A Surprise Visit

Posted on Sat Dec 31st, 2022 @ 13:25 by Claire Cavendish & Kai Akana
Edited on on Sat Dec 31st, 2022 @ 13:35

Chapter: Prologue: Dawn of Avalon
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Timeline: August, 1992
2196 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

The studio apartment he had rented could dramatically be called a penthouse by someone with an interest for overreaching, but all he cared about was that it had enough space for the training he carried on as a matter of business. It was spacious with large windows that displayed the morning light of Rotterdam. His schedule was cleared as he intended to spend the day doing some much-needed paperwork. It might have been his least favorite thing in the world, but a successful businessman had to do it.

Kai Akana stepped out into the kitchen among the open floor-plan of the apartment and pulled out a bowl and eggs from the appropriate places. He was wearing red shorts and nothing else, considering he was alone. His physique was extremely impressive and he was obviously in peak physical condition. No one would expect any different from someone in his line of work. MMA was demanding on the body, and those who trained others needed to train twice as hard themselves in his mind.

Turning on the burner, he began to scramble eggs in the bowl and then pour them into a pan.

Claire had made the short hop over the north sea to go and scope out the potential new member of faculty. Someone was, as she'd heard it, training mutants to use their powers. She was a bit saddened that he had chosen to set up camp in what was surely the ugliest Dutch city, it wasn't Rotterdam's fault, it had been bombed into the ground during the second world war, but still. She figured it was the nice location near Europe's biggest harbour that made it a choice location for this person. Whatever the reason, it was going to take some convincing to make him leave the place for the solitude of a Scottish loch.

She checked the address scribbled on a scrap of paper one last time before pushing it into her coat pocket. Like the U.K. the Netherlands had a tendency towards wet summers, and it was raining rather heavily that morning. She hunched into her hooded coat and rang the doorbell when she was certain she was in the right place. Someone like her didn't really want to ring the wrong doorbell.

At the ring of the doorbell, Kai arched a thick dark eyebrow, his handsome face communicating his confusion over who his visitor might be. Biting his bottom lip, he quickly seasoned the scrambled eggs, finished them, and shuffled them onto a plate before turning off the burner; it really wasn’t the kind of thing that could wait. Then he grabbed the plate and a fork and walked toward the hallway. When he unlocked the giant metal grate of a door and slid it open, he stood only in his red shorts, his amazingly chilled upper body in full presentation.

As he forked the first bit of egg into his mouth, his pale blue eyes landed on the purple woman who had come to visit him. He had never seen her before, but after one good look, he was sure he’d never forget her. A mutant, and the kind that couldn’t hide it. She was older than him by the better part of a decade, he could tell.

“You don’t look like a fighter.” He said simply, sounding almost bored, as he forked another bit of egg. It was salty; rushing to get the door hadn’t helped his breakfast plans.

Claire had almost walked away by how much time he had taken to get to the door. But since there was some activity inside she had drawn on her patience. When the door finally did open it was odd to see someone that took that long to get to the door still answer it with barely anything on. She drew back the hood on her coat, which revealed her deviating skin tone, hoping it was enough answer for his observation that she didn't look like she belonged in organized fights. "I'm not here for that."

"Well whatever you're here for, it's got to be interesting." he said, grinning slightly and stepping aside. "It's a little wet out there. Come in and we can talk."

Pulling back the drenched coat Claire was already dreading the moment she'd have to put it back on. She hung it over the radiator in the hall and followed the man further inside. She looked around the apartment, which clearly wasn't where he spent most of his time. "Nice place you have here."

"It gets the job done." he said, scooping the rest of his eggs to the side of his plate and then, lifting the porcelain up, schoveling it into his mouth rudely. He didn't seem overly concerned with whether or not his guest liked it. He'd led her to the living room in the open apartment, a series of comfortable brown couches and a coffee table amidst stylishly weathered brick walls and exposed HVAC vents and tubes. He placed his plate in the sink to wash later and returned to the couches, sitting on the one opposite her and leaning forward. He'd brought a pitcher of water from the refrigerator and two glasses. It seemed, despite his earthy manner, he had at least some skills of hosting.

"Now, I get alot of people knocking on that door wanting one thing or another from me, but they're seldom pretty purple girls from Brittan." he said, his face neutral. He picked up his glass and took a long sip. "The anticipation is killing me."

"I got your details from a mutual friend," Claire used the term friend loosely. A lot of people that were like her and Kai tended to stick around the edges of modern society. "Heard you're in the business of helping people like me." She feigned some innocence, wanting to make sure that he was who he said he was so that she didn't immediately reveal the existence of Avalon to a complete stranger. "I need some help honing my skills."

"That's what I do best. But I don't do it out of the kindness of my heart." he said, his eyes following the features of her face without that air of politeness that might have stopped another man from staring when he was curious. Kai had always been like that; it was how he was raised. "And I don't come cheap. I'm assuming you have some cash to spare since you made the journey all the way here. I guess that means I need to know what kind of skills you're trying to hone."

"It's just a short hop." Claire didn't think the trip from the UK to the Netherlands was overly expensive, but she'd been called out on her skewed perception of reality in that regard before. "Well. I seem to be able to turn invisible." She tried to demonstrate, but made sure to strain and also to not make it complete. "But it feels like something is holding me back." She was half faded, her clothes still fully visible. It had been quite difficult not to slip into full invisibility. The overcast and the lack of bright lights in the room would've made it super easy to simply disappear. it was like her driving instructor had told her, if you can't manage the car at 1 mph, you're not ready to handle it at 60.

He furrowed his brow at her, taking in her ability with interest.

“That’s impressive, but I don’t think you’ve come to the right place.” He said, reaching forward and putting his glass on the table. “I train fighters, special and otherwise…but to fight. Are you planning up getting in the ring and disappearing in the middle some time in your future?”

"Just fighters?" Claire was audibly disappointed at that fact. She didn't want someone to teach the students how to beat people up. She needed a phys. ed. teacher that could handle teaching all those diverse powers, at all those diverse levels of understanding. "I'm sorry for wasting your time then, I'm not a fighter." She'd been in the middle of the hippie movement advocating peace, love, and understanding.

He furrowed his brow then.

“Lady, what the hell? You come all this way to find me and you don’t even know what I do?” He asked, challenging her quite naturally. “I’m famous for training fighters; I’m the best at training mutants to fight. You have to know that already.”

He watched her as she made moved to leave. He made no attempt to stop her, but he was curious. He hadn’t met a woman yet who didn’t steal peaks at his body when he was fully clothed, but she hadn’t, and it made him wonder all the more what was going on.

“Who are you? I never got your name.”

"I represent the interest of certain people, and we saw potential in your particular set of skills." Claire turned to look back at Kai, making direct eye contact with the man. The less he knew about her the better it was for the security of the Institute. "We advocate peace and cooperation, and look to guide gifted young individuals towards a deeper understanding and control of their abilities." She took in a measured breath. "I'm not looking to train fighters, I'm looking to train people. So you might be right. I'm in the wrong place, and I apologise for wasting your time and interrupting your morning routine."

Kai felt that something was off. She travelled quite a ways to see him, and claimed not to know what he was doing, yet his purpose in his business was obvious and he had a hard time understanding why she didn’t know it already.

“Well, I’ve traveled the world fighting, I’ve traveled the world training, and I’ve…” he trailed off, his mind going to the group he once led. He decided to change the subject slightly. “I’ve seen a hell of a lot of mutants, but not a damn one of them who achieved peace through ignorance of war.”

He stood up and crossed his strong arms over his chest.

“That love and peace stuff is cute, but it falls apart the second your opponent disagrees with the nature of the conflict. When they start throwing punches, you damn well better know how to throw them back..or you will be a victim in history.”

"Like I said, I think there's a fundamental difference in our philosophies. I wanted to meet you myself to make the assessment whether or not you'd be a fitting candidate for our organisation but it would seem that there's too great a divide to overcome and I'm not sure I can, and want to, expose the impressionable minds in our institute to that." Claire had stopped at the door and stood looking back, trying to figure out if there was potential. That perhaps she could take the man out of the fight, and a little bit of the fight out of the man, enough so that he'd be helpful in teaching the young mutants how to handle themselves in this world. And while she somewhat agreed with the assessment that you needed to know how to defend yourself, the language with which he expressed that was something that sent red flags flying up the flagpole.

Kai watched and listened as she spoke. When she was done, he gave a shrug with his muscular shoulders.

“Look, if that’s how you feel, it’s no skin off my bones. You can do whatever you want with your ‘institute’. I don’t work to fit the mold, and if you misjudged what my talents can do for you, it doesn’t make me a difference. Best of luck in…whatever it is you do.”

Claire didn't get into the business she got in to walk away from people that seemed in need of help to seek a more peaceful existence. She pulled a small notebook from her pocket and started to scribble something down. "The peaceful protests of Dr. King and the civil rights movement against inequality and the protests of so many against the Vietnam War, including war vets, are proof that civil, peaceful, action has value and strength." She put the paper with contact details for the time she'd spend in the Netherlands on a nearby counter top and pocketed her notepad and pen. "Just in case you're ready to give humanity the benefit of the doubt." She pulled on her coat, shuddering from the fact that it was still wet and now also cooled down, before stepping towards the door leading outside. "If you do decide to follow up on this, I hope you'll have the decency to put on a shirt." She pulled the door open and stepped out of the small studio apartment back into the greyness that was Rotterdam.

Kai watched her step out into the rain, a confused look on his face.

“I don’t even know who the hell you are, Lady. Who would I even follow up with?”