It had begun as an escape attempt. A retreat from her studies, into nature. Quickly, that all had changed.

Lenna liked nature. She had spent a lot of time in the jungles of Colombia, hiking. Training. Learning survival skills. To her, the forest rumored to be outside the mansion had been like a magnet. It had drawn her in. Of course, then she had seen the giant mass of hedges on the way to the forest and stopped to ask a passing student ‘what in the hell is that?’

They had told her. “Hedge maze!” Cheerfully, they had explained. “Mansion students and teachers maintain it. It’s always changing. Nature mutants, maybe. Or reality manips.”

She did not know what manips were.

His description of a constantly shifting maze of green barriers had captivated her imagination. He had not captivated her. Somewhere along their conversation, she had began to fear he was ‘hitting on’ her, as the children put it. She pointedly had ignored that, while gathering information. Once she felt she had obtained suitable intelligence, he had amiably agreed to show her to the maze. That had been about when he had made his final play.

During the conversation, he had tried twice to blatantly flirt with her and gently been rebuffed. On his last attempt, he had swung for the fences and struck out, hard.

“I can walk you through the maze,” The brown-haired boy has smiled. “It’s a nice day. It’d be a good walk. I know the place well... plenty of secluded areas. Some of them are even... romantic?” He had winked. Winked. “Could be fun~” he had sung.

That had been too far. Lenna had straightened her back and looked at him, sternly. Her light Spanish accent added emphasis to her crisp words. ”First. I have a boyfriend. Second. You are not my type.” She had snapped.

He had frowned at her.

“Not your... type?” ‘But,’ he seemed to be thinking. She could see his mental gears turning. ‘I am handsome! How can I not be some pretty girl’s type?’

So, she had clarified her position for him. ”Not. Orange. Enough. Thank you for showing me the maze.” and on that note, Lenna had turned and stalked into the hedge maze in a huff.

The boy had watched her go, silently. Then, when she had vanished out of sight around a corner, he had ambled over to the outer wall of the labyrinth and calmly placed a hand upon the hedge. He closed his eyes.

—

The day was chill. It was not yet the warm weather of spring. She was still getting used to American weather, but she had dressed appropriately in a black leather jacket, with a white t-shirt with an orange on the chest underneath, orange and white sneakers, blue jeans, and a black silk scarf. Her hair hung to her shoulders, brown and flowing in the breeze. Lenna wished she had thought to bring a hair tie, or a ribbon.

She wished she had brought more than just a ribbon, honestly. If she had known of the maze, she would have brought things to prevent her from getting lost. And that would have been good.

Lenna had never read Hansel and Gretel. Never read any Greek myths of labyrinths and enchanted string an a man with the head of a bull. She would have planned, without the strong grounding in fairytale mythos that allowed small children to contemplate bread crumbs and thread trails. It was unclear what she might have brought. But maybe markers of knives to carve the ground up, and a compass? Those would not have helped, ultimately. But she had not known that.

As she went through the maze, it shifted behind her. The shift did not occur within her vision, but it happened. Hedges swung like screen doors to close off previously traveled paths, or to open new ones which lead to dead ends.

It did not take long at all for Lenna to get lost.

William tended toward staying inside. Reading and studying were strong reasons not to go outside. Getting into a great school was not going to just happen. William had to earn it. Eventually the mansion staff decided that all work and no play made William an unsocialized teenager. They kicked him out of the mansion for the day. It was for his own good anyway, some sun and fresh air on a day of downtime would help him in the long run.

Except, the staff would not even let William take a book. They wanted him to explore the grounds or at least run the hedge maze. William could have his book when he had completed the maze. So, that was what William would do.

Dressed for the briskness of New York Springs, William set out for the hedges in jeans, a tan long sleeve, and a plaid overcoat. He sighed as he entered the maze. It was not his idea of fun but it was what he had to do to get back to what he wanted to do.

After a half hour William was beginning to think he had made a mistake. At first William thought it was simple enough. As he progressed things proved more difficult. Eventually he was convinced the maze was changing on him. The maze was cheating. That changed it from a test of memory and direction to a test of patience and luck. William was not amused.

His face reading as thoroughly displeased, William rounded a corner and caught sight of a brunette. ”Dead end?” William asked as a way of announcing himself and seeing no path past her.

Pissed. Lenna was pissed. By now, she too was certain of it. The maze, it was changing. Forty-five minutes had helped her in this realization. Forty-five fruitless minutes. When a voice chimed in behind her, voicing the exact same thought she had been thinking, Lenna was actually relieved. For a moment, the feeling of ‘pissyness’ passed. But then, it came on back.

”Dead end.” She agreed tensely. ”I think it may be changing. More than it is supposed to change.”

They had said it would change from time to time, yes? But she had believed that to be over the course of days. Something some person maintained. Altered. But to change while someone was within its hedges... it seemed counter to what a maze was meant to stand for entirely.

With a sigh, Lenna brushed hair from out of her eyes. ”I only thought the Danger Room changed as if ‘reality manips’ were caged within its bowels.” Lenna said. She had heard that, too.Sam had said it could do what ever they wanted. And a student had bragged about the ever popular word ‘manips.’ Same kid. He was probably a manip too.

She peered at the boy, one hand shielding her from the sun. As a visor. ”What are manips? And why would a young mutant boy be so obsessed?”

The brunette confirmed William’s suspicion. Dead end. What surprised William was that the maze was supposed to change. ”Okay. So I am not going crazy. The maze does actually change.”

William had heard talk of the Danger Room, but only insofar that it existed. Reality manips was something William had no clue as to what the girl was on about. William shrugged and responded, ”I have no idea what a ‘manip’ is and… A young mutant boy obsessed with what? Changing the maze?” William looked around. It made sense that a school for mutants might have a mutant that changed the maze from time to time. Keep it fresh.

A look back to the girl and William amended his previous inquiry, ”Obsessed with… You maybe?” Schoolyard boys show they like girls by doing dumb things like throwing sand and putting bugs on them. Maybe young mutants use their power to toy with girls they like? That sounded like behavior of a much younger kid than the girl appeared to be. She appeared to be around William's age. Old enough to be beyond the schoolyard silliness but not yet a legal adult.

Her head bobbed twice in confirmation. Yes, the maze did alter itself according to her sources of information. But how and why were but two of the many many questions she had, without answer.

He had no answers, either. The boy did not know what manips were, but he had a good guess about what was happening... a boy altering the maze. More than the usual amount. Reasonable, but then that begged the question “Why?” He had an answer for the question of why, too.

Lenna frowned at the suggestion.

”With... me? Obsessed with... me? But this makes no sense. Why would anyone be obsessed with me? I do not really know anyone. And even if I did... why would they do something such as—“

Before she could finish speaking the thought, the maze began to shift once more. This time, the hedge moved inwards to push a wall in between them. The goal seemed clear: it was made to separate them.

Quickly, Lenna stepped through the gap between hedge and wall before it could fully close.

”That.” She concluded her sentence. Lenna turned her head to gaze back at the hedge wall. It was completely closed, now. Locking them into where they were. Though, maybe the maze behind them had changed once more, too?

Her hair bounced against her shoulders as Lenna shook her head. ”I am not impressed.”

The brunette did not seem to understand why someone would be obsessed with her. The obvious answer obviously eluding her as a wall of hedge moved to separate the pair of them. The brunette quickly moved to slip through the gap as it closed, leaving her on the same side as William. William stepped a few steps away from the hedge as it moved.

”If this keeps up, me and whomever is behind this will be having words.” William said with an irritated look on his face. He understood the hedge shifting from time to time to keep it fresh, but it should not be done while someone is inside. It especially should not be done to divide two people who were engaged in a conversation.

William looked at the hedges around them. For the moment no others seemed to be moving. A look back to the brunette and William looped back around to the conversation that had been rudely interrupted, ”You are a cute girl. We men often do… Odd and inexplicable things around, to, and for cute girls.” William stated it matter-of-factly. There was no question she was and it best explained the behavior of the hedge mover. ”I am William by the way.” William said holding out his hand.

>> ”If this keeps up, me and whomever is behind this will be having words.” The boy said.

Words? Lenna laughed darkly.

”I prefer fists.” She said.

Fists? Yes. Feet? Yes. Knives and other things... yes. But maybe not for something as annoying (but innocent) as this.

She clenched one fist, for the emphasis.

The boy looked off in thought, clearly assessing the situation. Calculating. Telling her— she was cute.

He said some other stuff, and held out his hand. Lenna suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. The hand he held out, unfortunately got left hanging.

”Nice to meet you, William.” She said, Colombian accent making her words come off clipped. ”Please forgive me for not shaking your hand. I already apparently let one strange boy use his powers upon me because I let down my guard. Need not go two-for-two. Thank you for the compliment. For the moment, let us keep our mind on getting out of this maze. Focus, William.”

She gestured at the maze.”Shall we cheat?”
Lenna smiled at him. It was not a flirty smile. More dangerous than anything.

William opened his arms in a gesture that conveyed the idea, ’by all means.’ ”Not exactly my normal course of action, but they do tend to have quite the effect. Let us try it that way.” William said with a nod.

As for William’s offered hand… It was left hanging. Once that was clear, William brought his hand back. It was a decent enough reason to not shake hands. Some other mutant had abused the custom it seemed. William also noted that the brunette did not offer her name either.

That was the thing that irked William. Though she was right, They needed to keep their minds on getting out of the maze. William did not plan on being stuck in the maze because some boy out there could not handle rejection. ”Consider me focused.”

The brunette asked about cheating. William cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, ”Yes, let us cheat… But how?” The smile on her face worried William some.

Without preamble, Lenna pulled a knife from her boot. It was not a horribly large knife, and it was not a switchblade. It was just a perfectly normal, everyday, concealed weapon. She turned towards the hedges.

”A machete would be better, but I have this.” She said lightly.

Lenna tried a slash on the hedge. It cut off a few leaves and the start of a branch. But at its size and the size of the hedge, actually cutting their way through the maze would take hours. She grimaced.

”The knife might not work so hot. We may need to navigate in the intended manner. Unless you have some sort of very destructive mutation. Mind just makes things orange and helps me be lucky.” She said.

Luck does not help cut down hedges.

If she’d had full telekinesis control, this all could have been subverted. But then, she did not. And this was actually a challenge.

William didn’t jump back or cry out or anything like that when the brunette produced a knife. He simply raised his eyebrows. Where he was from people having knives was more common than it seemed to be in New York City, but it still wasn’t an everyday sight to see someone produce a blade. ”Better than not having a knife at all.” William shrugged. ”Cheat away.”

The cutting. Did not go so well. Sure the knife made progress but it was so slow that it might actually be easier to navigate it as the manip behind the maze intended. The brunette realized that and reached the same conclusion William had. She did, however, mention him maybe having a destructive mutation before… Her mutation made things orange? That… Was an incredibly unfortunate power to have.

”I have one that might work. I have never tried to use it on plants in this manner though.” William said as the light of Saint Elmo’s fire sprouted from William like a corona around himself. ”It will take a couple minutes before I can do anything productive, but stay back in case.” The corona faded and was replaced by electricity arcing from him to everything around him. The ground and the hedges alike. William held up both hands and an arc of electricity flashed between them like a tiny lightning bolt.

He had one. Might work. Might not. Lenna gestured with her arms in a very ‘by all means, after you’ gesture. And light sprang up around the boy.

Yes, her power made things orange. The exception seemed to be light. Light, she processed the same regardless of her power’s effects. So she saw the “St. Elmo’s fire” coloration. She was kind of impressed.

He said stay back. She stepped back, until her back was pressed against a hedge maze wall. Branches poked her. Stupid branches.

”Go for it,” She said.

Lenna watched the electricity arc.

The brunette gave the go-ahead and William nodded. Immediately there was a small jump in brightness as he began to push out electricity at his current maximum. William moved to the hedge and arced the electricity through a branch. There was not much of an effect. He assumed it would take more power wattage than he was putting out to do what he wanted.

As time passed, and William ran current from one hand to the other, the visible plasma channel of the electricity arcing grew ever wider. While the electricity maintained its color and brightness, the ever growing width of the arc made more and more light. After two minutes from when he started discharging, William arced the current through the hedge. Where it passed through the plant it flashed and burned. William moved the current around in a constant, unhurried speed. The current was sufficient to cut through thin sheets of steel and he was using it to burn through glorified bushes.

”Here we are. One new doorway.” William said as he pushed the person sized section of hedge out of the way. ”Hurry behind me. I doubt the manip will be pleased by my cheating.” And with that he walked through the hole in the hedge to the next section over.

She shaded her eyes from the luminosity of his abilities. Very bright. Very interesting. Mutant powers always were.

Unfortunately, the electricity did not do much to the first branch he attempted to affect. Had little effect. She supposed it was like in nature, how earth tended to ground current... or something. Maybe he simply needed time.

Time, Lenna gave him.

The arc grew.

The bush got hit. Caught fire.

A sound escaped lenna. A little pleased “ah.” A sound of culmination.

She followed his lead. ”Yes,” She agreed. ”I can almost hear his baby wail now at being defeated.”

She could not. They were too far away from him to actually hear his growling scream of rage. But someone walking the mansion grounds near him shot the boy a worried look.

As she went through, her eyes fell on more hedge, and paths in three different directions. A fork. This would take a while. She stood, looking around. ”He has not yet closed off this area. What do you think? Burn more, or just try and find out way out in the usual manner? Also.” the girl glanced back at the hedge. The one on fire. ”Will that go out, or do we need to extinguish it?”

Or was it a brief flash and burning, that went away the moment he had arc welded the branches apart, and was she stupid? No matter.

Lenna picked a direction at random, hand resting on the right side of the hedge wall as she walked a few steps down the far right path.