Author's Note: Hey readers! Apparently you are out there! I was thrilled to get my first review, and if more of you would follow suit that'd be excellent. If any of you are especially knowledgeable on the subject of x-men history, don't hesitate to tell me if I've made a mistake. Aside from mangling time sequences I want my story to be as accurate as possible. Or if anyone knows what Rachel's codename is, why Kurt broke up with Amanda, or when Gambit joined the team, please let me know! The stuff about Nightcrawler's history is especially important for my next chapter...hint hint. Many thanks. Just a quick thing I thought I should add; Italics within a paragraph and single semi-colons ('like this') indicate thought, whereas an entire paragraph is the point of view of someone outside the x-men. Enjoy!
Driani was completely right in thinking that she would not get along with Wolverine. They clashed on every single matter, from which programs to use in the danger room to whose turn it was to do the dishes to the mechanics that kept the mansion running. One of them would often attack the other during team danger room sessions, and then pretend to apologize and say in was an accident. One memorable incident involved Driani throwing Logan into the lake after he punctured the raft she was sunbathing on with his claws. The drenched duo continued to yell at each other well their friends laughed hysterically. Kurt was partially to blame for that, since he teleported Logan onto the raft, but interestingly Dri forgave him and added the incident to the growing list of things she hated about Logan.
Driani assumed that Logan's little sidekick Jubilee would follow his example, but she was wrong. On one particularly boring rainy day, Jubilee had wanted to go to the mall but everyone else was too busy to drive her. She had looked questioningly at Driani before the vampiress put down her magazine and said "Come on, I'll take you." They had a great time shopping together. The Chinese teenager had explained to Driani that Logan really was a good guy, he just had a rough exterior that had to be broken through over time. Jubilee said that she really wanted Logan and Driani to be friends, but Dri could see where she was going with her idea. Jubilation wanted them to be more than friends, pairing up her favorite adults as children so often do. No way was that going to happen.
Or was it? After talking with Jubilee Driani tried to see Logan in a different light, but just couldn't. Every time she saw him she just got angry and wanted to kill him. He felt the same way. It might have had something to do with the fact that both of them had animalistic natures, both of them wanting to prove their dominance. But at night, when he wasn't actually near her, she couldn't help thinking about how good-looking he was, and how she would find many of his traits and quirks attractive in someone else. He was so different from Stephen, and Driani wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. As for the rest of the x-men, Driani had no major problems. All of them were spooked initially by her vampirism, especially Ororo, Kitty, and Kurt, all of whom had had bitter experience with others of her kind, but they'd come around. Kitty still didn't like her very much, and the same with Ororo, but she had lots in common with Kurt and enjoyed his company. Peter, Rogue and Rachel still didn't
Ororo, Rogue, and Driani and been playing around with the controls in the danger room, combining elements of the savage land and several alien planets for a new and bizarre effect, when Kurt's voice had come over the loudspeaker. "All x-men to the danger room. We have a situation." "Great, we're already here. What is it this time, Elf?" Rogue posed her question to the team's leader before she could see him, knowing instinctively that he was going to teleport. She had inherited a kind of sixth sense from absorbing the psyche and powers of former Avenger Carol Danvers. "Double whammy. A girl who recently developed her powers is wrecking havoc in Brooklyn and somebody just unveiled the latest in the line of sentinels near Philadelphia." "'K, we splitin' up the team?" Shadowcat and the others had just arrived. "I hate too, but there's no alternative. I'm going to see about the girl; the rest of you tackle the sententials. You know the drill, destroy the existing ones and then get the mastermold. It's definitely in Philadelphia, but we don't know where. Cerebro indicates that they are probably cheap ones, but even that will be a challenge. I'll need a partner, who wants to come with me?" "I'll go, Elf." Wolverine volunteered. "All right everybody, suit up. I'll teleport Wolverine to New York; you guys take the jet. Questions?" "Can you teleport two people that far?" still the newbie, Vampira didn't know the full capabilities of her teammates. "With stops, yes. Any more questions? Comments? Concerns?" There were none. "Let's go."
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After landing the jet in Fairmount Park, Storm switched on the cloaking device that would both make their jet invisible and repel people from it, hence safeguarding against it's discovery. The x-men disembarked, then Storm, Rogue, and Rachel flew up to survey where the Sentinels were while Shadowcat, Colossus, and Vampira scouted from the ground. They were all inter-linked by their headset radios, and should those fail to work Rachel could telepathically link them. They were all fairly confident, but Sentinels were not fun. Robots designed to capture and kill mutants, several madmen had remade the Sentinels over time, each batch more sophisticated and stronger than the last. Everyone except Vampira had gone up against them, and even she had in the danger room, but no one knew the powers of this new brand. Nightcrawler seemed to think that they were a less advanced model, yet even that could be lethal. And who made them? They would soon find out.
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Outside of a public high school in Brooklyn (actually on the schools roof) Wolverine and Nightcrawler observed the pandemonium below them. A teenage girl had manifested her powers, which appeared to be the ability to generate some kinds of ice and fire, much to alarm of her classmates, who were frozen and trapped in a very strange sort of fire that wasn't burning them. She was average looking, black hair and brown eyes, and ice was pouring from her finger times while fires started everywhere she looked. Rescuing the girl from the growing mob would be a fairly simple matter, but cleaning up the mess she made might be harder. Wordlessly, Nightcrawler and Wolverine agreed that Kurt would teleport the girl to the safety of the roof, then determine how best to fix her dilemma. This accomplished, Caroline Woods found herself with two of the strangest saviors she had ever seen.
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Back in Philadelphia, the rest of the team had found the Sentinels. Fortunately for them and the residents of Philly, the robots were a low grade model, easily stopped by Storm's lightning or Shadowcat's phasing ability, though not before throwing Driani to the ground and giving her several nasty scratches on her legs, but they were essentially harmless. They did the standard "Mutant identified. Destruction eminent." routine but were surprisingly easy to disable, lacking the technology of the last few batches of robots. They seemed to be unprepared to deal with the x-men's powers, which was particularly unusual since the x-men were the primary mutants to take out on the East Coast. But if it was set up for them, why not place them in New York? It was a mystery, but still a problem. In mass even the most simple of Sentinels were dangerous. They had to find the mastermold. Rachel had telepathically scanning the city for the malicious thoughts of the creator, but to no avail. Whoever had made these either wasn't very smart, or had a much bigger scale project in mind, because releasing twenty robots with old technology into a city to kill mutants without any clear intentions did not seem like a clever idea to the x-men. Unless the robots were a distraction to keep the x-men from discovering their true objective. Whatever the reason behind their presence, the Sentinels had a mastermold that needed to be destroyed. But where? Flying above the city, Rogue could see the huge robots lying in the streets where they had been felled. They had gone out in groups of two, the ten pairs each coming from a warehouse that appeared to be abandoned. In fact, the fallen robots looked like a dotted line leading to this decrepit building 'Bingo!' She flew back to tell the group's field leader, Storm.
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But the Blackbird, cloaked as it maybe, was still unprotected. Not that they could have hidden it from her anyway. Sariceia Galigo had come to far to be stopped now. She'd been following the x-men for months, since they'd paid that visit so close to her homeland Romania and rescued the vampiress. She'd been home to try to find her family, but the effort had been futile once again. Imagine her surprise at finding someone she had never expected to see again. He big brother who had evolved into meaning more to her than he knew. Or would ever know, at this rate. Shaking her head to clear her mind of her musings, she began the task at hand. Using her charming power, she cajoled the space where the door of the invisible jet ought to be into opening. Once inside, the interior of the jet was visible to her, but the cloaking device now protected her. Marvelous. Helping herself to a soda from the mini-fridge, she sat down in one of the chairs to wait for the return of the x-men. This would be interesting...
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"Kid, chill out. We're the good guys. You alive?" In his somewhat unconventional manner Wolverine attempted to comfort the girl. Her power had stopped, likely because of the strain of her first teleporting experience. Caroline was shaking but nodded. "Yeah. Except for the mob that is chasing me away from my school, I'm fine." Nightcrawler admired her composure. "Can you clean up the ice and fire?" "I think, let me see..." She closed her eyes and stretched her hands out. Nothing happened for a second, then the fire vanished, freeing its oddly unburned victims. Frowning in concentration and shaking with effort, Caroline manage to free the ice-imprisoned people as well, the ice turning liquid and flowing back to her, where it was absorbed into her outstretched fingers. She collapsed struggling to retain her consciousness. "Don't leave me. I've got nowhere else to go. Please!" Then she passed out. "Can you 'port three, Fuzzy?" "I'll have to try. We can't leave her here!"
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The x-men entered the warehouse cautiously, prepared to leap at an evil scientist at any moment. Shockingly, no one was there. There was the lone mastermold, just preparing to turn out two new Sentinels, a computer, and a giant pile of metal. Shadowcat looked at the computer screen. "Whoa. It's set on a program to build as many Sentinels as it can out of the metal, then self-destruct. No other information whatsoever on the computer, its hard drive was wiped clean." "So we don't have any idea who's behind this?" Colossus asked. "No clues at all." 'cat looked disheartened until Vampira shrugged and said. "If the world is safe for another day, how about we head home?" She looked down on her legs, dripping with blood. I'd kinda like to put something I go crazy." They all suddenly realized that Vampira's healing factor was not working, since if it were those cuts would have healed already. 'Does she even have temptations to drink her own blood?' "Uh, why aren't you healing?" Rachel asked haltingly. Because her powers stemmed not only from her mutation but also from a force of unnatural evil, her abilities were always an awkward subject with the evil-hating x-men. Driani shook her head "It's the, um, lack of blood. My quick convalesces is part of being a vampire, so without feeding the, uh, vampiric side of myself, I sort of lose some of my vampire powers." They looked less concerned so she went on. "Like, if I tried to morph back to human-form right now, I wouldn't be able to get back. Thinking of it, this could be a problem." To illustrate her point Driani morphed back to her shorter, paler form, than attempted to go back to her tall, dark form. Her skin visibly shuddered with an eerie quiver, then returned to normal. "I'd like to go back to the mansion, I don't feel well." Everyone agreed with her sentiment and went back to the jet, where they had a surprise visitor awaiting them.
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Back at the X-mansion, a figure finished attaching the last in a series of surveillance cameras and microphones he had set up. Then he slipped into the shadows and was gone.
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The teleporting back was a strain for all three of them, but especially Nightcrawler. Kurt was exhausted by the time they finally got home. It had taken about twenty or thirty 'ports, taking Wolverine forward, coming back for Caroline, bringing her forward, then repeating. And he still had to attend to the unconscious girl in the Med. Lab. He went to pick her up, but Wolverine stopped him. "I'll do it, bub. She doesn't need any tests, just a long nap. I'll put her in one o' the beds. You should go to bed yourself." "Not a bad idea, mein freund." Kurt dragged himself up to his room, too tired to teleport. Logan carried the sleeping girl into the infirmary and tucked her into one of the beds. 'Poor kid. Couldn't be more than fifteen. If she joins us, will she be hurt like we've all been hurt? Watch us die? It don't seem right to bring the poor kid inta' that, but its her decision. If she's smart and pulls out, we'll train her ta use her powers and Rach 'ill wipe her memory of us. God I hope she's smart.' With that heartfelt sentiment, Logan went up to his room.
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Releasing her teammates from the telekinetic hold she had used to fly them back to the jet, Rachel set up a telepathic shield around the Blackbird that would make anyone nearby suddenly turn around and go back the way they came, having remembered something urgent they had to do. They entered the jet. Shadowcat waved at the purple-skinned creature in her chair, greeted her with a friendly, "What's up?", then did a double take. She really was exhausted to have not been on guard immediately. Incredulously she asked, "How did you get in?" Rogue walked in behind her, smiled and said "Ah think your in the wrong jet, sughah. You the new Avenger?" "No she isn't," Ororo put in, looking quizzical. The stranger had purple skin, wavy blue hair, and bright green eyes, not to mention delicate butterfly wings sprouting from her back. She wore jeans and a white tank top. "Sariceia Galigo, also known as Faerie, pleased to meet you." She uncrossed her legs and stood up. "You're the x-men, yes?" The group now assembled before her nodded numbly. 'Guess their jet was never broken into before.' "I want to see Kurt. He knows me. I need a ride to the mansion. Do you guys know just how well that place is protected? It took me four months to figure out where the hell it was, and the last three I've been trying to break in. When it comes to security, you guys don't joke around!" The young woman grinned, enjoying the irony of the situation. Rachel attempted to probe her mind, only to come up against the mental equivalent of a brick wall. 'This girl is more than she seems.' "Yeah I am aren't I?" Sariceia laughed at the utter shock on Rachel's face. "I'm not a telepath. I have a keen intuition that let's me figure out what people are saying just by their facial expressions. That's not all I can do. Yes Kitty, my nails are naturally metallic purple. Can we go now?" Storm stepped forward as leader. "Yes, you may accompany us. On the condition that you allow Rachel to mind-scan you." 'A small smile replaced the bright grin on Sariceia's face. 'They can't know. I don't even know for sure.' Rachel felt the brick wall collapse, allowing her into the girl's mind. Sariceia led Rachel to the thoughts she was looking for, obscuring her view from ones that she'd rather keep to herself. But Rachel could see that Kurt really had known this woman, and from the many smiling images of himself beside a younger version of Sariceia, he would probably be glad to see her. She pulled out of the fairy's mind and glanced at Ororo, 'She's clear. I for one am intrigued to find out just who she is.' Without a word to their mystery guest Ororo started the plan and headed back home.
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Sariceia was asked to wait in the living room while the x-men changed out of their uniforms and woke Kurt, but after all these years she couldn't wait a minute longer. She headed up the stairs and instantaneously knew which room was Kurt's. She opened the door, and sighed. He was every bit as handsome as he was when he left the circus three years ago. He was asleep, not on the bed as one might expect but precariously perched on five of the jungle-gym-like bars attached to his ceiling. She mentally pushed her feelings to the back of her head and thought of him only as her foster-brother and friend. This accomplished she flew up to the ceiling and knocked him down. The startled teleporter fell to the floor. "What do you want?" he looked hostile. She smiled and addressed him in German "Don't you remember me, Kurt? Maybe this will help." Despite the pain that increased in amounts each time she morphed, Sariceia resumed her human form. Kurt gasped. "Sar-Sar? Is it really you?" "Yeah. I missed you too." She leaped up to hug her, and the emotions she was suppressing grew stronger. Externally she didn't let her cheerful mask slip. "Do you think you can get on to your team?"
B Oots: Thanks so much for the review! It means a lot to me. I'm glad you like my story. Vampira and Wolverine will get along...eventually. I think. Can't give away all my secrets can I? ;-)
pantherpitcher32: I'm so glad you like Vampira! Marvel tends to use vampires only as villains, neglecting their potential as tragic heroes. I'd love to tell you more about why I created Driani, but it sort of gives away an important part of the plot so I'll fill you in later. Thanks so much for your kind words!
