Issue 1 Downtime

Aisha was sitting on a bench, reading a book. People were walking around, not paying attention to her, but since she was off by herself, she felt much less alone.

Ryan descended from the sky, coming down to perch on one of the nice shade trees that the school had strategically placed within the grounds. He balanced, birdlike out of habit, on the branch, seeming to relax a bit.

Then he frowned, looking around, his eyes glowing faintly as he looked down at the bench, then smiled. "Hi, Aisha."

"What!?!" she said, jumping a little "You saw me? Did you see me?"

He gave her an apologetic look, not having expected to get her that excited. "Not with my eyes, and I'm pretty sure that's what you mean."

"Oh." she said with a little sigh "Hello Mr. Gabriel."

He smiled as he hopped down, landing lightly next to the bench from the drop. "Do I really look that old?"

"You're older than I am." Aisha replied "and you aren't a student."

"I'm not THAT much older than you," he said, taking a seat on the bench (and seeming to know where was a polite but not overcautious distance from her). "And it's not like I'm a teacher or anything."

"Ok, what should I call you?"

"Well, my mom named me 'Ryan,' so I'm kind of partial to that," he said, smiling at her (and not looking past her or through her as others would tend to do).

"Ok." Aisha said "How can you see me? You can see me, right?"

"Well, if I ignore my eyes, which has been taking a lot of practice, I can see anything that's alive. Sort of. Or really, I can see the energy inside them. I can see it in the grass, I can see it in the trees, I can see it in the birds and the insects and the animals, I can see it in the people, and I can, of course, see it in you."

"Oh, so its just a mutant thing." Aisha said, sounding disappointed.

"Well, if you want, I can pretend I can't see you, would that be better?" Ryan asked dryly. He smiled a little as he glanced over at her, it seeming rather clear that he'd do no such thing.

"No, it isn't that." Aisha said "I just keep hoping that one day, I'll be visible again."

"You haven't been here very long," Ryan pointed out. "It just seems like it. They'll be able to help you get it under control."

"Its getting a little better." Aisha replied "I can keep things that I touch from going invisible."

"Well, then there you go. That's progress, you just have to keep with it. Next thing you know, we'll see your clothes walking around, then we'll see you in them," he said with a little grin.

"That would be nice." Aisha said.

"It will be, yeah," Ryan said. "So... in the meantime, how are you holding up?"

"Ok, I guess."

He smiled a little. "Wow, that totally reassures me that you're feeling all right and don't need someone to talk to."

"I have roommates." Aisha said "They're ok."

"Well, okay. If everything's fine, everything's fine," Ryan said diplomatically. "I'm just saying... I know how it is. I've seen a lot and I've been through a lot, and that's why I asked to stay here. So, you know, if you're ever bored and want to talk to someone..." Yes, it might be a little obvious what he was really saying, but he knew how good it was to let people her age save face when they were trying to act tough.

"Thanks." Aisha said "But it really isn't a big deal."

Ryan chuckled at that. "So? Why does something have to be a big deal to talk about it?"

'"No, not really, but sometimes it seems like its all I talk about."

"All right, fair enough," he said, conceding the point. "How's your family been?"

"They're doing really well." Aisha replied "They miss me, and I miss them, but right now, this is the best place for me."

He smiled sadly and nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. First time she was old enough to figure out I was leaving for school, my sister thought it was something like breaking the Geneva conventions."

"My brother was jealous, honestly." Aisha said "He thought it'd be totally cool to be a mutant. He said I should wear a suit like Dust, and get people to call me 'Stealth'."

"Well, my sister's only four, so she hasn't quite progressed to 'jealousy.' Give it some time," he said with a grin.

"Is she a mutant too?" Aisha asked "Or is it too soon to tell?"

"No, she is. There... was an accident when she was a baby. She lost her voice and it triggered her early. SO now she babbles in our heads instead of in our ears."

"I'm so sorry." Aisha said "Its a blessing that she's a telepath, though."

"I know," he sighed, nodding. "Thankfully, she was so young that nothing about it seems strange to her."

"Yeah." Aisha said "Sometimes I think it would be easier if we were all born with our mutations active, but then I think that chasing a invisible toddler would have made my parents crazy."

"I can see that leading to a lot of gray hairs," Ryan said, smirking. "And here I thought a winged toddler would have been bad."

"A winged toddler would be awful." Aisha replied.

"Oh, definitely," Ryan said. "When my mom was pregnant, my dad decided to screw with her and told her he'd had a vision- he's precognative, right? So he says he had a vision that the baby's going to have wings. Totally makes it sound like I'm going to be born with them. So she spends a month going around and flying-babyproofing the house. I guess she was planning on keeping me on a leash a good chunk of the time along with all the other crazy stuff she had to do... apparently it was pretty hillarious watching her get out ladders to take care of sharp edges that were close to the ceiling."