Discovery 1.6

The family's old Toyota Corolla only stopped speeding when it came across the odd stop light, and even then, her Mom only slowed down. Not that there was a real need to stop. There wasn't a soul around this far in the middle of nowhere. Now, seeing the world around her in the full daylight with her wits about her, it really struck Anna just how 'in the middle of nowhere' they were. To her left and right there was nothing but pine trees only occasionally broken up with a sign for a rest stop or bridge. She may have seen an animal or two, but it was hard to tell with how fast they were bolting down the largely abandoned highway. Along their trek, Anna would steal a glance or two over the rear seat and out the back window, but there wasn't another car for miles along the relatively straight road behind them. When she felt the prying eyes of her mother sticking in her back through the rear mirror, Anna would sit back down in her seat quietly and trace her thumb along the length of the pen stowed away in her sleeve.

Finally, a sign screaming 'Annie's Diner' splayed across gross-looking yellow plastic housed in a metal frame whizzed up on the right-hand side. Raven took the right into the parking lot and narrowly missed jumping the curb inside. She had barely turned off the car before sliding out of the driver seat, opening the rear door, and holding out her hand. "Let's go, Anna. He's been waiting long enough."

"Will you just-"

Her Mom didn't wait for Anna to reach out and meet her hand, instead, she clutched her hand and half dragged her out of the back seat. By the time she was slid out into the parking lot, her Mah, Irene, had joined them. Her Mom ran her hands over Anna's hair, pulling the individual strands out of her face. "Okay honey, please remember your manners and don't speak unless spoken to. Let me do most of the talking."

Anna blinked. "Am I meeting the damn Pope or something?"

Raven snapped her fingers in Anna's face, something she had never done before. "Anna, please! Please, just listen." She took her by the hand and pulled her away from the car.

They stopped before a pair of big glass doors with shiny diagonal push bars. Her Mom pushed one of the doors in and pushed Anna inside. When she stepped through the threshold the cool air that funneled through a small AC somewhere hit her sweaty brow. She could smell bacon grease and the stench of stale black coffee sitting on a burner for too long. Before her was a long bar with every barstool filled with men and women of varying sizes. To her left and right, along the wall of the diner, were squat red booths with white tables. Like the bar, every single seat was filled with trucker-looking folk with ball caps and flannel shirts. Well, all the tables were filled except for one at the very rear that conveniently escaped the long rays of the sunlight cast from the diner's many windows. A waitress, tall and lean, smiled down at her.

"Welcome to Annie's!" She looked beyond Anna and back down to her. "Are y'all the table of three we were expecting?"

"Yes." Her Mom said crisply, eyes already fixed on the lone empty booth.

"Very well." The woman made to grab some menus but her Mom waved her hand.

"We won't be needing menus."

"Already know whatcha want?" The well-meaning waitress smiled and waved for them to follow her. It was only when they arrived at the booth that Anna finally saw that it wasn't vacant. 

 "Here are the little stragglers!" The waitress said playfully to, what Anna could now see, was a man. His face and figure was largely awash in shadow aside from the shallow reflection of light off the tabletop.

"Very good to see you all finally join us." His voice had a crackle and roll to it like embers snapping off a fire. She could just see the profile of his well-sculpted face as he looked up at the waitress. "Three coffees, please."

"Yes, sir!" She said with a click of her yellow heels and darted off behind them.

No one in Anna's family claimed a seat in the booth after the woman left. Instead, Anna stood staring down at him, she could feel her Mom's hand resting on her shoulder - still as glass. Just as she was staring down at him, she could feel him weighing every ounce of her with his own eyes. She suddenly became aware of every square inch of fabric resting against her skin, how much and how long she was breathing, how many times she had blinked in the past few seconds. Finally, after what could have been a minute or an hour, he raised his hand and waved them over. Anna was pushed into the booth opposing the man and her Mom joined her side. Irene made to join at the man's side but he grabbed her by the arm, stopping her. "Your job here is done, Destiny." He said smoothly, cooly. "I have no further need of your particular services here."

Anna watched her Mah halt like a statue, her arm trembling under his grip. "Sir. Please - if I may - she is my daughter too -"

"I don't need more ears listening than there already are. You will be made aware of the situation afterward."

She ducked her head. "Yes sir." She said, all the bite lost in her voice, and like that, she extended her cane and walked back the other way. A moment later Anna heard the door chime from the front door. Anna felt her stomach form into a rock inside her abdomen. Never had anyone gotten away with talking to Irene Adler like that. She had once seen her Mah threaten to beat a boy her age with her cane for calling her a 'blind old bat' at a PTA meeting in the fifth grade. From the way she said it then, Anna had no doubt her Mah would have too, if her other Mom wasn't there to stop her. Then for her Mah just to get dismissed by some… man.

"I want to apologize for the wait, sir." She could feel her Mom go stiff as a board next to her. Her hands folded neatly in her lap. "I sincerely hope you weren't waiting long."

"It wasn't long at all. In fact, I-" The man was cut off as the waitress arrived with three steaming mugs of coffee and set them down in front of each person as well as a bundle of silverware wrapped in a paper napkin.

"May I get y'all anything else?"

The man reached into his suit jacket. "No, I think we will be fine for a while." He pulled out a folded bill and passed it to her between two fingers.

She opened the bill. "Oh sorry, sir. I don't know if I can break a-"

"The rest is a tip."

Her eyes went wide. "Oh my gosh! Th-Thank you that's so -"

"You're welcome, miss. Now if you don't mind -"

She looked between them and lingered on Anna. "Kid, you got a great dad!" With that, she half walked, half ran to an ancient-looking register behind the counter.

Anna's eyes fell from where the woman was, back to the man sitting across from her.

"Sorry about that." He said and leaned forward, and for the first time, she could see his face in the light. His skin was largely pale but in a way that was neither off-putting nor particularly attractive. His face looked seasoned like it had been battered by multiple summer tannings and several cutting winter breezes. His jaw was long and angular and his cheeks looked like squares with canvases of skin stretched over them. His eyes were gray, like hers, and his hair was slicked back and white with light streaks of gray around the temples. In the light now, she could make out the top half of a dark suit with a tasteful dark blue tie. A pair of hands appeared and the elbows they were attached to came to rest on the tabletop.

"Anna Marie Adler." He said her name as if announcing the title of a book he was about to read out loud. "It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

Anna became aware of how dry her mouth was when she tried to shape it into a word. When she tried to speak, nothing but hot air left her lips and then she swallowed.

The man didn't notice, or if he did he didn't care. He plucked a couple of cups of creamer from the small pile cradled in a little dish, peeled back the flimsy film lids, and poured them into his mug. "My name is Erik Magnus Lehnsherr." He looked up at her, his eyes glinting like two diamonds. "Do you like cream and sugar in your coffee?"

She looked down at his hands, unable to meet his stare. "Sugar is fine."

He ripped open two packets of sugar he sourced from a small plastic feeder and poured them into her coffee. Her eyes went wide as a spoon magically lifted from her bundle of utensils and started quickly spinning in her mug as if there was an invisible hand willing it. When the coffee was sufficiently mixed with the sugar, the spoon rose again, held in place till it stopped dripping, then slid back with her bundle of silverware.

"I understand you have had quite the hellacious past few days."

She nodded slowly, staring at the spoon.

The man, Erik, rested his weight on his elbows and clasped his hands together. "I'm sorry that's been the case. It's never easy when it first starts. And for it to be such a spectacle."

"Destiny tried to warn me, sir." Her Mom spoke up. "I claim full responsibility for what happened."

The fingers of his right hand went ridged. "It's no ones fault, Mystique. This sort of thing rarely happens at a convenient time. It's just… unfortunate she had to witness the hatred of man so quickly."

"If I had known-"

"It's hard for any of us to know when 'exactly' when it comes to Destiny." Erik said, the stench of sarcasm heavy on the word 'exactly'. "I've been having to rely upon our agents in the field more and more lately when it comes to new Gifted, but -" He lowered his hands to the table. "That is beyond the bounds of this particular meeting."

He looked back at Anna. Being back under his gaze was like being blasted with the brights of a car. "Well, young lady, let me be the first to welcome you among the ranks of Homo-superior. A few days ago, you were but another girl living a dreary life, destined for a lackluster living till you eventually ended up in the ground like every other knuckle-dragging person who takes pride in the title 'normal'. Today, you are amongst the superior species. The next stage in human evolution." He nodded his head, somewhat solemnly. "We have been fortunate, in your case, to have found you quickly. Uniquely to you, we knew you were destined to be amongst us thanks to your mothers. And thanks to them you have been able to be largely sheltered and guided along your path. Many don't make it this far."

Anna dared to meet his eyes. "What… does that mean?"

He folded one hand over the other on the table. "You've already had the misfortune of seeing it first hand, have you not? When your unfortunate incident occurred with that boy. Let me ask you this, did anyone hesitate to jump at your throat when it happened?"

Anna felt the muscles in her shoulders stitch tightly together as she thought about that night, about that kiss, about the rush of adrenaline, about Cody falling - seemingly lifeless - to the ground at her feet. The sound of his body hitting the floor was deafening. Every eye at the dance was on her. Then, within moments, the teachers were upon her and it was only with Cody's strength, she knows now, that she was able to escape.

"Let me ask you, Anna. Did the authorities ever stop to 'just talk?' Or were they upon you like wolves circling a lost lamb?"

Like that, she was back in the cemetery, hiding in the mausoleum. Flashing lights of reds and blues reflected off the freshly fallen puddles of rainwater within. She heard the sirens again, the shouting. She remembered feeling fear like she had never before.

Erik picked up a suitcase that had been sitting next to him in the booth and set it gently on the table. He popped the gold latches, fished for something inside, and withdrew a manila envelope. "When I say, 'many don't make it this far,' I mean many children your age aren't permitted to keep their lives when they have incidents such as yours." He peeled back the envelope's cover page, spun it around, and pushed it towards Anna.

A smiling boy with a lightly freckled face and thick-rimmed glasses looked up at her.

"His name was Anthony Parker. Like you, he was 16 when he developed his abilities. He could produce a sonic blast if he spoke within a certain frequency. He discovered his gift while at a roller rink in 1981 with his friends. He was talking with his crush, then suddenly a quarter of the rink was blown away by a blast he generated. The girl lost her right forearm and had partial hearing loss in her right ear. Everyone else in the party was shaken but largely unhurt. Anthony, however, ran and was shot in the back by police and killed." Erik turned the black and white photo and revealed another photo depicting a grizzly-looking crime scene. Anna couldn't help but look away.

Erik turned the page again. A happy dark skinned girl with wide eyes and a wider smile looked up at her. "Simone Roth, aged 15. A plucky girl from Northern California, who loved to play lacrosse. During a match one day, her ability - self-combustion - manifested. During a play, another girl got a little too rough, and Simone's skin bubbled till she seemingly exploded. When the smoke cleared, Simone's clothes were largely in taters, but she was fine. The other girl received burns, but would later make a full recovery. A medical team was summoned as well as the police. Simone was put on trial and convicted in an adult court for 'armed assault.' She was placed in prison and never heard from again."

Erik turned the page. "Gregory-"

"Please -" Anna muttered, her words thick with budding tears. "Please stop."

"You understand -" Erik said folding his arms over one another on the table. "This is what we find ourselves against as Gifted. Discrimination and hatred. The authorities would see our children executed before they would even consider trying to understand them - or understand us. It doesn't stop with gun-toting police officers either, I'm afraid." He pulled the envelope back and pealed through a few pages. "Our kind has been bubbling to the surface steadily over the past hundred or so years, and certain government entities have become aware of our existence. My agents in the field have uncovered these -"

He laid the folder back out to reveal a photo-copied blueprint of some sort of robot. Anna leaned forward. "I don't understand."

He pointed at the photo with a ridged finger. "These are designs for the latest development in killing machines specially curated for our kind. Bullets, rockets, and other projectiles don't work on all Gifted, so our would-be killers had to start getting creative. They call it the 'Sentinel Project.'"

"They're making these things… just to kill us?"

"Yes, and they're doing more than that. But this is hardly the place to discuss such things." He closed the envelope and tucked it back away into his suitcase. "It's a harsh reality you find yourself in Anna, but the good news is that you're not in this alone. You are a part of the Brotherhood now, and we are gaining more power by the day. Soon, you and your peers won't have to live in fear of the pests that walk this earth as the so-called 'dominate' species."

Anna could feel her heart beating in her chest, her breath catching in her throat, but she forced the words out despite. "How do you plan to do that."

Erik secured his suitcase with a click. "By any means necessary." He looked at her mother and back at her. "We've discussed where you'll be going from here and we decided it we best to start your training in our base in Southern New York. There you will be trained in the proper use of your abilities. Fortunately, I have a position open there for an agent, so your mother will be joining you up North. Upon completing your training, we will evaluate how you will best be utilized in The Brotherhood."

"You said, my 'mother-'"

"Yes, Raven." Erik held up his hand towards her Mom, and she didn't react. Instead, she continued staring at the cooling coffee in front of her.

"What about Ma-, um, what about Irene?"

Erik sucked in a breath through his nose and straightened his back. "I think she will be plenty happy here for the time being." He scooted out of the booth and stood out of his seat. From where he was, he towered like a giant over them.

"It's been a pleasure making your acquaintance, Anna." He grabbed his suitcase and picked it up off the table. "And welcome to The Brotherhood of Mutants."