Heroes And Mutants - Chapters 1 And 2 free porn video

Heroes and mutants a Whateley academy story by Souffle Girl Chapter 1: October 2011, somewhere in the suburbs of Washington, DC "Still reading those comics?" Alex looked up from the latest issue of The Avengers, waving the other person to sit next to him. Ellen straightened her short black hair and accepted the invitation. "You'll never find a woman if you keep wasting time on the stuff you know?" she said, placing her tray on the table of the cafeteria. Alex put the comic book on the table next to his tray, just in time to see the third element of the group approaching: Richard, a tall and fat boy with thick glasses. The three of them formed a stable group of outsiders in their class, since they were not at all part of the "popular" social groups. Richard due to having been outed as gay, Ellen because of her "rebel punk girl" attitude and Alex because of his obsession with two things: comics and history. In fact, they were quite mismatched among themselves too. But their common fate led them to band together and over time they became friends. "Did you hear about Detroit?" Richard asked. The others nodded. The night before, a group of mutant terrorists had attacked a school in Detroit. Pupils were taken as hostages and negotiations for their release were still ongoing. "If only they had a proper superhero team. They would pull them out of trouble," Alex commented. "What? They're crazy people. Mutants too full of themselves putting on a costume and playing at being heroes. Madness," Richard said. "Still, sometimes they come in handy, even for the police. They're not equipped or trained to fight a mutant threat." "Bah. You've been reading too many comic books Alex. Come back to reality: those are not heroes. They're guys gambling their lives." Ellen meanwhile was eating her mashed potatoes, watching the scene with amusement. "Phew. Males," she chuckled. "Always thinking about heroes and villains..." The two boys looked at her with an air of exaggerated sadness. "Still, heroic mutants do exist," Alex began. "Oh don't start on that now, huh?" Ellen said, expecting yet another rant about how nice it would be to have superpowers. "That's disgusting. How could you really like mutants!" said a female voice. It was Carey, Ellen's twin sister. As identical in appearance, as different in personality. "Everybody knows that mutants are dangerous. I wouldn't go near one of them by mistake. Once on TV I saw one with the body of a snail! It was horrible!" "Oh poor little sister. What will you do when the evil mutant comes to eat you?" Ellen told her scornfully. "Yeah. They say that David, my neighbor, is a mutant, you know? They say that's why he no longer comes to school and never goes out. Yet he used to have a soft spot for you once," Richard said with a grin. "You know, one of these days you might just find his slimy tentacles all over your bed." Carey looked at him with an expression somewhere between horror and indignation. "You three are sick, I tell you," she repeated, before turning away and at a rapid pace. The three looked at each other and laughed loud. Teasing Carey was Ellen's favorite activity, and she was very good at it. Unfortunately, the three of them were among the few not to have a negative opinion on mutants in town. Many in the world shared Carey's thoughts, and took care to show their opinion at every opportunity. The mutants were cast out by families, schools, could not find a job or a partner. They were outcasts. And those of them who really played supervillain, such as that dictator of that small island nation, Karedonia, cast a huge dark shadow on all of their kind. Richard glanced at the wall clock. "Better finish eating before making late to class." ----------------------------------------- Back home, Alex stood up from the chair and added the comic book he just finished to the long line of books that, in perfect order, followed one another in the library of his room. With the utmost care he made sure that it could not fall over. On the same shelf, side by side, stood all kinds of comics and books. Most of the books were about World War II. His eyes fell on the top shelf. A small space dedicated to his hero, the man he admired the most in the world. He picked up an old black and white photo in a simple wooden frame, depicting five men in paratroopers uniform. World War II. France, near Bastogne. At the center of the photo, sitting on the remains of a German Panzer, a boy with disheveled hair: his great-grandfather, Sergeant Rupert Hess. Best known by the code name of Stalker. At the time of his great-grandfather mutants didn't enjoy much a better fame than in 2011 , but people with their skills were a "necessary evil" in war. And Rupert Hess was the best mutant soldier of the United States. To begin with, it was with the 101st Airborne: a legend of the war, tough as nails and ready for the worst. In addition, his great- grandfather had the power to become invisible in the shadows and sneak behind anyone. He had been put in charge of a special unit within the company. All mutants. "Stalker's Hunters" they called them. To his right, in the picture, a tall, slender black man. Codename: Deathmark. His superhuman reflexes made him the best sniper in the company. Then there was Tank, ten feet tall and so strong he could uproot a tree. Blaster, capable of firing energy beams. And then, Tinman, the demolitions expert, as well as an expert gadgeteer who could put together any mechanical device using the most unlikely components. Alex stared at the picture for a moment, then placed it back in its place, close to another frame that contained the badge of the 101st, the head of an eagle screaming, which had belonged to his great- grandfather. One day I'm going to be just like you, he thought. I will be worth of your heritage. Most of his family members did not like to think about Stalker. Descending from a mutant was a shame for them to hide. But not for him. He remembered the long afternoons spent talking with his ??great- grandmother Betty, when she told him of the few months she spent with his great-grandfather. It was almost a movie love story. In the weeks after D-Day, the Hunters had moved ahead of the main force behind enemy lines, cutting them as a hot knife through butter. They busted pillboxes and captured bridges. In the end, the Germans had had to send their own unit of mutants against them. The clash, according to witnesses, was epic. And the Hunters were victorious, even if his great-grandfather was wounded. He spent a few months in a field hospital and there he met her great- grandmother. The soldier and the nurse, a timeless classic. It was love at first sight and the day before his return to the front line, Rupert Hess married Betty Hamilton. It was the last time she saw it. Rupert fought in Bastogne, Belgium, taking part in the difficult defense of the town. A few days after taking that photo, Rupert died. Where the Germans and winter failed, a wide allied artillery bombardment succeeded. With all the irony of the world, Rupert Hess, aka Stalker, died to the shrapnel of a 105 caliber shell, 100% made in USA. Alex had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his great grandfather. After graduation he wanted to join the army. Six feet tall, well-toned muscles, no sight defect. They had to let him in. And once there, he'd serve his country as Stalker did before him. But sometimes, at night, in the darkness of his room, he imagined something else. He dreamed of one day to discover that he had the powers of his great-grandfather. Where others would have shuddered to the idea of becoming a mutant, Alex toyed with it like a forbidden dream. How would it feel to slip into the shadows, unnoticed, behind some supervillain? Or to fly up in the sky, or to shoot light rays like Stalker's fellows? Once, at eight years old, his mother asked him what he wanted to become when he grew up. "A superhero," he replied. Sometimes he still laughed at his naivety, and yet... At seventeen, the dream, after all, had never really died. ----------------------------------------- "Come on Alex, get up. You'll be late for school!" his mother shouted. Alex swore quietly at the burst of headache that sentence caused him. He felt vaguely awake, his head in a bubble, his temples were throbbing and all his muscles felt sore. It almost felt like the mononucleosis he had the previous year, only a thousand times worse. He tried to sit up, but the room began to spin and he fell heavily on the pillow. "Mom I'm not well," he mumbled. "I think I caught something. The flu is running at school lately." His mother Lara sat down next to him and like any self-respecting hen laid her hand on his forehead and exclaimed, "You're hot, you must have a fever!" Alex's only answer was a grunt. "Stay at home, I'll call the school. I have to go to work, let me know if it gets worse." He turned around and went back to sleep. He undulated for a long period of time between sleep and wakefulness. He was only vaguely aware of his aching body and every now and then voices came from the waking world, a place that felt like another universe. In the end, he lost consciousness completely. ----------------------------------------- When Alex came to, he realized that he was wide awake and that his body didn't hurt anymore. All the pain was gone. Still, something was wrong. "Alex," said his mother, somewhere to his right. "You're awake! Calm down, I'm calling the doctor." He opened his eyes and saw white everywhere. A hospital room. What happened? Was his illness this serious? He turned his head and looked at his mother. Her long red hair was disheveled, and her green eyes had dark circles. She looked very tired. And worried. A middle-aged African American woman entered the room. She had a white coat and a plastic badge. The doctor, clearly. "Alex, you're conscious. Well now relaxed... You had a bad episode." He looked at her, then sat up. Immediately he felt a strange weight on his chest, and a cascade of hair fell in front of his face. "What... What..." he mumbled, sweeping the hair aside. Then he looked down and saw a body... It was his body. OK. But at the same time it was not. It was a woman's body, and he was looking at it from the inside out! "What the hell!" he exclaimed, in a voice that did not belong to him. "I am..." "Alex calm down, everything is ok," said his mother, worried. "What? But I'm... I'm a..." he repeated. "Yeah, I guess you noticed. Now listen to me," began the doctor. "I'm Dr. Tanya Grant. We took you in a few days ago. You had a high fever and you were unconscious. We didn't understand much of it... But then you started to change." A thought made ??his way into Alex's mind. An idea both frightening and strangely attractive. "I'm... I'm a mutant?" The doctor looked at him, then after a moment she nodded. "So it seems. Must be tough." "... How much have I changed?" he asked, then again tentatively looked down. He was a girl. A real woman. He raised both arms, thinner than she remembered and hairless. The weight on his chest was exactly what he feared: a pair of breasts. He could not see further down as his body was covered by sheets, but the hips and thighs showing through the fabric were undoubtedly feminine. "Well I guess you've noticed that now you're... a girl... " the doctor said. "I'm sorry, really." Alex stood up from the bed, still in disbelief. He could feel all her new curves move with him. He felt none of the fatigue or exhaustion that he'd expected after what he'd gone through. Conversely, he felt at the peak of fitness, full of energy, as if somehow his new body was a perfectly designed machine. He walked over to a mirror on the wall and looked at his reflection. He was struck by the resemblance to her mother. Somehow, his change had given free rein to his Irish genes, because the girl Alex was standing in front of had thick, red curly hair and piercing green eyes, with strange blue-gray streaks. A sprinkling of freckles decorated a small nose. He could see the resemblance to the old Alex, of course. But overall, the feeling was that of watching a flower that had just bloomed. Where once was an plain boy, now stood a girl who would have certainly attracted her share of looks. Especially with that bosom, a little more developed than the usual person of his age. "Am I... really? It's so amazing..." Alex knew he should feel horrified by the prospect of being a woman. Yet he could not take his mind off an idea: I'm a mutant. I probably have the powers. His mother approached him, now only a few inches shorter than him. "Is it okay honey?" she asked, visibly worried. Alex turned, still looking stunned. "I think... I think so. So far." ----------------------------------------- Alex was discharged in the evening of the same day, after a thorough medical examination. He had discovered that his period of unconsciousness had lasted three days. At the end of the first day, her mother had come home from work and had found him in a pool of sweat, with the first changes already visible. He had immediately called the doctors and he was hospitalized. From the medical examination, much more careful that what he would have liked as it also entailed a gynecological exam, Alex learned he was now a little less than 5' 6'' tall, in line with the stages of puberty of a girl (sigh) of his age, that he had to expect everything was working properly down there, including a period (double sigh) and the possibility of becoming pregnant (triple sigh). Oh, he also discovered he was a natural redhead. On the other hand, despite some basic tests, no one was able to prove that Alex had powers. On leaving the hospital, he felt as if he had just been spat out of a washing machine. He was also a little disappointed by the fact that he hadn't found any obvious power, not that he was going to just give up without experimenting a little more once home. "Alex, now listen to me," her mother said with a serious tone, once on their way home. "If you told people what happened, we would immediately become targets for all the town's mutant haters. We have to leave. Tomorrow I'll ask to be transferred to another office. New York or DC, maybe. Once there, we will act as if nothing had happened, and you were exactly what you look to be: a normal teenage girl." Alex looked at her in shock. "What? But mom... what about my friends? And school?" "You have to understand that your old life is over, Alex. We can not afford for people to know that you're a mutant. In this regard, as long as we remain in town you'll be for every purpose your cousin Daisy. She never came to see us here and no one knows her in person," she went on. "Oh, and one more thing. From this moment on, I want you to learn to refer to you using female pronouns. You have to get used to this as long as you have the chance, or someone might suspect something." The car fell silent, while Alex contemplated the end of his life as he knew it. ----------------------------------------- Alex sat on the bed in his room, turning over a photo of his great- grandfather in his hands , wishing fervently that he was alive. He really could use his advice now. His forbidden dream had come true. He had received both his blessing and his curse. He had lost his body, he would lose his friends and his place of birth. But he had earned the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of his hero, for real. Not in the army, likely. Mutants tended to be frowned upon. One that had changed sex, on top of that? No way. But if he really found out he had powers... His mother was at work, as well as the neighbors. It was the perfect moment. He threw the picture on the bed and ran into the garden, to the rear of the house. And he began to experiment. The first and most obvious attempt was to curl up in the shade of the house, close his eyes, and wish to disappear. He thought he felt something, as if darkness wrapped around him. Was it working? Then he heard a mewing. It was Red, the neighbor's cat, busy as usual at rubbing on his legs. He felt like a complete idiot. He stroked the cat, then got up and decided to try something else. And immediately an idea came to his mind. What could the heroes of his comics do, which really was worth trying? He smiled, then began to focus on the idea of ??rising in the air. Suddenly his whole world ended up upside down. Even more than it was already, of course. For a brief moment he felt the gravity under his feet reduce, then suddenly he found himself falling. Headside. Upwards! He went into a panic, and he lost his focus. Suddenly, he was falling sideways straight towards the wall of the house. He hit it with his back, then fell to the ground face first. He stood up, his head spinning in all directions, staggered, then emptied his stomach in a bush. -------------------------------------------------- Okay, so I can fly, he thought. Or at least choose which way to fall... He was about to turn on the computer in his room to take a look at a certain idea when he heard his mother's voice calling from downstairs. "Daisy, come down. Come on" Alex suppressed a surge of anger at being called like that airhead of his cousin, who he cordially hated since she declared to be ashamed of descended from a "disgusting mutie." He went downstairs, still in his pajamas. "What is it mom?" he asked "We have to go shopping. You no longer have anything that fits." Alex looked at her as if she were mad. "What? You don't expect me..." "No arguing. A young lady like you needs a suitable wardrobe." She threw Alex a paper bag. It contained a set of clothes that had to belong to his sister Heather, leftovers from before she went to college. White top, denim skirt and sneakers. Plus a set of brand new bra and panties. "A skirt? But Mom!" "Your sister's jeans wouldn't fit. She's shorter than you. Now go get changed." Alex reluctantly obeyed and got ready to go to the slaughter. ----------------------------------------- Back from an exhausting shopping session, Alex was lying face down on his bed. It had been terribly humiliating. His mother had not spared him anything. From lingerie to shoes, from clothes to make-up, she dragged him around relentlessly. Insisting all the time that it was not normal for a girl of her age not to enjoy a shopping trip, and that he should try harder to pretend to like it or people would get suspicious. She had even dragged him into a beauty salon, where he'd been forced to have his hair and nails done and even get her ears pierced. He got up from the bed cursing whatever god had played him this trick, then decided it was time to cheer himself up with something better and turned on the computer. With his interest in his great-grandfather, Alex was very knowledgeable about mutants. Not only those of the past, but also those of the present. He was well aware of the fact that there was a system of classification of powers, and that mutations often entailed enormous physical changes. And even that it was not so rare that a mutant changed sex, as happened to him. He remembered a certain website and called it back to the browser. Oh yeah, Mom. Now I'm the one having fun. And he clicked print. ----------------------------------------- "WHAT?" Mom said, wide eyed. "...A school for mutants?" Alex nodded, waving the brochure in his hand in front of his mother. It was written in big letters with as a background the photo of a building, in a hilly landscape. It said: "Whateley Academy - the right place for your mutant child" "It's the best solution, isn't it? I'll be around people like me, and they'll teach me to develop my powers. And to use them without hurting anyone." "My daughter will not go to a school full of... those people!" "Your daughter is one of those people!" Alex said, exasperated. "I mean... think about it! I wouldn't need to pretend to be my cousin! Anywhere else, I'm bound to give something away someday!" He opened the brochure and showed her mother a picture. A group of students in formal attire, the school logo clearly visible on their chest. The caption read: Diplomas, class 2010. He pointed to a girl in the front row. "She's like me. She changed sex with her mutation. She used to be male too. Said so herself. And there are much more like her." His mother looked at the photo closely, then took the brochure from the hands of Alex. "All right, I'll think about it. But I don't promise anything, okay?" Chapter 2 Someone wrote that taking the wrong turn in the Miskatonic valley would lead a traveler to a strange and unsettling place. Reality, Alex thought as the car trudged up the bumpy dirt road, was certainly less adventurous but much drabber. In an hour's journey un the mountain roads in the valley everything they had encountered were half- empty hamlets and disused warehouses. The area lived off tourism, and the economic crisis had put it all on its knees. He wondered whatever Lovecraft found in that place to choose it as the setting for his stories. The only exception was Dunwich, the last village they had gone through, which seemed to still alive, probably clinging to the nearby school. Nature, at least, was pleasant to the eye, the hills covered with the brown color of autumn. They finally took a better road and in a few minutes they came within sight of the campus. "Here we are. You must be crazy to build a school in this God-forsaken place," said Lara from the driver's seat. "It keeps curious away to ensure the privacy of students," stated Alex. "It keeps parents with back pain away too" she said with a grimace. They parked in a clearing in the dirt in front of the gates. Alex opened the door and stepped out, treading her sunglasses on her nose. She adjusted a strap of her bra, that after just a week she had learned to hate more and more, then was joined by her mother. It was funny how a week had been enough for her to start referring to herself in feminine pronouns, the fact is that her mother clung to her " cover " to the extreme and never used the male ones, and corrected her whenever she did. Result, now she formulated sentences with "her" even in her head. They walked along a paved driveway in the direction of a group of buildings , the largest of which had a semicircular shape. To his left, Alex saw a couple of guys, at a first guess smaller than her, studying under the shade of a tree. They walked towards the main building, a two-story brick building with three wings, when suddenly Alex was approached by a strange object. A small ball of chrome-plated metal, the size of a fist, quickly rolled up to her feet with a high-pitched hum , then stopped abruptly, and many hatches were opened on the surface to reveal a complex system of mechanical arms. Finally it propped himself up on fours impossibly long legs and extended a set of tools of unknown function towards Alex, studying her from head to feet. "HAL! How many times have I told you not to annoy strangers?" shouted a female voice. A girl about the same age as Alex ran up to the "thing", which withdrew all its appendages on itself. It looked like a puppy that had just been reprimanded. Alex thought that, if it had had a face, it would have been flushed. "Hello!" the girl said, tidying her long hair in a ponytail. She didn't seem in the least uncomfortable in her flounces dress, one that would have embarrassed a Disney princess. She also was clearly a mutant, as she had ebony black skin, silvery eyes and white hair. "I'm Emily. You must excuse HAL, he's a bit too sociable. I should ask my sister to work a little more on his programming. I don't think I've ever seen you here, are you new?" HAL returned to its spherical shape and rolled rapidly between the feet of her mistress. "More or less... I'm visiting the school, I'd like to enter the school. I'm Alex, by the way. Is... he yours?" "Yeah, I built him in between other projects. A girl gotta have fun right?" Emily said, chuckling. "I guess so... Do I need to be concerned about it bearing the name of a murderous computer?" Emily laughed. "Not particularly... It 's just that I like old science fiction." "So Alex , are you coming or not? We have an appointment!" her mother called out, annoyed, from entrance to the main complex. "I'm coming mom!" she replied. "I have to go. Pleased to meet you!" "Our pleasure! HAL, say goodbye," Emily said with a smile, while the little robot extended a mechanical arm to wave at Alex. ----------------------------------- The woman looked around forty, tall and athletic and dressed in a gray formal suit, adorned with the school's logo. She wore her blond hair in a ponytail. She was sitting in her office behind an elegant desk, and motioned to the two new entries to sit. "Welcome. You must be Lara Chapman and Alex Desmond. Pleased to meet you. I am Elizabeth Carson and I'm the headmistress of this school." Alex's mother, not even sitting, held out her hand to introduce herself. "It's a pleasure..." she said, extremely nervous. "I hope you had a pleasant journey. On the phone you mentioned the fact that your daughter has just manifested as a mutant," said the headmistress, her gaze lingering on Alex. She sat down and began to nervously drum her fingers on the desk. "True. Though we have not figured out exactly if and what powers Alex possesses... she changed a lot. Within a few days." An awkward silence fell for a moment. "You can as well say it, Mom," Alex snapped angrily. "I was a boy. One day I fall sick, and bam, a week ago I wake up in a hospital bed with all the equipment changed." Lara jumped at the sentence's harshness, but the headmistress didn't appear surprised at all. She just nodded. "It's probably an Exemplar trait. Don't worry , Alex. This is Whateley, strange is a very relative concept. You're not the first student to have spontaneously changed sex." Her mother looked relieved at this statement, and began to bombard Carson with a long line of questions. Alex learned that the school was actually in the territory of a tribe of natives, which made it a sort of neutral ground of governments. The students came from all over the world to learn to control their powers in the best way possible, without running the risk of hurting someone by mistake. In addition to the usual subjects of a school, such as literature and science, there were courses of martial arts, magic, psychic powers... even the shooting ranges. The more Alex listened, the more she realized that she had found exactly the school of her dreams. She imagined herself in a form-fitting costume, intent on sparring with other students. The idea made ??her extremely happy. If only she had not to worry about breasts, she sighed. "Huh?" she said, realizing that the headmistress was talking to her directly. "Do you have mutants in the family, Alex?" she repeated. Alex's eyes lit up. "My great-grandfather was. A war hero. Rupert Hess, they called him Stalker," he said, swollen with pride. The headmistress showed a surprised expression. "So you're Stalker's great-granddaughter. I didn't know he had children. I used to know him." Alex was puzzled. "But... he died in 1945..." "And I was born in the '30s" Headmistress Carson quietly stated. Alex and Lara were speechless. "But... but... That would make you... " "Not all the mutants age in the same way" she said. "So, do you already know what your powers are?" Alex shook her head. "I'm still confused. Do you have a way to help me out?" "I'll take you to Dr. Polland, we have a whole system of laboratories to test the new mutants." ----------------------------------- The tests consisted of many different activities , but they began with the simplest ones. A team of doctors watched as she tried many exercise machines, noting her maximum physical performance. She discovered that her performance, despite being very modest for a mutant, was comparable to that of her old body and certainly more than what could be expected given her current appearance. The running test, however, had been a surprise. When she tried to accelerate to her maximum capacity the world around her seemed to slow down and almost stop. When she stopped running, a lab technician told her she had sped up to over 75 mph in less than three seconds. The tests on the magic and psychic powers proved a total failure, as well as attempts to conjure raw energy or objects. The most interesting part of her tests came with the warping exercises. Alex found that she was able to change the gravity around her, reducing or increasing it, or changing its direction. After several attempts she managed not only to hang from the ceiling upside down , but also to change the gravity around other objects, allowing her to cause a ball to "drop" parallel to the floor and in the direction of her hand. Unfortunately, the nausea caused by the continuing shift of her points of reference was a serious limit to her abilities, but the doctors told her that she would get used to it eventually. Finally, came the combat tests. The results were mixed: while Alex didn't seem to have special offensive capabilities, she managed to defend against each of the foam balls shoot against her by a special machine, either slowing down time to dodge it or diverting its trajectory mid-flight. An hour later, Alex was sitting at the table of Dr. Polland, who was reviewing the results of her tests. "Good. Are you familiar with the classification system of powers?" he asked "A little. I read something. They are classified into different types , and for each one the power is identified in seven classes, right?" The doctor nodded. "More or less. From the results of your test, you would classify as Exemplar 1 and Warper 2" he began. "Your Exemplar 1 trait merely means that your body transformed to fit a model called BIT , which represents your idealization of a human being. Yet unlike someone of higher level, you do not have particularly better physical characteristics than a baseline human," he said before looking at her. "Aside for your looks." Alex blushed. "And why should my idealization of a human being be a woman?" Dr. Polland shook his head. "We don't know why so many males have a female BIT. It's a matter for major debate in the scientific community. The only thing we know for sure is that there are more male to female changelings than female to male ones, and the difference is increasing." "The interesting part, however, comes from your Warper trait. As a level 2, your powers are above average even for a mutant, and seem to have to do with the manipulation of spacetime. What do you know of Einstein's general relativity?" asked Polland "Um... very little, I'm afraid. Has it to do with that twin paradox thing?" "In part" Polland said. "In essence, Einstein formulated a theory that describes how space and time are modified by the presence of mass. Your main power seems to be to manipulate gravity, simulating an excess or a reduction in the mass of objects. Without getting technical, this allows you to distort the geometry of space. Lines that should be straight, as the trajectories of foam balls, become curved. Down becomes up. And all this can also affect the flowing of time: as you noticed, you're capable of slowing the flow of your subjective time and, I suspect, to accelerate it too." Alex was getting lost, listening about all that physics. "Basically, you're telling me that I can apply a gravitational force on things, and I can speed up or slow down time." "To put it simply..." Polland said , sighing. Evidently, he hoped for the young girl to have grasped more than that. "And... do you think I could manipulate gravity as to fly?" she asked "Well, with proper training, I don't see why not." ----------------------------------- When Alex joined her mother in the park, she felt strangely happy. They had just confirmed her mutant powers! She could move objects just by wishing it, run fast... and even fly! Still, she had to shove in a corner of her mind a nagging awareness of the price paid for her powers... "Mom, look at this!" she said while approaching. She began to run and a moment later she was at her mother's side. She looked at her open- mouthed. Just after that she concentrated on a stone at their feet and made it move upwards. She was laughing like a child, until... She lost control of the rock, now risen to fifteen feet high, and it fell straight onto her mother, hitting her on the shoulder. "Ouch ! Hey what... Be careful!" "Oops ! Sorry Mom, I think I still need to practice this trick..." Alex said, red with embarrassment. "Phew. Come on, it's time to go back home," Lara said. ----------------------------------- "I don't know if it's a good idea for you to go to Whateley, Alex," her mother solemnly proclaimed. Alex looked at her as if she had just been kicked, and hugged her knees to her chest on the sofa in the living room. "You're taking this as a game. I mean... superpowers? Hero costumes? What you did with that rock looks like solid proof to me." Alex felt her eyes wet with tears. She had always dreamed of an opportunity like this, and now... "Mom, please. I'm not a child. Whateley has all the necessary courses to teach me to use my powers. Exactly so that I can avoid things like that that incident." She sighed for a moment. "Mom, you have always taught me that a person needs to exploit their talents. You always liked photography, how do you think you would have felt if your father had prevented you from using a camera?" "Honey, when I take a picture I'm not risking anything. If it's a bad shot, I just throw it away. But here... your life could be in danger." "Mom , you know that I was going to join the army after graduating. How is Whateley worse than Baghdad?" "But Alex, you're only seventeen!" she begged, looking at Alex straight in the eyes. It hurted her to think of the pain she was causing her daughter, but... "Phew!" snapped the teenager. "You adults are always like this," She ran to her room and slammed the door shut. She'd get better, Lara thought, with a pang in my heart, as she left to go to work. ----------------------------------- "He's late. That's not like him," Richard said, glancing nervously at the clock. "Cool down. He'll come. The place is this : the grove behind old Flanders' house," Ellen said, lighting herself a cigarette. They sat on a stump in a clearing in a grove of trees. The place stank of urine and was definitely dirty, the kind of place where drunks went to wait for their hangover to pass. When you don't see your best friend for ten days, a message for an appointment in a place like that was really weird. The sound of leaves stirred revealed the figure of a red-haired girl, dressed in a pair of jeans and a blouse. "Hello... Uhm... I'm Alex" she said, blushing. Richard looked at her open-mouthed. "Alex?... But how... is this a joke?" "I'm afraid it's not" she said. "Turns out I'm a mutant. Ten days ago I fell ill and... bam. Spontaneous sex change." "I told you he was a mutant, Richard!" Ellen said, grinning. "You owe me ten bucks." "Wait, how do we know that she's not kidding?" Richard ventured. "Do you want to talk about that night when you had one of your brother's joints and you wanted to kiss me?" Alex asked with a grin Richard looked offended. "Hey, you promised we'd never talk about that night to anyone!" Ellen took a drag on her cigarette and laughed, with Alex following. "So you're one of us now?" Ellen asked. "Even..." Alex blushed. "Yeah. Doctors say I should also expect to have... um... you know, once a month..." "Serves you right. It'll Teach you to tease me when I'm moody!" Ellen gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Welcome to the team." Alex sat next to friends and told of the events of recent times, and in particular of Whateley , and how her mother did not want her to attend. "A real school for superheroes..." Ellen said at the end. "That's cool. You sure you can't convince your mother?" "To tell the truth, I don't know. I think she's worried about something bad happening to me," she replied. "So, why don't you show us these famed powers?" Alex smiled, then pointed her hand to a group of dry leaves on the ground. Focusing, she lifted them into the air and have them accelerate upward. Then she deactivated her power, and they fell in all directions in a shower. "It's... amazing!" Ellen said, grabbing one of the falling leaves. "They told me that one day I could fly," Alex said. "Can you imagine it? Hovering around with your thought alone..." "I'm a little jealous, Alex" said Ellen. "And I think Rick is too." She looked at the boy, who was still gaping after the show. "So, what do you think of a celebration? You don't find out you have superpowers every day," Ellen suggested. Alex looked undecided. "I don't know. My mother says I should avoid to show around, lay low." "Well, I do not see how you could attract attention if you do not use your powers. I mean, you look completely normal," she urged. "Come on, come on!" Rick added. Alex smiled. "OK then," and the three set off to the mall. ----------------------------------- "How are you?" Ellen asked , while Rick was queuing to buy nachos. "I mean... for someone who had a sex swap out of the blue a week ago, you seem all too normal." Alex knew that the time to talk about it would come, despite her attempts to avoid it. Ellen was no fool. "Dunno... my mother is very careful to let me use only female pronouns, and makes me behave like an ordinary girl. I suppose I'm getting used to it. And then I mean... it's not that much of a deal, right? Half of the world is a woman and goes on just fine." "Oh yeah?" said the friend. "Then you would have no problem at all being bedded by that handsome guy at the counter. I've seen how he look at your breasts. And I've seen how you look at him too." Alex flushed. It was true. Not only the guy didn't take his eyes off her, but she seemed unable to get rid of the thought of his big, athletic arms and shoulders, or his penetrating gaze... NO! It couldn't be... She couldn't be attracted to a man! She was... was... a boy! "So, Miss? Still so sure it's going to be easy?" "Okay, Ellen, you win. Maybe it is not all that easy. But there's not much I can do about it, you know! I might as well carry on as if nothing had happened." "This is the point , Alex. You can't pretend nothing has happened. You've been through a drastic change, and it's bound to have a huge impact on your life. The stronger you try to resist , the harder it will be when you crack. Be flexible, and you'll stand the blow." "And just where did this philosophical vein of yours come from?" Alex asked Ellen shrugged, and walked towards Rick who was returning with food. "Did I miss something?" he asked, sensing the tension in the air. "Girl stuff," said Ellen. ----------------------------------- Alex was happy to have spent an afternoon with her friends, after all that time. Finally she could talk about her situation with someone outside of the internet mutant chatrooms, and she felt really relieved. She knew that the two of them would have had no problem with her transformation. They were chatting amiably while crossing the street when a car suddenly appeared from a corner at high speed, driving straight towards them. Alex reacted instinctively. Time around her slowed. The front of the car deformed, as if an invisible force was stretching it, then the vehicle suddenly gave way and tore in two from front to back. Pieces of metal and glass flew in all directions, and the driver's face bent into a grimace when his right arm was involved in the distortion. Then it was over , and Alex found herself on the ground, her left arm bleeding, surrounded by friends, the remains of the car and a crowd of terrified passers-by. She looked around, panicking, and burst into tears. ----------------------------------- For the second time in less than two weeks Alex was sitting on a hospital bed. This time, a nurse was wrapping a bandage around her arm, which had been wounded by shrapnel in different points. She was ashamed of having cried, she never did that. But now she was a girl, she thought. Would she cry more often? She thanked the man, got up and went out into the corridor. She wanted a coffee. However, she didn't have time to get to the vending machines, because she met her mother, who immediately threw her arms around her neck. "You're okay! Thank goodness. I was so afraid for you!" "It's nothing mom... But I was scared too" she admitted. Emily and Rick, unhurt, sprang from behind Lara. "It 's good to see you. You scared the hell out of me!" Rick said. "Alex police officers want to talk about the accident," said her mother. Alex nodded and let herself be guided to a small room where two men in uniform were waiting, with a third person in civilian clothes. It was a short middle aged woman, dressed in serious and formal clothes. "Miss Alex Desmond, I guess," she said coldly. It was not a question. She held out her hand. "Deanne Westmond, Mutant Commission Office" Alex winced. MCO. Officially, an international organization for monitoring the activities of mutants. But in the mutant forums underground, there were far more sinister rumors. It was hard to understand how much was facts and how much conspiracy crap though. "Please sit down," she said, pointing at a chair. "I think we should talk about your situation. I guess you developed your powers only a short while ago." Alex nodded. "About ten days ago." "Can you control them?" she asked "Not yet," Alex said. "The accident... Was it me to have done that to that car? And what about the passengers?" "The driver was so full of cocaine that he wouldn't tell a man from a pole. Anyway, he'll will recover. But I dare to say that we all had a demonstration of what you can do... " said the woman. "and the damage you could cause." The woman's gaze could freeze A Yeti's blood. "It isn't standard practice for us to let a mutant with no control over her powers go quietly around. You know what would happen? Today's accident would happen again. Once. Twice. Till somebody could get hurt. Yourself, or a person dear to you. Or maybe an unlucky passer-by." She sat down. "I already talked to your mother. I know that you have contacted the Whateley Academy. It ' a good school. Go studying there, Alex. They'll keep you, and those around you, out of danger." "But... my mother thinks it's dangerous!" "Believe me, staying here would be much, much more dangerous. Oh, I took care to get you a mutant ID card, with a list of all your powers, as measured by Dr. Polland. Now go, and stay out of trouble." Alex left the room, still intimidated by the cold woman, finding her mother and friends waiting for her. "I thought about it some more," said her mother. "And I've talked to that woman. I believe that, all things considered, Whateley is the best place for you," and she looked at her with a smile. "Just promise me that you'll be careful, okay?" Alex smiled as Ellen and Rick showed her their thumbs-up from behind Lara ----------------------------------- "I'll be sorry to see you go," said her mother, as Alex was packing. She stood in front of her comic book collection, unsure on what to carry with her. "In a few I'll be back for Christmas." "I know. It 's just that... I'll be alone here. Keep in touch. And please, be careful." She nodded, then grabbed Stalker's memorabilia and arranged them carefully in her backpack. She was ready.