Not Myself
By Princess Alexandria
Princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Annie left the Professor's office just before dinner. These lessons were humiliating and she hated them. The only thing that kept her trying was the fact that without them everyone, not just the Professor, would be able to read her mind. She felt exposed and paranoid when she walked around the campus. She wondered who was a telepath and what they knew.
"Annie." A cool voice that she was very familiar with called to her before she made it to the door. At least she should be able to avoid lessons with this woman. The Professor told her today that her shields were much stronger. He seemed amused at how hard Annie was willing to work to avoid getting tutoring from Ms. Frost.
"Yes Ms. Frost?" Annie turned to face her English teacher.
"I heard you found that on switch for your healing power." The woman waved towards Annie as if beckoning a dog. Annie fell into step beside her as commanded with a heavy sigh. Christy fell for this woman? Annie's eyes shifted to the side subtly to take in the woman in white. Sure she was attractive, but she was such a bitch. Students were afraid of her she was so bad. How could Christy… Annie's fists clenched. The rumors were hard to live with. It seemed every time Ms. Frost's name came up someone brought up the rumors. Every day for almost a week lunch wasn't complete without overhearing how Ms. Frost was sleeping with a woman. The telepath that started that rumor had been in constant demand for the juicy details. Apparently he got it from scanning someone that overheard some of the male teachers talking. Annie hated Quentin as much as she hated Ms. Frost now. It felt like he waited until she was within hearing range before he started talking. Whenever Annie saw him now, she just walked the other way.
"Yeah." Annie replied to the question rather slowly since she was busy thinking. She could turn on a green glow around her hands, but all she'd done was heal her partner's papercut. He cut himself so that she could.
"Sophie was lucky enough to scrape her face and I thought this would be an opportunity for you to try that power out." They stood still while the elevator came up to them. They were heading to the medlab? Emma's voice was softer, and even Annie had to admit a little concerned. "The poor girl doesn't need a scar there." Annie had no idea who Sophie was, but she followed Ms. Frost into the elevator to help her out. It would be nice if her power actually did help someone out.
They needed music in these elevators. It was too quiet. Annie felt compelled to talk just to hear something. "How did she hurt her face?"
Ms. Frost looked over at her with a thoughtful look for a moment. Annie made a conscious effort to build up her shields in case the woman wanted to read her. "She was knocked over by some boys playing catch. He managed to toss her into her sister's bike when they were all riding. The pedal hit her cheek."
"Ouch." Annie could imagine that hurt.
"Yes, ouch." Ms. Frost's voice seemed amused at her. Annie felt stupid for her comment then. She stared at the floor readout to see how much longer she'd be trapped with this woman.
"Annie." That didn't sound good. Annie turned back to face Ms. Frost. "If you let things bother you, people like Quentin will just continue to do them to get a reaction." Annie wanted to be invisible. Ms. Frost knew about the rumors? And what Quentin was doing? "People have always talked about me behind my back Annie." Annie looked into the woman's eyes. "My power enables me to know about it. You aren't the only student with weak shields." The door opened. Thank god. "Although your shields are getting stronger." The woman spoke a little louder as they exited the elevator. "It looks like your work with the Professor has been helpful, or was it my motivation?" Emma smirked at her before turning down the hall to the medlab. Annie didn't bother answering that. It was definitely the motivation.
The large form of her Health teacher obstructed her view of this Sophie girl when they came in. "Henry, I brought Annie down to see if she could help." Ms. Frost addressed him and that made him move to the side and turn towards them. Annie barely caught the searching look he gave Ms. Frost and then her. She was busy staring at one of them. It was one of those girls that all looked alike, and she was all by herself. Annie actually glanced around the medlab, expecting to see the other four, but they weren't there. Annie hadn't realized that she thought they might not be able to be apart from each other until she saw this evidence that they could.
"Hi." Annie spoke a bit self consciously. This girl was clearly one of the popular crowd and she wasn't green. She was pretty and normal looking when she wasn't surrounded by carbon copies.
"Annie right?" the girls voice was solo. They were in English class together, but Annie rarely heard them talk without the others. Annie just nodded and moved closer to the exam table. Sophie had a rather angry looking scrap all along her cheekbone and her eyes were a bit red. Annie thought that one eye might actually bruise soon, since the scrape came rather close to it and looked swollen. "You're a healer."
"And you're a telepath." Annie teased a little as she inspected the damage. She'd only healed papercuts before. "I can try if you want." She ignored the adults watching this. She wanted to try.
"Go ahead." Sophie gave her a weak smile. "If it doesn't work at least people will be able to tell me apart from my sisters."
Annie started to focus on pulling her power into her hands. "Try wearing black." She muttered as she tried to focus and stepped closer to the girl. "Or die your hair red… maybe blue." She looked into her blue eyes. "Yeah, blue." She set her hands gently on each side of Sophie's face and ignored her shock at hearing herself talking to the girl like she was Jessi so that she could concentrate.
The power flowed out of her and Annie watched in amazement as the swelling went down. The angry red faded and the bloody gash started to close up. She really did have a power. Her smile grew as she watched the evidence of it. When she felt no more need for healing she pulled her hand away. Sophie's hands replaced them as the girl gently touched where she'd been hurt. "Thank you." She sounded relieved.
"You're welcome." Annie felt her heart beat a bit faster when she stared at the evidence of her own power.
"Well, if you're alright then I guess I have no choice but to release you from the medlab." Henry spoke and drew Annie's attention back to the fact they weren't alone. She felt a bit of a blush cover her cheeks as she turned to see Ms. Frost and Henry watching them. "It is almost dinnertime."
"Come have dinner with us." Sophie spoke softly and Annie turned to see the girl jump down from the exam table.
"I can't I eat without…" Her team? She didn't know how to word this one.
"My sisters can get us a big table if you want, but surely you can eat without them if I can come down here without my family." Sophie gave her a teasing smirk. "Unless you can't physically…" Annie's blush grew as she realized the girl had picked up on her thoughts earlier and was now teasing her.
********
Emma watched the two girls leave. "You know Emma, I'm a doctor and I could have dealt with a little scrape. That's what I have all this fancy equipment for."
"It wasn't Sophie's cheek I brought Annie here to heal." She gave him a small smirk and a nod goodbye. Annie needed to make more friends, and her girls could use one as well. Students tended to avoid the quintuplets. "But she didn't do too badly did she?" She spoke softly knowing Henry's enhanced hearing would catch it even as she walked out the door. Also her girls could help Annie with her Quentin problem.
********
Christy glared at Mystique and refused to budge. "I'm not ready. Let me wear a robe at least."
"Well, you can only pick that one ugly outfit, but it does stay on most of the time." Mystique was looking at Christy's fake clothes with a little disdain. This was what Christy had worn in her own world and when she was forced to learn or walk around naked it was the only outfit she had worn so often that she could envision all the details well enough to create it.
"It was bad enough you forced me to spend yesterday like that…" Christy glared at her teacher, who had seemed far too happy to let Christy suffer nakedness all day Sunday while explaining about building clothes. "I'm not going up there for him to see me too." As if to prove her point her clothes wavered and faded back into her. The painful blush covered all the skin Mystique could see as Christy struggled to clothe herself again. "Please." She finally resorted to that. She'd been the tribe ruler and Mystique reduced her to a child, with all the lack of rights to decide a child got.
"Alright. I'll go get dinner and he can eat alone again." Mystique's voice was softer. "But we are working on this after dinner again. You have to be able to hold them on while being distracted. We are all having dinner together Wednesday whether or not you think you can hold the form, and you will be wearing something nicer than this." Christy nodded that she understood. At least she bought some time. She even understood the harsh rules and why Mystique was pushing her, but it was hard. If it weren't so important Christy would have told Mystique to shove it when they started this lesson.
********
Emma had her appointment with Forge on Tuesday. He agreed to meet her in person at his shop rather than do the meeting over the phone. She only had to pretend to have a business meeting in the Baltimore area so that it seemed natural to catch him like this.
As she followed him into his workshop she could see many different projects laid out on the tables. "So with Christy's inability to communicate telepathically we need to find a way for Jono to talk with her. Something more advanced than paper and pencil."
"You really think she'll be working at the school?" Emma could hear some doubt in his voice. He also seemed to know some of what she was telling him, perhaps even more. All she said was that the woman was completely psi-blind and when she started working at the school it would be a problem for her to interact with Jono, who would be a TA for her class. They didn't know if Jono would be assigned to Christy, but Emma didn't dwell on details.
"If I have anything to say about it she will." Her voice was a little colder as she scanned him and saw that he knew about Christy's current position as Mystique's trainee. He was clearing off some space at the table so they could sit at it and Emma continued to talk about the need for communication while she scanned him. Mystique wasn't lying. He really had built a device to jam the one the government had to detect shapeshifters, Mystique in particular. He also fully expected Christy to become a spy for Charles, not a teacher. He was going to build what she was asking for, but it was just to cover up his knowledge.
Emma had picked up languages briefly and passed them on to others so they could speak. She'd delved deep into peoples minds. She'd borrowed knowledge she didn't have to do emergency medical care. Those were things that needed immediate use of her stolen knowledge. She didn't have a background in electronics or engineering and she wasn't going to be able to borrow his schematics to build it herself.
When she left Forge would remember it as a normal visit where he assured her that the device would be ready before Fall quarter started. He would completely forget about her painful invasion of his mind. He'd think he dumped a floppy disk instead of copying the schematics to it for her and he covered up the crime himself. Emma left his workshop with a cold look in her blue eyes.
She dropped by Frost Industries on her way back to the mansion and met with one of her engineers. Where Forge could build this in a day, it would take Emma a lot longer to get the project done. Some of the components were one of a kind and hard to duplicate. Emma impressed on her employees mind that this was very secretive, and in fact he wouldn't remember he was working on it after it was done. It had been a long time since she used her powers so harshly, but this was a dangerous game they were playing. Not only did she have to keep this from Charles, she needed to make sure the government didn't find out as well. Protecting Mystique was aiding and abetting.
A small smile came to her lips as she left her offices. Nothing like a little cloak and dagger to get the blood pumping. This had become a rather important contest and Emma intended to win. Christy would be working at the mansion, and not being sent around the world into danger alone. Christy was going to have a stable home, it wasn't much that woman wanted in life and Emma wasn't going to let Charles take that away from her.
She hadn't seen any plans to force Christy into that life in Forge's mind, but she couldn't say that Charles wouldn't deem the need too great to give Christy a choice. Normally she would never accuse the old man of that, but what he'd seen in Forge's mind of the meetings with Mystique and Charles' cruel taunting about how Mystique was free… but the protection would end, didn't sit well with her. He'd sunk to a new low after Dr. MacTaggert's death if he thought he could enslave Mystique like this.
Another disturbing thought hit Emma as she was on her way back to the mansion. Did Tessa have a choice in becoming a spy? She'd hated the woman for betraying her like that and not being who she claimed to be, but did Charles force Tessa into that role? How much control did Charles have over what Tessa did? Tessa was just a teenager when she joined the Hellfire club and became Shaw's right hand woman. Charles, what have you been doing? Emma thought in disgust. If anything Charles owed Tessa for saving his life when the woman was just a child. If he forced her into spying as a way to repay that debt… Emma shook her head and sighed heavily. He forced a lot of people to sacrifice their own dreams for his. No wonder Christy was concerned. It really looked like Christy was the next one he planned to sacrifice.
********
"Erik." Ms. Frost's voice was a surprise. He hadn't noticed she was done shopping. When he decided to go to the new school he hadn't expected so many field trips to the Mall alone with his teacher. Before long people will probably be talking about this as well. He turned to face his teacher. This was the one he spent the most time with, because she was teaching him about his Empathy.
"Yeah?"
"Be a gentleman and carry my bag." She smiled at him and handed the bag over. At least it wasn't a nightgown or anything like that. He took it quietly and started to follow her when she began to walk with a purpose towards the doors. "I've found your exercise."
And this was why they came here. Last time he had to learn to focus through the emotions of several people and determine what certain people were feeling. The noise was technically music. Erik grimaced as they got closer to it.
~Make them popular.~ Ms. Frost's mental voice told him. ~Make everyone like listening to this drivel.~
He turned to stare at her a moment and then back at the three musicians trying to draw a crowd outside the mall. Security would probably be by soon to try and get them to leave, and they should. This wasn't good at all. He took an empathic inventory of the emotions in the area and it was irritation that won. Most people were trying to get away from the loud noise by entering the mall quickly.
He glanced at the people that he'd have to influence with hesitation. Christy didn't like him doing things like that. It was against the school rules to do that on campus.
~There is no other way to train an Empath. We can't do this on campus because of the school rules.~ Emma gave him a sympathetic look. ~Christy will understand. I'm keeping the lessons rather harmless. What she's worried about is that you'll manipulate people for your own good. This is just lowering their standards for music.~
~Okay.~ He took a deep breath and focused on how he felt when he listened to his favorite songs. Then he projected that out to everyone in hearing range. People started to walk towards the music rather than flee. A few people started to smile. After a little longer some people started to dance. He could feel more people coming into the area he was influencing, and added them into his emotions loop. A bit of sweat started to travel down his face as he struggled to hold them all in this long enough for the song to end. The loud clapping when that happened came with a smile from Ms. Frost.
"Good job." She started to walk away with him as people started to ask for another song. "Let's get out of here before they realize how truly awful those musicians are."
They were heading towards her car and Erik was feeling like he'd run for a bit. He felt tired. "You'll get better control with practice. It'll get easier to block them out and to control them." He looked away. Did he want to be able to control people? Not really. "If a mob were attacking a friend of yours, you have the power to stop them without hurting anyone. An Empath can project emotions and control large numbers of people with less effort than a telepath can." Emma leaned against her car and faced him, crossing her arms like she did sometimes. "Do you want to be a hero or are you just trying to get control?" He felt a bit on the spot. He knew his teacher fought when she needed to. She even went out on missions.
"I just want enough control to be able to go home."
"Okay, fair enough." Emma nodded and he felt relieved that she wasn't pressuring him. "I just want you to know enough to defend yourself so that you can." He gave her a small smile. It was different than the Professor's talks about powers and responsibilities. That man made him feel like people would think he was weak if he just wanted to live a normal life. Emma frowned for a second before turning to open the car door. "Hop in, we can make it back for dinner."
"Thank you." He moved to the other side of the car and put the bag in the back before getting in.
"Oh, and the bag." Emma glanced at him. "Your new jacket." Erik's eyes widened and he turned to grab the bag back out of the back to look at it. Oh… It was the leather one he'd looked at last time they came here.
"Thank you." He almost told her she shouldn't have, but she was rich. It wasn't like he'd ever get a leather jacket from his parents. He pulled it close enough to smell it. Yeah, this was so cool. "Thank you so much." If Ms. Frost wanted him to put in good words with Christy, he'd do every day.
"Thank you, but I really don't need the help." Ms. Frost sounded like she was almost ready to laugh. Erik looked up at her and almost asked if the rumors were true, but he didn't. Wasn't his business, but even with the jacket, if Ms. Frost hurt Christy… "Let's get home." She said and pulled out of the parking space.
********
"You ever read the Emperor's New Clothes?" Mystique asked him as he was watching her cook. "If she loses it, you better just keep a straight face and ignore it or I'll never get her out of that room again."
"Was it this hard for you?" He had to ask. Ever since Mystique enforced the shapeshifters don't wear clothes rules in the house he hadn't seen the woman. This wasn't just hard for Christy. If the woman lost her clothes in the middle of dinner it would be a painful struggle for him to not blush.
"I don't…" Mystique turned away from the stove to look at him. "I don't really remember that. Much of my childhood is kind of fuzzy." Shortpack nodded, but this wasn't the first time he'd heard that. He got the impression that Mystique's father abused her rather badly when she was little and that was why memories were missing. "She seems to work so hard, but it takes so long. Maybe shifting is a power that you're supposed to get young."
"Well if anyone can get her up to speed it would be you. You are the best." He smiled and tried to cheer her up. Mystique hated to fail, of course who didn't.
"Yeah." Mystique smiled at him. "It also won't hurt when I tell her that by the end of next week I'm dumping all her clothes. She'll need to have enough control to go to work in what she makes by then."
"Boy this makes me grateful I'm just a telepath." He muttered in sympathy with Christy's embarrassment. "Can you wait to tell her until after dinner?" He didn't want to be there to see this. He was amazed Christy was taking things as well as she did. If it were him everyone would have heard some screaming by now, but he'd never heard her complain loudly even. Of course he hadn't seen her lately, but even so.
The front door opened and the woman walked inside. Shortpack caught the expression on her face, resigned defeat, as she went downstairs to take her clothes off. When her bedroom door closed he turned back to Mystique. "Maybe I could skip dinner and you could just have her upstairs while I work in my room."
"We aren't do her favors by coddling her. She needs control and every day that goes by where I'm training her another mutant could die. She knows this. She'll be up here."
He sighed heavily. When he learned his power he had to work fast because he was shrinking and could have shrunk away completely. He did everything the Professor told him to do and they managed to stop it, but not before he was only six inches tall. It was his life he was fighting for then. Christy had the same sort of pressure and he didn't envy her. He understood. It was hard enough to learn, but to have it be life or death. To have to do it faster than anyone, to have a deadline on something that is already so incredibly hard, that just wasn't fair. Why couldn't they take care of the F.O.H. first and then stick around to train her? He'd have to ask the Professor, because this was too much pressure for her.
"Hey, I made dinner early so she wouldn't have to stress about it." Mystique spoke quietly. "We'll get this over with and then see how much visiting she can do. She needs to be able to think, argue, be distracted, and still remain in clothes. You have to help me with that."
"Yeah." He wasn't thrilled but he had information about their practice mission he could share. It would require her attention. He'd just make sure to be staring at his computer the whole time. It was the least he could do for her. He wouldn't look.
********
Mystique set the table before going downstairs to tell Christy it was ready. She was also going to make sure Christy wasn't dressed in real clothes. She didn't think the woman would cheat like that, but embarrassing situations sometimes brought the cheater out in people. "We'll be right up." She told Shortpack. The boy looked nervous enough that you'd think he was the one going to dinner naked. "You better look normal when we get back." She told him more quietly. This was going to be tense enough. Christy was a shy woman, and she had no reason to be. Mystique felt a smile touch her lips and stopped it before she got to Christy's room. She hadn't trained a shapeshifter before and she was enjoying it. Christy's embarrassment was actually cute. It also made it clear how much Mystique herself had learned over the years. Things that she took for granted like the wardrobe were things she appreciated more now.
"Dinner's ready." She spoke through the door. When it opened she saw the outfit Christy had been practicing. A nice silky blue shirt and black slacks, with nice shoes. Nothing overly fancy, since Christy hadn't even worn some of the more expensive outfits before. That was something they'd need to work on in stages as Christy learned about different outfits. Mystique stepped inside and checked the closet to make sure the originals were still in there. They were. They still even had the tags on them. Mystique had purchased them so that Christy had to learn a completely new outfit. Christy unfortunately wasn't able to do that without seeing the originals yet. "Good, lets go."
"K." Great. The woman was so obsessed with the clothes they'd be lucky if she was able to talk. Mystique just sighed as she followed Christy up the stairs. This was just too hard for her. Too bad there wasn't a switch she could pull and Christy would understand. Really the concepts were so simple, but impossible to put into words. Mystique really felt that once Christy finally got it she'd be able to imagine and recreate any outfit she wanted. The ability to shift to other people's forms would follow. As of right now Christy could only do localized shifts and a few outfits.
After they'd dished up in near silence Mystique started the discussion. The idea was for Christy to be able to eat, talk, concentrate on other things and keep her form. "So, have you been thinking about codenames?"
********
Christy just sighed when Mystique asked her that. She had been trying to think of something, but the few ideas that were cool and seemed to fit were all taken. Jean had Phoenix, so Christy's rising from the ashes of her own world wouldn't be her inspiration for her name. Rogue, Copycat, Gateway… all taken. On the more morbid side, Apocalypse was taken as well. Some of the teasing titles her hunting team had laid on her wouldn't work either. The Queen of the Damned was a book title. Angel of Death… Christy's head tilted to the side a little at that one. It had something, but it was still not quite right.
"I think I may have broken her. Quick Shortpack throw a glass of water on her." Mystique's teasing voice brought Christy's attention back to the woman that had asked.
"I've been thinking, but I don't have it yet."
"Well, what have you been considering?" Mystique pushed ahead. Christy felt a little like this was a test and she'd fail, because she didn't have a list of names. She just had impressions of ones… something just out of reach.
"I don't know." She started but the expectant look on Mystique and Shortpack's face kept her talking. "I figured I'd go with something that focuses on my Death sensing powers. Everything comes from that one." Christy started to distractedly use her fork to cut up the hamburger patty. "Angel of Death, Death… I don't know. It doesn't help that all the good names are taken."
"Death?" Christy could hear the disapproval in Shortpack's voice.
"Like you have room to talk Shortpack." Mystique turned on the only male in the room with a hint of teasing, but Christy thought she heard a bit of protection as well. Shortpack didn't elaborate on his disapproval.
"Have you thought about Death in another language? Muerta sounds a bit more feminine." He allowed after a moment. Christy grimaced at that name.
"I don't speak any other language and people might assume I do." She set her fork down in favor of this conversation, but she made sure to subtly check and make sure her clothes were still on. Seemed to be doing okay so far. "I like the idea of short codenames because in danger you only have a second to yell sometimes. I want something that is a bit intimidating, people that fear you right away are people you don't have to teach to fear you." She couldn't help but think about the men in Seattle that ran away before even trying to hit her. That was much better than her past experiences where the raiders didn't fear her and it took so much to make them. If she could be imposing enough maybe she wouldn't have to be so vicious.
Christy glanced at Mystique. "Is Death taken?" She wasn't willing to share a name. It implied a connection or an agreement with the other's beliefs and she imagined someone named Death wouldn't be a very nice person to be like. It was why she liked that name. Other people would assume that as well. It's just she didn't want to take on someone else's baggage.
"Apocalypse's horsemen always had a Death." Mystique told her and Christy sighed. Of course she'd forget that. "You've even met two of them. Wolverine and Angel."
"How do you know that?" Shortpack sounded surprised and turned to face Mystique.
Mystique gave him a mysterious smile. "I'm a spy hon, and I didn't always have a handler. I can do my own research and I keep an eye on the Xmen." Christy risked taking a bite of dinner while the conversation moved away from her for a moment. Shortpack was curious about the horseman idea and thought it was interesting that an Apocalypse would have those four components. It took everything Christy had to not address that particular line of thought. She knew she'd get too emotional and forceful in her announcement that an Apocalypse did indeed have all four aspects.
It did bring a memory back to her though, of looking at the Apocalypse cards and her belief that Death was the strongest card. That was probably where her fascination with that name came from, and it only made her want to keep it more. Still, for her to know two people that had gone by that before… She didn't want to share like that. She already had to share her real identity with her double. She wanted a name of her own.
"Well, what about Demise?" Mystique took a bite of her own dinner after offering that idea. It was a bit softer than Death. Christy raised an eyebrow as she considered that one. Didn't sound too bad, but then it didn't have the hard edge to it. Did she need the hard edge?
"I know you don't like other languages, but people won't just assume." Shortpack spoke and Christy's attention went back to him. "Belle Morte is rather pretty and it means Beautiful Death."
"Why don't you go for Petit Morte." Christy saw the wicked grin on Mystique's face and thought about what the woman just said. She didn't know the language but if Morte meant death… Little death. What was so funny about that? As Christy realized the other meaning her blush grew a bit. Little death, an orgasm. Actually that fit to her reaction to the power but she wasn't going to go around telling people that.
"I don't think so." Mystique had no idea that she'd come up with something that fit and Christy wasn't going to tell her.
Christy glanced around at the others, "Death Walker?" She offered quietly and no one looked impressed. She'd used her powers to essentially walk to this new world, but did she ever want to use that power again? Not really. Too many things could go wrong, and how much death did she need to power it?
"Death Force?" Shortpack sounded pretty doubtful when he offered that one up. Christy thought it sounded more like something she'd name her hunting team, rather than just herself.
"Expire or…" Mystique re-pronounced it with an emphasis on the x, "X-pire?" X-pire, what was that, a mutant vampire? Christy had to think about that one. The table got quiet as they all ate a bit of dinner distractedly. She took in whatever was sent out when people died and used that for her own powers. She nodded slightly to herself. She'd keep that one on the list of possibilities, but not with the heavy X. It sounded too much like a Marvel Comic.
"DeathShroud?" Shortpack offered after he swallowed. "Reaper?"
"Reaper's gotta be taken by someone." Christy couldn't imagine that one being passed up.
"So, if they have it they aren't famous." Mystique took a sip of her drink while studying Christy. "If you make more of the name than they did it's all yours."
"I want a name of my own." Christy sighed. She couldn't explain how it was important to her. She had to be Christy Taylor, it was her… and yet not her. Whatever she chose as her codename would be just her. Something unique to her.
"Okay." Mystique nodded that she understood at least a little. "What about Scythe? A Reaper carries one." Eh… Christy wasn't excited by it but she'd consider it.
"Extinction?" Christy offered before thinking. That was a very powerful death, the kind you don't recover from. Still as she said it she got the impression it was a Comic as well. "I don't know." She sighed heavily.
Mystique gave her a small smile. "Well, whatever you chose, you've been thinking about it rather hard… and you aren't naked." That startled Christy. She'd forgotten to stay dressed. She looked down in a bit of panic, almost believing the Mystique lied to her, but she was still wearing what she'd made. "You even forgot huh?" Mystique sounded just a little proud of her. It made Christy give her a small smile as she acknowledged that she finally did it. Normally a discussion meant the end of her ability to focus. She did it without even thinking about it. As she glanced at Shortpack she thought, thank god. If she'd been sitting there naked talking about codenames she wouldn't be able to face the small man.
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A/N: Okay, I've suggested some codenames for Christy. I'd like it if you helped me out. Tell me what you think of them. Suggest other ones. I want to get her named soon and could use more input. (1/6/04). Once the next chapter goes up its too late, so get me your input soon.
What I have so far for consideration:
X-Pire Extinction DemiseDeath
Belle Morte Scythe DeathShroud Death Walker DeathForce Muerta