Issue 1 Downtime

Ross and Isabel made their way down to the little coffee shop in the XUB. After Ross was berated by the snarky barrista, he paid for the light lunch (he didn't want to out-eat Izzy, after all) and headed over to the couch where Isabel had parked herself with their coffee.

"So, how do you like XU?" Isabel asked.

"It's not bad, I guess? Little... I don't know, intimidating?" he admitted. "Everyone seems to... I don't know, have it together. Makes me feel like I'm doing something reeeeally wrong, you know?"

"A lot of people went to AoT or XI." Isabel said "They're used to being around other mutants."

"Yeah, I noticed that," he admitted. "Did you? Go to one of those, I mean."

"Nope, my parents decided to just homeschool me." Isabel said, rolling her eyes.

"Ouch," Ross winced. "Sorry... had a friend whose mom decided to home school him, I got to hear about how fun all of that is. So it must be nice to be done with that at least, right?"

"Yeah, the total lack of human interaction was awesome." Isabel said.

"I'll... take that as a 'yes'," Ross decided. "So, um... what are you here for?"

"About four years." Isabel said, giggling a little.

"Oh, that's it? All the people back home think I'm going to be here for six. Lucky you," he said with a smirk.

"Not planning on changing my major." Isabel said.

Ross chuckled. "Which is...?"

"Nursing."

"Ohhh. That'd explain why I haven't seen you, I don't think the infirmary knows I exist," Ross said.

"Healing factor, or are you just stubborn?" Isabel asked.

"Nah, I'm invulnerable," Ross answered, taking a drink of his coffee.

"Seriously?"

Ross shrugged reached over to an end table where someone had left a plate from their lunch that the crabby barista hadn't picked up yet. He picked the knife up off it, and without any preamble, put his hand on the wooden end table and slammed the point of the knife down onto the back of his hand. The knife wasn't particularly sharp, but with the force he put behind it, that shouldn't have mattered. Still, the tip of the knife was bent, while all he had to do was wiggle his fingers a little and his hand looked just the same as it had before.

"Whoa." Isabel said, impressed.

"Sorry if that was a little over the top. When I say that people usually don't believe me until I prove it. But yeah... bombs, falls, gunshots... all got done, and nothing. Got kind of dirty, but didn't even get a scratch."

"Thats really cool." Isabel said "Can you get sick?"

He shook his head. "Pretty sure I can't. I... eh, I don't remember all the technical stuff they said. But bottom line is... no."

"Wow." Isabel said "I wish there were more people like you."

"Wouldn't you be out a job then?"

"You say that like its a bad thing."

"Yeah, guess it wouldn't really be," Ross admitted. "What would you do then?"

"Write, travel, take up fingerpainting." Isabel said "I don't know, but not having to see people hurt and in pain would be awesome."

Ross nodded an agreement. "I don't know if I could do that," he admitted. "You must be a hell of a strong person to decide to do that."

"I don't really have a choice." Isabel said "its that or sit back and not help." she smiled a little "This is my gift, this is my curse."

"That... sounds like there's more to it than just wanting to help people," Ross said.

"My mutation kinda has strings attached." Isabel said "When I absorb an injury, I can either transfer it or I get whatever it is that I just healed."

Ross winced. "Oh wow, that's... wow. What do you do, then?"

"I transfer it." Isabel said with a shrug "Luckily, it doesn't have to be to a human. Rats work just as well."

Ross winced again and nodded. "I didn't know that the school would go for something like that," he said, before he'd really thought about it.

"Yeah." Isabel said, a bit coldly "They do."

Shit. Shit. Recover. Now. "Sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't mean it like that, I just figured they'd... y'know, be able to come up with something else. I mean..." Shit. What else can you say? "...Have you ever tried dropping it on someone who's invulnerable?" Wait, what?

"Yeah, I've tried it with a shifter who can shift the injury away." Isabel said "Its better, but he isn't around all the time. I've been trying to transfer injuries to this" she pulled out a piece of clay "But it doesn't always work."

"Well... they say that I literally can't get injured, cut, sick, whatever, so... what if you dropped it on me? It... should just do nothing, then, right?"

"I don't know." Isabel said "I'd have to try it."