The Dragon Tamer
(*Rating may change in later chapters* PG-13 for swearing and suggestive actions and words. P/OC (a little R/B) Comes into play after X:2. What are these dreams John's been having? And who is this new girl at the old mansion? (( ' Indicates thoughts))
Disclaimer: I do NOT own the original X-Men or the topic.
Chapter 14: Locked Up
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Amanda raced around the corner. She was in a hurry, of course, because there really wasn't any telling what kind of creatures Leon had around here, and she wanted nothing more than to get out. 'I hope the Kaylin and John are having more luck than I am.' She thought to herself. It had been nearly a half-hour since they parted, and she still hadn't found these cages. Finally she had had enough, "JUBILEE! BOBBY! KITTY!" So what if someone unexpected found her because of this, she wanted out and soon.
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Jubilee sighed. She, Bobby, and Kitty were being held in separate numbered cages. There was absolutely no way to get out of it. She was in number '6', Bobby was in number '7' and Kitty was in number '8'. Bobby had tried; he froze the bars and attempted to break through. He had no such luck. Kitty couldn't even phase, the guards who put them in here had put some sort of iron ring around her neck and it wouldn't phase with her. She couldn't get it off. To make matters worse, they weren't alone. Both sides of this very small room had five cages connected to the walls. There didn't appear to be any other prisoners on their side of the room, but there were four across the room. The last one was empty with the number '5' on it.
Number '4' had a small boy in it, couldn't have been older than 8 or 9. He had a very sad look on his face. Jubilee sympathized with him. 'He must have been through a lot.' The boy had light brown hair and either green or brown eyes, she couldn't tell. She also noticed that there was a word painted on near the ceiling in the wall. It read, 'F-Fly', she couldn't imagine for the life of her what that meant. Looking at the other four cages she took note of each person, they all seemed to be 17 and under. Number '4' was something else entirely. It was a small girl about 5; she too seemed to be spacing out. She had light red hair and what looked like blue eyes. There was a word in her cell too. This one said, 'Merphin'. Once again, Jubilation was lost. She shrugged and kept looking.
The third cage held a boy of about 15. This one was very different from the rest. He had jet black hair, and his eyes were completely and totally black. There were no whites at all. She couldn't really tell if he was spacing out, since there was no way to see where he was looking. The pupils just blended right in with the rest of his eyes. Sadly he gave her the creeps. The word above him simply said, 'Devon'. Number '2' was a little boy much like the boy in number '4'. The only difference she could see was that the writing said, 'K-Fly'. Other than that they looked exactly the same. 'Must be twins.'
Jubilee glanced at the last child in number '1' was female. She was about 12 and it was hard to tell her hair color for one reason. It seemed to be changing constantly. From the roots down it would slowly transform from black, to brown, to red, to blonde, and back to black again. Her eyes did pretty much the same thing. They reminded Jubes of Kaylin. 'Wonder where she is?' Suddenly she heard a familiar voice yell her name. It was Amanda! The three looked at each other and began yelling back.
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Amanda's heart nearly stopped when she heard the frantic yells of her friends. "WERE HERE! HELP!" She exhaled and ran in the direction the voices were coming from. 'Good thing I did that, I would never have looked this way.' In truth, she had been going in circles since she arrived on this floor. 'This place is like the labyrinth from hell.'
As she entered the room she was taken back by what she saw. Children, small children, were locked up in cages, along with her friends. 'Guess we'll have four more people when we leave here.' She took a deep breath and ran to the cells containing her friends. "Are you guys ok? You're not hurt are you?" Bobby shook his head. "No, we aren't hurt. But Kitty has that ring around her neck, I'm sure that's bothersome. What happened?" Amanda looked over at Shadowcat, it was true, she did have a giant metal ring around her. "No time to explain, do you know where they put the keys?"
Jubilee and Bobby both shook their heads no. But Kitty spoke up, "Yeah, I saw one of the guards walk away with them. He went through that door over there." She lifted her hand and pointed to what looked like an office-type door. Amanda groaned, "Ok, I'll be right back.... I hope." Once again she picked her feet off the ground and ran through to the door. Slowly opening it, she looked inside. There was the guard, he was sleeping! Creeping silently nearer to him she reached down on what she assumed to be his desk and there were the keys. Just as she got back near the door an alarm started going off, one of those 'red-alert' alarms that you always hear in movies when prisoners escape. Quick as a flash she was out the door, she locked it once she was outside, she had seen that it can't be unlocked from inside. 'That oughta take care of him for a while.'
After all her friends were out, she unlocked Kitty's ring and they decided to bring the others with them. But there wasn't enough time to get around to each door with a separate key. So Amanda gave Kitty, Bobby, and Jubilee each a key containing one of the numbers and she herself ran to number '4'. Once the alarm went off the four kids seemed to come to life, they were no longer just staring in space hopelessly. They were lively and ready to get out of the prison that they never thought they would. About three minutes later all eight were running towards the meeting point. The little girl known as Merphin was in Jubilee's arms, since she couldn't run as fast as the others couldn't.
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John, Marie, Jake, Allen, and Kaylin all stood nervously near the window they had entered. John was more nervous than the others were, seeing that Sarah was no longer where she had fallen, and they had passed the hall where Leon fell, he too wasn't there. They assumed that was how the alarm went off, one of them had gotten up and turned it on to alert the guards. It didn't take a genius to know that anytime now the whole place would be surrounded with guards. He was also very worried about Amanda and the others. 'What's taking so long?'
Within only moments of thinking this he saw his girlfriend run into the room, she was tired and out of breath, he could tell. Then he saw Bobby, Kitty, and Jubilee enter. The others he didn't recognize, but there was no time to question. Without a word they all escaped out the window and continued running away from the hellhole.
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Leon stood on the roof, watching his prisoners run away. But he didn't go after them. He was actually smiling. Those kids were something else. It took courage, power, and intelligence to do what they had just done. Not only had they found their way through his maze and escaped his guards, but they also even stopped long enough to get the other four out of their cages and bring them along. Knowing the young ones would slow them down. He looked down at his now scorched wardrobe. Had he been wrong to use them as weapons? Lifting his head he watched as the mass of them disappeared through the trees. He smirked again; 'They're going to do great things for our kind.'
His smirk quickly faded as he saw Magneto's helicopter fly over him and towards the group of escapees. 'No...' Magneto was going to get them, all of them. "Not if I can help it." With a swiftness known only to him, he darted down staircase after staircase until he finally reached ground level, where he ran outside to find his motorcycle.
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