Monster Mansion
Posted on Fri Feb 25th, 2022 @ 9:42am by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Cameron Hood & Jade Farwynd & Tammy Thompson & Bliss Hawkins & Elizabeth Villar & Hayden Davis
5,057 words; about a 25 minute read
Mission:
Episode 1: X-Odus
Location: X-Mansion
Timeline: July 14, 1990
"Miss Farwynd, the MR scanner is online," the Professor said while in the subbasement medical center. "Would you mind fetching young Myfanwy while the software boots up?"
Jade nodded, "sure, Guv." Turning on her heel she left the Infirmary, idly wondering which one Myfanwy was again.
Lab notes were begun. Patient chart was set. It wasn't every day that Professor Xavier conducted direct research like from his youth, so this would be a unique opportunity.
The warm sun shone down on Izzy's body as she laid back on the black lava sands of a palm tree line beach. She could almost feel the rays of the sun coming down, of course that would be impossible since her body wasn't real, but the paradisaical environment was still beautiful and soothing. She could exactly sleep in a dream, but if she could this would be a wonderful spot. Far from the reaches of civilization, just the shimmering blue water softly washing up on her legs as she laid there. As she looked out on the warm Seychellois afternoon it occurred to her how much better this was than sitting in class. A gull glided in next to her, taking cautious interest in the shimmering body of the human laying in the sun. It slowly walked closer to her, its head moving in rapid jerks as it curiously looked her over.
"Are you with us, Miss Villar?" it suddenly said.
The soft beach sands dissolved into the hard wooden surface of a desk. Professor Summers stood over her with his weird red glasses. She shook her head for a moment trying to understand the contrast of environments that existed seconds apart. "... I'm sorry... what...?" she answered. Some students in the class gave out slight chuckles.
"We were discussing the influence of Dr. Martin Luther King's nonviolent protests for civil rights had upon the Professor Xavier and Dr. MacTaggert's research on Mutants, and how that thinking was employed in the rejection of the Mutant Registration Act four years ago. Would you care to comment?" Scott stated interrogating his slumbering student.
"Um... I don't know," Myfanwy responded sluggishly.
"Maybe get to bed a bit earlier tonight? There will be a quiz on this material tomorrow," Scott scolded before turning back tot he remainder of the remainder of the class. "That goes for all of you. Knowledge is power, and your mutant brothers and sisters have sacrificed a great deal to get you to where you are today. You owe it to their memory to be aware of our history and our present."
Myfanwy reached for the triple espresso mocha in her thermos, sipping from the metallic holder letting the tingle of the beverage flow over her tongue and down her throat. She just wanted to sleep. Good lord, this was boring.
Jade stepped over to the door to the classroom, and stopped short. Her system felt a stop and start of someone's system inside that room, but she couldn't quite tell who. The system had not quite stopped, but suspended? What the hell?
As normal function restored, Jade took a moment to compose herself from the weird sensation before knocking on the door and entering the classroom.
"Sorry, Professor Summers. Prof X needs Myfanwy," Jade said, hoping that the girl (she hoped) would make herself known to save Jade the embarrassment of not knowing who she was looking for.
Scott shifted his head to the side. "My.... Myfanny? I don't have a Myfanny in my class," he said with some confusion, knowing that Professor X wouldn't send Jade to his room by accident. Turning to his class he inquired, "Is Myfanny here?" A chorus of hushed giggles erupted, Scott not realizing his horrific pronunciation sounded like a bad prank call.
The small girl with the frazzled over bleached hair next to him raiser her hand. Scott looked down at his often slumbering student. "Yes, Elizabeth."
A slight blush appeared on her pale skin as she started to gather her things. "I'm Myfanwy," she stated meekly.
Scott kept his red glasses focused on the young girl for a moment. This new one was going to be a problem. "Very well, Elizabeth, you may go with Ms Farwynd," he said releasing her by his permission.
Myfanwy slipped her school books into her backpack and picked up her thermos of coffee, taking another sip. "Thank you, sir," she whispered as she got up and walked over to Jade.
Still unaccustomed to being called 'sir', even to the responsibilities of faculty during his sabbatical from field duty among the X-Men, Scott looked after the young lady as she was escorted by Jade out of the room. After a sigh, he turned back to the other students. "Where were we?"
Bliss had ignored the majority of the whole scene, still sketching the teacher's face. The task had occupied her time during the dry material of the lecture.
"Somewhere between the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of the Republicans...."
Down in the subbasement, Xavier felt Jade and Myfanwy arrive before he saw them.
"Good morning," he said by way of greeting. "The equipment is ready. How do you feel, Myfanwy?"
Myfanwy walked in with some trepidation, but also awe at the equipment in the lab. "My parents tried several doctors to diagnose my condition, but they never used anything like this..."
She looked back at the Nurse hoping to get some sort of show of support that she wasn't going to die from some weird experiment the old bald guy was running.
"This caliber of medical devices is commonly found at major hospitals or research facilities," said the Professor. "Being a geneticist, however, I must avail myself of nothing but the best equipment. Today that means we may be able to get to the bottom of your predicament." Not problem, condition, or disease. Predicament. An obstacle to be overcome. He gestured toward the cylinder at the heart of the imaging machine. "If you would lay down on the bed, Ms Farwynd can apply the necessary leadwires so we may begin."
Myfanwy resigned herself to the procedure being whatever the procedure was, and laid her book bag down in a corner near a waiting chair. She then walked to the table by the large cylindrical device and slowly laid back on it, her dry frayed hair bunching up in front of her face. She looked up at the paneled ceiling and thought how oddly comfortable it was.
"She'll be right mate..." Jade said as she turned around with the wires, "the fu...? She's already conked out, Prof." Jade looked down at the kid, shook her head, shrugged and proceeded to attach the wires anyway.
Nodding with approval, Xavier initiated the magnetic resonance imaging. ~Even narcolepsy it seems is not without its occasional benefits~, used the Professor's mind to Jade's. The magnets inside the imager were too loud to allow ease of conversation.
~Wouldn't want to try it to be honest. I zone out quickly enough anyway."~ Jade replied with a shrug and began to monitor the readings.
The transition from awake to her dream state was rarely anything prolonged for Myfanwy. She had always had remarkable control, as to where she wanted to go, what she imagined herself looking like, when she could interact with objects and people and when she could just pass through everything, like a translucent version of whatever she was imaging reality to be. Curiously, this time she was just there. Still in the laboratory/medical center of the school, drifting above her slumbering body, now attached to a web of electronics. She had never really looked at herself as she slept before. It was weird. Her body just lay there, all still while she moved about the room around it. Normally, she would pick somewhere interesting to go, to escape the dullness of school, the stress of her foster families or the general depression of being... her. But now she just hovered. The Professor and the nurse were orbs of bright glowing light, the Professor was brilliantly white, the nurse a crimson red. Their bodies made up an eerie translucent shell around the energy within them.
She brought herself down to the floor and began to shift into her semi-corporal state, her alleged ghost state. She couldn't touch or be touched, but she would be vaguely visible as she partially manifested in the room with them.
"Myfanwy," said the Professor. It was telepathic, for his mouth had not moved, yet on this plane his thoughts were audible. "Myanwy, is that you?"
Having the professor in her head was still a weird feeling to Myfanwy. She looked over at him, I'm not really sure how to do this... do I talk... or just think?
Her form manifest slightly more into the 'real world' she was still translucent, but visible to those around her. OF course her Astral avatar Izzy was several inches taller than she was, looked older and better developed than 14 year old Myfanwy. Her hair was a shimmering silver and nearly perfect, as compared to the fried out bleach job of her physical self. The ideal self of her mind was something she greatly enjoyed over the normal Myfanwy. Izzy smiled and waved at the professor and the nurse.
There was a hum coming from the subbasement. Connor felt it before he heard it. Vibrations traveled through matter even more efficiently than through air. The way it oh-so-gently tickled the soles of his feet made him flip and somersault his way to the basement stairs. What could possibly be making that awful noise that resonated almost beneath the audible spectrum?
Hayden had been out of the classroom with a bathroom pass when her classmate was called away. She was washing her face to try to wake up a little more. History had always bored her, but this lecture seemed longer and dryer than normal. She dried her face with some nearby paper towels and left the bathroom to get a drink of water before heading back to class. Part of her wanted to practice her non-academic schooling so she looked around to see if anyone was there before bringing some of the water up and forming it into a ball and swirling it around.
After a few minutes, she made her way back to the classroom.
Tammy sensed something going on. A lot of power was being used in the sub basement. Something was going on. Perhaps she should have a look. Maybe she could help somehow. So with but a though she transformed into her energy form and traced the power output to the source in the subbasement. She materialized in a quiet corner so not to startle anyone too badly. She then Cleared her throat to get the prof's attention. "Hi Professor. Sorry to barge in but felt all the power being used and though I'd take a look. What's, going on and can I do anything to help?" she asked.
"Tammy!" exclaimed the Professor. He had hurried away from the MRI room which allowed him to speak at normal volumes. "No, no, we are doing quite well in here. You should go back upstairs immediately." If her powers flared at the wrong time, it could prove disastrous. But that wasn't her fault. The Professor did his best to keep any edge out of his tone despite his firm intent. "This equipment is sensitive and..."
The oscillating hum of the magnets began to change frequency. Xavier looked back and could feel something was off. It took a degree of concentration to converse with Tammy bodily while tracking Myfanwy astrally. The split focus was difficult to maintain.
Tammy got the message. She had stumbled in and being here could screw things up. She zipped back upstairs asap. ~Man oh man! I should know better than to stumble n like that!~ She thought to herself. She knew she was trying to help but obviously, her presence would have screwed things up. She wondered through the mansion. Maybe something was playing on the tv. Maybe she would run into Scott again. She smiled at that thought. He was nice and very cute. Obviously, he had been through a lot lately. Well, she would be patient. Hopefully, when he was ready he'd open up to her and they would become friends and maybe more. Hopefully.
A loud POP! came from the imaging room just as the hum fell silent.
"Jade!" called the Professor. "What happened?"
A string of curses came as the initial reply, mainly in Australian slang. "Bloody thing's karked it!" The redhead groused as she tried to reinitialize the device. "There was an interruption in the imaging assembly. Not sure if it was an EM disruption or of if it was one of our powers that fried its circuitry. Did someone come down when you left the room?"
Myfanwy watched in horror as her physical body began convulsing as the circuits popped. She tried to wake herself like normal, but she wasn't pulling back into her body. It was a new sensation, she was trapped outside her body. This was serious. She shifted down the the physical plane, her full manifestation of a solid Izzy. She wouldn't want to hold the form for too long. "Professor! What's going on? I can't get back into my body!" she exclaimed in a level of distinct concern.
"There has been a ... malfunction," said the Professor. "Allow me time to assess. Just try not to do or touch anything..."
"Don't try to force your way back in," Jade said to Myfanwy, her eyes glowing red and reddish swirls circling around her wrists.
The kid's immune system was going haywire, trying to fight off a falsely perceived attack, Jade could see it. A weirdly convulsed autoimmune response, somehow triggered by the interruption.
The experience was new and horrifying to Myfanwy. She had never watched herself from the outside, especially in a state of distress such as this. She moved closer to her body, reaching out and touching her own hand. Nothing happened, not that she should have expected it to. Normally she just thought about waking up, or for that matter being woken up by something and she would be back in herself. She immediately started to shake herself. nothing really happened except a cold sensation moving across her Astral arm where she had touched herself. That was weird.
She turned her icy blue eyes toward the red and white glowing orbs she knew were Jade and the Professor. "Can you wake me up? I can't seem to get any response." speaking of herself as a third person object was also new. When she took off on excursions from her body she never thought much about what happened to her body. She always thought she was just asleep. Something weird was happening right now. A deep look of concern was apparent upon her face. "is there anything I can get to help?" she asked feeling herself start to panic.
"Unknown," said the Professor, a clinical edge having come to his tone as his intellect turned toward figuring out what might have happened and how it could be undone.
The EKG monitor began to jump with the increased heart rate in her physical body. blood pressure was also rising.
A wave of vertigo washed across Myfanwy's astral form. This was getting bad. She began to look frantically around the lab. I have to wake up! I have to get out of here!" she shouted as the panic set in. The final words faded as her astral form also slid out of her corporal state and back into her translucent state. She began to float upward and passed through the ceiling to the basement level above.
"This just became far more complicated..." groaned the Professor.
While Tammy was on her way back up to the main floor, Connor was on his way down. His aerial flipping made him take up far more space than was necessary. Poor Tammy had nowhere to dodge or prevent the unexpected collision. Connor's massive frame flew against her, sending both of them tumbling back down to the subbasement.
"UGH!" Connor yelled in nonverbal protest. He fished his speech-generating device from under his shirt where it hung on a lanyard and input a simple command. It spoke two words. "EXCUSE. ME." He growled and flipped through the other preset statements. "I am walking here," the device said.
"Walking? Is that what you call it? Listen, pal, I was walking too. I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention but it takes two to tango, pal." She got up and shook herself off. She raised an eyebrow at the device he used to talk. Maybe he couldn't talk like "normal" people. She also knew that if she had seen him coming, he never would have hit her. She would have gone radio as it were and went right through him without him ever knowing.
The loud pop from the subbasement ended whatever Connor's reply would have been. "WHAT. WAS. THAT?" Connor pressed buttons furiously into his device. "THERE. WAS. A. LOUD. NOISE. THEN. A. LOUDER. NOISE. NOW. SILENCE."
"Yeah! Think that's the professor and the nurse! They were doing some sort of experiment on Myfanwy! Don't know what but the professor told me to git so I took off ! Whatever it is, well sure hope it helps her." Tammy stood up. "Here, let me give you a hand." She said extending her hand to Connor to help him up.
Several moments latter, as they stood there, a shimmering translucent manifestation shot up through the floor. The entity was silent but looked at the two students with horror on its face, silvery tendrils of light that resembled hair flowed behind it. The female form suddenly opened its mouth into a shreik, but no sound was heard. It shot upward into the ceiling above them.
"Why do i feel like something out of a scene in Ghostbusters? That sort of thing doesn't happen too much around here does it?"" Tammy asked Connor.
Connor shook his head, eyes wide. "SOMETHING.IS.WRONG," said his device. "TO. THE. LAB."
"Not sure that's a good idea!! I was just down there and the prof kinda kicked me out! My powers might goof things up! Maybe they already did! I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to go back there!" Tammy replied. She wasn't sure that she hadn't fouled things up already!
"I. WAS. TALKING. TO. MYSELF," said Connor's SGD as he loped away.
"Well!" Tammy said to herself. She decided she should talk to Scott. He was like the prof's second in command as it were. That and she trusted him. Which had nothing to do with the fact he was so very cute. She radio waved herself over to the doorway of classroom where Scott was teaching and saw another apparition. "Oh boy! You too huh? I just saw something in the hallway. No idea what it is but this isn't normal! I think something happened with the Prof and Myfanwy. I think something might have gone wrong!" Tammy said.
Cameron was standing outside, enjoying the July sun. A group of students were running the large athletics track. It was a sedate pace, more a jog than a run. This was just a cooling down. His mind was wandering, thinking about lunch, and maybe he could convince Jade to go to Salem with him and get a few beers.
A loud, resonant hum blasted through the ground from below the subbasement hard enough to be felt through the flagstone courtyard.
~Cameron~ It was the Professor's voice in his head. ~We may have a problem~
"Does it have to do with the ground shaking?" Cameron said out loud as he turned back to the house. He had figured out how to think the words for the Professor to pick up but it was very uncomfortable.
~There was a malfunction with the imaging equipment. Myfanwy suffered an adverse reaction and--~ The words stopped, replaced by images of Myfanwy inside the MRI only for it to rumble and for her astral form to jump out of her body. ~The other students may require assistance so that cooler heads may prevail!
"I'll check in on the kids and instructors. Is there anything to be worried about, is this something out of Carrie?" Cameron asked as he jogged back to the doors and stepped inside.
Outside the classroom, Scott was walking back to his room in order to appreciate some quiet time between lectures. The school was less regimented than a standard academy, which meant that much of the students were under free study with regular lectures and the like to guide them. Normally Scott would use free time to train, but the black cloud that had lingered over his head for the past several weeks only intensified day by day.
Walking along in a malaise, he was unprepared for the shimmering apparition that appeared in front of him.
"Holy shit!" Jumping back into a half crouch, he reflexively reached for the frames of his glasses in preparation to blast. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!"
The panic of not being able to return to her body had twisted Myfanwy's astral self, making her eyes hollowed with a look of intense fear filling her face. Her silvery translucent hair coiled out around her face. She called out, but while still in a semi-ethereal state, no sounds could form. Happening upon Professor Summers was about as low on her list of people to contact as she could imagine, but here he was, reaching up to touch his weird sunglasses.
MYFA
She reached out toward Scott, her ethereal hands passing directly through his arm. Not quite thinking clearly in her panic, she tried again, to no success. She screamed.
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Scott said to himself in desperate reassurance. At least her touch seemed harmless enough. "So...what are you?"
Myfanwy translucent white eyes looked into Professor Summer's glasses, seeing only a ruby toned reflection of herself, a face she didn't even recognize. Her Izzy persona was much more attractive, this visage looked sullen and harried. She tried to mouth out her name to the teacher, but he didn't seem to be perceiving much of what was going on.
Hayden was around the corner with an ice cream sandwich in her hand when she heard the screaming. She noticed that is was Professor Summers as she ran. "Professor! What's the...holy shit," she echoed. Hayden held the rest of her ice cream sandwich out towards whatever it was.
Myfanwy looked at the expression of the student, knowing like every other school she had attended she was becoming the class monster. She floated upward toward the cieling leading to the second floor looking down at Hayden and Scott before vanishing in a wisp of silvery ether.
Just after Myfanwy vanished, and before anyone could say anything, Tammy beamed into place.
"Oh boy! You too huh? I just saw something in the hallway. No idea what it is but this isn't normal! I think something happened with the Prof and Myfanwy. I think something might have gone wrong!" Tammy said.
Scott felt his mouth fell agape as he looked back and forth between where Myfanwy had been standing and where Tammy now was. "Wh-what? Uh..." His experience and training kicked into gear, though, which forced his mind into response mode. "Okay. Mansion needs to go into lockdown." Pointing at Tammy, he said, "You see if you can follow the intruder and see what she's doing. Don't engage. Just observe and report through whatever electronic devices are at hand."
Tammy responded "You got5 it Scott!" With that she shifted back to radio waves and followed this strange apparition. She really hadn't had time to get to know anybody that well yet so she was still learning who did what but that was for another time. Right now she had to follow this apparition and see what she did.
Who was the other girl? Hayden something? "Hayden," said Scott, hoping he remembered correctly. "Go round up the other students and make sure nobody wanders into the path of the...the apparition." Not a ghost, he said. "So far she's been peaceful, but we can't know she'll stay that way."
Cameron turned the corner to see Scott sending one of the pupils away. "Davis, hold up for a moment." Cameron called as he jogged up. "Scott." The soldier said "You alright, mate? The professor just called me back inside. One of the pupils, Myfanwy, seems to have some kind of astral projection power she's using. Xavier says it's harmless, but spooky."
"Oh boy! You too huh? I just saw something in the hallway. No idea what it is but this isn't normal! I think something happened with the Prof and Myfanwy. I think something might have gone wrong!"
Scott did a double take as the voice appeared before Tammy did. The Mansion was definitely getting weird...
"Yes, we seem to have an intruder," Scott said warily. "Didn't look like Myfanwy either. Tammy, do you think you can follow her at a distance? Don't get close or expose yourself. Just try to let us known where she goes and use whatever electronic devices you can to stay in contact."
"You got it Scott!" Tammy said. as she once again turned to radio waves to follow the strange apparition. She hoped this wasn't her fault. Still Scott seemed to know what he was doing so she would follow his lead.
To Hayden, he said, "Go find anyone else you can and tell them to avoid any strange...floating...women."
Then Scott looked at Cameron and quietly wondered to himself why Professor Xavier had reached out to him. Normally Scott was his go-to person. "Did the Professor give any instructions?"
"Just to stay calm, he's working on it. She's an astral projection, that's why looks differently." Cameron answered, "She is a scared kid, she can't hurt us but she can freak us out. Cool heads will prevail."
Scott nodded. "All right, then. We'll follow the Professor's instructions."
Down in the lab, Connor came across a distraught Xavier and Jade tending to the imaging machine.
~PROFESSOR!~ Connor screamed in his mind. ~What the devil is happening here?~
"Give me a moment, Connor," said the Professor audibly without turning away from the machine.
Connor grunted in protest before thinking as hard as he could. ~TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME--"
~VERY WELL~ Xavier's telepathic response bore the brunt of his frustration which was difficult to veil. ~Forgive me, Connor~
With full control, Xavier recalled the events of the past hour and directed the memories directly toward Connor. In just a few seconds, Connor was fully aware of what had happened as if he had been present.
~Tammy intimated that her uncontrolled powers created a technical malfunction through an electroradiological event caused by her lapse in control. If Myfanwy has a telepathy-based phasic ability, then Tammy's powers may have separated Myfanwy's mind from her body in some sort of astral projection~
Xavier blinked in wonder at Connor. ~That...is a novel theory, Connor. How would you propose resolving the current crisis?~
~Easy~ Connor gave his chest a confident thump with his fist, then switched to his speech-generating device for Jade's benefit. "WE. MUST. REVERSE. THE. E-L-E-C-T-R-O-R-A-D-I-O-L-O-G-I-C-A-L. POLARITY. WITH. THE. ORIGINAL. CATALYST."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Xavier prodded with earnest interest.
Connor shrugged. "I. AM. NOT. A. PEOPLE. PERSON."
Surge kept following Myfanwy, or at least her ghostly self, and began to notice something. Myfanwy seemed somehow lost. She also seemed top be getting weaker. She had to be reunited with her body ASAP! Then she noticed some sort of tether. She followed it back to the lab where Myfanwy's body still was.
"Professor. Got an idea. I've been following her and there is some sort of tether. An energy chord if you will. I think If I can reverse the energy flow, it will draw her back to her body."
~You can perceive her astral connection while in radio form?~ the Professor telepathically asked Tammy.
But she charged up her energy powers and entered the machinery as electrical energy. Once inside she could sense how to do this. She reversed the charge that had separated Myfanwy in the first place. Then she carefully retracted the cord using said machinery. Slowly it drew her back in.
Tammy could sense Myfanwy's ghost self coming back. Slowly, she didn't want to break the connection but there was also a sense of urgency. The longer Myfanwy spent away from her body the weaker she got. Slowly but ever so surely, she was reeling the girl back in. After several tense minutes, the deed had been done and Myfanwy was one again.
Tammy materialized in the room out of the machine and then was sitting down. It had taken a lot out of her. Physically and mentally. However it was done.
Professor Xavier sat in stunned silence at what he had just witnessed. What had begun as a potential catastrophe had instead become an urgent but laudable demonstration of teamwork among his new students.
"Jade, stay with her," said the Professor.
While the ordeal was over and Myfanwy's vitals were returning to normal, she had not yet awakened.
"I. WILL. STAY," Connor said through his device. He punctuated his words with two thumps to his chest.
"I'm not sure that's appropriate," the Professor began to say.
"SHE. WAS. IRIS. FRIEND. TOO."
Well, he had pushed for comradery. Xavier could hardly argue now. "Very well. But follow every direction given by Miss Farwynd."
And with that, Professor Xavier left the medical area in order to check in on Tammy. "Well done, Tammy."
Perhaps the best days of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters were in the past. As the Professor contacted Scott, Cameron, and others to stand down the emergency alert, his face brightened with a dreamer's smile that dared to hope the best days were yet to come.
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