Take the Long Way Home
Fourth chapter!!! We'll learn about one of Shawn's stranger morning habits in this chapter as well as see how he reacts when faced with representatives from the other two mutant groups that are in the area. I might include the Morlocks in the story at a later time. Maybe. I've also decided who Maria is going to room with; but I'm still open to suggestions about Shawn's roommate.
A huge thank you to D-Ark of Spirit; you really helped me out man.
And as for my good friend Flame (insert evil grin here); two words. Bite. Me. I don't even know what you said; but I imagine it was fairly insulting. That is all.
Disclaimer: I don't own X-men evolution Marvel; so you can put your lawyers away. (Loud groans and assorted whines are heard from horde of vampiric lawyers) But Shawn and X-23's name; along with both their codenames belong too me.
Chapter 4-Two Meetings and an Unwanted Visit
Shawn groaned a moment, before sitting up in bed and looking at the clock. It was seven in the morning. 'Damn this internal alarm clock!' After getting a grand tour of the Institute yesterday it had ended up being fairly late. He had wished Maria and everyone else a good night and had managed to find his room, even though he was totally brain dead. He hadn't even seen his roomie come in; he was sawing logs a couple of seconds before his head hit the pillow! The fight had taken more out of him then he had cared to admit; and explaining his home situation had taken even more energy. Somehow the fact that he was loaded from winning seven different underground martial arts tournaments in the past four years, not to mention defending his championship title at three of them for the past three years, seemed a concept that even Beast had trouble grasping. Maria hadn't said a word to him after finding out he was almost an S-class shinobi, the youngest in history at age seventeen to be precise, thanks to his uncle's intense training.
He guessed she was also a little sore about having to stay. But right now, there was really only one thing on his zombie-like mind. He got up, putting on a t-shirt on a reflex, and shuffled out the door; nearly going through it before realizing that it was shut. He opened and closed it silently, and groggily shuffled off in search of his goal.
Wolverine, Beast and Storm were all sitting at the kitchen table, mugs of coffee in the men's hands, while Storm gracefully sipped a cup of tea. A shuffling figure appeared in the doorway and made its way into the kitchen. It was Shawn. "Morning kid," Grunted Wolverine; Beast and Storm giving their own morning greetings. Shawn acted as if he hadn't heard a word. He made his way over to the coffeepot that had just finished percolating and looked at it for a moment.
He then proceeded to pour the entire thing down his throat, no cup, not even stopping to swallow. After he had shaken the last couple of drops from the lip of the spout, he set the pot back in the machine and turned to the speechless instructors, giving them a bleary smile and a slightly cheerful "Morning". He then proceded to start looking through the cupboards; muttering something about cereal. Storm was the first to regain her powers of speech. Beast and Wolverine were both still too shocked to say anything, or form any coherent thoughts; aside from 'Did he just…?'
"Looking for anything in particular?" She asked.
He looked at her gratefully. "Tell me where the cereal, bowls, and spoons are and I'm your slave for life."
"Bowls are two cupboards to the left and one down. Cereal is to the left of the fridge, and silverware is in the drawer beneath the cereal." He found all of the items he was looking for and proceded to pour himself a bowl of Honey-nut Cheerios™. He looked up before taking the first bite when Beast cleared his throat.
"Yes?"
"Tell me, why exactly did you…"
"Drain the coffeepot?"
"Exactly"
"Old habit of mine; started when I was nine. Don't know exactly why I do it; I just do. My uncle got into the habit of brewing two pots in the morning, one for me, one for him. Eventually I just got my own coffee maker and used that. But I had to leave it back at the dojo when I left."
One of the other facts that had come to light last night was the fact that his uncle owned and operated a small, but extremely successful martial arts dojo in the Appalachians; the Dragonfire dojo; which Wolverine had said was known as one of the best places to go to train on either the east or west coasts. This was where Shawn had grown up. No wonder he could fight.
"So what are you going to do today, Shawn?" That was the professor. Maria had arrived, carrying him like a sack of potatoes, on Saturday morning. The fight had occurred on Saturday as well, which made this Sunday. This was usually a rest day for the students so they could have at least one day to just goof off. Shawn would begin training to control his powers on Monday.
The professor wheeled his way into the room, and looked questionably at the empty coffeepot, which had started to percolate once again. Shawn had the good grace to look sheepish; while the other three adults in the room just busted out laughing. After a brief explanation, Charles just looked resigned. "I suppose that this is just something that we'll have to get used too.
"Not necessarily sir." Professor X looked at Shawn, as did the rest of the assembled people. Rouge, Kitty and Maria had all come down around five minutes ago, as Shawn had been explaining the coffeepot incident. Apparently all three of them were rooming together. It was okay, because they had a bigger room than most of the other students, but it was just a little more cramped now. Kitty had cracked up after hearing the story, while both Rouge and Maria had had a hard time not losing it as well. Shawn knew that the story would be all over the Institute before long.
"I asked my uncle to send my stuff to the Institute after I had been gone at least five days. Coffeepot included, as well as my gaming systems, my stereo and my twenty-seven inch TV. If you want me too I can just send whatever you don't think is okay to have here back to the dojo." As he finished, he began to look just a little miserable thinking of his PS2™, Gamecube™ and X-box™ gathering dust back at the dojo.
"That's quite alright; as long as you allow the other students to use them as well."
"Sure! I have a whole collection of multiplayer games, even all three versions of 'Soul Caliber II™'; and I have 'Super Smash Bros. Melee™' as well. We could even have tournaments sometimes!! But to answer that question you asked me before we got sidetracked; I was thinking of just taking a look around town."
"Very well, but be careful, there are those who would attempt too harm you, should they find out that you're a student here."
"Relax professor, I'm always careful. Well…except for that ledge incident; but that was a freak accident."
It was now around eight thirty. Shawn heard more people stirring above and decided to go get properly dressed and head out. His attempt to make peace with Maria had ended badly; with the remainder of his bowl of cereal being poured into his lap. Lucky thing you didn't have oatmeal instead, huh kid? Sit on it and rotate the boy mentally growled. Relax kid, I'm sure that she'll forgive you before the end of the millennium This did nothing to improve his mood. He reached his room and got changed into a pair of jeans, one of his favorite novelty t-shirts that read "What're YOU looking at?" in green letters on a plain black background, and a pair of worn tennis shoes. He had gotten good at predicting when he was going to grow any type of clothes ruining appendages; so he figured he could get them off before they were ruined. He took his Bo and did a slightly complicated little twist and pull maneuver. It separated into a set of nun-chucks; these he stuck through the belt-loops on his jeans. He grabbed his harmonica from the nightstand; then proceded to take a running jump out of the open second story window that was in the bedroom. One perfect three point landing and about five minutes later; and he was off of the Institute's property, taking his favorite travel route. The "aerial highway"; or as regular people called it, tree jumping.
A pair of eyes that had a similar coloring to our hero's watched as he leapt from tree branch to tree branch into the distance. "Well now, who might you be mon'ami?" he said to himself. The man settled back into a fork in the tree he was in and fell into thought; a deck of cards flicking from hand to hand as he pondered this new development. He then heaved a sigh. "Suppose ah'd best call it in," he said as he pulled a communicator out of his trench coat.
---About One in the Afternoon---
He had trekked around town for a couple of hours, making a mental map of the place; especially noting the locations of the various fast food joints and the two arcades for future cruising. He had gotten a sandwich at a little mom and pops joint and was now nosing around a distinctly dilapidated old place. The sign said 'Brotherhood Boarding House'. The place had a distinct odor to it; that was certain. But what had caught his attention was the huge oak tree growing alongside the place.
'A perfect spot for a bit of music and a quick snooze' he thought. He took a running jump and landed on one of the lower limbs. He jumped up a few feet; until he found a fork in the tree that was comfortable. It also happened to be level with one of the windows, but he ignored this fact. "Place is probably deserted anyway," he said to himself. He settled back and took out his harmonica. He closed his eyes and began to play the tune for "Drift Away".
A sudden sound jolted him from his revere. A white haired guy so thin he looked almost twig-like was standing on the ground under him, a comical looking frown on his face. "Hey you!" he yelled.
Shawn made a big production of looking around before pointing too himself. "Me?" he asked in an innocently confused voice.
"Yeah you," the white haired guy yelled. 'Sheesh, this dude sounds like he was spoiled to the max' Shawn thought as he jumped down. He leaned up against the tree and folded his arms, giving the twig boy a cool stare.
"Whadda ya want?" he demanded. The other guy was about to reply when several small explosions rocked the house. A huge kid with a Mohawk, a bug eyed guy who definitely needed more sun, and a brown haired guy in a leather vest all came barreling out of the house. The huge guy had his arms covering his head as he ran, the guy in the vest immediately hid behind the side of the house and the bug-eyed guy, who was hopping along like the energizer bunny, zipped between the two arguing parties. Shawn blinked. 'Wait a minute, hopping?'
The toad like kid took a last flying leap, and hid behind the white haired one, gibbering like a monkey in a zoo. The only words that Shawn could make out were: Wanda; walked in, shower; and a strangled "Help me!"
It was strangled because he was currently being throttled by a girl with red highlights in her black hair. 'This must be Wanda,' was Shawn's first thought. Everyone seemed extremely wary of her was his next observation. The large guy had joined the dude in the vest alongside the house, while the white haired guy was trying to talk her out of murder. 'Man I thought I was gonna get a chance to rumble.' He sulked. Then he brightened. 'Maybe I still can.'
He put his harmonica away, walked over, and tapped the girl on her shoulder. She whirled around and gave him a rage filled glare. "What!!!" she snapped, letting her grip on toad boy go slack.
"Look, as entertaining as trying to turn his spine into pudding must be; why don't you let him go, take a few deep breaths and hear his side off the story."
Her victim nodded vigorously at this. "Sounds good; I like this idea. Let's use this idea."
"Then," Shawn continued, "You can kill him."
The guy's eyes got even bigger than before; and even though Shawn had thought it impossible, he paled by about ten more shades of green. He now looked a strange khaki color that made Shawn nauseas to look at. The girl however dropped him, took a couple of deep breaths, turned, and walked back into the house. The guy she had dropped gave a sigh of relief. He then proceded to lift into the air and follow Wanda. He noticed, and gave a shaky "Oh no," before the door slammed shut after him. Then the screaming started.
Shawn looked at the white haired boy, who was giving him a look somewhere between awe and utter hatred. "Now where were we? Oh yeah. I believe that we were about to get into an argument, possibly with you saying some extremely unflattering things about my mother or father. Lets just skip all that and rumble, K?"
Everyone present looked at him like he had lost his mind. 'A couple thousand punches to the ol' cranium just might do that, but I doubt it, I got a thick skull.' He thought. Tell me about it chuckled his internal companion. Shawn chose not to dignify that with a response.
Twig boy's mouth curled into a sneer before he seemed to vanish, and an insubstantial ring wearing Twiggy's clothes appeared around Shawn. 'Great, a mutant, with super speed no less,' Shawn grumbled. Suck it up kid; you've been in situations like this before. Just do what you did then came the voice he had come to think of as his mental 'coach'.
Shawn closed his eyes and held his hands loosely at his sides. He strained his ears and listened to the sound of his opponent's movements, tuning out his adversary's childish banter. While it was true he had used this type of maneuver to follow the movements of opponents, none had ever been this fast. There! The whistle of a fist through the air was clearly audible. Shawn smirked as a thought came to him. Why not? It was only illegal in tournaments.
Lance and Blob both winced when they saw Pietro's fist fly forward. Then their jaws dropped as said fist, and everything attached to it, passed right through the new guy! Pietro got up and stared as the guy he had planned on beating to a bloody pulp went a ghostly transparent, and then faded away! A whistle sounded from the base of the old oak behind him. He turned and stared at the guy; who gave a smile and a little wave. Pietro charged once again…and once again passed right through his adversary, cracking his skull on the oak. Another whistle; this time from the open window. The guy was lounging on the windowsill, not a care in the world. He leapt down and gave an evil smirk.
"Afterimage technique. You like?"(A.N.: If you haven't noticed, I use quite a few ideas from Dragonball and Dragonball Z. But hey, what can I say? The afterimage technique practically screams to be used by ninjas anyways.)
Pietro shook his head to clear it, growled and was about to resume the fight when a hand clamped onto his shoulder. It was Lance. "Leave him alone man, he'd only make you look like an even bigger idiot."
"Oh no I wouldn't," Shawn chuckled, "He was doing that all by himself."
Pietro gave a final growl and headed into the house; where the screams of: 'Wanda, I can explain!' had faded away.
Shawn brushed a bit of dust off of his shoulder as the dude in the vest came up to him, the mountain in overalls following. "Hey, the names Lance, and this is Blob. The guy you sentenced to death was Toad and his executioner was Wanda. The dude you were fighting is her brother, Pietro." Lance presented his hand with a grin while Blob just gave a nod and a grunted "hello".
Shawn gave the dude a quick once over as he shook Lance's hand. His impression? Trustworthy, tough guy persona, possible emotional problems; but hey, what teen didn't have two or three hundred of those? Then he remembered overhearing a bit of conversation between what's-her-name, Amara, yeah that was it, and Kitty. The princess had apparently been teasing Kitty about her crush on some bad boy named Lance. Was this the same guy? 'Only one way to find out.'
"Wait a sec; would you happen to know a girl by the name of Kitty Pryde?" At the mention of Kitty, Lance went redder than Wanda's highlights and started to look a little wistful. "Never mind, you just answered my question".
Blob however had gotten a look of fierce determination at the mention of the X-man. (Is it X-man or woman when you're talking about the girls in singular form? Just curious.)
"You're an X-man?" the question was charged with something that Shawn's years in the tournaments had taught him to recognize quite well; rivalry.
"Shawn O'Reily, king of butt whoop, doctor of destruction, and master of disaster; at your service." He said, giving a mock bow and a grin. Blob just turned and lumbered into the house, muttering something about 'another X-geek'.
Shawn gave a mock pout. "Was it something I said?" Lance started laughing.
After he was down from guffaws to chuckling, he gave a brief rundown of the rivalry between the Brotherhood and the X-men. Shawn just shrugged.
"Eh; so what? The soldiers during the Civil War soldiers would get together and played cards during a cease fire; so what's to stop you and me from being buds?"
Lance gave a conspiratorial grin as he answered, "Nothing, nothing at all."
Shawn took a glance at the sun and blanched. It was nearly two! "Hey man I gotta go, catch ya later?"
"Sure; hey, maybe we could play cards sometime? I'm a pretty good poker player"
"I'll see what I can do man. Later!"
As Shawn made his way back to the Institute, he had to pass through a thick copse of trees. When he got near the center he stopped. One hand moved down and rested on one of his nunchuckas. "You can come out now; or I can come and get you; your choice."
A soft chuckle reached his ears as a glowing playing card floated down in front of him. Shawn took one look and got the hell outta there! He heard the explosion behind him as he stopped in the middle of a clearing in the center of the trees.
"Relax mon'ami; I jus wanted to get your attention," came a voice from his left. Shawn looked over and glared as his assailant unwound himself from his leaning position against a tree.
'About as tall as me, muscular but not bulky, black eyes with red eyes, mutant with some sort of explosive power, weird hat thing, and an extendable staff. Left handed by my guess. Probably give me a run for my money in a fair fight,' Shawn thought. 'Better be blunt and to the point with this one.'
"I really dislike having explosive cards being thrown at me; if ya can't tell." he snarled. "So who the hell are you?"
"The name's Gambit. My boss wants to make you an offer; leave the X-men and join the Acolytes. We're a better bunch than them anyway."
"Let me think about it; ummm how does hell no sound to you? I'm the type of guy who puts all his money on one horse; ya know? So I'll have to say thanks, but no thanks. Besides," he continued, "I got a responsibility at the Institute."
Gambit sighed. "Listen ah can understand not trusting me or my boss, hell ah don't even trust him. But orders are orders. So either we rumble or you come with me willingly." As he said this, he hefted his staff into an attack position.
Shawn however, was thinking on what Gambit had just said. 'So he doesn't like his boss, huh? Maybe I can turn this possible enemy into an ally.'
"Listen, why should we fight? I haven't got any grudge against you, likewise for you, right? So why not be buds? I tell ya what; I got another guy who's making noises about getting a poker game together sometime. Ya want in? All ya gotta do is bring the cards. The non-explosive kind, I mean."
Gambit thought the proposition over. 'It's been awhile since I've had a good game of poker. And it would cheese Magneto off; always a plus. I could always bring Colossus if I need backup. He needs to get out of the base anyhow.' The Cajun gave a roguish grin (pun not intended) and stuck his hand out. "Why not? I'll just tell my boss that ya ran like a rabbit after the card blew and I couldn't catch ya."
Shawn gave his trademark grin as he took the Cajun's hand in a rough handshake. "Since he doesn't know me that should work fine. I think you and I are going to get along just great. By the way, the name's Shawn O'Reily"
Gambit gave a grin and a nod; then proceded to vanish among the trees.
Shawn crested the last hill between him and the Institute and looked down. He assumed a worried expression as several rather, shall we say colorful, terms spewed from his mouth. He shot down the hill towards the mansion; where three black copters were parked on the back of the grounds. He didn't know what they meant, but he was sure it was trouble. Something in his gut told him so. As he got closer, he could make out the insignia on the bodies of the choppers. They said S.H.I.E.L.D.
I don't think Fury stopped by for a friendly chat with Wolverine. What's gonna happen next? Find out next chapter, cause I aint gonna tell you right now!