The Song of Eternity
Canto 7
A Normal Life
Verse 2
The new house spends a day with old friends,
Learning about each other,
Finding a little out about each other on the way.
Vincent and Elena sat in the front of the beat up jeep, Murphy and Damon in the back. Vincent drove along the road as Murphy continued to ask questions. "So all these kids are mutants like Cole?"
"Yes and for the last time, I wasn't with them for too long, so I can't tell you much more," Vincent replied irritated. "You sure he's gonna be okay on the bike?" he asked as he looked in the mirror to see Cole riding a motorcycle behind them.
"Probably, he should be able to handle everything," Murphy replied as he looked out the window at his brother who popped a wheelie behind them. "Jesus, man, take it easy," he whispered.
They finally stopped at a huge metal gate and brick wall surrounding the mansion. Vincent stuck his head out the window and talked into an intercom for a second before the gate opened. Vincent and Cole pulled the vehicles inside the gate before it closed and drove toward the mansion. "What the hell is that boy doing?" Elena swore as Cole sped by them at a high speed, headed right for where a couple other cars were parked outside the mansion.
"What the hell!" Logan swore as he saw the motorcycle streaking right at him and the car he was leaning on. He got ready to dodge it, but the rider cut the throttle and swung his body and the bike so it slid almost on it's side, with his foot keeping it from going out of control, and stopped the bike a foot from the car. Logan watched in annoyance as Vincent pulled up behind the rider and parked the beat up jeep.
Vincent got out first and walked over the rider talking in low tones that Logan could still hear with his enhanced senses. "Enough, just get along with them for, no more stunts like this," he heard Vincent order. The rider only shrugged and took his helmet off, revealing a red-haired teen. Vincent, dressed in jeans and a tight black t-shirt walked over to Logan and apologized. "I am sorry about that, he tends to do things a bit on the dramatic side."
"Who is he?" Logan asked as he saw someone who must have been the teen's twin climb out of the jeep. "Or should I say them…"
"I'll explain it to you and Xavier in a bit, let's head inside," Vincent suggested. Elena and Damon followed Cole and Murphy, making sure they didn't get into any trouble, who in turn followed Vincent and Logan through the mansion and out the rear, where a barbeque was taking place in the back yard. There were a dozen or so people in the yard, who turned their heads as the five newcomers appeared. "Stay here," Vincent ordered his four companions as he went to greet Xavier who was being wheeled toward him by Ororo.
"Good to see you again Vincent," Xavier greeted him as they shook hands. "It seems that you continue to amaze me, who are your companions?"
Vincent led the way over the where Logan was standing with the four of them. "Is this place secure for certain things?" Damon asked.
"Yeah, just stay in the walls and don't go up over five hundred feet, that's all out jamming equipment is set up to do," Logan assured him.
"Oh yes, the one with enhanced senses," Damon realized before turning off the image inducer and spreading his wings, taking to the air as Chaos.
"Well, you already know Chaos," Vincent noted as he watched the circling demon stop and perch on the roof. "This is Elena," he introduced Elena who was wearing a modern replica of a Turk uniform. "She is the other survivor from my time," he added.
Elena shook hands with Xavier and Logan. "Pleasure to meet you Elena," Xavier said warmly.
"And these two troublemakers," Vincent said as he gestured at Cole and Murphy.
"What did I do?" Murphy complained.
"The loud one is Murphy, the quiet one is Cole. Long story short, they have a bit of amnesia, showed up on our doorstep, and are staying with us," Elena explained quickly. "Go mingle, make with the niceties," she ordered as she shoved the two of them towards the other kids waving at them.
"Very interesting, the quiet one is a mutant," Xavier noted.
"How'd you know that?" Vincent asked.
"With one whose power is like his, it is fairly easy to pick up on," Xavier explained.
"I understand," Vincent smiled. "If you don't mind, let's get some food cooking, we skipped breakfast," he suggested as his stomach growled.
Logan, Hank, and Vincent stood around the grill as they cooked up a huge pile of hamburgers and hot dogs. "So Vincent, it appears you have found yourself a family," Hank noted as he flipped a burger and saw the two teens mingling with the others. "A strange one at that."
"This coming from a guy covered in blue fur who lives with a handful of superpowered kids," Vincent laughed.
"Touche," Hank smiled.
"Enough with the philosophical crap, let's cook food and drink beer," Logan said impatiently as he opened a cooler and pulled out some beers.
"Best idea I've heard in a long time," Vincent agreed as the grill flared up and caught some food on fire.
Elena, Ororo, Xavier, and the once again disguised Chaos sat at a picnic table laughing as Logan and Vincent tried to stop the hamburgers from burning. "Makes me glad I don't live in your house," Elena laughed as she looked at Damon.
"Hell, I live in the attic. I don't touch the rest of the place if I can help it. Those three can't cook and the kids leave the place as a sty," Damon joked.
"So, you want to be called Damon now?" Xavier asked.
"Yes. I have a human look and job, so why not a name," Damon shrugged.
"I notice you look a bit like Vincent did before you were separated," Ororo noted.
Damon frowned and started to speak, but was cut off by Elena. "In the hope of cutting down on profanity here, he says he got used to the form when they shared it. He does not have any respect for Vincent… There was one more part, what was it?" she pondered as she glanced at Damon. "Oh yes, in much more polite terms than our demonic friend would use, shut up," Elena laughed.
"Besides, if he dies, I die. It is in my best interest to stay around the weak fool," Damon muttered.
"Weak you say? When you were together, you went toe to toe with the strongest being in the universe," Ororo pointed out.
"No, the second most powerful," Damon corrected her. "Starmore was the greatest," he muttered before heading over to talk to the men at the grill who had somehow caught Hank on fire.
"Neither of them like to talk about that time of their lives," Elena apologized. "I can't even get them to open up about it, mind filling me in?"
"You know who Starmore was, correct?" Xavier asked as she nodded. "Well, he and Vincent killed a lot of people who were controlled by Jenova, then helped battle Galactus with the rest of Earth's heroes. It was a rough battle and I think Vincent may still be scarred by his time spent killing," Xavier noted. "What is the situation with those kids?" he nodded at Cole and Murphy.
"They popped up on our doorstep, amnesia and all a few days ago. They're twins, but Murphy is the younger looking one," she pointed at Murphy who was joking with the others. He was dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a tank top. "And since he's using his power, despite being told not to," she frowned," he has a rudimentary control of destructive magic somehow," she explained as he made a fireball in the air, before canceling it out with an iceball.
"But Cole… Simply put, he has problems," she said seriously. "Like you said he's a mutant, but only told Valentine his powers. More than that, he doesn't talk. His voice box is intact, but there appears to be some sort of psychological trauma, preventing him from speaking. And from what I've seen today and over the last few days, he is reckless to the point of being suicidal," she finished as she looked at the boy in jean shorts and a long-sleeved skateboarding shirt that covered all his arms.
Cole and Murphy walked over to the forming crowd of kids. There were eleven of them, well more like fifteen, but the extra Madroxes don't count. "Hi everyone, this is Cole, he can't really talk. I'm Murphy, but you can call me Murph or whatever you want," Murphy introduced them to the X-Men.
The others went around introducing themselves until they all knew each other. "So, why doesn't he talk?" Rogue asked as she looked at Cole.
Cole looked back at her and moved like eh was chuckling, but no sound came out. "That is the million dollar question," Murphy joked. "We have no idea," he explained as Cole just shrugged.
"So what is it you do?" Madrox asked before he was smacked in the back of the head by Sam and a second Madrox appeared beside the first one. "Unless you mind of course," the both added quickly.
"Well that's a new one on me," Murphy laughed. "Me, I do magic," he explained as he made a fireball and extinguished it when he saw Elena glaring at him. He looked over at Cole who just shook his head and walked off. "Uhh, he isn't too comfortable with his stuff, or people for that matter. So what do you guys do, besides Madrox there and there and there and there…"
Cole closed his eyes as he stretched out on the grass. He cracked them a bit and watched as the others all demonstrated their powers to Murphy. He sighed silently then sat up as Logan and Vincent yelled at them. "You don't need to show off either!" Vincent yelled at Murphy.
"That goes for you guys as well," Logan scolded the others as Xavier sent him a message telepathically. "You sure Chuck?" he said to himself. He then shrugged and addressed the kids as Cole came back over. "You want to use your powers so bad, Chuck's got a game for ya," he explained. "Two teams, you'll go into the woods, first one to incapacitate the other team wins. Go by the honor system and minimize the damage to the property and each other. As for the teams…"
"Murphy and Cole can handle it themselves if they are up to it," Vincent said quickly.
Logan and the kids looked at him in disbelief. "You know something we don't?" Logan asked as Vincent just smiled.
"So what's going on now?" Elena asked as Xavier told them what was happening in the woods.
"Let's see, Cole and Murphy have split up and are tracking my students. It looks like to make it 'fair' in their terms, my students have split up, each going it alone," Xavier chuckled. "While their hearts are in the right place, they really have no chance against those two," he smiled as he monitored the situation.