Darwinian Rhapsody: Tokyo Kings

By Lejindarybunny

A totally awesome X-Men: Evolution fanfiction

Author’s Note: I’M BA-ACK! You didn’t honestly think I’d forgotten about this project now did you? I promised to write it and write it I shall! I will apologize for the long wait though as I DID after all get majorly side tracked. I know, I know, two years is a long time to get side tracked for. So sue me. The wait means the writing’ll be better this time around.

Anyway I’m back on track, so before I forget, WELCOME TO THE GRAND OPENING OF DARWINIAN RHAPSODY: TOKYO KINGS’!!

Chapter One- The Wandering Kings

He ran a hand gingerly through the small, black clad girl’s hair. She was asleep, head resting on his shoulder as the bus sped on through the night. But Todd Tolensky couldn’t sleep, his mind racing ever forward like the Greyhound they road. They were on their way to nowhere by way of Roswell, New Mexico and all points in between. It was the summer of their freshman year of high school and they’d been on the road practically since the moment class let out, a day and a half ago. The young, dirty-blonde haired mutant chuckled quietly and looked idly out the window. His companion’s name was Kimberly Trufire, but she preferred to be called Ebony. They’d met only about six months ago when she’d transferred to Bayville High right before the start of something nasty; Sentinels, scary cyber-humanoids capable of massive property damage and bent on the destruction of mutant kind. Ebony of course, was a mutant herself, with power over shadows and a height of four feet and not very many inches. As was he, a mutant, that is, the Toad, with the power to leap really high, kick stuff and well, some other stuff. She’d been staying at the Xavier Institute while Todd was with the Brotherhood.

Yet somehow across enemy, or at least rival, lines the two had quickly become more than friends. And then the Sentinels had started wrecking stuff. They blew up the Brotherhood house, luckily all the guys and Tabby too, had managed to get out but then had to stay in the Institute. Then things had really gotten bad. Trask, the guy who created the sentinels had kidnapped Ebony and killed her powers before Todd could get there are not quite single-handedly rescue her. While Ebony was not dealing well with the loss of her abilities the Sentinels had attacked the mansion intent on destruction of all mutants there in. Toad had been cornered by most powerful of the killer robots when Ebony had thrown herself in front of the killing shot. Somehow the shock to her system overloaded the block Trask had created on her powers and she wasted the Terminator wannabe. The Sentinels were backed off, nobody important was seriously injured and the day was saved. Yay.

Of course more stuff had happened in between the serious points of action, like the strange prophetic dreams Todd had had about the whole mess and the fact that some of the Sentinels had once been human but he tried not to think too hard about those things.

And anyway that had all been almost five months ago and very little had happened between then and now that was worth mentioning. And so they’d decided to go on a vacation/national tour/adventure. Or rather Ebony had decided and dragged him along for the ride. Not that he minded. No this promised to be very cool indeed.

The bus pulled off the highway and into a town somewhere in Illinois, or was it Missouri by now? Didn’t really matter, they’d be pulling into the bus station in a few minutes for a three our layover while they waited for the next bus on their route. Todd leaned over and rubbed his slightly swollen ankles. One good thing about the wait, he’d have a chance to put his feet up for a while. Bus travel was certainly killer on the circulation.

He sat up again to find Ebony slumped over on herself giving the mental impression of snoring without actually making any noise. He smiled tiredly and put a hand gently on her shoulder. Her had better wake her up before the lights came on when they got to the terminal and startled her half to death.

“Yo Eb,” he whispered, shaking her ever so slightly, “S’time ta get off.”

“Mmmmmng?” she opened her eyes slightly and yawned. “Wha time is it?”

Todd checked his watch, (well, his since the Bus station in Pittsburgh) “1:25,” he said.

Around them the rest of the twenty or thirty other passengers were rousing as they pulled into the terminal.

“C’mon,” he smiled putting his arm around her, helping her up as everyone lined up to exit the bus. His other hand was busy removing everyone else’s wallets.

Gabriel sat on the sand in the darkness with the stars glimmering over the pacific ocean. California suited the young cyborg well; he’d been there for almost four months now after finally finding the motivation to leave Bayville. He’d had every reason to leave, the possibility that his ‘creator’, Doctor Trask could still be alive being the foremost in his mind. As long as the ‘good doctor’ wasn’t around to give him orders he could be his own person, make his own decisions. Gabriel had been human once, only a year or more ago, though he could barely remember it. Dying could really give a guy amnesia, though he could remember death no better. And had he been left to rot in piece? No, Trask had selected his slender, golden haired, fourteen year old body to riddle with wires and computer hardware, to turn him into a mutant-killing machine. And it had nearly worked too, as it had on Hunter.

Gabriel chuckled. Funny, that it had been some deep, primal loathing of the dark haired Sentinel commander that had roused him from his stint as a mindless drone. That, and the strange dream memories of his previous life as the small boy Andrew, who had dies of Aides. But that boy HAD died, and Gabriel felt no compulsion to resurrect the shy, trusting thing, nor to reveal this body to his parents. And definitely he was not Gabriel Archer (or rather A.R.C.H.E.R ) the sentinel. He was Gabriel Freewing, self styled cynical romantic and super powered individual.

Though there had been one reason to stay in Bayville...A smirk played on his sharp features and he tugged a few loose strands of hair away from his violet eyes. What is full of color yet has none? A glassless mirror with featureless reflection, the brighter the darker. Follow the leader, never leaves your side Predicts the weather. he riddled in his mind.

“What’s black and white and red all over?” he giggled to himself, laying back into the sand to see the thousands of tiny points of light.

He had an apartment in Los Angeles, now, and a job at one of the many surf shops by the beach he was now at. He sat up, if he stayed any longer he would never get home. A cool breeze moved across his now tan skin. Yes, Gabriel felt at home in the City of Angels, but something told him that he wouldn’t be there much longer. Something new was on the horizon.

The man shook his head, swinging the long colorless locks around his face. It had grown again, his hair. Perhaps it was a side effect of the process. He wondered briefly if he should cut it. Perhaps not, after all actions done could not be undone, sins repented still could not be taken back.

He looked around the cold metal made room. He was ill at ease, even here in this his last sanctuary. Doubts gnawing on him, doubts he should not have had. It was right and proper for him to have mastery and dominion and yet he did not. And here the feeling that something was wrong, that some fatal tragic flaw had overcome him. Did the white haired young man see the irony in himself? Not at the moment, but he soon would.

Xavier swirled the tea around in his glass, sitting in his office. Such a strange dream he’d been having these past few nights, wandering around in the mist. Someone had been calling to him, saying his name over and over. And something else too.

He sipped his tea.

And a number. There had been a number as well. 202, 202. What could it mean?

Someone put a hand on his shoulder and Xavier startled. He’d been so immersed in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard them approach.

“Ah, Logan,” he said calmly. “Good morning.”

“Yeah, sure,” he grunted in reply. “I’m headin’ out for a while Chuck.”

The professor winced mentally. Logan rarely failed to call him by that impossible nickname.

“Oh? For how long?” Xavier asked courteously, though he already knew the answer.

“A while,” was the only reply he got.

He sighed. “I had hoped you’d stay a while longer and help me with the new recruits.”

“Sorry Chuck, this is somethin’ I gotta do.”

“I understand.” The professor paused. “Sit with me a moment. won’t you, Logan?” He motioned to the empty chair beside his desk. Wolverine leaned against it, and Xavier supposed he would just have to be satisfied with that.

“Some of the students seem to be picking up some of your bad habits Logan.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Smokin’ or drinking?”

Xavier almost smiled. “Thankfully neither, as yet. No, I mean leaving at the drop of a hat.”

Wolverine grunted.

“Ebony and Toad left two days ago, right after school. They got on a bus headed westward. I’ve been wondering whether or not to send someone to get them.” Xavier laced his fingers together thoughtfully on top of his desk.

“Don’t do it.” Logan replied immediately. “You send somebody out there to drag ‘em back they’ll only resent you and whoever you send for doin’ it. They’ll leave again at the first chance they get, and probably won’t come back.”

“Logan, neither of them are at all responsible. Not only will they use their powers, in public, without any regard, but they are both petty thieves.” He shook his head. “I worry for their safety.”

“Look Chuck you asked for my opinion and I gave it to you. Kids like that are going to have to learn the hard way. Either they come back or they don’t, but chasing them down won’t do a damn thing.” With this parting remark Wolverine turned and stalked from the office.

The bus station that they were currently in was larger, but not any cleaner or nicer, than the one they had started out in, Ebony observed blearily. The floors were tiled in brown, rather than grey, and there was a small corner with cheap, dirty toys, and designated the children’s area. The young mutant was slumped in one of the hard plastic chairs near the obligatory vending machines; Todd was beside her, inspecting their tickets.

“We got a six hour layover, Eb,” he told her with a yawn.

‘Oh great,” she managed a smile. “Maybe next time I should actually stop and plan for a minute before rushing off on adventure.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” he assured her, then reached down to rub his tender ankles. “I gotta ‘dmit though, I am a little sick a this whole bus thing.”

“Me too. Maybe we should take a break for a day and hang around here?” she mused. “Where is here, again?”

“Missouri. You wan’ me to go see ‘bout a later bus, yo?”

Ebony sighed. “Why don’t you? We can find a motel and get some sleep, then play tourist tomorrow.”

“Sounds good to me.” He stood, and went over to the information desk.

Ebony’s mind drifted in an exhausted blur, and she wondered what she would have said a year ago if someone had told her she would end up with her boyfriend in a Missouri bus station at nearly 2:30 am?

She imagined she would have thought it a very nice idea... which it was... but about as probable as seeing her old math teacher Mr. Louis in a sundress... it would probably be a yellow sundress... the kind that mother wear to church picnics... like the one in Tom Sawyer....or was that in something else...they have ham salad at church picnics...I don’t like ham salad....but I do like egg salad...I wonder which came first....chicken salad or egg salad...

Todd touched her shoulder.

“The cab’s here Eb,” he said gently.

“Wha?”

“Ya fell asleep, yo. I found us a motel ‘n called a cab, figured I’d let ya sleep til it got here. Bus is at ‘bout 9:30 tonight night.”

She nodded.

“C’mon.”

She leaned on him as they walked out in the muggy night air, and got into the back of the taxi.

To be continued....

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