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The Veins Beneath My Feet; {Completed & Closed}
Topic Started: Jan 18 2008, 01:15 PM (251 Views)
Magma
Unregistered

When: Afternoon
Place in the Timeline: January 2nd


It was like a form of claustrophobia, except, she wasn’t enclosed in a small space, nor was she surrounded by so many people she couldn’t see a way out. No, it was something different entirely, and no one would ever understand but her. Perhaps another with similar powers might be able to relate… for now, she knew of no other, nor of anyone that she could talk to about the restlessness now growing inside her. Over the past few days, it had been steadily getting worse and, every month she experienced the same thing. Simulating lava spewing volcanoes in the Danger Room was simply no longer enough.

Amara Aquilla needed the real thing… and she needed it now!

Well, as close to the real thing as she was going to get in the forest around Xavier’s, amongst deep foliage, where she had long ago sensed the veins of the earth were closest to the surface. It wasn’t a secret place, for she never intended it to be, but she often found herself there alone, for, really, who would be game enough to approach her in full ’Magma’ mode? What she did out here was something not many had seen, for there was hardly the chance to become one with the lave that coursed, not only through the earth’s veins, but hers too. Even in battle, she could only call on it to an extent, and, in battle, there was never a chance to truly enjoy it.

Walking the last few steps, Magma fell to her knees, then laid down on her stomach, putting her ear to the ground. “Hello,” she whispered, lovingly, and, with that one word, control was taken. Deep below the surface the magma began to swirl slowly upwards, causing the immediate area around her to shudder ever so slightly. Slowly was the key, for if she did it too fast, she could ruin the stability of the earth in this spot, and cause unknown damage to the forest above. Control was the key, and with self taught honing skills, and the training she’d received since coming to Xavier’s, her control was all but perfect, particularly when there was no threat of danger imposing.

“Come to me now,” she whispered. “Up, up… come,” and it listened, the flow instantly changing its path, finding a way up towards her through the crevices and cracks already there. As it got closer, Amara could feel it more;; as it neared the surface, the need for it became stronger. It was like a drug;; Mara was like a junkie in need of a fix, except, for her, it was essential… her mutation required it, yearned for it, and would not give up until she felt it engulf her entirely.

Directly beneath her, the ground began to part, slowly. Amara watched the gap appear, followed it with her eyes as she pushed herself back to her feet using her arms, then her hands, then simply standing up. Eyes glowed with the same colour as the ‘blood’ that was mere inches from breaking out into the open air, where magma would become lava, and Amara Aquilla would become one with the element she was born to control.

It was small, compared to the many volcanic eruptions on record, and, completely under Magma’s control;; to let it be any other way was only asking for trouble. Eyes closed the moment she felt it break trough; hair, burning with orange fire, flew upwards with the force, and every part of Mara now glowed with power… her power... her element...

The veins beneath her feet!
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Alejandro Villalobo
Unregistered

No matter how precise and refined a person’s control over their ability was, there were times and places to use it. A forest, where even the slightest errant ember could set the entire wooded ambient aflame, or so close to the school, for that matter, was not it. No matter what urges and compulsions their evolved abilities whispered, it was their responsibility to control those as well. Amara’s restlessness only cemented her inexperience and the long road ahead that she had to truly master them.

He had been inspecting the perimeter fence for stability when he’d felt a small tremor crawl through the ground. But as opposed to the footfalls of a person or the scamper of an animal, these quakes surged from beneath. At first he’d dismissed it, but he heard.. no, felt, a new mineral signature churn beneath his feet, one that honestly, Alejandro had never come into contact with. What with all the past intrusions and attacks, Alejandro immediately thought the worst and followed the vibrations to their epicenter.

Their abilities were similar, both dealing with the earth itself; Alejandro, her flesh, and Amara, her blood. Yet no matter their genetic ability, the element was not truly theirs; Alejandro had come to see it as a gift only on loan. While God permitted them to control Nature with ease, it could just as easily escape their manipulations and run rampant. You had to be careful. You couldn’t abuse it. Amara was tempting the Devil, and everyone knows he never sleeps.

“What are you doing?” the teacher asked sharply, his eyes looking from Amara to the gaping wound in the earth that wept molten rock. Despite her fiery manifestation, Alejandro walked closer, his features wincing slightly as he felt the flare of heat around the girl’s radiant form. Well, on the bright side, it was warm now.

His hand reached out and lifted to about waist height, fingers splayed and tense as he exercised his own hold of the earth, holding the fissure steady and encroaching only slightly on the lava seeping forth—it was a suggestion for Amara to send away what she had summoned.

“I felt the tremors out by the perimeter fence..,” Al went on, giving a small weary sigh. This wasn’t exactly up to par with the Scott Summers-brand of anger, but coming from the Gitano, he was pretty upset. “Is there something wrong with the Danger Room that you could not do this exercise in there?” The question wasn’t asked to be smug; being the trusting person he was, he supposed Amara’s being out here meant that the training facilities were somehow down. His hazel gaze remained on the magma-loving mutant before flickering back to the miniature volcano, not at all comfortable with the super-heated rock. He could feel it churning as well, moving on its own on super-heated convection currents. He was so used to sensing minerals as an inert medium, moving only when told and fighting its rigid tension. This magma was totally opposite, and its pressure to move and run rampant fought against his own iron hold.
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Magma
Unregistered

“What are you doing?” Alejandro’s question was, thankfully, anticipated, for Amara wasn’t so lost in her connection with the earth that her eyes weren’t now open and seeing, albeit glowing as orange as the element now around her. It wasn’t the question itself, but the way he said it, he was clearly another one that just didn’t understand, yet, at the same time, Amara accepted this wasn’t the best place to do this. In all essence, the only place one could safely pull this off was in amongst a real volcano in the middle of nowhere;; an island perhaps;; where there was no one it could hurt.

She did not for one moment fight her teacher’s need to take hold of what she had created, nor ignore the unspoken attempt to get her to send it back from where it had come from. Slowly, the real thing seeped back down into the earth, and the crack beneath her feet began to close. Her body continued to resemble that which she had just let go of, and rather reluctantly too. “I felt the tremors out by the perimeter fence..,” oh wonderful, so, her control hadn’t been as precise as she’d let herself believe. At 19 years of age, perhaps she was allowing that well know teenage “I know everything, I’m the best at everything” adage get in the way from time to time, particularly when her powers were involved.

“Is there something wrong with the Danger Room that you could not do this exercise in there?” glowing eyes caught the gaze of yet another of the hottest teachers she had ever seen, yet, there was nothing schoolgirl about that look. It was completely and utterly implying the need for someone to understand that, “It’s not enough,” she whispered. “It calls to me. How do I ignore it? How can I ignore it?” and, at the same time, she knelt down, not calling it again, for that would have deserved Alejandro’s wrath;; no, it was simply to touch the earth, try to show him how much she loved what was beneath it. “You understand?” of course he did, lava may not have been his forte, but the earth certainly was.

The thing was, she’d been out here before, done the exact same thing, and no one had come to her then. How could she look a gift horse in the mouth and not take up the chance to ask for what she knew she really needed… help. Yes, she had control;; indeed, she knew how to manipulate and to create;; what she didn’t know was how to ignore the incessant call every month… at least once, sometimes more. Was she supposed to ignore it all the time, or was there a way to enjoy this feeling without it ever once being a danger to others?
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Alejandro Villalobo
Unregistered

It was a few, oh, thousand miles to the nearest active volcano, so that solution was pretty much null. Alejandro could already imagine trying to justify his sanctioning a Mt. Vesuvius on school grounds in the next faculty meeting; even his infallible guile and charm wouldn’t win that battle. Amara couldn’t just call up volcanic vents at a whim—that should have gone without say, but the girl gave in to impulse and compulsion. Alejandro knew plenty about that, how giving in to the first urge and emotion that sprung inside one’s head could tear everything you knew and cherished apart. They’d all experienced more than their fair share of hardship, each story at the Xavier Institute one riddled with confusion and strife, injustices that wouldn’t be mended anytime during their generation. But that, combined with his educator’s title, made Alejandro feel so much older than his true age of 23. He wanted to set an example for his students, guide them, keep them from ever committing the same stupidities he did not so long ago. But when he was sorting his own little details in life out, it made the task look impossible, even hypocritical.

“ It’s not enough,” she whispered. “It calls to me. How do I ignore it? How can I ignore it?”

Maybe Alejandro was far too empathic for his own good. Maybe he wasn’t tough enough to be an enforcer of rules. Or maybe he was a sucker glowing doe eyes… only at a mutant school. Alejandro sighed, shaking his head at the first answer that came to his mind. You had no choice but to ignore it, but he couldn’t just say that.

Why couldn’t the Danger Room be out of order? He wasn’t prepared to coach teenage girls through the glorious wonders of mutant puberty.

He watched Amara kneel to the ground, but he didn’t suspect her of trying to pull the same stunt twice. The gesture was familiar, and he merely nodded. “Por supesto, señorita Aquila,” he said, his voice understanding, yet still a bit off-put from the volcano summoning. Amara’s magma form continued to heat the air, Alejandro fiddling with the collar of his shirt as he felt his skin starting to swelter.

“Do.. you mind?” he asked, looking her up and down to suggest that she revert back to a more temperature-friendly state. “You can show that off during training,” Al added with a smirk. He wasn’t angry with Amara, or even disappointed. He was concerned, however, and he wanted to let her know that she had his attention.

“I worked four years on a freight ship. Every time we hit port, I all but kissed the ground,” he smiled somewhat ruefully, recalling those days when he never spent the night in the same place twice. You couldn’t afford to when you were a fugitive, and he took a great gamble doing so now. “I hate boats. I hate planes. Anything that keeps me far from the ground. But I had to learn to cope.” His hands drifted into his jean pockets.

“It’s easy to give into temptation.” His gaze traveled to the innocent looking patch of dirt that moments before had yielded to a rivulet of lava. “We are human, and you need to remember that. We have lives to lead, and you cannot let your powers control it… if every mutant gave in to those impulses, there would be chaos. It’s easy to go from a simple remedy to abuse.” Many of the X-Men’s foes could be classified as such, mutants that misappropriated their powers, did what they pleased with them whenever the urge struck. Pathological killers, thieves, cannibals.. they all had to start somewhere.

“I am not saying you would abuse it,” he quickly added, hoping that she wouldn’t take it as an implication. “But it is not too far a leap.”

Just like telepaths had to learn to keep from reading minds, they had to leave the earth alone. Simple in theory, but hard to do. Most of Xavier’s lessons were.

“Maybe I am not the best suited for this kind of talk,” Alejandro laughed, rubbing the side of his neck and feeling the stubble prickle against his palm. He considered himself as a casual guy, an endless source of one-liners and lame jokes. Profound advice didn’t come easy, and he was far from finding the secrets of mutant nirvana himself.
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Magma
Unregistered

Amara listened to the sound of what she had once called flowing back down deep beneath the earth, she knew she was never truly in control of it, there was too much for even the most powerful of mutants to ever fully own. That didn‘t mean she didn’t think that someday, maybe someday, she’d be able to control more than she could now. Didn’t every mutant wish to see major growth in their powers? It wasn’t for selfish reasons, nor did she want it so she could someday take over the world, no, she simply wanted to be one with the element that coursed through her soul even more.

“Por supesto, señorita Aquila,” okay, so her Spanish wasn’t all that good, yet, Mara was more than positive Alejandro had just agreed with her. Standing back up, she noted his rather uncomfortable look, not clicking until the question came, “Do.. you mind? You can show that off during training,” a look of complete apology came over her face, the glow in her eyes disappearing almost immediately. “Oh, oh, I’m sorry,” she said, sometimes forgetting that even fellow Pyrokinetics couldn‘t handle the heat of her power.

“I worked four years on a freight ship. Every time we hit port, I all but kissed the ground… I hate boats. I hate planes. Anything that keeps me far from the ground. But I had to learn to cope,” well, that was certainly a bit of honesty Magma could appreciate. So, she wasn’t the only one who found it difficult to ignore the urge? Of course she wasn’t, it was just the negative side of her that would always think she was truly alone;; she had been in her home country, and, until now, she’d also thought she was alone here at the school.

She had to admit, the next thing Alejandro said did bring a frown to her face, and the instant thought of, ~I would never abuse it. I love it too much to use if for…~ “I am not saying you would abuse it… But it is not too far a leap,” she saw his point, she really did, but how? How was she supposed to ignore the call to become one with the blood flow of the earth? It was impossible… totally impossible, yet, at the same time, she was fully aware he had managed to conquer the call of the earth, which, was no doubt just as strong.

“Maybe I am not the best suited for this kind of talk,” Amara shook her head. “No, you are the perfect person suited for this. I keep forgetting you have similar powers. I also keep forgetting I can go to the teachers and ask for help. Before I came here, I had to deal with it all on my own. Even though I’ve been here for a long time now, I still think I have to…” and she paused, looking at him, “do it on my own.” Man, she really did think she was making no sense at all! “I wish Xavier was here,” she looked away, tone now very soft, and a clear feeling of sadness settling in. “He always seemed to understand… all of us.”
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Alejandro Villalobo
Unregistered

Amara finally turned down the heat, giving the Spaniard an opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief. Despite her worried words of apology, he merely shook his head and held up his hands against an anticipated verbal bombardment, giving her a smile.

“Hey, hey, no apology needed. But if señorita Doyal heard we tried to burn down and bulldoze half her beloved plant life, well, we’ll both be buried,” he laughed, taking a few steps closer to Amara so their discussion didn’t have to look like a trans-Atlantic phone call. He regarded the patch of scorched earth with a glance and turned the dirt over with his foot; on the bright side, the newly introduced nitrides and sulfides in the soil would promote healthier plant life.

Or, she might have inadvertently created a new faultline in North America. Only at a mutant school.

“Besides, I much more prefer speaking to Amara than Magma. That other girl? Too hot for me to handle,” he said, laughing at his own pun. Lame joke indeed, but Al didn’t like talking down to people, even if they were students.

While she might have frowned at his comment on abusing powers, that couldn’t be helped. Despite all his optimism, Alejandro was still a realist, honest and sincere, and he wouldn’t say something unless he felt it needed to be heard and truly thought she ought to consider.

“You may make that face now,” he began, though his voice was far from the usual admonishing tones a teacher would normally use, “but it is easy to go there. Humans are not the only people capable of abuse. We have a harder time being responsible. But that is what this school is for, and that is why we are all here.” The learning process truly never ended.

“Your powers.. Our powers, there is so much potential to explore with them. I understand that you want to explore your limits, but also know, the earth just is not our playground.” Alejandro often wondered what sort of consequences a tremor he could induce today could reap in the future. Could it affect the stability of the ground they stood upon? Create faultlines, sinkholes, outlets for potentially destructive geothermal vents? “If anything happens to the ground stability of the area, well, we are the ones responsible for it. We’re powerful enough to create change, but I know I do not have the ability to make it stop.” Al knew little about the mechanics of geophysics himself, but when you could rewrite all those laws of Nature, who needed to know theory? He vaguely remembered talk about one of their faculty members being knowledgeable in the discipline, and made a mental note to see if he could borrow some literature from them. In the end, their powers revolved around scientific phenomenon, and it couldn’t hurt to know the nature of what they manipulated.

“No, you are the perfect person suited for this. I keep forgetting you have similar powers. I also keep forgetting I can go to the teachers and ask for help.”

“Well, this is a school, señorita Aquila,” he replied with a teasing smirk. “Who would have known there could be teachers running around here?” There were plenty, but were they really reaching their students? Apparently not all of them, if kids like Amara still felt like they were alone even amongst their own. At her melancholic words over their lost mentor, Alejandro felt a sting of sadness hit him as well. Things definitely seemed simpler when Xavier was around, but Alejandro wanted to believe they were also holding up without him and fostering his visions even though he was.. gone.

Oye ahora, he would not have wanted that kind of thinking. That fosters defeatism. We all miss him, but this school, keeping it and helping fellow mutants cope with their abilities, no matter how small they seem; that is the best way we could ever honor his memory... I am no where near the wise man he was, but at the very least, you can always talk to me, and I will listen.”

The sun hung high above, light hitting them directly on their heads through the canopy above. Alejandro idly wondered how long he’d been working on the fence, or how long Amara had been lingering in her solitude. “I think it’s about time we head inside, no? Wouldn’t want you to turn into mosquito bait,” he smiled jovially. Besides, someone might find it odd that a teacher and a student are having conversations in a secluded forest. No use feeding the Wari hysteria. Young girls just weren’t for him. With that, he began walking towards the Institute’s main building.
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Magma
Unregistered

She watched him go, his words hitting home more than she would ever like to admit, and more than Alejandro himself would ever probably know. Gaze moving to look upon the ground beneath her feet, Amara couldn’t help but lean down one last time, running her finger through the dirt, listening for the sound of something she would love until the day she died, and then some. “He’s right. In so many ways, he’s right,” she sighed, standing back up again. “How does one ignore the call when it’s so much a part of her?” the question wasn’t asked with as much disbelief that it wasn’t possible this time.

No, Alejandro Villalobo had helped to instill in her a new kind of understanding, one where she had to get control of the urges before she really did cause some damage. It wasn’t that the thought hadn’t occurred to her before, that she could be the very reason why a new fault line opened up, and a new volcano suddenly erupted in a place they certainly were not known for, and, near the school she called her home no less! “Oh great, stupid girl,” she whispered, the full ramifications of that only now hitting her. “No matter how much control you think you have, you’ve been putting everyone in danger,” now she felt the guilt settle in, however, Amara Aquilla didn’t allow such emotions to overwhelm her.

She was the type of person to take those negative feelings and focus them into what needed to be done to make sure they were never felt again. She needed training… help, in the danger room ,where it was safe, and there would be no chance of opening a real live volcano in the Institute’s back yard. Warren was her mentor, but asking him seemed pointless, at least to Mara, for he was a flyer, he preferred the sky to the earth, so, would he have the understanding she needed to get through this, beyond the urge to open up the earth and use the veins beneath her feet, or, would it be better to ask Alejandro to train her?

So much to think about. So much to decide upon, but focus Amara, because it has to be done.

[align=center]~Le Fin~[/align]
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