It wasn't hard to warp my way into the building. But I've been warping all night and now it's early morning and I'm bleeding from everywhere and I don't even know if I can see straight. I'm crying so hard.
Why would I think my mommy didn't want me? I want her so bad. Why didn't I want to go home? I want to go home. She held me and clung to me and I remember, she hit the people trying to take me away. She sobbed and told me she loved me.
Why didn't I think she'd want me back?
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm crying so hard I have to take deep breaths to breath. I just need to find my birth certificate. It'll have the address on it. Maybe my mom still lives there. Dodger said go to Lyons, well that's not specific. I need to know where in Lyons. A zip code. Something. At least I can find out my parents names and then go from there.
But I don't even know where to start. The records center is huge. There are rows and rows of cabinets. I open them at random and can't even determine a pattern. Does it go by name or year? Last name or first name? And what order is it in? All the letters are jumbled together. Well, at least the entries mostly seem to go by letter but where is F? I suppose it would go by Frigg not Brigit.
I turn on lights only as I need them, flicking them off quickly. I don't need to be caught. I need to go home.
I hear sirens. Why though? I warped in. I didn't set off any alarms.
But police cars are flashing outside.
I duck, hiding behind a row of files. All the lights off. I'll warp out if necessary, but I really want to finish looking. I scrub blood and tears off my face. I don't need to look like a mutant.
"Put your hands up."
"I'm sorry I'm just looking for someplace to sleep," I say, standing up and holding up my hands. Maybe ten cops. Holding electric guns? Why do they know I'm a mutant? They don't they're surprised.
"Don't move," they're going to cuff me anyway. Damn it. Sorry, that's not happening.
I freeze all of them. Put them to sleep? I can try I don't want to hurt them, but they are a lot more coming and putting them to sleep will take a minute.
"It's okay. They're here for me, not you," a voice says from behind me. And then all the cops crumble into flames and ashes.
"Who are you?" I ask, spinning around, wiping fresh blood from my face. A man is standing behind me. Maybe Dodger's age, so young ish, but he has fine, dark hair, a handsome face, and sly grin. He's wearing a black turtle neck, black pants, and has a long black overcoat.
"I'm Angel, also the reason they're here," he says, kindly, "You were just unlucky enough to break in the night I did."
"What did you do them?" I ask, exactly as the cars outside also burst into flame.
"I set them on fire—specifically I magnified the heat energy already in them, here," he holds out his hand to me, "Put your hand near mine, I'll show you— it isn't hard."
I hold out my hand. He places his above mine and I feel an cold rush through my hand, then an intense heat as if I'm burning up. Then cold again.
"Try to pull the heat back from me---there you go, very good," he says, smiling again this time as I tug the heat forcibly back into my cold hand. "You've done that before, haven't you?"
"Only once---I was mad. A friend died on the chair. I didn't know what I was doing, and it scared me," I admit.
"Yeah, it works better when you're mad," he says, nodding.
"Who are you?----are you alone?" is there a group of mutants? He certainly seems to be free. I mean they are chasing him.
"Yes, I recently escaped as I'd guess you did by those marks on your neck, those collars are the worst eh?---I'm here doing some research to find someone, which I'll guess you are as well?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah, I'm trying to get home," I admit.
"Be careful, I'd offer to help, but I'm somewhat wanted," he says.
"Did they plant a tracker in you?" I ask. They were talking about doing it to me.
"Yes, hence our unwelcome guests. I'll handle them for now---oh here one's coming, you try."
"I don't want to try!" I say, even though I do.
"It won't exhaust you like the telekinesis does, just pull the heat out of their bodies, try---I'm right behind you," he says, encouragingly, spinning me around by the shoulders.
Ten or twelve more cops burst in, they fire the electric guns right at us. I wince as I realize the bolts are slowing and stopping before they reach us. Angel is standing behind me, holding out a hand casually.
"Go on," he says.
I close my eyes, focusing. Slowly I feel all the heat inside them, all the heat pulsing in this room, then I start to draw it towards me, out.
Then I let go, letting it all rush back. They collapse, coughing and gasping. Then they burst into flame.
"I did that---you could've just let them freeze to death and let the heat out into the air, it won't explode, usually," he says, shrugging.
"I don't have to kill them, not if I don't need to," I say, "They made me do stuff like that—I'm not anymore."
"Then they're the perfect people to do it to," he says, "They made you a killer. Kill them."
"I'm better than them," I say, staring at the smoldering corpses.
"I'm worse. And content in that. Anyway---good luck finding your family, I'll hold them off while I do my own research, then I'll get out of your way," he says, shrugging as he backs away, "You know how to warp space to get out of here?"
"Yeah, I do that, a lot."
"Excellent---don't try to manipulate time though, weird things happen."
"Thank you---good luck," I say, because he was nice and he did help me.
"Be safe, and don't hesitate if they come between you and your freedom. Never hesitate," he says, then he disappears. He warps too then. Huh, so I'm not the only one with that trick. I thought not, but even so. I've never seen someone manipulate fire, and other than my last center I've never done it. I don't like the way it makes me feel.
The air is heavy with burnt flesh, and there are more sirens in the distance. He wasn't even bleeding I'm going to assume he can take care of them, but I'm also going to hurry. He can't realistically hold them off forever. And if he's got a tracker in him they'll just keep coming. And I just want to go home.
F. F. I have to find the Fs where are they? I feel like crying again. It has to be somewhere? Hopefully it's nothing that a burning body is near I really don't want to get near those.
Fs. Thank god. I haul open a huge metal drawer and start thumbing through the files.
Fs. Frs. Yes. Frigg. Where is Frigg? It's here isn't it? Yes my mother told me I was born in Boulder.
Frigg. I find three birth certificates. Aurora Frigg, that's my mom, that's my mom's name.
Then two others. Two others.
I hold the slippery, grey-green piece of paper as I stare at them.
Brigit Frigg and Eris Frigg. Two. Twins. Because I have a sister.
Who wiped herself from my mind.
Why didn't I remember that till now? I remember my sister. I remember running and playing in the grass. I remember levitating all our toys and making her laugh. I remember my mother bundling just me up and into the car to take me to the doctors. Where they took me away.
And she's been mind controlling me? Wiping herself from my mind and making me not want to come home? Yeah, that's exactly what she's been doing. I fold up the birth certificates and put them in my pocket, but not before checking the rest of the information.
Father's family name : Tlaco. That means nothing to me. But I did have a dad. And she knew who he was. Do I just not remember him? Or is he mean and wiping my mind and stopping me from coming home too?
I don't know. There's an address on the birth certificates. But I'm not going there without back up. If my sister was able to control my mind all this time I'll be no match for her now. I need my gang.