Disclaimer: I own all the characters in this chapter, but I do not own X-men Evolution.
Again another chapter with just original characters, the x-men will show up I promise :) The character Alex, I am aware, is verrry much like Jaime, there's a reason for this:D Please enjoy, and review
Voices. So many voices, all swimming around her head.
'Will she be ok?'
One of them whispered, and she felt as if she was alone in a small boat at sea, the voices were the wind, whipping around her, so fast that she couldn't tell which way they were coming from.
'She should be, she's beaten up pretty bad, but nothing fatal'
The fight, she remembered a fight. What had happened, where was she? Was Will ok. She wanted to wake herself and ask these questions. But her body wasn't obeying.
'Give her a few hours, she'll wake up soon'
Wake up soon. Good, she hoped she could trust these voices.
'Who are you? Get out of my house'
She didn't like that voice.
'Mari, please wake up, you need to wake up, you'll be safe here'
Safe where? Will? Where are we? Why can't I wake up? What's happening?
We can't be safe? Where are we?"
'Hey, look, she's waking up!'
This voice was excited, and she felt her own excitement bubbling. Yes, she told the voices in her head, I'm waking up, good bye.
"Ugh….Where am I? What happened?"
She saw Will staring over her, his golden eyes a very welcome sight to the dark that was her mind. She shot up and hugged him, but released him quickly when her ribs cried out in protest to the movement.
Will laughed lightly and easer her back down. "Don't move so fast, you bruised a few ribs, but you'll be ok"
Mari nodded and blinked a few times, just seeing all the faces around her. She then noticed that she wasn't on a street, she was in what appeared to be some sort of warehouse, and all around her there were small cots. Some had people in them, some were just empty.
She turned back to the people around her. Three of them looked different, there was a woman above her, who appeared to be about fifty who had bright green hair, and sparkling green eyes.
Then another who had scales, green and blue scales, like the ones on a fish. She was a woman as well, and reminded Mari of mermaids.
Will followed her gaze around the room and smiled "Mari, this is a safe house for mutants. Like us"
At that four small children bolted up to her, then absorbed into one which surprised her and she jumped.
"What's your power? What's your name? Do you like cards? I like go fish but Allie always beats me. Do you know who Allie is, she's…."
The elderly woman with green hair put a hand on the boys shoulder "Alex, please leave our guest be. She's had a hard day"
The woman's voice was very kind and gentle and she was smiling warmly at Mari. As the boy ran off she chuckled slightly, it sounded like a gentle breeze to Mari, like the leaves swaying in the wind.
"That was Alex, he can create multiple copies of himself, for a short while at least, and he doesn't actually control it quite well at the moment."
Mari smiled at the woman who introduced herself as Glenda.
"Did you start this place?" Mari asked, turning her attention briefly to another woman who was kneeling beside her with some medical equipment.
"No, No, but I decided to help out. The woman who did though, our resident healer, Nichole" She gestured towards the brunette who was applying a crème solution to a cut above Mari's eye.
Nichole had shoulder length brown hair, was about nineteen and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. It seemed to be the 'uniform' of the place, as everyone she'd seen so far was wearing it.
"Healer?"
Nichole spoke this time "Yeah, that's my gift, I can focus my energy and sometimes heal physical wounds."
"Sometimes?" Mari kept the one word questions up.
Nichole laughed "Sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't work. I still don't know how to use my power properly"
"That's what the crème's for then?" Mari asked, causing Nichole to laugh again "Yes, I did heal your friend here, but my powers sort of shorted out when we got to you"
Mari smiled and thanked her, before Glenda continued with introductions.
"This," She said pointing at the scaled woman "Is Sophie. Sophie controls the water, any water, rain, lakes, the ocean, anything, she's by far the most advanced of us."
Sophie giggled "I was outcast because of my outward mutation, so I spent a lot of time practicing."
Mari liked this woman immediately, her blue hair and crystal colored eyes were screaming fun and she wanted to get to know her better.
"Oh you will"
A man walked up to the circle gathered around her and Glenda smirked "This is Benjamin, our resident telepath."
Before Mari could ask questions Benjamin opened his mouth "I can read peoples minds."
Mari made a small 'o' of surprise and Ben laughed "Don't worry, only if you're projecting loud enough, not strong enough for anything else"
Mari didn't bother to ask what projecting meant; she'd figure it out eventually.
Ben was the same age as Sophie and Nichole, nineteen, and had found the safe house by chance.
They were the eldest and the leaders of the Safe house now, and the rest of the people here were all children.
Among the children they had three budding telepaths, four children able to create energy in different forms, a child who could multiply himself, Alex, whom Mari had met, and his twin sister, Allie who could fly, or hover a few feet off the ground.
There was also a child able to control fire, which to Mari was a very scary thought.
There were two younger children with the same gift as Nicole, except they could heal themselves as well as others.
Glenda's daughter, who at fourteen was quite strong in her gifts, being able to create and control all manner of green life, she had matching green hair, like her mother and the same sparkling green eyes. Her name was Ivy not surprisingly.
Then there was Benjamin's young brother, a boy who had the ability to create force fields around him self. At eight he didn't have quite a lot of control over this, as Mari soon learned, as trying to hug the boy sometimes proved very difficult. He was called Jacques.
Sophie's daughter, which did surprise Mari but she didn't say anything, was only Two and had no powers to speak of. Sophie remained confident that she would get them.
The group took care of each other, the four adults taking care of the children, the older children taking care of the smaller ones.
Each person had a small cot, made up of a thin foam mattress and two thin sheets. Each person was given three meals a day, sufficient water and the younger children were taught to read and write properly.
Mari and Will were each given a cot, and Mari was promised proper introductions to all the others when she was recovered.
She was most curious about what they could help her with, if they could help her with powers. But Glenda sadly told her that she was the only one with that type of power, and that this place didn't so much work on figuring out their powers, just controlling them to an extent, enough so that they weren't dangerous, harm to themselves or others.
After talking with Glenda and the other adults for a long time, they told her to rest, get some sleep and that Nichole would attempt to heal her again in the morning.
They left her to sleep and rounded up the children, saying something about taking them outside.
She lay there staring at the ceiling, and wondering how everything had happened. Her ribs were aching and she wished that it would stop, her headache was back but she was doing her best to ignore it.
She didn't know how long she was lying there for before Will came up to her some pills in his hand and a glass of water.
"Take these; it'll get rid of your headache"
She took them gratefully "How did you know I had a headache?"
Will laughed "Ben said you were projecting it so loudly that he was getting a head ache"
Mari smiled sheepishly "I'll have to work on that"
"He said he'd help us work on mental shields, to stop from projecting so much, with so many little telepaths around you have to be careful" He smiled.
She glanced at her watch. It was late, nine thirty and she gasped.
"Where did they take all the children?"
Will looked up "Oh, Glenda said they were taking them to go get some food. A local restaurant, the owner is a supporter of mutants, and hates seeing so many abandoned children going hungry. He feeds them all after the customers leave. From what I've heard it isn't bad food either"
"We're lucky aren't we" She said softly.
Will studied her face, and then nodded slowly "Yeah, we are."
They fell into comfortable silence, just enjoying each others company.
They were still sitting there quietly when the others returned, the children chattering loudly, and a small boy at the back playing with a a ball of fire.
Glenda frowned at him and he extinguished it quickly.
"I thought I told you to get some rest dear" She scolded playfully, ushering each of the children to their own cots.
"I tried, but I've been sleeping to much these past few days" She said smiling.
Glenda nodded and broke up a fight between Allie and Alex "Alex that's your bed over there, this is Allie's off you go"
The boy grumbled and did as he was told.
Will laughed "I'm going to go and see if Ben needs any help" Mari watched him leave, and nearly leapt out of her skin when Sophie crept up behind her.
"You like him huh" It wasn't a question.
Mari blushed furiously "No, he's just a good friend" She denied quickly.
Sophie clicked her tongue and watched her with a knowing expression on her face. Mari poked out her tongue.
Soon everyone was in their own cots, snoring soundly.
Glenda had gone to sleep last, making sure all of the children were safe and warm, before locking the large warehouse doors and making sure that it was secure.
As soon as she was sure they were all sleeping, Mari snapped open her eyes. She hadn't said anything, but she was afraid. Afraid to sleep.
She'd slept fine when she was on the streets with Will, he often slept during the day, and her during the night, that way one of them could always keep an eye on their bag, and make sure things were ok.
But now she was scared that if she slept she'd dream, and when she dreamed, everyone would wake up and kick her out too.
She had a feeling that until she had some idea of how to control her powers she'd never be able to sleep soundly.
Eventually her mind gave in and she felt herself drifting to sleep, and try as she might, exhaustion won out, putting her to sleep finally.
She didn't dream that night, instead, just slept, allowed her injuries the time to heal themselves.
In the morning Nichole was waiting for her to wake up, staring at her with an eerie intensity.
Upon seeing her Mari yelped "You could've just woken me up"
Nichole shook herself out of her daydream and smiled "Why? You needed the sleep and I didn't want to speed things up. Besides, if this goes wrong, I might make things worse" She said this all cheerily and Mari paled drastically.
"Don't worry!" she laughed "Nothing like that has ever happened before. It either works or nothing happens"
Before Mari could protest she rested her hands on the worst injuries and closed her eyes.
Mari felt an odd sensation, and she heard a snap, she assumed that was her ankle bones returning to place and growing together, and then when Nichole opened her eyes, Mari didn't feel any pain anymore.
She grinned and rose to her feet. "Thank you!" She said hugging Nichole fiercely, glad to be able to walk and move.
"You still need rest remember. I healed your body not your mind, it still needs to get over being attacked"
Mari rolled her eyes "Fine, I'll sleep, but I need to change out of these clothes"
Nichole snorted "Lucky for you we managed to salvage your bag from those idiots" She tossed it at her and gestured towards a makeshift room, three curtains held up by an unstable wooden frame.
"That's the bathroom, there's a shower there, I suggest you take one. Your beginning to attract the animals"
Mari did as she was told, and once she was showered (To her surprise, only cold water) and dressed she reappeared beside Sophie and Nichole who were playing Go Fish with Alex.
The boy wasn't as bad as he let on; he was kicking both of their asses badly.
Sophie groaned when he won, and watched the happy child dance around the room in Victory.
He sped off to find his sister before she could demand a rematch.
Sophie sighed, and then saw Mari approaching "Oh, Hey, come and sit down"
The three launched into a long talk about anything and everything, inviting Glenda's daughter Ivy over. The teen was very happy to be included, despite being only a year younger then Mari, was often left with the other children, most of them being 11 it wasn't really her idea of….fun.
Ben and Will stood at a distance watching them with matching expressions of horror.
"They're up to something"
"But what?" Ben agreed.
"I don't know, read their minds?"
Ben looked at him like he was crazy "Buddy, there's just some stuff you don't ever want to know"
Glenda surprised them all a few days later with an announcement
Sophie, Nichole, Ben, Will, Ivy and Mari were all sitting outside in the sun, enjoying the quite time without the children.
Mari had soon learned that she wouldn't have a lot of time on her hands, the children almost constantly needed attention, if it wasn't a poor child's powers going haywire at one point, it was the fights, hair pulling, name calling and regular energy attacks were not uncommon.
Mari was constantly on her toes, keeping Alex from multiplying himself too many times was a hazard, because each of his multiples loved to torture the girls.
So when Glenda had told them all to take a break they'd gone running from the room and into the calm, cool, quiet.
They didn't make many attempts at conversation, Ben and Mari working on ridding themselves of headaches, and the others just enjoying silence.
Glenda worked out and cleared her throat, causing all of them to look up.
"I have an idea"
Everyone's attention now caught, they listened intently.
"Most of you, I know, have trouble with your own powers, controlling them especially. So, I think perhaps, we should focus on mastering them, make them work, Sophie you can help them with this, I'm sure."
Sophie nodded.
"So tonight, when the children are asleep, I suggest that we should all pair up and work on gaining some level of control. It will take time, but I know that if we can learn too, then we can better teach the children."
She smiled and then left the group to think.
Ben was the first to speak "I think it's a good idea."
The others agreed each offering their opinions.
"If I could control my powers then I'd be a whole lot more use to the group. I couldn't even fix Mike's skinned knee the other day"
"If I could create things like my mum does, man, that would be awesome!" Ivy put in, punctuating her sentence by making a small flower sprout from the ground.
Mari smiled "If I could control my power…. I could fix my parents memories' She said sadly.
Will put his hand on her shoulder "I wouldn't end up as a cat for four months at a time" He laughed.
When Glenda called them all to the yard late that night they were all bubbling with excitement.
Glenda and her daughter Ivy decided to work together, because their powers were the same and Glenda did have a degree of control, Will and Sophie paired up, because they both had physical mutations and Ben and Mari's powers were similar, Nicole took her turn watching the children, and was promised to work on her own gift the next night.
Mari was nervous, she didn't want to mess around with her powers, and Ben was just as nervous, he wouldn't admit it but didn't want his memories suddenly erased.
"Well, how bout I try an illusion? Just for you to see, and we'll see if it works"
Ben nodded, inwardly glad she was going to try something relatively simple.
Mari closed her eyes and started to day dream, figuring that was the best way to go about it. She imagined Ben in a jungle, a sharp sword for cutting down the branches that fell in his way.
She created the small realm in her mind, and then opened her eyes.
She saw Ben, his eyes vacant, and his shoulders slumped forward.
She waited. He should snap out of it soon. Nothing happened, he started jerking and opened his mouth in a silent scream.