Lyrissa's Sparkles

You look like hell! You come to race?” a young man standing in front of an abandoned warehouse asked Lyrissa. He had blonde spiky hair, with dark red tips, and wore black baggy pants and combat boots, with a red shirt that he had written “Jax Shak” in black paint. “You still got my bike, Jack?” she replied. “Depends, you come to race?” he grinned. “Yeah, do you still have my bike?” she asked again. “Yeah, come on.” he nodded; leading her into the warehouse. “

“What’s got you on edge tonight babe?” he asked as they walked. “Nothin’ I just wanna race. It’s been a rough night Jackie.” she answered. “Yeah, okay, I feel that. Anyway here’s Bad Boy.” he replied as they came up to a sleek, but big custom Harley. “Thanks for fixing him up for me, the body work’s amazing… he does run right?” she asked. “Of course, and damn it’s fast. What did you do to that engine?” he answered. “A lot. Why didn’t you fix the paint?” she asked; noticing that her paint job had been painted over, leaving Bad Boy simply black, instead of it’s custom paint before; black background, “Bad Boy” written in bold green letters, lizard eyes behind the text, and “Watch your back” on the backrest of the back seat. “Well, because no one could redo it.” he answered with a shrug.

“Jack, baby, we’re six hundred short…” a scantly dressed woman scorned. Although Lyrissa could tell she wasn’t trying to, she looked like a punk-rock hooker. “Uhm, we won’t be for long. You know that bike I was racing ‘Little Devil’? This is the chick that built it. Karma Jennings. You think my bike is fast, wait until you see Bad Boy out on the road!! Karma can race man!” he answered excitedly. “You, did Little Devil?” she asked in awe. Lyrissa nodded. “…heavy…” the woman nodded in approval.

“By the way Jen, this is Sierra… my girlfriend and co-worker.” he grinned. Introducing Lyrissa to the woman properly. “Nice to meet’cha.” Sierra smiled. “Same. When’s the next race?” Lyrissa asked; more to Jack than Sierra. “Three minutes actually, you think you can rack up six hundred?” she answered. “If it’s the same crowd, hell yes. Jackie, gimme my keys.” she Lyrissa smiled. “Same crowd, and more babe. It’s the same as the last track you raced, but instead of the fourth road, you’re turning on the fifth, and going through the woods. There’s going to be a flag, but you know no one follows maps…” Jack laughed as he threw her the keys to Bad Boy, and her racing helmet that read “Karma’s A Bitch” on the sides. “Got it.” she nodded before starting the bike.

“Alright, everyone shut up! We have a last minute racer, you may know by the name or Karma Jennings!” Jack announced to the crowd; who lost their minds when her name was said. “We’re re-opening the bets, anyone who’d like to place on Karma, do it now. You have two minutes!” he added before going back into the “shack”.

“You’re goin’ down little girl.” one of the other racers laughed as Lyrissa pulled up to the start. “You wish little boy.” she jeered. Ignoring the fact he was literally twice her size. His bike was also bigger than Bad Boy, but she knew for a fact hers was faster. His engine was stock, who would bring a stock bike, to a race like this?

“Racers ready!” Sierra shouted through a megaphone. “Three… Two… One….” she dropped the megaphone and her scarf as she yelled “go” so it wasn’t audible; but they got the point. The bikes tore out of the parking lot, and into the less populated parts of New York City. Lyrissa keeping a solid third as she swerved around obstacles, and cheating opponents. Half an hour later they were out of the city, and riding down a back road. Lyrissa counted the roads they passed by, and went off-road at four; passing the two riders in front of her before dragging her knee on the turn into the woods.

The road wasn’t bike-friendly, and she couldn’t safely pass 40 mph. Luckily for her, neither could the guys behind her. Finally she came to a fork, with no flags. “Which one…” She sighed. “Heads I go left.” She decided before screaming at the bike who pulled next to her to ask the same question. “Hey! Heads or Tails?” she asked. “Tails!” he answered. “Right it is.” she sighed and tore off down the right fork.

Everyone else went left, to go back towards the city. Leaving her alone in the woods, with Bad Boy’s pipes as her only company. An hour passed by before she decided to shut the bike down, and try and figure out where she was. “Should’ve gone left… I’d be back by now if I went left…” she scorned herself. “Yeah, you should’ve.” a voice growled from behind her.

Lyrissa froze. She didn’t know if she wanted to turn around or not, but being the curious young woman she was, she did anyway. She came face to chest of one of the biggest, and most animalistic men she had ever seen. Extremely hairy, and more beastly than Beast himself, he swung at her. As her annoying reflex, she teleported to the same spot she was standing; but in doing so, she avoided the blow. The second hit, she wasn’t so lucky. She went flying into the tree behind her, and then to the ground hard enough to suffer a temporary T.K.O. “You can come quietly, and not get hurt, or I can rough you up a bit, and drag you out of here myself. What’s it gonna be girl?” he growled. “Neither.” she grunted as she pushed herself off the ground. "I’m not going anywhere with you, freak!” she spat as she charged him.

Of course he blocked. She kicked as high as she could -which was about his chin- but he caught her ankle and twisted so she lost balance and hit the ground again. “Gotta do better than that then.” he laughed. Lyrissa brought her foot up and kicked him just as he bent down to pick her up, and broke his nose. She was close to her bike, and still had her keys in hand so she took that opportunity to mount up, and ride for her life.

As she sped past the trees she could feel the blood dripping from her nose. She lost focus of the road, and didn’t see the large branch in her way until it was too late; she ended up flipping over the handlebars. “Son of a biscuit!” she exclaimed as she hit the ground; hard enough to bounce a few times. When she opened her eyes after impact, she saw the hairy freak running her way at full speed. She tried to get up, but for some reason, she couldn’t get herself to move.

Just as he was about to grab her, something shot out of the trees and tackled him to the ground. “Leave her alone bub, she’s already-” Lyrissa tried to make out what the rest of her rescuer’s comment was, but she couldn’t understand the words at all. She was sure she knew whoever it was, but didn’t know exactly who was fighting for her.

“Yer lucky I ain’t chasin’ after you Sabertooth!” he growled as her attacker ran off. “You okay kid?” Wolverine asked as he helped Lyrissa off the ground. “Dunno yet.” she groaned; leaning her entire weight on him. She had crashed hard, and her entire body ached because of it. “Come on, let’s get ya back.” he sighed. “No… I gotta get back to the Shack. If I don’t finish the race, Jack loses a lot of money. How’s Bad Boy?” she replied quietly. “Bad Boy?” he asked; cocking his eyebrow in questioning.

Lyrissa sighed and pushed off of him, before slowly making her way to what was left of the bike. “Jack, just fixed this!” she groaned. “I take it Bad Boy’s yer bike?” he asked as he picked up what he suspected was a piece of the bike itself. “Yeah, and he’s been through hell… help me get him up, I think he’ll start.” she answered. The bike was ridiculously heavy for such a small girl to be handling, and even with the two of them it was hard to get upright.

“Kid, it’s totaled, it ain’t startin’.” he grunted after fifteen minutes of Lyrissa’s failed attempts at getting it running. “Then I push it back to the starting line.” she sighed. “You, need to get back to the mansion.” he protested. “And you, need to mind you own business! Why’d you come out here anyway?” she retorted angrily. “Would you rather Cyclops come after ya?” he asked. “I’d rather be left alone, I left for a reason Logan!” she growled. Her eyes flashed her unique dark-light for a split second, showing him just how close she was to snapping. “Look, I ain’t goin’ back without ya. Even if I did, you’d have the others chasin’ ya down.” he explained. “Then you’re going to be out a while, because there is no way, I am not finishing this race. I’ve never not finished a race, I won’t start tonight!” she announced before pushing the wreckage she called a bike down the road.

Three hours later, she could see 'Jax Shak' ahead of her. “Almost there…” she sighed in relief. Logan just grunted in response. Half way in, she found she wasn’t able to push the bike any further, and he had taken over; though she walked beside it, with one hand on the handle bars, and the other on the seat to help the best she could.

“My god, she made it! Karma Jennings has finished the race in 18th place!!” Jack announced excitedly. “Yey…” she shouted in mock enthusiasm. Earning laughter from pretty much the entire crowd. “Heh, told you, you were goin’ down little girl.” the big guy from the start of the race jeered. He had clearly won the race. Much to her displeasure. “Bite me.” she spat.

“Babe, what happened? You look like you… crashed! Damn it Jennings, I just fixed that bike! I can’t give you another freebie, you have to pay this time. Lucky for us you finished, we barely broke even, even with your loss. And who’s this?!” Jack scolded after noticing the damage done to Bad Boy. “Not askin’ you to fix it Jackie, I just came to finish the race. This is my friend, he came to pick me up after my crash. He’s cool, don’t worry.” she answered. Luckily, Logan had decided to trail her in street clothes, instead of his X-men uniform, so he blended in with their crowd enough. “Right, he got a name?” Sierra asked from across the warehouse. “Not one ya need to know.” he answered. “Works for me. You taking off then? The party’s just getting started.” she asked. “Yeah, thanks for letting me in.” Lyrissa answered. “Any time Jen. Listen, we have another race next weekend, if your bike’s up and running by then. We could use a pro.” Jack nodded. “We’ll see. I gotta roll, see ya Jackie.” she replied with a fake smile.

“Hey! You can’t make it back to wherever you’re staying now, with two people on a bike that doesn’t run!” Jack yelled after Lyrissa and Logan as they pushed Bad Boy out of the warehouse. “We aren’t on the bike.” she called back. “No, but I was going to sell the truck… it won’t get anything good for the condition it’s in, so just take it. I’m sure you’ll do something crazy with it anyway.” he replied happily; tossing a set of keys her way. “You’re giving me the truck?” she gasped. “You forked right, crashed, pushed your bike across the finish line, kept my ass out of missing a payment, and I still owe you from bail last year. Yeah, I’m giving you my old beat up truck.” he laughed. “God I love you Jackie.” she sighed; running back to embrace him in a thankful hug. “Don’t be such a clingy chick babe. I’m taken, you’re taken, it just wouldn’t work out.” he grinned playfully. “Taken? By who?” Lyrissa asked; totally confused. “Your friend…?” Sierra asked slowly. “Him?! Oh god no… just friends, just friends.” Lyrissa replied quickly. Shaking her head and hands, adding force to her answer. “Oh, well it still wouldn’t work. I’m still taken. Now get outta here, I have business!” Jack laughed.

The truck was old, and beat up. But the bed was just big enough to strap the bike into, and get it back to the mansion, and it did run so they didn’t have to walk. “So you race bikes huh?” Logan asked as he drove. “Yeah, here and there. I started as an excuse to work on the bikes. Jack paid me to fix up his bike ‘Little Devil’, and I ended up rebuilding it entirely. I also painted it, and after he ‘borrowed’ some tools and materials, I fabricated some custom gear for it too.” she answered. “How’d building a bike, turn to racin’ one?” he replied curiously. “Dunno, one day Jack said he was short a racer and wanted to know if I could ride. I had one week to learn, and being seventeen, and living in a sewer, a chance to earn some cash is hard to pass up. I lost that race, but fell in love with the rush, so I came back a few times.” she sighed after her answer.

“Hey, who was that hairy freak who jumped me back there?” she asked suddenly as curiosity got the best of her. “Sabertooth.” he growled; just thinking about him got him keyed up. “Think I could’ve taken him if you hadn’t followed me?” she asked. “After that crash, not a chance kid.” he answered. “Well… I broke his nose at least. If I’m only going to land one hit, I’m gonna make it a good one at least.” she laughed. Her laugh wasn’t like it usually was; he could tell every happy emotion was an act; even though she was a surprisingly good actress. “Gotta admit, ya did pretty good to hit ‘tooth like that.” he smirked in approval. “Thanks… hey, we don’t have to back yet do we?” she asked; changing the subject entirely.

“Why?” he asked slowly. “’cause if we go back, Uncle Charlie’s gonna have one hell of a lecture waiting, Scotty’s gonna treat me worse than he does Allie, and I’m never going to have a minute of freedom in that house. Besides, I know a place where there's always a party going on.” she answered almost pleadingly. “Sorry kid, should’ve thought about that before runnin' off again.” he replied with a smile. “Fine.” she pouted before climbing into the back of the truck; which hardly had room for her,as it was an old truck with troop seats for a back seat.

“Lyrissa, get up. We’re here.” Logan ordered as he left the truck. “Great Logan… I’m coming.” she sang without opening her eyes; she was still far from awake. “Up, now. The Professor wants to see ya, and I ain’t waitin’ around here forever.” he replied. “Fine… I’m up.” she groaned before literally crawling into the front seat, and out of the truck.

Logan led her up to her room and left to go down to the danger room. When she opened her door, Xavier was already in her room waiting on her. “Hey Uncle Charlie.” she sighed as she closed the door. “Why did you leave?” she asked; “Did you not know the dangers of running off alone like that?”

“Uncle Charlie, I lived on my own, taking care of those kids, for almost four years! I know the dangers of being out alone at night, and I know how dangerous it is to race bikes, and gamble, and everything else I enjoy. Ground me for it, I’m obviously not leaving this place any time soon.” she answered heatedly.
“I would have been alright with you going to that race, if you had asked and taken someone with you.”

“Okay, then can I go next weekend?” her tone as argumentative and sarcastic as it could be.

“As long as you take at least one other with you. If you bring Andrew, I want you to take an X-man with the two of you.”

Lyrissa stared in shock for a few seconds. She was one hundred percent he would have said no. “So, if I can get Gambit to go with me, we’d be cool?” she asked; calming down quite a bit.

“Yes.”

“Could I bring him, and Scotty?”

“Why?”

“Because…”

“Lyrissa, why do you want to bring Scott with you to the race? I thought you couldn’t stand having him ‘baby-sit’ you.”

“I can’t, but you’re the telepath, you already know why he should go. He hates me, he doesn’t understand anything I do, he doesn’t know anything about my life out there, and he never will unless he experiences it himself. Maybe then he’d at least respect me. He doesn’t have to like me, I just want him to respect me at least a little bit.”

“Alright, if you can convince him to go. Why Gambit?”

“Admit it, the man’s got a killer poker face.” she laughed. “Indeed he does. Get some sleep; and if you sneak out again, there will be consequences.” he warned before leaving her to her room.

She laid awake on the floor of her room, and watched as the sun slowly came through her curtains; casting a very strange pattern of purple and shadow through her striped curtains. She hadn’t slept at all that night. She dozed off a few times, but every time she fell asleep she would hear that gun go off, and the screaming, then silence. Or she would see Jazz and Kiera strapped to those tables, and see Kiera having that seizure until her body shut down. Her entire life, she had never had nightmares as bad as those. She could feel the tears burning down the sides of her face and into her hair as she laid there thinking about the night before.

She was pulled from her thoughts by a very quiet knocking at her door. Very quit, and consistent. Lyrissa wiped the tears from her face and slowly made her way to the door. “Hey Petit, what you doin’?” she heard gambit ask before she could open the door. “Spawkles is sad.” Allie answered; Lyrissa sat down against the door to listen to their conversation outside her door. She could tell by her voice Allie was near tears.

“She jus’ havin’ a hard time right now, dat’s all. Come on, Gambit get you somethin’ to eat.”

“Gambie?”

“Yes?”

“Evewybody’s sad. I keep asking why, but nobody will tell me. You tell me?”

“Ehh… I can’t do dat Petit. I tell you another time, alright?”

“No, I wanna know now! Not evewyone came back! Why? Why awe you sad, why is Spawkles sad? Tell me!” Allie was now starting to cry, and that sound for some reason physically hurt Lyrissa. She broke down and opened her door.

“Spawkles!” Allie shrieked happily. “Hey Al.” Lyrissa sighed tiredly as Allie attached herself to her legs. “Mornin’ Cherie.” Gambit grinned. “Morning. We have any food downstairs?” she replied in the same monotone voice as before. “As always. Let I make you both somethin’.” he nodded before heading down to the kitchen. Lyrissa picked Allie up before following him down.

“I don’t want you to be sad no more.” Allie whimpered as they walked. “Honey, I’m trying.” she sighed. “Twy hawder.” Allie replied firmly. “You know, she don’ like you bein’ like dis.” added. “I know.” Lyrissa nodded.

“I’m gonna make you not sad.” Allie decided suddenly; placing her hands on either side of Lyrissa’s face. Allie looked Lyrissa straight in the eye, her own eyes full of determination as her hands started to glow. Lyrissa could feel some of her pain being lifted, but at the same time she held onto it. She didn’t know why, but she just did not want to be happy right now.

Suddenly Lyrissa saw the lab again, and heard the gunshot as clear as day. Allie pulled her hands away quickly and climbed down to stand by Gambit looking horrified. “Spawkles…” Allie whispered as tears poured down her face, “Spawkles, why’d he do that…?” she cried. “What jus happened?” Gambit asked; knowing something was very wrong, but not knowing what. “I think she, she just saw…” Lyrissa stuttered. “Spawkles! Why did he do that?! Why did he kill him? Why did he die, what did he do?!” Allie demanded through sobs. Lyrissa couldn’t take it, and walked past Allie and Gambit, and down the hall; leaving Gambit to take care of Allie.

Lyrissa kept walking until she came to the garage. Logan had taken her bike off the bed of the truck, and put it next to his; which was right next to the tool shelf, to her delight. The keys had been left in the truck ignition, and she remembered Jack always had something good in the stereo, so she gave it a try. She started the truck, and turned up the radio to hear a Guns ’n’ Roses tape through the speakers. “Oh thank you Jackie.” she grinned as she turned the volume as high as they could go before going to her bike.

She spent a long time taking Bad Boy apart, just to find more and more things wrong with it. Jack was good with bikes, but he didn’t know how to put things together the way she did. She had no idea how long she’d been down there, but she must have flipped the cassette at least twelve times already, and was nearing a thirteenth. Someone had silently came and left a plate of food for her three songs ago, but she didn’t even look up from her work to find out who. This is how she decided to deal with everything; using mechanics to keep her mind busy.

Allie had seen what happened in the labs, and now knew why they were missing two kids, and why everyone was so off their game, and it was her fault. Everything, was her fault. They were supposed to move their setup the day before those soldiers found them in the sewer. She had decided to let it wait because one Box had gotten a cold, and she didn’t think he would be up to carrying everything they owned through the sewers to wherever they’d be living next. Had she agreed to move, none of this would have happened.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and the fact she couldn’t find a wrench to fit the bolt she needed to take out of Bad Boy’s engine wasn’t helping. She yelled an inaudible line of swears before throwing the box of wrenches across the garage.

“You’re cleaning that up.” Cyclops’ voice echoed from somewhere behind her. The music was so loud he had to yell to be heard, making his comment sound more hostile than he had wanted.

“Eventually. I’m going to need one of those later.” she didn’t turn to face him.

“I came to let you know we’re all going to the Danger Room for a group session. Some of the kids are joining in too, and Andrew. Do you want to join?”

“No thanks Scotty. I need to get Bad Boy running for this weekend.”

“What’s this weekend?”

“Another race. It's basically the same thing I snuck out to do last night, but this time Uncle Charliegave me permission, as long asI take someone with me.Can you come?”

“I’ll think about it.” and with that he left so he wouldn’t be late for the training session.

“Of course you will.” she sighed to herself as she got up to flip the tape. Again.