Fic: Around the Marvel Universe in 31 Days #6
Title: Around the Marvel Universe in 31 Days
Author: JoeHundredaire (joehundredaire@tthfanfic.org)
Rating: PG-13/FR15.
Disclaimer: Right, I actually went and checked to be sure this time… Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series, and all associated characters belong to Fran and Kaz Kuzui. With a myriad of writers, artists, and editors, actual rights are a nightmare when you go near a comic book universe. Suffice it to say that Marvel Entertainment LLC owns all of the property printed in their comics, along with the television and movie adaptations of said same property. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.
Summary: Dawn decides to disregard the Scoobies' advice and have a heart-to-heart with a vengeance demon. Adventures ensue.
Joe's Note: While I'd intended to go a completely different direction with the previous chapter, once I started in on it… that fell out. Mostly because I thought it'd be more realistic for a pair of teenage girls from opposite cliques/gangs who openly dislike each other to sit there going at each other instead of behaving like mature, respectable adults pursuing a logical agenda. Why? Because they're mutant teenagers, but they're still teenagers. Teenagers do stupid and selfish shit. Here's additional exposition and such, though, to fill in some of what I'd intended to put into Lorna's chapter before getting distracted.
"Miss Summers."
"Miss Lehnsherr."
"Miss Terious."
"Ooh, good one. Let me think." Dawn reached up, tapping her fingers against Wanda's tiara as she thought. "Miss… Taken?" One slender black brow rose at that, and she shrugged. "All right, so it doesn't work as well as yours but… answer please? Because I've thought you were really pretty since Xavier did his who's who of the mutant community. Doing the whole Romeo and Juliet thing could be fun. Or… I've never been seduced to the dark side before."
Wanda smiled faintly at that before nodding. "I'm seeing someone, yes. I actually need to stick my head out and pass him some money when we stop in New Haven, so you can meet him then if you want." Reaching up, she pressed her palm against Dawn's forehead and gently tipped the brunette's head back so that she could move without hitting Dawn with her tiara. Turning to her right, she waved her hand negligently… and her row abruptly realigned itself so that there were two seats on the left side of the aisle and one on the right. "Join me?"
While she was pretty happy with their current seating arrangement - evidently Lorna wasn't the only member of the Lehnsherr clan with a fondness for corsets - Dawn nodded before hopping out of her seat and moving forward one row to join Wanda. Figuring that Wanda had taken her obvious ogling fairly well for a taken girl, Dawn decided to push her luck and leaned in so she could rest her head on the taller girl's chest. When no rebuke was forthcoming, she threw one arm around Wanda's waist and snuggled a little closer. "So… nobody even blinked at the train getting remodeled. Your doing, or is there a third member of the Brotherhood onboard somewhere?"
"Since you know who Lorna and I are, I'm guessing you know at least a little bit about our powers?" Wanda waited for Dawn to look up and make a vaguely agreeable noise before continuing. "While most of my probability manipulation is flashy, obvious things - like moving your seat over here next to me - it doesn't have to be. I can create 'passive' changes in the environment, too. For instance, generating a field that lowers the probability of people seeing anything wrong with two teenage girls yelling up and down the car about being mutants. Or that I'm using my powers out in the open."
That… was actually kinda cool, Dawn decided. While flashy, powerful stuff had its time and place… didn't the fact that she could change things without people ever realizing it make Wanda even more powerful? "Any chance you could generate a field that raises the probability of Jean and Lorna getting along?"
Wanda let out a snort of laughter at that before reaching up to pat the back of Dawn's head. "Oh, you poor naïve girl. If I could do that, don't you think my half-sister would have made a better first impression? No, even my powers can't make those two get along. They're like oil and water."
"I don't know, I think they're kinda like peanut butter and anchovies." Dawn bit her lip to avoid laughing at the disgusted look on Wanda's face. "Well sure, it sounds like a really horrible idea on the surface. But once you go ahead and put them together, you find out they really go well together." Wanda's expression shifted from disgusted to contemplative… and then back to disgusted. "What? I like peanut butter, and I like anchovies. Peanut butter and anchovies could only be even more awesome than the two things on their own."
Winding her fingers through Dawn's hair, Wanda gently turned the brunette's head until Dawn was staring directly into her cleavage. "Just… shut up and ogle me while I talk. You're actually less disgusting that way." Yes ma'am. "Now, since I'd be wondering what Lorna and I are doing here if I were in your shoes… to be honest? I convinced our father that we should be the ones to make official first contact on behalf of the Brotherhood because I was curious about you. It's not every day that I feel someone else tear reality apart and reshape it to their whims, you know. Considering who you're related too, though? We're not here to recruit you. After all, your new siblings have made it very clear that they want to be a third party when it comes to mutant politics. Last time someone tried to press the matter, Lorna ended up speaking in nothing but cheers until Father hired Mastermind to come and fix her."
Dawn blinked owlishly, and not just because she was practically being forced to motorboat a pretty girl. "Cheers as in…"
"As in I ended up transforming her clothing into an outfit like the one the cheerleaders at the local high school wear and conjuring up a pair of pom-pons for her to wave." Wanda's words started Dawn's mind racing even as the dark-haired girl continued on. "Sure, you're not a telepath so you can't pull something like that, and Marvel Girl's not well enough trained to do it for you. But we have no idea what Emma's effective range is, or if she can use her siblings as an… organic Cerebro, for lack of a better term. So I'm going to behave anyway, because I really don't want to spend the next few days living in fear of psychic retaliation I'll never see coming and have no way of stopping."
Unwilling to give up her lovely view, Dawn reached up blindly and patted around until she could trace her fingers over the red tiara that Wanda was wearing. "So this doesn't..?"
There was a long moment of silence and then Wanda huffed before releasing Dawn, rolling the brunette over onto her back atop her lap. "I was shaking my head and then I realized that you couldn't see it. No, my father's the only one with useful headwear. I came up with this as part of a Halloween costume a few years ago and then added it to my daily wardrobe because…" Wanda trailed off, furrowing her brow. "I'm not sure why, but a lot of mutants dress weird. Maybe to make the ones with physical mutations feel less self-conscious? Don't know. But I wanted to fit in, so I started wearing it when I shifted to my all-red wardrobe."
"It's cool. Did you design Lorna's too?" Dawn nibbled her lower lip as Wanda nodded. Considering she had no idea where she was going to end up as far as the mutant community's politics went, why not take advantage a fairly obvious opportunity to extend a hand in friendship? "Do you think you could make one for me too? Preferably in white, maybe with some sort of snowflake theme to it?"
"Sure. I'll start sketching up some ideas when I get home. Ask your older sister Adrienne for my email."
"My… right. Christian, Adrienne, Emma, Cordelia. And now Dawn. The Frosts. Oh, and Winston and Hazel. Can't forget them." Dawn frowned, again wishing that the Frosts had chosen different names for their children. While she didn't have a problem with any one particular name, the combination was annoying. Mostly because there was no easy mnemonic she could think of to help keep her new siblings' names straight. Although while she was on the subject… this was the second time that Wanda had demonstrated detailed knowledge about her. "How do you know so much about me? My powers, who I'm related to..?"
Again, one of Wanda's slender black eyebrows slowly rose. "I guess that's been edited out of the modern version of Uncle Charles's talk, then. My father was his best friend for many years, before they decided their ideas for the future of mutantkind were too different to achieve together. He helped build the Institute… and still has a login for its servers. Maybe Uncle Charles is lazy. Maybe they're still in cahoots and this is all some complex plan of theirs that none of us have been clued in on. I don't know. But I do know that we had access to your information as fast as the people at the school could type it in. Make of that what you will."
They were all just pieces in a game of chess being played by two really old - and potentially crazy - men. Wasn't that just a cheery thought? Dawn shook her head. "Pass. I don't have a horse in their race, and I might not ever have one if what you say about my family is true. Might have a real pony soon, though. Or six. The Frosts are loaded, after all. Although I'll want at least one that's made of diamond so I can name it Butt Stallion…"
"You're a very strange girl, Dawn Summers."
"And you're a very busty one, Wanda Lehnsherr. You know, as long as we're playing a game of State the Obvious."