A/N: Just a story I originally put together as a chapter in my next story but felt that it would stand alone as a story in its own right.
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In the middle of the large, metallic room stood a tall, slender, willow-like girl with swarthy skin. Her long brown hair was tied back to keep out of her brown eyes. Her name was Amira al-Batani and she was a mutant: someone born with extraordinary powers granted by the X-Gene. That also meant that she faced a lifetime of fear, hatred, and discrimination. Right now it also meant one last thing, which she dreaded even more:
Her first Danger Room session.
Clad in the usual dark-blue spandex uniforms of the New Mutants, Amira crouched in preparation and stretched her limbs. "Beginning the session." Logan's voice came from over the loudspeakers in the control booth. Amira tensed as the X-Men took up positions around her. The room shimmered and changed, with holograms altering the appearance of the room to look like a rocky terrain.
"Okay, newbie let's see how you do!" Scott said as he fired an optic blast at her. Amira had to bend back almost in half to avoid it. Amira flipped backwards until she was in a ready position again.
As the paint ball-firing drones were released, Amira leapt into the air. When they opened fire she twisted and contorted her body around the balls of paint hurled towards her.
"Aeon Flux eat your heart out!" Amira grinned as she literally twisted her body around one ball of paint that headed straight at her. She clutched her arms to her sides and spun around as she descended, then grabbed her ankles and curled into a ball, tumbling head over heels as the ground rose up to meet her. At the last moment, Amira straightened herself out and landed almost daintily on her toes.
Bobby attempted to freeze her from behind but Amira was too quick. Without budging, she went into a back flip that left her landing behind the astonished Bobby. This was too easy…a milk run.
She turned around just in time to see Roberto, Tabitha, and Ray surround her and open fire with their powers. Amira ducked, bobbed, and weaved her way through round after round of solar blasts, energy bombs, and electric bolts. She started charging directly at Ray and just when it looked as though she would end up running him down where he stood, Amira gracefully leapt over him using Ray's head as a springboard as she leapfrogged over him.
Her next challenge came in the form of Kurt teleporting behind her and trying to take her by surprise. He managed to grab her hands and pin them behind her back. Amira just grinned. She reached backwards with her leg and swept Kurt's legs out from beneath him.
The paint ball drones spun around again and opened fire. Amira ran and dodged, not a single drop of paint ever touched her. No matter how hard the drones or the X-Men tried, no one could lay a finger on her. She was untouchable.
Deciding to end this exercise in style, Amira ran towards the wall and when she reached it, she used it as a kick-off point to leap backwards into the air and deliver a fierce kick to the lead drone. It crashed into the other two and caused them all to plummet to the ground. Amira did a 180 in the air and landed on her feet, grinning like a cat.
"Ending session." The computer said as the Danger Room shut off.
"Nice job out there." Scott commented as the X-Men gathered around. "But next time dress more appropriately, will you?"
"Huh?" Amira asked in bewilderment as she looked down. "EEEP!" She yelped and blushed furiously as she saw that she was completely stark naked. She tried to cover herself up as the X-Men burst into loud laughter. The whole world swirled around her and everything went black.
Amira yelled as she bolted up straight in bed, breathing heavily. "Dammit!"
She looked around as she tried to get her bearings. Then she remembered where she was: in her room at Xavier's. It was a good thing she had her own room or else her roommate would be awfully mad at her for waking up in the middle of the night and screaming. But since she didn't have a roommate—Amira guessed her bisexuality made any potential roommates fell uncomfortable—it was a moot point any way.
Too worked up to go back to sleep, Amira climbed out of bed, put on a pair of boxers and a old t-shirt and went out for a walk through the hallways.
"This place is creepy at night." Amira shuddered as she walked into the library, thinking that maybe a good book was what she needed. She paused when she noticed a pair of inhuman eyes watching her from the floor. "GYAAH!"
A soft whine answered her yelp. "Sorry about that." A feminine voice responded. Amira blinked as a red-haired girl in her pajamas appeared were the wolf had been. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"Little late for that." Amira grumbled. Rahne Sinclair watched with a touch of envy as Amira sat down on the couch, one hand over her heart. Even when surprised she had a natural grace to her movements, which were supple and elegant.
Rahne sat down next to her. "I said I was sorry. I know this is all a bit disconcerting and I know it must be a bit of an adjustment—" Rahne said. Amira stood up mid-sentence.
"You don't know anything, least of all about what I'm going through." Amira grumbled as she made for the door. Rahne stood and stared at Amira's retreating back.
"I know what it's like being the odd one out." Rahne told her. "I know what it's like being scared of your own housemates." Amira paused, one hand on the doorknob. "You know what I'm talking about." Rahne continued. "That unpleasant sensation you get when Kurt and Rina are nearby…Xi too, for that matter. I've seen you avoiding them every chance you get and I know why. They scare you."
"Scare me?" Rahne nodded.
"You're scared because you think you're supposed to hate them. That they're 'abominations' because they weren't born naturally: Xi and Rina being made in labs by scientists and Kurt looking like a demon." Amira bit her lip and nodded as she sat back down on the couch.
"Only Allah is capable of creating life. For others to abrogate that power for themselves and create life…" She trailed off.
"It's frightening I know." Rahne admitted as she joined her. "I felt that way too." Amira looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.
"I didn't think anyone else had those sort of…views." She said hesitantly. Rahne shrugged uncomfortably.
"I had a pretty religious upbringing, so I guess it's kinda natural that I felt that way about them."
"You did?"
"I was brought up by my town's pastor, Reverend Craig. I never had any real parents. You see I was born…out of wedlock." Amira nodded sympathetically.
"That carries almost as much stigma as being bisexual." She said.
"And being a mutant is even worse!" Rahne groaned. "When the Reverend saw me transform for the first time he called me a monster and incited a mob against me! He tried to…tried to…" Rahne hiccupped. She shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold.
"I'm so sorry." Amira said and put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "It sounds like an attempted Honor Killing."
"I guess that's about as good a way to describe it as any, I suppose." Rahne said as she wiped her eyes. "What scares me the most is that people who call themselves men of God—like Reverend Craig or William Stryker's Purists—are some of our biggest enemies!"
"Are you afraid that they're right?" Amira asked. "That we are abominations to Allah?"
"Sometimes." Rahne admitted. "It just seems so hard to find solace in faith taught to me by men of God who then turn around and denounce all mutants as monsters."
"I've found that faith is separate from the men who preach it who are, after all, only human." Amira answered. "If I were to trust everything some of the Imams say then I would believe that the Jews have tails. They're wrong—" Just then Kurt teleported into the library with a candy bar clutched in his hands. "It's the Catholics." Amira finished with a smirk.
Rahne stared at Amira, then at Kurt and covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Kurt just looked at them strangely. "Ja…I'm going to assume that was at my expense and call it a night. Sorry frauleins." Kurt said as he 'ported back to bed. The two girls just looked at each other for a moment and started laughing.
"Poor Kurt!" Rahne giggled. "He didn't have a clue what he was getting into."
"Typical male." Amira smiled.
"Better that kind than some others I could name." Rahne growled as she told Amira about Aiden.
"You seem to have a hard time of it." Amira noted.
"From what I've heard, yours is just as bad, if not worse." Rahne paused. "I'm sorry about what happened to Vlad."
"Thank you." Amira sighed. "I'm never going to find another guy like him again."
"Aren't you being a little extreme?" Rahne asked. Amira shook her head.
"How can I explain…look, every relationship starts out perfect. People are too wrapped up in each other to notice their flaws. But after a few months they start noticing little imperfections in each other. Things they have to 'tolerate.' But Vlad died before that happened, when he was still perfect, at least to me. No other boy can possibly compare to that, so why try?"
"Does this mean you're going to spend the rest of your life alone?" Rahne asked.
Amira paused. "It means I won't be asking any guys out, that's for certain." Rahne noticed that she said 'guys' and since she was bisexual…
"Yeah." Amira sighed when she saw Rahne frown in concentration. "And I guess I am…interested in a certain girl." Rahne gulped, misunderstanding her.
"Oh?" She asked warily. "Have you ever, um, been involved with a girl before?" Amira winced and shook her head.
"Pressure from home and school never let me…explore that part of myself." She admitted. "Neither were that tolerant of those sort of feelings, to put it mildly."
"Oh." Rahne said again. She guessed that Vlad's death, coupled with the newfound freedom to 'explore that part of herself' as Amira put it, was the main impetus for Amira's desire to have a girlfriend.
"Have you?" Amira asked. Rahne was so caught off guard by the question that she stammered a bit.
"Um, n-no, I've never had a girl friend. Well, I mean—of course I've had friends who are girls, still have girlfriends, but not—you know—girlfriends. Like Catseye! She's a girl friend who isn't a girlfriend, you know?" Rahne gulped. Amira chuckled a bit and raised her hands.
"Relax, you're starting to sound like Kitty. Catseye? You know her?" Rahne nodded.
"Yes, Sharon and I are friends." Amira frowned a bit.
"I knew her a little." Amira said. "She didn't strike me as a bad sort." Rahne nodded eagerly.
"She isn't." She assured Amira. "She's great."
"Then for her sake I hope she leaves." Amira said flatly. "Before she get used up and spat out."
"That…might be hard for her." Rahne admitted. "Emma Frost is her foster mother." Amira hissed.
"Poor kid."
"I would like her to come to the Institute with me," Rahne sighed. "But she just can't bring herself to abandon her."
"Hope it works out." Amira said.
"Well, I hope it works out between you and uh—who did you say you were interested in?" Rahne asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner.
"She's this really sweet girl I met and helped me through a bad time by talking about it." Amira said as she looked at Rahne. Rahne gulped.
"Oh?" She asked nervously, thinking she meant her.
"Yeah" Amira sighed, a little dreamily. "She's strong, smart, funny, has a nice rack—"
"Oh boy," Rahne moaned mentally. "And I thought having the Coyote after me was weird!"
"…and the cutest butt—" Amira continued.
"I don't think I need to hear this." Rahne said hurriedly. Amira winced.
"I guess you're right. What I think about Althea is—"
"Althea!" Rahne said in surprise. "So it isn't me!" Now it was Amira who misunderstood Rahne.
"Don't get me wrong. Your butt is nice too—"
"LA LA LA, I'M NOT LISTENING!" Rahne exclaimed. It was at this point that Amira realized that they probably weren't on the same page.
"Oops. Sorry, heh. I guess I got the wrong message." She apologized weakly, rubbing the back of her neck in chagrin.
"Ya think?" Rahne demanded.
"So—ahem—you were telling me about your home life?" Amira said in a transparent attempt to change the subject. Fortunately, Rahne was all too happy to oblige.
"I was saved from the mob by a woman named Moira McTaggert, She took me to Muir Island where she runs a research institute on mutations. She became my foster mother…but I still wonder what it would've been like if I still had my own parents."
"I wonder the same thing." Amira said as her eyes took on a faraway look. "My family is gone. And now I'm stuck in a strange country with the weirdest people! Americans!"
"Tell me about it." Rahne mumbled. "Everyone here talks so strangely! You're probably the only one who understands just how hard it is to sound 'American' and no' like some poor wee bonnie lass from th' lochs of Scotland." She said, deliberately thickening her Scottish accent.
"Everyone acts surprised when I don't speak like a New York City cab driver." Amira agreed wearily. "Of course when I first came here I had an accent and it showed. You know what the first words I heard in America were?" Rahne shook her head. "It was 'Go back where you came from sand nir!' " Amira spat. Rahne gaped.
"No!"
"Yes." Amira nodded. "Story of my life. I can't live back home because I'm gay. I can't be accepted here either because I'm an Arab. And I'm not accepted anywhere because I'm a mutant! I'm alienated from my home yet I can never free myself from it! The world sees me as a Palestinian and an Arab, but my fellow Arabs see me as a freak. I'm caught between two very different worlds and belong to neither. For me, contemporary Arab and Muslim society, with its inwardness, exclusivity and religious fanaticism, is far too constricting. And Western society, with its immense arrogance, racism, brutality and hypocrisy, can't provide an alternative. No matter where I go I'm always out of place."
"I can't even imagine…" Rahne shook her head. "And here I thought I had culture shock when I came here! Roberto, Amara, and Kurt too, but you—" She shook her head.
"Sorry, I don't mean to burden you with my problems—" Amira started to apologize.
"I did the same to you, so we're even. Besides it better that we talk about this stuff with someone who has a chance of understanding us, unlike say, Psyche-Out."
"That's true." Amira agreed with a laugh. "What're your sessions with him like? Does he hit you with a rolled up newspaper if you get out of line?" Rahne rolled her eyes.
"Sure, go straight for the dog jokes. Do you know how hard it is to make jokes out of other peoples' powers the way they do to me?"
"Well, you could always call me a human pretzel." Amira quipped. "Or you could stick with Logan's nickname for me, 'Twinkle-Toes.'" Rahne started giggling and tried covering it up with a cough.
"Smooth." Amira said dryly. Rahne gave up any pretense and just started laughing out loud. Amira raised an eyebrow. "You can stop anytime you know."
"Sorry." Rahne snickered. "I never really understood what your power exactly is. Are you just naturally graceful?" Amira shook her head.
"From what I know—which is what the White Queen explained to me—my power is actually muscle control. I can control any and every muscle in my body. I can control how far my lungs expand or how fast my heart beats!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, but it's too dangerous. You know how sometimes you start thinking about breathing and then can't seem to breath unless you will yourself too? Well that happened to me, only it was for my heart AND lungs. I could've died just from not being able to will myself to command every muscle I needed to keep breathing! Fortunately, the White Queen put blocks in my mind so I couldn't control direct control over my involuntary muscles like that again. One of the only good things she ever did." Amira grumbled under her breath. She cleared her throat. "But what my power can allow me to do is to control my muscles and how they move, flex, and twist and enhances my dexterity and equilibrium." Rahne nodded.
"I've seen you move. It's like watching a gymnast or a ballerina." Amira flushed in embarrassment.
"Naw, really?"
"Really." Rahne nodded. "You really live up to your codename, Evasia." Amira shrugged.
"Frost picked out that name. I was actually wondering about whether or not I should change it, now that I'm not one of her students anymore."
"Well whether you choose to change it or not, your still as graceful as a dancer." Rahne shrugged.
"A dancer?" Amira asked, licking her lips. "I like that. I'll change my codename to al-Rakasa, The Dancer."
"Sounds good to me." Rahne complimented. "But now that you've gone and changed your name, could you tell me a bit more about your powers?"
"What's there to tell? It's a versatile power. My hand-eye coordination is improved. My muscles get more mileage out of them than is usual, meaning I'm slightly stronger and quicker than the human norm. Not much more though. And you're familiar I trust with my more…limber acts?" Amira grinned as she stood and twisted her body around until her upper body was facing practically 180 degrees in the opposite direction as her lower body. She then twisted her head around so that it was facing the opposite direction as her torso. She looked like an action figure some child had twisted at the neck and waist.
"Wow…" Rahne breathed. "Have you ever taken Yoga?" Amira grinned.
"Why take a class to make me less flexible? I'm just getting started…" She said as she straightened herself out. Amira sat down on the ground and placed her hands on the floor between her legs. She then crossed her legs behind her own head. Rahne winced.
"Oww, that's just painful to look at!" She moaned. Amira somehow managed to shrug despite her position.
"Not to me." Still, she put her legs back to their proper place and stood. "This is a handy trick I learned." Amira wiggled her ears and then her nose. Rahne giggled at the sight.
"Hard to imagine using that one on a day to day basis." She said. "Unless you're auditioning for the part of Samantha on 'Bewitched.'"
"That's nothing. Once I made a sandwich using just my feet—with lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and everything." Amira bragged. "Then I gave it to Monet and after she took a bite I told her how I made it. She turned blue for about ten seconds, I swear it!" Rahne laughed.
"Geeze and all I can do is bark at people!" She griped good-naturedly.
"I think being able to go wolf is pretty neat." Amira countered. "Besides, I bet you've managed to get out of more than one bad situation by using the ol' 'puppy eyes' trick, eh?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Rahne said dryly.
"Then what's this I hear about you digging up a flower bed and managing to wiggle out of trouble with Logan by whimpering a little and making with the big, soft eyes?"
"And you know about this how?" Rahne asked.
"I heard Jamie talking about it." Amira told her.
"I knew I should've bribed him more." She grumbled. "Well, okay, I admit it. I have gotten a lot of good use—and good memories out of my power. At first it was hard because—well you know—Reverend Craig said that my mutation made me evil, that it was the devil inside me—"
"Heard it, got the brochure." Amira said a touch bitterly. Rahne nodded.
"Well, after I was rescued and learned more about it I guess I sort of learned to appreciate having the wolf inside me, being able to transform. Despite the fact that just about everyone uses me as an excuse. 'I don't have my homework, Rahne ate it.' " Amira snickered. "Still when it comes time to do Danger Room sessions, I wish I could do more about the spinning blades and lasers than simply avoid them and growl."
Amira winced. "Don't remind me about the Danger Room. That's what got me up tonight in the first place."
"Oh?"
"Yes. I had a dream that I went into the Danger Room totally…unprepared for the session." Amira admitted. Rahne snorted.
"Don't worry. A lot of us fret about it. And it could be worse. You could be having dreams where you show up in the Danger Room in your underwear!" Rahne snickered as she walked off. "Goodnight!"
"Heh heh. Goodnight!" Amira chuckled weakly as she headed back to her room. "Right." When she got to her room Amira collapsed face down on the bed and moaned. "I should've chosen prison!"
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Amira al-Batani is © to me
Rahne Sinclair is © to Marvel