The sun rose over the Xavier Institute the next morning. Inside, two of its
residents woke up feeling much more optimistic than they had the previous
night. One, because he had gotten something off his chest that had been
bugging him since time out of mind; the second, because he was getting
ready to do the same thing, and in doing so, open himself up to the world.
Glen walked the halls of Bayville High on a direct course for his friend Sam's locker. He arrived just as Sam was pulling out the last of his books for his next class.
Sam closed his locker and turned to see Glen looking at him. "Hi!" Glen said, a seductive tone in his voice.
"Hi," Sam said back nervously. He had asked Glen the last time he saw him if they could be more public with their relationship, but had felt like he had pushed Glen too hard on the issue. Now as he saw Glen staring into his eyes, he had a feeling he was going to get his answer.
"I never got to answer you the other night," Glen said calmly, moving very close to Sam.
"Look, Glen, I'm sorry I asked you to do this. I didn't want to push you into something you didn't think you were ready for," Sam said, turning his eyes down to the floor.
Glen placed his hand on Sam's cheek and guided his eyes back up until they were looking straight into his own. "Sam, I AM ready," he said. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle everything that would come from this, but I won't have to worry about that, because I know there will be people to support us no matter what. I love you, Sam. And if the rest of the world can't appreciate that, then that's too bad for them!"
Glen saw Sam's eyes light up. "Thank you!" Sam said, and kissed Glen on the cheek.
"Hey, there'll be time for that later. Right now, we need to get to class!" Glen said. "Walk together?" he asked, clasping Sam's hand in his own.
"I can't think of anybody I'd rather go with," said Sam, and they walked off to class hand in hand.
In the control room of his complex, Magneto had watched the exchange between Glen and Sam, courtesy of the ocular implant he had installed in the human boy the previous night. So far, all of the readings that had been coming back were within tolerable limits, meaning that the implants and chemical treatments Magneto had administered were functioning as expected, and that Magneto could take further control at any time. For now, he was content to simply observe what the boy saw. Magneto had curled his lip when Sam had kissed Glen, clearly disgusted at such behavior. For the moment, he repressed his own personal beliefs, reminding himself that, gay or not, Glen Hilliard was critical to the success of his plans. There would be plenty of time to exterminate him later, after he had accomplished his task.
As Glen and Sam walked the halls, they couldn't help notice all the stares they got. Many were of the "Did I just see what I THOUGHT I saw?" variety. They saw several girls smiling at them, and Glen could have sworn he had caught one boy also grinning at him. "Maybe I just made a difference in that boy's life," Glen thought to himself. "Maybe he's gay too, and I just gave him the comfort of knowing that he's not the only one here," That bit of positive thinking was blotted out as Glen heard a muscular voice from in front of him, "What the heck do you think you're doing?"
Glen looked to see a boy in a red Bayville varsity jacket staring incredulously at them. Glen recognized him as Jean's boyfriend, Duncan something or other. "Exactly what it looks like we're doing. What's it to you?" he said nonchalantly.
"Gah, that is so disgusting!" said Duncan. "How can you even walk around in public like that?"
"What's so disgusting about it? How is this any different from anything you and Jean do?"
Duncan's mouth went agape. He could not believe what he was hearing. How could this boy even BEGIN to compare his sick relationship to what he and Jean had together? Before he could answer, he heard a very familiar voice from behind him and turned to see Jean.
"Go on, Duncan, answer him," she said, a knowing grin on her face. "How ARE they any different from us?"
Duncan was flabbergasted. "Jean! How can you possibly think that."
Jean cut him off. "Listen, Duncan. I know you're used to thinking that you're superior to everybody, but you need to realize something. What Glen and Sam have with each other is JUST as real as what we have. It doesn't matter that they're both boys, they love each other, and that should be good enough for you,"
Duncan said nothing, but stalked off down the hall angrily. Jean watched him go, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, what do I see in that boy?" she asked herself, and then turned back to Glen. "Glen, that was absolutely wonderful!"
"Thanks Jean," Glen said. "And thanks for sticking up for us,"
"Don't mention it. But you'd better get going, or you're going to be late," she said, turning and walking away.
Glen and Sam turned back to head to class, but were again interrupted by a voice, this one belonging to Principal Kelly. "Boys, could you come into my office please? We need to have a talk,"
"Now Glen," Kelly said once they were all seated in the office. "I understand that you and Sam may have, feelings for each other," he said, hesitating on the word 'feelings' "But I simply cannot allow this sort of behavior to go on in my school,"
"Why not?" asked Glen. "There are countless straight couples that walk around together every day of the week, and you've never said anything about them,"
"Look boys, I'm trying to do this for your own safety. If your run-in with Duncan Mitchell didn't make it obvious, there are a lot of people in this school who wouldn't be comfortable with the idea of two gay boys walking around hand in hand,"
"Would that include you?" Sam asked defiantly.
Kelly said nothing and pretended to pore over some papers on his desk. "Thought so," Sam said.
"Hey, easy," Glen whispered to Sam.
"Son, my own personal feelings regarding your particular orientation are besides the point,"
"It's not an 'orientation'" said Glen, beginning to get a little frustrated himself. "It's the way we are!"
"Regardless, I have more than your own interests at stake here. This school receives a lot of public funding, and we don't exactly live in the most accepting community. If word got out that I let a gay couple flaunt their affections for each other under my roof, we could lose that funding, and I can't afford for that to happen. Now I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to keep your relationship to yourselves,"
"And I suppose you're just going to let all the straight couples in this school carry on as they have been?" Sam asked.
"Do you have any idea what sort of trouble would happen if I tried to curtail the relationships that normal students have with each other? If I tried to do away with their love lives just because they couldn't accept your own unnatural relationship, I'd have riots on my hands! " Kelly said, throwing up his hands.
"The hell with that! That's discrimination, plain and simple!" Glen shouted, leaping out of his chair.
"Glen, that's enough!" Kelly shouted back, forcefully slamming his hand down on the desk. "Now I'm sorry boys, but as far as this issue is concerned, you're on your own here. That's just the way the world is today,"
Glen narrowed his eyes at Kelly. "Then the world is wrong, Principal Kelly," he said softly. "I'm just sorry that you can't see that. Come on, Sam, let's go to class,"
"'Unnatural'," growled Sam once they got were back in the halls. "Who does he think he is, anyways?"
"A man who's frightened by what he doesn't understand," said Glen. "Just like a lot of people in this world are. But once we help him understand who we are, he and all of them will realize that there's no reason to be afraid of us,"
"Do you think he meant what he said about us being alone?" Sam asked uncertainly.
"As long as we have each other, we'll never be alone," Glen said. "Now come on, we have a world to change," With that, they clasped hands again and walked to their class.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. They continued to walk the halls hand in hand, separating only when they passed Kelly's office. He heard numerous students commenting about them to each other. Glen caught a few bits of religious nonsense and hate-filled diatribe being bandied about, but nobody was overtly aggressive to him. As he unpacked his locker at the end of the day, he saw two girls walk up to him. One of them said, "Hi Glen. We just wanted to say that we heard about what all's going on, and we're so proud of what you're doing. Please, don't stop,"
"Thanks. Glad to see there's at least a couple open-minded people in this school," Glen said as they walked off. He picked up his backpack and headed out the door. Sam met him as he was heading outside. "How was the rest of your day?" Glen asked. "Just great," Sam replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I've already had 4 people threaten to beat me up. But at least I didn't have any problems getting into my locker today," he said, chuckling.
"Glad you're still looking on the bright side of things," Glen smiled.
As they walked across the courtyard, Glen saw 3 boys walking up to him, led by Duncan. "Oh great, the love police are in town," Glen muttered under his breath.
"Hey, look at the lovers!" one of the boys called out as they got closer. Duncan stopped just inches away from Glen's face and looked down at him. "Listen kid, I don't appreciate what you're doing. Nobody shows me up in front of my girlfriend!"
"Hey, I wasn't the one being an ignorant asshole," Glen said. "You know, it's not good for a relationship when you go spouting bigoted, homophobic statements in front of your partner,"
Duncan grabbed Glen by his shirt. "Knock off that 'partner' crap!" he shouted, the smell of mouthwash heavy on his breath. "It's boyfriend and girlfriend, and that's the only right way for things to be! But I guess you didn't figure that out earlier from what Kelly laid down for you, so let give you a little reinforcement!" With that, he shoved Glen down to the ground, hard.
Glen slowly got up. He would have preferred not to fight, but there appeared to be no alternative. "Remember," he told himself. "NO powers," He dusted himself off and looked at Duncan. "Looks like it's my lucky day. Ok, Duncan, this part might hurt a little, but you'll thank me once I knock the ignorance out of your head," With that, he swung, splitting Duncan' lip.
He had little time to recover before Duncan's friends sprang into action. One came at Glen swinging. Glen dodged the blows; even without his powers, his reflexes were still razor sharp. He dodged a punch, then grabbed the boy by his jacket and hip-tossed him to the ground. The third boy, however, went after Sam, and wrapped him up in a bear hug before Sam could make any move to flee.
Sam struggled to break free of the hold, but couldn't budge. "Glen, help!" he cried out.
Glen heard Sam's call for help and ran over. He quickly sized up the boy holding Sam, then aimed a kick directly at the boy's back, with the desired effect; the boy collapsed and let Sam go. Before Glen could do anything further, Duncan, who had recovered from Glen's initial blow, struck him from behind.
Glen felt himself being seized from behind and spun around to face Duncan. Duncan grinned, a drop of blood hanging from his lip. "Now you're gonna get what's coming to you!" he said, and punched Glen in the face. Sam ran up and tried to grab Duncan's wrist, but Duncan shoved the boy down and raised his fist to strike Glen again. Before he could strike, he felt somebody grab his arm. He turned around and found himself staring into the red sunglasses of Scott Summers, with Jean by his side. Scott glared at him from behind his shades and clamped down on his wrist like a vise.
"Duncan, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Jean shouted at him furiously.
"Jean, listen, I can explain. I, AAH!" he shouted as Scott squeezed his wrist harder. "Explain what?" Scott asked him. "That you're trying to hurt our friends?"
"Jean, please!" Duncan shouted hysterically. "Listen to me. What they're doing, it's wrong! I was doing this for you!"
"For me?" Jean asked incredulously. "What, do you think that what they have is taking away from our relationship?"
"Yes!" Duncan said, thinking that she got it.
Jean walked up to Duncan and got right up in his face. "If that's what you think, then what we had didn't mean a thing to begin with. We're through!"
Scott released his hold on Duncan's wrist. "I think you'd better get going, Duncan. I'm not quite as forgiving as she is, and I don't think Glen's too willing to let bygones be bygones either," he said, nodding at Glen, who had gotten back up.
Glen simply looked at Duncan. "Listen Duncan, I don't care what you think about us. But don't think that you can go around trying to ignore what we have with each other. I'm here, I'm queer, so get used to it,"
Duncan didn't say anything, but just looked at Glen like he had suddenly turned purple. "You're crazy! You're all plain nuts!" he said finally, and ran off, his friends following close behind.
Scott and Glen watched them run off. "Thanks Scott," Glen said.
"Don't mention it. We stick together, always. But next time, try and pick your fights a little more carefully. We might not always be able to back you up,"
"Gotcha," said Glen. "I just hope he got the message,"
Sam listened to Glen and Scott talk. Suddenly, he felt a surge of pain race up and down his spine. He had no conscious way of knowing that Magneto had just activated the implant in his brain, and could now directly send commands to Sam's body. He convulsed in agony, and then all of a sudden it was past. His brief spasm went unseen by the other three. Sam felt like something was sitting on his brain, but he couldn't say or do anything about it. He felt completely helpless as he felt himself walk up to Glen and take his hand. He was surprised to hear himself asking Glen why he didn't use his powers to handle the bullies.
Glen looked at Sam. "I could have, but it was better not to. They already have enough of a problem with us being gay. They don't need to find out I'm a mutant too," he said.
"You said that you had been doing a bunch of training. Do you think I could see what all you do sometime?" Sam heard himself ask. "And maybe I could get in a session myself. What happens if I get jumped when I'm all by myself?"
Glen considered this. He and Sam couldn't be together every moment of every day. Sam had a good point; if he was attacked when he was by himself, he would have a better chance in a fight if he knew how to defend himself. "What do you think, Scott?" he asked. "Think we could have a guest for training today?"
Scott paused while he thought about it. "We might be able to work that in. We wouldn't put him through an actual Danger Room session, but we might be able to give him a little self-defense training, basic stuff. Sound good, Sam?"
"Sure," Sam heard himself say. From his control room, Magneto deactivated his cerebral implant. He had what he needed for now; access to the Institute. Once the boy was in, he would need to wait until he was with as few people as possible before he activated the implant again. And he especially needed Jean Grey to be somewhere else. From Sam's viewpoint, Magneto had seen her face, and judging by her expression, she was at least partly aware of the mental link between himself and the boy. If she detected it, his plans would be severely compromised.
As the implant deactivated, Sam felt the pressure on his brain vanish, and with it went all memory of its presence. For a second, Sam thought that there had been something else in his mind, telling him what words to speak, but he shook it off quickly. As far as he knew, he had been in full control of himself during the last few minutes. He saw Jean looking at him a bit odd. "What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said. "I thought I could sense something from you, just for a moment, something that was coming from outside, but then it vanished,"
"Do you think I might have mutant powers too?" Sam asked, half-jokingly but not completely unhopeful.
"No, Sam, as far as I can tell you aren't a mutant," Jean said with a wink.
"Aww," Sam said coyly. "Would have been nice."
"Hey, don't kid yourself," she said. "They're not all they're cracked up to be at times," She looked at Scott. "Ready to head back home?" she asked.
"Sure," he said, and took her hand. Together, the two couples walked hand in hand to their cars, and from there drove back to the Institute for some special training sessions.
X
Glen walked the halls of Bayville High on a direct course for his friend Sam's locker. He arrived just as Sam was pulling out the last of his books for his next class.
Sam closed his locker and turned to see Glen looking at him. "Hi!" Glen said, a seductive tone in his voice.
"Hi," Sam said back nervously. He had asked Glen the last time he saw him if they could be more public with their relationship, but had felt like he had pushed Glen too hard on the issue. Now as he saw Glen staring into his eyes, he had a feeling he was going to get his answer.
"I never got to answer you the other night," Glen said calmly, moving very close to Sam.
"Look, Glen, I'm sorry I asked you to do this. I didn't want to push you into something you didn't think you were ready for," Sam said, turning his eyes down to the floor.
Glen placed his hand on Sam's cheek and guided his eyes back up until they were looking straight into his own. "Sam, I AM ready," he said. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle everything that would come from this, but I won't have to worry about that, because I know there will be people to support us no matter what. I love you, Sam. And if the rest of the world can't appreciate that, then that's too bad for them!"
Glen saw Sam's eyes light up. "Thank you!" Sam said, and kissed Glen on the cheek.
"Hey, there'll be time for that later. Right now, we need to get to class!" Glen said. "Walk together?" he asked, clasping Sam's hand in his own.
"I can't think of anybody I'd rather go with," said Sam, and they walked off to class hand in hand.
In the control room of his complex, Magneto had watched the exchange between Glen and Sam, courtesy of the ocular implant he had installed in the human boy the previous night. So far, all of the readings that had been coming back were within tolerable limits, meaning that the implants and chemical treatments Magneto had administered were functioning as expected, and that Magneto could take further control at any time. For now, he was content to simply observe what the boy saw. Magneto had curled his lip when Sam had kissed Glen, clearly disgusted at such behavior. For the moment, he repressed his own personal beliefs, reminding himself that, gay or not, Glen Hilliard was critical to the success of his plans. There would be plenty of time to exterminate him later, after he had accomplished his task.
As Glen and Sam walked the halls, they couldn't help notice all the stares they got. Many were of the "Did I just see what I THOUGHT I saw?" variety. They saw several girls smiling at them, and Glen could have sworn he had caught one boy also grinning at him. "Maybe I just made a difference in that boy's life," Glen thought to himself. "Maybe he's gay too, and I just gave him the comfort of knowing that he's not the only one here," That bit of positive thinking was blotted out as Glen heard a muscular voice from in front of him, "What the heck do you think you're doing?"
Glen looked to see a boy in a red Bayville varsity jacket staring incredulously at them. Glen recognized him as Jean's boyfriend, Duncan something or other. "Exactly what it looks like we're doing. What's it to you?" he said nonchalantly.
"Gah, that is so disgusting!" said Duncan. "How can you even walk around in public like that?"
"What's so disgusting about it? How is this any different from anything you and Jean do?"
Duncan's mouth went agape. He could not believe what he was hearing. How could this boy even BEGIN to compare his sick relationship to what he and Jean had together? Before he could answer, he heard a very familiar voice from behind him and turned to see Jean.
"Go on, Duncan, answer him," she said, a knowing grin on her face. "How ARE they any different from us?"
Duncan was flabbergasted. "Jean! How can you possibly think that."
Jean cut him off. "Listen, Duncan. I know you're used to thinking that you're superior to everybody, but you need to realize something. What Glen and Sam have with each other is JUST as real as what we have. It doesn't matter that they're both boys, they love each other, and that should be good enough for you,"
Duncan said nothing, but stalked off down the hall angrily. Jean watched him go, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, what do I see in that boy?" she asked herself, and then turned back to Glen. "Glen, that was absolutely wonderful!"
"Thanks Jean," Glen said. "And thanks for sticking up for us,"
"Don't mention it. But you'd better get going, or you're going to be late," she said, turning and walking away.
Glen and Sam turned back to head to class, but were again interrupted by a voice, this one belonging to Principal Kelly. "Boys, could you come into my office please? We need to have a talk,"
"Now Glen," Kelly said once they were all seated in the office. "I understand that you and Sam may have, feelings for each other," he said, hesitating on the word 'feelings' "But I simply cannot allow this sort of behavior to go on in my school,"
"Why not?" asked Glen. "There are countless straight couples that walk around together every day of the week, and you've never said anything about them,"
"Look boys, I'm trying to do this for your own safety. If your run-in with Duncan Mitchell didn't make it obvious, there are a lot of people in this school who wouldn't be comfortable with the idea of two gay boys walking around hand in hand,"
"Would that include you?" Sam asked defiantly.
Kelly said nothing and pretended to pore over some papers on his desk. "Thought so," Sam said.
"Hey, easy," Glen whispered to Sam.
"Son, my own personal feelings regarding your particular orientation are besides the point,"
"It's not an 'orientation'" said Glen, beginning to get a little frustrated himself. "It's the way we are!"
"Regardless, I have more than your own interests at stake here. This school receives a lot of public funding, and we don't exactly live in the most accepting community. If word got out that I let a gay couple flaunt their affections for each other under my roof, we could lose that funding, and I can't afford for that to happen. Now I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to keep your relationship to yourselves,"
"And I suppose you're just going to let all the straight couples in this school carry on as they have been?" Sam asked.
"Do you have any idea what sort of trouble would happen if I tried to curtail the relationships that normal students have with each other? If I tried to do away with their love lives just because they couldn't accept your own unnatural relationship, I'd have riots on my hands! " Kelly said, throwing up his hands.
"The hell with that! That's discrimination, plain and simple!" Glen shouted, leaping out of his chair.
"Glen, that's enough!" Kelly shouted back, forcefully slamming his hand down on the desk. "Now I'm sorry boys, but as far as this issue is concerned, you're on your own here. That's just the way the world is today,"
Glen narrowed his eyes at Kelly. "Then the world is wrong, Principal Kelly," he said softly. "I'm just sorry that you can't see that. Come on, Sam, let's go to class,"
"'Unnatural'," growled Sam once they got were back in the halls. "Who does he think he is, anyways?"
"A man who's frightened by what he doesn't understand," said Glen. "Just like a lot of people in this world are. But once we help him understand who we are, he and all of them will realize that there's no reason to be afraid of us,"
"Do you think he meant what he said about us being alone?" Sam asked uncertainly.
"As long as we have each other, we'll never be alone," Glen said. "Now come on, we have a world to change," With that, they clasped hands again and walked to their class.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. They continued to walk the halls hand in hand, separating only when they passed Kelly's office. He heard numerous students commenting about them to each other. Glen caught a few bits of religious nonsense and hate-filled diatribe being bandied about, but nobody was overtly aggressive to him. As he unpacked his locker at the end of the day, he saw two girls walk up to him. One of them said, "Hi Glen. We just wanted to say that we heard about what all's going on, and we're so proud of what you're doing. Please, don't stop,"
"Thanks. Glad to see there's at least a couple open-minded people in this school," Glen said as they walked off. He picked up his backpack and headed out the door. Sam met him as he was heading outside. "How was the rest of your day?" Glen asked. "Just great," Sam replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I've already had 4 people threaten to beat me up. But at least I didn't have any problems getting into my locker today," he said, chuckling.
"Glad you're still looking on the bright side of things," Glen smiled.
As they walked across the courtyard, Glen saw 3 boys walking up to him, led by Duncan. "Oh great, the love police are in town," Glen muttered under his breath.
"Hey, look at the lovers!" one of the boys called out as they got closer. Duncan stopped just inches away from Glen's face and looked down at him. "Listen kid, I don't appreciate what you're doing. Nobody shows me up in front of my girlfriend!"
"Hey, I wasn't the one being an ignorant asshole," Glen said. "You know, it's not good for a relationship when you go spouting bigoted, homophobic statements in front of your partner,"
Duncan grabbed Glen by his shirt. "Knock off that 'partner' crap!" he shouted, the smell of mouthwash heavy on his breath. "It's boyfriend and girlfriend, and that's the only right way for things to be! But I guess you didn't figure that out earlier from what Kelly laid down for you, so let give you a little reinforcement!" With that, he shoved Glen down to the ground, hard.
Glen slowly got up. He would have preferred not to fight, but there appeared to be no alternative. "Remember," he told himself. "NO powers," He dusted himself off and looked at Duncan. "Looks like it's my lucky day. Ok, Duncan, this part might hurt a little, but you'll thank me once I knock the ignorance out of your head," With that, he swung, splitting Duncan' lip.
He had little time to recover before Duncan's friends sprang into action. One came at Glen swinging. Glen dodged the blows; even without his powers, his reflexes were still razor sharp. He dodged a punch, then grabbed the boy by his jacket and hip-tossed him to the ground. The third boy, however, went after Sam, and wrapped him up in a bear hug before Sam could make any move to flee.
Sam struggled to break free of the hold, but couldn't budge. "Glen, help!" he cried out.
Glen heard Sam's call for help and ran over. He quickly sized up the boy holding Sam, then aimed a kick directly at the boy's back, with the desired effect; the boy collapsed and let Sam go. Before Glen could do anything further, Duncan, who had recovered from Glen's initial blow, struck him from behind.
Glen felt himself being seized from behind and spun around to face Duncan. Duncan grinned, a drop of blood hanging from his lip. "Now you're gonna get what's coming to you!" he said, and punched Glen in the face. Sam ran up and tried to grab Duncan's wrist, but Duncan shoved the boy down and raised his fist to strike Glen again. Before he could strike, he felt somebody grab his arm. He turned around and found himself staring into the red sunglasses of Scott Summers, with Jean by his side. Scott glared at him from behind his shades and clamped down on his wrist like a vise.
"Duncan, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Jean shouted at him furiously.
"Jean, listen, I can explain. I, AAH!" he shouted as Scott squeezed his wrist harder. "Explain what?" Scott asked him. "That you're trying to hurt our friends?"
"Jean, please!" Duncan shouted hysterically. "Listen to me. What they're doing, it's wrong! I was doing this for you!"
"For me?" Jean asked incredulously. "What, do you think that what they have is taking away from our relationship?"
"Yes!" Duncan said, thinking that she got it.
Jean walked up to Duncan and got right up in his face. "If that's what you think, then what we had didn't mean a thing to begin with. We're through!"
Scott released his hold on Duncan's wrist. "I think you'd better get going, Duncan. I'm not quite as forgiving as she is, and I don't think Glen's too willing to let bygones be bygones either," he said, nodding at Glen, who had gotten back up.
Glen simply looked at Duncan. "Listen Duncan, I don't care what you think about us. But don't think that you can go around trying to ignore what we have with each other. I'm here, I'm queer, so get used to it,"
Duncan didn't say anything, but just looked at Glen like he had suddenly turned purple. "You're crazy! You're all plain nuts!" he said finally, and ran off, his friends following close behind.
Scott and Glen watched them run off. "Thanks Scott," Glen said.
"Don't mention it. We stick together, always. But next time, try and pick your fights a little more carefully. We might not always be able to back you up,"
"Gotcha," said Glen. "I just hope he got the message,"
Sam listened to Glen and Scott talk. Suddenly, he felt a surge of pain race up and down his spine. He had no conscious way of knowing that Magneto had just activated the implant in his brain, and could now directly send commands to Sam's body. He convulsed in agony, and then all of a sudden it was past. His brief spasm went unseen by the other three. Sam felt like something was sitting on his brain, but he couldn't say or do anything about it. He felt completely helpless as he felt himself walk up to Glen and take his hand. He was surprised to hear himself asking Glen why he didn't use his powers to handle the bullies.
Glen looked at Sam. "I could have, but it was better not to. They already have enough of a problem with us being gay. They don't need to find out I'm a mutant too," he said.
"You said that you had been doing a bunch of training. Do you think I could see what all you do sometime?" Sam heard himself ask. "And maybe I could get in a session myself. What happens if I get jumped when I'm all by myself?"
Glen considered this. He and Sam couldn't be together every moment of every day. Sam had a good point; if he was attacked when he was by himself, he would have a better chance in a fight if he knew how to defend himself. "What do you think, Scott?" he asked. "Think we could have a guest for training today?"
Scott paused while he thought about it. "We might be able to work that in. We wouldn't put him through an actual Danger Room session, but we might be able to give him a little self-defense training, basic stuff. Sound good, Sam?"
"Sure," Sam heard himself say. From his control room, Magneto deactivated his cerebral implant. He had what he needed for now; access to the Institute. Once the boy was in, he would need to wait until he was with as few people as possible before he activated the implant again. And he especially needed Jean Grey to be somewhere else. From Sam's viewpoint, Magneto had seen her face, and judging by her expression, she was at least partly aware of the mental link between himself and the boy. If she detected it, his plans would be severely compromised.
As the implant deactivated, Sam felt the pressure on his brain vanish, and with it went all memory of its presence. For a second, Sam thought that there had been something else in his mind, telling him what words to speak, but he shook it off quickly. As far as he knew, he had been in full control of himself during the last few minutes. He saw Jean looking at him a bit odd. "What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said. "I thought I could sense something from you, just for a moment, something that was coming from outside, but then it vanished,"
"Do you think I might have mutant powers too?" Sam asked, half-jokingly but not completely unhopeful.
"No, Sam, as far as I can tell you aren't a mutant," Jean said with a wink.
"Aww," Sam said coyly. "Would have been nice."
"Hey, don't kid yourself," she said. "They're not all they're cracked up to be at times," She looked at Scott. "Ready to head back home?" she asked.
"Sure," he said, and took her hand. Together, the two couples walked hand in hand to their cars, and from there drove back to the Institute for some special training sessions.
X