A New Age, A New Team
Chapter 27: Learning Is Teaching
Jazmine had her arms wrapped around her sides as she quietly walked down the hallway away from the medical lab with a million thoughts running through her head. Why didn't I see it? How couldn't I see it? Why didn't she tell me? She thought over and over as she thought about Aurora's situation.
"Hey," Gabe whispered as he set his hand lightly on Jazmine's shoulder, "she's gonna to be alright." He tried to reassure her.
Jazmine looked up into Gabe's ice blue eyes with her greenish-brown eyes, "You're right." She sighed, even though she didn't fully believe her own words.
They walked in silence side by side down the hallway until they reached an elevator at the end of the hall. Gabe tapped the "up" arrow button that lit up in a florescent blue light. After a couple seconds of waiting, the elevator chimed and the steel doors opened to a wood-lined elevator car. They quietly stepped inside and Gabe leaned in front of Jazmine to pressed the "L" button in order to take them back up to the lobby of the mansion. They sat there in the awkward silence of the humming elevator. The doors chimed again when they reached the level marked "L" before Gabe spoke, "Would ya like to take a walk with mah?" He blurted out to Jazmine without looking at her.
She looked down at the ground for a moment before looking at Gabe as the doors to the elevator opened. "I'd like that."
Gabe politely opened the large glass down to the garden for Jazmine and let her walk out before he followed behind her. He was the stereotypical southern gentleman. He quietly followed along side of her as they strolled through the lush garden full of life, which was quite the change compared to the rest of the world they lived in.
"I don't know that much about you, except that you always are with that girl Tonya." Jazmine said trying to strike up a conversation.
Gabe chuckled, "It's more like she's always with mah." He teased. "She's mah best friend here. It's a strange relationship between us but it seems to work nevertheless."
Jazmine nodded her head a couple of times as she listened, So he's not dating her… Could've fooled everyone here.
"A lot of people think we're dating," he laughed, "but there's no way."
"That's what I thought." Jazmine laughed as she looked down at her watch.
"Nope, nothing's goin on with us," He said in his thick southern accent.
"Oh crap." Jazmine gasped in disappointment. "I was supposed to workout right now in the danger room. I reserved it." She sighed as she started to jog back towards the door they had come out of, "Do you mind if we reschedule?" She shouted back to Gabe as she held the door open for herself.
Gabe was a little taken back by the quickness of everything and slightly began to stumble over his words, "Um, yeah. Ah mean, sure that's fine." He waved as Jazmine disappeared inside of the mansion and the door closed behind her.
Gabe turned around and looked around the empty garden in content. The soft breeze made the willows dance in the wind as the fragrance from all the flowers swirled into the air and filled Gabe's lungs. It was beautiful and full of life. He quietly began walking around the garden in silence as his mind drifted around in the fragrance of the flowers before he noticed something dark within the garden. It was Hecate.
She was dressed in tight black jeans and a dark grey tank top, while her platinum blonde hair was left down so that it swayed against the small of her back as she walked. Gabe stood still for a moment as he watched her walk under the shade of a tree and just stare at the tree. Her hand reached up to touch the tree, but she solemnly lowered it. She was always interesting to Gabe because out of everyone in the mansion her and Linx were the most misunderstood, and yet the two of them understood each other.
Gabe looked around him for a couple of seconds before he found a patch of tulips nearby. He quietly plucked one and walked over to Hecate. "Ya look like ya could use some cheerin up..." Gabe smiled as he held the flower out to her. He truly was a southern gentleman.
Hecate slowly turned around, which made her blonde hair swirl around her in a sea of light. Her deep blue eyes looked into Gabe's ice blue eyes and then looked down at the yellow tulip and gave a half-hearted smile at the flower. "You really tired, huh?" She said softly.
"Ah'm just tryin' to be nice." He smiled.
Hecate softly touched the tulip with her finger and it slowly melted from a vibrant yellow color to a rich black color and became cold to Gabe's touch, "I've never been able to nice." She sighed. It was part of Hecate's curse. She technically couldn't freely touch anything without killing it. She was learning to concentrate so that she could touch things, but it was much harder and a lot easier to just not touch.
Gabe felt the flower grow hard in his hands before he looked back up at Hecate, who was staring at the tulip. "It might be cause ya were never taught." He smiled.
Hecate looked up at his face. He's still smiling… He's not afraid. "Or maybe it's because I never wanted to learn."
Gabe nodded a couple times before holding the tulip out farther to Hecate. "Ya can't live ya life that way." He said as he watch Hecate take the flower from him and then began to slowly walk away from her.
"I don't tell you how to live your life…" Hecate said to him as she watched him walk away for a moment, while she held the flower in her hand.
"Ya right, but it was more friendly advice and an invitation to learn." He shrugged as he didn't turn around and kept walking.
An invitation… Hecate thought quietly to herself as she held the tulip before turning and walking towards Gabe.
She didn't say anything about him stopping, but it was as though he knew to stop. Hecate caught up to him and they began to walk along side one another in complete silence; it was enough for them. Occasionally, one of them would look at the other or they would catch each other's eyes and then look away again. Neither one had to say a single word, because just walking next to each other was teaching them both something about one another.
The crackle of the newspaper echoed in the dimly lit living room area of the Chaos headquarters. Natalie's (Miracle) honey blonde hair was draped over the back of the couch as she read a section in the paper with her silver eyes. It went perfectly… She thought to herself.
The creek of a door opened as Karen (Diamond) and Mary-Lynn (Aphrodite) walked into the living room area and spotted Natalie reading the paper. "What are you doing?" Karen asked in her thick French accent.
"Reading about how well our heist went." Natalie smirked.
Mary-Lynn chuckled as she slumped into a large lounge chair near Natalie. "And what do they have to say bout us?" She smirked in her thick southern accent.
"That it went perfectly." Natalie laughed in her British accent.
Mary-Lynn shrugged, "Exactly what I thought they'd say." She chuckled as she flipped her curly blonde hair over her shoulder.
"Let me see." Karen asked as she took the paper from Natalie and read the article over before folding the paper up again to the front page and laying it on the tabletop.
"Did ya not think Ah wanted to see it?" Mary-Lynn asked as she looked at Karen. How rude.
"I'm sorry." Karen nodded as she slid the paper over to Mary-Lynn.
Mary-Lynn rolled her eyes and grabbed the paper to look at, but the front page caught her eye before anything else.
"Mutant Genocide In The West" was what read across the front of the paper in large letters. Mary-Lynn felt her heart drop and then her blood begin to boil as she stared at the writing with her violet colored eyes..
"You alright Mary-Lynn?" Natalie asked out of concern.
"Of course Ah ain't!" She screamed as she turned the paper around to show Natalie and Karen the headlines. "Those damn humans keep thinking they can just erase the "problem" but we ain't problem. It's them!"
"Time will make everything right." Karen said out of anger.
"Ah'm sick of time. We've been hearin' that for years. Ah'm sick of it!" Mary-Lynn shouted.
"We can't do anything right now, so you might as well calm down." Natalie reminded her. "In due time… One city at a time."
Mary-Lynn sighed and turned the paper back around once again. She stared at the headline one more time before violently flipping through the paper to find the article about the heist of the jewelry store. Damn humans… We should've killed them when they begged for their lives back at the store…