Chapter One: The Lost Ones
They'd traveled so far, two years before they'd been experiments of a sickly-minded scientist, among many other mutants; they'd gone through so many evolutions in their powers. Now, they might only be recognizable to those closest to them, those who'd known them best. They'd traveled down from the cold wastes of Canada, searching for their pasts. Senses leading them to the desolate city of New York.
They lived in an abandoned office building; they were young, in their late teens early twenties. They're faces, faces once so innocent, now were hard from years of scrounging on the streets. They'd fought mutant and human gangs alike for this territory, in creatively using their powers they'd managed to fend off all intruders. Both small and slight, one dressed in tan khakis, a black low cut tank top, a slick leather jacket, and sunglasses. The other wore pants of black leather, a dark green spaghetti strap, a long leather trench coat, black sunglasses, and black gloves. The first girl, a petite brunette, pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail, and her eyes are a sadly warm blue. The face once emanated such innocently caring warmth it would have made the coldest man smile; no longer was that the case. The first girl was once called Kitty Pryde, in the days of the X-men and Charles Xavier. Now she was known only as codename: the Shadowcat. Kat to her closest friends and compatriots. The second girl, a pale brunette, wore her hair bobbed, the front bangs were naturally a vibrant perfect white, her face had always been lonesome and cold, set apart and forbidden physical contact, now it was hard from years of torture. Eyes of a purplish gray glittered beneath gothic makeup enhancing the paleness of her skin. This girl was known as codename: Rogue, though Kat called her Ty.
"Ah hate just sittin' like this!" Ty yelled slamming her fist into the table. Kat smiled, Ty's southern accent always thickened when she was angry. "Yah wanna watch the tube?" she asked slumping onto the ratty couch.
Kat sighed, watching Ty flip through the channels, her face the epitome of boredom. "We like do this every night Ty. Why can't we just like do something like else for a change?"
"Careful yer startin' ta sound like a valley girl again. Ah, Jean's on. " Ty slumped more deeply into the couch as she stared at Jean Grey. The woman on the screen was exactly like the one she remembered from her and Kat's days at the Xavier institute. 'Same old Jean.' Ty thought, pinpricks of annoyance running through her system. ''Course she never had ta deal with bein' an experiment.' Shuddering, and swamped, Ty fell back into memories.
Men in white lab coats lined the room. Everything dark and tinged green, the water round her bubbled like screaming souls, x-rays of her skull and bones were attached to the wall. Little black lines covered her face as a man leaned in ready to inject some sort of silver liquid.
Ty leapt from the rat eaten couch with a roar. In a flash three long prongs ejected from her knuckles. She raised them above the TV. And Kat caught her hand before it could descend. "Let go." She snarled.
"You think I don't live with those memories too Ty? You think I'm not wakened in the middle of the night screaming like you? What they did to me?" Kat's grip tightened, Ty's bones began grinding into one another as the tendon's shrieked and the blood vessels burst. "Are you like going to punish Jean for what they did to us?"
Ty growled something under her breath. Then she glanced up at Kat, eyes flashing. "What they made me do to Jose and the others."
Kat sighed and released Ty's wrist. "I know, but it's like not your fault. They got what they deserved, like all of 'em." She glanced at the smiling Jean Grey, giving her speech of hope to the people of the colonies. Grey's hands were spread as if welcoming everyone. Kat hoped she was happy, but that didn't stop her from hating Jean and the others. She and Ty had traveled down from Canada to find them, their one memory that had kept them alive for those two years of hell. Upon arrival at the destroyed mansion, they'd found that all the X-men had fled to the Colonies to start a new life. No, they deserved to be happy, all of them. But she hated them. They'd forgotten her.
"Can yah believe that Miss Perfect is thah Ambassador of thah Colonies?" Ty smiled, she'd gained control of her absorption abilities, but it'd been too late when she'd finally learned. Now there were so many memories cruising through her mind that she wasn't sure which were hers and which were the memories of the others. Their powers weren't incredibly useful to her. Only Lia's healing factor, which was the same as Wolverine's, it had given the white-coats the ability to inject adamantium into her body without killing her. They'd played with Kat's genetics, giving her incredible strength, speed, and accuracy.
'What do you intend to do with them?' 'Sell them of course. To the highest paying Colony.' 'Why not to one of the Godfathers or the Mob Boss?' 'Fool the Colonies will pay much more for perfect soldiers to use in the Tournaments.'
'The perfect soldier. Right.' Ty smiled, she felt so feral, she hated the sense of ecstasy killing that bastard had given her. The pleasure, it made her feel like something lower than an animal. But they'd deserved their deaths. They deserved it. She wanted them to have deserved it. 'Scott.'
"Scott?"
Scott Summers, Agent of UNCA glanced up, his quartz sunglasses glimmering in the artificial light of the Colony 234: New Hope. His face had long matured from pretty boy, to rugged fighter. He and his team had spent their last few years taking down the Drug Dealer Networks in the Colony. His heart remained beating steadily, few years ago though, the sound of her voice would have put him into a coma. "Hey Jean." He said, gaze still locked on the small blue planet ahead of them. "How's life?" His husky and commanding voice had only become more sure and direct over time. He'd been a natural born leader at the mansion and that was the same now. Looking back down to the touch pad screen below him, flipping through images of criminals convicted, and missing person's yet to be found.
Jean Grey started she'd expected many things from her former boyfriend, but not this. "Is that all you can say to me after all these years? How's life?" Her long red hair was bound back into a thick bun. Eyes of brilliant emerald green glimmered with wetness. Her eyebrows contorted into a furious position.
"What do you want me to say?" Scott looked up from his work, and back at her. "Hey do want to know what life has been like since you left?" Twirling his touchpen in his fingers as he said. "Or maybe, hey do you want to know why I'll never forgive you?"
Jean yelled. "I knew where to find you! Doesn't that count for anything anymore?" He shook his head as he stood. Shoving the pen into his pants pocket. "Nothing has been right with you since we came here."
"Maybe that's because not all of us came, Jean." Scott turned to the picture of him and Rogue that he always kept hidden in his missing person's section. It had been taken in those precious months before Professor Xavier's death. Before the War, before they'd come here. Rogue, memories of her kept him awake in the long hours of the night. Forcing him to relive every moment spent with her. He missed her. Checking his watch, he smiled at Jean. "I'm going, got an appointment with Logan. See you."
Jean touched her cheek as she watched him go. "Why won't you stop hating me, Scott? Why won't you stop hating yourself?"
Hey folks what do ya think? Please read and review. I'll bring Kitty's boy in later. So see ya later.
They'd traveled so far, two years before they'd been experiments of a sickly-minded scientist, among many other mutants; they'd gone through so many evolutions in their powers. Now, they might only be recognizable to those closest to them, those who'd known them best. They'd traveled down from the cold wastes of Canada, searching for their pasts. Senses leading them to the desolate city of New York.
They lived in an abandoned office building; they were young, in their late teens early twenties. They're faces, faces once so innocent, now were hard from years of scrounging on the streets. They'd fought mutant and human gangs alike for this territory, in creatively using their powers they'd managed to fend off all intruders. Both small and slight, one dressed in tan khakis, a black low cut tank top, a slick leather jacket, and sunglasses. The other wore pants of black leather, a dark green spaghetti strap, a long leather trench coat, black sunglasses, and black gloves. The first girl, a petite brunette, pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail, and her eyes are a sadly warm blue. The face once emanated such innocently caring warmth it would have made the coldest man smile; no longer was that the case. The first girl was once called Kitty Pryde, in the days of the X-men and Charles Xavier. Now she was known only as codename: the Shadowcat. Kat to her closest friends and compatriots. The second girl, a pale brunette, wore her hair bobbed, the front bangs were naturally a vibrant perfect white, her face had always been lonesome and cold, set apart and forbidden physical contact, now it was hard from years of torture. Eyes of a purplish gray glittered beneath gothic makeup enhancing the paleness of her skin. This girl was known as codename: Rogue, though Kat called her Ty.
"Ah hate just sittin' like this!" Ty yelled slamming her fist into the table. Kat smiled, Ty's southern accent always thickened when she was angry. "Yah wanna watch the tube?" she asked slumping onto the ratty couch.
Kat sighed, watching Ty flip through the channels, her face the epitome of boredom. "We like do this every night Ty. Why can't we just like do something like else for a change?"
"Careful yer startin' ta sound like a valley girl again. Ah, Jean's on. " Ty slumped more deeply into the couch as she stared at Jean Grey. The woman on the screen was exactly like the one she remembered from her and Kat's days at the Xavier institute. 'Same old Jean.' Ty thought, pinpricks of annoyance running through her system. ''Course she never had ta deal with bein' an experiment.' Shuddering, and swamped, Ty fell back into memories.
Men in white lab coats lined the room. Everything dark and tinged green, the water round her bubbled like screaming souls, x-rays of her skull and bones were attached to the wall. Little black lines covered her face as a man leaned in ready to inject some sort of silver liquid.
Ty leapt from the rat eaten couch with a roar. In a flash three long prongs ejected from her knuckles. She raised them above the TV. And Kat caught her hand before it could descend. "Let go." She snarled.
"You think I don't live with those memories too Ty? You think I'm not wakened in the middle of the night screaming like you? What they did to me?" Kat's grip tightened, Ty's bones began grinding into one another as the tendon's shrieked and the blood vessels burst. "Are you like going to punish Jean for what they did to us?"
Ty growled something under her breath. Then she glanced up at Kat, eyes flashing. "What they made me do to Jose and the others."
Kat sighed and released Ty's wrist. "I know, but it's like not your fault. They got what they deserved, like all of 'em." She glanced at the smiling Jean Grey, giving her speech of hope to the people of the colonies. Grey's hands were spread as if welcoming everyone. Kat hoped she was happy, but that didn't stop her from hating Jean and the others. She and Ty had traveled down from Canada to find them, their one memory that had kept them alive for those two years of hell. Upon arrival at the destroyed mansion, they'd found that all the X-men had fled to the Colonies to start a new life. No, they deserved to be happy, all of them. But she hated them. They'd forgotten her.
"Can yah believe that Miss Perfect is thah Ambassador of thah Colonies?" Ty smiled, she'd gained control of her absorption abilities, but it'd been too late when she'd finally learned. Now there were so many memories cruising through her mind that she wasn't sure which were hers and which were the memories of the others. Their powers weren't incredibly useful to her. Only Lia's healing factor, which was the same as Wolverine's, it had given the white-coats the ability to inject adamantium into her body without killing her. They'd played with Kat's genetics, giving her incredible strength, speed, and accuracy.
'What do you intend to do with them?' 'Sell them of course. To the highest paying Colony.' 'Why not to one of the Godfathers or the Mob Boss?' 'Fool the Colonies will pay much more for perfect soldiers to use in the Tournaments.'
'The perfect soldier. Right.' Ty smiled, she felt so feral, she hated the sense of ecstasy killing that bastard had given her. The pleasure, it made her feel like something lower than an animal. But they'd deserved their deaths. They deserved it. She wanted them to have deserved it. 'Scott.'
"Scott?"
Scott Summers, Agent of UNCA glanced up, his quartz sunglasses glimmering in the artificial light of the Colony 234: New Hope. His face had long matured from pretty boy, to rugged fighter. He and his team had spent their last few years taking down the Drug Dealer Networks in the Colony. His heart remained beating steadily, few years ago though, the sound of her voice would have put him into a coma. "Hey Jean." He said, gaze still locked on the small blue planet ahead of them. "How's life?" His husky and commanding voice had only become more sure and direct over time. He'd been a natural born leader at the mansion and that was the same now. Looking back down to the touch pad screen below him, flipping through images of criminals convicted, and missing person's yet to be found.
Jean Grey started she'd expected many things from her former boyfriend, but not this. "Is that all you can say to me after all these years? How's life?" Her long red hair was bound back into a thick bun. Eyes of brilliant emerald green glimmered with wetness. Her eyebrows contorted into a furious position.
"What do you want me to say?" Scott looked up from his work, and back at her. "Hey do want to know what life has been like since you left?" Twirling his touchpen in his fingers as he said. "Or maybe, hey do you want to know why I'll never forgive you?"
Jean yelled. "I knew where to find you! Doesn't that count for anything anymore?" He shook his head as he stood. Shoving the pen into his pants pocket. "Nothing has been right with you since we came here."
"Maybe that's because not all of us came, Jean." Scott turned to the picture of him and Rogue that he always kept hidden in his missing person's section. It had been taken in those precious months before Professor Xavier's death. Before the War, before they'd come here. Rogue, memories of her kept him awake in the long hours of the night. Forcing him to relive every moment spent with her. He missed her. Checking his watch, he smiled at Jean. "I'm going, got an appointment with Logan. See you."
Jean touched her cheek as she watched him go. "Why won't you stop hating me, Scott? Why won't you stop hating yourself?"
Hey folks what do ya think? Please read and review. I'll bring Kitty's boy in later. So see ya later.