Desolation
Chapter Three: I Am The Rogue
My eyes opened rather early on Friday morning. Turning my head without moving any other part of my body I glared at the blaring alarm clock next to me.
"4:30 in tha damn mornin'," I grumbled. "There's gotta be some kinda law against gettin' someone up this early in tha mornin'."
"I would, like, have to agree with you," Kitty said from across the room as she sat up in bed sleepily rubbing her eyes. "Could you, like, turn that off please?" she asked pointing to my alarm.
I reached out and smashed my fist down on the snooze button. However I had forgotten the fact that some months before I had completely absorbed, Carol Danvers, alias Miss. Marvel, and as such I had her super strength. The clock was reduced to a pile of little plastic bits with one blow. "Shit," I muttered. "Now Ah have to go buy another clock." I reached under my nightstand and withdrew a small trash bin. Then I swept the remains of the clock off of my nightstand and into the bin, to join the three or four other clocks I'd destroyed in the last week or so.
That trash bin usually filled up within three days, so only half full in a week was a record for me.
"You, like, really need to work on controlling that strength of yours Rogue," Kitty said, her voice muffled as she took off her pajama top.
"Yeah, yeah, Ah know," I yawned as I floated up out of my bed. "That's part of why Wolverine is making meh do extra Danger Room exercises. He's getting meh to work harder so Ah'll learn more control over mah new powers."
"It doesn't seem to be working too well does it?" she asked looking meaningfully at the trash bin under my nightstand.
"Shut it Pryde," I growled good naturedly, narrowing my eyes slightly at the one person in the whole institute I felt I could consider a friend. "Need a lift downstairs?" I asked after we'd finished dressing in our uniforms.
"Nope, I got it covered." She smiled and waved at me, then proceeded to phase through the floor. I shook my head and took to the air, grabbing my brown leather jacket off a coat rack as I floated over to the door. Once it was open I sped down the halls, keeping close to the ceiling so that I wouldn't crash into anyone and so no suddenly opened doors would hit me. I wasn't too worried about getting hurt since bullets would now bounce right off of my skin without hurting me, but I was worried about damage to the door, and to whomever would be behind it when it came flying closed in their face.
I made it down to the sub levels without incident, using one of the several hidden access chutes that the professor had had built just for my use. Another training device to help me get used to flying in enclosed areas. I wasn't complaining though since the chute let me get to and from the lower levels faster than waiting for the elevator, that, and I was the only one in the institute that had a power that would allow them to use them.
That morning as I landed lightly on the frame of the huge doors leading into the Danger Room I surveyed the people below. Another little perk of my new power to fly was that people still had not figured out how to look up when they were making sure there was no one around listening in on their conversations. Even though I know it wasn't the nicest of habits that little ability allowed me to gather blackmail material on almost everyone in the institute should I ever feel the need for a favor from one of my fellow mutants.
I sat down on the ledge brooding. Things were piling up and I didn't like it. I scowled as I remembered an encounter the day before with one of the schools resident mutant haters. A group of the 'popular' girls had walked by me, laughing behind their hands and cracking jokes about me. Normally I didn't care what other people thought of me but that day they just seemed to really piss me off so we traded words. The encounter ended with my slamming my fist through a locker door and ripping it off the wall, scaring the shit out of most of the people in the hallway as I tore the door in half.
I grinned as I came back to reality to see Wolverine entering the training room. I planned on taking out my frustrations on him.
"Hey Wolverine," I called from my perch. "I want a spar."
"Sure you're up to it Stripes?" he asked using his favorite nickname for me.
"More than up ta it," I called back. We both knew who would win the fight. But he would give it his best until I knocked him out.
He nodded and turned back to the small gathering of mutants behind him. Most of the older students at the institute were already running training courses in the Danger Room. All the others behind him were the newer and less experienced students that had tagged along to watch a training exercise.
"Well it looks like the lot of you have been saved from helping me with a demonstration on hand to hand combat since it appears our resident Rogue has volunteered to fill the position," he growled at them. "Count yourselves lucky."
"Quit pickin' on 'em Logan," I called as I leapt from my perch to swoop down on him. "Goin' up?" I asked grabbing him by the back of his black uniform and floating up to the ceiling with him in tow.
"Damnit, put me down Stripes," he snarled swinging wildly at me with his claws. Good thing my newest powers made it very difficult for the edges to cut through my skin.
"Anythin' you say sugah," I drawled a joyful grin on my face as the adrenaline started pumping through my system. Pushing forwards I flew towards one of the smooth walls at a rather slow pace for me letting Logan go and pulling up just in time to avoid crashing into it myself. Logan wasn't so lucky. I'd be willing to bet his ears were ringing when he finally slid to the ground.
"Oh yer gonna pay for that darlin'," he snarled leaping to his feet amidst a wave of startled gasps from the younger kids. I suppose they had thought Logan down for the count after his encounter with the wall.
One thing I knew, as the fight got under way, was that it was going to be a very interesting one. With his unbreakable bones and healing factor, and my inability to incur damage, it could last a while.
And did.
Forty-five minutes later we were both still going strong, and the floor and walls had numerous large dents in them from my fists. I threw a right hook at Wolverines head and once again he dodged the blow, adding another dent to the wall as my fist struck the smooth metal.
I turned and found myself pinned to the wall, two long, razor sharp, adamantium claws on either side of my neck and the third pressed against the skin of my throat.
"Give up Stripes?" he growled at me.
"Not really," I shot back and drove my knee into his gut. He grunted as all the wind was driven out of his lungs and I leapt into the air flipping around so the toe of my boot caught him right under his chin and launched him across the room where he landed on his back with enough force to add yet another dent to the metal room.
He didn't get back up.
"Very good Rogue," a voice said from off to my left. "You're learning fast."
I nearly screamed and spun about in the air, rising a good twenty feet as I did in my surprise. Below me a rather large crowd had gathered, all of the older students as well as a good number of the new recruits sat, stood, and lounged around the room apparently having watched the sparring match I'd just ended.
My gaze was drawn to the speaker that had addressed me. "Professah," I gasped still trying to calm my wildly beating heart. "Don't scare meh like that would ya?"
"I apologize Rogue, I had no intention of startling you," he said as Logan started moving sluggishly across the room. "Now that the demonstration is over I think that you should all head upstairs and get ready for school. Rogue I would like to speak to you after you are finished changing in my office please," he added as everyone started moving towards the doors.
I simply nodded and took off at top speed towards the ceiling, and one of the hidden chutes.
I stopped halfway up the chute at a little secret I had. One night I'd flown down to the Danger Room to blow off some steam and I'd slipped up in the chute slamming my head into one wall. When I'd pulled away there was a large dent in the metal wall. After a bit of consideration, and several weeks of silent work I'd hollowed out a nice rounded space in the wall that I could fly to where no one could get to me, even if the professor did find me there with his power.
I quickly grabbed a Math book and French text that I'd left there the night before when I'd gone to my cubby hole for some quiet to study and continued up the chute popping out of a hidden door beneath the long dining room table.
Shooting out from under the table I think I almost gave Bobby a heart attack when I appeared out of nowhere. Ignoring him for the most part I flew out of the dining room into the enormous foyer and straight up through the open air towards the second floor and the hallway that would lead me to the room I shared with Kitty.
It wasn't twenty minutes later that I was showered and changed and walking quickly through the halls towards the professors office, backpack slung casually over one shoulder, the fact that it weighed near thirty pounds meaning nothing to my enhanced strength, make up applied, spiked jewelry in place.
I at one point had to dodge a couple of over zealous younger students when they came charging down the elegant hallway towards me, again, not so much out of fear for myself but for their safety if they were to collide with me.
Okay, so I was still more than a little skittish about touching someone, having a person's entire life and a memory dumped into your brain against both your wills tends to make anyone a little wary of physical contact.
"As if Ah wasn't already completely paranoid about anyone touchin' meh," I muttered a trifle bitterly to myself under my breath as I reached the door I sought. Lifting my hand I knocked as gently as possible on the door, unfortunately it was still hard enough to crack the wood and leave an imprint of my knuckles in the smooth, polished surface.
'Come in Rogue,' the Professor sent to me using his powers of telepathy.
"Sorry about tha door Professah," I sighed after I'd entered his office and closed the damaged door behind me.
"Think nothing of it," he said, a small smile tugging at his lips as he waved away my concerns with one hand. "I can easily replace the door, however the damage does bring up a very good point that I wished to discuss with you."
"And that would be?" I asked.
"You learning to control your new strength, and your temper."
"Is this about tha incident at school yesterday?"
"Partially," he confirmed, nodding his head once, his fingers laced together under his chin as I've noticed he had a tendency to do. "It is also partially about how soundly you defeated Logan in the Danger Room."
"Ah didn't hurt 'im, did Ah?"
"No, as you know Logan is next to impossible to really injure in anyway that doesn't involve sharp objects, and those injuries don't last for long. The point I wanted to make however is the fact that if you had been sparring with any one of the other people living in this house that final kick to the chin would most likely have killed them."
"Ah'm confused," I admitted, wondering exactly where he was going with this.
"You have been fighting with Logan because you can't hurt or possibly kill him as easily as you could anyone else in this house. As such you have gained a lot of control over your strength. However, when in combat you still tend to use a lot more physical force than you should as you know his body can handle it."
"And...?"
"I think that you should start fighting other members of this house, and we will be running different Danger Room sessions that involve only you handling fragile items in an attempt to teach you the minimums of your strength."
I was still slightly confused but I thought I had it. "Basically ya want meh to handle things that'll break easy raght?"
"Exactly," he said. "I feel that exercises such as that will enable you to better control your strength."
"Sure thang Professah," I nodded.
"We'll see you in the Danger Room after school then," he said. "You should get going now, don't want to be late."
Deciding to stick to the ground for a short while I ran down the halls and leapt over the top banister into the foyer landing lightly on the tile floor. I made it outside the mansion just in time to see Scott drive out of the gates with Jean in the passenger seat next to him and Kitty in the back.
Taking to the air I sped after the little red convertible, catching up easily, and dropped into the backseat before the Mansion was out of sight behind us.
"You shouldn't do that out here Rogue," Scott scolded from the drivers seat, glaring at my reflection in the review mirror.
My only response was to smile as sweetly as I could and stick my tongue out at him.
"Like what's your problem Scott?" Kitty snapped from the seat next to me. "Everyone has known about mutants for months now, and Kelly said that we could, like, go to school if we didn't use our powers on campus. Last time I checked the mansions grounds were, like, so nowhere near the school."
The rest of the ride to school was spent in silent dread on my part as I listened absently to the discussion that comment had sparked among the other passengers in the car. The largest change in my life in the last months after the whole Sentinel thing was that my world had suddenly grown exponentially larger.
Before, I'd been confined to the ground, and confined to a ground based creatures view of the world around me. But now I could fly, and that ability had given me more enjoyment than anything else in my life, it'd given me a sense of peace I'd never been able to find anywhere else than in the air.
I was shaken out of my thoughts as the car turned into the parking lot at school and I forced down a groan when I realized that once again, I would have to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. That would make my day incredibly boring.
"Ah really hate the ground," I muttered irritably as I jumped rather nimbly, if I do say so myself, out of the car without bothering to open the door.
Behind me Kitty laughed as she got out on the opposite side. "It's, like, not all that bad Rogue," she chirped.
"You don't have the ability to fly do you?" I growled mildly.
"Nope, not really."
"Then you have no idea how bad bein' confined to the ground can be after bein' able ta fly."
"Alright ladies," Jean broke in. "The bell's gonna ring soon so why don't we just get to class?"
"Let tha monotony begin," I drawled, slinging my bag over my shoulder as I walked away from them. If I'd known then what was going to happen later I would have stayed in bed at home that day.
"You want to explain to me why I had to come down to the school and get you before the police came to take you away for 'reckless endangerment, and assault?'." Logan asked a few hours later as we were heading back towards the mansion.
"That punk messed with meh," I snarled. I'll admit, I was angry. Maybe more than that I was probably pissed. But I think I had earned the right to be justifiably angry.
"What happened stripes?" he asked.
"Ah was just sitting at the table eating when something hit the back o' mah neck," I growled. "It was Matthews. He'd punched me from behind."
"And that got you almost arrested?" he asked arching an eyebrow at me.
"No. What almost got meh arrested was tha fact that he shattered his hand when he hit meh. Compound fracture. Ah could see tha bones poking out through tha back o' his hand."
"That still doesn't tell me anything stripes."
"If ya'd shut up a sec I could get to tha part where Kelly tried to have me arrested," I snapped at him finally losing my patience.
"Okay, just calm down and explain it to me then."
"He was bleedin' an' we were all tha way on tha other side o' tha school. So I grabbed him and flew him ta tha nurses office. Tha nurse called Kelly and wouldn' let meh leave saying Ah was in trouble. Kelly got there and went in ta talk ta Duncan, and when he came out he was saying I was going to jail for 'purposely breaking Duncan's hand and then trying to kill him by dropping him from a great height,'" I quoted Principle Kelly's words.
Next to me Logan growled low in his throat in anger and I could see that his knuckles had gone white on the steering wheel.
"Well it looks like we'll have to deal with this later. Right now, since yer here we got other things ta take care of darlin'," he said.
"Like what?"
"You'll find out when we get to the mansion."
"Ya want meh ta do what?" I asked several minutes later when I found myself standing in the Professors study.
"I would like you to get into your uniform Rogue. The new one that we had made for you, and don't forget your jacket," Proffesor Xavier said. "Then we will be taking the Blackbird to Washington DC where the President has requested our presence at a sort of question/answer press conference about mutants."
"Why meh?" I asked.
"Because you happen to be out of class right now, and you have some of the most impressive powers in this mansion that offers the least chance of property damage. Scott would not be able to demonstrate his powers without hurting someone or destroying something. Bobby is a little too enthusiastic. Kitty would scare them. They would start worrying about their banks and the security of their homes."
"Isn't that keeping things from them though professor?" I asked. "If we're upfront with them from the beginning here won't they be more likely to trust us?"
Professor Xavier seemed to consider my words for a moment. He looked over his shoulder at Logan and Ms. Munroe where they stood by the windows. Silence reigned and I knew that he was talking to them in their heads, so I waited quietly.
"Very well Rogue," he said a moment later. "Give me four other students that you would recommend we take aside from yourself and Logan we will get them on our way to Washington."
"Kitty," I said right away. "We have to show them her power, we can't seem to be hiding anything from them. Jean, Sott and Kurt."
"Would Mr. Wagner fall under your let us 'show them the worst things first so they know we are honest with them', category?" the professor asked with a small smile.
"Something lahk that," I responded. I used a small bit of my power to float off the ground and crossed my legs under me, resting my right elbow on my leg and my chin in my hand. "Kitty and Kurt, of all of us, have the powers that would scare everyone the most for their infiltration purposes. Scott has more destructive power than almost anyone else at this institute, and Jean can talk inside people heads and move objects without having ta touch them.
"We already know that that would make her an excellent thief," I smiled, remembering the time when old Mesmero had taken over her mind and used her to steal the three rings that made up the first key to Apocalypses prison.
I looked askance at the professor. "The only thing Ah can't figure out here is why ya want meh along on this little trip."
"I already told you Rogue, you've got an impressive display of powers and they offer the least capability for damage."
"Whatever," I waved away his explanation. "Ah'm gonna go get changed. Be back in twenty minutes tops." Taking to the air I moved backwards as I talked. One thing I forgot. The door. There was a resounding rash as I tore a hole shaped roughly like a human being through the inch thick oak door.
"Do not worry about it Rogue. Go change while I call the school and have them release the students. Kurt can teleport them here in no time at all."
I smiled, relieved that I wasn't going to get in trouble about the door and waved to the professor before turning and taking off down the hall, flying as fast as I could through the wide hallways.
Landing outside my door I bolted inside stripping out of my clothes as I ran and within the space of five minutes I was in the air again flying towards the front of the mansion.
I cleared the railing and cut the power, so to speak, on my flight, letting my body freefall until the last second when I used my power to catch myself and land lightly on my feet. I sighed, slightly disappointed. Flying was great and all, but there was not thill in that kind of maneuver when I reminded myself that even if I' just let myself fall I would most likely have only put a large hole in the floor of the mansion without feeling any of the impact.
The sound and smell of Kurt teleporting caught my attention and he landed on the flor right next to me, already dressed in his uniform.
"Already brought everyone else?" I asked.
"Ja. Jean, Scott, and Kitty are getting dressed. Za Professor asked me to tell you that we need to head down to the hanger and start prepping the Blackbird for launch."
"He's not havin' Logan do it?" I asked as I jumped lightly into the air and started floating lazily towards the hallway that would lead to the elevator to the lower levels.
"Apparently Herr Logan left a few minutes ago, somezing about not liking cameras."
"Typical Logan," I muttered. "Want to get us down there quick little brother?" I asked, holding out one gloved hand to him.
"Ja, we should get to work." He grabbed my hand and a moment later we appeaered in a cloud of smoke inside the cockpit of the Blackbird. Before he could move I slid into the pilot seat and out on the headset before beginning the start up sequence, all the while ignoring Kurts protests that he wanted to do it.
A minute or two later the ramp slid dow and Professor Xavier rolled his way on board closely followed by Jean, Kitty, Scott, and Storm.
"Rogue," the Professor said once they were all seated. "If you would be so good as to take us out?"
I turned in my seat to stare blankly at him. I had just been about to remove the headset and let Scott or Storm take over. We'd all had flight training of course but it still came as a bit of a surprise.
"Rogue? Is something wrong?" Storm asked from the co-pilots seat.
"Um... no, nothin's wrong at all." Turning back to the front I put the headset I'd removed back on and flicked a few switches on the console in front of me. Reaching down I set my hand on the throttle and eased it forwards a little.
The glossy black plane slowly started to move forwards and as I became a bit ore comfortable in my seat I decided to get things over with. "Everybody hang on," I called back as my only warning before punching it.
In retrospect I can't remember if it was Kurt or Scott that screamed like a little girl as the plane shot forward into the exit tunnel.
To be Continued.
Notes: Okay, our first look into the past and we get a minor glimpse of some of the first events of the story. Hold onto your butts, it only gets stranger from here. takes the cigarette out of his mouth and stubs it out in the ashtray.