She's always askin' him what he wants to do
How many times does he have to say, he's fucking confused?
He'd run away but they're nowhere else to run
Why do they try to conform us? We just wanna have fun....
-Anti-Flag, Confused Youth
She could feel her bones melting and running together, shifting form. There was no unpleasant crunch, but the hot-cold sensation made her bite her lip in an attempt to keep from screaming. Not now! /Not now!/ she thought frantically. There were exclamations of shock from the surrounded kids, and Bobby and Rahne moved in front of her, hiding the transformed body from the crowd.
Turning her head to the side, Fiona attempted to see the changes that had been forced upon her body. Behind her twitched a bushy tail, reddish brown, tipped with white. A pained yip escaped her mouth as she scampered under the table, trying to escape the sight of the other pizza shop patrons. What if they saw her? Panicking, Fiona attempted to fit her now-smaller frame underneath the seat of the booth. A hand reached in towards her, and she snarled and snapped at it.
"Whoa!" said a voice, "Calm down, it's just me."
Bobby. Fiona allowed herself to be picked up and hidden beneath Bobby's jacket, tucked close to his stomach. "You look like you're pregnant, Drake," Ray snorted.
"Don't draw attention to it!" Bobby snapped.
Fiona thought that if she'd been human, she'd be blushing a painful red. As he breathed, she could feel his stomach moving up and down, tense and nervous. In fox form, however, she couldn't do anything except huddle close and attempt not to be seen as Bobby zipped up his jacket. The Brotherhood snickered at them, except for the green-haired boy, who just stood there and watched.
"You should train your members better, shouldn't you?" Pietro snickered, "That's like the mutant equivalent of pissing your pants."
"Thank you, Pietro, for that like, lovely imagery," Kitty snapped, as she entered the pizza parlor with the older X-Men.
"I think," Scott said, "That you should leave."
The Brotherhood were clearly outnumbered, but they did not leave, just moved to another room to order their pizza.
Kitty glanced at Bobby, who was holding his hands beneath the round shape under the jacket, and raised an eyebrow. "Is there something you haven't told us, Bobby?" she asked, and grinned.
"Yeah, very funny," he grumbled, "Look, we're going back to the Institute.... We can't stay here with Fiona like this."
She sighed (mentally, at least - the fox's body was only capable of emitting short bursts of breath), and shifted her weight.
Being a mutant really sucked sometimes.
X
Lance wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, ambling out of the pizzeria. The other Brotherhood members were still there, arguing over the last few pieces of the pie - keeping Fred fed was the biggest drain on their finances. He kicked idly at a rock, sighing to himself. His attempt to join the X-Men was as disastrous as Tabitha had predicted, now he was back antagonizing his old enemies.
A hand caught his arm.
"Lance?"
"Kitty, what are you doing?"
"Why do you hang out with them, anyway, Lance? You could have stayed. You could have been a part of us."
"You know something, Kitty?"
"What?"
"They understand me. The understand me and you don't."
"So do we - it was just, like, a misunderstanding-"
Lance laughed hollowly, and snorted softly. "Right. Go take care of the fox girl, with the rest of the wonderful, wonderful X-Men. Leave me alone."
"Fine," Kitty said, glaring, "I will."
X
Bobby walked home quickly, shaking his head. How could Fiona go out if she had problems like this? The warm mass of fur and hair that was his friend squirmed nervously under his shirt as he went, feet moving as fast as humanly possible. For all that, he was still earning several strange looks. He could feel the fox shrinking apprehensively away from him.
"Shh," he muttered, "We'll be home soon, okay? Don't panic, or I might drop you." No movement, except shallow breathing.
X
"I'm sorry, Professor," Fiona said, safely wrapped in a gray sweatshirt and baggy jeans, "I don't know why I lost control like that.... I.... I'm a liability, aren't I?" She chewed nervously at her lip.
"No, Fiona," Charles Xavier said, shaking his head as he turned the wheelchair around to face her. "Every mutant must learn to control their abilities. You will as well, eventually."
"But the others don't have /any/ problem," Fiona said, "I can't go to school if I just randomly turn into an animal every time I get scared!"
"Patience," he said, "Is the key. You will learn. There will be work involved. But you will learn."
"I just don't /know/, Professor," she said, trailing her foot on the ground. "I'm always so scared that I'm going to lose it, and then I do."
"Fear is only another thing you must conquer. It gets easier as you go."
"Okay," Fiona said, but in her heart, she knew that he was wrong.
X
"You know," Pietro said, his foot a blur as it tapped nervously up and down; pent up energy; "We should put someone in that school."
"Already tried that," Lance said, "It didn't work, remember?"
Pietro made a disgusted face. "Not like /that/. I'm not asking anyone here to-" Here, his face turned angelic, as he looked up at the ceiling, "-turn to the side of good, forsaking evil in order to live a decent, upstanding existence-"
"Okay, okay, we get the picture, yo," Todd interrupted, rolling his eyes as he flicked his tongue out, idly catching a bug.
"-I'm just suggesting that we get someone to live there. And /stay/ there. You know, like a secret agent," Pietro finished up, ignoring Todd's addition to his reasoning.
"Why?" asked Fred, always a little slow on the uptake.
"Well, obviously, we'd get inside information," Pietro said.
".... Even though we don't need it, now that Mystique's gone."
"Know thy enemy as you know yourself," Dan said.
"Thank you, Zen-boy," Tabitha said sarcastically.
"You're welcome."
"They have a point," Lance said.
"But who can we plant?" Fred asked, "They wouldn't trust any of /us/. Especially Tabby."
"Tabby?" Pietro asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Shut up," Fred muttered defensively.
Lance was beginning to see the line of analysis. "But they /don't/ know Dan."
"Exactly," Pietro said, smug, "Especially if we seem to have a falling out with him...."
"Perfect!" said Tabitha, earning a glare from Pietro.
"So how's that sound, Dan?"
"Why not?" he replied.
"We'll do it tomorrow, then."
Fred grunted. "Wait, I don't get it."
X
Fiona and Rahne were heading to Algebra class when loud noises erupted at the end of the hallway. They sped up in order to see what was going on, and found teachers struggling to pull two boys, both shouting curses at each other, apart. To her surprise, Fiona noted that one of them was the green-haired boy, Dan. The other was Pietro. The two glared at each other.
"Fuck you," Pietro snarled, fighting free of the teacher's restraining arms. "We don't fucking need you, you little rat-"
"You think I fucking care?" Dan inquired grimly.
"Mr. Brown! Mr. Maximoff! That is /quite/ enough from you!" Ms. Small exclaimed, stepping between them. "More than enough! Detentions for both of you! Suspensions, if I can help it! I never want to see a display like this again!"
The two shuffled sullenly in place. Rahne blinked, and looked sideways at Fiona. "This is the first time any Brotherhood member's really gotten into a fight with each other... Look! Dan has a black eye!"
"That looks painful," Fiona agreed, and glanced at Rahne. "So why do you think they were fighting?"
"It's beyond me," Rahne shrugged, "Most of them are pretty nasty. Or just gross," she finished, as Todd Tolensky, thinking no one was watching, pulled a piece of chocolate from the trashcan and popped it into his mouth.
Fiona went through the rest of the day in an absentminded daze, mind preoccupied by the events of the previous afternoon, as well as what had happened that morning. She was walking down the stairs of the school when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Fiona?" Startled, she turned, starting to feel a change coming on. She ruthlessly suppressed the urge to change, and succeeded. She remained human, and looked up at the boy who had approached her.
"Daniel?"
"Are you okay?" he asked dubiously, "You looked like you were going to be sick, for a minute."
"I - I'm fine," she said. "What do you want?"
"Well..." he trailed off, looking sheepish and rather nervous.
"I'm running late," she reminded him.
He shrugged. "Um, well, this is rather awkward-"
"Daniel Brown, just tell me, please."
"Could I stay at the Institute?" he asked in a rush of words.
".../What/?"
"It's not that odd of a request," he said peevishly. "I can't go back to the Brotherhood's home. Maximoff said they don't need members who don't obey orders."
"Hm. 'Who don't obey orders'?" she wanted to know.
"I don't want to talk about it," Dan said, "Let's just say I didn't want to be an accessory to a crime."
His face was sincere enough, but Fiona thought sardonically that he was a very good actor. From what she knew of him, Dan didn't hesitate to step onto the wrong side of the law. "Well, I'm not in charge of admissions," she said. "You'll have to talk to the Professor."
"I'll walk you home," he offered, magnanimous.
"Thanks..."
"Think nothing of it, Predator."
X
"Professor, you've /got/ to be kidding!" Scott exclaimed, obviously incensed. He looked at the skinny teenager, Thorn, and glared. Thorn glared back wordless defiance, as he stood before Xavier. "This is the second Brotherhood member that's tried this ploy! You saw how Alvers turned out!"
"Yes, Scott," the Professor said, calmly, "But he left because he was not accepted here. We will not make the same mistake twice."
Scott opened his mouth once, twice, but saw that it was useless to argue with Xavier. "At least look in his thoughts to make sure he's sincere."
"Hell no," Thorn growled, "I don't let anybody fuck with my head."
"Watch yer language," Logan replied, in an equally gravelly tone.
"That," Xavier said, "Is not ethical."
Scott started to say, "Since when have you cared about ethics?" but stopped. Everyone was on edge and jumpy, particularly Thorn. "But Professor," he said instead, "Thorn's spent time with them. What if he's corrupted already?"
"Scott," Xavier said warningly, "He is a part of the team. It's Daniel, now."
Scott clenched his teeth and stalked out of the room, followed by Jean, who threw a worried glance over her shoulder at Professor Xavier.
X
"I can't believe it, Jean!" Scott raged, "He's blinding himself to the possibilities!"
"Scott," Jean said, pursing her lips, "You should at least give the boy a chance."
"'Boy'?" Scott laughed, "He's been on the streets. Everyone knows he's almost constantly on drugs-"
"So maybe," Jean said warningly, "He wants to improve himself. Scott, you can't be so close minded."
"I'm sorry, Jean, but if no one else is going to be suspicious, then /I/ am! Will you-"
She rubbed her temples in despair. "No, Scott, for the last time, I will /not/ look into his mind! The Professor wasn't particularly happy when I did that to Kitty. And you saw how Dan reacted when you suggested..."
"I know, I know," Scott finished, "But there's something not right about this."
How many times does he have to say, he's fucking confused?
He'd run away but they're nowhere else to run
Why do they try to conform us? We just wanna have fun....
-Anti-Flag, Confused Youth
She could feel her bones melting and running together, shifting form. There was no unpleasant crunch, but the hot-cold sensation made her bite her lip in an attempt to keep from screaming. Not now! /Not now!/ she thought frantically. There were exclamations of shock from the surrounded kids, and Bobby and Rahne moved in front of her, hiding the transformed body from the crowd.
Turning her head to the side, Fiona attempted to see the changes that had been forced upon her body. Behind her twitched a bushy tail, reddish brown, tipped with white. A pained yip escaped her mouth as she scampered under the table, trying to escape the sight of the other pizza shop patrons. What if they saw her? Panicking, Fiona attempted to fit her now-smaller frame underneath the seat of the booth. A hand reached in towards her, and she snarled and snapped at it.
"Whoa!" said a voice, "Calm down, it's just me."
Bobby. Fiona allowed herself to be picked up and hidden beneath Bobby's jacket, tucked close to his stomach. "You look like you're pregnant, Drake," Ray snorted.
"Don't draw attention to it!" Bobby snapped.
Fiona thought that if she'd been human, she'd be blushing a painful red. As he breathed, she could feel his stomach moving up and down, tense and nervous. In fox form, however, she couldn't do anything except huddle close and attempt not to be seen as Bobby zipped up his jacket. The Brotherhood snickered at them, except for the green-haired boy, who just stood there and watched.
"You should train your members better, shouldn't you?" Pietro snickered, "That's like the mutant equivalent of pissing your pants."
"Thank you, Pietro, for that like, lovely imagery," Kitty snapped, as she entered the pizza parlor with the older X-Men.
"I think," Scott said, "That you should leave."
The Brotherhood were clearly outnumbered, but they did not leave, just moved to another room to order their pizza.
Kitty glanced at Bobby, who was holding his hands beneath the round shape under the jacket, and raised an eyebrow. "Is there something you haven't told us, Bobby?" she asked, and grinned.
"Yeah, very funny," he grumbled, "Look, we're going back to the Institute.... We can't stay here with Fiona like this."
She sighed (mentally, at least - the fox's body was only capable of emitting short bursts of breath), and shifted her weight.
Being a mutant really sucked sometimes.
X
Lance wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, ambling out of the pizzeria. The other Brotherhood members were still there, arguing over the last few pieces of the pie - keeping Fred fed was the biggest drain on their finances. He kicked idly at a rock, sighing to himself. His attempt to join the X-Men was as disastrous as Tabitha had predicted, now he was back antagonizing his old enemies.
A hand caught his arm.
"Lance?"
"Kitty, what are you doing?"
"Why do you hang out with them, anyway, Lance? You could have stayed. You could have been a part of us."
"You know something, Kitty?"
"What?"
"They understand me. The understand me and you don't."
"So do we - it was just, like, a misunderstanding-"
Lance laughed hollowly, and snorted softly. "Right. Go take care of the fox girl, with the rest of the wonderful, wonderful X-Men. Leave me alone."
"Fine," Kitty said, glaring, "I will."
X
Bobby walked home quickly, shaking his head. How could Fiona go out if she had problems like this? The warm mass of fur and hair that was his friend squirmed nervously under his shirt as he went, feet moving as fast as humanly possible. For all that, he was still earning several strange looks. He could feel the fox shrinking apprehensively away from him.
"Shh," he muttered, "We'll be home soon, okay? Don't panic, or I might drop you." No movement, except shallow breathing.
X
"I'm sorry, Professor," Fiona said, safely wrapped in a gray sweatshirt and baggy jeans, "I don't know why I lost control like that.... I.... I'm a liability, aren't I?" She chewed nervously at her lip.
"No, Fiona," Charles Xavier said, shaking his head as he turned the wheelchair around to face her. "Every mutant must learn to control their abilities. You will as well, eventually."
"But the others don't have /any/ problem," Fiona said, "I can't go to school if I just randomly turn into an animal every time I get scared!"
"Patience," he said, "Is the key. You will learn. There will be work involved. But you will learn."
"I just don't /know/, Professor," she said, trailing her foot on the ground. "I'm always so scared that I'm going to lose it, and then I do."
"Fear is only another thing you must conquer. It gets easier as you go."
"Okay," Fiona said, but in her heart, she knew that he was wrong.
X
"You know," Pietro said, his foot a blur as it tapped nervously up and down; pent up energy; "We should put someone in that school."
"Already tried that," Lance said, "It didn't work, remember?"
Pietro made a disgusted face. "Not like /that/. I'm not asking anyone here to-" Here, his face turned angelic, as he looked up at the ceiling, "-turn to the side of good, forsaking evil in order to live a decent, upstanding existence-"
"Okay, okay, we get the picture, yo," Todd interrupted, rolling his eyes as he flicked his tongue out, idly catching a bug.
"-I'm just suggesting that we get someone to live there. And /stay/ there. You know, like a secret agent," Pietro finished up, ignoring Todd's addition to his reasoning.
"Why?" asked Fred, always a little slow on the uptake.
"Well, obviously, we'd get inside information," Pietro said.
".... Even though we don't need it, now that Mystique's gone."
"Know thy enemy as you know yourself," Dan said.
"Thank you, Zen-boy," Tabitha said sarcastically.
"You're welcome."
"They have a point," Lance said.
"But who can we plant?" Fred asked, "They wouldn't trust any of /us/. Especially Tabby."
"Tabby?" Pietro asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
"Shut up," Fred muttered defensively.
Lance was beginning to see the line of analysis. "But they /don't/ know Dan."
"Exactly," Pietro said, smug, "Especially if we seem to have a falling out with him...."
"Perfect!" said Tabitha, earning a glare from Pietro.
"So how's that sound, Dan?"
"Why not?" he replied.
"We'll do it tomorrow, then."
Fred grunted. "Wait, I don't get it."
X
Fiona and Rahne were heading to Algebra class when loud noises erupted at the end of the hallway. They sped up in order to see what was going on, and found teachers struggling to pull two boys, both shouting curses at each other, apart. To her surprise, Fiona noted that one of them was the green-haired boy, Dan. The other was Pietro. The two glared at each other.
"Fuck you," Pietro snarled, fighting free of the teacher's restraining arms. "We don't fucking need you, you little rat-"
"You think I fucking care?" Dan inquired grimly.
"Mr. Brown! Mr. Maximoff! That is /quite/ enough from you!" Ms. Small exclaimed, stepping between them. "More than enough! Detentions for both of you! Suspensions, if I can help it! I never want to see a display like this again!"
The two shuffled sullenly in place. Rahne blinked, and looked sideways at Fiona. "This is the first time any Brotherhood member's really gotten into a fight with each other... Look! Dan has a black eye!"
"That looks painful," Fiona agreed, and glanced at Rahne. "So why do you think they were fighting?"
"It's beyond me," Rahne shrugged, "Most of them are pretty nasty. Or just gross," she finished, as Todd Tolensky, thinking no one was watching, pulled a piece of chocolate from the trashcan and popped it into his mouth.
Fiona went through the rest of the day in an absentminded daze, mind preoccupied by the events of the previous afternoon, as well as what had happened that morning. She was walking down the stairs of the school when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Fiona?" Startled, she turned, starting to feel a change coming on. She ruthlessly suppressed the urge to change, and succeeded. She remained human, and looked up at the boy who had approached her.
"Daniel?"
"Are you okay?" he asked dubiously, "You looked like you were going to be sick, for a minute."
"I - I'm fine," she said. "What do you want?"
"Well..." he trailed off, looking sheepish and rather nervous.
"I'm running late," she reminded him.
He shrugged. "Um, well, this is rather awkward-"
"Daniel Brown, just tell me, please."
"Could I stay at the Institute?" he asked in a rush of words.
".../What/?"
"It's not that odd of a request," he said peevishly. "I can't go back to the Brotherhood's home. Maximoff said they don't need members who don't obey orders."
"Hm. 'Who don't obey orders'?" she wanted to know.
"I don't want to talk about it," Dan said, "Let's just say I didn't want to be an accessory to a crime."
His face was sincere enough, but Fiona thought sardonically that he was a very good actor. From what she knew of him, Dan didn't hesitate to step onto the wrong side of the law. "Well, I'm not in charge of admissions," she said. "You'll have to talk to the Professor."
"I'll walk you home," he offered, magnanimous.
"Thanks..."
"Think nothing of it, Predator."
X
"Professor, you've /got/ to be kidding!" Scott exclaimed, obviously incensed. He looked at the skinny teenager, Thorn, and glared. Thorn glared back wordless defiance, as he stood before Xavier. "This is the second Brotherhood member that's tried this ploy! You saw how Alvers turned out!"
"Yes, Scott," the Professor said, calmly, "But he left because he was not accepted here. We will not make the same mistake twice."
Scott opened his mouth once, twice, but saw that it was useless to argue with Xavier. "At least look in his thoughts to make sure he's sincere."
"Hell no," Thorn growled, "I don't let anybody fuck with my head."
"Watch yer language," Logan replied, in an equally gravelly tone.
"That," Xavier said, "Is not ethical."
Scott started to say, "Since when have you cared about ethics?" but stopped. Everyone was on edge and jumpy, particularly Thorn. "But Professor," he said instead, "Thorn's spent time with them. What if he's corrupted already?"
"Scott," Xavier said warningly, "He is a part of the team. It's Daniel, now."
Scott clenched his teeth and stalked out of the room, followed by Jean, who threw a worried glance over her shoulder at Professor Xavier.
X
"I can't believe it, Jean!" Scott raged, "He's blinding himself to the possibilities!"
"Scott," Jean said, pursing her lips, "You should at least give the boy a chance."
"'Boy'?" Scott laughed, "He's been on the streets. Everyone knows he's almost constantly on drugs-"
"So maybe," Jean said warningly, "He wants to improve himself. Scott, you can't be so close minded."
"I'm sorry, Jean, but if no one else is going to be suspicious, then /I/ am! Will you-"
She rubbed her temples in despair. "No, Scott, for the last time, I will /not/ look into his mind! The Professor wasn't particularly happy when I did that to Kitty. And you saw how Dan reacted when you suggested..."
"I know, I know," Scott finished, "But there's something not right about this."
