Sorry, guys, this chapter arrived later than I'd hoped due to several re-writes, but it's here now! If you have the chance, check out my profile - you can find updates there on any of my stories and you'll notice I've come up with a system of how to manage writing and publishing new chapters for the stories so that I'm not favouring any.
Happy New Year and enjoy this new chapter - hopefully it is to a satisfying standard! Remember reviews are appreciated and welcomed, since they are very encouraging and helpful.
FYI, I've typed this up on my phone minus spelling and grammar checkers, so forgive any basic mistakes!
DISCLAIMER: I only own Evelyn and her interactions and anything else you don't recognise from the movie.
Chapter 8 - Before the Storm
"Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis Presley is in the building!" Sean yelled out, ten seconds after Jailhouse Rock started booming out the stereo someone found in some cupboard at some point in the night.
I turned my torso so that I could see behind me into the rec. room, looking past Hank and Angel 'dancing' along to the music, and Alex punching into Darwin's morphed stomach and chest. Behind the bowing ginger, blue scales were once again rippling over Raven's skin, leaving Elvis to stand in her place instead. Grinning, I clapped with Hank while Angel screamed in exaggerated excitement. "Woo! I love you, Elvis! Huge fan!"
When Raven-Elvis began dancing horribly and singing along to the song, I shook my head with a chuckle and turned back to the soil under my crossed legs. Now that our mutations were out in the open, I was finally able to experiment with mine, and so far it was going quite well. It still took a while to find the pulsing life of the plants, but when I did, it was easy to create flowers and bushes of all kinds of colours and kinds. The only thing I was really struggling with was re-assuming control of roots.
Clasping my hands in my lap, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, allowing the pulsing to grow louder than the music, laughter, and shouts, developing into the thrum that surrounded and consumed me. I had the distinct feeling that there was something out there, just beyond my reach, that I needed to unlock more power or something. No matter how much I pushed, however, it seemed I wasn't strong enough to grasp it, and I had to resign myself to what I was currently capable of. I knew that this was the kind of issues Charles claimed he would help all of us with, but he also said that quite a while ago and I hadn't heard anything on the matter since. Instead of progressing with my mutation, I merely focused on the darkness and thrumming surrounding me and began to construct the image of a root in my mind, like I was painting it onto a canvas of pure black. Similarly to how I created the flower before, I imagined the root swimming through the soil and breaking out of the surface, drawing energy from the thrumming simultaneously.
When I opened my eyes, all I saw was a patch of dead grass before me. I frowned, confused and frustrated, and rubbed at my eyes, feeling theworld around me come back into focus. The song from the rec. room had changed without me noticing, who knew how many times, and the others still seemed to be having a good time, oblivious to my annoyance. Suddenly there was a loud battle cry and I whipped around to see Sean charge at Darwin, a chair held above his head and an over-enthusiastic look on his face. He brought the chair down on Darwin's back, who only just managed to protect himself in time, and jumped out of the way when the chair just bounced off Darwin's back. The latter shared a look with Alex before the blonde quickly took off in search of something, while Sean picked the chair up again and prepared for a second attack.
Hank had managed to attach himself to the lights on the ceiling by his feet, his body twisting and jerking as he danced along to the music enthusiastically. Angel and real-Raven were jumping and dancing on a sofa, grinning and laughing. Alex was returning with a plank-like onject, sharing a challenging smirk with Darwin, who held out his arms, welcoming the oncoming attacks. I just looked on in awe - I'd never seen a teenager's party before, but I assumed it looked something like the scene in the rec. room. The noise level and over-abundance of activity here was almost pushing my limit already; I didn't even want to imagine how I'd be in a real party, where two levels of a house would be completely crowded by sweaty, noisy, dancing bodies. As startling as this experience was, I found myself smiling fondly because of it. Sure, we'd had fun before, but revealing our mutations meant that we all finally knew each other for who we really were, and so we were finally free from the fear of rejection and feeling so stressed about hiding ourselves; we could finally let ourselves go and have a great, carefree night.
"-bunch of young people," Charles' voice suddenly sounded from the right of me.
"What the hell?" a young, purposeful woman questioned beside him, frowning at the courtyard.
It only dawned on me then that the adults would be more concerned with the damages and messes than our celebrations. I jumped to my feet and watched them approach, words getting stuck in my throat at the disapproving, disappointed expressions on Erik and Charles' faces. Backing up until I reached the shattered window, I whisper-shouted Darwin and Raven's names, desperately trying to make them notice the adults. Unfortunately, however, they remained oblivious.
"What are you doing?" the woman's voice cut through the music and ruckus sharply, her no-nonsense stance of her hands on her hips immediately silencing everything and everyone. "Who destroyed the statue?"
"It was Alex," Hank blurted. I could just imagine the look of aggrivation the blonde would be sending him at that moment.
"No. Havok," Raven corrected, "We have to call him Havok, that's his name now," she continued, amused and excited.
"Raven," I said, trying to stop her since she wasn't helping the situation at all.
Once again, I was ignored. "And we were thinking: you should be Professor X, and you should be Magneto," she grinned proudly, pointing at the two men.
I'd never seen Erik look so unimpressed. "Exceptional," he observed with grim sarcasm. When he turned to walk back into the building, his gaze met mine and he motioned off to the side with his head, silently indicating that he wanted to talk to me.
After shaking her head, the woman stormed off after him, leaving Charles upset and disappointed at us. "I expect more from you," he said, looking at Raven specifically. Then he too walked away, his back turned to a deflated, ashamed, and almost heartbroken Raven.
"Don't worry about it," I told her, forcing a comforting smile. "I'll go talk to them."
Hastening after the adults, I left the courtyard and followed a hallway until I reached a door that had been left ajar. The voice coming from behind the door was definitely the woman's. "After that display there is no way we are taking them with us," she was saying.
Overwhelmed by curiosity and the need to defend myself and the others, I entered the room without knocking. It seemed to be a small merting or conference room, with a round, wooden table and several swivel chairs. Erik was leaning aginst the table, expressionless, with his arms crossed over his chest and his ankles crossed. Charles stood next to him, downcast and concentrated, his hands buried in his pockets. The woman stood before them both with a face like thunder, her hands still on her hips. All of them were staring at me.
"Evelyn?" Charles said, surprised.
"Take us where?" I asked, ignoring him.
"Well, we were going to take you all to confront-" he began.
"It's none of your concern now that we know you're not ready for field work," the woman interrupted.
She was not giving a good first impression, and I was beginning to get angry. "Look, I don't know who you are, but-"
"I'm Agent MacTaggert. I'm with the CIA."
I scowled. "And that gives you the right to interrupt people all the time?" She frowned, taken aback and offended. Charles' eyes widened in shock, but Erik just smirked in amusement. "Yeah, I didn't think so," I continued. "So, you were going to take us on a mission? How did you reach the conclusion that we're incompetent after taking one look at us?"
"Because it's clear that you're not taking this seriously enough."
My anger flared. "What is there to take seriously? All we have to do around here is sleep, eat, and talk - we have to keep ourselves entertained somehow or we'll go insane. Trust me, I should know."
"You call damaging goverment property entertainment?" she snapped.
"We finally showed each other our mutations, we finally opened up to the only people in our lives who will fully accept us; tonight was a celebration that we're not alone in this world, and all you care about is a damn statue?" I glanced at Erik and Charles as I ranted, hoping they at least would understand.
"Evelyn," Charles cut in sympathetically. "The CIA are doing us a favour, letting us stay here; we-"
"You think they're doing us a favour?" I frowned, incredulous. "Charles, they've practically imprisoned us in a building full of asshole agents, where we don't belong, just so they can keep an eye on us!"
"I think Evelyn should come with us," Erik commented randomly, nonchalant.
"We're not trapped here, Evelyn," Charles insisted.
"Then why do I feel like I can't leave the rec. room without having everyone with me for protection? Why are we scared to face the agents? Why have we only been bullied and locked away when we were promised guidance and acceptance? And why have we been left out of meetings regarding Shaw when we are the ones being made to take him down?"
MacTaggert just stared at me, speechless. The smirk had been wiped off of Erik's face, and Charles looked pained. "No one is forcing you to take Shaw on," he said softly. "You agreed to help."
"Only because if I said no, I would have been left in a mental asylum to be tortured every two days by a psychotic 'doctor', and physically and sexually abused any chance available by the 'guards'. You didn't give me much of a choice, did you?" The guilt was almost palpable. "And no, Erik, I don't think I will go anywhere with any of you. I'd rather stay with the closest thing I have to a family. They actually understand me, and they actually care."
"You need to check your tone," MacTaggert forced out.
"Go fuck yourself," I spat.
Leaving them to consider my words, I returned to the rec. room only to find that everyone had retired to their bedrooms, ceasing the celebrations. A group of people were currently sweeping up the shards of glass scattered across the floor amd clearing away the bottles and glasses left on the table. At the looks of disgust and hatred I received, any guilt I felt about being so harsh to Erik and Charles quickly vanished.
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"Evelyn!"
"Hey, Darwin," I greeted, turning away from the girls' bedroom to look at him.
"You alright?" he frowned.
Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm so pissed off at Erik and Charles - they don't seem to understand that it's okay for us to be excited tht we've finally found people we can open up to without being scared that they'll reject us, and I don't get why they can't relate to that, you know?"
He grimaced. "So you couldn't talk sense into them, then?" he guessed grimly.
I shook my head, scowling. "No. And that MacTaggert woman? I don't like her. She kept interrupting everyone and acted so superior to me, which doesn't make sense when we're supposed to be saving America."
Darwin chuckled and patted my shoulder fondly. "I think I might like her," he admitted. At my clear annoyance, his grin widened. "She's unlocked another of your facial expressions."
"How the hell does that make her likeable?" I demanded.
"I don't know, it's a cute, little, childish hatred you have for her." His face then softened. "Plus you're showing us more emotion, so you're opening up more. It's just nice to see more of your personality, I guess."
I felt myself soften too, but my face remained hard. "Don't give her credit for that," I told him. "It's been all of you guys who have brought this about."
He shrugged. "Either way, it's good to see."
I nodded, starting to feel a little uncomfortable. "How's Raven?"
"I'm not sure. She's been hiding in there since you left."
"She hasn't come out at all?" I frowned, concerned. I knew better than anyone how it felt to need to run from your problems, and the consequences of doing so.
"She's too upset," Darwin told me regretfully.
My fists clenched. "Those fucking assholes," I muttered.
His eyebrows shot up. "Damn, that's not funny angry, that's scary angry."
"I swear I'm going to punch one of them next time I see them."
"Don't hurt me, I believe you," Darwin said, throwing his hands up in a mocking, defensive manner.
I punched his shoulder.