Inez/Yvette, Inez/Forge

[x-desperado.livejournal.com]

Inez meets Yvette, and gets a short tour



Inez walked around the classroom slowly, fingertips brushing against the wallpaper. This was definitely fancier than any school she'd ever been in, that was for sure. No school uniforms either, unless you counted the number of kids wearing sweaters and carrying backpacks with the school's logo on them. As much as she hated to admit it, this was far from the worst place she'd found herself in the last year. It didn't mean she wanted to stay, though.

Yvette was packing away her books, aware of the new girl's presence and trying to steel herself to speak first. The girl - Inez - hadn't seemed very happy about being at the school, which made the shy Albanian reluctant to push herself forward. So distracted was she by the dilemma, that she didn't notice her sleeve had pulled up as she was inserting books into her book bag, and there was a soft "shrrip!" of cloth tearing as she pulled out her hand and the skin of her wrist rubbed against the cotton. Forgetting her audience, Yvette swore in Albanian, jerking the sleeve back down. Another repair job for Clarice, it seemed.

Inez jumped in the air, startled as she turned around to see the little red girl struggling with her book bag. "Oh," she said, suddenly self-conscious of how she had been staring at everything, and trying not to stare at the girl with the dark red skin and hair. "Um, hi. You're... Yvette, right? From the journals?"

Yvette turned, blank blue eyes flaring bright for a moment. "Yes," she replied in her soft, accented English. "I am sorry, if I am disturbing you. The accident, with my powers." She sighed, looking down at the long tear in her bookbag. "This is very annoying when it is happening." She sounded like any other teenage girl in that moment.

"No, it's okay," Inez said, her irritation forgotten. "Can I give you a hand with those? You said something about being sharp, I see what you mean. How come you don't cut your clothes up?"

"Oh, thank you," Yvette said gratefully. She removed the larger books from the bag, the ones that would only tear it further if she tried to carry it, and slid them across the desk to Inez. "I wear the special clothes, made by Mr. Forge. The cloth, it fixes itself when it is torn, see?" She flexed the overly-long fingers of one hand, showing Inez how the material shredded and reknitted itself constantly. "I am wearing this, all of the time. It is better than the being naked, yes?" The last was said with a small, self-effacing laugh.

"I suppose so!" Inez replied with a laugh. She picked up Yvette's books and tucked them under one arm. "That's pretty neat stuff. I need to see him later anyway, about a phone or something. So, some of the classes here look like they have a lot of reading. Someone said something about a library?"

"The phones, they are very good. They have the... how you say? Panicking button? For if there is the trouble when we are not at the school." Yvette picked up her bag, folding it over the remaining contents and cradling it to her front. "And yes, there is the very fine library. If you would like, I can be showing you? You will be needing your own books for the classes, yes?"

"Sure, that'd be great," Inez replied with a nod. "And what do you mean, trouble? Like those protests I saw on TV a while ago? That stuff happens here a lot?"

"This way, then." Yvette led the way out of the classroom, heading down the wood-panelled hall towards the library. "And there is not so much the trouble here, but sometimes, when we are not at the school, bad things can happen. Especially if you are looking like the mutant." Those glowing blue eyes dimmed slightly at the memory of the mall incident. She gave Inez a small smile. "But the teachers, they are trying to keep us safe."

Inez thought of Garrison's talk about the self-defense classes, and began to form a few questions in her mind to ask someone later. "Well, I'm not too worried," she said, shortening her strides to keep pace with Yvette. "Anyone messes with me, I'll just toss them into the next county."

"That is your power, yes?" Yvette asked, tilting her head curiously at Inez. "To be very strong?"

"Yep!" Inez was almost bouncing with her steps now, feeling more at ease and excited. "I mean, I don't know exactly how strong, but I figure that's something I can find out here. That's kinda what this school's for, isn't it? Learning about what we can do that's special?"

She got an answering smile, and a visible relaxing of Yvette's hair, always a good indicator of her comfort around people. It was swaying slightly, instead of hanging slightly stiffly as it normally did. Maybe Inez had been just as nervous as she about starting at the school. "Yes, it is," she agreed. "And to be able to practice the powers in the safe place. We are still finding out what I can be doing, but it seems it is very hard to hurt me, when my skin is more hard and sharp. It changes, you see, if I am frightened or unhappy."

Inez looked back at the rent in Yvette's book bag. "How does it feel?" she asked, pointing at Yvette's hands. "I mean, being all sharp and stuff. Is it weird?"

"Sometimes," the Albanian girl replied after a moment's thought. "I do not feel with my skin so much, only the strong things. I can touch fire and not be burned, or the electricity is making me tickled, but I cannot feel the wind so much. It is... difficult sometimes." Then her eyes brightened. "But I am also learning the good things for my powers. There is the Red Cross group, the Red X? That is letting people like us to help people."

"Huh," Inez murmured, looking down at her own hands thoughtfully. "Well, I don't think I'm cut out for community service just yet."

"It is not for everyone, but it is the thing to think about, yes?" They reached the library and Yvette pushed the heavy solid wood door open. "This is the library. If you like the books, you will like it, I think."

"Whoa..." Inez said quietly as she looked into the large library. "I think... I think I might like it here," she said, for the first time showing the hints of an honest smile.

Later, Inez needs a phone, and runs into Forge. He's a bit more perceptive than she's comfortable with.



Inez walked into the office and waved at the guy behind the desk, who she assumed from descriptions had to be Forge. "So I need a cell phone, right?" she said without preamble. "You're the guy with the 'power of science' and stuff, you said?"

Forge held up one finger, silently finishing an email before clicking 'send' and turning his attention to the blonde girl in his doorway. "Name?" he asked.

"Inez. Temple? From the journals?" she responded, leaning against the doorframe with one hand on her hip. "You said to see you to get 'hooked up' with the phone, didn't you?"

Forge pulled up the student database and made a small "ah" of acknowledgement before pulling open his desk drawer. "Any odd electromagnetic powers? No, wait, you're a brick, yeah?"

"A brick?" Inez said, blinking in confusion. Had this... this geek just insulted her?

"A brick," Forge repeated, looking at Inez as if he was explaining simple arithmetic. "Strong, tough, enhanced physical abilities. Brick. As opposed to neems - those are the beam-shooting energy projectors, or fwackooms - the ones who make things go boom, or-"

Inez waved her hand. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm strong. No electromagnetic whatever. Does that matter?"

"Of course it does," Forge answered, pulling out a dull metal phone and cabling it to his computer. "This model has a reinforced steel casing, Monet's got a similar one. I doubt you'll be able to crush it." He finished downloading the firmware and held the phone out to Inez. He waited until she put her hand on it before asking "So how long have you had the hearing aids?"

Inez's fingers clenched, fortunately around the phone and not Forge's fingers. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, self-consciously tilting her head to make her hair fall forward over her ears.

Forge shook his head and released the cell phone. "You wear an in-ear hearing aid in each ear. The phone can be set to transmit directly to them by hitting star-seven to switch modes. You might find that easier if you have trouble with feedback. I know that's common with in-the-ear hearing aids."

"Stop saying that!" Inez shouted, clenching her fist in frustration. "How do you... I mean, how can you tell?"

"That's my power," Forge explained, "Technology. Machines. I can tell how they work, and basically build anything. Hence the perfect job here. And I can tell that your left one is set for a slightly higher gain than the right, so I'm figuring that the hearing damage isn't neurological. Accident or a side effect of your power?"

Inez's mouth moved soundlessly for a few seconds, then she stepped inside the office and shut the door behind her, leaning on it. She didn't look at Forge, but just crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the floor. "It happened when I started getting stronger," she said haltingly. "I had trouble hearing my daddy in the car, or if a bunch of people were talking. My eyes got worse, too."

She pointed to her eyes without looking up. "Contacts. The doctor at the social services place said it's because my ears and eyes toughened up like the rest of me, and so they're all screwed up."

Nodding, Forge placed both his hands on the desk. In the polo shirt he was wearing, his prosthetic left arm was fully visible, contrasting with the tanned skin of his right arm. "So you have a disability," he said matter-of-factly. "In the grand scheme of things, pretty minor. Julio has to wear glasses to read, and so does Dayspring these days."

"Julio wears glasses?" Inez blurted out, looking up and smiling despite herself. "I... um... I know Julio from when we were kids."

"I figured that out from the journals," Forge said with a smile. "It must make it easier."

"Easier?" Inez was confused.

"To have a friend when you get here," Forge continued. "I know how strange it can be. I was kind of dumped here too. But you get used to it."

"Not planning to," Inez insisted. "I'm not planning on sticking around too long. Me and my daddy, well.. this is just temporary, all right?"

"All right," Forge agreed, sensing that Inez seemed to go instantly on the defensive when talking about her father. Look into that, he thought to himself. "But while you're here, you might as well make the best of it."

"You sound just like that cop," Inez said, rolling her eyes. "So what, are you some undercover FBI agent too?"

"Oh, you've met Wonderboy," Forge said with a chuckle. "Inspector Garrison Kane of the Royal Canadian Mounted Po-lice, capable of converting poutine into raw smarm. He's Canadian, you know. We're close enough to the border that we have to fill a quota."

Inez had to giggle at that. "Did he really arrest someone here?"

"Technically," Forge clarified. "But it all got straightened out. He's actually not so bad once you get used to him. It just takes... a while to get used to him."

And I don't plan to be here 'a while', Inez thought to herself. "Sure it does," she said with a forced grin. "Thanks for the phone, um, Forge? Mister Forge? Which is it?"

"Forge is fine," the inventor replied. "And hey, give the school a chance, Inez. Trust me, there's worse people to be around."

Inez thought about it, and shrugged. "Sure, whatever. And... you can call me Ness. I'll see you around, Forge."

"See you around, Ness," Forge responded, returning to his work.