Johnny and Angelo, Tuesday evening

[x-dangersense.livejournal.com]

A distracted Johnny runs into Angelo and learns a bit about X-Corps in the process



Johnny had seen the offices down in the other wing of the mansion and even knew that that was where X-Corps were housed. Whatever that actually was. And that was about as much attention as he'd ever paid to it. He'd cut through that end of the building on his way back inside this evening to avoid the wind after his run, headphones in and covered with a pair of fuzzy blue earmuffs.

With his ears blocked, he almost ran into Angelo, danger sense warning him at the last moment. "Whoa!" Johnny said, ducking out of the way.

Angelo side-stepped hastily, hands raised to steady the kid if it seemed necessary.

"Hey, no harm done. Lost in thought?"

"What?" Johnny asked, removing his ear muffs and one headphone. "Sorry, man, what did you say?"

"Lost in thought?" he repeated. "You didn't seem to be looking where you were going so I figured maybe there's something on your mind."

"No, not so much." Johnny hit pause on his music and removed the other headphone, winding the cords around the player and stuffing it in his pocket. "What do y'all actually do in there?" He gestured at the offices with an elbow.

"Lots of things", Angelo said with a grin. "Mostly we manage projects 'round the world to help mutants."

"Which means... what, exactly?" Johnny asked, suspiciously. "Use small words, okay? I didn't go to college and stuff."

"Mostly it's education", he explained. "Powers training where it's needed, and also awareness raising, teaching people that mutants aren't always dangerous, and sometimes even when they are, all they need is help not to be. Not for folks to be afraid of them. And we do a bit of special needs provision, too."

"Huh." Johnny shrugged, thinking about it and then asked "Special needs provisions? Like what?"

"Sometimes it's little stuff like clothes that fit around wings and tails, but we're also working on bigger things like cheaper ways to make containment suits or gloves for the explosive ones until they learn to hold it in by themselves, extra-tough possessions for if they're sharp or strong, different kinds of shielded rooms for psions or super-senses... basically the things that people here get when they need it, but out in the world. And I want to get into the legal advocacy side when I'm qualified, too."

"Wait, you supply those for people?" Johnny blinked. "I thought that they had to just ...come up with all of that crap themselves, because insurance like, never covers mutants without charging like another couple of thousand million dollars a month more. Dude, that's freaking awesome."

"As far as we can. The clothes that are normal fabric, just altered, are easy, anyone that's good with a needle and thread can be taught to do that, but all the other stuff costs money and even the Professor's has its limits. So we're funding some research into how to make it cheaper or even mass produce the stuff for the commonest mutations. Basically, anything that makes a mutant's life easier or safer in any way, we'll do. And often, of course, there's the trafficking issue."

"The what issue?" Johnny tugged his hands through his hair and tugged off the earmuffs still dangling around his neck, fiddling absently with them. "I've been reading the X-Men's files. Are you saying that it's an actual thing, not just something that crazy people do to mutants sometimes? The hell, man, why didn't anyone tell me that?"

Angelo smiled humorlessly. "Oh, it happens. There's quite the market out there for mutants, the younger they can get them the better. If they're very lucky, it's their powers they're wanted for."

"If they're lucky? What do you mean if they're lu-- Ah. Oh. Oh my God, those people are seriously messed up in the head. Augh. How. What? How is that even a thing people do?" Screw you, danger sense, not warning me for the bad. Some good you are.

"It's not always sex", Angelo said matter-of-factly. "As often as not, yeah, but sometimes it's slave labor with a twist, or prizefighting. Domino, from Elpis, Nathan met her when she was 15 in a fighting pit he raided. Sad fact is, missing mutant kids are less likely to be reported in certain parts of the world."

"That's incredibly freaking messed up." Johnny wanted to protest because at least it wasn't that bad in the US, right? But then, his dad had kicked him out twice and one of those times, he'd sent all traces of Johnny's existence to the mansion and tolerated him in the interim only because they couldn't afford PCA staff to come around to the house a couple times a day. Jerk. "It's not so good here, either, is it?"

"Not always, no. It depends on the family, 'cause even the most anti-mutant parents can find themselves with a mutant kid. And sometimes that changes their mind, but sometimes it doesn't. We work Stateside too, the way Elpis couldn't under their remit, but what we do here is trying to educate and support the parents and if we have to, find a safe place for the kid."

"Are you really sure that you should be supporting and like, educating some of those parents? Chances are, they're still gonna hate their kids, even if some," Johnny took a breath before continuing bitterly, channeling his father as he spoke, "overeducated jerk mutants who don't know what the real world is like tells them not to?" he shrugged.

"Shit, man, my dad lost his job after he got injured by a mutant and once he was better and had a new job, well, it wasn't like I was going to get coverage on his insurance, you know? And his was super expensive because he'd been injured by one mutant and was living with another one. Mutants make shit complicated. And expensive. How is telling someone that they're not alloweda hate us on account of how they know better going to change that?" Johnny made to punch the wall and stopped himself, fist a quarter inch away from it.

"We have to try the education road first", Angelo said calmly, watching him. "And it's not about 'not allowed to', it's about the truth of who and what mutants are. But if that doesn't work out, if we can't keep the family together in any good way... that's when the focus turns to helping the kid before they turn into just another teenage runaway statistic. Like I did because I was afraid - for my mother, not of her."

"Okay, fine. You gotta try education first. But why would people like my dad ever listen to you?" Johnny shrugged. "They'd just write off everything you'd say."

"Then if that happens, we go to the next generation. And the most important thing is kids knowing they have a place to go for help if worst comes to worst. Some homeless shelters even turn away mutants on safety grounds. We never will."

"They do that? You gotta be freaking kidding me." Time to add that to the many, many reasons Johnny was glad that he'd been able to just move from one couch to another, wearing out his welcome one friend at a time before coming back to the mansion. "But I suppose they do have a point. I mean, we're harmless but imagine if it was Angel or someone and their powers got out of control. That could be ...bad."

"Yeah, they do have to think about everybody's safety", Angelo agreed. "And it's not like they can tell who'd be explosive or not without being told. Still, there are ways around it. Reinforced rooms, fireproofing, that kind of thing but most shelters don't have the resources to put them in."

"Doesn't it get really depressing, actually knowing how bad things are for mutants? Like with the shelters and stuff?" Johnny asked quietly.

"It can", Angelo admitted. "But then on the other hand, if you don't know how bad things are, you don't know what needs fixing or what you can do about it. And that's kind of my job."

"You mean, like, you organise it? Cool."

Angelo grinned. "Well, I'm at the top of the chain of people who organise it, but basically yeah. We're such a small set-up still that I get to be more involved than your typical director."

Johnny shook his head. "How do you guys just -- manage to not spend all your time trying to punch idiots in the face?"

He laughed out loud at that. "Sometimes it's really tempting. I just talk to them very politely and then go and hit something else. Or someone, if anyone's up for sparring with me."

"You know I'm always up for sparring, right?" Johnny asked, grinning. "I'm not really kind of doing a whole lot right now and it's good for my powers."

"I might just take you up on that. You're a trainee now, right? How's that going with the overactive powers?"

"Yeah, I am and all right, I guess. Working on meditation and staying calm and not overreacting when people do things around me, which is where sparring comes in." Actually, it sucked balls and Johnny found himself shaking with pent up energy at the end of every third session but that? That was a minor, tiny, little insignificant detail.

"Happy to help, then", Angelo said cheerfully. "You'll get it working right again, you're in the best place in the world for that. Or one of the best."

"Yeah, I'm sure I will," he replied quietly.