Just take them to see about new instruments Jean had said. It shouldn't take long Storm had said. Don't give me that look, they don't like me Scott had said.
Huh. Can't fault Scooter on that last one. Can't blame the kids either. He is a dick after all. Which is how I got roped into rummaging through every music shop where the salesperson didn't freak when they caught sight of Trey.
Disc's keyboard was easy. The kid just walked into the first RadioShack we saw and walked right back out with what he wanted. A basic electric keyboard, and enough computer parts to custom build a new synthisizer. I hope Summers chokes on the credit card bill.
It was pretty much the same with Smoke's drums and Blue's base, although she insisted on trying out every amplifier in the place before getting one.
But Treasure just wasn't satisfied with any of the other speakers and was just plain picky about her microphone set up. After six hours she even had Marie muttering something about "divas."
"Oh, come on, Trey," Darrel said, "anything you sing into will come out great. It's your voice after all."
"Flattery will get you nowhere, D-man," Treasure grumbled as she tossed him yet another reject.
"How about this, kid," I growled, "you pick a damned system and we get back home."
She turned around and blinked at me. Danmed creepy the way the emerald green tinted her eyelids when she did that. Hell, if it wasn't for the way the light glittered off the ruby shards that replaced eyelashes, I wouldn't have know she had eyelids. "How much do you know about music, Logan?"
"Enough to know you're good." I shrugged.
"But not a single thing about how it gets made right?" she demanded with her diamond fists balled up on her hips.
I just grunted.
"Don't argue with her, man," Disc suggested. "Not about music. It so is not good."
Have I mentioned that bad shit has a nasty habit of following me around? Like that old Cream song goes, although I have no idea how I remember this one, I was born under a bad sign. I might not know when I was born, but I know the stars couldn't have been in my favor.
"Get down!" Darrel shouted as he automatically threw up a forcefield.
Treasure howled when one of the bullets that flew through the shattered display window winged her. Tiny glittering shards hit the floor seconds before she did.
I shoved Marie down and covered her as a couple of bullets and glass fragments bit into me. Smoke exploded into a blast of, well, smoke as a bullet hit her while Disc used his energy disks to block the bullets and glass shards. BlueFlame just hit the dirt. I guess she figured out her powers weren't much use against bullets. Smoke reformed crouched near us as several people crashed through the door.
"Shit!" I heard somebody mutter as Marie rolled me off her body while my healing factor started pushing out the bits of lead and glass. "We've got civilians hit in here!"
"Get back, I'm a doctor..." The woman's voice trailed off into a shocked gasp and I heard Treasure muffle a curse then scramble to her feet. "Oh, my god."
"I don't need a doctor," Treasure snapped. She pointed to the rapidly closing chips in her shoulder. Okay, so she wasn't made out of diamond. "You wouldn't be able to do anything for me anyway, so back off, lady."
"Scully?" called the first voice. "What's wrong?"
"We've got mutants in here, Mulder," the redhead lady doctor called back.
Blueflame rolled her eyes and Disc pulled her to her feet. "That's a problem?" Blue drawled.
I leaned back against the wall with Marie next to me and watched how the kids would handle this. Scully was a little redhead in a suit, Mulder was a tall lanky guy with sandy brown hair.
Mulder just stared from one teenager to another with his jaw hanging down. Scully looked at him and shrugged. "They aren't who we were chasing, and they haven't broken any laws that we know of," she said firmly.
"But they're mutants!" protested one of the S.W.A.T. officers who still hadn't put his weapon up.
"That isn't a crime, buddy," Darrel snapped. The kid's forcefield was still sparkling around his fists.
"The kid has a point," Mulder told the other man coldly. He turned and looked me in the eye. "Are you in charge of these children, sir?"
"For the moment, yeah," I grunted at him. "What's it to ya?"
He carefully reached into his pocket as his eyes locked on my bloody shirt. He held out a business card. "If you want to reach me or my partner, call one of these numbers. Sorry to bother you."
Smoke was turning around slowly with a little frown on her face despite the normally vacant look in her eyes. "Something isn't right."
"What is she talking about?" Marie whispered to me.
I could only shrug. Then Smoke exploded, not into her smoke-form but into motion. Her leg snapped up to her hip then snapped out in as pretty a side kick as you could ask for.
And it connected with something solid that I couldn't see or smell. Whatever it was hit her back, because Smoke doubled over as if the wind had been knocked out of her.
The thing is, in the two weeks since I've know her? Smoke has never drawn a breath.
Blueflame's eyes flashed for a second and every living thing suddenly found itself lined in harmless blue fire. Including the invisible man Smoke was fighting.
"Keep back," Disc warned everyone sharply as he stepped back from the weirdest fight I have ever seen.
Another kick came at Smoke's midsection and this time she did change into her gas form, but she didn't dissipate on the air. It was like she concentrated herself around the air the invisible guy had to breath until he was coughing and choking on her. As he dropped to his knees he snapped into view and I could even smell him.
Smoke pulled away and reformed in a martial arts stance with her blank almost stoned look in place.
The S.W.A.T. guys swarmed the new guy seconds after Treasure gave a sharp whistle at Smoke, who only blinked and stepped away.
"Oh, yeah, we do need to talk," Mulder muttered.
Scully jabbed her elbow into his ribs. "Shut up, Mulder."
~Finished.
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Story Notes:
Yes, I know this is late. And now I have to go tutor Ephiney on her German 2 Vocabulary. :/