His tour ended, as all tours must, in the gift shop.
Mikey was proving his worth as a diplomat having easily befriended Xavier's group and even Raph had done better than expected developing an easy comradery with the redhead, whose name turned out to be Jean. A little eavesdropping on their conversation had revealed that the girl was a psychic much like the good professor and often had trouble not reading the minds of whoever she was talking with which made things a little awkward for her.
The catch was she wasn't able to read either Mikey or Raph and was reacting to that little revelation with far more enthusiasm than Jack would have expected. Raph himself, while initially bemused by the attention of the redhead, had been sympathetic and willingly struck up a conversation with her which had been flowing naturally and gotten more casual over the past fifteen minutes and seemed to be shaping up to the beginning of an easy friendship that Jack had not been anticipating of his most moody son.
Sunglasses, whose name turned out to be Scott, was less than pleased with Jean's new friend but in a surprising show of self-awareness realized that hovering wasn't doing him any favors and had migrated to where the others were taking turns showing off.
Mikey had started off with an inhuman display of gymnastics which had been matched by Kurt and then attempted by the nephew, who was being called Spike though that was obviously a nickname, who had faceplanted when he had tried to keep up.
This had led to Spike breaking out a skateboard and doing tricks which then Mikey was able to copy and ended with Kurt crashing into a display of plush animals that no gift shop was complete without.
This led to the whole group filling outside while a sheepish Kurt apologized for his clumsiness.
Jack found the whole thing thoroughly amusing.
Ororo hadn't lost the contemplative look she had since they had finished their last little conversation and seemed to not be paying too much attention the shenanigans of her students.
Once they were outside their group was joined by Don and Leo and Wanda. Don and Leo integrated easily into the competition while Wanda stood stiffly looking at Jack and ignoring the others.
Jack had an idea.
He led them all over to some courts he had installed for a little game of basketball and while most seemed up for the idea Jean and Wanda seemed to prefer to simply watch. Jack made eye contact with Ororo and then when he had her attention glanced over to Wanda before joining Scott, Kurt and Spike in a game of four on four against his boys.
The game began fairly mundanely.
Jack was a solid player by himself and his team seemed to all be athletic, though Spike was the breakaway talent from their team, but it wasn't enough to compete with his boys who were on another level when it came to teamwork and, to be quite frank, above human levels of athleticism.
Jack's team weas down by twenty before the game changed. It was Kurt was the first to break. He got his hands on the ball and instead of slipping past Mikey who was blocking simply teleported past him and was able to make an unchallenged three pointer.
This opened the floodgates of what could be politely called freestyle basketball. It did not take long for his boys to adapt to the more enhanced style of play and soon he found out why Spike was called Spike when he shot bone projectiles from his arms preventing Leo from grabbing the ball which allowed Jack himself to intercept gaining a free shot on his boys.
Strangely enough not a single person called anyone out on cheating and the game quickly became a showcase of odd powers from both sides as his boys had been holding back as well in the interest of a fair game. During a short break, while a robot fetched a new ball after Spike "accidently" destroyed the one they were using, Jack glanced over at the benches and was satisfied to see Ororo and Wanda deep in conversation with Jean attentively listening in.
Wanda seemed relaxed and happy conversing with Ororo which lifted a small weight off Jack's shoulders and he turned back to the game which grew more and more ridiculous before finally culminating in Scott shooting down the ball with lazer vision before Leo could make the shot which would have won the game for his boys.
Much arguing and roughhousing later led to the whole group of them back to the limo that would take the mutants back to Xavier's mansion, only the limo they had arrived in wasn't the only vehicle in the parking lot.
There was another limo waiting there but it wasn't for his guests.
"Have fun at school make lots of friends and don't take shit from anybody." Jack said as his boys filed into the Limo that would take them to the house he had bought for their schooling. Wuya and Amora were already in the vehicle and Wanda turned to him looking like she wanted to say something but came up short.
"You can do this. Remain civil when you talk to Xavier and do your best in class. I have talked with Ororo and she is on your side so you can go to her if you have any problem. I am only a phone call away if you need me. I believe in you, good luck." Jack said as he coaxed her into the limo.
She looked him square in the eye as she sat down on a seat next to Wuya.
"Thank you." Her eyes shone with intensity as she said this.
The door closed and the limos drove away vanishing into the distance as Jack waved goodbye.
A weight he had grown accustomed to was lifted as Jack turned back towards his factory and set of at a brisk stride. He spotted Phil in the distance and his assistant moved to join him as he walked back towards his lab with a skip in his step.
No more witches, no impossible standard to live up to just him and Phil building something cool.
"I have got the scans of that watch Kurt Wagner was wearing and it is indeed a holographic projector similar in function to ours but a completely different build. The maker seems to be Stark Industries if the parts are to be believed though that company doesn't have anything of the sort available to the masses. It could be that we have a competitor in the coming season that we didn't know about." Phil reported as he fell in step with Jack.
Wasn't Stark dead?
He had been missing for close to three months with no word on his status. The man must have invented the holographic technology even before Jack had gone public with his phones, and without the use of size changing technology. The man was a genius who would have been hard to compete against but with him out of the picture Jack was free to causally make upgrades to his tech without worrying about another genius outpacing him.
It just goes to show he who strikes first wins.
Obidiah Stane was furious.
After getting rid of that brat Tony he had taken control of Stark industries and expanded his customer base even further without having to worry about any nosey genius's questioning where all the extra money was coming from.
Only those rat bastards hadn't held up their end of the bargain. Tony was still alive and if the wrong words were whispered in the right ears his control over this company would become far more tenuous. He had spent the past few months distracted paying bribes hiring mercenaries and managing the transition of power from Stark to himself.
All of this fell within the range of predictability and his future looked brighter than ever.
Then one of his military contracts had fallen through as Uncle Sam had decided to go with another supplier for project chameleon.
He had investigated and the answer was something he hadn't heard since the early days of the Company.
"I am sorry sir but the competition just has a better product we have no idea how as everything we use is cutting edge but they just manage to cram way more equipment in a smaller area and their light bending apparatus is capable of an efficiency ten times ours." Reported Dr. Riva his head of research and development.
"WE ARE STARK INDUSTRIES!" Stane shouted. "WE DON'T HAVE COMPETITION! WE HAVE KNOCK OFFS."
"This is no knock off." Riva said calmly. "The real kicker is we aren't even confused, we know exactly how to make the damn thing, probably better than this guy, but the technology for working on such a small scale simply doesn't exist." Said the scientist with a shrug.
"Who is it? Hammer? Lockheed Martin?" Demanded Stane.
"No, no, it's the phone guy, Smith Innovations. Haven't even been around for a full year and already they are trying to edge us out." Riva answered.
That phone had made a splash in the market but Obidiah had been a little too distracted to pay it any attention he could see now that was a mistake. Smith Innovations was rapidly becoming a problem. It looked like they had pioneered a method of working on a scale far smaller than anyone else had managed and was using it to break into markets they had no business in, well Stane knew how to handle that.
He pulled out his own Phone and made a call to one of the people who actually ran this company.
'Hello Pepper, I need you to get me a list of everyone who works for Smith Innovations and do background checks for any that are having money troubles." Stane's voice had gone from furious to professional in the blink of an eye.
"Oh, getting into some corporate espionage?" Pepper responded briskly.
"Of course, after all you gotta keep ahead of the competition."