The phone rang again. Kenna stared at the elaborately decorated rotary phone confused. She didn't recall how she ended up in this ornate Victorian study surrounded by the fancier things in life.
"Hello?" she asked, answering the phone.
"Hello, this is Charles Xavier, may I come in?" he asked over the phone.
"Yes?" As soon as she answered the door opened. An older gentleman walked in dressed for the period.
"Kenna Knox," said Prof. Xavier.
"Bald man," Kenna's eyes widened and her face turned red with embarrassment, "I'm so sorry! I don't know where that came from! I meant to say Mr. Xavier I swear! I'm so sorry!" Prof. Xavier broke out in laughter.
"It's quite alright. This place has that effect on people who aren't used to it."
"Yeah, about that. Where am I?"
"An understandable question. The short answer being your mind."
"Am I dead?"
"No."
"Am I dreaming?"
"Not quite."
"Has my brain been downloaded into a computer?"
"Perhaps a longer answer will serve your active imagination better."
"That's probably for the best."
"I am using brain waves to manipulate synapses in your brain to construct a safe and secure environment in which we can communicate," Kenna pinched herself, "I hope that's alright."
"This feels real though."
"At this time I'm still allowing stimulus to translate to your body. I understand how confusing that must be given that the senses are our primary means of defining our reality, however I feel it is necessary to help cement the idea that this isn't a dream. Would you like some tea?" A porcelain cup of hot tea was in her hand. She couldn't remember if had always been there or had just manifested before her.
"I prefer coffee if you have any." The smell of coffee wafted into her nose from her cup.
"Are you beginning to understand now?" Kenna took a sip.
"Magic." Prof. Xavier let out a long sigh.
"Not exactly."
"What?"
"A discussion for another time perhaps. Do you know why we're having this discussion?" Kenna took another sip.
"No,"
"Would you be so kind as to grab the far right book off the shelf above the fireplace?" Kenna didn't remember there being a large marble fireplace in the room, but there it was in all its majesty. The book she grabbed had no markings other than a date along the spine, "Would you be a dear and read the next to last passage for me." Kenna read through the passages and dropped the cup with a horrified look.
"Fuck!"
"Everything is fine."
"Why didn't she turn off the water!?"
"Perhaps you should sit down."
"Why do I not remember any of this!?" Kenna said from a chair she didn't remember sitting down in.
"You do, it's all in that book you're reading. I isolated it from you for the benefit of perspective."
"Fuck!"
"I assure you that you are not the first nor the last student of mine that will have this experience."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better!?"
"This is why we are here. To help teach you how to control these extraordinary gifts."
"What if I never learn? What if I can't control them!?"
"You will."
"Has anyone here ever not?"
"Only because they stopped trying."
"What happened to them?"
"As with any individual who gives into their baser instincts they were isolated from society as whole."
"What do you consider 'not trying'?"
"Kenna, I know this is all very frightening but you're not alone anymore. We will get through this, together, eventually, okay."
"Okay."
"Wonderful, now to begin your first lesson."
"What? Now? Here?"
"The key to controlling anything is discipline. I'm sure you've figured by now everything we do have positive and negative consequences. As mutants the consequence of our actions have greater impact on those around us. In your case that metaphor is more literal then figurative."
"Wait! Wait! Do I need to write this down?"
"While these principles can and should apply to everybody, our community needs to pay extra attention to taking ownership of such things. Which is why you will be at the forefront of repairing all the collateral damage you've made."
"Question."
"Yes."
"Have you read this book?"
"It would be a violation of trust to read that book without your consent. However, I am well aware of the scope of what I'm telling you to do."
"I have no idea how to fix any of this."
"Once we leave this place you'll need to find Forge. He will guide you through the process."
"This is going to take forever."
"It will take as long as it needs to."
"I'm sorry. You're right. When do I start?" Charles smiled and she opened her real eyes.
"Greetings Ms. Knox," greeted the furry blue man in the lab coat hanging above her. The room she woke up to looked to be medical in nature with an obnoxious shiny sheen to it. Kenna pinched herself. "Ah, a skeptic. An open mind cautioning to trust again. I do envy the nostalgic naiveté of it all."
"Are you Forge by any chance?"
"I'm afraid not. The majestic beast you see before your eyes is none other than the illustrious Doctor Hank McCoy."
"Do you know Franny by any chance? She mentioned you."
"I am indeed familiar with Ms. Waites. We had many a discussion during her journey here about the philosophical nature of our unique situations."
"Are you a Morlock?"
"No, although I can see why one such as yourself could be confused with such a comparison. However, I do not recommend making it again. It can come across as ignorant. Morlocks are a disparaged sub-terrain community not a sub-category of the mutant species."
"I'm so sorry! I didn't know! I swear I'm not racist! I'm just really dumb!"
"It's fine. The wisest man is he who understands that he understands nothing."
"What?"
"Indeed."
"What?"
"Perhaps I should pass you along to Forge before I befuddle you too much."
"What?" Dr. McCoy dropped to the ground and guided her out the door.
"How was Ms. Waites adjusting before your event if I may ask?"
"She's fine. We have our differences but she's fine."
"That's pleasing to hear. I was afraid her natural aroma would sour her interactions with the other students."
"I've smelled worse. Where are we?" Kenna asked, marveling at the shiny metallic halls.
"An interesting question with many answers. If we compared the Xavier Institute to basic anatomy this would be the bone structure or cardiovascular system. The center of the logistical and administrative operations that keeps the dream alive!" The lights went out, "Well, that was inopportune."
"Looks like the dream is dead," she said as the emergency lights came on.
"Perish the thought. However, perhaps we should carry on with a bit more urgency. May I?" asked Dr. McCoy, offering his long burly arm.
"You may?" as the words left her mouth Dr. McCoy slung her over his shoulder and rushed down the darkened halls with animal speeds.
"Forge!" yelled Dr. McCoy banging on the large metal door that vaguely resembled a giant 'x'.
"Don't come in!" yelled Forge.
"Forge is everything alright?"
"I'm working on it! Don't come in!"
"Can you put me down please?" asked Kenna, trying to hold the contents of her stomach.
"My apologies," said Dr. McCoy putting her down, "Forge, not to be rude, but this is the second time this week and we just started the semester. Many come here seeking a more structured environment and this doesn't bode well for that image."
"A structured environment!? This is what you call a more structured environment!?" yelled Forge through the door.
"Forge."
"We are a target Beast! A sitting target! For governments, for aliens, for demons, for inhumans, for criminals, for cosmic entities, for other mutants, and especially ourselves!"
"Forge."
"Did I miss anything!?"
"Forge."
"And of course it is up to me to keep this insane asylum from getting pulled into a black hole or some shit."
"Forge!" the door popped loose and aggressively opened in front of them.
"What!?" he asked, looking at Dr. McCoy before Kenna caught his attention, "Did you hear all that?"
"Yes," Kenna said to the Indigenous American with the professionally constructed prosthetic leg.
"Good, get out of here and move to the midwest. Nothing bad ever happens there."
"Forge!" Dr. McCoy roared, "I know, I know, be more professional in front of the students. You're Kenna right? The one responsible for drowning me in work orders."
"Yes," said Kenna sheepishly.
"Professor Xavier has requested that she help you with repairs as part of her training," said Dr. McCoy.
"Yeah he told me," said Forge.
"I trust you'll keep up with the proper documentation."
"I always do."
"Then I'll leave you to your work. Good day to you Forge, Ms. Knox." He said walking away. Forge watched him walk away.
"What an ass," he said, closing the door in front of Kenna. She stared at the door for a minute, then looked down the hall where Dr. McCoy walked down, then back at the door before she knocked.
"Mr. Forge?" There was no response, "Mr. Forge?" The door opened back up.
"What?"
"I think I'm supposed to help you or something?"
"Come back tomorrow I'm busy getting the lights back on."
"Okay, that's fine. When though?"
"After your classes."
"My classes are spread out a bit throughout the day. The last one being around six. Will seven be okay with you?"
"That'll be fine," he said, closing the door.
"Mr. Forge."
"What?" he asked, opening the door again.
"Um, how long will I be working with you a day?"
"We'll talk about that tomorrow."
"Okay."
"Is there anything else?"
"How do I get out of here?"
"Did Beast not tell you?"
"No, I think Dr. McCoy thought you would." Forge ran his hand over his face.
"Come in, I guess," he said, walking further into the room.
"Thank you?"
"And close the door behind you."
"What is this place?" she said, struggling to move the heavy door back into place.
"Name it."
"Your home?"
"Sometimes."
"A kitchen?"
"Sometimes."
"Engineering?"
"Sure."
"So are you going to show me how to get out of here or?"
"After I'm done."
"Oh, okay. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Stand still and face the door."
"May I sit and face the door?"
"No."
"Are you sure you don't want me to at least hold that flashlight for you?"
"Kid, look, here's the deal. You're not the first person to trash the place and you're not the first person they told to clean it up. They think it's helping me out, but on this earth it only gives me more work."
"You do everything by yourself?"
"Fuck no, but the list of people that can actually help is short and the list I'm willing to ask is even shorter."
"Those poor people."
"So instead of you going around trying to fix things and me going behind you to fix them correctly, how about you stop by every day and I'll sign that sheet saying you put in your time? Not a bad deal huh?" Kenna thought for a moment.
"This is a test isn't it?"
"No."
"That's exactly what you'd say if it was a test!"
"Kid, this isn't a test."
"Professor Xavier said I'd be fine as long as I tried and taking an easy way out doesn't sound like trying."
"Literally everyone has been okay with this."
"I wonder if everyone has their own test."
"The senior staff, the junior staff, I think even Xavier has come to expect it."
"This must be how you weed people out."
"You are wildly overestimating the effort they put in here."
"Maybe being isolated in our rooms was a test too!"
"You're not even listening to me are you?"
"I wonder how Franny's test went. Maybe that's why she never turned off the water. Did she fail?" the lights turned back on and Kenna turned around, "Is that a-," Forge quickly covered her eyes.
"No."
"But."
"You saw nothing."
"I don't think you should have that."
"I don't cause there was nothing there."
"If there was nothing there then why are you covering my eyes?"
"Cause this is a test."
"Did I pass?"
"Only if you never talk about what you saw."
"Which was nothing?"
"You only pass if it was nothing."
"It's nothing."
"Congratulations, you passed."
"Yay."
"Now get out."
"Okay, but-," Forge tossed her and closed the door, "I still don't know how to get out of here."
Kenna knocked on the door a few more times before giving up. Being alone in this futuristic brightly lit hallway gave her the idea that she wasn't supposed to be there unattended. She cautiously walked down the hall looking at the various signs. Cerebro, Lab01, Lab02, Ready Room01, Ready Room02, Danger Room observation deck, Danger Room. That last one gave her pause. The door was open. "Hello?" she asked at the darkened entrance.
"Da?" the darkness answered with a surprisingly feminine tone.
"Hello? My name is Kenna and it's a pleasure to meet you? I'm sorry, I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Can you tell me where the exit is?" There was a long pause.
"Da." A single spot light turned on over an ordinary doorway in the middle of a large room. It even has the word exit on it.
"Are you sure that's the exit?"
"Da," it said over an intercom.
"Not that I'm not grateful for the help or anything, but this seems suspicious." Kenna didn't understand the long string of what she assumed was Russian coming over the intercom, loud and angry Russian. "Okay! Okay! I'm going! Stop yelling!" She walked into the room and the door closed behind her. "Was that supposed to happen?"
"Da!" Not wanting to be yelled at anymore she obediently opened the door. Much to her surprise it did lead to the hallowed halls of the Xavier Institute. While she hadn't had much time to explore in the short period of time she had been there, the distinct architecture was more familiar than the chrome dungeon she had been in.
She did find odd that nobody was around. A lot of empty space for such a large number of students. She nosed her way in and around various parts of the mansion looking for anybody that could alleviate the overwhelming feeling that she wasn't supposed to be here either. It wasn't until she went outside did she finally have proof that something was amiss. The dorm that she had been assigned to was perfectly intact. There were no signs at all of her panic attack and the collateral damage that had ensued as a result.
"Hostile mutant detected," the deep electronic voice said above her. Kenna didn't even have time to look up before she was sent flying back towards the mansion by the shockwave. A thirty foot automaton with vaguely humanoid features had landed practically on top of her. "Destroy," it said, taking heavy methodical steps towards her. Kenna, finding her assailant's statement disagreeable, ran back into the mansion fearing for her tiny life.
"Destroy," it barked again as she locked the door. The calm demeanor of its message starkly contrasted with the sheer volume it announced it with. She backed away into the foyer secretly hoping the elegant walls were enough to hold back her pursuer. It didn't even slow it down. The lumbering purple machine gave no attention to the obstacle as it walked through it.
"Destroy," it cried again as if the destruction it was causing wasn't a good enough reminder. Kenna ran back to the door she left from the danger room. It wasn't her favorite place but the chrome dungeon gave her hope that it would fare better against the mechanical monster. When the door opened again she was forcefully pulled in and thrown across the gray craterous terrain.
When she pulled herself again she could hardly take it all in. She was on the moon, staring up at Earth from a celestial body that she had no business being on. She jumped a little, but the gravity felt disappointingly familiar. "Destroy," it said again bursting forth from the ground sending clouds of moon dust cascading in every direction. Kenna ran away again in frustrated disbelief that this thing had found her again on the moon of all places. It was also getting harder to explain to herself what was even going on at all. She should have been breathing in death, but here she was huffing and puffing across the surface of the moon back towards a magical door. A door that she no longer trusted to take her anywhere near home, but as long as it was away from the racist robot she was not going to argue with it.
The third use of the door took her to an alien planet. At least she assumed it was an alien planet. She was in a vast warm jungle surrounded by a great ice wall. It was nice enough, but she didn't want to stick around long enough for the ridiculous to happen. The door didn't open. "Oh come on." She pulled harder. "Really!?" She surveyed her surroundings quickly before trying again. The whole thing came down on her. "No! No! No!" she yelled, propping the frame up against a tree.
The jungle chirped at her as if it was introducing itself. She desperately pulled on the knob again, but when it finally gave up it opened up to nothing. It was just a doorway now with no nonsense about it. Kenna worked the door over and over hoping that it magically worked again. All it did was garner more attention from the jungle she was so desperately trying to escape.
When the door swung open again the dinosaur was staring at her. Much like her experience on the moon the whole thing was difficult to process. This two foot tall feathery lizard seemed just as perplexed by the situation. For it, however, the novelty didn't last quite as long and leapt at her. Kenna closed the door on it. She knew it was too much to ask that this turkey sized miracle of life just give up so she ran up the door and jumped for a tree branch.
This tiny dinosaur bobbed its head in amusement. So amused was it that it called over twenty of its best friends to see how long this sweaty mammal could stay up there with only one hand wrapped around a sickly branch. "Look, I know what you're thinking. Eat her. And I'm not saying don't eat her. But I am saying maybe don't eat her right now? At least not all of me! If you eat all of me right now I'll be just another meal, but if you let me live and only take bits of me occasionally I'll last longer. How does that sound?" They chirped in amusement. "Fuck it, I bet I can eat you before you eat me."
She dropped down causing a frenzy as they tried to eat each other. That was until most of the dinosaurs scattered back into the jungle. The last one was struggling to free itself from Kenna. "I'm going to eat this part of you for breakfast! I'm going to eat that part of you for lunch! And I don't know what that part is but I'm going to eat it for dinner!" The ground quaked. Kenna only took notice when the shadow loomed over her.
"Destroy." It was announced. It brought its enormous foot down for the kill. Kenna let go of her meal and screamed. And kept screaming. She screamed for much longer than she expected to be alive. When she felt brave enough to open her eyes she was staring at the bottom of its manufactured foot. It was right above her poised to crush her very crushable body. Then it faded away.
Everything faded away. She was now laying in a bright expansive room alone. She thought that maybe this was another Prof. Xavier experience or perhaps she never left the first one, but her clothes were still torn, the bite marks still fresh, and her stomach felt off. Whatever was happening to her was still happening to her and she half expected the racist robot to bust through the wall to finish her off.
Instead of the robot it was a burning pentagram that found its way next to her releasing two individuals from basically nothing. One of them was a metallic seven foot man. The woman he was carrying was a shorter blond woman laughing her head off. "Are you okay little one?" asked the metal man with a thick Russian accent. Pushed herself away from him. The metal man looked confused for a moment. "No no, friend," he said, pointing to himself.
"Am I dead? Is this the not good place!?" asked Kenna. The woman he carried laughed even harder. He yelled at her in Russian. She yelled back.
"We start on wrong foot. I am Peter and this is my sister Illyanna. We are not demons. We are X-men. We good guys."
"Your sister sounds familiar," said Kenna.
"Da," said Illyanna.
"You!"
"Illyana apologize for rude joke. Don't you Illyanna," said Peter.
"Da?" said Illyanna.
"What was that!? What was any of this!? What are-," Kenna threw up.
"Are you okay!?" Illyanna giggled Russian behind his back, "You ate construct!?"
"Only a little!" Kenna said in-between heaves.
"Oh no," Peter picked up Kenna, "Illyana!"
"Da," Illyana said, bored as a pentagram formed around their feet. Kenna struggled as the fires rose up around them and only stopped when she saw they had somehow made their way to what looked like the medical facility. Peter dropped Kenna on a gurney and gave her a bedpan.
"No thanks I'm good," Kenna wheezed.
"Use for outputs," said Peter digging through medical equipment. While he was working Illyana couldn't help but smile at her.
"What?" Kenna asked.
"You run like scared rabbit," said Illyanna.
"You can speak English!?" She heaved into the bedpan.
"Da."
"Okay, do you have electronic heart?" asked Peter.
"No?" answered Kenna
"Are you in anyway vulnerable to electronic wave?"
"No?"
"Very good, very good, you swallow pill now."
"What is it?" asked Kenna.
"Electronic wave, it kill construct in tummy."
"Will it hurt?"
"Da," said Illyanna.
"What does 'da' mean? What is she saying?"
"She joke. Illyanna loves jokes. Take pill please."
"I don't know about this," said Kenna. Peter rubbed the bridge of his nose and placed the pill on the table.
"Illyanna," said Peter.
"Da," said Illyanna, summoning a pentagram around the pill causing it to disappear.
"Where did the pill go?" asked Kenna.
"So where you from?" asked Peter looking at his watch.
"A small town you've never heard of. Where did the pill go Peter?"
"Ah, Illyanna and I grew up on small farm in somewhere Russia. We know how you feel," he said still looking at his watch.
"Da," said Illyanna.
"You used witchcraft to put it inside me didn't you!?"
"Da."
"What!? No! No, it's not the craft of the witch. Illyanna use magic. Good magic!" said Peter. Illyanna didn't say anything.
"Magic doesn't exist! She's just a mutant that is doing something that looks like magic! I assume!"
"Well, yes and no."
"Don't yes and-," Kenna seized up for five seconds, "Ow."
"Good, pill worked, constructs dead, you are not."
"Yay," said a defeated Kenna.
"Paper says drink plenty of fluids and to contact Kitty for retrieval, but don't tell patient. Oh, whoops."
"Da," said Illyanna.
"You didn't hear that did you?" asked Peter.
"Nope," said Kenna.
"So, favor to ask. Don't tell anybody about this. Illyanna is not on X-men best side."
"You don't say."
"Too many jokes. Scott not find funny. Keep secret please."
"Sure thing buddy."
"Wonderful, and uh, you should join my class. I teach you about agriculture. Learn to grow food that isn't hologram," Peter said, picking her up.