Chapter 3 - Close To Home

Attention:  Generation X and their villains,as well as any other mutant mentioned in this story, is property of MarvelComics.  The character Richard Cale is named after family relations. Any other reference to anything copyrighted is a chance happening.
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Catch A Sound Wave
Close To Home
               Rich slowly awoke that morning.  He only remembered part of the film. He remember kissing Yvette and not to long after that he, and her, fellasleep.  As he openned his eyes, he felt something over him. He glance down to see he and Yvette were covered with his patchwork quilt. He wondered how that got there when he heard it.  It was Emma’s voice. [Richard, Sean and I noticed your door was open last night.  We sawthe two of you sound asleep.  We figured that you two hadn’t doneanything.]  Rich mentally agreed with that.  The farthest theyhad gone was a whole string of kisses.  The voice continued, [Seanwanted to take Yvette back to her room, but given the current circumstances,I thought it would be a bad move.  Sean placed the cover on you two,while I shut down everything you had on.  Just behave for now, wehave a few things to talk about dealing with this Soundwave character.]
              He shuddered after hearing that, being careful not to tense up.  Hethen felt something move along his side.  He then realized that itwas Yvette’s arm.  He felt her hold him closer as she said, {Morning. I see Emma and ‘Father’ took care of things last night.}  He felta light kiss on his cheek.
              He turned around and faced her.  {Yes, they did.}  He returnedthe kiss on her cheek.  He was happy to see her smile.  {Emmawants to talk to me more about Soundwave.}
              He noticed a worry look cross her face and an upset look in her eyes asshe said, {Why didn’t you ever tell me about all this?}
              He sighed out loud and said, {Cause I thought it was over.  When thetrial ended, and Davis was put up the river, I was assured he would neverescape.  I went on to lead a normal life.  I never told you howafraid I was of Davis because I never thought he would escape.  Nowhe’s free.  That is one of the reasons that when I came here, no oneknew I was here.}
              She held him closer when she said her next words.  {Are you worriedabout me, about what he’d do to me?}
              He nodded and said, {I am very scared for you, my love.  Davis wasa major womanizer in school.  He only thought of one thing. I’m afraid of what incarceration has done to his mind in that area.} He noticed that she was on the verge of tensing up in fear. He tossed awaythe quilt that was covering them and held her close.  While theirclothes were immune to her abilities, the bedding wasn’t.  He heldher and said softly and aloud, “I won’t let him do anything to you. I won’t let anyone hurt you again.  I love you too much to let thathappen to you.”  He noticed that she had calmed down.  He heldher for a little until she signal that she wanted him to let go.
              He heard her whisper in his ear, “I know, my love.  I hope we staytogether forever.”  With that she started to kiss him.  It wasa series of short kisses down his neck. He returned it the same way. She said in their mind link, {I thought it might help get your mind offthis problem.}
              He brought her face to his as he said, {It does help a little, but we haveto be careful.  We don’t want to go to far.}
              She smiled and said, {I know.  I wasn’t planning on it.}  Withthat she kissed him on the lips.  He returned it the same way. She smiled after he stopped the kiss and said, {When in Paris..}
              He smiled in return and said, {..do as the Parisian’s do.}  They bothengaged in a french kiss.  They didn’t kiss that way too often, butthey enjoyed it when they did.
              There was a knock at the door.  That was the reason that they didn’tfrench kiss too often.  Everytime they would, something would happento interrupt them.  The voice at the door just said, “Richard, Yvette,are you two awake?”  He recognized the voice.  It was Emma.  She probably knew they were awake, but they had to answer.
              Rich got up off the bed as Yvette sat up.  They were still in theclothes they were wearing last night.  He openned the door to seeboth Sean and Emma at the door. He just stepped back and said, “Come in.”
              Sean walked in first and and looked at the two.  He didn’t seem toupset as he said, “I trust ye both slept well.”
              Rich calmly said, “Yes.  I’m sorry we fell asleep together, but..” He didn’t know if Sean thought they would have tried anything.
              Sean just put his hand on his shoulders.  “Lad, I have no doubt thatye wouldn’t of tried anything.  I just know that you care enough aboutYvette that you wouldn’t jeopardize it.  And I know that she knowsthe same thing.”
              He nodded and said, “I understand, sir.”  He noticed for the firsttime that he called Sean sir.  He realized why he did that. He wasn’t talking to Sean, the headmaster of the Xavier School, he wastalking to Sean Cassidy, adopted father of his girlfriend.  Sincethe adoption, Rich felt he had to answer to Sean for almost everything.
              Emma then said, “Rich, last night we were talking with some of the othersabout who to watch for.  You said you went to school with Soundwave,and Everett said you had a yearbook.”
              He knew what Emma was getting at.  She wanted a picture of who theywould be up against.  He had to think for a moment where the bookwas.  He then heard Yvette say, “Didn’t you put that book with yourcomputer books?”
              He smiled at her.  “Thanks love.  I didn’t remember what I didwith it.”  He went over to the blue bin where he kept all those books. He openned it and noticed that it would take a little time.  He pickedout each book in the bin and put it on the bed.  After a few bookswere out, he heard a gasp.  He turned around abit scared.  Hethought that Davis was there, but he wasn’t.  He did however noticea shocked look on Sean and Emma’s face as they looked at his one computerbook.

              Sean couldn’t believe what he saw.  On the back cover of the bookRich just pulled out was the face of the man that Darrett was talking to. He heard Emma gasp and noticed that Rich heard the gasp as well. When he saw Rich look at them and then the book, he took a breath and said,“You scared me.  I thought Davis was here.”
              Sean had to say it.  “No, but we are abit shocked by the face on thatbook,” he pointed to the book where they saw the face.  It was eerie,but no less than 12 hours ago, they had seen Darrett speaking to the sameindividual that was on the book.
              Rich looked at the book and said, “Henry Stauf, main character of the 7thGuest and 11th Hour, startled you two.  He not real.  He’s afictional computer game villian.” He watched as Rich went back to searchingthrough the books for the yearbook they had asked for.
              Emma then said the words he was just thinking.  “He seemed real enoughwhen we saw him talking to Darrett.”  He watched as Rich just stopped. Those words seemed to strike a nerve.  This was something that botheredRich on a deeper level, maybe deeper than the lad had thought.
              Rich turned around with a book in hand.  Sean noticed it was the yearbookin question.  As Rich walked over to them with it, the lad said, “Youmean to say he was talking to Henry Stauf.”
              Sean looked at the boy and said, “A bit more than that.  He said hesummoned him.  He said he could summon up certain beings to fightfor him.  We just didn’t suspect to see one of them in a picture,like that.”
              Yvette looked at them all and said, “Do you think he can be a menace?” Sean noticed that his ‘daughter’ was a bit scared.
              Rich just said, “Henry is minor.  I’ve always looked into understandingsome villians and Henry is more Maciavellian.  He likes to manipulate. He has power, but uses them passively.  He uses them to influenceand manipulate.  Now if he summoned something else, we’d have alotto worry about.”
              Sean understood what Rich meant.  If this boy could evidently summonvillianous characters, that could be a problem if he summoned somethinghe couldn’t control.  He then heard Emma say, “Maybe we should havea session in the war room, to learn about Davis, and understand Darrettbetter.”
              Sean nodded in agreement and turned to Rich and said, “Rich, would youcome with me to the war room.”  He faced Yvette and said, “Yvette,you go with Emma and get the other kids, ok.”  He noticed the heartbrokenlook on her face.  She wanted to go with Rich.  He waited asEmma took Yvette with her out of the room and then left the room with Rich. When the two had headed of to one off the upper level, Sean led Rich outof the dorm and said, “Rich, did you ever mention your fear of Davis escapingto Yvette.”
              The lad looked down, but Sean had an idea on the answer.  “No. I thought it was all over.  I didn’t want anyone to know much morethan Davis used to be my friend.” Sean understood, in a way, what Richsaid.  Davis was a part of Rich’s past that Rich hope would nevercome back.
              When they reached the war room, Sean turned and said to the lad, “Rich,what are you more worried about, yur own safety, or Yvette’s safety?” Rich just looked away. It was a difficult question for the lad to answer.
              After a moment of thought, the lad finally turned to face him.  Thelad looked him square in the eye and said, “Sean, promise me one thing?”
              Sean looked at the boy and said, “It’s alright lad.  I know how muchyou two love each other.  I won’t try and seperate you, cause I knowthat it’s probably the worse thing I could do to both of ye.  I knowit’s a little hard for you because of the age difference, but I won’t argueabout it.”
              The lad meekly smiled and said, “Thank you, sir.  I’m am more worriedabout Yvette than myself, but I fear Davis might use that against me. He might use my love for her to get me.  Threaten her and luring meinto the line of fire.  I don’t want to give him the satisfactionof killing me, but I don’t want him to hurt Yvette.”  The lad startedto sob. It was a site one didn’t see to often at the school, seeing RichardCale cry.
              Sean held the lad and said, “It’s alright.  Remember, if Davis doesattack, I’ve got the best hand.”  Rich looked at him and Sean smiled. “I’ve got quite a big mouth.” The lad smiled.  Sean was happy thatthat thought comforted Rich.  He sat Rich down in a chair and startedto use the yearbook to create a 3-D image of Soundwave.

              Yvette continued along with Emma as her teacher went to the room now occupiedby Darrett.  This boy had some very dangerous powers if what he coulddo was real.  She then wondered what it could translate into. When they neared the door to the boys room, she heard a whiney whimper. She heard it before.  She stopped as Emma reached for the door. Emma looked at her and said, “What’s wrong?”
              The thoughts ran through her mind.  She prayed that she would getan answer with the question she was about to ask.  “Emma, does Darretthave a television in there?” When Emma shook her head, she tensed up. She knew what was in there.
              She watched as Emma slammed the door openned.  She peeked in to seea figure disappear, but Emma faced Darrett and said, “What did you summonthis time?” Yvette slowly untensed as she cautiously stepped into the room.
              Darrett looked at the both of them and said, “Someone who can ease my nerves.The sound it makes is soothing.”
              Yvette could hardly believe it.  She almost yelled in rage as shesaid, “You call a Skeksis relaxing.  You summon Henry Stauf and nowa Skeksis.  What’s next, are you going to bring forth next, one ofthe monsters from that Quake game?”  She felt a sharp pain in herhead and she grabbed it as she collapsed to the ground.
              She knew what it was before Emma spoke.  “Yvette, that was totallyuncalled for.”  Yvette glanced up as Emma faced Darrett and said,“But, she has a point.  How powerful is this summoning ability?”
              The boy looked at her, and then at Emma and said, “Not as powerful as itcould be.  The more dangerous entities don’t listen or rebel. I found this out a few days ago.  I tried to summon another gentleman,but he wouldn’t listen to me.  He said he was going to find his wayhome and get his son for what he did to him.”
              Yvette could see the upset in Emma’s eyes.  She slowly got up andsaid, “How can you know if you’re summoning something you can’t control.” She was honestly worried that the boy would make a mistake one day andbring something that would kill them all.
              Darrett shruged meekly and said, “I don’t know.”  Yvette noticed thatEmma shook her head.  This wasn’t a good thing to hear.
              Emma then said, “As of right now, Darrett, I only want you to summon thisHenry character.  Don’t risk summonning any others until you get betterat controling your ability.  As for right now, we must all head tothe War room.”  With that, Emma lead the way out of the room. Yvette made sure that she was right behind Emma, and saw that Darrett wasfollowing them.  Even now knowing what Darrett’s abilities were, shefelt even more uncomfortable around him.
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              Davis looked over the room.  During his whole time in the building,he hadn’t encountered an X-Man, which was good for him.  He was inthe room of his objective. The computer was right in front of him withthe location of Richard Cale.  He approached the computer.  Hetook a look around and slowly approached the computer.  He startedtyping at the console.  In a short time, he came across what he waslooking for.  He read the data that the file contained.  Thewords appeared on the screen but all he needed was location.  He noticeda few words and said, “Generation X.  Is that the group he calls friendsnow?  Interesting.”  He figured that Generation X must be a lessexperienced group like the X-Men.  He looked at something else whichpeaked his intrest.  It was a cross-file reference, actually, a fewof them.
              He jumped to the first one.  It was that of a teenage girl, with redhair.  Davis wondered if it was the red hair or something else entirelythat caught Rich’s eye.  He read the name of the girl.  YvetteCassidy.  He looked further down at the abilities.  “Ouch,” wasall he could say.  He continued reading to see that the two meantalot to each other. He then noticed that one of the names that was in Rich’sfile was in her file.  Something called Emplate.
              He went to jump to that file when he heard a click, or it sounded likea click. He spun around to see a very gruff man, with claws coming fromhis hands, facing him. The man just said, “Kind of figured something likethis would happen.  Beast figured you wouldn’t know where to go, soyou’d come here to find Skitz.”
              Davis had to admit, the man was right.  “I had a little help frommy employer. Now my question is, what are you going to tell the X-Men afterI escape.”
              Davis watched as the man charged him and said, “Nothing Bub, ‘cause youain’t escaping.”  Davis started to laugh as he started the music tohis sound machine.  He watched as the man stopped in shocked and hisbody started moving of it’s own accord. “Hey, what’s happening?” was allthe man could say.
              Davis walked up to the man and said, “Let’s just say that for the timebeing, you’re under my orders.  You’ll be doing the Macarena for awhile, until someone stops the music.”  He stepped away from the manas he went over to the computer.   It took him no time to setit up with an infinate loop of the Macarena.  As he turned around,he said, “Tell your friends thank you for the info, and...”  He pulledout a camera and snapped a photo of his victim, “thanks for the laugh.” Davis laughed like a maniac and ran out of the X-Mansion.
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              Daria ran out of her room at a full force bolt, actually a bit of fly. Daria had only learned about being able to fly at the museum.  Nowshe was using it to get her to the meeting.  When Emma sent out thepsionic summons, she was in the shower.  Daria wondered if Emma wasawear of that.  Her new persistant silver hair was plastered to herback as she few out of the dorm.  She didn’t realize how fast shewas going until she hit Mondo.  She realized what she had done andsaid, “I’m sorry, Mondo.  I didn’t mean to hit you.”  She helpedthe boy up.  She had to admit that she thought Mondo liked her, butshe didn’t want to get her hopes up.  She felt like she wasn’t worthMondo’s feelings, if he had them about her.
              He smiled that almost ever present smile and said, “It’s ok.  I wasjust coming to check on you.  When you hadn’t shown up, we were allworried that you ignored the call.”
              She smiled and replied, “I was getting ready.”  She didn’t want tosay that she was showering, although her hair probably told him that. She started walking towards the building that the war room was when shesaid, “I’m sort of worried about this.  I mean, first it’s Emplateand Aura, now this Soundwave character.  I don’t know if I can handleit.”
              She felt Mondo put a hand on her shoulder.  She turned to face himas he said, “I thought that about my first few days here, but I found outI could.  You shouldn’t doubt yourself.”  She felt almost likeshe was going to faint.  She wondered if Mondo shared the same feelingsfor her.
              She smiled and said, “Thanks.”  When he smiled back, she felt herheart skip a beat.  She always thought that was a figure of speech. After abit, they arrived at the war room.
              As they entered, she heard Sean say, “So ye found her, lad.”
              Mondo just smiled, and said, “She was in a hurry to get here.  Shehad knocked me over just to get out the door.”  There was a lightround of chuckles all around, except from Sean, Emma, the new kid, andRich.  Sean and Emma was obviously being serious about this. The new kid, Darrett, well nobody understood him.  He seem so criticalabout everyone, especially her and she couldn’t understand why.  Richwas understandably nervous.
              She heard Monet speak up after the giggles subsided.  “Is there areason we are going to get to?  I haven’t had the best of nights.” Daria noticed that Monet didn’t look as perfect as she usually did.
              Jubilee just said, “Duh.  You look like you and the sandman had afight and he lost.  What’s wrong?  Think Emplate might join forceswith this Soundwave.”  There was a quiet in the air.  Jubileehad said an uncomforting thought.
              Angelo just said, “That has got to be the worst thing you ever thought,chica. We had trouble handling Elane and Emplate, I don’t think we wantthem all together.”
              Yvette look out over the group and said, “He won’t.  Emplate wantsme and Rich alive.  Davis would love to see Rich dead.”  Theyall noticed that Rich nodded.  Rich hadn’t made one sound since theyshe entered.
              Emma then said, “We’ll get to speaking about Davis in a second.  Rightnow, we have to speak about Darrett, and his ability.”  Daria watchedas everyone looked at Darrett.
              Everett just said, “You mean we now know his ability.  Every chanceI’ve had, I’ve tried to synch with it, but couldn’t.”  She was surprisedby that.  Everett could discover any mutant abilities, but not muchmore.
              She heard Jono say, "Could be linked to the alternate time-line deal. So what is mystery boy’s abilities?"
              Sean then said, “He summons beings to fight for him, but they are ratherunique.”  Sean said it like it was an awkword term to say.
              Paige asked the $64,000 question.  “Unique in what way?  Arethey monsters?”
              Daria looked at the boy and said, “Are they real?”  She was curiousabout what his ability was now.
              Daria was started by who said the next words.  “Why don’t you showthem, Darrett.  Show them your friend.”  It was Rich.  Heseemed almost calm as he said those words.
              The boy just nodded and he seemed to be concentrating on something. Daria noticed as Emma stepped back as a figure started to form right infront of them.  Soon the figure was that of a man.  He lookedabout and said, “My Darrett, you never said that I would be called to meeteveryone.”  She watched as the man spun and was now wearing a tuxedoand said, “Hello all, my name is...”
              Rich almost as if on cue said two more words.  “Henry Stauf.” Daria had heard that name before.  She just had to place it.
              The figure just turned and said, “And if I’m not mistaken, Richard Cale. How are you lad?  I have something for you.”  The man pulledout a toy, and Daria finally placed him.
              She stood up and said, “You’re the villian from those two games, aren’tyou?” She faced Darrett and said, “You summon villians.”  At that,Henry disappeared, as if by magic.
              Darrett nodded and said, “That’s the gift.  I’m learning to controlit.”  Daria looked in amazement at the boy.  This ability coulddestroy them all, and he acted as if it didn’t matter.
              Emma then said, “We already told him not to try and summon anything hehasn’t summoned before.  He’s already done that once and it rebeledon him.”  Daria noticed the shocked look on everyone’s face. Then Emma said, “The most we can do is try to find some way to get Darrett’sabilities stronger so he can control the more dangerous ones.”  Shenoticed that Emma was about to say something, but then stopped.
              Daria noticed that Sean picked up on the cue and said, “Now, let’s go overDavis, just in case he manages to get here.”  With that a 3-D imageappeared, and Daria noticed as Rich moved back from the table.  Shealso noticed that Yvette went to his side. Sean then said, “This is Davis. He has the mutant ability to manipulate things with music. He can’t usenoise of any kind.”  The man in the image appeared to be the sameage as Rich, was slightly taller than Rich, and blonde.  Not muchelse could be told from the image, due to the black and white image. She also noticed that Emma had left the room.
              She heard Monet say, “So does he know where Rich is right now?”  Thatwas still a major issue, since it was well know that Rich never let anyoneknow he was here, and now the reason was very obvious.
              Sean said, “No, the only way he’d find out is to get the information fromthe X-Mansion.”  There was a sigh of relief pass through the room. The X-Men were not going to be stopped by one man.
              Emma then walked back into the room.  “Don’t bet on that.  Theyjust found out that Soundwave was there.  Wolverine encountered him.”
              She saw a smug smile cross Jubilee’s face as she said, “I bet somebodygot injured good.”  Jubilee was inwardly snickering, and Daria realizedwhat she meant.
              Emma looked at her and said, “I’ll say.  When they found Wolverine,he was busy doing the Macarena.  He wasn’t to thrilled to be discoveredlike that.”  There was a shocked look on everyone’s face, especiallyJubilee’s.
              Everyone turned when they heard Rich mutter, “His twisted sense of humor.One robbery he had all the policemen dancing to YMCA.”
              Sean faced them all and said, “Alright, I want ye all to check out thecampus. We’ll get the alarms and join you in a second.  Skitz andPenance, stay in here.  Darrett, I want ye to guard the door to thewar room.”  He used codenames, and that meant that this was a seriousproblem.
 

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