XMEN Candle in the Wind 1/11
SynchX
Candle in the Wind
By The Lily Fair
Based on the Characters Created By Mice
Chapter One: Miranda Drake
Yesterday, my sister died. Marquee Lynne Drake, Magenta , co-leader of
the legendary X-Men, died in an explosion. My other sister, Theodora
Catherine Drake, Aqua Lung , the other leader of the X-Men, wasn t with
her, and she s been taking most of the blame for her death.
Today, I, Miranda Robin Drake, am at the new X-Men s base in Boise, Idaho.
A long stretch from my hometown, Long Island, New York. I m joining the
new group of young mutants that she s going to train to be the next X-Men.
"Andy! Hey, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandy!"
And, with new registration, comes new people. One of them is Doug
Serianni, the Monkey Boy . He s Uncle Hank s grandson. He s also
annoying.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" I drawl out in my best Long Island accent and
look up to one of the many trees on the estate. There he is, hanging off
a branch.
"Nothin ." I ve known Doug since I was born, and his mutation has always
been apparent. He has massive hands and huge feet, and, as of late, he s
growing some massive blue fur. Just like his grandfather, though more
orungatang like. I must say, it s an improvement, too.
"So, when are the others supposed to be here?" I blow a bubble with my gum
and pop it loudly; to see how much I can annoy him.
"Well," he reaches up to my mouth, and pops it, getting it all in his fur,
"they would have been here soon if you wouldn t scare them away."
"Great, look what you did! It s gonna take you years to get it out!" It
s hard to believe this guy is almost as smart as me...
"Or, Dad." He means my Dad, Robert Drake. I ve always complained to Dad
about how much I think Doug is a goober, but, sometimes, when he smiles, I
think he s almost a sweetheart. Hell, a few times, when we re alone, he s
almost considerate!
"Did I hear my name, Doug?" My father is also the Iceman; almost a legend
in himself. He looks down to Doug s pink and blue sticky paw and grins.
"Andy, hon, I think you have a secret weapon that has fifty grams of
sugary stickiness." He begins to freeze Doug s furry paw to get rid of
the gum. That s when Teddy comes over to us.
"Hey, the rest of the kids are here, along with the rest of the X-Men."
Dad has an odd smile on his face when he looks over to one of them; Yo-Yo,
a blond that looks about my age, but has been with the X-Men longer than
Teddy. Wait, I remember. Yo-Yo is Josephine Baxter, one of Dad s
ex-girlfriend s daughters. I decide to look at the other students, and I
get jealous.
Apart from being extremely smart, there is nothing mutant about me. No
distinguishing features like Teddy and her aquamarine tattoo that appeared
on her fourteenth birthday, and eyes to match, or Marquee s wild red hair
that earned her the name Magenta. No neat powers like Jubilee and her
firecrackers or Yo-Yo s time tesseracting. No fur, no cool hair, no cool
powers. Not even a second form like Dad s. In the words of my father s
famed Creed of Drake , I suck .
Teddy is in front of the small gathering of people. I recognize all of the
kids. Along with Doug, Kit LeBeau, one of Gambit s many kids. Alaina
Creed, Victor Creed s daughter that was raised by Gambit, as well. Laurie
Cassidy, a relative of Banshee and Siryn. Benjamin Mangini, the only one
of us that isn t related to anybody from any X-Teams, except for some new
girl who isn t here. And the last one is a shy one, and it s Liesl
Worthington, Uncle Warren and Aunt Jean s daughter, who s even younger
than me!
I wave to Liesl, and she shyly waves back. She s barely twelve years old,
and I can tell that she doesn t feel comfortable here. I don t blame
her, I don t either. She hurries over to me and Doug while Teddy gives
her Welcome to Xaviers speech for me, Doug, Liesl, and the non-existent
new girl; the others are already registered.
"Andy, I really don t want to be here. Can t the just clip my wings or
something?" I want to hit my head. Liesl has the most beautiful wings I
ve ever seen. She reminds me of an angel with her pale blond hair, green
eyes, and flawless skin. I take that back, I just described a goddess.
Fortunately, unlike her father, she doesn t know it. That s the one thing
I hate about Uncle Warren, he isn t modest about Liesl and likes to snub
Dad about it, even though Teddy and Marquee are--well, Marquee was
gorgeous. Especially Teddy, she took after Mom. I took after Dad, like
my brother James with my plain mousy brown hair cut short, and plain old
blue eyes.
"You don t want that!" I m looking at her chest at this point, too. She
takes after Aunt Jean there. She s big. I can t help it, I am very small
breasted. Teddy isn t, and Marquee wasn t, either. I look over to the
other girls, and nothing under a C cup. I hope we get to choose our
uniforms, because skin tight spandex is not going to raise my self esteem
at this school.
"You noticed too, eh Andy?" Doug must have been looking at everybody else
s chest too, but I m too much into my self-pity jag to hit him.
"It s not fair, Doug. I don t belong here." He looks at me, and begins
to rub my shoulder to comfort me.
"Hey, don t talk like--" But, that s when we noticed her. The one girl
that was going to set me over the edge at this school; the new girl. "Oh
my stars and garters..."
"I am most sorry that I am late. I tried to be here on time, but rush
hour traffic is not very good anywhere, is it?" Five two, perfectly
proportioned with a great figure. Italian. My worst nightmare; another
gorgeous student.
"Not at all, Seraphina," my sister smiled at her with affection. It was
the girl the X-Men tried to save yesterday. The girl my sister killed
herself over, and she s sucking up to this one so soon. I hate her
already.
"Put your jaw up, Doug. She s not much," LIAR! Oooh, I would KILL to
look like her!
"S-sorry, Andy, but, wow." I got the strength to hit Doug, then. "Hey,
is someone jealous?"
"Doug, I would have to care about you to be jealous, and I wouldn t care
if Kit blasted your head, and Laney caught it on one of her spikes!" Kit
has her father s kinetic talents and Alaina can shoot metal spikes through
her skin, along with her healing factor. It s really gross.
The Seraphina girl squeezes her way over to me and smiles. I still don t
like her, and Doug is drooling on me. Oh, to be a telepath...
"Brodie, Creed, and Drake: Room 16. LeBeau and Worthington are in 17."
Oh, Kit is NOT going to be happy about this. She s nineteen and she s
going to share a room with a twelve-year-old, and Kit is NOT the nicest
person in the world. And her and Laney are quite dependant on each other.
But...oh no. No. NO. Seraphina _IS_ Brodie. How could my sister betray
me like this??
"Wait, correction, sorry girls. LeBeau, Worthington, and Creed: Room 17."
Damn! Sometimes, I wish I was co-dependant with someone like Kit and
Laney are. Right now, I wouldn t mind bunking with Doug...
"It appears to be that we are to share a room together," Seraphina says to
me. Great. She smart. I won t even have my intelligence status any
more!
"I wouldn t worry about it, Miranda." AND, she s telepathic! "A medium,
actually."
"I m...sorry. I m just, well, you see, I m--"
"Intimidated? You re a tomboy, correct?" I look down to my blue jean
overalls, white shirt, and bring my hand up to my Yankees baseball cap.
What was her first clue?
"Well, yes..."
"And, you have no real mutant power to speak of?"
"Well, no..."
"That will change. I know." She smiles weird. I still don t like her,
though.
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