CHAPTER FOUR

EXODUS

⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

One Year Ago

    I was in the woods in the middle of a cold snowy night, I was in my pajamas, no coat, mitten, or scarf needed. I could never feel the cold in this type of weather; my lips never turned blue nor frostbite ever crawled on my skin.

    I laid on the snow, looking up at the starry sky with snowflakes falling. It was a beautiful sight. I though got an idea as I stared off.

    I got up and shakes my hands to get ready. It would be occasionally for me to actually release my power, in the early morning at this time of the year, it was perfect. I used my abilities to make the snowflakes circle around me, which happened. With my ice powers, I added on and on to the tornado. I smile as my plan goes to work, I then made a small tamable blizzard, surrounding me.

    The blizzard gave comfort. It gave me a sense of freedom that most mutants don't have - the freedom of showing your specialness.

    It all went to a bad idea, when I heard people making there way toward me.

    I freaked out. That lead my powers to stop the blizzard and shoot out the snowflakes that turned into crystals around me, like it was a defense mechanism.

    I heard the people come closer to here I was, so I ran. I was far from my home, they would've caught me if I ran to my house, so I had to make a plan. I would have to go around to make it in my home, I knew the woods well enough to know where I was going, and by the time I would be in my home they should've lost me.
    The people then started to chase after me, I start to run as fast as possible when the gunshots start to fire.

    As I make my way around, I saw the hunters make their way toward me and the other half chasing me by my tailbone. I was cornered.

    I realized that I was by the pond that Jack and I skated on.
I had an idea that could end horribly, but I had nothing else for me.

    Heading right ahead would mean they would attack me at both ends and take the advantage of clashing together.

    I couldn't protect myself either. My powers aren't as contained when my emotions are out of place. I didn't even know how to fight them men off, I couldn't injure them or kill them with my abilities and just leave them to suffer in the cold, no matter how bad they deserved it.

    The angry people were coming closer in and I didn't want to get turned in to Sentinel Services, like Jack, or worst die from their hands.

    I came close to the frozen pond and started to breaking the ice, leaving a small open hole.
I turn to see the people almost reaching toward me, so I held a deep breath and went into the freezing water from the roughly sharp hole.

❅   ❅   ❅

"This is the jankiest board ever," Andy comments.

Lauren found an old monopoly game and she wanted us to play to pass the time. I though of playing yet was their 'referee' since the siblings are too competitive and that leads to many petty fights.

"Is that mold on the money?" I point to the ugly looking Monopoly money.

Lauren check the money out. "Okay, that's not... it's mold."

"It's mold," Andy chuckles, with Lauren and I following.

"So since I have the job of banker and referee I'll make the call... well the tens are all suck together, let's have the ones as tens and the paper nibs be the ones," I say.

"Doesn't matter to me. I'm gonna win it all anyways," Lauren cockily goes off.

"Sure. Remember last time?" Andy reminds his sister of how she lost.

"Oh, when I let you win? It's not your birthday anymore."

I decided to break it up. "Okay, okay, before we have Maury say the results, you gotta get your piece." 

Lauren looks at her options. "I'll be... nickel."

"I think, I'm gonna be the shoe," Andy calls, pinking up the piece.

Lauren grabs the game piece away from Andy's hand, roughly, "No. You can't be the shoe. Be the bottle cap."

"What do you mean? I just called the shoe." The Strucker boy gets a hold of the game piece.

"I don't care. Put it back!"
"What's your problem, psycho?"

"Dad's always the shoe."

A pause happened.
Since Reed was gone everyone was acting up, I did miss Reed as well, he was the closest thing to a father figure, he made me more welcomed from inviting me to some family vacations, outings, and such. I could tell though this seriously tore the entire family.

Andy agreed silentlyand picked the thimble.
They then began to play.

❅ ❅ ❅

As we all slept, I felt the sudden shake of someone waking me up.

"Kids, wake up," I hear Mrs. Strucker whisper.

We all groan in waking up.
"Whats going on?" I ask groggily.

"Nothing's wrong. I have to go somewhere. I'll be back tomorrow."

This all gives us a wake up call, as we sit up.

Lauren says, "Tomorrow? We're not supposed to leave. Where are you going."

"Your Uncle Danny's house. I'm hoping he can help with your dad."

I shake my head. From what I've seen in my life, I know how this will lead up. This was a bad plan, in my opinion.

"Uncle Danny?" Lauren responses, "Mom, we haven't seen him since Grandma's funeral."

"No, screw that." Andy then gets up, "If you're going. I'm going with you."

We all start to grab our shoes and jackets, with Cate arguing.
"No, no way. It could be dangerous out there."

"Mom, remember when those government people attacked us? If that happens again, we can protect you," Andy plans.

"Mom. We already lost Dad. We can't lose you too," Lauren adds on, "Not taking no for an answer."

Caitlin pauses, in this time I was conflicted. This plan they have are flawed. They didn't seem to get the fact that when you're a mutant, it changes the whole game. People look for you, judge you, family and friends turn on you, and some even would kill you for just existing.

Cate did made that click yet.
"Let's go."

❅ ❅ ❅

The three of us were out in the open in broad daylight. Lauren, Andy, and I had to use hoodies or beanies to help us hide our faces.

As a cop car rolls by us, when covered our faces, yet acted normal, so the cops wouldn't suspect anything.
They bought it when they completely rolled pasted us.

Cate grabs us and leads us away as we walk.

"Listen, we can't just hike our way to your brothers house," I first spoke.

Andy goes to say, "Lux is right. Uncle Danny lives, like, all the way across town."

"Mom, we're going to get noticed on the street. We have to get a cab," Lauren tried to reason.

"To Buckhead? I-I got enough cash to get us to that tree over there. And with our bank accounts frozen—" Caitlin explains.

Andy and I saw the ATM machine by us, Andy interrupted Mrs. Strucker, "Well, why don't I just unfreeze them?"

At this point, I was on Andy's side. We have no money. If we go any further then we're gonna be noticed. It wasn't the best plan but what else do we got?

"Wait, are you seriously suggesting we rob a bank?" Cate tells us in disbelief.

"Yeah," Andy answers, nonchalantly.

"I'm not hearing this." She then shakes her head from our not so great plan.

"Mom, why should we have to hold back when no one else does?"

"Because people could get hurt and because we don't rob bank."

Lauren spoke up, "Andy, if we're gonna have a chance at a normal life again—"

This made Andy angry over the mere comment.
"Normal? Lauren, you've got to be kidding me. Normal is gone! Normal doesn't exist anymore."

I turn to Cate. "Mrs. Strucker, we are stuck, right now. It's either we walk another mile, get caught, and we all go down, or we could get the money we need so we don't get turned in."

It was too late to even say anything because after my sentence, Andy turns around and used his abilities to burst the 3 parking meters open.

"Andy!" Lauren hissed, hitting his shoulder.

The Strucker boy goes back to say, "There, cab fare. The bank is safe. Happy?"

As Lauren and Caitlin go and pick up the money on the sidewalk, I looked at Andy and rose an eyebrow. Recently, he's becoming more... impulsive with his decisions. He looks at me and only scoffs when he walks away from me.

This boy will be the death of me.

❅ ❅ ❅

We paid the cab driver with the many coins and few dollars we had to get to Danny's house, which the driver wasn't to cheery about; I don't blame him.               

"I forgot how big this place is," Lauren comments.

I looked and Danny's house was extremely nice and big. I look around the neighborhood, the coast was clear.

"What if they're not home?" Andy asked his mom.

"There's only one way to find out," Cate response, as she rang the doorbell.

We all look back at the cab guy. "Well, he's pretty busy," I joke.

"Yeah, He was not happy about the coins," Andy says.

The front door finally opened to reveal Mrs. Strucker's brother.
"Caitlin," He spoke with a big of a nervous tone.

"Hey."

"Kids."

Danny then goes to hug Cate, which she gratefully hugged back.

"Oh, Danny."

"Thank god, you're okay."
"I'm sorry we didn't call. Can we come in?"

Danny then said, "The police were here. Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?"

Cate sighs, "Yes, I do. Please, Danny."

There was a pause, thankfully he lets us in, having served pizza with Lauren and Andy's cousin, Scott. Scott was 13 and what I heard from Andy quite a talkative person.

I eat my pizza slowly, I couldn't help but become paranoid about Sentinel Services and especially how upset Danny was about us showing up.

"Where's Mary?" The woman asked.

Danny answers, "Oh, she's, uh, out of town. Sales conference. I'm sorry we don't have any more pizza. We weren't expecting company."

"No. It—It's fine. Thank you."

I look back at my half eaten slice of pizza where Scott began to talk to us.

"I don't know if this is inappropriate or whatever, but did you guys have to fight off the cops."

"Yeah, that's real inappropriate, son," The man scold.

"It wasn't like that. We just ran," Lauren tells Scott.

"Tore up some robots, though," Andy boasted.

"Dope. So have you guys been, like, hiding out in the streets, or-"

I join in, "No. There's this group that helps mutants that are in trouble."

"Cool. Like the Underground Railroads."

"Scott," Danny interrupts, "Please? You know what? Why don't you guys go play some video games? Okay? Go on."

The four of us got up, walked up the stairs into Scott's room. Hearing the siblings talk down stairs, I couldn't help myself but want to listen in.

"Hey Scott, where's the bathroom?" I asked him.

    "By the stairs to your right." He says, while turning on his console.

    I nodded my head and went to the stairs, as I was about to open the door I hear Cate and Danny's conversation.

"... But you shouldn't have come," Danny exclaimed.

"Where else could I go?" Mrs. Strucker replies, "Jenny is in Arizona. Mom's gone. I need to find Reed."

I sat by the stair to listen to the conversation. I know it was wrong of me, but I couldn't help myself.

"Danny, you know people at the firm. Judges, the—the major... members of Congress. You spent half of Mom's last Christmas telling us how they all go to your golf club."

"Yeah. I was at the club the other day, and people won't even look at me because of all this."

"But you worked on Senator Montez's campaign."

"Yeah, and he ran the campaign on a 'security first' platform. I can't just call him up and ask him to pull some strings for some... outlaws, " He argues back to his sister.

I knew it was a mistake to come here. Why didn't I say anything? Why didn't I speak up about how bad this could be for us?!

"I don't even know if Reed's alive," Cate replies.

"I could go to jail, for even letting you through the door."

"When Mom was sick, I left you alone. I-I knew you didn't like seeing her like that, and... I never asked for help. But now I am asking!"

"Catie, I got to consider my family."
"My children... my husband, they are your family, too!"

"One of them isn't even apart of this family!"

I held my breath. This was bad.

"You can stay the night. Okay? I've got cash in the safe, you can have it. You can have it all, okay? But in the morning, you got to go." Danny finishes the decision, before walking away and heading to elsewhere.

I couldn't help but pity Mrs. Strucker as she quietly cried, alone. I followed my instinct and went down there. As I do, Mrs. Strucker wipes away her tears.

"W-What are you doing? Shouldn't you been upstairs with Andy and Lauren?" Cate asked me.

I ignore her and give her a hug, knowing she needed it. The blonde woman hugged me back for a second before letting me go.

"Family is a hard thing to handle when it comes to being a mutant," I tell her with a small smile.

She was about to ask me another questions but I cut her off, "I hear everything."

Cate goes to tell me, "You can't tell Andy or Lauren, please."

I nodded my head, "I get it. I won't."

As I walked off, I turn around to say to her, "You know, my mom took it really hard when she heard about me being a mutant."

"Was that why you came with us?"

I nodded my head, "She went on to say that I must never see her again and that I was her greatest disappointments in her life. Even said if I ever came back she would turn me in herself... how about that."

I looked into Cate's eyes as I saw her give sympathy to me.
I shake my head, "Well, I should've known she would act that way. I mean, she was the one that took my brother into Sentinel Services hands."

❅ ❅ ❅

I was back at Scott's room. I was on his bed with Lauren, watching Andy and Scott play some video game, while Lauren was on his IPad looking through Instagram.

"Always knew you were a beast at Medal Of Honor, but know you're, like, the beast in real life, too?" Scott comments.

"You know what I'm gonna call you?" Andy's cousin asked him, "De-struckto."

I hold back the laugh from that terrible name.

"Get it? It's like Strucker——"

"Yeah, I get it. Please don't," Andy chuckes.

I lean and whisper to Andy's ear, "Totally gonna call you that."

He squirms at me, which made my laugh.

"Could you, like, destroy a skyscraper?" Scott asked Andy.

"Uh, I don't know. Probably not. Here, cover my flank. I'm going in."

"I got you, De-Struckto."
"Dude, really?"

"What about a jumbo jet?" Andy's cousin goes on to ask.

"Man, I'm trying to play. Why would I even want to destroy a plane?"

"I don't know. Like, if it was attacking you or something."

"Attack me with what luggage?" Andy jokes around.

"Either way, Jumbo jets don't have guns," I inform them.

"Hey, don't you do ice or something?" Scott goes to me.

"Yeah."
"So you're like Elsa from Frozen?"

Andy then laughs, which makes me slap his head softly.
"No, not really." I answer.

"Could you stay out in the cold?"

Andy was answering, "I'm pretty sure she——"

I interrupted him with actual facts, "Yeah. I don't feel cold. Trust me, if frozen lake water can't make me feel something, I'm pretty sure I could survive a cold day."

The game then goes out, saying GAME OVER on the screen.

"Great," Andy puts down the controller, "First game in weeks, and it was a total slaughter. This is gonna kill our ranking."

"Dude, who cares?" Scott then pulls up a small trophy from his shelf. "I need to see what you can do. Come on, just do something to this." He puts in down an the little table in between Andy's and his seat.

"No. I can't just do it out of nowhere."

"Andy. You can't do it at all. Don't encourage him," Lauren tells.

"Go back to Insta-stalking Kasen," Andy fires.

She stuck her tongue out, but when she turns back to the IPad, her face turned white. "Oh, my god."

"What? What's wrong?" Andy gets up and so was I.

As Andy walks toward her, she pulls the IPad away from him, hiding the screen. "It's nothing, okay."

"Lauri, what's going on?" I tell her.

"Hey, what is it?!" Andy was getting annoyed.

Lauren gave in and showed us the post. It was two kids from our school, that sprayed racial mutant slurs all over the Strucker's house.

I gasp from the sight. This was wrong on so many levels.

"It's our house. That's Lucas. We've been going to school with him since 2nd grade." Andy points to the kid with the spray cans.

"Well, They're just stupid ignorant kids, Andy. I doesn't matter," I tell him, noticing his frustrated face.

I could tell his anger was still building up, by seeing Scott's metal trophy and controllers rattle form the table.

"Andy!" Lauren scolds for him to stop.

The boy extended his hand or make his powers quickly push all the controllers and all, but the trophy was broken down to the middle, with the top bent.

"No way!" Scott smiles from Andy's abilities.

"Guys?"

We all turn to see Cate by the door. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. These dorks were just going WWE on each other. It's nothing," Lauren chuckles a lie to her mother.

"You guys should try to get some sleep, alright?"

As Cate was about to left Andy called for her, "Mom? Is Uncle Danny gonna help?"

The woman looked at me, I only stared back at her, she turns to Andy saying, "We're working on it."

Caitlin leaves. I turn back to Scott, who held the trophy behind his back so we won't get caught.

❅ ❅ ❅

I took a deep breath and held my breath as I dipped myself in the water.

I didn't feel the cold. It was all normal to me. I could hear the people running past the lake and away from where I was. I tried my best to hold every single last breath I had, so that I could get out of the frozen lake after everyone was gone.

It felt like an eternity when I didn't hear any people. I swam my way up to the hole, yet I didn't hit the hole.

Instantly, I freaked out. I was up on solid ice layer, I try my best to find I my only way out, but I couldn't. My hands banged on the ice to try and burs out another hole, but with my powers, it made it worst by feeling my ice making the layer thicker from where I thrusted my hands at.
I opened my eyes just the slightest, my eyes found the hole, just a few feet say from me. I felt my lungs burn for air as I swam to the hole, trying not to get unconscious from lack of oxygen.

I was woken up to someone shaking my waist and shoulders.

"W-What? What's happening?" I grumble in a fast pace.

"Lux... can you sleep with me?" I hear Andy's voice. It was pitch black in the room, I could barley see his face.

"Why? What happened?"
"I gotta bad dream..."

I sigh and get up from the bed that I shared with Lauren in the guest room.

"You gotta help me, or I'm gonna trip and bust my ass."

Andy chuckled and he held my hand to guide me to Scott's room.
He opens the door to see a night stand lamp on and Scott on the floor.

Andy and I go into the bed. I turned over and put my head on his chest, I heard his heart racing. I smiled a bit and relaxed myself.

Nevertheless, he slept peaceful that night, while I couldn't, and for hours I laid just staring at a wall to finally pass out.

In the morning, we all woke up.
Andy and I were playing Connect 4 to pass the time, I hear car screeches from outside.

I looked over and slightly pulled the curtains to see multiple men with big guns to their side, walking to the front door.

My eyes widened as I turn to Andy and quickly putting up the game pieces.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's the matter?" Andy asked me.

"Window," I simply told him, as I put the lid on top of the game box.

Andy goes to the window and looks outside. He looks at me with panic written on his face. I go and cup the side of his face gently, and tell him, "We are going to be fine. Don't panic."

I hear Cate then rush to the room, "Kids. We got to go. Now!"

Andy grabs my hand as we both go down the stairs.
I then see Lauren, Scott, and Danny with Marcos and John.

I stumbled on my words, "W-Wait, what are you guys——"

"Save it. We can explain later. Right now, we got bigger issues," John tells me.

We all go to the front door, listening to the angry men outside.

"We know you're in there. Danny come on out. We need to talk," One man shouts.

Andy held me close to him as he hear the men try to get his Uncle Danny or anyone to come out of the home.

"God. Who did you tell that you were coming." Danny turns to his sister.

"No one!" Cate shouts back.

"Well, obviously one of your friends here did, cause——"

"Dad, I think——" Scott tries to talk to his dad.

"Scotty, not now. Please."

"I texted a pic of a trophy Andy tore apart to one friend."

"What?!" I shouted at him.

"Oh, Scott." His father rubs his face in disappointment.

"He swore he wouldn't show anyone. He swore," Scott adds.

I shake my head and give the ignorant boy a glare, which he avoided my look.

"They're 7 deep out on front. Anything out back?" Marcos asked John.

"Yeah, there's 4 of 'em, and then more outside the kitchen door. We're surrounded. Look, I could get us through a wall, but if they start shooting when we run, there's gonna be a fight," John replies.

"Run? Why should we have the run?" Andy asked the man.

"Didn't you hear them? There's an army out there." Lauren pointes out.

"Yeah. So what? We can take those guys."

"Yeah. Of course we can take them. But we do that, people are gonna die," John argues.

"Well, maybe it's time these people learned," Andy fights back.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up," I say to him, turning around and looking at him.

"Andy, you don't mean that," Mrs. Strucker tells her son.

"Yes, I do. Listen to them, Mom. They hate us."

"Just send 'em out and we'll do away," The outside man shouts.

Danny said, "I'll go. It's Chuck Sanders."

"Chuck? I was on the swim team with him. We went to church. I——"

"I know, I know. I don't think you quite understanding how people... how they feel about all of this. You guys should move."

I pulled Andy to the side to make sure we weren't spotted.
This time... I hope Mrs. Strucker might have that click of the real world.
Danny goes outside and closes the door.

"Morning, Dan," Chuck greets.

"Chuck. The hell you doing? Who are all these people?" Andy's Uncle questions.

"Just a few concerned folks from the community."

"What do you want?"

"Come on. You know why we're here. Caitlin and her kids — They inside?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Cut the crap, Dan," An other guy comments, impatiently.

"Rick saw a photo on his son's phone when they got up for swim practice."

I couldn't help but glares at Scott even more for getting us caught.

"Oh, for God's sake, Chuck, come on."
"You're son sent it."
The men began to argue.

"Now, we know they're inside, just send 'em out so we don't have to search the house. Dan, I know they're family but these kids destroyed half a school. We're just trying to keep everyone safe!"

"Yeah, and the 300,000 dollar bounty's got nothing to do with it right, Chuck? Come on, the only person in that house is my son, Scott. Who plays Minecraft with your son, Jacob, who's lived down the street from you since he was 6 years old. Chuck, come on, please. Ju—Just go."

"He's lying, man. Just go in. We didn't come here for nothing," The other man tells Chuck.

"Come on."
"Sorry, Dan," Chuck says before beginning to push Danny out of the way.

"No, Chuck. Don't! Wi— Go home!"

As Danny fights back, Chuck uses the butt of his shot gun to knock Cate's brother to the ground, earning a painful groan from him.

I start to feel my eyes glow. I made cyrokinesis come in my hands, and was ready to fight.
I saw the men from the window start walking toward the door.

"Open this door or we're coming in," They shout at us.

I looked back at everyone in fear, I noticed Andy though make his way to the door with anger in his face.
The door then abruptly broke completely into pieces, from Andy's powers.
Chuck flies back and land on the Danny's lawn, while the rest if the men stumble.

"Leave us alone!" Andy shouts at them, "Leave us alone."

I saw Chuck quickly get to his feet and pull out his gun.
John grabs Andy out of the way, while Marcos used her light abilities heat up the gun, so that Chuck would drop it, which he did.
I saw another man try to grab it, yet I iced the gun to the ground, so no one couldn't grab it.

"Leave it!" Marcos shouts that everyone.

I still had my ice in my hands and ready to attack at any moment. These types of people are relentless of getting mutants for the bounty money, they were unpredictable in these positions.

John took us out of the house, I walked backwards, still looking at the men and abilities ready.
Andy though grabbed my arm and pulled me away from them and into the car. Everyone hurried to get into the car and we all drove off, but were automatically being chased by the bounty hunters.

Gun shots were getting hit by the car, we all duck to not get hit.

"It's bad. We're heading your way," John shouts at the phone, with Sonya, the red haired girl, on the other line.

" Hold on, Johnny. I-I thought you were getting the Struckers? " Sonya replies.

"Yeah, we did. Things went sideways. We got the local mutants welcoming group on our heels."

" How many? "

"8, maybe 10. Either way, we can't afford a fight."

" What do you need? "

"A way out of this, that doesn't lead us to any corpse."

Few gun shots were fired yet missed the windows.

" Get back here. I will figure something out. "

The call ends and I had an idea.
More gunfires were hitting us, yet with poor aiming.
I wanted make it stop, with anything at this point! I just wanted them to leave us alone.

"Lauren, can't you shield them?" Andy asked.

"I can't shield what I can't see, okay." She replies.

"Just stay down!" Cate pulls us down to the car ground.

"I could ice the road," I tell them.

"What?!" Andy and Lauren say to me.

"It could throw them off! Get us off our backs for a bit."

"No way. They're literally shooting bullets at us! It's too dangerous," The mother scolds at me.

"Cate! Listen to me, we were gonna die someday if you don't just let us use our powers. So please, step out of the way so I could loose the guys."

Right now, I wasn't in the mood for playing nice. I understood she was trying to be protective over us, but if this is something we could do that would help us survive this, then she should step back.

I look at John to roll a window down, he nodded and did so.
I quickly go and stick my head out of the window. The man from the car had poor aiming as he tried to hit me.

I then put my chest out of the car and used my abilities to make a big ice ball. I looked at my target and threw it, aiming for the ground.
It lands and bursted into a thick ice that covered a big portion of the road. The ice made the first car unstable, making it go in the side of the road, while the other cars where slowly down. I slowly chuckle at my accomplishment yet stopped when I saw other men swerve away from the ice.

I was ready to make another ball of ice, yet my body was pulled into the car. I sighed to see Andy hugging me.

"That was so sick," He comments with a smile.

The men that were still following us are shooting a bit more accurately, but luckily missing us.

"Where the hell are our people?" Marco asked John.

"You heard Dreamer. They're working on it," John responses.

"Not fast enough. We're getting way too close to Headquarters, we're gonna have to fight."

We turn the corner and we get hit as we all duck down.

"Look. Look there!" Cate points to the big purple portal that was in our way.
I recognize that portal to be Clarice's.

Marcos chants, "Go" to John, who was flooring it to go faster.
I hug Andy and close my eyes as we go into the portal.

I open my eyes though and see we were at Headquarters. I sigh from relief as the car stops.

"Everyone in one piece?" John asked us.
We all shake our head 'yes' in reply.

John gets out of the car, while Marcos gets in the driver's side.

"You were right," Cate tells him, "I'm sorry."

Marcos turns to her. "That's all right. You did something stupid for someone you love. Can't say I've done the same."

Diaz then drives us off to the Headquarters, where we all get down.

I was quick to head up to our room. I laid on my small twin bed. I couldn't help but feel bad to snapped at Mrs. Strucker, but not too much to feel so guilty for.

"Hey, can we talk?"

I look to see Andy by the door, I nod my head and sit up.

He makes his way over here. "Look, I-I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. For being, like, really angry and a-angsty. It's just-"

"You didn't expect the mutant life to be so hard?" I guessed.
"Yeah. Well, no. It just sucks that everyone is turning on us."

I gave the boy a sad smile, "I know, it does."

"I, just, don't know. About the ATM situation... you're over here, practically agreeing with me. That's isn't supposed to be like that. Y-You're literally the smartest person I know, so why——?"

I sigh, "Andy, I was 12 when I got my powers. I've dealt with a lot. A mother who thinks every mutant should burn on a stake, my brother being sent by Sentinel Ser-"

"What, your brother is with Sentinel Services? Like right now?"

"Yeah, I guess. That was shortly before I met you. He's... he's gone now."

"What were his powers?" Andy asked me.

"Lighting."

Andy chuckes in amazement, "So you're saying you're brother is Thor?"

I smiled at him, "Yeah. My mom turned him in though."

Andy's emotions all go down. "Why would she do that?"

"Because... I don't really know. She's horrible and scared. She found out by seeing him show me his new tricks in our tree house. The next day, he was gone," I exposed, while looking down on the ground.

Andy automatically hugged me tight and I hugged him back.

"I'm so sorry, Lux. I-I don't know what I would do if Lauren was taken."
"It's fine, really. Just be grateful you still have her by your side. I know she still loves you."

Andy nodded and let's me go.
I shake my head and lighten the mood. "Come on, I heard there was a dog here, who we didn't meet."

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