Chapter Five: Jedi Mind Tricks

I have to admit, I was nervous upon knocking on Daniel's door that night. Last time I'd been at this door, there'd been a gun pointed at my chest. Scott stood next to me clutching Lara, with grim determination. Lara, well poor Lara was just jello. We'd told her she could wait in the convertible, black limo, or back at the mansion, but she was determined to see this through with us. I could tell that the heavy footfalls behind the door were that of a man and braced myself for the opening of the door. Daniel saw the three of us and blanched, but to his credit he regained his composure almost as quickly as he'd lost it.

"I thought I told you to stay away from here." He said evenly.

"We want to get the rest of our stuff." Still looking nervous, Lara returned the tone of voice perfectly.

"What do you mean rest?"

"Mom brought us over some." I barely blinked, for fear he'd whip out some sort of weapon. "If it'll get us in easier you have my word that we'll only take the stuff we brought over from Chicago. We won't take anything you paid for."

Gradually he moved aside to let us in. But somewhere deep in my gut, I knew that that had been way to easy. I tried not to dwell on that thought as we moved up the stairs. As we approached the attic stairs going up to my old room instinct grabbed me and I insisted that Scott and Lara stay with me as we went up.

It was amazing; none of my stuff had been touched. It just sat there with a layer of dust covering almost everything. I was prepared to take everything, but I had promised. So I moved along trying to remember exactly what had come from Illinois. Anything that I wasn't sure about stayed. When I finished we left it in a pile out side the door and moved on to Lara's room. Lara took a while longer, as she'd been about six when we moved here and couldn't remember all of what Daniel had brought.  Scott and I tried to jog her memory, and helped her with the heavier things.

We were almost done when that ominous feeling came back. The feeling that this whole thing had been too easy. Then we heard a click. Gun. I looked to Scott. He calmly dropped the clothes and CD's he was holding and turned around. Lara and I did the same; turning to face Daniel. It was the same gun he'd used to usher us out before, only this time I got the feeling that the only way we'd be ushered out this time was in body bags.

"I'll be so glad when your kind are all locked up in labs somewhere in Washington." Daniel realized the safety on the gun. "But until then I'll have to dispose of you myself."

I watched the gun carefully in his hand. It was small and black with probably enough room for six bullets. Two for each of us. I held out my hand behind my back trying to focus. It had to work this time, or we'd be dead, 'cause for some reason I didn't think Daniel would have any qualms over shooting three mutant teens. Just as Daniel was about to pull the trigger on Lara the gun left his hand in a puff of smoke and I could feel the cool metal appear in mine.

Calmly, I moved the gun from behind my back and pointed it at him. "You're sick, y'know. I can't believe you'd shoot a twelve year old in cold blood." I could see a sheen of sweat on Daniel's face. Good. He was scared. I used my powers again this time requesting some rope. A thick, wrapped coil, about ten feet long, landed at my feet. I clicked the safety on the gun and put it in my pocket before bending down to grab the rope. Things were a blur for minutes after that.

First I felt a hard impact. Daniel jumped on me when I bent to get my rope. He knocked the wind out of me, and I sat gasping for air. More weight landed on us next. Lara was hissing and clawing at Daniel with her fingers. She was causing bloody scratches to appear on his face. The two rolled off of me during the brawl and I was able to get up, leaning on Lara's old dresser for support. Daniel pushed Lara away from him and went for Scott, he dodged, but Daniel's fist knocked Scott's glasses from his face. Not good.

"Lara get down!" I shouted just as blinding red light shot through the room. It was only there for a second, because then Scott shut his eyes stopping the beam from breaking through a wall. Daniel saw this and lumbered towards him. Not knowing why else to do I jumped on him as Lara had done. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hammered my feet into his stomach. Provided with distraction Lara was able to hand Scott his visor back and he was in action again.

"Amori, get off of him!" Scott commanded.

I kicked his stomach one last time and managed to jump down with out much trouble. Scott purposely lowered his visor, slamming Daniel in the stomach with a red force beam. Daniel slumped, groaning as he keeled over and passed out.

"Let's get out of here!" Lara breathed, staring at the unconscious body. We all nodded fervently, and hurried to gather the things we'd dropped.

"Y'know," Scott said as we hurried down the stairs to the front door. "I think it's quite obvious that the two Jedis in the car couldn't get their mind tricks to work."

I turned to him, giving him a look. "Gee smart one, ya think? And, that was my joke."

Despite all that had just happened he managed to flash me a grin as we stepped out into the night. I gave him a slight punch on the shoulder, but grinning all the same. Scott turned to Lara to say something, but stopped short when he noticed her hand. He reached out to touch it, but she pulled away blushing in the darkness.

"Is that…?" Scott trailed off.

"Fur? Yeah." Lara held up her hands to us.

"It's on your arms too." I pointed out. "Did that just happen tonight?"

She nodded timidly. "I think so. Something clicked when I jumped on Daniel I guess. All that hissing and stuff, y'know? Like at cat."

A cold breeze blew, reminding me that it was a frigid December night. Too cold for us to be standing out here in windbreakers discussing things. I gestured to Scott's convertible and we started moving for it. The limo holding Ororo, mom, and Xavier was parked behind it. The window rolled down when we approached.

"I was able to reach his mind." Said the professor in way of greeting us. "And I was able to enter but erasing his thought of mutants did not work. Not even between the two of us. It burns inside his mind like a fire. All he can think of is extinguishing what causes its embers."

"It was kinda obvious when he tried to shoot us." I said dryly. "Scott knocked him out and Lara rearranged his face."

"That's why you were in there so long." Mom spoke up. "We were getting worried."

"You would of seen what was happening if I hadn't shut my eyes." Said Scott. "Trust me. On the plus side Amori got her powers to work."

I pulled proof of this statement out of my pocket and tossed it on the road. "So did Lara."

Xavier nodded. "Maybe we should continue this discussion back at the mansion."

I nodded as the wind bit through me. We put our things into the back of Scott's car, and climbed in shivering. The heat started up as we drove but I didn't stop shivering. I realized that the shivering wasn't coming from the cold, but from the thought buried deep in my mind. What the hell was Daniel going to do when he woke up?

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