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 24- True Colors
Location: The Salem Center Mall, Westchester County
Located right on the outer northern edge of the boundary that surrounded Salem Center proper, sits a sprawling retail complex in this part of mid-New York State. Not all that different from those shopping malls found in most other cities and towns across the United States, Salem Center's Mall had originally been built in a section of town set aside for commercial and business development, an area collectively referred to by its residents as New Salem Center. While serving a vital economic role for this suburban community, the mall had also seen a number of renovations, remodelings, and expansions in that time as well.
But, the one thing that remained much the same in all of that time, was that of the Salem Center Mall continuing to serve as the choice destination for those teenagers and young adults in the general surrounding area that came there to gather and socialize together.
Case in point were two such individuals, who happened to be out on an excursion of their own to the mall on this day.
"So, whad'ja think?" Jubilee was the first to speak, as she inquired the opinion of her blonde companion this evening. He was dressed in a simple, short-sleeved brown polo-shirt and dark-colored pants, as they exited the enormous multi-plex movie theatre built inside of the Salem Center Mall.
"It was okay. It wasn't that bad of a movie or anything, I guess, and lots of action is always a plus." Doug Ramsey replied while walking beside Jubilee, as the couple came out into the mall loosely holding hands together.
They were greeted by the sight of a sizable crowd of other individuals around their own age, all standing and waiting in line in front of the movie theatre within the mall.
"Guess next time instead of Mr. And Mrs. Smith, we'll have'ta check out somethin' else." Jubilee sarcastically remarked, as she looked up at a line of posters on the movie theatre's wall, which by now this late in the summer was listing almost all of the season's blockbusters that had already come out, "Maybe even Star Wars, so we can get us a mega-dose of all that heavy-breathing action. Although, me and some of the guys at school went and saw it right after it opened."
"Yeah, I've seen it three times already." Doug told her, as he and his girlfriend who were out on a date, walked out further into the mall together.
"Talk about déjà-freakin'-vu." Jubilee thought to herself, as she was reminded of Kitty's own repeat viewership of the movie, and of her overall obsession with Star Wars in general. Then, Jubilee gave a response to Doug's statement.
"Anyways, I'm learnin' how to cope with all you 'light-sabre junkies'. So, just as long as you don't come here dressed up as a Stormtrooper, then we'll be cool." Jubilee told him.
"No way, I'd never dress go anywhere dressed up like a Stormtrooper." Doug looked over at Jubilee, reassuringly putting his arm around her waist, "I mean, my friends say my Chewbacca costume is light years better."
"Uhhh…huh..." Jubilee very slowly articulated, giving her boyfriend a strange and unsure look, as she looked over at him and stood evaluating whether this option was truly the preferable alternative.
That is, until Doug could no longer keep a straight face and started laughing out loud.
"I wish I owned a camera-phone, so I could catch the expression on your face right now. It's priceless!" Doug playfully said to her, as Jubilee took a step away from him, breaking the romantic one-arm embrace that they had been in.
"You're, like, ohhh-so funny." Jubilee said, as she gave him a pouty-smile in response, now realizing that Doug had been putting her on.
Then, Doug and Jubilee once again interlaced their hands together, and continued on through the mall, heading for its Food Court. That is, until something caught Jubilee's eye.
"Say, just hang here for a sec." Jubilee told Doug, as they paused their journey with her pointing over at a display window for a clothing store, which carried only the latest and hottest fashions, "That skirt is madd hot, I have a blue sweater at home that it would sooo go with."
Jubilee then gave Doug a quick kiss on the side of his face before heading over to the clothing shop's entrance to find aforementioned skirt, swearing to him that she would be right back. But by now, Doug and Jubilee had been going out long enough that he had a better understanding of what 'right back' could mean, and promptly found a nearby mall bench to have a seat on.
As he sat there, Doug found various ways to keep himself occupied. One such way was a little game that he liked to play when he was alone, which he referred to as 'reading'. He would sit and observe people that he didn't know, such as the other mall shoppers walking all around him, and he would try to guess what their personalities were like based on their body language and how they carried themselves. What Doug soon came to learn was that he had actually gotten pretty good at it, and was usually pretty accurate with his assumptions whenever he would get the chance to talk to one of those individuals that he had been observing.
But, Doug's perceptive postulations were suddenly interrupted, when someone who had come down the escalator behind the bench that he was sitting on, unexpectedly came up and spoke to him.
"What's up, Doug?" Lawrence, who also went to Hamilton High with him said, as he came and took a seat next to Doug on the bench, striking up a conversation with him in spite of the fact that they could barely even be considered to be casual acquaintances of one another.
While Doug spent most of his extra time at school participating in its computer club and other academic extracurricular activities, Lawrence was one of the school's athletes-extraordinaire, excelling in sports like football, basketball, and baseball. And it was rare, as in never, that members of these two circles intermingled with the other at Hamilton.
"Um, how's it goin'?" Doug replied, as he reluctantly engaged Lawrence's very firm handshake, after he had sat down next to him amidst a crowd that was passing them by on both sides of the bench.
"So, you like comin' to the mall and sittin' out here all by yourself alot or somethin'?" Lawrence asked him, doing so in a mocking tone that Doug and his friends had become accustomed to hearing from the 'jocks' at school.
"I'm not here by myself." Doug clarified for him, "I'm just sittin' here, waiting for my girlfriend to come back."
"Really?" Lawrence remarked, as he started to laugh a little, "And, since when does a computer geek like you find time to have a girlfriend?"
"Since before summer started." Doug informed him, and wondered why he couldn't also get a break at least during the summer from the harassment that he already had to endure from Lawrence and his crew for most of the year.
"Let me guess, she doesn't go to our school either?" Lawrence said, with heavy skepticism in his voice as he looked over at Doug.
"Actually, yeah, she sure doesn't." Doug replied, with a fair amount of sarcasm on his part now.
"I guess you're also gonna tell me that she's had some sudden family emergency, which's why she's nowhere in sight now?" Lawrence smirked, as he continued voicing his doubts about the existence of Doug's alleged girlfriend.
"More like a fashion emergency. But, you don't have to take my word for it, she's right over there." Doug told Lawrence, as he now pointed over towards the small clothing boutique close by.
Jubilee could be seen inside through the entrance, standing by one of the clothing racks within as she tried to decide whether or not she really wanted the skirt that she had seen in the display case outside.
"Which one?" Lawrence inquired, as there were a few other young ladies in the store that were also shopping alongside Jubilee.
"She has on the pink and black top." Doug further pointed out, as Lawrence finally realized who Doug was talking about, seeing the girl who also had on a very noticeable pair of large, silver-hooped earrings with huge 'X's' embossed in the center of each of them.
But, that wasn't the only thing that Lawrence noticed about her.
"Oh. Her." Lawrence replied, his tone far from being enthusiastic after seeing who Doug's girlfriend was.
"And, what is that supposed to mean?" Doug now inquisitively replied.
"Nothin', man. Just forget I said it." Lawrence told him.
"No, if you have something to say, then just come on out and say it." Doug said, now in a slightly demanding tone.
"I didn't think you were actually into girls like that." Lawrence replied, as he looked over at Doug and rolled his eyes in a snobbish manner, expressing an obvious disdain for Doug's romantic choice.
"Girls like what?" Doug continued with his line of questioning, although by now he had a pretty good idea of what Lawrence meant. But still, Doug wanted to give Lawrence the benefit of the doubt, until he actually heard the words come out of his mouth.
"I just meant Japanese girls, that's all." Lawrence stated for him, now being far less subtle with what he had meant.
"Well, I am into girls that are witty, beautiful, and that also just happen to be Asian-American, or any other race for that matter. But, compared to the ones I've seen you with, I guess we're really not into the same thing now are we? Especially, on the first two counts." Doug stated for Lawrence, as he raised his voice more than just a little bit.
"Huh? That supposed to be some kinda cut on Charlene, Dork!" Lawrence defensively replied, as the more muscular teen shot up from the bench and stared Doug down.
"You tell me." Doug responded, as he stood up also and their demeanors grew more intense towards the other by the second.
Doug now fully expected Lawrence to punch him out right there, and proceed to pound on him for his derisive remark about one of the school's top cheerleaders, who was also one of the most popular girls in the entire school, but Doug didn't care. Any potential risk to his own safety and welfare was well worth it, particularly when it came to defending the honor of his own girlfriend.
"Hmmph, whatever man." Lawrence told Doug, as he shook his head and waved his hand in a swiping motion, before he turned and quickly left.
Lawrence's actions implied to Doug that he simply wasn't worth the time, or the headache of Lawrence having to deal with the mall's security because of the two of them fighting on the premises. About a minute after Lawrence's departure, Jubilee came out of the store and hurried over towards Doug with a shopping bag in her hand.
"What was that all about?" Jubilee worriedly questioned him, as she had been able to see from the cash register inside of the store that there was some kind of verbal, and almost physical, confrontation going on between Doug and Lawrence.
"We were having…a difference of opinion, that's all." Doug said to Jubilee, as he was still fuming over the incident, and had since taken a seat back down on the bench once Lawrence had left. Doug now sat looking down at the brown and white tiled mall floor, attempting to avoid going into the offensive details of what their exchange was really about.
"Well, it looked like it was more than just some difference of opinion to me. More like 'muscles' was wantin' to do you some major damage, if anything." Jubilee replied and probed further, as she could see that whatever their disagreement had been about, it had upset Doug to the point that his usually mellow personality was completely absent at the moment.
"Well, our difference had to do with him being a prejudiced bonehead, and I took exception to that." Doug finally revealed, as he looked up at Jubilee from the bench, before he stood back up from it.
"What, did he know I'm a mutant?" Jubilee now asked, as she came over and stood very close to Doug, speaking to him in a softer, whispering tone.
"No, it's something more obvious than that." Doug replied, as he figured that Jubilee did have a right to know what had been said about her, "He had a problem with you being Japanese. I started to correct him and tell him that your parents had actually immigrated here from China, but I didn't really see it doing much good, or making a dent through his thick skull anyways."
"C'mon, you should've at least told that guy I was part of the cool Asians clique." Jubilee remarked, as she instantly reverted to using sarcasm as a defensive mechanism, which was how she had learned to deal with painful or emotionally stressful situations.
But, Jubilee had as of late become so preoccupied with worrying about all of the problems associated with her being a mutant, that she had forgotten how much plain, good old-fashioned racism sucked.
And, how much it hurt. Which Doug could now see in her demeanor and her body language, as he came over and put his arms around Jubilee and hugged her.
"You want to go ahead and head back home?" Doug now asked Jubilee, as he stood back and released her from his embrace, wondering if she might want to just call it a night.
Jubilee then stood there in silence for a moment, as she thought about his offer and about what she now wanted to do.
"Screw that! I'm not gonna let some dickhead ruin our night." Jubilee smirked and ardently told Doug, as she gave him a kiss on the side of his face.
"Then, what do you want to do?" Doug continued asking, requesting her opinion of what their next activity of the night should be.
"Why don't we head for Harry's, and see if there's anything major happenin' there?" Jubilee suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Doug responded, as he put his arm back around Jubilee, and they strode out hand-in-hand together, heading for the mall's exit and the parking lot outside.
Doug and Jubilee's next destination would be a small local diner known as Harry's Hideaway, which just like the mall, continued to endure as a time-honored gathering place for many of Salem Center's teenagers.
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Story 25- A Kitten No More (Flashback)
Location: Deerfield, Illinois
Upon first impression, it would appear that Deerfield was your typical, American suburban community. With a modestly low crime rate, a moderate to high average income among its residents, and being able to boast having a top-notch public school system, Deerfield was where the affluent flocked to raise their families, hopefully giving their children the best start that they possibly could.
But, following lengthy and considerable discussions within one of its numerous households, Carmen and Terri Pryde had come to the conclusion that Deerfield was no longer where their daughter Katherine should remain. Having spent a good portion of this afternoon speaking with Professor Charles Xavier, a highly respected expert in the field of education along with a member of his faculty Dr. Jean Grey, the Prydes' had decided to send their only child to Professor Xavier's private school located in upstate New York.
It was a decision that, while difficult enough for her parents, was most certainly was not sitting well with Kitty at the moment either. Especially, when considering the rather unique set of circumstances that had drawn Professor Xavier to Deerfield in the first place.
"Kitty, are you out here?" Jean Grey said, as she stepped out of the backdoor of the Pryde residence on this crisp, late winter evening.
Dressed in a conservative black pantsuit, which she was wearing with a cream-colored turtleneck sweater underneath her coat jacket, Jean stood on the back porch and surveyed the area on this mostly cloudy day. Not seeing Kitty anywhere in sight, Jean closed her eyes and then turned to another means of locating the young teen, who had stormed off during their conversation with her, her parents, and the Professor. Jean now utilized the low-level telepathic abilities, which had been afforded to her thanks to her mutant powers. At the speed of thought Jean was able to quickly locate Kitty, who was sitting up in a tree house less than a dozen yards away from her.
"Kitty, can I come up?" Jean called out to her, after she had walked across most of the large backyard that struggled to hold onto the last vestiges of winter's icy grip, with spring now just around the corner. Jean came and stood at the bottom of a huge and aged oak tree out there, looking up to the tree house right above her.
"It's a free country. Besides, it's not like I can stop you anyways." Jean heard a voice reply from within the tree house, and thus accepted the less than friendly invite from Kitty to come join her.
After climbing up the ladder that led through an opening in the center of the tree house's floor, Jean ventured further into the structure that looked to be almost five-feet in height, and eight-feet by eight-feet space wise on the floor. Jean saw that Kitty, who was wearing a yellow knit sweater and blue jeans that came to a slight flare at the cuff, was sitting on the tree house's wooden floor with her back up against one of its walls, her legs drawn up close into her chest.
As Jean took in the sight of the younger girl sitting in there, she could tell from Kitty's appearance with her shortly-cut, chestnut brown hair, which was in stark contrast to her own longer, almost fire-red locks currently tied back into a single ponytail, that the teenager was still very upset. Kitty looked as though she had been crying this entire time, ever since she had run out here after storming out on their living room conversation.
"Just so you know, I'm not gonna go to your school for circus freaks." Kitty defiantly imparted upon Jean, her voice cracking with pain as she sat up against the wall and looked away from the older woman, staring off into space out of the tree house's paned-window.
"It's not like that, not at all." Jean tried to reassure Kitty, as she sat down on the wooden floor facing right across from her.
"Easy for you to say, you just work there." Kitty replied, as she still looked off into space and gave Jean a taste of her snappy sarcasm, which seemed to surface when she really got upset.
"True, I do work there. But, our students are treated just as any student with special needs would be. We're there to help you, to help anyone that's a--" Jean was saying, when Kitty abruptly interrupted her.
"A freak." Kitty huffily finished for her, as she folded her arms over in front of her.
"I was going to say, anyone that's a mutant." Jean corrected her.
"Mutant's just the politically correct way of describin' how the rest of the world looks at people…at weird people like me." Kitty said, as her fairly astute observation quickly gave way to a fresh round of tears, which now began to pour out of her.
Jean could certainly understand why Kitty was so upset, now that her entire world had essentially been turned upside down, all thanks to a genetic quirk that she had been born with. Jean immediately thought back to when she wasn't that much younger than this thirteen year-old girl before her, when she first discovered that she also had these strange new powers that she could barely fathom, let alone understand or control on her own.
Jean also remembered just how scared she was on the day when her powers first unwittingly emerged. As her best friend Annie lay dying in her arms, after being the victim of a hit-and-run driver, Jean wound up experiencing her friend's death on a telepathic level on the side of a road that ran close to their houses. It was such a horrific experience that it resulted in having an unimaginably traumatic effect on Jean for years afterward.
"I know everything has been pretty rough since you found out you were a mutant, and I know how scared you must feel, but believe me things will get better." Jean reached over and touched Kitty on her shoulder, trying to comfort and once again reassure her.
"You know? How would know about any of this? You don't know what it's like to have your parents act like they're all of a sudden ashamed of you, and want to send you away because now you're the family embarrassment! And, all you know about being a mutant is what you've heard about, so I don't want to hear anything about what you know--" Kitty disparagingly shouted, as she finally turned her attention from the window to look at Jean, her tear-stained face and reddened puffy eyes now focused intensely on her.
"Young lady, I know a lot more than you could probably imagine." Jean now interrupted, as she decided that it was time for her to reveal to Kitty just how much she actually did 'know' about being a mutant, closing her eyes and raising her right hand up out in front of her.
Without warning, one of Kitty's old Barbie dolls, which had been left abandoned out in the tree house for some time now, rose up from its dollhouse over in the corner that it had been laying beside. Then, the doll began to slowly float all around the tree house, startling Kitty when it came over and hung in the air suspended right in front of her.
"How…how'd you do that?" Kitty now asked Jean in a fairly astonished tone, her eyes now wide-open after seeing this feat.
"Let's just say I have a little first-hand experience in knowing what it's like to be a mutant myself. And usually, its without the hands." Jean tried to humor Kitty, referring to her other mutant gift of telekinesis, which she had just put on display for Kitty.
Jean then used her powers to gently drop the doll into Kitty's lap, which Kitty sat and looked at longingly. Kitty now visually examined the Barbie doll, wishing that she could go back to those days in her life when everything was so much simpler. She didn't have to deal with being a mutant, and the most stressful thing that she had to worry about was picking out which outfits Barbie and her friends were going to wear today.
"You know, I haven't thought about this Barbie or this tree house in a long time. Today's probably the first time I've been up here in a couple years at least." Kitty now said, as she looked down and tightly held onto the Barbie doll that Jean had dropped into her lap, now feeling more comfortable in talking to Dr. Grey. Kitty figured that Dr. Grey just might be able to relate to what she was currently going through.
Even if she was old(er).
"Why so long?" Jean now inquired about Kitty and her tree house as she wanted to hopefully keep Kitty talking to her, even if it had to do with a subject other than this new complication in her life that had originally gotten her so upset.
"I'm not sure. Me and this guy next door used to spend so much time up here when we were younger." Kitty explained.
"A guy? Hmm…" Jean said with a slight smile, relaying to Kitty that she happened to catch on to that particular detail.
"It's not what you think, I was only seven, and he was only like eight or nine at the time." Kitty revealed.
"Oooh, and it looks like you've got an eye for the older guy too?" Jean continued teasing her, as she finally achieved her desired result with her light-hearted ribbing, which was to at last produce a bright smile on the face looking back across from her.
"No, well…I don't know." Kitty now dropped the doll back into her lap, as she put her hands over her mouth and started to giggle loudly, since she and some of her friends had seen a couple of guys from the local high-school that they thought were pretty cute.
"I guess this guy next door was something pretty special then, at least as a friend?" Jean asked her.
"I thought he was. But, I think the only reason he hung out with his nerdy next-door neighbor so much, was to keep from having to listen to his parents when they would start fighting." Kitty further explained for Jean.
"Did they fight a lot?" Jean sat back, with her hands placed against the wooden floor behind her to prop her up, and continued talking with Kitty.
"Yeah, they fought A LOT. I was even at Lance's house once, when the police showed up because his parents were yelling really loud at each other, and they started throwing and breaking stuff in their house." Kitty told her, "After that, my Mom and Dad didn't want me to go over there anymore, so Lance would come and hang out over here with me. Our house and my tree house became like his own personal hideaway from all that stuff going on at his. I never told anyone, but I think sometimes late at night that he would sneak up here and spend the whole night."
"So, how do the two of you get along now?" Jean further asked.
"We don't, not anymore. His parents went ahead and got divorced a few years ago, and he went to go live with his Mom out in California. I was pretty sad after that, and I even wrote him a few letters after he got out there, but he never wrote me back. That's when I started spending less and less time up here, until I kinda quit coming up here all together." Kitty told her, "But, I guess that's life, and people just have to move on at some point."
"That's an awfully mature attitude to have about things." Jean now commended her.
"That's because I'm an awwfuulllly mature girl." Kitty giggled some more, as she showed off her new braces and continued beaming a very bright smile back at Jean.
"I see." Jean replied, smiling back at Kitty too.
"But, it just seems like things always have to change." Kitty now said, as her smile lessened a little, "I mean, it's just like with Lance moving, and with me finding out I'm a mutant. I didn't want any of it to happen, for anything to change, but I didn't get much of a choice in the matter."
"Change can be good sometimes, though. That's how we grow, and how we progress." Jean now told Kitty.
"I guess." Kitty replied, as she sat with her face propped up in the palms of her hands, her elbows now resting up on her knees.
Then, after having said so much, Jean and Kitty sat there staring at one another in silence, as Kitty thought about and weighed heavily Jean's assertion on change bringing about positive outcomes in the end. Finally, after a few minutes, Kitty was the first to break their wordless juncture when she spoke to Jean again.
"So, this school for mutants, is it really any good?" Kitty curiously and now more receptively inquired.
"It's one of the best, if I do say so myself." Jean smiled and answered, as she had been carefully observing the younger girl during their serene moment.
"Well, then does it have hi-speed net access?" Kitty continued questioning her.
"Of course." Jean replied, her tone brimming with assurance.
"Okay, I guess I can give it a try." Kitty told Jean, agreeing now to at least give this new school that was so far away a chance.
"I'm glad to hear that, Kitty." Jean responded, nodding her head a little in an affirmative manner.
"So, are you guys gonna teach me how to control my powers, so I don't fall out of bed and end up in the basement anymore?" Kitty wanted to know of her new teacher.
"I think we can do much better than just that." Jean confidently told her.
"What do you mean?" Kitty now asked, as she and Jean both began to stand up from the tree house's floor.
"When I was around your age, I was so afraid of my powers that I didn't want to learn to do anything with them. But, the Professor showed me that they were a gift, one that could allow me to do some pretty neat things." Jean revealed, as she walked over towards Kitty.
"Like what?" Kitty asked, as Jean then took her by the hand.
"Well, if I concentrate really hard and put my mind to it…" Jean replied, as she led Kitty over to the window of the tree house, opening the swinging window-panes with her telekinetic powers.
"Awesome!" Was Kitty's only way to describe the exhilaration that she felt, as she and Dr. Grey came out of the tree house window, floating through the air and down to the ground together courtesy of Jean's powers.
"Um, Dr. Grey?" Kitty now asked, after they were firmly on the ground and heading back into her house.
"Yes?" Jean warmly replied, as she stopped and turned to look down at Kitty standing right beside her.
"I forgot to ask. This Professor guy, how do you think he feels about kids that are kinda strict vegetarians?" Kitty now asked of her.
"Trust me, I don't think you'll have anything to worry about." Jean smiled, putting her hand supportively on Kitty's shoulder again.
The pair then continued on into the house, taking the first step into a whole new world now awaiting Katherine Pryde just a few hundred miles to the east…
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(Brief Epilogue)
At the Pryde residence in Deerfield, Illinois, Professor Charles Xavier had arrived there just a mere handful of hours ago. But now, the Professor, one of his original students, and the Pryde's only daughter were all preparing to depart and make their return to his school in New York State. As Kitty loaded her suitcase and a carrying bag into the trunk of their rental car, before proceeding to say a tearful and emotional goodbye to her parents, unbeknownst to any of them, another party had been privy to the entirety of this farewell scene.
"Miss Frost, do you wanna follow 'em?" A voice inquired from the driver's seat of a black limo, which had been parked a little ways down the street from the Pryde's residence for the last half hour.
"Yes, I presume that they are heading to O'Hare." Emma Frost replied from the spacious back seat of her limousine, as she looked through its darkly-tinted windows to see the rental car leaving the Prydes' residence, and then passing them by.
"Say Boss, you want I should call ahead and have some of our guys waiting at the airport to grab the girl?" Her driver, one of the Hellfire Club's elite mercenaries asked, as he turned the limousine around and began to tail the car carrying Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, and Kitty Pryde.
"No. Although, I have no doubt that Xavier was able to locate a new mutant that is as powerful as this Pryde girl apparently is with the use of his own Cerebro machine, just as I did with mine, he did beat me here and to the victor go the spoils. We'll just have let this round go to him, for the time being anyways." Emma replied, as she reached into her expensive, Louis Vuitton handbag, which accessorized perfectly with the equally as expensive white outfit that she was wearing, to pull her cell phone out of it.
As the driver continued along the roads and highways behind Professor Xavier's car that was heading towards downtown Chicago, he overheard Emma from the back section of the limousine booking a flight path with the pilot of her corporate jet. But, the destination that she had the pilot log was neither going take them to New York, nor back to Massachusetts.
"Why're you flyin' all the way to Madrid?" The driver asked, as the cool afternoon had turned into an even colder evening, and the nighttime darkness was now in its early stages of settling in.
"A contingency plan, Cole. Now, that I will clearly be unable to secure and enroll Katherine Pryde as the first student at my Massachusetts Academy, I have brought along information on another potential recruit, whom I intend to turn my attention towards. He's a young man from Spain, and I believe that his powers may prove to be just as valuable to us, if not more-so, than Miss Pryde's." Emma replied, as the limo now connected onto the major highway that ran south towards downtown Chicago and O'Hare International Airport.
As they now traveled about a dozen or so car lengths behind the Professor's rental, Emma pulled out a small laptop that she also had in the back with her, doing a brief search on a fairly prominent family living in the Castilian region of Spain.
"Hmm, the De la Rocha's appear to be a very interesting group of individuals, indeed…" Emma smiled to herself, as she sifted through the data at her disposal regarding this wealthy family's sordid past, information that she believed would very much come in handy…
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A/N: Special thanks to those that reviewed the last chapter-
Doza- Glad you liked last chapter, and that you're looking forward to what's coming up. Which, hopefully, shouldn't be too much longer.
ishandahalf- Glad you loved all of the ROMY stuff, Hail ROMY!
El Varon- Glad you liked Rogue getting a small bit of happiness for once. If only happiness could last forever though…
Independent Fire- I'm glad you enjoyed all of the 'risqué talk about Rogue and Remy being hot together and sweating together'.
TheDreamerLady- Glad you loved the Romyness of last chapter, and that Lanco has such deep feelings towards me, makes me wanna blush even.
P.S.- Pushed you in front of the bike? Really? Man, that's some friend, I'm tellin' ya…