Ch. 2: Castle?!
"So, Noah. You're in college right? What do you study?"
"Psychology, mostly. I'm a minor in Genetics." Raven gave a slight nod, "So you're sort of like Charles in that respect. What do you plan to do with your major?" Noah shrugged "I dunno, work in a research lab somewhere, I guess. Why?" Raven laughed.
"You don't seem the type to wear a lab coat and scribble statistics." Noah gave the blond a look, "What type do I seem to you?"
"You seem more like the artistic rebel." The girl was nothing if not blunt.
"You mean the kind that street tag everything?" Raven nodded, Noah gave an indignant snort.
"That's pretty funny, My friend Lexi'd crack if she hard that."
"So you're not into parties?" Raven inquired,
" 'Fraid not. My mutation could go haywire if I had one too many, you know?"
"That makes sense. I guess I didn't think about that one." Something must have clicked in her mind.
"So…the others seem pretty cool." They rounded the corner, their new 'holding cell' at the end of the hall.
"Yeah, It's amazing how many more of us there are now." Noah smiled opening the door, letting the blond walk in ahead of her.
"I always figured I was alone, but it's nice to know we're not anymore. Hey guys, and girl." Noah grinned at Angel.
"Hey Raven, Noah. Where you guys been?"
"Not kicking Alex's ass at pinball, that's for sure." Noah flashed the boy a playful grin as he nudged her arm.
"I'd like to see you try Nympho." Noah shot him a glare.
"A nympho is a person obsessed with sex. I'll have you know I'm a virgin." All eyes were on her now, "What? You all act like it's such a big deal."
"Honey, if I had a body like yours, there's no way I'd still be a virgin." Angel put in her two cents and Noah felt her face heat up, feeling suddenly self-conscious.
"She's right, Noah, you're smokin'." Noah shot a look at Sean who raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Where are Charles and Erik?"
"Buzzkills one and two? Who knows?" Alex went back to trying to beat Darwin at pinball.
"Probably in a meeting with the suits. That's all he's been doing since he brought us here."
"Why do you wanna know, Nymph?"
"No reason, it's just odd we're out of the loop is all." Raven saw her point. "Charles has always worked that way, it's nothing personal guys." A knock on the window startled them.
"hey, looks like the circus is in town." Noah turned her head towards the window where two suits were standing, trying to rile them up. "Come on baby, give us a little…" one of them made a fluttering notion with his hands, Angel shot him a glare, "No? come on, let's see the feet." Noah had half a mind to trap them in the tree across the courtyard. Hank stood up, heading towards the window.
"there it is, come on, big foot, let's go." Hank pressed the button on the wall, closing the rooms curtains.
"they're just guys being stupid." Raven tried to comfort Angel.
"Guys being stupid, I can handle. Ok? I've handled that my whole life. But I'd rather guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare me."
"At us. Angel, you're not alone." A sudden thump from above startled Noah. "wat was that?!"
"I don't know, but somethings not right." Darwin moved towards the window with Alex in tow. The rest of the group stood along the window. Once the curtains were open though the courtyard was revealed to be empty.
"What in the world?" Everything was unnaturally quiet as they surveyed the courtyard when a sudden shout rang from the hallway.
"The freaks are inside, Please, take them but let us normal people—" two thuds and then a sudden pop, everyone looked up as something appeared out of nowhere, dropping the agent who owned the facility.
"what the hell is that?" the person disappeared as the Agent hit the ground, Raven and Noah screamed
As more agents fell from the sky, Noah felt her stomach tie in knots.
"Get back, Get back! Do no leave that room! We're under attack!" The group backed up as men in black suits swarmed, attempting to shot the perpetrator out of the sky. The antagonist made short work of the men, seeming overjoyed as he worked. One of the men's bullets took an alternate path and shattered the window.
From the other side of the room they could see a twister taking out Cerebro Hank's expression changed to one of irritation.
The red demon-like guy kept killing the suits as fast as they came, Noah took this opportunity to form a protective barrier around them, watching as the vines stretched out from her skin.
"Stay here My ass, Let's go!" Darwin shouted, Noah kept the barrier up until they were out of the room.
"Get back!"
"We can help!" the guards held them back as they tried to run, everyone turned and headed back to the common room as an explosion sped down the hall.
Eventually the chaos ceased, a man with an odd helmet had stepped into the room. "Good evening, I'm sebastian Shaw, and I am not here to hurt you."
"Freeze!" Shaw looked at the red skinned demon and muttered an order, in seconds flat the man was dead.
"My friends, there's a revolution coming. When mankind discovers who we are, what we can do, each of us will face a choice. Be enslaved, or rise up to rule. Choose freely but know that if you are not with us, then by definition, you are against us. So, you can stay and fight for the people that hate and fear you, or you can join me and live like kings…and queens." Noah shot him a disgusted look, not noticing Angel take his hand and walk away.
"Angel?"
"Are you kiddin' me?" Angel didn't look the least bit remorseful as she looked back at her now former teammates. "Come on, we don't belong here and that's nothing to be ashamed of."
"We have to do something" Raven piped up as Shaw and Angel left the room, Noah already had an idea of her own.
"Stop, I'm coming with you." Darwin turned and headed for Shaw, Angel and Azazel.
"Good choice. So tell me about your mutation." The group headed for the other side of the room.
"Well, I adapt to survive. So I guess I'm coming with you." Shaw seemed pleased with the darker boy's decision.
"I like that." Darwin went to stand by Angel before signaling to Alex to attack.
"Get down!"
"Do it!" Alex sent to large energy disks at Shaw and the others as Darwin protected Angel, Shaw however, absorbed them.
"What the hell are you?" Noah asked as the rest of the vines finally returned, wrapping around her wrist and fading from sight.
"Protecting your fellow mutants? that's a noble gesture. Feels good?" Darwin moved to attack Shaw, however he was too slow, Shaw grabbed him by the face and produced a small red ball of energy.
"Adapt to this." H then forced the energy ball into Darwin's mouth.
"No!" as Darwin shifted over and over to try and contain the explosion his body was suddenly similar to volcanic ash as he looked towards everyone before exploding. Shaw, Angel Azazel and the other mutant disappeared. Noah felt nauseous.
Noah and the others sat outside the ruined facility,
"Raven!" Charles, Erik and Moira had returned from their soviet mission, Raven gave her adoptive brother a hug. Noah couldn't look at him; she hadn't been able to look any of them in the eyes since Darwin's death. The scene kept replaying in her mind like a song on repeat. In fact, she hadn't even been able to be near them, she sat across the courtyard, staring at the ruins.
"We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately."
"We're not going home." Alex's voice held conviction as he spoke to Charles,
"What?"
"He's not going back to solitary." Sean defended Alex's statement.
"He killed Darwin."
"All the more reason for you to leave. This is over." Noah's body went rigid; she knew she couldn't go back to school now, not after everything that happened, her mutation was too unpredictable, someone would be hurt.
"You're a liar…You're just like them, Charles." The would be Professor turned to face the girl opposite the others.
"I beg your pardon?" Charles inquired, looking over at the blond girl through all the chaos and debris.
"You make Promises but you break them, just like everyone else. Why did I think I could ever look up to you? You're just another liar!" Noah shrugged off the emergency blanket and walked off through the debris.
"Darwin's dead, Charles, and we can't even bury him." Charles looked between his sister and Noah as she left the group behind.
"We can avenge him." Erik made a hasty statement, watching as Noah walked into the remained of the facility trying to find any of the things she may have come here with.
"we'll have to train, all of us. Yes?" No one from the gathered group moved
"Yeah."
"We can't stay here. Even if they reopen the department, it's not safe. We've go nowhere to go." Hank had made an excellent point, there was no way the CIA was going to harbor the misfit group of mutants any more, even if the facility was rebuilt.
"Yes we do. Raven, can you go tell Noah we're leaving?" the blond girl looked at him, "I think you to need to work this out on your own, Noah is the most torn up about all of this." Charles sighed, running a hand through his hair, before walking off to talk to the girl.
"Noah?" The blond gave no sign she heard him as she crouched on the ground, holding something in her hands. "It's ruined…" suddenly feeling a hand on her shoulder she freaked out, quickly pinning Charles to the ground, holding his arm behind his back with one arm and using the other to hold down his head, the picture forgotten on the ground.
"Ow! Someone's…on the defensive…" he struggled the get the words out.
"Never, sneak up on me, Charles." She got off of him, helping him stand up again. "what do you want? If it's to try and convince me to leave then you're—"
"Not at all, it's the opposite actually. We're going to Westchester, New York." She looked at him like he had two heads.
"What's in Westchester?" Charles' grin was wider than she had liked, she was reminded of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat. "you know…you really shouldn't smile like that, it's kind of creepy." Charles looked taken-a-back by her comment, but followed her eyes to an old photograph.
"what's that?"
"It's a picture of my mother, father and I when I was little." She smiled, looking at the happily married couple.
"You all look happy." Noah smiled. "only a few months before this photo was taken, my mutation began to develop. It was small things at first, but as my abilities grew, well, you know. My mom had just planted her garden for the summer months and she always planted near this really dingy little tree that never provided much shade due to its miniscule size. One day while I was playing in the back, I tripped and caught myself on the tree, and you want to know what happened?" Charles smiled as she regaled him with one of her child hood story's
"It shot up rather fast, and didn't stop until I pulled my hands away. My mother was so terrified." Noah laughed. "She was sure she'd lost her mind, the tree in the background of this photo, it's the same one from the story. She never thought I was different, she just said I had a special gift."
"You sound fond of them." Charles gave her a friendly smile now. "They went too soon though, mom and dad. There was a flash flood warning in effect, I couldn't save them, I couldn't control my powers, I was too scared. None of us saw the oncoming Semi until it was too late."
"So, you've been alone, all this time?" he hadn't known they'd been in similar situations.
"I've been bounced from foster family to foster family until I turned 18, I got a job and applied at UCLA on scholarship, they let me live in the dorms for free, given my circumstances." Charles nodded.
"Why not stay with family?" Noah shook her head "I'm not the type who likes to burden others, besides my family is scattered all over the U.S, placement would be hard."
"I see, I suppose that's true. Well in any case, it seems you're doing just as well on your own." Noah nodded, "You're an exceptional young woman, Noah Beckett." She felt her face warm up at his use of her full name.
"Hey you two love birds, come on, we're waiting on you!" Charles and Noah shared a laugh as they walked back to the cars.
"This is yours?" Charles looked up at the castle like structure, Charles glanced back at Sean.
"No, it's ours."
"Honestly, Charles. I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship." Erik gave a sarcastic look to his shorter friend s Raven stepped forward, "Well, it was a hardship softened by me." Raven tugged Noah forward, excited to have another girl in the house. "Come on, it's tie for the tour."
"Tour?" Raven gave her a big smile "Of course, you don't want to get lost, do you? Or maybe you and lover boy would like some alone time." Charles and Noah's faces tinged pink, "Shut up Rae!" everyone set off into the monstrous building.
"And finally, this is your room, mine is across the hall and Charles' is down at the end of the hall."
"Thanks Raven, really." The blond smiled back a her, "I imagine this is going to be like having a large family, Alex, Sean, Hank, Erik, and Charles are like the obnoxious brothers."
"Charles is more like the overbearing parent. He always has everyone's best interest at heart. Which brings me to my next topic. You two seem really close." Noah shifted, finally opening the door to her room and being astounded at how large it was.
"There's so much space…what do I do?" Raven gave her an odd look "How big is a dorm room, exactly?" Noah looked at her and took about five steps towards her new bed, "Roughly this wide in diameter." Raven looked disturbed. "How do you live in such a small space?"
"Well, I share a dorm room with my friend Lexi, and we often eat in the meal halls so you don't need a whole lot of space. Dorm life is actually kind of nice." Noah took a seat on her bed and flopped backwards, staring at the ceiling.
"Anyways, back to Charles and I being close, I'm honestly not sure why we are, it's kind of strange actually, we come from very different walks of life. He grew up here, in a castle, and I grew up in a two story suburban house in west L.A. it's kind of like that beauty and the beast story." Raven laughed, "Let me guess, Charles is the beast, shut up in the castle?" Noah laughed, "The opposite actually, the Beauty is locked away in the castle while the beast is free to roam."
"That's…actually kind of dark, Noah."
"Perhaps, but it's also poetically beautiful." Noah and Raven looked to the door, seeing Charles standing there.
"Hello, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Charles smiled "I thought I'd let you know, training begins tomorrow. I'll be starting with Erik, then working with Alex, followed by Sean and Hank after lunch, and Noah I'll be working with you after dinner."
"Why so late? Are you trying to get alone time with her?" Raven teased, Charles shot her a pointed look.
"My good man, is that your intent?" Noah grinned, playing along with Raven. "You only need ask and I shall accompany you anywhere you wish to go." Charles rolled his eyes at her dramatic monologue, but played along
"My dear nymph, it would be a great honour if you would accompany me in the gardens, tomorrow night, after dinner?"
"How forward! My dearest Professor, let it be known, my time is yours come morrow at sunset."
The three of them laughed, Raven watching the interaction and devising a plan to get them together, she would need some extra help, and Noah would need some different clothes for this plan to work.
So. Chapter 2 is done! PLEASE review, it would mean so much to me, I'd love to hear from you :3 Also many thanks to those who have already followed 'My Little Nymph' this update is for you guys/girls.
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