Trickster
True KMC Jester
Zack looked in the mirror. For the first time since he'd left his home, he was wearing a suit. Straightening out the collar on the jacket, he caught a glance of his own face. It was totally clean, a far cry from his condition after the escape from the base. The others had left him behind, but he'd done it on his own, taking advantage of the confusion to jump the fence. However, it seemed the MPs were determined to recapture him, and he'd been forced his way through a sewer pipe to escape the dogs and ending up in a river. I don't need them anyway, he thought, his lip twitching in anger.
Turning around, he struck a gallant pose much to the amusement of his friend, who laughed. Zack had been more than surprised to find Adam, but less so to find him and his parents a rich family. Adam's father had become a sheriff, officially responsible for locating the escapees from the prison camp, but it had been Adam who’d pulled him unconscious out of the river, and Zack had woken up in a spare bed in Adam’s house. After a day of rest, Zack had pushed Adam to tell him what had happened since the tests, but Adam avoided the subject, instead lending Zack some ill-fitting clothes and taking him into town to buy a suit. Apparently there was going to be a high-society wedding in the next couple of days and, according to Adam’s mother, who remembered Zack fondly, it 'wouldn't do' for any of them to miss it. Forgetting his recent troubles, Zack had let himself relax, going through the motions he'd followed the last time he'd been to a formal event - the ball celebrating the school cup victory.
Now, however, it was time for answers. Turning to Adam, who was still grinning, he asked,
“I need to know, man. What happened back home?”
Adam’s face fell. “Zack, I don’t really know how to say this…”
“What?”
“It all stopped after you disappeared. People were saying you’d been kidnapped or killed by the policemen, and no-one could find you. That was enough – everyone got scared. Before it had just been an annoyance, but the families took the case to court, and someone’s parents called in some favours. Local laws came in, and those ‘mutant policemen’ were thrown out of the county. Your family spearheaded the movement. I think it was your dad who led the prosecution. We all thought you were never coming back.” He choked slightly, “Where the hell did you go?”
Zack ran a hand over his eyes. “Shit. I left them a note. My parents, I mean. I left them a god-damn note! I couldn’t stay – people were coming in the night, trying to snatch me from my house. I just left town.”
Adam’s eyes widened, then a smile began to spread over his face. “So, am I gunna have to ask you?”
Zack paused, confused. “Ask me what?”
“If you’re a mutant, idiot. Are you?”
Taking an involuntary step backward, Zack thought for a moment. This was dangerous territory. Adam was the Sheriff’s son, and it could be a trick, but on the other hand it wouldn’t be hard for him to skip town if needs be. He responded slowly. “Yes.” There a strange look in Adam’s eyes, something of recognition, and then it hit him. “You, too?”
Adam grinned wider and held up his hand, which began to glow. “It’s weird, like I can do whatever I want with light, as long as I’ve got some to play with. Go on then, show me your moves.”
With a gesture, Zack pulled a hat from a rack on the opposite side of the room, dropping it on Adam’s head. He began to grin too, and then they both laughed, an understanding settling in the room between them.
(And he's back in the game!)