The Syndicate continued to run. Ion exercised his influence as the counselor from behind the scenes. He had thought that he had kept his entanglement with the organization hidden from all those with whom he did not have direct dealings.

He was wrong.

In an effort to neutralize the Syndicate, a group within SUPER had outed Ion as a high ranking member and put an operation into action to deal with him. Had they simply arrested him they would have a legal fight on their hands. Even were it to occur in the secretive Mutant Intelligence Surveillance Court or MISC. Killing him could create a violent reaction from Syndicate.

Luckily for SUPER, there was a third option.

Ion was leaving his office and walking to his electric car one afternoon when a murdered out SUV skidded to a stop in front of him. Immediately his power flared to life. The glow of Saint Elmo’s fire reflecting back at him from the shine of the SUV. Electricity arced from finger to finger on his hand. A stall tactic. Look as menacing as possible while while his power was still building in lethality.

The door opened. A man in a suit stepped out. Ion’s power winked out. Before Ion could even work through what had happened, a tranquilizer dart sprouted from his neck. His eyes pupils dilated and he slumped forward into the waiting arms of the adapted.

Over the next couple days, Ion had brief moments of consciousness. None were long enough for him to attempt anything to escape the fate SUPER had planned for him. He was aware of being in some place like a hospital. He had an IV and was wired to monitors. One time a man noticed that Ion was conscious and told him that, “Soon. Very soon you will no longer be a threat to National Security. For now though, rest. You have quite the day tomorrow.”

After that he awoke one last time before there was nothing.

---

William awoke. Last he remembered he had been in his bed. Now he sat, leaning against a fancy car he had never seen before, in a parking garage. He stood up and looked around him. The other cars had New York license plates. Which was odd. One car having a New York plate would interesting. Every car he saw… That was worrying.

Looking around the parking garage William confirmed that almost every car was from New York. The ones that were not were from other Northeastern states. He walked back toward the electric blue car he had been leaning against when suddenly the door handles protruded and little lights turned on illuminating them.

It was as if the car had chosen him.

William opened the driver side door and sat down in the car. Conveniently he had recently earned his driver license. He looked for how to start the car. There was no ignition to put a key in. There was no button to start it. The car seemed to be running though. Everything inside the car was operating, but he could neither hear nor feel an engine running. William shrugged and then put the car in reverse.

It moved.

After he backed out of the spot he put it in drive. It continued to drive.

”Let’s see what this car can do.” William said as he pulled out of the garage and onto a street. The car was incredibly responsive and he wanted to make the most of it.

---

It was a few hours later that William found himself sitting in a New York City police station. A motors officer trying to verify Williams identity. William knew he was in trouble and was trying to cooperate with the officer. The officer was none too pleased at William. The officer insisted he was lying because William Maxwell Faraday was in his thirties. William protested, he even provided his birthday to help narrow the search. The officer said it was… 2020? That couldn’t be right, William knew it was 2005 and that he was 16.

The officer and William went back and forth and it wasn’t long before the officer yelled. William flinched back. He then fell off his chair as his body was covered in the purpleish glow of a coronal discharge. William thought he was on fire. He slid across the floor using his hands to propel himself. Several officers stood up and approached.

”Help me!” William said to them. He held out a hand and an arc of electricity shot out and struck one of the officers. A few of the others drew their service pistols. One of them, a sergeant told them to lower their weapons and spoke to Ion.

“Hey kid. It’s alright. No one’s hurting you. This is all you.” The sergeant stepped closer. “Take a deep breath. There you go.”

Focused on the sergeant, William did as he was told. He tried to calm himself and breathed deeply. Slowly the discharge faded away. The sergeant held out a hand to help WIlliam up.

“Novak. I’ll take care of the kid. Get back on patrol.”

---

William sat with the sergeant for a few hours as he tried to look William up in their database. The sergeant was calm and non accusatory. He told WIlliam that William was a mutant and not to worry. There was somewhere that William could go and he could stay until the whole mess was sorted out.

The sergeant also found a set of clothing that fit William better. The suit he had been wearing was almost the right size. It was as if it was made for him after a couple more years of growing. Jeans, tennis shoes, a band T-shirt, and a jacket.

---

It was nearly sunset when the police SUV pulled up at the mansion. The sergeant killed the engine and climbed out. William followed his lead and got out of the vehicle.

“This place is good to gifted kids like yourself. You’ll see.” The sergeant said as he waived William to follow him.

The pair of them walked to the front door and the sergeant rang the doorbell.

Emily was in a tiny lull in college work between the end of the semester and the real start of the current one. She’d been putting in a few more hours at the mansion, it was largely that she wanted to make a little bit more money. Her dad would probably give her money whenever she asked, but it felt a little too much like taking advantage of the man, and her mother had done more than enough of that during her lifetime.

And as a result, her life was split between snuggling her girlfriend and doing work for Gemma. As she was getting pretty ahead on her work with Gemma, her boss suggested that she did some shifts in other areas of the mansion. Emily spent a little time assisting a teacher with one of the classes of younger kids, which went so well it surprised her. Teenagers were an absolute nightmare. Hormones were gross. But kids were on the whole surprisingly genuine and honest creatures.

Today however, she was helping out in administration. She’d forwarded calls to people and let in students that were coming back from trips into the city and made sure that ones leaving to go into the city would be fine. She felt like a glorified receptionist, and was honestly starting to get a little bored with sitting there all day.

The buzzer rang just after the guy she was assisting went on break. Someone was ringing the doorbell, another kid trying to get back in perhaps?

Emily keyed the buzzer and glanced at the monitor. That was a police officer… and a teenager. Great. This was going to end well. “Hello there officer, may I ask what we can do for you?” she pleaded that this was not some delinquent being dropped off that was going to annoy the crap out of her.

After a few moments of waiting, a female voice responded. This surprised William. He was not used to places where people responded to the doorbell remotely. The sergeant took it in stride though.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m Sergeant Bishop with the NYPD. With me is William Faraday, he was down at the station today and he had an incident.” William shied away slightly at the mention of what happened at the police station. “I cannot confirm his identity to try and find his legal guardian. I thought it better to bring him here while we sort everything out. No sense putting a kid in a cell when there is another option, am I right?”

William, visibly uncomfortable, put his hands in his pockets to wait. He had been forthcoming with the sergeant and after hours of back and forth, there was nothing to show for it. The person William claimed to be was in his thirties and owned the car he had been joyriding.

What William did not know was that the fingerprints of William that were taken matched the fingerprints of William Maxwell Faraday that were taken when he was licensed to practice law. That is when the sergeant decided it was time to visit the mansion. He was not Mutant Related Crimes and something strange was happening that the good people at the mansion would be best equipped to address.

“Don’t worry kid. We’ll get you squared away.”

Emily blinked slowly. That was... weird. The kid didn't look particularly aggressive, and the sergeant certainly seemed like he was being amicable with the teenager. She'd not had to greet a new person yet, but she was the person that was around to deal with it right this second, and she had some sympathy for a young, lost mutant.

She blinked slowly, glancing around the little papers and things around her. She scooped her jacket out of the corner it was sitting in and keyed again while she pulled it on. "Okay, that's not a problem. Would you like to come into the ground for a moment? I'm opening the gate for you now, and I'll meet you halfway. This is probably best dealt with face to face instead of over the intercom." If it hadn't been obvious from slightly distorted effect from the intercom, her very English accent would be clear enough in person.

Pulling the coat on she waited a moment for the reply, grabbing some keys and heading off down the hallway to the front and out into the grounds. She walked towards them, probably not looking too much like what one expected from a person working in a building that looked this fancy, given she was wearing a brown leather jacket, jeans and a blue jumper, clashing slightly with her purple locks. Sue her, it was comfortable.

The voice responded to Sergeant Bishop. She was inviting them onto the grounds and opening the gate.

“That’ll work just fine ma’am.”

”What is this place?” William asked the sergeant as the gate opened.

“It’s a place for gifted youth like yourself. From time to time people from here help us out. They’re good people.” Sergeant Bishop motioned with his head for William to follow him as he turned to head through the gate onto the grounds.

The surprising thing to William was how much space there was. He had never been to New York CIty, but he had seen pictures and watched tv shows. The city always seemed like a concrete jungle where the only greenery was in Central Park.

As they walked, they saw a purple haired woman in a brown jacket walk out of the building and head their way. The sergeant waved at her as they approached. William saw her but not even the oddness of purple hair distracted him from how impressive the building and the grounds were.

Once they were close enough to not have to yell, the sergeant tipped his hat and said, “Good evening, Ma’am. Hope you guys helping the kid out isn’t an inconvenience.” He pulled an unsealed envelope out of his jacket pocket. "Leaving the kid here lets me lose this report and stay in good conscious."

Emily just caught the response as she finished moving around the desk, quickly scribbling a note and sticking it on the front. This seemed like something that needed to be dealt with right away.

As Emily walked towards the pair she noted the bracing cold and gently stuffed her hands into her coat pockets, trying to put on what she hoped was a welcoming smile, she sucked at smiling. Despite whatever Skye's wrong opinion on the topic might have been.

She withdrew her hand begrudgingly to wave at the officer as she neared the two of them. "Hello there Officer, I wouldn't worry about that. It's what the mansion is here for." The English girl raised an eyebrow at the officer, throwing what she hoped was a reassuring smile to the young man.

"Given that you have that there, I feel compelled to ask you if there is anything I need to be aware of, other than this young man being in need of a place to stay and get himself together?" The Officer was nice, that much was for sure. She wasn't picking up anything resembling duplicity from him. The kid seemed in awe, if a little nervous?

"Terribly sorry, where are my manors." She held out a hand to the boy. "William, my name is Emily."

The woman gave William a smile. That plus the way the building looked was reassuring to William. He did not suspect that the sergeant would take him somewhere awful given his demeanor, but you never know for sure until you actually get there and meet the people. William smiled back. It was more of an attempt to be polite and reciprocate the expression.

“There are a couple issues.” The sergeant said as he returned the envelope to his inside jacket pocket. “As I said we couldn’t confirm his identity. He claims to be William Maxwell Faraday, but the only William Maxwell Faraday, born Juneteenth, 1988.” He looked over at the clearly not in his thirties William. “I matched his prints to the prints on file for William Maxwell Faraday, Esquire. The attorney. All the information the kid gave me matches too. Birthday, social, mother’s maiden name. The works.” He shrugged, “We caught him having a joyride in an electric car registered to William Faraday. The car is impounded. I can release it to the mansion if you all confirm his story and give me a call.”

Sergeant Bishop produced a business card and handed it to the woman.

The fingerprint detail was news to William. And the car was amazing… If that was his, that was amazing! He was ecstatic about the idea. So much so that he generated a small charge. Not enough to produce a corona but enough to float his hair a little.

The woman then realized she had not introduced herself. She directed her attention to William and introduced herself as Emily. William shook her hand, a small jolt of electricity passing from him when their hands made contact. ”Sorry!” William said, he thought that it was simply the cold dry air causing the static. ”Nice to meet you, Emily.”

“If you have any other questions you can feel free to call or email me. Otherwise I’ll check up on the kid in a few days.” Sergeant Bishop checked his watch, “For now I’m needed on patrol. Have a good evening.” he tipped his hat to Emily, “Take care kid.” He set his hand on William’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze before he made his way back to his squad car.

Anyone that asked Emily about her opinions on wider society, or most people she came across would get a spiel about societies many many issues, and how messed up the duplicity of most people was. She hated people, she really did. But not all of them were all bad, at least not all of the time. And she felt like this officer was probably one of those people.

"I understand, we'll look after him. Don't worry." Come to think of it, she'd heard tell of this whole people turning up younger thing going on around the mansion, though she'd been unsure of whether or not it was all just rumors. You couldn't really dismiss anything around there.

She quickly placed the business card her pocket, turning her attention more fully to the uncomfortable teen.

A shock she had not expected, and while she winced and drew back her hand it was immediately obvious that he'd not meant it so she didn't say anything. Shaking her hand a little, to pass the numbness Emily smiled at him. "It's okay, you didn't mean to."

"Take care officer." She had respect for the few decent police officers she met, it couldn't be an easy job.

Turning back to the teen one more time she gestured towards the mansion. "Well, shall we? I can get you settled, I'll show you around a little first and then we just have a bit of paperwork to do and we can get you a room."

Emily was not mad about being shocked by William. It was a nice change of pace from how the police had reacted. Granted he had a more visible display. Had the sergeant not been there it might have been a fairly ugly response.

The sergeant left leaving William alone with Emily. As for being in a strange place with no one around he knew or recognized, his present situation was better than it could have been. Emily gestured to the mansion, "Well, shall we? I can get you settled, I'll show you around a little first and then we just have a bit of paperwork to do and we can get you a room."

William looked at the mansion, then back to Emily. ”Yeah.” He started toward the mansion. Paperwork then a room. Was this some kind of boarding school or did they just have rooms for people like himself who had nowhere else to live at the moment. ”What exactly is this place? A boarding school, a home for wayward kids?”

If it was where William would be staying he felt he should know something about it. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but just to have an idea what his new life would entail.

Emily payed very close attention to William's emotions, she really didn't want the kid to feel to uneasy or nervous about the situation. The mansion was typically super welcoming to wayward mutant youths, and she really wasn't the typical welcoming committee. If anything, she really sucked at the being nice and reassuring thing, but she'd give it her best effort, and cheat with her empathy where she could.

A little wry smile graced her lips. "You could say a little of both?" Pondering how best to explain it Emily was silent for a few beats. "The mansion looks after young mutants specifically, they offer counselling, classes and training to help control mutations among other things. You don't need to pay anything to stay here, just try to stay out of trouble."

Turning back to look at William with a slightly awkward smile. "I don't mean to imply that you will cause trouble, almost everyone here is cool. Even the staff and the teachers." She led the two of them up to the entrance and held it open, allowing the boy to enter, giving him a few moments to lurk and look around, take in the site of the massive mansion.

Emily answered his question. From her description, William decided that the mansion might just be a great place. Training, classes, and free. It only required that he stay out of trouble which was easy enough. With the exception of that same day, William was not known for much in the way of trouble. That had more to do with not being caught, but if you aren’t caught did you really break the rule? That said, most of the trouble he caused was good natured with the odd bout of teenage rebellion and mischief.

“I don’t mean to imply that you will cause trouble, almost everyone here is cool. Even the staff and the teachers.”

William gave her a smile in return. He had not taken offense. As one who had caused some trouble he could not justifiably take offense at someone suggesting he might cause trouble. ”No offense taken. I did get brought here by the police… after they caught me joyriding in a car that might even have been mine.” Honesty was a good way to help make friends when somewhere new.

When they reached the doors, Emily held it open for William. He stepped inside and was blown away by the interior. It was no less impressive than he expected based on the exterior. He was incredibly grateful to the sergeant for taking him to the mansion.

”... I… Wow… So... I can live here… Free?” What was the catch, there had to be a catch. Did they want him to join some MLM or team while he was there? He had no other options and Emily had given no indication that she was anything but on the up and up. ”Where do I sign up!... Uh… Except, I’m only sixteen. I can not legally sign anything.”

Something about the honesty in William and the little bits of excitement and glee Emily could feel floating around at the sight of the mansion and conversation with herself made her smile. It was kind of wholesome. Emily on the whole didn't get on with or like teenagers very much, but she supposed there were exceptions to every rule.

"It's okay, no judgement. You'll see and hear about plenty of weird around here." It was true, she'd seen and heard so much at the mansion that made her question her outlook on life before she'd lived here. She'd never been a particularly optimistic person, but it had shocked and horrified her on some level.

Suppressing a chuckle she smiled at the teen. "Don't worry about it, a case like yours is literally what the mansion is here for. Sometimes mutants who just don't fit in at regular schools, or have trouble controlling their powers come here, it's a safe environment." She meant it. She wouldn't have hung around when she graduated high school if she didn't believe in it on at least some level or other.

"You don't need to sign anything, paper work is just for us to keep track of, your name, which room you're assigned, that sort of thing." She soothed.

The mansion was literally there for cases like him. William just couldn’t wrap his head around how the mansion was around, look so amazing, and could take in kids like himself at no cost. Either they had one hell of a bake sale every year or there must be some private wealth hanging around somewhere. That intrigued William, but it was best not to dig too deep while he was still not officially a student.

And the paperwork was just for the mansion’s benefit. That seemed odd to William, but hey, they likely had some special allowance from whatever governmental entities they interacted with. ”Oh. Okay. Well, what do you need from me to do the paperwork?”

So William would get a room, end up in classes, and he guessed maybe provided some level of food. Maybe best to ask his questions, ”I get a room, I go to school here, get training for… Whatever I can do,” William looked at his hand which did nothing special. He shook it. Nothing. ”What about food and other necessities? Is there a uniform?...” William paused trying to think of any other questions that he had. ”If it turns out that I am this other William Faraday I guess I need somewhere to park a car… And I think that’s all the questions… Sorry.” He had word vomited and that normally wasn’t a good look.

Okay, so most teenagers were insufferable. This one was alright. Emily could deal, she might even enjoy dealing with this situation a little, it was definitely less boring than sitting at a desk all day long.

“Don’t worry about it, just name and details. Mostly the sort of basic information they asked you at the police station, name, date of birth, that sort of thing. There are quite a few kids here, so it pays to keep good records of who is who. And if the police ever work out what happened to you, or find relatives or something, it's good to have a paper trail.” She explained, while walking the boy through the entryway.

Emily chuckled a little. “Yes, you’ve pretty much got it. There are specialists who help students that don’t have full control over their powers, there are counselling services on offer for students who need it, I work for the school counselor.” He seemed to be adjusting to it pretty quickly.

“Food is sorted by the school, very well stocked kitchen and allowances for students that don’t have money. There isn’t a uniform, don’t worry about that.” She let him ask all of his questions and smiled gently, in what she hoped at least was a reassuring way. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll cross those bridges when we come to them.”

She glanced at him, tilting her head slightly and paying attention to what was going on emotionally. “Come on, I’ll show you the kitchens.”

The same information they collected at the police station. That was easy enough… So long as he was not asked the same series of questions multiple times by multiple people for hours and hours. William nodded along. It made sense. It was a little tedious to give the information all over again, but he would survive one last recitation. A mixture of irritation and relief. ”That’s not too bad.”

Emily went through and answered all of William’s questions. Specialists for powers, counseling, food, allowances, and no uniform. He especially liked not having a uniform. While he generally dressed well, he did not like being compelled. The all included nature of the mansion was certainly setting William at ease with being there. It was clear why Emily worked for the counselor. Her reassuring way of interacting with William was able to silence that voice in the back of his mind that seemed to want to just stir up worry and fear regarding his new situation.

William might freak out later, but Emily was siphoning gas out of that bomb.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll cross those bridges when we come to them.”

With a nod, William said, ”Okay. Thank you.”

“Come on, I’ll show you the kitchens.”

With that statement William realized something. He had not eaten since he woke up in that parking garage and his hunger, finally noticed, decided it would not be forgotten again. His stomach rumbled. ”Oh, please!... I guess I’m pretty hungry.” He did feel hungrier than he’d ever been. Maybe shooting electricity out of his hand had taken a lot out of him?