Danielle stayed close to Roger, almost behind him and seeing the things he was in a different light, almost like she wasn't there and was the outsider. The man who people whispered was Xavier's master spy and assassin drifted through the chaos with grace, as if nobody noticed him and the young girl observing him. Then, at a corner store, Roger went to the side, just out of range of a security camera, and waved his hands in a circle, revealing some green and blue flames under his control. He blew them in another direction (towards a garbage can), saw the fire start to consume its easy destination and ran for it. Again, Danielle followed, using her mind to scan the crowds and try to find Jean and Ororo.
It was almost impossible still, she saw. Danielle's mind kept running into people she didn't need to know about, their emotions, most of them hatred, giving her a headache. Roger soon had her by the hand though, pulling her through the crowds like they belonged there. Within minutes though, someone ran right into Roger, separating him from Danielle just by force alone. The two hit the ground simultaneously in opposite directions, but soon saw that a river of bodies, living and dead, littered the way. Both up, they eagerly looked for a way to reunite and found nothing. Roger motioned Danielle to keep moving and yelled something she could not hear. However, the master spy and assassin was soon gone, leaving the young girl alone.
What do I do now?
Danielle obeyed the command from Roger, but did not know where to go exactly, not feeling like an adult. Deciding that maybe heading towards the most action was the wisest decision, she went that way, soon running right back into Roger again by another store corner and watching him as he battled from one person to the next, as if it were too easy, and disable them before the benefit of getting back up. The movements were like fluid, very smooth and running without discrimination, and it seemed like she could definitely copy them too. When someone came up to her unexpectedly, she sensed it, balling her right hand into a fist and punching backwards, hopping down and using her legs to trip the attacker.
He's down. Oh, my God, he's down!
She seemed too proud of herself. Again, Danielle repeated the actions, seeing the same results, and soon changed tactics. Afterward, she didn't know what happened next, it went so fast. All she knew was that she was seeing people come after her and she was literally putting their lights out and not killing them. Working her way towards Roger and then away again, she saw the same kind of bodies litter the ground and pile up higher and higher and felt the same mistake of being them didn't need to be repeated. Exhausted soon enough, she headed towards where Roger was, near the statue where she stood with Ororo and Jean some time ago, and only ensured her safety by pushing others away and ducking.
Then, it happened. That overly accustomed sound that Danielle knew too well came and went, but was nearby. Screams followed it and the smell of death took on a different scent. All she had to do was make sure Roger was fine, that he wasn't in the line of fire, and it would be ok. She would only need to watch out for him, even if it was for Mae and Gil…
Danielle stopped her fighting and ducked immediately before someone hit her with a club, soon feeling the familiar sounds before she heard it again. "Roger, look out!" she screamed as her opponent's blood splattered on her, her hands out before she knew what was happening. Without realizing it, she closed her eyes and had felt a heavy metallic object pass by and miss Roger by inches.
Danielle opened her eyes. Her hands outstretched, she saw that she was inside a silver and blue bubble and that Roger was next to her, a bullet inches from his head. He watched in horror, perhaps for the first time in Danielle's life, as those outside of this bubble screamed at them, trying to get through, and feeling an electric shock. She then almost imagined Jay in her mind, trying his best to keep his agony under wraps and keep his mutation from the others, and she attempted to reassure him that she was not hurt. Once that had been achieved, she felt her feet move, as if in a run, and felt the bullet drop to her feet in a harmless drop. Roger did the same, the two of them scrambling for safety as what seemed like hundreds of humans chased them from one end of the green towards the beginning of the business district. By then though, Danielle saw Logan above their heads, jumping from building to building with ease, like he was keeping up with them.
Roger pointed up as they ran. "We need to find a place to stop," he commanded. "Think we can disappear for a few minutes?"
"I've never done something like that before," Danielle admitted. "Just me and Jay have made ourselves disappear and I made Jean invisible when I held her hand. I'm already draining him with this. I'm getting tired just doing this."
"It might work if you do it quickly," Roger urged, seeing how pale and weak Danielle was getting. "Jay might need to deal with this if we are to survive. Now, listen to me, Danielle, and listen to me carefully. I want you to keep following Logan. When you see a spot where you think we can be cornered and still have an escape route, turn into it."
"An alleyway?" Danielle questioned.
"There's a million here," Roger replied with a wave of dismissal. "Find one with a fire escape and one that Logan will see. Once we get cornered, try to take that one second we're exposed and make us invisible."
"There's a chance they'd get us," Danielle pointed out, panting. "They might take a shot and hit us."
"That's what moving quickly is for," Roger said. "Now, lead me. Show me where we can stop."
It was tough, given so much on her shoulders in so little time. Danielle eyed Logan some buildings away, trying to get ahead of him and make sure that he saw them. She figured that it was the first step. The second was trying to get the enlarging crowd to not see him and to focus on just them alone (after all, Danielle did not want Logan hurt, trying to time everything just so). Nearing the middle of the business district, she suddenly decided that they needed to make a left-handed turn. Following that instinct, Danielle rushed into the end of the brick dead end, Roger with her. They turned around together, the moment where the next step of the plan was supposed to happen, and waited. Roger put a hand in front of Danielle, hoping to caution her into patience, but she was geared up to act.
"Steady," Roger ordered. "Do it on my word."
Danielle doubted it. She wanted to move now, flexing her fingers to grab Roger and make them invisible. The eyes of the people who followed them got too close for her comfort, their very abhorrence to mutants was so visible and scaring her. Their weapons were poised to keep hitting her bubble, to see if they can break it or if it would give them another electric shock. Their hands were ready to grab them when that bubble burst, to see who would get what piece of the mutants and when.
"Don't you think they're a little too close?" Danielle asked, her voice shaking.
"Getting there," Roger replied in a merry tone. "Get ready now…"
Danielle waited as unwearyingly as she could. She was about to close the bubble and make a run for it with Roger when something distracted the crowd before them. Someone was making a noise that made some wary, turn their heads or pay closer attention to them. Danielle wasn't sure which would help them though. Some were eying them with suspicion, as if this was their fault, and inched closer to see what would happen.
"Now!" Roger yelled.
It was as if Danielle smoothly went from one phase of her powers to the next and so quickly, she had to admit. As soon as Roger told her to, she pulled more power from Jay, knowing that she wouldn't be able to make it herself, and went from the protective cover to being invisible, holding Roger's hand so tightly that she thought that she was going to break it. Then, Roger had her get down to her feet, getting out of the way in a crawl and climbing up another fire escape just as someone threw a smoke bomb down towards the entranceway of the alley. With so many screams behind them, nobody noticed the two mutants make their escape, especially with the fear of fire so obvious. As soon as they reached the first level, Roger unhooked his hand. He thought them safe for now.
"Let's reach the top," he proposed. "I'm sure Logan is up there."
Danielle nodded. As she followed Roger floor after floor, she reached out to Jay, to make sure that he was ok from the power pull, and found that he was blocking her. She tried a mental knock, to tell him that she was around, and was ignored. She assumed that he was angry for some reason and chalked it up to him not being able to be there for her and having to be sent overseas. In either case, she tried moving on, using her other senses to try and get in contact with Jean and Ororo. No luck yet, but Logan might have something.
Soon, they were on the roof of the business. Roger took out a set of binoculars and glanced around quickly, stopping on one spot and grinning as he watched Logan appear and then jump from the adjacent building onto theirs, landing in front of Danielle and Roger. Logan, Danielle had to admit, was pretty angry. He did not look at her, instead of glaring at Roger in what seemed to be extreme contempt. Roger only put his eyeglass piece down and pocketed it, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Can I help you?" he asked Logan, unsure that the question was going to tick Logan off.
"I'm wondering the same thing," Logan replied gruffly. "I mean, I wouldn't be taking an eleven year old into a riot and expecting her to fight like an adult."
"Hey, I held my own pretty well," Danielle interjected.
"And disobeyed my orders!" Logan yelled. The tone of his voice made Danielle jump and want to tear up, it was that bitter.
"Listening to my own conscience, I'd say," Roger said, acting very calmly for one about to be berated. "She's a tool, Logan, and one we need to train as soon as possible. She was ready."
Logan picked up the argument with something else that made better sense, but Danielle was no longer listening. She moved towards the edge of the building, eying the whole of downtown Salem Center with suspicion, like it was no longer her home. However, that same evil made her look a little closer. She used her mind to move around the smoke, fires and dead and living bodies, past the statue and around the green, stopping before the stage. She saw shadows under there, souls of people who wanted nothing more than help and to be themselves. Coming back to the building mentally, Danielle turned around, even though it seemed that Logan and Roger were going to have it out, and ran, stopping between them just as Logan was about to swing.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Danielle screamed, pointing to the stage and feeling a half-hearted punch from Logan in the shoulder. "They're over there! Jean and Storm and other mutants are over there!"
"How do you know?" Roger demanded, infuriated that he lost his chance on beating the man with the adamantium skeleton. Logan, on the other hand, appeared apologetic and did not create an opportunity to express regret.
"It seems like someone was hiding them from others who meant them harm until I checked," Danielle argued, "but that isn't the point. Right now, we need to get them out of here. Distract the people around the stage, make the officers there act, something!"
Logan and Roger exchanged a glance and started laughing, almost barking in merriment. "You think anyone is going to help us, a bunch of mutants?" Roger asked, rubbing his eyes to wipe away the tears. "I agree that everyone needs to be out of there and a distraction needs to be in place. However, I doubt the police and any military personnel left behind are going to be of any assistance. They're all people who belong to one person and that one person just left with the ones who would have been able to help us."
"Logan?" Danielle peered at the older mutant this time. "Please. You have to understand –"
"Kid, I don't need to understand anything," Logan clarified. "Roger is right though. It's up to us. You, on the other hand, are staying here this time. No more playing war games with people."
"You can't make me," Danielle retorted. "You need all hands on deck. I don't need to be protected. You don't have the manpower for it."
"And I have men who can take your place and keep you in yours too," Roger started before Logan put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it so tightly that Roger swore it was going to break, like the time Danielle gripped his hand just minutes before.
"The kid's got a point too," Logan said with guilt in his voice. "I don't like it much, but we don't have much of a choice."
Danielle grinned. "So, what's the plan?"
Oddly enough, the two older mutants stared at Danielle with exasperation. She was not fazed though, knowing in her heart that she could handle it. She had the power, held it in her hands and used it so well that even she was amazed. To hell with what Jay needed and why he was being a jerk. She needed to be with full powers and able to kick some ass.
"What?" she asked. "You agreed to keep me with you."
Roger sighed. "Sadly, although I think you in the way of things this time, you are needed down there and need to continue your training. However, you're going to listen to what we have to say or I'll make your life a living hell when we get back to the school. Got it?"
"Yes." Danielle was going to agree to anything, just to save Jean, Ororo and the others. "What are we doing?"
"Waiting for a second to head down there," Logan said, staring at the stage now. "Once it clears a little more, we move. Once Roger assembles his people, we move closer. With all of them out of there, we make a break for it."
"And we never stop," Roger added, hoping to scare Danielle. "If we stop, we are nothing. If we stop, those people down there will rip us to shreds…and there would be more victims of this macabre masquerade today."