Perfect Havok

"Imagine a thousand more such daily intrusions in your life, every hour and minute of every day, and you can grasp the source of paranoia, this anger that could consume me at any moment if I lost control." - Jack Henry Abbott

It was only a day after Max disappeared and, honestly, it felt more like an entire lifetime. She was more than a friend to me, she was that sibling I never got a chance to see grow up. I know that feeling all too well. She wasn't the first. Why did life take everything from me? Ever since I was a boy the people I loved most have been ripped from my life. My brother. My parents. Nothing had changed. It didn't even help to know before it actually happened. That moment when Max squeezed my hand and told me 'it's time.' should've prepared me for what was to come.

Yeah. Right.

The second I was behind the door to my room I punched five holes in my wall. After my hand regained feeling I punched another six. And when that wasn't enough my powers got out of control and caught the entire room on fire. There was so much rage inside of me I had no idea what to do. What was worse was that someone was seriously abusing the doorbell as I tried not to turn the whole house to cinders. Seriously, they had to have hit that thing a hundred times in the past five seconds. People need to fucking leave me alone!

It seemed as if no one was going to answer it so I threw open my door, not even flinching when the wood splintered, and stomped down the hall. My guess was was that everyone was too depressed to even exit their rooms. No one had even told Erik or Raven- shit, when Raven finds out... I don't even want to think about that.

Back to the fucking doorbell. That same person was still punching that doorbell like he was getting five thousand fucking dollars a ding and it was doing more than getting on my nerves. I felt my hold on my powers starting to waver. I finally reached the front door and yanked it open without turning the handle or undoing the lock. The wood broke and I snarled loudly, "What?"

The boy in front of me couldn't have been older than fifteen. He looked absolutely terrified. Well, from what I could tell. He had sunglasses on so it was hard to gauge his actual emotions. But he was shaking in his boots.

"Where's Max?" The boy demanded with more confidence then he probably had in him, his jaw clenching and his fists balling at his sides. That's when I recalled what Max had told us, her brother was traveling to Westchester from their hometown in New Mexico. And this must be him.

My anger decreased slightly when I realized who I had been yelling at. "Sorry for yelling." I paused and scratched the back of my head. "Uh, do you want to come inside? I'll make you a sandwich or some hot chocolate or... something..." I had no idea how to act around this kid, I mean, should I have just flat out said "Max is dead" and slammed the door in his face?

The boy, Scott I think his name was, looked as if he were analyzing my face behind those sunglasses. His face scrunched up all weird before he nodded and stepped inside. I guess he deemed my offer worthy, or that I wasn't a weirdo or whatever. I offered to help him with his jacket, which was practically stuck to his skin by the way, but he proved to be just about as stubborn as his sister. Shit I was thinking about it again.

He yanked himself out of my reach and peeled off his wet layer forcefully. I almost felt he was going to throw it at me when I grabbed it from him and put it in the closet. Then I directed him towards the kitchen and we said nothing to each other. He seemed like a rather cold kid. Well, how would I act if I had wandered into a strangers place looking for my dead sister? Well, don't think Scott knew his sister was dead. Point still counts. Shaking the thoughts from my head I went over to the stove and turned on the kettle. He sat at that little breakfast table we all had tried to sit at back when Erik and Raven were around. Max too.

Shaking her from my head, again, I grabbed a beer from the fridge before sitting across the breakfast table from Scott.

"You never did answer my question. Where's my sister?" The stubborn brat pointed out. Maybe I don't want to answer the question, kid! Ever think about that? Of course I didn't say that, almost did.

I thumbed the rim of my beer trying to think of how to break the news when he said quietly, "She's dead... isn't she."

I sighed. "Yeah. Yesterday. Sorry kid." Sorry kid? The kids sister just died and I'm talking to him like I ate the last piece of pie. Yep, sorry.

"Did it hurt?" Scott whispered. I saw tears beginning to fall down his cheeks. Damn... I don't do tears.

"No. She saved us all and passed rather peacefully in the process." I assured him with a pat to the shoulder.

That's when I noticed it, the kid was crying so hard that his shoulders were shaking. I didn't really think about what I was doing as I sat next to him and started rubbing his back. It just felt natural. Scott took off the sunglasses and cried into his hands. Guess knowing beforehand didn't serve to cushion the blow for her little brother either. I bowed my head and continued to soothe the kid to the best of my ability.

When I looked up to see how he was doing I noticed that the table was on fire. Did I do that? Running on pure instinct I pulled Scott away from the table and grabbed one of the conveniently placed fire extinguishers around the house. You know, just in case. I quickly put out the fire before it could spread or get the kid hurt. I sighed in relief and wiped the sweat that was beginning to form off of my forehead. When I turned to see if the kid was alright I saw that the floor was on fire near his feet.

Shit! I lifted the nozzle and extinguished that clump of fire as well. "Where the hell is this fire coming from!"

Scott suddenly looked up at me with red eyes. Red? He quickly retrieved his sunglasses from his pocket and put them back into place. Is he doing that?

"Are you a mutant?" I asked him blatantly, not able to keep my curiosity to myself. That and the fact that if he was the one causing the fires I didn't want to be following him around with an extinguisher.

The kid furiously wiped his tears from his face and the snot onto his sleeves. "That's-" He sniffed. "That's part of the reason why I came here. I just- I don't know. Whenever I look at something for a few seconds it suddenly catches on fire. I don't know why..." He explained frantically. Afraid. Nervous. Sounded like a mutant to me.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Wait here. I'm going to go get someone." With that, I dropped the extinguisher by the door and headed for Charles' study. I didn't even bother to knock. I twisted the doorknob and threw the door open. "Charles, we've got a visitor." I told him though I was sure he already knew.

"Yes, I know. I was just waiting for you to come and retrieve me" He closed the book he was reading. "If I read his mind correctly, we're dealing with Max's little brother, yes?" I nodded. "Very good. Now, if you wouldn't mind?" He asked, motioning to the chair. Again, I nodded. I walked around behind him and pushed him out of the room.

"Thanks Charles." I mumbled as I wheeled him towards the kitchen.

He reached up and put a hand on mine, assuring me that it was alright. In a matter of seconds we were back in the kitchen to see a very nervous Scott fidgeting in the seat that he had sat back down in.

"Scott?" Charles asked calmly in his usual charismatic voice. The kid whipped his head up to look at the man talking to him. I pushed Charles closer to him when he started to reach forward to shake hands.

Scott wiped his nose on his sleeve and clasped Charles's hand. "Scott Dugen-Fuller, sir. Max told me I could trust you."

At that, Charles laughed. "Just Charles, friend. I see you learned all of the manners that Maxine seemed to lack." He said kindly as they shook hands. "So, you're curious to see if you're a mutant like us." He didn't ask the obvious, not-like-Max bit.

The kid nodded. "Yeah, can you figure it out?"

"I have isolated the gene that causes mutation, I have found it in Alex and in myself." Charles assured Scott.

The look that Scott gave Charles was absolute shock. "Alex? Like, Alex, Alex? He's here?" And at that moment, the kettle went off. Quickly I ran over to the stove and made the kid some hot chocolate.

"Of course he's here. Who did you think let you in?" Charles asked with the slightest bit of a chuckle. As I came back around to the table with the hot chocolate in hand I watched as Scott ran to me and swung his arms around my middle. I was careful to get the hot beverage out of the swing zone.

"Uhhhh?" I asked the kid while looking at the professor.

Scott squeezed me tightly. "Thank you for looking out for Max." He said quietly into my shirt. Well damn kid, I think that's worse than the tears. Mostly because I felt like I was gonna cry.

"Uhhh-" I stammered, not wanting this emotional garbage to continue any longer. "Why don't you go head off to bed? We'll take care of the whole mutant ordeal tomorrow when you're rested." I offered, practically shoving the hot chocolate in his face and sending him on his way. "My room's just up the stairs and on the left, you can stay there for the night." I said with a bit of a shove in the right direction.

As he walked off, he looked at me with a sad smile. I waved him off with a forced smirk of my own. Sipping his cocoa, Scott quietly disappeared into the entryway. I didn't move until I heard him head up the stairs and a door click shut. When I turned around to talk to Charles, he was already gone. Charles really wasn't the same guy after the accident, he didn't smile sincerely, he didn't laugh wholeheartedly. The fact that he did both of those things when Scott was in the room told me that he was putting on an act.

Well, aren't we all?