My name is Joseph. Just Joseph. No last name, just a first. Blame my mom for that one. Anyways, I'm about 6' 11", give or take a sixteenth of an inch or so, so I'm pretty tall for my age. Yeah, 15 and almost seven feet tall, and not even done growing yet according to the doctors and my own measurements. I'm extremely hairy, and my fingernails grow really fast. Mom thinks it's partly because of my mutation, partly because of our environment, and partly because I'm a Canadian. We live on the border in a little log cabin that I helped build, but I sneak into town a night sometimes. Mom doesn't like it when I do that, but she realizes that I … have to sometimes. I'm mostly homeschooled because I'm a mutant, but I need to be near people. Or dogs. Canines in general are good. If I'm not, I'll get a panic attack like illness. Other than that, I have some degree of super physical abilities and a slight healing factor. It's still somewhat slow, but it's getting faster every day. My bones are also 45.5 % thicker than a baseline's.
Red flowing blood, surrounding me, making me strong with its warmth. Its sister, Death, blinding me in a cold sea of red Rage. And the scariest thing is how much I like it.
I awoke from my latest nightmare with a jolt, panting heavily. Wolf looked up at me worriedly. I called him up onto the bed, and I rubbed his ears for a while. Wolf is, of all things, a wolf/ Samoyed mix that I found in town. I raised him from a pup, and we've been together for about three years. I have him trained to respond to vocalizations, hand signals and word commands. Mom came into the room, worried as always. She's a fairly good looking gal, in her early thirties, with five long scars running down her face, making her blind in one eye. She was raped, and I was the result. Thankfully, she didn't hold that against me.
"They're getting worse, Mom." I said after a moment of silence. "And I'm getting voices with them to now. Mostly screaming."
Mom nodded, and then said "I know. And I know someone who may be able to help. I'll be right back." So said, she left the room, and came back with the phone.
"There's a man in New York, Prof. Charles Xavier. He knows almost all there is to know about mutants. He and the staff at the school he runs helped me before and after you were born. They may be able to help you, if you want it."
I nodded, and she dialed the number, and then left the room. Apparently some stuff she didn't want me to hear. I heard her side of the conversation though.
"Professor, it's me, Kayliee. I need your help. No, no… no, I'm fine. But Joe's nightmares are getting worse, and his powers are advancing. I can't help him… he's becoming, I hate to say it, an animal. I heard him talking to the dog a few days back, and Wolf actually responded. I'm scared for my son Charles." She paused and listened to the other end of the phone, then continued. "Alright. Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. I'll see you soon professor."
She came back into the room, and sat in the rocking chair in the corner.
"Alright, I'm sure you're wondering what that was about." Mom said. I nodded, and she continued. "That was Professor Xavier, and I just asked if he could take you in. Help you control your powers."
"You said you knew him?" I asked.
"Yes. Charles and his staff helped me when I needed it most. I even found a friend for eternity in Ororo Munroe, one of the teachers there. She actually helped deliver you."
I thought about it for a minute, and then remembered a white haired woman who had come when I was five, and again when I was ten. I didn't remember much about her, other than that she went by the name Storm.
"She has a nephew, Evan, who's about your age. The two of you might get along. And then there's Logan. I'm sure you remember him?"
Oh yeah, I remembered Logan. When my healing factor first appeared, he came and taught me some meditation poses that could help speed it up. I did them daily for about four hours, but now it's only three. My schedule got a little filled, so I had to cut back a bit. Logan called every few months or so just to check up on us, and he'd visited once or twice, bringing news from the outer world. Mom had sent me into town for most of the time he was there. When I asked why, she said it was just because they'd needed to catch up on some stuff.
"Tell me more." I said, but just then a large jet landed in the clearing that we called a yard. The door to the jet opened, and I yelled out "Mind the poop! I haven't picked it up in six months!"
A woman I recognized as Ororo walked out, then levitated over the poo. Wolf came out and growled at her, but I silenced him with a low growl of my own. She was followed by a girl who looked to be a bit older than me and had brown hair; a boy who I assumed was Evan, and another girl with blackish brown hair who looked a bit like Logan. I sniffed the air, my mind filtering out the crap, and found something interesting. She not only looked like Logan, she even smelled like Logan! I saw that she was sniffing the air to, and she jumped into the air, flipping towards me in a triple somersault. As she moved with an unknown grace to the porch, she popped two metal claws from her hands. She made a charge towards me, which I easily doged.
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