For the Fight (open)

Rikke took a moment to appreciate the scenery. The Mansion was beautiful, the grass was lush and the sky blue, it was as if the X-Men intended to make it look like a paradise. She leaned against a tree and lit a cigarette. Maybe she'd explore and take in the sunshine a bit before she tried to find anyone to help her. The tree seemed like as good a place as any, so she planted herself comfortably at its base and waited patiently.

Not more than a week ago, she started to manifest psychic powers, she'd grown up a mutant and always had a unique appearance, but the telepathy was new. At first it was fun, she could always know what someone was thinking by picking up their surface thoughts, but then she dared to delve deeper into a mind and found she could control the person, that was lots of fun, she stayed in the nicest penthouses and ate at the best restaurants without waiting. But it came with a catch, once in a mind she became linked to them and the person would have to go to sleep or go miles away before she could have her mind to herself again. It was frustrating and frankly annoying. For no reason did she need to know that some buffoon couldn't decide between the blue tie or the gold one. Or that a person was obsessively convinced their stupid cat, Bozo, was infected with a virus.

Having useful powers was great, but the price was less than ideal. But it wasn't selfish self-interest that brought her to the pristine mansion with its chirping birds, immaculate landscaping and hordes of mutant students. It was the incident at the bar that made her realize that something had to be done. Her first night in New York, she found a Mutant dive bar and found a really interesting and cool woman to befriend, but the police, the police and one of those damn METAs raided the bar. Someone had fire powers, there was an accident and the fire got out of control. The place burned down and her only friend in the city died. She escaped, like a coward, but the thought of all those mutants, people, dead now because the police decided to use force and ask questions later. Something compelled those officers to hate and fear mutants, and as a result people died horribly. If she was ever sure about anything, it was that something needed to change between humans and mutants. Things needed to get better. And while she was no idealist, the X-Men were at least trying to do something so that no police officers would ever have to feel so threatened as to storm into a mutant safe place and cause people to die. She doubted she'd fit in with this group of idealists, but if nothing, she might learn some new tricks with her powers.