After spending many an hour writing this chapter while also searching Red Witch's Misfitverse fics for the Avengers (I'm trying to find their current roster for future use), the second chapter is ready. This is where things start to get a little interesting...not to mention ugly.
DISCLAIMER: Derrick Bolris is mine. Althea Delgado/Wavedancer and Trinity belong to Red Witch. Everything else belongs to Marvel.
Chapter 2: When Tempers Fly
Derrick leaned backwards against a wall, eyes closed and mind wandering. He tried to not let his thoughts stray, but sometimes he could never help it. He squeezed his eyes shut, remembering painful memories.
A man and a woman, both in lab coats and holding syringes as screaming filled the air. That was what Derrick remembered.
"Damn it," Derrick swore, the smallest traces of tears in his brown eyes, "why won't the memories go away? Why doesn't trauma ever leave?"
****
"Does this Derrick guy have powers like Ray?" asked the blue-furred Kurt Wagner.
"Sort of," responded the visor-toting Scott Summers. "Derrick can't make electricity like Ray does, but he can take it from any device that uses it."
"Like Pyro except with electricity instead of fire?" asked a girl with brown hair that had white streaks in the front, known as the power-absorbing mutant named Rogue.
"Pretty much," Scott nodded, "except without Pyro's crazy obsession with burning things."
"Logan," said Xavier as he pressed his fingertips against his head, "I can sense that Derrick is in the vicinity. Set the Blackbird down."
"Got it, Chuck," replied the dark-haired man named Logan, landing the ebon-colored jet into a park. The X-Men departed their mode of transport, though Xavier stayed behind.
"Before you go, I must give you a warning," Xavier advised. "I may have only touched Derrick's mind, but the anger I sensed from him was overwhelming. You all must be careful."
"Don't worry, Professor," Scott nodded. "We've got it covered."
"We can all throw away hope, now," Rogue said with a shake of her head. "Whenever someone says that, it translates to 'we're doomed'."
****
To Derrick, walking was the best way to pull one's mind from their troubles. Despite this, Derrick's travels were not without their hazards. While nowhere near as anti-mutant as the town of Bayville, New York did have a population of mutant-haters.
"Mutie freak!"
"Monster!"
"Genetic nightmare!"
"And Xavier thinks mutants and humans can actually stand being within ten feet of each other for more than five seconds?" Derrick muttered rather loudly, draining the electricity from a car as he spoke.
"Yes," a voice answered, "he does."
Derrick spun around, facing behind him, and saw four X-Men staring him down. Kurt gave a friendly wave, while Logan simply crossed his arms.
"Oh, brilliant," Derrick moaned. "X-Men. Just what I needed."
"Really feelin' the love, kid," Logan grunted.
"Took us a long time to find you," Scott said. "You keep moving."
"That's the idea, one-eye," Derrick snarled, clenching his fists.
"Hey, calm down!" Scott ventured, attempting to defuse the crisis. "We're not here to fight."
"No, of course not," Derrick said, words coated in sarcasm. "You're here to drag me kicking and screaming into your X-Men, right?"
"Somethin' like that," Logan said gruffly.
"Yeah, I figured," Derrick growled.
"Look, Derrick," Scott said, "the Institute was made for people like you and me. It's where we can use our powers—"
"To fight for something not worth fighting for," Derrick interrupted. "I doubt I want to do that."
"Hey, don't be such a sourpuss!" Kurt chuckled, teleporting in front of Derrick. "Even with the random insanity that happens, usually courtesy of the Misfits, it's a lot of fun in the X-Men!"
Derrick glared hard at Kurt, and the blue-furred mutant cringed slightly. The look in Derrick's eyes was that of someone who had both seen and endured horrific things. Many mutants had this in their eyes, but in Derrick's more so. Kurt could barely help but wonder what he went through.
"I'm sure," Derrick said venomously before turning away.
"Wait!" Rogue called with her typical southern accent. "Xavier helped all of us. He helped me cope with my power, even if it means not being able to touch people with risking their lives. He can help you, too."
"Yeah, if I wanted some bald paraplegic trying to get me to believe in his lost cause," Derrick said as he walked away from the X-Men. Kurt, however, teleported in front of him yet again.
"Come on, man!" Kurt pleaded. "Give the Institute a chance!"
"Okay, number one," Derrick began, "you've already got a bolt-thrower in Berzerker."
"Yeah, but—" Scott said, but Derrick cut him off.
"Number two," he said, voice turning hard as he pointed his hand at Scott, "no."
Derrick's hand surged with electricity, but a flash of light behind him captured his attention. There, as a result of G.I. Joe's teleporting Mass Device, were Althea, Todd, Lance, a rather large teen with a Mohawk and a blonde spike-haired male.
"Well," began Fred 'the Blob' Dukes, "at least we got the ketchup out of the Mass Device before we got here."
"Trinity's going to be in so much trouble when we get back," Althea growled.
"Oh, come on!" Derrick exclaimed, throwing his hands to the sky. "The Misfits, too?! What is this, Drag-Derrick-Into-Stupid-Teams Day?!"
"At least he doesn't like the Misfits," Rogue whispered to Kurt.
"He doesn't like us, either, in case you've forgotten," Logan pointed out.
"Okay, X-Geeks," Lance said, "we'll take it from here."
"Oh no, you won't!" Scott protested. "You're not exposing Derrick to your insanity!"
"Like you're any better!" snapped the mutant in question.
"Can I set him on fire?" asked John Allerdyce, alias Pyro.
"No!" snapped Althea. She then turned to Derrick, attempting to act diplomatically. "Derrick, from what I've read about you in the Joe's files, you know that we're the good guys."
"Doesn't mean I want to spend my time in the army's personal insane asylum," Derrick snarled.
"Thank you!" Scott exclaimed. "Finally, someone realizes how psychotic the Misfits are!"
"Do you honestly think that that means I'll join up with Xavier's personal mutant superhero squad?" Derrick asked.
"Uh," Scott managed, but Derrick interrupted.
"It doesn't, Cyclops," Derrick spat. "There's no point in what you're doing. Look around you. There's barely a human alive that doesn't hate mutants. You guys should know. After all, you live in Bayville. That town was practically founded to give mutants hell."
"You know, I always did wonder why Xavier set up shop in Bayville," Todd commented.
"The Institute might not be in the most strategic location," Rogue admitted, "but that doesn't mean you should just ignore us."
"Look, Rogue," Althea interjected. "Derrick's coming with us."
"Yeah, I'm really going to hang out with the army's favorite science fair projects," Derrick said with a roll of his eyes and words coated in sarcasm.
"What did you say?!" Althea snapped.
"What do you think I said, you mermaid reject?!" Derrick retorted.
"THAT'S IT!" Althea roared, Fred having to hold onto one arm to restrain her.
"Derrick, will you just shut up and get the fact that we're trying to help you through your thick skull?!" Lance added, in his anger causing a tremor to shake the earth under their feet and blow a fire hydrant into the air.
Althea's powers took effect, the water making a sudden turn and shooting at Derrick. Derrick's eyes widened as more memories flooded into his mind.
A child falling into a swimming pool. The child helplessly flailing about, trying to keep himself from drowning.
And then Derrick screamed.
Derrick discharged a massive burst of electricity, the sheer heat and intensity slicing through the water and evaporating it near-instantly. The bolts of lightning wildly struck around the Misfits, though several struck Althea and shorted her out, the leader of the Misfits falling unconscious.
"AL!" Todd cried, quickly at his girlfriend's side.
The jaws of the X-Men and Misfits collectively dropped. Derrick was hyperventilating, his breaths accelerating the more he stared at Althea's unconscious form. Todd was glaring daggers at the electrokinetic, but Derrick barely noticed.
"No…no…no," Derrick mumbled, his entire body shivering with fear.
Todd's glare lightened. He saw familiarity in what was happening to Derrick. It was the same kind of fear he had when he had first been taken in by G.I. Joe. He had been afraid of almost everyone in the Pit, and he recognized that same expression on Derrick's face at that moment.
"Derrick—" Scott said.
And then Derrick snapped.
"GET AWAY!" he screamed, throwing a shockwave of electricity and the X-Men and knocking them all off their feet, though as the attack was not meant to be fatal, they recovered soon after. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"
He formed a ball of lightning in his hands and threw it in front of the Misfits' feet, the ball bursting and scattering electricity in front of the army mutants.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Derrick yelled, tearing through an alley as he continued to pant with fear. The Misfits and X-Men stared for a moment, taking in what had just happened. Then Lance broke the silence.
"Guys, let's get back to the Pit," he suggested to his fellow Misfits. "Al needs some medical attention."
"Can I set her on fire?" John asked.
"No!" Todd snapped. "Let's just go, okay?!"
The Misfits disappeared in another flash of light, leaving the X-Men alone.
"Let's hope she'll be all right," Scott sighed. "Derrick shot off a lot of electricity, but if we didn't die from that, Althea probably didn't, either."
Kurt teleported to the top of a building and began looking around.
"Okay," began the German mutant, "I think I can see Derrick, but he's running pretty fast. He might be hard to track down."
"We have to calm him down!" Scott said. "I think we can still try and get him to listen to reason!"
"Yeah, like that worked with me when you guys first tried to recruit me," Rogue said.
"I remember that," Scott nodded, "but you were being deceived by Mystique at the time. We need to get through to Derrick, no matter what it takes."
****
Derrick stumbled down another alley, gasping for breath and muttering to himself. After a quick check to make sure he was not followed, he slumped against the wall, holding his head in his hands.
"Oh, no…no, no, no," Derrick muttered to himself. "I think I just killed someone. Please tell me I didn't kill someone…"