A Fateful Connection

Chapter 4

They all safely made their way back to the facility. They walked out from the car and saw the place in shambles. The recruits were outside waiting. The four of them walked up to the young mutants.
"Raven?" asked Charles. He walked up to his sister and they gave each other a tight hug.
"We've made arrangements for you to be taken home immediately" he said to the group. Alex looked up at Charles.
"We're not going home."
"What?"
"He's not going back to prison" said Sean.
"He killed Darwin" Alex said as he hung his head.
"All the more reason for you to leave. This is over."
"Darwin's dead, Charles. And we can't even bury him" Raven said with a melancholy tone.
"We can avenge him" said Erik. Charles, Moira, and Layna looked to the tall mutant.
"Erik, a word, please" Charles said as he and Erik walked off. Layna looked to the young mutants, she felt terrible for them.
"I'm so sorry about your friend. I tried to warn Charles, but I couldn't reach him. I'm so sorry."
"Who are you?" asked Alex.
"I'm Layna Verity. I was pretending to work under Shaw. I gave Charles and Erik the map to Shaw's meeting with the Soviet Defense Chief and warned them about it a few weeks prior."
"Are you a mutant?" asked Sean.
"Well duh, why else would Shaw let her work for him?" asked Alex.
"Who knows, I could be a regular person with Agent McTaggert's incredible leadership and tactic skills for all you know" Layna replied with a smirk.
"Please, call me Moira" she said as she extended her hand. Layna took it and gave it a shake while Erik and Charles spoke privately a few feet away.
"They're just kids" said Charles.
"No, they were kids. Shaw has his army, we need ours."
Charles thought for a moment and the two men turned back around to face the group.
"We'll need to train. All of us. Yes?"
"Yeah" Alex replied.
"Well, we can't stay here. Even if they reopen the department, it's not safe. We have nowhere to go" said Hank.
"Yes, we do. And Layna," Charles said as he looked over at her.
"Welcome to the team."
They all flew off to upstate New York and arrived at a gigantic mansion. Everyone exited the car and looked in awe at the massive house.
"This is yours?" asked Sean.
"No, it's ours" Charles replied.
"Honestly Charles, I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship" Erik said sarcastically.
"Well, it was a hardship softened by me" Raven said as she walked up to her brother. Charles kissed her on the cheek and she smiled. Layna felt a slight twinge in her chest, but ignored it.
"Come on, time for the tour" Raven said as they all walked towards the mansion. Everyone settled in, picked out rooms, and arranged what belongings they had. Layna had never been in such an enormous house. It was truly massive. It made her feel like a little kid, walking around the many halls and going up and down the staircases, watching the numerous doors pass by as she explored. A few hours had passed and she decided to walk outside and look around. She saw Charles and Erik in the distance. Charles looked like he was holding a gun in his hand. She cautiously started walking over, observing quietly as to not disturb them. Charles pushed down the hammer of the gun and kept his eyes on Erik.
"You're sure?" asked Charles as he held a pistol to Erik's head.
"I'm sure" he said in confidence.
"All right."
Charles adjusted his grip and held his finger on the trigger. He hesitated for a moment and shook his head.
"No. No, I can't. I'm sorry. I can't shoot anybody point blank, let alone my friend" he said as he lowered the gun. Erik's smile faded.
"Oh, come on. You know I can deflect it," he said as he raised the gun back to his head.
"You're always telling me I should push myself."
Charles pulled the gun away.
"If you know you can deflect it, then you're not challenging yourself. Whatever happened to the man who's... who's trying to raise a submarine?" he asked as he gestured towards him with his free hand.
"Wha-." Erik sighed.
"I can't," Charles handed the gun back to him. "Something that big? I need the situation, the anger...."
"No, the anger is not enough."
"Well it's gotten the job done all this time."
"It's nearly gotten you killed all this time" Charles said as he was about to turn away, Erik looked to his right and saw Layna in the matching gray training hoodie and sweatpants that he was in and was sneakily listening in on the conversation.
"Are you eavesdropping?" asked Erik, grabbing Charles' attention causing him to turn to Layna.
"No, was just walking by. This place is amazing Charles, you must've been spoiled as a kid" she said as she walked over with her hands in her jacket pockets. Her curls swayed from side to side in her high ponytail as she stopped in front of the two men.
"Thank you, and I suppose you could say that. How's your training been?"
"Haven't really started actually. I'd say I'm mostly in control, but sometimes my energy output gets out of hand and I'm sure there's other things I need to work on."
"Well, you can join Erik and I and perhaps you two can train together."
"Not sure how that's gonna go. Whatever he throws at me will just melt."
"Someone's quite confident" said Erik as he raised a brow.
"I have good reason to be" she replied with a smirk.
"I must admit, the suspense is unbearable. Show us something."
"Yes, but for training purposes, whatever you make, launch it across the grass as far as you can" said Charles.
"Good luck with that. I have a very limited range when it comes to throwing and or launching energy out away from me. I can't keep the connection of energy going as it gets farther away. Think of it like... your holding a lasso with something tied to the end of it. Since the lasso extends out, you have more control of it and you can bring it back when you throw it. If whatever's on the end of the lasso isn't attached to it anymore, once you throw it out, you no longer have control over it. I can't keep the connection of positive energy and myself when there's a certain amount of space in between because as it gets farther, the connection weakens, unless I emit a ray of positive energy instead because it's still in contact with me and the connection is constant. But that can be dangerous and impractical in certain situations as you can imagine" Layna explained.
"Does that make sense?"
"Yes it does. Try then just throwing something as far as possible just so we can get an idea."
Layna nodded and walked up to the nearby railing. The two men stopped by her side as she connected her fingertips together, making them glow white. As she opened her fingers out a little more than half way, the light of her fingertips made a sphere about the size of a baseball. She adjusted her grip on the sphere and held it tightly. She inhaled and exhaled as she fixed her stance. She retracted her arm, and with as much force as she could, she threw the ball of light out over the grassy field. It disappeared into the air at about thirty yards.
"Does the size of the form matter?" asked Charles.
"Not really. If I doubled the size, it probably would've gone another couple inches, but that's about it."
"Because it's somewhat closer to you, yes?"
"Yup."
"What if you made a sphere as big as a person?" asked Erik, intrigued.
"If I made it as big as you, it probably would've gone another half yard or less."
"I see," said Charles.
"Well, at least we have somewhere to start."