Issue 1 Downtime

When Callie got to the gardens, she got control back.

"Well, fuck," Callie says, miserably.

"Rough day?" Mallory asks from where she's sitting on a bench not far away.

"Not a great one," Callie says, "How was yours?"

Victoria came out the door toward the other end of the building, glancing once at Callie and then heading (angrily) toward the dorms.

"Could be worse. That was quite the psychic outburst I felt in there." she says, looking Vickie's way and following her with her eyes.

"Yeah, well," Callie shrugs, "Valentine's pissed off at me, but what else is new."

"This about the little community-building you're doing in Maldon?"

"You heard about that?"

"You might want to take a look at the school network." she says, pulling out a smartphone and bringing up the page Cal had put online to show it to Callie.

"Wonderful," Callie says, "That's totally going to not provoke a reaction."

"God, I suck at this."

"So why are you here then. Spying on the enemy?" she chuckles.

"Well, technically I'm here because I still require trained supervision," Callie says, "I'm basically on parole."

"Ah, so they're forcibly saving your poor criminal soul."

"Sort of," Callie says, "I'm a 'dangerous mutant'. I was on Muir Island for six years."

"How unfortunate. What makes you so much more dangerous than everyone else here?"

"I would uncontrollable explode and kill everyone around me."

"So not dangerous but rather uncontrollable then." she nods. "And why the Brotherhood of Disgruntled Teens?"

"After that, I can understand being scared of the Institute," Callie says, "I was terrified and angry for years. I had to be locked up and I hated it. I blamed everything on X-Corp and the Institute."

"These kids aren't bad. They're scared, angry, and don't know what to do," Callie says, "They feel trapped. Only the Institute has the resources to help them, but they don't trust them or can't bring themselves to go to the Institute because they're afraid they'll be locked up or brainwashed or even just rejected."

"I just want to help them before they fall in with someone who will manipulate them and use them."

"Sounds like a miserable place to be. Looks like one too."

"It's not exactly ideal," Callie admits.

"...Plus it really pissed of Valentine, which is really bothering me for some reason."

"Too easy. I'll just let you figure that one out for yourself."

"It's not what you think," Callie says, rolling her eyes, "I've just known her for awhile. And even though I hate her, she's still the closest thing I have to a friend."

"Of course not. Have you slept with her?"

"Frequently," Callie says, "And violently."

"So which emotional void are you trying to fill? Parents is the classic, I believe."

"Well, then I guess I'm a traditionalist," Callie says, "My parents never really had time for me. And that got even worse after I was a mutant that murdered six kids."

"So what you're saying is it's exactly what I think."

"A series of amazing sexual encounters defined by a need for negative attention?" Callie says.

"You should probably seek therapy for that." she says, pulling out a pack of smokes, offering it to Callie after fishing out a cigarette for herself.

Callie takes one, "I tried therapy."

"It didn't take."

"It's not for everyone. So now you're trying to atone by helping the... let's say 'less fortunate'?"

"Something like that," Callie says, "I know what happened was an accident. I'm at peace with that."

"What I really want to atone for is the kind of person I was before it happened."

"Well it's commendable. From what that video showed they don't seem the kind to really fit in here."

"They really aren't," Callie agrees.

"Do they know you go to school here?"

"Yeah, they know," Callie says, "Some of them don't like it, but they need my money so they deal."

"Seems like quite a few people don't agree with this whole arrangement."

"Yeah, I hear a lot of complaints," Callie says, "Not many suggestions though."

"Well what exactly are you trying to achieve here. Turn them into productive members of society?"

"That's a bit of a stretch," Callie says, "I'd settle for 'getting them to their twenties without ending up dead or in a prison cell'."