Mizuki: I'm here! I'm so happy!
Logan: That's true for you, but everyone else was happy before.
Mizuki – hits Logan on the head -: be silent fool. I brought my friends along!
Karthika: I'VE FONUD IT!
Mizuki: What?
Karthika: I'VE FOUND THE BLESSED GAME OF SOLITAIR!
Mizuki: ARE YOU SERIOUS? I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND IT! . . .I had to update this. I'm sure everyone's mad at me for taking so long. I'm SORRY! BLAME MY FAULTY SPYWEAR!
Karthika: O.o No, I was just puling your leg.
Logan: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I like this girl, she got one up on you!
Mizuki -_- : If that's how you feel . . .
Logan: Oh, shit.
Mizuki: VERONICA! LOGAN WANTS TO PUT YOU IN A FRILLY, PINK DRESS!
(a flurry of red hair tackles poor Logan and he is lost from the sights of all our loving actors.)
Logan (in the distance): SOMEBODY HELP ME!
Becky: I don't feel like it. Nobody here owns you, even Layla.
Mizuki: ^-^: Nope, but I don't need to, own you guys!
Karthika and Becky – hit Mizuki over the head - : NO YOU DON'T!
I walked the streets in my new dress with my head held high. I continued to do so for years. They days began to run together. Logan grew, slowly, into a true man. His chin slowly became darker as a beard grew on it. I told him he should shave it off, but couldn't bear to make him. His voice grew deeper and he started to get stronger. I was proud of him.
Edward seemed unable to look me in the eye sometimes, but I never really understood why. When we stopped ageing (after our 25 birthdays) we realized that we would be together forever, really. I think he was contemplating the idea of an eternity with our insane selves.
While brother and Edward became stronger, I set myself to do the same. I watched them as they practiced and copied their moves in secret when they weren't looking. I knew they would tell me that battle was no action for a proper lady. News flash, I'm not a lady! Ladies have baths for twelve hours on end, but I spend two minutes washing the grime off. If I look clean, that's good enough for me.
One night, while Edward and Logan were working, I heard a scream in one of the more shady parts of a town. "HELP! RAPE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" of course, no one even turned their heads. Such a thing was common, and you didn't want to get on the bad side of some of the people who did this.
As much as I wanted to help, I didn't want to get Logan or Edward in trouble because I had to go and play hero, but then I heard the man laugh and I couldn't stand it anymore.
I tore through the streets at a speed to fast for any normal human to see with their bare eyes and came to the spot where a man with blonde hair, razor sharp nails (almost like mine, but less sturdy), and teeth the size of my hand.
The woman saw me, but I put a finger to my lips so she would stay quiet. I knew that I was going to need all the advantages I could get, surprise being one of them. As the man reached for the bodice of her dress, I gripped his hand tightly, pulled him up enough to where I could get a good shot, and kicked him in the groin.
He fell to the ground with a moan and a curse, his eyes swimming with tears from my kick. "A man's weakness is a woman's salvation," I told her. "We have to run." She nodded slowly as she comprehended that I was there to help her.
I decided that the others would probably know what to do. I headed to their store, but she stopped me. "How do you know where my father's shop is?" she asked, her blue eyes shifting carefully.
I looked at her, shocked. "I wasn't headed to your father's store," I answered truthfully, "I was going to get my brother and traveling companion to figure out what to do next."
"Is one of them tall with a black beard and side-burns?" She asked carefully.
"That's my brother!" Then I realized what this meant. I had just saved the daughter of my brother's boss. I was never going to let him live this one down.
As soon as we walked through the doors of the welding shop, the three men there took in our appearances (which must have been ghastly from the amount of running we did) and became worried.
"Armeria," the owner said, "What happened to you?"
She went into her father's arms crying about the whole ordeal. "It was so awful. No one tried to help me except that girl over there." As she spoke, she pointed her finger towards me.
The man looked to me in a grateful manner whereas Edward grabbed hold of my ear like some mother hen. "How many times do I have to tell you to stay put? You could've been hurt!" He finally let me go as he calmed down. "I'm happy that you were able to save her," he said, his voice now clam, "But that was a very dangerous thing you did. You could've been killed, or worse. I know you just wanted to help, but –"
"But nothing," I interrupted. "I'm not going to let you scold me for doing the right thing again. You and I both know what would have happened if I hadn't helped her, and you know that you would have wanted someone to do the same if I was in that position, so don't you DARE yell at me for helping someone! I love you to death, but I won't let you keep treating me like a little kid!"
He stood there, looking shocked before he smiled. "I was wondering how long it would take you to stand up for yourself."
Then it hit me like one of Logan's punches. He had been testing me, trying to get me to speak my mind and be independent. It was sweet, but it only served to irritate me more. As punishment, I gave him the same treatment as I gave the rapist.
When I was done, they all laughed good-naturedly, with the exception of Edward who only cursed at me under his breath so the others couldn't hear. On our way home, we laughed about the whole ordeal, but I couldn't really join in with them. When they asked why, I just told them I was tired, but that wasn't it. The truth was . . . I was scared. I could almost swear that we hadn't heard the end of that man, so I made a promise to myself. I wasn't going to slack off. I was going to learn everything I could about fighting and use it to my advantage when we met again, and, when we did, I wasn't going to let him have the chance to do that to any girl ever again.
..:: Many years later::..
I was pissed. We had lived years, decades even, and now we were going to be pumped full of bullets . . . again. To be perfectly fair, it was my fault. There was a strict rule that there were to be no women in this war, but I hadn't listen in the last hundred-some-odd battles of the wars we'd been through, so why should I listen now?
I didn't get it. What was so bad about it all? I was the best fighter and solider there, including Edward and Logan, the captain had even said so himself, it wasn't fair for them to do this.
"Wittny," Edward said, having read my irritated thoughts. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it can be to have even your own men say that someone might end up as your higher-up, and then that man turns out to be a girl? It can hurt a man's pride."
"So we're about to die because I hurt the SOB's PRIDE?" That was messed up.
"Not if you can do your country a favor," a voice called from the door of our cell. There, in the light of the sunlight outside, stood Benson, though I didn't know that was his name at the time. "I know, I know. This isn't actually your country, but you came over here with permission in 1892, which makes you as much citizens of this land as me.
My eyes narrowed dangerously. This man knew more about us than I liked. "Just who are you?" I asked.
"Someone who becomes intrigued when a trio of immigrants from almost a hundred years ago shows up in an army with a weapon of mass destruction in the guise of a woman –"
"HEY!"
"—and don't die when they're filled with more bullets than a deer head is filled with stuffing." I flinched at the mention of our supposed execution. The bullets didn't kill us, but at the time we'd wished they had.
"What do you want?" Logan asked.
"I want to extend an offer," he answered simply, like that would satisfy all our curiosity.
"We're listening."
"There are others, like you," he said, his vice urgent. "Others who can do things that normal people can't. The only difference is that they can't do the same things as you, and they aren't satisfied with the blood of war."
"We aren't here for the blood," I snapped, suddenly annoyed.
"What ever helps clear your conscience gorgeous. The point is, they're causing trouble for your fellow man, so I made a little . . . team. I can save you from a round two of "pin the bullet on the mutant" and anything else that might come from "Ann Bonny's" stunt." My face turned red as I considered breaking out of the chains so I could hit him.
"Deal," Edward said.
"What! You've got to be kidding me!"
"We don't have much choice, do we?"
I sighed as I saw that he was right. "Fine," I said, "But if I ever get the chance, I will beat you with a metal rod."
"Sure, sure." He said.
And so began our downfall.
I was worried. I made sure to tell the others this eight times as we walked into the airport, three as the plane was lifting off, and lord only knows how many times I said it on the way.
"Wittny," Logan said eventually. "I know you're my sister, but if you don't shut up, I might just have to kill you."
"I'm just saying," I said, "There's something really wrong about all of this!"
"Are you sure about that," Logan said. "You thought something was really wrong about mom every single day, hell, you barely even spoke to her."
That was low, but two could play at that game. "One, just because I didn't cling to her skirts like some little wuss doesn't mean I didn't care about her. Two, she's ratted us out and told everyone we killed father, you really think she was right in the head?" Logan's face became red. "I'm not saying that we should bolt as soon as the doors open – though I wouldn't say no to that idea – just that we're careful. I've got this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that things are going to go to hell fast."
"Now, now, Wittny," Benson said from the piolt's chair. "Don't you trust me?" His voice was mocking and I knew her was expecting me to say something along the lines of "Yes, but . . ."
"Not at all," I replied, shocking everyone. "In fact, I have a special way of killing people." The plane suddenly became quiet as no one even dared to breathe. "It's very slow, very torturous. You see, instead of beating you down, hurting you, or doing anything to you period, I can get inside your head and force you to believe anything I want. Your wife and son could be dead, you could have killed them, your home could be ripped to shreds by one of the very people we're being told to hunt, or I could even make you believe you've been convicted of a crime you didn't commit. Either way, I can make you so miserable, you'll kill yourself both mentally and physicly. In the end, though, you'll always live, and you'll always try to kill yourself. You'll become almost immortal, only dying of old age when I see fit. That will be your fate if you hurt any of us."
"Y-You're bluffing," he said, turning on the auto-piolt so he could rest a hand on his head, trying to calm himself.
"Am I?" I asked. Suddenly, before anyone could react, he's head became with images. His wife was thrown across the bottom of his tub, her throat slit by a knife that shook in time with his hand. His son staggered in, his side bleeding as he looked into his father's eyes.
"Why, Daddy," he asked, "Wh . . ." he wasn't allowed to finish as I yanked the memories away and let the reality of what I'd just done sink in.
"I'm higher than any Omega Mutant you'll ever meet in your life, and, unlike any of the true omegas you've ever met, I have complete control of my powers. You won't be granted with death until I see fit. Don't give me a reason to prolong such a torture."
I could tell he wanted to say something to me, something along the lines of me going to visit Satan, but Edward beat him to it. "Wittny," he said. "That isn't right and you know it. He won't betray us now, so stop giving him a reason to."
"Seriously, Sis," Logan said. "You're starting to freak me out." I looked into his mind and saw what he'd seen from the whole thing. I didn't look like me. I looked like the very thing I'd feared becoming: a monster.
I didn't respond, I merely stayed quiet and didn't speak to anyone. In truth, I wasn't surprised by my outburst. I'd been having more and more lately, each one, I made sure, was out of any range where Logan or Edward would find out.
No one knew it, but I'd already put a man in the asylum from my probing into his mind and planting false images in anger. True, he was no saint, but the wounds I'd inflicted on him were overkill. He hadn't commited any crime that would warrant such a horrible act.
I would never tell them this, but I was terrified of myself. I could feel my control of my powers slipping away slowly, as if something else was taking hold of my inner being.
Two hours later, I stared into the eyes of a man I knew all too well as we set up to meet the rest of our team. "YOU!" His scream shocked everyone in the room. I growled lowly in my chest. This was the man I had fought when he was trying to rape Logan's boss's daughter. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing you Neanderthal! Get too tired of picking on little girls who can't fight back, or did I make it so you can't rape anyone any more you son of a –"
"You wanna start stuff with me bitch?" he asked, crouching down as if ready to attack. "I still need to get you back for that cheap shot you took at me!"
"Fine by me!" I saw Logan grab for me and a man grab for the rapist, but we'd already begun the track towards each other at an incredible speed. When we met, I surprised him by ducking his punch before administering one of my own to his jaw, and then his groin. As he bent over to clutch at it, I lifted my knee into his right eye. I heard him curse loudly before he finally fell to the ground. "Don't you ever try to screw with me again."
"Wittny," Logan exclaimed as he ran towards me. "What was that for?" He grabbed my arm and lead me away from it all, though we only went a few feet from him.
"That's the son-of-a-bitch who tried to rape Armeria back at London! I owed him more than that, but the stupid moron couldn't take a hit."
"So her name was Armeria," he said from the ground. "Suits a girl with shuch scared little eyes." He opened his mouth to say some more, but he stopped. Suddenly he began to scream wildly. The other team members rushed to his side, though they must have figured out by the time they got there that it was a scream of terror, not pain.
Logan looked at me in a warning manner. "Don't you look at me like that Logan Rese! I'm not doing anything!"
Edward joined him, along with the rest. "Okay," I said. "I'm not doing much. All I'm doing is showing him Armeria's fear that night." I glared accusingly at his body. "Though, if I intended to make him feel the pain of all the victims he's had in his lifetime, we might be here for a very long time."
"How long?" an African-American said as he looked at me. Unlike most people, he understood that I was doing this out of a need for vengence, and he respected that. He himself had gone on a vendetta after the murder of his family. "How many people did Sabertooth kill?"
"Oh, that's the poetic part that I have to respect," I said. "He hasn't killed anyone in his whole life. Even if he won't act like it, he's a very religious man. He has a deep fear of God. He hasn't done anything that can't be forgiven by a baptism. He only hurts people to the point where he's satisfied and leaves them with the memories."
Everyone shivered deeply as they realized just how horrible the man they were working with was, but I didn't bother, I'd seen millions of horrible things inside people's minds. There were things in one man's mind that could get a whole country's worth of people put in prison in one go. Try having to go through that for several decades. It can really screw with a person.
Mizuki: DONE!
Karthika – beating on poor sabertooth - : you were right. It is fun to beat up the characters.
Mizuki: Yeah, and they can't really fight back because they're fictional.
Veronica: NOOOOOOO! LOGAN CAN'T BE FICTIONAL! I LOVE HIM!
Becky: Weren't you trying to kill him in the beginning?
Veronica: OUR LOVE CAN OVERCOME ANYTHING!
Mizuki – turns to Karthika - : And you said I was crazy when I kidnapped Gambit for my birthday.
Karthika: You were, she's just crazier than you.
Mizuki: T.T you're so mean.
Karthika: Don't forget to tell them!
Mizuki: OH, Right. I promised Karthika that I would tell you all the rules for the BLESSED GAME OF SOLITAIR! We want to see if anyone can find it! It has to have, at least, two aces in the very beginning, and it has to be finished within two minutes! GOOD LUCK!
EVERYONE: R&R