Disclaimer: John Sullivan and Ty Davis are owned by the Third Watch people, and the X-Men are owned by Marvel. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy.
It was going to be a good day; Professor Charles Xavier could feel it. It was nothing concrete, just a gut feeling telling him the next twenty-four hours were going to be unmistakingly pleasant. He may have possessed a number of telepathic talents, but none of them were prophetic in nature. He supposed it might not have anything to do with his gut at all; it was highly likely that his belief came from the assumption that the universe owed him one good day after so many that continually tried his patience.
He had parked his technologically advanced wheelchair in front of the bay window that comprised the entire north wall of his office, with his expansive mahogony desk and entrance to his private sanctuary at his back. It was the kind of day that reminded him of why he fought so hard for his Dream, despite how unattainable it sometimes seemed. The noon day sun shone down from a spotless blue sky, hitting the substantial grounds before the Professor in such a way as to make his heart beat just a little faster in his chest. To call the day gorgeous, with the grass such a stunning shade of green, the limbs of massive trees swaying gently in the subtle breeze, the sunlight glinting off the calm waters of the tranquil pond roughly twenty feet from the mansion, would be a gross understatement. Breathtaking would be a more apt description. The Professor knew his opinion was somewhat biased; after all, the three story red brick mansion and surrounding property was under his name. But he knew that if not for the forty seven other lives that more or less shared the estate with him, he would not find the display so enticing. His mood was frequently determined by the lives of those under his care. For the first time in a long while, there were no problems to be sorted out, no danger threatening his young charges, no squabbles breaking out between those so similar yet at the same time so different. Even his inbox was remarkabley empty. His peace of mind surprised him; after all, he was a mere two days away from the bi-annual event of Visitation Night, the special time designated for loved ones of the students to join them. Naturally, family and friends were encouraged to visit at anytime, but the school's faculty were otherwise rarely available for an informal interview. For two nights out of the school year, their only priority was to answer parents and guardians questions. It was a night that was stressful on all those involved, but not only was it necessary, it was highly rewarding once it was over.
A soft knock at the mahogony door startled him from his thoughts, and he immediately frowned. It was rare that a presence outside his door surprised arguably the most powerful mutant on Earth; the fact that this announcement had only served to show him how deep in his thoughts he had been. He felt the gentle, caring tendrils reach out to him from the mind of his protoge, Dr. Jean Grey. He greeted her with a psychic smile, and turned his attention to the pair of minds he felt accompanying her. The first was certainly not as familiar as Jean was to him, but not at all foreign at the same time. A friend. He sensed no famaliarity in the second mind, but could not detect any malice either. Only an and a touch of nervousness.
This psychic exchange took place in less time than it took Charles to call out, "come in." Spoken words were not necessary between he and Jean, who also had some degree of ability in telepathy, but soundless exchanges had a way of disconcerting those not accustomed to their world.
The door opened, and Jean stepped in, looking resplendent as always, in a soft yellow sundress that fell just above her knees, highlighting both her long, lean legs, and enhancing the blazing redness of her elbow length wavy hair. She smiled warmly at him, then stepped aside to allow entrance to the mansion's guests. After all those years, the dark blue of the NYPD uniform still bloomed a great sense of respect deep within the Professor, despite the fact that he easily had fifteen years on the older of the two. The first of the two officers was a man Charles had come to know well over time, a beat veteran John Sullivan. They had developed an easy friendship, and John, or Sully, as he preferred to be called, had quickly become the school's contact with the police department. It had been several weeks since they had spoken, and Charles was relieved to see him looking healthy and well. The second officer, who stood slightly behind Sully, was a good six inches taller than the older man, considerably leaner, and had the word 'rookie' stamped all over him. His chocolate brown eyes were warm and intelligent, and Charles took an immediate liking to him.
Sully and his partner thanked Jean, who excused herself with a wink in the Professor's direction, before ducking out of the office.
"It's good to see you again, Sully,"Charles spoke up. "It's been too long. Please, have a seat."
He accepted, and lowered himself into the first of two brown leather wing back chairs facing the desk. "You got that right, Charles. This is my partner, Ty."
The younger man hadn't moved from his position just inside the door. He nodded in greeting, but made no further move to include himself. Sully saw and interpreted the question forming on Charles' lips, and nodded in response. "Yup, he's Tyrone's son. Just got out of the academy a week ago."
The Professor's eyebrows rose in surprise. "The resemblance is remarkable."
Sully chuckled softly. "Yeah, he's just as bull-headed as his old man, too."
"Look, fellas,"Ty spoke up suddenly. He came around Sully's chair, and slumped down in the second. "As much as I love listening to you two talk about me like I'm not here, I don't think we came all this way to discuss the similarities between my father and I."
Sully and Charles shared a look, and it was then that the Professor first noticed the thick manilla envelope tucked under Sully's arm.
"He's right,"Sully said, pulling the envelope out and setting in on the desk top. "I stumbled across something that might be of interest to you."
The Professor's curiousity peaked immediately. Over the years they had been friends, Sully had sent six seperate cases Charles' way, all incidents of confused and helpless mutants being mistaken for common criminals. Sully slid the envelope across the desk, and Charles accepted it, pulling a small stack of papers from it.
"Ty and I handled the arrest of a suspected arson perp three days ago. The circs definitely seemed suspicious."
The police report in Charles' hands was filled with officer jargon, some of which he understood, and some of which was way over his head. He was able to ascertain reasonabley easy, however, that the suspect Sully referred to was named Dominick Tucker, he had light brown hair, blue eyes, and he was only a few weeks from eighteen years. Charles set the report back down on the desk just was Sully began his own explanation.
"Fire was called to a run-down residential area around noon on Monday; we were called in for the usual canvas of the neighbourhood, determine whether it might've been arson, and directing traffic for the engine. Right away we get there and one of the fire fighters, guy named Jimmy, tells me that some of the neighbours have some bizarre accounts of what went down. He pointed out a group of people at the edge of the tape, watching the fire tear that house apart. So I head over there; Ty goes to work on clearing some of the rubber neckers out of the way for the ambulances."
Ty broke in then, and said, "As far as we knew, nobody had been in the house at the time, but they always call the ambulance as a precaution, even if just for the fire guys."
Sully shot his partner a look, clearly a soft reprimand for interupting his story, then continued on. "As I was saying, I went over to ask the neighbours some questions. They said the couple that lived there, a Mr. and Mrs. George and Rita Mullock, were foster parents for the state, and they had about eight children in their care at the time. Now, they said all the kids should've been in school, but they were positive they saw one of the older boys in the time leading up to the fire."
Sully took a breath, fidgeted just noticeably, and glanced over at his partner. "This is where it gets kind of bizarre. One of the women that lived on the other side of the street said she was out gardening. She noticed the older boy walk up the path, and enter the house. Apparently this was a common occurence, so she thought nothing of it. She said she went out back to fill up her watering can, but when she came back, the whole first story of the house was ablaze. She swears she could've only been gone three minutes, Charles, and the whole first story, all nine hundred square feet, was burning like there's nothing in it's way. She says she ran back inside, dialed 911. When she went back outside to wait, she noticed the older kid, this Dominick guy, standing on the front lawn watching the house burn. She started to approach him, see if he was alright, but then they both heard screaming from inside the house. The woman says one of the younger girls must've come home from school for lunch, though she didn't remember seeing her."
Sully paused for a minute, taking a deep, heaving sigh, and rubbing fiercely at his face. When he began again, his voice was softer, more subdued than when he had started. "Before this lady can do anything, Dominick takes off into the house without any warning. He's gone about three minutes, the woman can hear the fire engines coming by the time the windows on the second floor blow-out. She says she was certain they were both dead, but then he comes running out of the house with the little girl in his arms. I checked with their doctor at the hospital after -their medical reports are in that file- but he said that other than a pretty nasty case of smoke inhalation with both kids, and an ugly second degree burn on the boy's arm, they're both remarkabley healthy considering what they've been through."
Charles frowned thoughtfully. "I understand how this might appear to be under my area of expertise, my friend, but this seems to be nothing more than a case of medical marvel."
Sully shook his head emphatically. "No, Professor, I'm not done. There's more. The woman I talked to, she was spooked as hell after all this, white as a ghost, but she told me some interesting things about the way he got out of that house. She said it reminded her of the stories of Moses, the way he parted the seas for his people. She says those flames moved out of the kid's way, that the minute he ran through the door, the entire front hall was clear of fire. Like it moved to get out of his way. I didn't believe her at first, but Charles, you had to have seen her face. She was seriously frightened. I don't think it's possible for a person to fake that kind of fear."
Charles lifted his shoulders slowy, preparing to let his friend down easily, but clearly neither officer was ready to give up. Ty broke in this time, to both of their surprise. "The fire marshall's report is in there too. He says, on the record, that there was no apparent cause for the fire, to obvious point of origin, no incendiary device. The fire also stayed confined to that one house, not even a piece of ash on either of the houses to each side. The marshall states that it seemed, for all intents and purposes, that the fire started all over the first floor, all at the same time, then spread upwards afterwards. But we all know that's not possible, right? A fire that huge can't stay confined to such a small area. Not without a little help."
Sully took over then, and Charles got the distinct impression that he was being tag teamed.
"Check out the kid's file. It should be right on the bottom." The Professor found the collection of papers, all apparently typed on a old style typewriter with the Child Services emblem on the top of each page. "The kid's been in foster care since he was about five. He was pulled from five homes by the time he was sixteen, all from one kind of abuse or another. He was put under the care of the Mullocks a week after his sixteenth birthday, and for a while it looked like it was going okay. But then six months ago, reports of abuse started to surface. His teachers at school suspected something, so an investigation was called in. Some of the younger kids in the house told stories of Mr. Mullock going to visit Dominick in the middle of the night, but both foster parents expressly denied any wrong doing, and the case was dropped."
Charles' frown deepened, and he folded his hands on his desk. "So you think this Mr. Tucker is a mutant, and the fire is his doing?"
"It makes sense,"Sully replied with a shrug. "I mean, maybe he wanted to get back at the Mullocks, maybe the allegations were true. That would explain why he ran in for that little girl and lived."
"And why none of the other houses got torched,"Ty piped in.
Charles' studied the faces of both men for a long minute, then sighed. "I hope you don't take my skepticism for reluctance to help. If I pursue the matter, and am for whatever reason, wrong, I risk making enemies within the system. And I fear that will do little but hurt my cause."
"It wouldn't hurt to just visit this kid. See if he's the real McCoy." Charles was reminded of a bulldog's tenacity whenever he dealt with John Sullivan, and it never failed to bring home the belief that it was part of the reason why he was such a good cop.
"You are right, of course. Simply visiting him would not cause any harm. I assume he's at Rikers?"
Sully nodded. "Pending the trial next week. Look, Charles, I really appreciate you doing this. I can't exactly explain why, but I really feel for this kid. You know? I really think he needs someone on his side."
Charles agreed whole-heartedly, and accompanied the two officers to the front entranceway, where their patrol cruiser was parked next to the steps. Charles again promised Sully that he would do his best to help this boy, but that it would have to wait until tomorrow. Little did the officers know that the Professor had already begun the process to set up a meeting with the mutant. The outside world was not aware that Charles Xavier was a mutant; he had decided several years ago that he could better further his cause from an ambiguous stand point. Even his closest friends outside of the mansion were in the dark about his powers. So Sully and Ty couldn't possibly have known that Charles had already asked Jean telepathically to set up a meeting with the judge responsible for Mr. Tucker's case. They couldn't have known that the minute Charles set eyes upon the police report, he knew this young man was a mutant, the same way he always inexplicably did. They couldn't possibly have felt the illusion of time running out the way Charles did. The condition that his investigation couldn't start until the following day was a rouse. In fact, it was the opposite. Charles wasn't entirely certain that there would be a following day for this boy if they didn't act immediately.
A/N: Okay, So I didn't mention that this was about an original character. Personally, I know I'm less likely to read a story if there's an original character in it. Horrible bias, I know, but it's just the way I am. I hope I intrigued you with this, there is much more to come. Lots of Dominick, Remy, Cyclops, Logan, Prof X, Bobby Drake, and no more Ty or Sully. Please review, whether you enjoyed it or no, I appreciate them.
Also, if anybody knows the circumstances in which Bobby found out he was a mutant, I would love it if you would tell me. I'm not certain how he did, and I want to include it later. Thanks!