Chapter 4 – Meeting the Drake Family
"Oh wow, that film was amazing John." Ashlyn gushed as he walked her to her room, she and John had just come back from watching a movie at the theatre in town and they were both pretty happy.
"Yeah it was, though it doesn't exactly capture the whole idea of what a mutant actually is, does it?" He asked her as they walked into the corridor that led to her room.
"No, it doesn't." She stopped outside of her bedroom and she looked at him. "Thank you for this John." She smiled.
"You're very welcome." He smiled. "How long has it been since we got together?"
"We've been together for around a month now, why?"
"Because that means that I can now do this." He told her, touching her cheeks and he pulled her closer into a kiss.
The kiss lasted for a few minutes, as they didn't want to push their luck and they looked at each other as they pulled away.
"Are you going to invite me in?" He asked, nodding at her door.
"Hmm...No, not today, John." She told him, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek, before she walked inside her room and shut the door behind her.
John stood in front of the door for a few minutes, before he shook his head smiling and he walked to his own room, getting ready for bed. Ashlyn was lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling of her room and she smiled to herself, still about to feel the touch of John's lip to hers and her smile never left her face as she turned onto her side and shut out the light.
The house was quiet for a while, and everyone slept peacefully, until the high pitched sound of a girl screaming echoed through the mansion. It caused Ashlyn to suddenly sit up and she looked around, grabbing some flat shoes and putting them on, just as the door burst open and men in army uniforms charged in, but as they were about to shoot her, her hands went up and a shield protected her from the darts and she suddenly turned them around and threw them back at the men, before she ran from the room. Meanwhile, John heard the scream and he woke up with a jolt, grabbing his lighter and running from his room, heading straight to Ashlyn's room, though he started to panic when he found it empty and the guards on the floor, before he heard footsteps following him and he started to run back down the corridor, hoping that she was safe. However, Ashlyn was trying to get as many people as possible out of the building, and she was being helped by Peter Rasputin, also known as Colossus and they managed to get a number of students out through the secret escape hatches. Before she ran back and she heard a scream, so she followed it and found Bobby, Rogue and John about to get hit by a bomb, so automatically her shield went up to protect them from the blast.
"Ash!" They all seemed pretty happy to see her.
"Come on, we have to go, now." Ash said and they all started running down a corridor, where they got to the front door, but were soon confronted by a group of men in army gear, pointing guns at them. However, they all looked up as they heard a cry and they saw Logan launch himself off of the balcony above and land on the group of men, and using his claws, he killed them.
"Let's go." Logan told them and they all started running again, only this time they used a secret exit and got to the garage, where they climbed into a blue car, later described as belonging to Cyclops and Logan drove them away from the mansion.
As they drove, everyone tried to decide where they should go.
"Jean and Storm are in Boston, so we should start there." Logan told the teens.
"My parents live in Boston." Bobby told them, hoping that they would get the idea and go there to hide and also change their clothes.
"Then that's where we'll go, do you know how to find it?"
Bobby nodded and they spent the rest of the journey, with Rogue listening to Logan and Bobby as Bobby gave the directions and Ashlyn rested her head on John's shoulder as John rested his head on hers and he took her hand. However, they the car was suddenly turned upside down throwing both Rogue and Ashlyn out of the car, though Ashlyn minimised the amount of damage to Rogue by using a shield on her.
"Rogue!" Logan and Bobby shouted as they got out of the car and ran over to her.
"Ash!" John ran over to her, and helped her to sit up. "Easy Ash, it's okay, I've got you." He told her, helping her to fully stand up.
"What happened?" She asked, looking at him.
"We were hit by something." Logan told her.
"Could it have been that?" John asked, nodding over to a helicopter that was flying towards them.
Everyone gasped and as it fired, they all hid in on themselves, except for Ashlyn who was standing with her hands up so her palms faced the sky and nothing was able to touch them. This gave John the opportunity to use his power over fire to shoot the helicopter down and then they tried to make their way through the surrounding forests towards Boston.
They reached Bobby's parents house just as it became late morning, and Bobby managed to find a spare key on the porch and he let them into the house.
"Mom, dad, Ronnie, anyone home?" Bobby shouted as they all walked in and when there was no answer, he looked at everyone. "I'll try and find us all some clothes, don't burn anything." He warned John, as he took Rogue with him upstairs and John and Ashlyn walked into the lounge with Logan going into the kitchen. Bobby managed to pass John some of his old clothes, which consisted of a pair of jogging pants a pair of flip flops and a long sleeved beige t-shirt, and Ashlyn some of his mom's old clothes, which consisted of a pair of washed out jeans and a red long sleeved shirt, since she already wore black flats. However he spent most of his time upstairs with Rogue, so when they were dressed, Ash and John lounged around the living room. Ashlyn looked over at John who was looking at some pictures that were on one of the walls and she noticed how unhappy John looked.
"What's the matter John?"
"It's just like good old Bobby to have a wall dedicated to his...Achievements." John told her, looking back at her.
"And you're jealous?" She asked, walking to stand in front of him and she took his lighter from him then took his hand and moved to it on the armrest of the sofa holding his hands.
"I'm not jealous."
"Really, because you could have fooled me." She told him. "John, you and I come from the same sort of background, the ones who are forgotten, but you don't have to display your achievements just to make people want to congratulate you like Bobby does."
"What achievements do I have Ash, really?" He asked her.
"A lot, John you mastered your gift pretty quickly, that's an achievement, and at the risk of sounding big headed, you and I are together, that can be an achievement for both you and me." She told him.
John smiled, sliding his arms around her as she stood up. "Yeah, this is an achievement." He told her, smiling before he pressed a kiss to her lips.
However, the couple pulled away pretty quickly as they heard a cough from behind them and they moved to stand by the doorway as Bobby, Rogue and Logan walked in followed by who they could only describe as Bobby's parents and his brother.
"Um, Bobby why are there two people sitting on our couch, making out?" The woman asked.
"That was hardly making out." John muttered, but Ashlyn dug him in the ribs.
"John, stop it." Ashlyn told him, and she watched him flick his lighter on and then shut it, taking to doing this repeatedly as Bobby's parents talked to him.
"So are you all friends with Bobby?" Mrs Drake asked.
"Yeah, John and I are close friends, but Rogue's more than a friend to me." Bobby smiled, his hand entwining with Rogue's who looked up and smiled.
"Rogue, that's an unusual name dear." Mrs Drake told her.
"Well, ma name iz actually Marie." She told them. "But I prefer Rogue."
Mr Drake nodded, before he looked at Ashlyn. "And what's your name?"
"Ashlyn, but people call me Ash." Ashlyn told him.
"Right and what can the four of you do?" Mrs Drake asked after she watched Bobby turn her drink to ice.
"Do you want us to show you, or explain?" Rogue asked.
"Show us what you can." Mr Drake told them.
Everyone looked at Logan, as his claws suddenly shot out, and Bobby's parents seemed to shrink back into their seats, before they looked at John as a fireball suddenly seemed to appear in his hands, and then they looked at Ashlyn. Though nothing seemed to happen to her as she moved to the other side of the room, until John threw the fireball at her and Ashlyn's hand shot up, the fireball hitting her shield and fizzling out.
When everyone looked at Rogue she looked back at them. "Mine's not safe." She explained.
Bobby's parents were about to say something, before there was a sudden beeping sound and everyone looked at Logan as he realised that it was coming from him and he pulled out the phone that they had managed to collect from the car before they were forced over, and he excused himself from the room to answer it.
"Um excuse me; I wouldn't be able to get a drink of water by any chance?" Ashlyn asked.
"Oh of course, Ronnie, show her where she can get a drink." Mrs Drake told her younger son, who simply nodded and got up lading Ashlyn towards the kitchen and he watched her as he showed her how to get a drink, and as she done so he just stood there watching her.
"Why are you watching me?" She asked him as she washed out her cup and put it on the draining board.
"Because you're one of those freaks, only you can hide your ability." Ronnie told her.
"We aren't freaks Ronnie, we are still people." She told him.
"Yeah, whatever." He suddenly grabbed one of her wrist. "You're all freaks and nothing is going to change that."
"Ronnie, let go of me."
"Fine, but one day all of you are going to die." Ronnie told her.
"And will that satisfy you?" Ashlyn asked him. "To see your brother die, to lose him and have no way to get him back?"
"At times it would, but I'd make sure that Bobby was safe and he didn't have anything to do with people like you ever again."
"What power do you have to do that? You're a kid Ronnie, you aren't mutated like us, what could you do against people who wanted to kill us?" She asked and when he didn't answer she raised an eyebrow to him. "That's what I thought."
She walked back into the living room just as Logan came back into the room from his phone call and he looked worried.
"We have to go, now." Logan told the teens in a gruff voice and they all looked at him in worry.
"Logan what's wrong?" Rogue asked as they all followed him out of the front door, and that proved to be a bad idea, especially when Logan unsheathed his claws.