Tides of Change: Chapter Two
H.I.V.E.
Please bear in mind that I am
EXTREAMLY new to this, so if the paragraphs arn't separated, or I
mispelled something just tell me and I'll hit my computor until it
works. Thank you and good night!
In this chapter I'm going to introduce some more of the main players in this fic, including one of my favorite Teen Titans Characters! Yeah! So anyway, let's get on with it.
And one and two and FLIP and TURN and FIRE...
Jynx concentrated as she wove though the course. The hexagon floor tiles shone as harsh white light beamed down from the ceilings fixtures. For her session, a long maze had been created from the risen tiles. A panel in one silently slid open, a black hole scarred the otherwise smooth walls. Three metallic arms slid out and pointed at her, aiming themselves at her chest. She smirked and stopped, willing to give the bullets a head start. All at once, the fired, one directly after the other, trails of Grey smoke slicing the air. She casually dodged the projectiles that flew at her, sending curses and hexes at the ones that got to close.
"Go Jinx!" bellowed Mammoth, his deep voice reverberating.
"Blast those Toad Eaters!" Gizmo called, he was hovering beside Mammoths shoulder.
Jynx had to smile. There was nothing like having your buddies cheer you on. She could see the end now, no more than stones throw away.
Grrrrinnnninginginginging...
Make that churning, moving stones through away.
She skidded to a halt. Machinery ground away beneath her, and the distance between her and the exit suddenly rose up.
She cocked her head to one side.
"Well this is new." She said, "Hey Giz, you been messing with the training room again?"
The Midget cackled.
"Yep!" He said, "Wait'll you get a hold of THIS!"
The floor shuddered...
...And stood up.
It rose up, towering over the young girl. Metal plates glittered in the lights. It ground around to face her, two dull, orange eyes flashed. It slowly pulled its hands up and brought them smashing down, sending a shock wave at her. Jynx stood her ground, quickly casting a dampening spell so her ears wouldn't ring after wards. The wave passed harmlessly by, causing no more harm to her than a little wear and tear on her boots. Undaunted, it then ripped out pieces of the walls and started hurling them at her. The jagged pieces ripped towards her head, she sent them away with a wave of her hand. This thing was tough, so her normal garden verity of jinxes weren't gonna be enough.
Jynx face gave nothing away as she sought the proper spell.
She back flipped away as a huge fist came crashing down where she had been a moment before. Experimentally, she fired of a couple of hexes at it. Then ducted as the ricocheted back at her.
"Can't hex it!" Gizmo called out, "It's a new kind of shielding I've been working on. If lasts more than five minutes up against you I'll consider it a success!"
She nodded, secretly please her teammate thought that highly of her. That was as close as you got to a complement with Gizmo.
"Let's try something else then." She muttered.
She crossed her hands over her chest, thumbs interlocking.
"Avand Desshawl matoulnall!"
She brought her hands up quickly, making little fluttering motions.
A blast of pink light rocketed from her hands, flying towards the monster. It hovered above it for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to attack or not, then dove.
The monster reached up and grabbed it. For a second it's hand glowed, then died.
"Aw, poopies." Jynx said.
She darted to the side as it sent another shock wave at her. She liked these boots, she wasn't about to loose them to one of Gizmo's little tinker toys. Time to try a different tatic. She flipped in the air to ovoid a piece of debrie, rocketing over the top of it. Her hands came in close to her body, spinning in a tight corkscrew.
"Doublie gretaneth freshahel!"
This time a burst of nearly white light came out of her fingers. It crackled and bit as it sang though the air, a sharp smell of snow running after it. The monster batted it away. The spell hit the wall and left a thick patch of ice on the floor.
Jynx gritted her teeth, this was getting aggravating.
She closed her eyes, calling the words for her next attack to mind.
She raised her hands over her head.
"Storuoomoo ratched querstaed!"
She pointed her hands at the celling. The room darkened. A deep boom of thunder was heard, followed by the smell of rain. Dark, black clouds gathered at the celling of the yellow room. Streaks of light arched between them.
Though no-one could see it, her hands glowed blue.
KRAAAACCCCCCKAAAAAAFOOOOOOMMMM!
Lightning streaked towards the creature, it's outline pale and ghostly in the ethereal light. It gave a mechanical shriek as lightning struck it. Crashing to the floor, it shook itself off and got up again. A second, stronger bolt made sure it stayed down. The clouds quickly dissipated as she opened her eyes. The monster was nothing more than a pile of Diodes and Circuitry in the middle of the floor. She strolled though the exit door to meet Gizmo and Mammoth.
"Four minutes and fifty nine seconds." She said, "I'd say that was pretty much a success."
Gizmo smiled, "You really think so?"
She nodded, "You might want to increase the shielding a little more, but other than that, very effective."
Gizmo thought for a moment, "Maybe double the magical resistance, make it faster, right. I can definitely do that, ooh!" He brightened, "Maybe some laser eyes! Yeah!" He grabbed his notebook that he always kept with him in case he had an idea and started scribbling.
Mammoth smiled as he handed Jinx some water.
"You did good." He said, "What was that last Spell? I don't think I've ever seen you use it."
Jynx smiled and gratefully excepted the water.
"Just something I've been working on." She gulped down some water, "To tell you the truth I wasn't sure it was going to work. I'll have to try it on something alive next."
Gizmo looked up from his rantings.
"Try it on Cyb-mphmph."
Mammoth had clamped his huge hand over Gizmo's mouth, practically swallowing Gizmo's head.
Jynx looked at them.
"You're smiling oddly." She said.
Mammoth had a look on his face that would put a rabid pit bull to shame. The really scary thing was that he was trying to look happy.
"Am I?" Mammoth managed to say around the grin.
"Yes. Very."
Gizmo said something that was probably very rude, but no one could understand him. The inventor often said things that no one could understand. Even Headmaster had had to ask for a translation every now and again.
She drank some more water.
"What was Gizmo going to say?" She asked.
"Nothing!" Mammoth said.
She raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.
"Okay then." She said, "I'm gonna go to my room, see you two later."
Mammoth waited until she was out of earshot before he took his hand off of Gizmo.
"What are you? Suicidal?" He hissed, "You know she took the whole 'Stone' thing hard."
"I was just suggesting a better way for her to express her anger." Gizmo huffed, "It's not healthy to keep it all bottled up inside."
"It's better than her taking it out on us!" Mammoth said, then he sighed, "You are right though. Maybe we should get her to see the shrink."
Gizmo nodded.
"Let's discuss plans over several extra large pizzas." He said.
"Alright." Mammoth agreed, "But no anchovies this time."
"Aw come on! Just one pizza." Gizmo pleaded.
"No."
"Half a pizza."
"No."
"One slice."
"NO!"
Beast boy took one last look at where Terra stood. Where she would always stand. Arms stretched towards the heavens, a look of hope on her face. The setting sun shining though the windows bathed the pit red, like it had been that fateful day over a week ago.
"Good bye Terra." He said, "and thank you."
With that, he shifted into a bat and left.
If anyone had been around hours later, long after the sun had set, they might have seen a large dog-like figure carefully pick it's way down the steep slope. That person might have wondered why anything would come here, to this abandoned hole. A smarter than average person might have wondered how the dog seemed to know it's way down the path, and a smarter than average person with really good night vision might have been able to pick out the glowing object in the dogs mouth.
And anyone with brains would have gotten out of there really, really fast.
Some things just aren't meant to have spectators.
Tornado carefully picked his way down the path towards Terra. Twister stumbled along behind him.
Twister panted happily as he looked around.
He, like his companion, was a coyote. Big coyotes at that. Both were capable of speech, and both had strange markings on their heads. Tornado was the older of the two, and the only supposed to be here at the moment.
"Hey this is great isn't it Tornado? I mean look at all those stars! Hey, did you ever wish on one? I bet you did! What ja wish for?"
"I 'dished 'or 'oo t' hut up." Tornado said, the necklace garbling his words.
"What? You wished for a ten-gallon cup? That doesn't make sense!" Twister whined.
"Ever nine." Muttered Tornado, "Oosless 'up."
He halted in front of the statue. This caused Twister to bump into him.
He peered over Tornado's shoulder.
"Hey, who's that?" He asked.
Tornado spat the necklace out at the statues feet. It's orange gem pulsing brightly.
"That," he said, "Is the person we came all this way for."
Twister gave the statue a critical look.
"Kinda a waste of time then." He finally said, "I mean, what with her being a statue and all."
Tornado pushed the necklace closer with his paw, the gem flashed quicker.
"Observant aren't you?" He said wryly, "Now watch and learn whelp. Should you ever become a guardian, God forbid, then you'll need to learn this trick." He backed away from the statue, when he was a good distance he continued, "If the need arises, a Guardian can transform his charge."
Twister looked suspiciously at the necklace.
"How?"
Tornado grinned.
"Like this."
He threw back his head and howled.
It was a good howl. They probably heard it all the way back at Titans Tower. How ever, it didn't seem to do anything. Twister gave a polite cough.
"Uh, that was a really nice howl." He said carefully, "But I don't think you did anything."
"Wait for it." Tornado was tense. He looked like he was ready to bolt at any minute.
"Wait for what? Nothings happen-"
But something was.
The necklace slowly rose into the air, turning until it faced the stone girl.
"MOVE!" Twister was yanked off his feet as Tornado grabbed him by the scruff and threw him out of the way.
"You do NOT want to be caught in the middle of a Forced Transformation!"
Twister whimpered.
The necklace sent out a beam of red and yellow light at the statue's chest. At first it didn't seem to do anything, and then she started to crack.
Red, yellow and white splinters of light crisscrossed across her chest, quickly spreading out. The ground began to shake violently. With great KRRRACKS! Pieces of the walls shook them selves loose and swarmed around it. Colored light played on the walls. As they whirled faster and faster, you could almost recognize some of the pieces. A hand, parts of her hair, once even an eye.
A sphere of rocks now surrounded the former statue. Twister pressed himself against Tornado's side, for once; the older Coyote didn't brush him off.
"It's almost over whelp!" Tornado yelled, "It's almost over!"
FSSSSSSHOOOOOMMMMM!
Geysers of lava shot out of the ground not five feet from them, arching towards the sphere. They wrapped their long tendrils of molten rock around it, and then shot up into the night. A glowing figure flew up in the center of the churning lava, arms crossed over its head. Its hair blew around it, eyes shining red. It resembled a tall, thin girl, but only just. Suddenly she began to spin. The sphere broke up and flew up to her; it's pieces orbiting some distance away. Three flashes of light flew from the walls and wrapped around her, forming a strange outfit. Another light strand wrapped around her head. She held her hands out in front of her, and a battle-ax materialized. She stopped spinning, and unintentionally posed. The ax glowed and the orbiting rocks suddenly formed a staircase down to the ground.
The lava hissed as it retreated back to where it had come. The large holes in the ground the only evidence they had been there at all.
The girl walked down the stairs, her eyes still glowing. She walked with the air of a princess, until she reached the ground.
The moment her feet touched the earth, the rumblings ceased. So did her gracefulness. She stumbled and put one of her hands to her head, her eyes stopped glowing. Tornado rushed over to help her, leaving a shaken Twister. The girl leaned heavily on both him and the ax.
Tornado grunted, "Come princess, we haven't much time. That blast will have woken up everyone with ten miles of here. Just hold your ax over your head and-"
She looked blearily at him.
"Who the heck are you?" She said.
Tornado rolled his eyes, "NO TIME remember? I'll tell you lat-"
"Um, do we have time for two or three questions first?" She asked.
Tornado shook his head.
"No, Just hold your ax over your head and say, 'Teleport!' I'll steer." He looked at where Twister still lay, "Whelp, get up, your coming to."
Twister rushed over as the girl looked at the ax.
"Are you sure-"
"Yes, now go!"
She struggled to raise it.
"Teleport!"
A moment later, all that was left was the hot breeze moving around in the Volcano.
"This can't be happening."
Kim sat on her bed, rocking back and forth and hugging her favorite pillow. The calm and in control Kim had vacated the room. All that she could think about at the moment was that if those powers had come in two seconds earlier, she could hae crushed her brothers to death. The thought was disgusting at best.
Wade sighed. His image was now on the computer so he could talk to Kim more easily. He didn't do this often, but right now Kim was fragile and needed someone to talk to. Even if he wasn't really there.
"C'mon Kim, it's not the end of the world!" He said. He was no good at pep talks or pulling people out of ruts of self pity, and this was painfully obvious as he tried to talk the heroine down.
Kim shook her head violently.
"Yes it is." She said, "It's the end of my world anyway. I can not be a Mutant! It's just not possible!"
Wade took a deep breath.
"Do you want me to tell your parents?" He asked, "If it would make it easier..." He trailed off.
"Would it help?" She practically shrieked, "I'd still be a, a, Oh man I can't even say it!" She buried her face in her pillow. Normally Kim was much more polite, Wade had decide to disregard it and chalk it up to stress.
It helped Michelle. He thought. I don't know what she would have done without me.
"Okay, do you want to talk about it? That usually helps."
Kim didn't answer.
"I could call Ron." He said, "I could do the garden gnome trick again."
Kim nodded. Wade was always ready with some new trick; the kid never seemed to sleep. The screen flashed to a screen saver, the same interlocking K and P from before. The house was silent. Well, relatively. Jim and Tim where crouched under the basement stairs, looking intently at a Palm Pilot. They looked at each other.
"That can't be good." Jim muttered. His twin nodded, the wild brown hair they both shared bouncing up and down.
"If anyone, ya know, besides Ron finds out she's got a x-gene-" Jim started.
"-The Possibles are in big trouble." Tim finished. "We need to design a security system." He said.
"Why? We've already got the one we put in a year ago." Jim said. Tim grinned.
"Hicka-Bicka-boo?"
They gave each other high fives.
"Hoo-sha!" they said as one.
Back in Kim's room Wade reappeared. He looked at kim with concern, she hadn't moved from her near fetal position on the bed.
"He's on his way." He said.
The girl looked up, her red, wavy hair disheveled and messy. Kim managed a weak smile.
"Thanks Wade." She said, "Sorry I kinda lost it back there. Your the best."
Wade smiled and cracked his knuckles.
"No problem." He said. Praise from Kim and Ron was one of the many perks of his job. That and he could hack into any database in the world and not have to worry about backlash. They sat in silence for the next few minutes; Wade typing away on his computer, as his attempts at conversation with Kim had been shot down. Finally Ron came flying up the steps, Rufus's head hanging out his pocket. Both of them looked worried.
"I'm here KP." He said, "What's wrong? Monkeyfist? DNAmy? Drakken?"
Kim gave Wade a look. The genius held up his hands.
"Hey, I couldn't tell him!" Wade said, "First of all, you should do that, and second of all, what if someone had tapped the line? You'd be in a unauthorized government lab before you could say 'Uh-oh!"
"Tap a garden gnome?" Kim asked incredulously.
"I had to use his cell-phone." Wade confessed.
Ron sat down, looking from Kim to Wade.
"Someone want to fill me in?" He asked, "Because I threw out the rest of a Naco to come here."
Kim sighed. Ron must really be worried if he threw out food.
"You tell him Wade."
Wade threw up his hands.
"Fine!" He said, "Ron, Kim here is in possession of a, until recently, dormant X-gene."
Ron raised an eyebrow.
"A what-now?"
"Argh!" Kim growled, "He means I'm a mutant Ron."
Ron looked at her, eyes wide.
"Really?" He asked, "What can you do?"
Kim buried her face in her pillow again.
"She has super strength, and possibly other powers Ron." Wade said.
"Oh." He looked at Kim, "COOL!"
"What?" Kim looked up.
"I said, COOL!" Ron repeated.
Kim looked at him like he'd sprouted an extra head.
"You think it's cool?" She said.
Ron nodded enthusiastically.
"How can you think it's cool!" She asked, "It's horrible! It's a catastrophe! It's-"
"Let me ask you something." Ron said, "How is this any different from when you got Hego's powers?"
"Because that was only temporary!" Kim said, "I knew I'd be normal again! But now it's like I'm not even human, it's like I'm something instead of someone! I can't live a normal life anymore because I'm a Mutant!"
Ron looked at her wryly.
"Since when has your life been normal?" He asked. "You go to the rain forest on school nights, you've wrestled with half cats half snakes, you took on a horde of monkey ninjas," Here Ron stopped to shudder slightly. Monkeys, due to a traumatic childhood encounter, where one of his more prominent phobias. "you've saved the world more times than I can count, and still manage to get your homework done on time! Your the most amazing person I've ever met, or am likely to meet!"
Kim had to smile. Ron was always there for you.
"But still, it's like I'm an out cast of society or something." She said.
"You know, it's not like you're the only mutant in the area." Wade said.
She looked at him.
"What?"
Wade started typing again as pictures of people flashed on the screen.
"About one out of every hundred people is a mutant any more." He said, "There's more mutants in some parts than others of course." He said, "One town in Kansas in particular has the highest mutant rate in the state."
Kim looked at all the pictures on the screen and couldn't help but feel better.
Some of them where people she knew,
"Hey, that's Elizabeth Chang from cheer squad!" She said as a picture of an attractive Asian girl flashed on the screen. The Girl was taller then her, almost six feet with a strong athletic build. Her brown eyes, which seemed to have gotten darker as she got older, stared coolly at the camera.
"Yeah, your right!" Ron said, squinting at the screen, "Apparently she's telekinetic."
"I thought her jumps where a little high." Kim said, "And there's Emily Mills from Math Class! She can create illusions!"
A picture of a pretty girl with freckles and short wavy brown hair was shown. She was smiling at the Camera and had her chin propped up with her hand.
"And there's Joe the quarter back! And that's Brock, and Mikael, and Stacey!" Ron added.
"And there's Mister Meek! He can do what?" She stared at the screen.
Ron whistled, "He must be really popular with the ladies." He said.
"I'll say." Kim agreed, "There's the Shaffon Twins! Wow, they have photo graphic memories, super intelligence, a physic link, camouflage abilities, and empathic control."
Two identical blond girls where shown. The stood apart from each other, their clothing and hairstyles identical. Twin blue eyes pierced the camera, glaring at anyone that cared to challenge them. They leaned in opposite directions, their fingers loosely touching.
"No wonder they all ways finish each others sentences." Ron said, "Hey, that was Carley Davison! She never returned my calls!"
Tall, Skinny, and curly haired just about summed Carley up. She didn't care much for company and usually wore a leather jacket and jeans. She seemed to be looking at someone off camera who could coax a smile out of her. She was seventeen and was desperately trying to finish high school early.
"She can create machines with her mind." Kim read, "And there's, my gosh." She stared.
Ron's mouth dropped open. On the screen was a girl with Shoulder length brown hair that tapered to a point in the back. She was wearing a Middleton high school cheerleading outfit, mainly purple with orange and red trimming it. She had her hands on her hips and was scowling at the camera.
"Bonnie's a Mutant?"
"One million eight hundred thousand twenty two bottles of beer on the wall! One million eight hundred thousand twenty-two bottles of beer! You take one down, pass it around, One million eight hundred thousand twenty-one bottles of beer on the wall! C'mon everybody!"
Kurt was happily bouncing up and down in his seat, not an easy feat with a seat belt on, singing the song with Jesse. After the one parachute threat both of them had decided to get along for the deterioration of the flight. Over an hour ago they had started the song, and at first count the number of bottles had been six million twenty eight thousand forty three hundred and a half. When asked about the half they said that it must have been Mr. Logan's fault. Just how it was Logan's fault was never disclosed.
Jean eyed the dashboard thoughtfully, wondering how much it would hurt to bang her head against it. The Professor did it all the time and he never seemed to suffer any ill. (Of course she didn't know that at the moment the professor was dressing his wheel chair up as a long boat and pretending he was a Viking. This was forcing Logan to 'contain' him in the danger room, while Storm had to be bribed into calling the Misfits for babysitting help with the promise of, and I quote, Chocolate! Lots of Chocolate! Ya want a Harley? I'll by ya three! Just call them!) Scott gave his lover a look.
Can't ya just, you know, knock them out for a while?
Jean glanced over at Scott. His lips hadn't moved he was using the mental link that she had set up a while ago. They rarely ever used it, seeing as the lived in the same house and taught a class together, there was barely any need. But sometimes, in the middle of the night after a nightmare, (Scott would still wake up shaking at some of his memories in the orphanage, and Jean had kept seeing her childhood friend, Annie, getting slaughtered by a drunk driver.) it was nice to have someone to listen and-or talk to. She sighed and shook her head.
As much as I'd love to, Scott, that'd wouldn't be right. At least they're behaving. She replied.
News to me. Scott mumbled and went back to piloting the blackbird. He was tempted to pull the thing into a steep dive, just to shut Moron number 1 and Moron number 2 up.
And it stopped Dead Girl from screaming. Jean offered optimistically. Besides, I'm pretty sure they'll stop soon.
"GAMBIT GONNA RAM A CARD WERE DE SUN DON SHINE IF'N YA DON SHUT UP!"
In the backseat, Remy was shaking and holding a glowing card, proof that it would explode as soon as it touched something. The devil eyed mutant looked like he was about to explode himself. However, he was not yelling at Jesse and Kurt, but rather at a certain winged millionaire.
"I'm telling you it's true! Boone was! I'm almost positive!" Angel crossed his arms and glared at the Cajun.
"Ya said de same t'ing about Barney the Dinosaur!" Remy hollered. "An'de boohbah's. An' Rudolf. An'-"
"That's quite enough thank you!" Dead girl shrieked from the back. Her eyes stopped glowing as she surfaced back into the land of the living. She'd been having a conversation with Shakespeare and was not too happy about being pulled out of it.
Remy turned around to face the undead teenager in the backseat. Dead Girl was sitting with her feet curled up under her, her pink tank top and cargo pants smudged and wrinkled after her earlier temper tantrum. She wasn't wearing shoes, mostly because she didn't feel the need for them. She returned Gambits glare, hate for hate.
"Can ya blame Remy? You shoulda heard whad he said 'bout Boone!" Gambits rage was evident. For some reason, he had really gotten into the T.V. show 'Lost' of late. Mainly because he could identify with Sawyer, a con man, and Boone, who had had serious family issues.
"Doesn't matter anyway. He's DEAD." She sat up in her seat, knowing that her last comment would really get Remy going.
"No he's not! He's just, er, Sleepin!" The Cajun leaned back to get a better look at her. Dead girl shot Warren a look that clearly said, 'You owe me pretty boy'.
Scott sighed. Right now, while He, Jean, and the monkeys where trying to get from point A to point B, all he wanted was to be at point D. In some sort of meadow with Jean and a large martini.
"One million eight hundred thousand and nineteen bottles of beer on the wall! One million eight hundred thousand and nineteen bottles of beer!"
A VERY large Martini.
To be continued...
Wrong there, as it turns out.
Chapter two done! I own the Shaffon Twins, Carley Davison, and Mr. Meek, Joe, Stacey, Brock, and Mikael. Most of which will play a bigger part in the up coming Fic.