The Song of Eternity
Canto 10 : The Gift
Verse 3: Elena Marshall
Trying to build yourself a new life,
You think it is hard,
But then something unexpected happens,
And it doesn't seem so bad anymore.
"I'll see you tomorrow Elena. Vincent, the twins and me are gonna be unavailable tonight, so you need to watch Xavier's kids," Damon told Elena as he ducked out of the office at 4.
"Screw it then, I'm going home to relax," Elena muttered as she locked up the office and headed for her car. She started up the engine and headed to her apartment, pondering her situation as she drove.
Her mind was torn between two ideas of what her future could be. Following Vincent's, Damon's, and Cole's departures and returns, things had changed for the Turks. She never nailed down which one of them it was for, possibly for all three of them, but no one outside of the young mutants, the Avengers, and a handful of other people could remember what the Turks looked like. Part of her wanted to just pack up her car and leave the town to get a fresh start somewhere. But the other part of her was true to the Turks, wanting to stick by them until the end.
She heard her cell-phone ring and snapped out of her thoughts to pick it up. "Elena," she answered it.
"This is Logan, I called Valentine, Damon, and the twins, but they all told me to talk to you instead and hung up on me," Logan explained.
"What is the problem?" she asked him as she stopped at a red light.
"The kids are wanting to go out tonight, but Stone said he'll call in the military unless they have an escort from one of you five as well," Logan told her.
"They wander the town here every night. Why is this any different?" she asked him.
"They aren't staying in Bayville tonight. Evan has been hyping them all week about some new band playing in Boston with a bunch of songs from off the internet. Ororo and I will be going with them and Xavier will be standing by to do mind tricks if the situation warrants it. So what do you say?"
"Fine, a need a night out anyway," she agreed. "When are we leaving?"
"As soon as you can get here, the show starts at 8, so we need to leave in the next hour if we want to stop at a place to eat before the thing starts," Logan told her.
"I'll be at the mansion in half an hour," Elena told Logan before turning off her phone and parking at her apartment.
"Thanks for helping out Elena," Ororo greeted her as she stepped out of her car, finally out of her usual blue suit, wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater.
"No problem. How have things been here with both of them?" Elena asked, nodding at Xavier and Magneto.
"Quite well, they have agreed to work together now that all of our lives are out in the open," Ororo told her.
"That's good," Elena agreed. "So how many of them are going?" she asked as she looked over the teens gathering and piling into cars.
"Lance is driving Kitty, Rogue, Pietro, and John in his jeep. Scott is taking Evan, Kurt, Jean, and Alex. Logan is taking his motorcycle and I will be taking my car," Ororo explained.
"Fine, what kind of a band is this anyway?" Elena asked as Evan skateboarded over.
"They do a little bit of everything Elena. Their stuff has been everywhere on the internet since last weekend, but no one I've talked to has heard of them before then. Here, you can listen to this on the way up if you want. I made a bunch of CDs from the songs they put up on the internet," he explained as he handed her a CD.
"Thank you, let's get going," Elena said as she headed back to her car for the hour and half drive to Boston.
Once onto the highway outside Bayville Elena put the CD in and started listening to the band. "Catchy," she said as she listed intently. "I could have sworn I've heard them before though," she mused as she kept driving on to Boston.
"So far so good," Elena said as she sat down at the club's bar with Logan and Ororo. "I figured someone would recognize us," she added.
"But why would we be in Boston. We should be so afraid and outcast we never leave our homes," Storm laughed.
"Either that or Chuck is doing a little bit of a mind job on everyone here," Logan pointed out as he grabbed a beer. "I personally don't care. So long as we don't have to fight our way out of here."
"I like that reasoning," Elena agreed, lifting her glass from the bar.
They got quiet as the lights in the club dimmed. "Here we go," Logan chuckled. The crowd got quiet as several shadows began to move around on stage.
"Good evening everyone!" one of the shadows spoke through his microphone. "We are Split Infinity and this is our first live show, so let's get this thing going," he said before a guitar, drums, and bass broke in. After their first song ended he spoke to the crowd again. "We only have an hour here tonight, so I'll cut down on the talking and we'll keep rocking," he laughed as they kept playing.
"They're pretty good," Elena said to Logan and Ororo.
"Yes, something is bugging me though, but I can't put my finger on it," Ororo admitted.
"I'll be damned," Logan said as he almost broke out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Elena asked him.
"That's why they were so busy tonight," he said as he tried to hold back his laughter.
"What are you… talking… about?" Elena said slowly before she took her glasses out of her purse and looked at the stage. "Oh, my, god," she muttered as she got a clear view of the four men on stage.
"Is that….?" Ororo asked Logan.
"Yes, surprised it took you two this long to catch on," Logan joked as he sipped his beer.
Elena blinked and shook her head, not believing what she was seeing on the stage. On either side of the stage the bassist, a tall black man, and the guitar player, a teenage redhead were playing with a lot of energy, running back and forth, putting on a good show. At the edge of the stage by the crowd the lead singer, a brother, possibly a twin of the guitar player was leaning off halfway into the crowd with no shirt so everyone could see an impressive set of tattoos. Finally her eyes drifted back to the drummer who had also removed his shirt and was sweating profusely as he beat out the fast pace.
"This is unexpected," Elena said.
"Yeah, we'll have to talk to them after they're done playing," Logan said seriously before leaning back to watch the show.
Later, when the band was done playing it's set and taking down their amps, the drummer and bassist showed up at the other end of the bar and each got a beer. "Quite a show you four put on up there," Elena commented as she, Logan, and Ororo took seats at stools by the musicians.
"So you three saw the whole show?" the drummer asked as he sipped his beer.
"The whole thing. Brought ten of the kids with us too," Logan told him, holding back a chuckle.
"Well… shit..," the bassist, Damon swore before taking a long drink from his beer.
"So this is just a freakish coincidence that you guys showed up here tonight?" Vincent asked as he looked to where Cole and Murphy were talking to the young mutants. Cole was white as a ghost, but Murphy was handling it well.
"Yeah, lucky you," Logan laughed.
"You never let on that you could play drums or anything like that," Elena said to Vincent.
"I have many skills from my life before the Turks and Avalanche," Vincent told her as he squinted at the mutants talking to Cole. "You drugged up Rogue before bringing her here," he stated.
"Yes, we have a supply of the drug from the government and McCoy is working to make sure it is safe for people with conditions like hers," Ororo explained.
They settled into a silence as Cole quickly walked over to them. "I'm going to take the stuff back to the warehouse," he told Vincent nervously.
"Are you okay?" Vincent asked him as he studied his face.
"Yeah," Cole replied.
"Let him go Valentine," Damon suggested. "Just don't do anything stupid out there kid," Damon told him before handing him some keys.
As Cole walked away Elena talked to Vincent. "You're using the safehouse to store your stuff?"
"Yeah, so what?" Vincent shrugged. "Hopefully we won't need it again," he replied.
"So Valentine, what's the big deal? You four just got yourselves erased from the mind of the populous, then you start a rock band? What gives?" Logan asked him.
"It was the thing to do at the time," Vincent replied before getting up. "I'm going with Cole," he said as he walked after the youth.
"I'll get Murphy, you go ahead," Damon said as Vincent passed him.
"What's wrong with him?" Elena asked Damon once Cole and Vincent were gone.
"Both of them are still adjusting to what happened to them recently," Damon told her. "This is the best thing we could come up with to keep them busy and sober," Damon explained.
****the deal with the songs they played is as follows:
This is a parallel universe, so most bands and songs from our earth do not exist there.
(I really just don't want them to be a cover band)
Songs played in no particular order (not complete list either, just the ones that will probably be featured in future chapters):
Fall Back Down – Rancid
Cailin – Unwritten Law
New America – Bad Religion
Leap of Faith – Suicide Machines
Gone- Bouncing Souls
True Believers – Bouncing Souls
Sound Siren- Unwritten Law
Seein' Red- Unwritten Law