The week went past slowly, the Brotherhood and the X-men hardly ever crossed paths apart from in class, and even then they never acknowledged each other… except Kurt and Vixen.
On the Friday morning, Kurt came up to her as she was rummaging through her locker opposite that of Jade.
'Hey Vixen!' he said coming up behind her and hugging her, she turned around and hugged him back.
'Kurt!' she answered happily, 'What's up? It's been ages since we last spoke, huh?'
'Ja,' replied the boy unhappily, shrugging, 'The others think it's better if we don't speak too much. They think you are a bad influence.' The girl smiled pityingly at the thought.
'They finally got that, huh?' she asked incredulously. He nodded apologetically. 'So. What's been going on chez Wheels?'
'It's been pretty quiet, actually.' answered the German boy, trying to remember. 'Umm… They haven't moved any of your stuff I don't think.' The girl sniggered.
'Still hoping I'll come back I guess.' she said pityingly. She brushed her hair out of her face uninterestedly.
'Yes.' said the boy suddenly. Vixen stared at him for a moment, uncomprehending. 'They do want you back, I think.'
'Wait…' she cut across him putting her hands up as though to stop him. 'Even after I insulted Kitty,' she started counting her crimes off on her fingers, 'Nearly killed Jade, called Wheels a bald coot…'
'You called him a coot?' asked Kurt cutting across her, 'I've always wanted to do that!'
'AND,' she continued, cutting across him, 'stole all that money off of Kitty and Jade, you still want me back?'
'I know I do.' replied Kurt quietly, 'And I think the others miss you. They don't say it, but you can kind of tell, you know?'
The girl stood silently for a moment, thinking. Kurt watched her closely, wondering slightly what might be going through her head. Suddenly the bell rang.
'I'll see you later, Vixen.' said Kurt walking off to class. Vixen slowly closed her locker door and started meandering down the corridor, grasping her bag.
'Hey Cutey.' said Pietro as he went past her, giving her a quick peck on the cheek as he did so, but she didn't notice. She continued walking along the emptying corridor, deep in thought.
Suddenly she bumped into someone walking in the opposite direction.
'Oh, sorry…' said the other girl as Vixen's bag fell on the floor and all the contents spewed out of it. 'Let me help you there.' she kneeled down and started picking stuff up. Vixen looked down at the familiar long dark hair and Jade's favourite striped top.
'You'll regret it.' answered Vixen realising who it was.
'I don't think I will.' replied the girl laughing pleasantly, before getting up and handing Vixen's books over to her… then she noticed who it was.
'Told you you'd regret it.' said Vixen quietly, shrugging half heartedly. But Jade just handed over the books and walked away.
Vixen watched her go, watched her go into a classroom and close the door, suddenly Vixen realised the corridor was empty.
She made her way slowly to her classroom, knocked on the door and slowly entered.
'Where were you Miss Davies?' asked the teacher coldly but Vixen ignored him. 'Miss Davies?'
'In the corridor.' she replied sitting down alone at the back of the classroom. The class sniggered.
'You will come and see me at the end of the lesson.' said the teacher loudly, 'Is that understood?' Vixen looked up at him in insubordination. 'I said: Is that understood, Miss Davies?'
'Whatever.' the girl opened her bag and tugged out a copy book and her pencil case.
'Right. Where were we?' the teacher asked the class, and looking in his own book. 'Master Daniels?' Vixen vaguely looked up to see Evan put his hand back down again.
'We had just started on the Cold War, sir.' he said proudly, the teacher nodded to him.
'We had just started the cold war.' repeated Vixen in a mocking voice under her breath, looking away to her left, where she saw Toad watching her.
Suddenly he started rummaging in his backpack and pulled out a torn piece of paper on which he started scribbling. Vixen soon received the note he had written on it.
Why dint y'all com and sit by me?
Do I smell? Don't anser that.
Wats up?
Toad xxx
Vixen smiled at all the mistakes he's made, then looked back at him. He pointed at the note, telling her to answer by the same means. She mimed saying 'Oh.' and started looking for a decent pen to write with.
When she had found her favourite black pen she smiled back at the boy and started writing.
Sorry, I didn't see you there, I kinda zoned out back there. I was talking to Kurt and he said the X-men want me back… I feel really weird.
Vixen xxx
P.S: yes you do smell, but I don't care. J
She threw the note over to him, making sure the teacher wasn't looking their way. Toad took a moment to read it and then looked back over at her, then with his hand he motioned for her to come and sit beside him.
She sneakily looked over at the teacher who was just writing something on the blackboard, then she threw her bag and all it's contents to him, morphed into a fly and flew over to sit with him.
'So…' started Toad under his breath, 'The x-men want you back, huh?' he asked watching her.
'Well he didn't exactly say that.' admitted the girl sort of sneering, 'Kurt said that he wanted me back, and that the others missed me.'
'So what's going on with you and Kurt?' asked Toad blankly raising an eyebrow which was supposedly trying to say 'I know something you don't.'
'Nothing!' she retorted crossly, trying to keep her voice down. 'We're best friends, that's all!'
'Sure.' said the boy with an I-wasn't-born-yesterday look on his face, 'that's why you screamed his name when you and Pietro were at it.'
'Shut up!' said Vixen desperately, 'Not so loud.' she sighed and was about to start talking again but they suddenly heard the teacher coughing.
'Miss Davies and Master Tolansky.' he said loudly, 'Do you mind maybe listening to the lesson, or are you too busy telling each other secrets?'
'Well sir,' started Vixen matter-of-factly, 'I'm afraid to admit that, in fact, the "secrets" Master Tolansky and I are sharing are a lot more interesting than the bullshit which was the Cold War. I mean everyone knows that the Cold War was just a load of politicians being completely paranoid and thinking that the other camp was gonna attack, but noone ever did. Maybe, sir, you should forget about the obsessed politicians of the past and start living in the now.'
The class was silent for a moment before someone started clapping. Vixen looked around in surprise as more and more people started clapping and someone even whooped.
The teacher pointed at the door, telling her to leave. She shrugged apologetically, grabbed her bag and made her way to the front of the class.
'The principal's office.' said the teacher handing her a note, the girl nodded uninterestedly taking it.
'I know.' she replied while the class continued to cheer. She smiled uncomprehendingly at them, then took a small bow waved and left the room saying: 'See you round.'
For the rest of the day, people kept coming up to her and patting her on the back and telling her she was "so awesome!". She was just hanging out by the cafeteria with the Brotherhood and listening to Toad retell the story to a group of girls.
'So then the teacher was like "Go to the principal's office" and she was like "whatever", and I was like "yeah Teach, shove it." and then it was like…' he told, doing all the actions to impress the young girls.
'Wow, Babes.' said Pietro taking her by the waist and kissing her on the cheek, 'You're a celebrity!' she smiled over her shoulder at him standing behind her.
'Somebody asked for my autograph earlier.' she admitted to him, 'This school has no life.' she put both her hands on Pietro's (which, bear in mind, are still on her stomach). 'And Todd seems to have morphed the story slightly so he has a bigger part in it, according to him we both got sent to the principal's office.'
Just then Toad finished his story and sent the girls on their way, with only a kiss each as payment for the tale.
'You're doing well out of this, huh Toad?' said Fred leaning on a table, which creaked ominously so he got up again, trying to look cool… and failing miserably.
'Well,' admitted Todd shrugging. 'the people love me.' Pietro shook his head in disbelief and Vixen just smiled at the squatting boy.
'I can't wait to see the looks on the X-geeks faces when they find us trashing the mall tonight.' said Lance out of the blue.
'What?' asked Vixen quickly turning to look at him, 'We're gonna be fighting them?' she looked from Lance to Pietro and back again, waiting for an answer.
'Umm,' started Pietro looking nervously from her to Lance and back, 'well, if they try to stop us…'
'Which they usually do.' added Toad from the floor, before sneaking off to look for beetles.
'Then,' continued Quicksilver glaring at the hunched boy on the floor, 'I'm afraid we probably will. Sorry Sweety.'
'No, no!' she exclaimed looking round at him with a large smile on her pretty face, 'I wanna fight them! I wanna show them what I can do!'
'Don't they know what you can do?' asked Avalanche, frowning at her slightly, 'I mean didn't they see you when we first met?'
'Well yeah,' she acknowledged rolling her eyes, 'But they didn't let me fight or anything. Do you know how many missions they went on and I was left at the dumb institute with Jade? No. You don't. Well, it was a lot.'
'Okay, okay, we get it!' said Pietro squeezing her tummy, ' you wanna show them that you're real strong.'
'Not just that I'm strong,' she continued raising her left eyebrow, 'but I want them to kick themselves for not letting me fight with them.'
'Right, we get it,' said Lance, 'you have issues.' he sighed.
'We have Got to kick their sorry butts.' she continued, suddenly resolute with a dangerous look on her attractive face.
Later that night at the mall, all was quiet. The doors were shut and everyone had left except for the security guards.
Suddenly there was an explosion at the fire exit. All the guards ran to the scene of the crime and found what looked like a gang of teenage trick-or-treaters.
The Brotherhood ran into the mall and immediately started reeking havoc.
Quicksilver was disguised as a skeleton with a skull mask, Avalanche was a zombie, Toad was dressed as a pirate with an eye patch, Blob was masquerading as Jason (from "the Texas chainsaw massacre") with of course Jason's hockey mask, and the only girl there, known only as Vixen, was dressed up as a devil with a masquerade mask, all in red leather complete with horns and pointed tail.
They all split up and went in different directions, breaking into the many shops, stealing things and trying things on, etc… Sometimes checking on each other to see what they were doing.
'Hey Quicksilver!' shouted Vixen from the first floor, 'Does this make me look fat?' she pressed a baby pink mini dress up against her torso, waiting for his answer.
'No Sweety!' he shouted back up at her, 'Nothing could make you look fat!' She laughed out loud and threw the dress down and he caught it.
'Hey Vixen!' came Toad's voice from a sports shop on the ground floor, not far from where Quicksilver was standing, 'Wanna check out these boxing gloves with me?'
'Sure!' she cried back, morphing into a bird and flying down to join him. When she landed she looked over at a fountain where they had tied up all of the guards.
'Anyone want a hotdog?' asked Blob who was on the first floor on the opposite side to where Vixen had been.
'Right over here, Big guy!' shouted Avalanche coming out of a liqueur store with a bottle of Champagne in his left hand. 'Suck it to me!'
Blob threw the hotdog down to him and went back into the food shop.
'Avalanche, send some of that stuff my way!' yelled Vixen holding her hand out. He threw the bottle, but not quite far enough. It was about to crash onto the floor but Vixen morphed her arm into that of a squid and caught it.
'Good catch Sweetcheeks!' shouted Toad coming out of the sports shop with a motorbike helmet on, riding on a little girl's bicycle.
They all fell about laughing as she shook the bottle and sprayed it all over him and her boyfriend, then they both took large gulps from the bottle she was holding. Then she threw the empty bottle against a wall where it smashed.
'Oi! You guys!' came toad's voice from an electrical store. 'D'you think we need a bigger TV?' he asked.
'Of course we do!' cried Vixen running into the store to help chose one, leaving Quicksilver and Avalanche alone in the hall with another bottle of alcohol.
'Don't you boys know that that stuff is bad for you?' came Scott's voice from the doorway. Quicksilver and Avalanche both quickly turned to look directly at him, behind him were all the other x-men.
'Don't you know that we're not all boys anymore?' came Vixen's voice from the electrical shop. The other x-men all gasped in horror to see their old friend turned against them.
'Vixen?' asked Kurt disbelieving, Vixen shrugged apologetically.
'This doesn't change anything.' shouted Scott to the others behind him.
'That's like so not fair.' said Kitty with a worried look on her face.
'It's cool Kitty,' said Jade coming out from behind Spyke, 'we've got their backs.' Just at that moment, Blob jumped down from the first floor, smashing the cement floor and making the ground tremble beneath everyone's feet.
He stood up straight for a moment and took off his hockey mask as the others from the Brotherhood came and stood behind him, including Vixen.
'We don't want to fight…' started Scott holding out his hands as though he could calm them down just by doing that.
'That's a shame.' said Avalanche in a mocking voice, his arms crossed again.
'Because we do!' shouted Quicksilver, signifying that they should charge, which they did. The two groups of teens ran at each other subconsciously deciding who they wanted to fight with.
Avalanche and Kitty found themselves together (how did we guess?!?!), Spyke started after Quicksilver along with Nightcrawler, Blob went for Scott and Rogue, Toad went for Jean and left Vixen with Jade.
'Hello again.' said Vixen smiling malevolently at the other girl, who just glared back. Vixen morphed into a tiger and threw herself at her, but Jade dodged her by less than an inch, so Vixen took her original form and ran straight at her.
Just as she got within striking distance, Jade created a sound barrier, holding Vixen at bay. The blond girl struck at the slightly blueish shield again and again, pushing the raven haired girl further and further back. But Jade riposted, and pushed her barrier towards Vixen, therefore pushing her further and further away. The blond girl morphed into an elephant and reared up and trampled the barrier which evaporated, leaving the dark haired girl schlumped on the floor but still looking up defiantly.
Vixen morphed back into herself and ran at her opponent, kicking and punching wherever she could, but Jade had obviously been training. She parried many of Vixen's attacks and even managed to punch the blond girl in the shoulder.
Losing her temper, Vixen took a step back and then threw herself at her rival and kicked her around the head with the strength of a shire horse (for all those who don't know, a shire horse is the biggest kind of horse, so they're pretty darn strong!). Jade tried to parry the kick, but it was so strong that it hit her anyway, knocking her to the side and against a wall.
Suddenly, there was a blinding red light and Vixen was thrown backwards against a wall. She slid to the ground where she opened her eyes and saw Cyclops looking at her, she got up again and took a defensive stance, discreetly taking the hard defensive skin of a rhino and it's strength.
She ran at Cyclops who tried to blast her with his eyes, but she just went straight through it (thank you rhino!), and punched him in the stomach.
She saw Quicksilver and Nightcrawler battling it out on the first floor, then she looked around to see where Jade had gotten to and saw her trying to get herself up: she was very weak.
The girl dressed as a devil walked over to her and stood over the exposed girl and smiled vindictively… and walked away.
She noticed that Spyke was about to thump Toad from behind, so she ran over and kicked him hard in the small of his back.
'That's not very chivalrous, Vixen.' he said rubbing his back and taking the fighting position opposite her.
'You weren't much better.' she snarled back at him before trying to kick him again, but he grabbed her leg and threw her onto the ground.
'Speaking of chivalry,' she said, wiping a fleck of blood from her mouth, 'that wasn't following the rules, was it?' The young man walked forwards and took the hand she was holding out for him to help her up, but she rolled backwards flipping him over with her feet. He landed on his back, and the girl jumped up with ease.
'That was low, Vixen.' he said getting up and standing opposite her. The girl smiled incredulously.
'Oh really?' she asked pleasantly still smiling at him, 'You haven't seen anything.' she finished, jumping up towards him, throwing him onto his back.
She then put both her feet on either side of his head and held it there. She then did a back-flip, tugging Spyke by the head after her, then she slammed him down onto the concrete again.
She smiled proudly at her own feat, and looked around where she saw Quicksilver being thrown to the ground. She morphed into a bee and flew up to help him, but before she could get to him Jean rammed into her without realising she was hitting her.
The dazed blond girl morphed back into her true form as she and the ginger girl landed roughly on the hard ground, Vixen being slightly squashed.
'Get off, loser!' she shouted kicking Jean off and rubbing her concussed head. Jean picked herself up off the ground and brushed herself off.
'Don't call me a loser.' she said a little irritated. 'Vixen, why are you doing this?' Vixen tried to stand up, but the bump she had received to her head was giving her trouble, she fell over again: her head was spinning badly.
'Because you guys suck.' she said holding her head, trying to stop the spinning, 'You wouldn't even let me fight, even though I'm the best trained, I'm the strongest… even Logan told me once, I could beat him if I kept training. But you… you and your stupid professor didn't think I could do it…' she tried to get up again only to fall over again because of a small earthquake Avalanche had created.
'He's just…' started Jean again picking her words carefully, 'wary of what danger he puts his students into.'
'I CAN DO IT!!!' screamed the dizzy girl from her place on the floor before yelling: 'QUICKSILV-' a black and white blur zoomed past Jean, taking Vixen with it.
'I got ya Baby.' he said carrying the girl bridal-style, 'Are you okay?' the girl shook her head a bit before answering.
'I'm cool,' she replied smiling up at him as he kept running at super speed, 'thank you.' there was a pause before she continued, 'I would kiss you, but I think I'd rather you kept your eyes on the road.'
Suddenly he stopped dead, put her down and pulled her into a deep and luxurious kiss.
'Hey, err…' came Toad's voice suddenly 'Right now's not a brilliant time for all the lovey-dovey stuff.' Vixen and Quicksilver broke apart and sped off in different directions.
Vixen was heading towards Rogue who seemed not to be doing anything but suddenly someone dropped down in front of her out of nowhere, making her grind to a halt.
'Kurt?!?!' cried the girl disguised as a devil, breathing deeply, her chest heaving. 'Get out the way, Kurt.' she continued decisively, there was a pause in which the blue teenager didn't do anything. 'I'm not gonna fight you Nightcrawler.'
'Why not?' he asked loudly, but not nastily, 'You fought Jade. She's your friend, isn't she? You fought Evan. Scott too. Why not me?' The girl looked at him with a pained look.
The young mutant boy walked forwards so that he was only a foot away from her, reached his hand up and pulled off her red mask, Vixen just let him.
'Kurt…' started the girl quietly, then a friendly smile appeared on her pretty face, 'I know you wanna get your paws on me, but you don't have to do this to do so.' Kurt laughed forthcoming with her.
'Everyone else is busy.' he said jerking his head towards all the others who were indeed busy. 'I promise I won't hurt you.'
'You couldn't if you tried.' replied the girl provocatively, but instead of taking a defensive position, she simply turned around and started walking away.
She morphed into an eagle and glided down off the second floor (yes, Pietro did run up the stairs and kiss her on the 2nd level, sheesh!) and down to the ground floor, there she took her true form.
She looked around her and saw Blob fighting Jean, Rogue fighting Toad, Kitty still struggling against Avalanche, and Pietro battling it out with Scott. She noticed that Spyke was completely out of it, and she felt intense pride that she had had something to do with bringing him down.
'I hear this was all your idea.' came Jade's voice behind her, she spun around. 'Trashing the mall, I mean.' Vixen frowned at her wondering whether or not she should kick her butt again.
'Yeah.' she replied rebelliously, 'What you wanna do about it? Give me detention? Ground me?' She crossed her arms and leaned on her right leg.
'I couldn't touch you if I wanted to.' answered Jade shrugging uninterestedly. There was a long pause during which they both just gazed at each other.
Vixen noticed the cuts she had made in Jade's chest had nearly completely healed, but the scars would probably stay for a long time, and the bruises were almost all gone.
'I miss you, Vixen.' Jade said suddenly, taking the blond girl completely by surprise. 'I'm not gonna lie. I really do, the stupid giggle fests, the jokes that nobody understands except us. Kitty doesn't even get the Chip n' Chip one.' Vixen laughed despite herself.
'It's weird not speaking to you.' admitted the changeling quietly. 'And living with boys.' she did a fake shudder, Jade laughed.
Suddenly there was another flash of red light, which almost hit Vixen bringing them both back to reality. They gazed at each other for another moment, wondering whether to fight each other or not… In the end, Vixen ran off in the other direction.
Soon after the Brotherhood gang heard Scott call the x-men back into a retreat. As they fled, the champions all gave a whoop and a cheer, Vixen threw herself into Quicksilver's arms and kissed him in ecstasy at their success.
'Woah!' shouted Blob, punching the air above his head, 'we haven't won since Wanda left!' He and Toad did a high-five, and Toad clambered onto his shoulders.
'Vixen you rocked!' shouted the crouched mutant, from on top of his friends shoulders. The girl looked around at the others to see the damage that had been done to them.
Pietro had a bruise on the side of his left cheek, Lance was clutching his wrist, Toad had a minor nosebleed and seemed to be rubbing his chest, and Blob had specks of blood on his face… whether or not that was his was another question.
'Sweety you're bleeding.' pointed out Quicksilver, indicating her bottom lip.
She turned to look straight at him and in the background she saw Jade still in the doorway, watching her. She turned away, as the boys turned to leave and go back to Mystique's house, nicking a pepperoni pizza on the way.