Second Time Round
Still, by: ProFool
Disclaimer: I am a professional fool, not some second rate fool that puts up real disclaimers.
Note: They all talk in weird ways, forgive me if I screw up the way one of the characters talk. I only have an Australian and a British slang dictionary right now and Southern accents have always given me trouble.
********************************************************************************
"Like, what is their problem?" Kitty fumed angrily as she walked up to Lance and Todd after school.
"The X-Men givin' you a rough times again?" Todd asked.
"Yeah, like, I just don't get why they only bother me. I mean they've never tried to recruit you or Lance. It's like they think I belong on their team." Kitty huffed angrily.
"Just say the word Kitty and I'll knock Summer's lights out." Lance laughed, "That'll get the message across."
"No, I, like, don't want you to get in a fight over it." Kitty sighed, "I just want them to, like, leave me alone. I mean they're not all bad Kurt's kinda okay, I guess."
"Y'know, he's really a blue furry guy with a tail, yo?" Todd told her, receiving a look of absolute shock from Kitty.
Lance frowned slightly as he realized the X-Men must have been really starting to bug her. "C'mon we need to get your mind off of the X-Men, me and Toad'll take ya to the mall." Lance told Kitty.
"Really?" Kitty asked perking up some. It wasn't very often that she could drag the boys to the mall and them volunteering simply never occurred. She looked over at Todd for confirmation.
"Yeah, sure, Mystique isn't going to be back until late anyway. We can walk to the mall, go shoe shopping and walk back to the Boardin' House without her askin' where we were, yo?" Todd affirmed though he didn't sound half as excited as Kitty did about spending the rest of the day in a shoe store. Though his words were lackluster, they were enough to get Kitty to set off half dragging Lance as she headed for the Bayville Mall.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"And then after the shoe store we can go to menswear, cause you guys, like, totally need some new outfits, and after that we can stop by the pet store. Oh! We can get some ice cream before we go home!" Kitty rambled on happily as the Brotherhood entered the Bayville Mall.
"Whatever you wanna do, Kitty." Lance told her approvingly. "Right, Toad?" He asked Todd, who seemed to be staring at some new display in the center of the mall. "What are you looking at?" Lance enquired, while he tried to pinpoint the place Todd was watching.
"Your jeep, yo?" Todd muttered under his breath.
For the first time Lance noticed the large green jeep parked in the middle of the mall plaza. It was his jeep, of course it was a lot cleaner and newer than Lance remembered, but he did remember winning it in a contest and how he'd won it.
"Hey Kitty, you and Toad go to the shoe store without me, I'll catch up." Lance stated as he walked up to the jeep. It was one of those contests where whoever keeps their hand on the car the longest won it. Quite a few people already had their hand on the car, but that was about to change. Lance handed his entry fee over to the man running the contest and put his hand on his jeep. He waited a few minutes so no one would get suspicious, then he jolted the foundation knocking all the other combatants off their feet. The only person that had managed to hang on was Lance, who sat back and smiled as he filed out forms, while the others wondered what exactly had just happened.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"Did you feel that?" Kitty asked Todd when she felt the shoe store shake from Lance's jeep winning tremor.
"Feel what?" Todd responded trying to nonchalantly steady a shelf that had threatened to topple over.
"I think we should go check on Lance." Kitty said as she headed toward the exit.
Todd hopped after her. "I'm sure he's fine, but if it means ya wanna leave the shoe store, then I'm all for checkin' on Lance, yo?" He told Kitty with a sly smile.
Kitty half-frowned down at Todd's decrepit shoes, she had really wanted to find him a new pair, but Lance was more important than shoes. "Alright, we'll go find Lance and if he's not in trouble he can help me find you new shoes." She told Todd.
Todd looked slightly annoyed by this new proposition, as he wondered why Kitty was trying to arrange a new ensemble for him. Todd followed Kitty obediently as she led them back to where they had left Lance. They were about halfway between the shoe store and mall plaza when Lance found them.
"Hey, there you guys are!" Lance greeted them, "I ran over to menswear, but I didn't see you, so I came back this way and you'll never guess what I won!"
"What?" Kitty asked excitedly.
"A jeep!" Lance exclaimed.
"Wow, like, a real jeep?" Kitty asked in disbelief.
"Ya." Lance assured her.
"We, like, totally need to celebrate!" Kitty shouted. "We could go to the shoe stor-"
"How 'bout ice cream?" Todd interjected before Kitty could finish. "We're right by the food court."
"Sounds good." Lance agreed quickly before Kitty could bring up anything involving expensive shoes.
"Okay, like, you guys go grab us a table, I'll get the ice cream." Kitty told them as she headed off to the ice cream shop.
Lance and Todd picked out a table in the corner of the food court and sat down. "I don't see nothin' wrong with these shoes." Todd muttered to himself, while he looked down at his faded sneakers. Their laces were tattered and frayed and what remained of the soles was held together with duck tape. "They're just broken in, that's all."
"Yeah," Lance agreed, "I was just thinking, if we got the jeep today doesn't that mean Mystique's gonna bring Rogue in tonight?"
Todd's eyes went wide for a second. "What're we gonna do, yo?" He asked as his worries about new shoes were replaced by a new set of Rogue worries.
"I dunno, I was kinda thinkin' we could follow Kitty's lead." Lance suggested, "They were friends before and we kinda sided with Freddy last time."
"Mystique said 'go find Freddy and calm him down', she said 'I'll handle Rogue'"Todd reminded Lance. "So, of course we sided with - OW!"
"Hey Kitty!" Lance greeted with a smile, while Todd rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder where Lance had hit him.
"Hey guys," Kitty responded as she distributed the ice cream. "Is something wrong, Toad?" She asked noticing the intense glare he had aimed at Lance.
Todd relented and settled for a slight frown. "Nothin', yo?" He told her briskly before snatching his ice cream cone from Kitty with his tongue and downing it in one gulp. "Ach! Brain Freeze!" Todd gasped grabbing his head.
"That is, like, so totally icksome!" Kitty complained with a cringe.
Lance laughed. "Y'know if he's too disgustin' for you, Kitty, you could always go join the X-Geeks with that blue furry guy." He teased.
"Eww, like, don't remind me! I, like, can't believe he's got a tail!" Kitty whined.
Almost as if on cue Kurt strolled cautiously up to their table. "Hey Kitty, I vas vondering if you might vant to come over to our table for avile?" He asked courteously pointing out a table Scott and Jean were sitting at, Scott even waved.
Kitty's reaction was far from anything the X-Men could have hoped for, she scooted her chair as away from Kurt as fast as possible and only stopped after her chair collided with Lance's. "Eww, eww, eww! Like, eww, no, like, please, go away!" She pleaded almost frantically.
Kurt seemed taken aback by her response. Lance just glared at him with his usual scowl. "Can't you see she doesn't want anything to do with you, X-Geeks? So, lay off!" Lance hollered at Kurt, who suddenly appeared to have seen the error of his ways and quickly retreated back to his own table. "It's okay Kitty they wont bother you anymore, now." Lance promised in a comforting way.
"Can we go home?" Kitty asked when she noticed the X-Men weren't leaving and in fact were now starring at her while Kurt explained what had happened to Scott and Jean.
"That's why we have a jeep." Lance told her happily as he got up to lead them out of the food court.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
As Lance and Todd expected, Mystique was not to be found at the Boarding House when they returned.
"That's odd, usually Mystique's home by now." Kitty said as she flopped on the couch. "Where do you think she went?"
"Maybe she's recruiting someone." Todd suggested simply as he perched on the arm, across from Kitty, on the couch.
"Who cares why she's gone? No Mystique and Magneto means, no evening training." Lance pointed out with a smirk as he sat down in his favorite chair.
"It's not all that bad, they're just trying to prepare us in case the humans react badly when they find out about mutants." Kitty asserted looking thoughtful, "Maybe we could do some training without them."
Lance shook his head in disbelief. "Kitty, your supposed to be happy that we're getting a day off." He explained.
"Maybe you guys are, but that's only cause you both have, like, way more experience than me." Kitty scoffed.
"Ya, and because of all the wonderful experiences we've had Mystique and Magneto expect more from us. Our training's probably ten times harder than yours." Lance growled disdainfully.
"Alright, how 'bout me an' Kitty train, while Lance sits here and laughs at us." Todd proposed before his teammate's could start a real argument.
"Okay! Like, what's the mission?" Kitty asked eagerly. Lance just sighed and seemed to deflate into his chair.
Todd leaned in close and whispered secretively, "Your mission should you choose to accept it is to infiltrate Boss Lady Headquarters. Warning: It will be heavily guarded."
Kitty giggled. "Heavily guarded, by what?" She asked.
"By me, yo?" Todd quipped, before he flipped of the couch and onto the ceiling, where he stuck. Then he quickly crept across into the entrance hall.
Kitty followed Todd out of the room, if she could get past him on the staircase it'd be easy to phase through the door. She could see Todd perched precariously on the baluster that marked the top of the staircase banister. He had an unfortunate smile on his face that gave Kitty the feeling she was being toyed with.
Todd continued to wait patiently at the top of the stairs, while Kitty assessed the situation, for all the time she took, she still chose the most obvious tactic of simply charging up the stairs at him. Perhaps if she'd been Pietro, her plan would have worked, but taking a Toad by surprise wasn't as easy a task as one may think.
Just as Kitty reached the fifth step from the top Todd lunged at her. She stopped, instinctively covered her face with her arms, and phased. Kitty mentally congratulated herself as she continued to run for the door. She started to concentrate on the door ahead of her that she was about to phase through, when suddenly her feet were pulled out from under her and she found her self dangling upside down over Lance, who was indeed laughing, but he had moved to the entrance hall for a better view.
After a moment Kitty realized she was being suspended by Todd's tongue. "Like, put me down!" She cried angrily at him. Kitty immediately regretted the request as Todd released his hold letting her fall screaming down to where Lance caught her.
"Had enough training yet?" Lance laughed.
Kitty struggled out of Lance's grip and tried to shove him, resulting in her phasing through him and stumbling. Lance offered her a hand up, but Kitty smacked his hand aside and pulled herself up. "You guys are, like, such jerks!" She yelled angrily as she headed to her room.
"Sorry, yo?" Todd muttered, as Kitty passed him by. He did look genuine, but Kitty was still seemed a bit miffed.
"Aw, c'mon Kitty we were just joking. I didn't mean to make you mad. I'm sorry!" Lance called after her receiving only the sound of a slamming door as a response. "Nice going, Toad." He growled in an admonishing tone.
"I said I was sorry, yo? Last time I volunteer to train with Ms. Sensitive." Todd grumbled as he hopped back down the stairs.
"It's not her fault, she only got her power a couple weeks ago. I was terrified when I first got my powers." Lance paused a moment reflectively, then shuddered involuntarily.
Everything was dark. Lance couldn't remember what had happened he just remembered his parents arguing over the divorce again. Lance had been in his room, but it was never this dark. He'd gone there because his head hurt, it had been bothering him a lot lately.
He could hear sounds somewhere outside of the darkness. It was the sirens that had woken him up. He could hear men talking, and they sounded worried about something. A dog began barking, suddenly a shaft of light broke through from above. The two firemen pulled a young Lance Alvers from the ruble that used to be his home. Their search dog danced around him jovially wagging its tail.
"Listen, son, are you all right? Were there any others in the building with you?" One of the firemen asked as he carried Lance to an awaiting ambulance. Lance stared blankly at the ruins that had once been his home.
"I think he's in shock." The other fireman informed the ambulance drivers.
Lance finally tore his eyes away from his former home, and looked, wide-eyed up at the fireman that was still holding him. "Mom? Dad?" He asked with a note of fear prevailing in his voice.
"The other two we found." The fireman stated despairingly, as he looked over his shoulder at something. Tears rushed into Lance's eyes as he spotted two black body bags.
He had only been fourteen and not even he knew it at the time, but eventually he'd come to understand what had caused the mysterious building collapse that had killed his parents.
Lance's stomach churned slightly as he wondered why Forge's stupid machine couldn't have sent him further back in time.
"You never called an end to the session, Toad, I won fair and square." Kitty laughed triumphantly.
"Alright, you win, but you tricked me. I thought we were supposed to be workin' on our mutant abilities?" Todd asked skeptically, though he was relieved that Kitty wasn't really mad at him and Lance.
"Hey, I had to, like, phase through three rooms to get to Mystique's. I'd say that counts as training mutant abilities." Kitty giggled. "Oh, Lance you should have seen your face when I called you a jerk is was so sad, I thought you were gonna cry for a second!"
"You mean you're not mad at me?" Lance asked a bit confused.
"No, silly, weren't you listening to my victory speech?" Kitty asked as walked down the stairs to give him a hug.
"Y'know I tried to tune her out too, but it didn't work." Todd quipped. Kitty stuck her tongue out at him.
"No, I was just thinkin' about something." Lance said as he released Kitty from their hug.
Kitty looked up at Lance with a slightly worried expression. He had a distant look in his eyes, it always bothered her when he looked like that, it made him look so old. She was about to ask if something was wrong when the front door opened abruptly.
Mystique walked in wearing her Ms. Darkholme disguise. "Good you're all here to meet your new teammate." She stated as she stepped aside to grant a very nervous looking Rogue entry. "I want to introduce you all to Rogue. Rogue, these are your teammates: Lance, Kitty, and Toad." Mystique said motioning to each one in turn.
"This is, like, so totally awesome! I won't be the only girl anymore!" Kitty exclaimed excitedly.
"And we won't have to go to anymore shoe stores." Todd commented to Lance who nodded with a smile.
"Good glad you're all happy, now will someone mind telling me why that tank is in my driveway?" Mystique asked suspiciously.
"Lance won it at the mall! Isn't that great!" Kitty proclaimed happily, before anyone else had a chance to explain.
"Very well, but I'm not paying for its gas or maintenance. Now, if you don't mind I have to call the School District Office and a couple of other people." Mystique didn't have to say who the "other people" were, except for Rogue everyone knew she had to inform Magneto about her success in recruiting Rogue. "Kitty, show her to an open room. Boys help carry her luggage." She didn't even wait for a 'yes ma'am' before she shut herself into her room.
"Akay, so, like, where are you from?" Kitty asked as she led Rogue and the 'bag boys' upstairs to Rogue's new room.
"Mississippi." Rogue muttered quietly.
"That's cool. Lance and I are from Illinois. My power's phasing, it means I can, like walk through walls. Lance can cause earthquakes and Toad can jump high and stuff." Kitty told her with a bright smile.
"Are you an' Lance related or somethin'?" Rogue asked glancing between the two.
Kitty laughed lightly. "No, just a lucky coincidence I guess. Lance has had his power's for a longer time, but I had just gotten my powers when Mystique came to get him. Like, here's your new room. Mine's right next door and Toad's is at the end of the hall." Kitty said opening the door for Lance and Todd to carry in Rogue's bags.
"How come girls have so much junk, yo?" Todd mumbled as he heaved a large suitcase onto the bed.
"I dunno," Lance replied with a shrug, "and ya ever notice how they need huge purses, while guys only need a wallet?"
"See this is the kind of riveting discussion guys have." Kitty told Rogue sarcastically as Lance and Todd left her room, still trying to figure out how it was that women needed so much more stuff then men. "Remember I'm just next door if you need to talk about anything. I know how scary getting new powers can be." Kitty waited for a second hoping to get a response from the quiet girl, but she decided that, she better leave after a couple seconds of awkward silence.
Kitty walked out of the room pulling Rogue's door shut behind her. "Thanks, Kitty, but ah don' suppose you've evah even heard of the X-Men." Rogue said sadly in a voice just above a whisper.
Kitty pulled the door back open with a concerned look on her face. "Some of them attend Bayville High. They're, like, so annoying. What'd they do to you?" Kitty asked as she sat down next to Rogue.
Rogue's eyes widened. "They attend mah new school, but they were chasing me. Ah was so frightened an' it all so confusin'. Ya see Ma'stique says mah power's energy absorption, that means if ah were tah touch ya now ah'd take your powers and some of your memories for a while. " Rogue told Kitty sadly.
"Woah, that, like, really put things in perspective." Kitty sighed, then she remembered the real reason they were having this conversation. "The X-Men were chasing you, those creeps! They've been bothering me at school, but they tend to avoid Lance and Toad. Just earlier today even they were trying to get me to join their team, but Lance scarred them off and when I first got my powers they showed up at my house."
"Did they chase ya?" Rogue asked showing genuine interest in Kitty's story.
"I didn't give them the chance. I knew something was wrong when they told my parents they wanted to take me away, but they didn't want Lance, I phased through the wall and ran away and found Lance. I haven't seen my parents since. I call and talk to them of course, they're a bit disappointed, but they try to be understanding."
"Do you think they'll try to take me now though? I mean they wouldn't try to kidnap me would they?" Rogue asked with as her brow furrowed with worry.
"No," Kitty laughed, "they know we'd come get you even if Lance had to knock that Institute of theirs down, you know it's not called the 'Brotherhood' Boarding House for no reason. Besides Mystique and Magneto are going to, like, teach us how to use our powers, then no one will be able to bother us."
Rogue smiled, she looked a lot more reassured. They heard a couple swift sharp knocks on the door. "Lights out, Kitty get back to your room it's past eleven and you both have school in the morning." Mystique called to them through the door.
Kitty got up to leave when she heard Mystique yell a Toad to go to sleep down the hall. "See you in the morning Rogue."
"You too, Kitty." Rogue said as Kitty left. Rogue lay back on her bed, she thought she might just be able to get through this whole being a mutant thing, now that she'd finally found some people she could trust.
********************************************************************************
Next Chap: More on Rogue, so yell at me now if I did something wrong with her accent. Freddy, he may be underappreciated by the rest, but I still love him. More X-Men, insert boos and hisses here. Of course more Lance and Todd. Kitty will not be in the next chap . . . she deflated . . . No, I'm joking, I know some people hate it, but I like, like, the likes. They amuse me!
I'm sorry this took so long, while I was writing it my friends may have noticed me mumbling about 'the chapter that never ends' It's nine pages on my computer, which is long for me. Other reasons why this took so long include a six-day trip away from my computer. Having to locate and watch my tape with Rogue Recruit on it, losing it and having to find it again just to be sure, cause I'm a stickler for facts. Looking for a Southern Dictionary and not finding any good ones. It would have taken longer, but my cohort Half-N-Half was all: YOU MUST FINISH YOUR NEXT CHAPTER I NEED TO READ IT! *Jump up and down excitedly*
As for Lance, he's hogging the flashbacks and forwards and yeah that's one of the reasons I hate time travel. That's actually based on what happened to comicverse Avalanche . . . I read X-Men comic encyclopedias cause I'm a fact freak like that. I forget where I found it, but I remember reading that his parents died in a mysterious building collapse. It answers the why was Lance in a foster home question that plagued my mind until I came up with that theory.
I read all the Comments, Questions, and Death Threats my Reviewers send me and I thoroughly enjoy them . . . well maybe not the death threats so much . . . and now its ten pages long.
Still, by: ProFool
Disclaimer: I am a professional fool, not some second rate fool that puts up real disclaimers.
Note: They all talk in weird ways, forgive me if I screw up the way one of the characters talk. I only have an Australian and a British slang dictionary right now and Southern accents have always given me trouble.
********************************************************************************
"Like, what is their problem?" Kitty fumed angrily as she walked up to Lance and Todd after school.
"The X-Men givin' you a rough times again?" Todd asked.
"Yeah, like, I just don't get why they only bother me. I mean they've never tried to recruit you or Lance. It's like they think I belong on their team." Kitty huffed angrily.
"Just say the word Kitty and I'll knock Summer's lights out." Lance laughed, "That'll get the message across."
"No, I, like, don't want you to get in a fight over it." Kitty sighed, "I just want them to, like, leave me alone. I mean they're not all bad Kurt's kinda okay, I guess."
"Y'know, he's really a blue furry guy with a tail, yo?" Todd told her, receiving a look of absolute shock from Kitty.
Lance frowned slightly as he realized the X-Men must have been really starting to bug her. "C'mon we need to get your mind off of the X-Men, me and Toad'll take ya to the mall." Lance told Kitty.
"Really?" Kitty asked perking up some. It wasn't very often that she could drag the boys to the mall and them volunteering simply never occurred. She looked over at Todd for confirmation.
"Yeah, sure, Mystique isn't going to be back until late anyway. We can walk to the mall, go shoe shopping and walk back to the Boardin' House without her askin' where we were, yo?" Todd affirmed though he didn't sound half as excited as Kitty did about spending the rest of the day in a shoe store. Though his words were lackluster, they were enough to get Kitty to set off half dragging Lance as she headed for the Bayville Mall.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"And then after the shoe store we can go to menswear, cause you guys, like, totally need some new outfits, and after that we can stop by the pet store. Oh! We can get some ice cream before we go home!" Kitty rambled on happily as the Brotherhood entered the Bayville Mall.
"Whatever you wanna do, Kitty." Lance told her approvingly. "Right, Toad?" He asked Todd, who seemed to be staring at some new display in the center of the mall. "What are you looking at?" Lance enquired, while he tried to pinpoint the place Todd was watching.
"Your jeep, yo?" Todd muttered under his breath.
For the first time Lance noticed the large green jeep parked in the middle of the mall plaza. It was his jeep, of course it was a lot cleaner and newer than Lance remembered, but he did remember winning it in a contest and how he'd won it.
"Hey Kitty, you and Toad go to the shoe store without me, I'll catch up." Lance stated as he walked up to the jeep. It was one of those contests where whoever keeps their hand on the car the longest won it. Quite a few people already had their hand on the car, but that was about to change. Lance handed his entry fee over to the man running the contest and put his hand on his jeep. He waited a few minutes so no one would get suspicious, then he jolted the foundation knocking all the other combatants off their feet. The only person that had managed to hang on was Lance, who sat back and smiled as he filed out forms, while the others wondered what exactly had just happened.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"Did you feel that?" Kitty asked Todd when she felt the shoe store shake from Lance's jeep winning tremor.
"Feel what?" Todd responded trying to nonchalantly steady a shelf that had threatened to topple over.
"I think we should go check on Lance." Kitty said as she headed toward the exit.
Todd hopped after her. "I'm sure he's fine, but if it means ya wanna leave the shoe store, then I'm all for checkin' on Lance, yo?" He told Kitty with a sly smile.
Kitty half-frowned down at Todd's decrepit shoes, she had really wanted to find him a new pair, but Lance was more important than shoes. "Alright, we'll go find Lance and if he's not in trouble he can help me find you new shoes." She told Todd.
Todd looked slightly annoyed by this new proposition, as he wondered why Kitty was trying to arrange a new ensemble for him. Todd followed Kitty obediently as she led them back to where they had left Lance. They were about halfway between the shoe store and mall plaza when Lance found them.
"Hey, there you guys are!" Lance greeted them, "I ran over to menswear, but I didn't see you, so I came back this way and you'll never guess what I won!"
"What?" Kitty asked excitedly.
"A jeep!" Lance exclaimed.
"Wow, like, a real jeep?" Kitty asked in disbelief.
"Ya." Lance assured her.
"We, like, totally need to celebrate!" Kitty shouted. "We could go to the shoe stor-"
"How 'bout ice cream?" Todd interjected before Kitty could finish. "We're right by the food court."
"Sounds good." Lance agreed quickly before Kitty could bring up anything involving expensive shoes.
"Okay, like, you guys go grab us a table, I'll get the ice cream." Kitty told them as she headed off to the ice cream shop.
Lance and Todd picked out a table in the corner of the food court and sat down. "I don't see nothin' wrong with these shoes." Todd muttered to himself, while he looked down at his faded sneakers. Their laces were tattered and frayed and what remained of the soles was held together with duck tape. "They're just broken in, that's all."
"Yeah," Lance agreed, "I was just thinking, if we got the jeep today doesn't that mean Mystique's gonna bring Rogue in tonight?"
Todd's eyes went wide for a second. "What're we gonna do, yo?" He asked as his worries about new shoes were replaced by a new set of Rogue worries.
"I dunno, I was kinda thinkin' we could follow Kitty's lead." Lance suggested, "They were friends before and we kinda sided with Freddy last time."
"Mystique said 'go find Freddy and calm him down', she said 'I'll handle Rogue'"Todd reminded Lance. "So, of course we sided with - OW!"
"Hey Kitty!" Lance greeted with a smile, while Todd rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder where Lance had hit him.
"Hey guys," Kitty responded as she distributed the ice cream. "Is something wrong, Toad?" She asked noticing the intense glare he had aimed at Lance.
Todd relented and settled for a slight frown. "Nothin', yo?" He told her briskly before snatching his ice cream cone from Kitty with his tongue and downing it in one gulp. "Ach! Brain Freeze!" Todd gasped grabbing his head.
"That is, like, so totally icksome!" Kitty complained with a cringe.
Lance laughed. "Y'know if he's too disgustin' for you, Kitty, you could always go join the X-Geeks with that blue furry guy." He teased.
"Eww, like, don't remind me! I, like, can't believe he's got a tail!" Kitty whined.
Almost as if on cue Kurt strolled cautiously up to their table. "Hey Kitty, I vas vondering if you might vant to come over to our table for avile?" He asked courteously pointing out a table Scott and Jean were sitting at, Scott even waved.
Kitty's reaction was far from anything the X-Men could have hoped for, she scooted her chair as away from Kurt as fast as possible and only stopped after her chair collided with Lance's. "Eww, eww, eww! Like, eww, no, like, please, go away!" She pleaded almost frantically.
Kurt seemed taken aback by her response. Lance just glared at him with his usual scowl. "Can't you see she doesn't want anything to do with you, X-Geeks? So, lay off!" Lance hollered at Kurt, who suddenly appeared to have seen the error of his ways and quickly retreated back to his own table. "It's okay Kitty they wont bother you anymore, now." Lance promised in a comforting way.
"Can we go home?" Kitty asked when she noticed the X-Men weren't leaving and in fact were now starring at her while Kurt explained what had happened to Scott and Jean.
"That's why we have a jeep." Lance told her happily as he got up to lead them out of the food court.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
As Lance and Todd expected, Mystique was not to be found at the Boarding House when they returned.
"That's odd, usually Mystique's home by now." Kitty said as she flopped on the couch. "Where do you think she went?"
"Maybe she's recruiting someone." Todd suggested simply as he perched on the arm, across from Kitty, on the couch.
"Who cares why she's gone? No Mystique and Magneto means, no evening training." Lance pointed out with a smirk as he sat down in his favorite chair.
"It's not all that bad, they're just trying to prepare us in case the humans react badly when they find out about mutants." Kitty asserted looking thoughtful, "Maybe we could do some training without them."
Lance shook his head in disbelief. "Kitty, your supposed to be happy that we're getting a day off." He explained.
"Maybe you guys are, but that's only cause you both have, like, way more experience than me." Kitty scoffed.
"Ya, and because of all the wonderful experiences we've had Mystique and Magneto expect more from us. Our training's probably ten times harder than yours." Lance growled disdainfully.
"Alright, how 'bout me an' Kitty train, while Lance sits here and laughs at us." Todd proposed before his teammate's could start a real argument.
"Okay! Like, what's the mission?" Kitty asked eagerly. Lance just sighed and seemed to deflate into his chair.
Todd leaned in close and whispered secretively, "Your mission should you choose to accept it is to infiltrate Boss Lady Headquarters. Warning: It will be heavily guarded."
Kitty giggled. "Heavily guarded, by what?" She asked.
"By me, yo?" Todd quipped, before he flipped of the couch and onto the ceiling, where he stuck. Then he quickly crept across into the entrance hall.
Kitty followed Todd out of the room, if she could get past him on the staircase it'd be easy to phase through the door. She could see Todd perched precariously on the baluster that marked the top of the staircase banister. He had an unfortunate smile on his face that gave Kitty the feeling she was being toyed with.
Todd continued to wait patiently at the top of the stairs, while Kitty assessed the situation, for all the time she took, she still chose the most obvious tactic of simply charging up the stairs at him. Perhaps if she'd been Pietro, her plan would have worked, but taking a Toad by surprise wasn't as easy a task as one may think.
Just as Kitty reached the fifth step from the top Todd lunged at her. She stopped, instinctively covered her face with her arms, and phased. Kitty mentally congratulated herself as she continued to run for the door. She started to concentrate on the door ahead of her that she was about to phase through, when suddenly her feet were pulled out from under her and she found her self dangling upside down over Lance, who was indeed laughing, but he had moved to the entrance hall for a better view.
After a moment Kitty realized she was being suspended by Todd's tongue. "Like, put me down!" She cried angrily at him. Kitty immediately regretted the request as Todd released his hold letting her fall screaming down to where Lance caught her.
"Had enough training yet?" Lance laughed.
Kitty struggled out of Lance's grip and tried to shove him, resulting in her phasing through him and stumbling. Lance offered her a hand up, but Kitty smacked his hand aside and pulled herself up. "You guys are, like, such jerks!" She yelled angrily as she headed to her room.
"Sorry, yo?" Todd muttered, as Kitty passed him by. He did look genuine, but Kitty was still seemed a bit miffed.
"Aw, c'mon Kitty we were just joking. I didn't mean to make you mad. I'm sorry!" Lance called after her receiving only the sound of a slamming door as a response. "Nice going, Toad." He growled in an admonishing tone.
"I said I was sorry, yo? Last time I volunteer to train with Ms. Sensitive." Todd grumbled as he hopped back down the stairs.
"It's not her fault, she only got her power a couple weeks ago. I was terrified when I first got my powers." Lance paused a moment reflectively, then shuddered involuntarily.
Everything was dark. Lance couldn't remember what had happened he just remembered his parents arguing over the divorce again. Lance had been in his room, but it was never this dark. He'd gone there because his head hurt, it had been bothering him a lot lately.
He could hear sounds somewhere outside of the darkness. It was the sirens that had woken him up. He could hear men talking, and they sounded worried about something. A dog began barking, suddenly a shaft of light broke through from above. The two firemen pulled a young Lance Alvers from the ruble that used to be his home. Their search dog danced around him jovially wagging its tail.
"Listen, son, are you all right? Were there any others in the building with you?" One of the firemen asked as he carried Lance to an awaiting ambulance. Lance stared blankly at the ruins that had once been his home.
"I think he's in shock." The other fireman informed the ambulance drivers.
Lance finally tore his eyes away from his former home, and looked, wide-eyed up at the fireman that was still holding him. "Mom? Dad?" He asked with a note of fear prevailing in his voice.
"The other two we found." The fireman stated despairingly, as he looked over his shoulder at something. Tears rushed into Lance's eyes as he spotted two black body bags.
He had only been fourteen and not even he knew it at the time, but eventually he'd come to understand what had caused the mysterious building collapse that had killed his parents.
Lance's stomach churned slightly as he wondered why Forge's stupid machine couldn't have sent him further back in time.
"You never called an end to the session, Toad, I won fair and square." Kitty laughed triumphantly.
"Alright, you win, but you tricked me. I thought we were supposed to be workin' on our mutant abilities?" Todd asked skeptically, though he was relieved that Kitty wasn't really mad at him and Lance.
"Hey, I had to, like, phase through three rooms to get to Mystique's. I'd say that counts as training mutant abilities." Kitty giggled. "Oh, Lance you should have seen your face when I called you a jerk is was so sad, I thought you were gonna cry for a second!"
"You mean you're not mad at me?" Lance asked a bit confused.
"No, silly, weren't you listening to my victory speech?" Kitty asked as walked down the stairs to give him a hug.
"Y'know I tried to tune her out too, but it didn't work." Todd quipped. Kitty stuck her tongue out at him.
"No, I was just thinkin' about something." Lance said as he released Kitty from their hug.
Kitty looked up at Lance with a slightly worried expression. He had a distant look in his eyes, it always bothered her when he looked like that, it made him look so old. She was about to ask if something was wrong when the front door opened abruptly.
Mystique walked in wearing her Ms. Darkholme disguise. "Good you're all here to meet your new teammate." She stated as she stepped aside to grant a very nervous looking Rogue entry. "I want to introduce you all to Rogue. Rogue, these are your teammates: Lance, Kitty, and Toad." Mystique said motioning to each one in turn.
"This is, like, so totally awesome! I won't be the only girl anymore!" Kitty exclaimed excitedly.
"And we won't have to go to anymore shoe stores." Todd commented to Lance who nodded with a smile.
"Good glad you're all happy, now will someone mind telling me why that tank is in my driveway?" Mystique asked suspiciously.
"Lance won it at the mall! Isn't that great!" Kitty proclaimed happily, before anyone else had a chance to explain.
"Very well, but I'm not paying for its gas or maintenance. Now, if you don't mind I have to call the School District Office and a couple of other people." Mystique didn't have to say who the "other people" were, except for Rogue everyone knew she had to inform Magneto about her success in recruiting Rogue. "Kitty, show her to an open room. Boys help carry her luggage." She didn't even wait for a 'yes ma'am' before she shut herself into her room.
"Akay, so, like, where are you from?" Kitty asked as she led Rogue and the 'bag boys' upstairs to Rogue's new room.
"Mississippi." Rogue muttered quietly.
"That's cool. Lance and I are from Illinois. My power's phasing, it means I can, like walk through walls. Lance can cause earthquakes and Toad can jump high and stuff." Kitty told her with a bright smile.
"Are you an' Lance related or somethin'?" Rogue asked glancing between the two.
Kitty laughed lightly. "No, just a lucky coincidence I guess. Lance has had his power's for a longer time, but I had just gotten my powers when Mystique came to get him. Like, here's your new room. Mine's right next door and Toad's is at the end of the hall." Kitty said opening the door for Lance and Todd to carry in Rogue's bags.
"How come girls have so much junk, yo?" Todd mumbled as he heaved a large suitcase onto the bed.
"I dunno," Lance replied with a shrug, "and ya ever notice how they need huge purses, while guys only need a wallet?"
"See this is the kind of riveting discussion guys have." Kitty told Rogue sarcastically as Lance and Todd left her room, still trying to figure out how it was that women needed so much more stuff then men. "Remember I'm just next door if you need to talk about anything. I know how scary getting new powers can be." Kitty waited for a second hoping to get a response from the quiet girl, but she decided that, she better leave after a couple seconds of awkward silence.
Kitty walked out of the room pulling Rogue's door shut behind her. "Thanks, Kitty, but ah don' suppose you've evah even heard of the X-Men." Rogue said sadly in a voice just above a whisper.
Kitty pulled the door back open with a concerned look on her face. "Some of them attend Bayville High. They're, like, so annoying. What'd they do to you?" Kitty asked as she sat down next to Rogue.
Rogue's eyes widened. "They attend mah new school, but they were chasing me. Ah was so frightened an' it all so confusin'. Ya see Ma'stique says mah power's energy absorption, that means if ah were tah touch ya now ah'd take your powers and some of your memories for a while. " Rogue told Kitty sadly.
"Woah, that, like, really put things in perspective." Kitty sighed, then she remembered the real reason they were having this conversation. "The X-Men were chasing you, those creeps! They've been bothering me at school, but they tend to avoid Lance and Toad. Just earlier today even they were trying to get me to join their team, but Lance scarred them off and when I first got my powers they showed up at my house."
"Did they chase ya?" Rogue asked showing genuine interest in Kitty's story.
"I didn't give them the chance. I knew something was wrong when they told my parents they wanted to take me away, but they didn't want Lance, I phased through the wall and ran away and found Lance. I haven't seen my parents since. I call and talk to them of course, they're a bit disappointed, but they try to be understanding."
"Do you think they'll try to take me now though? I mean they wouldn't try to kidnap me would they?" Rogue asked with as her brow furrowed with worry.
"No," Kitty laughed, "they know we'd come get you even if Lance had to knock that Institute of theirs down, you know it's not called the 'Brotherhood' Boarding House for no reason. Besides Mystique and Magneto are going to, like, teach us how to use our powers, then no one will be able to bother us."
Rogue smiled, she looked a lot more reassured. They heard a couple swift sharp knocks on the door. "Lights out, Kitty get back to your room it's past eleven and you both have school in the morning." Mystique called to them through the door.
Kitty got up to leave when she heard Mystique yell a Toad to go to sleep down the hall. "See you in the morning Rogue."
"You too, Kitty." Rogue said as Kitty left. Rogue lay back on her bed, she thought she might just be able to get through this whole being a mutant thing, now that she'd finally found some people she could trust.
********************************************************************************
Next Chap: More on Rogue, so yell at me now if I did something wrong with her accent. Freddy, he may be underappreciated by the rest, but I still love him. More X-Men, insert boos and hisses here. Of course more Lance and Todd. Kitty will not be in the next chap . . . she deflated . . . No, I'm joking, I know some people hate it, but I like, like, the likes. They amuse me!
I'm sorry this took so long, while I was writing it my friends may have noticed me mumbling about 'the chapter that never ends' It's nine pages on my computer, which is long for me. Other reasons why this took so long include a six-day trip away from my computer. Having to locate and watch my tape with Rogue Recruit on it, losing it and having to find it again just to be sure, cause I'm a stickler for facts. Looking for a Southern Dictionary and not finding any good ones. It would have taken longer, but my cohort Half-N-Half was all: YOU MUST FINISH YOUR NEXT CHAPTER I NEED TO READ IT! *Jump up and down excitedly*
As for Lance, he's hogging the flashbacks and forwards and yeah that's one of the reasons I hate time travel. That's actually based on what happened to comicverse Avalanche . . . I read X-Men comic encyclopedias cause I'm a fact freak like that. I forget where I found it, but I remember reading that his parents died in a mysterious building collapse. It answers the why was Lance in a foster home question that plagued my mind until I came up with that theory.
I read all the Comments, Questions, and Death Threats my Reviewers send me and I thoroughly enjoy them . . . well maybe not the death threats so much . . . and now its ten pages long.