Of Birds and Hunters

The sequel to Severing Ties

Summary: The rollar coaster of leaving home has finally come to a halt, and Peter Parker is left scarred and in emotional turmoil. A best friend he thinks he loves doesn't help, and new problems arise as tempers flare, cruelty reaches new heights, and a certain concept is proven wrong.

Chapter 3: Punishments

The moonlight quietly streamed into the hotel room. It was the last night Peter and Jackie were going to spend in DC, and they were sleeping peacefully. No nightmares haunted either of them, and the silent rhythm of breathing never hitched. Until Peter's X-phone rang.

Groaning, Peter sat up, and rubbed his eyes. He made a grab for his phone. "Peter P-p-p-parker," he said, stifling a yawn.

"Phoenix has escaped." It was an unfamiliar voice.

"Who is this?" Peter asked.

"I'm a student at Xavier's school. The name's Nikki. I was told to contact you and inform you of Phoenix. They want you to go to New York to watch for her," the voice explained.

"Right now?"

"Right now."

"Thanks…I guess," Peter said slowly.

"Bye."

Peter said his goodbyes and hung up. He wondered why he'd never met this 'Nikki' before. He looked at the time. 1:30 in the morning. He shook his head and tried to decide whether or not he should wake Jackie. Before he could, however, he heard a grumble. Jackie turned towards him.

"Must you always be the reason I wake?" she asked in a mockingly scornful tone. Her eyes softened as she watched Peter. She got out of the bed. "But then again," she started, "If you weren't my reason for waking, there'd be no reason at all." She smiled as she hugged him. "Good morning."

"If you could call it morning. I just got a call from the X-Men. We have to head to New York to watch for Phoenix," Peter explained.

"You mean she got out?" Worry was evident on Jackie's face.

"Afraid so."

"We have to bring her back!" Scott yelled. Almost all of the X-Men were in the large room with the circular table.

"And then what?" Dr. McCoy asked. "How do we contain her? She's dangerous."

"It clearly took too much out of Jack to create that crystal cell. We can't endanger her like that, again," Xavier reminded.

"Do you think drowning her, again, might work?" Ororo inquired.

"We can't do that. She's living, now," Scott replied.

"You don't know that," Logan growled. "She isn't Jean, Scott. She's Phoenix, using Jean's dead body."

"You don't know that, either!"

"Scott," Xavier cut off. "If you can not think rationally, you will be excluded in this mission."

Fury bubbled. "How dare you?" It was said softly. "Forget this! I don't need to be constantly reminded that I can't handle these situations! I'm leaving!" He shot up out of his seat and left the room. No one got up to follow him, and no one knew where he was headed.

Candace 'Triotrite' Johnson was not used to worrying. Her confidence in herself and her colleagues had always kept her cocky and calm. Since her folly with Jackie Salvani, who, she realized, was the legendary Virginia 'Jack-of-All-Trades' Salvani, Candace was supremely shaken to the core. Mistakes weren't common for her. She wouldn't know the definition of mistake if she didn't know the entire Unabridged Webster's Dictionary by heart.

It certainly didn't help that her surrogate mother, Hallie, didn't tolerate blunders.

"What on earth were you thinking, child?" Hallie screeched at Candace.

"We were in each other's confidences, Hal," she whimpered. She tried to close her eyes as she felt her intelligence leaving her as a result of one of Hallie's tricks. Though she knew it was only a hallucination, it felt so real.

"Obviously you weren't in her confidence if you didn't realize who she was, Triotrite. You could have sabotaged the entire plan with your insolence!"

"I didn't mean to!" Candace noticed that she sounded ten, and then knew that she couldn't remember anything about quantum physics, or the formula for making the X-gene dormant. "Make me smart, again!" she cried.

"Not until you've learned your lesson," Hal threatened in a deadly tone.

"Hal, leave her alone. Any one of us could have made that error." Arch Angel joined the conversation. He was muscular and handsome. His intense brown eyes had laugh lines. Dark blonde hair was a little bit longer than normal, and it hung behind his ears.

"She needs to know, Michael. She needs to understand the full extent of what she could have caused."

In that instant, Candace saw it. She saw Jackie go to Xavier and tell him about Phoenix. Then Candace felt her head explode.

"Stop! Don't make her see pain!" Michael yelled.

"She needs to know what might have happened!" Hallie was determined. An unearthly shriek was heard from Candace.

"What's going on?" a girl asked. She walked in to see Candace writhing on the floor, and Michael and Hal in each other's faces.

"Get out of the room, Clear," Hallie warned. "Candace is being punished."

"What did she do?" Clear asked innocently. She was twelve years old with short, light blue hair. Her eyes were the color of glass.

"That is none of your business. Leave the room this instant, Clear, before you're punished the same way."

Clear, in her child's mind, understood punishment, and left immediately to find Fox, her only friend in the shack of a house. Fox was a nine year old boy with bright red hair and yellow eyes.

"Is Candace all right?" he asked when Clear found him.

"I don't know. Aunt Hallie wouldn't tell me. I'm frightened, Fox. Candace was making weird noises. Like she was hurt."

"She'll be fine. Remember Wall after the first time he was punished? He was quiet for a few days but then he started talking, again," Fox reminded.

Clear nodded. Though she was older than Fox, it was hard to tell who was really the elder. Clear looked and acted younger, and Fox was wise for a nine year old. His golden eyes seemed to posses the world in an eerie way.

"What's going on?" a new voice emerged. It was Wall. Wall was an old man who looked like he was made of bricks. He was as solid as a 'wall' of bricks, as well.

"Candace is being punished." Fox explained.

"For the girl she brought to the resurrection?" he asked.

"We think so," Clear replied.

Wall's breath hitched. He knew Candace would not get off easy. He quickly went to go stop Hallie before she got carried away and killed Candace.

(A/N: Chap three! I thought my internet had been shut down by SBC, and then I clicked on repair center and what happened? It started working again!!!! So, to celebrate, I'm posting this chapter up!!!! YAY!!!!

Mary Jane Watson-Parker: What's yur sn? Here's more. Thanks for reviewing!!!! Notice anyone familiar, yet? -wiggles eyebrows suggestively-

Hazelle: Where'd the mcdonald's thing come from??? I speak gibberish, and can understand it fairly well, so whatever you think is confusing, chances are that I'll understand it! See I use ideas from the comic books to build up my own universe cuz this is movie-verse instead of comic-verse, so I needed villains. I'm thinking of adding another but I'm not sure…Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! :-D)