After Rogue had gone and packed her backpack, stowing it at the foot of the tree she always read under, she set off on her investigation. Rogue's first stop was the dumpster where she'd ditched the device. Grimacing, she located the stick she'd used to carry it and began to shift the contents around.
Ah think it's safe to say it's gone. Ah just bet it was that slimy bastard Todd that stole it. Rogue chucked the stick into the dumpster with more effort than was really necessary, a low growl of frustration escaping her.
Think like Todd, think like Todd. If Ah was him and Ah had a machine that pulverises people and things, where would Ah go?
Rogue went on a long walk that took up most of the final periods of the day, looking in all the places she suspected Todd would go and not finding him in any of them. When the bell for the end of school rang and the Bayville High students flooded out, Rogue sat and watched them leave. Within forty-five minutes the school seemed to be empty.
Poor Wagner. Ah suppose he wasn't so much of a shithead as the other X-Men. If Ah went in for all that laughter- stuff, Ah probably would've liked him a lot,
Rogue thought mournfully. Pity he was an X-Man. Pity he had to...Ah'm such a little bitch. Ah killed him. People don't deserve to live themselves if they do somethin' like that. But it was an accident! Ah didn't mean to...
Rogue flinched and looked up sharply as she heard a commotion coming from the grassy area nearby. Her narrowed eyes widened with surprise and a chill ran through her as she heard a familiar sound- that of the device being activated. Todd! Before she knew it, she had jumped to her feet and ran off in the direction of the noise.
She seemed to intrude upon a very odd scene. The X-Men were running along after a frantically hopping Todd Tolensky, wearing their kooky battle uniforms. Rogue skidded to a halt to watch for a few moments.
"Shadowcat, down!" bellowed Jean Grey as Todd fired the device at the slight freshman girl, Kitty Pryde. Pryde simply sunk down into the ground, her brown ponytail waving like a banner as she dropped.
"Get 'em!" shouted Summers, the obvious leader, as Pryde shot back up onto the grass and rejoined the chase. Rogue paced along silently, like a hunter watching her prey, shadowing the X-Men and the lone Brotherhood member.
She became slightly distracted. Hey, for such a boring son of a bitch Summers is kickin' ass, she thought with a silly little smirk on her face, her head on an angle. Just look at that. He is somethin' else.
... Oh GOD, what am Ah sayin'? It's probably just his memories all actin' up in mah head. He's probably the most conceited pissant ever to walk th' halls'a Bayville High, to think that about himself.
She started to walk down the length of the field, breaking into a jog. Rogue could now be easily seen, except that none of the X-Men were looking her way. He would think he kicks ass, too. What a loser.
Todd had been blasted down from a tree. Grey snatched the device from him telekinetically. As Todd tried to escape, Evan Daniels fired what looked like a bony projectile from his arm, pinning the Brotherhood boy to the tree trunk.
"Why don't you stick around for a while?" Daniels asked in a low voice. He stood back so that Summers could move forward.
Kneeling beside Todd, Summers demanded, "Now, tell us what you did to Kurt!"
Todd was panicking. He really wasn't great under pressure. "I didn't do anything!"
Rogue rolled her eyes. This has gone far enough, Rogue thought impatiently. "He didn't!" she yelled from down the field. As the X-Men turned as one to look at her, she fought the urge to ready herself visibly for a fight. "Ah did. If ya'll wanna find Blue Boy, you better let 'im go."
The X-Men looked to Summers.
"Go on," she called. "Let Toad go, or Ah'll split. Ah'm a much faster runner than he is, Ah'll tell ya."
"... Do it," Summers said finally.
Daniels yanked the bone spike out of the tree and lobbed it into the bushes. "Get outta here, Tolensky," he growled.
Todd looked dubious about leaving Rogue surrounded by X-Men.
"Go on, Todd," she said harshly. "Ah can handle mahself."
Todd didn't need to be told twice. He ran for it. Or hopped, if you want to get technical about it.
"Come here, Rogue," called Jean Grey. "We let him go. Now it's time to talk."
Rogue walked over as calmly as she could and folded her arms. "That dealie you got there? It fried your guy. Blew him to kingdom come."
Pryde looked nothing short of horrified. "You didn't kill him, did you?" She had huge blue eyes with long lashes that were, Rogue noted with annoyance, rather pretty. Kitty Pryde had this weird aura of wide-eyed innocence and gentleness. Ah doubt that little kid's hit anybody in her whole life, Rogue thought with contempt.
"No," said Rogue witheringly, trying to seem as if she believed that herself. "Ah was behind the Science block and Ah smelled sulphur down in the school basement. Ah followed the smell and found Wagner. He set off a bunch of explosives by accident. It was- some kinda lab."
"A lab? Under the school?" Daniels asked, raising his eyebrows. Grey an' Pryde seem a little appearance-obsessed. Ah wonder why they haven't attacked this boy with a pair'a tweezers yet.
"That's what Ah said, porcupine. Ya don't need me to use sock puppets or anythin', do ya?"
"There's no need to be so rude," said Grey, frowning. "What else happened?"
Rogue heaved a massive sigh. "So then your boy and Ah start fightin' over this machine Ah found, th' only thing that survived the blast. One thing led to another, he jolted me and it vaporised the poor bastard."
"Can you not?" asked Pryde, who looked rather wretched.
Summers seemed to be doing some deep thinking. "Show us."
"Excuse me?"
"Show us where you found the lab. You're in this as much as we are now."
"You happen to be extremely outnumbered," sniffed Pryde. "I suggest you co-operate."
Rogue tried not to consider the fact that a group of people surrounded her who, not that long ago, had tried to kill her. Ah can take 'em all out if Ah want. Ah won't let 'em scare me, it won't do a bit of good. Witheringly, Rogue said, "Stop try'n'a sound intelligent, Pryde. It doesn't suit ya. C'mon, then." Rogue beckoned the X-Men and they set off for the scene of the crime.
There were about a million things Rogue wanted to say, including but not limited to, 'You guys actually go outdoors in those uniforms?' She kept her eyes on the place she wanted to get to, and none of the little party spoke until they had descended the stairs.
"This is where it happened," Rogue said quietly as they arrived in the underground room.
Summers stooped to the floor, sifting some dirt there with his fingers. He looked up and glared at Rogue. ... At least, it looked like he was glaring at her.
Pointing at her, he snarled, "If you've hurt him, I'm gonna-"
Oh, two can play that game. "You start threatenin' me and you're never gonna find your friend!" Rogue snapped, getting in his face.
They were standing pretty close for a second there, with Rogue's heart beating and her mind completely taken up with thoughts of how much of a self-righteous idiot he was. As much as she disliked him, Rogue couldn't help the next thought that crossed her mind.
Now, this sure ain't boring. Ah could get used to this.
Grey stepped between them. Rogue almost felt a little sore about it. She'd been having fun. "Whoa, take it easy, Cyclops," Grey said warningly.
"Yo, guys!" called Pryde from the corner. Everyone turned to look in her direction. "We've been running a diagnostic on this thing."
Daniels made a small astonished noise. "Can you believe it? It uses CPM. I mean, talk about retro, man," he chimed in.
Nodding effusively, Pryde continued, "It's putting out some kind of like, steady low power pulse wave that just seems to disappear into thin air."
Look at me, Ah'm soup-for-brains Pryde. Like, check out mah like, nervous habit. Ah can't, like, stop, like, sayin' the word 'like', like, every like, second, Rogue mimicked silently.
Summers said what everyone else was thinking. "And that means what exactly?"
"Well, we figure that the pulse has trapped the 'Crawler in some other dimension," Daniels announced importantly.
Another dimension? Gimme a break. Ah don't believe in that baloney, Rogue thought nastily. Yet... here Ah am, standin' around with a group that includes but ain't limited to a girl who can walk through walls and a girl who can read minds.
Summers strode forward, his finger on the fire button on his visor. "'K, so let's trash this thing." He set it on a table and proclaimed, "Everyone stand back, I'm gonna use full power. This could get messy."
Please, no more suspense, it's killin' me. Get over yourself, Summers.
Pryde (who had walked over to Grey) said more or less what Rogue was thinking, "Um, you know, I could just like, phase through the gizmo and like, quietly short it out."
Summers looked at her like she'd just suggested he should wear a Hawaiian shirt to school, dump a vat of creamed corn over his head and loudly declare his love for Principal Darkholme.
After a long, uncomfortable pause, Pryde giggled. "Right. Forget I mentioned it." She stage-whispered to Grey, "Like, what is it with guys and explosions anyway?"
Grey nodded sagely. Her words of wisdom on the subject? "Hmmph."
"This'll- um, this'll bring the blue guy back, right?" asked Rogue roughly, wringing her hands nonetheless. Damn Irene and her damn contagious nervous habits, Rogue thought in annoyance. If it weren't for her Ah wouldn't have any nervous habits. As Rogue thought this, she began compulsively playing with her hair.
... Oh. Well. That's a new one. Crap. And here Ah thought Ah was perfect,
Rogue thought."Sure," said Summers. "I'm confident that it will."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better," Rogue thought aloud. Pryde actually snickered, and Daniels stifled a laugh. Grey and Summers looked outraged, though.
"I suppose it doesn't matter one way or another to you," Summers said snottily. "It's just one less of us to worry about. What did we ever do to you anyway?"
Rogue made an indignant noise and opened her mouth to start yelling at Summers when-
Well, for starters, there was a disturbance in the air.
Kurt Wagner appeared for a second. For that one second he stood before them, large as life, a little fuzzy around the edges but essentially OK. "Reset. Don't-" he said frantically, and as quickly as he had appeared he was gone.
There was an amazed silence.
"Uh... you guys saw that, right?" said Summers intelligently.
Rogue felt as if a huge weight in the pit of her stomach shifted. "He's still alive," she whispered hoarsely. If she was alone she might have burst into tears. Maybe. But people surrounded her, enemies, and so she said nothing more.
Grey frowned. "What was he saying?"
Pryde shrugged vaguely.
Daniels groaned at the ignorance of his brethren. "He said, 'Reset. Don't.' Y'know, don't reset it? He wants you to blow it up. Do it!"
Pryde, who was leaning against Grey, rolled her pretty blue eyes. "I swear these guys are like, obsessed." Grey nodded.
Summers rubbed his chin. "Uh, it sounded more like a warning to me."
Daniels snorted. "A warning? From the goof-man himself? Nah, come on! Shred that sucker."
"Ah gotta agree," Rogue said suddenly. "If it'll bring him back, then-"
"No. Nightcrawler's a joker, but even he knows when it's time to get serious."
"You serious?" asked Pryde, raising an eyebrow.
Summers waved a hand vaguely. "Look, if he wanted to blow up the projector, why didn't he just say, 'Don't reset.' instead of 'Reset.' then 'Don't'? I think he wants us to reset this thing."
If he obliterates Wagner after everythin' Ah've been through, Ah swear Ah'll kick his ass from here to Tokyo, thought Rogue guardedly.
Summers was looking for a reset button. "Uh... intensity settings, power regulators, uh, beam width... restart!"
Geez, Ah shoulda brought mah notebook. How many times has he said 'uh' without mah notin' it down? Rogue joked silently. ... Ah hope this works. For all of our sakes.
He pressed the button. That was when things got a little... weird.
There was a kind of multicoloured explosion in midair above their heads, which formed a kind of hole in the scenery. It shone with a blinding blue light. Rogue could barely see anything-
Except for Kurt Wagner and another figure, standing amazed in the midst of the portal. He's alive, she thought, and almost died from relief.
"C'mon, teleport through!" bellowed Summers.
The shadowy forms of Wagner and the mysterious person conversed for a few seconds. Rogue was becoming scared. Oh God, what's happenin'? Why isn't he comin'?
"What's the matter? Let's go!" Summers called nervously.
The portal grew ever smaller. Please come. Please, please, please-
A black cloud of smoke on the other side of the portal announced Wagner and the mystery guy making a hasty exit from that part of the dimension. Rogue's jaw dropped.
"What are they doing?" cried Daniels, aghast.
"I don't know, but I hope they hustle!" replied Summers.
This cannot get any weirder or any worse, thought Rogue in something like despair.
Rogue heard a commotion and turned her head, to see the Brotherhood coming down the stairs.
OK. Now, that was givin' the situation way too much credit, Rogue sighed inwardly.
"... and they still got that vap' ray I was tellin' you about!" crowed Todd, and Rogue felt like kicking something. Or someone, she wasn't choosy.
Gruffly, Lance called, "Rogue, Mystique sent us to find you. So, you with us, or them?"
Summers gaped. "Mystique? You're workin' for her?"
Unbelievable. This is the weirdest situation Ah've ever been in, and Summers still finds a way to get up my nose.
... Ah can't deal with this any more, she thought suddenly. Wagner's alive, Ah didn't kill him an' that's all Ah need to know. Ah gotta get mahself outta here.
She poked him hard. "Hey, Summers. You got your friends, Ah got mine, but this ain't mah fight. Ah'm outta here."
And Rogue left, with as much dignity as she could, and she had never felt so relieved to emerge into the cool evening air.
It was growing dark. She felt she ought to wait around for the Brotherhood boys as a show of goodwill, although truthfully she didn't care who won the inevitable fight. It all seemed so pointless.
The school was a different place at night. It grew dark and shadowy, and kind of creepy really. She sat on top of a picnic table in the quad after she retrieved her backpack from under the tree. Rogue was listening to the distant sounds of the fight. Rogue shivered, not entirely from the cold, and prayed she'd just get to go home soon.
Rogue blinked as she heard a rather different sound emanate from the underground room- that of a car horn beeping, and a screech of brakes. Now, that's not a mutant noise, she thought, suppressing a smirk.
Eventually, the sounds of the fight petered out, and she heard the clatter of approaching feet. The Brotherhood. For some reason, Rogue slipped off the picnic table, ran and hid.
They tramped straight past her hiding place behind a tree, grumbling and nursing various wounds. Oh, yeah, don't call out for me after Ah waited for ya an' all, Rogue thought sarcastically, conveniently forgetting the fact that she was hiding from them. She crouched in the undergrowth with her back to the tree, looking up through the branches of the other trees into the sky. It only seemed like she exhaled when she heard Lance's Jeep leave the parking lot.
God, today's been a bitch. And Ah just bet Mystique'll be on mah case for skippin' out on that fight with the X-Geeks, Rogue thought tiredly.
She stood up, yawning and stretching, but froze and crouched down again when she heard a line of people leaving the school basement. It was the X-Men, plus one, and she stared after them with something close to awe.
Wagner's alive. They all are. Ah have nothin' to worry about now. She stood up again, rolling her neck and hearing several snapping noises.
... Ah must be in denial or somethin'. There ain't a day in mah life when Ah don't worry about somethin' or other, Rogue mused. With a deep sigh, she began to walk home.
It took a long while, walking under the stars. She felt heavy.
As Rogue approached the Brotherhood Boarding House, she almost felt in the mood for the boys to try and beat her up again. Ah just may snap, and Ah feel like chuckin' a psycho on the boys. If they hadn't rocked up everythin' would've worked itself out much quicker. Fuckin' idiots...
When she walked through the door, it was not the boys who accosted her, but Mystique, whose eyes radiated pure fury. "Rogue Adler, where were you?" barked Mystique. "You ran out on your team before a battle with the X-Men!"
Rogue stared at her, her grey-green eyes bored, almost expressionless. She felt like she couldn't be bothered. The sounds of a Western movie were blaring from the living room, and she could hear Fred and Todd cheering. They would. Me, Ah can't stand Westerns.
"Don't stare at me in that impertinent way. Get up to your room and stay there, we're going to talk this through later," Mystique snapped.
Rogue began to walk heavily up the stairs. Suddenly a rage like no other took her, and without warning she turned around and yelled at Mystique, "Yeah, Ah am unhurt and no, Ah didn't walk through the bad neighbourhood! Yeah, Wagner is OK and no, Ah don't think the vaporisin' doohickey survived the fight. And yeah, Ah did have a completely horrible day and- and no, you obviously don't give a shit about anythin' other than me removin' mahself from some STUPID brawl with the Loser Brigade."
"Don't take that tone with me," said Mystique quietly.
"You're the crappiest leader Ah've ever seen. You don't care about nothin' or nobody, so y'know what? Fuck. You." Rogue shrieked these words, slightly hysterical, and fled up the stairs. She rushed into her room and slammed the door so hard the foundations of the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House seemed to shake. Dust cascaded down from the ceiling of her room.
Rogue flung herself down on her bed, her heart beating a wild rhythm against her ribs. She let out a long shuddering breath and flopped over onto her stomach.
Ah haven't had a good jam session in awhile, she thought ruefully. Might help sort some of what Ah'm feelin' out. She removed her guitar from its case, kicked off her boots, peeled off her tights and hauled her baggy green top over her head. Tossing her clothes into a corner of the room, she sat on her bedspread with her back to the wall and began to play.
It felt good just to sit and strum at her guitar, to lose herself in the tunes she knew so well. It felt good to sit there in just the bare minimum of clothes. Both of these were things she rarely did any more, even when she was alone.
Someone knocking on the door jolted her out of her trance. "Rogue?" called Lance.
"No."
"Can I come in?"
"No."
He came in anyway.
"Heard what ya said to Mystique," he said, without preamble. "You really told her off."
"Ah just kinda flipped. And Ah might just flip again if you remain in mah room, so piss off, Alvers."
He was staring at her. "What?" she demanded.
"I didn't know you were that pale all over."
Hugging herself tightly, she snapped, "Did ya honestly think that mah skin was like, puce or somethin' underneath mah clothes? Idiot. Ya got any more witty observations, or are ya gonna leave?"
...
"I didn't know you played the guitar," he said.
Rogue was exasperated. "What did ya think Ah was carryin' in mah guitar case the day Ah came here? A grand piano? Bagpipes, maybe? And what did ya think all those guitar noises were, comin' outta mah room, a CD?"
Lance shrugged. "Well, yeah."
"Ah'm hardly about to record an album. Ah can't play for shit."
"Well, who wants to play for shit? I would've thought you'd wanna play for money," retorted Lance.
Rogue looked at Lance.
Lance looked at Rogue.
"Piss off, Alvers," she said, returning to strumming at her guitar.
"Yes'm," he sneered, and left.
OK, since when did that boy develop a sense of humour? thought Rogue irritably. She struck a hard chord on her guitar.
"Rogue?" It was Mystique.
"No."
"Let me in, now."
"No." Rogue hesitated, and sighed. "Hang on a sec."
She got up from the bed and headed over to the door. Opening it, she took a huge step back. "Don't you brush against me or nothin', hear? Ah'm not dressed properly. Ah'm mad at ya, Ah don't want none'a your memories in mah head. Even if it did mean Ah'd get to scare the crap outta the boys by turnin' into the Ghost'a Christmas Future and creepin' up on 'em in the dead'a th' night."
Mystique showed herself in and shut the door behind her. Rogue did not ask her to sit down, and so Mystique did not take a seat.
"Why are you mad at me, Rogue?" she asked patiently.
Rogue scowled, then felt her face soften. "Ah dunno. Ah'm just pissed, Ah had a long, gruellin', traumatisin' sorta day and... aw, forget it. Let's just call it that time'a the month and leave it at that, huh?"
Mystique laughed softly and shook her head. "I'm concerned about you. First you actually help the X-Men in battle, then when the opportunity arises to aid your own team you leave."
"Ah'm sorry, all right?" Rogue asked bitchily.
"You're part of the Brotherhood, Rogue. This is the team you chose."
"Unlikely! This is the team you recruited me into when Ah was blind and deaf with pain!" snapped Rogue, before she could stop herself.
Mystique raised an eyebrow.
"... Sorry," said Rogue gruffly.
"As strange as things feel for you at the moment, Rogue, you're a valued member of this team. We are a part of who you are, and soon you will need to prove your allegiance."
"Ah thought the only thing Ah was meant to pledge allegiance to was the stars 'n' stripes," quipped Rogue.
"Don't joke, Rogue. This is serious." Mystique frowned. "We need you for our team. I need you, all right?"
For a moment there, it didn't sound as if Mystique was talking about the team.
"... It's good to know that, ma'am," Rogue said finally. "Ah promise, when the time comes... Ah won't let ya down."
Mystique grinned, her fangs showing. "Good girl. Make sure you get to bed at a reasonable hour, Rogue. I'll see you in the morning."
"G'night," Rogue called.
"Goodnight, dear," Mystique called over her shoulder.
As Rogue changed into her pyjamas later on, she thought, Mystique's not really so bad. At least she makes me feel like Ah'm needed. And she doesn't sugarcoat nothin'- like, she treats me like an adult. Apart from all that 'good girl' stuff.
Rogue slipped into her bed and, without really thinking about it, grabbed her notebook from her backpack beside her bed. There were some things she needed to get out.
Things are the same, and yet not. [Rogue wrote] Summers is a dick, and at least Wagner is alive. I suppose I'd better let you in on everything important that happened today.
Had a whole load of bother today with Pryde, Grey, Wagner, Daniels and Summers. It all started with me kind of vaporising Wagner. Somewhere around the middle it had this weird moment with me and Scott staring glaring into each other's eyes faces. It was like one of those weird 'Are we gonna kiss or what?' moments you have when you get that close to somebody who's cute
(Rogue frowned and erased that last word. She also erased her next choice, which was not bad-looking. Finally, she settled for writing somebody who's a guy.)
I could practically see
(Here, she wrote his eyes. I wonder what colour they are. She crossed this out furiously.)
up his nose, where the very top of that stick he's got lodged up his ass all the way up to his brain is kinda visible, ha ha.
'Course, Scott barely qualifies as a guy. So what if he's older and taller, and I happen to like older, taller guys? There are plenty of older, taller guys around, but that doesn't mean I'm going to throw myself at every one of them. The idea of throwing myself at Scott makes me want to be violently ill.
And like I could do it anyway. Even without my powers. I'm not that kind of person. Still, it would've been nice to feel what it's like to kiss someone. I kind of wish I'd done it before everything happened.
It's not like I think about it all the time or anything. It's just that kissing- whether it's the Kiss of Death or whatever- comes up a lot in the songs I write, and it would've been nice to know what I was talking about.
But I'm not bitter. No way. Only some vapid loser like the Ditz would spend her life moping because she can't touch people. What's so great about touching anyway? I have more important things to do with my time.
For awhile today I thought I killed someone. I've never felt that way before- so scared and guilty. I never want to feel that way again. The way Mystique talks sometimes, things are gonna get really hairy if anyone ever finds out about mutants. I think she expects us to defend ourselves. Sure, if anyone really got on my case I'd give them a shove, tell 'em to beat it. I might even use my powers on them. But I will never feel like that again. I will never kill anybody.
Never again.
As Rogue read over her writing, she noticed a disturbing pattern. She had called Summers by his first name a total of three times. Three times too many.
Oh, what the hell. Rogue reasoned, Hey, if his teammates get to call him by his first name, Ah should too. What do they think, that Ah'm some lowly serf who's gotta call them by their surnames? Lame! Ah'll call him what Ah wanna, when Ah wanna, understand?
... Ah can't believe his name is Scott. What a gyp for the rest of the universe! He's too much of a ragin' geek to have a nice name like that.
Rogue jumped as Todd yelled from outside. "Shut your light off!"
"Go to hell," Rogue responded automatically. It was late, though, so she turned off her light, turned over and went to sleep.
She had strange dreams that night. No residual memories, just her own dreams. She had forgotten what it was like to do that. Rogue dreamed...
There were dark stairways down into the ground, red lasers and vast plains of dirt and gravel stretching away into the distance to meet the skies of rolling black clouds. And a boy, lying sleeping on the ground. When she ran to him, she recognised him.
Or she barely did. No shades. No visor either. "No powers," she murmured to herself as she hastily removed her glove and touched his cheek lightly. He had nice skin for a boy.
"Hey," she said, speaking with more warmth that she ever did. "Wake up." She didn't smile. She never smiled. Rogue's eyes were smiling, though.
He didn't waken right away. Rogue sat by him, waiting for him to open his eyes. Calmly, she observed that the ground had started to shake, that the dark clouds blotted out any part of the sky, and a chilly wind had started to blast them.
He was awake then, and he put a hand on her shoulder. Neither ran, just waited. Rogue felt some weird, fluid feeling growing in her chest, and she couldn't bring herself to look at him.
It was happiness. Happiness at the fact that he was still there with her, waiting for the sky to fall.
When she woke up the next morning, the first words out of her mouth would be, "Ew. What a horrible nightmare. Sharin' mah last moments on earth with that prick Summers? Barf."
She would believe it. While she slept, however, while she dreamed and enjoyed the visions she played a part in, Rogue knew.
It was no nightmare.
- - -
DISCLAIMER: X-Men: Evolution belongs to Stan Lee, the WB, Marvel Comics, whoever you like. Not me. If it belonged to me, I would have had Kurt change out of his uniform every once in a while.
NOTES: Whoa, did Rogue have a Teenage Girl Moment with Mystique near the end or what? It's good to get a new chapter up. This is about the only X-Men: Evolution thing I can write at the moment. I have so many ideas for one-shots and multi-chaptered fics, but this seems to be the only thing I can finish. Probably because it's based on the series itself. I'm so unimaginative. Le sigh.
Now, everyone, something you've got to remember about this fic is that I'm writing it based on my own observations (written in my diary, which is basically the Chronicles of One Girl's Obsession With XME), footage from fan videos, transcripts and screencaps. That might sound like a lot, but trust me, I have to bluff through practically the whole thing. The only episodes I have on video are Growing Pains, Power Surge, Bada-Bing Bada-Boom and Fun and Games. Remember that if mistakes relating to the way characters say things or who people are standing next to crop up. My big sister hates me downloading fan videos, but I kinda need them. They're a tiny bit addictive, even if I wasn't writing a big XME fic.
Question for you, Ivan Alias,and anyone else who's wondering. How do you know that Mystique is aware of exactly who Kurt Wagner is? At this point she might think he's some random German mutant Professor X picked up. She hasn't seen him with his inducer off, has she? Besides, even if she is aware of who he is, you've gotta remember that Mystique is just about the best actress you'll ever see. She's so good at masking her emotions you never know quite what she's thinking or feeling.
I'm glad people seemed to like Katy- or rather, "Look, someone in peril!" I named her after Katy Carr in the old-timey book What Katy Did, seeing as Dorothy has the same name as someone else from an old-timey book with a female main character.
The bit where Rogue is writing in her notebook and keeps crossing things out? In the original Word document version of this chapter, there were strikethroughs on that bit. It looked a lot more effective. Hmmph. Am rather pissed, really, about that.
Gotta go. See ya'll later. : )