CHAPTER 23: WELCOME TO XAVIER'S SCHOOL OF MAGIC AND MAYHEM
Xavier felt them before they came to a stop just outside the school. The presence of Logan was familiar and he even caught the presence of Sabretooth. Oh, dear. Sabretooth here! Well, Logan did say he knew him; maybe he's come here in peace. That would be refreshing.
The students that were outside heard and saw the customize car come up the drive and pull into the parking lot in front of the school. Many of the boys and some of the girls eagerly went to see it close up. There were ohs, and ahs at the beautiful muscle car and a predatory glint showed up in several of the older boys' eyes. Their eyes really bugged out when the doors opened and the driver and passengers of the car got out. The driver was over seven foot tall and dressed quite nicely. They were expecting something other then an elegant gentlemen. Logan got out as well, and though the gossip line was out about him, no one had actually seen him so he was an unknown as well. When Bell got out of the car the boys' mouths dropped open. They had never seen any woman like her before.
She stretched up and spread her arms wide getting the muscles back in line from being cramped inside the car. She yawned and her elongated canines did not go unnoticed. Whispers fired all around her and she grinned. Remy was noticed and his face and figure was filed away for future references.
The welcoming committee started showing up. Xavier rolled out the front door and wasted no time to welcome his guests. Jean and Ororo and Scott were also with him. Scott looked a bit perturbed. Logan guessed it was about the motorcycle. He grinned and waved at Jean and beamed for Ororo. He wondered if Raven was going to show up to welcome him back. Ah, there she was with Marie close behind. He poked Victor in the ribs with his elbow and nodded over to Raven.
"Is that her, James?" Victor asked quietly. As they got closer he stared in surprise. "Oh, my god. She looks just like......" He trailed off.
"Yeah, now that I have had time to think about it, she does." Logan sighed. "I just hope Raven's told her everything...it will make it easier." Logan said to his brother. Victor could only nod.
Bell nudged Remy. He looked at her in confusion. "What is it?" Remy asked.
"That's her," Bell said pointing at the girl with long brunette hair covered in layers of clothes, wearing gloves, "go say hi to her." Bell said.
"That beautiful petite' she's the one for Gambit?" Remy asked.
"That's her, go say hi. But be careful, her skin is dangerous to touch. But if you're smart, you'll find away around it. But give it time. She'll be worth it." Remy wasted no time in following Bell's advice. He strutted up to her and gave her a regal bow and took her gloved hand and fearlessly kissed it gallantly beaming at her. Marie was flustered, and blushed at Remy's forwardness.
"It's an honor to meet you petite', Gambit is pleased to meet such a beautiful fem'." Marie's mouth dropped open, she recognized the deep Louisiana accent and she smiled.
"It's good to meet you too, Gambit. My name is Rogue." She smiled and Remy found his heart falling to his feet. He swallowed in surprise at his reaction to her. Victor raised an eyebrow at him and looked at Bell, and she looked like a matchmaker beaming over the perfect match. He took a deep breath; this could get interesting and then some.
Victor walked over to Raven. "Raven."
"Victor." She answered. They both stared at each other quietly. "I believe we need to talk." She swallowed. For nearly seventeen years she has dreaded this day, and now it was here. Too her surprise he had no fury or anger nor hatred in his eyes; only questions. She cleared her throat and squeaked, "You're looking very well."
"You're not looking so bad yourself." Victor answered. The awkwardness of the moment dragged on in silence. Jean walked over and greeted Victor.
"Hello, my name is Jean Grey, and you are....." She said. She was probably trying to break the ice that was forming between Raven and Victor.
"This is Victor Creed Walker....my husband." Jean looked shocked. She had heard of him of course, but she never expected to meet him.
"Hello Victor, welcome to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngster's." Jean recovered. "It's nice to finally meet you. Raven is such a good friend and a brilliant teacher. We are lucky to have her here."
"No doubt about that." Victor said. "Would it be too much trouble to talk to Raven in private for a while, we have some issues to settle."
"That's not a problem at all." Jean said, leaving them alone to speak to each other. She walked over to Logan and Bell. She watched Remy talking and flirting with Rogue. They seem to have hit it off right away. The blonde woman was the largest she had ever seen. She wondered if she and Victor were related.
"Jeanne, this is Belinda James, Bell to her friends. And that brash young man is Remy LeBeau, Gambit by name." Logan said introducing his companions. "Bell this is Dr. Jean Grey, Professor Xavier and Ororo Munroe and the skinny kid over there giving me the knives behind his goggles is Scott Summers. He's probably looking for his bike." He chuckled.
"Yeah, where did you leave it?" Scott asked.
"I didn't leave it anywhere." Logan said. "Hey bro, the keys to the car if you don't mind!" Logan shouted at Victor. He had been quietly talking with Raven. He reached into his pocket and pulled them out and tossed them to Logan who caught them easily. He gave Vic a quick nod and opened the back of the car. To everyone's surprise he pulled out a hidden rack and there was Scott's motorcycle. Logan cranked the rack around and he sat the rack on the ground and unlatched the clamps from the bike. He then rolled the cycle over to Scott. "You'll notice that it has nearly a full tank. She's a sweet ride, thanks."
For once Scott was for a loss of words. He hadn't expected a thank you or his cycle in tiptop shape either. "Your welcome, and thanks for bringing it back." Now that Scott wasn't so stiff anymore he was curious about the car and its unusual feature. "Uh, what happened with Sabretooth?" Scott asked. He didn't expect to see Logan back this soon if ever.
"Well, we had a long chat and seem that Sabretooth has been retired for now." Logan said, not giving anything away.
"You talked him into retirement? How did you do that? He's supposed to be quite dangerous and stubborn." Scott said with astonishment.
"True, but he can be reasoned with on occasion." Logan grinned.
"Did you just call the big guy, bro?" Scott asked. "Were you using it as an expression or...." Scott trailed off waiting for some kind of confirmation.
"Why don't we wait until Raven and her husband have a chance to talk it out, okay?" Logan said. "So Wheels, I'd like to introduce Bell here a little better. She's really something. Come over here Bell and meet Professor Xavier, Charles he likes to be called." Logan said to Bell.
"Okay, he kind of finds you calling him Wheels amusing though." Bell giggled.
"You're a telepath?" The professor asked.
"I am now. Nice place you got here. I think I'll like living here. You know, I think I'll go take a tour of the place." Bell announced and she lifted from the ground and started flying away.
"Bell, Bell!! Come back here!" Logan shouted. Victor turned his head and saw Bell flying by him out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh, hell! Okay, which one of you or your students have the ability to fly?" Victor asked irritably. Ororo timidly raised her hand.
"That would be me." She smiled shyly.
"Great, just great. First I can't get her into a helicopter without freaking out...now she levitates cars, and flies by herself without a care in the world. I really don't know what....." Victor ranted.
"I really don't want to interrupt you, but what exactly is going on with your friend Bell?" Jean asked.
"She's a power mimic, and powerful one at that," Xavier said. "How long have you known that she was a power mimic?" He asked Victor.
"It started to be really evident since early this morning." Victor said.
"Well, how many powers does she have?" Xavier asked.
"That's kind of hard to say, I'm not sure she's mastered them all, yet." Victor sighed. "Uh, maybe you can fly after and get her to come back." Victor said to Ororo.
"That won't be necessary, Storm. I'll call her back." Xavier said calmly. "Ah, she's on her way back. It seems that she can mix and match powers as well. Just who else's powers does she have at the moment?" Xavier asked.
"Well, she can morph, levitate, forecast the future....she's been around Remy, Fred Dukes, Lance and Pietro. So she's probably very fast and very strong. She's mimicked my healing factor and heightened senses perfectly." Victor grinned. Ororo and Scott gasped. Not at the tally, though it was impressive enough, but at the man in front of them. They had encountered him just two days before.
"You're....." Scott was interrupted.
"Victor, I don't want to bother you too much, but I did send those papers to you." Raven said. Victor nodded.
"Here they are," Victor said taking folded blue legal pages from his inside jacket pocket. He grabbed a pen and unfolded the papers and smoothed them out and held them on the roof of his car and signed all the pages with flair. "There, signed and dated today. Just file them in the nearest courthouse and it'll be legal in about a month or less. If you want any monetary division of the estate, just ask. It won't be a problem at all." Victor smiled kindly at her. "Oh, and I saw Graydon this morning, he had brought his terror mongers with him. Just loved the new one, Teddy Bear." Victor chuckled.
"You didn't! Boy, I bet that Sandra was ticked off." Raven said rolling her eyes.
"Almost beyond words, now the rest of the kids are doing it." Victor got such a kick out of that. Raven had to smile. There was a moment of two of silence, when Bell came flying back and landing next to Victor and Raven.
"Hi Raven, it's really nice to meet you," Bell prattled on excitably. She was flying high in more ways then one. Her eyes were blazing the darkest and brightest red that Victor had seen yet. Bell was talking so fast and furious that no one had a clue what she was saying. Victor was starting to get worried; maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring her here after all. But he calmed down a bit after he remembered that Brad said she'd be alright. Maybe all she needed was a bit of coaching. It worked this morning when he got her to morph.
"Bell, Bell!! Calm down. Slow down, breath deep and close your eyes." Victor said, getting Bell's attention. Bell looked at him confused. Then he saw realization on her face and she stopped talking and took the deep breath that Victor told her to and she closed her eyes. Her breathing started to match Victor's and so did her heartbeat.
When she finally opened her eyes, they no longer glowed red; they were the dark eyes that matched Victor's.
"Oh, I'm sorry; I seemed to have gotten a little out of hand there." Bell said, and smiled embarrassedly.
"That's quite alright, Babe, just try to stay calm. I know it's hard to do right now, but it can be done." Victor said soothingly.
"You're rather good at that. Have you considered teaching?" Xavier asked Victor.
"Well, I have in the past. I just might again." Victor could feel the eyes of Scott and Ororo on him. He could smell the angst from where he was standing. He wasn't surprised that they had a grudge against him. He was willing to face that. It would not be a problem, at least not for him.
"Raven, have you told her everything?" Victor asked while looking at Marie talking with Remy. They had only been interested in each other and didn't even notice that Bell had been flying or talking.
"Yes I have." Raven said a little sad.
"How did she take it?" Victor asked.
"Well, she has always known she was adopted, that hadn't bothered her. But she was upset for the reason why she was adopted out." Raven sighed. "I was relieved that she doesn't hate me. Couldn't blame her for hating me if she did ....or you for that matter."
"Hate you? Oh Raven I could never hate you. I've loved you for too long for that. It's just that.....I'll always love you, it's just that.... I'm not in love with you anymore." He said softly. This conversation should have been in private, but everyone heard. There was an awkward silence. The statement Victor made was a profound one. Raven nodded.
"It's been true for me as well." She looked down at the papers that she was holding. "To tell you the truth, there's someone new in my life now." Raven said unexpectedly.
"Mine too," Victor smiled and looked at Bell.
"Her?" Raven asked. She chuckled, yeah, that would be just perfect.
"Mine's a norm, yours isn't even close to being norm, even for a mutant." She laughed. She no longer had that sadness in her eyes or in her scent. She turned to look at Marie. "I guess we better introduce her to her father before she runs off and marries that young man over there."
"Good idea." Victor said laughing.
"Marie! Marie! I need to talk to you." Raven called to Marie and walked over to her, with Victor on her heels. Marie turned to look at Raven; she seemed a little upset that she was being interrupted. "I'd like to introduce you to your father, Victor." Marie looked up at him. She was surprised on how tall and large he was. Something in the back of her mind tickled her memory.
"James said you were a beauty and he was right, I am so please to have met you finally." Victor said in a pleasant and soft voice.
"James? Who's James?" She asked, and then it hit her. The large man that attacked them in Canada called Logan ....James. He caught the scent and was not disappointed. She was quick, he smiled. "You hit him with a tree! And now you're here together?!" She looked at him in shock. Her father was Sabretooth! "You're Sabretooth!!! Sabretooth is my father!?" Marie was in shock, along with everyone else. Remy's mouth dropped open. He'd been flirting with Victor's daughter. Remy couldn't feel anger coming from Victor about him, so he stopped worrying.
"Nothing personal, just business. That being over with.... Sabretooth has gone into retirement...for now." He smiled at her, and her mouth dropped open. This was the same man? The man in front of her couldn't possibly be Sabretooth; he seems so civilized and charming.
"You hit Logan with a tree!" She paused. "You call him James, why?" Marie seem to have calmed down. Her curiosity was taking over her anger.
"He seems to be alright, Marie." Victor said smiling.
"But you could have killed him." Marie countered. Victor laughed. "You could have!" Marie scolded. "Stop laughing it's not funny!" Logan was laughing too. He could not laugh when Victor laughed. "What's the matter with you, Logan? He could have killed you!" Logan laughed harder. "I'm missing something, aren't I? You act as if he was your friend or something."
"Victor's not my friend." Logan said between laughs.
"Aha!" Marie exclaimed in satisfaction.
"He's my brother. My, very big, older brother," Logan announced. Mouths everywhere started dropping open. "Well, I did tell you I've known him a long time, didn't I?" Logan said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"You're my uncle?" Marie asked. She thought she couldn't be shocked any more...she was wrong.
"I knew you were related to me when we first met, but I didn't know how close. Why do you think I helped you? Because I'm a nice guy...because I'm not." Logan said.
"Yes you are." Victor said.
"Am not," Logan retorted.
"Are too," Victor said. Bell rolled her eyes.
"There they go again. Jeez, somebody stop them. In fact hit both of them with a tree!" Bell said. Both Victor and Logan looked at her, they weren't sure if she was joking. With her combined powers she could easily do just that, and the stopped bickering.