X-Men-First Class: Rise or Fall

Chapter Eighteen

Author's Word: Hugs all around! That last feedback I received was absolutely incredible. You guys inspired me to write until the point of finger bleeding and eye burning and I love you for it!

The sparkling green eyes peered deeply into the heavily entranced blue. They remained that way in an intense silence with the falling leaves from the trees being the only motion in that moment. Neither body flinched while blinking remained out of the question entirely.

After a few more seconds, Charles spoke. "All right, Becky. Have you managed to hone in on Joey's deepest rooted thoughts?"

"I was supposed to be honing?" She glanced over at the adult present. "I thought it was a staring contest."

"I won!" Joey declared.

Becky turned back to him. "No, that didn't count."

Shaking his head, Charles turned his nose up in a Heavenly gaze. "Becky, this is not playtime. Mind probing is an extremely difficult task and quite dangerous if not given the proper mental exercises. Now, let's begin again."

With a lighthearted sigh, Becky returned to facing Joey while Charles' attention stayed on her.

Joey waited to feel Becky in his mind but his eyes darted down at her fingers wiggling subtly. He then stared ahead at the front of the house and watched as the stony architecture morphed and became replaced by bright magenta diamond-esque walls and sparkly purple towers for roofs. Fall faded away entirely and spring took over throughout the front grounds.

At Joey's extremely glowing countenance, Charles glanced back and witnessed the display. He then reached out and tugged at a few of Becky's curls, startling her into dropping the artifice.

"Rebecca, we are reviewing probing, not illusions," Charles reminded her firmly. "Furthermore, you know what such grand scale illusions do to you. They tire you right out."

Not caring much for that recollection, Becky said, "I was just trying to make Joey laugh."

"And I understand that, Princess but there is a time and a place. I'm going to need you to practice some matter of decorum."

Joey frowned with confusion. "What's decorum, Charles?"

Before Charles could explain it, Frank rushed through on his crimson and navy bicycle.

He put the rapid moving device on a sudden halt. "Hey, Becky, come on. I'll race ya."

Delighted at the suggestion, the girl turned to the older telepath imploringly.

Charles said, "We're not finished here, Becky. A few minutes more then you may go."

"Okay." Though from the sound of her voice, she felt less than 'okay' about it.

"I'll wait for you out back." Frank rode off again.

Joey watched the other boy closely. "May I go, too?"

Charles smiled. "Go on. And thank you for volunteering as always."

Joey nodded then scampered off.

"Frank!" he called when he finally caught up. "I want to go riding with you and Becky."

Looking up from playing with the fabric of the American flag that hung from the middle of his handlebars, Frank pointed out, "And what'll you ride on? Your big head? You don't even have a bike."

Hating how true that was, Joey said yearningly, "Yours sure is really cool."

"Sure is," Frank concurred, withholding all modesty. "It was my best birthday gift. Not even a year old." He smirked towards Joey. "Don't worry. You'll probably get one of your own someday. Or at least a tricycle."

Joey poked his lips out sourly.

A few minutes later, Becky rode up on her pink and white two-wheeler. "All ready."

"Great, let's go." Frank started off.

"See you later, Joey," Becky called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, okay." Joey hung back despondently. "See ya…"

IIIIIII

Out of the corner of his eye, Frank spotted Becky quickly gaining on him so he picked up the speed. Clearly not about to be left in the dust, Becky pedaled harder. The pair rode through several leaf piles, creating swirling scatters of red, orange, and brown. They continued on along the trail, journeying into the depths of the untold numbered trees surrounding them.

Glancing to her right for a moment, Becky stopped abruptly.

Frank looked back. "What's the matter? Can't keep up?" He then noticed her focused expression and pedaled a few feet back to her. "What is it?"

"I see…" She took off in the direction she currently faced and Frank immediately went after her.

Hopping down from her bike, Becky headed over to a rock formation and pulled back a cluster of brown vines, causing them to crumble on contact. The action revealed a short round entrance.

"Whoa," Frank reacted. He got off his own bike and headed over. "Do you think Charles and Raven even know this is here?"

"I don't know," Becky responded. "I've never come out here this far. I wonder what's in there."

"Good question. And I know the best way to answer it." He released golden light from his eyes, illuminating the dark entry. "If you get scared, just stick close to me."

Becky nodded and followed right behind him into the cave.

They walked for several yards through the narrow pathway before making it to the far back where the space opened up significantly. Frank whirled around, careful not to look directly at Becky, and took in the area. The cave ceiling went up at least twelve feet and the walls seemed to have an unusual aura about them.

"This is far out," Frank remarked.

Becky took a seat on a well-worn boulder. "It's like a little hideaway."

"Yeah, it's amazing." With the cave's glow surrounding them, Frank turned his power off. He sat down, facing Becky. "You didn't look like you were having too much fun at training."

Becky shook her head to confirm his observation. "I tried but Charles makes it so boring."

"That's because Charles is so boring," Frank remarked. "And he uses a thousand big words in one sentence. At least Hank isn't in teacher mode all day long."

"I know," Becky smiled. "He helped me with my homework all the time where we used to live."

"When I first got here I totally thought you guys really were brother and sister."

Becky became offended at this. "He is my real brother."

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that," Frank assured, waving his hands defensively. "I just meant because you guys acted like you knew each other forever. You even look alike."

She smiled. "We do?"

Frank nodded. "I think it's cool that he's a brother to you."

"And how Sean's a brother to you," Becky added.
"Yeah, he is," Frank said, "but he's not really older brother-y like Hank and Alex are with you and Joey. He's more like my twin or something. He's never bossy like my rotten older brother back home." He paused before finally asking her something. "Hey, Becky? Do you ever think about your dad?"

Not expecting the question, she quieted for a brief moment. "Sometimes. I thought about him more when I first got here, though. He used to go away a lot with the CIA. I was home with my nanny most of the time."

Frank had to consider how to word his next inquiry. "What was your mom like?"

"I don't know," the younger child answered, slightly glib. "I never even met her."

"Never?"

"Never."

"I can't even imagine that," Frank said. "I miss my mom more than anyone else back in New York."

"At least you know where she is," Becky reasoned, "even though she's in an asylum."

The light-endowed mutant's eyes grew immensely and he shot up to a standing position. "How do you know about that? No one's supposed to know about that but Erik, Charles, and Raven. I never even told Sean." He glowered at her. "You were reading my mind, weren't you?"

Becky stood as well. "Not just now. Back when we first met. I couldn't help it. I've done it to everybody I know except Hank. I won't tell anyone, ever. I swear."

Calming slightly, Frank turned way, walking off a few steps. "Last year when my dad got to stay home for a while, he and Mom told us they were going to have another baby. Then back in April, my mom got really sick. She didn't make it."

"She?" Becky repeated in bewilderment.

Frank faced her again. "My sister. She would've been my sister and my mom's first ever daughter. Dad had to leave again and she tried to make it seem like everything was okay but we all knew it wasn't. So she— she went away."

After listening intently, Becky told him, "I'm happy you came here, Frank."

Smiling, Frank said, "Me, too. Come on. We better get back." They started to walk then he paused to look at her again. "Hey, Becky? Let's not tell anybody else about this place. It'll just be ours, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed cheerfully.

Frank turned his eyes back on, guiding them safely out of the hideaway.

IIIIIII

Having developed insane cabin fever during two weeks of grounding that felt more like two years, Alex took every spare moment to spend outside. He gathered together some of the housemates and organized a game of football; at least as organized as a group of four rowdy males could get, anyway.

"All right, Joe, go long." Alex threw the football with as much power as he could muster. Joey ran after it with Hank on his heels and Sean slightly behind. "That's it, pump it! Don't let Big Foot and Banshee beat you."

Naturally, Hank could have easily leapt right over Joey's head and grabbed the ball. However, he felt compelled not to crush the ever delicate prepubescent self-esteem the child possessed.

Returning with Becky in tow, Frank saw the game taking place and jumped up from his bike in time to catch the football right before Joey could.

"Touchdown," Sean announced.

Alex made a buzzing sound with his mouth. "Nope. He's not even playing."

"I am now."

"The more the merrier," Hank stated positively.

"We have to put our bikes away," Becky reminded Frank.

The twelve-year-old waved that off. "In a minute."

Joey looked over at Alex. "I want to watch now."

"Fine," Alex nodded. "Joey's taking five. Light Bright, you're on my team. Don't make me look bad."

"You mean the way your mirror does every day?" Frank quipped, running out with the ball in hand.

"Ha ha. You stick around, too, Becky," Alex said. "You can be the cheerleader."

Shrugging indifferently at that, Becky sat on one of the nearby stone benches.

When the game started up again, she yelled out, "Go Hank!" glad to see they had been able to pry him away from the laboratory.

Joey tried to concentrate on the game but his attention stayed on the two abandoned bicycles, mainly the red and blue beauty. He inched his way over and carefully got into a sitting position on top of it. He sat proud for a full two seconds before toppling over, bike and all.

Hearing it first, Becky glanced over. "Joey, are you okay?"

Frank looked over for a second and saw. "Aw, man!" He ran up, inspecting his fallen vehicle. He formed a hard glare when he saw his flag in a mud puddle with the stem broken in half. "You stupid little twit! You broke my dad's flag."

Joey quickly said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Oh, so your butt accidentally landed on my bike? Yeah, that makes sense."

The older boys began to approach the rapidly building confrontation.

"Frank, let's simmer down," Hank intervened.

"Joey, you're legs are way too short for that bike." Alex knelt down, checking him over. "Lucky you didn't hurt yourself."

"No, he just wrecked my flag!" Frank exclaimed, annoyed at the doting over Joey.

Sean put a hand on his shoulder. "Frank, take it easy."

Charles stepped outside at the commotion. "Joey." He immediately jogged over, going to inspect the child himself. "Are you all right?"

Frank felt about ready to blind everyone present with the possible exception of Becky. "He got on my bike and broke my flag."

Noticing the mud stained fabric, Charles tried to sooth the situation with, "We'll replace it tomorrow, Frank."

"No, it can't be replaced," Frank informed him angrily. "My dad gave that to me. Nothing ever happened to it until dumb-dumb here." He pointed accusatory at Joey. "No wonder your own mom ditched you. You ruin everything."

The older males stared disbelievingly at Frank, Becky appeared sympathetic, and Joey's eyes filled with tears.

Charles stood. "Franklin, I understand you're upset but that was absolutely uncalled for. Apologize this instant, please."

Frank's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding me? He should be doing all of the apologizing. I didn't touch his stuff then louse it up."

"And that shall be dealt with but what you just said was inexcusable." Charles held strong to his patience as he spoke.

"Oh, figures," Frank said, making a grand gesture with his hands. "You're taking Joey's side like you always do. You probably won't even punish him." He turned away and started for the inside.

Charles went after him. "Frank, come back here right now."

Frank headed for the staircase. "Leave me alone, Charles." He ran up.

"Frank!" Charles attempted to call again then let out a frustrated sigh, deciding to let him calm down.

IIIIIII

When he made it to his bedroom, Frank slammed the door then slammed it again when the previous try did not produce a loud enough noise to match his current mood. He went over and inside his closet. He closed the door and sat under his hanging clothes. Lighting his eyes, he began to peer through the assortment of boxes he had stacked in there.

Twenty minutes later, Frank made out a faint knocking at his room door.

"Go away, Charles!" he shouted when the person did not cease.

Within a moment, his closet door opened, spilling daylight in. "I'd say you're off by a foot and a half."

"Erik," Frank acknowledged, powering down so as not to harm the man's vision.

"Mind if I join your sanctum?"

Frank shook his head and held his hand out in invitation.

Lowering into a cross-legged sitting position near the boy, Erik said, "I hear you and Joey are having a bit of a tiff."

"Let me guess. Charles told you?"

"Actually, I couldn't get word out of him. Hank, Sean, and Alex managed to paint a very colorful picture for me, however. Apparently, you had quite the blow-up."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Figures. Joey breaks my flag and everybody acts like I'm the big jerk."

"That's not the impression I received," Erik informed him, rubbing his back. "I do agree that Joey had no business being on your bicycle, but you do know what happened was an accident?"

Frank found himself relaxing under Erik's touch. "Let me guess. I'm supposed to forgive him because he's the "baby", right? I swear, Jeff gets away with everything."

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Jeff?"

"Joey," Frank quickly amended. "I meant Joey."

"That's not what you said," Erik put forth knowingly. When the pre-teen turned silent, Erik looked down at the box in his lap. "What's all this?"

"Some of the stuff I collect." Frank held up his autographed baseball. "This is all my sports stuff." He picked up a small, thinner box and opened it, revealing a variety of currency. "My dad's sent me a coin from every country he's ever visited."

Erik nodded with intrigue. "They're in very good condition. You're obviously someone who takes great pride in his things."

Frank closed the box. "My kid brother Jeff has way more stuff from around the world than I do. Dad's always sending him something. That flag was part of his military package and he gave it to me before Jeff was even born. I kept it good for years."

"Until today," Erik pieced together, fully understanding the boy's earlier rages.

"Yeah," Frank whispered.

Pulling the young city native in close to his side, Erik placed an arm around him. "You felt anger and it caused you to lash out."

"Mmhmm." Frank glanced up at him. "You gonna make me apologize to Joey?"

"Absolutely not," Erik answered immediately. "I can coerce you into saying the words but without the sincerity to back them up, they're completely worthless. You have to find the ability to forgive, boychick. And take it from a man who has been there and back. Remaining angry at those closest to you only hurts you in the end."

Frank nodded to that, resting on Erik's chest. "Charles never understands. He only cares about Joey around here."

"Now, hold on," Erik said. "We both know that is not true. Yes, he and Joey are incredibly close but I feel moved to remind you that it was Charles who sought you out and brought you here to live."

"Well, yeah, but—"

"And it was Charles who allowed you to repaint this room and make additions to it."

Frank rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe."

"Need I remind you that it was Charles who convinced me to let you attend that street fair you had your heart set on?" Frank bit his lip as Erik went on. "Not to mention the amount of kindness and understanding he's shown to you ever since you walked through that door."

Absorbing all of that, Frank admitted, "I guess I was pretty out of line with him."

"There was nothing pretty about it," Erik said matter-of-factly. "I know you were angry and I understand the reason but your disrespect of Charles was an entirely different matter. Now, I'd like to hear one good reason why I shouldn't take you across my knee."

Searching his mind for any plausible response, Frank finally came up with, "I suffer from middle child syndrome?"

Erik mimicked the boy's earlier gesture and rolled his eyes. "Sounds closer to urchin syndrome." He got up, holding a hand out to the child. "Come."

With just a bit of hesitation and mostly dread, Frank linked appendages with him.

They left the closet together and Erik sat on the bed. "Are you going to remember to use that brilliant brain of yours before opening your mouth in the future?"

"Yes, sir," Frank whispered. "I'll try."

"Good man," Erik said, patting his arm. He then took hold of his wrist and lowered the smaller individual over his lap.

Frank braced himself for the worst and grunted at each strike of Erik's palm. After the fifth one, he found himself unexpectedly upright again in a sitting position on the metal wielder's thigh. Frank did not know how to react at first. He knew Erik to usually stand him up after a punishment. Though this time was obviously different, Frank found no protest in his system and snuggled securely into the older mutant.

At hearing nothing but soft intakes of air from the boy, Erik ran a hand through the young one's dark hair. "Was I too hard on you, boychick?"

Frank shook his head right away. "No. You really, really weren't. That's what's so weird. I'm not even crying."

"Should I turn you back over for another round then?"

At the childish outcry of, "No!" Erik chuckled soundly.

The laughter vibrating from the man's chest and mouth caught Frank off-guard for a moment. He formed a mischievous smile and made a move to pin him. Erik, with skills incapable of rusting, detected the motion immediately and dropped into a stretch on his back over the mattress.

"Is that your best shot, imp?" Erik taunted good-naturedly, wrapping arms around him in a vice-grip.

Groaning and struggling to get out of the lock, Frank shined a low level light from his eyes. Erik took back one of his hands to block the illumination, granting Frank the opportunity to roll over freely onto his side.

When Erik did not speak right away, Frank grew worried that he had made him angry by using his power on him.

Finally turning over to face the child, Erik surprised him with kudos. "Well executed."

"Really?" Frank grinned.

"A simple strategy like that could very well save your life in the future."

"Cool." Frank settled down against a pillow and felt complete content when Erik began to massage him between the shoulder blades.

"It'll be dinnertime soon."

"I'm not very hungry," Frank told him.

Considering the young one's normal appetite, Erik knew the real explanation had to be him not wanting to face Charles or Joey just yet. However, the metal wizard refused to force him into it; the inevitable would present itself as always.

"I'm sure Raven will be happy to bring you something up."

Frank smiled, rolling over against the man once again.

IIIIIII

When dinner came to a close that evening, Alex and Sean cleared the table while Raven put together a nice tray for Frank. Something Erik had made particular note of throughout the meal was Joey's behavior. He had not seemed the slightest bit uncomfortable or squirmy while sitting and had carried a rather carefree disposition overall.

However, Erik did notice Charles' uneasiness that he had tried to cover up with the usual British stiffness. It had been a nice show for the tots but Erik knew better. He managed to pull Charles away with the suggestion of chess. There they sat in the parlor in their usual chairs with the game between them.

"Joey has quite the resiliency."

"What do you mean?" Charles did not look up from the board.

"Well, considering what happened earlier, he seemed quite undisturbed," Erik clarified.

"I managed to calm him," Charles said, moving a pawn over. "I promised him a trip into town so he can have a bicycle of his own."

Erik frowned upon hearing this. "Excuse me?"

"I don't know why I didn't think of it before," Charles went on. "I'm sure he felt awfully excluded, not being able to ride with the older children."

"I see. And how exactly did you punish him?"

"Punish him?" Charles echoed.

Unable to believe he had to explain this, Erik said, "For getting on Frank's bike and breaking his flag."

"Erik, I'm not going to punish him for an accident," Charles said reasonably.

"The flag was an accident. His touching something that did not belong to him, however, was not," Erik countered. "I spanked Frank for being disrespectful while you were busy promising Joey new trinkets?" Erik chortled ironically. "He was right."

"Who?" Charles asked.

"Frank," Erik replied sharply. "He insisted Joey gets away with everything and now you've proven him right."

"Now, hold on a minute, Erik," Charles said defensively. "That is not true whatsoever. I do punish Joey when he misbehaves."

"No, you swat him to calm down his power outbursts. You threaten it but then you don't strike him hard enough to cause harm to a fly. You coddle that child, Charles."

"That is not fair, Erik," the telepath insisted. "Joey is just a little boy, who spent the entirety of his life severely neglected. You know how regressed he is because of that."

"And you feed right into that regression," Erik asserted.

"He's only eight years old."

Erik dismissed this entirely. "If I'd misbehaved at eight, I'd have had my pants lowered and my backside blistered. I'm sure you would have had much of the same."

"I wasn't spanked after age five."

This surprised the metal wielder. "You're serious? Well, that certainly explains a great deal."

Charles shot him a mixed expression of affront and building annoyance. "Sorry?"

Erik threw out, "You play the part of the diligent headmaster but deep inside you're still a child yourself. The naiveté more than apparent."

Angry now, Charles came back with, "How quick you are to judge my guardianship capabilities. You criticize my treatment of Joey but have you not taken notice of your own with Becky?"

"I discipline her the same as the rest when she warrants it."

Charles sincerely scoffed. "Come off it, man. You may want to believe she displays complete obedience and that much may be true in your presence but her flippant attitude during training of late is more than evident to the contrary."

The older man started to speak but instead sighed lightly and reclined uncomfortably in his seat.

"We can pick up this game some other time. Good night, dear brother." Charles stood and started out of the room.

As he watched the clearly self-satisfied little man go, Erik toyed with the idea that Joey was not the only one in need of a firmer hand.

IIIIIII

With the boys on kitchen clean-up duty and Raven on Frank duty, Becky managed to slink away into the den for some rare personal TV time. She found Gone With the Wind playing about ten minutes in and quickly became wrapped up in it.

Erik walked in on Rhett Butler carrying Scarlett up the stairs in a rather provocative fashion. "What are you watching?"

Becky gasped at his unexpected presence and quickly flicked the knob to a man selling salad dressing. "Just switching back and forth."

Letting that drop for now, Erik came over and joined her on the couch. "I recently realized how many of your training sessions I've missed. How are things going with Charles?"

"Fine," she replied brightly.

"So you've been a diligent student? Never giving him a hard time?"

Twisting a few strands of her curls, Becky admitted, "Well, sometimes I may play around a little bit. It's only because Charles is so serious. Telepathy is supposed to be fun."

Erik said, "Rebecca, while I do want you to enjoy the gifts you have, it is imperative that you learn control to go along with it. Charles is the best person to instruct you as far as your abilities are concerned. If you're failing to obey him then I'm afraid you and I have a problem."

"No, no. There's no problem," the little girl quickly assured. "I'll start listening harder to Charles. I promise."

Erik nodded. "Your word is all I need." He eyed her closely with a look of firmness. "But if that word is broken, you will be getting a spanking from me, Sweet Imp. Understood?"

"Yes, Erik." Arrgh, Charles! Big boring tattletale.

"He wouldn't have had anything to tell had you been compliant with him." At her questioning glance, he said, "This is exactly what I mean by control."

Becky appeared guilt-faced at the realization that she had projected the strong thought right into the man's mind.

Erik got to his feet and lifted her into his arms. "You're in bed early tonight."

Not wanting to lose her precious TV time, Becky whiningly protested, "But, Errrik…"

The metal wizard gave her bottom two pops followed by a kiss on the cheek. "None of that. You're obviously tired and this will give you time to think about practicing a little decorum."

There goes that word again, Becky thought, nestling into his safe hold as he carried her out.

IIIIIII

Watching Frank lap down the remainder of his soup, Raven asked, "You feeling better?"

"Yeah." Frank sat the bowl back down on the tray. "Thanks a lot, Raven. Sorry I couldn't help you with dinner. I just didn't feel like calming down."

"Don't even worry about it," Raven said. "So, are you still sore with Joey?"

"Kind of," he replied, lying back against his headboard. "I'm still mad but I know he didn't really mean it so it's hard to stay mad but I really, really want to be mad."

"Yeah, you pretty much summed up how I used to feel about Erik."

"I used to think he was pretty hard but Erik's actually kind of cool," Frank expressed. "Even though he thinks I'm a sissy for some reason."

Raven frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"He's always calling me a boy chick. I guess he's trying to say I'm a wimp or something."

The shape-shifter laughed at that. "Frank, babe, boychick is a Yiddish word."

"Oh," the boy understood. "Okay. Well, what's it mean?"

"It's a term of endearment." Raven thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure it means dear. No, no— son. It means son."

"Oh," Frank repeated then the full comprehension sunk in and the corners of his mouth turned up. "Oh…"