Don't own X-men, Britney Spears, Weird Al, Savage Garden, Star Wars, or
anything else. Any attempt at suing me will cost more than you receive.
~thought~
Chapter 3: Wild Card
A tremor rolled through the mansion. Anne toppled to the floor in an instant, but jumped up immediately afterwards. There were no fault lines in the east coast, right? So why the earthquake? Oh no! It's the end of the world!
Amara and Rahne ran by, hopping into their uniform boots. "What's Avalanche doing?"
"Shaking us up." Rahne glanced at the window. "Looks like the whole Brotherhood is at our gate!"
Amara leaped in one of her strides. "All right! This is gonna rock!" Both girls giggled as they ran off.
Anne looked out the window and saw a motley group of boys and a girl in strange uniforms walking purposefully through the broken gate. She supposed that these were the presently mentorless Brotherhood of Mutants that she had heard so much about. Most of the X-Men were already outside, facing off against the visitors.
Cyclops asked the obligatory question, "What do you think you're doing here?"
The Brotherhood guys looked to Lance to answer. "We haven't fought much lately, and I thought that you X-geeks were out of practice too."
A feral grin spread slowly across every one of the X-men's faces in response. Tarot peeled her eyes away from the window and made her way to the nearest exit. When she had made her way to where the others were, the fight had already begun.
Well, actually, the fight had begun for some students. Doug was simply standing off to the side, typing on a laptop. Wait, no. Tarot listened more carefully to his muttering.
"Zero zero zero one one zero one one one one one one zero zero zero zero zero."
If she didn't know better, Tarot would think that he was speaking binary, but she figured that it wasn't possible. Then, as Doug pressed enter, the outdoor training session fired up. ~Ohhh kaay. So he was talking to the computer. That's fine. I think.~
The students were turning the front yard of the mansion into a war zone. Grenades and everything! Magma had pitted herself against Toad, and had quickly melted his sneakers to the pavement. Amara decided that gloating was in order.
"What? Little Toady can't jump? Too ba- Hey!" she yelled as a glob of slime hit her face.
Tarot simply leaned against the building. No one had noticed her yet, and she really just wasn't in the fighting mood. Better to watch these children fall on their arses than get involved.
Tabby was facing-off against Rogue, and their fight had turned into Rogue dodging Boom-boom's little cherry bombs. Her many hours in the Danger Room finally paid off in the elaborate handsprings and flips.
Gambit charged up a Joker and gave Pietro a challenging glare.
"Do y' feel lucky? Well, do y', punk?" Remy quoted. He began to flick the card at Quicksilver when Rogue's flipping (A/N: No, that is not a stand- in for a swear word) form caught his eye. He stood poised and admired the way her uniform conformed to her body, her flexibility, and her intense concentration.
Pietro appeared in front of Gambit. He had come to fight, and now this guy wasn't even paying attention to perfect Quicksilver. "Hello! What are you doing?" He followed Gambit's line of sight. The guy's eyes followed Rogue step for step. "Are you checking out Rogue? You're not going to flirt- Eew! No! You are! Eew! Rogue flirting! Auggh! The mental pictures! Getemoutgetemoutgetemout!"
The battles going on around the two guys stopped at this sudden outburst. Gambit furiously tossed the card at Quicksiver, who easily avoided the missile. Rogue paused and almost got hit by one of Tabby's cherry bombs.
Anne didn't care. So what if the Southerners flirted? These students were gossiping in the midst of a fight; it was as if they didn't care about any feuds. Then she looked to where Scott was fighting a brown-haired teen wearing a punch bowl on his head. They were totally focused on their battle, shouting idealistic insults at each other in between blows.
It would have looked cool, but Avalanche's earthquake caused Scott to lose his balance. No one can look cool when they say, "Come to the light side!" wavering like a drunk.
Anne scowled. What had she ever seen in this place? Sure it was richly decorated, but that didn't account for the scum floating around the grounds. She didn't do anything to deserve this. She didn't have to live here with these children just because of mutant powers. She could get her own place! "Forget this. I'm leaving." Anne waited for people to realize what she had said.
The battles raged on as fiercely as ever. A spike from Evan landed at her feet.
"Ugh." Tarot drew a card from her deck, the High Priestess. "Perfect." A tall, imposing woman materialized in the center of all the battles, and its mere presence caused the surrounding tussles to slowly stop. Anne finally stepped away from the building. "You are all disgusting! Fighting for the hell of it? Wearing uniforms? Next thing you know, you'll be tattooing 'X- Men' on your back and yelling 'West Side'!" She placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not staying around long enough to be brainwashed. I'm out of here."
One of the Brotherhood guys (I think it was Toad) shouted, "All right! We get another Brotherhood gal! You X-geeks suck!"
With a wave of her hand, Tarot set her monster on "All right!". "I am not joining you losers. You don't really think that I'm going to hop from one mutant gang to another mutant gang."
"Gang?" Cyclops stepped forward. "We're not a gang. Anne, you can't leave the X-Men. The professor can help you with your powers!"
Tarot pointed directly at Cyclops, and her High Priestess stepped menacingly towards him. Both teams stepped back. "I can deal with my mutation just fine!"
Jamie asked, "So, what are you going to do?"
She sneered, "I'm going to be a wild card." She placed the High Priestess back into her deck. The monster disappeared. "I'll be coming back later to pick up my things."
**
After having booked a hotel room for the night, Anne was packing suitcases and cardboard boxes with her possessions. She stuffed clothes into the nearest receptacle and reached her hand out for the next item. It happened to be an old teddy bear that had seen better days. Her face softened as she regarded this remnant of her childhood.
"Rusty! There you were." She gave the little bear a cuddle as she said, "We're moving again."
She hid Rusty when there was an apologetic knock on the doorjamb. Her features froze into her customary expression, and she asked, "What do you want?" She turned around to face Doug.
He shifted uncomfortably, both hands behind his back. Tarot's shoulders tensed. She had learned not to trust anyone with his or her hands out of range. "So, you're really leaving, huh?" He studied the carpet near his feet. It was scorched in an interesting pattern. "You gonna leave Bayville, too?"
Anne sighed. "Can't. I have to finish the school year here. I'm going to rent an apartment as soon as I can find one."
Doug smiled. "Then you'll still be around." Anne turned back around to continue packing. "Aren't you going to your going-away party? It's starting up downstairs."
"No. They're celebrating the fact that I'm leaving. I don't want to be around that."
"Oh. Well, um," he said as his eyes darted left and right. "Here!" Doug thrust an azalea at her. The salmon petals were on the verge of wilting. "It's a. going-away gift. I'd have gotten you something better, but." His cheeks burned as he admitted, "I'm kinda broke, right now."
Anne didn't even turn around as she told him, "Uh huh. Have fun at the party. See you around." Doug's spirit sank at this dismissal. The azalea slipped from his fingers and he trudged away, tail between his legs.
Tarot stood up and stared at the doorway Doug had just left. He sounded like he had gone to so much trouble for the little flower lying on the carpet. She scooped her hand under the blossom and cradled it to her chest.
A soft little smile found its way onto her face.
**
Downstairs, the party was in full swing. Jubilee was busy hanging up the last of the decorations. Her little pyrotechnic additions to Anne's N*Sync posters clashed beautifully with the electric pink and turquoise backgrounds. One of the posters might have had signatures, if the signatures read JC (smudge), Chr(smear), and so on and so forth.
Jean was dancing up a storm to Britney Spears' "Stronger". Scott was dancing with her, with much less exuberance. A chorus of boos threatened to drown out the song. Jamie ran towards the sound system and changed CD's.
A long, long time ago, In a galaxy far away Naboo was under an attack. And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn Could talk the Federation in To maybe cutting them a little slack
"Jamie!" Jean gave her patented Ice-GlareTM to Jamie, who had the good sense to run. "I liked that song! How dare you put in Weird Al?"
"Weird who?" Rahne asked.
"A parody singer." Bobby informed her. "Jean, Weird Al rocks. You know that!" He began dancing and singing along, and most of the other kids joined in. Jean crossed her arms and pouted.
When the song ended, someone snuck a CD of Savage Garden in, and the song "I Knew I Loved You" began to play. Kids began to pair off for the slow song. Rogue sat off in the corner, tapping her foot in time to the music. This was an okay song, and at least Jean was no longer playing that awful Britney Spears junk.
"Rogue? Were y' listenin'?"
Rogue looked up to see Remy's gloved hand held out to her. "Ah'm sorry. What did ya say?"
"Would y' like t' dance?" Remy continued to hold his outstretched arm towards her. She tried to answer, but one memory held her back.
Cody.
Remy's gloved hand morphed into Cody's bare hand. She looked up in shock at Remy's face. Cody stared back. Rogue did the only thing she could.
She ran.
**
Remy weaved his way around the dancers, following Rogue's barrage of emotions. All he got from her was fear and confusion, but it was enough to go on. He found her hugging her knees next to the pool, the soft blue light swirling up at her. He eased himself down near her, stretching out a bit. Rogue retreated more into herself.
Worried, Remy asked, "Gambit say somet'in wrong?"
Rogue turned her back on Remy. He waited for her to speak, but all that came were waves of sadness. He inched his way towards her and tentatively placed his hand on her shoulder. He almost spoke, but she murmured, "Ya don't know mah power, do ya?"
"Never came up, chère."
"Ah'm a leech. Ah steal people's lives."
"Lives?" She nodded. "What happened on de dance floor?"
Rogue sighed. "Back at home- in Caldecott- there was this boy, Cody, an' he asked me to dance. He wasn't really mah type. Ah mean, he was a jock! Anyways, we danced a little, and it was. great. Then this jerk pushes me down, an' Cody reaches out to help me. He- he doesn't. He touches mah skin and passes out." She shivered. "Ah wasn't really me, anymore. He, his memories, his abilities were all Ah knew. He didn't take over completely, but he hasn't left, either." She hugged her knees even tighter to her chest. "And everyone Ah absorb still swims in mah head."
Remy reached around her back and wrapped her up in a hug. Three tears fell from her eyes as she turned around to hug him back.
**
Doug escaped from the party. Sure, he liked the last song, but he really wasn't in the mood for celebration. He walked up the stairs and down the hall to his room. As he passed Anne's room, he sneaked a peek in the doorway. Anne wasn't in the room at the moment, but the amount of clanging in the bathroom said she was probably returning soon.
He memorized every detail of the room, from the half-packed clothes, to the completely unmade bed. He wouldn't really have any more reasons to look into this room any more. His gaze slid to Rusty, and then a water bottle on the dresser. In the water bottle was his azalea, looking much perkier in the water.
Doug couldn't find any word in any language to describe what he was feeling. Slowly, he walked backwards to his room, unable to keep his eyes off Anne's door.
**
Kitty cornered Rogue. The girl had been avoiding her all night! "So???"
Rogue gazed back. "So. What?"
Kitty groaned. Rogue could act so dense sometimes! "Everyone is talking about how you and Remy disappeared from the party. Are you, you know, dating?"
"No! We're just friends."
"Riiiiiiiight." Rogue treated her to an evil glare. Kitty crossed her arms. "Like, just yesterday you said you hated his guts!"
"So I don't now. Ah just found out that he's actually a nahce guy."
"Well, let me know when this 'nice guy' asks you on a date, 'k?"
"Arrrgh!" There was no satisfying the little busybody! Rogue threw up her hands and stomped into the kitchen.
**
A/N: Flowers mean something. Didn't know that, did you? Well, the reason I chose an azalea is because that flower means "first love". All together: Awwwwwww!
Flyby Stardancer, kar: thank you! Wee!
Ironbite: Yes, Doug is cool. Yes, he's the butt of most of the jokes. And I'll try to be nicer, but Tarot doesn't want to be. I can't control my characters.
starlightz6: Thank you, hope you get more sleep soon.
Trinity Nails: Taa daa! Here's more! I admit, Remy is based a bit on someone I know: my boyfriend. (I love you!) Well, I had to sneak that one in there.
More will be coming as soon as I write the next chapter for A Lesson of Acceptance.
~thought~
Chapter 3: Wild Card
A tremor rolled through the mansion. Anne toppled to the floor in an instant, but jumped up immediately afterwards. There were no fault lines in the east coast, right? So why the earthquake? Oh no! It's the end of the world!
Amara and Rahne ran by, hopping into their uniform boots. "What's Avalanche doing?"
"Shaking us up." Rahne glanced at the window. "Looks like the whole Brotherhood is at our gate!"
Amara leaped in one of her strides. "All right! This is gonna rock!" Both girls giggled as they ran off.
Anne looked out the window and saw a motley group of boys and a girl in strange uniforms walking purposefully through the broken gate. She supposed that these were the presently mentorless Brotherhood of Mutants that she had heard so much about. Most of the X-Men were already outside, facing off against the visitors.
Cyclops asked the obligatory question, "What do you think you're doing here?"
The Brotherhood guys looked to Lance to answer. "We haven't fought much lately, and I thought that you X-geeks were out of practice too."
A feral grin spread slowly across every one of the X-men's faces in response. Tarot peeled her eyes away from the window and made her way to the nearest exit. When she had made her way to where the others were, the fight had already begun.
Well, actually, the fight had begun for some students. Doug was simply standing off to the side, typing on a laptop. Wait, no. Tarot listened more carefully to his muttering.
"Zero zero zero one one zero one one one one one one zero zero zero zero zero."
If she didn't know better, Tarot would think that he was speaking binary, but she figured that it wasn't possible. Then, as Doug pressed enter, the outdoor training session fired up. ~Ohhh kaay. So he was talking to the computer. That's fine. I think.~
The students were turning the front yard of the mansion into a war zone. Grenades and everything! Magma had pitted herself against Toad, and had quickly melted his sneakers to the pavement. Amara decided that gloating was in order.
"What? Little Toady can't jump? Too ba- Hey!" she yelled as a glob of slime hit her face.
Tarot simply leaned against the building. No one had noticed her yet, and she really just wasn't in the fighting mood. Better to watch these children fall on their arses than get involved.
Tabby was facing-off against Rogue, and their fight had turned into Rogue dodging Boom-boom's little cherry bombs. Her many hours in the Danger Room finally paid off in the elaborate handsprings and flips.
Gambit charged up a Joker and gave Pietro a challenging glare.
"Do y' feel lucky? Well, do y', punk?" Remy quoted. He began to flick the card at Quicksilver when Rogue's flipping (A/N: No, that is not a stand- in for a swear word) form caught his eye. He stood poised and admired the way her uniform conformed to her body, her flexibility, and her intense concentration.
Pietro appeared in front of Gambit. He had come to fight, and now this guy wasn't even paying attention to perfect Quicksilver. "Hello! What are you doing?" He followed Gambit's line of sight. The guy's eyes followed Rogue step for step. "Are you checking out Rogue? You're not going to flirt- Eew! No! You are! Eew! Rogue flirting! Auggh! The mental pictures! Getemoutgetemoutgetemout!"
The battles going on around the two guys stopped at this sudden outburst. Gambit furiously tossed the card at Quicksiver, who easily avoided the missile. Rogue paused and almost got hit by one of Tabby's cherry bombs.
Anne didn't care. So what if the Southerners flirted? These students were gossiping in the midst of a fight; it was as if they didn't care about any feuds. Then she looked to where Scott was fighting a brown-haired teen wearing a punch bowl on his head. They were totally focused on their battle, shouting idealistic insults at each other in between blows.
It would have looked cool, but Avalanche's earthquake caused Scott to lose his balance. No one can look cool when they say, "Come to the light side!" wavering like a drunk.
Anne scowled. What had she ever seen in this place? Sure it was richly decorated, but that didn't account for the scum floating around the grounds. She didn't do anything to deserve this. She didn't have to live here with these children just because of mutant powers. She could get her own place! "Forget this. I'm leaving." Anne waited for people to realize what she had said.
The battles raged on as fiercely as ever. A spike from Evan landed at her feet.
"Ugh." Tarot drew a card from her deck, the High Priestess. "Perfect." A tall, imposing woman materialized in the center of all the battles, and its mere presence caused the surrounding tussles to slowly stop. Anne finally stepped away from the building. "You are all disgusting! Fighting for the hell of it? Wearing uniforms? Next thing you know, you'll be tattooing 'X- Men' on your back and yelling 'West Side'!" She placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not staying around long enough to be brainwashed. I'm out of here."
One of the Brotherhood guys (I think it was Toad) shouted, "All right! We get another Brotherhood gal! You X-geeks suck!"
With a wave of her hand, Tarot set her monster on "All right!". "I am not joining you losers. You don't really think that I'm going to hop from one mutant gang to another mutant gang."
"Gang?" Cyclops stepped forward. "We're not a gang. Anne, you can't leave the X-Men. The professor can help you with your powers!"
Tarot pointed directly at Cyclops, and her High Priestess stepped menacingly towards him. Both teams stepped back. "I can deal with my mutation just fine!"
Jamie asked, "So, what are you going to do?"
She sneered, "I'm going to be a wild card." She placed the High Priestess back into her deck. The monster disappeared. "I'll be coming back later to pick up my things."
**
After having booked a hotel room for the night, Anne was packing suitcases and cardboard boxes with her possessions. She stuffed clothes into the nearest receptacle and reached her hand out for the next item. It happened to be an old teddy bear that had seen better days. Her face softened as she regarded this remnant of her childhood.
"Rusty! There you were." She gave the little bear a cuddle as she said, "We're moving again."
She hid Rusty when there was an apologetic knock on the doorjamb. Her features froze into her customary expression, and she asked, "What do you want?" She turned around to face Doug.
He shifted uncomfortably, both hands behind his back. Tarot's shoulders tensed. She had learned not to trust anyone with his or her hands out of range. "So, you're really leaving, huh?" He studied the carpet near his feet. It was scorched in an interesting pattern. "You gonna leave Bayville, too?"
Anne sighed. "Can't. I have to finish the school year here. I'm going to rent an apartment as soon as I can find one."
Doug smiled. "Then you'll still be around." Anne turned back around to continue packing. "Aren't you going to your going-away party? It's starting up downstairs."
"No. They're celebrating the fact that I'm leaving. I don't want to be around that."
"Oh. Well, um," he said as his eyes darted left and right. "Here!" Doug thrust an azalea at her. The salmon petals were on the verge of wilting. "It's a. going-away gift. I'd have gotten you something better, but." His cheeks burned as he admitted, "I'm kinda broke, right now."
Anne didn't even turn around as she told him, "Uh huh. Have fun at the party. See you around." Doug's spirit sank at this dismissal. The azalea slipped from his fingers and he trudged away, tail between his legs.
Tarot stood up and stared at the doorway Doug had just left. He sounded like he had gone to so much trouble for the little flower lying on the carpet. She scooped her hand under the blossom and cradled it to her chest.
A soft little smile found its way onto her face.
**
Downstairs, the party was in full swing. Jubilee was busy hanging up the last of the decorations. Her little pyrotechnic additions to Anne's N*Sync posters clashed beautifully with the electric pink and turquoise backgrounds. One of the posters might have had signatures, if the signatures read JC (smudge), Chr(smear), and so on and so forth.
Jean was dancing up a storm to Britney Spears' "Stronger". Scott was dancing with her, with much less exuberance. A chorus of boos threatened to drown out the song. Jamie ran towards the sound system and changed CD's.
A long, long time ago, In a galaxy far away Naboo was under an attack. And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn Could talk the Federation in To maybe cutting them a little slack
"Jamie!" Jean gave her patented Ice-GlareTM to Jamie, who had the good sense to run. "I liked that song! How dare you put in Weird Al?"
"Weird who?" Rahne asked.
"A parody singer." Bobby informed her. "Jean, Weird Al rocks. You know that!" He began dancing and singing along, and most of the other kids joined in. Jean crossed her arms and pouted.
When the song ended, someone snuck a CD of Savage Garden in, and the song "I Knew I Loved You" began to play. Kids began to pair off for the slow song. Rogue sat off in the corner, tapping her foot in time to the music. This was an okay song, and at least Jean was no longer playing that awful Britney Spears junk.
"Rogue? Were y' listenin'?"
Rogue looked up to see Remy's gloved hand held out to her. "Ah'm sorry. What did ya say?"
"Would y' like t' dance?" Remy continued to hold his outstretched arm towards her. She tried to answer, but one memory held her back.
Cody.
Remy's gloved hand morphed into Cody's bare hand. She looked up in shock at Remy's face. Cody stared back. Rogue did the only thing she could.
She ran.
**
Remy weaved his way around the dancers, following Rogue's barrage of emotions. All he got from her was fear and confusion, but it was enough to go on. He found her hugging her knees next to the pool, the soft blue light swirling up at her. He eased himself down near her, stretching out a bit. Rogue retreated more into herself.
Worried, Remy asked, "Gambit say somet'in wrong?"
Rogue turned her back on Remy. He waited for her to speak, but all that came were waves of sadness. He inched his way towards her and tentatively placed his hand on her shoulder. He almost spoke, but she murmured, "Ya don't know mah power, do ya?"
"Never came up, chère."
"Ah'm a leech. Ah steal people's lives."
"Lives?" She nodded. "What happened on de dance floor?"
Rogue sighed. "Back at home- in Caldecott- there was this boy, Cody, an' he asked me to dance. He wasn't really mah type. Ah mean, he was a jock! Anyways, we danced a little, and it was. great. Then this jerk pushes me down, an' Cody reaches out to help me. He- he doesn't. He touches mah skin and passes out." She shivered. "Ah wasn't really me, anymore. He, his memories, his abilities were all Ah knew. He didn't take over completely, but he hasn't left, either." She hugged her knees even tighter to her chest. "And everyone Ah absorb still swims in mah head."
Remy reached around her back and wrapped her up in a hug. Three tears fell from her eyes as she turned around to hug him back.
**
Doug escaped from the party. Sure, he liked the last song, but he really wasn't in the mood for celebration. He walked up the stairs and down the hall to his room. As he passed Anne's room, he sneaked a peek in the doorway. Anne wasn't in the room at the moment, but the amount of clanging in the bathroom said she was probably returning soon.
He memorized every detail of the room, from the half-packed clothes, to the completely unmade bed. He wouldn't really have any more reasons to look into this room any more. His gaze slid to Rusty, and then a water bottle on the dresser. In the water bottle was his azalea, looking much perkier in the water.
Doug couldn't find any word in any language to describe what he was feeling. Slowly, he walked backwards to his room, unable to keep his eyes off Anne's door.
**
Kitty cornered Rogue. The girl had been avoiding her all night! "So???"
Rogue gazed back. "So. What?"
Kitty groaned. Rogue could act so dense sometimes! "Everyone is talking about how you and Remy disappeared from the party. Are you, you know, dating?"
"No! We're just friends."
"Riiiiiiiight." Rogue treated her to an evil glare. Kitty crossed her arms. "Like, just yesterday you said you hated his guts!"
"So I don't now. Ah just found out that he's actually a nahce guy."
"Well, let me know when this 'nice guy' asks you on a date, 'k?"
"Arrrgh!" There was no satisfying the little busybody! Rogue threw up her hands and stomped into the kitchen.
**
A/N: Flowers mean something. Didn't know that, did you? Well, the reason I chose an azalea is because that flower means "first love". All together: Awwwwwww!
Flyby Stardancer, kar: thank you! Wee!
Ironbite: Yes, Doug is cool. Yes, he's the butt of most of the jokes. And I'll try to be nicer, but Tarot doesn't want to be. I can't control my characters.
starlightz6: Thank you, hope you get more sleep soon.
Trinity Nails: Taa daa! Here's more! I admit, Remy is based a bit on someone I know: my boyfriend. (I love you!) Well, I had to sneak that one in there.
More will be coming as soon as I write the next chapter for A Lesson of Acceptance.