Testing the waters

Posted on Sat Feb 11th, 2023 @ 22:47 by Kaylee Ashton BSc & Phoebe Hunter

Chapter: Prologue: Dawn of Avalon
Location: Various
Timeline: 24th September
1672 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Walking through the castle, Kaylee was taking a solo tour of the place she was to call home for the foreseeable future. While she was starting to get used to the idea of being a teacher to hundreds of teenagers, the idea of living in a castle was still something that hadn't quite sunk in yet.

As she made her way around the ancient building, Kaylee spotted Phoebe and quickly thought she should try to get to know the former agent as less of a superior at MI-13 and more of an actual person. Taking a quick breath in, Kaylee called out to Pheobe, "hey Agent.....Pheobe, wait up" she said, quickly correcting herself as she sped up her pace to a quick jog in order to catch up with Pheobe.

Phoebe stopped at the word agent but did not turn until her name was called and offered a smile as the woman caught up to her. She had been thinking about going for a run after not being able to after tennis the previous day but it seemed the woman wanted to speak. "Hello, Kaylee." She offered as a greeting as they stood by themselves in the corridor that led to the kitchen.

Giving Phoebe a smile, Kaylee swallowed her nerves before speaking, “hey, I thought since it’s been a while, we could catch up a little? That is unless you already have plans today” she said, hoping she hadn’t just interrupted something important. The last time the pair talked was when Kaylee arrived at the MI-13 facility she would end up working at and ever since then the two women had existed in two separate social circles, though she could never figure out where the animosity between the lab and field agents came from.

Well, that would be something different in catching up with someone from her former life in her new life. It was not something that she had ever thought about the separation between areas as she had been so busy with the weird and wonderful that MI-13 dealt with but she had always enjoyed Kaylee's company before she had disappeared into a lab. "I was going to be going for a run about the loch but maybe a walk would be nice." Phoebe compromised.

At that, Kaylee’s face lit up a little. “Oh, well if you want I can quickly go get changed and meet you down there. I may not have been a field agent, but I’m sure I can keep up for a while” she said before giving Phoebe a beaming smile. She was by no means out of shape, but Kaylee was certain that Phoebe could easily outpace her if she wanted to. “And besides, having an exercise partner can be fun”

Phoebe nodded and offered a smile. “I can wait.” The woman watched her walk away a few steps before she spoke up. “Do not forget a jacket or something water proof.” She added with a knowing look. “It is going to rain.”

Giving a wave of acknowledgement over her shoulder, Kaylee hurried off to her room to quickly get changed. While jogging wasn’t normally her cup of tea, she wanted to make a good first impression on this group of people. After all she was going to be working with them for a while.

After almost 15 minutes, Kaylee returned wearing a pair of tracksuit pants and a matching blue tank top with a pair of white runners. Quickly jogging back over to Phoebe, Kaylee gave her a nod, “ready when you are”

Phoebe smiled having been warming up whilst the woman had been changing. She led the way out of a side door and then slowly started along the side path that led towards the loch and a slow steady path. Phoebe did not speak much other than to advise when the path would change or to avoid something. It was twenty minutes or so until Phoebe’s warning about rain started and the pre cog pointed to a large tree they could hide under.

Quickly following Phoebe over to the tree she had motioned too, Kaylee gave a slight shiver to shake off the rain that had landed on her. As she did, a shower of tiny ice crystals came falling all around her, “well, you weren’t wrong. I guess the weatherman got it right this time”

“I am better than the weatherman.” Pheobe laughed softly. “This is something that happens in Scotland regularly. I have invested in a good coat for running from the town.” Pheobe admitted jogging on the spot to keep her muscles from seizing up.

Kaylee nodded, "that sounds like a good idea, I might look into something like that. Though the cold never bothered me anyway," she said as she watched the rain fall around them. "so you say you're better than the weather man? is the rain around here that predictable?"

Phoebe opened her mouth for a moment to jest then realised that despite all their interactions the woman might not know her abilities. "No just my abilities letting me know," Phoebe said testing the way to tell someone her abilities. There was a lot of stigma around abilities from normal humans let but if you added in sometimes humans with abilities who judged it as hard.

“Your abilities let you know? Hmm” Kaylee said as she pondered what that could mean Phoebe’s powers could be. A few of the lab techs had thought that her powers could be telepathy, but that didn’t line up with them telling Phoebe about the weather. “So, you have the ability to predict weather? No that’s to simple. Maybe weather control? Ir something like that?” She said, getting a little too hung up on the weather rather then thinking through all possibilities.

Phoebe laughed and shook her head. "I can see the future..." She said quietly. Being able to control the weather would have been awesome. It was a real active ability that could have made her life so much easier. "But I do not see it without permission unless something dire is happening and then it's out of my control."

“Selective Precognition? That sounds awesome, if a little problematic when it comes to my field of study. Quantum Physics could cover it, but it has been a while since I studied that side of physics” Kaylee said as her mind started to spiral, “what does this mean for the Schrodinger's paradox? You can know the outcome before the problem is proposed. Urg, my heads starting to hurt”

Maybe MI13 held secretes around officers abilities more than she suspected. ”It is better not to think on it. And to not think of the future as fixed.” Phoebe said kindly. It was easier to not think on the what ifs and the wgat nots and just roll with the flow and the here and now.

Taking a breath in, Kaylee nodded as she slowly released it, “that’s probably for the best.” She said before her eyes went wide as something else occurred to her, “oh my god, Multiverse Theory” Kaylee said before quickly turning to Phoebe and gabbing hold of her arms, “you get glimpses of alternate universes. That. Sounds. Amazing!”

"Not always." The woman commented pulling her arm back slowly so as not to offend. She had always considered her abilities as glimpses of other universes but trying to explain them to others without the scientific logical theory behind her was hard. It scared people and this was one of the first times someone had, had such a positive outlook on it.

Kaylee expression slowly changed from one of excitement to one of confusion as Phoebe turned away from her. She couldn’t understand her reaction, “what do you mean? I would love to have your abilities. You have the power to guide the world to a better place. You can help forge a brighter future. All I’ve ever done is hurt people” she said as she looked out over the loch as the rain came down around them, “this world needs people like you. People that can heal the wounds and see a path away from conflict. They don’t need a human ice maker”

Looking down at her hands, Kaylee’s breaths started to become shallower as she watched her hands started to shake and a tear fell from her eye, quickly forming into an ice droplet before hitting her hand. To her, her powers had caused nothing but grief for those around her.

“Because people use it to their own advantages or fear me. To most mutants and humans they fear the future and someone knowing it before they make the next step.” Phoebe pointed out gently. She wished she could record what the woman was saying about her abilities for when the self doubt and concerns got into her making other options and routes impossible

“Oh, um, I didn’t think of that. The human pension for greed would be problematic for you.” Kaylee said, thinking of several ways that Phoebe’s powers could be misused by the wrong sorts of people, both mutant and non-mutant. After a moment, she took a deep breath in and slowly released it as a determined look came to her face, “well in that case, I guess we’ll just have to face the undiscovered country without a map” she said before holding out a clenched fist towards Phoebe for a fist bump, “and we’ll do it together”

“Without a map is the preferred method for most.” Phoebe lent out and fist bumped the woman back. “Come on let’s keep going and actually get some exercise. Rain won’t last long.” Phoebe prompted thinking the rain hide tears that she thought Kaylee would be thankful to hide.

Giving Phoebe a nod in agreement, Kaylee looked up at the sky above them through the canopy of the tree before smiling, “race you back to the castle?”

Fin: