The disclaimer saying that I don't own any X-Men Evolution characters has had a bit of a freak out and is taking a vacation. Just another fic that ties into 'A Bad Week At Bayville High' and 'After The Volcano'. If you haven't read those fics, read them so they will make more sense. Or less sense as the case often is with my fics.
Moving On Ain't Easy
It had been a hard week for the students of the Xavier Institute. Their first week of school had become their last week of school thanks to protestors, a Sentinel and a giant volcano that had been created by Amara in the middle of a football field. This had prompted more angry calls from parents, government officials, lawyers and eventually led to a decision that the Xavier Institute would relocate to a small town outside of San Francisco where Xavier had another mansion.
Most of the students were now sitting in the kitchen having some kind of meal. "Is this breakfast or dinner?" Kurt groaned as he munched on some corn flakes.
"I don't know," Kitty yawned. "I'm so tired I don't know what time it is or what day it is!"
"It wasn't that long since the Sentinel attack. Yesterday…I think," Sam sighed.
"All I know is that we've been packing non stop for hours and I need a break," Ray grumbled.
"Not me. Didn't have much to pack to begin with," Remy shrugged.
"I just unpacked and now I had to pack again," Peter agreed.
"Our personal stuff isn't the problem. It's all the equipment," Scott yawned. "I had to help Forge dismantle the Danger Room and Cerebro. When I left him he was sacked out underneath one of the consoles in the control room."
"I was helping Mr. McCoy pack up the medical equipment," Jean said. "I think we're halfway done."
"How's Amara doing Tabitha?" Rogue asked as Tabitha walked in.
"She's bad Rogue," Tabitha sniffed. "She's really bad. She doesn't even remember the whole Sentinel incident let alone…"
"Sometimes the mind lets you forget something really bad," Remy spoke up. The former Acolyte had joined the institute recovering from recent injuries. His leg was still in a cast but he was much better. "Tabitha it's gonna be okay, Magma gonna be all right."
"I hope so. I guess the gang's all here huh? Hold it, we're missing someone…" Tabitha looked around. "Where's the rug rat?"
"Jamie? He fell asleep an hour ago," Sam said. "Didn't wanna wake him."
"Don't know how anyone can sleep after what we've been through," Roberto sighed. "I still see that Sentinel trying to smash us to pieces when I close my eyes! No wonder Amara…" He stopped and for a minute there was an awkward silence.
"I always thought I'd be the first one to have a nervous breakdown around here," Rogue said. "And I know I ain't the only one!"
"To be fair Rogue most of us weren't mind warped as many times as you," Ray said.
"You're just warped period!" Kitty snapped as she hit Ray on the arm. "How could you say something like that!"
"What? Like I'm the only one who thought it? She even admitted it!" Ray defended himself.
"As much as I'd love to clobber you for your lack of tact, you're right," Rogue pointed out. "I mean after that mess with Apocalypse and what Mystique did to me I thought I was gonna lose my mind."
Rogue let out a breath. "After…After the battle I kept hearing Apocalypse's diseased thoughts in my brain. Kept railing at me. Driving me nuts. All that rage and hate…" She shuddered. "Worse than Mystique."
"I didn't know that," Kurt frowned.
"No one knew that," Jean realized. "Rogue did you tell the Professor or…?"
"No. It turned out all I needed was a few days to get him under control and out of my system," Rogue let out a breath. "I just stayed away from everyone and acted like a bitch for a few days."
"No wonder we didn't notice," Ray blinked.
Rogue nodded at Kitty. Kitty whacked Ray on the head. "OW!" Ray yelled.
"Creep," Rogue grunted at Ray.
"Save your anger for the jerks at Bayville," Ray glared at the two girls. "Who are finally getting what they deserve!"
"You're actually pleased Amara did what she did aren't you?" Jean was shocked.
"I'm just saying why the hell did we bother saving the world if it just turned on us anyway?" Ray asked. "The more I think about it the more I begin to wonder if maybe Apocalypse had the right idea!"
"Pikachu's got a point," Roberto agreed. "Maybe if more people turned into mutants like us we wouldn't go through half the crap we do now?"
"Do you hear what you're saying?" Jean was shocked.
"Guys you have to give people a chance," Kitty said.
"We did, look where it got us," Ray grunted.
"So what? You're gonna just give up and run off with Magneto now?" Rogue asked.
"That's not what we said and you know it!" Roberto shouted.
"Well it sounded like that to me!" Rogue said.
"I just meant I'm tired of getting blamed for everything that goes wrong around here!" Ray shouted. "Just because I'm sick of all the hate and crap that comes our way and wishing for once we'd get a break doesn't mean I'm gonna run off and become the next big super villain! I'm just expressing my opinion! Or am I not allowed to do that?"
"Look we're all tired and frustrated," Scott said diplomatically. "It's been a rough week. Maybe our new home will be better?"
"There was nothing wrong with the old one," Kitty sighed.
"You're kidding right?" Bobby asked.
"I don't like having to run out but even I gotta admit I'm not too unhappy about leaving Bayville," Rogue said. "The mansion's just a building. As long as we got each other that's fine with me."
"Yeah but we had so many good memories and stuff," Kitty sighed.
"And what exactly are those good memories?" Roberto gave her a look. "The time the mansion blew up and we had to run from the cops? The days where we had to live in a hole in the ground while it was being built?"
"Why did we have to do that anyway?" Bobby realized. "I mean if the Professor had another mansion somewhere else why didn't we just live there until this one was rebuilt?"
"Well that's because…" Jean realized she didn't have a clue. "Uh Scott?"
"Sorry Jean I don't get it either," Scott shrugged.
"Okay that was one bad thing but there were some good stuff too!" Kitty said.
"Name one," Rogue asked.
"Well uh there was all the fun times we had at school before people found out we were mutants…" Kitty thought.
"When Mystique was principal and gave us detention and the Brotherhood made our lives a living hell?" Rogue looked at her. "Oh yeah, those were real fun!"
"Okay how about going to the mall?" Kitty asked.
"Which got trashed when we were beaten by the Scarlet Witch," Scott grumbled. "Which we later learned was a set up by Mystique who had kidnapped the Professor. Yeah that was a good time had by all!"
"How about the times we just hung out around the mansion?" Kitty asked. Everyone gave her a look. "Besides all the Danger Room training and the workouts and the homework and stuff? Remember all those baseball games we played?"
"That turned into Mutant Ball? I'd rather not," Scott groaned.
"What about the time we girls teamed up and became the Bayville Sirens?" Tabitha asked. "Right until Jean and the rest of you got cold feet?"
"Fun but still not that much different than any X-Man mission if you think about it," Rogue gave her a look. "What else you got?"
"Uh how about the time we were in that Dracula play?" Kitty said.
"The one where we fought non stop and Sabertooth attacked us before it?" Rogue asked. "Oh I have one for you Kitty, how about all your wonderful dates with Lance? Those must be some pretty special memories huh?"
Kitty blinked. "You're right. This place is a dump. The sooner we're out of here the better."
"Yeah I thought that would do it," Rogue muttered.
"Okay so we made a few mistakes here," Scott began.
"Sounds to Gambit you made a lot of mistakes here," Remy blinked.
"But the point is we have to keep trying to find a way to live in peace with regular humans," Scott finished.
"By segregating ourselves? Yeah that will work," Ray grumbled.
"For crying out loud Berserker, first you complain when we go to regular school and now you're complaining we're getting an education away from normal humans!" Tabitha said. 'Which is it?"
"I'm a teenager, I'm supposed to complain about everything," Ray gave her a look.
"Man has a point," Bobby shrugged.
"Maybe the folks in California will be nicer than Bayville?" Sam suggested.
"Well there are a lot of movie stars, vapid airheads, nut jobs and maniacs that shoot guns on the freeway out there," Rogue said. "In other words we might fit right in."
"Jubilee's out in California!" Bobby said. "I haven't heard from her in ages! Maybe we can visit her or something?"
"That's the spirit. We should look at this move as a new beginning," Jean said.
"Instead of the glorious defeat we just got," Rogue rolled her eyes.
"Just give it a chance Rogue. You never know. Maybe a lot of humans out there might give us a chance. Remember the school board here was willing to give us a chance?" Kurt said. "Why else would they allow us to return if they didn't want us there?"
"Actually…" Scott let out a reluctant breath.
"Scott!" Jean cut him off.
"We should tell them Jean," Scott said. "No point in keeping it a secret now."
"Keep what a secret?" Kurt asked.
"You know that night of the school board meeting?" Scott asked.
"The night we got kicked around by the Brotherhood and Duncan in the parking lot and turned it into rubble? Yeah I remember that," Rogue said sarcastically. "What about it?"
"You know how the school board made up their minds to let us go back to school after that?" Scott sighed. "Well it turns out it wasn't us that changed their minds."
"So what did?" Rogue asked. "What are you saying Scott?"
"You're not saying Big Daddy X did what I think you're saying are you?" Tabitha was stunned.
"The Professor wouldn't…He couldn't have…!" Kitty was shocked.
"He didn't use his powers! The Professor would never do that!" Jean said. "He changed their minds another way."
"What other way?" Ray asked.
"Let's just say the Band didn't need any more candy bar sales to keep it going," Scott grumbled.
"Are you saying he…He bribed the school board?" Kitty's jaw dropped. "No way!"
"It figures!" Rogue snapped folding her arms. "I should have known!"
"Unbelievable…" Sam was stunned. So were the rest of the students.
"You know I wondered what happened to the candy bar drive," Kurt thought. "After that day I never heard of another one. I was waiting for it so I could get some chocolate chunks and eat them in…"
"Kurt forget the stupid candy bars!" Rogue snapped. "Do you know how much you sounded like the Blob a second ago?"
"I can't believe the Professor of all people actually stooped to bribery!" Bobby was stunned.
"I know, neither did Jean or I when we found out a few days ago," Scott grumbled.
"And you're just telling us now?" Bobby asked. "Great now we're all accomplices to bribery! Or something like that!"
"Don't know why you all are so shocked," Remy shrugged. "Payoffs happen all the time. You be surprised how many fine upstanding members of society contribute to the Thieves' Guild just so they can have an extra contact in their pocket. There's a reason why the FBI hasn't investigated us since Herbert Hoover."
"What do vacuum cleaners have to do with this?" Bobby asked.
"Well Iceman just proved that the money the Professor spent for our education was well spent," Scott said sarcastically.
"Get over yourselves," Remy groaned. "This the way the world is. Whether it's right or not don't matter. You really think a rich and powerful man like Xavier wouldn't bend a few rules in order to get things done? Think about it. I'm pretty sure he didn't get a building permit to put in the Danger Room! Even Magneto laughed at the irony of Xavier paying off humans when all he had to do to save money was change their minds."
"No one can accuse Xavier of being a cheap skate," Peter said.
"That's true," Remy shrugged.
"Wait the Brotherhood knew all about this?" Kitty was stunned.
"Yeah Kitty! Remember Quicksilver was sneering at us about it a couple of weeks ago in this very kitchen?" Rogue snapped. "Figures. The one time that little creep wasn't lying through his teeth…"
"Okay I've had enough of crazy now," Ray groaned as he put his head on his desk. "I can't take any more."
"So to recap our standings we always called the Brotherhood liars and cheaters but we did that too," Kurt counted. "We always fought them so they wouldn't wreck everything but we wrecked everything instead. We fought Magneto to preserve the peace between humans and mutants but we're the ones who trashed it…"
"And Bayville High," Kitty added. "Again we're tied with the Brotherhood on that one."
"How exactly are we tied?" Peter asked.
"Lance wrecked one school. Amara wrecked the other one. We're tied," Kitty explained.
"Oh," Peter nodded.
"Just explain to me how exactly our methods are different than the Brotherhood?" Kurt was puzzled.
"Simple, Kurt. We get results," Rogue said sarcastically. "We are far more efficient at wrecking stuff than they ever were!"
"Okay…" Scott let out a breath.
"I mean the Brotherhood are unorganized screw ups that can't put in a roll of toilet paper without making a mess," Rogue went on. "While the X-Men on the other hand are organized, well trained screw ups that make a far bigger mess than anyone could have planned!"
"Wait a minute, how can we be tied?" Ray realized. "Avalanche turned half the school into rubble before Amara made the volcano!"
"Okay so technically he's one and a half," Kitty admitted.
"While the Brotherhood sleep all day and watch TV, we X-Men train night and day to create the high standard of quality our screw ups have!" Rogue went on. "Unlike the Brotherhood, we are professional screw ups with our certificate of professional screw up-ery from Screw Up State University! Go Screw Mass!"
"Well doesn't that make us just half then?" Tabitha asked. "I mean if Lance destroyed one school and half of another one…"
"Yeah but the volcano? Which not only destroyed not only the other half of the school but the half that was destroyed too so technically that part of the school was destroyed twice which makes it our one," Bobby said.
"And unlike the Brotherhood who are basically common thieves who just steal everything that isn't nailed down including toilet paper, the X-Men are masters at our craft," Rogue went on. "I mean why bother stealing anything when you can just pay someone off? It's brilliant! The only reason the Brotherhood never thought of it is because unlike us, they're dead broke!"
"How can twice make one?" Ray asked.
"Don't you get it?" Roberto asked. "The volcano destroyed the part of the school that was already destroyed but could have been rebuilt. It also destroyed the other part of the school that wasn't wrecked which means both parts got wrecked!"
"Oh I get it now," Ray nodded. "That does make sense. I think…"
"Need an education? Just pay for one," Rogue went on. "Nobody will tolerate you at school. Just give your classmates a couple hundred bucks a week and they'll be your best friends for life! They might even make you prom queen if you throw in a toaster! So you destroy a school! They can always make a new one with all the payoffs you give them! So what if you're training a team of hyperactive maniacs with enough firepower to blow up a third world country! Just pay the cops enough money and we'll all go on a three week vacation to Disneyland!"
"I think I'm starting to realize why the Professor didn't want to tell us about the bribes after all," Scott winced.
"I told you," Jean said. "I told you but you didn't listen…"
"I did listen! I just thought it would be the right thing to…" Scott began.
"Well you thought wrong didn't you?" Jean said. "And why? Because you didn't listen!"
"Don't forget the other stuff we wrecked like the parking lot and the football field…" Bobby counted off. "The street the school was on…"
"I really liked those candy bars," Kurt sighed. "They were so sweet and crunchy and…"
"HELLO? ARE WE ALL JUST PAST THE PART WHERE WE'RE ALL HYPOCRITES ALREADY?" Rogue shouted at them. "OR IS IT JUST ME THAT HAS ANY OPINIONS ABOUT THIS?"
"Well Kurt's still on the candy bars so technically…" Bobby began.
"AAAHHH!" Rogue got up and stormed away. "Forget it! I'm gonna go break open my piggy bank and see if I can buy some sanity somewhere! Especially since we're all in such short supply here!"
"Now my head really hurts…" Ray moaned. "Kurt you have any extra candy bars?"
"Wait now that I think about it, the Brotherhood also wrecked the gym during the soccer game so that counts as a quarter," Kitty counted. "However we wrecked that same gym shortly after it was rebuilt with the whole Shadow Dance incident. So if we did one and a quarter and the Brotherhood did one and one half plus a quarter would that make it one and three quarters or should we just round it up to two to make it easier?"
"It would be easier if you'd just listen to me when I suggest something oh great and glorious leader," Jean grumbled.
"But this is our second volcano," Tabitha said. "So if we count that that's two and a quarter for us and…And now you've got me doing it!"
"Looks like Amara's going to have some company soon in the breakdown department," Scott sighed as he got up. "A lot of company!"