Chapter 3: Hello, Hello (Part Two)
"Here, I'll help you," Zoey said as she leaned forward and reached behind Charles to bring the chair around.
"No, it's okay. Janie will be able to help with that. Here she comes now, running as well. Sean probably told them everything."
"Well at least it will speed up the process. How many more?"
"Just Janie and Alex, and him I'm very excited for."
"I'm not even going to ask why... but I'm looking forward to both of the surprises."
"I can see that," he said, looking above her head. She turned and gasped.
There was a short row of Sunflowers behind her.
"Now I have to meet you," a girl's voice said, and Zoey turned to bright hazel eyes staring back at her. She had dark chestnut hair in a sloppy bun. Wildflowers started growing to an alarming rate around her crosslegged body.
"I'm Zoey," she said dazedly. She hadn't even noticed she was receiving the power because she was talking to Charles. "You," she reached forward and picked a little purple flower that had grown in her direction, "are definitely my favorite."
"I'm Janie," she said, flashing a bright smile. "You have an awesome ability. Mimickry, right?"
"Yeah... thanks?"
She saw Janie frown, and she looked back up to watch her sunflowers turning darker and the leaves curling in.
"Janie, could you possibly help me up?" Charles asked. Janie smiled and flicked her hand. The ground rumbled and suddenly it was rising, lifting Charles to the same level as the chair seat. He scooted back, and Janie dropped her hand and the ground went flat again, the grass growing back rapidly.
Zoey stood up and smiled at Janie. She gave a weak smile back, but still looked confused. She lowered her hand and the sunflowers and wildflowers shrunk and disappeared into the ground.
Zoey's smile faltered, but she did step towards Janie.
"Maybe we'll talk about it this week, ok?"
Janie smiled, and nodded.
"I'm counting on it. Bye, Xavier, see you inside soon?"
"Of course, Janie. Send out Alex, please."
"Ooh! This is gonna be good. Can we please watch this one?" she asked.
Charles looked up at Zoey, who shrugged.
"What the hell, why not?" she said, and Janie smiled and ran off.
"Janie and Ororo are the newest additions to the family," Charles explained, "They were together, taking a shortcut across our grounds, travelling to New York on their own. Ori still is unstable, but she's getting the hang of it. But Janie's power is quite amazing; she only needs to carry a fistful of earth in a pocket, and she can create anything within the Plantae kingdom. Ivy, roots, flowers- STOP!"
The sudden yell made Zoey jump, but she looked over to find a tall buff guy standing far away, out of reach from Zoey's range.
"Take slow steps, okay?" Charles said in a normal tone, his right brow furrowing.
Zoey took a step back, now anxious at Charles approach to this certain meeting. Charles silently reversed his chair, moving out of her range. It made her uneasy, and she shifted her feet and braced herself.
When she felt the power, it was quick and she couldn't control what happened next. Her whole body suddenly felt immense heat, and then red rays shot out from her palms. It was a continuous stream of red light, now burning holes in the grass.
"What is… oh, god, what the fuck?"
"So it is true!" she heard a yell. She looked up and saw an angled face looking back at her, a foot away. He looked like such a model it was ridiculous. His blonde hair was short and he had a sculpted jaw and dark brown eyes that looked back at her in excitement.
"What?"
"You can absorb powers… this is insane! And I've seen a lot…"
"That's great to hear right now!" she said sarcastically.
"Point your hands at me!"
"No!" she yelled out.
"Do it, I'll be fine."
"If I hurt you it's not on me!" she said, and she took a few steps back as he raised his hands.
Zoey did the same, pointing her palms at him, and to her amazement he absorbed the red light. After a second her hands stopped shooting the red rays, and were no longer burning. The heat had diminished but she still felt warmer than usual.
She felt the heat draining from her body and suddenly she looked down at her hands, expecting blackened skin, but they were fine.
"Well I would have to say that was one of my more awkward introductions," he said, "I'm Alex."
"Zoey," she said, smiling back.
"I see you both managed to get to know each other."
"Definitely did, Mr. X," Alex said, flashing a smile to Zoey, who smiled back. He was fun to look at.
"What is… that?" she asked, pointing at the steaming holes on the ground. One of them had a small flame, and Alex stepped over it to put it out.
"Cosmic energy in forms of plasma, hence the destroyed grass. We'll need Janie out here," Charles said, frowning down at the two holes, still steaming a little bit.
"I'll get her," Alex said. "Zoey, I'll see you soon," he said, and turned to go back to the house.
There was an awkward pause, but eventually Charles spoke.
"That went better than expected."
"You mean when I blew you over and destroyed your yard?"
Charles looked up at her as he spoke.
"I was expecting worse. Firstly, I was expecting you to turn blue from Hank, and then create a windstorm when Ororo came out. I expected something like me falling over to happen with Sean, but I thought it would be something more along the lines of you sending him flying, which would be deadly without his suit. I also thought you might have tangled us in some thorns when Janie came over. For Alex, I thought you would hurt yourself, or me, or blow up the mansion; I wasn't sure how his energy would manifest to your body."
"You said I wouldn't hurt anybody," she said, trying not to sound angry.
He just shrugged.
"You didn't."
Zoey just shook her head, and then she felt the surge of Janie's power again. She looked down and thought of the roots she felt under her hands when she had grown the sunflowers. Suddenly something small came from the ground and she saw yellow pod grow bigger and then open into a sunflower. She smiled as she watched it grow taller than her.
"Maybe you could work on our gardens, we need some more flowers," Charles suggested, and she nodded.
She remembered when she was in middle school her mom had bought all of these tomatoes and spices, and they started a garden together in the backyard. She grew closer to her mother, out there with her under the sun, digging away... pruning, harvesting.
"I would love that, actually," she replied after a while. She heard Janie's footsteps and turned her head and smiled.
"Hey, Zoey! That looked so cool, what you did with Alex! What did it feel like?" Janie asked.
"It was really hot!" Zoey said. When Janie's eyes grew slightly wider and she blushed, Zoey realized how that sounded.
"Oh… no. Well, yeah, but no. It felt hot, like my hands were being branded," she said quickly.
"But she also burned two abysses in my field. Could you two fix them up?" Charles asked.
"Wait, what?" Zoey asked "I just received her power; I'm not used to it."
"C'mon," Janie said, and she held out a hand. Zoey hesitated for a second, but then realized she wouldn't mind feeling her power more intensely; it wasn't so harmful or emotionally straining.
She reached forward and took Janie's hand and they walked over to the two holes in the grass, her body feeling a surge of chills that soon faded away.
"So, just think about the dirt, the earth, and go far down, these look deep," Janie said as she put her hands on the inside of the hole.
Zoey did the same on the other. She closed her eyes and she thought of the bags of dirt she and her mom had stuffed in the trunk of their small car in the store parking lot. A bag had broken open and leaked all over during the ride home. She remembered her mom had climbed into the trunk with a flashlight, and Zoey had followed. They both scooped out the dirt together, and found a worm. Her mom's scream was so loud but sounded so comical that Zoey had burst out laughing.
"Zoey, you can stop," a hand grabbed her wrist, and she opened her eyes. She looked down to a big pile of dirt. Janie let go and sat all the way back.
"Oh, sorry," Zoey said. "How do I make it go away?"
Janie shrugged.
"I actually have no idea on that part, I just learned that I can also destroy just two days ago, it's hard to describe. I'll do it," she said and she put her hands on the grass, and the pile shrank and grass popped up from the empty spot.
That's when Zoey heard a bark, she smiled and jumped up.
"Simon!" she called out, and saw him running towards her, Ororo a little behind him. She knelt back down and opened her arms.
She welcomed the wet nose and big sloppy lick.
"Hey boy," she said smiling.
"Janie, this is Simon," she said, and Janie held out a palm to Simon, who licked it and then let Janie pet him a few times before he barked again.
He then went over to Charles and sat down next to him. He turned his head and rested it on his leg, begging for his chin to be scratched; the most well-behaved Zoey had ever seen him act.
The corner of Charles' mouth twitched as Zoey and Janie stood up and gave each other a look of surprise.
Charles had only hastily patted Simon's head when they got to her condo. And even on the train, after Charles had influenced all the conductors to allow him on, even then he had only given Simon short pets or a pat on the head, even though Simon had seemed to grow a quick liking to him.
Now, Simon was rubbing his nose against Charles's hand as he continued to scratch his chin.
Ororo came up and stopped, out of breath.
"He likes running," she said with a big smile.
"Oh I bet; he always loved going to the park."
"He likes it here," Charles said, and Zoey's smile turned to a frown.
"If you even try to influence my dog I swear-"
"Relax, I can only just go inside their heads, I can't influence anything."
Zoey wanted so badly to just look into his mind to see if he was telling the truth.
"Alright then, ladies, let's go inside shall we?" Charles asked as he raised a hand to lead them inside.