Alhandra: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Here's the web site it's called X-factor. Just copy n paste: http://homosuperior.proboards20.com/index.cgi
A/N: The POV in this chapter changes about eighty times. So if it's confusing, I apologize. I also apologize for how long this took, but my computer caught like twenty-eight viruses at the same time.
Oh, and if you're looking for something excellent to read I suggest NightGoddess's stuff. A Darkened Day is one of the best stories you can find on ff.net
Warning: I suck with accents. Especially, Gambit's
T-R-O-U-B-L-E
"I got kidnaped," Jon said.
"I got kidnaped first!" Jolie shot back.
"And we got a new mutant," I added, nudging Vanessa into Dean.
Vanessa blushed furiously. Most likely since she had been waving intimate apparel around when she first saw him. "Hi."
He smiled, "Hello."
Vanessa elbowed me in my side. "I'm gonna kill you," she mumbled. I smirked and pulled out my three bags from our shopping adventure.
"First, we got the call to go pick up Vanessa," I explained, "And then while we were trying to convince her to come Jolie got kidnaped."
"And we brought Vanessa back and Tianna got her secret admirer," Jon added.
"Which was all a ruse to get her to the park so they could kidnap her," Sammy chipped in. "She was suppose to turn up by herself, but we all went, even Jon."
"I was bribed by brownies. And you owe me a new batch by the way."
"Jonathan Jacob Horatio Howlett," I snarled.
"You didn't just say my middle name," Jon murmured, pretending to be dazed.
"Your middle name's Horatio?" Vanessa asked. "And Jacob? Jon Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!"
Jon glared at me. "You truly hate me or something don't you? Yes. And if it wouldn't be speaking ill of the dead, I'd say something about it. I'm just glad my mother had enough presence of mind after labor not to let my father name me. Knowing him, my name would be Bub and Jolie would be Darlin'."
Jolie laughed. "Sadly enough that's true."
"Anyway to make a really long story short. Jon got kidnaped that night. We freaked. I was put under really tight surveillance then escaped along with Sammy and Vanessa. We were chased by some guys with guns, found all the Lost Mutants, ran from some more guys with guns, nearly got killed, managed to get back here in one piece more or less, and then I don't know what because I passed out."
"Figures," Dean teased me.
"Shut up."
Dean was tall maybe 6'3, making him easily the tallest X-teen. He had dark brown hair, light brown skin, and despite being a hockey player had all his own teeth.
Fuzzball was Dean's sheepdog and his name was accurate as can be. He was a hyper walking ball of fuzz. The dog went straight over to Jolie and nudged her against the back wall, licking her happily.
Jolie laughed and tried to dissuade the dog without using her powers which in the end proved futile.
"Fuzzball, stop it," Dean ordered. The large dog left Jolie to romp over to Dean and attacked him instead.
"NO!" Dean thundered. Fuzzball sulked as well as a walking carpet could.
Jolie giggled. "He's hyper! Being cooped up in the blackbird for the whole trip. So we have a gigantic backyard, why don't we let him run?"
Jon searched for an old tennis ball from one of many Jolie's stray animals that she'd brought home. "Found it!"
In the backyard, Dean and Jon played fetched with Fuzzball and Jolie who had morphed into a golden retriever. Vanessa was tending to a sapling that was slowly dying. And Sammy was driving the dogs nuts by suddenly appearing out of thin air to catch the ball and throw it in the opposite direction.
I sat down and watched my friends happily. Things were good.
"Hey, you feeling better?" Jon asked me.
"Would I be out of bed if I wasn't?"
Jon was silent a moment. "Yes and you know it." Then he sat down next to me.
"I hate it went you're right," I told him, rubbing my hands together, trying to get some feeling back into them. "It's getting cold. Think we'll have snow before Thanksgiving?"
"EH, I don't know. Wouldn't be the first time."
Jon took my hands. "I think Bobby's hands are warmer when he's in ice form." He teased me.
Now I could actually feel my hands. "You'd think that having metal in your hands would make them colder than mine."
"And having part time fur would make you warm."
"The fur parts what messes me—," I was cut off by an abrupt stab of pain around my rib cage area. I gasped and closed my eyes.
"Ti?" Jon asked, catching me as I slumped. "What's the matter?"
"I don't know." The pain spread slowly.
"Someone go get Hank!" Jon yelled. "Can you walk?"
I could barely convince my lips to move. "No-OOOOOOOOO!" the word turned into a shriek of pain as the pain spiked sharply into the climax.
Then I blacked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Jon POV)
I looked at Tianna. All color had drained out of her face and her breath was shallow and slow.
"This is creepy," Jolie murmured. "She looks like she's going to die."
"Well, cheerful, to day aren't we?" I asked dryly.
"Cynical, much?" Jolie asked, putting her hands on her hips furiously then she softened. "You know, something's wrong with her."
Dazed, I asked, "What?"
"Stupid, regenerative property," Jolie rolled her eyes. "Jon, Ti's sick or something. She passed out yesterday and now she's out again. That's not normal. Beast was wrong, it wasn't just exhaustion or over extending her powers. She's sick."
"Beast's never wrong," I muttered more to reassure myself Tianna was fine, then to defend Beast's medical skills.
"First stage: denial," Jolie muttered, staring at me. "She'll be okay, cuz it's ya know Tianna."
"Jolie, do you think you could have tried and killed that sentence a little more?" I asked her.
"Do you want me to try?" Jolie asked, tilting her head back to look at me.
"Please don't."
Sammy linked arms with me. "Jon, watching her isn't gonna help." She told me kindly.
"I know," I responded mechanically. Seeing that I had no intention of moving, Sammy dragged me out of the infirmary. Damn her super strength.
"Sheesh, Jon," she muttered and she dragged me down the hallway. "It's not like you stabbed her."
"You didn't see the look on her face," I muttered. I don't know if she heard me or not.
Sammy rolled her eyes, and muttered something that sounded peculiarly a lot like, men!
She stopped in front of my room. "Lay down or something. You look pale."
She left me there, and I shook my head. Her advice sounded good. SO I followed it.
An hour or so later, some one was knocking on my door. "Jon, wake up!" Jolie yelled.
I grunted and pulled a pillow over my head, trying to block out the sound. Damn my hyper senses.
The sound stopped and I relaxed ready to drift back to sleep. But something was poking my back.
I twisted around enough to see what was poking me.
"Jolie," I started. "How did you get in here?"
Jolie grinned. "Shape shifter, remember? I turned into a rat and compressed my rib cage and crawled under the door."
Now there was an obvious answer. "What do you want?"
"Dinner."
"I'm not hungry." My head hurt and felt like I was back in the Mutant Pen.
"Jon are you all right?" Jolie asked, frowning.
"Yeah," I sighed. "Now go away."
Several silent minutes passed. I flipped onto my back and propped myself back up on an elbow. "Jolie why are you really here?"
"I'm scared." She whispered. Her eyes welled with tears. And I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I cradled her gently as she cried.
She lay against my chest silently, but a tear every now would still roll down her cheek.
I brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Jo, I'm sorry," I apologized, wishing I could do something more than just apologize.
She swallowed and one hand flexed. "What happened?" I asked.
"Tianna," Jolie mumbled. "That's what happened with mom too."
My heart skipped a beat as Jolie mentioned it. Everyone knows our mother died. Some know when and where. But only one person knows what happened exactly when she was died was Jolie.
She was in the room when our mother started going into an intense seizure. And Jolie was still in the room when she drew her last breath.
Now if that won't traumatize an eight year old nothing will. She wouldn't talk about with anybody, but she had nightmare after nightmare about it. And there wasn't much any of us could do.
Jolie drew a shuddering breath. "Exactly."
I hugged her and felt a little nauseous at the thought of Jolie going through that pain again.
Maybe in hour later, I playfully slapped Jolie on the back. "You. Bed. Now."
"Mm not sleepy," Jolie whined. A gigantic yawn practically splitting her jaw open.
"Sure. You're not," I humored her, guiding her towards my door. "Sleep."
~Vanessa's POV~ [Well this is new]
It was late. I stepped outside. It was freezing cold outside, but I stood there, shivering in nothing but my flannel pants, my cami, my thick woolen robe, and fuzzy slippers.
I sat down and the wind whipped my hair into my face. The door opened and closed. I wondered who it was. I glanced at the figure out of the corner of my eye.
Oh, Lord. Shoot me, someone!
Gambit, my supposed father, stood on the step behind me. "Ya mind if Gambit sit down?"
"No," I grumped, scooting over toward the edge of the step, making room for him.
I looked at my green slippers and the monogram that proclaimed: Sexy. The wind dies down and my nose caught a new scent. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned to Gambit.
Without thinking, I yanked the cigarette out of his mouth, stubbed it out of the step beside me, and threw into a rose bush. Storm would kill if she found out who did it.
Gambit looked at me, astonished. "Chéri, why'd ya do dat?"
"Didn't anyone tell you smoking's bad for you?" Vanessa, dammit! My name is Vanessa!
Gambit shook his head and took out ANOTHER cigarette and lit up again. Once, I likewise, pulled the cancer stick out his mouth and stubbed it out.
"You light up again; I pull it out. And Vanessa suggests dat Gambit get dose cigarettes outta da bush or Storm'll be doing a blood hunt." I warned him, mimicking his Cajun accent.
We glared at each other for a few minutes before I started to get up. Gambit looked away first.
I won! I thought gleefully. A mental raspberry sounding off in my mind. Yay!
Okay, that was immature.
Gambit leaned back a little, expressing all the grace of a cat. Why the heck didn't I inherit that from him. Instead, I got his hair color and a female version of his face, except for the nose which is my mom's.
Geez, while in this vein why couldn't I get his powers? I wanna make stuff explode! But instead, I can fly and have control of plants. How do those two even go together in anyway?
Whatever.
"Ya know, I never knew I had a daughter."
I blinked. Did he just say 'I'? Yes, wait. How the hell can't you know if you have a kid? It's not like we get brought by the stork or anything. And you know baby's do leave their mark on a woman when she's about to have one. And have you SEEN my mother? I'm sure that the fact that she was pregnant would show up, practically immediately.
He went on, "'Til Rogue got captured. Den she tol' Gambit when she came to."
And we're back to third person. "That would have been awkward." was all I said.
Ever said something and want to shoot yourself right after you say it? This was one of those times.
I stayed silent, until my mouth betrayed me. "Did you know about Jeremy."
He nodded and began to look extremely sad and guilty. Hey, I didn't blame him.
See, Jeremy's my older brother. He was pretty normal. Auburn hair, green eyes that seemed to change . . .somehow when the light caught them. Looking at Gambit, I realized that he probably had gotten the black effect.
And you thought my family couldn't be any more dysfunctional, didn't you?
Gambit and talked for a little longer. I can't say that he's my favorite person in the world, but at least we were starting to get along.
Key word: starting.
I yawned. "I'm gonna go to bed."
"Night chèri," Gambit called out.
I smiled at him and as I passed him I dipped my hand into his pocket and pulled out his lighter. No fire, no smoking. . .no lung cancer.
I was halfway up the stairs when I noticed a light on in the kitchen. And people wonder why the bills are so high around here?
Jon was sitting in a rather awkward position. He had a quart of ice cream in front of him. He had one claw out, and his spoon was in his mouth, but his hand was holding the end.
The radio was on and Dean was bouncing up and down on a stool. "Go, go, go!"
Jon rolled his eyes. "Mrel."
I looked at the quart of ice cream and pulled out a spoon of my own. "Why are you sitting like that?"
"Better reception," Dean managed to hiss while he listened intently to the commentator. "Ah! What are you doing?"
"What are we listening to?" I asked.
"Hockey game," Jon removed the spoon. "I'm eating!"
"Ah, ah, ah." I knocked his spoon away using mine. Get a new spoon. I don't want to know how long that's been in your mouth."
Jon grinned and tossed the spoon away. "All right."
Dean pounded his head against the counter. "NO!"
"He's as bad as Sammy," I whispered.
"No one is as bad as Sammy," Jon replied. "Thank God."
A/N: The POV in this chapter changes about eighty times. So if it's confusing, I apologize. I also apologize for how long this took, but my computer caught like twenty-eight viruses at the same time.
Oh, and if you're looking for something excellent to read I suggest NightGoddess's stuff. A Darkened Day is one of the best stories you can find on ff.net
Warning: I suck with accents. Especially, Gambit's
T-R-O-U-B-L-E
"I got kidnaped," Jon said.
"I got kidnaped first!" Jolie shot back.
"And we got a new mutant," I added, nudging Vanessa into Dean.
Vanessa blushed furiously. Most likely since she had been waving intimate apparel around when she first saw him. "Hi."
He smiled, "Hello."
Vanessa elbowed me in my side. "I'm gonna kill you," she mumbled. I smirked and pulled out my three bags from our shopping adventure.
"First, we got the call to go pick up Vanessa," I explained, "And then while we were trying to convince her to come Jolie got kidnaped."
"And we brought Vanessa back and Tianna got her secret admirer," Jon added.
"Which was all a ruse to get her to the park so they could kidnap her," Sammy chipped in. "She was suppose to turn up by herself, but we all went, even Jon."
"I was bribed by brownies. And you owe me a new batch by the way."
"Jonathan Jacob Horatio Howlett," I snarled.
"You didn't just say my middle name," Jon murmured, pretending to be dazed.
"Your middle name's Horatio?" Vanessa asked. "And Jacob? Jon Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!"
Jon glared at me. "You truly hate me or something don't you? Yes. And if it wouldn't be speaking ill of the dead, I'd say something about it. I'm just glad my mother had enough presence of mind after labor not to let my father name me. Knowing him, my name would be Bub and Jolie would be Darlin'."
Jolie laughed. "Sadly enough that's true."
"Anyway to make a really long story short. Jon got kidnaped that night. We freaked. I was put under really tight surveillance then escaped along with Sammy and Vanessa. We were chased by some guys with guns, found all the Lost Mutants, ran from some more guys with guns, nearly got killed, managed to get back here in one piece more or less, and then I don't know what because I passed out."
"Figures," Dean teased me.
"Shut up."
Dean was tall maybe 6'3, making him easily the tallest X-teen. He had dark brown hair, light brown skin, and despite being a hockey player had all his own teeth.
Fuzzball was Dean's sheepdog and his name was accurate as can be. He was a hyper walking ball of fuzz. The dog went straight over to Jolie and nudged her against the back wall, licking her happily.
Jolie laughed and tried to dissuade the dog without using her powers which in the end proved futile.
"Fuzzball, stop it," Dean ordered. The large dog left Jolie to romp over to Dean and attacked him instead.
"NO!" Dean thundered. Fuzzball sulked as well as a walking carpet could.
Jolie giggled. "He's hyper! Being cooped up in the blackbird for the whole trip. So we have a gigantic backyard, why don't we let him run?"
Jon searched for an old tennis ball from one of many Jolie's stray animals that she'd brought home. "Found it!"
In the backyard, Dean and Jon played fetched with Fuzzball and Jolie who had morphed into a golden retriever. Vanessa was tending to a sapling that was slowly dying. And Sammy was driving the dogs nuts by suddenly appearing out of thin air to catch the ball and throw it in the opposite direction.
I sat down and watched my friends happily. Things were good.
"Hey, you feeling better?" Jon asked me.
"Would I be out of bed if I wasn't?"
Jon was silent a moment. "Yes and you know it." Then he sat down next to me.
"I hate it went you're right," I told him, rubbing my hands together, trying to get some feeling back into them. "It's getting cold. Think we'll have snow before Thanksgiving?"
"EH, I don't know. Wouldn't be the first time."
Jon took my hands. "I think Bobby's hands are warmer when he's in ice form." He teased me.
Now I could actually feel my hands. "You'd think that having metal in your hands would make them colder than mine."
"And having part time fur would make you warm."
"The fur parts what messes me—," I was cut off by an abrupt stab of pain around my rib cage area. I gasped and closed my eyes.
"Ti?" Jon asked, catching me as I slumped. "What's the matter?"
"I don't know." The pain spread slowly.
"Someone go get Hank!" Jon yelled. "Can you walk?"
I could barely convince my lips to move. "No-OOOOOOOOO!" the word turned into a shriek of pain as the pain spiked sharply into the climax.
Then I blacked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Jon POV)
I looked at Tianna. All color had drained out of her face and her breath was shallow and slow.
"This is creepy," Jolie murmured. "She looks like she's going to die."
"Well, cheerful, to day aren't we?" I asked dryly.
"Cynical, much?" Jolie asked, putting her hands on her hips furiously then she softened. "You know, something's wrong with her."
Dazed, I asked, "What?"
"Stupid, regenerative property," Jolie rolled her eyes. "Jon, Ti's sick or something. She passed out yesterday and now she's out again. That's not normal. Beast was wrong, it wasn't just exhaustion or over extending her powers. She's sick."
"Beast's never wrong," I muttered more to reassure myself Tianna was fine, then to defend Beast's medical skills.
"First stage: denial," Jolie muttered, staring at me. "She'll be okay, cuz it's ya know Tianna."
"Jolie, do you think you could have tried and killed that sentence a little more?" I asked her.
"Do you want me to try?" Jolie asked, tilting her head back to look at me.
"Please don't."
Sammy linked arms with me. "Jon, watching her isn't gonna help." She told me kindly.
"I know," I responded mechanically. Seeing that I had no intention of moving, Sammy dragged me out of the infirmary. Damn her super strength.
"Sheesh, Jon," she muttered and she dragged me down the hallway. "It's not like you stabbed her."
"You didn't see the look on her face," I muttered. I don't know if she heard me or not.
Sammy rolled her eyes, and muttered something that sounded peculiarly a lot like, men!
She stopped in front of my room. "Lay down or something. You look pale."
She left me there, and I shook my head. Her advice sounded good. SO I followed it.
An hour or so later, some one was knocking on my door. "Jon, wake up!" Jolie yelled.
I grunted and pulled a pillow over my head, trying to block out the sound. Damn my hyper senses.
The sound stopped and I relaxed ready to drift back to sleep. But something was poking my back.
I twisted around enough to see what was poking me.
"Jolie," I started. "How did you get in here?"
Jolie grinned. "Shape shifter, remember? I turned into a rat and compressed my rib cage and crawled under the door."
Now there was an obvious answer. "What do you want?"
"Dinner."
"I'm not hungry." My head hurt and felt like I was back in the Mutant Pen.
"Jon are you all right?" Jolie asked, frowning.
"Yeah," I sighed. "Now go away."
Several silent minutes passed. I flipped onto my back and propped myself back up on an elbow. "Jolie why are you really here?"
"I'm scared." She whispered. Her eyes welled with tears. And I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I cradled her gently as she cried.
She lay against my chest silently, but a tear every now would still roll down her cheek.
I brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Jo, I'm sorry," I apologized, wishing I could do something more than just apologize.
She swallowed and one hand flexed. "What happened?" I asked.
"Tianna," Jolie mumbled. "That's what happened with mom too."
My heart skipped a beat as Jolie mentioned it. Everyone knows our mother died. Some know when and where. But only one person knows what happened exactly when she was died was Jolie.
She was in the room when our mother started going into an intense seizure. And Jolie was still in the room when she drew her last breath.
Now if that won't traumatize an eight year old nothing will. She wouldn't talk about with anybody, but she had nightmare after nightmare about it. And there wasn't much any of us could do.
Jolie drew a shuddering breath. "Exactly."
I hugged her and felt a little nauseous at the thought of Jolie going through that pain again.
Maybe in hour later, I playfully slapped Jolie on the back. "You. Bed. Now."
"Mm not sleepy," Jolie whined. A gigantic yawn practically splitting her jaw open.
"Sure. You're not," I humored her, guiding her towards my door. "Sleep."
~Vanessa's POV~ [Well this is new]
It was late. I stepped outside. It was freezing cold outside, but I stood there, shivering in nothing but my flannel pants, my cami, my thick woolen robe, and fuzzy slippers.
I sat down and the wind whipped my hair into my face. The door opened and closed. I wondered who it was. I glanced at the figure out of the corner of my eye.
Oh, Lord. Shoot me, someone!
Gambit, my supposed father, stood on the step behind me. "Ya mind if Gambit sit down?"
"No," I grumped, scooting over toward the edge of the step, making room for him.
I looked at my green slippers and the monogram that proclaimed: Sexy. The wind dies down and my nose caught a new scent. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned to Gambit.
Without thinking, I yanked the cigarette out of his mouth, stubbed it out of the step beside me, and threw into a rose bush. Storm would kill if she found out who did it.
Gambit looked at me, astonished. "Chéri, why'd ya do dat?"
"Didn't anyone tell you smoking's bad for you?" Vanessa, dammit! My name is Vanessa!
Gambit shook his head and took out ANOTHER cigarette and lit up again. Once, I likewise, pulled the cancer stick out his mouth and stubbed it out.
"You light up again; I pull it out. And Vanessa suggests dat Gambit get dose cigarettes outta da bush or Storm'll be doing a blood hunt." I warned him, mimicking his Cajun accent.
We glared at each other for a few minutes before I started to get up. Gambit looked away first.
I won! I thought gleefully. A mental raspberry sounding off in my mind. Yay!
Okay, that was immature.
Gambit leaned back a little, expressing all the grace of a cat. Why the heck didn't I inherit that from him. Instead, I got his hair color and a female version of his face, except for the nose which is my mom's.
Geez, while in this vein why couldn't I get his powers? I wanna make stuff explode! But instead, I can fly and have control of plants. How do those two even go together in anyway?
Whatever.
"Ya know, I never knew I had a daughter."
I blinked. Did he just say 'I'? Yes, wait. How the hell can't you know if you have a kid? It's not like we get brought by the stork or anything. And you know baby's do leave their mark on a woman when she's about to have one. And have you SEEN my mother? I'm sure that the fact that she was pregnant would show up, practically immediately.
He went on, "'Til Rogue got captured. Den she tol' Gambit when she came to."
And we're back to third person. "That would have been awkward." was all I said.
Ever said something and want to shoot yourself right after you say it? This was one of those times.
I stayed silent, until my mouth betrayed me. "Did you know about Jeremy."
He nodded and began to look extremely sad and guilty. Hey, I didn't blame him.
See, Jeremy's my older brother. He was pretty normal. Auburn hair, green eyes that seemed to change . . .somehow when the light caught them. Looking at Gambit, I realized that he probably had gotten the black effect.
And you thought my family couldn't be any more dysfunctional, didn't you?
Gambit and talked for a little longer. I can't say that he's my favorite person in the world, but at least we were starting to get along.
Key word: starting.
I yawned. "I'm gonna go to bed."
"Night chèri," Gambit called out.
I smiled at him and as I passed him I dipped my hand into his pocket and pulled out his lighter. No fire, no smoking. . .no lung cancer.
I was halfway up the stairs when I noticed a light on in the kitchen. And people wonder why the bills are so high around here?
Jon was sitting in a rather awkward position. He had a quart of ice cream in front of him. He had one claw out, and his spoon was in his mouth, but his hand was holding the end.
The radio was on and Dean was bouncing up and down on a stool. "Go, go, go!"
Jon rolled his eyes. "Mrel."
I looked at the quart of ice cream and pulled out a spoon of my own. "Why are you sitting like that?"
"Better reception," Dean managed to hiss while he listened intently to the commentator. "Ah! What are you doing?"
"What are we listening to?" I asked.
"Hockey game," Jon removed the spoon. "I'm eating!"
"Ah, ah, ah." I knocked his spoon away using mine. Get a new spoon. I don't want to know how long that's been in your mouth."
Jon grinned and tossed the spoon away. "All right."
Dean pounded his head against the counter. "NO!"
"He's as bad as Sammy," I whispered.
"No one is as bad as Sammy," Jon replied. "Thank God."
