Scott's story        

A Kick in the Butt

          "Heh, Scott!" called Paul from across the school yard, "Wait up. I need to talk to you."

Scott slowly turned around. He and Paul had been friends since their freshman year. They'd practically been inseparable during school hours, but ever since the x-men's outing as mutants they hardly spoke to each other, mostly because Scott avoided practically all humans after his earlier encounter with Duncan and the football team.

Paul confidently approached Scott, stopped right in from of him then squarely punched him across the jaw.

"What the..! What was that for?!!" exclaimed Scott knowing full well, or at least thinking full well he understood, what the answer was.

"Oh, I think you know, Cyclops," Paul taunted. "Do you even remember what last week was or are you too 'special' for things like that??" Paul asked using the classic quote signals to emphasis his point.

"Last week? What about last week? It was spring break…Oh."

"That's right, oh, is that all it is to you. Do you have any idea how long I waited for you???" Paul shouted, "We planned that trip for three years and all you can say is, oh??"

"Look, man, I forgot! Okay, I spent the whole week working," defended Scott.

"Oh, that's right. I forgot; you're an x-man. You're too special to hang out with us normal folks. You can only hang out with freaks."

"What did you call me?"

"You heard me, Freak. What? You think you're better than I am, you think you're stronger than I am, you think you're superior??" Paul queried, pushing Scott backwards with each phrase. "But wait, you're homo superior; of course you're better than I am." Here Paul stopped.

Scott started to turn to head for the parking lot, but before he had even taken a step, Paul threw a left hook knocking off Scott's glasses then knocked him to the ground.

"Not so tough, without your glasses are you, Cyclops?" goaded Paul pinning Scott to the ground. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, Buddy."
          "Paul, I don't want to hurt you," Scott cried trying to get up.

"Don't want to hurt me, huh?" Paul quipped locking Scott into a scissors position, "What do you think you did when didn't show up for the road trip we've been planning for three years? What about when you left me hanging the night before Physics mid-terms when you promised to help me study? Or the time you promised you'd make the match, and never showed? You think those didn't hurt?"

"You don't understand," cried Scott, exasperated, being unable to get out of the scissors lock, "I have missions to go on, and the public doesn't exactly like my presence.

"Oh, there's another one. How about the fact my best friend is a mutant and forgot to mention it. You outright lied about it too, once, if my memory serves me right."

"You saw what happened when people found out. The professor was trying to keep that from happening," grunted Scott finally getting out of the scissors hold and scrambling to pin Paul down.

"So you do whatever your precious professor tells you to do, huh? You don't tell your best friend that you're a mutant because of some old guy in a wheelchair?"

"He's not just some old guy in a wheelchair!"
          "Then who is he? A god?"

By this time Logan, who'd come to pick the students up, had meandered over to the fight and had been watching it for some time. At one point, Jean had tried to put an end to the fight, but Logan held her back.

"You're just gonna stand there, and let Scott get beat up! He's not even wearing his glasses!"

"Yep! I only spell anger and hurt coming from that kid, no hate. Whatever Scott's getting, he deserves. Good practice anyway, that kid's good."

Jean folded her arms in disgust, but didn't try to contradict Logan. It wasn't a safe thing to do. As the other x-men gathered around the fight, each in his turn thought about putting an end to the fight and helping Scott, but after a stern look from Logan, decided it was in their best interests to stay out of it.

"Scott! Listen to yourself!" cried Paul in desperation, finally pinned after Scott's burst of angry energy from Paul's snide remark about Xavier. "You're acting like a moron. You act as if you're the only one who's had it bad, as if you're somehow exempt from common decency because you're a mutant. You don't even return my calls anymore!" Paul exclaimed struggling to reach into his pocket.

"Wait, you called?" asked Scott incredulously, slightly releasing his grip. This action gave Paul just enough room to grab what he was reaching for. Before Scott could even react, a mace can was aimed at his eyes. As the liquid seeped through the cracks of his eyelids, Scott reeled back rubbing his eyes and blinking.

Paul hastily got up, and the x-men ran toward Scott as he screamed in pain. Suddenly, red beams shot out of his eyes and hit Paul dead on his chest. Paul slammed back and landed about five feet away next to Scott's glasses. Scott immediately shut his eyes again.

"Paul, Paul!" he cried, "Are you all right?!"

"Yeah, Man," Paul moaned, "I'm cool, I deserved that."

Scott crawled toward his friend, "Paul, you should be dead."

"Yeah, well I'm not," laughed Paul then he moaned. By this time the x-men had gathered around the two, staring in disbelief.

"Here," said Paul, putting glasses on Scott. "You can open your eyes now."

Scott slowly blinked his eyes open then stared out in amazement, as the x-men looked on in wonder.

"Brown," stated Paul, "I was rather hoping for an exciting color like red or purple or polka dots or something. But nope, just plain, ordinary brown. It figures."
          "What did you do?" asked Scott, taking off the pseudo-glasses.

"The spray was laced with ruby quartz. I've been working on it for about a year now. What? You didn't think I knew you were a mutant. I'm a human, not an idiot. Don't give me that look. I'm the one who got you through chemistry remember. I may not be able to understand physics to save my life, but me and chemistry get along just fine. Don't get used to it, though. The spray is only a prototype it will probably only last a couple of minutes. The catharsis was a surprise; however, I think I still have some kinks to work out."

Scott looked around him at all his friends, they were in color. And the sky, the sky was blue really blue. The grass was green, the dandelions were yellow. He'd forgotten how beautiful color was.

"Earth to Scott," called Kurt from what seemed like a long distance, "You should probably put your glasses back on, Paul said it vould vear off soon."

Scott nodded slowly placing the abominable glasses back on his nose and looked at Paul. "Thank-you, you have no idea how much that meant to me."

"No problem."

"And thank-you for beating me up; I needed it."
          "Anytime, Scott, anytime. 'Cause, face it, you need me. I mean, no offence, these guys are great," Paul began, waving his hands around at the gathered mutants, "but you need guy your age you can confide in, I mean come on, a bunch of chicks, a freshman, and a sophomore?" Paul smiled, "You can do better than that. Besides, your wrestling is atrocious, and if it wasn't for me, you'd have never passed chemistry."

Scott laughed. "You have a point. So, you wanna come over and get started on this week's physics project."

"As long as we can take my car, that van is too hideous for words. While we're at it, we might as well plan a summer trip since the spring trip got canceled."

With those words, the two old friends hobbled to Paul's car wincing as they walked.

Later that evening, Xavier and Logan discussed the fight.

"I'm not sure I approve of your allowing that kind of violence between a mutant and a human, do you have any idea what could have happened?" questioned Xavier.

"Yes, I'm well aware of the consequences of something like that happening. Xavier, you may be a telepath, but you're not all knowing."

"What are you implying, Logan?"

"That you're not aware of the consequences of my breaking up their fight."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that sometimes being a good friend means standing back and letting things go, and sometimes being a good friend means kicking your friend's butt. And that's exactly what Paul did." With those words, Logan nodded and headed out the door. He smiled to himself as he lit a cigar. Maybe there was hope for the uptight leader after all.

Author's note: I own nothing of the x-men. They belong to marvel and other rich people. This isn't one of my best stories, but I wanted a story where Scott got his butt kicked, and a human figured out a way to stop the eye beams. It's a bit far-fetched, but heh, anything's possible right? Constructive criticism much appreciated.