Chapter 52: Roommates

***Narrator P.O.V.

"Need a hand?" Bella was taking her clothes out from the cardboard boxes and putting them in the cabinet when someone asked her. 

When she turned back, a ginger-haired girl was standing at the door.

"Sure. If you aren't doing anything." She smiled.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jean." Jean opened another box and started to take out things like books and accessories. 

"Likewise, Jean. You can call me Bella. Also, do you know where to put this?" She inquired while holding a delicate statue of mother mary. 

"Wherever you like to. I'm not the religious type, so you have the freedom to do what you like." Jean shrugged her shoulders.  

"Thanks..... Then can you hold the chair for me while I put it there?" She pointed at a high corner area in the room. 

"Let me help you with that," Jean remarked, and before Bella could respond, she felt the statue in her hand float upwards and land on the spot she had indicated.

"That... Wow." She looked at Jean with widened eyes. 

"I'm a psychic and a telepath, though not that good when it comes to telepathy like the professor," Jean confessed. 

"That is so convenient. Perfect for a lazy person like me." Bella sat down on her bed in amazement, and Jean joined her. 

"I guess this is my life now," Bella mumbled as she turned to face Jean.

"Do you hate it?" Jean hesitantly asked. 

"No, but getting used to this way of life will take some time. I believe it is God's method of getting me back on the correct path." She puckered her lips.

"I... I lost my way and drowned myself in the pit of revenge and hatred. But before I could do something irreversible, he opened this door to me." She was happy that those abusers would receive punishment and that she wouldn't have to dirty her own hands with their blood.

"You are quite a religious type, huh?" Jean noted. 

"Well, that's what you get if you're raised among religious zealots your entire life," Bella joked. 

"Now, let's quickly finish this up. Professor Hank requested me to bring you to his lab." Jean stood up, and they resumed their work with greater efficiency.

.....

"What do you think, professor?" Jean asked as Bella stood beside her. 

"Hmm, I did a bunch of tests on her, and there is good and bad news. Which one would you like to hear first?" Hank raised an eyebrow while glancing at the result papers. 

"The good one." Bella pursed her lips. 

"Okay. So I believe I understand how your powers function. As far as we know, your mutation enables you to emit a type of life force to heal yourself. Also, you should be able to stretch this force outside of your body and heal others." He showed them some papers, but they were difficult to understand.

"Of course, it has limits. Your body will require more nourishment because food is the major fuel for your body to recover lost energy. So you are consuming your life force during the process and can die from overusing your power." 

"I still don't know the limits of your powers yet. How much can the healing be done? Is it possible to repair limps or get rid of diseases? That we don't know yet. Also, I think that healing is just one of the applications of your powers since technically you can directly give life force to someone else." He sighed. 

"What about the bad news then? Bella asked.

"Your abilities, however, have a clear purpose. It is a support ability, which is wonderful. Unlike others, you don't have to worry about hurting others intentionally. The problem is that training it would be hard." He scratched his head. 

"As we know from experience, mutants can raise their powers by training, refining, and empowering them, raising their strength. Now that is very easy in the case of offensive and defensive abilities. All you need to do is gradually raise the level of difficulty." He explained. 

"But your powers are healing as far as we know until now. For you to improve in healing abilities and try to experiment with other uses of life force, we need injured people." He helplessly told them. 

"Well, don't worry about it too much. Since you are already one of our students, we will think of some way." He consoled them before allowing them to leave. 

.....

"Why has everyone huddled around together?" Bella asked once they entered the large living area.

"They all are watching some beautiful lady on the television." A child close to her replied before rushing outside with other kids his age to play.

Bella and Jean exchanged glances before joining the group to check out what they were watching.

The teenager at the end noticed their presence and smiled," Hi. I'm bobby. Welcome to the mutant high. I saw you with the professor this morning." He raised his hand for a handshake, and Bella returned. 

"Call me Bella. Can you tell us what is going on?"

"Hmm. Well, El Enterprise's C.E.O is about to do a live interview, so everyone is waiting for it to start." He answered.

...

"Listen, you go in there and question her about some of her prospects. Some normal things that people wonder about and finish the interview. Do not repeat what you did with Rand enterprise." The middle-aged man carefully explained to the journalist. 

"But it is not my job to ask what people wish to know. My job is to ask what they should know about my interviewee." The young woman frowned in displeasure.  

"Look, Gracia. We have gone over this before too. We can't fuck this up. We already have suffered consequences from what you did in Rand enterprise. And they don't even come close to El enterprise in terms of everything from money to power." He massaged his head.

"Serena is powerful and influential. And she is backed by a lot of equally influential people and organizations. We don't want her to be our enemy. It is going to be live. Please do not fuck this up." He begged. 

"Now go. It's about time." He sighed, and Gracia nodded before entering the broadcasting room. 

She nodded to the crew and smiled professionally before taking the seat in front of the camera. 

"Live in 3...2..1." The producer exclaimed. 

"Good afternoon, dear readers. You were watching our renowned correspondent explain how the Senate office once again rejected a bill. That will assist 9/11 first responders with their health issues, which had worsened due to the smoke and debris they inhaled during the rescue operation."

"It makes us all wonder why they still have photos on Facebook of themselves standing beside veterans. If they can't even pass a bill, that should have been a priority. Blatant hypocrisy if you ask me, but that is the world we live in today."

"Moving on, we are delighted to announce that Miss Serena, the co-founder, and CEO of El Enterprise, has agreed to an interview with us. Not only that, it's a live interview, so there's no need to worry about the edited version driving any narrative." She got to her feet and motioned to the left side.

"Please welcome Miss Serena to the Show." The audience in the studio clapped as Serena walked onto the stage and took the opposite seat. 

"Thank you." Serena smiled charmingly. 

"Miss, the pleasure is also ours. We appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us. I'm sure our viewers will appreciate it." Gracia smiled.

"Now, before we start with the questions, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the previous report. Do you believe what happened in the Senate today was justified?" Gracia started.

"Ohh, heat from the start." Serena waved her hand like a fan on her face in a teasing manner, causing the audience in the room to laugh. 

"Well, I believe that our country is a democracy, is it not?" Gracia nodded, and Serene then continued, "The fact of the matter is that every person sitting in the senate office is a representative elected by people's choice."

"I believe that we as a society have to be more cautious while voting, so the people that sit in these institutions are truly loyal to their communities and this nation." 

"No one can deny that veterans and retired soldiers deserve respect since they served in every war that these politicians commanded them to fight, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam."

"Now, it is debatable whether these conflicts should have happened in the first place. The fact that these heroes fought for our flag, nation, and people, cannot be ignored."

"This is why El enterprise has been helping such people by providing them with health care and anything else that we can do to help them if it's in our capacity."

"And as we have grown as a business, the aid has only increased," Serena mentioned the various treatment that her company was providing. 

"I'm sure veterans would appreciate that." Garcia nodded, "Moving on, El enterprise is in the forefront when it's about sustaining the climate by making products that emit as little carbon emissions as possible. What would you say to the people that doubt climate change is a thing?" 

"Most scientists agree that it is real. Based on statistics, I wouldn't be shocked if by 2022, despite being generally considered a cold region, Europe experiences a heat wave that would melt highways."

"But the question of whether climate change is real or not got nothing to do with El enterprise. We are a business first and foremost and what we sell is goods and services, not scientific theories." Serena smiled.

"Would you care to elaborate for our audience?" Gracia asked. 

"We used wood as fuel in the 19th century and began to replace it with coal in the 20thcentury. We focused more on petroleum and its products at the start of the 21st century."

"As our civilization develops, so does efficient fuel. Why should we not use more efficient fuels than petroleum if we have the option? It will boost our development as a civilization."

"That is a reasonable response. Before I move on to the next question, some graduates from prestigious colleges are in the audience here. You are welcome to raise your hands if you have a question about this subject." Garcia, like the camera, turned to face the audience. A young man raised his hand. "Yes, please."

As he stood up, he quickly got a microphone and began speaking. "Hello. I'm Mark, and my question is that some believe that in a decade or two, we will experience population collapse and promote for increasing the number of children born into this world."

"About this, recently a book named 1 billion Americans was published that received a lot of attention as the author explains that we need a large population to remain at the top of the world order. And that we still have a lot of free space in America for people." 

"What is your opinion on that?" He passed the mike to someone beside him and sat down. 

"That seems like quite an excuse to not wear a condom during the act." Serena joked. 

"On a serious note, I think we should be happy if the population is finally going down, though I doubt that would even happen." 

"Your reason for that?" Gracia asked. 

"First of all, we have to understand that having space for more people is not important. What is more, important is having enough resources, which, as we know, are finite." 

"Just recently, we got reports that sea corals are dying and the same thing is happening to many animal species. Why is that? Because more people require more resources. We, as a society, should focus on more quality than quantity right now."

"As for that book's logic, that might be true in the middle ages when one more person meant more hands to fight in wars, but that is irrelevant in our current time. We now have weapons that could destroy a lot of people at once. It has changed the way of warfare where weapons are more important than soldiers."

"We need most advanced technologies than more people on earth if you ask me.", Serena shrugged. 

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@shawn_Muradzi: I am replying here because apparently rape is a blacklisted word in web novel comments and your comment got deleted. You asked how the last chapter is relevant and it is relevant. 

While I understand that you asked that because my upload rate is not very frequent and getting a world-building chapter feels lackluster. 

But it was relevant, I cannot just always show Protag P.O.V. and do time skips all the time. That's not my style of writing. 

The world-building is important as it gives the story depth that it needs. There is more to that chapter than just garnering sympathy for Bella. 

First of all, setting the backstory of a character helps in explaining the behavior of said character on why she did something or behave in a certain way. 

Second, it also explained that this variant of professor Xavier is not evil at least in the public eye. Also pointed out how close the relationship between the shield and the mutants is. 

Third, it explained that Charles while always searching for hope in everyone, is still cautious when making big decisions like revealing Jean to an alien.

Fourth, it told us that Jean is struggling with being on the receiving end of avoiding done by her fellow mutants due to her powers. She feels quite helpless with the issue in itself. 

(Ed:- Not going to edit the comment. And sorry to readers, for this particular chapter got delayed due to me. as an apology, here is a fun fact. 

The sea slug Elysia timida is capable of stealing chloroplasts from its algal prey. Once stolen, the chloroplasts, now termed kleptoplasts, remain functional inside the slug's cells for several weeks, essentially creating a photosynthetic slug.

This slug is a natural hybrid car)