A.N. Hi and welcome to my newly revised story. If you have any questions about that, please see my biography. I don’t feel like explaining it here. I hope you enjoy the story, I’m enjoying writing it. And please drop me a review. The lack of them won’t stop me writing but a lack does discourage me enough not to be able to continue for a while. But you don’t really care about that, so I’ll let you read the story now before I bore your eyes out with my rambling.,,, (continues to chatter away as the reader tunes her out)

Pebble in the Water

Chapter One

It was strange. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t feel. I just existed in this labyrinth of eternal darkness. Lost. Unable to find my way.

I don’t know how long I was in this place, whether for a second or a millennium, it, like everything else, didn’t matter to me. There was no pain. There was no pleasure. No past, no future. There was nothing.

I relished in it.

Then I felt it. Something. It took me a while to figure it out. Pain. Unbearable pain. I heard a high pitched sound that made my blood curdle and realized it was my own scream that tore at my eardrums.

Something was in my hands. I didn’t know what it was, but it was warm and throbbed. It wrapped itself around my hand as if trying to pry itself free. I writhed upon the smooth surface I was on as the thing in my hands thrashed around then became limp and very heavy. I let go and let my hand do what it wanted while I concentrated on breathing. It hurt. It felt as if every time I took a breath, thousands of knives pushed through my ribs into my lungs. But it was all I could think of doing.

I heard the murmuring of voices. I didn’t know what they were saying and I honestly didn’t care at the moment. Breathing was still a labor. I felt something burning on my chest. I tried to heave my chest away, but it wouldn’t do as I commanded.

The burning thing left my chest and took some of the other pain away with it. Breathing came easier, then natural. I could now concentrate on the voices.

“… Believe you brought him back. What beautiful work you have done, Doctor,” a female voice said. Feet shuffled closer. The burning sensation pressed on my face and turned it aside. I realized it was her hand. I jerked away.

“Careful, Irene. It seems that body heat is too much for him,” a deep voice said. More feet shuffled closer. Somehow I could feel the man lean closer. “That’s interesting,” a gloved hand turned my head to examine me. Then abruptly he let my head fall to the side as he dropped it and heavy footsteps hurried to the other side of the small room. How I knew he went to the other side of the small room was beyond me, but know I did.

“What is it, Doctor?” Irene asked, still standing at my side. I could hear liquid being poured into something small. Then a squirt. It was a syringe. I heard a small moan of fear escape my throat.

“He is aware of what is going on around him. Exceptionally aware.” Something was set down and the doctor walked closer. “We need to knock him out.”

“Why do we need to use such a rare medication for that? It was expensive and very hard to find. Why don't we just hit him on the head, like the others?” Irene’s voice quavered. I could tell that even though Irene was hesitant to use the medication, she was more afraid of the doctor.

“Do you want what happened to Erik to happen to you? He is dangerous and very strong! I don’t…“

Irene interrupted, “But he is still blind, Doctor. He still doesn’t have control of his body.”

The doctor stalked over to her. I heard a small gasp of pain. The doctor must have gripped her head. A wave of nausea hit me and I slowly grasped the table I was on to make sure I would not fall off the small table. “Look at him Irene! You say he is not in control? He is getting more control by the second! Not to mention stronger! We have to put him out!”

The doctor’s burning bare hand gripped my arm. I screamed in pain as my blood boiled. He pushed the needle into my arm and I felt its contents empty into my boiling blood. I screamed louder, the pitch rising with the volume. My eyes became unstuck and opened wide. Blinding light entered them. I squeezed them shut but continued to scream. The doctor released his grip from my arm and pulled out the needle. But I barely noticed. I felt my body shake, spasm, jerk out of my control. Then all went black.

---

The first thing I noticed was there was no pain. My breathing came natural. I felt ropes had been tied around me to keep me from moving, but as I flexed my fingers I could tell I had regained control of my body. I felt a cool wet cloth rubbing the sticky dirt and blood off my arm. I opened my eyes to a dimly lit room. A woman was cleaning me. I figured she must be Irene. She didn’t seem to notice I was awake. Without moving my head I glance around the small room. It was a laboratory. Its metal walls were bare except for a set of instruments I could not name on my left and the cabinets directly in front of me. Irene and the door were to my right.

Irene’s brown hair was long and loosely curled. Ribbons were dangling here and there to keep her hair from her face. She had large brown eyes and high cheekbones. Her lips were full and painted red. She had a pointy chin and a long neck. I guessed her to be around thirty years old.

She looked up and saw that I was awake. Her brown eyes went wide as she filled her lungs with air and held it. She backed away slowly as if I couldn’t tell that she was, keeping eye contact with me as I calmly looked at her.

She jumped from the chair and pulled out a gun. “Don’t move!” she yelled, still backing slowly to the door her hand violently shaking as she tried to point the gun at me. I didn’t think she’d be able to hit me if she tried.

I gave her a questioning look, “How can I? I’m tied down,” I replied calmly. With a sudden jerk of movement, she opened the door and left, letting it click shut behind her. I could hear her yelling for the doctor as she ran down the hall.

I lay in the dim room alone trying to think of what had happened before I was ever brought into this room. I could recall nothing. Not my name, age or even what I looked like. That was a bit unsettling and Irene and the doctor didn’t seem to have any qualms about what they did to me. I decided I didn’t want to be here when they returned and pulled on the rope that bound me. It gave way easily. Untying my hands from the broken rope, I slid off the table and walked over to open the door only to find it locked. Figures. I looked at the heavily bolted, metal door. I gave it a small kick and was genuinely surprised to find it give away so easily. The bright lights from the hall blinded me momentarily. After my sight returned, I walked down the hallway. Much like the room, it too had bare metal walls and electrical lights hung from the ceiling.

I walked along the deserted hallway; glancing back every so often to see if anyone was following me. A girl carrying a tray of strangely shaped objects turned the corner and saw me. She froze and stared openly at me, her mouth open. I noticed that she wasn’t looking at my face. Slightly nervous I looked down. I wasn’t naked, that was good. Dirty and shirtless, yes. Naked, no.

“Excuse me; do you know how to get out of here?” I asked as nicely as I could. The girl looked ready to bolt.

The girl swallowed and looked into my eyes. Adoration shown through hers. We stared at each other for a moment. Me with growing impatience, she as if trying to memorize everything she could about me. At my huff, she started out of her trance and nodded, leading me down the hallway she had just come from.

“Why are you helping me?” I stopped and put my hand on her bare arm. She stared at it for a moment then looked up at me and smiled.

“Because, you’re my master,” she answered as if I should have known the answer already. I let my puzzlement show to her.

“There he is!”

Men came charging down the hallway. The serving girl pushed me behind her and told me to follow the hall all the way and the exit door was the last to the right. I ran down the hall. I didn’t know why I trusted this girl, but I had no other choice. The hallway sped past me so quickly I was surprised when I reached the dead end. I slammed through the door on my right and came out in the middle of a graveyard. The full moon shown down on me, casting eerie shadows across the grass.

I stood there, gazing at the stones around me. Why was a laboratory underneath a graveyard? It made no sense.

The door opened behind me and I felt the presence of the doctor. “I must say, you are an amazing creature. You are smarter and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined,” he said stepping behind me. “I am quite proud that I was the one to bring you back.”

I turned to face the doctor in his white coat and green scrubs. His white hair fell in front of his ancient face. Green eyes shown from behind thick square glasses. He had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.

“What do you mean?” I asked my tone dangerous while I clenched my fists.

“Well,” the doctor took off his glasses and began wiping them; “we dug up your body a few years ago. I’m sorry it took so long but when I saw you for the first time, I was amazed at how perfect you were. Even though you had been six feet under for God only knows how long you showed no signs of decay.

“We took you to the lab and started the procedures. While I wasn’t working on you, I worked on other dead bodies to make sure that I got everything right. After all, I wanted you to be the strongest in both mind and body.”

“But when I first woke up you put me out as soon as you knew I was conscious,” I said with my teeth clenched.

The doctor gave an excited laugh, “I didn’t think you would remember that. Yes, I admit it. I was quite terrified after you killed Erik and for knocking you out, I do apologize. Didn’t want you to do that to me or my nurse. But, now that you’re fully aware I don’t think I have anything to fear.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked stepping closer to the doctor.

“Why would you want to kill the person who brought you back to life?” he said smiling.

I grabbed his neck and lifted him up. His smile vanished and was soon replaced by pain as he gasped for air, pulling on my hand while his feet dangled in the air. “Just to let you know,” I said, “I liked where I was.”

I squeezed his neck as he squirmed and kicked trying to get air. I felt his spinal cord snap from the pressure I was giving and his body went limp. The life from his frightened face left as I dropped him. Blood oozed from the print my hand made on his neck.

I heard a noise and looked up to see that Irene had just emptied both her stomach and her bladder from fear and disgust. I turned away and began walking toward the distant city.

---

“You let him loose?”

“I’m sorry sir. But I was afraid. After what the doctor told me and after what happened to him, I couldn’t think to catch him and put him out.”

“Irene, do you know what this means? You have let loose a monster. Worse than the world has ever known. And the world has seen some pretty shitty stuff. Not only does he have strength, but intelligence along side that. I should never have let you and Xavier do your little experiments.”

“Sir, it can’t be as bad as you make it out to be. He has no clue what’s going on.”

“You’re right, Irene. I’m not making it out as it is. It’s worse! The fact that he doesn’t know what the hell is going on makes him unpredictable! What exactly did you and Dr. Xavier do to that thing to make him be able to break through that door with such ease?”

“I don’t know sir. The doctor did most of the work without me. The only important thing I was there for was when he woke up.”

“What was he like when he woke up?”

“When he first woke, he thrashed around and screamed in pitches so high I could barely hear them, but they were still earsplitting.”

“Yes, I heard.”

“Anyway, he gained control of his body remarkably fast. But when he opened his eyes for a brief moment, that was when I realized he was completely different from the others.”

“How so?”

“The others had filmy, dull gray eyes. His were sharp and blood red.”

“What else?”

“We put him out with Lazultra. The doctor went to go take care of some personal business. Even though Lazultra is supposed to keep someone out for days, the doctor warned me that this creature could wake in a few hours.”

“How long did it take?”

“Three minutes sir. I was so scared. The only thing I could think of was to get the doctor for help. And so I left him alone. Sir, he scares me. His voice is so calm and sounds so innocent. He could fool anyone into trusting him if it weren’t for those eyes. He is beautiful and slender. Speed must be his strength.”

“Irene, you’re rambling.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“I want you to drive to town and tell anyone who has a voice there, like the police or newspaper, that this monster is loose.”

“But sir, how will I get them to believe me?”

“Give them this as proof.”

“But sir, this is…“

“I know what it is Irene. Now go!”