"Ash, are we there yet?" asked a young boy walking along a sidewalk with his older brother.

"No, Jake. Now hush, I've had enough of your wining!"

"Yeesh, sorry."

Indeed, it was a long walk to the grocery store. But what a better day to walk there than a beautiful Minnesota day?

As they walked, Jake tried to engage in a wonderfully entertaining game of 'Eye Spy'

"I spy something red"

"A car."

"Aw man. Okay, I spy something brown."

"Building"

"Darn it! Okay, I spy something red"

"Car"

"CRAP! Fine, I don't wanna play any more!"

Jake was obviously upset about loosing. It wasn't very uncommon, but it still made him mad to allow his older brother to wallow in glory!

Ash kept walking toward the store, his face the very model of monotonous. Hardly glorifying. Jake began to get bored again.

"Okay, I have a better game! How about I say one word, and you say another word, and we make a story that way! That would be fun! Okay, I'll start! The."

"End"

"Come on, Ash! Why are you so sad?"

"It's big boy stuff."

"Hey, there's a gumball machine! Do ya got a quarter?"

Ash searched his pockets for any change. Anything to get his annoying little brother off his back.

"Sure, there ya go."

"Gee, thanks!"

Jake ran across the street. Unknown to Jake, a large garbage truck was making its rounds that very day, at that very time. Ash's eyes got as big as saucers. All of a sudden, Ash acted on primal instincts, completely forgetting about his younger sibling's annoyingness, and leaped toward his brother.

Amazingly, he began to fly. There was no time to enjoy this fact, however. He had a brother to save. The garbage truck neared, and there was nothing Ash could do about it. All he could see was his younger brother. Time had gone into slow motion for Ash. All he could do was watch as his brother was about to be hit by a truck.

Ash neared his brother. It seamed like forever, but in reality, had only been a second. Ash scooped up his sibling, and kept on going. His foot was nipped by the speeding truck. He yelped in pain, and then went down, his eyes closing in the harsh feeling of unconsciousness.

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Silence. The halls, which were usually filled with the noises of life, were suddenly dead silent, the classrooms in which people were learning became muted, and for one brief minute, time stood still.

All at once the doors of every classroom burst open and the halls became utter chaos. People were screaming, doors slamming open, books were being dropped, girls were crying, people were becoming frantic and confused. And yet through the panic and terror the halls were eerily silent. It was the kind of silence that pounded in on your ears, the kind that make you want to scream just so you can know there is still such a think as life, it was the sound you heart makes when you die, the sound of nothing at all can be the most terrifying you will ever know in your life.

Because when it's quiet you can hear yourself think, you can hear your fearful and worried thoughts loud and clear pounding in you head, you can hear your doubts and misgivings rise up to the surface of your mind. You can hear those thoughts you struggle to push down and forget, suddenly reappear and start screaming in your ears. That's why when it's really quiet your ears ring, that's your mind making up sounds so you don't go insane from all the thoughts going around in your head, it's so you can focus on something besides the nothing, but what happens when there is no sound? Not even that imaginary echo ringing in your ears? You go insane.

Suddenly, the sounds returned in a deafening roar that swept across the school, down every hall, to every room, down every stairwell, into every ear. At that very moment, every window in the school shattered, every pipe burst, every man, woman, and child dropped to the ground into a blissfully unconscious state.

All except one, one girl that sat alone and afraid in room 205, afraid to move, afraid to breathe, afraid to blink, afraid to even open her mouth in a scream of horror that no one would ever again hear. She stood slowly and looked around at the unmoving bodies of her classmates, hands clasped tightly around her mouth as if one single word she uttered from her lips would bring on the end of the world.

In Greek mythology, there were these legendary creatures, Sirens, nymphs of the sea, daughters of Phocys who were told to have led countless men to their deaths by enchanting them with their songs and making the men sail their boats straight into the rocks on which these mythical nymphs sang. Was this girl a piece of ancient Greek mythology? Did she lead her classmates into their own deafeningly chaotic world in order to destroy them, did she unknowingly enchant them to create endless sound in which she in turn used to attack them with? Did she use the sound of their own horror stricken screams and panic driven noise to deafen them? Maybe. But even she doesn't know what's what at the moment.

Stepping outside the classroom, the girl saw the horrible extent of what she did, even if she didn't know how it happened, it had and she was most certainly to blame. Her only instinct was to run, sprinting and dodging around the bodies of her friends and people she knew she made a break for the door. Her hand still tightly clasped around her mouth, she unlocked her bike and rode to the house of the only person she knew that might be able to help her.

"JOHN!" she cried out and she banged on the door, even though she realized a while back her couldn't hear her it didn't stop her from trying to get to him. She had figured out on the way to his house that she could talk without killing anyone, just no one could hear her. What she didn't know was why. Backing up away from the door she felt like crying, no one could hear her or anything she did. Sitting on the ground she was just about ready to give up on it, in her anger she picked up a rock and hurled it at his door.

The sound of rock hitting wood was like heaven to her, picking up a few more she heaved them at the door, one by one the sound echoed through the house. After a moment, the door flew open and a very sick and angry looking teen stood in the doorway, his fiery red hair was a bit more crazy than usual and he had a red nose to match. "Stop throwing things at my door Cam!" he shouted. His voice was hoarse and scratchy and his demeanor was aggravated but at that moment he was this girl angel savior. She got up off the ground and flung herself into John's arms, he was startled at her odd display of affection but returned her hug. When the hug didn't end, he finally realized she was shaking and his shirt was becoming damp with her tears. He sighed, "Alright luv, let me get you some coffee and you can tell me what's wrong." he whispered and shut the door softly.

*****************************

'Ah hate you.' she thought as she stared eye-to-eye at her faint reflection in her mom's car window, 'Why tha hell do you have to be so diffrent?' she asked herself, when her translucent image didn't reply, she looked past it and stared out at the ominous dark clouds starting to take over the sky. Leaning her head against the window she sighed, it would do no use to cry now, even if she had felt like it. She had stopped crying about things she couldn't change a while ago, she figured it wouldn't help anyway. The car stopped.

"Git out." her mother told her. The girl turned her gaze toward the small blonde woman, and shrugged. "Don't expect a Christmas card or anything." She said as she undid her seat belt and grabbed her back pack. The woman gave her a weak smile, "Ah'm sorry Janie, but..." she trailed off not knowing what to say. "Yeah mom, I know." she said reaching into her pocket for something, "Mutants are a public menace and should be treated as such." she said in a mock serious tone, "Here's mah house key." she added finally digging the key out of her pocket and tossing it to her mother. The woman looked down at the key as it landed on the arm rest, and sighed. She reached for her purse and took a moment to dig a hundred out of her wallet, when she turned to give it to her daughter, she found that she had left without bothering to close the car door.

Closing the door herself she leaned her forehead against the steering wheel, and looked down into her lap at the open wallet, she felt a single tear slid down her face as she gazed at a small picture a beautiful teenage girl with long raven black hair, fierce kohl lined eyes, and a cynical smile, the same girl that had just left without saying goodbye. "Goodbye Janine", she said wiping away the lone tear. The woman turned on her car and left.

"Goodbye Mama." the girl whispered from the shadows of an alley as she watched her mother's car pull away. Giving a angry sigh, she turned on her heels and walked down the alley. The alley led out onto a street, the girl looked each way before deciding to go across the street and into a store or something before it started to rain. The first place she came to was a bar, "Eh," she shrugged, and walked in.

She didn't look at anyone while she walked her way up to the bar, taking a seat on the bar stool she set her backpack down beside her and began patting her pockets for her pack of Camels. "What can ah get ya sugah?" the lady behind the bar asked her. "Can Ah get a soda?" she replied. The lady smiled "Sure, Ah thank we got some." She said reaching under the bar and pulling out a Pepsi. She put it down in front of the girl, who looked at it for a moment "Thanks." she said as the woman walked away. "No problem, hon." she said and gave the girl another warm smile.

Finding her cigarettes she pulled her lighter out of the pack and a single cigarette, putting it to her lips she clicked on the lighter and inhaled the delicious nicotine laced smoke. She smiled in pleasure and after a moment exhaled the smoke through her nose, 'Ah really need ta find someplace to stay.' she though as popped the tab and took a sip of her soda. She sighed and set the drink down, 'Where tha hell am ah gunna go?' she asked resting her head against one her one of her palms.

"Can I get a plain coke?" a voice next to her asked the bartender, the girl turned to stare at the busty red-head that had just sat next to her, 'Prep.' Janine thought and turned back to her own soda just as the red- head got hers. She found a pen in her pocket and began to doodle a little red-headed cheerleader with an unnaturally large chest and pig-tails, when she noticed a flash of white and looked up to see a small business card flutter down in front of her. She picked it up, "Xaviah Instatute fah Gifted Youngstahs." she read softly to herself, "Huh." she said and looked on the back of the card, there she saw a hand written note scribbled there. "Their are others like yourself, meet me out front" it read. She scoffed "Lahke hell Ah will." she said but pocketed the card anyway.

She looked around and discovered the red-head had left and a big burly biker had taken her spot, he gave her a toothy grin and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Heheehe" she gave a nervous laugh as she put a few bucks on the table, snatching up her doodled on napkin and her backpack, she made for the door.

Walking out onto the wet street she realized that it had indeed started to rain as the clouds had been threatening to all day, looking around the only person standing near the front was the preppy red-head she had seen earlier, she sighed. Taking another drag from her cigarette she began to make her way towards the red-head standing under a low overhang. Walking over Janine didn't bother forcing a smile, "This ya card?" she asked pulling the small white card from her pocket. The red-head turned to smile at her, "Yeah, took you long enough." She said. "Yeah well, I wanted to finish my drink." the girl lied. "Uh-huh, and that big guy that was looking at you funny had nothing to do with it right?" the red-head asked with a hint of amusement. The other girl frowned, "Okay fine I lied, now what tha hell do you want?" she asked the red-head a bit impatiently. "I was sent here to help you." the red-head said giving her a smile.

The tip of the cigarette burned brightly as the tiny girl inhaled more smoke into her lungs, arched an eyebrow and blew smoke into the red- head's face. The teen choked on the second hand smoke, "Gross! Do mind putting that out? I find it disgusting." she said and gave another cough. "Ah'm sorry? Does this bother you?" she asked in fake concern as she took in another mouthful of smoke, when the red-head nodded she turned her head and snickered as she exhaled the smoke. She took the cigarette and smothered the end into her palm, the cigarette hissed as it was extinguished into her flesh. Throwing the cigarette butt the side she closed her palm over the wound, she smirked at the red-head's wide eyed stare became even more shocked when she opened her hand and the burn wound was gone. "Doesn't that hurt?" the red-head asked in awe and concern. "Wanna find out?" the girl asked making a grab for the red-head's wrist. "Uh no." the older girl replied shoving her hands into her pockets. "Thought so. Now see here, Ah don' know you, you don' know me, what makes you think that Ah'm gunna to trust ya?" she asked glaring at the red-head. The other girl sighed, "Okay, fine. I'm Jean, your Janine, I can read thoughts and move things with my mind, you have healing and infliction powers, I'm preppy your gothic, intros are over can we go now?" the girl now know as Jean said pointing a thumb down the street. Janine's eyes widened, "Okay that's freaky." she said backing away, "Ah'm gunna walk away slowly now." she said turning and walking down the street while patting herself down for another cigarette. Jean looked worried for a minute as she ran to catch up with Janine, "Okay look, I'm sorry I didn't mean to freak you out, but you really need a place to stay and I know a school that will take in people like you and me." Jean said quickly as she walked along side of the girl.

Janine stopped, she really did need a place to stay and this Jean person didn't seem mean or anything. But she didn't have any money to pay for room and board. "It's free." Jean added helpfully. Janine turned to glare at her, "What? I didn't do anything." Jean said trying to look innocent. Janine sighed, looking around the rainy streets she weighed her options, she didn't like the idea of going to a strange school that she had no idea what the planned to do with her but she didn't like the idea of trying to hack it out on the street. She had run away once and had lived out on the street for a week before they found her under a bridge, she was cold, starving and dirty. She didn't want to repeat that experience, she turned to Jean. "Do you guys got cable?"

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I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while. I had to split the x-chapter up, so please don't be mad. I will have the next chapter up later, I promise.

I will return soon.

Das vi Danya.