer, got up and turned to the bartender. 'You've got good intentions, so I'm sorry for what I'm about to do.'

'What do you mean?'

'It's always sad when you have to let down the good and honest people. I wish I could be like that too, but unfortunately life is not that kind. Good day.' She turned to leave.

'Stop! Thief!' Immediately a huge man with fists that were too large even for him came over to block her way to the exit. She threw back her hood and gave the bartender a look.

'You really want to do this? I'm not in the mood. I don't want to have to travel so far again. I already got no sleep.' But the fist came at her and she dropped her camouflage. The light brightened around her as his fist hit her diamond skin. He screamed in pain and she was knocked back to the ground.

'Trust me, that hurt me as much as it hurt you,' she crawled up. 'But I'm not going to feel a thing from this. Her right hand formed a cup and blue sparks jumped between her fingertips. Gathering, growing larger and a small blue ball formed in a matter of seconds. With a flick of her wrist the ball flew away and hit the huge man square in his stomach. He flew back through the entire bar, separating many of the fighting men. With a loud bang he hit the wall on the opposite side. All eyes turned towards her and she pulled up her normal form again. She dusted her vest and straightened herself.

'Anyone else have problems?' There was no reply. 'Thought so.' She looked around at the crowd of rough, scared men staring at her. 'Great, now I have to find someplace else to crash. Thanks a lot.' With that last snide remark she marched out of the bar. Logan chugged down the last of his beer, threw some money on the counter and followed her outside. Because of course, who else could that weird haired man with the cigar have been. Logan, after all, is always there were the fight is.

Outside he found her getting in the driver's seat of a pick-up truck: 'That was quite some display of power in there, kid.' He leant on the door of the car and blew out a cloud of smoke.

'Back off. That little stunt in there has made sure I've got to travel another hundred miles today at the very least. If you hadn't been such a shithead I might have gotten away with it.'

'So that's what you want to do? Just get away with things like this?'

'What do you want?' she sighed. 'If you want another blow to the face, that can be arranged.'

'Well, now you mention it. My motorcycle and I wouldn't mind a ride for just a mile or two.'

'Sure. What do you really want?'

'Well, it's not what I want. I'm off duty even, but I'm a teacher.'

'You have got to be kidding me.'

'Not really, I teach at a school for mutants. Seems like a place for you.' For a moment he saw something flicker in her eyes, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared.

'Piss off,' she started the car and turned to face forward.

'It's a safe place for all mutants.'

'There is no place in the world where I'm safe,' she didn't look at him, but he could see her clenching her fists.

'Ever heard of the Xavier school for gifted youngsters?' At the mentioning of that name she froze up. It lasted a few seconds where nothing happened. Thoughts were raging in her head, but making the decision wasn't hard.

'Where's your motorcycle?'

The whole way she didn't say a word. They had been only a few miles from the school and she had perfectly followed his directions. It was weird to sit in the car next to her, after all, she looked excessively tiny. He had quickly glanced at the pedals and noticed she had adapted them slightly to make sure she could reach them. She seemed disproportionate to the car. How old was she? Maybe fifteen? Sixteen? Couldn't be older than eighteen, despite the fact that she was definitely mature for her age. She pulled up on the driveway and didn't bother with parking neatly for he had given her no instructions. She dimmed the lights and bent over the steering wheel to get a good look at the building that was lit from the outside.

'What the hell is this place? Looks almost like a castle.' Logan got out of the car and she followed his example. Now she was standing she seemed even smaller. Her car seat had made up for a lot during the ride. She was maybe 5 ft. She followed him inside and that was when her jaw practically hit the floor.

'Freaking-,' she swallowed the next word as she looked around. Almost as if she suddenly started to feel self conscious she pulled at her vest and pulled back her hood. She was swimming in the large dirty grey vest she was wearing. Her jeans and shoes were definitely too worn down to be worn much longer. Her hair was greasy, her face was dirty and she had clearly eaten way too little. She seemed to be unable to believe that she was actually here.

'What did you say this place was again?'

'It's a school for mutants.'

'You a teacher?'

'Unfortunately, from time to time.' This actually caused her to smile, but then her stomach growled so loudly Logan wondered if there was not actually a miniature tiger hidden behind her back. 'You hungry?'

'It's not that ba-,' but her stomach protested again. 'Terribly.'

Logan laughed at the pink colour that appeared on her cheeks. He led the way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. 'Do you have a problem with oven pizza?'

'Pizza? You have real pizza here?'

'Pizza it is.' Usually it would take only a matter of seconds if they asked Heath to assist, or any mutant with powers like that. Now he really had to heat up the oven, which was a pain, but he didn't have that much choice. Other than that there was just a lump of old bread on the middle of the table. Then he noticed she was eyeing it.

'You want that?'

'Can I?' He shrugged and threw it to her. She caught it and eagerly started eating. She was clearly absolutely starved.

'How long ago was it that you ate?' he asked as he placed a glass of water in front of her.

'Just had a beer that gave me quite some energy, three days ago I finished the macaroni.'

'How old are you exactly?'

She swallowed the last bit of bread: 'Thirteen.' He gave her a look. 'Don't look at me like that. What would you do in my position?' then she chugged down the entire glass in one go.

'Don't know. I have no idea what your "position" is.'

'Suppose. Thank you for the bread and the water.' She attempted to straighten her hair a bit again, but it wasn't really working.

'You're a weird kid, you know that, right?'

'I do. Just like you know you are a weird adult.' He snorted then he turned to the oven to put the pizza in. 'So if you're a mutant what kind of powers do you have, apart from not starting to cry like a baby when I punch you?' she asked as she sat up straight.

'You really want to know?'

'Would I have asked if I didn't want to know?' Logan shrugged and pulled out his claws.

'Wicked!' She bent forward. 'You're the Wolverine. My dad told me about you. We share some powers, you know.'

'What are your powers?' She hesitated for a moment. Her eyes flicked to his claws again and at the healing cuts that were left. Somehow this seemed to convince her that she should tell him.

'Not sure. I suppose you've seen that I have diamond skin and invisibility. I can run nearly fast enough to break the sound barrier. My telepathic ability doesn't reach further than my own mind though. My telekinetic ability can only carry very light objects. I'm not sure to what extent my healing abilities go. And there might even be more since it's all still developing. Oh, and there is the plasma grenades.'

'What the hell?'

'You tell this to anyone and I swear I will hurt you, badly.'

'How were you planning on doing that?' he snorted

'I may be young, but I've probably fought just as much mutants as you have,' she crossed her arms over her chest. 'I'm not so arrogant as to say that I could kill you or even knock you out, but I can hurt you, of that I'm sure.'

'Kid, you know nothing.'

'You're exactly two meters away. I can cross that distance in less than a millisecond.'

'Why don't you want anyone to know?' To this she didn't reply immediately. The tone of the conversation changed immediately. Her expression became grave and it seemed like memories were coming to her.

'Because it's the reason I cannot stay here.' But she stopped speaking after that.

Luckily for Logan the pizza was done and after cutting it up she was eagerly eating. People usually complained about his manners, but this girl was way worse. She absolutely didn't care wherever she got smudges or crumbs. She just seemed very keen on picking up everything she dropped. When they had finished the entire pizza she licked her fingers three times before wiping her face and licking that up too. Then she collected all the crumbs that had been dropped before sighing.

'God, that food could taste so good.' Logan snorted in amusement and she gave him a glare: 'It's been over three years since I've had anything like this.' As the colour rose to her cheeks he started laughing even harder causing her to blush even more.

'What's your name?' she asked as they finally calmed down.

'Logan. Yours?'

'Alexandra, but I'm usually called Alex.'

'Is Lex okay?'

'Whatever.'