Depression. It's a fairly common feeling these days. At least for me it is. I mean, I know with what goes on around me all the time I shouldn't feel this way, but it's tough. Working a dead-end job in Midtown, seeing that mansion in the park almost every day, hell, half the time the trains are delayed because a fight broke out and nobody can get anywhere. Honestly, it's any wonder we're all still living here. I have friends, most of them from work, but I never want to bother them with my problems. It's not like they need to be burdened by it, but sometimes I wonder if I should, especially on the nights I wander to the window in the tiny room I'm allotted and look out. Third floor, looking out to a courtyard. Sometimes I wonder if it's enough if I threw myself out. With my luck? It would only half work and I'd be paralyzed or something. Even that's too much to bear so I back away from the window.
Sometimes I watch TV. It's been a lot to look at lately. Crazy things with the world in general, and you know, the people who had that power, that strange power that came from gods know where, I think they were just trying to help. News on that is limited. Power shifted after one of those days, some of it destroyed, and whatever was left was handed to those people in the mansion. If you were around the city that day, you'd hear a lot of people saying it's the right way of things. Those other people had no right to do what they did. They were walking around with weapons, they were walking weapons. Some said they should be destroyed, that they had what was coming to them those years back when most of them just stopped being. Of course, people tried destroying them a lot after that, but they're hardy, strong, superior. Something about that resonated with me, of course, until the depression kicked back in.
Honestly though, I never focused on events like that. I just know what I do because I hear people talking about it. It wasn't part of my world, so I never kept track of things like that. That's how I survived I guess. Just keep your head down and keep your nose to yourself. Sometimes though, it wasn't enough and I'd go out, seek companionship. Little did I know that one night, long after I had forgotten about power, and mansions, and people that may or may not deserve to be destroyed, that world would take me in and make me a part of it.
It was late, around eight-thirty I think. I checked myself out in the mirror, pretty average I think. I'm pretty skinny, short blond hair, sometimes I style it, but more often than not I just let it do what it will. Green eyes, fairly standard, though I guess they're pretty if what I've been told is true. My clothing is pretty average, jeans, a t-shirt, some sneakers. I've never been the kind of guy to wear much else by way of fashion, but at least I think I look nice. I check my phone again and grab my stuff, the guy I'm meeting will be waiting at the bar up the street. I sigh and make sure everything's locked up and head out, completely unaware that this is the last time I'd step foot in this room, the way I am now. So, I make it out to the bar and I see the guy, it's been so long I don't even remember his name. Wade, I think. He's not bad looking, kinda short, blond, an easy smile. I think I liked him, but who knows anymore. He walks up to me and throws his arm across my shoulder, his smile is still easy, I remember it well. The night is mostly a long night of sitting, talking, flirting, and finally, after what seems like thirty drinks (and really it's probably only like four knowing my tolerance), we depart and wander up towards my place.
Honestly, if I had known anything was amiss I probably would've shut myself in my little room and just let the world pass me by, but fate had other plans for me in mind. Wade moved around me, dragging me off to the side from the main street and pulling me against him in the wall. I probably said some stupid quip and he probably grinned, and I probably laughed but I don't remember that part. He leaned in to kiss me, and I leaned back but there was a strange feeling from my hands and I pulled back, that was when it broke loose. Sparks, not the kind from static electricity but like small embers flared into existence from my hands, they fizzled out seconds after appearing with a small popping noise, their colors varied and bright. My eyes probably went wide, and I know I felt my jaw drop. I quickly shook my hands but the sparks didn't stop and that's when things suddenly went dark. I never even heard the shouts or notice the fist coming right for my face. Wade had run, apparently, when the guys came over but I was too distracted. I don't know what happened after I was hit, but when I rose back up I could taste blood and there were dark scorches along the walls and whoever hit me was nowhere to be found. I stumble towards the wall and keep my hand there and rest for a moment, trying to find where the taste of blood came from. I soon discover my lip is split and I'm definitely having a black eye later. It's all I can do to push myself back up and stumble home, all while wondering why I was attacked. Honestly, it was probably people seeing me going to kiss another guy and getting bashed for that.
The possibilities of who or what attacked me flood my mind as I manage to get back into my room, locking the door behind me. I grab the rag from my nightstand in the dark and turn on the light, only to let out a sharp scream. Sitting on my bed, completely content with herself is a woman. Impossibly beautiful, her hair is short, cropped and blond. Her clothes, if you could count them as such are tailored well, but seem to be a bit extreme, all black from the heavy looking boots to the top which exposes quite a bit or her chest and is split to her navel. Her expression is cold, icy almost, which seems to fit everything I can tell about her so far. Her lips, full and red, are pursed as her bright blue eyes run over me. I want to yell, for help, for her to get out, for something but I can't. She crosses one leg over the other, an extension that is both graceful and precise, almost an unsaid threat that she could take me out and not even try. I don't have much reason to doubt it, but then my mind starts running. How did she get in here? Why was she sitting in the dark for no reason? If she's a burglar is she planning on killing me because I've discovered her? How did she get in anyway?
"Relax." She speaks, her voice is even, clear, and much like the rest of her is beautiful to hear. Her accent is hard to place, maybe a slight British inflection but if anything she's decidedly American. "I'm not here to cause you injury, and your...home has nothing worth stealing, darling." She speaks with such disdain for my living arrangements. Of course I can't please everyone, especially uninvited guests so I don't really take her tone to heart.
It's then I notice another girl standing nearby. Her hair is blond like the woman on my bed, but longer, her outfit is strange too, more black with much more exposed than should be necessary. Something about her seems foreign, or off. I'm too confused as to how she just appeared, because I could've sworn it was just me and the woman moments ago.
The woman on my bed speaks again, this time her tone is softer, more concerned. "I know about what happened to you tonight. I saw who attacked you. I know why they attacked you." She stands, I flinch. She seems a bit deterred by the action and moves over, grabbing the rag from my hand and gently lifting it up and dabbing at the blood. I try not to make any noises but it hurts, quite a bit. I look at her, only about an inch shorter than me, but her eyes are strange, like she's searching for something, or studying me or something. "You, young man, are a mutant. Much like my friend here, much like I am. Do these words mean anything to you?" She releases the rag to my care and steps back, still looking at me searchingly.
Mutant. That's what they were called. The ones with the power that the ones in the mansion fought. I learned about them in school, but I can never remember any of their names. "Yes. I know the word." That's all I manage to say, but judging by their facial expressions I think they don't believe me. I just stand there, split lip, black eye, maybe some other wounds I haven't even had time to inspect.
It's the other girl's turn to speak, and now I hear it. The accent is unmistakable, but I know I can't fully place it. "There is a revolution starting. Mutants are rising up, surely you know what's happened with mutants all these years?" She seems annoyed, like I'm an idiot for being ignorant to these issues. But her words start the gears turning in my brain, I remember the sentinels, the giant robots that would destroy mutants where they stood. But between cosmic entities threatening to swallow the earth, those guys that spider guy fights downtown, or any other number of strange things that happen around this city I've completely forgotten what happens with anyone these days. The woman with the short hair stops short from saying something and looks over her shoulder at the younger girl. There's some sort of exchange between them but I can't tell what they're saying to one another because it appears to just be through facial expression. I sit there, silently, waiting for the women to just vanish like how they appeared.
The woman with the short hair turns around and gives a quick nod. "We'll keep in touch. Just remember to be careful, these are dangerous times and I wouldn't want you to fall in the wrong hands." She tilts her head up ever so slightly, almost making it feel like a threat. The other girl does something strange and the two of them vanish in a flash of yellowish light. All I'm left with is a strange disease at what I just saw. Sure, crazy things happen all over the world, but when two women break into your apartment through teleportation or something like that, it tends to unnerve you.
I slump down onto my bed and put the rag back to my lip. The bleeding hasn't fully stopped but it doesn't look that bad, and hopefully I won't need stitches. Mutants, huh? I remember they were nearly wiped out. I thought they were gone, that nobody else would be a mutant. I grab my laptop and bring it onto my lap, letting myself get lost in the research for a while. Information is forthcoming with the internet. The mutants, or more specifically the X-Men have been around for a long time, and everything I see makes me cringe. Everything from their beginning, to Genosha, to the refounding of Genosha for mutants, their decimation, their struggle upstate and in California. It's heartbreaking and I understand now the revolution that the woman was talking about. I see message boards full of information, the words "Cyclops was Right" is written across the internet. If this is how they treat mutants, then things should change. Struggling with being gay was hard enough, I can't imagine how people younger than me would handle being a mutant.
I close my laptop slowly, rubbing my eyes from exhaustion when something catches my eye out the window. It's faint but there's a glow out there, my eyes are drawn up out of my window and to the sky. I'd be lying if I said my pants remained completely dry. Staring down at me, towering above the apartment building was a giant robot, complete with purple armor. The words find my lips at once: Sentinel. I'm about to run, scream, something when I feel a hand on my shoulder and some strange words being uttered as I'm yanked backwards. There's a flash of pink light and suddenly I'm sitting on the lawn of some strange building, mixed marble columns with brick and some sort of floating metal buildings that certainly can't be part of the natural charms. My eye is drawn to those that are gathered around, half expecting to see the two from before but I can't spot them in the small crowd that's gathered. Instead I see a girl with pink hair and strange bug-like wings, a young woman that can't be much older than me with brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, a woman with white hair cut into a rather flowing mohawk (which I found rather strange to see on a black woman), a short man with far too much body hair looking rather gruff and another woman with short red hair and strange tattoo markings on her face. They spoke to one another in hushed tones but I was a little too disoriented to really start making sense of what was being said, though I did hear the words "Sentinel" and "attack" being thrown around.
The man steps forward and offers his hand and I take it, being pulled up with surprising ease for the guy's size, despite my being a head taller than him, though he does seem to be extremely muscular. I take a couple steps out of the circle that has formed around me, and as I nearly bowl into the brown haired girl I feel myself unhindered passing right through her. I manage to choke out a small yelp of surprise but that only seems to get laughs from the group. I immediately know that at least these people are mutants too, like those two from before.
"Easy there bub. You got a lot to be scared of, we ain't one of them." The man growled, though when he speaks it seems almost calming.
"Yes child, we're here to help you. The Sentinels nearly got you if Pixie hadn't caught you and brought you back." The mohawked woman spoke next, her accent a bit richer but sounding rather melodic. I immediately like her. When she gestures to the girl with the pink hair I have no doubts that she is Pixie.
"Yeah! It was a close save but I got you out of there with a tidy save!" She seemed chipper enough, her wings flicking a bit behind her and shining different colors in the lights coming from the building behind her. She moved over to my side and patted my shoulder a couple of times reassuringly before vanishing in a flash of pink light. I guess the surprise registers on my face because the others laugh again.
"She does that." The girl with the brown hair explains, her tone light. Honestly, she can't be much older than me but she seems so much wiser for some reason. "I'm Kitty Pryde and this is the Jean Grey School. We are a safe harbor and school for mutants like you." She smiled and extended her hand for me to shake. I do for a moment and let it drop, looking at the others.
"Come, let's get inside and we can speak with this guy." The red haired woman spoke up, jabbing her thumb at the school and began walking inside, the others following her example, moving to talk to one another. Kitty, the short man and the mohawk woman all began talking to each other in hushed tones while shooting glances, and when they noticed I saw them, smiles in my direction.
The interior of the school is fairly nice, albeit average. Lockers, doors to classrooms, stairs up, signs pointing to dormitories and labs. I don't have much time to really pay attention because Kitty is gesturing for me to follow her and who I've overheard being called Logan, upstairs as the others head off in various directions. As we enter an office that looks fit for the headmaster, I can't help but think how surreal it all feels. Today started out so normal, just had to sit in my little box and then have a date and then it all went to hell. I still don't even know what my mutant abilities are other than making small sparks appear, though it doesn't seem to matter to these people because they haven't even bothered to ask. My attention is snapped back when Logan sits down in his chair and laces his fingers together, looking at me with that same feeling of being sized up the woman in my room gave me. I get a little unnerved. It feels like I'm seeing the principal after doing something bad. I look over to Kitty who is standing off to the side and she seems pleasant enough. I take a deep breath and wait for him to talk.
"First things first. You got a name? And just what is it that you can do?" He asks but the way he says it seems more like he already knows. For a long moment I stay silent, trying to figure out just how to describe what I think happened, not even thinking about how beat up I must still look.
"Uh, yeah. My name is Ty. My...what I can do, uh, I make sparks? Like, I don't know how to explain it..." I stammer out. It's unnerving how he is looking at me, so I just keep my gaze on Kitty and speak directly to her as if Logan isn't in the room.
"Can you show us, Ty?" She offers, up, making an encouraging gesture with her hands. I blink a couple of times. I don't even know how I did it the first time, let alone how to make it work another time. I just bring my hands up, palms flat and close my eyes, trying to remember how it felt. There's a brief moment of silence and suddenly I feel the faint heat returning to my hands and I hear the faint popping noises the sparks give off. I slowly open my eyes to see Logan and Kitty exchanging glances curiously.
"Isn't that what..." Kitty asked, her brow lofted curiously.
"Yeah, it is. Similar at least." Logan grunted to her and turned his gaze back to me. "That's enough you can stop." And I nod, closing my hands and shaking them like last time but when I open there's still a couple of faint pops before it stops.
"There, you've seen what I can do. Can...can I go home now?" I ask, my own brows raised a bit as I rub my arm idly. I know it isn't ideal but at least there I can collect my thoughts and just be away from all of this overwhelming weirdness. I can go back to my dead end job, I can go back to being normal. This is what they talk about. It's like being gay, it's not something wrong, it's something you are. It's why there's a revolution taking place. I have to remind myself that now and shake my head a little bit while Kitty and Logan move in to discuss something without my listening. After a long moment of silence they both turn to me and Kitty steps around...no, through the desk. I can't help but feel a bit uneasy with it, but I try to put on a brave face for her.
"You're not a prisoner here, we're not going to keep you locked up. We do think it'd be best if you stayed here at least for the night while the Sentinels are still out, but if you don't want to stay we understand." She steps forward and rests her hand gently on my shoulder, looking genuinely concerned and how can I not agree?
"Yeah, sure. That makes sense. For, uh, safety reasons." I nod seriously, and move all too willingly out of the office with Kitty, Logan's staring still keeping me a little on edge. We move in relative silence through the hallways. I assume all of the students are asleep, or at least pretending to be asleep with how late it is, but I wonder what kinds of kids go here, what kind of mutants are around. I've already seen teleportation twice over, I've seen Kitty walking through objects, I can create sparks, I've seen Pixie's wings. It's impressive, how different each person can be, and my mind reels at the possibilities of powers. By the time Kitty opens a door to a room I'm finding myself exhausted.
The room, however is lavish, at least by my standards. A large bed, a beautiful open window with a view of the grounds, what seems to be a private bathroom. Really it seems far more than any guest should get but I suppose the mutants take care of their own. I turn to Kitty to say something but she quickly cuts me off. "Don't worry about a thing. If you're hungry we can send some food up, or you can find the kitchen I'm sure. Otherwise there should be a change of clothing in the closet for you, I think we'll have something in your size. Forgive the uniform look, it'll be all we have right now, unless you decide to stay and then we can see about getting more things for you." Kitty nodded and flashed a large smile before turning on her heel and vanishing through the door itself. I decide that I like her too. I sigh and content myself to pace the room a little bit, until I feel even more tired. After a while I just decide to content myself with sleep. I throw my clothing on a heap in the floor and move into the bed, settling in and finding myself almost immediately knocked out. Though I really can't tell if it's the luxury of the bed or the exhaustion from all that happened today. All I can recall is my last thoughts of the day, What do I do now, as a mutant?