InsaneJournal

Negasonic was laying in bed with her fingers laced over her stomach. The door opened and someone told her, “You’re free to go.” She gathered up her jacket and the book Jean brought her, leaving behind the box for her fries. They could clean that up on their own. Probably had to disinfect the place anyway.

She walked into the hall and nearly ran right into Emma. “Whoa, sorry.” She looked up at her, being quite short as it was, and smiled. Negasonic had on black lipstick, but it was smudged from eating fries. “I forgot you were coming for me. Hey, Ms. Frost.”

Emma’d been distracted. The issue of Ellie had weighed heavily on her shoulders since the girl had first arrived. She wasn't sure what to do with her, or who would be an appropriate guardian. Still, she looked as close to perfection as she ever did, hair curling down her shoulders and in an expensive white dress and heels.

Thanks to her powers, she sensed what was coming and blinked a moment before Ellie turned the corner, sidestepping her before they collided. “Good thing one of us has a good memory,” Emma said pleasantly, focusing so that her face lacked the shadow of worry that it'd had for days.

“Are you ready to see Texas in all of it’s glory?” she asked dryly, with a small smile on her face. This wasn't going to be an easy drive, but it needed to happen. Ellie needed to be prepared for what she could easily research on her own and they needed to figure out where she'd be staying. “Hm?”

Negasonic smiled a little, remembering that Emma had a bit of bite to her. She liked that in people. The world was crazy and shitty and you have to acknowledge that. “Your powers trip me out!” She pulled her jacket on, remembering being told that it was November here. “I never thought I’d say this, but yeah. I want to go to the Mansion sometime too, see if it’s the same.”

She liked her visit with Emma the other day. Something about the other woman was magnetic. Emma wasn’t like Colossus or any of the other X-Men she knew. She liked the X-Men, but this was interesting.

“My powers trip a lot of people out,” Emma smiled and led the way out of the building, a little pleased that this Ellie was so different from the one she'd known. That girl had also been impossibly young and dressed in all black, but this one had a surprisingly sunny disposition.

“We can stop by the mansion today, if you'd like,” she said. “I'm free this evening and don't have work tomorrow,” she said as they walked outside. Emma’s car was all white and as expensive looking as anything else she owned. She opened her door and got in and waited on Ellie to do the same. The further away from the military they got the better.

Negasonic got pissy sometimes, but for the most part she was sweeter than she looked. She could be sarcastic, but she respected this person. Well… She respected Colossus too but that didn’t make her any nicer to him. And Deadpool? No respect. But she liked him.

“This car is fancy, are you loaded? Where do you work?” They had talked when Emma visited but it was mostly Negasonic talking about blowing up a downed helicarrier and saving Deadpool’s girlfriend.

“I work at one of the schools here. It's specifically for the Displaced.” She had to be cautious here, because the last thing she wanted to do was startle or overwhelm Ellie. “I'm comfortable,” she remarked, aiming for being tasteful about her wealth.

“We’ll have to get you enrolled at some point. There or elsewhere, it's up to you.” The car quietly roared to life when she turned the key and then they were off, with no real goal in mind. Driving could be soothing, especially out here where the streets weren't nearly as congested or crowded as they could be in big cities. “Do you need to eat or can we save that for later?”

“Oh, cool. Are there powers classes or just regular high school stuff?” Negasonic probably would only hear it called EPS and never put it together that it was named after her. She didn’t know the connection the Other Negasonic had to Emma.

“Sure, okay. But as soon as I turn 18, I am outta there and becoming an X-Man full time.” She looked out the window and pressed one hand up to it. Wow, this place was barren.

“Actually, all I’ve had are the fries Jean brought. I didn’t want to ask for more. But I’m pretty hungry…”

“There are a mix. We have some magical students so there are magic classes and Logan - Wolverine - owns a gym where people can train. There's also the Danger Room in the mansion.” Emma couldn't help but raise a brow at Ellie’s enthusiasm to become an X-Man. She knew better than to try and dissuade, but knew that there wasn't much to do here. “You can join whatever group you want, but this world doesn't have the same sort of apocalypse scenarios popping up with the frequency you might be used to. They don't even know mutants exist. And here, the X-Men mix fairly openly with the other Displaced when there is trouble.”

She turned down a road. “What do you want? There are many diners and plenty of fast food. Good restaurants are few and far between.”

“I know Wolverine. Deadpool talked about him a lot, too.” Negasonic was kind of impressed about the magic. But if mutants can exist, why couldn’t magic? “There’s different groups?”

She turned to look at Emma, “A diner would be okay. Fast food is only good when you .. are drunk after snuck in Schnapps,” she finished sheepishly. “Like Taco Bell.” Negasonic put her fingers together like an Italian chef and kissed them. “Delish.”

Emma raised a brow. “Don't brag about your underage drinking. Especially when it's an unimpressive alcohol. Schnapps.” she said dryly, while feeling quietly amused. “There's a diner called JJ’s. We’ll go there.” It was a bit of a drive, though, and it seemed a good idea to cover some ground before getting there.

“There are a lot of different types of people that show up here like we did. Some mutants, some magic users, aliens. Some are humans with no powers. The X-Men are fairly spread out throughout the towns with only a few living at the mansion.” A pause. “And you’ll probably recognize some of the people here. If you've ever read Harry Potter? Some of those make up some of the Tumbleweed magical community.”

Negasonic grinned, “Okay okay. But you know we get up to no good in that mansion.” The other kids her age convinced someone who was juuuuust a little bit older to get them alcohol. She was so sick the next day… never again. “JJs sounds promising, I like the name.”

She nodded appreciatively. “Aliens, rad.” When she heard ‘Harry Potter’ she sat up in the seat a little straighter. No, don’t tell Emma you love those books. Stay away from the herd. “Yeah, I’ve heard of those books.” Who hasn’t?? “So this town, why aren’t we moving around? Are we magically stuck here?”

Emma was distinctly aware of the sort of trouble children typically got up to in the mansion. Her powers made it impossible to miss sometimes. And now, as Ellie tried to play the Harry Potter thing cool, Emma smiled as she glanced out her side window.

“We don't leave because things tend to happen. Incidents. Magic or evil or simple chaos and we band together to get through such ordeals. For example, shortly after I arrived here, all of us were sent back in time to the 1940s. Luckily we were sent back, but it's just a matter of convenience and survival. Probably of means for some. It's not easy to start over in a new place alone.” She shrugged. “Have you given thought to who you'd like to be your guardian?” She asked. “And where you'd like to stay?”

Negasonic hadn’t considered Emma would read her mind, so she thought she got away with it. She knew Jean tried to block people out, but Emma was different.

“That’s totally what mutants do, I get it.” She raised her thumb to her mouth and gnawed at the nail. “Um… no. I figure the X-Mansion. Do you live there?” She wasn’t sure if Emma was offering or not.

“I did for a short time, but I left. I’m currently between homes, staying at a hotel, while I have my house built for me.” Emma said neutrally. She'd been giving thought to taking Ellie herself, as she was the only person she trusted with the task. At the same time, there was an enormous sense of guilt hanging over Emma about it. Ellie was a child she hadn't been able to save back home and it didn't seem right to just force her way into the girl’s life in such a way.

Negasonic continued to pick at her thumbnail. “Do you want to do it? Since you knew me before?” Her voice was slightly lower and a little shaky. She was normally ballsy but this was .. this was new.

Staying at a hotel? How would that even work. Why did she-- “Why’d you leave the Mansion?”

“The reasons are numerous and have a lot to do with things that happened back where I'm from, which I won't bore you with. There's a lot of history between some of the X-Men here and not all of it good.” Emma sighed and looked at Ellie. She'd been courting the idea for two days and now presented with a nervous teen who didn't want to be rejected, she knew what she wanted to say, even if she didn't think she had the right.

“I'd be happy to be your guardian. I can get two rooms that are joined together or we can find a B&B, something homey until the house is ready in a few months. But we should discuss some rules, because I won't allow you to always do as you please. You’ll have to go to school, and I expect you to work hard. I’d like you to get some occasional training in.” She hesitated for only a moment. “And you need to understand what sort of person I am.”

Negasonic dropped her hand into her lap and then started to chew on her lip. “I’ll go to school, and I’ll totally train.” Emma made her feel safe. Jean was also nice, but something about Emma… something about her.

“What sort of person are you?” She asked, hesitantly. Negasonic took note of ‘history between’ Emma and the X-Men and wondered if she ever tried to take over or something like that. Something Magneto-y.

“Not always a good one,” Emma said soberly. She drove in silence for a few long moments. “I’ve never tried to take over,” she said, overhearing the thought and deciding to respond to it head on. “But you may hear people say unflattering things about me and I don’t expect you to defend me in any way.” She sighed. “I’m doing my best here. And while I’m here, I’ll always defend mutantkind. And you.”

“I mean, if Magneto can turn out good, then … Morally grey isn’t so bad. I can deal with that.” But she would still defend Emma. Because she was nothing but nice to her.

“Did the other Negasonic... Did she become an X-Man? Or did she go with you?”

Emma sighed and drove in silence for a long moment. She wasn’t going to pull this punch, not even if she wanted to. It was unacceptable to Emma that Ellie find out about her counterpart’s demise via comic books or the internet. “I named the school here after her,” Emma said, voice soft but certain. “She was a telepath, you know. And she had premonitions. To my knowledge, she didn’t have your powerset.” Emma glanced up briefly, eyes rolling up. She was good at keeping a poker face through the toughest situations, but this was unusual enough to make the emotion rise to the surface. She did not, however, tear up.

“There was an attack on Genosha. Ellie predicted it, but there wasn’t enough time to escape. Many people didn’t make it, including her.” It took her a second, but she glanced over at the girl beside her. “If you have questions, you may ask them.”

Ellie rubbed her shaved head, and let out a huff of air. “That’s… She was a telepath?” She had told Deadpool she could see the future. How weird that a joke like that could line up. What are the odds? She really couldn’t see the future, but. Weird.

“So you … you were close to her?” She asked in a small voice. “The school here has my name?” She figured it was her birth name because no one in their right mind would name a school Negasonic Teenage Warhead School for Mutants.

“Is it upsetting for me to be around you right now? I don’t want to… you don’t have to be my guardian if it’s upsetting.” She hoped that maybe Emma would see it as a second chance instead of a reminder of something bad.

“It’s the Ellie Phimister School, often shortened to EPS. I wanted you to know before you arrived and saw the name on paperwork or the building itself. Or heard it from someone else.” Emma’s features softened at Ellie’s surprising show of kindness; Emma felt the girl should have questioned her more, should have blamed her. But it meant something that her first questions were about Emma’s relationship to the deceased and whether being around her was difficult. She was a good person. “She is important to me,” Emma said. She and the Ellie from her universe hadn’t been any closer than Emma normally was with her students, but the impact the girl had had on Emma had been large. She always carried the students she lost with her, even if she didn’t talk about it with anyone.

“It isn’t upsetting,” Emma said, at least half lying. But she was a good liar and most people who didn’t know her couldn’t see through it. “It’s been… strange, but not upsetting. I’m happy that you’re here and that you seem so well.” That, at least, was the truth. “If it’s uncomfortable for you to have me as your guardian, you just need to say so. I understand it’s an… unusual situation.” She couldn’t help but smile a little. “Where I’m from these sort of things happen more often than you’d think.”

Negasonic shook her head, “Whoa. That’s… that’s something.” Then Emma said she was important to her and Negasonic smiled softly. “That makes things interesting. But as long as you’re not upset, then … we could make it work.” If the other Ellie was Emma’s student, then maybe this Ellie could take after her. Maybe she was supposed to be with Emma.

She thought for a moment to say she was sorry, but she knew Emma would counter that with ‘don’t be.’ So she just turned and looked out the window.

“We’ll make it work, then,” Emma said.

A silence fell over them then that wasn’t entirely uncomfortable and for that, Emma was grateful. She drove and let her mind wander, making lists in her head of all the things she’d need to buy a new teenager. It’d certainly be expensive and there’d be a lot of work attached to it, but it also gave Emma more of a purpose than she’d been able to find in this world so far. Transitions were difficult, especially when so much past baggage was attached, but Emma felt confident she could handle this. She didn’t really have a choice in the matter; she had to get her shit together for Ellie.

After making a turn, JJ’s came into view, and as Emma glanced past Ellie to make sure another car wasn’t in the way of her making a turn, a stray thought hit Emma that made her grin. “Your hair’s such an improvement over hers.” Amusement in her eyes, she continued, “Poor dear. She had this… mop. This is better. I very much approve.” The last thing her Ellie had commented on before everything had gone to hell In Genosha had been about how Emma didn’t take things seriously enough. It seemed she hadn’t changed that much since that time.

Negasonic-- Ellie, grinned. “I had a mop. Shaved it off when I was fourteen, to make my dad mad. He was upset that I came out.” And after dumping that knowledge on Emma, they pulled up to JJ’s and Ellie was about to pop the door open out and escape from that conversation for now.

Emma raised a brow at that, feeling a mild sense of pride in such an act. She turned off the car and got out, following the girl inside the diner, hoping she'd made the right choice for Ellie.