Panther: Revamp

Shell

[Author's Note: {12-22-2013} Posted]

"Professor, is Emery still here?" Kurt asked opening the door to the Professor's office.

"Kurt!" he heard someone yell. He was tackled to the ground and engulfed in a hug, the person's face buried in his neck. That was definitely not Emery.

"A.J.?" Kurt asked puzzled. Kurt thought she was away still.

"Yup!"

Kurt grinned. "Welcome back."

"Why thank you," A.J. grinned.

"I sent her to the kitchen," the Professor answered Kurt's question.

"Come on A.J., I've got someone I would like you to meet."

"Hi! My name's A.J., but you can call me Bio-Hazard."

A.J. held out a gloved hand to Emery. Emery looked at her hand, not moving to take it.  Kurt and the Professor watched her cautiously. When it became evident that Emery had no intention of shaking A.J.'s hand, Kurt took a step forward.

"Don't worry about it, A.J.," Kurt said gently pushing her hand down. "Emery's a bit sensitive around people she doesn't know."

Emery twitched in annoyance. She was not 'a bit sensitive'. She was distrusting of people and despised people she didn't know or didn't like. She did not know nor like this Bio-Hazard, with her hair in her face, an odd glowing green, and her visible eye inspecting Emery's ears and tail like she was getting ready to touch them.

Particles of her familiar purple plasma began forming like rain drops in a cloud, speckling the air in the room, but they were so minute that no one noticed they were there. Emery tried to make them go away, and only succeeded in making them solid.

A.J. reached out towards Emery again, and in that moment the particles grew, sharpening to points. Emery took a step back and the needle-like plasma went racing towards Bio-Hazard. Emery was trying to restraining herself. She really was.

Kurt reacted much faster than everyone else in the room. He teleported and snatched A.J. out of the middle of the rush, taking her completely out of the room for a few seconds. This was just enough time for the Professor to put up a mental shield around himself and for Emery to stop holding back and let the reaction go full speed. The needles all collided in the center of the room. Purple exploded everywhere, shards flying backwards in every direction. They bounced harmlessly off the Professor's shield and dissolved back into plasma on contact with Emery. 

Kurt and A.J. poofed back into the room.

"You used your powers against a fellow X-man again," the Professor chided.

"I retained my powers. Had they not been retained, she would have died instantly."

Bio-Hazard backed up. "She's completely crazy!" She turned and ran out of the room.

Kurt started after her, but found himself restrained by one of Emery's mental tricks, unable to move forward.

'You almost killed her!' he flung his words at her mentally. 'Don't stop me from going.'

Emery's ears flattened against her head; her usually active tail stilled.

"Kurt," she whispered. "It's me or her..." she mumbled so no one would hear.

Kurt stared at her. "What?" He almost preferred her voice in his head, at least then he would know what words she was saying. 

A.J. was pretty. Emery couldn't deny that. Of course it made sense that he wanted her more.

"You should go check on her."

Kurt watched Emery, with her eyes downcast, for another moment before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The Professor inched forwards in his chair. "Emery, I understand you're in an emotional conflict right now, but perhaps some physical work cleaning up what you've destroyed will help clear your mind. Think things through, I think you'll find you made a mistake in one of your assumptions. Please come talk to me when you've finished cleaning." He then took his leave as well.

Emery stared at the floor, feeling tears rolling down her cheek for the second time that day. Kurt had chosen Bio-Hazard over her. She had just started to let herself believe she could love someone again. She had begun to trust him like she had trusted Chet.

The shards laying on the floor and embedded in the walls began to slowly move towards her.

There was nothing anyone could say that would fix this, this time. She knew her powers were out of control. She knew there was no way she would ever get full control over them. They ran off emotions, and she was a girl. Her emotions ran high and low at the flip of a switch. She couldn't help it. 

The shards began piling at her feet.

Bio-Hazard was friends with him first. It stood to reason she had a relationship with him first too. There was no reason Kurt would want her. She was just a destructive mind, a mutant that had no control what-so-ever on her abilities. She was dangerous. She saw that clearly now. There was no way anyone would be able to trust her, or even want her around if all she did was hurt people.

The shards were up to her knees.

Emery was an afterthought. She was just a mutant that they wanted on their team. They couldn't win against her, and therefore they just wanted to control her. That's all the people who the X-men had rescued her from had wanted too. And she had let them; she had let them all.

The shards reached her waist.

Becoming a mutant had forced her to lose everything she had, and prevented her from getting anything she wanted.

Her neck was no longer visible.

She'd clean up her mess. Yes, she would, but she wouldn't go see the Professor. Instead, she'd run away. She'd leave the mansion, Kurt, and the rest of them. There was no longer anything left for her here. She'd go tame her powers on her own. She'd find a way; she was powerful after all. That's why everyone wanted her.

The shards began creeping up her face, and combining into a crystalline shell.

She was done.

And so was the shell. It had completely encased her.