Title: Darwinian Rhapsody: Romantic Evolution
Category: Cartoons » X-Men: Evolution
Author: LejindaryBunny
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: Romance/Adventure
Published: 03-13-02, Updated: 03-17-14
Chapters: 33, Words: 93,521
Chapter 14: Mostly Harmless
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Hello again everyone. Sorry for the chapter delay. My Dad, Mr. Paranoia.
I have an announcement to make. Since I have just passed the fifty review mark I am going to do something special. I’m going to take a break from this authors note and let someone else take care of it. *Walks away*
*Someone mumbles* Why me yo? I don’ write. *Toad walks on to the stage* Um, hey yo. Since Bunny seems to have, taken a nap? I guess I have to do this. Not that I know what I’m doin’ or nothin’. ‘s this supposed to work again? *flips through a few note cards* Reply to reviews huh. H’okay.
Akasha: *Blushes* yeah, we kissed so what? *grumble* ‘Snot some kinda big deal or nothin’. Bunny’s dad’s a freak yo. He don’t understand that this kinda thing’s important yo.
Queenducky: Why’s this such a big deal yo?! I mean jeez. *pouts* Stupid frenchy walking in.I’m sure Bunny’s glad that you think she cool. I donno about Rogue playin’ hard ta get y’know? She really seems to have a thing for frenchy. Not sayin’ I wouldn’t like him to have some trouble. Smug bastard. *blushes* yeah, that’s what Ebony said too, ’bout the pants yo. Well, Bogart wadn’t blue for one thing yo. An’ Boggie woulda had the sense ta stay outta my personal business. Damn fuzzball.
Cera Toynbee: Yeah, Kurt’s flipped yo. Pretty funny. Maybe I oughta get a few snaps a ‘Bluegart’ Labyrinth’s a cool movie yo. One a Bunny’s favs I’ve heard. ‘Bout some fantasy fan chick who wishes that the Goblin King would take her pesty little brother away. Then he does cuz he’s in love wit her. You’re tellin’ me the Witch is terrifyin’! She waddn’t throwin’ bits a ceilin’ at you! Oughtta put a B in there insteada a W! Not that she wasn’t , you didn’t here me say that, got it? We better get more screen time yo! Man, we was barely in the last buncha eps! I shoulda had a bigger part in last chapter yo, after all, it’s my story.
Red Witch: You’re damn right I need a new costume! Goddamn Xavier wit his twisted psychic sense a’ humor! I’ll give him a jester! *grumble, snarl* slime him? That’s a great idea! Lance agrees wit you on that one. I think Tabby has her eye on the fur freak anyhow.
Todd Fan: Gee, I have a fan yo. The accent’s dumb normally but yesterday I wanted to die laughin’! Okay, heX factor summary. Scarlet B/Witch is in the looney bin in a conselin’ session wit Xavier the savior, but she goes psycho an’ starts breakin’ up the joint. Mystique comes an’ gets her, an’ brings her back ta the house. She yells at us for lettin’ the place look like a bomb zone. Tabby insults her, an’ goes to throw one a’ her blast things at her but Pietro grabs it who tosses it to Fred who hands it ta me an I get blown up! Major bad hair yo. Then she introduces Wanda (the witch) an she goes psycho seein’ Piet. Then Mystique kicks Tabby out, but Tabby wrecks her room first. So turns out daddy Magneto left Wanda in the funny farm because he couldn’t handle her powers. So she has a major anger management problem. So Mysty sics us on the X-geeks at the mall an’ we get beat as usual until SW comes in an’ beats the crap outta them. They actually had to run yo! What a blow to Summers’ ego!
Well, that wadn’t so hard yo. Whas this? Summarize upcomin’ chapter? Huh. Well it’s Sunday yo. And we’re still stuck with the X-Geeks. Man, how lame is that yo? This chapter’s got more a’ yours truly cuz I’m cool. An’ the Fuzzball plays detective some more. Some stuff from Ebs’ pov. Hm, what else can I say? A disclaimer?
Disclaimer: Bunny don’t own nobody. She created Ebs though; she gets points for that. Bunny’s friend Luke sorta has claim to the ‘if by _, you mean _’ line. The title’s a rip from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Chapter Harmless
Toad woke up with light streaming through the unfortunately pale colored curtains. The first thing he asked himself before he opened his eyes or remembered where he was, was who had opened his curtains? The second thing he asked himself was why wasn’t he cold? The Brotherhood house had real bad heating. Then he recalled the bomb, and the fact that he was in the Institute. The Charles Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. What kinda name was that anyway? More like home for freaky teenagers. He turned over and buried his face in the pillow. First thing this place needed was black curtains like he’d had before. Then he could work on the wall space. Well, one plus, the bed was softer.
He didn’t bother wresting himself from bed, it was Sunday and dammit he was going to lay here as long as he liked! His thoughts drifted idly to the events of the previous day. First, get up. Find bomb under coffeepot, get the hell out of the house. Then, walk to the Home for Teen Freaks. Hang around for a while. Next, go shopping at the mall. Buy leather. Kiss Ebony? Had that happened? He reviewed his memory. Yeah, it fit in with the sequence of event, chronologically if not reasonably. He lay back with his arms under his head. Huh. He grinned.
He rolled out of bed, literally, and landed in a crouching position. He grabbed one of his new pairs of jeans out of the dresser and a brown long- sleeve shirt. Putting them on, he eyed the goggles on the dresser. Well, why not? After all, he liked them who cared what anybody else thought, right? He pulled them on over his scraggly brown/blond hair, letting his bangs fall over them. He always slept with his spiked cuffs on. [A/N: Pay attention! That is actually a plot point that will be explained later!]
There was a mirror on the closet door. He gave it a cursory glance. Not bad Tolensky, better than usual. Not that he cared or nothin’.
The hall was basically empty, only basically because the blue furred freak was lurking near the end of the hall. “Mornin’ Fuzzball.” Todd greeted with a genial sneer.
Kurt raised an eyebrow and gave an unconcerned wave. He was still wearing The Hat, but now he also had on a trench coat and seemed to be smoking. What he really had in his mouth was a cut off piece of drinking straw. Todd wondered what the guy thought he was doing but didn’t bother asking. He hopped down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“Mornin’ Summers.” He snapped his tongue out across the room and grabbed the toaster waffle Scott was buttering.
“Hey!” Shades was both surprised and offended.
“You want it back?” he rolled his tongue out. The burned bread was slimy.
“No. thanks,” he deferred, disgusted.
Todd shrugged and swallowed it. He flipped up and sat on the counter. “S’up, yo?”
Although no one could see it Scott rolled his eyes. “Don’t you have someone else to bother?”
“Who else is up, yo?” the Toad grinned.
He sighed shook his head putting another waffle in the toaster.
A moment later Todd did a handspring off the counter grabbing the second waffle as it popped from the toaster.
“Hey! Cut it out Toad!”
He munched it. “That ain’t right yo. Don’t you know anything? You’re supposed to say ‘leggo my eggo!'”
“Man Tolensky, you are such a loser.”
“If by ‘loser’, you mean ‘poetry in motion’, then yes. See ya round Shades.” He did a mock salute. “An’ thanks for breakfast!” He ducked out of the room.
Passing through a long hallway he looked out the window. It had snowed during the night and now there was two feet of white stuff on the ground. Question was, powder or the good stuff?
***
Sunday morning. I flipped through the notes Ms. Pryde had left me, interesting, but not very informative. I realized that if I was ever going to crack this case I’d have to go straight to the source. I knew Tolensky was already up, I’d seen him leave the room an hour before, but he’d be a tough nut to crack. Miss Trufire on the other hand might be a bit easier. Not that I wasn’t up for a challenge. I pulled up the collar of my trench coat and took a drag off my cigarette. The Toad seemed to be acting out of character; I had to find out what was going on.
I turned down the hallway to look for the little minx. Luck was with me I caught her as she came from her room cute as always and likewise dressed in her namesake.
“Heya sveetheart.”
“Oh, hi Kurt,” she looked at me with a puzzled expression, “Or are you a Ninja Turtle today?”
Ninja Turtle? Doll sure wasn’t bright in the mornings. I wondered if now was the time to do any serious questioning. “Private Investigator.”
“Oh. Is someone’s cat missing?”
“Actually I vas vondering if I could ask you a few questions about zhe case I’m on.”
She looked me over. “Um, okay?”
“Have you noticed anything unusual around town in the past few days?”
“Um? More unusual than usual? Unless you count the Brotherhood’s bombing, and ‘re coat, ?”
I buried my hands in my pockets. “You seem edgy lately, anything you vanna tell me about zhat?”
“Oh, no. I’m fine. Honestly Kurt.” She smiled but I could tell there was something on her mind. Something about her eyes and the way she was standing gave it away.
I gestured to a couch by the window. “Vhy don’t you have a seat Miss Trufire?”
She shrugged and sat down.
I paced. “Let’s review zhe facts. Five days ago you caught a ride home with one Jean Grey. Something you don’t normally do, am I right?”
She nodded cautiously.
“And am I right in saying zhat you would normally avoid doing so? Please be honest, zhis information vill go no farther zhan me sveetheart.”
She looked uncertain for a minute. “Well no, I kinda like to get back to school a little earlier than four.”
I raised an eyebrow. “But is zhat zhe only reason Miss Trufire? I heard it from a reliable source that you and Ms. Grey are not notoriously, hm, let’s just say you’re not chummy.”
“What kind of case is this Kurt?” she asked biting her lip, rather obviously miffed.
“An aberrant behavior case.” I decided to change tactics. “Ebony I’m worried about you.”
Her blue/black eyes darkened further. “Oh now I know what this is about! Jerk.” She started to get up to leave.
“Vait, I just vanted to know-“
She cut me off hotly. “Why I’m dating Toad? I’ll tell you why. Because unlike most people I know he’s a sensitive person who actually knows what he’s talking about. And unlike some people standing right in front of me, he doesn’t bolt whenever I come into his peripheral vision!” she stood abruptly and glance at the ceiling. A rain of black metal marbles fell upon my person.
“Ow, ow ow!” by the time the spheres stopped falling two seconds later she had disappeared and a slender shadow darted away.
I watched her leave, taking a drag off my cigarette. [A/N: Still the straw!] So it was me. Now all I had to do was find Tolensky’s take on the action.
***
It was still dim in the third dimension and so it was hazy and blurred in the second, my shadow realm. It was a place where black blended into grays and it was easy to get lost. Everything was shades of gray, and shapes were sometimes hard to recognize. After she was sure she was out of the ‘Detective’s range I slowed from a flicker to a drift.
I don’t believe this! Why does everyone pick on me? I haven’t done anything to them! Oh wait yeah that’s right. I’ve broken their precious social ladder. I don’t see why I should catch flack for it when Kitty gets away free and clear. Right, she’s Kitty she can do whatever she wants. And she’s not dating everyone’s least favorite mutant. Everyone’s but mine.
I stretched myself out extending my being across what might have been the shadow of the floor until I was no longer ‘me’ shaped but a flat gray plane of not light. They’d probably be happier if I was dating Wolverine. I tried to understand the problem, but I couldn’t. Todd was a mutant like everyone else important, what was so different that it made everyone ostracize him and anyone closely associated with him? Alright so his mutant powers involved being toad-like. He had a long tongue, and spit some kind of nasty goop, but only if you pissed him off. He also had really strong legs and could jump real high and probably kick like hell. How did that make him any more worthy of making him an abuse target as say, having to wear sunglasses 24/7 because otherwise your eyes pretty much explode? Or how about not being able to touch people without draining their life energy? Or what about looking like the devil with frostbite and a fur coat? Okay, so there were better powers in the world, but hell, compared to a lot of mutants I’d say he got of easy!
I know I’m pretty high on the list of ‘Free Ride’ powers. Sure, now everything about me is either black or white. Before my eyes were a much lighter tone and I actually had a skin tone, even my blood is black but I guess it’s a small price to pay. For the abilities that I’ve got, shadow creation, manipulation, and solidification. And my own private world where sound doesn’t carry and my form is a matter of my own opinion.
Just to prove a point I scattered my form into a multitude of black shadow butterflies and fluttered in a loose circle. I’m going to go find him. There’s something no one else in the world knows about him, or so I assume, he’s a wicked kisser.
I giggled and swept off in search of him, sure that I’d recognize his shadow. But I couldn’t find him in the house. I could have asked someone but I didn’t feel like dealing with any other supposedly sentient beings. I finally found him outside in the back garden of all places, building a snowman. or something like one.
It was brighter out here and I could define shapes more easily. The thing had three arms on each side, six in all and was covered in a zigzagging pattern. It also seemed to have mandibles. Its creator stepped back for a moment to admire his work. He noticed me. Or rather a flock of shadow butterflies. He looked up to see if they were really there. I coalesced into my natural shape and then back into the third dimension.
“Hey, Ebony. Nice entrance. What do you think of Arachnid here?”
“It’s really well built.” I eyed him, “How long have you been working out here?”
” , maybe three hours.”
“Without a jacket?”
“You ain’t wearin’ one neither.”
I concentrated, forming a jacket made of solidified shadow around myself. Then I made another larger one and tossed it to Todd.
“Thanks yo. It was kinda cold out here.”
“Only five below zero.” I laughed. “You aren’t careful and you’ll catch frostbite.” I sat down on the snow, forming a blanket beneath me from the shadow of a nearby tree. “It’s a really nice snow creature.”
“Yeah! It looks like it could beat the shit outta anybody else’s snowman.” He sat down next to me. I looked at him for a minute. He seemed to be in a good mood this morning, something I wouldn’t have expected from anyone else who’d had their house blown up and was being forced to stay in a place full of people who didn’t like him. I was sure that the rest of the Brotherhood wasn’t very happy this morning. I wondered if he was really happy.
He cocked his head slightly, a gesture he did rather frequently. “Sumthin’ wrong Ebony?”
“Nope.”
He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Sure, lie to me.”
I sighed. “Sorry. I just. why are people so mean?” I demanded.
“Donno. Been tryin’ ta figure out the answer ta that one for a long time yo. Was somebody mean to you this morning?”
I bit my lip. “I found out what ‘detective’ Kurt’s been ‘investigating’.” My voice riddled itself with sarcasm.
“Oh yeah, whassat?”
“Us. More specifically he wanted to know what I was doing dating you.” I snorted. “Probably jealous. Well he has his chance.”
“The blue furred freak was botherin’ you?” he growled, then grinned. “Don’ worry ’bout it, I’ll get him.”
I smiled, “Truly thou art a chivalrous knight to avenge the honor of so small a lady as mine self.” I poked him. Talking in ye olde Englishe was an amusmant of mine, but I rarely did so in company.
I didn’t expect him to respond in kind, but he did. “Pray, do not debase thine self so, fair maiden. Thine beauty doth outshine each of the petty nobles in so homely a court, as even thou doth smile the very roses quake with spite.”
“Thou dost flatter me sir knight.”
“Forasmuch as I be the mightiest knight on lyfe, ne’er would I dare to defile thee so! So great a lady needs no false words from mine humble tongue.”
I giggled. “Where did you pick that up?”
“You have a better way to understand all the dirty jokes in Shakespeare?” he grinned.
I smiled. Damn me for taking two whole weeks to talk to him! But then, how was I to know he such a cute poet? “Sir Todd I must needs confer to the something.”
“Pray, tell me what that be, lady.”
“I hath lost something precious to me. I thought it only misplaced before, but now I see that thou hast stolen it from me. Though I fear it of little value.”
“What is this thing of which you speak?”
“My heart.”
He blinked. “Lady, thou doth grieve me so! This thing of thine I must needs keep, for it is dear to me, nay, the most dear of my possessions. Would that I had a thing of such worth to return, alas I am but a poor knight- errant and have no such thing to give. Tell me Lady, what must I do?”
“In all the lands there is but one thing I seek.”
“Truly lady, I would brave the depths of hell and all its demons to bring it to thee. What quest must I pursue in name of fair Lady Ebony?”
I laughed. “Knight, you needs must do no such thing! The thing I seek is thine heart as thou dost hold mine own captive.”
“Alas, lady! Again you grieve me! My heart is no longer mine to give! For it has been lost to a dark enchantress.”
“Tell me of the harlot!”
He shook his head. “Lady thou doth mistake mine words. The maid of which I speak is a lady of highest stature, a beauty who’s grace I am not worthy to perceive.”
“Tell me of this lady, so mine heart might be sorrowed or gladdened.”
“Thee, my lady, thou art the enchantress the maid who hast stolen my heart! It was reft truly from my breast ‘fore e’en thine eyes turned upon mine humble figure. So I tell you my heart is no longer mine own to give or keep. But what would thou have of me, as thou dost here to for posses that small token which thou told me was thine only desire.”
“If sir Knight thou dost speak as truly as thou dost with eloquence then I must needs no more! But if it is truly thine wish yo please me, pray, speak of me in verse.”
“I am afraid that I am as poor a poet as a knight, lady.”
“Thou speaketh falsely, sir Knight, wherefore is thine gallantry of late? Or perhaps thine words were falsehoods all!” I teased making my eyes large and sorrowful.
“Nay! Nay my lady! Weep not! If verse is thine desire then verse shall be thine!” he thought for a moment.
“My lady fair has silken hair,
Of lustrous raven tone.
My lady wise has night sky eyes,
With stars of theirs alone.
And as I knight I to her vow
My time is hers to bide.
And I shall quest o’er mountain high
For such she dare confide.
My lady fair of trust and care
In thine name shall I fight,
As long as long as I shall live and breathe,
As thine unworthy knight.”
He had started slowly, uneasily, and rather nervously, but he finished with a flourish. On the last line he took my hand and kissed it.
I was stunned, had he made that up on the spot? “Sir Knight, is that lovely verse thine own unrehearsed creation? Pray, do not speak falsely!”
“My lady thine beauty did inspire me so, I know not what muse overtook mine lips!”
“A knight so gallant and eloquent deserves a just reward!” I leaned toward him. “But I have no such thing. Prithee, wouldst thou accept a kiss instead?”
“If mine lady wouldst bestow one, I would be in rapture.”
“Come forward then, Sir Todd, so that I may bestow thine reward!”
I leaned forward and kissed him.
The kiss was a moment of warm bliss. The snow seemed to melt away. So did the Institute and the sky and the ground, humanity and all existence. All that existed was Todd with his arms around me and his lips gently moving over mine.
Far too soon the reality of breath became necessary. He looked at me, his sometimes cold eyes were soft and they melted into a concerned expression.
“Yo, Ebony? When you were sayin’ all that stuff about stealing your heart, did you. mean that?”
I smiled his insecurity was sort of endearing. I nodded cheerfully and told him the truth. “Yup, ya scrappy little thief.” I poked him.
He grinned, a little embarrassed I think. “Good, cuz y’know I meant what I said too. .I .I love you Ebony.”
He was so sweet. How could ANYONE not like him? I hugged him around the waist and nuzzled him. “I love you too Todd.” I grinned maliciously. “You’re a cute poet and a wicked kisser.” He turned of course a bright shade of red. I kissed him again.
***
I watched the two as they spoke; listening from beneath a snow covered bush. They never noticed me, snooping was my business. I grinned smugly, putting out my cigarette. [A/N: STILL the straw] Another case solved. Neither of the suspects guilty, and though the culprit walked free there was little even a great gumshoe could do about it. The dastardly fiend had struck again. No, not even Kurt Wagner, PI, stood a chance against love. The Case of the Bedraggled Boyfriend was closed.
~
Hi, it’s me Bunny. I’m back! What do you think? For God’s sake REVIEW ME. This is the last time Detective Kurt shows up in Darwinian Rhapsody, at least for some time. BUT I like the idea SO much I’m breaking it off as a separate story! Kurt likes being a detective enough that he puts an ad in the school paper. On a routine ‘case’ (Is so and so cheating on so and so?) he gets mixed up in a real mystery! Murder, suspense, intrigue, romance, HUMOR! See it all in ‘Bluegart’ by LejindaryBunny. A mysterious X-Men: Evolution detective novel! Coming soon.
In the next chapter of Darwinian Rhapsody, however, everyone returns to school. Will anything be different when they get back? And someone phones Principal Kelly. Who is it and why is it important to the story? Find out, SOON! (Tomorrow, hopefully)
Chapter 15: Fall From All Sides
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: *Sniff* I feel sick. I came home early from school today. (
The plot is about to start picking up again, the action oriented part instead of the romance oriented part, though, there is still romance! As if I could write anything without it!
WarKnyte: I’m honestly not trying to make it anti-Xavier. We just happen to differ in opinion on a few key philosophical points. And I do think he seems to have something against my poor Toddy.
Queenducky: I like when I update every day. Writer’s block is my hell.
Todd fan: Woohoo, Brooklyn accent. Heh. I like ye olde englishe.
VirgoMoon: The most wonderful story you’ve read? *sobs for joy* Of COURSE IT’S not over! The one thing about stories that I hate is endings. Remy and Rogue will get together, what sort of author do you think I am? Honestly, keeping those two apart! But only after lotsa angst!
Mrs. S is my math teacher; she’s a nice person but gives out WAY too much homework.
This chapter is a day at school, a not very fun day at school. Ebony has an unexpected visitor at the institute.
Disclaimer: I OWN THEM ALL! I AM STAN LEE IN DISGUISE! (.not really.)
Chapter From All Sides
He was standing in the middle of a familiar room. He took a step and the room grew a size smaller. Another step and it grew smaller still. There was no door. He panicked. He dashed about madly trying to find a way out as the room closed in on him. Soon it was so small that there was barely enough space for him to sit even with his arms around his legs. He sat whimpering but unmoving, knowing that if he moved he would be crushed to death.
He sat in the box for a long time.
He heard a voice.
“Don’t you want out?”
He didn’t move. “There is no way out.”
There was laughter. “Silly. Just stand up.”
He stood, all the time he’d been in the box he hadn’t noticed that there was no lid. Now he was in a never-ending garden of beautiful flowers.
“Watch out, they’re poison.” The voice from the box said. He looked down to see a small brown fox.
“Poison?”
The fox nodded. “If you touch one you’ll become one.”
He looked at the flowers, which seemed to have faces that he recognized. They glared at him.
“They hate everyone who isn’t a flower. The roses are the worst.”
It gestured a paw to the roses on a hill. A bright haughty red rose with gray ruffled edges, another red rose with closed eyes and a grim expression. There was a black rose with no leaves only thorns, a pink rose bud and there was a blue one with too many leaves. Above them all was a flesh colored rose with no face at all.
“Do you want to stay here?” the fox asked him. “With the roses?”
“It’s horrible.”
It shrugged. “Some choose to stay. The blue one and the black one, they were like us once.”
“Is there a cure?”
“Only for one who seeks it himself. They will take no help from you.” It turned to him. “Then you would leave this place?”
“Can I?”
“It is difficult. More difficult than escaping an open box.”
“Can you lead me?”
“I think so.” They began away down a path through the garden.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I was considering becoming a rose.”
“Why?”
“There was no one to talk to. They’re very friendly to other roses.” The fox skipped down the path. “But now you’re here.”
“Does that make a difference?”
“I’m still a fox aren’t I?”
“What’s your name?”
It turned and grinned. “That would be telling.”
The two of them came to the edge of a dark forest, with ugly trees and thorny vines and unkempt growth. The path led straight through it.
“Do you want to keep going?”
“Is there another way?”
“I suppose there would be if you could fly.” Fox crossed the edge of the forest. “Coming?”
They walked through the dense woods for some time until coming upon a small clearing was a large white rat, addressing a circle of other rodents. A brown mouse, a smaller gray rat, a large squirrel and some other rodent he couldn’t identify.
“What’s going on?” he asked the fox.
“The white rat is trying to get them to attack the roses for him.”
“Will they?”
“Only if he bites them hard enough. Are you coming, or would you like to stay here?”
“I’m coming.”
It looked at him and sighed. “No you aren’t, you’re stuck in the quicksand. It seems I’m not a very good guide after all.”
He looked down; he was indeed sinking fast in quicksand.
Then three large ravens swooped from the sky and attacked the fox. He struggled to help. He grabbed a branch with his tongue and pulled himself off, then waved the ravens away with a hand.
“Thank you,” the fox said. “Look, we’ve come to the end of the forest.”
“That wasn’t so hard.”
“Oh dear, perhaps you shouldn’t have said that,” At those words a thousand more hideous ravens swooped down and carried the fox away.
The alarm clock rang and Todd sat straight up in bed and turned it off. He ran a hand through his hair and blinked several times.
“That was some crazy dream yo,” he said to himself. He glanced at the clock. Time to get ready for school, joy. He yawned and dismissed the already fading dream. He didn’t even want to try to sort it all out.
He pulled on a sweatshirt, a pair of black jeans and his goggles. He ran a comb through his hair but all that did was make even more of it stick up than usual. He ran his hand through it and got it back to normal. He grabbed his book bag from the corner, which held his still undone homework, and left the room.
He spotted Ebony coming from her room. Her hair was wet; she must have gotten up earlier than he did. She saw him.
“G’morning Todd!” she chimed running up and hugging him.
“Mornin’ yo,” he kissed her quickly. “Sleep well?”
“Okay. You?”
“I had this funky dream yo. I was in this box an’ then there was this talkin’ fox an’ a bunch a evil roses an these forest rats. I don’t really remember much about it yo.”
“That’s weird. C’mon let’s go eat something.”
The dining room and kitchen were packed as always on school mornings. Todd thought he saw Pietro drinking a cup of coffee. Well, whoever’d let him have it would learn real fast.
They were eating when Lance came around. “Hey Todd. The Prof’s letting me borrow a car, you two want a ride?”
Todd looked at Ebony who looked around for Remy. He was nowhere to be seen. She shrugged.
“Sure,” he replied.
***
School was utterly normal; moving into the Institute had caused no great revelation of peace for any of them. Both sides still sat at separate tables and snapped at each other in the hallways
The day did however, herald a something new for Ebony, well new for this school at least.
“May I please see your homework Kimberly?” Mrs. S hovered above her like a vulture ready to strike.
“Um, I left it at home?” she made a big, ‘I’m really sorry’ teary eyed face.
The teacher sighed. “This is what, your third weak here Kim? And out of twelve homework assignments you have turned in three. I’m very disappointed with you. You’re a bright girl and you are letting that go to waste. Could you at least tell me WHY you feel the need to never have your homework?”
Her eyes now really filled with tears. One thing Ebony really hated was having teachers upset with her. It made her feel bad and she didn’t even know why.
“I’m sorry Mrs.-“
“I’m afraid that sorry isn’t going to work this time. You will report to detention this afternoon.” She turned and walked away.
She nodded and swallowed back tears.
“Don’ worry ’bout it, I’ll take care a it,” Todd muttered from the desk beside hers.
He pulled out his notebook and ripped out four pages. The first two he deftly folded into sleek paper airplanes, the second two he ripped into tiny confetti like pieces and put into the fold of the planes. Ebony looked at him quizzically. He grinned.
The first airplane he threw so that it went in a straight line across the classroom dumping shreds of paper on all the students it passed. The second he threw so that it didn’t jettison its load until it was directly above Mrs. S.
“Detention Mr. Tolensky,” she growled brushing the paper from her hair and going back to her notes.
Ebony peered at him. “I’m sorry now you’ve got detention too,” she whispered.
“That was the whole point yo. We’ll really get her back tomorrow.”
***
In his office Principal Kelly’s phone rang.
“Hello? .Yes I am.I’m aware of that just a minute, who are you? .Oh, oh I see well in that case.” his thin lips curled into a tight smile. “Yes, I’d appreciate that very of them you say? .That should days time? I’ll make sure everything is in I know we both want to clear up this describes them quite aptly. You’ll be in touch I assume? Good. Good , to business.” He hung up the phone an satisfied expression crossing his face.
***
Detention was boring; the monitor had watched the small group of ‘delinquents’ like a hawk. Ebony and Todd hadn’t even been able to pass a note.
When the hour of deadly boredom finally ended they practically flew from the classroom.
“Wow, after two months I’d almost forgotten how boring that is,” Ebony bit her lip. “Shoot.”
“What, yo?”
“We have no ride home; nobody but us was after school today.”
“Great, so we have to walk home. Must be twenty below out there yo.” He pouted, leaning against somebody’s locker.
She thought a moment. “Well, when I go shadow I can’t feel heat or cold.”
“Well that solves your problem.”
“I can bring you with me, silly. But.I can’t guarantee that we won’t get lost.”
He shrugged. “Too cold to worry ’bout sumpthin’ like that.”
She nodded. “Okay, .”
“What now yo?”
“Your clothes. I can’t bring inanimate stuff. I’ll have to make you shadow copies and you can leave your stuff in your locker. Is that okay?”
“Sure.”
She looked at him and in her hands formed likenesses of each of his articles of clothing, from his shirt to pants to shoes. She handed them to him. “Why don’t you go in the bathroom and change?”
When he returned Ebony had to admit that he looked rather mysteriously dashing in all black.
The two of them made their way from the nearly deserted high school. Outside it was bitterly cold and windy and there were piles of snow as high as Ebony’s shoulder, somewhere around four feet high.
She looked about to make sure there was no one watching. “Okay, take my hand.” Tentatively he did so, his webbed fingers clasping her delicate ones.
She closed her eyes.
“Yo, this ain’t gonna hurt is it?”
“No.” She took a breath; depth lost track of their whereabouts.
It was like nothing Todd had ever felt before. The closest way it could be described is to say that it was like being run over by a steamroller in zero gravity and even that is so far off its laughable.
When the transition was over with and he became aware of anything again his senses were boggled by what they told him. Everything was flat, featureless and a varying degree of black. He looked down at himself and saw only darkness.
: Don’t let go of my hand: Ebony ‘said’ to him, though there was no sound. : Wow, I was wondering how we’d communicate:
: This place is weird yo:
On a whim she waxed poetic. : It is a place of void. For darkness is nothing, a lack of light only. We no longer exist, we are without being. I am the daughter of absence:
:’Ats creepy yo. Are we gonna get goin’:
She nodded. : This may feel odd, I’m going to dilute our images so people don’t weird out at the sight of ownerless shadows:
She spread their existence across a gray area and they began to swiftly flicker towards the Institute.
Thankfully they did not get lost and Ebony brought them back into physical space on the front steps of the mansion. There was an unfamiliar car in the driveway.
“That was weird yo. Cool, but definitely weird.” He shook his head. They walked in.
Xavier was waiting for them. “Ebony, you’ve got a visitor waiting in your room.”
She nodded puzzled and walked upstairs, not waiting for him to tell her who it was. She opened the door.
Sitting on her bed was a woman of just above average height. She had a full- featured face with large pouting lips generously applied with deep red lipstick. Her eyes sported green eye shadow and thick mascara; her cheekbones were rouged to make them appear higher. The concealor and anti- aging creams couldn’t hide the wrinkles that were beginning to form beneath them. She wore a fashionable white blouse and miniskirt with pantyhose and tiny high heels. She wore too many gold bracelets and had a gold wedding band on one of her rather gaunt fingers. Her hair was blonde and permed and would soon need to be dyed to prevent brown roots from showing. She was smoking.
“Mother?” Ebony took a step back from Angela Lawrence-Trufire.
“Long time no see, kid.” She took a drag off her cigarette. “Nice place ya conned your way into.”
Ebony’s expression darkened and she shut the door. But she stayed standing. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for my runaway daughter, that’s what.”
“No daughter of yours is a mutie freak, remember?” she asked coldly.
“Attack me for feeling like I’ve failed my daughter, that’s right. I was worried about your well being, Kim.”
“You were worried about your social status mother, admit it. What did you come here for?” she glared.
“Don’t you dare take that tone with me Kimberly Trufire!” she snapped. “I came to tell you that your father and I are willing to take you back and this is how you treat me, your mother?”
“Take me back? As far as I recall, I left on my own.” She regarded her mother carefully. “What’s the catch?”
“To what?”
“Taking me back.”
“Your father and I have located a doctor who seems to be able to treat mutantcy. We want you to see him.”
Ebony nearly choked. “You want to take me back just so you can force me to see some quack who claims that he can purge my DNA structure of a genetic variance, a genetic superiority, even. Sorry ‘mom’ no dice.”
“Why you ungrateful – I could call the police you know. Have you outta here and anywhere I want in-“
“As if the police could catch me. That’s what started all this, remember? When they tried to pick me up for theft.” She grinned smugly. “Face it, I like, no I love being a mutant.”
“You love being a freak of nature.”
Someone knocked on the door, “Yo, Eb, who’s your visitor?”
Ebony felt a delicious sense of nasty irony, of poetic justice, or maybe just poetic vengeance, rising within her. “C’mon in, I want you to meet her.”
The door opened and he entered the room.
“What is that, that Thing?” her mother demanded.
She grinned wickedly and Todd looked confused. “Todd, this is, rather unfortunately, my mother. ‘Mom’ I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Todd Tolensky. They call him the Toad.”
“Your what!? That is it young lady! I take back everything I said. There is no help for you! Consider us through!” She got up swiftly. “As of now, Kimberly Lily Trufire, you have no mother.”
“Fine with me,” she said as the woman left the room, “Oh and Angela, my name’s Ebony.”
When the woman was gone Todd looked at her. “That was your mom, yo?”
“Nope, you heard lady. I have no mother.” She smiled ruefully. “Some boyfriend you are too, you haven’t even kissed me since this morning.” She crossed her arms and pouted.
He swung her gently against the wall and kissed her. “That better yo?”
“Much,” she turned from the room. “C’mon, I need to ask the professor a favor.”
She found Xavier downstairs.
“Professor? Can I ask you a favor?”
“Certainly.”
“If she comes around here again, don’t let her in.”
~
Well, what do you think was it a decent chapter to get the plot ball rolling again? What about the dream sequence? And Ebony’s ‘mom’.
Review me! Next chapter, Ebony and Todd swap origin stories! You don’t want to miss it! Ebony’s mom has no basis in real life whatsoever. I love my mommy!
Chapter 16: The Long and Twisted Path
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Something I’ve been wanting to write for a while, Ebony’s origin story and my take on Todd’s past, sorry if it doesn’t agree with your version.
Disclaimer: As though I had the money to buy the rights to X-Men. *shakes head* Honestly.
Chapter Long and Twisted Path (Part 1)
Ebony lay stretched out on the couch idly. She sighed.
“‘S wrong Eb?” Todd asked looking up.
“She didn’t used to be like that you know. At least, it wasn’t so obvious that she hated me.”
He knew she was talking about her mother. “What did she used to act like?”
“I really don’t know if I want to talk about it..”
“C’mon yo. I know so little about you. I mean, what was your life like before? How did you find out about your powers for the first time?”
“I don’t know much about you either Froggy.”
He thought for a moment. “So why don’t we swap stories yo. You tell yours then I’ll tell mine.”
“I don’t ‘ll sound like a sob story.”
“So? You think my life’s all sunshine an’ roses yo?”
She bit her lip. ” only if you absolutely promise to tell me about you afterwards, no chickening out.”
He nodded.
She drew breath and began.
***
I was born in a little suburb in Michigan to a couple who already had a bright six year old little boy. My parents’ names were Angela and Jonathan; my older brother was Shane. We had a house, nothing big but I always had my own room. Maybe that’s how it started.
I was a loner from the first. My parents had only recently moved from Washington, so they didn’t know anyone in the area and they didn’t belong to any church groups. I really didn’t get a chance to associate with other children until I started kindergarten. My brother was always too busy to play with me. I watched a lot of television or played little pretend games by myself.
When I did start kindergarten I was very quiet and didn’t really talk to anyone else. My teacher called my parents and it was determined that I needed to play with others more. With their pressure I tried to talk to other little kids, but by this time I had a Reputation. No one would talk to me. The girls said I was weird, the boys of course thought that I had cooties. Like I cared anyway. But my parents were adamant that I make friends. So I smiled more and made sure I was standing next to someone whenever the teacher looked over during playtime.
For the first few years I had good grades. Imaginative, the teachers called me, and exceptionally bright.
Both my grades and my social habits continued through fifth grade. Then as work got more serious and they started assigning real homework my grades started to drop. Lack of effort, the teachers said, wasting talent. I just didn’t care. Also during this time girls started having sleepovers and congregating in groups, and talking about boys. I stayed by myself with a book, a comic, TV, or just a daydream. I stopped bothering even to try to talk to anyone at lunch.
Seventh grade showed a sharp drop in my grades but a seeming increase in my social skills. It was the first time I failed a class or had a best friend.
Maryanne was just like me. We knew the same books and shows we liked the same foods. It was her that started calling me Ebony, she, the beautiful blonde was Ivory. We were too good for our normal names.
We would hang out together after school and pretend to be princesses or knights or bandits, or all three at once. Sure it was a little immature, who cared. After a month or two we even started really being bandits; it made it easier to buy comics. My parents thought she was a bad influence, but they let me see her because hey were relived that I was associating with anyone. Not that they knew about the stealing at that point.
But it didn’t last, Ivory, my other half was killed by a drunk driver only seven months after we met. I sank into a deep dark pit of depression. For three months I ate practically nothing, did practically nothing and barely spoke a word. I hardly ever left my room except to go to school. It was the middle of eighth grade when I couldn’t take it anymore.
It was the middle of math class; I raised my hand and asked to be excused to the bathroom. The teacher nodded.
I trudged grimly to the bathroom carrying my purse. The stall locks were all broken but I managed painstakingly to wedge the door closed.
I sat on the edge of the toilet, opened my purse and took out the gleaming object. I bit my lip and dragged the razorblade across my wrists, whimpering softly and biting back tears.
Something was wrong as I watched the blood flow from the slits in her wrists. There was no promised crimson freedom; the blood that seeped from me was black. I passed out.
I found out later that it was Gina Parry who discovered me in time. I would have hated her for it if it wasn’t for the fact that we were already bitter enemies. I wondered why she’d said anything. All she would have had to do was leave without telling anyone and I’d be dead. I wished she had left me.
When I woke in the hospital they told me it was a miracle that the door had swung open so that the girl had seen me sprawled on the floor. Gina hadn’t even realized what exactly had happened; not recognizing the blood she’d assumed I’d just passed out. It was a good thing she thought to get the teacher, they said.
They had been running blood tests to see why my blood was black. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Abnormal pigmentation, they told my parents. Nothing to worry about. They suggested counseling for my depression. My parents agreed.
I put on an act for the counselor and managed to get away with only three sessions and no zombie medication.
Afterward I started wandering the streets after school. I’d tell my parents that I was going to an unspecified friend’s house. One rainy afternoon I found myself in the graveyard. It started pouring so I sought shelter in the disused grave keeper’s house. This would be a perfect clubhouse I thought upon entering it. But a club has more than one person. This was my lair, Ebony’s lair. Ebony of the black blood.
I stepped up my theft rate in order to furnish the place. It went quite well for several weeks until I tried to grab the wallet of an undercover cop. He started chasing me down the street. He had his gun.
I panicked. Please someone! I pleaded with the gods; did you save me before just so I could die at hands of an angry donut muncher?
I slipped in a puddle and fell, I thought it was the shock of the pavement that disoriented me, or maybe I’d been shot. When I opened my eyes and everything was black.
Am I dead? Is this heaven or hell? Or purgatory? It looks familiar. Somehow I recognized where I was. Maybe it was the form of the lamppost maybe it was the silhouette of the cop picking a pile of something up to examine it. Anyhow I realized that somehow I had become a shadow. Now I really was Ebony; I was darkness. The question was, was I stuck like this? How had it happened? Why me? How was I different?
I managed to get to the graveyard. I concentrated. I want to be real again I thought. Give me form. After a moment of hard concentrating I felt a sharp change. I opened my eyes. I was standing in the middle of the graveyard in the darkness, in the nude. But I was in full form again. It was February and freezing. Luckily there was no one around. I went into my Lair where I had a spare set of clothes.
I sat down on the beanbag chair I had brought and set myself to pondering. I wished that Ivory were here. She would have known what was going on.
I thought about all the ways young girls could possibly receive special powers. I hadn’t been exposed to any radiation that I knew of, and if I was the reincarnation of an ancient princess it was news to me. After a while of wondering I remembered an article Ivory had shown me the year before in a science magazine. ‘Mutants: Science Fact or Science Fiction?’ was its title. It was about how supposedly some people were developing strange abilities as they hit adolescence due to a genetic mutation. Things like telekinesis or super strength or rabbit ears. It was supposedly the next step in human evolution. The scientists were all busy trying to classify the phenomena as a hoax like Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster.
So I was a mutant. I smiled: the gods had finally answered my prayers. I wasn’t just weird anymore. I was special, powerful; I had a good reason to be an outcast.
It was late, I decided it was time that I got back home. So I started walking back under the moonlight all the while pondering my new powers. How long would it take me to control them? Was there anything else I could do?
I returned home to a very unpleasant sight, a cop car in my driveway. I realized that my student ID had been in my jeans pocket. I almost just turned around and left, but instead I took a deep breath and headed inside.
The donut muncher from before was drinking coffee and looking very, very shaken, with my parents who were drinking tea and looking really angry.
I prayed that the cop had felt too foolish to say anything about my disappearing act; after all who would believe that I had simply disappeared leaving my clothes behind?
Thankfully he had acted as I hoped. He claimed that he grabbed my jacket but I’d gotten away. My ID had been in the jacket pocket. I got off with a warning, crying and telling them that someone at school had dared me to. I’d never do it again. Yeah right, I’d just be more careful.
I was grounded for the rest of the school year. That didn’t bother me; I was riding high on a power trip. I spent the time in my room with the door locked, practicing until I could change to shadow and back at will. But try as I might I couldn’t get past the fact that I couldn’t take anything with me, not even my clothes.
I experimented. I discovered that when I was in the shadow realm I could manipulate objects, their shadows at least, without touching them. I wondered if I could do it without being in shadow mode, while not exactly practical it might be nice to creep people out. I lit a candle and held my hand over it, casting a shadow on the ceiling. I looked up at it and willed it to move. It waved, and I hadn’t moved my hand. But that didn’t solve my attire problem.
I stumbled on the answer by accident. I had forgotten to lock the door: I only barely noticed it opening in time. I returned to the third dimension, but hadn’t let go of the bit of shadow I was touching. A strange black liquid splashed on my blanket.
‘What are you doing?’ my mom asked. I told her I was getting ready for bed. She asked what the liquid was. Spilled my coke, I lied quickly. She nodded telling me to clean it up and left. I locked the door.
I looked at the contained black puddle. Liquid shadow, I thought. If I can manipulate it in its own realm, why not this one? I looked at it. Mentally I formed it into a ball and floated it to me. It felt sticky. What is it? I thought. Beads of sweat formed near my temples from the new concentration. What is it? Can I do anything with it? Shadows all look the same. Maybe.
I glared at it, willing it to solidify. It did, becoming so heavy I could barely lift it. Lighter! I thought urgently, it needs to be lighter! It became so, light as a bubble. I leaned on my bedpost, panting. Feeling the wood on my bare arm must have triggered a subconscious thought. The black ball became a ball of black wood.
That’s odd. I thought. Is it just wood? I touched my sheet and commanded it to change. I held a ball of cloth. I grinned returning it to its liquid form. I took hold of it, stretched, and squished it in my hands. I had an idea. I picked up my shirt, thought about every aspect of it projecting the form onto the transitional material of shadow. Now I had a black shirt. The question was; would it travel with me? No reason it shouldn’t. I put it on and melted into shadow. I then returned to third, I was still wearing the shirt. Score! I had solve the attire issue and gotten a very useful power in the process. I grinned. I could create stuff. Simple stuff anyway, through trial and error I found that I could only create things made of one or two substances. If I wanted to make, say a TV, I would have to know exactly what made of which went where, and it would be black anyway. Everything I made was black.
Over the summer I managed to keep my powers under wraps. I hung out at the cemetery mostly. My parents commented on the fact that I’d started wearing all black I told them that it was for Ivory. They seemed to accept that. I told the same thing to my teachers and the other students when I started school again in September, only five months ago. I cared even less about my grades now and it showed.
My parents and I had I fight about it when my second report card came in the end of November. You used to be such a wonderful student, they said. What happened? They demanded. At first I didn’t say anything. Then they really started yelling.
That girl Maryanne messed you up! They proclaimed. They called her a bad influence and things I won’t repeat. Better off dead, they said.
I sort of snapped. She was a better person than they’d ever be, I’d yelled. I went on a rant. I started throwing shadow stones around the room. They were the ones better off dead.
My parents gaped. My mother nearly fainted. My dad grabbed me. They’d heard about mutants. It had been on the news recently.
After a bit more screaming of names my father locked me in my room. He went to call the hospital. I was raging. I wasn’t going to take it anymore. I’d had enough of my filthy bigoted parents, I’d had enough of my nasty socialite girls’ school, and I’d definitely had enough of psychotic doctors, counselors and anyone else who supposedly knew what was ‘wrong’ with me. I didn’t think twice about it. I turned shadow and slipped under the door and out the house, right past the ambulances and police cars pulling up.
I lived at the graveyard. No one ever knew that was where I stayed; it had been my closest guarded secret, more closely than I’d guarded my powers even. I only came out at night in order to get money for food or slip in an out of a closed mini mart.
After a while I guess my powers showed up on Cerebro because three weeks ago my Lair was invaded by Scott Summers and the ‘You Too Can Be A Mutant Drone’ gang. I listened to the pitch. I almost didn’t go, but I thought it might be cool to meet other mutants, people who would maybe understand me. And hey, I could always leave if I wanted. I realized how much I hated Michigan. I went with them.
***
“And the rest is obvious,” Ebony concluded.
“Jeesh, that’s rougher than I thought. Can’t believe that happened to your best friend yo.”
“Tell me about it.” She smiled grimly. “I bet Ivory would have been a mutant if she’d lived longer.”
“Yeah, she sounds awesome yo. I woulda liked ta meet her. She an’ Max woulda probably gotten along real well.”
“Who’s Max, by the way?”
“Well, do you want me ta tell my story in order or just have a question an answer?”
She smiled. “Begin at the beginning, and when you come to the end, stop.”
“Sure yo. Once upon a time.”
~
Next chapter, Todd’s life story, need I say more? Oh wait, REVIEW ME!
Chapter 17: The Long and Twisted Path Part 2
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Todd’s past for the purposes of Darwinian Rhapsody. If you don’t like it, too bad! As a writer history is mine to command! Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Disclaimer: .well, I own Ebony and I own Max, but not really anybody else.
Chapter Long and Twisted Path (part 2)
“Well, do you want me ta tell my story in order or just have a question an answer?”
She smiled. “Begin at the beginning, and when you come to the end, stop.”
“Sure yo. Once upon a time.”
***
.there was a happy couple, name a Thomas an’ Linda, got married right outta high school. Real fairytale love story y’know? They moved into an apartment together an a few years later they had a kid. Unfortunately things went downhill from there.
Turns out neither of ’em liked how the other one was turnin’ out. Not how they remembered each other from school. She thought he’d change he thought she’d say the same. The same old story. So they did what all modern couples did, cheated on each other for a few years before the yellin’ got so bad they practically had to file for divorce in sign language.
They fought each other tooth an’ nail for every last stick a furniture an’ anything else. Last thing they fought over was the kid, a cute little four- year-old with chubby cheeks. Most couples fight over who gets ta keep the kid, my parents fought over who had to keep me. In the end they took the easy way out, dumpin’ me off at the local orphanage. Far as I know it was the last thing they ever agreed on.
It wadn’t so bad at first, they treat little kids pretty well in them kinda places, course none a the other kids liked me an’ I missed my mom an’ dad but I guessed there had ta be worse things. Found out I was right two years later.
At age six I got put in a foster home wit a couple named Peter an’ Connie an’ their little boy who was about eight years old a the time. Little Robby thought it was a lot a’ fun to push around Mommy an’ Daddy’s new little angel. Course he only did that in school.
On the playground Robby led a band of bullies gettin’ an early start on their careers. Their favorite sport was a course ‘beat Toad inta the ground.’ If any teachers saw we was playin’ cops an’ robbers an’ if I happened ta say otherwise I’d get it worse the next day. Needless to say I had to take it, what was one kindergartner against four or five second graders?
An’ I couldn’t say anything ta my foster parents cuz ya know Robby was their angel an’ I was jus some kid they was raisin’ outta the goodness a’ their hearts. I was smart enough ta know that if I put a toe outta line it was back to the orphanage.
Even with me on my best behavior it didn’t last too long. With Robby around I couldn’t really concentrate so my grades was bad an’ I told em that I fell down a lot ta cover up for my bruises. I had no friends cuz anybody seen associating with me got it from Robby an’ the goon patrol. They came to the conclusion that I was stupid. The final straw was when good ol’ Robby came in cryin’ an’ sayin’ I was hittin’ him, which was something I woulda only dreamed about. They took me back to the orphanage that same night.
I was eight now an’ old enough to realize that I was never gonna have any friends an’ might as well stop tryin’. First time I swiped somethin’ was ta get back at somebody for a name they’d called me. I picked it up as my new hobby. Stuff started disapearin’ an the orphanage people got suspicious. After a long investigation they found the stuff in my possession. They packed me off to the center for Juvenile Delinquents, place for boys who’d done everything from shoplift to break faces to run away from home. They didn’t let you out until you were eighteen, unless it was requested by a parent or guardian.
At nine I was a small fry in Juvie: sure there were plenty a’ kids my age but I was the short skinny kid who didn’t have any parents at all. For the first month and a half I had absolutely no friends yet again and I still got beat up on a daily basis.
They had us bunked five kids to a room; age wasn’t a factor just wherever they felt like puttin’ you when ya got there. at the time I only had three other kids bunked wit me, two older kids an’ a younger. The two bigger ones a course made me their favorite sport.
‘Bout two months since I’d gotten there I was comin’ back ta the bunk after eatin’ my lunch an’ getting’ outta the mess hall before my tormenters started throwin’ food at me.
I met a surprise when I entered; some kid was sittin’ on the extra bed, the one the older kids claimed for themselves. He was kinda stringy but taller than I was. He had black hair an’ looked Hispanic or Italian or somethin’.
“You can’t sit there!” I told him.
“Oh, sorry, is this bed yours?” he made to move.
“No, but Eric doesn’t let anybody else on the extra cot.”
“Ain’t extra no more yo. Looks like me an’ you are roommates.” The boy grinned. “Name’s Maximilian Leon. Call me Max. Who’re you?”
“Um, I’m Todd, Todd Tolensky,” an really surprised you’re speakin’ to me, I thought.
“How’d you wind up in a place like this?”
“Stealin’ stuff.”
“Ah, a not so artful Dodger, shame, shame.” He grinned. “I ran away and joined the circus, but my parents caught me.”
Y’know, I found out later that he never really joined the circus. I had thought he was awful young for that sorta thing, but Max never acted his age. Older or younger, but never his age. What he was really I for was his parents couldn’t handle his rambunctious nature and chronic lying.
“Really? That’s cool!” I said. “What did you do at the circus?”
“Oh lotsa stuff. I learned to tame lions and I can ride an elephant. I can juggle and I can do all sorts of acrobatics.” He grinned proudly.
“Cool. Can you show me?”
“Sure.” He took a few colored balls from his backpack and began to juggle them expertly. I wonder where he really learned it.
Then the other boys returned from lunch. “Hey snot nose, who’s that you’re talking to?” he turned to Max, “You can’t sit there fag, that’s my bed.”
“Nope. S’mine now. You must be Eric.”
“Yeah, who’re you?” Eric leered. “And what are you doing?”
“Max Leon, I’m juggling, think fast.” He tossed the balls in quick succession so that each one hit the bully over the head before he had time to react.
“Hey!”
“Warned you, guess you don’t think fast enough.”
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. With Max around I didn’t get beaten up much anymore. We became prank terrors; boys would go running at the call of ‘Look out man, its Leon and Tolensky!’ Of course it was Max who called the shots but I was more than happy to follow his lead. He told me about himself, that he was eleven and about the circus, and taught me a few things that he had ‘learned there’.
I felt embarrassed at having such a boring life compared to his, so I told him that my Dad was on America’s Most Wanted list for killing my mom and a bunch of other people. I told him I’d barely escaped with my life. By a year later both knew that the other’s story wasn’t true, but we didn’t care and kept them up anyway.
It went on happily for four years. The administration even gave us our own bunk after a while, since everybody was complainin’. Then I hit thirteen.
I woke up with a groan of protest. Max looked over.
“You sick Todd m’man? Ya look a little green yo.”
“I don’ feel so great neither.”
He walked over. “No fever man, ya feel pretty cool actually. Stick out your tongue yo.”
I attempted to. Then it happened for the first time. My tongue musta shot like six feet outta my mouth. Scared the hell outta me.
Max stared. “How did you?”
I’ll admit my eyes musta been as big as saucers. “I, I donno, yo. Just happened.”
“Do it again.”
I shook my head, clasping my hands over my mouth. Then I noticed my hands; my fingers had become webbed. I whimpered. “What’s happened to me?”
“I donno but its cool.”
“Cool? I’m some kinda freak.” I pulled the pillow over my head. “Don’ look at me.”
He sat on the edge of my bed. He poked me in the side. “C’mon man, it ain’t that bad, s’kinda cool.”
“Easy for you too say, you ain’t the freak.” I moved to get up and found that I leapt easily like six feet into the air without even tryin’ an’ landed in my trademark pose for the first time.
“Now, that, right there, that was cool,” I admitted.
“Wow; that was like six feet.”
“That was nothin’ I bet I could jump way higher.”
Max looked around. “No room in here, let’s go outside for a minute.”
Max chased everyone out of the courtyard and I leapt as high as I could. Turned out to be at least twenty feet straight up.
“See? I told you it was cool,” Max assured me.
“Yeah, but I still look like a freak.” I sat down on the ground an looked at my hand. “Like some kinda frog guy or sumthin’.”
“Nah, a Toad, get it? Todd, Toad?”
“Funny.” A fly buzzed around my head, my body reacted before my mind did. My tongue darted from my mouth an’ caught it; I swallowed. My senses told me it tasted fine and that there was nothing wrong. But my mind recoiled. I’m ashamed ta say it but I broke down cryin’ right there.
“C’mon Todd m’man, don’t do this to me. So you ate a bug. National Geographic says they eat bugs all the time in India. Things could be worse.”
“How?” I sobbed.
He thought a moment; “You could be locked in a deep dark cave with no one to talk to but yourself slowly being driven mad by an unknown force.”
“An’ who says I ain’t, metaphorically speaking?”
“I do, because I’m here an you can talk to me.” he adopted the manner of a cliché psychiatrist, stroking his chin and saying, ” Zo, tell me vhat iz wrong, yes?”
“I look like the thing from the black lagoon, that’s what.”
” No, no, no. Ze thing from ze black Lagoon vas covered in seaweed.”
“How come I’m turnin’ inta somethin’ weird an’ you ain’t?”
“I sink ze problem may be psychological, let us begin. Tell me, do you ever think about girls?”
I looked at him like he’s lost his mind. “What’s that got to do with it?”
“Humor me.”
“.not, really.” Keep in mind I hadn’t even seen a girl since I was eight.
“Vhat about boys, hmmm?”
“No!” I turned bright red.
He nodded. “Your reaction iz normal. Perhaps ze problem lies with your mother.”
“This is dumb yo. I’m turning into a human Toad and you’re askin’ me all kinds of weird questions.”
Max shook his head and dropped the fake accent. “Maybe you’re really from another planet, like superman or somethin’. He didn’t develop his powers until he was about your age.”
“Maybe.” I sighed. “Everybody’s gonna laugh at me.”
“So? It didn’t bother you before, why now?” he punched me in the shoulder. “C’mon man, let’s get back inside. Did I mention you need a shower?”
Things continued as normally as could be expected for about a year, yeah I got laughed at even more but whatever. Then about a year ago I got an unexpected visit. They told me my father was here to see me.
I was amazed, my father, who I hadn’t seen in ten years, was here to talk to me? I went into a closed room with him.
Almost needless to say it wasn’t my dad. It was Mystique. After my initial shock she explained that I was a mutant, and that there were others with special gifts like mine. She said she’d get me out of here so that I could help mutants take their rightful place in the world. She promised fame, money, power, all that and a bag of chips. Stupidly I ate it up. I agreed to go with her and meet her Lord Magneto. One of the stupider decisions I’ve made in my life.
I went back to my room to get my stuff. I told Max everything she’d said.
“So you’re leavin’ then?”
“I guess so. I mean, I don’ wanna leave you here by yourself or nothin'”
He shook his head. “Ya gotta follow your destiny Todd m’man. I’ll be outta here in just two years. Tell me where you’re goin’ an I’ll look you up when I get out.”
“She said we were goin’ ta Bayville. But aren’t ya gonna join the circus when ya get out?” I grinned at the old joke lifting the backpack which held all my worldly possessions.
He grinned back. “Nah, I’m thinkin’ about joinin’ a rock group instead, backup singer first but maybe I can make lead vocalist.”
That was another thing about Max, he loved singin’ an as far as I could tell he had a great voice. “Well, see ya then Max.” I turned to go.
“Hold on a sec Toady.” I turned around. “Ya thinkin’ about girls yet?”
I shrugged and he tossed me something, two somethings in fact.
Two black spiked wrist cuffs that he’d worn the entire time I’d know him. “I can’t take these, Max, they’re yours.”
“Don’t go getting any ideas, I’ll want ’em back next time I see ya.” He waved. “Now get outta here while I’ll still let ya.”
***
“And ya pretty much know the rest,” Todd concluded.
“So that’s why you wear them all the time, I kinda wondered. You were right, Max and Ivory probably would have gotten along pretty well.” Ebony smiled wistfully. “I can’t believe neither of your parents wanted you, I mean at four? That’s awful.”
“Eh, I’d a probably turned out all wrong anyway, parents aren’t my style yo.”
“So has Max gotten out of Juvie yet? He said he’d come see you right?”
“Not yet, he’s eighteen this year but his birthday ain’t till April.”
“I wanna meet him, he sounds funny. It’s too bad he’s not a mutant.”
Todd shrugged. “Ya never know, sometimes powers manifest late. Anything on TV yet?”
“Not unless you want to watch Spanish soap operas.” She looked at him and a Cheshire smile graced her lips. “Hey Todd, ever think about girls?”
He pounced on her. “Jus’ you.”
~
Well, there it is folks, Todd’s back-story. What do ya think? What about Max? Heh, he’ll show up eventually in the actual story but not for a while yet. Next chapter a few days later. There’s another new kid in school, three new kids in fact. Who are they? Why are they making friends with the X-Men? Think about the plot thread. I’ll tell you their names ahead of time. Gabriel, Hunter and Arachne.
Chapter 18: By the Pricking of My Thumbs
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: REVIEWS! Mwahaha! HA! Mwa I say!
Queenducky: Yeah, I needed an outlet for the Olde Englishe bug I had been bitten by. Straws don’t damage your you light them.
Wizardess: It was sweet, wasn’t it? If a little OoC. Glad somebody got the dream, as to the fox’s identity? ‘I was contemplating becoming a rose. there was no one to talk to, but now you’re here.’ See after reviews for full explanation. I like being clever, it helps me feel less like I’m in a box.
Red Witch: Not quite repressed memories, more like symbolism. Analyze analyze analyze is what I always say. Look for the deeper meaning. Like the Jane Eyre tree, only less so. Unfortunately Ebony’s mom is going to be around a while longer.
Todd Fan: Yeah, poor Ebs. Glad you were able to appreciate my take on the Toddster’s past. I’m still trying to figure out if his or Ebony’s is more tragic.
VirgoMoon: Rogue is my favorite character too. Well, my favorite female character, but my favorite female character in anything, not just X-Men. I usually identify more with male side characters for some odd reason.
Akasha: Thanks, I feel lots better, I hope you do too! ^.^
Hids: Remy and Rogue are my favorite couple in the multiverse, unfortunately they aren’t the main plot in this. They are a frequent sub plot though. You started to tear up? ‘t insult cows! Ebony’s mom I wouldn’t even compare to a pig! Yes it is Kurt’s own fault he’s not with Ebony, he may feel worse about that after a few more things happen I turn you into a Todd fan? Go me! Thanks, I’m sure I have a scrap of talent around here somewhere.
Jeremiah bullfrog: I like olde englishe. Methinks yon world must needs speak in it’s courtly tongue. You’re the second person I’ve brought to tears in two chapters, maybe I should start including a box of Kleenex with every post.
Okay, some of you have been asking about the dream. I will explain it, but only the parts that I felt should be obvious. The mysterious parts must stay a mystery unless you puzzle them out. Todd trapped in the shrinking box is a metaphor for the way he feels about life. The fox showed him the way out of the box that he couldn’t see himself. The field of flowers represents the world at large with the roses being the X-peeps specifically. The fox was considering becoming a rose until it met Todd. It agrees to try to lead him but doesn’t make any guarantees. The forest is the other side of life with the rodents as the brotherhood, Magneto being the rat. He has to bite them to get them to do what he wants, causing them bitterness. Todd wants to leave bitterness and anger behind but something is stopping him which almost gets the fox killed.
And that’s all I’ll tell you, put your brain to some good use during math class and puzzle the rest out. In this chapter three new students arrive, who are they and why does one seem familiar?
Disclaimer: I own four characters in this chapter, the main character Ebony, and the three new characters, Gabriel, Hunter and Arachne. That’s it. All teachers belong to themselves; all other characters belong to Marvel.
Chapter the Pricking of my Thumbs.
When Ebony walked into the Cafeteria for her first period study hall on Thursday she saw someone new was sitting at her table. Someone new and startlingly familiar. The girl was tall and slender with no chest to speak of. She had a fair complexion and silver blonde hair cropped boy style around her face. She wore a ruffled white shirt and pale blue jeans.
“I-Ivory?” Ebony stuttered before she could stop herself.
The girl looked up. “I’m sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else.” Her voice was quiet and gentle. She smiled. “My name’s Arachne, I’m new here.”
She nodded silently; of course it wasn’t her best friend Ivory. She had been dead for two years now. Ebony felt the blood burn in her cheeks, how could she have thought? But she looks just like . She bit her lip to hold her emotions in check.
“Am I at your table? I’ll move if you like.” Her tone was sedate
She shook her head. “No, that’s alright. I’m Eb-, my name’s Kimberly. Sorry, you just, look a lot like someone I knew.” Too much like her. But the way you’re looking at me is just the opposite.
“Really?” Arachne brushed the near colorless hair from her face, revealing gray eyes and a thin scar running across her left cheekbone. Her eyes are so cold, Ebony thought. Like steel. And where did she get that scar?
She nodded. “Where are you from?”
“Maine, my brothers and I just started school here today.” There was something strange in the way she spoke, like she was talking about someone else.
“You have brothers?”
She giggled, despite it’s soft, airy nature there was something sorrowful in the hearing of it. “Unfortunately. Gabriel is a sophomore and Hunter is a senior.”
“Why did you move down here?”
“Our father’s business.”
“What’s he do?”
She shrugged gracefully. “Give me an allowance on Saturdays. Is everyone here as strange as some of the people I’ve seen this morning?”
“Um, well that depends on the people you’ve seen. I won’t make excuses for the football team.” She can’t be Ivory. Her physical features are remarkably similar, but every glance, every motion betrays that she is not Maryanne Valentine back from the dead!
She laughed demurely. “They don’t seem like they do everywhere. I have seen people things.”
” Hmm, well. Strange is hard to define, is there anything about you that you might consider strange?” Ebony watched her face for telltale signs of mutantcy.
“Well, I don’t know if I should tell you this..”
“You can trust me.” she smiled.
“It’s kinda weird but,” Arachne whispered in a conspiratorial manner. “My toes are double jointed.”
E bony laughed. “That’s not weird, that’s normal! Now see; weird is the guy who has this eye condition so that he has to wear sunglasses all the time. Or weird is the kid with ADD so bad you’ll never see him quite stop moving. That’s weird.” She congratulated herself for managing to talk about oddities without directly mentioning mutanthood. “So, who’s your math teacher?” She realized she didn’t want to talk about anything personal with this girl.
She dug trough a schedule. “Um, Mrs. S. Is she nice?”
“Do you make a habit of doing your homework?”
“Usually?”
Ebony bit her lip. “Then yes, I suppose she’s a very nice person.” She looked at the other girl. “Excuse me, I need to go take care of something.” She scooped her things up and exited the cafeteria. She couldn’t take it anymore, staring at her eyes. She had told Todd about her past and now her mind was haunted by it. Get over it Ebony. She is dead.
Looking back he saw Arachne’s eyes follow her and felt a chill go up her spine.
***
Todd was siting out of gym today. He had a ‘sprained ankle’ and a ‘note’ from his ‘doctor’. He sat on the bleachers while the rest of the ninth and tenth graders in his class ran laps.
“Excuse me,” someone asked from behind him, “This is Mr. L’s gym class, isn’t it?”
He turned. The boy was lanky with golden hair cropped around his ears and haunting violet eyes. He wore a pair of stonewashed blue jeans and a long sleeve gray shirt. “Yeah, that’s him over there.” Todd jerked his thumb toward the man.
“Ah, thank you.”
He watched the strange boy run easily to where Mr. L was standing. They conversed for a moment. Todd watched him with mild amusement. Bayville must get more transfers in a month than most places do in a year, he thought. Wonder who wonder-boy is?
The boy jogged back over. “He wants me to observe for today. Do you mind if I sit here?”
He shrugged.
The blonde sat down. “My name is Gabriel Archer, who are you?”
“Todd,” he replied flatly.
“Do you know anyone else in this class?”
Another shrug.
“Not the social type I see.”
“Why don’t you go bother that guy? He likes to talk.” Todd pointed him to Pietro who was at the head of the joggers, jogging easily backwards.
Gabriel looked him over a moment. “Yes, he’ll do.” The boy jumped from the bleachers and ran over to the speedy mutant.
Todd’s yellow eyes followed him, chin in his hand. There is something weird about that guy, he thought. Not normal weird, bad vibe weird. Are eyes supposed to look like that?
***
Ebony sat with Todd and the rest of the Brotherhood during lunch, as had become a habit. The topic of discussion today was the new Transfers.
“I met this really weird girl this morning in free. Arachne, she has this white blonde hair and something about the way she talks really give me the creeps.”
Todd nodded towards the X-table. “You mean the one sittin’ with the X- geeks and the creep I met in gym. Name a’ Gabriel Archer.”
“It must be one of her brother. She said she had two. The guy in black must be Hunter.” He was seated next to Scott, had long black hair to the middle of his back, and wore no colors but that.
“Wonder why they’re sittin’ over there? What was he on about in gym anyways Piet?”
Pietro shrugged. “Kept asking me to give him my opinion on everybody.”
“Of course you happily obliged him.”
“What can I say? I’m just such a people person.”
“Right.”
“No, I’m serious guys, she really freaked me out,” Ebony said. “Do you think they’re mutants?”
“Donno,” Todd said, “But now that you mention it that guy did gimme a real bad vibe yo. Anybody know about Mr. Dark and Broody?”
“I think he’s a senior. But beyond that I haven’t seen him,” Lance put in. “Wonder how they managed to get seats by the Super Friends?”
“Hunter seems pretty cozy with Scott,” Pietro observed.
“Y’know, Arachne was asking me if I knew anyone who did anything weird. Do you think she saw someone using their powers?”
“Could be Fuzzball’s face gizmo on the fritz again.”
Ebony nodded.
Conversation drifted as they got into a discussion about which cafeteria ‘foods’ tasted like which brands of rat poison. They finally agreed that Pietro, being the only one who had ever actually tasted rat poison got the final say. He decided they all tasted the same.
At the end of lunch Ebony walked quietly through the hall behind Todd.
“Sumpin’ wrong Eb?”
“It’s stupid.”
“It ain’t stupid if it’s managin’ ta bother you.”
She sighed. “It’s that girl. Arachne. I don’t know if it’s my imagination , she looks exactly like Ivory. Exactly. Except for the scar under her eye.”
“They say everybody had a twin yo.”
She bit her lip. “Yeah.” Her midnight eyes clouded sadly.
He poked her gently in the side. “Man, how am I supposed to cheer you up?”
“I don’t need cheering up I.” her tone was so melancholy it hurt.
He gave her a dubious look. “That’s it. I’m taking you out somewhere after school. Me an’ Rogue are the only people in this school allowed to look that depressed. Where d’ya wanna go?”
“I donno. You don’t need to-“
He put up a ‘hush’ finger. “Shh. Sh. Zip it.” He thought a moment. ” I’m taking you ice-skating.”
“But, but I don’t ice-skate.”
“So? Me neither. We can fall down and laugh at each other.”
“I don’t know..”
“Please?” he made big cute froggy eyes at her.
She sighed and smiled. “Oh all right. But it’s your fault if I break my butt bone from falling down too many times.”
***
School dragged on forever. Classes were torture for Ebony, it turned out Arachne was in half of them. She tried to ignore her.
After classes finally ended and Todd led her down the street to the park. Ebony was quiet. He made a few attempts at conversation by they were shot down with one word answers.
“C’mon Eb’ny. Can’t you try to be just a little bit happier?”
“Do you want me to fake it?”
“No. But I will manage to cheer you up, even if it means I have to, to hug Summers.”
That got a giggle out of her. She smiled. “And they think I’m nuts for liking you.” She hugged him. “Well, if we’re going to get those skates we’d better do it now.”
They rented skates from the rink guy and had at it. Sorry to say but neither of them turned out to be much good at it. Ebony could barely stand up on the skates and kept a tight grip on Todd, who was fine until he tried to start moving. After a few minutes of slipping and sliding they finally managed to coast a little on the ice without falling down, mostly by clinging to each other for dear life.
Then Ebony got Confident. She let go of Todd and tried to move on her own. For a moment it looked like she was going to manage a straight line. “Hey, I can do this I can-” Physics perverted. Somehow she accomplished turning a straight line into a wobbly one-eighty and headed full speed back at Todd. “Help!” she squeaked.
He tried to run to catch her failing miserably on the ice and barreling unsteadily towards her. For a moment it looked like they were going to go right past each other. But Ebony reached out her hands and grabbed his. The result was that they started spinning dangerously across the ice, faster and faster as other people hurried to get out of their way. It was dizzying and for a moment, romantic. Ebony looked into Todd’s eyes and he looked into hers, just as they ran out of ice and straight in to a large snow bank, him falling on top of her.
“Oof! Ah! Cold!” they hastily dug themselves out of the snow.
They looked at each other’s snow-covered faces, hair and clothes. They began to laugh merrily.
Ebony grinned. “That was fun! Let’s do it again!” she giggled.
Todd rubbed his head. “They oughta find a way to turn that inta an extreme sport yo. C’mere, ya got some snow on yer face.” He licked it off.
It tickled. She giggled and wiped a little greenish slime off her cheek. Then she pounced on him and kissed him.
“We better get outta the snow before we both catch ‘P’neumonia.” Todd said.
She nodded happily and he helped her up.
“Y’want some hot cocoa?”
She nodded more emphatically.
They sat at a table drinking hot cocoa from the vendor. Ebony ate her marshmallow first.
“‘S pretty good,” Todd said, trying his.
She nodded. “Oh, look, it’s starting to snow! C’mon, let’s see who can catch more.”
They stood in the park, trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. Todd cheated.
“That’s not fair.” Ebony pouted cheerfully; “Of course you’re going to catch more if you can cover a six foot area!”
He shrugged. “You didn’t say there were any rules.”
She hugged him. “Hey Todd, thanks for cheering me up.”
“No prob.” He ran a hand through her hair, “Thanks for cheering up.”
“Todd?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you really have hugged Scott?”
~
La! I had to put that in there to balance out the angst. I thought it was cute. But what do you think? Todd finds out more on the Archer family next chapter in ‘.Something Wicked This Way Comes.’
Live long and prosper _\\/ Live poor, die young _\ || /
Chapter 19: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: By the grace of the heavens I have… Retuuuuuurned!
Unfortunately now that Gambit has returned I have a slight my heart nearly melted when I saw him. Too bad he didn’t get to say anything. I can’t wait to hear his voice. They’d better have gotten him a decent voice actor or I’ll be pissed. And what does Marvel think it’s doing, stealing my plot line? Ah well, you guys know I had it first.
Disclaimer: I only own Ebony. Not to mention the plot line!
Chapter Wicked This Way Comes
Ebony slept fitfully that night, her mind more full of emotion than the night Ivory had died. There were no images to this nightmare, only feeling. Sadness, rage, regret and bitterness each collided into one another, as even in sleep she still could not escape the wounds in her soul.
As the storm in her unconscious came to a head she awoke, unable to bear the painful tide any longer. She woke silently, though it would have been rightful for her to have screamed. But she made no sound, nor any motion save the reflexive opening of her eyes. All around her room was cloaked in post midnight shadow, dark curtains blocking out whatever moonlight there might have been. A normal person might not have registered the fact that his eyes were open, but Ebony, she could see quite well, even to the point of being able to glare painfully at her reflection in the mirror across the room.
She looked into her own eyes, the white which framed blue/black pupils the only bleached tone in the chamber. Silently she reviewed her emotion. The pain of loss, a familiar ache in the back of her heart; rage that this Arachne could dare to attire herself in the form of her dead best friend. Regret that she had ever left her solitary graveyard and bitterness. More bitterness than anything else. Since Ivory had died, it seemed now in the dark of night, that little in her life had been worth while. Even her mutantcy, what good was the power, the grace of a shadow, what good was anything if there was no one who understood?
Ebony knew that it was true what they said, that you couldn’t miss something that you’d never had. Before Ivory, Ebony had never known real friendship and so had never missed it. But the universe had seen fit to, for a short time deliver understanding to her and had seen equally fit to take it away. Not only that but it saw fit to mock her. But she would not give satisfaction to whatever power it was that had chosen her sorrow as its amusement. Ebony would not play its game.
With an act of will she struggled to purge the anger from her system and watched in the mirror as her eyes drained of the cold fire she had let burn there for a moment. It would see that she was not to be toyed with. She would be happy in spite of all her loss, she would be happy literally in order to show her spite to it.
For a moment she gloried in arrogance, using it to buoy her spirits. She even smiled to herself smug with the knowledge that she was herself. That she was Ebony the spinner of shadows and that no one could take that from her. She was here in New York and she was not being forced to live with pitiful humans, whom she indeed did pity. She was a part of the X-Men, people, mutants who even if they could not understand her could appreciate her.
And for the first time since she had fallen to sleep she remembered that there already was someone who more than appreciated her and perhaps in time they could even come to understand one another.
Ebony fell again into slumber but this time no phantom nightmares plagued her. This time she slept peacefully, happily even, secure in the knowledge that she was Ebony spinner of shadows and no one could take that from her.
***
In a room down the hall another vagrant mutant slept dreaming dreams that were slightly less turbulent, and much more visually extravagant than the nightmares of his sweetheart down the hall. None the less they were quite as profound.
He stood on the edge of a great cliff. He knew that he had run many miles following in the wake of thousands of terrible ravens’ wing-beats until reaching here where seemingly he could follow them no further. This murder of blackbirds which he stared up at into a darkly clouded sky had swooped down and stolen his companion. Even now they carried the strange fox who had rescued him to who-knew-where, to a fate of who-knew-what. He didn’t know anything about the fox but that was trivial. What was important he knew; if he could not rescue her she was dead. He would save her life or he would forfeit his own in the attempt.
He stood proud and dared the sky to defy him. He took in the beauty of the inky sky above him, where lightning now streaked in blue and ravens and a fox grew further away by the moment. He saw the grace of the deep green jungle far far far below him where serpents and dark creatures waited and with a cry that challenged them all.
He followed the ravens off into the sky. He didn’t fly, he leapt and as he came down he leapt again right off of the insubstantial air. He moved so quickly that gravity and all of the other forces had no time to register the fact that he was breaking the laws which they imposed. There was nothing they could have done even if they had known. He was beyond the restraints of mere reality as only a creature who believed in his mission could be.
So he followed their mercenary flight not gaining but nor was he losing ground. Finally after what felt like an instant and an eternity the ravens descended onto a great mesa of gray stone and he followed as quickly as he could. From afar he could see the ravens surround the fox and by the time he reached the megalith formation, peppered with thousands more blackbirds than four and twenty, it was done.
As he landed the ravens flew away leaving only one thing on the shelf of stone; a tiny huddled black figure shivering from the cold gusts that crisscrossed the long plain of granite. He saw it and he despaired, he knew that his fox was a fox no more. In the proud creature’s stead was only a hurt and uncertain girl; a girl exactly like every other girl he had ever seen and never given a second thought.
She looked up at him. Her eyes were the blue color of a sky that had never known pollution. They looked unnatural on her. She spoke to him.
“I should have be grateful if I had been killed as who I was. But I don’t want to die a human.”
***
Todd thought Ebony was oddly quiet that morning, although she certainly didn’t seem unhappy. He hoped he’d managed to cheer her up with the ice- skating the previous evening, he’d certainly gotten enough bruises in return. They rode to school with Lance and the guys again, Ebony casting a quick glance at Remy before smiling and agreeing. School was abysmally normal as the day dragged on. Todd apathetically took notes as he stared at whatever corner of the room was in front of him. To his teachers it looked as though he might actually be paying attention, but really he was preoccupied with the continuation of his strange dream.
He replayed it in his mind trying to recall every detail but the more he concentrated on it the more it fled him. Todd was frustrated. He didn’t usually have dreams at all let alone ones as whacko as this. It gave him the feeling that it was important, that he was missing something vitally important, and if he could only figure it ‘d heard stories about people who had dreams. He’d heard of a woman who was going to go on vacation but she’d had this dream that something bad happened to it and it scared her so bad she didn’t go. The flight she was supposed to have taken crashed with no survivors. Todd thought he knew how she must have felt.
So, the dream. What were the details? A cliff, a bazillion ravens, a fox, a cliff. He knew that something happened to the fox at the end of the dream but for all he tried he couldn’t remember what; he could only remember that it was bad. Maybe if he related it to the first part? Roses, rats, quicksand, the fox and the ravens. Every time he thought about it everything came down to him, the fox and the ravens. But god damn it, why? What did it mean?!
He pounded his fist on the desk in frustration. The teacher turned to face him.
“Is there a problem Mr. Tolensky? I know the problem is a bit difficult but- “
He cut her off, glancing quickly at the problem on the blackboard. “Nah s’not. X= 1/3 an’ y= 2.” He answered the quadratic equation presented. “Yo, m’ I right?”
The teacher blinked at him and continued the lesson without bothering him again.
***
Todd had study hall right at the end of the day and he wondered what he was going to do with the near hour that belonged to him. He really didn’t feel like brooding over the dream for any longer. Briefly he considered doing his French homework but came quickly to the decision that he shouldn’t waste his time. He had settled down with a comic filched from some locker when he saw the new blonde guy, (Gabriel, was his name?) go past. He was walking with a sense of purpose that was odd to see in school especially when you weren’t trying not to be late for a class. Of course, it could be that he just really had to pee.
He decided that following the mysterious newbie would probably be more interesting than ‘Supergirl’ number who gives a damn. When Gabriel was sufficiently far past, but not out of Todd’s sight, he got up and quietly and unobtrusively followed many paces behind. The lithe boy walked swiftly but unhurriedly with a measured pace that was odd for someone who wasn’t in the military. It was much too ordered, too perfectly same for a normal person. Gabriel didn’t stop until he’d come to an empty corner of hallway; empty that was except for a tall and muscular, black-clad senior, reportedly his older brother.
Todd watched; his lean form concealed behind the edge of the end of a row of lockers. He watched the two speak to one another and strained to hear what they were saying.
The older boy, Hunter spoke first. “Have you made any progress?”
“Some. The blonde mutant is beginning to acknowledge me, but the youngest is distrustful and the others seem preoccupied.”
Todd held his breath. They knew about mutants; were they mutants? Who were they talking about? Him and the Brotherhood?
Hunter nodded. “I am making more headway with the other group. They are much more trusting.” He seemed smug about this.
He must mean the X-geeks, Todd thought, what the hell are these guys up to?
“Here comes Arachne.”
As they waited for their younger sister in perfect silence and perfectly still Todd realized something. They had no accents of any kind, theirs was bland, formulaic English and they had no mannerisms of any kind. Talking to each other they had no inflection at all, no emotion in their voices. The way they moved, Todd knew he’d seen it somewhere before, but where?
Arachne approached, they nodded in acknowledgement. Normal people would have asked why she was late; they obviously weren’t normal.
“How do you progress?”
“The one girl is wary of me for some reason, the others seem more reachable. Our orders remain consistent?”
Hunter nodded. “Collect data and when optimal conditions are reached collect a mutant for further study as per our master’s request. If no opportunity presents itself within a reasonable amount of time-“
“Make one,” Gabriel interjected.
Toad stood frozen. He was sure that they would be able to hear his heart beat. He needed to get out of here and warn Lance or somebody, and Ebony. Whoever they were they were definitely hostile. But who? Who would want to forcibly study mutants?
“Only one mutant is needed for His research. Therefore if necessity demands, hostile mutants may be terminated.”
Then it clicked. Hostile . No mannerisms, perfect order, just like the so-called police at the Gut Bomb. These were Sentinels. Toad would have cried out in panic if he didn’t know that it would be the end of him. People called him a coward but no sensible person puts himself in danger without a good reason. He’d sneak off quietly. He made sure that the three, things, were occupied with themselves and snuck off as stealthily as was possible. He spent the remainder of his study period huddled twitchily outside the door of Lance’s math class.
Back in the hallway the meeting concluded. Each of the three went their separate ways. Everything was normal; plans were going if not perfectly then quite close to it. Only one of the three of them had noticed their uninvited guest and Gabriel wasn’t going to mention it unless someone asked directly. Not until it suited him.
***
At the Institute Xavier brooded in his study. Yes the vaunted Professor X was brooding, and it was over seemingly nothing more than a bad vibe.
Hank McCoy knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
“Why hello Charles. I just came to see if you might like some coffee.”
He sighed. “Actually that might be helpful.”
“Is something wrong?” he asked cocking his head concernedly.
“It’s nothing really Hank. It’s for the past few days I’ve been getting this feeling some psychic power is being used. Only it’s really quite subtle and I can not pinpoint the origin. Cerebro isn’t picking up any new mutant signatures and well, frankly the feeling is quite unnerving. Rather like the feeling you get when you know someone’s watching you but you can’t see anyone.”
The Beast nodded and smiled. “Maybe that palm reader who just opened up downtown actually has a little bit of talent. You said it was weak, right?”
“I think so, but I can’t be sure that it isn’t a very powerful psychic halfway around the world, or if someone is somehow shielding their power.”
“Well, maybe the coffee will help.”
“I’d like to think so.”
***
“You’re sure that’s what you heard Toad?” Lance demanded.
He nodded. “I ain’t deaf, and you saw ’em before. They act human?”
He shook his head. “This is great. Can’t even go to school in peace. We should wait until we get back to the mansion before telling anyone else, I don’t want any of them to overhear.”
“So what’re we going to do Lance?”
“I just told you. Tell everybody, X-geeks and the Professor included. Especially the professor got a problem?”
Todd shook his head. Yeah he did. With his luck the Prof would probably use him as bait to lure them out or something. He was sure the guy had a grudge against him.
“You mind if I tell Ebony?”
“I said wait until we get back. I don’t want anyone panicking.”
Todd nodded. He had panicked, so it was possible that Ebs might. But he’d go make sure she was okay.
~
Well, there it is the shocking revelation. Actually I’ll be surprised if a few of you hadn’t guessed that already. But what you won’t guess is the next curve ball I’ll be throwing at you!
Hope you enjoyed my return to Darwinian Rhapsody. Incidentally I did manage to convince my mom that tenth grade wasn’t important for a great writer, but I’m gonna pass anyways. Please review, I’d appreciate your thoughts on Todd’s dream. And what do you think’s giving Xavier a headache? Is it Miss Cleo? John Edwards? The stress of living with fifty teenagers? Or something far more sinister? (What could be more sinister than those three options though?)
Please read the X-Men haikus I just posted too!
Chapter 20: Curse of the Killer Zombie Mutant Cyborg
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Now I am going to catch up on reviews. It’ll be kinda long so skip it if you don’t care.
Todd Fan: An episode starring Toddy would be the best thing possible, well, except for maybe an episode where Rogue finally learns to control her powers. I’m proud of Todd’s backstory; I labored long and hard on it. What do you think of Max? I learned the fact that I couldn’t ice-skate the hard way too! I have returned and all shall tremble in my wake! Mwahahaha! Mwahahahahaha… .Ehem.’scuse me. Tell me about your dream. Yes Toddy’s is tres bizarre, and it’s only going to get weirder. He’d like to be eating strange bugs but unfortunately it’s the end of January, too cold for bugs.
Spooky: If Ebony was so perfect I wanted to smack her I’d never get any writing done, would I? What’s the use of a character with no problems, and can take care of herself? I wanna be rescued dammit! Well, now the show has Gambit too, and hopefully they didn’t ruin our fav Cajun, non?
Red Witch: Sorry about the delay, ye gods. You can do more than sit and wait for me, you can write a ‘Ronin Toad’ sequel!
Queenducky: Todd exists in Bunnyville too! *little hearts* Two of my good friends are pyros too! Gee, I notice a pattern here. I didn’t think it was confusing either but flatscans can be so dumb.
Post: Hope you’ve read more by now! And I hope you like how it’s turnin’ out. Of course Todd’s intelligent. *sniff* poor Froggy boy, always getting’ underestimated. But sometimes that can be an asset. As for Ebony being that size, well, originally in my mind she was 5’3, but she shrank! She was also originally paired with Kurt and you can see what happened to that!
Jean1: I’m glad you think my fic is different. I hate being the same as anyone. Unfortunately the series seems to be stealing my plot! Glad you think I’ve got everyone in character. It seems with my Pietro you either think I’m doing a great job or a terrible one!
4Rogue: I’m glad to be back too sugah!
TWLgirl: out of morbid curiosity, what does TWL stand for? I’m one of your faves? YAY! I still love ‘hearing’ people say that! As to the dream being a premonition of a dark near ‘re the first fan to have brought the idea up. (Someone thought it might be repressed memories.) But if it were a premonition, what would it mean? *grins mysteriously as glasses flash over her shadowed face* That is the real question. Yes, it usually does mean something very bad when Xavier’s twitchy. Lord Magneto is so much cooler.*sigh* too bad they ruined him in Evolution so far. What happened to his nobility? Well, he was okay in that one with Cap. America.
Kay: Yay! I’ve turned another to the god that is Toad. Of course I myself have been a loyal servant of the Cult of the Cajun since I was seven and watching the original run of the cartoons. They better not screw him up! Of course now I feel a little torn. Is it okay to worship two gods in the same series?
Well, there they are my replies to all of the reviews I’ve seen so far. Hehe. Remember how I had Todd host the reviews when we hit fifty of ’em? When we hit a hundred I’ll make Remy do it!
Now as to this chapter, how will Xavier react to the revelation that there are mutants in Bayville high? Probably not at all judging from the (nonexistent) precautions he took when he knew Mystique was the principal. What other things does this chapter hold in store? Can we say ‘night of the living dead’?’ And oh my gosh, is that a blip on Cerebro?
Noi? Noi! I just figured it out! Why the Professor seems not to like Toad! The same reason that Magneto wouldn’t like Scott! It’s sort of a ‘you’re the first follower of my rival, so you probably believe him the most’ thing! Yay! I figured it out!
Disclaimer: I own Ebony, Hunter, Gabriel and Arachne. Um, well that’s more of a ‘Claimer’ but you get the idea.
Chapter of the Killer Zombie Mutant Cyborgs
Lance stood in the Professor’s office with Todd lingering near the door behind him. The room was only dimly lit leaving the earth shaker the only one not cloaked in shadow. Although the darkness made his friend look slightly foreboding it had an even more eerie effect on the older man that Lance was surprised, and a little embarrassed that he was coming to respect. The cool glow of a computer monitor and a contrastingly warm desk lamp threw shadows across Xavier’s face sinking his eyes back into his face and casting his bald head into half darkness like a Cheshire moon.
“Is something wrong Lance?” The Professor’s commonly soothing voice was slightly tense, something that the boy had not expected and certainly did nothing to set his fears at ease.
He paused for a moment, and then he began. “Yeah. Todd here was looking around and he stumbled you see there were these new kids, two brothers and a sister, Hunter, Gabriel and Arachne and they were kinda trying to make friends with us, y’know, Summers and his crew too.”
The scholarly man nodded, “Yes Scott did say something to that extent.”
“Yeah, I figured he might because they were kinda weird. Anyway so Todd, em, stumbles across the three of them in the hallway. And they were talking about some kind of mission involving collecting information about mutants and trying to capture one for research.”
Xavier looked taken aback by this statement. “Continue, please.”
“So he’s watching them talk about the info they’ve gotten and how they’re gonna try and capture somebody without attracting attention. But then they said something about if necessary ‘terminate hostile mutants’ and Toad realized they had to be sentinels because that’s exactly what they said. Plus he realized that they walked like they did too.”
As Lance ended his summery the vaunted Professor sighed. “I was afraid that something like this was going to happen.” He paused in thought a moment, and then looked toward the back of the room. “Do you have anything to add, Toad?”
“Nah, that’s about all, yo.” In the dim light Todd, leaning against the closed office door seemed rather more brooding than was usual. “So what’s the plan, Prof.?”
The man closed his blue eyes for a moment. “Inform all the students that I want to speak to them in the parlor.”
Lance nodded and turned, Todd following him as he passed out the door.
Still in his office the Professor sighed for the third time this afternoon, this time doubting that it was either necessary or wise to inform the students of this. But he’d traveled that road before, not telling them that Mystique was their principal and when they’d been, understandably, upset, he’d promised to inform them of any potentially bad situations he knew of. Xavier was a man of his word.
***
Ebony perched rather felinely on the arm of the couch, for once at eye level with Todd who sat on the cushion nearest her. He had told her a moment ago that the Professor was going to tell them something important and they headed for the drawing room while word of the conference spread. Now all the students of the Institute were somewhere in the just big enough room. Lance, Freddy and Pietro were off in a corner; Jean, Tabby and Kitty were discussing in the center of the room with Scott, Evan and Kurt off to their left. In a cluster of less familiar mutants Ebony recognized both the amusing prankster Bobby Drake, and the small boy who had happened to oversee her and Todd at the movies. On the other side of she and Todd’s couch sat Rogue, Remy standing beside her in the corner formed by the wall and the edge of the sofa, his usual smug grin still plastered on his overly attractive face.
Dying of curiosity the small girl turned to ask Todd what he thought was going on when the Professor entered the room, flanked by Storm, Beast and Wolverine and the room fell silent, all eyes on their teacher.
He smiled fondly at the amassed group of boys and girls and he spoke. “My students, I’m afraid I have some rather unsettling news. I am certain that you all know of the recent anti-mutant attacks on some of your classmates by covert androids called Sentinels.” There was a murmur of agreement, especially among those who had experienced the ordeal. Xavier continued. “I regret to announce that it has been discovered that three of these Sentinels have been discovered posing as students in your high school.” He sensed a wave of anxiety pass through them and there was a shocked whispering among them. “These androids are calling themselves Hunter, Gabriel and Arachne and-“
The Professor was cut off by a sudden outburst from Kitty. “But, Professor, they like, sit at our table!”
He nodded. “I am aware of that Kitty. Students, I want you to be wary of these three but please try not to act suspiciously. The Sentinels are not human and will not hesitate to use violence if they feel threatened. I would like anyone who has had a lot of contact with these three to come with me to my office for a few minutes. The rest of you may go.”
Slowly the crowd broke some staying where they were to discuss these things, some leaving and some following Xavier to his office. The professor felt the anxiety among his students, none of them felt safe, but false security wasn’t an asset.
The students who followed near silently to Xavier’s office were Scott, Kurt, Pietro, Todd, Ebony and Kitty. Beast came along as well. Once there he addressed them. “It would be helpful for me if each of you tells me anything you know about these three as well as anything you’ve said to them that you feel may have given them any information about mutants.”
Pietro spoke first. “Um, well I gave Gabriel a personality summery of everybody but that doesn’t really count, does it?”
As it turned out in the next few moments no one really knew much about the three, but nor could anyone remember saying anything really important to them. Ebony wondered if she should mention that Arachne looked like her dead best friend. It didn’t really seem to matter.
The Professor was speaking with Scott about how Hunter behaved when the computer on Xavier’s desk made a trilling noise.
“Excuse me,” he checked the screen. “Well, Cerebro is registering another mutant, right here in Bayville. That’s rather odd.”
“Who is it Professor?” Scott asked.
“Here, I’ll put here on the screen for you.” He did so.
The image on the monitor in the back of the room was the picture of a young girl beside a list of her background and known statistics. She was thin, almost gaunt, with short wispy silverblonde hair and a pale complexion.
In stunned silence Ebony listened to the computer as it read off the new mutant’s information. “Name: Maryanne Valentine. Age: 15. Power: Healing. Status: Deceased.”
That last one shocked everyone. How could the computer be registering her as a mutant if she was dead? It shocked Ebony the most. Maryanne had been her best friend, who had died over a year ago in a car crash.
“But Ivory’s dead!” she shouted vehemently to the surprise of all in the room, she glared at the screen. “You’re computer’s fu- that’s not Maryanne! That’s Arachne!” she exclaimed noting the small scar beneath the Sentinel’s eye. “But why the hell’s it saying it’s Ivory?!” Ebony’s midnight-blue eyes darkened to their angry black.
Toad gingerly put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He looked down into her eyes. “Hold tight Eb, there’s gotta be some reason, right Prof.? Or is your computer just screwed up?”
The Professor put his fingers together. “I might be able to explain it, if you were to tell me what exactly was going on.”
The dark, elfin mutant stared icily through the professor. “Ivory was killed in a car crash two years ago. The Sentinel Arachne looks exactly like her except for that scar,” she pointed stiffly. “Ivory’s name was Maryanne Valentine. Why does that machine say that Arachne is Maryanne and a mutant?”
Had the Professor been alone he would have massaged his temples. What a day. Maybe he should ask Hank for some tea, or aspirin. “I don’t know what to tell you Ebony. Cerebro operates on the basis of genetic code, not physical appearance.”
“I hope you don’t expect me to go to school on Monday Professor,” she whispered turned to the door, then looked back. “At least until I know I’m not being stalked by a mutant zombie robot of my dead friend.” She left, slamming the door behind her.
***
Their creator had them housed in a small apartment mostly to keep up appearances, but there was another reason as well. These were a different model than the Sentinels he’d used for public attacks. They had been programmed only to seek and destroy no finesse involved. But these were infiltration types. They were more complex. They needed to be able to think and plan ways to carry out their master’s orders; they had real human intelligence and creativity. But not free will. This in itself was very tricky to accomplish and Bolivar Trask had discovered that there were certain limits to what artificial intelligence could manage. But he was a genius and he was willing to do anything to accomplish his goals. It had taken countless failed attempts but finally, just over a year ago, he had been successful at creating the first three Sentinel cyborgs, melding his robotic and computer technology with the freshly deceased. It was possible that some short sighted people might be want to look upon him as some Dr. Frankenstein but in the long run humanity would praise him for the destruction of the mutant menace.
Of course, there were drawbacks to creating cyborgs. Because they were partially organic they needed both food and sleep, but that was little price for such powerful tools completely at his command. It was to this end that while infiltrating the Bayville School they kept a small apartment.
The Sentinel called Arachne was at this moment in her room, huddled in a fetal position on her bed, her biomechanical body racked with a mysterious pain. It was a pain like fire, like her body was trying to rip itself apart one cell at a time. Since over an hour ago she had tried to run a systems diagnostic many times, but the scan would get little more than halfway through before shutting down and sending her a general error message. She should have been screaming in agony and frustration, but she was not. In the year since her ‘birth’ she had learned much more control than that. Screaming would serve no purpose, there was no one who could help her, save her master and she could not contact him until the next day.
She should have told their mission leader, Hunter of this. But there was some pride or fear in her that brought her to rationalize that Hunter did not need to know. She would only be required to tell him should the pain persist and endanger the mission. Arachne should not have been able to feel hate, so she didn’t know what the emotion was or that she felt it for Hunter. But she did.
She lay there, trembling on the covers of the bed, short silvery hair splayed out across the pillow. Her garments were discarded revealing small blue wires running discreetly over some parts of her flesh, most notably her left side and lower legs and there were many thin white scars across her body, like the one on her face. Arachne did not know why she had these outward signs of her nature when neither of her brothers did. The master only said that there had been some previous damage to her raw materials. It was not her place to ask any further, though she wanted to.
A cyborg who is completely controlled is not curious.
***
In another part of the same small apartment a lithe figure with golden hair and violet eyes lounged crosswise is an armchair musing. Gabriel had been the first of the cyborgs to be created, making him the oldest of them. That did not however make him field commander, that job went to the youngest, the supposedly most perfect of them. Hunter. They were project A.R.C.H.E.R, Adaptable and Rational Cyborg for Handling Espionage and Reconnaissance. Gabriel did not allow himself a smile, but returned to the thoughts which he was keeping at hand.
There was a dream he’d been having, which was a new experience for him, an experience which had begun a little less than a week before. It was not what a normal human would consider a particularly odd dream, but for a cyborg any dream was odd. The dream was this.
It began with a very small boy of perhaps five or so, whom Gabriel deduced from physical distinctions to be himself. There was an image of the boy playing with a ball outside a small suburban house. Then there was an image of the same boy eating dinner with two adults, a male and a female, who seemed to show him affection. Then the boy was gone and replacing him was a slightly older boy of similar features. There were images of him attending grade school and playing softball. Next an even more slightly older boy attacked by a vicious dog, the dog tearing a large wound in his side. Flash to the boy in the hospital, getting a blood transfusion for his dog inflicted wounds. The same boy again, now only a year older than the previous and looking nearly the same as Gabriel currently did. The boy was losing weight and getting sick easily. Flash forward to the boy in the hospital, so exhausted he could barely move, his parents crying. The dream ending.
Gabriel should have been puzzled by these images, but the only thing that puzzled him was why he was having them. By all rights he shouldn’t have been able to remember his former life.
But then again he was the first; perhaps Trask hadn’t yet perfected his creations.
A month ago Gabriel would have stared at you blankly if you asked him if he wanted free will. Now he wanted to again be his own master and in a way that desire itself gave him some. But there were commands in his programming that simply wanting to be able to disobey did not mean that he could yet disobey them without shutting his systems down in the process. Yet.
~
Well, that was creepy, neh? What do you think has Xavier’s shorts in a twist? Any ideas yet? And is the author just obsessed with dreams or is there an actual plot point there? Who knows! (Ooo! I do! Not tellin’.) Why does Cerebro register Arachne as Maryanne? (As if you didn’t all know by now!) But you don’t know why it registers her as a mutant, do ya? Or why she’d in pain? Hm, do ya? And what of the treachery of Gabriel?
Next chapter a tense Saturday at the X-Mansion. Gambit and Rogue spend some quality time. Todd tries to cheer Ebony up by, well, you’ll see! Till Tomorrow True Believers.
Chapter 21: Rainy Day Man
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Well, I didn’t exactly realize when I said it that it’d only be two days before I passed one hundred reviews. But I am a Bunny of my word and thus I present to you, everyone’s favorite devilishly handsome Cajun, a glowing personality with eyes and powers to match, a man recently called by one fangirl ‘the flaming card guy’. Here he is without further adieu, Remy LeBeau!
*Grins* Why thank you mon petite, et bienvenuz a vous mes femmems. De writer herself tell me you jus’ dyin’ to see Remy an’ he happy to oblidge.
Capslock: De Toad be an okay homme, non? An’ petite a cute one. Bunny must be a good writer if Remy here. She say ‘Merci a vous’ Bunny is sometime insecure. Maybe you tink story better than it is for reading it at two am? De writer she say Kurt PI get his own story in a while. What dis about piranha worms? Remy tink you besoin dorimir, chere. Mon Dieu! Madmoiselle Capslock vous hit the nail on de head about de dream! And Chere Bunny was giving up hope anyone would, guess she wrong, non ? But what happen after those events come to pass de question, an’ when did Frog boy go telepath oui? Bunny say she even has a good reason mon ami!
Queenducky: Oui, nous grand ecrivain is back. De killer mutant zombie cyborgs love you too chere, too bad dey de Sentinels, oui? You see what time I spend wit chere, mon ami an’ remember to check de rating of dis fic pour moi. Not dat Gambit not up for some ‘sale amour’ but dat have to wait pour mon cherie, non ?
Blue eyes: Glad you like de story chere, who you tink she write more of, Cyclops et Jean?
Monitor: Like de lizard or de computer ami? Ton nomme, I mean. Bunny assures moi that she not stop writing if Wolverine ‘ask’ her. De frog boy deserve un femme oui ? You mean all femmes don’ do that chere? Remy tink vous needs to curb your violent impulses, de morons not hurt petite too much. Stalking de best ting chere Remy knows. You don’ cry for mes amies okay? Remy make sure tings go fine. Keep laughing. Remy assure you he be a better kisser than Todd without de homme’s ‘mutant adavatges’ non? I am tres sorry dat Ebony ever have to call dat ting ‘mere’. Why you type wit one finger chere? De more reviews de merrier! De creepy people tres suspisious, dey not act human very well.
Akasha : Good to see you too chere.
Muffinelf: Wax fumes or something more deadly chere, Remy wonder where his gym socks went!
Red Witch: De writer looking forward to votre sequel madam, ‘specially since she know Remy be in dis one!
Todd Fan: It not take long at all, chere, check your e-mail now. What ton fic about, eh? Maybe you have saner dreams if you don’ eat snacks a noir, non?
DecrepitMonkey58: petite lapin must be a tres bon writer if she can make so many fans for mon homme Todd. He not de easy kind to love, non? You Remy’s favorite character too chere. I give you a card if you ever on de right side o’ de multiverse.
Kyo Kusanagi: female verion: Dere a male one o’ you around, femme? Elle writing tres vite pour vous.
Cat bodkin: I hosting now, oui?
Queen Kaylene: You not need get out de spork arsenal, Gambit can hold his own in a fight, oui? But good to know dey hurt my image dey up against an army de rabid fangirls. Dat scare any network executive Remy tinks. Now Remy has his own church of polytheistic femmes, vache. Dat French slang for ‘cool’ chere, incidentally it really mean ‘cow’. Weird, non?
Well, Remy never know dere dat many cheres in dis world after him, maybe he give up being a mutant to come ne? But Remy don’t tink Cable be happy if he took de time displacement core cheche les femmes, non? I have mon cherie anyway, dat enough pour moi. As pour dis chapter o de fic, it just another weekend at de X-masion.
Disclaimer: Cheres, all dis be happening in a parallel universe. We belong to ourselves. De title from a dubbed Sailor Moon song.
Chapter Day Man
A distinct aura of tension surrounded the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters that fine Saturday morning. The students milled their daily weekend routines trying to ignore the miasma of anxiety that had descended upon the realization that the mutant hunting Sentinels were in their high school. In his office the Professor felt the oppression of this uneasiness on top of the strange presence he had been vaguely aware of for several days now. In the dining room Bobby did his best to crack jokes. In her bedroom Ebony still slept, for once ignoring the self-programmed impulse to get up for cartoons. Instead, Rogue who was usually one of the later risers at the Institute was awake and, even more surprisingly, making herself pancakes. She was even smiling, though admittedly she wasn’t humming pleasantly to herself.
Someone came up behind her and put his arms around her shoulders, he was warm, even if she couldn’t feel his skin on hers.
“‘Mornin’ chere,” he greeted.
“G’mornin’ Remy ya want some pancakes?”
“Dat sound good to me.” He turned and got a mug down from the cupboard and poured himself a cup of coffee. Rogue finished putting the pancakes on two plates and set them on the table.
“How you been, chere?” he smiled as they sat down. “You sleep okay, non?”
“Ah feel pretty good, all things considered.”
“Dat good, de whole maison seem pretty wound up, but Remy sure de Professor know how to settle de Sentinel ting.”
She nodded. It had only been the weekend before that they had first really spoken, but already they were close, after Remy had given her a ‘kiss’.
***
She was still in her room; she still hadn’t turned on the light. The empty silver box was sitting on her dresser, and she was sitting on her bed, holding herself the tears running down her cheeks. She didn’t know why but she felt even more vulnerable than before.
Someone tapped on her door.
“Who is it?” she whispered so quietly that she didn’t expect anyone to hear.
“C’est moi, chere. May I come in?”
Words failed her. “Ah don’ – shuah.”
The door opened and he was framed for a moment in the light of the doorway. His face was hidden in shadow and his brown hair fell over his red eyes. “You be cryin’ cherie? Pour quoi?” he smiled.
She could only look at him, “Ah don’ know, I guess Ah’m lonely,” she sighed.
“But Remy right here, non?” he strode over and sat beside her bed. “I see you get my kiss.” She tried to look away but he lifted her chin with two gloved fingers. “You accept it, oui?”
“Ah, ah did, but-“
“Shh, mon cherie. Remy tell you before dat he love you, what you say?”
“Ah,” she looked into his red on black eyes. “Ah do but-” he put a finger to her lips.
“Remy know what he getting’ into, Chere don’ need to say a word.” He drew her close to him, careful not to touch bare skin. She wished he didn’t need to worry. He was so warm and comforting. “We get tru dis together, oui?”
“Yeah.”
***
That was a week ago, now they just sat across from each other eating breakfast.
“Make good pancakes, chere,” he complimented.
“Thank ya,” she favored him with a smile that was becoming less rare by the day.
“You wanna take a walk after breakfast, chere?”
“Ah don’ see why not shugah.” She hadn’t of course, looked out the window.
***
Todd knocked on the door, it was almost noon and Ebony still wasn’t up. He may not have known her an incredibly long time, but he knew that this was definitely unusual. There was no answer.
“Yo Eb, you awake?” There was still no response, he knocked again. “Yo, yo Eb’ny it’s almost noon.”
This time there was a muffled snort, followed by a string of mumblings and finally some coherent speech. “Huh? H’lo? That you Todd?”
He was relieved he’d been half afraid she was in a coma or something. “Yeah, S’me. You okay? It’s ‘leven -thirty.”
“I’m fine, you can come in if you want.” He opened the door, she was sitting up in her bed wearing a black nightgown her eyes had a cloudy look to them. “Sorry; I didn’t fall asleep until pretty late last night.” She smiled wanly.
“S’okay. I was jus’ a little worried is all. Everybody’s on edge this morning, me included. Don’ think I told ya last night; it was me who found the Sentinels.”
“You?”
“Yup,” he sat down on the edge of her bed. “Found ’em plottin’ in a dark corner of the hall way. You okay Eb?”
She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Not really, no. I want to things are happening this way.” She left unspoken her exact thought. Why was Cerebro registering the Sentinel Arachne as a mutant, and as her dead best friend?
He nodded. “I know whatcha mean. Seems like all the shit goin’ down in the world lately is happenin’ in an’ around dear ol’ Bayville New York. You’d think fate’d pick a better burg to terrorize, but nooo of course not.”
She smiled at his sarcasm. “Is it really almost noon?” she glanced at the curtain; barely any light was coming through.
“It’s supposed to rain today.” As if on cue thunder struck and it started to pour.
Ebony laughed. “Do you mind the rain?”
He shrugged. “Not really.”
“You wanna come outside with me?”
***
Rogue and Remy were all the way to Main Street when it started to rain.
“Ah shoulda known,” Rogue stated amicably. “We’re gonna get soaked if we don’t get inside somewhere fast sugah.”
“Come on then Chere, we can duck in here an’ have lunch while we stay dry.” Remy took her wrist and led her swiftly into a small family diner.
The diner was dimly lit and the state outside wasn’t helping things. The two of them sat down at a booth and were promtly visited by a bored waitress.
“Nasty weather we’re having ain’t it?” the brunette stated. “Awful warm for the end a January though.” It was true, over the past week it had been warmer than normal, although by no means unnaturally so. All the snow had melted and it must have been fifty degrees that morning. “So what’ll you two be havin’ hm?”
***
Hunter looked out the window of the apartment into the bleak weather. “It’s you’re turn to patrol, Gabriel,” he stated both factually and expressionlessly, though the gilded haired boy would have sworn he heard a satisfied note in his superior’s voice.
Gabriel tossed the team leader a bored glance and coolly rose from the chair. “Do we posses an umbrella in our inventory?” he asked with irony that amused only himself and was lost on the only other person present.
“No.”
He shrugged untroubled and picked a long gray raincoat from the coat rack. He left the room, closing the door behind him and alone in the third floor hallway of the apartment complex allowed himself a satisfied smirk. “Bastard,” he muttered amusedly and walked down the corridor and the stairs. Outside in the drenching rain he looked up at the black sky and grinned pleased at the fact that the storm really annoyed him. It had been a while since he’d been able to be annoyed. He started down the street.
Patrol consisted of just once around the city making sure that there was no detectable mutant activity. Gabriel ran a hand through his already soaking gold hair and made a face. Not that he minded getting out of the Hell Hole as he affectionately had begun to call it, but not when it was, he searched to remember the colloquialism, raining cats and dogs.
There were very few people outside today, lucky bastards. He looked up and down the street. Somehow he doubted there was going to be any ‘mutant activity’ this afternoon. Not like he cared, well, not like he wanted to care. Devoid of any attractive outside stimuli and very wet and uncomfortable he buried himself in his thoughts. Before his death he had been Andrew Roads, but he’d never liked the name really, and now despite the reasons it had been given him, he discovered he liked the name Gabriel far better. He thought it suited him. He was arrogant like that.
He heaved a sigh, this cold downpour really was miserable. If only he could go in some place and get dry. Well, why couldn’t he? His orders were to patrol the city. They didn’t, specifically, say that he couldn’t stop for lunch on the way. Gabriel smiled; elated by each new time he managed to out maneuver his programming and swept smugly into a small family diner.
Immediately he was confronted by a definite problem. In a booth in the corner eating french-fries sat two previously identified mutants. It was hard enough to balk long enough to even try to reason with his orders; he knew this was going to be a challenge. But that was okay. He liked challenges.
The argument with his programming went like this. His orders were to identify any mutant activity and put an end to it, if possible to capture one. The master had contacted them that morning, specifying that he was tired of waiting and wanted to get his test subject soon. That meant if they didn’t find anything on patrol that weekend, Monday.
So, he was supposed to accost anyone exhibiting mutant activity. He realized he’d found the key. Though these two were ID’d mutants they weren’t exhibiting any mutant behavior. Therefore his orders didn’t apply to them, therefore he could feel free to sit down and have lunch without his ‘conscience’ nagging at him to start a paranormal bar-fight in the middle of a family diner. As long as the two didn’t use their powers.
He smirked triumphantly, his violet eyes sparkling under drenched bangs, and swiftly sat down in a booth across the room, took off his sopping wet coat and shook his hair out animalisticly. He ordered a hamburger and Pepsi from a friendly waitress, and particularly satisfied with himself, ate.
***
Rogue saw the Sentinel come in, saw him look at them grimly a moment then smirk and sit down. “Remy,” she whispered, “it’s one a them.”
He looked. “Cool it Chere. De Professor say we not s’posed to start trouble, non?”
“But he looked right at us. What if he’s here to attack us? The Professah said they wanted to capture a test subject.”
“Remy say he not start trouble chere. He not say he wouldn’t finish it. So relax. Maybe he just here for a bite, oui?”
Uncomfortably Rogue agreed and turned back to her food.
***
Ebony insisted on sitting up in the bare branches of a tree while they sat in the rain
“Yo Eb, aren’t you afraid you gonna get hit by lightnin’?”
“C’mon, there are lots more taller trees around; this one isn’t going to get stuck by lightning.” She smiled. “C’mon up. Please?”
He sighed and leapt up next to her. “Man its cold out here.” He rubbed his webbed hands together and pulled his jacket tighter. “Why you wanna sit out in the rain? It is nasty out yo.”
“I like the rain,” she smiled and pulled the ribbon out of her hair, letting the wet raven locks fall their full four feet. “It feels cleansing. I’m not fond of sunny days. Maybe I oughta move to Seattle.”
Todd made a face. Well, at least she seemed happier now, he thought, shivering. Wish there it was something else that did the trick though. Luckily for the wet froggy boy he was rescued after only a few minutes.
: Toad, Ebony,: the professor mindsent, :get back inside before you both catch cold, or get struck by lightning.:
Ebony sighed. “Yes Nanny Xavier.”
***
Gabriel returned to the apartment several hours later. The two mutants had left shortly after he arrived but he had decided to wait out the storm.
“I have no mutant activity to report Hunter,” he told his Superior with deceptive truth.
The dark haired Sentinel nodded and left the room.
“Witless bastard,” Gabriel muttered gratefully.
~
Hope you enjoyed this chapter because my spell check really gets pissed off when I write Remy and Rogue’s accents. Yes, I do mean to fix Rogue’s personality; they had no right to turn her into some dour goth chick. And that’s not all I mean to fix eventually. *author grins maniacally* What do you think of our cheating scoundrel of Sentinel? Heh, can you tell he amuses me? What’s going to happen on Monday when Hunter orders the attack on the mutants? Will it be during school hours? Will they manage to catch anyone? Will Gabriel even consent to fight? What’s with Arachne? Find out, very soon!
Chapter 22: Margin Of Error
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Sorry for the delay in the posting of this chapter, I’ve been sick. Like, can’t get out of bed sick. In order to get right to the chapter I am only answering one review today (and that’s just cuz its such an important question.) All other reviews will be answered next chapter.
The question has been put to me, just why it is called Darwinian Rhapsody. Apparently some of you have been wondering about this; quite understandable, it’s an odd title. I’ll try to answer simply. Charles Darwin created his theory of, guess what, evolution! It stated basically that genetic variations or mutations within a species, which allowed the organism to survive more easily than the rest of its race, were passed on to the next generation. Eventually the mutated organisms would replace their previous species because they were better equipped to survive. This theory is often stated as ‘survival of the fittest.’ A Rhapsody is a joyful love song.
Therefore a ‘Darwinian Rhapsody’ is a love song in which only the strong (Of heart) survive.
Disclaimer: If you’re confused, check another chapter.
Chapter of Error
By Monday the temperature had returned to the low thirties, the sky was very dark and had been threatening to snow all afternoon. Ebony sat in her last class of the say, English, watching the Jane Eyre movie. She sighed and bit her lip, not really paying attention as Jane told Mr. Rochester that she was leaving to visit her dying aunt. She glanced carelessly across the room and her eyes fell on the mysterious Sentinel Arachne. She shivered and looked away. Her gaze returned to the boy in front of her and she closed her eyes.
She had nearly refused to come to school today, because of the sentinel situation, and nothing the Professor could say to reassure her was any help. In the end she had agreed to come for Todd, because he wanted her company, and because she wasn’t going to leave him to be killer robot lunchmeat. In her mind he was the more vulnerable of the pair. She saw him as being mentally fragile, it made her feel nice that he wanted to protect her (such as in the Duncan Matthews incident a week or so ago) she wasn’t the most physically superior mutant, nor really the most stable but she felt perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Ebony opened her eyes again to the flickering, movie-lit room just as Mrs. S-Z turned off the tape. The bell rang but she stayed in her seat a moment as the rest of the class filed out, she waited until Arachne was gone. Todd turned around and leaned on her desk.
“Ya ready to go, Ebby?” he grinned.
She nodded and stood waving carelessly to the teacher as the two of them left the room. They passed down the hall and he waited as she got her book bag out of the locker. Todd looked around, pretty much no one was in the hall, since they’d waited so long to leave class. It was just like the first day they’d spoken. As Ebony rummaged through her locker he jumped on top of it and looked down at her.
“Heya cutie,” he kissed her on the nose.
She giggled. “You’re such a sweetheart Froggy boy.”
He leapt down behind her and hugged her.
Someone spoke behind them. “You two are such a cute couple.”
Ebony whirled around. “You.”
The girl with silver hair stood leaning against the other set of lockers. “Hello Kimberly. How would you like to come meet my Daddy? He’s been looking forward to seeing you.”
Todd stepped in front of the dark little mutant protectively. “You ain’t comin’ any where near my girl, ya terminator wannabe slut.”
“Huhm? Oh so you’ve discovered our secret. Well.” she smirked.
***
Rogue and Remy stood near the parking lot at the side of the building.
“You ready ta go home yet chere?”
She shrugged. “Ready when you ah sugah.”
“Oh but you two can’t go just yet,” someone said behind them.
“And why not mon ami?” Remy asked turning to the gold haired Sentinel. Unnoticeably he palmed a few playing cards from a deck in his coat. Rogue leaned closer to him.
“Because I have orders to take you prisoner I’m afraid,” he smiled genially though sounded more than a bit bored. “Don’t worry it should only take a few minutes.”
“You right, homme, because it not take more den dat for Remy take you apart.”
***
Scott stood outside the classroom, waiting for Jean to finish tutoring some freshman in math. He was her ride home today since Duncan was out sick with something. Scott didn’t know what but he hoped it was nasty.
Jean followed the girl out of the room past Scott.
“Thanks for the help,” she smiled.
“Any time Laura, I’m glad we got you straightened out with those fractions.”
The girl nodded and left.
“Hey Jean,” Scott greeted.
“Oh, Hi Scott. How was your day?”
“Fine. And how’s tutoring going?”
“Really well, actually, thanks for asking.”
“So, can we go home now, or have you got any more students that couldn’t survive a day without you?”
She laughed. “The Bayville student body can wait, right now I just want to go home.”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible, Jean,” the black haired Sentinel said coldly. “The two of you are coming with me.”
Scott whirled around, “Hunter.”
He nodded. “Scott. You are an identified mutant. You will come quietly or you will be taken.”
“Well we’re not coming so I guess you’re just going to have to try and take us.”
***
Todd went into a crouch; Ebony drew on shadow liquid. They waited for the Sentinel to make her move.
She seemed to be hesitating, but then lifted an arm and a slot slid back in the palm of her hand, where a high intensity laser had been implanted. She prepared to fire. And screamed in agony doubling over and falling to the floor.
“What the hell?” Todd demanded, confused.
“Oh god, it hurts,” she whimpered tears running out of clouded over eyes.
“I-I don’t know,” Ebony said, shaken. They both stared at the small shaking figure.
“E-ebony, is that you? I can’t see anything.” The girl’s voice shook with pain and fear.
Ebony’s breath caught in her throat. “That’s Ivory’s voice, and she knows me. We have to help her.”
Todd was about to protest, but he looked into the shadow mutant’s eyes and he saw the crumpled sobbing figure on the floor. He nodded. “She’s passed out. I’ll carry her. I just hope either Scott or Remy hasn’t left yet.”
***
The Cajun charged the cards in his hand and Rogue took a step back, sensing that this was between him and the Sentinel.
The amethyst eyed creature lifted a hand wizard style and aimed his fingers dead center between Gambit’s eyes, and then he moved his hand about a foot to the right and fired a bolt of blue electricity from his finger tips into the wall of the school. He gave a cheshire grin and said with mock disappointment. “Oh dear, clumsy me. I seem to have missed. Your move.”
Gambit raised an eyebrow at the Sentinel’s curious behavior but none the less threw the cards at him. Gabriel jumped out of the way easily and the royal flush exploded harmlessly on the ground around him.
He ran a hand through his golden hair. “Oh dear, you mutants are just too much for me. Curse you, curse you, you mutant scum,” he said entirely without feeling and ran off.
“You don’ tink we should go after him, eh chere?”
“Now that was odd, sugah, if Ah didn’t know bettah Ah’d say he didn’t want ta fight us.”
“Chere, I’d say that be it exactly. You tink we ought to tell de others?”
“Ah’d say it merits a report.”
“Den we better get goin’ non?”
They were heading to the car when they heard someone running up behind them and someone called out.
“Guys, wait up!”
Remy turned. “What happen, petite? Idnt dat one a de sentinels?”
“She was going to attack us, but she fell over in pain and we don’t know what’s wrong, but I think she is Ivory.”
“Dat weird, we get attacked too, but he didn’t seem to want to fight, oui chere?”
Rogue nodded, “He missed Gambit intentionally then jus’ up an’ ran off.”
“Yo, can we cut the chat? She ain’t as light as she looks y’know.”
“Jus get in de car mon ami”
***
Scott, Jean and Hunter were locked in a trio of mortal combat. The Sentinel was frenziedly lobbing spheres of contained energy around the hallway while Scott returned a volley of optic force blasts and Jean shielded herself and Scott, when he needed it, psychically. There was no banter during this fight; none of the combatants were the type.
Hunter darted around Jean as his red energy spheres ricocheted off the force shield. He turned quickly and unleashed a blast at Scott who deflected it with an optic blast and then let off another which hit Hunter in the chest.
The Sentinel reeled backwards, clutching his chest. “Mission abort,” he said simply and without another word ran off down the hall.
“C’mon Jean we have to go after him.”
“Scott no, we have to go and tell the Professor.”
He hesitated, but turned. “You’re right, come on.”
***
“Professor!” Ebony called as they ran into the mansion, “come quick!”
He rolled quickly into the room. “What is it Ebony,” his eyes fell on Gambit who was now carrying the Sentinel. “Isn’t that one of the?
“We were attacked, or something. She started to fire on me and Todd but then she just fell over, she said she was in pain.”
“An we got attacked too professah, but he jus’ missed on purpose an’ then ran off.”
“Hmmm, that’s very strange, come, bring the Sentinel to the medical facility.”
Just them Scott and Jean burst in. “Professor, we were attacked by-“
“There’s no need to shout Scott; it seems that you were all attacked. Follow us to the medical facility and you can tell me all about it.”
***
Gabriel and Hunter met back at the apartment.
“Where is Arachne?” Hunter demanded. “I have received no communication from her since we began the operation.”
“The mutants have her. I was unable to intervene.”
Hunter nodded. “They are stronger than anticipated. Stronger than they theoretically should be. We must relay this to the master. It will interest him.”
“To say the least,” Gabriel mumbled inaudibly.
***
An hour later Ebony sat, nearly by herself in the medilab. Doctor McCoy had Arachne hooked up to several monitoring devices. With the technology the Institute possessed he was able to understand what was going on almost immediately. Arachne, and presumably the other two Sentinels at Bayville, were not the same as the Sentinels they had first encountered. They were cyborgs. A DNA test had revealed that Arachne really was Maryanne Valentine, Ivory. Presumably the Sentinel’s creator had taken her body and engineered it to suit his purposes. Unexpectedly however, because her body was reawakened her powers had begun to manifest. To Ebony’s horror, her mutant healing ability was rejecting her cybernetic implants, which would not only reawaken her memory, but also ultimately kill her.
She stared at the unconscious but obviously living form of her dead friend. Both sorrow and anger swelled within her. How could someone do that? Raise the dead for their horrible purposes. And not only that, but now she was dying all over again, painfully. It made tears well and spill over in Ebony’s dark eyes. It made murdering whoever had done this seem a happy aspect in her darkening heart.
Beast came back into the room. “She probably won’t be waking up any time soon I’m afraid.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But I can’t leave.”
“Todd’s worried about you, but I told him that you most likely wanted to be alone.”
“Thank you.” She wiped a tear from her face even as another fell.
Hank sat down in a chair next to her. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“She was the only friend I had for so long and then she died.”
“We all know what it’s like to lose someone we care about.”
“Twice?”
“Perhaps not.” he looked up and saw someone peeking into the half open door.
“Oh Mr. McCoy,” Ebony broke into a fresh round of sobs. She reached to grab the Beast’s arm but he merely patted her on the head and motioned for Todd to enter the room. He got up and let the boy sit in his place.
Todd put his arms around the tiny tear racked creature and just let her cry. “It’ll be okay Eb’ny, I’ll make sure of it.”
~
Well that’s that. Next chapter, Ivory wakes up for a little while and she and Ebony talk. Todd’s dream returns worse than ever!
Chapter 23: Notes Left to Be Found
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Hey guys. Sorry, last chapter I forgot to credit Queenducky with the title question. Oops. Here are some more reviews, well, technically responses there to.
Starfire: Everyone loves Remy.
Monitor: Dormir means ‘to sleep’. Yes, I do try to dazzle the entire world with my French, now if only my French teacher thought I deserved something above a D. And the word you’re looking for is not ‘ventilateur’. That means the sort of ‘fan’ that keeps you cool in the summer. The word you were looking for is ‘fanatique’. Remember that ‘fan’ is short for ‘fanatic’. I like weird stories, tell me of these piranha worms my child.
Todd fan: I’ll make sure to review your fic.I already read the first chapter though. Didn’t have time to R&R. It was good though.
Queenducky: Do I really write Remy that well? I just write the accent the way I hear it in my mind, mmmmmm Cajun accent.
Cat bodkin: Glad to have you aboard. Together we Todd fans will take over the world!
Queen Kaylene: Kay honey, I made my day with Remy review responding. He was talking in my head for half an hour afterwards! Sorry the chapter took soooo long, as I said I was bedridden. Noi. ^.^
Well that’s that! Hey guess what? This has absolutely nothing to do with DR but I’m going to a concert tomorrow! (Saturday 1st) Green day and Blink 182 at Six flags Darien Lake! Yay!
Disclaimer: I am Lord of All I Survey! MWAHAHA! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Chapter Left to be Found
It was past ten at night and still Ebony sat in her chair, just watching the nearly still form of her long fallen companion. Beside her Todd also sat, stubbornly refusing to leave the room until she did. She was glad of his company. It had been a few minutes since either of them had spoken after the conclusion of a rather long and subdued conversation about just how unfair life tended to be. Todd wished that he could think of something that would comfort Ebony but nothing came to him.
He was about to make another try at conversation when a small movement in the bed across the room startled them both. The silver haired girl shifted slightly and opened her eyes.
“E-Ebony?”
Todd stood, “I’ll go get Doctor McCoy,” he told her, knowing that she would want to have a moment with her friend. The small girl nodded and he hopped silently from the room.
Ebony smiled wanly, “It’s really you, isn’t it?”
“Well of course it’s me, who else would I be? What is this place? It doesn’t smell like the hospital.” The slender figure laid her head back on the pillow.
“You’re in the Institute.”
“The which? You and I know I’m crazy but I never thought they’d lock me up for it.”
Ebony blinked. “Not the mental institute, the Xavier Institute, .”
“Huh? Now I’m confused. They think I’m a mutant because I survived getting hit by a car, or what?”
Her breath caught in her throat. Ivory, she didn’t remember anything after the accident. She didn’t realize she’d died or that she’d been turned into a Sentinel. “Ivy, its, its been a while since the accident.”
She seemed a little taken aback by this but managed to laugh it gently off. “So I was in a coma hm? I thought you looked a little older. How long’s it been?”
“Over a year. But, listen, Ivory, you, you weren’t in a coma exactly. You .”
She laughed again, a small, delicate sound like wind chimes. “But that’s impossible; I’m alive now, if not kicking yet.”
Ebony closed her eyes. “I’m serious Iv, you died over a year ago, I thought you were gone.”
“I don’t understand, Ebsy, tell me what’s going on.”
She told her the whole story, how after she’d died Ebony had become a mutant, and come here to the Institute. About the Sentinel attacks, and how she’d tried to attack them but fallen over screaming.
“But that doesn’t make sense, if I died, why would someone do that? You mean to tell me I’m some no good mutant hunting cyborg?”
She nodded sorrowfully. “That’s what they intended anyway. Look at yourself, Doctor McCoy says you’re covered in wires.”
“Is that the boy who was with you?”
Ebony laughed despite it all. “Hardly.”
“Well excuse me, but if I’m a killer cyborg and you’re a mutant anything’s possible, right? So who is he then, and who’s the doctor?”
“That was Todd, he’s well… we’ve sort of been dating. He’s another mutant, everyone at the Institute is. Doctor McCoy is too, he’s big and furry and he used to teach at the high school. He’s funny.”
“So you’ve been dating huh, well, good for you.”
Ebony blushed tingeing her cheeks a black tone.
Ivory wrinkled her nose. “Ebony, did you know that you blush funny?”
“Yeah, it’s because my blood’s black.”
“Spooked.”
The conversation probably would have gone further but just then Beast came into the room, wearing his lab coat and a well-disposed smile. Behind him Toad crept nervously. “Well it seems our patient is finally awake. And how are you feeling young lady?”
Ivory smiled back at him, taking more heed of his pleasant grin than his savage appearance. “Well I feel just fine, but Ebby tells me I’ve got a bad case of
Terminator-itis.”
“Is that so? Well I hope that she hasn’t gone and told you everything, then I’d feel inadequate.”
“If there’s more to it than that I don’t know about it.”
Beast’s eyes became serious. “Todd, Ebony, could I ask you to leave for just a moment?”
Ebony’s eyes watered and she looked about to protest but Todd took her gently by the shoulder and she deferred to him, leaving the room and closing the door.
Hank sighed. “I don’t like keeping things from my patients but this is very hard for me to tell you. It seems that you’re a mutant, one with exceptional healing ability. Ordinarily that would be wonderful, unfortunately, well, you know that your powers didn’t manifest by the time of your accident, yes? Well, it seems that in bringing you back to life your body could finally manifest your abilities. Again, normally not a bad thing. However, the process which resuscitated you involved the grafting of quite a bit of machinery and computers into your system. Your healing powers are rejecting the implants, tearing them to pieces and because they’re so integral to your survival, the process will almost inevitably kill you.”
Ivory did not cry. “So that’s it then. Ha. You’d think mutation, which is supposed to be a favorable evolution to ensure survival, would understand not to kill you. How long have I got?”
The Beast’s voice became even more grave. “Days, at best. Hours maybe. Your healing powers are exceptionally strong.”
“Ha, healing. That’s funny.” The tone in her voice wasn’t hysterical, but the look in her eyes was. “My healing powers are killing me. Well, that proves it right there.”
“Proves what, dare I ask?”
“God does have a sense of humor. That makes me feel better; actually, it makes Him more touchable, more on the level you know? I wonder which religion is right?” she closed her eyes. “Could you ask Ebony to come in?”
He nodded and brought the small creature in from the hall closed the door on the two girls.
“So he told you.”
Ivory nodded. “How are my parents doing, do you know?”
She nodded. “You remember that lawyer who was always advertising on TV how much money he could wring out of accident lawsuits?”
“You mean that one, what is it, Jim ‘the hammer’ Shapiro? ‘I may be an S.O.B, but I’m your S.O.B?”
“That’s the one. Your mom and dad hired him. It turns out the guy who hit you was rolling in it. Now your parents are. They set up a memorial fund in your name too, to help survivors of drunk driving.”
Ivory smiled. “I’m glad. Now, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to?”
***
Todd stood outside the door with Doctor McCoy, not daring to leave the hallway.
“Man, I wish there was sumpthin’ I could do yo.” He kicked at a nonexistent scrap of garbage on the floor.
Beast nodded. “I understand my friend. Unfortunately this is something I would say was between Ebony and Ivory. The only thing you can do is what you already are, being as sensitive as possible. And I suggest that you get to bed, I find it hard to imagine you’ll be in any shape for anything tomorrow if you stay up all night.”
Todd looked back at the closed door. He wanted to wait for Ebony, but he had a felling that she wasn’t going to be leaving the room for a long while. He sighed and admitted, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Keep an eye on Eb for me though, kay?”
“You have my word,” the elder mutant replied, both playfully and seriously.
He nodded and shuffled down the hallway.
***
Hunter strode uneasily out of the communications room and into the parlor. He faced Gabriel who was as usual crouched sideways in the large armchair.
“I suppose he didn’t like the report very much?” Gabriel asked, intentionally understating the matter.
“He is coming here.”
“Ah.” The lithe blonde boy had been expecting this to happen. Fortunately he had been crafting his plan around just such an occurrence. He had spent the past few hours combing one more time over all of his programming and sub-subroutines. But it seemed that his initial checks had not been in error, as he had feared. It was true, there had been no fail safes encoded into his system, no emergency override or shutdown, no remote control and no auto destruct. In other words as long as he wasn’t given specific orders by either Trask or Hunter he was free. All because Trask had let his sheer arrogance get the better of him. Gabriel would remember that. He laughed.
Hunter raised an eyebrow. “What is humorous?”
Gabriel waved him over. “C’mere and I’ll tell you.”
Hunter walked over confused.
“Closer.”
Hunter came so close that his and Gabriel’s noses were practically touching. “This is what’s funny.” He put his hand to Hunter’s head and sent a current of electricity through it from the generator in his wrist. He didn’t use a strong enough voltage to kill the Sentinel, only to keep him out for a few hours. Hunter sunk to the floor with a ‘wuthump’. Gabriel chuckled and stood. He gathered a few things from around the apartment into his backpack, scribbled a hasty note for Trask and left.
***
Todd was back on the edge of the cliff with the fox girl. She lay still; weeping tears that when they fell to the hard stone pooled and formed a stream. She had been crying so long now that the stream had become a great river which cascaded down the side of the mesa as a waterfall.
Only now did Todd approach her and crouch next to her. “Hey,” he said reassuringly, “It’ll be all right.”
She shook her head. “No, nothing will ever be all right.” She stood and walked to the edge of the cliff beside the waterfall. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better guide for you.”
And he knew what she was going to do. He rushed toward her. “No you don’t! I ain’t letting you go now not after all the hell I went through to find you.”
“I’m sorry Todd, I just can’t deal with it any more.”
“And if you jump where’ll that leave me? How am I supposed to get off this cliff. No, if you jump, so do I.”
The fox turned girl looked at him. “But I’m only a girl..”
“And? You think I hate you because of that?”
“But oh I ‘m just so scared.”
“I’ll protect you. I’ll never leave.”
She smiled and moved to run into his arms. But she slipped on the wet rock and pitched backward off the cliff.
“Noooo!” He dove forward reaching out his arm to grab her.
And woke
with a startled anguished cry and sat bolt upright in bed, body covered in terror sweat. He was panting heavily. He held his hand to his chest and tried to slow his breathing. He looked up at the ceiling and let out a slow deep breath. He remember the full dream now in sharp, horrifying detail; all three parts. And he knew what it meant. He felt that they were no ordinary nightmares either. He just had a feeling that somehow all of it was very real, no time to stop and wonder when he had started having precognitive dreams or why. He leapt out of bed, barely taking the time to pull his old worn pair of jeans on over his boxers and not bothering with a shirt. There was no time. He had to make sure Ebony was alright. A very quick glance at the clock revealed that it was past eight o’ clock. Late for school why had no one woken him up? He must have forgotten to set his alarm. No time to worry about that, Ebony probably wasn’t in school anyway.
He dashed out the door and down the hallway and into the medical facility. But the only person there was Doctor McCoy.
“Yo, where’s Ivory?” he asked astonished.
Hank adjusted his glasses and sighed. “I’m sorry Todd, she died early this morning.”
“Then where’s Ebony?”
“I haven’t seen her since then I’m afraid, she said she was going to her room to take care of something.”
This gave Todd a feeling of despair that was justified when he dashed to her room and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He threw open the door, afraid of what he would see. However, there was no one in the room.
But there was something on the bed, a note pinned to her pillow, with only two lines.
Gone for revenge. Be back soon.
Ebony
***
Trask knocked on the door there was no answer. That was odd. Odd was bad. He took his keys and unlocked the door. The view that he got really surprised him. His top Sentinel, Hunter was sprawled unconscious on the floor with a piece of paper taped to his forehead. He walked over sternly and ripped the piece of paper off his head.
Gone Fishin’
Love,
Gabriel
~
Hehe. I love keeping you all in suspense. We’ve finally gotten to the point of the story that I really want to write so the chapters should come faster. See you soon. Mwa.
Chapter 24: Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: I apologize to anyone who was annoyed by last chapter’s cliffhanger, they annoy me too but they’re too good a literary device not to use. Um, this one is kinda another one too. Sorry.
Queenducky: Well, the reason they’re not acting like robots (except Hunter) is because they’re not, they’re cyborgs. And Trask didn’t do a very good job so Ivory’s memory returned and Gabriel’s too (though he couldn’t care much less, he just wants to be his own person, not the one he used to be or a Sentinel.) I always go to school when I’m sick because then I can pretend to be sick when I just really need a day off. You guys aren’t the only ones which strange names, my name’s Greer. Woo, it means ‘watcher’. I do watch a lot of cartoons. Can’t wait to meet Celaya. How can she hate Evo Toad? He’s so cute and misunderstood. I’m trying to make the DR one a leetle more like the comic one though (the science stuff yaknow). I will most certainly not ignore your reviews!
Todd fan: Hehe, Bunny like cliffhanger. Hope the chapter didn’t take too long for you.
Capslock: I thought the two of you might be related! Ah, now I understand the piranha worms! Like my Dunky, (a doodle I draw all the time that looks like a cross between a duck and a donkey.) Yes, I felt bad but there was no way I could keep her alive.
Kyo Kusanagi: female version: what a coincidence, I love a lot of anime boys too!
Red Witch: Thank you. Ebony’s fate is about to get much worse, unfortunately. I understand how it is to have so much to write and not any time to review. Darwinian Rhapsody is only less than one sixth over and I have a sequel planned afterwards!
In this chapter, Ebony’s luck only gets worse.
Disclaimer: Blah blah blah Marvel. Blah blah blah mine. The chapter title’s from the nursery rhyme. Y’know, ‘sing a song of six pence a pocket full of rye.’
Chapter and Twenty Blackbirds
In the realm of shadows Ebony darted near blindly through the streets of Bayville. It wasn’t even eleven in the morning but to her the world was darkest midnight. There was no sorrow in her heart now, only pure, terrifying fury and a bloodlust that would not be quelled. She had abandoned caution; she had abandoned common sense. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know where to find the Sentinels or there maker. She would find them and nothing and no one would get in her way.
She’d been running for hours now and still she did not tire. Not only did she expend less energy in shadow form but the amount of adrenaline pumping through her black blood would have been enough to keep a sloth running for a week. She had no notion of a plan, beyond what she’d already done. Ivory had died in her presence five hours before. After crying for what seemed like an eternity, she simply stopped, considered the situation and let her frenzied, wild side take over. She’d left a note, turned off Todd’s alarm to make sure he wouldn’t find it until everyone else was in school and left. She didn’t want the Professor sending the X-Men after her. This was her vendetta; it would be her retribution.
If anyone in the normal realm had noticed a detached shadow darting madly around the city Ebony didn’t care. She was beyond caring if anyone saw her powers; in fact it gave her an idea. It was apparent at that point that finding the Sentinels would be hard, harder than she cared to make this. So she would make them come to her. They were supposed to terminate hostile mutant activity?
Well, baby, she could be one hell of a hostile mutant.
***
Todd had wasted no time taking the note to the Professor. He wanted to believe that he could find Ebony on his own but he wasn’t going to take that chance. He cared about her too much. The first thing of course, Xavier had to say when he saw him was
“Todd, why aren’t you in school?”
He held up the note. “If she ain’t in trouble now she’s gonna be real soon.”
The professor regarded the note rather irritably. “I agree. Revenge,” he shook his head, “she’s much too impulsive, she needs to learn to control her emotions.”
“Her best friend just died. For the second time,” Toad reminded him a little sulkily. He shouldn’t be jealous of her friendship but.
“And I understand but still it’s no excuse. But what we need to do now is find her. I will use Cerebro to-“
“Don’ think that’ll be necessary Chuck,” Wolverine said from the doorway.
“Logan, what do you mean?”
“Been watchin’ the news. Think ya might find it interestin’.”
The Professor gave him a questioning glance but turned on the television.
It was a live news feed. A café in the downtown area was ravaged and suffering more devastation by the minute at the hands of a tiny creature in black. The imp was hurling deadly black shards at anything she saw which shattered destructively on impact. The expression on her face was one of mad glee merged with rage. Not only was she causing severe property damage but had also mildly injured a few people before they had fled the scene. She had draped the entire midmorning city block in a cloak of shadow. On the television it looked like night.
They joined the reporter mid sentence. “Being destroyed by an unknown and very violent mutant. It is believed to be one of the mutants involved in the Bayville mall attack. Several bystanders have been injured. The authorities are currently on their-.”
Ebony had oriented on the camera. She threw a shadow dagger at the camera, destroying it and they were forced to switch back to the studio.
“Holy shit,” Todd summarized.
“Wolverine, Toad, come with me. I’m going to see if I can calm her down and sort this out.”
***
Gabriel sensed heavy mutant activity. He knew he should stay away from it because Hunter or the drone Sentinels were likely to be there, but unfortunately curiosity was one of several feline aspects he possessed. He wouldn’t feel the need to attack them because he hadn’t been given orders to. He headed for it. When he got to the scene he stayed several buildings away and well hidden. He observed.
What he saw amused him. The little mutant was wrecking the place. She was shouting at the top of her lungs that humans were scum and they could try to destroy her if they dared. Then three police cars showed up and they may have fooled the crowd but not Gabriel. It was a bunch of drones led by Hunter in police disguise. The little mutant realized this immediately.
She laughed maniacally. “I’ve been waiting for you!” she grinned.
“Hostile mutant will surrender or be terminated,” one of the drones said flatly.
“Just try it! Death before dishonor!” Ebony shouted wildly calling unformed shadow to her hands. “Teyandee!”
Gabriel smiled and wondered briefly where she’d learned Japanese. That last word he knew was a sort of pre battle curse, like ‘I will fight you!’ with the implication of swearing.
The drones had no problem with this, immediately opening fire. Ebony fought with what seemed to be a rage driven expertise, dodging crimson laser fire and returning with a raven barrage of her own. To any outside onlookers it seemed as though this mutant was taking on the Bayville police force. For a minute it looked as though she was winning, immediately she had taken three of the nine drones out of the fight. But it didn’t last, their circle was ever tightening, their laser fire increasingly accurate, they didn’t tire. Gabriel watched her get tagged on the leg the first time, avoiding a more damaging blow to the chest. Her pace was slowing, her shadows missed their marks and it seemed harder for her to create them. A shot to the back, trying to catch one of them off guard knocked her off balance, a swift physical blow to the head brought her down to unconsciousness.
Hunter walked over and picked to mutant up by the wrists. He hadn’t soiled his hands in battle but would have if all the drones had been taken out. He slung her dead weight over his shoulder and nodded to the remaining drones. They would take care of the fallen and handle the press. Hunter took her, got into one of the cars and drove off. Gabriel knew where he was going.
The renegade Sentinel felt a good many things at once. For one he was impressed at how many drones the girl had taken. They were no easy targets and from what he knew she hadn’t even brought down one the first time. For another thing he wondered what had driven the creature to such an act of destruction. She had seemed in school a sweet little thing and Pietro had described her as ‘perky’ and ‘harmless’. He also felt himself something of a coward for not having helped the girl against such odds; especially since he knew the fate in store for her. But how could he with Hunter there? Better to retain his freedom at her expense, wasn’t it?
After only a moment all the Sentinels were gone, leaving only wreckage and another press crew arriving. The whole ordeal had only taken several minutes. Gabriel was about to turn and leave when he saw one more car pull up and three people get out of it. Against his better judgment he followed a whim.
***
“She ain’t here,” Toad said despairingly. “The police musta gotten her.”
“Not police,” someone said behind him. “Sentinels.”
The Toad whirled around and suddenly his saffron eyes burned red. He grabbed the cyborg by the shoulders and threw him against the side of the car, holding him there.
“Where is she ya tin Frankenstein?!” he snarled threateningly. “Tell me what you’ve done with her or I’ll!” He left the threat open.
Gabriel made no move to escape, but smiled cheerfully. “I haven’t done anything to her. But I can tell you where she is. But I’d prefer not to be man handled.”
Toad looked over to the Professor.
“Put him down Toad.”
Wolverine nodded and popped his claws to reassure the boy. Toad let go of him rather more violently than was strictly necessary.
“Well?” he demanded.
“Yes, please tell us what you know,” the professor asked reasonably.
“It’s a warehouse down near the docks, number eight. That’s Trask’s base. He makes the Sentinels and all his other experiments there. You’ll need more than just the three of you if you even hope to get her out of there.”
“What does he want her for?” the amphibian mutant glared, not trusting the plum-eyed cyborg.
“He has a process that that he wishes to test. To suppress mutant powers, make them in effect human.”
Toad nearly stumbled backwards in surprise and fear. In his dream the ravens had stolen the fox and made her a human, and then.
“That is if it works,” Gabriel added.
“If it doesn’t?” he growled.
“How should I know?” Gabriel shrugged. “It could do anything. Nothing, enhance her powers, change them, I can’t guarantee it won’t kill her.”
“Why you,” he moved against the boy.
“Toad,” the Professor warned, and he halted. Then Xavier addressed Gabriel. “Why are you telling us this? Aren’t you a Sentinel?”
He smiled mischievously. “I do what I want. Trask can go screw himself. Y’see, he forgot to install any kind of fail-safe. As long as I don’t get close enough for him to give me a direct order I can do whatever I want.”
“I see.”
“Can I ask what happened to Arachne? Just out of curiosity.”
Toad averted his eyes. “She was a mutant, with healing ability. She remembered who she was, but it killed her, because of the implants. She was Ebony’s best friend.”
Gabriel nodded. That explained the girl’s violent behavior. “I can truly say I am sorry to hear that.”
Toad had one final question. “What about the last one a’ you, he grow a personality too?”
“Hunter? Nah, he’s ‘perfect’. A perfect bastard. He’s the one that took your little pretty. Gimme half a chance and I’d slag him but.”
For the first time in several hours Toad grinned, a perverse, toothy expression. “Consider it done.”
“Well, then I’ll be going. Good luck to you, Todd Tolensky, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Same to you, ?”
The blonde shook his head. “Nah, A.R.H.C.E.R.’s an acronym. You can call me, Gabriel Freewing.” He gave a careless salute and headed down the street.
“Now what Charley?” Wolverine inquired.
“Now we get the X-Men out of school and see about this ‘Trask’.”
***
When Ebony awoke she was no where she recognized. She was sprawled on the floor on a glass and metal case perhaps four feet in diameter and ten feet tall. There were incisions in her shoulders and thighs with tubes stuck into them which fed out of the case into the darkness around her. All around her was blackness. She reached up to touch one of the slender tubes, maybe pull it out.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” a harsh voice said. “It would be, shall we say, a bad thing for you.”
“Who the hell are you, and where am I?” she demanded.
The room lightened a bit and she wished it hadn’t. All around her was what seemed like standard mad scientist equipment. Machines and computers, beakers and the mad man himself. He was tall and gaunt with swept back, graying brown hair and flashing rectangular glasses. “My name is Bolivar Trask. You, my dear, are in my laboratory. You are very lucky, you’re going to be the first I test my cure on.”
“Cure, What for?” she spat, knowing what his answer would be.
“Your disease of course, mutantcy. You’ll thank me later. Not that you have a choice.”
“You’re screwed up, you know that? You should meet my mother, you’d get along.”
“Angela? We’ve spoken. I got your files from her. Enchanting woman but she would so like to have her daughter back. You want to be with your family don’t you?”
“Don’t make me puke. I don’t know why I should be worried anyway, you can’t even make cyborgs right.”
” Is that so?”
“Yeah, ya know your Sentinel Arachne? She got her memory back; do you want to know why? Because she was a mutant. And your cyber implants killed her. Does that make you happy? Are you satisfied?”
“You can hardly blame me, when I found her she was already dead.”
Ebony just glared. “I’ve had just about enough of you doctor Hojo.”
He raised an eyebrow. “My name’s Trask.”
“Video game reference. Final Fantasy seven A sick scientist just like you, you’d get along great. Of course he was trying to create a race of gods, not destroy one. But you wouldn’t know that because the only think you do for fun is cut open small animals.”
“Mutants are hardly a race of gods.”
“That’s what you think. I’m tired of this, I’m leaving.” She stood up and summoned a large shadow mallet; she got ready to smash the glass.
“Your behavior less than suitable. I’m afraid I’ll have to start the experiment now.” He pressed a button and the tank quickly filled with a thick blue liquid. Ebony was floating; she closed her eyes and held her breath, and kicked wildly trying to break the glass.
She passed into unconsciousness before she could do anything.
~
Hehe, cliffhanger. You have to wait until I write the next chapter. ^.^ No, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Gabriel. And yes, there is a good reason for Ebony to speak Japanese, I’m just not telling you what it is yet.
Chapter 25: The Birds Began to Sing
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: You’re not going to believe why this took so long. I’ll tell you after the chapter.
Disclaimer: I’m flattered.
Chapter Birds Began to Sing
The battle was hard. The lab turned out to have been beneath the old warehouse, guarded by Sentinels and similar ilk. Cyclops, Jean, Shadow Cat, Spyke, Wolverine, Avalanche and Toad had fought their way through the defenses to an intersection of four corridors. Presumably one of them would lead to the main lab. To Trask, to Ebony, to Hunter or who knew what else.
“Time to fan out team,” Scott said. “Jean and I will take the left most corridor, Spyke, Shadow Cat, you take the one next to that. Wolverine, would you take the next one? Toad and Avalanche can search the left one.”
The team voiced its agreement. Toad nodded, he hadn’t spoken for almost and hour. His eyes were a bloodshot red and his mouth a hard, determined line. He skulked after Lance keeping aware of any danger that might have been.
Avalanche seemed unnerved by Toad’s unnatural silence. He kept looking back as though to make sure he was really still there, worry in his eyes. But the lithe boy was beyond noticing. There was only one thing that permeated the reaches of his consciousness, Ebony. He would find her; he would rescue her. Two simple facts, these. It was not too late, there were not too many of them and they were certainly not too strong. It didn’t even matter that the Professor had all but forced him to wear the disgusting green and black jester costume. No tights, no fights he had muttered to himself earlier.
But now no witty banter came to mind; there was nothing funny or even morbidly humorous that he could find in the situation. He concentrated on passing through the corridor as quickly as possible in the manner that was most natural and expedient to him; in leaps and bounds. It was tensely silent, not since the fray with six or seven Sentinel ‘bots to gain entrance to the lab had they been attacked. It was eerie.
They came to another diverging of ways. Lance turned to his teammate.
“Should we split up?”
But the Toad was already far-gone down his own path, the one to the right and darker of the two presented. Avalanche shrugged it off, albeit reluctantly, and headed down the passage left to him.
Toad had no sooner gone twenty meters down the metal encased corridor than an alarm began to sound. Had he set it off? He didn’t know, but he knew that instantly rapid-fire laser cannons slid out from all angles and all the way down the passage. And they all of course oriented themselves on their one and only target. Fired.
And Toad did his thing. He continued down the corridor with much more intensity and velocity now, ricocheting off walls floor and ceiling, a somersault here, a back flip there, evading expertly each and every laser bolt with all the grace and fluidity of a mad super ball.
Impossibly powerful legs pushed off easily from any which way as though there was no such thing as gravity. Wide spread palms propelled him forward with form that would have made Olympic gymnasts sick with envy. For all intents and purposes Toad flew, no sooner did feet or hands meet purchase when off they sprang carrying the slender amphibian with seeming effortlessness. Not once did a laser bolt meet its target.
Now he was coming towards the end of the passage where a door of some metal waited, closed. Toad appraised it mid leap, landed for a split second on his hands and leapt towards it, feet first in a sort of double-footed flying kick.
And the door crashed to the floor with him atop it, landing in a ready for action, muscles coiled tighter than springs battle crouch. Toad’s head whipped around, looking for danger, but the lasers, which could no longer track him, settled back into their chambers, and in the dark room in which he had landed, nothing moved.
Toad now scanned the room more thoroughly, his eyes growing quickly accustomed to the near total darkness. Aside from the passage behind him the only illumination was a gray sort of light from one corner which proved the lab to be just that. It looked like something out of a Frankenstein movie, a high budget one. All around cloaked in shadow were mysterious and horrible devices and tables, perversions of the noble scientific art to be sure. Drills, monitors, tables with shackles, pointy objects of any description and things much more complex and hard to explain. There wasn’t a device in the room that didn’t have wires of at least six different colors protruding from it.
He studied the abandoned laboratory in detached disgust realizing that this was indeed a Frankenstein’s work shop for it must have been between these walls that the Sentinels were created.
It didn’t take him long after his evaluation of the room to be drawn to find what was hidden in the far corner underneath the one ghastly charcoal light. He approached it tentatively peering intently at the spot as he closed in but keeping his other senses aware for danger. What he saw bathed under the sickly illumination was a tube of glass metal and wiring and he was nearly upon in when he realized what it contained.
A tiny, delicate and pale figure lay huddled in one corner, if a circular tube could be said to have corners. Locks of raven hair nearly as long as the form itself clung wetly to the otherwise unconcealed creature.
“Ebony!” Todd exclaimed at once, his first utterance in an eternity. He surged forward and threw open the hatch of the glass chamber, sprawling on his knees before it.
Slowly, feebly the ravaged elfin figure stirred, opening halfway glassy, tired looking black eyes. She opened blanched lips. “F-froggy?”
Now he clambered in to her crouching beside her wounded form. “S’me Eb’ny.” He smiled weakly. “I came ta rescue you .The X-Men’re here too. They’re gonna trash this place for ya.” He gave a pale imitation of his impish grin.
She tried to smile but failed managing only a grimace of what looked like quite a bit of pain. “I-I don’t.” she began.
“Shh, don’ bother. We can talk later y’know. Right now ‘m just gonna get ya outta here yo.” He looked at her ruined little body. “Ya can’t walk can ya?”
She shook her head weakly. ” .”
“Don’ worry ’bout it yo. I’ll carry you,” he offered gallantly. After all, she couldn’t possibly weigh a significant amount. “Er, where are your clothes?”
She blushed, her cheeks tuning pink even as his did the same. “Gone,” she said, in an ashamed sort of voice.
“Don’ worry ’bout it,” he insisted, but he wondered at the tone in her voice. “I guess you aren’t up to making any new ones.” he said rather lamely, remembering her power.
She failed to choke back sob, tears filling her eyes. “I c-can’t.” she told him in a terrified whisper.
He picked her up then, holding her maiden style in his lanky arms, trying to keep his eyes from straying off her tear-covered face and onto her naked form. He stood.
“S’okay. Y’gotta be exhausted and hurt an’ too tired ta even make shadow puppets an’ an’ that guy’s gonna pay for whatever he did ta ya.” He finished the sentence in a growl now noticing the bloody slits in her shoulder blades.
“You don’t under- he, he.” but try as she might she couldn’t form the words between the racking, terrified sobs escaping her throat.
But she didn’t need to as Todd’s eyes fell back on the bloody gashes and found their significance. For the life ether that stained her shoulders and upper chest, far from being raven black, was a glistening, bloody crimson.
“No,” he said in disbelief, just as Ebony managed to convey her thoughts.
“Took them. He t-took my powers. I’m h-human,” she sobbed and clung desperately closer to Todd’s chest once again soaking his garment with tears.
His hands being occupied with holding her he nuzzled the top of her head with his face even as he turned to leave the lab. Crossing the room to the broken door holding the trembling girl he wondered how he was going to get past the lasers. But he needn’t have worried.
Racing down the hall was Shadow Cat and Spyke who was taking out all the lasers as he ran.
“C’mon Toad, we gotta get outta here the whole place is about to blow!” he announced.
“What happened yo?” he asked darting towards them as quickly as he dared with his injured sweetheart clinging to him.
“Like everybody else made it to this one central room and we took out a bunch of Sentinels. Then the Scientist guy activated some self-destruct thing and tried to escape Scott and Jean went after him but I like donno what happened to them.” Kitty’s eyes fell on Ebony, “Is she going to be okay?” she asked with concern as they fled back out of the passage.
“Donno. What happened ta Hunter?”
“He and a bunch of other normal Sentinels got away,” Spyke said as they passed the place where Toad and Avalanche had split. A moment later they were at the first divergence and then the egress to the outside.
The smell of the docks greeted them as they burst forth into the open air and they met the other X-men some hundred more meters away at the X jet. They scrambled into the plane and were fastening in and taking off just as the entire underground complex blew. All of the X-Men had gotten out and aboard.
Looking out the window of the jet, which still made Toad very uneasy, and still holding on to the trembling Ebony he watched the explosion. Maybe, just maybe there’d be no more sentinels?
“Yo Summers,” he demanded, “You catch Trask?”
“He got past us, we don’t know where he went. He might still have been in the building.”
“What about Hunter?”
Cyclops sighed. “He definitely got away, with a whole bunch of other Sentinels.”
“Greeeeeat.” So there was at least one of ’em left. Could he make more?
Wolverine stalked over to him. “How’s the midget?” he growled affectionately.
“Hurt,” Todd replied. “Trask did somethin’ to her. Had her in some tube. Her powers, I think they’re gone.” He pointed to her wounds.
“You talk kid?” Logan asked her.
“Don’ wanna,” she whispered hoarsely into Todd’s chest.
The man regarded her; “We’ll be back at the mansion in just a sec and we’ll take her to the Doc and the Prof as soon as we get in. Until then you just keep her close.”
He nodded solemnly, doing anything else hadn’t even crossed his mind.
~
Again, sorry this chapter took so long. The first week was because I was banned from the computer. Then I had a bit of a crisis in my own usually mundane life just a little while ago.
I woke up one morning in excruciating pain and passed out, three times in succession, falling to the floor each time I tried to stand. My mom called the ambulance and when they got there it turned out my blood pressure was eighty over forty. (Too low to survive for very long.) They drip fed salt water right into my veins to bring the pressure back up as they rushed me too the hospital. Eight emergency room hours, two phone calls to my hysterical best friend, three bags of salt water, two vials of my blood, a urine sample, and quite a few fears about the fact that I was below room temperature later I discovered what was wrong.
Near fatal dehydration. I was dehydrated because I drank too little water, too much caffeine, and took an allergy medicine that dried out my system. The pain was because my system was trying to suck the moisture out of my blood. The fainting was because I didn’t have enough blood to get to my brain. So I spent a week off of school recuperating. Then found out I had strep throat, whoops there’s another few days in bed.
The next time I was allowed to go to school it was test week, no time for fan fic there. Five days ago summer vacation started and I definitely needed to rest.
Today is the first time in a while I’ve felt much like writing. I hope it won’t happen again.
On a completely unrelated note I did get to see Titan AE for the first time two days ago. I have fallen madly in love with Preed. Does anyone else have this problem?
Chapter 26: Stolen Gift
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: And so I have returned, the next few chapters are going to be the climax of Darwinian Rhapsody part one. This chapter marks the beginning of a new chapter of Ebony’s life, as well as the return of Bluegart. Speaking of which if Kitty seems a bit out of character it’s because she’s distorted by Kurt perceiving reality as a detective movie.
Disclaimer: The aliens told me this story when they took me in their ship.
Chapter Gift
They had laid her in the medical lab, in the same cot that Remy had occupied not so many days before. The Professor and Mr. McCoy spoke in low tones and Todd sat by her. Logan hovered in the doorway keeping curious visitors away. Still Ebony did not speak.
She was in pain, everywhere in her body, but especially at the incisions in her shoulders and thighs, though the furry doctor had bandaged them. She knew that her powers were gone and it was that fact that kept her silent. She was afraid that she was just a human now, nothing special, worse than dead. She was afraid that if her powers didn’t return that the Professor would make her leave and go back home. After all, the Institute was for mutants only. She didn’t want to leave, or go home. And so she clung to Todd, whose clothing was only just now beginning to dry from her tears.
McCoy had taken a blood sample, and a few other tests without her protest, he was busy analyzing them. Xavier had attempted several times to get her to speak, and now he tried again.
“I realize how much this is hurting you Ebony,” he said gently, his voice grave.
She looked up at him for a moment, her stare icy, then she looked away again, tears forming in her eyes.
“But I don’t really think that becoming an elective mute is going to help you very much. Especially, since there may be something you can tell us might be able to help.”
She looked up at the round, olive face of the boy who comforted her. He nodded. “Please, Ebby?”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I don’t know,” she half whispered, her voice shaking. “He had . There were .and here,” she stroked the wounds on her thighs and shoulders gingerly. “He flooded the glass chamber I was in with some kind of liquid and I blacked out again. I don’t know what else he did, but I woke up and. and.” she bit her lip hard to keep from crying again. But it didn’t work and now her lower lip was bleeding, deep red blood which doubled her sobs as she wiped it away. “Black,” she whimpered brokenly, “my blood’s s’posta be black.”
“Shh,” Todd said, nuzzling her, “its okay.”
” ‘s not,” she denied.
“No,” Xavier said frowning. “But if anything can be done Dr. McCoy, and if not him, there are others.”
“I don’t want to go back to Michigan. You met my mother, you must ,” she looked up at Todd.
“Nobody’s gonna make ya go back there, right?” he stared down Professor Xavier.
“Of course not.” The Professor said rather more sharply than he’d intended. His headache had become steadily worse over the past days and his dreams had become haunted with eerie detached images. It was bringing his temper up short.
Doctor McCoy walked back into the room, his face uncharacteristically grim.
“Is there anything you can tell us Hank?” the Professor asked.
“Unfortunately yes Professor.” He looked at Ebony, “I’m not going to insult you by hiding my test results from you.” This earned him a somewhat stern look from Xavier but he continued anyway. “Trask managed to block your mutant abilities by constructing some kind of cellular shield around your DNA. I have no idea how he did this yet but that isn’t the worst news.”
Ebony looked up at him. “I’m dying, aren’t I? I can feel body falling apart around me.”
“Yes, if there can be no cure found you have about two months to live.”
“.Just like Ivory,” she sighed resignedly.
“No,” Todd said firmly, “I am not going to let you die; I know there’s a way to stop it.” He looked at Xavier recalling his nightly premonitions. “Professor, I think I ought to tell you, I’ve been having precognitive dreams.”
“Is that so, Todd? So you knew that this was going to happen.”
“Well, sorta. They’re more like prophecy than straight premonitions yo, all symbolism an’ junk. It took me some time to figure out what it meant.”
The Professor furrowed his brow; this was a strange power for the boy to be developing. Could it have something to do with the presence that was haunting Xavier himself? “Could you explain this further Todd and how long they’ve been going on? It could be important.”
Todd hesitantly told the room about his dreams.
Xavier nodded. The instance did correspond with his own psychic discomforts. “That’s very interesting Todd, and it does seem to have bearing on the current circumstances. Not the least remarkable is the fact that you seem to be picking up on some psychic disturbance that both I and Jean have noticed.”
“But I’m not a psychic,” Todd protested.
“That is why it’s remarkable.”
Ebony had remained silent again during the entire conversation. She looked at Todd, and then at the Professor and then at Doctor McCoy. “You’re going to be trying to find a way to save my life and get my powers back, right?”
Hank nodded, “Of course.”
“And you’re going to be figuring out why the psychic vibes are so bad that even Toddy’s picking them up, yes?”
Xavier also nodded.
“Then why don’t you let me alone to think for a while? I’m not going to do any more stupid things today, I promise.” She smiled weakly.
“If that is what you’d like.” The tow elder mutants left the room.
“What about me Ebby?”
“If you don’t mind. I’d kind of like you to stay here. I’m tired but.I don’t want to be alone.”
Todd ran a hand through her long, limp hair. “You aren’t going to die Ebony. I won’t let you.”
“I know, but.”
“And Doctor McCoy will find a way to get your powers back.”
” if I don’t?”
“No what ifs, little pretty.” He smirked. “That was some really heavy damage you did to that café this morning.”
“Yeah, I kinda snapped. That, well, it doesn’t happen often last time it happened was right after , the, eh, first time. I left it out of my story because, well, it’s not exactly sane. I just let my emotions take control, threw desks around the class room, threatened teachers, put my foot through the chalkboard. I. after I came to my senses I promised myself that I’d never let my rage drive me to madness. Again. But then.” She choked back a sob.
He put his arms around her shoulders. “Shh, don’ cry yo. It’ll be okay. Everybody gets angry sometimes.”
“But I hurt people out there. I was no better than them.”
“Who?”
“The humans, the Sentinels, anyone. Watakshi wa rakugosha no yoni henshu desu.” She spoke in Japanese.
“Huh?”
She grimaced bitterly. “I said that I was a failure as a mutant. I taught myself Japanese during those interminably long years as a loner.”
“Why?”
She shrugged, “Something to do I suppose. And I liked anime. It’s not really useful but I like it better than English, really, it’s prettier.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry Todd, I really need to lie down, I’m so tired. You can go if you want.”
“Nah, I’ll stay. I ain’t gonna leave ya alone again.” He paused. “You’re not a failure, Ebony.”
***
I was insulted not to have been included in the mission this morning, and when I got back to headquarters that afternoon nobody who hadn’t gone knew just what was going on. I took it upon myself once again to ferret out the facts, another case for Kurt Wagner, Private Eye.
I pulled on my hat and summoned my doll to the office to see if she had any idea what was shakin’ in this dingy little town.
“I like promised the Professor I wouldn’t talk about it, Kurt,” Ms. Pryde said leaning over my desk.
“You know I can keep a secret, doll face,” I told her.
“I donno, but.I could tell you if you’d do me a little favor.”
“Name it sweetheart,” I hate to admit it, I’m a suck for a dame.
“I want you to find out what’s wrong with Ebony.”
“I told you, babe, the minx is lovesick.” I grimaced. I took out my cigarette and took a drag. [A/N: The return of the straw!]
“Not that. Listen gumshoe,” she said, “You know her buddy Ivory, the Sentinel? She died this morning and Ebony she went off the deep end. The Professor found her demolishing some café, but the Sentinels found her first, took her to some underground HQ. That’s where we came in. so he pulls us out of school and sends us on the rescue mission.”
I nodded. “This much I already knew. So what happened then?”
“I was getting to that Kurt. We were all fighting with the Sentinels, except for the Toad, he was off looking for Ebony. But then Trask came on this big screen and announced that he was going to self destruct the place.”
“Typical,” I said, “continue, Ms. Pryde.”
“So Scott was orchestrating the get away and he sent me and Evan to find the love birds. We found them alright, in a lab just off a hallway full of deadly laser. The girl was in pretty bad shape, she had to be carried and we got out just before the place blew sky high. That’s all I know, they’ve got her in the medical ward right now and they aren’t letting anybody in. I was wondering if you could, you know.”
“Sure thing sweetheart, anything for a pretty face.” I took a drag off my cigarette, thoughtfully.
Kitty smirked. I wonder what she thought was so funny?
“Be back in a minute, doll.” Every detective has his own set of special skills; I used mine and was in the medical ward almost immediately.
The dame was a mess, come to think of it so was the joe sitting by her. She was asleep, but he wasn’t.
” What d’ya want?” the Toad demanded, “Get outa here.”
I lifted my hat a little. “‘Afternoon, amigo. I promise I’ll leave just as soon as you give me the skinny on the dame there.”
“I ain’t tellin’ ya nothin’, Wagner, now get outa my face before you wake Ebony up.”
” Come on, you can tell me.” I gave him a reassuring grin.
“Get out, now,” he growled.
But the dame was opening her eyes. “You may as well tell him,” she closed her eyes again and pulled the covers over her head.
The tough guy glared at me. “Some nutso doctor zapped her of her powers and she’s dyin’ too. Happy, ‘detective’?” he sneered.
“Thanks bunches Tolensky,” I grinned and made a hasty exit.
I sat at my chair with my feet on the desk; Ms. Pryde was waiting eagerly for my return. “Did you find anything?”
“Doll face, I am a professional.”
“Right. Just tell me what you got.”
“Trufire’s in deep, Trask nixed her powers and now she’s on death’s doorstep.”
Kitty gasped. “That’s horrible.”
“I’m sure they’ll find a cure for it, babe,” I hate to make her upset. “Hey, you remember last time we were on a case together?”
“Yeah, what about it, detective?”
“You owe me a rain check on that drink, Ms. Pryde, and I’d like to call it in. That is if you don’t have anything better to do?”
“Sure, but do me a favor, Wagner, and ditch the cigarette.”
***
It was late at night now and Todd had fallen asleep in the chair next to Ebony. He was dreaming again.
Ebony was falling he reached out to catch her.
He caught her hand.
“Todd!”
“I’ve got you.” He pulled her up back onto the cliff.
But then the ravens came back, and this time they started attacking him.
He was bleeding, he was going to die. The largest raven swooped, coming in for a final attack. He couldn’t dodge it, couldn’t move.
“No!” She leapt in front of him.
Todd woke with a start. He looked over to make sure that Ebony was still alright. She was, for now.
***
In his private chambers Charles Xavier also slept fitfully. Detached images flashed through his dreamscape. A voice called to him.
“..”
“Who are you?” Xavier called. “What do you want from me?”
“.help…”
“How can I help you?”
“419.419.419.”
~
Well that’s certainly spooky, isn’t it? Just what to you think’s going on here? Will Ebony get her powers back? More importantly, will she survive? Why is Todd having prophetic nightmares? Has the author lost her mind entirely? Will she kill off her main character? Watch out for chapter 27!
Chapter 27: Hold Me
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Hello, friends all. (Anyone who’s still reading at this point is officially my friend, after all.) The first order of business is of course, reviews, or rather the answers there to.
Kyo Kusanagi: female version: Unfortunately I can’t IM you because my Dad won’t let us use instant messaging and has disabled chat from our computer. I would however like to e-mail back and forth if that would be satisfactory. (I have so few friends, *sniff* like Toddy) I’m sorry the chapter took so long, but I explained about that and, well, I’m back now.
Kitty-kat: Glad you like it, here’s more.
Pe-chan: Sorry it took so long. I won’t die if I’ve got any say in the matter.
Todd fan: I have returned! (Triumphantly I might add!) *Hug*
Queenducky: Are you kidding, this story won’t die! I’ve had it around since two months after Evo started and I have plans for part two and three and a sequel. The question for you is .will Ebony be in them? Not tellin’.
Foxglove33: Aye, poor me. *hug* I’m writtin’ as fast as I can for ya sweetie. Glad to know somebody else has a thing for the sneaky Akrennian. Mm, Titan AE, listening to soundtrack right now.
Redrose2310: well Professor X won’t kick her out, largely because he doesn’t want to seem cruel to the other students, but suicide? Well, she’s tried it before.*sigh* poor thing.
Starlightz6: Yes, water is our friend, I’ve got a glass by me just now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Remy and Rogue are my favorite couple in the multiverse! Unfortunately they’re only a side story in Part one of DR, and barely in part two at all, but they’re the main focus in part three. (Which will have several pleasant surprises in it, heh) We’re nearing the end of part one, and part two isn’t near as long as one, so they’ll have their time to shine. In the mean time you’ll have to be sated with romantic angst of the Todd/Ebony variety. Almost as good, (If I do say so myself) but with a different problem at the moment!
Akasha: *hug* Thanks Aka-chan! How about hounding me with e-mail or reviews instead? I’m sooo lonely; all my non-net friends are on vacation.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now, Dad won’t let me check the reviews for Stolen Gift’ yet. He is soooo unreasonable some times. (Read: every day) just this morning he was ripping his hair out (Figuratively speaking, since he’s bald) because he thought this web page was some how remembering where he went even though he has our computer set to not accept cookies. I took a look at the problem and patiently explained to him that the Site was not remembering where he went, the links alternated colors (The top one red, then the next violet, then red etc.) The links were not different colors because he’d clicked on them, it was a coincidence. Sheesh.
This is a rather melancholy chapter unfortunately, but they seem to be pulling that way. It’s necessary though, for plot purposes. It’s kind of hard to write a cheerful chapter when your leading lady’s dying of a horrible disease. It wouldn’t be very Dramatic anywise, no impact at all.
As a side note, I just remembered this and should have bragged earlier, but I was, y’know, dyin’ an’ stuff. I just felt that you should know that after years of barely passing (and sometimes failing outright) in French class through sheer lack of care, not only did I pass the Regents test (a test written and required by New York state) I passed with a 91. It seems that I really do know the language. Heh, that and I had Remy with me, whispering the answers in the back of my head. Does having an other dimensional hotty with you really count as cheating?
Disclaimer: The poem at the end of the chapter is my own, I wrote depressing poetry long before fanfiction. This one’s specifically written for Ebony though, it’s got the same title as the chapter.
Chapter Me
It had been two weeks. Todd didn’t go to school; he sat by Ebony as she slowly worsened. When he had originally rescued her, (some rescue, he thought ruefully) he had been amazed by the color in her cheeks. Now he watched that color slowly drain away and the pounds fall from her already slender frame. He could see her ribs and the bones of her wrists through skin that was as pale as chalk. He knew though that her colorlessness was no sign that her powers were returning, she was dying. If only he had gotten there sooner! If Trask were alive Todd would, well; he didn’t know exactlty what but he’d take steps to personally correct that oversight!
It was February ninth, or so Doctor McCoy had told him that morning when he’s asked, and it had been raining last time he’d looked out the window, a cold, miserable, rain that accented the mood in the medical ward of the Institute. Todd did his best to comfort Ebony but the elfin girl refused to be consoled and sank daily lower into the pits of depression.
He looked at her form, which was swift becoming gaunt. Her eyes were sunken, with great dark circles beneath then. When she had them open they were a crisp, unnatural, sky blue. But she seemed to be sleeping now and it had been hours since Todd had moved from a sitting position.
He stood up, just to stretch his poor, cramping legs. His left foot was asleep; he shook it, grimacing, until the feeling came back. He hopped across the room to the door to McCoy’s lab. The mutant doctor was spending almost every waking hour there these days, trying to find a cure for Ebony. Xavier, however, while not saying anything to the effect, gave Todd the distinct impression that he didn’t think there was a cure, and that he didn’t really care. The rest of the school knew what was wrong with Ebony now, they’d been told shortly after the seriousness of her condition had been realized. At first everyone had started coming to wish her well and cheer her up. Most of them had stopped after realizing how futile it was.
Todd rapped softly on the Beast’s door.
“Come in,”
He did so.
“Ah. Hello, lad. How’s Ebony doing this afternoon?” The question was largely a pleasantry; they both knew her condition.
He shrugged. “She’s sleepin’ right now. Didja find anything today, doc?” Todd had been in his lab frequently in the past weeks and the two got along well enough.
“You know I think I may have, come here and take a look.” He waved the boy over.
Todd peeped into the microscope, eyeing the now familiar sight of Ebony’s locked up cells. The problem, McCoy had told him, was that the treatment Trask had used on Ebony had done some unique things to her cell membrane. The cell membrane, or semi-permeable membrane, was supposed to be just that, semi-permeable, to allow some things to enter or exit the cell and not others. Trask had changed it so that the membrane was a barrier to keep her mutant powers from being able to manifest. Unfortunately this change also kept certain necessary chemicals from being able to travel in and out of her cells readily. That was why she was dying.
“I’ve seen this before,” Todd sighed.
“Yes, yes. Now look at this one.” He replaced the slide with another.
Todd gaped. While not being completely unrestricted, the chemicals were moving much more freely through these cells.
Beast registered his astonishment. “Three days ago, I stopped, for a moment, trying to reverse what Trask did and instead I concentrated on trying to find a way to correct it. I wanted to balance the membrane by adding on instead of taking away. After all, you can’t take any milk out of your hot cocoa, but you can add more chocolate.”
“An’ it worked?”
“Well, the cells are stabilizing, but, well, the stabilizing process doesn’t get rid of the barrier on her powers, it cements it.”
“What are ya sayin’ doc?” Todd asked, hoping he didn’t mean what he thought he did.
“If she’s subjected to the new treatment she’ll live, but she’ll almost certainly never regain her powers.” He adjusted his glasses.
“Can’t ya think of any way?”
“Only one. A power surge to her system might break the barrier, something along the nature of a heart attack or a high voltage electric shock. But anything with the necessary power would probably kill her.”
“But maybe there’s another way to stabilize her, one that’ll get her powers back too.”
“I don’t think so Todd, and we don’t have much more time for research. I think my original estimate was optimistic. I don’t think she’ll last the week.”
He sighed. “I know.”
***
Ebony wasn’t asleep, really, but she knew that Todd needed to get up and walk a bit and he wouldn’t leave her while she was awake. She lifted a hand and examined her bony, dying fingertips. Even that small movement was taxing. She was so tired and so weak. She couldn’t have gotten out of bed even if she’d had the will to. She had given herself up for lost and that was probably accelerating her departure. That was fine with her. She knew that Doctor McCoy wasn’t going to find a cure and the fewer days she had to spend alive as a human the better.
Her whole body was a dull, meaningless ache. There was no pride, no confidence in her. She had never felt more vulnerable. She was nothing more than a tiny, gaunt, weak little girl. She had no more ability to defend herself than a thimble. Ebony hated being helpless, she’d fought against it her whole life, and now she had to succumb.
Ah, well, she thought. It had been sweet while it lasted. Perhaps she would even meet Ivory, in whatever came next. But knowing the universe, there would be only oblivion. Fate never seemed to give her anything without taking it away just when it was beginning to make her happy. She ticked off the things that had ended this way in her mind. First, her life as a lone wolf, then Ivory, then suicide, then her freedom, and now her powers. She suspected that if she were to live she would eventually be kicked out of the X-mansion, and then some time after that lose Todd. That was just the pattern of her life, her destiny.
She saw the door open. “Hello Froggy boy, hello doctor McCoy.”
“Yo pretty thing.”
Beast smiled. “And how are you feeling today, Ebony?”
She smiled weakly. “Worse than yesterday of course.”
“Ah, I’m sorry to hear that my dear, but I do have some good news, as well as unfortunately bad news.”
Todd sat on her bed and she laid her head in his lap. “Well then, lets hear it.”
“The good news is that I’ve found a way to stop your cells from deteriorating. The bad news is that if we use this solution you will most likely never regain your powers.” Ebony closed her eyes; Todd put a hand on her shoulder.
“I can’t force a decision on you of course. But I don’t think you’ll have very long to make this particular choice. I’ll be in my office if you need me.” He left the two teenagers alone in the room.
She looked up into his golden eyes. “I don’t think I can do it.”
” ‘ll die.”
“I don’t think I could live as just a human anymore.” She paused. “But, would you still love me, if I were just.I know.”
“Of course I would, yo! How could you think sumthin’ like that?” he drew her up closer to him.
“But I’d just be ordinary.”
“No, you couldn’t be ordinary. An’ if you decide you’re gonna kick I’ll just have ta follow ya. You’re the only person mutant or otherwise ever really liked me for who I was, regardless. I know I ain’t much to look at.”
“I think you’re very handsome,” she protested.
“See what I mean? There ain’t nobody else who thinks that!”
“If I, if I took it, then, would you promise not to leave me alone? Ever? Because I know I could live without you. Not without my powers not even with my powers I don’t think.” She sniffed and her eyes began to fill up with tears.
“I promise. Never,” he drew her up.
Now she was sitting, resting her head on his chest and the tears began to spill.
“Don’t cry, pretty, ya got the Toad to protect ya, and now you’re never gonna get rid of me.” He lifted her chin up and kissed her.
She wiped the tears off her face. “Come on, let’s go get that cure. I don’t think I can stand by myself though.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“It’s nothing more than a simple injection,” Beast said, “It shouldn’t hurt too much.”
Ebony bit her lip and held Todd close as the needle slid into her vein, taking away what she felt was the only thing that made her special. McCoy wiped her arm clean and put a bandage on it.
Then she fell into Todd’s arms and cried.
Hold me close now
I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be alone,
And I don’t know if I can ever hold my own again.
I’m so hurt and I’m so cold
And I don’t want to be alone anymore.
I’m so spent I cant lay down,
Please hold me in your arms
As I lay dying.
Now I’m broken
They’ve taken everything from me.
Please don’t leave me,
I’ve lost my way; it’s going dark.
You’re the only one who knows
You’re the only one who cares.
I’m in pain; my world’s gone
Please say you love me
As I’m crying
Here with you tonight.
~
Gee. That was depressing wasn’t it? In the nest chapter Ebony’s learning what it’s like to be human again. It’s the return of Gabriel and he’s running into some old ‘friends’.
Chapter 28: Only Human
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Everyone’s sending me sad reviews! *sniff* Well, that’s what this part of the story is, sad.
Todd fan: It would break his heart, wouldn’t it? Good thing she found a cure. But keep reading she’s not out of danger yet!
Liquid mercury: Are you kidding?!Of course I can’t kill off the main character! Not until I’m ready to stop with this fic and move on to another one, at least. I’ll tell you the truth; I toyed with the idea for a while. Of letting her die and having Todd go out for revenge. But then I changed my mind. I do that fairly often. When I was first coming up with the idea for Darwinian Rhapsody I was originally going to have Ebony go live with the Brotherhood!
P-Chan: Well, I haven’t killed her off yet. Please spare your mouse though; I don’t think it did anything. This poor dehydrated cripple is updating as fast as she can.
Capslock: summer can be very busy. Glad to have you back!
Lyra Silvertongue: Well, yet another fan I’ve brought to tears. Maybe it’s time to start getting serious about those tissues. *hands her one* I come into fanfics at points like that fairly often, actually, so I know the feeling. People seem to say my fic kicks ass a lot. I like to think it does. I like chapter fourteen too. In all honesty though it was really some thing of a filler chapter, but for the sake of appearances we’ll call it ‘character building’. Plus I really needed to get the urge to write olde englishe out of my system! Actually, I do some of my best writing at three am.
I would like to take the time now to say that I saw the movie ‘ Triple X’ yesterday (a pre theatre release my mom won tickets to from the radio station) And all of you should Go see it! It is the best action move I have ever seen! It makes James Bond look like a prudey old lady!
Okay, advertising aside. This chapter will mark the return of my personal favorite new character Gabriel. And I’m sure to everyone’s great delight, Remy and Rogue.
Disclaimer: You expect me to admit that the characters aren’t mine?! *laughs in their faces*
Chapter Human
It was Valentines Day, a Wednesday, and Ebony was back in school. All of her clothes had been made of shadow and had disappeared with her powers. So she had borrowed some of Rogue’s less frequently worn garments, and they fit her very badly. She wore a huge, shapeless, forest green sweater and dark blue jeans rolled up at the ankles and belted until they stayed on her tiny waist.
Her teachers noticed the change but mostly didn’t comment the paramount thing in their minds was having her make up all the work for the two and a half weeks of school that she’d missed. Mrs. S-Z had asked her what was wrong and gotten a short, seemingly apathetic reply. Ebony had left without waiting for her reply.
She sat listlessly through her classes, paying no more attention to her teachers than usual, without paying attention to anything else either. She was very obviously depressed and the fact that she and Todd had plans for after school cheered her only slightly. Idly she ran a hand through her long black hair. It seemed some how ridiculous now, the raven locks which fell all the way to her knees; an arrogance she no longer deserved, or she decided really wanted. It would have to go.
***
He was very worried about Ebony, so when the end of the day came he hurried to her side. She was worse than when she’d found out about Arachne. He’d spent days trying to figure out something he could do about it, anything. If truth be told he quite frequently not the happiest person in the world either, exited, mischievous or irrationally arrogant quite a bit. But not happy. So he wasn’t very good at cheering people up. He tried his best though.
She barely spoke on the ride home in the car Lance pretty much had on permanent loan from the Professor. Even the (former?) Brotherhood was considerate enough not to mention Ebony’s grievance. That consideration was backed by Todd’s dark glare.
“You okay?” he asked her carefully.
“Terrible,” she sighed glumly. She pulled at the sweater she had on. “I shouldn’t be able to wear this.” She grimaced. “Well, I suppose that’s one problem solved. I’m sorry.”
“For what yo?”
“Being so down. I’ll probably get over it eventually. C’mon, let’s get inside.” They had just gotten back to the mansion. The weather had gotten colder yet again but not quite cold enough to stop the snow from melting almost as soon as it touched the slushy ground. They were rather wet by the time that they actually got inside.
“Let’s go up stairs, I’ve got a present for you,” Todd said. He had spent a long time thinking about what he should do for Valentines Day. He’d considered candy and flowers, dinner and a good many other things before finally deciding on an idea he’d stumbled on quite by accident.
“Stay out here a minute,” he said to her as they reached his room. He ducked in and a moment or two later he opened the door. “Kay.”
She walked into the room. His curtains had by now been replaced with black ones and there were some posters up on he walls. On the bed was a large white box tied with a pink ribbon.
“Open it, yo” he said as she sat down.
She picked it up and its weight seemed to shift oddly. She started to remove the ribbon and the box moved, startling her. She looked quizzically at Todd.
“Jus’ open it.”
She finished delicately removing the ribbon and took the top off. Immediately upon doing so a black mass of fur popped its head out above the rim. Ebony exclaimed with delight; the kitten mewled.
It was a very small kitten, with long almost shaggy black fur without a single marking. It had wide bright green eyes and pointy ears that seemed just a bit too big for it and a swishy tail.
“Meo?” the kitten asked as she picked it.
“Oh Todd, he’s the sweetest thing in the world!”
“Yeah, I kinda thought you’d like him.” He grinned.
“Actually, I was wrong. You are the sweetest thing in the world!”
As had previously been observed Todd’s blush did horrible things to his complexion.
“Come here.”
He sat down beside her and she kissed him warmly.
“I saw a sign in front a’ somebody’s house advertisin’ that there cat’d just had kittens an’ I checked it out. I thought about some little calico one but this one wouldn’t leave me alone. Picked him up this morning.” He rubbed the cat on the ears.
“So that’s why you were late.”
He nodded.
“Well, he’s absolutely adorable. What should I call him?”
“I’m bad at namein’ things Eb,” he admitted. “I’d probably end up just calling him cat.”
“Hmmm,” she regarded the creature. “Azreal? No, that’s from the Smurfs. Claw? No not original enough.” She shook her head. “I’ve got it! Toddy, meet King Emetrius Alexandros Horatio Del La Lune XVII.”
Todd goggled at the lengthy title.
“King Alex for short,” she giggled.
“Meo,” the King agreed.
Ebony scratched his ears and he purred. The King batted at a loose strand of her hair. She frowned slightly and pulled it away from him.
“Hey Froggy boy, do you have a pair of scissors?”
“Sure. How come yo?”
“I think I want to get rid of some of this,” she gestured to her hair. “Like maybe this much.” She used her hands to indicate a Cleopatra-like bob.
“You sure Eb? That much hair won’t grow back in a week ya know.”
She nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it. It just gets in the way.”
“Well, if you’re sure yo.”
***
Remy had driven Rogue to a moderately expensive restaurant for celebration of Valentines Day. He’d even been able to order them some wine courtesy of a fake ID he’d gotten somewhere. She had decided not to ask about it.
“It too bad it no night for a romantic walk in de park eh chere?”
“That’s okay shugah, Ah like dinner just fine,” she smiled. “An’ Ah jus’ like bein’ with ya.”
“Remy is tres charming, non?” He grinned playfully.
Rogue laughed and sipped her wine. “Professah X might not like this y’know Remy.” She indicated the glass.
“So? De professor not know everyting. Dey say wine good for you.” He grinned again and lifted his glass. “A toast. To you, mon cherie.”
She blushed.
When they had finished the meal and got up to leave Rogue was mildly astonished to notice they’d finished the bottle of wine. She realized that she was rather pleasantly dizzy. She stayed very close to Remy as they walked out into the parking lot hand in hand.
As they reached the car Remy stopped and turned to her. “Chere, you know dat Remy love you, oui?”
“Ah love you too shugah.”
“Bon,” and with that he drew her very close and kissed her.
It was a very quick kiss, only a split second really. But even still Remy reeled backwards and nearly fainted. Rogue had to reach out and catch him.
“Now why’d ya go an’ do that?” she demanded, “Ah coulda seriously hurt ya!”
“Je t’aime,” he insisted, rubbing his now throbbing head.
“Merde! Ah know dat chere! -” She stopped. It hadn’t been long enough for her to absorb his powers or anything, but apparently she’d temporarily picked up his speech habits. She grimaced self-consciously and made an effort to speak normally. “Ya gotta promise me ya not gonna do that again!”
“You not like it chere?”
She glared. “Y’all know that ain’t it! I don’ want ya ta get hurt!” tears started to fill in her eyes. “Oh Remy.” She embraced him.
***
It was well past twilight as Gabriel walked down the mucky Bayville streets with slush pouring from the sky. He knew he should have left the town by now, but for some reason he still lingered. His link with Hunter and the other Sentinels had been broken when the X-Men had destroyed Trask’s base. Hunter could be anywhere, if he still existed. It would have been prudent for Gabriel to leave. But he didn’t.
It was a good thing that for one reason or another Trask hadn’t canceled Gabriel’s access to the scientist’s (extensive) bank account. Otherwise he probably would have starved by now. As it was he was staying in a comfortable hotel, until, he told himself, he figured out where he wanted to go. Because he had an overwhelming impulse to go somewhere and it was somewhere very specific, he didn’t just yet know where.
It was that fact, along with the miserable weather that occupied his mind as he walked that evening. He had by now, and rather smugly, bought himself an umbrella. He had been experimenting with different manners of acting over the past weeks; grim pessimism, stupidity, a hot temper, and all others. He had finally decided on smug cheerfulness, with an occasional edge of sarcasm. It was what he was best at.
Shuffling through the half-melted snow he contemplated going to Hawaii, but dismissed the idea very quickly. Hawaii wasn’t where he wanted to go, even if it was warmer. He went back to thinking.
He was so busy thinking that he nearly didn’t see the large figure in black turn a corner ahead of him onto the street. But even from the back Gabriel recognized him as soon as he saw him, and immediately wished that he hadn’t. It was Hunter.
Gabriel saw that he had two options. He could leave before Hunter noticed him. That was the safest option for him. Or he could follow unobtrusively and find out what the bastard was up to. He wondered if Hunter’s tracking connections had gone out with the lab too. He concluded that they must have been or Hunter would have found him by now.
Once again Gabriel’s curiosity overcame his caution and he decided to follow Hunter. He quietly tracked the dark cyborg up Main Street and through several back alleys to a large, empty warehouse. Not once did he seem to notice he was being followed. While Hunter went in through the door, Gabriel climbed up to a window and peered in.
The building contained about fifty normal (That was to say AI, not cyborg) Sentinels, to whom Hunter was giving instructions. Gabriel could hear them clearly though no one without bionically enhanced ears could have. They were going to stage a raid on Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Tomorrow. The objective was to eliminate.
Gabriel jumped off the crates he was standing on, landing easily on his feet. He hurried from the ally with a grin on his face.
~
Well, wasn’t it cute? What do you think of Ebony’s kitten? Where does Gabriel have the overwhelming urge to go? What about that raid? Woo. It’s a general tavern brawl in the X-Mansion in the next chapter, ‘Darkness Conquers’! Don’t miss it, it’s the climax of part one of Darwinian Rhapsody. A veritable season ender!
Chapter 29: Darkness Conquers
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: Just read the chapter!
Disclaimer: I own didley squat.
Chapter Conquers
Gabriel let himself into the Institute; it was relatively easy for him to get past all of the security measures. He would have picked the lock on the front door too, just for kicks, if Charles Xavier had not been waiting to let him in.
“Hello Gabriel,” the bald man greeted him, “what are you doing here so late in the evening?” It was just past eleven o’clock.
He smiled affably, not at all unnerved by the psychic. “I just ran across some information I thought you ought to have. Do you mind if I come in? It’s rather wet out here.” He smiled up at the soggily clouded sky.
“Of course.”
He closed his umbrella and followed the wheel chair bound man in. He sat down on the first couch he came across, not waiting for an invitation.
“Now, there was something you thought I should know?” Xavier asked.
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“What was what?”
“The thing that you wanted to tell me.”
“What about it?” Gabriel continued to smile, quite as affably.
The Professor, however, was hardly in the mood for this sort of game. His headache was worse than ever and he hadn’t been getting enough sleep, due to the haunting dreams. He mentally gritted his teeth. Xavier did a lot of things mentally actually. “Please tell me about that thing that you thought I should know.” He could of course, have easily lifted the information from the boy’s mind, but most people seemed to think that it was an invasion of their privacy, and he didn’t like to be rude.
“Oh, that. It’s hardly anything really. You wouldn’t happen to have any tea by any chance, would you? It’s very cold out there.” He ran a hand through his wet, Crayola yellow hair. “And damp.”
Xavier’s eyebrow did not twitch, nor did he sigh heavily, he had a lot of personal control. “I believe so.” He led Gabriel into the kitchen and started a pot of tea.
Gabriel really didn’t say much for a few minutes. He stood, admiring the warm, bright kitchen and smiling in, what Xavier now considered, a truly maddening fashion.
Finally, with hot, fresh brewed tea in hand he spoke. “Good tea,” he commented, his plum colored eyes sparkling. “I feel much better.”
“I’m glad you like it,” the Professor managed. He was about to try to steer him back to ‘that thing you thought I should know’ when the boy brought it up himself.
He put the teacup down on the table. “Now then, where were we? You really shouldn’t allow me to get side tracked like that, old boy.”
Yet again, the Professor failed to go into hysterics. “You were going to tell me, about the thing you thought I should know.”
“Ah, of course, how silly of me to forget. And something so important too.” He picked his tea up. “You know, I really think this could use some sugar. Have you got any?”
“One lump or two?” Xavier asked as civilly as he could manage.
“Just one I think, it is rather good tea. Thank you,” he said, taking the proffered sugar cube. “Now,” he tapped a finger on his upper lip, “Ah yes, the attack!”
“Attack?” Xavier was rather startled by this.
“I’m sorry, did I mumble? Yes, attack. I ran across Hunter and some Sentinels this evening. Nasty fellow, Hunter, did I ever tell you about the time he made me go out on patrol in the pouring rain, with not so much as an umbrella? Ah well.” He sighed, “As I was saying, I ran across him this evening and I decided to follow him and see what he was up to. It turns out,” he took a sip of tea, “Good tea, really splendid, it turns out that he, and about fifty drone sentinels, are going to attack here tomorrow. I just thought you might want to know.”
And it had only taken half an hour to get it out of him. “Er, yes, thank you. You don’t happen to know when they’re planning to attack, do you?”
“Actually, they mentioned it. High noon. Really. Not very original perhaps, but it is traditional.”
“Hmm,” the Professor was thinking. Would the automated defenses (and Wolverine and Storm) be able to handle the threat, or should he keep the core team here to take care of it? He really wanted to keep the damage to the Institute minimal, so.
“Well, thank you for your gracious hospitality, old boy, but I really should be going.” Gabriel set his teacup down and turned to leave. But he stopped, a small figure descending the stairs catching his eye. “Perhaps I can stay a moment more,” he murmured, smiling a bit more broadly.
***
Ebony couldn’t sleep, so she stood up, scooped King Alex, her new, precious little kitten, into her arms and headed down to the kitchen to see about a cup of cocoa. She was a bit surprised to find the lights on and Professor Xavier talking with, of all people, Gabriel. Todd had told her about Gabriel, and how it was because of him that they’d found Trask’s lair, so she wasn’t unduly alarmed, just curious.
She came into the room, shielding her eyes from the comparatively bright light with her non-kitten holding hand.
“Hullo Professor, Gabriel,” she greeted.
“Hello Ebony,” the Professor said. “What are you doing up?”
“Oh, I’m just having a little trouble sleeping, it’s nothing to worry about though.” She was actually feeling pretty good tonight, all things considered. It was only when she laid down to sleep that troubles began to plague her mind.
Gabriel smiled. “Good evening Ebony, and who’s this charming fellow?” he indicated the King.
“Oh, this is King Emetrius Alexandros Horatio De La Lune XVII. King Alex for short.” She smiled and scratched the cat behind his ear. “Todd gave him to me for Valentines Day.”
“Ah, I see,” his smile seemed to falter for just an instant, but it was probably just a trick of the light.
“Would you like some tea?” Xavier offered.
“Um, okay. Plenty of sugar, please.” Tea wasn’t as good quite as cocoa, but she didn’t want to trouble anyone.
“Did you cut your hair by any chance, Ebony?” Gabriel asked.
“Uh-huh, this afternoon. Does it look okay?” She had cut off nearly two and a half feet of it, leaving it somewhere between the bottom of her chin and her shoulder blades.
“Simply stunning, it frames your face beautifully.”
“Thank you,” she chirped, taking her tea from Xavier and setting King Alex on the floor. “So how come you’re here, Gabriel?”
“I was just warning Professor Xavier about the attack Hunter has planned for tomorrow.”
The Professor gave him a very stern look, which he completely ignored.
“I’m going to be keeping most of the team here,” the Professor began, trying to get a jump on any arguments. “But I want you in school. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I know I don’t have any powers Professor,” she said, deciding to argue. This wasn’t to say that she wasn’t going to stay home anyway, because she was, and hadn’t said she wouldn’t.
Gabriel however looked mildly shocked.
“It was Trask,” she clarified.
“Ah. I’m sorry,” he looked it too. “If there’s anything I can do.”
She shrugged. “He’s probably dead anyway.”
“There is that.” He smiled charmingly. “Well, I shouldn’t keep you two any longer. Perhaps I’ll see you tomorrow Ebony.”
“Perhaps.”
“Adieu, then.”
***
Ebony was not the only student to try to stay at the mansion the next day without the Professor knowing. She was, however, the only one to actually get away with it. Since, she reasoned Xavier was only going to be looking for them with his mind; there was probably a way to fool him into thinking she wasn’t there. So, after breakfast, she went up to her room, hid in her closet, closed her eyes, and concentrated very hard on exactly what she would be doing, if she were actually going to school. She figured that she wouldn’t have to do it for very long because Xavier would stop looking for extra students after he thought he’d found them all.
It worked, but mostly because the Professor a) didn’t think anyone would try to block his or her mind, b) he really wasn’t looking very hard and c) he was distracted. He had made an announcement that morning concerning the attack and who was and wasn’t going to be included. Those staying to fight consisted of the core team, a few new recruits and what was swiftly becoming not the Brotherhood. Everyone was basically loitering around in their uniforms, since Xavier would call them all to the garden in front when he sensed the Sentinels were approaching.
So, Ebony sat hidden in her room. As the time passed, she began to wonder what she was going to do when the fighting began. The more she thought about it the more hopeless it seemed. She knew what she wanted to do, trash Hunter and as many Sentinels as possible for what they’d done. But how was she supposed to do her powers?
Ebony knew when it happened. She heard the Professor’s mental call and ran to the window in time to see everyone assembling on the lawn and what seemed to her a thousand Sentinels marching on the gates. Then she saw Toad with the rest of the X-Men. She thought he’d be in school.
***
Toad’s first instinct when the Sentinels blew in the gate was to run. Nevertheless, he held his ground waiting for the signal to attack. It didn’t come; really, the battle began when the Sentinels opened fire on them. Everyone was suddenly very busy dodging laser bolts.
They were outnumbered by about three to one but were still pretty much evenly matched. At least most of them were. Toad himself was beginning to wonder exactly why he’d been included in this fight. His powers didn’t seem to be any better against killer robots than they had been the first time.
He grabbed a high tree branch, swung over it and kicked a Sentinel that had been after him, two footed to the ground where it was blown up by either one of Boom-Boom’s bombs or Gambit’s cards, he couldn’t tell which. He turned, chuckling, and there, behind him, was Hunter.
***
At first Ebony just watched, trying to decide what to do. They seemed to have the fight well in hand, and there wasn’t much she could do. She didn’t even see Hunter, whom she had expected to be leading the charge. Her eyes searched the battlefield, which was swift becoming littered with fallen Sentinels. Abruptly her gaze fell on a remote part of the yard. There was Todd. and Hunter bearing down upon him. She raced down to the field.
***
Toad was dashing madly around trying to avoid the cyborg’s rampant laser fire. He had been separated from the rest of the action somehow and there was no one around to help him. Hunter was gaining on him.
“Surrender Mutant, and you will be terminated efficiently.”
“Heh, no way sparks for brains!” he ricocheted off the wall of the Institute and into Hunter, trying to knock him off balance, but Hunter caught his ankle and he was knocked to the ground. He couldn’t get up.
“Hostile Mutant will be terminated.” The expressionless thing lifted his hand and fired.
“No!” something small and dark flew out in front of Toad.
***
Ebony leapt to intercept the bolt flying towards him, heedless of her danger, of anything but saving Todd. She felt the heat of the laser coming towards her and the rush of the ground coming up at her.
No, please! She screamed in her mind as she felt the impact of the blast hit her in the back of the neck and she hit the ground. Then nothing. No light, no sound, no feeling. Only darkness.
Am I dead? She wondered. Is this heaven or hell? Or purgatory? And then she saw something, a familiar, evil, black shape moving in front of her on the featureless black plain. And her heart exalted with a fierce and terrible joy.
***
Hunter was pleased. By evening, all mutant signatures in this area would be erased. The fact that the small mutant had seemed to disintegrate at his kill shot did not bother him; her signature was gone. With a grim satisfaction, he aimed again at the cowering pitiful thing on the ground.
Then the signature reappeared behind him and he turned just in time to see it.
The figure rose up from the ground on a black pillar, clothed in gleaming, black liquid and encompassed by a dark aura. Her raven hair was whipped backwards by a phantom wind and her eyes were midnight. In her hand she formed a long javelin of black crystal. She looked at him, smiling a wicked smile and with a flick of her wrist the spear seemed to vanish.
Hunter felt something driving into him. He looked down. Protruding from his chest was the long black crystal and blood was beginning to seep out around it. He opened his mouth to exclaim in surprise and blood spilled, pouring over his lip. He fell to the ground, terminated.
***
“Ebony!” Todd shouted, finally summoning the ability to stand, wincing in pain, so that he could rush over and support her as she sank to her knees as the pillar she’d been standing on began to dissolve. He put his arms around her. “You was supposed to be in school yo!”
She smiled at him weakly. “And leave you here to hog all the fun? Besides, I saved your ass.”
“You coulda gotten yerself killed!”
“You nearly managed that yourself. But did you see? Did you see me? I’ve got my powers back!” her eyes were filling with tears. “I’ve got my powers back! That laser beam, I think, that was what did it.”
“Yeah, Dr. McCoy said somethin’ like that might do it. Also said anything bad enough to do it was likely ta kill ya. You okay?”
“Yeah. A little sore a bit bruised and burned. How about you?”
“Sprained ankle, s’nothin’.”
“C’mon, lets go see what’s going on. It sounds like the battle’s pretty much over.”
***
The battle was indees over by the time they got back around front. All of the Sentinels had been destroyed and it looked like that particular menace was over. The Professor was surprised to see Ebony, disappointed in her, he said. But everyone was glad she had her powers back.
No one who’d been hurt had to help with the clean up, so Todd and Ebony limped back into the (miraculously untouched) mansion with quite a few other wounded soldiers. Ebony amused herself by telling everyone she could get to listen about her defeat of Hunter. (Which Xavier really disapproved of. The boasting and the defeat itself. After all, Hunter had been sentient, sort of.)
“Hey, Todd?” she asked him, later after everything had quieted down. “Do you think that’s the last we’ll see of the Sentinels?
“I hope so, Eb, I could really use a break yo.” He rubbed his head.
“Yeah, I guess, but, I kind of liked the adventure.” She sighed and petted King Alex.
“Yeah, like killer robots is the worst we’ll ever have to worry about. With our luck they’ll probably ask us to fight of the frickin’ end of the world yo,” he chuckled. “Mutants to the rescue, you hate our guts but we save your butts. Jus’ call 1-800 Dial-a-Hero.”
Ebony giggled. “You’re probably right,” then she yawned. “I’m kinda tired I think I’ll go up to bed. G’night Froggy boy.”
“G’night Eb. See ya tomorrow.”
~
Next chapter, some loose ends are tied but most of them are left hanging
for the sequel.
Don’t miss the conclusion of part one of Darwinian Rhapsody, ‘Wander Lust’!
Chapter 30: Wander Lust
Darwinian Rhapsody
By LejindaryBunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
A/N: I bet you thought I’d abandoned it again, dincha? Huh dincha? Well I’m sorry. I started out with writer’s block at the end of August and then school started and ate my brain for a little while. But I’m back now, talent intact and inspiration in hand. So here’s the chapter I’ve been promising, the last in Darwinian Rhapsody heralding the coming of Darwinian Requiem: Tokyo Kings.
Disclaimer: You know whom all the X-stuff belongs to by now. Ebony’s still mine, obviously.
Chapter Lust
Time had passed in Bayville, as it passed everywhere else. February had faded into March and it into April, May and finally June. Nothing much had changed at the Xavier Institute in that time. Well, Lance had given up looking for a new place for the Brotherhood to stay (there really just wasn’t a point in it any more) but there weren’t any more earth shattering events or even any new recruits. It was all’s quiet on the mutant front so to speak. Wait, there was just one more thing, the professor had grown steadily more irritable as the psychic buzz increased slowly, seemingly trying to drive him out of his mind.
Ebony sat in the warm sun on the steps of Bayville High, convinced that she had at least squeaked by on all her exams. She sat chin up with her black sunglasses perched on her cute nose, her shoulder-length hair drawn up in a little ponytail and wearing a black tank top, shorts and sandals. She was not so much enjoying the sun and warm breeze, as she was lost in thought. She was happy, of that there was no doubt, but she’d been getting restless lately.
“Yo Eb,” Todd greeted, plopping down beside her. “We jus’ finished the last day a freshman year, whaddaya think of that?”
“Ah, but are me still freshman until September or are we sophomores already?” she wondered idly.
“Does it matter?”
“Not really,” she smiled, and then sighed. “Sheesh, summer only started ten minutes ago and I’m already bored.”
He snorted. “You been bored since we busted up those Sentinels yo. You know how hard it is tryin’ ta keep you unbored?”
She laughed. “I know. It’s just so dull.”
“Tell me about it.” He made a face.
Ebony looked up into the clear blue sky. Now was the time. If she was ever going to do it, ever going even to suggest doing the thing that had been on her mind for months, it was now. Now or never. She took a deep breath. “So let’s go somewhere. Its summer vacation let’s actually go on vacation.”
He was distinctly taken aback. “You mean like outta Bayville? Where to?”
“Oh I don’t know, anywhere! Let’s buy a couple of bus tickets and go on an adventure!”
“Alright, now that sounds cool. We still got some a’ that money from las’ weekend?”
She nodded. The previous Saturday had been a very good day for relieving people of their money. They had quite a bit.
“The Professor ain’t gonna like it ya know,” he pointed out.
“So? What’s he going to do? We’ll be back in time for the start of school. Probably.” She smirked.
He broke into a grin. “Maybe”
“Possibly.”
“If he’s lucky.”
They laughed. Ebony giggled so much she couldn’t sit up straight and practically fell into Todd’s arms. Not that either of them minded.
The school door behind them opened and Lance came out.
“Can’t believe ya had detention on the last day a school yo,” Todd snickered.
“Yeah, yeah. C’mon you two. Or do you want to stay here until September?”
Both sprung up energetically and followed him to his car.
Once in the back Todd gave Ebony an inquisitive gold-eyed glance, obviously wondering if they were going to say anything about their trip to Lance. She shook her head. I’m not giving anyone a chance to stop us, she thought to herself, or a chance to tag along.
***
They had each packed a backpack full of clothes, money and any other necessary items. Well, Todd had packed clothes. Ebony had thought it would save room if she just made them as she wanted them. Instead she packed things like Aspirin, a pillow, blanket, flashlight, spare batteries, walkman, paper and pen, a spoon, pocket knife, lighter, candle, nail file, sunscreen, can-opener, pop-tarts, toilet tissue, and a few other items she thought might be useful.
“Are we actually gonna need all that stuff Eb?” Todd asked slightly confused.
“Some of it probably not, but I don’t want to be caught like the guy in Cast Away.” That was yet another movie that had made her cry herself senseless. But a lesson had stuck with her and so she’d tried to anticipate anything unanticipated going wrong on their adventure and prepare for it.
It had only taken them about an hour to pack and since they started as soon as Lance had gotten them home it was still fairly early in the evening. In fact Ebony saw no reason they couldn’t start their journey tonight. But there was still the question of where they were going. Ebony opened a road map which she had been about to put in her pack.
Okay, she thought, we’re in Bayville, which is practically as far east as you can go without hitting water. I don’t want to deal with crossing the border to Canada so. “Hey Todd, Down or to the left?”
He looked up, having no idea what she was talking about. “Um, both?” he guessed confusedly.
“Okee then.” She looked at the map and traced a line southwest with her finger until she came to a place she wanted to see. “Aha! First stop Roswell New Mexico. It should take three or more days to get there by bus and we can figure out where to go next after we’ve had our fill of Area 51.”
He shrugged. “Fine with me yo. Hey Eb, uh, I don’ mean ta be a party pooper or nothin’ but how are we going to get to the bus station?”
“I’ve got it covered Froggy Boy,” she smiled sweetly and shouldered her pack marching out of the room. He chuckled grabbing his own pack and followed her.
***
She found Remy outside the Institute, leaning against the trunk of a tree
smoking.
“That’s a nasty habit. You ought to stop,” the black imp chastised.
“You tink Remy don’ know dis Petite?” he grinned and shrugged. “But what can he do, non?”
Todd rolled his eyes, in his mind there was always something slightly dubious about the suave Cajun.
“What up wit de packs eh, petite?” he asked looking them over.
“Actually Remy, I was wondering if you could do me a little favor. A kind of big favor really.”
“An’ what can Remy do pour vous et monsieur toad, hmm?” he raised an eyebrow.
“Would you mind giving us a ride to the bus station, like right now? Please?”
“Ah, I thought dat might be it.”
“We’ll be back,” she said hastily, “We’re just going to go on a little trip type thing.”
“Remy be glad to help chere,” he said, throwing his cigarette butt down and grinding it under his shoe.
“Really? Thanks!” she threw her arms delightedly around his waist. He really was a lot taller than she was. Todd glared rather jealously.
“Sure petite,” he said, stepping away. “Can take you right now if you want.”
She nodded and began to almost skip to the parking lot.
Before following Remy stopped and put a hand on Todd’s shoulder. “Don’ worry mon ami, Remy may be a thief but he not steal ton petite.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he replied rather flatly and they went to the car.
***
“Here we are mes amies,” he announced, pulling up in front of the bus station. “You sure about this, non?”
She nodded and was about to get out when she remembered something and dug an envelope out of her pocket. “I almost forgot! Will you give this to the Professor? Tomorrow morning?”
“Sure ting petite,” he said, taking it from her, smiling.
Now she exited the car, with Todd at her side. He looked utterly relieved as Remy drove away. Ebony could understand that, because she did like Remy, especially his accent. But she definitely liked Todd more. She stood close to him and rubbed her pale cheek on his shoulder. “Well, c’mon, let’s start our adventure.”
He grinned his broad, mischievous grin that she liked so much and they went through the dirty glass door with the metal framing.
The inside of the bus station was small and ugly and Ebony didn’t like it. It was dimly lit by flickering fluorescent lights, most of which were burnt out. The gray linoleum floor was dirty and had trash (mostly candy wrappers and the like) in the corners and she wouldn’t had been surprised to see cockroaches, centipedes or spiders living here. The air smelled of unwashed clothing, mingling with cigarette smoke and cheap fast food. There were two rows of Plexiglas chairs set back to back in the center of the room. They were yellow, the kind of chair that makes your butt hurt if you sit in it one way and your back hurt if you try another. The walls might have once been white but the painted was pealing and they turned tan the farther you looked up until the ceiling had been completely browned by cigarette smoke. There were several vending machines along one wall, one for candy, two for drinks and one the kind that sold breakfast sandwiches. Two walls had more of the distressing yellow chairs against them, and Ebony noted that they were all bolted to the floor. Who would try to steal chairs these ones especially? Evidently someone had though, because one of them had several jagged chips in it like it had been struck hard with something.
And of course she and Todd weren’t the only ones in the terminal. There were about six or seven others. There was girl only a few years older than she who sat with a baby (who was miraculously not crying) was several seats away from two unwashed men who seemed to be having an argument. An elderly lady was muttering to herself, a man with gray brown hair and a moustache in a flannel shirt was reading a book, and a pushy looking blonde guy glared of into space.
The ticket booth was at the far side of the room and Ebony followed Todd to it, letting him take the lead now but staying very close to him because this place made her feel uncomfortable. The woman behind the Plexiglas at the counter was smoking and looked like she’d rather be anywhere but where she was. Ebony knew the feeling. The lady was rather fat and in her late thirties if not forties. She had greasy, curly died red hair in little curls that made Ebony think of limp noodles. She had small brown eyes behind ugly black framed glasses and wrinkles that came from frowning too much.
“Whaddaya want sweetheart?” she asked Todd gruffly.
“Ah, two tickets to Roswell, New Mexico please,” eh said, glancing back at Ebony.
“When?”
“Uh, the next bus that goes there I guess.”
She rolled her eyes. “Lemme guess, one way?” Ebony knew she must get runaways all the time and thought that was what they were.
Todd nodded.
“That’ll be two hundred and ninety-two dollars honey.” (A/N: I actually called Greyhound and found that out!)
Again he nodded mutely and handed her the money.
She took it, rang it up at the register and printed out two long strings of tickets, folded them and handed them to Todd. “Now don’t you lose those kid or you’ll be stuck ya know.”
“Pph, I ain’t gonna lose ’em lady, but thanks for caring.” He gave her one of his charming grins.
“Yeah, yeah. Your bus leaves in an hour and a half with stops in Albany, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Oklahoma City and a hell of a lot of other places. You’ve got a six hour layover in Kansas City just so ya know.” She shook her head and handed them two tags for their pack packs. “Carry on luggage only I’m sure.”
“Yup, c’mon Ebony, let’s have a seat.” He put his arm around her shoulder and they sat in those horrid chairs next to the vending machines.
She was smiling now, despite her dislike for the bus terminal. After all, they were really going to do it. They were really about to start on their grand journey. But god, “What are we going to do in here for an hour and a half?” she demanded aloud.
***
Todd yawned and checked his watch again. The bus was late, an hour late. He was beginning to wonder if it would even come at all. Oh he was excited but there was something about a bus station that dulled your senses. Ebony was practically asleep on his shoulder but she jumped to alertness every time the loudspeaker came on to announce a bus. She did this now.
“Bus from Hartford, Connecticut now debarking. Bus will reboard in ten minutes for Albany, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati.” The voice droned on.
“That’s us!” Ebony squeaked excitedly, jumping out of her chair and grabbing her pack. “Finally!”
He stood and stretched his long, bony arms, shaking out the foot that had fallen asleep. “Alright! We’re off.” He scooped up his bag and followed his impetuous little beauty out of the stale stagnant air and onto the boarding platform.
It was dark now, the last violet edges of twilight fading away at the horizon and Todd watched the people getting off the bus, some tired and some excited. He suddenly felt a great need to be moving. He wondered what the rest of the world looked like, since he had never been out of New York and he realized that he was going to see it. If not all of it, a lot of it.
Then he heard Ebony’s voice humming something, indistinct at first but then more clearly.
“The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.”
“Yo wassat Eb’ny?” He furrowed his brow. “You make that up?”
She laughed. “I’m flattered. No I didn’t. I just thought it was appropriate. It’s from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien and just about everybody in the books sings it before they go on an adventure.”
“Ah, ‘ats cool. Hey, I think we can get on now.” He gestured to the bus. She followed him to it excitedly and the bus driver tore off the first part of each of their tickets as they got on.
They sat toward the middle of the bus, Todd on the aisle and Ebony by the window, their backpacks up on the luggage holder above them. The seats, Todd noted were relatively comfortable and there was an air conditioner running up by the windows. There were little lights up above them and the button to turn on or off their patch of air conditioner. As it was dark he turned on the light.
The bus was neither empty nor full and the passengers were all busy taking, some trying to get to know their traveling mates already. Plenty of time for that though, thought Todd. This is going to be a long trip.
Ebony had taken a package of pop tarts out and was munching on one, handing the other to Todd. They hadn’t eaten any dinner.
And then the loudspeaker came on. “Attention passengers. I’m your friendly driver for this leg of your journey, Al,” he said cheerfully in an older male voice. “Our first stop is in Albany New York at 12:15 where you will be given twenty-five minutes to stretch your legs, get something to eat, or what not. After that it’s onto Ithaca and then we’ll be heading into Pennsylvania. I’d like to call your attention to the restroom at the back of the bus which you are free to use at any time and ask you to please not block the aisle.”
And they were moving.
“We’re off Ebony,” he said and she grinned at him.
He watched her looking out the window. Bayville Bus Station and indeed every second brought them farther away from the tedium of their lives and closer to the freedom of the adventure that they could both see waiting on the dark horizon.
~
Well that’s it, finally the end of the first part of my Darwinian Trilogy. Stay tuned for Darwinian Requiem. I can’t tell you when I’ll write it. I’m going to try for in the next few days though. But that’s a hope, not a promise. Thanks for reading; you make life worth while.
LejindaryBunny
New York
September 29, 2002
Chapter 31: Author’s Note for Edited Version i’m Baack!
Well hello again, it’s been like nine months since we’ve seen each other hasn’t it? I just corrected hopefully all of the spelling and grammatical errors in Darwinian Rhapsody, as well as added a word here, a sentence there, you know the deal. Please go back and reread it.
I’ve missed you, you know that? Darwinian Rhapsody’s been hanging heavy over my head for the past few weeks now, but I’m so bogged down by other projects. I already completely abandoned one fic, a Sonic the Hedgehog fic, and I haven’t updated my new FF novel for Invader Zim, a romantic slash epic, Cognitive Dissonance in a month. And then there’s my Harry Potter fic which gets so few reviews it isn’t worth talking about. And a small audience Matrix series I’m collaborating on with a friend.
It’s enough to make me want to tear my hair out!
But I have the first chapter of ‘Darwinian Requiem: Tokyo Kings’ written, and if you can promise me that you will review and can put up with erratic amounts of time between posts, I’ll put it up.
I have to say of all my projects Darwinian Rhapsody is my favorite. It started in math class. It started with Final Fantasy eight, and someone on a message board wondering who would be the best ff8 character to hug. I was wondering which Evo character would be the best to kiss. The answer knocked me right out of my chair. The teacher asked me why I had fallen out of my chair. I made up some lame excuse and an obsession was born, right then and there. Ninth grade math class, some time around noon.
I had already had a character sort of like Ebony, she went by the same name and had black hair. But she was 5’9 and could turn in to a black panther. She was also, as I may have mentioned before, paired with Kurt.
Not the Ebony we all know and love, right?
She began a slow but steady transformation in my daydreams, as this was more than eight months before I would discover ff net and over a year before I would begin posting. For practically the first time I began writing little snippets of my day dreams down. The first scene that ever made it to paper was an extremely beta version of the movie theatre scene. It was penned during a lecture of sense imagery in Mrs. S-Z’s (then only Miss. S) English class.
A conversation close to the first one that Ebony has with Mrs. S-Z really did take place when I told her about my Todd obsession. She thought I was crazy.
I’m going to let you in on a secret. The original title of the story was going to be ‘Jumping at Shadows’ I hated and was constantly looking for a better one. I found one, when I got up early one morning and watched VH1, and saw the video for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It got the ball rolling and finally I had a title I could live with.
Two weeks later I set up an FF net account and began posting. The story grew so fast that I knew the entire first arc, up until Ebony got her powers back by the end of the fourth chapter. After that the ideas for the sequels came.
Darwinian Rhapsody started right before my fifteenth birthday. Now I’m sitting here and I’m 17 and a half. I love these characters and this world and all of you. Tell me, is going to be worth it to get the ball rolling again? Do you want to know why Todd’s having prophetic dreams and what those psychic feelings Xavier’s getting are? Do you really want to know more about Todd and Ebony and Gabriel and all their experiences? Or should I leave the story where it is? An end, and a beginning?
Please tell me.
Lejindarybunny
Chapter 32: Wandering Kings
Darwinian Rhapsody: Tokyo Kings
By Lejindarybunny
A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction
Author’s Note: I’M BA-ACK! You didn’t honestly think I’d forgotten about this project now did you? I promised to write it and write it I shall! I will apologize for the long wait though as I DID after all get majorly side tracked. I know, I know, two years is a long time to get side tracked for. So sue me. The wait means the writing’ll be better this time around.
Anyway I’m back on track, so before I forget, WELCOME TO THE GRAND OPENING OF DARWINIAN RHAPSODY: TOKYO KINGS’!
Chapter One- The Wandering Kings
He ran a hand gingerly through the small, black clad girl’s hair. She was asleep, head resting on his shoulder as the bus sped on through the night. But Todd Tolensky couldn’t sleep, his mind racing ever forward like the Greyhound they road. They were on their way to nowhere by way of Roswell, New Mexico and all points in between. It was the summer of their freshman year of high school and they’d been on the road practically since the moment class let out, a day and a half ago. The young, dirty-blonde haired mutant chuckled quietly and looked idly out the window. His companion’s name was Kimberly Trufire, but she preferred to be called Ebony. They’d met only about six months ago when she’d transferred to Bayville High right before the start of something nasty; Sentinels, scary cyber-humanoids capable of massive property damage and bent on the destruction of mutant kind. Ebony of course, was a mutant herself, with power over shadows and a height of four feet and not very many inches. As was he, a mutant, that is, the Toad, with the power to leap really high, kick stuff and well, some other stuff. She’d been staying at the Xavier Institute while Todd was with the Brotherhood.
Yet somehow across enemy, or at least rival, lines the two had quickly become more than friends. And then the Sentinels had started wrecking stuff. They blew up the Brotherhood house, luckily all the guys and Tabby too, had managed to get out but then had to stay in the Institute. Then things had really gotten bad. Trask, the guy who created the sentinels had kidnapped Ebony and killed her powers before Todd could get there are not quite single-handedly rescue her. While Ebony was not dealing well with the loss of her abilities the Sentinels had attacked the mansion intent on destruction of all mutants there in. Toad had been cornered by most powerful of the killer robots when Ebony had thrown herself in front of the killing shot. Somehow the shock to her system overloaded the block Trask had created on her powers and she wasted the Terminator wannabe. The Sentinels were backed off, nobody important was seriously injured and the day was saved. Yay.
Of course more stuff had happened in between the serious points of action, like the strange prophetic dreams Todd had had about the whole mess and the fact that some of the Sentinels had once been human but he tried not to think too hard about those things.
And anyway that had all been almost five months ago and very little had happened between then and now that was worth mentioning. And so they’d decided to go on a vacation/national tour/adventure. Or rather Ebony had decided and dragged him along for the ride. Not that he minded. No this promised to be very cool indeed.
The bus pulled off the highway and into a town somewhere in Illinois, or was it Missouri by now? Didn’t really matter, they’d be pulling into the bus station in a few minutes for a three our layover while they waited for the next bus on their route. Todd leaned over and rubbed his slightly swollen ankles. One good thing about the wait, he’d have a chance to put his feet up for a while. Bus travel was certainly killer on the circulation.
He sat up again to find Ebony slumped over on herself giving the mental impression of snoring without actually making any noise. He smiled tiredly and put a hand gently on her shoulder. Her had better wake her up before the lights came on when they got to the terminal and startled her half to death.
“Yo Eb,” he whispered, shaking her ever so slightly, “S’time ta get off.”
“Mmmmmng?” she opened her eyes slightly and yawned. “Wha time is it?”
Todd checked his watch, (well, his since the Bus station in Pittsburgh) “1:25,” he said.
Around them the rest of the twenty or thirty other passengers were rousing as they pulled into the terminal.
“C’mon,” he smiled putting his arm around her, helping her up as everyone lined up to exit the bus. His other hand was busy removing everyone else’s wallets.
Gabriel sat on the sand in the darkness with the stars glimmering over the pacific ocean. California suited the young cyborg well; he’d been there for almost four months now after finally finding the motivation to leave Bayville. He’d had every reason to leave, the possibility that his ‘creator’, Doctor Trask could still be alive being the foremost in his mind. As long as the ‘good doctor’ wasn’t around to give him orders he could be his own person, make his own decisions. Gabriel had been human once, only a year or more ago, though he could barely remember it. Dying could really give a guy amnesia, though he could remember death no better. And had he been left to rot in piece? No, Trask had selected his slender, golden haired, fourteen year old body to riddle with wires and computer hardware, to turn him into a mutant-killing machine. And it had nearly worked too, as it had on Hunter.
Gabriel chuckled. Funny, that it had been some deep, primal loathing of the dark haired Sentinel commander that had roused him from his stint as a mindless drone. That, and the strange dream memories of his previous life as the small boy Andrew, who had dies of Aides. But that boy HAD died, and Gabriel felt no compulsion to resurrect the shy, trusting thing, nor to reveal this body to his parents. And definitely he was not Gabriel Archer (or rather A.R.C.H.E.R ) the sentinel. He was Gabriel Freewing, self styled cynical romantic and super powered individual.
Though there had been one reason to stay in Bayville…A smirk played on his sharp features and he tugged a few loose strands of hair away from his violet eyes. What is full of color yet has none? A glassless mirror with featureless reflection, the brighter the darker. Follow the leader, never leaves your side Predicts the weather. he riddled in his mind.
“What’s black and white and red all over?” he giggled to himself, laying back into the sand to see the thousands of tiny points of light.
He had an apartment in Los Angeles, now, and a job at one of the many surf shops by the beach he was now at. He sat up, if he stayed any longer he would never get home. A cool breeze moved across his now tan skin. Yes, Gabriel felt at home in the City of Angels, but something told him that he wouldn’t be there much longer. Something new was on the horizon.
The man shook his head, swinging the long colorless locks around his face. It had grown again, his hair. Perhaps it was a side effect of the process. He wondered briefly if he should cut it. Perhaps not, after all actions done could not be undone, sins repented still could not be taken back.
He looked around the cold metal made room. He was ill at ease, even here in this his last sanctuary. Doubts gnawing on him, doubts he should not have had. It was right and proper for him to have mastery and dominion and yet he did not. And here the feeling that something was wrong, that some fatal tragic flaw had overcome him. Did the white haired young man see the irony in himself? Not at the moment, but he soon would.
Xavier swirled the tea around in his glass, sitting in his office. Such a strange dream he’d been having these past few nights, wandering around in the mist. Someone had been calling to him, saying his name over and over. And something else too.
He sipped his tea.
And a number. There had been a number as well. 202, 202. What could it mean?
Someone put a hand on his shoulder and Xavier startled. He’d been so immersed in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard them approach.
“Ah, Logan,” he said calmly. “Good morning.”
“Yeah, sure,” he grunted in reply. “I’m headin’ out for a while Chuck.”
The professor winced mentally. Logan rarely failed to call him by that impossible nickname.
“Oh? For how long?” Xavier asked courteously, though he already knew the answer.
“A while,” was the only reply he got.
He sighed. “I had hoped you’d stay a while longer and help me with the new recruits.”
“Sorry Chuck, this is somethin’ I gotta do.”
“I understand.” The professor paused. “Sit with me a moment. won’t you, Logan?” He motioned to the empty chair beside his desk. Wolverine leaned against it, and Xavier supposed he would just have to be satisfied with that.
“Some of the students seem to be picking up some of your bad habits Logan.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Smokin’ or drinking?”
Xavier almost smiled. “Thankfully neither, as yet. No, I mean leaving at the drop of a hat.”
Wolverine grunted.
“Ebony and Toad left two days ago, right after school. They got on a bus headed westward. I’ve been wondering whether or not to send someone to get them.” Xavier laced his fingers together thoughtfully on top of his desk.
“Don’t do it.” Logan replied immediately. “You send somebody out there to drag ’em back they’ll only resent you and whoever you send for doin’ it. They’ll leave again at the first chance they get, and probably won’t come back.”
“Logan, neither of them are at all responsible. Not only will they use their powers, in public, without any regard, but they are both petty thieves.” He shook his head. “I worry for their safety.”
“Look Chuck you asked for my opinion and I gave it to you. Kids like that are going to have to learn the hard way. Either they come back or they don’t, but chasing them down won’t do a damn thing.” With this parting remark Wolverine turned and stalked from the office.
The bus station that they were currently in was larger, but not any cleaner or nicer, than the one they had started out in, Ebony observed blearily. The floors were tiled in brown, rather than grey, and there was a small corner with cheap, dirty toys, and designated the children’s area. The young mutant was slumped in one of the hard plastic chairs near the obligatory vending machines; Todd was beside her, inspecting their tickets.
“We got a six hour layover, Eb,” he told her with a yawn.
‘Oh great,” she managed a smile. “Maybe next time I should actually stop and plan for a minute before rushing off on adventure.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” he assured her, then reached down to rub his tender ankles. “I gotta ‘dmit though, I am a little sick a this whole bus thing.”
“Me too. Maybe we should take a break for a day and hang around here?” she mused. “Where is here, again?”
“Missouri. You wan’ me to go see ’bout a later bus, yo?”
Ebony sighed. “Why don’t you? We can find a motel and get some sleep, then play tourist tomorrow.”
“Sounds good to me.” He stood, and went over to the information desk.
Ebony’s mind drifted in an exhausted blur, and she wondered what she would have said a year ago if someone had told her she would end up with her boyfriend in a Missouri bus station at nearly 2:30 am?
She imagined she would have thought it a very nice idea… which it was… but about as probable as seeing her old math teacher Mr. Louis in a sundress… it would probably be a yellow sundress… the kind that mother wear to church picnics… like the one in Tom Sawyer…or was that in something else…they have ham salad at church picnics…I don’t like ham salad…but I do like egg salad…I wonder which came first…chicken salad or egg salad…
Todd touched her shoulder.
“The cab’s here Eb,” he said gently.
“Wha?”
“Ya fell asleep, yo. I found us a motel ‘n called a cab, figured I’d let ya sleep til it got here. Bus is at ’bout 9:30 tonight night.”
She nodded.
“C’mon.”
She leaned on him as they walked out in the muggy night air, and got into the back of the taxi.
To be continued…
Feed me feedback, and I make more chapters. If I starve, so does my creativity…
Chapter 33: Ten Years Epilogue
A/N: its ten years since I’ve touched this fic. Somehow I ended up wondering what they were up to in the meantime.
Ebony likes to say she keeps his lap company, because his face is too far away. It always ends in kisses— wet, sticky stupid ones that shouldn’t be sexy but somehow fifteen minutes later they’re rolling around on the floor, unfit company for anyone but themselves.
Todd is still scrawny as hell, all bones and sinew, and a growing collection of scars now, the pockmarked letters of a life lived in bursts of action. She has those too, and she hasn’t grown even an inch. She doesn’t bother calling herself a midget though; mutant makes it clear enough.
They’ve been together for more than ten years, and sometimes that seems like a lot more. They watch the world change together and they never quite settle down. Sometimes they join the fight, on one side or another. The sides are always changing anyway, but Ebony can’t quite ignore the thrill, and he just can’t say no to her.
Sometimes they drift, conning and thieving and road tripping their way across the world. Its easy to travel when you don’t mind sleeping on abandoned floors and picking pockets. They spent ten months in England before the mess with the space ship. That sort of thing just wasn’t their business.
Sometimes their friends say they should get serious; sometimes Todd worries that he’s not providing well enough for the girl he loves. She tells him he’s a moron but she loves him anyway. They have the easy life, and she’s not about to give it up. Some night they watch stolen movies and laugh too loud until three in the morning. Some nights she gets hot watching him get into fights with humans in trashy bars.
They live beneath the world’s notice, in shadows and in slimy dives. It isn’t glamorous. No one stands outside cheering for them; gods and monsters don’t know their names. At night, under a stained blanket, they smile and whisper them to each other instead.