Decay - The Matter Maelstrom

Two || Chemistry

16 September 1980

"Good morning." I greet the ten students that walk in what is now my classroom for my first ever teaching day.

"Good morning." The say back as they sit down, I glance at the bracelet on my wrists: Hank was quick in making the handcuffs in bracelet, he's probably scared of me.

"I know you! You're Decay! The mutant who killed thousands of humans." A boy says pointing at me, I nod, there's no need to deny the truth.

"I was being mind controlled, please don't call me Decay, my name is Lauren Austin, but you can call me Quantum if you want." I look up, meeting the eyes of a young girl, "I'm your new chemistry teacher, I hope we will get along well..."

I take a deep breath and then start talking again, "I don't know where you had arrived with the other teacher so we'll do a quick recap of everything, you can stop me when I reach the last thing you've done."

I spent the last two days in my room, studying the chemistry books that I have to teach and I discovered that it was helpful for me too: it's like I can understand my powers better now.

"Let's start with the basics: the atom." I smile, "Matter is made out of atoms, from things we can see — I touch the desk — to things we can't see — I move my hand in the air — but I want to show you how an atom looks like."

I close my eyes and focus on the air around me, I use my index and thumb to zoom in the air and suddenly an atom as big as a walnut floats between my fingers.

"Get closer, I can't make it bigger." The students immediately gather around the desk and look at the atom with wide eyes. I explain to them what an atom is made of, then quickly move to how atoms interact with each other.

"We stopped here." A young girl says, I nod.

"Thank you..." I glance at her.

"Jean, Jean Grey." She smiles at me, I can see a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Thank you, Jean." Soon after my words I head the bell ring, "We'll continue tomorrow then."

The students gather their things and leave, all but three of them.

"Quantum." Jean calls me.

"Yes?" I turn towards them, next to Jean are standing another girl with white hair and a boy with red glasses, if I remember correctly from the student list their names are Scott and Ororo.

"So, what exactly is your mutation?" Jean asks.

"It's called Atomic Manipulation, and it's nothing more than what the name says." I explain, "I can manipulate atoms, and since atoms are everywhere it comes in handy with almost everything, from fighting to having a glass of water..."

I take a piece of paper and move its atoms with my mind, making it into a glass, suddenly around us gather clouds and a little one starts raining inside my glass.

"Thank you." I chuckle towards Ororo.

"But you can also fight, right?" Scott says and I nod. "Will you teach me?"

"You already have fighting classes, Scott." Charles' British accents echoes through the walls of the classroom, I turn and see him sitting in his wheelchair at the door. "You three better go or you'll be late for your next class."