The Dragon Tamer: Spellbound

(PG-13 for swearing and suggestive actions and words. This is Part II in The Dragon Tamer series. I think most of you know as well as I do that I don't own X-Men or the characters (except the ones I make up, you should be able to tell who those are.) Enjoy!

Chapter 5: From Hell

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A sixteen-year-old sauntered idly through the warehouse. No one of interest was here. 'Except that Devon kid, where'd he go?' The kid had been there the past few days, but he suddenly stopped coming. 'Oh well.' He hadn't really known him anyway. He did have to wonder what Devon's gloves were for, as he was never out of them. 'And he never touched anyone either. Maybe he's like me?' He thought as he walked out onto the sidewalk and turned left.

Stephen Solace was a mutant otherwise known as Diablo. The only 'powers' he possessed were rapid healing and heightened senses. In his younger years he didn't find much use for his abilities, but now they came in handy quite often. He was about 6' and his police record wasn't exactly clean. When Stephen was about twelve he was kidnapped by a military man named William Stryker. No one bothered to look for him, as his parents resented his very existence. And his own father was Chief of the police. From the time they recognized him as a mutant until the day he was kidnapped he was constantly being told that he came from hell. So his personality revolved around those words. The only person in his family he really had ever gotten along with, and even had fun with. Was his cousin Amanda, who was also a mutant.

Stryker had heard about him through a visit to his house for dinner. Where he witnessed it himself. Everything was going fine until Stephen tripped over the cat walking through the dining room and fell straight into the glass table. The glass instantly shattered and sliced him pretty good. You can imagine the good Colonel's surprise when his cuts began healing in seconds. This was the kind of mutant Stryker was always on the search for, ones he could experiment on. So, one-day fine day while the teen was walking home from school he was knocked over the head and driven all the way to a place called Alkali Lake. Where he was given an adamantium skeleton and claws of the same indestructible metal.

There were, however, a few things Stephen could remember from his former life. And the rest of his memory just fell right back into place. This puzzled William Stryker, but he let it go. The metal he had placed in Stephen was extendible, so it extended and grew right along with him. The feeling of the metal 'growing' was a gentle tingling.

Less than a year later he had a run-in with a very odd looking guy who wanted to take over the Alkali base, Stryker sent him in to take care of the man. It was hard to say exactly what happened, all he remembered was getting really mad and then waking up from a twenty-four hour coma, he never heard what happened to the man, so he figured he was dead.

Sometime after he turned fourteen he had a lucky break. Stryker and almost all of the guards had left to go find some oriental chic who he was told was like him in many ways. He wanted to meet her, but he saw his chance to escape, so he did. And he hitchhiked to the nearest city, which turned out to be New York. There he has been living for two years, mostly in the warehouse with all the other runaways. Sometimes he wondered if his parents missed him at all, but he doubted they did.

While he was absorbed in his thoughts he vaguely heard the sirens from behind him. It seemed the cops were always after him for something or other. A few of the things he hadn't done, but most of them he had. There wasn't anything too bad. Just a lot of stolen cars and goods, and a few break-ins here and there, nothing worse than that. But now he got blamed for nearly everything. 'Not like they can do anything.' There was little proof and no one knew his real name. They only knew him as Diablo. Still, he didn't want to get caught. So he ran through various alleys and through the park, towards his favorite place to think. There was a field out in the middle of this giant forest; there was never anyone around there. So he was free to do whatever he pleased.

Stephen let out a giant yawn as he stretched out on the grass. He was always glad when he could be alone. He had discovered this place about six months ago while running from the cops, he did that a lot, and decided it was well worth the walk.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt like this place made him a different person. It was always so serene, and there was little that could disturb one's thought process.

No matter what kind of mood he was in, he could run here and everything would be all better. He could pretend he was living with Amanda and her family. Or that his own parents didn't hate him and he would be returning to a warm home and a nice meal any moment now. Sometimes he just wished things hadn't turned out the way they had. The funny thing is, even through all of this, all that he's had to deal with. He never once wished he wasn't a mutant. He did occasionally wonder what his cousin was doing, or what his parents were doing. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't hate his parents. They might have resented him, yes, but they still took good care of him while they had him. And he couldn't just forget that.

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