Shock To The System
Have you ever stopped and thought to yourself, ‘what if things were different?’
Hey, me too!
My thought process on this sort of thing was a bit fucked up and skewed though. My life was a serious pile of shit. I seriously hope nobody’s life is ever as bad as mine, but I’m pretty sure there are people who are significantly worse off.
Either way, when your life can be best represented by a steaming pile of shit, you really only have two options. Either you give up, or you try to make the most of it.
I was in the latter camp, for sure. I tried my best, every day. Unfortunately, the people around me didn’t make it very easy.
“Get up, shithead!” Screamed a voice that I had become much too familiar with. I slowly blinked my eyes open, scanning my surroundings. I was laying on my stomach on a rather cold floor. I’d fallen asleep on my back, which was probably why that particular part of my body was aching.
My whole body was aching, though. This wasn’t anything new, but that didn’t make it pleasant.
“I said get the hell up!” The voice from before shouted. I probably should’ve been listening to him, but I had got lost in my own train of thoughts for a second, something that he immediately made me pay the price for. I scrambled to push myself up off the ground, but instead earned a kick to the side. The man kicking me, my uncle, was strong enough to knock me off my hands and knees, but not strong enough to send me really flying far. I just went a bit to the side, landing on the floor with a thud.
“Get the hell up, you damn brat!”
“Kinda hard to do, when you’re kicking me to the ground.” I hissed, and immediately regretted it, considering the fact all my snarky little comment did was earn me another kick to the ribs. I had really just been looking at the floor until then, but I decided to look up at my uncle. He was a rather large man, horizontally at least, with a long, brown beard. He had short brown hair, and he was rather short, at least for a dude. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him smile. He hated me, I knew that, and I wouldn’t have cared, were it not for the fact I had to live with him.
That had been the arrangement ever since everything had gone down with my own parents. It was the worst. Just me, my aunt and my uncle. They had a son, my cousin, who wasn’t so bad, but he was significantly older than me. He’d moved out to go to college the year before I’d moved in, and he hadn’t looked back since. I honestly couldn’t blame him, but I wished he’d come check in, just once. I knew if he knew what was happening, how they treated me, he’d do something. Get me out of here, at the very least.
Brief tangential thoughts full of false hope aside, I stood up.
“You still gotta go to school, you stupid shit. Get dressed.” My uncle said with a scowl, before leaving the room and slamming the door.
Hey, at least I got my own room. Sure, it was in the attic, but it was better than nothing!
Silver lining, make the most of it, like I said.
I threw on what remaining clean clothes I had left. There wasn’t much, but it’d do. Most of the clothes I’d had before the age of thirteen had gone in the whole thing with my parents, and my uncle and aunt hadn’t really bought me anything new. I was sixteen now, so as you can imagine, it wasn’t ideal, most of what I had was pretty small on me now, so I didn’t wear it. There were only a few things that fit well enough for me to actually feel comfortable in them.
School, right.
Once I was dressed, I went downstairs, and down to the table in the kitchen. I grabbed some cereal for myself, put it in a plastic bag, then left the house without saying a word. It was September, but in Toronto, you could still get cold days, and today was one of them. The undersized clothes didn’t really help with that. I had to take the subway to a certain point, then take a city bus, then walk five minutes. It wasn’t so bad, really. On the subway and bus, people were too busy drugging themselves to death, or avoiding the people doing so, to notice a sixteen year old with too small clothes and poorly maintained, dirty curly hair. I actually did like my hair though, as poorly maintained as it was. It was long, brown and curly. I liked the curls, and I liked the colour as well. A haircut would’ve been nice, but no cigar, not for this guy!
The walk was only five minutes, and nobody really seemed to notice me. The same went in school as well. It was weird, all the movies I’d seen about high school had done a poor job preparing me. I hadn’t seen one since I moved in with my aunt and uncle, so maybe the new ones were more up to date, but the ones I’d seen before were mostly inaccurate. There was always some clear, cartoonish bully, who had a group of equally cartoonish sidekicks, and then there was a main character who got picked on, but found the right group, and typically they had a really good teacher or two who cared about them and wanted them to succeed.
They also typically had at least one parent who wanted what was best for them, but often went about things in the wrong way. I was not so lucky, unfortunately.
All this to say, the depictions of bullying in those movies were pretty unrealistic. There was no stuffing in lockers, no pouring milk on people’s heads, not even any dunking heads in toilet’s. Really, I’d thought high school was going to be hell, but it wasn’t, at least not in that way.
You see, what these movies didn’t show you, probably because they were for kids and it would’ve been hard for most kids to understand, was how lonely it was.
Well, for me at least. Pretty much everyone else had a group of people they associated themselves with. High School wasn’t all that cliquey either, there was a lot of overlap and double dipping with these groups.
Really, I think I just felt lonely because I couldn’t be honest with anyone. I also knew that people talked about me behind my back. Right, I should’ve clarified. There wasn’t any bullying in the typical way, but people were absolutely still assholes. People still said rude things about you, they just waited to do it until they thought you weren’t paying attention. I was always paying attention though, I had nothing else to do.
On second thought, there might’ve been some merit to everybody calling me a weirdo.
Typically, what I’d do at lunch is go to the cafeteria, eat the bag of cereal I’d packed, then try and usually fail to get some extra sleep. Honestly, the chair and table combo was much more comfortable than the cold, hard floor in my uncle’s attic. I’d just fold my arms on the table then rest my head on top of them. Nobody bothered me, they all thought I was weird, so I got to just sit there and try to sleep.
Today though, somebody had other plans for me.
Something hit my head. It didn’t hurt, but I definitely felt it. It didn’t bother me, though. It was a high school cafeteria, sometimes people got rowdy and threw things around. Sometimes those things hit me, there was typically no malice behind it, so I just left it alone. It also tended to only happen once.
This time was different though. I felt something hit my head again, but I still didn’t look up. Then I felt something again, before feeling my body being yanked backwards. Whatever had pulled me had pulled my chair, because my head and arms sharply dropped downwards after being pulled away from the table. It wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. It did, however, finally get me to look up from what was going on. I quickly recognized I was being surrounded by four people. None of whom I knew whatsoever. I didn’t even know any of their names, I wasn’t sure if I’d seen any of them before either. That being said, they clearly knew me.
“Hey, it’s Karshoder, right?”
“Jared.” I replied, looking around at the people. There were three guys and one woman. The woman was standing a little bit back from the three guys, who had made a sort of semicircle around me.
“Sure, whatever. Listen, my girl tells me that you’ve been checking her out in the halls and shit. Staring at her, making her uncomfortable. That true?” One of the guys, a notably tall young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, asked, staring down at me in what seemed like contempt. His friends gathered around him looked at me in similar ways, although I didn’t miss how one of them, a smaller, dark skinned boy, was noticeably uncomfortable. The girl with them seemed equally uncomfortable.
“No.” I replied simply. Honesty is the best policy, right? Hopefully, just coming out and saying the truth would avoid any further misunderstanding.
Oh, who am I kidding?
“You saying my girl’s a liar, you punk?” The kid asked, trying his best to look intimidating. Honestly, if I wasn’t relatively lanky and weak, or had other people around me, I wouldn’t be intimidated. As it stood though, I was outnumbered, and numbers went a long way in intimidation.
“Punk? What is this, the early 2000’s?” I asked, clearly not properly thinking through my response. Well, I’d thought it through, it just hadn’t been the best approach to the situation.
“Think you’re funny, huh?” The kid asked, gripping me by my shirt, which had been uncomfortably tight before he had been gripping it, and with some rather impressive strength, picked me up and threw me into the table. The way he threw me caused me to slide across the table, before dropping to the floor on the other side. The three guys were on me pretty fast, to their credit. It was mostly just kicking, but in my defense, I took it pretty well. My uncle beat my ass all the time, afterall. Of course, in the era of the cell phone, nobody was all that interested in helping out the guy who was getting jumped in the cafeteria. No, they all just pulled out their phones to record the video and post it to Instagram or Snapchat or whatever other social media platform they used. To be fair, if I’d seen this happening, I also wouldn’t have leapt in to save the day, but I wouldn’t have recorded the video. The person’s embarrassed enough, getting their ass beat in front of the whole cafeteria, and besides, I have sleep to catch up on during lunch.
Anyways, back to my beating.
They spent at least five minutes kicking me before some teachers came in and broke the fight up. At that point, I was pretty much dragged to the school nurse, somebody I hadn’t even known existed. She checked me over, recommended I get picked up by my guardians, gave me a plastic baggie with some ice in it, and sent me on my way. At that point, I just sat on a bench outside the office, waiting for my uncle, who’d been called in while at work, to come drive me home. I hadn’t needed to hear the phone call to know how mad he’d be. I was very much not looking forward to the car ride home, or what’d likely be a rather painful beating when I got home. Still though, I sat on the bench like a good boy until my uncle got home. He was silent as we walked to the car. He then proceeded to silently unlock only the driver’s door, and drive away, leaving me in front of the school by myself.
Guess it was gonna be public transit. What an incredible day it was shaping up to be for yours truly!
So I walked to my bus stop, took the bus to where I needed to get off to ride the subway, then hopped on that. I just sat quietly. Most people would pop in headphones and listen to music on their phones during a ride on public transit, but considering the fact I had access to neither of those things, all I could really do was sit there and think to myself. Why the hell had I even gotten jumped? Had the guy just wanted to beat on somebody? I couldn’t recall staring at that girl at any point. Maybe I’d done it, and just didn’t remember? That didn’t seem likely, though, I didn’t really leer at girls in the hallways like some of my peers. Sure, I’d sneak peeks, I was only human after all, but full on checking people out? No way, not my style.
Of course, things were not so simple. Not today. Not for me. There were two people in the traincar with me. One was a woman, probably in her mid-twenties, just based on how she looked. The other was a man, who looked to be in his late-forties. He was sort of lanky, just like me, although I probably had a bit more muscle built. I tried to work out in my attic, but it was only bodyweight stuff. I also didn’t eat a whole lot, so it was hard to put on any real muscle.
Why was I thinking about my muscle weight? Well, because this guy was making this woman uncomfortable. Clearly getting too familiar with her, getting very up close and personal. As the only other person there, I felt like it was my duty to give her a hand. Especially after just getting my ass kicked and having no help. Nobody really deserved that, unless they were a totally shitty person, but this lady on the train seemed completely normal to me, so I’d try to give her a hand. I stood up and walked over to the man. He was rubbing his leg against the woman, who seemed supremely uncomfortable. She was trying to get him off of her, but he was completely overpowering her.
“Hey, dude, what are you doing?” I asked, standing just behind the man. It took him a few seconds to look over at me, and when he did it immediately became clear that he wasn’t all there. He had a sort of dazed look in his eyes, totally unfocused. He also smelled as though he’d been drinking quite a bit. He did eventually take a full look at me though, frowning.
“This one’s mine. You back off, dumb kid.” He mumbled the last part to himself, turning away from me and back to the woman. Summoning all the courage I had, I placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Dude, stop. You’re freaking her out, don’t you realize that?” I asked, this time causing the man to spin towards me with surprising speed.
“I said back off!” He shouted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a knife, clearly with violent intent urging him on. Well that’s what I got, I guess. Try to do the right thing, a good deed, and get punished for it. In some ways, that was the story of my life. I didn’t know what to do, and as much as I wanted to sound cool and act like I maintained my composure, I flipped out in a panic. I held up my hands, a weak, last attempt at defending myself as the man approached me…
Then, inexplicably, the entire car went dark. It only lasted for about a second, but when the light reentered. The man was laid out on the ground, looking like he’d been hit in the chest by something, considering that the shirt he had on was torn in that spot. His chest had a small black circle in the middle of it, with red bruising forming around it. The woman was sitting in her seat still, looking very afraid and confused, but she looked up at me once it was clear the man was unconscious.
“Th-thank you.” She said, trying to force a smile. I just waved her off, assuming that my day would go back to normal. I had no idea what had seemingly hit this man, I knew it hadn’t been me, at the very least. I also had no clue how the lights had simply gone out, but I wasn’t one to complain about good fortune.
Unfortunately, good fortune was not in my cards for that day. The moment the train pulled into its next stop, men in armor with large guns rushed onto the train, quickly encircling me while pushing the woman I’d saved to the side and pulling the man I’d knocked unconscious to safety.
“On your knees, hands behind your head!” One of them shouted, waving his gun up and down.
“What the hell! What did I even do?” I shouted, in genuine confusion. I was still standing, with my arms extended out. It wasn’t like I’d done anything wrong. I’d been trying to help, and even then, I hadn’t actually attacked the guy.
“The cameras caught everything, mutie scum!” The same guy, who I now assumed was the leader of this little group, shouted at me. I had no idea what he was talking about. Sure, I was familiar with the word, but it didn’t apply to me. I was a human, with no special powers to be heard of. Man, wouldn’t something like that be nice. Wasn’t in the cards for someone like me, though.
Or so I thought.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking abou-” I started to speak, before it quickly became clear what they were talking about. I felt a weird sensation move from the centre of my body to every end of it, then suddenly a wave of darkness came flying out of my body, hitting all of the gathered guards and blasting them into the sides of the train car. All of them were down, and I didn’t know what to do. I had, of course, just seen what’d happened.
Maybe I did have superpowers, afterall.
I could worry about that later, though. I needed to run, I understood that much. I knew what the government did to mutants. I was aware of the Office of National Emergency, but I’d thought they only operated in the States. Maybe now, they were in Canada too? Or they had some sort of deal with our government. Either way, I didn’t want to get experimented on, so I jumped over the seemingly unconscious bodies and made a run for it, peeling out of the subway station and running as fast as I could back home. I didn’t know what to do now. Could they just take me from my aunt and uncle? Even if they couldn’t, wouldn’t my aunt and uncle probably just hand me over to them anyways? It didn’t matter. I had to get back there, grab whatever I had, and then probably take off. There were little pockets of mutants that hung around different areas after the collapse of their country. Maybe I could fit into one of those?
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I managed to make it back home, and got almost the whole way through packing a small bag before I heard my door swing open and felt a swift kick to my ribcage. It knocked me off my knees, into the wall. I looked up, wholly unsurprised by the offender. My very own uncle was back at it.
“You stupid little shit! You’re a fucking mutie! Living under my roof! I can’t believe it!” He screamed, going in for another kick.
This time, though, it didn’t land.
Not because of anything I’d done. Oh no, I certainly tried to replicate what I’d done before with that energy burst, but nothing happened. Instead, I saw a red glow, and then saw my uncle being flung into the wall. When I looked up, there was a man with short brown hair, wearing a yellow and blue costume. As well as a very distinct looking visor.
I’d seen this guy on TV a few times.
“Uhm…”
“Jared. Looks like you could lose a hand.” He said, extending one, and helping me to my feet.
“Uh, thank you… how do you know my name?”
“Telepath. Sorry, quick little breach of privacy. Helps put people at ease, typically.”
“Sure, no problem, Cyclops right?”
“Just call me Scott. We saw what you did on that train-”
“I’m sorry! Listen, I didn’t mean to, I swear, but I didn’t do anything wrong. Those guys just came in pointing guns at me! I saved that woman but they wouldn’t listen! Nobody ever listens to me!” I ranted. Great, first I get beat up in class, then a whole government branch, then my uncle, now a superhero. Could this day get any worse?
“Yeah, don’t worry about that kid, we don’t care about you blasting those guys. We’re here to help you out.” Scott explained, offering a wry smile as he patted my shoulder.
“This your room?”
“My uncle’s a piece of shit.”
“Sure, I picked up on that.” He said with a frown, glancing at my uncle, who was still laid out on the ground.
“What do you mean, you’re here to help me?”
“Well, O*N*E is after you, considering you took out an entire squad of theirs on your own. We also just tend to help mutants out when we can. If you’re interested, you can come with us to our base in Alaska. Not the greatest place in the world, but you’ll get a bed, at least.”
“Sold. When do we leave?”
“Now.” A new voice, one with a thick russian accent, replied. A woman walked into the room, wearing a short black crop top, black sleeves, short black shorts, and thigh high black boots. She had long blonde hair and had strange black spikes sticking out of either side of her head. She was also holding the coolest sword I’d ever seen in my life.
“Damn kid, you live like this?”
“My family sucks.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“Cool sword.”
“Thanks, it’s made from my soul.”
“... I’m sorry, what?”
“Magik, we don’t have time to hang around.” Scott said, his voice taking on a tone of urgency.
“Right! Yes captain!” The woman, Magik I assumed, nodded, saluting mockingly before seemingly creating a portal on the ground from thin air.
“Grab all your stuff.” Scott said, nodding to me. I held up my small bag with a shrug, and Magik just laughed.
“We’re gonna have to get you some better stuff than that.”
“Let’s go! Stand on the disk!” Scott shouted. I could now hear shouting coming from downstairs, shouting that distinctly did not sound like my aunt, so I hopped onto the disk like the man said and allowed myself to watch as my surroundings changed from the damp, cold and dark attic I had spent a good amount of the last few years of my life in, to a comparatively well lit and warm looking factory.
“Mission success.” Scott said, mostly to himself. Magik looked over at me with a smile.
“Welcome to Alaska, child. I’m Illyana, by the way. This is the Factory.” She said, before following Scott. Considering I was totally unfamiliar with my surroundings, I followed them.
The Factory had a pretty lame name, but it was really a rather fitting one. As I walked around, most of what I saw was just metal walls and floors. There was a small kitchen setup, and a few couches and rooms littered around the base. Scott and Illyana led me to a separate room, where I was greeted by a rather large furry blue man.
“Salutations, young man! My name is Dr. Henry McCoy! My enemies, ho- know me as Beast! You may call me Hank, if you prefer.”
“Oh um… I’m Jared.” I said, trying my best to smile. The man was a bit strange looking. Sure, I’d seen pictures of abnormal looking mutants before, in fact, I was pretty sure I’d seen pictures of this guy before, although he had looked a bit different. Still though, it wasn’t as if I saw people like that everyday. I had no issues with mutants, but it was certainly a bit jarring to see a furry blue man, up close and personal. It didn’t really help that he was practically only wearing boxers.
“Yes yes, young man. Please come with me! I’d like to show you around the factory. Let’s give the X-Men some time to discuss what exactly happened with you, and how they’ll be handling it.” Hank said with a kind smile, placing a large, furry paw like hand on my shoulder.
I appreciated the attempt at comforting me, but I also noticed something in what they said.
“Handling? I thought it was handled already, considering they got me away from there.” I pointed out. Hank winced at that. It was barely noticeable, but since I was practically staring at him, I noticed it. Scott and Illyana had already walked away, which meant I couldn’t ask them anything further about it, not yet at least.
“Ah, my dear boy. If only matters such as these were so simple. Unfortunately, O*N*E already has their sights set on you. While we here know your attack on that man on the subway was not only an act of self-defense, but also an accident, not everyone sees things these ways. However, you have nothing to worry about. You’re under our protection now, and we’ll do everything in our power to keep you safe from those people.” Hank tried his very best to reassure me, and it almost worked. Still though, I didn’t like the idea that my being here could make the heat on these people even more problematic.
I was mostly silent as Hank walked me over to a large area of the factory which was full of vegetation and plant life of all different kinds.
“So, what, you guys grow your food here?” I asked, becoming a bit interested in this. I’d assumed they just had some way of importing everything in, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“Yes! One of our members has taken a great interest in the study of agriculture. He grows all our food in house. I will note that he’s a vegetarian, and thus, so are the rest of us. I assure you, the food is top notch. If, however, you are feeling more up to some non-vegetarian dishes, well, there’s a town not so far from here with a rather nice diner.” Hank explained to me, seemingly enjoying the fact I was asking a question. He seemed to like talking, or explaining things to people, but not in an annoying ‘I’m better than you because I know this’ type of way. It seemed like he genuinely just enjoyed teaching, even small things.
“I’ll eat anything.” I replied with a shrug. That was mostly true. My uncle and aunt hadn’t fed me all that much. Really just one meal a day, with which the portion was rather small. I took what I could get, though, there were people in the world who had less. Still, it hadn’t contributed to my overall health or frame.
“Hmm, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I must comment on your physical health. You seem to be in rather rough shape. There’s some bruising, you’re underweight, although that can be remedied rather quickly I’d imagine. The bruising, though, where does that-”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” I snapped, immediately feeling bad for snapping at a guy who’d been nothing but nice to me. I had felt a surge of desperation, at that moment. I didn’t need people to know about what I’d dealt with. Anytime I’d tried to tell anyone, it’d always resulted in worse beatings for me. Thankfully, Hank seemed to understand my reluctance to share.
“Of course, my apologies! We won’t force you to talk about anything, unless it’s information that would lead to your own harm or the harm of others.” Hank explained with a wave of his hand, before pointing towards a strange, pink shape in the distance.
“Ah, there’s our chef now! Glob, come meet the new blood!” Hank said with a bright smile, waving over the man. As he approached, it became clear that he was rather strange looking. He didn’t have any muscle, or really any skin. His entire skeleton, as well as his eyes and what might’ve been a digestive system were visible to me. The fact that I’d already seen Hank softened the blow of how strange he was to look at. I didn’t want to be rude, though, the guy couldn’t control how he looked, and he was being quite nice.
“Hey! Nice to meet you! I’m Glob Herman, head chef here at the factory. What’s your name?”
“Jared Karshoder.” I replied, forcing a smile as I shook his strange, pink gooey yet bony hand. Seeing as he was just a skeleton, I couldn’t really tell if Glob was smiling or not, but his voice sounded cheerful enough when he next replied.
“Seeing as I’m the chef, let me know if there’s any favourite dishes you have, so long as they’re vegetarian! I’ll see you around!” Glob said, before walking back over to whatever he’d been doing before.
“Well, he seems nice.” I said, a small smile on my face. Hank nodded at that observation.
“Indeed, he’s a wonderful young man! Although his mutation is relatively useless as it applies to combat, that of course, doesn’t make him useless. All mutants have a place here, including you, Jared.” Hank said with a grin. I simply nodded and continued on with the tour.
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Hank showed me a few other things around the factory before he took me to a small room, which he claimed was mine. It had a bathroom, a bed, a closet and a small wardrobe in it. Hank seemed apologetic, but it was more than enough for me. I immediately got to work putting what few possessions I had away in the wardrobe and closet. It didn’t amount to much, but I had what I had. Maybe I’d be able to get a job in the nearby town?
I looked up when I heard a knock at the door. I was surprised anybody was coming to speak to me.
“Uh, yes, sorry, come in.” I said, stumbling over my words and feeling incredibly embarrassed. A woman entered the room, wearing a purple bodysuit, along with a black jacket. She had black hair and she appeared to be Japanese, although I wasn’t totally sure about that. She was carrying a tray that had food on it, which she set down on top of the wardrobe.
“Greetings. I am Kwannon. I take it that you are Jared?”
“Yes.”
“Welcome to the Factory. I’ve brought you dinner. How are you finding things?” She asked me, to which I shrugged.
“Oh uh, well I’ve only been here a few hours. I’ve only met a few people. Scott and Illyana real quick. Then Hank gave me a tour, introduced me to Glob, and now you… everything seems fine. I will say, I’m a bit confused about my powers and stuff. They sorta just came out of me, I didn’t mean to do it.” I explained, sitting down on my bed. Kwannon just stood near my door, looking at me and nodding.
“Yes well, that’s typically how mutant abilities first manifest. In a moment of extreme stress. Not to worry, we can help you to hone your gifts.” Kwannon explained, her tone was rather reassuring.
“So uh, you guys are the X-Men right? Does that mean I am too? Or that I will be?” I asked her, to which she smiled slightly.
“If you wish, you likely can be in the future. Not now though, you’re much too raw to go into the field.” She said, clearly finding me amusing on some level. After a second though, her gaze shifted, and it looked rather sympathetic and even a bit sad.
“Scott told me what situation he found you in. I promise we’ll do our best to take care of you. We’ll need to get you better clothes, I’m sure Quentin or Idie will be more than willing to accompany you. Eat the food, I’m sure you’re hungry, and get some rest. In the morning, we can begin to get a better grasp on your abilities.” Kwannon said, offering me a smile and a nod before walking out of the room. I got up, grabbing the tray and eating it. The food was quite good, some kind of salad. I was starving, and it more than satiated my appetite. As I laid down to sleep in a bed for the first time in years, I thought I heard a voice that wasn’t me in my head.
‘You finally woke me up kid. I think you and I are gonna have a lot of fun together…’