Children of the Atom

Season One

Episode Ten, 'Don't You (Forget About Me)

Part Three

Tommy still stared at the girl. "Luna?" he repeated, in shock.

But Billy was focused on what she had said. "What do you mean, more?"

"More monsters," she said nonchalantly, walking over to an overturned couch and swinging her legs over it to sit. "They did make an awful mess, didn't they? And they weren't even planning to clean up. Typical."

All of them were shocked – at her appearance, at her demeanor, at her words. "Can you at least explain to us who you are?" Danny demanded.

She nodded. "I'm Luna. Tommy and Billy's cousin."

"That would make you Quicksilver's daughter," Danny noted, and Luna winced like a bee had stung her.

"Can you not use that name in my presence? He and I don't get along – in fact, I haven't seen him since I was six. My parents are divorced."

Liz felt a rush of sympathy for the young girl. Even though Liz had never known her dad, and her mom had never talked about him, to not know your father was probably nothing compared to the pain of knowing him and not liking him, or seeing him at all.

Danny had a lot less tact. "Why don't you and he get along?"

"Because he's an arrogant jerk that cares more about what he believes is best for him and the family, completely disregarding what everyone had told him, than me." Luna said harshly. "He was ashamed when I was born, you see. Not because he didn't want me or love me, but because I was born human. My mother and my father's super-genetics canceled each other out. He wanted me to be exposed to what gives my mother's side of the family the powers, saying that 'anything's better than having her be human'. At that time, they managed to talk him out of it, saying that I might die if that were to happen. But when I was six…"

"Oh," Liz said softly. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

Luna shrugged. "I'm over it," she said. "Besides, it didn't kill me and my powers are cool. I can manipulate and sense emotions."

"That's not all," Billy said eagerly, pulling her into their huddle. "She can see these things. Auras."

"You can see auras." Danny said flatly. "That's…strange."

"What do they look like?" Liz asked, curious. "If I'm being rude…"

"There's a glow. Bright colors shift. It changes with your mood. They help me figure out things. From them, I can see people's moves before I make them. It helps me fight." Suddenly Luna clapped her hand to her forehead. "I should have introduced you! You all need to meet my dog, Lockjaw. Lockjaw!" She called out, and suddenly a giant, hulking shape bounded from the garage. Danny gasped, and took a few steps back. The shape – in the light it was a giant mastiff dog – bounded onto Luna, licking her face as she laughed helplessly.

"That's not a dog!" Danny yelped. "That's the size of a Jeep!"

"We are kindly going to forget you said that," Luna said calmly, getting to her feet. "Besides, he has powers. He's got a super-strong jaw, and he can teleport. Anywhere I ask him to go."

None of them said anything for a while, until Billy sat down in defeat. "Mom…she's gone. Dead, probably."

"There's no reason to think she's dead." Luna said optimistically. "She's gone, yes, but she's powerful. She can handle herself."

"We've got another problem, though." Liz said, drawing attention back to her, "Where are we going to go? What are we going to do?"

"Bayville," Danny's voice said clearly, and they turned around to find her staring at the floor, at a picture that had its frame broken. "We're going to ask the dog to get us there, and then we're going to be a team. The Brotherhood."

Everyone stared at her for a long time. "The Brotherhood were terrorists," Liz said uncertainly. "They were bad mutants. Why should we call ourselves that?"

"Because, in the beginning, they were like us," Danny said, standing up straight and tall. "Uncertain. Lonely. Confused. I want to do a project – a project on mutant teen superheroes. I want us to be the ones that open the gates of evolution. Don't you want to inherit the earth?"

No one said anything, but Tommy moved over next to her, and then Billy and Luna and Liz, none of them wanting to leave the strange, security of the new bond they had.

"Great," Billy said, trying to sound cheerful. "But can we get some sleep before we leave tomorrow?"

BREAK

Later that night, after almost everyone had curled up somewhere to sleep, Danny walked the halls. Her expression bore one of a prying determination, her mouth worked into a tight line. Finally, she stopped in the kitchen, where she leaned out over the sink to stare out the window, at the mirror blue night.

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