Storms Pt. 2

A Bird Through the Window

By Chibi Hime

Thirteen year old Gwen Tennyson would have weathered the storm a lot better if she hadn't been home alone. She could have managed it if her grandfather could come over and check on her.

But that wasn't possible.

Her parents were out of town on business and her grandfather had taken her cousin, Ben, to a soccer final out of town. No. She had insisted she was old enough to take care of herself for one day and one night. One night's peace was all she asked for? What did she get?

A freak hail storm with possibility of tornadoes.

She sat under the pool table in the game room, away from all the windows. She had a bottle of water, a flashlight and a radio tuned in to the emergency broadcast network.

Gwen sighed and cast a glance around the room. Rain beat down on the windows and tiny specks of ice flicked off of the sill.

Without warning, there was a colossal crash and the sound of breaking glass.

Gwen's heart stopped dead in her chest and a shiver ran up and down her spine. She held as still as possible and listened.

All she could hear was the howling wind and the pattering of raindrops. Only when she was sure

Carefully, she flicked on her flashlight and eased out from under the pool table. On spritely legs, she dashed down the hall and peered into her room. The window was broken, water was pouring in, along with tiny balls of hail. Groaning, she went to her closet and pulled out a large piece of plywood she had been saving for a shop project later in the summer. With her craft nails and a little magic, she managed to temporarily board up her window. She was about to return to her hiding place when she noticed a piece of broken glass near her foot.

The curved shard had blood on it. A few splatters of crimson

Gwen quickly looked over her own arms and quickly saw that it was not her own blood. She remembered the crash and felt a chill run up her spine. Returning to her closet, Gwen emerged with and umbrella and began to patrol the house, one room at a time. She hadn't found a soul.

She'd looked in every closed and every nook there was. The blood must have been from a bird or something, she reasoned. It had been blown through the window and then, after it had regained its composure, flown back through the broken glass. Gwen was about to go back upstairs when a flash of bright lightning illuminated the front yard and revealed something she would have never expected.

Kevin.

Kevin 11 was in her front yard. Her heart leapt to her throat in surprise.

How did he get out of the Null Void? How had he found her? Why, after all this time had he decided to hunt her down? Was it some ridiculous plot against Ben?

Gwen paused and looked again, just to make certain what she thought was in her front yard really was in her front yard. It was. But Gwen also noticed it was laying in her front yard as opposed to stampeding towards her door. Curiosity and her direct nature compelled her forward. She looked out through the window and saw the vague outline of the mutated boy on the lawn, apparently making no attempt to come crashing in to threaten or kidnap her. He didn't even look like he was trying to move. That was extremely out of character for him.

Raising an eyebrow, she eased the front door open and stepped outside. On careful feet, she inched forward, her heart beating insanely fast.

No. She was certain he definitely wasn't moving. She craned her neck up and saw that the crash she had heard must have come from his impact into the house. He had crashed into her house.

Gwen rolled her eyes. About as subtle as a bull in a china store, that Kevin 11. She didn't know where it was his rashness or stupidity that had led him to fly into her house...or perhaps even, an accident?

Could it really be an accident? Some colossal cosmic coincidence?

Gwen doubted it.

Still, there was something odd about it.

The longer she stood there watching rain and hail patter down on the mutant's mismatched hide, the more she began to wonder just what he was doing there in the first place. The longer he lay still in the yard, the easier it seemed she could see herself going outside to ask.

Thunder rumbled overhead as she carefully eased her umbrella open and slipped out the front door.

Or tried to slip out the front door.

A gust of wind caught it and flung the door open. Gwen gasped as a wave of cold water blew into her. It felt like a hundred tiny knives digging into her skin. She forced her umbrella down in front of her and continued on her way. She took several uneasy steps toward the unmoving behemoth that lay on her father's well kept grass. She was standing over him before he moved. Even then the only motions he made were ragged breathes. Kevin seemed not to care that sheets of rain were pummeling him. The creature lay there, almost oblivious to the elements around him.

She leaned forward so that her umbrella was over his head. Slowly, then, he turned his mismatched features up to look at her. His eyes, usually mad with bloodlust and obsession were strangely dull and devoid of any real emotion. Lightning flashed and Gwen saw that his features seemed to animate when he realized just who he was looking at.

Thunder crashed overhead and Gwen felt it rattle her insides. Reminded of the danger, she scowled down at him.

"Well, what do you want? Ben's not here. Neither is Grandpa. Looks like you picked a bad time to get your revenge. I mean, seriously...a rain storm with a chance of tornadoes? What were you thinking?" Gwen snapped at him, trying to sound brave enough to distract him from...well...whatever it was he was planning to do.

Kevin's eyes studied her for a moment and he opened his razor toothed mouth to deliver a retort, but he seemed to think twice about it and lay his head back down in the mud and closed his eyes.

Gwen's cheeks burned.

Now he was ignoring her?

He had just crashed into her house and now he was ignoring her?

She was about to unleash a torrent of rage against him when she took another, more studious look at the mutant before her.

What she saw made her insults die on her tongue.

His wings were torn to shreds, tattered, undoubtedly by the storm that now crackled around them. There was no chance he could fly now. One of his lower arms was bent in a twisted angle and little pieces of glass were embedded in it and his shoulders. Little crimson trails trickled down from where they pierced his skin. He was a colossal mess. Even if he wanted to, there was little to no chance that Kevin could hurt her in the shape he was in.

"What happened to you?" she asked quietly.

Before Kevin had a chance to respond, lightning flickered again and struck a tree across the street. A branched cracked audibly and fell with terribly slowness towards the ground. It crashed there ad thunder rumbled again.

Gwen shrieked at its dangerous proximity. Her eyes were suddenly mad with the insanity of it all. She reached down and grabbed Kevin's Petro Sapien hand. She pulled hard.

"Get up! We have to get inside or we'll be killed!" she shouted.

The mutant didn't move.

Gwen pulled again and again.

"COME ON! We can't stay out here! Get Up! You need to get inside."

"Why bother? Why don't you Tennysons leave me alone?" he rumbled, not looking at her.

"Because I said so! I would I explain a dead mutant in the front yard to my parents? A sick one in the house, yeah. I can explain that. Now, GET UP!" she said, tugging harder.

"Why do you care?" he muttered.

"Because I'm a decent person. Now get up and get inside before you get fried,"

"I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE," he snarled at her, taking a swipe at her with his left hand alight. The rain hissed as it came into contact with its heated surface.

Gwen glared at him. She was about to yell at him again when she wondered if all his insistence was due to the fact that he could not get up. That had to be it. He couldn't get up and would rather die...truly rather die than let her know that. It was sad, really.

"Can you walk?" she asked softly.

The mutant ignored her and looked away.

Gwen inwardly groaned. He was like a stubborn kid. Scratch that. He was a stubborn kid. It was so easy to forget he was, what, a year older than her? He didn't look a year older, in this form, he easily looked ten years older. But he wasn't ten years older.

They were almost the same.

Almost the same, but so different.

Gwen frowned. She leaned over and put a hand on the mutant's cheek. His skin was clammy and cold from the rain, but otherwise, it felt like soft leather. Her fingers ran over the gill-like ridges in his face and she felt him start.

Gwen's action caused him to shiver, completely unfamiliar with such contact. Kevin turned his mismatched eyes up to her, then immediately back down, not wanting to look into those pleading eyes an instant longer than he had to.

It hurt to much.

Living like this hurt too much.

He was tired and just wanted it to stop.

His earlier encounter had bothered him more than he could have imagined. He'd fought lots of enemies and insulted more. But somehow, for some reason, he was still shaken. His oversized body shivered and he became aware of a dull, gnawing pain in each of his bones. From the tip of his tail to his mismatched fingertips, it was there. It was steady and constant. He'd experienced the same pain three years ago. It had started like that and grown unbearable, ending only when his body had warped itself into his current form.

It was going to happen again.

The thought made him whimper slightly. He leaned into her touch slightly, trying to draw comfort from her extended palm.

He didn't want it to happen again...and he didn't want her to watch!

Gwen put her other hand back on his diamond hard right hand.

"Come on. I'll help you. It will be alright. We just can't stay here," she spoke softly, as if to a small child.

He turned his uneven gaze back to her and Gwen saw that he was terrified of something.

"Kevin, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Help me," he rasped, sounding wretchedly inhuman.

Gwen nodded.

"Okay. But we need to get into the house,"

Lightning flashed again as if to emphasize her point.

The mutant eased himself up, only to slip and fall back to the ground.

Gwen spoke softly and encouraged him again and again. She ignored the way his one lower arm hung limp at his side and the way his wings fell flat against his back. She could deal with that later, once they were inside.

Slowly, but surely, they made it to the front steps, a few feet at a time. As they were making it up the front steps, an emergency siren began to go off. Its blaring sounding horrible and ominous.

Gwen tugged the mutant's arm a little harder.

"Come on. Just a few more feet," she pleaded.

With a few more heaves, the two of them were inside and Gwen bolted the door shut. The two of them were a mess. Wet, cold and muddy. Gwen turned on a radio in the hallway as she went to get a few large beach towels from the summer closet for her and her guest. As the announcer's voice echoed eerily around the house, Gwen found herself wondering what else this storm would bring.