Chapter 1: Encountering Mutants
The creaking double doors slammed shut in a fit of a tiny fuming woman's fury.
Fired. Again.
She mustered all the dignity she could and stormed the streets surrounding asupermarket, which now slowly shrank into nothing.
The spiky and messy haired blonde began to contemplate her previous events, knowing she couldn't truly be angry with anyone but herself. She'd fallen asleep on the job... Numerously. If she could help it, she tried not to sleep at all but that's of course much easier said than done.
You see, when this woman- Evelyn- was much younger she discovered that if she got too carried away with her imagination (as children often do) sometimes what she was thinking appeared right in front of her eyes, which was amazing for a short while. However when she had that nightmare about a monster under her bed, upon waking it didn't disappear, in fact any dreams or nightmares she had would bring to life all sorts of odd creations and Evelyn would have no idea- at least not until she woke up. It never ended well. Eventually she decided it was best to sleep as little as possible, if at all; saving her from anyone's judgements or even hurting herself or anyone else. It made everything insanely difficult to concentrate on, especially the dull, grinding jobs Evelyn constantly found herself in. It seemed she could never just make the job stick.
You're twenty-eight years old. Twenty-eight!...And you can barely pay rent. She thought, silently berating herself as she raced down several dimly lit streets, very suddenly becoming extremely aware of two shadowy figures...
Paranoid would be a very subdued way to describe Evelyn Woods.
After a few freakish incidents in school, her father decided it would be best to home school her, he was very aware there was something... Different about his daughter but she was HIS daughter making it irrelevant. Not that it stopped him trying to see doctors about her, which solved absolutely nothing. Most had assumed he'd lost it. Home schooling had been much better than public schools but it had its drawbacks, one of them being how it made Evelyn so unused to the 'outside world', so to speak. It didn't help that the rare people the young woman encountered shunned her away, It all made her quite anxious when she wasn't in the safety of her own home.
She began to quicken her pace drastically, repeating that they're just a couple of strangers taking an oddly deserted route through the city. She is being insane. Everything is fine. Evelyn came to the conclusion that if she circled around one of the buildings, they'll still carry on and go about their business and it'll put her mind at ease.
"Why don't we just go to her home instead of following her around like this?" Erik suggested, growing tedious of trying to catch up to the darting woman ahead.
"She's hardly ever there, besides I think we'll catch her up in a moment, it appears she may be a little lost" Charles commented, watching Evelyn turn her third corner to create an almost complete circle. He started to speed up a little more, not liking the idea of a young woman lost and alone in these awfully too quiet backend streets.
Oh no. They're after me! I knew it!... Why me!? She mutely screamed.
Evelyn had strolled up and down these streets quite a few times while being in her latest job in a means to get home. She had liked this route purely because it was solitary, only the odd straggler wandering by, so why did these two stalkers HAVE to choose tonight? Why did it HAVE to be the night before she wouldn't even have to go through that area?
Her mind was now a scrambled mush of escape tactics.
There's no-one around for help. There are two of them. There's no chance I can outrun them.
Making a last minute decision, she closed the last corner and shifted to hide against a tatty building wall with a slight alcove for extra cover. Usually her 'gift' worked better in times of stress and Evelyn prayed it wouldn't have a change of heart.
Baseball bat, baseball bat, baseball bat She repeated. It being the only defence she could think of and actually be able to create.
"That's odd" Charles muttered as they came to circle back around. "She was jus-"
At that moment Evelyn came barrelling out of the shadows, clumsily throwing around a baseball bat with frantic swings, she actually managed to hit the taller and leaner of the two men, It didn't have the effect she'd hoped for. He took one sharp breath from pain, rapidly recovered and pinned her against the old building.
"Are you insane?!" He spluttered, the smaller man now trying to piece together whatever just happened.
"I- ugh- I'm infected! You don't want me" Evelyn yelled, trying to regulate her breathing so she could scream for help.
"What?" They both questioned in the same dumbfounded tone, the man gripping her arms now turned to face the other with a pleading expression. The others face began to crease until forming into a relaxed expression in some sort of realisation, and he lowered two fingers from his temple.
"She thinks we're stalking her" He explained rather sheepishly.
"You're not?" Evelyn spluttered, her eyes were darting constantly between the two while the baseball bat that had fallen in the struggle now began to disappear.
"Of course not love, my name is Charles Xavier and this is my associate Erik Lehnsherr" he said, Erik now tentatively loosening his grip.
"Oh" Evelyn simply muttered. She took a few moments to actually take in their appearances now, noticing Erik's dark chestnut hair and steely blue stare that softened now as he released her and straitened the leather jacket he wore, it hiding a dark ebony turtle neck.
We are like you Evelyn, mutants. She looked confused for a moment, as the words she heard belonged to the one named Charles but his lips hadn't moved an inch. She inspected him; he stood feigning innocence in his silver suit and brushed his chocolate hair to one side. Erik then rather smugly flicked his wrist for a nearby penny to quickly follow his movement.
"I am a telepath, and my friend here can control metal" Charles continued, now vocally.
"Oh, well um- sorry" Evelyn said quietly from her embarrassment, she inspected the red graze on Erik's forearm guiltily and reached out a little to seek any further damage, only succeeding in a cold look and his arm snapping from her grasp.
"It's fine" He told her stiffly.
"Oh, right... So er- why are you guys here?"
"Ah well, you see we have a problem and we're forming a team as such, of mutants. I can't tell you much more unless if you agree to this, it's strictly covert" Charles explained.
"Well I don't see why not" Evelyn said cheerily, it was nice for her to feel like something positive may come from her 'ability', the word they were using though, mutants- it was so strange but something she would probably have to get used to. "So who else is on this team of yours?"
"Actually you're the first mutant we've approached" Charles answered with a welcoming smile. He gestured for her to follow them to a car while he clarified exactly what going along with them would entail.
Charles and Erik had left her at the car with a blonde woman named Raven, saying they still had others to find, and Raven had done nothing but talk for the entire drive back to wherever it was they said she was going.
"I'm super glad there's another girl around, there's been too much testosterone lately, I mean there's this agent called Moira- you'll like her I think- but she's always busy" She nattered. "So what can you do?"
"Oh, I sort of bring my imagination to life" Evelyn explained while gazing out the passenger seat window. "Can I ask where we're going or is that covert?"
"It's just a CIA base, nothing to worry about, that sounds so cool by the way"
"What can you do? I'm guessing you're a mutant too?" Evelyn asked. Raven surprised her when dozens of scaly like shapes suddenly appeared, flipping over on her body to leave Evelyn staring right back at her own large amber eyes. "Wow"
"Thanks" She laughed, quickly phasing back to petite blonde woman in the same manner. "So how did they convince you to come along?"
"A guilty conscious I guess" Evelyn muttered causing Raven gave her a question glance. "I hit the one –er, is it Erik? Well I hit him with a um, with a baseball bat"
Raven became very quiet after that.
Soon enough they were pulling into a wide cream and polished building, leafless trees decorated the entrance and ebony glass formed any windows or doors.
Evelyn steadily opened her car door to take a step out onto a light beige concrete that complemented the building nicely, it didn't take long for two men in suits to rush across to greet the two women.
"Evelyn?" One of them asked.
"Uh- yes" Evelyn answered; trying not to be too concerned about how they already knew her name and consequently, how long they'd actually been watching her.
"This way please"