The X-Project

Marie gets permission from Hank to take Amanda upstairs to work her protection spell on the house. Set around 9am.


'My roots travel down to the earth. My hands are open to the air. I draw in energy from the world and let it heal me.' Amanda sat cross-legged on her bed, eyes lightly closed (well the one that was still functional, that is) concentrating on healing the damage done to her face. The concussion was already receding (and that wouldn't be missed, oh no) and the swelling was slowly going down. The bones would take longer, but she figured if she got things started she'd have time and energy to work on other people before getting back to it. Healing took concentration, and with there still that vague sense of power, lots of it, close by, it was harder to sit still than usual.

There was a tap at the door and a girl's voice, one she hadn't come across yet, said: "Am I interrupting anything?"

"Yeah, but I'll cope." Amanda opened her eyes to see the girl with white-striped hair people called Marie. "An' I'm bored out of my skull here, so visitors is good."

"Sorry about the interruption, but glad to be company." Marie leaned in the doorway and gave Amanda a smile. "Ride's here. Where I take you today and how can I help you get ready?"

"Right, the protection spell. That definitely makes you Marie, then." With effort Amanda unfolded herself and reached for a kidney bowl that sat on the hospital table across the bed. A strong smell of lavender wafted from it. "You sort things out with Hank? 'Cause I've already escaped once an' I don't want him insisting I stay down here for the rest of the fucking week."

"As long as I don't drop you, we'll be fine," Marie said lightly, coming into the room. She scrutinized Amanda's face and watched her move with interest. "You look in better shape than I thought you'd be," she noted. "It's good to see. How're you feeling... in general, I mean."

"As good as you can when some army prick has used your face as a punching bag." Amanda indicated the open spell book on the table across the bed. "Been working on it some so I'm a lot better than yesterday." She stood up, swaying just a little. "Looks like I've still got some work to do, but. An' are you sure you can carry me? I'm not big, but neither are you. I was expecting you to have one of the blokes with you or something. Or are you gunna give me that 'stronger than I look' line?"

"It's not a line," Marie said a little caustically, and then blushed when she heard her own tone. "I ran our distinguished advanced self-defense teacher into the ceiling of the fencing hall today. I think I can carry you around."

Amanda shrugged off the tone. "Your mutant power, right? Sorry, I didn't know. Only been here a week an' I'm still catching up with people. Although I think I could've done without meeting the soldier types for a bit longer." She gathered up her stuff - bowl of herbs, spell book - and nodded. "Right, ready when you are."

"Something like that." Marie came over to the bed and took her hands out of her pockets, holding them up to show off the gloves. She was wearing jeans and a high-necked, long-sleeved green cotton sweater and hiking boots as well; completely covered except for her face. "Just watch you don't touch my skin, okay? Arms and head inside the bus and just relax while I pick you up." She slid an arm around Amanda's back. "Ready?"

Amanda tried not to stiffen as the other girl's arm went around her back - touch wasn't something she was comfortable with at the best of times (certain...'activities' excluded, of course), and after the violence of the attack, she was more paranoid than usual. Still, this had to be done - there was no way she'd make it to the front door under her own power, healing session or not. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Ready when you are, sunshine."

Marie bent a little and slid her other arm behind Amanda's thighs, lifting her completely and easily. "Ready as I'll every be," she replied. It wasn't any trouble to lift someone, lifting was something she already had down to a fine art. Marie continued to rise, though, until her own feet were a few inches from the ground. "There. No bumps even. We'll go easy on your head." It took concentration, but she was steady as... well... as a rock, oddly enough.

"The head appreciates it." Amanda looked down. "Are we... flying?!! Fucking brilliant!" She relaxed noticeably, forgetting her fears in the rush of pleasure and her voice losing the hard edge and sounding more like a teenaged girl than she had since she arrived. "How high can you go?"

Marie laughed. "Until it gets too damn cold, as far as I can tell." She eased them out the door and into the hall. "I don't want to get too high, I'm still not clear on when I'd pass out and that would be embarrassing... plastered all over the damn ground somewhere. I don't usually fly in the house," she admitted with a grin. "Special service just for you."

"Gettin' the special VIP treatment am I? About bloody time." Carefully Amanda put her arm around the back of Marie's neck, the other arm in its wrist cast cradling the bowl and the book against her stomach. "It must be some feeling, being able to fly. I know a spell, only it doesn't work most of the time. When I was 12 I freaked out one of my foster families by leapin' off the roof, tryin' to get the spell t' work - broke me fuckin' ankle an' got meself sent back to the Children's Home was all I did." She frowned and changed tacks - for some reason she was letting slip a lot more about herself than she usually did. This place was getting to her. "So, you been here long?"

"A while. A year and some," Marie said, navigating the stairs easily enough. "I didn't really mean to end up here, but it turned into home. It keeps getting more like that every day."

"Home, huh?" For some reason the words didn't sound as skeptical as she intended. 'No time t' go soft', she told herself. "Sound like there's a lot of folk who didn't mean to end up here. What is this place, some kind of mutant lost and found?"

"Pretty much," Marie replied. "I think that's a good way of putting it. At least it applies to me." She gave Amanda a smile. "I'm kind of a throw-away, myself. A lot of us are. I don't know if home's really just where the heart is. People knowing where you come from counts for a lot too."

As they drifted down the front hall, a little boy with curly black hair trotted toward them. "Hey, Artie," Marie said brightly. "Can you get the front door?" With a grin, Artie launched himself for the door to help.

"Hey, kid, you practicing those card tricks I showed you in class the other day?" Amanda asked Artie as Marie set her down gently on the front step. Artie had been looking at the Brit's battered face with concern and a little fear, but her teasing tone helped ease some of it. He nodded emphatically. "Good stuff. Keep it up an' we'll have our own show in Vegas, right? Show that Siegfried and Roy what for." Remembering the older girl standing beside her, Amanda gave her a vaguely embarrassed look. "Artie an' me share a couple o' classes, don't we munchkin?" Artie grinned and nodded again, a small hologram of Amanda beating her head on the desk appearing. She pulled a face.

Marie laughed. "If you need help with something, I'm usually in my suite after classes. I didn't know you two knew each other. Thanks, Artie," she said as they went out the door. "You going to be warm enough out here?" she asked Amanda, frowning a little.

"This won't take long. An' whatever is juicin' up my power is right close - got me a nice tingly feeling goin' on." Amanda's expression softened slightly, her pupils dilating slightly. "'S good, like being drunk." Her cast clunked slightly against the kidney bowl and she looked down as if realigns where she was. "Oh, right. Protection spell. Well, least I got plenty of oomph." She passed the bowl to Marie. "Here, hold this for me, will yer? This is hard to do with one hand." She pulled the book out from under her arm, holding it awkwardly balanced on the arm with the cast and flipping through the pages with the other. When she got to the appropriate one, she took a handful of crushed herbs from the bowl and sprinkled them on the doorstep, chanting softly:

"This doorstep with its welcome ways, be guarded by a shield of rays
To guard this home by day and night, protect it with a door of white
Let nothing enter that is not good, and those within do as they would
The aura left by herb and spell will safely seal this entrance well."

As the herbs hit the doorstep, a bright light sprang up, expanding to cover the whole house and then disappearing.

"There, all done," Amanda said with a satisfied smile, sounding much less stoned than she had a moment ago.

"Well, well, well," Marie said, eyeing the results and watching them fade. "Why do I trust that more than light-beams and tripwires?"

"'Cause you know I'm better than light-beams and tripwires?" Amanda said, smirking just a little. "After all, I did turn Jake into a frog." Then she sobered. "I'm not too sure how well this will work with guns an' stuff - metal's tricky - but it should make things difficult for anyone tryin' to get in with bad intentions. An' it'll be a warning system, at the least. Someone tries to get in an' mean us harm, we'll know."

"I can't thank you enough," Marie said warmly. "Really, I mean that. Once was enough. Twice is horrible. The idea of three times is simply intolerable. Let's get you back to bed. Don't want our resident witch catching cold, do we?"