Title: A Beautiful Monster
Chapter: Three – Somebody that I used to know…
Disclaimer: Not mine, though I wish it was! Marvel owns all rights. (Damn)

Note: Angst alert

Previously:

Bed now….. we needed to lose our self in the sweet oblivion of sleep…

Waking up wasn't any better. I was still hurt and worst of all pissed off. Some folks think that getting upset and exploding is one of the worst things. Nope, I'm here to tell ya'll that it's the smoldering anger that really is fucking scary. That kind of mad don't go away and it builds with time. Trust Wolverine to just meander back into my life the way he meandered out. And the line of bullshit? Obviously before he managed to bring his ass to my door, he stopped and spoke to either Red or the Professor. So with that said, to hell with everyone. I got dressed and went to scrounge around for some food. I was in the kitchen eating when the summons came. Just to be contrary I waited until I was finished eating and had washed the dishes before reporting to the Professor's office.

Fucking wonderful, an intervention. There sat Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops and the Bitch. All that was missing was Sully (A.K.A. Beast). I stood by the door. I was not going to go further, I was not going to sit down and relax. I needed to know that if escape was needed I had easy access to the exit. When the Professor invited me in I politely disagreed and leaned on the wall. If they wanted to talk to me, no way in hell was I going to make it easy for them. Let them chalk it up to teenage angst. I knew it was really the fact that most of my personalities didn't have a problem with wanting to inflict pain or death to most of the folks in the room. The jury's still out on Wolverine. When he came over to me to try and move me into the room, I let loose a low but very vocal growl. The kind that said if you keep going there will be repercussions. He cocked his head to the side.

Hopefully dumb ass still retained enough feral instincts to know what that growl meant and respect it. He stopped coming and chose his own bit of real estate to lean on. And then it began. How I was letting my gifts rule my life. Really a gift implies you can return the motherfucker. A curse….now that implied tag-you're-it, and it's yours for life! How I mustn't blame myself for Bobby's actions. Why would I blame myself for numb nuts ambushing me? How I shouldn't resort to mutilating myself, it wasn't a healthy way to deal with the pain. It's called self-expression assholes… guess it was a good thing I hadn't started on my back piece. How I needed to find inner peace if I was every able to master my gifts. Inner fucking peace? What's next, a Buddhist Temple in Tibet?

Really? And then the silence as they waited for my response. I looked to them in the room for their reactions. Wolverine….bored looking… Professor…. calm poker face…..Storm….. anxious but supportive…. Cyclops…. pity… and the Bitch? Well she had the face of triumph. So you couldn't break me on your own and had to bring reinforcements?

Now here is where being eighteen worked in my favor. I could throw a fit and run off and everyone would chalk it up to teen angst. So taking a deep breath, I let loose. Told them none of them knew what I was feeling. They really didn't, so many different personalities meant different frequencies. It was like scanning multiple stations and trying to get one complete song. Ain't gonna happen! And since Doctor and Patient confidentiality didn't seem to apply here they never would. Did they really thing I didn't know The Bitch had been pushing the boundaries? Especially since I am a legal adult? How folks who were a peripheral part of my life didn't get to make judgments. Yep teachers, school master and fair weather friend need not apply. The only folks who had those rights had given them up in a heartbeat. The parental units couldn't wait to get rid of me…

And while I was bitching and moaning I began to back towards the door. First off came the gloves. If someone, anyone tried to detain me I was dropping someone with no remorse and extreme predaciousness. Once I got to the door off came the cardigan. With only a camisole on it would make grabbing me extremely hard. I turned and ran. I heard Wolverine give chase, but for once fate looked down on me kindly. Since the hallways were crowded everyone who saw me running was panicked and trying to get out of the way. While Wolverine wanted to catch me more than anything he wouldn't purposely hurt the children. I could see Kitty and Pete taking a stance like they were going to stop me. I heard him say that he didn't want to hurt me. Too bad I was completely willing to hurt them! I threw my body into a slide and managed to tag both of them. Gotta love warm weather, after dropping them both I leapt to my feet and sprint the last couple of yard to my room.

I locked the door and wedged a chair under the knob. Would it stop Colossus or Wolverine…. no but hopefully the locked door would convey my wish to be left alone.

I began throwing clothing on the bed to pack. Yep, I had enough of this shit and was hitting the open road. It also helped that I knew for a fact that most of the senior team was going to try and do recon on a suspected lab. Jean was going with the Professor to give a speech at a Mutant Rights Rally. That left only Ororo to watch over the mansion; perfect timing for me to liberate myself from this place. Before I left for good, I was tapping Kitty. There seem to be secrets going on. I mean the Professor first goes into the "we" can help spiel and then he not only doesn't actively help but he pawns me off onto Jean. Ms. Positivity she's not. And Logan, well fuck if he wasn't acting like an asshole pod person.

After sorting through all my clothes, I opened both my laptop and smart phone. I needed to disable my GPS chips. No fucking way was Boy Scout Scott going to ping me and find me. I wanted to get gone and stay gone. I ignored all the voices alternately begging and then demanding that I open the door. Finally they all went away. I know Logan stood there the longest before he finally had no choice but leave or opt out of the mission. Taking the chair from under the handle and re-manipulate the metal in the lock I cautiously peeked out the door. It was late, like after midnight late. So I snuck over to Kitty's and Jube's room. I opened the door and in the dark snuck over to their beds. Thank God I could stand in the middle and reach them at the same time. I held on long enough to get their powers and make their sleep deeper. I didn't want to drain them. Using Kitty's power I phased until I reached the Professor's study. I knew his desk contained all the active students file as well as the addition of the X-Men, senior and junior team respectively.

Looking at my file, first I was startled at the amount of information that he gleaned. I never gave him my full name, and I sure as hell never gave him info on my parents. Looking at his notes, he noted that through deep meditation in conjunction with a few sessions of shots that would help mute my powers long enough for me to find the off switch. Son of a fucking bitch! Jean's notes notated that I lacked the maturity and that maybe my mutation should be left to develop on its own. Scott noted that my mutation kept me from getting intimately involved (i.e. sexually) with Logan, so perhaps at least until I finished college I should be left as is. I was almost glad that none of these fuckers were here. I could not be responsible for my actions if I saw any of those three. I pulled Logan's file. Mind control and drugs, well that explained a lot. The Professor and Jean both noted that since he'd had this used on him before it was easier to access the path again. Great fucking morals the two of them had. One was tasked with shaping future generations of mutants and the other one was supposed to have taken a Hippocratic Oath.

I vowed right then and there greater good or not, I was personally going to fucking kill both the Professor and Jean. When a person's rights are down trodden with no forethought, you stopped being the good guy and became the monster that you were fighting against. I took both our files and then made it to the lab. I accessed Jean's not so secret hiding spot and took all the files and drugs labeled with our name and a few more with no markings on them. Anything I could do to frustrate the bitch! And to add injury to insult I took her hard drive from her PC, and then made a detour to go back the Professor's PC and grab his. Kind of made me wish I could be a fly on the wall to see how this went down. I ran back to my room, ready to phase if I ran into someone I knew. When I made it to my room, I called up Magneto and fused the locking mechanism so that nobody would be able to get in. Then I iced it to add another you're not getting in here message. Last but not least was the chair wedged under the doorknob.

Getting out of here? Well decisions, decisions. Do I go out the window? Phase through? I decided the window, if they didn't guess about the phasing it would take them much longer to figure out the PC trick and the lab. Oh I had no doubt that eventually they would look at the security feeds, but until then a merry chase! I placed the files and drugs in my duffle bag before swinging it onto my back. Next to go on was my small purse and the laptop bag. Finally I popped the bone claws and made my way to the window. I used them to climb up so that I could get to the roof, run to the side of the mansion closest to the forest. The trees would help mask my movement, and since I now had Wolverine front and center I knew how to move without leaving an obvious trail.

And so like a thief in the night, I left.

Fast Forward four years

Getting lost and staying lost wasn't easy. But I chose a highly populated and geographically dense area. That's right I ran from Westchester, New York to Manhattan. I had to do some fast talking and major hacking to get a new social. The long auburn hair became a sassy bob. The color became black with a hot pink stripe. The white didn't want to take any normal colors. So I went Goth. With the heavy make-up and the new haircut I was almost unrecognizable. I changed my wardrobe. Gone were the tomboyish clothes. Instead I dressed closer to what a Dom might wear, heavy into leather, leaning towards the darker colors and fabrics. I looked like a dark queen and developed the attitude to go with it. My college professors always seemed surprised that I had a brain behind the cruel beauty.

I was finishing up my last test for the year. After this I had my degree and would be free to move from here. I counted it a major miracle that none of the school folks had stumbled upon me. I actually bumped into Pete and he didn't even recognize me. I just kept walking and jumped on my bike. Thanks to Logan and Magneto I was fairly gifted as a mechanic. Yup, that's what supplemented my financial aid. So buying a POS motorcycle and fixing it up was a great resume. So much contemplating! Needed to get into class before the doors locked, and the test started. Ninety minutes later I was free. Last class, last test, I had turned in all my papers and now I just had to wait. Walking to my bike I noticed someone leaning on it. Who in the fuck leaned on a bike not theirs? It was a great way to catch an ass kicking.

As I got closer I noticed the guy with lithe, with a fighters build. Intuition also told me that the Ray Bans he had on were to hide a mutation. Well it wasn't like I thought I could hide forever. I walked towards him aggressively, hand hidden behind my back while I did two things. One pop out the claws and two turn on my skin. Turns out old Red and Fessor were right. Several shots and a couple of months of meditation and I found my off switch. But the timing of this was not right. I had a couple of other aliases set up. Even had money in off shore accounts, but I needed my degree. The sequential number on it was necessary in case I had to flip it over to an alias. Also I was still wondering if I should rescue dumb ass or leave him to his own devices. Jury was still out on that.

When I was close to the idiot by my bike I he called me by my name. Marie. Shit I hadn't heard that name in four years. I didn't blink and kept walking. He had not long to decide if he would hold his ground or play it off as mistaken identity. Suddenly I was aware of multiple people stationed nearby. Only thing is if my nose was right I had Magneto's bunch of misfits and the X-Men. Too early to tell which group bike guy belonged to. But I was determined that I wasn't going to stick around and see. Hmm.. decisions, decisions. I started off telling him to get off my bike. At which point he called me Marie. Told him my name was Brianna and I should know my birth name. Threw him for a bit until a voice told him they had a visual and confirmation of target. He was to acquire the target and do so as quickly and quietly was possible. Targets talents and fighting style unknown, collateral damage was to be kept at a minimum.

Ah, all this for little ole me? I walked the last few feet and tried to touch him. He back flipped over the bike and kept his distance. Guess that answered that. Throwing both hand out to the side and making sure my claws were out I heard a gasp. No time to try and keep it a secret, I was going to have to fight my way out and do it with all the speed I possessed. His bow-staff telescoped out and a pack of playing cards came out. When he tossed one at me I notice it was kinetically charged. I warned him if he fucked up my bike I was going to take it out of his literally! I took off my backpack and used it as a weapon. I had learned several styles of fighting and my go to was, Grav Maga. It was street fighting at its best. I needed to wrap up this fight and fast. Too many innocent bystanders were congregating. Plus all the unknown folks out there meant a lot of variables. Luck may favor the bold, but he who fought and ran away lived to fight another day.

Tossing Mr. Lithe into a tree I hopped on the bike and took off. Hearing bikes behind me I cursed. So they wanted to play? This was her backyard and she knew it like the back of her hand. She needed out of the city proper. And she wasn't heading towards Westchester. New Jersey sounded good. Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, after all she was too far away from the George Washington Bridge. Holland it was. Downtown and Chinatown had a lot of crazy traffic she could and would use to her advantage. Risking a quick glance behind her she could see Logan, Scott and Mr. Lithe following on supped up bikes. She grinned. They weren't the only ones who could build bikes and modify them. Taking a quick second to pull Magneto's power she noticed a bug. She pulled it and placed it closed to the handlebars. When the time was right she was going to send them on a wild goose chase.

And while she was worried about what happened when they finally did catch her, she also had to admit this was the most fun she'd had in a while. Looking at both Logan and Scott she also had to admit they seemed as familiar as a stranger. She could honestly say they were folks she used to know. Four years was a lifetime when folks were manipulating your every thoughts and emotions. She should know took her six months before she'd trust her own feelings. In the meantime, she had a few people to lose and a safe house to get to. For now she'd go with the premise that her apartment was compromised. Good think her backpack had everything she needed!

End of chapter

AN: Between traveling for work and my muse taking a vacation this was almost the chapter that didn't get written. Yes I will admit it's a bit of a filler chapter. But the next chapter has some truly deep and fucked up things occurring. So hang tight! I will try to get out within a couple of weeks. But like I said travel is kicking my butt!

Huge thanks to all who have reviewed. (Even the negative Nellies)! Thanks also to all whom favorite or followed the story! I use this to motivate my lazy muse to get off her ass and start creating.