Headlights, a car horn, tires screeching...

Darkness.

Max felt a sharp pain in his chest and a breath of air weezed out of him as if he'd forgotten how to breath for a time. His eyes opened groggily and he took a moment to let them adjust to the dark alley he found himself in.

He was naked lying on the cold ground. He had no memory of how he got there. He sat for a moment thinking on it. He remembered crossing a street and hearing someone yell. His body quivered at the memory of an impact and then....nothing.

He pushed back a wave of panic and disorientation as he rose. He looked out of the alley and saw a vacant street. A clock on a nearby building told him it was around 2 in the morning. If he was out at this hour maybe he had been out enjoying himself, but that felt wrong in the current context.

Max peered out of the alley and down both sides of the street he was on. River Road was plastered on a street sign down the way. He knew the location, he was a few miles from the mansion. The street was empty which Max found to be a good thing given his indecent exposure.

He began a brisk walk down the street and took a left making his way back to the mansion. He had few other options given his predicament and would have to try to make his way to the mansion quickly before he was noticed. He was lucky he awoke so late at night, the trip in rush hour would have led to a much more embarrassing and complicated situation. He kept his eye out for places to hind in case he ran into anyone and prayed luck would be on his side.

Yeah right.

Naked man, early twenties, disoriented, possibly mutant?...

Mirror was on radio duty, mostly because she could not sleep. There was too much to think about since her return - all the things she missed, all the reports to read, all the students to find out about new and disappeared. Figuring things out took thinking, and thinking was best done at night, when no one was there to interrupt you. So Maya took voluntary night shifts monitoring the news and the radio, to see if anything popped up that could distract her. Irony.

And lo and behold.

Maya slipped out of the office through the mirror, and hopped a couple of blocks down, keeping an eye on the streets. From what she could tell, the guy was headed in the school's general direction, which only confirmed the suspicion that he was a mutant. It took her only a few minutes to locate the dude. He was kinda... glowing.

"Hey there" Maya called out, stepping out of a nearby shop window, holding a blanket she had grabbed from the office "How about a free blanket?"

As usually he was having a time of it. Max had rounded a corner just as a police cruiser was turning down a seperate street. He hoped they hadn't spotted him but wasn't about to slow down to see. He was walking at a pace that was just below a run when he passed a shop window. He heard a voice call out from behind him and his face turned scarlet as he turned around.

The girl had appeared out of nowhere. She hadn't been on the street a moment ago. Max's initial thought was she had to be a mutant. It was quickly followed by an assessment that she was very pretty. She seemed about his age and her figure was....Max instantly shut off his train of thought as he remembered his current context.

His face turning every brighter Max had the strongest urge to cover himself. A split second later he realized it was perhaps a little too late for that and he simply walked over and accepted the blanket, attempting to seem unfazed by his situation.

"Thank you." He said as dignified as he could.

He threw the blanket over himself and appreciated the warmth on the cold night.

"So nice night huh?" He said stupidly.

His facade of confidence broke and he looked up and down the street.

"Please tell me you can get me out of here. I'm trying to get home and I have no idea how I got here." He confessed

The guy was definitely naked. Also, definitely surprised that she appeared out of nowhere, but given his situation, and how cold it was outside, the blanket managed to win him over.

>>"Thank you... So nice night huh?"

Maya blinked. Small talk? Really? People who were out naked at night usually had a none too compelling reason to do so. Which usually beat small talk. Sure, the situation was awkward, especially since it was a Maya day (as of two hours before), but the guy looked more than a little... scrambled.

>>"Please tell me you can get me out of here. I'm trying to get home and I have no idea how I got here."

"Oookay" Maya nodded "Yeah, I can get you out of here. What's your name? Do you remember where you live?..."

Maybe he was just drunk.
He did not seem drunk.

She asked if he could remember his own name. God he must look like a lunatic. He let out a frustrated sign and began to explain himself.

"Yes I remember my name. I'm Max. I'm not high or insane. Look the last thing I remember is getting hit by a car as I went to get dinner. Next thing I know I'm in an alley as NYC'S next big streaker" He said slightly frantic as he opened the blanket as if to verify his story.

He realized instantly how stupid he was and closed the blanket back around himself. His stomach grumbled loudly. It was true he had been on his way to get food but after mentioning it he felt instantly famished as of he hadn't eaten in days.

"Sorry I'm just a little out of my element here. I moved into the Xavier mansion a few days ago and I wanted to get back and put something on." He continued.

He didn't know what else to say. He couldn't blame the girl for thinking him mad. If he had been in her place he would have felt the same way. His stomach rumbled again loudly.

"Also care to front a guy a meal?"

>>"Yes I remember my name. I'm Max. I'm not high or insane. Look the last thing I remember is getting hit by a car as I went to get dinner. Next thing I know I'm in an alley as NYC'S next big streaker"

As if to prove the point, May flashed Maya, who rolled her eyes and chuckled a little bit at the whole situation. Sure, she would have been out of sorts too, if she woke up naked after a car accident. The guy probably needed to see DocProf to sort things out. Not high or drunk, but he might well have been concussed...

>>"Sorry I'm just a little out of my element here. I moved into the Xavier mansion a few days ago and I wanted to get back and put something on. Also care to front a guy a meal?"

Maya's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're a Mansion student?!" no wonder he was making his way in that general direction then. He did not familiar at all, but that was of no consequence; Mirror herself had only returned a couple of days before. "Dude. C'mon, I'll take you. I work there."

She offered a hand to Max. It was kind of a strange thing to do, but she hoped he would trust her enough to comply. Once they held hands, she pulled him into the reflecting surface of the window, and hopped back to the Mansion. They exited the mirror in Maya'd office a mere few minutes later.

"Dude. C'mon, I'll take you. I work there."

The words were like a spell. Max hadn't been in the mansion for very long, hell he didn't really consider himself a student since he'd hadn't ever attended a class. Mostly the mansion had just been a place to stay after he got evicted from his apartment.

She offered him her hand. It seems a rather odd thing to do and Max almost told her he was okay to walk. She worked at the mansion, she was probably a mutant. Teleportation would easily explain how she had found him.

He took her hand and tried not to yell put in protest as she pulled him into a shop window. Instead of smashing through it however Max felt himself slide into the glass and tried to take in the sensation of moving through the wondow. He could feel them traveling at a high speed and saw sweeping images of mirrors that they passed. He shut his eyes as his stomach struggled against the sensation.

A moment later Max fell out of a mirror and onto a carpeted floor with less than his usual grace. Luckily the blanket had stayed on and he lifted his head to take in the room. It was some kind of office, quite nice in fact. He rose and walked over to once of the chairs and sat down placing his head on the cold wood.

Traveling through the mirror had messed with him. He was used to being thrown around but something about the smooth mode of travel had put him off balance.

With his head still down he gave the girl a thumbs up

"Thanks. I didn't catch your name earlier by the way. You said you work here? Teacher?"

Max looked a little frazzled from the mirrorwalking. Maya chuckled and let him sit down; first-timers sometimes got queasy or dizzy from the teleportation, and needed a few minutes to get their bearings. But hey, at least he didn't throw up.
Maya turned and went rummaging through the drawers in the corner of the office.

>>"Thanks. I didn't catch your name earlier by the way. You said you work here? Teacher?"

"Hah, no, not really" she grinned, shaking her head "Name's Maya, but most people call me Mirror."

She pulled a shirt and pants out of the drawer and tossed them at Max. The shirt had the X-logo on it, but at least it was the right size, give or take.

"I'm on the X-team."

She turned to let him get dressed. Not that it was anything she had not seen before, but she wanted to spare him more awkwardness, after the night he probably had.

"So, you said you moved in a few days ago? I must have missed the memo... what's your power?"

Max dressed himself, appreciative of the mock privacy. As he pulled the shirt on he felt a little awkward. The x team shirt felt strange on him, like he was wearing a costume. He wasn't a member of anything, let alone some mutant police force. He let out a little cough after he dressed to signal it was okay to turn around and smiled at Mirror.

"Thanks again Maya. Yeah I moved in a few days ago. Had a little apartment but got ousted for not being able to make rent. Starving artist and all that crap."

He felt a little awkward when asked about his power. He knew the people he had met in the city were a little more tolerant of his kind than those in his hometown he still never liked discussing what he could do.

He picked up a stapler off Maya's desk.

"Cool codename by the way. Mirror travel is neat though not for me I think. I don't have any cool name." Max said.

He spread his power over the stapler reversing the gravity on it. It fell upward and smacked against the ceiling. Max negated gravity around himself and floated up to it. He grabbed the stapler and negated his effect on it and lowered to the ground.

"I have a personal gravitational aura that I can manipulate. Make myself weightless or pull myself in any direction. Same goes for anything I touch." He concluded.

It was a lot easier to converse with the guy, now that he was dressed. Maya chuckled as she took a seat at her desk.

>>"Thanks again Maya. Yeah I moved in a few days ago. Had a little apartment but got ousted for not being able to make rent. Starving artist and all that crap."

"I know the feeling" Maya nodded. She had been a street kid long enough to remember what that felt like - even if her powers technically allowed her to crash all kinds of places. She hit a few keys to wake the computer up, intending to put Max's return and accident into the records.

>>"Cool codename by the way. Mirror travel is neat though not for me I think. I don't have any cool name... I have a personal gravitational aura that I can manipulate. Make myself weightless or pull myself in any direction. Same goes for anything I touch."

Maya watched the demonstration, and she could not help but be very impressed. She was always fascinated with other people's powers, but the whole gravity-manipulation thing was extra spectacular.

"Well, you might not have a cool name, but you definitely have a cool power" she grinned "We can work on the name later... Let me just make a note in your records, and then we can go find you some foo..."

She trailed off, looking at the screen. She hit a few keys, then stared some more, eyes narrowing at the information in Max's file.

"Umm... May Rosewood, right? That's your name...?" she double-checked, and came up with the same results. She finally sat back, rubbing her temples. "Look man, I don't mean to freak you out, but... this here says you moved in about year ago. And that... a year ago today... it says you were hit by a car. And died."

Max would have said the news hit him like a truck, but it felt a little too on the nose for his poetic tastes. He watched Maya closely as she looked at the screen. As she leaned back he felt a lump form in his throat.

"Look man, I don't mean to freak you out, but... this here says you moved in about year ago. And that... a year ago today... it says you were hit by a car. And died."

Max just stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to burst out laughing, tell him she was just messing with him and send him on his way. Instead they held eye contact and he saw no break in her stressed out frown.

"Thats...rediculous. Yeah I got hit by a car but it was a few hours ago at most." He stammered.
He peered around the desk and looked at the screen. He saw his file, saw the details, but it wasn't until his gaze drifted to the corner of the screen and he saw the date that he actually believed it.

He stood up without knowing why. His brain was frozen but his body refused to be still trying to compensate. His hands picked up things of Maya's desk and he felt his fingers fidget with them. A million thoughts collided on him at once and out of his mouth.

"My parents think I'm dead. They would have had a funeral. A year? Where have I been? How am I here?" He sputtered.

He sat back down and did the only thing he could to not go crazy. He shut it all down, he imagined a blob, an oozing orb of fear, panic, and worry and he threw it in a box locked it up with chains and three it to the bottom of an ocean in his mind. It would resurface he was sure, but couldn't have it now.

He looked at Maya.

"So you're an xer. Have you ever ran into this before. I lost my phone and Id think the school could help me with that?" He asked calmly.

"Also given the circumstances do you think maybe I could have something special to eat? It appears I've been missing quite a few meals lately." He laughed, not a happy laugh more of a wild sputter as he felt himself wanting to break again.

"No!" He thought to himself.

He stopped laughing and clenched his fists.

"Sorry. Lot to take in and all." He mumbled

>>"Thats...rediculous. Yeah I got hit by a car but it was a few hours ago at most... My parents think I'm dead. They would have had a funeral. A year? Where have I been? How am I here?"

Maya watched Max grapple with the initial shock of the news. It had to be tough, finding out that, as far as your friends and family were concerned, you were dead, and had been for a year... especially if you did not remember any of it. As far as Mirror knew, there was no such thing as coming back from the dead. Not without some freaky mutant power anyway, and it did not sound like Max had that...

"I'm sorry, I have no idea..."

>>"So you're an xer. Have you ever ran into this before. I lost my phone and Id think the school could help me with that?"

"Well, having been dead and coming back to life is kind of a basic requirement for the X-team" Maya sighed. "There are a number of ways... that can happen. We'll figure it out. Okay?"

And technically, Max just got one step closer to being on the team...

>>"Also given the circumstances do you think maybe I could have something special to eat? It appears I've been missing quite a few meals lately."

"Dude. You can ask for a freaking birthday cake and I'll make it happen" Maya said, dead serious "You've earned it."

People coming back from the dead deserved whatever made them feel less creeped out. Mirror took such things very seriously.

>>"Sorry. Lot to take in and all."

"Ya bet." Maya nodded, standing up "Okay, let's go get some food into you. And probably a drink. And then we'll take this step by step. Sounds good?"

Max produced a genuine smile at Maya's cake joke. It was in that moment he decided they were going to be friends, she had pulled him out of a hell of a spot and was a decent enough person to humor him.

He got up taking Maya's standing as a cue and walked to the office door. He opened it and gestured for her to lead the way to the kitchen.

The best part about living in a mansion full of mutants is the kitchen is always stocked to feed an army. Max entered and immediately went to the cabinets and pulled out a number of cooking supplies.

"Do since I went on a bit of a tmi trip with you how about you tell me about yourself. What are you into when you aren't swooping in to save naked weirdos?" He said as he placed some pots and skillets on the stove.

He listened as he cooked, making a feast of random assortments of food. His hands worked mechanically, you didnt live alone and not learn to cook if you liked to eat. In a few short moments he had everything sitting on the island. Fettuccine Alfredo ended up in a bowl beside a plate of soft tacos which was leaning against a platter of pizza bites. He grabbed a few boxes of snake cakes and a some cokes and started chowing down.

"Dig in. Plenty to go round." He said, his mouth overflowing with food.

they moved on to the kitchen. Max needed to eat something, especially since he had possibly just come back from the dead. Thanks to Mansion budgets, and probably Miss Taylor, the fridge was stocked, and Max went about making food while Maya took a seat at the kitchen table, suppressing a yawn.

>>"Do since I went on a bit of a tmi trip with you how about you tell me about yourself. What are you into when you aren't swooping in to save naked weirdos?"

"I mostly swoop." Maya chuckled, watching him work "I'm a full-time X-man... mostly. I took a break recently and I just came back... I also like to do archery."

Their voices must have reached the hallway, because Angua, Mirror's gigantic Irish wolfhound, appeared, padding over to rest her head on the kitchen table. Maya chuckled and scratched her behind the ear.

"And I have a pet. Max, meet Angua. Angua, meet Max."

Food was soon on the table, and Maya pushed Angua's nose off so she could not snatch any of it away.

>>"Dig in. Plenty to go round."

"Nothing better than a late night meal" Maya chuckled, making herself a plate.

"Archery huh? Sounds like fun I'm no good with a bow. How's the X-men thing? It sounds like a lot of all work and no play." Max responded with a smile.

A dog, large by Max's definition entered and Mirror introduced him. Angua the hound seemed gentle enough but Max decided he was best not to find a reason to make the hound angry.

"Nice to meet you. Jesus is your last name Stark Maya?" Max said with a laugh, "Is game of thrones still considered a pop culture thing since I left?"

He continued to enjoy his feast. The food tasted like heaven.

"As for me I'm pretty easy to figure out. Music's my passion. I dance mostly but I've been fooling around trying to learn guitar." He said, suddenly he gasped in surprise

"Oh man. I just remembered I had my iPod and headphones on me when I died. Man there goes my whole library and those headphones were the best." He called out in sorrow before stuffing an oatmeal cake into his mouth for comfort.