Last Updated: Feb. 7th 2016
Before we had left,I had managed to get ahold of a few locations and names that I could trust.
More and more mutants were being discriminated against, refused into hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and just about any place they could segregate us.
The battle we thought we had begun to win, had only just resurfaced itself after a few years of peace. It's like America had fallen back to the fifties.
We had been refused by more than three places. Apparently a lot of business places had gotten ahold of mutant honing devices and had began hiring people just for the purpose of being a mutant bouncer. It pissed me off, but what could I do?
The place where I had parked outside of was probably the sketchiest place I had ever seen. It looked like an abandoned gas station except there were no pumps and it had way more square feet than your usual Circle-K.
I sat there for a few seconds with my mouth slightly gaping, deciding if I wanted to die today or not. I knew this was the only place that was safe for a few thousand miles and I knew they would accept us if I mentioned Charles's name. So I guess I had to go in there.
"Well I'm going in" Peter said abruptly as he opened his door and stepped out.
I could see people inside the raggedy run down place, like shadows dancing through beams of light. These lights shown through the windows and flooded the grass like waterfalls. This place wasn't abandoned like a first glance might suggest.
Swearing under my breath I got out, pulling the keys out of the ignition and stowing them in my pocket.
"Are you sure about this place?" I asked, but before Peter could say anything a girl walked up to us.
She seemed to be around twenty, she was petite and she had shoulder length layered light mocha brown hair and a harshness to what seemed to e her neutral expression. She walked at a brisk pace, stopping to examine us.
"You guys lost?" She asked, leaning on her hip as she did so. It almost sounded like she had a slight Puerto Rican accent.
"Kinda?" I said not really sure how to answer. She paused to look at us with scrutinizing eyes.
"Who sent you?" She asked.
"Charles Xavier" I replied, trying to sound confident, but it came out sounding more like a question.
"Come on" she said finally, nodding with her chin as a sign to follow.
As we walked toward the place I had to force myself not to act nervous. I couldn't help but fiddle with the buttons on my cardigan, wrapping it tighter around me as we walked through a gust of wind.
I could tell Peter couldn't give a care in the world regarding the current situation and I had to admit, I was kind of jealous.
"What are your names?" The girl, Tori, asked when we were nearly upon rickety porch that led to the entrance. Her tone was cold but inquisitive and it had the right to be so, there was more than a few reasons that she looked so cold all of the time.
"Josephine" I muttered absentmindedly and Peter gave his.
"Tori" she said, giving us her own name as she opened the door and stood back to let us in first, the door was a lot bigger than her and even me, with peeling green paint and water damage. I pushed Peter in first and he gave me a look which basically called me a pansy.
Inside there were dozens of people. I took in a sharp breath. My brain felt like it was on overload because of the sheer number of people in such a close vicinity. Thousands of words flashed in front of my eyes belonging to a multitude of different people. I had to squeeze my eyes shut and stop, holding on to Peter's arm for a moment, just to gain some kind of mental footing. It was almost like I could hear their thoughts scrambling inside my head along with their profiles.
"You okay?" I heard Peter asked after I opened my eyes.
"Yeah, just a lot of people" I said, still massaging my temples.
A huge man, who I could only compare to an Ent because of his massive trunk like arms and heavy built physique, walked up to us, smiling when he saw Tori. I could only pick out small snippets about him through the tons of data that was still whizzing by my vision. He and Tori hadn't met that long ago but he had protected her from some kind of attack and ever since then they were inseparable. Though their height difference might be humorous to some, I found it quite endearing.
"Who'd you find there?" He asked, his voice booming even at a normal talking level.
"A telepath and some really fast guy" I laughed at her choice of words. As her mutation, this girl could see the future which meant that she could tell someone's mutation by seeing them use it later. She also had enhanced (but not super) strength, reflexes and an athletic stamina unparalleled by anyone in existence. I saw Peter frown at her words. My smile disappeared when I went over what she had said in my mind.
"Telepath?.. no, just an empath" I corrected but I quickly shut my mouth when I saw the look that she was shooting at me.
"Sorry" I said quickly.
"Both mutants?" David asked apprehensively, seeming to have ignored what I said. Tori nodded.
"Then welcome!" He boomed adding a slight laugh while stretching his arms out. I winced slightly at his volume. "Who are you running from?... Family, the cops?"
"More like running to" I corrected, starting to feel a little more at ease with the man's genuine nature and huge personality. He paused, waiting for me to elaborate. "My sister was taken." I added quickly.
He nodded in an understanding manor. "Yeah, the MRA are getting more and more serious. It died down for awhile, but you know what they say: all good things must end" He finished with another deep chuckle.
"What is this place?" Peter asked pivoting on his feet to get a good look around rather like a meerkat on high alert.
"Someplace safe" Tori said before David could. "Like he said, its getting bad out there and some people don't have a place to go."
I decided then that I liked liked her. "We got a few extra cots in the back if you're looking for a place to stay" She added and uncrossed her arms and walked off with David who wrapped his thickly built arm around her tiny waist.
"I'll be honest here, I think that's one of the strangest couples I've ever seen" Peter said, still standing there. I hit his arm with more force than I had actually intended to.
"No, I think they work well" I countered.
"Yeah but you're a girl, you guys tend to think all couples work well together" he said and I glared at him.
"Hey Peter, you want kids some day, don't you?"
"Well yeah, why?"
"Then I suggest you keep those comments to yourself or I will personally ensure that your genetics can't be passed on" I grumbled as we wove through people.
The building was bigger than I thought it was. Dozens of rooms that were all occupied with what I could tell were families with kids were found in the back along with single person cots in the main room; the one that we had entered first.
A lot of people looked miserable wrapped in blankets and glaring my way when I passed by, others were chatting or helping others. It was easy to see and predict the history of every person by their outward appearance and attitude alone, even without a mutation to tell you that. The whole place felt like a Red Cross disaster shelter. The only big difference was the vast illegality of it all.
I was still rather awkward and nervous around these people even twenty minutes in. Now sitting on the cot that I had been assigned in the corner with my knees up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, I was staring at my feet beginning to realize the magnitude of the whole thing. With people around me in tears, hungry, tired and in hiding because they were scared of the world they grew up in now wants to shut them out entirely or eradicate them.
With the Trask incident that had almost been a catastrophe to the mutant population narrowly avoided, most of us thought we were safe. Now we had a new rising of hate and opposition.
I sat there for a long time, consumed in a jumble of misconnecting thoughts until I felt someone sit down next to me. Their weight making the cot sink and I nearly toppled over onto them.
"Hanging in there?" I heard Peter say and I sighed heavily in response. He chuckled a little bit.
"How are you fine!" I demanded looking up now. "I mean, how can you act like this-" I said gesturing all around with a wild hand. "-is nothing!"
"Geeze Josephine, you really don't use your mutation a lot, do you?"
"Just on you.. You made me promise" I said quietly after pausing awhile, looking back down at my feet. From the corner of my eye I could see his face fall in remembrance.
I looked up at him with a light smirk on my lips.
"Those kind of things are important to me."
His arm snaked around my waist this time making me slink down because of the divot his weight made on the cot. Nonetheless I sighed and relaxed next to him. I felt him press his lips to my temple.
"Don't think you're the only one with important things, kid."
Question! SHIELD (strategic homeland intervention enforcement logistics decision) or SWORD? (sentient world observation response department) in other words; earth crime or space crime?
For me I like SHIELD, mostly cause of the black widow... she's cool.
