Blinked Reality- Chapter 2: That's Quite the Story, Chica

By: The 80lb Carrot

Disclaimer: Not mine

Summary: Same as the other

Rating: PG-13 (may be R later)

-*-

"Who *is* she?"

"I've told you before, I'll tell you again, Jubilation. We. Do. Not. Know."

"Certainly doesn't look 15."

"Quiet everyone, back off. I think she's coming around."

I opened first one eye, then the other, grateful that the lights were dim. I realized I was lying on my back on a cot in a large room. Spaced out evenly along the metal walls were dozens of other cots. The room, cell really, was about one hundred feet wide by one hundred feet long by eight feet high. Each corner had been boxed out, probably bathrooms. There were people all around me, looking from teenagers to men and women in their early thirties. Most looked quite normal but some were so obviously mutants it hurt. The woman who had last spoken was a redhead, most likely in her early twenties, with bright green eyes and a mutation suppressor around her neck. I shook my head to clear it and slowly sat up. "Where am I?" I croaked.

She smiled. "A mutant facility. Near El Paso, Texas, we've been told."

That cleared my head pretty quick. "Texas? You're joking. No way they took me from New York to Texas!"

"That's just what they've said," she clarified, "None of us know for sure."

It really sunk in then. This was one of those places I'd heard about my whole life. Where mutants were valued as animals and treated as such. All they knew was their day-to-day life, not where they were not what year it was, I doubted they knew how to read. Hell, I was amazed they could speak. "Who are you?" I asked, just trying to gather information about this place.

Another sweet but condescending smile. "Jean Grey. And you are?"

"Cecilia Reyes."

Another voice broke in. "How old are you? Cause you start out in here when you're fifteen, like me, and the bastards 'take care of you' after you turn thirty-five. But, you don't look fifteen to me, so I'm guessing you're from the outside." I looked towards the speaker to find a young Chinese girl looking down at me. She carried herself like a ditz, but her guesses were a bit too intelligent for that act to be convincing. This was the one that had called Jubilation.

I nodded. "I just turned eighteen. They caught me visiting my brother in the hospital."

Her jaw dropped. "In a hospital? What the fuck were they thinking, there were witnesses there!"

I shook my head. "Let me rephrase that. They arrested me. Warrant and everything."

"Ah. Sucks to be you."

Jean helped me stand. "You must excuse Jubilee and her language. Logan teaches it to her."

"Who taught you to speak?" I asked out of the blue.

She laughed. "We all learn from the same set of teachers. It's part of one of the tests they do here. They like to see whether mutation has an effect on learning capabilities. It's also one of their psychological things here, to keep us under control because unlike most places they've risked having us in a group. One of the first sentences we're taught is 'mutants are bad.' Things like that are drummed into our skulls from an early age so we'll accept it."

This was actually getting confusing. "Why did they put you--us in a group?"

"Guess it's just a test on day-to-day interaction, ja?" I turned to see a man staring at me while he hung from a pipe on the ceiling. The six fingers and toes he had total actually helped him stay aloft, much to my surprise. At first glance he looked like a demon, complete with pointed ears, pupiless eyes, and fangs. He was covered in short blue fur and his eyes were solid yellow. He released the bar and did a flip before landing softly on the ground in front of me. I shook the hand he extended towards me. "I'm Kurt Wagner, fraeulein Reyes."

Jean sighed. "Your name is Kurt Darkholme. You're too old to make up names."

He made a face. "'Darkholme' is my mother's name and she turned traitor. I like 'Wagner.'"

I was only getting more and more confused. "How many languages do they teach here?"

"Just one," Jean clarified for me, "Kurt was brought up in Germany but got caught five years ago. He got shipped around a lot until they landed him here, where he's pretty much stuck with the rest of us. His mom's a mutant too, but she turned him in and in exchange got more freedom from her facility" Kurt just narrowed his yellow eyes and glowered, obviously not happy with someone else telling his story.

He turned to me. "So, fraeulein Reyes, what's your story?"

"Cecilia," I corrected him, "Solamente Cecilia."

Kurt grinned, and I could have sworn he rolled his eyes. "Ja, fine, so tell."

And so I did. As I went, I gathered a crowd until almost half of the room was listening too me--most of them had never seen the outside world and needed to hear all about it that they couldn. First I told them about how I escaped early detection. Then about my dream to be a doctor and do for people what I couldn't do for my father. I had to interrupt myself then and add my family's opinion on mutants because it was crucial for the rest of the story. I told them how my powers emerged in a building collapse, then how I had to run and fend for myself. There were smiles all around and even a few cheers from a Cajun in the back when I unraveled my tale of revenge against O:ZT. But their faces fell as they heard about my family's murder and my capture.

There was a low whistle somewhere in the crowd. "That's quite the story you have, chica."

-----------------------------------------------------------

well whaddya say? do i keep it up or not? is it total shit? review!!