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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:54:09 GMT -5
Roy looked out across the landscape. Nowhere was it more obvious than up on the roof of the Brotherhood's bunker that there was absolutely no escape.
All around there were high trees, the air was almost oppresively humid, and the undergrowth looked stifling. There were almost no visible trails through the heavy plants, and listening to the random cries and shrieks coming from the trees, he didn't relish the idea of trying to forge his own path through the brush.
It wasn't that he was all that worried about the animals making the noises he could hear. It was what he knew to be causing those noise, the piercing cries of birds being surprised and taken down without a fight.
Spiders.
In the lab, he had been forced to endure all sorts of tests and experiments, and the one that he had dreaded the most was when the scientists would test his reactions to stimuli to see if mutants differed from humans in that regard. Most of the time his refusal to cooperate overrode any sort of fear or terror they could induce, but there was one thing that consistently made him break into a cold sweat when they would show him movies or, even worse, bring the specimen itself. That was a spider.
They used to keep what Roy was certain was the biggest, ugliest spider he had ever seen. It was the size of his palm, and they used to strap him down and hold it next to his head in a plastic container until he screamed himself hoarse.
The spiders he'd seen climbing on branches here were bigger.
He took great delight in taking aim and firing as fast as he could whenever he saw one from the edge of the roof.
Aurora had been walking along the side of the building when she'd heard shots ring out in the humid air, which was silent except for the sounds of twigs snapping and branches creaking in the jungle, with the occasional animal sound coming from the shadows of the looming trees.
It wasn't the kind of wilderness that Aurora appreciated. She liked the temperature, but the plants were generally ugly and the animals native to the area were disgusting. She'd made a fool of herself that morning by seeing a spider in the corner of the kitchen and dropping the plate she held as she lifted herself high into the air. She'd taken comfort in the fact that at least no one had seen her, until she heard a momentary chuckle from Gill over the loudspeakers.
When she heard the shots, she stopped and listened, her pointed ears
straining to hear what she could. It was hard to decide where the shot had come from, but she picked up a sound on the roof...It was hard to be sure what it was, but she lifted herself from the ground to find out. She circled at top speed, not wanting to be seen clearly or present a target until she first saw what the commotion was.
When she did see it, and understood at once the source of the shots, she stopped, the fast blur solidifying abruptly in the air ten feet from him.
"Do you have a target, or are you just shooting?" she asked conversationally as she stood on the air, hip cocked to one side as most women would stand on solid ground.
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:54:38 GMT -5
Roy's face melted into a warm, friendly smile almost instantly, completely
masking the look of angry glee he'd had a moment before and whatever shock
he had from her sudden appearance. He shook out his hands at his sides, his
pointer fingers feeling gloriously cool. "Aurora, is it?" He took a step
back from the edge of the roof, his eyes looking her over briefly.
Well, if the jungle is going to cause more women to dress like that, it
can't be all bad, he thought, his eyes sparkling. He certainly wasn't
going to complain about white tanktops and short black shorts, even if he
never wore shorts himself. At least he had the good sense to take his
blazer off, a short-sleeved button-up shirt covering his chest.
"I find that the spiders around here, large as they are, make excellent
targets. And I like target practice."
Roy scored at least a couple of points with Aurora with the statement that
he didn't like spiders. He'd scored a few at various times before, because
he seemed to be a likeable guy, though Aurora had never spoken with him. He
was good-looking, too--he didn't grab Aurora's attention like Lucas had when
she'd first seen him in New York, and then again when she and Mystique had
returned to Genosha--but Roy was definently a good-looking guy.
"Found one in the kitchen this morning," she said, clearly displeased with
the memory of it. "They're so hideous. I'd spray the entire island with
insecticide if I could." She descended to the roof, stepping down onto it.
It made no difference to her whether she stood on air or on a surface, but
it was easier to carry on conversations eye-to-eye. "Does it seem like
everything here is twice as big as it ought to be? The spiders, the
snakes...Even the frogs here--they're the size of a small dog."
Sliding his hands into his pockets, Roy stood casually, grinning broadly.
"Yeah, well, the frogs and snakes I don't mind so much. Who wouldn't want
to have a frog you could take for a walk with a leash?"
Scratching the stubble on his chin, he glanced at the charred, broken branch
he'd been firing at earlier. "If all the spiders suddenly keeled over
mid-meal, though, I certainly wouldn't mourn."
I'd probably dance for joy, actually.
Stepping back toward the edge of the roof and sitting down on the ledge
there, he looked at Aurora with sharp eyes. "So, Miss Aurora, you seem to
have interesting..." He let his eyes roam, grinning at her slyly. "...
attributes. Do you always get around by flying, or do you deign to grace us
with you presence regularly?"
The only sign that Aurora saw his eyes wander and caught the underlying
meaning to his words was a short, silent laugh, accompagnied by a faint
smirk. Had she known him better, and known whether or not she liked him,
she'd have decided whether his comment hinted that he'd be going down the
too-bold-asshole route or not. But for now, she'd give him the benefit of
the doubt. It was an amusing comment, and one that a lot of guys would have
done some variation of in that instance. Whether or not he'd get too cheeky
was yet to be seen.
"I usually walk," she replied, taking a few steps before sitting a couple of
feet away from him. She leaned back on her hands and stretched her legs out
straight, one crossed over the other. "It helps get to out-of-reach places,
though. Which is apparently where one can find you."
She reached up and wiped wisps of hair from her face before replacing her
hand on the roof. "So did you just come up here to shoot spiders, or is this
a good place to think?" she asked, sharp blue eyes resting on Roy's face.
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:55:00 GMT -5
Roy grinned at her, crossing his arms. "Oh no, the air is far too thin up
here to do any thinking. For that you have to go to a cave. A nice, dark
cave. Then you'll think clearly."
He glanced up at the blue sky, marvelling at the color of it. It was
actually blue, something he wasn't accustomed to coming from the cities of
America. "This is the best place for target practice. I'm not going to
break anything anyone needs, it's in the open air, and -" His hand levelled
off and a bolt of energy shot out of his forefinger with a PIOW! "- there
are moving targets that I don't have to pay for or worry about jail time
about." He leaned his head back a bit, dark green eyes sparkling with
impudent joy as he looked at her.
"And why did you come up here, Miss Aurora? Since I'm fairly certain you
weren't just looking for little old me."
Aurora's smirk grew as he mentioned jail time. He seemed to have had
experience with what he spoke of. It wasn't surprising; she didn't expect
that Pyro had found their new recruits in a Bible Study group.
"I was just wasting time," she said breezily, which was true. Of course,
specifically, she'd walked outside to make sure that the curtains she'd put
up on the kitchen window couldn't be seen from the outside - she was sure
that none of the guys would be too please if the base looked the least bit
inviting to an outsider's eyes. Somehow 'mutant badasses' and 'blue drapes'
didn't mix. But she wasn't the homemaking type, and she didn't want to give
off that impression, so she didn't explain.
"I've been wanting to talk, anyway. With you, and your pals," she continued
casually, one long leg sliding along the other to scratch an itch. "It's
nice to have some new faces. Ones that seem to have at least some semblance
of normalcy," she added, lifting an eyebrow to go with her smirk.
Roy's eyes flickered to her legs as they moved, but he pulled them back to
her face quickly. If he didn't know she was looking at him, he would have
had no problem taking time in appreciating her relatively unclothed female
form, but she was looking at him, so it was best to show he was
interested but not look like a skeeze.
"Well... pals is a strong term," he said with a chuckle. "Dom is cool
enough, Recluse would be cool if she wasn't wrapped up in Mr. Rock Troll,
and he's way too cranky."
Roy shook his head thinking about Lucas, resisting the urge to laugh. The
guy had two settings: cranky and pissed off, and as much as he tried to hide
it, it wasn't difficult to see when he was which. Guys who acted tough were
a lot less mysterious than they thought they were.
"As for normal... well, again, Dom is the only normal one. But we can act
just fine!"
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:55:26 GMT -5
Aurora’s smirk turned to a pursed-lips expression when he spoke of Recluse. “Speaking of spiders…” she said in a tone that held some venom of it’s own. Her comment about wishing she could spray the entire island for the creepy freaks still stood. Especially the one that walked on two legs and wore cheap gothic ‘screw me or I’ll slit my wrists’ clothes.
But she wouldn’t say so out loud, not to someone she didn’t know so well anyway. Maybe to Angie or Mystique. Her point got across quite well with what she did say, anyway, and she left it at that. “You seem pretty normal. See, you have to remember that normal in the outside world doesn’t equal normal here with The Brotherhood. We’ve got a vulgar woman-hater, a mentally unstable young man—not to mention the living corpse man—and I’d tell you about Gill, but , well, he’s probably watching us right now.” Aurora smiled, both for Roy and for Gill, whom she had no doubt was or would be watching their encounter at some point. “Hope you like voyeurism,” she clipped brightly.
“Not that any of us girls are normal, either. I’m probably the farthest from it, actually,” she continued thoughtfully, stretching out on her back on the warm roof. “I might be crazy. Don’t think anyone can really be completely sane when another bitch’s mind is vying for control of her body.”
She glanced over at Roy, turning her head so that her cheek touching the hot surface of the roof. “I’ve got Multiple Personality Disorder. Or, well, I did. Hard to tell.”
“But like you said—I act just fine,” she said with a shrug and a smile. Her hand reached up and brushed her hair away from her face, then fingers trailed across her skin to the silver necklace around her neck.
"Y'know, I thought I had that once, but it turns out it was just my pa
talking to me and I was just ignoring his presence." He shrugged with a
playful grin, leaning back on both hands and watching her recline.
Okay... so this jungle REALLY isn't all bad...
"Yeah, I met the Corpse Man, or the Dead Guy, or Mr. Shambles, or whatever
he calls himself. Creepy stuff. And I heard about Gill." He glanced about
as though he was looking for the equipment that was letting Gill see them.
"You really got a fishhead, man? That's pretty badass."
Moving to sit down on the rooftop next to where Aurora had stretched out, he
leaned back on his hands again, turned opposite the young woman so he could
see her face. "So, what's the necklace?"
Aurora looked over at him when he asked her about her necklace. She hadn’t thought that fingering the thin metal around her neck was very intriguing, so she gained an impression that Roy was very observant. “It’s…just a precaution,” she said carelessly. “In case the good half comes back.” She didn’t usually refer to Jeanne-Marie as her ‘other half’ or anything, because as far as Aurora was concerned, Jeanne-Marie wasn’t a part of her. She didn’t belong. Aurora was a whole person, a whole mind, and Jeanne-Marie was just a self-pitying parasite that lived off of her.
But referring to ‘good’ as being separate from herself said a lot, and Aurora liked all of it’s many meanings. She rested her head, closing her eyes from the bright sun overhead. “She’d slit her throat if a priest told her to, but she hates it here. I’d just as gladly give her a body and let her have at it. But she wants this one.”
“I don’t blame her. It’s a nice one,” she commented, her eyes still closed. She didn’t say it arrogantly, nor pridefully. It was hard to tell if Aurora meant for what she said to sound the way it did, but either way, she didn’t seem to notice a thing wrong with her statement.
“I’ve only been in it a couple months, except for a couple times over the years…And I don’t plan to give it up any time soon.”
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:56:13 GMT -5
"Sounds like a stupid half to me," Roy said, letting his head fall back to
bask in the sunlight. "How does it work? Looks like just a piece of metal
to me."
He flashed his most winning smile, just in case she happened to look; he
didn't want anyone to be too wary around him here - except for Lucas - just
in case he had to get out fast somehow, and knowing all of the people around
was the easiest way to be sure he could get gone.
"It is a nice one," he said in an undertone, letting his green eyes
roam over her body. Might as well know as much about the people as
possible.
"For only being in that body for a few months, you seem pretty comfortable
in it."
“It’s pretty simple,” Aurora said, rolling the necklace between her thumb and finger. “Essentially, if She comes out again, Mystique can render the brain unconscious. It’s only a temporary means, but it keeps her under control until I take over again.”
“We haven’t had to use it yet, and hopefully we won’t have to.” She dropped her hand from her neck to the roof beside her.
A smile tugged at Aurora’s lips at Roy’s agreement. He was keeping well away from the line at which suggestive joking turned to pig-like advances. Something which certain other male newcomers to the organization could do to learn a few things about. “What’s the point in being uncomfortable with yourself? Just wastes time and opportunities.”
"And you're not worried about side effects?" Roy asked, honestly curious.
Something about shutting down the brain, no matter how temporarily, just
bothered him.
Aurora gave a half-shrug, tilting her head to the side. “There’s possibilities. It could put my mind back in it’s little dark box, or stamp my mind out once and for all. It might cause brain damage…Though if it does hand her the control I hope it turns her into a vegetable first,” she finished, with a bite to her tone. Aurora clearly harbored outright hatred for the other mind.
“But I’d much rather have the safeguard there than let Jeanne-Marie,” –the name dripped with Aurora’s detestful feelings- “fly off this island and go get the Cure. At least with the necklace I don’t know for sure what will happen to me.”
“So what made you want to join The Brotherhood?” she asked him, drawing her legs in and shifting positions.
Roy scratched his chin, looking at her with an amused expression. "You're
the second person to ask me that. Why is it that people are so concerned
with having a reason to go somewhere? Can't you just be bored?"
As he answered, Aurora sat up, reaching up and holding her hair with one hand as she pulled her ponytail holder out with the other. She swept her bangs up into her ponytail and retied it, tired of them clinging to her face. Her ears could now be seen more clearly, coming to points at the top like something straight out of a fantasy story.
Roy leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, and watched her pull her
hair back, one eyebrow quirking up when he saw her ears. Grinning, he
leaned forward and tapped the point of one with the back of a finger. "So,
you're, like, the local elf, then?"
Aurora’s eyebrows rose slightly as she cocked her head to one side, as if to say, ‘touché’ to Roy’s answer. “I suppose that’s as good a reason as any. As long as you’re here for the cause, which I don’t doubt you are.”
She smiled widely when he commented on her ears. “Elf?” she said with a laugh. “I had a little girl call me a fairy on the subway while we were in New York, and the nuns at the school were constantly worrying that I was a demon. ‘Elf’ I’ve never got before.”
“I don’t know what I am,” she said with a shake of her head and a laugh. She shifted so that she was facing him, leaning her weight on one arm. “I guess it’s just a random physical mutation, non? Who knows.”
Roy smiled disarmingly, and underneath his calm demeanor his mind raced and
whirled. He knew next to nothing about the cause that they seemed to
support; all he knew was that it seemed that the Brotherhood seemed like the
place to be for some excitement. Of course, thus far that had included
finding a hallway that he couldn't walk down, shooting the hugest spiders
he'd ever seen, and meeting attractive young women.
All in all, not a bad way to spend some time.
"So you're not magical in any way? I was hoping that I got three wishes
now." He snapped his fingers, tattoo rippling on his hand. "Pity."
As she laughed, Aurora’s eyes were drawn to Roy’s hand, where ‘Wesson’ was tattooed below the knuckles. “No, I’m not magical--what is the story behind your tattoos?” she asked, after her eyes darted to his other hand and read the tattoo there as well.
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:56:41 GMT -5
Roy flexed his hands, looking at the words tattooed there. He'd gotten them
on a whim one day not too long after he'd taken the name Gunslinger. After
all the trouble he had to go through to cover them whenever he took a bank,
part of him wished he'd left the skin clean. "Well, gotta let people know
somehow, right? These babies are plenty deadly, just like any Smith and
Wesson you can find."
Aurora turned her head to the side slightly, her eyes on the ink on his hands. “That’s a…gun…” she deducted from what he’d said. She didn’t ask it like a question, but she looked to his face for affirmation. She nodded slightly, mulling the idea of guns over in her head. “I’ve never used one. I’ve been shot at, but…I knew I would be so I didn’t slow down to make a good target,” she said, thinking back to Baltimore. “God, it was fun.”
Pulling herself from her memories, her eyes went to his hands once again. “So your hands are guns, essentially?” She made a gun with her hand, and mimicked shooting it.
Rubbing his thumb over the palm of his other hand, Roy grinned broadly. He
actually liked this girl. Most people he tolerated, and there were a
few that actually amused him, but she was speaking on terms he could
understand. The few times the local sheriff had shown up when he was still
there, the ensuing shoot-out had been some of the best fun he'd ever had,
even when he'd been shot in the shoulder.
Digging the bullet out by himself hadn't been quite as fun, but even the
burning in his shoulder and the splatter of blood that had hit the ground
below him hadn't been able to strip the wicked smile from his face at the
time.
Pointing his hand off to the side, Roy took aim with his usual grace, bottom
three fingers curled in to his palm, and systematically blew a branch apart
with three precise shots, the loud PIOWs echoing through the forest.
Aurora’s eyes snapped straight to the branch as it blew apart, her eyebrows raising and her lips forming an impressed smile. “That is a kickass use of one’s hands,” she said, watching the bits of wood rain down onto the ground below.
“I hope you haven’t been wasting that ability,” she said with a wicked grin as she turned her eyes back on Roy. She didn’t have a thought that he had been, if her impressions of him were right.
Roy waggled his eyebrows comically, shaking out his hand and leaning back to
lay down on the hot roof. "Pfft... how could you waste an ability like
that? It's useful for so many things: opening cans, clearing a path,
robbing banks..." He sat back up, looking at her with a mock-serious
expression. "Poking holes in lids so you can catch fireflies. It's useful
for that."
Fireflies. She remembered watching the fireflies light up the grass outside of the school on nights when she could sneak out and sit outside by herself…
No. Not her.
Nonetheless, she knew what fireflies were, even if it was from borrowed memories. She laughed heartily, ducking her head so that her ponytail swung over her face, then letting her head fall back and laughing up at the sky as she lowered herself onto her elbow. She then stretched out on her side, her arm under her head. From the tips of her fingers to her long tan legs, she made a shapely picture.
“We haven’t got fireflies here,” she said with some regret as her laughter subsided. “It sounds like fun, though. Next time we go on a trip, I’ll be sure to catch a few fireflies.”
“I can’t wait to take another trip,” she said with emphasis, thinking of Sombra. And how much fun it would be to bring it to the ground. If only they would be up against the X-Men again. But alas, it seemed that they had provided the X-Men with the information to bring to the government about Sombra’s evil deeds. It looked like she wouldn’t be getting her rematch with the feathery pretty-boy this time around.
“But we are supposed to start training here,” she remembered, perking up. “The sooner the better—I haven’t hit anyone in weeks.”
"Guess you don't get off the island much, eh? Although it wouldn't be too
difficult for you, zooming all over the place."
Roy leaned forward, twining his hands as he rested his arms on his knees,
and grinned at her as she lay down on her side. Someone who loved violence
and looked good in a tank top? He had definitely made it.
"Most people go for so long without doing damage to anyone, but they're
missing out on the simple joys in life, don't you think?"
“Definently,” Aurora agreed fervently. “It’s such power. And it’s so much fun.”
“So you’ve done a lot of it, then? You must be a grand escape artist to never be caught. So…did you rob banks for the money, or for the thrill?”
Roy dusted his knuckles on the front of his shirt with mock-smugness. "Long
legs. It's all in the long legs."
Absently sending a bolt into the sky, expertly clipping the tip of a bird's
wing, he smirked. "It would be nice to say it's all for the thrill... but
who am I to pass up the money that goes with it too?"
“Hey, you earned it,” Aurora said with a smile and a half-shrug. “Pyro and Juggernaut robbed a bank, back before I got here. They should probably send you next time—John can’t go anywhere without a wig and glasses anymore, and Juggernaut, well…He’s even harder to hide.”
“Luckily, I don’t think I’m as noticeable. They couldn’t have gotten any good pictures of me at NovaTex; I was in the air the whole time. So unless Prince Charming of the X-Men identified me or something, I’m still clear.” Her voice reflected distaste of the X-Man she referred to as well, though not as much as she had when speaking of the other mind she was at odds with.
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Post by Aurora on Jan 22, 2007 12:57:30 GMT -5
Roy looked over her form obviously before looking back at her face. "Even
without the ears, how are you not noticeable?
"Anytime you all want a bank knocked over... I'm your man. Granted, I'm
used to dealing with small-time banks... but I look forward to a challenge."
“I don’t know, I think they got enough cash last time to last a while. But maybe we can convince Pyro if things ever get too boring around here…”
Aurora smirked at Roy as she looked at him sideways, cocking one eyebrow. “And you know, if you were five times more forward, I’d think you and Impact were cut from the same cloth. I hope you haven’t been taking lessons from him.”
"Pfft... I tried to teach him everything I knew, and look what happened!
Now I've managed to create a monster in rock troll form."
Aurora gave a throaty laugh. “We should send him to obedience school or something,” she muttered. “Bet he drives ‘Recluse’ even more crazy…” She was going to say ‘even more crazy than she already is’, but she didn’t know how much Roy liked her, if at all, so she stopped. Though what she did say had the same point to it.
Roy's eyebrow quirked up; she hadn't hidden her distaste for the newest woman to Genosha very well, and he wasn't one to let such an opportunity go.
"So, not too fond of her, are you? Tell me, Aurora, did she do something, or are you just jealous of her toys?"
Aurora’s eyes, which had closed momentarily to block out the sun, opened again, trained on Roy a few feet away. There was a short pause before she responded lazily, “It’s not hard to bag someone when you’re the only one around with a pair of breasts and une noune.”
Aurora lifted her head, bending her arm and resting her hand under her head. “I don’t envy her,” she said plainly. “Impact needs some serious reforming.” She paused shortly, then added with a shrug, “Not that Recluse seems to care about…anything decent.”
She traced circles on the roof in front of her with her forefinger as she continued. “No, my problem with Recluse is that she hated me the moment she set eyes on me. I hadn’t done anything to her, yet she saw me as a threat. And if she got her black panties in a bunch because I looked Impact up and down in the hotel…Then she is extremely over-protective. How was I to know he was with her?”
“He sure wasn’t acting like it.”
Shrugging with an amused smile on his lips, Roy watched her carefully. "I suppose not. Of course it would help if I knew what you said. Y'know, besides the breasts part. That part I got."
Scratching his chin, he looked at her slyly. "Recluse is certainly... unconcerned. And Lucas definitely doesn't strike me as very concerned with fidelity. I'd advise keeping clear of that one."
Normally, Roy would have loved to watch the inevitable destruction of whatever relationship would be attempted, but Aurora was proving to be more interesting than the everyday Joe Schmoe Roy took potshots at on a regular basis. She warranted a more thorough investigation.
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