The next week passed blissfully. I absorbed several new mutations: Kitty's phasing ability, Evan's bony spikes, Ray's electricity, Roberto's solar strength, Jubilee's sparks, and Sam's… well, Sam's "special" talent.
I had asked Kurt whether I could absorb some of his teleportation, but he had flat out refused. We were best friends, but he didn't want anyone else to have his mutation, he told me. That and the fact he weirded me out by telling me I might grow blue fur and a tail if I tried.
The new mutants and I had just completed a training session with Logan. He had left, which meant that we could goof off if we wanted to. At the moment, we were in the backyard of the mansion. Most of us were as tired as anything, but some of us… weren't.
"Watch this!" cried Bobby, codenamed Iceman for a very apparent reason. He iced himself up and created an ice slide to the roof of the Institute. He waved at us from there and jumped down on the slide, sliding to a stop (on his feet) in front of Amara, who was also called Magma.
"Oh, yeah?" she asked, grabbing the slide in her hands. Bursting into flame, she neatly melted his slide. He gaped at her. She smirked. From my experience with them, they often fought like… well, like fire and ice.
I raised a brow. "Yeah, well, watch this!" I said loudly. I shape shifted myself to look like Evan and sprouted bony spikes, which I shot into a nearby tree. "Eat that, Pietro!" I called in his voice, looking triumphant.
"Showoff," muttered Rahne, a.k.a. Wolfsbane.
"It's not like you can mix fire and ice," Bobby said with a sniff. He circled me. "You don't even have my ice, or Amara's fire. But I bet if you did, you couldn't."
I set myself into absorbing mode. "Wanna bet?" I asked.
"Sure," he said, stepping boldly forward.
I put my hands on his face and glared into his eyes. I pitched forward into a whirling, brown abyss. Cold filled my body. It surged into my body through my hands. When his energy was almost gone (for there wasn't much left), I released and staggered back.
I fell on my butt and wrapped my arms around myself, shivering uncontrollably. The warm spring air felt suddenly too hot to bear. Gooseflesh rose on my arms and legs. My breath rose as a mist. "J-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-j-jeez!" I spluttered.
Bobby, Amara, Rahne, and Jamie, who had never seen me absorb someone's power and didn't know its effect on me, looked horrified.
"Don't worry," Jubilee said, "That happens. It'll stop in a few seconds."
"I-i-i-i-i-i-it h-h-had b-better," I said, shuddering as the intense cold faded. I lay on the ground for a moment after it had stopped and finally sat up, rubbing my now-glowing hands together. Now that I had taken some of Bobby's energy, I felt pumped up. "You ready, Amara?"
Amara looked at Bobby, who was now using a bench to help himself stand. She took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Yeah."
I put my hands on her face, as I had Bobby. Within moments, I was again swirling down in a brown abyss—but this time, it was warm. And as I absorbed her power, I realized that it wasn't warm. It was hot!
I shrieked in pain when I had depleted most of Amara's strength, reeling backwards. My whole body was painfully burning to a crisp! Or so it felt. I fell on my back and twitched convulsively. Writhing, my eyes rolled up into my head. I couldn't feel my body for the pain.
Slowly, the pain faded away. I sat panting on the ground when I finally left me. Everyone was bent over me, looking concerned. I guess it never occurred to them to go get help.
I struggled to sit up and looked around, blinking. "Ow," I said finally.
"She's all right," said Roberto with a snort.
I rubbed my head. "I didn't think it would burn," I complained. "It hurts!"
"Apparently," said Bobby dryly.
Scrambling to my feet, I realized that I also had a splitting headache. "Oooh," I moaned as the world spun, "Maybe I shouldn't have done that." I staggered sideways and caught myself on the bench Bobby had been leaning against. "Maybe I can't do the fire and ice thing."
"Hah," said Bobby triumphantly, "I knew it! You can't! Either that or you're scared!"
Okay, that struck a chord. I fought off my nausea and stood as straight as possible. "I am not," I stated with great dignity.
"Then I dare you to do it," he said.
I set my jaw. "Fine," I snapped, concentrating on both the fire and the ice at same time. I felt hot and cold at the same time. In fact, it felt like they were fighting each other for the passage out of storage. It was as if they both couldn't fit into my presence of mind at the same time.
And speaking of my mind…
My head felt like it was going to split in half. I growled determinedly and concentrated harder. Sweat beaded on my forehead. The splitting feeling increased a ten fold. Half wanted fire, and the other half wanted ice.
As I concentrated, I saw a gray void at the corners of my eyes. I had no idea what this was—maybe another factor of my power—so I ignored it. It spread as I pumped my focus up a notch. Soon it had completely taken over my vision.
And then everything went black.
~*~
When I awoke, I realized I was no longer in the backyard. My vision was blurry. I blinked a few times to clear it and found I definitely wasn't in the backyard anymore.
In fact, I was in the infirmary. I rubbed my temples, which were throbbing, and sat up. The world spun for a moment before settling back down into place. My mouth was dry. I glanced about me for a glass of water and found one on the night table, which I took and drained immediately.
"So, squirt, you're finally awake," growled a very familiar voice.
I choked on the drink and coughed, eyes watering. Logan had entered the room, unnoticed, and was standing at the end of my bed with his eyebrows raised. "W-what?"
He gave a rumbling chuckle. "You've been out all night and day. It's about six in the evening, now. The Prof will be glad you're awake."
I swung my legs out of bed and stood. My headache was bad, but no other part of me ached like that. Logan took my shoulder and shoved me back down on the bed. "Not until Charlie says you can," he said softly.
Grumpily, I wrapped my blankets around my shoulders. This was when I noticed that I wasn't wearing my uniform (still my old one; I don't have the new one yet), but my pajamas. I opened my mouth to ask who had changed me, but then the Professor arrived.
He wheeled quickly into the room. My eyes widened in some surprise. Man, that wheelchair could move!
"What," the Professor began, ignoring the usual greetings, "were you thinking?"
I stared at him. He sounded angry, and that besides he was livid. "Er…"
"You nearly killed yourself!" he said, almost in a shout.
Logan looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I'll be leaving now," he said, sweeping out the room.
"Your head nearly exploded!"
I winced. "That wouldn't have
been good," I said in a quiet voice, frightened and horrified. I had never seen
the Professor this angry before. I had seen him agitated, yes, but never as furious as he was now. My heart
pounded loudly. I wasn't going to be thrown out of here, too, was I?
His expression softened as he caught the thread of my thoughts. "You're not going to get thrown out of here," he said gently, "You just gave us all a good scare."
I relaxed visibly. "I didn't mean to…" I said tiredly, "I mean, I can shift my shape and use another power at the same time. I always figured… well… I could do it with all my powers."
"Apparently not," the Professor replied, rubbing his forehead. "I believe that your morphing ability is what we'd call your base power. It was the first you absorbed, and the basis for all your energy. This is probably why you can shift and use any other ability you have. Other than that, you can only use one power at a time."
"That would have been nice to know beforehand," I retorted.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry. It has always been a suspicion, and I have never had the time to put it to the test."
I gnawed on my lower lip for a moment, wanting desperately not to forgive him, but how could I not after he had taken me in like he did? "That's okay," I uttered grudgingly.
He relaxed. "Good. Well, rest up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. You'll be going back to Logan's sessions."
"Okay," I said, sliding down beneath the blanket and barely suppressing a groan.
"Oh, and Melody?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't know if I should tell you this now, but… well, you'll find out sooner or later. Melody, you have the potential to be one of the world's most powerful mutants. Everyday, my computer Cerebro registers your power growing larger and larger. You will be much sought after by other groups. Be careful with your choices."
And, with that, he left.
I thought on what he said, heart pounding again. One of the most powerful mutants in the world? Being a mutant was hard enough to handle. It frightened me, really, to know that my decisions would actually have such a large effect on people.
Maybe if I just left to live the life of a recluse…
"Melody!"
I nearly coughed up a lung when Kurt 'ported into the room. He looked genuinely concerned, which made me feel a little better. He grinned broadly when he saw me. "You're all right!"
"Of course I am!" I replied, laughing.
"Mien Gott, don't do that to me! You'd have thought you were dead if you had seen yourself! But you are all right now, aren't you?"
"Like new," I replied.
He fumbled in the table beside my bed for something. When he straightened, I saw him holding a chessboard. "You play?"
"I love chess!" I replied, so he
grinned and started to set it up. "But don't you want to do something better? I
mean, being shut up in the infirmary can't be all that fun."
"It can be when you have
someone with you," he replied, and promptly busied himself with setting it up.
I felt like I wanted to cry, just then. My eyes moistened and my heart thumped. I had never had a friend before. Not in my life. I had always wondered what it was like, having a friend, but I had never had anything but books to comfort me. I had never really considered Kurt my friend, just an acquaintance, someone to waste my time away with. I closed my eyes and turned away, so that Kurt couldn't see how wet they looked.
"Go on," he urged when he finished setting it up, "White moves first."
I turned back to him with a grin wide so big it must have looked scary, but he didn't seem to notice.
I guess this is what friendship is like.
And I sure hope I am never without it again.
~*~
I got my new uniform the next day. Of course, the moment I got it, I had to try the mask on to see if it worked. It did, as I hadn't doubted it would. I was admiring myself in the mirror when the Professor's voice rang in my mind, "X-Men, please join me at Cerebro. There is something I wish to discuss with you."
Ambling out of my room, I caught Kurt before he 'ported. He was obliged to bring me down with him. We were the first ones to reach Cerebro.
I had never seen it before, so I was completely mystified when I walked in. The room was a sphere with a walkway in it, leading down to a desk-sized computer. I had never would have dreamt it was so large! Mouth open, I padded toward the Professor.
He was wearing a strange, helmet-like device on his head. A big hologram floated before him. It was a gigantic map of the States. Two red pinpoints of light was flashing somewhere in the middle of Utah. Five other pinpoints were moving rapidly toward this pinpoint.
"Professor, you called?" asked Scott. He was in his uniform: a black jumpsuit with an "X" across the chest, yellow boots that came up to knees with kneepads, yellow gloves, and a visor with a strip of ruby quarts that covered his eye, making him look like he had one eye. The suit was so tight it showed off his muscles. He must have been working out in the Danger Room. Sweat glistened on his forehead.
I simpered weakly and grinned stupidly. My heart thudded painfully against my ribcage.
"I have discovered two new mutants," the Professor said, "In Salt Lake City, Utah."
"Yeah, so?" asked Kitty, tossing her ponytail, "You, like, find new mutants everyday."
The Professor nodded. "Yes, but I'm afraid the Brotherhood is all ready on their way to get them."
"How?" demanded Rouge, "They don' have a computer like Cerebro, do they?"
"Not that aware of, Rouge," the Professor replied. "In fact, I don't know how they know. However, we'd better reach those mutants before they do."
"I'm going?" I asked incredulously as Professor powered Cerebro down and removed the helmet.
He nodded again. "Yes. I believe that, if we have a run-in with the Brotherhood, you may come in useful. Also, this will be an opportune moment for you to absorb their abilities. Now, suit up, everyone! Scott, prep the Blackbird. Everyone be down in the hangar in five minutes!"
Kurt 'ported us back up to my room, where I ran inside and quickly suited up. The new uniform felt strange and tight, with spandex pressing down on my skin on all sides. In fact, it felt more like some other substance than spandex. It just looked like it.
I stared at the stranger in the mirror after I had pulled my mask on. She was short, albeit thinner than I had used to be. Long, brown hair flowed out the back of the mask and cascaded down over her back. Her mouth was slack, showing the surprise that I felt; yet the mask rendered the rest of her face emotionless. The lenses in the eyepieces hid her eyes. She brought a hand to her face and ran it down her cheek.
She was… pretty, as I had never been.
Kurt hammered on the door. "C'mon, hurry up!" he called.
I walked numbly over to the door and swung it open. His fist stopped in midair. Surprise made his jaw drop. "Whoa," he said. "You look… different."
I nodded. "Yeah. I noticed."
"Well, we'd better get down to the hangar…"
"Yeah. We should, shouldn't we?"
He took my gloved hand and flashed me a grin. I smiled weakly as the world around as winked out of existence. Moments later, it returned.
And I did not recognize where I was.
I gasped when I saw the Blackbird. It was huge! It was an aerodynamic wonder! I had never seen anything like it before! It was completely black, with sleek wings and cockpit. Ominously large engines were revving.
"We'd better hurry up," Kurt said, starting toward the ramp, "Or they'll leave without us."
"You mean there's more?" I demanded.
He laughed and shook his head, falling onto all fours and running up it. I followed at a slower pace, up into the cockpit. He pointed to the seat next to his, where I sat down, and pulled a seat buckle with an—yes, you guessed it—"X" on it.
Moments later, Scott gunned the engines. The Blackbird shot forward with amazing speed. I grasped the arms of my seat in tight fists. Kurt grinned at me.
The flight to Salt Lake City took only an hour, another wonder. Once we were near enough, the Professor put his fingers to his temples to try to get a reading on the Brotherhood. "Northeast," he told Scott.
The Blackbird turned.
Professor Xavier motioned us down in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.
The Brotherhood arrived in the backyard of the house we were going to at the same moment we did. This was the only house for miles. Lance—or Avalanche, as I was later told—looked extremely perturbed when he saw us. "What are you doing here?"
"That's exactly what I was going to ask you," Scott retorted, stepping forward and lifting his hand to his visor.
Quicksilver grinned. "Our new secret weapon," he replied, talking even faster than he had in school.
Another boy stepped forward, one I hadn't "met" in school. His skin was the color of chocolate, which was normal enough, but it was his eyes that startled me. They were a belligerent shade of red. I took an involuntary step backward.
He flicked an imaginary mote of dust off his spotless uniform, a black jumpsuit covered with what looked like gray plastic armor on his elbows, knees, and chest. A gray belt hung from his hips with a variety of ominous looking, pointed objects from his belt.
"Meet Allen Smith," Avalanche said, "or Sonar, to you. He can sense new mutants before their powers manifest and what the powers will be."
I quirked a brow which, of course, couldn't be seen from beneath my mask.
"You're not the only one with a new member," Jean said. Kitty nudged me forward. I did my best to retain my dignity and held my head high.
"Meet Melody Becker," Scott said, mocking Avalanche, "or CopyCat, to you."
He didn't explain what my powers were.
Avalanche held his hand out before him. "Bring it on," he said. His eyes rolled up into his head and he lifted his foot, bringing it down hard on the ground. The ground split rapidly, straight at me.
I looked to Jean. She nodded and quickly fell on her knee, pressing her fingers hard to her temples. I lifted from the ground and shot at Avalanche. His eyes widened when he saw this and he dodged. I turned on my absorbing power—which I now called my "receptive mode"—as I hit the ground hard. My hands glowed yellow.
He got to his feet and tried to shake the ground again. I lunged forward and tackled him, pressing my hands to his face. Power surged through my arms, burning like fire. I was draining him rapidly. Soon, his mutation would be completely gone…
Something hit me from the side. I shrieked as I was torn away from Avalanche and hit the ground hard. My whole body shook with the seismic waves that pulsed below me. Eyes rolling up to my head, I tried to suppress the shudders and failed.
Quicksilver ran around me in circles, so fast I was actually lifted from the ground inside a mini tornado. I fought my new power down and pumped up my telekinesis, placing my fingers on my temples and thrusting my palm at him. He flew backwards as I dropped like a stone.
BAMF!
Kurt grabbed me before I hit the ground and safely 'ported me to the ground. My head spun wildly. I staggered a few steps and leaned on him for support. "Thanks, Nightcrawler," I said once the world settled back into place.
"No problem," he replied, falling onto all fours and bounding back into the battle.
I glanced at the house. Four people stood at the window, watching the battle play itself out with horror. Two of them were young girls, undoubtedly the new mutants. I winked at the girls and dived back into the fight.
Gasping, I dodged when Fred, a.k.a. Blob, tried to belly flopped on top of me. As he got off the ground, I clapped my hands to his cheeks and fell into a black abyss. My whole body burned with the power, adding to the trembling caused by Avalanche's power. I shrieked and fell to my knees.
He jumped on top of me again, but for the moment I had his strength and virtual invulnerability. I felt nothing but a bit of pressure and the pain of absorbing a new power.
My eyes widened when I saw Kitty's hand phase through the ground beside me and grab my arm. I fell backwards through the ground when she phased me too, feeling each atom of my body slide around the atoms in the ground. This felt strange. It felt like being as light as air and yet being pressed upon inside and out of your body.
We resurfaced a few feet away. By this time, the pain had faded. "Thanks, Shadowcat," I panted.
She winked, ponytail bobbing. "It was nothing, CopyCat," she replied.
I saw Avalanche getting to his feet, aided by Sonar. Avalanche tried to "shake things up" with his power and, when he saw that he couldn't, looked at me with horror.
I grinned manically and pumped up his power. Lifting my foot, I mentally grabbed onto one of the seismic waves I felt below me. I held my hands out before me and stomped. My eyes rolled into my head and the wave I had grabbed shot at Avalanche and Sonar.
They both managed to dive out of the way. Sonar took what looked to be Chinese throwing stars from his belt and threw them at me. Quickly, I turned on my phasing power. They soared through my body and hit the house behind me.
Seconds later, Evan's spikes flew through me, too. I heard Quicksilver yelp as he was forced back into a fence in pinned there. Switching to receptive mode, I ran over to the pinned mutant and placed my hands on his cheeks. I pitched forward into a navy blue vortex.
As I absorbed his power, the world around me began to slow. My eyes widened in panic and I reeled backwards when everything came to almost a standstill. Agony made me thrash wildly as every part of my body vibrated so fast it was painful.
The pain faded after what seemed to be an eternity. I quickly got to my feet and, wide-eyed, took in the world around me.
Kurt was frozen in midair delivering a blow to Toad's chest. Scott's optic blasts were slowly crawling towards a dagger that had been thrown at Jean by Sonar. Quicksilver had burst free from his bonds and was watching with terror as Evan's bone spikes inched through the air at him. Kitty was halfway phased through Blob, whose face was contorted because Rouge's bare hand had taken hold of his arm. Avalanche was not a problem, but was staring blankly down at his hands.
I ran at normal speed toward the dagger that had been thrown, taking hold of it and rolling away before Cyclops's blasts could hit me. Jean and Scott's facial expressions slowly changed into ones of shock as I ran by them.
Sonar was too slow to stop me when I ran forward and grabbed his belt. It snapped off easily. I ran back to the place where Scott's optic blasts were and threw the belt in front of it. When I threw it, the belt just sort of hung in the air, which was cool.
Looking around, I spotted a hose some ways away. I lunged for it, taking it and running toward the Brotherhood. This is when the belt exploded. I rolled to avoid the pointy shards that flew at me, dragging the hose with me.
It was easy to wrap each member of the Brotherhood up with hose. When that was done, I shut the super speed off. The time at which everything moved returned to normal. I felt a strong wind from the speed I used push my hair back and whip my mask off.
"You!" gasped Avalanche, "You're the new girl from school!"
"Who were you expecting?" I demanded, squinting because everything was now blurry, "Larry, Mo, and Curly?"
Kurt tossed me my mask. I jammed it back on my head so that I could see. Grinning, I said, "Never underestimate a new recruit."
Toad used his tongue to undo the hose I had tied around them, for I hadn't absorbed his power. In fact, I probably never would. Another one of the Professor's suspicions was that I would take on the physical appearance of any mutant that was visibly different. For instance, that I would grow blue fur if I tried to absorb Kurt's powers.
Running as fast as they could in the other direction, the Brotherhood hightailed away from us. "You haven't seen the last of us!" shouted Avalanche as they ran.
I started after them, but Scott put a hand on my shoulder. A shudder ran down my spine and I looked up at Scott with a stupid grin plastered on my face. "Don't," he said, "Just let them go."
We watched them run away but were interrupted when a man opened the door of the house behind us and yelled, "What are you doing here? What do you want?"
But by then, the Professor was out of the Blackbird and halfway across the lawn. "Don't worry, Mr. Timere," he called, "We are only here to offer your daughters a chance to enter my school, the Xavier Institute."
Mr. Timere didn't open the door any further, but narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"Because I know about the strange things that are happening to your daughters."
"You can't."
"And yet, I do. You have seen my students in action. We are like your daughters, Mr. Timere. Please let us explain."
"C'mon, Melody," Kurt hissed in my ear, "We aren't needed here anymore."
I looked to the Professor for confirmation. He nodded. I grabbed his gloved hand in mine and only had the time to see the surprise on Mr. Timere's face when we 'ported into the Blackbird.
"Is it always that exciting?" I asked after I had seated myself.
He shrugged. "It depends."
"On what?"
"Who is there," he replied, winking, "And, tonight, it was very interesting."
I smiled to myself and leaned back on my seat. If this was the everyday life of an X-Men, it was definitely going to be much more exciting than my other one!
A/N: Tur duuur! Hope you liked that. Oh, and to answer you Qindarka, there is an X-Man called Copycat, but she's an Irish girl that can copy any mutation that she sees or remembers. My CopyCat copies people who she's absorbed. And that besides, I'm going to be changing her codename at the end of this fic. Don't bother asking what it is. I won't tell you.
Stay tuned for, "Chapter 6: A Cry in the Night"!