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Hi. My names Jade. Jade Le'Beau. Anyway, that's what my name used to be. Now it's Archer. Archer Beaule. Or was I supposed to say that another way. My name's Beaule, Archer Beaule. I think I like the second way of saying it better, I always was a James Bond fan. Anyway, I don't use that name very much either. It's a personal name, no one actually wants to get to know me that much, so they call me Echo. I'm a mutant. Like a lot of other people it's my blessing, and my curse. Welcome to my story, I hope you survive!IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? written by Echo
She's a nice person. From what I've learned about her, I don't think she could hate anyone. But from what I understand, she isn't from our demension, and in this other demension, all anyone has is their hate. Either hatred for humans or hatred for the self proclaimed ruler of Mutants, Apocalapse. Clarice hated Apocalapse. All right, a girl of my own heart! Fighting against authority! I'm pretty sure we'll be good friends. If I stick around.
We (meaning Generation X) had been staying with the X-Men. Now were leaving. Since I only had an overnight bag with me, I didn't need to spend very much time packing. So being the new Good Samaritan in the house, I decided to help the one person who had been remotely nice to me.
Good thing I did to. Clarice was just sitting on her bed staring at her hands. I knocked before entering, but she didn't look up. She just kept staring at her hands.
"Hey, Clarice. What's goin' on?" She just shrugged and didn't say anything. I could tell that something was wrong, and since the whole mansion didn't need to hear about it, I shut the door.
"C'mon, you can tell me." She just shook her head and didn't say anything.
I took a deep breath and looked her square in the eye. "I know you don't think I'm trustworthy, but you can tell me anything. I won't tell a soul."
It was true. I've never betrayed a confidence to anyone. Besides, in this crowd, who would I tell?
She seemed to consider what I was saying and took a deep breath before starting. "I've been thinking about talking to you about this anyway, since you've been around a bit more than anyone else." She looked up at me nervously. I smiled reasuringly, still clueless about what she was saying. "It's just that Paige is too innocent, Jubilee's to young, Monet's been trapped in Penance's body for years and I can't talk to an adult. So your the only option left."
"What about Angelo?" She just laughed an put her head in her hands.
"He's the problem!"
I watched her for a moment. "I thought you and Angelo are dating? Did he break up with you?"
She shook her head looking dejected. "Not yet, but I know he is! He got what he wanted out of this relationship why should he want to talk to me anymore?"
I understood in an instant what she was getting at. "How long ago did you guys sleep together?"
"Two days ago. I mean he told me that he loved me, but what if it was just a line?"
"Ummmm...." was all I could say. What was I supposed to say? I didn't know if she had been having any problems with him or anything like that. I needed information before I could help. I was about to ask but then she just started talking. She told me about the Angelo in her demension and of the Angelo in this one. After a few minutes I could tell she had it bad for the guy. Which made what I had to do a little harder.
"Do you want me to go kick his ass?"
She looked at me and gave me a half smile. "No that's Ok. Thanks."
I don't think she understood what I was saying so I put it in lamens terms. "Look, Clarice, I've been in this house for a day and have been able to alienate the entire student body in less than an hour. You are the only one who is still talking to me. If I offer to kick someone's butt it is because I honestly will. Now do you want me to go find Angelo and beat him to a pulp?"
But she wasn't looking at me. She was staring at the door in horror. I took a guess at what she was looking at. "Angelo's behind me isn't he?" She nodded slowly.
"So you think you could kick my butt," a gruff voice said.
I spun around, unafraid of his tactics. "If I needed to yes. I'm hoping that I don't need to. Do I Clarice?"
"No," she whispered.
"What's your opinion Ang?"
"Nope."
"Alright then, my work is done. You and Clarice need to talk and resolve some issues. I'm leaving." I shot a look over my shoulder at her. "If you need me, call. I'll be practicing with my baseball bat." I shot a smirk at Angelo and walked out of the room. I waited outside of the door for a few minutes. I could hear laughter coming from within the room so I left, knowing she wouldn't need me anytime soon.
Guys were pretty easy to handle. Just as long as you knew that all men are completely stupid...
He had glared at me during dinner the night before; or course so did everyone else. But his glare had been different. In it he held all the hatred, disgust, and contempt for me. He didn't see me, or else he had moved on the the silent treatment phase.
So being who I was, I followed him. He walked into his room and shut the door. Anyone else would have taken that as a hint, but I didn't. Besides if he wanted to kick me out, I could just say I was waiting for Angelo.
My knock sounded hollow and I was afraid that he couldn't hear it, but eventually, the door opened.
Jono just stared at me. I cleared my throat and looked behind him. "Can I come in?"
He didn't say anything he just left the door open and walked back to his bed. He had a pile of comicbooks on it that he had been reading. The second I stepped in the room, his eyes followed me. He still didn't trust me.
I sat down on the bed opposite of him, hoping that he would start the conversation. He didn't. In stead he began reading his comicbooks again. Ok, I guess I was going to start the conversation. He was reading the new Batman story line. Since I knew a little about comic books, I thought I'd start there.
"The new Batman story arc looks pretty good, don't you think?"
He didn't even bother to look up, which made me sigh. "Ya know my conversations seem to have a certain pattern to them. I talk and no one else does. Did everyone forget how to speak?!"
He looked up quickly and then I realized my blunder. "Oh-oh, my God! Jono, I didn't mean- I mean I didn't even think- I-um-I... I'm sorry!"
He set down his comic then. //Why should you be sorry? Artie isn't even in the room.//
"I didn't even think before I said anything, which was stupid, I- Did you say Artie?" It was then that I saw the way he was looking at me. His head tilted to the side, his eyes weren't dark and offended. They were bright and shinning. He was laughing! "I take it you aren't mad at me or offended?" He shook his head.
"Do you still hate me?"
//I never did. I was just mad yesterday because you took my CD's and my Getoblaster.//
"I'm really sorry about that. You just have the best tast in music. That's why I took them. I'm sorry."
//It's Ok, and thanks.// He didn't need to say anything else. He wasn't mad at me anymore. So I smiled and stood up. "I'll let you pack."
As I was walking towards the door I noticed that I had knocked a comic onto the floor so I picked it up to place it on the bed with the others. I really wish I'd left it there.
As soon as I touched it, my mutant power kicked in. Normaly I have to activate it but his imprint was so strong that it activated on it's own. The pain and anguish of his life hit me like a brick wall. It took all my willpower not to echo his mutant power.
My head was realing as I stumbled towards the door. I dropped his comic and held my head between my hands. In my confusion I smacked into the wall.
//Echo?// He rushed over but I shoved off his hands and reached for the door.
"Don't touch me! Please, just don't come near me!" I threw open the door and ran smack into Paige.
She stumbled back in surprise as I raced past her and down the hall, down the stairs and out the door. The feelings were still pushing in on me. I kept running until I finally colapsed in defeat.
I don't know how long I laid there. I had started screaming because of the strain it took to fight off his powers. The result of my powers had never been so devestating before. It usually left me dizzy, but never in such excruciating pain.
Rogue was the one who found me. She heard me screaming and found me curled in a ball and expending an energy field that kept her from being able to reach me.
It finally weakened to a point where she could pick me up and carry me to the mansion. The memories had stopped but the pain still seared through me. As she landed, I finally fell into the bliss of unconsciousness.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I've died." I wasn't exagerating. My head was splitting and my mouth felt like I'd been eating dirt. "What happened?" I croaked out.
"Your mutant power wasn't able to process the large energy output of Chamber's mutagenetic signature. I take it this has happened before?" I shook my head and whispered "No," he smiled but didn't move away. He seemed to be waiting for something.
"Can I help you with something Doc?" His smile faded as he studied me carefully.
"I'm worried about the effect your 'power surge' had on you. I'm going to make sure that you don't have a huge release of energy. If you absorb Chambers powers again and you aren't able to fight against it, you may lose your face in the same way he did. I don't want that to happen."
I nodded my head slowly and closed my eys. "Go ahead Bones, I don't want that to happen either."
After a thorough examination, McCoy deemed me well enough to be released. He though someone should escort me around the grounds to get some fresh air. After much debating it was decided that Rogue would be my protector.
She didn't say anything as we walked. It must freak her out, knowing who I am. I'm not blind, nor deaf, I heard all the whispers at dinner the night before. My uncle Remy had taken off for awhile apparently, just for the day from what I understood, but everyone walked on eggshels around Rogue. They were carefull not to mention his name around her. I had thanked her for finding me but she just nodded and smiled, not saying anything.
It wasn't until I saw the empty driveway that I realized that something was wrong.
"Ummm.... Rogue? Where are the vans?"
She looked uncomfortable as she answered me. "They all went back to the academy. We didn't know how long you were goin' to be out cold, so they went back."
I started laughing, which surprised her, I think. She looked at me puzzled, not quite getting the joke.
"What's so funny?"
I smiled and gestered to the empty driveway. "Are they trying to make me feel as unwelcome as possible? Has it always been like this when ex-criminals become X-Men?"
She started laughing with me as we walked back to the house. "Since ah'm the only one here, I suppose I should welcome you to Generation X. A division of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. And to answer your question, it never get's easier!"
