Challenge #01158-C063: Saint Kurt of the Mutants

One Kurt Wagner, he of the lifelong fear of growing horns, eventually notices the gradually brightening heavenly glow around his head -- Gallifreya

He was half-asleep when the realisation came. Stumbling about in the pre-dawn gloom and not in a state of mind to question anything, Kurt took his shower and was brushing his teeth when he idly wondered what was wrong with the lights.

And then he realised that he hadn't turned them on.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Foam at his mouth, post-shower scruff, toothbrush still embedded between his pointy teeth. And a subtle glow surrounding his hair. Just enough to give shape to the darkness.

"Vas?" he croaked.

The lights flared on, making him curse. And eliminating all trace of the glow. Logan entered and growled, "Geez, Elf. Learn to turn lights on f'r the rest of us."

During the following weeks, Kurt was moderately certain he was hallucinating. Every time it was dark, he saw a light coming from his head. In two weeks, it was a solid disk. Well. Seemingly solid. He could put his fingers right through it if he tried to touch it.

Then came the bombing of the Mutant Orphanage. Since the Safe Haven laws, those born with visible mutations were most often left on various doorsteps or, in more than a few headline cases, by their dumpsters. The survivors wound up in places like this. Underfunded, overcrowded, abandoned and unloved.

The X-Men all took the time to visit. Show the kids that there was hope.

And now they all came at once. To extinguish the fires. To rescue those who were trapped. To comfort those who wept. To heal those who were injured. And, if it came to that, mourn the dead.

There should have been dead.

The bomb went off practically right next to Kurt, who teleported out of the Home with a small cluster of the kids he'd been reading to. He spent the next twenty minutes with prayers spilling from his mouth. Teleporting in and out, grabbing kids and getting them out of the fires.

The injuries were small. The only person gravely hurt was the main housekeeper, who was well-known to hate her job. And her charges. Whenever she was on duty, the one television was constantly tuned to an anti-mutant broadcast.

Later investigation would reveal that she was the bomber.

But the important part was that everyone who was there... saw it. The one mutant who should have been exhausted by his efforts. Who should have flagged and failed inside the first few minutes, continually working to help and rescue everyone inside the burning building. And they also saw, when the fires went out and the flame retardants shorted out the block... that the most demonic of all mutants had a definite halo.

Shining with light enough to continue illuminating the scene.

And some swore they saw more than one angel helping out the EMT's. The shaky phonecam footage seemed to back them up, too.

Many pointed to the hand of God. And those who pointed at the hand of the devil did so with very shaky fingers.

The Catholic Church was very careful about what they said in regards to a mutant saint. But then, they always had problems with saints when they were still alive.

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