I'm taking a page from Tamarai's book. No crazy spelling errors to produce that lovely southern accent. Use your imagination.
I don't own the characters or universe or anything else that is the product of Marvel.
Fight and Shadow
Chapter 2: Balance of Power
Pyro scowled at his attorney. He never bothered to ask who paid her or why he had one. He had always assumed it was either Professor X or Magneto trying to get him out.
But now, his attorney had succeeded. Gotten him probation. Complete with collar, Cure, and classes.
And Pyro was pissed.
But the only thing worse than Xavier's School for the Gifted was staying behind bars in this awful cell with awful prison food and no lighter.
Pyro swore at the blonde in her white suit, who somehow managed to make business attire look naughty.
"The Cure. You sold me to be cured!" He glared at her. "Get out of here!"
Emma Frost merely raised an eyebrow and leaned heavily against the wall. She looked like she needed a smoke. He often caught her with the smell of one after she left him in frustration for a little while.
"Get out of here!" he yelled again. "No. I will not take the Cure!"
She checked her watch.
Pyro snarled.
Frost snapped back at him. "Oh for goodness' sake, Pyro, there are worse things than taking a temporary mutation suppressant to get out of this joint." She refrained from bluer speech around the prison guards. No good letting them know she wasn't your average attorney (or an attorney at all).
That got silence, a strange look, and his complete attention. He drew in a long breath. "Temporary?"
"A few months." She shrugged. "Six to eight at the level they'll hit you with. Enough to keep you behaved until you're used to probation." She aimed an icy glare at him. "You will behave."
"Yes," he replied automatically. "Perfect, civilized behavior. What the lady wants, the lady gets." An evil smirk curled up his lips.
The team had gathered in the big conference room. Everyone settled into their chairs, trying to ignore the empty spaces in the senior staff. Storm glanced over her remaining people and the junior staff that had joined them.
Bobby seemed a little agitated at Marie's inclusion. Storm had offered her a position, and Marie had accepted. Storm winced. She supposed everyone would know why in a minute.
"Let's start at the top," she said firmly, drawing everyone's attention. "Classes."
Logan growled softly. "I am not teaching history."
"That's fine." Storm smiled. "I have offered the position to Rogue, seeing as you objected rather strongly earlier."
Logan sent a surprised glance at his favorite student. Marie was silent, running one finger along the edge of the table and staring solemnly at it.
They ran down classes and adjusted schedules. Finally, Storm came to her first bombshell. It exploded.
"You can't bring him here!" Bobby shouted. "He'd probably try to burn us all down. He's a traitor!"
Storm tapped her fingers on her arm. "You should probably stop trying to tell me what I can and cannot do, Iceman."
Logan's claws slid out of one hand with an ominous sound, metal sliding against bone.
Storm glanced at Logan in tacit acknowledgment and gratitude. She was getting really tired of people questioning her in ways they had never questioned the Professor.
"The case is closed," she stated firmly into the grim faces of her team. "Pyro will serve his probation here."
Bobby glanced guiltily at Kitty. She did not look at him. Like Marie, she was staring at something on the edge of the table.
Hank Mccoy though smiled. "Perhaps this will be good for everyone."
"Yes," Storm agreed and promptly moved on. "He will have his probation officer with him, Emma Frost."
Kitty snapped her head up at that. "Emma Frost?"
"Yes." Storm agreed again. "Any objections can be brought up later in private."
"Wait a second here." This time it was Logan.
Storm groaned inwardly. Couldn't anything be simple?
"If the Kitty Cat"—Kitty bristled at that—"knows something that could endanger the team, shouldn't we all know?"
With a sigh, Storm waved at Kitty to continue. She couldn't refute his logic, much as she wanted to get through and done with this meeting.
Kitty looked extremely uncomfortable. "She tried to recruit me into this awful group of mutants that controlled the world or something."
"His probation officer?" Bobby looked livid.
Storm raised a hand. "I will personally go over it with Kitty and verify what we need to know. On to the next topic," she said forcefully.
Bobby leaned back, looking anything but happy.
"I'm in negotiations for a new teacher who will be useful to the team as well. His name is Remy Lebeau. The earliest we'll see him is at the start of the term."
Nods of acknowledgment. Thankfully, no one knew who he was, or she'd be locking horns all morning.
Finally, with a deep sigh, she came to the part she knew Marie had been dreading.
"The Cure."
No one could look at her afterwards. That was the hard part. Being a freak among freaks.
Rogue brushed her white hair back from her face and tried to ignore the ones ignoring her as she moved through the hallway. Her arm tingled. Then a solid hand grasped her elbow. Shadowcat.
"Is it just me, or is this really, really weird?" asked the southern girl.
Shadowcat grimaced. "Weird. Definitely weird."
"Hey, wait up!"
They paused and waited for Bobby to catch up. He came to a stop in front of them and swung his head back and forth between the two, as if wondering what strange dynamic had changed that he faced them together.
"Yes?" Rogue asked impatiently.
"Are you okay?" Real concern flashed in his eyes.
She shrugged. "I'll live."
"Yeah." He took them in again. Both standing there. In front of him. Shadowcat waiting patiently for him to get done.
Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Was there something else?"
"What? No." He shook his head, backing up. "Nothing."
She nodded. Why had she expected more? He wasn't about to realize that his time with her touchability was limited. That he should take it now.
She wondered which of them would end this.
"Well, then, Shadowcat." She turned to her friend. "I believe we had lunch plans."
A/N: Not quite what I was hoping for, but a good transition to where we're going. Sorry for those I told would have to wait longer. My muse had other ideas. Grin.
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