Usual disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or any of their characters. (Not rich enough anyway)
Chapter 2
Annandale-on-Hudson
Grey House
When I got back home it was with a smile on my face. For once something went right in my life! I made a friend and maybe an ally in my quest for freedom and equality. Life was going to be difficult from now on, as Sinister or Magneto might come to get me at any point; it meant that I needed all the training I could stomach.
I have an Omega power level but no experience in how to unleash it safely; yes, I had ideas but it's through trials and errors that I've succeeded in controlling the meager power I already mastered. There was so much power under the mental lid I have constructed that I didn't dare to tap into. *Note to self, go to a deserted mountain somewhere and see what I can truly do.*
Before going into my bedroom I did the usual scan of my neighborhood to know if another unforeseen variable presented itself. I wouldn't put it past Sinister to try to plant another spy while I am overwise busy.
*Mom is here and watching her Spanish telenovelas.* (soap opera in English), it was called Marimar and those have been a sensation lately in the US.
*Hmm, ok, I will finish my homework and then go to prepare to look for Matty.* I planned.
"Mom, I'm home!" I shouted while still on the porch.
I opened the door giving a view of the stairs leading to the second floor and put my bag on the first step and went to the living room. Mom was watching TV and at the same time folding clothes mechanically. That's what I call housewife skills! She could do three things at the same time.
She wore a white top, a blue cardigan the same color as her eyes with a black jeans; I always found it refreshing that my mother was surprisingly into what I think would be futuristic fashion. She's also a good seamstress.
My mother, Elaine, turned her head toward me and smiled briefly before returning to watching her mexican soap opera on the ninety centimeter screen. I walked up to her, sat at her side and kissed her on the cheek and began to systematically fold clothes with her and place them into a wicker basket. Those were dad's shirts and pants, she had evidently triaged them beforehand.
We finished the folding when the episode ended and mom thanked me for the help and went to prepare dinner; quickly I skedaddled, taking my bag from the stairs and levitating up them. My bedroom was the second door on the right, near the laundry room and the bathroom. I opened my door with a thought and landed on my feet.
"French and Biology, let's go." I said to myself as I threw my backpack into the air, making it levitate and opening it to let its contents float out around me, putting the books necessary for doing my homework on my desk.
I sat in front of my desk, with a pen and some paper in hand. I wanted to be done with my homework and then do some chores, go have dinner while watching a rerun of Knight Rider, then let my parents go to sleep. I needed to go to Hell's Kitchen tonight and see if Daredevil was patrolling. I've been hearing rumors... about a devil in that city block, now it's time to see which kind of Matt Murdock was in this dimension.
It took me three hours to be done with my homework. I found genetics interesting; as it was the source of my current and future problems, I wanted to be good at it to be able to educate the masses later.
"Jean, dinner is ready!" Mom roughly knocked on my door making me jump, I didn't detect her coming as all my attention was on my school work.
When I looked at the time, I saw that it was already 07:00 PM.
That wasn't good, I deployed my awareness all around me to see if others had also used this time to sneak into the neighborhood. The usual people were present and going through their business and life. I abruptly increased the range from another kilometer and I felt a bleep on my mental detection grid, it was an unfamiliar mind. I didn't like that, while standing up from my chair and opening the door to my bedroom with telekinesis I kept tabs on the stranger's mind.
I focused on the woman who entered my mental detection sphere, because yes, the mind was female. She had a certain way of thinking about her: she was worried about stealth, completing her mission and had a series of objectives in mind to do so. I didn't know if she was hostile but I kept a mind's eye on her while still going through the motions.
Through my spatial awareness I didn't even hit anything on the way, meaning there were no doors or people in the way. I passed the doors of the game room and bathroom and levitated down the stairs. Mom with her blonde hair and blue eyes was there at the bottom of them, frowning as she said, "Walk Jeany, walk. No levitation at home unless it's an emergency."
"Fine." I said raising my hands to placate her.
She was satisfied only when my feet touched the ground and pulled me to the dining room. Did I forget to say that mom and dad were overprotective? Yeah, it's easy to guess when they still treat me as if I am a little girl or something. Even though mentally I was older than them. My disinterest in playing or just acting like the teens of my age must have been what worried them and forced them to call on Xavier.
And I thought that everything was going well. Mom sat me at the table and I tried to help set up the table but she told me to relax for once and did it herself.
I loved helping them, but from what I could feel from my parents they wanted me to let my hair down. They must still be bothered by last night's discussion. I scowled at the choice of color for the table decoration; the pink tablecloth that she chose to drape on the table made me have conniptions, this was one of the points of contention we had.
Meanwhile, I still kept an eye on the spy who stopped two blocks from our house. And… Frowning, I focused on her thoughts and memories.
*Oh, I see what she's doing, this isn't about me, but about the brain dead people that have been recovered from time to time in the neighborhood. That's my fault, they were Sinister's agents and I dispatched them. I should have thought about this before, next time I will have to atomize their bodies. And Neuralyze any witnesses.* I was able to use an ability that I'd developed that I called Neuralyzer; called after the device from the Men in Black comics, the Neuralizer; in the MIB comics it had the ability to wipe the mind of anybody who saw the flash.
Once people were neuralized, they seem to enter a trance, freeze and their eyes lose focus. Once victims are neuralized, the agents must make up a story to replace the victims' erased memories. My powers can mimic the same effects, though I can also scramble brains or erase memories and turn people into vegetables.
It hadn't been an easy ability to master, and at first it had taken it out of me as I hadn't been used to manipulating my powers like that. Sifting through memories wasn't an exact science, you needed to know what to look for and either repress the memory or erase it. Depending on the amount of people like two or three, I could do it without tiring myself. But anymore and I would get as exhausted as if I'd run a marathon. Effing baldie made it look easy in the movies.
Mom grabbed my attention when she brought two covered bowls on a tray and placed them in the middle of the table. As my mother uncovered the bowls, wafts of delicious smells filled the air. Tonight's meal was simpler than last night's: this time it was rice salad with tuna.
Dad put two bottles on the table, one was water and the other was wine. We had two different kinds of glasses near our plates, I poured the contents of the water bottle into my normal glass and then we began to eat with gusto. That rice salad with mom's secret sauce? It was too delicious.
While eating I spoke about my day to my parents. "I made a friend today. Her name is Jessica Jones, she colored her hair pink, she's quite pretty." I said with a grin.
I continued to chew on my food while looking for their reactions; Dad had his fork midway to his mouth and mom looked shocked. Their eyes shone with happiness and their elation was clear with my empathic power active.
*She got a friend!* Mom thought, with an expression of pleasant surprise.
Dad slapped the table while laughing. *We need to celebrate.*
"You two are quite rude, you know." I said with a pout.
Mom and Dad laughed at my expense. They didn't even get weird looks when they realized I had heard their thoughts. They just continued to smile at me. This was acceptance, I had it here with my parents, it warmed my heart.
Mom put a hand on mine and said, "Understand us, Jeany. You have been quite asocial since elementary school…"
I thought about this, and she was right, I stopped trusting kids my age since they started ignoring me after my breakdown about Annie's death. Being a telepath wasn't always rosy, I knew when people had ulterior motives or wanted to hurt me. At school and outside the house I always adopted a threatening stance, ready for an attack, whether physical or mental.
*It's not paranoia if they are really out to get you.* I thought in my heart.
Looking sheepish, I said, "I can't deny that…" Then with a bright smile and after flipping my hair back I continued to say, "but Jess is special. She's a bit like me, a loner. But I understand why… kids at school are mean and downright rude to her and it's without taking into account that her parents died and she was placed in an orphanage by CPS."
I intended to change that, fortunately, she didn't like Peter Parker in this dimension, in the main reality 616, the spiderboy was her first crush.
Mom put a hand on her heart, shocked. "The poor dear!"
My mother sat straight in her chair, and began to think. "Why don't you invite her to come over, you must introduce this young woman to us."
I wasn't surprised, she had a good heart and maybe having Jess here sometimes would be good. Mom wanted to help her, now I knew where I got my helping people thing. "Sure I will."
"Was she adopted?" My dad asked as he put his fork on his plate.
I nodded. "Yeah, I think so, otherwise she wouldn't be at Midtown High."
"True." Dad grunted and went back to eating.
Mom and I did the same and we finished our meal on more inane conversations. Then we went to watch the news on our big television. I kept getting weird flashes of deja vu as I knew some of the events already happening all around the world, but there were marked differences, like the Iraqi disarmament crisis. In my other self's original reality Iraq refused to let the UN inspectors access a number of sites and the US failed in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
In this reality they had nothing to hide and had respected the terms of the disarmament. The news still spoke about the situation even weeks after, doing follow ups on them. Something really important was going on too, Tupac Shakur survived being shot while attending a boxing match in Las Vegas; yet again, in the other reality he clearly died.
*A sure sign that I can't always rely on my knowledge of the events from the other reality and about the Marvel Universe.* I thought as I nestled against my mother a bit more, she hugged me and stroked my red hair.
After this revelation, I went to do the dishes and my parents went to get ready for bed. I had a plan for tonight and I followed the progress of mom and dad while cleaning the kitchen and dining room. I checked the time on my watch.
09:57 PM.
*They are going to go to sleep soon, they always do after their showers.* I thought.
As I finished my chores, I walked up the stairs and went into my bedroom; it was my turn to use the shower in my own bathroom. I took off the outfit I was wearing and caught a towel from one of the shelves of my wardrobe. I stopped before the mirror and looked at the reflection of my naked form.
Sixteen years and I was still finding a stranger looking back at me. I had green eyes and long red hair that reached the middle of my back, no freckles, unblemished pale skin; I have ample breasts, and as I held onto them I smiled as I found them firm and splendid. A toned body that showed that I took care of myself. I mean come on, I have abs!
Shaking my head, I remembered what my other self had looked like; she had been completely different in ethnicity and nationality. She had been French with clear caramel skin and with a penchant for african braids, brown eyes and she had been shorter than I was with smaller breasts but wider hips. She had had a kid that she missed terribly at the moment.
Closing my eyes, I saw her in my mind's eye smiling upon me. She was me, and I was her; the disapproving look on her face made me chuckle. She was now reminding me that she had come to terms with it, it had been sixteen years, after all.
Smiling, I shrugged and my reflection mimicked me. It took thirty minutes, but I cleaned myself thoroughly and after that, I dried my hair with the blow dryer. Having long hair was a chore, but I would be damned if I ever cut it. I mean it was an iconic red mane, in the comics and movies I was always shown with long hair, well… the dumb movies with Hugh Jackman didn't count.
"Damn, I should go check to see if he looks like the one in the movies. If he is, I'm totally going to have him." I said out loud.
I thought about those rock hard muscles and tall frame… *Yum.*
Blushing, I stopped myself from thinking about sex. Well, I was sixteen, full of hormones and jailbait. Let's put that plan on the back burner. Once done with drying my hair I combed and brushed it. Looking toward the door, I felt someone coming. It was mom.
My mother knocked on the door. "Jeany, time to go to sleep."
"Lemme brush my teeth and I will." I shouted at the door.
"Don't tarry, then. Good night honey." She said and I felt her leaving, she was going to have sex with dad… they were really sexually active as a couple.
"Good night mom." I answered, shouting again.
I glared at the toothbrush in the white porcelain cup, and it floated toward me as well as the toothpaste; expertly, I used my TK to put the paste on the brush and I took the tool in my hand and began to brush. Every day I trained in the control of my powers, I hoped one day that I wouldn't need the mental lid I placed on them anymore.
I barely used two percent of it and it could make me levitate or evaporate water. At first I was scared by how much psionic power this little body of mine contained and could potentially wield. When I had been thirteen it had suddenly manifested when I had thrown a tennis ball at my wall and the ball had been stopped in midair, as I had tried to take it, the ball had been vaporized.
My life had been hell for the first two weeks as I had experimented to try to control it and then I had thought about this show that my other self had seen before her death called My Hero Academia. The MC stupidly used his new power as an all or nothing move when he should have tried to make it part of himself. And when he started training to make it so, he saw that his current body and mentality didn't permit him to use all of his power.
I had done the same as him and had seen at which point it had been safe to use my powers. I had worked really hard to be at the point where I was right now. Before it had been half of a percent, barely enough to bend spoons like in The Matrix. But now that I was sixteen and after daily meditation sessions and taking care of my body I was confident in using ten percent safely. Experience, this was what I needed and was sorely lacking.
With ten percent power I could use my power to mimic superboy's. By imbuing myself with psionic energy I dramatically enhanced my body, that meant that I had super agility, reflexes, durability, a large boost in my senses, Wonder Woman levels of speed and strength; let's not talk about the force-field, flight and TK armor -a sort of dermal armor like a kryptonian- and TK pressure.
No wonder, I could beat Jessica Jones, though she was still a baby in the use of her powers too. Though… I hated the way Marvel showed how Jean Grey used her powers. I mean, I was an effing omega level mutant with two of the best super powers: telepathy and TK (Telekinesis).
*Well, scratch that I am super.* I laughed while still having toothpaste on my teeth.
Three minutes later I was done.
Smiling, I used my TK to levitate and looked at the wet floor, I narrowed my eyes focusing on it and excited the water molecules by making them vibrate. The water evaporated in an instant. With a smile and a grin I did the same with the water on my body. There was a brief cloud of vapor but it wasn't scalding or anything.
Going through the door after using my powers to open it. The house was silent and I felt no one in the corridor. Quickly, I was out of the bathroom and through the door of my bedroom facing it. I closed the door with the rise of an eyebrow.
I turned the light on and looked for anything amiss. My seismic sense deployed and only registered the movement of insects in the walls. I would have to warn dad about that, they might be due to a visit from the exterminator.
Taking my time I chose the clothes in which I would be going out tonight; in my wardrobe I found a black hoodie with an oversized hood, the decal on the front of it was of a yellow and orange firebird. It was perfect so I threw it on the bed. Crouching to access my panty drawer I pulled on it and began to look for something that wasn't lacy or white; I hit the jackpot when I found feminine black boxer shorts.
*Hmm, I will need more of these in the near future. They are super practical.* I thought as I pawed those and stood up to put them on.
I followed my instincts and took a black sports bra from the drawer reserved for those and put it on too. Now, I had to find the perfect pants; five minutes later I did, they were well hidden in my dresser. I remembered buying this pair of high waisted faux leather pants in January. As I put them on, my reflection in the wardrobe mirror's showed why she hid them, they looked practically painted on.
*It seems that mom doesn't want me to look too… appealing to men.* I thought.
Before putting my hoodie on, I decided to add a layer of clothes and took a long sleeved tight grey yoga shirt with a zipper neckline. Then I put my hoodie on.
Tilting my head, my reflection showed me that the costume lacked something. I thought for a little while and then I got it, and walked up to my bed and knelt. I took a white box from under the bed and removed the lid. There was a pair of metal tipped calf high black combat boots. I bought them last summer and had forgotten about them until now.
"Perfect." I said as I sat on my bed to put them on.
Finally, I was through with outfitting myself, I focused on my seismic sense and my passive mental detection. My parents were still at it, having sex like rabbits. I didn't want to get caught when I was sneaking out, so I leaned on my bed and focused on the white ceiling, then on my Britney Spears and Mariah Carey posters. I liked those two, maybe I would find a way for Britney to not go off the deep end this time if I had enough power to do so.
Content with that thought I looked at my two bookshelves, they were bursting with books. The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and a lot of fantasy novels had found their way onto the right one; then there were books like Dune and novels based on Star Wars and Star Trek, most of Heinlein's books were present too.
Though weirdly, I hadn't found some authors that my other self had had in her own reality. I shrugged and thought about the technology that I knew would be out there; though I noticed Earth in the Marvel universe was strangely ahead compared the vanilla one my other self was from.
There was already talk about making DVD players, more powerful computers than before; I gleaned this by sifting through the surface minds of the nerds at my usual table. My thoughts kept going everywhere until they settled on the woman spying on my neighborhood.
*When I get out of here, I'm going to check what she's about and who she works for.* I told myself.
It was thirty minutes later when my parents were done, I didn't begrudge them their sex life but they certainly were... healthy. Their minds felt rapturous as well as exhausted to me and they began to feel somnolent.
*Finally.* I raised my hands into the air and I sat up on my bed and put my booted feet on the ground.
I was tempted to help them along to find sleep, but I didn't. I was never going to use my powers that way on my parents. Looking at the time on my alarm clock on the white-colored nightstand.
10:35 PM.
Well ok, it was time to go.
I stood up from my bed and levitated off the floor, silently opened my door and I was out of my bedroom. There was no way I was sneaking out through one of the front windows of the house. Two of them were in my bedroom. I went down the stairs, and deftly felt around me with my spatial sense. I passed the dining room and living room to end up in the kitchen.
I almost hit the breakfast table, thank god I didn't; mom had sharp ears. Floating silently, I finally reached the door leading to the patio and the back garden. Feeling around with my mental detection I found no one looking in my direction or the back of the house.
I force cloaked and became invisible, and after letting my psionic energy fill my body I looked at the sky and jumped, flying into the air.
# # #
I didn't know what to think, SHIELD was onto me. SHIELD! That woman, Katherine Shane was an agent sent to investigate the weird occurrences happening in Annandale-on-Hudson. I really hadn't been careful enough and they were going to find me.
It had been easy to swoop in from the sky, immobilize the agent in her car and put her to sleep by pushing a suggestion into her mind. Then I promptly began to surf through her memories; her training with SHIELD, meeting the big poobah Nick Fury who looked just like Samuel L. Jackson, and more prominently Phil Coulson. Her Partner.
"I didn't expect that." I said out loud.
Taking more specific information from her mind, I now knew her serial number in her organization, that her clearance level was four in the agency, where the effing Helicarrier was located. Letting go of her head and looking at the sky I asked myself what I was doing. I was barely sixteen years old and…
I got an idea. Staring at the woman, I began grinning like a loon and thanked ol' Nick for this gift. I put a hand on Katherine's forehead and I focused. I copied all her knowledge and skills, combat training, weapon training, paramilitary and spy training, science, languages (French, Russian, Japanese and Chinese), even information about the current military and organized crimes that Agent Shane could access with her clearance level.
The sudden headache hit me like a truck, it was time to stop. There was only so much that I could copy and paste from her mind to mine, this was one of the biggest weaknesses of the power known as knowledge replication. Feeling the information I absorbed being assimilated into my memories and trying to adapt to my young body I asked myself if this was going to become a trend.
*Yes. I will do anything to survive.* I looked at the woman and adjusted her car seat.
It gave the impression that she took a nap, then I began to look at the memories she had from the last five minutes and neuralyzed her. I leaned toward her and said through the car window, "You feel tired and you feel that casing the neighborhood is a waste of time. You'll ask someone to replace you as you don't want to do such grunt work again."
In Agent Shane's mind I saw how she conveniently changed part of her own memory to fit the scenario I just gave her. It was pretty funny to see how the human mind worked, they could talk themselves into things to avoid the dire reality of their situation.
Satisfied with my work, I took my hand away and closed the automatic windows. At least she wouldn't catch a cold or something. Seeing a SHIELD agent in the flesh had shaken me to my core, I didn't want to face Nicholas Fury this early in the game; I knew that sooner or later he would know about me, but this was just too soon.
*Why did they send someone with her clearance level to do such a low brow mission, anyway?* I asked myself.
I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, I accepted the easy training and needed to move on. Now I knew that some of my decisions were quite ill advised. I was not going to school by flying now, they had radars that could detect my flight and observers; though flying at night was ok if I didn't go faster than 400 km/h and flew really low.
My feet left the ground, I stopped climbing into the air at 100 meters in elevation, then followed Ravinewalk street, passed Tewksbury Hall at great speed and was now flying over Annandale road. For over twenty minutes I followed route eighty-seven and signs on the road until I reached George Washington Bridge and had finally arrived in Manhattan.
Manhattan, an iconic city if I say so myself. Home of heroes and the economic pulse of the USA. Soon, I would have a place here; a base of operations or… several of them, why keep all my eggs only in one location?
Whatever, I needed money now. And I wasn't going to steal the money of honest people by robbing banks, if I was going to steal money I would do it to the people already doing the stealing and trafficking death and misery.
I flew over the Hudson river, not bothering doing it over the bridge. *After all, who knows what kind of device Shield has here to look for people like me?* I stopped cold in the air at that thought. Where had it come from? Oh my god, had I caught paranoia too when I had siphoned Agent Shane? I wouldn't have thought of that before.
In my mind, I saw that I was still assimilating her experiences, knowledge and skills but it was gradually sipping into me and changing my way of thinking. *So, I must be careful with what knowledge I replicate. Live and learn, they said, there are always cons to awesome abilities.*
Shrugging I started to fly toward Hell's Kitchen, deciding to follow the Hudson, the speed at which I was flying created waves as I flew only five meters above the water. The landmarks were easy to follow in the sea of concrete and buildings, I passed West Harlem and then at Manhattan valley I decided to stop using the river to hide my trail.
Veering right I flew over a rather well lit tennis court and landed amongst trees, there was a parkway before me. There were still people on the streets, Manhattan never slept and fortunately for me I was still in force cloak mode, invisible to their eyes and other senses. Looking for signs to orient myself I read that I was on the Henry Hudson parkway, there was one sign that showed where to go to arrive at Hell's Kitchen. I continued to follow the parkway from the air until I reached a bifurcation.
I had to go low enough to look for the signs with the directions on them. I needed an effing GPS, you know what? If I can't have them 'till 2008, I'm just gonna invent them! *Woe is me, stuck in the medieval era…* I said in derision.
I rose higher into the air and behind the forest of buildings I could see a lot of greenery. Following sixty-sixth street, I flew toward it, at high speed and found myself in Central Park. It was big and beautiful under the moonlight and it was an easy to follow landmark.
Backtracking, I ended up on ninth avenue and continued to fly slowly. Reaching Hell's Kitchen was anticlimactic, until it wasn't as I saw a couple being taken in an alley between a restaurant and a cafe by a group of three people.
*Seriously?* I slowed my flight and landed on the ground and ran at a jog into the alley, not breaking my invisibility.
*I just arrived and there's already a situation, so they were right in that novel wearing the cape, powered people attract trouble.* I clicked my tongue.
"Please just take my wallet and let us go." I heard the baritone voice of the man in the beige trench coat say.
The couple was surrounded by three thugs, strangely they seemed to be the winners of the cliché ethnicity gangbangers. One was black, another white and the last latino. They wore hoodies or jackets with pants so loose that I could see their boxers; what was more prominent was their golden pleated bling hanging from their necks or wrists.
I didn't like that, even if they looked ridiculous they were a danger, the latino guy had an evil grin splattered on his face as he held them at gunpoint. As I looked at the weapon I surprised myself as information trickled through my head as I recognized it. *Glock 19 Semi-Auto Pistol.*
Well, it seemed that agent Shane's knowledge was coming in handy already. More information changed how I was seeing this mugging that was happening.
There were at least ten meters between the two buildings forming the alleys, the black thug was blocking the alley and the white one was squirming around, looking panicked at the couple and at his buddy with the gun. *Latino guy did this before from the cruel emotions and psychopathic vibe I feel from him, he gets off from the pain of people richer than him. The white guy must be new to their group and already pissing his pants as he realized that he was hanging with the wrong crowd. Black guy with all the chains and gold in his mouth was as twisted as the latino guy, they have been doing this for a long time.*
I didn't do anything yet, and just kept listening in. But I already knew that two of the thugs weren't leaving this poorly lit and piss smelling alley alive tonight.
Latino guy laughed, his laugh was annoying, it was like he was braying like an ass.
"We ain't doin' dis for da money, bro." He said with a grin while he pointed his weapon at the well built and dark haired man, under his trench coat he wore a black smoking.
*He must have been at a party or something.* I told myself.
"What do you want?!" The trench coat wearing guy asked, looking at the latino guy who held the gun.
Latino guy turned his head toward the wife, and gazed at her with lust filled eyes. Empathically I felt as if tongues were licking me everywhere. *YUCK.*
"Yah got a pretty wife." He finally said.
I didn't like where this was going, but I kinda agreed with him. The woman had an hourglass figure, long black hair and the prettiest sky blue eyes that I'd ever seen, let's not speak about her red pouty lips. She wore a pink conservative dress covered by a short open red trench coat. Her jewelry was sapphire and pearl, matching with her skin tone and eyes.
The black guy laughed at his buddy but carefully groped his crotch, he fondled his tool through his pants while thinking of the fun he would have raping the white bitch. This was word for word what he thought.
I felt impatience coming from the black guy. "Lopez, just kill the man, I want to have a go at her!"
The trench coat guy was looking for a way out and placed himself between his wife and them.
"Guys, we shouldn't be doing this." White guy with a conscience weakly said.
As I read his mind, I saw that he just wanted to play tough gangsta guy like in the video clip he watched on TV. Another guy who thought that rappers and their culture were harmless, I felt that he was barely older than me and just a poor bastard that continued to make bad choices. This was surely a turning point in his life.
The woman began to cry, she begged, "P-please don't do this, w-we have a son at home."
Latino guy eyes' lit at that new knowledge and said. "Don't worry, darlin' we will visit him at your home too."
*Ok, that's it he is dead now.* I said as I walked up to him.
That was the final stroke for trench coat guy, his face became dark and lunged at the latino thug with the gun who just smiled and avoided him and fired his gun in the direction of the wife. I chose this moment to intervene and saved the woman by putting a force-field between her and the bullet destined to lodge itself in her heart. I angled the field so that the ricochet reached the black guy blocking the way to the other end of the alley.
He took the bullet in the thigh, screamed in agony and was on the ground, Latino guy widened his eyes and emptied the weapon clip by shooting repeatedly at the pink dressed woman but the force-field still held on. The woman stood frozen, not understanding what was happening. I ran at super speed and jumped at him, performing a drop kick that caught latino guy in the back of his neck. With a loud sickening crunch, I saw the armed guy fly toward the wife but he was stopped by my force-field, loudly crunched against it and ended up on the ground.
I looked at the white guy who peed his pants, and made him sleep by pushing suggestions in his mind, he fell onto the ground like a bag of potatoes, fainting. Letting go of my invisibility, I was finally visible to everyone, trench coat guy and his wife stood frozen at my appearance.
Feeling the movement of Latino guy's hand, he was about to shoot his gun yet again at the pink dressed woman. With a cutting motion of my hand I severed his arm.
"You've been disarmed." I quipped, laughing.
The Latino guy looked at his arm and began screaming and screaming until I had enough and knocked him out with a light TK punch to the head. He had a broken spine and lost his arm, that was kind of gruesome.
I turned my head to look at the black guy nearest the pretty black haired woman who was still screaming at the top of his lungs too and his blood was flowing quickly out the bullet hole in his thigh, his artery must have been hit.
I didn't care if he died, but I put him to sleep too. Seeing his body slacken as if he had died made the woman look at all the downed guys with fear, then she looked at me. To her, I was the hooded and diminutive person who maimed and neutralized the threat… I wasn't surprised when she fell onto her knees and screamed. Or, when trench coat guy tried to attack me.
"Ole." I said while evading his charge by stepping aside on the right at the last moment, he had wanted to tackle me.
He stood up and tried to lunge at me again, he knew nothing about fighting, fortunately. I let him approach me and held my hand before me and he froze as I locked his movements with my TK. The man was still struggling.
"Why are you trying to attack someone who saved you?" I asked, a bit miffed.
My voice seemed to make him stop and think, "You… huh." He tried to say. I forgot that I was stopping him from moving his entire body, it meant his lips and tongue too.
*Silly me.* I smiled sheepishly and waved a hand at him for effect and he suddenly fell onto the dirty ground of the alley.
"Ah sorry, you can speak now." I said, embarrassed.
Being a hero wasn't as easy as I thought...
Eyes wide in astonishment, the trench coat man asked with a bit of fear in his voice, "How are you doing this?!"
I tilted my head. "Oh, I have powers."
The man didn't seem to believe me, I shrugged. He will learn that mutants exist sooner or later, let's not break his nice little world, yet.
Then I looked at his beautiful wife who was still having a panic attack. "Anyway, let's get you back to your wife. You can move now, c'mon go reassure her." I said, shooing him toward her.
The man walked awkwardly toward her until he saw her distressed and ran to her, embraced her and said, "Martha! Martha, it's ok, she's one of the good guys."
This comment made me raise eyebrows.
"Hey, I certainly am not a guy, mister!" I shouted sarcastically.
At my joke, Martha emerged from her panic filled mind and emitted bubbling laughter from her throat, tears streamed down her cheeks. It was relief, a very freeing emotion that I felt coming from her mind. This made me smile, it was proof that she was still alive; that she was going to bounce right back from this ordeal.
The man smiled as he hugged his wife tightly against him. "She's… funny as you can see."
Martha looked at him with tears and then held tightly onto him and said, "Thomas, l-l-let's go back home please."
I nodded at that. "You guys can go. I am going to take care of them. Go back to your son."
As I watched those monsters laying here on the ground, I wanted to vaporize these guys, but I wanted to make them suffer first. Diverse torture methods unloaded into my mind, *Agent Shane sure knew how to do her spy job.*
The trench coat guy, Thomas approached me with his wife holding tightly onto him. He was wary, but determined. That's what I felt about him. "Hum, what's your name?" He asked.
"Je-I mean I am Phoenix." I almost told him my real name!
I had to stop blundering like this, mistakes killed in this superhero gig. No telling people your real identity! I saw what happened to Peter Parker and every hero in Civil War from the Marvel comics. Their families and friends got dead really fast or kidnapped. I had too much to lose, and my parents' smiling faces flashed into my mind. I needed… scratch that, I had to become someone else, Phoenix.
"You sounds really young to be doing this… vigilante thing. How old are you?" Thomas asked me.
His face became serious, I felt the concern and the desire to help to steer me away from my decision of wanting to do something good and beat up bad guys, but I was also doing this to get better against the big threat out there and my freedom from Mr. Sinister's clutches.
*There's no better training than on the field, after all.*
The man wasn't a self-righteous prick, no he was doing that because he thought I was a young girl doing something dangerous that should go back home and be safe.
I smiled at him, he had good intentions, but I had to dissuade him from trying to change my decision. "I am in High-school." I simply said, I didn't want to give him any more information about me. "But does it truly matter? Tonight I saved your wife and you from a fate worse than death."
I knew that the Latino guy intended at first to shoot Thomas in the legs and let his black friend rape Martha while her husband watched.
Thomas stepped back, looking embarrassed and gulped before saying, "I am grateful, it's just…"
"You see me as a little girl playing a dangerous game?" I continued his thread of thought.
The man simply didn't know on which leg to stand on, being a telepath was like that, we were always a step ahead of people in a conversation as we knew what they thought about.
Thomas had a stubborn glint in his eyes, he didn't even try to hide his opinion and told me straight up. "Essentially, yes."
I walked up to him and put a finger on his chin and said, "Someone told me before, that with great power, comes great responsibility." I said confidently.
Blurring the air before me by making it vibrating with my TK, I took my hood off. We stared into each other's eyes for a long time, he was the first to break away from the staring contest.
Thomas sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging as he began to realize that he could do nothing to change my mind. As for Martha she barely spoke but she was of the same opinion as her husband. She wanted to thank me, but I still scared her. She hid behind Thomas when I smiled at her.
"Ok… ok, I-I understand. Please take this." Thomas took a card from the hidden pocket of his trench coat and held it to me.
I took it and read the name on the card.
Doctor Thomas Wayne.
My face whipped to his and now… now I saw who he was. *The fuck? What is Thomas Wayne doing here?!*
With a shy smile, the man said, "Phoenix, if you ever get hurt… well I know that you won't want to go to a hospital… look, if you are ever hurt just come see me at my clinic and I will take care of you, ok?"
*Oh gosh, he was so cute.* I turned my eyes to Martha. "Martha! I know why you married him! Never let him go, you hear me!"
The pink dressed woman smiled at that, despite herself. She tightened her hold on her husband's arm. "I never intend to!"
Thomas reddened at the exchange between us and shook his head.
"Good." I said, laughing. "Now get out of here, go back to your son, ok?"
They nodded. Thomas smiled at me and made a dorky salute. "Thank you, Phoenix. I hope to see you again."
"Bye bye." I waved at them.
Following their speedy walk to the end of the alley. Now that we were all alone I put my gaze on the three men. "Now, where were we?"
# # #
(Matt Murdock)
He had wanted to intervene to save the couple but at the last moment someone else took out each of the assailants. The young girl was preternaturally fast and strong and heavy handed; she broke the spine of the shooter and was letting the second one bleed to death. He didn't know how the third assailant was dealt with, she had just looked at him and he fainted?
As he crouched on the roof of the Ponche Taqueria restaurant he observed how this new player took care of the situation. He didn't like what he saw through his radar sense at all; excessive use of force, maiming. Though as she interacted with the couple she just saved he regained hope that what she did there was just inexperience rearing its head.
He watched this Phoenix girl, as she dubbed herself being thanked for what she did here, he shook his head at this. The couple left from the other end of the alley quickly moving away from his radar sense range. Matt refocused on Phoenix.
"Now, where were we?" He heard her say with a cold tone that sent a chill down his back.
*That's not good, is she going to…* He was about to drop down and stop her, but her unpredictability wasn't to be underestimated.
"Well I guess, white guy is gonna need to get out of here. He did try to defuse the situation." She said as she walked up to the other kid.
He saw her crouch down to the downed kid and slapped him repeatedly until he woke up. "What? Who?"
"Wakey, wakey." Phoenix said sweetly.
The kid backpedalled while still laying on the ground, his heart beating fast, he looked at the other downed guy and a stinky smell emitted from him. Matt rolled his eyes, the kid had just shat himself. To his superhuman sense of smell it was offensive.
"Oh God, please let me go. I didn't know those two were that crazy!" The kid babbled.
Matt waited for Phoenix to speak, he was ready to intervene at a moment's notice. He hoped she'd let the kid go. He saw her walking toward him again, crouching at his side and say, "I already intended to, don't worry. So what's your name?"
Gulping, the kid answered in a little voice. "Hank, my name's Hank."
"Well Hank, I want you to think carefully about what happened here today. Those guys behind me, they aren't people you want to hang out with. Had they succeeded, you'd be an accomplice to rape and murder, home invasion and killing a kid. Then you'd be in the deep end, either you'd have offed yourself or… adapted and become a monster like them."
Matt was surprised by the insight this girl had from the event happening here, now that she was speaking about it, it was plausible that the shooter would have done what he said and gone back to the couple's house and offed their kid.
Phoenix continued in a more forceful tone as she put a hand on his forehead, "I want you to go home, think really hard about what you want to do in life and be good and help the little people as much as you can. Though you can be a little bit selfish too."
Frowning, Matt didn't understand what was happening here; what she was demanding from the kid sounded strangely like… like a compulsion. There was no way the young man would-
"Yeah, I-I am going to do that." Matt was shocked that the kid didn't tell her to go to hell with her demands.
Phoenix took her hand from his forehead and the kid stood up, noticed his soiled jeans and grunted in disgust and with embarrassment ran in the opposite direction than the couple from earlier.
The young woman looked at the other kid go, the sudden change in her physical language alerted him that he had been a fool to believe that she was all kittens and rainbows as she walked purposefully toward the other two incapacited assailants. Matt chose this moment to drop down from the roof and slow his fall with his grapple staff. As he landed, he noticed that Phoenix had gone still.
"Ah, finally found you Daredevil. You are a hard man to get ahold to." She sounded happy to see him.
Matt didn't know how to think about that, this was the first time someone had sought him out. Normally it was him getting the drop on people, and beating them up. "Do we know each other?"
Phoenix shook her head. "No, I came to you looking for training. I am new at this vigilante thing." She said with uncertainty.
Matt had never set out to be a hero, he was forced into the role after saving Mickey from the Kingpin's goons. *For fuck sake, is she a groupy or something?*
"Girl…" Matt began to say.
Her stance became threatening. "My name is Phoenix." She said coldly.
Matt rolled his eyes. "Right, Phoenix. Why don't you go home? I will call the cops and take care of those guys…"
Phoenix laughed at him, a trilling sound that reminded him of a bird."I am not letting any of those guys leave this alley alive, Devil."
Matt felt anger oozing from her from what he even alluded to. "You shouldn't say things like that, you clearly aren't a murderer." he tried to defuse the situation.
It was strange to Matt when he felt her presence spread out around her to his radar sense, as if she could reach very far around herself. Before leaving, Stick, his master, had told him that other people with abilities existed and some were so powerful that even he couldn't hope to do anything against them.
"I killed my first enemy when I was barely twelve years old. It is too late to try to reason with me." The girl… no, Phoenix told him in a sad tone.
Listening to her voice and heartbeat, he realized that she wasn't lying. And it shocked him. Like him she seemed to have been a victim of circumstances and walked a different path than him. He refused to kill if it wasn't warranted, but killing two unconscious men? That was beyond the pale.
As if sensing this from him, Phoenix heaved a sigh and said with disappointment. "Well, I guess that's a doozy with seeking training with ya, Devil. I guess I will have to go to her then. Damn she's going to work me to the bone..."
And then at super speed she moved and upon arriving before the wounded man unconscious on the ground she raised a foot, about to crush his head.
"Don't!" Matt screamed as he lunged at her, but he was too late when he heard a loud crunch.
Matt couldn't believe it, she just killed that man without hesitation. He looked at her, she didn't laugh or gloat; she exuded calm, it wasn't the first time she had killed like she said. Twirling his staff he entered a combat stance, protecting the man behind him.
Seemingly reading his intention, Phoenix asked. "You really want to do this?"
To Matt, her stance changed, he noticed that she alternated between a beginner and a professional fighter intermittently. He didn't know what the deal was with this girl but he intended to stop her.
"You'll surrender yourself." Matt commanded.
She smiled, "Like hell. I always keep my promises, this murderer isn't going to see the light of day."
"You crippled him, isn't it enough?" Matt growled at her.
He was used to doing it himself, crippling his foes and going after hardened criminals to release his pent up feelings had become his anger management therapy. Matt wasn't going to let her go now.
"I could tell you that he has a large body count and has been doing this for a very long time; but you won't back off, right?" Phoenix said.
Matt shook his head. "I won't, killing isn't a solution"
"Sometimes, Devil. Killing is what they deserve and you are protecting a man who has…" Phoenix continued to speak but Matt didn't want to listen to her, so he lunged at her, while in midair he divided his staff into sticks and tried to knock her head but she avoided him by fleeing away from him with that unnatural speed of hers. Matt growled as he threw his stick at her and lunged back, Phoenix batted it away and met him halfway with an attempted jab to his face that he evaded.
Reeling back his stick, he used his other one to get her in her right flank, the two of them exchanged moves as if they were rehearsing a stunt fight. Matt discovered that she was reading him, but he didn't know how. Phoenix crouched and attempted to sweep his legs but Matt jumped, used his graphook to take him out of her reach and bounced off the wall behind her and used it like a trampoline to kick her in the back.
Phoenix saw him coming and stopping him in the air, he beat his feet but couldn't reach the ground. Not knowing what was happening he threw his stick at her with all his strength and got her in the head.
"Ouch." She cried out.
Matt fell on his feet and then charged at her and kicked her in the stomach, sending Phoenix flying. She rolled with the impact, stood up and launched herself at him executing a textbook hook kick. Matt tried to go low but something stopped him from doing so and she caught him square in the ribs and it was his turn to get sent flying and impact the wall.
Grunting in pain, he looked at her, but he didn't feel her coming to him. Just watching him, her heart beating wildly in her ribcage.
"You know as much as it's fun to fight you.. I have school tomorrow." She said conversationally.
Matt showed teeth. "You are not leaving." He said, angry.
He has been giving his all, but she didn't sound wounded or winded at all.
"There's something you should know about me, Devil. I don't need to be near an enemy to kill him." She said with a smile in her voice.
Matt heard the sound of an impact and a crunch, he looked at where the shooter had been and… in his radar sense the form that he was seeing didn't look human anymore. More like a meaty splatter on the ground.
"Later." Phoenix waved at him.
"Wait!" Matt bellowed.
Something he would have never believed seeing before happened, he saw Phoenix fly into the air, she kept rising without assistance. Greeting his teeth, Matt shot his grappling hook at her to try to keep her on the ground but she deflected it without even touching it.
"Bye Devil, we will see each other again." She said before she completely disappeared from his senses.
It seemed today was full of firsts for him, he had failed to bring in a budding murderer and met his first super powered teenager.
"How am I going to handle this?" Matt said aloud as he looked at the scene around him.
The smell of blood, piss and fear was prevalent in this new alley that saw the birth of a new vigilante. Someone not afraid to dirty her hands.