X-Journey 12
Disclaimer: This story involves, or is going to, characters from X-Men. The characters in this story have no relation to the REAL characters and/or the actors that play them in real life, and imply nothing of their sexual orientation, (No matter how much we would like it to) and any similarities are purely coincidental. All X-Men and other related elements are property of Marvel.
Chapter 12:
I woke up with a jolt, "What! What's going on?"
"Get up lazy!" said a voice
I wanted to turn over to see who had woken me up, but they were also on top of me.
"Whoever you are, can you please get off of me?" I said groggy.
"Well," said the person, obviously taken aback, "is that anyway to greet your best friend?"
"Liz?" she slides off of my back to lie down next to me, "Why are you here? What time is it?" I said scratching my eyes.
"To answer your first question, you wanted me here. As for the second," she looked at her Movado, "it's 1:15 in the afternoon."
"Really?"
"Uh... Yeah. What time did you go to sleep?"
"Like right after I had gotten off the phone with you."
"Really? That means that you've been sleeping for the past 14 hours. I think that's plenty, don't you?"
I laughed, "Yeah, I think sufficient. You couldn't have waited until I called to come over, huh?"
"No, but I have been here for like an hour. I was talking to your parents. They just wanted to make sure that I was okay and asked a few questions about what had happened yesterday."
"Okay." I replied.
"Oh! They also said not to tell Eve what you're going to tell me about what they had spoken to you about..." She said not exactly sure if she had the order of things and a bit confused.
I had to pause for a few seconds to think about what she was trying to say. My grandparent's story. "Really?"
"Well, what they actually had said was `Jacob is probably going to tell you what we told him last night anyway, but make sure that he doesn't tell Eve."
"That's... Reasonable, I guess, it makes sense. I mean they didn't tell me until last night and it was kind of because they had to."
"It must be pretty big. I feel a little bad that Eve is being left out of the loop though."
"Well, it is pretty big. So, I can understand as to why don't want to have her know." Liz just nodded, "Okay, let me get decent so that you can find out what `it' is. I know that deep inside that you're dying to know."
She looked shocked, "Don't tell me that you're telepathic too!" But she couldn't help but laugh.
I rolled my eyes, "Shut up!"
I walked into the bathroom performed the usual rituals and then headed over to my closet, to put on a pair of pajama pants.
"I thought that you said that you were going to make yourself look decent." She said as she pointed at my pajama pants.
"Are we going anywhere? No. So, take it or leave." I rebutted.
"Joke. Gosh." She said placing her hands in front of her.
I made my way to the bed and sat Indian style while Liz sat on her legs. "Alright, I'm going to say this story all the way through, no interruptions. It's a hard story to tell because it involves my grandparents." Liz was about to interrupt, like I knew that she would but I began to tell her my grandparent's story anyway.
By the time that I was finished with the story, Liz was almost in tears, her eyes glossed over, "J, that story is... Incredible..." she trailed off.
I was almost in tears with her, "I know. I cannot believe what they stood for and much of a difference they made in the community."
Liz could only nod in agreement. We sat in silence for a little while, as if it was a moment of silence for my grandparents.
She wiped a few tears off with her teal polo. "Okay, I really want some food now," she laughed. "Crying always makes me hungry, not sure why though."
I chuckled as I wiped the tears with my t-shirt, "Yeah, I know what you mean. Actually, I haven't had anything to eat since our breakfast yesterday."
"Why?" she wondered.
"Well, our lunch was slightly interrupted and after what happened, dinner was the thing that I wanted."
Liz nodded silently. We made our way downstairs towards the kitchen, arms locked around each other. As we were walking down the stairs, I noticed that there was a strange car parked out on the driveway, a silver S-Class Mercedes.
"Liz? Did you get a new car since I saw you 12 hours ago?"
"Nope, why?"
I gestured with my head for her to look through the double height windows in the foyer and onto the driveway.
"Because that car is there." I said pointing at the Mercedes.
"Hmm," Liz said thoughtfully, "I wonder who it belongs to."
We made our way down the remaining stairs. When we got to the kitchen, I was greeted with a surprisingly tight hug from Eve.
"I heard what happened last night," I just looked at her in silence, "A: The dickhead deserved what he got and then some and B: It was pretty awesome what you did." She hugged me again and I hugged her back.
She let go quickly as she then began to run off towards the front door but she turned around, walking backwards she said, "Oh! And C: I still love you, despite the whole gay-mutant thing." She turned back around and began to run towards the door again.
"Love you too Eve!" I yelled back but the response that I got was the sound of the front door closing. I could only laugh and Liz joined me.
"I'm sure that you are hungry Jacob." Emily said out of nowhere, startling me a bit.
"Yes, I am. I haven't eaten in over 24 hours now, if I have done the math right. So, I'm starving."
"Do you want me to make anything in particular?"
"Breakfast food sounds pretty amazing right now."
"Ah, so a ham and cheese omelet with toast." Emily said in a matter of fact tone.
I just looked at her, "You know me too well Emily." I chuckled.
"And for you Liz, anything?"
"Well now that you mentioned it, I could go for some toast and coffee."
"No raspberry jam?" Emily asked.
"You know me too well Emily!" She said with a big smile.
Emily headed over to the range, as Liz and me took a seat in the breakfast nook in the kitchen. We chit chatted for a bit as Emily was preparing our food. A little later into our conversation, Liz brought up the parked Mercedes out front.
"It's maddening that we don't know who's it is."
"I know, it's quite..." my voiced trailed, but the wheels in my head were turning, "but I think I know someone that does...."
Liz raised an eyebrow at me, "Who?"
While looking at me for an answer, I call "Emily?" and I turn my head towards her.
She looks up from the range, "Do you know whose car that belongs to? The one that is parked out in front."
She had to think for a second, "Oh! The silver one."
"That one!"
"No, I don't know. I was on my way to answer the door but your father got there before I could."
"Damn!" Liz and I both said under our breaths.
"But," Emily continued, "He's tall and has very dark short hair. He was also wearing a business suit."
"Okay." I tell Emily and turn to Liz, "Too bad that description doesn't really narrow things down much. Tall, dark short hair, business suit; It's probably one of my dad's clients if anything."
"Yeah, probably." Liz nodded in agreement.
Emily served our food and we ate it; well Liz ate hers, I sort of inhaled my food. Emily asked me if I was still hungry but I turned down her offer to make me more food.
We both got up and began to make our way back to go upstairs, when my dad calls out, "J, I need you in the office." From the doorframe, he notices that Liz is still here and says to her, "Liz, this might take a while, so if you want you can just head over to Jake's room to wait."
"Oh, that's alright. I was just about to leave anyway." She says as my dad ducks back into the office.
"You are?"
"Yeah, well your dad said that it might take a while and I figure that it's kind of important anyway. So, I think that it's better if I just leave." Liz said throwing her hands in the air, like it's no big deal.
I hug her goodbye and I make my way over to the office. I step in shutting the door behind me.
"Ah J! You're here!" My dad says to me and I just smile back. I notice that the man that Emily described is seated in front of my dad. "Jacob, this is Richard."
I hold out my hand to meet his and shook it, "Very nice to meet you. I don't think that we have met before, have we?"
We let go of our hands and he chuckled, "Yes, we have but it was many years ago, when you were much smaller."
My dad interjected, "Jacob, Richard is from the Foundation for Mutant Peace and Equality (FMPE). He's the lawyer that your mother and I mentioned last night. He's agreed to help with the case that will spring up any day now."
"Oh, that Richard." Was all that I could manage for about 10 seconds before I blurted out, "Are you a mutant?"
He smiles and says, "Yes, yes I am."
"What's your ability then?" I ask almost too excitedly.
"I'm an empathy. I have the ability to feel others emotions and cast emotions onto others. It is something that helped me put a lot of criminals away since I know when they are lying. Of course, the hard part is trying to get them to say that." He says lightly.
"So, if you want you could make me feel extremely happy or sad?" After I said that my heart began to race and I had an uncontrollable urge to smile and felt as light as air. As quickly as the feeling came, it left.
"That was amazing!"
He laughed, "Thank you, but empathy is quite a common mutation. Every human has the ability. You know the emotions of the people that are near you. You know when someone is happy or sad or when they are lying to you. I just have really sensitive ESP, really." We all chuckled at his comment. By this time we had made it to the small conference table that my dad has in his office.
"I'm sorry if I was very forward about asking you about your ability, it's just that..."
Richard stepped in, "You were curious. I understand, don't worry." He said with a warm smile. "Now if I may be the forward one, what is your ability? Your father and I have been discussing legal issues since I have been here and just what had happened."
"Well, I think that I have telekinesis."
"Like your grandfathers, that's very interesting."
"Why's that?"
"Well from the science that has been gathered, the mutant genome is passed from the male side of the family. Of course, it stands as only a theory. But what happened at Bal Harbour?"
"Oh... Bal Halbour..." I said with exacerbation.
"I know that it is difficult to talk about but I need to know, from your perspective, what happened."
I began to retell the story. I had just finished the part of the defensive bubble, when Richard interrupted me,
"Wait, a bubble?"
"Well, yeah. That's the closest way that I can describe it."
"And you mentioned that you couldn't hear them or that they could break through it."
"Yes, why?"
"Well from what you have told me. I can confirm that you have telekinesis, just like your grandfathers and by the sounds of it a quite powerful one to boot."
I tilted my head questioningly, "How do you know?"
"Well it is no easy task to make a telekinetic shield. Any person with some background knowledge in telekinesis would know that it takes long hours of practice to conjure one and make it stand. How did you do it?"
" To tell you the truth Richard, I have no idea. It just happened. I can't even lift an empty shopping bag when I wanted to."
He starred at me a bit confused, either at the fact that I just said that I tried to lift an empty shopping bag or that I really had no idea how I made that shield.
"So, you have no idea as to how you made it?"
I could only nod.
"Strange," he paused, "let me phone my friend who is telekinetic. She may be able to help, or at least give you a few pointers."
He pulled out his obnoxiously thin phone and I assume went through his contacts and then held the phone to his ear, I heard a mumble on the other side.
"Hello, Jean! How are you?"
Jean responded something.
"Oh! What great news! How's Scott doing?"
She responded, "That's good to hear! The reason I called Jean, is that I have someone here that needs a bit of help with his telekinesis."
Jean replied something that made Richard turn away from me and in a low voice responded back to her. All that I was able to make out was "Yes, it's him."
I wasn't even able to process what that might mean for he then turned around with a smile, "Here you go. She would like to speak to you directly."
I take the phone from his hands, "Uh... Yes?"
"Hi Jacob, I'm Jean Grey. I remember what it was like when my abilities first came."
"Really?!" Relieved that this type of stuff just doesn't happen to me.
"Oh yeah, I was terrified. I made such a mess! My incident also made the news, but that's a story for another day."
"What?" I said out of confusion. How did she know that I was the one that was the one mutant on the news that caused the specific incident at Bal Harbour. I'm certain that Richard hadn't mentioned anything related to what had happened in the past minute that Jean has been on the phone.
Jean continued, "Uh, right. So to help you with your abilities," my mind went into extreme focus mood because I did not want to miss out on anything that she will say, "First, you must clear your mind. This is really important, especially when you're first learning what you can do. Think clear, like glass."
"Okay," I feel like I should be taking notes or something.
"Focus on the object. Narrow in on it. Pretend as if there is nothing else but you and the object. Know your object, for if you are to manipulate it, you must know it."
"What do you mean by `know' it?"
"Know it inside and out, even though you may not know what is inside. You must be able to consume the object, own it. Only then can you manipulate it."
I processed what she said nut before I had the chance to reply she continued, "Of course the more simple on object is the better, especially for someone starting out, like a sheet of paper or a frisbee. The more you practice the more complicated objects you can handle and the easier it will get. I promise."
"Okay, well that was a mouthful."
She laughed, "I know it may sound like a lot to handle but like I said it gets better with practice and time."
"Thanks Jean, it..."
But she interrupted me, "I'm sorry Jacob, but I have to get going."
"Oh! It's no problem, thanks again!"
"Of course, no problem! Tell Richard that I will speak to him later, talk to you soon!" and with that she hung up the phone.
I handed the phone to Richard, "Thanks Richard, that was really helpful. She said that she had to go and that she would talk you later."
"You're welcome," he said as he put the phone away in his pocket, "That Jean Grey is always doing something somewhere. I'm surprised that I was even able to reach her."
I just nodded and tried to think of the things that were just said to me, but then I heard Richard speak,
"But there is more that happened right?"
"Oh yes, yes. There is more that happened." I told him the rest of the story.
"You stopped them? Midair?" Were the first things that came out of his mouth when I finished the story.
"Yeah. It was like I had frozen them or something. Again, I'm not sure as to how I did that. It kind of just happened..."
"Most impressive," his voice trailed off like he was thinking, "Have you thought about you education?"
He was about to say something else before my father interrupted him, "Richard, I don't mean to be rude but we are here to discuss the case that we have on our hands."
My education? I thought what could he mean? I'm sure he meant what am I going to do about my school situation.
"Well, it sounds most definitely like a self defense case to me." Richard stopped my thoughts, "A classic formula, if you will. Dormant mutant adolescent gets provoked, body reacts, and well a mall needs a renovation."
"Okay... I guess that's a good thing. Right?"
"Oh yes, yes it is but," great there's a but, "it's a matter of convincing the jury that it happened when you were provoked, in a matter that was out of pure self defense. It sounds to me that none of this would have happened if Devin, that's his name right, wasn't going to fight you. Take Devin out of the equation and Bal Harbour would still have a roof and I wouldn't be sitting here. To be honest, the way that he was going to attack sounds malicious, monster-like even."
As he said this he placed confidence in my heart that this truly wasn't my fault. It was a matter of wrong place and timing.
"I should write that malicious stuff down, it's a good angle for our side..." He began to mumbled to himself as he reached for his bag to pull out a pad and pen, "Oh, that sounds good!" He began to write furiously into the pad.
"J?" My dad says to me.
"Yeah, Pops?"
"Now that you have told Richard the story. Him and I are going to discuss a couple and I don't think that you need to be in here for it. Especially since it is such a nice day out." He said all of this as if he was selling me the idea of leaving the office.
Of course, I didn't make it seem that I knew what he was trying to do, "Alright, sounds good to me. Let me know if you need anything else."
"Will do." My dad said with a smile.
As I made my way towards the door, I head Richard whisper "Does he know about Xa..." but my dad shushed him.
"And J?" he called out, "Can you shut the door?" I just nodded and shut the door behind me.
My head was reeling about everything that I had just learned and before I knew I was upstairs in my bedroom, throwing myself onto my bed.
Please email with questions, comments, criticisms, I want to hear it all at imartistic90@yahoo.com. Thank you so much for reading!! Hope you enjoyed it!!