"Wait!" I exclaimed in shock, jumping to my feet. "I saw Samson with my own eyes. What grows on her skin isn't hair, but, as you correctly said, fur, like some long-haired dog. That's what it is, right?"
"Yes," the blonde replied, staring at me from below and widening her eyes. "Pretty observant of you."
"No, wait! I mean, how did Masquerade manage to do this? You said he can influence the body of whoever he touches. Does that mean he's altering DNA or something?"
"I'm not sure," she confessed, frowning. "But in this case, Masquerade caught a dog and grafted its skin onto Samson. He can't just grow a horn on your forehead out of nowhere, unless he gets it from somewhere else."
Hmm, well, that's something. I had foolishly thought his abilities were practically limitless, but even he has flaws, which is reassuring. Although, looking at the situation from another angle, it's downright disgusting. To do that to someone just to keep them around? That's clearly a broken mind! And how did she endure this? All of them! Or is the damn meat scepter in this world capable of such wonders? Doesn't seem believable.
"Alright, sorry for the outburst," I apologized. "So you're saying Masquerade essentially holds you all here by force?"
"Most of us."
"And you personally? Sorry if it's a sensitive topic, but compared to the others… well, you know?"
To my surprise, Skyds smiled—not too cheerfully, but still somewhat sincerely.
"You're a weird guy," she remarked. "Worried about a girl's feelings. Say that to someone else, and they'll laugh."
"I'm pretty normal, it's just everyone else is crazy," I joked with a smile. I didn't want her to take my comment seriously.
"Hmm," the blonde shook her head, licking her dry lips before returning to the previous topic. "Masquerade tried to mutilate me too, but it didn't work. It's all about my mutant abilities."
"Really?" I asked, trying to think of what kind of biotech control could affect her touch.
"Throw something at me," she suggested, grinning boldly.
The suggestion didn't seem strange to me, more like an intriguing challenge. My gaze landed on a half-empty plastic water bottle beside my mattress. The heat outside seemed to creep down here, deep underground, so I'd been drinking water regularly.
I didn't want to throw the whole bottle at her, so I unscrewed the cap and tossed it toward Skyds. The blue plastic flew a few centimeters from her, not quite reaching her skin. I noticed a barely noticeable yellow flash in that spot.
"See? I'm invincible!" she declared proudly.
"Alright, alright, spill it. What is that power?"
"My body is surrounded by an almost invisible field that allows me to deflect almost anything. Things like bottle caps, stones, knives, even gunshots! Everything bounces off this field and can't break through."
"Gunshots?"
"Well," she scratched her head and smiled awkwardly. "I've only been shot at with a pistol. I haven't risked deliberately putting myself in front of anything else yet. But I think there wouldn't be any issues."
"This... this really is the power of an invulnerable person!" I said in awe.
"It's not that simple," the girl confessed reluctantly. "There are plenty of drawbacks. At first, I could barely control this power, and even now, I can't turn it off. You wouldn't believe how much I had to go through to relearn how to hold a fork."
"I don't understand, what's that got to do with it?"
"Just that this field doesn't exactly push objects away, it makes them slip off me. If someone tries to touch me, their hand just slips off, and even when I want to pick something up, like a fork, for example, it feels like it's about to slip right out of my hand, like my hand's covered in soap! Now I've learned to temporarily weaken the field's effect, but I still struggle with smooth objects."
"That sounds pretty unpleasant," I remarked. Not that I immediately felt deep sympathy for a person I barely knew, but I couldn't ignore the parallels between our abilities.
"And you? You still haven't confessed what abilities you have, even though Marrow was bugging you about it all day. Are you going to tell me?"
"One story for another," I shrugged.
Taking a sip of water, I started explaining some details of my biography and abilities. Of course, I omitted the whole 'being a reincarnated soul' part, referring instead to the backstory of the previous owner of this body.
"So, it seems we're quite similar," Skyds concluded after asking a couple more clarifying questions. "Both of us can't fully touch others. Like we're cursed, seriously!"
"Well, since you've learned to control your powers at least a little, that means it's not all lost," I tried to reassure her.
Honestly, I'd also like to believe that over time I could learn to control my powers. Could the original Rogue do it? I used to think she couldn't, but now, a faint hope for the future lingered deep inside. Maybe I just hadn't read the right comic issue?
"If you say so..." she said, blushing sweetly, and then, gathering courage, asked, "C-Can I try?"
"I'm not sure how our powers will interact when we touch," I honestly admitted, immediately understanding what she meant.
"Well, Masquerade's power works only with physical contact, and he can't harm me. Maybe it'll work the same for us?"
It suddenly occurred to me that Skyds probably wasn't with the Morlocks because of their leader. If I understood how her abilities worked, she, like me, couldn't have a romantic relationship with anyone. You know what I mean? The pistil just wouldn't meet the stamen. Or the other way around? Damn, I'm no expert in botany!
"Alright," I agreed, though I didn't have high hopes for any miracles. "But be careful, okay? Just a finger and for a second."