The easy buzz that usually accompanied the neighborhood was always a comfortable one. Even after it was discovered those Xavier freaks lived just down the hill. Neighbors went out to greet neighbors. Papers were retrieved with smiles and polite inquiries. Children played outside with each other. Lawns were watered almost daily.
There was a music to this street. The song of suburbia. It sounded of mowers, birds singing, children laughing, cars starting, bicycle wheels turning, and the occasional splash in a backyard pool.
Except for now.
Right now there was silence. Dead silence.
The girl walked barefoot down the centre of the street. All attention was on her.
Her legs were long and bare, stopping only when a pair of black cloth shorts interfered with anyone's view of them. Her arms were exposed as well, along with a good portion of her chest. The rest was hidden under a white tank top that appeared to be splattered with blood in some spots. Her posture was relaxed and poised, but it was very obvious to everyone the quick coil in the muscles underneath the flesh that were so ready to spring out in attack even the pets on the street kept their distance. He hips swung dangerously with the cautious ease of a predator.
Amongst everyone who had stopped and stared, there was no doubt where the girl with the odd streak in her hair was going.
Xavier's.
The smarter ones quickly retreated inside their homes and called their insurance companies.
-
Logan watched the boy shake in the corner as he was slowly realizing that that was all he was- a boy. Not the smartass bastard who sold out anyone and everyone for enough money he presented to the world, but the kid who was about to do something he was to afraid of to tell the X-men just to save a girl he couldn't touch.
They'd followed him back to the jet, where he finally agreed to uncharge his own jacket and about halfway through the trip had been convinced to relinquish control of the jet because his shaking was interfering with his ability to control effectively.
Logan's interest in the young man beyond trying to stab him was piqued. What was he going to do? Why was he going to do it? For some reason, perhaps it was the bit where he blew up the floor for her, or the part where he had crouched over her protectively in the face of an army, or maybe just the part where he had stood up to the Wolverine just to protect her, Logan felt like this boy would do anything for his 'girl'.
The jet shuddered slightly as it made contact with the ground.
"You alright, kid?" Logan tossed over his shoulder at Gambit.
"Y' call me kid again, y'll see just how alright I am." He snapped back, clenching his fists so that they would stop trembling.
Oh dear. First person… This was serious.
"We're at the mansion." Logan relayed. "Whatever you need to get done before we go find Rogue better get done fast."
"We won' need t' find 'er." His voice was slightly raspy with some sort of emotion. "I'd bet my soul she's already on her way." Logan snorted at the way he had phrased the statement, completely unaware that Remy planned to do exactly that.
-
Charles Xavier paced warily in the dirt. He lacked the mental capacity to fully comprehend the changes that kept sweeping across his world in the future. And, if he lacked the mental capacity, no one else would be able to even come close.
He should have been contacted by now.
The dirt shifted color and texture under his feet and became stone from some sort of wave of change from the past.
He continued to pace, unperturbed. This had been happening quite often since he had interfered. He just hoped that the way things were right now wouldn't stay as 'the way things were right now'.
The sky rippled for a moment, turning a bright blue, and then cascaded into a dark blackness. The trees wilted, and then regrew, flourishing.
The best that Xavier could figure was that the timeline was in a state of indecision on how it would end.
In a rare show of annoyance, Charles put his fingers to his temples and kneaded at the problems in his mind.
He should have been contacted by now.
Perhaps he had meddled to much? After all, the world was going to end one way or another, why had he felt the need to try and sway the universe out of it's own destruction?
Because he was. Charles. Xavier.
The world was going to have to try a lot harder to end itself so long as he was still alive. At this thought, he couldn't help but allow himself a small smile. The smile was full of pride. Pride for his work and his students. His X-men.
He shook of the smile.
He should have been contacted by now.
The ground under his feet shuddered again and thick, thriving grass and flowers took root and sprouted merrily as far as the eye could see. Another tremor hit the world. The grass browned. The flowers died. A vast, cold, broken desert took their place.
He should have been con-
There was a sort of pressure in the back of his mind.
Finally.
-
Remy taped his fingers on the edge of the containment (Bed? What was it exactly?) that Xavier's comatose body was kept in, waiting for some sort of reply to his mental plea.
It came almost immediately as an upright Professor Xavier was projected into the room on top of a endless white backdrop.
He was disoriented for a moment, not by the sudden change of scenery, but by the understanding smile of the elderly man's face.
"Er…" Remy started, not really sure how to start off a conversation when asking someone to turn you into a weapon. "Hello…"
"Hello, Mr. LeBeau. Is there anything I can do to assist you?" Xavier smiled.
"Yes and no…" Remy answered honestly. "Dere's somethin' y' can do to assist de rest o' de worl', but it won' really be helping' out Gambit none." He sighed heavily and then pointed to his temple. "Take it out."
Even though Xavier had been expecting the words, he couldn't help but be slightly shocked by them
-
She picked her way through the clutter of an obvious explosion. A couple of sliced up bodies here and there. She was so silent, if she hadn't been able to feel her muscles slide with movement she would have doubted her own existence. The little brunette and the blond young man were already unconscious on the lawn, done in swiftly and silently by her skin.
Weird snippits of memories that weren't hers flashed through her mind, but she forced them down so roughly and effectively that they all but disappeared.
What an odd ability she had. Both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it was obviously beneficial in some walks of life to be impossible to touch, on the other hand… to not be able to touch…
She shrugged away her peculiar self pity and assured herself that whatever of a life she had before this had probably just been like being blind or deaf. Some sacrifices were sure to have been made, but life could still have been lived.
She doubted it, but it was a comforting thought nonetheless.
Not that being comforted was her first priority. That was to take down the X-men.
She crept into the mansion, taking out a lanky man with black hair and bionic limbs swiftly with an almost mechanical grace. His silent scream was stifled by her hand.
More memories…
She shoved those to the side as well as she abandoned his body and walked forward again. She had a mission. It was the only objective in her life and she planned to see it through.
-
Logan sniffed the air out of reflex when he walked down to the lower levels in search of Forge. What he got instead was a somewhat floral scent.
He paused for a moment, taking a more thorough sample of the atmosphere, but there was no mistaking that smell.
He took off at a sprint.
-
The limp figure of the white haired woman, the slumped form of the tall man with the visor, and collapsed body of the shadowed demon man were left behind as she continued to move forward.
-
"Remy," Xavier gave him a serious look. "There is no going back if I do. The choice is yours."
"I already made de choice." Remy looked down at the floor. Fear tugged at him.
Xavier nodded and put his hand up to Remy's forehead.
There was an explosion of white hot pain in the back of his mind.
-
The big furry blue man had tried to speak to her before she had touched him… She vaguely wondered what he had wanted to say to her. The man in the red mask had already been talking. She honestly was afraid to consider what he had had to say.
-
Logan crept around the corner, fully set in 'stalk' mode. The hunter.
The scent of magnolias and vanilla had been somewhat tainted by blood and medical smells, but was still recognizable. He listened intently to the world functioning around him. It was too silent. Apprehensive. He stayed in this crouched position for a long moment, waiting.
There was a padded foot fall behind him and his muscles, which had been coiled and ready to strike, reacted without the consult of his mind.
The girl ducked underneath his clawed fist with the agility of a wild cat. They both froze for a moment, Logan, because he couldn't move with his claws so far embedded into the wall and the girl because she was to curious about him to waste a still moment to study him.
"Kid," Logan jerked his muscles in an attempt to free himself, unsure if he was supposed to be happy to see her or terrified of the distance in her eyes.
She tilted her head to the side as if confused.
"Kid?" Her green eyes filled with curiosity. "Are you my father?"
Logan really didn't know how to answer that question. "Not exactly…" He allowed.
She considered this for a moment before nodding. "I apologize." She said while reaching out her hand for the bare part of his face.
He quickly tore his hand out of the walls clutches and pulled away from her grasp.
They froze again, unsure of what to do. The muscles in her legs and arms ached to be used to take him down, but something tickled at the memories she had just absorbed. Some of them were of her with this man, hugging, fighting, glaring, laughing, sparring.
She held her head. Was that her?
'Don't trust that girl, Hank.' Logan growled at the large furry man.
'Funny… She said the same thing about you.'
She clenched her fists.
Her purpose here took over again. Finite. Simple. Steal a piece of him and get out. Or die in the process.
She struck, aiming for the exposed arms. He deftly avoided her by rolling out of the way.
"Look, kid," He sounded like he was pleading with her. "You don't have to do this!" She swiped at him again. "I don't want to hurt you!"
"That makes one of us." She said monotonously.
Logan's resolve settled. That wasn't his 'kid'. That was a weapon. A weapon that needed to be destroyed. With a regretful growl, he unsheathed his claws again. Her eyes widened in momentary surprise, but it seemed like she catalogued the information and quickly returned to looking distant and controlled.
"I'm sorry, Anna." He looked down at the floor before he plunged his claws into her chest.
She gasped, not with the pain she had expected, but with an entirely different experience. It felt like floating. She very simply walked out of the claws in her chest.
She looked down at her hands.
How many kinds of freak can one person be?
The man growled at her and launched into another attack.
Well, I guess it's time to find out. She thought as she conjured some lightning in her fingers.
It's very interesting how well an adamantium skeleton can conduct electricity
-
Remy hit the ground as he was unceremoniously pushed back into reality. His gloves started to glow. He stripped them off. His shirt started to glow. The shirt had to go too.
The world around him buzzed with seductive potential.
The block that kept his powers in check was gone.
Well, fuck.
This plan better goddamn work.
-
Charles fell to the ground in his time, thrown there after all of the effort it had taken him to undo the mental block on Remy's powers.
With wide eyes he watched the world settle on a future.
-
Heheh. :3