Hey everyone, I'm not dead! I was just visiting Toronto and Cuba, before i went back home to Bermuda. So i deeply sorry for not informing anyone and the extremely long delay. I am extremely greatfully to the reviews, of previous and devot ed readers and from new and upcoming readers.
Person: I'm glad you are enjoying my style of writing; now if only my english teachers would.
B: Yeah, way way cool.
iamhollywood: I'm glad you liked the reuniting scene; i had to damn near tear my hair out to figure out how i would feel. This won't be the last of Kale vs. Pietro, in fact it might be frequent. and just out of curiousity and not to be rude, what is happening with your Todd/Amara story? Just curious to know, if you don't mind.
Lecheecopae: Thank you and Kale is like a mix of all lizards so sort off but he is deffinatly the mythical version. By the way, nice story of your own.
Now, I have delayed you long enough; Get to it and start reading
Revelations of a Toad's Past
Kale was perched on a stool in front of a canvass, the pencil gliding and seemingly floating along the paper. He was drawing a detailed picture of one of his memories and was doing in a landscape form, so he could fit more of the image in.
He was in art class; after his humorous history class with insulting Quicksilver, Todd had taken him to his next class while Kitty and Kurt followed talking about how Kale had so easily outsmarted Pietro. Kale had seen him before he left and had given a small bow and a smirk, which Pietro gave him the finger for and got another detention.
When he had gotten to the art class, the teacher asked him if he had any drawing with him and Kale gave her his sketch book. In the book he only had a few pieces; a smudge and line drawing of Native American shaman behind a fire with a spiritual eagle rising out from behind him, a speckle drawing pack of wolves running in a forest, a regular shading picture of a group of teenagers walking down a street and a pen drawing of an ice skater.
The teacher was very impressed and asked him to do one of the projects the students were doing of a scene that they knew very well or a memory that they could remember very easily, suggesting that he use pencil and regular shading to get the best effects. So he had chosen to do a picture of the Genesi squad when they all were a team and had included Tattoo in picture just to make it more interesting; not that it wasn't funny enough.
Tempest was sitting on a couch with a controller in front of him, but his electricity was holding it up while his hands were underneath the control. He had wildly spiked hair and a face of perfect concentration; Lucas was wearing jeans and a baggy shirt, with a pierced ear.
Psyche Blade had the other controller levitated but he had psychic energy coming from his forehead, his hands pressed against his forehead. He was concentrating so hard with a smirk on his face, his eyes glancing away from Tempest to the other end of the couch; Justin was wearing shorts with a shirt and vest.
Toad was sitting on the other end of the couch with Decibel in his lap, his arms wrapped around her waist and they were kissing. She had her legs tucked up onto his lap and her hand on either side of his face. Todd was dressed as he normally was around school, except his hair was spiked up and Katie had a dress on with a gypsy type of shirt on.
Phoenix lay on the floor, one hand on the ground and the other pointed at the unseen T.V. in the picture. She looked human in every sense but she had feather tied in her hair and was dressed in jeans and a loose shirt, with various bracelets on.
Tattoo was reading a book, but his snake tattoo was arched under the chair and about to wrap itself around Phoenix's leg. Tattoo was looking up at the kids with a smile on his face, his chair tilted back and his feet resting on the edge of the sofa; he was wearing smooth baggy pants and his two swords in his belt, no shirt covering his tattoos.
Kale had just done the initial images and hadn't bothered to shade it just yet, so he decided to take a break. Stretching his arms above his head, Kale flexed his muscles and sighed in relief as he felt the fire race slightly in his arms. He looked around the class and to see who he knew.
He saw Todd was sitting next to him on his right side, glancing at his canvas every now and again; he had two different pictures in front of him, one he had just started and another he had been doing since last week. Kitty was sitting next to him, obliviously wishing she was somewhere else. Kurt sat on his left side focusing on his piece of work, his brow deeply furrowed in concentration and his hands moving to put something down, but then erasing it a little bit.
Kale watched as Kurt finally sighed and slumped his shoulders, folding his arms across his chest and slouching his entire body down even further. Kale sighed and slid his tool over next to Kurt, his pencil tucked behind his ear.
"Hey Kurt, what's wrong man? You've being doing diddle daddles all lesson." Kale said, his dark brows rising to his spiked red hair.
"Oh, I was just thinking of my Liebchen." Kurt sighed, his face looking extremely downcast as he spoke.
"Who is she?" Kale asked, turning to Kurt's paper. "Or is that her?"
"Ja that is Amanda."
The picture was one of Kurt and a highly attractive girl; the facial features might be off on their placement but it still a very good drawing. In the picture, Kurt was dressed in a suit and he had his left arm wrapped around her waist and his right hand was holding her hand.
The girl herself was very slight and shy looking, her large eyes suiting her face and her gently defined cheek. The curves of her body stayed consistent throughout her dress and down to her legs. The shading was a tad bit off in some places but it was generally very good.
"This is really good man, but I'm goanna make a few suggestions if that's alright with you." Kale said, taking his pencil from behind his ear. "And while I do that, tell me what wrong with the two of you."
"Okay, it started about…"
Kitty watched as Kale talked with Kurt, point to things with his own pencil and letting Kurt correct them himself. It was nice that Kale was willing to be so kind to others and help them out with things. Kitty grinned as she remembered Kale outsmarting Pietro easily and the way he had done it with Todd's help.
She turned her gaze to the green boy next to her and felt herself grimace in slight repulsion. Todd Tolanski, also known as the Toad, was the probably the most disgusting person she had ever met; yet he was readily accepted by Kale, as though they had met before coming to Bayville.
But it somehow was odd that Kale reminded her slightly of Todd by the fat that he used certain moves and phrases that the frog like mutant solely used. The way they leaned against certain objects, the way the two used his powers with such confidence and the way that they looked into you eyes, as though they knew you couldn't throw anything at them to hurt them.
"Yo Kitty Kat, any reason you staring at me?"
Kitty jumped slightly when Todd spoke to her, jerking her from her trance like stare at him and back into reality. He was looking at her with her golden amber eyes, one of his eyebrows raised into his tangled mop of hair.
"Sorry, I kinda like zoned out for a minute." She said, watching him shrug and go back to his drawing and she realized what it was for the first time. "Did you like just start this drawing this lesson?"
"Yeah, why yo?" Todd asked looking at her with mock puzzlement. "It's not that hard to draw Kale, especially in his other state" Todd added, dropping his voice at the ending of his sentence.
The picture was a sketch of Kale sitting in the stool as he was except in his draconic form, the picture and shadows alternated accordingly. He was still perched on the stool, except his tail was curled around the legs of the stool and the balls of his feet rested on the feet holds of the stool. His dragon like face rested on one of his right arm while his left hand was held up in front of his face; his hands and face had soot and scorch mark all over them like a cartoon, his eye bug eyed and his mouth looking like he was whistling.
Behind his back, was a pair of large folded wings that had been pushed through his shirt and jacket. The fronts of shirt and jacket were also covered in scorch marks and the tops of his pants were also burned; the whole picture was very cartoon like but very real like, making it so funny that it made Kitty giggle at the sight of it.
"Yeah, but just for safe keepings I'm going to keep this in my bag…unless you want it?" Todd offered as he rolled up the picture. "It's not like I can't do it…yo, Kit Kat you okay?"
But Kitty however was looking at the drawing that Todd had been doing for the past week and felt her jaw drop while her eyes bulged; it had been behind the drawing of Kale and it blew that drawing out of the water just by the sheer detail he had gone to. Todd must have spent every minute of the past few lessons to achieve the level of drawing he was on and it just amazed Kitty that it was him that did it.
The picture was of a teenage girl wrapped in a bed sheet with a series of candle lights around her, casting various shadows on her body and in enhancing all the wrinkles on the bed. Her feet and from her shoulders up were the only parts of her body that you really saw, but because of the way the sheets lay around her you got the idea she wasn't dressed and what kind of body she really had. Her body was very elegant and trim by the way the cloth was wrapped around her, her legs curled underneath her so that it obscured her real height.
Her arms were long and slender, with a watch and simple bracelet on her left wrist and a bracelet wrapped several time around her right wrist. Her hips and her stomach curved almost perfectly under the sheets, her almost too perfectly round breasts just under her elbow. The girls face was peaceful and content, her rounded cheeks and rounded nose calm and relaxed with a smile on her lips. Her hair was long and curly, streaks of light shading showing in the light.
The bed was a simple square shad with a basic headboard that had an intricate design running through the wood. Along the top of the back board were a dozen candles that had candled wax dripped over the candlestick and there were also some on a nightstand as well.
"Wait, you were actually there?" Kitty asked in an awe voice looking at Todd.
"Who do you think slept with her, yo?" Todd asked dryly, turning to the picture in question and picking up his pencil.
"What, she was drunk or something?" Kitty said sarcastically and regretted the words the moment they left her mouth.
But the damage was done by the expression on Todd's face. His cheek and jaw muscles harden as his eyes seemed to glisten from tears, his brow furrowing deeply and his lips turn downwards. Kitty saw his hands tighten into fists and his biceps flex for what must have been their first time in months. A quiet but sharp click of joints rippled across his body his breathing deepened, his neck tensing up so that his veins were even more apparent she caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a scar on his neck.
"Her name was Katie, but she preferred to be called Decibel." Toad responded his voice like jagged ice, cold and jagged. "And she slept with a freak like me because she wanted to go that next step in our relationship."
Kitty could feel the anger and hurt in his voice of what she had said about him and this Katie; but when she started to apologize Todd snapped his head around to face her and Kitty suddenly felt that he and Kale must be somehow related, despite the absurdity in it.
His eyes were a natural golden amber color but when she saw the color flash of through out his eyes, it made her gasp a little; he had a look of absolute fury but was controlling extremely well.
"You know nuttin' about my past yo, or why I do things that way I do them." Todd said the harshness of his voice startling her. "So go fuck yourself."
Todd furiously reached down and yanked up his CD player, cranking the volume up so the hard punk rock was just audiable to the extremely stunned and slightly hurt Kitty.
Todd felt his anger burn inside of him; he hated the fact that just because he looked like the most foul and despising thing on the face of the planet, that it was impossible for him to even have had a girlfriend in his entire life; the fact that he and Kale were related just blew people in orbit as it was with out them knowing that he had slept with a girl.
Todd sighed and ran his hands through his hair as he listen to Saliva's "Separated Self"; he and Katie had fallen in love because they were there for each other. Not in the Kale had been there, defending them and helping them through any physical and verbal damage.
Kale was great with helping us deal with what he had to do to survive Todd thought with a slight smirk Hell; he would have made a great psychiatrist because of the way he help us.
But Katie was different, especially in the way that they had first started to find each other attractive. Todd wasn't even looking for her; he was just going to train in one of the gyms and just happened to go to the right one at the right time. Closing his eyes, Todd allow himself to slip back into his memories; he normally only looked back to his past when he was sleeping, trying to keep as far from his past as possible. But this time he wanted to look back and see her, see her the way he had for the first with attraction. Todd sighed as he went back four years to that fateful day...
The setting sun cast its mixture of colors through the window of the hallway as Todd stood there, staring at nature's beauty at its greatest. The sky looked like paint spilled over a blue piece of card and water had mixed them all together, a beautiful mix of red, gold, orange, yellow and purple.
Todd Nority Tolenski was leaning with his hands on either side of the window, his golden amber eyes shining in appreciation. The thirteen year was dressed in a sleeveless army vest with no shirt underneath and a pair of baggy camouflage pants which were tucked into combat boots. His wrist had plain black wrist bands covering them, his webbed hands spread out on the wall; in his reflection ha saw a bandana was tied around his aggressively spiked emerald hair.
His arms were finely toned and muscled, trained for speed and strength not brute force; his face was rounded and slightly represented his codename, the toad. His legs, although obscured by his baggy pants, were extremely defined and muscular.
"Fuck yo, I better get going if I want to train before dinner." Todd muttered as he tuned down the hallway. "I really don't want miss another meal because of training."
Todd walked with long and powerful strides down the hallway, his pace exceptionally quick and determined. If any of the soldiers that were stationed at the base saw him, they could have told whether he was part of the Genesi Squad or not. The Squad was still fairly newly formed in the fact that they had only been a team for about six months; the team consisted solely of extremely powerful or extremely well trained mutant assassins
Since Todd's power were mainly physical and had a lot of potential for martial arts, he had been trained by a man called Lyon Gaultier. Lyon had been in the French Foreign Legion Special Forces, but he had deserted when he heard his brother was dead and his brother's wife needed him; after making sure they would be taken cared of by the underground's strongest fighters, Lyon went in search of work and ended up working for the Hassassin's Blade.
Lyon had been amazed with Todd's lower body strength and his iron determination, while Todd was just amazed that Lyon could jump in the air and do a split kick. The two had formed a very deep friendship over the four years that Todd studied under Lyon and still were friends, even if they hadn't seen each other in two years. Lyon had taught Todd all the skill of martial arts that he knew, which had left with a range of disciplines; Kickboxing and Tae Kwon Doe were his best since they were primarily kicking styles, but he was very good in Tai chi, Ninjitsu and the various weapons associated with the arts. Kale was beginning to teach him Iaido, the Japanese art of sword fighting that the samurai used.
Todd entered the gym silently and expertly through the door and saw that it was deserted, the weights silent from their normal clanking. Shrugging his shoulders, Todd went over to one of the punching bags and began to hammer the bag with short and quick jabs and kicks. He hit the bag in repetitions of three and then he would give two kick to the bag; after twenty minutes of the repetition, a fine film of sweat was forming on his arms and face.
Todd then began to incorporate his tongue into his moves, lashing out as a third arm and sometime whirling his whole body around to use it as a whip. After combining all the moves into one furious rally, Todd leaped into the air and smashed the bag with both of his feet, flipping around after the impact and landed in a crouch.
"Now if only I could do that when the Squad is here, we might be able to have some competitions." Todd said with a snicker. "Yeah, who can knock the punching bag the furthest across the room."
Todd sat in crouch for a while, not just to collect to breath but to try and hear the sounds coming from the hallway. Todd sprung from his crouch onto the wall and slid down, into the shadows that perfectly hid his body.
Todd watched a girl about his age storm in and recognized her as Katie Davage, more commonly called Decibel due to her power over sound. She was roughly about his height and had long rich brown hair with golden highlights. He face had slight French features that, along with her accent, gave away her heritage. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt with a military jacket over it and had pants similar to Todd's. She had rolled her sleeves up, showing her finely toned muscles flexing in anger; a sharp pitch of sound shot out in the room and Todd merely shook his head, since he was used to her powers reflecting her emotions.
The door burst open again and three large men walked in, their uniform and walking stances gave them away as Navy SEALS. Todd's mind suddenly went into it's combat thinking; two African-Americans, one Oriental descendant, around six fee giving an inch and around two hundred and twenty pounds, probably had extensive combat train, un armed and not mutants. On of the African Americans had a long fierce cut on his cheek and the Korean man had a pieced ear.
"Hey, come on little girl. What are you going to do, run to your big bad squad leader?" The man with the cut said. "My and Mike were just try introduce you to Kevin. Isn't that right Mike?"
Todd darted around the gym so he was behind Katie, only a few feet from her and a little further than the pack of jerks. Todd had started to recently like Katie because the French mutant always seemed to keep her spirits up and his even when he was trying to sulk.
"Yeah, Jacob." Mike said, his hand rubbing together, lust burning in his eyes.
"Plaire, just leave me be. I just what to get to dinner." Katie said fiercely, her eyes flashing neon yellow.
The three had blocked any way of her getting out, moving her and positioning her to a section of the training area that had no doors. The lightly dark skinned man, who Todd presumed was Kevin, that hadn't said a word yet he was staring at her the hungriest and with the most lust.
"How about this then; you can go have your dinner…after we've had our own fill." Jacob said, as they stepped closer to Katie.
Katie began to tremble with fear as the larger men gathered around her, their arms flexing with desire. One of them reached out and brushed his fingers against her face, making her flinch away in repulsion. Infuriated he grabbed her face and pulled her closer to him, inhaling her scent like a wild animal.
The move scared Decibel that she reacted in the only way she knew how to; snapping her hands to her waist with her palms facing up, two sonic bolts shot from her hands and slammed into the mans jaw. He was lifted off his feet and smacked down to the floor, unconscious; Jacob roared with rage and slapped her across the face, making her fall to the floor.
"I guess we'll just do this the hard way." He snarled standing over her while Kevin joined him.
Todd finally couldn't stay hidden any more; springing off of the wall he had been crouched against, Todd shot out of the shadows and towards the two men. He smashed both feet into Jacobs chest and lashed Kevin with his tongue. While Jacob fell on the floor, Kevin was only stunned so Todd took care of him first.
Todd smashed his fist into Kevin's gut and then smacked him in the temple with his elbow, knock him cold in two hits. Todd turned around to see Jacob just scrambling to his feet and ducked under his roundhouse kick. Catching Jacob's leg, Todd laced his fingers together over his enemy's knee and pulled down, snapping the knee joint. As Jacob screamed, Todd smashed his heel into his jaw and he was down and out with his friends.
Todd then knelt down to decibel who was staring at him and he gently lift her up so she was sitting slightly but leaned back. Todd was fear full that she had been hurt or that they would hurt her, but he didn't know why he even gave a damn in the first place.
"Are you alright yo?" He asked, concern filling his voice.
"Oui, mon amie, I am just fine." Katie said shakily and she gave him a soft peck on the cheek. "Thank you, Todd"
Todd felt his cheeks burn as she thanked with a small kiss, mainly because it had been so long since any girl had kissed him. Tenderly he picked her up and set her carefully on the floor; she stayed close to him and wrapped her arms around his right arm.
"You did alright, ya know. Ya did take one out yo." He said as they walked towards the door.
"Maybe, but you have such skill and you are so strong, stronger than I think I could ever be." She said admiringly, her slender fingers tracing his still tense muscles.
"I could teach you some of the fighting skills I learned and I probably could help you work out some more, yo. Not that you aren't beautifully or anything." Todd said quickly, making Katie laugh.
"It's okay, I was kind of thinking that we could spend more time together anyway. Training as you suggested." She said blushing.
Todd smiled and took Katie's fingers in his webbed, gave it a squeeze and a wink. She blushed furiously and hid behind her locks, gnawing tenderly on her bottom lip. Todd smiled as she looked back at him with such praise and liking that he could help but give her a lopsided grin. Maybe things might work out…
Kale stared at Todd as he yanked on his head phones and cranked up the volume so that he could have heard it without his super hearing. He and Kurt had heard everything and Kale understood why Todd was in pain about what Kitty had said, his own heart sympathetically burning for his brother.
"Ouch, zhat waz harsh." Kurt said a look of hurt on his face.
"What, what she said or how he reacted?" Kale asked, glancing over to Kurt.
"Both really, mein freund; I understand why Todd is upset about Kitty's comment, but I wish I understood him better."
"Well, he and Katie were a revelation, at the least." Kale said, adding a little bit of shading to his drawing
"A vhat?"
"Revelation; Something revealed, especially a dramatic disclosure of something not previously known or realized. Katie and Todd went out for some thing like two years, in serious love and they weren't afraid to show it; making that a revelation in itself. Both of them had trouble showing their emotions because they were so used to keeping them bottled up" Kale said turning back to his drawing. "But after a month or two, they had no problems showing their emotions."
"Say, how do you like know so much about Toad?" Kitty asked over Todd's head.
Kale leaned back on his stool and looked at her with a slightly cocked head tilt and Kitty gasped in the resemblance between the two again. Kale gave her a slightly fanged smile and chuckled slightly at Kitty's expression.
"What do ya mean, yo? Brothers always know each other inside out and backwards." He said, leaving her and Kurt in stunned silence as the bell rang to end class.
Oh boy, looks like the family secret is out; i wonder how Duncan's goning to react, not to mention the rest of the X-Men and the Brotherhood.
Anyways, Please send yourquestions, comment's, suggestions in reviewsto me because i like them and i need them to spur me on my writing abilities. So please send em'.
Lin