Everything's Constantly Changing Chapter 11: If One Sam's Good, Two Should Be Great, a x-men: evolution fanfic

FYI:

~Personal Thoughts~

ESP

%The Written Word%

[Flashback]

"Normal Conversation (Duh)"

* Com Link or Telephone *

*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)

{Background noise--music, crowds, etc.}

HYDRA

"Hey give 'em hell for me." I hugged Mark unwilling to see him leave again so soon.

"Don't worry. We'll make you proud." I gave him a half-hearted smile. He placed a hand on my cheek and tilted my face up. "He seems like a nice guy."

"Who, what?" I was thoroughly confused now.

"That Sam guy. He seems nice."

"Yeah…Sam."

"Look, I understand. Trust me I've been turned down enough times and at worse times too."

"Mark…it's not that…I just don't want a boyfriend right now."

"Hey it's cool. Just don't think you're getting off the hook with writing, hero."

"What?"

He indicated to the group of people behind me who weren't so subtle in their spying. "They told me about your heroics—how you saved Sam and Bobby."

"I'm no hero, far from it."

"Sure thing, Spanks."

"Look, get outta here before I have to beat it into your skull." He smirked as he got into his truck and drove off through the gates of the institute and outta sight. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and went back inside pushing my way through the other students and up the stairs.

I started putting my gifts away and realized that someone must have taken the liberty of using my camera last night. I smiled as I unloaded the used film and stuffed it into a bag to take into town later on. I popped in my new 3 Doors Down CD and flipped on 'Here Without You'.

{A hundred days had made me older since the last time that I saw your pretty face, A thousand lights had made me colder and I don't think I can look at this the same, But all the miles had separate, They disappeared now when I'm dreaming of your face}

~Why does everything change? Why can't I just go through life and never have to readjust to changes? 'Cause it makes you stronger. That's what everyone says at least.~

{I'm here without you baby but your still on my lonely mind, I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time, I'm here without you baby but your still with me in my dreams, And tonight it's only you and me}

I bit my lower lip remembering my conversation with Sam the evening before. ~Did I make a huge mistake there? I might have just blasted any chance there to hell, the moon, and back.~

{The miles just keep rolling as the people leave their way to say hello, I've heard this life is overrated but I hope that it gets better as we go}

I sat down on my bed and ran a hand through my hair mixing the blond, red, and brown strands together. ~Kelly used to try and convince me that our pupils will dilate for two reason--one you're lying and two you're in love.~ My pupils definitely weren't dilated but they had never been this bright a green. At least not since I'd been a li'l girl.

~It's been so hard for me to be happy these past years, but here, I've found happiness. Why? What's here that wasn't back home?~

{Everything I know, and anywhere I go it gets hard but it won't take away my love, And when the last one falls, when it's all said and done it get hard but it won't take away my love}

Betsy came into our shared room and shut the door and leaned back against it. "You best go out there, I feel like we're being stalked and he's thinking pretty damn loud too."

I raised an eyebrow and looked up at her as she went into the bathroom without another word to touch up her make up. ~For a confident purple haired girl, she's got some paranoia.~

I opened the door and peered out to see Sam pacing up and down the hall. "Don't wear any holes in the carpet or anything." He stopped and smiled sheepishly back at me.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself. You got Betsy tweaking out in there. You wanted to talk or something?"

"Err…yeah. Think we could walk or something?"

"And what would be 'or something'?" I raised a teasing eyebrow as I walked along side him to the main stairs.

We were about to go out the door when I heard a gruff voice from behind me. "Kicks, phone's for you." I stopped and wondered who would be calling me. ~Mark just left, Mom wouldn't call until tomorrow and Kelly, she's not a phone person.~

"We'll talk later, promise." Sam nodded as I ran up to Logan to get the portable phone.

* Hello, you've reached the Spanky hot line. *

* Sweetie, I need you to be serious. * ~Oh God, it's Gram, it has to be. Dear God, I didn't get to say goodbye or anything.~

* Mom, what's going on? * I took a deep breath praying she was just calling a day early.

* It's your father. He was here. *

* What! What was he doing there? *

* He came to see you…he was upset when I told him I enrolled you in a private school. *

* Did he hurt you? * There was a long pause on the other end and I could feel the panic rising. I had been to li'l to remember but my father had once beaten my mom so bad she'd ended up in the hospital. He'd never once laid a hand on me but still he always took out his anger on mom. * Mom, answer me. *

* I'm okay. Just a little bruised. *

* That asshole. Why I oughta… *

* I didn't raise you to talk like that. *

* Screw my raising and swearing. How bad did he hurt you? *

* Like I said, just a little bruised. *

* Did he bother Gram any? *

* No, he went to her place first because he didn't know where we lived and he found me there. He never talked to her. *

~Well, there's a blessing in disguise.~ * Mom, you shouldn't let Gram stay at her house. Just in case. If he's drunk… *

* I know, she's staying with your aunt right now. *

* Oh, okay. *

* Look, I wanted to tell you that he saw a pamphlet for the Xavier Institute lying on your grandmother's dining room table. * The panic that I'd managed to shove out of my voice earlier for my mother's sake had returned.

* What! * ~Oh shit, he's pissed, drunk and knows where to find me.~ * Look don't worry about me, Mom. This place is too tough for the government to dream of getting in. *

* Yes, I'm sure. I just wanted you to be careful. Just in case. *

* Okay. I love you, Mom. *

* I love you too, Sweetie. Be good and be careful. *

* Always. * I hung up the phone and bit my lip hard and nearly drew blood. ~The bastard…how dare he.~

A hand on my shoulder brought me outta my thoughts as I glanced around to see Logan. "Something up, Kicks?"

"Just the sky and tall people." I smiled and tried to bury the conversation into the back of my mind. "I'm cool, really." There was a similar twitch at the corner of his mouth as the time I'd met him at the front door on my first day, but this time it seemed to be tugging out a frown. "I best be going, promised Sam a session with his shrink." I smiled again as I headed outside to find my buddy.

CANNONBALL

I sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the bay and just took in the sight. On the other side of the bay I could make out the city of Bayville. I could make out the other kids hanging out by the pool and the mansion beyond them framed by the forest behind it yet. It all looked so normal if you didn't know that the people living in the enormous mansion were actually mutants with terrible powers that could be disastrous if used for the wrong purposes.

I enjoyed the quiet of being up here because it wasn't often you got peace in a house full of a dozen other kids who never seemed to come down off sugar highs. I leaned back on my hands and simply stared out at the setting sun causing the water to turn brilliant oranges and pinks.

"Hey Sam. If I remember correctly, I owe you a talk." Al sat down next to me and glanced out at the sunset as well but before I began trying to remember what I'd planned to tell her earlier I was caught off guard by the dark blue color of her eyes. It was troubling to see them that color and I immediately knew something in that phone call had upset her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You're a crappy liar. I can tell by looking at your eyes that something's up." She blinked a few times and looked away from me trying to get them to change. "Now you want to tell me a different story?"

"Can you keep a secret…even from the professor?"

"Is that even possible?"

"I told you about my father…how he was a drunk." I nodded slowly as she continued to stare at the water. "That wasn't all of it. He hit my mom too but he never laid a hand on me. When I was really li'l he put her in the hospital once." She fell silent for a while as I tried to figure out why that had upset her now and what that might have to do with the phone call. "My mom just called. He was at my gram's place looking for me. When my mom told him I was away at a private school, he got angry and took it out on her."

"Is she okay?"

"She says she is. I dunno…she might not be telling me the truth so I don't go racing down there to check on her." She looked at me and I could see that her eyes were starting to brighten into that horrifying electric blue shade that could drive a stake of fear into even Logan's heart. "He knows I'm here. He doesn't know I'm a mutant nor that this is a school for mutants…but he knows I'm here."

"They won't let anything happen to you…I won't let anything happen to you." She laughed coldly.

"Sorry Sam, that's a sweet thought but there's not much you're going to be able to do when my father's in a good drunken rage." She sighed as she laid back her eyes slowly fading back to a steel blue. "There's not much anyone can do…"

"If you tell the professor…"

She cut me off with another cold laugh. "He'll lock me up inside and won't let me see the light of day. Either that or he'll make Logan my personal bodyguard. You know I won't put up with that. And don't forget you promised to keep this secret."

"I won't lie if they ask me."

"I guess I can live with that." She stood up and brushed off her jeans. "I feel bad, I came out here to help you with something and ended up spilling my guts."

"It's okay, I forgot what I wanted to tell you to start with." ~I'm already lying to protect her. I don't have the heart to get all sappy on her when she's got troubles like that.~

"Oh, okay. Catch you at dinner." She walked away but I couldn't forget the anger I'd just seen in her eyes.

ICEMAN

"I have a mission for you. The Brotherhood seems to be causing some problems in the warehouse district. I need you to rectify the situation before any innocent civilians become involved or hurt." I was slightly surprised to see the people that the professor had called into the planning room—myself, Ray, Sam, Amara, Allison, and Rhane. All of us were rather new and had not really been on missions much and not one of the older students to act as leader over the mission. Heck, Al hadn't been on a single mission ever, where most of us had tagged along some time or another. Logan was there as well and I made a guess that he'd be the one watching over us. I groaned inwardly since Logan had a tendency to go all military on missions. "Bobby, I'm placing you in charge since you've been here the longest. Allison, you'll be second in command since you have seniority." She nodded meekly and shuffled her feet nervously.

"Hopefully we won't need to worry about that." She shot me a glance and I puffed up my chest.

"Course not, Iceman's on the case." Amara snickered as she whispered into Rhane's ear.

"Sounds like Remy, talking in the third person." I shot her a glare as Wolverine began to go over the specifics.

"They seemed to be based around this warehouse." He pointed to a warehouse on a map and continued to point out directions and such. "They've caused trouble for a quarter mile radius and for the most part the police are keeping civilians out so you shouldn't have any outside interruptions. We don't know if Mystique has planned this attack for a reason, so keep on your guard." He let the map go and it snapped back into a roll. He handed out com links and ushered us into the Velocity.

"Okay, here's the plan. We'll split into teams—Ray, I mean Beserker, and Wolfsbane, CannonBall and Hydra, and myself and Magma. Keep in touch with the com links and send up a sign if something goes wrong. I think we're all capable of something. Try not to split up unless it's absolutely necessary and watch each other's backs. Beserker and Wolfsbane you check out the north end, CannonBall and Hydra go east, and we're going south." I practically gagged on how much I sounded like Scott and the others started laughing at it too. I shot them a glare as I led Amara to the south end of the district in search of the Brotherhood.

I turned a corner and ducked back nearly knocking into Amara. "Hey watch it."

"Shh…Toad and Blob at three o' clock."

"Could you speak English?"

"Toad and Blob around that corner." I pointed in the direction I'd started in but when I'd seen them I'd ducked back hopefully unseen.

"Looking for us, yo?"

"Maybe you could talk a little louder next time, Mags."

She shot me a death glare as she put on the heat and chucked a ball of lava at Toad. He jumped outta the way and hopped on to a dumpster. ~Now where did Blob go?~ Amara continued to bombard Toad with balls of magma which he continued to dodge easily.

I moved away from their parry as I went in search of Blob. I turned the corner and found a dumpster being heaved at my head and shot up a wall of ice in defense. It cracked as the dumpster hit and I created an ice slide over it and prepared for my own fight.

BESERKER

"This is just great. We finally get a mission and can't even find the Brotherhood to fight them." Rhane was in wolf form and sniffing the ground. She stood up on her hind legs and went back to normal.

"I can't smell anything. Not with Toad's stench hanging everywhere."

"This bites." The ground beneath us began to move and I dropped down to my knees trying to steady myself and felt a blow on the back of the head that knocked me down the rest of the way. "Ooomph. Just wait 'til I get my hands on you Speedy."

"Got-to-catch-me-first." A blur moved past me and I sent out a bolt of electricity at a spot a few feet in front of it. "Nice-try. Better-luck-next-time." I growled as I continued to shoot bolts in a random fashion hoping to catch him off guard.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rhane go back into wolf form as she stalked Lance. In that form she wasn't quite as unsteady on her feet as Lance tried to shake things up for her.

HYDRA

"Great, we haven't seen a single thing yet."

Sam glanced behind him and sighed. "Well, Ray did." I looked and saw the bolts of electricity going off in the distance.

"Yeah, good for him." I sulked as I continued to look around the corners of the buildings. The next building we came to the door was shut tightly causing me to be suspicious since the rest had been open. "I'm checking it out."

He shot me a warning glance and I sighed. "It's not like someone's going to freeze me. I'll be right back." I placed my hand on the crack in the doorframe and melted through. Once on the other side I squinted trying to readjust my vision to the bleakness.

All of a sudden the room lit up with fire and maniacal laughter. ~What the hell?~ "Looks like there's a new X-sheila to roast." The fire came searing at me and I rolled to the side to get away from the heat. ~Sheila? What is his deal?~ I almost laughed at myself for being so stupid. ~I'm basically made of water, I'm not about to get burnt.~

I stood up in the center of the aisle made of warehouse crates and smirked. I got a good luck at the guy who had shocking orange hair and what looked like flame-throwers attached to his arms. "Tell me this, boy-o. What two things refuse to burn?"

He appeared off guard by my sudden courage and the fire came back towards me circling me on the floor and for an average person leaving no place to go. "Don't know, but unfortunately for you, Sheila, you're not one of them."

"Oh, but I am." The fire came swirling in fast and furious. It was hot but I didn't get a burning sensation but rather the fire sizzled and crackled when it touched me.

"What the bloody hell?"

"Answer number two—water. Luckily, that's what I'm made of." His maniac smile fell quickly as he continued to concentrate the fire on me. I slowly walked forward trying to feel out any water that might lie underground. I stopped a few feet away from him and placed my hand out in front of me palm down and closed my eyes in concentration.

The floor cracked open as a water line burst and I lifted my hand then waved it at him causing the water to shoot straight up, then at him. He gasped as the flame-throwers went out with quite a bit sizzling and he didn't look the slightest bit happy at being wet. I took the opportunity while he was slightly distracted to confuse him all the more as I evaporated and reappeared behind him. "Pyro, meet Hydra." I delivered a solid punch to the back of his head causing him to drop unconscious. While he was out I took the liberty of detaching the lines to his flame-throwers, which meant that even if he did wake up, he was now powerless unless he got fire from some other source.

I went back outside to meet up with Sam but found him already in a fight with a girl dressed in scarlet red. ~I'm taking a wild guess here that that is the Scarlet Witch.~ Sam was about to try a flying tackle when she hexed him causing him to trip over his own feet and fall unceremoniously onto his face. I winced for him as I ran up to join the fight.

"Wait! That's not Sam." I stopped in my tracks and turned to see another Sam come around the corner of the warehouse I'd been in.

"Sam?" He nodded.

"It's Mystique, she's trying to trick you."

"But why? What's going on?" I looked back at the Sam on the ground and the Sam standing before me and felt that both of 'em seemed pretty real. ~This cannot be good.~