Peter stayed for a while after that, and Clarice join as well as some of the other mutants who were slowly welcoming Lorna into their gang.
Among the laughing and the liveliness, Lorna felt more at home than ever before.
Saying their goodbyes for the night, Lorna heads to the room she shares with another mutant. A pretty red headed woman named Sonya but everyone called her Dreamer. She seemed nice, and her and Lorna got on pretty well, from the handful of conversations they’ve had late at night when neither of their minds let them shut off.
Coming into the room, she sees the light in the corner on, Sonja sitting up in the corner, book in hand.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt.” Lorna says and Sonja smiles and puts her book down. “No don’t be – how was your night? I heard a loud man-child so I guess Peter was here.” Sonja jokes and Lorna laughs.
“Yeah it was good – I had a pretty shit day so meeting Peter really improved it.” Lorna responds and Sonja hums in agreement.
‘Alright – well I better get some sleep.” Lorna says and leaves for the bathroom, Sonja’s eyes follow Lorna, something akin to worry settling in her gut.
Sonja knew she should tell Lorna what her powers were – but would Lorna still be her friend if she knew that Sonja could see her dreams every night – not dreams, nightmares.
Sonja loved her powers, but when it came to friends they tend to find it intrusive. And promptly changing rooms and ceasing friendship with the redhead.
There was a reason why she was the only one bunked here.
She’ll tell Lorna one day.
Soon.
¤ ¤ ◇ ¤ ¤
Lorna looked at her dead eyes in the mirror. When not around people, the life tend to disappear within her. Maybe she died with Pietro.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, she pulls it out and smiles softly.
“Hey Tones.” Lorna says and is greeted by and enthusiastic “Hey Kiddo” from Tony’s end.
She wanted to vent, wanted to tell Tony about Marcos – but she didn’t want him to know his efforts were for nothing.
She decided she wouldn’t tell him unless he asked – because she couldn’t lie to the man.
They talked for a bit, she asked how Pepper was and how everything in New York was. He asks how she is and the mutant underground.
“Its all good Tony, I actually met a really cool mutant today, he was a speedster like Pietro.” Lorna says with a bitter-sweet smile.
“Oh Hun, that couldn’t of been easy.” Tony says and Lorna nods and makes a noise of agreement.
“It really wasn’t great. But he is really nice – which made it a little bit easier.” Lorna replies and Tony hums. “That’s good Kiddo, would’ve been worse if he was a dick.” Tony says and Lorna laughed softly and agrees.
“Any news on Marcos yet?” Tony asks and Lorna wishes he didn’t change the subject.
‘Fuck me.’ Lorna thinks as she wracked her brain for any way to phrase this without worrying Tony.
“Um…we have a lead but I don’t think we’ll follow it.” Lorna says and hopes Tony doesn’t ask any more questions.
Which of course he does, cause he’s Tony freaking Stark.
“What? Why not? Do you need me to follow it up? What’s the lead?” He shoots the questions at her with lightning speed and she groans.
“Nah we don’t need any further assistance with it thanks, we’re pretty sure we’re close to finding him, but I’ll keep you updated.” Lorna lies through her teeth – which Tony doesn’t seem to pick up on. She thanks God for looking after her enough to stop him from asking her any further questions.
“Okay Kiddo, keep me updated.” Tony replies and Lorna sighs in relief as they finish their call. Lorna rubs her hands over her face, she felt drained and tired.
Shooting Wanda, a message that she would call her in the morning and her dead green eyes locked equally dull ones in the mirror. Her face was even more pale than before, her eyes held no life and her naturally green hair was colourless and messy. Everything about her was . . . dull.
And she knew she was right in her assumption that she died with Pietro. When he died, a massive part her of heart died with him. And she knows it’s finally catching up with her.
¤ ¤ ◇ ¤ ¤
Something was wrong when she woke up, she could smell smoke, Lorna almost jumps out of her skin when she wakes, definitely smelling something burning.
And not just the smell of burnt toast or burnt cereal (don’t ask how John managed to do it – John doesn’t even know himself.)
But what she was smelling was fire – no doubt about it.
“Sonja! Wake up I smell fire.” With those words Sonja rouses from her sleep, fear quickly filling her features before they rush out of their bedroom, looking to locate the fire and evacuate the facility.
They find John running and knocking on everyone’s door, waking them up for the evacuation.
“John, what is happening where is the fire?” Lorna asks and John runs his hand through his long black hair.
“They found us is what – we need to evacuate.”
Sonja must have understood what that meant but to Lorna it just went over her head.
“I’m sorry whose they?” Lorna asks running next to John, knocking on the doors to wake everyone they go past.
“A better question would be who isn’t looking for us. There is a reason we’re called the underground Lorna – people aren’t supposed to find out about us.” John says as they continue to wake everyone.
“But Tony found you guys, because of me. Did I lead them here?” Lorna asks freaked out.
“No Lorna, you scared us when you found us but you didn’t lead anyone here. Don’t worry about that.” Sonja says to comfort Lorna.
“Yeah, instead we should worry about the fire.” Lorna says and John starts pacing quicker.
Lorna thinks for a second.
“Do we have any mutants here who can control fire or water or ice or anything that can combat this?”
Light flashes behind Sonja’s eyes as she nods.
“John! We’re gonna go find Bobby, get everyone to Genosha with Clarice she can portal everyone there.” Sonja says and John nods in agreement at his fellow senior mutant.
Lorna stuck by Sonja and ran with her the way they were coming, since Bobby was on the other side of the base, they need to bypass everything.
“So, who is everyone that John was speaking about?” Lorna asks the redhead.
“Well, we’ve got the Purifiers, they are a hate group which target mutants – they’re horrible. Then there is Sentinel services, an Atlantan government group which try and arrest mutants who cause a disruption or hurt someone – mostly kids when their powers manifest and they have no idea what’s happening.”
Sonja answers and suddenly everything becomes clearer and clearer.
“So, all the kids here, everyone we save and relocate . . .”
“Are wanted by this government for something that isn’t their fault. I just know the ones they find are never seen from again. And it’s never a fair trial.”
Whether Lorna still holds a silver of naivety but she can’t imagine how that can go past in the legal system. But she supposes everything is worse when you’re a mutant.
There is no one protecting them from what’s in the real world.
It made sense now, what she’s been doing with John and everyone else since she got here; helping train mutant children, seeing new people and never seeing them against.
Lorna felt a sudden rush of anger as the got closer to finding Bobby.
Months, Lorna had been here. Months. And never once did John tell her what enemies they faced – letting himself get distracted with helping Lorna find Marcos.
How many people were impacted because of Lorna's selfishness.
Sonja says something that snaps Lorna from her thoughts as the room gets harder and harder to breathe in, the fire must be close.
They found the mutant they were looking for. A kid, a couple years younger than Lorna, who was helping evacuate some kids from their rooms.
“Bobby, we need you to come with us.” Sonja says, alerting the boy of their presence.
He puts the little girl he was holding down and looks at the two women.
“Someone needs to get these kids out.” He says and Sonja speaks up; “I’ll get these kids out, you and Lorna get to the fire and put it out. And if you can, find out what caused it.” Sonja says and Lorna nods and looks to Bobby who makes a start for the heat, Lorna following hurriedly.
¤ ¤ ◇ ¤ ¤
The fire was big, stretching from wall to wall and engulfing the ceiling in flames. She hoped this Bobby kid could handle such a large fire, and as she waits for him to dive into action, she scans the room, for anything other than the massive fire that was out of place.
The fire, from what she could see, started because of something that was thrown into an opening.
Lorna can’t be sure how they found them, considering how hard it was for Lorna to find the mutant underground.
“Are you gonna be able to control this kid?” Lorna asks and he turns back and nods.
And soon, an icy mist filled and surrounded his hands, and with a little grunt, he sends the icy mist onto the fire, a hissing sound following suit.
His brow had droplets of sweat, him being an ice type mutant, fire isn’t usually his go to.
But the fire was settling, And the smoke was getting pretty unbearable.
“You’re doing good Bobby, not too much to go.” Lorna says, giving him some words of encouragement. This boy was tough, tough enough to take on a fire by himself. Lorna had no other choice but be impressed.
Considering at his age she was a test subject with depression.
And now she just has depression.
“Lorna! I did it!” Bobby says as he turns around excitedly, and Lorna could hear the groaning of the wood in the room.
“Hey, Bobby, lets get outta here okay. The room doesn’t sound right.” She says with a caution.
And Lorna was right in her instincts, because as Bobby made a move, the foundation of the roof started to crack and with a loud bang fell onto them.
Before it hit them, with a large push Lorna knocked him out of the way, but in doing so, got herself pinned by the hot and splintering wood.
She groans at its weight, the wood stuck over her diagonally, and of course, at this moment, as the room fills with left over smoke from the smoldering wood, she couldn’t feel her powers.
She lets out a pain filled and frustrated scream, alerting Bobby who she didn’t realise lost consciousness.
“Lorna!” Bobby cries as he runs over, the wood being too heavy, and his powers of no use against it.
Fear crosses his eyes as he looks at Lorna helplessly.
“What do I do?” He asks in a small voice.
“Get outta here. Find John and tell him I’m trapped.” Lorna groans and Bobby nods before taking off away from Lorna. Running as fast as his legs could take him.
Lorna laid there, pinned and in pain. No doubt breathing in the dangerous smoke.
So much so, she thinks she starts to hallucinate. Wouldn’t be a first for her.
From the corner of the room, like a mirage, a woman emerges.
A dark skinned woman, with her dark hair in a weird style.
Her heels cracked on ground as she got closer to Lorna. The hallucination was so real, Lorna thought she could even smell the ladies perfume.
“Hi Lorna. We need to talk.”
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First and foremost I wanna say sorry for taking so long to upload. I literally haven't done it in more than a month. So I make up for it in a chapter almost 2000 words long 👍
But this has been my biggest hiatus so I'll try to never have this long of a break again. Sorry peeps.
If I set a schedule I'll just refuse to do it.
But ill try.
Stay cool my doods.
(Maxiallen since I uploaded its your turn xx)