A Rogue's Tale

Destination: New York: Part 4

The song I used for this part is Dangerous Type, by Letters to Cleo. The song is a cover and originally recorded by Talking Heads.

It wasn't long before a woman entered the room. Rogue had been given a brief description of her from her mother, but it was still a little strange seeing a blue woman in a white dress standing before her.

"You must be Rogue," the woman said and held out her hand. Even though she had her gloves on, she was still reluctant to take it.

"You're Mystique, right?" she asked.

"Yes," the woman said and sat down next to her. "Have the boys behaved themselves?"

"Yeah... Well...sort of, but ah can handle it."

"I'm sure you can," the woman said, giving her a smile. "Now, after breakfast I want to have a little training session outside, and don't worry... the property is enclosed so no one on the outside will see."

"Okay," Rogue and turned back to her book. It wasn't long before the boys came out of the kitchen. They were loud and boisterous and arguing about something that Rogue couldn't make out.

"Hey, great breakfast," Lance said, looking towards Rogue. "It's too bad Blob ate most of it."

"So, what's for dinner?" the toad boy asked.

Rogue just rolled her eyes, thinking she had made a big mistake in making everyone breakfast. She wasn't going to allow herself to be turned into a maid.

"Whatever you're makin'," Rogue said and stood up. She knew for sure that she wasn't going to let these boys walk all over her if she put her foot down from the start.

"What?!" Pietro shouted. "If we're going to get stuck with a girl in this house at least she can do the cooking."

"I'll make dinner, Miss Rogue," Fred said in a gentle voice. Then he turned to his buddies with a scowl. "I wouldn't want you to get food poisoning with anything they would make."

The other boys hooting and wrestling and basically poking fun at the big boy but in Rogue's opinion he was pretty nice.

"Enough!" Mystique raised her hands up and said. The boys quieted down and they all looked over to their caretaker. "Since Rogue is new to our group, I want to put you all through some special training, and the best way to do that us for Rogue to know your strengths and weaknesses.

"So, we get to impress the lady with our talents," Pietro said with a smirk. "I just hope it isn't too much for her."

Rogue just rolled her eyes as the rest of the boys laughed. "Outside all of you," Mystique commanded.

Lance and Fred walked to the back door at a leisurely pace while Toad jumped about on all the walls and furnishings until he finally catapulted himself out the door and landed in a tree. Pietro was nowhere to be found as he just zipped from one spot to another at lightning speed.

By the time the rest of the group reached the training area, Quicksilver was standing in front of the Oak tree finishing off an apple.

"It's about time you got here," he said and threw the apple rind into the nearby garbage can. "So, are we training or what?"

Rogue observed while the boys attempted to outdo each other. They all had great powers but suspected that they weren't using them to their full potential. None of them seemed to take training seriously, and she thought about what she could do with those powers even if it only lasted temporarily. She only had a taste of what her powers could do during the incident in Mississippi and would like to experiment more, but she didn't want to hurt anyone.

Of the four boys, it looked like Fred who they called the Blob came out as the victor. "I won again!" he shouted and raised his hands in victory.

"Not so fast, Blob," Mystique said and approached him. Since you're the winner you have to fight our new recruit."

He looked shocked trying to assess his size with Rogue's, not only was she a fraction of his size, but she was a member of the opposite sex. One thing he learned even at a young age was never to hit a girl. "No way am I fighting a girl," he said and tried to walk away.

"Yes, you will," Mystique said and came towards Rogue. "I want you to use your powers on our three losers."

"What?" Rogue looked shocked and shook her head. "No, ah ain't gonna do It."

"It's alright," Mystique said as she pulled her aside. "I know you want to show those boys how to win. Take their powers and show them how to bring down the strongest."

"Well..." she said hesitantly. "Ah won't hurt 'em, right?"

"No, of course not... not permanently," Mystique said, but Rogue wondered what she truly hoped to achieve by this exercise. "Now, just a touch from each will do it."

Rogue took off her gloves and approached the three fallen boys. Toad was the first to drop. Both avalanche and Quicksilver freaked out seeing little Todd Talansky on the ground unconscious.

"What the hell did she do to him?" Avalanche said, pointing at Toad where he lay.

"The same thing ah'm gonna do to you," Rogue said.

"Oh, hell, no," Avalanche said and backed off. Rogue kept walking towards him so he used his powers and the ground shook, but Rogue reacted quickly and jumped up onto a tree branch.

"Take him now!" Mystique said, and Rogue jumped down from the tree and grabbed hold of him toppling him to the ground. She touched his arm and felt his powers entering her body as well as his memories. There was one image that stood out. It was the face of a young brunette and knew immediately that the girl was someone he had strong feelings for.

She then looked over to Quicksilver who looked so smug. "Hey, girly, want my powers, you're going to have to work for it."

He then took off running but Rogue stomped her foot on the ground, and Quicksilver lost his balance and stumbled to the ground. She wasted no time and jumped into the air and took him down within seconds. He let out a scream for a second or so, but he was soon out cold.

"Well, Freddy, you're the only one left," Rogue said as Mystique grinned. She had three different mutant powers, and he warded off these powers by their original possessors so he was confident that he would win this fight too.

He stood his ground as Rogue came towards him using Quicksilver's speed, but he easily dodged her. She then used Avalanche's power to make the ground rumble and made him lose his balance partially, and he staggered towards her but jumped out of his way and used her tongue to slime him in the face. While he was disoriented and couldn't see, she jumped on his back and took him down. The big guy was out like a light, and Rogue was the overall winner of the day.

"Very well done, Rogue," Mystique said and came over towards her. "Now, take a break while the boys recover. We'll continue training after lunch. Tomorrow you start school."

"Thank you, Ma'am," she said, trying to be polite, but after the fighting she had done it would seem kind of odd. Above all she was a lady and did take it easy on the boys. If she had used her powers in anger, she had no doubt she could have caused great harm or even killed them.

She didn't mind the borrowing of powers. That part of her abilities she could deal with, but the stolen memories were harder to come to terms with. Each one of these boys had a lot a rage which they masked through jokes and stupid comments, but they were all bruised souls. She wished more than anything that she didn't know about it. 

To Be Continued...

Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying. In the next scene it's back to the Xavier Institute to see how the new recruits are settling in.