Generational

Eleanor

My mother, she gave her life to save a father that would never be there to hold me, be there for me, or truly ever be a father, even if he is a hero. I only know about her cause of my mutation and even then I can almost find nothing about her, no one ever speaks of her, and I don't ask questions. Sometimes, when I touch people I can get some glimpses of what she used to look like, even bits of her personality or what her voice sounds like.

I live in the institute and grew up calling Bobby my dad, although I knew he wasn't every time he held my hand as a toddler or hugged me before bed. Living was never so hard, I have a great mentor, Kitty Pryde, and good friends, not an exact family if you ask me, but they seem to think that we are.

We all have pasts we don't like to talk about and mine isn't even my own, I'm constantly hiding others pain behind a smirk or a joke. Especially Wolverine's, he gave me a pat on the back once and everything that ever happened to him entered my mind, it hurt, and that was when I saw the death of my grandmother. Now I completely avoid James so I don't have to remember what it felt like to have the flesh burned off my skin, or a bullet worm itself out of my body.

My story isn't the most interesting, every time I touch Kitty I feel how she longs for Colossus to come back, even though she knows he's dead. Every time I touch any of the other X-Men I feel the tension of starting the new school, I don't want to even get started on the fight Ja-Wolverine had this morning with Cyclops. It's not everyday you get to see Cyclops shoot Wolverine out of a window, well for humans it isn't I guess.

I know about the DC dimension and read up on my dad every once and a while, just to make sure he's ok. Of coarse, he's Nightwing so he's probably not going to die anytime soon. My mom isn't even buried here, I wouldn't ever want to touch her grave anyways, I don't really want to know much of else about her past.

Sometimes I can't fall asleep on nights like tonight, because of the things I've seen, playing back in my mind. I don't think this is what my mom wanted for me, of coarse I'll never really know for sure.

But things have only started going downhill when the cure was announced publicly.

I turn over to look out my window, and see a quiet courtyard. One where no people are, one where I could sit and think in actually silence. Sitting up, I pull my legs around to the edge of my bed and slip out.

Sneaking out of the mansion has gotten harder with all the chaos of Danger room not letting anyone in except certain people after the first day of orientation. There are several of the leaders guarding the building.

I open my bedroom door just a crack and see no one in the hallway. Moving my feet quickly, yet silently, I make my way towards a side door. A creak in the floorboards explodes into the night.

"What are you doing up, Eleanor?" A startled Emma says as she walks up behind me.

"I just... needed some fresh air." I reply, hopefully she doesn't completely murder me for breaking this rule.

"You shouldn't be up, but I'll let you get a couple minutes of... Fresh air." Odd, she never lets anyone do this, and she looks like she was sneaking something also...

"Um, Mrs. Frost, do you need any help with anything?"

"No. Don't make me change my mind." She turns and huffs off in the direction she was going before. I follow her footsteps. Not getting close enough for her to feel my mind, but staying just close enough to see which door she enters.

Danger Room.

"Hey," I whisper," don't let her know I'm coming in." I touch my palm to the side of Danger Room's door frame and feel a buzz of warm energy in response.

I push open the door to see two Emma's and other people I don't recognize, and now they're all looking at me.

The "real" Emma places her hand on her forehead and cringes, and an Emma with short cut hair smirks. I lift up my flimsy mental barrier before a large force crashes into it, sending me physically reeling. As I lose my balance, I crash out into the hallway.

A door opens a couple of feet away, and James, er Logan, looks out in confusion.

"Emma-" is all I can say before he barrels past me and into the Danger Room, only to come running back out whimpering like a hit puppy. I jump up and peer inside the room to see the group of people grinning except for the real Emma.

"Elly-" she starts, and I turn away to alert the rest of the institute.

The Hellfire club has returned.