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Pricilla Jones had never thought about genes when she was a child. She had thought that everyone was the same, like a row of Gingerbread Men, all exactly alike. She never realized that more than the color of a persons skin or where they came from was different.
The day that she realized it was supposed to be a happy day. It was her friends birthday party, and she had been laughing and playing games while her parents looked on indulgently. A normal pastime for a 12 year old child. But then the car came around the corner, Yoshi in the road, heading straight for him......Pricilla hadn't hesitated, just flung her hand up and dissolved Yoshi in a shimmering column of light. The car crashed into a tree, people started shouting, Yoshi yelling....then they focused on Pricilla, staring at her with anger, fear, revultion plain on their faces. Her parents had grabbed her and left, saying that Pricilla could never do anything like that. Then she remembered being taken away, taken to a place of death and despair and hopelessness. A death camp for mutants. Now, a death camp for children.
Pricilla couldn't recall what happened next. All she remembered was men in dark suits; a never ending car ride through the city to a place of death, with despair...with hopelessness. It was then that she relized the difference was between those who lived and those who died.
She was rescued by Freedom Fighters and sent to America after about six months. She met her parents in NYC, and they moved to the Midwest, believeing themselves safe.
"We should never have given up the fear."Pricilla said out loud. She tore her gaze from the window and glanced at Emma.
"How could you have known the Genoshans would follow you?" Emma said comfortingly.
"Thats no excuse. Our kind can never give up the watchfullness. Creed and the FOH are already very powerful on the hatred of mutants. What if someone else comes along? Someone more...evil?" asked Pricilla disparingly.
"Thats why the Xmen formed." Emma said.
The silence in the car was broken only by the sound of the rain on the roof. Pricilla looked out over the street, looking with unseeing eyes at the neon lights flashing by, and the cars parked on the side.
'Wait a minute!' thought Pricilla, sitting up in shock "Emma, that black car in front of the brownstone over there? Thats the asassains car!"
"What?!" asked Emma, looking over at the car, "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. I could never forget it." said Pricilla viciously.
"Drive around the corner, then stop," Emma ordered her driver, fumbling around in her bag for her cell phone.
"What are you doing? We have to go catch them!"
"We arn't going to do anything! I'm calling Xavier, he can get the Xmen over here for this."
"NO! Emma, the Xmen will never be able to get here in time! Didn't you see? The Genoshans are leaving!, " cried Priclla as she grabbed the door handle and jumped out of the moving car. Emma grabbed for her, and overbalanced when the car suddenly screeched to a halt.
"Pricilla...!" she yelled out even as the girl disappeared in the rain, "Insolent child! Here, call Xavier," she tossed the cell phone to her driver and dashed out into the rain after Pricilla.
The driver sighed as he dialed the number. "Why she thinks Xavier will listen to me, I don't know.......Hello, may I speak to Charles Xavier, please?"
Pricilla huddled near the open window of the car. She couldn't seem to stop shivering, and it wasn't just because of the cold air.
"We need to find that girl, Pipeline!" one said angrily, slamming the trunk shut.
"I know Hawkshaw. As...He...already made clear. We need to silence her." the second said.
"Damn rain. Why can't this country have decent weather?"
"Because its one big gene joke. Hello! Whats this?"
Pricilla felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She looked up, and sure enough, one of the Genoshans stood over her. He smiled nastily and pulled her upright by her braid.
The second man started chuckling. "Well, it looks like we may not have to go looking for her after all."
They carried her, kicking and screaming, into the house. Pipeline checked the street for witnesses, before going in and shutting the door quietly behind him. Emma watched from the shadows, biding her time.
Waiting for the right moment to strike.
