"It's just a little further this way," said Kenna. As the day filtered through the trees Kenna was trying to retrace her journey to the crash site. Franny was in tow, intrigued with Kenna's account of the event. "I think."
"I swear, if you figured out a way to lie to me."
"Why would I lie to you about this?"
"To see if your method works?"
"I nearly died like three times! I had to see Elixir cause I had nerve damage!"
"I'm just saying I could be watching the news right now."
"I can't watch it anymore. They make it sound like the Avengers saved the world all by themselves."
"I mean, Iron Man did fly the nuke right up into that fat butthole in the sky."
"Not even, like, a shout out to the people we sent in there."
"Something tells me that Xavier doesn't want the attention."
"Why not? Isn't he trying to show that mutants and not mutants can peacefully coexist? I feel like helping to save the world would give that some credibility."
"I'm sure there's a reason."
"Especially since John didn't come back."
"When's the funeral again?"
"One."
"Did you know him?"
"Not personally, seemed nice enough though. You?"
"He subbed for my remedial class once. Talked to us like we were family. It was weird but in a good kind of way." Kenna stopped.
"Well, here it is."
"Oh."
"What?"
"I expected more."
"It's a fuckin alien!"
"You're right. I guess a walking torso is kind of alien."
"No, it's head is over there."
"Then this has been very disappointing."
"A Fuckin alien Franny! It came from space!"
"I don't know. I guess I just expected something a lot less familiar."
"You've seen these things before?"
"No, but I've seen Morloks that were more alien than this."
"Well then you're probably going to hate their ship," said Kenna walking towards the crash site.
"What is it like a literal flying saucer?"
"It's more like a sled."
"Ugh, why can't aliens be more alien?"
"Why? What's your ideal alien? What did you want to invade Earth?"
"A form a life so abstract that words and science have no way to describe it."
"Yes, I can vividly see it now. 'Earth invaded by confusing concept.'"
"It doesn't have to be confusing. It just can't be described."
"World leaders fail to give into incomprehensible demands."
"Describing these aliens would be like trying to describe color to a blind person."
"Planet surrenders to lazy writing," Franny cut her across the cheek, "Ow!"
"You're not allowed to ask for my opinion and then make fun of it."
"I'm sorry to tell you this Franny, but reality is often disappointing. Much like this space sled," said Kenna talking over her shoulder as she crested the hill, "Whether you like it or not these are our aliens. toboggan flying, laser shooting, metal wearing-."
"Kenna," said Franny tapping her on the shoulder.
"What?" Franny motioned towards the crash-site. There were two professionally dressed men staring at them from the crash site. One was balding skinny gentlemen while the other was a larger fit-fat house of a man with scars across his face. "Oh." Both parties were stunned. Neither one of them had expected to bump into the other. With nobody wanting to acknowledge being caught in the act Kenna took a slow step backwards.
"Nope," said the larger of the two strangers. Kenna and Franny exchanged glances with each other. Kenna switched gears and took a slow step forward with her hand outstretched.
"Hello, my name is Kenna and it's-," he drew a gun. Franny twitched.
"Hey! Hey, let's just all calm down. Hi, I'm agent," the skinnier man paused for a moment, "Bob, and the professional pointing the personal defense weapon at you is agent Bill." agent Bill frowned at the sound of his name. "And I assume you are students here at the school?"
"You shouldn't be talking to them," said agent Bill.
"Yes, students, we are students. And they will come looking for us if we are killed in the woods," said Kenna.
"They're mutants. The blue one is on our list too." said agent Bill.
"Really?," said agent Bob pulling out his phone.
"Hi Hatton." said Franny annoyed.
"You know him?" asked Kenna.
"We're acquainted," said Franny.
"Put down your phone! Mutants are capable of anything," said agent Bill.
"I am sponge and she is fish!" blurted Kenna.
"Kenna!" yelled Franny.
"What!? They're as scared as we are! She has retractable claws and her headlight can get crazy bright."
"Kenna gets bigger with water."
"Franny!"
"What!? You're giving away all my shit!"
"It's embarrassing."
"Shut up both of you," said agent Bill.
"Bill, they're trying to work us. So, let's work with them and lower the gun please." Bill dug out two flex cuffs and tossed it at Kenna's feet.
"Put those on."
"Sure thing," said Kenna, picking them up.
"Kenna, come on," said Franny.
"What? He has a gun. What am I supposed to be doing right now?"
"Not giving away every bit of our negotiating power."
"No don't, one of those was meant for her." said Bill watching Kenna placing one of the flex cuffs around her ankles.
"Oh, I thought you wanted me, like, super cuffed for some reason," said Kenna before she pulled the ones around her wrists tight with her teeth.
"And you were supposed to do those behind your back!" said Bill
"Well you didn't say that!" said Kenna.
"It's true, you didn't say that Bill. You really need to be clearer about these things," said Bob digging out another set and throwing it to Franny's feet. Franny looked at Kenna, sighed as loudly as she possibly could, and slid the flex cuffs on behind her back.
"Would you be so kind?" asked Franny. Kenna hopped closer and pulled the flexible plastic tight.
"Okay, we did what you asked. I think this proves we're friendly. Can you put the gun away please?"
"Sit down and don't move. I'm going to call this in," said Bill. They reluctantly complied.
"Do we really have to call this in?" asked Bob.
"It's protocol," said Bill, pulling out his radio.
"I apologize for agent Bill he, uh, he's had rough assignments with mutants. What are you both doing out here? We were told the student body was going to be attending a funeral at twelve," said Bob.
"I thought you said the funeral was at one?" said Franny.
"I thought it was," said Kenna.
"So, let me get this straight, you and your friend here were meandering in the woods before a funeral to?" asked Bob
"See the alien," said Kenna.
"You knew it was here?"
"I found it earlier and I wanted to show Franny."
"Why?"
"I thought it was cool."
"So, you're telling me that you saw this thing crash, realized and recognized it as alien, and your first reaction was to show your friend?"
"Yes."
"You weren't scared of any alien contaminants or wanted to loot it for your own personal gain."
"Nah I just thought it was cool. Is it contaminated? Are we gonna die!?"
"Wow, uh, okay. Wow, Bill, hey Bill," said Bob.
"What?" said Bill
"Have you called it in already?"
"They're redirecting me."
"Good, let's just pretend we didn't see them."
"That's against protocol."
"I know, I know, but look at them. They're not up to anything. They're just stupid kids in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"I'm twenty-four," said Kenna.
"And we're spread thin as it is. We don't need this. They're not even on the Algorithm," said Bob.
"Algorithm? What algorithm?" asked Bill.
"Zola's Algorithm, the list of names that we need to-," agent Bob trailed off, "What list were you talking about?"
"Get on the ground," said Bill turning his weapon on Bob.
"Your programming didn't kick in did it?"
"Get on the fuckinin ground!"
"Hail H-," said Bob. Bill discharged a round next to his foot cutting him off.
"The next one's in the throat if you try to say another word!" said Bill. Bob said nothing, fitted his last flex cuff around his wrists behind his back, and got on the ground.
"You," said Bill gesturing towards Kenna.
"Me?" asked Kenna.
"Yes, you. Tighten his flex cuffs, remove his belt, empty his pockets, gag him with his sock, and then move away. Is that specific enough for you?" said Bill.
"Why me?"
"If he's what I think he is, he might have planned for this."
"Just call it in!"
"I will as soon as you do everything I told you to do."
"Why not now!?"
"He's waiting for me to get distracted. I can see it in his eyes."
"What does it look like?"
"Kenna whose side are you on!?" asked Franny.
"We're on sides now!? When did that happen!?" asked Kenna.
"When one of them mentioned he's following a list of a known war criminal from World War two! You should know that you're taking a history class!"
"Logan hasn't gotten there yet! He's really stuck on the Civil War for some reason!"
"Just do it!"
"Okay! Stop yelling at me!" Kenna rolled over to Bob and performed as Bill had directed, she even put both of his socks in his mouth for good measure. Bill let out a sigh as Kenna rolled back next to Franny. He pulled out his phone.
"Mr. Bill," said Kenna.
"What?" asked Bill.
"I don't know if this is important or not, but he swallowed something."
"What did he swallow?"
"I don't know."
"Fuck" Bill, afraid that Bob had ingested some type of concealed cyanide device, ran to him and turned him over. Bob cut himself loose and blew Bill's head off. Kenna had never seen anything like it before. The shot came out of the palm that he pressed against Bill's head. When he threw Bill's body off him there was a cutting utensil sticking out of his other hand.
Bob's hands were shaking. Whatever he had put into his arms was not meant for regular use and was causing him great discomfort. He placed the tip of the blade against a rock and forced back inside his arm until he heard an internal click. "What a waste," he said, pulling the socks out of his mouth, "He was a good man. And a capable operative." Kenna didn't say anything. "Where's your friend?" Franny was gone with nothing but some disturbed dirt to indicate she was ever there. "That's fine. Stay if you'd like. I could use the company while I'm waiting," he pulled out his phone and cleared his throat,
"Hey, yeah, this is agent Gabe Twining with recovery. We encountered two mutants at one of the Manchester impact sites. Agent Caleb Hatton is KIA. I'm fine right now, but please send support as soon as possible. Yes, yes please, thank you." He hung up the phone. "You know I've had these implants in my arms for so long I'd almost forgotten they were there. You think with all the security I go through I'd be constantly reminded, but at some point, they stopped even looking at my medical waiver. Life's kind of funny like that, I guess."
"Can you just kill me already," said Kenna.
"I don't want to kill you. I didn't want to kill him. I don't know if they messed up his programming or maybe he lost some hearing in that ear, but he didn't deserve what just happened. And neither do you."
"So, you're letting me go?"
"You can hop away if you'd like. I won't stop you. But you're not going to get away completely. Sadly, I'm going to have to pin all of this on you and your friend. It's going to go very poorly for you both. They might even have to send you to the Raft, but at least you'll be alive right?"
"There's people here that can read my mind idiot. They'll figure out what went down here in two seconds."
"Do you want me to? Never mind," Kenna glared at him, "After the Samuel Sterns incident S.H.I.E.L.D doesn't allow telepathic data as evidence. It can be too easily fabricated. And at that point it is your word versus ours."
"You mean Professor Xavier's word versus yours."
"S.H.I.E.L.D heavily subsidizes this school. Xavier won't be able to protect you without putting that at risk."
"Gee I guess he'd have to survive on all that tuition money alone."
"Let me ask you a question. Do you pay tuition?"
"No."
"Does your friend pay tuition?"
"I don't know. Probably not."
"Nobody is paying tuition. The Xavier school for gifted youngsters is a completely tuition free non-profit institution."
"Cool…wait."
"Do you see the problem now?"
"Are you telling me you guys pay for all of this!?"
"There's a few others," he pulled out his phone, "Apparently various Alumni, a small city in Africa, and a bar in Madripoor feel like it's worth the trouble. But I'm sure they can shoulder all the burden for a," he scrolled through his phone some more, "Oh."
"What?"
"Just reading your file here."
"Don't do that."
"Not very good with confrontation, are we?"
"Please, I really don't want to talk about it."
"Do you see what I'm getting at?"
"Yeah."
"And sadly, your friend isn't much of a prize either. It says here she-," Franny flew down from the tree canopy with her wings outstretched. She sliced through the air with such speed and intensity that he hardly had time to react. She tore out a chunk of his neck with her teeth. It was well practiced, as if she had done it a thousand time. This man who had gone by many names in his life popped his wrist blade again and swiped at her for as long as he could before his swings got slower and slower. Franny spat out the hunk of neck flesh onto his dead body.
"Stop sitting there and cut me loose!" yelled Franny with blood still fresh on her lips. It had all happened so fast Kenna was still having trouble processing what had just happened. She rolled over and grabbed Bob's bladed arm. "No! His belt has a, whatever, just hold it still." Franny cut herself loose and used the knife on the agent's belt to cut Kenna's bindings as well. "Okay now we got to get rid of these bodies."
"You have wings!?"
"Definitely not what you should be focused on right now," said Franny wiping off her face.
"You just straight up killed that guy!"
"Try again."
"How the fuck are we even going to get rid these bodies!?"
"There we go. Easily if you'd be willing to, you know."
"What?"
"Do your thing."
"No! No! We need to just sit here and let this play out!"
"Yeah that worked well last time didn't it."
"The cover up is worse than the crime!"
"There's no crime! We have done zero crimes! You saw what happened! There's something else going on here and we're definitely going to get pinned for it cause we're mutants. It's sad but it happens. But if you do your thing, I'm sure everybody is going to be so confused that accusing anybody of anything is going to look really dumb."
"What exactly are you asking me to do here!?"
"Get huge and throw the bodies into a different county."
"No! Just no Franny! That's a terrible idea."
"It's a great idea! No body, no crime!"
"Yes but disturbing a crime scene is unto itself a crime!"
"I think it's a gray area."
"And what if I hit somebody!"
"What? With the bodies?"
"Yes!"
"You'd have my respect."
"No! What?!"
"What? That's an incredibly hard shot. I'd be very impressed."
"Stop messing around this is serious!"
"Fine, go. I'll tell them I killed them both. That's half the truth anyway."
"Franny."
"School wasn't working out anyway. Polite society just isn't my thing."
"Franny, come on. Don't be like that."
"Nah it's fine. It's fine." Kenna knew what she was doing. Franny was as transparent as her body is at certain angles in certain lights. It was insulting, and it wasn't even inadvertently insulting. Franny knew exactly what she was doing as well. Blatant and unapologetic emotional manipulation.
"Fine."
"Cool, take off your clothes. I think I saw a river down that way. Will that be enough?"
"Compromise."
"Compromise?"
"We don't disturb the bodies, but we don't exactly stick around to be finger pointed either."
"Not only does that sound lazy, but I promise you they know my work and will be able to tell that I absolutely self-defensed this dude."
"Murdered."
"I felt threatened."
"He didn't even know you were there."
"I felt threatened for you."
"I don't think it works like that."
"Are you really defending a guy that would have been on the very wrong side in the last world war?"
"I'm not saying he didn't have it coming, but I don't think you were supposed to make that call."
"What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, go get help?"
"And leave you here with that guy?"
"The point is that even if they can tell you were here, they should also be able to tell that Bob killed Bill." Franny opened her mouth like she was about to hit Kenna with all the reasons why that also wouldn't work. But nothing came out.
"That's actually not the dumbest thing you've ever said," Franny reluctantly admitted.
"Really!?"
"Yes, oddly enough."
"Woo!"
"But we'll need to leave now. Questions are easier to dodge than bullets."
"Okay, give me one second."
"What? Why?"
"I'm going to grab their phones."
"No, no no no."
"Franny, these guys knew stuff about this place. They have files on us. Imagine what else they have on there."
"Do you want to get assassinated!? Cause that's how you get assassinated. Ignorance is bliss. Trust me."
"Just a quick peek." Kenna said picking one up.
"No!" Franny grabbed it out of her hand and threw it into the woods before it exploded, "What did I just say!"
"Nothing about it exploding!"
"I said trust me! And what did you not do!?"
"Trust you."
"And what did we learn!?"
"Trust you."
"Good! Let's go! We've been talking for a while and I'm really surprised they haven't gotten here yet!" They took off running towards the school. By the time they got back there the funeral was already over. The hero, John Proudstar, had been laid to rest. They didn't even have time to even get to their rooms before Kitty confronted them in the hall of their dorm.
"Franny, we need to talk," said Kitty. Kenna and Franny exchanged subtle glances at each other confused.
"Just Franny?" asked Kenna.
"Yes, just Franny. Why? What did you do?" asked Kitty. Kenna was about to say something before Franny yelled at her with her eyes. She closed her mouth, turned around, and walked away.
"And why are you both wearing flex cuffs!" asked Kitty.
As Kenna walked away faster questions piled into her mind. Why was Franny the only one she wanted to talk to? Did they not notice she wasn't at the funeral either? Was it not as mandatory as they made it out to be? Was that even about missing the funeral? Did Franny get into something while she was getting shot at by aliens?
"Kenna!" yelled her doppelganger as she entered the room. It took Kenna a moment to remember what she was seeing.
"Elizabeth?" asked Kenna.
"No, it is I, your sister, Xenna," she said dramatically.
"Where have you been? I thought you left."
"Manhattan."
"What!?"
"I'm here too," said Ellie on her bed.
"Shush Ellie! Were you there when!?" said Kenna.
"Yes, it was crazy! Chitauri were everywhere!" said Elizabeth.
"Chitauri?"
"Aliens were everywhere!"
"Did you see any of the Avengers?"
"No, I was in a bar. They wouldn't let me leave. He said I was safer there then out there."
"Were you?"
"Oh yeah, he absolutely beat the shit out of an alien that stumbled in. He didn't tell me what his ability was though."
"What were you doing in a bar?"
"Drinking, obviously."
"What were you doing in Manhattan to begin with?"
"Well, do you remember that time we found out what Ellie's ability was and how I had to play Moo Moo to avoid detection."
"Yes?"
"John, may he rest, drove me to the airport and bought me a plane ticket."
"He deported you?"
"No, you see, he was trying to send me home. And I don't really know this place that well. So, I said I was from the place everybody assumes I'm from."
"You're not from Australia?"
"No."
"Britain?"
"Why not."
"What did you do?"
"I tried to get back. But I may have gotten distracted by the locals."
"You got distracted for a month?"
"You know, the sights, the sounds, the…abilities."
"What?"
"Nothing, it was a lovely prefecture until the alien hole opened up, so I stole a car and came back."
"Did you steal it, while wearing, my face?" asked Kenna.
"Yes."
"Why!?"
"I didn't want them to see my face?"
"They'll think I stole the car!"
"That is the point."
"Wait, how long were you wearing my face while you were over there!?"
"You have a hefty, bar tab by the way. You might have a drinking problem."
"Can you guys keep it down please. I'm trying to study," said Ellie.
"Ellie, I swear if you interrupt us again, I will shove Elliot into your portal just to see what happens," said Kenna.
"It doesn't let him in."
"We'll I guess I'll just have to find out for myself now won't I!?" said Kenna, kicking the door back open. There was a thud. Kenna looked in abject horror as she just realized she kicked the door with all her might into the golden miracle man known as Elixir. Who was now gushing blood from his nose.
"Shit! Shit! I'm so sorry! Are you okay! Please be okay! I'm so sorry!" yelled Kenna running up with a roll of paper towels.
"You killed Elixir!" screamed Ellie.
"No I didn't! No I didn't! Shut up Ellie! No I didn't! What is doing here anyway!? No I didn't!" she yelled desperately trying to slow the blood."
"It's okay," said Elixir running his hand over his head to his nose. His nose straightened back up and the bleeding stopped.
"I thank goodness, I thought I killed you," said Kenna.
"How would you kill him? He's an omega level mutant with complete control over his and others physiology as long as he can make skin contact," said Elizabeth. Kenna and Ellie looked at her. "What? He told me his ability."
"It's okay," said Elixir getting up.
"Are you sure!? Is there anything I can get you or? I don't know." He blew his nose into the paper towel.
"I need help."
"With what!? I'll do anything!"
"I need to save John."