James Goldsworth's Story

The fog had descended quite quickly blanketing the land in a numbing biting chill, only serving to ruin the mood of the hikers that traversed the endless countryside. Ireland. Perhaps this was one of the last frontiers. Or lost frontier, rather....there isn't a soul on the roads. Nothing but sheep and mud. John had only gotten there two days before and he already hated the country to it's core. Along with his surly companion If it wasn't bad enough that they where foreigners and an outsiders, they where mutants as well. John's companion was a mad mutant with a significantly powerful ability. For the moment John had no idea why he'd yanked him along on this journey nor did he have an idea what use he'd be to him. He'd found the kid leading chase across the guttered streets of london leaving a trail of blood as wide as the River Thames. He'd watched the mad man turn three armed cops into nothing but a fine powder of raw matter. It had fascinated him. Of course calming the crazed mutant proved difficult. He'd damaged his filtration system sending toxic fluid spilling across the alley and nearly causing John to slip into shock and bleed out. It all worked out in the end, though.....somehow.

John glanced over at James. Somehow the kid towered over him. John still felt a bit uneasy around him. The way his eyes flitted around like ping pong balls, the things he muttered in the quiet sent chills up his fibre glass spine. The kid did manage to attract a lot of unwanted attention wherever they went. They'd spend no more than an evening in the last village before he found the hateful glares and quiet mumbles overbearing. They took no time at all packing up and slapping down the money for their stay. He was grateful at least that the innkeeper didn't kick them out.

Jon stopped a moment in the middle of the desolate road and searched the pockets of his heavy coat for the map he'd been using to keep his bearings. The ocular implant on the side of his head whirred softly and displayed a compas. It appeared in bright blue print seeming to be laid out on the side of the dirt road. He studied the map a moment and looked further down the road. "It should be quite close." he announced to his companion. His device beeped, a small blue light flashing at the side of his temple. An faint dirt trail could be seen winding around the back of a nearby hill disappearing from view. "There we go." He murmured under his breath.

John stuffed the map away and headed down the dirt road, eager to get out of the damp chill. For thirty minutes John trekked through the sparse traces of a trail. He lost it twice having to turn back and estimate which direction the trail could have lead. He'd almost given it up for a lost cause and a wrong turn before they stumbled onto the entrance. Little more than a hole in the ground.

The two had been on their journey for quite a while, it must had been days or weeks, but to James, it only felt like a few hours. The two had met in the streets of London, the one place James retreated to after he had escaped that damned testing facility, afterall, he had been raised there and London was the only place he was familiar with. It was quite strage how they met, James was simply escaping from a scene of yet another murder, and feast. Three policemen were trailing him, and practically getting in the way. So leading them into an alley to unleash his powers worked. Causing a wall to collapse on them to immobolise his next prey, using high frequency vibrations to rip the three apart molecule by molecule until they died. Another feast was there, ready to be eaten. Until this strange being, Cyrus, made his appearance.
At first, he was nice, but was a witness. He must die "Die die, go, die, food, hungry, die." Was James' reactions to the man's words. However, from a small scrap, the two seemed to have calmed down. The man seemed in pain, dying, James had a small humane moment to react to this. Helping him to his feet and giving small first aid.

Anyway, the two had spent their time journeying, James didn't even know where they currently are, let along where they were going. The small villages and towns they had stopped at didn't seem to happy to see them, but were still a good feast for James. Now, in this field, James had grown hungry and aware. Looking over his surroundings as fast as his eyes would let him, muttering to himself the same words; "Hungry hungry, thirsty, no hungry. Will blood work? Drink my blood? How much? Two litres? No, I die, one will do. Hungry Hungry."

Finally, they had arrived, Cyrus had used a strange paper thing with a strange sound as he led on. Finally allowing the two to reach some kind of entrance, why? What's here? Food?

"Food? Why? Hungry. Where? Where is Vibe? Where is Cyrus? Hungry hungry hungry..." James spoke towards his new companion, slouching over while walking uncomfortably. As if he wanted to run, his hands constantly entering and leaving his pockets, sometimes raising them to his face to squeeze, scratch and moan. Until quickly returning to the pockets.

Most of the bare concrete walls started to crack and decay over the years but the one/s residing inside sure that was pretty normal for concrete. The bunker could have been in Ireland for ages. Morgan got up from his little nap, wiping his eyes with his right wrist and softly sighed, searching around for his hunting knife. He remembered leaving it on the nightstand of his bed and he quickly slipped it into it's sheath to keep from nicking himself with it.

It had been a few months since Xavier's School was void of existence and this bunker was plenty enough to supply Morgan alone. Though, with it's age showing in the surrounding walls, it made him assume that it had been used. It would only be a matter of time until the supply would have to have another quantity check. Knowing that it was a good idea to do so, Morgan went down a few floors to see where he stood on sustaining himself. There was enough to feed an entire army, but it concerned him that he had made a dent in the supply. He went back upstairs to head over to a table at the end of a hall next to the front entrance. On the contrary, there was a bit of whining coming from the wall and he flicked his head that direction, wondering what it was for. Then he soon realized that it was the silent alarm that indicated that someone was at the front entrance.

His eyes squinted a bit, knowing that no one had been here for a while in the past week. He quickly threw a portal to the end of the space where his long line of beds were. Then he set a portal near the outside of the hallway that led to the entrance. He carefully slid down the hallway, opening the doors to find two faces, one showing that he had a bit of work in technology. I slid the door a bit wider from it's crack, staring at the two at the door. I was rather on edge but I didn't know whether to invite them in or run off. I simply moved my arms in sign language, projecting out the words, "Human or Mutant?" After that he stood straight, trying see if he could detect a lie out of them.

"Don't worry, my strange...mad friend we'll get food soon." John murmured as he stared hesitantly down the dark narrow hall leading down underground. He scanned the immediate way getting only a few feet before the hall turned out of sight, there was no sign of a living being human or mutant. That is until a portal opened up. John didn't see the portal directly but the sensors in his device went haywire for a split second, a sharp pain jolting through his temple. John winced, squinting his good eye at the man that appeared in the entrance. The man signed something, which surprised John. Either the man was deaf or mute. His infinitely useful device flickered and sputtered back into action picking up the slack in his knowledge. It took notice of the patterns in his hand motions and matched the signs loosely to one of the sign language dialects. "Ah...M-mutant. You can hear me can't you?" John attempted to imitate the sign for mutant. He then tugged his dark gray scarf aside showing the threading of tubes that came from his body, flowing with a bright blue substance. "My mutation is a bit difficult to explain but I'm very much a mutant, as is my friend here. He can disintegrate things with vibration. I assume your mutation is to mess with my equiptment..."

John tapped the side of his ocular implant. It flickered, the bright blue lens flashed and grew brighter. "Is this place safe?"

Seeing this man appear, James jumped. His mind didn't process the fact that mutants could do anything basically, and seeing a man appear from a portal is pretty crazy. Why? How? He's a demon, he has to die. Wait, what's he wearing?
This man looks a lot like a soldier, somehow. It reminded James of when he was back at the testing facility, soldiers in trench coats firing bullets at James to see how much he could destroy or repel at one time. Those assholes deserve to die. Not only that, but this place seemed a lot like the facility as well. Are they bringing him back?

James fell to the floor, his hands held to his face, pulling on it. Pulling his cheeks down as he rubbed his hands over his face and covered his head. "No no no no no no no no, I-I I I I I I don't want to. No, die. Die. Hungry Hungry hungry HUNGRY! Blood, need. Food. Eat. Die. Demon. Witch. Die." He panicked, and continued to do so. The ground had begun to vibrate, slowly increasing as James continued repeating the above words. He seemed to be making a decision, leaning forward towards the strange portal man, then leaning backwards and facing the exit. Constantly switching, his head twitching around as he tried to look around but tried to hide.

Morgan took a bit to stare at the two especially the man was looking around frantically. He heard the man who was a bit more lyrically gifted than his friend and Morgan signed, "I hear. I don't talk" knowing that the man with the monochromatic scarf even had a difficult time knowing what he signed. Morgan paid attention to the words a bit more and smiled, pulsating, as if he were laughing, at the mentioning of his equipment failing due to his portals. Though due to his lack of speech, he couldn't excert a single chuckle. He opened the door wide open and signed, "Portals are my talent, as you know." He then pointed at the two portals he made and they soon dissipated.

I flicked the switch for the main lights to come on instead of the smaller lamps that were installed around the room. They fluttered to turn on but they eventually a full humming sound that the luminescent bulbs usually do. Suddenly as the man on the ground began to scrape against his face, I took a step back, signing, "What's wrong?" The ground began to vibrate slowly and I rose my hands in the air slightly, trying to keep my balance. I looked over at the Cyborg and signed, "Calm him down." I then threw two portals, one on the ceiling in the room with mattresses and one on the wall that was above the table in the room we were in for precaution.

"Hey hey hey hey hey." John's brow furrowed and he turned to his companion taking him by the shoulders and looking to his eyes. "Mad man, don't fall apart on me now. This is a safe place don't go bringing the ceiling down on us. John pulled Jame's head down level with his and he glared at him. "This man is not our enemy he is mutant like us."

John let him go and patted him on the back. "What about supper, madman?" He turned to Morgan. "We've been wandering the sheeplands for hours I think all my friend here needs is food and comfort. He's a bit fragile in the head, it's best if we keep him calm."

"Lookie lookie~." Rachelle knelled down in front of a small backpack that sat on the ground. She picked it up and began to explore it a bit. "Useless. Useless. Useless.... Oh~... " She paused as she began to float along the road holding her newly found bag of wonders. She had been traveling for quite some time now quite some time. Most of it was through space really. With Xavier's school now in crumbles, it truly wasn't safe around here. She wasn't even sure what she was doing here really.

She paused and looked around the field a bit. Her glasses slightly glowing from the wonders that were in her eyes. She sighed and began to playfully float like some astronaut doing back flips in zero-g. "What a wasteland~. Kind of makes me sad to see the land around here so.... dead.... It's truly a sha-!" She paused as she bumped into what seemed to be a cellar door. A cellar? In the middle of no where? Oh right... She had been searching for something like this. "Oh!.... Exciting~." She then paused hearing voices not too far from it. "Hello~! If your some sort of angry pack of gorilla monsters, speak now or forever hold your peace!"

It took a while, James was naturally calming down as the vibrations slowly began to fade. He was slowly accepting his pathetic fate which had caused his psychosis in the first place. However, the comforting words and actions of his cybernetic companion allowed the vibrations to suddenly stop. His hands were still placed over his head, as he listened to the man's words.
"Mad man, don't fall apart on me now. This is a safe place don't go bringing the ceiling down on us. John pulled Jame's head down level with his and he glared at him. "This man is not our enemy he is mutant like us."
He quickly looked towards Cyrus' face, his worried expression fell back to a small smile. "Yes, yes. Hungry."
"What about supper, madman?"
"Supper? Food. Hungry hungry hungry." He raised his body, his hands still rubbing over his face as he pulled his left lower eyelid down slightly while his other hand tugged on his lip sideways. His eyes were filled with insanity, his pupils dilate and his eyes wide. "This man, soldier, food. Eat. Hungry hungry hungry, eat him. Kill kill kill!" His words slowly grew louder as he continued his muttering, his eyes flickering around the room. Darting back to the new soldier-like man, then falling away again to scan the room.

Morgan knew where the food stash was so he worked quickly. The spiraling staircase that lead down to the bottom floor revealed a opening on the end of the stair case. He aimed ever so slightly and the portal opened at the bottom. He swerved back around, closing the portal that was on the ceiling and ran towards the now changed aperture above the table. Morgan jumped through, immediately rolling onto the bottom floor of the ground and seeing the storage space once again. He then grabbed a box of MRE's and then fell down through the portal, spiraling back out at the top floor. Morgan handed the box to the men and signed, "Food. If you can call it that."

Suddenly he heard the whining again and stared at the blinking silent alarm and he got up and took the portals away, sliding the door open ever so carefully. Morgan stared at the circular glasses and squinted my eyes, signing with one hand, "I can't speak though... I am sorry that..." He stared at the ground, wondering what to sign and he simply asked, "Mutant or Human?"

Rachelle gasped as she heard a bit of silence. Was this place completely empty. She then yelped slightly seeing a face appear. So someone was inside. She wondered how many people were there. She lowered herself to the ground and smiled slightly. She watched as he signed to her. Quite the familiar sight.

"Oi. So... you can't speak?" Her grand mother had been deaf so these were quite familiar to her. But only to a certain amount. She watched his hands again before beginning to sign back to him. "Mutant. Don't worry about the speaking thing. I've seen sign language a bit in my day." She said before looking around. "So....... Nice place you got here." She said with a small laugh.

A pair of dark blue converse shoes squished their way through the moist wasteland. Elaine, a tired youth, wearing a long moss green trench coat, which she'd bought on the airport, had been searching for any clues of her parents for hours and now she found herself lost in some annoying fog. She looked back, and what she saw was even more fog. She moaned and closed her eyes. This was hopeless. She'd never figure out anything about her parents. She wondered why on earth would she even believe they were still alive. Maybe they were mutants too and killed long ago. The memories of them kept the miserable hope of finding them, or at least the truth, alive. She'd been walking for a long time now. She was hungry, wet and tired. Elaine decided to do one last search before turning back. She straightened up and focused; What met her mind was surprising. Not only was it a form of construction, it was under ground, and it contained people...mutants. She stared wide eyed in its direction. She hadn't come across many of those and hesitated, but decided that for once she'd take a risk. The moist ground teased her with its bubbly laughter as she strode along.

The destruction around the girl and her current reduced state made her call out to the other people she'd sensed moments before; "Heelp!" She didn't want to face this violence by herself. She got up on her trembling feet and started walking in the direction of the bunker while gazing behind. At the sight of something alike a huge bird she gasped and quickened her pace, but the curiosity couldn't tear her eyes off of the creature. Through the fog she started doubting her first guess of a bird, but bird, missile or mutated raccoon; it was dangerous.

Morgan slid back through the hallway, leaving the door cracked open accidentally. He knew that wasn't too bad of a thought, knowing that there were four lethal mutants on edge at the moment. He looked over to the glasses girl in the bunker and signed, "Thank You. I found it a while ago." Morgan waltzed over to the stairwell and removed both opened portals at the moment, sighing quietly as it only came out as a breath with no hum to go along with. Morgan leaned up against the wall, looking at the people before him.

Gradually but without knowing, Morgan heard a bit of a scrummaging outside, but he ignored it, tilting his head at the door and then quickly pulling it away. But something told him that that wasn't the only thing that was going on outside of the bunker. All of a sudden, a large shout in fear and pain came excreting from the distance, a large boom soon following afterward. It had something to do with a creature of the air landing to the ground. Morgan shoved myself off the wall and launched two apertures, on leading to the outside and one through the wall. He entered the flaming hoop and sprinted off towards the noise, sprinting to find a burning inferno in the distance, and a woman sprinting towards him shouting for help.

Coming to his mind he got the attention of Katalin, quickly reaching over and tapping her shoulder at the end of the room. SHe might have missed that had been going on but she sure was going to figure out. Along with her little brother.

He stared off to see a man with an odd look to himself. His scaly exterior caught Morgan's attention, but the fire in the back brought him even more attention. Morgan stared over, then jumped back inside through the portal, waving for everyone to come out and then looking over to see if the mutant was okay. I ran over to him, sprinting off to see what was up.

"Excellent. It's not much but here, my friend, eat." He handed James one of the MREs. He could hear the sounds and commotions of more people arriving but for the moment he wasn't interested in meeting and greeting. He needed to be alone for so that he could set himself up for the stay. He shifted the hiker's backpack on his shoulders. "Come on, madman, let's explore this place some. I have no immediate desire to see what would happen if you where confronted with a whole group of strangers at once."

John winced as his equipment sputtered again, the bright blue lens of his artificial eye flickering like a loose bulb. He turned, about to ask Morgan where the bunks where but of course he was out investigating the trouble outside. He lead James down the narrow concrete halls with the old dusty light of the hall lights illuminating their way. John paid close mind to the the wiring that lined the ceiling and disappeared into the walls. There was some form of surveillance somewhere in there. Hooking a feed up to his device would be simple, so would settling in with the others. He could easily upgrade the electrical set up in there given an assortment of materials to work with. If this was to be their safe haven they'd need to work to make it truly safe especially with regards to humans and their military.

James swiftly and carefully took the food, slouching a little as he held the food between the tips of all 10 fingers. He held the food to his nose, sniffing harshly. He was told it was food, but looks nothing like it. How the hell can he eat this? "Food? No. No. Food! Hungry hungry! No." James repeated, constantly sniffing the strange substance, his glance moving from the food to his companion and back several times. Waiting for him to be told what to do. The substance may seem useless, but it was given to him and must be important. So it was kept, still holding between the tips of the 10 fingers, still being stared at, sniffed and evaluated with no idea what to do.

As he followed his companion closely around the bunker, not really paying attention to any details except for the food. James eventually spoke yet again. "Soldier. Kill. Eat."

John glanced back at his mad friend and sighed. By now the sounds of confusion from outside had faded. It was just them two wandering the halls down there. He chuckled slightly. "Hey, I know it's not the four course delicacies you're used to but it will fill you up. Eat."

He paused and patted the man's stomach. "Eat. You'll feel better. Maybe it'll cut down some of that paranoia....Here is the packaging freaking you out?"

John took the MRE and opened the secure air tight packaging keeping the entire thing in one easy ration package. He took one of the smaller packages out and tore it open revealing a small slab of a vaguely bread shaped biscuit. "Here, you have.....your.....bread...ish portion. He shook one of the larger packages. "Your main course....it says....Roast beef with vegetables and gravy. See? Food. You just have to...heat it up....this is far more complicated than I thought it'd be. We'll figure it out when we find some place to sit down."

Right then John 's attention was drawn by an electrical panel. "Oh fantastic." He opened the panel and observed the dusty dangled bits of wire inside. His ocular device took note of every wire assigning probable uses to them all surveillance, air circulation, lights. John thrust the MRE and its contents back into James' arms, sticking the bread ration into his mouth so that he could free his arms and slip his bag off his own backpack off his shoulders. He took out a leather tool pack and unrolled it across the concrete floor. He removed a few small tools and plucked a water bottle sized jar full of tiny metal orbs. He tapped the jar causing the orbs to collectively squirm an awaken. Spider bots, each with a single bright turquoise eye to match John's own. He shook a few of the tiny fingernail sized robots into the panel and watched as they swarmed the wires. John smiled sending them a stream of wireless commands, establishing a secure network with each of them being a temporary point of reference. The bots immediately went about improving the electrical system. Rewiring it using the decades outdated layout and materials to make something more efficient all the wile threading John's software into it as a whole, making him center of command. The lights flickered all throughout the bunker as the electrical grid became temporarily unstable. John shut the panel.

James allowed Cyrus to take the MRE, watching intently as the packaging was unwrapped. This is strange, why was there soo much in such a small area? And what was that strange smell? It wasn't very appetising...
"Food?" James questioned as he stared at the main course, still confused.

Once the food as placed back into James' arms, he quickly crouched down and place them on the floor, picking up the opened main course inbetween his fingertips and sniffed, confused still. Being told it was food and will fill him up, he might as well try it out. And so, he took the uncooked roast chicken and bit a chunk into it chewing while his eyes darted back and forth at whatever his companion was doing, back to the food. Ew..
He spat the food out and wiped his tongue, this tasted nothing like the fresh, raw flesh he was used to. It was disgusting, it must be destroyed. "Die." James muttered the word and he held the food in his hand, using vibrations to rip it apart molecule by molecule, disintegrating it into a pile of dust.

And then there was the bread-biscuit thing which his companion was eating. Maybe that is edible? So again, it was picked up in his fingertips, sniffed, and then stuffed into the mouth. Chewing and chewing. This food had no taste, it wasn't disgusting, but wasn't nice. At least it was edible. He swallowed with his hands holding the back of his head, he looked towards his companion and muttered some more words as his head twitched around; "Food. Hungry. Hungry. Thirsty. Yuck. Soldier. Kill. Eat."

Morgan jumped back inside and the portals dissipated. Seeing the massive amount of mutants was a surprise to him, but he'd soon get used to it. He first looked off over to see where Cyrus and James were, sprinting around the halls and warping in a hallway they were in. He noticed that they were using the MRE the wrong way. Morgan grabbed one of the MRE's that were in the bolted box and slip out one of the grayish-green packages, pulling the tab on the side as the packet of Ham and Eggs steadily started to warm up. He said, "Sorry it isn't the best meal." ending his conversation with a sigh. He got himself back up ,warped through the portals again and listened to the conversations back and forth.

He got into the middle of the conversations and signed, "I'm glad to see that everyone's here. I know new faces aren't the best thing to see... especially what we're in right now." He stared at everyone and their appearance, smiling a bit at the team that I had. I then signed next, "I am Morgan. You can call me Flicker. And this... is the Third Generation of 'Xavier's School for Gifted Young People.'" I leaned over to a desk that was near the back of the room and then signed again, "If anyone has any questions, let me know. Find a bed and make yourself comfortable."

"Mor-Flicker, what do you mean by 'Gifted Young People'? I was not told by Miss Abbott (the professor of the orphanage) that I was going to a school. Plus, I don't remember walking here" Rebecca turned to Flicker, confused.