X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

Discovery 1.2

They drove for longer than it would have taken to reach home. They drove outside the city limits, then outside the county. They stopped only once for gas, then kept driving well into the sunrise.

Her Mah, Irene, had asked Anna what happened, and she told them the truth. She had kissed a boy and he had fallen unconscious, seemingly lifeless before her on the dance floor. She told them of the surge of power she felt, the limitless energy and strange contact high coursing through her. She told them about all the stares from everyone around her, then about the two teachers who tried to corner her. She told them how she had somehow managed to throw both grown men to the ground and sprinted out the back door. Then about the screams of police sirens and her temporary sanctuary in the cemetery. They both took particular interest when she talked to them about all the intrusive thoughts she had been experiencing. As if she were sharing a mind with someone else. Afterward, the only conversation in the car was the hissing from the dying AC and the rumble of tires over potholes.

Anna tried prying, getting anything out of either of them, but for the first time - they didn't answer any of her questions. Only once in a great while would she hear them whispering in the front seat about how 'He already knew.' And that 'they would be watching.'

Finally, the car stopped at a flea-ridden motel in the middle of nowhere. The motel was a long strip, all its rooms facing a pockmarked parking lot with only a handful of cars between the faded yellow lines. The place looks like a relic from the early fifties and smelt like it too. Both of her mothers whispered something between them as they got out of the car, then her Mah took her hand and the other woman took off in the direction of what looked like the motel lobby on the far end. "Follow me, baby. We've got a room for you."

Anna wrenched her hand out of her mother's grasp. "No! You take my phone, take us miles away from home - and you won't even tell me why! What is going on Mah? Wh... What's happening to me?"

Her mother, wearing her own gloves, snatched Anna by the wrist. "All will be explained soon, hon. But not out here." Unfolding her white and red folding cane with a snap, she leads them both up the rickety flight of stairs, down the row of doors, and stopped at the very last door on the second story. She fished out a small silver key from her pocket and drove it in the deadbolt of the lime green door, twisting the heavy bolt out of place.

"There is a chest of drawers inside with fresh clothes. Go ahead and shower and get changed." Her mother stepped out of the way, let go of Anna's hand, and gestured inside. "Raven and I have a couple of things to attend to, but we will be back soon. There is a rotary phone inside with our numbers on it if you need to call."

Anna stepped through the threshold of the door and her senses were immediately assaulted with the stench of wet wallpaper and starched linens. The room looked like any motel room she had seen before. Two queen-sized beds with nicely prepared yellow sheets to her right, a small CRT television with giant crooked rabbit ears for reception sat atop a wide table to her left, and to dress the walls was a thorough lathering of patternless green wallpaper. Anna turned around and found that her Mah had already closed the door behind her. There was a heavy 'thunk' as the deadbolt was secured back in place, and once again, she was plunged back into silence. Except for this time, she didn't even have her mothers for company.

She approached the front door and laid a hand on its chipped, white paint. Her eyes lingered on the dull silver door nob and the lock latch just above it. She could just open the door, follow her mother, and scream until she got some sort of answer... but what was the point? If she knew anything about Irene Adler, it was that she was even more bullheaded than she was. It was her other mother, Raven, that was the softer of the two. But she hadn't even gotten to exchange a word with her since everything began. She was normally so warm and full of life, but now - well it almost felt like she was avoiding her.