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Post by Chance on Jun 15, 2006 12:08:02 GMT -5
"Whew," Mindwarp said coming to rest just behind Noel. Finally they had located Midnight. Catching his breath he found his way to an overturned garbage can. "So this is Marie," Mindwarp mused remembering her from Noel's memories. "She looks prettier in person."
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Post by Midnight on Jun 15, 2006 15:59:10 GMT -5
"Marie, meet Michael Brosley," Noel said, motioning vaguely in Mindwarp's direction. "He is a telepath and I asked him to help me find you."
"That's Eric," Marie said, pointing at the tall blond youth. She was suddenly shy, remembering that there were more people around than just her and Noel.
Noel, suddenly serious, said, "I've come to take you back to the New Mutant Leadership Institute, at least for right now. It is where I go to school." Noel had intended to looking straight into Marie's brown eyes and found herself unnerved by the black eyes with dull red irises. "We can work on finding you a place after that."
Marie seemed to shrink back. She was still afraid of mutants for the most part. "What about Eric? He's been helping me out and..." Marie suddenly realized she didn't have a real good reason for wanting Eric to come with her. But he had been with her so far, and now she just took it for granted that he would come along.
Switching her conversation, Marie said, "Eric, this is my friend Noel. She was my best friend as a kid and when she turned mutant she promised she would help me and my family out. She was the one I was going to take us to."
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Post by Chance on Jun 16, 2006 23:29:20 GMT -5
"Oh, so you're the famous Noel that Marie was talking about. Nice to meet you," Eric said extending his right hand forward. "I may not be a mutant, but I got nothing against them....so long as they're friends with Marie."
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Post by Midnight on Jun 16, 2006 23:37:46 GMT -5
"Thanks for your help, Eric," Noel shook his hand. "I'm glad you could take care of my friend. I hope to see you again some time." As she turned away, Noel started giving out instructions, "Marie, you'll ride with me. Mike, you'll have to fly back. Do you think they've noticed we were gone?"
The look on Marie's face was a mixture of horror and sadness. She couldn't protest Noel's arrangements, which seemed quite prepared to leave Eric standing in a back alley in Hell's Kitchen. She had no valid reason to ask them to bring Eric along, and it would probably endanger the boy's life. Instead, she ran and stood in front of him, holding her hands out to him. "Eric..." she started, her dark eyes sad. "I can never thank you enough... I guess this is goodbye..." Then she stood on tiptoe and kissed him gently on the lips. His own were warm and soft and Marie wondered at the burst of emotions that she felt for this man.
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Post by Chance on Jun 16, 2006 23:50:54 GMT -5
"Wait...what...Marie?" Everything seemed to be happening so fast. The girl with the yellow eyes had said that Marie would be riding with her...as in riding away? Not yet...no, not yet...
Then, suddenly, his lips were pressed agaist hers and emotions flooded him like a broken damn. He needed this girl, he couldn't explain it...he loved this girl.
"Marie," he said breaking the kiss. "You can't go...not yet." His heart seemed to be breaking, it was too much for him to bear. Everything had always worked out for Eric James, he had always been the luckiest kid he knew. But now...now everything was falling apart.
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Post by Midnight on Jun 17, 2006 0:28:30 GMT -5
Marie's eyes were desparate and sad, her mouth partly open as if she was trying to think of something to say. "Eric... you can't come to the NML and I have no other place to go. Things are going to change for me now... now that I'm... one of them. If I come home with you, I am still stuck in Hell's Kitchen. I've been wanting to get out all my life... now I can." She felt terrible giving that excuse to a human who was still confined to the life she left. She really had no idea what was going to happen to her now... just because she was a mutant did not mean she could gain schooling at the NML. She still had no family to go to, but at least she had a future ahead of her. Now if only she could bring Eric along. "I'm sorry..." she said, her lip trembling and tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Marie... we need to get back. Mike's decoys can't last forever. Let's go."
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Post by Chance on Jun 22, 2006 11:54:36 GMT -5
"Fine!" Chance said, turning from sad to angry. "You're not anyone special anyway, you're just like the rest of them!" He tried to calm himself down, but he couldn't. He had felt that she was different, but he had never been more wrong in his life. "See you later Marie," he turned and left. His blond hair was wet with sweat from running all over Hells Kitchen with her, and he was tired as hell. He couldn't believe that he wasted an entire day with her.
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Post by Midnight on Jun 22, 2006 22:18:11 GMT -5
That hurt. Even more than having her mother killed and father hospitalized. Marie hadn't known she could be cut so deep. All at once, she didn't want to go back. But after having Eric turn his back and walk away from her, proclaiming that she was just like the others just because she wanted to be rid of this hell hole, she couldn't turn to him either. Noel was a mutant and wanted to bring her into mutant life. Eric was a human and wanted her to be trapped here forever. She had nowhere to turn to, nobody to trust. And after all those... feelings... she had felt around Eric, the attraction, the feeling of strength, the silent ability to trust him no matter what, after all that was thrown in her face as he stalked off, she couldn't feel that anything else was important anymore.
Her eyes narrowed and she wished she had something to say that would hurt him as deeply as it had hurt her. "How the hell do you know what I'm like, anyway?" she shouted back at him. "You blame me because I want to get out when I can! Wouldn't you do the same?!"
Marie's back went rigid, her legs straight, and her arms held out on either side of her in a T-shape. Her hands opened wide and darkness poured out of them, a black fog tumbling from her palms. It swirled around her ankles and twisted up until it had filled the air all around her. No where to go. No one to trust. No one who understood.
Within the darkness, Marie stalked away. She didn't know where she was going, but she brought her own personal thundercloud along with her. The black smoke spread through the streets, blocking windows and doorways, blinding passerbys and beggers. Eventually, she found herself back in front of her apartment. It was empty now, she was sure, and slightly torn up from when people had invaded. Where was Eric's apartment... No! He had obviously rejected her. Why should she trust anyone now?
The smoke began to clear and Noel looked around, blinking her eyes against the sudden light. "Shit..."
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Post by Chance on Jul 5, 2006 15:15:26 GMT -5
"What just happened?" Mindwarp asked, his mind racing from moments before when strange black smoke had completely cut him off from the world. "Is she okay?"
Eric looked dumbfounded as he sat on the ground, knocked down when smoke had entered his lungs. Marie...suddenly all he had said, all those harsh words, melted away as he watched he vanish, walk out of his life forever. He couldn't let that happen. No! Not Marie, not her, not like this! Suddenly, a pipe burst from under the ground, sending hot steam up into the air. Eric thought it was weird, but the bursting of the pipe suddenly made him feel better. Shrugging it off he headed over to the two that had come to take Marie away. He started to feel angry again very fast...
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Post by Midnight on Jul 5, 2006 19:54:39 GMT -5
"I think she decided that she didn't want to come with us afterall..." Noel said, still looking in every direction. The exploding pipe seemed a little random and she wondered if that had anything to do with the darkness. "Any idea where she went?" she asked Mindwarp, and then noticed Eric stalking up to them, a violent look in his eye. "You'd do better to leave it in our hands," she said, her yellow eyes narrowing. "After all, you are the one that got her angry..." she subconsciously took a fighting position as he approached. She could take a human, right?
Stepping through the crumbling ruins of where her apartment building had been, Marie found her way to the room that her and her parents used to occupy. Slipping quickly out of her denim skirt and tank top, she pulled on some tight black clothes. Garbed like a burgler, she stalked out of the building and down a street. What was left for her now? Who could she trust?
Again, she found herself at the hospital. The staff there were even more frightened this time at the girl with the anger and fire in her eyes. And this time, they felt they had a real reason.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," one of the quivering nurses said. "Your father... he's passed away." She cringed as though she expected a blow, but all that she recieved was a cold glare. Despite the fire in the dark girl's eyes, there was ice hidden in her heart.
Marie didn't cry. She didn't say anything, just turned and walked out of the hospital, darkness swirling like a vortex around her. "Mutants," was the only word that left her lips, and the way she said it would have made any mutant, now matter how strong, give an involuntary shiver.
She wasn't Marie anymore. Marie had just lost everything she ever loved, including herself. So who was she? The darkness swirled and tossed as a storm. Darkness... Midnight.
Power seemed to surge through her veins and she let the darkness drift off and around her arms, spreading them out. Finally, they formed huge black wings arching off from her arms and hands. Giving a push, she shoved the air away from her and lifted off the ground. Where was the Academy for all those high and fancy mutants? She was going to give them, mutants, a taste of their own medicine.
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Post by Chance on Jul 10, 2006 15:28:36 GMT -5
Eric walked up, his fists clenched, his teeth grinding together. "Look what you've done! You've ruined everything!" He couldn't help himself, he couldn't quiet the rage that was inside him, the power that he felt building up inside of him. He felt like he was exploding, like a spirit, like some sort of God was waking up inside of him. Something was wrong, his body didn't feel right, but he didn't care. He rose his fist and lunged at Noel.
<Enough!> Mindwarp shouted into Eric's head. "We all just need to calm down," he said, his powers lifting Eric off the ground.
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Post by Midnight on Jul 10, 2006 20:56:45 GMT -5
Noel bent backward to avoid his fist, her waist moving in a way that wasn't physically possibly. For a human. "He, especially needs to calm down," Noel remarked, straightening her back. "I believe it was your words that upset her. And if you were so keen on stalking off and leaving her, then why do you care?" she snapped, a scowl on her face. Turning, she spoke to Mike, "I have never seen her act this way before... the Marie I knew wouldn't have, but we might have to face the possibility that she has changed. Mike, you do not have to follow me into this. It might be dangerous. However, I could still use your help."
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Post by Chance on Jul 14, 2006 15:18:33 GMT -5
"Are you kidding me?" Mike asked as he rotated his finger, sending a squirming Eric round and round in circles as he floated in midair. "I'm sticking through til the end. Besides, I'll have Raina cover for me if anything goes wrong. Just find me some water, and I can send her a telepathic message in a second."
Eric was squirming and cursing as he fought to get out of the sky. He hated telepaths, and anyone who could accomplish things without lifting their fingers. He was so angry, he was seething. "LET ME DOWN!" He yelled, his skin on fire. Something was wrong, something was so wrong.
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Post by Midnight on Jul 14, 2006 17:28:13 GMT -5
Giving a quick, relieved smile, Noel said, "Thanks, Mike. Water though... how does that work?" she asked, starting to look around. "What kind of water do you need? There are probably drinking fountains in the hospital... Or like a lake or ocean or something of the like?"
The fierce cursing made her look up finally, a scowl on her face. Then she raised an eyebrow. "His heat signature seemes to be changing... something is happening."
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Post by Chance on Sept 13, 2006 17:02:16 GMT -5
Mindwarp glanced over toward a fountain that was off to his right. "Just scoop me up a handful. You see, Raina is mentally linked to water, it's a part of her. So, speaking telepathically to the water it like speaking directly into Raina's head." He smiled, happy to have thought of such a good solution until he noticed that Eric was acting differently. He did a quick tele-scan and suddenly a frown crossed his lips. "You're right Noel, something is definetly wrong. His mind is all over the place, and his biological chemicals are completly inbalanced." Suddenly Eric stopped moving and Mike felt the ground beneath him rumble and shake. "What's going on?!" He yelled as steam burst through the cement.
It was as if something had suddenly come alive inside of Eric. He felt his body light on fire, his mind open up and fill with a white light as numbers, yes he couldn't believe it himself, numbers rolled through his mind. 9 over 12, 8 over 12, 2 over 12 until finally 1 over 12 and then: BOOM! The ground under Mindwarp exploded and steam rushed out, burning and singing all that it touched. He didn't know what was happening, but somehow he had done it. He had made the steam pipe burst. What was happening? He didn't have time to think, he fell to the ground and started to run.
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Post by Midnight on Sept 25, 2006 21:17:58 GMT -5
As the piping hot steam burst out of the ground, Noel's skin quickly covered itself with hard scales, protecting her inside. Her yellow eyes darted to Mike, hoping that he had created himself a telekinetic shield of some sort. She saw movement and looked over to see the headstrong boy free and running again. Her body darted forward in a quick movement as she set after him, her mind switching to predator and he the prey.
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