She woke up in the county hospital,
attached to various tubes, with the smell of sterile instruments in her
nose. She lay there for several long moments, trying to tell herself that
there was not a tube in her arm. Then she opened her eyes slowly.
The place looked just like it smelled.
White. And sterile. B-O-R-I-N-G. She sighed. She's been in a hospital before,
but was never the person on the white bed with the tubes in her arm.
There was a table beside her bed, and
there was a card on it. She lifted an arm that felt way too heavy. From
her parents.
~ We came to see you, but you were
still asleep. We've gone to a school to discuss Xavier's proposition. Be
back soon.
Love, Mom+Dad ~
She wrinkled her nose, trying to clear
her fuzzy head. They must have put her on some kind of drug, because she
didn't feel totally focused, and she couldn't summon any feelings to describe
what had happened to her.
Just then, a nurse in a starched white
uniform came in.
"Ms. Bellmont? You have a couple of
visitors." She smiled and stepped out of the doorway. A tall bald man (Or
he would have been tall, if he'd been standing up) came in a wheelchair,
followed by a woman with long red hair. Katherine furrowed her brow, confused.
"Who are you?" She asked. Her voice
sounded slightly slurred. She licked her lips, swallowed, tried again.
"Do I know you?" Better.
The bald man smiled. "My name is professor
Xavier, and this is my assistant, Jean Grey." Nodded at the woman with
red hair.
Katherine tried to think. Xavier…She
glanced at the note she still had clutched in her hand. Her parents must
have spoken to him.
"We have a few questions for you, if
I may?" The professor continued. Katherine was still a little befuddled,
so she nodded, without knowing exactly what she was getting herself into.
The professor wheeled closer to her bed after making a discreet motion
at the nurse for her to leave. She went quietly, shutting the door after
her.
"Katherine, I am led to believe that
you have joined the number of evolved human beings, of mutants, who have
unusual, literally superhuman powers." He paused for a moment, as though
thinking, thus giving her time to absorb this new bit of information. Then
he continued once more. "Dr. Grey and I are among this number." The doctor
picked up from there.
"Professor Xavier runs a school for
mutant teens, so that they can be among their own kind as they learn. We've
discussed the matter with your parents-"
Katherine nodded, her head still feeling
thick with the effects of the drug, but comprehending this to align with
the note she'd been left by her parents. Jean looked to the professor for
support before continuing.
"They have agreed that, if you want
to," She stressed this, "You can join this school."
Professor Xavier spoke again. "You
don't have to decide now. We will give you as much time as you need. Right
now, I would like you to help us a bit." He wheeled around the side of
her bed so that she could see him better. "My mutant ability, my gift,
is to read minds. Dr. Jean Grey has similar powers, to a lesser extent."
This was not an insult, just a fact. Dr. Grey seemed to realize this. "I
would like to read your thoughts of your experience, and so help you to
further examine your gift." He waited for her reply.
Through the entire speech, Katherine
had felt sort of glazed, not quite able to fully comprehend everything
the pair had said. She had gotten the part about reading her mind to find
out about her "gift" (She still wasn't quite clear on that point), and
since it seemed the sensible thing to do, she nodded and said, "All right."
She shifted slightly, trying to banish the sleepy feeling the drug had
put on her.
Professor Xavier wheeled up to the
head of her bed and stretched a hand over her head.
"I'm going to ask you to relax, Katherine."
That was another thing-how did he know her name? But it didn't worry her
overmuch, so she did has he asked, and unfocused her mind.
Professor Xavier closed his eyes, and
sat perfectly still for about twenty seconds. Then he opened his eyes and
took his hand from over her head. He smiled.
"I believe that I know what your gift
is, Katherine. Whenever your emotions run high, evolved chemical process
in you body makes your skin glow with heat energy as well as light energy.
These same processes allow you to directly interact with any object-or
person-that uses these types of energy, for example, the telephone, which
uses electricity…" He looked at her intently, waiting for a reaction. "When
your radio began playing-" She remembered it only as he said it. "-it was
you fixed it-with your power. Of the boy…I found earlier that an electrical
pulse had shocked him through the telephone. He nearly died." There was
no need to say what she already knew-that she had caused this. The drugs
were beginning to wear off, to the point where Katherine could begin to
feel ashamed of what she had done, however unwittingly. "So this power
you have been given may have either positive or negative effects, depending
on what you want at the moment. You blacked out because your body was unused
to all the power running through your body. This also may be the reason
you fainted in the play.
She blushed, not even bothering to
ask how he'd known about the play.
"But you're fine now." He said kindly,
as though trying to cushion her from a blow.
"So, you're saying I'm like Electric
Girl, or something?"
"Something like that, yes." He said
with a light chuckle. "At our school, every student has a strange power
like no-one else's, and they are all trying to learn how to use it. We
can help you," He said, leaning forward slightly. Katherine tried to clear
her still sluggish thoughts.
She was a mutant. No. That was impossible.
She had heard of the strange phenomenon, but it could never happen to her.
No one she knew was a mutant.
"Actually," the professor broke in
on her thoughts. "Your friend, Ceanna, is a mutant as well. We have discussed
her situation with her parents, and she prefers to stay at your school.
Her gift is to change the colors of things, but it isn't very powerful,
and therefore not very relevant to her everyday life. We are watching her
development, so that we may be aware if her powers grow further."
Katherine was flabbergasted. Cean was
her best friend, and she had never mentioned, never hinted that she was
in any way different or special.
"It's not the sort of thing you blurt
out at lunch." Professor Xavier reproved her gently.
Slightly embarrassed, Katherine hid
it in her normal way – Anger. She shut her eyes as if to shut out the professor,
and said angrily,
"Would you get out of my head please,
I'm trying to think. ALONE." Trusting the professor to his unspoken
word, she took a deep breath, and tried once again to organize her mixed
feelings. She was a mutant. She could accept that, for now. If she went
to this school, she would be surrounded by kids her age who could totally
relate to her situation. If she stayed at her old school, she would be
among the kids and teachers that she knew. But the little voice of reason
in her head told her that there was always the chance that she might hurt
someone.
Like you hurt Derek. At this other
place, you can learn to control it, so that will never happen again. Different.
She thought bitterly. A girl with a rare disease.
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