Issue 1 Downtime

Sidney steps out of the check-out line, stopping to survey the room, trying to decide which table she should claim. She finally settles on one in the corner and heads over, putting her tray down and sitting down next to whoever's at the table already.


((open))

"Hey." Isabel said as she sat down.

" 'Sup."

"Not much. I'm Isabel, nice to meet you."

"I'm Sid. And this is kind of the cool people zone." she gestures at the table.

"Obviously." Isabel said "you can tell, because I'm sitting here."

She seems somewhat satisfied with that answer and pulls her tray in a bit to give Isabel some actual room to eat.

"XI or XU?" Isabel asked "I don't give a crap, but its the thing to ask."

"Is it? What does that even mean?"

"High School or College." Isabel clarified "I think people mostly ask so they can avoid jailbait."

"Creepy. You're not hitting on me, are you?" she narrows her eyes at Isabel.

"Nope. Just letting you know why it'll come up so much. For question everyone asks number two, what is your superpower?"

"Check it." She grabs a fork from her tray and slams it in the back of her hand, wincing despite her best efforts. She pulls the fork back out and the holes in her skin almost immediately close up again.

"Healing factor." Isabel said "You're now one of my favorite people at this damn school."

"Well yeah."

"Why though?"

"Hold out your hand." Isabel said "Not hitting on you, I promise."

"Alright, but I got my eye on you." she says, staring at Isabel before she laughs it off and holds out her hand.

Isabel took the poffered, and dumped a sprained ankle, two broken collar bones, and a case of chlamydia into Sidney. "Thats why."

Sidney jerks back when her collarbone snaps into pieces, letting out a scream. "The fuck!" She jumps up with her arm hanging down at her side and immediately falls down when her ankle gives, making her slam her head against the table on her way down.

It takes a couple seconds and a hand grabs the table again, followed by the rest of her pulling herself up again. Her foot already seems fine again and her shoulder is pulling up again as the bones reset themselves. "That bloody hurt!"

"Shit." Isabel said "Sorry about that."

"The hell did you do to me!?"

"I dumped a bunch of injuries into you." Isabel said, looking horribly embarrassed and ashamed.

"Oh gee, yeah, that explains fucking everything." she says, holding her shoulder.

"Its the way my power works." Isabel said "I can heal people, but I have to move the injuries to someone or something else."

"So I just healed some assholes injuries for them?"

"No, you just kept me from having to get those injuries myself, or dump them into a rat."

"You could have dumped them into a rat instead!?"

"My rats don't have a healing factor."

"Yeah. That's cause they're rats!"

"They can feel pain!"

"Oh yeah, I can't imagine what that'd be like." she glares at Isabel.

"And its a couple minutes later, and you're better." Isabel said "Besides, you just stabbed your hand for kicks, I didn't think it'd bug you if I demonstrated what I can do."

"Yeah. Sticking a fork in my hand stings. You shattered my collar!"

"Yeah." Isabel said "Look, I'm really sorry."

"Those better be some fucking grateful rats."

"You want to meet them?" Isabel asked "They're really awesome."

"That sounds incredibly lame."

"Only if you've never had pet rats."

"Yeah I think maybe you shouldn't snuggle with them so much if you're supposed to kill them with car-crash cancer AIDS."

"I can't do cancer." Isabel said, almost automatically "And...I dunno, if I'm going to kill them, or hurt them, I should care about them. Because if I don't give a crap, then I really am a monster."