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“There is a cancer in our midst!” the man intoned fervently into the cheap microphone, his voice emerging aggressively distorted from the tiny speaker at his feet. “A malignant growth that rises from the corrupted flesh of our sinful society.” Bobby’s back was pressed hard against the brick wall. MA-LIG-NANT. The man—the preacher, he supposed—spat out the words with a righteous fury that commanded attention and demanded action.

Not that the passersby were listening. It was New York City at six in the evening and everyone seemed to be going somewhere. But the preacher in the patched jacket and the worn-shiny fedora saw that he had attracted the attention of the two teenage boys who looked so out of place in the speed and density of New York. It was to them he now delivered his message.

“God did not create these abominations—these mu-tants. They emerged in our midst because we are sinners. We have taken the Lord’s majestic Creation and we have polluted it with fornication, with pre-marital sex, with homosexuality. What is the fruit of the union of two men? Mutants! What is the fruit of contraception and abortion? Mutants!

“They are the minions of Satan and they will overrun us! They will take our world and make it a sewer, a pit of pestilence unless we give ourselves up to Jesus Christ!”

“Bobby,” Mike hissed, but Bobby was frozen in place, hypnotized by the confident cadence of the preacher’s words. Mike grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. Only as Bobby began to stumble after his friend did he snap out of his shocked state. They began moving down the crowded sidewalk like two fish swimming against the current, buffeted by the waves of angry commuters.

Bobby seemed shell-shocked as he replied: “I know, I know. But the way he says it– it’s like he sees the truth or something.”

They rounded the block and found themselves in front of the Midtown Youth Center. They stood in silence at the base of the steps and Bobby stared despairingly at the big front doors.

Mike turned to him. “So, Drake, you going to do it this time? You going in?”

Bobby was rooted to his slab of sidewalk, his whole body thrumming with nervous energy.

Suddenly, a girl appeared behind them. She moved in real close and said in a sweet, encouraging voice, “Don’t be afraid. After you go through those doors the first time, you’ll be a different person.”

Bobby laughed nervously. “Who says I’m different? I’m just here to meet someone… I’m not…”

Then Bobby looked at her closely, squinting his eyes. He realized she was a boy who was dressed like a girl. Acting like a girl! He pulled away nervously, giving Mike a pleading look. “Um, maybe we should, um, just go, okay?” Bobby turned and started back up the sidewalk the way they had come.

He had no choice—his legs carried him away of their own accord. Bobby felt like a fool, like a failure. But he also seemed to have no control over the long limbs that marched beneath him.

Bobby heard another pair of feet pounding up the pavement behind him and was not really surprised when Mike grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him up against the wall.

“Bobby, just stop!” Mike shouted, leaning his weight into him like he was wrestling a hot-air balloon to the ground. “You have to go to this meeting! You made me fucking bring you all the way from Boston! You begged me!”

“Look,” Bobby growled through gritted teeth, “if you don’t want to be here, just leave!”

Mike pulled back and crossed his arms on his chest. He stared at Bobby, who glared back until there was no point. Bobby slumped against the wall like he had run out of steam.

“I don’t know if I can go through with it! That girl…guy—whatever—was right! Once I do this, there’s no turning back.”

“Bobby, the first time you made ice, you already passed the point of no return.”

Bobby’s heart sank. Mike lowered his voice and moved in closer. “You’re a mutant. And that’s really something. But it’s also a tough break, dude. You’re going to have to be brave—starting today.”

Bobby again felt the urge to flee rise up in him but he held on, looking back at Mike, forcing himself to hear. Mike continued, “What are you going to do when you see an anti-mutant protest? Or hear people talking crap at school? You going to run away? Where to? The Antarctic? I hear the penguins don’t have any problem with mutants.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, Bobby,” Mike said carefully. “But if you do, I’ll be right there with you. Okay?”

Bobby had to turn his face away then because he felt like crying. He found himself suddenly full of feelings he couldn’t name. He wanted to tell Mike thank you. He wanted to do something crazy like hug him or say “I love you”…

“Your souls! Look to your souls, boys,” the low-rent, street-corner preacher warned, suddenly appearing beside them. The boys pulled apart as the man invaded their space.

“We don’t have to give up God’s world to Satan’s mutants!” He declared with intensity as he thrust a battered donation can in front of them. “Give to our church and save yourselves before it’s too late!”

Mike opened his mouth to speak, but it was Bobby, his blue eyes brilliant with rage who suddenly yelled, “Fuck you!” and slapped the can out of the man’s hand with such force that it clanked against the wall like a bell. The three fell silent for a second, the preacher holding his smacked hand in his surprise. Face darkening, he raised himself up to launch into a hellfire retort, when Mike whooped and grabbed Bobby by the arm.

“Let’s get out of here!” he shouted and the two boys began running full speed back down the sidewalk, laughing in triumph, right up the steps of the Youth Center and through it’s heavy wooden doors.

Bobby blinked in the dimness and sudden quiet of the lobby. He stared nervously at posters for Planned Parenthood and ones for safe sex showing two naked men embracing. Bobby turned away, not wanting Mike to know he even saw that. They kind of huddled in the doorway, trying to figure out their next move.

A tall, lanky man, his hair spiky with lack of care spotted them and seemed to fly across the room with three thrusts of his long legs. He pinned them with his eyes and barked at them in a throaty, broken voice. “You got no right to follow me here! I told you it wasn’t me! I told you!”

From across the room, a tall Hispanic kid wearing big sunglasses ran over and got between the man and Mike and Bobby. “Hey, Jack, why don’t you just come sit down? It’s kind of hot in here, huh?” With a firm but gentle hand on Jack’s upper arm, he led him away, turning to smile apologetically over his shoulder at the boys. “Let’s get some water from the fountain.”

Bobby snapped his head around, wondering what new assault the Center had for him. But what he saw didn’t look too threatening: a Japanese woman, maybe 5’3”, spine erect and eyes sparkling. She was dressed kind of like the secretaries in his dad’s office and her dark hair was pulled back and held in place by a clip.

“That’s me,” she confirmed, smiling as she came to a stop in front of him.

“Hey,” Mike objected. “It’s been a crazy day! You’d be bewildered, too!”

“And I didn’t know you blushed so much!” she retorted with a laugh. “Don’t worry, we have a lot to learn about each other.”

The Hispanic guy walked up to them, all smiles. “Hey,” he began. “I’m Tonio. Welcome to the Midtown Youth Center.”

“Sorry about Jack before. He gets a bit confused when he sees strangers. But he’s harmless. Andi says you’re from Boston. How’s New York treating you?”

Mike, as usual, designated himself their spokesman. “Great! Everyone’s really cool here. They gave us directions when we were lost. I think people in New York are really friendly. Oh, well, except this preacher guy…”

“Let me tell,” burst out Bobby. “He was going on about mutants! How they were the product of sin!” He waved his arms in imitation of the preacher, “‘Sex and gay people and abortion cause mutation!’ It was nuts!”

“I was pissed, for sure!” Bobby told her, warming to the subject. “And you know what I did? I told him to get lost!” He backed up, as if taking his stage. “I told him that mutants are not against God. If there is a God, He made mutants same as He made everyone else, you know?”

Bobby noticed Mike’s incredulous expression and looked quickly back to Andi and Tonio, continuing. “I mean, they aren’t different than any other people. And then… and then he shoved his can at us…” Andi seemed startled. “I mean, his charity can, right Mike? And, and I said, ‘mutants are not the problem, you are!’”

Bobby took a covert glance at Mike who rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Bobby was pretty impressive.”

Andi turned to Mike. “You’ve been pretty impressive yourself, Mike. A lot of so-called friends would have run the other way if they found out a buddy was a mutant. You’ve shown Bobby what a true friend really is,” she said seriously.

Mike looked embarrassed. He sort of squinted up his eyes and said, “Anybody who would throw out a friend for that has got something really deeply wrong with them.”

Bobby was getting that choked up feeling again so he looked around the room a bit. There was that Jack guy sitting on a couch, muttering to himself. Other people were checking ads on the bulletin board or reading the big schedule above the reception desk. ‘Al-Anon,’ ‘Questioning Gender,’ ‘Breast Cancer Support Network’. He spotted a young woman reading the schedule. She was wearing a big spring coat with her hair under a kerchief and her eyes lowered. She was holding one of the flyers for the meeting that had been posted around town. She’s a mutant, he realized. Like me.

“Wow,” he said, turning back to Andi and the boys. “Just 45 minutes till the meeting!”

Andi confirmed that on her watch and said, “How are you feeling? I’m pretty nervous!”

“What are you nervous about?” he replied. “You’re, like, a professional at this.”

“Bobby, before we chatted last month, I knew nothing about mutants and I had never met one!”

“That you know of,” Tonio added wryly. The other three looked at him and his words sunk in.

“That’s a good point, Tonio,” Andi replied, nodding. “Listen, can Bobby and I talk alone up in the room for a few minutes?”

Tonio looked across to the schedule board. “We can’t get in there for another half hour.” He pointed at a door across the lobby. “Go talk in Meeting Room A. There’s no one in there until seven. Hey, Mike, we need to get some chairs from the basement. You feeling strong?”

Andi put a hand on Bobby’s arm, saying, “Come on,” and led them into the meeting room, closing the door behind them.

“You bet,” she answered. “These kids are coming here expecting me to be able to offer some help. It’s scary, you understand?”

“Yeah, I do. I’m one of the people looking for answers!” He smiled awkwardly at her. Was it better or worse that she was nervous, too? “So what are you going to say?”

Andi abruptly squared her shoulders, straightened her jack and became instantly very professional. “We’ll offer help the best way we can. We’ll listen carefully and we’ll speak from the heart.”

She smiled reassuringly at him and took his arm again, leading him over to a couple of chairs. “Come on, let’s sit down. Yes, Bobby: ‘we’. I want you to think of yourself as my co-convener today.” She sat in one of the chairs, but he remained standing.

“‘Co-convenor,’” he squeaked. “What is that?” Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good and his leg began bouncing on the floor.

“It means I want you to lead the group with me; interact with kids, ask questions, keep the discussion flowing.”

“Huh? That’s crazy! I’m just the same as all the others will be: I’m scared, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me…”

“And that makes you a perfect peer counselor. Bobby, sit, please.” He lowered himself in the chair like an automaton as she continued, “Sure, I have some professional knowledge and I’m going to be a psychologist on paper one of these days, but you’re the one who knows from the inside what it means to be a mutant.”

“Bobby, I really need your help here,” Andi pleaded, a little desperate herself. “Without a peer component, I’m afraid the kids won’t trust me; then we won’t be able to help at all.”

Bobby was miserable. He was disappointing her; he was being ungrateful for all her kindness. “But what if I don’t know what to say? What if I say something stupid?” He slumped down deep in his chair and wrapped his arms around himself like a straightjacket. “I can’t do it, I’m really sorry.”

“Look, we all say stupid things everyday, so don’t try too hard to be perfect.” Her tone grew soothing. “Frankly, I’m not too worried. You haven’t logged on to 2gether for a while, but I’ve been dropping in.” Bobby furrowed his eyebrows, another wave of guilt running through him. “People there say a lot of good things about you.”

Bobby sat up again, “Oh my god, you’re talking to people about me?” He dropped his face into his hands. “Why did you do that? What did you tell them, Andi?!”

“I didn’t bring you up in the conversation. Gina asked and I just said you were going through some tough times and you were okay.”

“That you’re a mutant? Of course not Bobby! That’s for you to tell if you choose to.” Bobby relaxed a little, sinking a few inches back down in the chair. “I wish you could have seen what they were saying about you. They told me you always know the right thing to say, whether to be serious or make a joke and how you make everyone feel welcome.”

“Gina, Gundam, Dark Princess… all of them. And that’s why I know you’ll be a great co-convener. What do you say?”

He didn’t answer the question, but he could feel the knot of tension loosening a bit. He looked over at Andi, saying, “I feel so bad that I’ve been avoiding them. I miss them. Okay, I’ll help you but I’m telling you, you’ll be disappointed.”

Andi laughed, “Okay, tell you what: if I’m not disappointed, you owe me five bucks. Deal?”

Suddenly Andi’s cell phone rang and the sound seemed to send her right back to the breathless panic she had entered the room with.

“Hello?” she said loudly. “Professor, hi! I was getting worried you wouldn’t make it.” She rose out of her seat, continuing with forced enthusiasm. “Where are you? Oh, so you’ll be right in. Do you need help? Oh great!”

She moved quickly to the door of the room. Bobby watched her in surprise, wondering what could be causing her so much anxiety.

“So, he can help you get upstairs?” she asked, opening the door. Noise from outside suddenly broke the stillness as Andi spoke, looking around the lobby. “Yes, there’s an elevator. What does he look like? And his name is… Oh, I see him!” She waved a hand high over her head and called out into the lobby: “Scott? Hi, I’m Andi! We’re in here.” Back into her cell phone she said, “Okay, I’ll see you in a minute. I can’t wait. Bye!”

She hung up the phone and leaned against the door jamb, biting a corner of an already bitten-down fingernail. Curious, Bobby stood up and wandered a few steps closer. “What’s up? Who’s this professor guy?”

Andi turned to him with a guilty look on her face, her professional demeanor gone again. He felt himself growing nervous, too.

“Bobby, I have to tell you one more thing. I think it’s the real reason I’m so freaked out. There’s this man—a mutant expert—and he’s coming to the meeting.”

Andi continued carefully, “No, Professor Xavier’s just going to speak for a few minutes at the beginning. But he’s also coming here because…” She hesitated, as if trying to get the words just right. “Because he wants to meet you.”

Bobby felt his mind slip a gear. “Me? Why would he want…? Does he know I’m a…? How? How does he even know anything about me, Andi?!”

Andi looked devastated. “I’m sorry, Bobby,” she answered quickly, “I didn’t mean to reveal anything you told me in confidence, but Professor Xavier has been extremely helpful in letting me know about mutants—about manifestations and powers and the different classes of mutation. He seemed to know about you already; and he was very excited about meeting you.”

Bobby was looking out at the lobby, looking around the room. He felt like he was part of some weird conspiracy. Maybe this whole meeting was a trap! He sputtered out, “But why would some professor want to meet me?!”

Bobby saw a handsome man in his twenties with chestnut brown hair and a strong jaw wearing the coolest pair of red sunglasses. The young man assessed them both with a penetrating gaze that Bobby could feel even without being able to see his eyes. This is the professor? Bobby wondered. Wow.

The young man in the red glasses looked around the room critically, as if assessing its worth or, perhaps, its security.

“Please move some of those chairs aside,” he told them. “I’ll bring the Professor in.”

Bobby blinked in confusion as the man vanished again. He stood frozen as Andi moved a few chairs that were close to the door. Bobby turned to ask her more questions when he heard the gentle whirring of a motor. What he saw coming through the door made his blood turn cold.

Time seemed to slow and distance to telescope. As if through heavy velvet drapes, Bobby could hear Andi telling him, “This is Professor Charles Xavier.” The bald mage from his nightmares came towards him in a wheelchair, the fluorescent light from the room glinting off his bald head just as the red moon of the dream landscape had. Bobby felt his legs buckling and tried to reach for the chair behind him, but missed the seat and landed heavily on the ground.

The mage’s red-eyed accomplice moved toward him but Bobby held out hand to defend himself. Suddenly, the man’s outstretched arm was covered in frost. Bobby cried out and pulled himself into a tight ball, feeling cold spinning out of him, tendrils of ice snaking across the floor. He heard Andi shouting but he couldn’t stop the ice, he couldn’t stop–

And then the voice spoke. It was a voice that wasn’t a voice and it spoke inside his head in a language that had no words, that didn’t move the air. It was a disturbingly visceral feeling, as if meaning were vibrating in his core.

*Robert Drake!* the voice proclaimed, *Listen to me now. You are safe. You will reach inside yourself and turn off your powers!*

And Bobby knew the voice belonged to the mage. He had his face buried in his arms but somehow he could feel the mage’s eyes locked onto his. He felt suddenly naked, vulnerable and transfixed by the clarity of the eyes in his mind and the certainty of the probing, pervasive voice that seemed to speak in the deepest corners of his self.

And Bobby did. Like turning a switch, he controlled the ice. Slowly, he became aware of the world once more. He found himself sitting on the floor surrounded by frost and ice that was already beginning to melt, his knees pulled up and his arms wrapped around them. He was shaking.

“Bobby!” Andi cried out and started to come towards him but Xavier spoke sharply.

Scott put his arm around her shoulder and started shepherding her quickly out the door, saying, “The Professor will handle this, Ma’am. He knows what to do.”

*Bobby*, said the voice in his head. *I need you to look at me.* Despite himself, Bobby raised his head slowly until he could see the old man’s eyes. As he looked, he felt himself sink deeper into their dark gravity.

Bobby’s panic seemed to drain from him, replaced by warmth and a sense of peace. He became aware of his heart slowing and his breath returning again to an even rhythm. Slowly he uncurled himself and stood up.

“How are you, son?” The Professor asked aloud, gently. Bobby didn’t respond. “Why don’t you have a seat and we’ll talk?”

But Bobby continued to stand, now towering above the Professor in his wheelchair. He was just an old man, not a nightmare. The voice that had rumbled through his core was now just a voice, the eyes that had burned like the crater of a volcano, merely pale blue.

Carefully, Bobby asked, “How… How are you here? Why did I dream about you?”

“I am sorry about that, Robert,” Xavier said in a conciliatory tone. “There is a…device called Cerebro. Someday soon I would like to show it to you. Cerebro allows me to locate mutant minds and to enhance the reach of my telepathy. That is how I became aware of your presence in Boston. But my control is not yet exact. I was aware that we were communicating, but I did not realize that you were incorporating my presence into your dreamscape. That must have been frightening.”

There was too much information to digest, so Bobby grabbed onto one word. “Telepathy? Mind reading?”

“Yes, Robert,” The Professor replied seriously. “That is my power. I am Charles Xavier, a former professor of psychology here in New York. I am also a mutant. Now, please have a seat so we can… see eye-to-eye.” He smiled kindly.

Bobby slowly sat in a chair opposite the Professor, but not too close. He willed himself to look right at the man and spoke with as much dignity as he could muster. “Andi said you wanted to meet me. Why?”

“You are a mutant, Bobby, endowed with great abilities.” Xavier told him. “It’s my mission to find mutants like you. To help you.”

“Yes, a very powerful one. He is my assistant He makes many things possible in my life. He helps me bring my dreams to reality.”

“Since I’ve been in your dreams, it’s only fair I let you in on mine,” he said, smiling and Bobby couldn’t help but smile back; sitting with his nightmare had already become weirdly normal.

“I dream of a world where humans and mutants can live peacefully together; where each individual can use his or her gifts for the betterment of all.” Bobby found himself leaning forward in his chair. “The path to this goal is not a smooth one, Robert. That is why I am searching for mutants, for those with special gifts, both in their mutant powers and in their unique capacities for leadership.”

Xavier continued. “The time has come when we must stand up as a community and earn the respect of humanity. But the pressures of politics and the perils of mistrust—on both sides—mean we must work quickly.”

Bobby listened seriously, seeing suddenly a world of much higher stakes than the one he inhabited at school or with his family.

“There’s another pillar in the house of my dream, Robert,” Xavier said. “A school for Gifted Youngsters. I had to meet you to find out whether or not you would be a good candidate.”

“Yes. An institute for young mutants where they can study without fear, where they can become the leaders of our community and help bring about the world of peace that I know we can have.”

“I think… I think I’d like to do that, sir.” Bobby said, feeling certain about something for the first time that day.

“That’s good, Mr. Drake, but do not make hasty decisions about something so important. Furthermore, I still have to discuss your case with Scott. We will talk after the youth group meeting.”

Bobby stood up to shake Xavier’s hand, conscious that he was trying to impress the man. “Thank you, sir.”

Xavier tapped his head. “I feel it, Mr. Drake. I feel it.” He smiled. “Let us go.” He set his wheelchair in motion and Bobby ran ahead to open the door for him, almost slipping in a puddle of melted ice.

Out in the lobby, the Professor called to Scott and the two of them vanished into a corner to talk. About me? Bobby wondered. Scott looked over at him at one point and Bobby smiled back shyly, evoking no response from the “powerful mutant”. Disheartened, Bobby went to the front desk and asked for a mop and bucket.

A few minutes later, as he was returning the gear, he caught sight of Andi quickly coming down the stairs with a worried look on her face. She ran up and grabbed both his hands, looking up into his eyes.

“I’m fine. Really, it’s okay.” He was a bit embarrassed as he remembered what she had witnessed. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Don’t worry about that! As long as you’re okay.” She looked down at his hands and suddenly dropped them as if they might explode in ice at any minute.

Andi gave him a guilty look. “It’s not your fault. I mean, here we are setting up a meeting for mutants and I… I never really stopped to think what I might see today.” She looked back up at him and smiled. “I’m glad I had my freak out with my co-convenor and not with a stranger. So, thanks.”

“Of course,” she replied emphatically. “If you can trust me now, that is.”

Bobby looked surprised. “Of course I trust you, Andi! You’re the whole reason I’m even here today!” He took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll do it. But if I’m stuck, I’m totally going to say, ‘And this is Bobby Drake, sending it back to the studio. Andi…?’”

“Come on, let’s get upstairs,” she said laughing and they headed back to the staircase. At the first landing, Bobby turned to look back at the lobby and saw that many people were arriving for various seven o’clock meetings. Some were young, some old and he realized with a start that he had no idea which ones were mutants. More importantly, he realized the significance of that.

Bobby felt a weird thrill as he looked around the circle of young people—a thrill made of equal parts terror (Everyone knows I’m a freak!) and exhilaration (All these kids are mutants like me!). And he could see that he wasn’t alone in feeling this confusion.

To his right sat Mike, excited and smiling, Bobby’s anchor. Next to him was a small guy, maybe 14 years old, clutching his backpack tightly to his chest and worrying the straps constantly as he snatched nervous glances around the room.

Beside him was Tonio, whose confidence had wavered once Andi had begun her welcome speech. Next to him was an empty seat which the Korean girl one seat over had asked be left open “for a friend”.

Next to her was the girl Bobby had seen checking the schedule downstairs. Her kerchief was tightly secured and she sat very rigid in her chair, still wearing her spring coat.

Beside her sat the most shocking mutant he had seen yet—a young man, maybe 19 with skin the color of a ripe tomato and strange fan-like growths near his almost flat ears which looked, Bobby thought, like gills. He had no jacket or hat and Bobby realized he must have walked to the Youth Center like that! For everyone to see!

The girl beside him had her chair pulled up tight to his and she was tucked firmly under his arm, looking alert and wary. Bobby thought she must be his girlfriend. Was she a mutant at all?

Then came Andi, whose professional cheer had an almost manic edge to it. At the beginning of the meeting, Bobby had tried to mimic her smile and tone, but it felt awful and forced.

When it was his turn to speak, he had tried to just relax and be honest. He had told the group that he had only found out about his powers a few weeks ago and he had introduced Mike, who was sitting beside him, saying that without his friend helping him, he wouldn’t even be here. Most of the room had smiled nervously at Mike, but the red boy had just glared little harder. What was his problem? Bobby had wondered.

Andi took the floor again. “In a while, I want to go around the circle and we can do some more introductions—whatever you want to say—but first we’re going to hear from a special guest.” She looked momentarily confused and checked her watch. “Tonio, could you run down and see if the Professor is here yet?”

Tonio jumped up and opened the door. He looked down the corridor and then back to Andi. “Here they come,” he said and held the door open wide. The Professor wheeled in, smiling, looking around at the faces. Scott then appeared but he remained in the doorway, also checking out the faces but with none of the Professor’s cheer. He was looking for signs of threat, Bobby saw. Who would want to hurt Professor Xavier? he wondered.

*Hello, Robert,* came the voice in his head and Bobby was startled for a second before he smiled at the old man. He felt kind of special, having this secret relationship with the guest of honor.

Scott left the room, closing the door behind him. A space was made in the circle for the Professor’s wheelchair and Andi rose to speak. “Everybody, this is Professor Charles Xavier, an expert on, um, mutant-kind and our guest today.”

“Thank you, Andi, and thank you all for letting me speak here. It is not my intention to intrude on your meeting, only to let you know how happy I am that such a meeting is even taking place.”

The group’s reaction was definitely cautious. They had not expected anything so formal and were obviously suspicious of someone claiming to be an expert on mutants. The only “mutant experts” any of them had heard about were politicians sounding off in the press about the new and deadly threat.

“I cannot tell you how much it means to me to see you all here today,” Xavier told the group. “When my mutation first manifested many years ago, I believed that I alone among the human race had such special gifts. But far from feeling blessed and unique, I felt terrified and singled out. Why had the universe made me different from my family, from my friends? How would I live with this secret?

“Over the following decades, I met few mutants and we represented only the smallest fraction of humanity. But now something wonderful has happened, children. You have happened.” Bobby felt them all listening intently. “Mutants are suddenly manifesting in unprecedented numbers. This is a time of exhilaration and a time of challenge. We are too many to hide and we should not have to. We must leave the shadows and walk in the daylight. We have powers that can help make this a better world.”

Bobby felt something in him like hope. His imagination moved. He saw himself in a burning building, extinguishing flames with sheets of ice, saving stranded children. His heart began to pound.

Xavier paused and looked around the group slowly, holding each youth in his eye a moment. His voice deepened as he told them, “Do not let anyone tell you that you are monsters.” He looked at the boy with gills. “Do not believe that you are ugly.” The boy looked away, his brow furrowing. “For you are all beautiful and right. You are new expressions of nature and the world cannot do without you.”

He turned to the girl in the kerchief and coat and spoke kindly. “My dear, would you be very, very brave and let us see you as you are?” She blushed and her head dropped. But then she raised it again and looked around the room.

Rising to her feet, she undid her coat and let is slip off her back even as her hands flew up and swept off the kerchief. She wore a sleeveless t-shirt and from her arms, a network of iridescent, scintillating tissue formed a nimbus of light, like wings made of lacy flame. She shook her head to either side with an inhuman grace and more fans of light unfolded to form a headdress of living energy. The room danced in a gentle glow and Bobby felt a kind of peace descend on him as he watched the light.

The feeling of peace seemed to be shared among everyone in the room and he suddenly felt that they were a community. This was the gift of her light. After a few more moments, the girl took her seat again, the light dimming but never quite vanishing. They heard the Korean girl sigh and they looked to see her close her eyes and extend a hand towards the empty chair. Beside her, an exact twin appeared, though it was like a negative of her, dark where she was light and vice versa. The twins now sat holding hands, looking around the room as two independent beings.

Tonio then took off his glasses, squinting in the light, to reveal his huge, sad eyes. After a few seconds, he put the glasses on again. Bobby wondered if he should make ice for them; or would that be showing off? He was saved from making a decision when the red boy’s girlfriend started crying and turned to bury her face in his chest.

Xavier spoke up, “Please, don’t feel bad, any of you, if you do not wish to reveal your powers here. These are deep and personal parts of you that you have kept hidden for many years. Revealing them is something we must do only when we feel the time is right.”

The red boy, holding his girlfriend tight, announced in a tight, angry voice, “I never hid. And I never will. This world is mine as much as it is anybody’s and I’ll fight for my rights!”

Bobby didn’t know what to say. Could he ever be that brave? Shouldn’t he be ready to fight, too? Did joining the Professor and Scott’s school mean that he would have to be a fighter?

“Yes, you’re right,” Andi said, agreeing with the Professor. She looked around the room. “You all have the right to be who you are.” She turned to the red boy and said, “And I’m sure you’re not the only one in the room who has felt anger. That’s something we should take time to discuss today.”

Smiling again, she said, “But now I’d like to thank Professor Xavier for joining us and getting the meeting off to such an inspirational start.”

“Thank you, Andi,” said Xavier. “I will leave you to your meeting. I trust that you will find in each other a source of strength. You are all my inspiration.” He wheeled towards the door and, as if on cue, Scott opened it from outside and followed Xavier to the elevator.

Bobby felt like running out after him and asking if they had decided to accept him in the school yet. But Xavier’s voice suddenly rang through him again: *Robert, we will speak in private after your meeting.*

It was all he could do, given the confident authority of the telepathic voice, not to shout out, ‘Yessir!’

It was only when Tonio stood and closed the door that Andi seemed to truly relax for the first time. “Let’s go around the circle and introduce ourselves. Say as much or as little about your life as you wish. If you don’t want to say your name, please give us something we can call you. Bobby, why don’t you start?”

The Korean girl, Lynn, reached out again and took the hand of her negative doppelganger.

“She first appeared in my dreams when I was around 12,” Lynn began. Bobby could see it was hard for her to speak about, but the group had already achieved at least an initial level of trust. She gripped the negative hand tightly. “And then one day, I woke up and she was standing at the foot of my bed. It was super weird… because it seemed so normal. It’s like I had always been two but hadn’t really realized it until that moment. Her name is Nyll.”

Nyll smiled, an eerie negative smile of black teeth. Lynn spoke for both of them. “At first, she was just another me, but the longer she’s been around, the more individual she’s become. Now we sometimes even disagree on little things like what to wear and stuff. Or we have different opinions on who we should tell…” Her voice trailed off and they both looked down at their laps.

“No one!” Lynn exclaimed. “Well, just my parents. I always tell them everything.”

Lynn didn’t look up, but Nyll raised her head, watching as Lynn answered in small voice. “They were, um, scared of her. They said…” She caught her breath as if it were hard to say the words. “They said I could never tell anyone about Nyll. They – they said that they didn’t want to see her. Ever.” Lynn looked up at Bobby. Her eyes were wet. “They don’t understand. Nyll is their daughter, too. She’s part of me! And when they say that I have to hide that part…”

“…it feels like they’re rejecting you, too. I know.” Bobby responded. Lynn and Nyll both nodded.

The boy with the backpack, Ben, spoke up. “I haven’t told anyone yet. It’s easy for me to hide my powers, so I do. I wanted to tell my best friend. But just when I was going to I heard her saying these anti-mutie—I mean anti-mutant—things and so I just shut up.”

Derek, the tomato-skinned boy responded aggressively. “Why didn’t you tell her you didn’t want to hear that bullshit?”

“I-I was afraid she’d figure out what I was if I said anything.” Ben seemed embarrassed by his answer as Derek scowled at him, gills flexing.

“It’s not easy to tell,” said Bobby, trying to prevent a confrontation. “I’ve only told one person other than you guys and that’s Mike. He was really cool about it.”

But then he paused and thought about it more. “When, um, when Bobby told me he was a mutant, he was really sick… from his powers. And he didn’t seem scary at all. But, to be honest, there are times when I watch him… doing his stuff… and I think about how dangerous it could be…”

Bobby looked at Mike sadly and told him, “I would never hurt you. You know that.”

“I know,” Mike replied. “And that’s why I don’t really worry. Anyone can be dangerous, even if they don’t have powers. Humanity has done pretty well hurting each other for a long time without special powers.”

The girl with the wings of light asked Bobby, “So does telling Mike mean you’ll be more comfortable telling the next person?”

Bobby stammered, “Um, uh, I didn’t think about that yet. I guess, well, I guess it would depend on who it was. And I never really decided to tell Mike; he kind of figured it out.”

Bobby blushed and Andi said, “That’s not fair, Derek. You can’t judge people on how they handle such a personal decision.”

“Maybe not,” he responded bitterly, “but I can tell you what it’s like when you have no choice. I can tell you what it’s like to be called names and attacked and threatened with your life.”

“And yeah, it makes me angry,” Derek went on. “All you pretty little kids who can pass as normal. And I can call you chickenshit, too, because if I can stand it, if I can walk the streets everyday and just take it, then I don’t see any goddamn excuse for hiding what you are! Humans want to hurt mutants. But if they try to hurt me, they’ll get hell of a fight!”

“Hey!” Mike said, raising his voice, “Not all humans want… and what do you mean ‘humans’? Mutants are humans!”

“Why are you even at this meeting?” Derek spat back at him. “How are we supposed to talk about what we’ve gone through when one of you is sitting right here?!”

Mike looked amazed. “Is that how you feel?” He looked around the room. “Is that how you all feel?”

But then Lynn looked down at her feet and said, “Yeah, kind of.” Mike turned to her and she continued. “I’m sorry; you’re really nice and everything but it would be easier for me if you weren’t… here.” Nyll just shook her head though it wasn’t clear if she disagreed or she was just sad.

Bobby was speechless and Andi quickly said, “Wait a minute, Lynn, I’m not a mutant either.”

“I know,” Lynn said to her as Nyll stared at Mike, “But that’s different. You’re, like, the leader.”

Mike said, “I’m just gonna go.” Andi started to object, but he raised his hand to stop her. “It’s okay… I don’t want to make anyone… uncomfortable.”

He left the room quietly and no one but Andi and Nyll watched. The sense of community in the room seemed to splinter into shards of anger and shame.

Bobby stared at the floor as he spoke, his voice tight with emotion: “That was wrong. He came here to support me. He came here because he didn’t care if I was a mutant or not; because I’m his friend!” He raised his head and glared at Derek.

“He’s your friend now,” Derek told him with infuriating confidence, “But when they come to round us up, we’ll see if he’s ready go to the wall for you.”

Bobby raised his voice saying, “Look, you can think whatever you like about me, but I won’t have you putting down everyone in this room and attacking my friend. You can’t call people ‘chickenshit’ just because they don’t act all arrogant like you! You can’t call people traitors when everything they’ve done proves their loyalty! You’re just a loud-mouthed bully and I won’t have you…”

“Hold it!” Andi shouted sternly. “We are here to support each other! Not to judge–”

“Hey!” came a sudden shout from the door and everyone turned in surprise to see a kid standing there, smoking. He was skinny—maybe even undernourished—and dressed in baggy clothes that were none too clean. His face, beneath long, rather greasy hair that reached down to his shoulders was smooth and almost angelic with prominent, full lips. But his large, deep blue eyes were full of devilish amusement and something perhaps darker—something not to be messed with. Under his arm was a battered leather folder that was all but exploding with loose scraps of paper.

He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, exhaled a large puff of smoke and smirked, “Is this ‘Cancer?’”

“Just kidding,” he grinned at her, though the grin wasn’t meant to appease. “I’m here for the merry mutant meeting.”

“Great!” Bobby burst out, finding himself unaccountably rattled. “Well, come on in and sit down, um…” he looked up at the boy for a name.

“You can call me Pyro.” He held Bobby’s gaze with a kind of reckless courage. Something. Something in those eyes… Bobby’s mouth was suddenly dry and he couldn’t continue.

“Hey, Pyro,” Tonio called out, looking pissed off. “No smoking in the building.”

Pyro smiled back defiantly, holding the pose for a second before he dropped the cigarette to the floor, extinguishing it with a slow, deliberate squish. He squeezed himself through the gap between Lynn and Nyll and plopped himself down with regal carelessness in the seat vacated by Mike.

Bobby choked and almost burst out laughing but then suppressed it when he saw Andi looking uncomfortable.

“No one’s going to slug anyone, Pyro,” she said calmly. “The discussion was just getting a bit heated. It doesn’t mean we don’t all respect each other here.”

Pyro smirked at that but before he could say anything, Bobby jumped in: “Derek, I didn’t mean to attack you; I’m just saying you can’t know what other people are going through. I mean, you’re really brave—I can’t imagine just letting everyone know I was a mutant. But I guess that means you have people at home and your school who, like, support you and don’t care you’re a mutant.”

Derek crossed his arms over his chest and gave him a stony look. “I don’t have anyone. It’s just me and her. We don’t need anyone else.” He reached over and put his arm around his girlfriend. She looked at Bobby with a terrible sadness in her eyes.

Bobby felt like he should have a response but he didn’t know how to find words of sympathy for this intimidating guy who seemed to lord it over everyone. The rest of the room also seemed at a loss in the face of this portrait of tough isolation.

“Sure,” Pyro responded, the crooked smile back on his face. “If you have no one, you don’t have anyone to lose.” Bobby watched him carefully, impressed at how he could handle Derek. Then Pyro spun around to look at Bobby. He felt gooseflesh rising on his arms. “For instance, you—what’s your name?”

“Why don’t you just go right home and sit them down in the living room. ‘Mommy, Daddy, I have something to say.’ How does that feel?”

“I-I’d be scared. Scared I’d be bringing them more trouble. Or that they’d decide I was a freak instead of their son.” He and Pyro were locking eyes, just a few feet from each other. He felt the intensity of the boy’s gaze and he knew that he was really being listened to. Pyro swung back to Derek.

Bobby suddenly understood the game and he turned to Ben and asked, “Ben how would you feel about letting your school friends know you’re a mutant?”

Ben looked shocked even contemplating such a thing. “No way! They’d fucking kill me! There was this one kid who dressed really goth and they, like, hounded him until he left school. I have a lot of friends, but if I told them about me… I don’t even want to think… I mean, what if…”

Bobby turned to Derek as he had seen Pyro do. “You see, Derek, he has a lot to lose.”

Pyro grinned at Bobby and picked up the ball again, leaning forward in his chair. “And Derek—buddy—you have that hot girlfriend there who likes you and your bright red dick. But imagine that you’re this good-looking quarterback guy and you get all the chicks. Like non-stop pussy! Are you really going to throw that away by letting them know you have mutant sperm?”

Andi suddenly jumped in, “Okay, Pyro, we get your point, I think. You might want to remember that not everyone is comfortable with that kind of language.” Pyro smirked with mischievous triumph and leaned back in his chair. He turned and winked at Derek who was fuming. Bobby watched the combatants with a sense of vindication. Then he saw Tonio glaring at Pyro, jaw ridged and he felt a pang of worry for this new boy who seemed to invite trouble with a perverse glee. Pyro’s foot slid over and bumped against Bobby’s. He left it there.

Mike had gone back down to the lobby and thrown himself onto one of the couches in a fit of hurt indignation. He tried to read one of the free newspapers that were scattered around the room but he couldn’t concentrate. He had read the same paragraph about a rockabilly singer who powered his amp with biodiesel three times before he threw the paper away in boredom. Mike tossed himself onto his back, covering his eyes with his forearm and relished a moment of oblivion.

Mike uncovered his face and found himself looking up at the Professor’s bodyguard guy.

Mike sat up. He found himself trying to see through the impenetrable crimson of the man’s glasses to the eyes below.

“Mind if I have a seat?” Scott asked, sitting before he got the answer. “Why’d you leave the meeting?”

“There was some debate,” Mike replied sullenly. “About whether non-mutants should attend the meeting at all.”

“I see.” Scott looked sympathetic. “Don’t let it get you down. I hate that kind of navel-gazing stuff. I do my own soul-searching in private. How about you?”

“I don’t know.” Mike looked at Scott closely. “Can I try on your glasses?”

Scott pulled away as if Mike were about to reach out and grab them. “Please, be careful! It’s dangerous.” Mike drew his hand back, more curious than ever. “I’ll show you some time, okay?” Mike nodded.

“Listen, Mike, the important thing is that you’re Bobby’s friend. It’s very important that he had the chance to meet the Professor. This day will change his life and you made that possible because you stood by him. Even though he’s a mutant, you remembered that he’s your friend.”

“Yeah,” Mike said, tilting his head. “I guess that’s what this day is really about. Not me getting into some meeting. I just felt left out.”

Scott turned serious. “Mike, there’s a lot of anti-mutant hatred brewing in this country. Bobby and all the other mutants are going to need friends like you in their corner. Not just someone to talk to, but a friend that will stand up for them in public against anti-mutant laws and other kinds of hatred.”

“I think you’re right. I’ve been bookmarking all the articles I can about anti-mutant laws. I’m going to do an essay on it for school next year. Maybe publish some stuff in the school newspaper.”

“That’s awesome. You’re going to kick ass for us, aren’t you?” Scott asked, shaking his head in pleasant surprise.

Breaking into a grin, Scott shook Mike’s hand firmly. “Now, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about Bobby?”

“I’d like to go around the circle and hear what each of you hopes to get out of this group,” said Andi, working to restore a sense of order and direction to the meeting.

As each one spoke, the feeling of community slowly returned. The kids were braver now than they had been when they arrived and seemed to be there for each other. It was becoming, in fact, just the kind of meeting Bobby had hoped it would be. But as they spoke, Bobby’s attention kept wandering and he would find himself glancing sideways at the skinny kid with the lame name. Did he live on the streets? How did he survive? He seemed really smart, but Bobby wondered if he even went to school.

He watched Pyro watching the others. His concentration was intense, as if he were trying to memorize all their words. But as his turn to speak approached, Bobby saw something change in him. A cloud of sadness crossed over the pale face and Bobby found himself wishing he could do something, anything, to bring back the confident smartass who had entered the room.

When the circle reached Pyro, he was looking down at his feet. He sighed and said, without looking up. “Well, yeah. What’s to say, huh? I mean, it’s really the shits when you get down to it, isn’t it? We’re these amazing creatures. We’re like the best zoo anyone ever thought of. But who wants to be a fucking lemur, right? Who even wants to be a komodo dragon? And they’re brilliantly awesome.”

He raised his head, but stared up at the ceiling instead of at the others. “I go out into the park in the morning and all the newspapers are always there on some bench. And I start reading all the anti-mutant bullshit. Arguments that make no sense. I dunno, I guess some do. We can be dangerous, right? I can be dangerous for sure. And when I read that shit, I want to be! I want to destroy something then because it’s not fucking fair!”

“And then I remember, oh yeah, ‘life’s not fair’. That’s, like, my mantra, okay? So I suck it up and climb back inside.” He lapsed into silence.

Andi quietly prompted him. “Pyro, tell us what you would like to get from this group. Try to imagine what kind of help would give you what you need the most.”

Pyro looked up at her. A cold, calm mask seemed to descend on his features. “That’s just the thing, isn’t it? What do I want? The way I see it, it’s either got to be assimilation or war.” Bobby’s breath seemed to catch in his chest. Pyro continued, “And I haven’t figured out yet which side to choose.” He reached into his pocket and came up with a pack of cigarettes and a battered, shiny Zippo lighter. With smooth finesse, he lit up and hungrily sucked in the smoke.

“Damn it, man,” said Tonio, losing his cool. “No smoking in the building!”

Pyro’s head whipped around and his face darkened with anger. “Fuck you,” he snarled and flicked the cigarette in Tonio’s direction, but halfway through its arc, the cigarette exploded in a fireball and the ashes dropped to the floor in the center of the circle.

There was a collective gasp, but before anyone could say anything, Pyro was on his feet and heading for the door.

“Pyro, wait a minute!” Andi called after him, but he had already disappeared.

When Bobby reached the top of the stairs, he could see Pyro on the landing, halfway down to the second floor.

“Hold it!” he shouted, kind of desperately. And amazingly, the boy stopped and looked up at him as if he wasn’t really surprised. Bobby ran down the stairs to the landing and then stood awkwardly, unable somehow to gauge the appropriate distance he should keep from the boy.

Pyro seemed to be pleasantly amused by Bobby’s discomfort. He waited patiently for Bobby to speak. “Are you… Will you be coming back to the meeting next week?”

Pyro smiled, “No, I don’t think so, Bobby. I think me and this group won’t ever share a wavelength.”

Bobby felt his heart sink. “Do you, um, have a place to go? Do you live somewhere?”

“Oh, I’m not on the street. The street’s for losers. We have a really great squat in this abandoned tenement.”

“But what if I want to talk to you… I mean, if you needed something, I would try to help. If you were in trouble…”

Pyro thought about this. “I can get on the ‘Net if I need to. You have an IM handle?”

John opened his battered leather folder and pulled a pen from its spine. “Write it down over here. Okay, ‘b-cube,’ got it. Thanks.”

They stared into each others’ eyes for a minute before Pyro smiled and spoke again. “I gotta head, Bobby, or Keever will be pissed. Here, I’ve got something for you,” Pyro said and searched briefly in the folder until he found a sheet of paper with something hand written on it in green ink. He passed the sheet to Bobby and then, surprisingly, blushed and looked down at his feet.

Bobby took the sheet of paper almost reverently. A moment passed when neither moved. Then suddenly, Pyro looked up at him with his crooked smile back in place and winked before turning and running down the stairs, screaming like Tarzan. Bobby stood in stunned silence, feeling like the boy had left behind a lingering heat.

*Robert Drake?* Came the sudden voice in his head. Startled, Bobby looked around like he’d been caught. He then realized what the voice was and said out loud, “Um, yes Professor?”

*Scott and I have discussed it and we are pleased to offer you a place in next year’s classes at our School for Gifted Youngsters.*

*Indeed. It isn’t something I would joke about! Can you come downstairs and we will discuss the next steps?*

Suddenly a voice came from above him. “Hey, Bobby!” said Tonio at the top of the stairs, looking down at him a bit strangely. Bobby wondered how long he’d been there. “Andi wanted me to get you. We’re going to finish up the meeting.”

Bobby hesitated and then said, “Okay, coming!” With annoyance, he realized that Tonio was waiting for him, so he closed his eyes and tried to figure out how to speak with just his mind.

*Very good, Mr. Drake, I can hear you. Go finish your group and meet us in the lobby afterwards. Congratulations, son.*

Tonio shrugged his shoulders and left. Bobby turned to look at the message in green ink. He saw that it was a poem. It read:

Deepest Burrow
Fire is singular
There is only one and
When it meets itself in a
House at night
     The family running
     The parents and the screaming child
     Teddy in hand
Or in the forest
     The animals flying or failing
It pulls itself to itself
And it is one again
With itself

But if fire had a friend
If fire found another
In the last box within a box
In the farthest closet in the house
Or in the deepest burrow in the woods
Would it treasure that little life
Or would it consume?