-{MUTANT AND PROUD}-

'~PROLOGUE~'

EVER SINCE SHE WAS A KID, Dara Calypso Scott-Smith had adored the stars. Entertained the idea there was something (or someone) beyond them. For her thirteenth birthday, she had reluctantly been gifted a telescope with cracked glass by her mother, and she'd sit with her step-siblings, Charles and Raven, for hours on end, just staring at the twinkling dots. Charles was often reluctant to watch them, but Raven was always eager, fascinated by the different constellations.

September nineteenth, 1944 was an evening like any other in Westchester Country. The siblings gathered around the small telescope, anxiously waiting to see if the low autumn fog had subsided and if they could see the stars, when Charkes noticed something hurtling towards the shed in the back and weeding their mother's precious flower collection. "What is that?" Charles wondered aloud, peering through the steamed-up window in curiosity.

"Shall we go and check?" Asked Raven, already running to her fluffy slippers and shape-shifting back into her blonde form. "I suppose so." Dara sighed, retrieving her favourite coat from the heap on the stand. Charles turned the key in the lock, and the door opened with a soft click.

As they trudged closer, they observed that it seemed to be a blue box with letters on the top that appeared to be glowing. They read 'POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX ' in glowing white letters. As Dara inched closer, a brunette man popped his head out of the box, hanging onto the edge for dear life. Dara yelped, stumbling backwards. "Hello!" The man exclaimed. "Could I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving? That's new. Never had cravings before." The man said happily, a wide grin on his face.

The man clambers up onto the very edge, sitting and dangling his legs off of the box. "Are you okay, sir?" Charles asked, his head tilting in confusion and concern.

"Just had a fall," The man explains, waving his hands about like a madman. "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up." The man shook his head side to side like a wet dog drying its hair.

"You are sopping wet." Dara noted, eyeing him suspiciously. Perhaps he was special too? "I was in the swimming pool." He says, pointing down into the blue box. "But, you just said you were in the library?" Charles remembered, pressing two fingers to his head and attempting to read his mind. When he received nothing, he turned to Raven and Dara, planting a message inside their minds. 'I can't read his mind.' The sisters looked at him in concern.

"So was the swimming pool." The raggedy man stated, suddenly swinging his legs onto the grass.

"Are you a policeman?" Raven wondered aloud, studying him closer and staring at the blue box, that apparently could fit a library and a swimming pool.

"Why, did you call for a policeman?" He asked, wobbling slightly as he tried to stand.

"Did you come for the crack in my telescope?" Dara asked him, joining Raven in studying the man.

"What crack? Ow!" The man exclaims as he falls to the floor. Dara has to suppress a giggle, although Charles looks concerned and reaches out his hand for the raggedy man to grab, to help him pull himself up. The man simply jumps up, wiping the dirt and soil from his hands.

"Are you alright, sir?" Charles asks the man in worry as he nearly trips over his own feet again.

"No, no, I'm fine, I'm okay, this is all.. perfectly norm--" He's interrupted as a wisp of golden energy flys from his mouth. Dara scrunched up her nose in wonder, observing the substance that was now floating away into the distance. Some of it floated into her wide-open mouth, and she gagged as it floated down into her empty stomach. If the man noticed, he didn't seem to care. "Does it scare you?" The man asks after a moment of silence. "No, it just looks quite odd." Raven observes, attempting to grab a fistful of the energy.