Chapter 1: Accelerated
Mackenzie Vernon woke on a regular school day. She did her last minute preparations like any normal girl, layers of makeup going on, clothes to try on and cast off, writing the last few sentences of a paragraph she hadn't finished that was due that day in English. She rushed to get to the bus stop, and missed it entirely. She left to jog back home for her parents to pick her up.
The thing is, normal schools start at about 8:00 in the morning. This time of the day is commonly also titled "rush hour", despite the fact that it is much longer than an hour, with a duration of about six o' clock until nine in the morning, and the same hours at night. The problem was that it was exactly 7:26:19am. Kenzie knew-she saw the time on her watch as she watched the semi-truck skid across into her path.
At 7:27:01 she arrived, safely back at home. She could still hear the truck wheels screeching. 42 seconds had passed.
At 7:30:03, Kenzie was panicking in her room, pacing at unnatural rates, heart pounding at unnatural speeds as a single fact hammered its way through her thoughts. She was a mutant.
She made the decision to go to school anyway. If she didn't go, people would notice. If she didn't go, her grades would drop. She took off at unnatural speeds for school, racing at impossible speeds. When she arrived, she wasn't even breathless. It was 7: 50:55.
She didn't understand anything. It was awful. She heard what the teachers said, but they spoke so slowly that by the time they'd finished a single sentence she was concentrating on something other than their words. She was frustrated, and unable to answer any questions.
At 12:01:40, her Algebra class left for lunch. The food was tastless. People were staring. She wondered what was wrong, until the whispered words, "mutant freak," made everything clear. She race to the bathroom, terrified. What had made it so obvious?
At 12:14:15, Kenzie bit back a scream of shock as she looked in the mirror. Within the reflection, contained by the margins of it, stood a middle-aged woman, hair graying even as she looked. Her hands shook so violently that she lost her grip on the sink and toppled. Vaguely, she recognized that she was in deep trouble. Curses streamed past her lips.
At 12:15:31, she glanced again in the mirror, expecting to still see a woman of forty. Instead, lingering in the reflection, stood a woman of about sixty. It wasn't hard to guess the cause. She trembled with fear, hating herself, cursing her ability, wishing she'd never triggered it. In a way, though, she understood, now more than ever, what people meant when they said time was precious.
At 12:17:22, she stared at her makeup lined face, crinkled with age, watching in horror as her hands shriveled. She was over 100. As she stared at herself, a burning in her chest seized her, and took control. Her hands stopped shaking. Her heart stopped as she crumbled to the floor.
She had been alive for less than six hours since her mutation awakened.
One-shot number one! Please leave a review! If there happens to be any character you particularly want me to do something like this to, just say the word. You can propose mutations and/or names, OC or canon character. The only requirement is that their mutation is unfortunate in some way, or causes something bad as a direct result, i.e. acceleration=speeding death (talk about life in the fast lane!). If you chose a canon character, it can be from any version of X-Men, I just need information about that character which I can look up. Please mention if you want me to do this to a particular version!
-MiaulinK