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Moira stopped her lecture and stepped back to look over her patient with a stern, evaluating glance. "I do'na talk to hear myself," she said. This is your life we're discussing, if ye do'na care, I do'na want to waste my time."
Lance sighed, sat up straighter and gave the doctor his I-really-am-paying-attention look, developed for getting through Mystiques tirades in one piece.
"Ye were lucky, ye didna do any harm with yer stunt," Moira continued picking up the lecture where she'd left off. "But just because ye're up and around doesna mean yer healthy! I cut a hole in yer skull, lad. If that isna enough to convince ye to take it easy, yer body was doing its best to cope with the build up of pressure, yer blood pressure was nie off the charts trying to force enough oxygen through constricted blood vessel just to give ye one example and even though I put things to right, the change is still a shock to yer system, yer heart rate hasn't settled back to the baseline yet, simply because it hasn't quite realized it doesna have to work so hard anymore. Until ye've had time to readjust the danger of damaging yerself with yer powers is increased more than 150%."
"Then why'd you do it?" Lance asked.
"Ye're friends seemed rather eager to have ye wake up," Moira said dryly. "It didna occur to me that ye might prefer vegetating for the rest of yer life."
"Oh," Lance said. "I… um… Yeah. I thought it would kill me outright when it happened."
Moira made an effort to catch Lance's eyes. "Ye can beat this," she said firmly. "Now isna the time to be giving up."
"Yeah…" Lance replied with a forced smile.
Moira sighed, "Yer done here, go and get some breakfast. Remember, no salt and no caffeine."
Xavier intercepted Lance at the kitchen door. "Avalanche, I feel we need to discuss certain…"
"Look, I just said that stuff so you'd get mad and get lost," Lance interrupted. "It's not a big deal."
"Nevertheless, I am concerned. At some level you obviously believe my recruitment of the X-Men was prejudicial. I don't believe you'll feel at home here unless I explain myself. I don't believe in forcing people down a path they aren't ready to take. I believe that leading by example is most effective. I thought that once you'd seen the difference between Magneto and my X-Men you'd…"
"Alright already, I've got a bad attitude," Lance sighed. "You want mutants to choose to come to you, to believe in what you're doing. Mystique has no problem grabbing people who don't have any choices. She didn't have any problem dumping us either. So we take care of ourselves, we're getting better at it all the time. Maybe someday it'll be a choice not just what we're stuck with. Look do we have to talk about this junk? I'm not supposed to loose my temper."
"Alright Lance," Xavier said. "I'm sorry you feel like that and I apologize for how you were treated when you came here before. I think you'll see that we do learn from our mistake, but I'll let our actions speak for themselves rather than attempting to debate the matter with you."
****** ****** ******
Lance sat on the Institute's front steps watching the assorted X-Men, Brotherhood members and New Mutants trudging back from school that afternoon.
"Everything good yo?" Todd asked as he and Fred joined Lance.
The dark haired teen shrugged carelessly. "I get out of school for a couple of months."
"Kelly won't let Xavier make excuses for us," Freddy said.
Lance made a face, "He called the state today, told 'em Mystique ditched us and got us transferred here formally. I still think you could probably go home if you wanted. They wouldn't stop you, it's against Xavier's principals or something."
"Naw, they'd have too good a shot at corrupting you if we left you here by yourself," Todd said.
"Oh while I'm thinking about it," Lance said digging the keys to his jeep out of his pocket. He tossed them to Fred. "The jeep's at the diner, someone might as well be driving it."
Fred stared at the keys, a frown on his face. "Lance you don't let anybody drive your jeep… except Tabby, but since she doesn't ask that's not so much letting…"
Lance scowled. "I'm not going to school or anywhere, you guys hate the bus, Freddy you have a license, just take the damn keys!"
"Sure Lance, if that's what you want," Fred said, sounded confused and uncertain.
****** ****** ******
Scott grimaced watching the red convertible fishtail as the driver took the corner into the Mansion's drive at a speed several times faster than recommended. He imagined the driver had lost control as the car went into a spin ending up off the drive and behind a row of hedges.
Several minutes later three police cars roared past the Institute, lights flashing and sirens blaring.
Rogue swung her legs over the side of the car, for a moment she perched on the door, head thrown back, laughing at their narrow escape. Pietro dashed around the car. Grabbing her by the waist he spun the laughing girl around in an impromptu waltz before letting her slip to the ground so they could share a kiss.
"Logan," Professor Xavier said watching the scene from his office. "I picked up a mutant signature in Louisiana."
"I'll check it out," the other man promised.
"Please take Rogue with you," Xavier instructed. "I can barely recognize her mind, I'd like an evaluation of her behavior away from Pietro."
****** ****** ******
Lance sighed as he left the med lab and found the rest of the Brotherhood waiting in the hall outside. "I'm fine," he said. "Healing just like expected and it's still going to be months before I'm any good to anybody. You guys don't have to stay here."
"Yo, first he runs off the first moment he can walk…" Todd started.
"Then he tries to send us away…" Pietro continued.
"A guy might think you're trying to get rid of us," Freddy finished.
"Come on guys," Lance said. "It's not fair for Xavier to use my being sick to enforce all these rules on you."
"The food's good," Fred said with a shrug.
"Putting up with their training garbage…"
"Haven't-you-heard-what-I-did-to-Daniels?" Pietro laughed. "Then I got to listen to Summers ream him for it… Plus Rogue, I'm-sure-you-understand-that… Except Kitty was complaining about you avoiding her."
"Todd?" Lance asked.
"Not going anywhere," Todd replied. "We stick together."
Lance's gaze skitted away from his friends' eyes. "Look, it's not like I'll be gone forever," he said. "After a few weeks I won't have to do these check ups. Then it's just going to be waiting, for months, practically forever. I'll move back in with you guys, everything'll be back to normal."
" 'Cept you have to not use your powers." Fred pointed out.
Lance grimaced. "It doesn't mean we have to stay here."
"No," Pietro said. "You-use-your-powers-without-thinking-when-you-loose-your-temper. You-loose-your-temper-more-when-you're-stressing. You-get-stressed-over-billswaterfoodpower, basically-everything-you-took-care-of-after-Mystique-ditched-us."
"Then you guys deal with that crap!"
"Lance give it up already, you're staying, we're staying," Todd sighed.
****** ****** ******
Four minutes after the X-Van left the mansion Rogue was out of her seat, flitting from window to window. "So what are we doing? Why am Ah going? Why didn't we take anyone else? How long's the drive? How long will we be gone?"
"First sit down and get your seatbelt back on," Wolverine growled. "You don't have a healing factor, plus the police are out in force, probably looking for you and your boyfriend. Who do you two think you are; Bonny and Clyde?"
"We took the plates off the car before they really started chasing us," Rogue replied unconcerned. "So how long is this going to take?"
"Sit!" Wolverine ordered.
Grumbling Rogue climbed back into the front seat, belted herself in and started fidgeting.
"Charles found a new mutant signature, says he doesn't know how he overlooked it for this long. Our boy's home base is Louisiana, a little town just east of New Orleans, but he's been active throughout the Gulf States. Where things get interesting is Charles correlated his movements to a string of robberies, and we ain't talking chump change here, this guy's a pro."
"So are we supposed to arrest him or recruit him?" Rogue asked as she fussed with the air-vents on her side of the van.
"Depends on what we find," Wolverine said. "The Prof said find out what he can do, if he's been trained with his powers and who he's working for. After that we're to act on our own discretion."
****** ****** ******
Lance glared across the kitchen at Moira MacTaggart. "Coffee isna good for ye," she said serenely.
A poof of sulfur smoke filled the center of the room as Nightcrawler and Toad appeared, hands raised in a high five. Lance blinked at them wondering if caffeine withdrawal was making him see things.
"We rule!" Toad declared.
"Top scoring team in the Danger room," Nightcrawler announced.
"And first to breakfast!" Toad added.
A little bit later Kitty wandered in, Cyclops trailing after her. "Next time if you…" he was saying. Kitty phased her hand through the cupboard door and pulled out a coffee mug.
Next Fred and Jean arrived. "Don't worry, you'll do better next time," Jean said. Fred rolled his eyes, making a face at the redhead's back then trading a sympathetic look with Kitty who was still being lectured at by her partner for the morning's exercise.
The sound of bickering proceeded Evan and Pietro's arrival. Mr. McCoy marched the pair into the kitchen holding them apart by the scruffs of their necks. With a long-suffering sigh he plopped them down in a pair of chairs then stood over them hands on his hips glaring down at them. "The entire raison d'etre of the exercise was teamwork," he said. "I wonder if it would prove more effective to assign you two a paper on the concept or simply handcuff you together until you figure it out for yourselves! Or until you kill one another, which at least would take you off my hands."
Arms crossed over their chests the two boys pointedly turned their backs on each other.
"Hey Lance," Kitty greeted him claiming a chair beside the dark haired teen. "Jean, pass the fruit," she called.
With a wave of her hand the telekinetic sent the bowl of fruit floating across the room. Todd used his tongue to snag an apple as it passed by.
"Gross!" Kitty exclaimed.
"Hey, if you don't like it, more for me," Todd replied.
"I can manage," Kitty said phasing her hand through the bottom of the bowl to avoid the fruit that could possibility been contaminated by Todd's tongue.
"You drink out of the milk carton," Kurt said, defending his partner for the morning.
"I do not!" Kitty protested.
"Shadowkat, we still need to review…"
"Later Scott," Kitty interrupted.
Todd hopped up on the counter. "Yo Lance, you should have seen it, me and the 'crawler blew all these losers away!"
"We'll see who's bragging tomorrow," Fred said good-naturedly.
Pietro and Evan exchanged a glare in preparation for another bout of 'who screwed up' when the new mutants thundered through the room.
Lance watched them casually employing their powers to secure their share of breakfast for a few moments then stood up and left.
"Lance?" Kitty called following him.
"It's too loud in there," he said. "I was getting a headache. 'Sides I'm still sort of tired."
"Okay… well… um… I'll see you after school, I guess," Kitty said.
"Sure," Lance replied walking away from her.
****** ****** ******
A shadow passed over the dark clad young man as he studied his latest target through binoculars. "I tol' yo', don' bother me while 'M workin'," he said without glancing up.
"I would see one of your talents put to better use than this petty larceny," the silver haired man declared.
"Dis bit of 'petty larceny' goin' to make me several grand," the younger man commented setting aside the binoculars. "Yo' know what dey say 'bout birds in bushes. Mais, yo' got a couple hours I'll be at de café on 5th and Cyprus 'round 'bout dinner."
"Five o' clock, don't be late. You are already trying my patience Cajun."
"Don' take it personal," the thief replied, red-on-black eyes gleaming with amusement. " 'Ccording to m' Tante, I was put on dis Earth to be a trial to older folk."
"Five o' clock," Magneto repeated with a stern glare then flew off.
****** ****** ******
"I'm here, what's going on?" Jean asked joining the other X-Men, Pietro, Todd and Fred at a table outside of the school for lunch.
"I'm worried about Lance," Kitty said. "He's acting weird. He avoids everyone, even me and the guys." She gestured to the Brotherhood boys.
"He sort of gave me the jeep," Fred said adding his worries to Kitty's list.
"He-always-says-he's-tired," Pietro chimed in. "I-asked-Dr.-MacTaggart-she-says-Lance-should-be-fine. No-symptoms-as-long-as-he-doesn't-use-powers."
"Maybe he's depressed," Todd suggested. "Being sick, being cooped up at the Mansion all the time."
"Nobody in their right mind is going to let him come back to school," Scott said. "He'll never mange to stay calm around Matthews and Kelly. We all know to be careful of him, but we can't explain what's wrong to them."
"Are we careful?" Jean commented. "Everyone's always totally casual about using our powers at home and Lance can't."
"Wow-that-actually-makes-sense." Pietro said. "Are you reading someone's mind or did you just get lucky?"
"Are you genetically incapable of being polite?" Jean shot back.
"But what are we supposed to do about Lance?" Fred exclaimed trying to steer the conversation back on course.
A heavy silence fell over the table.
****** ****** ******
"Why does this have to take so long?" Rogue exclaimed.
"Darlin' they just now sat us down," Logan said frowning. "We've been on the road for a couple of days, you still channeling the speed demon?"
"No," Rogue sighed. "Pietro's powers wore off the first night. Everything takes too long! Yah got any idea how long it took me to do mah hair this morning?"
"The boy's powers might be gone, but you're talking like ya still got a good dose of his personality."
"Maybe Ah like living in double time," Rogue argued.
"Ya act like a chain smoker on a no smoking flight," Logan criticized. "Do you like needing his powers to feel happy? Depending on him?"
"Ain't that how a relationship's supposed to be?" Rogue shot back. "Having someone ya can count on?"
"Rogue, that ain't what's happening between the two of you and ya know it."
****** ****** ******
"Yo' said yo' had business," the young thief said stepping out of the shadows and taking a seat.
"Yes, I am Magneto, a mutant like yourself."
"Quoi? I be a demon."
"Humans call you 'Le Diable Blanc' this is true, they exile you for the color of your eyes…"
The thief held up a restraining hand. "Dese have nothin' to do wit' m' exile," he said gesturing to his eyes. "An' dis sounds like evangelizing not a job."
"Very well, the truth remains, you are Homo Sapiens Superior, an inheritor of this planet and no boogeyman from a child's fairy tale. What I have to offer you is survival. Unlike your brethren who can hide themselves among the unevolved masses you must confront their hatred and fear every time you meet their eyes. You know the day will come when that fear will drive them to try and destroy you. I bring you a warning: The day will come sooner than you think. And I offer the opportunity to band with others of your own kind to take pre-emptive action."
"Merci for de warning." Demonic eyes sparkled with private amusement. "Mais I ain't de joinin' kind, if dat be all…"
"No," Magneto said frowning distastefully. "Your skills are needed. I will pay you to break into Trask Industries and find me the schedule for their Sentinel project."
"Call me Gambit," the thief said settling back into his seat. "Mebbe we got somet'ing to discuss after all."
****** ****** ******
Kitty found Lance playing his guitar in a small room opposite Storm's loft. "Geeze what are you doing all the way up here," she said. "A person would think you were hiding."
"I am," Lance replied. "If anyone could entertain themselves, it should be Jamie, but he's ecstatic about having another person home schooling around here. As for keeping him distracted when theirs something he wants to do, forget it. I think I feel sorry for Mr. McCoy."
Kitty laughed at that. "We all do. The New Mutants just aren't scared of him the way we were scared of Mr. Logan, so more things tend to go wrong with his training sessions. Anyway, I was wondering, do you want to go out walking? I know a really great spot for sunsets."
"I um… I probably shouldn't," Lance stammered. "You know, still sick."
"I talked to Dr. MacTaggart, she said it would be okay," Kitty argued, mentally crossing her fingers and hoping Pietro was right about Lance's inability to say no to her.
"Well… um… I guess," Lance agreed.
"Great," Kitty said looping her arm through his.
****** ****** ******
"What have those monsters done to my house?" Mystique snarled. "Avalanche! Quicksilver! Blob! Toad! Get down here!"
Mystique stood in the dingy, dilapidated lobby, hands planted on her hips waiting. The buzzing of flies and the banging of a loose shudder answered her summons.
A tall girl with dark, cropped hair walked in behind Mystique. "This place is a dump," she announced. "And you said my brother was here."
"They're somewhere around here," Mystique reassured the girl. "And they'll help us fight your father."
****** ****** ******
"Come on Lance, we're all playing without powers," Scott argued. "You should join in."
"Stuff it Summers," Lance snapped.
"Look the invitations open as long as the game lasts. We're going to have fun, you can sit up here and sulk if you like," Scott said challengingly.
"Don't worry about me," Lance said smirking. "By the way, it looks like they need their referee to define no powers again, so you better run along before it turns into a brawl."
Scott turned to the baseball field below with a groan.
"Toad using your tongue to catch the ball is definitely using your powers," Jean declared frowning sternly.
"It 'urts too," Todd commented, more worried about potential injuries than irritated redheads.
"I can't be sure if Roberto or Pietro used their powers just a little, but that was blatant cheating!"
"Like when Bobby iced the path between the bases?" Rahne asked, fixing the offending blond with a glare of her own.
"Or when Jubilee was lighting off firecrackers to scare the batter?" Bobby demanded. "I was just evening the score!"
"How about Kitty phasing through Fred?" Ray demanded.
"He was in the way!" Kitty defended herself. "Once a runner's out they can't run interference for their teammates!"
Lance grinned ironically as Summers stepped into the melee and tried to reassert order only to end up with all the combatants abruptly turning on the tall, serious senior.
"You got left out too?" Jamie asked plopping down beside Lance.
"Nah, I turned 'em down," Lance replied. "The whole no-powers thing was to get me involved, I don't like being patronized."
"Mr. McCoy tries no-powers sports all the time," Jamie pointed out. "It's supposed to teach us self-control… and keep him from getting injured. It generally ends like this but they still won't let me play 'cause I can't help but multiply every time I get bumped."
"I wasn't in the mood anyway," Lance said.
"Why not?" Jamie asked curiously.
"I just wasn't okay," Lance snapped.
"I wish they'd try to include me, I'm always too young or I can't 'cause my powers make too much chaos," Jamie complained.
"This is different, it's better if I stay away," Lance said.
"That's dumb," Jamie informed the older boy. "Kitty and Todd and Pietro and Fred all worry 'cause you're avoiding them."
"Look kid, I'm doing the right thing," Lance growled. "I don't want to hurt them, it's better if they just get used to me not being around!"
"Are you going to run away again?" Jamie asked.
"No, I'm going to die," Lance stated.
"The doctor says you'll be okay," Jamie replied, confused.
"What does she know anyway?" Lance yelled. "She's never seen this before, I have. I know what's going to happen. Everybody told me what would happen! That's why my parents left! I'm going to die! That's just the way it is!"
Lance bit off his tirade abruptly realizing that practically the entire population of the Mansion was staring at him in shock. Angrily he stomped off.
A second later Pietro was walking beside him. "Leave me the hell alone, Maximoff," Lance snarled.
"Lance…" Pietro began.
The dark haired boy turned on him furiously and Pietro backed off, knowing how close his friend was to expressing his temper through a quake. Then, without warning Lance fainted.
"It's okay," Jean explained. "The Professor sensed how agitated Lance was getting and knocked him out before he could hurt himself."
Pietro's look was a confused mix of outrage and relief; the others were still dealing with their shock at Lance's outburst.
"We better get him back to the infirmary," Scott said. "Someone want to give me a hand?"
Author's Note: Althought I'm including Remy, I still like the Rogue/Pietro pairing, Remy might flirt but Rogue's already got a boyfriend in this story.
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