Title: Babel Fish
Author/Artist: Blue Stem Cell
Universe: Marvel (Alternate Universe)
Rating: 16 +
Genre: Drama/Action/Romance Sub Plot
Summary: "No more Mutants." Three little words and more than 90% of the mutant population lost their powers. Nearly a year later, a British schoolboy, suffering from constant migraine destroys a part of his school and the first new mutation is registered. But just what is his power?
Disclaimer: I own nothing by Marvel or Douglas Adam's.
Note:I'm dyslexic. Not an excuse but just a note in case you come across anything spelled wrong or grammatically incorrect. Point them out to me, I do try and catch the ones I see.
Edited on 14/10/2011. Cleaned up a few spelling/grammar mistakes and did a general tidy up.
Chapter21:Some Factual Information For You
Blinking stupidly, Leeland leaned back as far as he could go. The back of his head thudded against the wall of the room and his eyes practically crossed so he could keep an eye on Victor's lips. "Ah-uhh." Leeland mumbled to himself. "Ah sort of knew that." He whispered quietly, and oh God why couldn't those lips be somewhere else. Or for that matter, someone else!
The Victor!Generator blinked once, leaned backwards and tilted his head to the side. "Oh. When did you find that out?" He asked and an anti climatic feeling washed over his skin. "Uhh." Started Leeland. "Well ah'm a mutant. Ah guess you could say it was human, ah mean ah was born to humans. Ah think." He muttered, as Leeland wasn't to sure who he was born to or even how. Though he did expect a lot of squelching and that was certainly nothing he wanted to think about.
"You stupid boy, I know you're a mutant." And he hit him on the side of the head again.
"Will you stop doing that!" He hissed as he battered his arms in front of him, but he tried not to hurt Victor in the process. "Then why tell me that ah'm not human?"
The generator groaned at him. "You're being counter productive boy. Now listen to me, you're not human. You've never been human and you never will be. You may look human, sound and certainly smell it-"
"-Oi!"
"-But! The fact of the matter is you're not."
"So, a Technarch is an alien?"
"Yes."
"And…Ah'm an alien?"
"Yes!"
Leeland frowned with his eyebrows knitted together as he tried to add everything together in his mind. "Oh but you are slow." Said the generator with a tartly purse of his lips.
"Shut up an' let me think for a second." He pressed a hand to the side of his head and a warm trickle of blood flowed over his fingers. Warm and sticky and the smell of it made him feel slightly woozy. "These Technarch's, what are they then? What do they do?"
Scowling at him, the generator resisted hitting him again. Though he did peer around to look at his ears and shook Victor's head sadly. "They're aliens of course."
"I know that!" Came his heated response through gritted teeth.
"Then why did you ask such a stupid question?"
"Oh-" Leeland opened his mouth to shout at the silly thing again when the expression on Victor's face changed. A serene look washed over his features and his glowing eye's rolled back into his head. "Huh? No-no generator, wait! Wait!" But Victor slumped forward and Leeland shot his arms out to grab him. His body felt cool to the touch and Leeland chewed on his lip in concern as the room became brighter and brighter.
The generator had returned to its rightful place but Leeland was annoyed at not receiving answers to his questioning. Licking over his piercings, he peered down at Victor who was slowly coming to and a knot in his throat began to dissolve. He waited with baited breath for the boy beneath him to come around, his lips smooching together painfully in anticipation.
Groaning, Victor pressed a hand to the front of his head before rubbing madly at his eyes. "OK." He started with a small nod of his head. "Something just happened, didn't it?" He asked, without moving his hand from his eyes but Leeland didn't reply. What was he supposed to say? Why yes, the generator did just take over your body but I'm not supposed to tell anybody.
After receiving no reply, Victor threw his hand down and peered up at Leeland who was closer than he had expected him to be. "Uhh, Lee?"
Leeland said nothing and shifted uncomfortably. There really wasn't much room with the two of them and the generator in tow. A sour smell had started to circle around them and Leeland realised that it was mostly likely from his earlier vomit. "You fell." Said the boy, stupidly.
"Bullshit." Victor replied and he tried to sit upwards but they were terribly knotted together. They grunted, Leeland trying to help and Victor pushing backwards at him. "That thing did something to me!" He pointed wildly with one of his fingers, but the generator was silent.
"It ain't a thing!" Leeland retorted protectively, shifting himself between Victor and the generator, creating less room for the pair of them. "Ah told yah, yah fell 'cause yah lost yah bloody grip on the wall!"
"Oh, please." Victor replied dryly with a scowl. "I can scale buildings and climb upside down on ceilings and you're telling me I lost my grip?" They stared at each other, breathing jagged and tempers high.
"Yes." Came Leeland's ridiculous but stubborn reply.
Victor gritted his teeth. "Right." He began. "That does it!" Shouting, he threw himself forwards towards Leeland and grabbed a hold of both shoulders. He struck him down to the ground painfully, and the boy's shoulders bounced off the floor. Leeland hissed in pain and tried to kick up with his feet but his aim went wild and Victor was able to scramble over him. "I'm gonna start tearing wires out until you tell me."
"No! Don't touch it!" Leeland twisted over onto his stomach and pushed himself upwards, grabbing one of Victor's ankles to pull him backwards. The green mutant landed with a firm thud, both hands out flat on the metallic ground. He was able to push himself up and moved like liquid to the side, smacking Leeland in the shoulder as he went. He was clearly not exercising his full strength or potential.
However, the smack to his shoulder was a little firmer than Victor had anticipated and it shoved Leeland back towards the wall with a small whimper. It echoed in the tiny room and Victor stopped himself from doing anything drastic. Quickly, he peered over his shoulder and the anger faltered on his face. The other boy wasn't moving, sat with his back pressed up against the wall, his head bowed and his legs spread out in front of him. He pressed his hand up against his throbbing shoulder and winced at the tender twinge that shot down his arm.
"Dick." He muttered.
"Well…you started it." Came Victor's childish retort.
"Bollocks! Yah didn't 'ave to come with me in the first place. Ah told yah to cover me, an' you went and bloody rugby tackled me! Ah'm bruised to shit and Ah've no idea where 'alf of it's come from and my freakin' ears are bleedin' again!" The sting in his arm made him grunt again and kick his foot out in anger. His left foot struck the side of the wall and he hissed in pain when a jolt ran straight up towards his knee. "Ow." He sulked before tilting his head back to look at Victor.
"You're a real knob sometimes, yah know that?" Said Leeland flatly with a scowl and Victor returned the expression. He crawled over to Leeland, sat in front him in much the same way he had done when he was the generator, and slapped him.
The hit radiated like a burn against Leeland's cheek and he sucked back at whimper. His own hand rested against the offending area and it took all his might to blink back the tears in his eyes. It hurt more that Victor had hit him rather than the slap itself. They stared at each other and Leeland fell quiet.
"I only wanted to help you." Said Victor quietly, casting his eyes downwards before he snapped his head back up and glared at Leeland. "Not everyone is out to get you, but there are people out there who are. So stop being such a stubborn bastard when someone's trying to help you or you're going to start losing friends Leeland."
"BOYS!" A voice from above them scolded the room that Cerebro was housed in. It echoed off of the walls and Victor was certain that he could hear the remnants of a growl trickling straight after. Both boys winced, knowing full well that they were in deep trouble.
Neither said a word to each other as they climbed out of the hatch and shuffled themselves so Doctor McCoy could see them. He had a face that Leeland would have described as thunder. However, Victor could see a lion waiting to gobble up the tiny lizard and a dumb yellow puppy dog.
They were scolded outside Cerebro, the door behind them firmly locked. Beast knew very well though that Leeland could simply have walked back in if he wanted. However, when he was done with them he'd be surprised if they ever wanted to leave their rooms again.
"When I tell you to stay some where Leeland, do it! You're here for your own safety and protection boy, not to go wandering about whenever you feel like it. That room-" He pointed at the door to Cerebro with his paw like hand. "-Is out of bounds! You are not to go anywhere near it, Leeland Williams. Not near it, not in it, not even down this corridor."
Leeland sucked on one of his piercings during his scolding. An unsettling feeling swam into his stomach and tried to concentrate solely on Doctor McCoy's mouth. It was rather hard to read lips that were so angry that he was surprised that he didn't read a snarl at some point.
"And Victor, you know better and quite frankly I expected better."
Victor kept quiet as he took his telling off, but even Leeland could see that there had been some kind of trust broken between the two. It was something he himself had broken and he didn't much like the feeling it gave him.
"Doctor M-"
But Leeland was cut off when Beast put one finger in the air to silence him. "I don't want to hear it Leeland."
"But-"
"Williams, if you don't want to spend tonight in an observation tank where I can keep an eye on you then don't utter another word. Do I make myself clear?"
Resisting the urge to huff, Leeland simply nodded his head and let his eye's roam towards his trainers.
"Go upstairs Victor and get yourself cleaned up. I'll talk to you later," He glanced at Leeland. "On your own."
Victor nodded his head "I'm sorry, Doctor McCoy." He said quietly and Beast gave him a slight nod as he crossed his arms over his chest. The lizard mutant took that as his cue to leave and shuffled himself off quickly down the corridor, his hands jammed into his pockets as not to fiddle with his fingers.
He was so angry with Leeland. Yet, he was so much angrier with himself.
"Victor!" He heard Leeland calling his name and it took him a few seconds to finally look around at the other boy. When he did look, Victor's shoulders slumped.
The boy down the corridor looked battered and bruised, tired and wired all at the same time. His ears were a terrible mess and Victor was sure he was trembling.
"Ah'm sorry." He managed to say before Beast told him to hurry up and get back down to the infirmary.
Left alone in the corridor, Victor flattened his lips together and refused to chew on them. That strange unpleasant, yet wonderful feeling stirred up again in his stomach and he cursed it.
xxx
Firmly back on the bed in the infirmary, Beast warned Leeland that if he even thought about moving, then he would most definitely be in a world of trouble. Leeland didn't doubt for a second that he wouldn't be and sat very still with his shoulders hunched. Though now he could feel a bruise forming on the side of his face and he swallowed back the tears that were trying to form in his eyes.
Why did he say that to Victor? What on Earth was going through his mind to think that that was OK? Of course he knew he needed to suck it up and stop being such a baby. There were bigger things going on around him and he really had to toughen himself up.
Beast was muttering to himself as he came over to Leeland and started work, once again, on cleaning his ears. He had sent Josh back up to the main part of the building and Leeland was left feeling very much on his own.
After Beast had finished cleaning and dressing Leeland's ears again, he stood in front of him with a worn out expression. With a shake of his head, he removed his little round spectacles and gave them a clean on his lab coat collar. "What on Earth persuaded you to go back to the generator?" He asked but Leeland could only shrug his shoulders and look a little bit sheepish. Perhaps if he pulled off meek and innocent more then he would stop getting himself into such scrapes. Though on reflection he thought it was probably for that reason that he kept getting into so much trouble.
"No reason at all. You and Victor simply decided to go for a walk down to the most dangerous part of the school?"
"What, more dangerous than the Danger Room?" Leeland asked.
"Don't get cocky and answer the question, Leeland."
But Leeland fell silent once again and hunched his shoulder's forward, lips pressed together as he peered down at his trainers. He didn't hear Beast give a mighty sigh and he continued to stand in front of Leeland for several moments before giving up all together. "Fine, have it your way. You can stew down here on your own for a few hours until you give me an answer." Not that Leeland had heard any of what the Doctor had said to him but he did see his feet retreating and the words tumbled out of his mouth.
"What's a Technarch?" He hadn't even meant to ask Beast so suddenly but that sudden urge to know had built up inside him. If the generator was not going to tell him, then he would simply ask someone else.
The boy peered over his shoulder at Beast's rather confused looking face. Pressing his glasses back onto his nose he peered at Leeland before asking, "Where did hear that?"
Shrugging his shoulders, he replied "Nowhere. But it's an alien, isn't it?"
"Who told you about the Technarchy? Was it one of the other students, Victor- "
"No! No…Nobody told me about them, Ah just know is all." He replied rather quickly, determined not to tell Beast about the generator. It had a job to do. It had to protect the children and it couldn't very well do that if he went and blabbed to everyone.
Of course Beast didn't looked as if he believed him, but he let it go. "Yes, they're aliens. Not a very well known race but they have been here." A nostalgic smile creased the old man's face. "We had one on our first young team of mutants."
"Warlock." Leeland said without missing a beat and the Doctor stopped for a moment, the smile faltering on his face. How did he proceed with this? After all, he was the only one apart from Emma to know who Leeland's real father was. Or at least could be his father.
The beaten boy with his blood soaked hair gave the Doctor a sad little smile. "Ah'm not gonna beat around the bush. I already think ah'm insane for thinking it- probably a load of bullshit any way." He mumbled and turned back around to stare at his trainers, contemplating on what the generator had told him about the "father" who had asked it to look after him. What a bang up job it'd done so far!
There was a quick shuffling of feet and Beast quickly went over to the door of the infirmary, closing it firmly before locking it. A look crossed his face, one that Leeland wasn't too sure about and he gulped when Beast came over to him. The man braced his hands on Leeland's shoulders and whispered to him.
"Tell me, and tell me quietly."
"W-what?" It wasn't exactly what Leeland had been expecting.
"Leeland, do you want to sleep in your bed tonight or in an observation tank?"
"Bed!" Leeland all but shouted. "Definitely a bed…and not one down 'ere." He added.
"Then you'll tell me everything you know about Warlock and the other Technarch's."
The boy gulped and all but jumped when Beast pulled away from him quickly and headed to the back of the infirmary. Leeland watched him go and nearly fell from the bed when Beast motioned at him to follow. It wasn't through shock; mostly that he couldn't get his legs to work the way he wanted them too.
Battered and bruised, he followed Beast quickly down towards the smaller Danger Room where he had first put a computer together.
"Just to make sure…" Beast said quietly, turning to face Leeland so he could read his lips. "That we are talking about the same Warlock." He moved towards the centre of the room. Leeland stood at the side, his arms looping around the small set of steps that took a person down into the room.
"Well I doubt it's a very common name." he mumbled to himself and watched as Beast pulled up the chamber from the floor. Crouching around one side of it, he pushed at some buttons that Leeland couldn't see, before standing back. A holographic screen appeared before the two and Leeland gulped.
A strange sensation made his neck prickle and his hair stand on end. A ghost like image stared down at him and the boy shook his head; his arms wrapped so tightly around the stairs that he was surprised that he didn't pull them clean off.
"This isn't him then?" Beast asked, almost relieved as he too stared up at a robotic looking man. Gleaming blacks and vibrant golden yellows worked throughout his body as intricate wires and sturdy bolts. His mass of wire like hair was as wild as Leeland's was scruffy.
"Ah made him up." Whispered Leeland. "Dad said Ah'd made him up."
The Invisible Robot
May 1997
The North of England
Leeland was almost 8 and a half. That was what he told people when they asked how old he was. Not that people ever asked, after all the village was quite a close knit community and everyone knew everyone else. Though Leeland had suspected from a very early age that there were certain things that adults kept secret; like whom his mother was, for example.
It was not as if it ever upset him, only ever having his Dad, but there were a few times when he felt excluded. It would be his aunty Josie, Brian's mother, who picked them both up from school. His father was always working late, even on weekends and Leeland would be miserable without him. School fates, nearly all the mam's helped out and not to mention parents evenings. Just him and Dad, the poor Irish man having to sit on one of those tiny little chairs not made for a man built like a fridge.
He was never disruptive in school but it wasn't as if he really excelled at anything either. Except for art of course which they only did once a week for an hour. That was hardly enough time and often he would hide in the toilets afterward crying because he hadn't really learned his spellings. He'd tried of course, but it was as if his silly little head simply wouldn't keep the information in. Often he would wonder if having a mother meant he would be able to do his spellings better? She could sit with him and teach him all the difficult words and that would show his teacher that he wasn't thick!
Because Leeland wasn't stupid. His Dad had told him so, even though it felt and sounded like a lie.
It wasn't as if he was any different from the other little boy's in his class, eight all together and ten girls. Though he and Brian were like two little peas in a pod or "two little shits up to no good" as his Dad would put it.
Leeland was often pushed out at school. He didn't want to play football or roof house with the others. The girls never pushed him away though, like they did with the other boys, and he was often found with them at break, playing with the skipping ropes.
His year four teacher, Mrs. Hutton, had brought it up at his parents evening.
"There's just one more thing about Leeland. A small concern of mine." She told the rather tall and broad shouldered man. He bore no resemblance to the tall little boy in her class with his pale lemon hair and spindly legs.
"He doesn't seem to be getting on with the other boys." She started, pushing her tiny spectacles up her rather sharp nose.
"Oh? He's not said anything and he and Brian have been together since they were…well, forever." His father admitted with a small frown. The teacher gave him a pleasant if not slightly condescending smile. As if she was better because she was the teacher and he was only the child's father and what could he possibly know that a university hadn't taught her so many years before.
"Mr. Williams, how should I put this? Leeland isn't like the other boys. He likes to play with the girls and the boy's exclude him for this, even Brian."
Frowning again his father couldn't help the small smile that ran across his lips. It wasn't that Leeland was effeminate; he climbed trees and played in the dirt like any other eight year old. However, he knew he was slightly different and gave a small nod of his head. "That sounds like Leeland." He admitted and the teacher gave him a peculiar expression.
"What does it matter if he only plays with the girls? If it's not bothering him then it's not bothering me." He admitted with a soft shrug of his shoulders.
Mrs. Hutton was wrong though. Partially wrong at any rate. Leeland did play with the boy's and quite happily. They didn't exclude him; he simply chose not to play with them on occasions when he thought it was going to get a little violent.
However, one break-time they had been playing hide and seek and something rather startling had happened. It was the year four boys against year five. There were eleven of them to their eight and Brian was their best hider and Leeland their best seeker.
"It's cheatin' to use 'im!" Matthew Cook, a rather squat ten-year-old had moaned pointing at Leeland who was by far the tallest of the group. "E can see above all our 'eads!" He whined to which Brian responded rather tartly for an eight-year-old: "Well yah better hide in a better place then, this time. All of us could see you from behind that tree. It ain't wide enough for your fat arse!"
Mathew had swung for Brian and the tiny dark haired boy had jumped back with a half mad grin and dubbed Leeland seeker for their team. The blonde was up against Tommy Garner, a boy about as skinny as he was and could have blown away in the wind. However, Tommy was good but Leeland knew he was better. Mathew Cook was right, he could see above everyone's heads and he did the one thing no one else though of. He stayed still.
After both he and Tommy had counted to twenty, the nine-year-old had sprinted off towards the wooded area that was strictly forbidden but no dinner ladies had strayed from the concrete playground to see. Leeland, on the other hand, remained where he was. His pale eye's silently scanned the playing field and towards the wooded area. They scanned across the field of sheep next to the school and up across the road that led onto the motorway and away towards the city's.
He never knew how Brian did it. It was as if he simply vanished. He was also a little knob who never told Leeland where his secret hiding place was. The blonde didn't forgive his best friend for that. Ever.
So off he went, the warm early summer wind blowing around his scruffy school uniform. It wasn't that he turned up to school a mess, but he was a little boy. His school trousers were wearing at the knees and the white polo shirt always looked brown by Friday.
He spotted Gregory Black first, hiding behind the ball wall. It was a brick wall twice the height of him and as long as a house, which was used by the year six's as a goal post. They were away on a school trip.
"Gotcha!" He whispered harshly, peeking his pale head around the brick wall. Gregory squeaked, then swore. He grumbled as he moved off to the middle of the field and plonked himself down. The first catch of the day, he was up by one.
Ten minutes later and he had five more year fives. That included Matthew, who swore loudly, complained that Leeland was cheating and went to sulk with the others. The boy had been hiding in the wooded area and half way up one of the smaller trees. Though it wasn't a very good hiding place as he had snagged his jumper on one of the branches and Leeland had to help him down.
It was after the other boy had stormed away that the blonde was aware that someone was watching him. At first he presumed it was one of the year fives or even one of his fellow classmates. He turned abruptly and shouted, "BANG!" but nothing replied. The wind picked up and he shivered ever so slightly. Turning away he began to hum a little child's song, completely forgetting his seeker duty. Absentmindedly he began to pick bluebells that had coated the wooded area's ground. The boy had been told off many times before for picking wild flowers. Not that he cared. They were pretty.
The humming became quieter as he crouched down in front a small clear patch in the trees and hunched his shoulders. The wind curled around him and something tickled the back of his neck. It was like a warm string of electricity had slowly crawled up behind him but instead of shocking him, it tickled. It had been like that ever since he climbed the pylon. Daddy had beaten what he called "tens bells of shit" out of him for that once he was well enough. He hadn't been able to sit on his bum for days.
Ever since then the electrical appliances in the house would act strange around him. They would suddenly turn off when he walked into the room or turned on at the most inappropriate moments. He never told his father though; it seemed like something he didn't need to know about.
Staring at the patch of bluebells, Leeland watched with wide eye's as a large shadow loomed overhead. Scrunching his eye's up tight, he muttered under his breath that there was nothing there. Nothing could hurt him when the sun was out, that's what Daddy said. "And nothing can hurt you in the dark either." He'd added with a sad smile as Leeland had huddled around his night-light.
Little hairs stood up on the back of his neck and he felt the heavy weight of a hand rest upon his shoulder. He couldn't take it any more and let out a terrified little squeak and fell forward into the flowers. The hand moved itself quickly, resting under the boy's chest to break his fall. The boy landed with an awkward thud over something hard…moving. Peering down, Leeland looked over the hand's that had caught him; strange black robotic like appendages cradled his small long body.
They were adorned with gold circuits and bright yellow nuts and bolts holding them all in place. Leeland forgot for a moment that he was supposed to be scared and stared at them, intrigued. The hands gently let him down to the floor and the boy scrambled on all four's before slipping himself over.
His little mouth made a small 'O' as he looked up and up at the strange being in front of him. It was certainly a robot, Leeland knew that much. Black and gold, the same as the being's hands. It was tall and skinny, much taller than the little boy was. It grinned down at Leeland with a wide bright smile. It's teeth were straight polished oblongs in its mouth. The eyes were as wide as the child's own and the boy found himself staring at its wild scarecrow like hair.
"Greetings Infant." Came the creature's male voice, crisp with a slight detection of robot coarseness. It waited for Leeland to speak and when the boy didn't reply it tilted its head to the side with a frown.
"H…Hi." Came Leeland's tiny voice, barely a whisper and the creature crouched down in front of him and peered in with its bright shiny face.
"Self's designation is Warlock. What is yours, infant?" The being, Warlock, peered at Leeland with a wide grin and Leeland was reminded of the Cheshire Cat. For a moment he wondered if he had hit his head.
"Err…what's a designation?" The boy asked, bringing his legs closer to his body. He raised a skeptical eyebrow at the robot and stretched himself forward until he was face to face with the creature. His hands where planted on the ground below, dirt building up on his pale skin. He should have been terrified, he knew that. Except…he wasn't scared.
"Your name. What have the Earthlings designated you?" Warlock asked quite patiently as Leeland stretched out his hand and poked the robot in the front of his head. Quickly, he scooted backwards and scratched the back of his own head.
"Oh…Leeland. Daddy called me Leeland. Ah think mama did too but ah don't remember her." He told Warlock quite truthfully and he stared down at his hand. Warlock certainly felt very real. But Leeland often daydreamed when he was bored and this had to be one of those occasions. Had to be.
"Hmm." Warlock lifted a hand and scratched at his chin, thinking. "You certainly look like self soul friend."
"A what?"
"Self Soul Friend Doug! He was Self's best friend!" Warlock exclaimed happily before a small sadness crept onto his face and Leeland bit his lip. "My best friend's called Brian. 'E never tell's me where 'is 'iding place is, it's like 'e goes invisible."
"Self did detect a temporal disturbance in the air. " Warlock looked back down at Leeland before getting to his feet. "Self Soul Friend Doug must have kept you a secret Infant for reasons Self can not comprehend. But then, self is very young and knows very little."
"I ain't an Infant." Leeland corrected the Warlock who looked at him with an air of puzzlement.
"Ah'm in year 4, Ah'm a junior. The Infants aren't allowed on the field 'cause they're babies. And…" He got to his feet, wiping the muck on his hands onto his trousers. "Ah don't know anyone called Doug."
"But Infant, you must!" Warlock protested.
"Ah ain't no infant!" Leeland very nearly shouted, jutting his lip out and clutching his fist. "Ahm eight and a half and ah'm the tallest in mah class."
"Self is also the tallest in Self's class. Since Self Soul Friend Doug's death, Self has been…confused and class has not been the same. He would not accept Life glow and Self became very puzzled. Self-friend Rahne explained to Self that Doug was dead and that he would not come back. They put him in the ground and they told Self that Self would never see Self Soul Friend ever again." The robot looked sad, its shoulders sagging as it spoke to the strange and familiar little boy in front of him.
Leeland blinked. It took him a few moments to figure out just what the robot had said. He didn't completely follow, but he got the general gist of it. Biting the side of his lip he reached out with his hand, patting the creature on the arm. "It's OK Warlock. Ah can't see Mama either…and Brian can't see his Daddy. But that's ok. It's not like Ah'm on my own. Bet you have friends too."
"Self has many friends, but Doug…" He looked down at the little boy who nodded his head. "Doug was your best friend?" He asked and Warlock nodded.
They stood in silence for a few moments before the sound of a school bell made him jump. A dinner lady could be heard calling each year group.
"Ah gotta go now." He looked up at Warlock and took a deep breath. He laced his fingers around the robot's hand and squeezed it tight.
"You mustn't!" Warlock exclaimed and held Leeland's hand firm but the little boy shook his head. "You gotta go home too. You have to visit Doug's grave or it'll get lonely like my mama's. It's too far away for us to visit it." Leeland gently pried his hand for Warlock's and stood apart from him.
"Well…bye then." He rubbed his freckle-covered nose and waved bye. The robot made the same childish action and Leeland grinned before he turned and quickly ran from the wooded area.
Warlock gave an almighty sigh; his shoulder's physically sagging. His calculations had been so precise! He had detected Doug, he was so sure of it. But then all that had shown up was a child swimming in Doug's DNA and something closer to home. He frowned but a smile played on his mechanical lips. He disappeared from the spot, borrowing technology that was not his for the journey and the wooded area was left silent.
That was until a small shock of blue light erupted where Warlock had stood seconds before.
"BRIAN SIER!" A teacher yelled somewhere in the distance and the little boy swore under his breath. He set off at a run towards the playground, completely unaware of what had just happened between his best friend and a lost little alien.
After that first meeting, a great storm had fallen over the little village where Leeland lived and it had rained for days. The gutters in the street had started to swell and there was talk about the river over flowing. So much for the weekend.
None of this really concerned the little boy sat at the kitchen table, his hand grasped around a black crayon as he scribbled. The wood beneath the paper was worn and scrubbed, with random pencil crayon marks here and there where the boy had slipped over the years.
Leeland listened to the rain as is spat onto the window just behind him, his eye's wide as he concentrated on the dark marks on the paper. The giant black coils that made up the bulk of the robots legs and the strange way his mouth glowed without having any light behind it. The boy poured it all into his drawings, over and over.
His father had been watching him absently from a far for a couple of hours. Walking past the table every now and again he would get a new glance of his son's new invention; the robot named 'Locke.
"And he's an robot man, you say?" Daddy asked again and Leeland looked up with a slightly annoyed expression. The kind that little children can only play on, it makes them look adorable instead of irked.
"Yes. He came looking' for 'is friend who he couldn't find because he's dead." He said quite bluntly and turned back to the drawing. Daddy frowned behind him and settled into the chair next to his eight year old. "Who's dead Leeland?"
Leeland raised one shoulder in a shrug, rubbed at his nose and looked up at Daddy with pale eyes. "'E said 'e had a friend. That his friend had died but he was pretty sure that 'e had put him some where."
Daddy bit the corner of his lip and picked up one of the drawings. It was something he had noticed in his son since he was old enough to hold a crayon or mess with a pot of paint; he had an eye for form. His grades may have been appalling but the kitchen walls were covered in his adolescent scribbles, each one better than the last one he'd drawn.
"When I was a bit younger than you, I had a friend like this too. I called him kipper."
The little boy looked up at his daddy with a frown and arched one slim pale eyebrow. He wanted to tell him that Kipper was a silly name, but what did he know? Instead he turned back to his drawing.
"Are you not getting along with Brian, Leeland?"
"What? Of course ah ahm!"
"Then why the imaginary friend?"
Leeland dropped his crayon down onto the table and turned sharply towards Daddy. "'E's not imaginary!" He exclaimed, jutting his bottom lip out in a sulk and he glared up at Daddy, testing him to see what he would make of that piece of information.
His father simply sighed and nodded his head. "Ok Leeland, he's not imaginary." Something sounded off about the man's tone of voice and Leeland shifted uncomfortably on his seat.
He got up from the table and peered down at his son. "I have to pop across the road for a few minutes. Will you be OK on your own?"
Leeland nodded his head as he went back to his drawing and his father stood sheepishly for a moment before nodding and moving off and out of the kitchen. Something didn't settle right with the man. Perhaps it was the tone of the boy's voice or how defensive he became of his new "friend." He'd tried to stop being so paranoid over every little thing Leeland did but after almost nine years, it was starting to weigh on his shoulders.
After hearing the front door click shut, Leeland put down his pencil crayon and peered over his shoulder. The rain still hammed down hard against the glass and everything outside looked gray and dull. It was strange, like a shimmer of unpolished glass had been dropped over the little village.
The boy stood up and headed over to the widow, his fingers pressing smudge marks up against the cold clear glass. His eye's scoured the dark sky and he gnawed on the side of his lip.
"Where are you?" He whispered quietly, pressing his forehead up against the cool glass. He scowled, and curled his little fingers into small angry fists. The robot had been real. Hadn't he?
But it had been three weeks since Warlock had stopped him falling head first into a patch of flowers. Their fleeting meeting had stirred something strange inside the boy's very being. The appliances around the house had not reacted strangely to him. In fact he used the toaster for pop tarts that morning without it setting off the smoke alarm like normal.
It was a strange longing feeling. Like he had been suddenly left with someone he didn't know and in a strange alien land. The little boy didn't know what the strange feeling in his head meant or the odd looks he now gave people. Like seeing them for the first time.
He felt like an alien, abandoned and alone waiting for someone real to come and pick him up.
A flash of lighting illuminated the sky and Leeland's head shot up. A tingle ran up his spine and danced along his skin and it caused a grin to spread out across his freckled face. As quick as a shot, he ran towards the back door and quickly slipped on his little green Wellingtons. He grabbed up his raincoat, pulled the hood over his head and unlocked the back door. Without a second thought, he ran out into the cold rain and headed towards the back fence.
His father had fixed it months before. Leeland had unfixed it. Now one of the slats moved to the side and he was able to slip through. He ran out into the old field, rain and mud splattering up against his short clad legs and Wellington boots. He stuck his hands up in the air and gave a great yell of joy "Ah'm here! Ahm here!" He jumped in the biggest and muddiest puddle he could find and shot his arms up into the air.
Grinning, rain water poured down into his face. He giggled, as it tickled down into his clothing and soaked him through. He spun around and around, his little raincoat was now as wet as he was and he came to a sudden halt and peered up and up at the robot in front of him.
"You…you came?"
The rain bounced of the robot man, making his naked circuitry almost gleam in the dullness of the day. The robot nodded and raised his head towards the sky. The rain washed down him and the little boy tilted his head to the side.
"Won't you get rusty?" He asked before frowning. "And what took you so long!" He stamped his little welly covered foot. The mud squelched underneath him, making him a little uncertain on his feet.
"Self is sorry infant. The demons of limbo had escaped, and now our home is destroyed. Self friends and Self must move to a new place, high above the clouds." Warlock peered up at the rain clouds and Leeland pursed his lips to the side.
"Daddy says you're all in my head. That I made you up." He supposed demons, blowing up a house and a home in the sky would warrant imagination. But he was eight and he only just figured out that putting tin foil in the microwave would blow it up. If this were all in his head, then surely he'd be smarter by now.
"Self is not in infant's head!" Warlock retorted with a slight tapping of his foot and his hands pressed firmly to his hips. He peered down at Leeland with a tilt of head and the boy looked at him with a perplexed little smile.
"Sorry." He replied and realised that it was probably very rude to insinuate that someone wasn't real when they were as plain as the freckles on his face. "Told you I weren't no infant as well." He leaned forward and poked one little finger into the robot's stomach. It was hard like metal, and as warm as skin ad he placed the full spread of his hand against it.
Little droplets of rain slashed off his hand and he grinned up at Warlock who smiled right back. A great robotic hand came to the top of his head and patted the short fuzz of hair gently. "But you are an infant. His." he said is sadly with a forlorn smile and Leeland frowned in confusion. He was about to ask whom when he was quickly scooped up off the ground and placed neatly on the robot's hip.
"Hey!" Leeland protested, kicking his long legs out wildly. He was a bit big for picking up. Not even Daddy picked him anymore, except when he fell asleep in places other than his bed. However, Warlock was taller than Daddy. Taller than any other person he had ever met and he did feel quite safe in the arms of the robot.
"Ha!" Said Warlock. "Does this not prove to little self-kin that Self is real?" he asked and poked the boy in the side of his chest. It caused him to giggle and Warlock beamed at him before placing him back down on the ground.
The rain was certainly heavier now, cascading down upon then like a small waterfall. Warlock peered over his shoulder and a look of worry seeped in his eye's. The little boy frowned and looked around Warlock, but he could not see much on the account of the rain.
"Locke? It's raining pretty hard now." The boy began to chatter. The water was cold against his skin and it seeped down into his clothes, causing them to stick to his cooling skin. "You wanna come to mine. You'll rust out here. Won't you?" Leeland glanced up at Warlock who did not respond, nor did he look down at Leeland.
"Locke!" Leeland whined, getting more frustrated and he reached his hand up to Warlock's and began to tug on it. "Come on, or you're gonna get all stiff like the tin man." He tried to pull the robot over towards his house but the robot didn't move. He did however look down at Leeland.
"Infant, Self must tell you something very serious."
Leeland paused and blinked slightly. He nodded his head and his grip on Warlock's hand tightened. Don't leave me. Don't leave me again. He pleaded over and over in his head.
"OK." He voice was ever so quiet.
"Self-Kin mustn't let anyone else know Self was here. Not your father or your friends. Self-kin must go straight home."
"What?" It was so abrupt that Leeland didn't quite understand. He refused to let go of Warlock's hand.
"Self-Kin. You must go home!"
"No!" Leeland shouted and let go of the robot's hand abruptly before throwing his arms around the creature's middle. The little boy did not quite reach the robot's waist and instead he hugged his leg tightly. Pressing his cheek into the metal and wires, he squeezed his eyes tight as not to cry. "Ah ain't leaving yah, so you'll just 'ave to take me with yah!"
Warlock blinked and he looked down at the tiny human shaped infant. He glanced up and around the large unused field that they were occupying and his eyes rested upon the little cottage that the boy lived in. With a silent move of his arms, he timidly stroked his metal fingers through Leeland's short hair and the boy loosened his grip for a moment. The little boy looked up at the robot and the rain merged with his tears.
"This is human emotion that Self finds confusing and hurtful. Self does not want to leave little self-kin behind for self-kin is the first of his kind and certainly not safe." He spoke mostly to himself as all Leeland could do was stare at him with large perplexed eyes. "However, little self-kin is in the care of someone that Self trusts." Not that Warlock had ever met Leeland's father but the boy seemed in fine spirits, apart from a strange anomaly or two that the alien kept picking up at strange intervals.
Crouching down, Warlock gently pried the boy off of his leg and took a firm hold of his shoulders. "Self-kin is to stay here."
"But…but ah don't want to. Ah want to go with you. If you're really real like yah say yah are then yah'll take me with yah!" Leeland whined, his little hands curled into annoyed fists. With his little lip jutted out he scowled at Warlock and a part of him felt ever so disappointed.
"Bribery will do nothing for you little one. If Self-Kin wants to stay safe, then you will go home right now." And Warlock pointed with his arm that was almost as long as Leeland but the boy stubbornly shook his head.
"No! ah won't go!" He shouted and he stamped his foot again. Unfortunately, the mud beneath his feet had become dislodged and slippery. It caused the boy to gasp as he toppled backwards, hitting the ground below with loud thud. The mud splashed out around him, covering his once colorful raincoat in thick mud and various bits of long dead grass.
"Self-Kin!" Warlock gasped, moving to try and pick up the boy. However, Leeland scrambled backwards as he glared up at the robot. "Daddy was right! You are just in mah head 'cause I never come up with anything good! Why couldn't ah 'ave made up my mama instead!" He began to cry as he forced himself to his feet, trying to wipe his face with his muddy coat sleeve.
Warlock could only look at him with an expression of confusion before it turned into sympathy. "Self-Kin…" He sighed as he tried to reach out for the boy again.
"Shut up!" The boy shouted. "Mah names Leeland! Ah'm going home and ah never wanna see yah again!" he shouted before turning angrily and stomping all the way back to the broken fence and his garden.
The robot watched almost dutifully after the child, who didn't run. He made his way home in an air of what Warlock read as fury. A frustrated anger hung around the little boy but it was not something the alien could take away. He wasn't even sure there was any way he could make things better.
"Good bye Self-Kin." The alien said quietlyand shook his head before disappearing from the spot, not realising that it would be the last time he saw the child.
Returning to the garden, Leeland clutched to the fence as he forced himself not to look back at Warlock. However, it got the better of him and he turned to peer over his shoulder. The alien was no longer there and a sudden feeling of loss swept over the boy's little body. Gulping back tears, he gritted his teeth and kicked the back fence.
The wooden slat promptly fell off just as he heard Daddy calling frantically for him. "LEELAND!" His father's voice fairly roared over the sound of the rain and he jumped slightly before scrambling through the fence.
Sheepishly, he stood at the back of the garden, covered in mud and dead grass and fiddled with the front of his coat. "Where the hell have you been, boy?" His father came the garden path, looking annoyed, frantic and wet. The boy knew he was going to be slapped and burst into tears.
Williams slowed and stood in front of his wet and muddy son, the anger on his face replaced with frantic concern. "Leeland? Lad, what's wrong?" The man demanded, taking his little boy by the shoulders but the boy couldn't say and he fell forwards to clutch his fathers soaking coat and hid his face in it.
How could he possibly tell his father that he had been right all along? That the creature he had made up in his head felt more real to him than his father ever would.
Now
The boy was still clutching the stepladder as he stared at the image in front of him. He'd fallen silent but resisted closing his eyes, he couldn't very well "hear" anything if he did that. However, the feeling had stirred inside of him, one of fear of not belonging and he didn't much care for it.
"Ah'm such a stupid idiot."
"Leeland…" Beast started but the boy shook his head before glaring up at the holographic image. He flicked his hand angrily at it, sending it away with flicker as he sat on the bottom step with a thud.
"How…How the hell did ah think ah'd made him up? How thick a kid was I? How thick am ah now!" He groaned as his let his head bow, fingers snarled in his scruffy blonde hair. Everything was slowly coming back to him; how terrible he was all that summer. Quiet, stubborn and angry.
"Ah got so pissed off with everyone. Angry with my dad and ah couldn't even tell him why, heck ah didn't even know why!" shaking his head, he closed his eyes and hid himself away in the dark solace of his own being.
The feeling a gentle hand on his shoulder made him look at Beast and the good Doctor could not have looked sterner. "You are not stupid."
"Ah'm thick! Thick, thick, thick. There was an alien practically stalking me and ah went and invited him back for tea. All that time my dad was trying to protect me - God no wonder we stopped talking." He pushed away from Beast and moved himself further into the room. With his arms wrapped around his chest he scowled, an almost permanent fixture on his face.
Beast all but tugged his arm off when he turned the tall youth to face him, frowning behind his glasses. With a stern glare he pointed a finger at Leeland. "Read these lips Leeland, and read them well; you are not stupid. A little stubborn perhaps, a tiny bit angry but certainly not stupid."
"You'll be taking that back when yah see my high school grades." Leeland warned him and Beast raised his hand. For a split second, the boy winced, thinking he was going to be hit again. He'd had enough of that with the generator, and Victor. Instead, the great paw like hand settled itself on his head and ruffled his hair.
The boy opened his pale eyes as the cat like mutant smiled at him, albeit with slight pity in the corner of his eyes. "You may not be book smart, and you may need a lesson or two in common sense, but your handling of this whole situation is rather admirable." The man removed his hand, not before patting him on the arm again.
Leeland sucked on his lip, unsure how to reply and decided to let it slip past him. "So…" He started quietly. "Ah'm an…alien? Or at least ah could be?" He asked with a frown, feeling terribly confused.
"It would appear so." Beast motioned for the boy to follow him towards his office. "I think-" Started the older mutant. "It's time, Leeland, that I came clean and told you about your father. You're real father."
xxx
The hot water felt great against Victor's skin. It washed down his face and his aching limbs. The day's events had well and truly worn him out and he was looking forward to curling up somewhere warm and quiet.
He watched as Leeland's blood trickled away down the drain and he let out a tired sigh. "This is too much." He muttered to himself, his lips taking in the warm droplets of water as he wiped the soapsuds from his eyes. It certainly wasn't easy keeping stuff away from his eyes without eyelashes.
Stepping out of the shower, he shook off the water and grabbed a towel from the hanging rail. Pulling the soft material tight around his shoulders, he braced himself for the cold outside his bathroom. It didn't matter how warm he had the room, cold bloodedness was not something everyone else had to put up with. He could not regulate his own body temperature like the other students and had to rely on an excess of heat. (He wondered how Leeland had even slept in it.)
Taking a deep breath, he opened the bathroom door and attempted to run and find clothes. The scene that met him though had him staring wide-eyed before he gave an almighty squeak and ran back into the bathroom.
"Oh come on Victor!" Alani and Hope had been stood in front of his bathroom door, waiting for him to move on out into his bedroom.
"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Victor could feel his voice practically breaking, again, as he shouted at the girls. Though it did sound slightly muffled through several inches of wood. He shrank himself as small as he could and wrapped several towels around his naked body.
"It's not like we've not seen it all before." Alani rolled her eyes, used to the kind of warmth in Victor's room due to childhood in Hawaii. Hope was less used to it, fanning her self down with her hand and growing slightly irritable. "And you don't even like girls so why should you care if we see." Snapped the usually quiet girl, her love for classical music usually kept her quite mellow. The heat didn't agree with her apparently.
"Yes!" Victor hissed. "But that doesn't mean I want you to see me naked!"
"For goodness sake." Alani threw her hands up in the air and she moved over to the boy's dresser and pulled him out some clothes. "What are you doing?" Victor asked suspiciously, not to comfortable with the idea of the girls in his room. Especially Alani.
She marched back over to the bathroom door. "I have clothes for you, open the door or I crumble it down…or I send in Hope."
"I'm not leaving my body out here in this heat! It's like a sauna in here!" Hope complained and just as the girls blinked their eyes, the bathroom door snapped open. The clothes were grabbed and the door was slammed shut again.
After several moments of Victor muttering nonsensically, the door opened to reveal a rather annoyed looking lizard boy, slightly camouflaged due to his embarrassment. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared at the girls before titling his head to the side. "What are you looking at me like that for?"
The playfulness of the situation had disappeared and Alani looked at him with slightly concern. "Victor." She started, before glancing at the short brown haired girl. "We heard you screaming."
The boy let his arm's drop, but he didn't respond. He sniffled and rubbed at his nose, glanced over his shoulder and began to pick up the discarded towels strewn upon the floor.
"Vic? Did you hear me?" The Hawaiian girl asked gently and she approached the bathroom door.
"I heard." Said Victor. "I'm not sure when I was supposed to have been screaming though. Maybe when I found you outside my bathroom?" He tried to smile through it, but that image of the smiling woman was burnt into his mind. He shook it away though.
"You scarpered from Miss. Frost's office like you'd seen a ghost. I mean I know she's pale and quite creepy but-"
"Look." Victor started, resting his hands on the towel rack. "I appreciate the concern, really." He gave them a soft smile but shrugged his shoulders. "It's just got nothing to do with you guys."
Alani scowled at him. "Leeland?" She asked and the green mutant rolled his eyes. "Not that I have to explain myself, but yeah. When is it not about him?" Victor was starting to miss normality. But then again, to miss normality you had to have some resemblance to normal. Which none of the mutants had.
The girl smirked behind her hand, her eye's creasing and Victor saw it as nothing good. "Is that all, I've got homework to do. And Hope's about to pass out." He pointed at the brown haired girl, who all but given up fanning herself and had flopped back on the bed with sweat pooling around her.
"You must have the biggest crush on him if you're keeping secrets for him." The girl shrugged, her hands going behind her back as she crossed the room to Hope. Victor stared at her before spluttering. "Alani!"
"What, it's perfectly reasonable." She gave a shrug of her shoulders as she pulled Hope up onto her feet.
"It is not! Get outta my room!"
They left, Alani smirking to herself and Hope muttering about breaking the boy's thermostat and being in denial. Just as he was about to slam the door, the tattooed girl poked her head back around the door. "But you know he likes you, right?"
Victor scowled and then slammed the door.