Summer 2012: Alex

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Jules: Julie was nearly in tears as she sped down the hall, the silver stream behind her glowing and sprinkling sparkles. She was rubbing her eyes as she ran into Alex, knocking both of them on their ass. "Ohf! Oh, Alex! Oh thank God! Can I kiss you?"

Alex: Alex blinked and looked around, not quite sure how he'd suddenly shrunk until he heard Julie and realized she'd knocked him on his ass, "Ow." He got up and held a hand out for her, managing a smile, "Uh, well... I'd prefer you didn't, but I guess it wouldn't be the first time."

Jules: "No!" She grabed Alex's hand and let him pull her up. "No, it's just... I just left my room... I got told my Tigra that I got drunk earlier tonight... and I kissed her and... I don't remember that! I'm not a lesbian am I? Oh my God I'm so stressed out! Everything that's happened, now this!" She used Alex to hold herself up.

Jules: "Oh God... and my brother is coming tomorrow... and I need to shave... and... and..." She felt herself get tunnel vision. "Alex I can't breathe... oh my God!"

Alex: He cringed at the panic attack but pulled her into a hug, attempting to sound reassuring as he spoke, "Hey, it's okay. Everything's fine. Just breathe slowly, calm down, and we can talk about stuff."

Jules: "Talk about stuff?" She breathed slowly and winced in pain as it felt like a knife was cutting throughher chest. "Okay... okay..." She hugged him back hard and let her breathing regulate. "Okay... okay.... I just... I'm scared. So much going on, so many changes!"

Jules: "Alex, what do I do?" She thought about the closet and wondered if it was still in tact. She thought about Alex and how she had tried so hard to get with him but he kept turning her down. All the guys she had slept with before... they were meaningless and she knew it even at the time. So... what did that mean? "What do I tell John?"

Alex: "Yeah, stuff. Stuff meaning anything you want, that is...." Alex gave a slight shrug, "What do you mean about telling John?"

Jules: "John as in my brother!" She sobbed. "Oh, Alex! I... I don't remember anything! I got so upset at myself for stealing that money, and how I wanted to just kill that guy! I drank myself into a state of stupid and then I did something stupid!" She looked to his eyes and instantly felt better. "You have nice eyes, y'know that?"

Alex: "Thanks," Alex gave her another slight smile and looked around the hall, guiding her over to the wall and pulling her down to sit on the floor with him. "Well, tell him we were stupid, took some money, had a run-in with a gangster, and now you're back?"

Jules: "I can't... he'll bring me home." She frowned and looked at her hands. They were holding his.

Alex: He stared at the wall opposite of them, "Then, make up an accident? I don't know. I'd say the truth is the best thing to go with, but it's up to you."

Jules: "I... I just... I don't want to..." She looked from her hands to Alex again. "I just want to not have to deal with al of it for awhile, y'know?"

Alex: "Yeah," he nodded, chewing on his lip. None of this would've happened if he'd stopped them from taking her in the first place.

Jules: "You... you were really brave fighting those guys off that day you know. And you came through for me in the end and... I just wanted you to know how grateful I am." She smiled and pecked him on the cheek. "Okay?"

Alex: Alex shook his head, "I didn't do much. I mean, J and Kitty did a lot of work, and so did you, actually..."

Jules: "You're a brave guy...." She whispered. She went to kiss him again, but missed. She didn't know if it was intentional or not, but she kissed him on the lips.

Alex: He could feel his face burning at the kiss but briefly returned it, "I wasn't that brave. I'm not the one that was taken."

Jules: She sniffled and threw her arms around his neck. "You're a good friend."

Alex: "So are you. I don't even know why you'd want to be friends after I let them take you..." Alex wrapped his arms around her.

Jules: "Because you dodn't let them take me you fought. And then you came back. Who really comes back? I'll tell you who.... a real hero. A real friend. A real... man." She felt it overwhelm her again. She reached out, grabbed his head, and pulled his mouth to hers.

Alex: He knew he probably shouldn't be doing this since she was just getting back from the whole money thing, but he returned the kiss again anyway. "Yeah, I guess," he said once he'd pulled away. "So, besides stressing, how are you doing?"

Jules: "I... I think I'm feeling a little better." She smirked at him and patted his leg. "I'm feeling happier than I have in a long time actually." She took in a long--and much needed--breath and felt herself let go. "Alex... let's go down to the closet. Under the stairs. I got some things hiding in there I wanna go find, stuff I haven't seen in like two weeks. Y'know, since I got taken and my fingers got chopped off?"

Alex: Alex winced at the mention of the fingers but got up and offered his hand, "That's good. You deserve to be happy, and looking for stuff sounds cool to me. Plus, we never got a chance to finish decorating..."

Jules: She took his hand and let him lead her down the stairs and to their super, secret, Secret Hideout.

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Jules: Julie hurried around in a panic, her face stricken with fear. She ran down the hall to Alex's room and banged on the door hard. Very hard. WIth her good hand. It was still her good hand, right?

Alex: Alex looked up at the banging and called across the room, "It's open."

Tigra: Tigra had been trying to work out how she used to write when she heard something banging down the hallway. She frowned and got up, opening her door and sticking her head out into the corridor to investigate. "What's with the noise?"

Jules: Julie zipped to Tigra, grabbed her by her arm, and yanked her into Alex's room.

Jules: "You two have to see this!" She cried out, her eyes big and puffy from crying. "Something's wrong with me! Something's wrong with me!"

Alex: He just blinked at Julie's wailing and a cat girl he'd never seen before, not exactly sure which he was supposed to be focusing on...

Tigra: Tigra eeped as she was dragged boddily into some guy's room. "I'm not decent!" She wailed - she was in her underwear. Sure it was nice underwear but still....

Jules: "Look! Look at this!" She tore off her bandages and shoved her perfectly normal, average, hand into Alex and Tigra's faces. "Look at this! I'm a FREAK! A super Freak! I'm super FREAKYYYY!" She wailed.

Tigra: "Uh... look at what? It's a hand...." She blinked, "What's wrong with it?"

Jules: "That's the thing! There's nothing wrong with it! Don't you see?!"

Alex: Alex managed to force his gaze away from the cat girl and to Julie's hand, "T-that's... great. It's, uh, better..."

Tigra: Tigra frowned, "I'm not sure I follow you... it's bad that there's nothing wrong with it?" She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling a little exposed in the lacey underwear.

Jules: "No it's not just better, it's FINE! There's nothing wrong with it at all!" She grabbed Alex by the cuff of his shirt and pulled him towards her. "Don't you see what this means?! I'm a self-hearler or something! I like... sub-consciously get better!"

Alex: "Gah!" He lurched forward as she pulled, hand going to her wrist in an attempt to get her to stop ruining his shirt, "Isn't that a, um, good thing?" Alex quickly gave the other girl an apologetic look, then glanced back to Julie.

Jules: She looked at her hand and let go of Alex. She then turned to Tigra and frowned. "I don't know... is it? Is that... okay? Is it a side effect of the serum? I think my Rainbow is starting to come back soo...."

Tigra: "We could test it if you like?" Tigra extended her claws, "I have accelerated healing, myself. It's quite handy really..."

Jules: "No!" Julie guarded her hand again. "No, no, no! I think it's like... overnight!"

Tigra: She retracted her claws, swishing her tail, "Well suit yourself...." she looked at Alex, "Hi, by the way... I'm Tigra... New."

Alex: "Hey," he managed a weak grin, "Alex."

Jules: Julie slumped on Alex's bed. "I hate my life." She confessed.

Tigra: Tigra frowned, eyeing Julie, "Um... you don't mean that... do you?" She chewed her lower lip, tail flicking from one side to the other every so often.

Alex: Alex shifted uncomfortably but scooted to sit next to Julie, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "It'll get better. You're just having a rough time right now."

Tigra: Tigra edged a little closer to Julie and crouched in front of her, wrapping her tail around herself. "Um... what's so bad about healing fast?"

Jules: "I don't want to be anymore of a freak! I attract so much trouble! I just want to be normal!"

Tigra: Tigra frowned again, "You attract trouble? Have you even looked at me? Jeeze, everyone in this place whines about being a 'freak'.... at least you can go out without being stared at!" She folded her arms.

Alex: He winced at Tigra's words. He could see where she was coming from, but he couldn't imagine Julie taking that well.

Jules: "I.... I...." She tried to sort out how to even respond to that. "I've been sexually assaulted, captured, tortured, and I had a deadly mutant virus that almost killed me!" She shot up and pointed a finger at Tigra. "You're a gorgeous unique, mutant girl! You're not a plain-looking freak like me who attracts all the shitty guys in the world!" She looked to Alex. "Present company excluded."

Tigra: "You think I haven't had my share of trouble?" She shook her head, "I had to walk nearly nine hundred miles to get here from Chicago because no one stops for a mutant. I almost killed a guy because he thought it was okay to force me to sleep with him because he was the 'alpha male'." Her tail tapped on the floor, "Don't try to pretend you're the only one with problems. Life sucks, but people deal."

Jules: Julie curled up on Alex's bed. "Nevermind." She said, angrily. She hated getting into one-up matches. "I don't care, okay?"

Alex: He gave a slight smile at being excluded from shitty guys but looked between the two, not exactly sure what to say. He figured it was better to keep his mouth shut to preserve his life. One could tear him to shreads and the other death would be quick if Julie was feeling nice...

Tigra: Tigra sighed, "Look... it's never as bad as you think it is at the time..." She moved forward and put a hand on Julie's leg, "I'm sorry okay, lost my temper... But you don't mean it... people never mean it when they say that..."

Jules: "I just want to have a normal month..." She said with a long sigh. "For the first time... since Mom died." She shot up, her eyes wide. "Oh shit, my brother is here in like an hour!"

Tigra: Her eyebrows raised and she removed her hand, "Uh... you gonna go meet him?" She vaguely remembered being confused about whether or not his visit was a good thing the day before.

Alex: Alex cringed a bit at the mom dying part but decided the change of subject meant it was safe to speak, "I can come with you to explain, if you want."

Jules: "Explain?" Oh, right, the abduction thing. "Yeah... that'd probably be for the best. I should be down at the door when he gets here. Long flight from Albequerque, y'know?"

Tigra: "Well in that case..." Tigra got to her feet, "I'm gonna go back to my room and put some clothes on in case I get dragged around by any more crazy people.... Nice meeting you, Alex..." She waved vaguely at them both and headed for the door.

Alex: "Yeah, you too..." he replied, getting up and offering his hand to Julie, "Let's get this over with, then."

Jules: "Yeah... let's." She sighed and reached for his hand. Once she was pulled up, she decided it was a good time to distract herself. "Secret area first..." She whispered into his ear with a wink.

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Christopher: Chris grabbed a duffle bag from his closet and started throwing some clothes in it making sure they weren't too messy in there. Once all his clothes were packed away he started loading up his underwater camera and other essentials that he thought he would need for his trip. "Welp guess it'll just be you and me my plastic covered metallic friend."

Alex: Alex walked into the room and kick the door shut behind him, taking a drink from his bottled water before flopping down on his bed, "Hey, Chris. What's up?"

Christopher: "Not much just packing for my trip. How bout you?" He grabbed a few more things and shoved them in the duffle bag and then attached a tag onto it so incase it got lost it would find its way back to him.... hopefully.

Alex: "Not much, really. Just hanging around," he gave a shrug. "Where you going?"

Christopher: "Australia! Got a shit ton of money and I plan on blowing it with the rest of my summer break. Gonna get some good scuba diving in hopefully!" He was definitely excited about the trip even though no one was coming with him.

Alex: "Sounds awesome. I'm thinking about going home. I miss surfing," he grinned, "Just have to arrange it with my family."

Christopher: "Oh cool. That sounds like fun." Chris thought for a minute. "Ya think it'd be easier if I took you with me and we just popped in from Australia? I could teach you how to scuba and you could teach me how to surf!"

Alex: His grin grew, "Really?" He'd never really travelled. At least not out of the country.

Christopher: "Yeah man. Mom loaded my bank account for the summer and said use it how you want. Sad thing though is it's gone after summer and I gotta find a way to get money for anything I wanna buy." He threw his duffle bag up on his bed to get it outa the way.

Alex: "That's so cool. Well, the money for the summer, not being poor afterward." Alex eyed the bag he'd thrown, "So, I guess that means I should start packing..."

Christopher: Chris laughed a little. "Yeah we gotta get going if we're gonna make it back before classes start up. Hmm I'll have to buy you some scuba gear once we get to Australia though. I'm sure my dive shop down there will love it. But I have no idea where we'll store it in here. I mean mine already takes up a hell of a lot of room in the closet."

Alex: "Well, I could just keep it at home, so I can scuba there," he gave a shrug, and then got up to grab his bag from its spot under the bed. "I'll have to get you a surfboard, too. I don't know where that would be stored either."

Christopher: "Hmm yeah that'd be a toughie. I wonder if the proffs would mind if we broke a wall down and just expanded." Chris laughed a little and then sat on the ladder for his bunk bed.

Alex: Alex started carefully pulling clothes out and placing them in his bag, laughing as well, "I doubt he'd be very happy, but we could take down the wall and find out."

Christopher: "We could always just blame it on our powers acting up." He laughed more. "You better not laugh when I completely fail at surfing man or I'll have to drown your ass."

Alex: "We could," he agreed as he re-folded a shirt that'd come undone. "Pfft, you'd have to catch me to drown me."

Christopher: "Or just spear gun ya and let the sharks take care of the rest." Chris gave Alex a mock evil look and then busted out laughing cuz he couldn't hold the face there.

Alex: Alex shook his head, "Where the hell would you get a spear gun?"

Christopher: He looked over at him with a duh look. "The dive shop? You didn't know they sold those? I might pick me up a wasp knife too, those things are pretty epic."

Alex: "No, I don't go diving," he rolled his eyes.

Christopher: "Hmm well that would explain it. Yeah most of them here in the U. S. but the ones over seas almost always carry at least three kinds." He got up and looked around at his fish.

Alex: His eyebrow raised, "And, that's a good thing?"

Christopher: "Well if you're not a mutant like us it is, cuz it's one of your only defenses against sharks and such." He took out one of the filters to make sure it was still clean.

Alex: "Except sharks don't really bother people..." Alex shrugged.

Christopher: "Well that's if they're not dumb enough to cut themselves on coral or piss off and eel or something and get bitten." He laughed a little. "I've seen some close calls. Plus certain sharks are man eaters and they are very aggressive. Like the mako's and bull sharks."

Alex: "I meant while you're surfing," he replied as he went for the bathroom to grab anything he'd need from there. "You're fine as long as you don't flail if they touch you."

Christopher: "Oh yeah I know that. I've pet a shark before, it was pretty epic." He replaced the filter and started doing some tiny work here and there. "Hmm I wonder who'll feed my fish while we're gone."

Alex: Alex grabbed his toothbrush and toothpaste to toss into his bag as he tried to think of someone. "What about Pietro? He has a fish, right?"

Christopher: "Uhmm he's gone still isn't he?" He cleaned up a particularly dirty part of the tank. "Hmm maybe I can ask Tigra too."

Alex: He shrugged. He didn't keep up with a lot of people, really. "The new cat girl?"

Christopher: "Yeah she's pretty cool." He kept cleaning the tank slowly making sure it looked better than before.

Alex: "I've met her once." ...Sort of.

Christopher: "Oh? Yeah I've had a few run ins with her some a lot better than others." He rubbed his arms where she had clawed him.

Alex: "Sounds like fun." Going through the stuff he'd packed, Alex marked things off on his mental checklist and went to grab whatever he'd forgotten.

Christopher: Chris sat down at his desk and started making up a daily check list for whoever was gonna watch his fish. "Hmm I'll have to see if I can find Tigra so I can ask her. If not I think I'm screwed."

Alex: He shuddered at who came to his mind after Pietro, "I'd suggest Julie, but I wouldn't trust her with them. She's more likely to kill the fish."

Christopher: "Yeah I don't wanna come back and have my fish swimming upside down." He got everything out and started making labels for them.

Alex: Alex nodded and zipped his bag up once he was sure that he had everything, "That'd suck."

Christopher: "Yeah specially since none of these guys are very cheap. Plus if she kills the coral it'll never be the same again." He finished labeling things and then checked his bag to make sure he packed everything. "I'll have to go find Tigra to ask her. I'll meet you back here and then we can head out. Ya might wanna call you're rents while I'm gone."

[JackSkulls]

Christopher: Chris walked into the dive shop and looked over at the familiar face behind the counter. It'd been a long trip and he wanted to get in the water as soon as possible. "Hey Alex over here I'll show you around and we'll get you all set up."

Alex: Alex followed Chris into the shop and glanced around after scrubbing at his face. He had a feeling it'd be a while before they go to go to bed, which was sad since the plane ride had taken forever and been exhausting. "So, what all do I need?"

Christopher: "Well unless you're hiding some gear somewhere you'll need everything. I mean we can probably skip on the dive knife and spear gun since we're not going anywhere dangerous." He led Alex over to the BCDs. "First we'll have to get you one of these and a tank. Then a regulator and some gauges. And then lastly some weights and flippers."

Alex: "That... sounds like a lot..." he commented after the list of things he'd need was rattled off.

Christopher: "Yeah but once it's all hooked up it's basically only two things. The BCD with everthing strapped to it and then the flippers." He walked over to one of the walls with a bunch of different equipment on it and grabbed some that should fit Alex easily and if not it could be adjusted. "Here hold onto that. BCD down everything else to go."

Christopher: He grabbed a regulator and some guages and then headed for the front counter, on the way grabbing a few weights. He looked around and then saw the owner and gave him a wave. "Hey man! We need to get all this stuff rung up and hooked up to an air tank. Think you can help us out?"

Christopher: The man more than happily obliged and took all the equipment into a back room and got to work hooking it all up. "Okay while he's doing that why don't you find some flippers you like. I think I'm gonna check out a few of these dive knives."

Alex: Alex just nodded and moved to look around the shop for flippers while the cashier took all the equipment. Once he found them, he looked the flippers over, not exactly sure which to choose. "Does it really matter which I pick?" he called across the shop to the other boy.

Christopher: "Uhmm not really, I just went with the most comfortable ones. So whatever you want." Chris took the equipment from guy when he brought it back. He paid for it and whatever flippers Alex decided to chose.

Alex: "I guess these ones work." He'd tried on a few different pairs before selecting one and taking it to Chris to pay for. They seemed comfortable, but he supposed he wouldn't actually know until he was in the water.

Christopher: ((To the boat))

Christopher: Their boat motored out to where a nice coral reef was. When it arrived the engine shut off and Chris walked around to the back of the boat where all their gear was. "Okay wanna learn the basics up here or in the water?"

Alex: Alex glanced between Chris and the water, giving a shrug, "Here?"

Christopher: "Okay well It's all basically set up so you just have to strap everything on like this." Chris started straping all of his stuff on slowly to demonstrate how to do it. "Then you breathe through this." He held up the rebreather and put it into his mouth showing him what to do.

Alex: "Okay, cool." He watched Chris and mimicked his movements hesitantly, not quite sure he was doing it right.

Christopher: Chris reached over and fixed a few of Alex's mistakes. "Pretty good for a first timer. Okay Now when you reach over to your side you should be able to grab your gauges easily." He made a motion with his arm and brought up his gauges.

Christopher: "Okay first basic hand motion you need to know. If your air gauges get low you have to do this." He made a hand motion across his throat. "And make sure I see it. But we shouldn't have to worry bout that since we just got the tanks filled."

Alex: Alex made a mental note of the motions, really hoping he'd remember. Well, and that nothing would go wrong, so he didn't have to use them, "Sounds good so far."

Christopher: "Okay other than that the motions are pretty simple. To go up you point up, to go down you point down, and then any where else you just point basically." He checked the rest of his stuff and then Alex's "Okay this button control's the air in your BCD to help you float."

Christopher: "Basically you just use it to keep yourself from sinking too much."

Alex: "Awesome. We can get in the water now, right?" It'd been forever since he'd been in the ocean. The swimming pool at school just wasn't the same.

Christopher: "Yup lets do this." Chris jumped into the water and adjusted his BCD so he'd float up to the top where he could wait for Alex.

Alex: Alex checked all the equpiment one last time before hopping off the boat into the water and using the button he'd been shown.

Christopher: Chris waited for Alex to surface and then showed him again how to use the regulator. "Okay lets swim around." Chris dived down and searched around the coral taking pictures with his underwater camera.

Alex: He nodded and trailed after Chris, taking a few minutes to adjust to being able to breathe underwater. Once he was used to all the gear, he caught Chris' attention and pointed toward the direction he was going to go. He took the underwater disposable camera he'd bought, aimed, and took a few shots of some fish.

Christopher: Chris followed Alex and took pictures of the different coral and fish. As a school of fish swam past he got a good shot of them.

Alex: As Alex swam through the coral reef and took pictures, he was careful not to kick or touch the coral.

Christopher: A few hours and a ton of pictures later Chris caught Alex's attention and pointed up to the surface. When he got up there Chris spat out his regulator and attached his camera to his BCD. He waited for Alex to surface to see how he liked his first dive.

Alex: He caught the hand motion and made his way to the surface, spitting out the thing that was used for breathing, "What's up?"

Christopher: "You ready to go back in it's gettin a little late. We can catch some dinner and head back out tomorrow for a different reef maybe?" He rubbed his head brushing water out of his hair.

Alex: "Yeah, sure," Alex nodded. "Sounds good to me."