Chapter 2: No place like home

I'd spent the whole of yesterday sleeping off the anesthetic they'd given me for the bullet removal surgery, so I was about to ask the professor if we could stretch our legs a little when just began to laugh a little. I then realized that he'd read my mind and felt embarrassed; doubly so when he rolled out from the behind his desk in an electric wheelchair, he must have read me again when he rebuffed my apology for the leg comment.

"Trust me young man you're not the first nor the last to make that comment without knowing, so shall we be on our way," he began to wheel himself out the double doors and into the empty hallway. We began our tour on the main floor where we were joined by Kitty so she could finish giving me the tour, she seemed slightly relived to have the professor there as a buffer of sorts.

"So here on your left we have a few classrooms for those of us who don't want to risk going out to the normal high school where most of us go, they are also used to help train us in our abilities when we aren't doing other stuff," she had the movements of … well a cat as she fluidly pointed to all the classes were and wove in and out of student who were starting to leave their classes.

We spent the next hour going over when and where certain events were going to happen on the main floor like dinner, game night and such. Soon enough she and the professor began to explain that when I feel up to it they could help me get enrolled into the local high school if I wanted. Which I would definitely do starting on Monday, so I could give myself the weekend to get settled in, speaking of getting settled in they next led me upstairs to the dorms. The floor plan was that of any normal boarding school, most of the students having been brought here from their homes bringing their possessions with them. I on the other hand was ripped from my place so the room they showed me would be bare for a while, it was bigger than I was expecting with enough space for two easily.

"This room is all yours if you want it, the halls are mixed so we got boys and girls but two bathrooms. There's a common room around the corner and a kitchen just down the hall. If you need anything my door is just four doors to your left," Kitty smiled slightly and pointed out which one as she spoke. The professor handed me a map of the school for basics on where things were although I knew I'd still need their help.

"Dinner is at seven in the dining room but you can eat wherever you like, how about we let you get acclimated and I'll come get you when it's time," Kitty said as she and the professor left him in the room to get settled. I walked over to the window and opened it letting in a warm breeze of fall just before it get cold, below kids of various ages and looks played basketball and studied together in the back lawn.

I laid down on the bed there and thought all about what led up till this moment as the world slowly got fuzzy and I slowly passed out and fell into sleep. It was there that I began to dream about my life and what had happened when I got my powers. It all started two weeks after my fifteenth birthday while I was playing on the phone I'd gotten, it seemed to be working great from the moment I picked it up. The only problem was that it had immediately turned on when I touched it, my parents had forgotten to charge it up before giving it to me. I thought nothing of it until my mom couldn't find her phone so I handed her mine and when she tried to use it nothing happened it was drained of all power.

Unbeknownst to me I had begun to cry in my sleep, tossing and turning as if I were struggling against some stronger force. The reason for this was because of my next memory from six months later, my parents were mad and confused as to why I had gotten kicked out of school. I tried to explain to them how it happened but they were just as confused as I was, the principal showed them a security tape of me in the computer lab typing up a paper for class when suddenly all the computers in the lab including mine suddenly exploded with crackling electricity shooting from the screens towards me. I couldn't explain it and neither could they, they thought it was just a freak accident; that is until an electrical fire happened later that night starting in my room. I had thought my parents had burned something in the kitchen but then it became harder to breathe as the whole house began to burn I saw the fire too late and when I tried to escape it made the fire burn harder as the wind fed the flames. I blacked out from smoke inhalation and awoke on the lawn with a broken arm a few minutes later, it wasn't until after I'd been checked into the hospital that I learned both of my parents saved me but been trapped inside luckily they'd had been rescued from the fire but with indeterminable brain damage resulting in comas and in my father's case death. I had begun to scream in my dreams and suddenly I was being shook and yelled at the wake up by Kitty who'd come to get me for dinner.

"Ryan wake up! Wake up! You're having a nightmare," she shook me for a minute before I awoke with a start. Tears streaming down my face, I must have looked a mess but Kitty handed me a handkerchief to wipe my eyes. "So do you want to talk about it? I know how scary it can be waking up and not know what happened to you," she told me about the night that she dreamed of flying and falling before awaking in her basement with her pillow and blanket sticking halfway through the ceiling.

"Kitty umm… if I may ask how long have you been here? You look about the same age as me and you seem pretty confident in yourself and this whole having super powers thing," I couldn't help but wonder about if this place really worked, it must be or else she'd probably be constantly sinking through the floor or her bed all the time.

"It's been about a year since I got brought in by Jean, she showed me that my power is a gift not a curse. My parents were slow to accept especially my dad but they've really come into their own, I know it's tough to get by without support and that's exactly what this place provides. How about after dinner I show you some of the other things that make this place so great," she helped me off the bed and led me down to the dining area.

At first I couldn't tell what was going on as I was bombarded by delicious smells and foul odors rolled into one, that's when I noticed the guy who was teleporting around the dining area and handing people plates of food. I must have had a slightly confused look as everyone looked at me wondering how I didn't know what was happening.

"Guys this is Ryan you might remember that Scott and Jean led the team to bust up that mutant prison, I'm giving him the last of the tour and I thought he could meet the rest of the team," the rest of the people set the tables and walked over introducing themselves one by one. There was Storm who looked like African queen, Scott who looked very rigid even with his smile, Kurt the teleporting guy who I could tell even then would become my good friend and lastly a reserved girl name Rogue who carefully shook his hand wearing thick leather gloves.

As I took my seat Kurt appeared with a bigger plate of food than I'd eaten in over a year since my mom was in the hospital, Kitty sat on one side of me and Rogue on the other. Kurt appeared across from me and struck up a conversation about where I came from and what I can do, so I began with a shortened backstory of my power origin; leaving out the bit about my father's death being my fault.

"So I've been trying to run from who I am since that night, lying to those close to me about what really happened and all but dropped out of school to avoid accidently hurting someone again. It's hard trying not to touch anyone or anything for fear that you might ruin it," I raised my hands up which still had the metal gloves on them preventing my powers from fully activating. Rogue eyed them and you could tell that I had her understanding, while Kitty and Kurt nodded understanding my want to be who I was again.

Just as I was about to go get some fresh air Kitty pulled me back down into my chair, then a big cake was wheeled in on a cart and placed on the island in the kitchen for serving.

"Every time someone new joins the group we celebrate bro," Kurt teleported to the kitchen and began pouring glasses of milk to wash down the cake which happened to be lemon my favorite. "Three cheers for Ryan the newest person to join our group!"

The party continued on like that for a while longer until everyone went their own ways, it was just me and a select few others. I looked at the clock and saw it was past midnight and he wanted to get an early start on his new life here at the mansion and at Bayville high, I was on my way out the door when I got stopped by Rogue who looked like she had something to say.

"Hey it's Rogue right? Umm you look like you've got a lot on your mind do you want to take a walk, it's a nice night out," I held open the door to the outside and we stepped through into the crisp night air. For the longest while neither of us said a word as we made our way around the grounds, it was only when we came to the fountain out back that she finally said something.

"You know… I get what you were saying… about not being able to get close to someone. Thanks to my powers it's pretty much impossible for me to touch anyone with hurting them by zapping their life or powers away," she looked sullen as she explained more about what had gotten her to the mansion and I knew I had found another person who's scared to even sit next to people. "It's like one day you're holding hands with somebody then suddenly they're lying on the floor dying"

I knew what I wanted to say but I just couldn't get it to go from between my lips, so I sat beside her and smiled hoping that it would make her feel like I understood. So I sat and listened to her and the nature around us.

"You know we both have more in common than the powers, we are both from the south. You have a Mississippi or Louisiana accent on you if I'm not mistaken, so it must be a culture change to be in the north," I like the cold as much as the next guy but New York winters are famously brutal, probably on par with the years I spent in Montana with my grandparents.

She seemed to warm up to me if slowly and after an hour we seemed like old friends comparing southern cuisine and sweltering summer nights. I walked her back to her room before beginning back to mine, and I could've sworn I heard her talking to kitty before I closed my door and flopped into my bed.

The next morning it was a change of pace to hear loud voices and rushed footsteps in the hallway, I was about to see what the commotion was when a knock came to my door.

"I'm coming in!" the door slowly crept open and slowly in strode Kitty who looked like she had gotten a makeover since last night. "Hey Ryan you better hurry and get cleaned up or you'll be late for breakfast and after that the professor wants to see you downstairs in the tech lab." She smiled the way she did when I first saw her and I couldn't help but blush a little, I mean it's not as if I like her or anything….anyway I got dressed with some of the clothes they left for me and made my way down to the dining area again. And as before I took my seat with Kitty, Kurt and Rogue who seemed a little off about me sitting next to her.

We ate and talked about the schedule for the day which included study hall for those that were falling behind, free time in town and lastly some power control training with Storm. I was vastly excited by all three ideas and hoped I could do them and get to know all of them better but first I had to get to the tech lab downstairs, Kitty led me to them before running off to her astrophysics study group.

The lab was a hybrid between high school metal/wood shop and government grade technology strewn about in the fringes on the far end of the room along with the Professor and an unknown guy who seemed to have a cybernetic arm.

"Welcome Ryan I'd like to introduce you to Forge our resident tech whiz and I believe the person who can get those gauntlets off of you, if you would be kind enough to let him examine them a little," with almost no reservations I hopped up on the work bench so that he could examine how they worked and how long it would take to get them off. Forge worked on figuring how the gauntlets worked and after what seemed like forever he said he could get them off, and as he began to slowly saw and laser them off I felt a tingling feeling like when your feet wake back up. He was able to get them off and as they became free electricity arced from my hands draining power and blew out the transformers to the electric landlines of the mansion causing the back-up generator to kick in. I tried to focus hard enough for the powers to stop like I'd done before but the more electricity I drained the harder it was to control, forge slid the gauntlets back on my hands and the power stopped for the time being.

He ran tests for the next 2 hours all while fiddling with the gauntlets and slowly taking them apart and remaking them into something, I kept trying to see what he was doing until he'd taken the last of the gauntlets apart and he turn back to me as my powers poured out again. Just as my hands began to spark he turned around quickly and slid something onto my wrist, and just as soon as it did the sparking stopped and he smiled.

"Yet again I prove my tech brilliance, Ryan you should now have a stronger control over your powers. It won't shut them off like before, this watch will allow you to channel the flow of electricity properly, just hit that button on the side and you'll be able to release or restrict your gift here," I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself and imagined what my life could have been if I had this tech before. I knew things would get a lot better for me around here and my new life is just beginning.