Us Mutants Prefer the Term "Special"

x9x

I woke up and the first thing I saw was the leaf-covered ground. I looked over to see Cariba gone and when I sat up, I saw an unfamiliar shirt-less boy with his back turned to me, looking over Indica and Skye's tent. His shoulders were broad and built and so were his muscles. SH!T.

I slowly laid down and looked around for help, but everyone was asleep, Cariba was gone, Isaac was gone, and the twins had failed their duties by passing out. Even our leader wasn't here. This guy could kill us in our sleep if he wanted. And then suddenly, followed by a yellow ray of color, an arrow shot out flying towards the guy's head right as he was turning. However, even though the arrow came from Wilbur, who slept up in the tree apparently, it vanished in a ball of fire. The steel arrow fell to the ground as ash. I looked over to Cheshire, who was waking up abruptly as the young man turned around.

He was fairly attractive boy with a set jaw line and shaggy brown hair to match his chocolate colored eyes. He had tanned skin and scars in multiple places up and around his forearms and a blessed backside. He looked like the silent killer type, though.

"Andres, goddamnit," Cheshire growled as he stood up, scolding the twin because he was sleeping. He stepped near the boy and he put his hands up, threateningly. Abruptly, Indica and Skye woke up and immediately, there was a pink shield flying out of Indica's chest that wrapped around the boy and put him on the ground. He had well enough space, but he was starting to cough as if choking on the air...or lack of air.

"You're hurting him," Skye told her.

"He was gonna hurt us!" Indica hissed back.

"I was not!" the boy yelled and Indica's shield dropped.

"Are you stupid? Don't let him go!" Cheshire yelled, waking up Jane and the twins. Instantly, Indica's force fields pushed outward, but this time the boy moved his closest arm in a circular motion and a shield of flames resulted, fending off himself from Indica in a collision of explosion.

The display of fire went away and by then, the twins were awake and duplicating. The boy got in a fighting stance and welcomed the army of redheads. The twins exchanged an arrogant look and then prepared to take him down, but then slowly vanished when his fists lit on fire.

"Wimps," I heard Cheshire scoff, even though all he did was stand on his guard. But that didn't allow him to do much. From the side, I saw Zaine coming through the forest with Cariba. As soon as they emerged from the bushes, Zaine rushed at the boy. The boy turned his flames back on, but even as Zaine's equally built body charged at him, he didn't back down. He created an offense of fire, and I felt tears sting my eyes as it made contact with Zaine's front. However, when I looked closely, his shirt was burned, revealing perfectly smooth, unburned skin.

That made the boy falter for a second and that's all Zaine needed before he grabbed his throat and slammed him against the nearest tree, breaking bark.

"Get off me," the guy ordered, enflaming his hands and pressing them to Zaine's chest with every punch he tried to land. Zaine's fist cocked back, but then his muscles relaxed suddenly and the boy took him to the ground. What the hell, Zaine!? You're the strongest one here and you can't even fight right now when we need you!? Out of some unknown hesitation and anger from the boy, he raised his flaming fist above his head to come down hard on Zaine as if he didn't realize that he was unbreakable, but then water covered and took out the fire. Cariba was lowering her hand when I looked over, and she was surprisingly not afraid to walk over and pull the confused stranger off of Zaine. However, he grabbed her wrist angrily and she collapsed into water molecules, only to reform out of his grasp.