No Dice

"Someone else?" Marten folded his arms and made a funny face. "Who else would be mutant hunting in Ottawa?"

I chewed my thumb, "I have no idea. I've scanned her mind and it's the weirdest thing. The information is there, but there's no real memory." Marten raised his eyebrow. Telepathy is a little hard to explain sometimes" It's like turning on a television to watch your favorite show, but there's no pictures. Just words scrolling across the screen. I can tell that it happened, but there's no actual memory proving it. It's almost like a brainwash gone wrong. They didn't clean up as well as they wanted to."

"Okay, I gotcha...so this 'they', do we know who they are?"

I threw my hands up and spun in my chair.
"I haven't got a clue!" I thought for a moment about all the different military, government, independent and terrorist groups the X-Men had fought before. Too many to narrow it down to any one in specific. I slammed my hands down on my desk and stopped spinning, "That's what makes Krisha's weird memory status so frustrating. There's no clue, no shred of evidence at all to lead us in the right direction."

"So what do we plan to do about that?"

"Well..." I thought. "All we really can do right now is keep our eyes open. I've told Christina and I'll tell you now, look for anything that may hint at what's going on while you're out in the field. Keep a close watch on all of our prospects and I'll see what I can do. Mindy, Bruce and I have been sweeping the city, but we're no Cerebro."
He looked puzzled at the name."Never mind... I have a friend at the Xavier Institute that may be able to help us, Hank McCoy. I mean, he won't tell us what's going on, but he may be able to set up some kind of system to help us monitor activity around the city."

"Sounds good," Marten said, "I'm off to scout, see ya later."

"See you then."

Retrival

...Thank-you for your consideration,

Dr. Alicia Anderson

"Alright, that's about it..." I said folding the letter and placing it carefully inside a pale rose envelope. "Just one more to go."

The door to my office flew open and a tall young man walked in. He threw a folder onto my desk and flopped down into a chair.

"Ready to go?"

I pushed the folder aside, "I'm writing letters requesting funding right now. I will be ready to go once I finish these, by myself."

He sat forward in the chair and smirked, "Now why does it sound like you don't want me to come?"

"Because, Marten, you're not coming. I've already read Christina's report and this girl is not stable. I will be going and I alone will be dealing with any trouble that may arise."

His smirk grew bigger, "So you're saying I can't deal with trouble?"

"I'm saying that when put in a stressful situation you don't always act appropriately."

"Appropriately?"

I paused my writing, "Do you consider shutting down the city's hydro, tearing up Sparks Street and injuring 14 civilians an appropriate outcome to reconnaissance?"

He laughed, "That wasn't just me."

"Yes, well, it was just me who had to clean up after."

"Ali, all I'm saying is I've been on this case for a while now too. I know the girl, well enough, and Rideau Park is a big place, you could probably use some help."

"I appreciate the sentiment Marten, but if I need any help, it will be Christina I contact. This girl could be dangerous and I don't want to frighten her-"

"Now I'm frightening?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Look, this is something that I am going to do on my own, not because of any logical reason, although there are plenty," I said folding the letter, "but because I believe I should. I know my judgment isn't always right, but this is something I need you to trust me on."
I sealed the last envelope and got up. "No joke, no ploy....Just trust me, okay?"

He nodded, "Okay....I can do that."
In the blink of an eye he had teleported away.

***

"Excuse me m'am, do you know where I can find the Donald Memorial..." I stopped my question.

"Why yes dear, it's right over-"

"I think I'm good," I began to walk over to a fountain in the middle of bench area. "Thank you for your help."

There was a young girl, about 17 years old, sitting on the edge of the fountain. Her clothes were tattered and torn and her long dark hair was tangled and unkempt. She was cooling her feat in the splashing water.

"Krisha?"

She whipped around and looked at me. She immediately took her feet out of the water and stumbled up to run.

"No, no sweetie," I gently sat her back down with my telekinesis. "Sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not here to tell you to beat it, okay?" I smiled and I sat down next to her. She was breathing very heavily and her eyes were wide like saucers.

"How did you do that?"

I took her hand from her lap and held it, "Krisha, I'm like you....I'm a mutant honey. "
Seeing the bewilderment in her eyes, I waved my hand and a rock near by rolled over next to her feet. "I'm a mutant....and I'm here to help you. I can bring you to a place where people like us are safe-"

"NO!" She jolted up, "No, no! I'm not going with you! Not again! You're not helping me!"

"Krisha, Krisha sweetie, sit down. Again? What are you talking about, again? Who did you go with?" I stood up and she began to back away.

"You're not helping, you just wanna hook me up to a bunch of machines! You wanna-you wanna test me!" The water in the fountain began to boil. "I'm not going--I am not going!"

"Okay, okay Krisha? Calm down! I'm not going to hook you up to anything, I don't wanna test you, I just wanna help, okay?" She continued to back away. I could hear people around us talking and yelling. The weeds growing between the stones around us burst into flame. I spoke into my comlink, "Christina, where are you?"

"No! Stop! You can't take me, I won't let you!" The air around Krisha began to ripple with pulses of heat. Her hands began to glow a crimson red.

I reached a hand towards her. She raised both of hers pointing at me and flames grew around them, "Krisha-"

"DON'T touch me!"

BOOM

Khrisha was laying on the ground unconscious and a woman stood behind her with a fist out front.

"Christina..."

"Marten said you would need some help." She cracked her knuckles and placed a leather glove over her hand. She looked down at the girl, "I'll call Marten to pick her up....What happened?"

My gaze fell to Krisha as well and I frowned.
"Someone got to her before we did."