𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

Money & Self-Discovery

"Hey, it's okay, it's just a scratch," Jennifer reassured the boy, covering the cut with her hands so he couldn't see it.

Whipping her head around, Jennifer tried to find the boys mother, but she was yet to emerge from the record store – the music was probably to loud to hear anything from outside. Jennifer didn't want to leave the destressed boy in the middle of the street, so she planned on taking him into the store and grabbing some plasters for him. Turning back around the face the boy, Jennifer carefully lifted her hands to reassess the cut.

It wasn't there.

Confused, Jennifer looked around the bloodied skin trying to find the cut, only to come up empty. The skin was intact. At that moment, the boy risked another look, but stopped crying as he felt around the skin with his fingers. "It's gone!," he exclaimed, staring up at Jennifer in wonder.

Before either of them could say another word, the record store's door swung open and the boy's mother emerged with a bag of purchases. The boy quickly leapt to his feet, hugged Jennifer in thanks and then ran to his mother, walking off with her, leaving Jennifer alone on the ground, desperately trying to comprehend what had just happened.

The boy was far too young to show mutant abilities, and Jennifer was fairly certain people didn't magically heal themselves these days. But if it wasn't him, then it must've been her, but last she checked, healing wasn't on her resume. Returning to her spot on the wall in a daze, Jennifer ran through the possible explanations.

Mutations were random, that much anyone with the slightest knowledge of biology could tell you. Everyone you've ever met is a mutant – maybe they're colour blind, maybe they're lactose intolerant, maybe they have heterochromia. But those are small mutations, that in this day and age, didn't impact people too much.

Mutations in the sense of the X-Gene, were massive though, life changing. They usually occurred in people's early teens, when they hit puberty, and most likely in a moment of severe stress. (That wasn't a strict rule though, as the biggest stress around Jennifer when she was fourteen was exams.) A lot of people gained another mutation as they got older as well - Hank, for example, was super brainy, but also had weird feet (as well as now being Beast, but that was due to experimentation with chemicals).

Jennifer was nowhere near experienced enough to develop another mutation out of the blue, but she had an idea of where it came from now – radiation. It was one of the factors that could speed up the rate of mutation (the others being heat and chemicals). When Jennifer had been thrown through time, it was entirely plausible that there was a ton of radiation that she had been exposed to, so she had most likely picked up this healing power without even realising.

Happy with that explanation, Jennifer let out a sigh. She really didn't need another thing to worry about, especially not a mutation that she couldn't even control or feel working. The best thing she could do for the moment was pretend it didn't exist, but as she rolled up the leg of her jeans to inspect what she had thought to be a bruise from where her knees hit the ground, it seemed like she didn't have a choice.

There was no discolouration to the skin, only a small cut hiding under a thin layer of dried blood. Maybe she had hit the ground a bit harder than she had originally thought, but Jennifer knew that would be too perfect. The cut was identical to the one the boy had – same knee, same shape, same size. She hadn't healed him, she had transferred his injury to her.

It didn't seem like the best ability – someone would always end up being hurt, which was sort of counter-productive. It didn't remove the problem, but just gave it to someone else. Jennifer couldn't help but notice how it reflected society – pretending an issue didn't exist if it didn't affect them.