Nothing Less than Extraordinary

xx11xx

"Where do I know you from?" he questioned, tossing me off of him.

"I'm a friend of Jane's from D.C.," I named. "You and your fiancée were there and the building burned down and—"

"You were the one who was stuck under the roofing."

"And then you saved me," I huffed, now feeling a physical toll on my body. He nodded and then stood off his guard as he got up. "What are you doing here?"

"I can be asking that of you," he said as he ran a hand through his curly hair and I noticed a difference from last time being that he no longer wore glasses.

"My friend is in here trying to convince people not to take the Cure," I answered him. He didn't seem to want to answer my question, but looked rather guilty. "Chris...what are you doing here?"

"You can call me Nick," he said.

"Yeah, but you go by—"

"I went by Chris when I got out of the Academy so if anything happened, they couldn't trace it to Jane, but since that isn't the case anymore, you can call me Nick," he growled at me.

"I don't care what I call you," I snapped. "Why are you here? Does Jane know you're here?"

"I'm surprised she isn't here herself," he commented before turning his shoulders and walking towards the back of the large store.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What I said it to mean," he answered vaguely. I grabbed his shoulder.

"She wouldn't want you to change, you know," I told him and saw his brown eyes grow dark. "Not Jane or your fiancée. So don't do this."

"If you had any contact with my ex-fiancée or my sister, then you'd know that I had to do what I came here to do," he spat before striding through the store. I followed him desperately and saw the other mutants walking towards the back by either themselves, their support, or they were children brought in by overbearing and embarrassed parents. I noticed that in our walk there, the mother and the blue-haired girl were retreating from the clinic area, hopefully without a dose of the cure within the no-longer-crying toddler. I had even seen Cheshire talking to a couple of young looking men off to the side and catch his attention to me when one of them pointed as Chris/Nick hopped the counter to the medicine and prescriptions.

"Chris don't," I said just like I had told Cheshire. He pressed his hands to the counter as many employees tried to approach him from their booths that were set up to administer the Cure.

"If Jane was here, she'd tell you to run right about now before you caught up because I know your boyfriend isn't anywhere near here," he warned before his hands had slid just an inch and the desk disintegrated. Soon enough, he was turning to the shelves and fridges, making them all fragmentize at a single look. In seconds, I was feeling Cheshire yelling for everyone to leave as he grabbed my arm and pulled me with him.

"Cheshire," I said, stopping him. He looked down at me like I was crazy for stopping in our tracks while Chris' abilities had moved to each wall and foundation piece.

"Chris made the basis of the Cure," I informed and Cheshire looked around briefly and groaned before deciding to take the lead and follow Chris, who had exited through the back door to the pharmacy. The other potential patients had made it out of the building quickly, but Cheshire was pulling me through the crumbling building in the reverse direction. I was just shocked that Chris/Nick was the one to fulfill Jase's role.

=XXX=

"Hey!" Cheshire yelled after we had walked maybe a mile after Chris, who somehow got away from all the commotion. Now, in a stretch of land off the strip or away from a suburb, Cheshire charged at Chris now that we had no cover to disguise us. Before Chris could turn, Cheshire had already pounced and I jogged over to the two boys. Before Chris could touch his hand to Cheshire, I grabbed it. I felt my hand turn into particles of sand at Chris' expense, but it quickly rebuilt itself into the familiar ligament that had been fragmentized. Chris had a look of shock and fear on his face as he crawled away from the both of us. Cheshire had already risen to put an arm around my waist and a hand on my wrist to examine any damage. Once he saw I was okay, Cheshire turned to Chris.