Penumbra

1: Imogen

The mansion was full of chatter. The noise never stopped. Of course, this was always the case for Imogen Cadwell. As a telepath, she could always hear people's thoughts. Professor Chiron had told her that the more she focused, the less she would hear, but after only a few months of studying at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning with her fellow mutants, she was nowhere close to being as in control of her powers as the professor was. Most times she managed to block out the musings of her classmates' minds, but other times they flooded hers. Imogen rubbed her temples as she listened to the countless thoughts pass through her head.

"Imogen, are you ok?" Her friend Dale whispered beside her.
Imogen tore her eyes off the blackboard where their teacher was writing history of mutants and put a finger to her lips.
"I'm fine, green bean, just having a telepathic party with everyone in the school." Imogen pushed her thoughts into Dale's head, setting up a telepathic link as to not disturb the class.
Dale put a petite green hand on Imogen's arm; the telepath had always been fascinated with her friend's physical mutations. Dale's mutation was causing her skin to slowly become green. Most of her skin was an even tan, but was splattered with random patches of green and completely green hands. Chiron had said that Dale's skin would change entirely green as she grew into her mutation.

"And that concludes today's class. Remember, your essays on the discovery of mutants by the people of America is due tomorrow." The teacher sat at her desk at the front of the class and waved her hand in the air in dismissal.
Imogen began to gather her things, but a wave of her classmates' thoughts spilled into her head causing her to drop her textbooks.
"Imogen, just switch to your diamond state. That'll block the telepathic link," Dale whispered as she bent down to pick up her friend's books.
Imogen nodded and willed her skin to change from its normal creamy to a glittering diamond, and instantly the voices in her mind stopped so she was just left with her own thoughts.
"Good call, Dale," Imogen sighed and walked through the door of the classroom, Dale in tow. Imogen's diamond state was a blessing and a curse. While it allowed her to block people's thoughts and stopped psychic attacks from other telepaths, it also stopped her own telepathic abilities.
"Hey, where's Mark?" Dale asked quizzically. "He was in class..."
Dale and Imogen scanned the sea of students going from class to class to look for their friend Mark.
"I'm right here, you dorks," a
bodiless voice laughed, "I'm standing right beside you."
"Mark, we can't see you," Dale sighed.
"I'm right here beside you! How come you can't see me?"
"We can't see you because you're invisible."
The invisible Mark made a strangled noise.
"Stupid mutation," Mark muttered, "I had the hiccups earlier and I kept turning visible, then invisible, then visible, and then invisible, and vis-"
"Ok, we get it," Dale interrupted.
"Could you turn visible again or are you just going to be a bodiless voice for the rest of our lives?"
Mark laughed and rippled back into existence, a smile still stretched across his face.
"So we're fighting one-on-one in the Danger Room next period. Nervous?" Mark asked the two girls.
"Ugh, yeah. I'm matched up with Kaden Gray," Dale groaned. "He's top of the class in hand-to-hand and I am NOT looking forward to it."
"Oh, tough break, Alcander." Mark laughed, and lightly bumped into his best friend.
"Who are you up against, Imogen?" Dale asked.
"Does it matter? Imogen always wins; she just uses her mind control to make the other person give up." Mark laughed
Imogen crinkled her nose. "First of all, I do not 'make' people do anything, I persuade their mind to do what I want them to. Secondly, I'm fighting another telepath, so it'll be a fair match."
Dale and Mark shrugged and began to talk about the newest gossip and stories they'd heard around campus. Imogen hugged her books to her chest as she slowly changed her skin back to its normal form and the voices began pouring in. Imogen sighed as she began to push the thoughts of her head, when suddenly, she felt an all-too-familiar presence in her mind. Imogen froze in her tracks and scanned the crowd of students for the face that haunted her mind.
"Oh, Imogen, you know you won't be able to find me. But I'll always be able to find you." The familiar voice chimed in her head, ringing in her mind like a church bell. The telepath whipped her head around searching for the source of the thought, but came up with nothing. Slowly, she felt the presence leave her mind. She turned her head to see her friends staring at her.
"Mo, are you ok, or...?" Mark asked with a furrowed brow.
Imogen shook her head lightly and rubbed her forehead.
"Yeah, I'm fine. And don't call me Mo unless you have a death wish." Imogen smirked. "I've got to stop in the dorm before class, I'll meet you guys in the Danger Room!"
Imogen ran off without waiting for a response from her friends. She ran past her dorm and down the hall to the boys' dorms to go find the one person who could make sense of what had just happened: Kaden Gray.