Categories > Cartoons > X-Men: Evolution > A Rogue's Journey
Chapter 2
Not having anywhere to go, Marie decided to walk to the bus station in the next town. Now sporting her only pair of gloves, Marie made it to the depot in a few hours. It was hard walking when you have a rather large rucksack slung over one shoulder.
She walked up to the ticket booth and examined her choices. The next bus to anywhere was a grey hound to New York City, which was leaving in an hour.
"How can Ah help ya dear?" the woman in the ticket booth asked.
"Ya got any more tickets ta New York?"
The woman's, Irene by her nametag, fingers flew across the keypad next to her.
"Yah're lucky. Theres one left. Ya want it?"
Marie nodded her head slightly and fished in her pocket for the money she stole from her mother.
"That'll be $20, kid."
Marie handed Irene a bill and waited impatiently for the ticket in return. A piece of flimsy paper was pushed through the small gap in the glass and Marie took it. She looked down and saw her bus was 54.
Marie heard a rumble and looked down at her stomach.
'How can Ah possibly be hungry again?' she asked herself. She glanced at her watch, then at the ticket. She had a half an hour before the bus began to load so she looked around and headed to the small convenience store inside the depot building. Using the money she had left sparingly, she bought a small bottle of water and a buttered bagel. She walked outside and sat on a bench a few yards away from the bus she was to be boarding soon. She quickly finished the bagel and walked up to the bus when she saw a short, portly man in a bus uniform walk to the doors and climb onto the bus. Marie approached the behemoth of a bus a little wearily having never been on one herself. She walked to school, so she never even rode a school bus.
The driver opened the doors and Marie walked up the stairs, handing the ticket to the man, or at least tried to. He rolled his eyes at her and pointed to a large silver box with a thin horizontal slit in it. Marie looked at the ticket once more and pushed it through the slot then walked to the back corner of the bus and took a seat.
She went into her bag and pulled out a small portable compact disk player, she placed the headphones on her ears and turned the music on as loud as it would go. She pulled the hood to her black sweatshirt on to hide her face. The last thing she needed was to be recognized during her getaway.
The bus slowly began to fill with passengers. They all steered clear of the hooded teenager. She scared them. She gave of vibes filled with anger and confusion and her appearance didn't help matters. When Marie had returned to her house to gather her things she decided to change her appearance. From years of observing people she had seen that those people who wore dark clothing and looked hostile, were generally left alone and avoided. She figured if she became one of those people then everyone else wouldn't try to talk to her or get close to her or anything. She was clothed in all black despite the Mississippi heat and had rimmed her eyes heavily with her little used black eyeliner. She put on the dark purple lipstick that her friend had given to her as a gag gift the year before and fixed her face with a permanent scowl.
She turned her cd player up to the peak of its volume so the rock cd she stole from her brother pulsed muffled through the air around her.
A few minutes after the last person boarded, the bus driver closed the doors and put the bus into motion. The bus turned out of the parking lot and onto the highway and Marie took one last look at the life she was forever leaving behind her.
Marie awoke with a start as the bus stopped and settled. She glanced out the window and saw a rest stop on an interstate. Next to the bus, attached to the building was a sign that read 'Welcome to Tennessee'. Marie blinked, and glanced at her watch. The numbers and hands shouted out to her that it was five minutes to ten am. Marie had been asleep for close to six hours.
'Well I guess sucking out someone's soul can really tire a person,' she thought bitterly to herself.
Marie felt her stomach grumble and glared daggers down at it. She only had a few dollars left and she needed them to get some sort of shelter in New York. Marie considered her options. They weren't very good. Get food now and satisfy her stomach but have no money to get a hotel room when she gets to New York or save her money and starve. Marie made up her mind and stood up to get off the bus. She never was very good at ignoring her stomach.
There was a crowd mingling around the foyer as Marie entered. She noticed a wallet sticking out of the back pocket of a large man who was coughing uncontrollably. Marie made a split second decision and as she brushed past him to get in line for food she snatched the wallet, as the man was in mid-cough. He didn't notice a thing.
Marie jumped onto the end of a food line and waited to reach the food, her stomach grumbling in anticipation. She hid the brown leather in front of her and quickly opened it to see what she had grabbed. Inside were a few credit cards and a handful of bills. She grabbed the bills and stuffed them into her pocket. She passed a garbage can and deposited the wallet in it. She gathered her food and paid with the money she had left from her mother and returned to the bus. It wasn't until she was sitting in her seat again that she examined exactly how much she had taken.
Marie's jaw dropped. The man must have been loaded. She had taken fifteen bills, all hundreds and fifties. From one person she was set for a while, she might even be able to rent a cheapo apartment if she was lucky. She stuffed the money back into her pocket and continued eating, making her stomach happy.
The rest of the ride was long and arduous. They stopped once more Baltimore, Maryland for food and to switch drivers. Marie slept from then until the bus pulled up to a final stop in the New York City Bus Depot, Bronx Division. Marie grabbed her bag from overhead and joined the throng of passengers descending from the bus. She watched enviously as her fellow bus mates were met with hugs and shouts of welcome. Marie was met with nothing.
Slinging the bag once more over her shoulder, Marie walked down the street looking for any sign of a motel or something close to. She spotted the sign of a Motel Six a few blocks down and headed that way. By the time she got there she was ready to drop her bag and fall over. Sleeping on a bumpy bus isn't exactly rejuvenating.
She approached the clerk and asked for a room. The short drunken man with a greasy black comb over leered at her and took her reservation. She was given a room on the top floor of the three-story complex. She paid for a weeklong stay and snatched the key from the man's stubby fingers. He looked at her gloves and raised an eyebrow. She hurried out of the office and walked up the stairs to her room. She dropped her bag onto the floor. She made sure her door was locked before stripping off her sweat soaked clothes and jumping in the shower. She hadn't showered in more then twenty-four hours and was beginning to show signs of it.
She toweled herself off as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped the cloth securely around herself before going into the room and searching for some sleep worthy clothing in her bag. She found them. A pair of black flannel shorts and a tank top. It was surprisingly warm in New York. Marie slept for a good twelve hours before finally awakening.
The first thing she noticed when her brain flickered into operation was that there was a voice in her head. A voice that wasn't her own, it was a deep male voice and it was yelling. Yelling at her to be more precise. It was deafening.
"Where am I? What did you do to me? You're one of them aren't you? How dare you do this the me you filthy mutie!" It was Cody.
Marie didn't understand.
"Im sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I was one. I'm so sorry." Tears were beginning to fall from Marie's eyes as she screamed her pitiful appeals to the room. The screaming in her head was getting louder and more painful.
"Help! Let me out of here. Let me out mutie. You can't keep me in here. Help! Someone help!" Cody was screaming, his voice filled with fear.
Marie was getting agitated at the voice and finally snapped.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" She screamed will all her voice, only this time nothing came out of her mouth but erupted into her mind. Cody's pleas died away and became a low mumbling.
Marie opened her eyes and removed her hands slowly from her head. A dull ache pulsated through her brain. She shook her head trying to clear the fogginess that clouded her mind. The fogginess went away but the pain remained, standable but ever-present.
Marie stumbled around the room and hastily changed into some clothes suitable to be outside in with her condition and walked out into the glaring sun of the New York morning. Her stomach growled having digested all the nutrients from the night before, while she slept. She spotted a diner a few doors down and walked towards it, her head still aching.
'Food couldn't do any damage,' she thought.
She spotted a help wanted sign in the window and got an idea. Her funds wouldn't last forever and she might as well start saving.
She went inside and sat at the bar waiting to be helped. The waitress, a tall Hispanic woman with a constant gum-cracking problem took her order.
"Ya'll still lookin fer help?" Marie asked pointing with her thumb over her shoulder to the sign in the window.
The waitress looked at her wearily before calling over her shoulder.
"Yo Hal! We gotta taker on the job," the women then moved onto her next customer.
A tall stocky guy in a white tank top with a dishrag hung over one shoulder walked out from the back.
"Which one was it Sal?" he asked his voice deep and raspy. Marie raised her hand slightly and caught the cook's attention.
"You the girl?"
"Yea,"
"Well what's your name and why do ya want the job?"
"Mah names..." Marie paused she didn't want to use her given name. It was like digging up the past and rubbing salt in the still very fresh wounds. "Rouge and Ah need the job cause Ah jus got here and mah money's gonna drah up soon."
Hal looked her over once more and asked, "You fit in a small?"
Rouge blinked but nodded her head yes.
"Good," Hal disappeared for a few seconds then reappeared with a plastic bag that contained a uniform.
"Ya start at noon," Rouge nodded and paid for her food before leaving the diner plastic bag in tow, and going back to her room. She wanted to examine the dress before putting it on. God knows what may have happened while the previous owner had worn it. And when she took it out of the bag, it was stained and dusty, she threw it back in the bag and gathered up the clothes she had worn the day before and headed to the tiny laundry room in one of the ground floor rooms of the motel. As her clothes washed, she put on her headphones once more and flipped through a newspaper she had spotted on a chair next to her. She flipped through it reading all the black typed articles about mutant bloodshed and laws trying to be pushed through Congress aimed at stopping the mutant "problem" as the paper put it. One name kept popping up as a strong voice for mutant rights, Professor Charles Xavier.
Eventually the washing machine beeped and Rouge tossed her wet clothing into the dryer and booted it up. She turned another page of the paper and came across the classified ads for real estate. There were a few advertising available apartments in a three block radius of where she was currently staying. She decided to go talk to few landlords after her shift was over. The dryer beeped and Rouge glanced at her watch. She had a half an hour till she was supposed to be back at the diner. Rouge grabbed her clothes and rushed back to her room to change.
When she appeared at the diner a few minutes early she was wearing a pair of long black gloves along with the ugly yellow dress that 50's diner waitresses used to wear. It reached a little above her knee and under it she wore stockings and a pair of black Chuck Taylor's. She wanted to add a touch of flare to her otherwise drab outfit.
Sal looked up when she heard the bell over the door tinkle. Sal saw Rouge and simply shook her head. 'Only in New York,' she thought.
Rouge stood awkwardly off to the side until Sal waved her over and handed her an order pad and pen.
"It's easy enough. Write what they want or check it off if theres a box. Smile and don't forget about tables. Its bad publicity." Rouge nodded seeing two teenagers walk into the diner and take a seat at a booth. She walked up somewhat nervously and stood in front of them. She smiled bitter-sweetly.
"What can Ah get ya'll?" she asked.
The two looked at her strangely but gave her their orders nonetheless. Rouge promptly wrote them down and walked behind the counter to tell Hal the order.
Rouge wasn't a bad waitress having helped her mom in the diner at home. 'No' she berated herself. 'This is my home now.'
She got a few tips and by the end of her shift her feet hurt and was thankful that she had worn her sneakers and not some other less comfortable shoe.
The next morning, after another fight with Cody's psyche shortly after waking up, Rouge walked a few blocks to go talk to a woman about renting an apartment she had. The woman ended up giving it to her, if grudgingly. Rouge didn't look very reliable but being able to pay the security deposit and six months worth of rent in one day convinced her to at least give Rouge a try. The apartment was small but had a few furnishings in it like a bed, a range and refrigerator. The rent that she paid to the woman each month included utilities so bills weren't an issue.
A month went by and life settled into a pattern. Rouge worked during the day and had a life during the night. She shopped and went out with her fellow coworkers. She had a full stocked fridge and the darkness in her wardrobe was rapidly increasing day by day.
One night Sal and Kelley, the other waitress, invited her out for coffee at a local Starbucks and Rouge agreed. Somewhere along the way she ran into a girl, or should it be the other way around.
They were only a few blocks away from the shop when a tough looking Puerto Rican girl slammed into her as she walked by. The girl expected Rouge to be thrown off step if not knocked to the ground completely but instead it was she who was thrown and spun around. Rouge continued to walk away completely ignoring the loud rants of the girl. The girl was getting pissed at Rouge's ignorance and pushed Rouge from behind. Rouge spun around and looked at the girl.
"Don't evah touch meh," she hissed menacingly. The girl smirked and swung her closed fist at Rouge's jaw. Rouge leaned back and dodged most of the blow but the girl's knuckles grazed her uncovered cheek. That much flesh-to-flesh contact caused the girl to loose consciousness and the pull of Rouge's power to be activated and absorb some of the girl's life essence. Rouge cursed in her newly acquired Bronx accent and turned to see her companions slowly backing away, scared. Rouge cursed again before taking off down the sidewalk.
She burst into her apartment a few minutes later with a massive headache and another voice, this one female, screaming obscenities at her. She went into the bathroom and popped some Advil into her mouth. She swallowed pain reliever with the help of some water and strode into her bedroom. She got out of her now useless waitressing outfit and climbed into a pair of black jeans and a black tank top with a green sheer shirt underneath. She left her gloves off because she was alone and walked into the kitchen to get another glass of water. She was in the process of filling the glass when there was a knock on her door. Rouge cursed lightly under her breath and ran into her bedroom to get her gloves and slipped her feet into her black boots. The knock came again.
"Ah comin'. Hold yer frickin horses!" Rouge pulled the door open. Before her stood two NYPD officers.
"Miss Rouge?"
"Yes officah's? How can Ah help ya'll?"
"We're here to arrest you for your assault on a Miss Shalis Rodriguez."
"Ya have got ta be kiddin me. She swung at meh. Ah didn't touch her." The two men cuffed her none too gently and proceeded to walk her down the stairs and onto the street.
"Aren't ya supposed ta read meh mah rights?"
"You ain't got no rights ya mutie."
"Oh so yer one a those cops." Rouge rolled her eyes and sat in the back of the patrol car quietly fuming. She figured if they hated mutants then talking would only cause her more problems. A few minutes later they arrived at the station and Rouge was carted off into a cell. She was offered a phone call but turned it down seeing as she had no one to call.
Rouge spent the night on a hard bed shivering and having a verbal battle in her had with Cody and Shalis. She was terrified but refused to let her captives see her fear, so she hid it behind her stony exterior.
The next morning a warden rattled the bars of her cage, waking her. She sat up and the warden opened the door. Rouge looked at her suspiciously. She didn't need to be tricked into escaping unintentionally, on top of everything else that was happening.
"Someone posted bail mutie. You're lucky." Rouge walked out of the cell and into the main part of the precinct. Before her was a bald man in a wheelchair with a short gruff looking man standing next to him.
"Good morning Rouge. My name is Professor Charles Xavier..."
Not having anywhere to go, Marie decided to walk to the bus station in the next town. Now sporting her only pair of gloves, Marie made it to the depot in a few hours. It was hard walking when you have a rather large rucksack slung over one shoulder.
She walked up to the ticket booth and examined her choices. The next bus to anywhere was a grey hound to New York City, which was leaving in an hour.
"How can Ah help ya dear?" the woman in the ticket booth asked.
"Ya got any more tickets ta New York?"
The woman's, Irene by her nametag, fingers flew across the keypad next to her.
"Yah're lucky. Theres one left. Ya want it?"
Marie nodded her head slightly and fished in her pocket for the money she stole from her mother.
"That'll be $20, kid."
Marie handed Irene a bill and waited impatiently for the ticket in return. A piece of flimsy paper was pushed through the small gap in the glass and Marie took it. She looked down and saw her bus was 54.
Marie heard a rumble and looked down at her stomach.
'How can Ah possibly be hungry again?' she asked herself. She glanced at her watch, then at the ticket. She had a half an hour before the bus began to load so she looked around and headed to the small convenience store inside the depot building. Using the money she had left sparingly, she bought a small bottle of water and a buttered bagel. She walked outside and sat on a bench a few yards away from the bus she was to be boarding soon. She quickly finished the bagel and walked up to the bus when she saw a short, portly man in a bus uniform walk to the doors and climb onto the bus. Marie approached the behemoth of a bus a little wearily having never been on one herself. She walked to school, so she never even rode a school bus.
The driver opened the doors and Marie walked up the stairs, handing the ticket to the man, or at least tried to. He rolled his eyes at her and pointed to a large silver box with a thin horizontal slit in it. Marie looked at the ticket once more and pushed it through the slot then walked to the back corner of the bus and took a seat.
She went into her bag and pulled out a small portable compact disk player, she placed the headphones on her ears and turned the music on as loud as it would go. She pulled the hood to her black sweatshirt on to hide her face. The last thing she needed was to be recognized during her getaway.
The bus slowly began to fill with passengers. They all steered clear of the hooded teenager. She scared them. She gave of vibes filled with anger and confusion and her appearance didn't help matters. When Marie had returned to her house to gather her things she decided to change her appearance. From years of observing people she had seen that those people who wore dark clothing and looked hostile, were generally left alone and avoided. She figured if she became one of those people then everyone else wouldn't try to talk to her or get close to her or anything. She was clothed in all black despite the Mississippi heat and had rimmed her eyes heavily with her little used black eyeliner. She put on the dark purple lipstick that her friend had given to her as a gag gift the year before and fixed her face with a permanent scowl.
She turned her cd player up to the peak of its volume so the rock cd she stole from her brother pulsed muffled through the air around her.
A few minutes after the last person boarded, the bus driver closed the doors and put the bus into motion. The bus turned out of the parking lot and onto the highway and Marie took one last look at the life she was forever leaving behind her.
Marie awoke with a start as the bus stopped and settled. She glanced out the window and saw a rest stop on an interstate. Next to the bus, attached to the building was a sign that read 'Welcome to Tennessee'. Marie blinked, and glanced at her watch. The numbers and hands shouted out to her that it was five minutes to ten am. Marie had been asleep for close to six hours.
'Well I guess sucking out someone's soul can really tire a person,' she thought bitterly to herself.
Marie felt her stomach grumble and glared daggers down at it. She only had a few dollars left and she needed them to get some sort of shelter in New York. Marie considered her options. They weren't very good. Get food now and satisfy her stomach but have no money to get a hotel room when she gets to New York or save her money and starve. Marie made up her mind and stood up to get off the bus. She never was very good at ignoring her stomach.
There was a crowd mingling around the foyer as Marie entered. She noticed a wallet sticking out of the back pocket of a large man who was coughing uncontrollably. Marie made a split second decision and as she brushed past him to get in line for food she snatched the wallet, as the man was in mid-cough. He didn't notice a thing.
Marie jumped onto the end of a food line and waited to reach the food, her stomach grumbling in anticipation. She hid the brown leather in front of her and quickly opened it to see what she had grabbed. Inside were a few credit cards and a handful of bills. She grabbed the bills and stuffed them into her pocket. She passed a garbage can and deposited the wallet in it. She gathered her food and paid with the money she had left from her mother and returned to the bus. It wasn't until she was sitting in her seat again that she examined exactly how much she had taken.
Marie's jaw dropped. The man must have been loaded. She had taken fifteen bills, all hundreds and fifties. From one person she was set for a while, she might even be able to rent a cheapo apartment if she was lucky. She stuffed the money back into her pocket and continued eating, making her stomach happy.
The rest of the ride was long and arduous. They stopped once more Baltimore, Maryland for food and to switch drivers. Marie slept from then until the bus pulled up to a final stop in the New York City Bus Depot, Bronx Division. Marie grabbed her bag from overhead and joined the throng of passengers descending from the bus. She watched enviously as her fellow bus mates were met with hugs and shouts of welcome. Marie was met with nothing.
Slinging the bag once more over her shoulder, Marie walked down the street looking for any sign of a motel or something close to. She spotted the sign of a Motel Six a few blocks down and headed that way. By the time she got there she was ready to drop her bag and fall over. Sleeping on a bumpy bus isn't exactly rejuvenating.
She approached the clerk and asked for a room. The short drunken man with a greasy black comb over leered at her and took her reservation. She was given a room on the top floor of the three-story complex. She paid for a weeklong stay and snatched the key from the man's stubby fingers. He looked at her gloves and raised an eyebrow. She hurried out of the office and walked up the stairs to her room. She dropped her bag onto the floor. She made sure her door was locked before stripping off her sweat soaked clothes and jumping in the shower. She hadn't showered in more then twenty-four hours and was beginning to show signs of it.
She toweled herself off as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped the cloth securely around herself before going into the room and searching for some sleep worthy clothing in her bag. She found them. A pair of black flannel shorts and a tank top. It was surprisingly warm in New York. Marie slept for a good twelve hours before finally awakening.
The first thing she noticed when her brain flickered into operation was that there was a voice in her head. A voice that wasn't her own, it was a deep male voice and it was yelling. Yelling at her to be more precise. It was deafening.
"Where am I? What did you do to me? You're one of them aren't you? How dare you do this the me you filthy mutie!" It was Cody.
Marie didn't understand.
"Im sorry. I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I was one. I'm so sorry." Tears were beginning to fall from Marie's eyes as she screamed her pitiful appeals to the room. The screaming in her head was getting louder and more painful.
"Help! Let me out of here. Let me out mutie. You can't keep me in here. Help! Someone help!" Cody was screaming, his voice filled with fear.
Marie was getting agitated at the voice and finally snapped.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" She screamed will all her voice, only this time nothing came out of her mouth but erupted into her mind. Cody's pleas died away and became a low mumbling.
Marie opened her eyes and removed her hands slowly from her head. A dull ache pulsated through her brain. She shook her head trying to clear the fogginess that clouded her mind. The fogginess went away but the pain remained, standable but ever-present.
Marie stumbled around the room and hastily changed into some clothes suitable to be outside in with her condition and walked out into the glaring sun of the New York morning. Her stomach growled having digested all the nutrients from the night before, while she slept. She spotted a diner a few doors down and walked towards it, her head still aching.
'Food couldn't do any damage,' she thought.
She spotted a help wanted sign in the window and got an idea. Her funds wouldn't last forever and she might as well start saving.
She went inside and sat at the bar waiting to be helped. The waitress, a tall Hispanic woman with a constant gum-cracking problem took her order.
"Ya'll still lookin fer help?" Marie asked pointing with her thumb over her shoulder to the sign in the window.
The waitress looked at her wearily before calling over her shoulder.
"Yo Hal! We gotta taker on the job," the women then moved onto her next customer.
A tall stocky guy in a white tank top with a dishrag hung over one shoulder walked out from the back.
"Which one was it Sal?" he asked his voice deep and raspy. Marie raised her hand slightly and caught the cook's attention.
"You the girl?"
"Yea,"
"Well what's your name and why do ya want the job?"
"Mah names..." Marie paused she didn't want to use her given name. It was like digging up the past and rubbing salt in the still very fresh wounds. "Rouge and Ah need the job cause Ah jus got here and mah money's gonna drah up soon."
Hal looked her over once more and asked, "You fit in a small?"
Rouge blinked but nodded her head yes.
"Good," Hal disappeared for a few seconds then reappeared with a plastic bag that contained a uniform.
"Ya start at noon," Rouge nodded and paid for her food before leaving the diner plastic bag in tow, and going back to her room. She wanted to examine the dress before putting it on. God knows what may have happened while the previous owner had worn it. And when she took it out of the bag, it was stained and dusty, she threw it back in the bag and gathered up the clothes she had worn the day before and headed to the tiny laundry room in one of the ground floor rooms of the motel. As her clothes washed, she put on her headphones once more and flipped through a newspaper she had spotted on a chair next to her. She flipped through it reading all the black typed articles about mutant bloodshed and laws trying to be pushed through Congress aimed at stopping the mutant "problem" as the paper put it. One name kept popping up as a strong voice for mutant rights, Professor Charles Xavier.
Eventually the washing machine beeped and Rouge tossed her wet clothing into the dryer and booted it up. She turned another page of the paper and came across the classified ads for real estate. There were a few advertising available apartments in a three block radius of where she was currently staying. She decided to go talk to few landlords after her shift was over. The dryer beeped and Rouge glanced at her watch. She had a half an hour till she was supposed to be back at the diner. Rouge grabbed her clothes and rushed back to her room to change.
When she appeared at the diner a few minutes early she was wearing a pair of long black gloves along with the ugly yellow dress that 50's diner waitresses used to wear. It reached a little above her knee and under it she wore stockings and a pair of black Chuck Taylor's. She wanted to add a touch of flare to her otherwise drab outfit.
Sal looked up when she heard the bell over the door tinkle. Sal saw Rouge and simply shook her head. 'Only in New York,' she thought.
Rouge stood awkwardly off to the side until Sal waved her over and handed her an order pad and pen.
"It's easy enough. Write what they want or check it off if theres a box. Smile and don't forget about tables. Its bad publicity." Rouge nodded seeing two teenagers walk into the diner and take a seat at a booth. She walked up somewhat nervously and stood in front of them. She smiled bitter-sweetly.
"What can Ah get ya'll?" she asked.
The two looked at her strangely but gave her their orders nonetheless. Rouge promptly wrote them down and walked behind the counter to tell Hal the order.
Rouge wasn't a bad waitress having helped her mom in the diner at home. 'No' she berated herself. 'This is my home now.'
She got a few tips and by the end of her shift her feet hurt and was thankful that she had worn her sneakers and not some other less comfortable shoe.
The next morning, after another fight with Cody's psyche shortly after waking up, Rouge walked a few blocks to go talk to a woman about renting an apartment she had. The woman ended up giving it to her, if grudgingly. Rouge didn't look very reliable but being able to pay the security deposit and six months worth of rent in one day convinced her to at least give Rouge a try. The apartment was small but had a few furnishings in it like a bed, a range and refrigerator. The rent that she paid to the woman each month included utilities so bills weren't an issue.
A month went by and life settled into a pattern. Rouge worked during the day and had a life during the night. She shopped and went out with her fellow coworkers. She had a full stocked fridge and the darkness in her wardrobe was rapidly increasing day by day.
One night Sal and Kelley, the other waitress, invited her out for coffee at a local Starbucks and Rouge agreed. Somewhere along the way she ran into a girl, or should it be the other way around.
They were only a few blocks away from the shop when a tough looking Puerto Rican girl slammed into her as she walked by. The girl expected Rouge to be thrown off step if not knocked to the ground completely but instead it was she who was thrown and spun around. Rouge continued to walk away completely ignoring the loud rants of the girl. The girl was getting pissed at Rouge's ignorance and pushed Rouge from behind. Rouge spun around and looked at the girl.
"Don't evah touch meh," she hissed menacingly. The girl smirked and swung her closed fist at Rouge's jaw. Rouge leaned back and dodged most of the blow but the girl's knuckles grazed her uncovered cheek. That much flesh-to-flesh contact caused the girl to loose consciousness and the pull of Rouge's power to be activated and absorb some of the girl's life essence. Rouge cursed in her newly acquired Bronx accent and turned to see her companions slowly backing away, scared. Rouge cursed again before taking off down the sidewalk.
She burst into her apartment a few minutes later with a massive headache and another voice, this one female, screaming obscenities at her. She went into the bathroom and popped some Advil into her mouth. She swallowed pain reliever with the help of some water and strode into her bedroom. She got out of her now useless waitressing outfit and climbed into a pair of black jeans and a black tank top with a green sheer shirt underneath. She left her gloves off because she was alone and walked into the kitchen to get another glass of water. She was in the process of filling the glass when there was a knock on her door. Rouge cursed lightly under her breath and ran into her bedroom to get her gloves and slipped her feet into her black boots. The knock came again.
"Ah comin'. Hold yer frickin horses!" Rouge pulled the door open. Before her stood two NYPD officers.
"Miss Rouge?"
"Yes officah's? How can Ah help ya'll?"
"We're here to arrest you for your assault on a Miss Shalis Rodriguez."
"Ya have got ta be kiddin me. She swung at meh. Ah didn't touch her." The two men cuffed her none too gently and proceeded to walk her down the stairs and onto the street.
"Aren't ya supposed ta read meh mah rights?"
"You ain't got no rights ya mutie."
"Oh so yer one a those cops." Rouge rolled her eyes and sat in the back of the patrol car quietly fuming. She figured if they hated mutants then talking would only cause her more problems. A few minutes later they arrived at the station and Rouge was carted off into a cell. She was offered a phone call but turned it down seeing as she had no one to call.
Rouge spent the night on a hard bed shivering and having a verbal battle in her had with Cody and Shalis. She was terrified but refused to let her captives see her fear, so she hid it behind her stony exterior.
The next morning a warden rattled the bars of her cage, waking her. She sat up and the warden opened the door. Rouge looked at her suspiciously. She didn't need to be tricked into escaping unintentionally, on top of everything else that was happening.
"Someone posted bail mutie. You're lucky." Rouge walked out of the cell and into the main part of the precinct. Before her was a bald man in a wheelchair with a short gruff looking man standing next to him.
"Good morning Rouge. My name is Professor Charles Xavier..."
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