I was a heavy sleeper and the furthest thing from a morning person, once upon a time. It was to the point that I had slept through an entire fire alarm while living in my college dorms. Fortunately, it was just an exercise.
Now? I'm used to waking up with the Sun. The lightest of sounds and disruptions around me can wake me and put me on high alert.
That's something that I know will be extremely useful, but it's also quite annoying when you just want to enjoy a good lazy morning or something like that.
Fortunately, today seemed to be a special day, or I was more relaxed than normal. I didn't wake up until it was close to noon, or Ororo not long after me.
"Good morning, gorgeous," I said as I kissed the top of her head.
She smiled lightly, but she still looked a bit sleepy. "Good morning, dear." She kissed me on the cheek and returned her head to my chest as we spent some time in companionable silence.
"We should start preparing for the day, or what is left of it." She said softly after a while.
"We should" I nodded, while making no move.
"We can not stay in bed all day, it is a waste." She said more seriously.
" Yes, it is." I agreed, while I started softly stroking her back and brought my lips closer to hers. " It would be a big waste," I said after kissing her.
"Hmm" was all she responded with, and there were no more words exchanged between us.
****
It was past noon when we left the room.
And Ororo didn't even blink at the questions she was asked by her usual aides.
" My lover and I were preoccupied, no need to fret" She had said, and the glares I received because of that were funny enough. I mean I understand, I did start changing their 'goddess' with my presence and now I've 'sullied' her or something
But at the end of the day, nothing came of it.
***
It was weeks later that Ororo made her announcement.
The reactions to her planned departure were a lot less negative than I feared. Sure most of the people weren't thrilled to have their goddess and reason for never suffering drought and having abundant harvest for years now.
But those were the minority and they respected her too much to voice their disagreements.
And that's how it was decided to send us, mostly Ororo, off with a sort of celebration. A festival, depicting her stay in this community and giving her a heartfelt thanks for it, with gifts and all.
It was a wonderful thing, even though some stuff I didn't completely understand the significance of, Ororo did, and she looked touched and grateful, and that was all that mattered.
It was even a more important moment, because now she looked less like the regal serene Goddess that the people were used to from when I first came here, to the more open person I knew from the start
I stayed mostly in the background; I didn't want to intrude on this. And I was also keeping guard on the place.
I mean, seriously, this is the Marvel Universe, and this is a happy occasion. It's almost the perfect opportunity to get ambushed and have the whole event ruined or something. Doubly so for a mutant, having a normal-ish life moment.
And while this may seem paranoid, the world just gave me another reason why I am right. I felt 2 people enter my range just now.
Now, at first, I located people using their heat signatures, because it was the easiest way. But, as I got better with my training and helped with treating injuries and such around the village, I started getting used to another better type of energy. Bio-Electricity. Or the scientific cousin of Chi.
It's something present in the body of every living organism, but humans have a certain shape or form to their bioelectricity so it can't be mistaken. And it's also useful for a lot of other stuff.
Now the important stuff here is that what my senses are telling me is that these two are superhuman in some way. Maybe. One is older, but it also has a weird and practiced flow of its energies. An energy manipulator of some sort? The second is the normal and youngest one, but it also seems off.
Both were en route to collide with each other. When they did, they stopped for a bit, before the young one did something and absorbed a chunk of the first's energies and bioelectricity.
Never mind, they are definitely superhuman. Ugh, I knew it was coming but I really don't wanna deal with this now.
Can I just ignore it? Hmm.
" What's on your mind, dear? " Asked Ororo as she came and sat next to me.
"We have some guests," I said simply. At her confused gaze, I added, " They're like us. They have powers. And I don't think they came to celebrate with us." She now looked more serious.
"Then we shall meet these guests and ascertain their intentions. If they are not malicious, they shall be welcomed for the night and heard." She easily slid into her regal tone." If not, we shall repel them, together."
I smiled and nodded at her. Yeah, I guess that answers my question.
We both stood up as I guided us toward them. They stayed where they were and didn't move afterwards.
****
It barely took us a couple of minutes to end up in a clearing where we found a girl sitting alone, looking bored. There was a man knocked out beneath her feet.
The man was wearing weird armour, his skin was grey and naturally pale. He looked like the stereotype of a villain.
The girl was around my and Ororo's age. Voluminous auburn hair with white streaks. Her skin-tight clothes didn't show any speck of skin, and she was also wearing gloves on her hands. Her colour palette was mostly green and brown.
I sensed the way energy in her body moved, ready to move at her command. Just like the guys' before she knocked him out
In her hand was a golden mask.
Nope. All the Nope. I'm not dealing with this shit, not now.
Marvel is full of people who are full-on masterminds, manipulators, scammers, etc. And everyone one of them has their toes dipped in some conspiracy or another. From Mr.Sinister and his constant cloning, Hydra and their hard on for world domination, Doom and whatever he does in general to one up Reed Richards, the Hellfire Club, Moira MacTaggert, and so much more.
Honestly, conspiracy theorists in this world could always be right in some way with whatever conspiracy they might have at any given moment.
Now, the reason why I panicked is who this mask comes from. And, well, who the girl is.
With this many clues, it's easy to tell who she is.
" Well sugah, ain't you a sight for sore eyes." The girl said with a grin when she laid eyes on us. The southern accent is more confirmation. And it's so much more attractive than I thought it would.
You know what? Fuck it. Let Destiny plan whatever she wants. I'll try to discover it if I can, but honestly, we shouldn't be enemies anytime soon.
And I already made peace with the fact that the precogs, psychic and Cosmic Entities will know about me and what I am.
I at least had a good couple of months of peace before the bullshit started coming.
"Sorry lady, you can look but you can't touch. This guy is taken." I said with a small grin at her.
"So sure ah was talking 'bout you big fella? Maybe ah was talking to tall an' curvy over here." She finished it with a wink. At Ororo. Is she...?
"Also taken but we could make it a threesome and everyone'll be happy," I said sagely while nodding. She laughed at that.
"Sorry, lover boy, but ah ain't that easy, gotta take a girl out first." She said as she stood up and started slowly approaching us.
I felt Ororo lean against me "I know you told me you wanted to seduce women, love, but I would like to get to know any potential new lover before going to bed with them." She said, slightly sarcastically.
Both the girl and I paused, then she snorted. " Oh man, that's what's botherin' ya?" As she came to a stop before us she extended an ungloved hand."You can call me Rogue. I got me a little problem and was told you would help."
Now that I was so close to her, I could see the energy that moved around in her body. The feel of something that wants to pull me in and not let go. It threatens to consume everything about a person.
I smiled at her and shook her hand. Skin to skin.
Instantly I felt her power acting on me. I felt my bioelectricity, my lifeforce starting to get drained. I instantly clamped on that and lowered the drain to almost nil in less than a second.
But I felt a second, more vague energy starting to flow from me. It came from my brain mostly. This is not the first time I've sensed this, and now I'm sure of what it is. Psychic Energy. Psionic Energy. Whatever you want to call it.
I wrangled it too. At the end of the day, it's also energy, so it's mine to use as I want. I cut off its connection completely. I can already see uses for this, and with what Telepaths and Telekenetics can pull in this universe, there is a lot to explore.
"And I'm Gabriel, this is Ororo. We'll help our fellows as we can. But before that..." I trailed off.
"Can you explain to us who this man is, and why you knocked him unconscious?"
There was a silence for a moment. Rogue wasn't listening to us. She was looking at my hand in wonder. She started caressing it, before taking off her other glove and touching my forearms, then my chest.
Suddenly she laughed and sobbed and quickly lunged into my arms.
The absorption got thicker, but it was easily dealt with.
I wasn't sure what to do here. I returned the hug reflexively, but now I was stuck. I looked at Ororo but she just looked amused and a bit confused.
Yeah, I guess confusing is better than a dangerous one. I knew why she reacted like that, of course, but I wasn't expecting this degree of intensity. Going from all confident to emotional and sobbing was a bit disconcerting.
After a couple of minutes, I tried to extract myself from the crying woman, but she just tightened her hold. I sighed.
I guess it's going to be a long night.