Chapter Three
I looked at the bleachers and grinned slyly, this was the perfect opportunity to get some serious coin. I had to tell Lance I'd just take the cash and give the rest back. He had become no fun; Cami on the other hand was like him when he first came into the Brotherhood. Except she was willing to help with my plots to snag cash. It was Friday and the new gym was full of people to see the game of Bayville, New York high school play against Riverside, Pennsylvania high school (A/N: no, I don't know if that's an actual city in Pennsylvania.). Both bands there and the pep squad along with other school spirit freaks.
Over the week Cami seemed to be able to come up with a lot of cash for food and minor repairs, like the oven didn't catch on fire at a certain degree and the lock on the bathroom worked.
"Yo, Todd, come on, we're gonna go get some hot dogs!" Fred waved for me to come over and I hopped through the crowd over to where Cami and Fred were waiting. Pietro was on the basketball team since he enjoyed it and Lance was probably trying to still find a parking spot. Walking through a crowd was Fred was like walking behind Moses partin' the Red Sea.
"Ah, long line. Hope they aren't out by the time we get up there." Cami leaned against Fred glaring at the person in front of us. "Think ya can wait guys?"
"Yeah, no sweat yo." We stood there for a while and I eavesdrop on the people behind us. One of the girls was wearing blue tinted sunglasses, the other had on a baggy red sweatshirt, and they were with a guy with black gloves and a yellow vest on.
"Too bad you couldn't just give the vending machine a little zap, Keith," the girl with the sweatshirt mumbled, "this line is horrible and I'm too hungry to wait."
"Just be patient, ok Mak? We can wait in a line for a few moments." The line inched forward. "See? We're one more person closer to the front. Not like..."
"Would you two shut up? You might slip then where'd we be?" The glasses girl snapped probably glaring through blue shades. They were silent for a moment and the line started to move slowly up. Move stop, move stop. Why did we want hot dogs in the first place?
"Hey, ain't that one of those X-people Irene showed us?" Keith said and through the corner of my eye I could see none other than Miss Perfect Jean Grey making her way through the crowd.
"What happened to being discreet?" Mak asked.
"Screw it, you wait in line, Electro and I are gonna go follow her." The other girl's voice had dropped so I had to struggle to hear and I saw her and the boy peal away from the line and follow Jean through the crowd. Now this was interesting.
"Hey, Fred, Cami and I are going to go see if we can find Lance," I said grabbing Cami's arm and pulled her into the crowd as she handed Fred the money realizing I wasn't giving her a choice.
"Jeez, Todd, Lance is a big boy he can find us."
"I know, but we're doing a little surveillance." I pointed ahead of us at the two who had left the line. "For some reason they're interested in Jean and I want to know why."
"All righty then, I haven't had a chance to meet the X-men really anyway." We weaved through the crowds and followed the two following Jean who eventually met up with Scott and Kurt and then outside we were.
"I KNEW IT!" Jean yelled once we were outside in an area where we couldn't be seen. "Why are you following me?" Scott and Kurt looked like her little bodyguards.
"Ask them, yo," I told her crossing my arms.
"Why were you following us?" The blue female version of shades snapped.
"Probably cause we were following her." Keith answered with a shrug. He grabbed the yellow band around his wrists and pulled the glove off, and I saw why he wore gloves. Sparks of electricity jumped from his hand and when he took the other glove off the sparks began to jump from one hand to the other. "Now we can do this hard or easy. One, who are you guys?" He looked over at Cami and I. "And two do you three have any idea what Xavier is really up to?"
I blinked not really sure what he was talking about and was about to answer who I was when the girl with the shades took them off and looked directly at Jean before putting them back on. Ok, so she didn't have any eye-threatening thing that forced her to wear shades.
"Don't bother, Electro, he has already influenced his minds too much for me to disrupt it with her power. Weak telepathy, telekinetic powers limited. You're really pathetic you know that Jean Grey?"
"How do you know who I am."
"I'm called Mimic," Mimic tapped her temple, "and now you're powers are all copied to me temporarily."
"A less deadly version of Rogue?" Scott asked.
"Apparently," Kurt muttered.
"Electro, meet Whirlwind and Toad," Mimic turned to us and smiled, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend comes to mind." She pointed at the other three, "You can fry them."
"Get back inside," Scott yelled as a ball of electricity began to form in Electro's hands, "they won't bother a confrontation there!" Kurt grabbed his two teammates and teleported away just as the ball of energy hit where they were.
"Aw, they ain't no fun." Electro put his gloves back on and turned to Cami and I. "Jewels, tell the others what happened and tell them to watch out for the red shades guy, he looked like he meant business."
"Xavier's hold on him was pretty powerful too." Jewels, or Mimic, closed her eyes for a moment,, or at least I think she did considering her clamed look that I usually see Jean use when using her powers. "With that weaklings power I can't pry the hold off of any of them, but if I copied Xavier's himself I might be able to."
"Xavier's hold?" I blinked a couple times.
"Yes, Toad, I suppose there's no use not telling you now." Out of the shadows stepped a pretty woman in her mid to late twenties who then slowly became the lady who I thought, and honestly hoping, was gone Mystique.
~
"Please, Todd, don't panic," Mystique soothed to the scruffy boy, I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest as Jewels sat on a table that was near by and Whirlwind stood there looking at Toad. "Xavier and Magneto are actually in an alliance, they plan to have human mutant coexistence but with mutants as the leaders, the superiors. I thought that Xavier meant to help his students and that Magneto would provide a place in this world for them, but neither is doing that. Ever since I left I've been finding young mutants that were rejected or just don't know what to do and tried to find homes for them or patch up the ones they had. A few like Keith and Jewels here weren't accepted anywhere and wanted to help so I've had them with my friend Irene, training only until they know how to control their powers and other than that letting them be normal teenagers. I left you four a lone because I didn't think you were ready for my new out look on the situation, I was
hoping to delay a little longer but I don't think that's possible now."
"How do I know any of this is true?" Todd asked standing up. "After all you've done to us."
"That was before I knew Xavier had mental control over my son and to be honest I was rough with you boys so that you'd be use to life cause I didn't want you to grow up in a sugar coated house like those X-men."
"But..."
"Todd," Cami stepped up to him and looked up at Mystique, "let's give her a chance, she is after one the one who brought me to you guys and was supplying me with food money. Plus living a normal life sounds great."
"I..." He paused and then shrugged. "Why not, you're the Boss Lady, yo, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Jewels smirked at the quote.
"Don't tell the other boys, though, just say you met them," she gestured to Jewels and I, "in the snack line or something."
"Sure thing, Boss Lady."
Mystique smiled at him and the turned back into the woman she lived as far as we knew and walked off into the shadows and back into the game.
"I'm Keith by the way," I stepped up to the frog-boy and offered my hand, "don't worry, though rubber gloves I can't shock anyone or anything." He took my hand and shook it. I noticed that he had slightly webbed fingers. "And this is Jewels."
"I'm Cami," Whirlwind shook my hand and then shook Jewel's.
"I'm Todd, or the Toad."
"I like the name Todd, come on," Jewels turned on her heels, "I have a licorice rope waiting for me." She strode into the gym and I followed.
"So..." I started once out of earshot.
"I still have Ms. Grey's power, Keith, I know what you're thinking and they seem to be good kids. Lot's of vandalizing but you did take out that power line that one time."
"It was thew power line's fault," I replied. I looked on the court in time to see Jordan toss the ball to the hoop from the three-point line and I knew he was using his telekinesis to gradually sink it into the basket. Was it fair? No, but it wasn't fair that we couldn't be normal. I scratched my gloved hand absently.
One day, Keith, I looked over at Jewels who smiled at me, one day we can be accepted and won't have to be as secretive.
I sighed and smiled lightly knowing, or hoping, she was right. I saw Angela in her cheerleading outfit kicking and cheering for the three-pointer, Jordan running down the court covered by an incredibly fast guy with white hair, Mak still waiting in thee snack line, and Calvin up in the bleachers eyes fixed on his laptop. Lily was flirting with some guy by the water fountain, Zac was watching the game, and then Cami and Todd were coming in the door. Yeah, we'd be ok.
(A/N: And so we meet three of the nine originals so far in this story. If you didn't figure it out Keith/Electro conducts electricity through his hands and has to wear rubber gloves to not shock everything he touches, Jewels/Mimic copies powers through sight, the blue glasses obscure the image of the person so her power is controlled, and we briefly met Mak (Makenzie)/Chameleon. More about her later and we'll also meet: Jordan/TNT, Angela/Pixie, Calvin/Techno, Lily/Ivy, and Zac/Techno.)
I looked at the bleachers and grinned slyly, this was the perfect opportunity to get some serious coin. I had to tell Lance I'd just take the cash and give the rest back. He had become no fun; Cami on the other hand was like him when he first came into the Brotherhood. Except she was willing to help with my plots to snag cash. It was Friday and the new gym was full of people to see the game of Bayville, New York high school play against Riverside, Pennsylvania high school (A/N: no, I don't know if that's an actual city in Pennsylvania.). Both bands there and the pep squad along with other school spirit freaks.
Over the week Cami seemed to be able to come up with a lot of cash for food and minor repairs, like the oven didn't catch on fire at a certain degree and the lock on the bathroom worked.
"Yo, Todd, come on, we're gonna go get some hot dogs!" Fred waved for me to come over and I hopped through the crowd over to where Cami and Fred were waiting. Pietro was on the basketball team since he enjoyed it and Lance was probably trying to still find a parking spot. Walking through a crowd was Fred was like walking behind Moses partin' the Red Sea.
"Ah, long line. Hope they aren't out by the time we get up there." Cami leaned against Fred glaring at the person in front of us. "Think ya can wait guys?"
"Yeah, no sweat yo." We stood there for a while and I eavesdrop on the people behind us. One of the girls was wearing blue tinted sunglasses, the other had on a baggy red sweatshirt, and they were with a guy with black gloves and a yellow vest on.
"Too bad you couldn't just give the vending machine a little zap, Keith," the girl with the sweatshirt mumbled, "this line is horrible and I'm too hungry to wait."
"Just be patient, ok Mak? We can wait in a line for a few moments." The line inched forward. "See? We're one more person closer to the front. Not like..."
"Would you two shut up? You might slip then where'd we be?" The glasses girl snapped probably glaring through blue shades. They were silent for a moment and the line started to move slowly up. Move stop, move stop. Why did we want hot dogs in the first place?
"Hey, ain't that one of those X-people Irene showed us?" Keith said and through the corner of my eye I could see none other than Miss Perfect Jean Grey making her way through the crowd.
"What happened to being discreet?" Mak asked.
"Screw it, you wait in line, Electro and I are gonna go follow her." The other girl's voice had dropped so I had to struggle to hear and I saw her and the boy peal away from the line and follow Jean through the crowd. Now this was interesting.
"Hey, Fred, Cami and I are going to go see if we can find Lance," I said grabbing Cami's arm and pulled her into the crowd as she handed Fred the money realizing I wasn't giving her a choice.
"Jeez, Todd, Lance is a big boy he can find us."
"I know, but we're doing a little surveillance." I pointed ahead of us at the two who had left the line. "For some reason they're interested in Jean and I want to know why."
"All righty then, I haven't had a chance to meet the X-men really anyway." We weaved through the crowds and followed the two following Jean who eventually met up with Scott and Kurt and then outside we were.
"I KNEW IT!" Jean yelled once we were outside in an area where we couldn't be seen. "Why are you following me?" Scott and Kurt looked like her little bodyguards.
"Ask them, yo," I told her crossing my arms.
"Why were you following us?" The blue female version of shades snapped.
"Probably cause we were following her." Keith answered with a shrug. He grabbed the yellow band around his wrists and pulled the glove off, and I saw why he wore gloves. Sparks of electricity jumped from his hand and when he took the other glove off the sparks began to jump from one hand to the other. "Now we can do this hard or easy. One, who are you guys?" He looked over at Cami and I. "And two do you three have any idea what Xavier is really up to?"
I blinked not really sure what he was talking about and was about to answer who I was when the girl with the shades took them off and looked directly at Jean before putting them back on. Ok, so she didn't have any eye-threatening thing that forced her to wear shades.
"Don't bother, Electro, he has already influenced his minds too much for me to disrupt it with her power. Weak telepathy, telekinetic powers limited. You're really pathetic you know that Jean Grey?"
"How do you know who I am."
"I'm called Mimic," Mimic tapped her temple, "and now you're powers are all copied to me temporarily."
"A less deadly version of Rogue?" Scott asked.
"Apparently," Kurt muttered.
"Electro, meet Whirlwind and Toad," Mimic turned to us and smiled, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend comes to mind." She pointed at the other three, "You can fry them."
"Get back inside," Scott yelled as a ball of electricity began to form in Electro's hands, "they won't bother a confrontation there!" Kurt grabbed his two teammates and teleported away just as the ball of energy hit where they were.
"Aw, they ain't no fun." Electro put his gloves back on and turned to Cami and I. "Jewels, tell the others what happened and tell them to watch out for the red shades guy, he looked like he meant business."
"Xavier's hold on him was pretty powerful too." Jewels, or Mimic, closed her eyes for a moment,, or at least I think she did considering her clamed look that I usually see Jean use when using her powers. "With that weaklings power I can't pry the hold off of any of them, but if I copied Xavier's himself I might be able to."
"Xavier's hold?" I blinked a couple times.
"Yes, Toad, I suppose there's no use not telling you now." Out of the shadows stepped a pretty woman in her mid to late twenties who then slowly became the lady who I thought, and honestly hoping, was gone Mystique.
~
"Please, Todd, don't panic," Mystique soothed to the scruffy boy, I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest as Jewels sat on a table that was near by and Whirlwind stood there looking at Toad. "Xavier and Magneto are actually in an alliance, they plan to have human mutant coexistence but with mutants as the leaders, the superiors. I thought that Xavier meant to help his students and that Magneto would provide a place in this world for them, but neither is doing that. Ever since I left I've been finding young mutants that were rejected or just don't know what to do and tried to find homes for them or patch up the ones they had. A few like Keith and Jewels here weren't accepted anywhere and wanted to help so I've had them with my friend Irene, training only until they know how to control their powers and other than that letting them be normal teenagers. I left you four a lone because I didn't think you were ready for my new out look on the situation, I was
hoping to delay a little longer but I don't think that's possible now."
"How do I know any of this is true?" Todd asked standing up. "After all you've done to us."
"That was before I knew Xavier had mental control over my son and to be honest I was rough with you boys so that you'd be use to life cause I didn't want you to grow up in a sugar coated house like those X-men."
"But..."
"Todd," Cami stepped up to him and looked up at Mystique, "let's give her a chance, she is after one the one who brought me to you guys and was supplying me with food money. Plus living a normal life sounds great."
"I..." He paused and then shrugged. "Why not, you're the Boss Lady, yo, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Jewels smirked at the quote.
"Don't tell the other boys, though, just say you met them," she gestured to Jewels and I, "in the snack line or something."
"Sure thing, Boss Lady."
Mystique smiled at him and the turned back into the woman she lived as far as we knew and walked off into the shadows and back into the game.
"I'm Keith by the way," I stepped up to the frog-boy and offered my hand, "don't worry, though rubber gloves I can't shock anyone or anything." He took my hand and shook it. I noticed that he had slightly webbed fingers. "And this is Jewels."
"I'm Cami," Whirlwind shook my hand and then shook Jewel's.
"I'm Todd, or the Toad."
"I like the name Todd, come on," Jewels turned on her heels, "I have a licorice rope waiting for me." She strode into the gym and I followed.
"So..." I started once out of earshot.
"I still have Ms. Grey's power, Keith, I know what you're thinking and they seem to be good kids. Lot's of vandalizing but you did take out that power line that one time."
"It was thew power line's fault," I replied. I looked on the court in time to see Jordan toss the ball to the hoop from the three-point line and I knew he was using his telekinesis to gradually sink it into the basket. Was it fair? No, but it wasn't fair that we couldn't be normal. I scratched my gloved hand absently.
One day, Keith, I looked over at Jewels who smiled at me, one day we can be accepted and won't have to be as secretive.
I sighed and smiled lightly knowing, or hoping, she was right. I saw Angela in her cheerleading outfit kicking and cheering for the three-pointer, Jordan running down the court covered by an incredibly fast guy with white hair, Mak still waiting in thee snack line, and Calvin up in the bleachers eyes fixed on his laptop. Lily was flirting with some guy by the water fountain, Zac was watching the game, and then Cami and Todd were coming in the door. Yeah, we'd be ok.
(A/N: And so we meet three of the nine originals so far in this story. If you didn't figure it out Keith/Electro conducts electricity through his hands and has to wear rubber gloves to not shock everything he touches, Jewels/Mimic copies powers through sight, the blue glasses obscure the image of the person so her power is controlled, and we briefly met Mak (Makenzie)/Chameleon. More about her later and we'll also meet: Jordan/TNT, Angela/Pixie, Calvin/Techno, Lily/Ivy, and Zac/Techno.)