Flight of the Rogue (X-Men/Others)

Flight of the Rogue

Chapter One: Events Derailed​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit"

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from teh comics. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources. Also, this is set in the same universe as my story "To be a Hero: Family"

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

---

Three days ago​

Rogue ran to her home, or at least tried to, before realizing that this was the way to Cody's house.

'Oh, Gawd, what is happening to me?' she thought as a torrent of memories that felt like her own tried to drown her. Memories from Cody, the boy who she had kissed... and nearly killed with that kiss. Somehow she managed to push them away as she ran to her home, to Irene, the woman who had been like a mother to her. She was about to ring the doorbell when Irene opened the door.

"Come in, Rogue. We have to talk." Irene said, looking at her with her sightless eyes.

Rogue gulped but she nodded, before crossing the doorstep and as Irene closed the door, she grabbed her hand, to Rogue's surprise.

"Irene!? No!" Rogue said, feeling how she was starting to drain the older woman.

"Sorry Rogue... but this... is the... only.... way..." Irene said, fainting as she said the last word, and Rogue started to scream as she started to get assaulted by the memories of Irene, as well as a number of strange images.

She let go of the older woman hand as she fell down on her knees. If Cody's memories had been difficult to put aside, Irene's were almost overwhelming. As she stood the assault of memories from the older woman, she came to realize a few things about Irene and herself, pieced together from what Irene knew. Although it wasn't until the images started to vanish, when she could start to think on those realizations.

She was a mutant, with the power to absorb memories and powers of other mutants by mere touch. And what was more important right now, she had to get out of town post-haste. She hadn't got all what Irene knew, but she had learned that people were coming for her, and she didn't want to deal with other mutants or with anti-mutant terrorists until she got a hold on her powers and herself.

Looking around, she noticed a backpack on the dining room table. When she went to examine it, she saw that most of her clothes were there, as well as enough money to last her for a while. Silently she thanked Irene, as she took some clothes to cover almost every expanse of exposed skin and took the backpack with her.

She moved Irene, slowly as the older woman was a bit taller than her, and left her sitting in her favorite armchair, still unconscious. She knelt beside the armchair, looking at Irene, thinking of something to say, but nothing came to mind.

"See yah, Irene... Ah hope" she simply said, getting out of the house in silence and going to the nearby bus stop. A bus stopped shortly afterwards and Rogue boarded it, lost in thought. As the bus left the town, she didn't notice the car that entered town, going directly toward Irene's home.

/\​

Mystique, in the guise she always used when she visited this town, parked her rental car in front of the home of her old friend, Irene Adler. She was worried; Irene had called her half an hour ago, telling her to come to talk to her before trying to recruit Marie. She had left Sabretooth, Toad and Avalanche with instructions to distract the X-Men... and now Irene wasn't answering the phone.

She stood before the door, steeling herself for whatever could she find and then opened the door with her key. To her relief, Irene was there, trying to stand up.

"Irene, what happened? Why did you call me?" Mystique asked "Where is Marie?"

"We must go, Raven. We are not safe here." Irene said, still wobbly on her feet, "I'll tell you everything on the way."

"Irene, Where... is... Marie?" Mystique repeated, fearing that her friend and former lover's wits had been addled.

"I send her away." Irene said, looking at her with a grim expression, "I'll explain later, we must go! NOW!"

They quickly got into the car, just in time as two black vans appeared on both sides of the street. As she started the car, the vans maneuvered to block her way in front and behind.

"Fuck it!" Mystique said under her breath as she put the car in the highest gear, pushed the gas pedal to the max and turned the wheel to cross the garden of the house, just as the side doors of the vans slide open and men in black commando gear carrying submachine guns jumped out of it.

Mystique and Irene put their heads down as the car was peppered with bullets. Fortunately none of them hit the two women as Mystique steered the car, blindly trying to get away until the car fell into the Mississippi.

The head of the commando force took his radio and opened a channel.

"Sir, two of the targets fell into the river." The man said.

"Who?" answered their boss.

"The seer and the shapeshifter. Their ward seems to have disappeared after draining a local teen to an inch of his life." The man explained.

"Search on the riverside. The shapeshifter have survived worse." The boss said, "And remember, I want that bitch alive!"

"Yes, sir!" the man said, adding as a farewell, "Humanity forever!"

/\​

Mystique got Irene out of the water and practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her. Soon, she was coughing out the water she had swallowed escaping the car, and it was no long before she could stand.

"We are not safe yet. They are probably patrolling the riverside to see if they can spot..." Mystique started to say.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, smurfette." A voice said, as several men clad in black appeared around them, aiming their weapons at them. He then stepped into view, revealing a well-built blonde man in his late thirties, clad in the same commando gear than the rest of his fellows. He looked at them and smirked.

"You know, the boss has said that he wants the blue bitch alive, but he said nothing of the old bat." He said, aiming his sub-machinegun to Irene. "For the matter he didn't say the blueberry had to be unharmed." He added, before pulling the trigger in his weapon.

The bullet exited the cannon and stopped in mid air, the commandos stood there dumbfounded for a moment before their weapons were jerked away from their hands by some invisible force. The weapons floated over then, their shape twisting until they reformed into manacles, which put themselves on their arms. They only had a moment to look at them before they, except for the man who had fired, were removed from the scene by that same invisible force.

Then, a man clad in a red and black bodysuit, wearing a purple cape and wearing a strange helmet that obscured his face descended from high.

"Hello, Magneto." Mystique said "Don't tell me, Sabretooth called as soon as I was gone."

"Yes." Magneto said bluntly, before explaining, "You can be erratic on occasions, Mystique, especially when family is involved." He then turned to the man. "Do you know who I am, human?"

"Just another abomination against God's plan. And a kike, to boot." And he spit on his face "We'll clean your filth from the face of the Earth."

Magneto cleaned the spittle from his face and looked at the man with a bemused expression.

"Some things never change." He said, before his expression become hard. "Who do you work for?"

To his surprise the man laughed.

"Do your worst, mutie." The man said "You'll never make me talk!"

"Useless." Magneto said, flicking his wrist and throwing him toward the others. He then turned to face Mystique.

"Mystique, you were supposed to recruit your adopted daughter for the Brotherhood, now that he has discovered her mutant powers." He said, "What has changed?"

"Everything, Erik." Irene said, before Mystique could say anything, "I saw a new timeline, shortly after I saw the original one." she paused for a moment, before adding, "Believe me, letting her go will do a lot more good than recruit her."

"Hmmph... We'll see." Magneto said, hovering there for a moment before reaching a decision, "I'll let her go away... for the moment." He added before he flew away.

"But what did you see in her future, Destiny." Mystique asked, once Magneto was well out of earshot.

"Thunder and lightning." Irene answered cryptically.

A bus going North, somewhere in Mississippi​

Marie, or Rogue, that was the name she liked more, anyway, waited until they had left the town well behind to check the backpack that Irene had left her. She had already noticed the clothes and the money, now she found a few bags of her favorite snacks and a letter.

She took the letter gingerly and looked it over. It was written by Irene, no doubt, her precise and elegant handwriting was impossible to mistake with anyone else. She had asked once how did she manage to write so well being blind, Irene had smiled mysteriously and answered 'Practice.' Of course now she knew the truth, she was using her powers to cheat.

Sighing, she started to read the letter. After a greeting Irene launched into a condensed description of mutants and the X-Gene, as well as talking about herself and her own powers.

"...and that's how we came to this situation. I knew that you were a mutant, but I really didn't expect that your power would manifest when you kissed that boy, or myself having in that same moment two visions of your possible future back to back.

I won't say what would have happened to you in the other future, only that it wasn't pretty for you. I warn you, though, that I'm not infallible, so it may still come to pass. I hope that it doesn't, and I can say to you that I saw you finding happiness, as well as a point in the future where your choice of words will tip the balance on one side or another.

More immediately, though, you are being chased by people wanting to kill you by the 'crime' of being a mutant. That's why I did what I did, taking this decision for you. If we had more time, I would have explained what was going on, but we hadn't. I'm sending you to people that will protect you from them, but the path that you have to follow it's unclear, except for the first step."​

​

According to the letter she had to get to Central City tomorrow, and look in a post office box, the key was in one of the pockets of the backpack, to get another letter with more instructions. She was torn between following Irene's instructions or not, but in the end she decided to follow this first step at least, and from there, she'll see what to do.

The rest of the letter contained a few instructions and a post-script.

"P.S.: Marie, or Rogue, as you probably have already come to call yourself, there is something else. Every power you absorb will linger in you, fading over time. That means that you may receive some visions in the next days. In that case write them down, and, please, give it to me next we'll meet in person.

P.P.S.: Check that it's me in that case!"​

​

'As if.' She thought. She had a few hours until the bus arrived to its destination, and the events of the day had taken a toll in her. She secured the backpack, so that they'd had to wake her to steal it, and set the alarm on her Smartphone. She bundled herself and closed her eyes, soon she felt herself slipping into dreamland.

...Blood, blood everywhere. He was bleeding out, in her arms, as champions were being pushed back by an unrelenting tide of dead flesh and living metal...

...She was in another place, a city bordering a river and saw an explosion from downtown, which prompted the clouds to unleash a storm over the city. A lightning fell in a close building...

...She was elsewhere again... space? She was seeing Earth against a backdrop of stars, and a dark figure holding the world in its right hand, a hand covered by a golden gauntlet with six glowing gems...

...She was with a group, but she could only see the others dimly. A man in a dark armor stood before her. And behind him, giant robots decorated similarly to the armor...

...A blonde girl fighting creatures out of a nightmare as the ground cracked open and skeletal hands appeared on the cracks...

...A blonde girl with a cape was floating in the air before her. The vision wasn't clear enough to allow her to distinguish her features or what she was wearing. She found herself nodding and lifting herself from the ground...​

She awoke. Checking the hour, it had been less than two hours since she had set the alarm. And frankly, she didn't want to fall asleep again. Instead, she started to write in her phone what she had seen.

Elsewhere​

"You failed." The head of the anti-mutant group said.

"Yes, sir." The head of the commandos answered. "We didn't anticipate that the magnokinetic could be close."

The shapeshifter had escaped his grasp once again, and in his opinion it was the fault of the man in front of him. He forced himself to take a deep breath and sit back on the chair.

"Did you at least get the samples?" he said.

"Yes, sir." Said the man "We brought them to Doctor Trask, as we were ordered.”

"At least it wasn't a complete waste." The boss commented "Get out of here, Trent."

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

Chapter Two: Tornado Shelter

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1.

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

---

Central City Post Office. The next day.​

Rogue was nervous. The night had been quite restless, having finally fallen asleep after boarding the second bus... and awakening like twenty minutes later. The sequence of events had repeated several times for the whole voyage, fortunately without more cryptic visions of the future, until the bus finally arrived to Central City mid-morning, after a couple other bus changes.

With the money that Irene had left her, there was more than enough for a taxi to carry her to the Post Office to see if Irene's letter had arrived to the box she had mentioned. And when she opened the box, there was no one but two letters, a big, thick manila envelope, and an smaller white envelope with a note to open first.

Inside the smaller envelope there was another key, as well as a unused envelope, stamps and instructions to send the key she just had used to open the box to another P.O. Box in Midway City.

'Does she keep P.O. Boxes in every major city?' she wondered as she did what she had asked. The memories that she had gained from Irene, while almost completely faded by now, seemed to indicate that yes, she did.

Shaking her head, she went and opened the Manila envelope. Inside it there was a list of addresses, fake IDs for her (according to them she was now Anne Raven, 18 years old, from Brandon, Mississippi), and another list of instructions. Basically, she had to stay in the city until tomorrow night, and then pick a train to Topeka, Kansas, where the P. O. Box that corresponded to the new key was located, and she would give her the final instructions, emphasizing that she didn't have to follow them if she didn't want, but that it would be better in the long run.

'Well, at least I have almost two days to decide if I want to go.' Rogue thought while checking the list of addresses. There was a number of lodging places, a few shops, including an indie music shop she intended to check out later, and a mall for more general purchases.

She called a taxi and went to the first place in the list. It was an old motel that looked quite nice, if a bit worn, but the guy in charge gave her the creeps. Then, the second one was more of a bed and breakfast place, and it looked cozier than the motel, and somewhat newer than the others than she went later, even if the owner, a stern-looking woman in her early 60s that insisted that everybody called her Ma Hunkel, had looked at her a bit askance.

After visiting the others and not being convinced by them, she had ended choosing Ma's place, and after leaving her things in her room, she went to the music place that Irene had told her. It was a small shop located between two ugly apartment buildings, packed to the gills. Behind the desk there was a guy who looked straight out of a punk band.

She waved at him and started to browse the shelves. She picked a couple CDs and an imported DVD of a Japanese band she followed. When she came back to the desk she found that there was already a tall white guy with glasses and a look that screamed 'professor' to her.

"I'll see what I can find, but at best it would be a low quality analog recording, Professor Wells." The shop guy said.

"Even if that's the case, I would buy it. I have spent centuries looking for that recording." Professor Wells said, who then looked at her, and gestured her to come to the desk. "Come here, I can wait."

"Thank you." Rogue said, putting her prospective purchases to be scanned.

After paying the price, she didn't notice that Wells followed her with his eyes as she left the shop, frowning, as if trying to remember where he had seen her.

Rogue didn't noticed Wells interest on her, continuing her way. Irene's list had a few shops that she intended to visit, mostly to look clothes and restock her supplies of make-up that were running a bit low... had it been yesterday? It seemed like a long time ago...

She stopped for a moment and thought of Cody. Irene's had assured her that he would be fine, eventually. But, even with all that had happened yesterday, she hadn't even stopped to think of him on any moment. This killed her desire to go shopping further, so she called a taxi to go back to Ma Hunkel's place.

S.T.A.R. Labs​

Harrison Wells had returned to the labs and after exchanging a few words with Cisco and Ronnie, he made himself scarce in order to check something in his secret room, where he had hidden the things he brought with himself from the future, as well as the A.I. Gideon.

"Welcome, professor Wells." the pleasant voice of the AI said as it booted.

"Gideon, I need to identify a girl I met in the music store." Wells paused, trying to remember something.

Gideon didn't answer, instead showing a video of Wells entering the music store.

"Yes, that is the store. Fast forward a bit." Wells ordered.

The image advanced quickly until the girl entered the screen. She was quite distinctive with that white streak on her hair.

"Try to get a good image of her face, and run it through your database of this era personalities." Wells said, frowning, "I have the feeling I have seen her before."

Gideon did not answer, as the AI tried to match the face to her records of many women of this era. After a couple seconds, while Wells tried to remember, it stopped, showing an image of the face of a woman, who clearly was a grown-up version of the girl, dressed up in some kind of green and yellow uniform, from which only the shoulders were visible.

"Her civilian identity is Marie Ba..." Gideon started to say, only to be interrupted by Wells.

"Yes, yes, Rogue. She is a mutant, one of the X-Men. I fought them, once or twice. " Wells said, deep in thought. "What is she doing here, on Central City?"

"Unknown, professor. Our records of the activities of the X-Men on this time period, before their public reveal, are very incomplete." Gideon said.

"Find where she is lodged, and then..." Wells started to say before stopping himself. "Just find her. I have to check something in person."

"Yes, professor." Gideon said.

Ma Hunkel's Bed and Breakfast place​

Rogue was lying down on the bed of her room, brooding. She hadn't realized the implications of her powers until now. She had become some sort of living vampire, doomed to never know the touch of another human being.

She looked at Irene's first letter. Her reassurances that everything would work out at the end sounded hollow now, after she realized what her powers really entailed. Yes, she had always been a loner and a bit of an outcast, but it had been by choice. Now, her powers had robbed her of that choice.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a knock in the door.

"Honey, are you all right?" she heard the voice of Ma Hunkel through the door, "I saw you when you came, you looked like death warmed over and not in the usual Goth way."

"Ah'm fine, really." She said, trying to go for a perky voice to reassure her.

"That settles it. Honey, I'm coming in." Ma answered, opening the door with her own keys. Obviously her attempt to dissemble hadn't worked. Then Ma stood in the door and looked at her. "Come on, Rogue, you have been raised by Irene Adler, you should have learned to lie more convincingly."

"What?" Rogue said, as this had come completely out of the left field.

"She didn't tell you?" Ma said, looking at her. "I met her thirty years ago, when she tried to con me."

"That's why yah said Ah should have learned to lie better." Rogue said.

"'xactly. I didn't hold it against her, though." Ma said, lost in memories "We ended as friends, but that's too long a story to tell now."

She sat on the only chair on the room, in front of Rogue.

"What is important is that she called me this morning and told me that a Goth teen could be passing through here in short order." She continued "And here you are."

"And what else she said?" Rogue asked "Ah mean..."

"If you mean that if I know about her powers, yes, I do. They helped us when we got into a mess that time." Ma said. "And, by what you are saying, you probably had powers of some type too, do you?"

Rogue didn't answered immediately, trying to gauge what to say or not to say. It was moot, anyway, because Ma looked at her and said with a kind smile.

"Yes, you have them. It's written all over your face that you don't know what to tell me." Ma said, with a kind smile, "I guess that your powers are of a bad sort, right, honey?"

Rogue sighed and started to speak, her gaze firmly on the floor.

"Yeah, Ah can suck memories, skills and powers, if they have them, through skin contact. And Ah can't control it."

"My god." Ma said.

"The worst thing about it?" Rogue said "Ah discovered that Ah had them when Ah was kissing the first boy that had asked me on a date."

"Fuck." Ma said, which prompted a look from Rogue, who had heard her reprimand another guest for his liberal use of profanity earlier. "I'll clean my own mouth with soap later, honey."

The sheer incongruence of the phrase made Rogue snort. Ma Hunkel was old-fashioned, but not in a bad way. Not like that old lady, back ho... back at Irene's home, who pursed her lips each time they meet on the streets, because she didn't dare to try her fire and brimstone bullshit again after the verbal smack-down Irene gave her the only time she tried with them.

"What's so funny?" Ma Hunkel said, the twinkle in her eyes the only thing betraying she had done it on purpose to dispel the heavy atmosphere. "Okay, now that you aren't as depressed, can you come with me? I have something to show you."

Rogue followed Ma Hunkel, curious despite herself, to the attic, where Ma took the key ring she always carried on her and opened an old cupboard. Inside there was an old scrapbook, leather bound, with some kind of faded shield engraved on it. Ma opened it and leafed through it quickly, as if searching for something.

"Aha, here it is!" said Ma, taking a picture from the scrap book and showing it to Rogue. It was a black and white picture of a blonde woman in a tight black costume with a spider motif.

"Who is she?" asked Rogue.

"I met her in New York, she was a vigilante that fought specially the people who preyed on young women." Ma explained "A gang attacked me one night. I was still struggling when she appeared and started to throw them away. One of them managed to recover and jumped her with a knife, she tried to catch him, and I'll never forget what happened afterwards."

"What?"

"As soon as she had touched him, skin against skin, he started to scream as he started to rot from inside out." Ma said "She explained to me that one of her powers, besides super-strength and flight, was a 'touch of death' that wasn't entirely under her control. That's why she usually wore long gloves like the ones you are using, but in the fight they had been torn."

"And what happened to her?" Rogue asked.

"We kept in contact, but one day she disappeared. I heard that she was seen in Europe, but it has been many years." Ma said, with a shake of her head, "But the important thing, was that her powers didn't stop her from having a life, despite everything."

"Really?" Rogue said, clearly skeptic "Because that power sounds even worse than mine. Not to mention she killed that guy."

"She learned to control it, eventually. By the time she went to Europe, she was capable to do it at will." Ma said "And well, it was another time. The cops only did a cursory investigation, and not even his fellows saw what happened to him. Soon it was only just another one of the 'cold cases' in the Big Apple."

"When did that happen?" Rogue asked, curious despite herself, "And why nobody has talked about superpowered people before Iron Man?"

"That's a long story, honey, and besides, I only know part of it." Ma said with a sigh, and then she looked at the time "Tonight, I may tell you what I know, but it's getting late for supper."

STAR Labs​

"Greetings, Professor Wells." Gideon said as the man got near its interface.

"Gideon, Hartley Rathaway. Is he still planning to sneak inside the lab tomorrow?" Wells said, without preamble.

"Yes, Professor Wells, he isn't showing any sign of deviating from his plan." Gideon informed.

"Good, I'm probably going to need the Piper to motivate Barry, eventually." Wells said, smiling as another part of the plan went ahead, "What about our erstwhile mutant?"

"She is lodged into Ma Hunkel's Bed and Breakfast Inn." Gideon answered.

"Dammit." he cursed softly, and the mused aloud "I can't do anything direct, it would attract the attention of the Society."

"Can you repeat the question?" Gideon said.

"It wasn't a question, I was just thinking aloud." Wells said absently, as he decided in a course of action, "Do the Friends of Humanity exist already on this time period?"

"No, according to records." Gideon said.

"But we have screwed the timeline enough that it may have some unexpected repercussions, the butterfly effect can be funny like that. Not to speak of the effects, intended or unintended, of other time travellers." Wells mused, "Check what some of its historical leaders are doing just now and compare with the historical database."

"Processing... Anomalies found." Gideon said, "Bolivar Trask and Graydon Creed have left SHIELD nearly a year before they did in the records. "

"So a version of the Friends of Humanity could be already in existence." Wells said, nodding to himself, a plan already starting to take place in his mind, "Try to locate either of them, or any of their more notable lieutenants, like Stephen Lang."

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

Chapter Three: Future Shock​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1.

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

---

The parking lot of a road-side inn somewhere in Mississippi​

Steven Lang looked at Alex Trent, who was screaming to his ex-wife on his cellphone, with distaste. Lang was a scientist who had worked closely with Trask, and Trask's mysterious benefactor, in developing countermeasures to the mutant problem. He respected Graydon Creed's zeal, even if he thought that Creed was a bit too blinded by his own rage at times. But Alex Trent? No, if it was on him, Trent would disappear, being exactly the kind of bigot the Friends of Humanity would be thought to be.

Trent suddenly stopped mid-tirade, and looked at the phone with a slightly stunned look.

"The bitch hung on me." He said, as he put the phone back in his pocket.

"What did you expect? You have been screaming at her for five minutes straight." Lang said, with a sarcastic tone, "Maybe if you weren't that big of an asshole, the court wouldn't have retired your visiting rights."

"Fuck you." Trent answered,

Lang didn't dignify that remark with an answer, turning away from the person he had been saddled with to go back inside to pay their bill when his own cellphone rang. He looked at the screen and saw that it was a hidden number. Nobody, other than the higher echelons of the FoH had this number, so who the hell could be calling him? He turned around again, going back to the parking lot to answer the phone, while signaling Trent to stay there.

"Who is this and how did you get this number?" he asked without preamble.

"That is not important, Mister Lang." Somebody, speaking with an electronically distorted voice, answered, "What is important is that I know of the location of one of the mutants that managed to flee Mister Trent's ambush yesterday night."

"Even if I knew what you are talking about..." he started to say.

"Oh, please. Don't try to dissemble; I know a lot of things about you." The voice said, "You came to SHIELD full of ideals to protect humanity, only to find that, as always, politics reigned supreme and a good man you idolized was being thrown to the wolves. So, when he left you left with him, and now you and he are full of plans for a final solution to the mutant problem."

"Listen a moment, you... you..." he started to say, hotly, having caught what the other man was implying immediately.

"Ah, did I touch a nerve?" the voice said with a chuckle.

"What do you fucking want, Mister Know-it-all?" he said, clenching his teeth.

"As I said, I know of the location of one of the mutants, the teenage power drainer." The voice said, unperturbed.

"And you are telling us this out of the goodness of your heart." Lang said, in a skeptical tone.

"Hardly. I have my own motives." The voice said, and then he said an address "It's in Central City." And he hung up.

Lang swore for a few minutes, to the amused look of Trent. He glared at him, and went back inside to pay, before coming back out and calling headquarters.

Central City. Ma Hunkel's Inn. That night​

It was a bit late that night. By accident or design, Rogue had been the only guest to remain at the inn that night, so she and Ma were alone in the building when the young mutant went down the stairs to the living room were Ma Hunkel was knitting, sitting in a rocking chair.

"Mrs. Hunkel, I'm here." Rogue said.

"Call me Ma, honey." She said without lifting her eyes from the knitting needles. "Everybody calls me that, anyway."

"It's about what we talked earlier. About people with..."

"Powers? Special abilities?" she said "Yes, I remember. 'Mystery men', was how they were called back then. The term 'superhero' hadn't been coined yet, you see."

"And when was then?" Rogue said, curious.

"Another age, some people called it a Golden Age." Ma said, "I always thought of that name as nostalgic hogwash, though.”

"How so?"

"It was simply a time like any other, with bad and good things. You see..." she started to say when the telephone rang. "One moment."

"Ma Hunkel's Bed and Breakfast Inn, what can I do for you?" She said, "Hello, Fritz, so how things are going on Keystone?... Really?... Yes, that's worrying... No, I don't have any guest that looks like that." This final sentence was said looking at Rogue, who noticed the gesture. "I'll keep that in mind... Bye."

"What was that?" Rogue asked, after Ma had hung up.

"One moment, I have to make a call." Ma said.

She keyed a number from memory and waited for the answer.

"Fred, it's Abby Hunkel... Yes, Ma Hunkel. Listen, I received a call from Fritz, in the Keystone office, about a fugitive that may be lodging here... No, she is not here, but that's the kind of thing that you usually manage, not Fritz... Really? That's odd. Fritz seemed convinced that it was real... See you."

"What was that?" Rogue repeated.

"Things are not safe for you here anymore, honey." Ma said, as she was writing in a notepad, "Collect your things, and go to this address." She ripped a leaf from the notepad and gave it to her, "It's the house of a friend that it's out of town right now."

Ma accompanied her to her room, to help her packing, as well as giving her a bit of an explanation.

"Fritz and Fred are the head of the FBI offices in Keystone City and Central City, respectively. Given that the cities are just across the river from each other, the usual procedure is for notices to one office to go also to the other."

"But from what I heard, that hasn't been the case."

"Yes, and Irene warned me that the people after you may have contacts in Law Enforcement." Ma said, "Now call a taxi, and get to that address. Do you have some way to get in contact with Irene?"

"Not quickly." She shook her head, "She left a Post Office Box address and that is."

"Goddammit." Ma said. "Look, down the street there is a phone box. Call a taxi from there. I'll keep the FBI people busy."

"But you just have basically told the FBI guy that I'm not here." Rogue asked.

"Yeah, but Fritz is pretty by-the-book. He'll ask Fred for help and they'll send a few agents to look around and make a general nuisance of themselves in this neighborhood." Ma Hunkel said, "With luck, nobody will think to check there. Tomorrow, I'll go there to help you, but don't forget to check that P.O. Box."

They got out through the back door, and Rogue walked down the street toward the pay phone. Ma Hunkel went back to the kitchen to prepare a tea for herself. Just as she was doing that, she looked and saw a black car stopping before the inn, and two men in dark suits with sunglasses stepped out. Ma frowned; there hadn't been time for them to come here from the FBI office. They could have been doing anything closer to here, but the timing was very, very suspect.

The FBI agents were two young men, a crew-cut blond with a bodybuilder physique, while the other was a red-haired man with a swimmer physique and longer hair than his partner...

Something was bothering her about those two. She had talked with a lot of G-men over the years, and these two... something about them was off, and it gave her a bad feeling. Well, thanks to Rex she had something better than long johns and a pot, if things went south. And fortunately the only guest tonight had been Rogue, so she shouldn't worry too much about people getting in the crossfire.

~~~~~~~​

"What do we know about this woman?" Trent asked, adjusting the necktie of his suit. Looking the part of a Fed irked him, given their part on the death of his father.

"Not much, she is a widow from New York, and she moved to Central City with her family 'round twenty-five years ago." Lang answered, checking his Smartphone for the data that have been sent from Central. "Hmmm... strange, it is almost as if she had suddenly appeared thirty years ago in NYC with her kids."

"Witness protection?" Trent asked.

"Maybe." Lang said, as they reached the porch of the inn.

After they rang, they could hear a muffled 'coming' from the back, and a couple minutes later, a sixty-something woman, dressed in a maroon robe over bright-yellow pajamas opened the door.

"Ma Hunkel Bed and Breakfast place. What can I do for you?" she said with a friendly smile.

"Abigail Matilda Hunkel?." Trent said, trying his best to sound official.

"That's me." She said, with a confused expression.

"I'm Agent Alexander, and this is Agent Stephens." Trent said, using the names in their fake FBI IDs. "We have received an anonymous tip that a fugitive could be lodging in your establishment."

"Yes, Fritz, from the FBI office in Keystone called me earlier." The woman said, "I didn't recognize the description he gave me, but if you have a picture..."

Trent and Lang looked to each other, clearly thinking the same thing. 'What the fucking hell?.' The real FBI wasn't supposed to know about this.

"Yes, yes. One moment." Trent said, getting his hand into his jacket, but no picture was produced. Instead, Ma Hunkel found herself looking at an 9 mm automatic pistol. "The girl, where is she?"

Ma Hunkel didn't panic when the crew-cut blonde aimed at her with a pistol. It wasn't the first time that she had been threatened by a gunman, and frankly, these two weren't all that scary compared to some of the people who had been after her in the past.

She then noticed that the other man had pursed his lips when his partner had aimed the weapon at her. 'Interesting.' She thought. It seemed that these two weren't exactly in the same page.

But it would be better to play along for now, maybe they would let slip something, so she opened her eyes wide and managed to say, faking a convincing frightened tone:

"But... but... I have told you the truth. No Goth teenager had been lodged here in the last days." she said, adding a shiver for effect, "A girl came this morning, but she didn't look like at all like that. And I didn't let her lodge here without a valid ID."

They seemed to have swallowed it, as the blond muscle lowered the gun, before the other talked again.

"How did she look?" he asked.

"Green eyes, bottle blonde, wearing a gray turtleneck, jeans and boots." Ma said, lying through her teeth, "Ah, and she was carrying a backpack."

"Something else?" the redhead asked.

"No... Wait, she mumbled something about meeting somebody mid way or in Midway when she was leaving." Ma said.

"Midway Island? In the Pacific?" Blondie said

"No, probably Midway City, in Michigan." the redhead said. "Anything else, Mrs. Hunkel?."

"Nothing that I can recall." She said, and then added when the blonde raised his weapon again, "Really, I'm telling you the truth!."

"I believe you." Blondie said with an ugly smile, before shooting her twice in the chest. She fell on the floor, just before her seat.

"Godammit, Trent." Lang said. "Was that necessary?"

"Yeah, you heard her; she had friends in the local FBI office." Trent answered, with a shrug, "Better this that having the Feds after us."

"You deal with Trask after this. I guess he isn't going to be very happy with you." Lang said, rolling his eyes as he followed his partner toward the exit door.

They left Ma Hunkel lying on the floor, and it was not long before the car left the street. Ma took a deep breath when she heard them leaving and sat on the floor, examining the marks that the bullets had left on the bulletproof fabric of the bodysuit she was wearing under the pajamas. It hadn't penetrated it, but given the pain she was feeling, it was going to leave a couple of bruises.

But at least she already had a name, Trask. She had to call Rex and Carter about this, before she went to join Rogue on Jay's safe house.

Keystone City.​

The taxi arrived to the address that Ma had given her, a small apartment building just outside a zone of the city that seemed to be completely surrounded by thick concrete walls. She shrugged and went to the second floor.

The apartment was well kept, although the furniture looked to be a bit old, as was the TV in the living room. One of the rooms seemed to be a complete chemical lab, weirdly enough, and the books seemed to be all science related, except for a single and a dog-eared old-looking copy of a book called "Behind the Mask", by a guy called John Law.

She lied down on the bed, thinking about what she had to do tomorrow. The idea of going to Topeka didn't appeal to her, but frankly, with the FBI going after her, she didn't have many options, other than trust what Irene had ready for her. Maybe tomorrow Irene would have sent something. She closed her eyes. It had been a long day, and sleep soon claimed her...

She stood inside a cathedral-like building made of crystal. A young black haired man with the bluest eyes she had ever seen, dressed in a flannel shirt, a burgundy leather jacket, and jeans was talking to her, but she couldn't hear the words, because of the intense cold she was feeling. The man bopped his forehead, and removed his jacket, putting it over her shoulders. When he did that, she felt... safe, and looked back at him with a smile in her lips...

He was gone, as it was the crystalline building, and the jacket. But she was not feeling the cold anymore. She was in a fighting stance against a dark haired woman, who smirked and attacked her faster than she believed possible. She could barely block her and the hit hurt a lot. She braced herself for the next hit...

The girl was nowhere to be seen now; instead she was in a dark corridor, stepping back from some kind of purple... slimy... thing, with glowing red eyes that extended a dripping hand to her. Suddenly the hand was on her shoulder and she screamed...​

...Just to awake in the bed with Ma Hunkel trying to wake her.

"Sorry, a nightmare." Rogue said, and by the light that filtered through the window it was already early in the morning. "What time is it?"

"7:30, and I called one of my sons to take care of the inn this morning." Ma said.

"Did the FBI agents arrive?" Rogue asked, as they walked to the small kitchen.

"Twice. The first time they were fakes, probably the same people that are after you and Irene." Ma said, serving herself a cup of tea, "The second time, I repeated what I told the fake agents and informed them that somebody that identified themselves as FBI agents had come to visit here. As they were leaving, Fred called and told me that it had been some hacker sending a fake warning, as the central office has no record of sending it."

"And do you believe it?"

"Well, the fakes seemed to be surprised that I had received a call from the local FBI office." Ma said, "And you?"

"Fine, actually. What's the history of the walled area, though? There is nothing inside." Rogue said, curious.

"It happened a decade ago. A couple blocks of the city simply disappeared overnight." Ma said, "Nobody knows what happened there. After months of investigation some Federal agency dictated that it would be better to simply wall the zone off, citing some bullshit story about radiation."

"You don't believe the story about radiation." Rogue said.

"Before the Feds cordoned the area Ted, a friend who is also an astrophysicist told me that the radiation levels were completely normal." Ma said, "But the Feds are still keeping watch over it, for no reason that I can discern."

"And that's all? Nobody is doing anything?" Rogue said, "How many people were lost?"

"Too many. All my family was spared, thanks God, but I lost a couple of good friends, Jay and his wife Joan."

"But..." she started to say, but whatever she was going to say was lost, when the doorbell interrupted them.

They looked at each other, wondering who it could be. Ma went to look through the peephole to see who it was.

"Mercury Messages?" she said, with a confused expression. She left the chain on and opened the door.

"Abigail Hunkel?" said the message boy.

"Yes? Who it is?"

"I have a package for you, from a... Sherrell Moriarty?" the messenger said.

She opened the door, took the package, and signed on the order. After he went his way, Ma closed the door and brought the package to the kitchen table.

"Who is Sherrell Mo...?" Rogue said, trailing off when she noticed the name combination; "It's from Irene, isn't it? She loves her Sherlock Holmes references."

"Yeah, and besides, that was the name she was using when I met her." Ma said as she opened the package.

Inside there was another note, a bus ticket and a cellphone. Rogue took the note before Ma could do anything about it, and started to read it silently.

Dear Marie, the Walled Area in Keystone City is something that nobody can resolve in the present. But, don't worry, the person who will undo what happened will appear soon, like a bolt from the blue.

The bus ticket is for the last bus out of Central City today, take it. And the cellphone has in the memory a few numbers of people who can help you, if you are in trouble in Kansas.

Another thing, this is the last time you will hear of me for a long while, other than the letter that I'll send you to Topeka just before I leave. There is a person I must talk with, about something that I have seen in the future, and try to talk him out of something he is planning to do.

Love, Irene​

"Spooky, isn't it." Ma said after Rogue finished reading the note.

"How do you know what Irene wrote there?" Rogue asked

"I don't know, but it's not the first time she does the note thing, sending one what you were thinking about in that moment" Ma said, "So what does she says?"

"In short, that the walled area is not my concern and that she may be out of contact for a while." Rogue said, "So, what we do now?"

"I'm going to buy a set of less distinctive clothes for you. Those people may still be watching the stations."

"...Fine." Rogue said, sitting in an armchair. Meanwhile, Ma Hunkel said goodbye as she got out the door.

She took her a notebook, remembering Irene's caution about the visions and started to list all what she remembered about last night dreams. While she was doing this, she started to sketch in the margins, some of the things she remembered. Progressively, the sketches became bigger and bigger, until she found herself with a full page picture of the boy that had given her a jacket in that icy place.

When she had finished, she looked at the picture with amazement, and a bit amount of fear. She had never been able to draw beyond stick figures, but Cody had won several contests with his skills. And it wasn't only his skills. She looked at the writing, that started recognizable as her own, but over what she had written it wavered between Irene's clear and precise handwriting, Cody's sloppy, though readable, one, and her own tighter, rounder letters.

It had been completely unconscious on her part, as if pieces of Cody and Irene lingered somewhere in her. If this happened every time... she shuddered, the thought of losing herself to the fragments of different people she absorbed terrified her, and the only thing that prevented her from bolting out was Irene reassurance that everything would work out at the end.

TO BE CONTINUED....

 

Chapter Four: A bolt from the blue​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1 and Thor

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

---

Central City Station Parking Lot. An inconspicuous van.​

Stephen Lang had been sitting in the passenger's seat of the van, waiting for Trent to come back, while employing his time in dealing with some of the backlog on some of the projects he had been working with Doctor Trask, thanks to his prevision in bringing his laptop. He looked up as Trent opened the door to the van

"HQ called, they examined the videos and the little bitch didn't appear anywhere here or in the bus station." Trent said without preamble as he sat in the driver’s seat, "So, we got new orders."

"And those are..." Lang said, rolling his eyes. Since the visit to the old bat, he had been convinced that this was a whole waste of time, better employed in more interesting things, like working on Doctor Trask's Sentinel project.

"Jackson, Ashford and me will continue looking for the little bitch, and you and Sanderson go back to HQ." He said, "Trask wants you for something."

'Finally!' he thought, happy of getting rid of the bastard, but, wisely, he didn't let any of his relief show in his face. "How do we go? Or...?"

"Whatever way you want, maybe with you out, I can get shit done." Trent said.

A bar just outside Bayville​

Logan walked in and looked around. Unsurprisingly, given the early hour, it was almost empty, the barman and a middle-aged woman with sunglasses sitting on a table were the only people inside.

"Hey, Logan." Rob, the barman said.

"Rob." he acknowledged, sitting on a stool.

"The usual?" Rob said, already getting down picking a Canadian beer.

"Yeah." he said, sitting on a stool.

"It isn't a bit early for you to come here?" the barman asked as he opened the bottle.

"Somebody sent a note asking me to come here." he answered as he took the bottle.

"Well, nobody has come asking for you." Rob answered, "In fact, other than the blind lady, you are my first client of the morning."

"Actually, Logan, I was waiting for you." he heard her say, "I was the one who sent the note."

He looked back and saw the woman looking at him, the white baton that had been hidden by the table prominently in display. Taking a sip from his beer, he shrugged and went to sit with the woman.

"Do I know you? Because your note was addressed to a name that I haven't used in many years." Logan said in a low voice.

"No, but we have common acquaintances, like Mystique or Creed." she said, as Logan started to take another sip from the bottle.

Upon hearing those names, Logan did a spit-take.

"Do you work for...?" he started to say, narrowing his eyes.

"Occasionally." she said, as if it was the more normal thing in the world, "Don't get it wrong, I do it because I owe Mystique my life, I don't agree with either Magneto or Xavier's vision." she said, "And before you ask, no, I'm not working with them right now."

"Are you..?" Logan asked.

"A mutant? Yes, precognitive, I see how events may develop." she said, "And that comes back to the reason I asked you to come here."

"Let me guess, you came to warn me of something bad that is going to happen." Logan said, his voice full of skepticism.

"Hardly." the woman said with a snort, "I was the legal guardian of the girl that you and Xavier's people tried to recruit two nights ago."

"Oh, that's how she disappeared." Logan said, realizing what had happened, "By the time we got rid of Creed, she was gone, and her home...."

"Yes, I was the one who sent her away, just in time before... something unpleasant happened." the woman said, "My power told me that if she was not there when any of you arrived, she could have a much better future. And before you ask, the people who wrecked our home, had no bearing on this, although you're probably are going to know about them soon enough."

"How do I know you are telling me the truth?" Logan said, still skeptical, "You haven't even told me your name."

"You don't, and my name is Irene, by the way. Irene Adler." she said.

"Seriously?" Logan answered.

"Yeah, I have heard all the Sherlock Holmes jokes already." Irene said.

Logan sat back and looked at her thoughtfully.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" he said, finally.

"Mystique wanted to recruit her, that's why you found Sabertooth and the others there." she explained.

"And you agreed with her working for Magneto?" Logan said.

"Even if I had said no, Mystique would have tried to recruit her anyway. And anyway, at the time, the best future that I saw for her, passed for her recruitment into Magneto's group, not that she would have lasted long there." Irene said, "But that night, I had a vision that showed me a much better outcome if I sent her... elsewhere. A much better outcome for her, and for everybody, human and mutant alike."

Logan waited, his face impassive, sensing an incoming 'but'. And the woman didn't disappoint him in that regard.

"...But even that is dependent on you, and you alone, without the rest of the X-Men, going for her." Irene said, "And there is something else for you, in this. Exactly what it is, I don't know, only that whatever it is relates to Nick Fury."

Logan didn't answer immediately thinking about what he had just been told. His augmented senses hadn't picked any sign she was lying, but she was friendly with an expert dissembler, so he didn't really have any motive to believe her. On the other hand, Nick Fury. If he was somehow involved on this, he needed to see it and pronto, and have the X-Men on speed dial.

"Where do I have to go?" he asked, and Irene promptly answered, "Kansas, eh?"

Ma Hunkle safehouse, noon​

Ma Hunkle put the groceries in the table, and a package in the fridge. She had just bought enough for the two of them, and she had also go to collect a couple items she had asked Rex send her last night, and then she would sent her underway, after a bit of preparation of the disguise. It wouldn't be good if some of those people who were after her recognized her at the bus station.

Rogue was reading at the table, still immersed in "Under the Hood". John would be proud of being able to attract the attention of younger generations, although she still thought Jonathan was right on decking him for what he told about the fictionalized versions of Libby and him. Why he had invented that incident was beyond her, as if their relationship hadn't been rocky enough, (if she was not wrong, they were on their third attempt at marriage already, and that didn't count the times they had been separated without divorce and reconciled later), to have plenty of real incidents to draw on.

She started to prepare the vegetables for a lentil stew, and while the stew was over the fire, she prepared a light salad.

"Rogue, I brought Ice Cream. Vanilla, Cream or Chocolate?" she asked, as she started to set the table.

"Vanilla." Rogue said, as she went to help her.

Some time later, after they had eaten, and cleaned everything, she broached the matter to her.

"Marie, I doubt that they had stopped looking for you. If you are going to take that bus, you will need to disguise your appearance." Ma said.

"I know, I'm pretty distinctive, aren't I?" Rogue said with an ironic smile, "What do you have in mind?"

"Makeup, clothes and either hair dye or a wig." Ma said.

STAR Labs​

He saw as the security personnel carried away Henry Rathaway, or as he had known him, the Pied Piper. He had tracked a few of the future Rogues, and he had subtly encouraged them to be away from Central City for the next two years, he calculated. Enough time to enact his plan without undue interference, and in case some of them came earlier... well, as much as it irked him, the Flash would be here to stop them.

Now, about other possible interferences... most of them were too young or too far. Even Stark was focused mostly in cleaning the messes his family had left behind right now. And while Rogue had managed to escape...

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a message warning from his phone. He frowned, the few people who knew this number, knew better than to send a message. He took the phone and looked at the message, and a chill ran down his spine.

'You have been a naughty boy, Eobard, sending the Friends Of Humanity after Rogue.'

The sender was hidden, and his attempts to identify whoever had sent him were met with failure. He was about to start a heuristic search on Gideon's files when he received another message.

'Don't worry about your little scheme about Flash, I have no interest in foiling that. But X-Men and Brotherhood members, present and future, are off-limits for the Reverse Flash. After all, you are not the only time traveler with plans.'

Just after he stopped reading the message, he received a call from a hidden number. With trepidation, he answered the call.

"Harrison Wells speaking, who is it?" he said, with the more normal voice he could muster.

"I hope that you received my message, Doctor Wells, or should I call you Eobard Thawne?" a digitized voice said.

"What do you want?" he said.

"Many things, but what is important right now is that I have plans for some of the mutants in the X-Men and the Brotherhood, and your little stunt would have cost me one of my pawns if I hadn't reacted quickly." the voice said, "On the other hand, Flash may prove a nuisance in a few months, so I have a..."

Somewhere in the Midwest​

"...little proposal for you." the voice in the computer said, "I'll try to steer any mutants clear from Central City or Keystone City, and in exchange..."

"I keep Flash focused in Central City for the time being." Wells answered, "That may be a bit difficult since he seems to have befriended Oliver Queen."

"Let me worry about that." the voice said, a sneer evident in its voice.

"No skin off my nose, but I agree to your terms. I intended to do so anyway." and Wells cut the call.

"Do you think he has bought it?" another voice, belonging to an old man wearing a hooded robe, answered.

"Probably, Eobard Thawne can be highly predictable. His two main instincts are self-preservation and a deep hate for the Flash. Everything else is secondary to him." the voice in the computer said.

"Very well, but my time grows short, Adrian." the robed man said, "And we'll need the three of them when my greatest failure returns."

Ma Hunkle Safehouse.​

"Are you sure about this?" Rogue said, looking at herself on the mirror, "I look..."

"Absolutely unlike you." Ma said, "People see what they expect to see, so a young redhead dressed like a hippy won't attract the attention like a Goth teenager, or a preppy blonde."

"Still..." Rogue drifted off, not having a counter for that, "I suppose that I can change back later." she said with a sigh.

"Not until you have reached Topeka." Ma cautioned, "In the meantime, I can give you the two-dollar tour of Keystone City and Central City."

"Are you sure we'll have time?" Rogue said, "The ticket is for the last bus of the day, but still..."

"Before the inn took off, I worked part time as a tour guide." Ma said with a smile, "Believe me, I know what I'm doing."

STAR Labs. Gideon's room. A few hours later​

Harrison Wells had managed to get his nerves under control. To hear that, despite his precautions, he had been observed the whole time, had been unnerving, to say the least. But nonetheless, the show must go on.

He then noticed a pop-up appearing on the screen, showing a shooting star crossing the darkening sky. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. Just in time. Nonetheless, he checked the weather. And as the history books said, an enormous storm front was starting to form following the path of the shooting star, covering the entire coast. One of the biggest storms of the Century.

'A fitting welcome for the arrival of the God of Thunder.' he thought.

He had considered for a long time when to set the opening of the Accelerator, but in the end, he had pushed for the opening being tonight. There had been... would have been other storms that would affect Central City and could have been used to ensure that Barry Allen would become the Flash, but he ended choosing this, as it didn't depend on fickle weather patterns that could be easily disrupted by a careless time traveler, but on events that could not be easily disrupted.

Not too long afterwards. Central City.​

"Okay, I forgot that tonight was the inauguration of STAR Labs particle accelerator." Ma said, having finally parked some distance from the CCPD headquarters, after having driven around the block more than a few times, "I'll talk with Joe about the incident and then we'll be going back to Keystone City."

"Hopefully before the rain starts to get worse." Rogue said, looking at the cloudy sky and the drizzle that was starting to fall.

Rogue looked down at the city, finding the view strangely familiar, and then it hit her. One of her first visions. She started to look for the phone where she had been noting the visions and saw the description, as the image came back to her:

She was in another place, a city bordering a river and saw an... explosion from downtown, which prompted the clouds to unleash a storm over the city. A lightning fell in a close building...

She realized now that the explosion of her vision... came from STAR Labs.

'The particle accelerator.' she thought, as she started to run toward the police building. But it was too late, she could already see the events of her vision unfolding, as the wave of whatever it was started to expand from the lab, reaching the clouds and unleashing the storm that had been brewing for the last half an hour.

She turned to run toward the police building, as she had realized that it was the one from her vision, where the lightning...

"Crap!" she said as the lightning struck the top floor, exactly like in her vision, and exactly like in her vision she saw a flash from the upper floor.

She ran toward the building, only to find Ma and a young woman exiting it.

"What the Hell has happened?" Ma asked, alarmed by Rogue's expression.

"Lightning struck the top floor and STAR labs..." Rogue started to say.

"Oh, God, Barry!" the woman said, running back to the building.

"...exploded." Rogue finished, and then turned to Ma "Should we go to help?"

"Yes, we still have time to go to the station." Ma said after looking at her watch.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

Chapter Five: An unexpected meeting​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1 and Thor

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

A/N 3: I would like to thank my beta Jediknight.

---

CCPD Stairs​

Iris ran up the stairs, as the emergency generators hadn't kicked in yet, followed closely by the teen who was with Ma Hunkle. The older woman was following them at a more sedate pace, though more quickly than would be the usual for a woman her age. After several flight of stairs she finally reached the door... that was closed.

"Barry! Godammit, Barry, answer!" Iris said, hitting the door with her fist.

"Get out of the way." Rogue said, taking a fire extinguisher and using it to bash the lock with all her strength.

The lock gave way and they both burst into the lab. It was dark, the only illumination came from some emergency lights, but it was enough to see a body lying on the floor.

"Barry! Oh, my God!" she said running toward the body. After checking Barry was alive she got her phone and tried to call before noticing that it was dead, "Goddamnit." She then turned to Rogue, who had followed her, "Can you...?"

"Yes, of course." Rogue said, checking her phone. Fortunately her phone was good and had service, so she called 911. After calling two times, as the lines seemed to be a bit overwhelmed, both by the explosion and the storm that was being unleashed over the city, she managed to connect with the call center and appraise them of the situation.

Outside the Central City PD​

After the paramedics loaded Barry into the ambulance, Iris boarded it, leaving Ma and Rogue behind in the stairs to the building.

"I hope he is alright, he such a good boy..." Ma said, shaking her head.

"Do you know him? Ah mean, the guy from the lab."

"Barry Allen, he's Joe's foster son." She said, as she composed herself and started to walk toward their car, when she caught sight of the time, "Dammit, we're gonna be late. Come on, get running"

They quickly boarded the car and Ma used her knowledge of both cities' street layout to arrive in just the nick of time, not noticing the man who was following them as they entered the station.

"Take care of yourself, and don't forget to write. My email is in the card I gave you." Ma said as Rogue boarded the train.

"I'll do it, thanks for everything, Ma." Rogue said, hugging the older woman just before she entered the train.

She sat in a window seat and waved to Ma as the train started to get in the way not too long afterwards. She leaned back, thinking that the most dangerous part of the journey was already behind, and hoping to catch some sleep on the way.

Ma, meanwhile, was still musing about Irene's letter as she had been doing intermittently since they received it. She knew Irene well enough to know that she wouldn't use an expression like 'a bolt from the blue' if she didn't mean something or somebody specifically.

Keystone City Grand Station​

Sidney "Sid" Jefferson was looking at the people in the station going toward their buses. So far, he hadn't seen the girl that that fucking asshole Trent had sent her to look for. Just his luck that of all the possible FoH operatives, he had to work for him.

'Hmmm... nothing.' he thought as he walked past a group that just had entered the station, and then he stopped. A teen and an older woman had entered just behind the group.

At first sight, the teen looked nothing like the mutie they were following, but one of the reasons he was here was because he never forgot a face. As he looked at her with more attention, taking care of looking like he was doing something else, he realized that the girl was who she was looking for. Her hair color was different, and she wasn't using makeup, but it was clearly her.

He followed discretely, mindful of his instructions and that he didn't have any backup, and took note of the line she was taking, and the stations where it stopped. Then he went back and called Trent, informing him of the development. He got orders to go to one of the line stops, and he figured that the other agents here would go elsewhere.

"So, I'm going to Topeka, boss?" he asked to confirm his orders.

"Yes, I'll meet you there." Trent answered on the phone.

Next morning. Topeka, Kansas. Train Station​

Rogue stepped down from the train, having used the train washroom to change her aspect once more, to something closer to her usual appearance, although without makeup and keeping the red dye on her hair, that was now collected in a short ponytail, and to further the disguise she was wearing sunglasses.

As she was walking, she thought back to the night on the train. It had been quite peaceful actually, as Irene's power seemed to have already faded almost completely, as the only thing she remembered from her dreams was seeing the blue-eyed guy from last night again. Well, now she had to see the instructions that Irene had left for her in the P.O. Box.

As she walked through the station she didn't notice that a guy had taken notice of her and was calling somebody with his cellphone, at the same time he was following her unobtrusively.

/\​

Sid kept following the girl while the phone called. Just like Trent to be still sleeping at this hour, despite their task.

"Answer the damn phone, you goddamned jackass." he said between clenched teeth as the phone rang for the tenth time.

As if he had heard it, an sleepy voice finally answered the phone.

"What the fuck do you want, Sid?" Alex Trent answered.

"I've found her." Sid said.

"Good, follow her, and keep me advised of where does she go." Trent answered on the phone, now quite more awake, "I'll get there with some of the boys."

"I'll warn my own crew, too." Sid said.

"There is no need for that, my people..." Trent protested

"...stick out like a sore thumb in Kansas." Sid interrupted, "While my own men are local, or close enough."

"...Very well, you win." 'For now.' was left unsaid, and Trent closed the line.

Sid followed Rogue, as he sent a message to his people, to the parking lot and saw her take a taxi and heard her destination, a Post Office. He sent Trent and his people a message with the address, and took another taxi to that address.

Post Office​

The P.O. Box opened without a hitch and as she expected, there was a letter inside addressed to her, written in Irene's neat handwriting, including a note to open it right in that moment.

'Okay, this is seriously weird.' she thought, before shrugging, opening the envelope and star to read.

After a brief salutation, Irene went right to the heart of the matter.

'Crap!' she thought as she read the letter and looked around. From where the box was she could see the parking lot and there were a group of people seemingly hanging around, but in a way that effectively cut her escape. She went back to reading the letter, and upon reading the next paragraph she smiled.

Outside the same Post Office. Topeka, Kansas​

"Are you sure she hasn't give us the slip?" Trent asked.

"Positive, she has retrieved something from a PO Box, and she is now reading it." Sid answered, with an eye roll.

"Hmm..." Trent said as only answer. As much as he hated work with the likes of Jefferson, he had to admit that he was competent. He turned his gaze to the office, or more properly, to the armed guard outside.

They couldn't enter to pick her up, but she only had one way to exit the office and she couldn't stay there forever. He was tempted to send somebody out to call for reinforcements, as the cell coverage in the area was still down after last night's storm, but he dismissed it instantly, twelve people, not including Sid and himself, should be enough to keep a teenage girl controlled.

"She's making a call." Sid said. Trent looked and, effectively, she was making a call through a payphone on the outside of the office. "Good luck in calling the cops, with last night's storm, they are probably..."

His words were interrupted by the coming of a delivery van, which parked just before the doors, blocking the view of the doors and the pay phone.

"Just our luck." Sid commented, "I can't believe she gave you the slip in Central City."

"It doesn't change anything, actually. She can't get out of the parking without us seeing her." Trent said, choosing to ignore Jefferson jape, as difficult as it was for him, as a taxi went and parked just inside the blind spot caused by the delivery van, and got out like a bat out of hell just after a moment, "Fuuuck! Get back to the cars and chase that taxi!"

As they ran to their cars and started to chase the taxi, nobody noticed how Rogue started to walk down the street, having sent the taxi to the other end of the city. She was hoping that the distraction would give her enough time to shake her pursuers.

Unfortunately for her, Trent's rental car had ignition problems and chose that moment to refuse to start. He was about to open the hood to see if he could fix it, while a couple of his men waited inside, ready to start the car at his signal, when he noticed a girl walking down the street.

"It's the mutie bitch." he said as he recognized her, just loud enough for the others to hear it, "Come on, let's go, before we lose her."

"Shouldn't we tell...?" one of his men said as he got out of the car.

"That uppity bastard of Jefferson?" Trent sneered, before he started to walk briskly in the same direction Rogue was going. "Come on, we have to show that we are better than thrash like him."

At first they were gaining ground quickly, but the girl had probably noticed them at some point, because she started to walk at a brisker pace after they turned a corner. Thank God that that there was no alleys where the bitch could hide until they passed. They sped up to catch up with her, but she sped up her pace again.

When they started to run, Rogue started to do the same. It was not that long before both Rogue and her pursuers were running as fast as they could, and unfortunately, Trent and his minions longer legs and greater fitness meant that Rogue's advantage was quickly eroding, even after she threw her backpack in a dumpster.

/\​

Rogue looked back, and it didn't look good, those creeps were quickly gaining on her, even after throwing away the backpack. Maybe if she turned right in the next intersection, and tried to hide in a porch, they would pass and she could go back to the dumpster for her things.

As she reached the corner, she looked back at her pursuers, so she couldn't see what was on her way. A moment she was looking back, trying to gauge how much time she had, and the next she found herself sitting on the ground, her front hurting as if she had collided with a steel wall.

"Are you well, miss? I didn't see you." a kind voice with a Midwestern accent asked, at the same time that a hand appeared on her field of vision, she looked up as she took the hand and used it as leverage to get up, and saw the same unearthly blue eyes she had been seeing in her dreams since she left Caldecott County. The guy they belonged to had messy black hair that fell in a boyish curl over his forehead, a red leather jacket slightly open over a blue t-shirt, jeans and workboots.

"Ah wasn't looking either. Sorry, Ah gotta.." she started to say when a voice interrupted her, as somebody gripper her arm and pulled her back.

"Found you, bitch."

/\​

Trent had left behind his two minions by a good margin when he turned a corner and saw the girl there. Without thinking it twice, he took a grip on her arm, checking in the last moment that it was covered by a sleeve, and pulled her to him.

"Found you, bitch." he said, smiling cruelly.

"Who the Hell are you?" a voice said, and he looked up, surprised, and cursing his luck. But he relaxed a bit when he saw that it was a farmboy trying to play tough guy, what with the leather jacket and all of that. But, as he looked again, there was something about him that set his teeth on edge, maybe it was the eyes, how somebody could have eyes so fucking blue?. Anyway, he had the bitch now, and the farmboy better to piss off or else.

"Get off, kid, and nobody will get hurt." he said, producing his gun from the back, "Do you understand?"

Threatening him with a gun didn't have the effect Trent wanted as before he could do anything, he felt the gun being removed from his hand. He looked only to see the kid crunching it on his hand.

"Another freak." he said, taking a step back, but not letting Rogue go, just as his two minions appeared in the corner, "Finish him, guys, while I secure the bitch."

Both guys nodded as he started to run back to the Post Office. He didn't think that those two would stop the freak for long, but by now, even somebody like Jefferson should have realized that the taxi was a ruse and come back as fast as he could.

He snickered when he heard the boom of a shotgun from behind him; Martin must have gotten out the sawed-off shotgun before the freak could do anything. But then, to his surprise, he felt the air move, like an errant breath of wind, and, suddenly, the freak was standing before him.

'How the Hell?' Trent thought, before looking back and seeing one of his minions passed out.

At least the freak hadn't escaped completely unscathed, as his red jacket was done for, barely covering a completely unharmed blue t-shirt underneath with an strange red and yellow symbol, like an S inside a diamond.

"Let her go." he said.

"Don't think so." Trent said, producing a knife from his pocket, "Now you'll turn..." he started to say before he felt a bare hand closing over the hand where he had the knife, and a general feeling of weakness overtaking him. He had enough time to realize that the bitch must have removed a glove before he fell unconscious.

/\​

Clark looked at the fleeing man for a moment, but that moment of distraction was all that one of the thugs needed to get a sawed off shotgun from his clothes and shoot him in the chest.

The impact made him stagger a bit, and silently cursed the... thing that had been awakened by last night storm, he wasn't fully recovered of the fight yet.

He looked down for a microsecond, seeing that the jacket was ruined, but the shirt where Ma Kent had serigraphied the symbol on the pod was still intact. It wasn't the first time something like this happened, but it always looked strange to him.

He decided not to take any more risks, and he used his super-speed to disarm the thugs, before bopping them on the head very softly. After examining them with his x-ray vision and noting that he hadn't made any permanent damage, he ran to intercept the first man.

Standing before him, he tried to make him drop the weapon, but to no avail as he threatened the girl with a knife.

It was in that moment, when he received a surprise as the girl, who seemed to have removed one of her gloves somehow, put a hand on the other man hand, and the man dropped down after a moment, unconscious. He looked at the fallen man, while the girl put back the glove she had removed.

"Will he...?" he asked, wary of the girl.

"Recover? Ah think so, Ah only drained him for a few seconds." she said, before starting to massage her temples, "Let me guess, you received a note telling you to come to this area."

"...Pretty much. Did you...?" he asked, her wariness not receding.

"...Send it? No, but the person who probably did it was the one who directed me to go to this area of Topeka." she said, "Ah'm a bit tired of being played like a pawn on a chessboard." she opened her eyes and winced immediately, before talking again, "Ah suppose that you don't have Tylenol or Aspirin, right?"

"No, I don't have anything on me, why?" he asked.

"Ah should have let you deal with him, Ah got a look at his mind when Ah drained him." she said, "Because of that, Ah have a killer headache; his head is not a pretty place."

Clark looked at her, she looked sincere, and he was still smarting after Lana gave him a wholly deserved dressing down last night. His mistrust had almost got Pete killed.

"Do you live somewhere near here?" he asked, an idea starting to take shape in his mind.

"No. Ah have been fleeing since my powers... activated. They are always on, you know." she said, "Ah have nowhere to go, and Ah have been keeping just barely ahead these... bastards, since Central City."

"You can stay at my home, if you want." he said, having decided to follow his instincts.

She looked at him, suspicion evident in her face, before sighing.

"Okay." she said, "It's not like Ah have another place to go... but first, can we go to recover my backpack? I have all my things there."

TO BE CONCLUDED...

 

Chapter Six: Setting Up Stories

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: big spoilers for X-Men: Evolution season 1 episode "Rogue Recruit". Big spoilers for CW's The Flash season 1 and Thor

Author Note: this version of Rogue and other X-Men related characters are from the X-Men Evolution cartoon, although with elements taken from the comics. Flash-related characters comes from CW's The Flash. Other Marvel, DC and Wildstorm character that may appear are drawn from several sources.

A/N 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or things that I have gotten wrong.

A/N 3: I would like to thank my beta Jediknight.

A/N 4: A bit late, but I just forgot that I hadn't posted the final chapter.

---

Topeka, Kansas​

While Rogue retrieved her backpack from the dumpster, neither her nor Clark noticed a trio of teens observing them from the roof of a nearby building.

"Brainy's aim is getting better, we arrived within a few days and only a few hundred klicks of our target this time." one of them commented, a blond guy with a blue and white shirt decorated with lightning motifs.

"Yeah, and now the great decision, we wait or risk another jump?" the only girl of the trio, a short-haired blonde with a red and white shirt, with a ringed planet symbol on it, said, "Rokk, Garth, what do you think?"

"I think we should wait, Imra. The Sphere can cloak and travel under its own power, and we can use those days to contact him." Rokk, the leader of the trio, a black-haired teen, slightly older than the other two, and dressed in black except for a purple band on his shoulders, said, "What's your opinion?."

"I agree." Garth said.

"So do I. Brainy may disagree, but he isn't here, right?" Imra said, "Besides, that would give us time to do some historical research. What we have about the pre-Great Disaster era is spotty at best."

"Yeah, okay." Garth said with a handwave, "By the way, that girl is one of the X-Men, right?"

"Not yet, if memory serves." Imra answered, "And yes, I would like to meet my ancestors too."

"I don't." Rokk said, "Braalians have enough bad reputation in the United Planets without reminding them of what Magneto did."

The coast of Greenland. Close to the Arctic Circle​

Irene smiled, as her powers warned her that Rogue has made contact with the Starchild, and with that the worst of the possible futures had been averted Unfortunately, time resists change and some possibilities remained open that were almost as bad. That is why she was here, to redirect somebody's search elsewhere.

She left the sleigh and its driver behind, not that he had wanted to get nearer, as she followed the sounds of heavy machinery excavating on the ice. She stopped when she reached the fence that surrounded the whole hollow where the machines were excavating. Although she couldn't see it, she knew that he had started to unearth a vehicle that crashed here decades ago. Before she had even managed to touch the fence, she felt it, even through the layers of clothes she was wearing, the displacement of the air caused by the moving of the magnetic field that meant he was there.

"Hello, Erik." she said at the man standing on thin air before her.

"Irene, what brings you here?" Magneto said, "Have you decided to join my Acolytes, despite what you said a couple days ago?"

"My answer is the same than then, Erik." Irene said, shaking her head, "I only came to warn you that the wreck you have located is not what you are looking for.... And that you have attracted SHIELD attention with your excavation."

"Why would SHIELD...?" Magneto started to say, and then he realized how wrong had been, "It's HYDRA's ultimate weapon, the Valkyrie."

"Exactly. The alien derelict is somewhere else, and it won't be discovered by you in any future that I can see." Irene said. "I'm sorry, Erik, but that's the truth."

"But the Vakyrie may still contain the Tesseract..." Magneto said, thinking back to what he knew of HYDRA, "And with it..."

"No, it's not. It fell to the sea during the fight between Captain America and Red Skull." Irene said, shaking her head, and letting Magneto come to his own conclusions about the fate of the First Avenger, "SHIELD found it, though it has been inert since." 'Though not for long, if my visions are right.'

Magneto didn't answer immediately. Irene could almost see him in her mind's eye, his shoulders slumping when he realized that most of his plans had vanished in smoke. 'Now, if it was so easy for him to abandon his other plans...'

"Very well, Irene. Do you need a lift?"

"No, I have a sleigh waiting for me behind that rock." she said, shaking her head, "I suggest you hurry, SHIELD will be here in less than an hour."

Friends of Humanity HQ. The next day​

Trent looked down as Trask and Creed left the briefing room, leaving only the white haired man behind. Creed had given him a savage dressing down, while Trask had icily informed him he was confined to HQ until further notice.

"You know, they are right, you goofed up." the man said, stepping into the light, allowing him a good look at him. He hadn't noticed before he had a goatee, or that he had golden eyes.

"Tell me something that I don't know." Trent said, "I should have told Martin or Garrison to call Jefferson through the payphone, while trying to keep my distance from the mutie bitch."

"Pretty much. But I'm not here to talk about your failure." the other man said, "It's about the a... about who stopped you."

"What about him? Just another freak, birds of a feather and all that jazz." Trent said with a shrug, although he was interested, he had been about to say something else, but he had stopped himself.

"Do you know that we have already a dossier on him?" the other man said.

"I had no idea," Trent answered.

"Yes, not providing you with the info was an oversight." he said, "Come with me and I'll tell you what we have."

"Okay," Trent said, following the other man through the door.

"He is somewhat of an urban legend, the 'Kansas Superboy', they call him." the other man said, "He started to act around five years ago, or so, saving people, getting kittens down from trees, the usual."

"I sense a 'but' incoming." Trent said.

"And you'll be right. His actions are centered on a small town called Smallville." the other man continued.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Trent asked.

"A meteor storm almost eighteen years ago wrecked parts of the town and the county." the other man informed him, "And apparently the meteorites carried a mutagenic substance..."

He explained to him how exposition to the meteorites gave powers to some people in some circumstances, how the Superboy had stopped a lot of them and how SHIELD had been trying to dispose of the mutagenic mineral for years.

"That's why our people have to act very carefully in that town." the man said, stopping before a vault-like door, with a number keypad on it,

"I suppose that this is my cue to go back to my quarters." Trent said, knowing that the area beyond the door was restricted.

"Actually, I want to make you an offer," He said, keying the code to open the door, "Our ultimate weapon to deal with those... things lies beyond this door. If you step inside, you will be a part of this project, under my direct command in the special projects section."

"Are you kidding me?" Trent said, with a smirk, "Of course I'm in."

"Good." the man said with a matching smirk in his face, "In that case, I'm Sebastion Gilberti, though the people of the project are calling me Bastion."

"Thank you, Bastion." Trent said as he stepped inside the door, and saw the giant robotic shapes being assembled inside.

"Welcome to Project Sentinel, Mr. Trent."

Somewhere in the Midwest​

If he could still breathe, Adrian would had done so in relief when he got the news that Rogue had arrived to Smallville with Kal-El, through his hacking of traffic cameras. Thawne's and Allen's careless temporal bungling promised to be one of his greatest headaches in the next few years, as this incident showed. At least Garrick would prove to be an stabilizing influence in the young speedster.

The Wizard had gotten out of his metaphorical hair, given that the time when he'll have to pass his powers to a new Champion approached. And with it, the return of the Wizard's former pupil.

But that was still some time from now. He quickly checked on his earlier self, still blissfully unaware of his true nature, and then on his old friends, who had started to gather... and in fact, they were going to recruit Priscilla right now. He quickly checked his databanks, and he would have frowned if he had still a face. It was a bit earlier than he remembered, although well within the margins of acceptable butterflies.

He dug a bit further in the data stream, nonetheless, and his worry deepened a bit more, IO had moved against her earlier for no discernible reason. He would have to do an analysis in depth of the causes, in case there was another time traveler around he didn't notice, but before that, he did a quick check of other places and saw that things were mostly still on their rails, though Lynch and his combat gynoid sidekick seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth.

Interesting... he had almost missed it, but apparently the Legion had made an appearance. By their apparent youth and the group composition, it was very early in their career, so they were probably after Kal-El. He would keep an eye on them, just in case, although they tended to be more careful in their time travels than the Flash family. Now, what were the Doctor and Jenny doing right now?

Central City. Ma Hunkle's Bed and Breakfast Inn​

Ma tsked as she surveyed the damage. The storm had been unusually strong for this time of the year, even before the particle accelerator exploded. As such, the damage to the place had been substantial. She was starting to put things order, aided by her family, when the phone rang.

"Ma Hunkle's Inn. We're currently closed, but if..." she started to say the usual spiel that she had been repeating since she came to the Inn to any call.

"Abigail?" a voice that she knew quite well interrupted her.

"Rex!" she exclaimed delighted in hearing from her old friend, "How are you? And Wendy and Rick?"

"I'm fine, and so are they, but listen, do you have Ted Grant's contact info?."

"Yes, I have it, but why me? Johnny Chambers was the one with the Society rolodex." Ma said.

"Apparently it got torn out during one of their... discussions." Rex said.

"Oh." she said. Libby and Johnny's relationship had always been tempestuous, and she was not really surprised that some things would have broken in one of their fights. Their divorce, a couple of years ago, hadn't come out as a surprise, being the third time that it had happened. "Okay, let me search in my agenda." She finally said, starting to rummage in her handbag for the small booklet where she kept the phone numbers, "What's so urgent, by the way?"

"Not by phone. But, are you free two weeks from now?" Rex said.

"I think so." she said, producing the booklet, "Hang on, I have the number."

"One moment," Rex said, probably to grab a pen, "Go ahead." The sound of a pen against paper could be heard while Ma gave him the number, "Thanks, Abigail. Al will be there in a couple days to explain things in person."

Smallville, Kansas​

A lone biker stopped just before the "Welcome to Smallville" sign and looked at it, and specifically to the two smaller signs after it: "Meteor capital of the Midwest" and "Home of the Superboy". He shook his head, and was about to start the bike again when he sniffed the air lazily, and looked around startled.

"What the fucking Hell?" Logan said, his claws slipping out in reflex. When nothing got out to attack him, and his brain had time to process that the smell he had caught was a few days old, he relaxed slightly, "Things got a lot more complicated, if some of those... things are around here."

He took a deep breath, started the bike again and rode to town.

TO BE CONTINUED IN "KIDS OF TOMORROW"​