1

The Dark Stranger

The dark night wasn't exactly cold, but it sent a shiver down Mark's spine nonetheless. England wasn't particularly well known for nice weather, and lately, it wasn't particularly well known for its nice people. Drunken teens on every corner and every park made things pretty intimidating, even on a good night. However, now there were the Friends of Humanity that targeted mutants and did everything in there power to snuff them out, thinking they were a menace.

Mark was a mutant. When he was younger, he was bullied at school. He never really made friends, and so he was an easy target. The memories of what happened the day he found out he was a mutant still haunted him.

The bullies were pestering him again. Mark tried his best to ignore them. That's what the teacher's always said, they always told him to ignore them and they would get bored of him. Either that or stop acting like such a target.

"Hey! Loner! Where you goin'? Off to see your mummy? Off to see your boyfriend? Aww…are you gonna cry?"

Mark did his best to ignore them. What they were saying couldn't hurt him, or at least, that's what he was telling himself.

"Hey! Fuckface! Don't walk away from us while we are talking to you! Haven't you got any manners?" more and more of the bullies joined in. "Gay boy! Where you going? If you don't stop I'm gunna fucking DECK YA!" just ignore them, they're just words.

True, they had just been words, but they were words with meaning, and not the meaning Mark thought they meant. All of this following was just a way to get Mark in the right spot. To herd the victim to the actual danger.

As Mark rounded a corner, he was faced by one of the bully's with a bucket. The bucket was full, but with what? At first Mark thought it was water, but as it was thrown through the air towards him he noticed a distinctive yellowy tint in it. They had just thrown pee at him.

The next few moments went by like a dream, the part where you're almost awake and can't quite remember what happened. Well, at least it did for the bullies.

In mid air, the piss stopped. It just floated, suspended by something, something invisible. Then, it was hurled back at the bully holding the bucket, hitting him with such force he was knocked a few feet back. The pee has actually cut the bullies skin, and now it was inside him, stinging and the bucket had dropped next to Mark.

"Good god! Mark! What did you do? What's happened here?" cried a teacher from the distance, just appearing on the scene. It was Mrs Saunders, not one of Mark's favourite teachers, but definitely one of the funniest (not that she knew it).

"Ooh! Get to my room. Now!" she shouted, helping the little shitface that had thrown, and gotten hit by, the magic piss up to his feet, probably to get him to the nurse.

The rest of the day didn't go well, nor did school in general for a while. Mark was blamed for the whole thing by the bullies. They said that the one who was hit had already been cut because he fell off his bike or something stupid like that. Then they said that he had thrown piss on him just to make him suffer. What complete and utter bollocks!

But now Mark knew he had, ability's, that other people didn't have. Over the next few years he experimented with his powers. He could control any liquid. He didn't understand it, but he could. If it was one particular type of liquid like water for example then it might make sense, but none of these liquids he could manipulate shared the same chemical build up or whatever (He was never good at science).

Luckily, he knew he wasn't alone. Everyone knew about the X-Men, defenders of humanity. They stood up for the humans, even though mutants were technically humans too. They took beatings from the Friends of Humanity, just like Mark did from the bully's.

As comforting as this was, there was also a bad side. With the heroes, came the villains. Everyone knew about the Brotherhood of Mutants too. Last year was when thins were worst. A major pharmaceutical company had created what they called 'a Cure for the mutant gene'. This caused the brotherhood to attack the main building located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco.

Not only did they attack, but the mutant who went by the name of Phoenix destroyed the entire facility and killed hundreds of humans and mutants alike. This is what created the Friends of Humanity.

Some of the survivors from the Alcatraz incident supported the X-Men and claimed that they tried their best to save as many people as possible, standing up to the terrifying force of the Brotherhood.

Other's claimed that they only wanted to save the mutants and had no regard for the humans. Some even said that they killed humans if they got in their way.

Afterwards the X-Men didn't appear in public as often, which affected many. It gave the Brotherhood a chance to attack more, and it caused people like Mark to loose faith.

Now Mark was on the run, from his own family. He had been caught practicing with his powers and his very conservative father had lost it.

"We can't have a Mutant in the family! Get out!"

No mater how much his mother pleaded, his dad wasn't going to change his mind. Mark didn't care; he didn't want to stay in the same house as that man. He didn't want to stay anywhere near someone that would throw out their own son just because he was gifted.

Even with the streetlights shining above him, the path was darkened and frightening. Constantly thinking he heard footsteps behind him, Mark spent most of the time looking behind him. When he turned back to look in front of him, there was a man stood in front of him.

Mark nearly jumped out of his skin. He looked up to the strangers face slowly, expecting to see some deranged ugly form that was going to pounce on him. That's exactly what was there. He leaped back as the stranger lunged towards him. Before he had left his house, he had filled a bottle with water in case he needed it. Just as he reached for it, someone else emerged from the darkness. The second stranger ran at Mark's attacker and knocked him down. The stranger ran off, leaving Mark and his rescuer behind.

"You okay?" he asked.

Mark looked up at the stranger. He was the complete opposite of the first stranger. He was young and handsome, with light brown hair, styled to perfection. He was tall, but not much taller than Mark, and he was toned, but not over-muscular.

"Hey? Are you okay?" he repeated.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Mark said, still slightly bewildered.

"What's with the bottle?" he asked, looking at the bottle of water in Mark's hand.

"Oh, just in case I need a drink." He said, taking a swig, covering up that he was a mutant.

"Right…you know you shouldn't be out this late."

"Yeah I know." Mark said, starting to walk along the path. The stranger stayed with him.

"So, where you headed? I'll walk you there."

"That's very sweet of you, but I can handle myself."

"Sure, can I walk with you anyway?"

"I suppose…"

They walked a little way in silence, neither really knowing what to say to each other. Mark just looked at the floor and he could swear he felt the stranger's eyes on him.

"So then, what you doing out so late?" asked the stranger.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Fair enough…My name's Jake." He said, holding his hand out to shake with Mark. Mark took his hand warily.

"That's nice." He said, unsure whether he should tell Jake his name.

"My name's …Dave…David."

Jake looked at him as though he didn't believe him for a second, but after a moment he just moved on with the conversation.

"So then…Dave…anyone special in your life?"

"I'm sorry?" Mark was quite taken aback with what he had just been asked.

"Are you seeing anyone?"

"Um…No…"

"Cool…I'm just making conversation"

As they walked Mark looked for any reason to get away. He liked this Jake guy, but he was a little intimidating. Then he saw it, his way out. He saw a small poster stuck on a lamp post, this was his destination. It read:

MUTANT?

Are you afraid of what people might think of you?

Come to our help sessions, on the hour every hour, even the late ones.

We never shut our doors to those in need.

Find us at the H.E.D.C.A. building.

The H.E.D.C.A. building wasn't far from where they were. Mark didn't want Jake to follow him there so he decided to try and get rid of him.

"Look, thanks for saving me and everything, but I'm just going down here. It's not far for me to go. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure, it really is no trouble."

"No, I'm fine."

"Ok…give us a hug." Jake said. He opened his arms, waiting for Mark.

"Um…ok…" he slowly moved closer and hugged the tall, handsome stranger. His arms were so strong and warm; he just wanted to stay in them forever. They held each other for a while, before Mark looked up at Jake, only to find him looking down at him. Jake moved closer, and Mark let him, closer and closer, then, they kissed.

The kiss was amazing; it filled Mark with warmth on the cold night. The held it for a long time, even though it seemed like a few seconds. Then Mark pulled away, what was he doing? He'd only just met this guy.

"I…I should"

"Sorry…yeah…"

"I should really go…" he mumbled "Bye"

"See you around…" Jake called.

"Maybe"