"Hey Easter isn't exclusive to America," Locke pointed out. It was the only national holiday that he could think of that had anything to do with zombies. Around Halloween there were always zombie days in small towns, where people dressed like the undead and lurched around. Halloween, the holiday that Krisz had been thinking of, was to Locke about more than just zombies. "Acting as a store ghost just for money is extortion."

Turning into pure sound did sound pretty cool to Locke though. Earth manipulation and earth sense were cool and all, but too many times did Locke say or do something that made him feel terribly embarrassed. Being able to vanish when he did what he did best would be great. "You're cool with using your mutation for that?" he asked. It wasn't an accusation, Locke really wanted to know the answer.

>>"Hey Easter isn't exclusive to America,"

Krisz' face twitched. Easter? Who the heck was talking about Easter? He wasn't. He was talking about Halloween. Zombies for Easter? Kid must have had a screwed-up life... geez.

>>"Acting as a store ghost just for money is extortion. You're cool with using your mutation for that?"

"I am absolutely fine" he frowned. Who was this kid to question him? There were so many worste ways he could have used his mutation.

"What, people dressing up as Santa is not? I could be a thief too. Or a spy. I think bookstore ghost is pretty damn harmless."

"Guy dies and then comes back to life only to show up at eat? Tell me that doesn't sound like a zombie," Locke explained in a hurry when Krisz's face twitched. What holiday had he been thinking of in the first place? "And it's not like America's the only place that has a celebration of afterlife. Mexico has the Day of the Dead."

Locke opened up a google tab and did a quick image search. Then he promptly turned the laptop around to show Krisz the colorful and well decorated candy skulls. "Almost makes me want to visit."

Questioning the morality of Krisz's power usage had put the man in a defensive mode. "Hold on, that's a whole different kettle of fish," Locke might not believe in the religious aspect of Christmas, and he wasn't entirely sold on the commercial end of it either, but Santa needed some defending. "Being a ghost to drive up business when you aren't isn't like being hope for kids. Besides you probably don't have to worry about someone having an accident on your lap when you're playing ghost of the shelves."

>>"Guy dies and then comes back to life only to show up at eat? Tell me that doesn't sound like a zombie. And it's not like America's the only place that has a celebration of afterlife. Mexico has the Day of the Dead."

"Big deal, Hungary has day of the dead too. But we don't put plastic zombies in the garden." he shrugged, slightly amused that the whole conversation.

>>"Hold on, that's a whole different kettle of fish. Being a ghost to drive up business when you aren't isn't like being hope for kids. Besides you probably don't have to worry about someone having an accident on your lap when you're playing ghost of the shelves."

Krisz sighed. "I think you are missing a point here. Up until five minutes ago you thought I was in your head, and now I am here, admitting I am a mutant, and your biggest problem is Santa? Kid, you need to get your priorities straight. You can't be a writer without that. Stay focused on the plot or it all goes to hell."

"Sub-plot," Locke argued. As great a friend as Eaan was, the guy was useless when it came to writing, and when hanging out with Chris at the mansion the topic was usually about things other than literature. Locke was getting use to actually being able to talk with his teachers on subjects, and his grades were improving, other than science and math. "Just something that at the moment neither one of us can tell is important to the real plot, but it provides a nice relief. And if you expect me to be shocked about being a mutant you haven't been in New York that long."

The words might have a hint of self-superiority to it, but Locke was smiling, and not only with his mouth. "New York City's always been a meeting grounds, a place where those who want something more come to test fate and walk away the better. Add a twist of genes and it's not just foreigners that flock here. I bet that the odds are you'll meet more mutants here than anywhere else. You could be looking right at one and not know it."

>>"New York City's always been a meeting grounds, a place where those who want something more come to test fate and walk away the better. Add a twist of genes and it's not just foreigners that flock here. I bet that the odds are you'll meet more mutants here than anywhere else. You could be looking right at one and not know it."

"I've already met some of th... hey." Krisz tilted his head, looking at Locke, eyes narrow, trying to figure out if he was implying something, or just messing with him. Could he.... nah. If the kid was a mutant he wouldn't sit around in a bookstore being a dork. he would be out there saving stuff. Like people. Just like Krisz himself...

"Are you a mutant?" it was a fair question to ask. He already told the kid that he was, in case the turning-into-sound trick was not obvious enough (kids these days...) so now it was the kid's turn to tell. Or not tell. This is how friendships are made, right?...

Watching Krisz’s reaction was priceless. People seemed to think that there had to be something physical for you to be a mutant. Locke was fortunate in that he could use his powers without people really noticing. Not the whole golem thing, because that was way too obvious, but ‘seeing’ things happened without any upset. ”Yeah. What did you think? That I was going to be exercising my power in a public place?”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Locke clarified. He wasn’t trying to say that the was better than Krisz because he wasn’t actively using his powers. There was nothing wrong with being a mutant, but Locke still felt that Krisz was exploiting people by acting as a ghost. ”I just do something more startling than your ghostie act.”

>>”Yeah. What did you think? That I was going to be exercising my power in a public place?... Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just do something more startling than your ghostie act.”

"Hey!" Krisz held up a hand "I might be old-fashioned and uncool, but some people are still scared of ghosts. And those that are not are still curious, for one reason or another. Now that I think about it, I might not get as many admirers as if I was a vampire... but a vampire in a wheelchair kind of blows anyway. Oh well, I work with what I got, my voice and my intellect."

Didn't the boy just sam something about being a mutant, though?...

"Wait. What do you do exactly?..."

”Use some body glitter and girls won’t care. As long as you’re pale and sparkle you’re a vampire to them. Even if that means that you’re addicted to a computer and use the same makeup that those girls used when they were ten and wanted to look pretty,” Clearly Locke didn’t approve of the Twilight vampires. He had grown up with Nosferatu, Dracula, and now had read a few of the Vampire’s Assistant books. To the Californian, vampires were serious business.

He raised an eyebrow when Krisz asked the inevitable question. Everyone wanted to know what you did once they found out you were a mutant. Could be your best friend that you grew up with suddenly paranoid to be around you, or it could be a fellow mutant, wanting to see how good your mutation was. Nobody ever just accepts that you are a mutant, you always have to say what you do. ”Eh, just earth stuff,” he said with a shrug. Far easier to use that explanation than to try to describe Fluffy.

>>”Use some body glitter and girls won’t care. As long as you’re pale and sparkle you’re a vampire to them. Even if that means that you’re addicted to a computer and use the same makeup that those girls used when they were ten and wanted to look pretty,”

"Hey!" Krisz huffed again "Just because I am in a wheelchair, that doesn't mean I have no dignity! Isn't the USA supposed to be all about being PC and stuff? Body glitter? Hell no."

On the other hand, the kid was a mutant. And he was going to tell about his mutation, one way or another. Krisz tilted his head, listening.

>>”Eh, just earth stuff,”

"Uh-huh" he smirked "Earth stuff? What does that mean?... I'm sorry, is that something private? I have not met many mutants before. I know some, but... I am still not entirely sure if it is polite to inquire about stuff like this. I just assumed that since you had no problem talking about my mutation, we could talk about yours too."

Krisz was the opposite of Locke when it came to talking. That much was made clear. "No it's not like that," Locke assured Krisz. It might have just been because Locke had gotten so use to being surrounded by mutants that asking about a mutation was no big deal. "Just not sure how to explain it really, other than earth stuff." And Krisz called Locke a writer. The boy could spout forth words in a way that caught your attention when he typed, but if pressured to speak, hesitated to use the English language.

"I guess the easiest way to describe it is I make people with dirt. Or rocks. I tried glass once but it's too brittle and breaks to easily," Locke struggled to explain. It wasn't just that he made people, it was how he made them. Telling someone that rocks moved though got you some strange looks, even if you were a mutant. The only time anyone else saw a rock move was if something had made it do so.

>>"No it's not like that. Just not sure how to explain it really, other than earth stuff... I guess the easiest way to describe it is I make people with dirt. Or rocks. I tried glass once but it's too brittle and breaks to easily,"

Krisz nodded, positively interested. That sounded like a cool power.

"Like golems?" he asked, trying to picture people made out of dirt and rocks. That sounded like a golem to him. You meet those in video games and fantasy books and stuff. They were tough to kill. If that was what the kid's mutant powers did, that was freakin' awesome.

"Do they move? Do they think on their own?"

There are several levels to awesome, after all...

Yes Locke thought his power was pretty awesome. He still smiled ever so slightly as he commanded Fluffy to move about. Krisz was more excited about what Locke could do than the teen expected. Nobody cared about dirt and earth. It was such a common thing that if he didn't do something extraordinary with it nobody paid it any attention. Kendra probably would have been ok with the knocked over flower pots and the dirt on his jeans. What had freaked her out was when he used knowledge of an earthquake that nobody could have predicted. "Yeah, golems. I uh... call them Fluffy," Locke admitted, embarrassed slightly by his term for his creations.

Just because Krisz knew the word golem didn't mean that he had the full understanding of it. Locke didn't experience the creatures in video games and literature like Krisz had. There was a difference in taste as far as their reading went apparently. Had Locke ever played the computer game I have no mouth and I must scream, he'd have a better sense of what Krisz's idea of a golem was. "I make them yeah, but I can't just let them run about. Dirt and rocks, they shift. Gravity still effects them. If I were to stop taking care of them they would just fall apart. And they can move. Why would I want to just have a dirt person stand around?"

Now was the bit that Locke didn't fully understand himself. How did his mind allow him to become part of the earth without actually doing anything to his body? He could, when controlling a golem, tell the difference between something affecting it and something affecting himself. When he wrestled with Fluffy he became hyper aware that he was in two places at once. "And no, they can't think for themselves. I'm their brain. Like how yours tells you to do stuff I tell Fluffy what it should do."

>>"Yeah, golems. I uh... call them Fluffy. I make them yeah, but I can't just let them run about. Dirt and rocks, they shift. Gravity still effects them. If I were to stop taking care of them they would just fall apart. And they can move. Why would I want to just have a dirt person stand around?"

That was a very valid point, even though making sculptures using mutant powers would still have been pretty awesome.

"Fluffy" he chuckled. That was... unexpected and original. The writer in Krisz (or the Krisz in the writer) approved.

>>"And no, they can't think for themselves. I'm their brain. Like how yours tells you to do stuff I tell Fluffy what it should do."

"Yeah, unfortunately my brain is only on talking terms with half of my body" he smirked, glancing at his legs "But hey it could be worse. And golems are awesome, no matter how you call them. So, what do you use them for? Mutants usually do something with their powers, right?..."

That was the next point in the plot.

"Protection." No doubt that there were thousands of possible uses for his golems. They were stronger than him usually, and depending upon what they were made of, more durable. In the end though Locke's uses for his mutation all boiled down to that one word. Sam had shown Locke that he could use his golems as a sort of body armor. That was just one more way that Fluffy could keep him safe. "Protection of myself, of the kids in my class, my little brother and sister. Whoever could use a walking boulder to keep them safe."

Krisz made fun of his own disability, but that didn't mean that Locke was going to comment upon it. "And they kind of help with the whole not seeing thing. I mean Fluffy might not have eyes, but that doesn't mean he can't see. It's just more like mole vision." Fond memories of watching B-rated movies with his dad filled with mole people spurned Locke's description of how he managed to tell what to do with his golems. You didn't see too many moles in San Francisco or in New York City.