Chapter I - Why Monday?
Of all the days for my life to change why did God choose a fucking Monday?
It began normally enough with the shrill trumpeting cry of the alarm knifing through my slumber. Reacting out of instinct I grabbed the offending clock and prepared to dash it against the wall. Perhaps I thought that once it died I could go back to sleep.
I was wrong.
The surge of adrenalin disrupted what little control I possess over my "abilities". Each second became an hour as the clock flew slowly from my hand towards the wall shared with Mother's room. Eyes only barely opened watched an almost motionless pigeon trying to fly past the window but the worst was yet to come.
Images ...debris tossed upon my perceptions by the ebb and flow of time burst into my mind's eye ...a bald sixteen year old boy stripping down for bed ...(Bald? That's me last night.) ...bedroom door creaking open well past midnight as Mother's worried sapphirine eyes watched me sleep ...the alarm exploding into the wall at bullet speeds ...(How can I do this?) ...my luggage packed and sitting on my bed in the midday sun ...(Why is my luggage packed? I'm not going anywhere!) ...Mother head down and crying on my bed a curtain of golden hair hiding her face ...(What's wrong?) ...then the images stopped as if a switch had been thrown.
Not a second later an explosion rang throughout the house as the clock met the wall. The pieces of my chess set had not yet stopped rattling when I sat bolt upright, a cold sweat beading on every inch of exposed skin. There, amidst my collection of wargames, lay a smoking crater nearly a foot across. Frantic footfalls - a pair of them - heralded the arrival of my Mother and little sister.
Mother burst into my room - Ana only a second behind - but they both asked the same question. In unison.
"Are you okay?"
They could be twins if not the difference in age. Both are small just barely five feet tall and maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet. The same almost yellow locks, brilliant azure eyes, even the same angular elfin features graced both. Of course, neither bore more than passing resemblance to me.
"I'm fine." my words - soft, weary shades of my normal polished tones - didn't convince anyone.
"It happened again." Mother sounded disgustingly sure of herself.
What could I say? No normal teen could have left a smoking crater in his wall. No normal teen had fits like this. How many times had it happened now? Ten? Twelve times in the last two months? Ever since the accident...
"They're getting worse aren't they?"
My gaze wandered down to the bed in front of me. If I had hair I'd be hiding behind it right now.
Of course they're getting worse. This is the first time anything had actually happened since the initial incident. Whatever these abilities are they are getting stronger.
"You need help, Ryan." she had been singing this song for a month now "This isn't some problem you shoulder on and just deal with on your own."
Where am I supposed to go, Mother? They don't exactly have freak schools.
Ana quietly left because she remembered two key facts. One, the futility of arguing with me, and two, that we did have school today. The first day of school to be exact. Hence the alarm.
"I need to get ready for school."
Mother made a most unladylike noise. Whether it indicated disgust or surrender I'm not sure but I did need to get ready for school. Regardless of my distraction.
Once in my private bathroom a quick splash of chill water removed the sheen of nervous sweat. I paused there a moment as my face became clear in the mirror. No one would peg me as my Mother's son. Bald since birth with features that seemed carven from granite. The most startling thing are my eyes - molten golden irises limmed by a thin circle of crimson.
Even the parts of my body that didn't show in the mirror marked me apart from them. Half a foot on them but shorter than my uncles with a broad potent build. So different from the lithe dancer's physique so common in Mother's family. If my birth hadn't been captured on tape I would doubt our relation.
I don't have time for this!
Throwing on the clothes I had lain out the night before - charcoal high collar button up, black jeans, and matching work boots. Grabbing my Evanescence cap and shades on the way down I hit the dining room.
Eating my usual fare of Golden Grahams as swiftly as possible without choking I tried to tune out the females at the table. Ana's boy crazy chatter fell on deaf ears but ignoring Mother's stare was a trial. I had a lot of practice though.
Breakfast went quickly and before I knew it we were on the bus to school Mother's farewells ringing in our ears. The bus ride passed slowly as all bus rides did but uneventfully. At least till the bus dropped us off at the wrong school.
Do we look like special needs children? No, on second thougt, don't answer that.
The principal was nice enough to let us use the phone at least. After four hours of arguing the bus company finally sent someone for us. I thought that arriving at our proper school would spell the end of my troubles. At least for today.
Once again, I was wrong.
The prim, proper, and elderly secretary - the same one who, just a minute before, had given Ana her schedule and sent her happily on her way - told me the best news yet.
"You are not in the computer, Mr. Winters."
She seemed a little shocked at the line of expletives I let loose. Most of which are not suitable for repetion to anyone regardless of age.
"How can I not be in the computer? This is a public school and I am enrolled in the Denver Public School System am I not?" I could hear my teeth grating.
Another minute of typing and she spoke in a smug self-satisfied tone "No, Mr. Winters, you are not. Your records have been transferred to Bayville High."
"Bayville High? Where the hell is that?"
The old bat smiled "Upstate New York."
If only looks could kill...
"Ryan Winters?"
What now?
Turning I saw the speaker standing in the office doorway a pop can forgotten in her hand. If it was under other circumstances I would have marveled at her divinity - and, believe me, a tall. leggy, unnaturally proportioned redhead deserves that title - but I am not in a meet-and- greet kind of mood.
"Hello. I'm Jean Grey." she extended one hand my way "A student at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youths."
Xavier Institute?
"And?" I asked leaving her hand hanging there.
Ms. Grey dropped her hand and sighed before asking "And what?"
"And..." my emphasis on that word went well onto the far side of mocking "why do I care what school you go to? Or who you are?"
Jean looked like she had swallowed a rotten egg. I rather doubt she got this rude of a reception too often. Poor baby. Well someone had to suffer for the day I've had.
"Regardless of how much you care there are two people in a conference room waiting to see you." she raised one perfect hand "And before you ask I'm with them as a favor to Professor Xavier."
Waiting for me?
"Does this have anything to do Aunt Tique's" I gestured rather rudely at the secretary not a foot away "inability to identify me as a student?"
The girl shook her head dispiritedly "Unfortunately, yes."
"Fine. Let's go."
I followed five steps behind my bag a comforting weight in my hand. Indeed it was the only normal thing about today.
In conference room 4 - the same conference room we used last year for Games Club - two people did sit discussing, of all things, fabrics.
The first one to notice me was a regal, statuesque African woman with hair like new fallen snow and a gown to match. Her companion, bound to a wheelchair but the obvious leader despite this, was a bald older man with an intense studious gaze.
"I am Professor Charles Xavier. This is Ororo Munroe. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Ryan. I have heard great things about you."
"Have you?" suspicion cooled the fires of my temper. Now was most definitely not the time to lose it.
At least not until I learned just what was going on.
Ororo spoke in a voice as exquisite as her visage "It has been brought to our attention that you possess certain extraordinary gifts. Gifts most uncommon."
The innuendo was clear - we know you're different.
Winters Rule 1 - Never admit to anything till they're showing the tape in court.
"I've been in gifted programs for years. They've never required unenrolling me from my school."
Xavier raised an eyebrow.
"I think we both know that these gifts are different. This gift sets you apart. Makes you unique."
Watching both of them carefully I replied "What kind of gifts?"
"Jean, would you close the door?" Ms. Munroe asked over my shoulder.
I heard the door click shut with an ominous air. Seconds later Jean sat down next to Ororo. Now all three watched me.
Professor Xavier spoke "Every few million years evolution tries it's hand at forging a new species. An advancement on the base creature. Within the last fifty years humanity has began to undergo just such a shift. You are one of these mutations as is everyone else in this room."
Mutations ...I don't like the sound of that. Makes it sound cancerous.
"We are here to extend an invitation to you to join my Institute. A place where you can be trained in the use of your abilities amongst other young people like yourself and Jean here. If you agree we will fly you there as soon as possible."
How could they know? Unless...
"What about my Mother? Don't you need her permission to make this offer?"
"We already have your Mother's permission. She gave it when she contacted Charles." Ororo answered.
Damn. I had hoped I was wrong.
Slipping into a chair on the opposing side of the table I remained quiet. Too much had been said already. By Xavier and by Mother.
"All the students are just like you." Jean didn't know when to end her sales pitch "You won't have to hide who you are or what you can do."
Not that I have admitted to anything yet.
Without warning I heard the Professor's words in my head!
You do not have to, Mr. Winters. I am aware of your fits and the accident which started them. You are a mutant.
Panicked, the rest of the speech faded under a tidal wave of temporal debris. Fourty-eight hours of past, present, and future careened through my mind in a frozen instant. The fit, combined with my shock, sent me spiralling into darkness.
The last thing I heard was the voice of a goddess crying out "Charles!"
And then there was nothing.
Not more than an hour later I swam free of the shadows in my mind but I kept still when the voices became clear.
"The fits, Ms. Winters, are part of his mutation. He perceives localized temporal reality." The Professor, as before, sounded calm and in control.
Mother asked the inevitable question "Huh?"
"Imagine, if you would, two days worth of events and information compressed into a single moment. A single prescient flash showing past, present, and future of that area. There is little wonder that these flashes incompacitate him. I was caught up in the edges and I was unconscious for several minutes."
She was silent for a moment as if digesting the news before continuing "That doesn't explain the clock. Seeing the future doesn't leave craters on the walls."
Ororo's deific tones rang out in answer "We will not know the full extent of his abilities until we can test them. Till then..."
I don't like tests.
"Professor?" Ms. Grey asked from someplace startingly close.
"Yes, Jean?"
"He's awake."
Damn.
Cracking my eyelids open slightly I saw the concerned, if irritated, gaze of Jean not a foot away. A disgusted noise escaped me.
"You're still here?"
Jean sat up straight on her end of the sofa, lips pressed into a hard line. Apparently she hoped my nap had sweetened my disposition. No such luck.
"Ryan Morgan Winters!" Mother yelled in the 'mother's voice'. The one that says you are being an ass.
"No, Miranda. He has every right to be upset with us. I was hasty and made a poor decision." Xavier said one hand raised in her direction.
Raising myself up on the sofa ...(Must have brought me home.) ...my eyes locked onto the Professor's.
"Do not do that again, Xavier. I do not like you well enough to let you dance your way through the landscape of my mind." my words were obsidian - dark and jagged.
I appreciate my privacy.
The Professor set a coffee cup down on the oaken table "I must apologize, Ryan. It was not the wisest course of action."
"No kidding."
Mother shot me her look of motherly disapproval but I wasn't happy with her anyway. Ororo seemed to be hiding a smile. Jean just shook her head.
"You specialize in the training of mutants do you not, Xavier?"
"Yes."
I took a steadying breath "How likely is it that you can help me control my ...gifts?"
Ororo leaned over the table "He has aided many with problems as volatile as your own. If anyone can teach you control it is Charles."
"I appreciate your opinion, Ms. Munroe, but it is his I need." my gaze flickered to her briefly "Only he has seen exactly what goes on inside during these fits."
The older man leaned forward in his wheelchair "There is a very high probability that I can teach you to control your perceptions. I cannot say as to your other abilities since we do not yet know - for certain - what they may be."
Honest enough.
For a moment the thought of saying no lingered if only to piss off Mother but common sense quickly overcame that.
Stretching I climbed to my feet "When can we go then?"
"As soon as possible, Ryan. The school cannot run itself for long. I believe your luggage is already packed?"
Mother nodded, smiling but my next comment put a stop to that.
"Spending time with other mutants sounds educational and, maybe, they will know how to keep a secret."
She stiffened, eyes shiny, and promptly left the room.
Xavier and Ororo wore identical looks of neutrality. They understood both sides of this conflict all too well. Jean, on the other hand, did not.
"What kind of jerk are you?"
"With all due respect, Ms. Grey." I drew the pause out to make sure she paid attention "Shove it."
It did not have the effect I had intended. She followed me to my room where my luggage sat in the midday sun ...(The vision from this morning.) ...and preceded to yell at me with eyes flashing.
"She only told us to help you. Keeping your secret would have hurt you."
Is she this thick on purpose?
"Forgive me if I cannot like what she has done but it is my secret to tell! What if she had not gotten in touch with Xavier? What if, because of her good intentions, I had ended up in a laboratory somewhere with scientists trying to discover what makes me tick?" fists clenched I spat each word at her "Did you think about that?"
For the first time little Miss Perfect was at a loss for words.
"I am being asked to leave everything on a moments notice. My friends, my family, and my home. Only due to the immediate danger of my condition am I saying yes. So if you can think of one good reason why I shouldn't be a little pissy right I would like to hear it. If not - shut up and get out."
Ms. Grey stormed out with no small amount of hostility trailing after her.
Good going, Ryan. You haven't even been to the school yet and already you've pissed a student off royally. That's a record even for you.
Hefting my bags I started out the door towards Xavier. And the beginnings of a life beyond all imagining.
Author's Note: Mid 2nd season of Evolution and no, he will not be this much of an ass all the time. This just happened to be a very bad day.