Standard Disclaimers Apply.
A/N: I wrote this chapter fairly quickly but I'm undecided about whether or not to continue with it. What do you think? And thanks to my beta, Silindro, who is a terrific author. She has some great stuff!
--++------------------++-- The Jinx --++------------------++--
Chapter One - Hijacked
"Attention, attention, new mutant signature identified. Now downloading composite image and current location. Name: Elizabeth Jenkins. Age: 17. Location: Komelelo Beach, Kailili Island, Hawaii." A computerized voice stirred within a dark, spherical room. All at once, vast panels lit up, each performing its own operations and duties as the main computer compiled a vague image of teenage girl. This was Cerebro, and this was only one of the wondrous functions it was capable of.
A black woman with striking white hair glanced up at the screen and printed off the now fully developed picture of the girl along with her home address. Methodically, she put the printout on a growing stack of paperwork where no less than fifteen other young people had been added to the day's list. With a sigh, Ororo resumed working on a separate computer, typing up a class schedule. Sometimes, having two jobs really bit the big one.
--++------------------++--
"Ah, good evening Ororo." Professor Xavier, founder of the school, was seated in a wheelchair just behind his desk. On the wooden surface before him was pile after pile of printouts from Cerebro.
"Honestly Charles, I think you should let Hank look at that contraption of yours. It's far too sensitive. Half of these kids haven't even noticed their powers yet." Ororo was scanning the final list she'd printed off for the daily report.
"The numbers, please." The man moved over to his own computer, fingers at the ready as Ororo gave him the summary of Cerebro's findings for the day.
"Twelve boys: Four Americans, two more in Europe, one in Africa, and the final six are in Asia. Four girls: Three Americans, one from Asia." Ororo read the numbers of methodically. The job had become excessively tedious when Cerebro's reach had been extended to cover roughly ninety percent of the Earth's surface. She plopped the sixteen printouts on top of countless others already littering the desk.
"So today's total is sixteen, then. That's encouraging." Charles Xavier had always been upbeat about the prospect of gathering new mutants to his cause.
"You can't be serious about this. It's too much. Most of the kids on those sheets are too young for recruitment." Ororo very rarely spoke up against Xavier.
"Let me be the judge of that, Storm. Now, I've got a lot of work to do and I believe Kitty's whipping something up in the kitchen. You look like you could use a bite to eat." With his final words Ororo, also known as Storm, sipped back out of the office and sighed. Would he ever see the folly of his plan?
--++------------------++--
"Oh Kurt - it's not that bad!" A teenage girl in a soft pink sweater, Kitty, was glaring at a boy of her own age. Yet, there the similarities ended. While Kitty Pryde was a normal teenaged girl with her stylish clothing and ponytail, Kurt Wagner was an entirely different story. For starters, and perhaps his most notable feature, was the velvety blue fur that covered his skin. His pointy ears, fangs, pupil-less yellow eyes, and spade tail gave him a rather demonic inclination. His outward appearance could not be further from the truth of the inside, however.
"No offense Kitty, but . I already ordered a pizza!" Kurt defended himself in a slight German accent. Several other gathered teens began to chuckle, each with uneaten green gunk on their plates - a tribute to their fondness of Kitty's cooking skills.
When Xavier and Ororo entered the kitchen area, they found the place in complete disarray. Kitty, her pretty face heavily splattered with foodstuffs, was chasing Kurt around and around the table. The young German fled for his life, climbing over anyone and anything that got in his way.
"Hey! Crawler!!!" Evan, a young black teen from New York, was knocked backwards out of his seat as Kurt tore across his lap.
"You are so totally dead, Kurt!" Brandishing a wooden rolling pin, Kitty Pryde refused to give up the chase for anything. Not even the massive wooden dining table could deter her in her quest for vengeance on the German mutant. Jubilee and Bobby cringed as Kitty ran right for them, then through them, employing her rather handy capabilities.
"Children, calm yourselves," Ororo pleaded. She glanced at the professor, who was busy trying to hide his grin as Kitty at last flung her arms around a surprised Nightcrawler. Raising the weapon over her head, Kitty bore a look of unending loathing. Kurt looked horrified then clamped his eyes shut and instantly disappeared into a circle of vapor. Finding her quarry had eluded her, Kitty swung the rolling pin through empty air with a snarl.
--++------------------++--
Meanwhile, back in Xavier's study, no one noticed a young boy standing just outside the room. Looking around to make sure his actions would go unseen, the boy instantly melted his body into a lifeless puddle of multi-colored goo and slid beneath the door. Having successfully entered, he resumed his usual form and quickly grabbed several of Cerebro's printouts, melting once more, and exiting without anyone ever knowing he'd come and gone.
Blue-furred mutants, angry teenage girls, and a kitchen table that had seen better days - it was just another morning at Xavier's institute for gifted youngsters.
--++------------------++--
Worlds away, floating in a tropical cove, a teenage girl was paddling hard out for the reef which served as a barrier between open ocean and the safety of the bay. Struggling against the tug of the incoming waves, the young girl got no further than she had any day previously. The jagged coral never got any closer and finally, admitting defeat, she allowed the tide to carry her back to shallow waters. This girl was Beth and this was the morning ritual.
"Heads up!" A stranger's voice cried as she exited the water, tossing her head to begin the long drying process with her hair. Looking up a second too late, she got only a fleeting glance of a white sphere before it collided with her face, sending her backwards into the sand.
"Ohh," Embarrassment and anger twisted an otherwise attractive face. A sheepish-looking boy appeared out of the undergrowth from the direction of the nearby volleyball pit. Deep brown eyes narrowed in outright annoyance. Didn't he have any manners? Or skill?
"Sorry about that, it got away from me." He extended a rather pasty hand, which she eyed but gladly accepted. His brown hair was a bit longer than she thought tasteful but he had a kind face.
"We don't usually get tourists on Kailili." Beth brushed the sand from well-tanned legs.
"Who you callin' tourists, sweet-cheeks?" A short, boy who crouched as opposed to standing piped up, having hopped into the clearing. Beth did a double-take. Hopped? It wasn't long before two others joined them - one being horridly obese like many of the tourists on the larger islands, the other with a smug grin and strangely white hair.
"Well you are," Beth defended herself.
"You-guys-move-too-slow. We-know-all-about-your-secret, Hula-girl." The boy with the white 'do cut in and rushed forward to shake her hand. Beth took a step backwards as her mind struggled to accept what she was taking in. How could a boy move so quickly?
"You know nothing about me." She frowned at him.
"Don't bother about him. We just want to help." It was the first boy, who butted his comrade out of the way and took her hand in his. "We have our sources, and they point to you. You're one of us."
"Who are you?" Beth took another step backwards and suddenly felt horribly underdressed. She was wearing only her bathing suit; a yellow bikini. Reaching for her towel, she shook the sand from it and listened as the boys explained themselves.
Lance, Toad, Fred, and Pietro . Avalanche, Toad, Blob, and Quicksilver. They wanted her to go stateside with them, to refine abilities they assumed she had. Mutant abilities. It was the stuff of freakish dreams, the sort of dreams that made her vow off watching scary movies just before going to bed. Beth felt her knees give slightly. Her morning exercise and the sudden jumble of information made her dizzy.
"Go stateside?" She repeated blankly.
"You learn quick." Pietro rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping off his every word.
"That's it! You guys just go away! I'm going to be late for school." Beth shoved her way through the throng of males, forcing them aside.
"It's-a-bit-late-for-that. You're-not-exactly-enrolled-there-anymore." Pietro called after her. Beth stopped in her tracks and turned to look at them.
"What do you mean?" Beth didn't like where this was going.
"Well, once they find out what you are, you'll be banned anyways. You might as well just come with us." It was Lance, the brown-haired leader.
"You . you're not making any sense." Beth began tracing an escape route in her mind.
"As of this morning, you're with us, Sweet-Cheeks." Toad piped up, flashing yellow teeth in what he thought was a debonair smile.
"Just get her on the plane, you boys are wasting time." An older woman appeared out of the thick tropical undergrowth. The woman had brilliant red hair and very blue skin. Were those scales or was it a trick of the light? Beth very quietly went into shock. No. She didn't want to go with these strange boys and the bizarre, azure-tinted woman in the strange white dress. But a sharp, biting pain to the back of her neck ceased all further thinking and she knew no more.
--++------------------++--
A/N: Like it? Want to see more? Give a click on the little purple button!
A/N: I wrote this chapter fairly quickly but I'm undecided about whether or not to continue with it. What do you think? And thanks to my beta, Silindro, who is a terrific author. She has some great stuff!
--++------------------++-- The Jinx --++------------------++--
Chapter One - Hijacked
"Attention, attention, new mutant signature identified. Now downloading composite image and current location. Name: Elizabeth Jenkins. Age: 17. Location: Komelelo Beach, Kailili Island, Hawaii." A computerized voice stirred within a dark, spherical room. All at once, vast panels lit up, each performing its own operations and duties as the main computer compiled a vague image of teenage girl. This was Cerebro, and this was only one of the wondrous functions it was capable of.
A black woman with striking white hair glanced up at the screen and printed off the now fully developed picture of the girl along with her home address. Methodically, she put the printout on a growing stack of paperwork where no less than fifteen other young people had been added to the day's list. With a sigh, Ororo resumed working on a separate computer, typing up a class schedule. Sometimes, having two jobs really bit the big one.
--++------------------++--
"Ah, good evening Ororo." Professor Xavier, founder of the school, was seated in a wheelchair just behind his desk. On the wooden surface before him was pile after pile of printouts from Cerebro.
"Honestly Charles, I think you should let Hank look at that contraption of yours. It's far too sensitive. Half of these kids haven't even noticed their powers yet." Ororo was scanning the final list she'd printed off for the daily report.
"The numbers, please." The man moved over to his own computer, fingers at the ready as Ororo gave him the summary of Cerebro's findings for the day.
"Twelve boys: Four Americans, two more in Europe, one in Africa, and the final six are in Asia. Four girls: Three Americans, one from Asia." Ororo read the numbers of methodically. The job had become excessively tedious when Cerebro's reach had been extended to cover roughly ninety percent of the Earth's surface. She plopped the sixteen printouts on top of countless others already littering the desk.
"So today's total is sixteen, then. That's encouraging." Charles Xavier had always been upbeat about the prospect of gathering new mutants to his cause.
"You can't be serious about this. It's too much. Most of the kids on those sheets are too young for recruitment." Ororo very rarely spoke up against Xavier.
"Let me be the judge of that, Storm. Now, I've got a lot of work to do and I believe Kitty's whipping something up in the kitchen. You look like you could use a bite to eat." With his final words Ororo, also known as Storm, sipped back out of the office and sighed. Would he ever see the folly of his plan?
--++------------------++--
"Oh Kurt - it's not that bad!" A teenage girl in a soft pink sweater, Kitty, was glaring at a boy of her own age. Yet, there the similarities ended. While Kitty Pryde was a normal teenaged girl with her stylish clothing and ponytail, Kurt Wagner was an entirely different story. For starters, and perhaps his most notable feature, was the velvety blue fur that covered his skin. His pointy ears, fangs, pupil-less yellow eyes, and spade tail gave him a rather demonic inclination. His outward appearance could not be further from the truth of the inside, however.
"No offense Kitty, but . I already ordered a pizza!" Kurt defended himself in a slight German accent. Several other gathered teens began to chuckle, each with uneaten green gunk on their plates - a tribute to their fondness of Kitty's cooking skills.
When Xavier and Ororo entered the kitchen area, they found the place in complete disarray. Kitty, her pretty face heavily splattered with foodstuffs, was chasing Kurt around and around the table. The young German fled for his life, climbing over anyone and anything that got in his way.
"Hey! Crawler!!!" Evan, a young black teen from New York, was knocked backwards out of his seat as Kurt tore across his lap.
"You are so totally dead, Kurt!" Brandishing a wooden rolling pin, Kitty Pryde refused to give up the chase for anything. Not even the massive wooden dining table could deter her in her quest for vengeance on the German mutant. Jubilee and Bobby cringed as Kitty ran right for them, then through them, employing her rather handy capabilities.
"Children, calm yourselves," Ororo pleaded. She glanced at the professor, who was busy trying to hide his grin as Kitty at last flung her arms around a surprised Nightcrawler. Raising the weapon over her head, Kitty bore a look of unending loathing. Kurt looked horrified then clamped his eyes shut and instantly disappeared into a circle of vapor. Finding her quarry had eluded her, Kitty swung the rolling pin through empty air with a snarl.
--++------------------++--
Meanwhile, back in Xavier's study, no one noticed a young boy standing just outside the room. Looking around to make sure his actions would go unseen, the boy instantly melted his body into a lifeless puddle of multi-colored goo and slid beneath the door. Having successfully entered, he resumed his usual form and quickly grabbed several of Cerebro's printouts, melting once more, and exiting without anyone ever knowing he'd come and gone.
Blue-furred mutants, angry teenage girls, and a kitchen table that had seen better days - it was just another morning at Xavier's institute for gifted youngsters.
--++------------------++--
Worlds away, floating in a tropical cove, a teenage girl was paddling hard out for the reef which served as a barrier between open ocean and the safety of the bay. Struggling against the tug of the incoming waves, the young girl got no further than she had any day previously. The jagged coral never got any closer and finally, admitting defeat, she allowed the tide to carry her back to shallow waters. This girl was Beth and this was the morning ritual.
"Heads up!" A stranger's voice cried as she exited the water, tossing her head to begin the long drying process with her hair. Looking up a second too late, she got only a fleeting glance of a white sphere before it collided with her face, sending her backwards into the sand.
"Ohh," Embarrassment and anger twisted an otherwise attractive face. A sheepish-looking boy appeared out of the undergrowth from the direction of the nearby volleyball pit. Deep brown eyes narrowed in outright annoyance. Didn't he have any manners? Or skill?
"Sorry about that, it got away from me." He extended a rather pasty hand, which she eyed but gladly accepted. His brown hair was a bit longer than she thought tasteful but he had a kind face.
"We don't usually get tourists on Kailili." Beth brushed the sand from well-tanned legs.
"Who you callin' tourists, sweet-cheeks?" A short, boy who crouched as opposed to standing piped up, having hopped into the clearing. Beth did a double-take. Hopped? It wasn't long before two others joined them - one being horridly obese like many of the tourists on the larger islands, the other with a smug grin and strangely white hair.
"Well you are," Beth defended herself.
"You-guys-move-too-slow. We-know-all-about-your-secret, Hula-girl." The boy with the white 'do cut in and rushed forward to shake her hand. Beth took a step backwards as her mind struggled to accept what she was taking in. How could a boy move so quickly?
"You know nothing about me." She frowned at him.
"Don't bother about him. We just want to help." It was the first boy, who butted his comrade out of the way and took her hand in his. "We have our sources, and they point to you. You're one of us."
"Who are you?" Beth took another step backwards and suddenly felt horribly underdressed. She was wearing only her bathing suit; a yellow bikini. Reaching for her towel, she shook the sand from it and listened as the boys explained themselves.
Lance, Toad, Fred, and Pietro . Avalanche, Toad, Blob, and Quicksilver. They wanted her to go stateside with them, to refine abilities they assumed she had. Mutant abilities. It was the stuff of freakish dreams, the sort of dreams that made her vow off watching scary movies just before going to bed. Beth felt her knees give slightly. Her morning exercise and the sudden jumble of information made her dizzy.
"Go stateside?" She repeated blankly.
"You learn quick." Pietro rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping off his every word.
"That's it! You guys just go away! I'm going to be late for school." Beth shoved her way through the throng of males, forcing them aside.
"It's-a-bit-late-for-that. You're-not-exactly-enrolled-there-anymore." Pietro called after her. Beth stopped in her tracks and turned to look at them.
"What do you mean?" Beth didn't like where this was going.
"Well, once they find out what you are, you'll be banned anyways. You might as well just come with us." It was Lance, the brown-haired leader.
"You . you're not making any sense." Beth began tracing an escape route in her mind.
"As of this morning, you're with us, Sweet-Cheeks." Toad piped up, flashing yellow teeth in what he thought was a debonair smile.
"Just get her on the plane, you boys are wasting time." An older woman appeared out of the thick tropical undergrowth. The woman had brilliant red hair and very blue skin. Were those scales or was it a trick of the light? Beth very quietly went into shock. No. She didn't want to go with these strange boys and the bizarre, azure-tinted woman in the strange white dress. But a sharp, biting pain to the back of her neck ceased all further thinking and she knew no more.
--++------------------++--
A/N: Like it? Want to see more? Give a click on the little purple button!