Perfect Synergy
"Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignitions, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope." - Corazon Aquino
After the news I got down in that lab I tried to put up that tough exterior everyone expected of me. Or, rather, I expected of myself. If Charles kept his word then everyone was completely naive to what was happening me. Dead in a year if I didn't use my powers. Too bad I couldn't not use them. So hopefully in all of the confusion and work we'd be doing, there wouldn't be much time to sit back and marvel at my non-mutant condition.
As I sat at the bar in the break room, still in disrepair, chugging some whiskey, I contemplated my position. Should I call my parents? My brothers over seas? Little Scottie back home? Party until my panties dropped and I couldn't tell up from down? Nah. I didn't have any time for that. I'd have to settle for a little bit of a buzz and celibacy for the rest of my days. I downed the last of the whiskey just as I saw Erik pacing in the courtyard. He was practically seething with his anger towards Shaw. His hands were tight fists at his sides and his knuckles blanched under the strain. Poor guy. I never did learn what Shaw did to him but no one in their right mind would think his anger was displaced. Shaw had killed one of our own and taken another from us, after murdering however many in the process of storming the base. He was a bastard, through and through. Erik turned around and did a double take when he saw me, I could tell from the look on his face that Charles had probably told him of my condition. Guess I could have a cigarette now. I pulled one out of the pack in my back pocket and lit it with some condensed electricity. Oops, I'll probably only live 364 days now. Fuck it. I took a drag, a nice long one, savoring the flavor.
I didn't notice Erik approaching me, or maybe I did and I chose to ignore him. "Aren't you underage?" He asked, pointing at the empty bottle in front of me. I nearly smirked.
"Who cares if I am or not. Doesn't really matter in the light of everything else." Cracking open another bottle I refilled my glass. I wasn't all that fond of alcohol, but I was in desperate need of it mulling affects. Last time I'd really had any booze was when my brothers were all trying to see who could last the longest and I decided to pitch in. 10 shots of tequila later I was passed out and my brothers were getting chewed out by my dad. Granted I was only 15. You can understand
Erik snickered at my response before taking the seat next to me. "Kids like you are the reason why this country's falling apart."
I took another drag and blew the access smoke in his face. "Are you sure it isn't assholes like Sebastian Shaw?" He gave me a sarcastic look; I just smirked halfheartedly.
For the next couple of minutes we sat in moderate silence, utter silence actually. Erik had poured himself a glass of bourbon and poured me one too. He really was a strange man that I couldn't quite understand. That was fine, he'd seen some monsters I'd never be faced with and it's not like we had many shared life experiences. Still. We could still sit down and have a drink.
"We're leaving in a couple of hours." He said suddenly. "Call your parents, get packed, do whatever you have to. I'm going to tell the driver to leave if you're not there at exactly 11. Don't be late."
He downed the rest of his drink and he placed it back down on the counter. With one swift motion he was walking back out into the courtyard to do whatever Erik's like him do. I gave his exposed back an incredulous look for I was little bit bewildered. So either he didn't know that crucial fact about my life span and I just broke my pact with Charles or Erik did know and just wasn't bringing it up. If it was the latter then that's precisely why I like Erik, he's not a sappy guy. I don't think we've ever had a sentimental conversation in all the time I've known him.
I sipped at my bourbon a bit more before attempting to stand, something I found extremely easy considering I downed half a bottle of whiskey and some change. Too easy, actually. I didn't even feel a little bit buzzed. Charles told me that all of my vital functions would be functioning at a faster rate because of my electrical circuits going haywire. That my body was working about 400% more efficiently than any other human. Meaning my metabolism was probably working like crazy and filtering out the alcohol before it had a fair chance to take effect. I groaned at this realization and I threw the empty bottle of whiskey at the bar. It shattered easily. A few managed to scrap my exposed arms and moments later the wounds had healed and I learned something new about myself. Guess the 400% included excessive healing. Joy.
Contently discontent with the whole situation I headed towards my room, my hand going through my hair in frustration. Several times I had to stop and ask for directions but eventually I got there. I reached for the handle when I noticed that my door was slightly ajar. I nudged it all the way open with my foot to see Raven sniffling as she was putting away my things into a suitcase. She apparently didn't notice me as I walked up to her. I placed a hand on her back, causing her to jump. Shocked yellow eyes looked up at me, tears pooling over like an overflowing bucket of water once she saw me. She threw her arms around my neck barely a second later, crying wholeheartedly into my shoulder.
"Max! You're okay!" She sobbed loudly and honestly.
I embraced my emotionally unstable friend while running my fingers through her blonde locks, smiling sadly. "Of course I'm okay." But I wasn't exactly going to tell her about my death sentence. The details of which I wasn't quite too sure of myself. All I knew was my body was going to turn into electricity one day and I would be nothing but a memory. I couldn't put Raven through that.
Raven's clumsy hands clutched hopelessly at my back. This girl really did make me feel at home. I was going to miss her when I bit it. I didn't want to think about that, not anymore. I just wanted to go wherever we were going and kick some evil mutant ass. All of a sudden Raven stopped moving. I looked into her natural yellow eyes to try to figure out what was wrong. It was as if she were in a trance. Giving her a confused look I waited for her to snap out of it. After a few seconds she shook her head and looked at me.
"There was a screw up with the transportation, they'll be here in twenty minutes." She told me before running back to her own room, wiping away her tears and forcing her eye color to go back to the green she preferred.
I shook my head at the sight. She was such a cute thing. I resumed what Raven had started. Not that I had all that much stuff to pack. I had a couple pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts, a few tanks, a button up, and my tie. Though I still had all the stuff Raven gave me to pack. All those colorful shirts were messing with my visual receptors. There was a reason why I only wore black, white, and denim. I actually don't handle color very well. Frustrated I just sort of grabbed all of them and threw them in, hoping the suitcase would shut despite the overflowing clothes. I threw the suitcase on the floor and started jumping on it. Shut mother fucker! A knock at my door distracted me from my mission.
I looked up to see Hank nervously standing in my doorway with a suitcase in each hand. A smile teased the corners of my lips. "'Sup Hank?" I asked as I zipped my suitcase shut successfully. Mission accomplished.
"I just thought that I- uh... that I could take your bag down for you... i-if you wanted." He said without looking up from his feet. What a sweet guy.
"Thanks for the offer, but I can handle this bit of luggage." I paused and watched his face fall a little. I smiled. "But if you want I'll walk down with you, keep you company with my sarcasm." I have to admit, I had an ulterior motive. I didn't want to get hopelessly lost. What? I'm directionally challenged.
Hank smiled back and nodded briskly.
How freaking adorable. Note to self, kiss Hank at least once before you die. I put that little memo in the back of my head as I grabbed my surprisingly heavy bag, still nothing I couldn't handle, and headed out the door with Hank at my side. We didn't talk much. I liked that, I was getting tired of talking. With Hank as my guide we made it to the parking garage in less than five minutes. I didn't even know we were supposed to go to the parking garage. I would've sat on the curb in front of the base for hours and they would've left me here, knowing Erik. Good thing I had Hank!
At the far end of the garage there were two black sedans with the trunks popped. Erik and Charles were talking in front of one of them. When Charles saw me coming he rushed over to me and grabbed my bag. He promptly threw it into the trunk of the sedan he had been leaning against. I gave him a sour look while projecting, 'I don't need any special treatment!', at him. Charles gave me a sad smile, guess he could hear me then.
'We can never be too cautious.' He projected back. Then, as if nothing happened, he continued his conversation with his friend. I turned to look at Hank who was giving me an unsure look. I gave him a smile and a pat on the shoulder before grabbing his bags and putting it in the same trunk my bag was in. The telepath gave me an almost glare while I gave a full glare back. I knew Charles was just trying to protect me but I didn't need protection. I just needed for life to continue as if nothing had happened. Please Charles, don't do this to me. I hope he heard me. I really did.
Behind me I could hear the others chattering, signalling their arrival. I turned to look just to be sure. Alex and Sean were talking about something, each with a suitcase in tow, and Raven brought up the rear with puffy eyes. I ran to her. Alex turned to give me a look as I passed him but I didn't give a crap. She looked up at me as I approached her. I just swung my arms around her neck. Her hands let go of the two bags she had been holding to hug me back. She was shaking, that much was evident. It seemed as if everything that had happened in the past twelve hours finally came crashing down on her. I gently rubbed her back as she began sobbing into the crook of my neck. Poor girl. Suddenly, Charles was beside us coaxing Raven towards the car. His face was twisted in a pain I couldn't describe. It was clear that he hated seeing his sister so torn up. He picked up her bags while we started walking slowly over to the car.
When we finally approached the rest of the group we divvied ourselves up, kids were going in one car, momma Charles, papa Erik, and nana Moira in the other. I know, I'm mean. But Moira wasn't the best at first impressions and my first impression of her was that she's a crotchety old woman who has never had fun in her life. She was already in the car so she couldn't hear me explain this to Raven to get a laugh out of her. Both Charles and Erik heard me though, Charles laughed quietly while Erik gave me the most vehement sneer I had ever seen. Sorry Erik.
"I wonder where we're going." Sean said absentmindedly as he threw his and Alex's stuff into the trunk. Charles and I put Raven's stuff in next. No one bothered to answer Sean. We didn't really know either and we were all still too exhausted to make up any wild theories.
One by one we all filed into the car, Alex and Sean took the front, Hank, Raven and I took the back. Our agent slide into the drivers seat and waited for the car ahead of us to go. While we waited I began braiding Raven's hair, or at least I did my best. She seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, a great accomplishment on my end considering the fact that I've never been friends with a girl in my life, not counting Jules. I actually missed Jules, she kept me sane. Or I drove her insane which made me look more sane. But I digress. She was still someone important to me. Made me sad that I would probably never see her again.
Finally, the car in front of us started their engines and we were off to the races! Not exactly, our driver had to put our car in gear first. Now, we were off to the races.
I didn't know the races required three different automobile changes. Guess wherever we were going Charles didn't want anyone to know. We got out in Philly to ditch the Feds and we got on a bus and got off again in a little remote town in New York. I had always wanted to see the Big Apple. And I was getting a little hungry. Zing.
We then grabbed two cabs and headed off to Buckingham Palace. Okay, not quite. I know you can't take a taxi out across the ocean. Maybe in a decade or so you could. As I thought that I remembered my impending doom, how I'd never even see water taxis, or my 18th birthday, and promptly pushed it out of my mind. I could actually feel Charles in my head trying to keep me from thinking about it sometimes, like a wall over a portion of my memory. I let the telepath slide on that one. Back to the Buckingham-Charles Palace. As we all stood there in complete awe staring at the beautiful building, Sean was the first one to speak. God I actually love that red headed idiot. He could always pull us out of our space.
"This is yours?" He asked.
Charles smiled affectionately. "No, it's ours."
Beside him, Erik scoffed slightly. "Honestly Charles I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship." I actually snickered.
"It was a hardship softened by me." Raven informed our resident German as she shouldered past him to Charles. Her brother kissed her left temple. "Come on, time for the tour."
I smirked at Raven. She was the best. We all followed her bouncy steps towards the Palace, granted we weren't flouncing around like she was. That's just Raven for you. Sean and Alex were shoving each other and Alex started chasing Sean. Moira was happily next to Charles, as was Erik, leaving Hank and myself in the back. He gave me the most adorable smile, he gives me a lot of those, and I felt the sudden urge to hold his hand. I decided it was harmless and let my urges take over, as was the norm with me. My hand grabbed his and I led him towards the Palace. I looked back at his red face; I couldn't stop the smile that was threatening to form on my face. I was going to make the most out of my time, even if it was only a year... possibly less.