BREAKING NEWS: Spree of unsupervised children take to the streets! Candy stores and playgrounds on lock down.

That was the best and most creative way to present the unusual episode that had begun some time between 10pm and 6am of that day.
Of course not all the news channels addressed the strange event with so much creativity, but all versions crossed path at one point. Several mutants around the city had suffered a collective change, becoming children once again. Some blamed a mutant, others said it was a terrorist act, others were even more crazy and attributed the rejuvenation to aliens with advanced cloning technology. Only one of them was right, but with two other equally valid theories and thousands more springing up every second, it was difficult to keep track of who was to blame.

Celeste followed each transmissions with interest, changing channels from time to time to find a new approach that might shed some light on the absurd situation. Some local news channels had left their regular programs aside to devote itself to the coverage of the incident.
The girl was awake since 7am, when the first breaking news started. Through her eyes covered with cobwebs, she could not tell who was the early riser who informed her of the news. But he had been one of her two bodyguards. Since that time she could not take her eyes off of the television.

Just at that moment, a desperate woman with messed hair and face filled with tears held a child by the wrist of a boy of no more than twelve years. As tears washed what was left of her makeup, staining with black her cheeks, she cried to the media that the child was her husband. That woman was one of the first to report the incident and was giving her version of events since the beginning of the flashes. She began her story with extreme quietness but in the final minutes she completely lost her mind and began to scream even louder in an incomprehensible whirlwind of words mingled with the cries of the child, who swore to not know the crazy woman.

The idea of ​​obtaining eternal life had been the subject of countless searches by many people throughout history, so far no one seemed to know the secret. But Celeste suspected that a person had discovered how to do it just the night before, of course in the process rejuvenated several extra mutants that probably were not in the original plan.
She sweeten her mind with promises of eternal youth and beauty to the point that these news no longer mattered. In fact she never felt connected with these people, but with the news itself. Now it was just her and her future eternal youth. Absolutely determined to get a portion of the elixir of youth, she went out into the streets of New York. If she was searching for a mutant, there was no better place to start looking than the mutant mansion.
And if she had to investigate something, there was no better way to do it than with a full detective outfit.

Therefore, the white limousine first stop was on the nearest costume shop. She got coats. Many of them. Different colors and sizes, that way her partner would be able to choose the one that fit better. And how to forget about hats. She got a bunch of detective-like hats.
When she reached the gates of the mansion she was wearing a beautiful female version of the classic detective coat with matching hat and an old fashioned monocle. Knowing she will regret it later, the girl called on the intercom asking for her arch nemesis Chase to present himself at the door immediately. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The great cacophony of screaming children had driven Chase outside. One moment, Chase is among a small handful of children under the age thirteen, and the next, he’s surrounded by screaming kids, crying for their mommies and proclaiming that they didn’t know where they were. It was a simultaneous change, occurring in the blink of an eye. The little shifter had found it unnerving, and far too noisy, being surrounded by a melt of confused children. All of them wanted to know where they were, all of them wanted to know where their parents were, all of them were incessant, insistent, like a gong or a wailing siren. Chase was overwhelmed, and his eyes were roiling with discontent colors.

“You’re at Xavier’s, and how should I know where your parents are?” he retorted desperately. Finally, his quest for solace drove him outside. He hadn’t received the message that he was expected at the gate, but had rather just gone outside to catch a breather. He did, however, happen to spy a familiar blond head of hair at the gate. Celeste. Chase frowned in confusion, jogging closer. What was with her silly costume?

“Hey,” Chase greeted briefly, gaze flickering around, “What are you doing here?”

Chase unlocked the pedestrian gate, holding it open for Celeste to walk by. No matter the reason, he'd let her in. He needed someone who wasn't hollering for their mom or dad, or demanding to know where they were from him. Celeste was all Chase had, for the time being.

Fortunately the little detective did not need to wait long for him to arrive. Within seconds of completing her demands over the modern communicator, the child approached trotting to shorten the distance between them. A sly smile crossed her face, and she could not help but think how helpful he was. Always ready to follow orders. He could even be a good butler, or in this case, detective assistant.
Determined to not leave the character, she tried to sound as detective-like as possible. "My good sir, I come to investigate the transformations." But her attempt to imitate an England accent ended in a laugh that needed several seconds to recover. Amused by her performance, she winked at the child and smiled. Smile that tried to dissuade him to obey her next order.

Tired of not being obeyed by her pawns, she did a little research and started a social experiment. During the week she had applied it several times, with varying results but always positive. Apparently people wanted to be commanded with a smile. It was silly. But lately people were too rebellious to respond to her whims, and she could not hang them all for treason, she needed people in her kingdom. What is a queen without people to command? It was a fair deal.

Already recovered from her initial joke, she spoke in a clear and authoritative tone. "Go into the limousine, there is a detective outfit for you too." Although it was an order, and although she knew that sooner or later he was going to accede to her demands, she decided to add one of the old magic words she had learned. This time she changed the tone of her voice, sweetening it as much as she could. "Please." This extreme gentleness was a reward for him for not making her wait and also a way to accelerate the process.

>> "My good sir, I come to investigate the transformations."

“The transformations?” Chase echoed slowly, letting the gate swing shut on its own, “What sort of transformations?” This girl was crazy. Celeste was grinning and winking at Chase, and the child simply had no idea as to what was going on. He followed her slowly, for a few strides, wondering if satisfying his curiosity was even worth it.

>> "Go into the limousine, there is a detective outfit for you too. Please."

Chase’s curiosity got the better of him. First of all, he’d never seen inside a limousine. Secondly, he was indescribably confused.

“Why do I need a costume?” Chase demanded, folding his arms, “Dress-up games are for girls. Dress-up is stupid.” On top of that, if these were old costumes, Chase ran the risk of turning into someone else, which was not something that he wanted to do.

“Why am I dressing up like a detective?” Chase reiterated, walking towards the back of the limo. He popped the back door open and poked his head in, teal-blue eyes swimming around the back absently. He found a coat, and a hat, and grabbed them, without putting them on. He needed a reason to put the costume on, first. Then he’d consider it. Chase returned to Celeste, the coat draped over his arm, and hat clutched in his hand. They were new clothes. He wasn’t picking up a residue from them.

With the intention of ignoring his desperate questions, she concentrated all her attention on the unimportant task of taking off the monocle. It was old fashioned and useless for the investigation.
Even when she could have done in total darkness and with one hand tied behind her back, she pretended that the simple task was so complicated as to disarm a bomb. She took it off carefully, and although it was completely clean, Celeste "cleaned" it by drawing circles with a tissue on the surface, until in her opinion the work was finished.

Celeste wanted to say that it was not a costume, since the costume store where she bought all her "costumes" worked with real clothes. Made to measure. She never would use something already used by another person. It was gross. But his second comment ended up draining all her patience. Making her instantly forget that important explanation about her manners.
"Dress-up? This is not a game." She said feeling extremely insulted. Apparently wanting to help people, and obtaining eternal youth was a game for girls. Ridiculous. "Did you see the news?" She asked in a tone that was almost like a howl. A impatient one.

So as far as she know, maybe he had not a TV to watch. And if he had, it would not have as many channels as hers. Disgusted, she took her cellphone from one of her many pockets, and began to stab the touch screen until it began to show a live broadcast from a very famous news channel.
She waited until he was at her side to show it to him. And then raised her voice above the digital voice of the announcer that once again reported the "change". "It is everywhere. Many adult mutants were transformed into children during the night." In the case that was not enough for him to understand her plans, she added. "We will investigate the mansion to see if anyone knows anything." Of course, she left aside the question of eternal youth. If he believed it to be a game for girls, then he could grow old and die like everyone else.

>> "Dress-up? This is not a game. Did you see the news?"

Chase shook his head. He was nine years old. Watching the news wasn't exactly at the top of his priorities. Celeste rummaged into her pocket, and fussed with a touchscreen until a livestream popped up onto it. It was a newscast of somesort, from a big, important news station that was talking about some sort of "change".

>> "It is everywhere. Many adult mutants were transformed into children during the night. We will investigate the mansion to see if anyone knows anything."

Chase looked at the coat and hat.

"But why the costume?" Chase mumbled, his voice scarcely audible. Did they really need the costume to pretend to be detectives. No matter how costly or realistic the attire was, they were still dressing-up and pretending to be something they weren't. That is, they were pretending to be detectives. Chase would go along with it anyways.

"Well... there were a lot of kids in the Mansion this morning," he agreed. That would make a lot of sense, if what Celeste was saying was true, "Do you think that the person who's making people kids again is at the Mansion?"

Chase slid the hat onto his head, but kept his coat draped over his arm. He stared at the older girl expectantly, trying to emulate that cool, collected expression that a detective might bear. A thought struck Chase then. Detective Jorge never wore clothes like this. Nor did Christian, the character from one of Chase's favorite comic books. This only went to further Chase's notion that Celeste was just doing this to dress up.

"Detectives don't dress like this," Chase observed absently, wriggling into the coat. Once garbed in the proper attire, he looked up at Celeste, holding his arms out as if to say "ta da". The sleeves were a little too long, but the effect was good. Chase looked just like Sherlock Holmes, spare the fact that Sherlock had never donned Converse, jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie underneath his coat and hat.

One more time. The same question once again. Always the same question. "The clothes are for..." She was prepared to inform him that these were not only clothes, since in each pocket there was a different detective instrument. In one, there were a couple of thin glasses used to magnify things. In other of the pockets there was a lockpick, and in the remaining one he would find the distinctive monocle, used to... surely he would find that out, because she could not finish the sentence. "I knew it. Then something is going on in the mansion." Her joy was visible on her face and her smile. She was always right. Even this time when she had nothing to base her suspicious on, she had been right. She could almost imagine the world accommodating to her whims, ahem, fit her desires with the sole purpose that she never would be wrong. The idea made her smile even more.

Celeste ponder the question a moment, she took her hand to her chin instinctively and inclined her head and lower her gaze adopting the classical thinker posture. Something was missing. When she discovered it, the girl rushed toward the limousine. Moving like a flash, to get back moments later with a pipe in her hand. Of course it was not lit, but it supplemented her detective accessories perfectly. Now, with her pipe in her mouth, head and eyes in the aforementioned position she discovered it was easier to think. Finally, she shared her guesses with the young boy. "I'm not really sure, but if there are so many new kids in the mansion... that just means that it was the epicenter of whatever has happened." Then she took a few more seconds for a new idea to take shape and then continued again. "The culprit could be still here, he may have been affected by his own powers. Perhaps it is one of the children."

Chase was again the victim of misinformation. "Detectives from the books always dress like this." It was better to not mention that most of the detectives who used that style of clothing were fictional characters who lived in a former era in which it was common to use that type of clothing. Nor added she did not know what was that time. Age of detective. She thought.
Knowing that the child was never going to notice his tools, she decided to give him a little hint. The boys never understood that the details were really important. They were always so distracted and worried about looking strong and independent. "Check your pockets Watson." If the situation became dangerous, maybe he would need one of these objects.

>> "The clothes are for... I knew it. Then something is going on in the mansion."

Chase stared at Celeste blankly. Goes were impossible to snag the attention of, once their minds were elsewhere. One moment, Chase was about to get the answer, and the next Celeste was another subject entirely. She was making assumptions too rapidly, which left the nine-year-old blatantly confused. She ran to the limo, retrieved a fake pipe, and returned to thinking. Chase arched his eyebrow at her, standing in his costume in silence

>> "I'm not really sure, but if there are so many new kids in the mansion... that just means that it was the epicenter of whatever has happened. The culprit could be still here, he may have been affected by his own powers. Perhaps it is one of the children."

“Why didn’t we get younger sooner, then, if the… uh… culprit… lives here?” Chase said skeptically, folding his arms, “And there’s young people on the news, too… so maybe everyone’s affected.”

He pointed at Celeste’s device as he said this, his little brows furrowed. What if they were in-motion, or somewhere else. Just because there were more people who got affected at Xavier’s didn’t mean that everything started at Xavier’s. It could have started anywhere. Chase was a logical child, and Celeste just didn’t make sense. But if they started anywhere, they might as well begin here.

>> "Detectives from the books always dress like this. Check your pockets Watson."

“My momma’s boyfriend doesn’t dress like this,” Chase muttered quietly, crossly, as he rummaged into his pockets. His fingers found the handle of a magnifying glass, and drew it out, holding it up to his eye so that Celeste’s image was now upside-down.

“So what’re we going to do?” Chase inquired frankly, moving the glass closer to his eye, and then farther, making Celeste’s image expand and shrink as he moved the glass back and forth.

The question was so unexpected that she really did not know what to say, that was a very good question that perhaps she should have thought before appearing on the mansion disguised as a detective. And it was strange that it occurred to him that obviously had an education inferior in that community school and above all: free.
But she just tried to answer the question right when she heard it even when she was aware that she did not know the answer. "Well that's because..." Her words hung there a moment, as if it were a mathematical formula on a blackboard she was about to solve.
But even while staring at the imaginary words, she could not order the equation to get an answer, she had many factors and all were disordered. Every answer created new questions, and nothing seemed to be correct until a simple idea, a stupid, too obvious as a brick fell on her brain.
"The culprit is not living at the mansion." She finally said with an air of superiority, clearly proud of the discovery she had made.

It was pointless to said it again but just detectives from books dressed like... well, as detectives but she was not really going to accomplish anything with it. She did not know his mother's boyfriend, but she was sure he was not a detective that came out of a novel, so it was more than clear that he would not dress like them. Ignoring his attempts to discredit the prestigious detective outfit, she continued thoughtfully as her fingers played with her pipe one more time. "If my suspicions are correct..." Dramatic pause to accommodate her hat. "... The culprit is in the mansion. He did not live here. He is just hiding among the other children, probably also rejuvenated." That outfit clearly gave her a small increase in intelligence, it was not the hat or coat, or pipe, but all the things together that potentiated her privileged brain.

Finally she confessed her plans, that thing she had clear before leaving home. Since it was easier than the mansion to had a list of students than the city gave him a list of citizens... thus they had a solid track to follow.
Inadvertently she smiled at the strange occurrence of the boy. He was amplifying her beauty before the lens. She approved it nodding and then change her smile of satisfaction for one of mischief when she returned to the detective character. "We need a list of students to see who is actually living in the mansion and who is a "guess "." The malicious tone with she pronounced the last word clearly pointed out that the main suspects would be all children not registered at the mansion.

Chase stared at Celeste expectantly, eyebrows arched in silent inquiry. She contemplated over the answer, obviously stumped by the nine-year-old’s answer. She pondered, and pondered, and pondered, before she finally announced that the culprit wasn’t there.

“Well, yeah,” Chase murmured, confused at why Celeste was so delighted with this observation. Then, why was she here to investigate the presence of a guy who wasn’t there? The nine-year-old adjusted his coat as Celeste explained herself. And… as much as Chase wanted to contradict her, it actually made sense. Where else would a kid hide, except amongst other kids?

Chase continued to play with the lens—it didn’t really make Celeste look any prettier. In actuality, it warped her image, contorting it around the outside and skewing it drastically. Celeste then announced that they’d need to get a list of all the people who lived there to find out who was a guest there, and Chase dropped the lens.

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Chase muttered. He was, however, moving towards the Mansion as he said this. If they were going to look for the perpetrator, they would have to get going in their search. And they should get going right away.

With her last affirmation the two young detectives started to walk in the direction of the mansion, where if her calculations were correct, they would find the biggest concentration of children with emotional problems than in the rest of the city.
It was only conjecture, but as valid as any of the crazy theories that went on TV. Or on her phone. Even without anything to substantiate her theories, they were more correct than any other. Just because she was more than any other mortal. Human or mutant, her intellect was surpassed only by her stunning beauty.

Wishing to avoid further distractions she accelerated the pace, but within seconds she heard the child complaint. His words did not surprised her at all, and told him so by letting out a loud sigh. Expression that clearly meant a single thing: men.
The long and heavy sigh was still invisible floating around her when she uttered the same words as the child. "A lot of work..." She tried to give these words a new and deeper meaning. But she failed. The words still seemed hollow no matter how she tried to sympathize with the child. In her mind, it was not possible for a task whose reward was money and fame to become heavy enough to not do it. And although if the task became impossible for them, they had already begun it, so they could not abandon the task and give up without giving everything they had.

Without trying to hide her emotion, she began to list the many awards that she believed they would receive for finding the culprit. No matter whether this mutant was young or adult, with the determination she had at the time they would caught him to taste glory for a long long time. "We will become famous if we caught him, they will give us medals and we would turn into eminent citizens of New York." Although she did not know how her family could become more illustrious, the idea of ​​getting another title produced a lot of excitement in the little girl.
And if at the same time while bringing honor to her family she was able to extract his secret, she would become the first person in the world to obtain eternal youth.

Chase sighed as the stupid girl echoed him, attempting to wedge his hands into the pockets of the borrowed trenchcoat, but finding that his arms were far too short.

“Yes,” Chase agreed peevishly. As he said the second half of the phrase, his tone mimicked Celeste’s to a tee, down to the right inflections and everything as he confirmed, “A lot of work.”

A lot of silly work.

Yet the girl kept on chatting dreamily about how they would be famous for finding the person that un-aged everyone, how they’d get medals and becoming something-citizens of New York. Chase tossed a glance back at her and blinked, thoroughly confused. Girls were so weird. He stumbled a bit before proceeding up the stairs that led to the front door, turning back towards Celeste to see if she’d kept up with him. Chases’ legs were short, but he’d walked up the drive relatively fast in hopes of outrunning his cohort.

“What citizens?” he reiterated. Chase was nine years old. He didn’t know what “eminent” meant.

Around their exchange of words about how much work they had to do and what were the rewards, a strange event appeared that may never be repeated and that no one had been able to document. She analyzed the possibility of naming the event, and patent it for everyone to know her greatness and keen senses, but quickly realized how useless it was. The strange moment would not be repeated and she would not earn anything from it. It was like a strange forgotten spell that made people want to repeat a particular phrase. It was like a diabolical echo that would carry on forever... unless someone strong enough cut the loop. The child was weak, and uttered the phrase once more but the girl, not accustomed to follow orders from the living or dead, ghosts or spell, broke the circle. And the useless phrase "A lot of work" did not repeat in their lips. At least for now.

By the time Chase reached the door, the girl was just behind him standing only two steps away from her fellow detective.
Behind that tough double wooden door they would find many children, that if the news were true would not know where they were and worse, what kind of mutants they were. So things could get a little tense if the dynamic duo could not find the solution to that problem soon. Or the culprit, since he would probably know how to reverse the effect... and how to produce it at will when Celeste would be as old as her own mother.

Distracted as she was in her dreams of eternal youth (which probably was accompanied by endless wealth and dazzling beauty) she misunderstood what Chase said. At first she thought he asked about the people she had named. So she was about to told him these citizens were the two them when the girl finally understood what he meant, or rather what he did not meant. Immediately the girl asked disgusted. A little lack of knowledge from the boy was not a excuse to make her explain everything multiple times. "How old are you? Five?" Asked the girl with her voice thick with astonishment and mockery, as she tried to stood as straight as she could to increase her stature to look even more adult like than him. Unfortunately the steps put her at disadvantage.

Still, she was willing to keep the only ally who had in a mansion full of vulgar and mythological monsters, so she hastened to add the meaning of the word. "It means we're going to be important citizens of New York. V.I.P." Perhaps since she changed the subject so quickly and sure, the child would not bother with the mocking way she asked for his age.

“I’m nine,” Chase said frankly, folding his arms. Celeste was obviously still young enough to know how insulting it was to presume a child was far younger than they actually were. Chase let his lip pout out faintly to show his disapproval. It was not an offense that was easily forgiven, “I’m not a baby.”

With that said, the shapeshifter popped open the door to the Mansion, and ducked inside. The door swung open, and Chase made no gesture to hold it open before Celeste walked through.

“Be sure to close the door,” Chase cautioned, “Mama doesn’t like it when I forget.”

Chase looked around with scrutinizing eyes, the din of cries from the newly-arrived children hammering mercilessly upon his ears.

“You mean to tell me that we’re going to be VIP’s just because we find some mutant-person who made everyone young?” Chase continued to inquire, his voice blatantly skeptical, “Just because some guys’ powers got out-of-hand?”

Cold minded as always... as always she was not angry, she quickly took her cell phone to capture the moment with a high quality digital photo. His expression was exactly what she expected, his arms folded across his chest trying to protect himself from her attacks, while his lips confessed that he was very hurt by that comparison.

Still smiling sweetly for her little prank the girl followed the boy. Ignoring his attempt to tell her openly that he was not a baby.
When she reached the door her delicate arms protected her against the fierce door who came to meet the queen, her smile disappeared immediately before such insolence. But fortunately her agile arms saved her again from a great humiliation. Not without a little effort, she recovered and pushed to be on the right side of the door, then hit the door closing it loudly, just as he had asked.

Again her mother. Her mother's boyfriend. Her mother was waiting. Her mother always had to appear everywhere, it was as if he did it on purpose to make fun of her.
Celeste had no reason to hate him and surely the child would give no more reasons, but that was more than enough to want to make his life a little more difficult. Just when she stepped inside the mansion, the noise made her thoughts impossible to be hear.

Not even the roar that made the closing door could drown out the sound of hundreds of children around the corridors. They were like zombies that the only thing they knew was to cry. Some simply wept in a corner trying to hide from the world, others ran up and down the stairs trying to find their parents, their cats or dogs. Probably they were all dead or far away from there.

"You mean to tell me that your detective friend, your mother's boyfriend never resolve a case important enough to became an eminent citizen?" Just when the words left her mouth, she knew she had said much more that she wanted to. He really deserved it for talking about her mother, and her boyfriend all the time, but she still could not help feeling a little bad for him.