Author's Note: I created a c2 community for Original Characters, check it out if you get the chance, it's called 'Cerebro Files' however right now it only has this story, and it's prequel. If you know of another story that you'd like to see added to this community, please let me know either through email, or through a review. This Chapter I'm trying that new thing again. Writing the whole chapter from one person's point of view. Just like I wrote the first day of school from Jessica's point of view. Although this time, it'll be from a Cannon's Point of View… And today's lucky winner is… Rogue. Now to respond to your Reviews.

Mark C: I was hoping someone would catch on to Spider-Man showing up. Yes, his last name was Parker. We'll see if James will go out for revenge or not, soon, but Johnson was killed too… wasn't he?

Chapter 15: Eleven Warriors

Rogue sat in the living room Monday afternoon doing, of all things, her homework. Michael wasn't far off, he was in the same room, on the other side, either writing a story or doing his homework, Rogue could never tell. James and Rebecca were off somewhere, she didn't know where. The girls had all gone to the mall, and the guys were supposed to be doing something else, what exactly she didn't know.

The last few weeks had been confusing. Rogue was caught in what looked like a love triangle. Only she wasn't sure if either of the other ends had any feelings for her, and she wasn't sure if she had feelings for them.

Both were cute, but in different ways. Joe was more like Scott, safe, gentlemanly, and cool. Nathan was a class all his own, dark, sadistic, and almost like Rogue herself. It was almost clichéd, the two's personalities and styles. One was a good guy, the type of guy you wouldn't be afraid to take home. The other was a parent's nightmare.

However both of them had similar mutations to Rogue. Joe became a carbon copy of whomever he touched, so he couldn't touch anyone without becoming him or her, and Nathan killed anyone he touched so he never touched anyone at all. Both couldn't touch, just like Rogue herself couldn't touch. Was there even a point to a relationship where neither of them could touch the other?

"I'm telling you Chuck, the kids more whacked than you think he is. I wouldn't be taking him there anymore unless you plan to leave him there." Logan's voice came hushed from the hall, but both Mike and Rogue looked up as they heard it.

"Nonsense Logan, you're overreacting. I can see why he would want that." The professor's voice argued as the two grew louder.

"I don't trust him." Logan said shaking his head as the two entered into the living room.

"You don't have to." The professor countered. "Excuse me, Rogue, Michael, have either of you seen Nathaniel this afternoon?"

Rogue looked to Mike who just shrugged and shook his head, it was up to her to speak up. "Ah think Ah saw him headed towards his room after we got back from school."

Logan raised a brow as he spoke. "Does he spend all of his time in his room?"

"Yeah, usually." Mike answered. "He's usually in his room, or some other place where he can be alone."

"Why am I not surprised?" Logan asked rhetorically.

"Because you probably already suspected that he was a loner." Michael answered seriously.

"If you see him can you tell him that I need to speak with him?" The professor asked looking to Rogue.

"Sure." She answered before returning her attention to her homework.

"Good luck trying to get him if he's in his room though, he locks it all the time, blasts his music real loud, you're best bet is to wait until he comes out himself." Mike said with a shrug.

"And when will that be?" Logan asked gruffly.

"Tomorrow for school, or tonight if he gets hungry, or maybe even sooner if he gets bored." Mike said with a shrug. "Depends on him."

"Wonderful." Logan said rolling his eyes. "Come on. I'll knock the door down, you talk to him all you want." He said looking to the professor with a smirk.

"Thank you both." The professor said with a nod as he and Logan left.

"Welcome." Michael answered even though the two had already gone out of hearing range. "I hate that guy."

"Logan?" Rogue asked surprise to hear herself ask that.

"Yeah, he still owes me a book." Mike said with a frown as he returned his attention to his homework.

"What?" Rogue asked a little more confused now than she was before.

"Right after we first came here, he thought I was an intruder or something, put those claws of his right through my favorite copy of the Scarlet Letter. My only copy might I add. He still has yet to replace it." Mike explained.

"Ah'm sure he will." Rogue said, in an attempt to end the conversation and return to her schoolwork.

"Yeah, I know. But there's still just something about him I don't like." Mike said with a shrug. "Although I do appreciate that he can somehow block me from hearing his thoughts."

"What?" Rogue asked looking over to him.

"My power I…"

"Ah know that, but what did you mean that he can block you? He ain't a telepath." Rogue said surprised.

"I don't know, I just don't hear his thoughts. I hear everyone's but his and the professor's." Mike explained.

"Did you hear the thoughts Ah was thinkin' a little while ago?" Rogue asked raising a brow.

"No. I'm far enough away that I don't hear any of your thoughts right now. I like to have peace and quiet when I'm writing." Mike said with a nod.

"What are you writin' anyway?" Rogue asked curiously.

"Just a story." Mike said with a shrug. "I have to write a short story for English Lit, it's due next week." He explained.

"Ah see." She said with a nod.

Silence followed for a few moments, but then she was struck with an idea. "Hey." She said looking up to Mike.

"Yeah?" He asked looking up from his notebook for a brief second.

"You hear everyone's thoughts?" She asked for clarification.

"Except for Logan and the Professor, yes." He nodded.

"So like, you would know what some people think about other people. Right?" She asked still looking up at him.

"Wrong." He answered flat out. "I don't go eavesdropping, I hear things, I ignore things, and even things I don't ignore I don't share." He said now looking up from his notebook and pausing his writing. "Why? Are you supposed to care what someone might think about you? Whose thoughts would you need to know?"

"No one's." Rogue snapped somewhat defensively. "I was just curious.

"Yeah. Well, Joe makes his thoughts plain enough that if you couldn't tell that he likes you by now you're blind." Mike said returning his attention to his work. "And Nathan doesn't even look at any girls, he's still fully in love with his girlfriend."

"I thought you didn't share?" Rogue asked a bit angrily.

"I'm not sharing their thoughts, I'm sharing my observations." He corrected. "I don't need to be a mind reader to know that Joe likes you. He makes it blatantly obvious. And Nathan and I have talked, we're close, I know his past, and in fact I might be the only other person who knows all of it. I know that he will never have feelings for another girl unless something happens to change his mind."

"What do you think it would take to change his mind?" Rogue asked in her southern accent.

"I have no idea." Mike said shaking his head.

"But don't you think it's a little stupid for Joe to like me?" She asked being uncharacteristically open. She wasn't sure what it was but there was something about Mike that made you just want to open up to him. She remembered several of the girls saying that he was like a diary, complete with a shoulder to cry on.

Mike shook his head. "Not really. Joe's still human. He still feels. Just because he can't touch doesn't mean that he has to resign all rights to a normal life, and that includes a girlfriend."

"So he just wants a girlfriend, so that he can be considered normal?" Rogue asked raising a brow.

"No. He wants a girlfriend because he believes in such a thing as love." Mike answered honestly.

That made Rogue fall silent for a bit, she wasn't quite sure what to say or ask next. Luckily, someone else broke the silence.

"Remind me never to challenge Mr. McCoy to a game of Poker. He'll give you a lecture on the unethical-ness of Gambling." Will said as he entered the room. Elise and Joe coming in behind him.

"He's right though, you shouldn't gamble… much." Joe said with a smile as he sat down on the couch.

Elise laughed. "You weren't even gambling, just playing the game."

"That's okay." Will said with a nod. "This place needs to lighten up a bit. We've all been a bit… Nathan-like recently."

"Nathan like?" Rogue asked looking up.

"Yeah… you know… depressed, silent, all that stuff." Will said as he and Elise sat down.

"Nice man. Real nice." Nathan said as he entered the room.

Will's face blanched when he heard Nathan's voice in such a comical way that Elise nearly burst from giggling. Joe just smiled. "You know he didn't mean it as an insult." He said with a nod.

"Yeah, I know." Nathan said going to the table in the living room that Rogue was sitting at and picking up a book. The book itself was covered in what used to be a brown paper bag. It had drawings and doodles all over it.

Rogue took a good look at him while he was there, no one saw him very often. His outfit was actually semi-normal this time. He was wearing baggy jeans and a hoody with a large red spider on the chest. Silver spiders made of steel hung on the rim of the hood, and webs were on the elbows and back. He didn't have any piercing on his face this time, just a few earrings on his left ear.

"What're you doing out of your room anyway? Isn't it still your brooding time?" Will joked.

"Shut up man." Nathan said shaking his head. "I left something out here is all." He said holding up the book.

"Who the hell is Elaine?" Will asked seeing the name written several times in a fancy calligraphic style on the book cover.

Nathan just gave a glare to kill and started to leave.

"Nathan." Mike called looking up from his notebook for the first time since everyone had arrived.

"What?" Nathan asked, suddenly colder than he had been a minute ago.

"The professor and that Logan guy are looking for you." Mike said with sympathy evident in his voice.

"I know. They found me a little bit ago." Nathan said stopping at the door. "Hey Mike. How's that brother of yours? I haven't heard of him since he left." It was amazing how he could just ignore everyone else in the world if he wanted to. Though it was extremely odd that he had stayed and spoken with them for a little bit longer. Why did he do that? It made Rogue wonder.

"I got an email from him the other day actually." Mike said with a nod. "He's doing pretty good. No luck on the lead though yet, so we'll have to wait and see. I'll tell you the details later."

"Sure thing." Nathan said with a nod. "Knock first." He said before he left.

"See? That's what I mean. We've all been odd and creepy lately. We need to lighten up." Will said after Nathan had left.

"Will, Jessica just died. We're allowed to be a little depressed." Mike said actual annoyance evident in his voice.

"Yeah, I know… But still." Will said shaking his head.

"What are you gonna do man pull one of your famous pranks on James?" Joe asked jokingly.

Will sat thoughtful for a moment… "No… Not on James."

Elise slapped Will on the arm. "Don't you dare William Howlett."

Will playfully pushed her back, unfortunately sending her into Joe as he did so. Joe jumped up but unfortunately not in time. Elise had somehow managed to hit his face.

Somewhere between the couch and standing in front of it Joe had changed into a complete carbon copy of Elise. He was the same height, same face, even the same voice. "Not cool Will!" He screamed still using Elise's voice. He had to use that voice whether he wanted to or not now, for at least the next six hours.

"Dude I'm sorry." Will said standing up but he never got the chance to finish. Joe, in the form of Elise stormed out of the room.

Rogue was watching it all from the sidelines, as was Mike. Will just shrugged a little and sat back down as James and Rebecca came in through the same doorway that Joe had left through.

"What was Elise so ticked about?" James asked as he came in. This was the first time Rogue had ever seen him wear short sleeves in the institute, other than that time she saw him shirtless in the infirmary. His tattoos reached from his wrists all the way to his shoulders and then back down to his waist but the shirt covered everything save from the elbow down. "Oh." He said seeing the real Elise sitting on the couch next to Will.

Rebecca just shook her head. "Idiot."

Mike started getting up to leave, and did so unnoticed by most of them. Rogue followed him. Well, not really followed him, but she left too, and went in the same direction. "Where ya headed?" She asked trying to keep from sounding curious.

"Nathan's room. He wanted to borrow my notes from English Lit." Mike said with a nod.

"Oh…" She said with a nod. She didn't really ask if she could tag along, but Mike knew she was going to anyway. For the most part she just pretended that she was headed in the same direction as he was, and just stopped when they reached Nathan's room.

She could hear the music and almost feel the vibrations through her feet from the stereo blasting inside. The door was unornamented like all the others, but one could just sense that there was something odd about this one.

"Nathan?" Mike called as he knocked.

There was no answer, but Mike knocked once more and then opened the door.

"Are you sure it's okay if you do that?" Rogue asked as she too stepped in.

"Yeah, he's in the shower." Mike said looking around and seeing the bathroom door shut and hearing the water running, though he nearly had to shout over the music.

Rogue wasn't really surprised by the inside of his room; it was what she had expected. Posters of various heavy metal bands plastered the walls and ceiling. The picture of that girl stood on his nightstand still, and the curtains were drawn shut. Candles were the only things that lit the room other than the light coming from the hallway through the now open door.

Mike pulled out the notes and left them on the desk. "We should leave, he doesn't know you're here and well… let's go." Mike said as he started towards the door.

Rogue stayed a bit behind for a second, staring at the picture on the nightstand. It was a portrait plain and simple. Of Nathan, and a girl. But… It wasn't Nathan. Not the Nathan that she knew. He was different. Way, different. He was younger sure, but, he was dressed in sleeveless shirt, and he was wearing shorts. He didn't have any piercing on his face or anywhere, and the weirdest thing of all, he was smiling. Something she had never ever seen him do. He looked truly happy in that picture, with his arms around that girl.

Suddenly the bathroom door opened and Nathan came in with a towel wrapped around his waist, nothing else, no protection from his skin. "What are you doing in here?" He asked looking over to Rogue as he went to his desk.

"Ah uh… Ah came here with Mike to um… give you your notes." She said stammering a bit, though she wasn't quite sure why.

"Uh huh. Do me a favor?" He asked not really turning to face her.

"What?" She asked slightly confused.

"Leave." He said coldly.

Rogue looked taken aback for a second, she was trying to think of something to say, or something to do, but nothing came to mind quick enough.

Suddenly the loud music stopped completely. "LEAVE!" Nathan hollered piercing the sudden silence so unmercifully that his voice almost hurt her ears.

Quickly she ran out of the room and into the hall. Mike was nowhere to be seen. But Jean and Kitty were walking by.

"Rogue?" Kitty asked curiously, glancing to Jean and then back to Rogue as Nathan wearing only a towel shut the door to his room after Rogue.

END

Author's Note: Okay, if you didn't like this chapter, don't be afraid to tell me. You guys rubbing my face in my mistakes are only going to make sure of the fact that I don't repeat them. I'm serious. FLAMES WELCOME. Of course, praise is welcome also. Oh, and this should be common sense by now, but REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! Oh, and um… yeah… REVIEW! Please?