Chapter 5 - Forget About It (Literally

It was just a couple days before Kurt's birthday when the news started to come in that Superior Rising was having a small resurgence and had organized protests in a handful of bigger cities around the while the schools were located close enough to launch toward most of the protests, the junior team in Westchester was sent to Tampa to deal with the branch there. The senior team was split up to handle NYC and DC, since those were likely to be the worst anyhow.

Chloe was trying very hard to keep her distance from Kaleb after the talk she'd had with her sister. She wasn't sure if she was just being contrary or if she was trying to prove a point or if she was trying to make sure she didn't pull a Howard Stark and try to muscle into the middle of a relationship but… she just wanted to not be around him for the moment. So, instead, she sat by James and busied herself looking over the live-feed reports coming in online from the rallies that were just a step away from riots.

"Looks like this will be interesting at least," James said, though he was frowning at the screen. "I'm not sure if I can understand redneck enough to talk anyone down. What about you?"

"Oh, come on. You talk to my family just fine," Chloe said, rolling her eyes.

"Your family has proper Southerners. This is different and you know it."

"So what makes you think I have special non-proper powers?" Chloe shot back with a teasing smirk.

"Probably the sass from Alaska," he said.

Chloe rolled her eyes at that before she went back to what she was doing. "It's not spiraling out from one source," she said. "It's sort of fragmented. I'd bet there are leaders in each little spiral, not one guy on a stage or something."

"I'm sure there are," James agreed. "That's how it's been at all the bigger rallies."

"Which means some of them will be more violent than others," Chance put in, grinning at Chloe and trying to help her along. It was no secret that Chance wanted her to lead the team in his and Elin's place, and the older she got, the more she wanted to live up to that.

James, on the other hand, was much more subtle. He was nodding, and he finally pointed at the screen where there was a big knot of really aggressive-looking protesters. "I want that knot."

"It's yours," Chance agreed.

"I can take this one," Chloe offered, pointing at a semi-reasonable knot. "It's one of the biggest, but not the loudest. But they're losing members to the louder ones. Mob mentality."

"We'll put Gerry and Sying and Elin on these three," Chance said, indicating some of the louder ones. "Gerry can take this one," he added, pointing at a large one. "If you can calm down the guy in the center, it'll take a lot of the wind out of their sails."

"Artificial chill pill," Gerry chuckled. "It doesn't work in a large radius, but one guy? Yeah. I'll hit him with some pheromones."

"Everyone keep a bamf close by," Elin said, then turned to the little bamf that was pretending to co-pilot. "And you keep your eye on my brother."

The bamf looked up at her and gave her a salute, teleporting over to James to literally put his face on James' cheek.

"Get off," James said, pushing him away.

Chloe giggled. "He was following orders," she said, and the bamf gestured at her as if to say 'see?'

James glared at her. "I don't need a bamf."

"Yeah, you're not exempt just because you're metal now," Chance said. "Everyone needs one."

"That has nothing to do with it," James argued.

"Then leave your personal disagreement on the jet. We need an emergency exit for the full team," Chance said. "Elin said."

"Yeah, I heard her, bossy," James replied, though he still gave the bamf a glare.

The bamf just shrugged at him and plopped down on his shoulder, patting his shoulder as well and muttering an encouraging 'bamf.'

When they arrived at the rally, things were starting to spiral more than they had before, with more people moving toward the louder, more violent groups as those groups seemed to gain momentum.

"Don't need to tell you, but I'll tell you all anyway — be careful. And watch for cameras. Don't do anything that'll make it look like we're on their side," Chance told the group.

"Don't watch for them," Elin said. "Assume that you're on camera at all times."

"They'll be too distracted by me and the pretty little Summers to notice anyone else," Kaleb joked lightly.

"Oh yeah, that's gonna happen," Sying muttered to James with a smirk.

"Never know …" James replied quiet enough for Sying to hear alone. "Just too bad we're not in the right city for you to play The Devil Went Down To Georgia for him everywhere he goes."

"Next time we're in Georgia," Sying chuckled. "Though honestly, I'm not too fond of that song."

James smirked and nodded. "I'll hold you to it. But if you want to throw him off, use the Primus version instead of Charlie Daniels."

"No, no, Charlie Daniels is the best version," Sying said. "But I used to sing it when I was War. Fire from my fingertips. All that."

"I honestly didn't notice," James told him.

"Well, I wasn't singing around you or Apocalypse," Sying said with a shrug. "Just me. With my soundtrack of destruction. Because you can't have explosions without music, clearly."

"I suppose it would be improper," James agreed.

"Funny thing is that a lot of them were songs I learned from Penny. Think there's anything to that?" Sying said with a smirk. "Picking songs from someone I didn't like?"

James shook his head slowly. "No telling. Not like you were volunteering — and if you argue with me, I'll break your jaw."

Sying held both of his hands up. "I know better than to argue that," he assured James before he simply zipped off to dive into the knot he was supposed to be taking care of — and get the party started.

James headed for the overly violent looking group, calmly working his way toward the center, and like most of the other rallies they'd been to, any resistance he found as he headed there dissolved as soon as the people around him recognized him. Still, he really wasn't expecting a well-dressed woman in the center as the one directing them and whipping them up into a fervor.

He pushed his way closer and leaned over to try to talk to her, though as with many of the other rallies, she was a little too occupied with trying to get him to help her to listen to him. "Sorry, I can't hear a word in this," James lied with a tight smile. "Be better to go to the edge of things where these idiots aren't so loud."

The woman stared at him for a moment before she started motioning around her for the crowd to settle a bit. "Listen up, y'all!" she shouted. "We can't hear him if you're gonna be idiots!"

James tried hard not to swear to himself when she refused to leave the safety of the big idiots around her, but he was sure that the drone above with the FBI logo on the side caught her getting them to settle down. "What are you trying to accomplish here, lady?" James asked, keeping his focus on her to start with.

"We have to remind the world that we're not going anywhere," she insisted.

He narrowed his eyes at that and tipped his head slightly to the side. "Have you been paying attention at all to the population? Because if you have, you'd realize that everyone already knows that. This isn't helping anything."

"You should know better yourself," the woman replied. "The Friends of Humanity? The experiments? Don't you think we have to stand up to that?"

"Lady, the FoH has been on the downswing for a long time, and the experiments aren't going to change with a ticked-off crowd. That's all military. All of it. You can't change that like this. You have to do it through politics — and out of everyone here, I'm sure you can figure that out."

"Yeah, and you think anyone's going to vote against us when they know what we're capable of?" she challenged.

"I think you show them how much your group acts like a bunch of dumb animals, and the next thing you'll see is Sentinels roaming the streets again."

"We'll destroy them," the woman said, which got the crowd riled up all over again.

"If you had clue one as to what they could do, you wouldn't be saying that."

"Have you seen our numbers?" she shot back. "There are so many of us the police can't handle us!"

He turned and looked at the crowd, then shook his head. "I think you're looking at this the wrong way."

"Oh, and I suppose you think we should roll over when people are experimenting, stealing powers…" Whatever else she was saying was drowned out by another roar of the crowd as they started chanting "Superior Rising" while James waited them out.

James crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow her way. "You gotta stop this, lady."

"Not until they do."

He let out a breath and shook his head before he simply reached over and took a hold of her upper arm. "Come on."

The woman pulled against him but couldn't dislodge his grip as people shouted around them — all of them shouting over each other and not unified, not entirely sure if they wanted to side with James or the woman, either. "Let go!" she shouted.

"Not until I get us out of this mess," James said before he turned her way with a growl lacing his tone. "Like it or not."

"You can't stop the revolution," she said, still pulling against him.

"Watch me, lady," James argued. "You want to drag these people down into the gutter with you, but I just want to see them live a life that doesn't have them labeled as terrorists. Which you are."

"That's what they called the X-Men when they got started. That's just a label for what you don't understand," she said.

"The X-Men never tried to raise themselves up on someone else's back," James flat out snarled - and that was enough to get those closest to shut up and back off. "Your very name shows how far away you are from the X-Men. And not in any kind of positive way."

"We are homo superior," the woman insisted.

He turned her way again. "Yeah? And what's your ability? Outside of riling a crowd and inciting a riot?"

She tipped her chin up. "I can breathe underwater."

"That… is actually amazing," he said in an earnest tone. "So why don't you use that to do something beneficial?"

"What makes you think I don't?" she shot back. "I'm a dive instructor. I don't do this for a living."

"Do you teach only mutants?" James challenged.

"Obviously."

"You sure? You testing people illegally without their consent?" he asked.

"No, it's part of the class signup," she said.

"So you really don't know," James said. "And if you're denying people, that qualifies you as a racist, then. Doesn't that break a half a dozen federal laws?"

"Not under any recognized Florida laws."

"You can't say you want to be treated better than anyone else," James said. "Have you ever been in any of the scenarios you're pushing or are you just whipping people up?"

"I can campaign for mutant rights for others," she sniffed.

"So you're talking out of your ass. Figured as much." He kept going until they were almost all the way up to the SHIELD and FBI agents at the edge of the crowd and simply pushed her toward the SHIELD agent nearest them.

He turned around, flat ignoring her, to see where the others were as he started back toward the center of the crowd. If he could find that same center, he was going to discredit that woman first off and then try to talk them down. As he was starting to work back into it, though, he turned his head and saw the trainwreck that Chance was getting gathered up in.

The line was the same everywhere — and he could hear it at different stages through the crowd. People recognized Chance and were eager to be the ones to take him down or kill him. He reached for his comm to try and warn Chance to get the bamf and get out, but even with it on, it was clear that Chance didn't hear it or feel the vibration on his wrist.

There were several little patches of Superior Rising followers trying to whip up more people into a frenzy, though the chants nearest to him were centered almost entirely around their anger over 'stolen powers'. All at once, James could see exactly what the guy was lining up for, but his band had gotten lost in the crowd too.

James tried the comm as he pushed his way closer, flat out shoving people back to clear his path. A fight broke out from the original knot he was aiming for, but he kept running toward Chance, shouting at him to move. He was barely out of Chance's hearing distance when he put on a burst of speed and jumped just as a shot rang out, and James hit the ground hard.

Chance saw it when James went down and quickly realized what had happened — that someone had shot him in the head. He must have dove… considering the angle, he'd gotten right between those idiots and Chance.

A few of the Superior Rising guys — including the one who had shot at Chance — seemed to be in pure shock at what had happened. "Get out of the way!" Chance shouted at the guys, shoving them aside when they didn't move fast enough.

The rallygoers started blaming each other for how badly that had gone, and chaos broke out around them — though the next second, Chance found himself in the jet with James and the two bamfs that had been assigned to them.

"Little bit late, guys," Chance said with a glare as he checked James over. There wasn't really more that he could do other than to just keep him lying flat and then… wait. He shook his head at James. "I can heal now, you idiot," he told his unconscious brother-in-law. Though, he supposed, that had been the problem.

The others were having a bit of an easier time getting the rally to break up now, simply because the rallygoers were fighting among themselves and it was easier to split them up. So Chance just sat back and waited, even catching the bullet when it worked its way out of James' forehead, all crushed up from the hard adamantium stop.

"What happened?" Elin asked when she got back to the jet. She hadn't been more than twenty minutes behind Chance and James, and by the time she got there, James was starting to simply blink up at the roof of the plane.

"Bullet to the head," Chance said. "He's coming around, but …" He shook his head. "Took it for me."

She frowned and sat down on James' other side, frowning at both of them. "Why did you do that, you idiot?" Elin said to James.

He turned her way slowly and frowned. "What did I do?"

"You put your face in the way of a bullet," Chance told him.

"No I didn't."

"Um, yeah, yeah you did," Chance said, holding up the bullet so James could see it.

James closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands for a moment. "Why are we in the jet?"

Chance glanced at Elin and frowned. "We went to a Stupidity Rising rally. You okay?"

"Of course I am," James said before he started to slowly sit up. "Are we gonna go do something or what?"

"Um, we already did. Mission's over, little brother," Chance said, still frowning.

"Where are we going?" James asked, though now he looked unsure of what was going on.

Chance looked up at Elin in an unasked plea for help.

"Give Chance your phone," Elin said. "And take a seat. Crowd broke up before we got there."

James let out a breath and nodded — then did exactly as Elin asked without even a tease.

"Major head trauma," Elin told Chance. "It might come back; it might not." She let her voice drop lower as she leaned closer to him. "Did he stop breathing?"

Chance nodded. "Yeah. He was pretty much dead, except for the healing." He frowned. "Is this like how it was for me?"

"No," Elin said. "For you, it was like you woke up a few years off. He's missing right now. Maybe more, I don't know. But he seems to have an idea of why we're here. You might try asking him some things."

Chance nodded and then turned back to James. "So, hey, you buy your present for Kurt's seventieth yet? Big one."

"Yeah … though 'bought' might be a little … loose of a term," James said, then frowned at Chance. "Why? Do you need help?"

"No, just curious," Chance said. "Gonna spoil the surprise for myself."

"Doesn't matter, no one's gonna top me. I've been plotting this one for a while."

"Trying to give him a heart attack?" Chance teased. "Tired of the Wagner jokes?"

"Hey. That's my middle name, big brother," James said, though the smile dropped quickly and he went back to rubbing his temples. "Damn, my head is killing me."

"Yes, James, that's what happens when you try to catch a bullet with it. I mean, I know you have a hard head, but…"

"Why do you have to exaggerate all the time?" James asked in an irritated tone. "I didn't do anything like that."

Chance sighed and held up the bullet again. "Yes, you did, James."

James looked over at him, frowning deeply. He held his hand out for the bullet, and then he stared at it for a good, long while before simply closing his fist around it. "You're not funny, Chance. Nice try, though."

Chance let out a sigh and looked toward Elin. "Tell him, El."

"Let it go," Elin told him as she brought both of them a bottle of water. "Makes it harder to come back if you try to get him to remember. At least, that's what Dad says."

Chance let out a sigh and leaned back, then reached over to snag her and steal a kiss. "Alright. But I can't help feeling responsible. Big brother prerogative."

"Oh, knock it off," Elin said. "If you were hit like he was, it would have been a whole lot worse."

"I know. He's sturdier," Chance agreed. "And I'm very glad I haven't forgotten about my beautiful wife."

"That's good, because when my big brother took a round to the head, he forgot everything. Including who he was." She gave Chance a little look. "Then I'd have to catch your attention all over again."

"No, no, if that happened, all I'd know was this undeniable connection to a gorgeous girl."

"I don't know, Daken forgot who dad was and forgot he hated him for a while," Elin said, shaking her head as James' phone started buzzing. "You'd probably need to work through a whole list of girls before you noticed me." She kissed his forehead and turned toward the cockpit. "Don't let him talk to anyone."

"Got it," he said, looking down at the phone, though he had to frown when he saw that it was Alyssa, totally freaking out. Apparently, Superior Rising had live broadcast the attempted kill shot — since, after all, they'd meant it for Chance.

Woah, hey. Relax. He's okay. He's healing up. It's just going to take him a bit to get back up to snuff. -Chance, he texted quickly. He didn't want James' girlfriend to freak out. He snapped a picture for good measure. Sorry about the bloody mess but I swear he's up and getting around and telling me to shut up, so that's a good sign.

What happened?

Chance shook his head, knowing exactly the look on her face without seeing it. He took the bullet, but that doesn't stand up to adamantium. He's fine, just shaken up. Really.

He was shot in the head!

Yeah. I'll keep you updated. But I swear he's up and talking. We're just, you know, kinda treating it like a concussion.

This is NOT the same as a concussion.

No, but there's not really a better way to describe it, and you don't seem to believe that I'm telling you he's going to be just fine.

I'm coming by.

Probably not a good idea until Beast looks him over.

I thought you said he was fine!

Yeah, but Dr. Blue likes to do the once-over anyway, Chance said. If you want, I'll keep in touch.

Okay, I'm bringing burgers.

Chance shook his head but couldn't help but smile. Alright.

As it turned out, when they got back to Westchester, Alyssa wasn't the only one that had seen the broadcast — and half of the people left behind were waiting in the hangar for them to get back. Scott was more ticked off than he was worried like the rest were. And James still didn't believe that he'd been shot. Or that they had already done the mission.

"Alright, you're going to Hank," Scott told James with no room in his tone for argument.

"I'm … fine," James said in a breath. "Walking, talking … all of it."

"And you're going to Hank," Scott said. "Walking and talking the whole way."

James frowned at him but didn't argue, considering the whole of the junior team was on Scott's side and they were more than happy to funnel him down to Hank.

They didn't quite get there, though, before a blue blur halfway wrapped herself around James. "Are you okay?" Kari asked.

"I'm fine," James promised. "No one believes me, but I'm fine."

"I saw what happened!" she said. "Alyssa texted me. She was so worried!"

James stared at her as they kept walking down the hall. "It wasn't worth getting worked up about. We didn't even get to the mission."

"James, you can't just act like you didn't get shot on Instagram Live," Kari said with a completely unamused look.

"I didn't," James insisted.

Kari shook her head at him as she laced her arm through his and kissed his cheek. "Then I was all worked up for nothing. But humor me because that was upsetting."

He rolled his eyes and let them drag and push him down to the lab where Hank and K were waiting. Of course, it took a little longer for the scans to get finished, though with K giving James a warning look, it went a lot quicker than usual. But even with that, it was a matter of waiting for Hank to really look over all of the readouts before he could definitively say what was going on — which meant that Alyssa got there before he was ready to say what the prognosis was.

Alyssa came rushing over to Kari, since Hank was still working, and the girls shared a quick hug before Kari had to smile when she realized that Alyssa had brought a big bag of burgers. "Oh, you know how to take care of him."

"I've been dating him for this long; I'd hope I would," she said before she looked past Kari to Hank. "Is he… okay?"

"He's got a headache … and doesn't remember anything from today," Kari told her.

"But he's okay?"

Kari nodded and tipped her head to where James was trying — again — to tell Scott he was fine. And that he wanted to go back out and actually do something this time.

Alyssa shook her head and rushed over to James with her bag of food - and couldn't help but smile when she saw that there were a couple of those cute little blue demons hovering close behind Hank with worried little looks. One had a Twinkie, and the other kept trying to sneak a beer can onto the table.

But she went past them and simply kissed James — which got a smirk from the older X-Men. "I brought food for healing."

"This is the worst possible place for a date," James pointed out. "And thank you. But I'm fine. I swear."

"James, I came all the way up with a big bag of burgers," she said.

"And I really appreciate it," James replied. "But if we're going to picnic or whatever — I need a pair of jeans."

Alyssa glanced up at Hank. "Can I…?"

"Of course," Hank said, gesturing broadly. "Technically, you've already brought about the only thing that would reverse his injury anyhow. A bit of food, since he has opinions on Twinkies." He started toward his desk. "I'll let you know what the final verdict is."

"Please do," Alyssa said, then offered her hand to James to get him to his feet.

"Where we goin'?" James asked.

"I don't know. Maybe by the fireplace. It was cold when I left."

"Okay, but I'm gonna get looks from any students around," James said. "They always look at me weird."

"Okay," she said simply, smiling at him as she held his hand.

The two of them made their way upstairs and over to the living room. There were a couple kids there, but more or less as James had said, they took one look at him in the uniform — and then simply cleared the room. "Toldja."

Alyssa couldn't help but smile. "I like the uniform look," she told him. "It's a good look on you."

He let out a little laugh and looked down at himself. "It's just a basic one," he said with a shrug. "Nothing special." He reached over and took her hand as they headed for the couch. "I'm sorry if they got you worked up or upset. I haven't seen it, but I saw the mess. And the bullet. And I promise it looked much worse than it was."

Alyssa took a deep breath and let it out. "I don't think I'm built for that," she said. "I was so worried about you!"

He let out all of his breath and then simply leaned over to give her a long, gentle, and very sweet involved sort of kiss. "I'm sorry I worried you."

She couldn't help smiling at him. "Well, if you're going to kiss me like that every time, I think I'll survive."

"I'd rather not wait or get you worried about me, if that's what you like," James pointed out.

Alyssa smiled. "Yes, well, still. I like the relieved kisses."

"Do you need apology kisses whenever someone is stupid?" he asked. "Because that'd be a pretty common thing. You'll get sick of it."

'Not with you," she said with a smile.

"That's what you say now," he pointed out.

Alyssa shook her head. "What happened to kissing? I liked that part."

"Well let's revisit it then," he replied with a little smile. "At least until you're over being worried."