In The Darkness, A Cherry Blossom Falls
I've been feeling guilty about turning out chapters fast enough, so I'll keep
writing. This one's probably gonna be a wee bit long, but don't worry, I'm
working hard on getting all those exciting action scenes out. I debated on
adding in all those incredibly annoying, immature new kids for this chapter,
but decided that to do so would be to unnecessarily drag the story out and give
myself a headache (heaven forbid- it's my winter holiday! I plan on having fun,
for crying out loud) For all those who've reviewed, you guys have been
absolutely fantabulastic. For all those who haven't, yes, you know who you are,
you terrible, horrible person, please do.
And as usual, I don't own these characters, blah blah blah.
Chapter 4
On the grounds of Bayville High School, the shrill cry of the bell sounded,
announcing the beginning of the first class of the day. Some distance away, a
girl dressed in deep green, black and dark makeup that juxtaposed her pale,
porcelain skin and her shimmery rust colored hair and silvery bangs broke into
a run, cursing at every breath.
Rogue was late for school.
She burst into her homeroom class 10 minutes late, out of breath and
uncharacteristically flushed. Noting, and consequently ignoring the look of
scorn that the teacher-in-charge shot her way, she calmly took the proffered
detention slip and slipped into her seat with as much dignity as possible, chin
high in the air.
Detention was nothing. So she would have to walk home from school again. That
was fine. She could use the exercise anyways. The image of her two 'perfect'
peers at the Institute surfaced in her mind, and she shoved their images to the
back of her mind with a few forceful mental gestures and a couple of
well-worded expletives.
On the opposite side of campus, Principal Kelly was about to interview a new
candidate for a janitorial position on campus that had just opened up. His lip
curled with faint scorn at the thought that principals nowadays were reduced to
interviewing janitors for a job position. There were so many other things that
he could be doing, things like… an image of young Todd Tolansky waiting outside
his office to see him once again for yet another offence committed appeared in
his mind's eye, and he sighed.
Then again, maybe not.
Psylocke walked through the door leading to the waiting room outside the
Principal's office, and walked slowly up to the secretary's desk. The woman
looked up at Psylocke, taking in her appearance, the scorn in her eyes obvious.
Psylocke was dressed in a set of clean, but old clothes bought from a thrift
store she had found downtown. They were ill-fitting and garish, and that,
combined with the painstaking effort that Psylocke had taken to streak her hair
through with white and draw wrinkles around her eyes, brought the desired
effect upon anybody who laid eyes upon her.
They saw her, but they did not notice her.
She immediately got waved into the Principal's office, and from there, getting
the job was easy enough. With just the tiniest bit of psychic manipulation, and
the most convincing story about her sick mother and useless brother, she got
the job.
Smiling faintly to herself, she left the Principal's office. As she was walking
out, she spotted some movement behind her, and spun around, quick as lightning,
to find herself looking down at a teenager standing behind her. There was a
sullen look of rebellion in his eyes, and a rancid smell, like that of garbage,
wafted from him.
Wrinkling her nose in distaste, Psylocke turned around and stalked off, scorn in her eyes.
"Mr. Tolansky! The principal will see you now." Called out
the receptionist, the boredom in her voice completely undisguised.
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Pushing her janitor's cart from restroom to restroom and hallway to hallway, Psylocke
made her way slowly around the school, trying to get a lock on those mutants
that she had seen at the disaster with the mayor and that idiot who had tried
to kidnap him. It was only at about 2pm, when she was cleaning the girl's
restroom, that she got a lock on somebody in the boy's restroom just next door.
Glancing around once or twice to check that nobody was currently in the girl's
restroom with her, she locked the door and headed to the wall closest to the
boy's restroom. Stretching out her hand, she pressed two outspread fingers to
it, before she closed her eyes and reached out- only to collide headlong
into the mind of the mutant whom she had sensed.
Wincing, she withdrew and paused, trying to regain her sense of balance. Damn,
but this mutant's mind was a mess, a random jumble of thoughts strung together
into line after line far too fast for her to catch. So, taking a moment and a
deep breath, she paused, and then delved back in, resolving not to let the mind
unsettle her.
She got his name. She managed to get his mutant ability. Super speed. That
explained his chaotic mindset. She got the address of his current residence, as
well as the name of the other mutants he hung around with. She was a firm
believer of the phrase "Birds of a feather flock together", and time
and time again, her faith in the idiom was proved well founded. Where one
mutant was, there was likely to be others. There would be enemies, there would
be friends. But they would all be mutants just the same. And perhaps it was there
that she would find the one whom she had been sent to kill.
She withdrew to the well-lit girl's restroom. Taking out a pen, she scribbled
onto a piece of paper hidden underneath her cart the address that she had just
obtained. She would be visiting Pietro Maximoff and his self- proclaimed
Brotherhood of Mutants tomorrow night.
For now, there were restrooms to clean.
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That night, at the Brotherhood house, all was quiet. For once, everybody had gone to sleep early- even Tabitha, the wild child who usually stayed up all night partying. The wood house swayed slightly in the wind, the creaking and groaning of the structure as it contracted in the cool night air being the only sound that echoed through the house and its surrounding land.
Down in the yard stood Psylocke, silently watching the house from the shadows of the tall elm tree that grew at the back of the expansive Brotherhood backyard. The white that she had streaked through her dark hair was gone, as were the tacky thrift store rags that she had been wearing earlier. Her chin was held high, all sign of subservience gone, and her dark eyes flashed as she scanned the property.
When she was sure that all the occupants were asleep, she made her move, and climbed swiftly up the elm, long limbs helping her to scale the tree without a problem. She pulled herself onto a solid branch that was hanging on a level with one of the second story windows, and crouched down, peering in the window.
Inside, she saw the same small teenager that she had encountered this morning in the principal's office snuggled underneath his blanket, tousled dark hair sticking up haphazardly. The moonlight gave his pallid skin a smooth luster, making it seem almost like porcelain, and sleep had softened the hard lines around his mouth, making him seem softer, and more innocent, than what she had seen of him that morning.
Reaching down to her sash, which was tied over a number of small tools that she had brought along for this reconnaissance mission, she pulled out a lock pick and a small lever, and used this to unlock the boy's window. As she leaned forward to push the window up, the branch shook precariously under her weight. She froze, tensing her body up, worried that she might fall off the branch.
Thankfully, it stopped moving, and Psylocke was able to open the window without any problem. She slid in, and landed softly on the floor, amidst scattered clothes strewn all over the floor and the same strange, rancid smell that seemed to emanate from the boy sleeping on the bed. What was his name? Tolansky. So he was a mutant, too. Was the horrid smell part of his mutation? Probably. She paused to wrinkle her nose slightly, the only sign of discomfort that she allowed herself to show while on a mission.
Standing up, she crossed swiftly to the teen, and knelt down on the floor beside him. She reached out her hand, and gently placed two fingers on his temple, before reaching into his mind. She searched quickly, scanning his memories for any trace of her target. What she saw did not surprise her much. Her target was not here- he stayed at someplace known as the Xavier Institute. And he seemed to be heavily involved with a large group of young mutants, all of whom he kept calling "the X-Geeks".
Psylocke frowned slightly. She had hoped to finish this off by tonight. Being a janitor to a school full of teenagers who were sloppier than a herd of swine did not appeal to her, and she wanted to kill her target and leave.
And what? Her subconscious asked her. Just go on another mission for those men? She shook her head in frustration. She knew that it was true. Her life was a vicious cycle- kill, or be killed. Live to another day, only to have to kill again.
Just then, the boy turned around in his sleep, startling her out of her reverie. She pulled back her hand, and dropped silently to the floor, laying flat, so that if the boy were to wake up, he would not be able to see her from his position on the bed. Fortunately, all he did was toss and turn, before settling back into sleep.
She rose to her feet, and picked her way across the room, careful not to touch anything that might create any noise to wake the Tolansky boy up. Psylocke exited the room, and glided silently through the hallway. As she approached the room next to Tolansky's, she found herself hearing a loud roar that resembled a vacuum cleaner, only it came in fits and starts. Placing her gloved hand on the doorknob, she twisted it, and looked cautiously through the open doorway.
Inside, sleeping on a bed that could barely contain his huge bulk, lay the biggest teenager that Psylocke had ever seen. His mouth was wide open, and to Psylocke's chagrin, a long strand of saliva ran down from his mouth, to drip, slowly, down into a puddle of collected saliva on the floor. Unable to restrain herself, Psylocke let out a stifled groan of disgust and backed out the door, shutting it as quietly as she could after her.
The next room was the speedster's. Pietro Maximoff. She thought to herself, looking down at his prone form. She wondered how he managed to survive, sleeping like this, if his heart rate was as high as a she thought it would be. Perhaps he entered a semi-comatose state, the way hummingbirds did when they rested. The speedster's breaths came quickly, deceptively shallow and short. Where was this Xavier Institute? She wondered. For a moment, she entertained the idea of waking the silver haired youth up, eking out the information she needed by threatening him, but she decided against it. He would know that somebody was after the people at the Xavier Institute, and she needed the element of surprise.
She peered into the next room, and saw a young man with disheveled dark hair, mumbling something about kittens. Deciding that this was not going to be of any interest to her, she left him alone, and headed down the hall, towards the very last room. She noted with vague interest that the doorknob had been blasted down repeatedly, leaving only an empty hole where it used to be.
Bending down, Psylocke peered through the hole. She saw a blond girl sleeping on the large bed that sat in the center of the room, tossing and turning fitfully. She slowly, cautiously pushed the door open, and stepped into the room, long dark hair swinging as she moved. And what do we have here? She asked herself. Glancing at the clock sitting on the nightstand, she noticed that it was almost 3 o'clock. She had to get going.
Reaching out, she established a psychic link with the girl- what was her name? Tabitha Smith. To her pleasant surprise, she'd gotten just what she needed- the exact location of this Xavier Institute. Apparently this girl had 'switched sides', ditching these 'X-geeks' for the Brotherhood.
Smiling to herself, Psylocke left the room, shutting the door behind her. It looked like this night was not a total loss after all. Granted, she wasn't going to be able to complete the mission tonight, but she had made some progress. It had been especially fortunate that this girl Tabitha had stayed at the Xavier Institute before, because she had alerted her to the presence of highly sensitive and lethal security systems. That wasn't going to be a problem. She always relished a good challenge.
Walking down the steps, Psylocke arrived on the ground level of the shabby, messy house, and walked out the front door, down the street. Till tomorrow night, then.
Wolverine.
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Taadaa!! Yes, to everybody, I know I haven't updated for a semester, but right around the end of last year, I got my first flame, right around the time when I was doubting the quality of my writing. So it hit me especially hard, and I abandoned this project. I think I'm not going to be as vulnerable this time around, partly because I'm a more experienced writer, but also because I want any and all potential flamers to tell me where and what I did wrong so that, if I do suck, then I can do my best to change it so I don't. And a polite tone would be appreciated.
But of course, nice reviews are adored, appreciated, and treasured to death. So review, please. I do realize that the first page or so of this chapter was recycled, but I've made some changes, and added the whole last part to the story. Since school has ended, I will be working on this, as well as my interactive fiction, as quickly as I can before summer school starts for me. Hopefully, I will finish it soon. As it is, I'm already more than halfway through this story.
Next Chapter: The X-Men, and Wolverine, get a visit from a most dangerous and unexpected visitor, and they realize just how greatly they are outmatched by Weapon X's best assassin since Wolverine and Sabertooth.