Jubilee’s laughter was infectious, and soon the entire junior team was laughing, and at least half of the senior team were stifling smiles.
The blonde women rolled her strange black eyes, the blonde man looked faintly bored, but a slight smile was gracing the third man’s face. The wolf continued to stare resolutely at the floor.
The little girl, Leyna, beamed happily at the reaction she had caused, seeming to revel in being the centre of attention, and as they watched her, she frowned slightly, and a patch of air in front of her began to shimmer. Streams of coloured light swirled around and eventually they formed into a tiny baby dragon, bright green with small leathery wings. It fell to the floor with a flop, before rising unsteadily into the air, slightly lopsided, the expression on its face one of sheer concentration and oddly human, like that of the wolf.
After a matter of minutes during which almost all the laughter died away, a shocked silence taking its place, the dragon managed to steady its flight, and hovered, almost straight, level with the little girl’s nose. She smiled hugely in satisfaction, before looking around the room. Her eyes fell on Logan and she beamed at him, the skin between her eyes crinkling again as she appeared to concentrate.
The dragon flapped its wings once more and made steady, if wobbly progress up and across the room, until it was level with Logan’s nose. He swallowed, clearly completely at a loss for what to do, which was, Rogue thought, something entirely new for the Wolverine. Although possibly quite reasonable. She saved it up to laugh about later.
Logan’s eyes darted first to the Professor, and then to Rogue, clearly looking for some kind of assistance. Rogue looked at Leyna. She continued to beam at Logan, before tilting her head to one side. The dragon mimicked her action, and when Leyna blew gently, so did the dragon. Unfortunately what Leyna’s seven year old brain had apparently failed to comprehend was the humans breathed, but did not breathe fire. Dragons were a whole other story. Logan yelped in shock, and probably pain. Now was the time that the rest of the team should really be jumping into action and helping him, but to be honest the whole scene had a fatally humorous air to it. And it was only going to get better.
The little girl’s eyes filled with panic and shock, and clearly devastated at her mistake, she frowned again, waved a hand vaguely in the air, and a bucket of water with arms and legs appeared, hovering over Logan, upended itself and deposited its contents all over his head.
That finished off Rogue’s self control, and despite the situation she keeled over laughing, unable to contain it any longer at the sight of Logan, dripping wet and incensed, eyebrows singed and mutton chops gently smoking. Before long the entire room was howling with laughter, as Logan spat water from his mouth and ran his fingers over his singed hair, his expression murderous.
Leyna looked terrified, and, obviously in an attempt to apologise, she frowned again and a teddy bear fell from the ceiling. It was a nice gesture thought Rogue, but sadly for Leyna, seven year old girls and something-year-old Wolverines do not look to the same things for comfort. Logan looked like he might impale the bear on his claws, particularly when he caught sight of Scott’s face, which looked like he’d just lost his virginity whilst winning the lottery and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Thankfully, Alex stepped in.
‘Leyna, I don’t think you should bother the Wolverine. Why don’t you focus on Freddie? He’s fading?’
A quick glance at the wolf showed that yes indeed, he was slightly fuzzy around the edges. Leyna looked mutinous.
‘I like Wolfie man.’
Alex stepped closer, and bent down to whisper in her ear.
‘He eats little girls like you for breakfast.’
Instead of looking scared, the child looked up at Logan with a combination of awe and worship in her large brown eyes. Logan looked perplexed and decidedly uncomfortable.
It was the Professor’s turn to step in.
‘I think perhaps an explanation is in order.’
There was general chorus of relieved and enthusiastic yeses. He smiled, before turning to the three strangers.
‘I think perhaps it might be more fitting if you explained. It is your story after all.’
Tia took the floor, it already being blindingly clear that the two men were not much for conversation.
‘Five years ago, my brother, Marcus and I were recruited to Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants.’
This statement was met with a rumble of anger and discomfort and the hostility in the room went up several notches. The Professor held up a hand.
‘You wanted an explanation. Hear our guests out.’
Tia smiled and continued.
‘For the first year or so, we were part of smaller missions, surveillance and the like. Magneto trained us, taught us to develop our powers, to use them for offensive purposes. He protected, gave us a home, made us believe that we were far superior to humans in every way.’
‘You believed that shit?’
The Professor glared at Logan. He fell silent.
‘Magneto can be very…persuasive. Control comes easily to him, something which I’m sure you in particular, Wolverine, will be able to sympathise with.’
Logan grunted. Tia continued.
‘Two years in to our time with the Brotherhood, we met Alex. We started as comrades and we became friends.’
‘Spare us the fucking sentimentalities.’
‘Logan, be quiet, or leave.’ The Professor was glaring now, and he was projecting his thoughts as he spoke them aloud, making them ring throughout the room. Tia eyed him.
‘Friendship is a rare thing for those who follow Magneto, Logan. The Brotherhood is not bonded by friendship, or by a feeling of brotherhood, but by fear, and hatred. A bond of friendship was a rare thing. Anyway, after another six months or so we were very much central to the Brotherhood. Marcus was second-in-command. Magneto told us of a weapon, a powerful weapon that he believed he could use and manipulate. He told us that with this weapon we could win the war. We would take control and we would be Gods. We believed him. Had no reason not to.’
‘A weapon?’
Scott’s interested appeared piqued and he spoke up for the first time.
‘Leyna.’
Rogue felt her eyebrows rising towards her hairline. How was a seven year old girl a weapon? Clearly she had a power of some sort, but illusions were hardly a weapon with which to win some kind of epic war. She felt perhaps that she should voice this opinion.
Alex smiled grimly.
‘Yes, Rogue. I think many people would make the mistake of believing that Leyna is not dangerous. She is seven is she not? Just a little girl. It is not what Leyna can do that makes her dangerous, but what she is capable of.‘
‘Which is?’
‘You watched her a minute ago, and what you saw was a little girl casting illusions, correct?’
‘Uh…,’ Rogue sensed that this was quite probably one of those trick questions she had always hated so much in tests.
‘That would be where you have gone wrong. What Leyna can do is something that has not been seen before in the mutant world. You know of Callisto?’
Storm growled.
‘The speed freak?’
Alex nodded.
‘She possesses another gift. She can sense other mutants, and their powers. She can tell what they can do and how powerful they are. One thing she had never been able to do though, is tell whether or not a child has the mutant gene. She cannot predict which children will manifest. Except with Leyna. Even when she was a child, just a six year old little girl, Callisto could sense her powers. Sense something different about her. Leyna is a Class Five mutant. One of only two Class Five mutants we are aware of in existence.’
Logan raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
‘She’s an illusionist. It isn’t unheard of and it certainly doesn’t warrant Class Five status.’
Alex frowned slightly.
‘That is where everyone goes wrong Wovlerine. They believe that what Leyna can conjure are mere illusions, just visions, tricks of the mind.’
Rogue could see the potential consequence of what he was implying being huge.
‘You’re saying that…what she conjures is real? How is that possible? They vanish, they fade.’
‘Leyna does not ‘conjure’ things, Rogue. She possesses the ability to bend the boundaries between reality and fantasy. How often have you wished that you could just erase an event of the past? Turn it to dust, and have it float away as a mere imagining? Leyna could do that. She could kill all of you, simply with the power of her imagination. Or she could bring more of you to life. Create creatures in her mind and breathe life into them, have them walk, control them. Simply by imagining, she could create Magneto an unstoppable army, completely under her control. She’s just a little girl. But with one thought, she could destroy us all.’
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter 8! My muse appears to be on something of a roll. Hopefully this chapter will answer a few questions. Thanks to MoonlightStorm, and miss_vixen for the reviews! And hugs to Xanthiae because she is four kinds of awesome and sends me pretty Hugh Jackman pictures. Hope this okay.