Hyde Park, London.

 Two incredibly horrible sculptures portraying monsters are on the East side of the park. It's a rather slow day at the park, with the forecasts of a sunny day not being trusted at all by the citizens, but on this part of the park two major events are happening that we shall pay attention to.

 One of these events is happening with a young man named Tom Jones near the statues. The other is a company picnic being held, much to executive Lois Smith's displeasure, something like a hundred yards away from the statues. She has very useful mutant powers, that of hearing better and seeing farther than a regular human being. It helped her to climb to the top, but hearing those idiotic babbles and seeing with great details that they need to work out more often is a side effect she'd rather avoid. She is bored and wanders away and around until she hears it. It's almost a whisper:

 "Here goes nothing."

 She looks in that direction and sees the boy has each of his hands pressed against one of the statues. He seems to be making a huge effort, but nothing happens. He's starting to sweat a lot. His nose is starting to bleed. He finally falls on his knees, wipes the sweat off his forehead and sits there.

"Interesting" is her first thought after the scene. But then she sees something she will never forget. The boy grabs a pebble and whispers "gold". It instantly turns into a shining golden pebble. He looks at it again and says "Lithium". It becomes so and he throws it away.

 If it were a cartoon, her eyes would have become two "$$" or her tongue elongated thirty centimetres with saliva pouring out, but this is for real. She only smiles, thinking what a wonderful opportunity fate gave her. It's an even better opportunity than the one when she heard her boss' rather… unusual sounds when in private meetings with his secretary.

 A thin rain starts to fall and Tom gets up. His mother must be getting worried.

Your home, real Earth.

 "Back up a minute" is your natural reaction to what I just wrote. I don't blame you, really. He is not a costumed crimefighter and Lois doesn't use a tight-fitting suit while blackmailing her superiors. But explanations about the statues are necessary. So, in a nutshell...

 Those were two trolls of a small group that kidnapped Tom and wanted to destroy the English economy. Did it happen? Of course not! But Tom was forced to turn two of them into gold. And then lead, of course. You can't put a solid gold statue smack dab in the middle of the largest parks of London. Dr. McCoy was kind enough to drop them at Hyde Park (this is all in X-Factor #41-42 - Francisco). Tom's been feeling guilty, so he wants to turn 'em back to normal. Or better, what they normally were. They weren't normal, you know. They were trolls. That's not normal. But I digress…

 Now, back with the story.

Chelsea, London.

The neighbourhood Tom lives in is quiet, but there are still a few children out in the streets after a rainy day, playing soccer and having some fun. Old buildings without any charm are the home of the working classes; Tom lives in one o f them. Lois followed him since she first saw him, but didn't see where he entered. She approaches the band of young would-be soccer champions and asks:

 "You know a kid, about this tall, with glasses and bad hair?"

 "There's Tom Jones."

 "Ha-ha. Now really."

 "What's funny about that? Tom is the nerd who lives there" - he points to a four-stories high building. "The 'babe magnet' lives on the third floor."

 "A ladies' man?"

 "He wishes."

 Interesting again. This is going to be easy. A mutant and lonesome nerd teenager. He's got "sucker" written all over. A little tantalising here with a spark of lust and... hello, golden bathtub!

 Easy.

 The Jones' residence, Chelsea.

 "So, son, how did it go?" - that's Ophelia Jones, Tom's... ah, you can figure it out by yourself.

 "Same as it always goes."

 "Oh, maybe next time."

 "You know I won't make it then either."

 "... Tom, I made lasagna."

 "Great. Chicken or…?"

 "Chicken. It's Ted's birthday today. Are you going to the club with your friends?"

 "I…"

 But before Tom can complete his sentence, a twelve year-old girl bursts into the house. She's obviously been crying.

 "I'm not hungry. I will be at my room."

 Ophelia goes upstairs and leaves Tom alone with his thoughts. It's probably about IT again. His mother isn't prejudiced against mutants, she never was. But the boys who play soccer are. They don't know he is one, nobody does, but Ellie, his sister, does. And she is terribly afraid they'll know. And worse, that they'll know she is one, too. Her powers haven't been triggered yet, but she is afraid. Insecure. Many questions trouble her young mind.

 Is she a mutant? Is she not? Will she get ugly? Undesirable? Weird? Bad? Insane? More than that, will she have zits?

 She's becoming a teenager...
 
 

The Underground Night-club, two miles North of Victoria Station.

 "Boys may come and boys may go, and that's alright to see. Experience has made me rich, and now they are after me. Because everybody is living in a material world, and I am a material girl. You know that we are living in a material world and I am a material girl…"

 Ted's party has an 80's motif. Ted obviously watched "The Wedding Singer" one too many times. Everybody seems to have put on his/her most outdated clothes to come to this party. Tom himself has these huge shoulder-pads. Heck, Ted's even wearing a fake moustache. The girls are using all the colours they thought they'd never use and their mother's clothes they were ashamed still existed. But Tom isn't blending in. He's just leaning against the so-called "loser wall", where all those who cannot dance or get a girl rest assured of their coolness. Both the cases are Tom's, but he is self-conscious enough not to deceive himself with thinking he is "cool".

 Lois enters the night-club dressed like one of the guests. Weird hairdo. Excessive makeup. Pink shirt and extremely tight jeans. She walks up to Tom, hearing some whispering behind her back on her anatomic details. She used to hate them, but she's grown so used to it that she ignores them completely, even liking some. (She's a bitch - revolted Francisco)

 "So, you come here all the time?"

 "Nah, not really. It's Ted's birthday. But you know that, right?"

 "Sure. That's why I'm here" – nothing like overhearing conversations to know the right places to go and how to go.

 "And you are...?"

 "Lois. Listen, you wanna go somewhere else?"

 Tom looks around. Half the people who are there he doesn't know. The other half he'd rather he did not know. His reaction is the only one could expect.

 "Why not?"

 They get out of the night-club. She points him toward a black Mercedes.

 "That's my car."

 They enter. She kisses him. He does not resist a bit.

 "Easy, easy, easy", Lois thinks while her lips press his.

Convent Garden, the following day.

 The night was young, but Tom reached within the deepest recesses of his mind enough willpower - or stupidity, as he's calling it now - to obey his mother's curfew. He and Lois are talking right now and he just can't believe it all. She is talking, but he isn't listening. He is just staring. But when she says the word "mutant", he becomes all ears.

 "And I had to tell you, because... I-I don't know. Ever since I saw you I..."

 I'll cut the crap here. You and I know she's being phonier then a four-dollar bill, so no need to fill this with her lies. But Tom's words are sincere and worthy of our attention.

 " God, I haven't told this to anyone else, really, except my mom and my sister, but I feel I can tell you. I'm a, I'm a mutant, too."

 "You're just saying that to make me…."

 "No, really."

 He reaches across the table and grabs her fork. As he mutters the word "silver", the fork immediately becomes... ah, you know it. It becomes 100% pure silver.

 "Do it again. I can't believe it!" – the shining of greed in her eyes are almost visible.

 She gives him her knife and he repeats the process. When he met the trolls, making what he just did would give him a headache, but he doesn't feel a thing anymore.

 "Oh, Tom", she says in the falsest of all her expressions, "We're rich. You can do this more and I can..."

 "No. I won't do that."

 "But, Tom think about it," she unbuttons her shirt a bit more, to give him a glimpse of things to come, just in case he accepts her offer. "We would be so happy with..."

 "No!"

 She grabs her hand strongly. All the seduction of her voice is gone and what comes out is the voice of a cold, greedy woman. The voice of the real Lois Smith.

 "Do it, little punk! I did not…"

 She is doing what the trolls did. Trying to force him into doing what he doesn't want to further her own agenda. Sure, she didn't plan on ruining the English economy, but she was no different. His heart broken by the reality of Lois Smith replacing his dreams, he says:

 "Gold."

 "What?!"

 She knows he says the name of the element he is turning objects into when he does it. Would he do it with her? She releases him. He looks at her, shattered emotions begging to bubble over and kill her. She reaches for the fork and knife, hoping to get away with something from this misadventure, but he is faster than her and says:

 "Oxygen."

 She leaves.

 The Jones' residence, Chelsea.

 Tom is crushed. He just got home and went to his bedroom. There's still many hours of sunlight, but he shuts close the window and grabs a thick book that has "Biochemistry" written in bold letters on the cover. Doctor McCoy was kind enough to lend him some stuff "just to begin with" (a dozen Bible-sized, you guys out there know how Hank is). He opens the window and sees they are playing soccer outside. The sun is shining, a rainbow has appeared in the horizon after the rainy start the day had.

 He drops the book on his bed walks away.