Excuses, excuses. We could give you a butt load of 'em about why this took so long but to spare you the boredom, we won't. That works for everyone! YAY! Hey cool! I can write stuff on FF.net now!
Disclaimer: We work our fingers bloody on the keyboard to bring you stories about characters we don't even own. You should thank us! Or not. We also don't own 'My Band' your lordship Eminem.
XXXX
Locked, chapter eight
"No John, that's wrong! Don't you understand?" I was in some kind of black void. Damien was standing on thin air, shaking his head looking disgusted. A large book appeared in his hands and he shoved it in my face. "See? You see?" I nodded with a feeling of comprehension though I couldn't see a single word on the pages. They were too blurry.
Before I'd finished nodding Damien suddenly turned into Kenny. "It's just water, man, don't worry," then he shrugged and hefted a plastic pink and yellow Super Soaker. He pulled the trigger, only instead of water a black rope streamed out, like the kind Damien made when he sucked the life out of you.
I screamed before I realized I wasn't me anymore. I was floating off to the side, watching Kenny killing me with the Super Soaker. Only I wasn't me, I was floating off to the side. But how could I be floating over here if I was standing over there near Kenny?
I was saved from this cycle of confusion by the appearance of a bike shop. For a moment I wondered what a bike shop was doing floating in my void, and then I remembered. Mom had promised to buy me a new bike. The memory of what had been happening floated away, Kenny and Damien didn't exist.
"Mum? Where are you?" I couldn't figure out where she could have gone. She had promised me a new bike and now she had gone and disappeared. I couldn't help but be angry. I had my bike picked out; she had to come and pick it off the rack before someone else came and got it. "Mo- oooooooooooom!" I called. Still no answear. What could she be doing that was more important than my bike?
"JOHN! John run! Jo-ARRGHHHH!" I heard my mom's strangled scream and jumped.
"Mom? Mom where are you!" I couldn't run. Mom was in trouble. How could I have been worried about a stupid bike when mom was so scared? I sprinted along the aisle, dozens of bikes whizzed by, the colors flashing almost dangerously, warning me not to go ahead. I ignored them. Stupid bikes, stupid ugly colors, stupid bike store.
I felt my temper rising. Mom always told me to watch my temper. I couldn't help it; if she was in trouble how did she expect me to keep calm? I skidded to a halt at the end of the aisle. There was a man standing in front of the register, holding a knife out at the clerk. The pimply teen looked about ready to pass out from fear, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had wet himself. Mom lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. I let out a strange blend of a squeak and a gasp, then swore loudly when the man with the knife whipped around. He smirked and motioned me towards him. The teen's eyes darted towards the door but the man jabbed the knife at him and he shrieked and continued shoving money into a bag.
I had half a mind to run back the way I'd come and find a phone, but then mom shifted on the floor and I knew I couldn't leave her there. The man with the knife smiled at me, though it didn't reach his eyes. I felt my temper flare again. How could he sit there grinning like an idiot right after he'd hurt my mom? I coughed and another reason to be angry jumped up. He was smoking. There was a no smoking sign right behind the counter. How stupid was he? I realized this was a stupid reason to be angry but I couldn't help it.
"You shoulda listened to your mum, little man. You shoulda run like a good little boy." Now I felt like there was a fire inside my head. "You know your mum's a pretty lady. Maybe I'll take her for a ride with me." How dare he talk about my mother?! The fire was hot. I could have almost sworn my temperature was rising with my anger. Then he did it. He reached out with his toe and kicked my mother.
"DON'T TOUCH MY MOM!" But I don't think he heard me. At the very moment his foot made contact with her his cigarette blew up and his head caught fire. His whole head, a big ball of flame, he looked almost like a pumpkin. This struck me as funny. I began to laugh. I was laughing when his skin began to melt, and I was laughing while he screamed, and I was laughing when the police showed up. I laughed so hard I began to cry. I covered my eyes to wipe the tears away but when I lowered them I was somewhere else.
The bike shop was gone. In its place was a large round room. There were thousands of little metal plates lining the walls, reflecting the lights of the long metal platform I was sitting on. At the very end there was a man sitting in a wheel chair. He was putting a metal hat on his head. I watched him with a vague curiosity, wondering how I'd gotten here.
I didn't move when the metal plates jumped from the walls and the room filled with millions of little red lights. I noticed some of them formed a large map of the world, and thought that was cool.
"John?" Now I jumped. How did that man know my name? "John how did you-" but he stopped short. "John, you're dreaming. Wake up, you shouldn't be in here." But instead of waking up I moved toward him. It was like I'd jumped over, because I didn't walk to get to him, I was just there.
"How did you do this?" I demanded. He shook his head.
"I don't know. Sometimes if I touch a mutants mind when they're sleeping their subconscious can see through my eyes. You shouldn't remember this when you wake up though, so there's no point explaining it to you." I still didn't wake up. I wanted to know something. Before I could ask he answered.
"I'm sorry John. I didn't know Magneto had done anything like that. If I had I would have come looking for you, but you couldn't use your powers, and I can't penetrate Magneto's helmet. You know that. I was wondering why you were so far west though. I've been tracking you for several weeks. Tell me, who are the two mutants you are traveling with? This Kenneth Macleod, tell me about him." It took me a moment to realize who he was talking about, and then I remembered Damien calling Kenny 'Macleod' when we'd been escaping the facility.
"Kenny's a real idiot, and Damien's a little kid. I helped them escape. I don't really know much more than that."
"Tell me about his powers, John." He said this as if it should have been obvious that that was what he'd been asking.
"Oh, well he, I dunno, makes stuff and moves things. He calls it 'gooing'. Oh, he told me once that he can't make stuff. When I saw him, uh, gooing a car out. That sounds really gross if you think about it." The professor didn't smile.
"John, I'd be careful around him. You don't know as much about him as you think you do."
"Who Kenny? I'm more worried about the kid. He tried to fry me. Besides, Kenny's dumb." He shook his head.
"He's an extremely powerful mutant. If he hasn't already tried, I'd say Magneto will be out to recruit him. Be careful John. And get your butt out of my face." I was so surprised by this that I had woken up before I realized it had been Kenny who'd said that. We were sleeping head-to-toe on the floor while Damien snored away the night on the bed. Remy was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Gambit?" I asked him.
"Dunno. Probably in the shitter. Don't worry about it, man." Then he shrugged and lay back down to sleep.
XXXX
"Dude, we need to switch plates," Kenny announced to Remy a few days later.
"Why is dat, homme?" Remy asked, sounding exasperated. I couldn't blame him, but since it was him and not me I also couldn't help laughing at him.
"Cause, homey, I jus' saw our car on the news. Showed the plates and alla that." Remy sneered but he nodded. I was surprised that Kenny had told anyone. Normally he just did whatever for the hell of it. I think he might have respected Remy.
We were in the parking lot of a super market. Damien, who I admit was definitely the least conspicuous, had gone inside to buy 'some stuff' which I was certain was candy since that was the only substance Kenny seemed to think was edible. I had finally agreed to let Damien do all our and public errands. Kenny's statement about how his size apparently made him invisible seemed to be, so far, true.
Kenny knelt down between the back bumper of our car and the back bumper of the car behind us and pressed his hands against either vehicles license plate. His hands up to his sleeves turned clear red, as did the plates. They seemed to absorb into his hands, then a few seconds later they reformed, only now ours said we were from Florida.
"Gotta say it, he's definitely handy." Remy said humorlessly. Damien bustled up to us, looking breathless and cold and shoved the bag at Remy. He obviously had no feelings of respect for any of us. Except maybe Kenny.
"Let's bounce man. Some lady up in there kept lookin' at me funny. Gave me the crawlies." He made a show of shuddering and then climbed in the car. An hour I was ready to kill myself again.
"My band, my band, my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!" I had a feeling he was doing it on purpose, but it wasn't just his horrible singing. I hate that song. Finally it seemed Damien was sick of it too, because he slapped Kenny in the back of the head and snapped: "Change the channel, douche bag!" Maybe I was wrong about the respect thing.
We went onward in silence for a while, until: "Kenny, pull over mate, I need to use the rest stop." His response to this was: "Ewww, a public toilet!"
"Well, what've you been using, a cup? Pull over!" He shrugged and pulled into the rest stop. Being in the rest stop bathroom made me nervous, and not just because it wasn't clean, but because there were about thirty beach whale sized truckers in there, all watching me.
"You got a staring problem?" I shouted before dashing out into the sunlight. The sight that greeted me made me freeze in my tracks.
Kenny was leaning against the car talking to a man with white hair. This man with white hair was accompanied by a boy with white hair, and another boy with brown hair. The brown haired one spotted me first.
"Well, look who it is!" He said in a false pleased voice.
"Aw, our old buddy Pyro!" Pietro crowed. Kenny craned his neck around to look at me and said: "So?" with a shrug.
"Remy can't believe they only had Zima." I heard Remy saying in his annoying third person reference. "This stuff is sh-" Magneto was watching us with an amused expression on his face. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Damien was standing next to him with his usual indifferent stare, though for a second there was a look of faint interest there, then it was gone.
"Who's the blonde?" I heard Pietro say in my ear. I jumped in surprise and he laughed, "Is he your new boyfriend? Aw, I'm sure Colosus'll cry himself a river when he hears about this, you bastard!" He said, raising the pitch of his voice.
"You know, buta, you don't need to do that. You sound enough like a girl already, you just need a wig and a pretty dress and there you go, you can use the ladies room." Kenny burst out laughing while everyone else, including me, whipped around and looked at Damien with astonishment.
"Mad funny, Demon!" Kenny shouted. The look on Damien's face now was mingled determination and anger.
"So you think you're funny?" Pietro said furiously, now at Damien's side.
"Yeah, I got jokes, bitch. Whadda you gonna do about it? Run around me?" I couldn't help but laugh now. The word 'bitch' coming from a tiny thirteen year old was funny.
"You know, I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do, 'Demon'." Remy jumped aside as a whirlwind suddenly picked up around the boy. I couldn't see him, but I knew I had to do something. Before I could even take a step forward Kenny came up beside me, the look on his face was as if he'd just wandered over by mistake and decided to see what was going on.
"I got it." he said, offhandedly. The whirlwind slowed, and Damien flew out of it, ramming into me. I struggled up to watch but Pietro was already on the ground. His eyes were nearly popping out of his head and I noticed there was a large red bubble over his face. Kenny was suffocating him.
"Enough!" Magneto shouted. He had managed to sneak up on us during the commotion. I noticed a large crowd of humans had gathered and many were pointing at us and muttering. I didn't care, so long as none of them decided to call the police. Kenny released Pietro, who began wheezing and coughing.
"You have proven yourself," he said, openly ignoring me. I saw him looking at everyone else, and was about to get angry when Kenny's voice said, "Who cares?" inside my head and I had to agree with him. As long as Magneto was ignoring me it meant he wasn't going to kill me.
"For what?" Kenny said disinterestedly. He was busy examining something fascinating on the back of his hand.
"I have seen what you can do and I have decided you are worthy of joining my band of Acolytes."
"Acolytes? Ain't they them guys who help the clergy do stuff? I ain't joinin' some religious group for mutants." He said, now sounding genuinely harassed and appalled.
"No, dumbass, they're mutants who join Magneto in his fight for mutant freedom from humans." Kenny looked at Lance as though he'd forgotten he'd been standing there. He smiled and looked around as if expecting someone to shout "April Fools!" but when no one did he frowned.
"I don't think so, man. I ain't into that kinda crap. I'm more of a 'creative non-violence' kind of guy." I was looking between him and Magneto. I knew what would happen next. Mags was about to have a mental fit.
"Kenny, be careful mate." He didn't look at me; in fact he ignored me as thoroughly as Magneto was.
"Well, Kenny, I'm sorry you feel that way. Avalanche, Quicksilver? You know what to do." Then he spun on his heel and stalked off. I felt the ground begin to shake.
XXXX
Hurray! This one was way longer and more funnerer! Don't you think? Hey guess what I think is funny? Anel is in love with-border lining obsessed with-Rupert Grint. Got no clue who I'm talking about? Ron Weasley(sp?) from the Harry Potter movies. Aha aha aha! I'm sorry, that just strikes me as funny. I still wanna see Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't care if the theater is filled with five year olds, Ima go an see it, hear?
angyl-devyl- Gracias! We're pleased with us too. Anel has whined about needing to write a book before her head explodes, but we haven't seen her at it yet. I really liked this chapter and I hope you do to! (
Disclaimer: We work our fingers bloody on the keyboard to bring you stories about characters we don't even own. You should thank us! Or not. We also don't own 'My Band' your lordship Eminem.
XXXX
Locked, chapter eight
"No John, that's wrong! Don't you understand?" I was in some kind of black void. Damien was standing on thin air, shaking his head looking disgusted. A large book appeared in his hands and he shoved it in my face. "See? You see?" I nodded with a feeling of comprehension though I couldn't see a single word on the pages. They were too blurry.
Before I'd finished nodding Damien suddenly turned into Kenny. "It's just water, man, don't worry," then he shrugged and hefted a plastic pink and yellow Super Soaker. He pulled the trigger, only instead of water a black rope streamed out, like the kind Damien made when he sucked the life out of you.
I screamed before I realized I wasn't me anymore. I was floating off to the side, watching Kenny killing me with the Super Soaker. Only I wasn't me, I was floating off to the side. But how could I be floating over here if I was standing over there near Kenny?
I was saved from this cycle of confusion by the appearance of a bike shop. For a moment I wondered what a bike shop was doing floating in my void, and then I remembered. Mom had promised to buy me a new bike. The memory of what had been happening floated away, Kenny and Damien didn't exist.
"Mum? Where are you?" I couldn't figure out where she could have gone. She had promised me a new bike and now she had gone and disappeared. I couldn't help but be angry. I had my bike picked out; she had to come and pick it off the rack before someone else came and got it. "Mo- oooooooooooom!" I called. Still no answear. What could she be doing that was more important than my bike?
"JOHN! John run! Jo-ARRGHHHH!" I heard my mom's strangled scream and jumped.
"Mom? Mom where are you!" I couldn't run. Mom was in trouble. How could I have been worried about a stupid bike when mom was so scared? I sprinted along the aisle, dozens of bikes whizzed by, the colors flashing almost dangerously, warning me not to go ahead. I ignored them. Stupid bikes, stupid ugly colors, stupid bike store.
I felt my temper rising. Mom always told me to watch my temper. I couldn't help it; if she was in trouble how did she expect me to keep calm? I skidded to a halt at the end of the aisle. There was a man standing in front of the register, holding a knife out at the clerk. The pimply teen looked about ready to pass out from fear, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had wet himself. Mom lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. I let out a strange blend of a squeak and a gasp, then swore loudly when the man with the knife whipped around. He smirked and motioned me towards him. The teen's eyes darted towards the door but the man jabbed the knife at him and he shrieked and continued shoving money into a bag.
I had half a mind to run back the way I'd come and find a phone, but then mom shifted on the floor and I knew I couldn't leave her there. The man with the knife smiled at me, though it didn't reach his eyes. I felt my temper flare again. How could he sit there grinning like an idiot right after he'd hurt my mom? I coughed and another reason to be angry jumped up. He was smoking. There was a no smoking sign right behind the counter. How stupid was he? I realized this was a stupid reason to be angry but I couldn't help it.
"You shoulda listened to your mum, little man. You shoulda run like a good little boy." Now I felt like there was a fire inside my head. "You know your mum's a pretty lady. Maybe I'll take her for a ride with me." How dare he talk about my mother?! The fire was hot. I could have almost sworn my temperature was rising with my anger. Then he did it. He reached out with his toe and kicked my mother.
"DON'T TOUCH MY MOM!" But I don't think he heard me. At the very moment his foot made contact with her his cigarette blew up and his head caught fire. His whole head, a big ball of flame, he looked almost like a pumpkin. This struck me as funny. I began to laugh. I was laughing when his skin began to melt, and I was laughing while he screamed, and I was laughing when the police showed up. I laughed so hard I began to cry. I covered my eyes to wipe the tears away but when I lowered them I was somewhere else.
The bike shop was gone. In its place was a large round room. There were thousands of little metal plates lining the walls, reflecting the lights of the long metal platform I was sitting on. At the very end there was a man sitting in a wheel chair. He was putting a metal hat on his head. I watched him with a vague curiosity, wondering how I'd gotten here.
I didn't move when the metal plates jumped from the walls and the room filled with millions of little red lights. I noticed some of them formed a large map of the world, and thought that was cool.
"John?" Now I jumped. How did that man know my name? "John how did you-" but he stopped short. "John, you're dreaming. Wake up, you shouldn't be in here." But instead of waking up I moved toward him. It was like I'd jumped over, because I didn't walk to get to him, I was just there.
"How did you do this?" I demanded. He shook his head.
"I don't know. Sometimes if I touch a mutants mind when they're sleeping their subconscious can see through my eyes. You shouldn't remember this when you wake up though, so there's no point explaining it to you." I still didn't wake up. I wanted to know something. Before I could ask he answered.
"I'm sorry John. I didn't know Magneto had done anything like that. If I had I would have come looking for you, but you couldn't use your powers, and I can't penetrate Magneto's helmet. You know that. I was wondering why you were so far west though. I've been tracking you for several weeks. Tell me, who are the two mutants you are traveling with? This Kenneth Macleod, tell me about him." It took me a moment to realize who he was talking about, and then I remembered Damien calling Kenny 'Macleod' when we'd been escaping the facility.
"Kenny's a real idiot, and Damien's a little kid. I helped them escape. I don't really know much more than that."
"Tell me about his powers, John." He said this as if it should have been obvious that that was what he'd been asking.
"Oh, well he, I dunno, makes stuff and moves things. He calls it 'gooing'. Oh, he told me once that he can't make stuff. When I saw him, uh, gooing a car out. That sounds really gross if you think about it." The professor didn't smile.
"John, I'd be careful around him. You don't know as much about him as you think you do."
"Who Kenny? I'm more worried about the kid. He tried to fry me. Besides, Kenny's dumb." He shook his head.
"He's an extremely powerful mutant. If he hasn't already tried, I'd say Magneto will be out to recruit him. Be careful John. And get your butt out of my face." I was so surprised by this that I had woken up before I realized it had been Kenny who'd said that. We were sleeping head-to-toe on the floor while Damien snored away the night on the bed. Remy was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Gambit?" I asked him.
"Dunno. Probably in the shitter. Don't worry about it, man." Then he shrugged and lay back down to sleep.
XXXX
"Dude, we need to switch plates," Kenny announced to Remy a few days later.
"Why is dat, homme?" Remy asked, sounding exasperated. I couldn't blame him, but since it was him and not me I also couldn't help laughing at him.
"Cause, homey, I jus' saw our car on the news. Showed the plates and alla that." Remy sneered but he nodded. I was surprised that Kenny had told anyone. Normally he just did whatever for the hell of it. I think he might have respected Remy.
We were in the parking lot of a super market. Damien, who I admit was definitely the least conspicuous, had gone inside to buy 'some stuff' which I was certain was candy since that was the only substance Kenny seemed to think was edible. I had finally agreed to let Damien do all our and public errands. Kenny's statement about how his size apparently made him invisible seemed to be, so far, true.
Kenny knelt down between the back bumper of our car and the back bumper of the car behind us and pressed his hands against either vehicles license plate. His hands up to his sleeves turned clear red, as did the plates. They seemed to absorb into his hands, then a few seconds later they reformed, only now ours said we were from Florida.
"Gotta say it, he's definitely handy." Remy said humorlessly. Damien bustled up to us, looking breathless and cold and shoved the bag at Remy. He obviously had no feelings of respect for any of us. Except maybe Kenny.
"Let's bounce man. Some lady up in there kept lookin' at me funny. Gave me the crawlies." He made a show of shuddering and then climbed in the car. An hour I was ready to kill myself again.
"My band, my band, my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!" I had a feeling he was doing it on purpose, but it wasn't just his horrible singing. I hate that song. Finally it seemed Damien was sick of it too, because he slapped Kenny in the back of the head and snapped: "Change the channel, douche bag!" Maybe I was wrong about the respect thing.
We went onward in silence for a while, until: "Kenny, pull over mate, I need to use the rest stop." His response to this was: "Ewww, a public toilet!"
"Well, what've you been using, a cup? Pull over!" He shrugged and pulled into the rest stop. Being in the rest stop bathroom made me nervous, and not just because it wasn't clean, but because there were about thirty beach whale sized truckers in there, all watching me.
"You got a staring problem?" I shouted before dashing out into the sunlight. The sight that greeted me made me freeze in my tracks.
Kenny was leaning against the car talking to a man with white hair. This man with white hair was accompanied by a boy with white hair, and another boy with brown hair. The brown haired one spotted me first.
"Well, look who it is!" He said in a false pleased voice.
"Aw, our old buddy Pyro!" Pietro crowed. Kenny craned his neck around to look at me and said: "So?" with a shrug.
"Remy can't believe they only had Zima." I heard Remy saying in his annoying third person reference. "This stuff is sh-" Magneto was watching us with an amused expression on his face. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Damien was standing next to him with his usual indifferent stare, though for a second there was a look of faint interest there, then it was gone.
"Who's the blonde?" I heard Pietro say in my ear. I jumped in surprise and he laughed, "Is he your new boyfriend? Aw, I'm sure Colosus'll cry himself a river when he hears about this, you bastard!" He said, raising the pitch of his voice.
"You know, buta, you don't need to do that. You sound enough like a girl already, you just need a wig and a pretty dress and there you go, you can use the ladies room." Kenny burst out laughing while everyone else, including me, whipped around and looked at Damien with astonishment.
"Mad funny, Demon!" Kenny shouted. The look on Damien's face now was mingled determination and anger.
"So you think you're funny?" Pietro said furiously, now at Damien's side.
"Yeah, I got jokes, bitch. Whadda you gonna do about it? Run around me?" I couldn't help but laugh now. The word 'bitch' coming from a tiny thirteen year old was funny.
"You know, I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do, 'Demon'." Remy jumped aside as a whirlwind suddenly picked up around the boy. I couldn't see him, but I knew I had to do something. Before I could even take a step forward Kenny came up beside me, the look on his face was as if he'd just wandered over by mistake and decided to see what was going on.
"I got it." he said, offhandedly. The whirlwind slowed, and Damien flew out of it, ramming into me. I struggled up to watch but Pietro was already on the ground. His eyes were nearly popping out of his head and I noticed there was a large red bubble over his face. Kenny was suffocating him.
"Enough!" Magneto shouted. He had managed to sneak up on us during the commotion. I noticed a large crowd of humans had gathered and many were pointing at us and muttering. I didn't care, so long as none of them decided to call the police. Kenny released Pietro, who began wheezing and coughing.
"You have proven yourself," he said, openly ignoring me. I saw him looking at everyone else, and was about to get angry when Kenny's voice said, "Who cares?" inside my head and I had to agree with him. As long as Magneto was ignoring me it meant he wasn't going to kill me.
"For what?" Kenny said disinterestedly. He was busy examining something fascinating on the back of his hand.
"I have seen what you can do and I have decided you are worthy of joining my band of Acolytes."
"Acolytes? Ain't they them guys who help the clergy do stuff? I ain't joinin' some religious group for mutants." He said, now sounding genuinely harassed and appalled.
"No, dumbass, they're mutants who join Magneto in his fight for mutant freedom from humans." Kenny looked at Lance as though he'd forgotten he'd been standing there. He smiled and looked around as if expecting someone to shout "April Fools!" but when no one did he frowned.
"I don't think so, man. I ain't into that kinda crap. I'm more of a 'creative non-violence' kind of guy." I was looking between him and Magneto. I knew what would happen next. Mags was about to have a mental fit.
"Kenny, be careful mate." He didn't look at me; in fact he ignored me as thoroughly as Magneto was.
"Well, Kenny, I'm sorry you feel that way. Avalanche, Quicksilver? You know what to do." Then he spun on his heel and stalked off. I felt the ground begin to shake.
XXXX
Hurray! This one was way longer and more funnerer! Don't you think? Hey guess what I think is funny? Anel is in love with-border lining obsessed with-Rupert Grint. Got no clue who I'm talking about? Ron Weasley(sp?) from the Harry Potter movies. Aha aha aha! I'm sorry, that just strikes me as funny. I still wanna see Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't care if the theater is filled with five year olds, Ima go an see it, hear?
angyl-devyl- Gracias! We're pleased with us too. Anel has whined about needing to write a book before her head explodes, but we haven't seen her at it yet. I really liked this chapter and I hope you do to! (