Two Days Later (The Outreach Center)

Tyrone and Jessica spent the next two days in an intense honeymoon phase that was made sweeter by the fact that their rooms were basically right next to each other.

The first night after they established their relationship, Jessica found whatever reason there was to be inside Tyrone’s room.

By the second night, Jessica had broken all notions of normal relationships as she directly moved all her stuff into Tyrone’s room.

She had always been the type of girl to do whatever she wanted and right now, Jessica wanted to ‘do’ Tyrone.

--------------

Tyrone had his back leaned against the bedhead, Jessica leaned against his chest as his arms wrapped around her from behind.

“As amazing as this is… I think you’ll still need your own room…” Tyrone suggested, playfully tickling Jessica’s stomach a little.

Jessica laughed, still experiencing a high from her earlier orgasm “I know I need my own room but I’ll just wait until you give me this room… then you can move into my room. When your smell fades from this room, we’ll switch back and the cycle will continue…”

Tyrone grabbed Jessica’s nose “Did you somehow get the ability to smell people from a mile away as well… Are you a little puppy now?”

“Of course… I am your little puppy… isn’t that why you had me on my knees earlier licking your –”

“OOOKAAAYYY!” Tyrone interrupted, not letting Jessica finish whatever she was going to say “Remind me not to joke with you anymore…”

“What can I say?” Jessica mused “I am a very oblivious girl.”

“Yet here you are… naked as can be, gripping my ‘precious’ between your knees just because you feel like it… usually, females only don’t put my ‘precious’ between their knees, it’s supposed to go somewhere else…” Tyrone flirted, trying to remove his genital from between Jessica’s knees so they could go another round.

“I’m too tired…” Jessica complained “If you are a mutant, then it would be a sex-type or something… I’m super strong and you still tire me out… I went to the bathroom yesterday and I saw blood so I thought I was dying until the internet said it's normal after having sex for the first time…”

“I could have told you that,” Tyrone stated, finally remembering that Jessica was a free spirit and usually forgot about the obvious things in life.

Jessica sighed, shifting her body away from Tyrone “I was too embarrassed to ask or admit it… I thought things would be different for mutants but I guess I was overreacting…”

“It’s amazing how awesome it feels to talk to you like this… the sex was amazing but I like how you can express how much something means to you without saying anything at all.”

Jessica frowned “I think people … specifically, males make that mistake sometimes…”

Tyrone grew intrigued “What mistake?”

Jessica reached her hands below the sheet and gripped Tyrone’s genitals gently “It’s my first time having sex… as much as I love you and as amazing as it was… it is nothing compared to right now… I like the moments after we have sex, where you let down your guard entirely…

And then I take your dick into my hands and just keep it there… I think that’s what all females enjoy… This feeling of power to determine whether you deserve to continue being a man or not… It’s like despite all the shit men put us through… at the end of the day, we always hold your life in our hands during sex…”

Tyrone’s body stiffened and Jessica laughed innocently, releasing Tyrone’s little brother and hopping out of bed with a limitless energy that she didn’t previously possess.

Jessica was quick to get dressed before Tyrone could scold her “I’m heading down for breakfast... just stay here… I’ll bring breakfast for you in the next hour…”

-------------

The moment Jessica exited the room, the smile on her face disappeared, she grew slightly paler and she was forced to use the walls of the hall to steady her footsteps.

“You almost drained me dry Ty…” Jessica whispered, finally figuring out what had been bothering her since day one.

Why was the atmosphere around Tyrone always so gloomy? Simple… Jessica felt the life being drained out of her body the moment she started sleeping with Tyrone.

At first, it was a little at a time so she didn’t notice it but after hours of having sex, she could feel it clearly…

“Tyrone’s mutant ability drains the life out of everything nearby…” Jessica whispered, feeling her heartbreak a million times over.

If Tyrone drained life… and he and Tandy were basically addicted to each other, it meant that Tandy was full of life to give…

Jessica withdrew her phone from her pocket and checked the hundredth text message Tandy had sent her in the past two hours.

Over the past couple of minutes, the messages from Tandy were getting more numerous and more desperate, almost as if Tandy could feel that Tyrone was getting sicker and sicker.

“Of course, I can tell that he is sick but he doesn’t want you even then,” Jessica mumbled to air as if Tandy was there.

Even before Jessica slept with Tyrone, she could tell that something had changed inside of him after meeting Tandy, and yesterday, she confirmed it without a doubt.

After leaving the Karaoke Club, she noticed Tyrone’s shaking even when he desperately tried to steady his body.

Last night, she could feel him whimpering and shaking inside his sleep… but even when she tried to bring it up, Tyrone would dismiss her like a cold turkey.

Loathe as she may be to admit it, Jessica had also come to realize that Tyrone needed Tandy and Tandy needed Tyrone…

If anything was clear to Jessica at this point, it was the fact that Tandy could survive without Tyrone but Tyrone could not survive without Tandy.

-----------

Tyrone waited for a couple of minutes after Jessica had exited the room to allow his body free reign.

“Fuck!!” Tyrone cursed as his body shook intensely from something he couldn’t really understand.

He felt hungry and tired and everything around him was too bright for his sensitive eyes.

He had a fever inside but his mind felt cold… everything about the situation was telling Tyrone that he was not the problem but he couldn’t think about anything else that could be the problem.

Tyrone shakily rose to his feet and pulled whatever clothing he could find from the ground; however, just after tying his shoelaces, Tyrone felt his mind swimming and he fell to the ground and blacked out.

∞∞∞

Hidden Location in Bacáu

Dr. Cecilia Reyes sat inside a hotel room with her face scrunched as she calculated the odds of the risky operation she was about to permit.

Earlier she received a call about a very lucrative opportunity from Wilson Fisk, an associate of Essex Corporations, but she only trusted Wilson Fisk as far as she could throw him….

And admittedly, Dr. Cecilia knew that wasn’t very far.

Essex Corporations, while on the surface was a company dedicated to the betterment of lives across the globe, is actually a Corporation that is tasked with the responsibility of collecting mutant genetic samples.

“How smooth can we get this done and what will be the effects?” Dr. Cecilia asked unsurely.

“If we want to get to the boy, we have to erase all traces of the Outreach Center since it is not within our jurisdiction. If we steal mutants from other Executives, we will create internal strife within the company… at the end of the day, it is about how bad you need the promotion…”

Dr. Cecilia frowned, not exactly willing to start a war over a few useless mutants but a prospective omega-level mutant would get her assigned to ‘The New Mutants’ Project – a direct objective used to combat the rising Mutant threat.

Every Outreach Center of the Essex Corporation was established for the sole purpose of providing mutants with a safe growing environment before they are later shipped to different project grounds for experimentation.

“When you say ‘erase all traces’ you mean?” Dr. Cecilia asked her hired Military Expert.

The military Expert shrugged as if the answer was obvious “Kill everything and make it look like an accident… I am talking about the entire Outreach Center and some of the surrounding structures…”

“Is there a chance we will be discovered?” Dr. Cecilia asked.

“There is always a possibility of being discovered… especially with Mutants out there but… minimal chances at best…”

Dr. Cecilia nodded “Move out tonight.”

∞∞∞

Jessica and Xandra (Outreach Center)

Xandra entered the room and was greeted by a collapsed Tyrone.

“Tyrone… Tyrone!!!” Xandra yelled, speeding over to Tyrone’s side, hoping that it was all some elaborate ruse.

However, the moment she turned Tyrone’s body over, Xandra was sure that Tyrone was very sick.

“Jessica! Jessica!!!”

“What?” Jessica groaned, lazily pushing open the door to Tyrone’s room.

“Something is wrong with Tyrone!” Xandra shouted angrily.

Jessica’s lazy attitude evaporated and she flashed to Tyrone’s side in an instant.

“He is mostly okay… he is not shaking but…” Jessica paused, pulling Xandra’s hands off of Tyrone’s body “We can’t touch him… at least not right now…”

Xandra stared at her hands which had turned slightly paler after touching Tyrone’s skin.

“What’s wrong with him?” Xandra asked concerned, her usually nonchalant and bubbly attitude gone.

Jessica frowned while glancing around the room, scooped Tyrone from the ground, and tossed him onto the bed in one swift motion.

“What the heck Jessica?” Xandra asked appalled after watching Jessica literally toss Tyrone onto the bed with, admittedly, good aim but Tyrone was still a human nonetheless.

Jessica patted Xandra’s head lazily “We can’t touch him right now… but I can throw him with minimal contact… I’m not a fucking doctor so I have to be innovative…”

Xandra frowned as she pulled out her phone and began typing a few statements.

“What are you doing…?” Jessica asked.

Xandra eyed Jessica suspiciously and continued to type “Tossing your boyfriend around is an early sign of Domestic Abuse so I am noting the date and time of the incident. I love you and Tyrone so if the police question me, I want to be able to tell the truth…”

Jessica’s face deadpanned “Would you tell the truth if I was going to go to prison?”

Xandra sighed and patted Jessica’s head as if their roles had reversed “Jessica… my dear, sweet Jessica… you are a bit boorish of a woman… your life would be better in prison than outside… you’d rule the prison within a few days…”

Jessica laughed, slapping Xandra’s hands away playfully “Fuck you Xandra!”

“I think mountain climbing will be more of your thing…” Tyrone added, propping himself up on the bed “You can scare mountains into moving so Mountain Climbing should be your profession.”

Jessica and Xandra smiled slightly, moving to Tyrone’s side and taking a hand respectively.

“How are you feeling?” Jessica inquired with Xandra bobbing her head up and down while examining Tyrone’s condition.

Tyrone frowned and searched deep inside himself for an answer to Jessica’s question “I feel like something bad is waking up inside of me… something that’s hungry for a very specific type of energy… I feel like once it awakens, I will be okay but I will lose everything important to me… like I will need to find a new normal…”

Xandra frowned “Are we talking psychological issues or physiological issues? Do you need an asylum, a hospital, or a Buddhist temple?”

“I think the Buddhist temple might help,” Jessica answered seriously.

Tyrone nodded his head “I also think so but my body feels like it's tearing itself apart…”

“You need to go to the Boardwalk… Tandy is there waiting for you. She knows that you’re sick and thinks she has a solution…”

“NO!” Tyrone shouted, cutting Jessica off and startling Xandra into stepping back “I’m sorry to scare you Xandra… but that girl is no good… if I go to her, I won’t be coming back… the way she has her hooks in me… I don’t want to experience that anymore.”

Cough

Cough

Xandra and Jessica watched stunned as Tyrone coughed up small amounts of black blood.

“Okay…. That’s definitely not normal…” Xandra freaked “What the heck is going on here? Do you have blood cancer or did Jessica give you STDs?”

Jessica frowned, forgetting about Tyrone for a moment “How did you arrive at the conclusion that I might have STDs?”

Xandra rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious “Tyrone was fine two days ago… you guys have sex and Tyrone gets sick… one plus one equals two… sex with Jessica and Tyrone is sick equals Jessica has an STD.”

“That’s some sound logic…” Tyrone nodded appreciatively.

Cough

Cough

Jessica patted Tyrone’s back gently while directing a fierce glare at an equally fierce Xandra.

Jessica sighed in exhaustion since she could tell that Xandra was internally panicking at thought of losing Tyrone.

“It’s going to be okay Xan…” Jessica comforted Xandra even though Tyrone was the one in most need of comfort.

“Don’t lie to me… earlier you said he’d have to go away…” Xandra reminded “For how long…? I’ll go with him.”

“You can’t!” Jessica shouted “Don’t you think I’d want to go as well? He will find a way back to us but right now his health is more important…”

“Jess?” Tyrone asked, feeling Jessica’s hands clamp around his neck harder and harder.

“I’m sorry Ty…” Jessica whispered while increasing her strength until Tyrone blacked out “But sleep now and you’ll wake up with Tandy on the boardwalk… happy and healthy, so just sleep for a while.”

Xandra wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Jessica admiringly “You’re a very decisive woman… it must hurt you to force him away…”

Tears also started to leak from Jessica’s eyes as she positioned Tyrone in a bridal carry “Someday you will understand the pain of having to do something you hate to keep someone you love alive...”

“I think I already understand…” Xandra corrected, opening the door so Jessica could carry Tyrone outside “You are about to give up Tyrone – your best friend and boyfriend…. But I am about to lose a mentor and the closest thing to a father I ever had…”

“Let’s go put him in a cab… he’s sick so he won’t wake up until much later…” Jessica said, holding Tyrone in one hand as she pulled out her phone and said a message to Tandy using her other hand.

∞∞∞

Tyrone Johnson (In Taxi Cab Heading to Tandy)

Tyrone opened his eyes drowsily and was assaulted by the noise of traffic and vertigo.

“Where am I?” Tyrone grumbled.

“You’re in my cab… Earlier two girls dropped you in here and said ‘go to the boardwalk… A rich white girl is there waiting on him’… so I am doing my job but…” The Cab Drive hesitated on how to word his next statement “Were you perhaps raped?”

Tyrone rolled his eyes, sitting up straight in the cab “Would you feel violated if those girls that dropped me off raped you?”

“Hell No! I would thank the Gods…” The Cab Driver said, “I envy you, young people…”

Tyrone closed his eyes and submitted to his faith in being with Tandy….

The Taxi Cab trudged on and on through the busy streets of Bacáu towards the Boardwalk.

∞∞∞

Tandy Bowen (At The Boardwalk)

Tandy sat at the boardwalk for hours and hours but nobody ever came. Eventually, she lost all hope of Tyrone’s arrival but still, she waited and waited….

Two days went by and Tandy still sat in the same place, not moving once to eat, sleep, or even take a shower.

It was as if all the hopes in her mind had been shattered and even as bright as she was… there was no use repairing a hope that she knew would never come to fruition.

Tandy suddenly stood from her seat on the boardwalk and walked towards the ledge.

“You’d rather die than be with me huh?” Tandy murmured, tears leaking down her cheeks like a waterfall.

Tandy turned around to stare at the ocean where the water met the horizon in a beautiful display of balance… a balance that she and Tyrone should also have but obviously didn’t…

Step

Step

With two quick steps, Tandy found herself above the ledge staring down at the vast expanse of Oceanic water below “This is a beautiful way to go…” she whispered.

Tandy was tired of all the pain, all the waiting, all the heartbreak, and most of all…

All the wasted courage it took to leave everything behind just for the measly chance that Tyrone would choose her in the end.

“He didn’t choose you, Tandy…” Tandy whispered, taking a single step forward and gifting her body to the gravity that would take her into the raging ocean currents below.

However, Tandy realized that she didn’t fall, or rather, she didn’t fall very far…

“He didn’t choose you but I did choose you…” Kevin said strongly, using all his feeble strength to hold onto Tandy’s arms to keep her from falling into the water below.

“But I don’t choose you…” Tandy replied, maneuvering her body a bit to force Kevin’s arms into a difficult position that would release her.

“Let me change your mind…” Kevin pleaded, clinging to Tandy’s hands desperately “Let me show you that lightning strikes the same place twice… let me show you that you can fall in love again… I want to be your hopes and dreams and aspirations… there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you, Tandy…”

A bit of light returned to Tandy’s eyes, perhaps brought on by Kevin’s confession, or perhaps the hope in his heart had reached her own…

Tandy was in desperate need of hope… it didn’t matter where it came from since a little of something was better than none at all.

‘He has always been there for me…’ Tandy thought sadly ‘Even when Tyrone left… even when he didn’t come to meet me, Kevin is here and he loves me… I am sorry Tyrone but I have to let go…’

Tandy pulled her body upwards, helping Kevin balance her weight and soon she was back above the ledge, bodyguards running over from the distance.

Tandy stared at Kevin’s exhausted face as he sat on the ground “Why?” she asked.

Kevin smiled brilliantly “Because when someone loves someone the way I love you… always fighting for you is not a choice… it’s an instinct…”

Kevin extended his hand and Tandy took it hesitantly “Let’s go home… we’ll forget all about this trip…”

The feeling of a weight disappearing assaulted Tandy’s mind and she felt all memories of Bacáu pushed to the back of her mind.

∞∞∞

Tyrone Johnson In Taxi Cab Heading to Tandy (Two Days Earlier)

Tyrone patiently waited to arrive at the Boardwalk where he would meet Tandy. As much as he wanted to stay with Jessica, he also knew that he would die if he did.

The choice was even more impossible because, on some deep level, he also wanted to be with Tandy… maybe even both Tandy and Jessica but the world wasn’t made that way…

‘I’ll go to Tandy… see if my condition improves, then I’ll head back to Jessica…’ Tyrone thought sadly, preferring to choose to live a little longer instead of remaining by Tandy’s side.

After all, some things when broken could never be repaired and Tyrone knew that his relationship with Tandy was broken the moment he saw her with another guy on camera prior to his ‘hanging’.

“By the way…” The Cab Driver said “Might I just say, you recover fast… maybe too fast. Earlier it looked like you were dying…”

“Well, that happens when-” Tyrone paused, realizing that he did feel better “Are we near the boardwalk or something?”

“We’re nowhere near that place… I am embarrassed to say, I have to drive slow now that I’m old…”

Tyrone frowned “Then why am I feeling better all of a sudden… there is no aching, no trembling, and I don’t feel anything pushing to get out… is there something wrong with me?”

“You know what us old folks say…” The Cab Driver commented, “If there is nothing wrong with the boy, and there is nothing wrong with the parents, then there must be something wrong with the place…”

“The Place?” Tyrone murmured then grew frightened by his own thoughts “The Fucking place!... I always feel healthier when I am away from The Outreach Center…”

Without thinking any further, Tyrone popped open the door and ran through the streets of Bacáu heading back to The Outreach Center.

He had an idea of what was causing Jessica’s new mutant abilities to activate while also causing him to get sick – The Outreach Center.