Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12
Chapter 4: Headpain
Alison Blaire was painting her nails whilst humming absently to herself, it was the first time she'd had a moment to herself all day – at least a moment to herself that didn't include lessons in advanced genetics about mutations and the x-gene. She wasn't interested in learning these things, she didn't see how understanding why mutation occurred might help her control her powers. Couldn't control only come from experience?
She observed her nails, and blew lightly on them to dry, wondering why they had all had to have been shipped to Scotland so suddenly – usually if a field trip such as this was planned, they were always well informed at least a month or two in advance. Alison had only found out the day before leaving. This had to mean something. Alison was no genius but even she had her suspicions about the sudden decision for all the students to take the trip.
The whole research centre had fallen silent after midnight, but Alison still felt jetlagged, and couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried. But she was glad for the silence. The less noise, the better, as Alison's powers were triggered by most types of sound. Those sounds would turn into kinds of light that could sometimes could be lethal or blinding. Whilst there was no noise, Alison didn't have to keep focusing on holding back those powers. She smiled a little, beginning to relax in the silence, and admired her newly painted bright blue fingernails.
Her mind drifted back to the strange atmosphere that had over taken the Mansion just before they'd left. Rogue had been walking around in a daze, she'd looked as if she hadn't slept for weeks, dark circles under her eyes, her tanned skin pale. Kitty had barely had time to spare even for dinner. The Professor hadn't been appearing at dinner either, he'd been locking himself in his office and hadn't explained to any of the students why.
And then there was the training sessions in the Danger room. They'd gotten even more intense. Up two levels higher than they were used to dealing with and for longer hours. No one had complained of course, because it was more challenging and gave them more sense of importance than before. No one seemed to be questioning the reason behind it all. Why all of a sudden instead of the gradual increase as they always had done.
A sudden blast of noise caused a sudden flash of multicoloured light to escape from her hands – her powers were responding to the sound and turning it into pure power, sparkles and beams of light shot from her hands. She fell back from the bed as the nearby bedside cabinet exploded from the impact, "What's going on?!" she demanded confusedly. She glanced at the cabinet which now lay broken upon the floor, singed, in several pieces, some pieces looking as if they'd been burned in half with lasers and the other pieces broken and charred.
She was almost about to think of how she was going to explain this to Moira MacTaggart and Sean Cassidy and then suddenly she became aware of the loud and shrill screaming coming from down the hall. Now she realised what had set her power off – and what was still causing her powers to surge without her consent.
Alison threw the door open and staggered of the room, trying to focus on controlling her powers wasn't even helping, and light shone from her every which way as if she were a living lighthouse in the dark, "STOP SCREAMING!!" she yelled, she found the source of the sound, an open door, and she stumbled in.
In the incredible light her powers were creating from the sound of those screams, Alison could see Monet St Croix squirming upon the floor screaming bloodcurdlingly, clutching the sides of her head. Her hair was splayed out on the carpet like a river of ink. Beneath the long skirt of her satin nightgown, Monet's legs thrashed. Her eyes were shut tightly and her teeth clenched. It was obvious she was in agony.
"STOP IT!" Alison cried at her, "You're making my powers wig out!"
Monet was writhing across the floor, still holding onto her head, her screams were loud and shrill. Pain was cutting through her brain like a hot knife whilst her skull felt as if it were shrinking, and trying to implode all together. Monet had never felt such agony in all the sixteen years she'd been alive.
"What's going on?!" Rusty Collins came in, looking dazed, his eyes sleepy, hair jutting up at odd angles. He stared down at Monet, completely bewildered.
"She's freaking out…get someone!" Alison put her hands to her ears hoping it would block out the sound to her powers, but this caused no effect whatsoever.
Monet still writhed, she rolled over, grasping her head, she opened her eyes, squinting at an incredible white light that had overtaken the bedroom to the point that Monet momentarily thought she might be dead.
{Oh my god! She has to stop screaming, I can't control my powers…I don't want to end up blowing this room up!}
Alison Blaire's voice was very loud, and clear, and almost seemed to bounce from the walls as if they were in a much bigger room. Monet only wished she could stop screaming, just as Alison had requested, but she convulsed as the pain doubled. The pain confirmed the fact she was definitely not dead.
Monet focused through the light, Alison's face was barely visible apart from her sharp blue eyes, and faint contours of her face, looking into the light seemed to make Monet's head hurt even more, Monet frowned, she tried to summon the will to speak, only the words would not find their way out of her mouth.
Alison felt a blinding pain hit her right between the eyes, and she let out a howl of agony, she pressed her hands to her forehead, dropping to her knees, the light around her dimming considerably. {Oh my god! What's going on?!}
Monet saw with her eyes that Alison had not spoken these words. The pain began to quickly dull and Alison let go of her head, eyes teary from pain. "Alison…?" Monet asked confusedly.
Alison moved over, "What was that…?"
"I don't know…" Monet whispered, she pulled herself up, she tried to compose herself, although tears of pain were streaming down her face, "I…I don't know," she rubbed at her temples, the ache still persistent although certainly more tolerable than it had been.
Sean Cassidy came rushing in, "what's going on…Rusty told me something was happening…" his eyes were weary, but wide.
"I had a bad headache…" Monet replied coolly, remaining calm, she wiped the tears from her face, "it may have just been stress."
Alison rolled her eyes, {yeah right,}
Monet looked at Alison strangely, "It's gone now," she assured, looking back to Sean and trying to seem as unaffected as possible.
"Maybe you should have Moira give you a look over…" Sean suggested.
"I'm fine, I assure you," Monet said softly, "please…don't make more of this than there is. It's a headache."
Sean nodded, "alright…" he sighed, "you…I can't remember your name…back to your room, please," he looked at Alison.
"Alison," Alison replied rather hotly, then forced a smile, "Just a moment, I just want to talk to Monet for just a sec…then I'll go, I swear," she pleaded.
"Fine," Sean sighed, and left closing the door behind himself.
"Stress?" Alison finally said once Sean was out of earshot, "since when do you suffer from 'stress'?" she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"I don't," Monet said, "but whatever it is that I'm suffering from, is no concern of yours."
"I blew up the cabinet in my room 'cause of that, and you're telling me it's no concern of mines?!" Alison demanded, "When they see that tomorrow, they'll flip…I hear Moira is a real tyrant."
Monet looked away, trying to think clearly, her mind still felt strangely weighed.
{Why does she ALWAYS do that, it's like she doesn't even care!} Alison's voice echoed across the room, which seemed strange because the room, being as small as it did, didn't have acoustics such as that – and if it had, Monet realised her screams would have been even more lethal to Alison's powers than they had been.
Monet spun around and stared at Alison, who was standing quite silent, having not have said a word in the past minute. "Hmmm?" she asked, referring to the last thing Alison seemed to have said.
"I said I blew up the cabinet in my room 'cause of that, and—"
"Right…" Monet cut Alison off all too quickly, and nodded, beginning to understand now what had happened, "Alison…I'm tired…and so are you, you must be drained after all that power you used…you should sleep it off, or you'll be exhausted tomorrow."
Alison looked at Monet, {oh my god, is she actually pretending to care? What's the deal with this girl? She's like the ice maiden.}
Monet raised an eyebrow, looking at Alison curiously. Her lips did not move, the girl's blue eyes were squinting in suspicion at Monet, as those words came clear as day to Monet. Monet's eyes widened just a little in reaction as it became clear what was happening to her.
"What's going on…?" Alison asked.
"A headache…and nothing more," Monet replied heading towards the door.
"Yeah, and I had it too, momentarily! How do you explain that?" Alison demanded, she gave a dramatic gesture, and frowned.
Monet gave a quirky smile, "sympathy pain?" she asked.
"Oh come ON, that's total bull…something weird happened!"
"Nothing 'weird' happened," Monet replied, "and if you please…I'm quite tired now, Alison. Good night…" she said quietly, and opened the door for Alison and gestured gently to the open threshold.
Alison shook her head in disbelief and stepped out, Monet closed the door quickly behind her.
Monet leaned against the door, she swept her long hair back from her face and stood deep in thought for several moments. She had a new power