xmutanthigh | [scene] Drum & bass and a blast from the past.

Characters: Ali, Jono and Kevin
Setting: In town, at a music store.
Content: the band heads to town to find Kevin a replacement for his demolished drum kit.
Status: Complete, but feel free to tag in for aftermaths if you are feeling brilliant.

The post-vacation blues had started to set in, and Ali had started complaining that Kevin was reverting back to his usual “sad bastard” state of being. Even he had to agree. So when she suggested they go into town with Jono to check out the music shop to see about a new drum kit for him, Kevin couldn’t say no. The three band members piled into Jono’s car and headed downtown.

Ali, Jono, and Kevin stopped to refuel at a coffee shop, joking around as usual, and headed into a music shop that met their standards. Jono rushed over to the guitars and started to admire them, babbling on about certain models. Ali asked, “Are you adding another to your collection, or just looking?” Jono started to argue with himself about whether or not he should buy another, and soon he and Ali were engaged in deep conversation about the guitars. Then, when that was over, they still had to talk about the bass guitars.

Kevin was alone again. He started to pick out some items for himself before he found himself getting disinterested, and wandered throughout the store aimlessly.

Kevin snooped around a couple drum kits, sitting behind one or two and cutting a roll, kicking the bass, getting a feel for the drums that might soon be his. He got up from one kit and nearly knocked over a dark haired girl who had been watching him quietly.

“Oh crap, I’m so sorry!” He stepped back quickly, making sure there was no skin on skin contact between them. He checked as discreetly as he could to see if any damage had been done. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She smiled, brushing a few strands of her pitch black hair back from her face. “No harm done, Kevin.”

“Oh, good, I -- wait. How do you know my name?” Kevin said, his expression suddenly becoming hostile.

“We know a great deal about you, Kevin Ford.” The girl said plainly, stepping back but not retreating, just giving him space, showing him she’s not a threat. “More than just your name, we know what you can do. We can help you.”

“We?” Kevin glared at her, still suspicious, looking around for Ali and Jono, but he couldn’t see where they were. His stance changed to a more offensive one. “What is this ‘we’? And if you know what I can do, you’d know that there is no helping me, and that it’s a really bad idea to piss me off.”

“We are the New Brotherhood.” She took a small step forward, hands still up in a placating gesture. “We just want to help you.” She reached out with a steady hand, no hesitancy whatsoever, so unlike his classmates and even his friends. “I’m like you.”

Kevin pulled back, angry, sullen. For every step the girl took forward, he stepped back. “No one is like me.”

“I am.” Her fingers brushed the hem of his sleeve, sliding down his gloved hand to press her palm against hers. “More than you know. I understand what it’s like,” she licked her lips, almost hungrily, “to be an angel of death. I can help you, Wither. I can teach you to embrace your power. Control it, even.” Kevin looked at his hand, her hand, their fingers interlaced. The concept was so foreign to him, the idea that someone like him could control their mutation. “They told you that could never happen, didn’t they? Emma Frost, the X-Men. They’re afraid of you, you know. They don’t want you to master your gifts, they don’t even want you to use them.”

“I... because it’s true. I can’t control my powers. You really ought to be more careful with me,” Kevin said bitterly, and withdrew his hand from the girl’s hand. “Who are you, anyway?” he asked, distracting himself from her words about his “gifts.” She’d said something about a “New Brotherhood,” but never actually introduced herself.

Her eyes darkened slightly when he removed his hand from hers, though her tone remained unchanged. “Don’t think you’re the only one who holds death in the palm of their hand,” her fingers, brushed his chest and he felt just the tiniest of constrictions there, a zing of pain down his left arm, and then it disappeared. “My name is Mortis. I’m a killer, just like you. Only now, thanks to the New Brotherhood, I get to choose when I take a life.”

“They... taught you how to control your powers? What do you mean? You’ll have to be more specific, Mortis. My power is hungry for me to use it. I sometimes feel more like it controls me,” Kevin admitted. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets. He didn’t like the way Mortis had taken his hand, regardless of the fact that he was wearing his gloves.

“You don’t need to hide from me, Wither. I’m not afraid of you...” She didn’t move closer to him, despite her encouragement. “I spent years on the run, unable to control when my powers would flare up, make me kill again. My sister, she wanted what was best for me, tried to keep us one step ahead of the law, but she couldn’t help me. That’s why I left. Once I joined the New Brotherhood, I learned what it was like to be surrounded by people who embraced and used their gifts. They taught me how to hone my skills through active practice, not just trying to control it through suppression.

“What they’re doing at the school... it’s no good for people like us, Wither. They want you to believe your power is bad, that you are bad. It’s not true. Don’t let them teach you to hate who you are. Or what you can do. The New Brotherhood will not only accept you, we will embrace you and your gifts,” she continued.

Kevin could hear Ali and Jono’s voice coming closer to them; he shifted, not sure what to think of this girl’s sales pitch. “Look,” he began, but he was interrupted be a momentary blinding flash of light from the Dazzler.

Everyone was taken aback except, it seemed, for the strange girl, Mortis. She was smiling in a self-satisfied way. Ali’s eyes were still glowing, but the instinctive light burst that had filled the store had lasted no more than a second. “Kevin! Get away from her!”

Mortis stepped away from Kevin, still smiling pleasantly at Kevin. “Think about what I said, Wither. We’ll be waiting. When you’re ready...”

“Kevin. NOW!” Ali moved quickly, grabbing Kevin and shoving him at Jono. Ali could be bossy, but this was different, new. She was giving orders. “Get out of here. Both of you, go get in the car.”

“What’s the rush, sis?” Mortis toyed with a high-hat, her pleasant smile turned a little sly. Behind Ali, Jono and Kevin exchanged confused looks. Neither of them knew much about Ali’s family, but they had been sure she would have mentioned a sister. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Jono, Kevin, so help me, if you don’t get the hell out of here right now--” Ali felt her chest tighten painfully, couldn’t tell if it was her sister’s influence, her disruptive energy field getting close to her heart, or just the hurt of seeing her again after so long. She dragged in a deep breath, backing away. “What are you doing here, Lois?”

“Came to see you, Ali.” Mortis shrugged, glancing down at her fingernails. “Well, came to help your friend Kevin, but it is convenient, running into you. I hear you’re training to be an X-man.” She smirked, cocking her head to the side. “You always were a showboat, weren’t you?”

Ali needed a moment to keep herself under control, wondering if Lois had been snooping into her life enough to be reading concert reviews that called her a “showboat,” or if the use of the word was just coincidence. She took some breaths, powered down, and crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you want with Kevin.”

“I caught your show in London, by the way. One of our teleporters helped me hop across the pond. Great gig. I always did love to see you play.” She nodded at Jono. “He’s the flashiest frontman you’ve had yet.”

“The best, too, I hope,” Jono added in. Then, “You’re Ali’s sister?!” He had placed his enormous frame protectively in between Mortis and Kevin, unsure of why there was any threat, but his instincts trusted Ali. He reached for her arm, pulling her back to stand with him. Any threat to Kevin could potentially be a threat to her, too.

“Half-sister.” Ali clarified, gently removing her arm from Jono’s grasp. “Not that that means much to her, does it?” Ali went rigid at the memory. “Just let your buddies dump me in El Paso to die after I--”

“You’re only alive becuase of me!” Mortis shifted angrily, for the first time since she had appeared in the shop seeming anything but pleasant and inviting. “I was the one who told Vanisher to take you to a hospital, one far enough away that nobody would know.”

“What?!” Jono exclaimed at this, indignant at the thought of anyone abandoning Ali to die. “What’s this all about?! Somebody better start explaining, before the gloves come off. Literally.” Kevin gave a slight nod at this, also a bit confused at what was going on, and his confusion fueling his anger.

“Shut up, Jono...” Ali said quietly, firmly, but not cruelly. “You left, Lo. You just left. After everything...” Ali shook her head, steeling her gaze. “Stay away from my friends, Mortis. Stay away from my school. Go back to your Brotherhood and stay the hell away from me.” Ali placed a hand on Jono’s chest as she turned away. “Come on, Jon. Let’s get out of here.”

Jono afforded Mortis one last glance, a squinty-eyed confused, a somewhat angry one, and then took Kevin by the sleeve. The dark haired girl raised a hand for a tittering wave. “Be seeing you, Wither.”

Ali balked, ready to blow a hole in the side of the building, but Jono grabbed her and put her in front of him as they exited the store.

Ali flung herself into the passenger seat of Jono’s car and demanded that he start driving. He was hoping for an explanation, and started to say, “What was --” before sighing heavily and starting up the car.

“Ali...” Kevin said warily, knowing he was probably just going to piss her off. “That? Was totally creepy. She knew my name and my powers. Or, at least, some idea of them.”

“Yeah, bad guys do that, Kev.” Ali uncrossed her arms to reach over and turn up the volume on the stereo, then slumped back low in her seat, staring broodily out the window.

“She’d never... change allegiances?” Jono said, a little unsteadily, knowing he was treading on some very sensitive ground here. And his question was so demonstrative of just how little of Ali’s life before Xavier’s they knew. It began to gnaw at her fellow bandmates, a bit.

Ali shot Jono a warning look, but bit her tongue. She knew it wasn’t fair to be taking all of her ugly emotions out on Jono and Kevin, that they had just been bystanders when the floodgates had opened and everything she had worked so hard to shove deep down inside her and never think about resurfaced as fresh and painful as ever. “No.”

Even though he knew the answer, Jono still said, “Wanna talk about it?” Once glance at the passenger’s side as he drove along told him the answer. But Jono had at least caught the tail end of Mortis’s words to Kevin. “All right, fine, but... I think maybe you owe Kev some answers.”

Kevin coughed awkwardly from the back seat. Ali continued to glare out the window, her jaw clenched so tight her teeth hurt. “Later, Kev.” She drew a deep breath in through her nose, rolling down the window to hang out of it and light a cigarette.

“Don’t baby me about this,” Kevin told her. “I can handle it.”

“Not about you, Kevin,” Ali said tersely. “Not your problem. Yet. I hope.”

“Okay, okay,” Kevin withdrew with that. “We’ll talk, though? In case... it does become my problem, too.”

“Yeah.” Ali’s voice finally softened just a little and she flicked her eyes back to him for a split second. “I promise.”

[scene] Drum & bass and a blast from the past.

no subject