Thanks for the feedback: IceBlueRose, Eboni, UnknownSource, T. Riddle, SkyDancerHawk, Rampage, Dusty, Risty, Ice Princess, raniatlw, Pandora, Deacon, signals x lost, Warrior.
The sun dawned over miles of desert, in every direction cactus and sage were the only thing to be seen for as far as the eye could see.
Lance took a deep breath, clamping down on the excitement building up inside him and reached for his powers. His eyes rolled back and the earth leapt to obey his will.
Storm and Jean observed, floating a few feet above the bucking, cracking terrain. "Time to stop Avalanche," Storm said.
For several seconds the quakes continued unabated. Jean reached for Lance's mind intending to knock him out before he could hurt himself.
"Gimme a chance Red!" Lance objected. Jean waited and a few moments later Lance swayed, dropping to his knees, but the quake stopped. "Just like the first time," he said to himself. "I just need practice."
Then he opened his eyes and found himself kneeling in the bottom of a sinkhole almost a dozen meters across.
"I do not believe you were capable of this much destruction when your powers first manifested in Chicago," Storm commented.
Lance gulped softly. "Hell no, when it first started I'd practically have to knock myself out to knock over a table… well for a couple months anyway, I made it do what I wanted. When I got mad it was easier."
"Professor Xavier told me our powers get stronger as we grow into them," Jean said. "I guess you're not starting from square one in terms of raw power this time."
"Yeah," Lance said. "I guess I could have done this by the time I joined the Brotherhood, I just didn't see the point, directional quakes were more fun."
****** ****** ******
Kitty pounded on Kurt's door, "Come on, we're going to be late for school!" she yelled.
"You go ahead, my image inducer is on the fritz," Kurt called back.
"You can't skip, there are barely any other mutants in school this week," Kitty cried.
"I'm not going while I'm looking blue and fuzzy," Kurt protested.
"Come on Kurt, after the first day you admitted you were a mutant, what does it matter if they know what you really look like? I'm going with half my face black and blue."
"You are exaggerating," Kurt said.
"Am not," Kitty insisted.
Kurt cracked his door open and winced in sympathetic pain. There was an angry red welt over Kitty's left cheekbone and the eye above it was swollen shut. As she'd said, the bruises from Duncan slamming the basketball into her face cover the entire left side of her features. "You should have phased," he said.
Kitty shrugged, "I could have dodged, but by the time I got through thinking 'phase, no don't phase, you'll get expelled' it was too late. Come on, I'm not letting that jerk think he scared me off, even for a minute."
"Alright, just give me a second," Kurt sighed ducking back into his room and emerging swathed in the all-concealing cloak he'd worn when he first arrived at the Institute.
****** ****** ******
Lance lay back on the sandy ground, hands locked behind his head, eyes closed, resting. The landscape around him gave testament to the effort he was putting into regaining mastery of his powers; it looked like the surface of the moon, dotted with sinkholes, scored with cracks and unnaturally disturbed soil, but it was working. He was beginning to remember the knack of creating the small tremors he could use to knock an opponent off their feet without knocking a building down on his head in the process or to move a desk across a room and similar stunts.
Lance felt Jean's footsteps approaching, with a sigh he sat up and held out his arm so she could take his blood pressure; Dr. MacTaggart thought a spike would be the first indicator that he was over-exerting himself.
"Still looking good," Jean told him after a moment. "I guess Tante Mattie fixed you better than new."
"I guess," Lance said, personally he thought it was that he'd figured out trying to stop all the vibrations he felt was the wrong way to stop his quakes. That was what he'd done the first time he'd learned to control his powers, but after being forced to live with the natural vibrations around him for almost two months he realized he'd just been constantly using his powers on a subconscious level to create a sort of vibratory white noise. But that wasn't what he wanted to talk to Jean about. Oddly enough there was something he wanted to talk about with Jean for once. Lance took a deep breath then plunged in. "You go visit your parents every couple of weekends, you guys must get along or something."
"Yeah," Jean said, uncertain of why he was asking but suspicious anyway. She'd gotten used to having the Brotherhood living at the Institute, but Lance Alvers asking her personal questions was just strange. "Why?"
"Just commenting," Lance said. "You think we could talk Strom into an early lunch?"
"Sure," Jean replied still frowning.
Once the three of them had retrieved the sack lunches they'd put together that morning Lance tried again. "How'd your parents take it when you started reading minds and crap like that?" he asked Jean.
Her look told him it wasn't going to be that easy. Lance grimaced, if he wanted her to tell him something he was going to have to share too. This whole thing with contacting his parents was getting totally out of hand.
The original idea had been to call up and tell them they'd screwed up by getting rid of him then hang up and forget they ever existed. It was just supposed to have been a way to prove he really didn't think he'd die like they had told him he would. He hadn't counted on Rich wanting to talk to him. He hadn't expected an explanation for what they'd done that made him wonder if it was worth giving the guy another chance. Only he didn't know enough about parents to be sure. It was possible he'd remembered things wrong, that they'd had actual reasons, that they hadn't just decided he was too much trouble to keep.
"I was wondering," Lance said. "I mean I know how Kitty's parents took things, but they had Xavier showing up the same day it started and taking her off their hands. I was just thinking, maybe I should have told my foster parents."
"I don't know that I'm the best person to ask, my Dad is a professor at the college where Professor Xavier used to teach before starting the Institute. He knew about my powers before anyone. Actually my telepathy developed really early, too early. The Professor blocked it back and explained to my parents what was going on. So it was actually even easier than Kitty, my family and I knew I'd have powers and that the professor would help me with them since I was eleven.
Lance felt frustrated, even when Jean was telling him stuff it didn't tell him what to expect from parents. "I was fifteen when I got my powers," he said. "Jordan and Carol, my foster parents at the time, were pretty cool, for foster parents. Strict, but they told me all the rules and punishments up front and they actually did what they said they'd do."
Jean frowned a little. "They don't sound very affectionate," she said.
Lance rolled his eyes, wondering why he'd ever though talking to Jean was a good idea, he didn't want to explain foster homes to her, he wanted her to explain parents to him.
Ororo looked between the two teens. "Jean, when you first came to the Institute, even though you had known about the school ahead of time, you were still uncomfortable until you knew what was expected of you correct? Making friends was secondary to learning the basic guidelines. With your family many of those expectation are communicated more subtly, you learned them bit by bit as you grew up."
Lance frowned, it sounded like Storm was saying getting to know his real family wouldn't be any different from another foster family now, he still wouldn't understand them, and it wasn't like he needed them anymore. Talking to them was probably a bad idea; he should just forget it.
"Okay that sort of makes sense with how Scott freaks when he doesn't get the rules, but why would you care Lance? You break them all anyway." Jean said.
"I like to know ahead of time what not to get caught doing," Lance said sardonically. "And they were a cool family."
In his head he continued justifying his fondness for Jordan and Carol, but he decided he wasn't going to explain it to Jean. They'd made things simple, they didn't ask him to like them right off or even to be friendly. Later Jordan had noticed Lance paid attention when he talked about cars and he'd taken the time to teach him about them. Jordan had probably just liked having someone around who didn't fall asleep when he talked about his hobby, Carol was the type who didn't even want to know how to pop the hood, but it had been nice all the same.
They hadn't gone ballistic when the calls from school about him fighting had started either. They'd even listened to his side of things. It had been enough to make Lance wish he'd had better reason for getting in the fights in the first place. It was sort of awkward to try to explain the fights without admitting that beating up the worst bully he could find was how he made friends every time he switched schools, it wasn't like he'd had much practice lying to people who actually bothered to listen closely enough to ask questions, instead of just blaming him for everything.
He really hated the Social Worker who'd noticed all the cracking plaster, which had led to the house being declared unsound and him getting moved in with the jerks he'd been staying with when Mystique found him.
****** ****** ******
"Whoever you are this isn't Halloween!" Kelly snapped grabbing the hooded and robed student by the shoulder and spinning him around only to jump back as if he'd touched poison ivy when he found himself facing glowing yellow eyes and a hint of fangs set in a blue furred face. "Demon!" Kelly yelped.
"No mutant not to mention student," Kurt said unsurprised by the man's reaction.
"Mr. Wagner?" Kelly asked, thinking he recognized Kurt's accented voice. Upon receiving a confirming nod Kelly relaxed a little, collecting his wits. "You know it's against school policy to use mutant powers," he lectured.
"I'm not," Kurt protested.
"Well you don't normally * look * like a monster," Kelly said, his tone implying that a monster was exactly what Kurt and every other mutant was, regardless of looks.
"I have an image inducer," Kurt explained holding up his watch and pressing a few buttons. For a moment a wavering image of Kurt's public look appeared then the watch sparked and Kurt's natural fuzzy elf appearance reasserted itself.
Kelly shuddered. "Come to my office, I'm calling the superintendent. Obviously having a thing like you in class will be a distraction to students who actually come here to learn."
As Kelly walked off Kurt stuck his tongue out at the man's back. "I'm going to call the Professor," Kurt said as they walked into the office.
"Do that," Kelly said. "Keep him on the line so I can have him send someone to pick you up."
Kurt picked up the phone and dialed the Institute's number.
"Toad's house of slime, how may we help you?" Todd answered.
In the background Kurt heard Rahne yelling. "Todd that's not how you're supposed to answer the phone!"
"Aww come on Rahnie, sweetie, I'm bored," Todd whined.
"This is fascinating Todd, but could I speak with the Professor?" Kurt sighed.
"You chickening out already fuzz-ball?" Todd asked.
"I don't see you here Toad!" Kurt shot back.
"Yeah… well… How's things going?"
"Todd, the Professor," Kurt reminded him.
"Oh right, I'm going."
"Rahne got me," Xavier said picking up another extension. "Now if you could get back to your lessons, Todd?"
"English is boring!" Todd protested.
"Todd, get off the phone now!" Xavier ordered.
"Okay already, you don't gotta shout yo!" In the background Kurt heard a crash and Todd yelled, "Hey Popsicle, that looks fun, I'm gonna try!"
"If Hank ever suggests making Rock Candy as a science experiment again remind me to make him relive this day in all it's glory," Xavier muttered as Todd hung up. "Kurt is something wrong?"
"Principal Kelly says I can't come to school looking like myself," Kurt explained.
"Kurt are you comfortable at school without the inducer?" Xavier asked.
Kurt hesitated. "No, but I von't abandon Kitty here and I understand how she feels about not vanting Duncan to think he can scare her. Principal Kelly has no right saying I can't come to school because of how I look. I'm not doing anything wrong! This is me, this is how I look. If I vant to come to school vithout hiding he shouldn't be able to stop me."
"And he won't," Xavier promised. "I'm glad you're feeling like this. You have no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed of how you look Kurt."
****** ****** ******
Gambit strolled slowly down the hall, giving whoever was on the receiving end of Wanda's angry tirade, complete with flickering lights and the sound of things being smashed, a chance to escape.
Hank slammed the kitchen door behind him yelling, "You cannot see your brother. That is final! I will not intercede with the Professor on your behalf." He walked away muttering, "One must admire the paunch of an individual who can maintain that they do not have a problem with anger management while simultaneously hurtling dishes about the room."
Gambit caught Hank's arm as they passed. "Be it truly safe for Silver to be under de same roof as dat femme?" he asked.
"Yes, quite safe," Hank said. "Professor Xavier placed a mental compulsion in her mind which effectively acts as a restraining order. Wanda literally cannot enter a room which Pietro is in, either physically or with her powers."
Gambit nodded, looking satisfied. As he continued toward the kitchen his expression shifted to a charming, if totally false smile.
"Bonjour chere," he said to Wanda kissing the back of her hand with a flourish before she had a chance to react. "Don' believe we been introduced, I be Gambit. Mais I'd be pleased to have a belle femme like yo' call m' Remy."
Wanda stared at Gambit as if he came from another planet. "What?" She asked the angry edge to her voice wavering slightly.
"More de fool me, for 'ssuming every girl be swept off her feet wit' a bit of French," Gambit said. "But can yo' blame a man for wantin' to get to know a beautiful girl like yo' better?"
"I'm… I'm not beautiful," Wanda snapped realizing he was still holding her hand and snatching it away. "I'm dangerous."
"Oh cherie, dat only adds to your charms."
Wanda raised a hand to hex him, not knowing how else to respond to his attentions.
Gambit smiled at her, slow and sexy, demonic eyes sparkling. He took a step closer to her and Wanda couldn't help but notice how his muscles shifted beneath the skintight tee shirt he'd borrowed. "Yo' don' really be wantin' to chase ole Gambit 'way do yo' chere?" he asked his voice low and suggestive.
Nine years ago, when he father locked her away in the asylum, boys had been icky, except for Pietro because he was her twin and that made them special. The intervening years of being treated more like a radioactive isotope than a person hadn't taught her anything about how to react to the look in Gambit's eyes. Wanda's hand fell back to her side, her hex uncast.
Gambit took another step closer, for a moment Wanda thought he meant to kiss her, then he took her hand again, this time his lips lingered against her knuckles for a moment, until she jerked her had away and fled.
Gambit watched the door swing shut behind her with the contented air of a person whose schemes are going according to plan.
****** ****** ******
For once Kitty changed for PE as quickly as she could instead of dawdling until moments before the tardy bell rang. She had to show Duncan she wasn't scared of him, why would she be? She was the one standing at the end of the fight. She was also the one coming to school looking like an abuse case the next day… It was a good thing she was already used to people staring and whispering.
She walked out of the locker room and her mouth dropped open in shock. Instead of coming face to face with Duncan, the senior and his friends were notably absent from the gym and Fred was sitting in the bleachers looking pleased with himself.
"Freddy what are you doing at school?" Kitty asked delightedly.
"Well… um… I just remembered that gym's my favorite class. I thought I'd come, do you know how long it's been since I had a good game of throw the quarterback away?"
Kitty glanced over her shoulder and giggled to see Duncan and his friends trek into the gym covered in refuse. "Awww Fred, you didn't have to," she said.
"I know," he raised his voice slightly. "The way I hear it you cleaned his clock good except for him getting in a cheap shot at the beginning."
"Um Fred, do your really think that's a good idea?" Kitty asked nervously noting the hate filled glares Duncan and co. were shooting their way.
"Well it ain't like I'm gonna get too many more chances to play with him. Lance is gonna kill Matthews when he gets back and sees you."
"Don't kid about stuff like that!" Kitty hissed.
"Who's kidding?" Fred asked.
****** ****** ******
Jean, Storm and Lance waited while Scott walked Alex and his adopted parents to their car to say his farewells, after a few minutes Scott finished and they headed for their hotel.
Lance stared out the window with a distant, thoughtful expression on his face during the drive back. Once he and Scott retreated to their room for the night he said, "So that's your brother. He's really close to Mr. and Mrs. Masters huh, almost like they were a real family or something."
"Yeah," Scott said a little wistfully. "Alex got lucky, they're really nice people."
"I guess he was little and there wasn't anything wrong with him," Lance commented. He noticed Scott instantly going tense and suddenly realized Scott had never been adopted either. "I meant me," he said quickly. "I mean with everyone knowing that I was supposed to get sick and die."
Scott offered him a sickly grin. "Yeah, I know how that goes. I was suffered some brain damage in the plane crash that killed my parents. That's why I need the visor. Back then no one knew what sort of effect the damage would have, but it was still a huge black mark against anyone wanting to adopt me. Plus I went through the whole 'you're not my parents, you can't tell me what to do' stage, really not endearing."
Lance laughed. "I can't see you doing that," he admitted.
"Shows what you know," Scott replied good-humouredly. "Just because some of us out grow being rebellious…"
"Where's the fun in that?" Lance said. "Beside, I didn't have a phase, I had a plan. My class went on field trip. I think I was eight or nine. This one kid was being a royal pain, the teacher told him to settle down or they'd call his parents and make them take him home. Well he didn't and they did and I took it into my head that if I caused enough trouble they'd make my parents take me back too. I didn't have any powers, but I made due. Went through six foster homes in five months."
"So what happened?" Scott asked. "Did you give up or did they find a place that could deal with you?"
Lance's face lost all trace of expression. "The second one, I toned it down a lot after they let me out of that place."
Scott decided against asking anything else.
After a few minutes Lance asked, "So you ever wonder what it'd be like having a family?"
"No," Scott said. "I was old enough to really remember my parents, even after I stopped acting like a brat I didn't like the idea of anyone trying to replace them."
"They were pretty cool then?" Lance asked.
"They died to save Alex and I," Scott said simply.
Back Next Please send feedback