Lucky Me

Chapter 051


"This is the last week Darcy is here, so let's give her a good show." Those were the words that the almighty moron muttered before 'hell week' started.

The almighty moron being Chris (of course) and why was I blaming this on him? Because if I blamed it on anyone else, they could kick my behind from here to Washington.

It was the second week of the New Year and my cast was off, surprisingly I was already healed and ready to start physical therapy…which meant Sam would take me up a few thousand feet and dropped me (repeatedly, I started thinking this was his new hobby or something, maybe I should have gotten him a model airplane or something). My wing was sore and weak, but in working condition so after a few minutes I started to (while calling him really bad names) chase Mr. Warren around the sky (I know it was his fault, he's my 'flight' instructor).

He called me slow.

Scott said it was because of the chocolate binge me and Darcy had.

I called Scott a jerk (under my breath of course) and it wasn't like Mr. Military Man wasn't in on the junk food buffet! As I remember it he made the chocolate milk (which, I must admit, he did very well. I didn't think he was as 'no junk food' as he let on).

But before I get carried away with that, let me go on about the newly instated 'heck week'. As the Professor and the other head 'look-at-me-aren't-I-important' people in spandex put it, this was the week when they gave us crash courses in almost everything.

In short, "We are going to regret the day you were born."

I started to regret it when I had to wear that bathing-suit-leotard thing in public and give everyone an eyeful.

"This is the week to judge how far you all have come; the X-men are not here to assist you, but to test you."

Was how that loving little man put it. Grandma beamed like she just got to pinch somebody's behind. Apparently, the Professor had some pull at Salem Center Private School (where I usually go between being shot and being in the medical wing-no pun intended!) and got 'permission' for us to be out for the last half of the week since we were supposed to go back Wednesday. My life was sad, sad, sad.

"For the first half of the week, there will be two teams," Scott explained later on Sunday. All of my team was in uniform and Daisy and Adam were still clutching their hearts from being scared awake just like I had been. I didn't know how they (the evil 'senior staff') woke the rest of them (my now prematurely aging group) up, but I think mine was freaky and cruel.

I had been wearing a nightgown and I just know someone saw something I didn't want them to because I was lowered from the roof. Talk about humiliating. It wasn't like I didn't have underwear, but unlike the rest of the people, I was not a mad flasher after attention.

Back to the supposed schedule.

"You will be given provisions, maps, and the basic utility belts that are supplied to each of the -members who go on the field." Utility belts? What were we, Rambo-wannabes? "Use of any unauthorized equipment will cause your team demerits. What this amounts to is if you break the rules, you get fined by having to do additional training with one of the senior staff after this week is completed." Scott smiled; nothing can be good if Scott smiled. "And if one of your team messes up, the whole team suffers."

This sent a rumbled groan through us as the other 'senior staff' who was present chuckled. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"The rest of this day will be spent instructing you over what you need to do for the rest of the week," Storm (she was in uniform) continued.

"No kiddin'," Chris grumbled.

Ignoring him, "Since you all have been under our tutelage for six months, some longer," One look at me, and I gave a sheepish grin. Just when I was about to space out! "We feel confident that you will be able to handle this.
Those who are able to complete the requirements for this week will start to accompany the X-Men in more important missions and exercises. Even train with them."

Adrian yawned, Adam's eyebrows shot up, Daisy started to squeal and clap her hands,for once me and Chris exchanged glances. We seem to say to each other "I'd rather fail instead of stepping up training."

Of course, having such thoughts near telepaths was dumb. Jean spoke up then, "Any failing on purpose will be harshly dealt with." She eyed both me and Chris.

Drats.

hr

I was going to be partnered with Daisy. I found that out when we were getting our backpacks and belts. The backpacks were loaded down with MRAs (ya know, the freeze dried fish food they feed the military?), maps, and all the promised stuff. There was no change of clothes allowed and no ketchup (D-M asked, not me, and when she did I think even the Professor rolled his eyes).

"The girls are getting paired up because we don't want any-" Dr. Hank trailed off, momentarily thinking of the proper word for his current audience (us), "Temptation?"

"Between Kentucky Fried Chicken and the hayseed, what temptation is there?" Chris asked, his normal smirk plastered on his face.

"The temptation to push people off a cliff or drown them in the lake," I shot. Chris gave me his normal drop dead glare, and I, in return, gave him my best 'after you' look.

At first it wasn't this way, it was Adam and D-M who would be a team and the rest of us would be together on the other team. But I guessed my smile unnerved my other teammates because Chris refused to be anywhere alone with me and Adrian slowly agreed that it wouldn't be the wisest thing to be alone with me while I still had some anger from the school incident. I took offense, but it only helped prove their point when I started to fuss at them in a loud voice. It was not shouting.

Okay,so it was shouting, but that's the short story about how I got paired up with Miss There Better Be Bug Spray in That Backpack.

Mr. Logan said that even if there wasn't insect repellent, bugs would be the least of our concern.

"I look like G.I. Jane!" D-M whined after she got 'suited up'.

Again, Chris and his troublesome mouth, "Nah Demi Moore has bigger-" his smile grew, "Grenades."

"You best be talking about hair, Christopher," D-M replied testily. His expression became even smugger.

I was the last one to get my survival kit but I noticed something extra was added to mine.

"What's this?"

"A notebook for you to write in," Dr. Hank explained.

No really, I thought it was going to be our toilet paper…oh, ick, I didn't even want to think about that!

"Since you are designated leader of the team, whether split up or not, you write down what you think are the strengths and weaknesses of your team members."

Oh really? What was I supposed to do, in the middle of the fight yell "hey hold on! I need to write this down for prosperity"? Oh sure, that would work. Work at getting me beat up faster!

After he handed me my belt, I waited on purpose.

"Is there something else you need?"

I smiled innocently, "If I'm going to be playing midnight marauder, where's my cape and cowl?"

He quirked an eyebrow and smiled at me letting a loud laugh, "I'll see what I can do!"

hr

Sunday.

1500 hours.

Didn't that just sound too cool?

"This exercise has two main objectives. One, that you make it back to the mansion before noon tomorrow, and two that you find and capture the other team or at least one of the members."

Oh,boy….giving people who had 'issues' a verbal right to go all gung-ho on each other was not a smart idea.

We were still being briefed right until Mr. Kurt "bamfed" in and said it was time to go. Chris, Adam, and Adrian were the first to disappear in a cloud of pink smelly smoke.

Me and D-M were next, Darcy was all happy-go-lucky about how it was so 'awesome' that I should be stuck in the middle of the woods with a bunch of equipment that beeped and flashed little red lights (I had been learning about them, but Scott was teaching me and I tend to block him out after the initial 'this is the 'on' button').

We were teleported into the middle of the woods, supposedly past the lake, near the hills in the very back of the Xavier property.

"Uh! Ah'm going to stink!" D-M complained, holding her nose and waving the offending odor of Mr. Kurt's teleportation away.

"Trust me, after two days out here, my 'bamfs' are going to smell heavenly compared to you and your teammates."

"Oh no!" D-M yelped, "Ah forgot!" Worry suddenly covered her face."Ah have to go back to the mansion."

"Dais-Kia," her codename, "I don't think they'll allow Ipods out here."

"That's not it, Kurt, Ah have to go back to the mansion!" She gripped his shirt, "Please?"

"I can't, freuline, sorry. Once you left the mansion you have to return there on your own." Mr. Kurt shrugged and said his apologies in German and then popped out of sight.

"We won't be too hard to find," I muttered "All they have to do is follow the stench." Looking over to D-M she looked pale and frightened. What happened? She already saw a bug? "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing, Ah'll be okay." She then seemed to flip her 'happy happy' switch and the perky girl was back online, "So which way do we go?"

I sighed, and started to dig through my sack, pulling out a compass I looked over to her, "Do you know how to work one of these things."

"Uh, you follow the needle?" she offered.

"Does it point back to the mansion?"

She shrugged, then snapped her fingers and pulled out a map from her own bag.

"Ah'll be the navigator! This shows the little direction arrow thingies."

It was going to be a very long trip back.


"So nature girl, how did you learn to build a fire?" I asked once I got my anger down enough to talk to D-M in a civil tone. She glanced up at me and smiled.

"My Daddy took me camping a lot." Well, that would explain why she could make a fire, but if he took her camping so often, why the heck did she run screaming while dragging me behind her when she saw two raccoons? I didn't mean just a startled half jog; she booked it all the way to the edge of the lake. It was pretty good that she did, we had been headed in the wrong direction so when she literally turned tail and ran we ended up going in the right direction.

Why was I upset? Because she probably gave away our location to the boys who were now hunting us, or were we hunting them? Anyway, it was something along those lines. I had to pick half of the forest from my ruffled feathers. She ran through everything, and that meant my wings picked up everything. I wouldn't be surprised to find one of the raccoons sleeping in them.

As I sat there plucking the leaves from my feathers, D-M went for the food.

"Ugh, this stuff looks like dog food." She showed me and I shared her disgust. Brown chunks of-something was in the bag and she tried a bit and immediately spit it out. "It tastes like-ugh, like nasty!"

I raised an eyebrow and suggested she get some water to either add to it, or to wash it down with. She shrugged and said it couldn't hurt, and then she got up walking toward the lake.

There was a tingling on the back of my neck as all the hair stood on end. I usually would have ignored it since it was the middle of January so writing it off as the cold was a good guess, but Miss Elements (Storm) had made it feel like spring. They weren't that cruel I guessed.

But the tingle, the feeling that someone was watching me made my stomach lurch. Remembering what Scott said while I paid attention to him was when you were suspicious of being followed, watched, or etc. you must not act like you were being followed, watched, or etc. Pretty easy, neh?

Sure.

How was I sure a bear wasn't out there?

I tried to look around the campsite without it (whatever it was) noticing, but I still couldn't see where it might be. For all I knew I could be flipping out because D-M left me alone in a dark forest with things that could pick their teeth with my bones and I did have a fire glowing which was like screaming 'victim!'.

Oh, great! I freaked myself out! Next thing I'd start picturing that there was a chainsaw wielding murderer…No! I would not think that! I would not!

Then I heard one word, screamed and flew straight up onto a tree branch. Shaking and scared, I looked down to where I had been sitting to see a bewildered D-M staring up at me.

"All Ah said was excuse me." She shrugged and took her place by the fire.

"Don't do that!" I fused, "You could have given me a heart attack!"

She smiled that troublesome smile, "It'll teach you to be alert always now won't it, Summers?"

It was the first time she addressed me by my current last name. Her smile seemed forced and the food in her hands didn't appeal to her I guessed as she threw it down by her sack. Kia, D-M's codename, wasn't a happy camper, literally.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" She asked me, I wasn't so stupid as not to notice there was an edge to her voice.

"Are you crazy?" I shot back shimming down the tree, "I'm not eating or drinking anything out here."

"Why not?"

I gave her my best astonished look.

"There are no bathrooms. I'm not chancing it!"

Kia smiled (I had to remember codenames when in uniform!).


I heard it the first time, but didn't think anything of it.

When I heard it the second time, closer, I knew something was up and it wasn't me or D-M. Dai-Kia was asleep like a rock on the other side of the dying fire. The light in front of me, no matter how small, wouldn't let my eyes adjust enough to scan the area through my marginally opened eyes. Whatever or whoever was out there was drawing nearer, so I figured I'd let it (or them, please let it be a them and not an it) reveal itself to see if I needed to beat it's head in with my backpack or not (it was so weighed down that it packed a more powerful punch than my fist!).

It was most definitely a 'who' as it approached. Fear caught in my throat for the briefest moments. What if it was the strange killer I had been scaring myself about earlier? I tried to calm myself down. The 'dark mysterious figure' drew even closer, and I remembered what Dr. Hank said how my power kicked in when I felt threatened or other times of emotional stress.

Well, stress away!

I knew my breath came out erratically as it approached, by the smell on the wind it was definitely a guy. It was a cologne smell, and my heart melted and reformed and froze and melted again when I recognized whose cologne it was.

He was here at our campsite! This was bad!

I watched him come to my side and squat down, I snapped my eyes open (they were glare ready)

"What are you doing here?" I whispered harshly. He jumped back as if surprised I was awake, and then smiled. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"I thought you were asleep," he answered back, "Come on, let's go somewhere that we won't wake her up." He nodded his in D-M's direction.

"Why should I?" I argued. "There isn't supposed to be any contact," I reminded him. His eyes rolled skyward.

"Stop being such a Scott and just follow me."

I sighed and heaved myself up as quietly as possible. When we were by the lake (about forty feet from the campsite) he stopped, and still whispering, "I came to wish you luck," he explained, with a smile which only failed to work on me once because of my mot-Heather's telephone call. That was when he fought with me and I got slammed into the mats. That was also when he….well, never mind.

"Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow?" I know I sounded like a complete insensitive jerk, but I wanted to win and he being at our campsite would not only get us forfeited, but also lectured. Trust me; the last part bugged me the most.

"And get chewed out by Jean? I mean, come on, wouldn't it look a little bit weird?" I guessed he had a point. If he shouted 'good luck' from across the field as we neared the mansion, it would be a bit curious. He gave me another smile as he pulled me closer to him. I felt my anger melt into that sweet 'oh-kay' dreamy mood, I knew I should still be mad at him for stealing the kiss, but come on, see what you do when you have a highly attractive member of the opposite sex holding you.

"How long have you been watching us?" I asked, fiddling with the edges of his jacket.

"For about half the night." He smirked when my mouth dropped open. "It was hard sneaking away with a good cause, you know." I just shrugged, "I can't stay long it's almost dawn and your team should be on the move if you want to try to win."

"Concerned?"

He removed one of his hands from where it rested on my hip and traced the side of my face, "It would be such a shame for such a pretty face to be covered in mud." Somehow that had no sentiment in it at all. I mean, he was basically laughing through it. I guessed I made a funny mental image in his mind when I had my face full of dirt.

"Yeah, well," I said, pushing him away, "I have to go back to the camp and get ready to get to the mansion first, after I get some captives." I was being stubborn or snobby since I raised my nose a bit higher as if I was Queen Kookie or something. "So you can just leave now."

I heard a heavy sigh, "I came to wish you luck, and that's what I'm going todo."

"So get the wishing," I replied flippantly, arms crossed over my chest, and wings slightly lifted from my back. After a few seconds I turned back to where he was, "Get to talking, boy."

"Talking not exactly what I had in mind."

This time I had some warning before, again, bam. Right in the middle of a semi-fight I ended up kissing him again. Not that I was complaining, but heck, I was still a girl and still wouldn't mind a little bit more of romance in it.

Oh, well, you get what you need not what you want.

As he walked away, leaving me with my head spinning, he gave me one more smile and disappeared into the forest. I didn't want him to go, but I also felt this dread come in me.

Oh, well! It was time to kick boy behind!


"I can't believe we lost to giant lizard boy, a spark plug with an attitude, and a Freddy Krueger kid," (Adam, Chris, and Adrian).

D-M eyes seemed dark. She had said hardly anything all afternoon. He was right about one thing; I ended up eating several mud pies. I got paired up against Adam, and in the strength department I had him overthrown several times and was about to get to the house when Adam grabbed my ankle and pinned me. My strength abandoned me again, and I was stuck there (did I mention I was on my stomach at the time he dug his scaly knee into my back?). Chris attacked Kia (D-M) because she had made Flex (Adrian) sick to his stomach when he grabbed her.

If for some reason anyone was wondering why I didn't just fly away home, think about it. Chris or Shockwav could fry things at long distances and after my last crash landing I did not want to repeat the experience.

In short, because of the loser boy Chris, the boys won out. If D-M had been able to get closer to Chris or if my strength wasn't so undependable, we would have won. Really! When it came back to me, me and my strength were going to have some words.

That was, if there are any words left after Scott's lecturing about everything I did wrong, and how I could and needed to improve for future exercises.

"I know you are new to this, but if you don't try to do what's best for the team, to accomplish the mission, then you won't have anyone to lead, Blyt."

Cry me a river why don'tcha?

I messed up, I didn't 'think it through' but I only had less than a day to plan! And it wasn't even fair numbers! Three against two! Oh yeah, that's fair! The boys had strength, a hand fighter, and a long distance fighter! What did I have? Temporary strength and a walking science experiment!

The punishment for losing? Kia and I were told to spend ten extra hours in the weight room and training with Wolverine. Oh joy.

"For your next exercise-"

"Another one?" Chris blurted out, "We just got back!"

"You got back before noon, it is now three when all games are scheduled to end and begin." Scott clarified and then went on, "Your task will be to not get captured by the senior staff who will be hunting you."

"Must you say hunt?" D-M's voice was thick with annoyance.

"Track then, you all will be tracked for twenty-four hours straight. Starting at three, and ending at three Tuesday." Tomorrow. I guessed that means we were going back into the woods. Like all bad guys were uncivilized! Please! There were some who had indoor plumbing and nice comfy beds and fridges full of real food not dried shrimp pellets that even a cat wouldn't eat!

"Uh, who's doing the tracking?" I asked.

"Can't tell you," Mr. Warren replied. I bristled.

"That's not right! I mean you know who our team consists of, we should know yours," I protested. Scott's eyebrows suddenly appeared above his visor as if raised in surprise at my little demand.

"That's not a sound basis," Storm fought. "You will go onto the field not knowing what to face when you get there."

I clawed through all the leadership training, and smirked when I found the lost memory I had logged away.

"But a leader never sends their team out to the field without knowing who they are going to fight even though they might not know what they can do."

"Whoa, she has a brain," Chris murmured under his breath.

Scott was smiling again. This was getting unnerving because Storm and Professor were also smiling at me.

"Very well," Professor finally agreed.

"There will only be three of the X-Men on the team. Cyclops," Not bad, "Phoenix," Oh crap. "and Wolverine." That's it! I was sending in my walking papers! How the heck were we supposed to win against a tracker,a strategist, and a flippin' telepath?

What was I supposed to do? Strip my skin to disgust Jean while D-M made Mr. Logan sick and the other three went all guns on Scott? Yeah, we might last like oh, three minutes. That's if we were lucky. Heck, if we were lucky, we'd walk away with all our appendages intact.


We still weren't allowed to go back to our rooms, and the stuff they'd given us earlier had been pilfered through and much of it taken out. We apparently didn't have any need for maps since we were just going to be running away from the big bad bird babe, wolf, and their leader.

"If I die, I'm going to come back and haunt you," Chris said coldly to Scott as we were once again transported and dumped in the middle of the woods.

"So now what, leader lady?" Adrian asked.

"We run."

"Oh, that's original." Chris flung his hands up in the air. "We are dead meat. Can't you use some of that useless information they pumped in your empty head for helping us out here?"

"Maybe she could if you'd stop opening that manure loaded mouth of yours, Bradley!" D-M snapped harshly. All of us stared at her as she glared daggers at Chris who only smirked at her attitude swing.

She was getting more aggressive.

I turned around and found a tree to lean on.

"Let me think for a moment." Rubbing my temples I began to analyze our hunters like I'd been told to do. "Scott, Cyclops is a great strategist. I've read some of the things he's done and even been taught under him, he thinks and rethinks the moves of his opponents." I sighed, "Phoenix is a telepath. End of story. As for Wolverine, he's a regular blood hound on two legs."

"Thanks for the recap. I'm going to go drown myself now," Chr-Shockwav quipped.

I snapped my fingers.

"That's it. We head toward the lake or the river, whichever is closest."

"Why?"

"Because trackers usually go by scent," Ad-er, Flex helped, "water messes it up because of the wind or current or something like that."

"And where did you learn that?"

"Alpha Flight taught me," He said, shrugging it off like it was nothing important.

So we tromped through the forest, and finally we met with a satisfying lap of water.

"Where now, boss?" Adam asked, a grin spreading across his face as he announced we had 22 and half hours to live. We followed the river to the lake, and by the time we got there, it was dark. I didn't want to stop, but one of us had a good night's sleep last night either. So we decided to do the shift thing. Chris volunteered to stay up first. Something about him wanted to know who did snore and who didn't. D-M could have buried that boy ten feet under with her glares. The girl was putting me to shame!

When it was my turn for guard duty, Adam was just going to lay down when he saw me get ready for 'take off'.

"They'll see you! We'll be caught!" He fused at me.

I didn't even give him a glance.

"If they wanted to do that, they'd already had us in chains and gags in some mouths." Mainly Chris'. "Or Jean could have hunted us out with just a thought. I don't think they want to catch us easily or, as crazy as this sounds, unfairly." I looked at him now, "Pretty cruddy deal being treated like a preschooler, right?"

He shrugged.

"Better than being beaten black and blue. Just don't get caught."

This was true; I smirked and took off in the sky. I kept low and to the water as I scanned the edges of the land. Black skin, wings, and hair all came in handy, but I wished I had night vision (and before, I stubbed my toe on my bed frame more times than I would admit!). I was about to loop back and go get some sleep when I saw it.

Just a flicker and it didn't happen again, but I knew I couldn't double back as I had planned. I might not be the brightest but I knew red against black when I saw it. Cyclops saw me and warned me, I guessed. If I went back to the campsite, we'd be busted.

Great, that meant I had to go solo. I landed a good distance away from where Cyclops flashed his power for me and sighed. I was tired, but now I had to spend the rest of the night trying to get back to my group on foot…and my uniform had these fairy boot things (no clue as to why) so I had to stay in black form. Yawning, grumbling, and stretching all at once, I set off.


"Where the heck have you been?" Adam asked, the worry apparent but my sleepy mind brushed it off. "Kia and Flex got caught!" His large lizard hands were on my shoulders, shaking me with each name.

"What! How?" The team, or what was left of it, was mobile and it took me a while (like until six in the morning when I left around two).

"The idiot ticked her off in the middle of the night and they got into a shout fight, she stormed off and Jean was there to intercept her," Adam growled, and in his lizard form, it's intimidating. "But before that, Adrian went after her, threatening Chris with several medical procedures-I won't go into detail, but Logan got him when he headed back. They were close so I picked up Sparks," Chris' nickname, "and ran over here."

"I was-I couldn't come back because they had spotted me, too," I confessed, I wanted nothing but to curl up in a tight ball and sleep (and shower, because trust me this whole 'jungle girl' scent was not becoming). "We have to keep moving. They'll catch us all if we don't."

"And we have to stick together, unfortunately, because they seem to be picking off the ones who stray from the group," Chris added, though he grumbled the whole thing. "And they are probably in ear shot."

Both I and Adam turned to the little light bulb of the group (ha!), "You actually said something useful?" I was too amazed to think of anything else to say.

"He said something intelligent." Adam stuck his foot in his mouth deeper than I had mine.

"Thanks a lot!" Chris shouted. "I see how much I'm appreciated around here." He stuck up his nose like we were going to trip over one another apologizing.

So as a group, we decided to try and move to the mansion by the lake. Then Shockwav muttered something about how we were only supposed to not get caught, not make it to the mansion. I then thought it through and agreed that it was pretty stupid to do what the three hunters thought we were going to do. We couldn't split up, that was for sure, and only one of us had to stay elusive. Adam volunteered me to just fly around until the time came, Chris pointed out that Scott could just shoot me out of the sky. We couldn't confront them, because I didn't know about the other two, but I didn't want to learn to breathe through my neck!

We kept bouncing ideas off of each other and they'd all fall short. We had only seven more hours to go. It was eight in the morning. That's when we were attacked. Mr. Logan charged out of the woods like a bear in human clothing (well, mutant hero clothing which would be spandex) and tackled Chris to the ground (well,into the water at least).

"I think that's our cue to exit," Adam pointed out, grabbing my wrist, and leaving Chris to the highly upset man who was keeping Chris half submerged in the lake's water. Before the trees got too thick I saw white electric energy crackle around Chris and then two screams were sent up from both males' throats.

What a dummy! He electrocuted himself as well as Wolverine!

The next fun trip we came to was a scary looking Cyclops. This guy had the fear factor blazing around him like radioactive waste. I about cried out 'I quit' when Adam shoved me roughly (and almost into a tree!) away from him. "Go to the cliff and fly somewhere," he growled, flexing his claws. I giggled nervously and then took off just in time to see a bright, deep pink flash of light go into Adam's chest and slam him into a tree.

Ouch! These guys were serious!

I ran like I was trying to outrace death (and knowing that Jean was the only one left out there I might very well have been outrunning death). I got to a cliff and for once just dove off the side not thinking about how insane it was to do, but started to fly automatically (I guessed Mr. Warren was right, it just turns into instinct). My skin was already shedding itself from peach to the black.

That's when the sun started to move closer. I wondered if I was just so tired I was seeing things, but soon I saw bright, wild red hair in the middle of the glowing thing as it moved closer to me.

"Jean!" I screamed out as she came close enough for me to make out a fiery outline of a bird around her.

"You're caught." She reached out one hand and I felt the air compress me. "It was a good try though, Blyt." yeah, good must not be-

A bright pink flash shot through the air from over my shoulder.

I guessed there went Adam.

Another loss, man, this stinks! I stunk as well, two days without a shower while sleeping 'under the stars' will do that to a person, maybe that was why it was so easy for Mr. Logan to track us. Heck, you probably could be a regular Joe Blow Human off the street and follow us because of the stench!


When I got back to the mansion with Jean around three (she decided to leave me suspended up there with her to try and get me to talk. I ended up falling asleep (you spend all night running around the woods and see if you weren't dead the next day!).

I was marched to the War room where D-M, Adrian, and Chris were all sitting around the table with looks of pure disgust on their faces. We had lost, again! But how were we supposed to win against the X-Men who probably knew how to do karate before they could talk!

"Where's Adam?" They all exchanged glances of confusion. I looked to Jean and her eyebrows knitted together in question, "Is he still in the woods?" Wouldn't that be just too funny if Mr. Science got lost in the woods.

"No, he's-" Jean shut her eyes and then frowned. "If you four will wait here."

I huffed and sat down. This day sucked. It only got better when Adam came walking in about fifteen minutes later with Jean and Scott behind him and the dumbest grin I ever saw on anyone's face.

"We won," he said smartly.

"Uh-huh, sure. In case you haven't noticed, Einstein, we were all caught."

"Not true, Shockwav, I was never caught." My eyes bugged out. He wasn't caught and he went up against Scott? X-Man numero uno?

"It's true," Jean agreed, "Adam managed to cripple Cyclops long enough to evade capture."

Cripple?

Scott seemed to be fine to me. Although he didn't look happy, he didn't look like he was in pain either.

"How?"

"When you and I split up after Cyclops found us, he and I fought. During which I grabbed his visor." Adam seemed just too pleased with himself. But it made sense, and that must have been the bright flash of Scott's power when Jean caught me!

Adam was a genius!


We'd been given the rest of the night off and until twelve on Wednesday. I was thinking the major part of the reason why was because Darcy and Arty were leaving on Wednesday. I stretched and yawned, I couldn't wait to get back to my own bed and to eat real food. I was walking up the hall,after leaving the War room, and I felt a chill go through my feathers and down my spine as one of my feathers was taken off my wing.

"MMmmmmm," a deep voice almost purred, I jumped to the side of the hall. My eyes now the size of saucers as I watched the big blonde guy they had captured dragged my feather he'd taken across his tongue. His eyes were closed and a huge evil smile spread across his face. "Does the rest of you taste like chicken, too?" He growled.

I couldn't say anything and my heart was going a million miles an hour. He had dark gold eyes that almost seemed to glow with fire. Was he being disturbing or perverted? Did it really matter? My mind screamed. I knew I should leave, but I was so scared that I stayed plastered against the wall staring at the claws which held my plucked feather.

"What's the matter, pretty bird?" He teased. "Never seen a cat before? Why not open the door and we can play ca- What the -?" Whatever what was going to come out of his mouth was shut up when the window he had been leering out of filled up with ice.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bobby-Jerk snapped. "Don't ever talk to Creed," he commanded and I, just because I was scared, only nodded. I yelped when the Creed guy suddenly beat the door, leaving a good size dent in the door from the other side. Bobby-Jerk's expression clearly said 'ticked off' as he checked the ice around the door again, grabbed my wrist and drug me to the first floor. "I came to get you because we are eating out tonight."

I felt my heart do another lurch.

"We are?"

He gave me a tired look. "Get real, kid, not me and you, the whole zoo."


They must get a discount or something at that Harry's Hideaway place. The only other time a large group of us went to town; this was the place we ate at, too. Oh well, this Harry guy beamed like the sun when we walked in because I think we alone made his quota for the year. So I was squashed between Bobby-Jerk and Adrian and across the table was the none-too-happy looking Jean.

Darcy was chattering away with Mr. Kurt, probably something religious knowing her and Grandma had to be pried off of Professor Xavier's lap. She was so embarrassing sometimes.

On the whole, it was enjoyable. Even though Dr. Hank had to threaten Bobby-Jerk with the promise of putting estrogen in his milk to keep Bobby-Jerk from trying to sing karaoke. D-M was perky and wanted to try her hand at singing, but Chris 'accidentally' short-circuited the thing and got a lecture from Scott about the proper use of powers.

"Why don't the three of you take a walk around the park?" Miss Rogue suggested and Arty was making out like she was disappointed she had to leave all the 'fine young men' behind but Darcy and I were finally able to convince her to go.

"Your new friends are just so cool, Ker-I mean, Kookie." Darcy gave me her best innocent smile. "They were really neat the first time, but the longer I spend with them the more I can see why you like it up here so much."

"Oh, yeah," I rolled my eyes and joined Arty on one of the benches; it was around nine at night so no one else was out. Darcy took off to the swings after her unsuccessful attempt of getting me to swing with her. "So you're leaving tomorrow?" I asked Arty after a super long silence.

"Yes."

From the corner of my eye I could see her staring at me. After having so many people do this to me in so many months I was starting to not like it even more than I did before if that was at all possible. "You know, kitten, you have his eyes."

Oh no, not again. "Uh, that's nice."

She was my Dad's mom, so no matter how dumb I might act; I knew who the 'he' she was referring to was.

"And he had your Grandpa's eyes, that bright sea green." She laughed, almost sadly. If that wasn't such a surprise, having her voice come back to normal with no higher pitch trying to sound younger when she talked to me definitely was one. "When your Grandpa died, I didn't think anything worse in my life could happen." Grandma, not ARTY, but a real Grandma sighed, "Then-then two years later your daddy, my own little Zach, I was so lost."

I felt guilt hit me hard, maybe even harder than the night Dad died. He went to the 'next world' in my arms while I cried and screamed and then I didn't tell the truth. I had lied about everything and those guys lied as well to cover up their leader's murder.

"To think, your Daddy was killed because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Grandma was on the verge of tears. "When I heard-that he had been 'hijacked' at the grocery store by some rowdy men I wanted to laugh-but then they found his body a few days later…"

Why did you have to mention the lies, Grandma? You think I could ever forget? Ever forgive? I felt tears start to sting my eyes to the point of crying. I shouldn't be allowed to cry. This night was going so well, why'd she have to remind me of my mistakes? Why?

Sniffling, I heard her continue.

"And then, two years later I hear that his wife, your ex-mother, had kicked you out in the cold and was even taken legal action against you, I thought I'd lost you just like my other two green eyed babies." She turned to me, and put a shaking hand on the side of my face to get me to look at her. "But I didn't because you were looked after by your Daddy." My heart twisted painfully in my chest. Yeah, Dad looked after me, more than she would ever know. "And you're safe."

Safe?

From what? I needed to get off this topic, but instead I just pushed it further.

"D-do you think Dad would have been all right with the-"

"Mutation?" She asked gently, "Kitten, you were the one person he waited his whole life to meet. Your daddy was always a family man, and with you, it became a family."

I might have helped make it a family, but I was also the one that who destroyed it. Somewhere I got the strength to shake my head, "I didn't mean about that."

"Then what?"

"About the-adoption." I felt my throat become thick, "about me changing my name."

She snorted at me! Here I was bearing my soul and she snorted like a pig coming to eat slop!

"If Heather didn't appreciate you and didn't want to keep her family together, that's her concern, but you found yourself a new family. One who accepts you for who and what you are. And as for the name, this is your new life. Your daddy would have understood. Hell, honey, I changed my name when I turned eighteen."

The heavy mood was broken, (finally) which was a good thing. The truth had been buzzing around my brain stretching against my conscience and bergging to be let out. But I'd just be digging my own grave. I had two family members from the D'mon's talking to me and I didn't need to blow that by a little 'truth' now did I?

"I changed it from Reagan Touwight to Aresia D'mon." My eyebrows shot up. I did not know my Grandmother had legally changed both her first and last name. "It was a fitting name for an up and rising actress such as myself. For the same reason you changed yours, for the betterment of your future."
I smiled weakly.

hr

"Bye, Kookie!" Darcy waved and I swayed on my feet, he was behind me waving his good-bye and keeping me from toppling over backwards. I didn't even know I was so tired until they had to eject me from my bed (much to my fighting dismay). "You can write to our new address, okay?"

"Uh-huh," I managed out. She hugged me again before running to the cab. Grandma was still inside, doing something I probably didn't want to know about. Then he suggested that I go and see what was keeping Arty. I muttered something that was supposed to mean 'yeah' and staggered back into the mansion.

I made it to the Professor's office because I was lazy and figured he could just get on the telepathic telephone and call the active old lady to tell her to get out the door so I could go back to bed before the 'exercises' started all over again.

I opened the door and was suddenly wide awake in such record time.

"Grandma!"

She pulled away from the stunned, horrified Professor.

I slammed the door shut and made a straight line to the front door stoop.

When I got there he had looked confused and Jean gave me the politest, meanest warning glare I had ever ignored in my life. I was laughing and shivering with disgust all at the same time!

"What's wrong with you?"

"I-" I had to swallow and then I got another 'flash' of a memory, "Eeeww!"

"Oh grow up, kitten!" Grandma's voice came from right behind me. "And you should learn to knock. I've been trying to surprise him since I got here."

The Professor had a stony expression on his face and for some reason I just felt my spin tingle with another sensation that felt like I was about to burst out laughing. Before I was able to Arty grabbed me by the arm, hauled me to the cab, and wrapped me in a bear hug.

"Now you listen to me, don't forget to call me every now and then, okay?" I nodded. "Good." Leaning closer she whispered something in my ear that left my face blood red. "And don't you dare sleep with that boy until you are married!"

I pushed her back (gently, not like I would send my own Grandmother skittering across the lawn).

"I'm seventeen," I pointed out hotly.

She wagged her finger at me. "Seventeen or seventy, urges are all the same. Believe me!" And then she scooted into the car. Everyone else went back into the house who saw them off. I waited until Darcy's waving hand couldn't be seen anymore. I turned toward the house to see him looking all cool and stuff by leaning against one of the pillars in front of the front door.

"Mind telling me what sent you down here like a rabid hyena?"

I started to snicker. "Grandma sprang a surprise lip lock on the Professor."

I wasn't the only one who lost their appetite before breakfast.