Chapter 4
Darkholme? why did that sound so strange. It must be a common German name. That's it, its just coincidence.
"Are you ok" rogue was sitting next to me in the food court. "Say something hun, your scaring me"
"Yeah I'm ok" Liar "just a little shaken up I guess, I've never changed that quickly before".
"I'm not buying that for one minute." Hear it comes. "I knew last night when you told us all your name, that there must be some connection, that and your powers"
"What do my powers have to do with this?" rogue obviously knew more about raven then I did.
"Raven Darkholme or Mystique as she likes to be called, is a shape shifter." She sounded like she had prepared this.
"Oh" god that sounds stupid here I may have found my mother and all I can think of is, oh?
"Yeah it's a shocker for sure, very few people know her real name, and even fewer know mine." she just sat there like she was talking about the news.
"What do you mean?" my head wanted to explode.
"My name is Anna-Marie Darkholme" this must be what a brain aneurysm feels like.
"God my brain hurts" and it did I felt like Henry was taking swings at my head with a sledgehammer.
"I understand, I'll be honest I was a little jealous of you last night."
"Why"
"Because, after you said your name I knew what that meant, I knew you were my sister. That's why I asked you what your powers were. I wanted to know if you had been dealt the same fate as I had been, but what I heard wasn't what I wanted. I was furious that you had more control over your powers then I did, hell your way more powerful than me. That's why I stormed out of the meeting and that's why I didn't wake you up when I left this morning."
The faculty meeting the night before made much more sense now.
"I'm sorry I had no idea" it was the truth she hadn't told me anything about her powers. "So what are your powers anyway?"
"Like yours kind of, only I can't change physically other than slightly more body hair or this damned white streak in my hair. And I can't control it either."
"Do they come and go?"
"No worse my powers are always on" poor girl I knew what she was going through.
"Yeah, same here until about a year ago" I had spent all of my free time for years trying to master my powers.
"Really, but you have such control." That's a laugh
"No I don't, I never had any one like Xavier to help me. Everything I know I read in a book. And a lot of guess work. I found this book on the Way of the Samurai, and I started to study concentration techniques. Disciplining my self so I could control my mind."
"I never had time for anything like that, I've only been at Xavier's for less than a year. Before that I was on the road for a long time, that's how I met mystique. I had been living with foster parents ever since I was really little. But an accident with my boy friend turned everything upside down". She is a lot more open than I was when I didn't have control.
"I'm sorry I didn't know"
"That's ok, I usually don't like to tell people about it" this conversation is starting to sound like daytime telly.
"Hey, how about we grab an ice cream and head for the mansion?" anything to take my mind off of mystique.
"Sure, that sounds fun we can show kitty what we bought"
"She was at the meeting, right?"
"Yeah she was, she has been the closest thing to a best friend I've had ever since I left home."
After ice cream we headed back to the mansion. As we walked out of the garage Logan was painting a strange symbol on the wall by the front doors.
"That's beautiful Logan" and it was, it had sharp black lines with a solid black circle around it.
"Its Japanese, from bushido, samurai use it to protect their temples." He seamed to exude discipline. "I spent some time in Japan studying under a samurai master from the hand."
"You were in the hand?" the Hand was renowned as the greatest group of assassins in the world.
"Hell no, those posers are not true samurai. All they care about is power."
"A samurais true path is to search for honor." I felt proud of myself for knowing that for about two seconds.
"You know nothing about the way of the samurai" all of a sudden Logan's voice had turned ice cold.
"Come on Logan lighten up will you." Rogue slapped Logan on the arm.
"Never, but if you think you can take me then be in the danger room at nine am tomorrow" Logan's face didn't move for almost thirty seconds before rogue broke out into a fit of laughter.
"Any time old man." Logan's mouth spit into what looked more like a smirk more than a smile.
As we walked up to the girl's dorms Logan had returned to his painting. Kitty's room was across the hall from ours. She shared her room with her boy friend Piotr Rasputan. When we knocked on the door Kitty stuck her head right through the door.
"Oh, hi rogue, come on in" we opened their door to find Piotr sitting on the bed half naked in front of a canvas. It depicted a green field full of lilies. However Piotr had grown about 6 inches and his skin was covered in a semi translucent metal alloy.
" Hi Piotr" rogue seamed not to notice that his skin was made of metal.
"Hello Rogue, hello Rose. What brings the two of you back so early." As he turned to face us Piotr's skin returned to normal exposing his entire torso.
"You know the brotherhood they cant seem to give us a moments peace." I started to wonder if this was making the new girl confused day. For I still had no idea what the brotherhood was.
"The brotherhood was at the mall? Have you told the professor?" kitty seamed to get really nervous at the mere mention of this brotherhood.
"Not yet, I figured I would tell him in the morning" rogue seemed to have lost her interest in the subject. "So want to see what we bought?"
"Absolutely, Piotr I'll be back later" the three of us walked across the hall to our room.
Once inside, we took everything out of its bag and began assembling outfits. After trying on all of the clothing I had bought in various combinations we all sat up late talking about boys until the early hours of the next day.
At daybreak I woke up to find my room covered in the cloths I had bought the day before. Kitty lay in the middle of the floor wrapped in one of my shawls. I got out of my bed and tried to get to the bath without stepping on her.
After washing up I headed down stairs to the teachers kitchen. Unable to get to any of my cloths with out waking Kitty up, I went down in my wife beater and a pair of light blue pajama pants.
When I arrived in the kitchen it was completely empty save for the scruffy looking man who went by the name, Logan. He was hunched over the island counter with a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other. He seemed to be lost in his newspaper, as he didn't even acknowledge that I was there. Walking over to the cabinets I pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal. Grabbing a carton of milk I sat down in front of him.
"Good morning" I said as I sat down with a gracious smile on my face.
"Its ok I uses" he didn't even look in my direction as he spoke.
"So, are we still on for this morning" I had decided I needed to have somewhat of an edge when I spoke.
"I had challenged Rogue not you"
"As a Samurai you challenged me just as much as you did Rogue." I looked directly into his eyes with out flinching for a good five minutes before he broke out in a smile.
"You think you're a Samurai do you, this I have to see." He got up from the table and threw away his beer. After walking to the door he turned around and gave me this almost maniacal stare. "You coming runt."
"Lead the way" I got up from my bowl and followed him out of the kitchen. He led me down a hallway towards Xavier's office. About halfway he turned towards the wall and pushed a panel at the top. I could hear pistons releasing and part of the wall popped out. Grabbing the edge he pulled back to reveal a small tube like chamber.
"This will take you down to the subbasement" reluctantly I climbed in and Logan shoved the wall back into place. As soon as the wall was in place the floor seemed to plummet down into the ground. I was in the steel death trap for only five or six seconds before it stopped and the wall in front of me opened up. As I stepped out of the elevator Logan was already waiting for me. "What took you so long"?
With out waiting for me to answer he turned and walked down the hall. This hallway seemed like it came out of a science fiction movie. The walls and floors were all steel with large circular doors. He walked to a door on the far end of the hallway and waited for me to catch up. When I reached the door he pushed a small panel on the wall. As the door opened I could see a large steel room at least three stories high with a large clear dome at the top. Through the dome I could see lots of computer panels.
"This room is used by the x-men for training. It uses holograms to project any possible scenario." He walked into the middle of the room and looked up at the dome in the ceiling. "Cerebro, activate program, wolverine: training level one."
Instantly the room faded around us and we were standing on straw flooring in an ancient Japanese temple with thin paper walls and solid black wooden support beams.
Logan walked to the far side of the room and opened a black box on the floor taking out two Samurai katana.
"Here kid" he turned around and handed me one of the swords.
Taking the sword from Logan I wiped the katana from its scabbard and began to perform one of the practice drills I had taught my self. Taking the sword back in my right hand and raising it up I twirled the sword down and swung up so that the blade was facing up grabbing the sword with both hands I spun ending with the sword at average throat level.
"Not bad kid, take your stance" Logan turned around and walk six steps away turned around and place his right hand on the braid of the hilt placing the sword above his left thigh. Moving a few steps back I emulated his pose.
We stood perfectly still like predators evaluating its prey looking for the right moment to strike. In one fluid motion my sword was out of its sheath moving towards Logan's throat. Before I could reach my target he blocked my sword with his sword still in it's casing, with one hand on the handle and the other hand on the scabbard above the guard. Pulling the sword from the scabbard Logan spun around aiming for my throat. Ducking out of the way I pulled my sword from Logan's scabbard. Bringing my sword up in an upward arch Logan blocked with his sword and popped me in the head with his scabbard. I started to lose balance but not before I plunged forward with everything I had driving my sword deep into Logan's chest. As my adrenaline lowered I had just enough time to realize what I had done before blacking out.