It had been 3 weeks since David had moved into Xavier's Mansion and his new room was small, but he had managed to make it seem like home. It was still rather bland and was more of a college dormitory than anything else, but he was comfortable. It was nice to be by himself because he had a clear head. He kept bouncing the ball from his bed, onto the wall and back into his hand.
The bounces were soothing and rhythmic. It had been such a long day for David. Every day he was training or studying. He would have to train harder if he was ever going to become an X-Men, but he wanted to. To David, being on the X-Men was like his birth right. As he carried on his dreams of fighting alongside Cyclops or even Wolverine, he was interrupted by the door being opened.
"How are you holding up?" asked Noriko interrupting David's important day dreams. Noriko was also training to join the X-Men. She had already actually been on a mission with one of their sub-divisions, New Mutants.
"Good, Good. I've been thinking, how much longer you think we'll have to wait?" David asked, although, he knew she didn't know either.
"David. We've been through this, being on the X-Men isn't any of our choice, its Professor X's," David laid back in his bed, "When he feels you're ready, then he won't make you wait," Noriko replied, pulling herself out a chair and sitting down.
"I pulled the short straw, don't you think? I'm here with some ridiculous power to 'absorb' people's knowledge," he looked over at Noriko and carried on, "Look at you for example, you can shoot lightning. You got lucky—"
Noriko suddenly snapped, "LUCKY? LUCKY! You think this is lucky? I had to abandon everything because of this and you think its lucky. You can at least control yours, I have to wear these bloody bracelets."
David's head turned, and Noriko's head was in her arms, sobbing. David got up from his bed and went to comfort her. "I'm sorry Noriko. I didn't think," he said apologetically. Noriko just carried on crying and David put an arm around her. He slowly leant her into him and there they sat for ages.
David offered to walk her to her room, but Noriko said she'd manage. However, once Noriko had left the room and walked away a bit, David snuck out. He snuck into the lower floors of the mansion until he was near to the training centre. He opened the door and began to punch the punching bags and worked until he felt like he was going to collapse. He kept gritting his teeth to try get through out. He then heard a voice saying, "Burning the midnight oil are we David?"
David quickly spun his head to see Professor Xavier, sat in his wheelchair, at the entrance. David went back to his routine punches and replied, "I'm trying my best to become X-Men material sir."
"David. I need to tell you that the X-Men isn't about how hard you can hit but how well you manage under pressure. I need you to remember that for me."
David thought about this for a minute, stopping the punches. He lowered his fist and took a couple of deep breathes. Just as Xavier began to turn away, David shouted back, "Professor, could I ask what happened to Noriko before she came here?"
Xavier's look suddenly changed. He looked straight into David's eyes and said, "You must know that some people try to stop us. Her father was among those, so she fled. Somehow, she managed to get here. So, I've kept her safe since." A feeling of deep sorrow and dread suddenly filled David's mind. With that, Xavier left the room and David was left to think.