Ta-Da! After all those nice things you people said, how could I do anything but write more. Ignore the fact that over the weekend I rediscovered the fun of reading real books and strayed from my computer.
Writing this chapter was a bit of a task. . .I had to take it outside and beat it a couple of times before it would do what I wanted. . .Then it bit me and I had to go to the hospital to make sure I didn't have Mad-Plot-Disease. . .my doctor assured be that I was in no danger of any such thing from this story. . .It has no plot to speak of.
So I set out to undertake the momentous task of deciding where (other than the loony-bin) I was headed. It was not pretty. I avoided my computer like the plague. But I have faced it once more for the sake of reviews – I mean. . .you! For the sake of all you. . .and for the reviews.
Oh shut up little voice that gives away all my plans. . .you got me kicked out of World Domination School. . .the least you could do is just be quiet every now and then. . .
Oh well. . .But that story is done with now. It is happy disclaimer time. If I owned X-Men Evolution. . .Rogue would have poofy hair, Bobby would die, Phoenix would die, Gambit would have the proper accent. . .and Kurt would be a monk. That's it for now.
*~*~*~*~*
The Knights
Jamie would have gladly stayed up the entire night talking to his newfound friend, but around one o' clock in the morning, his eyelids felt like ten pound weights and his head kept nodding onto his chest. It was then that Raven declared it past his bedtime.
As Jamie slept, the bus travelled on through the states. Jamie did not see the moon over Portland, Maine; or the stars shining above Concord, New Hampshire. He did notice, though, when the bus came to an abrupt and blaring halt in the middle of the interstate somewhere near Albany for no apparent reason. It was the driver's excessive use of the horn which woke Jamie from his sleep.
Outside the window, Jamie's heavy eyes could see no cars. There was only corn fields and some farmers standing by the roadside. There was no accident; no blocked road. What on earth is going on?
"Raven?" he asked blearily.
She barely looked at him. She was acting shifty again.
"Raven, why did we stop?" Jamie tried again.
"I don't know." She looked slightly nervous.
Jamie watched her, trying to read what was bothering her. What made her act like this?
"Jamie, don't worry. Just go back to sleep." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Everything's fine."
The smile did very little to quell Jamie's doubts. She doesn't seem sure at all. In fact, I don't think she believes one word of what she just said. Jamie resigned himself to not getting the answer. Adults…
Any attempts at getting an explanation were cut short by a blast of red light exploding into the side of the bus. The vehicle tumbled on its side and the impact threw all the passengers out of their seats. Jamie was fortunately leaning against the window headed towards the ground already and didn't fall far. It was Raven, and everyone else in his row who fell on him, that inflicted any damage. In the moment before they collided with him, Jamie reached up to protect his head, already too battered for his preference.
Confusion reigned in the bus. The baby had started bawling again from the rear and several small children were crying near him. People cried out for their companions that had been separated from them. Jamie himself was gasping for breath under the weight of the fallen people.
"Raven!" he cried. She didn't answer. Instead she reached over to place a single finger on his mouth.
"Quiet, Jamie." She was beyond fidgety. Her eyes were as wide as lamps and had taken on a slightly yellow tinge in the nighttime lights of the bus. She was watching intently the front of the bus as if expecting something. Jamie looked beside at the people laying near him.
He nearly choked. They were back. His other selves. Jamie began to panic. Maybe getting hit twice in the head is really bad for a person.
"Raven!" he whispered, this time dread reaching his voice. He needed her to tell him if they were real. He needed to see if they really were just figments of his delusional mind. She began to turn her head, worried by his fright but looked away again at an abrupt shout in the front.
"Mutants!" a man cried in a high, frightened voice. Jamie was bewildered. Mutants? What are they? Are they like those monsters in the scary movies with two heads and six arms? People started talking anxiously and some gave surprised gasps. The babbling got louder and louder until the word was passed back and forth from one end of the bus to the other like waves rolling through the crowd.
A loud bang in the front of the bus signaled the boarding of the mutants. A blue beast fell through the roof and landed in the front aisle, followed by a young girl of about fifteen who peered out from behind the beast's shoulder.
By that point, the already tense atmosphere snapped. People throughout the bus cried, screamed, shrieked, trying to escape their prison and the mutants. The front aisles were clogged with humans stumbling around the fallen.
Raven knew it was time for her to get out. Time to leave before the things got worse; if they could even get any worse. She grabbed Jamie's arm and tugged him off the ground. "Come on, Jamie. We need to leave, now."
"But, Raven - "
"Hush!"
Jamie looked back at his copies. Their were three of them this time. They were lifting each other off the floor and dusting the dirt off their clothes. Two were holding on to each other for balance while they put on a shoe that had fallen off. Jamie realized that his own shoe was lying on the ground by their feet.
As Raven pulled him to the rear exit of the bus, Jamie yanked the arm of one of them and pulled the copy with him. That copy, in turn, was still holding on to the other copy and both were dragged along. The third copy, who was sitting on the ground putting his shoe on, glanced up and gave a forlorn look to the receding figures of Raven, Jamie, Jamie, and Jamie. He had been left behind. The third copy sighed at his misfortune of being abandoned.
In the rear, Raven kicked the exit door, sending it soaring backwards into the road. Jamie and his copies stared in awe, wondering how such a small and jittery woman could possess such strength. She pulled his arm through the doorframe and into a battle.
Raven stood in the protection of the bus, peering around the corner at the running figures in the middle of the road. One flashed by with a flourish of red hair, concentrating intently on her quarry who jumped, toad-like, onto the top of the bus. Without warning, the ground began to shake as if caught in an earthquake, spitting up chunks of rock. Too quick for his eyes to see, a flash of silver sped past, leaving an afterimage of a running boy as if frozen in time. Jamie and his copies watched in astonishment. Jamie couldn't tell if he really was suffering from hallucinations.
"Wow," a copy next to him said.
"Yeah…" the second one added.
"Am I dreaming?" Jamie asked him.
"I don't know," the other said. "Are we?"
Jamie stared into eyes that mirrored exactly his confusion, amazement, and worry. "Who are you?" he asked.
"We're you."
"You're us."
"Oh." Jamie never felt so lost.
"Other than that, I don't know." The first one gave him a sympathetic smile.
The second one gave him a shrug. "If you don't know how are we supposed to know?"
Jamie was pondering how to answer that question when Raven called to him again. He scooted over to her side so he could hear her over the cries and battle noises. "Jamie, you can't stay here. It's dangerous with these people all around. Run into the fields as fast and as far as you can go. Don't stop until you reach the trees. If you see anyone, just keep running. I'll be right behind you, I promise."
"Raven, what's wrong? Why are we running? Is it the mutants?"
She didn't answer but instead pushed him off the road just in time to save him from a stray laser blast, like the one that had hit the bus. He tumbled into a ditch, his multiples running down the hill after him. Another one had sprung up when he fell.
"Well," he started. "I guess we only have one choice." The multiples nodded in resigned agreement.
"Into the wild," the newest copy added glumly.
Jamie looked back to search for Raven. All he could see was the retreating shape of a woman running into the midst of the fight, her skin, from head to toe, a deep blue.
"Raven!" he cried, hoping that wherever she was, Raven would show herself. The blue woman hesitated and turned at the name, but she was not Raven.
In despair for Raven, Jamie followed her wishes and ran, his multiples trailing behind.
*~*~*~*~*
There ya go. Another chapter for you.
Elf doll Dolly, thank you for the cookie. It was good, but it tasted a bit like computer screen. Perhaps next time, I should not try to eat the cookie right off the glass. . .
And to Ellen, I have nothing against Bobby. . .in most cases. . .it's just that in X-2 I was ready to kill him. And Rogue too for that matter. . .Ya see, Bobby takes the place of my other favorite mutant, Gambit, in the movie. Anyone who is placed in that position would receive the same treatment. Did you see the movie? Cause maybe you know what I'm talking about. . .
In case anyone hasn't got it yet, the chapter titles are somewhat relevant to the chapters. They are also related to The Once and Future King. (Remember that book I was mentioning? Yeah well it comes back to haunt you). If you don't care then just leave now cause I'm gonna tell you all about it.
Ahem. . .The Candle is from the name of one of the "books" called The Candle in the Wind. . .also the name of this story. Think of a candle. . .then put the candle in a hurricane. . .That's the idea.
Bruce Sans Pité was a meanie knight. "He's a real swine. He goes murdering maidens – and, as soon as a real knight turns up to rescue them, he gallops off for all he is worth. He breeds special fast horses do that nobody can catch him, and he stabs people in the back. He's a marauder." That is how he is described in a language that anyone could understand. Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte D'Arthur, says more or less the same thing just add in a few 'passing fair's and 'wit ye well's.
Maid Marian is, as perhaps some of you know, Robin Wood's wife. In The Once and Future King, she joined their band and little King Arthur, while doing a favor for Robin, happened to meet her. The description of her was in chapter 3 that I stole directly from the book. Arthur and Jamie were probably the same age at the time. . .I didn't even think of that. . .
The Knights comes from another adventure little Arthur had. Merlin, his tutor, had sent him into the woods to watch Sir Grummore and King Pellinore have a little bout.
I'm only telling you cause I spent a lot of time thinking up parallels. . .
Don't call me a loser. . .I already know that. . .