Strange Lands

Chapter one

I awoke with my head hurting. God it was hurting so bad. I wanted to throw up but I had a feeling that I already had. Slowly I raised up. My body seemed so sluggish, but compared to its normal ability I couldn't tell. I couldn't even remember my name. The only name I remembered was Clay Face. I wanted to see myself, but the thoughts of horrible images came to my mind. What did I look like? Was I so horrible that I didn't want to see? No I wouldn't worry right now. I should look for shelter. I thought about food but I wasn't hungry. Couldn't figure out why though. I should have been hungry.

Slowly I moved from the riverbed toward a small area. It looked like a town and I could hear sounds from it. People shouting about "No Mutants" and "A dead mutant is a good mutant!". I didn't know what mutants where much less why I should be concerned. After all I just wanted to sleep somewhere safe. Then they saw me. A woman screamed at me. Men gathered around and poked me with their sticks. But it just went into me. Out of reflex I batted them away. One of them horribly hurt by my actions. I walked toward him to see if he was all right. They screamed at me to go away. Turning I decided that I didn't want to be in this town.

I could remember someone else. A man dressed like a bat. Somehow we shared a common bond. We where connected, but how I couldn't remember. I just knew. I remembered the place I was at was called Gothem. But this place seemed to be a different city. Maybe I had just been washed down stream. The river could have carried me far away from that place.

I wondered into the dark city feeling completely alone. The back alleys seemed to be the only place that I could be away from those people that screamed about mutants. I wanted a little peace to try to clear the fog in my memories. Then I heard it. A small voice calling to me. It was telling me that there was a safe place. This voice told me that the safe place was for people like me. I wanted to see it so I followed it. Letting it lead me to a huge school. Paying no attention to the sign or the bars I walked through them. My body seeming to go around the bars and I paid no attention to how.

"I don't like this. What do we know about that guy?" Logan asked has he looked at the being walking toward the house.

"Logan what did we know about you?" Oreo asked has she looked at him.

The two also know has Storm and Wolverine studied the guest that the professor was calling to them. They noticed that his body seemed to be little more than a dripping pile of clay. Yet from what the Professor saw earlier he had been able to transform it and harden it when provoked. If those from the underground or some of the radicals where to find out about him. They might would want to use his ability to their own ends. And it wouldn't be right to him. Or so the Professor told them. So he called this clay man to them. They watched him at the doors. He walked toward it and his body changed again. He began to slide under the door. He seemed to have complete control over his body and such a thing was beyond understanding.

"Like I said I don't trust him." Logan said has he looked into the monitor.

"That doesn't matter Logan." Professor Charles Xavier said has he looked at both Logan and Oreo. "This being has came here confused. I sense that his mind is blocked. Beyond that he seems to be a clean slate. Only patches memories remain in his mind and what they are seem distorted." He said.

"Excuse me professor, but if this guy is what you think. Then why was he even brought here?" Logan asked him.

"To be honest Logan I don't know. I just know that we should try to understand him before we shun him. After all we can't be like his first impression of those he met." Charles said has he moved his wheelchair toward where their guest was.

I saw him. A bald man sitting in a wheelchair. He was followed by a dark skinned woman and a man that seemed to think that sideburns where still in style. Of course far as I knew they where. I looked at him.

"I am sorry but I heard a voice. It said to come here." I said to him.

"There is no need to worry." The bald man told me. "This is a place to learn and be accepted. Tell us where did you come from?" He asked.

"I don't know. I remember a city called Gothem. But I don't know if that is where I came from or not." He said.

The man with the Side burns face turned a little odd. He tapped the bald man's shoulder.

I saw them whisper and the bald man seemed to reassure him of something.

"Please come in. We will talk." He said.

I noticed that they where looking at me strangely and the woman named Oreo seemed confused.

"He's a shape shifter?" she asked.

I wondered what she was talking about until I looked in a mirror and realized that I looked exactly like her.

"I am a woman?" I asked out loud.

The bald man grinned and shook his head.

"I doubt that you are truly one in your natural form. But in this changed one you are." He said to me. Nodding I followed them. I began to wonder what it was that I really looked like. I didn't know that in truth. In truth I looked like a horrible monster. I was so ugly and offsetting. That my body was composed completely of clay like material and able to change form. I didn't realize the history that I had. But being here would help. At least I hoped that it would.