Hi guys! Thanks for reviewing :D Just wanted to say, the writing will get better when Leah becomes older, I promise. More interesting anyway.
Captain Mocking Jay: Glad you like that part! Thanks for reviewing :D
Lychee Loving: Thanks for reviewing. And don't worry there's going to be action. Take the superhero out of the stuff and whatever : )
Hellzz-on-Earth: YES! I HAVE SOMEONE HOOKED! MHAHAHA! Sorry, that was weird. Hope I can answer your questions in further chapters, thanks for the review!
: Cool name, thanks for the review :D
*Two years later*
Leah lay on the living room floor, reading Cue for Treason. It was the novel her mom was teaching her grade nine English student and had brought home. Leah found it on Ororo's work desk and was instantly engrossed. She didn't quite understand all of it, but she liked the characters. Plus she felt smug about reading a 'high school' book.
Ororo was in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables for a salad.
Leah jerked to attention, startled by the backdoor being ripped open then quickly closed. Ororo let out a gaspe, but quickly quieted herself when Logan's voice spoke in urgent whispers.
Logan wasn't meant to come home from his business trip for another couple of days, so his presence surprised Leah. What confused her more was that he hadn't come directly to find her the moment he was home. Whenever he had come back home, Logan and Leah had a routine to follow. Leah squeals, Logan laughs, Leah runs to hug him, Logan picks her up in a hug and swings her around. That was the routine they've always had. Something had to be really wrong for them not to do it.
Leah crept towards the kitchen door and peeked inside. What she saw made her want to scream, but she knew that she shouldn't let her parents know she was there. Logan looked like a bear had mauled him! His face was ripped, as were his arms and chest. He only had scraps of his shirt hanging on him, the rest being torn away by what Leah did not know. Blood dripped onto the floor. His right cheek seemed to have been completely torn off, revealing his jaw and teeth.
"-gave 'em the slip, but they know she's here 'Ro." Logan muttered quietly.
"But, how could they? Logan, I knew your missions were putting her in danger! I told you-" Ororo whispered back angrily. She pressed a tea towels to one of Logan's many gashes.
Actually, he didn't seem as bad as before, Leah noticed. There was still a lot of blood, but not as many gashes. Did she just imagine he was in worse condition?
"My missions aren't what put them on her trail. We ain't the only ones that have contact with psychics, that's how they must of found her." Logan argued. "We don't have time for this! Take Leah and-"
"I can't let you fight them alone! Look at you!" Ororo argued, gesturing at Logan's torn form.
"I'll be fine in a minute, just don't heal like I used to. Seem to be aging again too. Now just go, I can take 'em. They just caught me by surprise before. I-" Logan was interrupted as the kitchen door exploded. Leah ducked to avoid the shards of wood from flying into her face. The next thing she knew, her mom had her hand in hers and was dragging her away at a run. Logan bellowed like an enraged bear, making Leah want to cover her ears. She turned back for a moment to see two abnormally large men attacking her dad with animal claws and teeth. Ororo forced her to face straight ahead again, so she couldn't be sure, but it looked like Logan had several long knives and used them to fight back.
"Mum, what's happening?" Leah asked, struggling to keep up with her mother's long fast strides.
"It's going to be okay Leah." Was all her mother said for an answer, she tried to smile reassuringly, but her expression turned fearful when they hear Logan yell in pain.
"But Daddy-"
"He'll be okay too sweetie." Ororo interrupted, pulling Leah behind the old tool shed. She pushed her hair out of her face with frustration, then ripped one of the boards off the shed to reveal a key pad. She quickly typed in a code, which made a loud mechanical sound when finished. Leah stood open mouthed as a small door raised out of the ground behind her. Ororo opened the door and grabbed Leah again to lead her down a flock of stairs into a medium sized room surrounded by cement.
"Uh, Mom?"
"I'll explain later, but right now I have to go help your dad." Ororo bent to look Leah in the face and laid her hands on her shoulders. "I know this is scary, but everything is really going to be okay. I'm asking a lot but I need you to be brave for me and stay down here, quiet. Don't open the door for anyone, not even me or dad until we give you the safe word. If we don't come back, wait a two hours, then go over to the computer over there (Ororo pointed to the corner which was filled with complex looking tach equipment) and type in the word Blackbird. Help will come."
Ororo kissed Leah's forehead and raced back to the stairs.
"But Mum, I-" Leah saw how scared her mum looked and shut her mouth. Soldiers don't cry and they don't whine to their mothers. "Never mind. I love you."
"I love you too Leah Bear." Ororo said back emotionally. With that she blew a kiss to Leah and ran up the stairs so fast, Leah could have sworn she flew.
Feeling afraid and alone, Leah went to the corner of the room that was empty and sat down with her back to the wall. She closed her eyes and repeated "Soldiers aren't afraid, soldiers aren't afraid, soldiers…"
xXx
Leah waited in the corner for what felt like an eternity. She tried to stay brave like her parents wanted, but it was hard. As much as she pretended to be the strong soldier her dad was when he was in the Canadian Armed Forces, she was still just a kid. A kid that didn't know if her parents would come back.
She heard a war rage above her. Animal like roars, screams of pain, thuds and scratches. A storm also had formed, with enough thunder to shake the ground. Leah covered her ears and tried to prevent her imagination from scaring her more.
With one final sheet of thunder and a scream that could not have been human, it all stopped. Silence was all there was.
Leah jumped when the trap door opened to reveal her parents, tired and battle worn.
"Mum?" Leah asked unsurely, getting up from the cold cement floor.
"Its all okay now Leah." Ororo said soothingly, going to her and embracing her.
Leah snuggled close to her mother, her fear melting away. She felt the need to try to stable her tired looking mother as they walked up the stairs to outside, where it was now dark.
"Dad, are you okay?" Leah asked, remembering how awful he looked before. She hated to admit it, but the awful yell he made and how he went at those men with knives; it scared her. Her dad was the kindest person she knew, and she had never seen him so violent and berserk like that.
"I'm alright kiddo." Logan smiled at her. His face was still badly scratched and bruised, but his cheek was as it should be. "Are you okay?"
"Yup, I was a soldier." Leah said, her eyes intense on Logan.
"That's my girl."
They led head to the truck, trying to keep her from looking around at the damaged lawn. It was torn up and had craters in it. There was an awful smell in the air, like burnt hair and skin. There was a large burnt mark where the smell was more definite. It made Leah feel ill.
"Aren't we going inside?" Leah asked.
"No sweetie, we're going on a trip for awhile." Ororo said, her smile making Leah feel uneasy.
"Uh, don't I have to pack?"
"No, I'll take care of that." Ororo answered. "You just get in the truck. You and Dad will go ahead, I'll catch up soon."
Leah got into the truck without complaint and did up her seatbelt. Her parents were weird, she knew that. But this was still bizarre. Logan got into the driver's seat and Ororo leaned on the window, peering inside.
"I'll tidy things up here, you just head to the safe house. I'll call the Professor and tell him what happened." Ororo stated to Logan.
"Mum, what's happening? Who were those guys? Why do we have to go?" Leah asked, letting the questions fly from her mouth.
Ororo kissed her forehead but didn't answer. Leah was about to ask again, but didn't when a sharp pain stung her arm. It was like the time she got stung by a bee. All of a sudden, she felt too tired to ask more. Her speech slurred and her head lolled back.
"We are the worst parents in the world." Ororo said sadly, stroking her unconscious daughter's hair.
"Yeah, maybe." Logan said, then started the engine. "Meet you at the safe house."
xXx
Leah woke up in a strange room on a queen sized bed. Logan was at the window, peering through the curtain apparently lost in thought.
"Daddy?" Leah asked. Her mouth felt really dry.
"Hey kiddo, how you feeling?" Logan asked, hurrying to her side. He sat on the side of the bed beside her.
"Weird. Where are we? What happened? I thought-"
"We're in a motel in Ontario."
"Ontario? Why?"
"Well honey, our house back in BC burned down, remember? You're probably feeling weird and a little confused because you took in a lot of smoke." Logan said calmly.
"Really?" Leah couldn't remember anything like that. Well, maybe she did. At least, a bad burning smell…
"Yup. You feel up to eating? Your mom stepped out to get some supplies, when she gets back we'll go to dinner."
Leah nodded and sat up.
"So we gonna live here now?" Leah asked.
"Looks like it."
Leah got up and walked to the tap in the washroom to get some water. In the bathroom mirror's reflection, she saw her dad gazing at her. She couldn't understand why he looked so guilty.
xXx
*Nine years later*
"I'm not telling you again! Get up, get dressed, get an education!" Mum's voice range through my ears. I moaned at her like a ghoul in response, and covered my head with my pillow. "Up up up!"
I heard Dad snort. "Nothing less than a bulldozer is getting that girl out of bed. She was up till two this morning."
"I wish I had a bulldozer." Mum muttered darkly. I heard the click of her heels come closer and my door open. "Hello, daughter. Why aren't you up and ready yet?"
"Cause I don't wanna go to school." I whined like a four year old. "I wanna sleep, all day, and never go to school again."
"We all want that." Mum said dryly.
"Come on Mum! I hardly got any sleep last night because I had to stay up and study for my History test, which I'm going to go to fail anyway because my teacher is evil." I groaned, getting out of bed.
"I'm your history teacher!" Mum exclaimed, shocked.
"Yeah, and you're brutal! You do know that the whole senior class calls you the Scary Lady, right?" I asked, rummaging through my clothes to trying to find an outfit that would suit me today.
Mum threw a pillow at me and I smiled impishly at her. "They do not!"
"What's the Scary Lady denying?" Dad asked, wandering into my room with his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.
"Oh, shut up." Mum said sternly, elegantly exiting the room.
I tried not to be envious of my mother's grace. She was so elegant and lady like, she just made me feel like a clumsy calf that hadn't figured out the mechanics of walking yet. I'm sure when I walked beside her, that's exactly how it looked.
"We really should be nicer to your mum." Dad said thoughtfully, smiling.
"Pfft, nah." I held up a plaid shirt and sniffed it experimentally, trying to remember if I had already worn it this week. Deciding I hadn't, I added it to the white t-shirt and pair of jeans I had laid on my bed. I turned to face Dad, struck a pose, with one hand on my hip and one leg bent.
"And now I must ask you to leave, father dear. I must get dressed as it is inappropriate to enter a populated building such as a school in one's pajamas." I said, faking a prim and proper voice. I wasn't sure why, I guess because I'm weird in the morning.
Dad put up his hands "I'm in the wind."
He closed the door as he left. I dressed quickly, and spent a little time on my hair. I have weird hair, even weirder than my personality. Its black and white, like, salt and pepper. Black like my dad's, white like my mum's. A lot of people think I dyed it this way, but honestly it's natural.
"What's black and white and super weird?" I muttered under my breath. "It's Leah's hair."
"Your hair isn't weird, its beautiful." Dad called from the kitchen. By now I've gotten used to his unnaturally good hearing, though I don't understand it. At an early age I learn that I couldn't mutter things under my breath when I was angry with my parents because Dad would hear.
I left my room and dropped into a kitchen chair beside Dad. Mum was leaning on the counter and sipping her coffee.
"So other than a huge history test from your evil teacher," Mum drawled, her eyes glittering. "What else is on your plate today?"
"A lab in bio, a lab in chem, baseball practice and I have to start writing my defence essay for world issues." I groaned, dramatically dropping my head onto the table. "Woe is me."
"Have you considered quitting baseball and going for drama club?" Dad joked. I moved my head to glare at him without removing it from the table and stuck out my tongue.
"Do you have a thesis yet for your essay?" Mum asked, interested. My high school was really small, so not only was she the school's senior level history teacher, but also one of the English teachers. Essays are her thing.
"Well, Mr. Adair sort of gave us a topic already, superhero groups. I think he's a fanboy or something." I answered, getting up to pour some juice. "So pretty much everyone is doing Avengers or Alpha Flight, because the Avengers are cool and AF is Canadian. I'm thinking of using the X-men, how the dynamics of a super hero team are different for a minority group. Or I could argue by being so secretive and distant hinder their efforts to better human and mutant relations. Are you okay Dad?"
As soon as I started talking about the X-men, Dad had spilt his hot coffee all over himself.
"Yes, fine, fine. Uh, what made you want to use…them?" Dad asked, sounding weird.
I shrugged, "I dunno, thought it would be different. The problem would be that there's hardly any info on them, other than anti mutant stuff and hate websites. I'd probably only find super biased stuff."
"Yes, maybe you should change your topic." Mum suggested, exchanging a look with Dad.
"I'll think about it and talk to Mr. Adair, see what he thinks." I crammed a cookie into my mouth for breakfast. I was surprised that Mum wasn't flipping out on me for not having a proper breakfast. "Stho are 'e go'n? Cathn I drive?"
I kissed the top of Dad's head and grabbed the truck keys before either of them could have a chance to say no. I hardly noticed that Mum and Dad were still staring at each other, speechless.
xXx