e-mail: Slaya@rock.com
disclaimer: Marvel.
A/N: b.wabbit, you re my sweetie so sorry for dedicating this chapter to Psyinque Xtreme.
Her (2000 words) review opened my eyes. In some cases. Thanx.
Never felt so low
Chapter eight-Burn or blast! Wait! We meant to say…um…trick or treat.
By The Opal Jade
-The old candle burns in the pumpkin. It burns, burns and it burns!
Jubilee was telling a ghost story. Then someones snikering voice was heard.
-Burn baby, burn! Burn baby burn!
It was offcourse Bobby. Who else. How did I get myself into this? Why am I forced to spend time with them? I do not know Cyclops yet but i already knda hate him.
Yey me.
-Bobby would you shut up! I m telling a story here!
Jubilee got herself in a twist. Bobby would not stop so she just decides to ignore him and get on with the not-amusing story. She starts off again with a ghoustly voice.
-And the old lady s face seems to be a thousand year old one. The little girl says hello to her but she doesn t answer. She just laughs and coughs like a criple.
Ha ha ha hah hah hah hah ha ha haaaaaaa ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aha!
-Jubs darling are you alright. Seriously. Are you okay?
-UUUUUUUUUUUUUU YOUUUUUUU! Just shut up!
Where did I stop?
-At the part where the old lady desides to rape the inoscent little girl.
-Yes at the part where…no! Wait you!
She sends sparks or something liek that to a guy called John. He returns the fire literary: with real fire.
-O just stop fooling around you two or we may end up locked up in our rooms for that matter.
Jubilee is that story gonna get any scarier hon? Cause if not…we have better things to do.
Jubilee looked pretty pissed off. (pissed off=read: funny as hell)
-The story will make you die out of fear. I guarantee you that.
-Look the fireworks punk can say guarantee. Now the big question….can she spell it?
-Bobby you de askin from da girl.
-Don t tempt me cajun.
Jubilee again did her fireworks thing. Then Bobby made ice underneath her. She sliped and fell right on top of me. I did not even move.
These people are such a band of……I can not even make up a word for them, that is how bad they are.
Chamber was trying to get into my mind the whole time and I even think that he thinks that I did not notice while the rest of the cocky team is giving smart asses remarks about everything. Kitty can not stop from phasing her hand trough us. it all was fine till she messed some bone in Johnies ribs and then all hell broke loose.
This is madness. Looks like I am gonna have to be the one to make this gathering a little bit funer. Besides…I have to spend my time in a partly interesting way before night falls. Now it is three in the afternoun. Real yey. Yeah. Real yey.
-Does any of you wanna hear a real ghost story? A true one?
-Well, well we finnaly got our little Craft hon to wake up.
-Craft!
Bobby and Remy yelled at the same time. I lift my eyebrow.
-What is it to you?
-Don mind them honey, they re just a bunch of assholes with whome I ve been talking about a certain ordeal, haven t I?
-Thanks Rogue but I am pretty sure that I can deal with them on my own.
Now…you wanna hear the story?
-But I was telling the story!
-Sush Jubs.
Everybody said almost instantaneously.
-Come on. Tell de story. Or you want me to tell a story about a certain redhead…..we won dat story…oui?
-No we don t want that story!
-Chere, jus chill. You didn t tink dat Gambit was talkin bout you?
-Does anybody realise that he talks about himself in the third face persona?
-That s just his cajun talk.
-Mais if I got sometin like a kiss or more…den de story be bout our beautiful Rogue.
-Does he realize that he is saying a ninth hell death wish?
-Guess not.
-Well I wish that I would kiss you. So that you fall in a week coma. That should make you happy!
Gambit jumps swiftly from his spot to Rogue.
-Well dats de idea cher.
She slaps him.
-Leave me alone you cajun ass!
-Mais Rogue! Cher! Sweetie! Darling! Petit!
-Save it for someone who cares!
-Okay enough!
Kitty yells. Finally somebody stoping the madness.
-Let s just hear the story.
-Is it really scary?
Chamber comes to my mind once again to ask me. I answer with a freakish visual of a ancient mummy falling on me.
-It is scary.
-Okay then.
-Can I start now?
-Yes please do.
-Here it goes…….
It was three years ago that I was in Egypt. Cairo. There was a newly discovered ancient tomb out there. Since I had friends who were archeologist I managed to get in on it. I was suposed to be one of the first people to come in there.
-;-This was a lie offcourse. I did not volonteur for the gig. I was forced to go in there-;-
I will not tell the story longer then it was so…let us just move on.
We were entering. There was nogthing more than bugs and stuff like that who always lay around tombs. Everything was pretty much normal looking. For a tomb offcourse.
But we were not rreally sure in wich time was it built. So we could not know anything about the traps in there. It was a mistake to just go in there blindly.
-;-The traps there were really set up by our master. Interesting huh?-;-
Because there has never been a record about traps as elaborate as these ones.
After an hour we got lost. We looked for the stickers that we used to leave at every couple of meters. As it turns out….the rooms and pasageways were moving and shifting. The door closed. Our only hope was to find some other way out.
We were pretty optimistic like «how hard can it be» shit. But we were wrong.
We lost all hope when two people of our team got killed. The first one Malik got his throat cut by a hidden wire. The other one Sanadra got crushed by the walls of a closing hallway because she could not escape fast enough. She had a limp on her left foot.
So there we were. One dieing after the other.
So we made a nuder mistake. We split up.
I do not know where anxbody else was at the time but I managed to find the centre of the tomb. A big grave.
Yey me.
I was not paying atencione when behind me…..
-Rookies get down and eat something.
I was roudly interupted.
-But the story…..
Jubilee said.
-Now!
Wolwie shouted from the bottom of his lungs. We all ran from the dimed and darkened room to the light of day. Kitty again managed to do a shit stunt when she phased trough Wolwie ( by accident she says) and shifted something in him like she did in John.
Yey Kitty.
Everybody were asembeled in the cafeteria. I joined Domino at her table. No one choose to join us. I think that the rest of them were kinda scared.
With full right. Domino was not just another ordinary Jane-girl. She was dangerous.
-Did you got sent here by Wolwie?
-No. Storm came and threw me off my bed with a huricane. I didn t use my power. It would be kinda wrong. She is the authority. For now that is.
-Cyclops forced me to spend time with Kitty, Rogue, Jubilee, John and the cocky squad.
-Auch! That must been painful.
-Yeah. You probably already know Jubilee, right?
-Aha. The little fireworks punk. We once got into a fight.
-Together?
-No. I was kicking her ass.
-Oooo. If i could see that. Her desperation because the fireworks do not work on you.
John actually almost set her ass on fire just now.
-Watch your back. Mister nazi s coming.
-Great.
-Hey girls.
-Hey mister Summers!
Domino puts on a fake smile. She really looks freaky with it.
-Domino. Craft. I just wanted to….um…no. nogthing. Sorry for bothering you.
He goes away.
-Strike one for the Domino-Craft team. Yey team!
-Yey mutant powers.
-Yey absolute power.
-Yey my big black spot.
-Yey Buffy the vampire slayer.
-Yey vampires.
-Yey the X-factor.
-Yey poison.
-Yey….okay I ran out of silly things to yey all about.
-Aha. Me too.
-So…what are you gonna be for Halloween.
-Told you. I already have my mask on.
-But hey, it is a sacred tradition to dress up and pretend to be something you are not.
-What are you gonna be?
-I am not yet sure. A vampire.
-Or a witch.
-I already am that.
-Sorry, I forgot. Then what bout a dragon or somtin?
-I am so not John. But that is a good idea for him. Do not you think?
-Yeah. And Jubs should dress up as a kidnapped girl. So that he can set her bum on fire.
-Hey, can you manipulate with the luck of someone other?
-Unconciesly yeah. But not conciesly. I m still trying to learn. Why do you think that I m still here?
-Maybe you like it.
-Is that a fact.
-Well you surely do not hate it.
::..::.:::::.::
I have never had so much hair gell on my head in my entire life. Kitty really did not know what she was doing. Even if she swore that I looked great I knew it was awful. But it does not matter. I am gonna be a vampires. And vampires are like dead. So….in theory I should look kinda bad.
I used one of Nafaria s spells to change the color of my eyes in snake yellow with the black around them. I used the same spell to make fangs. They are really cute on me. Maybe I will keep them for good.
Then I put the make-up shit on. Black, black and black. Just a touch of grey and dark green.
I am wearing a black shirt, ripped on my left shoulder offcourse, black knee lenght boots (I have three pair of shoes and they are all boots, the ones that I have not wore yet are the short army-like ones) and a very short and very colorful skirt that Rogue gave me to wear.
It was all looking just fine but…..it should be darker. Nogthing that a little bit of magic will not change. Yeah. Now I am looking good.
I come back to the room after a guy dressed up in Peter Pan almost flyed into me to see the horror show. Rogue was dressed up in a mime, she painted her face white and her lips ruby red. She wore the shirt with stripes, black pants and a french little mime hat.
Kitty was suposed to be Buffy. All I can say is: yey vampires.
Because Buffy is the vampire slayer and…o I am so evil.
She was actually cute. With the stake in her hand. They did not notice me because Kitty was talking about how she will stake the three. Rogue did not get it so Kitty explained.
-The cocky team! Jesus Rogue!
Wow. They were using the name that I have given them. They really kinda excepted me.
Yey me.
I have been saying that a lot. Bad Craft. Hide before the teacher……….beats you?
Yeah. Hide Sarah before the teacher takes a whip out and beats you senceless till you faint. And then he will rape you while you can not even defend yourself. The next thing you know, you will be in a ancient tomb looking at one of your friends dieing because she has a limp that the master caused and now she is being crushed by walls and you can not do anything but helplessly watch!
In the next moment……you lay down. And you burn.
-Sugah? You okay sugah?
-I don t think that she s here, present or something like that.
The voices came slaping me in the face. It was not real. O god it was not real. It was a long time ago. It was not real.
I did not say a word. I just fell down to the floor slowly. My head was in so much pain.
If there was a telepath around here near I think that he or she would faint from the stuff that I am transmiting right now.
And just like on a perfect que the cocky team comes in.
Bobby dressed up like a white bunny, Gambit was a punker of some strange sort while Jonathan was death. And he had a knife. Maybe it was the guy from scream. Maybe.
I senced how they immediately turned their atencion to me. So I just got up.
-You okay cher?
-I am fine.
-Well hon you don look fine to me.
-Well I do not know how do I look but I feel fine.
-You wanna com an join us?
-I already have freakin planes.
I said while storming off. I found Domino downstairs. Jean, Emma and Blink were there.
God, could there have been more stupid costumes on the face of the earth (I thought so until I saw a girl dressed up as pikachu). Blink was fine but Jean and Emma. It is not the choice of the costume but the way they dressed up.
Jean was Cleopatra (and I can bet that Cyk will be Marc Antonie or Cezar) while Emma dressed in Xena. Like a total whore.
Shit. I have to watch it. She is a telepath. Jean is too.
But Blink was so precious. She was such a cute witch.
They all were giving us the plan. on how to contact each other, when to go and where to get out, when to come back…etc…
The three of them made such a great plan. they love us, o they really do.
So. The game begins.
Me and Domino skiped on the group fun. We got ourselfs drunk again. It all ended up in a fight. Then she headed back after two short but adrenaline pumped hours.
I decided to go find the others. It was my luck that Jonathan left a telepath link every couple of meters. I do not know how does Jean call it but I call it a link. It is when someone, like Chamber right now leaves a mark somwhere, anywhere, a mark that only telepaths or only chosen telepths can sence. That is how I found them. Trick or treating.
They introduced me to the others.
The blue creature called Kurt. I knew him. Kinda. I saw him on few pictures. Mistique was his mother. I did not want to bring it out. His mother killed Dawn.
But I can not hold that against him. She left him a long time ago. And….that is that. He was masked as a blue version of Hercules.
This girl Meltdown was masked as a sceleton.
I do not think that I will be able to remember them all.
There was Caliban (he did not had to have a mask, he is horribly mutated into a creature of stone, poor guy), Toad (ironicly dressed up as the Grinch), Amara (a angel on the front side and the devil on the back), Rahne (catwoman), Karma (a mumy), Leech (Spiderman), Mirage (the girl with the most embarasing costume ever-pikachu), Evan (Cyclops, he masked himself as Cyclops, I did not know that he had a fan club), Delayna (Sirene), Kelis (now she is a total bitch dressed as Lara Croft, please….she does not deserve the costume nor the name) and finally here was the beautiful Hipnotia (zombi).
A colorful bunch we made. Really we did.
-Remy thought dat Sara be too much for us to hang round. An now she seek our company.
-Put a lid on it cajun!-I could not help myself but hearing Chamber inside of Gambits mind.
-Well if you really want it, I can leave and have all my fun in some far away place without you or we could actually have fun.
-Remy just being kidding cher. You know we all want you here.
-How can she not know when she already saw that bump on your pants!
Bobby blasts off laughing.
-The god damn bump is dere cause de pants were made dat way, I m a god cajun damn punker.
-You could have fooled me sugah.
-O Rogue petit, you know dat Gambit look only at you.
He hugs her. And she nervously backs away. She was scared that he does not touch her. It would hurt him. The little ass believes that he is invincible.
Now everybody went their own seperate way.
Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee (dressed as Britney Spears), John (red riding hood, do not ask), Bobby, Gambit, Chamber and I were the only one left here.
So what to do?
John said something about trick or treating. But just to joke people around.
Jubilee was thrilled.
-Yes! That s great! Come on people, we godda do it! Are we men, X-men or are we mice?
To me it was so boring. She was getting on my nerves and it was obvious. I do not care.
-Do you have a problem.
The punk asked me. I lifted my eybrow and gave her one of my poison smiles (Domino started to call it like that).
-I just spent two hours of mindlessly kicking some sexist male ass. This is kindergaten play.
-And so is fireworks. But in my hands it seems to be pretty dangerous.
-Hey Jubs, don t you be starting something here.
-Kitty I m sorry if she s your roommate but she is so getting on my nerves and I really don t care about her training in the danger room with Blink. I could do it with tied hands. My power is just as good as hers.
-Sush petit!
-No I won t!
-It is not about the power. It is about the thing that lies beneath the power. And that is so much more complex than the power.
You can not rely on power alone. If you do…you will end up real dead real soon.
-So…you re telling me that you would do the things you do without your powers?
-No.
-Aha!
-Because I would be dead without my powers. They evolved when I needed them to survive. If they had not…..I would not be standing here today.
But I would also never hide behind anything. Not even my powers.
The punk continued on glaring me. I could so kick her ass. That was why I came up to Rogue, Kitty and Bobby.
-Say….how much exactly do you like the kid? Because if you do not then it does not matter if she gets the portion that compensades for her big mouth.
-Boy you really got a grudge on her?
-I am not easily amused when people tend to make things up about me without any real basis. Especally if they try to say that I am hiding behind my powers. I do not.
-Okay, why don t we chill there for a bit hon.
-Don t hurt her. She s just a kid. She doesn t know how to take care of herself yet. I ll take care of her.
The cocky squad team leader Bobby said.
-Thanks.
-Why d you get so worked up? It must have struck a cord somewhere?
-In Egypt there is a different culture and a different way of doing things. If I worked a fight like this back there I would have my head choped off sooner or later if I would not do something about it straight away.
-Oh.
I turned around. I could still hear them.
-That girl s having something serious to deal with. What in the southern bell did she did in Cairo?
I stoped and turned a little to tell her about my hearing. I do not care if they came to be careful about what they say around me from now on.
-And I must say that one of my powers is a enhanced sence of hearing.
-O! Okay then hon.
I joined Jubilee, John, Remy and Chamber. She froaned. Again. She managed to presvade John and Chamber to go and scare people.
Remy whispered something to my ear. I stoped him.
-You can use your thoughts. We can comunicate like this. Telepaticly.
-Okay den cher.
Could you just tell me wat is Bobby doin wit Rogue way over dere.
-He is with Kitty too.
-Yeah but wat is he sayin to de girl?
-I do not know.
-Oui but you can find out.
He really wanted to know. So I did it.
-He told her that he «feels» with her, whatever that means.
Do not worry. She does not buy it.
-Tanks cher.
-It is okay.
-No really.
He puts his hand on my shoulder.
-Dis right here. It means a whole lot. To me it does.
Way over there on the other side of the street John and Jonathan knocked on some door. Jubilee was hidden in the bushes.
A young lady opens the door.
-Burn or blast! O…no! We meant to say….um……trick or treat!
The lady screams.
Into the night filled up with dark and stars.
This is gonna be one interesting night.