Issue 1 Downtime

It was beautiful for an autumn day. The sky was partly cloudy, and the chill in the air was just barely enough to make hints towards the coming winter. On a mat in the garden, Mizuki was sitting cross legged, focused calmly on her breathing, eyes closed. She listened to every noise; the birds, the rustle of the wind on the trees, the distant sounds of cars. She was so focused she likely could have heard the grass grow, if that were possible. Her meditation was going well today.

((Open!))

Graham saw the meditating girl and got in his head to see how close he could get before she noticed him. So he used his hunter's soft steps to draw closer. This could only end well, right?

She didn't budge. Her breathing was slow and controlled as she sat there, motionless. If she heard him at all, she didn't show it. Maybe she was waiting till he got closer.

He drew ever closer, really pressing his luck now.

There wasn't much warning from her. Swiftly, she stood and made a leap for him. While she wasn't very big, she tried to push all her momentum onto him to knock him down.

He wasn't truly prepared for her sudden onslaught and found himself on the ground.

"Oof..." he grunted, "Didn't see you being that quick."

Seeing that it was just a young guy, she felt a bit stupid and it probably showed in her expression. However, she still stood her ground. You just never know. "Who are you and why were you sneaking up on me?"

"Graham. I'm in your Control class. And... to see if I could, I guess."

"Graham from...OH! Oh wow I feel stupid. I am soooo sorry," she said as she offered him a hand up. "I got so focused and when I heard the steps I thought...well, it's no big deal. Really sorry about that. Are you okay?"

He pulled himself up.

"Yeah. I probably deserved it for sneaking up on you anyway."

"It's no big deal. Really, I should ease up a bit. It's relatively safe around here, so I shouldn't be so tense." After helping him up, she goes back to her mat and sits down. So what are you up to besides sneaking up on people?" she asked jokingly.

"I was on my daily run. I'm told I'm a fitness freak."

"Nothing wrong with being a fitness freak. It keeps you busy, right? What all do you do besides run?" she asked curiously.

"Archery, parkour, the salmon ladder, some weightlifting, and that's not including the Danger Room scenarios."

"You do parkour? That's really cool. I always see these videos of people doing it and I can't help but be in awe at it."

"Well, sort of parkour. I've only done the urban stuff in the DR."

"I'd love to watch it first hand sometime, if you'd be cool with it. I imagine it's gotta take a lot of patience though. Lots of falling, I bet."

"Until you get good yeah," he nodded, "though having enhanced agility helps."

"And sure, you can watch sometime."

"Awesome, thanks! I don't think I'd ever be able to do it myself, but it's pretty cool to see. Don't they have competitions for that kind of stuff?"

He shrugged. "Beats me."

"Hm... Well if they -do- have competitions, I bet you'd wipe the floor with the others. Especially with, like you said, the enhanced agility. I have to admit, I'm pretty jealous of that."

"Don't you have superstrength?"

"Mhm. And don't get me wrong, it's awesome. But being swift and agile would be pretty awesome too. Kind of like the other side of the coin, I guess, if that makes sense."

"Yeah. It does," he nodded, "Though I bet you'd be pretty quick with the right training."

"Maybe! Part of what I'm working on right now is meditation and concentration. By clearing my mind, I can focus more and then move onto that kind of training, hopefully. Unfortunately with my power, I'm really only useful when there's light around. If it's all dark, I'm kinda screwed. So I want to be able to know something in case worse comes to worse. Being quicker would definitely be useful in those circumstances."

"Always best to be prepared," he agreed. "Especially with what can happen here."

"My thoughts exactly!" she exclaimed with a smile. "See, you know how it is."

"Yeah, we can't expect the X-Men to always bail us out when something happens. They can't be everywhere."

"Exactly. They've got so many other things to do anyway. Like..." Mizuki thinks for a few moments. "Yeah I don't know if they're doing anything right now. Probably doing something to save the world. But we have to be able to protect ourselves, too. It's the smart thing to do."

"Why some of us can't see that is beyond me."

Because they're 'normal'?

"I dunno! Maybe they'll realize it one day before something bad happens. Until then, we can just work hard to maybe protect them too, right? Sort of like...a side group of X-Men, only for us younger people and less strict, I guess."

"I could get with that. Maybe get some actual use out of my training regimen."

"Awesome. Heck, we could all train together, really. More than just the power control classes. Maybe a once a week thing."

"But would anyone else go along?"

"Hm...I bet there's a few that may want to. Whether or not it's a good idea is a whole other story. Haley's pretty powerful, but she can be really selfish and angry if she doesn't get her way. I noticed that Blaine was really good at what he did, and he was quick to think. He seemed really cool, actually. Miranda, definitely. Kay is even pretty great."

"Paul might be up for it. Portals are always useful. Not sure about Brigid. And probably not Jennifer. She'd probably just roll her eyes at us."

"Portals are definitely useful. Both offensively and defensively. I can go talk to Brigid and see if she'd be interested. She seems...I dunno, different than before when she wore glasses. Like, a cool kind of different. I'll definitely talk to her. And yeah...Jenn doesn't seem like she'd really care about any of it. But that's okay. Not everyone is into this kind of stuff, right?"

"Yeah. Some people actually want to be normal," he shuddered.

She laughed. "Hey, for all we know, we're actually the 'normal' ones. Maybe it's everyone else that's weird."

"It's all relative anyway."