CURIOSITY, A BRIEFCASE, AND THE MYSTIC SHADOW PHOENIX

Mutant XX

A day later, Ian found himself in front of the mirror again. There was no mistaking the changes he had been through and he couldn't hide from his mother any longer. He now knew it was time.

He had to tell her. Regardless of how much he hated the idea, he knew he was soon going to have to accept the inevitable. He was going to have to talk to his mom about establishing himself into a new life.

Judging by the shrinkage that had already occurred between his legs, he knew it was only a matter of days before he'd no longer be male, whether he was ready for it or not.

The worst part of this nightmare is that of all the changes that had occurred so far, his only superhuman mutation had been his better than perfect eyesight.

In his mind he had gotten cheated. He could read the date on a dime from down the street, but what good was that? He didn't think it was comic book superhero worthy. Girls didn't flock to a guy because he had spectacular eyesight.

Unless you counted his ability to defend himself and fight back, something he couldn't do at all before, he had nothing. And to make it worse he had lost his masculinity and therefore changed the entirety of the rest of his life.

He tried to console himself by saying self-defense was his consolation prize. He knew it wasn't nothing but he wanted more, much more, and being forced to give up his future for that of a girl, well if that was the result of this and his destiny then he deserved way more mutant ability to make up for it.

Leaving the mirror behind, Ian returned to his room and sat at his desk chair.

There, he worked to build up the courage that he would need for when his mother came home from work. He knew he would have to act just right, appropriately distressed as if he had no idea what had happened to him. He would have to convince her it was all a spontaneous, overnight occurrence and he had been hiding it out of fear.

Once that initial opening burst of emotion had run it's course, he could let rationality take over. His biggest worry though was how his mom was going to react. He could only hope she sympathized with him and was willing to do whatever it took to try and find a way to reverse it.

Deep inside Ian knew this was his future now, but whether it be delusion or not, he held out hope for a cure anyways.

Waiting for his mom to get home was more than he could stand. The longer he waited the more his mind tried to convince him of the most likely truth; there was no serum that could reverse this.

Finally he could fight it no longer and a thought began to form in his mind as the last vestiges of his former male life began to slip away. The images in his mind that he had created over the last couple years of his ideal mate; his idea of the perfect girl, began to morph. Instead of the girl he wanted to date, fall in love with and marry, those images were trying to become the girl he hoped he was able to be.

The images of the guy he had decided he wanted to become from the serum, he now began to see as the guy he wanted to meet romantically.

Ian desperately tried to resist the thoughts, but it was virtually no use. They were too strong.

Before long, with all his will to resist, gone, he began to make a mental list of new names. By the time he heard  his mom unlocking the front door, he'd already picked one out.