Nocturnal Fissions

Lance had kept his word to Spirit. He didn't complain. No matter how hard the training was, no matter how much KP or latrine duty he did he kept his mouth shut. The way he saw it the busier he was the less time he had to dwell on Kitty.

Kitty…No matter how hard he tried to forget her, he couldn't. Her face haunted him every night. His longing for her tormented him. In his dreams he reached out for her, yearning to hold her into his arms. But she was always beyond his reach.

Sometimes his mind drifted into fantasy, he dreamed that he would come back to her. He would march right up the X-Mansion dressed in a full military uniform. Then Kitty would run out the door and into his arm…

Maybe, maybe if I prove myself Kitty will want to be with me again! He thought as he finished cleaning the kitchen.

"Lance?" Pietro tapped his foot impatiently. "Lance did you hear me? Are you listening?"

"Huh?" Lance returned to the real world. "Sorry, I was kind of zoning out there."

"Still daydreaming about Kitty?" Pietro snickered. "Man you are pathetic!"

"So what if I was?" Lance snapped.

"You are so dumb you make Blob look like he has a PHD!" Pietro laughed. "What? Do you really think that she'll ever want to talk to you again? That all you have to do is call her name and she'll come back to you?"

"Here Kitty," Todd snickered. "Here Kitty, Kitty!"

"Shut up!" Lance snapped. "I told you never to do that again!"

"HERE KITTY, KITTY!" Todd, Pietro and Fred called out laughing.

"Knock it off you bozos!" Lance shouted, his anger triggering off some good tremors.

"Here, Kitty! Kitty!" The boys laughed as they ran out side.

"COME BACK HERE!" Lance screamed as he chased them, causing tremors all over the place. He shot out a seismic wave at them, cracking the earth. He made them scatter. He also made a huge hole in the ground that swallowed one of the jeeps.

"AVALANCHE!" Sarge shouted.

"Uh oh," Todd snickered. "Somebody's gonna get it!"

"Shut up!" Lance snapped.

"Alvers!" Sarge shouted. "All of you! Atten-Hut!" They all stood at attention. "What in blue blazes do you think you're doing? Look what you did! You wrecked the jeep! The jeep is gone! What were you doing using your powers like that?"

"It wasn't my fault sir!" Lance said. "They were…"

"I don't care what they were doing!" Sarge snapped. "You know better than that! Or you're supposed to know better than that! Fifty laps now! Move it mister!" Lance took off. "As for the three of you, you jokers are gonna get that jeep outta that hole! Now!"

"Uh how are we gonna do that Sarge?" Fred scratched his head.

"That's your problem," Sarge growled.

After Lance was finished with his laps and later KP duty after dinner, Sarge called him outside to have a little talk with Spirit. "I can't believe you were so reckless!" Spirit told him.

"I'm sorry," Lance apologized. "But they were razzing me and…"

"And you lost your temper," Spirit folded his arms.

"I didn't mean to," Lance said.

"You never mean too!" Sarge snapped. "That's what keeps getting you into trouble! You're supposed to be smarter than that Avalanche."

"I think you still need to work on your anger management," Spirit said.

"I think a bit of fixing up the damage you've done will teach you a lesson," Sarge folded his arms.

"Tomorrow I want you to clean this up," Spirit told him. "Understand?"

"Yes sir," Lance hung his head down.

"You're dismissed," Sarge pointed his thumb inside. Lance dejectedly went inside.

Spirit sighed "I really thought we were making progress with that boy."

"He's got one bad temper," Sarge groaned. "I mean I've had recruits that couldn't control themselves before, but nothing like this! I mean how can you stop someone who can literally make holes in the ground?"

"I know he tries but for some reason he just can't control himself. I just don't know what I'm going to do with him," Spirit sighed.

Lance hung around the corner listening. He couldn't take anymore. He went upstairs ashamed. He ignored the other boy's chatter and went to his bed. Lance lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. All he really wanted right then was to make Spirit proud of him. That was the last thought he had as he drifted off to sleep.

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It was Todd that first realized something wasn't right. He thought he heard a noise. He sat up and looked around. Lately his eyes had become more accustomed to seeing things in the dark. That's when he noticed Lance was missing from his bed. He hopped out and went out of the room. Immediately that was when he saw something that made his jaw drop.

He ran back to the room and shook the other boys. "Guys wake up! Lance has gone nuts yo!"

"What?" Pietro yawned. "What's he doing?"

"Come on you gotta see this to believe it!" Todd dragged him down the hall. Fred followed. They found Lance wearing only his boxers and white sleeveless T-shirt. His hands were on the walls, and the walls were eroding quickly.

"What is he doing?" Todd yelped. "Holy cow he's melting the walls with his hands yo!"

"No he's reshaping the rock!" Pietro said. "Look this is the part of the base that's carved into a mountain! We gotta get help! We gotta wake up the adults."

"We're already awake!" Shipwreck called out as he, Spirit, Roadblock and Sarge ran up. "What's going on?"

"Lance has gone nuts yo!" Todd pointed. "Look what he's doing!"

"He's made another room outta the wall!" Roadblock gasped as he saw Lance's work. "AVALANCE! STOP IT!"

He continued. "He ain't listening yo!" Todd said.

"I don't think he can hear you," Spirit said. "Look, he appears to be in some sort of trance."

"I'll stop him," Todd got ready to attack.

"NO!" Spirit said. "We can't attack him! He's unconscious. I don't even think he even knows he's doing this!"

"You mean he's sleepwalking?" Todd asked.

"Or in this case sleep terra-forming," Roadblock said.

"Terra what?" Fred asked.

"He's changing the mountain," Pietro explained.

"But Lance could never use his powers like that before!" Fred said.

"Lance didn't have that drug in his system before," Roadblock said.

"And we never had an extra room before," Sarge watched as Lance sculpted out a huge cavernous room where the wall was. He then carved another room adjoining it. "Well that's one way of getting the place redecorated."

When Lance had finished he simply turned around and started to walk downstairs.

"Where's he going?" Shipwreck asked.

"I have a feeling we don't have long to wait," Roadblock grumbled. "We'd better not hesitate!"

They followed Lance outside. He was standing in the middle of the backyard. Suddenly the entire earth shook. "He's causing an earthquake!" Pietro yelled.

"No look!" Spirit gasped as he pointed nearby. The ground opened up not in the shape of a crack but a large singular hole that grew rapidly.

"What's going on?" Cover Girl ran out.

"Keep the rest of the kids inside!" Shipwreck ordered. "Hey look! That hole! It's filling up with water!"

"Man he must have tapped into an underground spring," Roadblock said. "And he's still doing his thing!"

Lance stood there with his arms stretched out, moving in a strange rhythm, like a conductor to an inaudible symphony. Spires of rocks shot out of the earth all around twisting and turning into strange shapes. The nearby canyon wall grew higher and higher.

The Renegades ran up. "What is he doing?" Tauros cried out.

"He's changing the landscape," Sarge said. "And if we don't do something fast we're all gonna be part of it!"

"I don't think so," Spirit pointed. "Notice how the house is not shaking as much. He seems to be directing his energy somehow."

"Well we can't take that chance," Mercer pulled out his weapon. "I hate to do this, but…"

"No!" Todd tried to grab the weapon. "Don't kill him yo!"

"I ain't gonna kill him!" Mercer said. "This laser's set on stun. He'll have a headache but he'll be okay!"

"Mercer no!" Spirit shouted.

Too late, Mercer fired. However as soon as he did a huge wall of earth rose up between Lance and the shot, blocking it just in time. Then the wall turned into a huge tidal wave which headed straight for Mercer.

Pietro managed to knock Mercer out of the way just in time. "Great idea!" Pietro snapped.

"Well I don't see you doing anything!" Mercer snapped.

"What about using Wanda's powers to stop him?" Roadblock asked.

"Too risky," Spirit said. "Her powers might cause more damage than his."

"We gotta wake him up!" Todd said. "I got an idea! Pietro I need a ride!" He hopped on Pietro's back.

"What am I a taxi?" Pietro snapped. "Whoa!" He ran as another wave of earth rose up.

"We gotta get close to him," Todd hung on for dear life.

"Gotcha," Pietro nodded. "You hold him down, I'll wake him up!" Which proved easier said than done. Lance sent out earth waves and earth spires from the ground as Pietro ran.

Finally they managed to get close enough. Todd grabbed him from behind. "Lance wake up yo!" Todd shouted.

Lance let out a scream that set of a huge shock wave. Pietro was flung backwards. Todd hung on for dear life.

"This is not good!" Shipwreck shouted as the ground shook violently.

"LANCE STOP IT!" Todd shouted. Suddenly a strange glow illuminated both of them. "Just stop it! Please just stop it!"

The glow faded and Lance collapsed on the ground. The trembling stopped. Todd held Lance in his arms. "Lance?" Todd said weakly. "He's out cold."

"Is everybody okay?" Sarge asked.

"We're all fine," Roadblock sighed.

"Look at this place!" Mercer gulped. Indeed there was now a huge swimming pool as well as several decorative spires and rock formations. "Is it me or do even the canyon walls look taller?"

"No they are taller," Sarge gulped. "I think the kid increased the base's natural defenses as well as giving us a pool and a couple extra rooms."

"Extra rooms?" Red Dog gulped. "What kind of power does this kid have?"

"A very dangerous one if misused," Spirit told him.

"I think we should call Psyche up and send him the data via fax," Roadblock said. "Maybe he and the docs can make sense out of what happened."

Soon when the kids were settled back into bed, most of the adults were talking to Psyche-Out via the communications monitor. "What do you think happened?" Sarge asked. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"Hmmm," Psyche Out frowned. "Did any of you say anything to him last night? Anything at all?"

"Well there was an incident," Sarge sighed. "He lost his temper and made a mess out back earlier on. We chewed him out a little."

"I told him he had to clean up the back yard due to the mess he made," Spirit said.

"And I said he had to help fix up the place," Sarge said.

"Hmmm," Psyche Out fingered his chin. "Maybe…it's possible."

"What?" Shipwreck asked.

"I think some kind of reaction occurred in his subconscious," Psyche-Out said. "That would account for his sleepwalking."

"How did it start?" Roadblock asked.

"He wanted to make up for what he had done," Psyche-Out said.

"So you're saying he wanted to fix the mess he made my making another mess?" Sarge asked.

"Well it's technically not a mess based on the pictures you sent me," Psyche-Out said. "That hole has been changed into a pool and those rock spires are nice. You wanted the back yard fixed up, well you got it."

"You mean he did this to please us?" Sarge's jaw dropped.

"In his subconscious, yes," Psyche-Out nodded. "You are the first people to really reach out to the boy. Spirit you represent a strong father figure, something Avalanche has never had before. And all the rest of you have become like surrogate uncles or some other authority figure he respects. He has never had any respect for an authority figure before so this confuses him. Of course he would never really like to admit it, he's much too proud. So he represses his desire to please you as much as he can. But somehow his craving for your approval must have manifested in his powers last night."

"Are you saying he did this because he wanted some attention?" Shipwreck asked.

"And affection," Psyche Out told him. "It's just a theory, but it is possible."

"Funny way of showing it," Shipwreck scratched his head.

"He doesn't really know how to express himself," Psyche-Out said. "He has trouble with it. It's not uncommon among young people."

"Yeah well this is pretty uncommon to me!" Sarge groaned. "Is he gonna do this again?"

"I don't know," Psyche Out said carefully. "Depends on his state of mind really."

"Well that makes me feel so much better," Shipwreck groaned.

"There's one thing that puzzles me," Sarge scratched his chin. "How did Toad manage to make him stop?"

"Probably yelled loud enough for him to hear," Shipwreck covered.

"Maybe the stone had something to do with it?" Fred piped up from his hiding place.

"Shut up!" Pietro hissed.

"WHAT?" Roadblock yelled. "Okay who's hiding back there?"

Fred and Pietro sheepishly came out. "Just us," Pietro said. "Nice going Blob!"

"Nobody else?" Shipwreck asked.

"No just us," Fred said.

"I thought we all agreed we weren't going to talk about the…you know what?" Shipwreck snapped.

"What?" Sarge looked around. "What am I missing here?"

"You mean not all the Joes know?" Fred asked.

"Know what?" Cover Girl asked.

"I think we'd better tell them," Shipwreck sighed.

"Great there are enough people who know about this!" Roadblock groaned.

"Know what?" Low Light asked.

"Okay the Renegades aren't here right?" Shipwreck looked around. "This doesn't go any further than us. Got it? You tell them while I take these two back to bed. Come on swabbies." They left the room.

"Why do I have the feeling this is not good?" Low Light asked.

"Well it's not that bad," Roadblock sighed. "Yet." He then proceeded to tell them about the Destiny Stone inside Toad. (Only the one inside Toad.)

"So let me see if I got this straight," Low Light said when Roadblock had finished. "Not only do we have all the kids with their mutant powers and now Avalanche has some kind of power to change the landscape around…There's this thing inside Toad that's got mystical powers? Wonderful!"

"You can see why we're a bit reluctant to bring it up," Roadblock said. "He can't know yet, he's too young to handle it!"

"He's too young?" Sarge snapped. "I'm not sure I'm old enough to handle it! Psyche don't take this the wrong way, but when is that new home on the base going to be ready?"

"Still have at least a month to go Sarge," Psyche-Out said. "Obviously we need to increase his training. Not to mention some more alone time with Spirit."

"I can instruct him on meditation and other things," Spirit said. "He needs to spend some time a day away from the others."

"Well I'll try to get down there in a few days or so," Psyche-Out scratched his head.

"Look right now we all need our rest," Roadblock said. "It think that's best. We'll handle it in the morning."

"Fine," Sarge sighed. "I know I like a challenge but this is ridiculous!"

"We have to help them," Spirit said.

"I know. I know," Sarge groaned. "Can you imagine what would happen if the wrong people got a hold of these kids and turned them into living weapons?"

"I try not to dwell on it," Spirit said.

"Yeah," Sarge groaned. "Hey Psyche, try to hurry huh? The way things are going it won't only be the kids who are gonna need your help!"