Harry was not expecting the doctor who had smuggled him out of the hospital eight years ago to still be working for Excorp.
Guess their surveillance isn't all that good. He entered the hospital and walked to the front desk. "I'm told that this is an institution for temporary shelter of mutants?"
The receptionist looked up at him. "That should be in Dr. Pratt's department. Just head up to the fifteenth floor and head down the corridor. There should be a set of waiting chairs in front of a door. That is Dr. Pratt's office."
"Thank you so much." Harry said before making his way to the elevator. Pratt took out his key and put it into the lock, only to twist it once and the door opened.
Hm? Did I not lock the door before leaving? "Don't worry, you did." Pratt jumped back a little when he saw a teenager carefully inspecting one of his pens.
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Harry pointed at the door with a screwdriver that had previously been discarded. "Your lock was broken, and as for who I am, I'm a mutant."
"A mutant?" Pratt appraised him visually. "Yes. Now, you wouldn't happen to know any thing about a mutant killing my mom would you?"
"Huh?" Pratt stepped back, unease and confusion in his voice. "What are you talking about-" "Forget it. From what I've gathered, this place is only a temporary housing unit for mutant kids."
"Yes, that's right." Pratt agreed. "That is to say that there's a permanent shelter for mutant children."
"Not exactly. There are institutions that serve as educational institutions for mutants exclusively. This also allows for safety of the mutants and the regular folk, at least until they're ready to fit into society."
"I need you to get me into the most out of reach institution." "I understand." Pratt made the call. The earliest they can make it is tomorrow morning."
Harry nodded. "It seems I'll be spending the night here then." The next morning, a black saloon car pulled up into the driveway.
A man in a suit got out of the car and walked to Harry, who was waiting. "Are you the-" "Harrison William Argent. Nice to meet you." He stretched his hand and the man in the suit shook it.
"Where's the doctor?" Harry shrugged. "Apparently he's occupied with a patient. Sends his regards." "I see." The man in the suit shrugged. "Anyway, take us to your home to get all your things."
When they arrived at Harry's house, he and two suits entered the house to go and retrieve his personal effects. Harry entered his room and began to stuff things into his huge duffel bag.
He came out to see the two suits staring at the smudges of blood on the floor where his mother's corpse used to be. "Never seen blood before?" He asked the two suits who hastily got to their feet.
"Is that everything?" The first man asked. Harry nodded. They drove for a few hours and left the bumbling city behind and were now on a road with lush evergreen on both sides.
The car slowed to a stop in front of a huge gate with the words EX. VOX ACADEMIA boldly emblazoned on it. "Ex. Vox..." Harry's voice trailed.
"From here on out, you look after yourself." Harry nodded. "We'll stick around to help send your stuff to your dormitory." Harry walked over to the receptionist's desk.
"Your name, please." "Harrison William Argent." The receptionist disappeared behind her computer system for a few seconds.
"Okay. You've been registered. A special device will be issued to you in due time. For now, just try your best to adjust to everything. My sincerest apologies for the inconvenience."
"It's okay. I should even thank you for accepting me on such short notice." Harry said calmly. "The directions to your dormitory have been sent to the retriever that brought you here.
"Thanks." Harry walked back to the car. "Get in." they drove for a while, finally arriving at a well-built structure. "For now, use this to access Ex. Vox's basic services."
The retriever handed him a card covered on one side with a strange QR code. "This is for your access to your dorm. When you get your device, it will no longer be necessary and will self-destruct. Until you get your device, keep it well."
Harry nodded and carried his stuff to the front door, swiping the card on the reader to allow him passage into the building.
"Before I forget, your room is 321." He recalled the room number the receptionist had given him.
He stopped in front of his dorm room and swiped on the reader and the door slid back, revealing a room with an LED display unit in the front, a long couch, three doors at the back and one at the far left of the room.
On the couch sat a boy with brown hair and fairly dull brown eyes with one hand tapping away at a smartphone and the other buried in a bag of chips.
He looked up at Harry. "Oh, so you're the newbie." He stood up, cleaned off his hands and stretched his right one out. Harry took it and shook it.
"Charles Baige, 16." He said as he and Harry shook hands. "Harrison Argent, also 16. Pleasure making your acquaintance."
"Likewise, though it's probably best to drop the formal tone around Ed. He's too enthusiastic for his own good." A neurotic extrovert, maybe? "He's our other roommate."
He gestured towards the first door from the right at the very back of the room. There were two other doors beside it. "The middle door is my room, so the left one is yours. Freshen up or something."
TWO DAYS LATER
The retriever who brought him handed him a smartphone. "This device will allow you to stay here comfortably. It has all the necessary information you need."
"Oh, is your codex here?" Edwin Shrike, who had just finished whipping up a three-person meal in the kitchen asked.
"Great! Now we can do a three-way sync." Syncing allowed several codexes to share information resources. Charles poked his head out of the room, answering with a shrug.
"Hey, we're going out today, right?" Charles asked. "Yep. We've got to shop for foodstuff today, or else we'll have to wait till the middle or end of the week. Can't have that."
Harry slipped on a hoodie to provide respite from the cold January wind as the three boys walked out to the convenience store at the western edge of the compound.
"I'm curious about your eyes." Charles said abruptly. Ed sighed. "I've also been meaning to ask-" Harry cut him off midsentence. "My eyes got into direct contact with the gas, and it mucked up my sense of vision."
"Mucked up? You can still see?" "What about you? Aren't you also a mutant?" Ed nodded. "Everyone here is a mutant. My mutant ability is telepathy."
"Telepathy? As in reading minds?" Harry asked, shocked. The gas really gave people superpowers. "And modify memories." He added.
"That doesn't add up. Why are you allowed to walk about freely? Shouldn't they be more careful of powers of your type?"
Ed nodded with a smirk. "You're right. They should, well that is if they remember." Underneath that good guy exterior, he's a schemer.
"Anyway, what about you, Charles?" Charles sighed and pulled out a pocketknife. He then made a clean incision on his right index, and blood began to flow out upwards. Upwards?
"How-" "My mutant ability is hemokinesis. I can control my blood within and without my body, and I can go as far as objects infused with my blood."
"That's actually incredible." Harry said, with his eyes fixed on the blood swirling into different shapes before slowly returning to the closing wound.
"Increased regeneration?" Harry asked. "It's a power perk, I guess." "I guess I get increased brain capacity." I get both as perks, plus durability, but I'm not telling them that. Crap, Ed can read minds.
"We're here." Charles announced and they entered the convenience store. "Tomorrow we'll meet our classmates." Ed said. "Yippee." The sarcasm in Charles voice was obvious. Harry felt the same way.