Emily had gotten very far when she left. Laura spent over an hour tracking her. From her movements it was like she knew when Laura was getting close and changed her plans accordingly. Eventually Laura had tracked her to the middle of the park. She was very aware that she was wide open for an attack if this was a trap, but she had never been particularly cautious. She felt a chill go down her spine and instinctively readied herself for a fight. There was an almost inaudible 'snick' as two pairs of adamantium coated claws slid out of her knuckles. "Humph. Just like a person; always so ready for violence. It's disgusting." It was Emily's voice. Laura immediately spun around to see the girl leaning against a tree behind her. "Do you wanna kill me? Don't feel bad if you do-I have a talent for making people hate me. I suppose it's only fair since I hate them." Her childhood as an assassin meant that Laura wasn't the type to get disturbed easily, but the conversational way she spoke of such things was almost enough to send a shiver down her spine. She took a breath and retracted her claws. "I'm not going to kill you. I just want to bring you back." Emily sneered at her, "Take me back where? To your school? I don't want to. You just want to keep me where you can see me. That's just like you people, afraid and too obsessed with your appearance to admit it." Laura was far from empathic, but even she could tell that this girl had serious issues. "Listen to me, I don't know about them, but I'm not afraid of you. And believe me, if it turns out you're a threat, I'll be the first one out to kill you. But that's not the case; we just want to bring you back so we can help train you."
"Pah! I don't need training. You're just afraid that the brotherhood will catch wind of my powers and try to recruit me. Well you don't have to worry; as much as the idea of genocide appeals to me, I could never give my loyalty to anyone." At this point, Laura became exceedingly curious as to what could make someone so young hate people so much. "Why do you hate people so much?"
"They're alive. That's all that matters. They're alive and they're disgustingly obsessed with keeping it that way. It's because of them that I can never take off these headphones."
"What do your headphones have to do with this?" Emily straightened up and glared at Laura, "that's none of your business. Someone like you could never understand how I feel."
"What do you mean 'someone like me'?"
"Someone who's never had to suffer. Someone who thinks they can understand someone's pain just by talking to them." If she was that kind of person, Laura would have laughed. "I think you're confusing me with Jean. Believe me; I've suffered just as much as you have, and to be completely honest, I've always thought Jean talks too much." Emily sneered at the taller girl, refusing to believe her words. "You're lying. That's all you people do, lie. You wouldn't last five seconds with what I have to live with everyday."
"That's what you did to Jean wasn't it? You used your powers to make her feel your pain?" She realized.
"You're pretty smart. Yeah that's what I did. I had to show her that she couldn't help me, that there was no way she could understand my suffering." Laura immediately saw her opportunity. This girl was angry and was completely sold on her own superiority-people like that were easy to trick. "If you're so certain I can't handle your pain, then how about we make a deal?" Emily looked at her cautiously, "what kind of deal?" Laura smiled-she had her for sure.
"Use your powers on me. You said I couldn't take five seconds? Then give me five minutes worth. If I can't take it, I'll get the others to leave you alone."
"But?" Emily questioned.
"But, if I can, you agree to cooperate and come with us without any trouble." Emily took a moment to contemplate the offer. In her opinion, there was no way she could lose, and even if the others didn't leave her alone, prolonged sudden exposure might be enough to kill her-or at least render her catatonic. And that would mean one less person burdening her with their noise. She smiled and stepped towards Laura, touching the girls' temple to make sure she got the full effect. "You've got yourself a deal-say goodbye to your sanity."
"I did that years ago." Was the last thing Laura said before she was hit with an unbelievable amount of…noise. She winced at the suddenness of the wave but otherwise stood firm. At this Emily was somewhere between impressed and annoyed, but she wasn't done. As the five minutes wore on, Laura was beginning to feel lightheaded. She tried to keep focused, certain that if she let her mind slip, she would be overwhelmed. As she focused she began to hear snippets of words, too garbled to make sense of but she could tell that they were either angry, sad, desperate or otherwise negative in some way. She began to grit her teeth, and just as suddenly as it came, the noise stopped. Laura's eyes shot open and she gasped like a diver coming up for air. She wiped her forehead and looked at Emily, who was staring at her with quiet fury. "Looks like I was wrong about you," she admitted begrudgingly, "I'm a woman of my word, I'll go with you." Laura nodded and they started to walk back to the house.
When they got back, they found everyone waiting for them. Emily's dad was there too, looking extremely worried. "Hey." Emily said as they came in. the whole room turned to look at them. "Oh shut up," she groaned although no one spoke, "I agreed to go to the institute so there's nothing to worry about. Now where's you ride? I hear you have some kind of super jet. At least that should be fun. And look at the bright side mom; now you and dad won't have to be scared every day." And with that she walked upstairs to pack. Scott turned awkwardly to Emily's parents. "Thank you for your cooperation. The semester doesn't start for another few weeks so we can sort out the details at a later date; I assure you, you won't regret this." Emily's mother nodded, curling into her husband trying not to cry. "Thank you Mr. Summers, hopefully you'll be able to help her more than we have."
"Mr. Lane, don't blame yourself, there are some problems that we simply can't fix on our own. You shouldn't feel ashamed to accept help." The man nodded, not entirely convinced. Kitty stood next to Laura, "You did good today. How did you get her to come with us?" she asked. Laura hesitated, unsure of what to say.
"It was nothing, I just talked a little it's not important." she lied. Kitty grinned and patted Laura's shoulders. "Well whatever you did, it's a good thing you asked to come with us; I don't think we could have convinced her without you." And with that they started walking to the blackbird. Laura wasn't sure why she lied, but her opinion of Emily was now colored with an emotion that as an assassin she wasn't used to-sympathy. She had a taste of what the girl apparently felt every second. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her but whatever else it was there was only one word for what she had felt. Hell. What she had felt was five minutes of pure hell.