Exodus and Acts

[Havok]

It was getting on towards late afternoon by the time Alex arrived at the front gates to the Xavier Mansion. It had been a long time since he'd been here. He'd graduated high school, here. Since then, though, he'd showed up maybe once or twice, around the holidays. And lately, not even for those.

He pulled up to the gate, which opened automatically for him since it was still technically within school hours, and he pulled up along the driveway to the front of the Mansion. He parked in the little circular parking lot that they had, and got out of the car.

He looked around him, smelling the air and getting a wash of nostalgia. Outdoor barbecues by the pool, ultimate frisbee tournaments on the lawn, even snow fights when it chose to snow. His four years of high school here were pretty memorable. Inside the halls before him was where he learned how to control the power raging inside him. It was where he had made friends, made grades, and made food for a rather large portion of his life.

Now his life consisted of going to graduate-level courses and conducting research on things that the average human being couldn't care less about (at least until it caused doomsday). Hecared, though, and to hell with everyone else. He had spent so long caring about what other people thought of him that it almost crippled his sense of self.

This place had fixed that, too.

He took his manila envelope in hand, walked up to the front door, and rang the doorbell.

((Open Tag))

[Rogue]

When the doorbell rang and startled Rogue awake, she had an unbelievable pain in her side and a kink in her neck. She wasn’t sure when exactly she'd fallen asleep on the wide steps in the entry hall, but as she sat up she had the strangest inclination whoever she’d been waiting for wasn’t ever going to arrive. Maybe it was just her dream? She couldn’t remember them as of late. Something about feeling both very, very full and very, very empty at the exact same time.

Then again, maybe it was just another set of memories she’d picked up somewhere bumping into people on the street. Whatever the case, she was used to the panic of identity crisis. Strange dreams happened to her all the time.

Groggily grumbling under her breath about people not waking her up and letting her sleep in the middle of the floor, she pushed herself off the stairs and staggered sleepily toward the front door, rubbing at her eyes and smearing the heavy eyeliner that was already sagging down her face from her heavy sleep.

“Y’ello,” her voice cracked a little as she opened the door and poked her head around.

It was Alex.

Of course her hair would be a mess and her clothes would be all off-kilter when an old friend came around. Perfect. “Oh, gawd… Hey, Alex. Ah’m so sorry. Ah must look a mess.”

Rogue’d graduated only a couple years after him, but (as she had no place to go since her powers were categorized as uncontrollable and, in her opinion, made her unsuitable for a plethora of jobs) she’d decided to stick around as a mentor for new students with problems similar to her own.

[Havok]

Alex waited for, well, actually a lot shorter than he expected. He figured it would take someone minutes just to make it to the front door, but it wasn't but a couple dozen seconds before the door opened up.

Alex had been turned away from the door when it began to open, staring at the landscape. As soon as he heard the doorknob turn, he turned back to find Rogue, a little helter-skelter like she had just woken up. And had been sleeping on the stairs or something.

He smiled warmly at her and her remarks about her looks. "Rogue, you could never look like a mess." He said it sincerely, though with a friendly inflection. He'd liked Rogue well enough back when they were both students here. While they may not have been the best of buds or anything like that (Alex didn't think he had one of those, come to think on it), they both had similar issues that they had to face. The nature of both of their powers were dangerous, but with Alex it was a bit easier for him to make sure that accidents didn't happen. He'd had to wear a containment suit for most of his adult life. It was only relatively recently, a few short years ago, that he'd been able to get by without it. Rogue still couldn't risk being uncovered if she planned on going out.

Still, Alex never felt sorry for her. This was mostly because he knew she was sharp enough to pick up on that and proud enough to hate it.

"Did you just wake up?" He checked his wristwatch. "It's almost four thirty. The new kids making you work that hard?" He put his hands back to his sides, hooking his thumbs into the khaki pants he was wearing while still holding on to the folder.

[Rogue]

Attempting to be presentable, Rogue ran her fingers through her hair, accomplishing nothing more than fluffing it up at the ends. Of course, the gloves didn't help reduce static either.

"The kids are...," well, honestly they were working her pretty ragged, but that was generally to be expected, "alrigh'. They're just excited with new students coming in for the year an' all."

She tugged her jeans back into place, her belt having made an imprint just off center of her belly button during her catawampus nap. Her jacket, too, was half-zipped and twisted around her waist.

“Ah was waiting on the stairs for someone t’ come by last night an’ Ah musta fallen asleep. Guess they never showed,” she shrugged, still unsure if it was a dream or not, but it sounded like a good excuse anyway.

Truth be told, Rogue was never really the most together person in the first place, so falling asleep in odd places was not an uncommon occurrence for her anyway, especially recently. Of course, sometimes it was at the kitchen table or in the shower. There must be something off with her internal clock, or maybe she simply had too many people in her head to understand when she was actually tired.

“How’ve you been, college boy?” She didn’t really envy her friend, but maybe some small part of her wished she could have been an academic. Unfortunately, Rogue had the feeling she’d have to live vicariously through others for a while longer.

[Havok]

Alex listened to Rogue's explanation calmly. Even back in the day, she had been a little off sometimes; saying things that she couldn't explain, doing things that she'd never done before like a pro. He only had a mild understanding of how her powers worked, but he knew he'd never fully understand what it was like.

I've been busy, he wanted to say. He wanted to make up an excuse for why he hadn't visited more often. In truth, he just hadn't really wanted to. College was a new experience. New people, new friends. While he did miss this place, it had never really been home to him. More like a favorite grandparent's house. And graduate school was busy, busier than he ever thought. That didn't mean he was refused breaks every now and then, just that they came a lot less frequently.

"I've been busy," he said. It was easier to tell a half-lie than the whole truth, anyway. "Been working on some interesting research." He shrugged. "Well, interesting to me. It'd probably bore the heck out of anyone I tried to tell it to." This brought him back to why he was here. "Actually, I'm here for work." He held up the manila envelope. "I'd like Professor Lensherr to take a look at some findings we came across, maybe help us sort it out. It doesn't make much sense to us."

Putting the envelope back to his side, he asked, "Do you know if he's available?"

[Rogue]

“Psh, hell if ah know," Rogue waved a gloved hand, amused. She had a feeling Alex was just being polite. If she had the chance to get outta here, she would have taken it, too. At least here she was guaranteed work, a bed, and food. It seemed that whenever she went out in the real world, she had difficulty keeping her abilities to herself. Every shopping trip was a disaster waiting to happen. If she bumped into someone in just the right way, then bam! Instant osmosis. If only it’d worked with her science book in high school.

“Tell ya what, ah can always let ya in and you can find out for ya’self?” Side stepping to let him in, she eyed the manila envelope curiously.

“You remember where his office is,” it was a statement more than a question. Alex and Lensherr always got along well when he was in school, from what Rogue could recall. She, on the other hand, always preferred talking to the optimistic Xavier more. As far as she was concerned, the only way to go from her mutant condition was up!

[Havok]

Alex snickered. That always seemed the case with the Professors at this school. Everyone knew they were somewhere, but no one seemed to ever know where. He stepped into the threshold once Rogue vacated it, thanking her for inviting him in, and then turned-

His face blanked. He found out that he couldn't remember where Professor Lensherr's office was. That didn't seem right. He'd been there dozens of times. From the front door, you turn...from that point on the Mansion was a blank. He'd remembered the outside. He remembered the Danger Room, where he'd learned to control his powers. He remembered the kitchen, and the Professor's office itself.

It just now occurred to him that he had no idea where any of these things were located spatially. He remembered each and every one of the rooms, but he had no idea where they were. He tried to reconstruct the Mansion, but somehow multiple rooms kept ending up in the same spot. And nowhere in his memory was the location of Professor Lensherr's office. He could remember everything else about it, but for some reason he couldn't remember how to get there.

"Maybe you should show me, anyway. For old time's sakes," he said, putting on his best fake smile. It was probably just something stress-related. Not that he'd felt that stressed out, lately, but it could be. Or maybe one of the students' powers were on the fritz, making him forget spatial relations. That could be a useful power. Enemy squads would have a hard time maneuvering through a field that kept changing distances.

What the Hell was that thought about?