The disclaimer telling all of you that I don't own any X-Men Evolution Characters has been buried under a ton of lava. This is a sequel to 'A Bad Week at Bayville High'.
After The Volcano
"Everyone is almost finished packing their personal belongings," Ororo reported to Xavier as she and Logan walked the hallways of the Xavier Institute. "It's all the other equipment that will take some time."
"Even using both the Velocity and the Blackbird we're gonna need at least three trips to drag all the crap to the new mansion," Logan grunted.
It had been less than a day since the incident which had already been dubbed 'The Battle of Bayville High'. A battle with a nearly indestructible Sentinel that resulted in not only the school's destruction, but the creation of a giant volcano in the middle of what once was the football field. Amid the panic of half the town fleeing for their lives from the boiling lava and a destroyed Sentinel, there were suggestions from both SHIELD and the government that perhaps having a mutant superhero team living in a suburban community and going to school there was not such a good idea after all. In order to avoid further attacks and lawsuits, Xavier had agreed to relocate his students across the country to a more remote location just outside of San Francisco.
"A lot of the furniture we can leave here for now," Xavier said. "We'll only take a few necessities along with the student's personal items."
"It's gonna be fun packing all the cars and vans in as well as my bike," Logan grunted. "Maybe I can get Fury to loan us one of his transport vehicles or something?"
"I can't believe we have to move all the way across the country," Ororo sighed. "It seems like we're giving up and running away."
"Personally I think we should have done something like this a long time ago," Logan grunted. "I knew someone was gonna go after us when we got outed. I just thought it would be Magneto or one of his goons. Or at the very least some idiots with guns."
"A giant Sentinel was the last thing I expected to ever show up at Bayville High," Xavier sighed.
"No, I think the volcano Magma made was the very last thing anyone expected showing up at Bayville High," Logan told him. "At least the stupid thing stopped erupting since yesterday."
"Hopefully we'll be able to fully relocate to the San Francisco mansion and start renovations by the end of the week," Xavier told them.
"Forge tells me that he's almost finished dismantling Cerebro," Ororo said.
"Yes it was fortunate that he decided to join us in our relocation away from Bayville," Xavier sighed.
"Not exactly much of a choice considering how a lot of folks feel about mutants in this state," Logan grunted. "What am I saying? It's the whole world that's gonna go nuts on us."
"Yes we're going to pick up a few more students before we leave," Ororo said.
"But not Evan?" Xavier asked.
"He and the Morlocks are going somewhere else…" Ororo sighed sadly.
"Let's just say they weren't exactly thrilled at what happened and leave it at that," Logan told Xavier.
"Charles it's good you're here," Hank met them outside the infirmary. "Jean's been helping me pack up the medical supplies and equipment. We're going to need help with some of the larger and more complicated instruments."
"I'll send Forge down to assist after he's finished with Cerebro," Xavier said. "How's Amara doing?"
"She's…awake," Hank said cautiously.
"Hank, what's wrong?" Ororo asked.
"You know how she had that little outburst yesterday?" Hank asked.
"I think half the state saw that," Logan said sarcastically. "Not only did she create an out of control volcano she tried to roast the entire student body of Bayville High. Not that I blame her but…"
"Don't lecture her just yet," Hank warned. "Amara's…Not herself."
"What do you mean?" Logan asked.
"I think you'd better see for yourselves," Hank sighed as he opened the door. "Just don't upset her."
Amara was sitting upright in bed with her arms around her knees. She looked pale and drawn and her eyes seemed to stare at nothing. "Amara? Amara?" The Professor asked gently.
At first Amara didn't answer. "Amara can you hear us?" Ororo asked. She gently put her hand on Amara's shoulder. She startled with a yelp. "Amara! It's all right! It's us!"
"Where am I? What happened?" Amara asked. "Did I hurt someone?"
"Well…" Logan began.
"I didn't mean to hurt those boys but they were trying to…" Amara sniffed. "I burned them didn't I?"
They realized something was very wrong. "No you didn't hurt those boys, Sam did," Ororo corrected.
"Amara do you remember what happened yesterday?" Xavier asked gently.
"Yeah…No…I…It's a mess!" Amara began to cry. "I try to remember but all I get is smoke and fire and everyone laughing at me and…I'm sorry Professor. I know I did something wrong and I'm sorry!"
"Amara if anyone is to blame it's myself for forcing you to go back before you were ready," Xavier sadly replied. "I don't know if you can ever forgive me, but I'm sorry for putting so much pressure on you."
"I really thought I could handle it," Amara sniffed. "But I can't. Professor please don't send me back to school. Please. I just can't go back there. Please. I'll do anything you want just don't send me back to that awful place."
"Amara I promise you never have to go back to that school ever again," Xavier said gently.
"And believe me, that's one promise he can keep," Logan grunted. Ororo elbowed him.
"You know Amara I think maybe it's a good idea that we all get away from Bayville for a while," Xavier said diplomatically. "How would you like to go somewhere far away from Bayville for a while? Somewhere safe?"
"Safe?" Amara blinked.
"It's a small community right next to San Francisco called Crystal Cove," Xavier explained. "I have a mansion there. We can fix it up and it will be a perfectly good school for you and your friends. Will you like that?"
"I don't get to go back to…to there?" Amara asked.
"No, never again," Xavier let out a breath.
"I want Tabitha," Amara sniffed.
"I'll go get her," Ororo said. "All right?"
"Okay," Amara stared at the wall. The adults left the room.
"She's been like that since she woke up. Her mind is in a state of shock," Hank said softly.
"That's putting it mildly," Logan let out a breath when they got to the hallway. "I've seen shell shock before. This is pretty bad."
"She really doesn't remember does she?" Ororo was stunned.
"No, and for now I'd like it to stay that way," Xavier said. "Ororo I want you to talk to the students and explain that Amara is going through a tough time right now. Particularly Tabitha. Amara needs a friend now more than ever."
"Of course," Ororo nodded and went on her way.
"Hank would it be all right if Tabitha visited?" Xavier asked.
"Only Tabitha and only if she doesn't upset her," Hank said. "Which I suspect she won't."
"Fine," Xavier sighed. "I'll check on the progress of your packing later." He left with Logan.
"Charles…" Logan looked at Xavier.
"Don't say it!" Xavier said sharply. "Do not say it wasn't my fault! Because we both know this is my fault! How could I have been so blind? And so selfish…"
"Not all of it," Logan told him. "I think those jerks who harassed her and those creeps who used that Sentinel deserve some of the blame too!"
"I should have known better! I should have prepared them for…"
"For what? Sexual harassment and giant robots at school? Even I'm shocked and believe me it takes a lot to shock me," Logan grunted. "Don't ever tell them I said this but I'm glad the Brotherhood did what they did to get back at those jocks and I'm glad Tabitha was a part of it!"
"I hate to say this Logan but so am I," Xavier sighed. "You don't know how close I came to actually…"
"Putting a little fear of God into 'em?"
"And their parents and the staff at the school and certainly that backstabbing principal," Xavier spat. "That still doesn't excuse what I did to Amara. To all of them."
"The kids did the best they could, considering the circumstances," Logan said.
"Don't sugarcoat it, Logan. I was so confident, so self assured that my students could handle anything and why? Because I trained them so well at fighting! I forgot…I forgot that there are other ways the world can hurt them. They're only children and they've been through so much…"
"Again, not all of it was your fault," Logan said. "We all make mistakes."
"Mistakes? Mistakes? Because of my pride and arrogance a town is destroyed, a school system is in shambles…One my own students has had a nervous breakdown!" Xavier snapped at him. "The irony here is I always thought it would be Magneto's actions that would cause a greater rift between mutants and the rest of humanity. Instead he turned out to be the lesser of two evils. Whatever else Erik has become at least he was always honest about his intentions. Brutally honest but honest."
"He wasn't so honest the time he kidnapped you and some of the kids and fried Cyclops' and Havok's brains on Asteroid M," Logan pointed out. "Or used us as part of his plan to reveal mutants and Sentinels to the world. And don't forget what he did to the Scarlet Witch!"
"So we're equally destructive," Xavier said. "That doesn't exactly make me feel better."
"So what's the alternative Charles? Give up?" Logan asked harshly. "Just walk away from the mess you created?"
"You know that's not an option," Xavier sighed. "I just may have to rethink my tactics. Perhaps the X-Men shouldn't go out looking for trouble so much?"
"Trouble seems to find us anyway," Logan shrugged. "But maybe in the new place we won't drag so many innocent civilians along for the ride?"
"You're right about that," Xavier admitted. "Perhaps I should have moved the entire school there when we were first all exposed? But Bayville has been my home and the students' home for a long time."
Not to mention the mansion in San Francisco has so many old ghosts, Xavier thought to himself as Logan left. After what happened I never wanted to return there. Now I have no choice.
It seems that I've come full circle, Xavier thought to himself as he went to his office alone. I left Crystal Cove to come to Bayville after the debacle with Erik and the mutants there. Now I'm returning back to Crystal Cove after the mess we made here. Thank God Wolverine and the others don't know the whole story of what happened. If they did they'd be even more upset.
Xavier seemed to ponder in his office for what seemed like hours. Then he realized someone was at the door. Tabitha had opened it. "Professor?" Tabitha had been crying and she tried to pull herself together.
"How's Amara?" Xavier asked motioning her to sit down.
"Not good," Tabitha sat down. "I didn't say anything about you know, her blowing her stack. Literally. But she was so…"
"I know…" Xavier said. "Tabitha, Amara has had a bad shock to her system. She needs some time to recover."
"It's my fault," Tabitha sniffed. "I made her go back to school. I said she had to face those creeps and if I didn't put so much pressure on her…"
"Tabitha, Amara's breakdown wasn't your fault," Xavier was stunned to hear that. "If anyone is to blame it's me!"
"How is it your fault? All you did was make us go to school!" Tabitha snapped. "Yeah it's torture but come on…Even I can't blame you for this! I mean…The Sentinel? Come on!"
"I think training all of you to be a vigilante paramilitary group might have something to do with it as well," Xavier said.
"And if you didn't we'd all be dead!" Tabitha said. "I can't believe I'm saying this but if you and Badger weren't just hard cases about us training and all those rules we wouldn't have lasted a minute against that Sentinel! Or anything else for that matter! I used to think you were on some kind of power trip! Trying to mold us into perfect obedient little zombies to think the way you do and go fight the big fights for you but…Now I get that all you were doing was just trying to keep us from getting blown to pieces."
"In a strange way you were partially right," Xavier said. "I was so caught up in everything I forgot…I forgot that you are all still children and you needed some time to be yourselves without pressure."
"You? Admit I was right?" Tabitha blinked. "Wait a minute, I need a video camera or something because no one is ever gonna believe this!"
"Your actions weren't exactly blameless either," Xavier gave her a look. "Although looking back on it I can understand your motivation."
"In other words no matter what my intentions were it doesn't excuse the fact that I went too far huh?" Tabitha asked.
"Let's just say I might be joining you while you're doing your chores," Xavier gave her a look. "It seems we both allowed our ideas to blind us temporarily."
"So we're both screw ups. What do we do now? It's not just like we can give up or anything," Tabitha said.
"The important thing is that Amara gets the help she deserves and needs," Xavier said. "Can you help me, Tabitha?"
"Of course I will, Professor," Tabitha said. "She's my best friend."
"Good. I believe we've both learned some hard lessons on the consequences of our actions today," Xavier sighed. "In the future I'll try to…lighten up on the training."
"And maybe I'll spend less time screwing around during training and take it a little more seriously," Tabitha admitted. "Man that tin can nearly killed us!"
She took a deep breath. "It just hit me now. I mean…This isn't like Magneto or Apocalypse who are on total power trips. And Mystic is such a witch anyway…But still…People are trying to kill us. Regular people. Not just dumb jocks like Matthews was. People are actually planning and making weapons to kill us. The first time I saw that Sentinel I thought it was just a fluke. You know? Just another nut job but the way these things keep popping up and people in the government are just letting it happen…It's just a lot you know?"
"I know," Xavier sighed. "I was hoping you and the other students would never have to deal with this. Never have to think about it. That you would be prepared for anything but not even I was prepared for the Sentinels."
Tabitha gave him a look. "You kind of knew there were nut jobs out there like Hydra or in the government that wanted to do this to us, didn't you?"
"Like I said, I had no idea of the lengths they'd go to," Xavier frowned. "I severely underestimated them."
"If that's true why didn't Hydra or some other terrorist…?" Tabitha blinked. "Something like this could have happened before…"
"I never thought they'd be so bold to attack a school," Xavier shook his head.
"Guess you should have been paying attention to the news," Tabitha snorted.
"As I stated before I was too arrogant to even consider that," Xavier closed his eyes.
"I can kind of get why you wouldn't think of it or tell us that," Tabitha said. "Maybe I should be mad at you but I'm not."
"Why aren't you?"
"I don't know. If you didn't see it and I didn't see it coming maybe it just proves even you make mistakes," Tabitha shrugged. "Maybe I'm too mad at the jerks who tried to hurt Amara. Or the rat bastards that let loose that large hunk of scrap metal on us that really made this mess. Or that idiot principal that just let this happen! I mean karma is real good on payback! They were worried about us blowing up the school but it would still be there if that Sentinel never showed up!"
"Once again you have a point," Xavier agreed.
"But no one is gonna listen to it," Tabitha said. "Maybe if I'd just…If I left class a little faster. Or skipped it or just been there for Amara before she got attacked…"
"Tabitha what happened to Amara was not your fault," Xavier told her sternly.
"She's my best friend Professor! I should have done something! I don't know…"
"If memory serves me correctly you did," Xavier said. "You and the Brotherhood."
"The super glue and the billboard was Toad's idea," Tabitha admitted. "Wanda and I kind of added the naked part."
"Not exactly the most diplomatic way to express your anger but…" Xavier sighed. "I can understand why you did it. Why you felt you had to do it."
"I just don't want Amara to be hurt anymore," Tabitha said.
"Neither do I," Xavier said. "Tabitha again I am sorry for everything that's happened. The blame for this mess is all mine."
"More like the jerks who sent the Sentinel on us," Tabitha grumbled. "And everyone at Bayville Hell who got karma payback in a big way. Don't get me wrong Professor part of me is glad we're getting out of his dump of a town but still…I dunno, it feels like we lost or something."
"I am afraid that is a very accurate description of the state of things," Xavier said. "Mutant kind may be in more peril than ever thanks to our efforts. And if we don't figure out a way to change people's minds…"
"We're gonna see a lot more of those tin cans or even worse," Tabitha guessed. "So how do we do that?"
"I don't know Tabitha," Xavier sighed, realizing for the first time in a long while he didn't have any answers. "I just don't know."