Disclaimer: How many times have I said that I don't own X-Men? Hmm, looks like eleven. You must know BY NOW that I DO NOT own it.
The alarm was blaring again the next morning. Rogue woke up and turned it off. She looked around the room and frowned. Ali was always the first one up. In fact, she always woke Rogue up. Not today.
Ali was still asleep.
Rogue sighed and walked over to her friend's bed, shaking the sleeping girl gently.
"Al? You need to wake up," Rogue whispered.
Ali grumbled something unintelligible and rolled out of bed. Rogue followed Ali to the bathroom, letting the other girl use it first. She was out in five minutes, having showered the night before. She dressed in a grey shirt and her black hooded-sweatshirt. Rogue arrived in the kitchen five minutes after Ali. The girl was drinking a glass of orange juice. Logan was at his usual spot on the window bench, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper. Rogue drank a cup of juice and nudged Ali with her elbow.
"C'mon, we've got school," she whispered.
Ali nodded and stood from the table, following Rogue to the front hall to get their things. As soon as they grabbed their backpacks, they started off, Rogue not talking, and Ali remaining unusually silent.
Rogue sighed after ten minutes of unbearable silence. For the past two days since Ali had received her gift from her parents, the other mutant had remained silent and did exactly what others told her. If Ali were told to jump off a bridge, she probably would. It seemed as if the teen were in a constant daze, not paying attention to anything.
Rogue was beginning to worry in their math class. Ali was dazing off, not paying attention to anything. The only thing that she did was hold her locket in her right hand, fingering it. She kept her green eyes to her desk, staring with a glazed look in her eyes.
The bell rang minutes later, and Ali was still sitting at her desk. Rogue walked over and knocked on the desk with her knuckles. "Al, c'mon," she said quietly. "Time to go."
Ali nodded and stood up, her eyes lowered to her desk. The two walked out of their class and into the crowded hallways to lunch. Rogue pulled Jean aside when they arrived at the table, saying that she had to talk to her.
"Listen, Ali's been out of it lately. She's not payin' attention to anything in any of her classes," Rogue explained. "Ah don't want anything to happen to your basketball team, so ya need to snap Ali out of her trance. Ah've tried, but nothing works fo' me."
Jean nodded. "I'll work on it," she replied thoughtfully.
Rogue breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks," she replied thankfully.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Basketball practice came all too soon for Ali. Pull yourself together, she thought. If you don't, the whole team will hate you.
For some reason, she didn't care. She didn't need the girl's friendship.
And it was fine with her if they hated her.
Jean walked up to Ali, smiling gently. "C'mon, we've got practice," she said. "We can't do anything without our point guard, you know," she added.
For the first time that day, Ali smiled. The team needed her. They needed her to help run the plays, help practice. She grabbed her bag out of her locker and walked down to the gym with Jean.
Ali finished dressing in the locker rooms and stared in the mirror. There was one thing she was forgetting about:
Her locket.
She couldn't wear it to practice. If she did, the girls would have to run lines. But taking it off seemed like she was forgetting about her parents and labeling them not important. She couldn't do that.
Jean walked over and set a hand on Ali's shoulder. "You've got to take off the locket," she said quietly. "I'll keep it safe for you, I promise."
Ali nodded and slowly took off the necklace, setting it in Jean's outstretched hand. She watched Jean set it in her sports bag and then left, carrying her things out to the gym.
Practice wasn't that hard. It went by just as fast as school, in fact. Soon, Jean and Ali were walking home to the institute.
"Hey Jean? Can I have my necklace back?" Ali asked as they walked.
"Oh, yeah!" cried Jean. "Sorry, I forgot," she added, slightly embarrassed.
Ali smiled and nodded. "It's ok," she replied. She slipped the necklace on and opened it again, looking at the picture of her parents.
Jean left the girl alone. She needed some quiet time to think.
The girls walked through the institute's gates about ten minutes later and hurried up the steps. Kitty ran up to them as they walked through the glass doors. "C'mon, get into your uniforms and let's go!" she cried. "The Acolytes are trashing the mall!"
Jean groaned. "C'mon, Ali!" she yelled as she ran up to her room.
Ali ran up to her room and changed into her uniform, a simple trainee uniform. She then slid down the stair banister and sprinted into the garage where the other X-Men were. She slid into her seat in the van beside Kitty and buckled her seatbelt. Logan pulled out of the driveway and flew down the streets towards the mall. The ride didn't last long, not in the X-Van. They pulled into the mall parking lot, watching people flee in terror from the mutants inside. Once the majority of the people had left, the mutants jumped from the van and ran inside.
The Acolytes were waiting. Gambit sat at the base of the escalators, charging and de-charging a card.
Piotr, or Colossus, was leaning against one of the walls, watching the group with wary eyes.
John leaned against the wall opposite of Piotr. In his palm he molded a flame to take whatever shape he wished.
At the head of the escalators, floating superiorly and looking down at them all, was Magneto.
"Welcome, Charles," he greeted. "No doubt you have come to stop me from fighting for what belongs to us."
"How does this belong to mutants?" Xavier yelled.
Magneto lowered himself to the escalator, slowly descending to their level. "They have denied mutants the right to shop here, turned them away," Magneto yelled. "It is our turn to fight back. To take what is ours!" Magneto reached the bottom level, staring at the group. "Why Charles, you have a new recruit," he commented, staring at Ali. The girl glared back at him, her green eyes hard and cold.
Xavier said nothing.
"Will you not speak to your old friend?" Magneto asked, a muscle twitching in his cheek.
"I will, just when you stop trying to take things by force, and use peaceful manners instead."
Magneto snorted. "Talking about things never gets them done, Charles. War does." With that said, Magneto ordered his three fighters to attack.
Gambit charged up half a deck of cards and threw them at the X-Men, who quickly dodged the attack.
Ali and Kurt dodged to the side, towards Piotr. Scott, Jean, and Kitty were matched up with John. That left Rogue, Logan, and Storm to deal with Gambit and Professor Xavier with Magneto, although the two old men didn't fight. They surveyed the scene and provided help to the younger mutants when they needed it.
Ali and Kurt dodged Piotr's charge, becoming separated with the Russian in between them. Piotr immediately turned towards Kurt and charged again, like a stampeding bull.
Ali's eyes widened and she threw out both her arms, tapping into her power. Two beams of electricity flew from her hands, striking the large Russian in the back. He screamed in pain, the intensity of the energy magnified by the metal encasing his body. The charges ran up and down his body, stretching to every part.
Ali suddenly caught off the power, and she watched, horrified, as Piotr convulsed in pain. The electricity didn't stop moving through his large body.
"Professor!" she cried. She had to help the man, before something horrible happened. Before he died.
The professor looked over at her. Her thoughts screamed out at him, begging for help.
"Concentrate, Ali! Absorb the energy!" he yelled.
Ali's eyes transformed, then. The green faded to neon blue as she reached out and touched Piotr, feeling the electricity lacing around her arm. She concentrated, imagining pulling the energy back into her. Suddenly, pain raced through her arm, a burning pain. She tried to pull away, but she couldn't. She remained connected, feeling the exact same pain that Piotr was feeling. Suddenly, she felt herself being thrown away from him, landing on her back.
Kurt was immediately at her side. "Are you alright, Ali?" he asked.
Ali nodded, clenching her jaw. "I'm fine," she replied. "Let's help the others. I'll fight Gambit and you take Pyro."
Kurt nodded and ported away.
Ali stood and, before hurrying off to fight Gambit, checked on the Russian.
"Why don't you leave me?" he asked painfully. "I am the enemy."
"I still care whether or not someone dies," she replied. "Your life is still important, enemy or not."
Piotr was surprised by such kindness. He smiled. "Your parents must have taught you well," he commented.
Hearing of her parents sent a stab of pain through Ali's heart. "Yes," she replied. "They raised me well."
John, meanwhile, was fighting the other X-Men with all his might. Fire encircled Scott, who was utterly at a loss. "Jean!" he yelled, panicked.
Jean, meanwhile, was trying to escape that fire that was preventing her from escaping. "I'm trying, Scott!" she yelled. Kitty phased through the fire and retrieved Scott from his own circle.
Now all they had left was Jean.
No matter what the telepath/telekinetic did, she couldn't escape. "Scott! Help!" she cried desperately.
"Jean!" Scott yelled, watching the orb that surrounded her. He only had one choice:
Shoot Pyro.
Optic blasts flew from his visor, striking John in the chest and causing him to lose his concentration. His hands flew upwards as he fell backwards. Fire continued to spray from his gloves, landing on the upper floor. The banisters and floor quickly became alight with the fire, which immediately began to spread.
"Acolytes, leave!" yelled Magneto.
Ali raced up the escalator to the upper floor, looking for a fire extinguisher. She grabbed one from a store and quickly began to cover the growing flames with the horrible white powder.
Jean levitated water from down below up above and dumped it over the rest of the fire, ending the life it had previously held.
Ali threw down the fire extinguisher and started to walk towards the escalator when Kurt appeared and grabbed her, bringing her down to the level below. "Thanks," she muttered.
Kurt nodded. "You did good today, Ali," he commented.
Ali smiled slightly. "Thank you, Kurt," she replied. "You did well, too."
Kurt smiled and replied his thanks.
"We must hurry and leave," the professor said. "Out to the van, hurry!" The X-Men scrambled into the van and sped off before the police and firemen arrived.
Ali looked out the window. She had seen what John had done to Jean and Scott. It had almost seemed like he had been trying to kill Jean. Why, she couldn't understand. John, why did you try? She thought. Why?
***
Yay, got that done! *Wipes sweat from brow*
I feel like I've been writing really crapily. If I actually haven't, yay! If I actually have…uh oh. Onto Reviewers!!!
Ivan's Kitsune: No, u didn't. But it's ok. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Thanks for the suggestion!! What do you think?
damien455: I hope you like it!
supergirlhv: forget about not reviewing, its ok. I hope you like this one!
Note on my last author's note last chapter: When I was mad about no reviews, I was having a crappy day. I mean REALLY crappy. First thing I wanted to do that morning was crawl back in bed and start the day over. So I'm sorry that I yelled at you guys about the lack of reviews. It's ok. I'm just happy I have reviewers!!!
~Jojo~