𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐅𝐓 (X-Men ~ Peter Maximoff)

The Calm

The name Bolivar Trask was far more of a burden to Jennifer than she thought possible. For the first time ever, the word 'mutant' had been displayed on a tv screen for more than five seconds before being hastily shoved into a drawer, and newspapers were reporting on the minority populations that apparently posed as a threat to the community and wider society.

It hadn't taken long for most households in America long to get hooked onto the conspiracy of 'super-human terrorists', but surprisingly enough, Peter didn't seemed to care much about the situation, about the ever growing price on his head. To him, Trask was making a grab at power, scaring people into buying whatever he was selling – creating a problem that wasn't there so he could solve it twice as quickly and efficiently than the government ever could.

And as for the threat upon mutant kind? Well, how was one man going to round up thousands of them with abilities that allowed them to move faster than the speed of light, or fly higher than a plane, or control minds? It was highly improbable, so to Peter, it was all just a scam and there was no danger whatsoever, he could keep living his life as normal.

But with the situation constantly haunting her, Jennifer had spent her study periods at school (which she had reluctantly returned to) combing through articles, papers and ever magazines that mentioned Trask Industries. It hadn't been an easy task, having to go to three different libraries to get enough information, but over the course of three weeks, she had enough to write a paper on the company if she so wished.

Based upon what the black print had told her, Trask Industries had formed in early 1967, named after it's founder who had repeatedly lost funding and grants due to his wild theories, and had decided to make the company with whatever change he had left. Far ahead in human progress and, more specifically, genetic progress, within a year several partnerships had been formed, many of them with the United States government. From 1970 onwards, news from the large company grew scarce, only one or two announcements in scientist discovery coming out every few months rather than every week. The only thing Trask had to say on the subject was, according to American Science, "We are very busy with a new project that I am certain will make the world a safer place."

As easy as it would've been to believe that he was on about medical advancements or such, Jennifer knew that wishful thinking often resulted in a great disappointment. The countless news articles proved that indeed, something fishy was going on, but without inside access to Trask Industries there wasn't a chance in hell she was going to figure out what was going on, and since she was lacking a pass to the highly secure building and a way to get there, Jennifer had decided to take a break from reading and worrying.

Sitting at the plastic table in the middle of the cafeteria, she was constantly slipping in and out of the conversation, dividing her attention between the chatter and the pieces of plastic she was sticking down on a large piece of card. It was a part of Mary's art project, and rather than chose to do a simple still life or portraiture like the rest of the class, she had decided to turn iconic scenes from movies into stained glass themed posters, created through the painstakingly long process of cutting out and sticking down millions of tiny pieces of colourful. Now with the due date almost upon her, Mary wished she had listened to her teachers advise not to do this.

Jennifer, having been smart enough to realise she was a few months behind work, had dropped art this year, and so did not have the same issue as Mary. Having given up on her lunch time diggings, she had been looking for anything to get her mind of the nagging sensation in her head about Trask, hence why she was doing such a complicated task, though at this moment she wasn't really paying attention to where the countless pieces were being placed, trusting Mary to correct her positioning as she watched the far more entertaining scene before her.