Liquid Metal: An X-men & QuickSilver Novel

Chapter Eleven: Refuge

^Tori^

Last Updated: Feb. 7th 2016

****

Before we had left,I had managed to get ahold of a few locations and names that I could trust.

More and more mutants were being discriminated against, refused into hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and just about any place they could segregate us.

The battle we thought we had begun to win, had only just resurfaced itself after a few years of peace. It's like America had fallen back to the fifties.

We had been refused by more than three places. Apparently a lot of business places had gotten ahold of mutant honing devices and had began hiring people just for the purpose of being a mutant bouncer. It pissed me off, but what could I do?

The place where I had parked outside of was probably the sketchiest place I had ever seen. It looked like an abandoned gas station except there were no pumps and it had way more square feet than your usual Circle-K.

I sat there for a few seconds with my mouth slightly gaping, deciding if I wanted to die today or not. I knew this was the only place that was safe for a few thousand miles and I knew they would accept us if I mentioned Charles's name. So I guess I had to go in there.

"Well I'm going in" Peter said abruptly as he opened his door and stepped out.

I could see people inside the raggedy run down place, like shadows dancing through beams of light. These lights shown through the windows and flooded the grass like waterfalls. This place wasn't abandoned like a first glance might suggest.

Swearing under my breath I got out, pulling the keys out of the ignition and stowing them in my pocket.

"Are you sure about this place?" I asked, but before Peter could say anything a girl walked up to us.

She seemed to be around twenty, she was petite and she had shoulder length layered light mocha brown hair and a harshness to what seemed to e her neutral expression. She walked at a brisk pace, stopping to examine us.

"You guys lost?" She asked, leaning on her hip as she did so. It almost sounded like she had a slight Puerto Rican accent.

"Kinda?" I said not really sure how to answer. She paused to look at us with scrutinizing eyes.

"Who sent you?" She asked.

"Charles Xavier" I replied, trying to sound confident, but it came out sounding more like a question.

"Come on" she said finally, nodding with her chin as a sign to follow.

As we walked toward the place I had to force myself not to act nervous. I couldn't help but fiddle with the buttons on my cardigan, wrapping it tighter around me as we walked through a gust of wind.

I could tell Peter couldn't give a care in the world regarding the current situation and I had to admit, I was kind of jealous.

"What are your names?" The girl, Tori, asked when we were nearly upon rickety porch that led to the entrance. Her tone was cold but inquisitive and it had the right to be so, there was more than a few reasons that she looked so cold all of the time.

"Josephine" I muttered absentmindedly and Peter gave his.

"Tori" she said, giving us her own name as she opened the door and stood back to let us in first, the door was a lot bigger than her and even me, with peeling green paint and water damage. I pushed Peter in first and he gave me a look which basically called me a pansy.