Standing By The Bridge
Written By: Kaede Kinkade
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Disclaimer: Nope, only own Kali.
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Rating: PG-13
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Authors Note: Woo, I'm starting this chapter the same day I finished the last chapter. Man this story is really starting to move on. ^_^ I'm so happy. I hope that you liked the last chapter, from here on out the mood gets a little darker. Thanks.
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Chapter Six: Strawberry Gashes
Scott glanced around the rec room, all the team members were sitting in there. Some with bored expressions on their faces and some with interest in what was going on. It had been two day's since Kali and Logan were attacked in the park.
In those two day's The Professor learned nothing about why Magneto wanted Kali, now they sat in a meeting about extra security around Kali, who kept objecting with, "I can take care of myself."
Scott still had the dreams, and every time he seen Kali his face would go red and he couldn't speak much of a sentence. He still however tried to always beat her in the Danger room. He might have had a crush on her, but that didn't mean he'd let her take his position as leader.
And not only that, but in those two days the whole institute learned that Logan was Kali's real father. It was no wonder they were related, they said the same things, had that same attitude problem, and both ate nearly raw meat. Hank in Scott's point of view seemed intrigued by this, every time Scott would pass the blue fuzzed teacher Hank would either be talking to Logan or Kali, or looking over his file folders.
Currently Jean was explaining how things would work at school when Kali slipped out of the room unnoticed, Scott would have said something, but he felt more comfortable when he wasn't in the same room with Kali. Then from behind his red shades he watched as Kitty phased through the wall and followed Kali…that was definitely odd.
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Kali was on the front porch trying to call Frank again, he obviously wasn't dead…otherwise he would make his presence known. She dialed every number she could think of, Marco's, the police department…who as it concurs hadn't seen Marco since three days before hand…the day that Frank told Kali he would go check up to see what was taken from the collage.
With no more luck trying to reach Frank or Marco she placed the cell phone back on her belt and ice blue hues scanned the night skies. Full moon tonight. Something about the full moon reminded her of Logan as she lit up a cigarette, something she had tried to stop doing long ago…but she was stressed. This lowered her stress. Given she would no doubt get in trouble, but at the current moment in time she really didn't care.
She sat on the steps and breathed in the smoke, one of her arms lazily placed in her lap as she tapped the ashes off the cigarette and gave a slight sigh as she leaned back into the steps. Kali hadn't been there that long until a voice interrupted her.
"You know, that like could kill you…"
Kali immediately knew who the voice belonged to, the word like gave it away. She sighed slightly and took another puff of smoke into her lungs.
"Nah, I'll probably die long before lung cancer ever sets in…" Kali stated with morbid amusement as Kitty sat down next to her.
"Or until Logan sees' you doing this…" Kitty said, earning a smile from Kali as she flicked more ashes into the grass.
"True…so what brings you out here to talk to me…I'm sure you have better things to do…or better people to talk to…" Kali spoke while glancing up towards the moon for a moment before bringing her gaze back to Kitty who had suddenly gone quiet and was gnawing on her bottom lip.
"Well, like…I know that your almost the same age as me and like you seem so much older. The kids here respect you and like you can hang out with the teachers like they are like your buddies or something. I want to be like that…I want to be like you…will you teach me?"
Kali blinked a few times before letting the cigarette drop to the ground. Slowly she got up, and looked Kitty over for a moment. Was Kitty being serious? No, there was no way possible she wanted to be like her of all people. The look on Kitty's face gave it away though, she really did want to be like her.
"Oh boy…how do I explain this?" Kali started with a slight tilt of her head as she was lost in thought, the dead sensed Logan close, would he hear what she had to say to Kitty? Hopefully not. "Listen Kitty, I'm flattered…I truly am, I never really thought that someone would want to be like me. I mean, to say is…You don't want to be like me, no matter what you think. Your what about sixteen right now?"
Kitty nodded and Kali continued, "I'm seventeen…I've seen so much death in my life, so much pain, I've killed, I've trained hard, I've worked with cops, and I get along with older people better then my own peer group. You have no idea about how I envy someone like you, your sixteen going on seventeen. I'm seventeen going on thirty…you don't want to be like me…"
Kitty gave a small sad smile and did something to surprise Kali even more, Kitty wrapped her arms around Kali, in a hug. "Okay, but at least like let me be your friend?" She asked before phasing through the door and leaving Kali shocked all alone.
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Logan watched Kali all the while she was outside, he stood near the edge of the woods a cigar hanging from his mouth as his keen eye sight and hearing picked up her conversation with Kitty. He growled slightly, he wasn't sure why he wasn't there to raise her…but she shouldn't have to say she was seventeen going on thirty.
After Kitty had left Kali kicked at the banister next to the steps slightly before sitting down on them, placing her head into her hands. Logan gave a soft gruff sigh before flicking his cigar into the snow and walking towards Kali. He needed to stop avoiding her.
Slowly he came to stand in front of her, his hands in his worn jean pockets. For a moment or two she gave no notice of him even standing there. In turn Logan just took a seat next to her on the steps. She brought her head up to look at him, her ice blue hues reflecting the snow on the ground.
"You okay kid?" He asked in as much of a soft tone as he could muster. Kali gave a small shake of her head.
"Honestly? I don't know…Frank and Marco are missing, Magneto's groupies are after me…hmmm, just another day in the life of Kali I guess."
"Wait…Frank and Marco are missing?"
"Yeah, I haven't been able to get a hold of them for a while, and the police department says Marco hasn't been in work for the past few days. But the good news is…they aren't dead…yet" She explained getting up and stretching out before heading towards the door obviously not really wanting to talk to Logan.
But Logan had to try, she was his kid for Christ sakes, "Where are you going?" He cringed slightly at his question. Figures he couldn't offer any good advice to his own kid. She tilted her head and placed a thoughtful expression over her face before opening the door a little bit.
"To work out…" She disappeared behind the door leaving Logan by his lonesome sitting on the steps. He ran a hand through his dark hair and growled slightly popping his claws out in frustration. Why couldn't he get her to open up more? Well, he would just have to follow her then.
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It was easy for Logan to follow Kali to the Danger room, she didn't seem to notice he was following her…or if she did…didn't care that he was following her. Damn why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it be someone he already had some kind of decent relationship with? He gave a huff for a moment before speaking out.
"Wait…I…need to talk to you." Kali turned around and Logan approached her again, standing in front of her she waited for him to obviously tell her what he wanted. "I…well, damn I'm not really good at this. I just want you to not avoid me…"
Kali tilted her head and gave a small smirk, "Who says I was avoiding you? You're the one avoiding me."
"No yer avoiding me"
"No Logan yer avoiding me"
"No yer avoiding me"
"Man I really don't have time for this…"
"What…need to go smoke some more?"
"Damn it Logan leave me alone."
"No. I'm yer father I can bother you all I want."
"Screw you."
With that Kali all but ran out of the danger room leaving Logan alone a frown on his face. "Well that didn't go how I thought it would." He stated to himself before punching the wall in anger.
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Kali frowned, who did Logan think he was? He wasn't her father, well by blood maybe…but still he hasn't even known her for a month and yet he's already trying to tell her what she can do. On her way up stairs in her hurry she collided with Rogue [AN: This part is just for you Thalia the Muse ^_^]
"Hey watch where your going…" The southern goth started looking up to see who had ran into her, "Oh it's you…" Kali blinked. Well that sure was an interesting greeting, oh it's you…
"Yep…sorry about running into you, I'm just kind of in a hurry to get away from Logan." Kali explained getting up and offering a hand to Rogue, who got up on her own instead of using Kali's help.
"Running from Logan…why?"
"Well, let's just say he thinks that just because he now knows he's my father that he can push me around…" Kali said watching as a frown grew apparent on Rogue's face.
"Listen I know ya got problems with him, but trust meh, if he knew he had a daughter he would have been looking for you. Your lucky, I wish he was mah dad." Rogue explained before pushing Kali to the side and stalking away towards the rec room.
Kali blinked and shrugged slightly, and started for her room again. Damn school, her life was perfect well not perfect but it was okay before coming to the Xavier Institute, now she had a dad, a grade point average to keep up, and Frank was missing.
That was it. She needed to find Frank before time ran out. Yeah, that's it…she would leave, pack up her weapons and search for Frank and Marco, leave the school, leave Logan, just leave and never come back and hopefully not get killed trying to find Frank.
It was a perfect idea, at least in her mind.
Jean thankfully wasn't in their room, a small smirk appeared on Kali's face. This was the way it had to be…she would make her life go back to the way it was. She headed for the showers, who knew when she would be able to get clean again after she left?
With clean cloths in her hand she silently padded her way to the showers, grateful to find that they were empty, she hung her cloths up outside of a shower stall and stepped in, locking the latch behind her. inside she undressed from the outfit she was wearing and threw them out under the stall door.
She turned the water on, not caring how hot or cold it was…Kali's body couldn't tell temperature, maybe it was from hearing the dead…being close to them…she wasn't entirely sure. She stepped under the steady stream of water. Her ice blue hues closing, a hand resting on the tiled side of the stall, her weight pushing on it as she let every thing was away with the water. In the shower, it was easy to see that she was underweight. Without cloths to hide her body, her ribs were easily seen, not that it bothered her, fat, skinny, average…it was all the same to her. Her body was pale, like she never seen the sun, her blue veins under her skin stuck out like a sore thumb, as did the scars that lined her body.
That was the bad part about her "nighttime job" some killers fought back better then she could have thought they would. Most of her scars were on her arms, faded pink lines some straight, some simply hooked shaped, but the worst was her back.
It was almost a year ago when she ran into him, the sadist son of a bitch had a swell old time with Kali. He was a mutant…something Kali never expected, the dead really should have told her that little piece of information before hand, she went in blind and almost died because of the lack of information.
That sadist son of a bitch had killed and raped nearly thirty women and Kali had seen and felt every death he had caused. Kali had gone off to find and kill him half cocked, she needed to make the dead girls stop screaming in her head and killing the sick sadist was the only way to stop it.
The two of them had fought on top of a church of all places, he was much to powerful then her, and in the end she ended up unconscious in a hospital. Her back had two large gashes forming an X, it brought back pain just to think about it…the guy got away, and she never heard from him again. She didn't remember much of the fight, probably due to the guy's power, he could manipulate minds…she hoped she would never run into him again…
Once out of the shower she dressed in the cloths she brought to the showers, a pair of faded blue jeans that had wholes in the knees and were spotted with blood, as well as a long sleeve blue rib knitted shirt, she took no care to even look in the mirror or do anything with her hair, she had more important things to do.
In her room again her head was throbbing, probably due to all the thinking of the past…never a good thing to do for Kali, she pulled out her desk drawer and brought out a medicine bottle, Vicodin, her nice little addiction. As if she couldn't be any more screwed up then she already was. She twisted the top of the bottle open and popped two of the white pills in her mouth. She chewed at them before swallowing them without water. The bitter taste brought an odd sense of comfort to her.
Around her blue shirt she secured a brown leather belt looking thing, that criss-crossed her back, her broadsword was pulled up from it's resting place and placed weaving through the belt, it was a sword holder. Then her throwing stars were picked up and placed on the belt as well before she pulled on her worn blood stained boots.
Deep breath in…
Deep breath out…
Deep breath in…
Deep breath out…
She jumped out of her bedroom window, and landed with a slight small Omph! sound on the snow covered ground. Her ice blue hues looked around, hmm good no one was outside. With that she took off, in a search for Frank…
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Frank pulled at his chains again, although he had long since given up hope of getting out. Marco next to him had given up complaining, it seems they both had given up hope of getting out. It wasn't his life though that Frank was concerned about, it was Kali, this damned Magneto guy was after her…he was going to kill her. And Frank was here, stuck not able to protect her. It tore his heart that he couldn't get out.
"I'm sure that we're being looked for…I mean a detective and a police officer…" Marco started, obviously trying to make them feel better. Frank just gave a huff of air and tugged at his chains again.
"Sure, I mean I'm sure they will find us…here in a super-villains lair…yep."
"Hey man…stranger things have happened…"
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Jean gave a confused glance around her room, something was missing…rather someone. It was almost eleven thirty and Kali wasn't in bed…but something else was missing…what the hell was it? She sighed as she sat on her own bed a frown appearing across her pretty features and a feeling of foreboding doom settled itself down in her stomach. Her green eyes looked over the room and as she shivered she gave a noticed glance to the open window.
Not even her large broadsword was in the room…
Using her powers she concentrated, listening and feeling…Kali was gone…the remaining emotions made her feel like she left in a hurry too…and it had to do with her boyfriend Frank.
Quickly she shot up and ran out of her room going to find the first adult she could.
Unfortunately that adult happened to be Logan.
Maybe she should tell someone else, who knew how he would react? But he seen the look on her face.
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Logan was startled by Jean who had all but collided with him, He raised a brow, reading her face easily…something was wrong.
"What is it Red?" He questioned using his nick name for her watching as she looked around, Scott was in the hall as well, getting ready for bed.
"It's…well…uh…Kali's gone."
"Gone what do you mean gone?" Logan asked tightening his hands into fists…damn that stupid daughter of his…
"I mean, she left, her sword is gone, and she's gone…the left-over emotions seemed that…well Frank was in trouble and she intended to find him…" []AN. Okay I know that Jean is a telepath and a telekinetic, can't read emotions…but lets just pretend she can.[]
"Damn it." Logan cursed before sniffing the air…he just found part of his family…he wasn't going to loose it.
[Complete, Feb. 24...finally. Damn I started it like two weeks ago too.]
I'm sorry this took so long, but I was having major writers block, but my muses helped me out with that. So what do you all want to happen? Should Kali die? Should Frank die? Should Magneto dance around wearing a fuzzy hat? Tell me what you want to happen!!!!!!