Liquid Metal: An X-men & QuickSilver Novel

Chapter Twelve: Cover Blown

Last Updated: Feb. 9th 2016

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I had only planned to stay the night, but it was soon apparent that the original game plan wasn't going to turn out the way had I first intended it to. I got stuck with helping people and soon the days seemed to turn into one.

We actually ended up staying almost a whole week. I came to really like those who were here. The first couple of days I either stuck with Peter or Tori, mostly acting as a shadow to them, and tying to stay out of the way.

On the night before we had officially been there four 3 days and after all of the kids and some families were asleep, everyone else had all settled out in the back where David had coxed a burn pit into existence. Night had fallen and the air had chilled just enough for the fire and a cup of coffee/tea/cocoa to be comforting. I sat with to Peter on my right and another person I had met that week, Christopher Muse; a healing mutant, on my left. Tori and David sat across from us.

It felt like one big support group. Everyone shared how they got here and some of the things that had happened to them. Tori had made sure that everybody got to talk and we all offered advice, condolences or laughs depending on the story. I got to learn that one elderly looking woman named Virginia had actually gotten to meet and become a personal advisor for the last four presidents. That was until they found out she was a mutant and she was fired immediately because they thought she had an "unfair advantage" in her field and that her talents were not "genuine". I got to learn a lot of people's names and histories as The night went on. Let it be known none of them were that squeaky clean.

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On the sixth day we were there, I found myself outside in the back where some of the new comers had settled in tents because of the crowdedness of the inside building. I just wandered around, helping wherever they needed me.

I was kneeling in front of a little girl who was no older than seven with light honey hair that was pulled up out of her face. I was still hesitant to use my mutation on others out of respect for their privacy, so I usually just looked at their names abilities and touchy subjects that I would need to avoid with them. I learned her name was Rachel and that she was indeed seven. The peculiar thing about her was her eyes: one of them was an intriguing mint green color with brown flecks around the center and the other was a normal brown. I think they call it heterochromia.

She sat on a bench watching me examine her wrist, which was bruised an awful sickly green color with splotches of blues and browns. When I first touched it gingerly I took in a sharp breath of air and shut my eyes tightly. I knew this would happen. I got too lax; I let my walls down for a moment because Rachel was a kid and it took energy to keep them up.

I saw images and small snippets of what had happened to Rachel and her family. I swore under my breath so she wouldn't hear, my mutation was so confusing, even to me. Doing things or showing me things without warning, it was starting to drive me insane. I had to let go of her wrist momentarily because I had felt a sharp stabbing pain in own my wrist as I saw the past events. She had fallen on her wrist while getting away. Apparently their town had somehow gained detail on all of our kind that were housed in the area and quite literally ran them out of town.

"What's your name?" I asked trying to avert her mind from the matter. She had looked at me curiously when I had flinched and rubbed my own wrist, but I saw her shrug it off.

"Rachel" she said, her voice was small and child like reflecting her tiny stature.

"Rachel?.... and how old are you Rachel?" I asked as I ignored myself, and wrapped her own wrist as gently as I could, but I could still see her wince a couple of times. It wasn't broken, only bruised which, to me seemed like a miracle.