Issue 1 Downtime

James was nursing a scotch at a table in the corner, reading over Henry McCoy's case studies on the original Legacy Virus outbreak and wishing they'd let him smoke inside.

Guy passed by and, just before taking a seat at the next table over, backpedaled to James' table.

"Care for a study buddy? I know I hate sitting alone."

"Pull up a chair." James smiled and extended a hand. "James Moran."

"Guy Montgomery," he smiled, returning the handshake after sitting.

James picked up on the accent. "Local?"

"England, yes. Manchester to be precise."

"American?"

"Yeah, Baltimore. So, I guess this the obligatory question here, what's your power?"

"Phasing," he answered before summoning a glowing wisp in his hand, "And this."

"Nice. Wish I could demonstrate without blowing something up. I do energy absorption. I can then us it for energy blasts, low grade force fields, and the part I love, flight."

He dismissed the wisp with an unnecessary flashy hand gesture. "At least your energy powers are useful. My wisps pretty much just glow... and screw with electronics."

"Well, the flight is useful. I almost blew up my car when my powers first showed up. Though come to think of it the force field is nice when it rains..."

"Sure beats lugging a brolly around."

"This is true. As long as people don't get weird about the slight green glow around you..."

"Probably not as weird as they get if you walk into a room through the wall."

"Point, but hey, some people think the ghost thing is sexy." James said with a smirk.

"Especially when pottery is involved," he smirked back.

"And here I thought I was the only one who remembered that movie."

"There are people who don't?" he said, "Granted I'm from the city that turned it into a bloody musical."

(I'm totally not making this up.)

James snickered. "Please tell me you're kidding."

"Well okay, it only premiered there. But still, that was a thing. It happened."

"And there weren't booze subsidies to let people forget it happened?"

"Not enough booze in the world."

"Hmmm. This country gave us Ghost:The Musical. But it also gave us Doctor Who. I'm not sure if that quite balances out..."

"The Doctor more than makes up for it."

"You're probably right." James said, smiling and sipping some more of his scotch. "So, what're you studying here?"

"Stuff... and things... so not a bloody clue."

"Undeclared then?"

"Pretty much," he answered, "And you?"

"Undeclared, but leaning towards something in genetics or political science. I don't think I hate myself enough to try a double major."

"Well if leanings count, something history related perhaps."

"Could be interesting. Old world or last century kind of history?"

"The more ancient the better."

"Not much for the newfangledness?"

"No no, I love newfangledness. The distant past is simply the better mystery."

"True, true. So, what do you think of the school thus far?"

"Exciting. I even saved a princess," he grinned, "Well, I helped anyway."

"I takeit you're on a X-team?"

"Not yet. It was more of a 'I happened to be there' thing."

"Well, you've got me curious now. What happened?"

"I was at the World Cup Final, hunting down a snack when those terrorists showed up. I hid at first. Then, as if a switch flipped, I leaped into action. Well... strolled sneakily... but lets say leaped, it sounds more action-ey..."

"Where was I? ... Right! I found an empty security station, located the princess, and proceeded to steal her right from under their noses."

"...didn't count on the monkey man coming through the wall after us the old-fashioned way..."