Disclaimer: Next verse, same as the first. Basically anything you recognize as being Marvel's is theirs. Frankie is mine. Ask nicely and I'll let ya borrow her. I just want to know what you are going to do with her. (Hint, hint, you ever going to let me know Chris-x?)
A/N: First off, thank you to all (three) of you that have reviewed so far. The rest of you, what are ya waiting for? If you don't like something in the story, let me know. If I am totally embarrassing myself here, it would be good to know now, rather than when I hit chapter 20 or so. Second, you might have noticed another title change. That is because this thing has kinda taken a life of it's own and the old title just didn't fit. Things are kinda going in a way I didn't expect. Should be some more action, and there has been a slight (ok guess you can say major) change in one of the characters. Please don't flame me too bad for changing things midstory. I just can't help where this is going right now. Now, on with the show.
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Chapter 6
About one week later
Frankie and Jubilee had just finished one of thier usual grueling training sesions, so it was no surprise to Kitty that they were asleep together on the couch when she got home.
"Oh they look so, right, together. It's almost as if they were two halves of one soul, that has found it's missing part."
As soon as she finished that thought, Jubilee shot up, almost in a daze and said, "The time for the battle is near. The soul must be prepared. Find the watcher. He will know what to do." At this Jubilee fell back down.
"What the heck? Jubilee, wake up!! What do you mean the time for battle is near? And who the heck is the watcher?"
At the sound of Kitty yelling, both Frankie and Jubilee woke up. "Why ya yelling Kitty? Battle, watcher? Sounds like an episode of Buffy." Jubilee said tiredly.
"You just sat up and said the time for battle is near. That we need to take the soul to the watcher to get prepared. What the heck did you mean by that?"
"Huh? I didn't say anything. Last thing I remember is sitting on the couch with Frankie. Next thing I know, you are yelling about battles and watchers?"
"Well, you were sort of in a trance, but what the heck did all that mean? And where is this soul we have to prepare?"
"I think I may be able to answer that. I kind of kept a couple of things from you two when we met. I'm sorry, but I felt, no I somehow knew not to tell you all of it. Jubilee didn't seem to remember me when we met again at the bar, so that kind of led me to believe she had no memory of our first meeting. I was warned that might happen. That one or both of us would forget what happened that day. Basically, WE are the soul. We were bonded about 10 years ago when we first met." Frankie said as a start of an explanation.
"Whoa, wait a second. What do you mean we met before, and that we are bonded?" Jubilee asked Frankie a little nervously.
"Didn't you wonder just a little why we seemed to click right away, even after you told me yourself you don't get close to people quickly? Why you always seem to know exactly how I am feeling, even if I am miles away from you?"
"I thought I just got lucky for once."
"Well, there is that too. It was just dumb luck that we met the first time. You and this guy named Bishop were at Lackland for my graduation parade. I still don't know why you were there, but it seemed important to him that we talk. When the two of us shook hands after meeting, you went into some sort of spell. I don't really remember everything that you said, cause about a second after your eyes glazed over, I blacked out. That guy Bishop should know what is going on though."
"Why would Bishop drag me down to Texas to see a military parade? I was never much into things like that?"
"From what he told me, you had just recently been kidnapped, and the Professor thought it would be a good idea for you to get out of the mansion for a while. As to why he dragged you to my graduation, you will have to ask him that. I have no clue why he was even there, let alone how he knew me by name the instant he saw me. I only saw him one other time. It was about two years after I was discharged from the Air Force. You remember I told you I was in an abusive relationship, right?"
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with Bishop? I thought you told me that relationship was with the person you got busted with in the service."
"It was. Something happened one day, I still don't know what happened that set her off, but by the end of it, I was in the hospital with a broken back, among other injuries."
"Well, that explains why a couple bruised ribs don't seem like much to ya. But you still didn't explain what Bishop had to do with it all."
"Well, if you would be patient. It's hard for me to talk about that time in my life. I had to go through so much. I basically had to learn how to live all over again. You have any idea what life in a wheelchair is like?"
"Wheelchair? You were paralyzed?"
"Not was, am. I'm sorry you guys. I really should have told ya, but the last thing I wanted was pity from you."
"But, you can walk? How in the hell can you walk and be paralyzed? Plus, you still haven't told us what Bishop has to do with any of this."
"Let me start with Bishop's involvement first. He somehow found out I was in the hospital. I still don't know how he found out, or why he would care, but shortly after I was told I wouldn't walk again, he showed up. Somehow, he convinced me to go to my therapy sessions. Once I finished with those, and was able to leave the hospital, he helped me get into school, then convinced me to take Bio-engineering as a major. As to how I can walk, that is where my schooling comes into this. I decided, for my senior project, I was going to create a set of braces that would enable me to walk. I was able to make them so they would be hooked up to my spine, right above where the injury was, so they could get the messages from my brain that the muscles of my leg should have been receiving. Without these braces, I can't walk, stand, or do anything that would involve the use of my legs."
"OK, but why can't we see or feel your braces then? Did you find some way to make them so they could be implanted into your legs?" Kitty asked, finally finding her tongue in the conversation.
"No, they are not implanted. I have a friend from college who was also in engineering. He created a type of image inducer that, well, it basically hides the braces from view from everyone." With that, Frankie hit a button on her watch and her braces came into view.
"So how were you able to hide the fact you were paralyzed when you joined the police force?"
"Had another friend go into the hospital database and erase all records of my injury."
"Wow, this is a lot to take in all at once. I still don't understand why you didn't tell us though. Especially after what happened last week. You could have injured your legs, and we would have never known because you wouldn't have been able to feel it." Jubilee said, looking at Frankie's legs, making sure they weren't hurt.
"After you two left me to rest, I checked them out myself. Don't forget, I had just met both of you two days ago. I didn't know how you would react to finding out I'm a cripple."
With that, Jubilee gave Frankie a dirty look. "The Professor is a paraplegic. That wouldn't have mattered one bit to us. You should have trusted us."
While Frankie and Jubilee were arguing about why Frankie didn't tell them, Kitty was lost in thought. Suddenly, her head jerked up and she interrupted the two. "I think I know how Bishop knew you were hurt. You said you and Jubilee are bonded? That means you have a psi-link with each other, right?"
"I think so, I never really thought about it, why?" asked Frankie, wondering where Kitty was going with this.
"About the time you said this happened, Jubilee had some type of attack. For some reason one day, she fell to the ground, yelling about a pain in her back. Once we got her to the medlab, we found nothing wrong. She insisted there was the pain, and that she couldn't feel her legs." Kitty explained.
"I think I remember that. It was the weirdest thing. I was in the Danger room, training, when all of a sudden, I couldn't move my legs at all. No matter what I did, they wouldn't do a damn thing for me. I had just started the session, so I knew it wasn't from that. We never did figure out what happened. It just cleared up on it's own about a month later."
"That's about when I was allowed to leave the hospital."
"About two days after Jubes attack, Bishop suddenly had to go out of town on some personal business. Guess we know where he went now. We just don't know why he suddenly felt the need to go help you. Guess that is one more thing we have to ask him. First being what the hell happened the day of your graduation. Guess we better give him a call and get some answers."
