Chapter 3: Pretend to be Missing
Walking out of Porkbelly Junior High, Sissy Blakely heads back to her house leisurely, enjoying the warm air of spring. The thirteen year old girl has blonde, flowing hair in a low ponytail, an unusual red bolt of lightning in the front, blue eyes, and pink lips with many ear piercings and bracelets. She wears a checkered headband, a black shirt and choker, blue jeans with a checkered skirt on top with two white belts, and black and white checkered shoes.
Having just aced a test of her hardest subject, the young teen is feeling pretty proud. Schoolmates quickly pass her, some running, some skateboarding, all ignoring the strange girl but Sissy is used to it. She starts humming a song in her head, one that at some time animals will crowd her and listen. Thank goodness for her none came.
The teen makes it to the neighborhood and soon is on the steps of her house, when the pierced ears find a new noise. Sirens echo all over, and Sissy turns to the direction of her ol' frenemy, Johnny Test. She starts walking toward the sounds at a fast pace and soon finds doctors, police force, and firefighters with yellow tape surrounding, what appears to be, a burnt down house. But not just any house.
Isn't that Test's house? she thinks. The teen walks to the nearest police officer and asks, "What happened here?"
"We don't know. Best guess is there was an explosion."
"Was anyone in it?"
"We found two dead civilians. Probably a married couple."
The young teen looks toward the ambulance and sees two grey bags covering something. Sissy shivers at what could be underneath, but then realizes something. "But what about their children?"
"Children?"
"Yeah. I have a friend, or more of an acquaintance, that lived here, and he has two sisters."
"Sorry kid, but we didn't find any children. Maybe they were having a slumber party or something like that. Oh, I wonder how they'll react when they hear the devastating news." He walks back to the scene and Sissy searches around the area. Then something again catches her ears. A small sound barely audible to the normal ear, but she heard it thanks to her super keen ears, the teen turns to a bush a while away from the destroyed house. Sissy walks away and goes wide around the area, so the emergency force doesn't get suspicious, then runs toward the small forest. She searches through for a short while and finds a familiar flaming-haired boy struggling. "Test?"
He doesn't seem to have heard her but continues with great effort to get up. One time, his hand bursts into flames and the teen girl jumps back. "Test, are you okay?"
Again, he ignores her and makes one last effort, then collapse on the ground, passed out. Sissy continues to stare at the boy and, for the first time, is confused. She thought of taking him to the doctors, but remembers the little outburst of fire on him, as well as wondering why it didn't hurt him. Then it dawned to her that Johnny, the boy that she always beat up and fought against, could be like her.
"Oh, I hope I don't regret this. What am I saying? I'm regretting it already." Sissy wraps her arms around Johnny's chest and drags him through the small woods, taking the long way to avoid the press that has just arrived. "Man, why does he weigh a ton?"
Victor runs through the woods of Canada, then stops to look at his wrist communicator. He calls his boss and says, "Uh, Mr. Conner?"
"Did you get the children?" the scientist asks.
"Eh, not really."
"Victor, what part of 'Get the children' did you not understand!"
"I know, but the plan can still work, just slightly modified."
Still annoyed, Conner asks, "How modified?"
Victor answers, "Instead of rushing to rescue her siblings, she'll instead want vengeance for her family's death. That modification."
Dr. Conner relaxes. "Okay, that is still good. Come back to base and-"
"I'm not coming back. Not yet." The Sabretooth interrupts. "If she's anything like Logan, then Mary will come looking for me, despite promising to give her something that will help. But after battling and losing, then she'll listen. I promise you that."
"Okay. You're lucky I'm a patient man, Victor. While the girl searches, I want you to get another mutant."
"Give me the coordinates and I'll be there."
Mary moans and opens her eyes, seeing a blurry of brown, gray, and green all around. She yawns, rubs her eyes to get the crust out, then sits up and checks at her surroundings again. Foliage surrounds the teen, and she wonders how she got into the forest, until the troubled and sorrow past comes crashing into her mind. She gasps and closes her eyes tightly, fresh tears forming.
Victor. Uncle. Bone claws. Fire. Explosion. Death.
Logan. Who is he? Mary thinks. She takes quick gasps as she tries to keep from crying again. After getting control over herself, the teen raises her hands and lets the bone claws shoot out from her fist. She raises a finger at the tip and finds that it's super sharp when it pricked her finger. Mary checks the small gash and finds that no blood is seeping out, and heals fast like back at the lab. She finds it curious, as well as a little freaky, then rips the shredded sleeve of her lab coat, exposing her arm. After elevating the talons above her arm, The teen plunges them in, taking a sharp intake. The teen takes them out and watches as the holes close up and leaves smooth skin, not a scar in sight. She shakily asks herself, "What am I?"
The redhead thinks long and hard on it until she finds a word that explains everything. Mutant. She finds that confusing, considering Mary and her now deceased sister never tested on each other.
"Maybe this Logan can help me understand my mutation. Who knows, maybe he's a mutant, too."
A yawn is heard behind her and Mary exposes her claws, quickly twisting around. The teen gasps as the large brown dog gets up and stretches awake. She retracts the talons and whispers, "Dukey?"
"Huh? Mary?"
The teen smiles for the first time and rushes to hug the dog, who freezes at the action. More tears fall out and patterns the fur, but these are from happiness. She starts to cry over the pet's shoulders, and an unsure Dukey hesitantly starts patting her back, stuttering, "Um, its okay, Mary. Just…why don't you let it out?"
She stays like that for another number of minutes, letting out some more of her depression. The redhead finally let's go of Dukey with the smile still on her face.
"Are you okay?" Dukey asks.
She nods her head and the pet continues. "Okay. Now what exactly happened back there? How come I find the house in ruins and mom dead on a pile of-" He stops his rant, noticing the loss of her smile and the tears again. "You're just full of tears today, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Mary finally talks, her voice a little hoarse.
"Do you mind explaining to me what happened now?"
She takes another slow breath then starts her story, from her searching for pictures to the last words of Lila Test. Around the end, her voice cracks with emotions at the remembrance of her dead sister and dying mother, but she makes it through the story and Dukey has his mouth agape. "After all these years…so this, Victor guy said Lila and Hugh aren't your parents?"
"Mm-hmm."
"And you and Johnny fought back with bone claws and fire?"
Mary shows him her hand and shoots out her claws. The dog's eyes widen from the movement, and ask, "So, did you get that from an experiment of yours?"
"That's what confuses me. I was never in an experiment that gives you claws like these." She retracts her weapons while Dukey starts to freak out. "So, we now have a maniac, who says he's your uncle, after us and we have no home or known family to go, with only a name to help us!"
"Yeah, that about sums it up."
The pet then starts running around while screaming his head off. Mary watches her friend freak out around the forest, the sight bringing another smile to her face. His berserk lasts about thirty minutes and he finally calms down to say, "I'm better now. So I guess we'll search for this Logan now and-"
"No."
After freezing, Dukey turns to the teen and asks, "What?"
"First, I want to find Victor. When I do," She raises a clenched fist, shooting out the claws. "I'm gonna kill him."
He senses the anger inside the genius and says, "You are really scaring me now."
Few Days Later...
Johnny moans as he starts to regain conscious, and a mega headache erupts in his head like a volcano. "Ooohhh." he groans from pain. The young teen finally opens his eyes and is momentarily blinded by a white orange color everywhere, but after blinking a few times, he can finally get a good glimpse of where he is. Sunlight pours through the cracks of the blinds and lights the small brown room, as well as a brown desk with a computer and a printer, and a tiled bathroom. "Uhhnn, where am I?" he asks himself.
On top of his body is a well designed quilt, one that looks like should belong to a castle, and the boy moves it away and starts to climb out of bed. Immediately, his stomach explodes in unbearable hunger and Johnny collapse on the soft carpet. "Oh great. A mega headache and now hunger unimaginable. What else could go…I'm not gonna finish that." The firehead places his palms onto the brown wall and uses it to get to his feet, then walks along it to the door out. He travels across the hall and finally sees the stairs, but first checks on his stability without the wall for support. The teen gets really dizzy from hunger, but stays on his feet, then slowly walks downstairs and toward, what he guesses, the kitchen. His hand hovers toward the handle of the fridge and pulls it open to reveal a motherload of food everywhere, and he starts shoving it into his starving stomach. The food helps him regain his strength and in about half a minute, the firehead has cleared about half of the fridge when a voice calls, "Test?"
He looks over the fridge door with pizza hanging in his mouth and sees Sissy at the doorway. Johnny's reaction is to spit out the pizza and shout, "Sissy?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing here?"
"This is my house."
"Well, how'd I get here? All I remember is…" His headache explodes again and he closes his eyes, grimacing in pain. Sissy walks over and asks, "Is something wrong?"
"Just a headache. Nothing big."
"You sure? Because I have some headache pills in the bathroom cupboard."
"No no, I'll be fine. Where's the TV?"
"Turn right from the kitchen." She answers, pointing at the doorway.
"Thanks." The young teen walks toward the living room after snatching another pizza. Sissy wonders if she should get the pills, when the teen realizes what she's thinking about. Am I actually giving Test sympathy? What is wrong with me? The only reason I took him to my home was because…because…
A small voice in the back of her head says, Because you two have a connection.
What! Ugh, no I don't! Sissy shouts.
Of course you do. You saw his hands light up with fire, not burning him at all. You think he's like you.
"He is nothing like me!" Sissy whispers, clutching her head. The kitchen lights blow explodes suddenly, and she covers her head in reaction, then sighing in frustration. After cleaning up the shattered glass, the young girl walks to the TV room to find it blaring from a cartoon, and Johnny snoring on the couch. Her eye twitches as she thinks, Are you kidding? He slept for days before and he still sleepy? The girl walks toward him and slaps his face, shocking him awake. "What was that for?"
"I want answers, Test."
"Like what? The answers to that history test tomorrow?"
Confused, Sissy corrects him, "We already did the test. Just for the record, aced it."
"Wait, what? But…how long was I out?" he asks, scared.
"Um, five days?"
"What!?" he screams, getting to his feet and scaring Sissy. "I was knocked out for almost a week!?"
"Y-yes?"
Johnny rubs his eyes with one hand, shuddering. He quickly grabs the controller and switches it to the news, where Hank Anchorman, a graying haired man wearing a blue suit, brown jeans, and a red tie, is waiting. "Hank Anchorman here to tell you that the missing children have yet to be found. Ever since the discovery of the destroyed house and deceased Lila and Hugh Test, neighbors and friends search for their children, Johnny, Mary, and Susan Test. After five days, many have given up, and we have concluded that they are dead. Wherever they are, I hope they're in a happy place."
The controller drops from Johnny's hand as he soaks in the information. Sissy starts to walk to him, but stops, wondering what to do
With wobbly legs, the firehead falls back on the couch with his head in his hands. "Mom and dad dead. Sisters missing, probably dead as well. Why?" he whispers the last.
Sissy, very unsure of herself, sits next to him and hesitantly pats his back reassuringly. What is wrong with me?
Love.
Shut up! "Um, do you mind explaining what happened, Test?"
He removes his hands and starts, "Five days ago, a man broke into my house and grabbed Susan and my necks, about to kill us."
"So, it was a murderer?"
He looks at the teen, agitated, and says, "Let me finish."
"Right. Sorry."
"Anyway, he was about to snap our necks with his overlong nails, when my mom and Mary ran in and stopped him. My mom took out these swords she had and attack the man, but he soon had her in his death grip. When he was about to kill Lila, Mary attacked him with these…claws that extended from her fist, and then I helped with…this." He lifts up a hand and lets it burst into flames. Sissy jumps back again, and Johnny smirks at her shock. She collects her composure and says, "Wasn't that funny."
"On you, it was."
"So, anything else?" the teen quickly asks, changing the subject.
After extinguishing his hand, he continues, "Well, during the battle, a container started leaking kerosene, and the man knocked me to it. My hands were still lit and I wasn't paying attention where I swung it. The fire touched the kerosene, and it…you can figure the rest out." He finishes, turning back to the floor, looking grim again.
"So…it was partly your fault?"
"Do not rub it in." he dangerously warned.
She shuts her mouth and sits down next to him again.
"What's unnerving about the guy was that he said he was our uncle and our real father sent us here to protect us."
"Real father?" Sissy repeats. "You mean Lila and Hugh aren't your actual parents?"
"No."
The teen girl looks away from the grief-stricken boy, soaking in the news. I thought I had it bad. I just lost my father. He lost everything in his life. Oh man, what should I do?
After a moment of silence, except for the blaring of the TV, she asks, "So what are you going to do, Test?"
He sighs and, raising his head, asks, "You don't…mind me staying here…do you?"
Sissy twists her head, slightly surprised at his request, and Johnny continues, "Until I come up with a plan."
She thinks about it for a while, and Johnny lowers his head again, expecting her answer.
"Sure."
His head shoots up in shock and turns to see a smiling Sissy. "You can stay."
The firehead gets over his shock and grins. "So, underneath all that Sissy-ness, there's a softer side."
"Yeah, just don't get used to it." She looks at the television and asks, "So what are you going to do about the press?"
"I'm dead, remember?" he repeats, grinning wider. "So, let's make sure it stays like that."
Mary wakes up from her fifth day of sleeping in the forest and starts searching for breakfast. After a few seconds of searching, she spots a berry bush full of luscious red berries and starts picking her fill. When the redhead is done with her breakfast, she takes off her shredded lab coat and uses it to carry the rest of the berries to Dukey, who just woke up.
Soon, they continue travelling through the forest for any sign of human life anywhere. Dukey constantly sniffs the ground while Mary looks through the many trees and listens for anything that could help. Around noon, a bear walks up and drops some fish, giving them their lunch. Thanks to Dukey, he explained everything to an animal, which have spread the word throughout the forest like wildfire. Dukey thanks the bear as Mary starts a fire, cooking the fish. While they eat, the teen thinks of the life-changing event again, then looks down at her hand, shooting out her claws.
"Even after five days, that is still creepy. Doesn't it hurt when you extend them?" Dukey asks.
"Every time." she sighs.
The dog looks at his friend and sees changes in the redhead, both appearance and mind. The wind has made some of her hair on the sides stick up slightly; her curls on the bottom of her hair have spread out; the canines seem to have grown a little; and her eyes lost all the sweetness from before to one that holds grief, rage, and vengeance. All together, it really spooks Dukey.
"Mary, how can you stay calm?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as a dog, I can sense your emotions as well as see them in your eyes, so how can you stay calm when there's a boiling storm inside you?"
"I don't know. I just do."
After putting out the fire, the duo continue to search for a city, town, or even a house to ask where they are or if they heard of Victor, but they only find grass, animals, and trees everywhere for the past five days. Dukey suggest they take a break next to a pond, and while the friend watches the ducks and bugs float across, Mary closes her eyes and listens.
Two days ago, she found out about her heightened sense of hearing, so she's been trying to pick up anything useful.
Dukey watches her seemingly meditate, breathing in and out silently. He wants to ask what she's doing, but is afraid that he'll interrupt something important to her. Maybe that's how she keeps calm. Meditates.
The redhead listens to the chirps of birds, the creaks of branches, the scuttle of bugs, and the honking of cars. Wait, cars? She opens her eyes and turns to the new sound, catching Dukey's attention. "Is there something wrong, Mary?"
She gets up and starts walking toward the sound, hoping for a town, and the talking dog follows her curiously. "Mary, please tell me something."
"I think I hear a town."
"Really? I don't hear anything. You must be hearing things."
"No I'm not."
As the sound gets louder, the teen quickens her pace until she's running with Dukey on all four at her heels. She then stops and looks ahead, grinning blissfully. "Told ya I heard a town."
"Yeah. A rundown town." Dukey lets down.
"Hey. It's a town with people in it. I'm fine with that." She starts to walk into town until the pet pulls her back. "It may be rundown but even they would be a little too suspicious about a girl and dog who walks out of a forest, and the girl wearing torn-up clothing."
The redhead looks down and sees that the dog is right. Her shirt has holes in many places, luckily the top part is okay, her lab coat is shredded, and her jeans have become shorts. "Then what should we do?"
"You don't have any money on you, do you?"
"Well yeah, but I want to save that for transportation and food."
"Fair enough. Follow me." He starts walking along the forest quietly, and Mary asks, "Where are you going?"
"To get some clothes."
"You mean stealing, right?"
"You have a better idea?"
Mary rolls her eyes as she follows the dog. Soon, they find the a closed clothing store across the street, and after checking the streets, runs toward the alley next to the shop, where a back door is. "How do we get in?" Mary asks.
"I was hoping you had one."
"Alright." She walks in front of the door and kicks it open, blasting the lock apart and swinging the door loose. The redhead walks in the storage room full of boxes, followed by Dukey. "Didn't that hurt your foot?"
"Kinda, but it quickly went away. Like all my injuries."
The dog shrugs as they enter the actual store and find clothing hanging everywhere. They gather up some clothes and head into the changing room.
Dukey walks out of the room, wearing a concert shirt, blue shorts with skate shoes, and a hat. He waits shortly for the redhead to come out, eating some mints on the counter. Soon, Mary opens the door, wearing a black gothic shirt, dark blue baggy jeans on top of brown cowboy boots. She also has a dark brown leather jacket and dark sunglasses, hiding the emotions of her eyes. Dukey examines her and asks, "You planning on getting a motorcycle?"
"Maybe." She answers, adjusting her jacket.
"Well, I have to say, that jacket suits you. I don't know why, though."
The teen takes off her ruined moon clip, letting her hair fall down lower, and throws the shredded clothes in the trashcan. She takes out the dog tags and wraps them around her neck, feeling a closer connection to her father, whoever he is. "Okay. Let's go."
The two exit the store and start walking around, finding a good place to hang out until later. They travel all around the small town, getting weird looks from everyone else, but they just ignore them. Probably saw stranger people over before. As they walk, Mary looks up and spots something and stops to read the sign, finding a bar. Dukey stops and turns around, finding his friend staring at the inn. "You know you're too young to drink, and drinking is bad."
"I know." She walks inside, and Dukey sighs in frustration before following. Inside, noise reaches a maximum as drunken men and women laugh, shout, and gossip all around. The travelling duo sits at the counter table where the bartender cleans a mug. He looks over at the mysterious girl and asks, "Water missy?"
"Sure." she mutters.
"And you, hairy guy?"
"You have any coffee?"
The bartender shakes his head.
"Then I'll just have what she's having."
He fills two glasses with tap water and slides them to the two. Mary grabs it and drinks it while listening to the chitchat everywhere, looking for anything useful. The TV on the wall snatches her attention, and listens more intently.
The news reporter says, "And on day five of the search, the police have not found any sign of the missing children. After the discovery of the obliterated house and murdered couples, the chief have put a prize for the discovery of either of these children." A picture of Mary, Susan, and Johnny appear, as well as the prize money amount. "And this week seems to be Disappearance Week because just two days ago, a young girl has vanished with only claw marks and murders as evidence…"
Mary grips the cup harder, creating cracks around her hand.
"Hey. You break it you buy it." the bartender calls.
She loosens her grip and asks, "What town is this?"
"Crowtown, California."
"Where in California?"
"Hmmm. I'd say somewhere around the top of the state."
Mary gets up, throwing money on the table before walking toward the door. Dukey gets up and follows, and both don't spot a man watching them while flipping a poker card around his hand, a hat low on his long hair. "Hmm."
If anyone has a better name than Taline, something that has a similar pow as Wolverine, please tell me.
~Art 'n Music~
