Whoa, whoa, back up. I don't call anybody Mistress.

[He smirks, though. Nice attitude.

And even while drunk, he can rattle off this explanation with no trouble. It's burned into his brain.]

Mutants have an extra gene, the X-Gene. We're born with it, but the results don't manifest 'til puberty. They can be... anything you can think of. Controlling things, like pyrokinesis or cryokinesis, or changing how you look completely with a thought, or phasing through walls - the kinds of things people call "superpowers." Some of us look different because of 'em and some pass for human until we use our ability.

Doesn't matter which, though - the humans hate all of us.