First time in the US

Posted on Sat Mar 1st, 2025 @ 5:32pm by Sarah Mitchell

1,123 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 6: X-Fernus Agenda
Location: LA

Stepping out of Los Angeles International Airport, Sarah was stretching her legs after such a long flight from Melbourne. In spite of her fears over leaving home for the first time and going on an international journey, Sarah found herself quietly looking forward to seeing the sights of New York while staying at the Xavier's school for gifted youngsters. While she wished she had more time here in LA, she was on a tight schedule between flights so she couldn't go far from the airport itself.

Feeling a little hungry, Sarah had ventured out of the terminal in search of some fast food. While she could've grabbed at bit in the terminal itself, she figured grabbing something outside of the airport would be slightly cheaper, as her parents had given her a limited budget to get to New York on. Hearing about one of their famous outlets not far from the airport, Sarah ventured out.

Having arrived late at night, the outlet was fairly quiet, except for a small group of locals gathered together in the carpark. Although she was curious to meet and talk to people from America, her rumbling stomach needed to be dealt with first.

Walking in through a pair of glass swing doors, Sarah was immediately hit with a mix of intense smells and loud ambient noises. Bubbling grease, cooking meat, a bustling kitchen and the top hits of the 1980's playing through the speakers hanging from the ceiling all around the place. This was quite the culture shock to Sarah as, although they did have similar outlets back home, everything here was just bigger, the drinks, the meals, the hair, all of it. Joining the back of a que, Sarah squinted at the overhead menu boards, trying to make up her mind what she wanted.

As she stood there, a rather strangely shaped individual stepped up to the counter to order. Around her, Sarah could hear whispers and caught the occasional word of their conversations. The one word that she kept hearing over and over was the word 'mutant' or the more derogative term 'muttie'. While there was some discrimination against mutants in Australia, it was always seen as protective measures against them harming others rather than restricting them form going anywhere or even simply interacting in the general public. However, it seemed that over here in the States, Mutants were looked upon in less than a favorable light.

Watching the unfortunate person take his order, Sarah gave him a sympathetic smile as the mutant passed her and walked outside. It wasn't long after he'd left when there was a screach of brakes outside. Quickly running outside to see what had happened, Sarah saw a group of men all surrounding the mutant from before, pushing him around.

"hey muttie, what do you think you're doing here? You freak" one of the guy said as he pushed the mutant to the ground.

Standing at the doors out of the fast-food joint, Sarah looked around at the gathering crowd, hoping someone would step up and stop them, but instead all she saw was the faces of people looking on in fear. After a few moments, Sarah couldn't stand it anymore and stepped forward. Grabbing one of the men's arm, she tried to pull him back to get his attention, "hey, stop" She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Turning around to face her, the man gave her a scowl before pushing her back, "get off me girl, what are you, a muttie lover?"

Stumbling backwards, Sarah righted herself and looked around again, and yet again all she saw was fear and inaction. Feeling frustrated, she turned back to the group and took a deep breath, "Hey! Enough!" she yelled, planning for her shout to produce a sonic boom, but instead all that came out was just a yell.

Freezing in place for little more than a moment, the group of men turned to look at her with a mix of surprise and annoyance. The leader stepped over to her, towing over her by at least a foot. "what? You this muttie's girl? you a muttie lover?"

Sarah froze in fear for a moment, She'd expected to gain some attention from her sonic scream, but instead she'd gained the attention of these bullies. Starting to feel panicked, Sarah took a step back, "look, just leave him alone, alright"

the leader gave a haughty laugh, "listen here boys, this girl want's us to leave this muttie alone." he said as he continued to walk toward Sarah, "you want some of this too? I'm not afraid to hit a muttie lover, even if they're a girl"

Feeling her heart rate increase out of panic, Sarah took another step backwards as she took in a breath. Clenching her hands into fists, she closed her eyes and screamed, "BACK OFF!!" she screamed, this time her voice came out in a sonic blast, knocking the boys back and off their feet.

Scrambing away from her, the boys ran as fast as they could off into the night yelling, "she's one of them, Run"

Taking a moment to calm down, Sarah walked over to the malformed mutant and offered him a hand up. After helping him to his feet, Sarah turned to leave when she saw a few of the adults coming from the fast-food joint. Putting herself between them and the mutant, Sarah took in another breath, preparing to fight.

Holding up their hands, the manager of the fast-food joint tried to calm the situation down, "hey now, easy there. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Then what?" Sarah asked, giving him a glare. She'd returned to speaking barely above a whisper, though she was ready to scream her lungs out if any of these adults made a move for them.

"I just want to thank you, not all of us are hostile to your kind' the manager said, offering Sarah a brown paper bag. "Here, take this and get out of here before the cops arrive. We'll tell them you ran off before we could stop you."

ooking at him with suspicion, Sarah cautiously took the bag and looked inside, where she found two burgers and a small serving chips inside. Looking up at the manager, Sarah was surprised, "are you sure? I don't want to steal from you"

The manager nodded, "go ahead, we'll take care of our friend here. He's a regular"

Quickly looking back at the mutant to see he was already back on his feet, Sarah looked back to the manager and gave him a grateful smile and a polite nod. Rolling up the paper bag again, Sarah headed back to the airport to wait for her next flight.

END

RSS Feed