None of the Marvel or DC characters mentioned within belong to me. All characters not of the Marvel or DC universes were created by either friends of mine or me, so read my other two stories with Touch in the title to get an idea of his character, and visit Dragonbreath if you'd like to know more about the X-Tremes (the other characters mentioned).
* * *
They were a team, but it rarely felt as if it was "us" to her – it was always "them". They were often selfish – not in their work, which she was more than pleased to do her piece in. The bickering between each other, the pranks, the sheer lack of compassion for each other – she could not help but feel that those who had been given to have such freedom would abuse it so much.
The emotions she had within her rarely went elsewhere. Because of who – no, what – she was, she did not have the option. Yet none of them could understand how she wanted nothing more than to be away from it. All left inside of her was the desire to be alone.
It was three in the morning when she left. She pulled the hood over her head despite the clear sky, and her cape close to her body, despite the warm weather. It would be hours before they knew she was gone. As the night enveloped her body, the thought of if they would even notice drifted into her mind before she shut it out of her mind.
It did not matter anymore.
* * *
Pip walked into the gymnasium that the danger room had as a
default setting, and Jack followed close behind. There were both dressed in their gym class clothes, and Jack had
a basketball dribbling down the hallway in empty echoes in the opposite
direction. The lights had been off, and
as he turned them on, Pip's attentive hearing caught the sound of shifting
clothing from seemingly thin air.
"Alright, let's start off with some one-on-one, just to war-"
"Shh." Pip cut him
off suddenly, clamping a hand over his mouth.
After forty seconds, another brush of cloth against cloth snapped both
of their heads upward. About fifty
yards away and another fifty in the air, Touch was on the high wire that Kurt
used for practice. Only, he was
standing in the middle. On one
foot. Blindfolded. Wearing the usual black clothes and that
same black trench coat. Jack pried the
hand off of his mouth to reveal a mischievous smile.
"I know, I know," he said before Pip could even start objecting. "I get up there and scare him, than you
catch him when he falls, and no one gets hurt.
Pretty please?"
Jack was his best friend, and Pip was already such a pushover (not to mention a sucker for a good joke). "I'm game."
There was without a doubt a bit of a trick to get on the
line at just the right spot to scare him, but he soon figured that by bouncing
on the line just behind his target, he would be able to set himself onto the
wire while tossing Touch towards the ground.
He signaled Pip to head over near where Touch was, and closed his eyes,
porting just above the wire.
There was about a quarter of a second where the mischievous smile stayed on his
face, until his vision registered to see the flip of a trench coat, followed
shortly by a leg turning back and crashing into his stomach, careening his body
clear off of careening his body away from the wire and leaving it
undisturbed. Despite the initial shock
of what happened, Pip managed to catch Jack just seconds before he would have
hit the floor.
Slowly being lowered to the ground, he looked up and saw Touch with his leg
still extended. Without agitating the
wire a hair, he pulled the leg back against the other and returned to his crane
position, as if nothing had happened.
After a few moments, he walked calmly over to the pole supporting the
wire, hopped onto it, and slid down, with a landing that even Logan would not
have picked up as more than a soft thud.
It was not until then that he took off the blindfold.
Touch walked towards the exit of the danger room, tossing the blindfold to
Jack. Just as he was about to walk
through the door, he turned around.
"Powers aren't everything… just something to remember." He usually said these sarcastic comments
with a brief smile, the few positive moments he ever exposed, but he lacked it
today.
"You think something's wrong with him?" Pip asked, genuinely concerned. Jack scowled.
"Of course there's something wrong with him… there's always been something
wrong with him." He turned his back on
Pip, punting the basketball into the wall before exiting the danger room. His friend sighed and started shooting a few
hoops. Not too many people could stand
being the foundation for such an unstable structure. He went to take a shot and rattled the backboard as it bounced
away. Another sigh.
And people thought that Touch was the troubled one.
* * *
"This whole 'brooding hero' thing really isn't working for
you," Rebecca said with a laugh. She
and Dinah had grabbed Touch while he was in the hall, and he had given up on
trying to escape them in the past. It
was even more exhausting to resist than it was to humor them.
"She's got a point; you shame Jack – sorry Becca – and get your thrill, but it
doesn't change a thing. You've got to
stop being like this!"
"You act like I choose."
Rebecca and Dinah stopped in their tracks as Touch walked forward. They have had these conversations with him
at least five times a week, for what seems like forever, and he had never said
anything. Today felt different… but
even these few words brought out a tidal wave of thoughts into both of their
heads. They ran to catch up to him,
hoping like he would have more to say.
Rebecca opened her mouth to ask more, but Dinah grabbed her wrist.
"What were you doing in there?" she asked softly. Both had calmed down, trying to make him more comfortable.
"It was a karate practice based after the movements of a crane. In addition to serving as a fighting technique,
it also increases one's ability to meditate."
"How do you know that?"
His eyes drifted to the floor. "I… I
don't know."