Disclaimer: I Do Not Own The X-Men Or Anything Related To The X-Men. I Also Do Not Own the song 'Everyday Superhero' by Smash Mouth.
Thank you to everyone who read the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy the story and the newest chapter. The title for this chapter came from 'Everday Superhero' by the band Smash Mouth. It seems like it might fit this chapter.
Thank you again for reading the newest chapter and here it is:
By the time the X-men's tour group reached Meridan, the shock of seeing open displays of mutant abilities had still not come close to wearing off. The wide-eyed students still continuously mumbled about the feeling that they would be attacked at any minute by mutant haters or giant robots. They had watched the people on the street fly, vanish, and create amazing displays of water and lightning without any of the Lenox natives blinking an eye, but it was still hard to let go of their reservations.
The main mutant that Rogue had been concerned with was Kurt. He had been to Lenox before, but he still maintained his image inducer state as they wandered the streets of Meridan together during one of Rogue's brief moments of free time. Queen Lydia had been more than accepting of him when the foster siblings had first told her about their connection through Mystique. She had hugged and sweetly thanked Kurt for being there to help Alex and love her through the difficult times on Earth. It had been a truly touching moment for everyone involved, but Kurt still seemed uncomfortable letting his guard down in a place that wanted at least half of his heritage out of their town.
Axel kept a close eye on the pair as they walked through the streets and tried to avoid stopping long enough for anyone to spot Rogue. It was hard to hide her trademark hairstyle, though, so they had already been delayed by at least four autograph seekers only ten minutes into their walk. Each time she signed the papers or pictures, Kurt managed to distract himself by looking at various vendors who had set up their booths along the long winding sidewalk.
"Doesn't this creep you out?" He asked her when the last autograph seeker left their side.
Rogue sighed and shrugged her shoulders as her foster brother dangled an official Princess Alexandria doll in front of her face, "Honestly, it ain't near as creepy as those things."
He followed her pointed finger to a side booth and read the sign propped up in front of the stand with a look of disgust. Who would have thought to create a virtual date with the princess booth? He wondered as a young man walked up to the slightly covered stand. Although there was a piece of fabric covering the inside of the makeshift room, he could catch a small glimpse of the man sitting with his eyes closed on a chair, while someone else's hand rested on his forehead.
"Yuck." He stuck his tongue out and pointed a finger at his mouth at the idea of someone using his or her powers to project a dinner date with his sister into someone else's head.
"Forget 'em, Kurt." She laughed softly, having become somewhat able to ignore the sight of her face all around Lenox, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders, "Let's keep goin' before Axel tries to drag me off to some stupid opening ceremony practice."
Unlike the deep forests that surrounded the city of Kurt and the palace grounds, Meridan was situated at the base of a large mountain range. The terrain was pretty hilly in some parts and it offered a great leg workout to anyone exploring the highs and lows of the city and its natural surroundings on foot. To the far west of the city was a warm sandy beach and an ocean so clear and blue, that most of the X-men had run off to have a beach day. According to Kitty, the water had simply called too loudly to be ignored. Anna figured she must have been deaf to the language of the ocean because she had found no desire to strap on a suit and run off with the others. Thankfully, Kurt had volunteered to stay behind as well, giving them some much-needed quality time.
Meridan was the second biggest city in the Lenox dimension, and the residents had been battling Morphs and Lenoxians' issues since the start of the programs. There were so many opinions in the city, and now that thousands of more people were coming into the city to compete in the Interdimensional games, the tensions were even higher. The groups from the most Morph opposed districts did nothing but fuel the anger between the two groups as they arrived at the city limits until it threatened to boil over and create a real problem for everyone in the area.
Which is exactly why Rogue stepped into one of the latest fights when the group caught wind of the commotion growing down the street. Kurt and Axel raced after her as she jogged over to the loud noises, making sure to stay right on her heels. The two sides of the argument turned out to be a pair of large men and a smaller, but still taller than Rogue and Kurt, Morph man. They yelled at each other so loudly and angrily, that it was impossible to gauge what anyone was actually saying.
"Alright, Alright," Rogue stepped in between them and the voices of the trio quieted, but the crowd encircled the fighters tightly, "What is going on here?"
"Your majesty," The two men bowed immediately and the Morph gave her a slightly untrusting head bob. "This Morph just stole from my store. I was only trying to alert the authorities when he tried to attack us."
"I didn't attack anyone!" The Morph yelled out at the two men, "I paid you for the damn bread and you dared to call me a Blue-Dirt."
"If the shoe fits!" The other man snarled out ferociously.
The yelling started up again, but Rogue quieted it with a hand wave, "Stop it, both of you!" She turned towards the men who were watching her with great attention, and seemed to have almost lost her past shyness when faced with the frustrating situation before them, "Now did he pay you for the bread?"
"He gave him three coins for it," The smaller of the two store-keepers admitted, "But I told him that he had to pay five coins."
Rogue looked back to the Morph holding the bread in question and the man scoffed.
"Dirty cheats in this city are always trying to make us pay more money. Ask him what he charges to the others."
The idea that things had gone so far downhill that even simple shopping transactions were becoming this hectic and unfair, worried Rogue. It had seemed like such an easy idea to bring everyone back together in the Lenox world. Weren't they supposed to be accepting of all sorts of people? She knew that some of her council members were green and at least one had bright silver wings on her back. How could people in a world like that still be so angry with one group of mutants?
"Look," Rogue tried to keep the peace between the shopkeepers and the morphs mixed into the crowd, but she had a funny feeling that no matter whom she sided with, people would be upset. "It is only fair to charge the same price to everyone. If the bread is normally three coins, then it is three coins for everyone."
The men agreed and offered her another bow, before walking back to their store. Although she couldn't hear the men talking about her decision, she did catch a few of the other Lenoxians whispering about her possible disloyalty as they broke their circle apart. The Morph who had been accused offered her a kind smile and quietly admitted that maybe all the Lenoxians weren't quite so horrible after all. At least someone didn't seem upset; Rogue figured and tried to cheer herself up.
Once they were back on their way, Rogue finally spared a look to her brother. Kurt had remained silent throughout the entire interaction and she couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. Unlike most of the X-men, he had a pretty strong family tree connection in Lenox. She still hadn't told him that Mystique was the granddaughter of the man who had kidnapped her family or that she was also the great-granddaughter of Sunil. But Kurt had been told enough to know Mystique was from Lenox and had rescued Rogue from the attack on the palace. The last thing she wanted was for her own brother to feel unwanted in a place where he should have been free to walk around without an image inducer. But with each display of anger between the two sides, she figured she was losing more and more of his confidence.
"Alex," As they neared uncle William's mansion, the royal family's home away from home during the games, Lydia called out to them. Kurt remained silent, but Rogue waved at her mom and directed the two of them to her side, "I was hoping to talk to you for a moment."
"Of course," She stepped inside the door and noticed Kurt had decided to tag along instead of trying to avoid spending time with Lydia.
In the back of her mind, Rogue had begun to wonder if Kurt had somehow figured out more about the past than she had told him. But how would he have been able to hear anything about that night or his family's connections to them? The only people who knew the whole story were Rogue and possibly her mother. And the more important question was, what would happen if he actually figured it all out.
She pushed the worries out of her mind and focused on her mother, "What is going on?"
"It seems that a few of the teams have decided to join sides with some of the anti-Morph groups." Lydia's voice was soft as if she was worried that other people were trying to listen to their conversation, despite the fact Axel was currently keeping watch outside the door.
Rogue spared a small glance at Kurt to see how he was handling Lydia's speech, but he kept his gaze focused on the wall behind Lydia's head.
"The town has been filled with confusion, and now it seems that there are going to be only a few Morphs, if any, on the most of the teams. The rest of the Morphs have banned together to make their own Morphs-only team."
"I'm sure that is all going over great…" Rogue sighed and realized that no matter how hard she kept trying to push them together, the people still crawled back to their own sides.
"Exactly," Lydia sighed and shook her head softly, "I know you are disappointed that things haven't gone more smoothly Alex. It will just take time. They will eventually see that they have a lot in common and can live in peace if we just keep trying."
"Vhat if you had a big mixture team?"
Both women looked at Kurt as he suddenly spoke up. It felt like it had been ages since she had last heard him say anything, and Rogue found herself listening closely to each word Kurt offered them. He fiddled with his image inducer for a moment, as if he was unsure if he wanted to take the leap or not, then hit the off switch. Instantly, his appearance changed to that of the real Kurt Wagner and both women offered him a smile.
"If you could create a team that had Morphs and Lenox people on it, they vould see how good they could vork together."
"That is a wonderful idea." Lydia smiled brightly and patted the boy's shoulder, "It would be the perfect moment to show everyone that it is possible to coexist in harmony."
Rogue smiled at the two of them interacting almost like family, and added, "So where do we get this team?"
The room was silent for a moment until Kurt linked arms with Rogue and gave her a cheeky smile. She knew exactly what he wanted without the boy uttering a word, and her face instantly fell from a smile to a nervous grimace. Wasn't the point of the plan to have people play who could win? Her brain reminded her over and over again as the rest of the room started to shift into a more excited mood. If he threw the two of them on the field, they were bound to lose, mainly because they didn't know any of the rules! Sure, Axel had told her a synopsis of some of the games, but that didn't mean she knew what to do if she was put on a field.
"You can't be serious…"
Kurt waggled his eyebrows at her and tried to brighten her sour mood, "Ve can do this Rogue!" He let go of her arm and turned to the side so he was standing between Lydia and her daughter, "Ve join a team, play a few games, and everyone is happy!"
"Kurt, ah can't even play in the Power Matches," She silently said a small prayer that Remy wasn't there to catch her nervous accent slip. "I can't compete in these games."
"Actually," Lydia spoke up slowly and kept a finger on her chin as if she was tapping the idea out on her face before sharing her thoughts with them. The queen furrowed her brow for a moment and considered a few more things before glancing back up to the waiting X-men, "It would be against protocol, but I think we may be able to make an exception in your case."
Rogue bit back the urge to question whether her case was different because of her lack of powers. It wasn't a secret that she had a lot less control and skill than any Lenox heir before her. The whole dimension knew that she was still too dangerous to touch for fear of absorption. So, it seemed reasonable that they would believe she couldn't use a random power reserve to beat everyone unfairly.
Overall, it was a strange bag of emotions when it came to her powers. She knew that something was there, that was the only way to explain what had happened in her battle with Sunil, but she couldn't understand what was there. She had tried, boy, had she tried, to pull that strange inner fire back out in Danger Room sessions, but it never worked. There was just something missing in the plan, and she was starting to think that it was her defectiveness that was the biggest problem.
Another headache started to form suddenly as she thought about her powers, but she refused to rub the sore part of her head in front of the others, "So what, we just take over someone else's team or create a random Team Earth?"
"That is great!" Kurt cheered showing his bubbly side once again, "Ve'll get the X-men and maybe a few other Morphs to join."
"This just might work," Lydia agreed feeling her own happiness grow at the sight of Kurt's joy, "The opening ceremony is tomorrow, so we just need to sign up your team today and you can get a little practice in the next two days before the competition starts."
"Great…" Rogue added in a groan as the two mutants in front of her tuned out her negativity and started to plan what event would go to which X-man.
There was something about the whole plan that seemed wrong to Rogue. It wasn't as if she disliked the idea of showing the people how to get along. A lot of the problems in this dimension would have been solved if the others could learn to coexist. No, she couldn't point out exactly where the problem was, but as she tried to nonchalantly rub her sore temple, she had the feeling something bad was coming their way.