Conflicting Powers (X-men First Class)

Chapter 4

Paiton watched as Charles and Erik left with the CIA lady, Moira. Raven had asked them where they were going but all Erik replied was 'after Shaw.' Now Paiton followed the others back to the break room, which had been fixed since the party, they sat down on the couches and Raven immediately started talking to Hank. Alex went over to a pinball machine with Darwin and Sean, Paiton looked around and finally ended up sitting by Angel, they weren't exactly friends, in fact she thought Angel was a bigger jerk than Alex, but at least she wouldn't have to talk to anyone.

            Two CIA agents walked by the window a few moments later and smirked. "Hey freaks, lets see some powers? Do the wings... or the feet."

            Angel glared at them as the agents mocked her and the others while Hank got up to shut the curtains.

            "Hey looks like we get to see the feet!"

            Hank ignored them and pressed a button to shut the curtains.

            "Don't worry Angel they're just being stupid." Raven said. "Just ignore them if they stare at you."

            "I'm used to people staring at me but I'd rather people stare at me with my clothes off than the way these stare at me." Angel retorted.

            They went into an uncomfortable silence except for the pinball game and the guys cheering when they got a new high score. Paiton started to hear faint thumping sounds, at first she thought she was just hearing things and being paranoid, but then noticed the others were pausing what they were doing.

            "What's that sound?" She asked even though she didn't expect an answer.

            Hank cautiously went over to the window and pulled back the curtain, they gathered around behind him and watched as a red man appeared in the sky, blocking out part of the moon. He was holding an agent by the throat and they watched as he fell to the ground in front of them, they screamed and Paiton accidentally made ice start to form on the ground near them, more agents came out and started to attack the other mutant but the man teleported before they could aim properly with their guns, the people who didn't get shot by comrades were stabbed by the red mutant. They backed away towards the other window but it exploded when a tornado made pieces of Cerebro crash into it.

            "What's going on?" Raven shouted.

            No one answered her as the two other mutants walked into the room through the broken windows, the one who had made the tornado had greasy black hair while the other mutant was red with a truly evil look on his face, they didn't attack though and stood there blocking every exits except the door. Paiton felt panic rising up and knew her powers were going to go out of control; more ice was already forming but was getting melted by small fires starting to sprout up around her. The others tried to go towards the door but what they heard next stopped them.

            "The mutants are in there, we are no threat to you just let us normal people g-" The voice was cut off and another man walked into the room grinning.

            "Where's the telepath?" The man asked.

            "He's not here." The red mutant replied.

            "Shame... well at least I can take this stupid helmet off." The man took off his helmet and continued to grin. "I'm Sebastian Shaw, this is Azazel and Riptide."

            "What do you want?" Raven scowled.

            "To make a deal with you. Mutants will never be accepted into this world so why work with them, the humans? If you join me the humans will pay for what they've done."

            They all gave him a shocked look and Paiton hid in back so they didn't notice the ice forming in hands.

            "You could be kings..." Shaw saw the look on Angel's face, "Queens."

            He held out his hand invitingly and Angel hesitated a moment before taking it and walking over to him. Shaw led Azazel and Riptide outside before glancing back at them questioningly. Alex and Darwin started to push each other around before Darwin walk over to him.

            "Wait up, I'm coming with you."

            "Good choice." Shaw grinned. "So what can you do?"

            "Well I adapt to survive so I guess I'm coming with you."

            Once Darwin moved out of the way he shouted at Alex and they ducked down as he shot red energy disks at Shaw's friends. Shaw turned around and caught the disk before absorbing the energy, Darwin tried to punch him but Shaw blocked the attack and grabbed Darwin by the neck.

            "Adapt to this." Shaw whispered.

            He was getting ready to make Darwin eat the ball of energy but Paiton shot a blast of fire at him, it knocked him away before he could absorb the attack, He sat up in shock and Paiton backed away from the others as more flames started to appear.

            "Well who's this?" Shaw asked and cocked his head slightly.

            "Stay away from her she'll never help you." Alex growled and backed away to block Paiton if Shaw attacked.

            "I know, I don't think I could trust anyone who attacks me either. Azazel, take care of her."

            Azazel disappeared before Darwin could distract him and reappeared behind Paiton, he wrapped his tail around her throat while ignoring the burns she gave him. The others tried to help her but couldn't do anything unless they wanted to risk hitting her. Paiton felt herself passing out and tried to get away which only made more flames appear, Azazel backed away so he wasn't roasted and ended up throwing her into a roll. She rolled to absorb the impact and started to get up before Azazel was in front of her again, she backed away until her back was against the wall and he jabbed his tail at her head. When she didn't feel any pain she looked back towards him and saw Azazel was frozen in ice.

            "Riptide get Azazel and lets go."

            Riptide made a whirlwind to force the others into the wall before breaking Azazel free and going back over to Shaw. They watched as Shaw teleported to who knows where before running over to help Paiton.

            "Are you okay?" Alex asked as she got up.

            "Yeah... did I save Darwin?"

            "I'm fine, still in one piece see." Darwin smirked and pushed Alex out of the way.

            "Does anything feel broken?" Hank questioned.

            "No, I'm fine..." Paiton replied as she patted out some flames that were still on her arm.

            "I can't believe Angel betray us." Raven sighed.

            I can. Paiton thought.