Lyrissa's Sparkles II

Lyrissa, Logan, and Allie were woken up early the next morning to a very loud crash, and several screams outside their window. Lyrissa teleported nose-to-nose with the ceiling before falling back down to the bed; if Logan hadn’t grabbed Allie and jumped off the bed, she would have been crushed. “What the hell was that?” Lyrissa gasped, hoping to god it wasn’t Sabertooth. “Dunno, hold her.” He answered firmly, passing Allie over and running down to investigate.

Rose teleported in a few seconds later in a cloud of red wisps, grabbed Lyrissa, and Allie, and teleported away without a word, into somewhere cramped and dark. “Shush, trust me. Stay quiet.” She whispered before she could ask what was happening. Somewhere above them they heard arguing, and finally Stephen running up the stairs, screaming Lyrissa’s name. “It’s their family initiation. First they scare the shit out of you… sorry, I forgot you had her with you. First they scare the crud out of you, and then they carry you out of your room, into the pool in the back, before trapping you there for two hours. I don’t know how this started, but it’s their rules.” Rose explained with a laugh. “Whose rules?” Lyrissa asked quietly. “The boys, and men of the Carson Family. When you turn twenty, it’s part of the celebration. Surprise, happy birthday!” She laughed before teleporting Lyrissa and Allie to Logan.

“They’re worse than yer kids.” He growled. “You have kids?” George gasped. “Not really, they’re the ones I lived with in the sewers. But we’re all pranksters and we-”

Someone tackling her, and teleporting away cut her answer short. “Take a breath!” Charlie laughed, and her brothers threw her into the pool. She screamed at the top of her voice, since the water felt like ice. “Spawkles!” Allie squealed, only knowing that someone had tackled Lyrissa, and then she was gone, and then she screamed. She started crying, and pleading Logan to save her in the most pitiful way possible, knowing for sure that Lyrissa was going to die.

“Calm down kid, she’s okay.” He sighed, picking her up and carrying her out back to see Lyrissa teleporting out of the water, and being teleported right back in by her brother. “Why’s he doing that?!” she yelled.

“Same reason you play jokes on Andrew.”

“I play jokes on Andrew because he’s my bwother!”

“And he’s Lyrissa’s brother.”

Allie’s eyes went wide with wonder as she watched the teleportation war between Lyrissa, and Stephen, both of them were laughing insanely, and soaking wet. “That, is Lywissa’s bwother?” she gaped. “He sure is sweetheart. His name’s Stephen.” Anette smiled. “And I’m her grandma Nettie, and that over there is Uncle Charlie, but she calls him Uncle Chuck because you two already have an Uncle Charlie, and behind him is Stephen’s adopted brother Jim, and this is her sister Eliza.” She explained. “Hi there.” Eliza smiled happily. “Your hair spawkles like Spawkles’ hair!” she exclaimed in amazement, leaning over and touching Eliza’s hair. “Yeah, that’s kind of common in our family. Some families have blue eyes, some have big feet, we have sparkly hair and nails.” She laughed. “Everyone?” she asked. “Most of us, not everyone, but most of us.” Nettie laughed. “Wow!” she whispered.

Suddenly Stephen and Lyrissa both let out a cry of pain, and were gone. “What happened?!” Jim shouted. “Don’t know… where did they go?” Eliza replied. “I don’t know!” Charlie answered. Just as Logan was about to suggest they go out and find them, the two soaking siblings reappeared, sparkling as bright as ever, and laughing so hard they could hardly breathe. “H-hey bit me!” she announced through her laughter. “She k-kicked me in my man-business!” he grunted in his defense, laughing just as hard as she was.

“It was an accident!”

“So was mine!”

“Was not, I saw you!”

“And I could easily say you aimed for my business!”

“And you would be a liar.”

“You are such a little sister!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

No one could tell of they were actually arguing, or not, since their laughter had died down and they were just sitting and kneeling on the ground yelling.

“It means, little sis, that you’re acting like a big baby over getting bit!”

“You’re the one that squeals when he gets hurt.”

“Getting kicked in the balls hurts!”

“So does getting bit!”

“Don’t argue with your older brother!”

“Fine!” she laughed, and grabbed him by both his arms before teleporting them both into the pool and holding him there with her wisps. He shot out a few of his own, and their wrestling and laughing resumed, this time soaking anyone within eight feet of the pool.

“Well they got close quick.” Eliza laughed. “I knew they would.” Granny Rose smiled from behind Logan. “Granny! When did you get here? You scared the hell out of me!” she gasped, jumping quite a bit. “I teleported here before they got back. They teleported into your car.” She smiled. “They what? He did that on purpose, didn’t he?! Stephen!” she yelled, teleporting into the pool, and attacking her brother with her own wisps.

“I can honestly say that I have never seen three family members, fighting in that pool, slapping one another with their wisps.” Granny Rose chuckled. “I’ve never seen it either.” Nettie laughed.

Hours later, the three siblings were dried, dressed, and sitting in the floor of the dining room, under the table, laughing over nothing, and telling stories. “So then they all got home, and I guess caught Andrew trying to take over our fort. Well Jazz and Allie caught him, and Allie beat him with her stuffed tiger she named Logan. We all ended up getting into a huge water fight, with sponges, rags, towels, and anything else we had soaked, except Logan and Scotty, who had better things to do. It took us forever to clean up that mess. Even with all of our powers.” Lyrissa laughed. “Your house sounds like so much fun! And they teach you to use your powers there?” Stephen asked excitedly. “Yep, Uncle Charlie, my Uncle Charlie, is an amazing telepath, and can do pretty much anything I think. He even showed me how to fly, but I need to work on it. He asked me not to use that power outside the mansion until I get it under control.” She nodded.

“You can fly?” Eliza gasped. “The wisps make this like, disc thing under me, and I stand on it. Sometimes it just looks like smoke; sometimes it looks like a swirling disc. But usually when I get up there, most of the time I can’t get back down without falling, and it’s not just a few feet; it’s usually after I get scared, teleport like twenty feet above ground, and then I get stuck.” She laughed. “Wow. Granny Rose said she could do that when she was younger, and she said it takes a lot of practice to get the wisps to carry you. Really not a whole lot of Carsons have gotten up there.” Stephen smiled, “I wonder what its like.” He mused after. “Great until you hit the ground.” She laughed.

“What are you three grown adults, doing hiding under the table?” Mitchell asked curiously, dropping to his knees with a hard thud to see them properly. “We are talking about her life, living in the mansion in New York.” Eliza smiled. “Hmm, Logan’s doing the same thing, but he’s mostly ranting about Andrew’s pranks against her.” He shrugged, bored already. “He can be an evil, evil person sometimes.” Lyrissa laughed.

Out back in the gazebo, Logan was holding Allie in his lap, since she wouldn’t sit anywhere else, and answering Granny Rose, Anette, George, Charlie, and Rose’s questions about Lyrissa. “Wait, so the way you found out she was in love you, was her sort-of brother announcing it to you, to embarrass her?” Charlie asked. “Yeah.” He smirked, remembering every detail of that day; Cyclops nearly killed him for it, and Gambit wasn’t far behind. “What a little pri-uhm… prince, I was going to say prince.” Rose corrected as Granny Rose gave her a warning look about swearing in front of Allie. “Our family can be mean too though, so we can’t sit against the poor man.” George laughed, noticing Charlie’s anger at what Andrew had done. “We have never embarrassed someone like that though.” He sighed.

“Bull! Do you remember the banner you printed for Eliza’s graduation?” Anette demanded. “Not entirely no I don’t, I remember it had baby pictures.” He answered honestly. “Baby pictures of her bare behind, talking into my shoe as a telephone, and under that was a quote from her boyfriend, when you heard him mention picturing her naked on the phone. Under that you wrote ‘Now you don’t have to!’ remember?” George laughed. “Oh yeah! But that’s different.” He laughed. “You made her cry, and they separated that day.” Granny Rose scolded. Charlie stayed quiet, knowing she would keep him in his place.

“So, let me get the story of her life in order. She grew up mostly with her dad at their place, with your Professor visiting frequently, and took him as her uncle. When he got sick, she moved in with you guys, and moved back when he got better, and then moved back in with you when her dad died. You pissed her off, she ran away, moved into a sewer system, and led a gang of runaways, and then you all saved their lives and took her back to the mansion again?” Rose questioned. “Pretty much.” Logan shrugged. “From what I can get from her, she wouldn’t live anywhere else.” Granny Rose smiled.

Something hit the roof of the gazebo suddenly, followed by a grunt of pain, and a fourteen-year-old girl rolling off and landing hard on the ground behind Logan. “Why? Why can’t I just learn to teleport into the gazebo? I just wanted to ask you a question Granny Rose, that’s all! But no, I had to break my freaking neck because I teleport like a retard!” she ranted. “Cool it short stuff, it happens. What do you need?” Charlie laughed. “Well it’s a question for her, and Logan.” She sighed. “What d’ya need?” he asked, while Granny Rose sat quietly, knowing the question already. “When Lyrissa and you go back to New York, can I go with you?” she asked hopefully, “Mom and dad already said they didn’t care, as long as you two were okay with it, and Granny Rose approved. Lyrissa already said she didn’t care, so it’s up to you two now.” She explained. “Why?” he asked, mostly out of curiosity, but also the thought of having more kids at the mansion was a little off-putting. “Well you see, I just did this thing with my powers… I kind of read Mitchell’s brain, this morning, and then like just now I kind of…” she drifted off nervously. “Kind of what?” Anette asked supportively. “I kind of floated. Not like with the tentacle things you get, because I don’t have those. I have smoke, remember? And I didn’t float with those either! I just like… came off the ground and floated there!” she explained. “Katie, you really are one of a kind! That’s something no one else in this family can do.” Charlie beamed.

Katie was one of the very few who didn’t inherit the sparkling hair, instead her hair was just a very odd dark shade of almost blue, with neon highlights here and there that would change between blue, and sea green depending on how the light hit her. Instead of sparkling with her emotions, they would just get brighter, or darker. She had blue-green smoke, instead of wisps, her teleportation didn’t have a wisp, it had a puff, and now she was telepathic, and could levitate. “I approve, only if Logan does.” Granny Rose smiled. “Fine.” He grunted after a short while of her staring hopefully at him. “Yes! Thank you so much, thank you!” she shouted before teleporting back into the house, followed by the sound of some glass breaking. “Let’s hope your Professor can help her aim.” George laughed. “No one can help her aim.” Rose laughed.

The rest of the night was uneventful, but the next day was another story for Lyrissa and Logan. Granny Rose telepathically woke them early in the morning, to have them get dressed, wake and dress Allie, since the Carson family donated some of the clothes kept at the house from when the women and girls were Allie’s size, and be ready to visit Karma, while Anette took Allie for the day.

“No Spawkles don’t go! Please don’t go! I don’t want you to leave me, pwease!” Allie cried as Granny Rose led her and Logan out of the house. “I’ll be back sweetie.” Was all she could say before the door was closed Logan drove while Rose sat in the front, and Lyrissa tried not to cry in the back seat; Allie ripped her heart out every time she had to be left in tears like that.

Once they got to the cemetery, Granny Rose led them to Karma’s grave, before going to visit her husband on the opposite side. For a long time, Lyrissa just stood there staring at the headstone, while Logan stood beside her with his arm around her. “Say somethin’.” He pushed finally.

“Hi M-mom.” She stuttered tearfully, trying so hard not to break down she was shaking, “I… I got your chest f-from the house… a-and met the whole f-family… I…it-its’ not f-fair he t-took you from e-every… every-on-ne! Why d-did he have to t-take you away from m-me?!” she broke down suddenly, collapsing to her knees and sobbing over the headstone openly, holding it since it was the closest thing to holding her mother she would ever get. “It’s okay babe.” Logan sighed, kneeling over to her and putting his arms around her as she cried, not saying a word more. That little action only made her cry harder, to the point she started to lose control of everything, her powers, her emotions, everything.

“Lyrissa calm down, yer losin’ it.” He breathed, rubbing her arms to try and soothe her somewhat. She continued to cry, while fighting the urge to just let go, and let herself lose control, gripping his hands, just so she had something other than her mother’s grave marker to hold onto.

“She’s holding it together at least, isn’t she Mathew?” Granny Rose smiled to her husband as she sat on a small bench next to his grave. Even though she was on the opposite side of the large cemetery, she could hear Lyrissa’s sobbing clear as day. “She could lose control any second.” He warned, appearing and sitting next to her. “I know she could, but she won’t. If he weren’t here, she would have lost it already. He’s what’s keeping her together.” She smiled.

“Rosemary, are you sure bringing her here so soon is what you should’ve done? She’s so young yet, and overwhelmed.”

“You know as well as I do Mathew, no matter how old she got, she would react the same way. Do you remember when I came here the first time after your death?”

“Well, yes. But you were older, and already had a full understanding of death from your telepathic connection with ghosts.”

“And she has him. He’s older than you’d think Mathew.”

“I know, I don’t just sit in the cemetery all day Rose.” He smiled.

Meanwhile Lyrissa had moved from holding the headstone of her mother, to clinging to Logan with everything she had, crying in pure anger, and hate for Sabertooth. She couldn’t be more thankful that Granny Rose had allowed Logan to go with her, because she didn’t know how she would survive it without him.

“You okay now?” once her crying had slowed down, and turned to ragged breaths, and hiccups. She whimpered and nodded into his neck and shoulder. “Do ya want me to leave ya, so you can have some time alone with her?” he asked, but she answered with another whimper, and clinging even tighter to him. “Take that as a no.” he smirked, rubbing her back and gently rocking her to help her calm down more.

Granny Rose appeared out of nowhere suddenly, and knelt down next to them. “She says she would like you to stop crying for her, she never left you, he couldn’t take her from you, or any of us.” She smiled. “Wh-what?” Lyrissa asked confusedly. “Your mother, she’s standing right beside you right now dear, she asked me to tell you that you don’t have to cry for her, she never left, Sabertooth couldn’t take her away from you.” She answered.

Lyrissa couldn’t believe that her dead mother was standing next to her and Logan, at her own grave, and only started to cry again. “Now she’s demanding that I tell you this: she knows it isn’t fair, and she would have wished to have lived to see you grow, and teach you to use your powers yourself, and meet her son in person, and see her three children side by side, but things don’t always work according to plan. Lyrissa, she loves you very much, and is crying happy tears to see you here.

“In this family, you learn that death isn’t always the end; there are those who stay behind, because they chose to. My husband Mathew is one of them, and so is your mother. She wanted to see you, and find her son, and make sure her family was all right. Mathew told me he was too stubborn to move on without me, we always went through great events together, so he’s waiting here for me.

“She never left you sweetheart. She has been watching you since the day she died. In the sewers, at the mansion, when you went to rescue the children from the labs, when you were drugged at that Halloween party, when you were put to the wall by your friend Andrew, and especially when you were taken to the labs yourself. She came to me pleading that I have the family rescue you that time, but I knew it wasn’t our place to do so.” She explained.

Lyrissa just kept crying, speaking to her mother, and having Granny Rose give the answers. She learned almost everything she had ever wanted to know that day, and when they returned to the house six whole hours later, Granny Rose was so tired from using her powers to communicate for so long, that Logan had to help her into the house before Anette took her to her room for some rest.

“Lyrissa, are you okay? What happened?” Stephen asked as she and Logan sat quietly in the empty front room, which was a rare occurrence in that house; there was always somebody in there. “I talked to m-mom.” She stuttered. “Granny did that for me too when I turned twenty. Don’t worry about it, okay? It gets easier, and you won’t be sad for long. Especially not here sis, you got all of us to take care of you!” he smiled, hugging her tightly before going off to find Katie. The rest of the day was kept slow for Lyrissa and Logan, and Anette made sure to keep Allie busy so they could be left alone. Lyrissa really didn’t leave her room for the most part, and Logan really didn’t leave her side. Since they got back around 2:00pm from the cemetery, Lyrissa ended up going to bed around three, wrapped around Logan, just enjoying the comfort only he was capable of giving.