Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men or Spider-Man, they belong to Marvel. I'd like to thank my friend Marcus for his help and support on this story.
The Rogue Symboite
By David Knight
Volume Two: Partnership
Chapter Six: New Beginnings
The next morning, as Peter blearily forced his eyes open, Rogue sitting up and allowing Jade to cover her body, they were greeted by a polite cough from outside their door.
"Ah, you're awake," Ezekial said, grinning slightly as he looked at the two of them. "How's things?"
"Oh, the usual," Peter shrugged, flexing his shoulders as he looked at the older man while Rogue stood up and stretched. "I mean, OK, we did just take out some spider-wasp thing in a freaky temple somehow or other, but hey; I was bitten by a radioactive spider and my DNA mutated, so I'm hardly in a position to say what's weird."
"P., for once can you just…" Ezekial began, before sighing and shaking his head before he folded his arms and looked resolutely at the younger man. "OK, I know you don't want to hear this, but pay attention, deal with it, because this is important."
"Huh?" Rogue said, looking inquiringly at him- not that Ezekial seemed to notice it; he just continued speaking as though Rogue wasn't even there.
"I know you're scientifically inclined," he continued, his arms folded as he looked at Peter, "and I know you don't want to believe that your powers are in any way totemistic in nature or origin. I get that. But the paranormal or the unexpected is in every aspect of life. Church, physics, metaphysics, crop circles, Thunder Gods, Sorcerers Supreme, out of body experiences, extra-dimensional travel, the soul, art, music, Gaia, big green - sometimes gray - guys who should've died in gamma bomb bursts but just got real strong instead."
Even as Rogue acknowledged most of his points, she failed to see the relevance of the Hulk in that equation; Doctor Banner's condition was weird, true, but it was still scientifically explicable…
And did this guy seriously mean to imply what she thought he was implying about Spidey's powers?
"You can't isolate yourself from the whole world and say none of it has anything to do with you just because that's the way you want it," Ezekial said, prompting Peter and Rogue to exchange glances and roll their eyes; she may not have spent much time with him, but Rogue knew that it was only the whole mystic aspect about his powers that was getting on Spider-Man's nerves rather than magic as a whole.
"Maybe the spider that bit you was intended for you alone, maybe it was sent, maybe it was operating in a larger context," Ezekial continued, now looking out of the hut's small window as he spoke. "That's a connection going in to something more, something bigger. Maybe the spider had nothing behind it at all, no meaning, no intent, no context, it just webbed its way into the wrong place at the wrong time. But that scientific event tapped into ideas and constructs and racial memories and powers that were here long before science showed up. The Ashanti have stories of a Spider-Man that go back centuries. You could look it up. You can't deny that, it's an historical fact, it-"
"A historical fact," Peter interrupted, smiling slightly at Ezekial as he interrupted the older man's rant.
"What?" Ezekial said, looking at Peter in confusion.
"It's An if you can't hear the H, it's A if you can," Peter explained casually, prompting a brief grin from Rogue as he sat there. "You know, an hour, A horse; it's a common mistake made by people who want to impress other people by-"
"Who's telling this story, me or you?" Ezekial roared, staring in frustration at Peter. "I'm trying to explain that one way or another, whether it was intended or you backed into it, you've tapped into something old, something important! Don't you have anything to say about that?"
Sitting there silently for a moment, Peter glanced around at the spiders gathered in his corner of the hut, looked at one that had just landed on his shoulder, and chuckled slightly.
"Bite me," he said to the spider, a smile on his face as he did so.
Ezekial groaned, and Rogue tried not to laugh at the sight before her; creepy as it was to see him surrounded by spiders, there was something kind of amusing about it.
"P…" Ezekial sighed. "All I'm saying is that you have to pay attention to what's been happening to you lately. If you try to deny what's going on, you just make yourself vulnerable to whatever comes at you next from the spider side of you. You're tying one arm behind your back."
"Look, Ezekial," Peter replied, standing up to walk over to stand beside Ezekial in the door of the hut, Rogue standing just behind the two men, "I'm not denying that there's been a lot of weirdness in my life lately. But I'm just not there yet, I don't believe yet. I'm hardwired a certain way. I can't change that just because you say I should."
"I know…" Ezekial sighed, shaking his head slightly before he looked back at Peter. "I'm just trying to help, that's all. I've been a parallel road to yours for a long time, and I have the advantage of being able to see down the road a bit to what's coming. I'm trying to straighten out some of the curves coming your way."
"Like what?" Rogue asked, looking curiously at the older man.
"Important things tend to come in threes," Ezekial explained, as he looked back at Peter, apparently unconcerned about the fact that Rogue was the one who'd asked the original question. "Mother, father and child. Childhood, adulthood, old age."
"Life, death, and New Jersey?" Peter put in teasingly.
"Very funny," Ezekial said, rolling his eyes as he continued. "Anyway, my point is that you've already had two of the threats from the spider side of the 'street'; Morlun and Shathra. There's still a third one coming, though, and trust me; it's going to be a dozy. When, where and what form it'll take, I don't know. I only know that you have to be careful, and, when the time comes… open-minded."
For a moment, there was silence, and then Rogue spoke.
"Oh, is that all?" she chuckled, clapping a hand on Peter's shoulder as she did so. "Ah thought it'd be something tough; this guy tackles dozies on a regular basis."
Ezekial sighed as he glanced over at Peter.
"Remind me again; this woman did help save your life in there, right?" he asked.
"Uh… yeah," Peter said, nodding in confirmation. "Why?"
"Because I need to remind myself of the reason she's here to stop myself from punching her for being so laid-back about this," Ezekial said, as he turned to look at Rogue. "Seriously, Miss… Rogue…, you've spent the last few years of your life encountering a man who can manipulate metal with a wave of his hands on an almost regular basis- to say nothing of some of the other mutants you and your team tackle on a regular basis, if what they talk about in the news is even close to being accurate-, and you find this hard to accept?"
"Hey, Spidey here's always been the go-to guy for the street-level science-based solution or when ya're tackling a major bad guy in New York; he's just not the guy yah think of when yah think of magic," Rogue explained, patting the wall-crawler on the shoulder with a slightly affectionate smile. "It's like he said; it's just kinda hard to think of him like that after everything Ah know about him. Give meh a bit more evidence about this whole 'magic' thing, and maybe Ah'll think about it; till then, Ah reserve the right tah find it amusing."
Sighing, Ezekial shook his head and walked over to the nearby door.
"Look, there's more about all this that I could tell you, but now isn't the time," he said, as he turned back to look at Peter. "I've been doing some interesting things lately, P. I've been trying to do some good…"
He paused for a moment, as though uncertain how to phrase what he was about to say, before he finally spoke. "Trying to follow your example."
Rogue smiled encouragingly over at Peter at that- when you had the kind of official reputation that Spider-Man and the X-Men had to put up with thanks to the Daily Bugle and the Friends of Humanity respectively, any sign of some respect from others was always welcome-, before Ezekial continued.
"But you should get back to New York," he said, as he looked back at the wall-crawler. "Your presence will be missed by now; I've had my company arrange your transportation back to the city. Your tickets are waiting inside, along with passports we… created on your behalves."
"Cool," Peter said, smiling slightly over at the older man as he and Rogue walked out of the hut, before he paused to glance back at their benefactor as Rogue got into the limo before them. "But I want you to understand that this isn't over yet. You're the only other person in the world who knows what it's like to be me- well, OK, Rogue has an idea after the time she absorbed me, but that isn't quite the same thing. There are a lot of questions I want… need… to ask you."
"You'll have the chance when the time's right," Ezekial replied. "Take care, P."
"You too, Ezekial," Peter said as he stepped into the limo, before he turned back to look at the older man. "And by the way… I'm glad you're alive. You're a good guy."
With that, he stepped inside the limo and closed the door behind him, reaching over to pick up the upper part of his costume, jeans and a shirt from a nearby bag; Jade, of course, could provide Rogue with any clothing she wanted.
For a few moments after entering the limousine, the two costumed heroes simply sat in the back seat, each one reflecting on what they were about to say, until Rogue finally broke the silence and looked over at Peter.
"So… that guy thinks your powers came from the supernatural side of the tracks?" she asked, looking at him curiously as she spoke. "How'd yah feel about that?"
Peter shrugged.
"Still trying to decide, but at the moment I'm pretty much hovering between 'weirded-out' and 'ignoring it'," he said, as he turned around to look back at the entrance to the cavern where they'd so recently fought Shathra, constantly receding into the distance. "I mean, I have enough trouble tackling my regular kind of bad guy; guys in animal costumes, technologically-enhanced crooks, gang bosses, all that kind of crap. Factor in magic to that whole equation on a regular basis?"
He shook his head. "It just gets very confusing; the Green Goblin's more than enough of a supernatural connection for me, as far as I'm concerned…"
"Tell meh about it; magic's always beena headache for anyone who isn't Thor or Doctor Strange," Rogue groaned, before she sighed and leaned forward, raising one hand as Jade's green-and-yellow form spread over the arm. "O' course, Ah thought that it'd remain my biggest headache- and not a regular one at that-, and then Ah had this happen tah meh…"
"Yeah… uh… about that?" Peter said, looking slightly uncertainly at the arm for a moment before he turned to look at Rogue. "What you said earlier; about wanting some training in using your new powers?"
He smiled slightly at the X-Man sitting before him. "Well… I think I'm prepared to give it a shot."
Rogue blinked.
"Really?" she said, turning to look at him once again. "Ah thought yah said… y'know, with Jade an' all…"
Peter shrugged.
"Hey, you trust her; I figure you didn't get where you are today by being easy for the bad guys to trick," he said, as he leaned back slightly in the limo before looking back at Rogue with a resolute expression on his face. "Look, if we're doing this, I've just a couple of basic ground rules."
"Such as?" Rogue asked.
"1; Jade doesn't kill anyone," Peter replied, raising one hand with the index finger pointing straight up.
"Of course," Rogue responded.
"2; you do exactly what I say- I'm the spider-power expert and you came here to get training, so you're going to stick to what I teach you and not try and improvise," Peter continued, raising his middle finger. "I get that you've got the ability to absorb powers, but you're going from Ms. Marvel's powers and physical limitations to mine- maybe a bit above in some cases- so you cannot do your own thing and risk getting hurt; we had a close enough call in the cavern earlier."
"Natch," Rogue replied, sensing more than seeing the slight grin in Peter's eye; she had a pretty good idea where he was going with this.
"3…" Peter continued, raising his ring finger and chuckling slightly as he lowered his hands. "Eh, we'll work on that one once we're back in New York."
"Fine by meh," Rogue replied, allowing herself a slight smile at that last comment.
"Oh, and by the way…" Peter said, sitting forward slightly and holding out his hand. "Sorry I didn't do this earlier; I'm Peter Parker."
For a moment, Rogue just sat there, blinking in surprise at what he'd just told her, before sitting slightly forward herself and taking the offered hand.
"Anna Marie," she said in return. "Good tah meet yah, Mr. Parker; looking forward tah workin' with yah."
"Same here," Peter replied, smiling back at her.
With that, the two of them reclined back in the seats of their car and watching the world go by outside the window, Rogue allowing herself a relaxed smile at the sight.
From here on in, it was back to the basics for a while- street-level bad guys rather than world-ending whack-jobs- until she got her powers back under control and felt confident enough that she could work with the X-Men once again…
And, as far as Rogue was concerned, she couldn't be happier with that little arrangement.
She'd had way to much crap to deal with lately on the X-Treme X-Men team, what with Vargas and Kahn's attempts to invade Earth; a bit of time fighting some of Spider-Man's regular adversaries was just what she needed right now, as far as she was concerned.
Elsewhere, one person was looking through a computer database, looking up names for her own 'personal projects' until one name flashed quickly in front of her eyes that she couldn't believe. She went back slowly until she saw the name along with a face to go with it.
The screen read Adler, Anna Marie.
"Well well well… what have you been up to, my wayward daughter?" Mystique asked with a pursed smile at this new revelation. "Why have you taken Irene's last name as yours, even if it is for a cover identity?"
Her little side job could wait, and so could the client she was duping.
Finding out whatever her daughter was up to, along with where she was and why she wasn't with the X-Men while doing it?
That was much more important to her.
End Volume Two- Partnership
Author's Notes: It's taken a lot longer to get this point than I thought but at least I've managed to tie up loose threads and leave something. As always, please read and review as your comments always help with the creative process.
I would like to leave this next part up to you the readers as to where Volume Three should go. Would you like me to have it be showcasing Rogue and Peter's first efforts as partners together or would you want me to simply gloss over that in the opening chapter which is time skipped by a month so that can jump into dealing with Mystique.
Once again thank you all who have stuck with my story all this time. Until the next time true believers.