Crystal - Seeking Help

[elementalista]

Crystal was new to America and new to New York. The only reason she was here was because, well, she didn't know what else to do.

Being a mutant was so, so hard. The situation for mutants was worse where she was from - she was legitimately afraid for her life - but in New York, some mutants lived and loved openly. Crystal wanted to do that. She wanted to be a person.

Online, she had heard about a kind of outreach sanctuary run by young mutants in the heart of the city. All the talk was very vague (it had to be, to protect the place and everyone who might use it), but everyone she spoke to, even in veiled terms, told Crystal that the people there could help her build a life she could love, if she just went there.

So she went.

She hoped that once her family saw that this wasn't futile, they would join her. Even though right now they didn't believe - believing she was more or less signing a death sentence.

But Crystal had to hope for a better life.

The building was nondescript, but Crystal was sure, somehow, that she had the right address.

She walked in, quietly, taking note of all available exit points, just in case.

Comments

[imperfectstorm]

NASA tested for the x-gene, so Johnny's dreams of one day piloting a shuttle had gone pretty quickly down the tubes. Not that he could blame them, really--having someone who could literally turn into super hot plasma in an enclosed, oxygenated tube floating through space wasn't exactly safe.

And it was probably better for everyone if someone stayed on Earth to keep Sue from taking over the world with giant robots or something.

Starting the sanctuary had been a slow, organic process, and they were able to do more and more for local mutants every year. What began as Johnny trying to help Ben and their other friends with visible mutations just get by had become a precious, desperately-needed resource in a world that didn't seem to changing its mind about mutants. And it had helped Johnny as much as it had helped any of their 'clients', because now he had a purpose.

Johnny was chilling on one of the couches in their common area with his laptop, updating their client database. It was all heavily encrypted, of course, and protected six ways to Sunday. If it weren't so important to keep track of everyone--to make sure no one fell off the grid, to put people in contact with each other for jobs or places to live or just support from people who understood because they had similar powers--he never would have risked it.

When he heard someone come in, he saved what he was doing and locked it down immediately. Better safe than sorry. He set the laptop aside and stood up, though he didn't approach. A lot of people were understandably skittish when they came looking for help. "Hey, I'm Johnny. Can I help you?"

[elementalista]

Could he help her? What a good question. She was wondering the same. He didn't look like the savior of struggling mutants; he looked like an actor, all handsome and American. Crystal had imagined the kindly professor type.

Could he help her? Was she even in the right price? "I don't know," she ventured, wary - glancing back at the door. "I don't know if this is the right place for..." She couldn't say it aloud. She couldn't.

[imperfectstorm]

So far, no one who wasn't supposed to find the sanctuary had found it. Johnny assumed it would happen one day, but there was a balance between keeping everyone safe and being so cautious they couldn't do any good. When the woman trailed off, he had a good idea of what she needed to reassure her. "For people like me?" he offered, holding up a flaming hand.

[elementalista]

Thank god, and also - also - look at his hand! Crystal was no stranger to fire, either - she summoned a flame to rest on the palm of her upturned hand, with the smallest of smiles, as though meeting his challenge. "Yes. Like us."

She had been pretty badass before she became the most hated minority around.

[imperfectstorm]

Very cool. One thing that never got old was seeing all the crazy things one little gene could do, the infinite variation from person to person. Johnny grinned as he flamed off, offering her a now-normal hand. "Like I said, I'm Johnny Storm. I'm one of the people who runs this place."

[elementalista]

"Crystal." She smiled, more confident now, and pressed his hand between both of hers - not a flame, or anything else, in sight. "I heard about this place and I just had to hope it was real."

[imperfectstorm]

"Great to meet you, Crystal. We are, in fact, very real." He gestured her over to the couches so she could sit down. "Would you like something to drink? Eat? Any other immediate needs I can tend to?" He might have been flirting the tiniest bit, but he really did tend to behave himself in the name of making sure people got the help they needed. And in the name of not getting punched. (Again.)

[elementalista]

He wasn't going to get punched this time. Crystal sat, carefully, and wondered what actually counted as an immediate need. Showing up without a place to stay was probably one, but that wasn't exactly something to eat or drink, was it? She shook her head. "Nothing in this moment. I don't really know what you do... just that it's safe here. What kind of needs do you tend to?" If he couldn't help her, she needed to know.

[imperfectstorm]

"Mostly we maintain a network of mutants and mutant-friendly people so mutants can safely find the things they need--jobs, lawyers, counselors, that kind of thing. We run some support groups or help connect people with similar powers so they can learn control. We're...not exactly official, so mostly we just do what we can, when we can." Sometimes people didn't even need that much, they just needed to know that there were people out there like them who were willing to help if they could. "You don't sound like you're from around here. Do you need a place to stay?" Food, clothes, shelter were all immediate needs he could cover.

[elementalista]

What an incredible thing to do. What a brave thing to do, even for a man of fire. What a difficult thing to do. "We?" she asked, curious. He couldn't be doing it alone, right? "I do need a place to stay... I wasn't safe at home and I heard about you, and I decided to see if it would be better here."

[imperfectstorm]

"My best friends started this whole thing with me, and I have a lot of other friends who help out where they can or provide specific services." There was no way Johnny could do any of this alone, not physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially. It took a freaking village.

"We have some living space upstairs we can get you set up in in a couple days." She'd need keys, access codes, that kind of thing. "Until then, we've got a spare room back at our place you can crash in." He'd bought the apartment the three of them had shared and given it to Ben and Tabby, then moved into the apartment across the hall, but he still thought of the whole thing as their place. They were family.

[elementalista]

"Are all of you like this?" Saying the word "mutant" aloud was hard, even though she knew she was in a safe space - and, for better or worse - liked and trusted Johnny almost immediately.

She wondered who the "our" was, idly, if it was the best friends or his own family. "If it's no trouble, that would be..." A relief. A lifeline. An unbelievable gift.

[imperfectstorm]

"Exceedingly pretty AND helpful. Sadly, no." Sure, Johnny could be genuinely cocky at times, but for the most part he used it to lighten the mood, make people laugh. He wasn't always good at taking sincere compliments. "It's no problem, really. Do you have things stashes somewhere we need to grab, or are you it?"

[elementalista]

"You're saving my life," Crystal told him, "Not just being helpful." She said it with a smile, but she meant it.

"I'm all I have," she confirmed.

[imperfectstorm]

"Don't worry, we'll put you to work helping the next person soon enough." Everyone took what they needed and gave what they could. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was far better than nothing. "Then I'll lock up and we can get out of here." They had their security systems set up to let them know if anyone came looking for help when no one was around. Keeping the place manned 24/7 just wasn't feasible. Yet. Maybe one day.

[elementalista]

It sounded like a perfect system to Crystal. A utopia of human kindness. "You don't need to stay here?"

[imperfectstorm]

"We have alerts set up if anyone comes by. And I don't live that far." He could always flame on and fly back if there were an emergency, but one desperate walk-in a day was usually their max. Once everything was locked up, he led her in the direction of the apartment. "You don't need any medical attention, do you? If so, I have a healer friend I can have meet us there." Crystal didn't look like she was hurt or sick, but it wasn't always easy to tell.

[elementalista]

"No, I'm healthy." Just exhausted from stress and sadness and travel. "Tell me more about the friends you have."

[imperfectstorm]

"Good." The fewer people Jess had to be inflicted upon, the better. "Ben and his partner Tabby started all this with me. You'll probably meet them tonight or tomorrow, depending on what they're up to. My sister and her boyfriend are science geniuses who come in seriously handy sometimes but don't come out of their labs unless forced, usually." They'd started their own sort of under the radar thinktank that got funds from...who knows where, honestly. Johnny didn't ask, Sue didn't tell. "The others are friends from college or people we met doing this kind of thing, pretty much."

[elementalista]

A whole group of people with mutations, friends with each other and helping each other? "At home, you'd all be killed," she murmured.

[imperfectstorm]

"We still have targets on our backs, but we're lucky that the government hasn't sanctioned those targets just yet." Johnny hoped and prayed it never got that bad. "Is it just you, or do you have family back home who are mutants too?"

[elementalista]

So did Crystal. She didn't know what she would do if she lost the one place that seemed to be, well, not good, but sort of progressive. "It's my family. My whole family. They don't believe that things are better here. I want to prove that it is and then bring them here."

Who knows if that could happen.

[imperfectstorm]

"That's rough, I'm sorry." Though, really, it was Johnny's whole family, too. Just not all of his family was related to him. "Are they passing?" She made it sound like if they weren't, they'd be dead by now.

[elementalista]

She shrugged. "Passing or hiding. Taking as few risks as possible. It's easier for me. I don't look like one."

[imperfectstorm]

"My sister and I pass. Tabby passes. Ben doesn't." That was an understatement. "You can get image inducers on the black market, but they're expensive. Sue and Reed have been working on trying to develop less expensive versions, but it's hard."