AN~ here is the second chapter! Thank you to those who reviewed and meh to those who didn't!
To KK Renee: the Kelly Program was named for their founder, Edward Kelly. But yeah, it's funny.
To Raimaru13: Thanks for the 2 OC's, I hope I did a good job of bringing them to life.
Artsiv
I have no idea how long I've been sitting at this small desk in this way-too-small-for-me chair. But I do know that when Nov'c shook me awake that my butt was numb.
"Artsiv!" she was basically screaming in my ear. "Come on! Wake up! Get off your ass and run!" it wasn't like Nov'c to cuss.
"Wha. . . ?" I asked, still half asleep.
"They're here!" that got me to wake up. I sprang to my feet and did a quick 360, and I saw them. Thirty or so K-Pro assassins. I looked for Elly and Jove, spotted them coming toward us. I picked them both up and followed Nov'c out into a full fledged mutant vs. K-Pro battle. I scanned for Scott, Professor, and Jean. I wanted to know if they had made it back last night.
"Artsiv! This way!" Nov'c, who had a very loud voice to begin with, had to scream just for me to hear her. I followed Nov'c, with Elly and Jove still tucked tightly in my arms, into a small cave that I had to crouch just to stand. I looked down at Elly and Jove, they looked shocked. More like catatonic.
I sat them down and looked around. Nov'c was near the back, trying to keep it together, Elly and Jove looking catatonic, and me. Just standing here. I kneeled down in front of Jove. She was so small. I watched her, she didn't pay attention to anything I did. Elly was the same, watching, but not seeing. I looked to the opening of the cave when I heard loose dirt falling and moving from two sets of footsteps.
I got in front of Elly and Jove, Nov'c came up beside me, ready to jump into action if the two people coming were K-Pro's.
"Do you think we lost them?" one voice asked. I saw two outlines, walking toward us way before Nov'c would have. Due to my mutant ability my eyesight is enhanced and a lot better than most people I've met.
"Who's there?" Nov'c called. In an instant I was pinned to the back of the cave with some sort of bone-ish spike going through my shirt and into the cave wall. Nov'c was completely fine, standing to the side because she got out of the way of the spike with some ninja move that looked like it came strati from a Jackie Chan movie. It most likely did.
"Who are you?" another voice asked. The two outlines kept coming toward us but, thankfully, didn't notice Elly and Jove. When they came close enough for me to see them, they didn't look that much different.
They were both on the short side; one had straight brown hair, the other had straight black hair; both of their skin was on the pale side, but the one with black hair's skin was a bit tanner; they were both skinny and lean; the brown haired one was wearing a black undershirt and black sweat pants, the other was wearing the same thing except with a red undershirt.
"We asked you first," Nov'c said, coming out of the shadows and standing in between them and Elly and Jove. "So your first to answer." Nov'c held her head high and raised her chin defiantly.
"James, and this is my brother, Damion. We're just trying to get away from the damn K-Pro's." James, the one with black hair and a red undershirt, said.
"Now, who are you?" Damion asked.
"Let him go first." Nov'c said, motioning toward me. James walked up to me, put his index finger and thumb on the bone thing attaching me to the wall. His fingers seemed to vibrate, as did the bone, and after a few seconds, the bone disintegrated.
"Who are you?" James asked, walking back over to Damion.
"I'm Nov'c, this is Artsiv," Nov'c pointed to me, "and these two are Elly and Jove." Nov'c pointed out the two girls for the first time to James and Damion.
"Are you four like. . . us?" Damion asked. As I watched him with my enhanced vision I noticed that his fingers and hands twitched every few seconds, and his shoulders were almost always stiff.
"If your asking if we're mutants, then yes." Nov'c looked James and Damion in the eyes. Nov'c, in the grand scheme of things, is not a large person. She's only about 5'5'' and is as skinny as a twig, but James and Damion were about eye level with her.
"What do you do?" James asked in a harsh tone, "shine people to death with your hair?" Nov'c's next move was so fast even I had trouble following it. In one, fluid, decisive movement Nov'c had cought and pulled James' hair and had pulled his face close to her's.
"No, that's not my powers, and, in the future, I wouldn't be so rude." Nov'c was hissing in his face so low I could barely hear them. I turned my gaze over to Damion, who looked like an armadillo. He had these bone looking plates all up and down his torso.
Damion started to lift his arm to Nov'c, making the motion needed for a punch to the temple. Nov'c seemed to sense this rather than see it, and moved out of the way but she still had a firm hold on James' hair. As Nov'c moved back, James moved forward, taking the place Nov'c had just been. Damion's fist collided into the side of James' head. Nov'c released her hold of James' hair and was now face to face with Damion.
"What the hell?" James and Damion said at the same time, looking angrily at Nov'c.
"Don't be rude to me, and don't try to punch me. You think people would get the Go Away vibe, well, that'll teach me to assume anything ever again." Nov'c walk calmly away from Damion and James. Damion decided it was a good time to try another attack.
He raised his fist again, and was about to hit Nov'c on the crown of her head. When he was a hairs breath away from punching her head in, Nov'c spun on her heel, cought his arm at the wrist, flowed with the momentum, and was now crouched over Damion who had just landed flat on his back.
"What is you power?" Damion asked when he had gotten his breath back.
"Mimicry, and memorizing," Nov'c said dryly, "And I watch Jackie Chan movies."
That was about the most threatening I had ever seen Nov'c, but I still had the urge to burst out laughing. I watched as Nov'c turned her back on the two boys and went to take care of Elly and Jove.
James, who was helping his brother up, looked at me and asked, "Who's Jackie Chan?" [1]
"Nov'c's hero." I said plainly. James and Damion seemed to take this as a good enough answer and turned to watch Nov'c taking care of Elly and Jove. I watched the scene, feeling utterly useless.
"I'll see if anyone saw us." I said. Nov'c nodded without turning to face me, and Damion and James nod as well. I walk out of the small cave and look around, making sure to look up too.
"Artsiv?" I looked to where the voice was coming from and saw Professor walking toward us. "Artsiv. Did anyone else escape?"
"Yeah, Nov'c, Elly, Jove, and two other guys. I think they were new to the camp, I've never met them before." I answered.
"What are their names?" Professor asked.
"Damion and James."
"Well, they were new to the camp, but not to the X-Men. When they were young their parents were killed by Kelly Program agents, they've been with the X-Men ever since." Professor said to me as he walked past and into the cave.
"Professor?" he turned and faced me, "Where are Scott and Jean?" his face became emotionless and his blue eyes dropped.
"They were cought." his voice was hollow, and seemed to loose that calming factor it usually has.
"They got cought?" I just couldn't believe this, "They're two of the original X-Men! Two of the best trained! How could they have been cought?" Nov'c had heard what was going on and came to stand beside me.
"If they got cought, then we have no hope." this was not Nov'c! She's and optimist by nature! She couldn't have just given up! I looked over to Elly and Jove, they seemed to be watching what was happening, an improvement from the almost unblinking stare that they had before.
"Jean and Scott?" James spoke up now, "Like the Jean and Scott Summers?" [2]
"I'm afraid so," Professor mumbled.
"We've got no chance," James whined.
"What is this?" We all looked over to little Jove who had spoken, "Is this the fearless fighting mutants that I've heard about? Or just a bunch of wusses?" we all felt a pang of guilt at this, "Shouldn't this be the time people start yelling 'When the going get tough-er, the tough get going'? What happened to all the mutants who wanted to win this war? What about all of you who wanted so badly to have a chance against the K-Pros? Well here is your chance! Take it."
Speechless.
Completely and utterly speechless.
I actually heard crickets.
How could an eight-year-old be braver than all of us?
"Do you know what they do to mutants who get cought?" Damion asked, almost shaking.
"I think it'd be best not to share this one." Nov'c said, noticing the looks on Elly and Jove's faces.
I sat down in the shade, the closest to the entrance. I let the rough stone of the cave wall help me process what had just happened. In less than a minute, my world had been uprooted, turned upside down, kicked in the gut, and the left to die in the desert. I pulled my knees up and let my head rest on one.
"Artsiv?" I felt Nov'c shaking my shoulder to wake me up. "Me, Professor, and James are going to get food, Okay? Watch Elly and Jove." I nodded, still half asleep, and Nov'c went over to grab her old worn backpack then walked out of the cave opening with Professor and James. I looked over to Damion, who was piggy-backing Jove and Elly, to their delight.
"So, what do you do?" I asked. Damion turned and put Elly and Jove down gently, then turned to me.
"I armor up." I was about to question what 'armoring up' was, when bones started to grow from his entire torso.
"What do you do?"
"I turn into a huge eagle. Takes awhile though." I answered. Damion nodded and let the bones sink down into his skin. He sat down against the rough rock wall, Elly and Jove sat down to a staring contest.
"How long does it take?" Damion after a few minutes of silence.
"Few hours, give or take. But it doesn't take long to change parts of me though." we fell silent then, letting it sink in. Jove won the staring contest. I tuned into my surroundings, trying to hear or see an enemy before they heard or saw us. I heard a footstep, right outside the cave. I turn my head slightly, just so that I can barely see around the curve of the wall thats hiding me from the entrance. I see a black clad K-Pro.
"Damion!" I barely breath to him. His head snapped up and he looks at me. "Ready to fight some K-Pros?" an almost evil smile came to his face, and he nodded as bones covered his torso.
Damion tapped Elly and Jove, whispered to them what was going on, and then pushed them against the cave wall so they were out of sight.
"On the count of three." I mouthed, Damion nodded. "One," Damion cracked his knuckles, "Two," He made sure Elly and Jove were out of sight, "Three." there was a momentary pause, like the world had stopped to take a breath before me and Damion spring into action.
AN~ Cliffie! So how fast will I need to run? Review and I'll update quicker!
1: well, if they've been in war for fifteen years they all wouldn't have time to watch Jackie Chan!
2: We all know they would've gotten married in the end.