Paprika90: Thank you for the review.
Claire: Don't worry. Now that I reread that it is kinda confusing.
Eden: No, not dumb. I just haven't told you yet.
A/N: In this chapter the POV, changes three times. So every time you see these '~', I'm changing that stuff. And this takes place pre-Apocalypse
Disclaimer: Don't own the song.
Bumpy Road
I struggled with my combination lock. Since I swear the thing hates me. I snarled angrily. "Why" pull "couldn't I" strain "have" tug "a useful power!" The lock snapped off my locker and it swung open. Unfortunately, this sent me sprawling onto the floor.
I gazed from my locker to the broken lock. Well, the good news was my locker was open. The bad news was . . .Kelly was giving me the glare of detention.
"West," He started.
"Sorry," I whimpered, trying to look harmless and apologetic which I was neither.
Kelly glared me, "Until we can find someone to fix you lock, you'll have to just deal with closing it."
Like I care. I thought, but kept my face blank. I opened my locker and made a mental note to ask Gambit for some thieve blocking tricks. He was bound to know some.
A note fluttered out.
7:00 @ the usual spot, was all that was printed on the index card.
"Gambit!" I snarled, slamming my locker, annoyed. And just to make sure I ran out to the student parking lot. Sure enough his motorcycle was gone. "Errrrrrr. Damn him anyway."
I reentered the school, still slightly fuming at a certain Cajun and very determined to find some revenge.
Lunch was lonely. But I was a loner and didn't care much for company. Especially at the moment while I sat plotting.
Plotting is fun.
And one of things you do not want to do is bother me while I'm plotting. I was eating far away from everyone else. Ever since my powers manifested, I had found that the cafeteria noise level was more than I could bear, and I was a lot more apt to do something to those annoying little. . . things that were screaming.
Aggressiveness, chock up another point in ways I have changed since my power manifested.
Someone touched my shoulder. I sighed. "Whadya want, Robby?" I twisted to face Robby.
He smirked. Robby was NOT a pretty sight. His hair had been dyed a bright orange and spiked into what looked like a bad reincarnation of the 80's Mohawk. His lip was pierce, both ears were pierced, his nose was pierced, his eyebrow was pierced, and so was his tongue.
I know I don't have much room to criticize since my ears are pierced four times each, my nose is pierced, and so is my belly button, but I don't wear them all at once!
Robby clicked his tongue piercing. "Well, well, well, what have we here. Is it? Oh my yes it is! It is the elusive West!"
What don't I have a first name anymore?
I think I shall change my names around then everyone will be forced to call me Alex and then I will secretly switch them back, so no one will know that they are actually calling me by my first name.
"What do you want?" I repeated, glancing around at the rest of his cronies. They all looked the same, clownishly bright hair in some awful style with lots of piercing.
Another thing they all shared was liquid paper white skin which is why I had christened them the circus clowns from hell.
They all leered at me disgustingly. "West, you're pissin' me off."
I glared at him. "Sorry, I'm confused. I don't remember doing anything to piss you off. . . .recently."
He grabbed me by my shirt. "West, this is our school. You have no place in it."
"I beg to differ." I removed his hand from my shirt. "I am here to annoy you and you kind." The bell rang. "Now, I have class. Why don't you go smoke some pot?" I picked up my bag and went back inside.
Several hours later at the library, I was staring at the computer screen. Strange how much stuff you can find on the autobahn, unfortunately a lot of the stuff was in, you guessed it, German.
Luckily for me, I had a German partner and babel fish.
I handed half of the stack of information to Kurt. "This is for you to read through and take notes on anything that you thinks interesting. I'll do the same thing with mine."
"All right," Kurt agreed.
"See ya later." I waved good bye and hurried out. It was six fifty-three. And I had a ways to walk and as annoyingly unpunctual Gambit is, he has the bad habit of not waiting if someone else is late.
And quite frankly, I didn't want to be walking home.
I shouldered my backpack and had gone a few blocks when I noticed someone was following me. I shifted uneasily and caught a glimpse of my pursuer–Robby.
"Oh, so THAT's how you want to play," I mumbled under my breath and sped up. I was going to be late.
"Hey, maybe if I cut along here," I thought aloud softly.
I followed the alley along until I came to a dead end.
"How freakin' cliché!" I screamed, stamping my foot in annoyance. Why I continue to trust my sense of direction after it has proved me wrong time after time, I will never know.
"Crap," I murmured as I felt the advance of at least six clowns behind me. I whirled around to face them.
Robby grinned at me showing teeth that were stained from tobacco use. I grimaced in disgust. "Look, Robby, you DON'T want to mess with me."
He smirked. "You messed with us first. It's required."
My mouth dried out. "I don't want to fight you," I hissed.
"Then just stand there and take your bruises like a good little punching bag," he gestured two of his goons who came up behind me and pinioned my arms behind me.
I hunched my shoulders and waited for him to throw the first punch. It hit me square in the ribs. I yelped at the force of the blow and at the pain it caused me.
Laughter.
The world tilted insanely. My knees sagged.
Obviously think I was easy prey the guys holding me back loosened their grips slightly.
Not a lot, but enough.
I jerked one hand free and stopped the second punch. "Don't." I said, tilting his hand backward until I heard the snap of tendon.
Robby screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his wrist. I stepped away from the others, so I stood over Robby. "I don't like having to do it. So don't make me."
Tymmie, second in command of the Circus Clowns from Hell, launched and attack at me which seemed to be the signal for an all out street brawl.
I flipped backward, skidding in the dust and turned kicked someone in the face, slamming my booted foot into his nose.
It was five to one or more likely four to one, since I had at the very least given one of them a very bad nosebleed.
This would be easy. I'd been taught to handle at least ten without back up. Strangely out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glow.
I frowned. The sun was down, so what was it glowing? "Damn!" I cursed It was a card, the three of clubs and it was glowing.
Wait a second, cards aren't suppose to glow, unless. . .Gambit.
I jumped backward and then did a back handspring, which took me, I hoped, out of the range of the card. For a minute I stood stock still and waited.
The card exploded.
I glanced back to find most of them stunned. "Gambit, what are you doing?" I hissed at him.
"Can't have petite ge' hurt. Magneto would'n' be happy 'bout dat."
"I can't get hurt," I reminded him and as if to demonstrate this fact I looked at the gash that I received in the fight. The skin was knitting back together even as I spoke. "See? Now let's get outta here. Someone might've heard that. And I don't want to find out if they did or not."
Gambit led me out of the alley. As I was several feet away from the alley opening, I heard a strange sound behind me. I turned, frowning toward the sound. There was nothing there, but I could have sworn I smelled the lingering scent of . . .brimstone?
"Hey, petite, y' okay?"
"Fine," I replied.
The motorcycle was parked several blocks away and I pulled on my helmet and straddled the bike. My hands were shaking like they always did after I used my powers.
"Gambit, get me home fast," I whispered.
"All right, petite," he agreed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"But, Scott, I'm being totally serious," Kurt exclaimed. "She did honestly!"
Scott turned to the elf. "Kurt, there is no way that a girl could take down four guys a the same time."
Kurt scowled. "But, Scott, she really did. And she knows Gambit!"
"I'm pretty sure Magneto hasn't gotten in to the habit of hiring little kids."
Kurt didn't entirely believe what he'd seen either. It hadn't made sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stepped out of my room, closing the door behind me and went to find some food. Not like our kitchen is exactly overflowing with food. But then again, it hasn't surprised me.
So that would explain why I had the look of utter astonishment as I stared at the fridge. It was packed with food.
"Holy crap. Gambit, did you rob a supermarket?" I asked, pulling the freezer open and happily pulled out a frozen pizza.
I stripped the plastic wrap off and stuck it in the oven. Humming I danced over to the microwave and set the timer.
"With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and I," I sang into my spatula, doing a spin and continuing on.
"I want to hold you so hear me out
I want to show you what love's all about
Darlin tonight
Now I've got you in my sights."
I took a full breath, down to my belly button, filling my lungs fully as I had been taught.
"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat.
It wasn't Magneto because when he caught me singing he just turned and left the room or did his best to ignore me. Piotr usually just gave me a wide berth. Gambit usually laughed at me and interrupted me. And Pyro laughed and sang along if he knew the words to the song.
I turned to face the intruder. It was a girl, I'd never seen before. She black leather pants with a white T-shirt and leather jacket. Her dark green eyes were studying me, brusquely. Her green hair was pulled away from her face in a French braid.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"What are doing here?" She demanded at the same time.
I tossed my head. "I live here. Who are you?"
She snapped her gum. "Lorna."
"What are you doing here?" I persisted. I hate it when people make me pry answers out of them.
"I'm the fifth Acolyte. Who are you? I've already met four guys."
"Really?" I was annoyed. I'd ben forced to live her for six frickin' weeks before her. And she was the fifth acolyte. My position had been explained to me by Magneto, but I thought that it was understated fact that I was an Acolyte.
Obviously, not.
Mags, I thought snarled. Then turned Lorna. "So. Another acolyte. You can't be too awful if you have anything to do with this." I motioned to the actually stocked fridge
"No." Lorna looked at the fridge. "So why are you here?"
"Technically, I am an acolyte with a special status," I told her. "Not just someone's who job is pissing off the X-men."
Lorna raised her eyebrows. "Oh."
"Yes," I responded. I didn't like her. After only a few minutes, she had managed to get under my skin like few people had a gift to.
"Magneto told me to find you. He said, you'd show me my room."
There were a few empty rooms in the base, so I assumed he wanted me to just give her a room.
"All right," I glanced at the timer. The pizza still had a little more than ten minutes. Damn no excuse in that alley.
I wheeled around on my heel and motioned her to follow me. "Gambit's room. Don't go in there. Pyro's room, definitely DON'T go in there unless you're inflammable. Piotr's room." I pointed to the doors.
"This is your room," I opened it. The room was set up like every other room except mine.
Bed pushed against the left wall, a desk on the right next to a closet and a dresser was placed right next to the door.
"You can rearrange, personalize it, whatever." I told her. I stepped out of the room, followed by Lorna.
"Where's your room?"
I didn't want to show her, but I jerked my head towards the door. Unabashed, she let herself in.
"How come you get the good room?" She asked looking at my room.
I shrugged, "I demanded it. Simple actually."
She walked over to my desk and picked up one of the few articles in the room that told the story of my past. "Who's this?" She asked. "Boyfriend."
"Gross. Brother!" I told her, yanking the frame out her hand. All right, little protective of the picture.
She arched her eyebrow. "uh-huh."
I didn't care. This was, literally, my only picture of my brother who was the most important person to me.
I blew my bangs off my face and placed the picture down gently out of reach of Lorna. She arched her eyebrows again and turned to leave. Once she was gone, I closed the door and locked it. I didn't trust any farther than I could throw Piotr in armored form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A dark figure snuck down the hall and seated itself down at the computer. Fingers flicked across the keyboard, breaking codes, advancing at a dizzying pace, through the maze-like tangle of files and browsers. Until he found what he was looking for. Two quick clicks of the mouse and it opened.
Name: Alexis West
Age: 16
Hair: brown
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'7
Weight: 125
Powers: enhanced agility, reflexes, strength, sight, hearing. Instantly understands any fighting style or how to use a weapon, has a form of telekinesis that allows her to control a weapons movement, healing capabilities.
Special limitations of power: She 'downloads' a file of fighting or weapon use directly proportional to the danger she is in. This 'file' becomes harder and harder to recall the more it lays dormant. She may practice and a more complex file will open.
Biography: Unknown. Though it is suspected that Alexis West is not her real name.
Claire: Don't worry. Now that I reread that it is kinda confusing.
Eden: No, not dumb. I just haven't told you yet.
A/N: In this chapter the POV, changes three times. So every time you see these '~', I'm changing that stuff. And this takes place pre-Apocalypse
Disclaimer: Don't own the song.
Bumpy Road
I struggled with my combination lock. Since I swear the thing hates me. I snarled angrily. "Why" pull "couldn't I" strain "have" tug "a useful power!" The lock snapped off my locker and it swung open. Unfortunately, this sent me sprawling onto the floor.
I gazed from my locker to the broken lock. Well, the good news was my locker was open. The bad news was . . .Kelly was giving me the glare of detention.
"West," He started.
"Sorry," I whimpered, trying to look harmless and apologetic which I was neither.
Kelly glared me, "Until we can find someone to fix you lock, you'll have to just deal with closing it."
Like I care. I thought, but kept my face blank. I opened my locker and made a mental note to ask Gambit for some thieve blocking tricks. He was bound to know some.
A note fluttered out.
7:00 @ the usual spot, was all that was printed on the index card.
"Gambit!" I snarled, slamming my locker, annoyed. And just to make sure I ran out to the student parking lot. Sure enough his motorcycle was gone. "Errrrrrr. Damn him anyway."
I reentered the school, still slightly fuming at a certain Cajun and very determined to find some revenge.
Lunch was lonely. But I was a loner and didn't care much for company. Especially at the moment while I sat plotting.
Plotting is fun.
And one of things you do not want to do is bother me while I'm plotting. I was eating far away from everyone else. Ever since my powers manifested, I had found that the cafeteria noise level was more than I could bear, and I was a lot more apt to do something to those annoying little. . . things that were screaming.
Aggressiveness, chock up another point in ways I have changed since my power manifested.
Someone touched my shoulder. I sighed. "Whadya want, Robby?" I twisted to face Robby.
He smirked. Robby was NOT a pretty sight. His hair had been dyed a bright orange and spiked into what looked like a bad reincarnation of the 80's Mohawk. His lip was pierce, both ears were pierced, his nose was pierced, his eyebrow was pierced, and so was his tongue.
I know I don't have much room to criticize since my ears are pierced four times each, my nose is pierced, and so is my belly button, but I don't wear them all at once!
Robby clicked his tongue piercing. "Well, well, well, what have we here. Is it? Oh my yes it is! It is the elusive West!"
What don't I have a first name anymore?
I think I shall change my names around then everyone will be forced to call me Alex and then I will secretly switch them back, so no one will know that they are actually calling me by my first name.
"What do you want?" I repeated, glancing around at the rest of his cronies. They all looked the same, clownishly bright hair in some awful style with lots of piercing.
Another thing they all shared was liquid paper white skin which is why I had christened them the circus clowns from hell.
They all leered at me disgustingly. "West, you're pissin' me off."
I glared at him. "Sorry, I'm confused. I don't remember doing anything to piss you off. . . .recently."
He grabbed me by my shirt. "West, this is our school. You have no place in it."
"I beg to differ." I removed his hand from my shirt. "I am here to annoy you and you kind." The bell rang. "Now, I have class. Why don't you go smoke some pot?" I picked up my bag and went back inside.
Several hours later at the library, I was staring at the computer screen. Strange how much stuff you can find on the autobahn, unfortunately a lot of the stuff was in, you guessed it, German.
Luckily for me, I had a German partner and babel fish.
I handed half of the stack of information to Kurt. "This is for you to read through and take notes on anything that you thinks interesting. I'll do the same thing with mine."
"All right," Kurt agreed.
"See ya later." I waved good bye and hurried out. It was six fifty-three. And I had a ways to walk and as annoyingly unpunctual Gambit is, he has the bad habit of not waiting if someone else is late.
And quite frankly, I didn't want to be walking home.
I shouldered my backpack and had gone a few blocks when I noticed someone was following me. I shifted uneasily and caught a glimpse of my pursuer–Robby.
"Oh, so THAT's how you want to play," I mumbled under my breath and sped up. I was going to be late.
"Hey, maybe if I cut along here," I thought aloud softly.
I followed the alley along until I came to a dead end.
"How freakin' cliché!" I screamed, stamping my foot in annoyance. Why I continue to trust my sense of direction after it has proved me wrong time after time, I will never know.
"Crap," I murmured as I felt the advance of at least six clowns behind me. I whirled around to face them.
Robby grinned at me showing teeth that were stained from tobacco use. I grimaced in disgust. "Look, Robby, you DON'T want to mess with me."
He smirked. "You messed with us first. It's required."
My mouth dried out. "I don't want to fight you," I hissed.
"Then just stand there and take your bruises like a good little punching bag," he gestured two of his goons who came up behind me and pinioned my arms behind me.
I hunched my shoulders and waited for him to throw the first punch. It hit me square in the ribs. I yelped at the force of the blow and at the pain it caused me.
Laughter.
The world tilted insanely. My knees sagged.
Obviously think I was easy prey the guys holding me back loosened their grips slightly.
Not a lot, but enough.
I jerked one hand free and stopped the second punch. "Don't." I said, tilting his hand backward until I heard the snap of tendon.
Robby screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his wrist. I stepped away from the others, so I stood over Robby. "I don't like having to do it. So don't make me."
Tymmie, second in command of the Circus Clowns from Hell, launched and attack at me which seemed to be the signal for an all out street brawl.
I flipped backward, skidding in the dust and turned kicked someone in the face, slamming my booted foot into his nose.
It was five to one or more likely four to one, since I had at the very least given one of them a very bad nosebleed.
This would be easy. I'd been taught to handle at least ten without back up. Strangely out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glow.
I frowned. The sun was down, so what was it glowing? "Damn!" I cursed It was a card, the three of clubs and it was glowing.
Wait a second, cards aren't suppose to glow, unless. . .Gambit.
I jumped backward and then did a back handspring, which took me, I hoped, out of the range of the card. For a minute I stood stock still and waited.
The card exploded.
I glanced back to find most of them stunned. "Gambit, what are you doing?" I hissed at him.
"Can't have petite ge' hurt. Magneto would'n' be happy 'bout dat."
"I can't get hurt," I reminded him and as if to demonstrate this fact I looked at the gash that I received in the fight. The skin was knitting back together even as I spoke. "See? Now let's get outta here. Someone might've heard that. And I don't want to find out if they did or not."
Gambit led me out of the alley. As I was several feet away from the alley opening, I heard a strange sound behind me. I turned, frowning toward the sound. There was nothing there, but I could have sworn I smelled the lingering scent of . . .brimstone?
"Hey, petite, y' okay?"
"Fine," I replied.
The motorcycle was parked several blocks away and I pulled on my helmet and straddled the bike. My hands were shaking like they always did after I used my powers.
"Gambit, get me home fast," I whispered.
"All right, petite," he agreed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"But, Scott, I'm being totally serious," Kurt exclaimed. "She did honestly!"
Scott turned to the elf. "Kurt, there is no way that a girl could take down four guys a the same time."
Kurt scowled. "But, Scott, she really did. And she knows Gambit!"
"I'm pretty sure Magneto hasn't gotten in to the habit of hiring little kids."
Kurt didn't entirely believe what he'd seen either. It hadn't made sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stepped out of my room, closing the door behind me and went to find some food. Not like our kitchen is exactly overflowing with food. But then again, it hasn't surprised me.
So that would explain why I had the look of utter astonishment as I stared at the fridge. It was packed with food.
"Holy crap. Gambit, did you rob a supermarket?" I asked, pulling the freezer open and happily pulled out a frozen pizza.
I stripped the plastic wrap off and stuck it in the oven. Humming I danced over to the microwave and set the timer.
"With these hungry eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got hungry eyes
I feel the magic between you and I," I sang into my spatula, doing a spin and continuing on.
"I want to hold you so hear me out
I want to show you what love's all about
Darlin tonight
Now I've got you in my sights."
I took a full breath, down to my belly button, filling my lungs fully as I had been taught.
"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat.
It wasn't Magneto because when he caught me singing he just turned and left the room or did his best to ignore me. Piotr usually just gave me a wide berth. Gambit usually laughed at me and interrupted me. And Pyro laughed and sang along if he knew the words to the song.
I turned to face the intruder. It was a girl, I'd never seen before. She black leather pants with a white T-shirt and leather jacket. Her dark green eyes were studying me, brusquely. Her green hair was pulled away from her face in a French braid.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"What are doing here?" She demanded at the same time.
I tossed my head. "I live here. Who are you?"
She snapped her gum. "Lorna."
"What are you doing here?" I persisted. I hate it when people make me pry answers out of them.
"I'm the fifth Acolyte. Who are you? I've already met four guys."
"Really?" I was annoyed. I'd ben forced to live her for six frickin' weeks before her. And she was the fifth acolyte. My position had been explained to me by Magneto, but I thought that it was understated fact that I was an Acolyte.
Obviously, not.
Mags, I thought snarled. Then turned Lorna. "So. Another acolyte. You can't be too awful if you have anything to do with this." I motioned to the actually stocked fridge
"No." Lorna looked at the fridge. "So why are you here?"
"Technically, I am an acolyte with a special status," I told her. "Not just someone's who job is pissing off the X-men."
Lorna raised her eyebrows. "Oh."
"Yes," I responded. I didn't like her. After only a few minutes, she had managed to get under my skin like few people had a gift to.
"Magneto told me to find you. He said, you'd show me my room."
There were a few empty rooms in the base, so I assumed he wanted me to just give her a room.
"All right," I glanced at the timer. The pizza still had a little more than ten minutes. Damn no excuse in that alley.
I wheeled around on my heel and motioned her to follow me. "Gambit's room. Don't go in there. Pyro's room, definitely DON'T go in there unless you're inflammable. Piotr's room." I pointed to the doors.
"This is your room," I opened it. The room was set up like every other room except mine.
Bed pushed against the left wall, a desk on the right next to a closet and a dresser was placed right next to the door.
"You can rearrange, personalize it, whatever." I told her. I stepped out of the room, followed by Lorna.
"Where's your room?"
I didn't want to show her, but I jerked my head towards the door. Unabashed, she let herself in.
"How come you get the good room?" She asked looking at my room.
I shrugged, "I demanded it. Simple actually."
She walked over to my desk and picked up one of the few articles in the room that told the story of my past. "Who's this?" She asked. "Boyfriend."
"Gross. Brother!" I told her, yanking the frame out her hand. All right, little protective of the picture.
She arched her eyebrow. "uh-huh."
I didn't care. This was, literally, my only picture of my brother who was the most important person to me.
I blew my bangs off my face and placed the picture down gently out of reach of Lorna. She arched her eyebrows again and turned to leave. Once she was gone, I closed the door and locked it. I didn't trust any farther than I could throw Piotr in armored form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A dark figure snuck down the hall and seated itself down at the computer. Fingers flicked across the keyboard, breaking codes, advancing at a dizzying pace, through the maze-like tangle of files and browsers. Until he found what he was looking for. Two quick clicks of the mouse and it opened.
Name: Alexis West
Age: 16
Hair: brown
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'7
Weight: 125
Powers: enhanced agility, reflexes, strength, sight, hearing. Instantly understands any fighting style or how to use a weapon, has a form of telekinesis that allows her to control a weapons movement, healing capabilities.
Special limitations of power: She 'downloads' a file of fighting or weapon use directly proportional to the danger she is in. This 'file' becomes harder and harder to recall the more it lays dormant. She may practice and a more complex file will open.
Biography: Unknown. Though it is suspected that Alexis West is not her real name.