It's been five days of nothing but laying low and casual pick pocketing. Samantha had gotten herself some decent running shoes and socks, nothing to write home about but it was what she could afford off of the forty plus have some left over. Again, nothing much but she had enough to buy some food stuffs as she hid out in an abandoned warehouse.
Laying low honest to god is not my strong point, she thought in exasperation. Already sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yup, all of the rain coupled with her abilities somehow gave her a flu. That was pretty much the main reason she was laying low, the other had her slightly worried. Sam could have sworn she'd seen someone following her, but that three days ago when she'd been well enough to be up and about.
Moaning softly, she snuggled up into her pile of blankets she'd filched from the thrift store. The blankets were sort of thread bare and smelled like damned moth balls, but they were what she had. And for some reason with the rain she'd found it unbearably difficult to keep warm, she knew that she couldn't have dropped that low in body temperature. So she chalked it up to possibly her new abilities, maybe when she got sick she dropped down to normal human temp and that was cold? Who knew...or cared.
Grunting, Samantha cuddled into the blankets and shivered miserably. She could've been out pinching pockets or something and instead she was stuck in her haunt with some type of illness. Glancing up she jolted slightly, sweat on her brow as her temperature flared briefly and had her eyes flashing molten topaz. For just a second, a second...there had been someone IN the mirror.
"No...no way...not happening." She mumbled, "I'm delusional." Sam grumbled anxiously. She honestly was too tired to care; if it was someone here to nap her then let them, she decided irritably. Eyes flicking closed she let her head thump back against the pile of blankets, her backpack just within reach and the packet of Tylenol taunting her. Yet something kept her back, she just couldn't move with how tired she was.
Distantly she recognized the sound of clicking, it was distorted and seemed to echo in her head that progressed into a heavy bass thump that just wouldn't stop. The headache came on full blast along with another wave of nausea. Rolling precariously, she just barely managed to get the blankets away as sparks shot off of her hair and she vomited the little amount of water in her stomach onto the floor. Her nest forgotten as she tried to breathe it was simply to hot for her to do so.
Sweltering really. Gasping and panting she paused when she brought her hand up to wipe her mouth. Her arm was a bright cherry red, thin crawling lines of yellow scrawling through it. It reminded her distinctly of magma, slightly cooled with the hotter stuff running under the service. Her panting breathes increased as she rolled back onto her haunches slowly and tried to look at herself awkwardly.
Her entire body was covered in the red stuff, standing up suddenly she twisted to look at the mirror (empty for now although she still held her suspicions) only to find her whole body made of the solidfied magma skin. Her hair were writhing snaking tendrils of flaming curls that swirled and her eyes...they were like Hell pits themselves. The whites of her eyes were black and the iris was gold like the cracking lines.
Screaming in fear she collapsed down shakily and all at once the flames went out. Eyes rolling back she passed out, head hitting the ground roughly as she succumbed to the sudden exhaustion.
Fire burning, skin blistering, hair singing. The scent of flesh becoming charred, people screaming, the flames devouring everything in site she stalked forward with a cocky air. These peasants were in Sam's way and for what they'd done they would burn. The whole world would burn. Laughing, she turned to see a man who came forward to stop her. The sadness written into his face crushed the raging emotion that provoked the hell beast in her chest.
"What've you done love? Bloody hell this ain't you. This ain't the kid we know." He pleaded with her, voice surprisingly gentle. Slowly the flames died down as she took a step forward, towards the man she saw as an uncle...or perhaps a brother. Then her eyes hardened into hell fire once more.
When she came too again it was pitch black outside. Samantha stayed still, she wasn't alone. Or at least that was the instinctive response she had, she could sense something nearby. Already the dream was floating out of her awareness and she couldn't quite grasp what it'd been about. However she knew it'd been bad...yet she desired something from it more than she could put into words. Craved something... whether it was the taste of destruction or the way she remembered dark eyes watching her, she wasn't sure.
Eyes flickering open she sat up slowly, she could see something move nearby. Tensing up she heard a masculine voice.
"Wha' you think little bit is doin' here by herself?" It was that accented voice again! A shiver crawled up her spine when she thought of some man, or multiple men, coming into here with her. What if they were like her father's friends? They'd always been too handsy for her liking.
"No idea, but did you see that reaction earlier? It's like she's never used her abilities." Another voice mused, softer and contemplative. Finally she saw in the shadows one more person move, they were stocky yet they seemed to cast a cool and collected aura around them.
"Who cares, with training she could be useful. She's already resourceful, nearly got Digger's wallet." The voice was calm and frosty, yet something about it seemed distinctly amused even if it subtly wasn't. It was hard to describe, shaking herself from her musings she brought herself back to her main panicked thought.
There were three men in her hideout. Two of them she was fairly certain she had met, the third however, she had no fricking clue. Whimpering slightly she staggered upright the slightest bit, clutching her head as she huffed out a soft whine of pain. Suddenly she sensed the presences were closer. Eyes still clenched shut she snarled irritably.
"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Opening her eyes she could see three blurry shapes coming closer. Ones hands came up but for a second she didn't see the pacifying gesture. All she saw was her father coming forward with an empty bottle and promise of punishment.
"Ya right rotten bitch! I'll kill ya!" A little girl no older then five running up the stairs and hiding in the bathroom cabinet. She managed to wind herself around the pipes and hid away, shaky breaths escaping her as she sobbed.
"Get out 'ere an' face meh! Samantha!" A bottle smashed loudly and drunken hollering lasted until the wee hours of the morning between the moment that the owls went to sleep but before the sun awoke.
Flinching, she backed up, cradling her temples as the pain swept through her. Hair flashing into flames for a second before going out, sparks bursting from her mouth as she coughed violently. She could hear what sounded like an argument and in her panic she turned and raced for the warehouse doors. Her hand raising instinctively as she tried to make something happen, but of course nothing could happen if she wanted it to. It's like she just couldn't.
The sound of that man from the hospital, screaming in pain, flashed through her mind suddenly causing her to lose the little bit of control she had as the fire slipped from her reaches for now. She just...couldn't risk hurting someone else, even if these unknown men might hurt her. She just couldn't. Suddenly there was a whirling noise and her feet went out from under her. Yelping loudly, she hit the ground. Head cracking against the pavement as she laid there dazed.
X * X * X
"Nice going Digger, I think you concussed her." Sam spoke up as the man went to check on her quickly. Len and Digger following behind her, Digger snorted and spoke up.
"Didn't mean ta...she is ok right?" Concern had his brow furrowing. It was one thing to throw a boomerang at the Flash or some cops, but a kid or a chick? That was just wrong. He couldn't think of anything else at the moment to stop her, she was obviously unwell and not thinking strait.
"Well? Is she fine or not?" Ah good old Len, the other two thought in sync. How refreshing. Sam glanced up from where he was and looked up at Len, curiosity in the mirror manipulator's eyes.
"She should be ok, probably will have a heck of a headache later though," Here he paused and glanced at Digger who, to Sam's amusement, at least had the decency to look away. "She's pretty warm though, might be because of her abilities...I'm honestly not sure what a safe temp is for her...forehead feels like you could cook and egg on her..." He muttered softly.
"What are we gonna do with her?" Digger grunted, glancing down at the tiny thing, she honestly looked like she hadn't seen food in a month and with how short she was none of them could be sure how old she was. 12 or 13 was as good a guess as any.
"She'll come back with us, besides, she could be useful." Len calmly spoke, leaning casually against a pillar as he inspected his cold gun. The other two weren't fooled, they'd known him long enough to tell when he genuinely was concerned about something or not. And this was one of those moments. Shrugging, Digger picked the kid up and paused in surprise by how light she was. Frowning, he stalked after the cold themed villain and into the mirror dimension with Sam.
God how he hated the mirror dimension.
X * X * X
Cool fingers touched a burning forehead and another set gently touched the inside of heated raw wrists. The young girl barely twitched at the cool touches. A barely there murmur of background noise reached her ears, but made no sense as time seemed to be distorted and awkwardly shift. At one point she felt something lift her head and coax water down her throat, the liquid burned something fierce as it touched the hot internals of her body.
Alarmed noises were made when she could feel herself being to steam. Although after a bit that too calmed down after all blankets were yanked off and she managed to cool off some. At some point everything began to clear up and then around mid-day she finally came too.
Eyes blinking open sluggishly, she lifted her head and looked up briefly. Her backpack sat at the end of the comfy couch, her head laying on a pillow and surprisingly she was cold which was weird. Then it struck her, she was on a couch.
In a house.
With bags of ice all around her...well more like blocks.
What...the...actual...hell.
Sitting up abruptly, she grabbed her head and sucked in a pained breath. The sound of screeching chairs on linoleum only made it worse as a few sets of shoes came her way. Panicking she looked up and froze seeing them, steam beginning to rise up around her as the ice melted with her rising temperature and anxiety.
"There goes the fucking couch." The blonde one more or less stated blandly. Arms crossed as he studied the young meta who was unconsciously singing the green furniture. Although he'd always hated that couch, so he couldn't exactly say it was a crime. The only crime there was the color itself.
"Language! There's a lady, bloody hell." The Australian griped irritably, Samantha blinked once, twice, three times and promptly slumped over from exhaustion once more.
What did I do to deserve this hell? She thought before succumbing once more to blissful unawareness.
AN:
So honestly I kinda hate this chapter. But I wanted to do a minor sort of filler...slash getting Samantha with the Rogues...slash just overall absurb. it's almost 1AM here...give a girl a break. haha.
What do ya'll think? Also naming goes as: Ignatius, Combustion, or Inferno. Let me know what ya'll think and we'll do a vote. ;)
Also, doing the Rogue's P.O.V. was ridiculously hard for me, I think by now I find Digger the most fun to write. haha
~D.R. Out
