DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris. Althea Delgado/Wavedancer belongs to Red Witch, along with the Misfitverse this fic is set in. Everything else (minus Dracula) belongs to Marvel.

Chapter 9: Mutant Conversation

Evening fell on New York once again. Though often it was rare to find life amongst the darkened city, tonight was an exception. Scott Summers, Rina Logan, and Ororo Munroe prowled the streets in their search for Dracula.

"Keep a sharp eye out," Scott cautioned. "This is Dracula's time of night. He has the advantage."

Rina was at the head of the group, sniffing repeatedly, with Scott and Ororo trailing behind. As Logan's services were required to make certain that no harm came to the uncontrollably intangible Kitty Pryde, the process of elimination selected his young clone as a replacement. Though secretly hoping to find Derrick, Rina nevertheless sought out the vampire responsible for the recent attacks.

Rina paused, sniffing the air. A unique scent had entered her nostrils…a scent radiating with the emotions of anger and bitterness. Another smell, this one fainter, confirmed her hopeful suspicions…the smell of air heated by electricity.

She had not found Dracula, but instead had found Derrick.

"Stay here," Rina barked to Scott and Ororo, quickly bounding down an alley before either could catch up with her.

"Rina, wait!" Scott called.

"What has gotten into her?" Ororo asked.

"No idea," Scott said with a shake of his head. "We can't spend all night hunting her down, though. We'll have to contact the Professor and see if we can have him mentally scan for Dracula."

****

Derrick used an electrically-charged hand to guide his way through the dark alleys. He needed to find a place to sleep. That was all he wanted at the moment.

He sighed. Until he could find the special place he wanted, the place where he could just be alone, he had to use New York as his home. When would that day come?

A trash can behind him fell, and the mutant spun around, illuminating the alley. There, standing by the trash can, was none other than Rina Logan, alias X-23.

"Sorry," said Rina, "did I startle you?"

"Yeah," Derrick replied, "a little."

"You're Derrick, right?" Rina asked.

"I'm not joining the X-Men," Derrick growled, drawing back his hand as it surged with even more electricity. "Why don't you people just give up?!"

"Wait!" Rina cried. "I'm not going to ask you to stay at the Institute!"

Derrick hesitated, though he still kept his hands ready to cast out lightning.

"Is that so?" he said skeptically.

Rina nodded.

"I was told about what happened when you met the others," Rina explained. "Log…Wolverine said that you remind him of myself when he first met me."

"You're X-23," Derrick said simply, "Wolverine's clone."

"Just call me Rina," said Rina, shaking her head. "I didn't come here to recruit you against your will. I wanted to meet you, to see if you're…well…like me."

"That's all?" Derrick asked, slumping down against a wall.

"That's all," said Rina as she sat opposite Derrick. "So, what's your story?"

"You're better off not knowing," Derrick responded. "From what I've heard, your list of traumatic images is long enough."

"Try me," Rina said defiantly, crossing her arms.

Derrick looked Rina in the eye, and then turned his head away.

"I'm…not sure if I'm comfortable talking about it," Derrick said hesitantly.

"Look," said Rina, "over at the Institute, I've been going through therapy designed for mutants who survived experimentation. If there's anything I learned there, it's that you have to get your problems out into the open. Otherwise, it'll just keep eating at you.

Derrick stared at the ground for a moment. The memories were rushing through his mind. He squinted his eyes shut, the emotional pain tearing at him. Rina…was right.

"My life was generally all right up until I turned thirteen, which is when this happened," Derrick began, holding up one sparkling hand. "Then everything just shot downhill."

"Do you blame your powers for that?" Rina asked.

"Eh, not really," Derrick shrugged. "I don't see being a walking power line as a curse, but I don't see it as a gift, either. It's just something I have to live with, not something that makes me mope like a classic emo or jump for joy like a freaking caffeinated rabbit."

"How come you don't want to take a side?" Rina asked. "You're clearly not a coward, from what I've seen on the news, so why do you prefer staying out of any mutant-related conflict?"

"Given what I have to choose from, not choosing is the best choice," Derrick said. "No offense."

"None taken," Rina said with a slight smile. "I can actually understand where you're coming from."

"How?" Derrick asked.

"Let's just say that there's no such thing as a quiet day at the Institute," Rina groaned, shaking her head. "The Misfits are even worse, and Magneto happens to be evil. Honestly, I can't blame you for not wanting to pick a side."

"That's nice to know," Derrick sighed. "Now if only your uptight teammate Cyclops could even remotely grasp that concept."

"I'm actually good at the Danger Room sessions he has us do," Rina said.

"The what?" Derrick asked, having never heard of the Danger Room.

"Oh, it's a training room the X-Men have in the mansion," Rina explained. "It has weapons of all kinds in it. Wolverine and I are the best at it, unless we're on level 30. Then we have some trouble."

"Sounds like a barrel of fun," Derrick said with a roll of his eyes. "Since we got on the topic of you, how about we keep going?"

"Well, I…guess I can talk about it," Rina said slowly.

"Can't be worse than what I've gone through," Derrick shrugged.

"Okay…as you know, I was a clone of Wolverine," Rina began. "Hydra made me to be their weapon. They even put me through the same process that gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton…and gave me these."

A pair of claws sprouted from her hands, and a spike-like blade emerged from each of her feet.

"Ouch," Derrick winced.

"I was twelve when they did that," Rina continued. "All my life I've been trained to block out emotion, to be a hardened assassin. They kept me isolated from other people…put me through training all the time…no matter what."

She lowered her head.

"No one should have to go through that," Rina sighed.

"You're right," Derrick said. "But no one experimented on you," he added in a low voice.

Rina's head shot up, eyes wide.

"You were experimented on?!" she nearly roared.

"Yeah," Derrick said, still in a low voice. "It was a week after my powers showed up. It's…it's hard to forget…knives and needles…nearly getting dissected…no anesthetic…"

At this point, Rina looked as though she would explode from anger.

"I'd show you the scar," Derrick said, having managed to spring from his quieter tone, "but that would probably be too much for both of us."

"I'll say," Rina growled.

"What's worse is who did it," Derrick continued. "You'll never guess who the happy little psychos who tried to mutilate me are."

He paused, Rina staring at him. And then he said two words.

"My parents."

Rina's jaw dropped.

"Your parents tried to experiment on you?!" she cried.

"They worked for one of those classic army corporations," Derrick explained, though his calm and confident demeanor was gone, replaced by a cracking voice and a sudden interest in the ground, "the kind that use mutants as their biology projects. My parents were scientists who 'studied' mutants."

He glared hard at Rina.

"You can figure out the rest," he snarled.

"So…how did you escape?" Rina asked.

"My powers went crazy during the experiment," Derrick answered. "Everything was getting electrocuted…my parents, the machinery, and other mutants in the room. By the time everything died down…I was the only one who wasn't…dead. I've been afraid of fatally electrocuting someone ever since."

"So that's why you ran off after you shocked Wavedancer," Rina realized.

"I shocked her in the first place because…well, I'm hydrophobic," Derrick said. "I fell in a swimming pool when I was two. Nearly drowned. Funny thing is, my so-called parents actually cared about me back then."

He gave Rina a bitter smirk.

"Irony's a funny thing," he said.

"So…that's why you're so set against the Misfits?" Rina asked. "Because they work for the army?"

"No, it's just a fairly big reason," Derrick answered. "The main reasons are that G.I. Joe took the Brotherhood and brainwashed them."

"I've met G.I. Joe," Rina retorted. "They might be with the army, but they're not the type of people who do that."

"Not that I don't trust you, but I'll believe that when I see it," Derrick said.

"You actually trust me?" Rina asked, almost amused.

"Eh, you're all right," Derrick shrugged. "You're better than Cyclops or Storm, at least."

"They were actually with me before I found you," Rina said. "We were trying to track down…"

She paused, sniffing the air.

"What?" Derrick said.

"We're not alone," Rina growled, releasing her hand claws.

"So it would seem," a Greek-accented voice said from above them.

The pair looked up, and the vampire who attacked the shop owner crouched on a rooftop above them.

"The people seem to mistake me for a mutant," the vampire said.

"Are you?" Derrick asked.

"No," replied the creature, leaping down from the rooftop. "Just hungry."

The monstrous creature grinned, revealing his fangs.

"Wait, you're not Dracula!" Rina cried.

"You were expecting maybe Charlton Heston?" the vampire asked with a smirk.

"Dracula?" Derrick asked.

"Long story short, we met the real Dracula when he tried to date Storm," Rina explained.

"And I thought my life was weird," Derrick muttered.

"You're not the only one," Rina added.

"I have never drunk mutant blood before," the vampire said. "There's a first time for everything, I suppose."