October 10th! My birthday! I just turned 15! I bet I fooled some of you!!
^_^
Thanks for your reviews, everybody!
I love this chapter! And I hope you'll like it too! ^_^
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Chapter 7: Diffident Meeting and Hostile Encounter
Alexander was in his modern apartment, the one that was mostly in order. He was sleeping again, even though it was approaching noon, and seemed to have spent the night outside. It had obviously rained during the night since his trench coat, boots and other articles of clothing that he had previously worn, were all drenched in water.
Waking up slowly, he stretched under the covers, glad to have woken by himself, without the aid of a phone or an alarm clock to disturb him. He rose, tossing the covers aside and walked in his boxers up to the kitchen, and, without doing anything, turned on the coffee machine that immediately started pouring the liquid in a cup below. The shades that had been covering all the windows rose to the buzz of the electric machine that controlled them, and light finally spread though the loft. Alex yawned, walking to the main door that he opened after having flicked open all the locks. He found a bottle of milk, a newspaper and a few envelopes on his doorstep. Bringing the articles back in the kitchen, he took his cup of coffee and opened his mail. The first letter was a bill, the second was about his rent and the last one gave him quite a laugh, for an unknown reason, as he saw that it was a letter from an electrical company proposing their services. Throwing his first and last letter, he took the one about the rent and threw it on the table in the living room. He walked back to the kitchen and opened the newspaper. The first page title was ' Mutants vs. Humanity' and he immediately threw it to the side, a disgusted look on his face.
His mug in hand, he walked back to the living room and blinked, turning on the wide screen television in front of the sofa. Cartoons appeared on the screen but were swiftly replaced by the news with a simple shift of Alex's hand. A policeman was being interviewed.
"Well, there were two of them," he was saying. "The first one had a lighter, the second one seemed normal and we thought for a while that he was being held hostage. The guy with the lighter kept blowing things up on his way out of the club, but we cornered him a few streets away. It was then another one appeared. He was on the roof and didn't move at all, looking at us in a calm way. It was then my fellow policemen started . . . I don't know . . . they seemed to all have asthma problems. Most of them dropped their guns and started holding their throat, as if trying to pull off something that was chocking them. They didn't last long . . . they died a few moments later, their faces tuning reddish blue. It was horrible. I didn't move and the freak on the roof smiled widely, as if proud of what he had done. He turned and looked at me, and then just turned around, followed by the two other mutants that had reached the roof by then."
A reporter took place on the screen, replacing the policeman.
"At the same time, on the other side of town, three other mutants were causing havoc," she said sternly. "A bank was robbed by the same mutant that had attacked Liberty Island and the world summit, barely a year and a half ago. Magneto, was accompanied by a woman recognized as Laurana Lensherr, his daughter, renown for numerous bank robberies and devastations caused through Europe. The last mutant, a man in his late thirties, has been recognized as the president's secretary that was found this morning, and sent to a mutant facility were he will be awaiting trial. In the meantime, policemen are still searching for the stolen goods and Magneto and his followers, while others are still investigating the back alley murders, searching for a clue able to lead them to the assassins."
The television shut down and Alexander turned back to the kitchen, where he left his now empty mug. He was about to walk back to his room when he noticed that his door was left ajar. Frowning, he swiftly walked out of the kitchen and peeked in the still empty living room.
Someone had entered. He could feel it.
He walked to his room, but no one was on there. The study was empty too, and so the two last options were the bathroom and the guest room. Walking down the small hallway, he quickly saw that no intruder had penetrated in the clean guest room, and so his last option was the bathroom. As he suspected, the door was ajar, and he stayed silent, listening for sounds. He heard faint footsteps on the other side, and a hand grab the metal handle. Frowning, Alex grabbed the handle on his side of the door and did the first thing his instinct told him to do.
The next thing that happened surprised both the intruder and Alexander. A bolt of electricity from Alex's side of the door fried the handle and a yelp of pain was heard on the other side, followed by a girlish scream. Curious, Alexander opened the door and found three teenagers crammed behind it, one holding his hand, jumping from one foot to another in pain.
"Ya coulda' opened to see who it was first, you demented freak of nature!" the boy who had been zapped, easily recognizable as William, yelled. "I can't feel my hand anymore!"
"Sorry Mr. Crown, he only wanted to make a joke, but we told him it wasn't a good idea," Holly, the girl able to control water, said, brushing her skirt.
The last girl, the one who had screamed in surprise, was Bliss.
"Sorry kids," Alexander said, opening the door to let them come out. "Just don't do that again."
The boy marched out of the bathroom, still shaking his hand up and down while the other two teenagers came out, the first holding her chest as if she had had a heart attack, the other seeming to have her head in the clouds.
"Caroline, would you mind telling me why you're all here?" Alexander asked, looking at the redhead straight in the eyes.
"Ya forgot, didn't ya?" William answered, opening the fridge to see if there was anything good in there. "You're supposed to take care of us today, for the next twenty two hours," he added, looking at his watch.
"We're already Saturday?" Alexander asked.
"Yep," Caroline said, sitting on one of the high stools. "The others are waiting in the lobby, they didn't want to come up. Too bad they didn't, finally . . . nice boxers."
Instead of turning red, Alex simply smiled and sighed, shaking his head as he walked back to his room, ignoring the two girls who were now giggling noisily.
"So, where do you want to go?" the trio heard Alex say from his wardrobe.
"Let's go to the movies," the brown haired girl suggested. "There's this new movie about this fish who-"
"Next choice," William interrupted loudly from inside the refrigerator, receiving only a glare from the girl.
"Excuse *me*," the girl said, ". . . you selfish little wart."
"What?" the boy asked, looking at her with big eyes, raising his hand. "Let's see who's a little wart when I'm done with you, Holly!"
"WILLIAM!" Alexander yelled. "You do what you're thinking of doing and no one will be able to tell the difference between you and a pile of steaming coal."
William muttered a 'fine' and glared at Holly, who had ducked under the counter and was now sticking out her tongue at him.
"Lets go at the mall," Bliss proposed, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, I need a new bathing suit," Holly said, returning her attention to Bliss.
"Is that sarcastic?" William asked, looking at her with raised eyebrows. For answer, Holly turned her hand towards the sink from where water started pouring. It formed a ball that flew right into her hand while the water stopped leaking in the sink, and she started playing with the sphere, throwing it from hand to hand, looking at William evilly. The boy smiled cautiously and started backing up.
"Holly . . ." Alexander's voice warned. "Water is an extremely good conductor of electricity, do I need to say more?"
Holly sighed and returned the water to the sink, just as Alexander came out of his room, fully dressed in a pair of beige trousers, a lightly unbuttoned white shirt on top of which was another trench coat, this time being beige.
"How do I look?" he teased, striking a pose.
"I liked you better in the boxers," Caroline objected, tilting her head to the side.
"Who doesn't," muttered Holly, following William out the door. "Come on," she said much louder, "The others are waiting downstairs."
Alexander followed the three teenagers out his apartment, and as he shut the main door, the lights that had been used turned off by themselves.
~~~~~~~~~~
Having purchased the top she wanted, Jubilee rejoined Kitty and Rogue in the next store that they wanted to see.
The mall was packed with humans and it is why the professor had preferred keeping the students with 'physical changes' at the school. He had forced Scott to join them, trying to get his mind off Jean, and Logan had volunteered to come, seeing that he didn't want to be assigned the task of babysitting the other students again and that is why Nightcrawler had ended up staying in his place.
Storm was silently following the girls around, vaguely looking at what the stores were displaying upfront, but truly making sure that no one noticed that most of the teenagers shopping around were mutants.
She found Scott in front of a store displaying large televisions that had all been placed on the same news channel.
"Seems that Magneto's up to something again," he said, seeing that Ororo had joined him.
"Yeah," she answered, looking at the TV screens. "And he has new recruits . . . seems that Mystique took the president's secretary's appearance. Why?"
"Just for trouble," guessed Scott. "Just to get the guy out of the way."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Look at *that*," Holly said, visibly annoyed as she looked at the display of televisions in the store across the hall. "The news are talking about you guys now," she continued, turning back at the table where she was sitting with four other mutants that included Caroline, William and Alexander. The last one was Darren, the mutant from California, who was sipping his drink silently.
"People are watching it," Bliss whispered, turning to Alexander who was visibly lost in thought and didn't care about what the TV said, even though he extended his fingers in the shop's direction without looking at it, replacing the news channel with a soccer game.
"Hehe . . . those two folks who were watching look surprised!" William exclaimed.
"Well . . . We'll be right next door for five minutes, then we'll move to the clothing section, all right?" Holly asked Alexander, clearly not expecting an answer as she rose from her seat, followed by Caroline. "See ya!"
"I'll go check out the electronics," muttered Darren, throwing his drink in the nearest garbage and walking away his hands in his pockets.
"I'll go with him," added William, following the fist boy and leaving Alexander alone. "We'll meet you later. Bye."
He joined Darren in front of the television display, right when the boy started turning the channels.
Alexander didn't move, playing with his napkin for a while, seeming to not even care or noticed that the kids had left.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sitting with the professor on the terrace of one of the mall's café, Ororo brought her cup of cappuccino to her lips, blew on it gently and took a small sip. The professor looked at her, amused.
"What?" she asked, smiling.
"Nothing," he answered. "It's just that you've changed so much since you arrived at the school."
"For the best, of course."
"Yes," he answered. "It's just . . . Jean changed a lot too."
Storm looked up at professor Xavier, giving him a sad look.
"Hum . . ." the professor said, probably trying to change the conversation. "It seems that there are more mutants here than we think . . ."
"What do you mean, professor?"
"There are mutant children here that aren't from the school," Xavier said, frowning. "They're all together . . . That's strange . . ."
"Should we go see them?" Ororo asked, looking around.
"Hum . . . no. I think I recognize a few," the professor said, focusing his mind. "We need to go. Can you go get the girls? They're on the second floor, in a jewellery shop."
"But-"
"I'll try to explain later."
Ororo rose from her seat and started walking towards the escalator.
~~~~~~~~~~
Walking quickly between the aisles, Alexander was trying to find the kids he was supposed to watch, but they all seemed to have simply vanished.
"Nice move, Shock," he muttered as he started thinking what would happen if one of them accidentally used their powers in front of civilians. What would happen if humans discovered while he wasn't there to protect them?
He abruptly turned a corner but before he could make another step, he bumped into someone. He had taken so much strength while turning because he was thinking about starting to run in that direction, that he fell to the floor on top of the person he had pushed.
Holding himself on his forearms, he pushed himself to his knees.
"I am so sorry . . ." he started, but he was simply lost for words when he noticed that the person he had just bumped into was in fact a woman, that, unless he was greatly mistaking and hadn't noticed this new fashion statement, was for sure a mutant.
His eyes simply widened as he looked at this woman's platinum hair. After a moment of silence, he looked at her eyes, seeing that she seemed to have had the same surprise and was still looking at *his* hair.
"Sorry, my mistake," she said quickly, seeing that he was looking at her with the same intensity with which she had been watching him.
Alexander handed her his hand and helped her to her feet, and noticed, not that it surprised him, that she was smaller than him. He couldn't help but think that she was very beautiful, and reddened at that thought, but tried to hide it.
"Are . . . are you all right?" he asked, seeing her staring at him.
"Why . . . yes, yes, I'm fine," she said, blushing at her turn.
"Well . . . hum . . . sorry," he said, having no idea what to tell her next and noticing that a few humans were looking at them strangely.
He noticed that he was still holding her hand and let go.
" . . . we- . . . euh . . . Goodbye," Ororo said finally, walking away both hands on her cheeks.
Alexander smiled to himself and continued his way.
~~~~~~~~~~
Fifteen minutes had passed since Ororo had left the table. The professor had paid and called some of the students with his mind, telling them that they were going back home. They were to meet Logan and Scott at a specified exit.
On the second level, the professor was looking above a rail overlooking the first floor of the mall, where many people were walking around. He let his mind wander off, listening to what some people were thinking. Some were comparing prices, some were thinking about what to buy for a friend of family member, but many were just thinking about things to do with themselves.
Suddenly, the professor found a mind with shields that weren't being used and so he could feel that this person's main feeling at that moment was worry. Looking a little further in this person's mind, his eyes widened as he recognized who this person was.
At that moment, the person felt that the psychic was in his mind, and had raised his mental shields, pushing him out quite brutally. The professor turned around, looking straight at someone's back. The person, obviously the one that the professor recognized, was also looking over the rail, at the people below.
"Hello, Alexander," the professor said quite coldly.
The next thing that happened was obviously unwelcoming, and scared many people in the surroundings.
Alexander's back stiffened and milliseconds later, rather frightening electric currents started running up and down his body. The lights in the mall seemed to glow brighter, being on the brink of explosion.
Alex turned around, sparks of electricity from the currents passing on his body making his eyes flash dangerously.
"Nice to see that you've mastered your power," the professor said, unperturbed by the evident warning he was being given.
Alerted by what was happening, Scott and Logan showed up behind the professor. Scott's hand reached his visor and Logan's hands were in fists, his claws ready to be unsheathed. The lights above them glowed a little brighter.
Some of the students had showed up, seeing that some sort of confrontation was on the way. Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee were part of the group, watching Alexander with mixed fear and confusion.
At the same moment, some of the teenagers under Alex's watch turned around, taking place behind him, William and Caroline giving piercing glares at the professor and the people behind him. Holly, Darren and two other teens stayed behind, having the same look Rogue and the others had. Humans had gathered, forming a faraway circle around the group, most of them wanting to see if these mutants would use their powers.
Just as Alexander was going to make a move, to determine if he was going to avoid or (most probably) start the fight, L?ka and Amber arrived, running towards the cluster and followed by another group of teenagers, younger than the ones that were with Alex.
L?ka placed herself between Alexander and the professor, a worried look on her face. Amber, on the other hand, looked completely hostile towards the newcomers and seemed to be on Alexander's side, ready to fight.
"Now . . . now calm down please," L?ka said, holding her arms passively.
Scott and Logan didn't budge, their eyes on Alexander.
"Alexander, please," she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
The electric currents on his body didn't stop but he made a step backwards. Scott didn't move but Logan lowered his hands. The professor relaxed a little.
One of the younger children walked to L?ka and grabbed the side of her pants, since he was too small to reach her hand. L?ka looked down at her child, then back at Xavier's group with the same worried look, as if expecting them to make an antagonistic move. She bent down and picked up the little boy and with one last look at Xavier, with something that looked like gratitude, turned around towards the others and walked away.
Once Alexander turned around to follow the others, the light's brightness lowered considerably.
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Hum... I don't know if I told you people already but it's normal if you're confused with my OCs. Don't worry about it, everything will clear up in a while...
Hum... I think the computer can't read the 'i' with two dots thingy in Lika's name so I'm just going to write Lika in the next chapters... -_-
And Nathan will be back... in a couple of chapters.
Thanks for your reviews, everybody!
I love this chapter! And I hope you'll like it too! ^_^
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Chapter 7: Diffident Meeting and Hostile Encounter
Alexander was in his modern apartment, the one that was mostly in order. He was sleeping again, even though it was approaching noon, and seemed to have spent the night outside. It had obviously rained during the night since his trench coat, boots and other articles of clothing that he had previously worn, were all drenched in water.
Waking up slowly, he stretched under the covers, glad to have woken by himself, without the aid of a phone or an alarm clock to disturb him. He rose, tossing the covers aside and walked in his boxers up to the kitchen, and, without doing anything, turned on the coffee machine that immediately started pouring the liquid in a cup below. The shades that had been covering all the windows rose to the buzz of the electric machine that controlled them, and light finally spread though the loft. Alex yawned, walking to the main door that he opened after having flicked open all the locks. He found a bottle of milk, a newspaper and a few envelopes on his doorstep. Bringing the articles back in the kitchen, he took his cup of coffee and opened his mail. The first letter was a bill, the second was about his rent and the last one gave him quite a laugh, for an unknown reason, as he saw that it was a letter from an electrical company proposing their services. Throwing his first and last letter, he took the one about the rent and threw it on the table in the living room. He walked back to the kitchen and opened the newspaper. The first page title was ' Mutants vs. Humanity' and he immediately threw it to the side, a disgusted look on his face.
His mug in hand, he walked back to the living room and blinked, turning on the wide screen television in front of the sofa. Cartoons appeared on the screen but were swiftly replaced by the news with a simple shift of Alex's hand. A policeman was being interviewed.
"Well, there were two of them," he was saying. "The first one had a lighter, the second one seemed normal and we thought for a while that he was being held hostage. The guy with the lighter kept blowing things up on his way out of the club, but we cornered him a few streets away. It was then another one appeared. He was on the roof and didn't move at all, looking at us in a calm way. It was then my fellow policemen started . . . I don't know . . . they seemed to all have asthma problems. Most of them dropped their guns and started holding their throat, as if trying to pull off something that was chocking them. They didn't last long . . . they died a few moments later, their faces tuning reddish blue. It was horrible. I didn't move and the freak on the roof smiled widely, as if proud of what he had done. He turned and looked at me, and then just turned around, followed by the two other mutants that had reached the roof by then."
A reporter took place on the screen, replacing the policeman.
"At the same time, on the other side of town, three other mutants were causing havoc," she said sternly. "A bank was robbed by the same mutant that had attacked Liberty Island and the world summit, barely a year and a half ago. Magneto, was accompanied by a woman recognized as Laurana Lensherr, his daughter, renown for numerous bank robberies and devastations caused through Europe. The last mutant, a man in his late thirties, has been recognized as the president's secretary that was found this morning, and sent to a mutant facility were he will be awaiting trial. In the meantime, policemen are still searching for the stolen goods and Magneto and his followers, while others are still investigating the back alley murders, searching for a clue able to lead them to the assassins."
The television shut down and Alexander turned back to the kitchen, where he left his now empty mug. He was about to walk back to his room when he noticed that his door was left ajar. Frowning, he swiftly walked out of the kitchen and peeked in the still empty living room.
Someone had entered. He could feel it.
He walked to his room, but no one was on there. The study was empty too, and so the two last options were the bathroom and the guest room. Walking down the small hallway, he quickly saw that no intruder had penetrated in the clean guest room, and so his last option was the bathroom. As he suspected, the door was ajar, and he stayed silent, listening for sounds. He heard faint footsteps on the other side, and a hand grab the metal handle. Frowning, Alex grabbed the handle on his side of the door and did the first thing his instinct told him to do.
The next thing that happened surprised both the intruder and Alexander. A bolt of electricity from Alex's side of the door fried the handle and a yelp of pain was heard on the other side, followed by a girlish scream. Curious, Alexander opened the door and found three teenagers crammed behind it, one holding his hand, jumping from one foot to another in pain.
"Ya coulda' opened to see who it was first, you demented freak of nature!" the boy who had been zapped, easily recognizable as William, yelled. "I can't feel my hand anymore!"
"Sorry Mr. Crown, he only wanted to make a joke, but we told him it wasn't a good idea," Holly, the girl able to control water, said, brushing her skirt.
The last girl, the one who had screamed in surprise, was Bliss.
"Sorry kids," Alexander said, opening the door to let them come out. "Just don't do that again."
The boy marched out of the bathroom, still shaking his hand up and down while the other two teenagers came out, the first holding her chest as if she had had a heart attack, the other seeming to have her head in the clouds.
"Caroline, would you mind telling me why you're all here?" Alexander asked, looking at the redhead straight in the eyes.
"Ya forgot, didn't ya?" William answered, opening the fridge to see if there was anything good in there. "You're supposed to take care of us today, for the next twenty two hours," he added, looking at his watch.
"We're already Saturday?" Alexander asked.
"Yep," Caroline said, sitting on one of the high stools. "The others are waiting in the lobby, they didn't want to come up. Too bad they didn't, finally . . . nice boxers."
Instead of turning red, Alex simply smiled and sighed, shaking his head as he walked back to his room, ignoring the two girls who were now giggling noisily.
"So, where do you want to go?" the trio heard Alex say from his wardrobe.
"Let's go to the movies," the brown haired girl suggested. "There's this new movie about this fish who-"
"Next choice," William interrupted loudly from inside the refrigerator, receiving only a glare from the girl.
"Excuse *me*," the girl said, ". . . you selfish little wart."
"What?" the boy asked, looking at her with big eyes, raising his hand. "Let's see who's a little wart when I'm done with you, Holly!"
"WILLIAM!" Alexander yelled. "You do what you're thinking of doing and no one will be able to tell the difference between you and a pile of steaming coal."
William muttered a 'fine' and glared at Holly, who had ducked under the counter and was now sticking out her tongue at him.
"Lets go at the mall," Bliss proposed, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, I need a new bathing suit," Holly said, returning her attention to Bliss.
"Is that sarcastic?" William asked, looking at her with raised eyebrows. For answer, Holly turned her hand towards the sink from where water started pouring. It formed a ball that flew right into her hand while the water stopped leaking in the sink, and she started playing with the sphere, throwing it from hand to hand, looking at William evilly. The boy smiled cautiously and started backing up.
"Holly . . ." Alexander's voice warned. "Water is an extremely good conductor of electricity, do I need to say more?"
Holly sighed and returned the water to the sink, just as Alexander came out of his room, fully dressed in a pair of beige trousers, a lightly unbuttoned white shirt on top of which was another trench coat, this time being beige.
"How do I look?" he teased, striking a pose.
"I liked you better in the boxers," Caroline objected, tilting her head to the side.
"Who doesn't," muttered Holly, following William out the door. "Come on," she said much louder, "The others are waiting downstairs."
Alexander followed the three teenagers out his apartment, and as he shut the main door, the lights that had been used turned off by themselves.
~~~~~~~~~~
Having purchased the top she wanted, Jubilee rejoined Kitty and Rogue in the next store that they wanted to see.
The mall was packed with humans and it is why the professor had preferred keeping the students with 'physical changes' at the school. He had forced Scott to join them, trying to get his mind off Jean, and Logan had volunteered to come, seeing that he didn't want to be assigned the task of babysitting the other students again and that is why Nightcrawler had ended up staying in his place.
Storm was silently following the girls around, vaguely looking at what the stores were displaying upfront, but truly making sure that no one noticed that most of the teenagers shopping around were mutants.
She found Scott in front of a store displaying large televisions that had all been placed on the same news channel.
"Seems that Magneto's up to something again," he said, seeing that Ororo had joined him.
"Yeah," she answered, looking at the TV screens. "And he has new recruits . . . seems that Mystique took the president's secretary's appearance. Why?"
"Just for trouble," guessed Scott. "Just to get the guy out of the way."
~~~~~~~~~~
"Look at *that*," Holly said, visibly annoyed as she looked at the display of televisions in the store across the hall. "The news are talking about you guys now," she continued, turning back at the table where she was sitting with four other mutants that included Caroline, William and Alexander. The last one was Darren, the mutant from California, who was sipping his drink silently.
"People are watching it," Bliss whispered, turning to Alexander who was visibly lost in thought and didn't care about what the TV said, even though he extended his fingers in the shop's direction without looking at it, replacing the news channel with a soccer game.
"Hehe . . . those two folks who were watching look surprised!" William exclaimed.
"Well . . . We'll be right next door for five minutes, then we'll move to the clothing section, all right?" Holly asked Alexander, clearly not expecting an answer as she rose from her seat, followed by Caroline. "See ya!"
"I'll go check out the electronics," muttered Darren, throwing his drink in the nearest garbage and walking away his hands in his pockets.
"I'll go with him," added William, following the fist boy and leaving Alexander alone. "We'll meet you later. Bye."
He joined Darren in front of the television display, right when the boy started turning the channels.
Alexander didn't move, playing with his napkin for a while, seeming to not even care or noticed that the kids had left.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sitting with the professor on the terrace of one of the mall's café, Ororo brought her cup of cappuccino to her lips, blew on it gently and took a small sip. The professor looked at her, amused.
"What?" she asked, smiling.
"Nothing," he answered. "It's just that you've changed so much since you arrived at the school."
"For the best, of course."
"Yes," he answered. "It's just . . . Jean changed a lot too."
Storm looked up at professor Xavier, giving him a sad look.
"Hum . . ." the professor said, probably trying to change the conversation. "It seems that there are more mutants here than we think . . ."
"What do you mean, professor?"
"There are mutant children here that aren't from the school," Xavier said, frowning. "They're all together . . . That's strange . . ."
"Should we go see them?" Ororo asked, looking around.
"Hum . . . no. I think I recognize a few," the professor said, focusing his mind. "We need to go. Can you go get the girls? They're on the second floor, in a jewellery shop."
"But-"
"I'll try to explain later."
Ororo rose from her seat and started walking towards the escalator.
~~~~~~~~~~
Walking quickly between the aisles, Alexander was trying to find the kids he was supposed to watch, but they all seemed to have simply vanished.
"Nice move, Shock," he muttered as he started thinking what would happen if one of them accidentally used their powers in front of civilians. What would happen if humans discovered while he wasn't there to protect them?
He abruptly turned a corner but before he could make another step, he bumped into someone. He had taken so much strength while turning because he was thinking about starting to run in that direction, that he fell to the floor on top of the person he had pushed.
Holding himself on his forearms, he pushed himself to his knees.
"I am so sorry . . ." he started, but he was simply lost for words when he noticed that the person he had just bumped into was in fact a woman, that, unless he was greatly mistaking and hadn't noticed this new fashion statement, was for sure a mutant.
His eyes simply widened as he looked at this woman's platinum hair. After a moment of silence, he looked at her eyes, seeing that she seemed to have had the same surprise and was still looking at *his* hair.
"Sorry, my mistake," she said quickly, seeing that he was looking at her with the same intensity with which she had been watching him.
Alexander handed her his hand and helped her to her feet, and noticed, not that it surprised him, that she was smaller than him. He couldn't help but think that she was very beautiful, and reddened at that thought, but tried to hide it.
"Are . . . are you all right?" he asked, seeing her staring at him.
"Why . . . yes, yes, I'm fine," she said, blushing at her turn.
"Well . . . hum . . . sorry," he said, having no idea what to tell her next and noticing that a few humans were looking at them strangely.
He noticed that he was still holding her hand and let go.
" . . . we- . . . euh . . . Goodbye," Ororo said finally, walking away both hands on her cheeks.
Alexander smiled to himself and continued his way.
~~~~~~~~~~
Fifteen minutes had passed since Ororo had left the table. The professor had paid and called some of the students with his mind, telling them that they were going back home. They were to meet Logan and Scott at a specified exit.
On the second level, the professor was looking above a rail overlooking the first floor of the mall, where many people were walking around. He let his mind wander off, listening to what some people were thinking. Some were comparing prices, some were thinking about what to buy for a friend of family member, but many were just thinking about things to do with themselves.
Suddenly, the professor found a mind with shields that weren't being used and so he could feel that this person's main feeling at that moment was worry. Looking a little further in this person's mind, his eyes widened as he recognized who this person was.
At that moment, the person felt that the psychic was in his mind, and had raised his mental shields, pushing him out quite brutally. The professor turned around, looking straight at someone's back. The person, obviously the one that the professor recognized, was also looking over the rail, at the people below.
"Hello, Alexander," the professor said quite coldly.
The next thing that happened was obviously unwelcoming, and scared many people in the surroundings.
Alexander's back stiffened and milliseconds later, rather frightening electric currents started running up and down his body. The lights in the mall seemed to glow brighter, being on the brink of explosion.
Alex turned around, sparks of electricity from the currents passing on his body making his eyes flash dangerously.
"Nice to see that you've mastered your power," the professor said, unperturbed by the evident warning he was being given.
Alerted by what was happening, Scott and Logan showed up behind the professor. Scott's hand reached his visor and Logan's hands were in fists, his claws ready to be unsheathed. The lights above them glowed a little brighter.
Some of the students had showed up, seeing that some sort of confrontation was on the way. Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee were part of the group, watching Alexander with mixed fear and confusion.
At the same moment, some of the teenagers under Alex's watch turned around, taking place behind him, William and Caroline giving piercing glares at the professor and the people behind him. Holly, Darren and two other teens stayed behind, having the same look Rogue and the others had. Humans had gathered, forming a faraway circle around the group, most of them wanting to see if these mutants would use their powers.
Just as Alexander was going to make a move, to determine if he was going to avoid or (most probably) start the fight, L?ka and Amber arrived, running towards the cluster and followed by another group of teenagers, younger than the ones that were with Alex.
L?ka placed herself between Alexander and the professor, a worried look on her face. Amber, on the other hand, looked completely hostile towards the newcomers and seemed to be on Alexander's side, ready to fight.
"Now . . . now calm down please," L?ka said, holding her arms passively.
Scott and Logan didn't budge, their eyes on Alexander.
"Alexander, please," she said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
The electric currents on his body didn't stop but he made a step backwards. Scott didn't move but Logan lowered his hands. The professor relaxed a little.
One of the younger children walked to L?ka and grabbed the side of her pants, since he was too small to reach her hand. L?ka looked down at her child, then back at Xavier's group with the same worried look, as if expecting them to make an antagonistic move. She bent down and picked up the little boy and with one last look at Xavier, with something that looked like gratitude, turned around towards the others and walked away.
Once Alexander turned around to follow the others, the light's brightness lowered considerably.
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Hum... I don't know if I told you people already but it's normal if you're confused with my OCs. Don't worry about it, everything will clear up in a while...
Hum... I think the computer can't read the 'i' with two dots thingy in Lika's name so I'm just going to write Lika in the next chapters... -_-
And Nathan will be back... in a couple of chapters.