Chapter 21
"Well folks as much as I would love to spend the day with you all I'm afraid my time is up for another day but rest assured the Live Wire will be back tomorrow. Same time. Same station so don't you dare retune your radios. Ciao!"
"And we're off the air," the producer tells her.
Leslie Willis stands up and stretches out a few of her muscles from sitting for so long. She loves her life. She loves her job and people seem to love her and all those people who use to bully her at school and call her a loud-mouth...Ha! If only they could see her now. The number 1 show in the Bayville area at a mere 21 years of age and one day she is sure she'll be a nation wide success. She takes her glasses off for a second and puts them down so she can fix her shoulder length black hair that has started to come out of the pony tail she had put it in today.
She is just putting her glasses back on when her producer sticks his head through the door and informs her that her boss wants to see her. She briefly wonders what about but simply shrugs, grabs her bag and makes her way to his office. She barges in as is her habit. "You wanted to see me Trev."
Trevor Wright shakes his head. He hated that nickname Leslie used and worse she knew it which is why she uses it. Leslie was not an easy person to like. It was only because she brought in great ratings that she was still around. He gestures at the chair across the table from him. "Sit down Leslie," he tells her. "And it's Trevor. You know it is."
Leslie smirks. Yeah she knows he likes to be called using his whole name. "So what's up boss?"
Well boss is slightly better Trevor thinks to himself. "We need to discuss some of your show's content Leslie."
She raises her hands up. "Whoa. Right there. You better not be talking about censoring me. I have my rights under the Constitution to say what I want."
"Within reason," Trevor amends her.
"What do you want from me? I don't swear on air. I don't encourage drinking or smoking or taking drugs or anything like that. I just air what the people really think on a few subjects."
"Yes well one of those subjects have had the owners on my back and now I'm coming down on your back."
"The owners!" Leslie nearly shouts incredulously at what she is hearing. "I have given the owners the best ratings they have had in the last decade," Leslie reminds Trevor.
"Which is why you still have your job but if you don't modify some of your content you won't have that for much longer," Trevor warns her.
Leslie stares at Trevor intently. "Level with me Trevor. What is going on?"
Trevor stands up and goes to the window while rubbing his eyes. "Your words have ticked off someone powerful who has been putting pressure on to have you fired."
Leslie thinks on it for a few seconds before she reaches a conclusion. "It's Luthor. Isn't it."
Trevor turns round to face her before answering. "Yes."
Leslie stands up and starts to pace about extremely agitated. The light above her head flickers weirdly like in response to her mood. "Oh come on Trev! You are letting that corrupt zealous little b..."
"Leslie," Trevor cuts her off. She knows how he feels about swearing. He doesn't like it. Not on his shows. Not in his workplace.
Leslie reigns herself in slightly. "You're letting him curtail us! You have to be joking me!"
Trevor sighs. "Leslie. He is an powerful, wealthy man. He leaned on the owners to have you fired. I have done everything I can to defend you but the owners minimum demand for you keeping your job is that you lay off Lionel Luthor."
"I won't do it. I can't. You know I can't."
Trevor lets out another sigh, a sad one. "I know." He sits back down and slumps like all his strength has left him. "I'm sorry Leslie. I tried but if you aren't willing to compromise then I have no choice."
"Don't bother Trevor because I'll save you the trouble. I quit." She will not be gagged under any circumstances. Leslie then marches around his desk, grabs Trevor by his shirt and proceeds to lay a full blown kiss on his lips. Trevor just looks at her in total shock. "That's a thanks for standing up for me," she explains.
Leslie then leaves, her head held high. At the door she stops for a second. "And don't you worry about me Trevor. It takes more than this to keep the Live Wire down."
With that Leslie makes her exit. As she heads down the stairs to leave her anger keeps building and building. Lionel Luthor. What a bastard!
The light she happens to be walking by at that moment then explodes. "Ah man. Not again!" Leslie mutters while walking away as fast as she can before someone notices she caused that. It is her gift or her curse. She can manipulate electricity so when she is ticked off she tends to cause small power surges around her and blow stuff up. She can also generate small amounts. Not all that much. About enough to power a light-bulb. She is a literal Live Wire. Hence why she chose her nickname. She chose it because...well it wasn't like she could tell anyone she was a freak was it? Not even her parents know about her freakishness.
Leslie makes it outside to the dull, overcast and cold winter's sky. 'What the hell is Lionel Luthor's problem?' she asks herself. Can he not even take a few slight criticisms. She means a guy like him probably has a lot of darker skeletons in the closest than the few she laid at his feet.
At that thought a small subtle smile comes to Leslie's face. Yes a guy like him no doubt does have a lot of skeletons in his closet and all it takes is something clever and brave enough to open the door and look. Someone like her. Lionel Luthor wants to try and have her gagged then she'll expose the slime ball so that all the world can see his true colours.
At Bayville High that very same day it is lunchtime and as usual a lot of the students from the Institute tend to sit together. Even Jean has joined them today much to Scott's happiness. There had been absolutely no sign of Nathan Dean since their encounter at the scrapyard so the best guess was that he had fled town. If he shows up on Cerebro again misusing his powers they'll stop him but hopefully he'll just keep a low profile from now on.
Scott's happiness at having Jean near doesn't last very long when Pietro decides to pay them a visit. He leans forward and places his hands on the table and speaks in a low voice. "So I was meaning to ask you guys. What happened to the Super-Dork that left him doing a poor man's Neo impression?"
All of them shoot Pietro the same dirty look.
"Go take a hike Maximoff," Evan tells his long term rival. "It is none of your business." All of the students knew about Clark's weakness to the meteor rock dubbed kryptonite and all had promised not to breathe a word of it to anyone.
Pietro smirks a little amused at Evan's boldness considering how he beat Daniels at the scrapyard. Pietro straightens up. "Fine. Keep your little secrets but I know the truth. In a way I guess it is a shame really for anyone to be denied the sight of seeing my face," he boats with his usual unbridled cockiness while he actually preens himself.
"Unfortunately I can see you just fine," a voice from directly behind Pietro dead-pans.
Pietro spins on the spot to be forced to look up, since he was so tall, at the aforementioned Super-Dork in glasses. Pietro frowns in confusion. "But...how? I saw you at the scrapyard."
"Scrapyard?" Clark queries in confusion. "Don't know what you mean Pietro. I was off sick with the flu," he says in what was the excuse given for him being off school. "Right guys?" Clark asks the assembled mutants.
"Oh Ja," Kurt says backing up Clark.
"Yeah. I mean he was like looking really awful. All red-eyed and runny nose and everything," Kitty joins in.
The others nod and mutter their agreement.
"Besides," Clark continues. "If I had been at the scrapyard you would have to admit how you were cold-cocked by a blind guy." Clark says it because he knows how much it would hurt Pietro's ego to admit it. "And that would be downright humiliating."
"Ya got that right," Rogue joins in not missing this opportunity to rub it in to Pietro because seriously the guy's an ass. When she was with the Brotherhood he hit on her all the time.
Pietro's eyes narrow. "This isn't over Kent," he warns his voice low with anger.
"Have a nice day Pietro," Clark says not responding to Pietro's threat. They lock glares for a few moments before Pietro stalks off, silently fuming, back to where the rest of the Brotherhood are.
With that sorted Clark sits himself down next to Rogue who, now that he can see, he plans to take on their first date tonight. Frankly he can't wait and not even Pietro's aggravating personality is going to be able to ruin his good mood.
Several days later...
"So did you like have a nice date last night?" Kitty asks her room-mate.
It is morning and Rogue is just finishing putting her gloves on as the final touch to getting dressed. "What?" she asks back.
"Did you have a nice date?" Kitty repeats herself.
That all too rare thing, at least in Kitty's opinion, appears on Rogue's face. A genuine broad happy smile. "Yes we did."
It had been a week since she and Clark started dating and they had managed to go out on a couple of dates and Rogue has to say she was loving it. Clark was always so thoughtful about every aspect of it so that he ensures she is happy. Rogue can't say she has really ever met that many people who were willing to do that for her and she certainly never dated one.
"Well that's great...if you can call going to the cinema and watching a horror movie a good time," Kitty remarks at what Rogue and Clark did because Kitty certainly wouldn't call that a good time.
"It's a good tahme for meh," Rogue insists. She loves horror movies.
"I am kind of surprised that you managed to persuade Clark to sneak in under-age." After all Clark has this whole boyscout routine going.
Rogue shrugs her shoulders unsure what to say back exactly. She was kind of surprised herself that Clark agreed. Just goes to show that there are more layers to Clark than would first appear and she is determined to discover all of them.
When they get down to the kitchen for breakfast Rogue finds Clark has made her favourite which gets a collective 'aw' from everyone there. She knows there is going to be some ribbing to come but hell it is worth it.
The radio in the background is tuned to the breakfast show with its new host since Ms Leslie 'Live Wire' Willis had departed. Clark was certainly not missing her. He was not wasting all that much time thinking about her, not when he has a girlfriend who needs his focus much more. Clark could honestly say he was having a really great time with Rogue and for once he could actually be his real self around someone. No more secrets or lies.
He pushes the glasses on his nose up as he sits down at the table to eat his breakfast. His eyes were still not fully recovered. His x-ray and heat vision had still not returned and he still needed the glasses. He had thought a few days ago that he could get rid of them when he woke up and everything was back in focus but it didn't even last until he left for school before his vision blurred up again. He has found that he can make his eyes stay in focus for a couple of hours at most which lets him get through DR sessions but apart from that he is basically wearing his glasses all the rest of the time.
"It's not fair you know," Bobby says out of the blue.
"Vhat isn't fair?" Kurt asks him.
"I miss Live Wire," he sadly laments.
Clark blinks and turns his gaze to Bobby upon hearing that. Something finally makes sense. "It was you that kept tuning it onto her show."
Bobby smiles. "Well yeah. She had a sexy voice."
Clark has to say that it is a really good thing his heat vision isn't working because otherwise Bobby would be in big trouble.
"I wonder what happened to her," Bobby muses.
That night Leslie stands on the rooftop opposite the new Luthorcorp building. She had not rushed into this. She had taken every day since she quit her job to case the place out to understand the routine of the guards. Not to mention she had managed to pilfer one of their uniforms to use as a disguise. Now all she has to do is get up to Lionel's office and have a look through his personal files. When she has all his secrets she plans to sell them to a newspaper she decided was best. She hadn't decided which one yet. She was caught between the Daily Bugle and the Daily Planet. Oh well she can decide later. Now it is show time.
Leslie makes her way back down to the ground and crosses the street and walks into the Luthorcorp building. Her timing was perfect. The guard at the desk had gone for a coffee. He was a creature of routine Leslie had noted these last few days. Always going at the exact same time. The cleaners she passes, mostly immigrants, barely give her a glance as she reaches the elevator using her power to turn off the security cameras as she passes near them.
Leslie reaches Lionel's office no problem and can see it has an electronic lock. She smirks as she raises her hand to it. Sparks of electricity flow from the end of her fingers into the lock shorting it out and opening the door. "Should have stuck with the traditional kind of lock Lionel," she says under her breath. Of course she was prepared for that too. She can pick a lock with the best of them.
Leslie makes her way over to the desk and sits herself down in his chair as she fires up his computer. Now for the password entry. Leslie locks her fingers together and gives them a crack. She places her hands over the keyboard, closes her eyes and concentrates. Using her power she can input letters far faster than she could ever type and allows her to run through all possible combinations at a phenomenal speed. Still it takes several minutes until she cracks it.
Leslie leans forward. "Now Lionel lets see what secrets you are hiding." Leslie's eye is drawn to a icon tagged 'Salvation'. She opens that up. What she finds are a lot of schematics that she doesn't understand but a plan of the building showing that whatever Lionel is up to is down in the basement.
Now she has him.
Leslie gets up and makes her way back to the elevator. She can see the button for the basement needs a key to activate it. She peers in the hole and can see it is an electronic key. She places her finger over the hole and activates her power and the elevator descends.
When it stops and the door opens Leslie peers out the doors carefully. Seems no-one is around so she walks out into the corridor and starts looking around. She eventually comes across what she guesses is a lab of some sort. In the middle of which is a half built tube or cylinder with these odd green crystals embedded in the lining the unfinished interior. There are a lot of wires and circuit boards and stuff still exposed.
Leslie bets Lionel never got permission for all this to be down here because this is the kind of stuff they don't allow in town centres for obvious reasons. Facilities like this are suppose to be built outside of towns in case they blow up or something. Oh she is so going to bust Lionel now.
"What are you doing here?"
Leslie spins round to be confronted by a man with very pale skin. She takes a step back being caught off guard and trips over some cables and falls into the cylindrical device. She reaches out to try and grab something and her hand hits some exposed wires. In her panic her powers activate sending a electric current into the wires. The whole machine suddenly lights up and the green crystals glow intensely.
The man with the pale skin rushes over to the controls. He has no idea how this woman has activated his unfinished device but she has before he had finished installing all the safety protocols. The machine draws an enormous amount of power, so much the lights in the lab start to flicker. In fact if he was outside he would see lights in the entire block flicker and spread outward until most of Bayville finds its lights flickering as the power is drained.
The man watches on as the woman gets to her feet just as the machine reaches peak power. Green bolts of electricity shoot from the green crystals and strike at her and for a moment she seems to be transformed into pure energy as her screams echo through the lab. This continues for at least a couple of minutes until the breakers finally kick in and cut the power.
The whole lab goes dark until the back-up lights kick in. Dr Essex moves, not to check on his intruder, but to check on the shielding he had installed in this lab. With Xavier so close nearby it was a necessity if his work was to go undetected. He had added the shielding to the plans he himself drew up for this facility although Lionel had no idea that he had done so.
He looks at the readouts. Good. The shielding is holding. Now he goes to check on his unwanted guest. He was working late...or at least he lets everyone think that. Technically he doesn't need rest or sleep at all. He only leaves here to keep up the pretence. Anyway back to his guest. She is slumped, presumably unconscious on the floor. Essex turns her over and finds that her appearance has been completely transformed. She now has chalk white skin and blue hair. His machine has obviously transformed her in some manner. He can only say one thing. "Fascinating."
Lionel enters the holding cell area of the basement levels after being called in. Someone had broken in and managed to get into the lab and he was not pleased to say the least. He finds Dr Essex just exiting the cell with a few tissue and blood samples he had just taken.
"Well?" Lionel demands.
"Take a look for yourself," Essex suggests.
Lionel enters the cell and finds the chalk skinned woman lying restrained to a bed with straps. "What happened?" he asks.
Dr Essex informs him of what transpired in the lab.
"That machine was suppose to stabilise the mutations of the meteor infected," Lionel points out. "Not to do anything like this."
"An...unexpected outcome. The device is only partially built. Half the programming and means to control, focus and direct the meteor rock radiation had not been installed yet."
"So she is what? Yet another random meteor mutation?"
"As a scientist I would hold off making such judgements until I have run a few tests."
"Then run your tests Dr Essex. I want to know who she is and what abilities she might have."
It is then the woman stirs and her eyes flutter open to find herself staring at some dull grey concrete ceiling. She tries to move only to find her arms and legs restrained. It is when she looks down at her hands she finds her skin is chalk white. Her eyes shoot up to find herself looking at Lionel Luthor. "What you done to me?" she demands to know angrily.
Lionel frowns slightly. He knows that voice. "Miss Willis?"
Leslie glares at him. "Luthor I swear I'm going to make you pay for this. When I get out of here everyone is going to know what you are up to."
Lionel looks at her quite amused. "And people are going to take the word of someone who is what now...a freak of nature?" He shakes his head at her stupidity. "No Miss Willis. You are not going to tell anyone because you are not going anywhere but if it is any consolation the study of your new condition will contribute greatly to the advancement of science."
Fear and panic strikes Leslie as images of her being dissected flood her mind while she screams out in agony. No. She won't let that happen. She has to get out of here. She has to and as she says it over and over in her mind she feels something strange happen to her body.
For Lionel and Dr Essex what they see is Leslie's body suddenly transform into what looks like a bolt of lightning which then bounces around the small cell while Lionel and Dr Essex desperately try to dodge it. It then hits the light in the room which explodes. When Lionel clears the spots from his eyes he finds Miss Willis is gone.
"What just happened? Where is she?" Lionel asks.
"Interesting," Dr Essex remarks with a cool scientific tone as he tries to come to a supposition about what just happened. "It seems she managed to transform her whole body into electricity. In that state it would be theoretically possible for her to travel along power lines."
Lionel's eyes widen as he realises what that means. "She could be anywhere."
"Anywhere that is connected to the power grid," Dr Essex confirms.
"I want you to come up with some way to contain her," Lionel orders Essex.
"You have to find her first," Essex not so helpfully points out.
As she travels through the power lines of Bayville Leslie is only just beginning to fathom what has happened to her. She feels so...electrified which is kind of a terrible pun. She feels...powerful and what's more she likes it. She may be a freak but she somehow knows that from now on no-one will be stepping on her or having her fired again.
Well as soon as she figures out how the hell she gets out of here and transforms back she will be making sure of that. Leslie has no idea where she is but she 'sees' or senses more accurately what looks like a socket and heads for it. All this of course is happening in fractions of a second.
The socket sparks and electricity arcs from it as Leslie makes her exit. She looks at herself to see her body is back but her skin is still white and somehow she is still dressed as she was. Her new powers must allow her to transform the clothes she is wearing along with her body. Cool!
Now where is she?
Leslie peers into the darkness of the room she is in. It looks like a bedroom is some place pretty fancy. She sees a figure stir slightly in the bed. She holds a finger up and forms a ball of electricity at its point which creates a low level light in the room as she steps towards the bed. Lying in it is a young man she would say with curly dark hair. The covers have been kicked down and Leslie can see he is dressed in a t-shirt. He has one hand laying behind his head which shows off a muscular arm and from what she can see the rest of him isn't bad either. In a word; 'JACKPOT!'
Somebody up there must like her. She leans forward and gently places her hand under his shirt and feels the solid flat plains of his stomach, her hand rising and falling as it travels over the incredibly defined abs. She grins wickedly. Oh yeah somebody definitely likes her.
The unknown recipient of her attentions stirs slightly and mumbles "Hmm...Rogue."
It is at this moment that the mansion security finally picks up the unexpected intruder and alarms blare loudly causing Clark to shoot up in bed and for him to find a woman with chalk white skin and blue hair in his room. "Who are you?" he demands to know.
"I'm just your friendly neighbourhood radio DJ," she says jokily.
Clark recognises the voice instantly. "Live Wire?"
Leslie grins widely at being recognised. "A fan I take it."
Clark could say 'Hell No!' but he stows it because there a like a million other questions running through his head. The most pre-eminent being what the hell is she doing in his room which is ahead of the explanation of her physical appearance.
The door flies open as Logan rushes in. "Kid. Chuck said that the intruder..." he trails off as Leslie gives him a little wave.
"Hey there," she greets him.
Logan blinks. He had gotten a telepathic message from Charles that the intruder who set the alarms off was in Clark's room and now he can that Chuck was dead on.
"So anyone want to fill a gal in as to where I am and why alarms are going off everywhere," she asks of the two men.
Some time later Leslie finds herself in an office talking to a bald guy in a wheelchair as he fill her in on mutants as to explaining what she is.
"So let me get this straight?" Leslie asks him. "You teach what exactly here?"
Charles still in his nightclothes and dressing gown puts his hands together and rests them on his desk. "I teach mutants how to control their powers to be used for the benefit of mankind so we may live in a peaceful coexistence."
"Riiiggght," Leslie says not very convinced by that idea. Sounds all Pollyanna and Disney to her.
"Perhaps Miss Willis you would be willing to share with me how you come to be here tonight," Charles suggests not wishing to intrude into her mind and lose her trust. At least not unless he absolutely felt he had to. Also there is something a little odd about her thought patterns that he needs to work out first using Cerebro so he'll leave it to asking her and seeing what she says in reply. All he really knew so far beyond who she was was that she mysteriously appeared in Clark's room.
Well Leslie is not one to turn down the offer of allowing her to talk. She leans back in her chair, crosses her legs and begins. "Well I guess it started when I was 14. I had been feeling unwell for about a week. Then one day it went away as suddenly as it appeared. Later that same day I was changing the light-bulb in my room. I was taking the new one out of its box when as soon as I touched it it lit up. At first I thought it was a trick of some sort. Eventually I came to understand that I could generate small amounts of electricity. Later I even found I could control and manipulate electricity as well."
Charles listens carefully. Sounds like a classic manifestation of mutant powers. "And how did you come to be here tonight?" he asks her once more.
"Oh lets just say something happened that gave me a power boost," she answers vaguely. After all why should she tell these people much more. They could work for Lionel for all she knows. The only reason she has told as much as she has is the chance they'll let her stay near that hunk whose room she found herself in. Leslie goes onto explain that somehow, and she honestly doesn't know how, she transformed herself into electricity, travelled uncontrollably through the power lines and ended up here.
Charles looks at the time. "Well it's...early," he remarks. It is about 3 in the morning. "How about we find you a room and we can discuss more in the morning about what we do here," he proposes.
Leslie puts her hand to a mouth as soon as Charles mentions the time as she yawns. She is tired. "Yeah that sounds like a good idea Prof." Leslie gets to her feet. "By the way who was it whose room I invaded? I feel like I should...apologise."
"That would be Clark," Charles tells her thinking it is a perfectly innocent question. By now he has summoned Ororo who opens the door. "Storm. Please show Ms Willis..."
"Leslie," she corrects him.
"Leslie," Charles corrects himself. "Please show her one of the spare rooms in the girl's dorm."
As Leslie leaves with Storm Logan walks in.
"I'm guessing you heard that," Charles assumes. Logan had ears like a wolf and he was standing directly outside the door.
"Yeah. Kind of convenient the way she decided not to tell us how she ended up looking like a chalk statue."
"We'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now," Charles decides. "But feel free to keep an eye on her," he allows Logan.
"I'll be keeping two on her," Logan tells Charles not trusting the woman at all.
When morning proper comes and Clark heads out of his room for breakfast he finds Live Wire standing there trying, and failing, to look like she wasn't waiting for him. Clark puts on his best polite front since there seems a fair chance that she will be staying with them.
"Hey there Handsome!" Leslie greets him with a broad smile, dressed in some clothes she had been lent.
"Morning," Clark responds blandly.
"I just want to apologise for waking ya last night," she says to him. "That whole travelling through the wires thing is new and I got a bit lost."
"It's fine," Clark tells her.
Leslie hooks her arms around Clark's arm and takes a minute to feel the solidity of his muscles. "So how about you show me around this place," she suggests.
"Um well...I would love to," he says as a sour taste hits his mouth for even thinking that letting alone saying it. The last thing he wants to do is hang around her. He isn't so obtuse that he can't see her blatant attempt at flirting with him. "But I have to get ready for school."
Leslie blinks. "You're still at school!" she says in total shock because to look at him...well he looks above school leaving age certainly.
"Yes. I am," he confirms.
Leslie absorbs this revelation for a few moments before saying to herself 'What the hey. He is still a stud'.
Clark can't seem to shake her off so he ends up being attached to her as he leads her down to the kitchen which is how Rogue spots them and jealousy hits her like never before. It only gets worse as their new arrival flirts with Clark throughout breakfast until Rogue can't take it anymore and stomps off.
Leslie notices the snippy attitude of the Goth with the brown and white hair. "What's her issue?" she asks.
Clark who hadn't been paying attention, more interested and concerned with Rogue says "What?"
Leslie can tell he wasn't listening but decides to ask something else she noticed. "Why does that girl wear gloves?"
"Rogue's mutant power is that she absorbs someone's life force and powers if they have any if she touches their skin. She can't control it so she can't touch anyone," Clark informs Leslie hoping but doubting she will be sensitive about it.
"Must be hard on her love life," Leslie idly mutters.
"I'm going to find a way to help her somehow," Clark promises.
Leslie looks at him. "You care about her don't you?" she guesses from his tone.
"Of course I do. She's my girlfriend." And he should have gone off after her when she stomped off he realises. God what an idiot he is. "Excuse me," he tells Leslie as he gets up and goes off to find Rogue.
Clark finds her in her room just finishing getting her things for school which she is shoving in her bag hard as she tries to control her temper. He knocks on the open door and Rogue turns her gaze to him. "I'm sorry," he says. "It is just...she ambushed me outside my room and I can't seem to get rid of her."
Rogue sighs. Somehow she knew it was something like that. "Clark sometahmes ya can be too nice a guy," she tells him. If it was her she would have bluntly told Ms Live Wire to go take a hike off a tall building.
Clark slowly walks to beside Rogue. "I know. If it is any consolation part of me is dying to tell her how much I hated her show and dear god don't get me started on how irritating I find her voice."
That makes Rogue smile a bit.
"But my more rational side kept telling me I should probably be nice if we want her to stay which I'm guessing is what the Professor wants."
It most probably is Rogue knows.
Clark takes one of Rogue's hands into his. "I would never intentionally hurt you Rogue."
"Ah know but if she doesn't learn ta keep her paws off of ya ah'm draining her dry," she swears.
Later, on the way out the door for school Leslie manages to sneak in a kiss on Clark's cheek which causes Rogue to fix her a killer glare. Leslie sways her way over next to Rogue and whispers in her ear. "Jealous? You should be because I know what a man wants and trust me it isn't a someone he can't touch. A man, especially one like Clark there, has needs and I know how to satisfy them."
Rogue's eye twitches slightly and her hands curl up into fists. If the woman says one more damn word Rogue swears she is going to punch her lights out and then drain her dry on top of that for good measure.
In a way though Clark beats her to it. He had heard every word naturally and he actually growls in annoyance as even his patience nears its limits.. "Some friendly advice Leslie. Don't try saying stuff like that around a guy with superhearing." Clark then takes Rogue by the hand in a very deliberate show of affection.
Leslie watches them leave holding hands and lets out a snort. She gives it a couple of weeks tops and then Clark will be all hers for the taking. Although she doubts somehow that she will be hanging around this yawn-fest that long. God was she finding this place boring even in the few short hours she had been here.
Watching this little show is Logan who can just tell that Sparky here is going to be a whole world of trouble. Probably even more than Boom Boom had been.
The Professor rolls into the entrance hall where Leslie is still standing. "Well now that the students are away may we continue our talk from earlier this morning," he requests of her.
"Sure," she says not all that enthusiastic about it.
Leslie walks beside the Professor as they travel through the mansion and he explains how he turned his family home into a school for mutants so they could be taught to use their powers responsibly and for the benefit of mankind.
Yeah definitely sounds Disney-like to Leslie. "So you just up here and hide," she summarises it as she sees it.
"For the time being it is best if mutants remain hidden. The moment of our reveal to the rest of the world has to be carefully chosen and planned." Charles knows that day will inevitable come and as he said it has to be planned carefully for when he feels mankind is ready to know.
"Look Prof I'm not sure if I get it. You have all these people together. With their powers...you could do anything, demand anything, make sure no-one tries to step on you like a bug ever again."
The Professor notes the genuine anger in Leslie's voice at that last bit but he has helped others before work through their anger and he can help her as well. "You are correct Leslie. We could do all that you say but everyone here made the choice not to use their powers in that way."
"And for those that want to choose another path?" she asks.
"No-one is held here against their will Leslie and neither are you. If you wish to leave you are free to do so at any time but I would please ask you to consider staying here."
Leslie doesn't really think she agrees with the Prof's goals but she needs time to learn control of her newly enhanced powers. Especially if she is going to get her long overdue payback on Lionel which by the way she is sooner rather than later. "Alright I'll give it a go but don't raise your expectations too high Prof," she warns him.
Author's Note: Had a long think about how to bring in Live Wire. In the DC-verse she was born with the ability to manipulate electricity. In the Marvel-verse that would make her a mutant so that is what I made her. All I had to do after that was enhance her up to the Live Wire we are all familiar with. Word of warning; don't expect her stay at Xavier's to be a long one. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.