Recent Posts

Telling Ms. T about hitting Chase's nose seemed to be the key in getting her to want to move again, but it was one thing that Locke had really not wanted to let her know about. As if the mental deep fry wasn't enough reason to throw the book at Locke, along with the great risk to both the health of Chase and the teen, Locke had actually harmed Chase. Nature was cruel and liked to put an extremely vulnerable spot where it would get hit. It didn't take much to knock someone out by hitting their nose, and just a little more than that could put them in the black permanently. They had been lucky that Locke's elbow hadn't made enough contact to do such damage, but giving the kid a bloody nose wasn't a good thing to tell his mom. It had been an accident. All Locke wanted to do at the time was to get Renee off of him and get Chase back. Neither one was skilled at grappling, even though Locke would occasionally wrestle with Fluffy, so some awkward and potentially painful outcomes should have been expected. Still, he had hurt a kid. Well, at the time Chase hadn't been a kid, but still. What college would want him to take classes in working with kids when he hurt one of them? More importantly would anyone let him near kids with that information. Plus the insanity thing. Oh sure, Locke could declare that he had been acting in self defense, but that almost made the entire situation worse.

What Locke had wanted to ask Ms. T before he couldn't even think of. What he wanted was someone to tell him the truth of the morning. No, scratch that. The truth was inky right now, inky and frightening. Instead of the truth, which could be almost anything, Locke wanted to be told that he was right. His dad had loved his mom, his mom had died, and it was too painful to talk about. No insane mother, nobody trying to get in contact with him after all these years, not now when his life was starting to be good. He didn't want to, and wasn't entirely sure, he could handle having to start his life over yet again. Renee was a reset button that had been pushed in, but not yet released so that the program is frozen in time.

Did Chase shift back into himself? Ms. T wanted to know, but Locke wasn't looking at her. His head was turned in the other direction, as if by staring that way he could a: avoid having to discuss the matter further, and b: see where Chase might have gone. Like so many questions that Kendra had posed, Locke simply ignored it. If he did not wish to answer it was easy enough for him to gloss over it and pretend he hadn't heard it. He did hear her ask if Locke could sense Chase outside of her aura. At last, she was taking action in locating the kid. Not prone to feel rushed, Locke didn't like this ants in the pants sensation of being forced to wait. Even his mutation worked in reaction rather than action itself. What was that saying about drawing the sword first?

Locke chewed on his lip, dangerous given the state his body was in, and tried to curl into himself. Ideally he should take more space up on the ground, lay down or something. The more contact with the earth the teen made the farther he could sense things and the more information he could gather. That was part of the reason why he didn't get rid of his thin soled shoes. It had taken him hours of walking, running, movement, sometimes at great pain, to wear down the high tops soles this much. Thicker soles made things harder to sense. Socks could be an issue too, depending upon the material. He took another step away and tried to sense out Chase. "Dunno. He's hard to pick up sometimes, especially if he's changing. And if he's gotten too far away from us already, or if we go in the wrong way...

There is that moment when you realize what you have to do and you know that you are royally screwed either way. You might be playing solitaire and realize that the computer has dealt you a game that has no possible way of winning, or you just found out the person you are partnered up with on your class project knows the subject, but is a lazy bum. For Locke the damned if you do, damned if you don’t moment was right now. Ms. T had no clue where Chase might be hiding out, which meant that she needed him to give more than just “there was an accident”. Locke had really needed Ms. Taylor to know where Chase felt that he would be safe. She was his mother, so he thought she would have more insight into the workings of the nine year old’s mind. Then again Kendra had been living with Locke for years and she didn’t expect him to go to New York City. New York was one of the two major locations you went to try to become famous, which Locke had zero interest in. Actually if you paid money to pursue such an interest, then someone would owe the teen major moola. Rather than stand out in a crowd or see his name in lights Locke wanted to fade into the background, to be no more spectacular than anyone else. There really hadn’t been anything special about New York to draw him there, so Kendra had no reason to suspect that Locke would leave. Maybe parents didn’t always know what to expect of their kids. Logic dictated the actions the Californian took, but logic was a little different when you are young. He didn’t get why a cookie would spoil his dinner when he didn’t want to eat what was there anyways. Right now kid logic was saying that the school wasn’t a safe place because Locke was in the school. No, forget about the teen. He was frightening enough but Ms. Taylor was downright grade A horror movie monster potential. You do not want to make your parents angry, and although Locke had strove to do so, ticking off a legal guardian isn’t a good idea either. Moms, no matter what type, were not to be messed with.

Which reminded Locke, not that he had forgotten, about his own mother, or at least what was being presented to him as such. There wasn’t much room for hope in him. Hope requires believing in something that you can’t explain, something greater than yourself. Right now the small pockets of it that Locke had were pooling together in hopes that Renee really wasn’t his own mother. How sick and wrong was it that Locke would rather have his mother be dead than alive after all these years? He wanted his dad to be alive instead of dead, and his mom dead instead of alive. Awkward didn’t even to begin to sum things up. Awkward was having a spare pair of underpants fall out of your sweatpants in gym class or saying “cheese clamp” to a reasonably attractive girl. Disturbing, sickening, twisted and wrong were just a part of what had happened in the library. Right now he didn’t even want to think about Renee, but he wasn’t sure how to tell Ms. Taylor why Chase was afraid and running away without thinking about that. Locke pulled at the sleeves of his jacket, trying to draw some extra warmth into him. His jaw was starting to ache in trying to stop his shaking.

”It was Renee,” Locke said. The attack on Locke had been caused by Renee, who might or might not be related to him, but it wasn’t Chase’s fault. Chase wasn’t aware of just how dangerous a mind could be, or maybe he had no idea what his limitations were. Locke had more maturity, perhaps more than the normal team, but that came with age and his life experiences. He knew when his body felt like all the moisture in him was sucked away that he had to stop. Maybe it wasn’t that Chase didn’t know how to stop, maybe it was that he couldn’t. Locke’s power depended upon his mental strength and his will. If he wasn’t stubborn with the soil it wouldn’t do what he wanted it to, and if his mind was weak Fluffy wouldn’t even move at all. Earth sense worked best after he had some time to wake up in the morning, once the brain fuzzes had cleared. ”She said she was my mom.”

Locke’s voice spoke more of his confusion than his face could. To be honest he was in shock. Not the “oh you threw me a birthday party!” shock, but rather the “seek medical attention” shock. While the ground didn’t try to hurt Locke, the teen felt as though he was buried up to his neck in the dirt, tightly packed in there. ”She wanted to kill me. Chase was just trying to help.” Ms. T had to understand that Chase hadn’t meant to do something wrong. It was safe to say that Locke’s stalker was dangerous, the same way one might say that quicksand was dangerous. You could get hurt, or die if you weren’t smart and avoided it. Then again the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the nine year old might as well have been holding a trowel and some cement. ”So he took the pictures.”

Locke had assumed that when Chase ran off that the kid would go to his room. Not because he had done something wrong, which he had, and getting sent there was a basic form of punishment. It had always seemed to be a pointless endeavor. With television’s being manufactured smaller, thinner, and lighter a bedroom became equal to, or greater than the living room. You didn’t have to worry about sharing in your room unless you had a roommate, and Locke had seen how one sulking child could easily drive out another. Or maybe that was just because you don’t want to be seen near the one who got in trouble. But that was beside the point. Even without all the wonders of technology that you could keep in your bedroom it was still a place you should be happy to go. A bedroom is like your own private sanctuary. You modify the four walls to your choosing, adding to them what interests you. Anything that is exclusively yours can be kept in there, and when you just don’t want to deal with people you can shut them out.

At least that’s what Locke thought about his room. For years after the accident he had taken shelter in his bedroom, keeping the door closed and his music playing. When one of the twins cried he would come out of there, but the rest of the time he was hidden behind that wood door. Meals had been taken in there, homework was done in there, and he just didn’t bother with the TV. His room had been a safe haven when the world first ended. Right now he would like to head that way. Logic was nagging at him, saying that it wasn’t impossible for him to still have a mother. His dad had never mentioned her being dead, there were never any trips to a graveyard, no wedding ring that she might have left behind. People don’t just vanish when they die. Little things in their life are still around. Hugo had left behind the house of course, and it had everything that Locke had known his father by. The books he would read, an airplane impersonating computer tower, old glasses, checks from closed bank accounts. All Locke had was a photograph that was badly worn. It had been folded and unfolded so many times that the ink had rubbed away, dividing the image into four sections. Water had gotten on it, distorting some of the colors. Just one damaged photo for the life of a person.

Chase had headed towards his room, at a great pace as Locke made his way to his own room. Of course the teen was keeping an eye out for him. He had caused the whole mess by hiding the mail in his dictionary. If he had approached Ms. T right away she could have put a stop on his mail sooner. Less pictures for him to have to worry about, and that first one was really the only one that Locke had wanted to hold on to. He groaned, holding onto his head. That picture was just more evidence that Renee might possibly have told the truth, as psychotic as she was. Who would have taken the picture if his dad was in it too? It wasn’t like Hugo had been friends with Eaan’s dad yet. Locke didn’t even meet his best friend until he was well aware that there was no mommy around. His head was hurting him and the shaking of it wasn’t helping at all. Chase had turned back to normal, scared and hurt, but not threatening to Locke anymore, and the teen felt no uncontrollable rage towards him. Locke’s body was shaking worse than if he had run outside in just his boxers during the winter, and he couldn’t stop it from happening.

Once Locke got to his dorm room he noticed that Chase had reversed directions, this time traveling faster. That wasn’t all he noticed. He was pretty sure that it was Chase who he had felt run by. The person had just come from Chase’s room, and Locke was pretty certain that Chase had it to himself. What threw Locke of was the additional weight as the body ran past. It wasn’t as though a sumo wrestler had just charged past, but this didn’t feel like Chase’s normal weight. ”Oh shit,” he swore, tossing his backpack onto his bed. He knew that there was something called “fight or flight”. The fight portion had been Renee, who had a strange and sick fascination and hatred for Locke that he couldn’t even begin to fathom. That was Renee though, and the one who was fleeing was Chase. ”Shoulda known,” Locke berated himself. He grabbed his jacket.

What does a kid always do when they get caught doing something wrong? They try to hide it. No is a favorite word for toddlers to say because it is the easiest way to deny something. When he was Chase’s age Locke had always shoved a bad report card to the bottom of his backpack. Potty training Mai had been a nightmare because she would not say when she needed the bathroom. Chris once hid under the bathroom sink because he had ripped one of Locke’s baseball cards. The institute was large enough for Chase to find a different spot to hide every hour without repeats. If he went into the city that was all the more possibilities of places he could bunker down in and wait until the storm had passed.

Locke was going to chase after the kid and drag his bony butt back. There hadn’t been many times in which he had tried to run away from home. There were too many hills to have to climb up and down, some of which Locke still thought connected to the sky. But there had been a particularly bad day, one in which Locke’s temper had snapped and he lost it on his father. That day Locke had decided he didn’t want to be in that house one second longer. He wasn’t able to get very far, not just because of those hills but because it was a guarantee that Hugo never let Locke get more than a block away before going after him. On the day of the fight Hugo gave Locke the sharpest scolding in their time as a family. “We’re family. You’re stuck with me if you like it or not, so you better make the best of it.”

Family was one of the few things that Locke had faith in. His had fallen apart six years ago, and now was starting to repair. Chris and Mai had brought him out of his room, and things were better with Kendra. He wasn’t going to call her mom. Heck, he still couldn’t think of her as “step mom”. Kendra was Kendra, but there was now a mutual acceptance of each. Going after Chase on his own was the easy way. Without the Darth Vader shock, Locke could overpower Chase, drag him back inside. Chase could even turn into Locke and the teen would still have the advantage. Six years of practice being blind in one eye and understanding how different types of earth gave different signals. He could indeed drag Chase back inside.

But that didn’t address the why. Hugo did it because Locke had been angry at him. There had been nothing to fear from his father. Chase was running, and Locke would bet his entire Saw collection that the kid was scared. What had transpired in the library had been a traumatizing experience for all involved. Right now Locke couldn’t stop shaking, had a brain that was threatening to implode on him from this bombshell that was dropped, and the only color to his skin was the reddening of scratch marks on his face. How much more worse was Chase? The kid probably had never seen a horror movie, but his brain had been taken over by a stalking nut job. A violent stalking nut job! Right now Chase was going to need stability. Stability meant family.

Dad, how could you do this?[/I] Locke asked. It was one thought that managed to make its way through his mind. This headache was familiar, because it had happened six years before. Locke needed things to be the same. His dad had died, his eye was useless, his life had changed. Now he was handling his grief in a healthy way, but someone who was saying she was his mom wanted to kill him. When your life becomes unwoven there is no way to think. All that can happen in your head are emotions. Locke couldn’t handle emotions.

Ms. T could though. She told him a direction for his future right? Any guidance counselor could do that, but she had wanted to know what was wrong with him when his grades had slipped. Rather than just looking at the failing grades and seeing a student who didn’t care she wanted him to open up. Chase needed Ms. T the way that Locke had needed Kendra when the news of his dad was broken. For five years he had been trying to pull away from his stepmother, but when it mattered most, she had been sitting right at his side, holding onto his hand, trying to be an anchor.

This wasn’t the easy way out. Going to Ms. Taylor meant that Locke couldn’t sense where Chase was anymore. It meant that he was going to have to step down and give the reigns to someone else. There might not be blood connecting the kid with her, but blood didn’t have to mean everything. Hugo was blood, as were Chris and Mai, but by the same logic Renee, if she was indeed his dead mother, was as well.

The choice was made. Locke had run to Ms. Taylor’s office, and didn’t even bother to knock. Big Brother mode was still active, but it was version two point oh. “I’m over my head”. “Chase, running away,” he said, breathing heavy, his body still doing an imitation of a Chihuahua. He stumbled as he took another step closer, having to rely on his own sense of vision which, with his power turned off, was severely lacking. ”Outside.”

From his experience Locke knew that blood always took a higher importance to kids when it came to ouches than say, a bruise. Bruises usually didn’t show themselves until after the first pain had been forgotten. At that point the injury was fun. Rainbows might contain the spectrum of colors that are in light, but if you want to see a kaleidoscope of colors, you need look no farther than a dermal contusion. Blood was an instantaneous proof of pain. Chase might end up getting black eyes if Locke had broken the nose, but getting a lid on that blood flow was the important thing. Sure Chase had just unleashed a force ten disaster of knowledge, and Locke was going to have to handle that information. But in the end Chase was still a little kid that was hurt and scared. Chase hadn’t blocked the blood flow so he was stepping in to do so.

At last Chase couldn’t take it anymore and he got up, mumbling an apology to Locke and sprinting out of the library. It would seem that today Chase was very much in the mood for running. Locke hadn’t been in this sort of situation before. It wasn’t like his sister had disobeyed him by doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous like Chase had. Even if that had been the case, and Mai had done something as bad as becoming a psychopath, she was his little sister. There was that family tie to think of. Blood was thicker than water after all. When he had been Renee, Chase had claimed to be part of the thicker liquid, but the teen still didn’t feel the same sort of connection to Renee. Kendra, while distant and unsure, felt more matronly than Renee did. An attack tends to keep that from happening though. Suppose though that Mai had done something as bad as Chase did. How would he handle it? Disappointing those who had authority over you, which by tutoring Locke technically did have, could be as bad, if not worse than them getting angry at you.

And there was a little bit of anger there on Locke’s part. He’d done nothing to Chase in the past but had just been attacked. Not just any attack. This was the sort of attack you’d see animals do on the Discovery Channel. Surely prey animals felt some ill will towards their assailant upon escaping. If nothing else you would be angry about such a violation. Whenever trouble befalls someone the first question seems to be “why me?” You don’t even have to believe in a higher power to question the universe’s tendency to make you a butt monkey.

Anger was only a small secondary emotion. Chase was probably scarred, but Locke didn’t know why. If anyone should have run away it would make more sense for Locke to have done it. After all, Chase’s nose was bloody, but that was because he had gotten hurt in assaulting Locke. Confusing? Very. This had stunned and confused the teen long enough for Chase to get a head start. Confusion, anger, and concern were an odd mixture to feel towards someone half you age. Let Chase go cool off, Locke thought. Time outs were rare in his household for the twins, but his dad had to give him plenty. A little cool down time, and then… Well, Locke couldn’t really punish Chase for his actions. He wasn’t Chase’s dad, big brother, or teacher. Ms. Taylor would have to do that. Chase was going to have to tell her what happened. It would teach Chase that when you do something so dangerous and stupid you have to face the consequences. If Locke spilled the beans the only lesson that would be taught is “Don’t get caught.”

The teen headed back down the stairs and went to the table they had been working at. What photos had been left behind went into his jeans back pocket with the others. For now he needed to let Chase run, but it wouldn't be long before Locke hunted him down. His books were put into his backpack and the laptop tucked under his arm. It seemed about enough time now to let Chase decompress on his own. Time to clean up this mess.


((End thread))

At the end of this week I am going to be moving back with my parents. Several things have lead to this choice, a large part being the financial stress. I do not know what my work schedule will be like when I get there, seeing as it looks as though I will have to have two jobs there. Also my dad is a bit of a computer hog, so internet access might be spotty while we adjust to living with each other.

Additionally I have made some rather foolish choices as of late that I wish not to go into detail over, other than to say yet again how sorry I am to the hurt parties. It was never my intention to do so. I feel as though the actions that I participated in haven't been punished properly for. For now I think it is best if I take a breather from MRO until my life can adjust to a new form of normal and I can handle myself in a better manner. I am not sure when I will come back. I wish it could be soon.

This affects Locke and Sledge

Locke really, really hated the Danger Room. Hardly anything good ever came from it the few times that he had gone in there. Even in the dead of winter Locke preferred to train outside where there was actual dirt and rocks, and no risk of tentacles pulling you into a wall or possible cave-in. It felt more natural to be outside and working with his powers rather than being penned in. No wonder Gina didn’t go for flights in there when it rained. He knew how realistic things could look and feel, but Locke still had problems believing that the materials he had were usable. That hesitation of not trusting that what he was working with actually existed always gave him problems.

Today he was going to be tested to see how well he could handle himself in there. No details had been given to Locke as to what was going to go down in the Danger Room. All he knew was that his past three years of training and growth would be evaluated. Please, not the Lovecraft program again,[/color] he thought, rolling his neck. Locke should be scared out of his mind about this. He demanded knowing things in advance. Part of the reason he had such problems with the Lovecraft program was that it was too random for him. There was no logic to it. Right now he was facing an unknown quantity. He should be scared. But instead he felt rather energized.

This stalker situation was out of control. Thanks to Chase he knew what his stalker looked like. The angles of the face were vaguely familiar to him, things that faintly resembled features Locke had. He had a red tint to his hair that matched Renee’s. She had claimed that she was his mom. Locke couldn’t get that to make sense in his head. His dad didn’t ever want to talk about Locke’s mother. Almost all photos of her had vanished from their house. As was Locke only had one picture of her, the face worn out, the hair longer than it had been when Chase was Renee. But if Renee was really his mother why couldn’t Locke remember her at all? One of the few memories he had from his childhood that involved his mom was the time he got lost in a hedge maze. As hard as he might try he couldn’t remember his mom’s voice. When Renee had spoken it didn’t stir up any memories in his mind. If she really was his mom what had happened to keep her from being a part of his life? Obviously she was off balance, but you would think his dad owed Locke some explanation, or at least a warning. Just to let you know, your mother is insane.

Locke wasn’t just going to stand by. With Chase as Renee, Locke had been defenseless. It was clear that Locke needed to step up his game, to get the sort of training that hadn’t been offered to him before. Thus far his training had been putting Locke in a supportive role, boosting the talents of others. No training had been given for self defense. If he was to run into Renee, the real Renee, he’d have to be more than he was now.

Then there was the damage that Locke had done to Chase. A bloody nose was painful, and Locke hadn’t meant to do it. On the whole it wasn’t the bloody nose that had been the most damaging. It was seeing a young mutant use his powers and having it turn against them. Young mutants needed to be able to learn how to use their powers without danger. And also painful was the thought that Chase could have been so easily manipulated. Using his shape shifting to turn into Renee had been Chase’s idea, and Locke had tried to convince him otherwise, then tried to stop it once it happened. On the other hand Locke had been tempted to make Chase do it. How could Locke let Chase get messed up?

And what about kids like Chris and Mai? Chris was so impressed by Locke that he wanted to be a mutant himself. They were normal kids who were sympathetic to the plight of mutants, even if they were still too young to understand the prejudices entirely. Kendra was coming around to having a mutant for a stepson, but there had been some ill will wished towards his family with his mutation being exposed. In a world filled with hate Locke had to find a balance for both sides. Humans were intimidated by a future in which they were a minority to those who could change reality. Mutants were being pressured by politics and society to act almost as sheep, and to deny a large part of who they were.

”I’ve got this,” Locke comforted himself. Inhale, hold breath, slowly exhale. Locke didn’t prep himself by stretching out his limbs. His body wasn’t the thing that needed to be warmed up as much as his mind. If Locke’s brain wasn’t clear and focused Fluffy wasn’t going to work out well. For now he had to forget about Renee and who she might be. Forget about Chase being terrified by what had happened. Just focus on emptying out his mind and feeling the good vibrations.

Locke knew that telling a kid not to do something was a bad idea. It just made them want it all the more. Life was full of disappointments and being told “no”. When you’re a kid it must seem as though every question was answered with the negative. It wasn’t that Locke wanted to let Chase down. He liked the kid, and not just because he missed his brother and sister. Chase was funny in his approach to life. He had to say not only his name but what he was dressed as on Halloween. It really was too dangerous for Chase to get involved, and there was no way to say it without making the entire thing sound more tempting to Chase.

The subject was closed in Locke’s book, which meant that he turned his attention back to his homework. There had been a bit of text that would be especially useful to cite, but Locke hadn’t high lighted it and he needed to re-read a couple of pages to find it again. High school textbooks were the worse. You weren’t allowed to make any sort of annotations if something was really important, but teachers never could stop students from making crude drawings or writing lame things like “I wuz here”. It made studying nearly impossible sometimes. He couldn’t look at anything else while hunting for the info that he needed. His eyes were attached to his book.

On the other hand his feet were attached to the ground. Once Chase hopped off his chair and starting running the alarm bells went off in Locke’s head. Big brother mode activate. Locke had a pretty good idea why Chase had taken off so suddenly and was trying to get as much distance as possible. The photos that were on the table now were gone. No hope that Chase’s departure was because he had finished his worksheet. It was sitting on the table still, incomplete. ”No no no no!” Locke said, his voice escalating with each no and recognition that he had to book it. He rose to his feet, getting caught in a chair that didn’t move away from the table with ease. I should have just taken those stupid things back.

Even with the librarian aide’s reminding that there was no running in the library Locke’s legs took flight. Ever since he was young Locke had been an active kid. Now that he wasn't able to drive the only way Locke could get most places was by the use of his own two feet. Running after kids was no problem. Running after a mutant kid could be different. Chase’s weight was shifting, the way that it was distributed no longer spoke of the kid. On one hand it should make chasing Chase easier. Nobody else was turning into a stalker, at least nobody he knew of at the school. But the change in the foot falls made it an inconsistent to track. He couldn’t tell with absolute certainty where Chase was going.

Locke was stubborn though, and when it came to the defense of kids Locke was going to do his best to make sure that they were safe. As awkward as following a changing body was, Locke kept at it. By the time he managed to track down Chase he knew he had been too late. The stupid chair fumble had given Chase a few precious seconds to change into the stalker.

His stalker was a female, which was a relief of sorts. He didn’t want a stalker, but at least it wasn’t someone like Herbert from Family Guy. Unfortunately it wasn’t someone within his age range. Older stalker, creepy. Locke’s brain had a fuzzed feeling to it, like when you first wake up. Stalker had something that Locke recognized, a face that had been encountered once before. ”Chase, drop the pictures right now,” Locke demanded, his voice stern and hard. It was his fault that Chase was now imitating someone that was off their rocker and Locke was taking charge. ”I don’t care who you think you are. I want you to turn back this minute.”