Chapter 3: Training in Hell.
After my little episode at the bar Mystique had shown me her true colors. Literally. She had not been in her true form when we first met. Her hair color looks red and her true skin color is a deep blue. Her eyes are a golden yellow color, and the only clothes she wares is her skin. Her scales cover most of her body. She is entirely comfortable in her skin; she shows no modesty what so ever. She did ask me if I were at ease with her in that presence. I told her that I felt fine and that she shouldn't have to hide whom she was under any phoniness for anyone. She said she never does and smiled a beautiful smile. I'm still not sure about her sexual preference though. Turns out that the entire time she was hitting on me and pulling me close to her on the dance floor and at the bar was because she told me she wanted to talk business. She thought I was gay and would feel more open to someone who was hitting on me. Yeah well I never said she wasn't weird. She had an air of seduction to both men and women. It's odd how she can change so quickly, that way. I suppose that's why her name suits her so perfectly. She has an air of secrets and mystery about her.
Right now we are sitting in her limousine on her way to her house. Why she brought a limousine to a simple dance club was beyond me.
She started talking "I know you have many questions. Some I can answer, some I cannot. So here is how we shall do this, you ask a question and I will answer it if I can. Begin."
"Who are you?"
"I am Mystique." She said slyly "I am a shape shifter, trained in combat and espionage."
"Where are we going?" Was she still flirting with me?
"To my house."
"I know that!! Why did you bring me here?"
"We need your help in a top secret operation. I had to find you and train to help us in this mission."
"Who are this we?"
"Charles Xavier had hired me to find and train you."
The woman was sounding more and more like a robot. "What is this mission?"
"We must stop two mutant thieves from steeling The Diamond of Evolution. This is an ancient gem that can alter the state of evolutionary cycle. With its power they can transform any being into a prior species in the evolution chain. You are the only one who can stop it. Together you and I must save the world and the entire mutant race."
"Well no pressure there or anything." I muttered. What a total joke, there is a magical gem that can change people into monkeys!! "Oh please, you don't really believe all that. do you?" I just had to ask. Whoa! Little red flag going up here!! Where have I heard of the Diamond of Evolution? "Wait a minute! I already know about this, The Diamond of Evolution, yeah, these two guys were talking bout it by the beach, a guy and a girl. Who are these people?"
"Their names are Christian Carsville, and Dominique D'Blane. They are the ones trying to steel the diamond. It is no surprise that Dominique was behind this but that Carsville fellow is some one she had recently meet about three months ago. They met at a jewel convention at his college. Their powers make them formidable opponents. Carsville can become as solid as anything he touches. He can absorb sold matter and project it in other physical states, such as liquid or gas. D'Blane also known as Diamant. She has the ability to cover her skin, hair and eyes in an inch thick, retractable organic diamond. Almost nothing can penetrate it. Her nails grow at an increasable rate becoming 10 inch long claws."
"Oh, that's very informative...thanks." I wanted to know how she got all this information about people. But I knew she would not answer. Instead I asked "But why me? I mean there is like hundreds of other mutants out there that have telekinesis, that you can find and train. Why I am I so special?"
She laughed, and laughed "Hahahaha! How on earth-" she couldn't even finish because she was laughing so hard! What did I say that was so funny? "You think you're telekinetic? Why would you think you're telekinetic?" she Laughed some more, then she was back to her professional self. "You are not telekinetic." Mystique said in an as a matter of fact tone.
"What?" I couldn't believe what she was saying! You think a girl would know her own mutant power. "I am too telekinetic! Well you saw what I did in that club, smashing all those glasses on the ground like that!! If that wasn't telekinesis, what was it then?"
"Simple, gravity."
"Haha," now it was my turn to laugh "no kidding, but I was the one that levitated them! Then gravity pulled them down!"
"No, you pulled them down, gravity could not have pulled them down at that speed. Your power is the ability to control gravity, not the ability to move objects with your mind. Oh Rachel, you must have noticed."
I didn't answer her. I didn't want her to know my thoughts, and when a person speaks you get to know a lot about whom they are. And to perfectly honest, I wasn't too sure if I could trust her. I mean we just met how do I know that she won't stab me in the back. In jail a girl learns not to trust anybody, you got to watch out for number one. That was something I had to learn the hard way. I could not even ask her any more questions, because we were there. It had taken about an hour and a half but we had finally arrived at Mystique's house. If you could call it a house, this place was huge!!
We got out of the limousine, and I had a quick look around the front garden, even though it was quite dark out I could still see that it was beautiful. Small light lit our way to the front door and turned off as we walked past. We walked in side the house, Mystique told me that I would be stay here for the three weeks, I was to train, and I did not complain, it was amazing! She told me not to touch anything and she said she know about my past in steeling things so if I stole anything she would cut off my hands. She showed me the bathrooms and the kitchen. She told me that breakfast would be served at 8:00 sharp if I was one minute late I did not get any food until lunch was served which would be at 2:30. She showed me the upstairs and was I would be sleeping. Before she left she had one final statement of the night, she asked me not to play any loud music at night. It was 1:45 in the morning and she wanted to get some sleep. She advised me not to stay up because she had planed a long day for me tomorrow. I was to finish the rest of my tour of the house and start my training. And one more thing she informed me of she was my trainer not my friend and to never get the two confused. Then she left the room and let explore the rest of the room.
It was a large room, with many windows, that had it's own doors to a balcony! The balcony over looked the back yard which I was had a gigantic swimming pool, I couldn't wait to go swimming tomorrow! Closing and locking the balcony doors behind me, I ran back in to the room. It had a TV, stereo, DVD player and a state of the art gaming system, with several games, I never herd of. It had it's own bathroom with a shower and a bathtub/Jacuzzi. It took me a minute but I actually think that this room is bigger than my apartment! It had way more stuff in it too. I opened the closet and found many different kinds of clothes in there. I grabbed some pajamas and put them on, if she had any problems with me borrowing her pj's I'll bye some more clothes for me tomorrow. I crawled into the worm covers of my king-size bed and dreamt sweet dreams.
Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! The alarm goes off and I slam down the snooze button. It's 7:00; I hop in the shower, and wash my hair and come out clean. I look into the closet and wandering what I should ware. These are not my clothes, there Mystique's; then again she walks around naked all the time so I guess she won't mind. I pick out some loose fitting jeans and I tight white tank- top shirt to go with it. It's about 7:30 and I wander if my precious bike has arrived yet, I spoke to Mystique's driver and he said he already picked it up, along with my things from the motel this morning. I when to the front of the house, to see if she had a garage she did not. So I ran around the house, to try and find the garage, this was quite the run because her house was quite large. I did not follow the stoned pathway because I like to make my own paths, besides just as long as I didn't crush any if her plants I'm sure she wouldn't mind. I am going to have to ask her just how big this house is, I thought to myself, as I kept running. I'm almost to the other side of the where I first began and still no garage. I need to check on my bike! I must be here. I know it is! But where could she have put it? The very first thing that I saw when I first got out of jail was that bike. I saw José was an old man and desperately needed help in his shop, the guy he hired kept taking off on him, so I offered my assistance for the day. He was so pleased with my work that he gave me a job on the spot. I know a lot about mechanics and saw that that old bike was an easy fix. I spent so much time with that bike I felt as if I had almost given it life. I even sometimes talked to it, I know it's strange but coming out of jail I didn't know anybody, José is a great guy but would mostly do all of the talking. So I would just go to the bike and fix her up while I expressed whatever I was feeling for the moment. I went back into the house to see if Mystique was awake, I will ask her where my things were and my bike.
Just as I stepped foot into the doorway I saw Mystique walking gracefully down the stairs. Before I could ask her she smiled and said "Right on time for breakfast. And going for an early run, I see, I like it when my students take initiative in their training. I hope you did not run too hard because you still have to survive my training. Well enough talk of training for now, we'll talk more after breakfast." She led me into the kitchen. "Rosa is preparing breakfast, what would you like?"
We had eaten breakfast silently and hurried off to a room called the "Danger Room". Well this lady is seriously, thorough in pointing out the obvious! "Danger Room", OOH wonder what that means." She takes me down stairs to the basement, where a large metal door stood. I walked I to find a gigantic empty white room. Why are we here what does this have to do with training? Is she tiring to bore me to death? This room is so big and there's not a single thing here, no furniture, windows, no nothing.
"In this room danger is everywhere, you stop at nothing. The key is to train your mind to think swiftly, always be on your toes." Mystique speaks from a glass chamber above, through a microphone. "This is to help you with the mission. The diamond can destroy the entire human and mutant race. Your objective is to find the diamond. But for now we will keep to the basics. How about running some hurdles?"
"That's fine. And where are these hurdles going to come form? Hmm? Are they just going to pop out the ground?" I responded in a sarcastic tone.
That's exactly what happened! My jaw dropped to the floor... Damn! I cannot believe that just happened...
The hurdles appeared before me the moment I started running. Now had been running for about 45 minuets. This is gonna be so easy! I laughed to myself.
I fell flat on my face as a tripped over a hurdle! It was almost as if the height of it had risen on it's own. I could hear Mystique's laughter from above, and then I realized that she could control the obstacles from the glass control chamber she was in.
I was overwhelmed be anger and humiliation, mostly anger. Suddenly a hurdle shot at the glass chamber smashing into the booth, even thought the booth didn't have a scratch on it, I smirked at my accomplishment of showing her the surprises that I could come up with as well! Mystique was not stupid far from it I was sure that the booth is was in could very well protect her from just about anything she could come up with. She's surprised good! That's what you get, for messing with me!
"Pull another stunt like that and will personally see to it that you are sent back to jail," Mystique sneered. "I am here to train you, I have no time for hissy-fits and temper-tantrums!" Then her tone lightened, "however that was a nice show of power, although you still lack control over your emotions. That will be our next session. As for now, seeing as how you're all fired up, let see how you are at target practice. Giving her attention back to the controls twisting and turning and pushing buttons and flipping switches.
Some of the hurdles disappeared back in to the floor many of them stayed above. Crashing form all four walls several enormous robots came at me. One of them raised his arm at me, I was about to make a sarcastic comment but before I could even open my mouth a green laser shot out at me! I quickly did a back handspring to get out of the way. I crashed into another robot while doing my cute lil flip. The robot I bumped into was all of a sudden on the ground in many mechanical pieces.
"Whoa, they really make these cheep don't they?" I smirked at Mystique.
"These are not cheaply made!!" she shouted back, "These machines are the most efficient robots ever designed! Many years ago they were the first sentinels, used to hunt down mutants like us. The reason, dear, that it fell apart was because you used your powers on him. Didn't you even realize what you had done?"
I have no idea why my powers work like that. My response to her was a simple shrug of the shoulders. I did not have time for this chitchat, there were plenty more robots to demolish. I must say that if I was not sore and aching this might actually be kinda fun!
This time I'm using my powers, how does that old saying go? Use it or lose it? Whatever! It party time! I had raised some of the hurdles that Mystique had kindly left for me and hurled them at the nearest robot to me. The robot clumsily had tipped over right into another one standing next to it, blowing them both up. Score! All right that's three down, four to go!
These robots seemed to learn form their fallen teammates and easily deflected the hurdles I through it them. I decided to take another approach. I was gonna ground these guys! Just then the robots were immobile, they had stopped in their tracks. Great it's working! Their feet could not move but that does not mean their arms couldn't. They seemed to become angry as they shot green leasers at me.
As you can imagine I had to do some massive back flips to get out of that one! Good thing I am a gymnast or I would have been history!
I quickly came up with at plan to take out the machines. While still keeping them grounded I start to run around the stationary rots as they keep firing at me. I must say there aim is improving I almost get hit several times, but manage to escape by hairs.
I jump on the back of the first robot, and it immediately becomes destroyed, I do the same thing with two others. Now there is only one still standing. I do a zigzag run right toward it as it is still shooting at me. I give that hunk of mettle the most massive Drop kick ever. I had used my powers so the robot was in pieces before it even hit the ground. I tucked and rolled at I hit the ground ending a standing position, razing my arms it the air in triumph. I smirked at Mystique, "So how did I do, teach?"
"Well done Rachel, you are a very cleaver girl," she clapped gracefully.
But... I thought to myself, there is always a "but..."
"You still have three more weeks with me. Think you can survive?" she snickered, showing off he dizzyingly bright white teeth.
End
After my little episode at the bar Mystique had shown me her true colors. Literally. She had not been in her true form when we first met. Her hair color looks red and her true skin color is a deep blue. Her eyes are a golden yellow color, and the only clothes she wares is her skin. Her scales cover most of her body. She is entirely comfortable in her skin; she shows no modesty what so ever. She did ask me if I were at ease with her in that presence. I told her that I felt fine and that she shouldn't have to hide whom she was under any phoniness for anyone. She said she never does and smiled a beautiful smile. I'm still not sure about her sexual preference though. Turns out that the entire time she was hitting on me and pulling me close to her on the dance floor and at the bar was because she told me she wanted to talk business. She thought I was gay and would feel more open to someone who was hitting on me. Yeah well I never said she wasn't weird. She had an air of seduction to both men and women. It's odd how she can change so quickly, that way. I suppose that's why her name suits her so perfectly. She has an air of secrets and mystery about her.
Right now we are sitting in her limousine on her way to her house. Why she brought a limousine to a simple dance club was beyond me.
She started talking "I know you have many questions. Some I can answer, some I cannot. So here is how we shall do this, you ask a question and I will answer it if I can. Begin."
"Who are you?"
"I am Mystique." She said slyly "I am a shape shifter, trained in combat and espionage."
"Where are we going?" Was she still flirting with me?
"To my house."
"I know that!! Why did you bring me here?"
"We need your help in a top secret operation. I had to find you and train to help us in this mission."
"Who are this we?"
"Charles Xavier had hired me to find and train you."
The woman was sounding more and more like a robot. "What is this mission?"
"We must stop two mutant thieves from steeling The Diamond of Evolution. This is an ancient gem that can alter the state of evolutionary cycle. With its power they can transform any being into a prior species in the evolution chain. You are the only one who can stop it. Together you and I must save the world and the entire mutant race."
"Well no pressure there or anything." I muttered. What a total joke, there is a magical gem that can change people into monkeys!! "Oh please, you don't really believe all that. do you?" I just had to ask. Whoa! Little red flag going up here!! Where have I heard of the Diamond of Evolution? "Wait a minute! I already know about this, The Diamond of Evolution, yeah, these two guys were talking bout it by the beach, a guy and a girl. Who are these people?"
"Their names are Christian Carsville, and Dominique D'Blane. They are the ones trying to steel the diamond. It is no surprise that Dominique was behind this but that Carsville fellow is some one she had recently meet about three months ago. They met at a jewel convention at his college. Their powers make them formidable opponents. Carsville can become as solid as anything he touches. He can absorb sold matter and project it in other physical states, such as liquid or gas. D'Blane also known as Diamant. She has the ability to cover her skin, hair and eyes in an inch thick, retractable organic diamond. Almost nothing can penetrate it. Her nails grow at an increasable rate becoming 10 inch long claws."
"Oh, that's very informative...thanks." I wanted to know how she got all this information about people. But I knew she would not answer. Instead I asked "But why me? I mean there is like hundreds of other mutants out there that have telekinesis, that you can find and train. Why I am I so special?"
She laughed, and laughed "Hahahaha! How on earth-" she couldn't even finish because she was laughing so hard! What did I say that was so funny? "You think you're telekinetic? Why would you think you're telekinetic?" she Laughed some more, then she was back to her professional self. "You are not telekinetic." Mystique said in an as a matter of fact tone.
"What?" I couldn't believe what she was saying! You think a girl would know her own mutant power. "I am too telekinetic! Well you saw what I did in that club, smashing all those glasses on the ground like that!! If that wasn't telekinesis, what was it then?"
"Simple, gravity."
"Haha," now it was my turn to laugh "no kidding, but I was the one that levitated them! Then gravity pulled them down!"
"No, you pulled them down, gravity could not have pulled them down at that speed. Your power is the ability to control gravity, not the ability to move objects with your mind. Oh Rachel, you must have noticed."
I didn't answer her. I didn't want her to know my thoughts, and when a person speaks you get to know a lot about whom they are. And to perfectly honest, I wasn't too sure if I could trust her. I mean we just met how do I know that she won't stab me in the back. In jail a girl learns not to trust anybody, you got to watch out for number one. That was something I had to learn the hard way. I could not even ask her any more questions, because we were there. It had taken about an hour and a half but we had finally arrived at Mystique's house. If you could call it a house, this place was huge!!
We got out of the limousine, and I had a quick look around the front garden, even though it was quite dark out I could still see that it was beautiful. Small light lit our way to the front door and turned off as we walked past. We walked in side the house, Mystique told me that I would be stay here for the three weeks, I was to train, and I did not complain, it was amazing! She told me not to touch anything and she said she know about my past in steeling things so if I stole anything she would cut off my hands. She showed me the bathrooms and the kitchen. She told me that breakfast would be served at 8:00 sharp if I was one minute late I did not get any food until lunch was served which would be at 2:30. She showed me the upstairs and was I would be sleeping. Before she left she had one final statement of the night, she asked me not to play any loud music at night. It was 1:45 in the morning and she wanted to get some sleep. She advised me not to stay up because she had planed a long day for me tomorrow. I was to finish the rest of my tour of the house and start my training. And one more thing she informed me of she was my trainer not my friend and to never get the two confused. Then she left the room and let explore the rest of the room.
It was a large room, with many windows, that had it's own doors to a balcony! The balcony over looked the back yard which I was had a gigantic swimming pool, I couldn't wait to go swimming tomorrow! Closing and locking the balcony doors behind me, I ran back in to the room. It had a TV, stereo, DVD player and a state of the art gaming system, with several games, I never herd of. It had it's own bathroom with a shower and a bathtub/Jacuzzi. It took me a minute but I actually think that this room is bigger than my apartment! It had way more stuff in it too. I opened the closet and found many different kinds of clothes in there. I grabbed some pajamas and put them on, if she had any problems with me borrowing her pj's I'll bye some more clothes for me tomorrow. I crawled into the worm covers of my king-size bed and dreamt sweet dreams.
Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! The alarm goes off and I slam down the snooze button. It's 7:00; I hop in the shower, and wash my hair and come out clean. I look into the closet and wandering what I should ware. These are not my clothes, there Mystique's; then again she walks around naked all the time so I guess she won't mind. I pick out some loose fitting jeans and I tight white tank- top shirt to go with it. It's about 7:30 and I wander if my precious bike has arrived yet, I spoke to Mystique's driver and he said he already picked it up, along with my things from the motel this morning. I when to the front of the house, to see if she had a garage she did not. So I ran around the house, to try and find the garage, this was quite the run because her house was quite large. I did not follow the stoned pathway because I like to make my own paths, besides just as long as I didn't crush any if her plants I'm sure she wouldn't mind. I am going to have to ask her just how big this house is, I thought to myself, as I kept running. I'm almost to the other side of the where I first began and still no garage. I need to check on my bike! I must be here. I know it is! But where could she have put it? The very first thing that I saw when I first got out of jail was that bike. I saw José was an old man and desperately needed help in his shop, the guy he hired kept taking off on him, so I offered my assistance for the day. He was so pleased with my work that he gave me a job on the spot. I know a lot about mechanics and saw that that old bike was an easy fix. I spent so much time with that bike I felt as if I had almost given it life. I even sometimes talked to it, I know it's strange but coming out of jail I didn't know anybody, José is a great guy but would mostly do all of the talking. So I would just go to the bike and fix her up while I expressed whatever I was feeling for the moment. I went back into the house to see if Mystique was awake, I will ask her where my things were and my bike.
Just as I stepped foot into the doorway I saw Mystique walking gracefully down the stairs. Before I could ask her she smiled and said "Right on time for breakfast. And going for an early run, I see, I like it when my students take initiative in their training. I hope you did not run too hard because you still have to survive my training. Well enough talk of training for now, we'll talk more after breakfast." She led me into the kitchen. "Rosa is preparing breakfast, what would you like?"
We had eaten breakfast silently and hurried off to a room called the "Danger Room". Well this lady is seriously, thorough in pointing out the obvious! "Danger Room", OOH wonder what that means." She takes me down stairs to the basement, where a large metal door stood. I walked I to find a gigantic empty white room. Why are we here what does this have to do with training? Is she tiring to bore me to death? This room is so big and there's not a single thing here, no furniture, windows, no nothing.
"In this room danger is everywhere, you stop at nothing. The key is to train your mind to think swiftly, always be on your toes." Mystique speaks from a glass chamber above, through a microphone. "This is to help you with the mission. The diamond can destroy the entire human and mutant race. Your objective is to find the diamond. But for now we will keep to the basics. How about running some hurdles?"
"That's fine. And where are these hurdles going to come form? Hmm? Are they just going to pop out the ground?" I responded in a sarcastic tone.
That's exactly what happened! My jaw dropped to the floor... Damn! I cannot believe that just happened...
The hurdles appeared before me the moment I started running. Now had been running for about 45 minuets. This is gonna be so easy! I laughed to myself.
I fell flat on my face as a tripped over a hurdle! It was almost as if the height of it had risen on it's own. I could hear Mystique's laughter from above, and then I realized that she could control the obstacles from the glass control chamber she was in.
I was overwhelmed be anger and humiliation, mostly anger. Suddenly a hurdle shot at the glass chamber smashing into the booth, even thought the booth didn't have a scratch on it, I smirked at my accomplishment of showing her the surprises that I could come up with as well! Mystique was not stupid far from it I was sure that the booth is was in could very well protect her from just about anything she could come up with. She's surprised good! That's what you get, for messing with me!
"Pull another stunt like that and will personally see to it that you are sent back to jail," Mystique sneered. "I am here to train you, I have no time for hissy-fits and temper-tantrums!" Then her tone lightened, "however that was a nice show of power, although you still lack control over your emotions. That will be our next session. As for now, seeing as how you're all fired up, let see how you are at target practice. Giving her attention back to the controls twisting and turning and pushing buttons and flipping switches.
Some of the hurdles disappeared back in to the floor many of them stayed above. Crashing form all four walls several enormous robots came at me. One of them raised his arm at me, I was about to make a sarcastic comment but before I could even open my mouth a green laser shot out at me! I quickly did a back handspring to get out of the way. I crashed into another robot while doing my cute lil flip. The robot I bumped into was all of a sudden on the ground in many mechanical pieces.
"Whoa, they really make these cheep don't they?" I smirked at Mystique.
"These are not cheaply made!!" she shouted back, "These machines are the most efficient robots ever designed! Many years ago they were the first sentinels, used to hunt down mutants like us. The reason, dear, that it fell apart was because you used your powers on him. Didn't you even realize what you had done?"
I have no idea why my powers work like that. My response to her was a simple shrug of the shoulders. I did not have time for this chitchat, there were plenty more robots to demolish. I must say that if I was not sore and aching this might actually be kinda fun!
This time I'm using my powers, how does that old saying go? Use it or lose it? Whatever! It party time! I had raised some of the hurdles that Mystique had kindly left for me and hurled them at the nearest robot to me. The robot clumsily had tipped over right into another one standing next to it, blowing them both up. Score! All right that's three down, four to go!
These robots seemed to learn form their fallen teammates and easily deflected the hurdles I through it them. I decided to take another approach. I was gonna ground these guys! Just then the robots were immobile, they had stopped in their tracks. Great it's working! Their feet could not move but that does not mean their arms couldn't. They seemed to become angry as they shot green leasers at me.
As you can imagine I had to do some massive back flips to get out of that one! Good thing I am a gymnast or I would have been history!
I quickly came up with at plan to take out the machines. While still keeping them grounded I start to run around the stationary rots as they keep firing at me. I must say there aim is improving I almost get hit several times, but manage to escape by hairs.
I jump on the back of the first robot, and it immediately becomes destroyed, I do the same thing with two others. Now there is only one still standing. I do a zigzag run right toward it as it is still shooting at me. I give that hunk of mettle the most massive Drop kick ever. I had used my powers so the robot was in pieces before it even hit the ground. I tucked and rolled at I hit the ground ending a standing position, razing my arms it the air in triumph. I smirked at Mystique, "So how did I do, teach?"
"Well done Rachel, you are a very cleaver girl," she clapped gracefully.
But... I thought to myself, there is always a "but..."
"You still have three more weeks with me. Think you can survive?" she snickered, showing off he dizzyingly bright white teeth.
End