Mimeo
Disclaimer- I DO own the X-Men! Ha ha, just kidding. I'm just a poor college student with student loans to pay. Don't sue me, you won't get much out of me!
Chapter 11:Journey to the Land of ShoppingThe destruction of the school wasn't as bad as it looked. It was mostly the lawn on fire, plus a part of the roof, which was choking up thick clouds of black, thick smoke.
Rogue staggered out onto the lawn. She was carrying a piece of the Professor's wheelchair. She looked at us. She screamed.
She flung the chunk of metal at Jubilee with deadly force.
But before it had left Rogue's hand, Kitty had already stepped next to Jubilee, and made her untouchable, so that the metal tube-thing just went straight through both of them.
"Now's your chance, Coffee," I told myself, reaching out to the spot where Kitty's arm was. "Mimic a power. Do something useful. Make something of yourself!"
Jubilee charged at Rogue, fireworks sparking from her fingertips. Rogue leaped into the air, and I saw the hackneyed phrase, "faster than a speeding bullet," come to life before my eyes. Jubilee was always just a step behind her, none of the fireworks touching her.
RB raised her arms. Instantly, Rogue dropped to the ground, and began screaming and wailing like a spoiled toddler.
"I – I want!" she screamed, "Gimme! Gimme! Rogue bad! Marvel good! Hurting me!"
All toddlers throw things sometimes. But when the toddler is brushing twenty, and has superstrength, it becomes more of a problem.
Anything she latched onto, she threw, whether it be tables, burning lawn chairs, or people.
"Watch it!" Kitty shouted, as she didn't phase quickly enough, and got knocked back a couple of feet by Mr. Scott.
"All right Coffee!" I coached myself. "Here goes!" I held my breath, and tried to imagine that I was phasing.
I began to feel light and tingly. I must be doing it! I was phasing!
WHAM!
An unconscious Ms. Munroe knocked me back several feet. I shrieked in agony from the ridiculous amounts of white hair creeping in my mouth and up my nose.
I groaned, and decided to just lay there. I was a fool. I had been feeling light and tingly because I had been holding my breath!
With an alarming roar, a big blue blur whisked by me. Dr. Hank had shed his labcoat and glasses, and was bounding towards Rogue at a frightening speed. With a graceful bound, he swatted her out of the air.
I cheered silently. Maybe this would end now, so I could go inside and wash the dirt and ash off.
Then my mouth opened in astonishment. Rogue picked up Dr. Hank like he weighed nothing, and tossed him into the air over her shoulder.
I pulled myself out from underneath Ms. Munroe, slightly alarmed at how still she was.
She was fine, of course. Eyelids twitching, drooling in her sleep slightly.
I had to help. Maybe if I attracted Rogue's attention, and she began beating the crap out of me like she did the other night, I could mimic her strength again.
I picked up a fist-sized rock, and chunked it at her, ignoring everybody else's shrieked, "NO!"s
"There Rogue!" I yelled at her as it bounced off her head. "You think you're so great! But you're not!"
Instead of coming down and facing me mano-a-mano, she just caught the rock and flipped it back at me, hard enough to cut straight through my shoulder.
"Coward!" I shrieked, dancing around in pain. "Come down and face me like a woman! What are you, afraid?"
She took not the least notice of my rage.
Everybody else was taking random pot shots at her, but there wasn't much anybody could do. Everybody who could fly had already gotten picked off and tossed in a heap. The super-strength made her nearly invulnerable. And she was up in the air, out of reach of those possessing unusual strength.
Rogue, however, was having a great time, ripping the roof off, and tossing it down on the hapless mutants below, swooping to pick someone up, flying high into the air and dropping them, and other things.
My eyes began to burn a little. "Now's not the time to cry!" I scolded myself. But the burning was growing worse, until I could see it. It was red, darker waves fluttering across it. Tears were falling just from the pain.
I clutched at my head, dragging my fingernails against my closed eye sockets. It hurt so bad. I wanted to claw my eyes out to make it stop.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" I screamed, throwing my head back and opening my eyes.
The raw, destructive power, which raged out of my eyes at that moment, knocked me onto my back. The world had disappeared into a sea of flashing red, as it continued to burn out through my eyes.
It felt like crying.
The sheer power of the red blast forced my eyelids open, I couldn't shut them. Real tears were pouring down my cheeks, and into my hair.
I was crying.
There was no sound other than the concussion of the blasts against the air. There was no sight other than the redness. My entire world had become these blasts coming from my eyes.
They were like bloody, murderous tears.
I didn't dare raise my hands to my face to try to force my eyelids shut. I didn't dare imagine the kind of destruction I must have been causing.
"Coffee, close your eyes!" someone screamed in my ear.
"I can't!" I bawled back, the tears making rivers down the sides of my face.
Someone had their hands wrapped around the back of my skull. I felt my head being lifted up, and then suddenly, brutally, being slammed back down onto the hard ground. The horrible pounding noise faded away, but the red was still there, it didn't go away . . .
I woke up. In the medlab. AGAIN!
I sat up, and started to swing over to the side, when I missed a presence behind me. I turned, looked, and then froze.
MY TAIL WAS GONE!
I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry, or celebrate. The missing limb had certainly been more of an annoyance than a real help in anything, but still, It had been a part of me. A part that was now missing.
I got up and stumbled over to the wall, missing it now as an added help with balance that I no longer had.
I looked in the mirror and gasped.
My eyes were putting off a freaky reddish glow. It was hard to even see my pupils anymore.
Just then (with perfect timing as always!) Dr. Hank walked in. I nearly jumped on him. "What happened? Where's Rogue? What's wrong with my eyes?" I fired at him. He raised his furry hands in mock surrender.
"One at a time!" he said. "You've had a stressful two days –"
"Two days?!" I managed in a strangled squeak.
"And you don't want to overdo it. It doesn't take much to set those eyebeams off, you know," he said pointedly.
"No, I don't know," I grumbled.
"Well, Rogue went nuts. You know that much," he said. I nodded impatiently. "Well, I'm guessing you got near Mr. Scott, and you copied his abilities to shoot lasers from his eyes. Unfortunately, it's a very hard talent to control. I'm going to have to find out why you're controlling it better than him."
I swelled with pride. I was better at it than him! Obviously, that was why he wore the heavy sunglasses all the time.
"So," I asked, still with a puffy ego, "Did me copying his powers save the day? Did I stop Rogue when nobody else could?"
I swear, Dr. Hank turned red under his fur. He quickly found something to do at the other end of the room. I followed, confused. "Dr. Hank?" I asked.
He turned towards me, sighed, and wiped his glasses. "No, Coffee, I'm afraid you didn't save the day. You actually - - - -" Here he trailed off, mumbling so I couldn't understand what he said.
"What?" I asked him, my ego deflating by the minute.
"You knocked down another portion of the wall," Dr. Hank muttered, embarrassed. "And . . . you knocked down a couple of trees."
I stared at him. He was kidding, right?
"On a brighter note," Dr. Hank said, changing the subject quickly. I stared at him glumly. "Touching the subject of your tail, I'm not quite sure about that. I have a few theories though."
"What?" I asked, unable to summon any enthusiasm.
"I'm assuming you can only hold so many mutations at once. You had already had the tail, so when you mimicked Scott's powers, you lost the tail in favor of those. Now, you've demonstrated yourself capable of mimicking two powers at once, but you'd had that one for a while, and it was probably just time for it to go."
I nodded apathetically. It made sense.
"Ah, Scott! Just the person I need to see," Dr. Hank said.
Mr. Scott was leaning on the doorway, looking even more glum than usual. I noticed he was wearing this visor thingy, instead of his more commonplace sunglasses.
"How is she, McCoy?" he asked.
"She's fine, Scott, just fine. She'll be up and kicking again within two days, you just wait and see. By the way, I need to ask you a question concerning young Coffee here."
Mr. Scott turned his head, and I assume he was looking at me, but it was hard to tell, even harder than usual.
"Would you have an explanation of why she would have more control over this power than you?" he asked.
A muscle at the corner of Mr. Scott's mouth tightened. "Head trauma from when I was a boy left me unable to control it," he said stiffly. Then again, everything about the man seemed stiff, including the pole up his butt. "I doubt that the effects of that would carry over to her."
"Ahh," Dr. Hank said, writing something down.
Mr. Scott shoved off the wall, and walked over to his wife, Mrs. Jean, who was grimacing in her sleep, and started quietly talking to her.
"Where is Rogue?" I asked Dr. Hank. "Why isn't she down here?"
Dr. Hank grimaced. "She has to be kept in a special containment cell, because of her strength. The Professor's stated that he doesn't think the Marvel persona is going to fade. When Rogue wakes up, he's going to excise her, so Rogue has complete control again."
"Who stopped her?"
"Professor Xavier, of course."
Of course, I thought to myself. Who else would've been able to do it? Obviously not me. In fact, it sounds like I made things worse!
"So Rogue is going to be her old self again soon?" I asked.
Dr. Hank winced visibly. "Probably not," he said. Before I could ask him what he meant, he had ushered me out, handing me a wrap-around visor that apparently I was supposed to wear at night.
Tchyeah right.
Walking down the halls, I realized I was getting quite a few more stares than I was accustomed to. I didn't understand, until I heard a "Damn! Look at her eyes!"
Ah yes. They were glowing red.
I was heading towards my room, when I realized the hall leading towards it was blocked off, with yellow caution tape and everything.
I peered down farther. At the end of the hallway were clear signs of daylight pouring in. Scattered bits of rubble and brick littered the floor.
I would have to sleep in the rec room on the couch.
Grumbling, I retraced my steps, running into Bobby. He did a double take, then tucked his chin and hurried past. I stopped and turned, looking after him.
"What did I do?" I cried after him. He didn't hear me, or if he did, he ignored me. How rude!
Jubilee, Kitty, and Jake were in the rec room, watching a movie. I glanced at the clock. It was only five o' clock. I could stand a little flick time before kicking them out.
They were watching Phantom of the Opera, of course. Jake's head was lolling back, and he was pretending to be dead.
I gave him a playful kick as I passed. He looked at me indignantly, and slapped my foot.
"Let me guess," Jubilee said, pausing the movie. "You can't reach your room either?"
"Bingo," I said, wondering how many people didn't have beds to sleep in.
"Almost forty people can't get to their rooms. The girls wing took the most damage. Most of the people are in the kitchen now, some people are going to be buddying up, and everybody else is going to come here."
I groaned. And here I thought I was being clever by coming down here!
RB popped in. "I'm going to be buddying up in the guy's wing, if you know what I mean!" she said, winking slyly. I gagged.
"Leave your exploits for the doing, not the telling," Kitty said. "Myself, I am spending the night in the computer lab. I finally have an excuse!" she laughed, clapping her hands.
"Nerd," RB whispered. Kitty just shrugged.
I could not stay in the rec room. It was seriously WAY too packed! Every square inch of space was covered in slumbering bodies.
There wasn't an open room on the girls floor. I wrestled with my pride for a long time.
"Come on, you do it Coffee!" Jubilee whispered. We were on the boy's wing, about to ask Bobby if we could sleep on the floor in his room.
"Why can't you?" I hissed back.
"Because . . . because I asked you first!"
I ended up going. I almost talked myself out of it.
"It's either this, or the kitchen floor," I told myself. As I found out, even that wasn't an option. It was covered too.
We had managed to wrangle Bobby's room number out of RB, who was grinning and winking at us, like she thought we were going in – never mind. She was just grinning and winking, and nudging me conspiratorially,
I had another attack of pride. I could not, COULDN'T! just walk into Bobby's room and ask if I could sleep on his floor.
But I'm tired! my inner child whined.
I groaned loudly, and raised my fist to knock on his door.
"Come in," he called. If I had been listening, if I had just paid attention, I could have avoided the whole mess. But no, I wasn't paying attention, and so I just opened the door and walked in.
It was BENNY'S room! God!
What was worse, was that he hadn't turned around yet, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. I could see hundreds of tiny little scars covering his back. It looked horrific.
"Uh – I –um – DAH!" I stammered. Benny whirled around, a look of horror on his face.
"What are you doing in here?" he bellowed at me. I cowered, and whimpered.
"You said come in!" I babbled.
"I said COMING!" he roared. My ears were burning. They were going to burst into flame and fall of my head, along with my face.
Without another word, I fled the room, Benny slamming it as hard as he could after me.
I looked at the number on the door. It was the number RB had given me. I WAS GOING TO KILL HER SLOWLY!
"Did he say yes?" Jubilee asked excitedly.
"No," I muttered, running past her.
I didn't get any sleep that night. I sat on the stairs and wondered how he could have possibly gotten those furious looking scars.
Unfortunately, I wasn't alone on the stairs, either!
Thank God it was Saturday yet again, because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Funny thing. I guess when you don't get sleep, you begin to need it even more.
RB snickered, and said, "You look sleepy, Coffee. Didn't get much sleep last night?"
The plastic fork in my hand snapped.
Why was I holding a fork?
Oh yeah. Breakfast. What a dumb way to begin the morning. The morning should be started with more sleeping, which I wouldn't get anyways, because there was no where to sleep, and God, I didn't mean to walk in on Benny like that, and . . .
"Coffee!" Jubilee snapped at me. "You're rambling."
Oh, lord, did I really just say all that out loud?
"Right," I said. "Rambling . . ."
"Get this girl some coffee, she's about to collapse!" Jubilee shouted dramatically. Immediately, a hot cup was pushed into my hand, and I was partially revived by the scent of black coffee.
Not like gray Coffee. Heh heh, I just made a funny.
"I noticed Benny was in a really bad mood this morning," RB said maliciously. "I wonder why that is?"
I really wanted to plunge the fork in her eye. All the way across the room, Mrs. Jean, with a bandage wrapped around her head, raised an eyebrow at me.
I picked at my soupy eggs. I didn't care what she thought.
"Benny's always in a bad mood, Rachel. You should know that by now!" Kitty said.
RB opened her mouth to say something else, but I gave her my patented "jaundiced-eye glare", and she quickly shut up.
I finished my coffee, and looked mournfully at my empty cup. Nobody seemed to notice. I stared hoping it would refill itself. No such luck.
I shuffled down to the medlab, in hope of contraband candy. If not, Dr. Hank always had some twinkies lying around.
Nobody was there. I shuffled around for a minute, and then decided to explore. Mainly because there was an open door at the far end that I had never seen before.
I slid over to it on the slippery floor, and looked inside. It was another elevator. "Now what are you doing over here?" I murmured. I stepped inside, and looked at the levels, expecting to see three levels, like the other one. But there was only two.
"Funny," I murmured, my finger hovering over the button. I pressed it firmly, watching the doors slide shut on me. Shiny, nonreflecting metal. How was that even possible?
The elevator stopped at a floor I most definitely had never seen before. It was a containment area. Like a prison. People locked inside, staring at me. I began to panic. I wasn't supposed to be here.
A man crawled over to the side of the partition locking him in, and eyed me over. I stared back.
"Now, wot's a young thing like you doing down 'ere?" he asked, with a strong cockney accent.
He had green hair, and his skin was tinted green, mostly brown. He had a smug, arrogant look on his face.
"Hmm. I didn't think old magic eight ball went for the people wit' physical mutations," he said, more to himself than me.
"Umm – uh, uhm," I stammered, my brain going numb. He cocked his head and smiled at me. Little green teeth.
"Don't worry, princess, I don't bite. At least not while I'm be'ind this thing," he said, tapping the clear wall separating him from me.
And still, I could not find any words, just stared with my mouth open. My hand found the button behind me, and pounded it frantically, again and again. My eyes were burning again. I forced them closed until the feeling went away.
A shriek bent the air. I took off running, forgetting about the green man. I knew that scream. I had heard it many times over the last two weeks. It was Rogue. She was locked up down here. Confined.
Professor Xavier. Standing over her, hands spread out on her skull. And next to him, unconscious, an amazon-looking blonde woman. He was getting rid of the Marvel personality. Marvel was here. The people down here were criminals, being locked up, and Rogue had been shoved among them.
I ran back. I wanted to go back upstairs, and pretend I didn't know any of this. Pretend it didn't exist.
The elevator wouldn't come, no matter how many times I pounded the button. I sank to the ground crying, with the green man in the background, calling out to me, mocking and laughing.
Travelling Army Brat
Oooh, long chappy this time! Hope you all enjoy, and of course review. FIVE REVIEW BROWNIES TO WHOEVER GUESSES WHO THE "GREEN MAN" IS! (That's an easy one!)
Thanks to Marauders4ever, The Painted Lady, and –zi-tok-, my wonderful reviewers. Keep reading! There's even better to come!
