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[b]| 1 4 0 7 • G R A Y M A L K I N • L A N E |[/b]

As the car turned onto the street, the young girl was oblivious to the change of scenery outside the car as the conversation kept her engaged from the start of the trip in New York City to the suburbs of North Salem. The exact topic of discussion varied somewhat, having initially been a suggestion from Carter that they ought to go see the Lego Movie. Through completely random sidebars, the subject of conversation had since shifted to Sponge Bob, My Little Pony, Adventure Time, and - currently up for debate - Steven Universe. It was exactly the kind of conversation that a pair of eight year olds ought to be having, except that neither of the two children riding in the back of the car were what they seemed to be.

Carter Ghazikhanian was a mutant, the son of Nurse Annie, who was driving. His mother wasn't a mutant, but she worked at the school that Carter went to, which was a school exclusively for mutants. Carter looked like an ordinary boy, so much so that most wouldn't have looked twice. As a telepath and telekinetic however, it was what one [i]didn't[/i] about Carter that really mattered. He was going to the school to learn how to better control his power, so that he could learn to tune out the thoughts and "noise" he heard from people around him.

Katie wasn't exactly a mutant, but she wasn't quite human either. Not anymore anyway. She'd had a close encounter and wound up abducted, only to be transformed into a living energy weapon capable of leveling buildings or disintegrating people. She'd done the former and horribly scarred others when the accidental use of her powers triggered the latter. More than anything, Katie wanted to learn to be better at controlling her powers. In that sense, this School for Gifted Youngsters sounded like a dream.

"We're here."

That was the first time that Katie laid eyes on her dreams. From the other side of the car window, the pig-tailed girl marveled at the brick and mortar mansion - a home far larger and more grandiose than any she'd seen before. It was the kind of home that celebrities lived in, only there seemed a certain [i]age[/i] to the building that gave it the solemnity expected of a school. Carter had already hopped out of his side of the car, starting to pull Katie's bag from the back as the young girl opened her door and took her first step into her new reality.

Was it really okay to be [i]herself[/i] here? 

"Come on inside," Miss Annie urged, prodding the girl from her wide eyed, mouth agape stupor toward the front door. Across that threshold, the interior was even more amazing than the girl could imagine from the outside looking in. It was like something from an old black and white movie. Regal and polished. A sitting room. A library. "The girl's rooms are upstairs and to the right," Miss Annie commented, gently nudging the girl ahead. "There's a room waiting for you. Carter can show you around after you've set your things down." 

Nodding numbly, the young girl took her satchel bag back from her friend and made her way up the grand staircase - the kind that belonged in a Shirley Temple movie - with each step bringing with it new anxieties; the hope that it would be everything she dreamed it would be and the fear that either she wouldn't be [i]mutant[/i] enough. 

The room in the wing of women's dorms was unmistakable. A poster of Minnie Mouse was hung on one wall, opposite another depicting characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in the room. Tossing the satchel bag on the bed, Katie took a moment to take stock of the small, cramped, dorm-like space and found the idea of it starkly alien. She was the youngest of four. She'd grown up sharing space with her brothers and sister her whole life. When she'd been transformed by the Kymellians, it had been with her brothers and sister. They had formed [b]Power Pack[/b] together. They'd even saved the world.

And then, at a certain point, they'd stopped. Each for their own reasons. To not have to lie to their parents any more, or to not have to sneak around all the time, or to not worry about how their powers might hurt someone. They'd tried to forget that they were Zero-G, Lightspeed, Mass Master, and Energizer... and just be Alex, Julie, Jack, and Katie.

But ignoring what they could do wasn't going to solve the problem of having powers. If anything, it was liable to make an already uncomfortable situation even worse.

So here she was. But at least she was going to get a tour of just where 'here' was.