[Marvel] Mutant Chronomancer with a Social Link System

Beneath gleaming moonlight, I stood before a pair of ajar iron rod gates. Beside them was a metal sign with faded letters etched across it. 

Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, it read. I'd hoped this place would be my salvation – my new home since I was no longer welcome in my own. I slid past the gates and strayed toward the entrance, seeing children around my age or younger peeking through the windows. 

They say your past follows you wherever you go; in my case, it was literal. Ever since I discovered the gene of monsters inside me, a ghostly image of my past self, whom only I could see, followed closely. At any given moment, I could swap places with my past self.

Before I could knock, the front door swung open and I was greeted by three men, one more animal than man.

The animalistic man had blue fur covering every inch of his body as far as I could see. He wore glasses, standing upright as any man would. The one beside him wasn't standing – he couldn't as he was wheelchair-bound. The old man hadn't a single hair on his head and his studious gaze looked me up and down. The last gentleman's eyes were covered by some strange yellow and red visor, though I somehow sensed a gentle gaze behind it. 

"I'm…" I couldn't find my words; still, those unsaid were well received.

"We know. Come inside, child. Welcome home."

I was given a bedroom on the second floor and was told that I would meet my peers in the morning. They said the best thing I could do was get some rest. How strange; I hadn't said a word yet it seemed as if they knew exactly why I'd appeared before them. It was as if they read my mind…

I wept for hours that night until I finally fell asleep. When I awoke, I waddled over to the mirror beside the closet and looked at myself. For the first time, I saw not a man, but a monster. A mutant. Though I looked the same – brown skin, curly hair, slender build – I knew that deep inside, I was an anomaly.

A knock on my door pulled me from my trance. The guy with the visor was on the other side. 

"Good Morning. You look better now that you've gotten some rest. Name's Scott, by the way." Scott extended his hand, compelling me to do the same.

"I'm Shai," I told him. 

"It's nice to meet you, Shai. Come on, let's go meet your classmates." 

Scott and I meandered our way down the sprawling mansion's halls. Kids of all ages were entering and exiting their dorms, exchanging looks with me, the new kid. Before long, I reached classrooms A-12 and followed Scott inside. A stunning blonde woman stood before a board with the word 'ethics' written across it. 

"Ah, he's finally here," she said. "I'm Ms. Frost, why not introduce yourself to the class?" Her hand beckoned me forward and I complied. 

Standing in front of the class, I felt a nervousness I hadn't felt in years. Filling the seats were twelfth graders like me, yet I felt like an outsider. I wondered how long they'd been monsters too. There was, however, a silver lining in that my condition wasn't so bad. I remembered the man with blue fur as I glanced at another blue individual, a young man. I was thankful to at least not have any sort of phenotypical mutation like him. 

The Asian girl sitting in the back with the bright yellow jacket was almost as hard to miss as the blue-skinned kid. She had the largest smile and the warmest eyes in the room.

Another person who caught my eye was this punkish blonde girl – her cat-like eyes pierced my soul. Perhaps I was delusional, but the moment we locked eyes, a strange feeling overwhelmed me. Was it her beauty? No, it couldn't have been that. She was beautiful, but so was Ms. Yellow Jacket and our teacher, so I knew it couldn't have been that. This moment lasted fractions of a second, passing as I began introducing myself.

"Hi, my name is Shai." I wanted to end it there, but Ms. Frost egged me on.

"And what is your gift, Shai?"

Gift, I thought. What I had was no gift, but a curse. 

"Chronomancy…."

In simple terms, I could warp aspects of time itself. Saying it like that… It makes it sound malicious. That's why I call myself a chronomancer. Its slight ambiguity brought comfort. 

The punkish girl's cat-like eyes gleamed for a fraction of a second, hinting at intrigue. Some of the others were puzzled. 

Ms. Frost told me to choose an empty seat, so I sat beside a young man who shared some similarities with me in terms of looks. I thought perhaps we might get along easily.

"What's up? I'm Roberto. Don't worry, everyone here is good people."

His words brought me only the tiniest of comfort, but they comforted me nonetheless. As you would imagine, we learned about ethics in ethics class and when it was over, I was on to the next. My next class was Anatomy, taught by Dr. McCoy, the blue-furred man. After that was physical education. 

The teacher, a short, smelly man named Logan, showed me to my locker. To my surprise, Roberto had the one right beside mine. 

"We meet again. Shai, right?" 

"Yeah… And you're Roberto?"

"Yes sir. How's your first day been so far?"

"Okay… I guess." 

"Hey, man. Things will get better, trust me. Everyone here has similar stories. Our families feared and abandoned us, but we found new families amongst each other. I know it's hard right now for you – hell, it's still hard for me, but there's always light at the end of the tunnel. Or something like that."

He wasn't very good at this whole motivational speech thing, but I was glad he wasn't. A superficial speech given by one of the wiser adults wouldn't do me any good. Finding humor in his words, I laughed slightly as my head popped out of my tracksuit. I missed my family, but they didn't want me. I imagined all these kids felt the same. If what he said is true, they all found family in each other, and in my loneliness, I was willing to do the same.

"Maybe you're right," I told him. "It's only been a day and I already feel more comfortable thanks to being surrounded by people like us. It helps that there are good people like you here too."

It was then that time froze, as did my body. However, I could still move my eyes. I heard a voice that simultaneously reverberated off the locker room walls and the inside of my skull.

"I am thou, thou art I… Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall become the iron fists that slice through thy chains of injustice. With the birth of the Magician Arcana, may the sun's rays light your path to freedom and a new power…"

Time resumed, though I stood dumbfounded and disoriented. Roberto continued as if nothing happened.

"That's good to hear. It'll only get better from here. In fact, I'd say you're lucky. Today is a special day."

'What the hell was that? Am I hallucinating or is this all a part of my new abilities? What did any of that even mean?'

I shrugged off the strange phenomenon and continued our conversation. 

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Dodgeball."

I knew what dodgeball meant, but I was confused about how that was supposedly special. That is until he and I walked into the gymnasium, seeing students filling the bleachers as they waited for class to begin. Already, kids were practicing throwing dodgeballs, using their powers to improve their technique.

"On dodgeball day, we get to go all out with our powers since we don't get to go on missions with the adults. Our uniforms and the balls are built to withstand anything we throw at them. And lucky for you, we have an opening on our team."

Three kids looked at us as if they were expecting us. I figured these guys must've been the aforementioned team. 

"Guys, I found our fifth teammate. This is Shai," Roberto said, gesturing toward me.

I already recognized one of them; the blue-skinned boy from earlier. We locked eyes and he smiled at me.

"The new kid! I'm Kurt." 

He and I shook hands. I realized then that he only had three fingers due to his mutation. I tried not to stare too hard…

"This is the new kid everyone was talking about?" said one of the teammates. She was a girl with shoulder-length, brown hair. "I'm Laura. Nice to meet you."

Beside her was a boy with short, blonde hair sitting with one leg folded over the other. 

"And I'm Bobby. Nice to meet ya."

"It's nice to meet you all too…" I said quietly. 

Our match wouldn't be until later, so we watched as the other kids played their matches. It was quite the spectacle watching mutants going all out in a simple game of volleyball. One girl could stretch her limbs, using them to catch the balls before they could hit her teammates. This other girl was able to phase through balls and the ground. There was even a kid with super speed, zipping past dodgeballs with ease while showboating. 

Before long, we were up. As my team stepped onto the court, I glanced at our opponents and recognized a few of them. The girl with the yellow jacket was there, as was the punkish. Two of their teammates, a blonde girl and a black kid with dreads, were clearly in a relationship. They held hands as they walked the center stage, moving in unison. Lastly was this pale-skinned girl. When I say pale, I mean it. Her skin was grey, contrasting her black hair.

"Alright, listen up," Roberto said to me quietly. "The two lovebirds over there are Ty and Tandy. Tandy is agile and has light powers. Her lover, Ty, controls darkness and can teleport, bringing Tandy with him if he chooses to. The girl in the yellow jacket is Jubilee. She can shoot energy blasts, so watch out for those. See the goth blondie? You don't have to worry much about her, she lost her powers. The pale girl is Neena, her power is luck. Just be careful if you try to attack her, it might come back to bite you."

With a short rundown of the enemy team's abilities, all I could do now was wait for the match to begin. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. I mean, these kids looked as if they were trying to kill each other and I planned on making it past seventeen years old. 

Still, I had kept my composure and stood beside my comrades. Ready for war.