mattb3671: Thanks if I can fit him in I will.
Xmenfan: Did you even read that chapter? I already SAID who was on the mission, read more carefully.
Gobbledegoop: He'll show up later in his own story arc.
Janusi: Oh they'll be back you can be sure of it.
Winblades: Kind of hoping for more Marvel based characters plus I don't know them and it might take too long to read up on them too.
X00001: Well she's never lead before so naturally she would be nervous and Vince didn't want the job and he's still new, he doesn't have the experience that Rogue or the others have.
Knight: Yeah I like in have characters grow it makes it seem more real.
Erich: I'll think about the Hulk and I got a rough idea panned out at the moment, but it will be it's own story. I never saw that movie and most likely never will cause it looks and sounds horrible so no go there but Black Cat will show up soon in a Gambit story arc.
Slickboy444: Glad you liked that moment and Rogue did have a few leadership roles in the comics and I wanted to show that in this. Sarah is just fun to write cause it's like you said she can grow many different ways and there will be more father/daughter moments.
Aaron: I'm glad you like the Vincent/Rogue and Sarah stuff.
ViciousAssassin: There will be some Logan/Sarah stuff and Rogue will learn what it means to be a leader, glad you liked all that other stuff too.
Red Witch: Hey like I've said I understand completely, and as always I look forward to what you think.
The Uncanny R-Man: There will be a few canon characters and OCs. Since I already used August I think that will do.
Ruby631: I see your point but I picked it cause I liked that name, but you'll also see her full name in this chapter.
Proponent of EVO: If you wanted to sneak into some place or out of it, wouldn't you want someone who could walk through things?
Thanks to: fireinu, Ranndie Mazda, Daniel de los Santos, celtcath74, DemonRogue13, TheLegendaryManHimself, Sparky Genocide, ldypebsaby
AN: Thanks to all those who wanted to see any of their OCs in this fic, I may use them but some more then others and canon characters will show up too.
Disclaimer: The OC Slayer belongs to Slickboy444
ADJUSTMENTS
CHAPTER 31: TOWN X
It was a couple of hours later when the jet landed out in the desert away from the nearest city that was also closest to their location that they were to check out. They had gone over some of the older maps of the area as well as any reports about the area too but there wasn't much to go on. The area seemed pretty much deserted and it looked like no one went there on the surface either. When they touched down everyone got up and they walked to the back of the jet and out the ramp. Kitty placed a hand over her eyes seeing the city in the distance. "Do we have to like walk all the way there?"
"No, since those two are the ones going to the city for a ride." Logan said pointing to Rogue and Vincent.
"Why us?" Rogue asked him her hands on her hips.
"Because you two can fly there and if you need to he can zip you most of the way there at super speed." Logan told her.
Kitty grinned the heat of the place was already a bit much and she was glad she didn't have to walk across the desert in this heat. "Well have a nice flight guys." She said grinning. Rogue gave her a small glare before she took off to the air Vincent not far behind her.
-Unknown Location-
In a room with a circular table three figures are sitting with chairs, two men and a woman all wearing modest dark clothing. The room is medium sized with hardwood floors and a décor that gave a feeling of a room for elders of a community, which it was. The three individuals were in their late fifties at least one of the men were bold the other man still had some hair only all white and very thin and the woman wore short hair and had strange pure yellow eyes.
"When is he coming?" The woman asked. "He said that outsiders were coming here and some would be friends others wouldn't be."
The bald man leaned back in his chair. "You know him, always has to go for the dramatic effect."
"True, but it helps get my point across." The three of them saw a mist behind them fade as a tall muscular figured with blond hair walked towards them. He is wearing strange samurai like armor with two katanas on each hip and one large sword on his back. He wears an oriental symbol on each hand and another symbol over his left eye of an eye in a pyramid.
"Show off." The other man said with a smile. "So what's our ronin warrior have for us. Normally you only show up in this town every few months to check up on things, or for a place to rest up."
"I also come here when trouble is coming and that's close at hand." The warrior man told them. The symbol over his eye glowed. "You've been having problems with the Shroud haven't you?"
The woman sighed. "A transformer blew out, the generators kicked in after a few seconds...we were hoping it was so small that no one would notice...they're fixing it but it could take a few days for it to be fully restored and it could fail one or more times."
The tall man nodded. "It will and then dark forces will come...but I think I want to 'welcome' our new guests when they get here."
"Are you sure it's wise?" The bald man asked him. "I mean strangers always go through the system to see if they can be trusted, it's the only reason things have been so safe."
"Things change, besides they'll be helpful."
The woman nodded. "You counsel is always appreciated and we'll discuss it and see if we can let them in."
The man nodded and headed for the door but then the bald man spoke up. "What if they aren't the ones that will help us but destroy us as you've said once before?"
The man stopped right before he was at the door. "I'm not wrong...but...if I am. Then they'll know why I'm called Slayer."
-In the City-
After finding a safe place to land they walked through the city until they found a place to rent a car after Vince looked it up in the phone book and after a few directions they found a place to rent a car. It was a usual place in the city where you could rent cars, and there seemed to be a wide selection and as they walked into the air-conditioned offices, which they both were thankful for, they looked around and found a desk for the clients. They walked up to the desk and there was a blond woman there who did what had to be a practiced smile at them. "Hello, how can I help you?"
"Me and my friends are going for a little trip before school starts and we were wondering if we could rent a car here." Vince asked the lady.
"Do either of you have a license?" She asked them and they pulled them out. See looked curiously at Vincent's. "Canadian?"
"Foreign exchange student." He said and she seemed to accept that. "Well she will have to sign for everything, is there any particular model you want?"
"Just somethin' for four people that can take the heat of this dessert will be fahn." Rogue told her. After a few choices were given they just picked on and while she went to use the credit card they had been given Rogue had to sign all the forms. "God why do these things have ta be so annoyin' ta fill out."
"Want some help?" They were sitting at a small table and he looked over at the sheet then he noticed something on it and when she saw the look on his face she quickly covered a certain section.
"Did ya see that?" She asked him seriously, she knew that he would know exactly what she meant.
"Yeah...sorry."
"If ya tell anyone-"
"They won't find my body I get it, you can trust me remember?" Vince said with a smile on his face. Then after all the paper work was filled out they went to get the car on the way there he couldn't help but ask and she knew he would. "So...that's your full name."
"Yeah...now you know why I prefer Rogue." She said bitterly.
"It's not that bad a name." He told her seriously. "I mean, Marie is a nice first name."
"Yeah but your full name ain't Marie Anna Raven." She told him clearly in a bad mood because he had seen that name because the forms required her full name. (1)
"Isn't Raven the first name of...well...her?" Vincent said referring to Mystique.
"Ya...now you know another reason ah don't want ta go by it." They made their way to a four door black car and with the keys they were given they got in and sat down. Rogue was about to start it up but stopped herself. "Look ah know we got this thing were ah tell ya about mahself...and ah know ya have been patient with meh...but that was one thang ah really wanted to leave behind meh."
"I understand that...but I take it you didn't like the name."
She nodded. "It reminds meh of mah childhood and ah didn't lahke it...besides ever since ah became a Goth do ya know how many 'quote the raven' jokes ah heard?" Vincent snicker and she hit him on the arm. "Shut up it ain't that funny!"
"You're right, you're right, sorry you caught me off guard with that. I can see your point and I swear I won't tell anyone that, on my honor and on the honor of my clan." He said seriously, Rogue breathed a sigh of relieve she knew that if he swore on his honor he really meant it and not even torture would get him to talk. She started up the car and saw that they needed gas, luckily she had seen a gas station on the way here.
While driving she had meant to ask him something. "Vince...since we're on the subject of names...why did you pick Freeman as a last name?"
Vincent smiled at that. "Well it's only fair...you see there are three things about me that I carry with me that always remind me of the important moments in my life." Then his face fell and was very serious. "My scars represent all the pain and suffering I've gone through...my tattoo is for what I've learned about being a person and about honor...my last name...well when I was trying to pick a name I went through a whole book and when I couldn't decided I went to the roof of the orphanage to think."
I sat there looking out over the city trying to figure out something then...I don't know when or how...but I thought about my life and how at that moment in my life I wasn't afraid anymore, I felt safe for the first time, I had friends with Mary and Benny and Father Michaels was there for me and I had been training under Mr. Kansuke for a year and for the first time in my life I felt like I was...happy. I was finally free of that nightmare of my past...I had a new beginning."
"So when I thought of the name Freeman it was like it was tailored to me...I was free of that place, of those people hunting me...and of my old life. That's why I picked it, to remind me of a new beginning I got in life, free of that horrible place." Rogue sat there stunned by that, she knew what he had gone through but that was something very deep and she was trying to think of something, anything to say to that.
"Whoa...that's...damn." She shook her head while thinking about all of that, she didn't think he picked that name because it had such meaning towards him.
-X-Jet-
Kitty was sitting on the ramp waiting for the others to get back, while Sarah was with her reading. "Say Sarah do you know what you and Logan will be doing out here?" Sarah gave a small shrugged indicating she didn't know. "Huh...I would have thought you would kind of like it, kind of like a father/daughter camping trip."
"Camping?" Sarah asked. "What's that?"
Kitty looked a little surprised then she remembered how she had been raised. "Well it's kind of a getting back to nature type of thing, you either do it with family and/or friends. You basically go out, usually it's in a forest but I guess this works too, and you basically try and have fun."
Sarah put down her book and asked more about this. She had missed out on so much she was still learning all the things that normal kids had grown up knowing, she didn't understand some of the things she had learned and some were just strange and silly to her. Sure she had lived in the wilderness before joining up and this 'camping' sounded a lot like what she had been doing but that was just surviving, it wasn't exactly 'fun', but then she also hadn't any supplies and had been alone.
As Kitty told her about how her family had gone camping when she was eleven Sarah felt a sense of loss. Whenever she heard these stories about how the others had grown up she felt cheated. She would never know what it would be like to grow up like that since she had spent most of her life as a lab specimen. Then she heard something in the distance with her hearing and looked sharply to the distance.
Logan had heard it too and walked out of the jet looking in the same direction seeing a dust cloud in the distance, he could hear it was a car coming and wondered if those two had finally shown up. A few minutes later the black car showed up and stopped by the jet and they saw Rogue and Vince get out. "Sorry if that took so long, it took longer to find a place and we had to stop for gas." Vincent explained.
Piotr came out of the jet carrying their bags. Rogue opened the trunk as he put them in, Logan walked up to Vince and handed him two items. "This here is an emergency beckon, if things really go wrong activate it." He told him handing him a small long device, Vincent looked it over then Logan gave him a cell phone. "This has an auto-dial to a phone I got so we can keep in contact."
Vincent took the folded up phone. "Cool. Hopefully we won't need them, but they'll be nice to have."
Kitty had already gotten in the back seat with the window down and stuck out her head. "Come on you guys, let's get going." Vincent let out a small laugh and walked off to the car. He sat in the passenger seat as Rogue was driving while Piotr and Kitty sat in the back. As they drove on Vince gave out a few directions now and then. "How do you like know where to go?" Kitty asked him leaning forward in her seat.
Vincent pulled a map that was on the seat next to him. "When we went for gas I got a map and looked it over." He also got a plastic bag out and passed it to her. "I also got snacks and drinks."
"Cool!" Kitty found a water bottle and took a sip. "That's better, you want anything Peter?"
"Da, water will be fine with me." He said and smiled and nodded to her as she passed him a bottle. They went on for about fifteen minutes to an old unused road that seemed to lead to where they were supposed to go. Vincent had said that this road hadn't been on the map but it was the road that was on the old one that supposed to have led to the town.
The road was basically a dirt road and they could see large hills that must have surrounded the valley. Then when they got close to the entrance they had to stop the car. There was an old dried up riverbed that was too deep to cross without a bridge, there was a bridge...only the metallic bridge had seen better days. The middle part looked like it had broken and fallen in years ago.
They got out and stood in front of the bridge. They could see a road going behind the hills on the other side. "Now what?" Kitty asked.
"Well I could fly up and get a bird's eye view of the place, try to find another way around?" Vincent said looking up.
"Alright go for it, ah'll go across and see how far tha road goes." Rogue said then turned to Kitty and Piotr. "You two stay here." She got the cell phone from Vincent and handed it to Kitty. "If anything happens call Logan."
"You don't think anything will actually happen do you?" Kitty asked.
"Can't beh do careful."
"Wow...look at you being all Cyclops like." Kitty said with a smiled, Rogue just rolled her eyes and floated a few feet off the ground getting ready to cross the broken bridge, Vincent had already taken to the air and with his speed got a great view of the place. He could see the valley but there didn't seem to be anything at all in it and so far he couldn't tell if there was another route to take. He started to float back down when he heard yelling and saw Kitty and Piotr waving frantically up to him.
He looked for Rogue but she wasn't around, that worried him and he got to the ground as quickly as he could. "What happen? Where's Rogue?" He asked them worried.
"We were like just watching Rogue and she just...disappeared."
"What do you mean she disappeared?" He said loudly causing Kitty to flinch.
Piotr placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. "It is true comrade, we were just looking as she crossed the bridge and just vanished."
"Guys ah'm right here, didn't y'all hear meh?" They all turned to see Rogue, or part of Rogue. Her head and upper body along with one leg was showing but the rest of her wasn't and there was a strange distortion around her missing body parts.
"Quel l'Enfer ?" Was Vincent's only words.
"Like what he said." Kitty said staring wide eyed and Piotr was just dumbstruck silent.
Rogue looked at them in confusion then looked down at herself seeing her missing parts. "What?!" She jumped towards them and her body reformed. "Okay...that was weird...even for our lives." She placed her hand in front of the area and there was a shimmering as her hand disappeared but she felt nothing.
Vincent walked up to her. "Uh...you said something about us not hearing you right?"
Rogue turned to face him. "Yeah it got real loud suddenly and then when ah looked back ah realized that not only was tha bridge all there now, but Kitty and Piotr were spazin' out, ah shouted to them but they didn't seem ta hear meh."
Vincent stuck his head through it and pulled it out. "Yeah the bridge is still there, and you're right it is louder in there. Like there's a town or something." All four of them walked forward and everything the other two had said was true. "Hey look." Vince said pointing to devices on the bridge and then there were also other ones on poles around the edge of the river bed and seemed to make a perimeter around the valley.
"I think they must be a combination of holo-projectors and some kind of sound dampener." Kitty said looking at the devices. "Man this is really hi tech stuff, I mean I don't think we can just walk right in like we planned." She said a little worried.
"Walking in is easy." Came a strange voice and they turned to see a man who seemed to appear out of nowhere on the other side of the bridge. He had on a few strange tattoos and a few swords and samurai armor. "Walking out...that's the problem."
"Looks tough." Piotr whispered to the others. "Think we can take him?"
"Maybe, he's a fighter I can tell that much by the way he carries himself." Vincent told them, after all that training and fighting in either the streets or in the competitions he learned to judge good fighters from bad ones from how they carried themselves and what he saw...well...let's just say he knew it was going to be a challenge. Normally he'd love to take someone on like this to test his skills, but asking for a sparing match or getting into a fight wasn't the best move at this time.
Rogue was thinking things through she was in charge and she had to chose three options, run and maybe not find out what's going on, fight this guy who might not be worth the trouble or option three. Try a peaceful way. "Look ah know this kind of looks bad us being here but there's an explanation."
"You mean how you and your friends Rogue were sent by Xavier to check up on all the mutant signatures?" Rogue and everyone else was shocked by that. "And before you ask, no I'm not telepathic...but I do have my ways of seeing the truth in the world." He said with a grin on his face.
"This area is under my protection and I know you're not here to cause trouble, but I think the Elders will want to speak with you four."
"And just who are these Elders and you for that matter?" Rogue asked him. She didn't like his smug attitude and especially how he seemed to know so much.
"The Elders are in charge of the town in the valley, it's called Town X. It's a safe haven for mutants, their families and mutant sympathizers. As for me...you can call me Slayer."
NEXT UP CHAPTER 32: A LOOK AROUND TOWN
(1) Before I get a LOT of comments on giving Rogue a name I just wanted to give Rogue a name yet try and stay canon (or as close as you can get with her) so I chose to make her first name from the movie cause I liked that name, Anna Raven was an alias Rogue used in the comics so I made that her middle and last name. I figured she should have a full name and I just wanted to bring it out, love it or hate it but I don't think you'll ever see her referred by her full name again.
AN: Also I found a neglected story in the R section I think you should check out. It's 'You Can't Run On Ice' by little miss tiny shoes, trust me it's really good.
- Quel l'Enfer ? : What the Hell?