Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the X-Men franchise
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
~*~ mindscape
/ / telepathy
The Mutant
Chapter 5
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The flaming sword struck the dragon next to him, a hole burned through its throat. He opened his wings to escape, but soon found that was a bad idea. Flaming arrows whistled through the air, ripping through the membrane of his right wing. The knight with the flame sword turned to look at him from under the helmet made of a dragon's forehead, a mad glint in his eyes. The man hesitated, though, giving the young halfling a chance to look at the carnage around him.
Fires blazed all around the caves that the dragons had called home. The ground was now littered with the carcasses of the dead and dying, from both sides. Cries filled the air as several dragons had driven women and children into a corner, slaughtering them before anyone could help. All this was engraved permanently on the child's mind, all this made no sense to him, all this was...wrong.
With blinding speed his tattered wing whipped out, the clawed tip plunging into the swordsman's face. He lifted the human off the ground and threw him down the hill. He turned and saw his mother, his human mother cowering under the gaze of a huge dragon. There was a blur and she was gone, swept up by his father.
"There's the abomination!" he heard a gruff voice yell.
Immediately all the able knights turned on him, slashing with their swords, stabbing with their spears, and launching arrows by the dozens. He had to risk it and, opening his good wing, jumped in to the air, using that wing to carry him over his attackers. Upon hitting the ground he dropped to all fours ran for all he was worth into the woods. They followed him, of course, seeing as how he was the one they truly wanted.
*~*
"NO!" Nate woke up with a start.
He looked around. He was in his room, on the pile of pillows on the floor that he now called a bed. The bed had been removed, it was getting uncomfortable to lay on. He hoisted himself to a sitting position, hands on the pillow in front of him, panting. The dream had progressed again, showing more of what happened. His right wing flapped in front of him, the searing pain was gone, and the membrane was whole. But it had felt so real, like he had actually been shot with those arrows.
Knowing he would never be able to sleep, he looked over at the clock, almost five AM; just the right time for a snack. He got up and walked to the door, stooping to get his bulk through, and started down the hall. At one point he dropped to all fours and continued that way, finding it easier to go through doors. His tail was carefully held straight behind him, not wanting it to break anything.
"Nate?" he stopped and turned to the direction of the voice.
"Rahne, what are you doing up?"
"I couldn't get to sleep."
"Oh, why?"
"I don't know, I just keep getting this feeling."
"Uh...kay. What kind of feeling?"
"I'm just really anxious about something, but I don't know what."
Nate sighed, he was afraid it was something else. By this time he was sitting back on his hind legs, most of his weight resting on his tail. He turned his head to look down the hall at the kitchen, which seemed so inviting right now, but felt he should talk with the young wolf.
"Well, have you talked to anyone else about it. It could have something to do with you mutation," he suggested hoping to get away.
"It could, I'll ask the Professor about it tomorrow," she said with a smile.
"Okay, now go back to bed."
"Right, good night."
He sighed again, and continued to the kitchen where he found Kurt already rooting through the fridge. This was not his morning. He would have snuck up on the blue-furred mutant but his claws on the tile weren't making it easy. As soon has his hand touched, Kurt turned around.
"Oh, it's you," he said catching his breath.
"You were expecting maybe Sabretooth?" Nate asked with a wry smile as he stepped up to the fridge, grabbing the unfinished ham from the previous night.
He set it down on the table, and settling back on his tail again he tore into the ham, savoring the flavor. It was a good thing that Ororo had cooked instead of Kitty, otherwise he wouldn't have given it a second glance. It didn't take him long to finish it off, lightly cleaning the plate before placing it in the sink to be washed. Kurt sat there, sandwich held an inch from his mouth, watching Nate tear apart the ham. He almost lost his appetite, almost.
"Hey, Kurt, has anyone at the school asked about me?" Nate asked from the door.
"Yeah, a friend of Amanda's came up to me the other day and asked why you weren't there. They didn't say it, but I had the distinct impression that they've been watching the institute."
"I see, did they have light brown hair and gray eyes?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Shit, they're getting closer," he muttered and started to leave.
"How did you know what he looked like?"
"Because his ancestor tried to kill me," he said before leaving the kitchen fully and heading for the backyard.
*****
A new person was at the Brotherhood's home, sitting on the couch next to Wanda. Her brown hair cut to about her shoulders, and her gray eyes trained on the television. They were watching some early morning infomercial, waiting for the next show to come on. Seeing as how it was almost five, they didn't have long to wait.
"So, Wanda, you said that you've actually seen it?" she asked.
"Yeah, gave me this," she pointed to the bandage on her forehead. "Why are you so interested in this Karen?"
"Because I'm going to kill it."
"Oh."
They stopped talking, seeing as how the show they were waiting for had started.
*****
A week later Nate was pacing uneasily in the hangar, waiting for Rahne. He was going to visit his mother, and since he left Rahne in the jet last time, he felt he owed it to her to take her along this time. There was also a new seat in it to accommodate his extra appendages.
"Where is she?" he looked over at the elevator. "If she's not here in five minutes, I'm leaving."
Finally getting tired of waiting he opened the door to the jet and stepped inside. He made his way to the cockpit and sat down in the large set, after sliding his tail through the hole in the back. While setting the autopilot, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs he had left open. The outside door closed just as Rahne sat down in the seat next to his.
"What took you?"
"Sorry, overslept."
"Alright, ready to go?"
"Yup."
*****
Within a few hours they had landed on the lawn in front of the castle. At the top of the front steps, Erica stood, leaning against the doorframe. Her face had mixed emotions when she saw how far he had progressed. She was happy to see him, but not too happy with the wings. Her eyes shifted from him to the young girl who exited behind him.
"Welcome back."
"Good to be back," he said as the scales flattened and he hugged her. "Mom, this is Rahne, she's a friend from the institute."
"Nice to meet you," Rahne said with a small bow.
"Same to you," she smiled warmly. "Where are my manners; come in, come in, have you eaten yet?"
She stepped around behind them and started to push them into the castle, quickly shutting the door behind them. Turning to them, she was met with questioning looks. Feeling she owed them an explanation for her actions, she stepped ahead of them and started talking.
"Sorry about that, they've been keeping tabs on me," she said. "You came at just the right time, they're not out there now."
"Who?" Rahne asked.
"Slayers," she said rather simply, as if Rahne should have known that.
"Oh."
Not much more talking was done as they walked the stone halls to where the titanium door had been ripped from its housing, and was now replaced. When Erica placed her hand on a small pad next to it, the sound of locks being removed filled their ears, then the door swung open to allow them entry. The hall beyond the door was unchanged, and Nate folded his wings tight against his back to keep it that way. They went through the door at the far end, down the stairs to the tapestry room, then through one of the doors off to the side.
I believe I said it before that the castle above was just a decoy, and that the real living area was beneath the ground. If I haven't said that yet, then I just did. Anyway, it was cooler in these halls than the ones above, mainly from being below ground. Though his body was more reptilian than mammalian, Nate was still warm-blooded, so the cold didn't slow him down too much. What slowed him down was the annoying small gates the two women had taken up. They took almost four steps to his one step, it was hard to slow his pace with such long legs.
"You said you'd found a way for me to retract this," Nate said breaking the silence.
"Yes, well, I found that through deep meditation you should be able to control it," Erica answered and then held up her hand. "Watch."
Through her skin small green spikes began to form, pushing up through the epidermis. Strands of skin began to sprout from one finger to the other, pulling the digits together till there were three fingers. As quickly as it had begun, it ended and her hand reverted back to normal. Since the gene for her to become a dragon is dormant, it takes a lot of energy to awaken it, which means she would be near death if it suddenly activated and decided to go into overdrive.
"How long did it take for you to get that to happen?"
"An hour a day for a week."
"Nate, I thought you said that only males have the dragon gene," Rahne said from behind him.
He turned his eyes to her, he had never told her that directly.
"You were listening in when I said that to Xavier, weren't you?"
She cringed slightly, the dragon in his throat really started to show through when he was mad.
"Yes...I'm sorry, I couldn't help it."
"It's alright, you hid your scent very well," he smile revealing many very sharp, very white, teeth.
It took him a few seconds to realize that they had stopped walking, and were standing in front of a door. Erica was silently waiting for them, her hand on the doorknob. Nate stopped talking and looked a little sheepish as she opened the door and motioned for him to go in. He did, and she shut the door behind him, making sure that Rahne didn't go in as well.
"Come with me, we can talk while he meditates," she said grasping the young girl's arm.
"Okay."
*****
Pain.
Exquisite pain was all Nate felt at the moment when his scales sucked themselves into his skin. It had been over a week since he had arrived, and Rahne had gone back to the institute almost a week prior. For the past nine days he had spent almost twelve hours a day in the meditation room, learning to control the magic that had caused this transformation.
Plus there were the books that helped him a great deal, a whole library of books on dragons, magic, and the times before recorded history. Not having to sleep more than four hours a night, it was easy for him to fit reading, eating, meditation, and Rahne all into one day.
When he finally stood to his adjusted height of 6'2", he noticed one thing - he still had a ten-foot, green scaled tail. The spines were gone though, and so were the three-fingered hands and dragon-legs, though he still stood on his toes, ankles held about six inches off the floor. He looked down at himself, the green tank was torn in many places, as were the now-extremely baggy pants that clung to his ankles. Picking up a mirror, he saw that his eyes hadn't changes either, he still had the slit for a pupil.
What he had done to revert to this form was to flex the limits of his X- gene. He found that he could harness its power to stop almost anything that needed energy; he had, at a high point in meditation, put out a burning candle with his mutation by cutting off the kinetic energy that kept it burning. The fluorescent lights above had also stopped working when he cut off the power that the generator was producing. So, now, instead of when he uses his X-gene a new scale forms, it has an almost opposite reaction, nothing happens.
"Finally, I'm the one in control," he let out a long breath and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead, that's when he noticed the towel was already soaked through. "Heh, guess I need a new towel."
"I'd say you need a shower," Erica said from the door with a fresh towel. "I think you'll finally fit in it."
"Very funny," he laughed a little while taking the towel. "Thanks Mom."
"It's just a towel."
"No, not the towel, I mean thanks for all this, all this control I owe to you," he said moving past her into the hallway, wiping his forehead.
"It's all I could do without learning ancient Gaelic," she shrugged a little, trying to show that it was nothing, but they both knew that wasn't true.
"I doubt that it would have helped much, but oh well. I'm going to go back to the institute and wait for those slayers, then I'll rip them apart."
"No."
"What?"
"Don't kill them, all this started with death, it shouldn't end with it."
"Alright, I won't kill them, but I will make them wish they had never become slayers."
"That's all I'm asking."
"Okay," he stopped for a second and raised his arm slightly to smell his armpit. "You're right about that shower."
"Down the hall, turn right, third door on the left...or was it on the right...yeah, on the left," she pointed down the hall.
*****
Night vision goggles revealed to the young man exactly what was going at the Xavier Institute while the sun was down. He sat in a tree just outside the gate of the institute, a simple enchantment hiding him from their eyes and sensors. He looked through each window, seeing all the goings on inside the mansion. So far there was no sign of the abomination.
"Where is he, he was there early," he growled.
There was a rustle in the branches above him, but it was small so he ignored it. The rustle came again, louder this time, and he decided to chance a look. He looked up and saw a few crows sitting in the branches above him. Letting out a sigh of relief he looked back through the powerful binoculars, to be met with a pair of eyes staring back at him. He fell backwards in surprise, landing on the ground some fifteen feet below.
"So, you're the one they sent to spy on me," a rasping voice said from the wall.
Before him, concealed in a hooded black cloak, with the hood pulled up, was the one he had been searching for. It stood the cloak bunching around its feet, hiding it from the top of its head to the tips of its toes. The cloak hid it so well that he didn't even see a tail. Or else this was just a trick, and the person under the cloak wasn't the abomination after all.
His doubts were banished when two large wings opened from under the cloak. Two, clawed hands appeared, both with three fingers. There was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see that the tail had circled around the wall, slipping through the gate, to come up behind him. Now it began coiling around him, pinning his arms to his sides.
"Fools, sending someone so young to do the job that those before him failed at," it said as it stepped down off the wall. "Go back and tell your family to leave me alone, if they come here with weapons, they will leave in boxes."
The tail unwrapped itself and slid back underneath the cloak, leaving as quickly as it had come. The hooded figure turned and walked to the gate, leaving no visible footprints in the dirt on the ground. As he approached the gate, it opened automatically to allow him entrance. Once he was through, the gate closed.
*****
Nate laid on the floor in front of the common room fire, a book he borrowed from home open in front of him. It was written in an ancient forgotten language, but when he looked at it, the letters and words shifted into English, so he could read them. It told a story of a time long before his, when everything was simpler. The language the book was written in was an odd one, looking more like chicken scratch than anything else.
'Tulinan is quite the guttural language,' he thought as he quietly made sounds as if he had something in his throat.
"Hey, you sick or something?" Bobby asked from where he sat on the couch.
"No, I'm reading," he responded with just hint of indignation in his voice.
"Oh, well you don't have to get all uptight about it."
The dragon snorted slightly and went back to reading his book, choosing to ignore the others in the room. What use were they anyway, he had his book, a nice fire, and as long as they were quiet, he wouldn't have to make them be quiet. The younger students were all in the common room, doing their homework. They probably would have gone outside, seeing how early it was, but it was raining. Even with all the peace and quiet he couldn't concentrate, something just felt wrong.
'They're coming.'
TBC
There, I'm gonna stop, not because it's getting too long, but because it's taking too long. I've taken a break from my Kim Possible fic, "The Assassin: Nemesis", and will be working on this and my Totally Spies almost full time. I say almost because I have other things to do than to write stories, especially ones that are ignored. Anyway, that's all for my rantings, if you want me to update "The Assassin", then review on it, so far my only loyal reviewer is Chaos. Oh, and thank you to the reviewer for this story that kept me motivated, they know who they are. They sent me like five reviews asking where the next chapter was, and I'm proud to say it's here. Late.
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
~*~ mindscape
/ / telepathy
The Mutant
Chapter 5
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The flaming sword struck the dragon next to him, a hole burned through its throat. He opened his wings to escape, but soon found that was a bad idea. Flaming arrows whistled through the air, ripping through the membrane of his right wing. The knight with the flame sword turned to look at him from under the helmet made of a dragon's forehead, a mad glint in his eyes. The man hesitated, though, giving the young halfling a chance to look at the carnage around him.
Fires blazed all around the caves that the dragons had called home. The ground was now littered with the carcasses of the dead and dying, from both sides. Cries filled the air as several dragons had driven women and children into a corner, slaughtering them before anyone could help. All this was engraved permanently on the child's mind, all this made no sense to him, all this was...wrong.
With blinding speed his tattered wing whipped out, the clawed tip plunging into the swordsman's face. He lifted the human off the ground and threw him down the hill. He turned and saw his mother, his human mother cowering under the gaze of a huge dragon. There was a blur and she was gone, swept up by his father.
"There's the abomination!" he heard a gruff voice yell.
Immediately all the able knights turned on him, slashing with their swords, stabbing with their spears, and launching arrows by the dozens. He had to risk it and, opening his good wing, jumped in to the air, using that wing to carry him over his attackers. Upon hitting the ground he dropped to all fours ran for all he was worth into the woods. They followed him, of course, seeing as how he was the one they truly wanted.
*~*
"NO!" Nate woke up with a start.
He looked around. He was in his room, on the pile of pillows on the floor that he now called a bed. The bed had been removed, it was getting uncomfortable to lay on. He hoisted himself to a sitting position, hands on the pillow in front of him, panting. The dream had progressed again, showing more of what happened. His right wing flapped in front of him, the searing pain was gone, and the membrane was whole. But it had felt so real, like he had actually been shot with those arrows.
Knowing he would never be able to sleep, he looked over at the clock, almost five AM; just the right time for a snack. He got up and walked to the door, stooping to get his bulk through, and started down the hall. At one point he dropped to all fours and continued that way, finding it easier to go through doors. His tail was carefully held straight behind him, not wanting it to break anything.
"Nate?" he stopped and turned to the direction of the voice.
"Rahne, what are you doing up?"
"I couldn't get to sleep."
"Oh, why?"
"I don't know, I just keep getting this feeling."
"Uh...kay. What kind of feeling?"
"I'm just really anxious about something, but I don't know what."
Nate sighed, he was afraid it was something else. By this time he was sitting back on his hind legs, most of his weight resting on his tail. He turned his head to look down the hall at the kitchen, which seemed so inviting right now, but felt he should talk with the young wolf.
"Well, have you talked to anyone else about it. It could have something to do with you mutation," he suggested hoping to get away.
"It could, I'll ask the Professor about it tomorrow," she said with a smile.
"Okay, now go back to bed."
"Right, good night."
He sighed again, and continued to the kitchen where he found Kurt already rooting through the fridge. This was not his morning. He would have snuck up on the blue-furred mutant but his claws on the tile weren't making it easy. As soon has his hand touched, Kurt turned around.
"Oh, it's you," he said catching his breath.
"You were expecting maybe Sabretooth?" Nate asked with a wry smile as he stepped up to the fridge, grabbing the unfinished ham from the previous night.
He set it down on the table, and settling back on his tail again he tore into the ham, savoring the flavor. It was a good thing that Ororo had cooked instead of Kitty, otherwise he wouldn't have given it a second glance. It didn't take him long to finish it off, lightly cleaning the plate before placing it in the sink to be washed. Kurt sat there, sandwich held an inch from his mouth, watching Nate tear apart the ham. He almost lost his appetite, almost.
"Hey, Kurt, has anyone at the school asked about me?" Nate asked from the door.
"Yeah, a friend of Amanda's came up to me the other day and asked why you weren't there. They didn't say it, but I had the distinct impression that they've been watching the institute."
"I see, did they have light brown hair and gray eyes?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Shit, they're getting closer," he muttered and started to leave.
"How did you know what he looked like?"
"Because his ancestor tried to kill me," he said before leaving the kitchen fully and heading for the backyard.
*****
A new person was at the Brotherhood's home, sitting on the couch next to Wanda. Her brown hair cut to about her shoulders, and her gray eyes trained on the television. They were watching some early morning infomercial, waiting for the next show to come on. Seeing as how it was almost five, they didn't have long to wait.
"So, Wanda, you said that you've actually seen it?" she asked.
"Yeah, gave me this," she pointed to the bandage on her forehead. "Why are you so interested in this Karen?"
"Because I'm going to kill it."
"Oh."
They stopped talking, seeing as how the show they were waiting for had started.
*****
A week later Nate was pacing uneasily in the hangar, waiting for Rahne. He was going to visit his mother, and since he left Rahne in the jet last time, he felt he owed it to her to take her along this time. There was also a new seat in it to accommodate his extra appendages.
"Where is she?" he looked over at the elevator. "If she's not here in five minutes, I'm leaving."
Finally getting tired of waiting he opened the door to the jet and stepped inside. He made his way to the cockpit and sat down in the large set, after sliding his tail through the hole in the back. While setting the autopilot, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs he had left open. The outside door closed just as Rahne sat down in the seat next to his.
"What took you?"
"Sorry, overslept."
"Alright, ready to go?"
"Yup."
*****
Within a few hours they had landed on the lawn in front of the castle. At the top of the front steps, Erica stood, leaning against the doorframe. Her face had mixed emotions when she saw how far he had progressed. She was happy to see him, but not too happy with the wings. Her eyes shifted from him to the young girl who exited behind him.
"Welcome back."
"Good to be back," he said as the scales flattened and he hugged her. "Mom, this is Rahne, she's a friend from the institute."
"Nice to meet you," Rahne said with a small bow.
"Same to you," she smiled warmly. "Where are my manners; come in, come in, have you eaten yet?"
She stepped around behind them and started to push them into the castle, quickly shutting the door behind them. Turning to them, she was met with questioning looks. Feeling she owed them an explanation for her actions, she stepped ahead of them and started talking.
"Sorry about that, they've been keeping tabs on me," she said. "You came at just the right time, they're not out there now."
"Who?" Rahne asked.
"Slayers," she said rather simply, as if Rahne should have known that.
"Oh."
Not much more talking was done as they walked the stone halls to where the titanium door had been ripped from its housing, and was now replaced. When Erica placed her hand on a small pad next to it, the sound of locks being removed filled their ears, then the door swung open to allow them entry. The hall beyond the door was unchanged, and Nate folded his wings tight against his back to keep it that way. They went through the door at the far end, down the stairs to the tapestry room, then through one of the doors off to the side.
I believe I said it before that the castle above was just a decoy, and that the real living area was beneath the ground. If I haven't said that yet, then I just did. Anyway, it was cooler in these halls than the ones above, mainly from being below ground. Though his body was more reptilian than mammalian, Nate was still warm-blooded, so the cold didn't slow him down too much. What slowed him down was the annoying small gates the two women had taken up. They took almost four steps to his one step, it was hard to slow his pace with such long legs.
"You said you'd found a way for me to retract this," Nate said breaking the silence.
"Yes, well, I found that through deep meditation you should be able to control it," Erica answered and then held up her hand. "Watch."
Through her skin small green spikes began to form, pushing up through the epidermis. Strands of skin began to sprout from one finger to the other, pulling the digits together till there were three fingers. As quickly as it had begun, it ended and her hand reverted back to normal. Since the gene for her to become a dragon is dormant, it takes a lot of energy to awaken it, which means she would be near death if it suddenly activated and decided to go into overdrive.
"How long did it take for you to get that to happen?"
"An hour a day for a week."
"Nate, I thought you said that only males have the dragon gene," Rahne said from behind him.
He turned his eyes to her, he had never told her that directly.
"You were listening in when I said that to Xavier, weren't you?"
She cringed slightly, the dragon in his throat really started to show through when he was mad.
"Yes...I'm sorry, I couldn't help it."
"It's alright, you hid your scent very well," he smile revealing many very sharp, very white, teeth.
It took him a few seconds to realize that they had stopped walking, and were standing in front of a door. Erica was silently waiting for them, her hand on the doorknob. Nate stopped talking and looked a little sheepish as she opened the door and motioned for him to go in. He did, and she shut the door behind him, making sure that Rahne didn't go in as well.
"Come with me, we can talk while he meditates," she said grasping the young girl's arm.
"Okay."
*****
Pain.
Exquisite pain was all Nate felt at the moment when his scales sucked themselves into his skin. It had been over a week since he had arrived, and Rahne had gone back to the institute almost a week prior. For the past nine days he had spent almost twelve hours a day in the meditation room, learning to control the magic that had caused this transformation.
Plus there were the books that helped him a great deal, a whole library of books on dragons, magic, and the times before recorded history. Not having to sleep more than four hours a night, it was easy for him to fit reading, eating, meditation, and Rahne all into one day.
When he finally stood to his adjusted height of 6'2", he noticed one thing - he still had a ten-foot, green scaled tail. The spines were gone though, and so were the three-fingered hands and dragon-legs, though he still stood on his toes, ankles held about six inches off the floor. He looked down at himself, the green tank was torn in many places, as were the now-extremely baggy pants that clung to his ankles. Picking up a mirror, he saw that his eyes hadn't changes either, he still had the slit for a pupil.
What he had done to revert to this form was to flex the limits of his X- gene. He found that he could harness its power to stop almost anything that needed energy; he had, at a high point in meditation, put out a burning candle with his mutation by cutting off the kinetic energy that kept it burning. The fluorescent lights above had also stopped working when he cut off the power that the generator was producing. So, now, instead of when he uses his X-gene a new scale forms, it has an almost opposite reaction, nothing happens.
"Finally, I'm the one in control," he let out a long breath and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead, that's when he noticed the towel was already soaked through. "Heh, guess I need a new towel."
"I'd say you need a shower," Erica said from the door with a fresh towel. "I think you'll finally fit in it."
"Very funny," he laughed a little while taking the towel. "Thanks Mom."
"It's just a towel."
"No, not the towel, I mean thanks for all this, all this control I owe to you," he said moving past her into the hallway, wiping his forehead.
"It's all I could do without learning ancient Gaelic," she shrugged a little, trying to show that it was nothing, but they both knew that wasn't true.
"I doubt that it would have helped much, but oh well. I'm going to go back to the institute and wait for those slayers, then I'll rip them apart."
"No."
"What?"
"Don't kill them, all this started with death, it shouldn't end with it."
"Alright, I won't kill them, but I will make them wish they had never become slayers."
"That's all I'm asking."
"Okay," he stopped for a second and raised his arm slightly to smell his armpit. "You're right about that shower."
"Down the hall, turn right, third door on the left...or was it on the right...yeah, on the left," she pointed down the hall.
*****
Night vision goggles revealed to the young man exactly what was going at the Xavier Institute while the sun was down. He sat in a tree just outside the gate of the institute, a simple enchantment hiding him from their eyes and sensors. He looked through each window, seeing all the goings on inside the mansion. So far there was no sign of the abomination.
"Where is he, he was there early," he growled.
There was a rustle in the branches above him, but it was small so he ignored it. The rustle came again, louder this time, and he decided to chance a look. He looked up and saw a few crows sitting in the branches above him. Letting out a sigh of relief he looked back through the powerful binoculars, to be met with a pair of eyes staring back at him. He fell backwards in surprise, landing on the ground some fifteen feet below.
"So, you're the one they sent to spy on me," a rasping voice said from the wall.
Before him, concealed in a hooded black cloak, with the hood pulled up, was the one he had been searching for. It stood the cloak bunching around its feet, hiding it from the top of its head to the tips of its toes. The cloak hid it so well that he didn't even see a tail. Or else this was just a trick, and the person under the cloak wasn't the abomination after all.
His doubts were banished when two large wings opened from under the cloak. Two, clawed hands appeared, both with three fingers. There was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see that the tail had circled around the wall, slipping through the gate, to come up behind him. Now it began coiling around him, pinning his arms to his sides.
"Fools, sending someone so young to do the job that those before him failed at," it said as it stepped down off the wall. "Go back and tell your family to leave me alone, if they come here with weapons, they will leave in boxes."
The tail unwrapped itself and slid back underneath the cloak, leaving as quickly as it had come. The hooded figure turned and walked to the gate, leaving no visible footprints in the dirt on the ground. As he approached the gate, it opened automatically to allow him entrance. Once he was through, the gate closed.
*****
Nate laid on the floor in front of the common room fire, a book he borrowed from home open in front of him. It was written in an ancient forgotten language, but when he looked at it, the letters and words shifted into English, so he could read them. It told a story of a time long before his, when everything was simpler. The language the book was written in was an odd one, looking more like chicken scratch than anything else.
'Tulinan is quite the guttural language,' he thought as he quietly made sounds as if he had something in his throat.
"Hey, you sick or something?" Bobby asked from where he sat on the couch.
"No, I'm reading," he responded with just hint of indignation in his voice.
"Oh, well you don't have to get all uptight about it."
The dragon snorted slightly and went back to reading his book, choosing to ignore the others in the room. What use were they anyway, he had his book, a nice fire, and as long as they were quiet, he wouldn't have to make them be quiet. The younger students were all in the common room, doing their homework. They probably would have gone outside, seeing how early it was, but it was raining. Even with all the peace and quiet he couldn't concentrate, something just felt wrong.
'They're coming.'
TBC
There, I'm gonna stop, not because it's getting too long, but because it's taking too long. I've taken a break from my Kim Possible fic, "The Assassin: Nemesis", and will be working on this and my Totally Spies almost full time. I say almost because I have other things to do than to write stories, especially ones that are ignored. Anyway, that's all for my rantings, if you want me to update "The Assassin", then review on it, so far my only loyal reviewer is Chaos. Oh, and thank you to the reviewer for this story that kept me motivated, they know who they are. They sent me like five reviews asking where the next chapter was, and I'm proud to say it's here. Late.