Scene Six

The word "mutants" absurdly raised the image of teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles running about the city with their masks, weapons, artist names and gobbling pizza and three-eyed orange fish. He almost laughed, and then thought better of it as he saw the seriousness on the faces of the two people in front of him. Instead, he listened as Xavier senior explained the details of the mutation on an allele of the X chromosome that brought out amazing and unusual abilities in all mutants.

Professor Xavier smiled as he planted the word 'telepath' in Mac's head. Mac frowned, understanding what Xavier was saying but not convinced that he believed it. It was so tempting to ask... "Please don't ask me to tell you what you're thinking, Detective Taylor." Xavier smiled as he cut Mac off. "It's so predictable, and a polite telepath never chooses to invade the mind of another without their express understanding of what's involved."

"Of course they don't." Mac was, by now, beyond sceptical. A low chuckle from Ilehana made him look towards her.

"Perhaps I should give him a demonstration... if you wouldn't mind distracting his workforce for me?"

"Please do..." Xavier's eyes glazed over slightly, his brow creasing ever so slightly with concentration. Mac watched through the glass as his team all suddenly found the need to turn away from the office. He smiled to himself, as disconcerting as this suggestion and what it might involve was, thinking that he could simply have closed the blinds...

A soft grunt brought his attention back to Ilehana. Her eyes were focused in the wall behind him, glassy and cold. She looked to shrink before his eyes, and somehow Mac – unbelievably – found himself pretty sure that he knew what was about to happen. It didn't stop his jaw dropping as the tall, lithe blonde became a no-less-beautiful and graceful bald eagle; one was perched on the corner of his desk within arm's reach. The bird's head tipped to one side, her blue eyes meeting his as she judged his reaction. Mac shuddered to see the humanity in those eyes, so very, very wrong, and he realised that was what had unnerved him so much in Robert Kelly's office, even though he hadn't recognised it at the time. Curiosity got the better of Mac and he reached out to touch the feathers of the bird in front of him, to check if they were real. The bird, Ilehana, screeched indignantly and lunged for his fingers, deliberately snapping her beak less than a centimetre from the skin. Mac grinned wryly and muttered an apology, feeling like a fool for talking to a bird, even if that bird did normally walk in human form.

"You know," Ilehana mentioned some time later when Mac had recovered his composure a little. She was stood – human again - by one of the windows in Mac's office, staring out over New York City; she didn't even glance in his direction as she spoke telepathically, we could simply have planted all of this information into your mind, and you would never have known that you never knew it before.

Mac was stunned again as he realised that Ilehana was also a telepath. He tried to wrap his head around what she had said, to little effect. It was only as he regarded her more warily now that he felt her, just touching his mind, not invading, like one of his techs waiting hesitantly on the edge of a group for him to finish a conversation. Waiting, watching... was she testing him? Nervous, Mac tried to follow her with his mind, to open his thoughts and welcome her in. Such was his concentration, he almost missed that the Professor was speaking again.

"My daughter is the first mutant that we know of to gain two abilities, Detective." The Professor explained. "We believe that her mother – though human, not mutant – had some proclivity towards accepting telepathy – allowing Ilehana to inherit the telepathic ability. Whilst most mutants develop their abilities during puberty, Ilehana could speak telepathically before she could verbally. It was still somewhat of a shock when she developed her morphing abilities at the age of fourteen."

"Okay. Enough." Mac used his own inherent ability for reading people to sense Ilehana's embarrassment that her father would so openly admit something so personal to her so freely. She acknowledged his cutting the conversation with a wry grin and a nod of thanks. "Let's say you've convinced me. How do I fit in to all this?"

"We need your help to confirm that the mutants we believe are responsible for Robert Kelly's death are the ones that killed him, and to trace them." Xavier senior informed him succinctly. "These mutants are convinced that a war is coming, Detective, a war between your kind and ours; and we are going to stop that war from beginning... at least for today."

"Can't you just..."

"Our range is limited, Mac, even combining our abilities." Ilehana returned impatiently, even as she asked her father Why do they always ask that? "With your permission, I'd like to stay here as liaison, whilst my father returns to coordinate our own team."

"Liaison?" Mac had to smile at the word. "You sound as if you have done this before."

"There have been times when we are forced to interact with humans, like yourself, that would otherwise remain ignorant of the presence of mutants in their world, Detective." There was a heavy note to the Professor's tone, as if he regretted the need to involve Mac. "It might be necessary, but not always easy."

"I can understand that." Mac nodded, more to himself. He glanced at Ilehana and asked, without preamble, "Where do you want to start?"

He took Ilehana to meet Adam in the audio-visual suite, since she was convinced that Mac's reading of the witness had been correct and that Lisa Dunbarr had been telling the truth. She'd taken no convincing, to the point where Mac had actually challenged her about her father's statement about polite telepath's. Her less than patient reply was something along the lines of not needing to read his mind, she'd already got a good idea of who the culprit was and merely wanted to ensure the CSI's evidence confirmed it. She did, however reluctantly, ask permission to monitor his thoughts while they spoke with his team. Ever the scientist, curious, Mac agreed.

Adam's greeting to the newcomer was open-mouthed, stammering and awkward. Mac had to smile at his latest protégée's antics, more so at Ilehana's response which was nothing more than a passive nod and slight smile. Mac figured it could only be akin to the indulgent way an alpha wolf would treat an omega.

Not an omega. Ilehana reproached him gently. An omega wolf wouldn't receive a second glance. Adam is far more important in your pack than that. I would never be so disrespectful. I would, more accurately, note it as an adult wolf looking indulgently upon a cub or juvenile. He does seem very young after all...

Mac chuckled. He couldn't help it. She had voiced it so perfectly. But of course Mac's chuckle prompted Adam to go off into a long spiel about where he was up to with the case, and to silence him Mac suggested that he take a break. Looking bewildered and slightly offended, Adam hung his head as he walked out. Mac watched him go with a wry smile, and then punched up the CCTV footage showing Lisa Dunbarr entering the building where Kelly had been murdered.

"Can you play it frame by frame?" Ilehana asked.

"Sure." Mac replied, and did so.

"Freeze it there." Ilehana pointed at the screen.

"What is it?"

"The eyes." Sure enough, as Mac zoomed in on the picture, Lisa's eyes were burning yellow. "My father was right. This isn't Lisa Dunbarr. It's a mutant called Mystique."

She pulled out her I-phone, quickly found a certain file. Handing it to Mac, she watched his expression as the video showed Mystique's true form, blue skin with yellow eyes and flame red hair. He watched as she became an African-American woman, a man of Chinese descent, an acne-ridden teenager, an old woman, and finally a spitting image of the President himself.

"Useful, if unnerving." Mac finally commented, handing the phone back. Ilehana dialled a number, spoke to someone on the other end, confirming Mystique's involvement, then shut off the phone without any form of farewell. Must not have been to her father, Mac guessed. "She can replicate fingerprints too? DNA." At Ilehana's nod, Mac's brain began to question the validity of the evidence he had collected for so many years, that he and his team relied upon to get results, to solve cases and put away criminals... although most confessed in the end, had he genuinely put away some innocent people because of people like Mystique. Mac couldn't help it, he sat down heavily in Adam's chair.

"So... you're dealing better with this." She looked at him with raised eyebrows. The sarcasm wasn't lost on Mac despite his head feeling like it was about to explode. He swung the chair to face Ilehana. He asked her, without preamble, how many mutants there were like Mystique. "No two mutations are exactly the same, Mac. There are always subtle differences, however we have never discovered the existence of another mutant like Mystique."

"So that's good to know. Doesn't mean there isn't another out there though?"

"That much is true." Ilehana sounded pessimistic. Mac had to admire her confidence. "What else do you have?"

Mac pulled up Lindsay's files on the green goo that had been found at the crime scene. Together, they studied it, but it didn't take long for Ilehana to make her conclusions. Again, out came the I-phone and a short video showing Mac the profile and video of the abilities of the mutant named Toad. Not only could this mutant make super-human leaps – explaining the presence of the footprint Danny had found on the ceiling of Kelly's office, had a very long tongue but could make his phlegm toxic as well. Mac shuddered to think of it.

"Mystique has been known to work alone, but Toad's presence confirms that these two are working for Magneto." Ilehana reached around Mac to flick onto another profile. "Magneto controls metals, bends them to his will. He has, unfortunately, decided that humans will never accept mutant-kind, and with his delusions of grandeur proclaimed himself the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants." She paused, looking at the profile over Mac's shoulder. When he glanced at her, her expression was as black as night and angry. "He's also my godfather."