Never Good Enough (Part One)

Some days, nothing happens. People bitch about those days all the time. Let me tell you something right now. Cherish those days. Those are the good days. The good old, boring days.

Boring is safe. Boring doesn't scare you to death. Boring doesn't have you walking into the common area of the dorms on a given afternoon, staring at a big screen TV turned up high with some Indian scientist lady announcing to the world that she had come up with the 'cure' to the 'mutant condition'.

"The mutant strain can be eliminated, safely and irreversibly. There is such a thing as a second chance."

Those were the words that came out of her mouth. Those were the words that went across the world at the exact same time, on stations where everyone could see it. Words that would be replayed for days as soundbites on CNN, BBC, and other major news sources, right down to the local news station in every hometown imaginable. It was a good quote.

I knew this, because it scared almost everyone in the room shitless when they heard it.

"That's so messed up," Eddie stared at the news with an interest I had never seen him have before, "Bel, that's not-. It can't be serious, right?"

I didn't know how to respond to him. Clearly it was a big deal to him. Hell, it was a big deal in general, but no one was holding me down and injecting that crap into my veins yet, so it seemed too far away to be something that affected me, "It's on the air right now, so this is either a really elaborate prank that CBS News is running with, or this is the real-deal."

"I'm being serious, man," Eddie said, not appreciating my detached demeanor to the situation. He was terrified, "They can't actually... make that, can they? Doesn't that kind of thing have to be approved by the FDA or something?

"Yeah right," Julian scoffed, turning his attention away from the news conference on the TV. We had heard all we needed to from the doctor lady on the screen, "You seriously think they're not going to try and use it on us the first chance they get?"

"Who's they, Hellion?" I asked, not really caring about the answer. Whoever came to get some would come when we didn't expect it, no matter who or what they were, so it didn't matter.

Julian looked at me like I was an idiot. He hadn't done that in a while, "You can't be serious," He said. My expression asked for him to enlighten me, "The humans. The government. Either-or, probably both. It's just a matter of time. They're calling this thing the cure, and it gets rid of the X-Gene, so what does that make us, the disease?"

I could tell when someone was about to jump on their soapbox, and that was the last thing I wanted to spend my afternoon listening to and dealing with for the rest of the day. Plus, there were a bunch of others in the room who all looked just as spooked as Eddie. Not good.

"Hold that thought," I said, cutting Julian off at the pass, "Okay, I can see you're pissed. So I want you to take that anger, bottle it up, wait until people are storming the gates, and then you can cuss me out and say 'I told you so.' And it'll either be the best feeling in the world, or you'll get some ulcers from keeping it inside for that long."

Julian crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me testily, "And when that happens are you actually gonna do anything? Or are you just gonna be a pussy and let the flatscans walk all over you?"

I gave the telekinetic a dry look in return. It wasn't worth getting riled up over, "I'm gonna shoot 'em all in the fucking face like I did the first time, and the second time," I said, ticking off glowing fingers with each number. It was at that moment that I finally stopped and took note of how much I seemed to get in life-or-death situations with ornery humans, "Oh sweet Jesus, I've actually done this twice already."

He seemed pacified by the realization that I had indeed kicked the shit out of people for trying to victimize poor little mutant Bellamy. Maybe he had a point about the humans coming to get us thing? History did not look upon them favorably in that regard. But to be fair though, those were public hate groups and paramilitary outfits that I had the experiences with... which meant even worse things for when it actually happened again. Shit.

Goddamn it, I just wanted to relax after squad practice and binge some 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' on Netflix with my homeboy. Was that too much to ask? Now who was going watch it with me? Eddie wasn't game anymore. Who would want to laugh after being scared to death?