Mutation Sternutation: Callie Manifests

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The fun begins as Callie manifests her new power



"Well that was fun," Callie said cheerfully as the trio crossed the grounds. The sun was high in the sky, already on its descent to the west, but that wouldn't be for another few hours. Their morning excursion to the museum in the city had come to an end, and so back to the mansion it was, in time to enjoy another lazy Sunday afternoon. Callie looped her arm through Julian's pulling him along as they went. "Thank you for taking us Jean-Phillipe."

"Yeah, it was interesting, thanks," Julian parroted in a bit of a daze. He felt strange, both charged and exhausted at the same time, 'Maybe I'm coming down with something.' Offering only a little resistance to his pink friend, Keller allowed himself to be dragged back across the grounds toward the quiet that the mansion would offer on a day like this. Feeling a slight pinch in his arm, the young man made a fist and relaxed his hand several times trying to get it to go away. At least the last thing he had to worry about was Angelica being told he was hitting on Callie since they'd gotten back on friendly terms.

"You are quite welcome, Callie," Jean-Phillipe said graciously, contemplating lighting up a cigarette since they were all outside. But he was trying to cut back, and plenty of the mansion residents tended to wrinkle their noses at the habit. And strangely enough, Jean-Phillipe wasn't feeling very anti-social today. He cleared his throat a few times, thumping his chest. He hoped he hadn't caught a cold or something.

As they wandered, Callie's eye was drawn to a yellow bud poking out amongst the lush green grass. With nothing more than a abrupt tug on Julian's arm to get him to follow, she lead him over to the spot. She paused and bent down to remove the dandelion, her arm slipping away from his.

It came on suddenly for Julian, the sudden wave of dizziness and a case of tunneled vision. He fell forward, toward the yellow flower, as darkness closed in around him making it more and more difficult to breathe.

Then, Callie's vision went dark...


It was a dark night, there were no moon or stars visible in the orange tinted sky as the street lights burst around the isolated warehouse. Julian's reflection was visible in a puddle, smooth and clear in the middle of the street he and the other boy were crossing; crouched low to avoid being seen. The other boy, his caramel colored skin and brown eyes locked to her own as he made some unrecognizable hand gestures- why was she nodding at him?- squatted low next to a door.

Three fingers appeared in front of her vision, but they weren't Callie's finger's- the skin was too pale. As they slowly ticked off the seconds things started to progress much more quickly. The boy busted down the door with a quick punch and disappeared inside as a wall of green energy slowly assembled before her. The sounds of gunfire filled the air as she entered the warehouse- small flashes of light bounced off the green shield in front of her.

As quick as it had appeared to her, the scene faded away and Callie could see the New York sun once more. She gasped and looked around. What had happened, she wondered. And then she saw Julian collapsed at her feet, not moving. With a scream she fell to her knees beside him. "Jean-Phillipe," she cried out urgently. She had no idea what happened, and whether or not moving Julian would hurt him more. But they had to get him to the medlab. "Jean-Phillipe, Julian's not moving. I can't tell if he's breathing."

Jean-Phillipe had let the other two wander off, and was about to tap a cigarette into his palm when he heard Callie's cry. He sprinted over, taking in the scene. He bent down and pressed his fingers to Julian's carotid artery. His pulse was there, but faint, and the same with his breath. "Run and get one of the doctors," he told Callie, slipping his arms under Julian's neck and knees and standing with a grunt before moving as quickly as he could toward the mansion.



Later, Jean finds Callie waiting outside the medlab, questions her about what happened, and discovers something is really not right.



Step step step turn.

Repeat.

Don't think about Julian lying in that bed. Don't replay the image of him crumpling to the ground. Try and forget the memory that you saw.

Callie tried to push the memory of what had happened, what was currently happening, far from her mind as she paced outside the medlab. She couldn't go in, she didn't want to go in, but there was no where else she wanted to go. She couldn't just leave Julian, not now, not like this.

Especially because she was the one who put him there.

So she paced, chewing her nails in anxiety all the while. The only sound she made was the muffled "thump" of her shoes as they hit the floor. The stress was so unbearable she couldn't form the words to express what she was feeling, not even in her head. Both of her languages failed her.

"Merda," she whispered, finally breaking the silence. It was the only thing she could think of. "Shit, shit, damn, fuck, shit." She stopped and collapsed against the wall and to the floor, burying her head in her hands. "Dammit!"

There was definitely something worryingly familiar about Julian's condition, but it didn't make any sense. Jean definitely needed more information. Not that she thought Callie was really up to explaining, given how she was sitting when Jean came out looking for her. "Hey, Callie," she said, kneeling down next to the girl. "He's stable, and his vitals are getting stronger. Can you tell me what happened?"

Callie looked up at the voice and scooted away, widening the gap between them. "I- I don't know," she stammered as she ran her hands through her hair. She struggled to maintain her gaze with Jean's. "We were... we were just walking and everything was fine and the next thing I knew," she swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat, "the next thing I knew he was like that." A pink hand gestured toward the medlab. "Is he going to be okay?"

"He should be," Jean said. "At the rate he's improving, he should be awake soon, but I need more information. Where were you guys? Was anyone else around?"

"We were on the grounds walking back to the mansion," explained Callie, trying to keep her voice calm. "We had just come back from the museum in the city with Jean-Phillipe, he drove us. And we were just walking and talking. And then...." She shook her head slowly as she wiped the tear from her eye. "I swear nothing happened, I didn't do anything!" Except that she had this nagging guilt telling her she did. "And neither did Jean-Phillipe. He was just walking, and he wasn't really that close to us either."

Field trips. Jean swore, she was going to simply find a way to make some sort of doctor-ly edict against field trips. "Did anything weird happen at the museum?"

Again Callie shook her head. "Nothing out of the ordinary. I mean a little kid bit Princess Crystal, but that's about it. And I feel fine. Mostly. I have a headache, but that's probably from the stress."

"Headache, huh?" Jean asked, then tilted her head towards the inside of the medlab. "Come on in, I want to look you over quickly. Better safe than sorry when it comes to things even vaguely resembling field trips." She offered Callie a hand up.

Callie knew Jean was right. For all they knew what had hurt Julian so was lying dormant within her, preparing for the moment when it would rear its ugly head. So she reached out and took Jean's hand, and began pulling herself up.

It was subtle at first, a quiet, insidious drain. And then it was not at all subtle and also very, very familiar and Jean yanked away from Callie's hand with a yell, not seeming to notice or actually care as she dumped the girl on her ass. She clutched her hand to her chest, involuntarily taking a step back, her eyes wide. "What the hell was that?" Which was definitely not her normal reaction to things when students were around, but these were unusual circumstances. "You don't have that power."

Callie saw Julian, lying lifeless in the bed, hooked up to a group of machines.

"Ow," Callie's face was screwed up in pain as she rubbed her butt. The floor hurt. She looked up at Jean from her position on the floor. #Man, he looks really bad.#

Jean's eyebrows shot up but, conversely, her posture relaxed a little. It wasn't entirely rational but she was apparently much more comfortable with mutation powered life draining than... any other kind. And now was not the time to think about that. Instead she simply sighed. "I'm sorry about dropping you. Come on, now we really need to check you over, and I need to talk to Marie."