Anomaly

By CorvidaeCorvusCorax

Chapter VI: Breaking and Entering

Victoria opened her eyes and stared at the clock. The neon green numbers told her it was only eleven thirty, and this was the seventh attempt at sleep the entire evening. Something was still bugging her. Maybe it was the attack on the White House and the fact that a mutant was behind the whole thing. Maybe it was the chat with Toad about mutant superiority, or maybe even the fact that she knew that Dr. Grey was miles away and was unable to talk to her.

Finally deciding to do something about this sleep issue, she rose from her bed as quietly as possible, hoping not to wake her roommates, and made a break for the hallway. She knew exactly what it was: The Ward Curse, the never ending quest for knowledge, which often attacked her at the beginning of the semester (she vaguely remembered reading through two advanced physics books that weren't even assigned, in one night).

However, this time, she knew exactly how to satisfy this hunger...and it was sleeping in the far end of the boys' dorms.

* * * *

Why didn't I tell Dr. Grey? Lucy wondered, staring at the ceiling, Why didn't I try harder to see? A million questions fluttered through her mind, but she only had the answer to one: What should I do now, seeing as the Bad Things haven't happened yet? The solution: Try to get everything on paper and show Victoria in the morning. Prepare, try to get ahead of the enemy. That's what her mother taught her. Being a precog was useful, if she could just see the right things.

She remembered when she first found out about her powers. She discovered, through trial and error, that she did have some sort of on/off switch, she just needed to be moving.

Silently, she opened the door to her room, notebook and pen in hand, desperate to see anything else. Hopefully that Logan guy Kitty told her about was asleep and wouldn't disturb her thoughts.

* * * *

Victoria had knocked twice before he opened the door. There he was, in only a pair of sweatpants with the X's on them, grumbling about the noise. He saw her, and blinked a couple times. She assumed that he was certain she'd never want to see him again, and she was certain she'd never want to see him again, either.

"Do you realize what time it is?" His accent was thick with sleep and he yawned to get his point across.

"Yes, I do, actually," She surprisingly sounded more awake than she should have.

"Then what do you want?"

"There are still some things I need to ask you," Victoria replied, confidently. He opened his mouth to say something, but she already knew what he was thinking, "No, they didn't put me up to this. I have an information addiction and I just need a little more information before I can sleep tonight."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" He was starting to get very annoyed with this girl, ironic, seeing as this was what he was trying to accomplish with her earlier that day.

"Probably would be better if I talked now," Victoria shrugged, holding up her pen and the file.

He mumbled something unintelligible and swung the door open all the way, "Come on in..."

A light was flicked on and she plopped down on the couch. He grabbed the shirt he had been wearing earlier and pulled it on quickly. He took the seat he occupied only twelve hours ago and yawned again, "So what were you saying about information addiction?"

"See, my great great grandfather was Thaddeus Ward, and he was one of the early mutants," Victoria explained.

"Right, you said somethin' 'bout him earlier, right?" Toad nodded.

"Yeah," Victoria nodded, "And he was a scientist. Only problem was that he wanted to know a lot about everything. He would stay up all night studying chemical reactions, then he'd spend all day analyzing physics and algebraic equations."

"Wow," Toad wasn't particularly interested, she noted.

"And ever since then, that one tiny flaw has been passed down through the generations," Victoria shrugged.

"And does little Lainey have a 'curse,' too, because one of you in here is enough," Toad stated.

"Lucy," Victoria corrected, "And yes, as a matter of fact, she does."

"Oh?"

"Déjà vu," Victoria said, "Her own ancestor, Dr. Penelope Lafayette was listed in Thaddeus' diaries as having chronic déjà vu as a result of her power."

"How many others have curses?"

"Well, there were four founders: Thaddeus Ward, Penelope Lafayette, Samuel Roderick, and Bertram St. Paul."

"What about their descendants?"

"Well, Dr. Barnabas is very energetic and can hardly sit still," Victoria recalled a time when she was new at WASI that Barnabas damn near propelled himself out of a chair because he was sitting too long, "He's electrokinetic, what Thaddeus called an Elemental, obviously due to their abilities to control elements..."

"I'm tired, not stupid, I know what it means."

"And Thaddeus once said Roderick was 'full of life with no interest in sharing,'" She remembered the phrase quite well, knowing that it applied to Mildred, "And as for Bertram St. Paul...Most of Thaddeus' later diaries were torched when the original building burned down. No one knows who his descendant is because there's nothing much known about him. Thaddeus mentioned him very early on, calling him a 'physical anomaly,' but not much else." She remained silent for a moment, like she was trying to piece everything together.

"That's a pretty rich history, isn't it?" He asked. It's not that she was boring him, it was just that she made it seem like it was more interesting than it really was.

"Right, and in the quest for knowledge, I want to ask you something..." She sighed and placed the file on the floor near her feet, "And feel free to say no," He gave her a strange look, "See, I can do more than just move things with my mind. If I touch certain things, I can see that object's past. And seeing as you want to go to sleep as much as I do, I was wondering if you'd let me use something of yours to see if I can get a memory out of it."

He blinked. This girl was obviously suffering from lack of sleep, because he didn't understand a word she said but she seemed to want to help him. How would touching something make her see what he went through?

"I mean, you were attacked by someone, wouldn't you want to know who it was?" She asked, "And like I said, you can say no...It would just be much harder to find out who did it."

Toad needed a moment. Could she really find out who did it? And if she did, would he be able to leave Xavier's once they got all the information they needed?

* * * *

Lucy tried as hard as she could, but she could only see the images from before flash in front of her eyes. No, nothing had changed, which meant that whatever was going to happen, would happen, there was no way to stop it.

No, focus more, Lucy told herself, closing her eyes and stopping to lean against a wood paneled wall. She looked down at her notebook. More scribbles of a shadow man and that green man from before. One had Victoria in it, but it wasn't anything new. If only she could see past what she already knew, she just had to keep trying.

Meanwhile, something behind her lurked in the darkness, seemingly not noticing the girl, as Lucy made her way through the labyrinth of halls.

* * * *

"So have you had a lot of memory black outs recently?" Victoria asked, recording notes in the file while he decided on whether or not he wanted her in his memories.

"Not since everything has healed...sort of," Toad shrugged.

"Do you remember what happened after the last black out?"

"I was here," His answers were short. He was nervous, she realized.

"And before that?"

"My memories were covered up."

"So that's a no," She scribbled something down on the papers, "Do you still have the clothes you were wearing the day you came here?"

He sighed, "Look, I'm only letting you do this so I can get some sleep, okay," He rose to his feet, "But I'll look. They might have been washed."

"Doesn't matter," Victoria replied, "As long as it was where something happened I can see it. I can't explain this power as well as my telekinesis, probably because it's much more powerful, but the point is that if you were wearing it when you were attacked, I might be able to see the attackers better than you could."

He grabbed what he assumed was the hooded sweatshirt he had been wearing and took a seat on the couch, "And this is gonna work?"

"Maybe," Victoria looked at him hopefully. She wanted to get out of here just as badly as he did, too bad he wasn't supposed to know that, otherwise they might have been friends. When she saw the scowl on his face, she cleared her throat, "I want to find out who did this, too. Maybe I can stop something Very Bad from happening, to all of us."

"Fine, here..." He held it out towards her.

As she made a grab for it, something made the two of them jump: A loud, pulsing scream—coming from the girls' dorms.

The duo jumped to their feet, dropping the sweatshirt (and the hopes of escaping the school within the week) behind them, and into the hallways.

Students were awake, alert, and running...but where? Before Toad could even figure out what was going on, Victoria made a run for the crowd, hoping to find Lucy.

* * * *

Lucy recognized that scream—it belonged to her friend and roommate Theresa! Something Very Bad was about to go down, but she needed to get to Victoria, and fast. Heading to where the students were running, she saw a few faces she just barely recognized.

This was not good. She felt like a little kid who got lost in the mall...No, she wasn't a little kid, she was Lucy Fournier—a hero. Shots were fired and she panicked. She just needed a place to hide, Victoria would come looking for her, she knew it. Until then, where would she hide?

* * * *

Victoria managed to find at least one person who could help her, "John!" She called, "John, you need to help me!" Finally the boy turned around. She stopped running when she reached him and tried to speak, though she could barely breathe, "John, I've gotta find Lucy, have you seen her?"

"Lucy?" He was honestly confused, but she didn't blame him, "Oh, that little blond girl..." More shots fired, in the distance, but the two still flinched, "Uh, I think I saw her heading for the library--"

Before John even finished the sentence, she was already off, "Hey!" He called after her, "Forget about her, just get out while you can!"

Victoria didn't stop to reply, "Not without Lucy!"

* * * *

Lucy saw the soldiers enter and was able to hide under one of the tables, she just hoped they weren't smart enough to look there. The library had been empty, which made her think that maybe they had followed her there.

Flashes appeared in front of her eyes again, this time it was something different, moving very quickly in her slight panic. Were these the Very Bad Men, and it would be all over as long as she stayed hidden? Something told her no, she had to get to Victoria before they got to her, too.

The soldiers were moving away from her and out toward the exit. Now would be the time to move, she decided.

Squeeeak... The chair echoed through the entire room. As if she had just painted a target on herself, the soldiers turned and aimed at her. Oh, crap, she knew it was a bad idea but did it anyway...

"Hey!" One man shouted. Lucy ducked for cover.

A girl, Kitty Pryde fell through the ceiling and landed not too far away from Lucy's hiding spot. The soldiers were distracted as Kitty ran through a soldier and out the door.

The men must've forgotten about her, but weren't leaving. Lucy would have to be extra quiet now, like on Christmas Eve when she'd try to sneak downstairs to see Santa Claus when she was a kid. Only, this was much worse than getting caught by her mother, these men were on a mission to kill.

* * * *

Victoria had completely forgotten that Toad was behind her until Kitty Pryde ran through the library doors (literally) and ran by them.

"That was different," Toad commented.

Victoria brushed it off, this wasn't a time for jokes. She needed to get Lucy and get out of the school while she could.

"Come on, she might be in here..." As Victoria reached for the door, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She glared at him, "What are you doing?"

"I should probably go first," He insisted.

"Right, you are the terrorist after all," She mumbled.

He didn't reach for the door, however. He went over to the wall next to it and climbed up onto the paneling, she watched in amazement. She did remember something in the files about the extent of his abilities, but she had never seen anything quite like this before.

Pushing the door open, he peeked in. He turned to her and gave her some kind of signal, then disappeared into the library. She stood in silence for a moment, intently listening for anything.

"What the—!" She heard a man's voice shout. Shots were fired again, and she ducked for cover, blocking her ears. Everything settled down and she rose to her feet.

She heard Toad talking, probably calling to her, but she must have lost her hearing from the gunfire. She peeked into the library and saw Toad, with his back to her, standing over numerous bodies. Well, he did insist on going first.

* * * *

Lucy saw him—the one from her visions, he had to be: The Very Bad Man. She looked in the direction of the exit, and was more than happy to see a familiar face, Victoria had come to rescue her, just like her visions said.

"'Tori!" Lucy shouted and ran out from under the table, passing the green man as quickly as she could. Victoria came in and greeted her with a tight hug, "That's him, the Bad Man—Get him!" Lucy hid behind the older student and pushed her toward the man.

But Victoria made no move to hurt him, "Victoria, what's wrong with you?! You're supposed to stop him!"

"Luce—" Victoria sputtered as the younger girl kept pushing her in the direction of Toad, "Lucy, stop it!"

"My visions showed him hurting us," Lucy reiterated, "You have to get him, now, while we can."

"What is she going on about?" Toad wasn't too sure about what she was talking about. Visions? This girl was a psychic, one who could see the future?

"I'm sorry, Toad," Victoria replied, then turned to Lucy, "Look, he's not the Bad Man, Luce. He just saved my life and yours. Would a bad person do that?"

Lucy looked thoughtful, "Yeah, but he could be—"

"Could be what, Lucy?!" Victoria was annoyed by this. Toad had just prevented her from going into a dangerous situation and losing her life to protect Lucy, and Lucy wasn't even listening to a word she said. Sure, Toad had insulted her and annoyed her, but they eventually had a decent friendship going in a short period of time.

"I'd hate to interrupt," Toad spoke up, finally, "We should probably get out of here before something else happens."

* * * *

Through the scope on his rifle, a soldier saw three people running towards the woods.

"Should I get them, too?" He asked.

A heavy hand was placed on his shoulder, he looked up to see another man, who wore a grin, looking out to where the three mutants disappeared into the forest surrounding the school, "No, we only came for Xavier's students. They'll be taken care of soon enough."