CHAPTER 25: DEALING WITH BULLIES: LESSON 2
"So, you're a mutant now?" Jenny asked.
"That's right. The machine awoke something in me, and Sabretooth by holding my hand saved my life." Bell said smiling.
"Did he mean to save your life?" Asked Paul, skeptically. "'Cause he'd never save it for real."
"He actually didn't know he was saving my life at the time." Bell said trying to soothe Paul. "But he did. One of his gifts is healing very fast, and I imitated him. Because my body was really sick and hurt it became like him. I look like him now. I can imitate all kinds of mutant talent." Bell explained.
"Betcha can't imitate mine…." Jenny grinned.
"Betcha I can." Bell replied. She held out her hand and a ball of white light with a blue center appeared in her hand. It left her hand and hovered for a time and then zoomed all over the room. It returned to her hand and then faded away. There were gasps of surprise from everyone, mostly from Jenny.
"Hey!!" Jenny exclaimed. "Even I can't do that yet!"
"You'll be able to after lots and lots of practice." Bell smiled kindly at the little girl. Jenny clapped her hands with glee and bounced up and down on her chair. She was going to start practicing right this very second.
"But not right now, Jenny. You can begin your practice later." Xavier said when he saw that she was intending to begin her practice here and now. The room shared a happy laugh. Jenny giggled, slightly embarrassed. But she also looked encouraged and determined.
Bell decided to show off her new talents to everyone. It was an impressive show of power and yet she held back. The kids thought they were seeing something from the video games they played brought to life; or from the Harry Potter movies. She had perfect control over her new powers. She flew; she juggled fire, put out the fire with ice and generally did what most of the kids in the room could do.
"Show off!" A male voice came from the door. Everyone turned to look and saw the two other new arrivals stand at the entrance of the cafeteria watching Bell do her stuff. She giggled and stopped doing the impressive stuff and walked over to Victor and gave him a hug. He stood back and looked at her. His sunglasses were perched on the end of his nose and he looked over the dark lenses like he was studying something very interesting. And he was. How was she able to have such perfect control over her newly acquired powers? He hadn't a clue. Maybe it was from Brad's vision talent or from Professor Xavier. Either way, it was impressive. And just early, very early this morning she was a hare's breath from death.
"So what are you two doing here?" Bell asked.
"We're checking on the interior of the school." Logan said loud enough for everyone to hear, but muttered in Bell's ear. "And set booby traps for our visitors." Bell inhaled in surprise.
"I forgot something. I guess I better finish up here." She turned back to the students. She took a deep breath and addressed the room at large. "The man, who did this to me, wants to turn a lot more people into mutants with his machine. But they won't be as lucky as I was. They won't have a mutant with healing powers holding their hands. So I and my new friends are going to help me stop him."
"We want to help too!" Jenny piped up. Bell smiled. Jenny certainly wasn't shy.
"Good…. because I'm going to need your help in stopping him." Jenny smiled and clapped her hands. Everyone made similar affirmations to that effect. "Your job is to stay out of the way, for now. You see, that man is coming here to this school." There were whispers and shuffling among the kids of all ages. "And since we are the good guys, we're going to win." There was a general cheer that went up from the younger students. She sent a message to Xavier. She actually told him that it would be best to bribe the younger students with a special treat.
"After we beat the bad guys, the Professor is going to send out for your favorite pizza. Just write up your favorite kind of pizza and he'll be sure to order it." She turned to Xavier who nodded to the cafeteria. It was a small price to pay to see to it that all the children were safe. "So you must stay in your rooms until it's over. It won't take all that long, I promise. We eat some pizza, watch TV and go to bed. Sounds good, yes?"
Cheers from even the older students went up. Xavier sent messages via brain waves to the older students to remain behind so he could speak with them. "Don't get too anxious, the excitement won't be starting until after six, so you still have time to do your homework," groans circulated around the cafeteria, "play games and you know, stuff." Bell smiled.
"Well, that's it for now, plenty of time to get ready for the brouhaha, so I've got some stuff to do, so I got to dash." Bell said and she disappeared in a flash. One second she was there, the other, she was gone. In her wake she left some astonished kids.
"Show off!" Declared Victor, while Xavier chuckled.
"All right students, you may be dismissed. As Bell said, we would appreciate that all of you stay in your rooms tonight, and afterwards we can have our pizza night, tonight." Happy students bustled about speaking and arguing about what to have on their pizzas. The younger students were prattling on about Bell, who Jenny said loud enough so that entire room to hear... Bell was now her favorite superhero!
Bell came to a sudden stop just outside the boundaries of the schools grounds. She cocked her head and her eyes glowed bright white.
"Yes, this is the spot! This will be just fine." She crouched down towards the ground and put her hands down on it. The ground in the immediate area glowed bright white as well for a while then died down and faded away. "That'll do it. Sorry Fred. I just don't want you to get hurt." She said softly to herself, apologizing to Fred quietly. She nodded to herself in satisfaction then zoomed back to the school.
She picked up Victor's scent easily and was amazed at how Brad's talent had helped her to control and learn everything so fast. She couldn't thank him enough.
"Hey Victor!" Bell said, enthusiastically. She ran up to him in an instant. He was so startled that he slammed himself into the wall.
"Don't do that! Just because you can, doesn't mean you have too!" He scolded.
"Oops, sorry Victor. Hey I need a favor." She said quickly.
"You need a favor?" Victor said slowly. "What kind of favor would you need? You got all the power anyone could ever ask for. What more would you need?" Victor said.
"You got any money?" Victor just stared at her, "I mean, cash on you?"
"Sure I always carry plenty of cash on me, why?" Victor asked cautiously.
"I need to get some stuff in town, and I don't have any." Bell said.
"I don't know if you have time to go to tow--. " He stopped himself. "What am I saying?" Victor asked himself sarcastically while his brother just laughed at him. "Oh, shut, up!" Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out a large thick wallet. He handed her a handful of very large bills. "Here ya go Babe."
"Thank you, thank you!" Bell said excitedly and jumped up and down like a delighted teenager. "I'll pay you back, I promise!"
"Hey, if you use that money to give Erick a bad time, there's no need. If you use it on yourself, there's really no need." Victor said grinning at her. He smiled even more when he noticed that her eyes were glowing from red to white in a fusion of colors. She gave him a quick hug and left in a rush of air.
Victor turned to his brother. "Ya know, I think that Erick is gonna be in trouble." Victor said, practically purring.
"Ya think!!!" Logan said cheerfully.
"Oh, yeah, I think. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy." Victor said sarcastically.
"Unless it's Senator Kelly, that is." Logan said his smile dimming a bit and his eyes burning. Victor nodded in agreement. They went back to their setting of traps and memorizing the school. "Who'd you suppose that Erick will have fighting with him on this raid?" Logan asked.
"Well, Toad for certain, he goes just about everywhere Erick does these days." Victor explained. "Then of course, the young men you've met at Jake's…and his daughter….Wanda. She will be the most trouble. She's got some pretty impressive powers herself. She hates her father with a passion, but somehow he always seems to get her to do stuff for him. Her powers are energy manipulations. She's able to change the physical make up of inanimate objects, as well as move them." Logan's eyebrow shot up. "They call her the Scarlet Witch because her obsession with that color. Pietro is the speed demon that Bell got her instant travel from, he's known as Quicksilver, he's Wanda's twin brother. Lance is called Avalanche because his affinity with the earth, he can cause localized earthquakes. And of course, Fred Dukes. I guess that's what Bell meant earlier at Jake's when she said "see ya later", to the boys before leaving."
"To bad about Fred, he seems kind of a nice guy." Logan said.
"He is, but he has terrible taste in friends. Well, I'm one to talk." Victor said angrily.
Bell came to a screeching halt near the entrance of a mall. Some one carrying packets bumped into her.
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you." The woman said, bending over and picking up dropped parcels.
"Well, with you trying to carry out an entire store in your arms, I can see why you couldn't." Bell said giggling. Bell instantly crouched down and helped the woman pick up her scattered parcels. "Here you go; I hope you haven't broken anything." Bell said.
"No, I don't think I have, it's just clothes for the kids and me," she said. "I really want to thank you for helping me. Most people would just walk away."
"Well, I'm not like most people." Bell said, not smiling too much. She didn't want to scare the woman. "I'm new in town, where would be the best place to find woman's clothes, I have a hard time, because of my size." The woman looked at her helper for the first time and noticed that she was an extremely large woman.
"My goodness, you're a rather big girl aren't you?" The woman said kindly. "You're rather tall as well, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. Is there a place that I can find some clothes?"
"Well, there's a Tall and Big Man Store here, I seem to have heard that they also have a woman's section as well." The woman said thinking. "Yes, it's on the lower levels near Brenda's Hair Salon." Unbeknown to the woman, Bell had seen exactly where it was in her head.
"Why thank you so much," Bell said handing her the last stray parcel.
"Thank you, my name is Vicky. If you're new in town, I can show you around. Where do you live?" Bell was at a loss for now.
"Well, actually we're staying with some friends at the moment. We're originally from New York City."
"Oh, I love New York City! I just can't get enough time off to go there anymore. Has it changed a lot?" Vicky asked.
"It's always changing." Bell smiled. She stood up with Vicky. Vicky was almost ready to drop her parcels again, this time in surprise.
"Gracious!!" Bell was at a loss to tell her anything. Then it hit her.
"It kind of runs in the family," she didn't say which one, "I just kept growing and growing, and well, this is me."
"Well, I can see why you would have trouble finding clothes. But the ones you're wearing are rather nice. They look expensive." Vicky was a keen judge of that.
"They are, a new wardrobe is being made up for me by Angela, but I'll need some to change into at any rate. She said they won't be done for three days. I don't plan to wear these for three days"
"Angela of New York? That Angela of New York!" Bell looked at Vicky; she looked like she was suffering from shock.
"Yeah, she's a friend of my….boyfriend. He woke her up to get me a new set of clothes. His…..well, now mine."
"So where are you staying?" Asked Vicky, she seemed to be coming out of her shock.
"Well, we're staying at friends at Westchester." Bell said. "I don't know for how long, actually."
"If that's the case, why don't I give you my card and you can call me when you get settled." Vicky jostled her packages around and managed to free a card from her purse.
"Thanks, and they have to nerve to say there's no such thing as hospitality anymore." Bell said smirking. Bell could read the woman's mind, and she was a genuine as she seemed.
"Yes well, its best not to always listen to what 'they' say is it." She smiled. "Well, I have to be going now. I hope to see you again and met your…boyfriend soon. Maybe you tell me a bit more about Angela." They parted company and Bell wanted to zoom to the clothing store, but decided against it. Besides she wanted to take a good look around. She was planning to live here, no matter what. It was a rather large mall, serving quite a few communities, so the stores and wares were extensive.
She was enjoying her walk thru the mall and the wonderful scents of the food stores called her. They were open and the aromas invaded the mall, that even people with normal smelling abilities were lured into them. She fought the urge to go in and buy it out and sample everything on the shelves with a hard word to herself. Some of the people heard her talking to herself.
"Hey you're not crazy if you talk to yourself, as long as you know you're the one doing the talking." Bell said to a group of young men standing around staring at her. She heard on of them say, "MUTANT!" in her brain. She gave him a hard look and said, "Who are you staring at, Bub?" She had no idea where she got that from.
"At you, mutie. I don't care much for looking at mutants, She Sassquatchie." He said spitefully and his pals snickered. Some people stopped to watch and listen.
In the security room of the mall, one of the guys monitoring the camera picked up on the potential trouble.
"Hey Max, would you look at that! Have you ever seen a woman like that before?!"
"Yeah, once a long time ago, they're kind of on the rare side. Hey isn't it that the gang we've been having trouble with all year?"
"Yeah, looks like it. It also looks like they bit off more then they could chew. You want to stop it, or just see how it plays?"
"Let's see how it plays for now. It doesn't look like she's exactly helpless." The men in the booth just laughed. "Hey see if you can get some sound on this. It looks like it's gonna be good." Max said, grinning.
"Then stop looking in the mirror, He Moron!" Bell said testily. He Moron narrowed his eyes. He didn't care for being called a moron. "Hey, if you don't like being called a moron, moron, then stop giving me a reason to." Bell sneered. She scuffed and turned around to walk away loudly complaining. "Why does every bigot on the planet sound like the fifth grade bully? Sheesh!" As she was walking the He moron pulled a large knife and charged her yelling. She avoided him swiftly and took his knife away before he knew it. She gave him a swift kick to his butt and sent him sliding on the mall floor for fifteen feet or so.
In the booth: "Outstanding. Wow, you wouldn't think a woman that large would be so fast!" There were agreements, and the men in the security booth gathered around the monitor to watch the confrontation. "I've been wanting to do that to that snotty bastard for a year. You go girl! Do it again!" They laughed and clapped and a man in a gray suit came in the door.
"Do what again?" He walked over the commotion. "What is going on? You're supposed to be watching the monitors, not the games." He said firmly.
"What were watching is better, boss. Ya know that gang that's been giving us hell for the last year or so?"
"Yeah, so."
"They've finally picked on someone that can handle themselves." Max laughed.
"Really? Are you saving it on tape?" One of the tech guys nodded.
"Yep. Watch." The butt kicked bully got up and turned around and looked at his opponent.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the gang leader, himself." The boss in gray said amused. Gang leader got to his feet quickly.
"Alright, bitch. You're in trouble now!" He said angrily. His butt hurt a lot and he was embarrassed at getting trounced in public. He looked around the floor, he couldn't find it.
"Looking for this? Ya know, you should play with sharp objects, you just might get hurt." Bell said holding up the knife. Gang leader paled. "You really shouldn't bring this knife in public places. I mean this isn't the frontier days anymore where you would need them. Hummm, this looks like a real strong, sharp, expensive knife. I really feel you have no right to carry it anymore." Bell's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Uh, oh. What do you suppose she's going to do with that?" The boss in gray asked to the room. There were shrugs all around. "Let's not panic. We'll see what she's up to first." He went on. He looked around, no one was panicked. In fact he thought for a moment someone was going to ask for popcorn.
Bell maneuvered the knife in her fingers and with her thumb she snapped off the point, which tinkled merrily as it hit the mall floor. Gasps came from just about everywhere and everyone. She repeated the maneuvering and snapped off the next section of the blade, and the next, all the way down to the hilt. With little effort on her part, and not a sign that she was trying very hard, she crushed the hilt and dropped the shattered remains of the knife onto the mall floor with the rest of the knife parts.
"I don't like littering. But seeing how it's your knife; I feel that you should clean it up. Now, I'm leaving to go shopping, if I hear that you've bothered anyone else here, today, I don't care if it's a grandma, or a mutant that looks like a dragon….I'm going to find you and do that to your arm. And by the time it heals up good enough to use a knife on anyone again, you'll be too old to need one! GOT IT?!" She turned a stalked away. "God, I hate bullies. Why did He make so many of them, anyway?"