Chapter 2
Kim's P.O.V.
When I woke up, I was in a small bedroom. The walls were dark blue and the bed comforter and sheets match the wall. The door was to the left of the bed and there was a closet and bathroom to my right. I saw my backpack in the corner of the open closet door, where all the clothes I had packed were hung up neatly. There was a small bed-side table by the bed where my phone is charging. I went into the closet and changed out of my pajamas (the fact I'm in them freaks me out. I know I never changed. Don't you hate when you go to sleep in one thing and wake up in another? Because then all the possibilities start running through your head and…ugh. It's just awful) and into a pair of jeans and a purple tank top. I looked at my phone clock. 5:30 PM. Man, when I'm tired I can sleep GOOD. After stuffing my iPhone into my back pocket, I walked out the door.
"Kristen? Kris?" I called out. I walked down the hall to where an open door stood. I poked my head in and saw some teenagers filing out.
"Uh, hello?" I said to the African American woman. It was White Hair from last night. She smiled at me.
"Hello Kimberly. Welcome to Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, or the X-Mansion for short. Here is a refuge for mutants just like you and I. My name is Ororo Munroe, but most people call me Storm," White Hair/Storm said.
"Nice to meet you too, Ororo Munroe/Storm. Where's my sister? Who were those people that shot me? Why do they call you Storm?"
"Hey Kim!" Kristen said cheerfully as she skipped in. She saw a wilting flower over on the window sill and, using her powers, made it healthy.
"I am called Storm for my ability to control the weather. The people that helped me capture you are coming as we speak," Storm said. A group of 4 mutants came in. "These are Piotr Rasputin, commonly known as Colossus (Burly Man from last night) who can cover his body in steel; Warren Worthington, sometimes called Angel (a Caucasian man with blond hair and white, angel wings); Kitty Pryde, who is sometimes but not often called Shadow Cat (Tiny Girl was also Caucasian with brown hair up in a tight bun) who can phase through matter; Bobby Drake isn't around at the moment, I can introduce you to him later; and…have any of you seen Logan?"
"Right here." A man with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth came in. It was Wolf from last night. He's even more attractive in the light. Other than what I had explained last night, he also had a scruff of a beard and huge side burns.
"This is…" Storm started.
"Logan. My name's Logan. I'm also called Wolverine, but I would rather you call me Logan, unlike sunshine and Tin Man over here." Storm and Colossus rolled their eyes and laughed.
"Logan is special. Because of his secondary ability to heal quickly, his organs never wear out, so he, according to what we have gathered from government files, has lived through and fought in every war. Sadly, that is all we know about Logan's previous life, for eleven years ago he lost his memories." Storm explained to me. Wow, so Logan was hundreds of years old, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Hey, Bella married Edward when he was hundreds of years old and only looked 17. I mentally shook myself. What was I thinking about that for?
"Excuse me for asking, but who is Charles Xavier?" I asked. Everyone in the room immediately silenced, and began to look around uncomfortably.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. If it's something personal…" I started, feeling foolish.
"No, no it's ok." Storm said, but wouldn't answer my question still.
"A year ago Charles was killed by someone we all knew. She wasn't in her right state of mind, but it still hit all of us hard. We lost another one of our guys to her too." Logan told me. Who ever the girl was that had killed Charles and the other guy was really bugging Logan. I reached into his mind and found out the girl was Dr. Jean Grey and the guy she killed was Scott Summers. Jean and Scott had been married, but she had had an affair with Logan. The silence settled back over, so I decided it was time to leave.
"Thanks for introducing me to everyone and giving my sister and I a place to stay." I said to Storm. She smiled and nodded. I turned and walked out of the room. As I wandered aimlessly, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around and ended up face to face with Logan.
"I can tell you still have questions. Maybe I can help." He smiled brightly at me. He led me to the kitchen and headed over to the fridge. He pulled out a beer and turned to me.
"You want one?" he asked.
"Are you kidding? Beer tastes awful."
"Suit yourself," Logan said. He put out his cigarette and threw it in the trash. I sat down at the counter and Logan leaned against it from his side.
"So, what are your powers Logan? Why do they call you Wolverine?" I asked.
"They call me Wolverine because of these shiny babies." He laid one of his arms down on the counter and out of his knuckles came 3, razor-sharp, shiny, metallic claws.
"Aren't they beautiful?" Logan joked. He lifted his arm off the table and blew on the tips of his claws. I giggled into my palm.
"My only other power is that I can heal quickly, as you know." Logan explained. I stared at his claws and shivered. Something about his claws was familiar, like from a forgotten memory. They brought back a memory of pain. Awful suffering and pain.
"Are you cold?" Logan asked. He slid off his black leather jacket and handed it to me. I pulled it on, and it smelled good. Real good. It had a warm, woodsy smell.
"So, what're your powers? I mean, I've already seen that you can teleport and fly, but is there anything else? Like, do you have some uncanny mastery with knives, 'cause you were pretty fierce with them last night," Logan asked.
"Yeah." I made everything in the kitchen that wasn't bolted to the ground or wall levitate up then back to the floor. I made a small ball of flame appear between us then disappear. And then, finally, I pulled out my claws, which caught the glint of the fluorescent light bulbs. Logan started looking worried.
"They used to be very sickly and bony, but now…" I started.
"Come on." Logan cut me off.
"Where are we going?" I asked worriedly as he grabbed my arm and pulled me off.
"The lab. Were you ever captured and sent to an island for 'medical treatment'?"
"Yes," I said shakily.
"What did they do to you?"
"How would you know about the island when you lost your memories?" I asked.
"Charles. Now answer the question!"
"This man, Stryker, he did many experiments on me. One day, when he thought he had knocked me out, I heard him saying stuff like 'first subject ran' and 'think she can stand it'. They strapped me to an operation table that put me under water. Then they injected this weird stuff, it looked like liquid rock. They used drills to put it in. It hurt me bad. Real bad." I pointed to my cheek bones and the insides of my arms, which had red spots from the drills. He cursed under his breath.
"How did you escape?"
"Well, one day, I was sitting in my cell with a blind boy comforting him; he looked a lot like Scott. When Emma's sister, Kayla, came in with this man…" I trailed off as everything dawned on me.
"What is it Kim? You must tell me." He stepped in front of me so I had to look straight at him.
"How can you not remember Logan?" I asked.
"What did I do?"
"Of course you don't remember, after…"
"Kim, what happened?"
"Well, you came running in with Emma's sister and you set us all free. I ran up and said thank you and hugged you hard, then went back and got Scott. I gave him to Emma to handle then ran after you and Kayla. You fought this awful guy with a man I suspected to be your brother, and then you were going to take Kayla back to shore for medical treatment. You got shot in the head and lost your memories. Oh, and you had this girlfriend, Kayla." I recalled bitterly. I stopped running, which jerked him to an immediate stop. I had this odd feeling that made me think I could give him back every memory. I leaned forward to touch his forehead.
"What're you doing?" Logan asked, jerking back.
"Shut up, I'm trying to help." I leaned forward and touched his forehead, then closed my eyes, willing back his memories. Then, we both were thrown into them.
There were flashes of memories past, some with phrases that stuck out, like "we're brothers now Jimmy. Brothers stick up for each other," and "I'm through Stryker!" We saw an old couple giving him a motorcycle and clothes, and then we saw a prolonged memory.
It was a dimly lit hall of cells. There were many mutants chained and fighting to be free. Then there was me. I was 14 years old. I was hugging a sobbing Scott that was saying, "Where are we? Why am I here?" Through my tears I tried to tell him what was going on. Then everyone stopped talking and fighting. Logan looked from side to side, and then extended his claws. He put them to his sides and ran down the hall, his claws striking every box on our cells that would now set us free. I saw me coming running at him and hugged him hard, and whispered, "Thank you." I ran back to my cell and got Scott. The memory faded out and a new prolonged one came.
We were in the wilderness, and Logan was on his knees, holding the limp body of a woman covered in blood.
"CREED!" Logan screamed. The memory faded away.
We were now inside a lab, and Logan was on his knees in-between Stryker and Kayla.
"It was all…a lie," Kayla said.
"Well, it was real for me," Logan snapped back. Stryker smirked evilly. This memory faded out and a new one replaced it. Even though Logan remembered this one still, it came to us anyway.
It was in the observation room of the X-Mansion, and Jean Grey was lying on one of the tables. Logan was standing over her looking down at her, and reached for the odd helmet that was hovering above her head. Suddenly, she grabbed it and sat up.
"Logan," she said and smiled.
"Hey," he said. They talked for about two more seconds and then started making out. It was disturbing to watch. It enraged me too, and I don't know why. As I halted the memory before it was over, I realized this was a part of what I see when I first meet someone officially. When I first meet someone, their strongest memories eventually flood my mind.
Just like that, we were back in the hallway of the X-Mansion. We must have stumbled over when the memories started, because now we were both on the floor; Logan was sitting up and I was lying down on the floor, my hand still touching his forehead. Apparently, giving back memories is harder on you than getting them back. I got up and made my way to the lab. I walked in and said hello to the doctor. She had long brown hair slicked back into a high ponytail.
"Hello. My name is Dr. Susan Silvers. What do you need?" Dr. Silvers asked.
"I really don't know. Logan told me to come here and…" Logan burst through the doors.
"We need an X-Ray on her stat. I think she has adamantium in her." Logan ordered. Dr. Slivers broke the eye contact by nodding hastily and pulled me over to some odd machine. She made me lay down on this table which went inside the machine. After a few moments I was back out. Apparently using her mind, the X-Ray flew out of the machine and went on to a backlight. Dr. Silvers looked at the photo and gasped. She showed it to Logan and his face went grave.
"What's adamantium?" I asked.
"A kind of rock that is indestructible. It's in you. It's what made yours and my claws get metallic." Logan explained. I felt extreme exhaustion come over me. I muttered about being tired and ran out, through the door and down the hall. On my way I was suddenly stopped by Ice Dude from last night.
"Hi, my name's Bobby Drake," the boy said and smiled. Out of the blue much?
"Hi, I'm Kimberly," I smiled.
"Oh yeah! I helped capture you last night! You can do any power you want!" he exclaimed.
"Well, I mean…" I started.
"Can you bring people back to life?" he asked hopefully.
"What? Why?" I asked, startled.
"I'm sure you've heard about Xavier, Cyclops, and Dr. Grey."
"Who's Cyclops?"
"Mr. Summers."
"Oh yeah, him. But I thought Scott's body was lost," I said.
"Well, me and a couple of my friends found it," Bobby said quietly.
"You what?!" I yelled.
"Shh! Come on," he whispered. He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me through the halls. He led me to his room and started rummaging through his closet.
"You put him in your closet?!" I whisper-yelled as I slowly backed out of the room. He turned around to face me.
"No! I'm getting his special glasses. You better not leave," he warned. I stopped walking backwards and waited until he got them out. He stuffed them in his pocket and we ran back out into the hall. He pulled me into the garage and started looking around. He ran toward a small silver convertible that already had its hood down and jumped in.
"Come on!" he yelled. I ran over and jumped in beside him. We heard footsteps coming and I turned to him.
"Put your head down. Don't let them see you," he said. I quickly ducked down and held by breath. He started the car quietly and blasted out of the garage. It was now very dark outside.
"Bobby! Get your butt back here NOW!" I heard Logan scream. Bobby laughed and drove faster. I heard another motor come after us. I waned to see what was going on, so using a power I discovered in the 10th grade, I did a chameleon thing and made my skin and clothes turn completely black. I lifted my head and turned around. Logan was on a big motorcycle chasing after us.
"He's right behind us Bobby!" I yelled.
"I thought I told you to…where are you?" he asked.
"I'm right next to you. Keep your eyes on the road!" I yelled at him.
"I gotta get him off our tail." He turned around and pointed his palm, open, at the road. A could, icy mist snaked out of his palm toward the road and immediately a huge sheet of ice covered the concrete behind us. Logan's wheels hit the ice and he spun uncontrollably toward a tree.
"Logan!" I screamed. I put out my palm and made him stop spinning with my mind. I opened the hub cap and made all of his gas spill out so that he could no longer chase us. I turned back around and fell back onto my seat, exhausted and watched the black drain away.
"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Bobby asked. I laughed weakly and waited for us to get to where they had found the body. After a couple of minutes we reached a lake that had the moon reflecting off of it. He pulled over and hopped out. I got out and walked over to Bobby.
"Where is it?" I asked.
"Over here." He led me over to a big group of bushes and crawled down in between to of them.
"Come on! Help me pull it out!" Bobby yelled from the bushes.
"Or I could just do this." I pointed my open palm at the bushes and groped around with my mind for Bobby and Scott. When I found them I lifted them both out and dropped them on the ground next to me.
Scott was a middle aged man with curly brown hair and a scruff of a beard, but much fainter than Logan's. His eyes were clamped shut, and chunks of skin were missing here and there.
Bobby was grinning from ear to ear.
"What?" I laughed.
"It's fun to fly," he said back.
"Are you so sure?" I threw him up in the air, far above the trees, and then watched him dropped. He screamed in terror like a girl. Right when he was about to hit the ground, I stopped him and put him upright. He was shaking so hard I thought he might have wet his pants. I cracked up at the thought.
"Shut up," he muttered and walked over to Scott's body. I gulped and kneeled down by his body. Bobby kneeled down next to me and put Scott's sunglasses on him.
"Trust me. You don't want to see him without these," he said. I didn't know what to do to help him, so I decided to do what they always do in the movies. First I willed for all of his skin and anything else that disintegrated to come back to him. Once he no longer resembled Swiss cheese, I leaned forward and put my palm on his chest. I closed my eyes and willed his heart to restart, for him to come back to life.
"It's working, Kim! It's working," Bobby said excitedly. I felt Scott's heart beating very faintly, and I opened my eyes and looked at Bobby.
"Whoa. Kim, your eyes are glowing white," Bobby gasped.
"You didn't notice that earlier? They're always like this. But forget that Bobby, he's not breathing," I said worriedly.
"I'm not giving him CPR," Bobby laughed and started crawling backwards.
"Chicken!" I yelled at Bobby. I didn't want to have to go through the whole willing thing again, so I leaned over and gave him CPR. After about a minute of that, Scott gasped so I sat back and he sat up. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and continued to breathe heavily.
"Kim, your eyes are still white," Bobby whispered while we sat, waiting for Scott to go back to normal.
"Did you not hear a word I said earlier?" I whispered back.
"Oh," Bobby said. Scott's breathing went back to normal and he gave me a weird look, so I made my eyes go back to how they were before.
"Who are you? Where's Jean?" he asked.
"Jean's dead Mr. Summers," Bobby said quietly.
"No, no she can't be! Not again!" Scott pounded the ground with his fist.
"Not for long Mr. Summers. You were dead to, but she brought you back to life, so now she's gonna bring back Jean and Xavier," Bobby explained.
"I was dead? Charles is dead?" Scott said, confused.
"Not for long," Bobby repeated. Scott turned his attention back to me.
"Who are you?" Scott asked me again.
"I'm Kimberly, Kimberly Springfield. I'm new to the mansion," I said.
"She has every power!" Bobby said excitedly. I glared at him.
"Let me see some examples," Scott said, doubting me. I smirked and teleported away, then back. I used my mind to lift Bobby and Scott off the ground and back, and for the finale I put my open palms skyward in front of me and in my left hand a swirling ball of water flew around and in my right a ball of fire flew. When I put my hands down the water fell to the ground and the fireball shot to the lake and dropped into it, fizzling out. As I dropped back down to the ground, Scott stared at me, dumfounded. I smirked and walked back to the car.
"Where are Jean and Charles buried?" I heard Scott ask Bobby.
"Jean is back at the mansion, but Charles, well, when he died he sort of…" Bobby trailed off, looking for the right word.
"Disappeared," I said over my shoulder.
"Yeah, disappeared, but we have his grave back at the mansion too," Bobby explained.
"If you don't have his body, how will you bring him back?" Scott asked. Bobby was about to answer but I beat him to it.
"I'll show you now." I stopped and turned toward the lake. I opened my palms and held them to my sides and closed my eyes, willing for the little pieces of Charles skin and organs and bones to come back and piece themselves together. I know that sounds gross, but I couldn't think of anything better. I heard Bobby and Scott gasp, so I opened my eyes. Charles and the suit he had worn in his final hours were piecing together before our eyes. Once he was done piecing together I slowly laid him down on the ground and did what I did with Scott. I put my hand on his chest and willed his heart to start. This time Charles started breathing when his heart started, thankfully, and he sat up slowly with help from Scott.
"Scott, Bobby." Charles smiled. "Why am I alive again?"
"Because of her." Scott pointed at me. Charles turned toward me.
"You," Charles said quietly.
"What?" I asked.
"You are that one mutant, the one that ran away from me at the island, the one that always disappeared off my radar just when I thought I found you. The most powerful mutant in the world," Charles said quietly. Well that brightened my day.
"And surprisingly," Charles continued, "You have no trouble controlling your powers. How you brought me and Scott back to life I don't know, but it would be spectacular if you could use that on Jean." I nodded.
"I think Bobby and Scott were planning on having me do that, regardless on whether or not I want to," I said. They all laughed.
"May I get some assistance getting to the car?" Charles asked.
"Do you want me to just heal your legs so you can walk?" I asked Charles. His eyes lit up.
"I would love that greatly, but I would rather stay with what condition I am already in," he said. Bobby and Scott started slowly trying to pick him up, but then I got an idea.
"Wait, I can have a better idea." I teleported to Charles' office. Storm, Logan, and Warren were all in there discussing where Bobby and I could have gone. They stared at me dumbfounded, half from my sudden appearance/half from my eyes.
"Heh heh. Hey. Just uh, gettin' this wheel chair," I said. Storm and Warren stared at my eyes. Logan lunged for me and I lunged for the wheel chair. I teleported back to the lake and saw that because Logan had been touching me he ended up teleporting with me. He turned and saw Bobby, Scott, and Charles all staring.
"Scott? Charles?" Logan whispered.
"Kimberly brought us back," Scott said smiling.
"Kimberly was the mutant I had told you about before I died. The one you had to find at all cost. I'm glad you found her," Charles said. Logan was still staring at my eyes, but someone else started to speak so he turned.
"She's gonna bring back Jean too," Scott added. Logan's eyes lit up. I lifted Charles up into his wheel chair. I walked over to the car and put my hand on its hood.
"We can't all fit in the car so everyone get over here." Scott and Bobby walked over and Charles wheeled over and put their hands on my shoulders while Logan stood back. I stretched my hand out to his.
"Come on, you don't want to walk back do you?" I smiled.
"It won't kill you to hold her hand Logan," Scott said.
"Come on Logan, you know you want to. Doesn't he Xavier?" Bobby teased. Charles chuckled and, blushing, Logan slid his hand into my hand and I squeezed it. He squeezed back and then I teleported us all back into the garage. My leg felt kind of funny, but I ignored it.
"Ok, can someone show me to Jean's grave?" I asked. Bobby nodded and started heading for the door. We all headed for the door but I was jerked to a stop. My leg started feeling like it was being cut in half by a million knives. I turned my head and groaned. Logan stopped and turned around.
"Are you kidding me?" Logan said. My leg from the knee down was stuck in the wall.
"Kimberly, can you get out?" Charles asked worriedly.
"I might," I said. I phased through the wall to pull my leg back out. I couldn't stand up because of the pain in my leg so I ended up sliding to the floor. Logan walked over and, after putting my arm over his shoulders, he helped me limp over to everyone else. We made our way to the grave and once we got there everyone except Logan backed away. I used my powers to lift the coffin out of the ground without disturbing the soil and opened it. Jean was lying in there, peacefully. Three small holes were in her stomach. I put my palm on the holes and healed them, and then I put my hand back on her chest. I willed her heart to start and, just like Charles, her breath came with her heart beat. I immediately put the blocks up in her mind that Charles showed me how to do, which took me only seconds compared to Charles' hours. She rubbed her eyes and looked around.
"Charles? Scott? I thought you were dead. I thought I was dead," she said.
"Kimberly brought you and them back," Scott said. Jean looked at me and her eyes widened. She looked over at Charles.
"It's that mutant we were sensing for so long…," she trailed off, staring at my glowing eyes. Uncomfortable and rude much?
"Yes, it is." My eye lids were drooping, and Logan noticed.
"I'm going to take Kimberly back to her room. It looks like she's gonna pass out from her leg and all of the mind moving and stuff," Logan announced unnecessarily. We limped for a second until he stopped us.
"This is going to take forever," he said. He swept me off my feet and carried me to my room. When we got in there he laid me down on my bed.
"Thanks," I said and smiled. I gave him a swift peck on the cheek then laid back. He was totally surprised. He touched his cheek and looked at me.
"You're welcome." Logan smiled as he walked away. After I watched him leave I fell asleep immediately.
The night started out semi normal. I had to live through the X-Men's strongest memories, which were so tedious that I feel no need to recount. But then I had it. I had the worst nightmare. I was back at the island. I was being drug into the operation room. I screamed and tried to pull away, so they hit me over the head with a lead pipe. I didn't pass out, but I did go limp. They strapped the oxygen mask to my head and then strapped me to the table. I was put under water and the drills bored into my skin. I screamed and struggled trying to get away. But I couldn't. Right when the rock was done being put in, my heart beat went flat. I was dead for 30 seconds. Then I came back. They shot a dart into my skin to knock me out, and then dragged me back to my cell with Scott. I woke up in the cell and saw a boy next to me I knew. It was Nate Mondeoura from school. We had been really good friends. I tried to reach between the bars, but could only get my hand through.
"Nate…" I whispered. Nate was staring at his hands, and then he looked at me. He touched my hand and it sent an electrical shock through my whole body. I passed out for a couple seconds then came back.
"I'm so sorry…" Nate whispered. Then the men that worked here came in and opened Nate's cell. They began dragging him away.
"Goodbye Kim!" Nate shouted at me.
"Nate!" I screamed. "NATE!"
"Kim, Kim. Wake up, Kim." Someone shook me awake. They came to me at the wrong time. I screamed and stabbed them in the stomach.
"Ah!" they groaned and doubled over. It was Logan. I had stabbed Logan.