Latice
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from X-men or DragonballZ…they are property of Marvel, A. Toriyama, and Funimation.
_______________
Chapter Three:
"So what are you doing here?" Bobby asked the next morning. He and Jubilee were sitting against a wall, while Latice hung from one of the rods in the wall, her tail wrapped around it securely. She looked at him for a moment, then gestured to the silver armband.
"He promised to remove this. I, like a fool, believed him." Her face, normally expressionless or angry, flickered with sadness.
"Magneto?" Jubilee asked softly. Latice nodded slightly, and an uncomfortable silence fell. Finally, Bobby spoke.
"When the X-men come to get us, you can come," he told her. She gazed into his eyes for a long moment, then closed them and did not speak for a long time.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The two young mutants did not know how much time had passed before the door beeped, then whirred, announcing a visitor. Looking up and expecting one of their captors, they were unprepared for who they saw.
"Rogue! Wolverine!" Jubilee exclaimed as the two ran into the room. She and Bobby jumped up.
"Well, come on," Rogue said. Wolverine's eyes flicked up to where Latice was watching the scene warily.
"Who's that?" he questioned, equally wary. One set of adnamatium claws slipped out of his left hand, the other held ready.
"Come on, Latice," Bobby called, motioning toward her. Her tail unfurled, and she dropped, turned in midair, and landed on her feet. "This is Latice," he introduced. "Magneto was holding her captive, too. She isn't a mutant, though, she's not from earth. Latice, this is Rogue and Wolverine." Wolverine raked his eyes over her, then gestured impatiently to the door.
"All right, let's go." They ran out the door, and met up with several others. They all looked curiously at Latice, but held their questions. They then maneuvered through Magneto's base and outside to a large, black jet. After a few moments, three others rushed out, and climbed aboard..
"Well," one of them said as the jet lifted of. She was dark-skinned, with long silvery-white hair, and somber blue eyes. (In the comic, they're blue, right?) "You two have a lot of answering to do."
Bobby held up a hand. "We know, Storm, we know, but just a minute before you lecture us." He turned to Rogue.
"Rogue, did you touch Magneto at all?" he asked. She nodded with a grimace. "Taking him out as soon as possible was part of the plan. Then find you two." Bobby and Jubilee exchanged smiles, and he tipped his head to the silent alien next to him, his blue eyes twinkling. "Can you get that arm band off?" he wanted to know. Rogue leaned forward to examine it, and nodded after a moment. Latice, on the other hand, was utterly confused. The brown haired mutant, focusing her power that she 'borrowed' from Magneto, quickly found a seam, undetectable to the human eye. Running her gloved hands along the seam, she pushed out with her magnetic senses and found a catch. Releasing it, the band popped open slightly at the seam.
"There," Rogue said as she felt Magneto's power slip away. She had only held onto him long enough to knock him out. Latice was staring at her arm in disbelief and, to everyone's surprise, tears glistened in her eyes when she looked up. She did not speak, but everyone could see the intense gratefulness shining from her dark eyes.
Turning back to the armband, Latice carefully began prying it away from her flesh. Someone let out an involuntary gasp as they saw the needlelike projections on the underside of the band, but she ignored them. Slowly, carefully, she removed the band completely, and sighed, inwardly happy, as she could feel her power flood back, power she had not felt for over seven years. She did not even notice the blood that flowed from the wounds until someone pressed a clothe onto her arm. She met the strange yellow eyes of a blue-furred mutant next to her. He motioned, and she raised her arm to allow him to bandage it, silently watching. Suddenly, she frowned at him.
"You have a scent like the female called Mystique," she informed him, warily. He looked startled, then sad.
"Ja. Mystique ist meine Mutter." Accepting the explanation, Latice leaned back in her seat, eyes half closed in watchful sleepiness. She saw from his face that he was expecting a totally different reaction, but did not know why. It's not like you could judge a being by his sire…Kami knows that she was nothing like hers.
"So." This came from a man with brown hair, and a strange device over his eyes. "Are you a mutant?" Latice's eyes snapped open, and a growl sounded low in her throat.
_____________
REVIEW!!!!