Finally, the weekend. Diane left the mansion for a break to meet a friend
of hers in SoHo, another mutant that she'd met in her long city life.
She walked down the street, careful to watch everything. The people here knew what she was.
She was jerked backwards, She hit the ground and rolled, cursing her long braid. She got to her feet. *blink* She was surrounded. Her eyes flitted carefully over everyone in the circle. All people she knew. She forced sadness away. They had once been her neighbors. "You know I can take you all out." She said softly. She got no response. The leader, her old boyfriend that rode the biked, stepped forward. He had taken it as a personal insult that she was a mutant. She'd been so shocked that he'd dropped her, but she wasn't now. She was so busy thinking, that she only felt the pain flare in her face for a second before she hit the ground and the darkness swallowed her.
She woke up what seemed like an eternity later, but actually only was a couple minutes, but it'd been long enough for them to bring a chair from somewhere and tied her to it. They were still in a circle around her. Instead of reasoning with them, she worked on freeing her feet, using her power in strings controlled by her hands, which were behind her back. No one noticed. -Now- she'd reason.in a sense.
"Now, either you people untie me, or you'll all end up on your backs and I'll just walk out of here. With my hands behind my back. She pulled her legs free for emphasis. They stared at her for a long moment and then rushed her as a single person.
They'll never learn. She thought grimly as she spun, smashing the chair into someone's head. She jumped, landing on the back of a man who'd tried to tackle her. She bashed the chair down, and felt it slide from under her arms. Good.
For all her spinning and quick moves, numbers were starting to tell on her. She took a hard punch and used the fall time to push the panic button on her 'watch'. I'll just have to hold my own. She though absently, spinning and feeling her braid hit someone hard.
The distant rumbling told her help was coming. She used her almost drained power to stop three punches and a tackle. She'd thinned them some, she'd stepped up on her power so she'd be taller, and so she wouldn't trip over the five people she'd felled.
Two black motorcycles. Alex. Bruce. For once, they seemed to be working together, to get to their one problem with each other. Her. Thank you lord. she thought. She took another hard punch, and used the last of her power to make a tunnel out of the fray.
Bruce smacked a couple of them around while Alex helped her onto the back of his bike. Then he and Bruce turned, and, as if on cue, both fried a huge trench that would hold the neighbors for a while, anyway.
Diane was dizzy. She'd never drained this much of her power. She was hanging onto Alex for dear life, but their touch didn't send the usual shock through her,
Bruce glanced at Diane, and frowned under his helmet. She had both her arms around Alex's waist, and was leaning on him. She was tired out. To tired to feel the effects of being that close to Alex. Alex, however, was not immune. He almost skidded off the road when she slid her arms across his abdomen.
Diane may have been too tired to feel the shock of electricity, but, as Bruce had thought, Alex was not. He couldn't not possibly concentrate on the road when she had both her arms across his stomach and her face was pressed onto his shoulder, her breath a warms flutter on his neck. He wobbled dangerously, but forced himself not to stop his bike and.no, he would -not think about that when he was driving.
They got back to the mansion without crashing, thankfully. Bruce grumpily let Alex take Diane up to her room, since it was just across the hall from the teacher's.
About halfway up the stairs, she collapsed. Alex picked her up.
"You need to eat more." He told his burden, who was surprisingly light. He carried her up the rest of the stairs, grumbling to himself about people who starved themselves. Praying that the door was open, he pushed it open. It swung freely.
He blinked, almost dropping Diane. She'd pushed the bed to one side, pulled up the rug, and cleared the floor, which was now smooth floorboards. She'd gotten a stereo system from somewhere, it was set up on one wall. On the other, a huge mirror that glittered oddly was leaned on the wall. Her power. There was also a shimmering wooden bar that ran the length of the mirror wall. She'd made a dance studio out of her room. He set her gently on the bed, his eyes taking in the details. Two old and used, tattered ballet slippers, more gray than pink were along the wall as were leather tap shoes, jazz shoes, costume dance shoes. The walls were covered in famous dancers and dance recital programs. The stereo system had one of the headphones with the microphones attached.
The little angel's room. He thought as he left, still contemplating. He'd love to see her dance. He'd just sort of hang around and hope to see it.
Diane woke up in her bed, absently wondering how she'd gotten there , when she'd fallen on the stairs. She seemed to vaguely remember Alex being there. He must have brought her. She sat up and immediately flopped back, her head spinning, every muscle in her body screaming.
"Not well, Di?" Bruce asked, appearing out of nowhere, his eyes flickering over her dance studio, then resting worriedly on her.
"Fine, just a little dizzy." She attempted to sit up, but Bruce pushed her back down gently.
"Don't even try it until you feel better." He pushed a couple of loose hairs out of her face. "You did wonderful back there, Di."
"They woulda got me." She said, wondering if her voice really sounded that slurred.
"Yes, well you did good holding them off."
"Thanks, luvvy." She said, closing her eyes. She was asleep in a few seconds, but Bruce didn't go anywhere, contemplating her words. Thanks, luvvy.
Alex watched from across the hall, looking grumpy. Diane swung back and forth. She was sometimes really touchy about the tie between them, sometimes she'd be accepting, like the night on the bikes. She'd been flirting. But never anything in between. And sometimes she'd act really attached to Bruce, and sometimes she'd ignore his obvious infatuation with her.
Diane was fine the next day, once her power had a chance to regenerate itself. She went to classes, but she was asleep the whole time, and by the end of power class the end of her braid was singed and there was a burn on her arm from being paired with Johnny.
"Marie." She said wearily. "Will you tell Logan that I can't come today?" Her friend, who didn't know what had happened and was worried about her, nodded, glad to have something to do to help.
Diane collapsed on her bed with a sigh. Suddenly she sat up. I haven't danced in a while. I'll get out of practice. She walked over to her stereo and shuffled through her CD's, settling on a black one.
Alex was walking back down the hall when he heard the music. Diane. He crept silently down the hall. The song had a hard, steady beat, but the beginning was two girls talking on the phone. Closer to her room he heard three hard orchestra hits..
o/~ You told me that you would always be everything that I need. o/~ Three more hits. o/~ Told my friends that I .would never get enough, of your love. o/~ Three more hits, he crept up to her room, and promptly stumbled back in surprise.
o/~ You want me to stay at home, and like a fool I did for you, now I see the game that you're playing on me.o/~
She was dancing, She had no shoes on, her hair was down, and her eyes were closed. She could -move-. She was using the many orchestra hits and the strong beat to her advantage, slamming her feet or arms and snapping her head and hips.
o/~ You go out with your friends at night, like it's alright, cause you're hot like fire.o/~
He blinked. She was flexible. She'd just flipped on an orchestra hit.
o/~ Other girls call your cellphone boy you can't help yourself, cause you're hot like fire.o/~
With a jolt he realized that she knew he was there. How, he didn't know, she hadn't opened her eyes once. She did now, though, winked at him, and spun, her gold hair fanning around her.
o/~ You didn't know she was my best friend baby you're just playing yourself cause you're hot like fire. o/~
Alex watched her dance, mesmerized. She ended it with a complicated jump, and landed perfectly.in the splits. He winced. She got up, pressed a couple buttons, and changed CDs. She sang this time, only a couple lines, but still ignoring him.
"Its amazing, what a boy can do, I cannot stop myself. Wish I didn't want you like I do, want you and no one else."
She stopped singing, turned off her CD player, and stopped moving, her back to him.
"You can come out now." She said, turning around and smirking at him. He came out from behind her door sheepishly. She didn't look mad though, in fact, she was half-smiling.
"It's rude to eavesdrop." She said, sounding stern, or at least, trying to.
"Sorry." He muttered.
"Don't do it again." She sounded serious now. "You want to see me dance, ask." Alex was busy wondering why it suddenly felt like he was much younger than her..
"Sorry." He muttered again.
Diane smiled to herself. For once, she was in charge. She didn't mind him watching her, really. Bruce came sometimes, though he didn't know she knew. She just preferred to know that she had an audience, if only to give them a better show.
By the time she came out of her reverie, he was gone.
She wandered out into the hall singing, still wearing no shoes, her clear sweet voice turning heads wherever she went.
"She's got you wrapped up in her satin and lace, tied around her little finger.got you feeling that you'll never escape, don't you know your hearts in danger, there's a devil in that angels face, if you could only see the love that you're wasting."
She ran into the Alex again, sighing inwardly that she had to meet him wherever he went. He seemed to have forgotten all about eavesdropping on her. By that time she'd moved onto another song, still not deciding on a place to settle, and instead wandering aimlessly.
"Who doesn't know, what I'm talking about, who's never left home, who's never struck out." Alex knew the song, he picked up the line, and before she knew what she was doing, her voice jumped up onto a harmony.
"To find a life and dream of their own, a place in the clouds, a foundation of stone." She had no idea, really, of what a strange scene they made to anyone else. They were both standing in the hall leading off to the dormitories, not even looking at each other, singing in perfect harmony.
"Many precede and many will follow, a young girl's dreams no longer hollow, it takes the shape of a place out west, but what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed." She also hadn't noticed that they'd gathered a small audience, consisting mostly of students, though she knew Logan was there, and was pretty sure that the professor was there in a sense. But for some reason, though she wanted to with everything in her, she couldn't stop singing.
"She needs, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes." Marie, who normally would have been to shy, could tell her friend was dying, and joined them in a low alto voice. Three part harmony. Bruce. Where's Bruce. Diane thought, thinking his singing voice would fit in nicely. Alex was a low baritone. She needed a tenor. For some reason, she felt like the leader.
"She traveled this road as a child, wide eyed and grinning she never tired, but now she won't be coming back with the rest, if these are life's lessons she'll take this test. " She spotted Jean, and tilted her head to one side. Suddenly the telepath was in her mind.
1 What?
Where's Bruce?
Right there, why?
Can you give him the lyrics? I need a tenor.
Diane felt a burst of amusement from the telepath. She saw Bruce looked very confused, then his voice joined them. She was right. He was tenor.
"She needs, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes." Suddenly everyone but her stopped singing. She was confused for a second, then recalled the song. She lowered her voice to the normal line for the song.
"As her folks drive away, her dad yells check the oil, mom stares out the window and say I'm leaving my girl, she said it didn't seem like that long ago that she stood there and let her own folks know..." The rest of them started singing again, all hitting the right notes somehow, as though they practiced all the time, or someone was directing them, though Diane, who had started it, was only singing with the rest of them.
"She needed, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes."
The finished. People didn't clap. They were awed. As far as they were concerned, the four of them had just started singing from nowhere in particular, all over the room, perfectly. It was, in fact, kind of creepy. Perhaps this was why they filtered away so quickly, leaving the singers and Jean.
"That was wonderful, Diane." She said softly.
"It wasn't me, Jean." She replied. She didn't really notice when the professor came up behind them.
"Diane." He said softly. His blue eyes were kind. "We haven't had a music teacher since Lorna left." He glanced at Alex, making her wonder. "And we need another. Are you as good with other instruments as you are with your voice?"
"Just piano."
"Perfect. Would like to lead a choir?"
"I would.but I don't think I have the time, with your class and Logan's."
"I have a feeling, Diane, that Logan can always switch his lessons to the weekend." She nodded, her heart jumping again. If only she could find someone to teach dancing, everything would be just as she'd imagined. She could work with her power, her bike, her voice, and herself. It was all she'd ever wanted since she'd found out she was mutant, and now, all of a sudden, it had happened.
Alex had the strong impression the reason she looked at her shoes so quickly was so people wouldn't see her eyes mist over, Jean knew it, and Bruce just looked confused. This also probably was the reason she disappeared so fast.
She walked down the street, careful to watch everything. The people here knew what she was.
She was jerked backwards, She hit the ground and rolled, cursing her long braid. She got to her feet. *blink* She was surrounded. Her eyes flitted carefully over everyone in the circle. All people she knew. She forced sadness away. They had once been her neighbors. "You know I can take you all out." She said softly. She got no response. The leader, her old boyfriend that rode the biked, stepped forward. He had taken it as a personal insult that she was a mutant. She'd been so shocked that he'd dropped her, but she wasn't now. She was so busy thinking, that she only felt the pain flare in her face for a second before she hit the ground and the darkness swallowed her.
She woke up what seemed like an eternity later, but actually only was a couple minutes, but it'd been long enough for them to bring a chair from somewhere and tied her to it. They were still in a circle around her. Instead of reasoning with them, she worked on freeing her feet, using her power in strings controlled by her hands, which were behind her back. No one noticed. -Now- she'd reason.in a sense.
"Now, either you people untie me, or you'll all end up on your backs and I'll just walk out of here. With my hands behind my back. She pulled her legs free for emphasis. They stared at her for a long moment and then rushed her as a single person.
They'll never learn. She thought grimly as she spun, smashing the chair into someone's head. She jumped, landing on the back of a man who'd tried to tackle her. She bashed the chair down, and felt it slide from under her arms. Good.
For all her spinning and quick moves, numbers were starting to tell on her. She took a hard punch and used the fall time to push the panic button on her 'watch'. I'll just have to hold my own. She though absently, spinning and feeling her braid hit someone hard.
The distant rumbling told her help was coming. She used her almost drained power to stop three punches and a tackle. She'd thinned them some, she'd stepped up on her power so she'd be taller, and so she wouldn't trip over the five people she'd felled.
Two black motorcycles. Alex. Bruce. For once, they seemed to be working together, to get to their one problem with each other. Her. Thank you lord. she thought. She took another hard punch, and used the last of her power to make a tunnel out of the fray.
Bruce smacked a couple of them around while Alex helped her onto the back of his bike. Then he and Bruce turned, and, as if on cue, both fried a huge trench that would hold the neighbors for a while, anyway.
Diane was dizzy. She'd never drained this much of her power. She was hanging onto Alex for dear life, but their touch didn't send the usual shock through her,
Bruce glanced at Diane, and frowned under his helmet. She had both her arms around Alex's waist, and was leaning on him. She was tired out. To tired to feel the effects of being that close to Alex. Alex, however, was not immune. He almost skidded off the road when she slid her arms across his abdomen.
Diane may have been too tired to feel the shock of electricity, but, as Bruce had thought, Alex was not. He couldn't not possibly concentrate on the road when she had both her arms across his stomach and her face was pressed onto his shoulder, her breath a warms flutter on his neck. He wobbled dangerously, but forced himself not to stop his bike and.no, he would -not think about that when he was driving.
They got back to the mansion without crashing, thankfully. Bruce grumpily let Alex take Diane up to her room, since it was just across the hall from the teacher's.
About halfway up the stairs, she collapsed. Alex picked her up.
"You need to eat more." He told his burden, who was surprisingly light. He carried her up the rest of the stairs, grumbling to himself about people who starved themselves. Praying that the door was open, he pushed it open. It swung freely.
He blinked, almost dropping Diane. She'd pushed the bed to one side, pulled up the rug, and cleared the floor, which was now smooth floorboards. She'd gotten a stereo system from somewhere, it was set up on one wall. On the other, a huge mirror that glittered oddly was leaned on the wall. Her power. There was also a shimmering wooden bar that ran the length of the mirror wall. She'd made a dance studio out of her room. He set her gently on the bed, his eyes taking in the details. Two old and used, tattered ballet slippers, more gray than pink were along the wall as were leather tap shoes, jazz shoes, costume dance shoes. The walls were covered in famous dancers and dance recital programs. The stereo system had one of the headphones with the microphones attached.
The little angel's room. He thought as he left, still contemplating. He'd love to see her dance. He'd just sort of hang around and hope to see it.
Diane woke up in her bed, absently wondering how she'd gotten there , when she'd fallen on the stairs. She seemed to vaguely remember Alex being there. He must have brought her. She sat up and immediately flopped back, her head spinning, every muscle in her body screaming.
"Not well, Di?" Bruce asked, appearing out of nowhere, his eyes flickering over her dance studio, then resting worriedly on her.
"Fine, just a little dizzy." She attempted to sit up, but Bruce pushed her back down gently.
"Don't even try it until you feel better." He pushed a couple of loose hairs out of her face. "You did wonderful back there, Di."
"They woulda got me." She said, wondering if her voice really sounded that slurred.
"Yes, well you did good holding them off."
"Thanks, luvvy." She said, closing her eyes. She was asleep in a few seconds, but Bruce didn't go anywhere, contemplating her words. Thanks, luvvy.
Alex watched from across the hall, looking grumpy. Diane swung back and forth. She was sometimes really touchy about the tie between them, sometimes she'd be accepting, like the night on the bikes. She'd been flirting. But never anything in between. And sometimes she'd act really attached to Bruce, and sometimes she'd ignore his obvious infatuation with her.
Diane was fine the next day, once her power had a chance to regenerate itself. She went to classes, but she was asleep the whole time, and by the end of power class the end of her braid was singed and there was a burn on her arm from being paired with Johnny.
"Marie." She said wearily. "Will you tell Logan that I can't come today?" Her friend, who didn't know what had happened and was worried about her, nodded, glad to have something to do to help.
Diane collapsed on her bed with a sigh. Suddenly she sat up. I haven't danced in a while. I'll get out of practice. She walked over to her stereo and shuffled through her CD's, settling on a black one.
Alex was walking back down the hall when he heard the music. Diane. He crept silently down the hall. The song had a hard, steady beat, but the beginning was two girls talking on the phone. Closer to her room he heard three hard orchestra hits..
o/~ You told me that you would always be everything that I need. o/~ Three more hits. o/~ Told my friends that I .would never get enough, of your love. o/~ Three more hits, he crept up to her room, and promptly stumbled back in surprise.
o/~ You want me to stay at home, and like a fool I did for you, now I see the game that you're playing on me.o/~
She was dancing, She had no shoes on, her hair was down, and her eyes were closed. She could -move-. She was using the many orchestra hits and the strong beat to her advantage, slamming her feet or arms and snapping her head and hips.
o/~ You go out with your friends at night, like it's alright, cause you're hot like fire.o/~
He blinked. She was flexible. She'd just flipped on an orchestra hit.
o/~ Other girls call your cellphone boy you can't help yourself, cause you're hot like fire.o/~
With a jolt he realized that she knew he was there. How, he didn't know, she hadn't opened her eyes once. She did now, though, winked at him, and spun, her gold hair fanning around her.
o/~ You didn't know she was my best friend baby you're just playing yourself cause you're hot like fire. o/~
Alex watched her dance, mesmerized. She ended it with a complicated jump, and landed perfectly.in the splits. He winced. She got up, pressed a couple buttons, and changed CDs. She sang this time, only a couple lines, but still ignoring him.
"Its amazing, what a boy can do, I cannot stop myself. Wish I didn't want you like I do, want you and no one else."
She stopped singing, turned off her CD player, and stopped moving, her back to him.
"You can come out now." She said, turning around and smirking at him. He came out from behind her door sheepishly. She didn't look mad though, in fact, she was half-smiling.
"It's rude to eavesdrop." She said, sounding stern, or at least, trying to.
"Sorry." He muttered.
"Don't do it again." She sounded serious now. "You want to see me dance, ask." Alex was busy wondering why it suddenly felt like he was much younger than her..
"Sorry." He muttered again.
Diane smiled to herself. For once, she was in charge. She didn't mind him watching her, really. Bruce came sometimes, though he didn't know she knew. She just preferred to know that she had an audience, if only to give them a better show.
By the time she came out of her reverie, he was gone.
She wandered out into the hall singing, still wearing no shoes, her clear sweet voice turning heads wherever she went.
"She's got you wrapped up in her satin and lace, tied around her little finger.got you feeling that you'll never escape, don't you know your hearts in danger, there's a devil in that angels face, if you could only see the love that you're wasting."
She ran into the Alex again, sighing inwardly that she had to meet him wherever he went. He seemed to have forgotten all about eavesdropping on her. By that time she'd moved onto another song, still not deciding on a place to settle, and instead wandering aimlessly.
"Who doesn't know, what I'm talking about, who's never left home, who's never struck out." Alex knew the song, he picked up the line, and before she knew what she was doing, her voice jumped up onto a harmony.
"To find a life and dream of their own, a place in the clouds, a foundation of stone." She had no idea, really, of what a strange scene they made to anyone else. They were both standing in the hall leading off to the dormitories, not even looking at each other, singing in perfect harmony.
"Many precede and many will follow, a young girl's dreams no longer hollow, it takes the shape of a place out west, but what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed." She also hadn't noticed that they'd gathered a small audience, consisting mostly of students, though she knew Logan was there, and was pretty sure that the professor was there in a sense. But for some reason, though she wanted to with everything in her, she couldn't stop singing.
"She needs, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes." Marie, who normally would have been to shy, could tell her friend was dying, and joined them in a low alto voice. Three part harmony. Bruce. Where's Bruce. Diane thought, thinking his singing voice would fit in nicely. Alex was a low baritone. She needed a tenor. For some reason, she felt like the leader.
"She traveled this road as a child, wide eyed and grinning she never tired, but now she won't be coming back with the rest, if these are life's lessons she'll take this test. " She spotted Jean, and tilted her head to one side. Suddenly the telepath was in her mind.
1 What?
Where's Bruce?
Right there, why?
Can you give him the lyrics? I need a tenor.
Diane felt a burst of amusement from the telepath. She saw Bruce looked very confused, then his voice joined them. She was right. He was tenor.
"She needs, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes." Suddenly everyone but her stopped singing. She was confused for a second, then recalled the song. She lowered her voice to the normal line for the song.
"As her folks drive away, her dad yells check the oil, mom stares out the window and say I'm leaving my girl, she said it didn't seem like that long ago that she stood there and let her own folks know..." The rest of them started singing again, all hitting the right notes somehow, as though they practiced all the time, or someone was directing them, though Diane, who had started it, was only singing with the rest of them.
"She needed, wide open spaces.room to make her big mistakes, she needs, new faces, she knows the high stakes."
The finished. People didn't clap. They were awed. As far as they were concerned, the four of them had just started singing from nowhere in particular, all over the room, perfectly. It was, in fact, kind of creepy. Perhaps this was why they filtered away so quickly, leaving the singers and Jean.
"That was wonderful, Diane." She said softly.
"It wasn't me, Jean." She replied. She didn't really notice when the professor came up behind them.
"Diane." He said softly. His blue eyes were kind. "We haven't had a music teacher since Lorna left." He glanced at Alex, making her wonder. "And we need another. Are you as good with other instruments as you are with your voice?"
"Just piano."
"Perfect. Would like to lead a choir?"
"I would.but I don't think I have the time, with your class and Logan's."
"I have a feeling, Diane, that Logan can always switch his lessons to the weekend." She nodded, her heart jumping again. If only she could find someone to teach dancing, everything would be just as she'd imagined. She could work with her power, her bike, her voice, and herself. It was all she'd ever wanted since she'd found out she was mutant, and now, all of a sudden, it had happened.
Alex had the strong impression the reason she looked at her shoes so quickly was so people wouldn't see her eyes mist over, Jean knew it, and Bruce just looked confused. This also probably was the reason she disappeared so fast.
