The Siege of X-41: A Marvel School of X Novel by Tristan Palmgren

Author:Tristan Palmgren [Palmgren, Tristan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: science fiction, superheroes, media tie-in
Publisher: Aconyte
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Elixir

Josh hadn’t eaten since coming out of the ocean. Hunger he’d felt beforehand finally caught up with him. After the next alarm, he ducked into the kitchenette, and was surprised to see Nature Girl there.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” Josh asked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working with Anole?” she asked.

“He’s gone to chat with Crosta.” Josh hadn’t asked why. The more time away from Anole, the better.

“There’s only twenty-five minutes before Christopher and I have to get up anyway.”

“Christopher? Oh- right.” Triage’s given name. Christopher Muse. Interesting to know who was on a first-name basis with who.

Anole called Josh “Josh”, but not out of any sense of closeness. Where names weren’t a sign of friendship, or of knowing someone outside of the bounds of their role, they seemed to be some kind of power play. If social rules at the Institute were this complicated, Josh could only imagine what it was like for the X-Men.

“In your head, do you think of me as Josh or Elixir?” Josh asked.

Nature Girl looked at him. “Which do you want to be?”

The first answer that came to mind was: “Neither.”

For the first time since he’d met her, Nature Girl actually looked interested in something he’d said.

He found himself going on almost against his will. He wasn’t made to stay trapped in himself. The more he talked, the less he needed to think about what he’d done to the Aqueos outside. Those few seconds had become a lifetime of blurred memories. “Josh Foley wasn’t a good person,” he said. “And Elixir is just a word.”

She smiled, though there was no humor in it. “You don’t know what you want to be when you grow up.”

“In a few words? That’s not a bad way of describing it. I was in high school when… I found out I was a mutant.”

“You’re not as alone as you think. The Institute and the Jean Grey School are a crossroads for a lot of people.”

“What about you?”

Nature Girl took a long time to answer. Josh was briefly transfixed by the sight of her dunking a granola bar into what, judging from the open bottle nearby, was hot sauce. Mutants could have some strange tastes.

Finally, she said, “The world up there is a big, heavy weight, and I don’t have it in me to be a hero.”

Nature Girl hadn’t said much to him before now. Maybe she, too, couldn’t stand keeping her thoughts sealed up inside her. She’d hardly seemed extroverted, but everyone needed some sort of human connection. Josh didn’t figure she was wholly self-sufficient, or she wouldn’t have gone to the Jean Grey School.

She didn’t like him, but the longer Josh spent inside his own head, the harder it was to blame anybody for that. At least she wasn’t openly hostile.

“I think you’re holding up pretty well now,” he said. “You’re not panicking, or tearing your hair out, or any of the other things I feel like doing.”

This time, there was some humor in her smile. Not much, but some.

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