Collective Mutants: Fire and Shadow

By Rossi

"Are you sure this girl's okay? She's not some axe murderer or something?"

It was a sunny spring day, the kind of day that brings office workers out of their buildings during lunch, blinking like owls or computer hackers in the bright light. Lygon Street was doing a brisk afternoon trade, the footpaths of Carlton's famous "foodie strip" crowded with open-air tables and scurrying waiters. Gary Ferguson was finding his long black coat a mite too warm, but he wasn't about to forego cred for comfort. He rolled his eyes at his young country cousin, but the expression was lost behind the sunglasses.

"Of course she's okay. As if I'd set you up to be sucked in by a cult or something."

Allison coloured slightly, and tossed her long blonde ponytail. "It just sounds a bit too easy, that's all, " she grumbled. "I mean, this girl in your class just happens to have a room in her house at the exact same time I'm looking for somewhere to live? And she just happens to be a mutant herself? Sounds suss to me."

"Is being paranoid some new mutant power of yours?" Gary sighed. "Look, Karen's all right. A bit of a radical, but she's not a complete freak. This house she's living in was set up by a bunch of mutants who got sick of the crap they had to put up with. One of the others is leaving, so she needs a new housemate. It's a student house -they move a lot." Gary peered down at Allison over the top of his sunglasses. "You do want to move out of our place, don't you?"

"If I don't, your mother is going to send me bonkers," Allison admitted reluctantly. "But."

"But what? Not scared are you?"

"Of course not!"

"Right then. She said she's meet us in here." With that, Gary abruptly changed direction, heading into a dimly-lit café. Hand unconsciously plucking at the inhibitor collar around her neck, Allison hesitated briefly before following, blinking furiously to adjust her eyes to the gloom after the bright sunshine. She almost bumped into Gary as he stopped at a table.

"Hi, Gary! Good to see you!" Shielded for the moment by her cousin's bulk, Allison noted the girl's voice was light and friendly and somehow honest-sounding. It was a reassuring thought.

"Hey Karen," Gary shifted aside, removing Allison's protection. "This is Allison, my cousin. She's interested in the room. Allison, this is Karen Perkins."

'Oh wow, she's gorgeous,' was Allison's first thought, quickly followed by; 'Shit, I hope she's not a telepath.' There was no indication that Karen had heard either thought, however, as Allison stuttered a greeting and slid into a seat opposite the girl with the smooth brown skin and wide sunny smile. Dressed in T-shirt and baggy cotton pants, Karen somehow managed to exude a poise supermodels would kill for. She was, like Gary, a couple of years older than Allison, a first year law student at the university, but she made Allison feel like an awkward school girl, fresh off the farm. No matter that this was true; Allison didn't like feeling like a hick.

"I'll leave you to it then," Gary said, already turning to go. "I've got some work to do. I'll see you later."

'Bastard,' Allison thought angrily at his departing back. The prospect of being left alone with this strange girl was daunting, even for the dauntless Allison, and Gary had said he'd help her out. Her fingers crept up to the collar again.

"Relax, mate, I won't bite," Karen said with another of those warm smiles, the sort that made Allison feel she was basking in sunshine.

"I'm okay." Allison's reply was a little too quick. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the waiter approached. After she had stammered out a request for a Coke, the waiter giving her one of those superior waiter-ish smirks as he left, she blushed again and grinned wryly. "All right, I'm a bit nervous."

"If it's any help, I am too." Karen stirred her coffee, looking anything but. "Gary taking off like that didn't help. No manners, that boy."

"Mutants make him nervous," explained Allison with a shrug. "He tolerates me, but that's about it. He can be a bit of an arsehole, but at least he's trying to help me out."

"I was surprised he had the nerve to talk to me about you; before last week, he'd never said more than two words to me all semester." With a wave of her hand, Karen changed the subject. "How long have you been in Melbourne?"

"Since May. About four months. Three and a half months too long, if you ask me."

"You don't like it here?"

"Not really." The waiter returned with Allison's drink, and she took a long sip, considering. "I'd much rather be home with my folks. We own a sheep farm out near Hamilton." Allison sighed, watching the bubbles rising in her glass. "But after my 'accident' during the town show, I'm not exactly popular there right now. Mum and Dad sent me down here to stay with my uncle and aunt, hoping I'd find somewhere to learn to control my powers. Or at least keep out of harm's way."

"Is that why you're wearing the collar?" Karen's eyes were unreadable as she sipped her coffee.

"My aunt's idea. If you think Gary's bad, you should see his mum. Two steps away from FoH rallies and burning "X's" on the front lawn." Allison's strong brown fingers fiddled with the metal collar. "She wouldn't let me in the house unless I agreed to wear this."

"And what do your parents think of it?"

"They don't know. 'Bout the collar, I mean. I haven't told them, and Aunt Gwen sure as hell isn't going to. They've got enough on their plates at the moment, what with the drought, and me and everything. I would have moved out sooner, only I couldn't afford to -Aunt Gwen let me stay rent-free, provided I cleaned the place up and baby-sat after school. But as soon as I learn to control my powers, I'm going back home." Allison paused for breath, and looked at Karen suspiciously. "I don't normally run on like that. Did you do something?"

"Not in the way you mean," laughed Karen, not in the least offended. She was intrigued by this girl who was such a strange mixture of shyness and forthrightness. "My powers don't work that way. People just talk to me, maybe because they find me a good listener. Perhaps you needed to let that all out."

"So what _are_ your powers?" Karen's grin turned mischievous.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"What, here? In public? Is that allowed?"

"_Especially_ here. If we're afraid to be what we are in public, we do the bigots' job for them." Karen leaned forward, her face alight with passionate intensity. "By hiding what you are, by wearing that collar, you're as good as admitting you don't exist." Allison squirmed uncomfortably, and sensing she was pushing things too hard, Karen leaned back. "Okay, I'll go first. I manipulate shadows."

"You do what?"

"Watch." A small frown dented the smooth skin between Karen's eyebrows as she focussed her concentration on the table in front of them. Slowly, tendrils of darkness slithered up the table legs from the shadowy floor. Allison barely restrained the urge to yelp as one of them tickled her bare legs -its touch was icy cold. The shadows melded together on the table top, slowly taking on another shape, long wings and a beak like a spear and graceful stilt-like legs. The shadow-bird danced on the table, leaping and spinning, and Allison grinned, delighted. Gradually she noticed as a hush came over the café, other patrons noticing the small performance and watching, entranced. Then, with a small tired sigh, Karen let go of the shadows, and they drained away to their normal places again. There were some glares, and a smattering of applause.

"See?" Karen smiled at Allison. "No lynch mob. No abuse. You shouldn't spend your life being ashamed of what you are, just because of a few rednecks."

"Yeah, but."

"Look, I've already decided I want you in the house. But there's a condition."

"What condition?"

"You take that thing off and throw it in the rubbish today."

"But my powers. I need this to control them."

"Listen to yourself. It's a crutch. As long as you wear an inhibiting collar, you'll never learn to do it yourself. You'll be trapped into using it for your whole life. Do you want that?" Allison slowly shook her head. "I know a place, a sort of mutant community centre. They have people there who can help you learn to control it. But I won't have collars in the house. You have to be yourself."

Time stopped still for Allison. What Karen was asking. it was terrifyingly simple. Take off the hated collar. Be herself. But there was more behind the collar than four months of her aunt's sly prejudice, her uncle's reluctant resignation, her cousins' sneers. It was the year and a half before that spent hiding her mutancy from her friends, her family, her community. Be herself? She wasn't sure who that was. Biting her lip, she looked up and met Karen's warm brown eyes. They held compassion, faith, trust. Trust in someone she'd only just met. Could Allison meet that trust?

Allison's hands shook slightly as she reached up to the latch at the back of the collar. A single click, and it hung loose. Deliberately, she took it off, laying it on the table between them. Her fingers left scorch marks on the wood, her powers surging to the surface as if glad to be free.

Karen's smile was a supernova in its brilliance.

"I knew you could do it, mate. You want to go see the house?"

The End.

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