First Days
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I own neither the X-men Evolution or Alien Resurrection franchises. The name Lydexter and the Asylum for Troubled Teens I borrowed from Carmine's fanfic, Memories of Days Gone By in the Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego section.
~ ~ ~ ~
"So what you're saying is I can read people's minds? That's telekinesis?" Daryl Ayden asked Jean Grey as they sat in the mansion's large study.
"Yes, and its called telepathy. It means you can sense emotions, thoughts, probe minds, and speak with your mind." Jean replied, jotting something down on a clipboard.
"Whoa. And what's telekinesis?" Daryl asked.
Jean, using a bit of concentration and almost no effort managed to pull the dictionary from a nearby bookshelf, "Telekinesis – The ability to move objects with one's mind. We already know you're telepathic Daryl, let's see if you're telekinetic, try to move something in this room." Jean said.
Daryl pointed to a flowerpot, "Fair enough, now concentrate on it, say make it hang above the table for as long as you can." Jean said.
"Okay, I got it." Daryl said, grunting and holding his temples after a few seconds from exertion, "Damn that hurts, can't hold much longer…."
The flowerpot struck the marble floor before Daryl could recover control or Jean could catch it. "Not bad for your first attempt." Jean said.
"What do you mean, that wasn't even a few feet off the table." Daryl said.
"Daryl, remember, you've only been here a couple of days. It takes practice." Jean said.
"How's Marty doing?" Daryl asked. Jean looked at her clipboard, "Seems like he's doing his evaluations too."
~ ~ ~ ~
"I can't see him at all." Kitty Pryde said, scanning over the section of the wall and a small copse of trees near the main gate.
"That's the idea, half pint." Wolverine said, walking along, sniffing the air, "And if he remembered his lesson, he's supposed to camouflage his scent too. How are we for time."
"Since we started, thirty seven minutes." Kitty replied.
"Ten minutes better than the last time, and over thirty better than the first. I hope he at least remembered to keep moving and move judiciously." Wolverine replied.
"Well, I wonder where he is and…whoa!" Kitty said, tripping over something. What she had tripped over, she didn't see, it just looked like she had walked over a patch of the lawn. Wait a minute, was that a shimmer of movement and was the grass shuffling as if someone was crawling on top of it?
"Gotcha!" Wolverine said, "Exercise over, bub."
Nace stood up and shimmered into view. Standing there in his newly issued jumpsuit, Martin Nace said, "How'd I do?"
"Time, half-pint." Kitty said.
"Thirty seven minutes and fifteen seconds, including me tripping over you." Kitty replied.
"What were you doing lying out in the open where you stand a greater chance of discovery?" Wolverine asked.
"Easy, I was hiding where no one would think to look." Nace replied.
"Do it again, and remember that last lecture I gave you on camouflage." Wolverine replied, "Dinner time's not for another two hours."
~ ~ ~ ~
Daryl Ayden dug hungrily into the meal on his plate, "Who'd have thought that telekinesis was that taxing?" he said.
"Like anything it uses up energy, you're not used to it just yet, so understandably you're tired." Jean said.
"You think that's tiring, try having Mr. Logan hunting you across the grounds and lying still for long periods of time." Nace replied from across the table.
"Oh yeah, try lifting objects by just thinking about them, it's harder than it looks. I've still got the details of that flowerpot permanently etched into my mind from concentrating so hard on it." Daryl replied.
Kitty Pryde, sitting beside Nace, giggled lightly, "What's so funny?" Nace asked.
"You should have, like, seen him try to hide in the pool." Kitty said.
"So sue me, I forgot that while I was invisible, the leaves and dirt on me don't stay invisible." Nace replied.
"Wolverine could, like, see that a mile away." Kitty replied. Nace joined in the laughing.
"If I hadn't been that careless, he wouldn't have seen me at all, or smelled me for that matter as long as I remained motionless." Nace replied.
"Well you guys will get your first Danger Room session this weekend." Scott Summers added.
"What's the Danger Room?" Nace asked.
"You'll see." Kurt said, teleporting behind Nace who got so startled that he grabbed Kurt's collar. However, instead of a collar his hand came away with a tuft of blue fur.
"What the hell!?" Nace shouted.
"Kurt's external appearance is not what it appears to be, but in some ways he's just like you, learning about his gifts and how to best use them." Professor Xavier replied.
"This is unreal." Nace said, mystified yet strangely compelled by the reality of all this.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Team One, you're a go." Came the call over the comm link.
Team One consisted of Nace, Kitty, Evan and Rogue. Nightcrawler, Scott, Jean, and Daryl made up Team Two. This was a simulated rescue of a captured mutant, Storm in this case.
"Guards," Kitty said, "there are too many of them."
"We need to distract them somehow, but how?" Rogue said.
"I have no idea," Nace said, "But I bet I could slip by them."
To prove his point, Nace cloaked himself, "Out of sight, out of mind."
"What about those guard dogs, they may not see you but they'll smell you." Kitty said.
"I'll draw them away." Evan said, getting onto his skateboard and pushing off a strip of concrete.
"Evan, wait!" Kitty shouted.
"Now we need to get someone to take care of those remaining guards, I'll take the one's furthest from the bushes." Nace said, decloaking.
"And ah'll handle those other two rent-a-cops." Rogue added.
"That leaves you to phase through that fence and let us in." Nace said.
"Right." Kitty said, "Team Two, team one in position."
"Roger that." Scott's voice came over the comm link.
With that, Nace cloaked again and came running up to a guard. With deliberate caution and deceptive slowness, he took the guard's stun gun and touched it to him. The guard fell forward, stunned. Nace spoke into his own comm link, "Guard down."
Rogue had just knocked out the other through simple touch, "Oh great, I hope I don't start growing a gut because of this."
"Kitty, go ahead." Nace said.
She opened the gate after phasing through it to let the others in. "We're in."
"Good, now start seeing what you can do to confuse security." Scott said.
Nace heard the order, cloaked, and started setting of motion sensors farthest from the building they were inserting the other team into.
"You're a go." Nace said.
Team Two began their mission, Nightcrawler teleported Scott into the main cellblock as Jean levitated the down, with Daryl as backup. Suddenly a telepathic burst hit both of them hard and Scott and Nightcrawler plummeted, the pair only being spared serious injury by Kurt teleporting again.
Meanwhile, Nace saw a stealthy shape move by. Standing still, while cloaked, he didn't think that the shadowy figure had seen him. That was until he was tagged with the stun gun, "You're out." Wolverine's gruff voice echoed.
"Mission failed." The Danger Room computer announced.
"Very well planned, Scott, but I'm afraid you forgot the cardinal rule…" Xavier said.
"Always expect the unexpected." Scott replied.
"Precisely." Xavier said.
~ ~ ~ ~
The dark haired woman blew lightly across her palm and the substance on her palm glinted and sparkled in the light. The little gray-eyed boy smiled and clapped his hands with delight.
"Wow mom, how'd you do that?" the six-year-old Martin Nace said.
"It's called optics, honey, I'll show you something else." The woman took a piece of white cardboard with two strings running through it, the drawing of a bird on one side and of a cage on the other. She spun the strings in such a way that it appeared the bird flew into the cage and back out again.
"Can I play with it mom?" the kid asked.
"It's for you hon." The mother said, giving her child a kiss on the forehead, "Now run along, the school bus will be here any minute."
Ten years later Nace absently took the little toy from his pocket and again played with it. "That's neat. How did you, like, do that?" Kitty Pryde asked.
"My mother taught me about optics when I was young. This was her way of teaching me whenever I asked questions, she'd take me out and show me what I was talking about." Nace replied.
"You really must miss her." Kitty said.
"It's been ten years, I've almost grown used to it." Nace replied.
Kitty didn't ask what had happened to Nace's mother, because despite the laconic tone of voice, she could feel an intense feeling of bitterness and loss. Why wasn't Nace letting anyone get close to him? He was friendly enough, but it was almost as if he had an inner core he didn't want anyone knowing about.
Kitty and the others as well came to the conclusion that Nace was just new here, and that he would probably open up sooner so it was probably best to let him be. They hoped he would open up at some point and not be an island unto himself as he was apparently doing…
Author's Note/Disclaimer: I own neither the X-men Evolution or Alien Resurrection franchises. The name Lydexter and the Asylum for Troubled Teens I borrowed from Carmine's fanfic, Memories of Days Gone By in the Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego section.
~ ~ ~ ~
"So what you're saying is I can read people's minds? That's telekinesis?" Daryl Ayden asked Jean Grey as they sat in the mansion's large study.
"Yes, and its called telepathy. It means you can sense emotions, thoughts, probe minds, and speak with your mind." Jean replied, jotting something down on a clipboard.
"Whoa. And what's telekinesis?" Daryl asked.
Jean, using a bit of concentration and almost no effort managed to pull the dictionary from a nearby bookshelf, "Telekinesis – The ability to move objects with one's mind. We already know you're telepathic Daryl, let's see if you're telekinetic, try to move something in this room." Jean said.
Daryl pointed to a flowerpot, "Fair enough, now concentrate on it, say make it hang above the table for as long as you can." Jean said.
"Okay, I got it." Daryl said, grunting and holding his temples after a few seconds from exertion, "Damn that hurts, can't hold much longer…."
The flowerpot struck the marble floor before Daryl could recover control or Jean could catch it. "Not bad for your first attempt." Jean said.
"What do you mean, that wasn't even a few feet off the table." Daryl said.
"Daryl, remember, you've only been here a couple of days. It takes practice." Jean said.
"How's Marty doing?" Daryl asked. Jean looked at her clipboard, "Seems like he's doing his evaluations too."
~ ~ ~ ~
"I can't see him at all." Kitty Pryde said, scanning over the section of the wall and a small copse of trees near the main gate.
"That's the idea, half pint." Wolverine said, walking along, sniffing the air, "And if he remembered his lesson, he's supposed to camouflage his scent too. How are we for time."
"Since we started, thirty seven minutes." Kitty replied.
"Ten minutes better than the last time, and over thirty better than the first. I hope he at least remembered to keep moving and move judiciously." Wolverine replied.
"Well, I wonder where he is and…whoa!" Kitty said, tripping over something. What she had tripped over, she didn't see, it just looked like she had walked over a patch of the lawn. Wait a minute, was that a shimmer of movement and was the grass shuffling as if someone was crawling on top of it?
"Gotcha!" Wolverine said, "Exercise over, bub."
Nace stood up and shimmered into view. Standing there in his newly issued jumpsuit, Martin Nace said, "How'd I do?"
"Time, half-pint." Kitty said.
"Thirty seven minutes and fifteen seconds, including me tripping over you." Kitty replied.
"What were you doing lying out in the open where you stand a greater chance of discovery?" Wolverine asked.
"Easy, I was hiding where no one would think to look." Nace replied.
"Do it again, and remember that last lecture I gave you on camouflage." Wolverine replied, "Dinner time's not for another two hours."
~ ~ ~ ~
Daryl Ayden dug hungrily into the meal on his plate, "Who'd have thought that telekinesis was that taxing?" he said.
"Like anything it uses up energy, you're not used to it just yet, so understandably you're tired." Jean said.
"You think that's tiring, try having Mr. Logan hunting you across the grounds and lying still for long periods of time." Nace replied from across the table.
"Oh yeah, try lifting objects by just thinking about them, it's harder than it looks. I've still got the details of that flowerpot permanently etched into my mind from concentrating so hard on it." Daryl replied.
Kitty Pryde, sitting beside Nace, giggled lightly, "What's so funny?" Nace asked.
"You should have, like, seen him try to hide in the pool." Kitty said.
"So sue me, I forgot that while I was invisible, the leaves and dirt on me don't stay invisible." Nace replied.
"Wolverine could, like, see that a mile away." Kitty replied. Nace joined in the laughing.
"If I hadn't been that careless, he wouldn't have seen me at all, or smelled me for that matter as long as I remained motionless." Nace replied.
"Well you guys will get your first Danger Room session this weekend." Scott Summers added.
"What's the Danger Room?" Nace asked.
"You'll see." Kurt said, teleporting behind Nace who got so startled that he grabbed Kurt's collar. However, instead of a collar his hand came away with a tuft of blue fur.
"What the hell!?" Nace shouted.
"Kurt's external appearance is not what it appears to be, but in some ways he's just like you, learning about his gifts and how to best use them." Professor Xavier replied.
"This is unreal." Nace said, mystified yet strangely compelled by the reality of all this.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Team One, you're a go." Came the call over the comm link.
Team One consisted of Nace, Kitty, Evan and Rogue. Nightcrawler, Scott, Jean, and Daryl made up Team Two. This was a simulated rescue of a captured mutant, Storm in this case.
"Guards," Kitty said, "there are too many of them."
"We need to distract them somehow, but how?" Rogue said.
"I have no idea," Nace said, "But I bet I could slip by them."
To prove his point, Nace cloaked himself, "Out of sight, out of mind."
"What about those guard dogs, they may not see you but they'll smell you." Kitty said.
"I'll draw them away." Evan said, getting onto his skateboard and pushing off a strip of concrete.
"Evan, wait!" Kitty shouted.
"Now we need to get someone to take care of those remaining guards, I'll take the one's furthest from the bushes." Nace said, decloaking.
"And ah'll handle those other two rent-a-cops." Rogue added.
"That leaves you to phase through that fence and let us in." Nace said.
"Right." Kitty said, "Team Two, team one in position."
"Roger that." Scott's voice came over the comm link.
With that, Nace cloaked again and came running up to a guard. With deliberate caution and deceptive slowness, he took the guard's stun gun and touched it to him. The guard fell forward, stunned. Nace spoke into his own comm link, "Guard down."
Rogue had just knocked out the other through simple touch, "Oh great, I hope I don't start growing a gut because of this."
"Kitty, go ahead." Nace said.
She opened the gate after phasing through it to let the others in. "We're in."
"Good, now start seeing what you can do to confuse security." Scott said.
Nace heard the order, cloaked, and started setting of motion sensors farthest from the building they were inserting the other team into.
"You're a go." Nace said.
Team Two began their mission, Nightcrawler teleported Scott into the main cellblock as Jean levitated the down, with Daryl as backup. Suddenly a telepathic burst hit both of them hard and Scott and Nightcrawler plummeted, the pair only being spared serious injury by Kurt teleporting again.
Meanwhile, Nace saw a stealthy shape move by. Standing still, while cloaked, he didn't think that the shadowy figure had seen him. That was until he was tagged with the stun gun, "You're out." Wolverine's gruff voice echoed.
"Mission failed." The Danger Room computer announced.
"Very well planned, Scott, but I'm afraid you forgot the cardinal rule…" Xavier said.
"Always expect the unexpected." Scott replied.
"Precisely." Xavier said.
~ ~ ~ ~
The dark haired woman blew lightly across her palm and the substance on her palm glinted and sparkled in the light. The little gray-eyed boy smiled and clapped his hands with delight.
"Wow mom, how'd you do that?" the six-year-old Martin Nace said.
"It's called optics, honey, I'll show you something else." The woman took a piece of white cardboard with two strings running through it, the drawing of a bird on one side and of a cage on the other. She spun the strings in such a way that it appeared the bird flew into the cage and back out again.
"Can I play with it mom?" the kid asked.
"It's for you hon." The mother said, giving her child a kiss on the forehead, "Now run along, the school bus will be here any minute."
Ten years later Nace absently took the little toy from his pocket and again played with it. "That's neat. How did you, like, do that?" Kitty Pryde asked.
"My mother taught me about optics when I was young. This was her way of teaching me whenever I asked questions, she'd take me out and show me what I was talking about." Nace replied.
"You really must miss her." Kitty said.
"It's been ten years, I've almost grown used to it." Nace replied.
Kitty didn't ask what had happened to Nace's mother, because despite the laconic tone of voice, she could feel an intense feeling of bitterness and loss. Why wasn't Nace letting anyone get close to him? He was friendly enough, but it was almost as if he had an inner core he didn't want anyone knowing about.
Kitty and the others as well came to the conclusion that Nace was just new here, and that he would probably open up sooner so it was probably best to let him be. They hoped he would open up at some point and not be an island unto himself as he was apparently doing…