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A TRUE FRIEND written by Richard 'Kurogo' Palmer
Warning: This Fan-fiction deals with mature such as substance abuse, profanity and violence.
The Massachusetts Academy, Eleven A.M, Sunday.
Christina sat outside deep in the woods going over her studies. The rest of the Student body had gone into town today but she decided to stay behind and get used to the new surroundings. Her ears twitched as she heard a rustling behind her. She turned to see a girl with ruby-red skin that appeared as though it might actually be made of the stone itself. She was in a tight leather outfit. Cautiously penance came up to her.
"Hello." Christina said to this new face, "Are you another one of the school's mutants? Another like me?" Penance stared back with wide eyes, "I see," Christina said, "you don't speak, do you, not like the others." She put her books down.
*We speak,* came a voice in her head, *the others just seem unable to listen.*
*They seem to forget the basis languages don't they?* Christy said back to her new friend telepathically.
Penance looked at her questioningly, *You heard us,* She said, telepathically, *How?…"*
*I grew up away from human languages and devices,* she said as she diverted her eyes to one of the squirrels running around, *Animals don't speak like people do, people have forgotten that founding language.* She looked back at Penance, *But, apparently you haven't forgotten.*
Penance looked away for a second, *It's just the only way to communicate in this form. We can't speak as we were once able to. Not so that others can listen.*
*I'll listen.* Christina replied.
Hour's later Jubilee wandered over to where Christy sat with Penance beside her, "There you are, I've been looking for you. You know Ms. Frost is looking all over for you?"
Christina looked up, "I'm sorry I was just talking with Nicole and Claudette."
"Yeah, we call them Penance…" Jubilee said, then she stopped, "Who introduced you two?"
Christy shrugged, "She just came up and we started talking."
"But Penance doesn't talk!" Jubilee stammered.
"Not like you're used to," Christy said, "she speaks with a kind of, um… I don't know how to describe it… Empathic telepathy?" Christina said listening to the words to see if they sounded right.
"Empathatelewhat?" Jubilee tried to repeat.
"I don't know," Christy replied, "it's the same basic language that animals use."
"Oh come on, you don't expect me to believe that you talk to animals?"
"Talk to them?" Christina seemed surprised that Jubilation would doubt her, "I've held conversations with some that could last for hours." She shook her head, "They're more preferable then people if you ask me."
"Prove it." Jubilee asked, Logan had a way with animals but even he couldn't talk to them. This had to be some kind of gag.
Christina looked around, a few of the squirrels were still about looking on curiously, *Hey,* She said to one, telepathically, *C'mere.* The squirrel looked nervously at Jubilee. *Don't worry, she's a friend.* the squirrel casually scampered up to Christina.
"Put your hand out." She said to Jubilation. Hesitantly Jubilee held her hand out on the ground.
Christina turned back to the Squirrel, *Go on, it's okay. She won't hurt you.* After a brief pause the squirrel scampered over and sat up in Jubilee's hand. Jubilee couldn't believe what was going on.
"Do you have any nuts?" Christina asked.
"I have a snickers bar that I got from the vending machine before lunch." Jubilee answered, "It's half eaten though."
"That's what he's smelling," Christina smiled, "He want's to know if you could spare some."
Jubilee took out the half-eaten Snickers bar and broke off a small piece and set it down on the ground next to her hand. The squirrel bent down and nibbled on the chocolate covered peanuts.
"This is unbelievable!" Jubilee stammered.
"What? This?" Christina asked, "This is nothing, at least they listen to me. There's a Raccoon out here that's been ignoring me since I got here."
"I've never seen anything like this, I mean I know people who are good with animals, but this… Back when I was with the X-Men, Logan…" Jubilee trailed off, It'd been awhile since she'd seen Logan, He's disappeared again, gone off by himself without leaving a word as to where he was going. It was pretty usual of him to do so, but still she missed him.
"What?" Christina Asked, "What about Logan?"
"Nothing." She said, "You should meet him sometime," Jubilee smiled, "he's a real outdoorsman. Like you."
______________
Later that evening Christina walked down the hallway to her room. At this time every week she would enter her dorm room to check her E-mail. Her foster father liked to keep in touch. Other than that She never really used her room. Jubilee sort of enjoyed that, She suspected. Jubilation wasn't exactly a pinnacle of perfection, so it was probably nice for her to have the whole room to herself without anyone to bug her about cleaning up or turning the music down.
She opened the door to See Monet at her computer, and Jubilee on her bed looking rather annoyed with M. "What the hell are you doing?" Christina asked bluntly.
"I'm on the Internet," Monet replied, then she turned to Christy, "Oh, wait I forgot, you may not understand what that is, I keep forgetting how primitive your mind works."
A soft growl emitted from Christina's throat, "This happens to be my dorm room, and I happen to need my computer to get whatever letters might be coming from my father."
"Daddy can wait, I've got my own E-mail to read and the computer in my dorm room is being used." Monet sniffed. "Besides you never use this room anyway, why should you care."
Jubilee turned her headphones up; she was determined not to get involved with this argument.
"It's still my room, and the computer is mine and Jubilee's if you want it just ask." Christina replied a little perturbed. M just ignored her. "Listen you stuffy…"
"Look don't you have better things to do, like marvel at the mysteries of fire?" Monet shot back.
Jubilee watched Christina out of the corner of her eye. For a brief second Christina's sizemorph power kicked in, she only grew by a couple of inches. But she stopped as soon as she started. She turned and headed back down the hallway.
Jubilee sat up; she'd had her problems with M too. She knew how Christina must have felt. "Don't you ever get tired of having that stick up your butt?" she said as she left the room. Mentally she was kicking herself for not intervening sooner.
______________
She went outside and looked around for the Cat-girl. This could take forever, if Christina didn't want to be found she wouldn't be found. Her skills in tracking and stealth were only matched by Wolverine's. Suddenly about fifty yards away a tree toppled over. "Okay, so it's going to be a little easier this time."
*That Snobbish, self-centered, Bitch!* Christina thought, she lashed out again, being twenty feet tall at the time she was easily able to overpower the tree. It toppled over with a resounding crash. A few small squirrels scampered over and looked at her confused.
Christina sat down and said telepathically, *Humans…*
*Tell me about it.* One squirrel replied.
"Christy?" Came a voice from behind her. The squirrels scampered off. "Are you okay?" Jubilee said as she approached.
"No," Christina replied, "I'd say I'm pretty far from Okay." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Its times like this I question my decision."
"Coming to the academy?" Jubilee asked.
"Rejoining human society," Christina replied, "Animals will never insult you for their own amusement."
Jubilee giggled a little bit, "I'm sorry," she apologized, "It's just going to take me awhile to get used to the fact that you can talk to animals."
"No it's fine," Christy responded, "I know I'm different, even by mutant standards. I don't mind it." She smiled weakly, "I just wish some people were as accepting as you."
______________
Tuesday afternoon, after classes
Michael Duncan walked outside to the Academy grounds. It had been awhile since he had recovered from the manhunt that had just happened recently, the manhunt being for him. He was dressed in normal civilian attire now, and he has make-up covering his silver skin tone. He dropped his duffel bag and looked around. Over in the trees he saw a glimmer of gray. The same gray that made up the school uniforms. He walked over to Christina who was sitting up in the tree reading her textbooks. "Hey," He said as he approached, "Just wanted to thank you before I left."
"You're leaving?" Christina said as she dropped down from the tree.
Michael nodded. "Ms. Frost wanted me to stay, but I got nothin' here." He looked up, "but I guess I don't got much anywhere."
"C'mon, why not stay here?" Christy asked.
Michael shook his head, "Nah, I'll be fine, I'll probably eventually hook up with someone… who knows we may see each other again."
"Michael," Christy started, Michael looked at her, "I may be able to help. I have a small history with a group in New York right now." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a notepad, "If you go to this address and ask for Daryl Bartlett, he should be able to help you." Christy wrote down the address on the canary yellow paper and pulled it out of the notepad. She handed it to Michael, "Take care of yourself." she said as she kissed him on the cheek.
"Thanks." Michael said as he walked off.
______________
That next Saturday
"Okay," Sean said after looking at his watch. He and Christy were in the woods; Ms. Frost had come up with some tests for Christina's mutant abilities. "Alright then lass, they 'ave a two hour head start on ye. Let's see how fast ye can track 'em." He held out one of Jubilee's T-shirts.
"I don't need it." Christina replied. Banshee looked at her questioningly, "I already have the scent."
Sean nodded as she bounded off. He used his mutant power to soar into the air to view her progress from above. As he saw her come to a clearing she'd already used her mutant power to sizemorph to roughly twenty or twenty-five feet tall. She soared along the ground at an amazing pace, only stopping occasionally to catch the scent. After a short while she came to a large stream. She jumped across and searched around for their scent in a matter of minutes she'd found it again and had bounded off.
"This is far enough." Emma said, "We'll rest here." Jubilee stopped to catch her breath; they'd been jogging the whole way.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Jubilee asked.
"I don't know," White Queen replied, "Warren never told me the extent of her powers."
"Wolverine woulda already tracked us down by now." Jubilee muttered, then she said a bit louder, "When I was with the X-Men…"
She wasn't able to finish as she was playfully knocked to the floor by a twenty-foot Christina. "Tag," she smiled, "You're it!"
"Twenty minutes." Emma said, as she stopped her stopwatch, "Not bad And an amazing show of stealth for such a large size."
"I was about to say the same thing." Jubilee said as she picked herself up.
::So Sean, did she have any trouble?:: Emma said telepathically, as Christina Scampered off into the woods again and Jubilee gave chase.
::She 'ad a bit of trouble when it came to the steams, and there were a few cases where she 'ad t' double back a ways, but all and all the lass was able t' keep up. She even changed her size a few times t' better suit the terrain.::
"Excellent." Emma said both out loud and telepathically; "Perhaps as long as we're out here we should test the limits of her sizemorph properties as well."
______________
That afternoon back at the academy Ms. Frost had Christina and her newfound friend Jubilee in the computer room, they were working with a 3-D design program trying to design Christina's new costume.
"I think it should be short sleeved." Christina said, Ms. Frost looked at her questioningly, "I need to be able to feel the environment."
"How about the boots, lass?" Sean said as he worked with the program.
"No boots, they're too clunky, they'll just get in the way." Christy said, "Make the feet like open-toed socks." This time Banshee turned to her and looked at her funny. "If you can think of any other way for me to get use of these, " Christy said as she held out her toes, she had claws coming off of them as well, "be my guest."
"Okay." Banshee said as he turned back to the program, "I'm guessin' that ye will be wantin' fingerless gloves too?"
"Forget the gloves I've got some of my own." Christy replied
"Anything else?" Banshee asked.
Everyone was quiet for a second, "how about a code-name?" Jubilee questioned.
"Aye lass, did ye have somethin' in mind?" Banshee said as he turned to the cat-girl.
Christy sat quietly for a second; "the people in the rainforest had a name for me, would that work?"
"Sure," Emma said as she walked toward Christy, "what was it?"
"Ixbalamque." Christy replied meekly.
"Ixbawhat?" Jubilee said.
"It's the name of an ancient Incan Goddess," Monet said as she entered the room, "one that was able to take the form of Jaguars and other beasts to protect the people of the rainforest." She smiled, "Quite frankly I fail to see where they got the idea of a goddess from that animal."
Christy looked at her uncomfortably. "How about the Kat?" Jubilee said as Banshee went back to work on the computer, "It's nice and easy to remember and if you spell it with a K instead of a C it has that nice MTV feel to it."
"Isn't Balam a South American term for Jaguar?" Banshee said as he pulled up a file, "Accordin' to this it was derived from yuir rainforest nickname. Ye could use that couldn't Ye?."
"Balam?" Christy thought, "It sounds nice it does sound familiar…" she thought for a second, "Okay, Balam it is."
"Now we'll just have to get the costume finished off and you're all set." The white queen smiled, "The newest member of Generation X, Balam."
"I still think you shoulda gone with the Kat." Jubilee said as she popped her bubble gum.
______________
In a Bar several miles away A young man in full leather biker attire stepped out with an older gentleman. "So you said you've seen her around here?"
"Yeah," the old man said, a little sloshed, "she wus walkin' up towards that school, s'a private school, the Xavier institute or somethin'. Funny thing though she had a big backpack on, looked almost as though she'd come from a lot further than just intown. An certainly didn' look like a rich private school kid."
The man in leather handed the older Gentleman a rolled up twenty-dollar bill. "Have yourself a ball in there." The elderly man nodded and headed back into the bar. The man in the Biker outfit lit a cigarette and puffed on it, "An Education, huh? And a private school too." he puffed on his cigarette pondering the situation. "So has someone been able to tame the animal in ya, or is there somethin' I'm missin?" he walked over to his bike and gunned the motor. The info was still sketchy; he'd wait a few days before he acted on it. But if thing's were what they seemed, he'd finally managed to track down the mutant known as Christina.
The End
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The legal stuff: The Characters from Generation X and the concept of Mutants and are a product of Marvel comics and it's employees and are used without permission. Christina Laine is based off of the Samurai Spirits character Cham-Cham, Beyond that she's a character of my own creation.
Actual cost of Fan-fiction may vary.
