The New Mutants
Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Comics and Marvel Enterprises.
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Story 20- Alternative School Part 10, Live to Tell
Located on the spacious campus of the Massachusetts Academy stands Conrad Hall, the residency-dorm assigned to the school's senior-most coeds. But unofficially, Conrad Hall had also earned a far more dubious distinction from those same senior students that resided there, who had affectionately nicknamed it 'The Brotherhood House' because of their secret affiliation with Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants.
On this mid-summer's night, the three Brotherhood girls who lived in that House were currently down on in its first-floor, gathered together in the living room in front of the large television in there.
"Alright, who wants chips, no dips?" Tabitha Smith cheerfully said, as she re-entered the living room with a large glass bowl in her hands, sitting it down on a short coffee table that lay in between the sofa and the TV in there.
"I'm good." Jennifer Stavros replied first, as she sat with one leg hanging off of one of the arms of a lone lounger-seat, which sat adjacent to the sofa.
"I'll get some in a minute." Joanna Cargill said next, from the sofa where she was seated.
Joanna, like Tab and Jen, was also dressed in summer attire and had on a charcoal-gray tanktop with black shorts. With Joanna's shapely features and the long, decorative braids that she had her hair tied back into, this athletically-built teen looked as though she could very easily pass for being a taller relative of the popular Williams' sisters.
"So, what'd I miss?" Tabitha asked the other girls, as she sat down on the sofa next to Joanna, noticing that the commercial break that had begun when she had gotten up to go into the kitchen, had now ended.
"Not much. The guy's lawyer is still workin' that same alibi." Joanna told her, as the three of them had been watching a crime drama show being rerun on late-night TV.
"Guess it's good just you two were in here. I made the mistake last time of askin' Irene that same question, and she told me everything. Including, how the ep was gonna end." Tabitha told them.
"She did the same thing to me too." Jennifer laughed from over in her chair, when suddenly they all heard a loud knocking coming from over at the front door of Conrad Hall.
"Wonder who it is?" Tab curiously said, as it was very unusual for the senior residence to get visitors, especially at this time of night.
"I'll go see. Probably just some of the guys from over at the junior's dorm." Jen guessed, as she walked over to the entrance area that lay between the living room and kitchen in front of the staircase.
"They better not be playin' that 'knock on the door and then run away' crap! I warned those dorks what I'd do if I ever caught 'em doin' that again." The verbally and physically intimidating Joanna told Jen and Tab, as she relaxed back into the sofa.
Meanwhile, as Jennifer had gone over and looked through the keyhole, she went ahead and opened the door after realizing that the person standing there was definitely not a student at the Massachusetts Academy.
"WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER?" A loud and belligerent voice angrily inquired from the doorstep. Jennifer had no idea who this middle-aged man with receding brown hair and a rounded waist was, and she was just as clueless to why he was ranting so. But Tabitha, however, immediately recognized the voice.
"God, how did he find me?" Tabitha thought to herself, as she jumped up from the sofa and raced over to the front door to confirm her worst fear.
It was him all right. Standing there at the front door was Tabitha's father, looking much the same as when she had last seen him nearly two years ago with his blue and white striped button-up shirt on, which he had left untucked outside of his worn-looking work jeans. And judging by Marty Smith's slightly wobbly stance, he also appeared to be just as drunk now, as he was when she had last seen him.
"What're you doin' here!" Tabitha exclaimed, as she had come to the door to now stand face-to-face with her father. Meanwhile, Jennifer had taken a few steps backwards, but was still standing right behind her best-friend.
"That's no way to greet me. I'm still your father, and I got a right to see what conditions you're livin' in here." Mr. Smith slurred in response, as he used his sizable arm to prop himself up against the front door's frame.
"Funny, our living conditions never seemed to bother you before." Tab disparagingly replied, as she stood and folded her arms in front of her.
"I came here because we need to talk, and you'll damn-well show me some respect while I'm here!" Mr. Smith now shouted, raising his voice once again.
"Fine, just c'mon before you wake up the whole house." Tabitha said, as she quickly went back inside to grab a windbreaker from a hall closet, before she went outside with her father and closed the front door behind them.
Because of the unique location and higher elevation of where the Massachusetts Academy stood in between the Berkshire Mountains, it caused the climate on campus to remain fairly cool at night, even in the middle of summer.
As Tabitha and her Dad walked outside on a night where the stars shone brightly, but where the moon was barely visible, they headed away from the embarrassment of the scene that her father had caused at the front door. Then, Tabitha spoke to him again.
"Well…" Tabitha now initiated the next part of their conversation, as she stood a few feet away from her father with her hands in the pockets of her white and pink windbreaker, whose length came halfway down on the red gym-style shorts that she had on.
"That's no way to act, especially after I went through so much trouble to find out where your mother put you." Mr. Smith replied, with a devious smile expressed on his face.
"Let me guess? The only reason you'd even bothered to come lookin' for me after all this time's because you're gettin' low on dollars, and you need your worthless daughter's mutie-powers to help you pick up the cash-flow again?" Tabitha speculated, as she had seen right through her father's facade of parental concern.
"All I need is a little help to get the creditors off my back, that's all. Workin' together just like we used to, we'll make some serious money in no time." Mr. Smith told her.
"In that case, you can forget it! I'm through with usin' my powers to break into places and help you steal shit." Tabitha angrily replied.
"It'll only be until I'm back up on my feet again, just enough to tide me over for a little while." Mr. Smith continued trying to persuade her.
"I told you NO! I'm not stupid Dad, I know why you really need that money sooo bad. You can go find someone else to help support your drinkin', and get you cash so you can go score some more drugs!" Tabitha yelled at him with both of her hands now out of her pockets and down by her side, as father and daughter were apparently alternating in a screaming contest to see who could be heard the farthest away.
"So, you up and win some scholarship to this rich-to-do school, and all of a sudden you're too good to lend your old man a hand!" Mr. Smith shouted back, as he now walked over closer to her, "But, now the more I think about it, I don't know why this place'd even be interested in a good-for-nothin', mutie-brat like you anyways?"
"God, I hate you! Why don't you just go get lost, and find some other family and make their lives' miserable!" Tabitha screamed some more at him.
"That's all of the back-talk I'm gonna take comin' outta you!" Mr. Smith shouted, as he lunged forward and violently grabbed his daughter around her arms. Tabitha knew full well what was next, now that she had finally managed to set off her father's temper, which was on even more of a hair-trigger in his drunken state.
Since arriving at the Massachusetts Academy, Tabitha had been trained to use her mutant powers to take on armed soldiers, other mutants, and to even stare down Sentinels without flinching. But, when it came to her father, Tabitha seemed to instantly revert back to that same defenseless and scared little girl that had suffered through years of abuse at his hands.
As Tabitha closed her eyes and braced herself for the all too-familiar sensation of her father's powerful fist hitting her, Mr. Smith suddenly and unexpectedly stopped in his tracks when he heard a strange sound coming from behind him.
Click-clack
Click-clack
Click. Clack.
After Tabitha and her Dad had gone outside, Jennifer had immediately rushed up the stairs inside of the Brotherhood House towards John's room, so that she could tell him about Tabitha's father being there. After John had scrambled back downstairs, he immediately saw that Joanna had gone and taken a position by a side window in the kitchen. As they both closely watched while Tab and her father's argument escalated, Joanna had suggested to him that they should all go outside and show Mr. Smith some tough, 'Brotherhood love'. But, the Brotherhood's deputy leader replied to Joanna that he would go out and deal with the situation, as he hurried outside through the kitchen's back door, and then quietly slipped around the side of the house to its front.
John had thought that while his own home life had been pretty shoddy, it was nothing when compared to the pure hell that his girlfriend had lived through. When she would be in the rare mood to actually talk about specific details from her past, even John would cringe internally at some of Tab's recollections. Memories, which ran the gamut from her father's constant verbal beratements of her, to being slapped or punched by him for just about anything he felt that she didn't do right, or that she just didn't do right enough for his liking. And, Tabitha had also told John about how things seemed to only get worse when her father learned that she was a mutant, taking his anger out on her at the shame he felt from having a freak for a daughter.
"I think you better let her go, NOW!" John Allerdyce loudly said to Mr. Smith in a demanding tone as this young man, who was very much in love with Mr. Smith's daughter, along his trusty metal lighter announced their insertion into this already tense situation.
"Stay outta this punk, this is between me and my daughter and none of your concern!" Mr. Smith replied, as he had now released his tight and wrenching grip on Tabitha's upper arms. Mr. Smith then stood there looking at John, somewhat struggling to regain his balance thanks to the fairly intoxicated state that he was in.
"Anything that has to do with her concerns me." John replied, as he continued slowly flipping the lid of his cigarette lighter open, and then slapping it closed with his hand.
"My daughter must've been reeaal nice to you, to have you come runnin' out here like this. Figures she'd be a tramp just like her mother!" Mr. Smith derogatorily remarked about Tabitha.
"Leave Mom outta this! You know, the best thing she ever did was when she left your sorry, broke, drunk ass!" Tabitha yelled back at him.
But this time, Mr. Smith's only response to Tabitha's comments was a lightning-fast backhand that found its mark on the side of her face, which forcefully knocked her down to the ground and on to her hands and knees.
Now, John understood precisely what Tabitha had meant when she used to tell him about how her father could be such an abusive and controlling man. He also saw for himself just what kind of person that her Dad really was, to be capable of treating his own flesh and blood in such a cruel and callous way. And, seeing him doing this to Tab filled John with an unfettered rage, the likes of which he had never in his life felt before.
"You don't know how bad you just screwed up." John said, as a wide grin came to his face and he flicked up a small flame on his lighter.
With John's own hot-temper flaring at the sight of his girlfriend down on the ground, he simply lost control. It broke him up to see tears as they rolled down on Tabitha's face from the tremendous pain that she was feeling, partially from her father's jolting shot, but more-so from the emotional bruises that lingered long after those physical ones had healed.
John reached deep into his mind, to that part which allowed him to control pyrokinetic fields and prepared to use his lighter in the most violent manner that he could think of. He went to increase the spark's volume exponentially, enough to allow him to create a moderately-sized fire-dragon, which would grab Mr. Smith and then show him what it was like to feel helpless at the unforgiving fury of his flames.
But try as John might, the small flame on the shark's-toothed cigarette lighter that he was holding out in front of him wouldn't do his bidding, almost as if his powers were somehow being blocked. Then, as a new presence stepped from out of the shadows next to the Brotherhood House, John learned that this assumption was very much close to the truth.
"Mr. Smith, I believe that your visit here has lasted long enough. I will not tolerate this abusive-aggressive nonsense of yours to continue on my campus any longer." Emma Frost, the Headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy very calmly said to him, as she had just arrived on the scene and now lifted the psi-screen that she had used to mask her approach from the other side of the campus.
After Tab's Dad had arrived on campus, one of the security guards there, who was named Gilbert and had been assigned to the Massachusetts Academy from the Inner Circle's special detail, had stopped and then verified Mr. Smith's identity through records stored in a palm pilot device in his possession. After Mr. Smith's insistence that he be allowed to see his daughter, Gilbert went ahead and allowed Tabitha's father entry onto the grounds. But, he also contacted Miss Frost at her private residence via his cell phone, and informed her of what was going on.
"You will now leave, and you won't remember coming here. Nor, will you ever have a desire to return." Miss Frost continued, as she used her first-order telepathic abilities to scramble Mr. Smith's memories, before planting a post-hypnotic suggestion in his mind.
"I…gotta be going." Mr. Smith said, as a glazed-over expression now washed over his face.
Miss Frost had proven, that while drunken fists and an ability to control one of the core elements of nature could be powerful weapons in their own right, ultimately they still paled in comparison to the power granted to a woman with the ability to manipulate the greatest weapon of all, the human mind.
Meanwhile, as a telepathically-dazed Mr. Smith had been expelled and now walked back towards a side-gate at the school, so that he could make his departure from the campus and begin his lengthy hitchhike journey back home to Roanoke, Virginia, Tabitha picked herself up from the ground with the left side of her face still painfully smarting from being hit by her Dad.
"Thanks, Miss Frost." Tabitha looked up and thanked her teacher for her assistance, as she used the back of her own hand to wipe away the tears that were still rolling down her face, partially smudging some of her makeup in the process.
"I will not have the likes of him interfering in what we are trying to accomplish here." Miss Frost coolly replied, as she took her glasses off and stood before her two students wearing a cream-colored, lightweight trench coat, which covered the typically skimpy lingerie that she preferred to slip into at night.
"Well, still, thanks anyways." Tabitha told her, as John had put his lighter back into his jeans pocket and came over to put his arm comfortingly around Tab.
"You two should go inside. It's getting late, and you both have an early session in the Combat Room scheduled for the morning." Miss Frost said to the couple, as she then turned away from them and headed in the direction back towards her private residence to retire for the night.
"Come on, let's go in." John told Tabitha, kissing her gently on her forehead, as they now turned and went back in through the front door of the Brotherhood House.
Upon re-entering their residency dorm, Tabitha and John were met by the sight of their fellow senior-squad members, who were now gathered in the living room and in the kitchen.
"You okay Tabby?" Jennifer was the first to ask, as she sat in the living room alongside Joanna and now Manuel, sounding genuinely concerned for Tabitha after they had seen what had transpired outside.
But, before Tabitha could respond to her friend's inquiry another one of their teammates, who had just come downstairs from his room and was wearing a simple white muscle-shirt and a pair of plain dark-colored shorts, seemed almost irresistibly compelled to make one of his customary mocking remarks.
"Say, why didn't you go ahead and invite your Pops in? I'm sure I can scrounge up a beer or six for him." Lance Alvers said to Tab from inside of the kitchen and began to laugh a little, although no one else within earshot of him thought that what he had said to be the least bit funny.
Especially Tabitha.
Under normal circumstances, Tabitha would have been more than eager to engage Lance in their usual exchange of insults, firing back at him with a verbal barrage, or possibly with one of her well-charged time bombs. But, having just gone a couple of rounds emotionally and physically with her own father, and with the side of her face still throbbing from being smacked by him, Tab just stared at Lance with an expression that said 'Why can't you just let it go for once, ass'.
As Tabitha felt new tears beginning to well up again, and because of how upset and embarrassed she felt by the entire situation, she absolutely did not feel like dealing with Lance at the moment. Nor even bothering with the trouble of giving a response to his remark, which seemed to be more of a low-blow from him than their usually contentious banter.
So, Tab simply let out a huffing sigh and instinctively spun back around, so that she could leave through the still open front door. But just as quickly as she had turned away, Tabitha felt a strong arm once again reach around her waist, halting her exit.
"Let's just go on upstairs." John whispered into Tabitha's ear, as the two of them then slowly turned back towards the direction of the staircase, which stood close to the kitchen by the entrance area.
"Hey Tab, look I--" Lance once again spoke to her, but this time in a more serious tone, when he was loudly and abruptly interrupted by John.
"One more word outta your mouth, just ONE more, and I'll turn your ass inside out!" John angrily warned Lance, as he now proceeded past the counter-area by the kitchen doorway, with his arm soothingly around Tabitha. The two of them then ascended up the stairs, and did so without hearing another word out of Lance.
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A little while later upstairs in Tabitha's bedroom…
"Here, let me take a look at it." John said to Tab, as they were lying together on her bed with his arms cradled around her from behind.
As she turned over on top of the coral-pink bedspread that covered her entire bed, which she and John had crashed on as soon as they had made it upstairs, Tabitha laid on her side to face John. He then took his hand and gently pushed Tabitha's long blonde bangs from in front of her face over to the side. John then lifted an icepack off of her face that had been wrapped up in a towel, which Tab had been holding up against her cheek to numb some of pain that she was feeling there.
Surprisingly, the icepack had been thoughtfully prepared and brought up for Tab a few minutes after she and John had come upstairs. It was done as a sort of peace-offering from another resident of the Brotherhood House, who had realized that he had crossed the line and gone too far with his earlier comments towards her.
"Yeah, you're probably gonna have a nice shiner in the morning." John said to Tabitha, as he gently inspected the swollen, discolorated area on her face in the dimly-lit bedroom.
"My Dad is SUCH a loser, with a big-ass 'L'!" Tabitha resentfully replied to John, as she quickly turned back over on the bed and faced away from him.
Tabitha then reached back behind her to grab John's arm, draping it back across her own waist. Tabitha then sat the icepack over on a nearby nightstand, where the windbreaker that she had been wearing was now plopped down on the floor beside of, and she proceeded to gingerly run her own fingers across the expanding puffiness that was on the side of her face.
"I guess you must really hate your old man for all the crap he's put you through?" John now posed to Tab, as he rested his head up on her left shoulder.
"You better believe it, I mean…" Tabitha began before pausing, as she was finally forced to confront those emotions buried deep within her regarding her true feelings towards her father, and about their relationship.
"Well, I…I guess there might be a small part of me that still cares about my Dad. But tell me John, how can anyone, any decent human being, do those kinda…things to his own daughter?" Tabitha resumed, as the thin line that existed between love and hate only served to complicate the matter for her.
Then, as much as she had struggled to hold them back, Tabitha began shedding tears once again as the emotional roller-coaster her father's return had put her onto continued pulling her along for the ride.
As Tabitha now uncontrollably bawled her eyes out, John softly kissed the back of her neck and caressingly rubbed her shoulder blades, letting Tab know that he would be there to help her through it. Then, something occurred to John.
Having now dropped her veneer of the tough, punk party-girl who only lived for the ultimate wild night or to pull the ultimate prank, John was getting another first-class glimpse into the 'real' Tabitha Smith, complete with the pain and vulnerabilities from her past that she had fought so hard to hide from the rest of the world. And it reminded John of the first real conversation that he and Tabitha had ever had together, which was shortly after his arrival in Snow Valley. He also remembered, in particular, the poem that she had managed to read in his private journal that day. Tabitha had told him several times afterwards about how, even now, that poem had remained as her favorite among his various writings-
The Real MeSome people always talk about how
they're bein' real or keepin' it real
like it's something you do
to just be cool or so you can say you're down
But bein' real isn't about acting a certain way
just to impress the rest of the world
Real, is that part of you
That's goofy or that doesn't fit in
And it's really that part of you
that sucks and that gets hurt
That's why when folks talk about bein' real
Most of the time what you're seeing is a mask they're putting on
to cover up that part of them that's realer than real …
As John lay next to Tabitha, who by now had finally managed to stop crying and was beginning to drift off to sleep, he thought about that poem he had written and about how it ran both ways. Tabitha, this girl whom he currently had his arms tightly wrapped around, was the only person that he had ever felt comfortable enough with to show the 'real' John Allerdyce to, revealing to her some of the hurts and insecurities that he had also carried around inside of him.
And as the night passed on, these two somewhat flawed individuals, the wise-cracking prankster and the brooding fire-starter, would remain there until it was time for them to get up, so that they could put their own masks back on once again.
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Story 21- Tired of Being Alone
Friday Night.
At Xavier's School for the Gifted, this meant the majority of the school's student body were nowhere in sight, either inside of the mansion or on campus. As for the faculty, the same could also be said. Although, not in every single case.
Scott Summers, who served in a dual capacity as one of the school's teachers and also as one of the X-Men's field commanders', was passing his time on this evening by engaging in a simulated exercise in the Danger Room, the underground training room designed by Professor Charles Xavier to help his X-Men develop and hone their mutant powers. But, for most of the X-Men, the Danger Room was also the place that allowed them to cut-loose with those powers, without fear of reprisal from a world that had yet to fully understand and accept them for these extraordinary abilities that they had been born with.
Which was something that the individual, who had just entered the Danger Room's control booth up above it, could unequivocally attest to.
"So, this is how you unwind after a long stressful week, by fighting for your life in a huge videogame?" Alison Blaire light-heartedly commented through the comm-speaker to Scott, who himself was still down in the Danger Room.
Alison had originally come down to the Danger Room after checking the school's security system. Seeing that there was someone training down there, she had decided to come find out who it was.
"Don't knock it until you've tried it." Scott grinned in response to Alison's question, as he looked up at her through the control booth's window. Scott had been in between combat simulations when Alison had come into the control booth, and now paused the program that he was running before the next training scenario could start.
"Well, I guess whatever floats your boat. But, I don't think you'll get me down there anytime soon to find out." Alison told him, as she observed that Scott was dressed in his black leather X-Men uniform and had on his ruby-quartz battle visor.
"Why not?" Scott curiously inquired of her statement, as the robots that had been holographically made to look like armed HYDRA soldiers stood motionless around him.
"Because a super-hero I'm definitely not." Alison responded, as she stood in front of the Danger Room's master console in the control booth, putting her hands down on its front edge and leaned slightly against it.
"The purpose of the Danger Room is for more than practicing battlefield tactics, it's also here to help us learn to better control our mutant powers. Come on down, and I'll show you what I'm talking about." Scott encouragingly said, as he invited Alison to come join him.
Alison then stood back from the console and took a moment to carefully consider Scott's offer, before she answered.
"I guess a little violence-therapy never hurt anyone." Alison smirked and shook her head a little, as she agreed to his proposition. Alison then turned back towards the control booth's door, so that she could head down the hallway and staircase that went straight down to the Danger Room's entrance.
In the mean time, Scott verbally ordered the Danger Room's computer to completely terminate the training session that he had been running, as the robotic HYDRA soldiers he had been fighting against lost their holographically-induced images, and were now lowered into a large holding level that sat beneath the Danger Room.
A short journey, and a short-time later…
"So, what's up first? Fighting Sentinels, or do we jump straight to taking on Magneto by ourselves?" Alison sarcastically asked, as she walked towards Scott.
But, Scott didn't respond immediately, as he was preoccupied with the sight of Alison gracefully sauntering towards him across the stadium-sized training facility. Alison had on a pair of form-fitting, medium-blue capris that came down to her ankles, and also saw had on a low-cut, short-sleeved blouse that matched. Upon closer inspection, Scott noticed that Alison's naturally blonde hair was now barely showing any traces of the crimson-colored hair dye, which she had used on it shortly before her arrival at the mansion.
"Nothing quite as advanced as that." Scott replied to Alison's question about the difficulty of the training exercise they were going to run. Scott then turned his gaze from Alison back up towards the control booth that she had just exited, now speaking directly to the Danger Room's computer.
"Computer, cue up training module b-003."
The Danger Room then responded to Scott'ss command, as a section of the floor about forty-yards away from them opened up, and a series of bulls-eye targets rose up and positioned themselves.
"The objective of this exercise is straight-forward, just hit as many targets using your mutant light-ray as you can. And since we're just starting, there won't be a time-limit." Scott explained to Alison, as she now stood right next to him.
"Yeah, no pressure there." Alison less than confidently replied, as she looked forward at the targets, "Those things are so far away, there's no way I'm even gonna hit one of them."
"I don't think you'll have a problem doing that. I was studying footage of your last concert and noticed a few things." Scott looked over and told Alison.
"You were studying me, huh? I didn't think you found me quite that interesting." Alison playfully replied, as she smiled and lightly tapped Scott in his side with her elbow.
"Well, um, I was actually looking at how you hit the Blob with that energy blast, when he jumped up on stage with you." Scott explained to her.
"Oh, that. Well, if I concentrate hard enough, I guess I can try to create that same kind of light blast. But, outside of that concert I've only done it a couple of times, and even then it was just by accident." Alison told him, "And as you saw, all the Blob did was just laugh it off."
"Maybe, but I want you to try something." Scott said, as he then called up to the Danger Room's computer and had it tune into a digital music channel that began playing out of the large speakers located in various places around the dome-roofed room.
"An '80's station? I guess you have been studying me, or at least my musical tastes, after all?" Alison laughed, as Madonna's Material Girl now played throughout the entire Danger Room.
"I just figured that the constant flow of music in here would help you out with this exercise." Scott replied, showing that he really had been studying more than her musical tastes, and had gotten a fairly good understanding of how her mutant powers worked, "Now, let's see what you can do."
"Okay." Alison closed her eyes and replied, as she then held her right hand out in front of her.
Alison proceeded to summon forth the energy, which she had been storing in her body as a result of the sonic vibrations from the music, and directed it into a light blast that she aimed at the target range in the Danger Room. The resulting light-beam easily traveled the length across the Danger Room over to the targets, just like Scott had said. But, Alison's accuracy was very much off, and she only ended up nicking the edge of one of the bulls-eyes.
"You don't have to close your eyes, your light-blast won't hurt you." Scott told Alison, as he came over and stood right behind her, putting his leather-gloved hands caressingly over hers, before clasping them together.
Scott then configured Alison's hands into the shape of a gun, just as he had seen her do when the Blob had crashed her concert in New York City and began his rampage through Madison Square Garden.
"Look at the target and focus. I want you to imagine that you're channeling all of that light power in your body, and that you're going to release it right through your finger-tips." Scott whispered into Alison's ear, as he still stood very closely behind her and grasped her arms underneath her elbows in a supportive embrace, while Alison aimed once again at the one of the targets in the Danger Room.
"What, use the force then?" Alison joked with him, as she cocked her head back slightly to look up at Scott, all the while remaining closely wrapped up with him as they stood together.
"Something like that." Scott smiled in response, "Now, go ahead and try it again."
This time Alison concentrated very hard and did just as Scott had told her, focusing on the target in front of them and imagining in her mind that a tidal wave of light energy was about to erupt out of her. And it paid off, as a tremendously powerful laser-blast emerged from her hands, this time hitting one of the targets right in its center and blowing it to bits.
"Whoa, did I just do that?" An astonished Alison now asked, as she and Scott stood together looking at the smoldering remains of the target across from them in the Danger Room.
"Yeah, it was all you." Scott confirmed for her.
"Wow, I didn't think I had that kind of power in me." Alison told Scott, as she bouncingly turned around and excitedly spoke to him, "Not only are you good with the motivational speeches, but you make a pretty good crash-course instructor too."
"With a little bit of work, I think you might even reconsider your decision about joining the X-Men." Scott now looked down into Alison's ravishing blue eyes and told her, as she was still standing very close in front of him with her hands lightly pressed up against his chest.
"Look out, here comes the next X-girl ready to save the--" Alison was smiling and humorously saying to him, when out of nowhere Scott suddenly interrupted her in mid-sentence. Although, his interruption didn't come in the form of words.
Rather, it happened when Scott unexpectedly leaned forward and kissed Alison, a kiss that he delivered to her in a surprisingly strong and passionate manner, and one that caught her completely off-guard.
"--world…" Alison softly uttered after their impromptu lip-lock had ended, as she now finished her sentence.
Alison then stood there in front of Scott, looking over to her right and sort of stared off into space with what appeared to be a reasonably stunned look on her face.
"Look, I'm, um, sorry, I shouldn't have…have done that." Scott took a few steps back from Alison and now apologetically said to her, after he had just very uncharacteristically and impulsively acted on the affectionate sensibilities that he been harboring for her. Scott's feelings towards Alison had building inside of him for quite some time, which had begun not too long after their initial meeting.
Alison continued to just stare up at him, as they stood in the center of the Danger Room together, and Scott then turned to quickly walk over to its exit. But, he left before giving Alison the chance to regain her composure and speak to him once again.
"Scott, wait, it's okay. You don't have to go." Alison finally managed to call out to him, just as the Danger Room's doors slid closed behind Scott.
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Some time later that evening…
In one of the small study's rarely used by the mansion's other residents, Alison found herself sitting behind a piano located in there. Even though it was highly unlikely that she would ever get the chance to record any of her new music anytime soon, Alison still continued to write and work on the songs that seemed to constantly come to her, having jotted down a good number of these unfinished musical compositions in a notebook that she kept in her room.
Then, as she played a few chords on the piano in an unstructured melody, searching for the right key as she wrote an accompanying part to one of her songs, Alison stopped when she felt a presence standing behind her at the doorway. She turned around to see that it was Scott standing there, and that he had now changed out of his uniform into a more casual outfit. Scott had on a yellow short-sleeved shirt with navy blue vertical stripes on it, a shirt that he had left unbuttoned to reveal a white t-shirt that he had on underneath it, and Alison also noticed that he had on a pair of his customary khaki slacks.
"Oh, hey you." Alison smiled, as she spoke first and greeted him.
"I suppose you must think I'm completely nuts for the way I ran out on you downstairs?" Scott now posed to Alison, as he stood there with his shoulder leaning up against the doorframe.
"Actually, I'm not so much thinkin' you're nuts, as I'm wondering if I'm really that bad of a kisser?" Alison playfully inquired, as she looked over at him from the piano bench.
"No, that's not it at all. The kiss was great, REALLY great in fact. I guess my problem is that it's just been a while since I've kissed anyone like that." Scott told her.
"Well, I sure don't see any problems, because you obviously haven't lost your touch during that time." Alison semi-smirked in response, referring to the effect that Scott's kiss had on her, "But, if it wasn't bad, then what is it?"
Alison then slid over on the piano-bench and made room for one more, as she motioned for Scott to come into the study and join her. After Scott came over and took a seat on the bench beside her, he sat there quietly preparing for a moment to explain to her what was really going on inside of him. As Scott searched for those words, Alison attempted in vain to gaze into his eyes, which were concealed fairly-well behind the ruby-quartz lenses of his glasses.
"I think I just felt guilty for enjoying it so much." Scott started, as he put himself out on the line and opened up to Alison, nervously running his right-hand back through his dark-brown hair one time while speaking, "You see, before you came here I had been in a very long relationship with a woman who used to live here. We were very much in love, even seriously talking about marriage. But, we only got as far as talking, because…"
"You're talking about Jean Grey, aren't you?" Alison interrupted and said, which caused Scott to obviously be taken back a little, since Jean had died nearly a year before Alison had even met the X-Men.
"Jubilee and Kitty told me a lot about her, and about how serious the two of you were before…you know." Alison continued, as she very lightly slid her fingers across the surface of the piano keys in front of her without pressing them down, revealing to Scott how she had found out about that particular part of his life, "I mean, it's totally understandable that you'd still have some issues to work through about her, and about the relationship you two had. I just want you to know I want to be there for you, when you're ready, and I don't want you to move any faster than you think you can handle."
After hearing this understanding response from Alison, Scott sat on the piano bench next to her and gazed into her eyes for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was just a few brief moments.
"Thank you." Scott was finally able to reply to her statement.
Then, slowly but steadily Scott slipped his left hand over on top of Alison's at the edge of the piano, letting his fingers glide over her silky, smooth skin. Then, Scott reached over and smoothly placed his right hand against the side of Alison's face, before he slid even closer to her on the bench and leaned in to kiss her.
But, this time there were no feelings of apprehension or guilt within Scott, just the exhilaration to be felt from an intimate proclamation between two people of the romantic intrigue that they held for one another.
And, it was a romantic curiosity that these two lone individuals obviously wanted to further explore, as Scott and Alison continued their tender kiss together for some time. Scott without question had shown Alison that he was now ready to move onto that next part of his life, and hoped that his gesture told her that he wanted it to be with her playing a very significant role in it with him.
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Story 22- Alternative School Part 11, The Cards Never Lie
At the Massachusetts Academy, its Headmistress Emma Frost had gone to great lengths to put together a top-notch teaching staff, one who was capable of administering to her students the complete knowledge and skills that they would need in order to become the future leaders and vanguards of their generation. As a result, Emma Frost had also had to seek out teachers who were willing to deal with the unusual needs sometimes required of her rather unique student body.
While this small group of teachers, whom she had personally hand-picked out of an exclusive pool of educators and academics, had done their jobs admirably and were well compensated as a result, there were still instances where Emma had to resort to other experts that were more adept to give the specialized, one-on-one instruction that a few of them needed.
Case in point…
"Mam'selle Adler, I do not believe that I will ever fully grasp this new aspect of my mutant powers." Marie-Ange Colbert, the young mutant known as Tarot said to her teacher, as they were both currently inside of one of the classrooms within the main academic hall at the Massachusetts Academy.
Marie-Ange was sitting at a table at the back of this classroom, still garbed in her magenta and purple training uniform. The brunette teen, with dark-brown hair that had lighter-brown highlights in them, had been sent directly from her afternoon workout in the school's Combat Room to this special tutorial, all at the special directive of Miss Frost herself.
Irene Adler, who also went by the designation of Destiny due to her mutant ability to predict the future with a reasonable degree of accuracy, was now trying to instruct young Marie-Ange in how to also master this particular talent.
"Navigating something as boundless as time itself is not a leisurely endeavor." Ms. Adler told Marie-Ange, as this older lady with silver-gray hair who was wearing a simple lavender dress that buttoned in the front, sat with her hands placed together up on the rounded table right in front of her.
"But, seeing the future itself, c'est impossible." Marie-Ange remarked, as she sat at the table across from her teacher and stared at her tarot cards laid out in front of her, "Now, I understand why my grandmother, who first taught me how to read the tarots, was barely able to use them to in a manner such as this."
"Nothing is impossible. Sit and listen to one who has spent most of her lifetime awash in the myriad of possible realities, it will merely take you time and much practice to be able to do so." Ms. Adler told her.
Although the dark sunglasses that Ms. Adler wore provided an unmistakable clue as to her sight-deficiency, with a power such as the one that she possessed it would be just as much of a mistake to label Destiny as handicapped.
"Now, I want you to try again, and I want you to remember what I have taught you about focusing first on the near present. The farther in the future that you try to look, the greater that the chance of inaccurate predictions will occur." Ms. Adler now instructed Marie-Ange, as Tarot looked back down into the tarot cards in front of.
Immediately, Tarot seemed to enter into a trance-like state, as the pupils in her eyes shrank and her mind began to once again fill with events that she could have no way of imagining on her own.
"I see…a great bird of fire, rising up from the ashes and reaching up to set both the heavens above and the earth below ablaze with her awesome might…" Tarot now told Ms. Adler, as these innumerable visions flashed in her mind like a slide-show being run at a million-miles a second before her very eyes, "Now, I see the harbinger of doom, a being born of pure destruction itself, bent on establishing his own Apocalyptic world order on…wait, now I see another world, one where mutantkind is safe, in control, at peace, thanks to a mighty House built by M--"
Then, just as before, Tarot's mind simply could not process anymore of these infinite visions flowing into her, and she had to break the psionic-link with her tarot cards before they completely overwhelmed her.
"Je suis désolée(I am sorry). I…could not take much more." Marie-Ange apologized, as she now slumped back into her chair and looked through the classroom's window out onto this partly cloudy afternoon.
"It is alright child. Each time that you allow yourself to sift through the flowing streams of time itself, you become stronger. Your abilities are improving one step at a time, just as they should be." Ms. Adler reassured her, as Marie-Ange sat and rested for a moment. Then, she spoke to her instructor again.
"Mam'selle?" Marie-Ange now aksed her.
"Yes…" Ms. Adler replied, waiting for Marie-Ange to ask her a question, although Destiny had a very good idea of what that question would be.
"What do all of these visions mean?" Marie-Ange posed to her, confused by some of the things that she had been seeing.
"Possibly nothing. Perhaps to us, everything. We won't know for certain until we have had the chance to look further into these possible tomorrows, to determine whether they actually belong to our timeline, or to an alternate time and place." Ms. Adler explained to her.
"There is one premonition that I continue to see more clearly than the others. It has to do with a great betrayal, where one close to those around her will leave to take up the cause of another." Marie-Ange revealed, as she had been seeing one specific vision in the many sessions since she began working with Ms. Adler, "Should we inform Mam'selle Frost of this?"
"No, not yet. No potential timeline that we see is guaranteed absolutely. I suggest that we continue to look for those prerequisite events in our timeline, which would be necessary to make such a defection come to pass." Ms. Adler said to Marie-Ange, as Tarot began reading her cards anew, and once again attempted to gain a better view of the future through them.
Meanwhile, Ms. Adler sat in her chair across from the young French girl, and thought about what Tarot had asked her. Being more experienced with her clairvoyant powers, she had also been seeing the same visions that were now being revealed to Tarot.
And Destiny was slowly becoming certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this departure would indeed happen very soon in their here and now. Destiny's powers also allowed her to see how this act would just be an opening salvo, in what would rapidly turn into an escalating conflict between these two powerful mutant factions, who were destined to play such a defining role in the future that was to come…
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A/N: Special thanks to those that reviewed the last chapter-
Independent Fire- Glad you liked a lot of what went on last chapter with Lance at the Massachusetts Academy and down in Westchester with Alison and Scott, and I hope that trend continued with this chapter too.
El Varon- Glad you liked Cap's inclusion and Angelica's re-emergence from limbo (no, not that one). And, I guess I'd just be wasting my time in asking if you were interested in my disco-compilation CD's?
TheDreamerLady- Glad you liked the Catseye mention. And I'll have to look and see if another appearance by her can't be somehow squeezed in. And Scott can be funny. Sometimes. When the moons are in strict alignment.
Oh, and didn't you hear? The big words are on a quest for global dominance. They're coming to a neighborhood near you soon…