|
|
When he walked into the room, Jono saw Mondo sitting in a chair. He noticed that Sean
had re-entered the room and said, "Jono, I have a message for ye." Sean walked over to him
and said softly, "Jono, Rich has informed me of a problem. The Mondo over there is a fake."
Jono realized that with the tone that Sean was serious. {How did Rich know?}
"Rich had the good or bad luck to discover my cousin is here. He replaced Mondo with a
plantlike copy."
Jono realized what was being said. {I take it that I have the ability to remove the
phony?}
"That's the way Rich figured it." Jono nodded and looked at the fake Mondo. It was hard
to believe that it was a fake. Then how long was this fake around. Inside, Jono didn't want to
hurt his friend, but this wasn't his friend. He stilled blamed himself for what happened to Gayle,
how he cost her the use of her legs, and the hatred in her that made her join Emplate. He
vowwed not to let his ability hurt anyone who was a friend. Now he was asked to use his ability
in that way.
Jono, still having second doubts about what he must do, was startled by what started to
happen. Rich, Yvette and Angelo were walking into the room, Rich with his back to Mondo.
Rich had obviously thought the deed was done for he said, "And the Mondo that I found was the
real one."
Yvette had looked at Rich and said, "And that's fake." Rich spun quickly and ducked the
fist that came at him. A second later, Mondo hand formed into tendrels and quickly ensnared
Rich. Jono knew now that this was a fake and let lose with a blast of energy. Almost instantly,
Yvette cut Rich free and pulled him to safety as the fake Mondo went up in flames.
As the fake disappeared in a puff of ash, Jono turned to Rich and said, {I'm sorry about
that. I still had doubts of my own.} Rich had some insight into what happened to Gayle, but he
hoped that RIch understood why he had waited to be sure.
Rich, still strugling for his breath, said, "I understand. I just hope not to get another near
death encounter like that again. That makes three."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yvette listened as Jean spoke again to stop what Jono was saying. "Do you believe that
might have been part of his breakdown?" Yvette stared at both Jono and the red haired woman.
This woman had been brought here to help find out why Rich had retreated into isolation. This
woman, as Ms. Frost had said, was a telepath. Yvette knew that this woman had better training
in her power that Ms. Frost had.
Just as soon as Jono was about to say something, Sean said, "That had been the first
time that any of us knew about that, and those of us who weren't here at the school at the time
just learned about it now." Yvette noticed the look of shock on Emma's face.
Yvette had to speak up, because she knew something they didn't. "That is not true.
Rich told me before any of this had happened about those events." She noticed the look of
shock on Sean's face.
"Yvette, lass, ye mean to tell me that ye knew about that?"
"Rich told me many things about his life. The facing death deal he learned to deal with,
even though it was at different times in his life." She hoped that would help clear things up.
Scott, the man who wore the red sunglasses asked, "Then could you help us clear this
up?" He seemed very adamant about finding the answer.
"I think that part of it has to deal with facing death, but not in the sense you mean." With
that, she continued the recount of the events that had passed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yvette helped Rich off the floor. She was a little upset with Jono for not doing what he
had been told earlier. She still had some of her survival instincts in her about a threat. Act first.
Question Later. She was about to say something to Jono when Rich said psionicly {Now love,
you must remember that he injured someone, and he didn't want to hurt another friend.}
Yvette remembered that Rich had used his mutant ability to mimic her. {But he let the
fake Mondo almost kill you. I don't see how you can easily forgive that.}
{Simple. I had my own doubts as well. I started thinking, what if the one I told Sean
about, was the real one? At least when that Mondo attacked me, I knew it was fake. There were
no doubts.} He said all that in a calm voice that he used most of the time. She had never seen
Rich upset, and Rich had told her that he had a nasty temper.
Sean, followed by Angelo and Jono, walked over and asked, "Rich, lad, are ye alright?"
as he extended a hand to help Rich up. Over the time she had been at the school, Yvette had
learned to trust Sean Cassidy enough to know that he cared for everyone. Regardless of her
first day at the school, she realized that this man meant her no harm.
Rich took Sean's extended hand and she and Sean help Rich to his feet. "As best as
can be expected from an experence similar to getting a hug from a boa?" Yvette wondered what
Rich had meant by that statement. She went to ask him as he said, "It is a snake known for
crushing its victims, Yvette." She understood what he meant then.
She then heard Angelo say, "So, we have an unconscious Mondo in the med unit, and a
madman on the grounds?" She wondered what Angelo had meant by that. This was the first she
had heard about this relative of Sean's.
Sean said to Angelo, "That is a nice way of terming it." He then motioned everyone to
gather around and said, "We have a major problem, and we got to stop it before everyone
returns. Skitz, do ye remember when you had spotted me cousin?" Rich nodded and Sean
continued, "Good, Chamber, I want you to start charging up for another blast. Skin, be ready to
pull any of us out of harms way. Skitz, I hope you have mimicked Penance, because you two
might be the only weapons we have until Chamber is ready." This was big trouble, since Sean
only used codenames when there was trouble.
Rich had tense to a point that he could still speak. "I'm ready, Banshee." Rich then
turned to face her and said, "Are you ready, Penny?"
She did the same and said, "Let's save our school." She felt better about what they were
getting into when Rich smiled. They all headed out of the building they were in, as Rich lead
them to a small wooded area a short ways from the school. They had obviously passed the
range of the alarms, because the alarms had never detected Sean's cousin.
When Rich stopped, she watched and listened as Sean yelled, "All right Tom, We know
ye are here, so ye might as well show yurself." She watched and was ready to strike at anything.
She noticed that Rich had moved over to her side. Angelo and Jono had stayed back just as
Sean had instructed.
She then heard Rich speak to her, {I hope it doesn't come down to fighting.} She saw
the worry in his eyes. Something was truely worring him, something that he couldn't hide.
{What's wrong?}
{Remember what I said about my temper?}
A terrible realization hit her mind. {Don't lose control of your temper now? I don't know
the extreme of my ability. I'd hate to find about it if you did something rash.}
Rich slowly said, trying to keep the calmness in his voice, {I'll try. For your sake, Yvette,
I'll try.}
The two of them jumped to face movement Yvette seen appear in front of Sean. Then,
an eerie voice said, "Well now cousin, I was hoping to meet later. How did ye discover I was
here. Did my fake Mondo do something unexpected?" A chill ran up her spine. The man had
looked partially like a plant.
Sean faced his cousin and said, "Why are ye here? What are ye planning to do here,
Tom?" There was a look of anger on Sean's face.
The man that was Sean's cousin, Tom, said in a calm voice, "Ye are being replaced as
head of this school. I'm taking over as of right now. Sooner that I had planned, but I can adapt."
Yvette then notice two large tree roots come out of the ground. One wrapped itself around Sean
and flung him to the ground near Jono and Angelo. The other came to hit her and Rich. As she
jumped to the left, and Rich jumped right, the man said, "This is one ability you aren't immune to.
I ambushed Mondo easily enough. I think that one of these two mutants alerted ye to my
presence, cousin. I shall rectify that problem."
The one root came down at Rich, but he jumped out of the way again. Yvette realized
she should have watched for her safety as the other root came straight at her and sent her flying.
She saw that she was going to collide with a tree and she didn't have anyway to stop it. She then
saw one of Angelo's fingers appear. He was going to pull her out of the way. She softened her
body and allowed him to pull her away from a painful collision. The hit from the root was painful
enough. As she was pulled toward safety, she heard, in her mind, a scream of rage. She
realized what it was, but before she could say anything, it was too late to stop it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angelo, who was no stranger to painful memories, noticed that Yvette was having
trouble continuing the account of what happened. In fact, he figured it would happened. He
said, "Do you want me to continue for you?" He probably could tell this part better, after seeing
something similar to it in the hood.
She looked at him and said, "Please." She walked over to a corner and had almost
started to cry. He could only imagine the fear she felt. He watched as Jubilee went over to
comfort her. Jubilee always comforted Yvette during those times Rich wasn't around, and even
after his unique attempt to take his life.
Jean looked at him and said, "So what happened?" Angelo decided to tell them exactly
what he saw.
"Well, I can put it this way. You don't have to worry about Black Tom Cassidy anymore,
chica."
A look of shock passed both Jean's and Scott's faces. Scott managed to say, "You
mean he...?" Angelo decided then was the time to tell them what had happened after he caught
Yvette.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
