Disclaimer/Warning: First off, all characters in this story save for Medea
are the property of Marvel Comics. I'm just borrowing them for a bit. Rest
assured no one's making one red cent off anything here (short of the
Electric Company and my ISP for how much I use my computer). Medea's solely
mine and I do get huffy if she's used without permission, so ask first. I
have taken some liberty with some of the canon backgrounds, so don't take
them as proper history. Only Marvel can establish that.
This story does contain swearing, and some mention of some mature topics, such as molestation and child abuse so please consider this story rated R and don't read it if you're bothered by such topics.
Blue Eyes
Bobby Drake found himself staring at the raven haired young woman who was unconscious on the bed in the medlab. Despite what the Professor said, that the girl was healthy, he couldn't help but notice that rawboned look that came from not eating regularly and living on the street. That was one he was all too familiar with. His mind went back to the call they'd received from Loyola Hospital in Chicago. Just a frantic voice afraid of repercussions for even making the call to let them know that a young mutant needed their help.
He hadn't gone on the mission. Had to love homework on that one, and he was behind because of missions. Since this was just a simple rescue, only Jean, Ororo and Logan had gone and they were back as fast as it took the jet to fly them. The girl was under heavy sedation when she was brought in. Apparently she had been starving enough to go into a food court of a mall and start grazing on what hadn't been thrown away yet. Bobby didn't know all the specifics, only what he'd overheard from the others talking, but the girl's psi powers flared up. No one was hurt, just scared when nearly everything not bolted down started moving or flying around. The girl panicked worst of all, running out the doors and got hit by a car.
Her name was Maddie..Medea...something like that, and she was in her late teens. Bobby saw she had claws, almost like a cat's and he was pretty sure someone said she had fangs as well. That's weird, he thought, then caught himself. Who was he to say what was weird? He could freeze things.
Bobby walked closer to the bed, still looking at her. She looked fragile in the gown they put her in. Much different from the ratty black clothes and trenchcoat she wore when they brought her in. He knew they tried to wash them and they just about fell apart in the machines. That didn't matter though, Peter had gone out and got some things in her size. Just a few jeans and T-shirts. Jean and Ororo raided their closets and donated some of their things as well.
She was kinda pretty, be even prettier once she got some decent food in her, he thought to himself as he let his hormones surface a bit. Nice to have another female around, Jean and Ororo were pretty much onto all his tricks to sneak a peek at them. The thunderstorm Ororo inflicted on him was still too fresh in his memory for now.
He sat on the edge of the bed, more in thought now than watching the newbie. It wasn't easy out there. He learned that quickly after he ran away when his powers manifested. I wonder how you ended up out there, he thought to himself. Had she run out of fear of her parents getting hurt or worse just because of the DNA that they got stuck with, or had she been thrown out when they saw her as a mutant?
Bobby closed his eyes. His parents were iffy about that. On one hand still worried about him and on the other, still antsy about what he was. They pitched a fit, well his Mom had when the Professor took them on that world tour thing. He began to think back to when he first came here. Of course the sentinels were out in force then and then there was what was up with the Magneto's group. Bobby still had nightmares about that fight, same as what happened with Weapon X.
He opened his eyes and looked at the girl. Did you feel the same way I did when the sentinels were around?, he thought. At times he could still taste that terror, half dreading, half expecting an energy blast from out of nowhere, frying you into oblivion. At least the X-Men had gotten them taken care of, for now. Bobby still had that tiny voice in the back of his head whispering that they might return.
"Any changes?", asked the voice that nearly had Bobby jumping out of his skin.
Henry McCoy came in to check on the new arrival. He had a clipboard with him and he felt the girl's pulse, checked her breathing, looked at her eyes.
Bobby was suprised to see that they were the deepest violet blue he'd ever seen. Almost enough to make you want to dive in and not come out. "No, she's just been sleeping," he replied, his mouth suddenly dry.
"That's to be expected," Henry said as he began to change the IV bag that they had hooked up to her, "Medea's badly dehydrated and malnourished to begin with. Add the trauma of the car accident and residual traces of hepatitis, her body hasn't had much of a chance to heal."
"Hepatitis?", Bobby said with a trace of fear as he got up from the bed, looking at Medea warily.
"Nothing to worry about. Ms. Sinistrari is also in possession of a rapid healing ability like Logan's. Her body's been fighting the disease, but with the other complications things haven't gone as fast as they should," Henry said as he adjusted the drip feed, "she'll be fine with rest in due time."
"I heard she's a psi."
"Telepathic and telekinetic. Both powers are in their initial manifestation stage. It's too early to tell if they've been affected by her living conditions."
"Fangs, claws, psi powers and fast healing? That's a weird mix."
"And who's to say what's normal...or what might have been done to her.." Henry's voice softened and trailed off as he said the latter. Weapon X changing him into a literal blue beast still was something he was getting used to. He knew it was one of the reasons he and Ororo had parted ways, if not the main one.
Bobby was silent. "I got homework to finish up," he said quickly and left the room, knowing that was a touchy subject.
Henry let Bobby retreat.
As much as Bobby would've stayed to talk more with Hank, talking about Weapon X got to him as much as the fight with the Brotherhood did. But Henry's words did strike a chord in Bobby. What if Medea was a part of it like they had been? He knew he hadn't seen all the mutants that had been there when the project was shut down and he really hadn't looked to see if she had the number tattoo on her arm like they all had been given.
He began to feel queasy. If she had been part of that program, what could she be like? Disaffected like Rogue, a barely in control maniac like Sabretooth. For all he knew she could've been one of the brood mutants he'd heard rumours about, female mutants who's only purpose was to breed more mutants for the project. The more Bobby rolled things around in his head, the more he knew he had to talk to someone.
The question was who. Logan would probably be the best choice since he'd been around, but Bobby didn't think he could really talk to him. He didn't want to go to Jean or the Professor either. They'd just answer his questions as he thought of them, and he really needed to talk things out. Ororo had stepped out for some reason so she wasn't available. Scott wasn't an option. That only left one person, Peter.
He should've known Peter was the only one he could talk to about this. Back when they were being held by Weapon X, Peter shared his cell. When he'd wake up from a nightmare or crying, the Russian had been there for him, either putting an arm around him to let him know he wasn't alone, or buoy his spirits when he was sure they were never getting out of there.
Bobby found him easily enough, working out in the Weight Room. He watched as Peter bench pressed five hundred pounds as easily as Bobby could heft a bag of groceries. When Peter paused to take a swig from his water bottle, Bobby approached.
"Hello Bobby," Peter said, "taking a break from homework or did you finish it?"
"A little of both," Bobby replied, his face clearly showing there was more on his mind, "Have you seen the new girl?"
Peter frowned slightly and took a sip of his water. "I have.", he said, "Something about her bothers you?"
"Yeah, no...I don't know."
"Go on."
"I was looking in on her and I just got to thinking. No one's told me anything and all the whispering around's not helping."
"Ah, feeling out of the loop."
"Maybe...dunno."
"Her name's Medea Sinistrari and she's been a street rat for several years. The Professor, Jean and Scott are working on what they can find on her. There's not much we have on her yet. We know she's a survivor for lasting through the sentinel sweeps."
"yeah," Bobby said softly.
Peter sighed. He had talked a lot with the boy so he had an idea of where his thoughts were going. "You both were on the streets, you're going to see some of you in her. When I looked at her, I saw some of myself as well."
Bobby blinked. "Really?"
"I can tell she's been on the streets for a while, but if you know where to look, you can see she's determined to live however she can. I was a bodyguard, an enforcer. You can read people after a while. Healing fast or not, she doesn't have the desperate look of an addict. That tells me she keeps her wits sharp no matter how bad things have been. She doesn't have the tired look of a whore, so that tells me she values her dignity.".
Bobby was silent as he mulled this over. "You think she was in Weapon X?"
"I doubt it. She's not in shape for them to have had her for any length of time. What would make you think that?"
"Dunno, just thinking, that's all."
"Think more about your homework and less about Medea. Everything will sort itself out when the others get back and she wakes up."
"I guess. "Bobby said as he got up to leave, "Thanks Peter."
"Anytime."
Bobby left and headed to his room, his thoughts quiet for now. Peter went back to his bench pressing. He hadn't said all his thoughts about the new girl to the boy. Seeing street rat mutants struck a chord in him. If he didn't have the responsibility of looking after his mother and two younger siblings, he might've been one as well. He was well aware of how difficult it was to pretend to be human. The girl must've had a hard time of it with her claws and fangs. You could only keep them hidden for so long before someone noticed.
She'd make an excellent enforcer with the powers she had, even a good assassin as well. Apparently she hadn't gone that route for her to be as desperate as she had been. Assuming that she probably kept to herself on the streets, digging for whatever leavings were out there, it must have been true desperation for her to go into a mall's food court to take what few mouthfuls were left behind.
At least here she could have a bed to sleep in and proper food in her belly. Whether she stayed here or not didn't matter, at least now she had a chance for something different.
Ororo came in with a bag. A last minute shopping for Medea. The girl had tiny size 6 feet and no one in the mansion had anything that small. At least she was able to find a pair of sandals and a pair of Reeboks in that size. She had the feeling boots would've been more to Medea's tastes, but the closest anyone had to that size was a 7.
Relieved that she found something so the girl didn't have to pad about in socks, she headed to the medlab to make sure that the shoes fit.
The room was empty save for Medea, still asleep. Ororo looked at the IV that was attached to the girl to see if it needed changing. So far it was okay, would probably need changing in an hour or so. She'd leave that to one of the others who had more of an idea of what to do.
She pulled up the sheet to expose Medea's feet. Ororo couldn't help but notice that the callouses on the balls were more pronounced than what was on the heel. The girl catstepped like a thief more often than not. That was understandable, considering what they knew about her.
Ororo had glanced at the hospital and police reports they had taken with them when they stole her away from the hospital. Female transient mutant disturbing the peace. She had to laugh at that. If those shopaholics who gorged themselves fatter had just left the girl alone, she would've just left after taking a few mouthfuls of what they were too lazy to get up and throw out themselves. They had been offended by this reminder of the real world daring to intrude on their glittery fantasy mall world where anything could be bought. One lady said the 'homeless freak' had pushed her child from his chair and then got in her face when she confronted her about it. It was more likely that the kid was acting up and fell out of his chair when Medea moved too close for the woman's liking.
God forbid anyone admitting they weren't watching their kid, better to blame it on the ones who don't have anything, who can't fight back. Blame it on the different looking ones who couldn't *possibly* have the same sense of things as you do.
Ororo sighed. Her family had been treated poorly just because they were immigrants. Too many times they were looked down on for trying to earn a decent living honesty, and then they were looked down on for possibly having to go on assistance. Too often they just backed down when the righteous ones got in their faces.
At least this girl didn't cower. She chose to snarl back. Ororo wished she could've seen the looks on their complacent faces when they realized they had a tiger by the tail.
But her satisfied wishings soon turned sour when she imagined the terrified look that must have been on Medea's face when her telekinesis flared up. Probably the same as hers when she nearly electrocuted that playground.
You're probably like me before Jean pulled me out of that jail cell, she thought, just want to get by on just a little more than what you got. Don't care about much else. Not interested in the rule the world schpiel of Magneto's lackeys, not really interested in Xavier's coexistence.
With a sigh, she checked to see if the sandals fit. They did. So did the Reeboks. At least that was easy.
Ororo put the shoes on a chair along with the clothes she and Jean had gotten earlier. The clothes were the closest they could find to what Medea had worn. A black belly top, some underwear, a pair of jeans that had beaded fringe at the cuffs. The oversized army jacket was the only thing remaining of what she came in with. A far cry from the threadbare black oversized T-shirt and ratty black jeans she had been living in. Medea's clothes had been to conceal her shape. Practical with the sort of predators out on the street.
Here the only one you'll have to worry about is Bobby, she thought with a faint wry smile. Logan was a possibility as well, but it was hard to tell with that man. For the most part Ororo doubted he'd be interested in the girl, she seemed too much like him and what man wanted to sleep with a female version of them.
She was pulled from her reverie by Scott coming into the room. "Scott, how did it go?", she asked.
"Well, the good news is we found plenty, but it's all bad," Scott said as he pulled up a chair and sat. He sighed. "I thought some of the places I was shuffled to were bad, that orphanage was worse."
Ororo sat on the edge of the bed, listening.
"She was a foundling right out of the books, left there with a name pinned to her blanket, only a few hours old. I guess that's better than being thrown in the trash. She lived at St. Sebastion's home for orphans.", Scott continued. He stopped when Jean came in. She was rather pensive for her and she moved behind Scott and began to massage his shoulders.
"The place is being investigated for abuse.", Jean said softly, "We had trouble getting what we could on her, but the Professor's a pro. The Archdiocese has been trying to close the place down and been filling spots with volunteers until they relocate the kids. No one bothered to do any deep background checks and nearly all of the kids there have the scars to pay for that. Right now there's officials crawling all over the place. It was hard to talk to anyone, but we managed. Medea's physical mutations were present soon after birth, so she was the main target for beatings until she fought back. They shredded the records and covered it up, but she killed six girls with cerebral hemorrhages and left two vegetables when her psi powers manifested during the last beating. She had to've panicked and run afterwards. Been on the streets since. Even there from what we could find out from the other street kids was that she kept to herself. Some drugs, no prostitution, mostly stealing.".
Scott was silent, his mind rolling back as Jean spoke. St. Sebastion's brought back too many painful memories of his past. He knew what it was like to be the small one, the easy target of the predators. That old before their time look on the children who still were there was one he knew all too well. He had found the tiny room Medea had slept in for most of her life. Just off the boiler room and filthy. Only some faint claw scratchings on the stone wall gave the place away. 'Let me die', 'Why?', 'Medea' were the only words carved in a childish scrawl. Medea must've hated her rapid healing ability if she tried to kill herself, that final slap to the face as you want the pain to just end and you can't no matter what you do. Life on the streets must've seemed like paradise after that place. It had to him until Jack O'Diamonds came around.
He shook his head slightly to clear those thoughts. Jack was the last thing he wanted to be thinking about now.
Ororo was silent as she listened to Jean, and her eyes misted up. Another shattered soul to join their little dysfunctional family. "I guess you'll fit in fine here, 'Dea.", she said to the sleeping girl, guessing what the short form of her name would be, "We've all been there, done that, sat down and had a soda while we were there. Perhaps we can even swap stories of 'Way Back In The Day' when you wake up."
Even Scott's mouth twitched slightly in amusement at the end joke.
"It'll be rough for her, but then it was for all of us," he said softly, "Be ready for loud nightmares behind a locked door."
Ororo raised an eyebrow, wondering. Jean just closed her eyes in memory.
The three were silent. What could be said, really?
Jean gave Scott's shoulders a final squeeze and walked over to the bed, taking the chart that was hanging from the foot. She flipped through a few pages. "Henry took a blood test the last time he was in here. The hepatitis is gone, so she's just healing up what's left from the car," she commented aloud to no one in particular.
"She'll probably be awake in a few hours," Scott said, not sure but taking a guess.
"Most likely," Jean said as she concentrated and telepathically told the Professor.
The Professor was in his office, still sifting through what records they'd gotten on Medea. **Thank you Jean.**, he sent back to her, **It would be best if only I were present when she does, considering what's happened to her so far.**
**We'll be on the sidelines just in case. **
**Very good.**
Jean looked at Scott and Ororo, "The Professor wants to be the only one she sees when she wakes up."
They caught the hint.
"We should grab something to eat until then. Won't know how things'll go later on," Scott said as he got up. He looked at Medea and instead of seeing her sleeping form, he saw a young brown haired boy with his eyes closed tightly, too afraid to open them.
The three walked out of the room, heading for the kitchen.
The Professor sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. While Medea wasn't the worst case he'd seen, she was one of the bad ones. The papers they'd gotten were just a basic doctor's report that ended up being the basis of her birth certificate, a baptismal record and her rather meager schooling along with her medical files. The latter were the most quantitative of them all. Most of the other information had to be sifted out of assorted minds and while all of them were human, they were hiding what they knew of this young mutant behind elaborate walls of misinformation that had gone on so long some were starting to believe that as the truth.
She had been treated well for the most part as an infant. The only reason she hadn't been adopted out was there hadn't been anyone looking for a raven haired Caucasian girl. By the time someone was, her fangs and claws had already grown and that was when the situation changed. The other children picked on her, calling her 'Devil Girl', the lay people volunteers either encouraged it or added to it personally. The few remaining clergy just turned a blind eye to it all not wanting to deal with it while they had other concerns going on at the time or just considered it their cross to bear with the unwanted.
Most of her medical reports were of her in the infirmary healing from whatever beatings had happened, the rest recovering from bad food. The latter was common with most of the children as the hierarchy of the staff was always too convoluted with who was in charge of what. Broken fingers, broken nose, broken jaw were the worst things listed, but the Professor knew there was more.
One member of the staff had buried in her memory a time when Medea had to be somewhere around 8 or 9 and she asked the woman why she wanted to get into the janitor's pants when she had her own. The woman had been eyeballing the man in question and had the child disciplined for saying such a thing. That the child picked up her thought had terrified her.
Cerebro hadn't picked that manifestation up, so it had to be a brief awakening, too low for the detector to register it, or the result of malnutrition affecting the manifestation. Any other brief moments had to have been just as weak as either he or Eric would've gone looking for her at that time.
The Professor had tried to look into her mind when she was brought in, but the chaotic imagery he'd seen was too difficult to sort through at the time. Not helping either was the healing trance she was in. It enfolded everything in a cloudy blackness that made it hard to navigate. But the brief images he'd seen were enough to prove that while Medea had escaped the molestation and rape that was going on at night physically, she had been all too aware of it mentally. That alone was enough to leave her as scarred as those who had suffered first hand.
Only one image he'd seen told him that she came too close to a night visit. Early puberty made her enough of a tempting target for one of the janitors there. He tried to take advantage of her, came quite close, but she had panicked and the flurry of fangs and claws was enough to cool the man's ardor.
The final incident was what concerned him most of all. While he could see it as her psi powers manifesting properly in full and the deaths a terrible accident, part of him wondered if it wasn't. In that environment of being belittled, beaten and worse it made sense for one to lash out in revenge when the chance arose. Make the ones that hurt you know what it really feels like to hurt. Was she just a scared young mutant, or was she a killing predator ready to lash out if provoked? Either way, she was not going to be turned out. There was always sending her to the Muir facility to heal if she was very bad off.
As it was, she was provoking much thought among the X-Men. That was understandable, especially with the backgrounds they had.
The Professor gathered up the papers and put them in the file he started on her. With all the mindprobing he'd done in Chicago, he had a headache and if he rested a bit now, he'd be in better condition when Medea awoke.
Henry was in the computer lab, trying to see if he could find anything on Medea in the databases anywhere. The records the others brought back were a help, but they needed all they could find to help her better. He leaned back in his chair and wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose, his glasses riding up.
These days it was pretty easy to slip through the cracks if you didn't have a social security number. She didn't have one and the birth number only went so far. Henry knew she was a hard case, but then most of them here were, that was no big suprise. Life dumped enough shit on them already then added being a mutant as if it were the cherry on top. Only thing you could be sure of now was that more shit was on it's way, usually when you really didn't need it.
His being blue and furry was proof of that. It would've been easy to just lash out. But what was the point, really? He had too much to do to waste time like that. Henry sighed. With Ororo and him being just friends now, he had more free time. Not like he wanted that anyway. For all his prose, he couldn't describe what it felt like that someone beautiful as Ororo would even spare 'Magilla Gorilla' a second glance. But things weren't the same after Weapon X. Too much had happened there, none of it good.
Rather than dwell on those thoughts, Henry got up to check on Medea again. She was probably due for another IV.
The room was empty, and as he expected, Medea was due for another IV. After checking her vitals, Henry decided not to hook her up to a fresh one. She was pretty well hydrated for now and he didn't want to overload her system with nutrients. He checked her pupils, they dilated normally so she wasn't in shock from the treatment she'd received. With her recuperative powers, she'd be back on her feet soon.
He had to admit Medea had lovely eyes, but then he was always partial to blue eyes. Blue eyes to drown in, smiling all the way. Ororo's were the most beautiful ones he'd ever seen. Even now they could still make his heart skip a beat. Her scent was still fresh in the room and it made his blood tingle. Just friends.....
A snapping sound pulled Henry from his thoughts. Unwittingly he had snapped the penlight he still had in his hand. He tossed the pieces into the trash bin across the room, making a 'DA-thunk' that sounded louder than it was with the silence.
One of Medea's hands twitched, but then was still.
Henry noticed the motion, but she was still out for now. He made his notations on her clipboard and went to go tell the Professor that she might be waking sooner than they thought.
Logan waited for Henry to be long gone when he went to go take his look on the girl. She was looking better than she was when they hauled her out of that hospital. Not all of her injuries had been from the car accident, he could tell, some were from over excited orderlies trying to keep her down until they could dope her up.
He had to laugh, a little slip of a thing making such a big ruckus. Powers aside, she wasn't built like a brawler like him. Now a scrapper, he could see. One might not think there was a difference, but there was. For him, he'd just fight for fun, the girl, just fight until you can run. He headed over to the bed and took her scent in. The drugs were out of her system so he could get a better feel of it.
She had that faint tang that his and Sabretooth's scent had. It had to be something from the healing fast, rather than her being his by blow. Since Creed taunted him about a wife and kid, that had been sitting in the back of his mind. He'd never know now if it was true, but he knew Medea wasn't his. The standard gene tag they took of her when they got her back proved that.
Logan looked her over. Claws like a cat, cat steps when she walks according to what he overheard Ororo commenting on somewhere. Too bad Creed wasn't around. Be able to find out if she was his, and send him a special delivery. A proof of paternity and a personal picture of 'and here she is with her ankles around my neck begging for every inch of it'. That put a grin on Logan's face.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement and he turned his head to look into a pair of terrified violet blue eyes looking back at him. Oh shit..., Logan thought, especially as she was a psi and he had that mental image in his head.
Medea bolted from the bed fast, almost tripping over the sheets and backing into a wall. Her eyes darted about as she tried to figure out where she was.
"It's okay, you're safe," Logan said as he moved slowly not to spook her more than she already was. He could hear the others coming fast, having been alerted by the Professor. Medea's head twitched having heard them too and she darted for the window.
Logan grabbed her arm to hold her back, but she spun around and bit deeply into her arm much like a wolf trying to free itself from a trap. He pulled her close, holding onto her with an arm pinning hers and the other making sure she didn't get in a well placed kick. She began to wiggle like nothing else trying to free herself.
As the others came in, she gasped in terror and began struggling harder, snapping back with her head into Logan's only to cry out as her head hit the adamantium laced skull so hard.
"Medea, please," the Professor said calmly, "we mean you no harm. You're with the X-Men."
She began to cry. "Lemme go...," she pleaded, fear still strong in her eyes.
"We will, when you've calmed down," the Professor said as he began to telepathically sedate her. On some level, Medea was aware of this and began to fight harder. The trash bin across the room flew into the air and shattered against the wall.
Ororo came forward, taking Medea's hands in hers. "Chill.", she said softly, "Just kick back, eat something and you can go when you want. We won't stop you." She didn't care if the Professor thought like that, but it just seemed the right thing to say. Jean walked up as well. "We'll even take you to wherever you want to go," she added.
Medea flinched at the touch, but she did begin to calm down a bit. Enough for Logan to let her go. She looked at the two women nervously.
"Now let's get you into some decent clothes and we'll see what damage we can do to the 'fridge," Ororo said as she glared at the others to leave.
The men reluctantly left, only the Professor telepathically told them that they'd be close in case their plan didn't go well as he left with the others.
Just the three women were alone in the room then.
Medea looked at Jean and Ororo, not sure of anything. "C'mon Blue Eyes, let's get you ready to face the world again," Jean said with a reassuring smile, "today's the first day of the rest of a better life."
~~Fini~~
This story does contain swearing, and some mention of some mature topics, such as molestation and child abuse so please consider this story rated R and don't read it if you're bothered by such topics.
Blue Eyes
Bobby Drake found himself staring at the raven haired young woman who was unconscious on the bed in the medlab. Despite what the Professor said, that the girl was healthy, he couldn't help but notice that rawboned look that came from not eating regularly and living on the street. That was one he was all too familiar with. His mind went back to the call they'd received from Loyola Hospital in Chicago. Just a frantic voice afraid of repercussions for even making the call to let them know that a young mutant needed their help.
He hadn't gone on the mission. Had to love homework on that one, and he was behind because of missions. Since this was just a simple rescue, only Jean, Ororo and Logan had gone and they were back as fast as it took the jet to fly them. The girl was under heavy sedation when she was brought in. Apparently she had been starving enough to go into a food court of a mall and start grazing on what hadn't been thrown away yet. Bobby didn't know all the specifics, only what he'd overheard from the others talking, but the girl's psi powers flared up. No one was hurt, just scared when nearly everything not bolted down started moving or flying around. The girl panicked worst of all, running out the doors and got hit by a car.
Her name was Maddie..Medea...something like that, and she was in her late teens. Bobby saw she had claws, almost like a cat's and he was pretty sure someone said she had fangs as well. That's weird, he thought, then caught himself. Who was he to say what was weird? He could freeze things.
Bobby walked closer to the bed, still looking at her. She looked fragile in the gown they put her in. Much different from the ratty black clothes and trenchcoat she wore when they brought her in. He knew they tried to wash them and they just about fell apart in the machines. That didn't matter though, Peter had gone out and got some things in her size. Just a few jeans and T-shirts. Jean and Ororo raided their closets and donated some of their things as well.
She was kinda pretty, be even prettier once she got some decent food in her, he thought to himself as he let his hormones surface a bit. Nice to have another female around, Jean and Ororo were pretty much onto all his tricks to sneak a peek at them. The thunderstorm Ororo inflicted on him was still too fresh in his memory for now.
He sat on the edge of the bed, more in thought now than watching the newbie. It wasn't easy out there. He learned that quickly after he ran away when his powers manifested. I wonder how you ended up out there, he thought to himself. Had she run out of fear of her parents getting hurt or worse just because of the DNA that they got stuck with, or had she been thrown out when they saw her as a mutant?
Bobby closed his eyes. His parents were iffy about that. On one hand still worried about him and on the other, still antsy about what he was. They pitched a fit, well his Mom had when the Professor took them on that world tour thing. He began to think back to when he first came here. Of course the sentinels were out in force then and then there was what was up with the Magneto's group. Bobby still had nightmares about that fight, same as what happened with Weapon X.
He opened his eyes and looked at the girl. Did you feel the same way I did when the sentinels were around?, he thought. At times he could still taste that terror, half dreading, half expecting an energy blast from out of nowhere, frying you into oblivion. At least the X-Men had gotten them taken care of, for now. Bobby still had that tiny voice in the back of his head whispering that they might return.
"Any changes?", asked the voice that nearly had Bobby jumping out of his skin.
Henry McCoy came in to check on the new arrival. He had a clipboard with him and he felt the girl's pulse, checked her breathing, looked at her eyes.
Bobby was suprised to see that they were the deepest violet blue he'd ever seen. Almost enough to make you want to dive in and not come out. "No, she's just been sleeping," he replied, his mouth suddenly dry.
"That's to be expected," Henry said as he began to change the IV bag that they had hooked up to her, "Medea's badly dehydrated and malnourished to begin with. Add the trauma of the car accident and residual traces of hepatitis, her body hasn't had much of a chance to heal."
"Hepatitis?", Bobby said with a trace of fear as he got up from the bed, looking at Medea warily.
"Nothing to worry about. Ms. Sinistrari is also in possession of a rapid healing ability like Logan's. Her body's been fighting the disease, but with the other complications things haven't gone as fast as they should," Henry said as he adjusted the drip feed, "she'll be fine with rest in due time."
"I heard she's a psi."
"Telepathic and telekinetic. Both powers are in their initial manifestation stage. It's too early to tell if they've been affected by her living conditions."
"Fangs, claws, psi powers and fast healing? That's a weird mix."
"And who's to say what's normal...or what might have been done to her.." Henry's voice softened and trailed off as he said the latter. Weapon X changing him into a literal blue beast still was something he was getting used to. He knew it was one of the reasons he and Ororo had parted ways, if not the main one.
Bobby was silent. "I got homework to finish up," he said quickly and left the room, knowing that was a touchy subject.
Henry let Bobby retreat.
As much as Bobby would've stayed to talk more with Hank, talking about Weapon X got to him as much as the fight with the Brotherhood did. But Henry's words did strike a chord in Bobby. What if Medea was a part of it like they had been? He knew he hadn't seen all the mutants that had been there when the project was shut down and he really hadn't looked to see if she had the number tattoo on her arm like they all had been given.
He began to feel queasy. If she had been part of that program, what could she be like? Disaffected like Rogue, a barely in control maniac like Sabretooth. For all he knew she could've been one of the brood mutants he'd heard rumours about, female mutants who's only purpose was to breed more mutants for the project. The more Bobby rolled things around in his head, the more he knew he had to talk to someone.
The question was who. Logan would probably be the best choice since he'd been around, but Bobby didn't think he could really talk to him. He didn't want to go to Jean or the Professor either. They'd just answer his questions as he thought of them, and he really needed to talk things out. Ororo had stepped out for some reason so she wasn't available. Scott wasn't an option. That only left one person, Peter.
He should've known Peter was the only one he could talk to about this. Back when they were being held by Weapon X, Peter shared his cell. When he'd wake up from a nightmare or crying, the Russian had been there for him, either putting an arm around him to let him know he wasn't alone, or buoy his spirits when he was sure they were never getting out of there.
Bobby found him easily enough, working out in the Weight Room. He watched as Peter bench pressed five hundred pounds as easily as Bobby could heft a bag of groceries. When Peter paused to take a swig from his water bottle, Bobby approached.
"Hello Bobby," Peter said, "taking a break from homework or did you finish it?"
"A little of both," Bobby replied, his face clearly showing there was more on his mind, "Have you seen the new girl?"
Peter frowned slightly and took a sip of his water. "I have.", he said, "Something about her bothers you?"
"Yeah, no...I don't know."
"Go on."
"I was looking in on her and I just got to thinking. No one's told me anything and all the whispering around's not helping."
"Ah, feeling out of the loop."
"Maybe...dunno."
"Her name's Medea Sinistrari and she's been a street rat for several years. The Professor, Jean and Scott are working on what they can find on her. There's not much we have on her yet. We know she's a survivor for lasting through the sentinel sweeps."
"yeah," Bobby said softly.
Peter sighed. He had talked a lot with the boy so he had an idea of where his thoughts were going. "You both were on the streets, you're going to see some of you in her. When I looked at her, I saw some of myself as well."
Bobby blinked. "Really?"
"I can tell she's been on the streets for a while, but if you know where to look, you can see she's determined to live however she can. I was a bodyguard, an enforcer. You can read people after a while. Healing fast or not, she doesn't have the desperate look of an addict. That tells me she keeps her wits sharp no matter how bad things have been. She doesn't have the tired look of a whore, so that tells me she values her dignity.".
Bobby was silent as he mulled this over. "You think she was in Weapon X?"
"I doubt it. She's not in shape for them to have had her for any length of time. What would make you think that?"
"Dunno, just thinking, that's all."
"Think more about your homework and less about Medea. Everything will sort itself out when the others get back and she wakes up."
"I guess. "Bobby said as he got up to leave, "Thanks Peter."
"Anytime."
Bobby left and headed to his room, his thoughts quiet for now. Peter went back to his bench pressing. He hadn't said all his thoughts about the new girl to the boy. Seeing street rat mutants struck a chord in him. If he didn't have the responsibility of looking after his mother and two younger siblings, he might've been one as well. He was well aware of how difficult it was to pretend to be human. The girl must've had a hard time of it with her claws and fangs. You could only keep them hidden for so long before someone noticed.
She'd make an excellent enforcer with the powers she had, even a good assassin as well. Apparently she hadn't gone that route for her to be as desperate as she had been. Assuming that she probably kept to herself on the streets, digging for whatever leavings were out there, it must have been true desperation for her to go into a mall's food court to take what few mouthfuls were left behind.
At least here she could have a bed to sleep in and proper food in her belly. Whether she stayed here or not didn't matter, at least now she had a chance for something different.
Ororo came in with a bag. A last minute shopping for Medea. The girl had tiny size 6 feet and no one in the mansion had anything that small. At least she was able to find a pair of sandals and a pair of Reeboks in that size. She had the feeling boots would've been more to Medea's tastes, but the closest anyone had to that size was a 7.
Relieved that she found something so the girl didn't have to pad about in socks, she headed to the medlab to make sure that the shoes fit.
The room was empty save for Medea, still asleep. Ororo looked at the IV that was attached to the girl to see if it needed changing. So far it was okay, would probably need changing in an hour or so. She'd leave that to one of the others who had more of an idea of what to do.
She pulled up the sheet to expose Medea's feet. Ororo couldn't help but notice that the callouses on the balls were more pronounced than what was on the heel. The girl catstepped like a thief more often than not. That was understandable, considering what they knew about her.
Ororo had glanced at the hospital and police reports they had taken with them when they stole her away from the hospital. Female transient mutant disturbing the peace. She had to laugh at that. If those shopaholics who gorged themselves fatter had just left the girl alone, she would've just left after taking a few mouthfuls of what they were too lazy to get up and throw out themselves. They had been offended by this reminder of the real world daring to intrude on their glittery fantasy mall world where anything could be bought. One lady said the 'homeless freak' had pushed her child from his chair and then got in her face when she confronted her about it. It was more likely that the kid was acting up and fell out of his chair when Medea moved too close for the woman's liking.
God forbid anyone admitting they weren't watching their kid, better to blame it on the ones who don't have anything, who can't fight back. Blame it on the different looking ones who couldn't *possibly* have the same sense of things as you do.
Ororo sighed. Her family had been treated poorly just because they were immigrants. Too many times they were looked down on for trying to earn a decent living honesty, and then they were looked down on for possibly having to go on assistance. Too often they just backed down when the righteous ones got in their faces.
At least this girl didn't cower. She chose to snarl back. Ororo wished she could've seen the looks on their complacent faces when they realized they had a tiger by the tail.
But her satisfied wishings soon turned sour when she imagined the terrified look that must have been on Medea's face when her telekinesis flared up. Probably the same as hers when she nearly electrocuted that playground.
You're probably like me before Jean pulled me out of that jail cell, she thought, just want to get by on just a little more than what you got. Don't care about much else. Not interested in the rule the world schpiel of Magneto's lackeys, not really interested in Xavier's coexistence.
With a sigh, she checked to see if the sandals fit. They did. So did the Reeboks. At least that was easy.
Ororo put the shoes on a chair along with the clothes she and Jean had gotten earlier. The clothes were the closest they could find to what Medea had worn. A black belly top, some underwear, a pair of jeans that had beaded fringe at the cuffs. The oversized army jacket was the only thing remaining of what she came in with. A far cry from the threadbare black oversized T-shirt and ratty black jeans she had been living in. Medea's clothes had been to conceal her shape. Practical with the sort of predators out on the street.
Here the only one you'll have to worry about is Bobby, she thought with a faint wry smile. Logan was a possibility as well, but it was hard to tell with that man. For the most part Ororo doubted he'd be interested in the girl, she seemed too much like him and what man wanted to sleep with a female version of them.
She was pulled from her reverie by Scott coming into the room. "Scott, how did it go?", she asked.
"Well, the good news is we found plenty, but it's all bad," Scott said as he pulled up a chair and sat. He sighed. "I thought some of the places I was shuffled to were bad, that orphanage was worse."
Ororo sat on the edge of the bed, listening.
"She was a foundling right out of the books, left there with a name pinned to her blanket, only a few hours old. I guess that's better than being thrown in the trash. She lived at St. Sebastion's home for orphans.", Scott continued. He stopped when Jean came in. She was rather pensive for her and she moved behind Scott and began to massage his shoulders.
"The place is being investigated for abuse.", Jean said softly, "We had trouble getting what we could on her, but the Professor's a pro. The Archdiocese has been trying to close the place down and been filling spots with volunteers until they relocate the kids. No one bothered to do any deep background checks and nearly all of the kids there have the scars to pay for that. Right now there's officials crawling all over the place. It was hard to talk to anyone, but we managed. Medea's physical mutations were present soon after birth, so she was the main target for beatings until she fought back. They shredded the records and covered it up, but she killed six girls with cerebral hemorrhages and left two vegetables when her psi powers manifested during the last beating. She had to've panicked and run afterwards. Been on the streets since. Even there from what we could find out from the other street kids was that she kept to herself. Some drugs, no prostitution, mostly stealing.".
Scott was silent, his mind rolling back as Jean spoke. St. Sebastion's brought back too many painful memories of his past. He knew what it was like to be the small one, the easy target of the predators. That old before their time look on the children who still were there was one he knew all too well. He had found the tiny room Medea had slept in for most of her life. Just off the boiler room and filthy. Only some faint claw scratchings on the stone wall gave the place away. 'Let me die', 'Why?', 'Medea' were the only words carved in a childish scrawl. Medea must've hated her rapid healing ability if she tried to kill herself, that final slap to the face as you want the pain to just end and you can't no matter what you do. Life on the streets must've seemed like paradise after that place. It had to him until Jack O'Diamonds came around.
He shook his head slightly to clear those thoughts. Jack was the last thing he wanted to be thinking about now.
Ororo was silent as she listened to Jean, and her eyes misted up. Another shattered soul to join their little dysfunctional family. "I guess you'll fit in fine here, 'Dea.", she said to the sleeping girl, guessing what the short form of her name would be, "We've all been there, done that, sat down and had a soda while we were there. Perhaps we can even swap stories of 'Way Back In The Day' when you wake up."
Even Scott's mouth twitched slightly in amusement at the end joke.
"It'll be rough for her, but then it was for all of us," he said softly, "Be ready for loud nightmares behind a locked door."
Ororo raised an eyebrow, wondering. Jean just closed her eyes in memory.
The three were silent. What could be said, really?
Jean gave Scott's shoulders a final squeeze and walked over to the bed, taking the chart that was hanging from the foot. She flipped through a few pages. "Henry took a blood test the last time he was in here. The hepatitis is gone, so she's just healing up what's left from the car," she commented aloud to no one in particular.
"She'll probably be awake in a few hours," Scott said, not sure but taking a guess.
"Most likely," Jean said as she concentrated and telepathically told the Professor.
The Professor was in his office, still sifting through what records they'd gotten on Medea. **Thank you Jean.**, he sent back to her, **It would be best if only I were present when she does, considering what's happened to her so far.**
**We'll be on the sidelines just in case. **
**Very good.**
Jean looked at Scott and Ororo, "The Professor wants to be the only one she sees when she wakes up."
They caught the hint.
"We should grab something to eat until then. Won't know how things'll go later on," Scott said as he got up. He looked at Medea and instead of seeing her sleeping form, he saw a young brown haired boy with his eyes closed tightly, too afraid to open them.
The three walked out of the room, heading for the kitchen.
The Professor sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. While Medea wasn't the worst case he'd seen, she was one of the bad ones. The papers they'd gotten were just a basic doctor's report that ended up being the basis of her birth certificate, a baptismal record and her rather meager schooling along with her medical files. The latter were the most quantitative of them all. Most of the other information had to be sifted out of assorted minds and while all of them were human, they were hiding what they knew of this young mutant behind elaborate walls of misinformation that had gone on so long some were starting to believe that as the truth.
She had been treated well for the most part as an infant. The only reason she hadn't been adopted out was there hadn't been anyone looking for a raven haired Caucasian girl. By the time someone was, her fangs and claws had already grown and that was when the situation changed. The other children picked on her, calling her 'Devil Girl', the lay people volunteers either encouraged it or added to it personally. The few remaining clergy just turned a blind eye to it all not wanting to deal with it while they had other concerns going on at the time or just considered it their cross to bear with the unwanted.
Most of her medical reports were of her in the infirmary healing from whatever beatings had happened, the rest recovering from bad food. The latter was common with most of the children as the hierarchy of the staff was always too convoluted with who was in charge of what. Broken fingers, broken nose, broken jaw were the worst things listed, but the Professor knew there was more.
One member of the staff had buried in her memory a time when Medea had to be somewhere around 8 or 9 and she asked the woman why she wanted to get into the janitor's pants when she had her own. The woman had been eyeballing the man in question and had the child disciplined for saying such a thing. That the child picked up her thought had terrified her.
Cerebro hadn't picked that manifestation up, so it had to be a brief awakening, too low for the detector to register it, or the result of malnutrition affecting the manifestation. Any other brief moments had to have been just as weak as either he or Eric would've gone looking for her at that time.
The Professor had tried to look into her mind when she was brought in, but the chaotic imagery he'd seen was too difficult to sort through at the time. Not helping either was the healing trance she was in. It enfolded everything in a cloudy blackness that made it hard to navigate. But the brief images he'd seen were enough to prove that while Medea had escaped the molestation and rape that was going on at night physically, she had been all too aware of it mentally. That alone was enough to leave her as scarred as those who had suffered first hand.
Only one image he'd seen told him that she came too close to a night visit. Early puberty made her enough of a tempting target for one of the janitors there. He tried to take advantage of her, came quite close, but she had panicked and the flurry of fangs and claws was enough to cool the man's ardor.
The final incident was what concerned him most of all. While he could see it as her psi powers manifesting properly in full and the deaths a terrible accident, part of him wondered if it wasn't. In that environment of being belittled, beaten and worse it made sense for one to lash out in revenge when the chance arose. Make the ones that hurt you know what it really feels like to hurt. Was she just a scared young mutant, or was she a killing predator ready to lash out if provoked? Either way, she was not going to be turned out. There was always sending her to the Muir facility to heal if she was very bad off.
As it was, she was provoking much thought among the X-Men. That was understandable, especially with the backgrounds they had.
The Professor gathered up the papers and put them in the file he started on her. With all the mindprobing he'd done in Chicago, he had a headache and if he rested a bit now, he'd be in better condition when Medea awoke.
Henry was in the computer lab, trying to see if he could find anything on Medea in the databases anywhere. The records the others brought back were a help, but they needed all they could find to help her better. He leaned back in his chair and wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose, his glasses riding up.
These days it was pretty easy to slip through the cracks if you didn't have a social security number. She didn't have one and the birth number only went so far. Henry knew she was a hard case, but then most of them here were, that was no big suprise. Life dumped enough shit on them already then added being a mutant as if it were the cherry on top. Only thing you could be sure of now was that more shit was on it's way, usually when you really didn't need it.
His being blue and furry was proof of that. It would've been easy to just lash out. But what was the point, really? He had too much to do to waste time like that. Henry sighed. With Ororo and him being just friends now, he had more free time. Not like he wanted that anyway. For all his prose, he couldn't describe what it felt like that someone beautiful as Ororo would even spare 'Magilla Gorilla' a second glance. But things weren't the same after Weapon X. Too much had happened there, none of it good.
Rather than dwell on those thoughts, Henry got up to check on Medea again. She was probably due for another IV.
The room was empty, and as he expected, Medea was due for another IV. After checking her vitals, Henry decided not to hook her up to a fresh one. She was pretty well hydrated for now and he didn't want to overload her system with nutrients. He checked her pupils, they dilated normally so she wasn't in shock from the treatment she'd received. With her recuperative powers, she'd be back on her feet soon.
He had to admit Medea had lovely eyes, but then he was always partial to blue eyes. Blue eyes to drown in, smiling all the way. Ororo's were the most beautiful ones he'd ever seen. Even now they could still make his heart skip a beat. Her scent was still fresh in the room and it made his blood tingle. Just friends.....
A snapping sound pulled Henry from his thoughts. Unwittingly he had snapped the penlight he still had in his hand. He tossed the pieces into the trash bin across the room, making a 'DA-thunk' that sounded louder than it was with the silence.
One of Medea's hands twitched, but then was still.
Henry noticed the motion, but she was still out for now. He made his notations on her clipboard and went to go tell the Professor that she might be waking sooner than they thought.
Logan waited for Henry to be long gone when he went to go take his look on the girl. She was looking better than she was when they hauled her out of that hospital. Not all of her injuries had been from the car accident, he could tell, some were from over excited orderlies trying to keep her down until they could dope her up.
He had to laugh, a little slip of a thing making such a big ruckus. Powers aside, she wasn't built like a brawler like him. Now a scrapper, he could see. One might not think there was a difference, but there was. For him, he'd just fight for fun, the girl, just fight until you can run. He headed over to the bed and took her scent in. The drugs were out of her system so he could get a better feel of it.
She had that faint tang that his and Sabretooth's scent had. It had to be something from the healing fast, rather than her being his by blow. Since Creed taunted him about a wife and kid, that had been sitting in the back of his mind. He'd never know now if it was true, but he knew Medea wasn't his. The standard gene tag they took of her when they got her back proved that.
Logan looked her over. Claws like a cat, cat steps when she walks according to what he overheard Ororo commenting on somewhere. Too bad Creed wasn't around. Be able to find out if she was his, and send him a special delivery. A proof of paternity and a personal picture of 'and here she is with her ankles around my neck begging for every inch of it'. That put a grin on Logan's face.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement and he turned his head to look into a pair of terrified violet blue eyes looking back at him. Oh shit..., Logan thought, especially as she was a psi and he had that mental image in his head.
Medea bolted from the bed fast, almost tripping over the sheets and backing into a wall. Her eyes darted about as she tried to figure out where she was.
"It's okay, you're safe," Logan said as he moved slowly not to spook her more than she already was. He could hear the others coming fast, having been alerted by the Professor. Medea's head twitched having heard them too and she darted for the window.
Logan grabbed her arm to hold her back, but she spun around and bit deeply into her arm much like a wolf trying to free itself from a trap. He pulled her close, holding onto her with an arm pinning hers and the other making sure she didn't get in a well placed kick. She began to wiggle like nothing else trying to free herself.
As the others came in, she gasped in terror and began struggling harder, snapping back with her head into Logan's only to cry out as her head hit the adamantium laced skull so hard.
"Medea, please," the Professor said calmly, "we mean you no harm. You're with the X-Men."
She began to cry. "Lemme go...," she pleaded, fear still strong in her eyes.
"We will, when you've calmed down," the Professor said as he began to telepathically sedate her. On some level, Medea was aware of this and began to fight harder. The trash bin across the room flew into the air and shattered against the wall.
Ororo came forward, taking Medea's hands in hers. "Chill.", she said softly, "Just kick back, eat something and you can go when you want. We won't stop you." She didn't care if the Professor thought like that, but it just seemed the right thing to say. Jean walked up as well. "We'll even take you to wherever you want to go," she added.
Medea flinched at the touch, but she did begin to calm down a bit. Enough for Logan to let her go. She looked at the two women nervously.
"Now let's get you into some decent clothes and we'll see what damage we can do to the 'fridge," Ororo said as she glared at the others to leave.
The men reluctantly left, only the Professor telepathically told them that they'd be close in case their plan didn't go well as he left with the others.
Just the three women were alone in the room then.
Medea looked at Jean and Ororo, not sure of anything. "C'mon Blue Eyes, let's get you ready to face the world again," Jean said with a reassuring smile, "today's the first day of the rest of a better life."
~~Fini~~