Here's a Gift

Watching tv as he was supposed to be working on his assessment. The same assessment that was due three hours ago, not that it mattered to Andrew, whose microwave meal and a comfy spot on the couch distracted him from his uni assessments. Having finished school last year and moved in with a roommate as soon as he could manage, he lazed around, having watched almost everything on his Netflix watchlist, and done the same for his other streaming services. Currently watching his recent favourite show, The Gifted, he revelled in the variations of abilities, the deep characters and the desperate struggle to survive in a society that hunts down people with the X-gene. Set after the X-Men disappeared, Sentinel services became part of the US law enforcement, with prisons filled with mutants, unable to access their abilities due to the collars around their necks.

A sigh escapes his lips, his words heard by only himself. "I would give anything to have powers like that, Andy's powers are super cool but he doesn't bother training them. So much wasted potential."

"I agree." A soft *pop* in the air exposes the new voice, clad in a shiny green bathrobe like an Irish Hugh Heffner. "And I accept your plea, I'm granting your wish so don't blame me. Taking from thee, things up to three, your world, your family, your sense of ME. Have fun in your new life, may your wish be worth the price you paid." Blaming his lack of sleep for the quite obvious hallucination, maybe some form of lucid dreaming, he goes for the shower, hoping to wash away the tiredness before crashing into bed. With closed eyes he stands still, letting the water cascade down his body, warm enough to relax him, but not quite enough to turn him into a lobster. Andrew pauses his showering, legs failing to support him as his head slams into the tiles, leaving his body a crumpled bundle of limbs on the floor, blood pouring from the gash in his head with no sign of stopping as the warm water prevents his body's last desperate attempts of hemostasis. This would have been painful for Andrew, had his soul been in the body, but now watching the dead, husk of a body, he feels nothing. Not pain, nor shock, nor horror. He has all the memories of his life, but none of the emotions attached to them, his soul little more than a storage device for information, like a weird, glowing, human-shaped USB stick. A sudden rush of colour drags Andrew from his contemplation, and soon he can feel again, the warmth and the cool sensations pouring over his body like a shower. But the temperatures got more extreme. He's in agony.

POV- Andy

Having bullies at school is a fairly common occurrence, but when I say these guys kick my ass, I mean they make me want to get homeschooled, which considering how overbearing my family can be, is saying something. In an attempt to escape my thoughts and the house, I sneak out, getting a ride to the school dance with my sister Lauren. I know I won't have any friends there, but I just need to get out of my own head. Between the dreams and the bullying, my head is a swirling chaotic mess. The dance had been fairly okay actually, the music not overly pop-focused, and it seemed like someone our age had picked the playlist, which meant the songs weren't 30 years old. Then came my 'fan club,' spotting me from across the room and dragging me into the gymnasium's locker rooms. In any other circumstance I would have laughed, making some snide comment or innuendo, but having 2 people hold you on the ground, my arms gripped as if in a vice, as the third punches you, berates you and turns the showers on you, really ruins the mood. "What's wrong, too cold?" The smirk on his face and his goon's laughter promises pain and my initial screams of shock and discomfort turn to panicked yells. "Let me fix that." Cranking the shower as hot as it will go, the steam rising thick from the heat, the water crashes over me, burning my skin as I struggle, floundering on the wet tiles as I'm held under the water as they laugh. My eyes closed to avoid direct burns, I can't help but think, 'Somebody help me! Get them off of me! GET THEM OFF ME!'

"GET OFF!" My desperation turning into rage, my yell seems to pull at my insides, my ears pop under the pressure and for what seems like a moment I feel nothing. A huge surge of memories invade my mind. Memories of another life in another world, time spent as a musician and uni student.

"Andy! Andy!" Waking from my thoughts, I look up at Lauren, her face terrified as she looks down at me. The locker room around us wrecked, as the floor, walls, lockers and roof look like a hurricane went through it. Feeling her drag me from the floor and through the ruins of the gymnasium, now a crumpled mess of wreckage, luckily without any casualties to the car, she speeds off down the road towards home.

"Andy, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Looking down at my hands I realise that I'm not, the burns I expected missing from my skin, though my drenched clothes prove the shower torture happened.

"I, I think so. What happened? I was getting the crap kicked out of me and kind of blacked out." Lauren looked at me, already figuring out what had happened based on clues. The bullies who fled the locker room at her arrival, the screams she'd heard from my lips, and the pain on my face, stuck trapped under the steaming water.

"Andy...You're a mutant. When you blacked out you must have triggered your X-gene, and accidentally destroyed the gym. Oh crap, we're gonna be in so much shit. Mom's gonna freak. Dad's gonna freak." Watching her rising panic I put a hand on her shoulder, unsure how I should comfort her as I know she's a mutant herself, and that my awakening has doomed us to be fugitives.

"When we get home, pack everything you need, clothes, toiletries, food. Sentinels will be coming, and if I'm a mutant." I stop, looking at her conflicted eyes, as she flickers them from me to the road, as if worried I'll jump out of the moving car. "Then odds are, so are you, which means they'll take us both in. Lauren I hurt people tonight, no one was killed, but several were injured, which is the same as assault, and we both know the use of mutant abilities increases the sentencing." My gaze goes hard, sharp even. "I'm not going to jail for defending myself, and I'm sure as hell not letting you go for protecting me."

Opening the door and sprinting to my room I change quickly into some dark jeans, a band t-shirt from one of my favourite groups, and a loose hoodie, and begin shoving clothes into a duffel bag, along with all my cash, some toiletries and my sketchbook. For the past 8 months I've been having dreams of a wolf, which previously meant nothing, just a random dream I had, but now, knowing my heritage, the identity of my powers, of Laura's, the dream was given meaning. We are FENRIS, just as our great-grandparents were, and the sketchpad could also be used to 'explain' some of my knowledge if I blame the dreams. Taking the bag downstairs I grab mom's first aid kit and some of the canned food, and while Lauren notices this, says nothing about it, instead holding mom still as she explains the situation to her. 'Okay, with mine and mom's cash, we have a little over 400$ A little weird that she has a squirrel fund but perfect in this scenario.'

"Mom you're not listening."

Lauren's words reach me as I head to the kitchen, filling up some bottles as I take over the conversation. "Sis, go pack, they'll be here soon and we will need to ASAP."

My mother Caitlyn, often called Cait, was a wonderful, loving mother. But seeing how utterly panicked and confused she is, talking about how dad was going to get us off with a warning. That sentinel services only targets the mutants that are dangerous. "Mom, dad puts mutants like us away," hoping Lauren had already done her big mutant reveal to mom and I hadn't spilled the beans.

"Your father deals with criminals, he doesn't hate mutants. He puts away the dangerous ones, the one that hurt people."

Holding her hands, I speak as clearly as I can, needing her to recognise the situation and her reality. "The mutants like me. Look, neither me or Lauren is going to Jail for this. So we're going to have to leave." As my charming sister comes back down the stairs, there's a banging at the door.

"Sentinel Service, Mr and Mrs Strucker we need to talk to you. Can you come to the door and we can talk this through?"

Cait, wiping her eyes as she opens the door, trying to reason with the agents, mentioning our 'rights' which were often ignored outright when a person was identified as a mutant, and our dad's role as a prosecutor. Pulling the strap of the bags over my shoulder and passing Lauren the car keys as quietly as I can, I begin playing with the power I used earlier tonight. The moment they push my mother to the floor, trying to barge into the house, I blast the energy forward, attempting a simpler manipulation of my powers until I can get comfortable with them. While in the show Andy had failed to use them, he was scared, confused and frustrated. I on the other hand, am focused, calm and willing to kill these two agents I know for a fact, would do the same, my kinetic blast launching them onto the road, over 10 meters. Pulling Caitto the car and slamming on the accelerator, Lauren drives through the automatic garage door, impatient for some reason.

*Bang Bang Bang*

Lauren's preemptive shields protect us from the bullets, giving us a headstart on the agents, as we drive to a low-end motel, calling Dad from the payphone there, removing the plates from the car and switching them for those of another car in the carpark. 'That won't fool anyone who checks the plates or recognises the passengers, but someone just checking the plates and model of the car should ignore it.' Now that Dad is aware of tonight's events, the plot should progress even if I take a nap. Sleeping beside my quietly sobbing sister, I hold her as she cries, apologising to her as we both fall asleep.

'Tomorrow we meet the Mutant Underground, shame most of them are dicks.'