black angel's wing -
Edit - hey there again. Thanks to a reviewers suggestion, I decided to rewrite this chapter. It's pretty much exactly the same, just a bit different in regards to her powers and some tweaking here an there, but the majority of the edit is around the end.
Hey guys, I'm sorry about the hold up. Hey, I've been busy. Ahcool will start in a couple of weeks, volleyball is seriously taking up all of my free tome, and when I'm ever not playing volleyball, im sleeping. I dont really get a lot of sleep because of y'all. Well, its not your faults, i just cant sleep at night, so I write instead. Ahem. Clue : it's not the title. Thank you to my reviewers, both new and returning. I really love to hear from you! Oh, and just tell me of you're totally confused on this chapter and I can rewrite it for ya! And there is a challenge down at the bottom in my last author's note, so good luck to all y'all who attempt it! Here we go!
Disclaimer : I don't own X-Men : Evolution.
Chapter 7. The Mistress of Shadows
Calypso woke in the morning, not to the sound of the alarm as she had the day before, but to being shaken awake around noon by a very frantic looking Kitty.
"Oh my gosh, Calypso," she nearly shouted. "You like, totally disappeared yesterday! When did you get back here? We have to go see the professor right away." Kitty's early morning rant ended rather quickly, and she attempted to drag Calypso from the comfort of her bed and to Professor Xavier's study.
Yanking her hand away from the other girl's grasp, she shook her head and held up a finger. Then gesturing to herself, which was still clothed in pajamas, she rose from her bed and shooed Kitty out of her room.
A silent sigh escaped her lips, and Calypso sat on the floor with her back pressed against the door. Getting back to the Institute last night had been a pain, and she was still exhausted from the trek. She was new to the Bayville area, and had gotten lost many a time on the way. She also had a raging headache from the use of her powers.
Delicately, the fingers on her left hand trailed over the black flames that consumed her right hand, up to her wrist. Kitty had been too preoccupied to notice, and she was glad that she wouldn't have to be explaining anything. The flames were like a tattoo, and they spread up the length of her arm whenever she used her powers.
Of course, it hadn't always been that way. When her powers had first come into the light, she could use them without raising suspicion. Then came the lab, and with it the experiments. Her hands clenched just at the thought of them. One of the scientists thought that it would be a great idea to put a limit on her powers, and to make it obvious as to how much more energy she could put into them. And so they went about making the serum to make that idea possible. It took months, but somehow they finished it. Now, whenever she wanted to use her powers, she could only do so much until she reached her new limit and passed out. It was a nuisance if you asked her, and nothing but a hindrance. But nobody cared, and there was no way to undo what had been done.
Banging the back of her head against the door softly, she rubbed her eyes and glared into the bright light that streamed steadily through the open window. She knew that the day before had been Friday, leaving today to be Saturday. Crawling back to her bed with a small smile on her face, he buried herself beneath the warm blankets once more, content with the idea of sleeping the day away.
That plan came to a very quick halt, as she heard the voice of the professor enter her mind.
'Calypso, please get dressed and come to my study at once.'
Glaring at the ceiling, she laid there for a minute before mustering up the strength to detach herself from the depths of her bed and got ready to see the professor.
Trudging over to the closet, she dressed in the same kind of outfit that she had worn the previous day; a white t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and her pair of black converse. Nimble, pale fingers worked quickly through her thick, black hair, it was soon in a single French braid that hung over her left shoulder, and she was ready to visit the professor.
Upon entering his study, she first noticed that they were not alone. The redhead, Jean, was standing on Professor Xavier's right side and Scott was on his left. She met both of the teenager's stares with a cold look of her own, and then met the eyes of the professor.
They were not pleased. That much was obvious. Wordlessly, he motioned for Calypso to sit in the single chair before his desk. When she did, he sighed before he began to speak.
"Calypso," he began, an the girl in question rolled her eyes, ready for the lecture to come. "I understand that after what happened to you, you would like to have the freedom to go wherever you please. But I think that as long as you stay here with us, you should tell us your plans, whatever they may be."
Calypso narrowed her eyes and continued to glare at the professor, willing him to realize his mistake. Once he finally did, his own eyes widened a bit, and he shifted nervously in his wheelchair, unsure of how to continue. Lucky for him, Scott took over.
"We know that you we're with the Brotherhood boys yesterday. We saw you in Lance's jeep."
Calypso shrugged her shoulders and cocked an eyebrow at his accusation; her own way of asking him what his point was. He sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his brown hair.
"They're bad people, Calypso! They got kicked out of school and they're thieves. You need to stay away from them. All of them. They're bad influences."
"Scott," interjected Jean softly, resting a calming hand on the boy's tense shoulder. "Calypso couldn't have known all of that. And besides, she has the right to make her own friends. Her own enemies," she said pointedly. The boy looked to the ground sheepishly. "Just because the X-Men don't get along with the Brotherhood, that doesn't mean that she can't get along with Lance. Just go ask Kitty."
Professor Xavier chose that moment to re-enter the conversation, cutting off the brewing fight between the two olde teens.
"Ah yes, about the X-Men. As you know Calypso, my Institute is a safe haven for mutants. Should you choose to live here permanently, you will join your fellow housemates in learning to better control your mutant abilities."
The man paused and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk and his chin on his hands.
"However, to help you control and understand your own abilities, we must first know what they are."
The room was silent, and Calypso stood from her chair. Moving over to one of the walls, she was aware of the wary glances she got from both Jean and Scott, and she growled silently at them. Of course they didn't trust her.
When she had reached her chosen wall, she turned and made eye contact with the professor before they clenched tightly in concentration. Reaching out, she touched the wall and her body slowly disappeared. Jean gasped and the two men looked astounded. However, she had not fully vanished, for her shadow remained. The shadow waved cheekily to the three spectators, and began to walk around on the wall, just like it would have done if Calypso had still been walking before them. Her shadow then moved across the floor, making its way to stop right behind Jean.
Calypso then rose slowly from the shadow, a smug look on her face as she crouched low to the ground. Jean turned her head to see the strange girl touching her shadow. Slowly, Jean's own shadow began to disappear and the black tattoo began to rise from the middle of Calypso's forearm to just under her elbow. Standing to her full height, she ignored the shocked looks as she strode around to the chair that she had been sitting in before and placed her left hand on it's back.
Icy eyes closed again in concentration, and her right hand pointed at the seat of the chair. After a few tense minutes of silence, a black mist came from her palm and fell apon the chair. From the bottom up came an exact replica of Jean. Everything was exactly the same, her hair, her smile, and the way she held herself. Everything, that is, except for her eyes. Instead of their usual green, they were pitch black, much like the dark color of obsidian.
The second Jean and her creator smiled with false sweetness, and watched the reactions that came from the people around them.
The red head paced slowly toward her double. The two made eye contact for about a minute, until the girl's green eyes widened as something came across her mind.
"She," Jean paused or a moment, collecting her thoughts before putting them into words. "Does she have my powers?" she questioned slowly. Frowning slightly, both the doppelgänger and Calypso shook her head in reply. Instead, Calypso raised her hand. Immediately, her creation stood, and began to slowly walk forward as the silent girl pointed in that direction. The demonstration went on for a few minutes, with Calypso pointing and the duplicate Jean following slowly in the direction given by her master. It then became clearer to the professor the extent of the child's powers.
She could merge with her own shadow, though what she could do while merged was a bit foggy. She could create duplicates out of a shadow, and that much was made very clear. When she copied a person, their facial expressions mirrored Calypso's exactly, and they followed her command, albeit very slowly.
Scott shook his head, and held his hand over his eyes for a while. The silent professor had a strange look on his own face as he studied Calypso and her creation. Jean still had a mixed look of horror and fascination in her eyes, and it only intensified in the next few moments.
There shadow double began to disintegrate into the familiar black mist, and flowed slowly back into Calypso's open palm. As soon as the mist was completely gone, the small girl bent down to the floor and touched it with her right hand.
It looked like somebody had spilled a jar of ink, what with the way the shadow was pooling around the girl's pale hand. Slowly and surely, the blackness took on the form of a human; the form of a certain teenaged girl. In a flash, it was gone, back to its rightful spot behind Jean.
It had gotten so quiet in the study that if you listened closely, you could hear some of the kid's conversations as they talked and laughed outside of the study. Professor Xavier still had a calculating look upon his face, and Calypso glared at him for not saying anything. He had wanted to know what her powers were, yet when she gave him a demonstration of them, she got no reaction. Scott and Jean had moved closer together, their pinky fingers interlocked and their eyes flitting around the room nervously, as if something would pop out of the shadows at any given moment.
Calypso fought the urge to scoff. The ghost of a wolfish grin ran across her features soon after. If they were afraid of her, so be it. It's not like she had the power to change their minds anyway.
Rolling her eyes in annoyance at the continuing silence, she crossed her arms and began tapping her foot in impatience. Exasperated, she finally jerked a thumb at the study's doors and raised an eyebrow at the three people that were before her.
This seemed to shake the professor out of his stupor. Nodding excessively, he waved a hand dismissively at the door.
"Yes, yes, Calypso," he replied quickly. "You are free to go."
Tossing one last cold look to the trio, she turned on her heel and strode confidently out of the study. Slamming the heavy wooden doors behind her, she finally allowed for a small, sad frown to pass over her lips. Walking slowly back to her room, she began to notice more and more the scared looks that she recieved from the people that she passed.
Her frown turned almost instantly into a grimace as she walked through the door of her room. She wanted them to like her, she really did. But there was a part of her, a more dominant part, that wanted to be in control, that wanted these people to feel the weakness and powerlessness that she had felt for the majority of two full years. To know what it's like to be afraid. And if she had to scare people into being afraid of the dark, she would do it in a heartbeat. Her mind was set on making these people know fear.
black angel's wing - Eh, not a lot happen in this chapter. Just her getting telled at and the introduction of Calypso's powers. Aren't they really cool? I'd be lying so bad if I said that I didn't want them. Since my character can't talk, I really like to go in depth with facial expressions and movement and emotions in people's eyes. If ya haven't noticed that already. ^.^
And here is a challenge for all of y'all who read this very carefully and even bother to read my author's notes.
In the next chapter, I will give a shout out to the reviewer who can correctly guess what Calypso's code name will be. Yep, I did say it in there, but only once! Good luck! Au revoir!