History Before The X-Men
By Time And Life 21
Renegade leaned against the fence that separated her from her daughter. She rubbed her forehead. It was getting a bit painful by seeing so many visions and manipulating them to follow her commands. She wasn't about to get any sleep anytime soon.
"Renegade?" She could hear Rogue on the other side of the holey wooden wall. Renegade turned her head to hear the young woman better.
"Yes Rogue?" She said wearily.
She had lost track of time of how long they have been here. Food would come in at randoms times maybe twice a day, if they were lucky to stretch it out.
"What are they goin' to do ta us?" She asked. Renegade scrunched her nose and looked down, her hair falling limply over her shoulders.
"They are going to make us fight, Rogue. All I can say is use the training that you were taught." Renegade said as she looked at her cell mate. He was a larger man with scale like skin and he looked ferocious. He never spoke. He never even looked at her. Just sat there in the corner to himself.
"So they are goin' ta make us fight? Ah'm not lookin' forward to that." Rogue shivered.
"You have to use your powers if you want the upper hand. Rogue, this is a fight to the death. Not a knock out fight." Renegade said as her eyes flashed gold once again.
She frowned at the short vision. Though brief as it was, she saw Rouge standing over a mutant with blood on her. It wasn't pretty.
"but Ah can't control mah powers!" Rogue said as she grasped the chain link fence desperately.
Renegade's eyes snapped open as as she turned around to looked at her through the largest holes in the fence, which was about the size of her head.
"You can't control them?" Renegade said worriedly.
Rogue's face appeared and she bit her lip.
"Ah can't. Ah've been trying since they manifested. The professor has been working with meh to get 'em under control, but it's hard to work with 'em." She argued.
"That's not good." Renegade thought as she raised a hand to her temple and frowned.
"What are your powers?" Renegade asked.
Rogue looked up with confusion.
"Don't ya know about mah powers?" She asked.
Renegade shook her head. But inside she knew her daughter's powers, although she reallyhope that Rogue took after her. She remembered Thomas being extremely worried that he would never wish his kind of power on anyone, not even his own child. She took after her father. She looked scared as she described them.
"Ah'm a leech. Ah take memories, powers and life forces. Sometime if I held on long enough i have a copy of that person inside mah head" She said ashamed.
"Really? I know someone like that. Helped them with their powers too." Renegade said slyly.
She wasn't about to say that it was Thomas yet.
"Really?" Rogue looked up in hopefulness.
Renegade nodded.
"It'll be a crash course for you. We don't have a lot of time of exercising your powers. Now...listen carefully." Renegade said as she leaned closer to the hole.
"Before you go to sleep tonight, I want you to imagine a wide open space. And all those 'imprint's that you have are in there. It'll be uncomfortable at first, you will start to hear voices and it will be hard to tune them out, but it will work. But you have to keep concentrating. Okay?" Renegade said as she bore her eyes into Rogue's. She nodded unsteadily.
"Okay. Here's how you will be able to control them minutely." Renegade said as she fell to her knees.
"Close your eyes and imagine a wide open space. It can be a park, it can be a forest, it can be a large ballroom, just make a space large enough. " Renegade instructed.
Rogue listened to Renegade's instructions and followed them. Her voice was still penetrating her mind.
"Do you have your space?" She could faintly hear her. Her voice echoed in her mind.
"Yeah." She replied.
"Good. We'll start small. I want you to summon two people you have absorbed. But don't make them mutants. humans first." She heard the voice.
"Wouldn't it be easier if Ah used mutants first?" Rogue said as she walked around a large mansion like lobby.
It has many doors with blank gold plates above the doors.
"Mutants have powers. Humans have life force. We have to build up your life force first before we get to the powers second." Renegade said firstly.
"Life force?" Rogue asked.
"For every human that you have absorbed, you absorb their life force, their memories, their talents, their intelligence, I can go on in the list. Say like you have absorbed the life force of a track star runner. You can run as fast as he can, sprint just like him, and jump like him as well. But you also have his intelligence. What has he learned that day? What did he eat? Who is his girlfriend? Stuff like that." Renegade said as Rogue slowly started to understand what she was saying.
Rouge summoned the very first person she had absorbed.
Cody.
His tall and brawly stature and jockish looks used to make her swoon when she was normal once. His coifed blond hair, his school jacket and blue jeans with converse were just the same as it was that night. His face was contorted into anger and he started to yell at her.
"YOU! You tried to KILL me!" He shouted at her. Rouge stumbled back in fear.
"Renegade! What do I do?" She panicked as she crabbed walked back away from the angry boy whom she had absorbed.
"Calm down. Be firm with your shades. They can't hurt you." Renegade said calmly.
"You think that woman cares about you? A leech that can't touch anyone?" He laughed cruelly.
"You can't even kiss someone without even taking their life." He taunted.
The words echoed in her mind.
"ROUGE! This is YOUR mind! Not his! Fight him!" She heard Renegade's voice shout throughout her mind.
With a new found courage surging up, she stood up and walked up to the shade that was belittling her.
"You be quiet! Ah may have absorbed you by accident, but you are part of me now. You may be pissed off, but you are a..." Rouge paused.
A thought crossed her mind. She recalled Professor call her shades 'Copies'. She didn't understand it at first, but this makes the most sense.
"You ain't nuthin' but a copy! You ain't the real thing!" She said as she stood up to him and walked over to him, standing her ground.
"Now if Ah were you, sit down and shut up!" She said and she crossed her arms, giving the copy of Cody Matthews a glare that would rival Wolverine's.
It happened so quickly. Suddenly the shade lost color and he had become greyscale. It fell back into a military position and stood there with a blank face. No emotion was flitting through his face. He just stood there.
It was then that Rogue couldn't hear Cody's voice anymore. She actually smiled brightly at the realization.
"Ah can't hear him Anymore!" Rogue said.
"Good! Good! That's great! Now what I want you to do is to walk up to that copy and touch it. Make sure that you place your full hand on him." Renegade echoed through her mind.
Rogue went up to Cody and placed her hand on his shoulder. It surprised her. When she touched him, she could feel something throbbing though her.
"Ah feel really strange." Rogue said as she could feel the warm throb pulsing over her.
It was almost...euphoric to say the least.
"What are you feeling, Rogue?" Renegade asked.
"Warm...and light." Rogue said as she wanted to take on the world.
"That's good! That means that you are using his life force to energize you. I was always told that it felt like a warm blanket of some sort. Now...what is your mindscape like, right now?" Renegade asked.
"It's like the lobby of Professor Xavier's School...except that there are a lot of hallways and doors." She said as she looked around a little, not wanting this feeling to end.
"Okay, what I want you to do now is guide your shade to the nearest door, and upon opening that door you will shove it in there and close it." Renegade instructed.
Rogue really didn't want to do that. She wanted to get closer to the shade that was giving her this feel good feeling.
"ROGUE!" Renegade growled.
Rogue lost concentration and the shade suddenly gained color and started to rail on her. Shouting degrading words at her.
Her eyes snapped open as she started to breathe hard.
"Wha-What happened?" Rogue said as she took in her surroundings.
She was still in the cage with Carol and she was asleep on the dirty ground and She could feel something on her shoulder. She turned to see that Renegade had pushed her hand through the holes of the fence and had grasped her shoulder tightly.
"You got lost in the moment Rogue. What happened?" Renegade's blue eyes bored into hers.
"Ah...Ah didn't want to let that copy go..." She said slightly cooling down from the euphoric feeling.
Renegade sighed.
"I forgot how impressionable young people are. Rogue, next time, focus on putting that 'copy' where it should go. I don't expect you to get a hold on your powers soon, but I want you to be somewhat prepared." Renegade said as she squeezed Rouge's shoulder tenderly.
"Thanks." Rogue said as she felt her eyes droop.
"Rest Rouge. It takes a lot out of you to try and control your 'copies' as you call them." Rogue fell into the darkness after Renegade's words.
Scarlett was flipping around and blowing up minor stuff in the danger room. Muttering in French. So she lost her cool with Blaze. So what? Sue her! She was currently missing the part of her that was with Renegade. Hanna and Scarlett have been good friends since the time they had been captured and placed in a mutant facility. Just thinking about it made her blood boil. She remembered the time there very clearly. She was a newly ranked master thief at the age of 18 and she thought that she could enter a facility like that and get information and sell it off to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, she was caught.
She remembered being thrown into a cell where two other mutants were in there. One was a young african girl with pure white hair and the other was a young woman her age with deep brown hair. She chuckled to herself as she thought back to that time. Hanna was an enigma even then. Seeing and manipulating the future to an extent was a useful power. Got them out of many situations many times. Even the New Orleans Incident they could have lost their lives (If it wasn't for Blaze and the LeBeau Family), New Orleans would have been a war zone. She gritted her teeth and tossed nails at a mannequin and it promptly blew up and and ugly sneer went across her face.
"Damn you Sinister." She swore in her mind.
She felt drained as she left the danger room.
She padded quietly in the mansion. Walking down the halls aimlessly. It had been at least a week since Rogue and Renegade has been taken. Xavier has been trying to find them, but he was being blocked out. How is that even possible? Now they (As in her and Azazel) have to rely on Thomas. And Thomas hasn't used a shade of a telepath (Emma Frost) in years. Even though Thomas and Scarlett may have their differences, they were good friends. She groaned to herself.
"C'est tout un gâchis." She muttered as she turned a corner.
"Spade." She heard her name being called.
She stopped and turned around. It was Logan and by his side was Remy.
With the experience of a long time actor, she did subtle body language changes. Standing a little straighter than usual, her legs spread a little more apart and her body muscles loosened up a bit. She gave a small smile.
"Hello Logan. Gambit." She nodded to them.
She only said Remy's other name out of respect. He may be her son, but she knew that it will take a while before gaining his trust.
"Has Flamethrower been looking for Rogue and Renegade?" He asked as he walked up to her.
"He has. But you have to give him time. He just barely managed to master how to hack into computers and satellites. If he's going at this pace, it'll take him just a few more days for him to find them. But I'm not betting on that." She said as she opened her hands in a gesture of 'Who Knows?"
"Hopefully it will be soon. I don't like the fact the Rogue was captured." Logan said frowning.
"It's not like we are not trying. Rogue will be fine with Renegade. Besides, she has a good handle on her powers, right?" Scarlett smiled at them.
The silence was deafening.
"Short stuff...Rogue has no control over her powers." Logan said to her.
Scarlett's face froze in it's smile and suddenly her face melted into disdain.
"Quoi?" She said almost quietly.
"Rogue 'as never had de practice t' keep 'er power under control. She 'as been workin' on it fo' de past three years now, but so far, she can't control it." Gambit clarified.
Scarlett could feel the kinetic energy running through her. She was pretty sure by the surprised look on Gambit's face, he knew that she was pissed off and even slightly scared.
"Please tell me that you are joking." She gritted her teeth. Logan was non-plussed by her temper.
"I'm not the joking kind, Spitfire." Logan said growling.
Scarlett growled before running off to find Blaze. She had to. This was not good at ALL!
"The fact of the matter at hand is that if the girl cannot control her powers at ALL, this puts a wrench in out plans!" She thought as she ran down the stairs.
"BLAZE!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.
"BLAZE!" She shouted as she can across the room where Hanna and Thomas's Room is.
She barged in, seeing him putting on a t-shirt.
"What is it, Tiny? I heard you shouting my name across the entire mansion. Are you sure you don't have a sub power like Banshee's?" His British voice carried an air of annoyance as he turned to the panting ally he has.
She slammed the door behind her and went up to him.
"You know Rogue is your daughter, non?" Scarlett clarified.
"Yes, I am aware of that. Why?" He asked arching an eyebrow.
"I think your daughter takes a hell of a lot more after you. She has your powers." Scarlett said as she could feel a slight fear trickle down her spine.
Thomas froze in his place. "What?" Was the intelligent reply he had.
The thoughts in Thomas's mind was: Hanna never specified of what powers Anna Marie would have.
"I thought she would take after he mother." He said slowly and deliberately.
"But that's not possible, Absorption power varies from person to person...at the very least, she should have at least little to no absorption power from me." Thomas reasoned.
"If you haven't been an imbécile, from time to time and pay attention to your wife's lectures on the X-Genes, you would realize that 1 out of 50 mutants would get the X-gene from their fathers. You lucked out, mon ami." Scarlett clarified.
Ice cold fear gripped Thomas's heart. He would never wish his powers on anyone, not even his daughter. Did his wife know?
"Did Hanna know?" He asked Scarlett.
"I don't think so, Think about it, Thomas we've only been out of that hell for a month now and we are pulled into this. We are still adjusting to all of this. I think it may have slipped Hanna's mind." Scarlett reasoned.
It was true, Hanna was getting used to all the new technology and catching up with Storm and Xavier to understand what is going on now that they were back in this world.
Scarlett saw something on Blaze's face that sent terror down her spine. He stood up straight and his eyes suddenly turned black as night. An unearthly voice echoed in the room.
"Tell Xavier to ready Cerebro. I'll be down to explain everything." He spoke darkly.
Scarlett could only smile hesitantly and sped out of that room fast. At least she managed to get Thomas' butt into gear. Unfortunately, that wasn't Blaze. But it was Reaper.
"Get ready Renegade, Your husband is coming to get you and your daughter." Scarlett thought as she ran to find Xavier to be informed of this development.
"Nyet! You are not thinking clearly enough!" Azazel said as he rubbed his brows.
"But I am! Vhy is this so hard!?" Kurt said from up on the high wire.
Currently, Azazel was helping with Kurt to have him teleport from the high wire to the tree that was out by the cliff outside of the mansion.
"All you have to do, malchik, is to visualize. If you cannot visualize destination, you wind up elsewhere" Azazel spoke clearly as he can.
"Elsewhere?" Kurt asked as he hopped off of the high wire and landed next to his father.
"Father. I could get used to that." Kurt thought to himself as he looked up at the crimson skinned man.
"When teleporting, you must have clear vision in mind." He said looking down at the young mutant.
He was hanging onto every word, but it wasn't clear enough for the boy.
"I remember when I was young. Lived in Gypsy camp. I had wanted to go to river by there. I got to river alright, but was bit too far downstream where the women would bathe." Azazel chuckled.
Kurt laughed as well.
"Really?" He asked.
"Really. But deadly. Gypsy Women do not like being peeped on." Azazel winced as his tail whipped back an forth.
"Now, unless you decide to fall off cliff, then we have something to worry about. We take rest of day off. We will continue tomorrow." Azazel said as he ruffled Kurt's hair.
"Okay, Ah, Azazel?" He asked, before mentally scolding himself.
He wanted to call him father, but he hadn't the courage yet.
"Yes?" Azazel looked down at the fuzzy blue mutant.
"Will Rogue and Renegade be okay? Vat if they can't be found?" Kurt worried.
He really missed his schwester. He worried about her a lot and there was no surprise that he hope that she was doing okay.
Azazel was at a slight loss for words. He knew Renegade could take care of herself. Given the fact that she was a 'soldier' similer to himself, and add the fact that they have worked for SHIELD many times before, it's safe to say that she will be able to stay alive. The younger girl on the other hand...
"I am not sure, Renegade will do what ever it takes to keep Rogue safe. Don't fret. We will come to call when Blaze finds them." Azazel assured.
Kurt could only give a nod of affirmation, but still had that crestfallen look on his face.
"Let's go inside. I teach you to use swords." Azazel said smirking. Kurt lightened up.
"Really? Wundebar!" Kurt exclaimed.
Azazel smiled at his son. He had a feeling that Kurt may need the practice.
TAL21: Well NaNoWriMo is upon us! I figured that I would get a head start on the new 'ARC' So to speak for HBTXM. Besides, I left you guys hanging for long enough. XD But hey? It's worth it right? I'm also working on Silver Heart, Supernatural She-Wolf, A Fox In Gotham, and my new story that somehow got a lot of views in the past 48 hours, Black as the Blood in our Names. But, HBTXM and Silver Heart kind of take more of a priority over the others, but i will be working on them too. XD Now, I will tell you right now, Instead of the full 2000 words a day that i was planning on doing is being cut down to at least 1500 or even 1000 words. Why? I have a full time job, i have night school on Mondays and Wednesdays and of course, homework also take priority as well. So i hope that you will be patient with me. You may or may not get a chapter updates on Mondays and Wednesdays and possibly Thursdays. Due to school and Homework, as well as work. But I thank you for your support and willingness to keep on reading my story! :D Shout Outs! will resume after this chapter too. :) NOW LET'S GET NANOWRIMO STARTED! PLEASE LEAVE DETAILED REVIEWS AND OPINIONS! They mean more writing and ideas for me and more posting chapters!
Question Time!: Now that I'm back for this November, what do you think will be happening in this arc of HBTXM? And What would you like to see? Also, Bonus question: What are you doing for NaNoWriMo?
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING! :D