Disclaimer: All characters belong to Marvel. No money is being made off of their
use. Etc. etc. etc. -- don’t sue me =)
I would still really appreciate your comments. Please please please tell me what
you think!! I’m putting a lot of time and effort into writing this story and I would
at least like to know if someone out there is reading it. Thanks. cvotulle@vt.edu
Quick Reference: “This is when someone is speaking aloud.”
#This is when someone is speaking telepathically.#
Revelations: Part 1
Chris Votulle, May 1997
Beep...Beep...Beep
Bobby Drake stretched lazily as he reached for a pillow -- trying to drown out
the sound by placing it over his head.
Beep...Beep...Beep
It didn’t work.
Beep...Beep...Beep
He squinted at the alarm
clock in order to make out the time.
5:30 AM.
Shit.
Bobby never understood why they had to train so early in the morning. It’s not
like they had so much to do in the afternoon that training then was an
impossibility. Still, Scott insisted on these 6:00 AM sessions.
Beep...Beep...Beep
Bobby grabbed the alarm clock and threw it across the room where it hit a wall
and broke into a million pieces. Well, it actually broke into something more like
three pieces, but Bobby was having fun imagining it to be a million pieces. The
alarm clock was his enemy and it was his duty to destroy it. Smiling at that
thought, he directed a blast of cold towards the already damaged clock and froze it.
He leaped out of bed and stamped on the clock, reducing it to dust.
“There! Now it really is in a million pieces,” he declared triumphantly. He
swore under his breath and headed for the bathroom.
Bobby realized that taking a shower before a workout was rather pointless since
he would need to take one afterwards in order to wash away the sweat and grime.
Taking a shower first thing in the morning helped him to wake up and he needed to
be fully alert for a training session. He turned the water on full force, letting the
cold stream cascade over his body. He made no attempt to heat up the water -- the
cold was his element. It comforted him. He closed his eyes and tried to relax --
mentally preparing himself for the intense training session he was about to
undertake. He didn’t notice that the temperature in the bathroom continued to
drop or that ice crystals started to form on the walls.
“Jesus Christ Bobby! Are you trying to recreate the ice age in here?” Warren
grabbed the bar of soap that he came in for and quickly ran out again.
Bobby’s eyes snapped open. He immediately became aware of the sub-freezing
temperature and the thin coating of ice that clung to the walls. He once again
cursed himself. He punched the wall hard and turned off the faucet.
He sighed deeply. Then, realizing the time, he quickly toweled off and put on
his uniform. He walked through his room, grabbed a Pop Tart, grimaced as he
spotted the pile of dust that was once his alarm clock, and headed for the Danger
room.
* * * * *
Scott sat at the kitchen table clutching a cup of black coffee; the really strong
stuff that Remy always drank. He hadn’t gotten any sleep that night, and he hated
to rely on drugs, but the coffee helped him to regain control of all of his senses. He
needed to be completely awake in order to fully grasp all of the technical jargon
that Hank was spitting out at him. He already asked him to repeat himself on
several occasions.
“As I said before, the girl is fine. She just needs some rest in order to recuperate
from the poison’s initial effect on her.”
“That’s great Beast. Really. So why are you up here telling me this? I mean,
shouldn’t you be observing her or something?” Scott was relieved that the girl he
brought in earlier was going to be okay, but he was tired and irritable.
#Patience Scott.# Jean placed a hand on his shoulder in order to ease his mood.
She then turned her attention back to Hank. “But she was so pale and weak. And
I could sense so much pain from her. It was... overwhelming. Are you sure she’s
all right?”
“Yes, Jean, I’m quite sure. However, it is rather fascinating that you brought
up the exceedingly vast quantity of suffering emanating from her. I wonder...” He
placed his hand to his head and began to pace -- obviously deep in thought.
Jean could sense that Hank was extremely excited about something he
discovered while examining the girl. She only hoped that he could contain himself
enough to speak on a level that would allow both she and Scott to comprehend
him. “What is it Hank?”
He spun around and eyed both Scott and Jean carefully. He didn’t exactly
know what to say or how to say it, but he figured he would give it a try. It wasn’t
often that he got to examine a mutant that wasn’t one of the X-Men, and he had
never before examined someone that was so complex. He just had to share his
findings with somebody. He took a deep breath and began.
“I’ll try to make this simple. Unfortunately, that may be difficult because,
frankly, even my mind is baffled by some of the mysteries presented by our new
‘guest.’ It comes down to this: because I could not entirely identify the nature of
the poison that was affecting her, I decided to do a brain scan to assure myself that
her central nervous system was not damaged by the toxin’s influence. You will be
relieved to know that her brain is functioning normally and all of my tests indicate
that it will continue to do so.”
“Great,” Scott interrupted hoping that that would be all. He had no such luck.
Beast cleared his throat and continued. “Yes, that was the original intention of
my examination, but a closer look at her brain functions revealed some fascinating
irregularities. It appears that our young friend is a very powerful mutant with
some extremely destructive capabilities although I do not know if she is aware of
this. Nevertheless, she would make a most formidable enemy.”
This caught Scott’s attention. He found himself completely alert and tossed the
rest of his coffee into the sink. “What exactly do you mean by irregularities?”
“Well, to begin with, it appears that she has four distinct mutant abilities. As
you know, a mutant with two separate abilities is extremely rare. You can imagine
my surprise at ascertaining that she has not two or three, but four powers. But I
digress. It is not entirely possible to discern someone’s powers by examining their
brain patterns, but I did manage to come to some conclusions. First of all, Jean
mentioned that the girl scanned her telepathically. Naturally, that was the first
ability that I looked for in the scan. By comparing her brain functions with Jean,
I’ve come to the conclusion that she appears to have both telepathic and telekinetic
powers, but they are very weak. A cursory glance would lead one to believe that
they would pose little threat to anyone and very limited use to the girl. Of course,
I was not satisfied with a mere cursory glance and continued to examine her with
further detail. I seem to have discovered two abnormalities to her powers. The
first is the fact that, unlike Jean, her powers are not intertwined throughout her
entire cerebrum. They are instead located in the vicinity of the brain that responds
to and interprets pain. This would explain why you experienced so much pain
when the girl scanned you, Jean.”
Jean nodded and Hank went on, “My hypothesis is that her powers are directly
related to any pain she may be experiencing or perhaps the pain of others. This is
why she would be such a dangerous enemy. For example, say she causes someone
pain by a slight psionic blast. In response to the pain, her powers would increase
and give her the ability to cause more pain in others which would, in turn, give her
even more power. The possibilities are endless. Of course, this is merely a
hypothesis. I really have know way of knowing exactly how her powers work.
We’ll just have to wait until she wakes up.”
“But why would her powers be related to pain to begin with? I’ve never heard
of anything like that. And what would make you think that pain influences the
strength of her powers?” Jean was frowning, trying to fully comprehend the
implications of what Hank was saying.
“Oh, I’m glad you brought that up because that leads me to my second
discovery. I noticed some peculiar inconsistencies in her powers that I couldn’t
quiet place. That is, until I realized some remarkable similarities to Rogue’s
powers of flight and super-strength that she acquired from Carol Danvers.”
Scott looked agitated. “You mean she *stole* her powers from someone else?”
“No, not quite. The make-up of her powers are not exactly identical to
Rogue’s. However, by comparing the two I have come to the conclusion that the
girl’s powers of telepathy and telekinesis are not hers naturally. This would
explain why those powers are initially weak. The difference between her powers
and Rogue’s is that I do not believe that her powers were taken from somebody
against their will. The powers are so well blended into her mind that they seem to
have been given freely -- and not in their entirety. I do not think that this other
person was stripped of their powers. I have instead come to the conclusion that
their powers were blended through some kind of mind link that may have been
ripped apart. I assume that it was very painful. Something like that is comparable
to having part of your mind ripped out of your skull. For some reason that I
cannot explain, this pain she experienced attracted her new powers and as a result
her powers are fed by pain. Now remember that these are all hypotheses and only
by talking to the girl can any of it be confirmed.”
“But you said that she has four powers. You only told us of two.”
“Oh yes, I do apologize most profusely Scott. Her other two powers appear to
be hers naturally. However, it is very difficult to come to any definite conclusions
regarding what those powers are since, unlike her telepathic powers, I do not know
what to look for. I have compared her brain patterns to all other mutant’s that I
have on file and I conclude that she is some kind of metamorph and that she also
has some kind of energy manipulation power. Although I do not now how these
powers might manifest themselves, I believe that they are both underdeveloped. It
does not appear that she has utilized her
powers very often so their entire strength has most probably not been revealed to
her. I believe that she is an extremely high Alpha class mutant -- if not an Omega.”
“An Omega class? Beast, are you sure? I saw her run from that mob, and her
fear was real. What threat would a small mob pose to a person who is capable of
leveling a city?”
“I am not positive in the strength of her powers, but Omega refers to the extent
of her entire capabilities -- not merely the destructive ones. Also, she may be
afraid to use her powers. Haven’t we all experienced something similar? Another
possibility is that she has some respect for human life. Humanity is not entirely
dead in this era, you know.”
Scott slumped and pulled his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry Hank. This is
all very hard to deal with right now. I don’t know what we’re going to do about
this girl, but let’s hold off any decisions until we get to talk to her. I still want to
know what she was doing alone at that time of night and why she was disguised.
She’s created one too many mysteries for us to solve by ourselves, I’m afraid.
Please let me know when she’s awake and ready to talk, won’t you?”
“Of course, Scott. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to check up on her and
run some further tests if I find them necessary.” With that, Dr. Hank McCoy
walked out of the room leaving Scott alone with his wife.
He wanted to do nothing more than sleep at this precise moment, but he could
sense that Jean still had something to talk about. He turned to face her and was
thoroughly surprised to see the makings of tears creeping behind her gaze.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked as he held her close.
“Oh Scott,” she almost sobbed. “She needs our help. I could feel her pain.
There’s something else too. Something important, but I just can’t put my finger on
it. It’s hard to explain, but trust me. Please.”
“Easy Jean. Of course I trust you. We’re just going to have to wait this out a
while. Why don’t you get some rest? It’s been a long night for you.”
“It’s been a long night for you too. Why don’t you come to bed with me?”
“I can’t. I have a Danger room session planned with Betsy and Bobby.
They’re probably already waiting for me.”
“You can cancel it Scott. They’ll still be here tomorrow. You look worn out.
Please come to bed.”
Scott was about to protest, but his own fatigue convinced him to surrender.
“You’re right honey. Let’s go.” He reached over to turn out the light and they
made their way to the boathouse behind the mansion that was now their home.
* * * * *
Bobby was pacing the floor outside of the Danger room. He had been waiting there for fifteen minutes now and he was
starting to get edgy. It wasn’t like Scott to be late. Betsy either for that matter,
but for all he knew she was already there -- lurking in the shadows. He
continued pacing, but he soon tired of that and just sat down to wait.
Five minutes passed. Bobby was reluctant to leave in case he somehow got the
time wrong. He didn’t want to be blamed for missing a training session so he
decided to wait another five minutes.
“Well, if you’re not going to be the first to leave then I am. I was getting pretty
bored watching you walking back and forth anyway.”
Bobby nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around to see a purple-haired
beauty standing a few inches behind him, looking at him with an expression of
slight amusement. She always enjoyed getting the jump on him.
“Geez Betsy, you didn’t have to scare me like that. We’re not sparring yet.
What do you want to do, give me a heart attack?”
She chuckled. “Just keeping you on your toes Iceman. If Scott ever shows, tell
him I went back to bed.” With that, she disappeared into the darkness once again.
Bobby shuddered. He certainly wasn’t going to wait around for Scott if Betsy
wasn’t, but he was too awake now to go back to bed. He decided to go visit his
best friend, Hank McCoy. Hank had been making a habit lately of getting up at
obscene hours in the morning to check up on some experiments he was running on
the Legacy virus. It was because of this that Bobby knew he would be in his lab
and not sleeping in his bed.
Bobby whistled blithely and headed towards the medical facilities of the
mansion not knowing that Hank was still in the kitchen talking to Scott and Jean.
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