Conflicting Powers (X-men First Class)

Chapter 8

The next day Paiton heard a knock on her door, sighing she opened it and saw Hank holding some gloves with wires attached to them.

            "Uh, what are those?" She asked.

            "They'll help you control your powers, which in turn should help stabilize your flying." Hank explained. "Darwin and Alex are waiting outside to help test them."

            She put on the gloves, which were made of a heat and cold resistant material, and followed him outside. Darwin and Alex were leaning against the house while Charles, Erik, Raven, and Sean were standing in the shade.

            Alex turned to face them and Paiton saw a disk thing strapped to his chest, she started laughing while he gave her a half-hearted scowl. "What is that?"

            "It helps center his power into a beam and increases its strength." Hank replied.

            "Are you sure I won't hurt her again?" Alex asked. "If it has more power..."

            "She'll be fine but just in case we're having Darwin be the target first."

            "Yay, I get to be a punching bag." Darwin laughed as he stood in the driveway across from her. "So what's first? Ice or some flames?"

            Paiton smirked and shot a beam of ice at him, Darwin made his body turn to steel but still winced from the impact, Paiton kept using the ice in different ways until she was satisfied she could control it. Darwin changed into his rocky form as she switched to fire and still felt the heat threaten to burn him.

            "Looks like it should be you who should be worried." Raven called over to Alex.

            "As if! She's a girl how hard can it be to defeat her?"

            Paiton glared at him while making a fireball spin in her palm. "Was that a challenge?"

            "Uh... no?"

            Paiton threw it at him but Alex dodged out of the way so it scorched the building instead.

            "Guys a little help?"

            "Oh no Alex, you got yourself into this one." Darwin grinned.

            "Yeah she's all yours." Sean replied backing away.

            "Bigfoot come on... you wouldn't let her hurt me would you?"

            "Honesty? I think you can handle it." Hank replied dryly before going inside.

            Raven laughed before following him while Erik shrugged and followed along with the others. Paiton made another fireball appear and Alex went into the driveway.

            "Jerks...Let's just get this over with."

            "Your move." She said.

            Alex backed up even more and shot out a beam of energy from the metal plate, Paiton put her hands up and made fire shoot out, the two attacks met in the middle but neither one gave up any ground. After a few minutes Alex had to drop his attack and Paiton quickly made the flames go out before they hit him, he put his hands on his knees while he caught his breath before attacking again, this time Paiton used ice to block it. The ice started to give away from the energy though and she switched back to fire, they kept up their attacks until a flash of light appeared where the two attacks met and an explosion threw them backwards.

            "Guys are you okay?" Raven shouted as she ran out.

            "Yeah... I think." Paiton replied getting up.

            "I'm fine." Alex agreed.

            "Well Hank says he need your power enhancers so he can finish them."

            They gave her their enhancers and followed her back inside to find the others. Sean found them instead and used his powers to scare them; Alex and Paiton glared at him then glanced at each other.

            "Double team?" Alex asked.

            "You stay here I'll block his escape."

            She flew over Sean's head and blocked the end of the hallway; they slowly closed in on him until Alex managed to put him in a chokehold. Paiton smirked and punched Sean in the stomach before walking away, Alex dropped him and Sean coughed.

            "What was that for? It was a joke!" Sean groaned.

            "For leaving me to fight alone." Alex laughed.

            "I was just doing it for payback." Paiton shrugged from the couch.

            Sean glared at them but left and Alex sat down beside her, he started flipping through the channels, purposely changing it after Paiton found a show she liked. She kept glaring at him and waiting a few more seconds before trying to take the remote, Alex fell off the couch but managed to drag her down with him.

            "Give me the remote!" She demanded.

            "Say the magic word."

            "Hand it over or I'll freeze you!"

            Alex laughed and threw it across the room, Paiton tried to run after it but was tripped and Alex picked it up again. She glared at him and hit a small ball of ice at his head, distracting him long enough to take the remote and go back to the show she wanted to watch.

            "Told you to just give it to me." She told him while shrugging.

            "I don't need a remote."

            He went over to the TV and changed the channel manually, Paiton threw a couch pillow at him but he ducked, next she threw the remote but he moved again and it hit the TV instead. They glanced at each other and tried to fix it but couldn't.

            "This is your fault." Paiton told him.

            "You threw the remote!"

            "Okay... uh, lets just say Darwin did it."

            "Good idea."

            They left the room quickly before anyone saw them and Paiton went to watch TV in her room after getting some popcorn from the kitchen. When she came back in Alex was putting in a movie and turning up the volume. She shot some ice at him again and he tried to evade the attack but was still hit in the side.

            "Out, now!" She commanded.

            "Why? Your room is the only room with a TV."

            "Because I want to watch something else."

            "Do you even know what this is?"

            "Well you want to watch it so something that will kill the remaining brain cells you have."

            "Come on just try watching it." He pulled her down beside him and took the popcorn from her.

            She pressed play and the movie resumed from where Alex had paused it, after looking around for the case she found it half way under the TV stand, when she saw what it was she tried to turn it off.

            "I don't want to watch Scream!"

            "Why are you scared?"

            "No."

            "Then watch it with me."

            Paiton glared at him but sat back down beside him to watch the movie, he smirked and she punched him in the arm. He just laughed again before going back to watching the movie.