Hellfire Days and Wild Knights ch9

[Atlan]

Disclamer: I don’t own Ranma, or X-men, as usual. I don’t own the Avengers, Half Life, Spiderman, Daredevil, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spooksville, or anyone associated with any of them. I just stuck them all in a blender.
…
The door opened, and I grinned, thinking it was my wife and my fiancée. My hopes were dashed to see the woman in all the leather. Her Akane-style hair made my heart pang. But she was far better at hiding her emotions than Akane ever was, a fact that was probably better for someone, judging by how pissed she was.
Emma smiled at her. “Tessa, thank you.” She looked at me and at the other girl. “Oh, I almost forgot. Ranma, meet Tessa, also known as Sage.”
Sage walked over and shook my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Tessa is from Afghanistan. Her mutant powers are her astounding memory. She is incapable of forgetting anything. She also has the position of Rook.”
That didn’t make a lot of sense. “Huh?”
Emma winced. “My apologies. I haven’t been sleeping a lot recently. In the Hellfire club, the Inner circle, the ones with the highest rank, are referred to by the names of chess pieces. I am the White Queen, in charge overall. Sage is the Rook, in charge of the economics of the club- managing our money. As the leader of the Hellions, you would be the Knight.”
That sounded cool. Wait a minute. Queen, knight, rook… “What about a king? And that other piece, the one that goes in diagonals?”
The White Queen winced again. “The King requires years of training, and there is no one the take the place. That isn’t much of a problem, and the King and Queen share the same duties. The other piece though, the Bishop, is Shampoo. I asked her while you were unconscious. The Bishop handles the political side of things, and I think she would do very well in that respect.”
I chuckled. “That’s gonna get a little confusing, with two Bishops around.”
Emma smiled. “Indeed.” She frowned for a moment. “Oh, Tessa?”
“Yes?” She was still pissed, though I doubt Emma picked up on it.
“I have another job for you- one more suited to your abilities.” Sage perked up. “I need new identities for Ranma, Shampoo and Ukyo.”
Sage nodded. “Any name preferences?” Emma looked at me.
Names ran though my head. Ranma? Ranko? Sunshine? (Where the hell did that come from?) No, I needed something newish. Something I could remember, but that wouldn’t give me away. “Yoiko.” I used it once when pretending to be bacon-butt’s sister. “I’ll just take what ever last name Shampoo and Ucchan come up with.”
Sage nodded, and turned to Emma. “And the others?”
Her eyes went glassy. “Shampoo wants Elizabeth Braddock. Ukyo wants Cessily Kincaid.”
I started panicking. Shit, this was gonna be bad. Now I had to pick one last name over the other, and I knew that which ever one I didn’t pick was gonna be pissed. I told this to Emma.
…
“Cessily Kincaid?’
“Well, you remember how at school, I dressed like a boy? Ive been doing that since I was a kid. When I was about thirteen, it got too much to handle. I started going out at night to clubs, in dresses. I didn’t want anyone to connect me with my school boy persona, so I used Cessily Kincaid as a name.” Ukyo explained.
“Ah.”
“So,” Ukyo enquired. “Why Elizabeth Braddok?”
Shampoo smiled in remembrance. “My mother’s sister married a foreigner, an English man. They moved to England, and had a son. That son, Brian Braddock, comes to visit me every year, and we’ve been writing letters to each other all the time. I wanted to have the same family name as my cousin.”
“And the Elizabeth part?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” She said breezily. “My name is Xain-pu, but I like people to call be Shampoo- it sounds cuter. So- Elizabeth becomes Betsy!”
Shampoo looked proud, while Ukyo face faulted. Since she was carrying urine-soaked clothes, it wasn’t a pretty result.
…
“Ranma,” started Emma. “Have you ever heard of a thing called a Hyphon?”
Hmmm. “The big storm?”
She didn’t groan, but I could tell she wanted to. “No, that’s a typhoon. A hyphon is a line in-between words. It lets a person have two last names.”
My eyes bugged out. “You can DO that!??!”
I could tell Emma was on the verge of groaning when the door opened again, this time admitting my fiancée and my wife. Ucchan smelled.
“Bad guy disposed of, mam!” Ukyo saluted. I snickered, and Emma glowered.
“Now, I have some news for the three of you,” she started. “Since Ranma has agreed to lead the Hellions, I now have to find the troops. I have several names in mind, and that leads to a small problem.”
“Too many people?”
“No, I’m afraid that they’d start a pecking order based on who arrived first. The first one’s to start training would have an advantage over the later ones. I do have a plan that would prevent that.”
I perked up. Was this how she was gonna get some space to make a restaurant?
“If the three of you would drive to Bayville, instead of being teleported by gateway, that would give two weeks for me to assemble a team. What do you say?”
…
And that’s how we decided to go on a road trip. I was pretty smug, but for some reason, so were Ucchan and Shamps.
That afternoon, we went to a car shop Emma recommended.
…
“So,” smiled the greasy salesman. “What do you think? It can go from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds. It boasts a top speed of 170. If you want to go fast, this is the car for you.”
Shampoo frowned cutely. She was slightly more knowledgeable about cars than the rest of us, so she was handling the talking here. “170 kilometers? That isn’t so fast.”
The salesman smiled condescendingly. “170 miles. That’s 274 kilometers an hour.”
My Amazon nodded. “And what other features does it have.”
“An Alpine radio/CD audio system with MP3 play and 6 disc muliti-changer, onboard GPS, deluxe sound system, and a reinforced chassis, on the off chance of a crash. The entire framework is made of somewhat stronger material than the government recommends, so I can guarantee you that in anything short of a head on crash with a truck, this car will come out with less damage than the other car.” The greedy man rubbed his hands together. “Of course, it is a little pricey…” I almost laughed at his attempt to see if we had the money.
Shampoo nodded. “But we haven’t addressed the most important part of this.” Me, Ukyo and the salesman leaned forward. “What color scheme?”
There was a slight crunching sound as me and the guy face faulted into the floor. Ukyo nodded to Shampoo. “Hmmm. White, with a black interior?”
“No, this isn’t for Emma. Black?”
“Too hot in the sun. Aquamarine?”
“No, it would clash with my hair, any shade of blue would. Hot Pink?”
I groaned. “Girls.” The salesman nodded, and then jumped slightly.
He looked a little tentative. “Do you have any preference, madam?”
“On color? As long as it ain’t pink, I don’t care. You guys DO paint cars, right?
The salesguy laughed snootily. “Of course we do. We strive to ensure complete customer satisfaction.”
Well THAT was rehearsed. “How long does it take? We got a road trip we wanna get started with.”
“Four days, for the perfect finish.”
“Nuh-uh. Tommorow.”
“TOMMOROW?!?!?!?”
I smirked. “Yup. Lunchtime, we wanna be on the road.”
The guy sighed. I got the feeling he was used to rich idiots making stupid demands all the time. “2 o’clock. Or I can’t guarantee the durability of the paint.”
“Cool.”
“MOSS!!!!” came a shriek in stereo.
“Arh! My ears!” I moaned.
Salesguy just smiled snootily again. “I take it you have made your choice, ladies?”
Ukyo nodded enthusiastically. “This shade of moss green.” She waved a color chart around triumphantly. Shampoo nodded behind her.
I leaned over to take a better look. “Huh. Cool. Can we leave now?”
Ukyo rolled her eyes. “Sure, Ranchan.”
“Lets not go to the hotel just yet,” Shampoo put in. “Let’s see the sights.”
….
And we saw the sights. Man, I swear, there is no city in the world more boring than New York. It DID have good ice cream, though.
…
“Hey, what flavor do you want? I’m going with Cookies and Cream.” Ranma asked. Ukyo bent over to take a look. She pursed her lips, and then heard a voice in her head.
‘Quickly! Grab arien, put his back to the road, and kiss him like his life depended on it!’ Shampoo’s telepathic voice ordered. Ukyo had no need of being told twice, and scooped up her fiancé.
Shampoo turned around, and sighed in relief that she’d got her husband distracted in time. A man, covered head to toe in flames, was flying in pursuit of a dozen identical robots. Behind them were a man made out of orange rock, a blond woman, and a man following in a car, with a big ‘4’ on the side of it.
A minute later, they disappeared. Shampoo turned her attention back to Ranma and Ukyo, who was still kissing. The Amazon tensed her jaw. ‘You can top now, they’re gone.’ She scanned the surface of her husband’s mind. ‘And so is arien. Not enough oxygen.’
…
…And I found out how much Ucchan likes Cookies and Cream flavor. There were other sights to see- there was this big ass statue, the one with the pointy bits on its head that you always see on American movies.
…
An onomyiaki chef, a Chinese chef and a bored occasional waitress stood on the viewing platform, in the statue of liberty.
“I’m bored,” said the redhead. “Do they do bungee jumping here, or something?”
Shampoo snorted. “You get bored too too easy.” She got a couple of strange looks from her lover and her co-wife.
“I thought she had perfect English now,” whispered Ranma. “What happened?”
“I think she just had it temporarily, as a leftover from teaching us,” Ukyo whispered back. “I bet it was the plan from the beginning.”
Ranma surprised Ukyo by smiling. “Cool.” Ukyo gave a startled look at that, so Ranma elaborated. “Heck, I always knew how smart she was. But I loved her accent- it was so cute!”
Ukyo chuckled and nodded, before something caught her eye. A flash of blue and red, swinging through the air, following a man with four metal tentacles. The chef went into panic mode, and spun round, searching.
Success! A cleaning closet! She bumped into Shampoo, and murmured in her ear. “Get Ranchan into that closet, and keep him there. Something’s happening, and it looks like it’s gonna take a while.” Shampoo didn’t even wait long enough to nod; she grabbed the redhead by the collar and dragged her into the closet.
…
I also learnt that Shampoo has a thing for doing it in public places. That was less of a shock than it could have been- she used to roof hop in those mini-dresses back in Nerima.
We even went to the zoo- they didn’t have any of the really interesting animals (like Musk, Phoenix tribe, Phoenixes, Oroochi, Oni, or flying plants), but it was still ok.
…
“Huh. I thought panda’s were supost to be fatter than that,” noted Ranma. “Do ya think that they don’t feed them enough here?”
“I think that your dad just makes a very fat panda,” pointed out Ukyo. “After all, he does make a very fat human.”
“Too too true. Hey, lets go and see the giraffes!”
“Sounds good. Any one know where they are?”
The three of them looked around, and upwards. Ukyo and Shampoo sweatdropped upon seeing a man in silver amour, with five-meter legs, chasing around a man in red leather who was swinging from a silver chain attached to a Billy club.
Feeling left out, the transgender martial artist piped up. “Hey, do you see them?” before muttering to herself, “I hate my stupid midget girl form. I swear, the height difference is one of the worst parts.”
The two girls snapped out of their daze. “Lets look at the aquarium instead.”
“Ayah, lets go!”
“Hey...what…why...stop pushing…WATCH THE HANDS!”
…
I also learned that the two of them really like fish. They wouldn’t let me leave either, and they would randomly start talking real loud. Women.
We had dinner at an exclusive restaurant that evening. The food was small, and we had to wait ages, but it did taste pretty good. I think it was Italian.
…
“Man,” said Ranma, savoring the lemony taste. “This rabbit rules! I never had rabbit this nice before.”
Ukyo looked up from her steak, raising an eyebrow. “You’ve had a lot of rabbit?”
The pigtailed girl nodded sheepishly. “Well, on the road, all we brought with us was rice. Any other food we wanted, we had to catch our selves. Rabbits were easy to find, and no farmers got pissy if we took them. Now, sheep on the other had…” he grinned.
The onomyiaki chef rolled her eyes. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. Genma Saotome- Child neglecter, thief, liar, sheep rustler.”
Shampoo giggled. “Too, too true. But great teacher.”
Ranma laughed out loud. “Yeah. His head might be almost empty, but he sure knows martial arts.”
“Some could say the same about you, you know.” Ukyo pointed out.
The redhead responded by pouting cutely. Not that any amount of pain could have forced him to admit it. “Hmmph! I don’t have to sit here and listen to that!” he said, getting up.
“I’m sorry, Ranchan! I didn’t mean it! I was just kidding!” Ukyo started panicking.
Shampoo poured as much cuteness as possible into her expression. “Stay? Please?”
Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin would have become peace-loving pacifists if confronted with that look. Ranma had no chance at all. “Eh heh heh. Just kidding.” He made no move to sit down though. “I gotta take a dump.”
Ukyo groaned. “It’s called ‘freshening up’, Ranchan.”
He waved it aside. “What ever.” He wandered off.
The Amazon watched the receding bottom, licking her lips. “Nice.”
Her companion smiled happily. “Who’d have thought it? The three of us, in an expensive restaurant. A real date.” She sighed. “It’s a dream come true. “
Shampoo raised an eyebrow. “Your dreams included me?”
Ukyo had the grace to blush. “Well, a cute girl anyway.”
“Pervert.”
“Hey!” Ukyo said indigently. “Coming from you, that’s rich.”
Shampoo put an innocent expression on her face, and moved her hand away from it’s previous position- poised to grope Ukyo.
A scream from the door made them look up. A man in a green outfit, with a purple hood and cape, had broken down the door. He had a bag, and was gesturing at it. “This is a robbery, people! Money in the bag and no one gets hurt!”
Ukyo just looked at her blue haired companion and groaned. “We just cant get a break today, huh sugar?”
Her reply came telepathically. ‘I’ll keep arien out of the way. You take out this weirdo.’ Ukyo nodded. ‘Go silver. We don’t need the attention.’
Shampoo dropped to the floor, and crawled her way towards the bathroom. Fortunately, their table was near the back, and the technicolor thief didn’t notice. Ukyo smirked. This was going to be fun!
She ducked down, and concentrated. With just a thought, she was back in her steel form. She dissolved into a puddle, and wound her way across the floor. There were no cameras in the room, and all people were staring in fear at the robber. Sure, most of them were well able to afford loosing all the cash and jewelry they had, as you had to be a millionaire to be admitted, but none of them were altogether happy about it.
Ukyo flowed along, spread too thin to be seen by the naked eye. Secarching out cracks that were barely perceptible, she flowed outside. On the sidewalk, she congealed back to a human shape. Her clothes, along with her wallet, were sitting on the floor.
‘Hmmm,’ she thought to herself. ‘Naked is ok, but not for this!’ Concentrating, she altered the liquid metal that made up her body. Her legs and arms lost a little definition, while her face, chest, and the rest of her bodily orifices disappeared altogether. Her hair was sucked back into her head, and her fingers and toes became smooth and unblemished.
Now, she resembled nothing as much as she did an outline of a sculpture, or a faceless mannequin. Had she a mouth left, she would have smiled. This was perfect.
In the shop, the thief was announcing himself. “Now, you all can call me the Prowler! Don’t worry, I aint gonna kill any of ya ‘less I have ‘ta. Just gimme all the money.”
Behind him, the Prowler heard a distorted voice. “Now how about you leave? Now!”
The technicolor villain turned around, and jumped. “Who the hell are you!?!” he shrieked. This just wasn’t his day. His cape had gotten caught on a fire hydrant on the way to the restaurant, and now a brand new superhero? Great. And to make matters worse, Prowler was just a guy. Sure, he had a bucket full of gadgets, but no powers of his own. His new adversary, on the other hand, did.
Still, formula’s had to be fulfilled. From long time experience in the busniss, he knew how it went.
SUPERVILLIAN does something illegal
SUPERVILLIAN is confronted by SUPERHERO
SUPERVILLIAN talks trash to SUPERHERO
SUPERHERO kicks SUPERVILLIAN’s butt
SUPERHERO gives SUPERVILLIAN to the police
SUPERVILLIAN goes to jail.
Prowler let none of this show on his face, although the mask on his head made that a moot point. Instead, he cackled. “Who dares to challenge me, the Prowler?”
His adversary had obviously never heard of the normal protocol, as it simply reached out, grabbed the Prowler, slung him over its shoulder, and walked out of the restaurant again. The Prowler was helpless, stuck in a vice-like grip. “Hey! Lemme down! Do you know who I am! I deserve a proper defeat! This is cheating!” The crowd in the restaurant sweatdropped.
Ukyo marched down the street, and jumped onto a nearby building when she saw a convenient one. She dumped the complaining supervillian on the roof. He leapt to his feet and moved into a combat position.
“Oh, stop that. You’d just lose, anyway.”
“What does that have to do with anything? And who are you?”
Ukyo chuckled. “None of your business. Now stay the hell away from that restaurant for the next two hours, ‘k? I WAS on a date!”
Prowler frowned. This wasn’t normal. “Arnt you going to introduce yourself?
“No.”
“Battle me?”
“No.”
“Send me to jail?”
“No.”
“THEN WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?!”
Ukyo sighed. “I just said. I was on a date. I want to finish up my date, and go home and have a threesome. That requires you to stay away from that restaurant for the next hour or so. Got it?” To remove any notion that she was asking, instead of telling, her entire body grew hundreds of long spikes.
The Prowler gulped. “I got it.”
Ukyo smiled again, though she had no mouth to show it. She waved a goodbye, and jumped off the building. Prowler walked over to the edge. “Now how the hell am I gonna get down?”
Back in the restaurant, Ranma walked out of the bathroom, supporting Shampoo. “That’s it. Let’s leave. I ain’t gonna eat anywhere that has ya throwing up for quarter of an hour.”
Shampoo nodded. She might have had to stick her fingers down her throat to keep Ranma occupied, but she sure wasn’t in the mood for any more dinner. Especially in a place that gets robbed by random supervillains. “Ukyo said she leaving, will meet us at home. You settle the bill, please?”
“Gotcha.” So saying, the redhead wandered off to the counter. While he was distracted, Shampoo grabbed Ukyo’s clothes and wallet, stuffing them down her cleavage using Hidden Weapons Technique.
…
That night, Ukyo decided to try …sleeping… in her metal form. She found she couldn’t feel as much in it, but me and Shamp’s sure enjoyed it.
The next morning we headed out. The people from the car shop delivered our new wheels to the outside of the Hotel. Now THAT was fun!
…
“Now, you SURE you know how to drive, Ranchan?”
“Of course I do!”
…
Well, I’d seen people do it before. I knew which part of the car did what. And I learn really fast. So that was almost as good as having been taught, right?
…
“Wrong side of the road! WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!!”
“That poor sheep!”
“Hey, I’ve almost got it!”
“Shit! Cops! Pull over!”
“Hell no, this is fun! CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SUCKERS!”
…
By the end of the day I was driving like a pro. I barely had one small crash a day after that!
The first night we stayed in a motel on the side of the road, but the second day we stayed the night in a small town, I think it was called Sunnydale.
…
“Come on, Ucchan. What could go wrong? It’s just a short cut across this cemetery.”
Ukyo frowned. She couldn’t cite any proof, but she just knew it was a bad idea. A cemetery? God only knew what fortune would put there. She had an idea though. “Every time a guy says ‘It’s a shortcut’, they end up taking about two hours extra. And Ranchan,”
“Yes?”
“You just aren’t girly enough. Sorry.”
Ranma smirked to himself. This would prove how manly he was! “Ok, let’s take the long way back then!”
Ukyo and Shampoo grinned to each other. Crisis averted.
In the cemetery, unseen by the Asian trio, a short blond was dusting a dozen vampires. For some reason, she felt cheated. Like she was doing someone else’s work.
…
The next town we stopped in was called Springville.
It was just as boring as Sunnydale.
About the most exciting thing there was the graffiti on the town sign, saying ‘Spooksville’.
…
“What’s that noise?”
“Uhh… must be someone in the bathroom?”
“Man, he must be having trouble. It sounds like he’s roaring!”
Ukyo sweatdropped. “I’ll go check outside. Just in case.”
Ranma perked up. “Hey! Maybe there’s a dragon or something! I haven’t seen a real dragon in years!”
Ukyo walked over to the window, and stuck her head out. There was indeed a dragon, of the fire breathing variety. “No. No dragon there. It must be the guy in the next room.”
“Where is my treasure!” A loud roar could be heard.
Ukyo sweatdropped. “I think he wants something from the chemist. I’ll go get it, to shut him up.” She sprinted out the door.
Ranma sweatdropped. “Maybe there IS a dragon. We should go help!”
Shampoo walked over to the window, and looked out. Ukyo was in her metal form, trying to kill the dragon. “No, no dragon. But there is a cue at the chemist, so she take a while.” She smirked. “That mean Shampoo have all of you for now.” She licked her lips hungrily.
“I WANT MY TREASURE!”
“No thanks,” said Ranma. “With that guy making all the noise, I just don’t wanna.”
….
After the disappointment of that town, and the motel, we decided to stay away from civilization for a while. We took a bunch of back roads, and camped a lot.
We had a bit of trouble at one point, though.
…
“Look,” said Ukyo patiently. “We just want to get to here.” She gestured to her map. “That means we have to take a two minute trip through your place.
“Sorry, mam,” said a man in military uniform. “This is a restricted area. We have regular live-fire military exercises here, and there are many live shells scattered here. If you just take a short detour through here,” he pointed at the map. “And cut across the road here, you shouldn’t loose too much time.”
Ukyo sighed. “Fine. Thanks for the help.” Ranma pulled the car into reverse, knocking over an innocent cactus.
The man in military fatigues sweatdropped. Join the army, they said. Nice and boring, and a chance to kill people, they said. And here he was, keeping young rich girls out of an experimental research facility. There were times when Adrian Sheppard regretted ever hearing the words ‘Black Mesa’.
…
Almost before we knew it, the trip was almost over. It was the night before we arrived that we picked up a hitchhiker.
She was Scottish, and by a weird coincidence she was heading to Bayville as well. She stayed with us at the motel, taking the couch. She seemed really sad, too.
…
I walked up the stairs of the hotel, and opened the roof door. Ucchan and Shampoo had drifted off to sleep, but wasn’t sleepy. It hit me occasionally, the guilt. Guilt that I didn’t deserve anyone; guilt that the person who should be there wasn’t.
I opened the door, and heard soft sobs. They quieted as I stepped out, and I walked over to their source. It was that hitch hiker that we picked up, Rahne. She was about 14, in tatty clothes. I’d thought she was running away from home or something.
Now, call it a part of being a guy, but I hate it when girls cry. I knew I had to do something. I walked over and sat down next to her. I gave her a cautious pat on the shoulder, and she clung to me like Akari to a sumo pig. She cried more for a little while, while I patted her shoulder awkwardly.
After a while, she calmed down. I kept patting her, just to be safe. She stopped sniffling, and turned to face me. She was cute, for a 14 year old. Lots of freckles, and light brown hair. She had that red splotichiness that girls get when they cry. I got the idea in my head that now would be the time to say something. “Uh… What’s with all the tears?”
She sniffed and looked pathetic. “I… I just miss my best friend, that’s all.”
I may not understand women, but I was pretty sure that she wasn’t telling me everything. “Riiight. Because we all cry when we haven’t seen a friend in a while.”
“You wouldn’t understand! You don’t know what it’s like to be..” She shut her mouth, on the verge of spitting out the secret, whatever it was.
“Don’t I?”
She gave me a funny look. “I didn’t even say what it was.” She hiccupped.
I sighed. “Kid, I bet what ever happened to you was terrible. But I also bet that I’ve had worse happen to me.”
“Sure.”
“No, seriously.” She still didn’t look convinced. I decided to elaborate. “Remember Ukyo and Shampoo? One’s my fiancée, and the other’s my wife. Technically.”
Her eyes went round at that. “T…TWO!?! GIRLS!?!”
I chuckled. “Yup. I’m one hundered and twenty percent into girls. And just to make matters confusing, I don’t think of myself as a lesbian, either.”
She looked at me like I’d just grown another head. “Then what DO you call your self?”
“A guy.”
“A guy!?!”
I smiled sadly. “Apart from Ukyo and Shampoo, I’d swap anything in the world to be a guy.” Sure, I left out the part that I once was a guy. But the rest was true. “If I could give up my life, just for an hour as a guy, I’d take it.”
She looked indecisive for a moment. “That’s still nothing like what happened to me.”
It looked like it was time to bring out the next gun. “And I’m a mutant.”
She jumped up like she was struck by lightning. “You.. you are?”
“Yup. They say that it interferes with my metabolism, so I can’t have a sex change.” Technically true, if you substituted my curse for the operation.
….
“And how did you feel when you lost your cure today? Did it feel like everything had been taken from you? That no matter how hard you tried, it would always be out of reach?” Her voice was softer now. She sounded sympathetic, but still getting to a point. “That’s how my granddaughter felt when she saw you holding Akane, crying over her.”
“So what does that mean?” I asked in a small voice.”
“Do you know about mutants, son-in-law?” The hag changed topic on me.
“Yeah, they get free powerups and look uglier than Pantyhose. Get to the point!”
She sighed. “A mutant has different DNA to a normal person. They also have different DNA to an inactive mutant- one who will awaken their powers eventually, but are still human. Mutants usually are awakened by intense emotional trauma, during their teens.”
No. No. No. She couldn’t be saying…
“I’m sorry, son-in-law, but just like my granddaughter, you are a mutant. That’s what locked you in your present form- your molecular structure changed so much, so suddenly, that the curse thought you were someone completely different. For as long as you are a mutant, the curse will stay locked.”
I caught the glimpse of someone sneaking away, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. There are nights I wonder what would have happened, if I’d been less wrapped up in myself. If I’d noticed that snooper. Everything would be different. Everything would be better.
…
“Why, are you a mutant hater?” I asked this part suspiciously. She didn’t seem like one, but you can never tell.
“No, I’m a… I’m not a hater.” She smiled, finally. “In fact, most of my friends are mutants. That’s why I’m on the road; I want to see my friends again.”
I stood up, and stretched my back. “Tears of joy?”
She finally let out a small giggle. “No, silly.” The humor disappeared from her face. “A year ago, I had to move to a private school. I left my best friend behind. I never got a call through to her; but her parents never liked me. So, I went out looking a few months back- about the time the world found out about mutants.”
“So what did ya find?”
“Nothing.” She slumped. “Not a single thing. Her family moved. No forwarding address. So I got a computer nerd to look into things. He found out that her folks changed their names, and moved to Australia. There was one strange part, though.
This was like a bad American cop show. “Oh?”
“They left the country, but my friend didn’t. She’s still in the country, somewhere.” She sounded so lost, so sad. It sounded like… me.
“I’ll find her for you.” The words slipped out before I could think about them, but I had no regrets about saying them. If I could do anything to stop someone feeling like I did, like I do, then I’d do it in a heartbeat. “I know a couple of people- my boss especially. I can find her for you, I promise.”
She smiled sadly. “That would be nice.” She didn’t have any hope, and maybe that was for the best. But I swore to my self that I’d find her ‘friend’.
She gave me her number, and her friend’s name, birthday, and a bit about her family. Then we wandered of to our respective beds.
…
Hey! Another chapter!
I suspect that there are a few rough parts near the begining. If anyone could point them out to me, it would be much appreacated.

[blackmamuth]

I guess is nice, but I see a problem. No real plot advancement. I mean, the chapter could be resumed in three paragraphs and it wouldn't lose much of the history. It looks like "filler" to me.

[PCHeintz72]

Well... not bad. A couple areas it seemed like there was continuity issues though.
I had to cringe at the car buying scene (I helps my mother through the process a month ago, and I plan on doing just that this Saturday).

Almost before we knew it, the trip was almost over. It was the night before we arrived that we picked up a hitchhiker.
She was Scottish, and by a weird coincidence she was heading to Bayville as well. She stayed with us at the motel, taking the couch. She seemed really sad, too.

My XMEN knowledge is almost strictly related to fading memories of the 80's cartoon series, from when it was new, and a few Ranma/XMEN crossovers. I have no clue who this is.