Chapter Fourteen.
Training session! Yay!
Sorry for the late update. I had to go for a couple days to get spacers.
School is coming up, so I'll be updating a lot less while the school year is going.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far! I hope to get more readers and reviewers soon...
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution or any of its characters.
Claimer: I own Mneme because I made her up.
Chapter Fourteen
After school, Mneme decided to take the bus home for the first time in her life. Once she found the correct bus, she sat down in a seat that was around the middle of the bus. As soon as she sat down, she felt something pull on her hair. Reaching behind her she felt something stretchy and sticky—gum. "Ugh." She wrapped her hand around the stretched out gum and it disappeared into thin air. Evan, Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, and Amanda walked onto the bus. Kitty still looked pretty upset over everything that had to do with Amanda and Kurt. She plopped down irritably next to Mneme and propped her knees up on the seat in front of them, which Rogue and Evan ended up sitting in. Kurt and Amanda sat in the seat across the isle from Mneme and Kitty, and they cuddled against each other. Kitty quickly snapped her head away from the scene and looked out the window. Mneme chuckled to herself quietly and leaned her head against the window as the bus driver started the engine.
As the bus pulled out of the bus ramp, followed by many other buses, Mneme watched the scenery go by in a blur. The bus ride was very boring, quiet, and not fun. She would have fallen asleep if not for her powers and Kitty continuously shifting in her seat irately at the sight of Kurt and Amanda. Needless to say, it seemed like a long ride to the institute after Kitty's anger didn't seem funny.
Once Mneme stepped off the bus, she teleported herself into the mansion, where the teachers, Scott, and Jean were waiting. When the others walked in through the doors, they were instantly reminded of the training that they had to do. Kurt immediately teleported to the kitchen refrigerator and Kitty slipped through the floor, trying to get out of training. "Kurt… Kitty…" the Professor said. Kurt popped back with two doughnuts and handed one to Amanda. Kitty came through the floor just in time to see it, then immediately went back down. Mneme put out a hand and pulled her up with telepathy.
"Hey!" Kitty shouted angrily, trying to break free of Mneme's invisible grasp. She dropped her to the floor and listened to what the Professor had to say.
"I already know about the attack at the school, and I won't complain due to the fact that no one is hurt and no Human remembers. I know he was just trying to carry out orders, but I never thought that they'd go as far as to attack Mneme while she was at school," Xavier admitted. "I forgot to consider that this is Magneto we're dealing with."
Jean looked at the others, concerned for all of them. "So what are we going to do?" she asked, referring to Mneme going to school.
"The choice is up to Mneme. If she doesn't mind swiping the memory of everyone, she can remain going to school." the Professor explained. "I know that she'll be able to sense something or someone coming before any danger occurs, and she's perfectly capable of getting everyone to safety, it's just a decision on whether or not she wants to do it or not."
"I'll do it. I don't mind." Mneme spoke up immediately. It'll be easier for them to find me, so I can finish them off faster, Mneme added silently to herself. She knew Xavier wouldn't approve of this, so she kept it to herself. Of course, Mneme didn't plan on killing anyone, just defeating them badly enough to where they would be afraid to come back. That was going to be harder than it sounded; the two that she had fought already didn't seem to have the tendency of giving up. "So," Mneme broke the silence, rubbing her hands together, "what's up for training?"
"We'll be playing Capture the Flag," Wolverine said tersely.
"The teams are Scott, Kurt, and Kitty against Jean, Evan, and Rogue." Beast said to them.
"We'll be watching from the sidelines on the cameras we set up," Ororo told Amanda. "It'll fun to see everyone's powers for the first time," she promised, putting an arm around her shoulder and walking her outside.
Mneme raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
"You'll be trying to prevent each other from stealing the flags," Xavier told her, amused by how pleased she seemed. "Just don't kill anyone or make things too hard—we're just trying to get your powers under control and help the others with their stealth and evading."
"Sure thing, Prof.!" Mneme said with a sloppy salute. "Now let's suit up and get out of here." Teleporting to her room, Mneme already knew that a new clothing item had been added to her closet—her X-Men uniform. She opened the sliding mirror doors and saw it hanging on a clothes hangar. Slipping it on in her odd way of putting on and taking off clothes, she saw that it was tight, black, and had a certain flexibility that she liked. Now her acrobatic moves wouldn't be so hard to pull off like in jeans and a cotton shirt…
Mneme walked down the steps where the others stood waiting. Kurt whistled at her, which resulted in Kitty punching him in the head harder than anyone thought possible. "You're lucky I'm not your girlfriend, or you'd be DEAD!" she screamed at him. He rubbed his head with his gloved hand.
"Jeez, Kitty, I vas only—"
"I DON'T EVEN WANT TO HEAR IT." Kitty said loudly, making the other students look at her oddly. Mneme chuckled again to herself.
She's definitely getting jealous of you and Amanda, she thought to Kurt. He looked over at her with concern.
But for how long until she decides to call it quits and go back to Lance? he thought back to her.
"Give it a few days." Mneme said aloud as she walked by. "Hurry up, you guys. I'm getting tired of waiting." The two teams huddled separately, trying to decide a good spot for their flags. Mneme walked a ways off so they wouldn't suspect her listening, but she could hear every word clear as a bell.
"I was thinking the peak of the mountain," Scott said. "What do you two think?"
"I think we should put it underground," Kitty answered, her voice still carrying a tone of rage. "It'll be easy for me to slip under and leave it there."
"The mountain sounds harder to get," Kurt piped up. Kitty looked at him with a defiant stare.
"You and me are the only people able to get it!" she said in a loud whisper. "Do you know how hard it'll be for them to get our flag if it's underground?"
"She's got a point," Scott agreed. With a sigh, Kurt nodded.
As they were speaking, Jean was devising a plan to hide the flag also. "If any of them saw the flag, it would be impossible for us to stop them from getting it because of Kurt. He can easily teleport to the flag, take it, and teleport to his own flag," she pointed out.
"So what's your plan?" Rogue asked her.
"Who said she had a plan?" Evan said.
"She's always got a plan," Rogue said irritably.
Jean continued, "If you could get Kurt's power," she started, talking to Rogue, "you can hide it deep underwater. They won't be able to see it there and they won't even suspect something like that. Evan, you and I can create a diversion to hold them off while Rogue gets the power." They all nodded and the huddles broke up. Xavier and the teachers stood a ways off. Amanda walked over to Mneme and handed her two large flags, one blue with a silver lightning bold and the other red with a golden flame embroidered in it.
"You're supposed to hand them their flags," she told her. Leaving the flags to Mneme, Amanda walked off back to the teachers and television screens. "Good luck, Kurt!" she called out as she waved. He gave her a cheesy grin and a thumbs-up. Mneme held a flag in each hand. The poles had to be over six feet.
"You have thirty minutes to get your flags wherever you want them," Ororo announced loudly. "After that, you cannot move your flag. In order for you to return your flag if it's been stolen, you have to take it back from the one who has it and place it back in the exact same spot as before. No hiding the flags in buildings or houses. The team to get the most points by eight o'clock wins, and the losing team has to do house work. Mneme will be preventing each team from getting anywhere after your thirty minutes is up. Is everyone ready?" Both teams nodded. Mneme walked out, figuring that was her cue, and twirled the flags around in her hands with a big grin. Just for a bit of fun, she set the rim of the red flag on fire and gave the blue one electric sparks all over it. Like spears, she took the flags in one hand and threw them, sticking them into the ground in front of the correct teams.
"Have fun," Mneme said with a toothy grin in a taunting way, curling her fingers in a teasing-type way. They looked at the flags with concern.
"Man, that's just weird," Evan said, examining their blue flag closely.
"Is it…safe to touch them?" Scott asked, hesitantly outstretching a hand.
"Would I put elements on them if it wasn't?" Mneme asked as if it were obvious. "Of course it's safe. They're fake." Indeed, the electricity shocks had no shock and the burning fire had no burn. Jean and Scott each picked a flag.
"And…start!" Storm shouted. Rogue tore a small hole in her glove and walked over to Nightcrawler.
She stuck out her hand. "May the best sibling win."
Kurt put out his hand and grasped hers firmly. "Of course—" he started, but he soon had about half his energy drained before Rogue let go. She laughed a bit and teleported over to her team. Kurt ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "That vasn't quite fair if you ask me." Scott put a hand on his shoulder.
"C'mon," he said in an assuring kind of tone. Kurt took Kitty's wrist and they disappeared, leaving a small ring of smoke. The other team took either of Rogue's shoulders and also vanished. Mneme leaned against a tree and wondered if she should go to the meadow and check on Pietro…
Walking over to the mentors, she said, "I'm going to go think up some good traps to put wherever," she told them. Quickly, Mneme glanced at the six changing observation screens. Of course, one of them was of the meadow, but it quickly changed to a serene forest. "So…I'll see you later!" Mneme waved and teleported to the forest skirting the flowers, locating the observation camera lodged in the crook of two branches and adjusting it so it replayed flowers blowing in the wind over and over. Her mentors would never notice anything at all. She was only going to be a few minutes, then she'd set it back to normal. Mneme looked over the field, scanning it slightly like a copying machine would scan a picture. From one edge of the vast field of flowers to the other she searched, eventually tracking Pietro down amidst the sea of sweet fragrances. He was lying on his back with his hands behind his head and eyes closed. Although it appeared he was sleeping, his face looked disturbed, as if something was tormenting him on the inside. She walked out of the woods and a couple hundred yards out, standing over him. Crouching down, Mneme poked his cheek. "Pietro…" she called quietly. He stirred slightly, his brow furrowing as the knot in his chest tightened…
In a dream, Pietro was feeling so horrible—he was to blame for everything that was happening to Mneme. He was just sitting in a void, no one there, his thoughts closing in on him, the world pushing on him…crushing his bones, suffocating him. The Mneme was there in the void also. She was looking down at him curled up and helpless against his emotions. He looked up at her hopefully, but all she said was, "I see the blame is settling in nicely" before evaporating into nothing. There was nothing he could do as the darkness swallowed him up—
He woke up in shock, giving a small yell that made Mneme fall on her butt next to him. She held an arm up in defense, not sure how crazy he was going to react. He was breathing heavily, hand on his forehead, cold sweat dripping off him nervously. When his breathing steadied, he looked around, then jumped at the sight of Mneme. "What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to see me anymore?"
Mneme looked ashamed. "I've figured things out—I suppose I was overreacting before. There's no reason for me to break up with you…. Although I don't remember us officially dating…" she said with a slight bit of wonder, looking up at the cotton clouds.
"No, we're together. We've been together ever since I laid eyes on you—" he said in a rush, trying to make sure that nothing was going to separate them again.
Mneme tilted her head. "So you just decided that I was yours when you saw me? Then why'd you attack me?"
"No! I didn't mean it like that—you were mine whenever you decided to be mine," he said nervously, saying anything to appease her. Thinking about what she said, Pietro shook his head. "And you attacked me first—I had to do something…" Mneme laughed, sitting back on her hands.
"You're funny." She put out an arm and pushed him down with incredible force as she sat next to him, staring off into the flowers. "Relax." She took her hand off and took a deep breath of the flowers. "It's nice here."
After regaining his breath from Mneme's bone crushing push, he was going to talk, but didn't know what to say. It would seem odd for a guy's favorite place to be a field of flowers. He couldn't tell her that. Maybe a field of bombs or a field of marijuana for some dudes, but flowers was just a little too feminine for some people to accept. "Yeah." He managed to say uneasily. He propped himself up on his elbows.
"It's okay, I already know that this is your favorite place to be. You can get away from everything and everybody. I understand," Mneme said, flopping down onto the ground, pollen floating around in the slightest breeze. Pietro lay down beside her, searching for her hand. Once he found it, they intertwined fingers. He smiled and sighed with relief. His dreams weren't going to be pressuring him anymore.
"Y'know, when I saw you in that X-Men outfit, it kinda made me mad, but it actually really looks good on you," Pietro said with a laugh, Mneme joining in.
Rogue and her teammates stood at the edge of the beach, watching the waves. "So how far away do I have to put this thing?" she asked Jean.
Jean thought. "About fifty feet under—I'd say go about twenty-five yards out." Rogue nodded and teleported, but she ended up high in the air, falling onto the water with a loud pop! Under the water, she reappeared at the bottom. Her ears ached from the pressure of the water, and her eyes could hardly see three feet in front of her. The murky beach water had been stirred recently, but by what?
It doesn't matter, Rogue told herself urgently. She planted the flag as far as she could with some effort. It looked about three feet in the sand when she realized she needed air. She teleported back on the beach in a panic but ended up in a palm tree a ways off from her friends. She slipped down the branch and palm frawn, landing on her but and gaining a few scratches on her back. Rogue stood and walked over to Jean and Evan. "Now what?"
"Now we wait."
Kitty took the flag and examined the area. It was up on a small hill, which was perfect. She sank down into the ground until the tip of the flag was no longer visible from the surface, then pulled herself back up. "Done. They'll never find it."
"Great job. Now all we have to do is wait for the signal to begin."
Back at the mansion, Storm watched the clock tick down. Flare gun pointed upwards, she pulled the trigger when the hand clicked down to the last second. The flare burst into flames high above them in the clear sky. Mneme looked up at it, and so did Pietro.
"You've gotta go. We're having a training session around here, and I don't want you to be caught up in it," Mneme said, looking at him sadly. "I wish you didn't have to go."
"I don't. We can stay right here," he said, rolling onto his stomach, getting closer to her. He grinned toothily, but she shook her head.
"I'm part of the training too. Just go. I'll…see you at school tomorrow." Mneme smiled at him, trying to make him agree with her by using her feminine charm. He rolled his eyes, but smiled.
"Fine." he said with a smile. Then he was gone, flower petals being kicked up into the wind.