Thanks to:
Minnaloushe – I knew I had heard your name before and I read Elliot's book many years ago, so I didn't get it straight off. I've just checked out your story and although I'm only up to chapter two I do really like it and plan to catch up with the rest shortly (I have to pay for my internet by the minute or else I'd be up on it now!) As to the kid, mutation doesn't usually show up 'til puberty so it might be a bit of a wait to find out! Although I think Jamie was an exception. And probably Kurt! I'm hoping to do some Romy but I've never done anything like that directly, when I have done it it's been a background thing. Kinda looking forward to the possibilities (although he's not gonna go blind – that was just truly bizarre).
Furygrrl – One of the problems I had with this fic was thinking there were too many people in each chapter, glad to know it works out OK. I was walking past a CCTV camera when I had the idea for the chapter lead in although I wasn't sure whether or not to use it – the whole language thing had me a little concerned. But then I thought what the hell! And a big thank you – I hadn't even considered the mansion being a looters paradise until you pointed it out and I used the idea in this chapter. Not to mention that all the RE nods were as a result of the Genesis Strain. When I started working at the job I have now I went down to the cellar and it is SO straight out of RE I expect zombies to burst out of the walls – not that I can complain, seeing as how most of my evo over 18 fics are written down there ;) Trust me, you haven't seen the last of Trask, he's gonna play a big part in later chapters. I'm kinda looking forward to doing the Romy, since I've never done it before, but it ain't gonna be the focus.
LadyEvils – I thought that Lance would actually be quite good daddy! Mystique is back here and there is a cameo for Pietro and Wanda although they're just checking in. And Magneto will show up at some point…
Southern Goth Gal – Rogue and Gambit meeting – here! And 5 reviews is pretty good, when I wrote the Cure I had three or less for each chapter, it's only since then it's got any attention. Keep it up!
Todd Fan – Hope this lives up to your Romy expectations!
Sangofanatic – There was no reason for me picking who lived and who died except that I wanted to concentrate on certain people so if they weren't part of the fic – they died!
Flamekiller – Hope this lives up to your expectations!
Telepathic Angel – It is sad that they all have to bury their loved ones but things will get better for everyone. And then worse.
TheDreamerLady – If we need weird hair to live through the flu then I'm fine! Baby's genre revealed here. And you guessed a lot of stuff right!
UncannyAsianGirl – This chapter would have been up three hours ago if not for you! I was just checking my mails when I got your review and decided to check your vid before I updated. Damn good vid by the way! I would never have thought there was so much motorcycle stuff in evo. I've recommended it in my author notes. Anyway! I checked my own version of the chapter and there was no problem but when I checked fanfic there was, so grateful for you pointing that out, otherwise I might never have noticed. You are the precog! You seem to know what I'm about to write…but that's cool. Yeah, the RE nod was to Furygrrl, she writes the best stuff! On a similar note, I checked out Minnaloushes fic and it was damn good, although I've only got the first two chapters yet. I checked it out while I downloaded your vid! X23 is gonna be plunged back into the fic but for now I like her just enjoying life. I know in her position that's what I'd do. And let me know how you thought of Rogue/Remy, I'm not sure how they came off.
Author note: I'm glad everyone liked Lance finding the baby! It was kind of a weird direction to head in but I figured I could do a lot with it. I wasn't sure if anyone would think it was a good idea but I'm pleased that it was. This is my first attempt at overt Romy so let me know if it worked or not. Oh, and if you want a cool music vid, check out UncannyAsianGirl's website (go to my reviews, click on her name and find it in her biog page). Motorcycle madness indeed! I loved this vid and I guarantee you will too.
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Logan roared into Bayville late in the evening and headed straight to the Xavier Institute. The streets were in total darkness, the light from his motorcycle the only thing to see by. There was no one around.
Almost no one. As he approached the Institute he decided to kill the engine and scout around, make sure there was no trouble. There seemed to be no one there but he could smell at least three people in the vicinity, none of them apparently ill. A part of him was pleased – he had seen no signs of life since leaving the SHIELD facility – but mostly he was wary. He closed in stealthily and soon his enhanced hearing picked up their voices.
"There's probably loads of cool stuff in there," said the first voice. A man in his thirties perhaps.
"What's the point?" A teenage girl, sounding bored. "There's no power. No matter what they have, we can't use any of it."
"You silly bitch." A third girl. "Can't you see the lights on in there?"
"Yeah, so? Probably a candle."
"No, it's electricity. Which means they have power, which means they can watch DVDs and stuff. We can just go in there and use it all!"
"Yeah," said the first girl, sounding doubtful now. "But what if there's some one left alive in there?"
"Unlikely. We're the only people in Bayville still alive!"
"Besides, they'll clear out even if they are alive." The man again, his voice a strange combination of grim and gleeful. "We've got enough firepower here to waste anyone who gets in our way!"
Logan had heard enough. He leapt at the three, who couldn't see him in the darkness. He could just about make out their silhouettes thanks to his enhanced senses but all they knew was that some one had jumped them, some one who was roaring in anger.
"Where's the fucking gun?" The man shouted as Logan's hand connected with one of the girls stomachs, her breath whooshing out of her.
"What's going on?" The second girl was screaming and Logan couldn't bring himself to hurt her even though she'd been planning to break into the mansion and prepared to shoot anyone living there. Instead he grabbed her neck and applied a nerve grip that rendered her instantly but temporarily unconscious.
BLAM!
The man got lucky, or unlucky depending on how you looked at it, and hit Logan in the shoulder with a bullet. Logan snarled, the pain sharp for a second then going numb as his healing factor began to take care of it. He popped his claws and sliced the weapon in half, leaving the man to wonder why his gun was suddenly light and useless.
Logan picked him up by his collar. "Get away from here. Far away."
"Uhhh…" The man dropped the remnants of the gun and cringed in Logan's grip.
"And don't come sniffing around the Institute again!" Logan dropped him and watched him scramble to his feet and run away, no thought to the two girls he'd left behind.
"Asshole." Logan scaled the gates easily and realised he could see a light on in the mansion, from downstairs in what he remembered as being the rec room. Heartened, he hurried up to the mansion and walked through the doors. The security system hadn't been turned back on when the power switched to the generator. That was sloppy of the Professor and Logan reminded himself to tell Charles that there were people out there now who didn't care about the law. Hell, these days there was no law.
He set the system himself, trying not to think that the Professor should have sensed him coming by now and would be here to greet him. Maybe there was a good explanation for that aside from the obvious…
"Get out!"
Logan turned, startled. A redheaded girl of maybe eighteen stood at the far end of the corridor, fists clenched. She was tall and startlingly attractive but Logan could smell the fear on her and knew if he didn't explain himself fast he could be in trouble. This was after all a school for mutants.
"Wait!" He held his hands up placatingly. He wasn't afraid of the redhead but he didn't want to start fighting her either, not when they were on the same side. "I'm a friend of Professor Xavier's. My name's Logan."
"Logan?" The girls voice was tremulous and Logan realised she'd heard his name before.
"Yeah. Me and Chuck go way back." A memory came back to him of one of the Professor's conversations with him. "Are you Jean Grey?"
"Uh…yeah." The girl's aggressive stance relaxed and Logan cautiously walked toward her. She looked exhausted, too young for the troubles she had no doubt been through since the flu had hit.
"So, where is the Professor?" asked Logan casually, afraid that he already knew the answer. Jean was too much on edge for her to have anyone around to calm her down.
"He…he died." Jean's voice was barely a whisper. "He died and I had to look after Storm and she kept screwing with the weather and then she died and Scott wouldn't get better and then he died and…and…"
"Hey kid…" Logan didn't know how to finish. He wanted to tell her it would be OK but that would be a lie and he already knew that Jean wasn't the kind of girl you could easily lie to. Instead he put an arm around her and after a brief hesitation she threw both her arms around him and began to sob.
"I don't know where my parents are!" She tried to catch her breath and buried her face in Logan's shirt. "They were on holiday and I can't get in touch with them and I tried to call my sister and she didn't answer the phone and now they don't work…"
Logan let her wear herself out crying before she straightened up and wiped her eyes, giving him a watery smile.
"I'm sorry Mr Logan," she said. "I'm not usually so hysterical."
"You've good reason to be upset," said Logan. "How long have you been here on your own?"
"Three days," said Jean, her voice hitching. "I buried them all in the garden…I couldn't call anyone and I didn't know what else to do…"
"You did the right thing." Logan kept his voice soothing, trying to suppress his own emotions. Charles Xavier dead. He would never have thought it. Charles had been a good man and a good friend. And Ororo, serene and beautiful, falling victim to some stupid virus. The boy, Scott, he had never met but he could still feel pity for a boy at the brink of adulthood, his life stolen from him before he had the chance to truly live. "Jean, you're a mutant aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"What are your powers?"
"I'm a telepath and I'm telekinetic too."
"Right." Logan came to a decision. "Now listen. I want you to go upstairs and get some sleep."
"But…"
"No arguments. You look like you haven't slept in days. I'm going to check the mansion security, make sure everything's OK. Oh, and don't use more light than you have to. You're attracting attention."
"What do you…" Jean realised what he was saying and paled. "Oh. I won't."
"If you want anything, use that telepathy to contact me."
"Do you mind me asking…what are your powers?"
"Healing factor." Logan didn't want to reveal too much at once. The girl was obviously already overwrought.
"Did you know you're bleeding?"
Logan glanced at the shoulder he took a bullet in a few minutes before. The healing factor had taken care of it so he had almost forgotten it was there. "Not anymore darlin. It's healed up."
"Oh." Jean was at a loss for words. Instead she decided to take Logan's advice and go up to bed. She had barely slept since the others had got sick and after they had died she hadn't been able to close her eyes without seeing the death spasms of the people she was supposed to be taking care of. Her thought process had become slow and clouded or else she might have checked Logan out mentally before allowing him in. Instead she headed for the stairs, the climb seeming almost beyond her, She went into her room, struggled out of her clothes and fell onto the bed, asleep as soon as she lay down.
Logan went around the mansion, checking the defences. They wouldn't keep out anyone really determined but for the time being they would have to do. He went upstairs and tracked Jean through her scent, standing outside her room for long enough to determine that she was sleeping deeply. Then he went into the garden to pay his last respects.
The fresh grave in the ground was wide enough for the three people buried there and Logan could only imagine the tremendous force of will that had made the tired, scared teenage girl dig the hole and bury her mentors and friends. The ground still showed the signs of the recent excavation but Jean had also planted some rudimentary markers, no doubt planning to replace them when she had the heart. For a few minutes he stood by the grave, his head bowed, the wind blowing his hair into further disarray than several hours on the bike without a helmet had done. Then he frowned, sniffing the air. Something around here smelled familiar, but when he looked up he saw only an owl perched on the ground nearby, looking at him.
"Give it up Mystique. I know it's you."
The owl morphed into the shape of a blue skinned woman, looking unusually sombre. "Haven't seen you around for a while Logan."
"Why did you come here?"
"I need…" Mystique sighed and pushed her hair away from her face, a gesture that struck Logan as surprisingly vulnerable for a terrorist. "I need help."
"Help." Logan would have laughed if the whole scenario hadn't been so surreal. "Why? No one left for you to manipulate?"
"You never change Logan." Mystique walked past him, toward the mansion. "I need to talk to Xavier."
"Go ahead," said Logan. "He's right here."
Mystique glanced down at the grave. "You're not serious."
"I wish I wasn't."
"No!" Mystique gazed at the ground, her expression caught between anger and despair. "He can't be dead now, not when…"
"You've been wishing him dead for years, you and Magneto both."
Mystique glared at Logan. "We never wished him dead! Especially not Magneto. We just wanted him to see our point of view!"
"That mutants are superior to humans."
Mystique looked ready to fire back a reply, then her body sagged. "Do we have to go through this argument again? It doesn't matter now."
"No, it doesn't." Logan took a cigar from his pocket and lit it, using the silence to gather his thoughts. "So, why do you need his help?"
"Magneto knew that Xavier was gathering a team of mutants to fight for his dream. He stole the idea, thought he could gather mutants to fight for his dream too, a dream of mutant superiority."
Logan puffed on his cigar, not answering.
"I was placed in charge of the team, but we only recruited one mutant before…well, before everyone got sick. His name is Todd. He's not got the flu. I don't know what to do with him."
"You could try looking after him."
"Dammit Logan! I have been looking after him! But he's a teenage boy, he needs people around him, hope for the future…"
"Since when have you been the maternal type?"
"Fuck you Logan." Raven walked away from the mansion, ready to turn into a bird and fly away again. Logan rolled his eyes, hurried over to her and caught her by the shoulder.
"Look Mystique. There aren't that many people left out there. You want to bring this kid over?"
Mystique looked doubtfully at the mansion. "Is there anyone still alive here?"
"Jean Grey."
"I know her. Little Miss Soccer Star. What about Scott? At least he's not so cliquey."
"He's dead. So's Storm."
"Shit." Mystique turned away from Logan and wandered further into the garden, wrapping her arms around herself. She looked up at the sky, composing herself for a few minutes. Logan finished his cigar, watching her. He had known Mystique for decades, since before mutants were common knowledge and they were pretty unique, and he had never seen her so unashamedly, uncalculatedly upset.
Eventually she turned back to Logan. "So, Jean's alive. About Todd…"
"Where is he now?"
"Asleep, back at the Brotherhood house. That's where we live."
"When he wakes up, bring him over here. Might as well start pooling our resources. One thing Raven. If you try in any way to double-cross us, I will take you out."
"I know." Mystique morphed into an owl and flew away, leaving Logan wondering what the hell he'd let himself in for.
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Lance sat in the public library, the book open in front of him. It had taken some time to break in, the doors a lot more solid than most of the shops, but in the end he had avalanched it open. It was the only place he could think of that could teach him how to take care of a child he had no idea how to look after.
"Right." Lance furrowed his brow. He had already worked out how to change the kid and the perils of having the Pampers being too large. Pretty gross but it washed off. Then he'd fed the kid again. He figured it was somewhere between one and five months old; it couldn't sit up and it was small and helpless. He'd managed to figure out that the kid was male – it was obvious when he changed the nappy – but apart from that he knew nothing about the child. Not his name, not his parents, nothing. And now the kid was screaming, sounding in pain. He didn't know what was wrong. Was it the water he'd given him when he found him?
He found the section marked 'Crying' and turned to it. There were a lot of reasons the kid might be crying. Trying to ignore the screams, he read through as quickly as possible.
Sighing, he rocked the kid as he read the first section. Was it dirty? No. Was it hungry? No. Was it gassy? What the hell did that mean?
Lance read out loud to focus his mind away from the yells. "After a feed, a child retains some gas. This is the air taken in whilst drinking milk. It can be painful and a child should always be burped after a feed. Burping a child is simple. Either place the child over your shoulder or on your knee and rub its back. The child should eventually let out some burps which release the gas and ease the pain…"
He didn't need to hear anything else. After all he had read about supporting a child's head, he decided to put the kid over his shoulder and rub its back. For a few seconds he quieted and then let out a tremendous –
BWERP!
A stream of milky puke cascaded over Lance's shoulder. With a cry of disgust he restrained himself from thrusting the kid away from him, letting the vomit soak into his shirt and making sure the kid was done before he settled it into the Moses basket he had swiped from a shop at the same time as getting the kid some new clothes.
"You could have warned me," he grumbled, yanking his shirt off. "Now I need a shower and you tell me where I can find some hot water?"
The kid cooed, happy.
"Easy for you to say." Lance sighed as he realised he was going to have to break in somewhere else for something to wear. "You'd better not do that every time."
The baby showed its gums to Lance and he decided to interpret that as a smile.
"You're going to the first girl I find," he said with casual chauvinism. "And I can't keep calling you kid. You need a name. What's your name?"
The baby farted loudly and closed its eyes.
"I suppose I could call you Lance Junior – no, that's not fair. How about Dominic? No, you don't look like a Dominic. Maybe, uh…oh I don't know. How do people choose kids names anyway?"
The baby, fast asleep, didn't answer.
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Pietro walked beside his sister, quelling the urge to run. She seemed content to go slowly, drinking in all the sights that passed them by. Pietro kept thinking that she was still in hospital issue clothes and if anyone saw them she would be back in the asylum before they could argue. He knew there were few people around now and that no one would care if Wanda was free, but he couldn't stop worrying.
"It's better than I remembered." Wanda turned 360 in the middle of the road. "All the stuff that don't think about when you're in the world. I missed it so much!"
Pietro gave her a look. "You missed trees and tarmac?"
"You try living without them." Wanda knelt and felt the ground beneath her. "You try spending half your life without fresh air and scenery and change. Then you'll know. This is life. This is what it's all about. Just to be free to take in what's going on outside."
"Whatever." Pietro fought the itch to put on speed. "Aren't you sorry your friend didn't come with us?"
"Lisa? No." Wanda finally began paying attention to her brother. "She has to do what she has to do. Do you know she's been in there since she was eight?"
"Eight?" Pietro tried to imagine it and couldn't. "What for?"
"Severe emotional problems, same as me."
"How do you know?"
"She told me, at night when no one was listening." Wanda reached out and grabbed her brother's hand. "Does it matter? I want to forget. I don't want to remember anything that happened to me there until the moment I look our father in the eye and tell him why I'm killing him."
Pietro thought she was joking until she looked into her eyes and realised she was one hundred percent serious.
"So, where are we going?" asked Wanda.
"Uh, I dunno," admitted Pietro. "I didn't make any plans from here. Where do you want to go?"
"I dunno." Wanda scowled. "Does it matter? Let's just…walk. We can figure out where we're going later."
"Yeah." Pietro squeezed her hand and just enjoyed the moment.
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Rogue found the main street of Caldecott County eerie. Quiet at the best of times, now it was deserted. Nothing moved. She cursed herself again for not just staying at home, driven out by an urge she didn't understand.
Just see for yourself that there's no one else here and go home.
The sporting goods shop loomed ahead of her, no lights apparent. The door was smashed open but that wasn't unusual. A few of the shops she had passed were similarly busted open. She pushed the door open, glancing around the shop and not seeing anyone. She sighed. Whatever had got into her, she had been proved wrong. There was no one here…
"Bonjoir,"
"GAH!" Rogue took a few steps back and almost tripped over her own feet. She got control of herself and looked up at the man who seemed to come out of nowhere. He was tall, dark haired and his eyes were…
Red on black…"I knew you'd be here," she blurted out.
Remy raised an eyebrow. "Oui? How?"
"I…don't know." Rogue couldn't stop staring at him. How had she known that he was going to be there? Was she psychic or something? She had been telling herself that she was losing her mind, thinking that there was some man hanging around the sporting goods shop and yet here he was.
Remy laughed. "The first person Remy sees for days and she's insane."
"I'm not insane," said Rogue indignantly. "I'm just confused. I thought you were just in my head."
Remy had no idea what she was talking about but she was a real, living person after so much death and confusion. Even if she was insane, he couldn't let her walk away. Just a few days alone showed him that he needed to have people around.
"So…Remy found a cooker." He held it out for her to look at. "Want to have dinner?"
Rogue began to laugh. "How could ah resist?"