Just so ya know, I'm really flyign by teh seat of my pants. Ya know, trying different story elements and tecniques I'd never use in one of my novels. (Yes, becca, I've started a new one.) Alright, sych77, you didn't review my last chapie, so review your devoted fan!

Scout – I mean Scott's point of Opinion

Maybe I was just being stupid, back there. Oh well, maybe it was perfect, for her at least. I've never really considered life as "perfect," but then again, I haven't worked as an assassin, a prison guard, a bouncer, a bartender, and a hooker, among other things. However, because she wasn't quite used to our life, maybe she was slightly biased. I've written down what really happened, to a certain point. Logan might want to be the one who goes into detail about her… Never mind.

"I didn't leave, not for a year. It was perfect, for a year. Tas gained total control over his powers, and we had begun to work on magnitude. Tiger followed me everywhere, often putting a halt on me and Logan's romance. Scott and I continued to wage a personal war, but eventually all the malice just dissipated. It was perfect."

That's what she wrote, but there's not enough detail. This seems a lot like a school essay, but I'll elaborate.

True to her word, Angela woke Tas up every morning at five a.m. for a rigorous training exercise. Most of us sat in on the first one, and I think I remember it clearly.

Tas slouched in the pre-dawn light, hardly awake. Angela came up behind him from the shadow realm and tossed him into a nearby tree. He shook his head clear of the stars that crowded his vision and leapt back at her. She sank back into the shadow realm, her hardly-visible outline mocking him. Frustrated, he dove in after her, only to leap back out with a yelp. Angela rose from the shadow realm without making a sound and swept his feet out from under him and sent him sprawling across the cement courtyard.

"I told you, no sympathy. If you want to keep up, it's going to take a lot of work. Do you think you can do it?" She called up a shadow and sharpened the point.

"Yes," Tas whispered through gritted teeth.

"Good." She let the shadow flatten the point into a rounded end. "First, weapon training for and thirty minutes. Then we go to mental and shadow uses for another thirty minutes. Finally we put the two together in the last forty-five minutes." Another quarter staff shot out of the ground and landed heavily on Tas's groin.

He stood, sore from his first five minutes with his teacher. I'm not a telepath, but I could tell he was thinking What the hell have I gotten myself into? For their time with the quarterstaffs she ran him through several drills of blocks, thrusts, and swipes. Then she began teaching him to summon up shadows that could perform different tasks. She taught him binding shadows, healing shadows, shifting shadows, sharpening/killing shadows (heaven forbid he should use them) as well as solid shadows. A solid shadow seems a bit of a contradiction, but it could be used in place of a weapon, or simply as a shelf to carry things back and forth with. In the last forty-five minutes she had him attack her with shadows in place of weapons, but she blocked every attack without moving an inch. When they were finally done the Professor broke into applause and told Tas that he could go back to bed now.

I expected Angela to go back inside, but instead she continued to wave her quarterstaff back and forth as if fighting an invisible foe. I recognized them as drills and stayed to watch. I wasn't the only one who found the exercises interesting, in fact the Professor was the only one who went inside. Finally Angela noticed us watching her and stopped.

"What?"

"Where did you learn to do this?" Ororo spoke up first, awe sketched into every detail on her face.

"The Korean Institute for Mutants. They taught self-defense for most of the classes. I can do hand-to-hand if I have to, and I'm a fair shot with a bow, but the quarterstaff is my main object of affection, so to speak" She paused for a moment, gauging our reactions. "You know, it's better for me if I practice with someone."

Of course I was stupid and stepped forward, already sliding my visor over my eyes. She grinned and waited for me to make the first move. I let loose a beam, and she dove forward and swept my feet out from under me. I rolled away and shot at her again. This time she called up a shadow and with a sweeping motion glanced aside the beam. She came rushing at me, nimbly bouncing between my blasts and knocking them aside with shadows. Before I knew it she was there, pinning me to a tree with the shaft of her quarterstaff.

She immediately clutched her head in pain, and I assumed that Jean was attacking her mentally. Jean, in turn, went sprawling across the courtyard from a mental blow. By some mutual agreement we both stepped out of the way, understanding that if this had been a real fight she could have killed us by completing her blows.

Next came Storm and Kurt in a bit of a combined attack. Ororo began sending lightning bolts in Angela's general direction, and she was so absorbed in blocking them that Kurt managed to get several vicious blows in on her spine. She was obviously irked at her loss of defense; she dove into the shadow realm, a maneuver thus far avoided, and struck Storm in the back of the head with her quarterstaff and then took out Kurt with a judo throw.

The only person left was Logan, and he seemed thus far uninterested in joining the fray. Angela stood in front of him, panting lightly, and whispered, "You almost beat me last time." I don't know if it was a reference to Logan's past, but it worked better than any gibe would have. He and she began to circle each other, Logan making testing passes with his claws and Angela swiping playfully with her quarter staff. Logan leapt forward at her, and grabbed her in a waist lock. With her quarterstaff she whacked the back of his knees and spine, forcing a surprised let-go. Distancing herself from him, she called up a shadow that shifted her staff into a bow and immediately fitted an arrow to the string. Logan managed to dodge all her arrows, save for one which caught him full in the stomach. It flew clean through, the shock more than the pain sending Logan to his knees.

He lay there, impassive, until Angela came over to his limp body to see if he was playing. Once she was in range he took an underhanded blow at her feet. She jumped to avoid it, and landed right next Logan. Seeing that she was in a very compromising position, she pulled his head forward. I expected her to slam is forehead like they do in movies, but instead she kissed him. It was just a distraction for both of them, because at the same instant Logan release his claws and stabbed her in the lower lungs, she twisted his head at an odd angle and it was quite obvious she had broken his neck. Both collapsed, lying for a few moments while they healed themselves. There really was nothing interesting in Logan's regenerating, but every now and again there was the pop of bones mending. Angela, however was more fascinating. She called up several shadows that wove in and out of her body, sowing together the wounds. Both procedures took a whole of thirty seconds and both were up.

Logan spun behind her, both sets of claws held to her temples. She threw herself backwards and pinned him to the cement. With a slice at her shoulder he forced her into the shadow realm. She came up behind him and held her taunt bow right behind his head. Logan reached behind her and sent her sprawling with a yank to her leg. It was an interesting performance, and I was disappointed to see Angela throw her hands up in surrender as she lay laughing on the ground. Logan helped her to her feet and planted one more brief kiss on her lips before going inside. Everyone but me followed.

Angela began picking up her discarded arrows before she noticed I was there. She finally came and stood in front of me, in a fighting stance, I might add. "Can I help you, Scout?"

Ignoring the gibe I asked, "Where'd you learn to do that?"

She sighed before answering, obviously fighting down memories. "The Koran Institute for Mutants, like I said."

I was skeptical. "You leaned all of those moves at the Institute?"

She grinned halfheartedly. "Well, no. I learned a ton just fending off Darlene and Logan actually taught me some when I was staying with my brother."

I nodded my understanding and heading inside. Just as I was about to close the door behind me I heard her call, "You know, Scout, you could probably learn a couple of things from me, too."

"I doubt it!" I think that was the moment when we stopped hating each other.

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