Chapter 11

Chapter 111

(a few days before Hemet struck)2

There are two kinds of mutants on this planet. The first kind, are the kind that have powers that came to them during, or shortly before or after puberty. They have it in their DNA. The second kind, aren’t actually mutants. They are the kind whose powers are induced by something, such as radiation, poisonous gas, alien technology or something of the like. The second kind, don’t necessarily have to wait until puberty to get their powers.3

This young mans name was Tyler Ward-Osborne, he was around 14 years old when Hemet attacked, and he was the second kind. His parents had still lived after the brutalities of Hemet Methias, because they were not mutants. They were an average family, and Tyler was a dancer. He trained very hard, and very frequently, until one day, there was an accident. His older brother was driving him home from practice, and they were hit by another car. His brother died, but Tyler himself barely lived with several shattered vertebrae. His back was injured beyond human repair. Tyler was rendered to be in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. That’s when his family met a doctor who said that he may be able to make him walk again, or even better, dance again. Tyler was put into surgery under this doctor. The doctor put in a special piece of metal where Tyler had a broken vertebra near the small of his back. The piece of metal had a single red light on it. As soon as the artificial vertebra was in place, it fused to his bones. Tyler’s body began to change. He lost all of his muscles, and joints. They were all replaced by pure energy. He gained a rubber like skin, which was thicker, but still looked normal from the outside. He had full range of mobility in all of his joints, and could dislocate them about two centimeters. He gained super human strength and speed. He had become an unnatural mutant. Neither Tyler nor his parents knew this yet.4

Tyler went home unconscious because of the drugs used to put him to sleep. His parents tucked him into his bed for a sound sleep.5

The next morning, Tyler woke up, and made his way clumsily down to the kitchen where his parents were eating breakfast.6

“Mom, Dad, I don’t feel right.” He said, and collapsed on the floor with his different body parts spontaneously scattered where they shouldn’t have been able to bend.7

His parents gasped, and ran franticly to the sink to throw cold water on his face to wake him up. His mother was still recovering from the shock.8

“Are you alright?” his father said.9

“Actually, I feel great!” he replied as he made his way up to his feet brushing the dust off of his shirt.10

“Are you kidding?” his mother said, “You are staying home today, and you will stay home until we figure out what is wrong with you!”11

“But Mom!”12

“My decision is final! You go upstairs and get into your bed! I’m going to call that doctor!”13

Tyler shifted the bottom half of his body around, which was eventually followed by the top, and he awkwardly made his way back up the stairs into his room where he stayed for three days straight, with the occasional food and beverage.14

He experimented with this new found force within, and found what he could do. One time, he was looking for his Game Boy, and he wanted to look under his bed. Without even thinking about it, he lifted his bed up above his head to find the Game Boy lying there. He tossed his bed into the air, picked up the Game Boy, caught the bed and put it back down quietly. About ten minutes later, he realized what he had done. On another occasion in this three day period, he wanted to see how well he could dance, now that his back was “in tact”. He went over to hold on to his wall, and kicked his leg to the side. It went behind his head, and his knee bent the wrong way, and his foot wound up where his butt was. He put his foot back on the floor, which he wasn’t expecting to be able to do, and tried again. The same thing happened. Tyler was shocked. He found that all of his body had full 360 degree range in all three dimensions as long as another body part wasn’t in its way. He found that he could move his whole body at incredible speeds. He found that he could shoot energy from his hands, and make things made with metal levitate, and even control them. He found that he wasn’t the same Tyler as he was before.15

Tyler, one evening, decided to go tell his parents about all that he had discovered, and told them of a school that he had been researching since he found his incredible powers.16

“Mom, Dad, I’ve been in my room for the past three days, and I’ve found that I can do some weird things with my body.”17

“Son,” his dad said, “You know you can always talk to us about pubescent issues…”18

“NO DAD!!! Not like that! I think that I’m an ‘unnatural mutant’.”19

“That doesn’t sound like any son of mine!”20

“Watch,” he said, and went over to the pool table in his living room and lifted it with barely a grunt.21

His parents said nothing, but stood gaping at their 14 year old son lifting a pool table.22

“Do you see what I mean now?” he said.23

His parents were still speechless.24

“I’ve been doing some research on places where they can help me with my… uhh… ‘condition’,” he said as he put the table back in place, “and there’s this place called SMTM, the School for Mentoring and Tutoring Mutants. It’s free, and it’s boarding, which means you wouldn’t have to pay for my room or anything! I don’t have full control over what I do yet, as you’ve probably seen. I’m wobbling all over the place, and I can hardly stand sometimes. I need this kind of help.”25

“What exactly do you do?” asked his mom.26

“Well… Can I get you anything to drink?”27

“What?!” his mom said.28

“No really, do you want something to drink?”29

“Sure,” his dad said, “I’ll have a Coke.”30

“Ok.” said Tyler, and raised his hand toward the metal refrigerator that was about ten feet away to open the door, and found a Coca Cola can. He grabbed it, so to speak, and began to move it toward his dad. Unfortunately he made it hit the corner of a counter, and it exploded.31

“Woops! I’ll get that.” he said and went into the cupboard to get a mop. “But do you see what I mean? I can also jump about two stories into the air, and run really, really, really fast.”32

“How do you know about that?!” his mom asked.33

“I kind of jumped out of my window, and made it back by jumping back in.”34

“When did you do this?”35

“The other day while you were at work.”36

“Are you crazy?”37

“Maybe… But seriously mom, think about it. I could be a super hero!”38

“That’s what I’m worried about.”39

“Why Mom?”40

“I don’t want my only other child to die!”41

“At least let me go and see what it’s like?”42

“Absolutely not! You can develop you’re… ‘powers’ here at home! They would probably help around the house anyways! Now go to bed! Your father and I are going to discuss this. We’re a little bit uneasy right now. We will see you in the morning.”43

“Fine!” Tyler said and went back up to his room.44

“I don’t see what you’re so soar about honey.” said Tyler’s father after he thought Tyler had made it back up to his room.45

“You would be the kind to say that wouldn’t you? Come on sweetheart, think about what just happened. I would also be worried about him using these new found abilities for evil instead of good!”46

“You don’t have very much faith in the person that you raised do you?”47

“That’s not what I said!”48

“But it is what you implied.”49

Little did either of them know, but Tyler was at the edge of the stairs listening to this conversation. He had heard enough, so he went to his room. 50

When he got back to his room he started packing a backpack with a couple of days of changes of clothes. He made absolute sure to pack all of his dance clothes, and his toothpaste and toothbrush, and jumped out the window again. Luckily, he knew exactly where this school was due to his extensive research. He knew it would take a couple days, but he was ready. With his new found super speed, he could run almost anywhere. He started crawling at around 600 mph. He would be on the campus in a couple of days where he would meet our five heroes and their headmaster on their first day of school.51