Gossip

[rhyme]

Artemis sat in one of the comfy chairs in the front lobby of Xavier’s school. He wasn’t hear of his own will and wasn’t happy about being here. He was one of the people used for communication between the Brotherhood and the X-men. He was the next best pick after a telepath since his skills let him deliver a message in the exact same tone and inflection of the person speaking.

He sat in the chair with his ear buds in his ears and his music set to random. He had a newspaper in front of him on his lap and it appeared to be as if he was doing the crossword. His purple eyes faced the paper but there were not looking at it. He was instead listening around him to see where people were. This was far from as good as some other people but he was starting to get better at it.

He sighed as he put his arms behind his head and through his purple locks tilting his head back as he stretched slightly. This was a boring job being with the goodie two-shoes X-men but he wasn’t allowed to act aggressively toward them.

Though…his mind started to turn and crank as he discovered a possible loophole. What if they argued among themselves? It wouldn’t be his fault if they got angry and decided to fight one another. This place was too bland for his taste and it needed some spice and life in it.

He looked around at the large stair case and the few hallways he could see and grinned to himself. He then tilted his head down to hide his mouth and began to mouth words. The sounds were really coming from him but ended at his vocal cords and appeared in other places.

“Did you hear? Doug and Melody nearly got caught fooling around in the forest last night by Scott. He got so close they could have sworn he had some fun himself before leaving them be.” Spoke a voice of a random young girl he remembered hearing before.

The voice was totally and utterly fakery though. It was of his own creation but you know what they say, once gossip is let go, it is impossible to get back.

“I heard some weird grunts and groans coming from down in the lower levels a few nights ago. I could have sworn it was Ororo and Logan but why would they have been down there at that hour?”

That voice came from the top of the stairs just around the corner that would lead deeper into the school. The voice was also a male this time around the age of eight to ten. Both voices were positioned in a way that it would appear to others listening that it was just from around the corner, but if someone could read lips they would see Artemis’ lips moving in the same patterns as the words spoken a few moments before they appeared.

[seap]

Max heard the voices he thought to himself. 'That Scott thing so gross, maybe it wouldn't hurt if he went flying into a wall next time i saw him, i can easily escape but walking through walls. I don't even know who Ororo is but fair do's i guess, i definitely wouldn't want to go up against Logan even with my powers, i'd be mince meat in seconds.' He then looked at this guy in one of the seats, he walked upto him and smiled. "Hey, you alright? You look like you don't want to be here." Max looked around and didn't see many other people except one girl who Max knew as a gossip spreader who OMGed and then ran off, quite obviously to go and tell someone. Max thought. 'Typical of her to OMG and then run off straight away, bet she doesn't even know who half the people mentioned were.' He turned back to Artemis, he thought, hoping he wasn't a telepath. 'I wander if he wants to get out of here almost as much as i do. God, i miss my brother so much but he wouldn't come to school, he hates the idea.'

[rhyme]

Artemis lifted his head and turned it to stare at the person who just came up to him. His eyes were not angry but more of the ‘I don’t know you and I don’t really care’ variety.

“I am quite fine. I look as if I don’t want to be here because I don’t want to be here.” He said using a voice unique from the others but not his own. Not many people have ever heard his true voice.

He then realized that he was doing a crossword without a pencil so he mentally facepalmed and reached into his sleeve for a pencil even though it wasn’t really there.

Graphite let me see…that is basically all carbon just not in a strong structure. Wood is mostly cellulose and water. What is cellulose made out of again? Bleh whatever. Pencil…pencil…PENCIL.

He thought the last word really hard and a pencil appeared within his sleeve. He pulled it out and realized it didn’t have the top on it but shrugged mentally. That was his own fault for not remembering the eraser or the metal to keep the eraser on. He also realized though it wasn’t sharpened.

He frowned as he held the unsharpened pencil in front of his face. He stared hard at the pencil then blew gently on it. As he did the tip he blew on changed to a very fine point. He then turned and actually started to look at the questions on the crossword.

[seap]

Max smiled. "Join the club, i want to go find my brother but they won't let me go and find him and he'd never come here, he hates the idea of this school's very existence. He's probably gone to the Brotherhood or something, knowing him. He's always thought that he was much more superior than everyone else he was around. My boyfriend is in the Brotherhood but like i'd want that to get around here, especially not around the Brotherhood. Last time it almost got out we had to kill some guy to stop exposure." Max wandered why Artemis would be here if he didn't want to, he looked old enough to just get up and leave if he wanted you but he was still sat in the lounge like someone who actually had an interest into being here. Max thought to himself. 'Maybe he's one of those diplomats, must be a pretty bad job, being away from home and being in a place that you think is utterly wrong, but maybe he'll lighten up now i'm talking about the Brotherhood and wanting to leave this school to find my brother who is possibly in the Brotherhood.'

[rhyme]

Without looking up from his crossword and after penciling in a word or two Artemis answered. “Unless he looks nothing like you he isn’t at the Brotherhood. I haven’t seen anyone who looks the slightly bit like you there. I’ll keep my ears open for ya though. …Wait…who is your boyfriend in the Brotherhood? I can’t remember many gay guys there except for maybe Samuel and myself”

He scowled as he brushed his hand against some words and erased them from existence. He didn’t understand why people did these horrid puzzles. He decided to see if the Tokyo Times had anything better in it. He quickly hummed a little Japanese pop song and gave the paper a quick snap as all the characters shifted their script and the paper grew noticeably thicker.

“If you don’t want to be here why not just walk out that door. Not like anyone here can stop you. They aren’t you parents to get this many kids under one adult would be very odd and would bring the government snooping in right away.”

As he spoke he flipped through the paper looking for anything interesting outside of the continuing reconstruction efforts of the city. He saw it as a lost cause since it would take over fifty years to get it back to where it once was.

[seap]

Max nodded. "Oh yeah that'd go swimmingly i'll just be a 16 year old kid who's only defence power is telekinesis. I wouldn't last a week out there, and wouldn't you like to know who he is. I don't want that piece of information going walk abouts around the Brotherhood and the Mansion. How will that look for him? Oh look, he's dating a student, he can't be trusted. Like i said, last time we had to kill an innocent to preserve stop mutant exposure and to stop anyone picking up that information. I may not agree with the Brotherhood but you have to conform to some of their views if it's for the greater good, which it was. But i wouldn't join the Brotherhood, not even for my boyfriend. Your views are almost the complete opposite to mine." Max thought to himself. 'Oh god i bet he knows about me and Sam, if he does then i'll just have to persuade him not to tell a soul about this. Surely it's against our Non-Aggresion Pact that we have together, it must be it'd create aggression therefore a breach.

[rhyme]

Rhyme shrugged again since a lot of what the kid said went through one ear and out the other. He started living on his own when he was fourteen and that was before he figured out how most of his powers worked. He didn’t find the school until he was sixteen. Once he got to the part about not wanting Artemis to know he had to let out a somewhat loud and sarcastic laugh.

“Telekinesis isn’t too bad. Could be worse, you could have the power to only talk to plants or the power to turn dollar bills to Sacagawea gold dollars. Oh and I guess my legacy is starting to fade here. I am not the type of person you want to let know you got a secret. Tell me all that you've thrown away, Find out games you don't wanna play, You are the only one that needs to know, I’ll keep you my dirty little secret.”

When he switched to the lyrics of the song, they came out not as his own voice but identical to the singers multiple voices and instruments from those lines in the song. This was part of his gift as a mutant. With more energy exerted he could make the lyrics come true but at this moment he decided against it though his interested was peaked.

[Michelangelo de Rio]

Mikey was making his way down the stairs toward the foyer. He had misplaced his sunglasses and apparently according to the Professor he needed to find them, not that Mikey himself cared if he found them or not, and more often then not he didn’t wear them even though unconsciously he knew he should.

As Mikey entered the foyer he saw that two people were already there and he decided to ask them if they’ve seen them, not really caring if they were part of the school or not. “Have either of you two seen my sun glasses? The professor and Donny say that I need to wear them more. Can you believe that? Anyways I think I left them in here.” Mikey then paused for a second. “Although I could have left them in my dorm room? Or you know what they could even be in the danger room." Mikey then paused for a second time as he thought back to when he turned the danger room into a skate park, that was awesome. “I did the coolest thing in the danger room…and what was I doing again? Oh yeah sunglasses! So have either of you two seen them?”

[rhyme]

Artemis looked up from his conversation with Max to see the new kid appear. He didn’t recognize this one either but since he was gone for so long that wasn’t surprising. This school was like a revolving door, kids going in and out like crazy.

“Been sitting here all day so haven’t seen them sorry. They special or something like old one eye’s ruby crystal shades?” he asked only half interested.

As he mentioned Cyclops’s glasses though he put his hand behind his head slightly and twirled his fingers around in a grasping motion with his first two fingers and this thumb. After a few repetitions of this motion an exact copy of the famous ruby shades appeared which he put down over his eyes.

“Damn, I almost feel sorry for the dude. Trying to see through these shades is a pain.”

Artemis couldn’t do the same for the new kid though even if he asked. He was around long enough with Cyclops to know what his glasses were made out of and to an extent how they worked. Not exactly but enough that he didn’t need to put a large amount of energy into their creation. For the kid he would need an entire song about eye-wear which he thankfully didn’t have in his repertoire.

[Michelangelo de Rio]

Mikey shook his head when Artemis asked if there was anything special about his sunglasses. “Nope, they’re just normal sunglasses. At least I think they’re normal sunglasses. There might be something special about them, I don't know. All I know is that the Professor and my twin brother Donny want me to wear them because they don’t want me to accidentally hurt someone.” Mikey was supposed to wear them so he didn’t accidentally send someone to his world because he couldn’t shut his power off, and whenever someone looked directly into his eyes they would end up in his world.

When Artemis made a copy of Cyclops’s glasses Mikey’s eyes lit up. He had always wondered how Scott saw things. “Hey can I see those? I’ve always wondered how they would look like on.” Mikey started to make his way over to Artemis, but after of couple of steps Mikey reared back like he had just run into something, though Max and Artemis wouldn’t be able to see anything. “Ow, stupid tree.” Mikey had run into a tree, though the other occupants wouldn’t be able to see it, or feel it, only those conntected to Mikey’s world could see it.

[rhyme]

Artemis raised a purple eyebrow at the kid running to an invisible tree and let loose a coughing chuckle at that. It was completely unexpected but apparently very common to the kid with how random he acted.

“Sure, don’t give yourself a headache.”

He then took off the glasses and flipped his wrist sending them in a slow and very bad lob over toward the Mickey. After the left his hand he extended his fingers that were previously close to his palm straight out in a quick motion and from his finger tips a small pulse erupted that corrected the glasses arc when they were hit and they ended up landing exactly over Mickey’s eyes even shrinking to fit him correctly.

He then decided to actually take a look at the kid and specifically his eyes to try and figure out what was up with him. He couldn’t see much through the crystal shades but he was curious on why the kid needed sunglasses. Scott needed his to keep his deadly optic beams at bay, so the kid must have some serious control issues.

Damn, too bad this kid is jailbait. He will grow into quite a looker in a few years and be able to lead around both the girls and the guys of this school.

[Michelangelo de Rio]

“Too late.” Mikey commented when Artemis said to not get a headache. Mikey then tilted his head when Artemis threw the glasses at him. Mikey could tell that from the way that he threw them that they would never reach him, but then Artemis did something with his fingers making the glasses land right over his eyes, they even shrunk to fit him. Mikey was going to ask if Artemis had more then one power, but then was completely distracted with what the world looked like from behind the glasses. Mikey then started spinning around in circles; trying to get a good look at everything from behind the ruby glasses. “This is awesome!” Mikey said as he spun around in circles. “It’s like a completely different world! My glasses aren’t anything like this.” And of course they wouldn’t be. Mikey just had normal sunglasses.

Mikey was so busy spinning he didn’t notice when one of his feet got caught behind one of the legs of the coffee table and fell backwards. As he fell backwards the glasses slid off his face and into the air. Mikey hit the floor with a slight thud then the glasses hit his face a couple of seconds later. “Ow.”

[rhyme]

Artemis tried to hold it in at first when Mickey wiped out but couldn’t and after a few moments burst out laughing. His crisp laugh, never heard in this building for over six years, filled it with untold richness. He could not control his voice alteration on true spontaneous laughter. As Rhyme it happened fairly often. Artemis though had less want to laugh. Anyone who knew Rhyme somewhat well during his time here would recognize that laugh. Not to brag about himself but his true voice was very nice, it just reminded him too much of home. His mother had an award winning singing voice and he inherited that voice himself.

“Damn it’s been a long time since I had a good laugh kid.”

Still chucking lightly he rotated his wrist which sent his two fingers which were still extended to rotate as well. He also added a bit of increased speed at the end to add a dramatic flair to make it less bland. None of the gestures were needed but they helped and he was a showman at heart.

This rotation caused the glasses on Mickey’s face to sort of dissolve, but instead of going downward they dissolved upward floating into the air before vanishing completely to who knows where. Artemis sure didn’t.

[Michelangelo de Rio]

“Glad one of us enjoyed it.” Mikey mumbled as he began to stand up. Mikey was just glad that Donny hadn’t been there, he would never let Mikey live that one down. Mikey may be accident prone and ADD, but that had been idiotic even for him. Mikey, who had years of martial arts training, tripped over the leg of a coffee table. Yep, Mikey was glad that Donny hadn’t been there.

As soon as Mikey stood up he put a little pressure on his ankle to see if he had twisted it, something that Mikey would be used to since over the course of his school life he had acquired two concussions, had broken five fingers; broke his wrist, his arm, his leg, and both of his ankles. Not to mention the numerous sprains, cuts and bruises. There was a dull pain, but Mikey guessed it wouldn’t be more then bruising or a light sprain.

As the glasses started to disappear Mikey turned to face Artemis, he was still trying to figure out what his powers were. Mikey had been thinking it could be materialization, but that was disproved he made the glasses disappear… so then what could it be? What else could it be illusions? That didn’t seem right either then what could it be?

[rhyme]

((All rights reserved and belong to Anarbor “Gypsy Women”))

Artemis saw the confusion on Mickey’s face and grinned a very evil grin. He loved when he could show off like this. It goes back to him being a showman. He needed very little reason to use his powers which was good since it got better the more he practiced. The more he worked with it the further he could push his mental limits and the more he could control at once.

“Just a moment, and soon everything will ring crystal clear.” He said putting a very odd inflection on the one word.

Artemis cracked his fingers as he saw four students about to walk out with a basketball in hand.

“Perfect…” he said barely above a whisper.

Heartbreak

Heartbreak

These words erupted from the general space around Artemis and his fingers extended quickly in succession on the beat of the drum. When he did the first two guys stopped in their tracks. He then repeated the action and the other two became entranced as well. The song he was about to do was all about control so the action was very easy.

They quickly turned and in front of them appeared the drums, mic with stand and two guitars each in one of the guy’s hands. He wasn’t sure if they could play but he didn’t really care. He knew how, so, so did they. They then began to play the music to the song.

” And then she took my soul, but I didn't know
That gypsy woman's got me under control.
She fed me lies while she cast her spells.
That gypsy woman's really ringing my bells.”

“And to Hell, I will go,
Knocking right on Satan's door.
Heavens no, this ain't it.
Honey, I won't beg, I'll just take it quick.
She took me to my knees,
and now she's got me praying.”

With the start of the song the guy with the mic begins to sing. There is fear in his eyes as the other since they are aware inside their brain but where being compelled by the song to follow Artemis’ bidding.

On the last lines strings appeared around Artemis’ fingers that lead to the singer and he gave them a hard yank which made him fall on his knees while he continued to sing. He then also pulled up which made his hands go together like he was praying.

“Save me, she's a liar,
and I can't seem to untie
the rope she's got wrapped around her finger.
Think I lost the last bit of my self control.”

Artemis yanked upward harder this time and the guy was back on his feet and singing at the mic. He made the guys do a sophisticated choreography along with the music as well as some cheesy bits to go along with the music. The entire time they were entranced by the song Artemis weaved. To a keen eye of similar power would notice a subtle field of warped reality around the four teens to most it appeared as if the air was really hot and shifting around.

At the end of the song he did the hardest bit. He walked over to them and waves his hand in front of them. When he did all that he made disappeared and they returned to normal. He then made a very hard mental impression. This was the hardest part because it had very little to do with the song itself. The song was about control not memories. The command was simple in the last. Remember nothing of what just occurred.

The entire song took very little energy though that last part left him winded from the mental exertion to wipe four guy’s minds of only three minutes. This wasn’t like a telepath just repressing it. Since they were still in his field, it was as if it actually never happened to them.