Lyrissa's Sparkles II

Lyrissa, and everyone else in the mansion, woke up very early the next morning to sirens, and automated defenses. Her eyes shot open, and she teleported outside her door, only to remember she had switch rooms with Scott for the night, so she teleported again to her room; she just knew the kids would be looking for her, they always did when the sirens went off.

When she got there, she was greeted with a quick kiss from Wolverine, who was already in uniform and on his way to the War Room. As he left, she noticed Scott standing in her doorway, blocked by every one of her kids, unable to get past them. “Listen! I have to go! If there is trouble, I have to be able to fight! That means getting in uniform, and I have to leave this room to do that!” he shouted, he was still in his pajamas, and quite annoyed. Allie was crying, while Jazz held her, Andrew had Kiera, Jamie, and Dante and was trying to calm them down, and Max was demanding answers to his questions. “Where is she, and why isn’t she in her room? Why are you in her room? What’s happening, why are the sirens going off?” he demanded.

“Right here, now let him get dressed!” she ordered, trying not to laugh. The kids swarmed her, and Scott ran off with a quick “Thank you!” as he passed by her. “Okay, you know the rules, everyone downstairs to the lower parts of the mansion, let’s go.” She instructed, following the emergency procedures Xavier had instilled into her mind; they weren’t that different from the ones they had in the sewers anyway.

Outside the mansion, ducked down in their small, red car to protect themselves from the mansions outer defenses, were a married couple, and their thirteen-year-old son. “I’m sorry!” their son screamed over all the noise. “It’s okay Marvin! We know you can’t help it, we understand that, son!” his father shouted in reply. “Let’s just hope they do too.” His mother sighed, making sure he couldn’t hear her.

Back inside, in the War Room, Xavier was explaining the situation to his X-Men. “We are not under attack. There is a family, who brought their son here for him to learn to control his powers. He affects electricity, and anything dependent on it. He is not meaning to set off our defenses, he is simply nervous.” He somehow managed to make eye contact with everyone as he spoke. “They could be killed if they are within the line of fire.” Storm pointed out. “We could disarm them temporarily, until his nerves are calmed enough for us to reset our systems.” Beast suggested. “I fear the only way to disarm anything at the moment is to cut the power.” Xavier sighed. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” Rogue shrugged. “We’ll have to light candles, instead of use flashlights as well. His powers will affect those as well.” Xavier explained as they left the War Room. Beast was headed to kill the power, and Xavier was headed to meet the family and the newest resident of the mansion. Logan was headed to get Lyrissa and the kids from the Danger Room, which is where Xavier ordered they hide in the event of an attack, since there was really only one entrance; it would be easiest for Lyrissa and Andrew to defend themselves, and protect the others if they were in there.

As soon as the doors opened, Jazz, Box, Lyrissa, Stephen, Andrew, and Jubilee got in front of the others, ready to fight. Katie, Kiera, Max, and Dante stood behind them, and the others all stood in front of Allie. “False alarm, its just Wolverine!” Box breathed, triggering a group sigh of relief.

“Wolverine, what’s going on out there?” Lyrissa demanded, walking up to him, and leaving her group in the back of the room. “Just like the kid said, false alarm. There’s a kid out there whose powers mess up the electric stuff all over. Professor wants two things, you to get up there an’ help make the kid feel welcome, and get these kids outta the Danger Room, before it goes haywire and kills ‘em all.” He answered. “Oh, that’s it?” she smiled, glad they weren’t under attack; her hair started sparkling again when she realized there wasn’t any real danger. “That’s it. But we’re cuttin’ the power, so it’ll be dark in here.” He nodded.

No sooner did he give her warning, did the lights go out, leaving them standing in pitch-blackness. She teleported closer to him, and ended up standing on both of his feet. “Yer okay.” He whispered in her ear, wrapping his arms tightly around her. The kids were all screaming, and they could hear Allie sobbing on the other side of the large room, and she couldn’t get to them. He knew even without seeing her that she was struggling not to cry. “Babe, listen. I’m gonna be right back; I’m gonna go over there and get them to the door.” He muttered against her ear, kissing her lightly. Ironically in that noisy room whispering was the only way she could hear him. She nodded and whimpered, terrified of being so helpless in the dark, and having flashbacks to being in the labs all over again. He quickly let go of her, and used his heightened senses to move the kids.

“Hey, we gonna play a game. Put your hands on de person in front of you, we gonna be a snake! We gonna be a quiet snake, an’ sneak up on Cyclops!” Gambit announced suddenly, standing in the doorway, and using one of his cards to give off some light. “Put de short ones in de front Wolverine, it gonna be hard for Allie to reach Stephen’s shoulders, eh?” he sighed. Wolverine sighed and let the kids rearrange themselves shortest to tallest, and Gambit tool Allie’s hand. “Now we gonna be real quiet, an’ not take our hands off de other person! Dis gonna be fun!” he smiled, winking to Lyrissa before leading the kids away, knocking his staff against the ground with every other step.

As soon as he turned the corner away from the Danger Room’s doorway, it was pitch dark again. She curled up and let a few tears fall, not knowing where Logan was, and feeling smaller than the tiniest creature. She had her knees pulled up, and her face buried into them when she felt a pair of strong arms wrapping around her. “You gonna welcome that kid like this?” Logan asked and she could hear the smirk in his voice. “I can’t welcome him in the dark.” She whimpered, “I don’t like the dark, Logan.”

“I know, but yer just fine.”

“No I’m not. I can’t see!”

“To be honest, I can’t either.”

“Then how’d you get to them? I couldn’t help them, but you could. They count on me to help, and I couldn’t!”

“I can hear, and smell ‘em. Remember?”

Suddenly the lights in the room turned back on, but went from their normal light, to far brighter than normal. Everything was buzzing, and they could hear screaming from somewhere down the hall. The lights went brighter, and brighter until every bulb in the mansion blew, and some shattered. Lyrissa screamed, and teleported herself, and Logan to be standing right beside Xavier.

“Hello Lyrissa, glad you could join us. Marvin, this is Lyrissa Jennings. Another one of the mutants who are here to learn control; just like you.” He smiled. “Sorry.” She muttered before greeting Marvin.

Marvin was taller than most thirteen-year-old boys, but very skinny. He had knobby knees and elbows, and thin arms and legs. His short yellow blonde hair was frizzy and looked like he had been sitting on a static ball, and he wore braces. He also had large, thick-rimmed glasses that only added to his nerdy appearance. “I’m sorry for blowing your fuses and bulbs, and everything.” He sighed, shuffling his feet nervously. “It is not a problem.” Beast smiled. “What set him off anyway?” Logan asked, once again coming off as intimidating, blunt, anti-social, and everything else that would make someone think he hated them; she knew they wouldn’t be friends any time soon. “To be honest, I believe I did.” Beast chuckled. “Walked into the room and got blinded?” Lyrissa smiled, relaxing a little since candles lighted the room. “Yes.” He nodded. Logan grunted and left the room, adding force to the fact he already didn’t like the poor kid.

“Well, hi. I’m Lyrissa, like Uncle Charlie said.” She smiled, now recovering from being scared earlier, and extending a hand for him to shake. “Hi.” He muttered nervously, shaking her hand and backing away quickly. “I believe the other children are in the Game Room.” Xavier said, signaling her to take Marvin up, so his parents could speak with the X-Men. “Yeah, come on. I’d teleport you there, but… I can’t, Uncle Charlie.” She sighed, stopping at the doorway. “Why?” Scott questioned. “Its dark.” She muttered, realizing she wouldn’t be able to take Marvin anywhere until the lights were back on.

“Don’ you worry Petit! Let I show you de way.” Gambit grinned, popping his head into the room from the hallway next to her, and holding up a charged card. He had taken the kids to the Game Room, and was on his way back when he heard her comments. “Thank you!” she smiled, taking his arm. “Jus’ dis way.” He said, motioning for Marvin to follow.

The entire way, Lyrissa clung to Gambit, since without the little light his card was giving off, it would have been as dark as the Danger Room. Marvin followed quietly behind them, dragging his feet and keeping to himself until Lyrissa squealed, and disappeared. “Now where she go?” Gambit sighed to himself, turning around. “Lyrissa?” he called out, but no one answered. “She gonna hate Gambit for tellin’ you dis, but she don’ like de dark. It make her nervous, an’ den she disappear.” He explained to the nervous nerd beside him. “So what do we do now?” he asked, fixing his glasses and looking up at the tall Cajun. “Well, we wait until she come back. She be back soon, she ain’t de one to jus’ leave an’ be gone.” He answered.

Suddenly Lyrissa appeared behind them with a heavy sigh. “What happen?” he asked her.

“Nothing.”

“Gambit know you better den dat Petit.”

“Nothing, I don’t know, nothing!”

“What scare you?” he teased.

“I … I saw my shadow.” She muttered.

He laughed and continued leading the way, while Marvin smiled a little and followed them.

Back in the front room, Marvin’s parents were sitting on the couch, while his mother explained to Xavier and the others their situation tearfully. “I love my son, I would never just send him away for being a mutant! You have to understand, that we just can’t… we can’t function! The power surges in the house, the car won’t start because the battery goes dead or the wattage goes up too high and messes up the engine, and we can’t walk anywhere because wherever he goes, this happens. He has absolutely no control over it!” she cried, gripping her husband’s hand.

“And that’s not the only reason, because even that isn’t enough to make us chose to send him here. It’s the kids at his school too. He’s always been picked on for being… well for lack of a better word, nerdy. You’ve all seen how Marvin’s built; he’s a small boy! He has the thick glasses, acne, braces, he’s going through puberty so his voice is changing, he’s anything but athletic and strong, and to top it all off, the boy reads comic books in all of his spare time. He’s always been beat on, and a few times he was sent home from school because of his injuries! When he shorted out the entire school, and the houses closest to the grounds, they gave him the beating of his life!

“We couldn’t take him to the hospital, because he’d short that building out too and kill a lot of ICU patients. So we kept him home. We’ve home schooled him for the past four months, but we can’t keep up with him. The neighbors complain, and threaten him, he’s been labeled a nuisance, the people in our town want to turn him in, and there’s nothing else we can do.” He continued, rubbing her arm gently. “Please, I know we just kind of dropped by unannounced, and have caused you a lot of trouble and grief, but please, help our son. We can’t bring him home; they will kill him if we bring him home! I can’t let my baby boy live like this anymore, and I can’t help him learn how to control this… this power of his! We don’t have much, but I promise we’ll pay however much you charge, just please help him!” she begged in near sobs.

“Mister, and Misses Jones, you have nothing to fear; we would never turn him away. He is welcome here, and I promise to do everything within my power to teach him to control his abilities. And he will be safe here.” Xavier smiled. “And we have others here around his age, so he won’t feel as out of place.” Jean smiled. “Thank you, thank you so much!” she cried. “You’ve saved our son’s life Professor, how much is it for him to stay here?” Mister Jones asked. “Nothing. I don’t charge for my services.” He smiled. “You’re a living saint!” Misses Jones breathed before standing up and following Xavier to the Game Room to talk to her son, and say goodbye. Jean lit the way by holding two rows of candles above them.

“And just when everyone thought it was safe… a big, hairy, creature walked into the dark room, and shouted,”

“Hello there!” Beast shouted, interrupting Stephen’s ghost story. Almost every kid in the room screamed, startling Lyrissa further and making her teleport four feet into the air and fell hard on her back. “And that is why boys and girls, we never describe someone we know in a horror story!” Andrew announced as Scott helped Lyrissa to her feet. “And that boys and girls, is what makes ghost stories fun.” Stephen stated, referring to the reactions and laughter that filled the room.

“Marvin, sweetie, you’re going to be staying here okay?” Misses Jones sighed, walking over to her son and hugging him tightly. “Don’t think we’re doing this just to get rid of you, we love you with everything we have; it just isn’t a good situation to have you at home.” His father added.

“Yes you are! You’ve wanted to get rid of me since I found out about all of this! I heard you talking before taking me here, that you couldn’t survive much longer! What was it you said? ‘If he keeps this up, I don’t think I can take it! We just can’t survive much more of this!’” he yelled, pushing away from his parents, and making anything electrical that still had any power flowing to it malfunction. “It isn’t that baby.” Misses Jones argued. “We didn’t mean it like that.” His dad explained. “Yes you did! And on the way here, what happened to ‘we’re not sending you away, we’re just going to check this place out’?” he begged sadly; to every telepath, empathic, and person who lived a rough childhood, it was very apparent he was a very angry individual, with low esteem, and he was sure that all of this was his fault.

After half an hour of arguing, Marvin knocked out their entire area. Not just the mansion, but also the power for everyone in its area. Granny Rose, who had stayed in her room until the last minute, teleported in and telepathically knocked him unconscious for the sake of everyone’s safety. Mister and Misses Jones left shortly after, leaving a letter behind for him.