Challenge #00090: Faith in Humanity...

Tenderness from an unlikely person in an unlikely place.

Ow.

Not fair. The heart-warming speech should have worked. The whole ‘pick on someone your own size’ thing inherent should have at least made them ashamed of themselves.

But no. Sara had to get an ugly of thugs who took her whole shame-on-you speech as an open invitation. At least the kid got away. She’d made certain.

Which left her back open for attack.

_Mental note. Don’t try tricky things that have yet to be combat tested._

Sure, she’d given them a good hiding, but they gave as good as they got. Possibly better, given that they had time to leave her to rot in a dumpster and debunk with all their battered friends.

Sara had extracted herself and was now using her staff as a walking aid. They’d taken her image inducer. If she still had her phone on her, this would have been useful for tracking the idiots down.

Alas, the kid had her phone. And her purse. The spoils of defeat, Sara supposed.

Good thing her credit cards were in her other wallet.

A rather loud muscle car snarled to a slow halt behind her.

“What the hell. Essel?” said Duncan.

“Sara. Louise. Adrien,” she panted. Anger was helping her limp onwards. There might still be a pay phone on the corner. The council was rather lax about removing them from this neighbourhood. Not that the locals didn’t have a hand in their slow demolition. “Currently in no mood for your asinine fecalities, Mr Matthews.”

“Asinine… Wait. You’re tired of my shit?” he laughed. A reedy little giggle. “Where do you come with that?”

“I get polite when I’m angry,” Sara snarled. Five more steps to the visible crest of the hill. Four. Three.

“What happened to you?”

“Civil intervention gone awry. I attempted to rescue a young mutant from a gang of three. They had ten friends. It did not, as you may guess, end well.”

The muscle-car roared. Pulled up in front of her. “Hop in. I’ll get you to somewhere friendlier.”

Sara contemplated the slope down to the remains of the public phone. And the likelyhood of stumbling and tumbling all the way to the bottom of the hill. “I’ll stain your upholstery.”

“It’ll clean.”

“I am a mutant.”

Duncan frowned. Bit his lip. “So’s my baby sister. She ran home with your purse and a hell of a wild story. Way I see it… I owe you. Big time.”

Her purse was in the back seat. Judging by the size and shape, with all the contents intact.

“You never mentioned a sister…” Sara casually checked her bag for new spatter. Clean.

“My family doesn’t talk about her. She… she was born… weird.” Once she had a space blanket out, he helped her drape it around herself, and get settled in the passenger seat. “Bright yellow. And she glows in the dark. All the time. Never figured out how to turn it off. So… She’s been home schooled and tonight, she ran away… ran into trouble… and… um.”

Sara, knowing she was the 'um’, dug into one of her belt-pouches for the calling-card. “She can come to Xavier’s if she wants to. Perhaps with a different name to -ah- spare your somewhat politically vocal family from unnecessary exposure?”

Duncan blushed. He kept his eyes on the road. “It’s genetic, isn’t it? When I have kids, they’re gonna be freak-babies, right?”

“He said to the freak,” added Sara. “One would think that by the time progeny turned up, you would be living in a world of your own making, Mr Matthews. Consider that, the next time you’re standing behind your father when he’s pontificating at the podium.”

He dropped her off at the gates of Xavier’s without another word. Drove off in silence.

Sara didn’t think anything of it. He was a jock. She was lucky he could drive and talk at the same time. Though asking him to chew gum simultaneously may have taxed his abilities.

Logan was already tearing up the drive with a gurney.

She greeted him with a sarcastic, “All hail the conquering hero.”

“Yer chariot awaits,” snarled Logan.

Three days later, the news broke about the Matthews’ family secret 'freak baby’ - age just thirteen - and the hideous scandal it was to find such a thing in the Friends of Humanity’s best spokesperson in the senate.

All because Dunc snapped a selfie with him and his baby sister in the dark and posted it on Facebook.

Dunc was exiled. So was Sophia Matthews, but at least she was exiled to Xavier’s, where she bloomed astonishingly well.

Two weeks after the scandal, Sara received a thankyou card from Duncan Matthews, who was now volunteering at a mutant clinic in Australia.

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