Ch 9

The others had been watching the fight from the doorway. When Scott saw Seth begin to charge at Glen, he raised his hand to his glasses, ready to send out an optic blast. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He saw Jean, shaking her head. "Scott, I think Glen can handle this," said Xavier. Scott looked back into the house, and saw Glen freeze Seth in place. His hand went back down to his side, at ease.
Glen called out to the porch, "Professor, you can come in now!"

He turned back to his mother. "Mom, it's ok. Really,"

At that point, Xavier and the others entered the room. "Allow me to explain, Mrs. Hilliard. I am Charles Xavier,"

"Yes, I've heard a little about your Institute. For gifted students," said Helen.

"Well, Mrs. Hilliard, my Institute isn't exactly a school. It's a home for people who have very unique talents, people like your son Glen. You see, Glen is a mutant," Xavier said.

Helen looked over at Seth, still frozen. "Is he. did you?"

"No mom, he's not dead. He's just frozen, stuck in time,"

"He'll recover, shortly," said Xavier.

"Maybe, but he won't recover from what I'm going to do to him," said Helen.
At that moment, Sam and the others ran in. "Glen, is everything all right?" Sam asked him.

"Yes, Sam. I think everything will be fine," Glen said. The two hugged.

"Glen, who's your friend?" asked Helen.

"His name's Sam, Mom," said Glen. Sam smiled. "Hi!" he said.

"Mom, the Professor has this place, the Institute, where he teaches people to control their powers. I think he wants me to go live there for a while,"

"You would certainly be able to visit him whenever you wanted too," said Xavier.

"Well, I must admit that this doesn't come as that much of a surprise to me. I've known that Glen was different since he was young. I imagine he could suddenly sprout a pair of wings and I wouldn't blink an eye,"

They all laughed at this, but they heard a roar cut above the laughter. Glen's power had worn off, and Seth resumed his charge. "Look out!" cried Sam.
Seth bore down on Glen, but before he could strike, a crimson bolt of energy flashed across the room and struck him squarely in the back, knocking him to the floor. On the other side of the room, Scott calmly replaced his glasses.
Helen knelt down in front of Seth. "Now you listen to me, you monster! Get out of my house now, before I call the police and have you arrested!" Seth looked up and glared at her. For a moment, Glen thought he was going to try something, to inflict one last measure of cruelty. Instead, Seth stood up, cast a scowl at everybody in the room, and slunk out the door. "Buncha goddamn freaks," he grumbled under his breath.
Scott watched him go out the door. When he heard what Seth said, he took aim and gave him another blast, square in the butt. Seth leaped 5 feet in the air and took off running down the street.

"Sorry," Scott said. "My glasses must have slipped," Once again the house was filled with laughter.