Settled and Not Moving.

[Freight Train]

The house was empty today. The world was out doing whatever it was they did on Saturdays when they didn't wanna be around the mutant haven house. Anna she knew was doing errands. The older guys were out at an arcade or some such. Jamie had tagged along with either Anna or the guys, she wasn't sure which, but regardless, little Chelsea had awoken to an empty house and a note "Gone out, will return later, help yourself to the fridge" from Anna. So, she had.

She was sprawled on the couch, surrounded with junkfood of all kinds. A box of cookies huddled against her right side. On her left, a bag of chips mirrored the cookies. In her right hand she was idly spinning a half-empty bottle of Coke around it's long axis, and a stack of PB&J sandwiches sat on her tummy, rising and falling in time with her breathing. The TV was playing some inane show that had been grinding her nerves until she'd spaced out. She was staring fixedly at a picture hanging above the old television set, not really seeing it or hearing anything in the house. Her head tilted slightly to the side as gravity slowly won against the friction that held her head up against the back cushion.

[Feral]

Ten gallons of paint. That was the modest estimate Feral had made when he decided the inside of the Redencion House needed to be painted. The house was mostly painted white to begin with, but the paint had faded over time and there were some small scuff marks.

He even had painter's tape and plastic sheeting for the trim and carpet, although he would lobby to replace all that as well later. New carpet might be a nice cosmetic change, if Anna would allow it.

Feral entered the house with the 10 gallons of paint. The rollers and other things were already in the house. No one was in the house that Feral knew of. It was a good day to paint the house. The TV was on though.

Feral entered the living room and just about turned the noisy image box off when he noticed a pile of sandwiches moving up an down. Feral looked at the pile of junkfood and saw a pair of little feet.


"Jamie?"

He set the two five gallon buckets down and walked over. No. It was the newest arrival. What was her name?

"Sorry. You're" he paused a second. "Chelsea? Don't make a mess. Anna goes out of her way to keep this place as clean as can be."

[Freight Train]

Chelsea had nearly fallen asleep when Apollos had approached her. She opened one eye to behold him. "Nah, it's good," she yawned, stretching and trying to sit up. "I'm done with the cookies and chips, so yeah." She held up one of the sandwiches. "Want it? I think I made too much." She tore off the top quarter of her other PB&J with her teeth, pushing it into her mouth with her thumb.

[Feral]

Feral took the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a chuckle. "Thank you."

He sat down on the other end of the sofa and looked at the TV. "What is this?" The TV was showing something about animals. There was a large elephant on the screen charging down a tired, weakened cheetah.

Feral raised an eyebrow. "That's interesting. What are you doing today? Everyone else is out. I thought the house was empty, so I was going to paint it."

[Freight Train]

"Sounds fun," she said around her sandwich, though her tone and expression clearly said it wasn't. She was sure that he was gonna try and rope her into helping, and really she just wanted to sit and be brainless a little while longer. "But yeah, I don't know what this is. I haven't really been paying attention." She swallowed took a drink from her bottle. "Looks dumb tho."

[Feral]

Feral shrugged. "So change the channel or turn the TV off."

He finished the sandwich and stood up again. "I need to paint this room," he said. "I'll be moving the furniture and stuff, so as long as you move when I need you to, you can do whatever you want."

Feral started with the wall that was empty and spread out a plastic sheet. Then he took a pan and one of the buckets and started to prep the paint.

[Freight Train]

"Okay," she answered, picking up the remote and flipping channels. The news was on, something about crime in LA being on the rise, and suspected mutant involvement, and shootings involving mutant victims. "Like a bullet could kill me," she scoffed, demolishing the last of her sandwich and deciding she could eat a few more chips.

[Feral]

"Yeah?" Feral said, tearing off a long strip of blue tape and began to place it along the trim against one wall. "So what's your power?"

He tore off more tape and continued to move around the room. He shifted a chair and a side table. When he got to the TV he paused to see the news story.

"Well, the mutants in question must be doing something truly awful. This is close by? Petty gang and crime is not the most constructive use of a person's gifts."

He was one to talk, but changing the face of the world was beyond the scope of petty gangsters. Maybe he could convince those gangsters to join him in something grander.

[Freight Train]

"When I move I gain extra force and invulnerability that scales with my speed. At a sprint I'm completely unstoppable and invincible." She giggled a little as the channels flickered. "It's awesome." It stopped on ESPN, which was currently going over the aftermath of the Superbowl. She frowned at it, but kept it anyway. "I don't know anything about gang stuff. Sorry."

[Feral]

Feral smiled. he was already almost halfway around the room. "That's an incredible ability. Done much with it since you found it?"

He could imagine several uses for her power off hand. Destroying walls and thick barriers was one. Anti-tank measures. He could double his capability to advance his goals. For the moment though, he was more interested in advancing his ability to paint the house.

[Freight Train]

She sighed and tipped her head back, staring at the ceiling. "Let's see...I've broken one person's ribs, four walls, miles of flooring, sidewalk, roadway, and earth. Also I have destroyed some trees." She sat up a little bit and blinked. "I've been trying to be careful around here, since you've been working so much at fixing everything."

[Feral]

Feral nodded and stopped working with the tape. "Have you considered any sports? It sounds like you'd do very well at a roller derby."

He smiled. The sport was incredible. Even for being normals, he had to admire a set of women who were willing to skate around a course pummeling each other to a pulp.

"Have you ever seen a roller derby?"

[Freight Train]

"No. Sounds like something with cars. I used to play basketball, like, a LOT. After my powers I stopped playing football because I can't even do the "touch" version without hurting someone. Nobody's sturdy enough to get tackled by me at a run, and not many fast enough to move out of the way."

[Feral]

"Then you would be perfect for the roller derby," Feral said.

He finished the floor trim on the living room and motioned for Chelsea to follow him. "Come on, I want to talk to you some more. The roller derby is a predominantly female sport that involves running around a track on roller skates."

Feral paused a moment and found a spare piece of paper and a pen. "So there's the track with all the lanes. Then two teams of 5 players get on the track. 4 people from each team pair off and they all stick together. They cannot get separated from one another, or that's a penalty. Then the other two girls, called jammers, try to get through the pack to the other side. The pack can push, shove, pull, and whatever else they want to create gaps for their jammer, or block the opposing jammer. They can even hit the jammers if it will help. But regardless, the jammer has to get through. When that happens, that team scores 4 points, one point for each opposing player they pass."

Feral left the drawing on the counter and started taping the kitchen. "Follow so far?"

[Freight Train]

"Yeah, she said, jumping a little bit to sit on one of the high stools. "I dunno about what I'm supposed to do if I need to turn though. Once I get going its hard to turn or stop. I've never used my powers like, with a bike or skates or anything, so I don't know how that'd turn out, either." She grabbed the paper and stared at it, mimicking the zippy noise of the tape as Apollos pulled out another length of it. "Besides, the game'd be pretty much over once they all caught on."

[Feral]

Feral shrugged. "Maybe not. Even so, it would be worth a try to see how well you would do."

Feral sat back on his haunches and finally tossed the tape roll over his shoulder. "Forget it. I'm not painting. Let's go buy some roller skates."

He stood and checked his key ring to make sure he had a house key. He did, so he motioned for Chelsea. "Come on. Shoes, socks, the whole bit. Then we're going out to an abandoned parking lot and we're going to practice turning."

He smiled. "We'll even get ice cream after. What do you say?"

[Freight Train]

She smiled a little. It'd been a while since she'd been treated to much of anything. "Okay, hang on," she started to run for the stairs, slowing down as she felt the tile start to give, then as quickly as she could she went to her room and got her shoes on. She came thundering back down, feeling the stairs strain, and waited outside on the porch.

[Feral]

Apollos closed and locked the door behind himself and waved Chelsea over to the rust-red pick-up.

"We'll go by a sporting goods store and buy some skates for us. Then we'll find a place to practice."

The sporting goods store had several sizes and styles of roller skates. There were inline skates and normal skates. Some skates meant for extreme sports and the like. "Roller Derby skates are the normal kind with the four wheels on the outside. So we'll need some of these."

They tried on skates until they found the ones that fit them best. Apollos took them to the register and checked out. Then they were back in the truck and headed towards a place where they could practice.

"There we go," he said. The nearest school had not the first thing happening on its campus, so Apollos chose to pull in there.

"Let's get started. You've skated before?"

[Freight Train]

Chelsea'd chosen a pair of black and white skates after trying on over twenty pairs and rejecting them all. Apollos had shown patience like she'd never seen from a man before, and she was grateful to him for waiting and then paying for them without so much as glancing at the price tag. She sat heavily in the grass near a large square of concrete, where she supposed they played crappy games like dodge ball, given that the basketball hoops had been ripped off the backboards. She studied them with a disapproving expression as she laced up her shining new skates.

"Huh? Yeah. Like...twice," she said belatedly to her guardian's question. She stood, wobbling a little as the wheels and grass fought each other, tripping the three and a half feet to the concrete, then coasted out to the center, stance careful and a little timid as she found her balance. She rolled to a complete stop, then once she was sure of herself, struck out with great speed and confidence. When she'd nearly met the edge she turned her feet and leaned hard, taking a wide turn as her momentum coasted her all the way around the square twice before she applied brakes and stopped, tripping onto her hands and knees.

[Feral]

Apollos nodded with approval while he laced up his skates. Chelsea did a very good job maintaining her balance. She stopped and fell down, but that was to be expected.

He stood on his skates--all black--and made his way to her. "This is going to take some getting used to, but we'll manage. He helped her up and looked her over. "You don't look too hurt. How did the skating feel to you?"

[Freight Train]

"I'm not. I was invincible when I hit the floor." She stood, wobbling again, and started to slowly skate long ovals on the concrete. "It feels wierd. It's smoother than running, but I don't feel as strong. Guess because I'm not stomping holes in the ground. Bet you I wear these wheels down ultra fast tho." She managed to stop without tripping this time, at the far corner from Apollos. "Okay, what happens next?"

[Feral]

Feral scratched at the beard on his chin. "Well, we know you can turn in wide circles."

He skated over to her. "If we had more people, we could practice a real roller derby. We need to get you to corner tighter, that much is certain."

Feral looked over the concrete patch. "Have you tried lowering your center of gravity and leaning into the turn? It works with motorcycle drivers. Why not try it yourself? I'll even skate next to you in case you need help."

He wasn't sure how much help he'd be trying to get her to turn a corner, but he'd try his hardest.

[Freight Train]

"Uh...okay." Chelsea had never been able to turn more than forty-five degrees while running, and wasn't really expecting to get a smaller circle on her skates. But, she supposed she was willing to try. "Okay...gonna turn right, okay? She stepped right a little to let him get in on her left and took a breath. "Okay. Okay." She started off, approaching her top speed faster than she'd expected. She squatted on her skates and leaned hard right, turning, turning...then her feet came out from under her and she skidded on her side across the entire square and into the grass. "Ow," she said, though she wasn't in the least bit hurt.

[Feral]

Feral coasted over to Chelsea. "I tried to grab you and keep you on your feet, but I just barely missed you."

He held out a hand to her. "Here, let's try something else."

Feral stood on her right. "Ok, we're going to do another right turn. Just stick close by me and hold on tightly."

They started off skating again. Feral could feel Chelsea's momentum increase as they got started. The older mutant started the turn well ahead of when he wanted it. They skidded sideways for a while, then started the turn. Feral crouched low and leaned into the turn.

Chelsea's momentum was still carrying them mostly forward, but he needed something to help them turn. An axis of some sort. Instinctively Feral shot out his right arm and extended one curved claw. It caught on the ground and though it strained him to hold onto her, Feral kept his grip on the little mutant as they rotated around the blade sticking from the back of his wrist.

It took a bit, but at last they straightened out. In the turn a long curved scratch makred the ground where they made the colossal attempt.

"Well," Feral said, sheathing the scuffed up bone, "that was harder than I thought. It seemed like it worked though. Maybe we should buy you some super heavy duty gloves to you can help keep your balance."

[Freight Train]

She squealed as the force from her momentum gave her that roller-coaster sensation of having her stomach mashed into her spine. She'd never been able to do such a thing, not even at Cullen's with the staff helping her. Apollos let her go as they straightened out, and she had to make her usual broad turn to get back to him as he put his spike away.

She'd heard that that was his power, but hadn't actually witnessed it until today. It gave her a chill to see the blade, even though she only saw the last few inches as it slid back into his arm.

"You think it'd help? The gloves, I mean? I'm not sure I'd be able to dig in to turn properly. Besides, wouldn't damage to the play field be illegal?"

[Feral]

Apollos shrugged. "Hard to say. I don't know if there's a rule about that."

He scratched again at his beard. "Not sure. There's only one thing left to do: We got to put your feet up on two of the wheels. We're going to have to have you put a hand out to turn like I did the last time. Otherwise, you'll just have to pinball off of your opponents."

He chuckled.

[Freight Train]

"Not happening, unless they're unmoveable or unbreakable. So far I haven't been able to bounce off much of anything at more than a light jog." She studied the skates. "Ok, so, two wheels. Two front, two back, or two on the sides?" She tried them all just standing. "The brakes get in the way of the front ones, and tilting on the backs and sides is kind of a strain. Think it'll be better at high speed?"

[Feral]

"If you use your body to pivot just right and get on the side wheels, then it should be fine. Just remember, for a right turn, get on the right two wheels. Though this might be better with inline skates. Maybe they have a league for that."

Feral shrugged. "Oh well. Make the turn yourself this time. Corner early if you have to and remember to lean in deep. Use your hand if you have to. Just don't take all the skin off of your fingertips."

[Freight Train]

"Apollos, I am in-vinc-i-ble while moving at this kind of speed," she repeated for what she felt was the hundredth time. "I won't even get marks on my hands from it."

She skated out towards the center, picking a dark patch on the concrete as her turning point. She crouched low, holding out her right hand, and with slightly late timing slapped it down on the concrete. It gave easily beneath her hand, and she rotated somewhat clumsily around that point before shooting off a few seconds before she'd have made a full 90 degree turn. She coasted wide around the square to prepare another attempt.

[Feral]

"But your hand won't be moving when you make the turn..." he said, voice trailing off as the girl started to make her corner.

She was close, but not quite there. "Try it again. Make me the axis point and turn around me."

[Freight Train]

She was going to address the point that her hand wasn't moving when he made his suggestion.

"Like, what, I should grab your arm or something and turn? Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna tear your arm out just trying to make myself turn! Can't risk it."

[Feral]

"I mean for you to maneuver around me. At some point in the turn I want you to be close enough to me so I can reach out and touch you with my hand."

Feral stood still, balancing easily. "I know you can manage this."

[Freight Train]

Chelsea blew out a breath. This was not a good idea in her mind, but he told her to do it. She figured he could accept the consequences, and his powers might make broken bones not-so-fatal...

She skated forward, taking it just a little bit slow at first, building up to maybe half the speed she'd been at earlier, and again when low, hand pressing in the ground near his left skate. She slid around him, shooting off at a slightly better angle than before. As she coasted to a stop, she called back to him. "So?" She hadn't felt his hand, but then, she'd been too busy trying not to mess up.

[Feral]

"That was good. I managed to graze the top of your head."

Feral skated to her. "With your power, you don't always have to skate at top speed. You can take your time on it and do a good job. No one can knock you over. If you do decide to go into the roller derby, you can pick a name for yourself, and any number you want. I saw a girl whose number was natural log 3."

[Freight Train]

"K," she responded, scratching her head. Suddenly it itched where she thought he might've touched her. "If I do pick a name..." She went quiet, looking at the ground. "Did I tell you they used to call me Freight Train? I really miss that."

[Feral]

"No, I don't think you did say that before," Apollos said. "If you like, I can call you Freight Train. I think it's a good name for you."

He knelt down in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're quiet and meek, but I know somewhere in there you're bold."

[Freight Train]

"I used to be that way all the time." Her face scrunched up like she'd smelled something nasty as she remembered the events of her recent past and tried to banish them. "I used to play basketball every day, and I used to play video games with people and be loud and talk trash, because I could, and people couldn't stop me if they wanted to. And I would cut in line in the cafeteria by walking through the crowd without stopping, and I'd go running in the forest nearby just to see how fast I could go and still side-step a tree." She laughed a little at that. "Side-stepping is a little easier than turning, but I still knocked down a ton of trees."

[Feral]

Feral laughed. "That sounds great, Freight Train." Now that he had some concept of her true name, he could not help but use it in place of Chelsea. Maybe just hearing the name would help her to realize herself.

"Let's take the skates off and get back into normal shoes."

He suited actions to words and sat on the tailgate of his truck while he swapped the footwear. "Tell me, why did you pick the name Freight Train?"

[Freight Train]

She wobbled back across the grass to the pick-up, sitting on the gate hard enough to test the suspension. It held, and she began to pry stubbornly at her skates, forgetting to unlace them.

"I didn't!" she grunted, tongue tucked between her teeth. I...rrggh!" She finally noticed her double-knotted laces and began to pick at them with her fingers. "I was playing with some friends out at a park, right? And these older guys, they wanna kick us off the court because we're the youngest ones there and we were just practicing free-throws, or whatever. NNNGGH!"

She finally freed her right foot from her skate, rolling it back in the truck towards the cab, then crossed her legs the other way to undo the other. "So they're threatening us, saying they'll break our arms or whatever, and one guy pushes me 'cause I'm being the loudest about tellin' 'em where they can put their Powerade bottles. So he pushes me back pretty good. My feet weren't planted right, or something. So I run back towards him and just give him the shoulder-slam of the century. Ugh!" The left skate came off and slipped from her grasp, flipping into the truck bed to join it's mate.

"And this guy..." Freight Train smirks, shoving on her shoes, "He goes flying. Skids the full half court and then a few feet into the grass beyond that, and his buddies start laughin' at him." She affected a masculine voice as best she could, and quoted from the experience. "Baby girl done freight train'd yo' ass, son!" She hopped down, stretching and groaning as her back popped. "And then they all remembered that tiny li'l me shouldn't have been able to do that to someone literally twice my size, and then the older guys and my friends chased me off the court. At first I was scared, but later I was proud, so I took Freight Train as a name."

[Feral]

Feral scratched at his beard. "Sounds familiar."

The people of Greece had given him his own name to go by--one that struck fear and terror into the hearts of people. Feral.

"Well, I think it's a good name. So what do you want to do now? We can go get some ice cream."

[Freight Train]

"Yeah?" She would have liked to know how her story sounded familiar to him, but he was moving on already. Not one to be left behind, she shrugged. "Sure, ice cream is fine." The day was warming up, and she wanted something cool. The work with powers had her a little hungry again as well. She walked around to the passenger side of the truck and got in alongside Apollos. As the engine turned over, stubborn curiosity got to her.

"What do you mean my story sounds familiar?"

[Feral]

Feral pulled into the road lane from the school lot. "I was also given a name when my powers made themselves known. My name was--"

He paused suddenly. There was no way it could just disappear, could it?

"Well, it's not a name a person wants to take for an identity."

But it had become his identity. And now he felt that name around his neck managing his actions and dictating his lifestyle. It defined how he handled conflict and what he did about nearly every person that was a non-mutant.
Sometimes he wondered if everything he was attempting was worth it.

When he didn't have a project, he spent his time wondering what he ought to do. He found himself applying for a work visa and trying to earn a contractor's license. The visa application was half finished in the glove box and the codes and regulations booklet for the contractor's license rested behind the passenger seat.

[Freight Train]

Freight Train nodded. When she was attentive, she could take a cue, and she'd gotten the idea that she shouldn't pry after the name he'd been given.

"Okay. Did you ever try to pick your own name though? If you could give your own mutant name, what would it be?" Her talking barrelled on. "I don't know what I'd choose for myself. I'd thought of a few, but they seemed really corny. I like the way Freight Train sounds for my powers. It's better than Chelsea, but I don't always feel like a Freight Train."

She mashed her cheek into the cool glass of the window, eyes sweeping the storefronts for the ice cream place. She wanted chocolate with fudge and chocolate chips and crazy chocolate shell stuff.

[Feral]

"I did not choose a name for myself. I never really thought of names much."

The ice cream shop came into Chelsea's view. Feral could never tell how well she took anything or if she even got excited. He parked the truck and held the door open for her to shuffle inside.

They stood at the counter Feral raised an eyebrow at the effiminate size categories and decided he would call them "small, medium,large" like most other ice cream shops.

"They never have plain regular chocolate, do they?" He said off-hand to the little girl.

[Freight Train]

She smiled a little at the giant ice cream cone sign, scuffing her feet on the ground as she wandered in. There was a short line, so she had time to study the menu. It was a local place, not a chain like Bruster's or Dairy Queen, so she actually had an excuse to read all the flavors for once. Still, she knew deep down that no matter what exotic flavors were offered, she was still going to get all the chocolate she could possibly fit into a bowl.

"Yeah, really..." she mumbled, scanning down the long list of bizarre flavors. Blueberry, mint, cookie dough, banana, turtle tracks, lime...at last she found the "plain" flavors crammed into a corner of the menu. "There it is," she said pointing. The family in front of them obligingly stepped aside and Chelsea stepped up to order without any prompting.

"I want a big bowl of chocolate ice cream with every chocolate topping on it," she demanded.

[Feral]

Feral jerked his thumb at Freight Train. "What she's having."

The teenaged boy behind the counter nodded and started work. It was strange how the ice cream looked like cold play dough as he worked it around with the two scoops, adding in sprinkles, chocolate chips, M&Ms and a handful of other chocolate things he didn't recognize. Then he put the whole thing into two big bowls and poured some hot fudge on top.

"I hope you don't have anywhere to be. After eating that we might need a while to recover. So we eating in the truck or in here?"

[Freight Train]

"Here is fine." There was a counter with two open stools nearby, so she carried her treat over and set it on the counter, hauling herself up to sit. She snatched a plastic spoon out of a nearby cup, unwrapped it, and started in on her ice cream. The cold hurt her teeth, and the fudge stuck her tongue gently to the roof of her mouth. It was, in a word, perfect. "What'cha doing when we get home?"

[Feral]

"Not painting," Apollos said. "Maybe I'll see what the Left 4 Dead game is all about."

He was not any good at video games, but if it could help him build rapport, he'd do his best.

[Freight Train]

"First person zombie shooter thing," she said, her tone dismissive. "I'm not that impressed with it. I'd rather play something with fighting, like, real fighting. They've got Street Fighter IV. I mean, it's not Third Strike, but it works. I miss doing 100% stun combos in that one, even if I can't do them against actual people."

In spite of the way the cold and the sugar made her teeth hurt, Freight Train finished up her ice cream quickly. Now that they'd mentioned it, she wanted to go play games.