To Err is Human
By Todd Fan
Disclaimer: "Reese surrounded by 6000 pounds of steel and 20 gallons of explosive fuel. It's like giving a shark a submachine gun"
Yes, I know this is late, again, and I appologise. As some of you know, my very, very old computer died a rather slow and painfull death, so I had to wait for my other to be fixed....and now I must get used to windows XP...scary.
L1701E - I could kiss you! Your idea has actually helped me bridge an important plot gap that I couldn't get my head around. Thanks ever so :D
Chapter 20 - Snowfall
Two months had passed since the events of Roberto's capture. Shaw and the Inner Circle had hidden into the shadows, untraceable. Late November snow had carpeted Bayville and it's surrounding area in white. Charles Xavier was watching out of the window as the snow flittered down. He was worried. Worried about where the Hellfire Club were, and what they were planning. Worried about the young woman whom had become a mole in the Hellfire Club many years previous for him, when he had first suspected they could have been planning something. This young woman had been park of his flock very early on, when he had first found Jean and Scott, his earliest students, not counting Ororo, Shortpack and Logan, of course. But for two months, she had been mind-silent, he hoped it was just because she was lying low, until suspision within the Club had died down. She was as dedicated to her work as Scott was to his own, she would not give away her position until she had no other choice. He knew she was working to get Gina out of there, and he knew she was most compitent in her work. It didn't mean he didn't worry, though. He glanced up as there was a knock at his study door.
Come in, Logan
The door opened and Logan stepped through, a cigar in the side of his mouth. Xabier sighed, he'd given up asking Logan not to smoke those things in his house, and the 'eight-year-old-girl' threat didn't last for very long. [1]
"The kids are gettin' ready ta leave fer the holidays, Chuck", he said.
"Oh...yes", said Xavier with a nod, wheeling to the door, "thank you, Logan"
"You okay, Chuck?", he asked with an arched brow, "ya seem...distracted"
Xavier managed a small smile.
"I'm fine, Logan", he said, "just thinking"
He wheeled past him, heading off to say farewell to his students as they left for the holidays....well, those that were going, anyway.
"You sure you don't want to come to Chicago?", asked Kitty, looking worriedly at her friend.
Danielle sighed, shaking her head.
"I'll be fine, here, Kitty", she said, "I have Roberto for company, heck, if I get really desperate, I have Forge"
Kitty chuckled, giving her friend a hug.
"As long as you're sure", she said, starting off to the car, "see you in Jaunary!"
"Have a good Hanukkah, Kitty", Danielle called back, watching her go, "and don't worry, I'll look after Lockheed"
Dani, did indeed, have Roberto for company. He still couldn't get in touch with his mother to tell her about his father. She was off on a dig somewhere in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, he wouldn't be able to get contact with her for another month, so he was stuck at the mansion. [2]
Scott, too, was at the mansion. He would have normally gone to Hawaii to spend the holidays with his brother. But since Alex's dissapearence, he'd been spending all his time at the mansion, waiting on pins and needles for any news on his whereabouts. Not even Jean could pry him away. Tabby and Ray were also staying behind.
As for the rest of the kids, however, they were all going home. It took Jamie much persuasion to go home, and eventually only the promise that he would be notified the imideate second Gina was found, IF she was found, convinced him to go. Rogue had eventually given in to her brothers pleading and had agreed to go to Germany with him to stay with his foster-parents. Rahne had rather reluctantly gone back to Scotland, only on the promise that she WOULD be allowed to return to the mansion (or more specifically, Sam) in January. Xavier gave his students a smile as he wheeled in.
"Enjoy your holidays", he said, "and try to get your minds off all our troubles so far. It is a time to relax, remember that".
"And don't destroy too much public property", said Storm, crossing her arms from where she had flopped down on the couch.
It was most humerous to watch Storm attempt to walk rather than waddle around. Of course, anyone caught actually laughing at her had better pray they could run. Quickly. Storm's mood had not improved a inch, in fact, it had got worse. She had almost pushed Xavier out of his chair when he presented her with a balloon, a little '3' painted on it to celebrate her getting into her third trimester. Ororo Munroe was uncomfortable, and let EVERYONE know about it.
"We won't, Ororo", said Jean with a chuckle.
Kitty patted her belly.
"Don't have that baby before we get back", she said, "oh, and I left three tupperweare boxes full of cookies for you"
"Thank you, Kitty", said Storm with a grimace.
Sadly, Ororo had discovered her daughter had chosen to go off muffins and go onto cookies for the craving food of choice. But not normal cookies, oh, no, only cookies made by Kitty. Quite frankly, Storm wondered what she had done to insult her unborn child. Maybe it was all that spicy food. The kids said their goodbyes, heading off into the cars to the city's airport, ready to spend their holidays at home.
The town of Dark Hollow. Since it's last living residents had either died or moved away, the place was, indeed a ghost town. None of the residents that had moved away when Danielle Moonstar's powers had scared them off had returned, and it was too close to the reseviour and canyons to be of any use for developing property. As a result, the place had been abandoned, and so providing a most excelent home base.
Lucas looked out of his bedroom window, watching the snow fall over the town. He'd snapped up this location when he'd found it. It meant each of his members got their own home, and as such, their own space. The town hall provided a good place for meetings, and it was close enough to the town of Bayville to go in to get supplies. The perfect place for a mutant haven. He sighed, looking at the ground covered with white. He'd brought quite a few mutants here since he'd first found Lizzie. All of them needing...somewhere to belong. Somewhere that didn't mean they had to live up to any expectations, where they didn't have to be heroes or villians, where they could just...be mutants...be themselves.
He glanced behind him as a form shifted in his bed, allowing the smallest of smiles to creep over his face, his eyes falling on the blonde hair..the only part visable under the covers. The time gone from team mate to lover seemed to have gone so fast, he barely realised it had happened. He smiled, walking over to the bed, sitting down on the edge, prodding the sleeping form with his finger. He got a very un-lady-like snort as a reply, before she shifted around, her grey-blue eyes opening to look at him, giving a small smile.
"'Mornin'"
"Good mornin'", he replied, chuckling, "I dinnae think ye were risin'"
Lizzie groaned, sitting up, stretching.
"Hey, ah'm usually the early riser", she said, "all that farm-girl nature is hard to breed out".
"Uh-huh", said Lucas, arching a brow, "are ye getting up at all?"
Lizzie pondered this before shaking her head, pulling the covers tightly around her again, snuggling down.
"Nope, too warm", she said, "and comfortable"
"There will be no breakfast left", said Lucas pointedly.
"Don', care", she replied sleepily, her eyes closing.
Lucas watched her for a moment.
"Liz'beth?"
"Mmm?", came a half-awake reply.
Lucas frowned, looking back out of the window.
"Never mind"
The other deziens of Dark Hollow were currently gathered in the community centre. Even if they all had their own homes to go to, they were still all outcasts, and so naturally wanted to seek out others like themselves. A boy of about fourteen with a blue hue to his skin was seated at the table, but he was not eating...well, not in the way one would normally eat anyway. On the table, two slug-like creatures were eating the food in front of him. These slugs were his digestive system, given form, without them, he wouldn't survive, they ate matter for him, then returned to his body, giving him his nutrition....the super-strength they gave him along with it didn't hurt any either. A girl of his own age wrinkled up her nose as one of the slugs past by her.
"Japheth.....that is probably 't most disgusting thing I have seen in me life", she said in her strong, Irish accent.
"Oh, don't worry, Theresa", said Maggott with a shrug, "they won't hurt you, they like you"
The mutant otherwise known as Syrin backed away slightly as one of the slugs blinked at her with it's six red eyes, before going back to eating. A sixteen year old boy chuckled at the sight. He, too, was an obvious mutant. He was handsome once...but his face now was long, much longer than that of an average human, with a flattened nose, giving him the appearance of a lion crossed with a baboon. He had razor-sharp claws, fangs and pointed ears. His eyes were yellow throughout, with black slits serving for pupils.
"I don't think the slugs are a hit with the ladies, Maggott", he pointed out.
"Oh, and I am SURE you are a lady-killer, Kyle", shot back Maggott.
Wild-Child growled in response.
"Awww, leave him alone", spoke up the teams youngest member, "we're all...different here, Kyle isn't THAT bad"
"This comin' form a guy who looks like a fish", said Syrin.
True, twelve-year-old Sammy Pare did, indeed, look like a fish, a orange-scaled skin, fins around his head and big eyes saw to that. But Squid-Boy seemed to take it all in his stride. After the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of both his father and the local bullies, Lucas had given him a safe haven, where such prejudice was not tollerated. In return, Sammy gave Lucas loyalty, a case with most of the other members of the odd group.
"At least I can breathe underwater", chuckled Sammy, "why don't you sing us a song, Syrin?"
Before the friendly banter could continue, a metalic humm shuddered through the room.
"JAPHETH!"
Maggott glanced up, watching as a green-haired girl of sixteen stormed into the room, holding up a half-eaten boot.
"Yes?", replied Maggott inocently, blinking up at her.
"Your digusting, horrible SLUGS have been eating my Prada boots!", she screamed, the cutlery floating up from the table.
Maggott, shook his head, petting the two slugs on the table, happily eating his breakfast.
"No", he said, "Eany and Menay would not eat your boots, Lorna, why would they?"
He smiled, before adding under his breath.
"They have taste"
That did it.
Polaris narrowed her eyes.
"Two words, slug-boy", she said darkly, "Table. Salt"
Eany and Meany blinked at her, before scuttling into Maggott, the hole they left while entering his body closing up. Maggott stood up, smirking as his muscles filled out.
"You were saying, Miss Dane?"
Lorna narrowed her eyes, before chosing to sit down at the table, crossing her arms, muttering darkly to herself. Maggott nodded in satisfaction, sitting down again.
"I hate snow, seriously, what is with all the snow?".
Alex sighed as he walked through the door, brushing snow off his shoulders. He was cold. He missed Hawaii. Hawaii was warm, and nice...and had surfing.
"Weren't you suppsed to be born in Alaska?", asked Sammy, blinking up, "..it's cold there...right?"
"I haven't been in Alaska since...", Alex frowned, "since a long time ago. I'm used to Hawaii, warm weather, chicks in bikinis"
The others blinked at him as Alex trailed off, going into his own dream world...that was until the kettle walloped him across the head from where it had floated across the room, seemingly of it's own accord.
"Mind out of the gutter, Havok", smirked Lorna.
"It wasn't in the gutter", said Alex rubbing his head, "it was in a hot tub"
He sat down, settling his feet on the table, putting his arm around Lorna's shoulder.
"With you", he added, waggling his eyebrows.
"Move your arm, or LOSE your arm", growled Lorna, her green eyes flickering angrily.
Alex coughed, chosing to scoot his chair slightly away from her.
"And Romeo loses again", announced Kyle with a chuckle, "what's the score now, Syrin?"
"T'ree hundred te none...I think", chuckled Syrin, "another fine example of why Alex will never learn".
"Hey, determination is in my genes", said Alex, then blinked, "wait...you've been keeping count?"
"It is a highly amusing activity", pointed out Maggott, "even better than TV".
"See, you amuse SOMEONE", said Lorna with a smirk, getting up and walking off, "I'm leaving before I catch something from you idiots".
"We love you too, Lorna!", called out Kyle, then paused, "oh..wait..that's just Havok..never mind"
Alex groaned, banging his head on the table.
"If there wasn't some bizare celestrial rule that said every team had to have a creepy, animalistic Canadian with claws, I'd push you into the reseviour, Wild Child". [3]
In the Morlock tunnels, winter always hit hard. Freezing water from above came through the sewerage system, and cold winds made the tunnels even colder, and fires harder to keep going. Nethertheless, the Morlocks's spirits were not dampened, they carried on with their lives as best they could. Sidney sighed from where she was sitting, hugging her arms around herself for warmth. She'd given up her blanket to Leech, deciding her fur was insulation enough, when added with her clothes. She was starting to realise that damp fur...really didn't do the trick.
"There you are", said Callisto, walking over to her, giving ehr a small smile.
"Oh...hi, Callisto", she said, then smirked, "how's Evan?"
"Trying to use his spikes to stop a snowdrift from falling into the east tunnel", the Morlock leader replied, taking a seat next to Sidney, "are you thinking about what that singer had said?"
After her rescue, Dazzler had tagged along with her rescuers until her own 'people' could pick her up. Todd had let slip how Sidney loved to sing, and Dazzler had pointed out how she was looking for a warm-up act to go on tour with her. She now knew her mutant secret was out, so what could it hurt to have a mutant warm-up act? It could be a gimick.
"Yeah", said Sidney, before frowning, "I can't take her up on the offer, though"
"Why not?", asked Callisto, examining her bo staff.
"Because it would mean abandoning you guys", she said, "I...I like living down here. I...I want to be a part of the Morlocks"
Callisto sighed, looking up at her.
"Sidney, even if you leave the Morlocks, you are alaways a part of us", she said
She sighed.
"Look, I established these tunnels as a place for mutants to go, to be safe whatever trouble they are in", she said, "that extends to those who leave us too....our doors is always open".
"But...", Sidney sighed, "I know the pregudice mutants like us face up there...how can I face it all over again?"
"There will always be prejudice", said Callisto, "when my uncle found out I was a mutant, he threw me out, despite the fact I'd used my powers to save my cousins, lost my eye doing it too" [4]
She gave Sidney a smile.
"You have to look beyond that. You have to stare it all in the face and say 'I won't take it, you can't beat me down", she said, "I've ehard you sing, Sidney. Even if you think no one can hear you, we do, your heart and soul goes into it. You shouldn't give up on it".
Sidney blinked, a small smile crossing ehr face.
"I should reach for the stars....not the ceiling"
"Pardon?", said Callisto, blinking.
"Err...nothing", said Sidney, chuckling, then sighing, "I'm going to miss you guys".
"We'll miss you too", said Callisto, "but you are always welcoem here, Sidney"
"Thank you", said Sidney, "I'll stay until the winter's over, we need all the help we can get right now"
Callisto nodded, standing up, patting her shoulder.
"As you wish", she said, "you're heading for big things, Miss Cagney, don't let homesickness scare you away from them"
[1] - X2, again. I LOVED that scene, Xavier can be a badass when he wants to.
[2] - For those unfamiliar with cannon, Roberto's mother is American, and an archaeologist. She's never been a fantastic mother, always too busy in her work.
[3] - Lucas's new team are all Cannon characters that have appeared at some time in an X-comic. Why did I use those particular ones? No idea, bar Lizzie, Alex, Lorna and Wild Child, they were all picked randomly when I flipped through my X-Men encyclopedia. Wild Child has always been a favorite of mine (well, X-Factor Wild Child, anyway), so I'm happy to be able to put him somewhere now.
[4] - Thanks to Sperrydee from the info about Callisto's past.
And there is another chapter done and dusted. Next up, we deiviate from the main story for some more Storm/Forge related fun. A certain movie has alot to answer for in THAT chapter. Do review. Until next time....