Issue 1 Downtime

"Oh, jeez!"

Murphy had been excited when she heard there was a pool. She loved to swim. So, of course, she had rushed to it as soon as she managed to get a swimsuit. Unfortunately, in her excitement, she wasn't paying attention to her powers. As she was dashing towards the pool, her foot lost density and phased through the floor. She stumbled, changed to the other extreme in a panic, and ended up ripping a chunk of concrete the size of her foot out of the ground.

Then she fell into the pool, promptly sinking to the bottom.

Hearing the panicked cry, a half-dressed Graham rushed from the pool's locker room. Seeing someone panicking at the bottom the pool, he dove in without any hesitation. He swam to her to grab her and carry her up.

Pants can always dry.

Luckily, her density had shifted back to normal and Graham managed to get the girl back to the surface pretty easily. Murphy broke out laughing as the two of them got back to the pool deck.

"You're... okay then?" he asked, brow raised.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine," Murphy says, waving her hand dismissively in the air. "It was just a little drowning. Not that bad."

"Thanks for saving me though."

Just a little drowning?

"Well this is superhero school, right?" the shirtless boy smirked half-confidently.

"Well, then I will try to return the favor some day," Murphy says, giggling.

"I'm Murphy. Jean-Louise Murphy," Murphy says.

"Graham Jaeger," he responded, not quite realizing he was still holding her.

"Not that I'm really complaining or anything, 'cause you're pretty, umm, well. Yeah," Murphy babbles awkwardly. "You must swim a lot."

Graham let go and reddened briefly. "Sorry..."

"Yeah, I, umm... exercise a lot..." he explained.

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," Murphy says. She wasn't ogling. Well, maybe a little bit.

Why is she staring at me?

"I'm Graham, by the way," he said after an awkward silence.

"What?" Murphy shakes her head. "Oh, right. Yes. It's great to meet ya."

Murphy smiles brightly.

"So, do you usually swim in your pants? 'Cause it seems like it would slow you down. Like, a lot."

"...we already did the name thing didn't we?" he groaned..

"And I thought you were drowning."

"Yes. You were very heroic," Murphy teases.

"Really?"

"But did you see that?" Murphy says, already distracted by the divot she left in the pool deck. "I ripped the floor apart like it was nothing. Well, I mean, it felt like nothing. But that is so cool! I wonder if I could do that deliberately. Like, just tear things apart."

Murphy presses her hand experimentally on the ground, but nothing happens. She's not that great at fine control yet.

Graham finally noticed the damage and mentally chastised himself for not spotting it before.

"What's your power anyway?"

"It's hard to explain, but basically I can either get really light or really, really heavy," Murphy says. "What about you?"

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"As long as it's not really, really, really, really funny," Murphy answers honestly.

"I can turn into an elk."

"That's amazing! Elk are so cool!" Murphy says. "They can run at, like, fifty miles per hour! Plus, they can totally kick ass. I once saw one knock over a car. It was a small car, more of an ATV, but it was still badass!"

"Yeah, they're way more dangerous than people think. But I'd still have rather gotten some badass predator like just about every other shifter."

"Please. Those things are all big babies," Murphy says. "Everyone thinks lions are awesome, but I've seen 'em get chased off by animals half their size. You know what's dangerous? Hippos. Those things kill way more people then any big ol' carnivore. I'd be way more scared of a hippo shifter then a tiger, lion, or wolf shifter."

"Maybe," he admitted. "Kinda ironic in a hunting family though," he smirked weakly.

"My parents both work with exotic animals and my sister became a werewolf," Murphy says. "I think irony is pretty normal for mutants."

"There's a wolf shifter here they call Murphy... that's her I assume?"

"Yep. That's my big sister," Murphy says. "...If you make a "little" joke, I will bite you."

"Didn't even cross my mind," he lied.

Murphy points two fingers at her eyes and then points them at Graham.

"Okay maybe a little... Gah! I mean a bit!"

True to her word, Murphy playfully bites his shoulder.