End of the Line

Posted on Tue Sep 21st, 2021 @ 3:04pm by Charles Xavier & Elizabeth Villar

2,509 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: X-Odus
Location: Front entrance to Xavier's School
Timeline: July 10, 1993

The 15 person white van pulled to a stop in front of the Mansion. The side panel was clearly labeled 'Child Protective services." The van sat outside the front entrance for several minutes. Those walking by would have made out a driver and a single occupant.

"I'll remind you, this is your last shot. If you screw this one up, its back to Juvie in Tucson," the dark man wearing a rather cheap formal tie stated loudly as he opened up the side door.

Inside a young girl slowly started to move. "I like Tucson," she responded sardonically.

She slid down out of the van, her Doc Martens hitting the stone pavers of the driveway. The man grabbed her by both shoulders. "I'm being straight with you. This school is the best shot you got for staying off the streets and out of prison. Don't fuck this up."

The girl flipped back a long faded blue lock of hair from her face and stared the man straight in the eye without responding. Her face clearly stated she was not amused, but was following where she was being led... for now.

"I swear," the man stated, dropping his grip on the girl and turning toward the front doors to the Mansion. "You are supposed to check in with the headmaster, some guy named Charles Xavier. I assume he owns the place."

Her badly bleached and stripped hair was disheveled being she had been asleep for much of the journey out from the city. "Big deal," she mumbled, unimpressed. She wasn't sure if this was a boarding school or a really fancy correctional facility, whatever it was, here she was.

"Grab your crap, I ain't coming back for you," the man stated, walking toward the doors.

She pulled a green military style duffle bag purchased form some surplus store off the seat of the van and rather dramatically let it spin her around, over playing how heavy it was. The bag was highly decorated with what was likely a set of sharpie markers. A large butterfly was apparent in the intricate design, as was what looked like a lizard, and some sort of writing that might be occultic runes.

She wore an oversized black hoodie, that was far too warm for the day. On her legs was a houndstooth straight skirt, that clung a little too tight for a young girl. She followed the man up the steps and into the entry hall for the school.

She looked around at her surroundings. So much polished wood and brass. The opulence of the mansion had been maintained despite it's use as a boarding school. The girl appraised the surroundings and started running a list of how much many of the displayed items would fetch from a fence at a pawn shop. Several students moved about the hall and up the grand stair case. The girl's mascara caked eyes looked at them with indifference.

The man approached a couple students. "Excuse me. Excuse me. I am looking for the office of Headmaster Xavier. Could you show me where I can find it?" A girl with flowing dark hair looked at him with a broad outgoing smile. "It's down the hall to the left just ahead, you can't miss it. "

"Yeah... thanks," the man replied as he steered his charge in the direction the girl had indicated.

The young girl paused for a moment as she walked the hall. She looked around like she had heard something.

"You ok?" the man asked.

She looked disoriented. "Yeah... I think. Did you just say welcome to me?"

"You're trippin', girl. There's nobody else near us. What do I need to welcome you to anyways, besides you last chance to make something of yourself."

The girl pushed by him, spun around and then started walking a corkscrew trail like following an unseen path. "This is weird."

"You're tellin me?" he said, dropping the clip board to his side and following after her. "Hey, they said we were supposed to head this way."

She paused looking at where the man was indicating and then back at the corridor in front of her. She was uncertain of what to do.

"Thank you, sir," said a welcoming voice that was no less commanding for its gentle timbre. "Leave the case files there. I will have my people fax them to your office once they've been notarized. You may go now."

The distempered man's face went slack as if he had briefly suffered a stroke and his facial muscles had stopped responding. "Of course, sir," he said dispassionately. "Have a nice day."

Xavier smiled as the man turned around and retraced his steps toward the exit with the gait of an emperor penguin.

"Hello, Elizabeth. I am Professor Charles Xavier." He stared at her, giving her a moment to take in the sight of him as well. "As you were told, this is my school founded for the training of gifted youth, such as yourself. Come."

Myfanwy flinched a little bit at hearing her proper name. Only teachers and public servants called her Elizabeth... and her father. She shook off the thought and followed the old guy.

He wheeled around and led her into the library.

Myfanwy watched as the crippled old man led her away. The thing with... what was his name?... Doug... or something. She really didn't care, but he dropped everythign on command from the old guy. That was weird those guys live to have paper's signed and be as big a pain as possible.

Walking into the extensive library, Myfanwy felt a little overwhelmed. "You sure I'm at the right place? I'm nothing special..." her head sagged a little as she spoke to the old man. Her mother had said she scored high on some IQ test they gave her at school. She was never part of a gifted program, they were mainly theater nerds. Not that she had a problem with theater nerds, she was just... different. She didn't draw attention to herself, except maybe the wrong kind.

"Everything about you is special, Elizabeth... may I call you Elizabeth?" The question was spoken aloud, but then words appeared within her mind without the the professor's mouth moving. ~I can call you whatever you wish~

Myfanwy looked at him nervously. How was he speaking in her head? How does anybody speak in your head? ~oh god no.~ she thought. "Only my father ~the bastard~ called me Elizabeth, and the people from CPS. Everyone calls me Myfanwy." she responded more politely than her thoughts would lead on.

"I see," Xavier said, pondering the nickname. "Is there a story behind that or shall I just say Cymru am byth?"

Myfanwy smiled at the old man. He wasn't as dumb as most of the foster care folks tended to be. "My Mother's grandfather was Welsh. He used to sing her a song called Myfanwy when she was young. She sang it to me. It kind of stuck. Do you mind me asking why am I here? I've never been on a plane before and now I'm thousands of miles form home being left at some school I've never heard of."

"A beautiful name and an even more beautiful memory," the Professor said. "Myfanwy it is. In answer to your question, my dear, I suppose I must rely on the old adage of 'seeing is believing'." He gestured toward a reading nook in the corner of the library. "Take a seat over there, if you would, and select Darwin's On the Origin of Species from overhead shelf."

Myfanwy did as the old man requested, she went over to the nook and looked up at the book stacks. "Great a pop-quiz on the dewey decimal system." she shook her head as she stood on her tiptoes to try and look up at the overhead shelf. Of course most of the shelves were overhead for her. "Let's see.... Czechoslovakia... Daedelus... Dashmund... Darwin!" She had to step up onto the bottom shelf to get leverage to reach the book, but she pulled on it. It wouldnt come out. The room suddenly shook and she dropped back to the floor. Either the room was getting taller, or she was getting even shorter... or she was moving... down. She looked about her astonished as the floor lowered and the open library became a tube that seemed to keep descending. Elevator. She got that. But who had an elevator in their library? Going where?

The bookcase in front of her opened up to a chrome lined hallway with track lights in the ceiling and floor. "Oh, crap, it's the Batcave!" she exclaimed.

Whispering voices surrounded her. Words from the past, names, places, secrets, all floated through the air on a silent stream and merged together into nearly incomprehensible gibberish. The quiet cacophony nearly obstructed the sound of the hissing elevator that admitted Professor Xavier into the lowest subbasement.

"Welcome to the heart of what the student body affectionately refers to as the X-Mansion," he said. "You wanted to know why you are here. Well, this is it."

The Professor wheeled over to the Cerebro alcove and retrieved the headset. "This is Cerebro, a supercomputer which allows me to interface with the minds of others over vast distances. It is how I found you, Myfanwy. It is how I influenced the governing authorities to bring you to this place. It is how I guide and protect other young mutants like you until you are strong enough to do so yourself."

Myfanwy's jaw dropped staring at the mirror lined coved sphere. "This is a computer? I thought an Amiga was impressive." She spun about taking the machine in. "You found me with this? What do you mean interface with minds?" This was quickly getting beyond what she considered to be possible.

"So you like control everyone here? Me too?" she inquired, her mind going through weird last couple weeks that brought her to this school in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere... New York... same thing.

"I don't control people's minds," the Professor said. "I nurture them. A mind is a terrible thing to waste." He smirked a little as he said so. "Like you, Myfanwy, I am a mutant, and my mutation is that of telepathy. My neurological processes extend beyond my physical body. I created this school as a sanctuary for others like us with the hope that we all can learn to control our mutations and build a brighter future for everyone in this world."

Inspiring words... if you were a mutant. Myfanwy wasn't convinced all this applied to her. "Maybe you made a mistake. The folks at CPS tend to confuse their paperwork. Maybe you ordered a mutant and you just got a girl that passes out while riding a bicycle? I don't fell like a mutant, I'm just a sick girl that can't stay awake."

"Yes, that is what you have been led to believe," Xavier said. "But I received my doctorate in genetic science well before you were born. As one of the preeminent world experts on the Homo Sapiens Superior race and discoverer of the X-Gene, I have incorporated it within Cerebro's search algorithms. Believe me, my dear, when I say that you are indeed a mutant. More importantly, my facility here can determine if your narcolepsy is of the clinical variety or if it's an artifact of your mutation."

"So Sleep is my superpower? Leave it to me to be the world's most boring mutant." She had to consider what he was saying. Yes she was a freak. This guy with all kinds of credentials claims she is a mutant. Could she hurt people? Did she hurt people? Her mind launched into her many nocturnal adventures. What was the outcome of her dreams? The art gallery in Milan, her teacher's affair, her family's accident... were they all real? Were they her fault? She was starting to get freaked out. "So what does this mean? What do I do?" Fear began to overwhelm her.

"I don't know yet," said the Professor gently, "but we can find out together. Sleep is an incredibly important gift to the creatures of Earth. So much transpires while we sleep--metabolism, accelerated growth and healing, endocrinal regulation of hormone production, psychological and neurological preservation of memory, and that's without any X-Gene in the mix. Whatever happens in your sleep, Myfanwy, we will discover it together. I promise."

"Thank you sir." she said bowing her head. "I would really like to know what is happening to me. When can we start?"

The question made the professor smile. "Typically I would offer you quarters to refresh yourself, but under the circumstances, perhaps we should get you into the magnetic resonance imager before your next nap. It's just this way in the infirmary."

Myfanwy had never been at a foster home that ran brain scans on new residents, let alone on the first day. The magnitude of what was being said slowly settled into her mind. The old bald man was serious. He felt she was a mutant, and he was ready to start running tests. She wondered what she had walked into, but the Professor seemed genuine albeit lofty in what he described the school doing. She felt a slight tremor of fear run through her. She looked at the old man. Did she trust him? He had a freakin bat cave under the school... positive or negative? She closed her eyes for a moment. "Yes, of course. Tell me what I need to do." she said with less quiver in her voice than she felt in her stomach.

"If you prefer, we can delay until you feel more settled," said the Professor. "I'm sure Miss Farwynd, our school nurse, would be amenable to a later scheduling as well."

Myfanwy really did not want to impose on the nurse's busy schedule. "I am very interested to discover what is wrong with me, but it can wait. I don't think I will get any freakier in the next day or two," she stated, her eyes angling towards the floor.

"Very well," said the Professor. "Go get settled, perhaps make some new friends, and I will have Miss Farwynd notify you when preparations have been made."

Myfanwy wasnt sure if she should be relieved or disappointed. Having a brain scan wasn't exactly an appealing concept, but finding out if she was a mutant like the old man was saying would be interesting and explain a lot she had been going through. "Thank you Professor, sir. I guess it wouldn't hurt to see more of this place." she quickly looked around at the glowing insides of cerebro. "How exactly do I get back to the school?"

The question made Xavier smile. When she had first arrived, Myfanwy was categorically disinterested in anything to do with the place, and now she was eager to make herself at home, even begin her journey of self-discovery. Moments like this were ones the Professor savored.

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