I smile softly, its the response that's expected right now. I look out at them with an old mind hidden behind fresh eyes. I know what they expect me to do, they want to ask me questions about what i am, where i come from. That story is an incredibly long, bloody tale of sex and violence. I'm literally made of magic, and it scares most of them. They're a reaction to an alien material entering our atmosphere during the crash landing, they're not even supposed to be here. Not me, I was born this way, Something like me has always been here.
"Lex, I'm eternally grateful you elected to give us some of your time today, thank you again." Molly smiles at me, and i feel the blood rush to my cheeks. Molly's an angel, not literally, but she's the nicest person in the universe, and she always puts me off my game. I think she knows it, and i think she kind of likes it.
"Any time, Molly, I like questions." I lie gently to her, and i know she knows that i'm lying, but she turns the microphone out to the crowd of students. She knows this is thing i like to do least. Let me kick in doors, and chase down bad guys. Let me put this thing to use helping people. It's not what i was made for, but i decided that i was going to make it mine anyway.
"What's your name, for the record?" One of the kids asks. This question again, i should have known.
"I chose the name Blood Speaker as my 'hero identity,' but operationally the higher ups usually refer to me as Red, or Agent Red."
"But what about your real name?"
"For the official record, my real name is Lexington Massachusetts, it's a name i took from the place i was found as a child."
"Could you explain that?"
"I sprang into existence as an eight year old child, and i was found wandering the outskirts of Lexington."
"Sprang into existence?"
"I wasn't born in the conventional sense, i don't have a mother or a father, i was built this way." I lift the shirt, because i know they've heard the rumors. Yep, no belly button, no umbilical attachment to another living creature. I hear the murmurs run through the crowd. I'm not like them at all, and now they're starting to grasp that.
"Haven't you tried to figure out where you come from, who your genetics tell you you are?"
"My blood isn't anything normal, and it doesn't like to be analyzed. It changes from moment to moment, and i simultaneously carry infectious vectors for every blood born pathogen in existence, and their antibodies." I let that one drop for a moment, just to give them a scare.
"What are you made of?"
"Blood." I smile at the teenager that asked the question. When you get down to it, humans are made up of a lot of different things. "If you were able to get my cells to sit still long enough to take a look at them, they're putting on a hell of a show. Bone, brain matter, musculature, they're all blood cells that have assumed the form and roles of other biological material."
"So you're a blood avatar?"
"Not exactly, but it's a close enough metaphor."
"So what exactly do you do?"
"Aside from being made of living blood?"
"Yes?" The girl doesn't seem impressed by it, it's a shame, but i'm used to it. They understand how their own powers work, and it gives them a connection to each other, a family. They call each other brother and sister, even call the old man Father. They don't know what to call me, they don't have a place for me in their little wall of mail boxes. Day's honest about it, but he's the only one. He's fucking nuts, but he's honest. He respects the differences between us, and humors me by calling me 'cousin' with the familiarity they address each other with.
"I can control the blood, and form it into shapes and objects."
"All the blood?"
"Just the stuff in my veins."
"Isn't that gross?"
"The clothes i'm wearing right now, the sidearm i usually carry in the field, even my badge are all made of my blood." The quiet echoes through the crowd, they're still completely baffled by me.
"But they're not red?" one of the boys asks.
"I can shape every aspect of it, down to the color and the smell. I can also dissolve it with a thought."
Molly's seen that trick, she's a fan of it.
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