Chapter 2 - Planning For The Future

Sying had finally decided on a name for his second ship — though that had been a process in and of itself. It had taken him a long time to get to a place where he was forming a good relationship with her that wasn't forged in grief over the Wonder or the fallout from Chandilar, and after that, he'd gone back and forth on several different options, because he couldn't find one that really… fit.

He didn't want another name like the Wonder. He'd been trying to evoke the imagery of space exploration with that one, like the Marvel with his dad. But as it turned out, he didn't like space much — it was too lonely, and it had not been nice to him, either. But he wasn't going to turn his back on it entirely, either, and he did want to take Penny into orbit to look at the stars that weekend, because that was still close to home, and it wasn't so lonely with her around, either.

But that left him with a nameless ship still as he considered his options carefully. He'd thought about something related to fireworks, looked through a few Mandarin words to honor his own name, and even considered just going with something like Maple Sugar because that, too, was his name at this point.

But when it finally hit him, he'd been listening to music with Penny doing homework and grinned when he realized he'd happened upon the perfect name. Cherry Bomb was a perfect blend of his dad's love of music and his mom's attitude and powers. And it had a sort of punch to it - less about exploration than it was about having fun and maybe causing a little destruction.

So, it was perfect.

The day after the Halloween bash, Sying had finally gotten a chance to sit down with a can of paint to put the name of his ship on the hull - in English, Kree, and Mandarin, so it was a longer process than just writing Cherry Bomb on the outside, especially when he had his mother's handwriting (all flourishes) and he wanted it to look perfect.

He was working on the Kree version of the name when Penny came down to meet him with a pack of bubblegum in hand as she offered him a stick, simply because she knew that he loved it almost as much as his mom did. "I like it," she said when she saw the English name, which he'd finished first so he wouldn't have to keep answering translation questions from the majority of the mansion residents.

"Yeah?" He grinned over at her as she popped a piece of gum in her mouth as well.

"Yeah. I think it's more … fun."

"That's what I was going for," Sying agreed with a nod. He tipped his head to the side to look her over. "You want to take her out with me?"

Penny looked totally shocked to hear it as she raised her eyebrows his way. "I thought you hated space."

"I… don't hate space," Sying said. "I hate Chandilar — and traveling alone."

Penny couldn't help but grin at him. "So you're using me," she teased.

Sying shook his head at her and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "And what if I am?" he challenged.

She shook her head at him. "I might forgive you just because you're so cute," she decided as she reached out to touch the paint that had dried on his face without him even noticing. "I'm a pushover for cute boys, apparently."

"I hope just the one cute boy," he teased, the smile growing.

"Well, yeah, because you're the cutest."

"Good to know. I'll keep an eye out for anyone cuter than me and prepare to get my heart broken," Sying said.

Penny let out a gasp of a laugh and shoved him in the shoulder. "You are so wrong!"

"I'm so right," he shot back before he zipped over and stole a quick kiss that ended up turning into something a little longer as he dipped her, with her head in the crook of his arm and his other hand on her back — though he was still holding the paintbrush away from her.

Penny was grinning when he let her up again. "I love it when you do that."

"Then I should do it more often."

"Oh, definitely."

He grinned at her as she straightened herself up and went back to painting the words, though Penny simply climbed onto the ship and sat on top to watch him work, so he ducked into the ship for a moment to get some music going, leaving the door open and letting the music play through the hangar — it wasn't like anyone else was there anyway.

Penny grinned at him — it was Alison Kraus, her favorite — and started to sing along with him, so they were both in excellent moods by the time he was done putting the names on the side of the ship, even if they were both getting a little tired out from the singing — Penny more than him, since he'd dropped off a few times as he concentrated on getting the edges of the paint just right.

"So, what do you think?" Sying asked when he was done and had taken a step back.

Penny grinned and held up her hands to frame the words between her fingers like a picture frame. "Perfect."

He laughed and shook his head at her. "I meant: what do you think about coming to space with me? Just a day trip, nothing big."

"Are you sure?" Penny asked, turning to face him with a slightly more serious look than before. "I know how hard you've worked to be okay again…"

Sying nodded. "I'm not going anywhere. But I really did enjoy parts of being in space. Being under the stars, seeing alien civilizations… I could probably have a career as an intergalactic archeologist if I ever decide to leave the team. That stuff's fascinating."

She smiled at him for that one. "Does that mean you're reconsidering going to college?"

"I'm fine staying here and working on a degree," Sying said with a shrug. "I can do it on my time and put the team first that way."

Penny rolled her eyes. "That's not the point. What about the experience?"

"That's always been more your forte anyway," Sying pointed out. "You're the social butterfly."

"Oh yeah, and you're such a shrinking violet," she teased.

Sying just laughed at her and kissed her. "I like where I am right now," he said. "This is where my family is, and this is where the team is. I can't imagine doing anything else, space archeologist jokes aside."

Penny let her shoulders droop dramatically as she draped her arms around her shoulders. She was a year older than him and was taking the SAT, looking ahead to her senior year next year and then college after that — though since he'd sped through school with his dad, he was actually ahead of her in that regard, even if he was sticking around at the school for the more unusual classes like combat, human-mutant relations…

He knew that Penny had no interest in being on the team, but she had put in the work to be at the Westchester school with her fairly impressive powerset so that she could be close to family in New York. Sying knew she absolutely could be on the team if she wanted to be — she had a good head on her shoulders and the ability to build an armor sort of like Colossus', but with properties that mimicked metals that she came into contact with.

If she touched his grandfather's claws, for example, she's be wrapped in something like adamantium and pretty much unstoppable.

But Penny liked people more than she liked fighting, and she would rather go to a party than to a training room. Not that Sying minded in the least. He loved dance parties, because music literally felt good on his skin.

"Have you figured out where you want to apply?" Sying asked.

Penny shrugged. "Everywhere, really. I mean, Juilliard would be ideal, but also totally cutthroat, so it's hard to balance."

"I'll come to all your performances," he promised with a smile.

"Except the ones when the world is in danger," she pointed out.

"Well, that's true. I can only be in one place at a time, sadly," he agreed.

She shook her head at him and kissed him gently. "Let's not look that far ahead," she said. "Let's just look ahead at a weekend getaway to the stars."

"I like that idea," he agreed before he pulled her into a longer kiss as she slid her hands across his shoulders, one hand moving into his hair and the other pulling him tighter. He pulled her gently, with his hands in the small of her back and between her shoulders, careful not to pull her so tightly that she couldn't get away.

His mom had taught him right, after all. He was super strong, and he never wanted a girl to feel like she couldn't get out, even if she didn't want to.

But Penny never pulled away, and when he let her set the pace, he was always pleasantly surprised. She tasted like the peach-flavored bubble gum as she stepped further into him until she had an ankle tucked around his, and then he was the one in control, his back against the hull of the Cherry Pie but balanced so that he was all but catching her.

And then all of a sudden, there wasn't anything behind him as the Cherry Bomb opened up the wall he was leaning against, and both of them tumbled backward into the ship.

Penny let out a delighted laugh as the ship closed the wall behind them, and she grinned down at Sying, who couldn't help matching her grin right back. "I think your ship likes me," she said.

That just got an even wider grin out of him as he pulled her down, perfectly content to run with his ship's not-so-subtle suggestion. "She has good taste," he said before he kissed her all over again, grinning against her mouth when his ship not-very-subtly dimmed the lights, too.

"Hey, Ger, you okay?" Krissy asked as she sat down beside her friend. He looked tired and worn-out, though not enough that his smile was any dimmer when he saw her and pulled her into a hug under his arm.

"Oh yeah, just tired," he said when he'd finished messing up her hair. "Home for the weekend?"

She nodded. "Team practice." She tipped her head to look up at him. "Are you coming?"

"Well, I took the test yesterday," Gerry said, indicating his tired expression. "Thus the crash."

"That bad?" Krissy asked, remembering how her own test had gone. She was pretty sure she'd only barely scraped by, and then there had been those days of waiting that were almost worse than the test itself because she had been so concerned that she'd brought Sying's chances down by insisting on doing things together…

Gerry leaned back with his coffee cup. "Just not quite what I was expecting," he explained.

"It never is," Krissy agreed. She tipped her head to the side as she studied him. "So, what was yours?"

Gerry made a face. "There was one where Mom was working with Viper again. She'd had some kind of break, I guess. It was not fun," he said.

Krissy shook her head and made a point of doing a full-body dramatic shudder when she heard it. "Yeah. Ew. That sounds awful."

"It kinda was," he agreed. "Then there was one where the objective was to hide - Logan said you passed that one faster than I did."

Krissy smirked. "We Elves know how to make speedy getaways and wait for the smoke to clear."

"I can't believe you just punned your own 'ports."

"I'm also a Hawkeye; I can't believe you can't believe it."

"I know; I must be tired, right?" Gerry said, grinning a little wider at her, and she shook her head at him.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go catch up to the others."

K barely knocked before she let herself into Scott's office and made her way over to the chair across from him. "We have a little problem," she told him before she slid a tablet across the desk. "I wasn't going to say anything to you about this unless it proved to be troublesome, and to be honest, I thought it was mostly a bit of paranoia," K said. "However … you should know that Charlie is a little detective — earned her PI badge and everything on this one."

"What one? All I see here is a map of Salem Center," Scott said with a little frown.

"That's because you didn't let me get there yet, and there is background, okay?" K said before she let out a sigh. "When you were in Europe, Charlie felt some nefarious intent from some guy. I think you were in Italy when it happened, I don't know, but … anyhow." She waved him off. "She had the foresight to drop a bug on this guy. It must have been in his bag or a coat or something, because it's still pinging, and it's pinging here."

"Who are they?" Scott asked, already getting into a much more studious and serious look.

"Some kind of cultists," K said finally. "Last time I was out and about, I looked into them. They've got some seriously poorly-aimed hatred that they're using religion to hide behind, but I think they're getting more influential."

"Are we looking at another Church of Humanity kind of thing, or is this something we should call in Billy or Kurt or Strange on?" Scott asked.

K tipped her head to the side as she weighed it out. "I'm not entirely sure," she said honestly. "They're using Norse runes as their 'secret' communications, but for the most part - they're either using them wrong, with their own code system attached to the symbols, or they're misinterpreting the meaning of them entirely."

"That's not much to go on. We can't go after people for being hateful or being stupid with their runes."

"No, I know that." She nodded in agreement. "But … they have all kinds of anti-mutant pictures as … I don't know... inspiration in their little hideouts — at least in the entries. I wasn't about to go in further without backup or a reasonable distraction bigger'n a bamf. But I didn't get any scent of gun oil or explosives, for what it's worth. Not where I was at anyhow."

Scott nodded slowly as he considered it and then seemed to come to a decision. "Alright. This is still at a surveillance level, and that's not something we've had our junior squad do yet," he said slowly. "It might be good for them to learn from you — and I think it would be good for Gerry if his first mission was something like this that works with his strengths. He can keep you guys in shadows — or blind the guys if you need the big distraction."

She nodded along. "Sounds like a plan, but if they are going to do more surveillance work, we should set up an afternoon and teach them right."

Scott smirked. "I think they'll learn well from you," he said, "but I'd like to set up a few sims with you and Natasha, so they can see the interplay."

"I'd prefer if we did an afternoon that she be involved," she told him. "She's got a totally different style than I do."

"Not just with spywork. Her teaching style is different too," Scott agreed. He leaned back. "The kids know you and Logan can do whatever we put in front of you, but I want them to have a healthy respect for more than just the two of you," he said with almost a teasing smirk.

"Well, when that happens, let me know," K replied.

Scott smirked as he got to his feet. "Thanks," he said, then paused. "I'm going to run this by Captain Rogers and Peter Parker as well, in case they know about these guys. No reason to send the kids into something worse than we think it is if we can help it. I'll let you know when I've got the spywork program up and running, and then we'll see if we can stop this from getting bad before it gets off the ground."