Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from X-Men: Evolution, and claim no affiliation with the creators for the creation of this fic.
All That Glitters Part Two – Control
---- "Scott! I know what Magneto is doing. This thing will alter your mind. Get out of there! Please!" – Professor Xavier ----
Memory. He thinks it's memory, at least. It can't be real – reality is cold and harsh and white, not warm and colorful.
He isn't alone. He can't see the girl next to him clearly, but he knows he is not alone. He can hear her, hear her laugh and hear himself answer. Happiness and warmth. Play.
It's been so long since he knew what it was to play…
A voice. Not cold as he knows it now. Or was it? Can he see now what he could not see then? Cold, frightening, invading his warmth and his happiness.
"Pietro! Wanda!"
Laughter. Hugs. "Daddy!"
No laughter, no warmth. "Come with me." Confused. Follow him. "Look here."
Look. Pretty. Red lights, shining from the strange crystals. His mind supplies the word he did not know then – radiation. Entranced. The body next to him reaches out to touch the beautiful crimson rocks.
Pain. Shock. No, so beautiful, why does it hurt? Light, light everywhere, no longer red but cold white…run.
Stop. Gasp. Where am I? Daddy? Where am I? Help me! So far from home…
There. He came for me, he saved me. But what's wrong? Wanda? Why are you so sad? How do you do that, Wanda? The lights exploded…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad, don't hurt me, you scare me Wanda…
Red light.
More panic, more pain, more anger. Daddy, why? The light is hurting me, hurting her…why Daddy? Wanda! Why did you have to go away?
He woke up screaming.
***
"Hey! Mutie!"
Kurt cringed at the harsh voice but did not turn around. It hadn't taken long for most of Bayville to figure out that he was the blue demon they had seen on the news. He still wore his image inducer, but it was a useless effort. Everyone had seen the X-Men and the Brotherhood fighting the Sentinels in the hundreds of replays on television, and when they noticed the absence of his holographic form and the appearance of one blue animal…well. Not everyone was as stupid as he had hoped.
"Hey, don't ignore me, freak! I'm talking to you!"
Kurt turned around slowly. As he suspected, he didn't even know his antagonist. The people who had known him never insulted him to his face.
"Excuse me, were you addressing me?" he said politely, praying that the slight tremor in his voice could not be heard. The boy harassing him was at least three times his size.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you," the boy sneered. "What's a freak like you doing hanging with real people?"
Kurt sucked in a breath, suddenly very angry. He had done nothing to deserve this! "A freak like me is late for class," Kurt retorted, his fear forgotten. "A freak like me also helped keep a huge robot from destroying the city. I am sorry you cannot seem to deal with that." The neanderthal grunted and looked about to charge Kurt, but he had heard all he was going to take for today. "Excuse me," he said, in a tone somewhere between forced politeness and anger. He ported directly to his locker.
There were a few people in the hall that he had just entered. They looked at him in shock and a little fear. He winced. Escaping people had become a lot easier since their powers had become common knowledge, but the looks that he received made the whole thing not worth it. For that reason, most of the X-Men chose not to use their powers too much in public, though they had all agreed that it was pointless to keep them under wraps now.
Kurt opened his locker and grabbed his history book, then checked his watch. He was tempted to simply teleport to class – but no. The looks he had been given earlier still stung. He rushed off down the hallway, pretending not to notice that the few remaining students in the hallway gave him a wide berth.
* * *
Todd "Toad" Tolensky ran around the corner of the school building and collapsed under a gargantuan oak tree. He sat for moment to catch his breath and willed his heartbeat to return to normal. Only after he had gotten himself under control did his companions, who had been sitting under the tree waiting for him, speak.
"Who's after you today?" The dry voice came from Lance. Todd running for his life was not an uncommon occurrence.
"Matthews again," Todd replied. "That guy has it in for me! I don't even know what I did to annoy him this time." The scrawny mutant stared morosely at his scuffed shoes.
"Don't worry about it," advised Fred. "If he puts so much as one little finger around that building, I'll smash him." A predatory grin crossed the huge youth's face.
"He won't come," said Lance. "He knows this is our place. He wouldn't stand a chance against Fred." Lance then stared at Toad until the younger boy squirmed. "I thought I told you to stay away from Mathews and his friends. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't look like staying away from them." His voice came out much more harshly than he had intended.
Todd, his pride already wounded from having to run to his friends for protection, bristled at this comment. "I tried that already, yo. It would help if they wanted to stay away from me!" he snapped.
Lance sat up, his eyes crackling with anger at Todd's tone. The ground rumbled slightly, and Todd backed off. "Hey, sorry, man, I didn't mean it," he protested weakly.
The ground stopped shaking and Lance sighed. "Forget it," he said. "I'm just sick of seeing you get beat up all the time."
Todd stared. That was the closest to an apology he had ever heard from Lance. Maybe the Kitty-kat hasn't been so bad for him after all, Todd thought. "Hey, it ain't so bad," Todd said, attempting to lighten the air. "Now that our powers are out, I can hop out of there no problem. I walked out of the school on the ceiling – right over Matthews' head!"
Fred and Lance laughed and the tension broke. Todd relaxed and took the time to relish the expression on Duncan's face when the football player had realized that Todd was out of his reach.
Lance recovered first and attempted to regain the former serious air. "Be careful not to push him too far, Todd," he cautioned. "He's nothing but a bastard right now, but he could get worse if he decides we're a threat to him. It's been bad lately, but it could be lots worse. Remember that."
"Hey, man, no one messes with the Toad!" Todd joked. But he knew. He knew, always, the precarious balance that the mutant's lives rested on. They had not faced serious persecution past the typical razzing from bullies, but he suspected that was from complete shock and ignorance of how to respond to the reality of mutants rather than any real tolerance. Still, no one was going to push them around – Todd was through with being nothing but a victim. He had been given a way to fight back and he'd be damned if he didn't use it now that he could.
The balance still existed though – the tenuous connection they still had with the rest of the world. If pushed, they would push back – but go just a fraction too far and their status in Bayville would go from an unknown to a threat. Now more then ever was the time to win the world's acceptance, as all of Bayville – and from there, the world – watched to see how they should react.
"The Brotherhood can take anything those punks can throw at us," Todd said, just managing to keep his voice joking and lighthearted.
Deep down, he hoped – and prayed – that he was right.