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Making my way to my assigned dorm I knocked on the door just so I wouldn't walk in on someone. Living with another teenager would take some getting used to, I remember what I was like as a teenager and I could only hope my roommate would be better than I had been. "Come in." I shook off my hesitation when I heard my new roommate shout from beyond the door.
When I stepped inside I saw a young man sitting at one of the two desks, writing in a notebook. Placing my bag on the barren side of the room I sat on the bed and glanced at O'Hara, usually he would have made some sort of comment by now. "I do have a sense of restraint you know, and I wouldn't want to break the serious bout of concentration occurring over there." Rolling my eyes at his attempt at whispering and his overexaggerated tone of hurt but before I could respond my new roommate put down his pen and turned around.
The moment he saw O'Hara floating over my shoulder one of his eyebrows raised, "Well that's not something you see everyday." The moment he spoke I flinched, expecting the scathing response, "I know, the doctors say he'll grow out of this awkward phase but I have my doubts." My head snapped towards O'Hara with a glare as he started to try and whistle innocently while my new roommate tried not to die of laughter.
After I released some of my anger by treating him like a stress ball I let O'Hara return to his position of floating over my shoulder. By this point the only other person here had finally stopped laughing before standing up and reaching out his hand, "Well, I stand by my statement but at least now I know things won't be as quiet in here anymore. My name is Douglas Ramsey, though in the X-Man training program I am known as Cypher."
"So if you don't mind me asking, what brought you to this paradise for freaks and outcasts?" I just knew I had to respond before my companion did so I rushed to give a succinct answer. "Bad power development." Judging by the pout on O'Hara's face I could tell I was right on the mark choosing to answer quickly, but it also looked like my answer wasn't that clear either. The look of confusion on Douglas' face had no trouble expressing his lack of understanding.
So I took a few minutes to tell him about the last day and a half of my life, and by the end of it he was nodding along. "Yeah things like that happen more often than you might think, for being the "next step in human evolution" our powers have a tendency to come out half baked a lot of the time." The sarcastic tone and finger quotes he used told me that I didn't have to worry about rooming with a mutant supremacist.
Something I was very relieved to hear, I was so over the hate regular people dumped on mutants I wasn't sure I could handle it going the other way as well just yet. Punching a racist might be an appropriate use of force in my book but it wouldn't give the best first impression. I was just about to ask about what brought him here when I was interrupted by the parrot on my shoulder.
"Half baked? What do you mean by that?" Douglas looked a little weirded out by the fact the voice in my head could have its own opinion. I guess now that he knew what the blob of light floating over my shoulder was, it put a different spin on the physical manifestation of my powers. "You know about the ranking for mutant abilities right?" We both gave him a nod so he continued, "Well sometimes a mutation will… not get enough juice to fully awaken, or a problem will occur during the mutation."
"When that happens you get what we like to call a half baked power, something that wasn't totally finished forming. In the case of a partial awakening there is always a chance they could fully awaken in time, but for the most part they have to learn to live with it. The same for if a problem occurs during the mutation process. Most epsilon ranked powers are in this category, and we just don't have enough resources to help every single one of them reach their full potential."
"So for the ones that are not in life-threatening danger, well, they learn to live with the side effects of being half baked." It all sounded kind of demeaning to me and the feeling must have shown on my face because he quickly tried to correct me. "No, no, no… it's not a derogatory term, the professor and many of the teachers have a very strict policy against things like that."
"The way I heard it was that someone made a joke years ago about being half baked and it just caught on. If someone has a problem with being grouped together like that then they bring it up and people make sure to stop immediately. We all deal with enough hate from the outside world, we don't need to bring that same sort of thing in here as well. But at the same time we don't shy away from making jokes, growing some thick skin will only be helpful if you ever want to travel outside these walls."
I could practically hear the sarcasm dripping from O'Hara's next comment, "Yes, yes, the connotation of being half baked is fairly obvious, I was more curious what kind of things would qualify as half baked." That got him a flick to the forehead and a glare from me but Douglas didn't seem to mind and just waved his hand. "My bad, I overexplain sometimes, a side effect of my own powers. That by the way would not be a severe enough side effect to be half baked."
"Being half baked is like your mutation giving you bird-like features but instead of wings you get a beak, random feathers, and hollow bones. A more common one is not being able to turn your powers off, though the professor always says that is more of a psychological problem than a genetic one." The moment he mentioned the fact that some people couldn't turn off their abilities I knew where O'Hara was trying to lead the conversation, and I was proven right with his next question.
"Some people are sad they can't turn off their powers? How is that a downside? I mean it's not like Alex can shut me up and I am definitely an upside." I wanted to argue but I knew he was right, without him I would have definitely gone insane. But Douglas walked right into his trap and mentioned the one person O'Hara was aiming for, "Some people do see it as a benefit and sometimes it is, but when you can't touch someone in fear of absorbing their life force?"
"And when doing so you copy all their abilities and memories along with it, I would say that is a definite downside. Just imagine having a whole new life crammed into your head every time you brush elbows, and with those memories comes instincts, feelings and abilities you suddenly have to cope with. Plus suddenly you have a whole new set of powers that aren't always the easiest to control."
"That's just how she is directly affected, the effect it has on other people affects her as well. The fear she feels every moment of every day, worrying that if she relaxes even for a moment she could kill the people closest to her." It appeared this topic got my new roommate really riled up, and when he finished he was almost yelling in anger.
But once he realized he let out a deep breath and sat back down, probably not even realizing when he stood up in the first place. Dragging his hands down his face he took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then let it out. "Sorry about that, she's a friend, one of the few that I've made here and it really gets to me that a lot of people think her fears are overrated. That she should be happy to have such a powerful ability, no matter the downsides."
I wasn't really sure what to say, I knew where O'Hara was trying to take this conversation but my skin wasn't thick enough to ask for a favor after my other half just pissed him off. Unfortunately the thing in question was without an ounce of shame, "So that is terrible and all but since you are friends do you think you could call her over here? I think I might have a solution to her problems."
That got another glare out of him, "You!? What could you possibly know that every expert in mutant physiology combined doesn't? Because she has talked to all of them and none of them have come up with a solution." All and all, it took about fifteen minutes of further explanations to convince him to at least give it a shot. And a couple minutes after sending off a text there was a small explosion, after which a blue furry demon elf that could only be Kurt Wagner appeared in the middle of our room.
I have to admit I bluescreened for a moment when he arrived, it wasn't just his looks or the strong smell of sulfur that caused Douglas to open a window in order to air out the room. Though that may have caused me to stall on its own if I hadn't been distracted by something else, or rather someone else.
"Wow, I think his balls just dropped!" And of course the moment was ruined a second later when my new companion decided to open his big mouth. My face erupted in a blush as I stammered and stuttered trying to cover but only making the situation worse by the second. The two guys were laughing their asses off while the new standard of beauty standing in front of me had a confident smirk as if she knew she was worth all that and more.
Though as my embarrassment faded I was able to notice a bit of pinkness on the one ear I could see. It only added to her beauty though and I had to swallow the sudden dryness in my throat before I coughed and tried to get the conversation back on track. Which was still difficult due to my sudden and overwhelming crush, but could you really blame me?
Not only was she goth, she didn't try and push it too far. I could tell just by looking at her that she didn't use much makeup, a little eye shadow and maybe some lipstick, but she was naturally pale so there was no need for face powder to fake it. Her clothes were not overdone either, though that might have been due to the fact it was still summer vacation. She wore some black leggings that looked painted on, a pair of combat boots that had definitely seen some use.
Paired with the see through green overshirt and the black tank top under it she was showing just enough to give a taste while at the same time keeping herself fully clothed. The gloves covering her hands told me that it was both fashion on her part along with safety for others. Both of which told me good things, though I could already tell keeping myself from running my eyes up and down her well maintained figure was going to be a constant struggle.
"Ya know if ya take a picture it might last ya longer." That got the boys, who by this point had mostly recovered, to let out another few chuckles. Meanwhile I was embarrassed all over again as apparently I got distracted again. "Forgive him, ma'am he just realized the joys of puberty." In that moment I decided to take some of my anger out on the other resident in my head, and in the next moment a look of horror appeared on his face.
"Now that is cruel and unusual punishment!" I smirked while the other three tilted their heads in confusion. Seeing as O'Hara was currently occupied trying to figure out how to block my thoughts from entering his head I decided to explain my revenge. "Our minds are connected, it's a new thing and neither of us have figured out a way to partially block thoughts. So right now I am humming the chicken dance song in my head on a loop."
Douglas and Kurt were the only ones to give a severe look of shock and anguish, seemingly agreeing with O'Hara, Rogue in the meantime merely rolled her eyes and moved on. "The name's Rogue, I hear ya have an idea on how to control ma powas." She didn't look convinced but I didn't really mind, it wasn't my idea, I mean I kind of knew where O'Hara was trying to take this but I was lost on the specifics.
"Not me, O'Hara is the one with the idea." She raised an eyebrow at that, "You just said your minds are connected, shouldn't that mean you know as well." Before I could explain the nuisance himself finally decided to stop pouting and stepped in. "Not exactly, yes our minds are connected, but I am the only one that can really take advantage of that right now. In time he could too, but we really only gained access to this part of our abilities a few hours ago."
"Being an entity made of pure psychic energy means that I have an unfair advantage when it comes to manipulating that energy." That only made her more confused, "How are psychic powers supposed to help me? Ya may be made of psychic energy but the professor already tried and no offence but I'm not going to trust yar abilities over his."
"My help has nothing to do with the psychic branch of our powers, now do you want the short answer and accept my help or do you want the long answer?" With that she gained a determined look on her face and sat on Douglas' bed, "Long answer, I've waited this long and I want to know what I am agreeing to before saying yes." So we all settled in for another round of explanations of the past day, though why Kurt stayed for the whole thing was unknown.
By the end of it the confusion hadn't left Rogue's face, "That's a sad story an all, but I fail to see how all that would help me." By this point it was starting to get dark out and I let out a yawn as O'Hara answered, "You remember how I told you how I latched onto the professor's powers and made a version for myself?"
That got nods from all three, "Well I am not really giving myself powers, it's more like I am unlocking knowledge. When Douglas mentioned you drain lifeforce I knew that you doing so would unlock another portion of knowledge Alex would be able to use. Once that knowledge is unlocked I am sure Casanova here would have no problem teaching you so you could control your own powers as well."
The current advanced chapters are:
On the Range Ch1
Bael Ch1
Cubed Ch1
The Titan Ch1
Free Range Ch2
The Garden Ch1
Not All Heroes Wear Capes Ch4
Grimoire Ch4
Master of Magic Ch4-5
Seal Smith Ch2
The Game Ch6-7
Millennium Ch4-5
Kingdom Ch 2
God of Games Ch8
Salvation Ch1
Growth Ch1
Ark Ch9-10
March Forward Ch2
Tinker Ch2
The Professor Ch2
A Real Gamer System Ch7
Mix and Match Ch1
Myths and Legends Ch4
King of Media Ch1-3
Puzzle Maker Ch4
Different Paths Ch1
The Exemplar Ch1